How the Ego Forms the Matrix We Seek to Escape

 In a world where the quest for freedom often leads us to explore new philosophies, spiritual practices, and even technologies, we find ourselves in a paradox: the very thing we seek to escape is within us. The matrix we’re so desperate to transcend is not some external, oppressive system but the limited ego self we’ve constructed. Through the lens of self-realization and self-inquiry, we can begin to understand that this egoic matrix is the illusionary world that binds us, and our true liberation lies in seeing through it.

The concept of the matrix often conjures images of a simulated reality controlled by external forces, yet the real matrix is much closer to home. It’s the ego—the collection of thoughts, beliefs, and identities that we mistake for our true self. This egoic self is the lens through which we perceive the world, filtering reality through our fears, desires, and conditioning. It creates a false sense of separation, making us believe that we are individual entities navigating an external world, disconnected from the wholeness of existence.

The ego is adept at crafting stories, projecting them outwardly as reality. It convinces us that our thoughts are real, our identities fixed, and our separation from others and the universe inevitable. But what if the world we see merely reflects this internal matrix? What if the true journey is not about escaping an external force but dissolving the internal structures that keep us bound?...<<<Read More>>>...

Useful Tools For Discerning Truth In The Age of Information Warfare

 Experts often don't agree, we're drowning in information, and censorship is a very real thing - here's how to not get lost and confused navigating information.

I wanted to present a quick collection of ideas, thoughts, and reflections that can act as tools for navigating the information landscape. It can be confusing out there, hopefully these tools make things easier.

I want to point out that we have the potential to live in a world where we would not have to have this level of discernment. It would be possible if we were less blinded by political ideologies, emotions, social media algorithms and censorship. But given this is the landscape we find ourselves in today, knowing how to weather the storm is essential. 

1. Stay Present
This is first and foremost to me. Navigating our world and information has become purely cognitive. But we are not purely cognitive beings. We have gut and heart intelligence on top of our mental capacity, so why not bring it on board and master it?

Further, how we feel about something can give us insight into the beliefs, resistances, and emotions that may be shaping our perspectives.

How do we become aware of how we feel and activate our other forms of intelligence? By staying present and connected to our body.

Solution: Use the “Set Your Pulse” reminder we have above. It’s a fancy way of saying “take a breath and be human! You may have gotten lost in pure cognition. Come back to your body, to presence, and expand your consciousness a bit.”

It also won’t hurt to have some sort of practice that regularly teaches interoception, the ability to track your internal experience, sensations and emotions. Conscious breathing, somatic movement, yoga, and martial arts all build our interoception muscle. It’s a crucial aspect to exploring our world with clarity....<<<Read More>>>....

Fire Letter Realisation

 On the evening of Sunday 25th February 2007  (Click on the link) I experienced one of the most phenomenal 'supernatural' experiences of this life. It was completely overwhelming and completely unexpected. There had been no warning or pre-knowledge of the event. 

Moments after I'd closed my eyes, in readiness for sleep, I became aware of a moving apparition in my mind's eye. It was tiny at first, but as I watched the image, it began to grow bigger and bigger in size. I perceived it was moving towards me from somewhere. 

I could see that the apparition was a pattern formed from one or more Hebrew letters. The letters where clearly purple in colour. The letters were surrounded by purple flames. 

Then when I perceived the image was directly in front of me I felt, I actually felt, the image enter my mind/consciousness via my pineal/pituitary gland (What we term The Third Eye). From that moment I became totally overwhelmed by the apparition. It had intense heat. Intense energy. Intense power. It completely overshadowed my awareness. For those precious moments it had entered my consciousness, my entire being was filled with the energy and fire of the fire letter apparition.

Then as quickly as it arrived, it was gone. I felt energised by the visitation but also saddened by the disconnection from the energy. I felt no fear. I KNEW in that instance that my understanding since a child, of external forces & life beyond the human vibration, had been confirmed. It was a deliberate act by something EXTERNAL to me. This had not been a figment of my own imagination. It was something intense and something very significant. 

It was many months later that I obtained my own copy of The Keys Of Enoch. This had not been planned. Up until that point I did not even know the book existed. We'd ventured to Taupo on the North Island Of New Zealand, and had visited a favourite New Age Shop of ours there. I had merely been rummaging through a pile of books in an area of the shop, and chanced upon this strange looking white book. The look of sheer shock on the shop keeper's face indicated something of significance had taken place. He'd only purchased the book the day before and knew it was for someone. That someone was obviously me.

