tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34715377981845304432024-02-28T14:09:49.429-08:00Secrets of the OccultJovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.comBlogger217125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-32285627169071640532023-04-11T12:08:00.003-07:002023-04-11T12:08:55.340-07:00What is Shadow Work?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQJnS6b-lIzX-xrKNKZFlMJddnOspNat20Ei9XgDpchZR3aF3hyuNH-MwA0IBKMCBFdz5VHt5zObqy9E4YgC1zT3hWHps-iWHe0yoCtQDjXbjoyeS1Fn0ZZj5OZk46pJ279rCX7lIM66Wd0J1P2DKW6TAABlYE0Fxsa7pWEW6GLElU-5qYoNO3iA96/s640/child-reincarnation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="640" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQJnS6b-lIzX-xrKNKZFlMJddnOspNat20Ei9XgDpchZR3aF3hyuNH-MwA0IBKMCBFdz5VHt5zObqy9E4YgC1zT3hWHps-iWHe0yoCtQDjXbjoyeS1Fn0ZZj5OZk46pJ279rCX7lIM66Wd0J1P2DKW6TAABlYE0Fxsa7pWEW6GLElU-5qYoNO3iA96/w640-h438/child-reincarnation.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” </i><i>― Carl Gustav Jung</i></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shadow work is a powerful tool for personal growth and self-discovery. It involves delving into the unconscious or repressed parts of ourselves that we often ignore or deny. This work can be uncomfortable and challenging, but it can ultimately lead to greater self-awareness, self-acceptance, and a more fulfilling life.</span></p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">The concept of shadow work was first introduced by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychologist who believed that our psyche consists of both a conscious and an unconscious part. The unconscious part contains aspects of our personality that we may be unaware of, such as our fears, desires, and negative emotions. These hidden aspects can influence our thoughts, behaviors, and relationships, often in ways that we may not realize.</p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jung believed that by exploring and integrating our shadow, we can achieve greater wholeness and become more authentic versions of ourselves. Shadow work involves identifying and working through these hidden aspects of ourselves, which can be uncomfortable or even painful. This may involve confronting past traumas, acknowledging negative patterns or behaviors, and accepting parts of ourselves that we may have rejected or denied.</p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are many different practices that can be used for shadow work, including therapy, journaling, meditation, and self-reflection. The key is to create a safe and supportive environment for exploring these hidden aspects of ourselves. This may involve seeking the help of a trained therapist or counselor who can guide us through the process.</p><ol style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; counter-reset: item 0; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; list-style-image: none; list-style-position: outside; margin: 1.25em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1rem; white-space: pre-wrap;"><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Journaling: Writing down your thoughts, feelings, and experiences can help you identify patterns and themes in your life. You can use prompts such as "What am I afraid of?" or "What makes me angry?" to explore your shadow.</p></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Meditation: Practicing mindfulness meditation can help you observe your thoughts and emotions without judgment. This can help you become more aware of your shadow and its influence on your life.</p></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Therapy: Working with a trained therapist can provide a safe and supportive space for exploring your shadow. A therapist can help you identify patterns in your behavior and provide guidance for working through difficult emotions.</p></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Creative expression: Engaging in creative activities such as art, music, or dance can help you access and express emotions that may be difficult to articulate in words. This can be a powerful way to work through your shadow.</p></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Shadow work exercises: There are many different exercises specifically designed for shadow work, such as "The Shadow Inventory," which involves making a list of all the qualities that you find unacceptable in yourself and others. Another example is "The Shadow Dialogue," which involves having a conversation with your shadow self.</p></li></ol><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the main benefits of shadow work is increased self-awareness. By exploring our unconscious patterns and behaviors, we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and our motivations. This can help us to make more conscious choices in our lives and break free from negative patterns or cycles.</p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another benefit of shadow work is greater self-acceptance. By acknowledging and accepting all aspects of ourselves, even the parts that we may not like or feel ashamed of, we can learn to love and accept ourselves as we are. This can lead to greater confidence, self-esteem, and a more positive outlook on life.</p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shadow work can also improve our relationships with others. By becoming more aware of our own patterns and behaviors, we can better understand and empathize with others. We may also become more accepting of their flaws and imperfections, leading to more authentic and fulfilling relationships.</p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">In conclusion, shadow work is a powerful tool for personal growth and self-discovery. It involves exploring and integrating the unconscious or repressed parts of ourselves, which can be uncomfortable or even painful. However, by doing this work, we can achieve greater self-awareness, self-acceptance, and a more fulfilling life. There are many different practices that can be used for shadow work, and the key is to create a safe and supportive environment for exploring these hidden aspects of ourselves.</p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
― C.G. Jung</i></p>Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-7670767329982595362023-04-03T16:32:00.000-07:002023-04-04T12:24:08.753-07:00What is the difference between lucid dreaming and astral traveling?<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC-ozyYQ6fWp4JkxixGKjtJScLW7H_tqmbZI9uMOfm_F2-nbf71x5x_DE_CqNabJ8TbcBADhof4KXls4NZI48RVRuNCIwSf3o_tpcO-9KquGe0Vi283beOzfMNwHcdgemfYQOn7D101toY3OIdM0UcND-fjMgLaz6ZBRXF9rlOHHpD_JcUIi8-sIJZ/s960/howtoastralproject.png.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC-ozyYQ6fWp4JkxixGKjtJScLW7H_tqmbZI9uMOfm_F2-nbf71x5x_DE_CqNabJ8TbcBADhof4KXls4NZI48RVRuNCIwSf3o_tpcO-9KquGe0Vi283beOzfMNwHcdgemfYQOn7D101toY3OIdM0UcND-fjMgLaz6ZBRXF9rlOHHpD_JcUIi8-sIJZ/w640-h360/howtoastralproject.png.webp" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><p><span style="font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">Lucid dreaming and astral traveling are both experiences that involve altered states of consciousness, but they have unique features and differences. </span></p></span><p></p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Lucid Dreaming:</b></p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lucid dreaming is a state in which a person is aware that they are dreaming and can actively participate in and control the dream. This type of dreaming occurs during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep and is often associated with increased creativity, problem-solving abilities, and a heightened sense of self-awareness. In lucid dreaming, the dreamer is still within the realm of their own mind and is experiencing a dream that is entirely of their own creation.</p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lucid dreaming can be induced through various techniques such as reality checks, visualization, and meditation. With practice, individuals can increase their ability to enter and control their lucid dreams. Lucid dreaming has been used as a tool for personal growth, creativity, and problem-solving. It can also be used to explore one's own subconscious mind and gain a better understanding of oneself.</p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the main benefits of lucid dreaming is that it allows individuals to explore and experiment with situations that are not possible in waking life. For example, a person can fly, teleport, or talk to people who are no longer alive. This freedom of imagination can lead to increased creativity, as well as a better understanding of oneself and the world around us.</p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Astral Traveling:</b></p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">Astral traveling, also known as astral projection, is an out-of-body experience in which a person's consciousness separates from their physical body and travels to a non-physical realm. The experience is often described as being weightless and floating. Astral traveling is believed by some to be a form of spiritual travel that can lead to personal growth, enlightenment, and a deeper understanding of the universe.</p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">Astral traveling involves a detachment from the physical body and can occur during deep relaxation or meditation. It can also occur spontaneously during sleep, illness, or near-death experiences. During astral traveling, individuals report traveling to different realms, encountering spiritual entities, and gaining insights into their own lives and the universe.</p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">The experience of astral traveling is often described as being guided by a higher power or force. While individuals may have some control over their journey, the experience is often seen as being beyond their conscious control. Astral traveling has been used as a tool for spiritual exploration and personal growth.</p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>The Key Differences:</b></p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">The key difference between lucid dreaming and astral traveling is the level of detachment from the physical body. In lucid dreaming, the dreamer is still within the realm of their own mind and is experiencing a dream that is entirely of their own creation. In contrast, astral traveling involves a complete separation from the physical body and a journey into a non-physical realm.</p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another difference between lucid dreaming and astral traveling is the level of control that the individual has over their experience. In lucid dreaming, the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming and can actively participate in and control the events of the dream. In astral traveling, the individual may have some control over their journey, but the experience is often described as being guided by a higher power or force.</p><p style="border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(55, 65, 81); color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lastly, lucid dreaming is often used as a tool for personal growth, creativity, and problem-solving, while astral traveling is seen as a form of spiritual exploration that can lead to greater understanding and enlightenment. Both are great tools for healing.</p>Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-40994993398598515762023-04-03T14:46:00.003-07:002023-04-28T11:21:50.989-07:00What is Lucid Dreaming - What are the benefits?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0z--1Uk3by7lHcbgAQEBzDzFV_JCZS3QHapvqRvQqohrKNtdeKpvsXI75JCbbnfybs6S_4PmxKuRwdgfWjFv36iKvilQSp5GsA8sFMWmiV7fZLnRDFCT-BmRr0J9LUVDbNwn_WmkSVt57ZSj5L_aZK01Fnf-4LJUVbBm4G15OPAt4cRQR0o2gknRA/s2560/article.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2560" height="369" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0z--1Uk3by7lHcbgAQEBzDzFV_JCZS3QHapvqRvQqohrKNtdeKpvsXI75JCbbnfybs6S_4PmxKuRwdgfWjFv36iKvilQSp5GsA8sFMWmiV7fZLnRDFCT-BmRr0J9LUVDbNwn_WmkSVt57ZSj5L_aZK01Fnf-4LJUVbBm4G15OPAt4cRQR0o2gknRA/w630-h369/article.jpeg" width="630" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Lucid dreaming is a state of consciousness in which a person is aware that they are dreaming and can actively participate in and control the dream. This type of dreaming is often associated with increased creativity, problem-solving abilities, and a heightened sense of self-awareness. In this essay, we will explore the phenomenon of lucid dreaming, including its definition, how it occurs, and the various benefits and applications of this unique and fascinating experience.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Lucid dreaming is often described as a state of consciousness that occurs when a person is in a dream and is aware that they are dreaming. This awareness allows the dreamer to actively participate in and control the events of the dream. While the exact causes of lucid dreaming are still being studied, it is believed that the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is responsible for self-awareness and decision-making, becomes active during this state of consciousness. This activity allows the dreamer to recognize that they are in a dream and to consciously direct the events of the dream.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Lucid dreaming can occur spontaneously or be induced through various techniques. Some people are naturally prone to lucid dreaming and may experience it regularly without any effort. Others may use techniques such as reality testing, meditation, or the use of lucid dreaming aids such as light and sound machines or lucid dreaming masks to induce lucid dreams.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The benefits of lucid dreaming are numerous and varied. One of the most significant benefits is that it allows the dreamer to confront and overcome their fears and anxieties in a safe and controlled environment. This can lead to increased confidence and a greater sense of self-awareness in waking life. Additionally, lucid dreaming has been shown to improve cognitive function, including memory, creativity, and problem-solving abilities. It can also be a valuable tool for exploring and processing emotions and past experiences.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Lucid dreaming has been used for centuries by spiritual and religious practitioners for personal growth and exploration. Many cultures believe that dreams are a gateway to the spiritual world and that lucid dreaming can allow for direct communication with higher powers or entities. In modern times, lucid dreaming has been studied and applied in various fields, including psychology, therapy, and education.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In psychology, lucid dreaming has been used to treat a variety of mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, and PTSD. By allowing the dreamer to confront and process their emotions in a safe and controlled environment, lucid dreaming can help to alleviate symptoms and promote healing.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In therapy, lucid dreaming has been used as a tool for self-discovery and personal growth. By exploring the subconscious mind and confronting deeply held beliefs and emotions, the dreamer can gain a greater understanding of themselves and their relationships with others.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In education, lucid dreaming has been used to enhance creativity and problem-solving abilities. Studies have shown that individuals who practice lucid dreaming are better able to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions to problems.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In conclusion, lucid dreaming is a fascinating and powerful phenomenon that has the potential to greatly benefit those who experience it. By allowing the dreamer to actively participate in and control the events of the dream, lucid dreaming can promote personal growth, improve cognitive function, and even be used as a tool for therapy and education. While there is still much to be learned about this unique state of consciousness, it is clear that lucid dreaming holds great promise for enhancing our understanding of the human mind and unlocking our full potential as individuals.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Join my Patreon to learn more: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/JovannaGoette" target="_blank">CLICK HERE!</a></span></p>Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-39127364368708071772022-04-21T10:25:00.000-07:002022-04-21T10:25:06.031-07:00Castle of Vezio and its ghosts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhnkYosuNAyYOKvoBNrc8hbAIxy-89mQM1c-F1jPoVmjZJqUdRTRRQnIifgeL6Q03_xXx2jTakEgUed6AnbsrbHp4R1mMEL0yf2KYmaaoxkbHe5S2PisEgiJzLRMdRDu6o7JkJvThP2pWc8T7T3MiT_BRcXJrdukG5EOmjfTYEUnHyg0uLlCYXoU02/s750/vezio-castle-ghosts-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="750" height="427" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhnkYosuNAyYOKvoBNrc8hbAIxy-89mQM1c-F1jPoVmjZJqUdRTRRQnIifgeL6Q03_xXx2jTakEgUed6AnbsrbHp4R1mMEL0yf2KYmaaoxkbHe5S2PisEgiJzLRMdRDu6o7JkJvThP2pWc8T7T3MiT_BRcXJrdukG5EOmjfTYEUnHyg0uLlCYXoU02/w640-h427/vezio-castle-ghosts-3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Italy's Lake Como has a lot of spectacular views, but one of the best can be found perched on the hills above the village of Varenna. There sits the Vezio Castle, which was built between the late 11th and early 12th centuries. Every summer, tourists make the journey up the hill to enjoy the sweeping panorama, but they aren't alone in doing so. Joining them are the “ghosts” that dot the grounds.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">These ghosts of Vezio are plaster casts made by the managers of the castle each year. Tourists volunteer to have plaster fitted to them, which are used to create these ghostly figures. They are then left to the elements throughout the winter until a new season begins and the ghosts are cast anew. These ghosts are one of the castle's biggest attractions, but why are they on the grounds and what do they represent?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It's all linked to a legend about why the castle was built in the first place. In 1779, Anton Gioseffo della Torre di Rezzonico published a book Larius. In it, he mentioned that the castle was built thanks to the wishes of Theodelinda. She was the queen of the Lombards, the Germanic people who ruled this part of Italy for several hundred years. It's said that she spent the last years of her life in the area and wished to leave behind a church and oratory with a prominent bell tower as part of her legacy.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Though that never happened, the legend states that her heart and soul are buried within the walls of the Vezio Castle and that her soul wanders its halls on moonless nights. These plaster sculptures are a physical representation of that legend that certainly adds to the beauty and mystery of the castle.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">If you want to get a glimpse of them in person, the Vezio Castle is open every year from March until early November.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE8hidafgL9y4DjFNP4e9mdFZ2eWf6YPYAl9xaCNuNSd9cSYQYmihnjAkes6rgb9GwMlYPIwvuAYUgf2WHEcUizJtocnV2kCiC3-o5IQp_yOdJQrGVlItff9CluJzmbnHPpRAY5q4Ggb0MnzCqvzt1lX1eXL9SIFR-Z5HsWRKu6oRYnHKm-_Gu789g/s2048/Losco-figuro-con-panorama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE8hidafgL9y4DjFNP4e9mdFZ2eWf6YPYAl9xaCNuNSd9cSYQYmihnjAkes6rgb9GwMlYPIwvuAYUgf2WHEcUizJtocnV2kCiC3-o5IQp_yOdJQrGVlItff9CluJzmbnHPpRAY5q4Ggb0MnzCqvzt1lX1eXL9SIFR-Z5HsWRKu6oRYnHKm-_Gu789g/w640-h360/Losco-figuro-con-panorama.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTnHaAs2Qal86LEjGTDILxsP5aESPQq2it6qxkEnrRw6wWx49iB3visfOMbVUUvfeA4p71Oic-CD1RVXko0HEXItb_Q4yH7ZeIJPmclcE-1DnvgRvSOv1ae828BmKKz_J_2z3OFN35GrHSO0T5hughoQk1tmkC1LlonJlmvjsKF08iJIGnlQy0ZqhG/s540/tumblr_1743a829a510e476e1e36a5f566bd828_f41f0f8b_540.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="540" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTnHaAs2Qal86LEjGTDILxsP5aESPQq2it6qxkEnrRw6wWx49iB3visfOMbVUUvfeA4p71Oic-CD1RVXko0HEXItb_Q4yH7ZeIJPmclcE-1DnvgRvSOv1ae828BmKKz_J_2z3OFN35GrHSO0T5hughoQk1tmkC1LlonJlmvjsKF08iJIGnlQy0ZqhG/w640-h426/tumblr_1743a829a510e476e1e36a5f566bd828_f41f0f8b_540.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHo0vEZ8NOXp-sOhvMHPYWI-x0mXi6smz4cCytgEyBMQ8dQHbQyoZs5S_EXt_bVVLgF35g4XZ_91foHEOiXH3dLIVVVcJNFmicTKmK9OeNWe2cUyZpFeQpoN33sWPNj3nn5Jq7L2Y05Fm9pwM17wVAODFgcA5aUk8qNJqf_QutmZqySFERbvPdN5jc/s528/tumblr_03ef8aac873b47cbf3979129aa6883a7_8d5fd0b4_540.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="528" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHo0vEZ8NOXp-sOhvMHPYWI-x0mXi6smz4cCytgEyBMQ8dQHbQyoZs5S_EXt_bVVLgF35g4XZ_91foHEOiXH3dLIVVVcJNFmicTKmK9OeNWe2cUyZpFeQpoN33sWPNj3nn5Jq7L2Y05Fm9pwM17wVAODFgcA5aUk8qNJqf_QutmZqySFERbvPdN5jc/w640-h424/tumblr_03ef8aac873b47cbf3979129aa6883a7_8d5fd0b4_540.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWJTfx2xRXXZrxLK2-jR6Ik-NSrlzzhwbLKyWymwgGRXTjlbC4PyImthTUOTAErb6GQZwwO9tXs5334xmPlSMkbpPNPG2OyklbbghgwQ_CRL84ewwDLjtFFsaSfC6RM5WsMKEMZHalg56qtg8yzL1uph-Qlv2HOAixuDeukf-1-ixMop5vIr5xLQim/s1200/Le-Statue-di-Fantasmi-sul-Lago-di-Como.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWJTfx2xRXXZrxLK2-jR6Ik-NSrlzzhwbLKyWymwgGRXTjlbC4PyImthTUOTAErb6GQZwwO9tXs5334xmPlSMkbpPNPG2OyklbbghgwQ_CRL84ewwDLjtFFsaSfC6RM5WsMKEMZHalg56qtg8yzL1uph-Qlv2HOAixuDeukf-1-ixMop5vIr5xLQim/w640-h426/Le-Statue-di-Fantasmi-sul-Lago-di-Como.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjFBH1MyHH1izynPG1MzxVljiQqINpb5RUD74hLfx01mGDG_syMxG7FUxMcjf4lSiFkfegOe0OajajEpsimxb-JDS1K4tjq9ZuCdcJh98VJbX_hKKDtQ9Zv1clAtdAG2gi7Gaig-nX17aYOBzQ3Q_hWlu-kVd9Pr0MJ0W_GIEBzWqpUicr6BBwvgtM/s2400/5d9ef11379875Ghost%20at%20Castello%20di%20Vezio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2400" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjFBH1MyHH1izynPG1MzxVljiQqINpb5RUD74hLfx01mGDG_syMxG7FUxMcjf4lSiFkfegOe0OajajEpsimxb-JDS1K4tjq9ZuCdcJh98VJbX_hKKDtQ9Zv1clAtdAG2gi7Gaig-nX17aYOBzQ3Q_hWlu-kVd9Pr0MJ0W_GIEBzWqpUicr6BBwvgtM/w640-h426/5d9ef11379875Ghost%20at%20Castello%20di%20Vezio.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-20958104998710177532020-10-10T09:57:00.000-07:002020-10-10T09:57:12.838-07:00The Quest for Spiritual Orgasm by Michael Winn 2002<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZObwNJ__KwYkHl8NIw5XPHLEPe2QjBmbtIdxk7M_IvBp-ePCPvMfy9g2i3Uro39nKxOfJKJofFksDAr6T9KNN08ANWD96PdVAETphG7GCIVKxe9yqbw3DMgGRS4GmJBu4-KEPKxErMwE/s674/Screen+Shot+2020-10-10+at+11.52.41+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="674" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZObwNJ__KwYkHl8NIw5XPHLEPe2QjBmbtIdxk7M_IvBp-ePCPvMfy9g2i3Uro39nKxOfJKJofFksDAr6T9KNN08ANWD96PdVAETphG7GCIVKxe9yqbw3DMgGRS4GmJBu4-KEPKxErMwE/w640-h426/Screen+Shot+2020-10-10+at+11.52.41+AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem;">By abstaining from intercourse, the spirit has no opportunity for expansiveness, yin and yang are blocked and cut off from one another. – Classic of Su Nu (Wile,1992, 7)</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Sexual love can be one of the most powerful human experiences. Over the past two thousand years, certain Daoist and Tantric cultures sought to tap the power of sexuality to cultivate elevated spiritual states of awareness and achieve immortality. These practices appear to have originated in China and India and later spread to Tibet and elsewhere in Asia. Daoism and Tantrism are both experiential approaches to life, and share similar microcosmic-macrocosmic theories of the human body as an inner mirror of outer Nature. The body-centered cosmology of each has led to a spectrum of sexual practices that range from ritualized physical sexual intercourse to celibacy accompanied by conscious subtle-body love making. (Bokemkamp, 1997, 43; Wile 1992, 25, White, 2000, 15).</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Both posit a multi-dimensional universe governed by divine, all pervading polar energies identified in Tantra as Shakti-Shiva deities or in Daoism as the yin-yang forces of Heaven and Earth. These polar forces arise from a mysterious non-dual unity, whose dance within the physical plane follows a five-fold pattern of harmony governed by five families of deities or five phase principles. Both offer alchemical maps, often hidden within mandalas interiorized within the body – yantras in Tantra and I Ching (Yijing) patterns in Daoism – that can be fully understood only by the initiated adept. These subtle body maps allow the adept to navigate the apparent chaos of conflicting physical and sexual desires to find the way to the true self at the still center of the drama of creation. Despite these underlying similarities in their cosmology, the Tantric and Daoist methods of sexual cultivation, both physical and subtle body, are radically different.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Since the late 1970’s Daoist-Tantric sexual practices have been widely publicized and taught in the West. As a student, teacher, and private scholar of these practices during this period, I took it upon myself to “test” the methods of different Tantric and Daoist schools that washed up on Western shores. I was driven by an intense curiosity about the nature my own sexuality, which I intuitively felt to be central to my spiritual evolution. This journey led me to travel widely in China and India to investigate the cultural context of these practices and discern their differences as paths emphasizing Fire (Tantric) or Water and Fire (Daoist).</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">My goal is to show how Western sexual needs have shaped the teachers and teachings of Daoist and Tantric sexual practices in the West. I will examine the sexual behavior, attitudes, lineage, and methods of different teachers, and if their practices were largely re-invented or presented in radically different ways from traditional Asian lineages. I hope to clarify the relation between physical sex, subtle body sex, the issue of celibacy, and traditional distinction between medical-therapeutic sexual practices and mystical approaches to sexuality. I’ll explore why sexuality is so crucial to spiritual transformation, and to describe the different kinds of subtle body orgasm one might evoke using Daoist and Tantric methods.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1.1rem;">The broad framework of my study is that (1) there is a deep tension in every human being between a non-sexual, non-dual core Being and a sexually polarized male-female Body. This tension is alleviated by development of an intermediate Energy Body that is androgynous (both male and female) in nature, and which is the deepest drive behind all forces of spiritual evolution. (2) This tension between Being and Body is so powerful that most “Enlightenment” states cannot bridge it, despite claims to the contrary. It is only bridged by what are called Immortality practices in both Tantra and Daoism.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1.1rem;">In general, I found more detailed medical and internal sexual practices available in the Daoist tradition, described in a concluding overview. This paper is titled The Quest for Spiritual Orgasm because in the course of teaching sexual practices to Westerners, I have polled thousands of students to find out why they are learning a sexual practice. Asked to select between understanding their sexuality, improved sexual performance, better love relationships, and having a spiritual orgasm, about eighty percent choose spiritual orgasm.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Because the river of Daoist and Tantric history is so vast, with so many tributaries, generalizations are inevitable in my thumbnail sketches of a wide array of teachers and teachings I encountered. The obstacle to all research on sexuality is widespread lying and concealment. Subtle body sex complicates this problem, since by definition the Daoist-Tantric experience of the body-as-divine-cosmos-copulating-within-itself is personal in nature. In the spirit of creating a new openness about delicate sexual-spiritual issues, and to vivify the reader’s senses, I often shift to a first person narrative. I accept (on behalf of my unnamed informants) full responsibility for any inaccuracies in my brief footnote to this chapter of Western religious history.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Sexual Revolution as Cultural Context</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1.1rem;">Tantrics and Daoists have often assumed the role of rebelling against the prevailing social and sexual values, which were dominated by a strict caste system in India and overtly anti-female values of Confucianism in China. Tantrics and Daoists were also early experimenters with “external alchemy”, the use of mind-altering natural substances to quicken one’s spiritual evolution. It is not surprising that their ideas came into widespread popularity in the West during a period of widespread cultural rebellion in the 1960’s with mind expanding drugs, pelvic-undulating rock music, and a pill-provoked Free Love movement, all designed to topple Establishment values. The Western sexual revolution occurred without any Eastern stimulus; but once it was happening, it needed somewhere to go, and Tantric and Daoist teachings offered a new and more spiritual direction into which the sexual revolution could mature. If we imagine that planet earth has a single global libido, I suspect these ancient teachings would have surfaced any place where sexual freedom was exploding.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">It is important to first remove a naivete common to Westerners about oriental sexual practices. Teachers of traditional sexology, whether medical or spiritual, are difficult to find today in either China or India. On seven trips to China, despite an extensive network of Daoist contacts, no one knew of a single teacher of Daoist sexual cultivation, even though all were well aware of its historical and textual presence. There are two reasons. One, Daoist sexology has a bad historical reputation for being abused and used to promote sexual vampirism, making it risky to teach in Communist culture. Two, as Fang Ru Ruan’s Sex in China study notes, ancient China produced the world’s oldest and most detailed sexology texts, but modern China is one of the most sexually repressed countries in the world – sale of pornography is punishable by death. As the neo-Reichian Yugoslav filmmaker Dusan Makaveich showed in his 1972 film Mysteries of the Organism, there is an inversely proportional relationship between political repression and sexual freedom. This seems to be born out by recent medical reports in mainland China of increasingly widespread sexual dysfunction. Most current Daoist books on sexology are coming from Taiwan and Hong Kong, often centered around trained courtesans (Lai 2001, McNeil 1999), or from Chinese living in Thailand (Chia/Winn 1984, Chia 1986, 1996, 2000).</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Three trips to India, numerous contacts and books on Tantra convinced me the situation there is not much different. Mainstream educated Hindus are puritanical in their sexual mores, and Tantrism is seen as low caste and morally suspect excuse for black magic, especially seduction spells (vashikarana), suitable for entertaining stories but not serious pursuit. It is an underground subculture, with a invisible subset of adepts skilled in the esoteric sexual rites described in classical Tantric scriptures, erotic paintings and sculpture. Tantric practices are kept alive by secrecy: “publicly Vedic, secretly Tantric” is the Indian aphorism that summarizes the situation. My thesis is that amongst the Tantric male teachers who brought their sexual wares to the West, few had any actual training in physical sexual practices. I believe most recreated them from ancient texts or invented them out of their own needs or the expectations of their Western students.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Asian sexual practices would likely not have taken root in the West except for the ground being prepared by Sigmund Freud (d. 1939), his students Carl Jung (d.1961)and Wilhelm Reich (d.1957), and the early sex researcher Havelock Ellis (d.1939). The widespread acceptance of the theory of sexual impulse being a fundamental shaping force of the personality opened Westerners to the Daoist-Tantric metaphysic that went one step further, giving sexuality a key role in spiritual evolution. Jung expanded this greatly with his explorations into eastern mysticism, writing introductions to both Tantric and Daoist esoteric texts. In his essay on the Secret of the Golden Flower, Jung tried (without success, in my opinion) to impose his anima-animus psychological archetypes on yin-yang theory. Jung lacked the practical energetic methodologies (beyond “talk” therapy) for directly experiencing and guiding these subconscious male-female forces in the body into superconscious states.