and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
The article "Are we living in a giant cosmic void?" by Amanda Gefter talks about a recent paper, by Timothy Clifton, that suggests that we are living within a giant void in space, and that such a theory could replace the need for the mysterious 'dark matter'.
According to Clifton, the problem may not lie with cosmologists' observations, but with their assumptions - namely, the Copernican Principle, which says we don't occupy a special place in the cosmos, and that the distribution of matter is homogeneous, so any given region of the universe is more or less the same as any other.
Dean Jefferys, the filmmaker who made the Shamans of the Amazon DVD has just launched an internet tv station and is now showing a 13 minute video of National Whale day that he filmed at Byron Bay, Australia, on Saturday along with some other clips. You can access the internet tv station at: http://www.planetearthinternettv.com
Dean is heading to Chile and the International Whaling Commission (IWC) on thursday, then the Amazon, then Tonga in the Pacific ocean to swim with the whales. he will be doing daily reports of proceedings at the IWC through this internet TV station. He also plans to broadcast interviews from Iquitos in Peru from the 4th Shamanic Conference from the 19th of July so bookmark this site and stay tuned.
Dean Jefferys still has some spaces on his shamanic adventure into Peru and Machu Picchu starting July 3rd, then on the second one week journey after the conference in Iquitos, Peru, starting on the 27th July to the 2nd August. For more information see http://www.shamansoftheamazon.com
Dean has some new CDs and DVDs for sale at http://www.shamansoftheamazon.com including a 3 DVD Boxed set of 5 hours of all his shamanic material.
See Dean's other websites at
Science (as usual) is catching up on what many occultists and Self development proponents already know and teach. Making a decision based on your instincts, gut feelings, and intuitions is often the best way to choose. The BBC reports on studies showing that instinctive decisions were accurate about 95% of the time (see: Snap decisions sometimes the best). The more connected to one's feelings, senses, and Higher Self, the more able we are to make accurate and quick decisions without relying on the conflicting nature of the so-called "rational" mind.
Yet more evidence that the physical world we see and believe we understand is only a portion of what is "out there", scientists believe they have evidence for the theory of dark matter. According to observations, scientists calculate that the Universe is comprised of only 5 percent "normal" matter, the rest is dark matter (25%) and dark energy (70%). According to reports, the collision between two clusters of galaxies actually split dark matter and normal matter, so that their energy signatures can be observed. source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14453775/
These articles are part of the Indotalisman website and are written mostly by Luxamore. While there are other articles on magic and the occult on this site, these articles are more unusual and details various Indonesian occult practices and beliefs which are not well known in the West.
Articles include:
Some of the other articles are also worth reading through.
The Lucid Dreaming Wikibook offers a free source of information on Lucid Dreaming, as well as being wiki-based so that anyone can contribute to it. Included are sections on Dream Recall, Induction Techniques, Using (Lucid Dreams), along with a glossary, appendices, further reading, and a frequently asked questions section. This is worth checking out, and if you have experience in Lucid Dreaming you can contribute to it.
These quotes originally appeared in a newsletter from Meditiation Mount.
All audible musical sound is given us for the sake of harmony, which has motions akin to the orbits in our soul, and which, as anyone who makes intelligent use of the Arts knows, is not to be used, as is commonly thought, to give irrational pleasure, but as a heaven sent ally in reducing to order and harmony any disharmony in the revolutions within us. Rhythm, again, was given us from the same heavenly source to help us in the same way; for most of us lack measure and grace.
from Timaeus by Plato
From the knowledge of Art arises divine knowledge and such knowledge leads to enlightenment. This liberation is truly the essence of the knowledge of Art. He who realizes this attains freedom.
Vastu Sutru Upanishad
"I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness."
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
“I believe in God, Mozart and Beethoven, and likewise their disciples and apostles; - I believe in the Holy Spirit and the truth of the one, indivisible Art; - I believe that this Art proceeds from God, and lives within the hearts of all illumined men; - I believe that he who once has bathed in the sublime delights of this high Art, is consecrate to Her for ever, and never can deny Her; - I believe that through Art all men are saved.”
Richard Wagner
Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.
André Gide
Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.
Leonardo da Vinci
After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
Aldous Huxley
Example:
The following is some 'encoded' text in a font which is non-English, but we will work on the assumption that it is English language words using non-English characters.
Step 1:
Convert all the characters into English language, working from A to Z to represent each of the characters as we go along. We end up with:
abc dccaefg hi ajh kclmhfnoeaecm em oepc abc qhfanqa hi ajh qbcdeqno mrsmanfqcm ei abclc em nft lcnqaehf shab nlc alnfmihldcu
This is the slowest part, as it means checking that a letter isn't doubled up. What we have done is create a simple substitution cypher. It could be represented in a similar way using numbers, however this wouldn't decode properly in the online cypher cracker. The first 4 words would like like this:
01-02-03 / 04-03-03-01-05-06-07 / 08-09 / 01-10-08
You will probably notice it is easier to have the words represented by letters...
