The Return of Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

As requested by several of my regular readers and commenters, it's Magic Monday again -- so ask me anything about occultism and I'll do my best to answer it. Any question received by midnight tonight Eastern time will get an answer, though it may be Tuesday sometime before I get to them all. 

With that said, have at it!  

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

What do the gods get from being worshipped and having offerings made to them? What do they ultimately want from their relationship with humans?

[ecosophia]

Different traditions make different claims about that; what we know is that certain things tend to get good responses. As for what they ultimately want, you probably need to ask them. ;-)

Magic practice

[(Anonymous)]

Hi john,
I've been practicing your elemental cross and sphere of protection for a while know. It can get quite intense but I have yet to have something happen that the modern world says shouldn't. What should I be looking out for? Or do I need to learn the calling and banishing the elements first?
Thanks averagejoe

Re: Magic practice

[ecosophia]

You're basically saying, "I've just learned to recite the alphabet, how come I can't read War and Peace yet?" If magic was that easy, it never would have become unfashionable.

[alexseanchai]

I hear will and discipline are crucial for a magical practice. How does one develop will and discipline without consistent executive function?

[ecosophia]

The same way you build muscular strength when your muscles are weak and uncoordinated. You have some degree of will and discipline -- after all, you decided to post this comment, and succeeded in concentrating long enough and hard enough to finish it and post it. So you choose other things that are a little more difficult, and do them. Over time, like the kid who starts lifting five pound dumbbells and ends up bench pressing a quarter of a ton, you build the necessary strength.

[(Anonymous)]

In Circles of Power you said that different civilizations emphasise different energy centres in the body and this affects the nature of the civilization. Can you say more about this and give some examples?

[ecosophia]

That's a topic for a book, not a Magic Monday comment! I'll give you one example, though. In most East Asian cultures, the most important energy center in popular spirituality and everyday life is the hara or dantien -- go two inches below the navel and then straight back to the midline of the body, and you've got it. In most European and European-diaspora cultures, the most important energy center in popular spirituality and everyday life is the heart center. Pay attention to the differences in the way East Asian and European people understand themselves in relation to family and society, and you'll get a sense of the differences between these two energy centers.

More broadly, as I noted in the book in question, the human energy body resonates along a continuum that extends from the perineum to the crown of the head -- centers below the perineum and above the crown of the head, such as those used in the Middle Pillar exercise, are links to energies outside the body. Each point along that continuum embodies a different way of relating to the world, and the connections are straightforward enough that they appear in common speech -- when you call someone an airhead, that reflects the fact that overemphasis on the higher centers produces a disconnected, "spacy" personality; when you say that a guy thinks with his dick, well, you've got someone who's stuck in a purely animal mode of reacting to the world. You can fill in the rest of the spectrum yourself if you pay attention to these examples.

[(Anonymous)]

I just read your comment on Ecosophia about Druids favouring cremation to help release the spirit. Conversely, some Daoist internal alchemists may have their body stored in a jar for a number of years to give them time to keep the transmutation going and siphon off as much useful energy as possible to take with them wherever they are going next. How much variety is there in the goals of occult funeral practices?

[ecosophia]

Vast differences. It all depends on what practices you've done during your life and what effects you're trying to achieve in the postmortem state. Druids tend to put a lot of trust in natural processes, so we don't usually try to tinker with the process of reincarnation -- we just go with it, and concentrate on achieving states of consciousness while living that will carry over into the discarnate condition and the next life. Some other traditions focus on building an artificial energy body to take over from the etheric body when it drops away, so they can consciously manipulate the afterlife process. There are other options as well. As with most things in life (and death), you have a range of choices.

Druidry

[(Anonymous)]

Was early Druidry from a few centuries ago influenced much by Iamblichus? Your description of Druidic cosmology etc struck me as Neoplatonic in a lot of ways. How many of the Druids in those days read Latin and Greek?

Re: Druidry

[ecosophia]

Quite a few -- most educated people did in those days -- but they didn't have to. The Druid Revival was taking its definitive shape right about the time that Thomas Taylor was shaking the alternative-spirituality scene to its core with his readable English translations of every surviving Neoplatonist text. Taylor wasn't a Druid -- he was a full-blown Pagan Neoplatonist who poured libations to the Greek gods and goddesses -- but people in the Druid Revival, like everybody else from the Transcendentalists to the Swedenborgians, read his works voraciously.