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Reich tried to fill this gap, and died in prison in the U.S. for spreading his teachings and devices promoting a universe – and human body – centered around orgasm, through the medium of “orgone”, similar to prana in India and qi in China. The ideas of these psychologists later became increasingly mainstream, and set the stage in 1972 for bestselling self-improvement books like The Joy of Sex, by Alex Comfort, a scholar of Tantric erotic art and philosophy. The appearance of crazy wisdom teachings from Tibetan Buddhist Tantrics like Chogyam Trungpa (d.19 89) inspired beatniks and poets like Allen Ginsberg, who as a homosexual in a homophobic society was attracted to a teaching claiming enlightenment could be achieved by following and completing your ordinary desires.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Two early major stimuli to the growth of Asian sexual practices in the West were 1) publication of From Sex to Super Consciousness (1974) by Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh and his growing popularity as a “sex guru” of Tantric and new age mysticism, and (2) publication of the bestselling Sexual Secrets (1979) by Nik Douglas and Penny Slinger , with classical texts and six hundred illustrations of Tantric and Daoist sexual iconography. Unlike previous erotic art books, it offered a living spiritual path. These events put images and a vision of sexual-spiritual liberation into popular media with a psychology accessible to Westerners.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Nik Douglas was an English rock music producer who went to India for eight years in the 60’s, several of them wandering about as a Tantric sadhu, stirring the ashes of his guru’s sacred dhouni fire. Douglas made the first film on Tantra in English, financed by Mick Jagger — a clear statement of alignment between Tantra and rock music subcultures. Douglas published Chakra magazine in India and had an indirect but pivotal role in introducing the Beatles to their guru, Maharishi Mahesh. This subsequently gave other Indian gurus instant rock star status, promoting their teachings to the rebel youth culture in the West. Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation movement passes itself off as Vedic, and completely avoids sexual issues and practices. But as Douglas points out in his history of Tantra, Spiritual Sex (1997), the TM power mantras given to initiates, chosen by birthdate, are Tantric. The Vedas themselves are hymns to be sung, but do not offer mantras, which Douglas traces to the older Dravidian vegetative fertility cults in India.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Traditionally, in Hindu Tantra a lineage tranmission is essential, a personal initiation by a guru. Rajneesh (1931-90) was an Indian professor of philosophy who basically had no guru – he got his initiation from books. From his wide readings and direct experimentation, Rajneesh “self-invented” a Tantric path for Westerners to explore themselves. He forbade his Indian followers from using the techniques devised for Westerners, as he felt that Western minds worked differently. He had a genius for translating obscure mystical concepts into a workable Western psychology. He offered Westerners exactly what they wanted: freedom from guilt about sex, the promise of enlightenment, and a smorgasboard of workshops led by followers that allowed them to explore and integrate their eclectic mix of Eastern and Western methods. Having no lineage, he invented a feeling of lineage for Westerners by requiring them to wear swami-like robes.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Rajneesh set the stage for his Western followers to appropriate the five element Tantric chakra system and psychologize it to fit their own spiritual needs and Western archetypes. This trend towards a “self-invented” spirituality became a hallmark of the New Age movement in the West. Tantra and Daoism both have a long history of experimenting with and absorbing new spiritual technologies, so I do not use the term “self-invented” pejoratively, but only to distinguish it from teachings adopted from traditional lineages in India or China.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Nik Douglas, who met Rajneesh in India before he was famous, told me his main recollection him was of a “nice professor type who wanted me to set him up with intellectual Western girls who would fuck”. This suggests an early stage of trying to reconcile his sexual and intellectual identities. Rajneesh was later touted as the “sex guru” by the media because he told his followers to have as much sex as they could possibly tolerate until they no longer desired it. This was his novel application of a traditional Tantric principle of using ordinary desire to obtain enlightenment. At seminars he would begin by requiring everyone to strip off their clothes and sniff the armpits and genitals of a member of the opposite sex. Rajneesh reportedly entered a phase of natural celibacy between the ages of forty-two and fifty-five, so he was not having sex at the height of his fame as a sex guru. This highlights the paradox, found in many traditional Tantric and Daoist lineages, of an approach that advocates celibacy yet employs sexual energy as the main force in their meditation.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Personal Account: Kundalini Rising in the West</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">My own first spiritual initiation experience offers a snapshot of how Tantric methods leapt across cultural lines without a lineage to define it, and how the Tantric-induced experience of kundalini, the female Shakti force rising within the body, itself blurred the boundary between the sexual and the spiritual. I was working as a free lance war correspondent in Africa in 1978. Enroute to the airport leaving the U.S. I grabbed Rajneesh’s Book of Secrets, his compilation of a hundred different Tantric methods. I had never heard of Rajneesh. Later, stuck waiting for a visa in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, I had time to browse the book.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">I had never had a guru or any meditation training. Rajneesh’s Book of Secrets overwhelmed me with the number of techniques in it. So I picked the simplest one I could find, a breathing method. It instructed me to follow my inhalation and exhalation, while gradually increasing the length of the pause between breaths. I got deep into the process, lying on a straw mattress in a sweltering $3. per night flea bag hotel, shared with a black South African refugee whose epileptic seizures were my only distraction. I practiced for three to five hours at a time, and found I could slow my breath down until the pauses seem to last interminably.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">One day, after two weeks practice, I felt my breath stop completely. During a long pause between breaths, I entered a deep, peaceful state, and felt I no longer needed to breathe air. Suddenly my whole body shook, then exploded in an intense orgasm and I watched myself catapulted into the space around me, with a clear vision of my body expanding rapidly through the walls of the room. After this initial explosion, I felt like a mushroom cloud above a nuclear blast, with the debris of my former consciousness blown to bits and slowly raining back down on my transparent body in blissful droplets. I was shocked, scared, and excited.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">I realized I had entered some other dimension of myself, and decided I had to make it a priority in life to find a way to stay connected to it. I decided to give up meat, drugs, and sex, the latter decision particularly shocking to me as at that time I was prone to having three girlfriends at once. Since my beyond-the-body experience was a thousand times more orgasmic than the best sexual orgasm I had previously experienced, being celibate didn’t seem to matter. I didn’t know it then, but I had entered the realm of my subtle bodies and their spontaneously orgasmic properties. I had no guru or formal initiation, my only teacher was a book, yet I found myself celibate, on the Tantric path, and questing for a repeat spiritual orgasm.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">When I returned to New York, I hunted down the nearest Rajneesh ashram, a dingy cellar in Tribeca. I did Rajneesh’s Dynamic Meditation to arouse the kundalini, but it didn’t work for me, and I didn’t like the “group grope” feeling of the people there. I didn’t want strangers grappling with my newly delicate energy field, and the methods seemed to lack sufficient internal focus. The only book in print that seemed to confirm the reality of my experience was Gopi Krishna’s Kundalini:The Serpent Power, an account of his twelve year ordeal with his kundalini current run wild, finally cured by simply eating meat. Krishna published many later books claiming the kundalini – the dance of the ida (solar), pingala (lunar), and sushumna (central) currents of prana up the spine — was the evolutionary force behind all genius and all genetic evolution. When I interviewed Gopi Krishna shortly before his death in 1984, I was not impressed by his spiritual presence. He seemed very intellectual, an Indian pundit with thick black glasses whose energy was mostly in his head.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1.1rem;">I began practicing White Tantric Yoga, taught by Yogi Bhajan and his 3HO organization, and found that it systematically stimulated and sustained the blissful experience I had in Africa. I practiced this system of kundalini yoga daily for four years, which employed a rigorous combination of yogic asanas (postures), “breath of fire” (rapid belly breathing), yogic locks (squeezing different body parts tightly), mudras (hand positions) and mantras. I took ice cold showers at 4 am, and found my sleep needs reduced to four hours. I also began experiencing different siddhis or spiritual powers, ranging from bursts of telepathy and foreknowledge of the future (useful in planning my free lance writing career) and, more dramatically, having repeated experiences of the entire universe collapsing into a single point. I would be immobilized for up to an hour, as if my being were condensed into a heavy steel ball at the center of the universe, with a contracting pressure so intense not even my mind could escape its gravitational power.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Being a self-employed writer, I was able to practice four to eight hours a day. The link between kundalini and sexuality was self-evident. My testicles pulsed day and night, I could feel and internally hear my sexual energy rushing up my spine and throbbing in my third eye. At other times I experienced fiery sexual-like currents of electricity flowing throughout my body. I felt like I had discovered organic LSD, and walked about in an ecstatic state, feeling ten foot tall and looking down from above my head into the mundane reality below. I was still celibate, but had so much sexual energy I masturbated daily to release the pressure. My conversion of sexual energy into blissful subtle energy must have been unbalanced, as it eventually led to a weakening of my physical body. This subsequently led to my shift to Daoist inner sexual alchemy practices.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">I was told that I was practicing the traditional ancient science of Tantra, but later investigations by myself and others into Yogi Bhajan raised serious questions as to whether his methods were “self-invented” from a hodgepodge he had collected while formerly a customs official in Delhi. Bhajan had no identifiable guru, no specific Tantric lineage or school, and had mixed his yogic methods with a curious blend of religious worship of Sikhism. I went to the Punjab state in India, and widespread inquiries produced no one who had ever heard of any Sikh Tantrics there. This is not to judge Bhajan’s methods as ineffective, but simply to note the pattern of self-invented Tantrics coming to the West to seek a following. One of his innovations was to line up male yogis and female yoginis facing each other in long rows, up to a hundred people in length. They would stare into their opposite sexed partner’s eyes while doing rapid breath of fire in different asanas, building up a tremendous sexual energy field that would shift into a higher octave of shared collective bliss.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Bhajan offered little real training on sexual energy management, other than the advice to limit sex to once a month with a married partner. The only specific technique for men was to sit with their perineum over the heel (mulabanda), to block the upward flow of sexual feeling from going out the penis. Yet his ashrams, with serene white-turbaned and long-bearded Western yogis, were filled behind the scenes with frequent sexual affairs between adepts who could not follow their guru’s admonitions. One of Bhajan’s inner circle at the time revealed to me the existence of lawsuits against Bhajan (who was married) by female followers for sexual abuse, and told of a coterie of sexual favorites and “deviant” sexual practices in his inner Tantric circle.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">A different yogi, also a leader in 3HO, later left to become a Daoist student of Mantak Chia, from whom he learned the Microcosmic Orbit meditation, a method of circulating energy up the spine and down the front channels of the body. This radically differed from kundalini yoga in suggesting the subtle energy circulated in endless loops instead of a linear flow from lower chakra to upper chakra to union with an absolute self somewhere above the head. The Orbit is also the key Daoist channel for circulating sexual energy. Before he left Bhajan’s organization, Bhajan’s lieutenant introduced the Microcosmic Orbit meditation into the White Tantric practice. It later became standard practice to help ground the many spacy yogis, who, like myself, were literally floating out of their bodies. America had become an accelerated microcosm of the Orient, where different Tantric and Daoist schools traded methods over the centuries along the Silk Road trade routes.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Bhajan’s pattern of appearing sexually conservative in public while engaging in sexual practices in private was common in other Tantric gurus in the 1980’s, most famously Swami Rama of the Himalayan Institute in Honesdale, Pennsylvania and Swami Muktananda at his Siddhi Yogi ashram in New York’s Catskill Mountains. Both were discovered to be giving “Tantric initiations” to dozens of young female devotees in the guru’s private boudoir. There is a tradition in Indian Tantra of gurus initiating with a drop of semen or saliva, or performing ceremonial sexual rites where sexual union with a low caste or untouchable virgin female is used by male adepts to enter a divine state of union (White, 1996).</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">But the Tantric sex scene in America more closely resembled the groupie music and movie star scene. The young girls who were “gifted” with the guru’s initiating lingam (penis) reported that it was quick sex, and felt like a man masturbating inside them, with no deep ceremonial, emotional, or spiritual connection made. There was no body-specific training in the Siddha Yoga program at that time in transmuting sexual energy into spiritual energy, other than what occurred naturally through devotional chanting. All the acharyas (novitiates) and Western swamis had to take strict vows of celibacy. Swami Rama’s followers were particularly galled by his insistence that male and female yoga students were not allowed to hold hands, under penalty of being expelled from the ashram.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Was this seemingly compulsive sexual behavior by enlightened masters a kind of crazy wisdom, an intentionally paradoxical Tantric behavior that we morality-bound Westerners could not understand, or was there something else going on here? Thousands of followers would testify to the spiritual powers of these men. For me, it raised a new question: is it possible to be spiritually enlightened, and at the same time be an emotional and sexual midget? Over time, my later study of Daoist subtle body development suggested this was likely the case. Muktananda and Rama were trained by Tantrics that emphasized austerities, including abstention from sex, while driving all energy into the head to nourish the spiritual body. They likely had no previous sexual experience in India.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">These head centered (third eye and crown) practices are typical of “fire” school methods for achieving rapid enlightenment, which often suppress physical body urges to achieve this expanded head-enlightened state. These repressed sexual urges can later suddenly emerge powerfully, amplified by the active fire energy of the adept’s spiritual body seeking to ground itself in the sexual waters of the earth plane/physical body. The trigger activating this release could have been the shift from the sexually repressive culture of India to the free-sex culture of New York. The unconscious desire of the young female devotees to have sex with their guru may also have been a factor; to Rama and Muktananda’s opened subtle vision these sexual desires may have been perceived consciously, and they may have been simply unable to resist an opportunity to seek balance for their excess spiritual fire.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">A Tantric might argue these events were simply life offering a new opportunity for exploration by all concerned, to be viewed without any moral judgement. But was there a patriarchal blindness and excess male-fire insensitivity to the very goddess Shakti force which Tantrics universally claim to worship? Swami Rama escaped to India for two years at the height of his scandal to let things cool off. When he returned, I had the opportunity to personally ask him, what is the purpose of sexuality in spiritual evolution? His answer was evasive, mentioning that some cultures allowed multiple wives, implying sexual-spiritual development was completely culture-determined rather than obeying some cosmic law.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Muktananda was brought to the West in 1971 by his student Albert Rudolph, a Brooklyn Jew and art dealer who, after falling out with Muktananda, proclaimed himself as Swami Rudrananda (“Rudi” to his followers) and donned traditional swami saffron robes. Rudi was open about his Tantric self-inventedness, and was open about his sleeping with both male and female followers to intensify their spiritual awakening. His honesty about this was refreshing and shocking, exemplified by his book titlle, Spiritual Cannibalism. I saw from a video of Rudi that he had excess kundalini, causing his head to whip back and forth ferociously. Rudi’s creative re-invention of an American Tantra was cut short by a 1973 plane crash. He trained a new generation of American Tantrics who spread his experimental approach to Tantrism, often blending it with Tibetan Tantric and later Daoist alchemical teachings.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Two of Rudi’s top students, John Mann and Lar Short, exchanged teachings with me and my first Daoist teacher Mantak Chia in the mid 80’s when Chia rented Rudi’s Big Indian ashram in the New York Catskills. Some of that ended up in The Body of Light (1988), Mann and Short’s comparison of the subtle bodies in the Hindu, Buddhist, and Daoist traditions. Chia learned from them the Tibetan Powa technique of shooting one’s essence (bindu) out of the physical body before death, which he borrowed and integrated into his Daoist teachings. This ejected essence is, in my view, the sexual-spiritual substance that allows one to create a new incarnation, a specialty in the Tibetan tradition. While editing the Daoist chapter in The Body of Light I took of number of their Tantric initiations, and tried Rudi’s experimental method of making sexual love with any astral beings met while travelling in the subtle planes. I later rejected this (and the powa practice) as unnecessary and potentially distracting to the process of Daoist inner sexual alchemy. The low astral plane is filled with half-beings of low vibration and hidden agendas. In Daoist alchemy one is kept busy sexually coupling sun, moon, planet and star energies of higher frequencies.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1.1rem;">One discovery that emerged from our sharing of Daoist, Tantric, and Bon Dzogchen teachings absorbed into Tibetan Buddhism was the clear similarity of Daoist alchemy subtle body coupling using pearls and channels to the completion stage annutarayoga Tantric practices with its colored male and female drops and winds. Detailed in Geshe Gyatso’s Clear Light of Bliss (1982), these vajrayoga practices emphasize the value of having a physical sexual consort to speed the opening of the heart needed for highest attainment and interpenetrating mind awareness.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">John Mann later developed an innovative two person Tantric meditation method called Divine Androgyny, which I consider a quintessential Tantric sexual coupling of higher subtle bodies. A male and female adept sit five feet or further apart from one another and do nothing except stare in each other’s eyes and surrender to whatever flows through. This creates a build up in the sexually polarized subtle energy field between them which eventually begins to pulsate. If the adepts are highly skilled and attuned, the pulsating field becomes quite intense, tangible to anyone sitting in between, and can result in deep healing for all involved in the process. (Mann, 2000)</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">In the late 70’s and early 80’s I also took a series of Tibetan Tantric initiations from two lineage heads, the Karmapa and Dalai Lama. I never pursued these practices in depth, as I did not feel drawn to their complex mandalas of visualized deities and their guru worship. But friends who studied Tibetan Buddhist Tantrism reported they kept their sexual practices very secret from Westerners.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1.1rem;">A Western female acquaintance went on a three-year Buddhist retreat, believing she would practice various austerities. She afterwards reported the retreat was a “veritable Peyton Place,” with lusty Lamas besieging her to become a consort and thus speed their path to enlightenment. I heard reliable reports of another lama who insisted all the western women on retreat become his consort. Two of the four major Tibetan sects require celibacy, but all four teach methods for sublimating sexual energy into subtle bodies, projected as various deities. Skill in this kind of astral projection creates the possibility of “astral sex affairs” that occur mostly in dream time or meditative states.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">A different female friend, involved in helping Tibetan teachers, confided to me she was under “astral rape” attack for months by a Tibetan Tantric practitioner who became obsessed with her as his consort after she terminated a brief sexual affair. I shared with her some Daoist methods for defining the boundaries of one’s subtle bodies, which seemed to help. Sexual intercourse opens subtle body connections that can be extremely difficult to dissolve. Men become obsessed with pornography for the same reason: they are having astral sex with their own projected fantasy in the low astral plane, the subtle body closest to the physical.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Any divorced or separated couple also knows too well how difficult it is to cut the bonds of sexual attachment, especially in cases of first true love. This is often because their sexual energy bodies have been “glued” together in the low astral plane. My own experience is that this can go beyond a strong subtle body sexual relationship. It may involve the exchange of what the Daoists call the jingshen, the vital organ spirits that animate the personal body. It is difficult to separate from someone else because a part of them is actually living inside your body, and vice versa. Similar situation may be found in certain deep child-parent relationships, and is intensified by unspoken sexual polarity. This is a vast topic, beyond the scope of this paper, but it does imply a spontaneous and high level of subtle body sex that is usually unconsciously willed.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">California Tantra</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">One of Rudi’s New York students was Franklin Jones (b. 1939), who left Rudi to try Scientology for a year before starting his own movement. Jones moved to California and became the self-proclaimed God-man and World Teacher Da Free John (later changed to numerous other names). It appeared Da Free John had such an extreme case of rising kundalini heat that it permanently burned off his hair. Jones-Free John is clearly a case of second generation Western self-invented Tantrism, a showman who created a Wizard of Oz mystique by teaching from behind panels, too sacred to be viewed by his followers. He later added a modern twist. He currently lives on an island in Fiji, surrounded by multiple wives and “gopis” (female devotees-lovers), and daily instructs his followers in a California ashram in the most minute aspects of their lives by computer email. Jones may be another Tantric case of excess fire seeking female sexual water to<span style="font-size: 1.1rem;"> cool and ground itself.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">The California Tantra scene in the 1980’s and 90’s was blossoming with its own flavor, and students (mostly of Rajneesh) sprang up teaching Tantric workshops. These typically were taught in the nude, and often encouraged participants to sexually partner with a stranger, with instructions to first tune into them by breathing together and holding one’s hand over their partner’s heart. This extremely simplified and re-invented Tantric sex ritual for Westerners may have cemented the media definition of Tantra as being primarily a practice of spiritualized sexual intercourse, which of course it never was in India. Even the famed Tantric ritual of the “Five M’s” (pancha makara) that culminated with coitus (maithuna) was proceeded by mantric initiation and ordinarily required lengthy prior subtle body training (Tigunait, 1999). But Californians wanted both quick sex and quick enlightenment, the latter being one promise of Tantra, and so market demand attracted the teacher supply to satisfy it.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">This public sexual intercourse in a group workshop setting seems to be an enduring part of the Western reinvention of Tantra. It fits a general Tantric pattern of defying public mores for the purpose of shocking someone into enlightenment, but I put it more into the category of psycho-therapeutic or medical sexual therapy than subtle body practice. Participants are usually guided to take the sexual energy up the chakras in the spine, but may have little or no prior training in meditation or in stabilizing internal states of consciousness with mantra, yantra, internally created alchemical symbols or visualizations, or mudras, the hallmarks of traditional Hindu Tantrism. This may be because Rajneesh, the self-invented Tantric guru of many of them, did not himself have lineage training in these methods. Rajneesh also did not believe mantra was suitable for Westerners, as he felt it produced a soporific state of self-hypnosis in which it was difficult to be fully present in the body.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">In 1997 I met Jwala, a women who had been one of the first teachers on the California Tantra scene in 1980. Her practice of Tantric initiation involved gently masturbating men while guiding them to move their sexual energy up the chakras to their heart and head, and counseling them on sexual issues. She confirmed my perception of California Tantrism being more focused on physical sexuality as therapy, exemplified by her own professed challenge to spiritual progress in terms of building a stable subtle body awareness. I knew by then that if there is excessive focus on physical sexuality, the subtle body energy is pulled down and eventually dispersed.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">This limitation of focusing excessively on physical sex may prove to be the force that moves California style Tantrism towards subtle body sexual cultivation practices. In 2000 I taught the Daoist inner sexual alchemy practices of Lesser Water and Fire in Switzerland. One of my students was the director of a Tantric Institute in Germany that was using Rajneesh inspired methods taught by Margo Anand, whose teachings and first book The Art of Ecstasy, was also influential amongst California Tantrics. (This book borrowed the Inner Smile technique from the books I had written with Chia, as well as material from Nik Douglas’ Sexual Secrets, both without acknowledgement, which we both gracefully accepted at the time as her hidden fear of not having a tradition behind her). At the end of the retreat, this student, a male, broke down in tears. “I have been teaching and helping so many people with their sexuality”, he said. “But I have been personally at a dead end, I could not get beyond the boundary of my physical maleness and the limitations of physical sex. I was feeling very frustrated. But now I have a very great gift from you and from the Dao, the subtle love-making between my inner male and female souls. Now I have a way to move forward!”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1.1rem;">Kriya Yoga: Tantra and Celibacy</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">In 1983, two years after I had shifted my main practice from White Tantric Yoga to Daoist internal alchemy, I stumbled onto Kriya Yoga, a Tantric method taught by Swami Paramhamsa Hariharananda Giri (“Baba” to his followers). His Kriya Yoga was definitely not self-invented, but strictly followed the initiations he had received in India from Sri Yukteswar and from his student, Paramhamsa Yogananda, who founded the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) in the USA the 1920’s. Baba was later made President of Sri Yukteswar’s ashram in Puri, India, and took higher level kriya initiations from other yogis in a lineage extending back to its founder Lahiri Mahasay. Lahiri, a railroad engineer with five children, claims an immortal being named Babaji appear to him in 1862 and taught him six kriyas (Sanskrit root kri, to act, ya, divine soul). These kriyas offered a structured internal map of subtle body development, through six stages of samadhi. To objectively explore these practices, I eventually discontinued my Daoist internal alchemy practices for a few years.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Kriya Yoga is Tantric in its divinization of the body. In the first kriya, prana is circulated up and down the spine. In the second kriyas, internal seed (bij) mantras are silently chanted to infuse the spinal pathway and the multi-petalled lotuses visualized in the chakras and fifty body parts. Then the 50 letter-sounds of the sanskrit alphabet are spiralled around the cranium, activating the primordial sound which is gradually captured into the center of the cranial void space in higher kriyas. The higher kriyas drop all use of mantra as one enters the higher void spaces. Like Rajneesh, Hariharananda completely eschews all use of chanted mantra, which he considers an intermediate level of practice: “if you are busy shouting to your Mother, how can you hear God speak to you?” he would ask. In Kriya Yoga there is a typically Tantric progressive internalization of the cosmos within the body, which evolves into the experience of one’s inner soul focusing on the subtle current of sound, light, and vibration/heat in the central channel (sushumna). Baba’s private deity is Kali, the paramount Tantric goddess, who he claims has intervened to allow him an extremely long life (age 95 at this writing in 2002). He was 75 when I first met him, a few years after he arrived in the West.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Kriya Yoga is a interesting case. It was originally designed for householders, who could have sex and children, eat meat, and meditate at home to achieve enlightenment. His original technique was very Tantric in allowing one to indulge these worldly pleasures, but one had to watch from the soul level as one indulged. Lahiri insisted his students get married, and his subtle body teachings were quite sexually explicit: “I beheld the Red Lingam (“penis”) of Shiva inside of me; it contained the energy of the Sun. Then I came up to the third eye, and entered the Maha Yoni (“Great Vagina”). (Satyeswarananda, 1988) But the lineage was virtually captured and shifted into the monastic Giri (“mountain”) order of swamis who were forbidden from having sex, watching theatre, eating meat or any food cooked by a non-initiate. An American student of Baba’s visiting Benares, India ran into the grandson of Lahiri Mahasay, who complained bitterly that Kriya Yoga had been hijacked by Hindu monks.