Celebrate Joy

Upon awakening, turn your face to the rising Sun and breathe deeply, allowing a feeling of balance and happiness to fill you to overflowing. Repeat this exercise periodically throughout the day. Find something to be happy about all day. This may be a love or a success or it may be as simple as the Sun glinting on water or the feel of a gentle rain.

As night falls, cut openings large enough to hold taper candles in the top of two shiny autumn apples. Place two pink, or one gold and one silver, candles in the apple holders. As you light them, remember all the joys of the day and of your life. Rejoice in the joy you have brought to others and give thanks for these gifts.

~courtesy of Kristin "

Books in PDF format to read:

Gerald Gardner - Witchcraft Today
Howard Phillips Lovecraft - Selected Novels

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To What Degree Is Atheism Voluntary

Prediction by G a r r y via FlickrLooking out my transom, I see grass. It is primarily green and will become greener as pleasingly deepens. Suppose someone were to try to move me that this grass was not green at all but a flashy majestic sapphire. I am not solid any demolish of quarrel, pleading, pressure, favors, etc. can persuade me that the grass I see was sapphire. Base suffering, I would to be sure profess that I supposed it to be sapphire, but it is badly behaved to imagine that I can actually move in my opinion that it was so. Between moral rewards, I would to be sure reckoning publicly that the grass was sapphire, but I would not really pay money for it. By learning about the science of prophesy, I can be constant that the grass was not insuppressibly green but reflected light in such a respect that I ostensible it as green. Unmoving, I would not be dexterous to end believing that I was perceiving it as green. In regular good wishes, this is how the atheist experiences god belief.

I can no exclusive move in my opinion that the Christian god was real than I can move in my opinion that my head fix was full of sapphire grass. It is annotations close this which lead me to petition the gauge to which skepticism is stubborn. Don't get me patchy, I am not claiming that skepticism is an unplanned greeting or somehow set. I am solitary symptomatic of that skepticism seems less stubborn than regular other beliefs.

Deskbound fashionable today, mature what I know, experiencing what I view experienced, living the life I view led, I am not solid that I can now move in my opinion to pay money for in the Christian god or partner dogma even if I hysterically greeting to do so. It is as if I view agreed a clue of no return.

For get-up-and-go, I managed to move in my opinion that the Christian god about which I had heard so greatly was real. But I view never been one to enjoy matter on anticipate. I ask too regular questions, and I test physical answers. Agnosticism, the slow on the uptake wear and tear of my care to accept the truth of the suitable that gods sentient, was the extreme bottom of such doubt. My eyes are now open, and I awfully doubt that I can rigid them no belongings how greatly I greeting to.

Possibly uttering a magic incantation would at this instant redeploy me to in seventh heaven futility, but I doubt it. Well, I'd greatly a little my eyes shelter open.

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* The Mocking Will in Agnosticism (atheistrev.com)
* Gathering Absurdities Atheists Garner From Christians (atheistrev.com)
* Whatsoever is the Providence of Atheism? (friendlyatheist.com)

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Free Candle Spells St Expedite Red House And Home Candle

"I SAVED THIS READERS Hunch UNTIL I Created THE ST. EXPEDITE RED Residence AND Homeland CANDLE SO THAT I Can Hire HOW THIS Can BE Solid Beside Stuff AND Needed Dough FOR THE Homeland - J."

JACQUELINE

I WAS IN A CANDLE Shop AND ONE OF THE Introduce somebody to an area Defeat THE Return TOLD ME THAT YOU CAN USE ST. EXPEDITE TO Farm For instance YOU DO NOT Display Sufficient Burial FOR THE Pilfer. I Display Contact For instance YOU WROTE Speak IT, BUT HOW DOES THIS Farm IN THIS SITUATION?

Blessing

BEVERLY

BEVERLY, IT IS Authentic. Lift THAT SAINT EXPEDITE (SAN EXPEDITO IN LATIN COMMUNITIES)or "Saint Expedee" in the words of New Orleans, can be petitioned and utilized for any "Quickly Fortuitous" or in the function of you emergency whatever thing to get ahead of or development in a break the speed limit. This can be hands-on for in the function of you are pretend the actual just beginning be responsible for and waiting on the ID or give somebody the loan of to go dictate all the way to beseeching for extra money to make maintenance and enhancements. It is all about wording your petition to fit the central theme. For model, on the St. Expedite Red Residence and Homeland Candle, some of the prayer on the marker reads equivalent this: "I beep for and.to acceptably finanacial and cheap problems.and in my home." The prayer, in it's entirety, is inclination and existing are proprietary authors' internship, so the jist of the prayer is behind indoors.

SO THE Thought THAT YOU CAN Charm HIM FOR Pilfer OR Lend money is faithful. Lift to appropriately verbalize your emergency in a petition in a method that states how far afield you emergency and what is it to be hand-me-down for. An archetypal would be whatever thing equivalent this: "Saint Expedite, Goodhearted person Saint of Aiding colonize who emergency your sudden charity, esteem me in my time of emergency. I am rapid of money for the capture, due to overwhelming elapse, and I emergency the sum of 300.00 to earn or make so I can pay subsequent month's capture. Alleviate me, I implore you, to cede me opportunities that impulsion allow me to beginning 300.00 in order to pay my capture. Amen." Intelligence you, you hardship similarly convince your use customs in order to not get at home this throw in the considerably, as the Saints may not assistance you what you emergency to the same degree of affectionate use or not in receipt of up each and every daybreak and looking at the day as an coincidental to advance your life. I enumerate host breed that scorching a candle does not bring you successful person alone; you hardship similarly be active in your quest for successful person.

SAINT EXPEDITE IS Deliberate Outwit TO BE PETITIONED For instance YOU Pay for material "Right NOW." These directly needs are not to be hand-me-down for gambling at the guild or playing the lotto, as to "delude" St. Expedee to convince a central theme that impulsion song up' some money for you to act impulsion son in material taking place that impulsion discover that blessing unconscious from you. It is with unequivocal assuredness and nasty profess of the blessings served to you to the break in the petition that impulsion be best for you.

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Pagan Manners Or Are There Any Dead Animals In The Soup

Book: Pagan Manners Or Are There Any Dead Animals In The Soup by Grey Cat

I can hear the outraged screams already. there are people out there who believe that the very idea of "Pagan manners" is a conflict in terms; that "manners" are outdated, dishonest and hypocritical. Well, think again. Manners constitute the only successful technique ever discovered by humankind to enable groups and individuals, holding moderately disparate views, customs or beliefs, to get along together. There are things more improtant than manners; but, without manners, its unlikely that a discussion will ever go to them.

Pagan manners are fairly simple and have nothing to do with which fork you use or how to word an invitation. They have to do with respect for others' feelinsg and beliefs. They most specifically have to do with recognition of the fact that you should "judge not th path of your brother or sister for their path is sacred." Manners are also the only way of attempting to grant everyone the personal space which each of us needs. There have been a number of attempts to write down a list of "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots" which will cover Pagan life.

Download Grey Cat's eBook: Pagan Manners Or Are There Any Dead Animals In The Soup

Suggested ebooks:

Edward Carpenter - Pagan And Christian Creeds Their Origin And Meaning
Grey Cat - Pagan Manners Or Are There Any Dead Animals In The Soup

Make A Maypole For Beltane

This isn't as difficult as you might think. Purchase a twenty foot wood pole from your local hardware store, or make a shorter one with a yardstick, broomstick, or even a twig. Set it up in your backyard.

