I Still Have A Blog

I forgot this blog existed, as I tend to do with the multitude of blogs I’ve created over the years. But recently, someone subscribed to it and I got an email notifying me, which reminded me that this blog existed.

So I thought to myself, “Things have changed a lot since I last posted here, I’ve changed a lot since I last posted here. Perhaps this would be a good time to start posting again and share my new outlook on reality and such.”

Thus, I’m bringing back SOC.

To start this off, let me fill you in on the past year. I’ve moved back to my home (nearby anyway) and I am no longer surrounded by the metaphysical on a daily basis like I was when I started SOC. I have moved into the world of the mundane. It has been a difficult transition for me. No longer are my days spent philosophically rambling with like-minded individuals, meditating and practicing OBE techniques, contemplating the nature of my self and my place in existence. I have a real job and real responsibilities. I live in what I consider to be a rather soulless city. I am effectively cut off from my metaphysical roots.

This sounds hellish, I know. Sometimes it feels that way too. But, in truth, this is just the next step. Some may say I’ve lost the spark, but I feel that I’m using that spark practically rather than theoretically. Nevertheless, I’m still me and I still cope through incessant ranting, so blog posting is something I believe I can still do. The content may change and my perspective certainly has, but change is refreshing once the pain has passed.

I will leave this post at that. Nothing too deep today, but we will soon see where my sojourn has taken me and how it has changed the world according to me.

Nonphysical Diary

After looking at my dream journal, I decided that I will continue to include daily dream keywords there, but I created a separate blog for analysis. But a blog for just dream analysis (especially with my limited dream recall) is kind of boring so I have decided to start this separate blog as my Nonphysical Diary. It will contain entries of all practices and experiences relating to the nonphysical. You might think of it as a magickal diary or even a book of shadows. In this new blog you will find not just descriptions of my practices, but also ritual and technique prescriptions as necessary. In the first entry you can find the descriptions of how to accomplish both a prosperity ritual and empathic energy reading. With my extensive, cross-traditional knowledge of techniques, practices, theory, ritual, etc., this secondary blog should hold some valuable information for all. And I will try my hardest to avoid including specific tradition names so as to express the universality of spiritual practice (most of my practices are combinations of many different traditions). I am a solitary practitioner and I pick and choose what works for me. I hope some of my practices can be useful to others.

come check it out

Nonphysical Journal

Dream Journal

I have created a page that you can find next to the ABOUT SOC link to document my dream journal. I have only been keeping this journal for a couple weeks now and I haven’t noticed an increase in dream memory, but I felt like it would be good to chronicle my dream journal for a few reasons. First, I want to determine how effective a dream journal really is at increasing dream recall. Second, I want to document and analyze the keywords I am able to remember. Third, this will provide me with an opportunity to try and remember more of the dreams themselves. And finally, I want to have all of my dream journal entries available for myself and others to try and identify themes.

So, without further ado, I will begin copying my current journal onto this new page and start looking at my dreams as a whole and I invite you to come along.

I would like to note that when I keep track of my dreams I try and write the first things I can remember when I wake up. Sometimes I can’t recall anything and those days have no entry. However, when I do have entries to include, they may contain keywords of images, sounds, thoughts, and most importantly, feelings. So on some entries you may only see one word that expresses how I felt when I woke up if I couldn’t remember any more detail.

Unlimited Boundaries Forum

My good friend Xanth over at Unlimited Boundaries has created a forum to address issues concerning Astral Projection, Lucid Dreaming, Dreaming and specifically questions and further discussion of his blog posts. I started it off today by making the first couple of posts, totally torching Xanth (in the most compassionate way possible). Come on over and get involved in the discussion. I will make sure to keep a presence there, as will Xanth, so come ask some questions.

Unlimited Boundaries Forum

Retraction

I made a mistake, the book is called “Soul Flight”.

My fault.

Donald Tyson – Soul Flight

Soul Flight on Amazon

Pre-review “Soul Travel” by Donald Tyson

I’m in a bit of a writing dry spell at the moment, so I thought I’d share something easy.  I’m reading “soul travel” by Donald Tyson right now and at half way through I’m very satisfied with the material. 

