Very interesting.

If only more people could realize where the true spirit of our creator resides. In the wind, in the rain, and in our every breath of life.

Worshipping the words of men has historically been proven to produce nothing but slaughter and angst.

How many history lessons do people need to read about before they can see the folly of their idol worship?

Well I think people are starting to "feel" it a little more in the wake of the current ecological crisis. That has actually caused a surge towards Nature/Earth based spirituality. We will see though. It might be too little, too late.

I wrote a little web story. I don't know why. It just came to me from the great beyond.

The Death of a Witch

http://www.csonline.net/designer/witch/night.htm

(contians some nudity and violence, parental discretion advised)

Oh, actually there is more. I will just email em to ya.

ok, I wasn't sure if I wanted to post this or not to get ya'lls opinions on this, but here it is ok, ok, taking a deep breath, whew,ok, um, wow, ok, um, I have an incredibly open mind for certain things, and on occasion I have interesting visions that leave many people baffled, however, I understand them perfectly. Well, ok wow, um I was visited today, ok, um, teehee, not sure I should say this I don't want to make anyone think I am, um, a little more than wierd on this, ok, um, ok, ya'll know how ya'll were talking about the goddess and god today, i read the thread at some point but what i didn't expect, um, ok, so I sound crazy, but really, um, I got a visit today from said god and goddess in a vision, and they were very nice actually, I wasn't afriad or anything I treated them with respect in my subconsious, and the god gave me some good advice on something so I took it and used it and it was cool. The godess wished me well and told me to listen to him and it was nice. I really don't know what to tell you about this, I am very accepting at times to the spiritual realm as it is when approached in a non harmful way. I have begun to reassesse my views in a more understanding way, rather than to expect anything to be just good or bad. I think people get scared too often at times of things or beings they don't understand and I don't know about you, but I were trying to help someone and they went running to their doom cause they didn't listen to me, it might peeve me off a bit too, don't you think? LOL anyways, take it as it comes I say and try being good all the time. anyways, hugs and snugs to all, take it for what it is worth, smiles

Well thats certainly very interesting about your visions. The thing about Paganism and Wicca or any of these spiritual paths is no one is going to tell you to go convert now. Its doesnt work that way. Its all about your personal level of interest and you must decide if its something that you want to pursue or take a closer look at it on your own. Then you are expected to study it for a year or more to make sure it sits well with you. Its not based on proselytizing and convincing others they must become Pagans.

Oh cool, James. I only have a few minutes online this morning. I will read it later today.

lilwick, that is very cool about your vision and I'm happy that you had such a nice experience.

I had a vision involving a pagan girl.

This is pretty interesting and worth a double post.

No one knows what day Jesus Christ was born on. From the biblical description, most historians believe that his birth probably occurred in September, approximately six months after Passover. One thing they agree on is that it is very unlikely that Jesus was born in December, since the bible records shepherds tending their sheep in the fields on that night. This is quite unlikely to have happened during a cold Judean winter. So why do we celebrate Christ’s birthday as Christmas, on December the 25th?

The answer lies in the pagan origins of Christmas. In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving were traditions of this feast.

In Rome, the Winter Solstice was celebrated many years before the birth of Christ. The Romans called their winter holiday Saturnalia, honoring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. In January, they observed the Kalends of January, which represented the triumph of life over death. This whole season was called Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. The festival season was marked by much merrymaking. It is in ancient Rome that the tradition of the Mummers was born. The Mummers were groups of costumed singers and dancers who traveled from house to house entertaining their neighbors. From this, the Christmas tradition of caroling was born.

In northern Europe, many other traditions that we now consider part of Christian worship were begun long before the participants had ever heard of Christ. The pagans of northern Europe celebrated the their own winter solstice, known as Yule. Yule was symbolic of the pagan Sun God, Mithras, being born, and was observed on the shortest day of the year. As the Sun God grew and matured, the days became longer and warmer. It was customary to light a candle to encourage Mithras, and the sun, to reappear next year.

Huge Yule logs were burned in honor of the sun. The word Yule itself means “wheel,” the wheel being a pagan symbol for the sun. Mistletoe was considered a sacred plant, and the custom of kissing under the mistletoe began as a fertility ritual. Hollyberries were thought to be a food of the gods.

The tree is the one symbol that unites almost all the northern European winter solstices. Live evergreen trees were often brought into homes during the harsh winters as a reminder to inhabitants that soon their crops would grow again. Evergreen boughs were sometimes carried as totems of good luck and were often present at weddings, representing fertility. The Druids used the tree as a religious symbol, holding their sacred ceremonies while surrounding and worshipping huge trees.

In 350, Pope Julius I declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25. There is little doubt that he was trying to make it as painless as possible for pagan Romans (who remained a majority at that time) to convert to Christianity. The new religion went down a bit easier, knowing that their feasts would not be taken away from them.