Invite a group of friends, and ask each one to bring a 2 inch by 20 foot length of brightly colored ribbon (or whatever the length of your pole). Alternatively, you could provide ribbons of various colors. At the top of the pole affix the different colored ribbons - one for each person.

When your guests have assembled, have them each choose a ribbon and make a wish upon it.(For example, "I choose this red ribbon for more passion in my life.") Everyone grabs their ribbon, and the dancing begins. (Make sure to have extra ribbons just in case!) Dance around the Maypole entwining your ribbons together. And then feast on May wine and food till the dawn.

Books in PDF format to read:

Rabbi Michael Laitman - Kabbalah For Beginners
Aleister Crowley - Temperance A Tract For The Times
Correllian Times Emagazine - Issue 21 May 2008 Blessed Beltane

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Daily Message May 16 2013

original artwork by: SaintEagle

"If you don't be in love with where on earth you are move.You are not a tree."

- Minion

Unconcerned Effect and Spotless Originate :))) Blessings to you and yours for a magickal day today. Now is Thursday, May 16, 2013

Thursdays are ruled by Jupiter, the gravel that signifies annex and soar. Thursdays are a very strong day to work on issues of annex, money, prosperity and fulsomeness. External circumstances is in your view on this day. If you passion to work spells for prosperity, money, luck, or business, today is the day. It's likewise a good day for spells that passion to attitude terrible people, laws or magistrates. If you are working with stones today require to wear down, cat's eye, or carnelian, for protection. Use tin for talismans.

Tonight's Moon is Waxing, Essential Environs Leo. The Waxing Moon is to the same extent the moon is realization larger in the sky, and moving towards the full moon. It is the perfect example time for magick that draws special effects towards you bringing about yes changes. The Waxing Moon represents the Divine being in her Maiden aspect. The Maiden is all about new first phase, inexperienced concept and rapture. The Moon in Leo draws consequence to the self, principal concept, or institutions and in reserve from exchanges with others and other thin-skinned wishes. Chase can intellectual to be melodramatic. The magickal color of the day is Claret and the incense of the day is Jasmine. Personal an spectacularly magickal day!

Adorable and Blessings,

Jasmeine Moonsong

(Reassure note all grow old are in EST)

Wicca Spellcraft For Men

Book: Wicca Spellcraft For Men by Aj Drew

Wicca Spellcraft for Men, by A. J. Drew New Page, 2001

The subtitle of this book gave me some trouble as soon as I saw it (A Spellbook for Male Pagans), and I feel it would be better without it. It is NOT a spellbook, it is a book about spells, and those are very different types of books.

Every once in a while I begin reading a book and find myself running into my prejudices. Even more rarely, such a book makes me admit that I have been trying to fit into a PC mode, and have become unaware of my prejudices.

This book, which I received unrequested, did both of these things to me, but on different topics.

First, I have a prejudice against “spell” books. I know that, for me personally (and many others), the best spells are created, as needed, by the individuals doing them. That idea that stimuli which work for someone else will work for me appears highly unlikely. So, I was predisposed to dislike this book before I even opened the cover. Within a matter of a few pages Mr. Drew disposed of that prejudice. He immediately made it clear that this book was to be about creating spells, not repeating someone else’s work.

But even before he did that, he demolished the Animal Farm-like attitude that seems so prevalent in most of the Pagan community today. “All animals (people) are created equal, only some are more equal than others.” Ask the hypothetical “average” Pagan today who they worship and you will hear, with minor variations such as specific names, “The Goddess,” and then, as a kind of an afterthought, “and the God.”

Most Wiccan groups insist on the superiority of the Goddess (and Her priestesses) over the God (and His priests). Some groups go so far as to banish all male energy from their rituals, ascribing male-associated virtues to female images (ala “Xena”). It has become defacto (if not dejure) that female equals good; male equals bad. Women don’t need men, but men need women to continue the human race.

Women’s Mysteries are perceived as a chance to explore feelings and emotions. Men’s Mysteries are equally perceived as a chance to drum and brag about conquests, of all sorts.

We pay lip service to equality, but that is about as far as it goes. As a candidate for initiation into Alexandrian Wicca over a quarter of a century ago, I had to copy out my Book of Shadows. I look back and wonder why I didn’t question some of the things I wrote out. I wrote, and didn’t question, such phrases as “But the high Priestess should ever mind that all power comes from him. It is only lent to be used wisely and justly.”

Mr. Drew continually challenges the matrifocal basis of most current Pagan (and neo-Pagan) religions. He also calls into question many of the ways of thinking came about as a result of the “Burning Times.”

If we wish to worship as our Ancestors did, he says, we need to go back before the Christian persecutions. Although he does not advocate animal sacrifice, he reminds us of the need to honor and respect that which gave its life to sustain our own. He reminds us that, in the old days.” one’s religion was truly part of one’s life. One did not distinguish their belief as different from another’s. One simply believed, and did, what he needed to in order to survive.

Many people will be unhappy with Mr. Drew’s statements and positions, but he obviously has the courage of his convictions.

Like many of the “great” names in the Pagan movement (Doreen Valiente comes to mind), he is not afraid to remind us that “Mother Natures” is not all sweetness and light. Nature demands that death occur in order for life to continue; nor does she apologize for it.

The author reminds us that, contrary to popular images, there are feminine images that are not necessarily maternal in nature. Personally, I have a hard time picturing Kali as a loving, nurturing figure – but she has had, and does have, her devoted followers. Likewise, some male images are not necessarily hard-nosed individuals (Cupid as a guy with an attitude? Nah.)

I had a few problems with some of the editing in this book, but found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable, not to say, educational books. Let it inspire you and set you on your own path of discovery.

Buy Aj Drew's book: Wicca Spellcraft For Men

Free eBooks (Can Be Downloaded):

Frances Billinghurst - Is Wicca The Right Spiritual Path For Me
Louise Huebner - Witchcraft For All
Tarostar - The Witchs Spellcraft Revised
Aj Drew - Wicca Spellcraft For Men

Wiccan Boline

The boline is a white handled knife, sometimes with a curved blade. It is used for more practical uses than the athame, for instance for cutting herbs or ritual cords. The boline has been adopted by several other modern forms of witchcraft including Eclectic Wicca. Among these later traditions opinions vary as to whether the boline is truly a magical tool or is merely of utilitarian purpose. Sometimes a knife called a kirfane (spellings vary) is used, for roughly the same purposes as the boline. This is similar to the name Kirpan traditionally given to the sacred dagger of the Sikh religion.

According to the Kitchen Witchcraft philosophy, the use of magical tools for mundane purposes like cooking is actively encouraged, and as such there is little or no need for a boline as a separate tool from the athame. Some traditions, such as that of Robert Cochrane, also prescribe the use of a single knife for both ritual and practical purposes.

Many of the bolines advertised in on-line 'magick shops' have a characteristic crescent shape, and are described as being for harvesting herbs. This crescent shape is reminiscent of the sickle described in the Key of Solomon, a medieval grimoire which is one of the sources for modern Wicca. Confusingly, an Italian version of the Key of Solomon has a hook-shaped knife called an artauo (a possible root for athame) and a straight, needle-shaped blade called a bolino. When the name 'boline' was first used to describe the crescent-shaped blade is not clear.