This book isn’t your typical, practical application astral projection book.  It’s more like an astral history book that explains the evolution of human attitudes and understanding regarding astral projection over time and across cultures.  As much as I hate definition and generalization on such a subjective topic, Tyson does a great job of balancing between definitive labels and helping the reader to understand that all accounts across cultures are different representations of the same activity.

Tyson covers projection from the earliest shamanic practices, to witchcraft and fairy folk, to bilocation and saintly prohpets in Christianity, to occult studies from spiritualism and Theosophy to the golden dawn and its contemporaries, all the way up to the CIA, the Soviets, remote viewing and alien abductions.  He helps the reader follow the thread of astral experience through these seemingly polar opposites.

He does briefly stop in each section to provide examples of induction methods used by the various practitioners in their respective traditions.  I haven’t read the latter part of the book yet, but from what I’ve noticed upon scanning the chapters, Tyson uses the rest of the book to explain some of the more persistent methods of induction, such as pathworking, ritual and astral doorways.

At this point I highly recommend this book to any skilled or novice projector.  It really puts the whole experience of the nonphysical reality into perspective.

LIAR!

So I know that I basically expressed that ritual is worthless in regards to healing the shadow self. It’s not the ritual that’s necessarily useless, it’s the understanding of the purpose of the ritual. Ritual actions, which were once behaviors performed by shamans and the like and with continued positive results became “sacred ritual”, are metaphors. They are symbolic representations of mental actions. In many cases the ritual itself can help facilitate the mental action. For example, many of the techniques prescribed by occultists in regard to astral projection, are not powerful because they invoke some being to assist in projection, but because they invoke a mental action. Rituals are kind of like circumnavigating conscious awareness to get to the subconscious. Naturally I feel that a direct route is more reliable and repeatable, but sometimes a ritual can be a nice alternative to get things going. However, if you understand the origin and purpose of a ritual, it can certainly be used to achieve this end of interaction on a conscious level with the shadow self. In fact, while you are performing this physical ritual, you are also performing it astrally, working with the energy.

So, I’m telling you this because I performed a candle ritual to heal the shadow yesterday. I know I know, I’m a shameful liar! Sorry. There was good reason. While I am more than capable of intellectualizing things like rituals and such, I also know when to tell my brain to shut up and listen to my heart. This was a case of the heart talking louder than my brain. We received a shipment of new ritual candles at my work yesterday and as I was stocking them I got a very strong feeling from one of them. When I picked it up I had an overwhelming surge of energy into my chest that I usually only feel when I’m near strong crystals (like moldavite) or strong psychics and their tools (like a friend’s rune stones). I feel it when I am strongly resonating with something (cause unknown, energy or some subconscious program, i don’t know).

The candle that “called to me” is from a series of ritual candles called “Robert M Place’s Vampire Virtues” and this specific candle is “Vampire Revitalization”. I know what you’re thinking, “Vampires?! I think Rusty has gone a bit nutty!” and normally I would agree with you. But I didn’t really choose the candle, it chose me and it chose me with some power. I can’t argue with that. The candle is still burning (it will probably take a couple days), but I already had an experience this morning that lets me know it’s working. I had a very vivid and almost lucid dream this morning around 5AM. I was awakened by my fiance’s alarm clock a few times in a row (she uses the snooze button, which is just plain annoying to me, i never use the snooze, it just makes you have to go through the pain of waking up over and over again, it doesn’t make the process easier). At one of these awakenings, I had to pee so i got up and took care of business. The whole time I kept my eyes mostly closed, with an occasional peek to see where I was going. The cool part was that I continued to see the imagery from a dream I was having when she woke me up as I walked to and used the bathroom. It was like the dream was still going on and I was just taking a break from participating while I peed. Really neat.

So I get back to bed and I am sucked back into a first person perspective of the dream. The details are foggy at best because i neglected to write it down when I woke up. I distinctly remember a feminine figure though. I really can’t remember the content of the dream, but I am left with some feelings about it. She felt like both an ally and a rival, which, relative to the recent post I wrote, makes me think that she was a representation of my shadow self.

