Sorcerous Excursion: The Art Museum

Yesterday I went on an excursion I've been meaning to do since January.  During one of the Strategic Sorcery lessons on energy work, Jason recommends tapping into various sources of power - with the exception of other people and the electric grid.  In that lesson he also mentioned advice he received from a Bardonian magician.  This advice was to use the technique of pore-breathing to take in the energy of beauty itself by breathing it in from a beautiful work of art.  The idea sounded fantastic!

So, after months of procrastinating about it, I went to the major art museum in my town.  This particular art museum, in addition to most of its exhibitions being free, have a lot of art gardens that are really beautiful.  I initially went to the museum proper and browsed the exhibits.  While there I decided to tap into some Beauty from paintings, sculptures, and other works of art.  There was a difference between the "flavor" of a beautiful painting of Calypso standing in the wind, and a green-blue Art Nouveau vase.  With each one, I took a moment to reach out and "touch" the presence of the object, and then I simply breathed it in with my whole body.  To my mind, the "energy" of Beauty from these works flowed to me as multi-colored streams.

By the time I walked outside to the gardens, I was high!

There was one particular garden I aimed to go to, because its entrance in prefaced with a bust of Flora on the left, and Faunus on the right, and it is a circular area with an exit going out towards each of the cardinal directions.  Gee...sounds suspiciously like a Circle!  There's even a fountain in the middle of it, pictured to the right.  This particular garden is called the Classic Garden, I believe.

On the way to the Classic Garden, Something pulled me along to another garden, and upon entering I was struck with a barrage of floral scents.  The flowers are in bloom throughout the gardens, and in this particular one, they smelled amazing!  I found a bench secluded beneath the eaves of some tree, and sat down for a few minutes (it's been rather humid lately).  Still riding a high from the museum, I elt moved to give an offering of song to the area, so I sang part of Conjure One's "Center Of The Sun".

Then I moved on to the Classic Garden.  On the way I kept getting this feeling that I could take some soil from the land if I wanted...almost as though I was being invited to.  I politely declined, deciding that I will do so next time I'm there.

The Classic Garden is a delight to be in, for me.  It really is a magic circle, of sorts.  I think people pick up on this when tossing coins into the fountain.  That gives me an idea for a spell!

Anyway, once I was there alone, I gave an offering of energy, on which I used Jason's method of willing it to expand and multiply, and take on the forms most desired by its recipients.  I gave the offering to the local Gods, guardians and spirits of the area, and then it was time to go, as I was running late to go somewhere else.  On my way out, I gave a brief, small offering to Hekate Propylaia as I passed through a pair of wrought iron gates.

Now for the bad part.  All the high I got off of the beauty of that place was contrasted hotly and sharply once I left.  I don't know if it was me riding my blissful wave of Beauty, but people were assholes after that, all the way to my next destination!  The worst part was that my high made me want to be really self-centered and self-absorbed.  Blech!

It could have just been coincidence, but next time I pull the energy of Beauty, I'm going to bring something other than my body to store it in!  ;-)

Now, all this talk of beauty and energy and flowers and gardens is all well and good, but by this point I would be asking...What is the point?  In this case, my purpose was two-fold:

1. Experimental energy work
2. Work toward building a relationship with my surroundings and the city I live in, starting with its major parts.

There are probably many ways I could use the power from the art museum to fuel spells of mine in the future, and I want more of an experimental attitude in my work!