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Yogananda did not think Westerners were prepared for Kriya’s shakti power, and so only taught the first kriya to his followers, a method of circulating prana up and down the spine without mantras. Nonetheless, the SRF-simplified Kriya Yoga has spawned many splinter schools of American swamis claiming lineage and has achieved widespread acceptance in the West. Meanwhile, the SRF-promoted facade of Yogananda’s yogic purity as a celibate is beginning to crumble. I had a student whose father claimed to have been in Yogananda’s inner circle, which he reported included sexual affairs. A man closely resembling Yogananda in appearance is about to file a lawsuit to examine genetic tests by SRF to determine if Yogananda was his father. So Hariharananda may prove to be one of the few cases of complete sexual abstinence amongst Tantrics who have come to the West. He claims it was only when he gave up all sexual desire that he achieved enlightenment.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">I found Hariharananda to be a fountain of illumination and wisdom, a Brahman with a tiger’s mind who could recite the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanisads, yet who also radiated a heart that was lovingly pure and had a child-like innocence. It was impossible not to love him. After meditating for decades, at the age fifty Baba attained nirvakalpa samadhi , the sixth kriya and highest level of enlightenment possible. He is famous for his yogic power to stop both his breath and heartbeat for extended periods while in samadhi. Since then, for the last forty-five years, he has been revered as a fully realized “God man” in India. It is not my place to judge anyone’s level of spiritual attainment, but I did have the expectation was that such an evolved being would at least be sex-neutral, if not sex-positive in his attitude.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">I instead discovered he was both female-negative and sex-negative, raising the same question again: was sex and subtle body training incompatible? Or was cultural conditioning at work? Working for some years in close personal contact with Baba while editing his Bhagavad Gita in the Light of Kriya Yoga (I989), I noticed how his aversion to women also manifested itself as subtle attraction to and need for women. Privately he expressed anti-body sentiments (“from the senses down, the body is the domain of the devil”), and made anti-female comments (“if you marry a woman, they will constantly lure you to bed and weaken your power to meditate”). He often publicly recounted a favorite story of how once a foreign woman at his ashram in India had tried to seduce him. She crawled on top of him naked, but his steely control was such that neither his mind nor his penis was aroused.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Hariharananda’s top-heavy, male-fire crown chakra consciousness seemed to regularly attract yogic successors-to-be who would act out his suppressed lower desires, involving themselves in money scandals and love affairs that invariably resulted in their dismissal.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">There may be other systems of Kriya Yoga with different attitudes about sex. The editors of Tantra Magazine in the 1980’s were Kriya Yoga practitioners of a different Babaji lineage (Herakan Baba, an immortal whose followers claim he materialized in a body in India in the 1970’s) and the magazine was definitely sex-positive. But it appeared their mix of Kriya and Tantra was not by lineage training but rather an integration of their own choice, a part of the trend amongst Westerners to reshape Tantric methods to fit their own sexual and spiritual needs.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">I recount the details of my experience with Hariharananda to highlight a recurring split amongst some Tantrics (and historically, Daoists) between sexual and subtle body development: it is ok for their lay followers to have sex or get married, but the elite cadre of acharyas and swamis who attain subtle body enlightenment need to be celibate. The equation of celibacy and anti-sexual attitudes with enlightenment led me to question whether his Fire path paradigm of nirvikalpa samadhi as enlightenment was complete. Despite his worshipping Kali and using Tantric meditation methods to divinize the body, underneath he seemed to reflect a widespread patriarchal based Indian spirituality that feared the sexual power of women, and perhaps deep beneath that, an earth centered consciousness. My desire to integrate my sexual and earth nature fully was a key factor in my resuming my Daoist Water and Fire inner alchemy practices.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Daoist Sexual Cultivation in the West</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">In 1981 I became one of the first Westerners to study with Mantak Chia. He was a thirty-six year old Chinese married man working as a healer in New York’s Chinatown. He left Thailand in 1976, chased out by Thai Western style medical doctors threatened by his Bangkok center offering low-cost healing: for a few pennies people sat on a large platform, charged with a negative ion current strong enough to detoxify chronic ailments. His unorthodox approach to life served him well in the West, where he wore multiple hats as healer, martial artist, and inner alchemist. He was eager to bridge the gap between modern science and ancient Daoist methods. He was equally comfortable with medical and bedroom sexual practices (fangzhong) and the subtle body coupling employed in internal alchemy (neidangong). Most important, he was willing to openly share his knowledge with Westerners. Other books have been published in the West on Daoist medical sexology (J. Chang 1977, S. Chang 1986, Heng 1997), but they lack deep understanding of Daoist alchemy or subtle body development.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Chia had studied in the mountains behind Hong Kong with One Cloud, a Daoist hermit, who transmitted to him Seven Formulas for Immortality. These alchemical meditations offered a subtle body map of spiritual development: one stage of clearing physical blockages and opening the channels of the energy body, followed by three stages of enlightenment and three stages of immortality. It embraced a paradigm of Water and Fire (kan and li), a continuous yin-yang, female-male, earth-heaven exchange of energies through a well-defined network of physical and subtle energy body channels. But it required first harnassing one’s sexual energy as the raw fuel to be refined by spiritual practice. Sexual attraction was a very powerful aspect of one’s worldly destiny (ming). It had to be cultivated and refined before one could restore one’s original nature (xing). Sexual practice with a partner rejuvenated the physical body, but the higher practice was dual cultivation of xing and ming, essentially the sexual coupling of the spiritual and earthly dimensions of oneself.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Apart from his difficulty translating obscure alchemy terms, Chia’s teachings on Daoist alchemy and sexual energy cultivation had no complex layers of Chinese religious deities to peel off, no mantras in a foreign language, and did not require long waits prostrated at the foot of a master. Chia broke with Chinese traditions of personal initiation and secrecy, and presented a spiritual science, accessible to Westerners, based on principles of resonance between cosmic forces of Nature and the human body, mapped and refined by generations of Daoists. The alchemy formulas appear to date back one thousand years to the tenth century teachings of the semi-legendary Daoist Immortal Lu Dong Bin.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1.1rem;">Rather than employing mantra to vibrate the subtle bodies as in Tantra, Chia used a combination of physical qigong movement, natural healing sounds, and transformation obtained by alchemical coupling of polarized energies inside three subtle bodies defined by jing-qi-shen (sexual essence-subtle breath-spirit). These couplings occur within five-fold colored spheres and eight deep channels mapped as an internal mandala of spinning bagua (eight -sided shapes) derived from the Yijing.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1.1rem;">Daoist alchemy presents classical yin-yang theory as the cosmic pulsation of polarized energy around a pole (chungmo) of neutral Original Energy (yuanqi) that extends between Early Heaven (xiantian) and Later Heaven(houtian), or earth. The “ten thousand things” were procreated by the copulation of Heaven and Earth, and yin-yang is their eternal multi-orgasmic movement. The human sexual orgasm is an exquisite echo of that pulsation, and internal alchemy is the process of interiorizing within the physical body the cosmic subtle body love-making. By getting one’s human qi – especially sexual energy (jingqi) – to flow in rhythm and harmony with the hidden cycles of Nature, one’s personal energy gates open to the cosmic flow of inner light and spiritual powers (de) of the Way (Dao).</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Nurturing healthy, non-depleting physical sexual orgasm is just the beginning level. One Cloud’s internal alchemy formulas created increasingly powerful subtle body orgasm. The sexual nature of these subtle body processes was quite explicit. The key practice in the second alchemy formula (Lesser Enlightenment of Water and Fire) is entitled “Self-intercourse”. It requires the adept to revert to the androgynous state of his Early Heaven self. The adept gathers the five jingshen (deep body intelligences/spirits, or vital organ “gods”) into two primal yin (inner female) and yang (inner male) forces that copulate in the lower dantian. This fire-water copulation births an immortal embryo, made of androgynous Early Heaven yuan qi that coagulates within the adept’s physical body. This embryo is slowly birthed up the core channel, nourished by the copulation of natural sexually polarized geomantic forces within the earth below, planetary and stellar forces in heaven above, and in the sixth formula by the full sexual Congress of Heaven and Earth. All of these copulations gradually restore the yuanjing, the pre-natal and pre-sexual substance of the adept’s original nature (xing).</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Chia told me he originally sought out Daoist medical and bedroom sexual practices because a Chinese doctor read his pulses and told him at age 21 that his kidneys were weak and that he would die very young. This motivated Chia to hunt down various Chinese teachers of Daoist sexology, and pay them large sums of money to get their secrets. In Chinese medicine, “the kidneys” is a broad energetic sphere that includes the sexual organs, kidneys, bladder and their meridians, which regulate the endocrine glands, blood, bone marrow, and sexual essence (jing), all essential to long life.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Jing, the subtle substance holding the form of one’s body, is the key ingredient to apprehending the function of sexuality in this Daoist cosmology. Jing is perhaps best understood in Western terms as prime matter. Jing is the raw fuel that drives the pulsating rhythm of the body’s moment-to-moment cellular division and reproduction of itself. It generates stem cells, genes, and the sexual energy of the glands, but is not sexual energy itself.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">The jing is governed in humans by the kidney water spirit, called the zhi, literally the “will” to be in bodily form, to survive, to seek pleasure, and to fulfil a specific destiny while in a body. It is the jing that in the human animal is radiating polarized waves of male or female sexed energy we label charisma or magnetic power. In short, jing is the source of sexual desire and the feeling substance of earthiness. Without jing, spirit (shen) would not be able to embody its virtues or have direct sensory experience of physicality. If one is feeling “spiritual bliss”, the bliss part is vibrating jing. Jing is also the main source of vexation for spiritual seekers who ignore it or run from their sexual impulses in order to chase after the other end of the spectrum of consciousness, the shen or spirit body, which spreads out as an infinite sea of pure awareness. This also defines the key difference between centering a meditation in the Fire-head-shen or Water-belly-jing cauldrons within the body.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">One of the main ways Chia rebuilt his kidney jing was a method of semen retention and recirculation of sexual energy (jingqi) in the Microcosmic Orbit (xiao zhoutian). Recent scholarship suggests the Orbit began as a sexual practice to rejuvenate the brain (huanjing bunaeo) two thousand years ago and evolved to become a spiritual practice as the qi was observed to spiral inside the body. (Pregadio, 2000, 427). Skill in semen retention is essential to the successful male practice of One Cloud’s internal alchemy. Other systems of neidangong may require celibacy in the hope that it will result in the indirect or spontaneous redirection of sexual energy to the subtle bodies. But this is a hit or miss proposition, and can result instead in sexual repression. Non-celibacy requires a deliberate method of guaranteeing the sexual energy is recycled in the Orbit, which is later refined and taken up the central subtle body channel.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">How does it work? At a moment prior to ejaculation (whether in coitus with a woman or self-pleasuring), the orgasmically vibrating seminal qi is introjected by the man up his spinal yang fire channel (dumai, Governor Vessel) to refresh the brain and its master glands, the pituitary and pineal. If in coitus, the male draws up his partner’s female sexual essence (jingqi) as well, and offers his to her. When the brain is full of the rejuvenating sexual essence, it overflows down the yin front water channel (renmo, Conception Vessel) which clears and purifies qi flowing into yin meridians, heart, navel and sexual organs. The physical method can be done with a partner (dual cultivation) or without a partner (single cultivation), and is practiced using varying levels of non-aroused (cool) or aroused (hot) sexual energy.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">One goal of the medical sexual practice is to shift from a limited “genital orgasm” to a pleasurable and healing “whole body orgasm”. Slowing or stopping “ejaculation” doesn’t prevent a man from having “orgasm” or being “multi-orgasmic”. Ejaculation is physical, orgasm is chi pulsating. One should not get obsessed with “stopping” ejaculation, but focus rather on opening up the chi channels and recycling sexual energy to one’s partner until you finally ejaculate. Then this physical ejaculation does not cause major loss of jing, as the essence is already extracted. Semen retention also slows down the man’s fiery nature to stay in closer harmony with the woman’s slower cycle of arousal.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1.1rem;">Another key in sexual kung-fu is understanding the relation between the fire element in the heart and the water element in the kidneys. These fire and water essences stimulate each other and keep the other in check. By keeping proper exchange between them, one enters a steady state that opens the door to subtle body love-making. By simply keeping an open heart you protect against blind lust, which ultimately injures the kidneys because it can never be satisfied by physical sex alone. All aloneness at core is the heart spirit (shen) seeking the love, sensual touch and sexual stimulation of the kidney shen, and the kidney spirit seeking the heart’s virtue of unconditional acceptance and love. This kind of internal biological psycho-dynamics opened for Western students the field of Daoist depth psychology that is just beginning to be explored.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Changing the Western Sexual Paradigm </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">I had read of semen retention being practiced by Tantric yogis, but had assumed that I would have to sit in a Himalayan cave for twenty-five years and attain enlightenment before mastering it. Chia presented the reverse paradigm: one had to gain some mastery of semen retention (or the equivalent female practice, menstrual blood-ovary retention) before one could master the subtle body practices. Equally important, semen retention – an inner celibacy of remaining one with one’s seed essence – freed the male adept from enforced outer celibacy. Practitioners could have their cake and eat it too.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">The accessibility of this Daoist sexual practice to the average Western male offered them a radical and totally new approach to sexuality. It also offered a revolutionary and healthy way to alleviate male horniness. The learning context presented by Mantak Chia made it easy for Westerners to accept. The practices were taught in an open and accepting atmosphere, with men and women studying each other’s “esoteric biology” in a shared and fun space. After the sexual repression I had witnessed in so many Indian teachers, I was shocked and pleased by Mantak Chia’s innocent directness about sexual matters.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1.1rem;">Would these sexual teachings promote a culture of promiscuity amongst the Westerners who learned them? Chia and I delayed publication of our co-authored book on Daoist sex for nearly a year while pondering this question and its ethical ramifications. Looking back over the twenty one years that I have known Mantak Chia, I never heard a single accusation of his sexual involvement with students. Certainly there was a degree of open experimentation between male and female students attracted to one another. But there was a strong caution placed against promiscuous and indiscriminate absorption of another’s sexual energy (sexual vampirism), as sexual exchange was a double edged sword in which you also absorbed your partner’s “psychic garbage”. This meant sexual relations demanded deep transformational effort and great selectivity in choosing partners. It was the opposite approach of the Rajneesh inspired California Tantra of having sex with a stranger at a weekend workshop.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Shortly after meeting Chia, I described my White Tantric Kundalini Yoga practice to him. He diagnosed it as “heating the room” – I was driving all my sexual fire up the spine and out the crown, where it dispersed into the room. As soon as I learned to recirculate my rising kundalini energy down the front Orbit channel and began practicing semen retention, I quickly grew physically stronger and more grounded spiritually. Most Tantrics work only with the spinal fire path and not the water path in the front.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">I gradually dropped my intense Kundalini Yoga sadhana as the Daoist methods grew on me. The lure of a more effortless practice (wu wei) attuned to nature, the grounding embrace of the feminine through qigong and in the Water and Fire subtle body practices, and a poetic yet scientific approach to spiritual development were the attractions. I was also learning new practices focused on circulating sexual energy in ways I never dreamed possible – through the bone marrow, or using it to give substance to an inner “pearl”, which was circulated through the core channels and eventually into subtle body dimensions. Using the sexual essence as the catalyst to crystallize my subtle bodies in the lower dantian solved the problem I’d observed with most head-centered practices, that the “fire” – the clarity of meditative bliss – would gradually disperse in the chaos of modern life.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Later I would end up using the Orbit and other Daoist methods to heal many cases of “kundalini psychosis” – generally energy running up the wrong channel or stuck in the head. The condition is usually easy to correct if the person has not been heavily drugged by psychiatrists who do not understand the energy body. These cases were often Western Tantrics who believed, as I once did, that their energy flow was supposed to move only up the spine in a linear, one-way direction from lower to upper chakra. The Daoist model was that the energy was always moving in spirals, cycles, and orbits; the Orbit was a kind of unified chakra. Any energy movement up had to be balanced by a movement down, until one finally arrived at the still point of no movement at the intersecting center of the physical and subtle body, called the lower dantian (“field of the elixir”). This is the doorway to pre-natal jing, from which all embodiment effortlessly emanates. But to shift my spiritual focus from the third eye to my navel was extremely challenging, as my Tantric Fire teachers had always considered this a lower energy center to be swiftly left behind. It took me a while to understand that chakras are centers of post-natal energy, and are not operating at the inner dimensional depth as the dantian.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">This shift in my practice led to my writing collaboration with Chia, which over time produced seven books on qigong and neigong (“inner skill”). Chia taught me the techniques he knew, and I would test them out on myself before writing about them, often under his name. Our second book, Taoist Secrets of Love: Cultivating Male Sexual Energy (1984) catapulted him to fame, and sold hundreds of thousands of copies with virtually no advertising. The book became a key force in a larger paradigm shift in Western culture, begun earlier by an influx of Tantric ideas, that sexual and spiritual development were inseparable.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Why was a book on semen retention, radically antithetical to Western sexual values and even to Rajneesh-New Age Tantra style, so successful? One, it linked biological sex-as-natural-science to a kind of spiritual science, a comfortable fit for Western minds. This helped remove guilt promoted by Judeo-Christian religious beliefs separating sex and spirit and labeling sex as sinful. Two, the book was written in my sophisticated Western literary voice, infused with insights from from my years of Tantric practice, posing as Mantak Chia’s voice, the Daoist transmitting his oral tradition. (This was such an effective literary device for entraining readers that it created confusion among readers who met Chia. Hearing his “Chinese English” created difficulty believing he was the author). Three, there was no missionary pressure on the reader to leave one’s chosen path and join a Daoist religion. The sexual and energetic teachings were put out as the “energetic open architecture” of the Dao, from which one could take what one needed, whether for sexual health or spiritual health.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Chia and I were frankly surprised at the time by the diversity of response, and in retrospect, at the book’s contribution to the globalization of emerging new spiritual attitudes towards sexuality. We received hundreds of letters from men following many other spiritual paths -Sufi, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish – thanking us for giving them a way to stay on their chosen path and embrace their sexuality instead of repressing it. For example, the well known Catholic mystic David Stendl-Rast wrote to say the book had been of immense practical help to him and he was recommending it widely to other Catholic priests to help them deal with their celibacy.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">It was just as typical that a man with no spiritual background would show up at a “Healing Love” workshop because “I just met a girl and thought this might help.” The sexual teachings became the hook that converted many such seekers with superficial external desires into serious students of Daoist internal cultivation. This book,Taoist Secrets of Love and its later sequels – Healing Love: Cultivating Female Sexual Energy (1986), The Multi-Orgasmic Man (1996), and The Multi-Orgasmic Couple (2000) – combined with a global network that grew to one thousand Healing Tao teachers in thirty countries certified to teach Daoist sexual and subtle body practices, became a major doorway for tens of thousands of Western spiritual seekers to enter on a path of the previously obscure Daoist alchemy formulas passed on by the hermit One Cloud. (Winn, 2001)</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Daoist Female Sexual Practices in the West</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Teaching Daoist female sexual practices to Western women who expected equality of the sexes and wanted to use these practices to improve their personal relationships presented a special challenge. Douglas Wile in his definitive Art of the Bedchamber (1992) surveyed the last twenty five hundred years of Chinese texts on sexuality, and noted a progressive decline in the treatment of women and a proportional increase in patriarchal type of sex manuals in which the yin essence of women was used by male adepts for their own spiritual progress. The Chinese women who use these practices today are mostly Daoist nuns stopping their menstrual cycle because they’ve made a lifetime commitment to childless, monastic meditation – not a motivating factor for most women in the West.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">In 1983 at a Daoist retreat I met a potential female consort, Joyce Gayheart, shortly after I had conveniently decided to drop my four year experiment with celibacy, in order to test the practices I was writing about inTaoist Secrets of Love . She later became my wife and has remained my partner for the last nineteen years, offering us the opportunity to explore the full range of Daoist physical and subtle body sexual practices that require time and maturity to master. Joyce taught me directly about my own hidden yin nature. I now recognize every relationship as a transmission to one’s partner that the essence they are seeking is already hidden inside them as an inner male or inner female. In the early years we used Daoist methods to prolong physical love-making for many hours, interspersed with periods of meditation.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Our most powerful early experience together is interesting because it reversed my expectation that physical sex’s main spiritual use was to jump start our subtle body meditations. The opposite proved to be true – our subtle bodies jumped in and made love first. We had sat naked for a few minutes, facing each other in a cross legged meditation position to tune in. We were both suddenly overtaken by a powerful energy field with extremely intense and unusual vibrations. Not a word was spoken, as our mental, emotional, and speech faculties were completely suspended, but we later confirmed having an identical experience. One aspect of our consciousness began experiencing a very yang orgasm, expanding out of the bedroom faster than the speed of light, whizzing through galaxies, exploding supernovas, and then beyond. Another part of us was orgasmically imploding inward with opposite and equal force, grounding and and concentrating the great intensity in our physical bodies. After a half hour in this wonderful sacred trance, the vibrational field subsided in intensity. We afterward made physical love as planned. It was pleasurable, but seemed anti-climactic, mostly a way to digest the subtle body orgasm that had spontaneously enveloped us.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">This permanently shifted the nature of our sexual relationship. Our subtle bodies would quickly attune and we found we could exchange deep sexual energy for hours, lying beside each other, naked or clothed, without any physical stimulation or intercourse. It was a direct exchange of sexually polarized subtle bodies. As our energy bodies mingled and coupled, we were infused with loving spiritual qualities. This led us to long periods of spontaneous abstention from physical intercourse that could last for many months, but with exquisitely sublime daily subtle body coitus. As our subtle bodies crystallized and became more “real”, it eventually graduated to astral sex – the ability to intentionally exchange orgasmic subtle energy at great distances. I attribute the longevity of our relationship to this subtle body love making, and it created a very solid foundation for making advances in our individual inner alchemy practices.<span style="font-size: 1.1rem;">Joyce’s early experiences with the female sexual practices I anonymously appended to my third editing project, Healing Love: Cultivating Female Sexual Energy (1986), written under the name of Mantak and his wife Maneewan Chia. Maneewan in fact did not contribute any content to the book and appeared to me to be a non-practitioner. I was forced to resort to interviewing Joyce and dozens of Chia’s Western female students to evaluate the effectiveness of the Daoist female sexual practices because there was no pool of qualified Chinese Daoist female practitioners available.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">The female sexual practices (Ovarian Breathing, Slaying the Red Dragon, and others) focus on initially reducing or later completely stopping loss of eggs and blood through menstruation, said to be the main source of women’s loss of jing. They progress to cultivation of ovarian essence, absorbing male sexual essence and redirection of the genital orgasm up the spine and or to the lower dantian and other vital organs until full body orgasm is achieved. Its medical applications include relief of Pre-Menstrual Syndrome and menopausal hot flashes, healing of infertility (“cold womb syndrome”) and a variety of glandular and sexual dysfunction including frigidity. But application of these practices to Western women was largely experimental, due to the lack of role models. Study groups were formed to compare results, resulting in deeper levels of female sexual practice. (Piontek, 2001) Several women did completely stop their menstrual cycle through voluntary internal practice. Most used it to simply lighten the amount and color of blood flow as they learned how to detoxify their blood. But most important was the paradigm shift of women gaining control of inner sexual forces and liberation of qi trapped in the uterus using Daoist subtle body methods.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Westernizing of Daoist Sexual Practices</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Editorial collaboration by myself and other senior students with Mantak Chia resulted in the conversion of what had been a one-to-one “ear-whispered” transmission in China into an open and detailed curriculum of progressive courses that Westerners could pay for and take when they were ready. Transmission was given according to the level of the teacher and received according to the openness of the students in the course. Those who didn’t get the transmission simply took the course again. The integration of sexual energy, whether physical-sexual or subtle body sexual polarities, remained central to this curriculum.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">This process meant the information on Daoist sexual practices presented to the public was filtered through Western editors and teachers. Daoist principles were honored as the cornerstone of every practice. But the content of the books and courses was inevitably re-shaped to suit modern Western psychological and sexual needs. This included acceptance of gay, lesbian, and bi-sexual practioners; the need to enhance the sexual and emotional quality of personal relationships, the relationship of sex to sports performance and artistic or career creativity. Supportive Western sexological research was marshaled showing the difference between the prostate spasm that causes ejaculation and the whole body physiology of orgasm. We presented Western scientific biological studies relevant to semen retention and longevity, showing how nematode worms, when genetically altered to stop sperm production, lived twice as long.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">The Healing Tao organization was an educational structure created so Westerners would feel comfortable learning sometimes strange sexual practices that did not fit into the ordinary context of their culture. A good example is the Bone Marrow neigong practice of hanging weights of up to fifty pounds by a silk cord tied around the testicles and penis to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles and increase capacity to absorb sexual energy into the bone marrow. Or for women to exercise their vaginal muscles by inserting a jade egg into their womb and move it about as an internal exercise. This evolved into an innovation for women drilling holes in their jade eggs in order to also hang two or three pound weights for greater isometric effect in strengthing the internal fascia. There was “tongue kung-fu” for strengthening that versatile sexual muscle, and methods for absorbing qi directly into the genitals from the sun. Sexual energy was cultivated (often by mixing it with qi drawn up the earth) to magnify one’s power of healing oneself and others, or to add power to martial arts skills like tai chi.