"What Is...?" Wednesday

The Loch Ness Monster

The Loch Ness Monster, sometimes called "Nessie" or "Ness" (Scottish Gaelic: Niseag) is a creature or group of creatures said to live in Loch Ness, a deep freshwater loch (lake) near the city of

"What Is...?" Wednesday

Making Your Own Tarot Bag

Tarot card bags are very popular and create a way for you to store your tarot decks with ease. The boxes can then be stored somewhere for safe-keeping. Others like to

"What Is...?" Wednesday

The History of the Fortune Cookie

Anyone who has been to a Chinese restaurant has had or at least seen, fortune cookies. These almond or vanilla flavored treats not only taste great, but they have a surprise inside...

"What Is...?" Wednesday

The Symbolism of the Butterfly

A quick-list of Butterfly symbolism:

~ Resurrection
~ Transition
~ Celebration
~ Lightness
~ Time
~ Soul

In Greek myth, Psyche (which literally translates to mean "soul") is represented

"What Is...?" Wednesday

The Blarney Stone

"There is a stone there, that whoever kisses,

Oh! He never misses to grow eloquent:

'Tis he may clamber to a lady's chamber,

Or become a member of Parliament."

Blarney Castle  was constructed in 1446, the history of the place goes back two centuries before that time. The story begins with a magical stone, its origins shrouded in mystery. One legend says

"What Is...?" Wednesday

The Stone of Destiny

The Stone of Destiny or the Coronation Stone is an oblong block of red sandstone, used for centuries in the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland, the monarchs

"What Is...?" Wednesday

Thelema

Thelema (They-LEE-mah) is a Greek word meaning "will" or "intention". It is also the name of a spiritual philosophy which has risen over the past several hundred years and is now gradually becoming established worldwide.

The central goal of a Thelemite (as adherents refer to themselves) is to discover and perform his or her True Will, which is generally defined as the innermost Nature or proper life course of the individual. The techniques used to achieve this goal fall under the heading of Magick.


There are also strong political, ethical, aesthetic, and cultural aspects to Thelema. Although there is no strict literal doctrine concerning these matters, Aleister Crowley wrote many articles and essays regarding his ideas about the proper behavior of individual Thelemites and for an ideal Thelemic society. These ideas have continued to develop into modern times. However, the primary themes involve personal freedom, a recognition that men and women have an inherent divine nature, and that Love is the basis of the Great Work.


Thelema may not be a religion in and of itself but because of the influence of Aleister Crowley on Gerald Gardner certain Neo-pagan beliefs and practices seem similar to it, although the intent or reasoning behind why each philosophy does things a certain way is often different. Thelemites, unlike many Wiccans do not openly profess their beliefs, unless of course they are professing them online. 

Not all adherents of Thelema consider it a religion or subscribe to the philosophy of True Will as outlined in Aleister Crowley's writings. Thelemites may or may not believe in the necessity of Canon or Theology as outlined in this article. Many require nothing more than an acceptance of the message of The Book of the Law as interpreted by the individual, each for him/herself.

There are seven main divine names associated with the Current of Thelema, all but one of which is expounded upon in The Book of the Law. These are Nuit, Hadit, Therion, Babalon, Hoor-Paar-Kraat, Heru-Ra-Ha, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit. Thelemites hesitate to call these energies “Deities” or “Gods” or “Goddesses” in the classical way that people often refer to, say, Isis as a Goddess. 

Their philosophy is that although these divine names or “energies” can and will appear god-like in aspect at certain times in magical work, they can also appear to be energies that are manifestations of an initiatory process, or energies that are represented by various paths, magical processes and formulas, or they can become avatars embodied in human flesh much like the Hindu Deities.

*Sources for this article can be found here and here.

"What Is...?" Wednesday

The Rosetta Stone is a stone with writing on it in two languages (Egyptian and Greek), using three scripts (hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek) and was originally carved in 196 BC, during the reign of Pharaoh Ptolemy V. The stone is typical of the period, in which complimentary inscriptions praising the Pharaoh for his virtues were common. 