Okay, so we enter the encoded text, using English letters into the substitution cypher cracker, and in seconds we get the following:
[1] the meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances if there is any reaction both are transformed
[2] the meeting of two personalities is live the contact of two chemical substances if there is any reaction both are transformed
Words: 21
Decodes: 2
Time: 1
Okay, so we have two very similar decoded answers. As the cracker hasn't been programmed with grammar routines, it is purely decoding possible words, and giving us the options. In this case it isn't too difficult to see that the first result was the correct one.
The longer the encoded text, generally the more accurate the result will be. However, the decoding is limited by the dictionary, and if the encoded text contains a lot of words which are not in the dictionary (perhaps Hebrew words relating to the Qabala, Enochian Angels, or Egyptian Gods) then the decoding may also fail also. What could be done then is to try the process on groups of words, and do part of the decryption manually... It would also be possible to use an expanded dictionary using occult and esoteric words that may occur in such texts.
Tonight I had a read over a few of the articles by Robert Moss on his website, Way of the Dreamer. There is some really good articles there, and I believe he has some excellent concepts and techniques when it comes to dreaming. I like his concept of active dreaming as it makes a lot of sense to make practical use of our dreaming in our spiritual development. The information provided on the site is clear and concise and gives enough pointers to immediately put some of the suggestions into practice. For those who find the articles of interest, Robert Moss has several books, which may well be worth reading.
Warrior of the Light Online is a monthly publication by Paulo Coelho. If you are interested in the philosophies and ideas of Paulo then this may be of interest to you.
As of writing the current article is entitled "I am not happy." To me it is a sage bit of advice for those who follow a practical spiritual path. I especially like Paulo's statement at the end, "better forget this idea of seeking happiness at any cost and look for more interesting things like unknown seas, strangers, provocative thoughts, risky experiences."
For some reason this reminds me of a quote from certain Artchetypal entity of pop culture, Tyler Durden: "I say never let me be complete, I say may I never be content, ... I say evolve, and let the chips fall where they may..."
Walking The Path is the blog of Paulo Coelho. The blog has been set up as "During the months of March, April, May and June, Paulo Coelho is traveling to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 1986. He is also holding surprise book signings - announced one day in advance - in some cities along the way, to have a chance to meet his readers."
Anyone walking their own spiritual path or who has been inspired by the works of Paul Coelho may find this blog of interest.The following article has some interesting concepts related to being in the Now: Tiny Amazon tribe challenges theory of language
The interesting part of this article is to me is "Because of their culture's ingrained emphasis on referring only to immediate, personal experiences, the tribesmen do not have words for any abstract concept, from colour to memory and even to numbers. There is no past tense, he says, because everything exists for them in the present. When it can no longer be perceived, it ceases to exist."
There are a couple of brief articles on Wikipedia about the Piraha, Pirahã people and Pirahã language.
I was recently contacted by someone who got a little more than they bargained with when in search of a "spell" they wanted to use with good intention. They met someone in a chat room who professed to be able to help, and it would seem they were covertly 'hypnotised' using NLP techniques. Part of the process involved the person offering to become the person's "master" and teach them what the person desired.
I would suggest caution with anyone, particularly a stranger who offers to be a teacher. In most esoteric circles I have moved it is considered bad form to offer to teach someone, let alone to bed their "master". This is not to be confused with someone who advertises themselves as a teacher, or recruiter for a group. However, those teachers and groups with good boundaries, who are genuinely involved in occult practices tend not to need to recruit through means such as verbal offers of becoming someone's teacher or master.
The issue in the situation I mention has little (I believe) to do with teaching or the occult. It has to do with power and control. It isn't even particularly "magical", although naturally someone using NLP for seduction and control type purposes may well like the illusion that they are a powerful magician capable of controlling someone psychically.
If looking for a teacher, look within first. Use your intuition. Learn from other's (external teachers) as you need to, but carefully maintain your boundaries, and stay conscious and aware of what any "teacher" is requiring from you. Self-responsibility, Self-growth, and Self-reliance are important traits in occult work. While group work and connection with others (the dance of Self with Other) is an important aspect of personal evolution in itself, it is also important to respect your own boundaries, as well as those of others.
While often exploration of the occult is dangerous, it is still worth being as 'safe' as possible, and be weary of the motivations of others towards us. The lure of power-over can be strong, and is often mistaken for being powerful.
For something a little bit different... this site provides a Mayan Oracle based around the Mayan calendar. You can get an oracle reading for your birth date, or for the current day.
Today (18th May 2006) is:
