Is your biggification proud and mindful, or arrogant and gilded?
by Pace on February 20th, 2009 @ 9:13 am in
How To Be Awesome
Tags: iron pentacle
When the points of the Iron Pentacle are in balance, it’s healthy and good. There are two ways that each point can get out of balance: rusted (deflated) and gilded (inflated). For example, if the point of Pride were rusted, it would be Shame or Guilt, and if it were gilded, it would be Arrogance or Hubris.
One of the personal growth techniques a lot of people talk about is putting yourself in a mindset of having instead of wanting. Instead of thinking “I want $5000/month”, instead think “I have $5000/month”, and this will send out vibrations that resonate in the universe and make it come to pass.
I sort of get the idea, but it feels inauthentic to me.
But the general idea is that one way to grow is to raise your mindset to be a little bigger, then you will grow into your newly biggified shoes. Take this one for example: “I am a well-respected expert on relationships and communication.”
So here’s the big question:
Is this biggification mindful or gilded?
(If you prefer business-speak, substitute “marketing” or “business image” for “biggification”.)
On the surface, they seem an awful lot alike.
On the one hand, it seems gilded (Arrogant and full of Hubris) to make yourself out to be bigger than you are.
On the other hand, it seems mindful to embiggen your shoes so you have room to grow into them.
Intent: Is that the answer?
A big difference between the two is intent. Are you trying to puff yourself up to feel better about yourself, or are you trying to mindfully embiggen yourself to be a better (more effective, more helpful, happier) person? In other words, if you’re biggifying your shoes, are you biggifying your feet too?
That’s a step closer to the answer, but bottoming out at intent doesn’t satisfy me, because of Honest Hal. So let’s talk about roots instead of intent.
Is your biggification rooted in fear or in love?
Are you puffing yourself up because you’re afraid of not being good enough? Are you telling everyone else how awesome you are because you’re insecure and don’t believe it yourself?
Or are you growing your self-image because you wish to grow your self? Are you expanding your words and thoughts because you want to bring more love, care, and goodness to yourself or to others?
That’s it. That’s how to tell the difference between mindful and gilded biggification. Rooted in fear, or rooted in love? As of today, I have some of each.
So here’s what I’m going to do.
From now on, I will be more mindful of where my biggification is rooted.
I’ll remember that it’s okay to feel afraid.
And if I find myself reacting to my fear by shouting “Look how awesome I am!”, I’ll listen to my fear. I’ll acknowledge it. Then I’ll take a breath, think about it mindfully, remember the iron and gilded pentacles, and listen to my heart.
- Related posts:
- Expanding your edges as growth.
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6 Comments!
#2 Posted by 
Oliver Danni on February 20th, 2009 11:06 am | link
I always forget to hit the clicky box to be notified of follow-up comments, and I don’t know another way to change that setting without making a new comment.
#3 Posted by 
Pace on February 21st, 2009 8:50 am | link
@Oliver: *shrug* The big/small thing is a metaphor that works for me. If it doesn’t work for you, perhaps I made the usual error. (; I like the idea of “When you’re caught up in your problems, become bigger than your problems.” That’s what the size thing feels like to me. As for the pizza thing… yeah, that sort of makes sense. Thanks for helping me understand that a little better.
#4 Posted by Oliver Danni on February 21st, 2009 3:22 pm | link
The big/small thing works great for me! It’s the feet/shoes part that doesn’t, because (at least, my) feet don’t get bigger. When I was a little kid my feet still grew, but not because of any conscious effort on my part. So that’s why the bookshelf example works better for me. :)
#1 Posted by
Oliver Danni on February 20th, 2009 11:04 am | link
I was following along great, until the “…are you biggifying your feet?” part.
If I buy shoes that are too big for my feet, I’m going to trip and fall on my face! My feet stopped biggifying over a decade ago. Sometimes they biggify a LITTLE, but I usually call that “blisters”, not “awesome”. Even for someone whose feet are still growing, it’s probably not a good idea to buy shoes that are too much bigger than your actual feet. It might save some money, but if you trip and fall on your face, that probably won’t be your first thought.
Maybe a more effective example would be “I bought a bookshelf twice as big as my old one, even though the old one wasn’t full yet, with the intention of biggifying my book collection!”?
I had a similar struggle with the authenticity of “I have…” vs. “I want…”, and I came to realize that my creative imagination is not limited by constructs of past/present/future. Do you ever use visualization as a magickal technique? When I do it, there’s no past/present/future distinction…everything is in the present.
Like, let’s say I wanted a pizza. There are a number of different ways I could get that pizza. If I wanted to manifest an awesome magickal pizza, I would want to make my own pizza. If I just wanted my pizza really fast, I might call a delivery service. If I decided to use magick, I wouldn’t just make a list of things I wish my pizza had…I would imagine each ingredient, what it smells like, what it tastes like, what it feels like chopping it up or melting it, the heat and the texture…as if I were experiencing those things RIGHT NOW. Then I would get up and make pizza! Whereas, if I decided to call the pizza shop and have them deliver my pizza, they’d think I was nuts if I called up and said “I have a pizza already”…I would have to state my request for something which would happen in the future, saying “I want…” and listing the ingredients. Both of these are viable techniques for getting what I want, but in each circumstance, a different perspective on the difference between “present” and “future” is required for the technique to be effective. So, while it would be inauthentic for me to tell the pizza delivery person that I already have a pizza, it’s totally cool for me to tell the UNIVERSE that I have a pizza, because the universe doesn’t deconstruct time like the pizza shop does.