Because Egypt had recently been conquered by the Greeks, the Rosetta Stone's inscription was written in both Egyptian and Greek. The Egyptian portion was written in both demotic -- a type of common, everyday alphabet -- and the more ancient and formal hieroglyphs.

The Ptolemic pharaohs were all descendants of General Lagus, friend and ally of conqueror Alexander the Great. Therefore, they were ethnically Greek rather than Egyptian. At the time of the Rosetta Stone's inscription, both Greek and Egyptian languages were used in Egypt. Interestingly, Alexander the Great is buried in the Egyptian city named for him, Alexandria.


When Egypt became a vassal state of the Roman Empire, ruled by a Roman governor, hieroglyphs fell into disuse, and by the fourth century AD the writing system was lost. At the time that the Rosetta Stone was rediscovered, hieroglyphs were indecipherable. Some people even thought they weren't a language at all, but some iconic form of decoration. With the Rosetta Stone, it was possible to decipher the demotic from the Greek, and then the hieroglyphs from the demotic.


The Rosetta Stone was translated and deciphered by Jean François Champollion, a French linguist of amazing ability. He began work on the translation in 1808, when he was eighteen, and in 1822 published his translation of the Rosetta Stone. His breakthrough was in realizing that the images that made up hieroglyphs were used not only as pictures to represent ideas, but also as letters that represented specific sounds, much like American Sign Language. 


Thus words that did not have a pictorial representation in the alphabet could be spelled out. Proper names of individuals were spelled out in this way, and names were differentiated from other text by being enclosed in a rectangle with rounded corners, called a cartouche. The Rosetta Stone has led to the translation of hieroglyphs and all the inscriptions in the myriad tombs and monuments of ancient Egypt.

"What Is...?" Wednesday

Shadow People

Shadow people are paranormal shadow-like creatures that people usually see in their peripheral vision. Reports suggest that they do not appear to reflect light and that their appearance is essentially a silhouette in black.


Whereas ghost apparitions are almost always a misty white, vaporish or have a decidedly human form and appearance, shadow beings are much darker and more shadow-like. In general, although the shadow people often do have a human outline or shape, because they are dark, the details of their appearance is lacking. This is in contrast to many ghost sightings in which the witness can describe the ghost's facial features, style of clothing and other details.



One of the many ideas is that shadow people represent a Thought-form, ghost or demon that was created by extraordinary pain, suffering, and trauma in a dying persons life. Others suggest that shadow folk have been purposefully summoned from another realm through black magic or other occult practice but realistically these Shadow ghosts are not devils, demons or aliens, as some reports being imagination-generated would seemingly indicate. 


What makes the Shadow People phenomena interesting, in the world of the supernatural, is the consistency in the sightings. No matter whether it’s an old person or a child, or anyone in between, what they see is always the same. People on opposite ends of the world report seeing these entities on a daily basis and their recollections are strikingly similar. Whatever these Shadow People are they are definitely a regular occurrence in a lot of people’s lives.

"What Is...?" Wednesday

Freemasons

Freemasonry calls itself the world's oldest and largest fraternity. Freemasonry and Masonry are interchangeable words for the same organization, which has its roots in the medieval trade guilds of stonemasons. In fact, the most widely used symbols of Freemasonry are the tools of the stonemason... a square and compass. The organization was formally created in London in 1717, and quickly spread to the American colonies and across Europe. Today, there are probably four to six million men in the fraternity worldwide.


The mission of Masonry is said to be: "To teach a man the duty he owes to God, his neighbor, and himself." Charity work and community involvement are important parts of Masonic life. Freemasonry is not affiliated with any religious group, but members are required to profess belief in a supreme being.


Masonic groups are called lodges, and the United Grand Lodge of England is the oldest body of Freemasonry. Membership is restricted to adult males, and lodges do not usually recruit members. Potential members must seek out a Mason or a Masonic lodge and apply to the organization (hence their slogan: "2B1ASK1").