[I want to stop for a moment and share with you the explanation of the energy represented in the candle I'm burning. Mind you, I didn't read this until this morning, after the dream, I just bought it and burned it based solely on the strong feeling I got when I touched the candle. This is what the creator says about this specific candle and it's purpose/properties]

“It may seem odd to speak of vampires and virtue together but it is my belief that the literary vampire represents the face of the unconscious that Jung calls the Anima or Animus. This archetype appears in dreams as a lover who at first seems threatening and full of fearful shadow material. As the shadow is integrated, however, we can evolve spiritually and come into our full potential. Though at first frightening, this inner vampire teaches virtue.”

Wild huh?

So when I went back to bed and continued this dream I became aware of the fact that it was a dream and I tried my darnedest to switch to full content (lucid) awareness, possibly even context (astral) awareness. Unfortunately my awareness got stuck somewhere in between the shift in an awareness state that could be described as foggy at best. I’m kind of mad at myself for not writing any of this down. I even told myself in the dream when I realized it was a dream to write it down, but when I woke up there was no writing utensil in reach. There was a pencil in my bedside table, but in my hypnagogic state I failed to realize that.

Overall though, I still have a deep emotional impression of the feminine figure. She was almost frightening in appearance, though very beautiful. There were other people in the dream as well and they all seemed to be quite scared of her. I didn’t have any fear of her though. I recognized how scary she looked/felt and how scared everyone else was, but I wasn’t afraid of her. I had a deep connection to her, a strong love between us. It feels like the love I have for myself, like this was a feminine me. When I woke, I felt at ease, very tranquil, a feeling that has been maintained thus far into my day. Hopefully we will meet again tonight.

One a side note, the successive snoozes that my fiance hit on her alarm (must have been 5+ times) seemed to have facilitated this close to content awareness state. So, it seems that the lucid dream alarm has some promise for me, so long as I use it in the right condition.

Deep Dark Devilish Shadow

The Shadow Self. The twin no one wants to acknowledge to the point of overwhelming denial and suppression. The Shadow plagues our lives and most of us are none the wiser. Every time you deny it, the stronger it grows. The shadow is a deep unconscious collection of repressed weaknesses, fears, shortcomings, instincts, etc. Your shadow is that part of your life that fuels your creativity but also moves the clear, individuated perception of :reality further and further away from the ego.

“Everyone carries a shadow,” Jung wrote, “and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.”

“…in spite of its function as a reservoir for human darkness—or perhaps because of this—the shadow is the seat of creativity.”

and while I do recognize the faults of wikipedia, this explanation is appropriate:

According to Jung, the shadow, in being instinctive and irrational, is prone to projection: turning a personal inferiority into a perceived moral deficiency in someone else. Jung writes that if these projections are unrecognized “The projection-making factor (the Shadow archetype) then has a free hand and can realize its object–if it has one–or bring about some other situation characteristic of its power.” These projections insulate and cripple individuals by forming an ever thicker fog of illusion between the ego and the real world.

I do highly recommend readings some of Jung’s books mentioning the shadow, but also some of his students later texts on the shadow.

Essentially, your shadow self is your sub/unconscious. The place where you buried emotional traumas as you grew consciously/cognitively. These events created memories that aren’t consciously available yet still color your perception of reality. One could even consider the ever growing shadow as the cause of their ever limited perception.

One especially interesting aspect of the shadow self is projection, which is based in the previous statement that the shadow colors your perceptual filter. This means that your shadow projects qualities of itself onto your environment. You perceive this as things you don’t like about reality and the people in it. It’s like buying a certain model of vehicle and then suddenly noticing tons of other people with that vehicle.

