{"id":4532,"date":"2016-01-07T18:00:18","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T00:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=4532"},"modified":"2016-01-07T18:37:06","modified_gmt":"2016-01-08T00:37:06","slug":"the-power-of-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/01\/the-power-of-silence.html","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Silence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"BookofSilence-e1449266132359\"<\/a>A Witch\u2019s Book of Silence<\/a><\/em><\/strong>
\nby Karina BlackHeart
\npublished by KBH Enterprises, December 2015
\nPaperback: $18.00
\n122 pages<\/p>\n

Technology giveth and technology taketh away, but current technology has brought democracy to the publishing world. If you have a computer and an internet connection, you can publish a blog for the world to read. Under the Ancient Oaks was published on a free Blogger site for its first 4\u00bd years. With a little more work and a little money, you can publish actual physical books (whether or not you can sell them is another matter).<\/p>\n

A Witch\u2019s Book of Silence<\/em> is short and narrowly focused \u2013 not something that attracts attention from mainstream or even alternative publishers. But here it is, looking as clean and professional as anything on the shelves at Barnes & Noble.<\/p>\n

More importantly, it\u2019s available<\/em>. Witches, Pagans, and other magical folks have always shared arcane writings amongst themselves, but you had to know someone to even find out they existed, much less get your hands on a copy. Now all you need is an internet connection and a few dollars. I\u2019m happy about that, because this is a book that needs to be in general circulation \u2013 I\u2019ve already recommended it to a friend.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t review books differently based on how I get them, but for those of you who care about such things, I contributed to the Pubslush fundraiser for A Witch\u2019s Book of Silence<\/em>. As always, my obligation in a review is to the readers, not the writer. If I couldn\u2019t honestly give it a good review, I\u2019d conveniently forget to review it.<\/p>\n

The opening line says \u201cwe have all heard of the Witches\u2019 Pyramid: to Know, to Will, to Dare and to Keep Silent.\u201d Most of us try to use the Witches\u2019 Pyramid not as a three dimensional model but as a one dimensional process: first we learn, then we figure out what our will is, then we dare to go after what we truly want, then we keep silent about our working. But life is rarely linear \u2013 more often it\u2019s spiral and cyclical, bringing us around and around over and over again. Also, a pyramid needs four firm sides \u2013 at the same time. If any one of them is weak, then the pyramid \u2013 the magical operation \u2013 will collapse.<\/p>\n

Silence is very hard for most of us. Yet without it, our magic and our lives will be weak and less effective than they otherwise would be.<\/p>\n

Why are you so afraid of silence?<\/em>
\nSilence is the root of everything.<\/em>
\nIf you spiral into its void,<\/em>
\nA hundred voices will thunder messages you long to hear.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013 Rumi<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Most of us are afraid of silence. Last\u00a0year I coordinated a UU Sunday Service on silence and darkness. We always have a moment of silent meditation and prayer, but this time\u00a0our guest speaker decided to let the silence run for three minutes instead of the usual one minute. Long before he ended it, numerous people were getting uncomfortable: fidgeting, looking around, reaching for their purses or phones \u2013 anything to keep from being alone with their thoughts.<\/p>\n

But as magical people, we know that silence is necessary. Karina BlackHeart says:<\/p>\n

If we are to court the power of silence, we must be willing to engage with the powers of the north, the deep earth, the dark moon and death itself. We must be willing to name and openly confront our fear of these dark powers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A Witch\u2019s Book of Silence<\/em> is divided into three sections. The first deals with concepts of silence and why we find them troubling. It talks about secrecy, both good and bad. There have been too many occasions where someone in the Pagan community has used silence to hide abusive behavior. But there are some things that simply shouldn\u2019t be shared with the general public.\u00a0 Karina quotes Victor Anderson: \u201cEveryone has a right to know. But can everyone handle it? Can everyone know? Can everyone be a doctor or a musician? No.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m pretty open about what I believe and what I do. But there are some parts of my practice where I\u2019m intentionally vague, and other parts I simply don\u2019t talk about. Part of this is because some experiences can\u2019t be expressed in words, but other parts are too sacred to risk profaning them (i.e. \u2013 making them ordinary) by talking about them.<\/p>\n