Freemasonry has been decried as a secret society and even a political conspiracy or religious cult. But Masons believe that what little secrecy they have is simply so members of the fraternity can identify each other by things like handshakes and passwords. They state that the rituals of Masonic meetings are used to reinforce the central values of the organization, such as morality and belief in a supreme being. 




Famous Masons


Benjamin Franklin
Buffalo Bill Cody
Davey Crockett
Kit Carson
Warren Harding
Franklin Roosevelt
Harry Truman
Gerald Ford
Mark Twain
Wolfgang Mozart
Willie Mays
Sugar Ray Robinson
Cy Young

"What Is...?" Wednesday

Sweetening Jar

This form of hoodoo spell casting is employed when you want to set up a powerful sweetening spell in a small place and keep it working for as long as you wish. Sweetening Jars are extremely convenient and one reason for their continued popularity is that although they can be worked on an altar like other forms of bottle spell, they can also be literally hidden in plain sight in a kitchen cabinet.

Hoodoo consists of a large body of African folkloric practices and beliefs with a considerable mixture of American Indian botanical knowledge and European folklore. Although most of its adherents are black, contrary to popular opinion, it has always been practiced by both whites and blacks in America. 


Other regionally popular names for hoodoo in the black community include "conjuration," "conjure," "witchcraft," "rootwork," and "tricking." The first three are simply English words; the fourth is a recognition of the pre-eminence that dried roots play in the making of charms and the casting of spells, and the fifth is a special meaning for a common English word.

The  Sweetening Jar Spell (or Honey Jar) is one of the oldest forms of bottle spell in the world. There are so many variations that it can be classified as  a "spell family." Most of them consist of a jar of sweetener into which you place the personal concerns of the person you want to influence, along with spiritually powerful magical herbs, wrapped in a name-paper or petition packet, and then burning a candle on top of the jar after dressing it with an appropriate ritual or conjure oil.

Ingredients:

a glass jar 

honey

a piece of paper
a pen or pencil
optional herbs for the "sweetening" purpose
a candle (a color corresponding to intent)
a candle-dressing ritual or conjure oil

~ Rub your ritual or conjure oil in an upward motion on the candle and then roll it in the herbal mixture you have prepared.

~ Get a small container of  honey, karo syrup, home-made brown sugar syrup or molasses... Place your candle in the center of the  empty jar, adhered by a few drops of wax in the bottom. Pour the sweetening liquid of your choice into a jar and fill it three quarters of the way up.

Next, prepare your paper, any type of paper, preferably white but just suit the style of your intent. Write the name of your object (person or situation) to be sweetened three times. Around the name you have written three times, write your hopes and wishes for the situation in a circle without removing your pencil or pen from the paper.

Roll or fold the paper and with your fingers, push it into the honey or sweetening substance in your jar, licking your fingers when you are through. (this spell also benefits you as well) Recite this phrase as you do this ""As this honey [or syrup] is sweet to me, so will I become sweet to_______." ( a name or situation)  Light the candle (do not leave it unattended) and let it burn and cover the honey in the jar until the candle burns down to the surface. (You can add a new candle to the top, every so often, until your intent is realized.

You can make jars for each person  or situation you want to sweeten if you’re working more elaborate spells on them, or keep one jar with lots of names in it for general sweetening. You can also make vinegar or “souring” jars, which is a form of Hexing.

"What Is...?" Wednesday

                                                                     Futhark

Runes have always been seen as possessing of mystical properties. Once in a while a fantasy computer game comes by with puzzles written in runes, and many modern wiccans use Runes in ceremonies or rituals. As runes dated from before the time Northern Europe became Christianized, it became associated with the "pagan" or non-Christian past and thus a mystique about them was born. Even the supposed etymology of the word rune, the German word raunen which means "to whisper", helped in adding a secretive bend to Runes.

