I agree this website may take up alot of my time. I've been trying to cut back on it when I can... however it's been such an outlet for me. That's why it's so addicting. No where else can I talk to this many people that are like me or at least understand me and my beliefs and ideas. That's why I come here so much.

Yes I was thinking of just trying to post on this thread only to avoid arguments with people.

But where's the fun in that?

No problem Maikuru. I hope I didn't sound too "defensive". That wasn't my intent. I was just trying to offer an explanation of why I do the things I do.

I'm in total agreement with you that the things I do may not necessarily be in accordance with any specific traditional information.

If I ever 'teach' anyone anything, I would make sure that my student understands my very loose and abstract approach to things. I would just give ideas for a possible framework and fully encourage my student to run with it in whatever way best suits their needs as an individual.

It was actaully Cunningham's and Penczak's very abstract presentations that attracted me to "Witchcraft and Shamanism". They both present it so abstractly that they gave me the confidence to also do my own thing abstractly.

In fact, if I couldn't have that freedom I probably wouldn't be interested at all.

Thats true. The bickering is most fun sometimes. Most of the time its argument about things that no one can prove or disprove beyond a shadow of a doubt anyway. Or even if you can prove something, they will just continually deny it because it differs from their faith based reality.

Wow, I could write an entire thesis on this thought.

I used to believe that as well, but I have since learned to look at things from an entirely different point of view.

The very term "expenditure" is an ambiguous term once you truly begin to accept that all-is-one. Expenditure implies 'expense' and that implies that some entity had to give up something, and the only way to do that would be to give it away to some other entity. But if all-is-one, then the very meaning of expenditure breaks down.

In other words, to view the world in terms of 'expenses" is to view the world as though you are separate from it. The eastern mystics would say that this is the view of the 'ego'. And that simply means that you use your individual physical body as your reference point of 'self'.

However, once you move into the view of the spiritual mind where you recognize that all-is-one, then there can be no 'expenditures', all that can exist is transformations energy changing form and every-flowing.

In fact, for me personally, this is precisely what magick and alchemy is all about.

I don't want to get side-tracked into science because that can open up a whole new thesis, but let me just say that the idea that everything has a cost, truly stems from the concept of entropy (even before it may have been formally defined in physics). Entropy suggests that there is a cost for everything because the universe is like a huge wound-up spring and every action requires a "loss of energy". However, that has truly come into question with more modern theories of physical reality, in particular with the advent of "Inflation Theory". Inflation Theory suggests that the universe may very well represent the ultimate "Free Lunch". Inflating Theory actually explains in terms of the laws of physics how the universe could have come into being without violating the conservation of energy. And then it goes on to show why entropy is moot.

I truly don't want to get into physics discussions. My only point here is that old clichés that state, "There is no such thing as a free lunch" may very well be totally without merit.

I've come to think entirely in terms of transformations of existing energy, rather than in term of expending energy. And this change in view has truly been an epiphany, because it much easy to transform energy than to expend energy.

In fact, if you try to expend energy to manifest something you may very well end up just making a mess of things. This is explained in the fourth and sixth laws of spirituality (The Law of Least Effort, and The Law of Detachment)



Yes. But before you try to change water into wine, you need to learn to change imagination into manifestation.

JMO

The lights will go out on the GR forums and the threads will become mundane meaningless chatter as Glory Jean has left the building.

You have always been so very polite to all the blind idiots.

You unconditional love has always shone through.

It is a great compliment to all of us here that you have become addicted to us.

We too have become addicted to you, so as you leave you force us to give up something of great joy and delight.

Feel free to drop by anytime to 'Just Say Hi", or even if you just need a fix.

You have been a great inspiration to me. I may have been vehement about disagreeing in some of the minor details of your philosophy and beliefs, but overall, I too believe in the manifestation of imagination, and you have enlightened far more than you can ever know with many gems that you have posted during your addiction here.

May you rehabilitate quickly.

Blessed Be!

Bad Dream

This morning I woke up from a bad dream. I suppose it could be considered to be a nightmare of sorts, but it wasn't a stressful dream. More like a disappointing dream.

In the dream I was about 20 years old. I was in an old building that was kind of like a woodshop-barn. The building never existed in reality, but the place where I imagined it do be did exist. It was on an old road near where I lived as a child and into my 20's.

