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TRUE HAPPINESS
Posted by Michael Forbus
A Meaningful Life
What makes for a meaningful life? I consider each day, not just the life as a whole. I
look at four ingredients. First, was it a day of virtue? Im talking about basic Buddhist
ethicsavoiding harmful behavior of body, speech, and mind; devoting ourselves to
wholesome behavior and to qualities like awareness and compassion.
Second, I'd like to feel happy rather than miserable. The realized beings I've known
exemplify extraordinary states of well-being, and it shows in their demeanor, their way
of dealing with adversity, with life, with other people. And third, pursuit of the truth
seeking to understand the nature of life, of reality, of interpersonal relationships, or the
nature of mind.
But you could do all that sitting quietly in a room. None of us exists in isolation,
however, so there is a fourth ingredient: a meaningful life must also answer the
question, What have I brought to the world? If I can look at a day and see that virtue,
happiness, truth, and living an altruistic life are prominent elements, I can say, You
know, Im a happy camper. Pursuing happiness does not depend on my checkbook, or
the behavior of my spouse, or my job, or my salary. I can live a meaningful life even if I
only have ten minutes left.
Imbolc Lore
Posted by Whispr
Imbolc Lore
(February 2nd)
Various other names for this Greater Sabbat are Imbolgc Brigantia (Caledonni),
Imbolic (Celtic), Disting (Teutonic, Feb 14th), Lupercus (Strega), St. Bridget's Day
(Christian), Candlemas, Candlelaria (Mexican), the Snowdrop Festival. The Festival of
Lights, or the Feast of the Virgin. All Virgin and Maiden Goddesses are honored at this
time.
Deities of Imbolc:
All Virgin/Maiden Goddesses, Brighid, Aradia, Athena, Inanna, Gaia, and Februa, and
Gods of Love and Fertility, Aengus Og, Eros, and Februus.
Symbolism of Imbolc:
Purity, Growth and Re-Newal, The Re-Union of the Goddess and the God, Fertility,
and dispensing of the old and making way for the new.
Symbols of Imbolc:
Brideo'gas, Besoms, White Flowers, Candle Wheels, Brighid's Crosses, Priapic Wands
(acorn-tipped), and Ploughs.
Herbs of Imbolc:
Angelica, Basil, Bay Laurel, Blackberry, Celandine, Coltsfoot, Heather, Iris, Myrrh,
Tansy, Violets, and all white or yellow flowers.
Foods of Imbolc:
Pumpkin seeds, Sunflower seeds, Poppyseed Cakes, muffins, scones, and breads, all
dairy products, Peppers, Onions, Garlic, Raisins, Spiced Wines and Herbal Teas.
Incense of Imbolc:
Basil, Bay, Wisteria, Cinnamon, Violet, Vanilla, Myrrh.
Colors of Imbolc:
White, Pink, Red, Yellow, lt. Green, Brown.
Stones of Imbolc:
Amethyst, Bloodstone, Garnet, Ruby, Onyx, Turquoise.
Activities of Imbolc:
Candle Lighting, Stone Gatherings, Snow Hiking and Searching for Signs of Spring,
Making of Brideo'gas and Bride's Beds, Making Priapic Wands, Decorating Ploughs,
Feasting, and Bon Fires maybe lit.
Psychologists call the unease you feel when you hold two conflicting opinions
cognitive dissonance. The theory is that you will be naturally unwilling to
simultaneously hold two apparently contradictory beliefs in your mind, and will
attempt to modify one or the other to minimize the dissonance or conflict.
If you told the salesman that you "would be in a position to make a decision today,"
and yet, you actually felt that you needed more time to gather additional information
and think it through, the uncomfortable feeling in your gut would mean that you were
experiencing cognitive dissonance. The skilled salesman would then try to use this to
push you into a buying decision today! If he lets you think it over, you may
not make the purchase or may buy from someone else. For example, it's almost never a
good idea to buy a new car after talking to only one dealer!
Imagine what would happen in instances involving somewhat more deep-seated
beliefs. You think so-and-so is the best candidate, or such-and-such is the finest
restaurant or this-or-that company produces the fastest car. To complicate matters, also
imagine that you are on record as publicly stating that so-and-so is the best candidate,
the finest restaurant is such-and-such or the fastest car comes from
this-or-that company. You have invested your credibility in this belief. What happens
when new evidence comes along that contradicts this deep-seated belief? Most likely,
you'll immediately discount it.
Not only do you have the dissonance associated with trying to hold two contradictory
beliefs in your mind simultaneously, but, even worse, if you accept the new idea, that
might mean the first one was WRONG and you've lost your invested credibility!
How would most people handle the situation? Most people don't like being "wrong;"
so, they would either ignore the new idea, or, even worse, come up with all sorts of
counter arguments as to why it's wrong, vehemently defending their original position.
