Quick Update
Just to keep up to date.
I turned 30 Saturday.
I received Reiki Attunements Level I&II
For my birthday I received a copy of “The Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Mythology” edited by Paul Acker and Carolyne Larrington.
I also bought a wonderful cast iron kettle and pot for herb work. Will be getting that back underway.
I am still alive, moving forward toward my health and fitness goal, emotional wellbeing, and generally becoming the human I would like to be.
That is all!
Guitar Hero
I read this story about a real life guitar hero in the NY Times, just tonight and was impressed. Of course his guitar playing is awesome, but more importantly, I think that his approach to his work is worthy of emulation.
“I am always thinking that I’m not that good player and must improve more than now.”
Blending skill and speed, and the stately ‘Canon in D Major’ with raw technical skill, Funtwo is not overly concerned with glory, but rather with continuing to improve. He never reveals his face in this now famous video (approaching 8 million views on the original video), preferring to hide behind a hat. When Virginia Heffernan, of the New York Times, asked him why, his response was:
“Main purpose of my recording is to hear the other’s suggestions about my playing.”
The barred Other drives us ever onward and upward.
Dream
I was at a convention. The theme of the convention was not clear, but that seemed to be intentional. Some people were talking about roleplaying, while others were talking about magic in various forms, and still others were discussing ancient texts and literature. The lack of a theme didn’t seem to bother anyone, but rather created more opportunities for social interaction. The convention went by like a blur, but as they were packing up, I thought to myself that it was a good convention. Many ideas had been traded, and people were leaving talking about magic in ancient literature, and dramatic rituals based on ancient texts. So many seeds had been planted. RSM was walking with me, observing the crowd, and said, “Yes, it’s been a very good year.”
Lil doing homework
This is the scene at our house now that the kids are back in school. D and Boo bring home the work, Lil sits on it and does her best to help out. Of course I sit and laugh while drawing pictures instead of helping them get it back. I love being a mother.
Generally speaking, I am taking a bit of a break from LJ and most other things online. I am of course available via email, and will pop in here randmomly from time to time.
Bye…
There are times when inspiration flows easily, and other times when it doesn’t. Beyond that, there are problems that are easily solved, and those that you revisit year after year, hoping to see some sort of progress. This problem, for me, was one of the the latter kind. What was the problem? Well, hashing out the question is as important as finding the answer. First, I started with the phenomenon of Eschatology. There are lists of terms to describe how various Christians align themselves with the idea of a rapture and tribulation, a couple more (lists) to describe how different sects of Jewish people see the Geulah (admittedly more positive in result, but many still requiring battles and whatnot – an end), and more recently entire new ones for Muslims and their ideas about The End. I’m sure there are even more from other religions and creeds as well as those that revolve around the negation of another system. My original question was why is this so important to people? I’ve watched and listened to people opine intelligently on various subjects, and then when I thought myself safe, a gleam would appear in their eye and then soon we’d be talking about convergences and mass extinctions. These beliefs, although bearing little weight on morality, are held with especially high value. Challenging these beliefs creates a great amount of turbulence in a relationship, even when all other beliefs are similar. Why do these beliefs rank so high in people’s schemas when they have so little relevance on day to day life?
It’s about the context. A life consists of so many things, mostly trivial, very few possessing some importance. The common thread between all types of Apocalypse is that these trivialities will become irrelevant. They will no longer matter or be demanded of one. Laws and restrictions will be unnecessary. Throughout the earth, freedom will ring. Something within us cries out for this. However, we are still slaves of Causality. Those who feel the strongest about being free are the ones who invent paths by which a given religious scenario could happen, a conspiracy theory by which a secret force is moving events into an irrevocable global wildfire of change that cannot be stopped, or a given group is maintaining the status quo, and without them the world would somehow right itself, like a self-arranging puzzle.
The ways in which the individual feels the change, that they fear or hope to occur externally, will come about, is a reflection of their own internal processes. I believe that the human mind has a great deal of prescience regarding it’s potential development, and because of this, anticipates it’s own growth into new states. However, as different states operate in different memory spaces, any foreknowledge of future conditions can not be perceived as deriving its existence from the individual, because it has not existed and thereby created its own memory space. So by reflecting this change into an external variable, the details can be revealed to the individual. I believe that there is only a key impression given, and that the logic surrounding it’s manifestation is constructed by the mind, in order to give it legitimacy.
If the focus remains on the external events, then the “prophecy” (most often) fails, and the growth process can be initiated by the self-doubt that this failure may incur. Once we have experienced the moment in which the key impression is realized, it no longer retains the importance of the original prophecy, and so the individual walks away from the experience doubting that anything has been accomplished. The next time that a similar process occurs, the individual will be less and less likely to believe strongly in it. This cycle of diminishing returns, I believe, is largely the reason for wide-spread dissatisfaction with organized religion, despite the fact that religion only provides the symbolism for this psychodrama.
It is an unfortunate cycle, and there is no silver bullet that can solve this issue. However, it does reveal some very important things. The object of desire is the place beyond the normative state. The demands and laws of life, as we know them, are the prison we ultimately seek to escape, and to do so, we must break down the internal narrative. It is not the world that must end, but the self that must stop. This experience is necessarily different for every person, and so in that sense perhaps useless to talk about. However, in that same sense, I am only talking to myself anyway.
Once that occurs, the rules do change, and the trivialities of life are no longer trivial. The world is transformed and the puzzle begins to solve itself.
[*Yes, I know. Poetic license, okay?]
The Sony UX180P
Unfortunately, no one can be told what The UX180P is. You have to see it for yourself. 
If you’re interested…
EverburningLight.org has been translating Kabbalistic texts into English that have never been translated before. If you don’t mind the premium you pay for a Lulu print book, they’re offering material from Chaim Vital and Abraham Abulafia that’s not available anywhere else. I would note that this translation of Sha’arei Kedusha does not include the Fourth Section, excerpts of which can be found in Aryeh Kaplan’s Meditation and Kabbalah, pgs. 194-198.
Currently, I’m also reading Magickal Judaism by Jennifer Hunter. I might post a review when I’m finished.
Help us make space!
We’re selling a laptop through our local eBay power-seller. Go check it out if you’re in the market for one. 
The Tools of Alchemy
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| Any guesses as to what this person will be making?
Stay Tuned! |
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Reading material
This article reminded me a bit of Parasite Eve. Extremely useful idea #1143214: Always know what you’re eating, as well as what’s eating you. (Tip of the hat to He Who Shall Not Be Named – No, not that one, the other one).
And this is just freakin’ weird. I think they should call it Mole-thulu, but that’s just me.
Lastly, if you’re an evil genius who’s also concerned about the environment, what can you do? Get corporations to clean up their acts? Hah! Professor Paul Cruzten advises that you release sulphur into the atmosphere. Presumably after you demand billions and billions of dollars. Or something like that.
