Litany Against Fear - Grimoire With Me
In my spiritual practice I love to integrate truths that I observe in media. This practice helps me to seek truth everywhere! And it can and it help me not take life too seriously! One way I do this is by meditating on meaningful statements from movies! In today’s post I will share with you my grimoire spread dedicated to the Litany Against Fear from the Dune series!
Check out the whole process in the video below!
Referencing Popular Media in a Grimoire
When John Lennon said the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus” they were not really lying. We as humans nowadays flock to cinemas, theaters and our TVs daily for epic tales of humanity, no longer the church. With that comes a new set of tales we relate to our daily lives. While both biblical(and other religious) tales and Marvel movies are highly archetypal I find myself thinking of Frodo and Luke Skywalker more than Jesus. Now I wasn’t raised religious and perhaps that is a part of the reason as well. Either way I see this being the case for a lot of people my age. Question is, is that a problem?
No. I don’t think so. As long as we are conscious of the media we consume, and we analyze who created that media with what intentions, we should be good. It is after all about bringing intention and consciousness to every part of our lives, media consumption included. Plus, these stories resonate with us for a reason. I believe there are a lot of lessons we can learn from popular media if we are willing to learn from it.
Grimoire Inspo From Popular Media
Lord of the Rings - Frodo - An example that a single little person can overcome evil
George Harrison Lyrics - “All I have to do, is to, to love you. All I have to be is, be happy”
Donny Darko - Multiverse and Predestination Theories, Also The Concept of Fear and Love being what everything is built upon
Dune - Litany Against Fear from the Bene Gesserit
Avatar the Last Air-bender - Practicing connecting with and controlling elemental energy
For more ideas you could check out Berber Van Gorp on youtube. They use a lot of song lyrics to create collage mood boards in an art journal! Such beauty!
Why The Litany Against Fear?
Agent Dale Cooper? Is that you?
In life I believe it really is as simple as choosing love over fear. But what happens when we find our-self unaware falling into fearful patterns from our past? The first step in transmuting fear into love is acknowledging that the fear is present. Once we see it for what it is and love that it is there for our expansion we are able to be present and appreciative it which in and of its self changes what the experience is.
I love Dune and the litany is a meaningful mantra frequently said in the series. The sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit use this mantra to as it states clearly, face their fears. This is a process I have been doing over the last year rejoining society as I start my beeswax candle business. I love this mantra because it brings present moment awareness to the physical sensation of fear. This allows me to put distance between the I that is having the experience and the I that is observing me having the experience. I know Frank Herbert (The author of Dune) was significantly influenced by Buddhist practices, and I think that can be clearly seen in this passage.
The last line of this litany “Only I will remain” is an extremely powerful protection spell. The phrase could even be altered to “only I remain” to bring it into the present moment as a declaration not a future dependent statement.
I believe the majority of my life will consist of getting to know myself better and better. That is part of why it is so powerful to say “only I remain” it implies the knowledge of oneself and boundaries (another thing Ive been working on).
The last line of the litany also brings to my mind a sign on the oracles wall in the first Matrix. She had a sign that said “Temet Nosce “ which translates to “Know Thyself”. This would be another great idea for grimoire spread inspiration. I have even thought to make a duplicate of that sign to put over a doorway (portal) in my own house. So many ideas so little time!
The Finished Spread
Here are the finished glamor shots (by deb lol)
The whole spread finished up, with some watercolors in the background
At the very end I used a yellow gold waxy chalk pen to add dimension and shine. This helped to emphasize the torodial energy field of source consciousness entering my crown chakra. This represents my constant and loving connection to source.
I love the intense look this lady is giving. It is so full of Will and personal power!
I hope you found my thoughts on media usage in a spiritual practice interesting. Do you use concepts or images from popular media in your spiritual practices? I would love to hear about that in the comments! Maybe I’m not the only one doing this!
And so it is!
With much love,