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Unlike Rajneesh’s promotion of Tantra in the West, there was a deliberate attempt to de-sensationalize these Daoist sexual practices. No nudity was allowed in workshops and teachers focused on them as primarily internal sexual-spiritual practices that could be practiced fully clothed, but also had optional application to the bedroom arts. California Tantrics criticized Healing Tao practitioners for their focus on semen retention, claiming it made men uptight and selfish about holding onto the seed instead of sharing it with women. This was sometimes true for men who did not integrate semen retention with other Daoist subtle body practices. I know of men who transferred old sexual patterns of guilt onto their inability to quickly master semen retention, instead of treating it as a gradual subtle body training process. In other cases, emotional struggle was created in their love relationships if men became too technique oriented. The transmission of these Daoist sexual practices to Westerners was complex, involving subtle body experiences, and not always successful.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Over the past two decades tens of thousands of Westerners learned these sexual practices with virtually no negative side effects. The few cases with side effects usually already had an extreme imbalance, and did not have a teacher, did not learn the other methods to open energy channels first, or used too much force. Yet periodically I was challenged by Chinese students who would repeat warnings from some mainland China qigong master that all sexual practices were very dangerous and should be avoided, as they can cause craziness and deep psychological disturbances. Investigation led me to conclude that these warnings were valid – but mostly for mainland Chinese, whose culture of collective “face” suppresses individual emotional and sexual impulses in order to not disrupt the larger social harmony. The emphasis in China is on fitting in, not making trouble, but certainly not on personal self-improvement. Sexual kung-fu could unleash suppressed feelings in people that had no model for integrating them, and hence they “went crazy” from what are called “qi deviations” by qigong professionals. Western students occasionally reported similar problems, but these were almost always people who had bypassed all preliminary practices such as the Six Healing Sounds and Inner Smile.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Modern awareness of psychoanalytic processes and growing public acceptance of sexual equality, combined with the Daoist energy body training of the Inner Smile, Six Healing Sounds, Microcosmic Orbit, and Fusion of the Five Elements from White Cloud’s first alchemy formula, allowed most Westerners the possibility of safely integrating the self-released sexual forces in a way suitable for their relationships and spiritual development. The methods taught by Chia have since been further developed by myself and others to deepen and simplify their psychological accessibility to westerners. In China this integration could also possibly occur through a close personal supervision by a qualified teacher. But since the cultural milieu is still largely Confucian, patriarchal, and sexually repressive, finding a suitable teacher and achieving a Daoist model of male-female harmony within oThe difficulty some highly achieved adepts had in balancing their sexual energy highlights the possibility that the cosmological splitting of our original non-dual being, first into an etheric androgyne and then into physical male and female sexed bodies has created a spiritual trauma so deep that it cannot be fully resolved by what are considered states of enlightenment in the Daoist and Tantric traditions. Individual self-realization may be insufficient to heal the vastness of this collective wound, which may be the core issue driving the human incarnational process. Sexual issues may continue to arise as long as one is still in a physically sexed form, perhaps a bleed over from the collective field of human sexual consciousness into the highly purified (non-polar) vessel of an individual adept. The resolution of this cosmic sexual tension may occur only by achieving what is called immortality, the alchemical re-fusion of spirit and body-matter into its original essence, requiring an adept to merge not only into the mind of Nature (enlightenment) but to merge fully into its body. This is the ultimate focus of subtle body sexual cultivation.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">A major force attracting Western spiritual seekers to Daoism and Tantra is the drive to integrate their sexual desire into a subtle body experience that I term the quest for spiritual orgasm. This quest has put Daoist and Tantric sexual cultivation practices into a Western cultural cauldron and created positive evolutionary pressure on their traditional methods. I believe this process will ultimately birth a new spiritual science in the West with recognizable Daoist and Tantric principles as its foundation.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i>This article will be posted on www.HealingDao.com, articles.</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1.1rem;"><i>Permission granted to share it digitally as long as entire article is intact.</i></span></p>Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-18642865396800290242020-06-09T15:05:00.000-07:002020-06-09T15:05:30.081-07:00Life is a journey, follow you path..<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI7etXK_vTGF2X7qPfowyEkQ3CU3531_9Ns6KYBfZrmUVd35c_qXncyI1d5YqWn8CKjjfXVvYvL2XT4Prd2eSENqoaPPN9AwhA6PIGr9t7E_SYiqp3PA_JaF8vWoMxp5ysexNhqVKIo0M/s1600/0edfb87bf85ddbeb9af91dab2bff1f3d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI7etXK_vTGF2X7qPfowyEkQ3CU3531_9Ns6KYBfZrmUVd35c_qXncyI1d5YqWn8CKjjfXVvYvL2XT4Prd2eSENqoaPPN9AwhA6PIGr9t7E_SYiqp3PA_JaF8vWoMxp5ysexNhqVKIo0M/s640/0edfb87bf85ddbeb9af91dab2bff1f3d.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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<i>“</i><i>Your decision to walk creates the path ahead.</i><i>” </i></div>
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<i>― </i><i>Paulo Coelho</i></div>
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<i>“The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” </i></div>
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<i>― </i><i>Tony Robbins</i></div>
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<i>“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” </i></div>
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<i>― </i><i>Lao Tzu</i></div>
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<i>“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.”</i></div>
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<i>― </i><i>Anonymous</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK66yQZSB-j0cYIyCfJHucNn3izXxquu8zE1DDrha5wDB1NcxZGWlDoTr_Ir8fD0tSdoDEZsTd9FzifWymQ4U070_z68x8dHM2QBB0mpXGCIucNj_TOW93u9BLOn80K0sf1__ouYEIQ5g/s1600/tumblr_ocf4gyrpOn1tdm38go1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="678" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK66yQZSB-j0cYIyCfJHucNn3izXxquu8zE1DDrha5wDB1NcxZGWlDoTr_Ir8fD0tSdoDEZsTd9FzifWymQ4U070_z68x8dHM2QBB0mpXGCIucNj_TOW93u9BLOn80K0sf1__ouYEIQ5g/s640/tumblr_ocf4gyrpOn1tdm38go1_1280.jpg" width="422" /></a></div>
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<i>“You shouldn’t blame others for the conditions you endure; we each have the freedom to follow which path we desire in life.”</i></div>
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<i>― Steven Redhead</i></div>
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<i>“It is true that we choose our life, but it’s also true that we can choose at any moment to change our path.”</i></div>
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<i>― Jamie Magee</i></div>
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<i>“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” </i></div>
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<i>― Gautama Buddha</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqRhFKqiCzfyqiUu678f0L5Cs-8yP2UB7KJQDy1LAqdnMmCNF0Y2dPasLbgN3w_L6zl6zVzn1a9UXNRrKRr5uipkCarq4o6NFRdcQkc-e42xpQlB-v7eZYWmJSGdy3E4kNFjEM3nSxg00/s1600/sub-buzz-13557-1496681696-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqRhFKqiCzfyqiUu678f0L5Cs-8yP2UB7KJQDy1LAqdnMmCNF0Y2dPasLbgN3w_L6zl6zVzn1a9UXNRrKRr5uipkCarq4o6NFRdcQkc-e42xpQlB-v7eZYWmJSGdy3E4kNFjEM3nSxg00/s640/sub-buzz-13557-1496681696-1.jpg" width="425" /></a></div>
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<i>“Do not be afraid to walk the path that you must go just because you cannot see the end. The path becomes clearer as you continue to go on.”</i></div>
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<i>― Tracy Allen</i></div>
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<i>“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” </i></div>
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<i>― Frank A. Clark</i></div>
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<i>“Most people are searching for a path to success that is both easy and certain. Most paths are neither.”</i></div>
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<i>― Seth Godin</i></div>
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<i>“The path to success is not a straight line.” </i></div>
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<i>“Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths.</i></div>
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<i>―Johann Wolfgang von Goethe</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcOG1ZKcyqne7N2Trp0YaHx5EXlfX66_6Ua56_2Gf7sHptTOoydWp1wQ_V4rKmxDOs4bFIWpzZQH67VBBS4jm4NkZTeJIyCEZP-IxzVm0KfmmDEYLBLQ0s3TRp0nYJ0VE2w3hbgwyD3to/s1600/a3fc9bba0ddaf533328474128fedfee3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcOG1ZKcyqne7N2Trp0YaHx5EXlfX66_6Ua56_2Gf7sHptTOoydWp1wQ_V4rKmxDOs4bFIWpzZQH67VBBS4jm4NkZTeJIyCEZP-IxzVm0KfmmDEYLBLQ0s3TRp0nYJ0VE2w3hbgwyD3to/s640/a3fc9bba0ddaf533328474128fedfee3.jpg" width="462" /></a></div>
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<i>“People enter different paths seeking for happiness and fulfillment. We must respect other people’s individuality. Just because they’re not on your path doesn’t mean they are on the wrong track.”</i></div>
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<i>― Ogwo David Emenike</i></div>
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<i>“His way isn’t the same as mine, nor mine as his. But we’re both in search of our destinies, and I respect him for that.”</i></div>
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<i>― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist</i></div>
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<i>“It’s not our mission to change or direct another person’s path. There is no wrong way or right way. We each have our own life journey and our mission is to just become a LIGHT that enlightens other people’s pathways.”</i></div>
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<i>― Jan Mckingley Hilado</i></div>
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<i>“True love allows each person to follow his or her own path, aware that doing so can never drive them apart.”</i></div>
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<i>― Paulo Coelho</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU6TnBD6CWn8L1QCinDPnPEBDvXyYbFIOWU6QSllr2Dk0b5mQXxRn-QZJORcJy3W7OB-gX9Khvh9stQfnwAXfmKsjrAOVBvSLDHIdt1jY2hiKFW-H3S-gIRDQvvHXqa3kq8SOYvQX_kJs/s1600/87ec78ecb355637a85299caebeed5d69.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="845" data-original-width="564" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU6TnBD6CWn8L1QCinDPnPEBDvXyYbFIOWU6QSllr2Dk0b5mQXxRn-QZJORcJy3W7OB-gX9Khvh9stQfnwAXfmKsjrAOVBvSLDHIdt1jY2hiKFW-H3S-gIRDQvvHXqa3kq8SOYvQX_kJs/s640/87ec78ecb355637a85299caebeed5d69.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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<i>“Just because a path never existed, doesn’t mean that it isn’t there…”</i></div>
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<i>― Lionel Suggs</i></div>
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<i>“A life path may have strange twists and turnings, and we do not always end up where we intend to go….”</i></div>
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<i>― Marion Zimmer Bradley</i></div>
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<i>“…there are no wrong turns, only unexpected paths.”</i></div>
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<i>―Mark Nepo</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3MqI7avGSaXnCg0D71D2eZkD569QI1sDv8XEdyWHbhHCCiXSjeRhZmVV8dcDYhRVKzT_w14-uzA_BN7DyqkPaj13gclUBt6pNS-8K-K90sKU97ir8btZcsVv-ZXxF-_SH4DV4e3I5FBQ/s1600/a7750719d5223249a49a7e95f5c1bf25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="496" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3MqI7avGSaXnCg0D71D2eZkD569QI1sDv8XEdyWHbhHCCiXSjeRhZmVV8dcDYhRVKzT_w14-uzA_BN7DyqkPaj13gclUBt6pNS-8K-K90sKU97ir8btZcsVv-ZXxF-_SH4DV4e3I5FBQ/s640/a7750719d5223249a49a7e95f5c1bf25.jpg" width="422" /></a></div>
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<i>Curiosity keeps leading us down new paths” </i></div>
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<i>―Walt Disney </i></div>
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<i>“Some beautiful paths can't be discovered without getting lost.”</i></div>
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<i>He who strays discovers new paths.</i></div>
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<i>―Nils Kjaer</i></div>
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<i>“To conquer the unknown you must trust.” </i></div>
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<i>― Yogi Bhajan</i></div>
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<i>“Learn to trust the journey, even when you do not understand it”</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOnMi90HiXMCXtT2Bx8SYYWQAnKTiDrHXWUvjBLFLpuHSF-xQH_ZNe7FefJ7vTDuzuLkJyAYPBqXQEKfL80TmrcIltQVhiYBS_bfyi_iNOX2NaneXjgpx0eTU9FXP3JVmD4yXvxQgFDDo/s1600/7b45138772e71a80da61120b2d1167e9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="846" data-original-width="564" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOnMi90HiXMCXtT2Bx8SYYWQAnKTiDrHXWUvjBLFLpuHSF-xQH_ZNe7FefJ7vTDuzuLkJyAYPBqXQEKfL80TmrcIltQVhiYBS_bfyi_iNOX2NaneXjgpx0eTU9FXP3JVmD4yXvxQgFDDo/s640/7b45138772e71a80da61120b2d1167e9.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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<i>“Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one.”</i></div>
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<i>“Sometimes the most evolved souls take the most challenging paths.”</i></div>
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<i>― Brian Weiss</i></div>
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<i>“Don't compare your path with anybody else’s. Your path is unique to you.” </i></div>
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<i>―Ram Dass</i></div>
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<i>“My path is not a better path, it is simply a different path.” </i></div>
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<i>― Donald L. Hicks</i></div>
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<i>“In a forest of a hundred thousand trees, no two leaves are alike. And no two journeys along the same path are alike.”</i></div>
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<i>― Paulo Coelho</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8NxKbOXsxUaUyw1D-FMmtmueWxpVDwRhTuFuyHY6h6bJ8hoB3-htxhPdjXlZhXDUkGPEhBTjS7DDv0pfxt9aAdk1gVyzT2DuXPxRfkzfIR9HWKU-pzdkgc1A7u6gPj63zQwt-E_jT2ws/s1600/63267d19674d00ff0280e12678564ed1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8NxKbOXsxUaUyw1D-FMmtmueWxpVDwRhTuFuyHY6h6bJ8hoB3-htxhPdjXlZhXDUkGPEhBTjS7DDv0pfxt9aAdk1gVyzT2DuXPxRfkzfIR9HWKU-pzdkgc1A7u6gPj63zQwt-E_jT2ws/s640/63267d19674d00ff0280e12678564ed1.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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<i>“Trust yourself when the path is unsure..”</i></div>
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<i>“Our destiny is frequently met in the very paths we take to avoid it.”</i></div>
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<i>―Jean de La Fontaine</i></div>
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<i>“Obstacles don’t block the path. They are the path.” </i></div>
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<i>― Zen Proverb</i></div>
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<i>“Short cuts make long delays.” </i></div>
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<i>– J.R.R. Tolkien</i></div>
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<i>“The best view comes after the hardest climb..” </i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAy3RVO79BkwlW0C1qNaDCUMECyfmzR9JkQ-NkC9pXiEzMJh4GSy-L_dizMTEFi3B_eGBXxzRkGvlBZt1YZ8XEudxqTq68Ic7Rt9HHupfUPEtKLFjlY5velGL4iRbEIog6XjH6mw77I9w/s1600/227449b47b1de60b18e21f99f1213c53.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="846" data-original-width="564" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAy3RVO79BkwlW0C1qNaDCUMECyfmzR9JkQ-NkC9pXiEzMJh4GSy-L_dizMTEFi3B_eGBXxzRkGvlBZt1YZ8XEudxqTq68Ic7Rt9HHupfUPEtKLFjlY5velGL4iRbEIog6XjH6mw77I9w/s640/227449b47b1de60b18e21f99f1213c53.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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<i>“Everything you want to be, you already are. You're simply on the path to discovering it.”</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>― Alicia Keys</i></div>
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<i>“Don’t let someone rearrange your path because they lost sight of their own.” </i></div>
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<i>― Nikki Rowe</i></div>
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<i>“Just because my path is different doesn't mean am lost.” </i></div>
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<i>“It’s never crowded when you walk on your own path.” </i></div>
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<i>― Aditya Ajmera</i></div>
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<i>“You must understand there is more than one path to the top of the mountain” </i></div>
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<i>― Miyamoto Musashi</i></div>
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<i>“There are many trails up the mountain, but in time they all reach the top.”</i></div>
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<i>―Anya Seton</i></div>
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<i>“Truth is one, paths are many.”</i></div>
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<i>―Mahatma Gandhi</i></div>
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<i>“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” </i></div>
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<i>― Sir Edmund Hillary</i></div>
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<b>Also read:</b></div>
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<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2018/06/if-you-are-afraid-of-darkness_28.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">If you are afraid of darkness...</span></a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2018/03/love-melancholy-and-darkness-poetry-by.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Love, Melancholy, and Darkness - Poetry by Nichole McElhaney</span></a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2018/02/paulo-coelho-quotes-that-will-soothe.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Paulo Coelho quotes that will soothe your aching soul </span></a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2018/09/inspiring-quotes-about-autumn.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Inspiring Quotes About Autumn</span></a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2018/12/winter-quotes.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Winter Quotes</span></a></li>
</ul>
Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-71443386921010748382020-05-20T08:18:00.000-07:002020-05-20T08:18:23.502-07:00Sacred Ecstatic Dance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>When you put the psyche in motion it heals itself.</b></div>
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Ecstatic dance is a form of dance in which the dancers, sometimes without the need to follow specific steps, abandon themselves to the rhythm and move freely as the music takes them, leading to trance and a feeling of ecstasy. The effects of ecstatic dance begin with ecstasy itself, which may be experienced in differing degrees.</div>
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The described effects of ecstatic dance include a feeling of connection with others, indeed of "universal relatedness”, and with the dancer's own emotions; serving as a meditation, providing a way of coping with stress and restoring serenity; and serving as a spiritual practice.</div>
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The ethnologist Maria-Gabriela Wosienidentified four degrees of ecstasy that dancers may experience: "the warning, the whisper of inspiration, the prophecy, and finally the gift, the highest grade of inspiration."</div>
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Dance as meditation is as ancient as our humanity. Cave paintings from 40,000 years ago depict groups of people dancing wildly.</div>
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Sacred dance is present in nearly all cultures and many religious traditions around the world. </div>
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In the ancient and widespread practice of shamanism, ecstatic dance and rhythmic drumming are used to alter consciousness in spiritual practices. In Europe, this ended in the Middle Ages, prohibited by the Christian church, while it continued among native peoples in America, Siberia and elsewhere.</div>
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<i>“Sometimes you have to lose your mind to come to your senses.” </i>-- Alan Watts</div>
Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-70142288127639427322020-04-08T11:53:00.000-07:002020-04-08T11:58:24.786-07:00Natural remedies for dry hands <div style="text-align: justify;">
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<b>With official advice being to wash our hands as often as possible and to use hand sanitizer with an alcohol content of at least 60% to help delay the spread of COVID-19, it's inevitable that we're all going to get very dry skin.</b></div>
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Your skin naturally produces oil, called sebum, which helps protect the skin from moisture loss, but actions — such as washing your hands with a drying soap, hot water, and hand sanitizers — can strip natural oils from your skin.</div>
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While it's not exactly anyone's main concern at the moment, dryness can result in painful cracks in the skin if left untreated.</div>
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Ironically, by over-washing our skin, we can develop dry cracks in the skin, giving bacteria an entry point into our bodies.</div>
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Start moisturizing before there's a problem. The best prevention is to begin using a moisturizer before your hands show signs of dryness. Keeping the skin moisturized is of utmost importance in order to fight dryness.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">So here are my simple ways to get relief from dry hands:</span></b></div>
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Massage your hands for 3 minutes using coconut oil, jojoba, sweet almond oil, avocado oil, castor oil, olive oil, etc (you can use more than one). Apply more oil and put some gloves on (or a plastic bag) to allow the oils to penetrate the skin more effectively for 15-20 minutes. Wipe the excess oil off hands, but don’t rinse them; any remaining oil will be absorbed over the next few minutes. Follow with a rich hand cream.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Make a hand mask using some of these ingredients:</span></b></div>
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<b>Your favorite oil </b>(coconut oil, jojoba, sweet almond oil, olive oil, etc). Again, you can also use more than one.</div>
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<b>Oat meal. </b>Rich in protein, vitamin E, lipids, fatty acids, and antioxidants, oatmeal is an excellent natural treatment for dry skin.</div>
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<b>Egg yolk.</b> Its a great remedy for dry hands since it contains water and fats and will lock moisture into your skin cells. </div>
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<b>Aloe vera. </b>A common ingredient in many skin products due to its antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties.</div>
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<b>Full fat plane yogurt.</b> The lactic acid in yogurt acts as a natural exfoliant to gently remove dead skin while the fats restore moisture.</div>
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<b>Raw honey. </b>Full of antioxidants and antimicrobial properties which prevents redness and dry itchy skin. It can help lock in moisture in your hands and keep them soft and also help delay the signs of aging!</div>
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<b>Rip avocado. </b>Rich in healthy fats and vitamins that soften rough, dry or flaking skin. Avocado contains essential fatty acids and other nutrients that help prevent premature wrinkling.</div>
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<b>Whole milk.</b> Its soothing, and extremely hydrating. Its lactic acid is great for the skin.</div>
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<b>Vitamin E.</b> Its powerful antioxidant properties can help to protect the skin from further damage. It acts as an anti-inflammatory to soothe that dry, itchy redness that comes with dehydrated skin. When used topically it can help to prevent water loss from the skin, keeping it moisturized.</div>
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<b>Chamomile tea.</b> It has been used since antiquity to treat wounds and urge healing, thanks to its anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, and antimicrobial properties. </div>
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<b>Rose water.</b> Helps maintain the skin's pH balance. It helps hydrate, revitalise and moisturise the skin. Due to its antibacterial properties, rose water also aids in healing scars, cuts and wounds.</div>
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<b>Drops of your favorite essential oil. </b>The botanical compounds in these essential oils can assist in the effort to soothe and heal dry hands:</div>
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Lavender</div>
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Rose</div>
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Sandalwood</div>
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Geranium</div>
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Frankincense</div>
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Neroli</div>
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Rosewood</div>
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Roman Chamomile</div>
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Bergamot</div>
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Combine the ingredients of your choice in a small bowl and apply to your hands. </div>
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I recommend spending a few minutes rubbing it in before letting it sit for 10-20 minutes. </div>
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Use gloves or wrap your hands in a plastic bag (this will also help to not get messy).</div>
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Rinse with room temperature water. Don’t use hot water it dries out and irritates skin.<br />
Hold off on the soap this time. </div>
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It is better to do it before going to bed, so you won't be washing your hands.</div>
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You can play with the ingredients and see what you like and works better for you.</div>
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<b>My favorite natural moisturizers are r</b><b>aw shea butter and r</b><b>aw cocoa butter. </b>Both are<b> </b>amazing moisturizers! Their concentration of natural vitamins and fatty acids makes them incredible nourishing and moisturizing for skin. They're also rich in antioxidants. </div>
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<b>Bee wax.</b> The hypoallergenic and moisturizing properties of beeswax make it an effective treatment for dry skin and more serious issues like eczema. Beeswax can be used to treat the itchiness of these conditions and prevent further drying out.</div>
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<b>Tip.</b> Keep a hand moisturizer in your hand bag or desk drawer to use regularly during the day.</div>
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<b>Moisturize from the inside out. </b></div>
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Food is its own kind of medicine. Boost your skin’s moisture levels naturally by eating more:</div>
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Omega-3 Fatty Acids – Fish, flax, and fermented cod liver oil.</div>
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Vitamin E – Nuts, seeds, avocado, spinach, and butternut squash.</div>
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Vitamin A – Carrots, sweet potato, kale, broccoli, eggs, and apricots.</div>
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Zinc – Pumpkin seeds, chickpeas, mushrooms, and yogurt.<br />
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I really hope this is of some help for some of you. And let me know what are your favorite natural products and tips on the comments.<br />
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Keep safe! <3</div>
Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-21111163486654528932020-03-31T12:11:00.000-07:002020-03-31T12:11:07.597-07:00The Museum of Alchemists and Magicians of Old Prague<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Prague is a city steeped in history both known and otherwise, and the darker side of the Czech capital’s past is brought to light in evocative displays at The Museum of Alchemists and Magicians of Old Prague, which looks at some of the famous dabblers in the dark arts that have called the city home.</div>
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As king of much of eastern Europe and eventually Holy Roman Emperor during the 16th century, Rudolf II was not known as an especially effective ruler, but he is widely remembered for his interest and patronage of the occult arts. It was during his reign that he turned Prague into the unofficial capital of the dark arts. Funding a number of alchemists and other so-called sorcerers, most notably the likes of Edward Kelley and John Dee, Rudolf created possibly the most active period of occult practice in history.</div>
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Whether or not his patrons were simply charlatans wrapped in mystery, or bold proto-scientists, the legacy of these magicians and madmen is remembered with a carnival flair at The Museum of Alchemists and Magicians of Old Prague. Consisting of two levels of displays and tableaux, the exhibits trace the history of Rudolf’s alchemists in the city, especially Kelley. The main floor has displays and replica artifacts of the trade alongside such fantastical scenes as a failed magician being stolen up into the ceiling by the Devil while cackling sorcerers huddle around the glowing runes beneath. The second floor, which claims to be the actual tower where the real Kelley performed his esoteric experiments, is decked out like an alchemist’s lab, all aged scrolls and stacked grimoires, complete with a half-completed homunculus, the ultimate alchemical achievement.</div>
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The museum is more than a little sensational in its presentation, but to be fair, these alchemists were likely more than a little bit showmen themselves. What better way to remember and learn about their arcane history than with a little bit of magical realism?</div>
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<a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-museum-of-alchemists-and-magicians-of-old-prague-prague-czechia">Atlas Obscura</a></div>
