Occult or Paranormal - Forum - Witches Moon2024-03-29T15:32:58Zhttps://witches-moon.ning.com/forum/feed/category/Occult+or+ParanormalCHEIRO – THE FATHER OF MODERN PALMISTRYhttps://witches-moon.ning.com/forum/cheiro-the-father-of-modern-palmistry2023-05-30T16:03:44.000Z2023-05-30T16:03:44.000ZSunKathttps://witches-moon.ning.com/members/SunKat<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11172973867,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11172973867,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="400" alt="11172973867?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a>Cheiro, (pronounced K’i-ro) born William John Warner (November 1, 1866 – October 8, 1936) was the father of modern palmistry. He was also known professionally as Count Louis Hamon. Cheiro was without any doubt an unusually gifted astrologer and palmist and provided modern-day palmists with an amazing body of reference work.</p>
<p>Cheiro was an Irish astrologer and a well-known figure in the budding occult world of the early 20th century. He was born to William and Margaret Warner in a village outside Dublin. Throughout his professional life, he maintained several pseudonyms including Count Louis Hamon, Count Leigh de Hamong, and most famous name, Cheiro. As you might have figured out, the name Cheiro is derived from the word cheiromancy, which means palmistry. He was a clairvoyant who taught palmistry, astrology, and <a href="https://chaldeannumerology.net/">Chaldean numerology</a>. During his career, he circulated in the circle of very famous people worldwide. His divination skills were heralded and he was known to make impactful predictions connected to his clients.</p>
<p>As a young man, Cheiro traveled to Bombay, India. There he met Guru Chitpavan Brahmin, who allowed him to study ancient texts about palmistry. He spent two years immersed in developing his own skills as a palmist. He then returned to Europe, but not to his homeland, instead setting up a palm reading practice in London, England. His first client was Arthur Balfour, who was a member of the new <a href="https://occult-world.com/society-psychical-research-spr/">Society for Psychical Research</a>. This group was researching all types of psychic activity throughout England. Mr. Balfour was quite impressed with his reading, so much that he told all his friends, who were quite influential at the time. Word of mouth brought Cherio fame and fortune, especially with the upper classes. He quickly became known as one of the most popular and influential seers of his time across Europe and in America. The accuracy of his predictions was the key reason that many famous celebrities and members of royalty consulted him on a wide variety of topics.</p>
<h3>The Hands of Celebrities</h3>
<p>Cheiro read the palms of Sir Austen Chamberlain, Mark Twain, Dame Nellie Melba, Oscar Wilde, Grover Cleveland, Thomas Edison, Sarah Bernhardt, Mata Hari and the Prince of Wales to name a few. Not only did he read the palms of famous individuals, but he also documented those sessions and made palm prints of their hands. As part of the overall experience, he kept a journal in which he would ask patrons to write personal thoughts on their experience with their readings. Mark Twain agreed to sit for a reading, even though he was skeptical of palmistry. He was so impressed with the accuracy of his reading, he made use of palmistry in one of his stories called, ‘Pudd’n Head Wilson’. He wrote a wonderful statement in Cherio’s journal stating how moved he was by the experience.</p>
<p>He correctly predicted that the Jews would return to Palestine and the country would again be called Israel. He also predicted the date of Queen Victoria’s death, the year and month when King Edward VII would die, and the assassination of Italy’s King Humbert. These are just a few of the accurate predictions that he made about world leaders. He became so popular that he stayed in America, Hollywood specifically, and saw over a dozen client per day until his death in 1936 following a heart attack.</p>
<h3>Written Works</h3>
<p>Cheiro amassed a great fortune writing books on palmistry, astrology, numerology and the occult. Many of his works are still in print today and they have been vital to palmists still today.</p>
<h3>Cheiro’s Written Works</h3>
<p><strong>Numerology</strong><br /> Cheiro’s Book of Numbers – 1926</p>
<p><strong>Palmistry</strong><br /> Cheiro’s Language of the Hand (first self-published in 1894)<br /> Cheiro’s Guide to the Hand – 1892<br /> You and Your Hand – 1931<br /> Palmistry for All – 1910<br /> The Cheiro Book of Fate and Fortune – 1971<br /> Cheiro’s Complete Palmistry (Count Louis Harmon) – 1968</p>
<p><strong>Astrology</strong><br /> Where were you Born? – 1930<br /> Cheiro’s You and Your Star: The Book of the Zodiac – 1934<br /> Cheiro’s World Predictions – 1925<br /> Cheiro’s Memoirs: The Reminiscences of a Society Palmist<br /> Titanic’s Last Secrets<br /> True Ghost Stories (attested tales of paranormal experiences)</p>
<p><strong>Fiction</strong><br /> A Study of Destiny (also published as The Hand of Fate, first released in 1898)</p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="https://www.thegypsythread.org/cheiro-father-modern-palmistry/">https://www.thegypsythread.org/cheiro-father-modern-palmistry/</a></p></div>Think of a Door: A Journey Into the World of Astral Projectionhttps://witches-moon.ning.com/forum/think-of-a-door-a-journey-into-the-world-of-astral-projection2023-04-18T13:37:13.000Z2023-04-18T13:37:13.000ZSunKathttps://witches-moon.ning.com/members/SunKat<div><p class="c-entry-summary p-dek"><span style="font-size:14pt;">After watching the Netflix series ‘Behind Her Eyes,’ which heavily uses astral travel as a plot device, one writer decided to try her hand at the practice and see if she, too, could send her soul across the universe</span></p>
<div class="c-byline"><strong><span class="c-byline-wrapper">By <span class="c-byline__item"><a href="https://www.theringer.com/authors/jodi-walker"><span class="c-byline__author-name">Jodi Walker</span></a> </span><span class="c-byline__item"> Apr 9, 2021</span></span></strong></div>
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<div class="c-byline"><span class="c-byline-wrapper"><em>Pinch myself and say I am awake once an hour.</em><br /> <em>Look at my hands, count my fingers.</em><br /> <em>Look at a clock (or a watch).</em><br /> <em>Look away, look back.</em><br /> <em>Stay calm and focused.</em><br /> <em>Think of a door.</em></span></div>
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<div class="c-byline"><span class="sr-only">This,</span> according to the hugely popular Netflix series <em>Behind Her Eyes</em>, is how one might learn to astral project their Skittle-colored soul outside of their body and, if they’re feeling especially <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUdkM70GNko">like Emma Watson in <em>The Bling Ring</em></a><em> </em>that day, take up residence inside the vacated body of another astral projecting soul. Actually, let me rephrase that: It’s not just how <em>one</em> might learn to astral project in <em>Behind Her Eyes</em>, but how three out of four main characters learn to float their astral selves all over England while their physical bodies lie peacefully in bed. Thirty-six words of scribbled-down instruction to master a millennia-old spiritual phenomenon—<em>this </em>is the power of a binge-worthy Netflix thriller.</div>
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<p>In the melodic trickle of Adele’s (Eve Hewson) voice, the directive to follow these six easy steps for curing night terrors is too intoxicating to resist. That allure is, in part, how our protagonist Louise (Simona Brown) gets tricked into evacuating her soul from her physical form, leaving her vulnerable to astral possession by the end of the series. At a kava bar in North Carolina, an expert I’ve gotten in touch with who calls himself the Water Magister will tell me that this is a highly improbable end to Louise’s mortal life due to something called “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zTqICcli5M">the silver cord</a>” ... but we’re not quite there yet.</p>
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<p id="GvDsVL">The astral projection and lucid dreaming in <em>Behind Her Eyes</em> is a little silly, a lot technicolored, and perfectly plotted. In the 2017 novel of the same name, Sarah Pinborough weaves subtle foreshadowing throughout the story to clue observant readers in to the fact that, though it may be hitting all the typical psychosexual beats, <em>Behind Her Eyes</em> is not your grandmother’s thriller. With the added benefit of visuals, the Netflix series serves up those hat tips toward the paranormal as early as the premiere, when a woman named Louise with a pathological inability to mind her own damn business begins having an affair with a man named David (Tom Bateman) at the exact same time she befriends his lonely wife, Adele. The story’s triple-twist ending plays out as follows (spoilers ahead, if you couldn’t already astrally deduce that): First, Adele always seems to know things she shouldn’t because she’s actually been astral projecting her spirit out of her body throughout her entire marriage to David; second, oops, Adele isn’t actually Adele, because years ago her body was inhabited by her best friend Rob (Robert Aramayo) after she taught <em>him</em> how to astral project, and he began coveting her picture-perfect life and fiancé; third, oops once more, because in the series’s very final moments, Rob-Adele deploys <em>another</em> dual-astral-projection sneak attack, this time taking over the body of Louise, who’s also been taught to astral travel, so that when David eventually marries Louise, he is actually once again just marrying Rob ...</p>