Christmas (Christ-Mass) as we know it today, most historians agree, began in Germany, though Catholics and Lutherans still disagree about which church celebrated it first. The earliest record of an evergreen being decorated in a Christian celebration was in 1521 in the Alsace region of Germany. A prominent Lutheran minister of the day cried blasphemy: “Better that they should look to the true tree of life, Christ.”

The controversy continues even today in some fundamentalist sects

This kind of paranoia about worshipping Jesus is totally uncalled for anyway.

According to John, Jesus said the following:

John 12:47 "And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world."

The people who claim that Jesus must be worshipped at all cost clearly couldn't care less what Jesus actually said.

They are obscessed with the Old Testament and the God of Abraham who was clearly a jealous God and said "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me".

But Jesus denounced a lot of things that the God of Abraham supposedly commanded.

Jesus was trying to save the world from their stupid belief in the God of Abraham.

But they just spat in his face and used him to support the bigoty of the Old Testament all the more.

Anyone who loves Jesus should denounce Christianity as their first good deed.

And what about all that "dont judge people stuff and he who is without sin, cast the first stone." Now that I could get on board with because its requests introspection. Its just all the rest. Like every other page. The bible is a train wreck interspersed with common sense pearls of wisdom.

Christianity is the antithesis of what Jesus taught IMHO. It truly is a train wreck of a religion.

Like Mahatma Gandhi once said, "I like your Jesus, it's your Christians I don't care much for."

So true.

Like the Grinch who stole Christmas, Christainity is the religion that stole Jesus. They think they own him.

I think if he does Return (as my christian relatives claim), he'll look around at all the fundamental christians, yell "That's NOT what I meant!" and probably beat up a couple tv evangelists.

That's exactly my thoughts too.

If I looked up one day and saw Jesus decending on a cloud my first thought would be, "Boy the Christians are in trouble now!"

I wouldn't be the slightest bit afraid. On the contrary I'm sure he would walk up to me and give me a big hug. Because unlike the Christians I actually DID what he preached rather than proselytizing hatred and bigotry in his name.

According to the Bible He never told anyone to do that. On the contrary he told them not to do that.

"Spreading the word" is a far cry from proselytizing. If someone says that they've aready read the "word" then it's already been spread to them. To claim that they didn't 'get it' is not spreading the word but rather it's insulting the person who already read it and attempting to push a different interpretation and conclusion onto them.

That's not 'spreading the word'. That's 'twisting the word'.

Proselytizers are out to twist the words of Jesus for their own agenda.

Anyone who loves Jesus should be upset with evangelists and proselytizers because they are crucifiying Jesus all over again in spirit.

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving weekend.

Hi Ruth,

I've been spending much of this weekend studying Penczak's books. I'm finding that they require much more reading time than Scott's books did. It's kind of strange because I thought I could just breeze through this for an overview, and then go back to studying them in more detail. But even the overview is becoming quite involved. There is a lot of information. Some of it is deeply meaningful, other parts seem almost impossible to accept. But I keep plugging along, and as I do I find more information that makes what I had previously felt to be unacceptable, more plausible.

I guess a part of my problem is anxiousness. Not anxiety. More like unbridled enthusiasm. I'm anxious to get a taste of all of it including the shamanic journeys. I have had some favorable shamanic journeys already. But there are other areas where I get nothing.

In fact, I seem to do much better with the pure abstraction of the psyche than I do with connecting to material objects at this point in time. As an example, I do real well with the tree meditation. I can easily become the tree in my mind and truly identify with that existence. I would like to expand on that particular meditation to include becoming a dove in the morning, an eagle at noon, and an owl at night. I'm sure that I can become these birds and fly around in the psyche of my mind just like a controlled dream. I can feel, and touch things in my dreams. One place where I've discovered that I'm lacking is with the sense of taste.

I've done the orange mediation a couple of times thus far. I can see the orange very clearly and feel it in my hands. I can even feel it against my lips and feel its succulent juices. But for some reason I can't taste it. I have some ideas to help that along. One idea is to actually eat an orange before the meditation so I can have those sensations fresh in my mind to recall. The other idea is to burn orange-scented incense during that meditation or maybe use orange flavored potpourri.

The one mediation that I'm having no luck with at all thus far is the meditation to meld psychically with a physical object. Of course at this point I've only tried it with a single object. I've been attempting to meld with my quartz wand crystal. Thus far I've had no luck at all. I think I'm going to try a mind-meld with my athames and see if I get anywhere with them.

I'm not too worried about my lack of success connecting with physical objects yet because I am having such great success in learning to better guide my imagination in dreams. That alone is a very worthwhile endeavor.