It was weeks later that I came upon the first notions of the Fire Letters. Reading the texts closer I made the startling discovery that I'd been attuned by one of these Fire Letters! But there was more to it than that. I was inadvertently linked to the author and the collection of the Fire Letters when I was a little over 2 years old! His account of his astral travels at the start of the book paralleled my own journey that had befallen me when I was around 3 years of age. Somehow that profound memory had been imprinted in my memory.

Researching the Keys Of Enoch further I came upon the following passage: "This process of reception is begun by the projection of a brightly coloured Yod form of Light upon the face of the subject so as to trigger the necessary chemical combinations which activate the mind to receive the ideographs of communication" . This was exactly what it had been with me - a projection of brightly coloured light upon my face'.

And also: "The letters of the Living Light must first be seeded into the sub-conscious during sleep." How many other of the fire letters have been projected to me during sleep? This is my first and last conscious awareness of one.

Then I found the most profound reference to the Fire Letters of all. These was indeed a coding that coincided with the PURPLE letter I'd seen. Blue and red when combined become the colour purple: "The Brotherhood use the Sacred Fire Letters I-EE to code a BLUE-RED embodiment". From this I began to comprehend the profound effect this fire letter was going to have on me. Basically my DNA-RNA, which is crystalline and can transmit/receive light energy, had been reprogrammed. My DNA had been altered by some eternal source to the an I-EE embodiment. Communications are transmitted on a two-way basis through light. Our primary light being that of the sun. 

A further reference explains the Embodiment as: "The Brotherhoods of Light activate the sacred fire letters by projecting a burning YOD from their channel of consciousness in the higher realms to a given human circulatory system. 

The colour of the Yod dispatched opens up a fifth circulatory system of light in the body which allows all chakras to share the same pulse of transfigured light so that even the lower chakras are transformed by the higher light." 

My entire perception HAS been changed. I'd been challenged to notice any different re-alignments or anything significant since my own personal Sacred Fire Letter Embodiment. I've scoured the internet and not found any reference to this experience, or to anyone else who'd had the same experience. Something had seemingly singled me out to receive this embodiment which was so clearly described in the Keys Of Enoch.

It was only recently that I began to understand what has taken place. I look towards the strength of communications I receive on a daily basis, and realise, it is as a result of this embodiment that I can communicate with other vibrations at such a difficult time. My DNA-RNA has been hot wired to apparently counteract any of the distractions or distortions that are active at this time. I know also I am not the only one who has experienced this embodiment. Effectively, the vibration of my physical body has been increased, which has made me more aware of the dimensions around me. This is a significant milestone in my life. Indeed ... I do feel and see more than I did before. It's taken me until today to process this Sacred Fire Letter Embodiment. Only now can I begin to make real sense of the how and the why. Indeed, I can now look at the Keys Of Enoch with a greater understanding. It has been written in a way that it can only be truly understood once a mind has been subjected to a Fire Letter Embodiment (Or two or three).

One other thing is clear. Since this embodiment, my awareness of falseness and illusion are that much stronger.  Further reference to pages of The Keys Of Enoch explain the intention to improve the communications between worlds and levels of awareness via minds embodied by the Sacred Fire Letters. There is also a reference to something that I term 'The Art Of Knowing' which is one of my own spiritual principles: "this divine language is also the inductive linkage to the still small voice within the body which advises you on the read day-to-day decisions in the world so that your consciousness will not err in executing the will of the higher vibrations". © Copyright Matthew James 13th May 2013 (Except excerpts from The Keys Of Enoch by J.J.Hurtak.)

Can we really trust our feelings?

Sure, as long as we are conscious of their true origins. And even if not, sometimes we can trust, other times no. Feelings are odd things. They can come out of nowhere, or they can be highly circumstantial — like the rush of extreme fear when a bear jumps aggressively from behind a tree. They can also be mysterious "gut feelings." Usually, we have some awareness of their unconscious underpinnings. We sense whether a feeling is a solid "gut" instinct, something "creepy," or simply "good" — as in, "I just liked that guy; there was something about him that made me feel comfortable and trusting."