Oven Door Rule

[(Anonymous)]

A piece of occult advice I've seen is to not continually dwell on workings in progress -- that is, workings one has done but that have not manifested the intended results. Informally, I think of this as the don't keep opening the oven door rule.

In your experience, is that solid advice? If so, how does one reconcile that with objectives that one has to actively work toward (a "get a job" spell being a classic example)?

Thanks!

Re: Oven Door Rule

[ecosophia]

Depends on the kind of working you're doing. For serious tasks, I tend to favor the kind of working where you do something every day to put more energy into the work -- the kind of candleburning ritual where you repeat the ritual daily would be an example from hoodoo; a flashing tablet working would be an example from the Golden Dawn tradition. While you're not actually doing the work, of course, it's best not to brood over it, but when you're doing something every day that's not too hard.

One other thing to keep in mind is that a magical working that's intended to have a material effect needs to be paired with material action, so that the energies have a channel to flow down the planes. If you're doing a get-a-job spell, for example, you want to combine the working with all the material-plane stuff you'd do to get a job: polishing your resume, looking for openings, submitting applications, and the rest of it. Concentrate on those rather than on the magic as such, and you should be fine.

[(Anonymous)]

Restating an earlier question from the "Transcendence" piece:

Let's say you take up some type of magical or energetic practice.

Are there any works out there that lay out problems that may emerge from
these practices with solutions, or does one have to parse the source
literature for each tradition to see what, if any, guidance exists?

[ecosophia]

You have to parse the source literature, or better still, ask someone who has extensive personal experience with it. I know of no general works on the subject.

Ritual with Injury

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

Thanks for all your work, I really appreciate this format. I am up to Ovate lecture 5 in Celtic Golden Dawn (a suitable place to start the new year). I've been slow and steady and have had some Amazing insights - thanks.

However, I have just separated my shoulder and may not have movement in my right arm for 6-12 weeks. So some of the signs and gestures are not possible the way you describe. What do you recommend I do for the Rite of Rays etc?

And of course, tips for healing, but that is probably beyond your scope!

Many thanks
Edward

Re: Ritual with Injury

[ecosophia]

Do all the physical movements you can, but visualize your right arm doing the movements that you can't. Thus when doing the Rite of the Rays, for example, make all the usual motions with your left arm, and visualize an imagined right arm doing the motions your physical right arm would normally do. That will do quite an adequate job until your arm heals -- and visualizing the arm going through its normal range of motions will further the healing process by making sure your aetheric body gets an adequate workout.

[(Anonymous)]

Couple of random ones...

Last Magic Monday I asked about creating a heptagram ritual to deal with planetary energies. If you didnt want to use the Golden Dawn's Analysis of the Keyword, what alternatives are there? I'm specifically thinking of a Christian context. How do keyword analyses work, and how does one come up with one?

For discursive meditation... does the ritual you so in preparation for the meditation affect what subjects you can meditate upon? For example, if you begin with a Druidical pentagram ritual, would it then be improper to meditate upon a non-Druidical topic such as a Norse myth, a Christian feast or a chapter from Agrippa?

Finally... I regently took a job at a place that seems energetically toxic. Other than banishing my personal working space and wearing a protective talisman, is there anything you would do to keep yourself safe in that kind of setting?


Thank you for doing this!

Steve

[ecosophia]

a) There you're kind of up the river of shale, because the design of that kind of ritual require a very thorough understanding both of the symbolism and philosophy of the tradition you're working with, and the mechanics of magical ritual. This is why it's a good idea to master an existing system of magic thoroughly before trying to invent your own.

b) If you're meditating on that kind of dog's breakfast of themes, you're not going to be able to get deeply enough into any one set of symbols to get any real benefit out of it.

c) Concentrate on keeping your own energies as clean and positive as possible. That's the most effective approach to any such situation.

[alexandermarcus]

Happy Magic Monday, JMG!

I've got a few questions, most stemming from a thread from the last Magic Monday. The thread discussed energy centers and the goals of different magical systems.

