The 2011 Letter

For the past four years I’ve been writing The Letter at about this time of the year. I find it easier and more successful than making traditional New Year resolutions which my Self may want to achieve but my Ego will fight every inch of the way.

The reason why the Ego fights is because it didn’t make the agreement in the first place. That was the good idea that came from our conscious Self. It felt great to the awakened part of us but was flat-out threatening to the Ego. The Ego’s here to keep us in tribal consciousness because that’s what (in its belief system) makes us safe. Of course this is a rather old-fashioned version of safe as in ‘fitting in with the tribe so that we can all run together and there’s less likelihood of standing out and attracting predators.’ The Ego isn’t happy about updating itself unless it is pointed out very clearly (in a life-threatening kind of way) that the old ways no longer work. Okay so you’ve lived with self-hatred, poverty-consciousness and self-denial for years but you’re still alive aren’t you? To the Ego, that’s quite enough. To the Self that’s painful and frustrating and to the Soul, that’s a living death.

We all know that the Ego resists the new resolutions — probably most health clubs pay 90% of their bills from the memberships taken out in January and never followed-up!

So The Letter is a great way of getting round the Ego. Why? Because it’s pure fantasy. It should be as wide ranging and even as silly as possible and it’s a letter of thanks dated at the end 2011 which acknowledges everything wonderful that has already happened.

Because it’s fantasy and because it’s about gratitude rather than wanting, it carries a very powerful energy. The best thing to do is to write it, address it and put it away for a full year and let it do its magic out of sight and out of mind.

Here are more details on how to do it:

Write a letter to a friend — to someone with whom you only correspond infrequently (someone without email probably!). Date this letter 15th December 2011 and in it tell them of all the splendid, wonderful, amazing, virtually impossibly good things that have happened to you throughout 2011. And invent everything you could possibly want from a perfect home, partner or job to living in the Maldives. Don't worry about seeming grasping or greedy - that fear is exactly what has held you back for so long. Let’s assume here that by the end of 2011 what you write will all have been granted because the Universe has found you worthy (though to be honest, the Universe doesn’t give a monkey’s cuss whether you are ‘worthy’ or not; it just responds to your energy). If you’re not feeling worthy now, let’s assume that something may happen in 2011 that helps you feel worthy! Why not put in the letter, “I don’t know how or why but suddenly I realised that I was worthy of all these good things!”

Please understand that there is a reason why Luis Vuitton bags are made and houses and cars are built – it is so that people can enjoy them. And if you are wealthy, you can do SO much more for others. To believe that you can't be rich because of the starving poor is an argument full of holes. If you are wealthy you can donate; teach and offer time to ensure that they too learn how to be prosperous like you. If you are poor, you can do diddly squat.

And if you're now saying 'but my friend would hate me if I sent him/her a letter like that' then I’d suggest that you find a friend who wouldn't! And that's probably one of the best tasks you could set yourself this year - to be with people who allow you to be prosperous. If there's no one, then plan to send it to me, because I'll be SO happy for you! Email it to me — if you don’t already have it, you can find my email address on my website: www.maggywhitehouse.com.

The letter will work best if it's full of enthusiasm and acknowledgement of the good in your life. It's great if you can start off with something that you actually know IS going to happen. That gives you confidence.

Will it happen? Well, it's got a better chance of happening if you do write the letter than if you don't. If you put it away somewhere safe and forget all about it, the chances are pretty high that at least 60% of it will either be with you or on its way by the date you put on it.

What it won’t do is necessarily come true in the way you envisioned it — and it can only come true according to the level of happy energy you place on it. For example, last year one of my written ‘thank yous’ was about becoming a Fellow in the Interfaith Department of Cambridge University. Did that happen? No. But what did happen was an invitation to take up a honorary position at Stafford University which is very much up my street; which doesn’t intimidate me at all (which Cambridge might) and which I can do easily without having to move house. It also came to me completely out of the blue without my having to do another thing to attract it.

The Universe is very clever — as long as you keep the energy high and allow it to deliver what it knows is best for you right now. If I had gone “I don’t want Stafford — I want Cambridge!” I would have denied that good, progressive, organic energy. So I say ‘Yay!” to Stafford and thank you Universe.

Have fun with this; play; enjoy. And I wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year.