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<b>Also read:</b> <a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2019/04/witch-museum-opens-in-cleveland.html">Witch museum opens in Cleveland!</a></div>
Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-91942729168533637702020-03-21T11:06:00.002-07:002020-03-21T11:06:13.478-07:00Saturn in Aquarius, 3 Years of Change, Technology, and Justice <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Today (March 21), Saturn enters Aquarius, and will transit through this sign until March 7, 2023.</b></div>
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Saturn hasn’t stationed in the Water Bearer’s realm for nearly three decades; in fact, its last visit was from February 6, 1991, to January 28, 1994.</div>
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Saturn represents discipline, patience, responsibility, maturity and boundaries. Saturn rules time and, in contemporary astrology, is known as the Lord of Karma.</div>
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Saturn is often considered a planet that brings damage, a malevolent planet, the opposite of Jupiter. But Saturn is actually essential in the lives of all of us for our own personal growth, for our maturity. </div>
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Saturn represents our hardships and the lessons we learn in this lifetime. It can also indicate things that we fear or worry about, as well as how we deal with authority.</div>
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Certainly his way of acting is hard, concrete, sometimes terrible and can lead to difficult situations but that it was necessary to deal with situations. Saturn is the time, cronos, Saturn cut off the dead branches, things more useful to our work life, emotional and sentimental. After his passing we can be bigger, stronger and more aware of our quality. Sacrifice asks us this planet.</div>
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<b>Saturn in Aquarius will find us taking our future much more seriously. </b></div>
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Saturn was actually Aquarius’ ancient ruler, before Uranus was discovered in 1781. The ringed taskmaster feels quite at home in Aquarius. People with Aquarius in their chart are given a great ability to envision ideas. This is the sign of the Architect who can picture in their minds eye a new vision that can then be made manifest. If you are an Aquarian you may be going through what is known as a “Saturn Return”. This is a testing and intense time where you will be forced to confront parts of your subconscious self.</div>
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The placement of Saturn in Aquarius is so favourable because Saturn is a planet of tangible manifestation while the sign of Aquarius is about new ideas and visions. A vision without manifestation is of no use but when the hard work of Saturn is applied to refine and perfect and implement the vision in the real world the two are a very powerful combination.</div>
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Saturn has spent 2.5 years in Capricorn, exposing the good, and especially the bad and the ugly of the Capricorn archetype: lack of integrity, misused power, materialism and corruption. </div>
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While Saturn was in earth sign Capricorn, it exposed the good, and especially the bad and the ugly of the Capricorn archetype: lack of integrity, misused power, materialism and corruption. </div>
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It recognized the limits of material resources; Saturn in air sign Aquarius finds people and social groups to be a more important resource. </div>
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Saturn in Capricorn found us looking to the past for clues about our history, and Saturn in Aquarius knows all the rules so that they can break and update them.</div>
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The energy is going to be focused on anything new, anything modern, and anything progressive.</div>
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<b>Now, Saturn in Aquarius is determined to shake sh*t up, rewrite the rules, and change the world. It’s time to look for a different type of order.</b></div>
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Aquarius is the zodiac’s revolutionary—it’s known for its friendly, social, humanitarian traits—so the vibe is going from “let’s focus on these problems” to “let’s TALK about these problems, brainstorm ways to fix them, then go out and actually do something about them.” </div>
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As a fixed air sign, its focus is heavily on getting work done through its mental energy — thoughts and ideas are a big part of how this sign relates to the world.</div>
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New laws, international treaties, and global changes are going to happen soon.</div>
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Aquarius is also the sign of technology, the mad scientist of the zodiac, and Saturn’s trek through this air sign will crystalize advancements in the field, allowing for new, advanced tech to become incorporated into day-to-day life. (Fun fact, the last time Saturn was in Aquarius, a little something called the internet became part of our day-to-day lives.) </div>
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AI, space travel, virtual reality, and advances in medical technology are thematic of Saturn in Aquarius too.</div>
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Being able to navigate various tech tools and software will become more important than ever over the next few years as Saturn places great limitations on those who aren’t with the times.</div>
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Working remotely from home will continue to be picked up by more companies as advantages are realized and the health of worldwide communities necessitates. </div>
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Although we’re more likely to lean toward scientific rational while Saturn is in Aquarius, there will still be an interesting dynamic between scientific communities and spiritual folks as Aquarius is both academically and spiritual-oriented. Saturn in Aquarius encourages us to elevate the mind, but we’ll have to be mindful not to fall into reductionism or dogmatic beliefs. As the planet of reality, Saturn in Aquarius will lead us to redefine what is possible.</div>
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Aside from its worldwide impact, Saturn in Aquarius is bringing personal changes to your life too. </div>
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<b>ARIES</b></div>
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What kinds of people do you surround yourself with? What associations or groups do you identify most with? You may realize that you no longer click with people who were your besties a couple of years ago, or you may decide that your professional network or political affiliations just aren’t very you anymore—and that’s okay! You’ll probably lose a few (or more) friends, but it’s time to find a new, better crew. Likewise, your hopes and dreams for the future may change dramatically. Honor yourself, your goals, and your beliefs, and hold yourself accountable for surrounding yourself with people who want to support you as much as you support them. By the time Saturn’s done with its time in Aquarius, your life will have undergone a major upgrade.</div>
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<b>TAURUS</b></div>
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Certainly the squaring of Saturn for you will be very heavy and it will not be absolutely easy to digest and to endure. First of all, be careful about health and do not underestimate any discomfort that may worsen with the passage of time and then as soon as you have some health problems go to your doctor and do not underestimate anything, no symptoms. If health then can be the Achilles' heel during this planetary transition also the optimism and the level of self-esteem will drop a lot and will not allow to be very positive towards life. Life itself teaches that positivity and optimism bring good things while negative thoughts and pessimism create further difficulties and during these years you will not be able to be very happy, calm, quiet and balanced. But you must not give up. To combat this astrological aspect one must do one very important thing, that is to work a lot, get tired a lot without hoping to achieve excellent goals. Saturn wants a lot of effort and a lot of sweat from you and does not give satisfaction. All these months, therefore, are very tiring in the work and many of you can age more quickly with some problems to the bones and teeth that are often weak points with this planetary transition. We must also pay close attention to any enemies who hide and can create many professional complications and be careful not to waste money on absolutely wrong investments.</div>
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<b>GEMINI</b></div>
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Saturn’s transit through Aquarius is actually not going to be that hard for you, Gemini! Since Aquarius is a like-minded air sign, Saturn’s doing a great job of harmonizing with your Gemmy vibes. This transit is helping you to do your favorite thing—learn! First and foremost, if you’re a student (or thinking about going back to school), this is a spectacular time to slay the game in the academic world. And even if you’re not going to school, this is a period when your mind is expanding in big ways. You’re notoriously a lil flaky and you rarely commit to one belief/opinion/worldview for long, but Saturn’s all about stability and crystalizing your philosophy on life. One thing to watch out for: Saturn in Aquarius can make any long-distance traveling a b*tch and a half to handle, so make sure you triple-check your schedule, flights, everything if you’re going on any trips in the next couple of years.</div>
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<b>CANCER</b></div>
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With Saturn’s transit through Aquarius, you are coming face to face with other people’s impressions and values. Sometimes this is addressed by dealing with matters involving other people’s money, consolidating debts, or taking out a loan. Other times this involves clashing with other people’s opinions, and learning how to live with other people’s perspectives while maintaining your own integrity and bottom line. If you have been relying on others too much, you are likely to encounter situations that require you to stand on your own two feet, while others will learn how to cooperate and depend on others in order to reach their goals. Sometimes this transit brings up feelings about your own mortality or some form of loss, which ultimately helps you see what matters most to you at the end of the day.</div>
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<b>LEO</b></div>
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The meaning of commitment becomes a greater focus of yours during Saturn’s transit in Aquarius, and you’ll be encouraged to spend time and energy on relationships that offer more stability to your life. Saturn binds things and people together—but Saturn also symbolizes boundaries. If you’re romantically involved with someone but haven’t defined your relationship, Saturn will nudge you to do so. In Aquarius, Saturn reflects a need for clarity and communication, especially when it comes to what you do and don’t want in a partnership. As the planet of tough love and limitation, Saturn could also reflect growing pains in your partnerships—including business-oriented partnerships. The mood can feel icy or indifferent between you and those you’re closest to during this transit, but if tension rises to the point where you don’t feel like you can be yourself anymore, you’ll need to discuss boundaries or maybe even move on from the relationship. If you find yourself ending a partnership during Saturn’s transit through Aquarius, consider it an opportunity to better understand what you need from a committed relationship and how to be a reliable partner.</div>
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<b>VIRGO</b></div>
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Saturn in Aquarius is not treating Virgos very kindly for the next couple of years. Saturn’s transit through Aquarius is rough, tough, and extremely hard to handle—but if anyone can handle it, it’s you, Virgo! You’re one of the (if not the) hardest-working signs, and the next couple of years marks a period when your obligations are reeeaaally piling up. This means your job (and the rest of your life) is busier than ever, so it’s your mission to stay focused and productive and make sure you’re getting all your sh*t done in a timely fashion. Your health is also a focus right now. It’s not like Saturn’s going to magically make you sick out of nowhere, but if you’re not taking care of your physical and mental health in practical ways, you’ll start to feel it. How can you survive this transit? It’s simple! Eat well, exercise, take care of your mental health, and set a productive day-to-day routine. Make healthy lifestyle changes and commit to them. You got this.</div>
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<b>LIBRA</b></div>
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Superfluous intimate relationships aggravate your Saturn as it enters Aquarius. Lately, relationships have acted as a welcome relief from your strict workload—but Saturn in Aquarius calls you out on the half-assed parts of your relationships, encouraging you to treat your heart with more respect and care. Similarly, this transit asks you to act in a straightforward way when making deals or interpersonal agreements—you've got to solidify your rules of engagement before Saturn in Pisces in the future improves your ability to blur the lines. If you've struggled with health issues in the past few years, try to crack the case again as hidden pressures may ease up with Saturn in Aquarius. Respect is more important in your relationships than ever. This is a time to carve out space in your social circle and creative life takes your pleasure and your happiness seriously. Work through your creative blocks or any hesitancy to self-express by throwing perfectionism out the window and recognizing that your friends will appreciate your work no matter how high your personal standards are.</div>
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<b>SCORPIO</b></div>
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As Saturn transits through Aquarius, your focus shifts to a more internal perspective. Nothing appears to be going on at the surface, but when you dig deep, you may notice that your emotional world—as well as the things you base feelings of security on—are being overhauled, leading you to become more resilient. Your emotional wellbeing, family issues, and the topic of housing become more pressing with Saturn’s transit. You could move to a new home, make your first home purchase, add a member to the family, or deal with longstanding emotional issues that hamper your wellbeing. Now is an excellent time to seek professional help from a counselor or psychotherapist, spend time writing in your journal, and reflect on your feelings, as you’re ready to make productive emotional changes that leave you feeling more stable and secure than you have in the past. Tending to your emotional world in a productive, positive way will set you up for success in the following 14 years.</div>
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<b>SAGITTARIUS</b></div>
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In Aquarius, Saturn asks you to become more discerning in your thought processes. This transit reflects a period when you’re feeling serious-minded and interested in diving deeper into new learning opportunities. If you have a habit of speaking freely and off the cuff, you could find this a challenging time when you’re nudged to think and pause before speaking as your words carry more weight. Alternatively, it could feel harder to articulate yourself in the way you would like, which makes this a great time to work on your communication skills and spend time meditating on what your genuine thoughts are on topics that are important to you. Signing up for workshops and online courses could be commitments you’re interested in during this transit—but be mindful that people will expect you to take learning seriously. You’re also not likely to travel far from your local area during this time as Saturn restricts movement, but it’s a great opportunity to get more involved in your community. Don’t be afraid to share your originality during the next few years, because you’ll realize new ideas and how to share them in ways you’ve always wanted to, but never knew how!</div>
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<b>CAPRICORN</b></div>
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If you’re reading this, congratulations! You survived Saturn’s transit through your sign, which is always a wild time, and now you don’t have to worry about the ringed planet’s wrath for another three decades! You’ve undergone a massive personal transformation, and now Saturn’s influence is shifting from your 1st house, which rules your sense of self, to your 2nd house, which governs your values and your valuables. What I mean by that is your morals, self-worth, and material possessions are all being highlighted for the next couple of years and you’re being pushed to develop a more realistic attitude toward them. You’re an earth sign, so you tend to be on the more materialistic side. Right now, you’re learning that you rely on your financial situation or possessions to determine how you feel about yourself as a person. Financial hardships are likely coming your way, so do what you can to save up money ASAP and organize your finances before sh*t hits the fan. You’re not gonna go broke out of nowhere, but you are going to learn that there’s more to the world than the stuff you own. This is a period to be frugal, work hard, and build up your self-esteem through your actions and inner values, not how much money is in your bank account.</div>
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<b>AQUARIUS</b></div>
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This is a major, major period of your life, Aquarius. Saturn will be in your sign likely only two or three times in your entire life, and this is the start of a new, nearly 30-year cycle. You’re an outgoing, extroverted air sign, but Saturn is urging you to put the outside world on the back burner and really get to know yourself on a deeper, more significant level. That means instead of focusing on how your friends, lovers, coworkers, etc. treat you, you need to consider your inner traits and qualities. Get in touch with you—your wishes, your desires, your values, your talents, and your physical/spiritual/emotional needs. It’s difficult to connect with others now, because this is a period when putting yourself first is a must. You’re minding your own business, taking care of your own personal agenda, and, over the next few years, you’re creating a more solid, structured persona that’s true to who you are, deep down. </div>
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<b>PISCES</b></div>
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When there’s any planetary action happening in the sign before yours, it’s said to be “in aversion” to you—it’s almost like Saturn’s drama is going down just outside your line of sight. That being said, just because Saturn is hiding in your peripheral vision does not mean you’re safe from this transit. The influence of Saturn just isn’t directly focused on your personal life. This is the end of a nearly 30-year cycle, so you’re cleaning out all the areas of life, from your job to your relationships to your home life. That means it’s time to focus on getting rid of outdated relationships, distancing yourself from activities and settings that aren’t healthy, ending unnecessary beef with others, cutting your losses, and not dwelling on the past. Basically, you’re going through a factory reset so you can start from scratch and totally reinvent yourself when Saturn is in your sign in 2022.</div>
Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-44632270708233953552020-03-20T09:38:00.000-07:002020-03-20T10:12:57.959-07:00Things witches and occultists can do while in quarantine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKNd6-ldt0-I8pmznYStvjPPm5Tn0Ua-mhH2A7gFq4oohA2ieiKVtdPReS7hQtTa1XiyaoEy545EvhUS5j3MZhQ2v6FOYF454xrXCisvWZfnPQ1Ts5xNPPGSuxuQ8efgKz7UtS7I1UmAs/s1600/tumblr_p0uug122O01wwvjuio1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1280" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKNd6-ldt0-I8pmznYStvjPPm5Tn0Ua-mhH2A7gFq4oohA2ieiKVtdPReS7hQtTa1XiyaoEy545EvhUS5j3MZhQ2v6FOYF454xrXCisvWZfnPQ1Ts5xNPPGSuxuQ8efgKz7UtS7I1UmAs/s640/tumblr_p0uug122O01wwvjuio1_1280.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>Don’t just let the hours pass by. It might be frustrating to be just at home right now, but if you learn into some of the things on this list, you’ll find that the time passes in a meaningful way.</b></div>
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• Do a deep home cleaning and cleansing.</div>
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• Are you a Pagan hoarder? Clean and organize your witchy supplies, books, herbs, oils, crystals collection, etc.</div>
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• Meditation: mindfulness meditation, focused meditation, movement meditation, mantra meditation, transcendental meditation, pranayama meditation, Kundalini meditation, guided meditation, visualization, etc.. There’re so many different types and techniques, find the one that works for you.</div>
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• Read a new grimoire (check my article for some ideas: <a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2019/05/a-list-of-magical-grimoires.html?fbclid=IwAR2-1BfEtFa1HysctdytXtF2_d1R4HCAcjojjABN-pXeKsgnT1k50A6y--k">A List of Magical Grimoires</a>)</div>
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• Write. Start a dream journal. or a new shadow book.</div>
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• Ritual work. Is there a practice that you once enjoyed but lost touch with? </div>
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• Learn the path study that has always interested you.</div>
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• Divination: learn a system you always wanted to explore (Tarot/Oracle reading, numerology automatic writing, bibliomancy, I Ching, palmistry, crystal ball gazing, mirror/water Scrying, runes, pendulum dowsing..).</div>
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• Create a new talisman or sigil.</div>
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• Astrology: Now you have the time to explore your Natal Chart in depth (or someone else's).</div>
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• Dream magick: interpret your dreams, learn lucid dreaming. </div>
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• Astral Projection/out-of-body experience (OBE).</div>
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• Set up an altar: it is time for a spring one!</div>
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• Ancestral work.</div>
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• Invoke your guides. Connect with your familiar, spirit guide, totem, power animal, tulpa, patron deity, etc.</div>
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• Magickal crafting: you can learn how to make incense, tinctures, herbal baths, potions, powders, sachets, candles, sacred jewelry, wands and staffs..</div>
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• Mythological exploration: learn about a pantheon, deity or culture that fascinates you.</div>
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• Indoors gardening. It's spring, the perfect time to start! </div>
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• Telepathic communication, develop your telepathic abilities. There are many techniques and exercises you can do. Practice With a Partner – Practicing sending and receiving with a partner is one of the best ways to develop your telepathic abilities. Decide who is the sender, when you will send and then swap sending and receiving positions.</div>
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• Energy work. If you are feeling unbalanced either physically, emotionally, or mentally, energy work is a great practice to restore and realign the body's subtle vibrations. While Reiki is one of the main ways to practice energy work, there are many ways to integrate energy work and healing into one’s life.</div>
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• Indoors exercise: pilates, yoga, plyometrics, dancing, qigong, tai chi, etc.. You can find many YouTube videos or apps with great workouts and practices.</div>
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• Nourish your body with foods that help keeping your immune system strong! So important during this time!</div>
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• Keep in contact with your love ones! </div>
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<b>Keep calm. Stay safe. We're all in this together! - Jovanna Goette</b>Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-82314092197813470662020-03-18T14:39:00.001-07:002020-03-18T14:39:25.260-07:00The Greek goddess Hygieia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyoZVmU6IGjCMceIxdFIjmJl_m1pegM-W64NDkkPt_6vUO4zK-npZ6A3yfQ2IwyL-CQHrdV9aue2HVlmfYc7N-diICCKWP0TwSr5wvvYo_w2kNwDfvB7o9VgaC018qnW7WNDEkY92v4bs/s1600/u-g-Q10LJX00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="367" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyoZVmU6IGjCMceIxdFIjmJl_m1pegM-W64NDkkPt_6vUO4zK-npZ6A3yfQ2IwyL-CQHrdV9aue2HVlmfYc7N-diICCKWP0TwSr5wvvYo_w2kNwDfvB7o9VgaC018qnW7WNDEkY92v4bs/s640/u-g-Q10LJX00.jpg" width="464" /></a></div>
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We all know the term hygiene, during these times you don’t go a few hours without hearing it but have you ever wondered about where the word came from?</div>
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<i>hygiene (n.)</i></div>
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<i>Conditions or practices conducive to maintaining health and preventing disease, especially through cleanliness.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGX5TNyMtLajt9CqbHWcrE2BooTQg_uDc8MNito3SpsOxlEp6k4LjOv5zaCD-OogNNdkLvrEWvNctinNyVr7degJ9lQXTVPeAXuw0M8GDWk6YC-uNkZmMb-yjHcFS7XQ6iDqVqfo-xtk0/s1600/unnamed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="353" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGX5TNyMtLajt9CqbHWcrE2BooTQg_uDc8MNito3SpsOxlEp6k4LjOv5zaCD-OogNNdkLvrEWvNctinNyVr7degJ9lQXTVPeAXuw0M8GDWk6YC-uNkZmMb-yjHcFS7XQ6iDqVqfo-xtk0/s400/unnamed.jpg" width="275" /></a></div>
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The Greek goddess Hygieia is the personification of health, cleanliness, sanitation, how to live a long life and the prevention of sickness. </div>
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Hygieia was imported by the Romans as the goddess Valetudo, the goddess of personal health, but in time she started to be increasingly identified with the ancient Italian goddess of social welfare, Salus.</div>
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The oldest traces of her cult are at Titane, west of Corinth, where she was worshipped together with Asclepius, the god of medicine. At first no special relationship existed between her and Asclepius, but gradually she came to be regarded as his daughter; later literature, however, makes her his wife. </div>
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Hygieia played an important part in Asclepius's cult. While Asclepius was more directly associated with healing, she was associated with the prevention of sickness and the continuation of good health. Her name is the source of the word "hygiene".</div>
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In Greek ‘hygeia’ meant ‘soundness’ or ‘wholeness’. Hygiene in medicine was about maintaining the ‘wholeness’ of the body and keeping it fit. This is called ‘health’. Hippocratic doctors from the 300s CE onwards gradually formulated a philosophy of hygiene that covered every possible aspect of health – mind, body and environment. The influence of this thinking continued to impact on public health reforms during the last two centuries.”</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaqKTwjhGGtTtGC0ChJLttSvv_7u4_AkhFanpRnoR5OFUJc9WMGfRL0WRsKbgLLx2T5eYV3ebrMRqWNDbsShy2li1OhjtopsWCfPgPjSdN8IJGgzdx4JP70U0P9pKlvP0Y223AquuF_qc/s1600/Screen+Shot+2020-03-18+at+4.15.32+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="425" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaqKTwjhGGtTtGC0ChJLttSvv_7u4_AkhFanpRnoR5OFUJc9WMGfRL0WRsKbgLLx2T5eYV3ebrMRqWNDbsShy2li1OhjtopsWCfPgPjSdN8IJGgzdx4JP70U0P9pKlvP0Y223AquuF_qc/s320/Screen+Shot+2020-03-18+at+4.15.32+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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The cult of Hygeia as an independent goddess spread during the 400s BCE after the first appearance of plague in Greece, and was established in Rome in the 100s CE. The Roman traveller Pausanias noted her cult statues all over the empire, adorned with votive offerings.</div>
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Hygieia was often depicted as a young woman feeding a large snake that was wrapped around her body or drinking from a jar that she carried. These attributes were later adopted by the Gallo-Roman healing goddess, Sirona.</div>
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The Bowl of Hygeia has become the international symbol of pharmacy in the same way the Staff of Asklepios has for medicine.</div>
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Hmmm… A snake drinking a cup. What might this be referring to? 😉</div>
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<b>Also read:</b></div>
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<ul>
<li><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-dance-of-serpents-kundalini.html">The Dance of the Serpents (kundalini)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2018/01/hatha-union-of-sun-moon.html">Hatha, the Union of Sun & Moon </a></li>
<li><a href="http://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-three-treasures-and-sexual-energy.html">The Three Treasures and Sexual Energy Cultivation</a></li>
<li><a href="http://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2017/05/taoist-sexual-practices-and-sexual.html">Taoist sexual practices and sexual vampirism in ancient China</a></li>
</ul>
Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-38712857434534670952020-03-14T16:36:00.006-07:002021-11-14T15:42:08.649-08:00Find your astrological Demon in this rare guide on Persian mysticism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9-Kpp8_tvYlvg1RKxlVb8X1eQ4eQL-uOS3DQlWn9-2unDF74HyGaevM_VB-An8oTt01B0PnYvBf2PwLl-RbZe33Mx7seUp0w_3ObbBZv-hu2EEGGzbTsh_cBKjk0ov1Ce7Klo6kyA-QI/s1600/1902-Isfahan-Demon-Pictures-22-720x908.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="908" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9-Kpp8_tvYlvg1RKxlVb8X1eQ4eQL-uOS3DQlWn9-2unDF74HyGaevM_VB-An8oTt01B0PnYvBf2PwLl-RbZe33Mx7seUp0w_3ObbBZv-hu2EEGGzbTsh_cBKjk0ov1Ce7Klo6kyA-QI/s640/1902-Isfahan-Demon-Pictures-22-720x908.jpg" width="506" /></a></div>
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<b>In Princeton’s Department of Rare Books and Special Collections lies an illustrated manuscript on magic and astrology from Iran that includes 56 painted illustrations of demons and angels.</b></div>
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Demons, genies, and evil spirits permeate ancient occult traditions in Iran and neighboring countries. An early 20th-century Persian manuscript on magic and astrology held at Princeton’s Department of Rare Books and Special Collections provides a glimpse into this mystical world with dozens of watercolor illustrations of demonic, otherworldly creatures.</div>
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Dated to 1921, Kitāb-i ʻAjāʾib-i makhlūqāt (Wonders of Creation) includes an illustrated manuscript on magic and astrology, a book of spells listing incantation and talismans, and 56 painted illustrations of demons and angels. Several texts accompanying the illustrations in Arabic and Farsi are dated from 1911 to 1921.</div>
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A closing line at the end of the book suggests that it is composed of two main texts. It reads, “The book of the ‘Wonders of Creation’ and ‘The Seventy Two Demons’ have been completed.” It is not entirely clear which text is which, but Ali Karjoo-Ravary, an assistant professor at the Department of Religious Studies at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, tells Hyperallergic that the illustrated book of demons is most likely the second.</div>
