Many people believe being spiritual begins with meditation, prayer, petition, spells or runes. All of these are interesting tools to learn but before these, before we know what we wish to do, there is what we need to do if we are truely seeking our own individual, spiritual path. I will begin with just one premise.
   We need to remember careless, thoughtless speech can create havoc for us as much as any anyones direct effort to do so. If nothing else, not speaking truth can be confusing when we try to remember who we told what.
   If I, as a witch/shamaness who knows  the power of energy transformation, keeps saying something like It figures, things like this always happen to me (and the list is all negative), dont you think those things will just keep happening (especially if I mastered some degree of being an adept)? We could not begin to imagine how many times we caused our own problems by the number of times we hexed ourselves with thoughtless speech. Think energy conversion when we think of all those times we added the force of our anger and upset to whatever we were saying! Basic physics is not just for scientists. Negative speech, especially when we belittle ourselves, also reinforces whatever poor esteem and attitude issues we may each be fighting. Working on change is difficult as it is but would any one us have thought change would begin with the mouth?
   So speak the truth. This means no lies, especially to yourself. But, lets look at the little ways in which we evade our own truth. As long as we are evading our truth, we can never think it, speak it or even know it. How many times have we called out sick because for whatever the reason, we did not want to go to work? We werent sick though, were we? Would we really tell our boss Im not coming in today because I dont want to? It is easier to call out sick. We can also avoid the confrontation with the truth that we do not want to experience the disappointment and anger of our boss. So, in order to avoid the truth of criticism and discomfort, we call out sick instead. Someone who likes to talk on and on calls us at a time when we dont feel like being on the phone for hours. We all know someone like this. This is the type of person that wont even get off the phone no matter how many clues you drop. You tell the person that somethings burning on the stove and you will call them back but you know you wont. You lie so you can get off the phone so you wont have to listen to them. You tell this lie because the truth is you just cant find the way to tell them that you dont have the time to talk or dont feel like talking. What you might want is to will call them in a couple of days when things settle down. It took me a while to learn to be comfortable in expressing my needs in a situation like this. I too would drop hints and HOPE the other person would understand. The other truth is a lot of people dont get the hint. Is it their fault that we do not make them understand (nicely, of course)? Another truth is maybe we do not want to be labeled rude. What do all of these truths we avoid add up? We are afraid of what people will think of us and we are not creative enough to find truthful solutions to our dilemmas. That requires knowing what our truth really is.
   And the truth often does hurt, especially when it comes to ourselves. That instance with the boss? One truth is that we do not want to lose our job or have a boss who will not trust us. Another truth is simply we are not brave enough to tell the truth regardless of the consequences. This is not a choice situation. Both truths coexist don't they? Of the two, the second truth is the more important because it will require a lot of work to find the inner spirit that will enable us to be truthful at all times. Do we have to tell that boss the truth about why we did not come in? No, because it would be far better to plan for a day off with company policies, or to simply ask you boss when would be a convenient time for you to take a personal day or two. This may seem overly simplistic but change cannot and does not begin with grand overtures that cannot be maintained. All change must begin with small steps that can lead to other steps.
   By eliminating deceit self comfort grows. The calm of spiritual growth can and does begin to grow as an offshoot of simple attempts to change.
   In beginning self change, begin by changing your speech into truth because the only thing that ever comes from truth is more truth. Somewhere along the line you will discover your true self.

   Then you are ready to begin.