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Here is Florence Scovel Shinn’s second book, Your Word is Your Wand. It was published in 1928. We recommend also reading Florence’s first book The Game of Life and How to Play It. As it sets the foundation of her work. She articulates a glimpse into the universal mind.
This book is a book of affirmations, combined with a little instruction and information.
Download a PDF of Your Word Is Your Wand
Watch Chapter 1 of Your Word is Your Wand
This first chapter gives us an overview of the idea that what we say creates our world. Our Words are our wand. “Man’s word is his wand filled with magic and power!” She conveys to us that our words are magical: they alter the very fabric of reality.
Remember if you read the book The Game of Life and How to Play It, Florence articulated this as well. Essentially saying that we literally speak instructions to our subconscious mind. And then our experience in life reflects that.
The imaging faculty is the creative faculty and it is important to choose words which bring a flash of the fulfillment of the demand. -From Your Word is Your Wand, Chapter One by Florence Scovel Shinn
Questioning the Nature of Reality
I suppose I should mention something that often comes up around information concerning the very nature of reality itself. Many assume this information to be unscientific. Not determined to be real. Because science defines reality for us, right?
But isn’t it the very definition of unscientific when we immediately discount it as false without some sort of investigation? There seems to be certain aspects of this world that we have been programmed to avoid; or tune out.
Think about it. Could we have been programmed not to want to look beyond the veil? That is, looking at the things that have to do with transcending our perceived limitations.
We have been conditioned to push this information away. We remain in our current belief system, what we have been taught since birth. How strange to think that our thoughts create our experience. Yet, we may have been programmed in a way that instantly denies that truth. Thus neutralizing our abilities through perception.
Moving Beyond the Way Reality has been Projected To Us
Some of us just don’t feel right in this matrix and want to explore what is. We are authentically observing and experiencing reality and understand there is an even more profound level of being.
However, this experience can be a deeply subjective one. It is our inner relationship with the Universe. Where we find that reality is more subjective than we may have realized. It is not as easily measured and defined, as it is experienced. Transforming the matrix (structure) of your life is most often something you alone will be part of.
Watch Chapter Two (Success)
This chapter begins by presenting the idea that there are certain words or pictures that impress, that is direct or program, the subconscious mind. Just as she writes in The Game of Life she also writes in here how:
It (the subsonscios mind) is man's faithful servant but one must be careful to give it the right orders. Man has ever a silent listener at his side - his subconscious mind. Every thought, every word is impressed upon it and carried out in amazing detail. It is like a singer making a record on the sensitive disc of the phonographic plate. Every note and tone of the singer's voice is registered. If he coughs or hesitates, it is registered also. So let us break all the old bad records in the subconscious mind, the records of our lives which we do not wish to keep, and make new and beautiful ones. -The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn
Many have been trained to neutralize this awareness. And have more of the mindset of this old school saying: “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.” Let me know of other similar sayings that you may have heard.
If we have been programmed so deeply since birth the impress upon our subconscious mind a vision of lack and of poverty. That has momentum and is what your consciousness has been feeding into your subconscious mind.
Who is Talking to The Subconscious?
Think about this. If our subconscious mind takes (inputs) information and that creates output, who is talking to the subconscious? It is your Spirit, the higher Self, your thoughts? But notice your thoughts have different qualities.
I like to think of it as Nature versus Nurture versus Spirit. There are thoughts that have been compelled onto you the nurture, the environment. Nature is your body, traditionally it is your genetic programming. Then there is SPIRIT.
SPIRIT is the I AM the one that is real. Everything else is an illusion, albeit a very really illusion. Spirit can influence nature and nurture. We can shift the direction we have been programmed through our consciousness of this.
Learning to Listen to that Soft Quiet Voice Within
I think sometimes we lose contact with who we are because of this confusion. Many foundational spiritual practices are to calm our mind and body. To listen to that soft quiet voice within.
