Just Another Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

 Once again, it's technically Monday now -- past midnight Eastern time -- and here I am on Dreamwidth, so it's time for another Magic Monday.  Ask me anything about occultism and I'll do my best to answer it. Any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer, though it may be Tuesday sometime before I get to them all.

With that said, have at it!

This Magic Monday is now closed. See you next week! 

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

My first garden starts are germinating in trays in my room. Leeks and onions pushing up to meet the light. Those little seedlings seem to be helping with meditation.

Meditation has long been the most difficult part of the study to stay true to. I find simple ritual and divination very entertaining as such, and find the intelectual study of magic very interesting. Meditation is the tricky one, quieting and focusing the mind enough to finish 98 breaths, to start following the line of thought while the mind tugs at the leash like a young hunting dog with a nose full of prey. I may have mentioned before having a life long practice of pacing and activly conversational meditation which is my most favored recreation. That sitting meditation though, people once doubted that reading could be silent, and I at times doubt if thought can be still. First question, are there any rules of thumb you have come across about the relative merits and demerits of sitting and moving meditation?

Those challenges being mentioned back to the plants. Meditating in their presence has been wonderful, the lines of thought with sitting meditation still stall out quicker than I could go pacing in a feild, or chasing sheep, but the time spent breathing and trying to do what ever that might do seems to be much easier. I would say that in terms of the focused breathing 3 of the 5 best sessions of my life have been in this last week, with those plants. Similarly I found that there were many thing I could generally feel when out in the pastures with sheep, which were unfelt in my trailer park.

This all climaxed in a line of thought I have been tracking for a day, the small body (well, its upto about 200 pounds right now) and the greater body, which is the degree to which physical processes beyond the primate body are all tangled up and a part of whatever it is I am. In the greater body it is easier to imagine all those factors which properly speaking are not of the material plane which cause and make possible that physical body to be. Those other living things and I are in it together. I find that my sense of magic was that it had be psychological, about turning inward and more self reflective, when to a great degree I have long been ill with an over abundance of that.

Ray Wharton

[ecosophia]

Walking meditation was once much practiced in the western world. The text on the subject that first really set me on the track of the historical roots of discursive meditation, Joseph Hall's The Arte of Divine Meditation, suggests walking in the garden as an option just as useful and effective as sitting, so if you find that more useful, you're in good company! The interaction of consciousness with its surroundings -- there you're getting into very deep territory. The usual approaches to meditation are aimed at the majority of people, who aren't reflective enough, and telling them to turn inward and become reflective helps bring them into balance; those who are already turned inward and reflective sometimes do need to open up a bit and let themselves become a little more attuned to suitable outward things as well.

The pole star, swastikas, etc

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG, this is Bogatyr.

I have a few questions:

- How important is the pole star in Druid cosmology? What role does it play?
- re, the swastika. I've always heard it described as being a solar symbol, but the book I recently read on Mongolian shamanism describes it as depicting the Pole Star surrounded by the Great Bear at its position for each of the four seasons. Does that sound meaningful to you?
- Leading on from that, the Great Bear spinning around the Pole Star (in the manner of a time-lapse photo) and forming rings in the sky, puts me very much in mind of Arthur's raid on Caer Sidi/Caer Pedyrfan. Does that idea have legs, in your view?

Many thanks, as always!

Re: The pole star, swastikas, etc

[ecosophia]

I'd encourage you to meditate on it. ;-) We don't know much about the cosmology of the ancient Druids, and even less about their starlore; in the Druid Revival tradition, the polarity between sun and earth is primary, and the stars don't receive a lot of attention. That doesn't mean that you're not on the track of something useful, though.

Have you by any chance read Joscelyn Godwin's book Arktos? If not, it might cast some interesting light on the themes you've brought up.

[(Anonymous)]

What is the occult perspective on addictions and how to escape them?

[ecosophia]

Every addiction fulfills a real need in the addict. That's why trying to white-knuckle it works so poorly; you have to identify and admit the underlying need, and then find some better way to meet it, or the addiction just comes back.

How to help from the outside?

[(Anonymous)]

I have a friend who believes she attracted a bunch of supernatural attention while LARPing a Setite ritual during a roleplaying game. It was a pretty full-on LARP involving several people - it might well be possible that she attracted something, though I doubt that the number of big-name entities she listed all showed up. She and a few others are experiencing something that they consider to be demonic energy attacks months after the event.