In that thread you stated that the system from The Druid Magic Handbook "works with three energy centers, head, heart, and womb, and thus aims primarily at the integration of spiritual, mental, and emotional life in the individual, and secondarily at developing certain specific capacities . . . which are needed for the . . . work discussed in the book," and that "The Golden Dawn tradition in general aims primarily at integrating the lower and higher selves, and secondarily at empowering the initiate to do work on the whole range of inner planes."

My first question regards the Dolmen Arch Study Course, which is closely related to the Druid Magic Handbook: It seems to me that The Dolmen Arch's goal is somewhat of a combination of the two primary goals quoted above, in that the Dolmen Arch works towards "the integration of spiritual, mental, and emotional life in the individual" *and* at "integrating the lower and higher selves." Would you say this is accurate?

My next questions are tangential to my first: Many of the magical systems I've read about that pursue spiritual development focus on an integration with some "higher" force, whether that be a "Holy Guardian Angel," "Higher Self," or - as in the Dolmen Arch - the "Individuality." These higher forces are frequently associated with solar symbolism.

Here I have two questions: 1) Is there a force (or part of self) that is analogous to the (solar) Higher self, but corresponding to telluric energies? and 2) How does the Individuality (as described in the Dolmen Arch) relate to the Higher Self from the Golden Dawn tradition?

My last question is mostly unrelated: How do the forces from the Druid Magic Handbook's "Rising Dragons" exercise relate to kundalini?

Thank you for hosting this space for us to ask questions, I for one appreciate it immensely.

[ecosophia]

Yes, the Dolmen Arch takes the goals of the broader AODA/Druid Magic Handbook system and extends it by including the aspiration toward union with the elaeth or Individuality. No, the Higher Self isn't solar, it's the third force, the lunar current made out of the fusion of the solar and telluric currents. Yes, the Individuality and the Higher Self are the same thing. As for kundalini, that's a very complex issue; the short form is that it's the same energy but expressed, and worked with, in a different and safer way.

[(Anonymous)]

Another one that I forgot about...

Is there such a thing as Qliphoth in the Druidical version of the Cabala? If so, how do you understand them?

One of the reasons I ask... you have talked about how each of the spheres first comes through in an unbalanced or Qliphothic form...I found, working through the Bardic grade pathworkings, that the first or second pass through each path had a moment that was frightening, strange or disturbing, and made me consider not going on. But in each case, I was able to work through it eventually. I wondered if that might not be an example of the same phenomenon.

Steve

[ecosophia]

No, the radical dualism that the Jewish Cabala borrowed from Zoroastrian sources doesn't have a place in the Druidical Cabala. We simply say that each sphere comes through in an unbalanced form first, and then naturally balances itself out, and the practitioner simply has to be ready for that first rush of unbalanced force.

Questions and replies

[(Anonymous)]

John, I want to tell you that the questions posted, and your replies, are very helpful and informative. Actually, I don't need to ask a question myself, as my questions seem to be asked by others. Thank you for sharing your knowledge for free.

Re: Questions and replies

[ecosophia]

You're welcome and thank you! The people who taught me most about magic didn't charge for it, either -- they just expected me to do the rituals and practices on my own with a minimum of handholding -- and I tend to like to teach the same way.

A:A:

[(Anonymous)]

Afternoon, JMG. I'm debating seeking formal training in an occult order, but having trouble figuring out which one. I've been considering a branch of the A:A: recommended by occult blogger Rufus Opus (truthfully I had been intending to sign up for his courses, but since taking A:A: initiation he doesn't offer them any more, instead pointing people to the A:A: training program found at onestarinsight.org.)

I'm torn here: this system carries the personal recommendation of someone I respect, but I'm cautious of anything derived from Crowley. I know you've mentioned cases where orders have grown beyond the personal failings of some of their founding members, as you mentioned happening with the later Golden Dawn offshoots. I'm wondering if you have enough personal experience with initiates of the A:A: system to comment on its merits.

Re: A:A:

[ecosophia]

Aleister Crowley is very nearly the last person in the modern history of magic I'd want to imitate, and so I've stayed very clear of the traditions he founded (or, in the case of the O.T.O., hijacked). Thus I don't have anything like the kind of practical experience that would be needed to offer you any kind of recommendation.

40 days...