<p id="W6Y51h">It is a wild ride. And while it’s certainly not the first time lucid dreaming or astral projection has been used as a plot device, it is the first time it’s been deployed so casually. <em>Behind Her Eyes</em> wasn’t billed as a fantasy series or a science-fiction series; it doesn’t spend 162 minutes painstakingly laying out the infrastructure of how to build a triple-decker lucid dream like in <em>Inception</em>, or bring in<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/why-did-doctor-strange-ghost-884385"> a problematic Ancient One</a> to explain astral projection’s limitless possibilities for good and evil like in <em>Doctor Strange</em>.</p>
<p id="swGUwu"><em>Behind Her Eyes</em> is just a frothy thriller for which astral projection happens to be the driving force behind the plot, deployed as no more unusual a trait in its main character(s) than Amy Dunne’s narcissism or Villanelle’s natural prowess as an assassin. The final twist—and then the other final twist, and also the <em>final</em> final twist—suggest that we really should have suspected this homicidal <em>Freaky Friday </em>astral body swap all along. How else to explain all those POV shots from the ceiling moldings, or that blue light that shimmered around the edge of Louise’s apartment every time she and David took their tops off, or Adele’s heroin habit, or any number of other bits that just didn’t quite add up if astral projection <em>wasn’t</em> at play here.</p>
<p>So, the question isn’t whether Adele’s (and Rob’s, and Adele-Rob’s, and Louise’s, and Louise-Rob’s) astral projection makes sense within the world of <em>Behind Her Eyes</em>—it does, and I’m willing to stake my astral life on it—but whether the astral projection of <em>Behind Her Eyes</em> makes sense within <em>our </em>world. A world where astral travel is a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/astral-projection-Books/s?k=astral+projection&rh=n%3A283155">commonly accepted spiritual practice</a>, if not a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/07/the-neuroscience-of-out-of-body-experiences/534696/">scholarly accepted scientific one</a>. Could lucid dreaming and astral projection really be as simple as counting your fingers before bedtime? Could pinching myself 16-ish times a day really rid me of this persistent nightmare where I can’t check out of an Airbnb on time? If I stay calm and focused, and think of a door in my dreams, could I really walk through it and figure out if my upstairs neighbors got a particularly rambunctious kitten, as I’m starting to suspect?</p>
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<p id="a7fwyD">I intend to find out—no matter how many fingers I have to count, Marvel movies I have to watch, waking hours I have to spend lying down, teas I have to drink, experts I have to badger with emails, or astral planes I have to traverse. Because much like Louise, I’m bored, I dream about a lot of creepy houses, and I simply <em>do not </em>know any better. And, I guess, because the idea of exerting some control over my circumstances during a time when circumstances are so often out of my control sounds pretty damn appealing.</p>
<p id="rxqOUw">Both astral projection and lucid dreaming are ancient concepts that have points of credibility throughout history. Some of the effects of lucid dreaming are actually<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6993576/"> backed up by science</a>; and even as stodgy an entity as the U.S. Army repeatedly<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/pad4a9/the-us-army-funded-astral-projection-and-hypnosis-research-in-the-80s"> deployed intelligence officers</a> to study astral projection at<a href="https://www.monroeinstitute.org/"> the Monroe Institute</a> throughout the 1980s,<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k9qag/how-to-escape-the-confines-of-time-and-space-according-to-the-cia"> as revealed by declassified CIA documents</a>.</p>
<p>Though the practices are often linked in theory, their differences—both in approach and application—are vast. Lucid dreaming means gaining an awareness that you’re dreaming while you’re dreaming, at which point you obtain the power to choreograph your own dream. In your dream consciousness, you could imagine healing an emotional trauma that’s plaguing your waking life, or ask the vast data recesses of your mind for its expert career advice. Or, as in every first-person account I’ve heard, you can immediately start having wild, prolific sex. And that’s fine! The dreamscape is not a place for judgment; it’s not a place for anything but you, and whatever the hell you want to do (or, y’know, <em>do</em>).</p>
<p id="Z8nvvh">Astral projection, on the other hand, exists far beyond the confines of one’s sleeping mind. In fact, it is the practice of putting your body to bed while your mind stays awake. It fits snugly under the “out-of-body experience” umbrella: the intentional extraction of one’s astral form from one’s physical form during deep meditative or dream states. (You might notice I’m using the word “astral” a lot—the word simply refers to a nonphysical plane of existence.) Once outside of the human body, that astral form can travel wherever it wants to in the universe. Not the mind, not the world, <em>the universe</em>—and, if we’re really getting into it, the multiverse.</p>
<p id="EpPJw9">As far as I’m concerned, a successful lucid dream functioning as a gateway to successful astral projection à la <em>Behind Her Eyes</em> seems akin to learning how to waterski and then immediately transforming into a submarine. And yet, every expert I’ve spoken to, and every online course I’ve taken (and I have taken some), has confirmed that, as far as reputable astral projection practices go, the show has it about right. You do the reality checks, you count the fingers, you focus and stay calm while lucid dreaming, you think of a door, walk through it, and then boom: Your soul is free to travel anywhere you can imagine on the astral plane. Astral travel may not have the practical appeal of teleporting, the obvious health benefits of yoga, or the edge of witchcraft ... but as far as the mystical goes, it does have the appealing advantage of almost every adherent you encounter assuring you that you’ll probably be able to do it sooner or later if you want it badly enough.</p>
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<p id="W0mjzr">And why would anyone want to astral travel so badly? The most righteous reason is because the spiritual community sees astral projection as a sort of radical self-care. In the astral realm, adherents say, you can heal grief through encounters with loved ones who have passed on, or embrace the physical manifestations of your past traumas, or gain insights into illnesses and relationships that you can then bring with you back into this reality. The slightly less righteous reason—the one that most on-screen depictions are banking on—is that astral travel is <em>pure </em>escape. You can do anything you want in the astral realm without the fear of getting arrested or making everybody mad at you. If you’re asking, “<em>Like WHAT, Jodi?</em>” just think of <em>anything</em>, and believe that you can do that in the astral realm. Fistfight with the Rock? You can do that there. Fly to Paris for a crepe, Costa Rica for a coffee, and Walgreens for some Tums? You can do that there. Look like Dermot Mulroney? You can do that there! Look like <em>Dylan McDermott</em>? You can also do that there! Ask two beings that look like Dylan McDermott and Dermot Mulroney to kiss??? You can do that there, <em>but be cool about it</em>—ethics still exist in the astral realm.</p>
<p id="tvnaAY">For my first step onto the astral plane, I turned to the universe’s other most mystifying realm: the internet. There, I stumbled across Jade Shaw, <a href="https://jadeshaw.com/">a stylish astral projection teacher</a> with a slick website who must also have incredibly good SEO, because I soon learned that she was <em>also</em> the first astral projection teacher Netflix landed on when it came a-Googlin’. One day in the summer of 2019, a production Jade had never heard of called “Behind Her Eyes” slid into her inbox to ask whether she might teach the show’s cast about astral projection. Jade agreed, and had some success with a couple of the actors: Eve Hewson had<a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/behind-her-eyes-eve-hewson-adele-finale-interview.html?utm_medium=s1&utm_campaign=vulture&utm_source=tw"> a li’l out-of-body experience</a>, and Robert Aramayo made it to the vibrational stage.</p>