Is there anything that I can do as a concerned outsider? I've asked her to make sure that she has support from more experienced practitioners, and she says her home is well protected. Should I even be posting about this?

Re: How to help from the outside?

[ecosophia]

May I be blunt? If she was foolish enough to play at demonic evocation, she's getting the normal, reasonable, and healthy consequences of her own actions. No, there's nothing you can do, other than maybe pointing out that it was a really dumb idea to treat a magical ritual as fodder for make-believe and dress-up games.

Crystal care guidance.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello.

Is there any general guidance on how to care for various crystals?
Failing that, is there a non-New Age book on the general topic of crystals?

Re: Crystal care guidance.

[ecosophia]

That I know of, nobody outside the New Age movement does much of anything with crystals. Certainly none of the occult traditions I've studied get into that sort of thing. Thus you may be stuck using New Age sources.

Will

[ferngladefarm.blogspot.com.au]

Hi John Michael,

I reckon I just wrote the funniest blog that I have yet written! I was giggling to myself the entire way through writing that essay. Some written works demand to be put to pen and paper (or text and screen as in this case). I barely had to put many brain cells towards writing it.

Sorry, you know by now that I'm always up for a digression.

I'm frankly curious about 'will', if only because I don't see much free will being exercised in the community. I see pockets of it, but they usually keep a discreet distance between themselves and the constant bombardment of messages being hurled at them. I don't see that happening at all in the city, and I have wondered for a while whether people seek rural areas as a form of escape from that? Obviously, you manage that to the extent that you can but was wondering whether you face a different level of energy in your new digs? Also, you mentioned elsewhere about books physically dropping into your lap (or attention) at second hand bookshops (lead us not into temptation!!!) and was wondering how such an event interacts with your free will?

I enjoyed the discussion about writing classes. They appear to be a truly horrid experience and from my opinion they would only seek to homogenise writing output. Mate, I used to get published quite a lot, but the population down here is so small, that even best sellers struggle to earn a living because the volumes are so small. The financial return from the writing became less and less as time wore on, but I love writing, so at some point I chose to write the blog for free, simply for the joy of the experience of creation and also the ongoing dialogue. That also means that I get the freedom to write pretty much whatever is bouncing around my head at the time!

Cheers (and thanks for the forum)

Chris

Re: Will

[ecosophia]

Don't treat free will as an all-or-nothing thing! You have some degree of free will, even if that just amounts to a little wiggle room; you can increase that by training and certain practices, but you always exist in a cosmos full of other beings who also have varying degrees of free will, and whose wills impinge on yours just as yours does on them. When a book drops on my head, or what have you, that's usually a sign that somebody is trying to get my attention -- it's much the same as when somebody who happens to have a physical body emails me and suggests that I read something.

As for energies of place, that's a huge issue very poorly grasped these days. Vine Deloria Jr., in his book God is Red, devoted a chapter to the role of sacred place in Native American spirituality that's worth close reading. I find different places differ drastically in how the local energies handle magic. Here in Rhode Island, the energies are very crisp and responsive; some of my workings have had noticeably better results here than I've gotten elsewhere, and none has had worse.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm curious what the oldest reference you know is to the practice of recollecting the events of the day in reverse as the last thing one does before going to sleep. The oldest reference I know of is in the works of Rudolf Steiner, but I'm curious how much further back it goes.

[ecosophia]

Recollecting the events of the day goes back to the old Pythagoreans -- as I recall, Guthrie's Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library contains references to it -- but in reverse? That may have been Steiner's own invention. The sources for it I know of are all 1920s or later.

Finnish pantheon

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings JMG, and with them a humble 'thank you' for all that you do!

I've been thinking lately of taking the leap to trying my hand at magic instead of merely reading about it. Your LBRP for polytheists feels like a good start/fit for what I'm aiming for. I am wondering however whether I should draw upon the gods and goddesses of my native Finnish mythology for this. Plenty of four-letter names for deities there! And, if that is indeed advisable, should I translate the words of the ritual into Finnish as well? Not that I wouldn't feel at home using English and opting for, say, the tried and true Eqyptian pantheon instead. Do you happen to know if there's a precedent for utilizing Finnish folklore in such a way?

-Juha

Re: Finnish pantheon

[ecosophia]

You should certainly invoke whichever deities appeal to you; if that means your native Finnish deities, then absolutely. Also, if Finnish is your native language, then yes, you can always choose to translate the ritual. I don't know of anybody who's worked with the old Finnish deities using Hermetic methods, but it should certainly work.