The second part of the book is titled \u201cThe Practice of Silence.\u201d It includes meditations and other spiritual practices designed to help the reader work with silence and get comfortable with silence. The third part is titled \u201cEmbodiment\u201d and is a description of what we can gain by the practice of silence \u2013 and what we can lose if we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

When we speak of our magical workings, we damage the spell itself in several ways. We diffuse power. We pre-maturely and accidentally cast. We open the door to the spell being tainted by the (often unconscious) complexes or negative emotions, thoughts, words or deeds of those with whom we share our intentions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The consistent practice of silence teaches us to listen deeply and to speak rarely. When we do, our words carry great power.<\/p>\n

Karina BlackHeart<\/a> is an Anderson Feri initiate and writes from the perspective of that tradition. In the Preface she says she believes A Witch\u2019s Book of Silence<\/em> will be helpful to anyone who needs to cultivate the practice of silence in their spiritual lives. I think she\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

Be still and know thyself. There is no hurrying this process. The answers are coming in the silences between breaths.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"book<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of us are afraid of silence. But as magical people, we know that silence is necessary. This new, short, narrowly-focused book by Karina BlackHeart explains the practice of silence and how to cultivate it in our lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":4533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[215,851,4,5,852,453,67],"class_list":["post-4532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books-2","tag-feri","tag-karina-blackheart","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-silence","tag-victor-anderson","tag-witchcraft"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Power of Silence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Most of us are afraid of silence. But as magical people, we know that silence is necessary. This new, short, narrowly-focused book by Karina BlackHeart explains the practice of silence and how to cultivate it in our lives.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/01\/the-power-of-silence.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Power of Silence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most of us are afraid of silence. But as magical people, we know that silence is necessary. This new, short, narrowly-focused book by Karina BlackHeart explains the practice of silence and how to cultivate it in our lives.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/01\/the-power-of-silence.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-08T00:00:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-01-08T00:37:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2015\/12\/book-of-silence-600x300.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/01\/the-power-of-silence.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/01\/the-power-of-silence.html\",\"name\":\"The Power of Silence\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-08T00:00:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-08T00:37:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"Most of us are afraid of silence. But as magical people, we know that silence is necessary. This new, short, narrowly-focused book by Karina BlackHeart explains the practice of silence and how to cultivate it in our lives.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/01\/the-power-of-silence.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/01\/the-power-of-silence.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/01\/the-power-of-silence.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Power of Silence\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Power of Silence","description":"Most of us are afraid of silence. But as magical people, we know that silence is necessary. This new, short, narrowly-focused book by Karina BlackHeart explains the practice of silence and how to cultivate it in our lives.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/01\/the-power-of-silence.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Power of Silence","og_description":"Most of us are afraid of silence. But as magical people, we know that silence is necessary. This new, short, narrowly-focused book by Karina BlackHeart explains the practice of silence and how to cultivate it in our lives.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/01\/the-power-of-silence.html","og_site_name":"John Beckett","article_published_time":"2016-01-08T00:00:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-01-08T00:37:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":300,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2015\/12\/book-of-silence-600x300.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Beckett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Beckett","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/01\/the-power-of-silence.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/01\/the-power-of-silence.html","name":"The Power of Silence","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-01-08T00:00:18+00:00","dateModified":"2016-01-08T00:37:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad"},"description":"Most of us are afraid of silence. But as magical people, we know that silence is necessary. This new, short, narrowly-focused book by Karina BlackHeart explains the practice of silence and how to cultivate it in our lives.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/01\/the-power-of-silence.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/01\/the-power-of-silence.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/01\/the-power-of-silence.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Power of Silence"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/","name":"John Beckett","description":"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad","name":"John Beckett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John Beckett"},"description":"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}