<p id="I0YrYZ">Eventually I attended a workshop with Jade and she shared with the new astral projectors among us why someone would choose to dedicate their life to teaching others astral projection. First, she cited a Leonardo da Vinci quote that<a href="https://airfactsjournal.com/2020/08/the-famous-quote-that-da-vinci-never-said/"> Leonardo da Vinci never actually said</a>, but is often attributed to him in Facebook posts and astral projection workshops anyway: “Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”</p>
<p id="Ez8czc">But here’s my thing: What if you <em>haven’t</em> tasted flight? What if flight, in general, isn’t all that appealing to you? What if you’re not a particularly spiritual person, and for you, meditation is watching <em>Gilmore Girls</em> for the 30th time, manifesting comes in the form of thinking about chicken tenders when you wake up and making sure you have said chicken tenders by no later than 8 p.m., and mysticism is wondering why people go on reality TV when they know they are <a href="https://deadline.com/2021/04/real-housewives-jen-shah-federal-charges-1234724780/">in the process of committing federally prosecutable crimes</a>? Instead of fake Leonardo da Vinci’s nonsense, it was Jade’s own pitch for astral projection that became the most compelling argument for the, ahem, <em>hypothetical </em>person described above. Chirped with the animated fervor of someone who truly believes in what she does, Jade hit us with the sell: “The no. 1 reason to astral travel is because, OH MY GOD, IT’S MIND-BLOWING, IT’S BEYOND THIS WORLD! How is this <em>possible</em>? You can <em>FLY </em>… in the <em>SKY</em>! Seemingly in this reality! So just the sheer extraordinariness of it is—you <em>want </em>to explore, you <em>want</em> to do it.”</p>
<p>And she’s right. I may have never looked to the sky and thought, <em>how do I get all up in that</em>, but I do remember a life in the not so distant past when I got to fly around to new places and have experiences I’d never had before. That time was 2019; it’s been over a year since exploring got whittled down to taking little walks around my little neighborhood, and travel became traversing the half-mile to the grocery store once a week; over a year since my world became a whole lot smaller. Which brings me to my own astral projection journey, and my second, far more elusive astral travel teacher ...</p>
<h3 id="ZRmm4d">INT. My Office—The Morning After Bingeing <em>Behind Her Eyes</em>, Days 1-2</h3>
<h4 id="TA52zg">The First Attempt to Contact the Water Magister</h4>
<p id="VpoShu">I live in Asheville, North Carolina, a city where you can’t throw a rose quartz very far without hitting some sort of spiritual practice. So, when I Google “astral projection teacher,” I’m pleased but not particularly surprised to find that one of the only promising results is <a href="http://www.thewatermagister.com/astral-travel-lucid-dreaming/">an instructor in my own city</a>: David Rodriguez, a.k.a. the Water Magister, thus named because of his connection to the fundamental element and his passion for studying and teaching various spiritual practices.</p>
<p id="Nqmwbh">I listen to the Water Magister <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/6EM4IUcjEx0srPuOvN0ymE?si=EIvbBhKlSTC1NCbQ-qnmGw">on a podcast</a>, I check out his Airbnb Experience reviews (on hiatus during COVID, but all five stars), and I fire off a message to his website …</p>
<p id="jIECNe">And when that goes unanswered, I fire off an email to his Gmail address …</p>
<p id="iig7c3">And when that goes unanswered, I request to follow him on Instagram …</p>
<p id="tLIL3M">And when that goes unaccepted, I send a slightly more desperate email, and start piecing together my own lucid dreaming and astral projection study plan while I wait …</p>
<h3 id="KG2U7C">INT. My Living Room—Late Morning, Day 3</h3>
<h4 id="rVRTbd">Watching <em>Inception</em> on HBO Max</h4>
<p>I start where any good journalist should when researching an ancient spiritual phenomenon: by sitting down with its most lucrative pop culture interpretation to date. For lucid dreaming, there’s only one film to turn to: Christopher Nolan’s almost-three-hour allegory for the filmmaking process wherein he cast Leonardo DiCaprio to cosplay himself in the shiniest of ties.</p>
<p>The plot of <em>Inception</em> is simple. Just kidding, the plot of <em>Inception</em> is nearly incomprehensible—either a work of unique artistic vision, or a hubris-fueled act of dorm-room philosophy, depending on whom you ask. If you ask me, it’s just a silly bit of fun, but don’t tell Christopher Nolan I said that.</p>
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<p id="BlxKRa">No matter where you land on the quality of <em>Inception</em>’s plot, <em>quantitatively</em>, this is a movie about a bunch of bros lucid dreaming together. Though it’s been a few years, I remember the Mal and the folding cities and the totems of it all. But I had forgotten that Leo and Co. facilitate their lucid dreams via a sort of futuristic Bop-It! that helpfully pumps into them a brain-stimulating sedative so powerful that not even soaring off a bridge or the constant bong-bongs that register somewhere between<a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=brown%20note"> brown note</a> and<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP3MuUTmXNk"> <em>Law & Order: SVU</em></a><em> </em>can rouse them from their slumber.</p>
<p id="eGxT85">For <em>my</em> lucid dreaming practice, I have a sound machine that all the most brand-conscious babies use—<a href="https://yogasleep.com/collections/dohm-sound-machines/products/dohm-classic-pink-with-travel-case">the Dohm Classic in pink</a>, set to level II, always—and the fool-proof method of a fictional teenager from a Netflix thriller.</p>
<h3>INT. My Living Room—162 Minutes Later, Day 3</h3>
<h4 id="AqECEi">Watching <em>Doctor Strange</em> on Disney+</h4>
<p id="xVELb9">Through my first half-day of studying astral projection, my biggest takeaway is that learning about this phenomenon requires a surprising number of streaming platforms. After <em>Inception</em> I turn to <em>Doctor Strange</em>: Marvel’s most mystical and medical superhero film to date, wherein an egotistical surgeon stumbles upon the astral plane—and also an interdimensional threat to earthly existence—while seeking to heal his injured hands. While watching, I scribble down only one note that is not a reminder to research Mads Mikkelsen’s eyeshadow palette, and it is this: “Men will <em>literally</em> project their consciousness into the astral realm instead of going to therapy.”</p>
<p>Which makes me think that <em>Doctor Strange</em> might be the most accurate Hollywood depiction of astral phenomena. Stephen Strange is a seeker, after all—he wants more knowledge, more escape from reality—and when he stumbles into astral projection, it’s because he desperately wants to find some kind of loophole to healing his damaged hands. What he finds instead is an entirely new understanding of the world around him. From my limited experience with the astral travel community, that’s a pretty common narrative, minus the magic cape stuff.</p>
<p id="VkGXIe">Doctor Strange did have a magic cape to aid his mastery of astral projection, though, not to mention Tilda Swinton showing him the ropes, and a “sling ring” to propel him through the multiverse. I have … the power of my own mind, which is currently in a bit of a tailspin because the Water Magister still hasn’t emailed me back, and I’m really about to have to do this by myself.</p>
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<h3 id="kPMTZM">INT. My Bedroom—Nighttime, Day 4</h3>
<h4 id="zjNXJI">Astral Travel Attempt No. 1</h4>
<p id="wmmOjQ">It’s time to turn to yet another streaming platform: Spotify, where I find a plethora of guided astral travel mediations, the least annoying of which has been uploaded by an artist called “Exploration of Humanity” and has almost 105,000 listens (for clarity: at least 12 are from me).</p>
<p id="Gn0YkN">I’m entering my astral projection practice with an open mind, and only one fear: getting body-snatched. As you’ll recall from 20 paragraphs ago, I came to this practice by way of <em>Behind Her Eyes</em>, where astral projection is used <em>exclusively </em>for stealing other people’s bodies. Of course, only two people know I’m trying to astral travel, and could therefore be in the position to steal my body: the Water Magister if he’s read his email in the past four days and my editor at <em>The Ringer</em> who green-lit this piece. Only one of <em>those </em>knows how to astral travel, unless my editor is lying and all of this is an elaborate body-snatching ploy.</p>