Celtic Golden Dawn questions

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings, Mr. Greer:

I am the aspiring CGD ovate who asked a few weeks ago about correspondences vs. identities of the 16 geomantic figures and their elemental relationships.

When constructing the geometric drawing of the Tree of Life with straightedge and compass, I notice that a total of 11 points are generated (page 86). Am I correct that point E remains “blank”, as A, F, & G would be Celi, Dofydd, and Perydd; and I, H, and D would be Ener, Modur & Muner (respectively)?

I am working slowly and carefully through the CGD material, and there is much yet to do before reaching the Ovate initiation, but I wanted to ask about robes. I have been mindful of your warning to learn a complete magical system in its entirety before attempting any of one’s own adaptations. I am rather uncomfortable in white clothing, not least because my skin’s acidic pH tends to stain it. Black clothing for me is associated with calmness and centeredness. In your CGD system, would using a black robe in place of white have negligible effects, or would you advise against this?

Lastly, I would like to apply online to the DOGD, and noticed that the website still lists your POB in Cumberland (I know you are safe and sound in RI). Silly question perhaps, but just wanted to verify that the DOGD is still active and accepting members.

Thank you once more for hosing these Magic Mondays; your generosity is very much appreciated.

Re: Celtic Golden Dawn questions

[ecosophia]

1) Point E is the equivalent of Daath, the not-Sphere that is both the bridge and the barrier to crossing the Abyss. In th Druidical Cabala it has the title Iau, the Yoke. For the exercise on page 86, though, Iau isn't drawn in.

2) White or unbleached robes are traditional in Druidry for a variety of reasons, mostly but not entirely symbolic. You can always wear something under the robe, you know.

3) Thanks for the reminder! Yes, the DOGD is very much open for business, but we get so few inquiries by mail that the office staff seem to have missed that detail on the website.

[(Anonymous)]

The Secrets of the Temple was about one type of occult architecture. If you were designing a magical lodge building from scratch, assuming resources and secrecy weren't limitations, what would it look like? When I thought about this I like something solid and respectable like an old bank or town hall, but with an Egyptian pylon gate making up the front wall around the main door, with sphinx and jackal statues on plinths at each side. :)

[ecosophia]

Look for a good old-fashioned Masonic lodge hall, and you've got my idea of a proper space for magical lodge practice. I probably wouldn't do the sphynges and jackals, since I do Druidical occultism these days, but an emblem of the Three Rays of Light over the door would be nice.

If you really have no limits to resources, there's always this:

That's the House of the Temple in Washington DC, the headquarters of the Scottish Rite.

Gods

[(Anonymous)]

Iamblichus seems to suggest that all is harmonious in celestial spheres, but mythology suggests conflict among the gods and competing agendas among the architects of Creation. What do you think? Do the gods fight one another?

- Jeffrey

Re: Gods

[ecosophia]

Depends on what level of existence you're talking about. To put things in suitably Neoplatonic terms, the divine energies are perfectly harmonious in on the noetic level, but the further you go down the planes, the more thoroughly that harmony is broken up into confusion and contention. Since mythology, according to the Neoplatonist interpretation, is a symbolic expression of divine realities adapted for the ordinary human understanding, an interaction that's perfectly harmonious on the noetic level might best be expressed as deities at war in the language of myth.

Hieronymus Bosch

[(Anonymous)]

JMG, I've been wondering for years what it is that Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch depicted in his later paintings, most famously in The Garden of Earthly Delights--I mean the strange human/animal/machine composite beings, the insects from heaven, the generally fearsome/hellish atmosphere, and so on. They certainly go beyond a literal reading of the bible. Do you think these could be areas of the astral realm? Many thanks for your thoughts.

Re: Hieronymus Bosch

[ecosophia]

Heck if I know. Either Bosch had one strange imagination, or he was seeing into some very murky areas of the astral!

Banishing and Protectionism

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I bought your book “Encyclopedia of Natural Magic” and am eager to make your banishing and protection maceration. A few questions, though, if you please:

To how much wine vinegar would I add an ounce of herb?

Does it matter if fresh or dried?

Once macerated, would blessing it and consecrating it, then sitting it in the sun for an hour or so be helpful?

In addition to using it as a floor wash, could I put, say, a half cup in a quart plastic spray bottle and use as an all purpose space cleaner?

