Lammas
So I figured considering the next installment in my series has to do with ritual writing, and considering I said i would explain the sabbats as they came up, I would publish the ritual I just led this Lammas (Aug 1). I think the ritual will explain what Lammas is and it will give you a real example of spellwork. Enjoy:)
Lammas Lugnassadh-2008
Saturday Ritual
-Guardian of the Circle
Standing at entrance to circle with sword raised to participants, “It would be better to thrust yourself upon this sword, than enter the circle with fear in your heart”
-Anointing as entering circle
Frankincense in circle with cross pattern on forehead, “May you be filled with Love, with Purity and Bliss”
-Smudging
-Call Watchtowers
1.Hail to the Watchtower of the North, Earth, I call you to this rite and ask you for your blessing. Pillar of stone, guardian to the mysteries of rebirth, lend your energies to this working on this most holy day.
2. Hail to the Watchtower of the East, Air, I call you to this rite and ask you for your blessing. Pillar of Wind, guardian to the mysteries of the beginning of all things, lend your energies to this working on this most holy day.
3. Hail to the Watchtower of the South, Fire, I call you to this rite and ask your blessing. Pillar of Flame, guardian to the mysteries of the zenith, lend your energies to this working on this most holy day.
4. Hail to the Watchtower of the West, Water, I call you to this rite and ask your blessing. Pillar of sacred springs, guardian to the mysteries of the wane of all things, lend your energies to this working on this most holy day.
-“With that the circle is open”
Purification of Circle
-Purify circle by Earth(?) (herb mixture), while sprinkling circle in clockwise direction (starting at north), “I purify this circle by Earth, only love may enter, only love may leave”
-Purify circle by Air (?)(incense), While waving incense in air in clockwise direction around circle (starting at north), “I purify this circle by Air, only love may enter, only love may leave”
-Purify circle by Fire (?)(anthame), Pointing anthame at participants in clockwise direction (starting at north), “I purify this circle by fire, only love may enter, only love may leave”
-Purify circle by Water (?)(springwater), Using fingers to sprinkle water in clockwise direction around circle (starting at north), “ I purify this circle by water, only love may enter only love may leave”
-Purfy circle by Ether (intent) “As I will it so mote it be”
Welcome Primal Lord and Lady(me)
O Truth behind all the religions, the Eternal Unamable Duality of all things, the Two that become One, creators of all things, Eternal Lord, Eternal Lady, locked in the passionate embrace of forever, be here with us now. Master and Mistress of the cosmic dance of life and death, grace us with your presence. Preside over the workings of this most holy day. We come to you with open hearts and open minds. The great Wheel turns once again, towards the darkness, towards the wane of all things, towards rebirth. We come to honor this mystery today. Hail and Welcome.
Lammas commentary
Lammas is the first harvest holiday. It is the first sabbat of the dark half of the year. Even though the sun is still strong, the pendulum has begun swinging the other direction, from light to dark, from wax to wane. It is a time to begin contemplating the coming cold, to start the harvest and storing of the crops for winter. It is a time to offer the first fruits to the Gods and Spirits, to thank Them and to join together with each other in solidarity to survive the coming cold. It is a time to recognize a fundamental shift has occurred, we are no longer in the expansive spring and early summer months, we are entering the realm of the Underworld, the place of darkness that is the font of introspection, of gestation and the mysteries of rebirth. As always at this time of year, we are in the month of Leo, the sign of the Lion, king of all beasts. It is a sign of fire, a sign of kingship, it is a sign of the sun at it’s zenith, perhaps a little past, like the light of the afternoon sun; warm, strong, beneficent. This year the moon is the sign of Virgo, the sign of the virgin, a sign that is attentive to detail, feminine and dry. It is also a strong sign as it is of the unshakable earthen foundation on which we stand today.