In extreme cases, they may outright lie to others and to themselves, just to avoid the
cognitive dissonance. To an independent observer, this appears totally
irrational. To a student of human behavior, it is understandable.
As mystics, we're after the truth. Consequently, if it turns out that the second idea is
more accurate, serves us better, or is otherwise superior to the first, we owe it to
ourselves and to others to accept it, at least until a better idea comes along. We may be
forced to utter three words that are even more powerful than "I changed my mind":
Specifically, you want to see an electric blue spiral spinning inside your chest, near
your heart chakra. If you were to "look down" at the blue spiral, you want to see is
spinning clockwise. Some people see a laser-like spiral while others see more of an
amorphous flame. The goal is to focus all of your magical energy into that spiral.
When you focus on the spiral, your attention (and your energy) is fully contained
within yourself. You are shielded, both from projecting your energy outward and
from absorbing unwanted energies from other people. This is a useful magical ritual
for helping just about anyone control and focus their magical gifts.
>> Magic Ritual #2: The Electric Blue Bubble
Another way to use electric blue energy in a protective magic ritual is to visualize
yourself completely enclosed in a whirling electric blue bubble. Once you can
visualize the bubble, see unwanted energies from other people bouncing off this
bubble shield.
If you easily read thoughts but don't want to hear anyone else's thoughts in a crowd
situation, visualize those thought forms hitting your bubble and bouncing off. This
kind of visualization "programs" your shield to protect you against specific things,
like thoughts or negative energies. Thus you want to be specific when visualizing
what is bouncing off your shield.
BZ
Dalai Lama
"LET GO"
Posted by
BZ
Tools, charms and amulets can be charged by channelling energy through mental
images into the material itself. This would usually be performed at the time of the
full moon as energy is the most effectively channelled and condensed at this time.
The same holds true of oils prepared in the prescribed manner at the time of the full
moon.
One technique is called loading the tools, this involves placing certain herbs inside a
ritual tool, typically candles or the ritual wand. You would hollow out the bottom of
the candles about an inch deep with a hot metal probe, gently pushing and twisting it
into the candle. Then pack the herbs into the hole and seal them over with melted
wax. For the wand simply hollow out the shaft or if you desire you can hollow out the
head and then glue it back in place. You can also add along with herbs crystals or a
power stone.
Another technique involves brewing an herbal potion in boiling purified water and
steeping the appropriate herbs in the water for about twenty minutes. Then the ritual
tool may be placed in the potion. Depending on your needs you may wish to use
several different potions for each tool. If you are charging an athame or metal amulet
you will find it effective to heat the metal before plunging it into the herbal potion.
The Solar Charge
Place the desired gem in a pan of boiling salt water for about one minute, then place
the
gem under the noon sun for about one hour.
The charge: Make a tripod of dry twigs, preferably oak. Set the stand outside at
sunrise with the gem nesting on top. Leave the stone in this position until 1 P.M. The
stone is now charged with the sun's energy. Next filter the sunlight onto the gem
through a sheet of coloured plastic or glass. The colour of the plastic will be linked to
the effect desired.
song to earth
Posted by Rory 'Aurora'
angels' song pours upon the oceans starlight sunlight moonlight glow
whales & dolphins hear this song
kindly singing it to us - slow
.... that's the way it was
some ears fell deaf with clanging metal
and turned their hearts from home
birds of the sea were first to hear
as they graced the waves' foam
.....angels & animals sang louder
and louder and ....
far wild the birds cried to all earth's sacred
the angels guiding love song
swanhorsetigergoatcowbearsheepwolf
understood love rhythm song for so long
.....they knew it was our life
FlyingRunningRoaringHowl
desperate delivery of Grace
our b'loved creatures spread
the way of love's eternal face
...and some of us put down our fury and listened
and the Angels' song grew stronger and so did all of our light
bravely we face home with ourbleeding
hearts in hand - outreaching
forgive us join our hearts in love heavens
& light - we are yours to teach
and Love spread everywhere
Angels whisper-sing in our ears all day
to help our creature brethren, ocean & soil
we do this with love in so many ways
+those still deaf from clanging metal will hear
and it will be
Angels' song pours upon the oceans starlight sunlight moonlight glow
Whales & Dolphins hear this song
kindly singing it to us slow
that's the way it is
roryc2010
Once I went looking for the oldest creature in the wood. I asked my father, the
woodsman, "Are you the oldest person in the wood?"
"Oh no," he said, "There are beings much older than myself in these woods. Yes..."
and he wrinkled his brow as he mulled the question over. Then he noticed me still
awaiting his answer. "Ah, yes, the old mother elk who lives in the Holly grove, for
example. Why, she must be almost 80 years old, much older than most of her kind,"
and he nodded his head in affirmation of his words.
So I went next to ask the old mother elk if she were the oldest person in the wood.
