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Mercury Retro Rants

24 Sunday Mar 2019

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This current mercury retrograde has been quite an unstable ride, especially emotionally. Luckily, we are so close to being done with this transit. The next thing will most be much worse, but this is where we are in the present moment. Let’s work with it.

Personal Experiences

I am lucky in that I have not experienced the normal retrograde things. No computer problems, car problems, or anything like that. I only got a little dent in my car from a stick flying into the door.

Otherwise, all that stuff happened during the shadow period. I tried to work through that very slowly.

I personally began the period with a nice foggy brain, but I worked through it. I found out a lot of tricks in order to get this right. This may have more to do with Uranus ingressing into Taurus than the retrograde, but I am still pleased that what I am doing works.

I cried a lot, and I anticipate a continuation of this for a little time longer. This is fairly normal, but it’s more than usual at the moment. Part of me thinks that this behavior is weak and should be eliminated. The part of me that doesn’t give a shit, well, thinks this is totally okay because it is a part of being a human being.

I contemplated how I am not being fair to myself and allowing others to invalidate who I am or how I feel about them. You should too. Not everyone needs to stay in your life.

Now we move forward (almost).

Vague Words

On a lighter note, I feel like it is time to stop being so vague about everything. For example, the words that we use in order to convey the spiritual. I almost think that in order to be all-encompassing for everyone’s belief systems we may have lost our own in vague words.

I know that when I do readings online for Instagram, I am purposely vague. The goal is not to pinpoint one person’s day but to allow the person who reads the caption to apply it to what is vexing them the most.

We tend to convolute otherwise simple words. These words lose meaning from this oversimplification of these words to encompass a wide range of experiences.

Mainly, the word “journey” is annoying the fuck out of me. I don’t even know what it means anymore because it is all over the place. “Life’s journey” is zero percent better.

I am going totally blame the retrograde for being annoyed. And usually, if you are annoyed, it is you not the other people saying it. It probably makes total sense to everyone else on earth but me for all I know.

Most likely it is Uranus that is causing the annoyance because there is a lack of planning of movement in any direction.

To me, the word “journey” in the spiritual sense implies that there is some sort of order involved. I have yet to see anything in my life making any sort of sense.

Do people really have to go through a bunch of bullshit or any kind of hard life to learn lessons for the universe? 

I don’t think so. I think we can do better. This kind of thinking makes it seem that it is okay for people to just shit on each other.

Do you go out into the jungle without a map or a compass? Maybe even some sort of survival supplies? Why are we just being thrust into the “spiritual wilderness” with such a vague map?

You probably are running down your spiritual path thinking you have the tools. Maybe Spinning Globeyou do, but I feel like if this was the case, there would be less human misery. Or worse, human hatred by humans. I have always felt that even though no one gives two shits about what I have to say, I can change the world by small actions.

I am seeing a death of this kind of New Age Vague Speak with the younger people getting involved in more specific traditions or making their own traditions while also keeping it more modern. There is hope yet!

I, however, have switched gears on my journey so many times, and will most likely continue to do so in my life. And I plan on continuing to look into all the little dumb things that annoy me to examine why these things are so irksome.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a smooth journey through throughout the rest of the retrograde.

Magical Projectile Dysfunction

22 Monday Jan 2018

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Rituals Gone Wild

Ritual bath. Check. Anointed forehead with the appropriate oil. Check. Robe on and candles everywhere. Check. There you are dressed, and ready embark on a magical endeavor. You start, but you never get that feeling in your core as you had before. You can’t seem to flow with the energy like you once did.

For me, this boils down to a few reasons.

Concentration and Confidence

Being able to focus is a critical skill that we should all cultivate. For instance, if you didn’t have a golden sword that was necessary for a specific type of ritual, you need be able to get over this fact enough to concentrate on the task at hand; change your world to conform with your will.

Concentration is a big issue at this time. Most people are buried so deep in the news or some other outside world tragedy (friend drama, etc.) that it makes it harder to focus. Meditation can help this, and yet seems too hard to accomplish. Luckily, there are a ton of tools out there that you can use to drop out for a few minutes.

Some meditation apps are headspace, Insight Timer, or you can find some on YouTube.

In the book Memory: How to Develop, Train and Use It by William Walker Atkinson, he stresses that to cultivate your memory, you must focus on a task that you do not particularly enjoy. He states that affirmations such as “I am focusing my will on this task” help to keep you glued to the most mundane tasks. He recommends memorizing poems, but correspondence tables work just as well.

With the development of your memory comes an increased ability to pay attention to tedious tasks. Try to memorize a few keywords for the tarot; tackle numerology head-on; or remember your rituals. Not only will this improve your memory, but you will find that it works well to be able to concentrate in general.

A lot of the time, we are asked to get all these objects for magical operations that may not be obtainable or are illegal. That stuff is super great to have for sure, but for me, it has always been about the mindset I have at the time. If I feel like I am powerful, and this will work for me, then it does. Confidence is the key to make these rituals manifest.

One thing you’ll notice is the ego size of many successful magicians. It can be on the annoying side, but if you were consistently successful, your ego would balloon to an almost explosive level.