But . . . and it's a big "but," we know we have to be careful. The guy or gal who sweeps us off our feet on a first date needs further scrutiny. We have all fallen into that pit, haven't we? It is a deep, dark chasm, and usually very difficult to climb out of. Did you ever wonder why, back in the day, marriage engagements often lasted what seemed an eternity? There were many social and cultural underpinnings, but one major reason was simply to get past the "swept off your feet" syndrome — to make what was largely unconscious, conscious.

So, what's the big deal? If our impressions of things and people rely too heavily on feelings — especially when we are not conscious of their origins — we can end up in serious trouble. Most of the time, it doesn't really matter what our feelings are about other people. We see an actor we like or meet someone in the grocery store we immediately dislike. Actors don't matter much in our daily lives; their entire craft is built on creating impressions based on unsubstantiated feelings...<<<Read More>>>...

A Fearless Vibration

 Having reached an extraordinary vibration back in the early 1990's, it is possible in current uncertain climes to witness as an observer.

The vibration presented itself after a series of 'mystical experiences' (Nothing drug induced) and enabled a sense of 'this is all an illusion, a clever game' in remain in the core of consciousness ever since.

It has also provided a visual perception of everything that is around in the mortal world, and enables an insight into what is really going on.

There is no fear, there is no delusion. There is only observation and bemusement.

Observation of all that is going on being a charade, and bemusement that so called spiritual beings living an human experience, have fallen for the delusions around them.

For many years this vibration presented clear insight and very accurate clairvoyance and mediumship. But the road was pointing towards, has taken life far away from that situation.

Instead now, life is spent as an observer. A fearless traveller through this mortal realm which is not what is appears to be.

A strong lesson learnt - high vibrations only exist when there is fearlessness and unconditional love. Those forces that actively generate illusions to generate fear and hatred cannot survive in a realm where there is no fear and only unconditional love. And when some entity comes into close proximity, whether in body or disembodied, their influence can be displaced by simply laughing and being fearless - Matthew James  

 

Discover your destiny

The only way to know what to do

People are talking endlessly not only about morality and moral rules in general, but about what they think you should do specifically.

Date? Not date? Get married or not? Have children or not? Hustle hard and get rich — or lay low and get out of the hamster wheel? Do the responsible corporate job or quit and open your weird startup? Escape to the countryside or create a futuristic metropolitan enclave? Everybody seems to have their answers, trying to impose them on the rest of us. We are surrounded by a shrill new Heideggerian "they" that never shuts up, forever tugging us here and there, and once we have regained balance, again comes at us with the worst advice at the worst possible moment.

If this gets on your nerves, good for you: it's the first step to actually start becoming sovereign, or morally self-sufficient, as I like to call it. More often than not, however, people get needlessly confused: they adopt some kind of half-truth they read somewhere, try to force it on the reality of their situation, and then wonder why they land in the dirt, face first...<<<Read More>>>...

Life After Awakening: Things You Finally Understand

 Awakening is not about acquiring knowledge—it is the dissolution of illusion. A truly awakened being isn’t “more” or “better” than others; they are simply someone who no longer believes in many of the assumptions most people still take for reality.

This article explores 13 core realizations that can only be fully grasped by those who no longer identify with the personal self. It also offers insights into how these truths show up in everyday life and what practices support their deeper integration.

The awakened one sees that the body is born and dies, but what we are—timeless awareness—was never born and can never die. This is not belief, but direct realization.

In everyday life, this brings deep peace around death and the transience of things. The moment becomes more precious, not out of fear, but because of deep presence.

Practice: Sit quietly and repeat within: “Who am I if I am not this body, not this name?” Watch what remains when all self-definitions are released.

Thoughts come and go. Most of them are not truth but echoes of past conditioning. The awakened being is aware: they are not their thoughts—they are the awareness that sees them....<<<Read More>>>...

The Hidden Advantage: Finding Your Edge to Success

If there’s something that should be deeply ingrained into the ‘Self Help Bible of Wisdom,’ it’s the commandment: “Look for where you have the edge to succeed.” Indeed, this cannot be underestimated.

Stay with me on this. Don’t hang up here. See it as an opportunity. After reading this article, you may gain valuable insight for yourself and discover where that edge to succeed exists and what’s needed. So, you may want to thank me later on for that!

Remember, insight can allow you to accomplish or achieve something that you wouldn’t have been able to without that insight. It’s all part of the journey along the road to self-awareness.

So, first, allow me to start with an analogy and then make a valuable point....<<<Read More>>>....