The constellation Virgo is associated with the Egyptian God and Goddess, Osiris and Isis. Their greatest story and mystery is in keeping with the spirit of this sabbat, so it seems only fitting that we should honor them today. Osiris and Isis were the product of an intrigue between the Earth God Geb, and the sky goddess Nut. When the Sun God Ra perceived that his wife Nut had been unfaithful to him, he declared with a curse that she should be delivered of the child in no month and no year. He sent the great god of the pillars of light and the father of Geb and Nut, Shu, to separate them. He commanded them to part, which they did, and in doing so was the first act of creation. But the goddess Nut had another lover, the Moon God Thoth, or Tahuti, and he playing Checkers with the Moon won from her a seventy-second part of every day, and having compounded five whole days out of these parts he added them to the Egyptian year of three hundred and sixty days. This was the mythical origin of the five supplemental days which the Egyptians annually inserted at the end of every year in order to establish a harmony between lunar and solar time. On these five days, regarded as outside the year of twelve months, the curse of the sun god did not apply, and accordingly Osiris was born on the first of them. At his nativity a voice rang out proclaiming that the lord of all had come into the world. But Osiris was not the only child of his mother. On the second of the supplementary days she gave birth to the elder Horus, on the third to the God Set, on the fourth to Isis, and on the fifth to the goddess Nephthys. Afterwards Set married his sister Nephthys, and Osiris married Isis.
Orginally Osiris was a God of nature who symbolized the cycles of vegetation. In time however he became God of the Dead. Reigning as a king on earth, Osiris reclaimed the Egyptians from savagery, gave them laws, and taught them to worship the Gods. He oversaw the building of the first temples and statues to the gods. Before his time the Egyptians had been cannibals. But Isis discovered wheat and barley growing wild, and Osiris introduced the cultivation of these grains amongst his people. He is also said to have taught them how to grow corn. Moreover Osiris is said to have been the first to gather fruit from trees, to train the vine to poles, and to tread the grapes. He taught them to make bread and wine. Eager to communicate these beneficent discoveries to all mankind, he committed the whole government of Egypt to his wife Isis, who ruled wisely in his stead, and traveled over the world, diffusing the blessings of civilization and agriculture wherever he went. In countries where harsh climate or poor soil forbade the cultivaton of the vine, he taught the inhabitants to console themselves for the want of wine by brewing beer from barley. Loaded with the wealth that had been showered upon him by grateful nations, he returned to Egypt, and on account of the benefits he had conferred on mankind he was unanimously hailed and worshipped as a diety. Osiris symbolizes the regenerative powers of the natural world, as well as the threat posed by severe weather conditions to the well being of humanity.
Isis was the most famous of Egyptian goddesses. She was supreme in magical power, which was taught to her by Tahuti/Thoth, Lord of the measures, god of science and knowledge, patron god of scribes and of medicine. Although she was born as flesh, her powers rivaled those of the gods of spirit. She personified feminine creative power, and although she was worshipped as the beneficent mother of mankind she was worshipped as a virgin for “no mortal man had ever her unveiled” She was the faithful and loving wife of Osiris. Nephthys was her sister and athough she was the wife of Set, she always remained faithful to Isis. In fact it could be argued that they were different aspects of the same goddess, much as Innana and Ereshkigal in Sumeria and Kali and Parvati of India. She was oftened pictured with a throne upon her head and her name means stone seat. She is the throne of kingship, the archetypal land that grants dominion. Her lap is the throne of Egypt. And she is the mother of Egypt. She is depicted with huge sheltering wings. She helped Osiris civilize Egypt, in addition to discovering wild wheat and barley, she taught women how to grind corn as well as how to spin and weave. She also taught people how to cure illness and instituted the rite of marriage. She became so popular that in time she absorbed qualities of almost all the other goddesses. She was a great mother goddess, a bird goddess, a goddess of the underworld who brought life to the dead and a goddess of the primeval waters. Her following spread beyond Egypt to Greece and throughout the roman empire. She was worshipped for more than 3,000 years, from before 3000 B.C. to well into the Christian times. Her cult and many of her images, passed directly on to the figure of the Virgin Mary.
