Names

Each of us has a name
given by God
and given by our parents

Each of us has a name
given by our stature and our smile
and given by what we wear

Each of us has a name
given by the mountains
and given by our walls...

"Names" by Zelda


 I love this poem, and especially love the setting of it found on the Roches album Zero Church, a collection of prayers set to music, a collaboration with women at the shelter at 0 Church street in NYC.

I also love it because it encapsulates the shamanic concept of using thought to bind, of using the name we build in our heads to place upon another.  Naming something builds a box around it, an enclosure that defines and confines it in our minds.

Those names, those thoughts, those thoughtforms, are not just thoughts, but are real; real energetic constructs that do affect us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Yesterday when this song came along on the CD in my car, I realized that I've been doing a lot of name-calling lately; this week I'm working with a recalcitrant teacher who is teaching a workshop here and who is flouting hospital rules and regs which could endanger my livelihood and my relationships with medical teams where I live.  I've been putting much mental energy into specific names/thoughtforms and sending them towards her these past few days, binding her and adding energetic intrusions to her energy field.

Doing this, asserting power over someone or some thing is the very definition of sorcery.

As irritated as I am about her dangerous bullheadedness, using sorcerous means is not very good for the soul or for ones karma ;-)


Today I ask that I may be able to express my emotions, but not send them; that they be transmuted into healing energies available to all.