"Indeed," said she, "I am older than any other of my kind, and some days I know I
must feel every year and day of my long life. But I am not nearly the oldest one in
these woods. Oh no, my dear! My grandmother told me long ago that the first being
she befriended in these woods was an ancient bed of moss that had grown upon a
fallen tree in the shadowy ash thicket at the center of the wood. I have seen that moss
bed myself. It still flourishes in the heart of the woods."
I thanked the old mother elk for her information and wished her happiness in all her
remaining years and days. Then I journeyed to the old ash thicket at the heart of the
woods where I found the old bed of moss on the rotted remains of the old fallen tree.
"Tell me, old one, if you will, are you the oldest creature in these woods?" I waited as
patiently as I could for the moss to respond, for even young moss,as you may know,
can be quite slow in almost anything it does. Finally, and after a long silence, a
chorus of small voices answered me.
"We have been here a long, long time as it is recorded in our lore. We have rested
long years upon this fallen tree and indeed we clung to its side from the days it first
peaked its shallow tendrils above the ground. And you know, it was one of the first
trees in the wood, an ancient boughard, grey and grizzled when he fell." And the
voices repeated it with venerable grief in their tone, "Grey and grizzled when he fell."
I started to offer them condolences for their loss, but I could not quite find the right
words. As I paused awkwardly, the voices continued. "But we must tell you, child,
there are older ones in our lore. It was told in the tales that the old trees shared
among themselves that there was one who was here long before them, before this
sacred land became the wood it is today you see. Perhaps that old one remains today
in her home to the north of the lake somewhere west of our thicket.
"Go and see," they urged me. "And when you have found her or not, return and tell
us so that we may add this tale to our lore."
"So shall I surely do," I affirmed to them, to the ancient colony of the moss. And
turning toward the west I walked slowly to the lake some half a league beyond the
thicket. When I reached the lake I circled the long way, deocil, to the north banks,
chanting to myself as I strode through the grasses and the reeds that lined the lake.
"Grant, Mother Goddess, that I may have eyes to see and wisdom to know."
Her feet were shorn with dirt and grasses, and a vine entangled bush embraced her
from behind, but the wind-worn face of the ancient boulder remained resolute
against time and age. There was no doubt that this stone was the embodiment of the
old one of whom the ancient lore of the trees had alluded. I knelt before the stone
and lowered my head in homage.
"Blessed be you, ancient one, of the Earth who gave you birth and the sky that
shelters you from above." She made no sound, but I felt her gaze settle upon me. "I
have set myself upon a quest, venerable grandmother, to find the oldest being in
these woods, and I know that surely you must be that oldest of old ones, you who
stood here in these woods before anything but the very Earth herself."
"I and the Earth," she said in a voice that was a whisper echoing from a cavern, "are
one. So I am the mother of all that lives in these woods as I am the mother of all else
that flourishes between the hidden Earth and the clear empyrean heights of the deep
blue, open Sky."
"I am thy child, great Goddess," I declared as we all may, "flesh of thy flesh and
blood of thy blood."
"But tell me why you seek the oldest one in these woods," she spoke with an
understanding that there was more to my quest. "What would you gain from this old
scarred stone that you could not elsewhere gain?"
"Can you tell me, O face of the Goddess, where there is one than which no elder can
be known?" It was the question I had cultivated so carefully and cherished as a secret
until I thought I had found one who might answer it.
She was silent, but I felt the serenity of her silence. She spoke. "Look to the sky
above you, to the stars of the firmament, many of whom are older than myself and
the sun and moon and planets. Their very lights shine upon us from ages long
forgotten. Before I could become the mother of all life, some stars once lived whose
lights no longer shine, but in their lives and in their deaths they labored to bring
forth the very fabric of my being. I am star stuff, my child, and therefore you too are
made of star stuff.
"And here is another secret. The light is born of darkness. No star could be born
except the clouds of darkness, born from the debris of cosmic creation itself, had
gathered into swirling spheres that slowly shrank and began to glow with the birth
of elemental fire. Remember this secret that I tell you. *The Sun is but a mortal light
surrounded by immortal Night.* For all stars are born from the clouds of darkness
that are the oldest beings in all the very sky except for Night herself, who is not born
and cannot die.
Look, child, to the darkness of Night. She is the One you seek, the One than whom
no elder can be known, for she was there before the emptiness of space itself, before
the dawn of time she was and shall remain when time is done. We call her Night
because the light cannot touch upon her, but she is the mother of light and the very
stars from which it shines. Indeed, all that is or was and all that ever shall be arises
from the womb of Mother Night. Call her not by what she seems, but by what she is.
Call her Spirit, the ageless, endless mother of the ten thousand worlds."
Revised 05/04/2013
To Breeze
Wings of a Butterfly
Posted by haw
BZ