Watch Chapter 3 (Prosperity)
Florence begins this chapter by saying:
Man comes into the world financed by God, with all that he desires or requires already on on his pathway. Your Word is Your Wand
Doesn’t this just make so much sense? Now notice all the thoughts and feelings that come up around this. How does your brain respond to the idea of being financed by God? Please comment below on what comes up for you. Or feel free to CONTACT ME HERE
Is it your inner cynic; Is it your religious training; Is it your Spirit saying, “YES!”?
Watch Chapter 4, Happiness
She opens this chapter by writing:
In that wonderful moving picture, "The Thief of Baghdad," we were told in letters of light that happiness must be earned! It is earned through perfect control of the emotional nature. -Your Word is Your Wand Florence Scovel Shinn
Of course, she references popular mainstream culture here. And it is the culture of the 20s. Most of us have not seen this movie. I think it is a lot of fun looking back in time and imagining different time spaces. Here is a link to the movie: The Thief of Bagdad (1924) It can be interesting imagining the world from another point in time and place.
What Does it Mean ‘Happiness Must Be Earned’?
Reading statements like ‘Happiness Must Be Earned’ brings to mind church. Where people told me that I must struggle. I must be good. But in reading what Florence says “It is earned through perfect control of the emotional nature”.
I think that this can be a sticking point for many people. We have so much guilt and shame. And also in conversations about being positive all the time aka controlling one’s emotional nature. And the non-sensical ideas around sin (can you define sin? truly).
I do not think she is talking about this same thing. Ultimately we are worthy and good. We can direct our awareness and tune our consciousness. That is how we ‘earn’ happiness.
When I was able to really understand and feel the idea that the Universe has my back.
He is undisturbed by adverse appearances, knowing that Infinite Intelligence is protecting his interests and utilizing every situation to bring his good to pass. -Florence Scovel Shinn
Watch Chapters 6 (Love) & 7 (Marriage)
Chapter 5: LOVE
Florence writes here from the perspective of many of her clients. What the people she spoke with on a daily basis were talking about. She writes of romantic love. Not the love that is the Universe. As that is what most are concerned with.
She says:”With love usually comes terrific fear.” So she is looking at the fear associated with love. And how many have a similar version of Dolly Parton’s song JOLENE, going on in their minds? Fear of the other woman, of Jolene. “Jolene Please don’t take my man.”
It is usually very difficult for a woman to see herself loved by the man she loves, so these affirmations are to impress the truth of the situation upon her subconscious mind, for in reality there is only oneness. - FLorence Scovel Shinn
She does go deeper towards a more quantum perspective on love with the affirmations in this chapter.
“I am at peace with myself and with the whole world. I love everyone and everyone loves me.“
Chapter 6: Marriage
Chapter 6 is a little bizarre as it talks about women who do not keep up with their husbands. She writes “We see this so often in the cases of rich and successful men who desert their faithful, hardworking wives later in life.” There is a few ways to look at this and I would actually be very interested in your interpretation.
Watch Chapters 7 (Forgiveness) & 8 (Words of Wisdom)
Chapter 7: Forgiveness
This chapter begins with affirmations. Let’s look back at what she has to say about FORGIVENESS in the Game of Life and How to Play It.
Jesus Christ brought the good news (the gospel) that there was a higher law than the law of Karma - and that that law transcends the law of Karma. It is the law of grace, or forgiveness. It is the law which frees man from the law of cause and effect - the law of consequence. "Under grace, and not under law." -The Game of Life and How to Play It Ch 5 Florence Scovel Shinn
So knowledge of the Law gives man power to "rub out his mistakes." Man cannot force the external to be what he is not. - The Game of Life and How to Play It Ch 5 Florence Scovel Shinn
Forgiveness is grace neutralizing momentum; from cause. It is pure love. and the eraser of our mistakes.
Here is one of my personal favorite affirmations.
If it didn't happen in the Kingdom never happened anywhere. -Your Word is Your Wand Ch7 Florence Scovel Shinn
Does that affirmation sound familiar? A tagline for visiting a city in the United States?