-Murder of Osiris
All five children of Nut were of the flesh. They could be killed by violent means, even though they were immortal. Osiris’ brother Set was jealous of his popularity, so he plotted against Osiris with seventy two co-cospiritors. Having taken the measure of his good brother’s body by stealth, the bad brother Set fashioned and highly decorated a coffer of the same size, and once when they were all drinking and making merry he brought in the coffer and jestingly promised to give it to the one whom it should fit exactly. Well, they all tried one after the other, but it fitted none of them. Last of all Osiris stepped into it and lay down. On that the conspirators ran and slammed the lid down on him, nailed it fast, soldered it with molten lead, and flung the coffer into the Nile. This happened on the seventeenth day of Athyr, when the sun is in the sign of the scorpion, and in the eighth and twentieth year of the reign or life of Osiris. When Isis heard of it she sheared off a lock of her hair, put on mourning attire, and wandered disconsolately up and down, seeking the body. The coffer containing the body of Osiris had floated down the river and away out to sea, till at last it drifted ashore in Byblos. Here a tamarisk tree, also known as salt cedar grew up around the coffin, enclosing it in it’s trunk. The king of the country, admiring the growth of the tree, had it cut down and made into a pillar of his house; but he did not know that the coffer with the dead Osiris was in it. Word of this came to Isis and she journeyed to Byblos, and sat down by their well, in humble guise, her face wet with tears. To none would she speak till the kings handmaidens came, and them she greeted kindly, and braided their hair, and breathed on them from her own divine body a wondrous perfume. But when the queen beheld the braids of her handmaidens hair and smelt the sweet smell that emanated from them, she sent for the stranger woman and took her into her house and made her the nurse of her child. But Isis gave the babe her finger instead of her breast to suck, and at night she began to burn all that was mortal of him away, while she herself in the likeness of a swallow fluttered round the pillar that contained her dead brother, twittering mournfully. But the queen spied what she was doing and shrieked out when she saw her child in flames, and thereby she hindered him from becoming immortal. Then the Goddess revealed herself and begged for the pillar of the roof, and they gave it to her, and she cut the coffer out of it, and fell upon it and embraced it and lamented so loud that the younger of the king’s children died of fright on the spot. But the trunk of the tree she wrapped in fine linen, and poured ointment on it, and gave it to the king and queen, and the wood stands in a temple of Isis and is worshipped by the people of Byblos to this day. And Isis put the coffer in a boat and took the eldest of the kings children with her and sailed away. As soon as they were alone, she opened the chest, and laying her face on the face of her brother she kissed him and wept. But the child came behind her softly and saw what she was about, and she turned and looked at him in anger, and the child could not bear her look and died. Isis hid the coffin in a swamp. Set however found the coffer, and knowing Isis had the power to resurrect the dead, he rent Osiris’ body into fifteen pieces and scattered them abroad. But Isis, with the help of her sister and Set’s wife Nephthys, sailed up and down the marshes and would not rest until they found all of Osiris’ body. She earned great respect from the people of Egypt when they saw just how devoted and faithful she was to him. They did recover all of him, except his male member which had been eaten by the fishes. Isis fashioned a replacement of wood and with the help Anubis, mummified Osiris. Isis was mistress of magic in Egyptian lore, the secrets being taught to her by Thoth. She made love to Osiris, and using her knowledge of magic revived him through sexual alchemy. At this point Osiris was so disillusioned with his brother than he chose to quit life and became Lord of the Underworld. For these reasons he is depicted as a mummy, green in color and bearded, holding the crook and flail of kingship.
He and Isis conceived a child though through this act of resurrection, Horus, who would later go on to destroy Set and avenge his father.
The murder of Osiris is a story that has a lot in common with tales from other cultures. The part about Isis in the court of the king of Byblos is almost identical to a part in the story of Demeter and Persephone, and I think it is safe to say that like all ancient wisdom it serves as an allegory to the fundamental truths that form the basis of our world. The story of Isis and Osiris serves to remind us of the cycle of life to which we all must submit, most specifically the rhythms of agriculture, of sowing, of growth, of harvest and of regeneration. Osiris was a God of vegetation and his most central story is almost the same as the cycle of farming. He grew to be a magnificent charismatic man, he spread blessings throughout the world, but he was cut down in his prime and if it were not for Isis saving the pieces of him, and literally taking within herself his seed, there would have been no next generation, no Horus to continue the cycle of life. Their story is the story that we honor today, of harvest, of cutting down the vegetation in it’s prime to survive the winter, and the storing of seeds that must occur if life is to continue the next year.
Invocation/Hymns to Isis and Osiris
I have banished the Unbalanced and Negative, From forth the Veil of Eternity, I call Isis and Osiris
Hymn to Isis
O goddess of mystery and Magic
Of secret and arcane knowledge
Of resurrection
Great mother of All
Thee I call.
O goddess who civilized us from beasts
Who is forever faithful
Yours is the throne of kingship
Thou that bear the cross of light and life
Thee I call
Possessor of the wisdom of the serpents
The font of immortality
The rite of sexual alchemy
The true meaning behind the Caduceaus wand
Goddess of healing and of love
Thee I call
Bridge between this world and the next
Eternal virgin
The uncatchable, unknowable woman
That no mortal man may ever unveil
The solid earthen foundation from which we all spring
And to which we must all return
Thee I call
Come though forth I say, come though forth
Be with us on this Lugnassadh Day
Bear witness to our proceedings
And bless and honor us
As we strive to honor you
Help us to a deeper understanding
Of the great mysteries and lessons of this life
And help us on our way, for this I pray
So mote it be
Hymn to Osiris
O God of Agriculture and civilization
Of grain mysteries,
And of sacrifice
Eternal Lord of all
Thee I call
O God who civilized us from beasts
Whose divine seed is the source of all life
Yours are the fields of heaven
Thou that bear the cross of light and life
Thee I call
Ruler of the seasons,
And of the might of the storm,
That both bestows the life giving rain
And the winds of detruction
God of vegetation and the vine
Thee I call
Martyred king
Ruler of the dead
The ultimate sacrifice
Whose blood fertilizes the corn
Whose death creates the new
And guardian to the mysteries of life from decay
Thee I call
Come thou forth I say, come thou forth
Be with us on this Lugnassadh Day
Bear witness to our proceedings
And bless and honor us
As we strive to honor you
Help us to a deeper understanding
Of the great mysteries and lessons of this life
And help us on our way, for this I pray
So mote it be
-Communal Cauldron, Ting tripod
-communal offerings(whoever has anything to offer)
-herbs for the occasion, add to cauldron
Intent
We live in very troubled times, everyday there is mention of the desruction and desecration of the Earth; the violent storms, the crop failures, global warming. There’s the mutilated and mutated animals that are raised for food. Our government is beyond evil for the things it has done. We are so frightened and confused as a race that there re those who cannot trust anymore, their fellow man or even themselves. We live in a time where medicine has become poison and justice has become oppression. Very troubled times indeed. But within even the darkest times there is always a small seed of light. Hope, Faith, Courage, Belief, Love. To these principles we must hold fast, if we let go of them, we are obliterated. Our standing here this evening is a testament to these virtues, not only that unity and belief do still exist, but also by our willing of the wheel to turn, our observance of Lammas, or any other sabbat or esbat, we hold the world together. By our beliefs and actions, we create the world. To most it is unconscious, but to us it is very conscious, very deliberate. We hold the power to change anything. And so, on this holy night of High Magick, let us put this power to use. All the problems I mentioned, let us will them to change. Put in your mind your heaven, visualize the world in harmony, in balance, in peace, ad will it to be. Believe that anything is possible, nothing is fixed, nothing is fated. As we begin harvesting the fruits of this year’s labor, let us be ever mindful of the world as it is and how it could be. Let us be mindful of the fact that change happens first in the individual, the collective comes after and let each on of us shine with this revelation and be a beacon of Hope, of Faith, of Courage, of belief, of Love. And the world will be healed.
Osiris, God of Storms, forgive us our transgressions and protect us as the climate further destabilizes. God of vegetation, bless us with an abundant harvets. Isis, mother Goddess, protect our hearts from the pain and suffering that our world is rife with. Heal us from the poisons we are infected and surrounded with. Goddess of Magick, teach us and aid us in our intentions and workings today.
-“Forge of creation,
Elixir of life,
Wind of the Storm,
Rock of Foundation,
Come thou forth, I say Come thou forth.
Hear our hearts on this Lugnasadh Day
So that every spirit of the firmament,
And of the Ether,
Upon the Earth,
And under the Earth.