How to Break Bad Habits & Create Lasting Change

 Breaking bad habits can feel like an uphill battle. Maybe it is checking your phone constantly, distracting yourself when you’re trying to focus, engaging in destructive habits when we don’t feel great.

Whatever the bad habit might be, what’s happening is that it has been wired into our brain and body via repetition. This means, that through awareness and repetition, we can break those habits and wire new ones.

Neuroscience provides a clear roadmap for making meaningful changes. In this piece, I’ll dive into the science behind how habits are formed and how we can leverage the brain and body’s ability to rewire itself.

One thing we will learn as we go here is that part of the challenge many of us face when it comes to creating habits we don’t like is we have a difficult time being with sensations that are uncomfortable.

This is something we never learned to do effectively and often fear. It results in creating coping mechanisms (bad habits) to avoid feeling sensations we don’t like.

One key element of change is gaining the capacity to be with difficult sensations so we don’t build more bad habits in the long run. This helps us get to the root cause of bad habit creation....<<<Read More>>>....

You see more than you think you see

 Could it be that when we act on impulse or have a hunch about something, we are using information that has been fed into our brains without our knowledge? Dr. Vernon Coleman asks.

Subliminal messaging involves presenting words or images below the threshold of conscious awareness, often for less than one-tenth of a second. The messages will register with our subconscious minds only.

Subliminal manipulation is often considered harmless because its effects typically decay within a second. However, one study suggests that subliminal messages might have long-term effects on decision-making, particularly if the messages contain novel information that must be relationally bound in long-term memory.

According to Campaign, subliminal advertising has been illegal in the UK, America and Australia since 1958. This ban was put in place following public concerns raised by studies and claims about the manipulative power of subliminal messages. Despite this, some advertisers have attempted to use subliminal techniques within legal boundaries.

How about films, music, social media content or even news reports? Could subliminal messages be used in those? How would we even know?

Subliminal messaging is one example Dr. Coleman uses to point out that much of what we see is not consciously registered by our brains....<<<Read More>>>...

True Self-Identity – The Key to Transformational Empowerment!

 Self-identity, the way you see yourself in given circumstances, can mean the difference between getting into a state of overwhelming fear or transformational empowerment. These two states depend on your identification with either the false or true self.

Your perception shapes your reality. In essence, the choices you make between the false self and the true self are determined by how you perceive the world around you.

Distortions or manipulations of perception, fear-based infusions, and limitations result in false self-identity. This is how reality (false reality) is dictated for so many. An example of false self-identity is clinging to your identity and resisting the idea of letting go.

Some people have such a strong attachment to their identity that it becomes irrational in that they are prepared to suffer terrible consequences rather than choose to let go.

For instance, some people have such a strong identity with their money that they’re unwilling to let go.

Take the case of the 1929 Wall Street crash, leading to the Great Depression. Some financiers committed suicide by jumping out of high-story buildings because they had such a strong attachment to their money it was considered by them to be their life! Therefore, when losing all their money in the crash, their self-identity was gone, and they considered themselves to be dead....<<<Read More>>>...

Meditation Provides True Pain Relief by Altering Brain Perception

 Scientists from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have discovered that meditation reduces pain not just through the placebo effect but by actually altering how the brain perceives pain. 

The study was published in Biological Psychiatry.

Meditation, a practice where individuals observe their thoughts and emotions without judgment, has roots in Buddhist and Hindu traditions but is increasingly studied for its health benefits.

In this study, researchers aimed to understand how meditation influences pain perception. 

They recruited 115 healthy participants, dividing them into four groups: one group practiced meditation, another did sham meditation (deep breathing), a third used a placebo cream, and a fourth listened to an audiobook as a control.

Participants were exposed to painful heat on their legs, with brain activity scanned via MRI before and after the procedure....<<<Read More>>>...

How the Ego Forms the Matrix We Seek to Escape

In a world where the quest for freedom often leads us to explore new philosophies, spiritual practices, and even technologies, we find ourselves in a paradox: the very thing we seek to escape is within us. The matrix we’re so desperate to transcend is not some external, oppressive system but the limited ego self we’ve constructed. Through the lens of self-realization and self-inquiry, we can begin to understand that this egoic matrix is the illusionary world that binds us, and our true liberation lies in seeing through it.

The concept of the matrix often conjures images of a simulated reality controlled by external forces, yet the real matrix is much closer to home. It’s the ego—the collection of thoughts, beliefs, and identities that we mistake for our true self. This egoic self is the lens through which we perceive the world, filtering reality through our fears, desires, and conditioning. It creates a false sense of separation, making us believe that we are individual entities navigating an external world, disconnected from the wholeness of existence.

