Niyamas Continued
Swadhyaya
Swadhyaya is the knowledge we gain through self-study and introspection. It is spending time asking ourselves the important questions: Who am I as a person? As a performer? What impression do I leave as a performer and person? What impression do I want to leave? What is working in my performances? What isn’t? What am I willing to do or not to do to achieve the success I am seeking? What sacrifices am I willing to make? How do I want to show up in the world? Am I singing my own song or one that was written by others or for others?
To engage in Swadhaya, we learn to ask ourselves these types of questions and to work to find our answers. If the answers are not forth coming, we must wait, to be willing to sit with it and let it stew. Often a journal or notebook may help to capture our answers as they arise. In the Artist’s Way, author Julie Cameron recommends writing three pages every morning. She calls them Morning Pages. Perhaps this type of uncensored writing may help.
Reflection In Action:
- Spend time with the questions above. What others do you want to ask?
Iswara Pranidhana
Our last Niyama is Iswara Pranidhana or devotion. Devotion is a word that many of us in the West do not use often. One that some may be uncomfortable with. Patanjali uses devotion in the context of devotion to the Divine, Infinite Spirit, God, or Source. The presence behind all presences has many names, many forms.
For magicians, Iswara Pranidhana is devotion and respect for the Craft of Magic. It is not trivializing a performance art with a rich and long history that stretches back to the birth of man. As Max Maven said, twentieth-century magicians have done something that no one had done before, they have taken something important and significant and made it trivial. For audiences and the general public to take it seriously as an art form, then we have to take it seriously and treat it with respect.
One way to do this is Iswara Pranidhana or devotion to the art. What would this look like? This is best answered by each of us individually but here are a few ideas to think about. Enter your practice and rehearsal time plan-fully and know what you are going to do. If you want to spend time in creative play, then make the decision mindfully. Create focus for your play sessions by gathering the props you want to play with and make it a special time for sacred play. Give an effect or routine the time it needs to blossom and for you to know it before rushing it into performance. Eugene Burger advises us that when we feel a routine is ready for performance, wait a month and continue to work on it.
Reflection In Action:
- Am I willing to give my magic the love, care and devotion it deserves?