We are taught to be humble but screw that. Be proud of yourself if you are good at something. The difference is when you start talking like you’re the only one that is the best doing what you do. Maybe you are, but you will alienate people that may help you in the long run.

The point is, be confident, but don’t be a piece of shit at the same time. It isn’t the size of your ego that makes you a magician, but the way you use it.

Belief in Magic

Belief is when taking meticulous notes is critical. If you write down what you were working towards, you can track your progress. Magic often comes to fruition in really unusual ways. Make sure that you don’t poo-poo away the results.

Acknowledge the magic when it manifests. For magic to continue to work, you must admit it when it works. You cannot say that it was a coincidence or some other sort of dismissive word taught to us to squash the belief in magic. If you want your rituals to work, you can’t act like it was just “luck” or “coincidence.”

Materialism teaches that the “real” world is what we can touch and rationalize, but this doesn’t work with magic. There’s the saying that “Seeing is believing,” but for magic, it is more like “Believing is seeing.” You have to believe it works before it will be profoundly in your face that you cannot deny the existence of such an abstract mind-bending concept.

My belief stems from a bunch of childhood experiences with spirits. The majority happened when we moved into the woods. The forest is their territory, and I suppose they wanted to know what kind of creature just arrived. A lot of bright lights at 3 am, sparkly orbs, and what other people call shadow people gave me a firm belief in otherworldly beings.

I had experiences with a spirit board predicting things happening that would not be known for many years after. I learned to discern what is spirit and what is just some sort of fluke. If you read any folktale, you quickly learn that spirits are on their side. Sound judgment is necessary when speaking with these creatures, and works with people too.

Being too Emotional

Over-attachment is another of those things that one must tackle to be successful. You want to be able to care enough about the result of the working, but you also don’t want to obsess over it.

Holding onto anything for too long can render you unable to rise to the occasion to perform the deed pleasingly. It is a form of magical constipation. You need to let that shit go.

If you raise all this energy & let it go, and then think about the thing you asked for always, you are not allowing it to do its job. The over-thinking, especially negativity, will turn the energy into a yo-yo and eventually fizzles out altogether.

Journal about it in your magic diary for future reference, then go about your day.

 

Set it and forget it ~ Ron Popeil

 

No one truly knows why magic works, but it does if you believe in it by bringing forward opportunities to correspond to your ritual. It does anyway, but it tends to be more potent with belief.

Do not give up on your work. Giving up will only make it worse. Practice makes functionally powerful changes in your life and confidence in your magic.

Self Care: Anxiety and Depression

08 Monday Jan 2018

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It is an entirely natural thing to feel down as a human being. We may feel this way due to societal pressures to be “perfect,” our plans have failed, or life just below chunks of shit in our face.

Now, I suppose a disclaimer is in order before I proceed further. This blog post is not to forego professional help from experts, but to highlight my experience as a person who struggles with depression and a dissociative disorder. I highly recommend a good therapist if you are having a severely lousy time or even medication to get you out of the downward spiral. I have done these actions to make sure I survive these dark times.

The following will be a collection of natural ways I use to maintain my good mood and to help drag my ass out of a mood hole if needed.

Medications

I am not a fan of taking any modern medications for most anything. However, sometimes it’s necessary. If you are suicidal, an herbal remedy isn’t going to work fast enough to help. I also think that some people need to take these medications, and there is nothing wrong with this need. If you need it and it helps you, then do it.

The reason I don’t like it is that people tend to want to make us into meat robots. Personally, I think that being sad or mad or any other negative feeling is a bad thing. It is not wrong but just a natural response to stress. It just is more extreme in other people.

I am very into prevention of these bad phases that pop up. If I have to take medication, it is a bad time, but I realize that I am lucky enough to be able to stop them when I feel like I can handle myself properly again.

For me, the medications make me feel like I lose a part of myself, but it gives an “I don’t give a shit” platform to work through overwhelming issues. If overly worried or depressed about not being able to change the things about life that are undesirable it is hard to see reality. So, medication can help this fight tremendously.

Wow! That sounds perfect! Sure! In the short-term it indeed does, but to me, there is a downside. At least for me. The meds tend to conform you to “norms” and make you into the perfect meat-bot. I hate it after a few months, so I eventually I found natural options. However, please do what works for you!

Counseling

Medication is very useful in working through your problems paired with counseling. Counseling helps you create coping methods when times are hard. Plus, there is nothing like getting shit off your chest. These people are like modern day priests. You go in and confess your “sins,” and they cannot tell people you love. Instead, they give you something to work on until the next session.

These people must be saints in there own way. If you think about the exchange of energy that goes on, you sit and tell them negative things that no one wants to hear, and they take money for it. This way no one can complain about you being a downer.

I have found a few great counselors. This person encouraged using the Tarot and mindfulness in order to help cope with my issues. With these coping mechanisms, I was able to notice that I have a cycle of feeling like garbage. Because I now know about the cycle, I can do something at those particular times to hopefully prevent anything from becoming blown out of proportion.