<p id="pyAT55">It’s better astrally safe than astrally sorry, though, so my best friend and I establish a code word that I will say to her at some point each day to confirm I have not been astrally possessed. (Much like Leo protects the sanctity of his totem in <em>Inception</em>, I shan’t be telling you my code word here, but rest assured—it’s very silly.) Of course, <em>upon reflection</em>, I realize that <em>Behind Her Eyes</em> posits a world in which best friends are actually the <em>most </em>likely culprit to snatch your body while astral projecting, so this plan was terrible<em> </em>all along.</p>
<p id="qm28tp">Luckily, the Spotify meditation makes up for what I lack! A man with a soft, steady voice guides me through the steps that I’ll come to learn are common in achieving astral projection via a meditative state, as opposed to the lucid dreaming method:</p>
<ol>
<li>“Mind awake, body asleep”: This is achieved by keeping your body completely still in a comfortable position, breathing deeply, and keeping all of your mental awareness focused on the space between your eyes.</li>
<li id="xRAyzA">“Vibrational stage”:<strong> </strong>The vibrational stage<strong> </strong>can be reached in a number of ways once you successfully master Step 1, including imagining waves of energy rolling up and down your body, or visualizing yourself rocking faster and faster inside your body, until …</li>
<li>“Out of body”<strong>:</strong> That’s right, it’s only a <em>three-step </em>process to being able to magically fly around the world, untethered by your gross corporeal form! If you haven’t gotten out after the two steps, <em>you’re not getting out</em>.</li>
</ol>
<p>But whether or not you hit out of body in the 20-ish minutes this guided meditation guesses you will, that’s still 20 minutes remaining of binaural beats, whispered subliminal messages, and vibes to endure. <em>Personally</em>, I fell asleep halfway through the pod. Maybe next time …</p>
<h3 id="mFd5kG">INT. My Bedroom—Early Afternoon, Day 5</h3>
<h4 id="ygBYYx">Astral Travel Attempt No. 2</h4>
<p id="FXKEem">This time, I take half a caffeine pill before my spiritual practice.</p>
<p id="tXr2QJ"><em>And it works</em>. I mean, I don’t exactly astral project. Nothing really even gets to vibrating. But I do get into what I would describe as “mind awake, body asleep,” because once I finally manage to slow my mind down, and my limbs sort of start to feel like they’re floating, the spot between my eyes starts to produce visions: a bed of jewels transforms into a beach, transforms into a kitchen from my childhood, transforms into …</p>
<p id="uhvs4q"><em>A door</em>. I would never lie to you, it is a whole-ass door in my mind. And even though I’m not doing the lucid dreaming method of astral projection and doors really shouldn’t even be part of this, I know I’m supposed to start moving toward that door; I know there’s something on the other side of it that I want. The door is embedded in the side of a mountain, and there’s an Indiana Jones–style rope bridge I have to cross to get to it, but I’m not scared to cross it because I have tunnel vision for this door. I’m on the move, I’m getting closer and closer, and clo—</p>
<p id="wbQKEu">My phone rings. My phone rings louder than a Hans Zimmer score in these headphones I’m using to listen to this guided meditation. It’s a telemarketer from San Marcos, Texas, and if I ever meet that telemarketer on this or any other astral plane, I swear to you, it is absolutely <em>on sight</em>.</p>
<p id="oCMKQl">I can’t help but feel that if I had a qualified astral projection teacher, their first lesson would have been, “Turn on Do Not Disturb, dumbass.” I learned that lesson for myself the hard way.</p>
<h3 id="AoquQm">INT. My Office—Late Morning, Day 6</h3>
<h4 id="L2dNx2">Enter: The Water Magister, Taking My Cold Call</h4>
<p id="WmFS2s">I find a phone number for the Water Magister on a now-defunct Water Magister Facebook page, and he picks up on the first ring. He hasn’t seen any of my emails, and he seems wary of a random number from Waco, Texas. It takes him about one minute to tell me he can’t be my teacher. Not because he detects a noticeable lack of spiritual proclivity in me, as I feared he somehow would, but because he’s currently recovering from a heartbreak, and he can’t spiritually guide others when he’s not feeling spiritually whole himself.</p>
<p id="XlEyj1">This is not the first time someone else’s integrity has proved an obstacle to my personal goals, and it won’t be the last. <em>But</em>,<em> </em>the Water Magister does agree to meet with me to answer any questions I have, and discuss <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxbU1qdM3Tg">what his guided astral projection sessions look like</a> so that I can improve my own practice at home.</p>
<h3 id="hT21CK">EXT. An Absolutely Bustling Kava Bar Patio—Late Afternoon, Day 7</h3>
<h4 id="RSt5Xs">Meeting the Magister</h4>
<p id="WN0hVf">The Water Magister has the quintessential appearance of a wizard, if you’ve ever imagined a wizard to be young and hoodie-clad with incredible posture. His beard is as long as his knowledge of astral projection is deep, although he would want me to tell you he’s not an expert. Calling a person who’s been successfully practicing astral projection for 15 years an expert is kind of like calling a 25-year-old middle-aged, I guess: a little too soon.</p>
<p id="AgAG0p">After all, the Water Magister tells me about mystery schools where astral masters share ancient wisdom in the astral realm. He tells me about healing trauma and overcoming obstacles, and a time in his youth when he built an entire world in the astral realm with fellow travelers he met on the internet, only to have that world destroyed by lurking astral-projection-internet trolls.</p>
<p id="HoaGuW">I tell him that I’m just trying to make it past my bedside table.</p>
<p>The Water Magister was first introduced to astral projection by a man named Willy, studied the practice further under the works of famous <a href="https://www.monroeinstitute.org/pages/our-purpose">explorer of human consciousness</a>, Robert Monroe, and began teaching it after a voice told him he should. That same voice told him to start making his special blend of astral projection tea, which I will eventually buy from him in cash.</p>
<p id="K4oWyf">Mostly, the Water Magister lets me ask him my rudimentary astral projection questions for 90 minutes, offering me generous, straightforward answers in return. He thinks the <em>Behind Her Eyes</em> astral projection sounds pretty accurate, except for body snatching, which is “improbable,” and Adele’s claim that she can only travel places she’s familiar with, which is … kind of the opposite of the point of <em>traveling the astral plane</em>. The conversation makes me highly aware of how small I’ve kept my world on this one plane of reality that I’ve never tried to leave. Here is a list of things the Water Magister casually asks me whether I’ve experienced, studied, or understood while we’re chatting, to which I have to tell him no:</p>
<ul>
<li id="q111Gp">Non-player characters in video games</li>
<li id="XIWMn4">Psychedelics</li>
<li id="Cfkvfl">Sigils</li>
<li>The idea that everyone creates their own reality</li>
<li id="S8qKPH">Yoga nidra</li>
<li id="afepgq">Kava (I actually have tried kava, but I didn’t want to disrespect the 15 nearby <em>kava bar patrons </em>happily <em>drinking kava </em>by explaining that <em>I hate kava</em>.)</li>
<li id="XczIkf">Masaru Emoto</li>
<li id="M7rD1Z">Eye gazing</li>
</ul>
<p id="RcRkoN">Here’s a list of things that the Water Magister asks me whether I understand that I’m able to confirm, <em>yes</em>, I understand:</p>
<ul>
<li id="dCIK7F"><em>Minecraft</em></li>
<li id="GU8ClZ">Stevia</li>
</ul>
<p id="a3Zs9W">But even though I’d spent an hour registering how much foundation I lack to study astral travel, there was one moment waiting at the end of our conversation that would humble me like no other. I ask the Water Magister about something from <em>Behind Her Eyes </em>that I’ve been hung up on since I first watched it: There’s no way the transition from lucid dreaming to astral projection could <em>really </em>be as simple as just walking through a door you conjured up in your dream, right? In return, the Water Magister delicately asks me whether I hadn’t just moments ago told him that <em>I </em>had to use a guided meditation on Spotify because <em>I</em> can’t even relax without a third party telling me to do so? Therefore, couldn’t <em>I </em>imagine how much willpower it might take to intentionally create a door inside a lucid dream without the soft voice of a British man in my headphones telling me to do it? Couldn’t <em>I</em> understand that just because something is easy to conceptualize, doesn’t mean it’s easy to do?</p>