[ferngladefarm.blogspot.com.au]

Hi John Michael,

Thanks for providing this forum as I learn a lot. It never ceases to amaze me that our culture shies away from such knowledge and ways of looking at the world. I have long since suspected that we live in a very brittle culture that demands conformance and is very nervous about anything outside the official modes of thinking! Anyway, I digress...

Your reply over at Ecosophia about spirits residing in the body for approximately 40 days (with divergences on either side - some clearly quite unpleasant extremes), had my wondering about how that knowledge came into being? Was it always understood that way or have different cultures experienced different outcomes?

Hope that reply doesn't require a book in itself!

Cheers

Chris

Re: 40 days...

[ecosophia]

No, that's a simple one. In societies less terrified of the nonphysical than ours, people pay attention to when ghosts appear to them and when they stop, and shamans, mystics, and mages will quite routinely talk to the dead and get information from them. Thus there's a lot of common ground among different cultures on that particular topic.

[(Anonymous)]

I have a couple of questions, if I may.

You have written at length about how as a society there is a cycle from a materialistic way of being to a spiritual one and back again, with modern society being at the peak of materialism. This has led to many problems of an environmental and pyschological nature. What happens at the other extreme of the cycle? What problems do such societies face? Are there any historical examples?

I regularly do the exercise you describe in the Druid Magic Handbook, where I build nwyfre between my hands and have now reached the point where I easily create a hard ball of it. Is there some 'practical' use I can make of this new-found ability of mine?

Thanks!
Reloaded15

[ecosophia]

For a society suffering from the problems of the opposite extreme, consider India and Tibet three or four centuries ago: lots of highly realized mystics, but a vast amount of preventable suffering from epidemics, famines, and the like, because all the intellectual talent was going into becoming enlightened rather than solving material problems. A balance between those two extremes is more productive, but societies at that point of balance almost always are moving toward one extreme or the other.

As for the exercise, it doesn't have practical applications -- and that's quite deliberate. If you want to do something with it, you can either take up the course of study in The Druidry Handbook or find another system of magical training that interests you.

Divination Cards

[(Anonymous)]

I had asked last Magic Monday about using "Madame Endora's Fortune Cards". I've gotten some really disturbing results since then. The Raven, "harbinger of doom", has come up repeatedly in regards to my husband. I asked more specific questions to figure out what was behind that, and the cards seem to be saying that he will die in the next year. I've also repeatedly gotten a card advising that I "possess the ability to solve a current problem or dilemma" and have also a couple times received the advice to "seek spiritual and ethereal guidance".

Is it possible that this is just my fears coming through in the cards? If it isn't, does it sound reasonable to read this as a possibility that my husband will die in the near future as things now stand, but that this could be prevented if I figure out how? (I have the ability to solve problem?)

The advice to seek guidance led to an interesting experience, which I'll put in a reply to this comment if the site will let me. If not, I'll start a separate comment thread.

Thanks,
Garden Housewife

Re: Divination Cards

[ecosophia]

This sort of thing is very common, and what's actually going on is that a relatively mild message is being misunderstood as a portent of actual doom. Admittedly a lot of oracles encourage that! All kinds of cultural presuppositions feed into that -- when divination appears in the media, for example, it very commonly predicts vast disasters and so on. Add in your own fears to that, and the result looks very dire.

In the real world, by contrast, divination mostly talks about ordinary humdrum events, because that's the vast majority of what happens to all of us, after all. Your husband may be facing some kind of minor misfortune. By all means seek spiritual guidance -- that's good advice in any context -- but keep in mind that it's almost certainly something very minor that you can help him avoid.

Eyesight & reincarnation

[(Anonymous)]

Is it possible to improve eyesight using any of the alternative medicine/energy work methods you're familiar with?

(Particularly for someone nearsighted that's worn glasses since childhood.)


In a somewhat similar vein(sorta), regarding reincarnation, how does physical activity in one's life effect physical ability in the next incarnation?

Would someone that spent the majority of their life sitting down at a desk job and didn't take up a sport or regular exercise in their spare time be more likely to be clumsy/crippled in their next life? Would a lifelong powerlifter incarnate in a stronger body?

Would someone that wears glasses(not really using their own eyes) their whole life incarnate as a blind man...?

Re: Eyesight & reincarnation

[ecosophia]

First, it's not legal for me to offer medical advice. Practicing medicine without a license is a crime in the US, and people do jail time for it. The medical industry is very defensive of its monopoly!