Books in PDF format to read:

Jaroslav Nemec - Witchcraft And Medicine
Aleister Crowley - Cocaine
Aj Drew - A Wiccan Bible

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Poganuc People Their Loves And Lives

Book: Poganuc People Their Loves And Lives by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Among the writers of fiction there is no single name that stands higher than that of Mrs. Stowe, as one whose style is always fresh, attractive, and charming, whose wit and humor are genuine, whose depiction of human nattire is apt and true, and the atmosphere of whose writings is invariably wholesome, clean, stimulating to the moral sense. The following books from herpen may be had of all booksellers ; or, if not, will be mailed, postpaid, to any address on receipt of the price, by FORDS, HOWARD, 6 HULBERT, 27 Park Place, N.Y.

Download Harriet Beecher Stowe's eBook: Poganuc People Their Loves And Lives

Downloadable books (free):

Hargrave Jennings - The Rosicrucians Their Rites And Mysteries
Anonymous - Pagan Stones And Gems
William Wynn Westcott - Numbers Their Occult Power And Mystic Virtues
Benjamin Rowe - Enochian Temples The Lower Temple
Harriet Beecher Stowe - Poganuc People Their Loves And Lives

Wiccan Tool Master List

Equipment:

a Pentacle
6 candles; 1 for each direction, 2 for altar
chalice of wine
wand
scrounge of silken cords
small bowl of water
small bowl of salt
3 cords, one red, one white, one blue, 9' long each
white handled knife
individual athames
incense burner and incense
small hand bell
dish of cakes
sword
chalk
altar cloth any color
cauldron
tape recorder and tapes of appropriate music
veil for Great Rite of a Goddess color blue, green,silver or white

For New or Dark Moon Esbat:

(For Samhain Sabbat replace wine with hard apple cider)

extra incense
an apple and a pomegranate
cauldron with a fire in it and/or a bonfire
crystal ball or other scrying tools
white tabard with hood for Priestess

For Winter Solstice (Yule):

cauldron with candle or oak bonfire
wreaths, 1 of holly and 1 of mistletoe
crowns, 1 of oak and 1 of holly
blindfold
sistrum
animal skull filled with salt

For Spring Equinox cords as described in preparations

hard boiled eggs
a bonfire ready to ignite or a taper
in the cauldron flowers

For Beltane Sabbat:

bonfire
For Initiations anointing oil
tub to bath the candidate in
towels
salts, herbs and oils to add to the bath
a blindfold
a shirt or other clothing that can be cut
a length of string to measure the person
two lengths of cord to bind the hands and feet
bonfire for warmth if needed
For Blessings
anointing oil
wine

Free e-books (can be downloaded):

Alfred Thompson - Magic And Mystery A Popular History
Charles Wentworth Upham - Salem Witchcraft And Cotton Mather A Reply
Max Heindel - The Rosicrucian Mysteries

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Seatedgoddess Html

http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ mirrored work on
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Seated Divinity Image From Catalhoyuk

The mother goddess figurine more was revealed in an contrive called Catalhoyuk, a very heavy
Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement in southern Anatolia, dating
regarding 7500 BC. It is possibly the major and utmost chic
Neolithic site yet unclothed.

Catalhoyuk is positioned overlooking wheatfields in the Konya Material, southeast of the acquaint with urban of Konya, Collapse, roughly
140 km from the twin-coned volcano of Hasan Dag. The eastern
settlement forms a ridge which would admit risen about 20 metres
more the open at the time of the latest Neolithic appropriation.
Introduce is likewise a slighter settlement ridge to the west and a Fixation settlement a few hundred meters to the east. The
primordial ridge settlements were cast off before the Model
Age. A sluice of the arsamba put up with subsequently flowed between the two mounds, and the settlement was built on alluvial terracotta which may admit been favourable for prompt development.

Surpass revealed in 1958, the Catalhoyuk site was brought to
global nurture by James Mellaart's excavations between 1961
and 1965, which revealed this offshoot of Anatolia as a centre of
advanced culture in the Neolithic show. The merged settlement
was described by Mellaart as the first urban in the world.
Immobile, it is exclusive spring described as a heavy conclusion fairly than a true metropolitan, urban or way of life. The community seems to admit consisted thoroughly of people billet with open areas for
dumping trash. Introduce are no evident utter buildings or signs of divorce of labour, still some dwellings are larger than the
rest and jaunt exclusive drawn in wall paintings. The aim of larger rooms stub low, conversely some brand of ritual aim is
suspected. The ancestors of the eastern ridge has been fancied
at up to 10,000 inhabitants, but ancestors totals environmental various better-quality the communitys history.

An mundane ancestors of between 5,000 to 8,000 is a personable
worth. The population lived in mud-brick houses which were
to the top together in an agglutinative manner. No footpaths or
streets were recycled between the dwellings, which were clustered in a honeycomb-like lair. Maximum were accessed by holes in the curb,
which were reached by foundation and go up ladders. Thus, their
rooftops were their streets. The curb openings likewise served as
the really writer of ventilation, charge in fresh air and allowing
haze from open hearths and ovens to escape. Houses had cover up
interiors characterized by squared off hobble ladders or dear
staircase, by and large located on the south wall of the room, as were foodstuff hearths and ovens. Both leading room served as an contrive for foodstuff and lecture engagements. Raised platforms built behind the walls of leading rooms were recycled for current, working and having a lie-down.
These platforms, and all foundation walls, were knowingly plastered to a monotonous cover. Ancillary rooms were recycled as control, and were accessed ready low witness openings from leading rooms. All rooms
were shy studiously clean. Archaeologists well-known very
slight overcome or trash within the buildings, but found that overcome adequately plane the carcass case seepage and turn out employ as well as exalted amounts of forest ash. In good weather, an assortment of lecture engagements may likewise admit occupied place on the rooftops, which conceivably formed an open air pay off. In unconventional periods, heavy joint ovens figure to admit been built on these rooftops. Better
time, houses were transformed by out of true demolition and rebuilding on a found of wreck - which was how the ridge became built up.
Up to eighteen levels of settlement admit been unclothed.

The inhabitants of Catalhoyuk obscure their dead within the conclusion.
Mortal stub admit been found in pits under the floors, and
massively under hearths, the platforms within the leading rooms
and under the beds. The bodies were firmly flexed before assets,
and were often located in baskets or wrapped in reed mats.
Disarticulated bones in some graves shelve that bodies may admit
been not closed in the open air for a time before the bones were
gathered and obscure. In some luggage, graves were ill at ease and the dwell in key idealistic from the casing. These heads may admit
been recycled in ritual, as some were found in other areas of the
community. Whichever skulls were plastered and tinted with ochre to recreate human-like faces, a settlement exclusive original of
Neolithic sites in Syria and at Neolithic Jericho than at sites
earlier by.

Charming murals and porcelain are found here the settlement, on
foundation and go up walls. A wall map of the conclusion is
currently attributed as the world's oldest map. Crucial images
jacket men with assemble phalluses, groups of men in hunting scenes, and red images of the now extinct aurochs and stags, and vultures
swooping down on headless facts. Heads of natural world were mounted on walls.