On dry land,
And in the water,
Of whirling Air,
And rushing Fire,
All thoughts and manifestations of the Lord and Lady,
Shall once again be in Harmony
As I will it so mote it be
-Meditation-Moment of Silence
-Thank Lord and Lady
-Thank Watchtowers
-Pronouce circle closed
-Recessional
Triple Moon Goddess
This post is geared towards women, I would do a post on men’s mysteries except for the fact that I don’t have the right equipment, and to speak like I had any idea about what it was like to be a man, would be arrogant at best. So with that being said, in various cultures, the sun and moon are interchangebly associated with male or female dieties. Most of the time it’s a Sun God and a Moon Goddess, but sometimes it’s vice-versa, in Japan there is a Sun Goddess and The Ancient Egyptian Tehuti or Thoth was a Moon God. For my purposes though, we’re going to go with majority and discuss the correlation between the moon and the archtypal feminine.
There is a concept in paganism of the Triple Goddess. Her symbol is pictured above. Women are naturally aligned to the moon because of their mestrual cycles. A woman who spends enough time outdoors will naturally synch with the moon so that she is fertile during the full moon and bleeds during the new. The Triple Moon symbol speaks to the 4 phases of a woman’s life, maiden, mother, crone and then death. The waxing moon correlates with the Maiden, the young virginal woman, untouched by man, unfettered by children. The full Moon correlates with the Mother, a woman at the height of her strength, with the primal power to nourish and give things form. The Crone is associated then with the waning moon, and it symbolizing that yes her strength is waning, but her wisdom grows with each passing year. Finally there is the inevitable death, symbolized by the new moon and archetypally by the death crone, the hideous half rotted hag like the Norse Hel or Izanami of Japan, the Lady of Death who offers priceless wisdom to those who have the courage to look and face her, that priceless wisdom being that death is regeneration, rotting results in the fertile ground for the new. The cycle never ends, the cycle never breaks, death is the passage to the new. If one can learn to face this, death loses it’s sting, and that is priceless indeed.
In our culture, a woman’s period very often is viewed as an inconvience at best. This is especially disconcerting to me. You can hear it in the misogynist idiots who talk about not trusting something that bleeds for seven days and doesn’t die. In ancient times a woman’s “dark moon time” was viewed as the height of her power. The menstrual blood is viewed as regenerating in Sexual Alchemy traditions such as Tantra and across the board it is during this time that a woman’s powers of prophecy were considered to be at their greatest strength. Part of this is due to at the new moon, during a woman’s period she is closest to her “underworld” dark aspect, and dreams and oracular visions come from the under world. Bleeding every month is also a woman’s way of renewing herself, flushing out the month before so that at the end of her cycle she can emerge stronger. Woman need to stop trying to keep up with men during this time, and take the time to rest and sit in introspection. To hell with people who tell you you need to be able to keep on during your period, they are ignorant to say the least. You can actually damage yourself if you exert yourself too much during your moon time. You’re not a man, stop trying to be one.
Which brings me to my final point. Meditate on these mysteries as there is much more wisdom to be found than what is written on this page. Stop playing things on men’s terms. The greatest strength of a woman is her magnetism, implicit in this is gravity and magnetism at it’s extreme, black holes, which can crush anything that enters into them, not even solar masculine light can escape, stick that in you’re pipe and smoke it for awhile:) Our strength is also our ability to get along with other woman. Bond together, and bring men to us on our terms, instead of chasing after them, because no matter how good you are, you’re playing their game on their terms, you’re gonna lose. I said it in my previous post about “the roots of the subjugation of the feminine”, if we women would learn to band together and not give into men until our demands are met, demands like decent compensation for “woman’s” work, like being treated with dignity and respect, men would have now choice but to listen. Don’t try to go to them, make them come to you, use you’re receptive strength to it’s greatest potential. I realize this might make me sound like a ball-busting feminist. The truth is if a man comes to me with honor and respect, I will return it threefold, but if my love and affection are taken for granted and I am ridiculed, I know my power and I have no compunctions about using it. I believe in the equality of the sexes, one is not better than the other. We both need each other, but we need to learn to truly understand and respect the fact that we are different, and not be afraid of that fact. We were created that way for a reason. A woman’s moody seeming bipolarness, is the way she supposed to be, because we are equipped to dip down into that frightening underworld of death, of emotion, to regenerate ourselves, and those that have the courage to unite with us during that time. I think the truth is in those matriarchal prehistoric cultures men were treated as inferior, and that paved the way for the pendulum to swing back the other way so that woman are now treated as inferior. What goes around comes around, and unfortunately among the Goddess/Pagan circles I hang out in, there is definately the notion of male inferiority, which truly saddens me. We are equal, and we are different. We were created as such so we might feel the ecstacy of reuniting with each other.