<p id="vVmRr1">I wondered whether the Water Magister felt in that moment like I hadn’t been listening to him at all; like I’d been trivializing <em>all </em>of the practices he’d been telling me about. Because setting intentions isn’t easy, creating a sense of safety for yourself isn’t easy; manifesting a door in your dreams isn’t easy. And perhaps I only see these things as simple because I’ve never successfully done them before ...</p>
<p id="NmbhPm">But there is one lingering thing I feel like astral projection practitioners are perhaps simplifying a little themselves. Half the reason I started this journey is because<em> Behind Her Eyes </em>offers this very limited view of astral projection as exclusively being used for bad, when I’ve mostly only heard of people seeking it out for healing and self-improvement. I ask the Water Magister about the often-negative depiction of astral travel in pop culture, and whether he personally feels like there’s a major capacity to use astral projection for “bad.” To which he says,<em> </em>of course: “You can use <em>anything </em>for good or bad, and just think of the implications—you can be a fly on the wall, listening to your archnemeses, or seeing what your enemies are planning.”</p>
<p id="oGrKrc">When I go back over my conversation with the Water Magister at home, I realize it’s those very implications that are still tinkering around in my subconscious. Isn’t the complete lack of evidence that astral projection has ever been used<em> </em>for evil the greatest argument against its credibility? Pop culture only depicts astral travel as being deployed for sneaky, sometimes murderous means because pop culture knows that anything that <em>can </em>be used for bad, <em>will </em>be used for bad. If someone could spy on their enemies from the astral realm, wouldn’t they? And after, say, a millennia or so, wouldn’t we hear some stories about it, in the same way that we hear stories about <a href="https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/woman-recounts-her-out-of-body-experience-during-a-fateful-day-in-tucson"><em>positive </em>out-of-body experiences</a>? Are only the most moral people in the world capable of masterful astral projection, or is astral projection not quite as viable as its masters claim?</p>
<p id="qILai5">As you can see, I have some questions—questions that I’d really rather not have. Not only because I genuinely believe the Water Magister and Jade Shaw and the many lovely people in the classes I’ve attended when they say they’ve astral projected—and <em>especially </em>when they say how much it’s positively impacted their lives—but also because questioning whether astral projection is real seems like a surefire way to never be able to do it successfully. Now if I’m never able to astral project, I’ll always have to wonder if it’s because it’s impossible, or if it’s because I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was impossible.</p>
<h3 id="KkQDpp">INT. My Home–Mostly Night, Days 8-15</h3>
<h4 id="UniZV1">Astral Travel Attempts Nos. 3-10</h4>
<p id="U9HqT8">Even in astral projection, practice makes progress. The Water Magister told me that once I’ve entered into the “mind awake, body asleep” state, it’s important to visualize your consciousness leaving your body, and that each person will have a different key to doing this: a person who likes comic books might imagine throwing webs of their consciousness out like Spider-Man, or someone with a deceased relative might imagine that loved one pulling them into the astral realm. For me, the visual that came most readily in my half-asleep state was to yank my consciousness out of my head in quick, successive pulls like I was a human box of Kleenex. I do not know why I equate myself to bath tissue, and I <em>do not </em>want to talk about it!</p>
<p id="fvlmwd">Sometime around my seventh attempt, I put on my big girl pants and stopped using the guided meditation, choosing the power of binaural beats and my own willpower, instead. Twice using this meditative method, I feel a kind of <em>rising</em>, like my consciousness is being pulled out through the crown of my head, but both times I then start to physically tense my body, ceasing said <em>rising</em>. Once, I briefly drift asleep, and when I wake up, my eyes unconsciously pop open, I see the dresser in my bedroom, and then I slam them back shut, and am suddenly <em>traveling</em>. It feels like my mind is tunneling through the earth toward a searing white light, until I spook myself out of it.</p>
<p id="b5ra95">But afterward, I wondered … maybe my eyes <em>hadn’t</em> physically opened; maybe I’d traveled out of my body and into my bedroom, and it was my astral form that had seen my dresser? But I don’t know. Because when nothing turns technicolored like you thought it was supposed to, and you’re a little bit asleep all the time, it’s just hard to know. Either way, my eyes did eventually open, definitely for real this time.</p>
<h3 id="iD0DGK">INT. My Home—Morning, Noon, And Night, Days 15-17</h3>
<h4 id="mthF32">Astral Travel Attempts Nos. 11-16</h4>
<p id="QBu4v0">I’m weeks into this process, and days away from the deadline on documenting this process, and I admit that I might be trying to squeeze something in under the wire that is not, necessarily, squeezable. I am attempting to astral travel morning, noon, and night. I’m changing my headphones and altering the amount of light in the room, and eating bananas because I read about it on Reddit (famous last words).</p>
<p id="u1uG6f">Technically, if I look back to where I started, at a Cumberbatch/DiCaprio double-header with absolutely no meditation experience, I’ve made definitive progress. I regularly enter the “vibrational stage” now, where it feels like light is shooting up and down my body, and while that used to freak me out a bit and I’d start seizing up, now I’m used to it, and can relax into the feeling. But that feeling doesn’t then take me outside my body or into another realm—it doesn’t take me anywhere.</p>
<p id="gDRUjq">In my desperation, everything is starting to feel like it means something. In the car, “Levitating” by Dua Lipa is playing, and I think I surely must have manifested it. But the Milky Way is not liberating, and I do not, <a href="https://genius.com/21630673">sugarboo</a>, levitate myself into another reality via the powerful instruction of Miss Lipa.</p>
<p id="wdKmhR">But finally, on my 16th astral travel attempt, I get into the vibrational state that I’m now somewhat used to, I visualize myself leaving my body, and the next thing I know, I’m seeing a clear, vibrant image of something that I know is real: the giant gold birthday balloons we got for my dad for his 70th birthday, the ones that my parents have kept inflated in their living room for months. That scene exists in my memory, sure, but I briefly feel like I’m really there in my parents’ house, hundreds of miles away from where my body currently lies, witnessing it live.</p>
<p id="dUg0T4">When I slip out of the state, I text my mom to be sure that what I saw was real, just like I’ve heard so many other people do the first time they astral traveled to a familiar place. “Random question …</p>
<h3 id="GJKG7g">INT. My Office–5:56 P.M., DAY 17</h3>
<h4 id="BGpRYB">Enter: A Different Kind of Magister</h4>
<p id="erqHiI">It’s not time to give up, but it is time to move on. I’ve been focusing so much of my energy on trying to astral travel via a meditative state that I haven’t given lucid dreaming the attention it deserves. I<a href="https://www.mindvalley.com/lucid/masterclass"> watch a master class</a> (but not <em>a MasterClass</em>) with Charlie Morley, a lucid dreaming teacher currently researching healing PTSD for veterans through dream states, who also happens to be the former husband, current best friend,<a href="https://www.charliemorley.com/about-me"> and co-parent of a wiener dog</a> named Waffles with Jade Shaw, the aforementioned astral projection consultant herself. Together, they are an aesthetically pleasing dynamic paranormal duo, and I look forward to watching their inevitable reality show on Netflix in a few years.</p>
<p id="o0E8VD">In his class, Charlie teaches that once you’ve gained access to your dreams, you can plant seeds in the unconscious mind to cultivate in the waking mind. Which, honestly, is just the kind of simplistic structure I’m looking for in my spiritual experience. Charlie describes the “4D” approach to lucid dreaming thusly:</p>
<ol>
<li id="Hgv42z">Dream recall:<strong> </strong>Set a strong intention to remember your dreams by reciting a phrase such as, “Tonight I remember my dreams, I have excellent dream recall,” while you fall asleep. Once you’re able to remember your dreams, you gain insight into your consciousness, and what your dreams are signaling to your waking mind.</li>
<li id="Q5muhO">Dream diary: The best way to log this information is to … log it, by writing your dreams down as soon as you possibly can after waking up.</li>