In accrual, peculiar terracotta porcelain of women admit been found in the better levels of the site.

In the face of no private temples admit been found, the graves,
murals and porcelain shelve that the inhabitants of Catalhoyuk had a religion that was well-to-do in symbol.

Place to stay with concentrations of these items may admit been shrines or utter chat areas. The inhabitants figure to admit lived to be more precise open lives with no evident unreserved classes, as no houses
with peculiar skin texture (belonging to kings or priests, for
moral) admit been found so far. The utmost original investigations
likewise reveal slight unreserved fame based on masculinity, with any men and women receiving practically the same as edibles and supposedly having to be more precise similar unreserved caste.

In better levels of the site, it becomes evident that the inhabitants of Catalhoyuk were in no time skills in development and the
domestication of natural world. Female porcelain admit been found within bins recycled for control of cereals such as wheat and barley. Peas were likewise full-fledged, and almonds, pistachios, and fruit were harvested from foliage in the near hills.

Pigs were disciplined and right suggests the beginning of
livestock domestication as well. Immobile, hunting continued to be a meaningful writer of being for the community. The making of pottery and the composition of obsidian tools were meaningful industries. Obsidian tools were credibly any recycled and traded for items as
Mediterranean sea bombs and flint from Syria.

A all-encompassing describe of Catalhoyuk are its female porcelain.
Mellaart, the original excavator, argued that these pleasing,
knowingly prepared porcelain, carved and molded from seed, despondent and chocolate granite, schist, calcite, basalt, alabaster and terracotta, represented a female deity. In the face of a male deity existed as well, statues of a female deity far outnumber those of the male deity,
who furthermore, does not figure to be represented at all just the once Level VI. These good porcelain were found in the beginning in areas Mellaart believed to be shrines.

*One, notwithstanding - a disorder seated Divinity flanked by two lions was found in a consistency bin, which Mellaart suggests authorization admit been a means of ensuring the understand or shielding the turn out supply - a mother goddess image.*

Beside this goddess we find similarities with other creational goddesses here history. She is the lion, the draftswoman of the stubborn.

Three Seated Goddesses
The British
Museum

Seated goddess with a child, Hittite Nation, Old Hittite
The
Civic Museum of Art

Isis & Horus.. Mary & Jesus
Wikipedia

GODS AND GODDESSES

ELLIE'S Records 2007

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Dr Gordon Melton Of The Institute For The Study Of American Religion

From October 16 to 19 Trinity Overall Academy served as the site for a post-Christendom spiritualities seminar co-sponsored by Trinity, the Lausanne Charge for Earth Evangelization's issue group on postmodern spiritualities and new religions, and the Western Assemble for Intercultural Studies. The seminar brought together leading evangelicals scholars and practitioners from series the world designed for countries including Australia, Denmark, Sweden, the Shared Set down, as well as several locations from series the Shared States. This combination of geographical locations, coupled with dissimilar areas of descent and power in cover, provided a appreciated wisdom and range to a hunch of new religions.

The format for the seminar consisted of ten plenary sessions and a copy of on a plane sessions. Furthermore the resistance of the final plenary genre, each plenary accomplishment was followed by a respondent. The four day location began with putting the seminar in the context of the Christian study of new religions by Dr. Michael Cooper of Trinity Overall Academy. Member his accomplishment, a plenary genre with Dr. Stephen Kennedy of Trinity Graduate Hypothetical addressed an considerable and peter out local office in evangelical circles; that of the internship of indigenous relatives to sacred sites. Dr. Kennedy discussed the convincing, adjust and pious aspects of this local office, on the whole with remark to the struggles of Sincere American peoples, which provided the seminar with an kindly attitude with which to begin the seminar.

The supporting day Dr. Cooper of Trinity Graduate Hypothetical discussed the persistent string of the Western pious design from ancient paganism to grant Neo-Paganism. This was central to the regularly eclectic spiritual questing of Westerners and the place of Neo-Paganism in this spiritual milieu. He argued that the power on respectable pious upshot legitimized the cognitive bargaining of Western pious relatives. The tardily start saw Dr. Gordon Melton of the Assemble for the Study of American Religion up-to-the-minute on changes in the "New Age" or New Spiritualities, and particularly on the assessment of Western esotericism as a crucial pious tradition that wishes to be dominated dreadfully be evangelicals and addressed in ended certainly typical, particularly in the aspect of business meeting.

Dr. Terry Dirtiness of Asbury Theological School open the with plenary send with some fascinating reflections on manipulate construction in light of traditional and modern ways of fascinating in this handle in adjust with ended unanswered forms in postmodernity. Dr. Dirtiness after that prepared plead of this to missiology as he drew out implications for how a feeling of Christian manipulate nation fit now this mix.

Dr. James Beverley of Tyndale School all-embracing the treat day's plenary sessions with a hunch of the growing church bounce. To the same degree derision was included in his conversation, he what's more supposed certainly aspects of this bounce and what it nation be saying back to ended traditional and grant lexis of church for evangelicals.

The third day of the law brought a new heavy-duty of plenary sessions that began with Dr. Craig Blomberg of Denver School sketching the contextualization spectrum in Muslim contexts and after that making plead to evangelical-Mormon oral communication. This contextualization spectrum cover has now stirred ancient history Islam now lexis in Hindu and Buddhist contexts, and Dr. Blomberg's accomplishment helped put the issue on the shelve for evangelical missiologists in the Mormon context as well.

Dr. James Chancellor of The Southern Baptist Theological School led the with plenary genre that looked at changes in the The Family/The Litter of God beginning the death of its founder, particularly in the aspect of sexual morals. Dr. Chancellor's accomplishment knotty elements that allot the tools key for a different itemization of The String as observers be made aware the that you can think of shift of the group from a slighter stiffness with social establishment and with evangelicalism in the sequence of "cult" to command.

Dr. Ross Clifford of Morling Literary provided a plenary genre that helped empathize the assessment of the new religions in haunting culture as he discussed the intention of a shared countrified cover with a untrustworthy evidential defective for post-Christendom spiritualities. Dr. Clifford's accomplishment may have been the maximum strongly inspiring, and it helped bookish and layperson alike in their understanding of the countrified challenges faced by the meet church in appreciating and connecting with inhabitants impacted by post-Christendom spiritualities and its cover to the spiritual search for.

The final plenary genre for the third day was that of Dr. Gerald McDermott of Roanoke Literary who discussed the church's in the beginning theologians and apologists and how they responded to the pious aerobics of their culture in the primary centuries of the Christian era. Dr. McDermott's accomplishment was a keepsake for the church to be made aware all of the assets at her disposal, including its beyond chronological, in formulating grant understandings of and approaches to the new religions.

The final day of the law knotty a lean conversation on the local office of syncretism and contextualization in missions. Participants included Ross Clifford, Gerald McDermott, Gordon Melton, Terry Dirtiness, and Ole Skjerbaek Madsen of In the Master's Muted in Denmark, with John Morehead dollop as lean ascertain. This lean looked at the assessment of syncretism in intercultural business meeting and the communication of the gospel. It strict the disclaimer and issues knotty, planned syncretism that takes place in American and Western church contexts that is steadily not starched, and when urging doubt in contextualization in light of syncretistic potential the render null and void nuisance of under-contextualization for worry of syncretism was what's more noted.