There is also an energetic component to the shadow. As the shadow projects itself on your perception it attracts energies that resonate with it. Think of this as you picking up the emotional energies of other people and places throughout your day. These add to the mass of your shadow making it more dense and attractive, like a gravitating body in space. This quality can cause problems which I’ll address momentarily. If you give your shadow attention and release it’s energy (self-analysis) you will embody less of these “negatively charged” emotional energies and so you won’t attract them as readily. People do a lot of things to release these energies, sage smudging, crystals, candle burning and all sorts of magickal rituals. Of all these traditions, the only truly effective one in my opinion is grounding meditation. In grounding meditations (especially when done barefoot in the grass with a tree) you are aligning your energy to resonante with the solidity of the earth. On a normal basis your perceptual energy us branching out across reality collecting sensory data (whichever includes psychic data). When you do grounding work you are calling back all those perceptual filters and centering your energy. This coalesces your power and allows you to purge these excess emotionally energies. This is certainly not the most effective method for managing the shadow, which we will come back to shortly.

Now, back to the attraction if shadow qualities. I said that the shadow adds to perceptual filters and thus attracts qualitatively relevant energies from your environment. Add to this your continuous repression of shadow elements and the shadow self will become more and more dense. The shadow is much like a black hole/singularity in this regard. It captures more and more resonant energy until it reaches a point of critical mass and collapses on itself to form a psychic singularity. The effect of this event is the creation of an autonomous “pinch off” of your being. You essentially compressed your shadow so much that it contained enough energy to separate from you. Thus the experience of a haunting. What you believe to be an external entity tormenting you is really your own insecurities manifest. I think an interesting side note here is the nature of a singularity as a catalyst for the incarnation of life.

There are vast implications to be further explored here. For example, could all life be the continual fracturing of one originally shadow that reached critical mass followed by each successive break coalescing and forming its own singularity, thus populating reality as we know it? In which case are we each just a shadow self being reintegrated by the “whole” (God if you prefer)? Furthermore, jung describes the shadow as the source of all creation/creativity in this reality. (Luciferian archetype anyone?) Does this mean that the indigenous dreamtime where shamans go to heal the individual and community is really the shadow self? Or are the vast numbers of inner realms just the labyrinth of our collective shadow? Do we in fact have an inter connected shadow representing the collective suppression of human faults? If everyone then healed their shadow would the earth reality also be instantly healed? The questions are numerous and will be left for another time.

Lets talk about how we can really heal the shadow and reintegrate it’s energy into an individuated self. In some regards the shadow is an attention starved child that acts out because it wants you to notice it. So the only true method of assimilation is to honor thy shadow. There are tons of ways to do this and I recommended asking Google about it. But one of my old favorites was painting a picture and burning it. You’re acknowledging your insecurities about your creatively ability. Your shadow is the source of your creativity but it’s also the destruction of your creativity. Its not attached to it’s creation because it knows (even it can be immature it is still wise) that life is a constant flux of creation and destruction. So when you destroy (literally or metaphorically) your creation you’re saying “hey shadow, I understand you”. That in itself is one of the most compassionate things you can do for your ailing shadow, let it know that you not only understand but care enough to understand.

I may continue this post and address some of the interesting questions about reality that are brought up by the existence of a shadow self. But until then, read up on honoring your shadow.

A Song For The Journey

I’m working on a couple of posts, shadow self, nonphysical pt.2, and a couple others floating around in the background. So it will be another day or so before I can start churning those out and in order to keep people coming back even when there is little new content, I’ll share another song for the sake of making a post.

So, without further ado, this is Dimlite with “Lullaby for Gastric Ulcer”

Lucid Dream Timer Trial 1

I’m not going to make a bunch of journal-esque posts about this timer, but I thought I should at least post the first trial with it.

So, how did it go? Not well. I’m thinking that I didn’t turn it up loud enough. I woke up at 5AM today, stayed in bed and just put on my headphones and turned on the alarm. I don’t remember hearing the alarm again though after that. At some point (I don’t know if the track was done or not, I didn’t look at the time) I woke up and took off the headphones and went to sleep. For all I know I took off the headphones after the first alarm woke me up. I really don’t know, I kind of did it in my sleep.

I’ll make one more post on the subject but I’ll do it after it is successful or if I use it a number of times and it doesn’t work.