The ego is adept at crafting stories, projecting them outwardly as reality. It convinces us that our thoughts are real, our identities fixed, and our separation from others and the universe inevitable. But what if the world we see merely reflects this internal matrix? What if the true journey is not about escaping an external force but dissolving the internal structures that keep us bound?...<<<Read More>>>...

Humanity’s Crisis of Imagination

 Many seem to believe that our existing systems and ways of living are not only good enough to solve the many challenges we face but that they are also the best we can do.

Sure, maybe people scoff at wealth inequalities and the levels of corruption in politics and big business in every country, but the belief I’m referring to tends to state that government, politics, economies, and what we’ve flashed out generally beats all other ways of living and we should accept that.

As a result, not very many people are looking deeper at what else is possible for our local and global social design. Part of this is because there isn’t much ‘viral content’ out there doing so. After all, not many of today’s influencers focus on this discussion, but it’s also because people seem to lack the motivation to do so.

Our globally wicked problems seem unsolvable and too big to wrap our heads around, new ideas are probably bad and a scam anyway, so why not just stick to what we know and hope it solves things, right?...<<<Read More>>>...

How Society Gets Trapped In Limiting Ideas

We live in a time where our systems and overall society is crumbling or transitioning – media, technology, economies, education, consciousness, relationships and more. Our existing ways of looking at and understanding our world are no longer sufficient, and new conversations are encouraging us to look more deeply at why our world is the way it is, and what about us creates it to be this way.

Today, we orient to our world so cognitively, stuck in our heads and thinking constantly. Often focused on ideologies of someone else’s making, unsure how we TRULY feel about them. In the end we often respond to, view and consider what’s possible based only on what we know from a limited way of seeing the world.

In modernity, we have lost sense of the sacred, the subtle, and the interior of ourselves. This has had a big effect on our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health inevitably producing the practical decisions we collectively make in the world.

Simply, the state of our world is a natural manifestation of our existing level of consciousness. Therefore we should not be overly surprised by our outcomes....<<<Read More>>>...

Another New Year

So here we are on the eve of another New Year here in the UK. Its already 2024 in the Southern Hemisphere. Friends of ours in New Zealand and Australia have had their new year celebrations. Ours are less than two hours away.

 But to me its meaningless. Its just a man made cycle of months and years; a cycle created by forces to deceive human kind.

Tomorrow in 2024 will be no different to me than today in 2023 or even back a year ago in 2022. Its just a journey in a fake reality. A place that is nothing more than a virtual reality ...

Tomorrow will be 2024 yes, but nothing will have changed. I will still be thinking the same and things will still manifest like they have always done.

Tomorrow I will be in an EIGHT vibration year, and my own personal life path journey number is a 1 until March when it becomes a 2. Its going to get interesting for sure.....

I'm not one to really celebrate a new year. They are always the same. An anti-climax. Years ago I would spend the night in busy and loud night clubs watching others get heavily intoxicated. I would attend New Year's Eve parties and be very bored. These days I sit sipping an Malt Whisky watching TV. This year is no different. I have a glass of Jura and I'm watching an Alien Abduction program on TV. I will wake up tomorrow in New Year's Day feeling no different than I did today.

 I make no resolutions for the new year which probably makes me sound boring, but I have yet to experience a new year where there is sudden change between the old year and the new. 

It is what it is.... a milestone that has been created which is meaningless and the ideas of the twelve months and the years is a reference point in this fake reality. It is what it is ... part of this software program. 

Before we know it, we will be in March before we know it and then it will be Xmas again .... the cycle goes round and round until the software program as been written to end this virtual reality .... 

Your Inner Critic

 The Inner Critic is that part of yourself that criticizes everything you do, doubts what you do, doesn't think you are good enough, gives you negative thoughts, is cynical, is never satisfied, and is a perfectionist. Another term for the Inner Critic is the Inner Villain that plays a plot with yourself. Once you have disengaged from the plot with other people, you then have the task of disengaging from your own Villain that is making you a Victim to yourself.