Clap Loudly If You Believe

In 1897 eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon's friends pooh-poohed her belief in Santa Claus. So she wrote to the local paper to ask if there was a Santa Claus. This is what the editor of the local paper, Francis P. Church wrote in reply:

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be grown-ups' or children's are little.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were not Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies!

The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor grown-ups can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they aren't there.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest grown-up that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside the curtain and view the beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing as real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

From Sarah Ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance (Grand Central Publishing).

Giving and Receiving.

Not an awful lot of giving goes on at Christmas.

That may surprise you. But mostly what goes on at Christmas is exchange.

Not that there’s anything at all wrong with exchange; it’s what makes the world go round; it’s what money is all about. But exchange doesn’t harness the law of attraction in the same way as giving does. That may be why it is that you feel that you give and give and give but nothing seems to come back in return.

After all, most of the world’s spiritual teachings say that the secret of life is giving and that if you give, you will receive. And they’re right. But it has to be unconditional giving — and we’re not very well trained in that.

So let’s take a look at what is giving and what is exchange.

• It’s exchange when you swap gifts with someone, knowing in advance that this is what’s going to happen.
• It’s exchange when you have to give a present or you’ll feel bad about being mean.
• It’s exchange when you give because you should give, because it’s what good people do.
• It’s exchange when you know you’ll be found wanting by another if you don’t give.
• It’s exchange when you give in order to have another person thank you or admire you.
• It’s exchange when you give in order to make sure the other person has the gift that you want them to have rather than something they might have liked better.
• It’s exchange when you get to go to Nepal or Vietnam or another trip of a lifetime on a sponsored trip in order to help underprivileged kids.

The law of attraction doesn’t give back when it’s exchange. That’s because you got the pay-off immediately. Again, there’s nothing wrong with exchange. We’d all be a lot poorer without it.

But to the law of attraction, it simply isn’t giving if there are any conditions.

Don’t worry; you may well feel great during any part of the exchange process and then your vibration is high and you’ll attract good things. But the vibration has to be clear.

So how do we give? The perfect giving is giving because we can’t help but give; because we are so full and flowing with the joy and grace of life that we can’t help but give. And the most powerful giving of all is when we give privately, in secret, without any expectation whatsoever of reward or payback. The giving itself is the delight. And such giving has such a lovely vibration that the law of attraction flows energy and grace towards you; it’s impossible for it not to.

It’s also giving when you allow someone else the gift of being able to give to you. After all, giving feels so good that it’s a bit mean not to let someone else have that pleasure isn’t it? But to do that, of course, you have to be able to receive.

That’s the other tricky bit.

The inability to receive is the primary reason why we go on giving and giving (or exchanging) when we are running on empty. And again, nothing seems to come back.

It’s receiving when you say ‘thank you.’ It’s refusing to receive when you diss someone else’s gift whether it’s a compliment or something physical.

Okay so the compliment may be for a sweater you got from the charity shop but if the other person likes it and says so, you need to allow them the pleasure of giving that gift by receiving it. And if they think you look good, then do them the respect of allowing their opinion. Whether you think you look like a bag lady or a dog’s dinner is irrelevant at that point. They have a right to have a good opinion of you; that’s their gift.

And I know it’s hard to receive ‘gifts’ that you don’t want from friends and family with gratitude but do it, just this once if you can. That’s the real gift...

But perhaps this is all getting a little too complicated. If there’s any message that I want to get over at this Christmas season, it’s this: give up! By giving up you create space for the new and the good to come.

So if Christmas is a challenging time for you, head for those wardrobes and cupboards now and clear out everything that is no longer relevant. You are not going to fit into that again! You are not going to bring back the ‘good’ past by keeping it. You are not going to go to the ball in that Cinderella! Give it up! Only when you give it up can your fairy godmother bring you the new wonders.

And if you are going to take it to the charity shop (and they will be so pleased this time of year!) then bless it, and bless it and bless it so that your love and blessing goes to the new and grateful owner who will never, ever know who you are.

You can also use the system of tithing. If you want a reminder of that, it’s just two articles down (after this one) on my blog.

Tithing is when you give directly to and for inspiration. That means you are putting your money where your higher self is; where your joy is; to the book, workshop, teacher, whatever, that will bring you closer to the Source energy. And that’s the perfect giving because it has such a clear intention. And the Source flows love straight back to you.