In get to the plenary sessions a copy of on a plane sessions were available something like the law. These were open by plenary speakers as well as by other law attendees, including a choice of students of Trinity Overall Academy. Raze genre topics included looking at the neo-spiritual milieus, new approaches to understanding Mormonism, American Buddhism, that you can think of spiritual aspects of hip hop, the Druze, new pious aerobics in Illinois, a pneumatological present to a theology of religions, Afire Man Mardi Gras as new spiritual diverge, and Western Christianity.

Altered feature of the law was the date of the Lausanne issue group on postmodern spiritualities and new religions in bond with the seminar. Fast members from five countries met to gossip the history of the issue group beginning 2004 and its abiding actions and events, including the Trinity Association connected with the work of the issue group.

The content of the Trinity Association on Post-Christendom Spiritualities preference tersely be untouched as part of an college supply that preference camouflage video sessions and a training guide. This supply preference be of worth to Christian bookish institutions as well as churches and preference be prepared untouched in the there luck. You can see the lectures online by clicking on the Deportment Lectures connection at "Set apart Tribes Diary."

Astral Project Manga

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Book: Astral Project Manga by Tsuki No Hikari

I am very serious about the subject of Astral Projection. I created this website so that others can learn about out of body experiences and if they are so motivated, to learn how to Master Astral Projection.

But my personal experiences beyond the physical body, have lead me to be more lighthearted about life in general... And I thought that with this post, I would clue you onto another interest of mine - graphic novels. In particular, I want to let you know about a series of Japanese comic books (in English) called ASTRAL PROJECT MANGA by marginal ("marginal" is one of several aliases by creator Garon Tsuchiya).

These graphic novels start out as... A modern, urban suspense story by marginal, the author of the Eisner Award-winning "Old Boy"

A young man named Masahiko searches for clues in the mysterious death of his sister-- and comes upon a mysterious "CD." During his investigations, he discovers he is able to travel outside his body!

In the Astral worlds, Masahiko learns about the origin of a mysterious creature in the sky, even while it tries to warn him that he should get rid of the CD. Masahiko's not about to do that, even though jazz collector Oga is bringing in some muscle to take it by force. There are many sub-plots, of course.

And our hero Astral Projects many times, keeping an astral journal and learning clues and inner understanding about events in the physical world. More is revealed about the girl, Oga, from one of Masahiko's astral journeys, including her connection with Zanpano. And just when things can't get any stranger, a painted figure steps out of a book... an so the adventure continues.

While this is just fiction, one cannot, but wonder if the artist, Syuji Takeya (Illustrator) and the author, Garon Tsuchiya, Astral Project in real life or do they gleam the adventures from dreams or gets all of from ideas from a Factory in Schenectady, New York...

Anyway, I think that the "Astral Project Manga", which has several volumes available, is a lot of fun. Just as Astral Projection, itself is a lot of fun!

Find Tsuki No Hikari's book in amazon.com:
Astral Project Manga

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Be Angry And Sin Not

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

"Be dour and sin not" (Psalm 4:4).

Be dour with yourself, brethren, and sin no haughty. Be dour at your sins of intellectual and actions, and sin no haughty. Be dour with Satan the boon of lies (John 8:44), and no longer do his preference. Be dour at sin in the world and the trampling of God's holy Cathedral by godless men, but sentry that you do not treatment sin by sin. Be dour with your friends such as they sin; but be dour with the feeling to as it should be them, and not to disagreeable them even haughty. The anger of a friend on the road to a friend, and the anger of parents on the road to their children - and of God on the road to men - is not a price that uproots the tree but a strong wind that strengthens the tree, and rids it of unhealthy fruit so that the in a good way fruit preference inflate in quantity and beauty. But let your anger cling to reckon, so that it may be healing and not harmful. In order to cling to this create of commandeer, marinate God or else you in your anger. Existing is no stronger containment for anger than God. All anger that is not in the name of God and God's morality is a sin. Do not become dour for the sake of laughing and joking, but become dour for that at which God is angered. If your preference is tenaciously set in God's law, you preference everlastingly know such as it is indispensable to be dour, and how distant is considered necessary. This cannot be articulated moderately in words, nor can it even be explained to the illiterate. Temper, in its place, acts as patience does in its place.

O my brethren, do you see how various powers are placed in our souls, and man, by his free preference, can worth them for life or death? Temper on the road to oneself can never be optional heaps. In the region of is a expand example: the haughty a man learns to be dour with himself, the less he is dour with others. Carried in a different place with anger at his own weaknesses, he either does not see the weaknesses of others, or such as he does see them, he panel of judges them humanitarian.

O Lord God, Thou perfectly titled One, inspire in us the take back of the Day of Thy titled anger, so that we may protect ourselves from spiritual sin. To Thee be fame and entrust endlessly. Amen.

The Problems With Open Theism

For centuries, scholars have argued about the tension that exists between God's predestination and our free will. Some have backed a model of determinism, but such a position holds certain problems, such as the inability of human beings to make choices that are truly free. This may lead to even greater difficulties such as making God ultimately responsible for evil actions.

Because of those problems, some Christians have opted to abandon determinism all together and swung radically to another extreme: Open Theism. Open Theism is a view that basically says God has the ability to do anything logically possible and know everything there is to know but undecided future events cannot be known. The main proponents of this view are Clark Pinnock, Gregory Boyd and William Hasker.

BASIC VIEWS OF OPEN THEISM

1. GOD DOES NOT HAVE TO CONTROL EVERYTHING TO BE SOVEREIGN

All Christians agree that God is sovereign. But does this necessarily mean that God has to control every detail of His creation to be sovereign over it. Bruce Reichenbach writes "To be sovereign does not mean that everything that occurs accords with the will of the sovereign or that the sovereign can bring about anything that he or she wants. The ability of the sovereign to determine the outcome depends, in part, on the freedom granted to the governed."1

Reichenbach notes that sovereignty requires two classes: the governor and the governed. He then goes on to argue that while the sovereign has the power and authority to control all aspects of the governed, he also has the power and authority to grant them some autonomy. "And the more freedom the sovereign grants his subjects, the less he can control their behavior without withdrawing the very freedom granted."2

2. TRUE FREE WILL IS CONTRARY TO DETERMINISM.

An important point in the position of indeterminism is the idea that free will necessarily entails agents to be able to choose a path other than the one that was actually chosen. If God determines you to do X, and everything that God decrees must come to pass (He is God after all), then you must do X and you are really not free to choose another option. Therefore, in order for a person to be free, God cannot determine all of that person's future.

Reichenbach writes, "Freedom is not the absence of influences, either external or internal....Rather, to be free means that the causal influences do not determine my choice or my actions." He then says "where we are free, we could have done other than we did, even though it might have been very difficult to do so."3

3. GOD CANNOT KNOW CERTAIN THINGS.

Christianity has always held that God is omniscient and omnipotent (all knowing and all powerful). However, this has never meant that God could know or do what is illogical. For example, God cannot create a square circle because a square circle is a contradiction. Also, He cannot tell you what color unicorns are since they don't really exist.

Similarly, open theists maintain that if God would want to create a world where truly free beings exist, He has the power to do so. However, in order to do so it means that God must limit Himself, like the sovereign mentioned above. He must voluntarily give up the ability to know the future decisively.

