>>1288
Not an exhaustive list, but what I have:
-"Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many" by Erik Hornung
-"The Search for God in Ancient Egypt" by Jan Assmann (this and "Conceptions" might be good together, because Assmann disagrees with Hornung, not completely, but basically that Hornung takes (I'm paraphrasing it, maybe badly) the "hard polytheistic" approach too far, but that Hornung's book is a very good refutation of the old notion that Egyptian religion was a monotheism. Unfortunately, I lost my copy not long after starting to read it. :(
-"The Mind of Egypt" by Jan Assmann. Basically an attempt to write out about how the Egyptians viewed history, their relationship to the divine, etc.
-"Ancient Egyptian Magic" by Geraldine Pinch
-"Egyptian Mythology" by Geraldine Pinch
-"Ancient Egyptian Literature: Old and Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom" by Miriam Lichtheim. A good collection of various ancient writings. Instruction texts, monumental inscriptions, myths, stories, etc. There is also another book in this series for the...
LuinbarielRegular - Saturday, September 18th, 2010 - 9:01 AM
Well, our wonderful SOUL reminder got me to thinking about the veil and what discussion we could have on it outside of the activities of the SOUL group in general.
What do you believe the veil is? Do you think it is something that was made a long time ago by the hand of man, or is it something that was always there and has been perhaps changed or otherwise modified since?
What do you think it's specific purpose is, if it even has one?
For me, I think it's a natural thing that was sort of accidental, but that's generally what I believe about all life/souls/whatever. I consider it a bit like a ball return at a bowling alley; balls go in (ha) and end up where they belong, but they do not come back up the wrong way. I guess that's a horrible analogy but it has the right kind of "setting things back where they belong after they serve their function in an orderly, simple fashion" idea that I attribute to the veil.
I suppose it could be augmented or amplified if one knew how and were willing, and the same goes for damage to it. After all, occasionally souls DO end up where they don't belong. I'm not sure if...
I've not really committed to believing or disbelieving in the Veil, though I haven't seen much to suggest that it exists as anything outside speculation or metaphor. It's not helped by the fact that there are so many different definitions of it -- the wall seperating the living from the dead, the mundane world from the magickal world/world of gods, our world from the astral plane, etc etc.
It seems to me that many of the "definitions" of the Veil come from people stretching the metaphors we use to describe our world, using a kind of association fallacy: metaphors exist to quickly condense information and represent it in a way that is already familiar to us, not to be exact transcipts of how a particular process functions. For example, I've once seen the notion of "other worlds" compared to a shop in a mall, where the other shops are other worlds, so all you have to do is go into the mall itself (the astral) to access them; but when people start exaggerating that metaphor ("Reality is a mall, so there must be things analogous to shopping-bags, and security, and some doors make you push and some make you pull, and there are fountains, and air conditioning!) then it...
No. 277 - Luinbariel - September 19th, 2010 - 8:38 AM
Heh no worries Goet, I get you. I'm not even sure if I believe in the veil itself actually existing, but when I think about it, I think about it like that bowling alley. And if there's a fat man with a corndog he owes me ten bux.
I think I agree with what you've said, that perhaps people take things a little too far and run off with them. I think that is why I won't really commit to believing in it or not; I'm on the fence.
Anonymous - Thursday, September 16th, 2010 - 11:40 AM
hi /sorc/. I've been dabbling with tarot for about a year now, mostly using internet resources, and am looking for something more comprehensive. are there any books that you would recommend? I'm not particular about systems, but I have found some of the qabalistic/golden dawn literature to be a bit stuffy; I would prefer a more intuitive approach.
>>1327
I've had a good time with Liz Greene's Mythic Tarot. I don't care for the website though, it's quite different lately. Still, the explanations and information in this book were very nice, I liked them quite a bit.
Honestly, it depends on what you want to learn. Tarot is a huge system which ties with many others.
Most of the time, you will hear that you don't even need to read books at all. Some even go as far as saying that reading other's people books with taint your readings with their opinions, while what you want is to have a very unique view on the cards and their meanings.