Hypnosis & Meditation

These two may be very similar, but there are some major differences. In hypnosis, you are a willing participant in the exercise, but in meditation, it is more about relaxing the mind so you are not worrying so much.

Hypnosis

I have been to a ton of sessions in various hypnosis protocols, and I am secretly trained in these techniques. I say secretly because I do not have a practice. I do believe beyond a doubt that these exercises can help ease both depression and anxiety if the individual wishes to get rid of these issues.

In order to really work, the person needs to want to change the issue. If they do not these exercises will not work. There can be a secondary need an individual has that they do not wish to get rid of such as the person gets attention because of this condition.

Hypnosis is a relaxation exercise with an end goal in mind. This can be smoking cessation, weight loss, relieving anxiety, etc. You go into a deeply relaxed state, but do not think that you are not in charge! You are and you can wake yourself from this state. So, you are still in charge of you! This might be a big deal for those who like to stay slightly conscious of their actions.

Hypnosis and stage hypnosis are very different things. So, do not expect to be made to bark like a chicken or something similar. People have different tolerances when it comes to hypnosis to hypnotic inductions, so not everyone will be as easy to put into this state like others. Stage hypnotists can pick out who will be easiest to induce into a “trance.”

Meditation

Specifically, mindfulness meditation can help you relax when you’re overly worried, or your brain is racing. At the same time, you are re-framing what you chose to focus on while your body is in a more reactive state. When you feel overly anxious, it seems to help calm your heart rate and control your breathing.

There are a ton of guided meditation apps that you can download to your phone, and there are YouTube videos as well. You don’t need to do it for an hour unless you want to, but I know that I am not great at doing anything like that. I wish I could, and ideally, I would.

Supplements

Herbs

I use plant allies daily to help me maintain my composure on a daily basis. Every morning, I consume a few types of herbals on a regular basis. Tulsi, Peppermint, and Ashwagandha are my main allies. These are what is known as adaptogens in herbalism.

Adaptogens are herbs that are useful in helping the body adapt to stressful situations. When it comes to herbals, there are several rules that you must follow. You must make sure that the product you are ingestion has the actual herb, not just filler, and all of these are from a reputable source.

I tend to think of herbs as a preventative measure. Some herbs cannot be taken in the long term. Eucalyptus is a good example because the plant can act as a neurotoxin when used in the long-term.

With all herbs, you should start out with the lowest dose possible to make sure you do not react adversely to them. Treat herbs as if they were medicine. They can interact with conventional medications. Balance is the key, and you don’t want to make your symptoms worse or get sick.

In addition to these herbs, I take a tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar every day. Taking this helps boost my energy and helps with lower blood pressure. I notice a huge difference if I don’t drink it for a few days, but mostly to do with acne. ACV will help prevent breakouts.

For the love of all gods, please water it down before drinking it. It tastes pretty rank alone at first, but eventually, you end up liking it. I recommend getting Bragg’s apple cider vinegar. Its flavor is the best in my opinion, but either way, you want one that is organic and with the “mother.” You can also make a batch if you’re handy.

Vitamins and Minerals

Vitamin D is helpful for your mood as well. Since we have moved more to indoor jobs, a lot of us do not get enough sun. Seasonal Affective Disorder often happens when the sun is at it’s weakest, and we don’t want to do anything other than lay under a blanket.

A physician performs a blood test to see if there is a deficiency. Preferably if you do need more Vitamin D in your life, you will go outside more or eat more leafy greens. However, if you’re like me, you just take a supplement in the form of a gummy.

Magnesium is also essential to our health as well. While it doesn’t seem like a deficiency in this mineral would effect anxiety on any level, it does help. Mostly, I just use a little every day in my deodorant, because it’s best when absorbed through the skin.

Diet and Exercise

Diet

Now, the bane of my existence, the sweet stuff. Sugar is the enemy of a good day from what I have found. I had a horrible addiction to candy after I quit smoking. So, not only was I eating sugar all the time, but most foods in the United States also contain sugar. So, while you cannot escape it entirely, it is possible to cut it out.

I started noticing a pattern. When I ate candy, I hated my life, and sometimes I would lash out at people. It was great, but not really. While I still eat sugar on occasion. I’ve noticed that I don’t react as extreme as before. I have done a ton of research on this, and it’s one of the worse things for your body.

Exercise

Exercise is beneficial. Moving around and working with your body gets the blood flowing. The blood flows more efficiently throughout the body and also the brain. It is also more important to stay active, and not just exercise.

So, if you have a sit-down job, experts are saying that this can be just as deadly as eating lard each meal. Thus, it is super important for you to stretch and move around throughout the day.

Ideally, you should not be hurting yourself and be in constant pain. That’s bullshit. Do what you can do, and make sure it’s fun for you. Be active within your abilities. Garden, walk around the mall or swim. Do something you love, so you will always want to do it.

Depression and anxiety can feel like a person is fighting a dragon, and your job should you chose is to be your knight in shiny armor. You just need the shield and the sword to fight it off. Some battles are going to go better than others. That’s okay. It’s not a race, but a journey.