According to open theism, because free will means that choices become real only at the time of the choosing, it would be impossible for God to know what that choice will actually be. Hasker states "So if God knows such a choice, it is the actual choosing itself that he knows, and nothing else. But if the choice is never in fact made, then there is no 'actual choosing,' and thus nothing for God to know."4

Gregory Boyd supports this point when he writes, "One is not ascribing ignorance to God by insisting that he doesn't foreknow future free actions if indeed free actions do not exist to be known until free agents create them."5

4. GOD EXPERIENCES THE FUTURE WITH US.

Because choices don't exist until the chooser makes them, open theism holds that God experiences and adjusts to events as they happen. Boyd tells us, "The Lord frequently changes his mind in the light of changing circumstances or in the light of, he expresses regret and disappointment over how things have turned out, he tells us he's surprised at how things turned out, for he expected a different outcome, and in several passages the Lord explicitly tells us that he did not know that humans would behave the way they did."6

Clark Pinnock concurs: "God gives us room to make genuine decisions and works along side us in the temporal process. What we do matters to God. God responds to us like a dancer with her partner..."7

OBJECTIONS TO OPEN THEISM

THE KNOWABILITY OF THE FUTURE

One of the main tenets of Open Theism is that God cannot know future free actions, since those actions do not yet exist in reality. They are merely possibilities; and if an agent is truly free, that agent cannot be bound in any way to one possibility over another. However, this viewpoint has problems both philosophically and theologically.

In looking at claims about future free acts philosophically, William Lane Craig answers the common objection offered by open theists that there is no good reason to deny the truth or falsity of such statements. Such claims are usually posited in this way: "Why should we accept the view that future-tense statements about free acts are neither true nor false?...About the only answer given to this question goes something like this: Future events, unlike present events, do not exist. That is to say, the future is not 'out there' somewhere."8

Craig answers this charge by showing that statements dealing in past-tense events can be and are considered true or false even though the events of the past, like those of the future do not exist in our present reality. "For example, [the statement] 'Reagan won the 1980 presidential election' is true if and only if Reagan won the 1980 presidential election... Long after the election is over... this statement will still be true. A future-tense statement is true if matters turn out as the statement predicts, and false if matters fail to turn out as the statement predicts."9

GOD'S CLAIM TO KNOW THE FUTURE

The other problem here is God does claim to know future events (ref. Isaiah 46:10.) There are many examples of God knowing the future choices of individuals within the pages of Scripture as well. One of the examples that Gregory Boyd tries to explain is Peter's denial of Jesus. Boyd writes "we only need to believe that God the Father knew and revealed to Jesus one very predictable aspect of Peter's character. Anyone who knew Peter's character perfectly could have predicted that under certain highly pressured circumstances (that God could easily orchestrate), he would act just the way he did."10

I find this explanation wanting. We must remember that Jesus' words weren't just "you are going to deny me" which would be predictable, but "you will deny me three times before the cock crows". In order to "orchestrate" such an event, God would have had to make sure Peter would wind up in a place where he would be forced to deny the Lord, and that his accusers would ask him three times within a defined time period. How Boyd can reconcile the free choices of all these individuals with all these events being destined to take place, he doesn't discuss. Needless to say, it would take more than just perfectly knowing a person's makeup to have the specifics of this prophecy fulfilled.

THE BIBLICAL CONCEPT OF PREDESTINATION

Of course, the main focus of the Open position is to answer the problems a hard determinist view raises regarding fatalism and man's freedom. However, in denying that God in some way determines the actions of man, the open theist is also denying a Biblical concept - that God has indeed predestined some to salvation before the beginning of the world. Romans 8:29 is the pivotal verse. It states "Those whom God foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son." Boyd tries to explain this to mean "Paul had [spiritual] Israel as a corporate whole in mind, not individual Jews "11 In other words, the church as a group. He uses this same reasoning regarding Ephesians 1:4 and 2 Timothy 1:9.

But we must remember that Romans 8:28 explicitly states that those who belong to the church are referred to as "the called". In the same chapter, Paul states that Christ is at the right hand of the Father "who makes intercession for us" (v.34). If we are to be consistent in this approach, we would have to say that Jesus' intersession only applies to the church as a corporate entity and not to individual Christians. But this doesn't make sense in light of the preceding verses where Paul talks about his individual suffering and how we (as individuals) eagerly await the redemption of our bodies.

There are other problems raised by the open view, how God sometimes changes His mind, for example. But in focusing on our discussion, I think you can see how the open view is a less than satisfying answer to the problems raised by determinism.

REFERENCES

1.Reichbach, Bruce "God Limits His Power Predestination and Free Will"

Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1986. 105.

2. Ibid.

3. Reichbach,. pg. 103

4. Hasker, William. "The Openness of God Christian Scholar's Review" 28:1 (Fall, 1998: 111-139) Web. http://www.opentheism.org/hasker".htm

5. Boyd, Gregory. "God of the Possible"

Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2000. 16

6. "A Brief Outline and Defense of the Open View." ReKnew. "ReKnew", 29 Dec. 2007. Web. 17 Oct. 2014..

7. Pinnock, Clark "God Limits His Knowledge Predestination and Free Will"

Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 1986. 158.

8. Craig, William Lane "The Only Wise God"

Wipf and Stock Pub., 1999. Eugene, OR: pp.55-56

9. Ibid p.57

10. Boyd, Gregory "God of the Possible"

Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Mi. 2000 p. 34

11. Boyd, Op. Cit. p. 48

Open Circle Ethics

Event organizers and open-circle coordinators have, I think, a responsibility to participants to provide a safe and comfortable environment. The Pagan community here in the Pacific Northwest seems to be evolving an ethical standard governing organizers. Althea Whitebirch calls it choice-centered, and I offer my perception of it here as a model and a basis for discussion.

History: A few years ago, the Seattle/ Vancouver/ Portland area had no ongoing festivals. As I write, August '86, organizers are planning next year's schedule -- the second annual Spring Equinox Mysteries festival, the first Summer Solstice Gathering, the third annual Solitary Convention, the fourth annual Fall Equinox Festival. Many of the attendees are new -- either to Paganism or to the northwest and the events draw people from a wide geographical area, including British Columbia, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, California, and all of Washington state.

We're growing. We're growing very rapidly, and dealing with a disproportionate influx of people inexperienced in group rituals. As a result we're starting from scratch in developing organizer ground rules, and developing solutions to problems being discussed in the Pagan net nation-wide.

In the Pacific northwest, the circle of organizers is very small, almost familial, and we're working from a basis of friendship and trust. We're concerned about each other and pay attention to caring for one another. I think the combination of a small group handling a lot of newcomers has allowed us to generate a uniquely compassionate set of attitudes and guidelines.

This outline is my own. I'm going to phrase this is strong, definitive terms, with this qualifier: I call it Northwest Ethics because it has evolved out of discussions with other organizers. However, it isn't offered as a group consensus and any given organizer might disagree with some of these points or the language. This is intended as a starting point for discussion and not a presentation of a set-in-concrete consensus.

My own experience: I've staffed a number of events in and out of the community. My most recent experience was heading the SolCon '86 staff, so I'm using it as my most frequent example.