I was in this woodshop-barn with several of my childhood friends, if you can call 20 years old 'childhood'

My friends were goofing off, not doing anything productive. I got a sense that we weren't supposed to be in the wooshop, but we also didn't "break-in". In fact, there weren't even any doors on the place. So it wasn't like it as a secure building.

My friends and I were looking at a buck-board that had been freshly built in the woodshop. But the lumber was very poorly planed down. It had large gouges in it and spliters sicking up like the planer blades were very dull. My friends, there were three of them, jumped up onto the buckboard and were jumping up and down on it just for fun. The buckboard had springs below it so they were using it as sort of a trampoline.

In the meantime, I went into the next room over to look at the planer. I saw that the blades were very dull and had chips in them and needed sharpened. So I set about taking the blades out of the planer to sharpen them.

Just as I got the blades out of the planer the men who worked at the woodshop pulled in the parking lot, and all my friends ran out the back door. The men came in and asked me what I was doing there. I told them that I had taken the blades out of the planer to sharpen them. They became all upset and started yelling at me telling me that only a professional blade shaprner knows how to sharpen planer blades and that I shouldn't mess with things I know nothing about.

I told them that I have a planer blade sharpener at home (which I actually do have in real life), and that I know exactly how to sharpen them and I can do it for them and fix everything up real nice. But they became angry with me and the foreman started yelling at the other workers, "He was going to take these blades home. He's a theif!".

The a police car pulled into the lot and there were coming in to arrest me.

What do you think this dream means. If anything?

Even in the dream I had several mixed feelings about my predicament. Owl just list them here quickly.

1. I got a real sense that my childhood friends were totally unproductive and just wanted to do goofy things for no reaon (like jumping up and down on the buckboard).

2. I just wanted to make things better and help out.

3. I knew that I had gone about things all wrong. But at the same time I didn't feel like I had done anything wrong.

4. At the end of the dream I felt like I was in big trouble and being viewed as a criminal by a bunch of morons who can't do anything right, and can't even imagine, or accept, help from anyone.

5. I also got a very strong feeling that no one trusts anyone and that everyone is always out to assume the worse.

So anyway, it was a weird dream but very lucid. I have no idea where it came from or why I had it.

Abra, do you recall having those same types of feelings when you were with your 20 something friends? Or is there someone currently you're around now that makes you feel a way that you used to?

I had a dream the other night that I was taking all of my books that had to do with Wicca, witchcraft or anything associated with it... and tried to burn them. I was only trying to burn them in front of people to prove that they would NOT burn. Since they would not burn this was proving that was all real and more credible than any other religion. I was invited people over and showing them how I can try and burn and destroy them but nothing would happen. Even my brother was in the dream, showing how they wouldn't burn. But he isn't involved in any religion at all "in real life" It was very strange

Abra I just dont know. Im not skilled in dream interpreation. My guess would be that you are having some kind of new found "control issues" that you have not had to confront prior. Has something happened that is different? Do you feel like you are being restrained in some way? Do you like being restrained or it scares you? I would also imagine that some aspect of your "self" has not fully developed. There might also be some guilt in the back of your mind but that I dont know.

Yes, I think I've always had those kinds of feelings, not just when I was 20, but pretty much all my life. It always seems as though no one wants to be productive and everyone is locked into doing things by the rules, etc.

I don't know if the dream was significant or not. I just happened to remember it from this morning. It was quite vivid. Not scary, just depressing in a way.



Just guessing I would say that probably stems from all the Christian proselytizing that only their religion holds truth. You are probably just sick of it and want to prove once and for all that your beliefs are just as valid as anyone else's.

I can assure you that they are.

Nothing needs to be true in the details. However you envision the spirit is your vision. The whole idea that spirit needs to be envisioned in a specific way stems entirely from the Biblical and Mediterranean idea that God will be jealous if you don't view God the same way that the Mediterranean culture decided God should be like.

One thing that I've learned in the course of my life is that dogma is not God.

We create the visions of how we see God. And all visions are valid. That doesn't mean that they need to be true in the detials. Even the Mediterranean picture of God is a valid illusion. But that doesn't mean that God is like that picture.

We create deities for our own purpose of visualization and communication with the spirit. I've finally come to a full realization of this. The deities we create are real, becasue the spirit is willing to use any visualization that we imagine.

When you worship a Moon Goddess you are worshiping the creator of this unviverse. God appreciates your vision.