The Runic alphabet is also known as Futhark...a name composed from the first six letters of the alphabet, namely f, u, th, a, r, and k. In this way, "Futhark" is synonymous  to the word "alphabet" which is from alpha and beta... the first two letters of the Greek alphabet. And why were the letters ordered in such a way...nobody knows the answer but it might been some form of mneumonic function that was not preserved.

The first Runic inscriptions that have survived to the modern day dated from around 200 CE. The alphabet consists of 24 letters, 18 consonants and 6 vowels.

The Elder Futhark is the set of Runes most commonly used today but there are also Anglo Saxon Runes and a later Germanic set known as the Younger Futhark. The Elder Futhark is the oldest of the Runic alphabets, used between 100 B.C.E. to 1600 C.E. Traditionally, those who follow a religious path that is based on the Germanic tribal beliefs, often known modernly as Asatru or Norse Tradition, believe that these symbols were divined by the father god Odin after he hung on the world tree Yggdrasil for nine days and nights.


Casting methods vary, as there is little to no historical documentation of the runes being used as a divination method. Most Norse Reconstructionists that use the runes in this way prefer to cast them. They focus on their question or the issue they are consulting the runes about. A white cloth or piece of leather is put down to hold the runes. The caster mixes the runes in their bag, and either pulls out a handful and lets them fall onto the cloth, or shakes the bag over the cloth until the chosen number of runes has fallen.


The runes are then read. Those that are face down showing no symbol, are ignored and the runes that are showing are read by their proximity to each other. Pulling runes from the bag one at a time is also a common method, but does not allow for the same amount of chance as the tossed method does.

"What Is...?" Wednesday

String Theory

Imagine a wave of particles streaming out across space. Wouldn't that look like a great, long, wiggly string?  Is that string theory? Yes...well, sort of... However, it does demonstrate that particles.. any particles...can form long strings.


 There are long string streams emanating from the Sun right now, washing up against buildings and reflecting colours into your eye holes. There are strings of radiation particles bursting forth from your monitor, crashing up against your face, and running down cracks in your skin... There are streams of strings everywhere.

You may be thinking: "All this talk of streams is making me want to pee. Is that string theory?" No but read on...

Gravity is everywhere in the universe and as such it needs energy to keep it running. As luck would have it there is an awful lot of energy in all those particle strings all over the place. An awful lot. To demonstrate just how much energy is present in strings you can perform a string theory experiment of your own.

To illustrate this simply:

Step one: Decorate a tree with the christmas tree lights.
Step two: Undecorate the tree.
Step three: Put the lights in the bag.
Step four: Put the bag in your loft.
Step five: Wait one year.
Step six: Retrieve the bag
Step seven: Now, attempt to untangle the string of lights.

What you will discover is that a seemingly inoffensive string with plastic bulbs on it somehow stores staggering levels of energy within. Now imagine if you'd put two strings of lights in those bags. Pretty scary, huh? What about an infinite number of strings? A bit harder to imagine, but I'm sure you're getting the picture.


The universe is like that bag in the loft containing more christmas tree lights than you can imagine. Every planet is a bulb; some of the bulbs are broken, some are not. The person trying to unravel all those strings is the Space-Time Vortex Guy, Bob. The energy expelled by Space-Time Vortex Guy Bob, in unravelling the christmas tree lights is what we know as gravity. And that is string theory explained simply.

How, you may be asking, does this affect me...? Well, it shows that if this theory were to be proven...Science would explain how we affect our environment and how it affects us...kind of a pagan notion, eh?

"What Is...?" Wednesday

A Life Coach

Life Coaching is different from consulting, mentoring, advice, therapy, or counseling. The coaching process addresses specific personal projects, business successes, general conditions and transitions in the client's personal life, relationships or profession by examining what is going on right now, discovering what your obstacles or challenges might be and choosing a course of action to make your life be what you want it to be.