Second, nope. Remember that the physical plane is the plane of effects, not of causes; the higher planes are where you find causes. Being a bodybuilder or a couch potato is a manifestation of certain qualities of personality, and the experiences you have in this life shape the personality you have in the next one, so it's much more indirect than you've suggested. A lifelong weightlifter would come into his or her next life with the qualities of discipline and will developed by all that effort, though if he or she was vain about being really buff, that vanity would also have its effects.

questions

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,

Thanks for doing these magic Mondays.

1) In Circles of Power, in the section on consecrating elemental tools, you mention that the elemental king is visualized as a larger version of the elemental image? What are the four elemental images?

2) Can you recommend a good book on Do-In massage?

3) I've been doing the inner plane work in Learning Ritual Magic. When I'm having my visualized body do the exercises, do I "see" my visualized self in my mind? Do I feel the movement in/as my body? Both?

4) In certain magical texts, I see the word "evohe." Is the "e" in this word pronounced with a hard "e" or as "ay"?

Thanks much!

P

Re: questions

[ecosophia]

1) Did I write that? Sheesh; the things one says when one is young and wet behind the ears... The thing to do, of course, is to construct a telesmatic image using the letters of the elemental king's name.

2) I'm very partial to Jacques de Langre's The First Book of Do-In and Do-In 2. Michio Kushi's The Book of Do-In is also good, but difficult for the beginner to use.

3) Both.

4) You'd have to ask somebody who's trained in the system of magic that uses that particular word of power. I don't happen to know.

Startling Experience With an Icon

[(Anonymous)]

This is connected to my previous comment regarding divination cards.

After a couple times getting a card advising to "seek spiritual and ethereal guidance", I stood before an icon of the Theotokos (Eastern Orthodox title of respect for the Virgin Mary), briefly told her what happened with the divination cards, and asked what I should do. I had both hands touching the icon and looked steadily into her eyes the entire time.

At the end, I saw something move behind her eyes. I don't drink or do drugs, I wasn't in a worked up emotional state, I have never had any kind of hallucinations, and I'm in my right mind, but I saw what I saw. A few minutes afterwards while getting ready for bed, I had a sudden thought, "Seven Arrows Mother of God", and a clear mental image of the small round icon we have with that name. I wondered where I'd put it and immediately had another mental image of a specific area on the wall directly over my husband's side of the bed. I've mentioned before (on your ecosophia blog, when I discussed seeing a sudden mental image of the nature spirit in our yard who was angry with me) that I don't think in pictures at all. The fact that these were pictures, and clear ones too, convinced me that this was a message from the Theotokos answering my prayer, not just wishful thinking on my part. I hung the icon there and twice while lying in bed drifting off to sleep not thinking about the icon I've had a mental vision of something like a blessing coming from the icon, like the beam of a flashlight that starts the size of the source and spreads out. That was very comforting.

What does this mean? Have other people had similar experiences when petitioning a saint or deity? It's kind of startling to suddenly be having these kinds of experiences when I thought that that was only for other people.

Thanks,
Garden Housewife

Re: Startling Experience With an Icon

[ecosophia]

That kind of thing happens all the time. Congratulations; you're now one of the Other People. ;-)

Scrying vs mental travel

[(Anonymous)]

What is the difference between scrying, as taught, for example, in your Coelbren book, or in Christopher Penczak's Temple series books, and separation of the mental body from the physical body, as taught in step 8 of Bardon's Initiation Into Hermetics?

Writers such as yourself or Penczak seem to consider scrying a safe practice for beginners, assuming some basic conditions are in place. Bardon, on the other hand, would not have the student touch mental travel until years into serious magical training, when great powers of concentration, visualization, and, perhaps most importantly, an excellent elemental equilibrium have all been attained.

One answer that I came up while writing this question is that with scrying, consciousness is projected inwards, while in mental travel, it actually leaves the physical body. If this is the case, then I would be interested to know how the beginning student can avoid accidentally turning scrying into mental travel, considering that the exercises seem quite similar.

Re: Scrying vs mental travel

[ecosophia]

The older generation of teachers tended to be very cautious about practices that don't really seem to need it. I knew a highly respected Wiccan teacher in Seattle who used to insist that the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram was a very, very dangerous practice only to be done by advanced students! In the original Golden Dawn, it was the first thing taught to complete beginners. Scrying is much the same way; it's not particularly risky, and relative beginners can usually do it in perfect safety.

Starting another system after completing a book from another

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I'm almost done with "Learning Ritual Magic," and am considering some options for what to do after that.

I'm interested in the Celtic Golden Dawn system, but also kind of want to explore more advanced areas of the Hermetic system (perhaps by working through "Circles of Power")

I recall an old post from Archdruid Report where you said it was fine to explore other systems after you have at least a year of training with one system first. Would there be any problem with continuing on to more Hermetic stuff, but also start doing the Celtic Golden Dawn (or whatever other system I may be interested in) at another time of the day?

I've been consistently doing the Hermetic magic for almost 4 years now (first doing most of "Modern Magic," and then for the past 18 months or so I've been slowly working through "Learning Ritual Magic" to fill in some gaps.)

There's also a (somewhat local) Authurian group which has connections to the Servants of the Light, and I've contacted them to see if it's something I'd be interested in.

So any advice on where to move on from here while not completely discarding what I've already learned would be really helpful.

Thanks,
Ross

Re: Starting another system after completing a book from another

[ecosophia]

I've become increasingly skeptical about the value of trying to study more than one magical system at a time, unless they're very different. For example, you could do Golden Dawn magic and traditional Southern rootwork at the same time, or Golden Dawn magic and radionics, or what have you. But two different forms of Golden Dawn magic? Not a good plan; on the one hand, you'd have conflicts between the systems, and on the other, what would you gain by it? I'd encourage you to choose one and stick with it.

[yuccaglauca]

Thank you for another Magic Monday!

Another question on the theme of developing energy centers in the body: Is that kind of development that is retained through subsequent incarnations? More specifically, I'm imagining that it could either be retained exactly as done, be retained as an ability that's easy to pick up again like any other skill, or not be retained at all.

If it's the middle option, what I really want to know is if, say, one spent a lot of time developing the hara in one life, would that person in subsequent lives have an easy time developing energy centers in general, or an easy time developing specifically the hara but have no advantage in developing other centers if they chose to practice a system with a different focus in a later life?

Thank you!

[ecosophia]

Heck of a good question. I'm not aware of a source that addresses this, or a solid argument one way or another, so the appropriate answer is "I don't know."

Sorath

[(Anonymous)]

Good evening, JMG. I echo what others have said before: thanks for this forum - it is always insightful.

In your geomancy books you identify Sorath as the Spirit of the Sun, as have other classical sources. I have seen in other places (usually more modern) where Sorath is referred to as a demonic entity. I understand that calling something a "demon" is often an oversimplification done out of fear and ignorance, but I was wondering if you might say a few words of clarification. A summoning requirement calls in the near future ;), and Sorath was one spirit I had been considering working with.

Thank you,

Wayne /|\

Re: Sorath

[ecosophia]

Sorath in the traditional lore I'm familiar with is a planetary spirit, not a demon. Planetary spirits are sometimes considered evil, as contrasted with planetary intelligences, who are considered good; my understanding is that this is a massive oversimplification -- the planetary spirits are blind forces that need the guidance of their respective intelligences, is all. If you want to work with Sorath, as a result, it's crucial to evoke Nakhiel, the Intelligence of the Sun, and request Nakhiel to direct Sorath's blind force rather than trying to command Sorath yourself.

Sphere of Protection

[(Anonymous)]

First, thank you for taking the time to answer these questions.

I want to ask about an experience I've consistently had with the sphere of protection. When I invoke the telluric current, I get a very strong feeling of energy at my perineum. It happens very easily and causes my entire body to feel energized. When I invoke the solar current, I get a similar feeling of energy in the crown of my head. However, it often gives me a headache and is sometimes frustratingly weak or non-existent. Is there a likely reason for my unbalanced experience of the ritual?

Re: Sphere of Protection

[ecosophia]

It's very common for people to be relatively unbalanced in their relationship to the two currents. The best approach is to relax, and don't put a lot of emphasis on feeling the energies -- that's a side effect, and you can stress yourself out unproductively by paying too much attention to them. As you proceed with the work, ritual workings with the solar current can help balance things out, and you might also consider getting scalp massage regularly to help break down the blockages involved.