<li id="aIfNZn">Dream signs:<strong> </strong>Once you’re able to spot “lucidity triggers” in your dreams, you can start to reliably signal to yourself when you’re dreaming. For me, the most common signals that I’m dreaming include: celebrities; a threat to my ability to graduate high school or college even though I’ve already successfully graduated both; and this fun new one where I’m packing and packing but can never fully complete whatever I’m trying to pack up in the time that I need to do it. Yay!</li>
<li id="UjHHZh">Dream planning:<strong> </strong>“The <em>why</em> is more important than the <em>how</em>,” Charlie says. Once you’re remembering dreams, and writing them down, and spotting lucidity triggers, take the time to consider what you want to do in your first lucid dream (and be honest about how much that thing is “having wild and prolific sex”).</li>
</ol>
<p id="MRUHkR">In my very recent experience, this is really all it takes. I’ve been practicing Adele’s little pinching, finger-counting techniques for weeks, but the second I start writing down my dreams, and understanding that Topanga from <em>Boy Meets World </em>being my English teacher is a surefire sign that I’m dreaming, well, my dreams start getting a lot more interesting, and a little more lucid.</p>
<h3 id="ZW36j6">INT. My Bedroom–Nighttime, Day 19</h3>
<h4 id="sozPlI">Dreaming</h4>
<p>I’m cleaning and cleaning my kitchen but I just cannot get it cleaned up. I somehow manage to break the faucet, and begin trying to scoop up the gushing water with a measuring cup that I suddenly realize I don’t own. I briefly wonder why someone would break into my house and leave things behind instead of taking them—and then I have the ringing, clear realization that this isn’t my kitchen. And this isn’t my measuring cup. But this <em>is</em> my dream.</p>
<p id="die1qj">It’s dream-flying time, baby!</p>
<p id="p6VSgT">Or, that’s what I assumed would happen. I haven’t <em>quite </em>made it to the “dream planning” portion of my lucid dreaming training, so I don’t have much of an agenda. I just take off running away from the kitchen, and into darkness. <em>Maybe </em>I call out for some celebrities to come make out with me, but I can’t be sure—if Jake Gyllenhaal appeared, I don’t remember it. What I <em>do </em>remember is that none of it felt particularly <em>freeing</em>, as I’d come to expect. The sprinting through my consciousness, the pressure that I needed to build something new, to make this time count, when all I really felt like I could do was keep my head above water … that all felt a little too familiar. This was not the fun, maybe even healing lucid dreaming experience I’d been promised. This was bringing my waking burdens into my previously restful sleep life, give or take some eternal folding of jeans. To which, I say: <em>WHAT GIVES, CONSCIOUSNESS?!</em></p>
<h3 id="rzq16T">INT. My Bedroom–Twilight, Day 21</h3>
<h4 id="b4tT6A">Dreaming</h4>
<p id="uSE93A">I’m on vacation in New Orleans with the Biebers—Justin and Hailey—who I have not had one waking thought about since they got married but who I <em>apparently </em>hold space for in my dreaming mind.</p>
<p id="bujRmA">Over the past three weeks, I’ve repeatedly been told that my dreaming mind is capable of curing my lower back pain, or manifesting an idea for a best-selling novel, if I can just learn how to use it right. But all my mind wants to give me is the Biebers, and this New Orleans Airbnb with a rapidly approaching check-out time that I’m about to miss because—you guessed it—my unimaginative ass is packing a never-ending pile of clothes while Hailey stares on. And after weeks of incessant dream-packing, my lucidity trigger <em>finally </em>clicks.</p>
<p id="u5Fwug" class="c-end-para">I’m dreaming—and I know it. Once again, Jake Gyllenhaal doesn’t appear, I don’t come up with a great book idea, and I definitely don’t start flying. I don’t <em>start </em>doing anything. I just … stop packing. Because I suddenly know that I have nothing to worry about; that I’m in control of my own story, that no looming check-out time should make me feel like this. I don’t remember anything after that, but the sense of understanding that everything will be OK if I just take a beat has lingered in my waking life. It wasn’t astral travel. It may not have even been lucid dreaming. But it was a nice feeling—and after the past year, I won’t say no to a nice new feeling. </p>
<p><em>Jodi Walker is a freelance pop culture writer with bylines in </em>Entertainment Weekly<em>, </em>Vulture<em>, and </em>Texas Monthly<em>.</em></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="https://www.theringer.com/tv/2021/4/9/22373149/behind-her-eyes-how-to-astral-project-netflix">https://www.theringer.com/tv/2021/4/9/22373149/behind-her-eyes-how-to-astral-project-netflix</a></p>
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</div></div>The Growlinghttps://witches-moon.ning.com/forum/the-growling2022-04-05T17:09:06.000Z2022-04-05T17:09:06.000ZJamie jodoinhttps://witches-moon.ning.com/members/Jamiejodoin<div><p>Around 130am. I heard a deep non human growl coming from the hall out side the bed room. It was very deep . thoughts everyone?</p></div>Understanding the Akashic Records and How to Access Themhttps://witches-moon.ning.com/forum/understanding-the-akashic-records-and-how-to-access-them2021-06-08T21:39:32.000Z2021-06-08T21:39:32.000ZSunKathttps://witches-moon.ning.com/members/SunKat<div><div id="article-meta_1-0" class="comp article-meta mntl-block">
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<div id="mntl-byline__name_1-0" class="comp mntl-byline__name mntl-block mntl-dynamic-tooltip--trigger"><a id="mntl-byline__link_1-0" class="mntl-byline__link mntl-text-link" href="https://www.learnreligions.com/patti-wigington-2561385"><span class="link__wrapper">Patti Wigington</span></a>
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<p id="mntl-sc-block_1-0" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html">The Akashic records are a compendium of all human knowledge that can be accessed on the astral plane. According to <a href="https://www.learnreligions.com/theosophy-definition-4690703">Theosophist philosophy</a>, the Akashic records don't pass judgement or label actions as good or bad; rather, they simply state what has been. Knowledge of this "Book of Life" can influence our views of reality and serve as a tool of self-development.</p>
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<h3 id="mntl-sc-block-callout-heading_1-0" class="comp mntl-sc-block-callout-heading mntl-text-block">Key Takeaways: Akashic Records</h3>
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<li>Modern practitioners believe the Akashic records can be accessed through prayer, intuition, and meditation.</li>
<li>The Akashic records are a collection of all of the thoughts, events, knowledge, and ideas that mankind has had since the beginning of space and time.</li>
<li>The concept of the Akashic records originated with Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophist spiritual movement.</li>
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<p id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-4" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html">According to followers of the Theosophic spiritual movement, which originated in the nineteenth century, all of the thoughts, events, and knowledge throughout the history of mankind are stored together in a massive cosmic compendium known as the Akashic records. Sometimes referred to as "The Book of Life," this collection of wisdom and ideas is seen as more than just a compilation of stored information. Instead, these records can be viewed as a guidance tool that can influence our thoughts, feelings, and views of reality.</p>
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<p id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-6" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html"><a href="https://www.edgarcayce.org/the-readings/akashic-records/" target="_blank">Edgar Cayce</a>, the famous clairvoyant and metaphysical teacher who is considered the founder of the modern New Age movement, said the Akashic records are God's book of remembrance:</p>
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<blockquote id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-8" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html"><em>Upon time and space is written the thoughts, the deeds, the activities of an entity – as in relationships to its environs, its hereditary influence; as directed – or judgment drawn by or according to what the entity's ideal is...</em></blockquote>
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<p id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-10" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html">Some people believe the Akashic records are comprised of the energy that makes up everything in the universe, throughout all of space and time. This energy is called <em>Akasha</em>, a combination of the Sanskrit word <em>ākāśa</em>, meaning hidden or secret space, with the root word <em>kāś </em>meaning simply "to be."</p>