To put it plainly, as Lynn Grabowski, an excellent Life Coach whom I have had the pleasure of working with recently, puts it this way "A Life Coach is someone who works with their client as their peer in a co-creative relationship to reach a specific goal. It's different than a therapist, in that you assume your client is inherently perfect and doesn't need fixed...rather, they already have all the answers and you, as a coach, work with them to draw those answers out."

Lynn works primarily with women who have lost their sense of identity due to being mom, wife, etc for a length of time. Most coaches, including herself, are often willing and able to work with other life goals and issues outside of their specialties as well, especially when people feel a real rapport with their coach after a trial session. 


Take myself for example...I speak with Lynn often, usually through Twitter but started up a conversation last week concerning Life Coaching. She very graciously offered me a sample of her coaching techniques, I'm sure most of you are aware that I suffer from a couple different issues...so I said sure!


I suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) but PTSD does not happen with one defining moment...it's gradual and happens over time until there is a "straw that broke the camel's back" moment. I reached mine nearly eight years ago. So the area I chose to look at was my life in general and from there we picked out three goals. It's very easy and like she says, you indeed hold all the answers within yourself, they just need to be coaxed out. I had my "Ah Ha!" moment when she asked a very specific question of "What holds me back?" and I immediately answered "fear." 


My "fear" stems from a time in my life where it was so insanely troubling and stressful that "I may lose everything I hold important at any moment"... but that is no longer the case anymore, so that "fear" I held on to for so long is no longer serving me and once that dawned in my head, I felt as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. It's so strange that I wondered why hadn't I put that together before but it was so defining and resonating, I suddenly felt like my own super hero.

Most of Lynn's clients usually have one big goal, with several smaller goals to work through to get to it, so for some, getting through those first smaller goals is a success because at first even those seemed unsurmountable. One may have a big goal and realize through coaching that it's not what's right for them and even that is a form of success.The types of successes vary from person to person, some may come back for a refresher session or two to tackle a specific challenge. She considers it a success when her clients leave with the tools to continue reaching any goal or challenge that arises.


Lynn's website is under construction at the moment but I encourage you to contact her and try it out for yourself, I was astounded at the simple information that I was able to glean from myself! You can contact Lynn at her email, lynnlifecoach@gmail.com or on Twitter @sheepmama

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"What Is...?" Wednesday

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn 

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (or, more commonly called the Golden Dawn) was a magical order active in Great Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and established by the Freemasons in England. The group practiced practiced theurgy (the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magical in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action or presence of one or more gods), especially with the goal of uniting with the divine and spiritual development.


It has been one of the largest single influences on 20th-century Western occultism. Concepts of magic and ritual at the center of contemporary traditions, such as Wicca and Thelema were inspired by the Golden Dawn along with authors William B. Yeats and Algernon Blackwood. A more notorious character recognized instantly by name was Aleister Crowley,who joined in 1898 and founded the rival Argenteum Astrum (1905) after his expulsion in 1900.

The structured hierarchy of The Golden Dawn was based upon the Tree of Life of the Kabbalah... there were ten grades or degrees corresponding to the ten sephiroth, with a eleventh degree for neophytes. The degrees were divided into the Outer, Second, and Third orders.

During its glory, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn possessed one of the greatest repositories of Western magical knowledge. The studies of the Second Order focused on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Three magical systems were taught: the Key of Solomon, a grimoire, Abra-Melin magic and Enochian magic. Also, materials were incorporated from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Prophetic Books of William Blake and the Chaldean Oracles. Instruction was given in astral travel, scrying, geomancy, the Tarot and astrology.


There is much I have not elaborated on while researching and writing this article because all the information could fill every nook and cranny at the Smithsonian, so I picked out the easiest way to describe just what this group was (and still is today, although in a more modern form) all about. I hope you have enjoyed the article.