Is plain tap water okay for this purpose?

Until I get this brewed up, is Florida Water used similarly at all comparable?

Anything else I need to know?

Than you!

OtterGirl

Re: Banishing and Protectionism

[ecosophia]

Ottergirl, one ounce of dried herb is sufficient to make a protective maceration with an ordinary bottle of wine vinegar. Don't put it in the sun after you've done the blessing and consecration -- sunlight is an etheric eraser, and that'll weaken or eliminate anything your blessing and consecration puts into it. Instead, macerate it in the sun for a while, and then bring it out of the sun, bless and consecrate it, and keep it out of the sun until it's used up. Yes, you can use it in a spray bottle, and in quite a few other applications; yes, tap water is fine; yes, Florida water has some of the same effects, and is well worth using; nope, all you need to do now is go ahead and do it.

[(Anonymous)]

What are your thoughts on the gnostic current Luciferianism? They seem to get the same kind of mistreatment as Freemasons in the 'alternative' discourse, which seems to me to mean they can't be all bad.

[ecosophia]

It's not something I've taken much interest in. Judeo-Christian mythology isn't my cup of tea, so the various ways of standing it on its head don't have any particular appeal to me.

Seeing the life force

[(Anonymous)]

Hello!

Last week, if I remember well, someone on magic monday, said he could at times perceive the life force.
Is that possible and how do you do that?

Regards

Re: Seeing the life force

[ecosophia]

Yes, some people have that gift. You might want to read W.E. Butler's fine little book How to Read the Aura for instructions on how to do it.

Planes

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for hosting Magic Monday! You mention in Mystery Teachings that most mystery schools identify seven planes, sometimes with subdivisions. What is a good resource(s) for more information on the planes? Thank you. LW

Re: Planes

[ecosophia]

Almost any early 20th century textbook on occultism will have that information; introductory texts on Theosophy almost always include it, and so do standard works such as Max Heindel's The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception and Rudolf Steiner's Theosophy. For that matter, Wikipedia (surprisingly) has a halfway decent introduction here.

[(Anonymous)]

Can you do a rose cross ritual if you don't have or can't use incense?

[ecosophia]

Of course. Just use your finger instead. It's not quite as effective, but that just means you have to practice more and put in more concentration to get the same results.

[(Anonymous)]

What kind of workings can be used to increase the quality and emotional impact of one's art and craftsmanship?

[ecosophia]

Concentrate on self-knowledge. The great barriers to quality in creative work are automatisms of consciousness -- think of them as little wind-up mechanisms that replace conscious perception and expression. Regular meditation and banishings are highly useful here, but so are workings to make contact with the sources of creativity, which are outside the personality -- the ancient tradition of the Muse as a being outside the self who brings inspiration has a lot to teach.

etheric body degradation

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you so much for hosting this!

For several years I've had pains in my back, right behind my heart. I got this wound felling a tree in a goat pasture and associate it with a relationship with a woman who, I believe, fed on my physical and etheric energy, using me as her servant in exchange for affection and rent. It was an ugly situation, one were afterwards I felt so betrayed as to not trust my heart to anyone.

Slowly the injury has been getting worse, until it began cracking and hurting all the time. A few nights ago I had a dream where a redheaded, shabby dapper man came out of nowhere, grabbed my shoulders and began erotically eating the etheric body in my back. The feeling was of utter violation. I eluded him but he found me again and he was too strong for me to fight back. Right before waking the demon looked at me in disgust and said "wake up, Sunshine" when I did I could still feel his vile teeth in my back, lasciviously devouring my etheric body.

As per your instructions in _The Encyclopedia of Natural Magic_ I made a protective amulet yesterday and wore it last night. Already my back feels better, but I am a bit freaked out. My etheric body feels all banged up. This comes after several weeks of banishing rituals, meditations and divination. So perhaps this comment counts as the "freaked out email" you have written about.

Three questions come from this:

1) do you have any specific suggestions?

2) how does one repair a damaged etheric body?

3) how long does an amulet retain its power?

Again thank you so much!

Re: etheric body degradation

[ecosophia]

First of all, I trust you're seeing an appropriate health care provider to deal with the physical side of the problem -- if not, I'd encourage you to look into acupuncture. I know quite a few people who've had long-term back problems heal promptly with this therapy.

Second, keep up those daily banishings and other magical practices!