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“This text describes the different demons associated with each zodiac sign and the ailments associated with each and some remedies,” Karjoo-Ravary, who published a blog post about the manuscript in 2017, says.</div>
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The zodiac demons are introduced as a series of menacing (although somewhat endearing) beasts, some multi-headed. Each is depicted with cuffs on its clawed or hoofed limbs, suggesting that these creatures had been bound or confined.</div>
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Other illustrations show the monstrous demons in action, attempting to inflict harm on humans with inscriptions of spells and incantations in Farsi. These latter drawings, according to Karjoo-Ravary, describe ailments and the demons associated with them, together with instructions on how to exorcise them. For instance, one inscription instructs sorcerers to take a handful of soil from underneath the feet of the possessed person and repeat the following sentence seven times: “God of the heavens and the earth, hurry, hurry, bring back, bring back, bring back the love for virtue.”</div>
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By contrast, the manuscript also includes illustrations of winged angels like Michael and Gabriel, who are summoned to expel demons and malign spirits.</div>
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The author of the demonology book attributes his knowledge to the court of Biblical King Solomon, who was believed to possess power over demons and spirits. However, the author’s identity remains a mystery. “We don’t know much about this figure other than the fact that he wrote this book, that he had some artistic skill,” Karjoo-Ravary says.</div>
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The author signs the book as “Rammālbāshī, the son of Ja’far.” However, “Rammālbāshī” is not a name, but rather a profession derived from the Farsi word rammāl (healer, sorcerer).</div>
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“A rammāl was a type of occult expert to whom people would frequently turn in the event that they had problems that couldn’t be solved by normal means, such as sicknesses that appeared incurable,” says Karjoo-Ravary. “They could do many things, primarily divination (which their name alludes to), types of magic, breaking spells, exorcisms, spirit summoning.”</div>
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Persian demonology has a long tradition that predates Islam. The Shahnameh (“Book of Kings”), a 50,000 verse epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi, is teeming with descriptions of battles between humans, devils, and demons.</div>
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Practicing rammāls still exist in Iran, typically performing palm-reading, faith-healing, and exorcism, but they have been outcast to the fringes of society.</div>
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“Rammāls are ridiculed by a good chunk of society,” says Karjoo-Ravary. “The official clerical establishment is mostly against them and magic, and even recently conservative critics of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [former president of Iran] accused him of associating with rammāls and magicians.”</div>
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In his book, The Iranian Metaphysicals: Explorations in Science, Islam, and the Uncanny, Islamic studies scholar Alireza Doostdar writes that secularizing officials and intellectuals in Iran of the early 20th-century disparaged rammāls as charlatans, and blamed them for Iran’s “backwardness” in comparison to the developed West on superstitious beliefs.</div>
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This negative attitude towards rammāls continued throughout the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. Shi‘i clerics found the sorcerers’ use of the Islamic notions of the “world of the unseen” (Gheyb) and of genies (Jinn) as a threat to their spiritual hegemony.</div>
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And yet, these occult practices continue to thrive not just in Iran, but also in neighboring countries, according to Karjoo-Ravary. “Magic, the world of the jinn, demons, and exorcism are still around in most Muslim and other societies, even if they’ve been pushed into the peripheries by polite society.”</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Aries</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjprtFF8z8Bh1n8Qgl0HeW5qssTdwOnGY0L4dEkHpTO19VYDFhlpilX45ChV2ojR-m1zWgN2_EbR7z_IGgq3LXsjASTrB-R-74nffDNMcoZboe8gKC6-0WiJV6zaB071m7Nqi6gxx95-OQ/s1600/demon_1-720x885.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="885" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjprtFF8z8Bh1n8Qgl0HeW5qssTdwOnGY0L4dEkHpTO19VYDFhlpilX45ChV2ojR-m1zWgN2_EbR7z_IGgq3LXsjASTrB-R-74nffDNMcoZboe8gKC6-0WiJV6zaB071m7Nqi6gxx95-OQ/s640/demon_1-720x885.jpg" width="520" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Taurus</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt5xZdtMO5kPrPslKe5xqKP0u4jGJXHRqMIXg8UDKAms96y35iyH1kEgQeFqsItE0iMsTzBxlKgpoTKUW39e-7GTILOTjfzupUWEyfkEs6YW69yKRlBtbnAhGwpN3Dqfrkbw_G2PG5RCE/s1600/demon_2-720x885.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="885" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt5xZdtMO5kPrPslKe5xqKP0u4jGJXHRqMIXg8UDKAms96y35iyH1kEgQeFqsItE0iMsTzBxlKgpoTKUW39e-7GTILOTjfzupUWEyfkEs6YW69yKRlBtbnAhGwpN3Dqfrkbw_G2PG5RCE/s640/demon_2-720x885.jpg" width="520" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Gemini</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyEpXXJBaq6KkzvTIztCw32HyY_RfyQOtY6PvQkgzTOD5lr364roUNhWx03DuO21q1vqJazsIyw816PS-S3XGhEpG1hiwBTOgNs4K58Yw8xR1Q9yXomUZp5IdvgATL_r-cwfycnOkiq3U/s1600/demon_3-720x885.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="885" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyEpXXJBaq6KkzvTIztCw32HyY_RfyQOtY6PvQkgzTOD5lr364roUNhWx03DuO21q1vqJazsIyw816PS-S3XGhEpG1hiwBTOgNs4K58Yw8xR1Q9yXomUZp5IdvgATL_r-cwfycnOkiq3U/s640/demon_3-720x885.jpg" width="520" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Cancer</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMaYCZ5t4qs-4PYglLEax-bpE3i23KDbvyYZ3CETc-ZARr9Ej1JQm3FoKpPIeGdkcft_1N38iadpP51vSgg4LoKXKPapM5i7vLbvwyWQ7FfEY-10AA7OQYZMr1HRR4ECyGlEBwBqT8JCw/s1600/demon_4-720x885.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="885" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMaYCZ5t4qs-4PYglLEax-bpE3i23KDbvyYZ3CETc-ZARr9Ej1JQm3FoKpPIeGdkcft_1N38iadpP51vSgg4LoKXKPapM5i7vLbvwyWQ7FfEY-10AA7OQYZMr1HRR4ECyGlEBwBqT8JCw/s640/demon_4-720x885.jpg" width="520" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Leo</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5_6ChWm5P1-1__ucVGrzd9PcD6uv3YqsRDIeP-MbJxfabxZoMxi9ZZvEInMAFzl_KuCLMXBDmrf5cB_zWfrHPThIkr4lmkLYFWgqUQwWjHuC40x6c2D0Seu3pExXc10YHAfA8Hybduko/s1600/Leo_2_1460-720x893.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="893" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5_6ChWm5P1-1__ucVGrzd9PcD6uv3YqsRDIeP-MbJxfabxZoMxi9ZZvEInMAFzl_KuCLMXBDmrf5cB_zWfrHPThIkr4lmkLYFWgqUQwWjHuC40x6c2D0Seu3pExXc10YHAfA8Hybduko/s640/Leo_2_1460-720x893.gif" width="516" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Virgo</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinlBu4c-kCQn_JTNtzFysItkBnTF3daB6QBs2EOuV-qGQ-o4hUIZmzKsUxwPc9oLyoa8CbRKHhSCXmsZWvg0bwwsaUyrPufZWPC2T8Nt38e8RsC26Lf9jV45UPYSBOIpxeWg0yUbJ6xRM/s1600/demon_5-720x908.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="908" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinlBu4c-kCQn_JTNtzFysItkBnTF3daB6QBs2EOuV-qGQ-o4hUIZmzKsUxwPc9oLyoa8CbRKHhSCXmsZWvg0bwwsaUyrPufZWPC2T8Nt38e8RsC26Lf9jV45UPYSBOIpxeWg0yUbJ6xRM/s640/demon_5-720x908.jpg" width="506" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Libra</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizYNywhcYnAMVs4mg3bhIRzIT0lk-5pq4q3Fq2jInH1boYAGHYbiQBQtwkKEVURXaxLzvPtcq-1tCcbpq5n3PqgBnmu26xn-0NDxzI1tMNxnpMM9ZUvCE791NajkeeWYD4ECN2DdRGZoA/s1600/libra_1460-720x908.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="908" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizYNywhcYnAMVs4mg3bhIRzIT0lk-5pq4q3Fq2jInH1boYAGHYbiQBQtwkKEVURXaxLzvPtcq-1tCcbpq5n3PqgBnmu26xn-0NDxzI1tMNxnpMM9ZUvCE791NajkeeWYD4ECN2DdRGZoA/s640/libra_1460-720x908.gif" width="506" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Scorpio</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqFWiBo6khEPFV2GmivJ6Z08xr9Z9bm58B5UlcwA_EPjGm8-A8DEHZQ5zEsBrT7LQhATzE5AwsppS0wGa1DzV2JJr9dkfptQE9H04tE8h6uCLWrA0infkw58unRGDNcTCFo1mK5xlkLMg/s1600/demon_6-720x908.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="908" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqFWiBo6khEPFV2GmivJ6Z08xr9Z9bm58B5UlcwA_EPjGm8-A8DEHZQ5zEsBrT7LQhATzE5AwsppS0wGa1DzV2JJr9dkfptQE9H04tE8h6uCLWrA0infkw58unRGDNcTCFo1mK5xlkLMg/s640/demon_6-720x908.jpg" width="506" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Sagittarius</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidulTlept2PoX_t9uyRpEu2FbXN_1EgLjJTHX7Sh_wSwGKSoj3r9V-S-e_zVdoivjUgYd44B856GUncAgPJDiz478QtQI9SQa4ucUgX0TR1UWno-WHWA5BxHWThfQpDSOB65o0VXBl96s/s1600/demon_7-720x908.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="908" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidulTlept2PoX_t9uyRpEu2FbXN_1EgLjJTHX7Sh_wSwGKSoj3r9V-S-e_zVdoivjUgYd44B856GUncAgPJDiz478QtQI9SQa4ucUgX0TR1UWno-WHWA5BxHWThfQpDSOB65o0VXBl96s/s640/demon_7-720x908.jpg" width="506" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Capricorn</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Hu0EPs0ef2uo7Hu7uKgC3HdoocPBZ1dcZr_Yu34APdBjJDn8oJUwGwTZ1H0mtdhLDEJ_-4oH6bWudQm5EeMihyO9xDarpYvyLM5zeqbnMpj1eGOUiyln0jHuljx8vJh4RvE_8fzAkTA/s1600/demon_8-720x908.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="908" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Hu0EPs0ef2uo7Hu7uKgC3HdoocPBZ1dcZr_Yu34APdBjJDn8oJUwGwTZ1H0mtdhLDEJ_-4oH6bWudQm5EeMihyO9xDarpYvyLM5zeqbnMpj1eGOUiyln0jHuljx8vJh4RvE_8fzAkTA/s640/demon_8-720x908.jpg" width="506" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Aquarius</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ54viqxs83OcOllIbWQLOgwwqm85JLIY1Ff5O6kUKZg5lGcHTjoce_yBL01tnzexIRYmr0KNM_atWvgguWnrYz_4TO-wMyEGyiM0CXAS0Me2-p7B1TENssHgSNWUkBM32f-IlCyzLTnU/s1600/demon_9-720x908.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="908" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ54viqxs83OcOllIbWQLOgwwqm85JLIY1Ff5O6kUKZg5lGcHTjoce_yBL01tnzexIRYmr0KNM_atWvgguWnrYz_4TO-wMyEGyiM0CXAS0Me2-p7B1TENssHgSNWUkBM32f-IlCyzLTnU/s640/demon_9-720x908.jpg" width="506" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Pisces</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_oUrTLzmmVzZEaEuyK8kAryoHBBMCGraD06Fz3kYVzqN03iscf37VQaeVgJQRecMw-NZjgnIlPkKx3CqnU4k8-P3AaiHGRKxpEM53qgCC1nR5WOQkM8qW8FC3cZ31IrI3x3IFy3R8sTc/s1600/demons_10-720x908.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="908" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_oUrTLzmmVzZEaEuyK8kAryoHBBMCGraD06Fz3kYVzqN03iscf37VQaeVgJQRecMw-NZjgnIlPkKx3CqnU4k8-P3AaiHGRKxpEM53qgCC1nR5WOQkM8qW8FC3cZ31IrI3x3IFy3R8sTc/s640/demons_10-720x908.jpg" width="506" /></a></div>
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<b>Also read:</b><br />
<a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-dark-side-of-each-zodiac-sign.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The Dark Side of Each Zodiac Sign</span></a></div>
Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-38081664047089555012020-03-04T05:58:00.000-08:002020-03-04T05:58:10.064-08:00Meet the famous “Dracula Parrot" in all its glory<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDkaQPuCekprhJU4AAbQYEWpcNxLn_ElqvE2xE71O-Szzo1vbu2c0xKvmATUItSBWPGN0wSX0vj163LxT4RIHy3jbV8IXHNiWmNuozD845lOOLv7EIokCmhVyQfhE2sTGAABcs3dVI16Y/s1600/78281458_2698934693505831_332581806178041856_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDkaQPuCekprhJU4AAbQYEWpcNxLn_ElqvE2xE71O-Szzo1vbu2c0xKvmATUItSBWPGN0wSX0vj163LxT4RIHy3jbV8IXHNiWmNuozD845lOOLv7EIokCmhVyQfhE2sTGAABcs3dVI16Y/s640/78281458_2698934693505831_332581806178041856_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>Dracula Parrots are the Dark Kings of the animal kingdom.</b></div>
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Its official name is Pesquet's parrot, but is also known as the Dracula Parrot, or the Vulturine parrot because of its distinctive vulture-like head.</div>
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Pesquet’s Parrot, is a bird endemic to hill and montane rainforest in New Guinea. With it’s black and red plumage and vulture-like appearance, this bird is truly remarkable.</div>
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It is a large parrot with a total length of approximately 46 cm and a weight of 680–800g.</div>
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Despite it’s name and vulture-like visage, the Dracula Parrot is a highly specialized frugivore, feeding almost exclusively on a few species of figs (not blood). Flowers and nectar have also been reported. At least in parts of its range, it is seasonally nomadic in response to the availability of fruits. The bare part of the head is presumably an adaption to avoid feather-matting from sticky fruits.</div>
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These parrots produce quite peculiar noises that are often described as rasping and growling.</div>
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Sadly, because of their stunning appearance they have become a target for poachers, who hunt them for their high-quality feathers. The Dracula Parrots are classified as vulnerable, on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu4z-7tnzNlQ5178mUkqtDbF9IXIM_LvzG15V1e6Y7PEYbuRtrrPly-0Rk_yPkWHexAliOqX80SZ-OsPWbUQ13mIljRoQx-CBT8QLYXajQ9_qzRpGSAk0Vc1vZgLTrglfjT9OkTBB-UDg/s1600/pesquets-parrot-blog-paga-hill-estate-papua-new-guinea2-600x479.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="600" height="510" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu4z-7tnzNlQ5178mUkqtDbF9IXIM_LvzG15V1e6Y7PEYbuRtrrPly-0Rk_yPkWHexAliOqX80SZ-OsPWbUQ13mIljRoQx-CBT8QLYXajQ9_qzRpGSAk0Vc1vZgLTrglfjT9OkTBB-UDg/s640/pesquets-parrot-blog-paga-hill-estate-papua-new-guinea2-600x479.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr5D2UIa7iD7n_6j2HVgkoqYzAnTQmz-gT1F0p5DIIZ8TYyy9DfTjw5FKV5OiX3kgaqSQ49v-EvKsrGWBxgBvaPmyJO4DjMx8wXnuQVic5vN2JQdCdI__xhc23JL8sFn2KBvuGZWSy5MU/s1600/pesquets-parrot-3eb692df-6dc1-40c6-9901-16873d34ad2-resize-750.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="750" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr5D2UIa7iD7n_6j2HVgkoqYzAnTQmz-gT1F0p5DIIZ8TYyy9DfTjw5FKV5OiX3kgaqSQ49v-EvKsrGWBxgBvaPmyJO4DjMx8wXnuQVic5vN2JQdCdI__xhc23JL8sFn2KBvuGZWSy5MU/s640/pesquets-parrot-3eb692df-6dc1-40c6-9901-16873d34ad2-resize-750.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidgTpSbqKEkQCSaXPDv9Un5LAfO_vkaaDDz6U78Rfp9fWsY5kXvtAvbSeJXy1U7uVROUdYpAzClI_2hk9M0wKeuLUcRyTkrh2u-44mNrAT508tNNWCU_QqXiYB7yRpKzI8bZUeVCR_muM/s1600/pesquet3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="768" height="522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidgTpSbqKEkQCSaXPDv9Un5LAfO_vkaaDDz6U78Rfp9fWsY5kXvtAvbSeJXy1U7uVROUdYpAzClI_2hk9M0wKeuLUcRyTkrh2u-44mNrAT508tNNWCU_QqXiYB7yRpKzI8bZUeVCR_muM/s640/pesquet3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-72686735145409742882020-03-03T07:33:00.000-08:002020-03-03T07:33:45.421-08:00'Curse tablets' found in 2,500-year-old Greek well<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4xNVRVFfQw5MpKpL-cb-5lRmoZRJGSPS-Mnwknc0L7G3gddE2KSwJlHiQKY0SrWF3y0C0G16Cf-w_U2apVf2_rCs8QjuH1QklbamzfClhCfwKGEpQ7sfNjFKFPagpfzrvZxk-eA0NV-E/s1600/WNsCKQRwDCteL5ptGboqVA-650-80.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="650" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4xNVRVFfQw5MpKpL-cb-5lRmoZRJGSPS-Mnwknc0L7G3gddE2KSwJlHiQKY0SrWF3y0C0G16Cf-w_U2apVf2_rCs8QjuH1QklbamzfClhCfwKGEpQ7sfNjFKFPagpfzrvZxk-eA0NV-E/s640/WNsCKQRwDCteL5ptGboqVA-650-80.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>Thwarted by a new law from placing their hexes in tombs of the untimely dead, Athenians sought a new avenue to the underworld gods.</b></div>
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Thirty lead tablets engraved with curses have been discovered at the bottom of a 2,500 year old well in ancient Athens. Discovered in the area of Kerameikos, ancient Athens’ main burial ground, the small tablets invoked the gods of the underworld in order to cause harm to others.</div>
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These curses were ritual texts, usually scratched on small lead objects. “The person that ordered a curse is never mentioned by name, only the recipient,” observes Dr. Jutta Stroszeck, director of the Kerameikos excavation on behalf of the German Archaeological Institute in Athens.</div>
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Before the discovery of the 30 specimens in the well, dozens of curses from the classical period (480-323 B.C.E.) had been found mainly in tombs of dead people who had died in an untimely manner and were therefore thought suitable to carry the spell to the underworld. One had also been found in another well. But there was good reason for the transition of ill-will from graves to wells in ancient Athens. </div>
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<b>Forbidden magic</b></div>
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Apparently, there’s a reason the hexes were in the well. According to Cicero (De Legibus II 66), Demetrios of Phaleron, who ruled Athens in 317-307 B.C.E. enacted legislation to govern the management of tombs. He also created a new magistrate’s office to oversee adherence to the law: et huic procurationi certum magistratum praefecerat.</div>
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“Black arts” were frowned on in Athens to begin with, and with the new law governing the cemetery, hexes couldn’t just be placed in tombs any more, as had been the habit (35 had been found in the graves of Kerameikos, in previous excavations).</div>
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So, ill-wishers by the last years of the fourth century B.C.E. had to find other points of contact with the underworld gods, Stroszeck explains. It seems they came up with the stratagem of covertly tossing their curses into wells.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ0GR9JkBSnonatO_UMJJn5wOyJ-ZzOiY0pm2dfLdeBSd0-Q3z0a2AgWcHDJ4cJdcl4yCsX5cWnuUbYo6lzsZ9Gn9LN7G1WCowz5VgsgzHf30GQJuBLfNccyPZhnBkMrflkdCYzRuOiaU/s1600/2919398881.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="343" data-original-width="609" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ0GR9JkBSnonatO_UMJJn5wOyJ-ZzOiY0pm2dfLdeBSd0-Q3z0a2AgWcHDJ4cJdcl4yCsX5cWnuUbYo6lzsZ9Gn9LN7G1WCowz5VgsgzHf30GQJuBLfNccyPZhnBkMrflkdCYzRuOiaU/s1600/2919398881.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Oval lead "coffin" with a spell against Pytheas et al., ordered by an Pytheas' opponent in an Athenian law court</span></td></tr>
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<b>Avenue to the underworld</b></div>
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The well is ten meters deep and at its bottom, the archaeologists found a built-in pedimented niche bout a meter in height, made of limestone.</div>
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It is true that the denizens of Athens would never see it, but it wasn’t for them. It was dedicated to the well’s water nymph.</div>
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“Water, and in particular drinking water, was sacred,” Stroszeck says. “In Greek religion, it was protected by nymphs, who could become very mischievous when their water was treated badly.”</div>
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To appease these emotionally precarious godlets, offerings such as miniature vessels containing liquids and other gifts were thrown into in the water.</div>
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Waters in rivers and wells, both protected by nymphs, was believed to provide direct access to the underworld, as Dr. Stroszeck says. The belief was that throwing the curse into a well would activate it.</div>
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The 30 new tablets have been documented using reflectance transformation imaging, an digital technique that enables even the smallest inscriptions on lead to be read. The archaeologists hope to ultimately learn the name of the nymph, the nature of the curses and whether the targets of the hexes were any of the famous Athenians living in the city during the late fourth century B.C.E.</div>
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<b>The place of the living and the dead</b></div>
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The Kerameikos graves from the Classical period were ornate, marked with stelai, reliefs, sculpted animals, or marble vases. Grave markers in Hellenistic times were much simpler. In any case, this area was characterized by transition: from urban to rural land, and from the city of the living to the realm of the dead.</div>
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“In such areas, the presence of divine and the supernatural were experienced intensively, which is why cult and mantic (prophetic) activities are dense there,” Stroszeck told Haaretz.</div>
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Why would the ancient Athenians place their curses in graves anyway? Because of the superstition that the souls of certain types of dead remained active around the tombs for a while after death, making them suitable bearers of the curses to the netherworld, where hopefully the chthonic gods would do the curser’s bidding.</div>
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Inscriptions found at ancient Kourion in Cyprus in the 1930s give precise instructions on how cursing was to be done. A tablet hexing a person very much alive had to be put in the tomb of the fresh corpse of a person who died prematurely – having failed to complete the “normal” life cycle, such as a child or an unmarried person; or a person who died by violence, like murder victims or war casualties, Stroszeck says. As their souls were believed to be “unquiet,” they could carry messages between the underworld and the mortal sphere.</div>
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All 35 curse tablets from tombs of the Kerameikos cemetery were situated at the necropolis’ borders, including in the children’s necropolis and in a polyandrion, a communal grave for fallen soldiers.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg1wo8DHWL_VuanQSAaCd1sqvj4pvBzsMZvrd4C9vJpUWI-UJIjT62wUVTmqZ38Tyw4ST-LzhGEonI0gdzgVvAHZ0fS27LkCMqvjWDafqfoa7ea8ojNAkvchLBOWj5WBf2hxAQa9lqSMU/s1600/2919398881-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="636" data-original-width="640" height="636" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg1wo8DHWL_VuanQSAaCd1sqvj4pvBzsMZvrd4C9vJpUWI-UJIjT62wUVTmqZ38Tyw4ST-LzhGEonI0gdzgVvAHZ0fS27LkCMqvjWDafqfoa7ea8ojNAkvchLBOWj5WBf2hxAQa9lqSMU/s640/2919398881-3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Love 'n' hate: Curse against the newlywed Glykera, focusing on her vulva, by someone jealous of her marriage</span></td></tr>
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<b>Final nail in the coffin</b><br />
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There seemed to have been four main types of reasons to curse someone: to win a lawsuit (by cursing the opponent’s tongue and hands, for example); for business purposes, for instance cursing metalsmiths, bankers, prostitutes and pimps; to win athletic contests; and – of course – because of love and hate.</div>
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The norm was to hire a professional curse writer, who was believed to possess supernatural powers and would know the requisite procedures and spells.</div>
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The completed curse tablet was folded up, pierced with an iron nail (defixio), and was sometimes nailed to the wooden coffin of the deceased conveyer.</div>
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And then there were the curses that weren’t done in secret. One of Athens’ most infamous sons, the general Alcibiades, was cursed very much in public.</div>
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Alcibiades had been a disciple of Socrates and was known for adopting the customs of whatever places he visited. For instance, in Sparta he was renowned for his cold baths and drinking black broth; in Thrace he was reportedly always drunk; and in Athens he became an orator who deliberately pronounced his r’s as l’s, since in this city, it was considered virtuous to lisp.</div>
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However, the day after his election as the admiral of an Athenian expeditionary force to Sicily during the Peloponnesian War, it so happened that the citizens of Athens discovered that the stone genitalia of the city’s hermes (rectangular boundary stones featuring a phallus and a head) had been broken off. Rumor spread that Alcibiades and his drunken companions were responsible for the vile deed. When the news reached Alcibiades, he became so afraid that he fled to Sparta and turned traitor. This merited him to be publically cursed in Athens.</div>
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Another person with the ill fortune to be publically cursed was Cassandros, one of Alexander the Great’s generals. The tablet cursing him was found inside a well near the Dipylon, the main gate of Athens and the principal point of entry of everyone in the city.</div>
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Although the curse tablet was cleverly deposited so that Cassandros would be cursed when he made his first public appearance upon entering Athens, the spell seemed to have had little effect on him. He died a natural death, unlike many of his Macedonian peers, who were mostly either poisoned or killed in battle.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdtHqi06U6yJ0f296OA-RRqoB-RoaIpBJouL6wzAdaGfjuYQLAMpzebeEmJHQMn7yIcB_WaAvw3DXSkFRP758a_7bnU_Nrgo95ky7Kf6sO5IYYmdyVaq_dtok2gl_8uPQIQoMJrYJ49sk/s1600/2919398881-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="640" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdtHqi06U6yJ0f296OA-RRqoB-RoaIpBJouL6wzAdaGfjuYQLAMpzebeEmJHQMn7yIcB_WaAvw3DXSkFRP758a_7bnU_Nrgo95ky7Kf6sO5IYYmdyVaq_dtok2gl_8uPQIQoMJrYJ49sk/s640/2919398881-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Curse tablet in the shape of a liver, Kerameikos</span></td></tr>
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<b>A stroke of bad luck</b></div>
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One has to wonder why a civilization that developed philosophy, science and logic would stoop to black magic. The answer may be very concrete, and may date back to the mid fifth century B.C.E. at the time of the dedication of the Parthenon atop the acropolis, the acme of the ambitious building program on that hill at the initiative of the Athenian statesman Pericles.</div>
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The construction of the Parthenon met with a fair amount of opposition. Some felt, not without reason, that it was not right to use the federal (union) treasury for municipal purposes in Athens.</div>
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Pericles answered that as long as Athens was fulfilling its defense obligations, it owed no accounting to its allies over its use of the tribute money.</div>
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But the criticism did not ebb, and Pericles was attacked both by satirists and in the general assembly. During a famous speech by Thucydides, son Melesias, against Pericles construction program at the Pnyx, the meeting place of the Athenian assembly, Thucydides managed to incite passions of the assembly against his political opponent –but in the middle of his speech his jaw suddenly dropped and he had to leave the platform. Probably he had been struck by stroke, but to the people it looked like Thucydides had been effectively cursed. This incident could explain the sudden increase of curse tablets in the Kerameikos during the 5th century B.C.E.<br />
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<span style="text-align: start;"><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium-dozens-of-curse-tablets-found-down-a-2-500-year-old-well-in-athens-1.8480078?fbclid=IwAR3iO1JTAHmLwm4inlQW78jI7nL6lhT4b5kuevHdVgQY5SFY04QCYeLKU1o">haaretz</a></span></div>
<br />Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-71321505988530397482020-02-25T11:34:00.000-08:002020-02-25T11:34:15.221-08:00The Wise Sayings of Solomon<div>
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<b>There was a man in the history of humanity whose name became a synonym for wisdom. He was a king, the legendary ruler Solomon, who successfully led his nation to its highest splendour, wealth and prosperity.</b></div>
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<i>“Without vision a people perishes.</i><i>”</i></div>
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<i>“Knowledge is of more value than gold.</i><i>”</i></div>
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<i>“A fool is wise in his eyes.”</i></div>
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<i>“</i><i>Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.</i><i>”</i></div>
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<i>“</i><i>Do not rebuke mockers, or they will hate you; rebuke the wise, and they will love you.</i><i>”</i><i> </i></div>
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<i>“Whoever stubbornly refuses to accept criticism will suddenly be broken beyond repair.” </i></div>
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<i>“The wise in heart will receive teaching, but a fast talking fool will become nothing.</i><i>”</i></div>
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<i>“</i><i>One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.</i><i>”</i></div>
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<i>“</i><i>It is better to be poor and walk in integrity than to be stupid and speak lies.</i><i>”</i></div>
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<i>“</i><i>He who hides hate has lying lips, and he who talks to hurt people is a fool.</i><i>”</i></div>
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<i>“The tongue has the power of life and death.”</i></div>
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<i>“Words kill, words give life; they're either poison or fruit--- YOU choose.”</i></div>
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<i>“Your own soul is nourished when you are kind; it is destroyed when you are cruel.”</i></div>
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<i>“A wise son makes a glad father, But a foolish son is the grief of his mother.” </i></div>
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<i>“Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old.”</i></div>
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<i>“Give me the gift of a listening heart.”</i></div>
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<i>“As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” </i></div>
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<i>Better the anger of a friend than the kiss of an enemy.”</i></div>
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<i>“I found the one my heart loves.”</i></div>
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<i>“All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full.” </i></div>
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<i>“</i><i>There is a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.”</i></div>
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<i>“</i><i>For everything there is a season, and a time for very purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to break down, and a time to build up, a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.”</i></div>
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<i>“Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.” </i></div>
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<i>“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” </i></div>
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<i>“</i><i>For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.</i><i>” </i></div>
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<i>“</i><i>If you are honest, you will live life safely. But if you are dishonest, you will get hurt.</i><i>” </i></div>
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<i>“</i><i>Kindness and faithfulness keep a king safe, through kindness his throne is made secure.</i><i>” </i></div>
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<i>“</i><i>Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.</i><i>”</i></div>
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<i>“</i><i>Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.</i><i>” </i></div>