"What Is...?" Wednesday

The Sidhe

~In Irish mythology, the Sídhe  are a powerful, supernatural race comparable to the fairies or elves. They are variously believed to live underground in the fairy mounds, across the western sea, or in an invisible world that coexists with the world of humans.~

The words “Sidhe," (roughly pronounced and sometimes spelled “Shee”) and “fairy” are almost interchangeable. Mainly it could be said that the Sidhe are fairy or fey but not the tiny winged creatures most associated with the term fairy. Instead the Sidhe were thought to be tall, fair, and other-worldly. That is, when they were not frightening, misshapen monsters. There seem to be two categories of Sidhe... the general, lordly, spirit-like beings that are very much like humans and the rest.

Under the rest falls the Leprechaun, the Phooka, the Merrow and the Banshee. The Leprechaun is probably the most well known of all of these, although it’s mystery and behaviors have been watered down quite a bit... these fairy cobblers are now simply tiny green wearing men who guard the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.


The origin of the Sidhe myths are closely tied to the ancient history of Ireland. The story goes that the Fir-Bolgs, a relatively uncivilized people and the Formorians were in control of the island until the Tuatha De’ Danann (the people of Danu) landed. The Tuatha De’ Danann brought with them technology and culture far beyond the Fir-Bolgs, which made up for their fewer numbers, and they were able to gain control of Ireland.

Perhaps because of the gap in sophistication between the Tuatha De’ Danann and the other populations, many legends and superstitions began to spring up concerning the newcomers. They could only be hurt by weapons of iron, it was said and they possessed artifacts of great and wondrous power, such as the Caludrun of Dagda, which could never be emptied of stew.

The Tuatha De’ Danann were eventually defeated by another group, the Miesians. Of course, the Tuatha De’ Danann were so infused with myth and power that they could not truly be defeated and so the legend goes that they left Ireland by slipping into another time and space, to rule the Otherworld.

"What Is....?" Wednesday

Hoodoo

Briefly, "Hoodoo" is an Afro-derived mystical system of personal and psychological empowerment, through the specialized use of roots, herbs, minerals in a beneficial or sometimes not so benificial manner to obtain a desired result...for example, protection, healing, wealth, justice and  victory over enemies. Its extensive body of esoteric knowledge, spirit of the culture, native customs, and universal folk beliefs, are traditionally passed down (usually in families) from generation to generation.

Is Hoodoo a type of magic...?  Not how the term "magic" is defined and perceived in Western culture. However, "Hoodoo" is indeed an African mystical tradition, known by various names, that is practiced all over Africa, and has been for thousands of years. It is perhaps the first tangible application of the supernatural, based upon the Africans intimate relationship with the phenomena of Spirits who taught and assisted them in surviving the powerfully rich, but yet untamed environment in which they found themselves.

For example, in the West African  Diaspora Mami Wata Vodoun tradition, the forest spirits, known as "Azzizas," were the most evolved guardians of the forest, who first presented themselves to the African hunters, and planters. They taught them the esoteric, medicinal (ahame) use and alchemical properties inherent in the abundance of herbs, trees, roots, minerals and life forms thriving in their mists.

It was the Azzizas who also taught the African how to make poisons, potions, medicines, and Gbo, "ebo"" and "boicho/bo."( known today as "mojo, amulets, talisman, ouangas"). Joined with the Azzizas, was the divinity later to be identified as "Legba," the great messenger of the gods, who also taught the Africans the use of Gbo and transported their prepared requests to the respective divinities.

The first practical and most extensive use of herbs, amulets and talismans in the forest was for protection from accidents, tropical disease, dangerous animals, repairing injuries, as well as to assure success in their hunt. However, their esoteric use was mainly for protection from jealously, envy, and death by other hunters, as well as protection from the angry spirits of those animals which were killed for food, or by accident during the course of the hunt.

 From these primary ancestors, eventually evolved a group of specialized priests and priestess known in Dahomey as Bokonons, (geomancers), Azondoto, Zokas, Garbara, Akpases (socerers), and Botonons. It was this knowledge that the Africans brought to the New World with them, and later incorporated and adapted with the indigenous Indian, and some European folklore, which came to be known as "Hoodoo".