Third, amulets have varying lifespans depending on the quality of the ingredients and the intensity of the forces they're meant to counteract. A month or so is a good average, but pay attention to the effectiveness.

Fourth, you might also try putting a saucer of white vinegar in your bedroom, and refilling it regularly. When acids evaporate, they prevent etheric forces from concentrating into manifestation.

Finally, it's possible that what's going on here is at least partly shaped by what occultists used to call "karmic culmination." When you begin any kind of serious spiritual work, it's very common for unfinished business of various kinds to come boiling up. You might find it helpful to consider whether, at some previous point in your life, you treated anyone the way the woman you mention treated you, or whether the behavior of the dream-figure in your dream might symbolize some aspect of your own actions or thoughts. Meditation on these possibilities wouldn't be a bad plan, for that matter.

Thoughts and Plato

[(Anonymous)]

Hey JMG, like always, thank you for doing this.

Last week you mentioned that concentrated thought can affect other people? Can you elaborate on this at all or how does this work? The question posed to you last week mentioned daydreaming about someone out of different emotions (lust, fear, love, etc). Do these emotions expressed in the daydreams correlate to how the person is affected? I.e. when you have thoughts of love towards someone, they either feel or think of you in the same way, and same for lust, fear, etc.

Also, I see you mentioning Neo-Platonism a lot and I just finished reading the Banquet (Symposium). Socrates makes a compelling argument that Love is an intermediary Being, between mortal and God and that there are others like this. If you've read it, would you be able to list some other noetic forces that are similar? I was trying to compare Mercy, Grace, and Love in a discursive meditation and I came to the conclusion that Mercy and Love operate fundamentally different in the sense Socrates was using Love, but I'm just trying to find the essence of Love that could point me in the direction of those other deities Socrates mentioned (i.e. find what they have in common). To recap, he said that Love is always in wanting of that which is Good and Beautiful and is not itself Good and Beautiful because of that.

Re: Thoughts and Plato

[ecosophia]

Emotions provide the force, thoughts provide the form. Thus what feelings you have when you brood about another person shapes the influence you have on them. As for the Symposium, why, yes, I've read it, and I'll heartily encourage you to explore your questions about it in meditation; that way the answers will be yours, and appropriate to you.

More on Pluto?

[slclaire]

Hi JMG,

You've mentioned Pluto in astrology a time or two. I am curious to know more about how you see Pluto because it's the only planet in my natal chart that aspects the Sun, and it does so in opposition. It's as if the Sun is watching while the rest of the planets enjoy or endure, as the case may be, complex patterns of interaction with one another. But then there is that Sun-Pluto opposition, which I've been ignoring so far since I don't have much of a feel for Pluto. Any thoughts you have will be appreciated.

SLClaire

Re: More on Pluto?

[ecosophia]

Pluto is the planet opposed to unity. More precisely, it was the planet opposed to unity. According to many astrologers, the discovery of a planet is guided by astrological factors (thus the discovery of Uranus corresponded with the awakening of the whole range of Uranian factors in collective consciousness, ditto for Neptune, etc.) and I argue that the downgrading of a planet to sub-planet status is also astrologically timed and represents the waning of a collective influence. That's what happened with Ceres, which was discovered in 1800 and downgraded around 1850; its influence, like Pluto's, began to come in about thirty years (one Saturn cycle) before the discovery and lingered for about thirty years after the downgrade.

Pluto was downgraded from planetary status in 2006, and so by 2036 it'll be a minor influence, on a par with an asteroid or a large fixed star. Since you were born while it was still a planet, you'll have some influence from it for the rest of your life, but even there it's going to fade. What house is it in, in your natal chart? The way you act in relation to the affairs of that house will always be curiously out of sync with the rest of your personality; you'll have secrets regarding the affairs of that house, which you won't want to share with anybody, because they contradict your public personality.

[(Anonymous)]

Do banishing rituals discriminate in what they banish? I could see the house spirit, the ancestors and anything else friendly that's hanging around getting pretty annoyed if they have to go wait in the garden every time you do magic. :)

[ecosophia]

Banishing rituals do indeed discriminate. When you perform a banishing ritual, what you do is bring balance and a link to the Higher into the place where you do it. Noxious nonphysical entities find that intolerable, and make tracks; beings who are fine with balanced forces and the presence of higher spiritual energies have no problem with it.