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<p id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-12" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html">All of this information is believed to be stored in the ethereal plane, a non-physical place which is part of the cosmic whole. Many people believe the Akashic records can be accessed by anyone, although there are some schools of thought that say one must be specifically trained to access this universal source of wisdom.</p>
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<p id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-14" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html">Of note, the Akashic records are, according to most practitioners, completely objective and unbiased. They don't focus on morality or judgement, or the labeling of things as <em>good</em> or <em>bad. </em>They simply record what has been, and what is.</p>
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<h2 id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-16" class="comp mntl-sc-block reference-sc-block-heading mntl-sc-block-heading"><span class="mntl-sc-block-heading__text" style="font-size:14pt;">The Akashic Records and the Theosophical Movement</span></h2>
<p id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-17" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html">During the late nineteenth century, a Russian immigrant named <a href="https://www.learnreligions.com/helena-blavatsky-4690489">Helena Blavatsky</a> came to the United States and soon found herself at the center of a new spiritual movement known as Theosophy. Drawing upon occult philosophies from Europe, Asian thought processes, and Western mystery traditions, the Theosophists believed that a secret cabal of spiritual Masters, centralized in Tibet, would some day bring back all of the great occult knowledge that the world had lost over time.</p>
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<p id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-19" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html">Blavatsky, who died in 1891, was a strong proponent of the Akashic records, which she referred to as tablets of astral light. Blavatsky's contemporary and fellow Theosophist, <a href="https://ts-adyar.org/content/alfred-percy-sinnett-1840-1921" target="_blank">Alfred Percy Sinnett</a>, later coined the term Akashic records, which is still used today.</p>
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<p id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-21" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html">In the early twentieth century, <a href="https://www.rsarchive.org/Religion/GA148/" target="_blank">Austrian philosopher Rudolf Josef Steiner</a>, also a Theosophist, took the concept of the Akashic records a step further. He founded a movement known as anthroposophy, which was heavily influenced by Blavatsky and the Theosophist teachings. Steiner maintained that his clairvoyant ability allowed him to access that Akashic records, thus giving him a storehouse of universal cosmic wisdom.</p>
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<p id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-23" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html">Steiner claimed to have, among other things, insight as to the life of Jesus Christ that are not recorded in the Bible, and referred to this information as the Fifth Gospel. Among other events, he said he had accessed an Akashic account of Jesus' life among the Essenes and an important conversation between Jesus and Mary.</p>
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<h2 id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-25" class="comp mntl-sc-block reference-sc-block-heading mntl-sc-block-heading"><span class="mntl-sc-block-heading__text" style="font-size:14pt;">Why Access the Akashic Records?</span></h2>
<p id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-26" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html">Today, many people are approaching the Akashic records as tools for personal growth and self-development. Intuitive <a href="https://lindahowe.com/learn-about-linda-howe/" target="_blank">teacher and author Linda Howe</a>, who leads a class on accessing the Akashic records, says: "Today, the Records are no longer the exclusive domain of saints, scholars, and mystics. The collective consciousness of humanity has been growing, evolving, and maturing."</p>
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<p id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-28" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html">Modern practitioners, much like Blavatsky and her peers, can access the Akashic records by way of prayer, meditation, intuitive study, and working with spirit guides for assistance. There are a few simple steps you should keep in mind if you attempt to access the Akashic knowledge base.</p>
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<p id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-30" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html">Be clear about what you want to learn. It's a bit like going to a bookstore—are you just browsing, or is there a specific title you're seeking? Declare your intention—do you want to just explore, are you interested in learning about your past lives, or do you hope to speak with ascended Masters?</p>
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<p id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-32" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html">There's no one right way to access the Akashic records. Most people use prayer or meditation, but choose what works best for you. As you reach a settled, grounded state, allow yourself to be open to receiving the knowledge you might encounter. You might see figures or shapes, or written words, or you could hear voices speaking; some people believe this is contact from angels or spirit guides.</p>
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<p id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-34" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html">When you're finished—if you become restless or start feeling like nothing else is happening—be sure to write down everything you saw, felt, or heard. This way, you can go back over the information later. In general, it's agreed that the best results come from extensive practice and repeated efforts.</p>
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<p id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-36" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html">Spiritual intuitive and Akashic record teacher <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/akashic-records-an-illumi_b_10661002" target="_blank">Bhavya Gaur</a> says that accessing the records can help us heal and grow by providing us with the understanding we need to move forward in our lives. She writes that the records don't tell us what to do, they simply offer guidance from a place of compassion and love:</p>
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<blockquote id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-38" class="comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html">They empower us so we can create a change in our life, release self-limiting beliefs, transform relationships in our inner and outer Universe and embrace peace as a way of life.</blockquote>
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<h2 id="mntl-sc-block_1-0-40" class="comp mntl-sc-block reference-sc-block-heading mntl-sc-block-heading"><span class="mntl-sc-block-heading__text">Resources</span></h2>
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<li><cite>“Akashic Record s: The Book of Life: Edgar Cayce Readings: Edgar Cayce's A.R.E.” <em>Akashic Record s | The Book of Life | Edgar Cayce Readings | Edgar Cayce's A.R.E. | Edgar Cayce's A.R.E.</em>, <a href="http://www.edgarcayce.org/the-readings/akashic-records/">www.edgarcayce.org/the-readings/akashic-records/</a>.</cite></li>
<li><cite>“Akashic Records: What Are They and How Do I Use It?: Bagua Center:” <em>Bagua Center: Miami Spiritual Center</em>, Bagua Media, 21 Jan. 2016, baguacenter.com/akashic-records-what-are-they-and-how-do-i-use-it/.</cite></li>
<li><cite>Gaur, Bhavya. “Akashic Records -- An Illuminating Healing Journey.” <em>HuffPost</em>, HuffPost, 7 Dec. 2017, <a href="http://www.huffpost.com/entry/akashic-records-an-illumi_b_10661002">www.huffpost.com/entry/akashic-records-an-illumi_b_10661002</a>.</cite></li>
<li><cite>“Six Steps To Help You Access The Akashic Records.” <em>Gaia</em>, <a href="http://www.gaia.com/article/akashic-records-101-can-we-access-our-akashic-records">www.gaia.com/article/akashic-records-101-can-we-access-our-akashic-records</a>.</cite></li>
<li><cite>Steiner, Rudolf. <em>The Fifth Gospel: Investigation of the Akasha Chronicle</em>. Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1950.</cite></li>
<li><cite>Steiner, Rudolf, and Max Gysi. <em>The Way of Initiation: or, How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds</em>. Enhanced Ebooks, 2014.</cite></li>
