Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Keeping Her Keys

Home
Pagan
The Magic of Self Love

The Magic of Self Love

Last updated on: June 11, 2020 at 7:45 pm by Cyndi Brannen

The Magic of Self Love 2020-06-11T19:45:58-04:00 Cyndi Brannen

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Self love is so much more than taking a magical bath or buying a new crystal. It’s the ongoing process of practicing putting ourselves first in our lives. That’s truly magical.

Defining Self Love

Self love is the intentional practice of putting ourselves first. Simple definition, but difficult to put into practice. We have responsibilities to others, from jobs to partners. Add in our homes, children, pets, families, friends, organizations, covens, groups, etc., and it’s far too easy to forget that we serve all these best when we put ourselves first.

I had my oldest son when I was quite young, so I never had the experience of being an adult without being accountable to another human being. I know far too well the damage done by neglecting to take good care of myself in mundane ways, but also the fallout from leaky boundaries where I defined my own happiness in terms of the others I cared about and for.

Not surprising at all is that my early motherhood influenced my passion for exploring the nature of the self, especially for ways to help others like me practice effective self love in spite of massive responsibilities. The alchemical formula for achieving this has long held my attention.

The Alchemy of Self Love

I’ve been studying the self from an academic perspective for twenty years trying to understand the alchemy for achieving personal contentment, what I now call living our truth. It all began with a massive project in graduate school on theories of the self. I was, and remain, fascinated with the uniquely human way that we experience the world. Our consciousness includes both us as actors, doing the business of living, and the evaluators of our actions, feelings and thoughts. Particularly, I have dedicated a big chunk of my career as a research psychologist to understanding the self in relation to others, and ways that we can practice self love that leads to improved psychospiritual functioning. The way our views of who we are interact with others, from the imagined voices to our closest relationships, greatly influences us. How then do we go about practicing self love when we are inherently interdependent? The answer is by energetically keeping our own keys of self love: acceptance, accountability, affection, care, compassion, confidence, efficacy, empowerment, esteem, honesty, nourishment, openness, protection, and sovereignty.

The alchemical process is ongoing, self love is achieved over time and practice for many of us. It is the acceptance of who we are and trust in our ability to be true to ourselves. Knowing ourselves is truly the great work of our lives.

The Corporeal and Spiritual Selves

The self is an amalgam of our earliest relationships, our personality characteristics and our experiences. We are so much more than the sum of these things. We are spiritual beings, reincarnated souls travelling a sacred crooked path with the ultimate goal of shedding our skin suits when we no longer need the lessons of the corporeal world.

All corporeal, or embodied, aspects of the self are reflected in our spiritual beings, from self protection to self efficacy.

Based on my research, I started referring to the self as comprised of actions, thoughts and feelings for my academic work and as the Middle, Higher and Lower Selves for spiritual teaching. These Selves have correspondent Souls and are reflected in the Etheric Worlds. All is interconnected. The unified self is the wholeness of ourselves and souls. This is the embodied Sacred Seven reflected in the energetic forces.

We experience wholeness when we practice self love on a daily basis. Taking time each day to engage in spiritual activities, from meditation to drawing a card for guidance, is self love. An intense period of self love over a month strengthens our spiritual and corporeal selves creating enduring wholeness.

JUNE 2020: Please subscribe to my blog on keepingherkeys.com/read to receive updates about new articles which are completely free. I am not publishing new articles on Patheos. You can join my modern online coven network for the first month free. Try it out here.

Questions? Comments? [email protected] is where to send them.

Thanks to everyone for supporting Keeping Her Keys on Patheos. You can find me at keepingherkeys.com, on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram, in addition to the Keeping Her Keys network.

Stay true. Rise strong. Keep your own keys.

Deep Blessings,

Cyndi

Modern Hekatean Witchcraft

Personal Development

Spiritual Development

About Cyndi

Cyndi Brannen, PhD, is a teacher and writer focusing on personal development, spirituality and true magic. She is an energetic healer, psychic, herbalist, spiritual coach and mentor. Founder of the Keeping Her Keys Mystery School, she teaches and writes about the true magic of healing and personal power. The bestselling Keeping Her Keys: An Introduction to Hekate’s Modern Witchcraft explores Hekate from her ancient origins to our modern understanding through magic and personal development. True Magic: Unleashing Your Inner Witch, based on the sacred seven principles, will be available this October. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

August 25, 2019

The Problem of Assumed Familiarity

Next Post

September 12, 2019 Social Media, Self Love and Sovereignty

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Goddesses Modern Hekatean Witchcraft Modern Witchcraft Moon Magick Personal Development Rituals Rituals Spells Spiritual Development Uncategorized Wheel of the Year

Select a Month June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What punishment did God send after David counted the fighting men of Israel?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Famine Defeat in battle Plague Flood