An Example From My Life At a Parade
I call on the law of forgiveness. I am free from mistakes and the consequences of mistakes. I am under grace and not under karmic law. -Your Word is Your Wand Ch7 Florence Scovel Shinn
I was at a parade the other day in the city I live in. And some parade-goers showed up to watch the parade standing next to me. Now I am very sensitive with my energy and being in crowds is not my favorite thing. These women were smoking from their e-cigarettes (vaping). I was annoyed and wanted to go up to them and ask them to move. Instead, I focused on the parade and in my mind sent them love.
Here is what I observed. When I was annoyed and wanted them to have instant karma for their mindlessness and reconsideration, they smoked more. As I relaxed my attention and sent them love, they all of a sudden left!
This could have been a coincidence. However, I am experiencing more and more of this as I practice what I call loving-kindness. But really it is an act of forgiveness.
Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. -Your Word is Your Wand Ch8 Florence Scovel Shinn
Chapter 8: Words of Wisdom
And again these are affirmations that seem to be instructive. Random tidbits of valuable information to speak into your subconscious.
Faith without nerve is dead. - Your WOrd is Your Wand Ch 8 Florence Scovel Shinn
I know faith takes guts. As a child, I grew up in a very Christian family. Yet they were incredibly fearful. Their faith was based on fear. Rather than faith that transcends fear. Faith is powerful.
Never argue with a hunch. -Your Word is Your Wand Ch 8 Florence Scovel Shinn
A hunch is “a feeling or guess based on intuition rather than known facts.” (Oxford Languages)
It's a great life if you don't reason. -Your Word is Your Wand Ch. 8 Florence Scovel Shinn
This is very different from what we have been taught. We value analyzing, and critically accessing our decisions. Reason is to “think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic.”(Oxford Languages) Reason is very different from a hunch, or intuition.
Watch Chapters 9 (Faith ) & 10, (Loss Stuff)
Chapter 9: Faith
This chapter begins by contrasting Hope and Faith. “Hope looks forward” & “Faith Knows it has already received.”
A Prayer for Rain
Here is a story from Greg Breden’s book, The Spontaneous Healing of Belief. Here he gives an articulate description of knowing and feeling something is created. In this case rain during a drought:
Back in the early ’90s, I was living in the high desert of northern New Mexico. This was during one of the worst droughts that the Southwest had ever recorded. The elders in the native pueblos said that as far back as they could remember they’d never gone so long without rain.
David, a native friend of mine from one of those nearby pueblos, called me one summer morning and asked if I wanted to join him in visiting a place his ancestors had built, where he would pray for rain. I agreed, and soon we were hiking through hundreds of acres of high desert sage. He led me to a place where there was a stone circle that reminded me of a medicine wheel. Each stone had been placed precisely by the hands of his ancestors long ago.
I had an expectation of what I thought I was going to see. But my friend simply removed his hiking boots, then stepped with his naked feet into the stone circle. The first thing he did was honor all of his ancestors. Then he held his hands in a prayer position in front of his chest, turned his back to me, and closed his eyes. Less than a minute later, he turned around and said, “I’m hungry. Let’s go get a bite to eat.”
Surprised, I said, “I thought you came here to pray for rain.” I had been expecting to see some chanting and dancing. He looked at me and said, “No. If I prayed for rain, the rain could never happen.” When I asked him why, he said it’s because the moment you pray for something to occur, you’ve just acknowledged that it’s not existing in that moment—and you may actually be denying the very thing you’d like to bring forward in your prayers.
“Well, if you didn’t pray for rain just now when you closed your eyes,” I said, ‘what did you do?”
He said, “When I closed my eyes, I felt the feeling of what it feels like after there’s been so much rain that I can stand with my naked feet in the mud of my pueblo village. I smelled the smells of rainwater rolling off the earthen walls of our homes. And I felt what it feels like to walk through a field of corn that is chest high because of all the rain that has fallen. In that way, I plant a seed for the possibility of that rain, and then I give thanks of gratitude and appreciation.”
I said, “You mean gratitude for the rain that you’ve created?” And he said, “No, we don’t create the rain. I’m giving thanks of gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity to commune with the forces of creation.”