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Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-70438466276184956112020-02-17T13:52:00.001-08:002020-02-17T13:52:58.773-08:00Leila Waddell, Violinist, Magician and Muse<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Leila Waddell is one of the most fascinating figures of the early 20th century occult circles. She was associated with Aleister Crowley, The Golden Dawn and other related groups. She was a very talented musician, as well an accomplished writer, magician, and a founding member of the original company of the Rites of Eleusis.</b></div>
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<b>A powerful woman, versed in the sacred arts.</b></div>
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Leila Waddell (1880-1932) was a country girl from Bathurst, NSW, who entered the world stage as an acclaimed violinist - and left it having influenced magical practice into the 21st century.</div>
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Her early life focused on music. She studied violin and joined the Sydney music scene, teaching genteel girls at some of Sydney’s most prestigious schools. Her concert performances earned her a devoted following. She favoured composers such as Wieniawskiand Vieuxtemps, and soon gained a reputation as one of Australia’s leading violinists.</div>
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Waddell left Australia as part of a touring orchestra in 1908, and found herself in London. Here she was introduced to New Zealand author (and cellist) Katherine Mansfield at a concert. They became firm friends, and regulars in a Bohemian society centred around the Cafe Royal. </div>
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As well as musicians, poets and artists, the cafe attracted members of London’s magical orders. It was likely here that Wadell first met the magician Aleister Crowley, who liked to distribute samples of the hallucinogenic drug peyote at parties. The meeting opened the door into another world.</div>
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Within a short time Waddell and Crowley became lovers. Waddell began studying magic as part of Crowley’s order, the A .‘.A .’. (Astrum Argentum), in which she was known as Sister Agatha. Crowley, however, called her Laylah, his Scarlet Woman. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit7KD80x6GeOu2ZdUARRala2Bpunf7M71IFM12LeUjaVCcMOTkzELp8OJIaX5gcx_YjQDWx9pKad_zUHrhSukqEdQTdDURWHq8QQoRA_2zXl8LyoChZj1l_OmVs4PdroeJqI6saX8X1Oo/s1600/file-20190923-23784-x2l2ev.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1396" data-original-width="926" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit7KD80x6GeOu2ZdUARRala2Bpunf7M71IFM12LeUjaVCcMOTkzELp8OJIaX5gcx_YjQDWx9pKad_zUHrhSukqEdQTdDURWHq8QQoRA_2zXl8LyoChZj1l_OmVs4PdroeJqI6saX8X1Oo/s400/file-20190923-23784-x2l2ev.jpg" width="265" /></a>Waddell is often relegated to a character in Crowley’s life. But if we assess her life on its own terms, we see a brilliant musician, a philosopher of magic, and a rebel who was unafraid to take risks and be true to herself.</div>
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Crowley was experimenting with using sex in rituals. He was interested in how heightened emotions could be harnessed for magical outcomes, such as achieving transcendental states or summoning otherworldly beings.</div>
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The moment of orgasm, he believed, focused the magician’s will and increased their power. As a poet and playwright, Crowley was also exploring rituals as theatrical performances, where the audience were co-practitioners. </div>
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Crowley was entranced by Waddell’s musical prowess. Together, they began devising magical rituals which combined music, poetry and dance.</div>
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The idea came about during a weekend at the house of Crowley’s disciple Guy Marston (who believed that married English women could be induced to masturbate by the sound of tom-tom drums).</div>
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Waddell’s extensive experience as a performer was a key part of bringing this idea to fruition. The result was the Rites of Eleusis: musical theatre redefining magic for the new era of modernism.</div>
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The Rites had seven parts, each associated with a planet or celestial body. Waddell composed original music for them, as well as drawing on her favorite composers. The purpose was to enable the audience to attain spiritual ecstasy.</div>
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The first performances were tested before small groups, enhanced by drug-laced “libations”. A journalist, describing Waddell’s playing, wrote:</div>
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<i>Once again the figure took the violin, and played […] so beautifully, so gracefully, and with such intense feeling, that in very deed most of us experienced that Ecstasy which Crowley so earnestly seeks.</i></div>
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In October 1910, the Rites were ready for the public. The venue was Caxton Hall in London. The audience was encouraged to dress in the appropriate colour for each Rite, such as violet for Jupiter, russet for Mars. </div>
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Waddell played her violin, Crowley’s disciple Victor Neuburg danced, and Crowley intoned his turgid paeans to the god Pan. The hall was in semi-darkness. The performances were filled with sexual symbolism, but no sex magic took place on stage.</div>
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The critics were not very kind to the public Rites of Eleusis, but most agreed Waddell’s virtuosity was a highlight.</div>
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After the Rites of Eleusis, Crowley embarked on writing a book which many consider his most significant work. Magick: Liber ABA, Book 4 was a collaborative effort between Crowley, A.‘.A.’. member Mary Desti, and Waddell. In Part III, they reflected on the lessons learnt from the Rites of Eleusis. </div>
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They concluded that an audience of initiates would more effectively channel magical power than the general public. As for the music, it should be composed specifically for the ritual - indicating that Waddell’s own compositions had hit the mark. The book was published in The Equinox in 1912.</div>
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Waddell booked a concert tour to the US. She had planned to buy her passage on the ill-fated Titanic, but just missed out on a ticket. Her narrow escape was widely reported in Australian newspapers. After completing this engagement, she returned to Europe to tour with the Ragged Ragtime Girls, a violin group managed by Crowley. She continued her magical studies in the Ordo Templi Orientis, an order with a strong focus on sex magic.</div>
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The First World War interrupted the idyll of sex, magic and music. Ireland was under British rule, and many Irish nationalists saw the war as an opportunity to fight for independence. As the daughter of Irish famine refugees, Waddell was sympathetic. In New York she joined a secret revolutionary group under the name of “L. Bathurst”. </div>
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Crowley arrived in New York in 1914, purportedly on a mission to discredit Germany by spreading absurd propaganda. This was the impetus for an extraordinary stunt.</div>
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At dawn on the morning of 3 July 1915, Waddell, Crowley and a party of Irish revolutionaries sailed down the Hudson River to the Statue of Liberty, with the intention of declaring Irish independence and war on England.</div>
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But the guards wouldn’t let them land. Crowley made an impassioned speech, which no-one could hear from the prow of the boat, then tore up his passport and threw it in the river. Waddell played the rebel anthem The Wearing of the Green to accompany the Declaration of Independence.</div>
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The following year the Easter Rising, an armed rebellion which aimed to overthrow English rule in Ireland, was brutally suppressed in Dublin.</div>
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Crowley left New York for the West Coast, while Waddell continued to tour, write and socialise. She was friends with writers like Rebecca West and Theodore Dreiser, and regularly attended salons held by Frank Harris, who had not yet attained notoriety as the author of the sexually explicit My Life and Loves.</div>
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While touring US cities, she played lunch time concerts in factories, organised by the YMCA. The venues were barns, sheds, and gardens, and the audiences were mostly male migrant workers. The men sang along with the arias and would give her wildflower posies. She loved this experience and considered it the greatest work of her career.</div>
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Already a seasoned writer, Waddell came to wider notice with her memoir of Katherine Mansfield, who died in 1923. Details are murky, but it seems this led to contracts for a novel and a book of short stories with a London publisher. </div>
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Leila Waddells relationship with Crowley disintegrated as a consequence of his infidelities.</div>
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In 1924 Waddell returned to Australia as her father was very ill. The prodigal violinist was greeted enthusiastically, and quickly became immersed in concerts, touring, and radio appearances. She resumed her earlier career teaching violin to affluent schoolgirls. If Sydney society remembered her association with Crowley, dubbed “the wickedest man in the world” by the press, it did not dim their eagerness for her music.</div>
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However, soon she became ill herself from uterine cancer. Her books were never finished. She died in 1932 and was buried next to her parents in Sydney.</div>
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The Rites of Eleusis are still performed today by Crowleyites across the world, including the Ordo Templi Orientis in Australia. In 2015, Wadell was celebrated as one of Bathurst’s favourite daughters at the town’s 200th anniversary. From country to city to world and other-world, her life was truly a magical journey.</div>
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<b>STARLIGHT</b></div>
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Behold! I have lived many years, and I have travelled in</div>
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every land that is under the dominion of the</div>
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Sun, and I have sailed the seas from pole to pole.</div>
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Now do I lift up my voice and testify that all is</div>
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vanity on earth, except the love of a good woman, and</div>
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that good woman LAYLAH. And I testify</div>
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that in heaven all is vanity (for I have journeyed</div>
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oft, and sojourned oft, in every heaven), except the</div>
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love of OUR LADY BABALON. And I testify</div>
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that beyond heaven and earth is the love of OUR</div>
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LADY NUIT.</div>
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And seeing that I am old and well stricken in years,</div>
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and that my natural forces fail, therefore do I rise</div>
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up i my throne and call upon THE END.</div>
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For I am youth eternal and force infinite.</div>
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And at THE END is SHE that was LAYLAH, and</div>
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BABALON, and NUIT, being…</div>
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(Aleister Crowley)</div>
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<br />Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-39482854090730423802020-02-11T11:48:00.000-08:002020-02-11T11:48:12.444-08:00Benefits of Indoor Jasmine Plant<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Houseplants not only look gorgeous and brighten up our home, but they can also be great for our mental and physical health.</b></div>
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Good health depends on more than just diet and exercise. Without a doubt your environment affects your health too, and the right houseplant can actually make a big difference in your mood, your stress level, your sleep quality and even your breathing.</div>
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It’s common knowledge that one benefit of having plants indoors is that they help improve air quality by circulating oxygen freely.</div>
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Your brain needs a sufficient supply of oxygen to function properly. Scientific research has already shown direct relationships between stress and tainted oxygen levels. When toxins exist in the indoor air spike, so do levels of stress/anxiety, which can lead to feelings of despair and hopelessness, otherwise known as depression.</div>
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Looking at flowers is known to speed up the recovery of surgery patients. It makes them more secure, relaxed and peaceful. Plants help against loneliness and depression providing a constant companion.</div>
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The fragrance from jasmine blooms is one of the most sought-after smells, in products including expensive perfumes or flavored teas.</div>
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Growing jasmine plants indoors gives an attractive and fragrant atmosphere to the dull winter months. </div>
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Jasmine is an elegant climber with attractive dark green leaves. The plant and its vines look beautiful and become a focal point in the room delighting its viewers with its small white star-shaped flowers, and delicious aromas! </div>
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They act as a natural air freshener giving off a sweet aroma wherever placed. </div>
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Jasmine has been used for centuries in Asia as a natural remedy for depression, anxiety, emotional distress, low libido, and insomnia. </div>
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In Chinese medicine Jasmine flowers are known to “cool” the blood and have a strong antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-tumor properties. Because they cool the blood they help with reducing a fever or cooling an overheated person (from the sun).</div>
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The word Jasmine has evolved from the Persian yasmin, meaning “a gift from God” due to the patently strong aroma created by the jasmine flower.</div>
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Its flower are highly sacred in India and the Himalayas. </div>
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Jasmine is the national flower of Pakistan and the sacred flower of Kama, the God of Love. On the day before a wedding, the bride to be wears a garland of jasmine and roses around her neck as sensual symbol of her purity and passion. </div>
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In the symbolism of flowers Jasmine represents purity, simplicity, modesty and strength. The plant is also the national flower of the Philippines and has an international reputation with many nicknames such as Maid of Orleans, Belle of India, and Duce di Toscane. </div>
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You may often find Jasmine flowers used to decorate religious buildings too both in the East and the West. Many religions all over the world, since ancient times, have valued the spiritual message that this simple flower is able to transmit.</div>
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According to legend, a Tuscan gardener received a jasmine plant from Persian traders and planted it in his private garden. He refused to let anyone cut the flowers from his garden. One day, he presented a branch of the jasmine flowers to his beloved. She was so taken by the fragrance she agreed to marry him – thus began the Tuscan tradition of including jasmine in the bridal bouquet.</div>
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Jasmine is also linked to prophetic dreaming, something rife in Greek and Roman mythology. The Greek god Aphrodite and Roman, that counterpart Venus, are both linked to jasmine. Their purity, devotion and love, being represented and symbolic of jasmine. </div>
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The intoxicating scent of the flowers is most powerful in the evening after the sun has set and is said to be even stronger during a waning moon.</div>
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Keep jasmine near your bed for a good peaceful and tranquil state of mind. </div>
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Jasmine’s scent directly impacts a brain/central nervous system chemical known as GABA, which results in the calming of the nerves, a soothing of anxiety/mild depression, and the facilitating of rest. This GABA effect was bolstered by more than five times when exposed to jasmine fragrance, to be more precise, overshadowing the same effect caused by other scents. </div>
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Jasmine was also shown to be more effective than anti-anxiety meds and sleeping pills in promoting quality sleep. </div>
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Sleep plays an important role in our physical and mental wellbeing. If you’re lacking in sleep, you may find you have trouble making decisions, controlling your emotions, solving problems and coping with change.</div>
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A study by Dr Raudenbush at wheeling Jesuit university studied the results of 20 people’s sleeping patterns when exposed to jasmine. He concluded that those who were exposed to jasmine slept more deeply and effectively.</div>
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Another study indicated that the disbursement of jasmine fragrance into a roomful of sleeping test subjects noticeably led to less tossing and turning and heightened sleep efficiency, even without additional sleep time.</div>
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Dried jasmine is used to make tea and is also used to cure headaches.</div>
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You can also make delicious jasmine infusions by infusing 20g of flowers in one liter of water. Drink two cups in the day time and one more before sleeping for a restful sleep.</div>
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<b>Also read:</b></div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://secretsofvitality.blogspot.com/2016/11/13-benefits-of-jasmine-tea.html">13 benefits of jasmine tea</a></li>
<li><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2018/03/plant-your-own-magical-moon-garden.html">Plant your own magical moon garden</a></li>
<li><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2019/07/black-flowers-to-add-mystery-to-your.html">Black flowers to add mystery to your garden </a></li>
<li><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2019/07/these-galaxy-flowers-hold-universe-in.html">These "Galaxy Flowers" hold the universe in their petals</a></li>
<li><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2019/07/snapdragon-flower-seed-pod-looks-like.html">Snapdragon flower seed pod looks like a human skull</a></li>
<li><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2019/09/skeleton-flowers-become-transparent.html">“Skeleton Flowers” become transparent when it rains</a></li>
</ul>
Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-79375535611386355022019-11-14T12:25:00.000-08:002020-01-14T18:16:41.697-08:00Psychic Protection for Pets<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQF5cSHbIj0EVcywO4SU-DrJBlrCj5zPkM8TfQYcrUbOUHV4Qr53smhgxEEBrJAAb7LlGIGozB-DS7CKWYmAdzoxdE2O8nD4IeLo8cC045lMJ2kudOMsbTvAGMgJSANXauSP_owQW6cgk/s1600/2313519742.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1038" data-original-width="1472" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQF5cSHbIj0EVcywO4SU-DrJBlrCj5zPkM8TfQYcrUbOUHV4Qr53smhgxEEBrJAAb7LlGIGozB-DS7CKWYmAdzoxdE2O8nD4IeLo8cC045lMJ2kudOMsbTvAGMgJSANXauSP_owQW6cgk/s640/2313519742.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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As strange as it might sound, animals need psychic protection as well. </div>
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It is widely accepted that animals are much more sensitive than we are to unseen forces. Dogs and cats are very sensitive to people's intentions. It’s not uncommon that they give warning by growling or bristling their hair before a bad situation arises. </div>
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We often see animals looking at and reacting to things that we can’t readily perceive. </div>
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Sometimes it even seems like cats have astral playmates that they chase and paw at. </div>
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Recall a time when you noticed your cat staring tensely towards a seemingly empty space or spending a suspicious amount of time around one particular spot in the house. It's likely that your cat is sensitive to a concentrated amount of negative energy and is attempting to protect you and your home from possible infiltration by evil spirits and ghosts. </div>
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It is possible that this negative energy remains left over from some traumatic experience in the past before you came to live in the home, or the entity could come from outside the home and try to force its way in. </div>
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Russians used to allow a cat to enter a house first before they moved in due to its extraordinarily powers.</div>
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This is just one, of many reasons why pets need constant cleansing and psychic protection like us. </div>
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If somebody is trying to harm you with magick, it usually will hit your pet(s) first because they also act like shields. </div>
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Psychic attacks are also very common. </div>
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<b style="text-align: justify;">What is a psychic attack?</b><span style="text-align: justify;"> It is the assault upon your aura, without your conscious permission, by another person, group, or spirits. Read more here: <a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-threat-of-psychic-attacks.html">The threat of Psychic Attacks</a></span></div>
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Why would anyone want to attack an animal? The most common reason would be to cause the owner of the pet to suffer. Many people, myself included, cherish their animal companions and make their happiness the top priority in life. It can upset our whole lives when our animal falls into a mysterious illness, a moody depression, or an energy-less state. </div>
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If you are actively involved in the occult, someone may assume that your pet is your familiar and that attacking your pet psychically will indirectly harm you. </div>
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How do we know if an animal is having troubles caused by psychic energy? </div>
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They can’t simply tell us that they are feeling strangely so we have to watch for symptoms. The usual telltale signs are when the animal suddenly falls sick, doesn't eat, is listless, or moody. By moody I mean the animal not only doesn’t want to engage in their usually activities, but they also reject companionship with growls or hisses. The may also develop sudden phobias or flinch when touched by those they normally trust.</div>
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<b>IMPORTANT NOTE</b><br />
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Any veterinarian would take the list of symptoms above and name off dozens of physical problems that could cause the very same reactions. It is very important not to put an animal’s health into danger by assuming that any of these symptoms are solely the work a psychic attack. No matter how strong your gut feeling is on the matter, play it safe and get a medical opinion first and foremost. If you spend even a day trying psychic techniques before you take the animal to the vet, you could be wasting crucial time that is needed to save your animal's life. </div>
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<b>Easy method to protect your pets</b></div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;">First off, in most cases it is best to break off all contact with the attacker if you know the person</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cleanse your home and pet(s) often</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Visualize and create an energy shield around your pet(s)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Pet protection spell </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Use protective mantra or prayer on them </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ask your deities, spirits, or ancestors to protect them. Hekate is a great protector of dogs, and Freya of cats.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Create a protective sigil for them</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">You can attach protective imagery/jewelry/crystals to their collars. Be careful here, some crystals can be toxic to them. Do your research first. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Include them in your meditations</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Do energy work (or reiki) on them.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Let them get some sunshine, and moonlight</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Let them roam in nature or grass, if possible. They need grounding as well.</li>
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On October 4th, a procession of animals, everything from dogs and cats to hamsters and even horses, is led to churches for a special ceremony called the Blessing of Pets. This custom is conducted in remembrance of Saint Francis of Assisi’s love for all creatures. If this is your path, go for it.</div>
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What's your favorite method?</div>
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<b>Also read:</b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2017/09/witches-familiars-spirit-guardians-and.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Witches’ Familiars, Spirit Guardians and Demons</span></a></li>
<li><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-threat-of-psychic-attacks.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The threat of Psychic Attacks</span></a></li>
<li><a href="http://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2016/08/gossip-can-cause-psychic-harm.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Gossip can cause psychic harm</span></a></li>
<li><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2018/04/what-is-banishing.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">What is Banishing?</span></a></li>
<li><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-protective-aura.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The Protective Aura</span></a></li>
<li><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2018/01/energy-grounding-centering-and-shielding.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Energy: Grounding, Centering, and Shielding</span></a></li>
<li><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2018/01/working-with-your-projective-and.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Working with your Projective and Receptive Hand</span></a></li>
</ul>
</div>
Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-29841020004564078582019-11-12T11:18:00.000-08:002019-11-25T06:08:45.393-08:00The Oraculum, Napoleon Book Of Fate<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Oraculum had been originally discovered in one of the Royal tombs of Egypt during a French military expedition of 1801, and at Napoleon’s request was translated by a famous German scholar and antiquarian. Apparently consulting it “before every important occasion”, the book became one of the emperor’s most treasured possessions. It was found among his personal possessions after the defeat of his army at Leipzig in 1813 and translated into English in 1822.</div>
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<b>Method to Consult Napoleon's Oracle</b></div>
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<b>1.</b> There are 16 questions covering almost everything one wishes to know about. Read the questions and select the one which expreses best your interest in the future.</div>
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1. Shall I obtain my wish?</div>
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2. Success in my undertakings?</div>
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3. Shall I gain or lose my cause?</div>
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4. Shall I live in foreign parts?</div>
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5. Will the stranger return?</div>
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6. Shall I recover my property?</div>
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7. Will my friend be true?</div>
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8. Shall I have to travel?</div>
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9. Does the person love me?</div>
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10. Will the marriage be happy?</div>
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11. What sort of a wife or husband?</div>
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12. Will I have a son or daughter?</div>
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13. Will the patient recover?</div>
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14. Shall I speculate?</div>
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15. Will I be lucky?</div>
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16. What does my dream signify?</div>
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<b>2.</b> Make a series of marks like this * in four lines. You should do this without thinking about it. Let the pen be your guide. Add as many marks as desired in each line. When you finish this, your end result should look something like this:</div>
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************</div>
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*************</div>
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**************</div>
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***************</div>
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<b>3.</b> Now add up the number of marks made. In this example:</div>
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************ (12 marks)</div>
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************* (13 marks)</div>
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************** (14 marks)</div>
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*************** (15 marks)</div>
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<b>4. </b> When the number of marks in any of the four lines exceeds 9, then only the extra marks are taken into account. So:</div>
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************ (12 marks become 3)</div>
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************* (13 marks become 4)</div>
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************** (14 marks become 5)</div>
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*************** (15 marks become 6)</div>
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<b>5. </b>A symbol is now obtained from the marks. This is done by marking the line containing an odd number with a single star ( * ) and a line containing an even number is marked with two stars ( ** ). Taking the above example, the symbol obtained from the marks is this:</div>
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************ (12 marks = 3) odd number *</div>
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************* (13 marks = 4) even number **</div>
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************** (14 marks = 5) odd number *</div>