I would say, read some numeral symbolism, some tree of life lore, etc. to make your own mind at first, THEN go read other people takes on the cards. Not to prove if what you build is solid or not. Not to see if your ideas are better than theirs. Or if you are right, if they are wrong, etc.
Simply... well, to put it simply... loot their best ideas, those that resonate with you, and implement them in your own system.
You will have far better results by readings cards which you made the meanings rather than with meanings that you try to memorize by heart as if it was some kind of subject for your next school exam.
Some people may not like that approach, saying that it's too "new age", wrong, etc. But to me, card reading has always...
Demons can be interesting, and names are nominative labels used primarily to identify discrete entities in a non-local or group setting. I'm afraid I can't be more general than that, although for a greater breadth and depth of information, you could always check out Wikipedia.
What kind of information are you actually looking for? How to summon them? What they are? What different cultures' opinions of them are? Whether they can be said to exist? If we have personal experiences of them? Some biblical examples of them? How accurate Supernatural and Charmed's depiction of them is?
So... A lot of books say about "charging up" during the act of masturbation/orgasm.
And I've got a question: Can I have like infront of ma a scrap of paper with the sigil drawn on it, so that I can "get it into my head" more succefully?
No. 13648 - Anonymous - September 13th, 2010 - 6:50 AM
>>1296
Being able to do such a thing at will would defeat the purpose of using sigils in the first places. Think of them as a shortcut to your... subconscious, or your astral self perhaps.
If you were able to just simply sit in front of it and imprint it into yourself, then no need for the shortcut.
I am prone to various bouts of anxiety and panic attack and, over the years, have taken to carrying tumbled stone with me to mitigate them. Whether or not you believe the stones/crystal help or if it's all a placebo effect, in any cases it is working and a whole lot cheaper them medication. And in a very "sympathetic" way, I usually loose those stones when I'm feeling better (aka, when they no longer serve a purpose).
These past few weeks have been rather bad, so I'm gathering some again. So far I have aventurine, malachite, onyx, snow obsidian, lapis lazuli and nebula rock (don't know it this one was ever "assigned" any function, but it is pretty).
Any suggestion for others linked to calm/concentration/focus/confidence?
No. 13645 - Anonymous - September 12th, 2010 - 9:22 AM
Go to http://www.psipog.net/ and research shielding techniques, or you could just keep doing it. Unless you are causing a visible affect in their moods/behaviors or you are able to witness them becoming visibly more tired or haggard you are most likely just feeding off surface energy that will dissapate and be lost anyways. If you are that strong I would suggest draining batteries using a volt meter on them before and after while video taping it and linking us to the vid for good measure.
No. 13636 - Anonymous - September 11th, 2010 - 10:17 AM
What are your personal guidelines, restrictions and morals when it comes to performing magick? Do you believe in the principle of "harm none", or "nothing is true; everything is permitted"? Do you believe in the sanctity of free will - or in free will in general? Do you believe it is morally permissable to make demands of a summoned entity (demon, god, or otherwise)? What magickal practices would you never perform, or only perform under dire circumstances? Would you kill someone using magick, if it were possible?
We'll be treading on the subjective and sensitive zone of "personal beliefs" here, so please note that since morality and ethics are largely philosophical and conjectural, a verbal punchout on the topic would not only be futile, but also laughable. While I'm sure everyone will have answers, I'm also sure that there's no-one around who's qualified to check if those answers are the /right/ answers, so try to keep righteous indignation, flaming and general douchebaggery to a minimum so that the thread ain't hijacked and ruined by folk typing in caps.
No. 91 - Luinbariel - September 7th, 2010 - 8:32 AM
I generally follow my own feelings and rules.
If I feel badly about something I won't do it. This is pretty tame since I'm usually a good little girl and I don't usually do much "bad" to others, but my own personal boundaries are very clear to me. I wouldn't harm others and I try not to stick my nose where it doesn't belong (aside from wishing others well and sending them what they might be able to use to help them through difficult times.
I will protect myself, however. If I feel as though I'm being attacked or something negative is influencing me directly, I'll try to stop it. This is usually not by going after it, but by removing myself from its sight in any way possible. This works well for me, better than attacking back, which I wouldn't do in person and therefore see no point in doing spiritually.