Dig Your DItches
Florence uses the analogy of water with her saying “Dig Your Ditches”. This comes from the Bible when three kings were in the desert with no water for their men and horses. Upon speaking with the Prophet Elisha he said “Thus saith the Lord – Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain, yet make this valley full of ditches.” Florence describes this writing “Man must prepare for the thing he has asked for, when there isn’t the slightest sign of it in sight.”
No Need To Talk About It
Another thing she points out in this chapter is we must “Pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” She says “The student should never talk of a demonstration until it ‘has jelled,’ or comes to pass on the external.”
Chapter 10: Loss (Stuff)
The example here that Florence gives is a simple one. But if you take the logic it can be used with almost anything. First of all, she says:
If man loses anything it shows there is a belief of loss in his subconscious mind. As he erases this false belief, the article, or its equivalent will appear on the external. - Your Word is Your Wand CH 10 Florence Scovel SHinn
Dear Lord, you may think. If I lose something it is my fault? WTF am I to do about that? Although we must use a different sort of logic to understand these types of statements. And not feel like a victim.
Watch Chapters 11 (Debt), 12 (Sales), 13 (Interviews), 14 (Guidance), 15 (Protection), 16 (Memory), and 17 (The Divine Design)
Chapter 11 (Debt)
Debt is a tricky subject. It is something many of us do not talk a lot about. It is hidden and a secret shame. Just as she said with losing stuff, she says if you have debt, it is because you have a belief in debt. Egads!
If a man is in debt or people owe him money, it shows that a belief of debt is in his subconscious mind. - Florence Scovel Shinn Your Word is Your Wand
I want to talk about that. I think it is with this type of thinking that can cause us to freeze. To feel trapped in situations that are not pleasant. To feel as though you may not be worthy and that you made this bad stuff happen.
The truth is. From what I have experienced and how I understand it, ultimately we do create the “good and bad” we experience. But we are on autopilot. Many of us are disempowered by the messages we receive that program our reality from the very beginning.
As you begin to become aware of this you will start seeing this everywhere. Anything that is about our abilities and powers is condemned. Yet as being made in God’s image we are powerful. And part of that is that we can have plenty of money and have the ability to pay and debts.
“If you do not run your subconscious mind yourself, someone else will run it for you.”
Now here is the thing. Most of us will benefit on being easy on ourselves. There are many things in this world that can lead to debt. And many reactions to them, most include a feeling of powerlessness.
“This belief (in debt) must be neutralized in order to change conditions.”
I deny debt, there is no debt in Divine Mind, therefore, I owe no man anything. All obligations are now wiped out under grace in a miraculous way. - Your Word is Your Wand Florence Scovel Shinn
Chapter 12 (Sales)
In this Chapter, Florence uses the example of a woman who wants to sell her home and furniture. It was during the winter when the snow was so deep cars and wagons could not get through. Florence said, “As she had asked God to sell her furniture to the right person for the right price she was unmindful of appearances.” And of course, the woman sold her furniture and home. Florence even noted that she did not have to pay a commission to the agent.
Faith never looks out of the window at the blizzard, it simply prepares for the blessing asked for.
Chapter 13 (Interviews)
With this chapter, she jumps right into affirmations. And she has two affirmations. I see these applicable to interviews, projects, and any endeavor that includes creation and choice.
Chapter 14 (Guidance)
This chapter begins with a darling and rather obvious observation and then jumps into about seven affirmations. One affirmation brings to mind The Tao.
“My angel of destiny goes before me, keeping me in the Way.”
As in Confucianism, the natural order is an unknowable force called the Tao. Tao can be translated as “the way.” Taoists view the Tao as the connection that makes all life and movement in nature possible.
Chapter 15 (Protection)
This chapter includes two affirmations. I personally think that protection affirmations are a vital tool to carry in your mind and to use as a habit to clear one’s path. Essentially raise the vibration of any situation.
Chapter 16 (Memory)
This chapter is simply one exceptional affirmation. Where she affirms that there is no loss of memory in the Divine Mind. Yet also to forget everything that is not for one’s good.