I've just finished reading Lesson 4 in The Inner Temple book. It's on the science of magick and the Seven Hermetic Principles. This is a chapter where, I've gone back and forth between belief and non-belief.

Of course, there's a lot to this stuff. In addition to the Seven Hermetic Principles he explains four additional principle of magick. All of which are quite interesting and require much deeper pondering and reflection than can be gained from a simple reading. All of these concepts are just food for thought for various meditations and potential shamanic journeys.

In fact, I've only just now realized that this entire book is supposed to be a year-and-a-day course! Well, that's been my plan all along anyways. Right now I'm just getting an overview and getting my feet wet with some preliminary meditations. I definitely see myself expanding on all of these meditations in my own way. In fact, I've already been doing some shaman drumming mediations of my own with live drums. It's just bongos, but they work just fine for my purposes.

The Principle of Cause and Effect

The Principle of Cause and Effect is one of the Hermetic Principles. I like the way he goes into this in some depth. He's made me realize that I'm not doing so hot.

In particular with respect to what I post on the forums in regard to my disgust with the way that many people abuse Jesus in favor of pushing bigoted religious views. While the principle behind my objections is a valid and pure cause, Penczak asks, "Is it really necessary? Does it serve any true good to be argumentative with ignorant people?"

I can see his point. It only serves to stir negative emotions in those ignorant people. They aren't about to see the light, so what's the point in stirring their negative emotions? By stirring their negative emotions I'm bound to be negatively affected by that even though my intentions are good. Good intentions that stir negative emotions are still stirring negative emotions. It's better to let ignorance dig its own grave than to stir it with my own energy.

I see his point. Let the dead bury their own. Let them bark into the empty wind. Let them howl upon deaf ears until they realize that their howling is in vain. Don't allow their ignorance to be the cause of a negative effect within me. Just let stupidity go in one eye and out the other with no merit worthy of response or consideration.

This is good advice to be sure, and an area I need to focus on. Just don't respond to negative thoughts at all. Let the impious suffer their own fate for it is their choice to go down that path.

The Right and Left Brain

Another concept that has been brought into focus in my psyche is the is the significance of using the right and left sides of the brain.

Krimsa first brought this up in this thread with her suggestion of a book that teaches how to get into the right side of the brain whist drawing and becoming more artistic. I've always known that this is important, but her suggestion was quite timely in that I had just recently asked the Goddess and God for guidance into how to become more psychic.

Learning to use the right side of the brain at will is an important part of becoming psychic, I believe.

Penczak had covered this topic in various places within The Inner Temple. In fact, I found it quite interesting because one night I had just read something along these lines in Penczak's book, specifically associated with synchronicity and the manifestation of intent.

Right after I read that I turned on NPR radio and the show 'All Things Considered" was on. They were interviewing a woman who had been studying brain activity in children. She says that it has been scientifically confirmed via measurement of electrical activity in the brain that young children first identify colors using the right side of their brain. These are young children who have yet to associate the names to the colors. When they do their artwork (usually finger painting) they use the right side of their brain.

However, when they get a bit older and are taught to name colors with words, like blue, green, and brown etc., they change over to using the left side of their brain.

Penczak has suggesting doing mediations on colors where the colors are meditated on via perception alone and not via the naming conventions. I'm looking forward to doing those mediations as well. I'm also looking forward to buying the book that Krimsa had suggested and actually using right-brain art sessions as a form of mediation as well.

Shamanic Drumming

Finally, along these same lines I have been blessed by the God. For some reason I feel that this came from the God. I had requested a shamanic drum beat from the Gods. I did this with drums in hand and I just started tapping out a beat. As I continued the beat became a bit more complex. It wasn't quite finished and I sensed that and continued along. I made a lot of false moves until I finally hit upon something that felt right.

It was a an interesting beat because it is a mirror image of the first beat. It's precisely the same as the first beat but done 'left-handed' instead of right-handed. It's a right-handed beat, and then a left-handed beat back and forth together.

It's not easy to do!

Both the right-hand drumbeat and the left-hand drumbeat are simple in and of themselves. But putting them together back-to-back is what's difficult. It truly requires changing back and forth between the right side of the brain and the left side of the brain. It's a very mentally tiring thing to do.

This is like doing gymnastics with the brain. But I feel like this has been given to me by the Gods as an exercise worth doing. If I can get this down pat to where I can play this beat seamlessly and effortless for long periods of time I feel like I will be building a very fluid connection between my right and left brain.

So this drumbeat meditation has become a standard exercise for me.

The 5 Rites Exercises

These physical exercises are KILLING ME!

That's all I have to say about that.

Tell JB that taking 20 years off my life is not an EASY thing to do!

I can totally relate to this. I will get so excited trying to learn and I want to learn it all right now!

Believe me, I feel your joy/pain.