Animals; familiars, totems and spirit allies
As a person who feels closer to my cats than I do to most people, animals are a very big chunk of my spiritual outlook. Christianity has relegated them to the status of beasts, but it is my most fervent belief that they are just as intelligent and have just as much worth, if not more so than humanity as a whole. They can teach us quite alot, about simplicity, about humility and about compassion. They did not surrender their instincts like we did, and they are still very much listening to the grand design that is Nature. As such, there is a lot to be learned from them and what their myriad shapes and forms stand for.
Right now I have two cats, Yoda and Gugnir, and they are very much my familiars. Familiars are pretty much animal allies, they’re usually pets, but their role is far more honorable and deep. They are your friends, and they will lend their energies to whatever work you are doing if you learn to recognize and treat them as such. When ever I cast a circle for spellwork, if the two of them are not already in the room, they’ll beat the door down to get in, and complain loudly at said door about my oversight. They have stuck with me through circumstances that most “pets” would not be so loyal through. I had to have them live outside for six months because I had no place to live, and the only place I did have to stay, i couldn’t have them inside. They stayed, through that and through living out in the woods on several occasions. There is a bond there that goes far beyond mere “ownership”. I let them know their honored place, by giving them gifts (a little catnip goes a long way:) ) and by never debasing them. They have a statue of Bast in her cat form next to their dishes and I think it is safe to say that they get the message. Familiars can be any animal, a dog, a mouse, a bird, a snake, it does not matter. You can also garner yourself wild friends too. Everywhere I live I attract cats, and my other half Josh, has wild animals regularly walk up to him (a muskrat and a sparrow among others) At my initiation, I had a buck walk right up to me, look at me, and then disapear into the woods. Which brings me to the other half of this subject, spirit allies and totems.
The fact that I had a deer walk out of nowhere and come within a few feet of me when I pledged myself to the life long service of the Lord and Lady was a two-fold message. One, that I was now allied to the natural world, and by my service I could enjoy the blessings and protection of Nature, and two that my magickal service would be colored by the deer totem. Totems are what an animal archtypally stands for, qualities that a person who has a particular totem embodies. Spirit allies are very similiar to totems, I think the only real distinction is that you can have an animal be your ally, without it being your totem. Deer stand for innocence and gentleness, and the elk, a relative of the deer and another totem of mine stands for strength and nobility. I have been told by more than one source, by people who have no knowledge of what I have seen, that I am a natural innocent. I simply do not think in jaded pessimistic terms. I am openhearted to the point of being stupid, and most of my work, has an innocent utopic flavor to it. I have had many people note my strength, and my ability to carry myself with grace through some of the worst experiences a person can have. Totems are related to augery, in the sense that if you see a particular animal outside of the normal frequency or circumstances, it is a message.
Animals are wonderful for the simple fact that they put us back in touch with the Natural world that too many of us are too far removed from. I love looking into my cats eyes when the light hits them just right and they glow, for I am looking into another world. A world of fierce ruthlessness, but that is spectacularly beautiful at the same time. When you look at your furry, or scaly of feathery buddy next time, think about it, and let them speak to that primal side of you.
Just a note, again:)
So I will be following this post with another installment in my series on Magick, but I figured I would let you all know that I have begun writing a book, and as such, my time will now be divided. For those of you interested, it’s working title is “Tales from the Underworld; exotic dancing as a resurgence of the Dark Goddess archetype in modern society”. I am well into the research phase and soon will begin writing, I hope to have it completed by this fall. In all that I have written and observed thus far, the role of the Goddess, and more specifically her underworld aspects, seem to be a crucial undercurrent in our society, one that holds the key to answering many of society’s problems. As they are ready I will preview excepts on this site. I hope you enjoy, and please forgive me if there is a lag in posts, I have a bad habit of having too many projects at once:) .