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<div class="comp sources-and-citation mntl-block" style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:8pt;"><em><a href="https://www.learnreligions.com/akashic-records-4783264" target="_blank">https://www.learnreligions.com/akashic-records-4783264</a></em></span></div>
</div></div>Saint Lucia: Lilith in Disguisehttps://witches-moon.ning.com/forum/saint-lucia-lilith-in-disguise2019-12-19T21:53:11.000Z2019-12-19T21:53:11.000ZSunKathttps://witches-moon.ning.com/members/SunKat<div><p> DECEMBER 14, 2018 BY <a href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/author/mauryn/">MAT AURYN</a></p>
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<p>Saint Lucia (or Saint Lucy) is a Christian Martyr who is celebrated on St. Lucy’s Day, a feast on December 13th in Scandinavian countries, where young girls make a procession dressed in white and boys wear wizard like conical hats with stars on them. In this procession one girl is representative of Saint Lucia and wears a red sash and a crown of candles (so that her hands are free to carry food for her feast), remaining silent while the other children sing hymns to honor Saint Lucia. Saint Lucia is honored as a light-bringer who brings vision and light to “the blind” and the feast represents light overcoming darkness, which is an almost universal <a class="decorated-link" href="https://admin.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2017/12/16/what-is-the-winter-solstice/" target="_blank">Winter Solstice theme based on astronomy</a>. The name Lucia / Lucy shares the Latin root Lux, meaning light, with Lucifer the morning-star and fallen star.</p>
<p>In Catholicism, Saint Lucia’s story is that she was a young Christian girl who had a marriage with a wealthy pagan arranged by her mother. St. Lucia decided to give a large portion of her dowry to the poor. Her fiance heard about this and was outraged and reported her to the Governor of Syracuse who ordered that she burn a sacrifice to the image of the Emperor as retribution. When St. Lucia refused. She was to be burned at the stake but the wood refused to burn. She was tortured and had her eyes removed from her head – and most iconography has her either holding her eyes or her eyes on a plate. Before she was finally killed by a sword, she accurately prophecized the death of both the Governor of Syracuse and the Emperor. Not being raised Catholic myself, I first came across Saint Lucia in American folk magick, where she is worked with and prayed to for psychic ability and the gifts of prophecy.</p>
<p>As we know with many regions that become Christianized or dual-faith, the Paganism and Christianity starts to become very blurred. Old Pagan customs blend into newer Christian ones and older deities and spirits begin to merge with the newer Christian saints. There are several theories about Saint Lucia’s origins in Scandinavian countries. Some link her to <a class="decorated-link" href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/thewanderingwitch/2017/12/sankta-lucia-the-survival-of-a-nordic-sun-goddess/" target="_blank">Sol or Sunna</a>, and others with Holda and Berchta, who were also celebrated during the Winter Solstice time in these regions. However, one of the most interesting connections that I’ve come across is in <a class="decorated-link" href="https://admin.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2017/07/27/review-luminous-stone/" target="_blank">The Luminous Stone: Lucifer in Western Esotericism</a> anthology edited by Daniel Schulke and Michael Howard. In it, Swedish ethnologist and occult researcher Fredrik Eytzinger has a chapter on Saint Lucia entitled “Saint Lucifer and the Black Arts.”</p>
<p>In parts of Norway, she’s associated with the various <a class="decorated-link" href="https://admin.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2017/12/19/morgan-daimler/" target="_blank">hidden folk</a> of the region and its said that between St. Lucy’s Day and Yule that trolls, witches and evil spirits roam wild in a procession called Lussiferda, where St. Lucia under the name Lussi is a witch and demoness leading the event. In <a class="decorated-link" href="https://admin.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2017/07/27/review-luminous-stone/" target="_blank">The Luminous Stone</a>, Eytzinger discusses how folks in the western parts of Sweden refuse to take part in St. Lucy’s Feast and that she was either seen as a form of Lilith or as a female embodiment of Lucifer. There are many interesting comparisons with Lilith being the mother of the Hidden Folk and demons in Jewish folklore and with Lucia being associated with the Hidden Folk of Sweden and Norway.</p>
<p>This idea shared with Diana and Aradia (who is an avatar embodiment and daughter of Diana) from <a class="decorated-link" href="https://admin.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2018/06/22/five-books-to-learn-more-about-aradia/" target="_blank">the Gospel of Aradia</a> who are often linked Herodias, Lilith, and Holda, who as mentioned before is also linked with Saint Lucia. All of these figures are also seen in various degrees as the Witch Queen archetype goddess of the Witch’s Sabbath. Diana in the Gospel of Aradia is seen as the mother of the Hidden Folk and consort of Lucifer and is linked to the cat, <a class="decorated-link" href="https://admin.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2017/10/12/black-cats-witchcraft-goddesses-bad-luck/" target="_blank">which is historically tied to witchcraft</a>. Interestingly enough, on Saint Lucia’s Day, it is tradition to bake buns called Lussekatter, which translates to “Lucia cats” as the buns resemble cat-tails. I highly suggest checking out The Luminous Stone (which is a fantastic anthology in general) for more of Eytzinger’s connections between Saint Lucia, Lilith, and Lucifer in Scandinavia.</p>
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<h2>Related Articles:</h2>
<p><a class="decorated-link" href="https://admin.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2018/12/12/yule-cat/" target="_blank">Mat Auryn – This Fashionista Cat Devours People To Celebrate Yule</a></p>
<p><a class="decorated-link" href="https://admin.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2018/12/11/hans-trapp/" target="_blank">Mat Auryn – The Child-Eating Scarecrow Of Christmas</a></p>
<p><a class="decorated-link" href="https://admin.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2018/12/07/the-mischievous-tomte-spirits-of-yule/" target="_blank">Mat Auryn -The Mischievous Tomte Spirits of Yule</a></p>
<p><a class="decorated-link" href="https://admin.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2018/12/04/krampus/" target="_blank">Mat Auryn – A Brief History of The Krampus</a></p>
<p><a class="decorated-link" href="https://admin.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2017/11/30/the-yule-goat/" target="_blank">Mat Auryn – The Yule Goat</a></p>
<p><a class="decorated-link" href="https://admin.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2017/12/16/what-is-the-winter-solstice/" target="_blank">Mat Auryn – What Is The Winter Solstice?</a></p>
<p><a class="decorated-link" href="https://admin.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2017/11/28/seasonal-depression/" target="_blank">Mat Auryn – Seasonal Depression & The Winter Solstice</a></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:8pt;"><em><a href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2018/12/14/saint-lucia-lilith-in-disguise/">https://www.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2018/12/14/saint-lucia-lilith-in-disguise/</a></em></span></p>
<p> </p></div>How to contact a soul long deadhttps://witches-moon.ning.com/forum/how-to-contact-a-soul-long-dead2019-06-08T22:21:53.000Z2019-06-08T22:21:53.000ZEmma Peachhttps://witches-moon.ning.com/members/InezUlrich<div><p>I'm not sure where I could ask this question here on the board, so I apologize of this isn' the correct place.</p><p>Since 2 years now I have the urge to contact a certain dead person, I feel such a longing and i miss that person, even though I never met the person. I can't give any further details, even if it sounds weird what I write. I have made contact in shamanic journeys and visualizations, or at least it seemed so, and it was the most wonderful feeling tot ake this person's hand, to be hugged, to feel the presence. Of course, that should be enough, but I'd like to make more, direct contact. Is that possible and how can learn that? Or am I on a wrong path here? It ist just such a deep longing, it almost hurts. And in connection with that I need to meet another peron still alive and I have no idea how to make this happen. We are in different countries and again that person doesn't know me. I had several dreams about all this and it nearly feels as urgent to meet that other person. I'm still looking for answers why this is kind of haunting me since two years, but maybe somebody could give me a hint on how and where to begin. Thank you.</p></div>