I thought it might be nice to have a thread where parents and non-parents alike can share how they would introduce or are already teaching their kids about Magick. All questions, ideas, tips and experiences are welcome!
Firstly I would like to add that I am not in favour of forcing my ways down my kids’ throat. I believe it is at all time imperative that kids don’t feel pressured or not able to ‘just be a kid’ anymore. Hence I ALWAYS try to keep a playful approach. If my kid shows no interest in a particular exercise, picture or book, I just leave it for what it is.
I also try to not lose track of reality and keep in mind that perhaps later my kids will resent me for this, for ‘making them feel weird in society’ and may never be interested in Magick again. One way or another You. Are. Going. To. Fuck. Up. You can try your very best, but that’s it. Such is life, we all incarnated here to learn and one day those precious kids are going to have their very own unique view on life.
Anyways, back on track. To complicate things even more, the fact that most magicians have to lead a double life in order to still be able to navigate smoothly through society, does not make it any easier and inevitably leads to children receiving double messages. One way or another your kid is going to talk about what it does/see/hears at home, or what mommy and daddy are doing/saying.
From a four-year-olds mouth: “Mommy and daddy are going to use condoms again.” This may sound funny, but it shows exactly how we often don’t realize that virtually EVERYTHING we say or do is picked up by our kids and interpreted as ‘normal’ or ‘the way to go’. To your kids you are The Big Example, and in that respect having kids is a very grateful experience. They are your mirror, look into it, and LEARN about yourself.
Now, about Magick, basically what I try to do is to ‘dress up’ exercises as harmless kids games. CREATIVITY is extremely important in this respect and aside from the already obvious challenge of parenthood in itself, ‘disguising’ Magick and energetic exercises can sometimes be a real headscratching experience.
Here are just a few examples of what I put into practice:
In order to stimulate the immune system, daily tapping of the thymus gland can be very beneficial. So I just ‘play gorilla’ and beat my chest with my kids. It’s healthy, it’s non-suspicous and it’s just plain fun.
Viewing auras: my kids are still a bit small for actually conversing about this, but what I do for an introduction is hanging up some drawings of people with the aura around them. The main reason kids lose their clairvoyance can -in my opinion- be explained by the fact that nobody ever talks about it with them, resulting in the fact they will disregard it after a while as non-important.
Closing your aura: we all know some exercises to protect our auric field, but to explain this to a kid you need to ‘get down’ to his world. Instead of telling them to visualize being in a purple cocoon or whatever, I tell my kids that they’re in a ‘little house’, then I tell them to stretch their hands out, turn around in their house and then close the door by crossing their arms and telling them no one can enter now.
Voilà, that was it for now. Looking forward to any input ya’ll may have!