The second tithe is for celebration, which is where you celebrate the joy of being alive. This gives back to the Source too because it gives joy to God that we are experiencing Its creation so happily. So both these are simultaneously giving and receiving. You give for inspiration and joy purely because you want to celebrate growth and life.

So, amid the clutter and fuss, if you want both to give and receive this Christmas, all you have to do is find a sacred or secret place (the middle of a garden or field will do) and give thanks for the year. Bless yourself and everything on this beautiful planet. Perceive that all is very, very good. And leave a little gift of something behind you. It’s not your business who or what picks it up; it’s your unconditional Christmas gift to God. And if you don’t have a physical gift to give, maybe you could do a little dance?

Your gift may not be seen or appreciated by any human being. But it will be adored by the Holy One and it will bring you peace, hope and goodwill in return.

So may your Christmas be blessed and holy and peaceful and filled with goodness and delight.

And enjoy all the exchanging!

Las Vegas follow-up

The good intentions... the good intentions... I never followed up on the story of travelling to Las Vegas to promote The Miracle Man. So here's a digest.

The Law of Attraction is immutable so, if you are willing to head off somewhere with confidence in your heart to do media interviews to promote your work, then somethings' going to happen. However, the physical manifestation might be a little slower than the time allotted!

So the radio interview requests all came in just after we'd left the USA to come back home! Never mind; thanks to the glory of the telephone and Skype, I've now done four radio interviews to promote the book - and it is selling steadily.

The most ironic of the calls came from a radio station in Mammoth Lakes, California just two days after we'd stayed the night there on our way back to San Francisco.

But the good news continues: I now have a regular slot on the Spiritual Laws of Prosperity on The Barefoot Broadcast on Blog Talk Radio and will be turning up there once a week at 11am GMT each Monday morning for the forseeable future. You can listen to the podcasts whenever you like in the week following each one.

The even better news is that the first of those broadcasts more than doubled their listening figures. Oh - and one of the callers was from Alameida, California wishing I would go and teach there. Guess where I was teaching just one month earlier....

I'd hoped for around three or four interviews in Las Vegas. Instead I got nine... Way-to-go!

For your free six-week prosperity course please listen to Maggy and Carl Munson on The Barefoot Broadcast each Monday morning at 11am GMT. Or to the podcasts on the same URL anytime.

Feel free to post questions for Maggy here on on the Barefoot Broadcast site.

Inspiration, Celebration and Everybody Else. Or Tithing 101.

Most people think that tithing is a Biblical command to give the first ten per cent of your earnings to charity. However, the system was invented to harness the Law of Attraction. It does address an order of giving when money comes in – but it is emphatic that this is in order to bless you and to bring prosperity back to you.

The word “tithe” means one tenth but in ancient days a tenth did not necessarily mean a tenth of all your income – because most people didn’t have an income! They dealt in trade and, as a general rule, a tenth was one whole thing – as in one whole chicken, one whole sheep, one fig, one cheese. In the modern world, it can mean one whole banknote or one whole coin. There’s no need to fear that you will be asked to give more than you can afford. One penny or one cent is a good first step in tithing. You can build up to the more traditional ten per cent if you want to (but only if you want to).

The order of tithing is simple:

1 Spiritual Tithe (Leviticus 27:30)

2 Celebration Tithe (Deuteronomy 12:6, 17-18; 14:22-27).

3 Charity Tithe, (Deuteronomy 14:28; 26:12) every third year only.

In the modern age, it means give 1/ towards Spiritual Inspiration. 2/ for celebration/gifts for yourself and 3/ to everybody else – including paying the bills.

In this way, you show the Universe your priorities. You want firstly inspiration (ideas and chances to make your life happier), secondly fun and festivity and thirdly to be prosperous enough to pay your dues and help others.

How most people practise this form of tithing is to have a couple of attractive bags or boxes; one for the inspiration tithe and one for the celebration tithe. They place a little bit of money in the boxes first. That money can then be saved up to buy something special – the important thing is that it means you have taken power and are stating to the Universe that you want prosperity and not debt or fear.

In the age of the Internet, you can have a couple of online savings accounts named “inspiration” and “celebration” and move £1/$1 (or more) into those accounts as soon as possible once money has come in. Only then pay the bills.