I don't really care when others take the opposite stance; this is just what makes me feel comfortable, how I need to operate in order to feel good about myself. It isn't a rule set that I picked up anywhere, although I'm sure there are some that fit. I don't really believe that more good comes to me from doing good. Hell, I...
No. 118 - deadman - September 10th, 2010 - 1:14 AM
Indeed. Setting morals aside; I tend to act "mimicking" the sole course of nature.
While i cannot account what drives the force that is behind natural events, i just interpret what i percieve, that being a chaotic yet harmonious nature. Chaos itself is the way i would deem as my "modus operandi" and while sometimes it seems unsettling that i get "punished" in some sort of way by forces which are as of yet not of my complete understanding, i don't take it as something delimitative, i accept that in life one takes and one gives, and thus things are taken from and given to one.
I have nothing yet i have everything.
That's the way i act with Magick. I can force a person and "take" their free will for an instant, yet, it seems that the natural course of things sooner or later "take" my free will in certain situations. If i could control this balance perpetual without repercution, i would gain the power of a god.
Yet, you know, this is just my way of seeing and doing things. Life might work in so many other ways. Everything is just a vibration, but then again, it...
What inspires you to do magick? When do you feel is the right 'time'? Do you have any regular practices (IE:ritual every full moon, solstices, once a week on a certain day, every day?) When doing magick outside of schedule, do you have any typical desires?
As for me, for about a year I did a ritual according to the Wiccan wheel of the year, then I fell out of practice. Sometimes if I feel like something big is coming up in my life (like moving away to college) I will do a ritual for mental stability and strength/openness. Other times it can just be a feeling that will come over me randomly that something in my mind needs to change.
So nowadays most of my magick is for psychological benefit.
I don't really follow any schedule anymore. For a short time I performed the LBRP every morning after waking and every night before bed, but I got lazy. I really think I would benefit from getting back into a daily (or at least weekly) schedule of magick, but the motivation isn't really there yet.
I'm open to answering any questions you might have for me, but I want to hear your perspectives as well.
I wouldn't go as far as saying that doing magick on a schedule is necessarily a bad thing - after all, getting into a routine can help you get into a state of mind conducive to magick regularly and predictably, and it also means you're actually /doing magick/ rather than being an Armchair Magician and sitting around theorising. Spontaneity can be good too, though, for those moments of sudden inspiration where you really want to do something magick-related, but there's certainly no reason as to why you should only pick one or the other - if you like structure and scheduling rituals helps you meet your goals, then go for it. If you're more freeform and find that you accomplish more when you're not bound to a routine, then stay spontaneous. If both of them appeal to you, do both.
Personally, I like routine to a certain extent, but the fact is that there's very few things that I'd really want do on a regular basis, magick-wise, aside from something like doing the LBRP every day, or meditating at a particular hour every day - it becomes more troublesome since my magical practises tend to be me doing a ritual to fulfill a certain want or need, since those have a tendency...
I suppose I am the epitome of armchair magician then Goet... I suppose you are right, I should get into more of a habit when it comes to meditation, and attempting to attain Gnosis more readily.
Now to go about doing such a thing, when you are living with people who do not know that you are learning, or attempting to meditate is the real feat of magic!
So i think i MAY have just astral projected but i'm not sure if i did, a few days ago my friend had told me that simply going to sleep and leaving the body during a certain point i could astral project well i tried keeping it in mind the first night but it failed, the day after i came home from classes and i just took a nap completely not thinking about it, suddenly i feel incredibly numb then tingly, i start hearing a repetetive sound like the one's doorstoppers make, then i start to see my room vividly through closed eyes and finally i start to ascend from my body, all this was happening too fast and i was scared beyond belief so i forced myself awake in my body, that time, i had almost astral projected im sure, the second time however my experiences differ from many people so i'm convinced i just had a very realistic dream, the process of being dragged out of my body happened again and i climbed out of my body. I was in my room but i didn't take note of anything unusual, (i didn't even thing to look at my body on the bed which i would have done if i was fully conscious)i proceeded to run down my street, for a block everything seemed the same except it...