Centered Perception
Okay so you start out by knowing yourself as I outlined in the stability and foundation section. The next step as I see it is to really understand what is going on in the world. I think far too many of us live in this isolated world, where the only real input is the TV or a person’s circle of friends that they’ve had their entire life and who all think alike. You need to step out into the world that you don’t know, you need to step out into the unknown. I’m not saying leave your friends behind. Your friends will anchor you, and they are true treasures, never burn those bridges. If you never associate with new people however, you’ll be stuck in the same rut of perception you’re whole life. Do something out of the ordinary, go someplace you would never go. Face your fears, and walk in the front door of your own worst hell. Think about what would be your exact opposite and go there, meet those people. For me my opposite was becoming a stripper, and I did it for 9 years off and on. It was the craziest, weirdest most depraved thing I have ever seen, but I would not trade in the experience it gave me for all the world. I also willingly became a single mother, twice. I stayed in abusive relationships where I had a gun held to my head, I was punched into a wall and I was raped just to see if I was cheating on the individual. I did things that no sane person would want to do, but I did it because I wanted to truly know. A person from my background can easily become isolated, and fall into the trap of elitism. It’s standard in the world I came from to go to school, go to graduate school, get married, buy a nice little house in the suburbs, have a nice little career, live and die without ever knowing a day of discomfort, but it is also a life of never knowing anything truly real. I guess my point is you need to see the poles of our world. All the world is an interplay between yin and yang, creation vs. control, and if you never see another’s perception your world will forever be a mind-numbing gray area. You need to know the dark to truly know the light.
With a centered perception you will also start to see other things, things you would never guess, other-worldly things. I see ghosts, and “demons” and “angels”. Sometimes you will see them as actual entities, orbs of lights, concious shadows, spirits that are green in color, sometimes you will see them manifest in the people you’re interacting with, such as unreasonable anger, attachment, pyschic abilities in person that doesn’t usually have it. There is a whole other world that people fail to see because they are so sped up and so off balance that they are literally blind. It is a regular occurance for me to see these things, and even though I’ve been seeing these things since I was four, I still haven’t gotten used to it. When you look at the world through tranquil eyes, you will see these supernatural things have a direct relationship with our “reality”. It’s like a fish in a pond in a rainstorm. The raindrops (spirits) cause ripples in the water (our world). The fish (us) have no concept of rain (unless your a catfish, i’d consider the shamans and witches of the world to be the catfish), and so are left to wonder at the causes of this phenomena. I’m sure all sorts of theories would be posed in this world to explain this unseen force, but the truth is that it is something “otherworldly” that’s doing it. It’s the same thing with supernatural. Children naturally have the ability to see these things, but most of us by the time we reach adulthood have turned away, either because we were told to by our parents or we didn’t have the stomach to keep looking. But even if we do not see things, does not mean it’s not there. Talking the ostrich approach is only hurting you, and your development as an enlightened human being. Make no mistake there is some freaky disturbing stuff out there, but if you ever want to find heaven (heaven is within you I might add, as is hell) you must look, you must understand.
Believe me you may emerge from such a venture as I am proposing half crazy or even dead if you’re not careful, but you must know these things, you have to understand how the world truly works, to be able to tinker with it. It is the price any adept pays, you will emerge so changed that few will understand you, and it can be a very lonely path. You’re free to walk away at any time, but know that even a short jog down the path will change you, even if you do not follow it through to the end. For those who can handle it, there is the ability to change anything, to have everything you’ve ever truly desired. Notice I say truly, not everything we think we desire is actually what we truly want. Sometimes what we want is unconcious, and we do things without knowing it to bring about this hidden desire. Make sure you really know yourself, I cannot stress it enough.
Still here
Just a quick note to let anybody who’s paying attention know that I am still here, still working on stuff. I am taking a new approach to things and will have a substantial entry for y’all in a week or two, and I still haven’t forgotten that the mining entry never got finished. I’ll never stop fighting, and never stop telling the truth as I see it. I shall return:)
Getting back into the swing of things
My internet access is limited at this point, but I will continue to write soon. I still have the mining section to finish(historical society in Wausau still hasn’t gotten back to me), and I will continue to discuss my ideas. Real life has been calling lately, that and the coming autumn and winter and I must ready myself for the mind-clarifying cold. I am still here though and I am certainly not out of things to say:)
Just a note
Just so you know I added my opus chronologically, so it appears backwards from the direction I would like it to read. It starts with and introduction to the forest and then goes to strategy and wisdom.