Most people actually think that it's important to put charity or bill-paying first but, if you do that, then the Universe puts other people before you too — and will continue to do so. Focus on bills and you will receive more bills. If you put inspiration first then you will find very swiftly that there is always money to give to others/pay the bills but if you give to others/pay the bills first then there's never enough left for you...

Although the Bible talks about the first ten per cent being given to the Temple priests, this was because they were meant to be the source of inspiration to the populace. The priests did not have time to work for a living or tend flocks as they looked after the people’s religious needs. Nowadays, priests are paid wages – and they may not be your source of inspiration. That is the key – what inspires you? What takes you closer to your own personal relationship with Divinity? Is it a book you’d like to buy? Is it a workshop you’d like to go to? Is it an inspirational teacher you’d like to hear? That’s where to put your money – and your Martian will give you more opportunities to be inspired in return. It may take you a few weeks to save up for what you want but the money is there, in the box or the savings account, telling the Universe clearly what your priorities are.

The celebration tithe was, originally, to travel to Jerusalem for the great festivals four times a year. You would all travel together as an extended family, or even as a village and, while in Jerusalem would eat, drink, make merry and arrange marriages.

But the Old Testament is very clear that if you can’t get to Jerusalem you should spend the value of the tithe on a feast (including strong drink!) so it’s a clear message to have fun.

When I was stony broke I turned my life around with this system. At the time I could only afford to put 50p/$1 in each of the pots at a time but that did mean that I felt more abundant than if I didn’t have any hope whatsoever of getting a book to help me, a treat for supper or even a bar of chocolate.

Nowadays, I often use part of my spiritual tithe to buy a great bunch of white lilies for my meditation room because just seeing them inspires me. It’s entirely personal what inspires you. The festival tithe ensures, at the very least, that there is always a bottle of champagne and a pack of smoked salmon in the refrigerator.

Of course it's fine to use your spiritual tithe as a gift for others who inspire you but if you want to be prosperous, you will only be inspired by people who are already prosperous themselves so be sure you distinguish between giving from true inspiration and giving to support or help someone. That’s the third tithe, not the first one.

The tithing system is incredibly powerful. It tells the Universe what is important in your life. And it truly does work with 50p/$1. Of course you can give more if you want and you will want to as your financial prosperity increases.

There is also a fourth tithe in the Old Testament – the Sabbatical tithe. Every seventh year the land was rested and all debts forgiven. The land lay fallow so that it could replenish itself, and the people lived from the grain stock from the previous six years. They could do that because they were using the Law of Attraction to ensure that there would be abundant grain.

The forgiveness of debts is a lovely idea too. No one took on a debt for more than seven years – and although they were expected to make every effort to repay it, if they could not, the amount was forgiven and forgotten as part of the seventh year.

Nowadays, some of the more prosperous countries are forgiving Third World Debt. That can only be a good thing – and it’s evidence that this is primarily a good and abundant world, even if it takes us a little while to get round to the idea.

Incidentally, the third tithe, the charity tithe was only given every third year. That was because, due to the way people lived, it wasn’t needed any more than that. We could do with a world where that is the case right now!

Tithing works with time and attention as well. I seem to have a small farm to manage in the mornings nowadays so I make sure that I offer up a prayer of appreciation and have a handful of blueberries or some other treat before I feed dog, cat, chickens, fish and anything else that may have moved in. It’s very simple but it shows the Universe my favoured order of life. I only have to forget and feed the others first and something always comes up to make it harder for me to take care of myself later in the day. Once you start this kind of work the Universe pays close attention and your guides/angels truly believe that you know what you are doing.

In the same way, when I open my computer in the morning and the emails come in, I always read the Abraham-Hicks inspirational note first, then the www.tut.com inspirational note, then any messages from friends and only then any work or financial emails. On some days that is still a challenge but it really makes the rest of the day flow much better.

It works too if I get stalled for any reason during the day or am over-thinking something. Stop; open a book of spiritual guidance (I have three by the desk) and read it and then have a treat — a biscuit, some grapes or a chocolate or perhaps I’ll get up and walk round the garden. Then my mind will have cleared and I can get back to whatever it was that was creating resistance.

Listen to Maggy on The Barefoot Broadcast, Monday 22nd November

Maggy will be talking about The Miracle Man, on The Barefoot Broadcast at 11am GMT, Monday 22nd November.