Rituals of thanks and offering

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG,

This past weekend my family and I were traveling through hazardous winter conditions and I prayed to Hu for guidance and protection to see us through the worst of it. We arrived to our destinations safely and without incident and this got me thinking about rituals to thank the god for his help that go beyond daily prayer.

I've been praying regularly to Hu for a couple of weeks now, after receiving a sign and meditating upon it, and it's a wholly new experience for me having never consciously prayed before. The ritual aspect is more familiar to me because of my regular DOGD practice.

This morning I meditated on two kinds of rituals, one of gratitude and another of offering. Both ideally occur outdoors, facing east and are performed at or soon after dawn. With the ritual of gratitude, I hold out my arms and hands open to the east and simply express a deep gratitude for Hu's presence in my life, and thank him also for any specific blessing or help I received.

With the offering ritual, I thought to offer a feather that's been found by me during my walks. Raptor feathers, being most closely associated with the Hawk of May, would be the greatest offering though any feather would do. I would offer Hu my blessing, whisper a closely held secret to the feather and then release it to let the winds take it where it will.

These came to mind readily when I meditated on them, and they feel comforting and right to me. With time I will flesh them out, guided by what feels appropriate. At the end of the meditation, I asked Hu about them and I felt a positive response. Am I totally off base here, or is this a good starting point to work from?

With all my best,
Tim

Re: Rituals of thanks and offering

[ecosophia]

This sounds like a great idea, and is very much in keeping with the old traditional approach to polytheism.

Consciousness

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG—and Carmen also says hi.

Aside for fans of JMG, my wife has a podcast and JMG is the Most Frequently Returning Guest. A new conversation is up and you can check it out at CarmenSpagnola.com

Anyhow—JMG, I would like to know how you define consciousness.

My interest arises from my work on behaviour change—things like recycling and whatnot. I hope this will qualify as a Magic Monday question because of Fortune’s definition of magic.

I started wondering about this again after hearing a speaker talking about findings like slime molds’ capacity to solve mazes, and similar complex and surprising things, and seemingly trying to equate them with human intelligence.

To me, the capacity of slime mold and the capacity of humans are obviously different. I don’t think we should try to ascribe intelligence to slime mold, or the weather, or ecosystems. Rather, this should call humans to reflect on how much of our capacity does NOT flow from our intelligence. We should reflect on how like slime mold WE are.

This inversion is courtesy of Robert Provine:

“Instead of considering whether other animals are conscious, or have a different, or lesser consciousness than our own, should we question if our behavior is under no more conscious control than theirs?”

This was a profound and incredibly pivotal part of my research on behaviour. Provine demurs on how much of our behaviour is consciously controlled, but other researchers put it as little as 1%, or much less.

But it still leaves me wondering what consciousness is, and I feel like you likely have an excellent answer.

Warmly,

Ruben.

Re: Consciousness

[ecosophia]

Ruben, it seems to me that you're backing yourself into a wholly unnecessary corner. Slime molds and weather systems show signs of intelligence; why not just accept that they're intelligent, and let the delusion that human beings are the only intelligent entity in this corner of the universe drop into the dustheap of discarded ideas where it belongs?

Trying to define consciousness is a futile endeavor -- it's like asking a fish to define water. The only kind of definition that works at all is what's called an ostensive definition -- that is, basically, pointing at it and saying "that's what I'm talking about." As you read these words, something in you perceives the marks on the screen and the meanings that they communicate. That "something" is consciousness.

Now consider the possibility that slime molds, weather systems, and everything else have an equivalent "something" in them...

[(Anonymous)]

In the course of my regular meditations, I sometimes (well, let's say 'not infrequently') find that I experience a "pressure" on my hands/palms. When this happens, I try to allow my hands to move as the "positive" and "negative" pressures indicate, usually resulting in a variety of slow loops and/or vertical movements. Many times, my hands end up around my head, held on either side or with one or both hands hovering just before my forehead. At these times, I have been sensing another "pressure," usually about the location of the third-eye or deeper within my head. Most recently, I've feel like I'm struggling to see something, like I'm trying but can't quite open my eyes, but with some other sense I don't know. Can you shed any light on what I might be experiencing here? Many thanks.

--David, by the lake

[ecosophia]

Nice! You've independently invented a fairly common qigong exercise. What you're feeling are currents of nwyfre (life energy) moving through your body in the course of your meditative practice. If you move with them, they'll help you release unnecessary tensions in your physical body, and they can also awaken other inner senses -- you may be approaching th awakening of astral clairvoyance, for example.