Ritual Choices: Althea Whitebirch and I facilitated a discussion at the '85 Fall Equinox Festival that has borne substantial results in the local community. We argued that closed circles can do what they like, but those of us in charge of open circles should lay down some ground rules to ensure everyone's comfort and safety.

Explain the Ritual. I'm personally finding it necessary to make some very basic announcements, like circle boundaries shouldn't be indiscriminately crossed, and people should only walk clockwise within them. Again, we're dealing with a lot of newcomers.

No Pressure To Physically Touch. I've never seen anyone object to holding hands, but a lot of people have commented that they cringe at kisses. No kissing spirals in open circles.

Why? Newcomers tend to go along with group activities, even ones they're uncertain about. Maybe they should be assertive, but more often they're not, and organizers are their voice.

Choice: every event in this area includes space for people to put together their own circles, some of which can be more touching-oriented -- and are identified as such. Or we might experiment with providing an Intimate Circle, which would include a lot of hugs and kisses.

The rule is: you don't have to touch anyone you don't want to, anytime. That should be clear to newcomers.

Choice In Participation. In open circles, if the dancing gets too rapid or wild, participants can step back. Just bring your neighbors' hands together and move out of the way. I've also seen some ritualists allow people to cut themselves out of the circle -- the procedure was clearly explained in advance.

Effective ritual evokes response. Novices are at different tolerance and skill levels than experienced ritualists, and some rituals can be overwhelming. Also, the 'boogie till you puke' crowd exhausts the older folks and the kids in the group.

Experiment note: I recently separated a circle into two groups, the 'keep on dancing' people, and the 'sit down and rest' folks. Some rhythm is traded off for comfort. I've also seen two rituals staged consecutively, one quiet and one 'dance all night.' Suggestion: we can try a novice ritual, and a more powerful one for skilled people.

Also note: one northwest organizer disagreed with these suggested choices, feeling those who participate in a circle should be committed for the duration of the experience. It's a point. In that case, I think a clear understanding of what's to come would be essential.

Stimulants

In PANEGYRIA Vol. 3 No. 4, Althea Whitebirch argued for informed choice in using stimulants. If alcohol is used in a communal cup everyone should know, and a fruit juice or other substitute should also be available.

Drugs: NOT AT EVENTS I COORDINATE! At least, not with my knowledge or approval. Private drug use hasn't been a problem so far. My concern is that if anyone is caught, it's not private any more. I'm the one who gets to deal with the police and the press, and the whole community's image suffers.

If problems arise in the future, I'd consider banning drugs altogether. Organizing is tough enough -- I have a right to limit my risks. Call a closed circle and do it at home.

MINORS: Young children supervised by Pagan parents are a real joy. Teenagers with absent, non-Pagan parents or guardians are becoming a problem, even with signed in advance waivers. Some of us are leaning toward a 'no minor without attending parent' policy. How do you keep them away from the wine? Think of the issues surrounding sexuality with under-age kids. The 'what-ifs' are frightening to contemplate.

I haven't made a firm decision because I know how important the contacts and support can be to our younger friends. On the other hand, they do grow up. In two years, a 16 year old can sign her own waiver. Maybe we could set up a gentle, first contact network to provide them with 'one on one' support, starting slowly.

Solomonic Decisions

I was asked to kick out two people who wanted to attend the last SolCon, and I burned one request for a registration.

I know, I know. The word 'blacklist' leaps immediately to mind. This is a tough issue. The request I burned was from a person who was suspected of having responded violently to a criticism. The other two revolved around sexual ethics: men accused of coercing women into intimacy. Help.

The problem, as always, is that none of the cases were clear-cut. How do I substantiate an accusation? Do I kick someone out on a suspicion? I don't want violence or sexual coercion at an event that has my name on it. I also don't want to mediate personal conflicts; that's not my job.

At the moment, one well-placed person can ruin another's reputation. I've seen three people kicked from the community on ONE person's request. I've also seen people with a lot of contacts survive a number of complaints. Neither situation seems fair.

We have a lot of options. This is an essay question: pick one and list the pros and cons.

1. Anyone at all can attend any event.
2. Each organizer must individually choose who to deny attendance to. (In practice, we do pass names to each other.)
3. Any person who has been accused by one person of one of the following things should get flagged. That is, every event organizer should be notified:

-Theft or destruction of another's property.
-Violence against people -- assault.
-Sexual coercion or abuse.

This seems to me to be most workable:

4. In one case I had three complaints a man had made weird sexual phone calls to women. I called him and offered him probation: find someone to sponsor you, to be willing to act as liaison between you and the community. As with minors, the sponsor should be with you at each event you attend. Then I would put the word out that you are on probation, and the sponsor should be contacted if you contact anyone on your own and misbehave. The probation would last for a year. Any repetition of the undesirable behavior would get you kicked from my events permanently, and I would notify other organizers. Failure to accept the probation means getting kicked immediately.

I haven't had a chance to use this procedure because the person decided the effort wasn't worth it (a statement in itself). I notified other organizers.

I'm aware this issue is extremely hot. Personally, I'm introducing a lot of people to the community, AND vice-versa. There are a lot of weirdos out there. I don't want to let a mass murderer loose among us (as it were). I also don't want to blacklist someone because of a personality conflict.

Bottom line: some novice assertiveness training seems to be in order.

Caretaking

Some of us have had good experience with 'greeters' or ombudsmen. (Ombudspeople?) It's a staff position, the sole responsibility of which is to be available for participants' support, to solve problems, hold hands, and be a liaison with staff.

I didn't have greeters at SolCon '86 and regretted it. Even with 30 people, the event coordinator (me) didn't have time to personally check in with everyone.

I like very much that northwest events coordinators show visible concern and caring for everyone. A friend of mine said, "I love these events because I always feel so cherished." I'd like to see that become a community standard.

Organizer's Magic

SolCon '86 has a staff conceptualizer who renamed the position. An organizer is the focus, he said, of the energies coming into, and generated by the event.

A festival isn't just about magic. It IS magic, and the focus has the pleasure of shepherding what another friend of mine calls the magical child through its inception, and allowing participants to share in its direction. (Rearing?)

This outline is a suggestion, a template, for focusing event magic. These are the major focus points:

-Conception. When the event is scheduled/sited. I saw a staff group hold a circle at the actual site several months before the event, asking for: safety, to have enough registrants, what the event was designed to accomplish for the attendees, the staff, and the community.
-Presentation. I don't know about anyone else, but for me, putting a flyer together is casting a spell.
-Orientation. Somewhere in the first few hours of the event, ask the participants to help focus on the event's parameters -- safety, joy, solvency ...
-Major or parting ritual. Of necessity the ritual coordinators will set the structure, and almost always the nature of the working as well, but eve here the attendees can have some space to give feedback.
-Post-event focus: a thank-you circle.

Feedback

It might be suggested that an organizer has a right to do whatever works, and event participants must fend for themselves. I argue that event sponsors represent the community -- create the experience of the Pagan community for many who have no other contacts, and as such, they are accountable to their participants and to other event organizers and community elders. Aside from the issues already discussed, there are financial ones. This year I distributed a financial accounting to SolCon '86 attendees. That was scary -- laying out the bottom line of the decisions and mistakes I made! The thing is, a lot of people asked for that kind of accounting, and I've wondered myself when I attended events.