As long as you are busy blaming other people for your feelings and circumstances... Your Inner Critic remains invisible to you. So it stands to reason, that when you cease blaming others, you will then become aware of your own self blame, and inner criticism. It is your inner criticism that has you blaming others in the first place. If you are sensitive to others blaming or criticizing you... Then you have a well developed Inner Critic. It is the Inner Critic that cares what others think about you. It is the Inner Critic that has you feeling hurt by what others say or do.

Once you have dealt with your Inner Critic, you will be less at the effect of other people, and more at cause over all areas of your life. If you have a fear of rejection... This is a fear born directly from the essence of your Inner Critic.Technically, the Inner Critic is your shadow self that is you rejecting you. It is found in the depths of your subconscious mind.

The opposite of your Inner Critic is self acceptance, or another way of saying this is your Inner Cheerleader.

When your Inner Critic is beating you up for a mistake you made, you become unsavory to other people. They feel that you are negative and perhaps toxic and therefore will be inclined to reject you. Your Inner Critic seduces the worst behavior from people as it only leaves space for a harmful act or nasty comment. You might as well have a sign on your forehead that says, beat me up, reject me.

It takes a very clear person to see this and not reject you or beat you up. This takes a lot of energy and isn't fun. So you are no fun to be around (and you can't stand yourself either.)

So now that we know what the Inner Critic is, how do we deal with it? How do we disengage from it?...read more>>>....

The Art of Morning Meditation: A Path to Inner Peace

 In the fast-paced whirlwind of modern life, where chaos often reigns, finding moments of serenity may seem like an unattainable dream. Yet, within this turbulence, exists a potent and transformative practice—the art of morning meditation. Join us as we delve deeper into the profound impact that this ancient tradition can have on your quest for inner peace, offering practical guides and detailed insights to help you navigate this transformative journey.

In a world that bombards us incessantly with information and stimuli, carving out time for quiet contemplation becomes a revolutionary act. Morning meditation serves as a sanctuary, a space where the ceaseless noise of the external world fades, allowing you to reconnect with your inner self. This sacred silence becomes the foundation for cultivating a profound sense of peace that resonates throughout your day....<<<Read More>>>...

The Incredible Influential Power of Music

What is it about music that moves us in so many different ways? The rhythm begins and we slide onto the dance floor, gyrating to the beats; a guitar strikes a chord and we throw ourselves into the crowd, surfing across a sea of hands; a favourite song comes on the radio and we sing along at the top of our voices, oblivious to the looks of bemusement coming from other drivers stuck in the traffic jam.

The right songs can change the way we feel in an instant, as effective as the mood pills consumed in Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I had the good fortune to attend a live performance of Beethoven's legendary 9th Symphony. While it is something of a cliché - and perhaps exaggeration - to call this "the greatest music ever written" it's certainly an intensely powerful experience which has endured the test of time, remaining one of the most popular pieces on the classical repertoire....<<<Read More>>>...

How Fear Blocks Creativity

 To understand how fear blocks creativity, take a moment to imagine yourself telling a story. First, imagine telling the story to someone you love and who loves you. You probably feel warmth and energy as you fill in the details of your tale to your friend’s delight. Now, imagine telling the same story to someone who, for whatever reason, makes you uncomfortable. The wonderful twists and turns, the fine points and colorful images that unfolded in your mind for your friend probably won’t present themselves. Instead of warmth, energy, and creativity, you will probably feel opposite sensations and a desire to close down. When we feel unsafe, whether we fear being judged, disliked, or misunderstood, our creative flow stops. Alternately, when we feel safe, our creativity unfolds like a beautiful flower, without conscious effort.

Knowing this, we can maximize our creative potential by creating the conditions that inspire our creativity. In order to really be in the flow, we need to feel safe and unrestricted. However, achieving this is not as simple as avoiding people who make us feel uncomfortable. Sometimes we can be alone in a room and still feel totally blocked. When this happens, we know we have come up against elements in our own psyches that are making us feel fearful. Perhaps we are afraid that in expressing ourselves we will discover something we don’t want to know, or unleash emotions or ideas that we don’t want to be responsible for. Or maybe we’re afraid we’ll fail to produce something worthy.

When you’re up against fear, internal or external, ritual can be a powerful — and creative — antidote. Before you sit down to be creative, try casting a circle of protection around yourself. Visualize yourself inside a ring of light, protective fire, or angels. Imagine that this protective energy emanates unconditional love for you and wants to hear, see, and feel everything you have to express. Take a moment to bathe in the warmth of this feeling and then fearlessly surrender yourself to the power that flows through you. (Daily OM)