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*************** (15 marks = 6) even number **</div>
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<b>6. </b>Now you are ready to consult the Oraculum. Look up the corresponding combination of dots, or symbol, on the top of Oraculum Table to find what letter corresponds with the number of the question asked. Once you got your letter you need to find that page and read the answer. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgardaWafAZX5JqArEIDGb_RU-o9IXaAcv1lQoYjQjGWzTdqXvmWSNc6BDl44g-AgNlYGpTAWmr-f8oLskc3wHx1x4eRRu-0wp0wWKfMJdExBkj0cGv-kTHELdaKQ4r_6b8MFNtnZpxOMQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-11-12+at+12.50.52+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="1111" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgardaWafAZX5JqArEIDGb_RU-o9IXaAcv1lQoYjQjGWzTdqXvmWSNc6BDl44g-AgNlYGpTAWmr-f8oLskc3wHx1x4eRRu-0wp0wWKfMJdExBkj0cGv-kTHELdaKQ4r_6b8MFNtnZpxOMQ/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-11-12+at+12.50.52+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUBIy1k-Rcsr3b2N33u6W8t1fJstIv9VBx8lmM3EZWWhZvq1QrOqCF8YKnVhh6bcwVJcvXBHQjF_IWKN2n4GgdDrnEx16aGo6g-gwP43-w_PDY9zB1LWWIiXgEnWZSHeJiRrzwkfEuU-g/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-11-12+at+12.52.23+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="543" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUBIy1k-Rcsr3b2N33u6W8t1fJstIv9VBx8lmM3EZWWhZvq1QrOqCF8YKnVhh6bcwVJcvXBHQjF_IWKN2n4GgdDrnEx16aGo6g-gwP43-w_PDY9zB1LWWIiXgEnWZSHeJiRrzwkfEuU-g/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-11-12+at+12.52.23+PM.png" width="556" /></a></div>
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<b>Important:</b></div>
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<b>a. </b>It is forbidden to ask a question twice on the same day.</div>
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<b>b.</b> Again, do not ask the same question in a month.</div>
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The following are unlucky days, on which none of the questions should be asked, or any adventure undertaken: January 1, 2, 4, 6, 11, 12, 20; February 1, 17, 18; March 14, 16; April 10, 17, 18; May 7, 8; June 17; July 17, 21; August 20, 21; September 10, 18; October 6; November 6, 10; December 6, 11, 15.</div>
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<i>You can find an online version by clicking (<a href="http://www.iapsop.com/ssoc/1884__anonymous___napoleons_oraculum.pdf"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">here</span></a>). </i></div>
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<i>Or even better, you can get a nice copy of this book and take it everywhere, find it on the right bar of our site.</i></div>
Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-7456015242072823382019-11-04T09:39:00.001-08:002019-11-04T09:51:51.730-08:00The Ancient Art of Hand Reading<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikTD0RzWxewr-n87gfAfvTOYU7Mxd2WKoUkIiT7N5xhpOs5Kr9S4e5qU8uWuX3VXrlhCTWluAXlF26Ug8p73D3q1gqcmHDimZc2F8Fomt3jZDC97sWQRA3JN9_FfvvX4xmOUOoaLTSajg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-11-04+at+11.11.50+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="430" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikTD0RzWxewr-n87gfAfvTOYU7Mxd2WKoUkIiT7N5xhpOs5Kr9S4e5qU8uWuX3VXrlhCTWluAXlF26Ug8p73D3q1gqcmHDimZc2F8Fomt3jZDC97sWQRA3JN9_FfvvX4xmOUOoaLTSajg/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-11-04+at+11.11.50+AM.png" width="504" /></a></div>
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<i>“God caused signs or seals on the hands of all the sons of men, that the sons of men might know their works.” </i>- Book of Job </div>
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Palmistry, also called chiromancy or chirosophy, is the art or practice of telling fortunes and interpreting character from the lines and configurations of the palm of a person's hand.</div>
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The scholars of palmistry claim that the destiny of a person can be read very clearly from the lines of palm. Palmistry in that way can prove to be a mirror of the story of the life of an individual. </div>
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It revolves around the study of various "lines" ("heart line", "life line", etc.), mounts, shape of palm, thumb and fingers. In some traditions, readers also examine characteristics of the fingerprints and palmar skin patterns (dermatoglyphics), skin texture and color, shape of the palm, and flexibility of the hand.</div>
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The basic framework for "Classical" palmistry (the most widely taught and practiced tradition) is rooted in Greek mythology. Each area of the palm and fingers is related to a god or goddess, and the features of that area indicate the nature of the corresponding aspect of the subject. For example, the ring finger is associated with the Greek god Apollo; characteristics of the ring finger are tied to the subject's dealings with art, music, aesthetics, fame, wealth, and harmony.</div>
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The origins of palmistry are uncertain. Some claim that the art of palmistry originated in China or India.</div>
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The chiromantic art has been known in India, Nepal, China, Tibet, Persia, Sumeria, Babilonia, Palestine and Egypt, and it underwent significant development in ancient Greece.</div>
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Aristotle, in his “De Historia Animalium” described the practice and outlined his belief in the fact that the lines of the palm reflected aspects of the persons soul along with some observations on what the lines meant. This knowledge was passed to Alexander the Great who took the knowledge on board both in military and diplomatic fields.</div>
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During the Middle Ages the art of palmistry was actively suppressed by the Catholic Church as pagan superstition. In Renaissance magic, palmistry was classified as one of the seven "forbidden arts", along with necromancy, geomancy, aeromancy, pyromancy, hydromancy, and spatulamancy (scapulimancy).</div>
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While palmistry remained a little-known underground belief in Western Europe it continued to flourish further East, particularly among the Romany of Romania, Bulgaria and surrounding areas which were firstly under Byzantine rule and then Ottoman.</div>
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The practice of chiromancy is generally regarded as a pseudoscience. It should be noted that the information outlined below is briefly representative of modern palmistry; there are many, often conflicting, interpretations of various lines and palmar features across various "schools" of palmistry.</div>
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Although there is no scientific support for the contention that the physical features observed in palmistry have psychic or occult predictive meaning, the human hand does show evidence of the person’s health, cleanliness, and occupational and nervous habits (e.g., as evidenced by calluses or nail-biting). Hands are routinely examined in medical diagnosis and provide clues with which the palmist may often astound the unsophisticated.</div>
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<i>Find our recommended book and kit on palmistry on the right bar of our blog.</i></div>
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<b>Also read:</b></div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2018/04/scrying-ancient-art-of-revelation.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Scrying, The Ancient Art of Revelation</span></a></li>
<li><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2019/03/what-is-bibliomancy.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">What is bibliomancy?</span></a></li>
</ul>
Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-71462118838630222702019-10-24T09:34:00.000-07:002019-10-24T09:34:53.467-07:00Jinn: The Arab Spirits<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYiR46vvLO-IuYxx1S2lWWgsbfrjYD0w4fEfsZSZmO2hMyK3JeYEN_RstC5m7U6JLxbWf60JnuWG-_O02AcBdYHWLETIIOnPgaD5eQC78hZqjTZ1OnEEeASG30ClJu5spv9aru33gqHI8/s1600/jinns2_2597153b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="620" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYiR46vvLO-IuYxx1S2lWWgsbfrjYD0w4fEfsZSZmO2hMyK3JeYEN_RstC5m7U6JLxbWf60JnuWG-_O02AcBdYHWLETIIOnPgaD5eQC78hZqjTZ1OnEEeASG30ClJu5spv9aru33gqHI8/s640/jinns2_2597153b.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>Jinn: The Arab spirits who can eat, sleep, have sex, and die.</b><br />
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Arab poet Kuthayyir ‘Azzah of the Umayyad period (661–750) once described how he became a poet:</div>
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<i>One day [...] a man on horseback came toward me until he was next to me. I looked at him. He was bizarre, a man made out of brass […]. He said to me, “Recite some poetry!” Then he recited poetry to me. I said: “Who are you?” He said, “I am your double from the jinn!”</i></div>
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<i>That is how I started reciting poetry.</i></div>
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Jinn (often al-jinn or djinn) are shape-shifting spirits made of fire and air with origins in pre-Islamic Arabia. They are the inspiration for Aladdin’s genie, and have held space in Arab culture for almost as long as Arab culture itself. And yet, having transcended both religion and the physical world, so little is understood about the spirits.</div>
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Neither inherently good nor bad, Jinn are amorphous entities, able to take the shape of humans and animals alike. Their role in society, too, has been malleable: Jinn have served as a source of inspiration for both the most esteemed classical Arab poets in the first millenium and Disney in 1992 (jinni—aka genie—is the singular of jinn). Both before and after Islam’s introduction—which included mentions of jinn in the Qur’an—jinn have remained an inexplicable entity. “The orthodox scholars say you can’t understand jinn,” Arabic literature researcher Suneela Mubayi tells Broadly. Still, despite their mysterious nature, there are some things historians, Islamic scholars, and believers of jinn have come to discern about the spirits.</div>
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According to El-Zein, pagan Arabs (big believers in the occult) worshipped jinn long before Islam was introduced in the seventh century, believing that the spirits were masters of certain crafts and elements of nature who had the power to turn plots of land fertile. Jinn are believed to both interact with humans in our reality and lead their own lives in a separate realm. <b>“As spiritual entities, the jinn are considered dual dimensional, with the ability to live and operate in both manifest and invisible domains,”</b> El-Zein writes.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAAzM52lEn_09XupLokHemzb-oUdtwqpiLRtq6NB0KC3ZlQALrH3WNaWgUpTbZfOjAgwivEXpc0yCAuyEVZHItBPSR5EfqxmZboGrC9ZsE8iVu4FdfvxFVKs9M8sWYxcjvoG30sYpjxb4/s1600/Kitab_al-Bulhan_---_devils_talking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="910" data-original-width="606" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAAzM52lEn_09XupLokHemzb-oUdtwqpiLRtq6NB0KC3ZlQALrH3WNaWgUpTbZfOjAgwivEXpc0yCAuyEVZHItBPSR5EfqxmZboGrC9ZsE8iVu4FdfvxFVKs9M8sWYxcjvoG30sYpjxb4/s400/Kitab_al-Bulhan_---_devils_talking.jpg" width="266" /></a>Jinn’s influence has been widespread both religiously and culturally in pre- and post-Islamic Arabia. They can talk or otherwise communicate with people, though some, like poets, are more likely than others to be hit up by a jinni. Ancient Arabs, known for their affinity for poetry, even coined the term sha’ir, meaning an Arabic literature poet who was “supernaturally inspired” by jinn, to designate poets like Kuthayyir ‘Azzah. “Poets in pre-Islamic Arabia often said they had a special jinni that was their companion,” says Mubayi. “Sometimes they would attribute their verses to the jinn."</div>
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In the early seventh century, when the Islamic Prophet Muhammed (SAWS) began spreading the word of the Qur’an, he shared multiple surahs, or verses, that mentioned jinn, including one named entirely after the spirits. </div>
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Still, in both the past and present, stories of those possessed by jinn are not hard to find. Exorcisms, which can involve reciting the Qur’an over a person or, more rarely, physically beating the jinn out of them, are performed in some circles on those thought to be possessed by jinn (despite being condemned by mainstream Muslims). People who partake in the latter believe that the pain is not felt by the person who the jinni occupies, but the jinni themself. And while reading the Qur’an is a popular exorcism method, Jinn’s links to possession predate Islam. “The Arabs of pre-Islam invented a whole set of exorcism procedures to protect themselves from the evil actions of the jinn on their bodies and minds, such as the use of beads, incense, bones, salt, and charms written in Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac, or the hanging around their necks of a dead animal’s teeth such as a fox or a cat to frighten the jinn, and keep them away,” writes El-Zein. In Arabic, the word majnun—meaning possessed, mad, or insane—literally means “to be possessed by a jinni.”</div>
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Despite stories of possession, Jinn are remarkable in their propensity towards neither good or evil. In Christianity, demons and evil spirits appear as entities carrying out Satan’s maleficent wishes, but neutral spirits like the jinn have no place. El-Zain believes that jinn have been robbed of the scholarly devotion they deserve, in part because they complicate the narrative of monotheism, what it means to believe in “the existence of intelligent spiritual entities without necessarily demonizing them.” Jinn—different than both angels and the devil—oscillate between good and evil, making them all the more relatable. They can be pious, they can help us, or they can hurt us, as shown in folktales from One Thousand and One Nights (commonly known in English as Arabian Nights). In one of these tales, “The Fisherman and the Jinni”—the inspiration for Disney’s Aladdin—a fisherman pulls a bottle out of the sea. When he opens it, a jinni appears. Angry to have been trapped in the bottle for centuries, the jinni tells the fisherman their plan to kill him. But after the two exchange stories, the jinni changes their mind, instead bestowing the fisherman with a life of good fortune.</div>
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Fluid in form and interpretation, jinn not only possess and converse with us, but they can also fall in love (or in bed) with humans. Pre-Islamic poet Ta’abbata Sharran once wrote about sleeping with a jinniyah (feminine form of jinn) in a poem called “How I Met the Ghul”.</div>
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According to El-Zein, the ability or desire to have sex isn’t all jinn have in common with humans. Like us, “jinn eat, drink, sleep, procreate and die,” she says, though their mortal lives can extend for thousands of years. And yet, while we can relate to the spirits on many levels, the consensus remains that we cannot fully comprehend jinn—though we can try.</div>
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Via: <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9k7ekv/what-are-jinn-arab-spirits?fbclid=IwAR3khXARleip4w02DOj8u22BBQBYPFah1mJIw30SO51TR5r8BQr_ecyn6Ok">vice.com</a></div>
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<br />Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-13377113529572134592019-09-19T11:17:00.000-07:002020-01-10T08:28:08.120-08:00Helhest: The Three-legged Horse of Hel Queen of the Dead<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGo8Hcn_HUxhUuU8TxTtbG611ryGRC1CCIlRFSWn7Q3Rkpd5HqrtMiUtYq7AUd2yHRq6TmmtwtSDpo7j1snKrJmPmNH3dB00FbbBvKC7BA20xUfgxnAZshMgwZS30jZtXGyJWCtZDnrts/s1600/helhest_1024x1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="900" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGo8Hcn_HUxhUuU8TxTtbG611ryGRC1CCIlRFSWn7Q3Rkpd5HqrtMiUtYq7AUd2yHRq6TmmtwtSDpo7j1snKrJmPmNH3dB00FbbBvKC7BA20xUfgxnAZshMgwZS30jZtXGyJWCtZDnrts/s640/helhest_1024x1024.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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It seems like everyone in Norse mythology had for themselves a type of animal that could carry them everywhere in Nine Worlds. </div>
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The Queen of the Dead, Hel, who was also the daughter of Loki, had for herself a three-legged horse.</div>
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The horse was named as Helhest. While the horse Sleipnir of Odin had eight legs, Helhest of Hel had only three legs. “Helhest” simply means “Horse of Hel”.</div>
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One cool thing is that the horse of Hel appeared in many of the 19th Danish phrases. For example, “han går som en helhest” means “He walks like the horse of Hel” depicting abnormal footsteps of the man.</div>
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In the folklore, Helhest carries Hel along anywhere in Midgard to fetch the dead.</div>
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Many people might question why Helhest had only three legs. This is usually explained that he was the ghost of sacrifice from the burial grave. It was a bad luck to be the first to be buried under the grave. So people would cut off a leg of the horse so that it could not escape.</div>
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<b>Also read:</b> <a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2018/08/hel-norse-goddess-of-underworld.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Hel, Norse Goddess of the Underworld </span></a>Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-69458086815508653432019-09-05T08:21:00.002-07:002019-09-05T08:21:33.931-07:00“Skeleton Flowers” become transparent when it rains<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs4zYpMx-BldA7WIPsQceyHh9YtYZL6C4GLDgPssDY-Zkl7HVr1TFI5By2-2CBf5XyeM5faQtt0d6PP6MHWRMVNZmM1O2_ntS8isd67U-bIELTG6MhHMZhA1xvaoTKsJX5afcyRM4DISw/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-09-05+at+10.12.44+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="966" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs4zYpMx-BldA7WIPsQceyHh9YtYZL6C4GLDgPssDY-Zkl7HVr1TFI5By2-2CBf5XyeM5faQtt0d6PP6MHWRMVNZmM1O2_ntS8isd67U-bIELTG6MhHMZhA1xvaoTKsJX5afcyRM4DISw/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-09-05+at+10.12.44+AM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Say hello to the Skeleton Flower, a white woodland blossom whose petals turn crystal clear when they make contact with water.</div>
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Diphylleia grayi, the scientific name of the transparent flower, can be found in only three parts of the world. The plant grows on moist, wooded mountainsides in colder regions of Japan, China and the Appalachian Mountains in the United States, and is instantly recognizable by the rare flowers’ large, umbrella-like leaves. </div>
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Skeleton flowers are unique flowers which turn translucent upon exposure to water and rain. Its white petals become completely clear, then transform back to their original milky white color once dry. The fading of the color in the petals when wet happens because of a loose cell structure present in the white flowers and not due to the pigment being washed out. </div>
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After pollination, the flowers turn into blueberries.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVs20VK5o6j7lUEbc7s65OjQ9aaPsUqrB7srqYvIvAyVXBLT_2QEfLYZDjHGUHQL0ve72tg_5UKXpoa4df27zQhpOxyca86sdVoLmxWL5-ZiUwOvCHr4rBGomoKwh1UXoJITWRoQMVQYM/s1600/transparent-skeleton-flowers-in-rain-diphylleia-grayi-23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="880" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVs20VK5o6j7lUEbc7s65OjQ9aaPsUqrB7srqYvIvAyVXBLT_2QEfLYZDjHGUHQL0ve72tg_5UKXpoa4df27zQhpOxyca86sdVoLmxWL5-ZiUwOvCHr4rBGomoKwh1UXoJITWRoQMVQYM/s640/transparent-skeleton-flowers-in-rain-diphylleia-grayi-23.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471537798184530443.post-1677337943863188172019-08-25T22:49:00.001-07:002019-08-25T22:49:38.766-07:00Emerald in Ancient Lore and Legend<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Emerald has been a source of fascination and reverence in many cultures for over six thousand years, sold in the markets of Babylon as early as 4,000 B.C. It was a stone worshipped by the Incas, believed by the Chaldeans to contain a goddess, and was highly honored in all major religions for its spiritual power and beauty. Emerald was considered a symbol of eternal life in ancient Egypt, a gift of Thoth, the god of wisdom, and was a favorite jewel of Queen Cleopatra. The Emerald mines in Upper Egypt, rediscovered a hundred years ago, are some of the oldest in the world and were called Cleopatra’s mines for her love of the stone. Emeralds were also talismans of Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, and the moguls of India. They’ve adorned the crowns and royal jewels of many countries for centuries, and fabulous collections and stunning gems continue to be treasured and displayed by the rich and famous today.</b></div>
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According to Indian lore, the name Emerald was first translated from Sanskrit as Marakata, meaning “the green of growing things.” The term we use today is believed to derive from an ancient Persian word that translated to the Greek as Smaragdus, meaning “green stone,” the term used in antiquity and referred to a number of other green stones. Over time the Old French or Vulgar Latin versions, Esmeraulde, Esmaralda or Esmaraldus became the current name, Emerald. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3GN2fUOAsL2hpgI_uLg8cXvZ1DNItYWejSafFEJbf-OzfMmpquuqZJ9cL9ebJUIIlGzAFKxfidRQepZqyhGmxqxFm_qviuyJyGoH2ks9zhyQCDyP2dAQXnUabng0IEBZPPStrIUu9apk/s1600/Detail-of-Magnificent-and-rare-antique-emerald-and-diamond-tiara.-Via-Diamonds-in-the-Library..png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1071" data-original-width="943" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3GN2fUOAsL2hpgI_uLg8cXvZ1DNItYWejSafFEJbf-OzfMmpquuqZJ9cL9ebJUIIlGzAFKxfidRQepZqyhGmxqxFm_qviuyJyGoH2ks9zhyQCDyP2dAQXnUabng0IEBZPPStrIUu9apk/s320/Detail-of-Magnificent-and-rare-antique-emerald-and-diamond-tiara.-Via-Diamonds-in-the-Library..png" width="281" /></a>St. Hildegard of Bingen, the noted lithologist, declared, “All the green of nature is concentrated within the Emerald.” </div>
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Called the “Stone of Successful Love,” Emerald opens and nurtures the heart and the Heart Chakra. Its soothing energy provides healing to all levels of the being, bringing freshness and vitality to the spirit. A stone of inspiration and infinite patience, it embodies unity, compassion and unconditional love. Emerald promotes friendship, balance between partners, and is particularly known for providing domestic bliss, contentment and loyalty. </div>
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In ancient Rome, it was attributed to Venus.</div>
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Emerald honors he Hindu Goddess Annapurna. </div>
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Emerald honors Astarte, the Phoenician Goddess of Fertility, Love and War. She is known in many cultures by different names and is said to be the Queen of the Stars. She helps with troubled love, and keeps lovers faithful to each other.</div>
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Emerald also honors the three Celtic Goddesses of Sovereignty - Banbha, Eriu and Fodla. They provide protection, leadership and inspiration to anyone defending their faith, their homeland, or their way of life.</div>
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Green crystals honor Persephone, the Greek Goddess of Spring. She represesents celebration and the Earth alive with new growth.</div>
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Emerald has been the constant green stone throughout the ages, representing youth in the age of man. In ancient times green was used for those who died in the flower of youth, and sometimes an Emerald was placed upon the index finger of the corpse as a sign the light of hope was spent. </div>
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In ancient Egypt, Emeralds were considered a symbol of eternal life. It was<b> </b>believed to be the gift of Thoth.</div>
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The first-century Egyptian magician, Hermes Trismegistos, was said to carve on a pure Emerald tablet words that held the key to magic: “As above, so below.” For this reason Emeralds have always been considered a magical stone, connecting cosmic and Earthly realms, and for bringing thoughts and desires into reality. </div>
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Hermetic tradition also maintained that an emerald fell from Lucifer’s forehead during his fall. </div>
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As a revealer of truth, Emerald also held the power to protect one from enchantments, conjurations and spells. </div>
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It was considered a gemstone of universal sight, strengthening memory, increasing intelligence, and giving the wearer the ability to foretell the future, especially if put on the tongue or worn on the left side of the body. </div>
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In its prophecy, according to legend, the Emerald would even hurl itself from its mounting or change hues in order to forewarn of impending danger or illness. </div>
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During the Middle Ages it was a symbol of fidelity, reputed to reveal the truth or falsity of a lover’s oath.</div>
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Inherent in a fine Emerald is the power to assist one in becoming an eloquent speaker. Aristotle, a great fan of the gem, wrote that owning an Emerald increases the owner’s importance in presence and speech during business, gives victory in trials, and helps settle litigation. </div>
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The Emerald of old was believed to be born white within the mines then ripen to its mature perfect meadow-green, first assuming its verdancy in the part nearest to the rising sun. However, gathering these ripened gems may have given pause. Many Emerald mines were, and are still, famously steeped in superstitions and fear, believed to be the abode of demons or wicked spirits who guard the treasures within the mines and who would resent and retaliate for any intrusion. </div>
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Association of Emerald with sight and the eyes has been reported by many civilizations throughout time, both for its soothing quality and the belief it cured diseases of the eyes. Egyptians of the High Empire used it to enhance vision, and the Greeks and Romans stuck small Emeralds in the corners of the eyes of those nearsighted or farsighted. Light, transparent Emeralds were polished and used as a magnifying glass, and developed into the very first eyeglasses. The Emperor Nero was well-known for observing the feats of gladiators through an eyeglass of Emerald. </div>
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In antiquity, Emerald was considered an antidote for poison, venomous bites, and taken as an elixir, cured all fluxes, especially dysentery. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZNda-psSqYekw5pZpcD3ME4VlMqMEmxJxztUjqRHde3tHiljOsSD-U3reuxotCLvhfEirAYR8O8EMDkKZNvzMmT0mgMWlYPKlS8ClAVP1sHYO42DH8SJ-VesBKM1ENlhikuYcn1OG1Bk/s1600/Resplendent_Quetzal_in_Costa_Rica.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZNda-psSqYekw5pZpcD3ME4VlMqMEmxJxztUjqRHde3tHiljOsSD-U3reuxotCLvhfEirAYR8O8EMDkKZNvzMmT0mgMWlYPKlS8ClAVP1sHYO42DH8SJ-VesBKM1ENlhikuYcn1OG1Bk/s320/Resplendent_Quetzal_in_Costa_Rica.jpg" width="213" /></a>The ancient Greeks and Romans believed Emerald to be controlled by the planet Venus, with its reproductive energies of life and nature. In the East, however, Emerald was often ascribed to Mercury, for its wisdom and eloquence. Some claimed Jupiter to be its influence. </div>
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In Central America, the stone was associated with rain and blood and all the symbols of the lunar cycle. It was regarded as a token of fertility. The Aztecs associated the emerald with the bird quetzal, symbol of the renewal of spring, and the stone was thereby linked with the East and with everything connected with the worship of Quetzalcoatl.</div>
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In Jewish history, Emerald is listed in Exodus as the fourth stone in the Breastplate of the High Priest, though original manuscripts translate the smaragdus, Emerald, as being the Bareketh, the third stone, engraved with the tribe of Levi. Legend also relates Emerald as one of four precious stones given by God to King Solomon, endowing him with power over all creation. </div>
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In the Apocalypse of St John, God appears surrounded by a rainbow “in sight like unto an emerald”.</div>
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In the Christian middle ages, certain Egyptian and Etruscan beliefs survived (such as the stone placed on the tongue enabling one to converse with evil spirits). Thus the emerald was the jewel of clairvoyance.</div>
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The emerald is also the Papal jewel. </div>
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A text from the 1600s, the Magick of Kiram, is said to be sought after by the learned but seen by few, and kept in the Vatican in Rome, instructs one to carve upon a Smaragdus (Emerald or other precious green stone) a Bird Harpe, with a Sea Lamprey under its feet. When worn, it protects against disturbance, dreams, and stupidity, and gives rest to lunatics and those afflicted with colic. </div>
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The famous “San Graal” of King Arthur’s time was reputed to be a miraculous chalice made of a single precious Emerald, sent from Heaven and endowed with the power of preserving chastity, prolonging life, and other wonders. This chalice was believed to have been brought directly from the hands of God by angels, and was the actual cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper. </div>
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At the time of the Spanish Conquest, an immense Emerald the size of an ostrich egg was adored by the Peruvians in the city of Manta. This “Emerald goddess”, named Umiña, was only displayed on high feast days, when the Indians flocked to the shrine bringing gifts to the goddess. Less than scrupulous priests especially recommended donation of Emeralds, saying these were the daughters of the goddess, who would be pleased to see her offspring. The immense horde of these precious gems, however, fell into the hands of Pedro de Alvarado, Garcilasso de la Vega, and their companions during the conquest of Peru. Only the mother Emerald survived, being so cleverly concealed by the priests of the shrine that the Spaniards never succeeded in gaining possession of it.</div>
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Legend claims Herman Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, tried to return home with huge chunks of Emerald that he took from the Aztecs. However, one of his ships became shipwrecked, losing forever, rare and delicately carved Emeralds in the shape of flowers and fish, and one particularly large Emerald the size of a man’s hand. </div>
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The Emerald is the seasonal gem of spring, traditionally given on the occasion of a 55th wedding anniversary. Today the American Gem Trade Association lists it as the stone for a 20th anniversary.</div>
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<b>Also read:</b><br />
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<ul>
<li><a href="https://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2018/06/10-most-deadly-rocks-and-minerals.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">10 Most Deadly Rocks and Minerals</span></a></li>
<li><a href="http://visualmagick.blogspot.com/2017/11/sinister-sparkle-10-mysterious-cursed.html"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Sinister Sparkle: 10 Mysterious & Cursed Gemstones</span></a></li>
</ul>
Jovanna Goettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11175815999300927570noreply@blogger.com0