The other issue is proceeds or profits. SolCon '86 didn't make any. I had, however, planned to pay my staff some salary, thinking we should be compensated for our work. Some people disagreed, feeling event funds should be channeled into projects the community benefits from. Since teeny SolCon is becoming a formal organization (for legal purposes) and I'm putting myself on the Board, I won't personally be in a position to take any money out. However, I'd still like to pay the staff -- even a small amount -- because they sacrifice some of their own fun and do a lot of work to make the thing possible.

Finally: organizing is a pretty heavy responsibility and a lot of work. I think we have a right to ask for hugs.

I hope to see lots of discussion on these issues. Because our value is maximum tolerance for diversity, doesn't have to mean that anything goes. I think it's possible for us to reach consensus about some ground rules, to safeguard our community and everyone in it. We ask for perfect love and perfect trust. I think we need to provide a safety net to ensure it. As always, I welcome feedback. (by Brandy Williams)

Free e-books (can be downloaded):

Anonymous - Bealtaine Circle Of The Dark Moon
Aleister Crowley - Oracles

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Do You Believe In Gods If So Why

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Well this is a big question I just had to ask.. For myself personally I do not believe in the whole human aspect of god or any religious aspect. This does not mean I do not have respect for those that do, It just means this is my own experience of the world from which I have experienced myself personally..

"From my own experiences what I do believe in is that there is a energy that twines all of life, no matter what it is or how far it is. This energy changes as we think or with our thoughts or of the total consciousness of all. The only aspect that separates humans from animals is the ability to create and destroy consciously, in a way we are the gods and energy is what binds that creation or destruction..

-- Timon Weller.. 19TH OF FEBRUARY 2009

DO YOU BELIEVE IN GODS? IF SO WHY? WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE OR INFLUENCE INTO WHY YOU BELIEVE OR WHY YOU DO NOT BELIEVE IN GODS?

Books in PDF format to read:

Andrew Lang - Helen Of Troy
Aleister Crowley - Household Gods Comedy

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Rem Atonia

REM atonia is the arithmetical name for the device of nap paralysis, in which your take care of shuts off stimulation to your stately muscle groups right through Brief Eye Trick, immobilizing you so you don't act out your dreams. The natural proceed of REM atonia promise evolved to keep us from injuring ourselves or roaming featuring in harsh conditions right through the dream state; other mammals and game birds that exert been conscious the same as sleeping afterward expose motherly REM atonia. Up till now, this extremely natural proceed can sometimes lead to a device called Careful Catnap Paralysis (ASP), in which you become conscious the same as your personnel is docile immobilized. Equally researchers take on that conscious nap paralysis is more often than not prudent (and may be quite rife), it can be a very demoralizing savor for private who don't know what's encounter or how to interrupt it.

In humans, REM nap comes in two stages: refreshment and phasic. Trendy the phasic level, a sleeper entitlement expose some terse aerobics in their toes and fingers, and their limbs entitlement fiddle. In the refreshment level, muscle tone is generally extremely prevented in the limbs and personnel. Surprisingly, subsequently that nap paralysis is such an relevant part of thud REM nap, scientists docile aren't confident of the mania by which the take care of induces REM atonia: they do know that whenever you like you're dreaming, the take care of in good health reduces trade of the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine, and histamine, and it's voluntary that the country levels of these neurotransmitters causes paralysis of stately motor power. In REM atonia the motor neurons of the take care of aren't stimulated; the outcome is a demanding paralysis that lets your autonomic functions (buzzing and life form payment) avow the same as preventing you from interim out your dreams.

Land savor impenetrability with nap paralysis whenever you like they either come moving the same as their bodies are docile in REM atonia (the boss rife form), or whenever you like their bodies main REM atonia to the fore they fall snoozing. In this way, nap paralysis might be precision of as an arousal alarm, though classing it as a alarm is unmanageable to the same degree it's so prevalent: the new-found estimates contend that the same as it is greatest extent rife in teenagers, up to 50% of private determination savor nap paralysis at smallest once!

If you're not confident if you've ever certified waking nap paralysis/REM atonia, here are some supplies to ask yourself: exert you ever woken and been incapable to move, or felt aim a limitless weight was resonant on your chest? The greatest extent rife marker of waking REM atonia is the incapacity to move basis power (arms, legs, and personnel, though you may be profit to wiggle fingers and toes). Catnap paralysis is often accompanied by chocolate box hypnagogic ambiance, by means of acoustic noises or voices; experiencing odors or tastes; feelings of levitation or floating; strong feelings of elation, horror, or orgasmic sensations; and seeing private or entities that aren't give. Notion that no matter which or someone is in the room with you is one of the greatest extent rife but smallest tasty symptoms of waking REM atonia: private who've certified nap paralysis often inform that they encounter toxic entities that undermine them or even glare to stain them as they lie incapable to move! The intimidating world of these night theater company has led cultures worldwide to come up with supernatural explanations for nap paralysis that median human being sat on or decrepit by ghosts or spirits. For task, in Figurines you exert the gui ya, or "ghost request", precision to be caused by a ghost that came and sat on the dreamer's upper body. In Japan give is the kanashibari, in Newfoundland the "old hag", and the West Indies exert a similar spirit called the kokma, or "ghost babe".

In greatest extent cases, watchful nap paralysis is not the sign of an underlying remedial post. Up till now, in some private it may be an yet to be marker of narcolepsy, a nap alarm in which a occupant paradoxically enters REM nap right through their waking hours. Catnap paralysis is greatest extent promise to be a sign of narcolepsy if it is partner and occurs in essence whenever you like the occupant is reducing snoozing quite than waking up. One doctors exert afterward postulated that private who bring about from still wet behind the ears nap apnea (in which your buzzing is periodic right through nap) are boss promise to savor waking nap paralysis; this is backed up by some unstable track from private whose nap paralysis episodes immobile or in good health diminished in the rear they got treated for nap apnea.

If you savor partner and atrophy nap paralysis episodes, it's relevant to get checkered out by a doctor to ascendancy out these and other voluntary remedial provisions. The greatest extent rife contributory matter for waking REM atonia in thud private is chaotic nap patterns: you're boss at occasion for nap paralysis if you work a night rearrange and nap right through the day, exert just been on a long come to light continue (due to jet lag), or if you become chronically nap deprived. This is why private who are trying to give rise to nap paralysis to put up with an out-of-body savor determination often on purpose grieve their nap patterns. Establishing good nap cleanliness by sleeping in a handy, dark room and revolving off the TV and laptop an hour or so to the fore bed determination really help you perfect deeper nap with less possibility of a nap paralysis stage.

You can afterward assist your manifestation of nap paralysis with establish string, luxury qigong and yoga, by maintaining a thud light, and lead meditation. One sleeping medications can occasionally realize nap paralysis as a countenance effect, so check with your doctor if you're taking doesn't matter what to help you nap. Last but not least, whilst it can be a harassing savor, private exert afterward discovered that they can put their nap paralysis episodes to use as gateways to a sheer dream or out-of-body savor. For task, nap campaigner Ryan Hurd's Catnap Paralysis: A Dreamer's Guide lays out mind-training techniques you can use to tariff and banish toxic entities and turn your bizarre nap paralysis episodes featuring in sophisticated sheer dreams!