Chapter 17 (The Divine Design)
The Divine Design is something I have been aware of since I was little. Yet I was not quite sure what it was. It can be a little confusing at first. The idea is that we create our reality, our world. Yet, there is a Divine Pathway that we are to take. This seems like a pre-conceived pathway.
Yet with the auto programming that happens when our Spirit is embodied, we forget who we are, and thus we fall away from our path.
Watch Chapter 18 (Health) and Chapter 19 (Animals) of Your Word is Your Wand
Chapter 18 (Health)
Florence writes, ” When man is harmonious and happy he is healthy! All sickness comes from violation of Spiritual Law.” In the time since Florence wrote this in the late 1920s. At that time stress theory was just in the works. Thus, it was not known just how stress influenced our health.
In 1915 Walter Cannon had coined the term ‘fight or flight response and years later Hans Sele would define the word stress in a way that expressed how stress impacts health, calling it the general adaption syndrome.
And really on the most basic level letting go and letting God is a way to reduce stress. “I cast this burden on the CHRIST WITHIN, and I go free”
On a vibratory level, this raises your vibration and allows greater lightness and possibility into your world. More happiness and joy. As we understand the interaction we have with many levels of reality we connect more to health and less to stress. Stress is fear, anger, anxiety, overwhelm, any discord.
She includes many affirmations here for various body parts and some conditions: eyes, anemia, ears, rheumatism, false growths, and heart disease.
“I am nourished by the Spirit within. Every cell in my body is filled with light. I give thanks for radiant health and endless happiness.”
I deny fatigue, for there is nothing to tire me. I live in the Kingdom of eternal joy and absorbing interests. My body is "the body electric," timeless and tireless, birthless and deathless.
Chapter 19 (Animals)
I am so pleased that Florence includes animals, she notes dogs specifically. She jumps right into affirmations.
“Infinite Intelligence illumines and directs this animal. It is a perfect idea in Divine Mind and is always in its right place.”
Watch Chapters 20 (Health), 21 (Journey), 22 (Misc), and 23 (Conclusion) of Your Word is Your Wand
Chapter 20 (The Elements)
Florence opens this chapter by saying, “Man is made in God’s likeness and image (Imagination) and is given power and dominion over all created things.” She also talks about a Southwest Native tribe and how they ask the elements for rain. Similar to the precise story I included at Chapter 9 regarding FAITH.
This ceremony was witnessed by someone Florence spoke with. And she saw a bright blue sky transform into a deluge of rain.
I believe it. A few years ago in the Pacific Northwest, we had a forest fire that made our skies dark with smoke and no one could be outside (filters on and windows shut inside). We called for rain, I am sure the whole region did. One night it started raining. Now it rains here in this part of the world. But I had never seen a true deluge of rain before that night. It cleared the air and put out the fires.
It is possible to experience micro changes in the atmosphere just where you are if things are affecting others.
Chapter 21 (Journey)
This chapter is simply a very precise affirmation of a Divinely Planned journey.
Chapter 22 (Misc.)
This chapter is an important one. I t touches on three very important things:
This can be a tough one as when we don’t like something we react strongly and often rather grumpily to it. We have been very strongly trained to react to unpleasant things and experience what is essentially resistance. This is a big aspect of the LOA and a huge sticking point. Meditating on this can be of great benefit.
She also writes, ” This is also a tough one, quite often. And the last idea she writes about in this chapter is “”Faith without works (or action) is dead.” The student, in order to bring into manifestation the answer to his prayer must show active faith.” THESE ARE KEY CONCEPTS WITH THE LOA.
- “The thing you dislike or hate will surely come upon you, for when man hates, he makes a vivid picture in the subconscious mind and it objectifies.”
- “‘I will give to thee the land that thou seest.’ Man is ever reaping on the external what he has sown in his thought world.”
- “‘Faith without works (or action) is dead.’ The student, in order to bring into manifestation the answer to his prayer must show active faith.”
Chapter 23 (Conclusion)
The conclusion simply reminds us:
“Choose the affirmation which appeals to you the most and wave it over the situation which confronts you. It is your magic wand, for your word is God in action.”
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