The idea that we all need to envision God as an angry jealous male-chaunvinistic pig with a stern judgmental agenda is hogwash.

Just keep in mind the all religious dogma burns.

There's no need to proof anything to anyone. All that truly matters is that the love in your heart is real.

Any deity that wouldn't appreciate true love because of some demented sick obcession to be the king of kings and lord of lord over his own creation wouldn't be worthy of worship.

The idea that God only sides with judgmental prejudiced bigots is a sick idea to begin with.

I have four deities. Three Goddesses of the Moon, and one masculine God who pretty much just supports the Goddesses in anything they want to do.

That's my vision of God. Does it need to be "real"? Of course not!

What's real is that God is LOVE.

God is pure spirit, neither masculine nor feminine (or both), depending on how you want to look at it. God is love, and therefore any loving vision we have of God is good.

Don't listen to the Christians because according to them God is hate.

I'm not sure where the idea of "control" comes into play. I didn't get any sense that I was trying to control the situation. It was more like I was trying to contribute to the good of all.

I think my feelings were more of futility than being controlled. Although there was a sense of 'authority' being pushed onto me by the foreman. He held a position of 'authority' and therefore his decisions would be accepted by the masses (his workers).

Also, the police gave him total respect on every ground. Of course, I was in a place I had no business being. And that played a part in my mind too. I guess I was thinking along the lines of, "Why did I come in here in the first place and why I am worried about helping people who obviously don't even give a damn.?"

It was a dream more about futility than anything I think. This isn't the first time I've had this type of dream. I've had a lot of dreams about trying to help people and they act more like I'm bothering them.

I just shared this dream because I woke up this morning remembering it vividly. I don't feel that it was necessarly a message of any type. Although it may be some kind of subconscious message that I go about things all wrong. I just don't know.

I also didn't feel threatened by the police. What they represented to me was a total side-track from anything positive.

Now instead of sharpening planer blades and contributing to something constructive, I would be charged with trespassing and attempted theft which is all negative.

So I think the bulk of the dream had to do with the idea that everything postive I try to do always seems to deteriorate into something negative even though that was never my intent.

However, one interesting thing about the dream is that it begin in this woodshop.

In other words, I didn't dream about going into a place where I wasn't supposed to be. The dream just started out with me being in that circumstance.

So that might be a key issue there too. I feel like I'm always in a bad situation without necessarily having chosen to be in it.

Of course, in reality, I would have had the choice not to go in places were I don't belong.

So I don't know if the dream has meaning or not. I have no clue why I had it. I just remember having it this morning quite vividly when I woke up.

I also think that even during the dream I knew it was a dream. I mean there was never a time when I truly felt 'trapped' or like I was in real trouble.

I think the whole time, even within the dream, I knew that it was a dream and that I was never in any real trouble because none of it was real.

If that makes any sense.

I got a real sense that my dream was more about futility than anything else.

Although, there was also a profound sense of "How did I get into this stupid situation in the first place?"

So maybe the real lesson to the dream is to learn to be more thoughtful about how I go about things.

Maybe it was really trying to tell me that I'm like a leaf in the wind. I get into situations and they turn negative because of how I got into them, rather than because of what I tried to do after getting into them.

So maybe the message is to pay more attention to the situations I get into before they become futile?

Well that makes sense. Also in light of some "issues" and accusations that have been made on forum lately, it could just be that it is bothering you more than you realize. You want to help people yet feel they are pushing you away and that you have upset them or disrupted their beliefs and therefore their lives. Its happens.

Reflections come and reflections go
and monkeys grow to a new plateau
and Mirrors sob with tears of woe
like crystals melting in the snow

Words will vanish from the screen
like a fleeting ghost on Halloween
no more words will thus be seen
from the Mingle author Gloria Jean

The void will touch the readers' eyes
as they finally come to realize
the forum chatter's in demise
and they will need to improvise

Draconian chat as been disrupted
the human race has been corrupted
truth and fact has been obstructed
for Gloria Jean has been abducted

Im making an effort to keep her threads going at least.

I am going to meet with a local man and his wife tonight. They are Bhakti Yoga which is a kind of Hinduism, I think. I thought they were Buddhist, but what do I know.

Anyway, I am very excited. they are having me over for a vegetarian dinner and will teach me about their faith.

Let us know how it goes Sounds interesting