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Being impulsive is a very bad idea in magic. Here is a tale.

It's been of note to several people --Violet Cabra has a few essays that go into detail about it from the American Neopagan perspective-- that the moral compass in many esoteric circles is dubious at best and it has the labels flipped to convenience at worst. This tends to be worse in esoteric groups and practitioners that work at the beginner level and requires no skill or specialized training. I suspect this is because at that level you are not really aware of what it really is what you are doing and you need a degree of attention to see the effects in one's life due to the limits of power you can draw from the sources of natural magic alone, among many other things.

For that reason in such groups, specially online, there are a lot of the suggestions to deal with inconvenient situations and people that amount to cursing them or straight up engaging in demonolatry. I, unfortunately, have had to deal with such people first hand at least a couple times. On one part because I have trouble keeping it shut, and also because I have a soft spot for eccentricity.

One of the reasons why I think this happens is because power really can be inebriating and soon enough witches, in the old christian sense, start thinking they can pull themselves out of and change any situation they like for their benefit without facing the consequences --until they don't.

The reason for this is karma, in the traditional hindu meaning. Whenever you curse someone, it goes deep into your sanchita karma, the back store karma you will deal with once you deal with all the karma that gave rise to your current incarnation, which is called prarabdha. Most people don't finish that process and make bigger stores of sanchita. Prarabdha is stored on the astral while sanchita is above that. That means, yes, you can cleanse your aura of the immediate blowback effects of your curse but you can't touch what went into your sanchita and deep within your being. You might wear a glove tu punch someone, but that doesn't stop you from becoming a jerk. So you might happily prance around until you learn the hard way the dynamics of karma don't agree with you and find yourself in a world of pain.

You see, karma is a sort of memory that holds you in place, the natural state of the soul isn't like that so we are here in Malkuth, the physical world, because of karma, you get rid of all of it and you are gone from incarnation --you don't have enough dense substance to hold into a body. That's the reason why some enlightened beings deliberately have a passion or a vice that generates enough karma for them to hang around.

There's a thing to karma though, and that is that it comes in a linked chain. If, for some reason or another an event or situation pulls on that chain, and suddenly your karma for this life receives an incoming delivery, it better be good karma or you are seriously screwed.

This happened, as I received word, to two persons that sent nasty curses my way. The first, a trained witch with full intent and awareness of cursing me violently seems to be in an unpleasant state after 3 months of sending very nasty energy at me every full moon. Ironically that is, because I told him that he shouldn't be suggesting newcomers to curse people, which he didn't like and down he went. The second one, an unintentional and untrained witch on an ego trip spent months on end fuming and fussing about me leaving her as my romantic partner --she got mugged at gunpoint and later developed hepatitis. The liver being the house of the will, I was not surprised it's misuse sickened the physical organ.

So folks, please don't go about cursing even though it really might look like a great idea or seems it has gone without consequence, it will come this life or the next. In a world of spiritual bullies also, please be protected, there's nasty things being thrown around all the time, even in non magical circles. If you can, an honest prayer of blessing for the perp helps cut the connection if you find yourself in that situation.

Current Mood: surprised
Current Location: Far away from the smoking crater

After a while of not offering these, I wanted to restart the series a little early with a pending question to Angelica who posted after I stopped checking the comments of the last divination offering.

With that said, if you have a question, I'll be happy to use geomancy or the tarot about it. That said, divination is like weather forecasting not a tablet of truth handed down from above. The conditions that divination taps into are in constant flux, the same as atmospheric pressure and the Moon. There might also be some profound readings, but by and large, given that most of us have ordinary lives, the readings have an ordinary tone. Only ask questions which you want to know the answers and please take the time to meditate on the reading.

Thanks for stopping by!

If you wish to make a donation for the readings in order to provide a cup of something warm to the diviner in turn you can do so through Paypal by clicking the pentacle.

Even though questions about medical, legal or spiritual issues are okay, within reason: any actions taken from the information of the readings are entirely the responsibility of the querent. Divination is part of a spiritual practice and do not replace nor pretend to be professional legal or medical advice nor spiritual or psychological counseling.

I wanted to share some thoughts that crystalized today on the verge of something that is happening within me, which I personally think ranks amongst the best changes I am (slowly) doing for myself but even at this stage feels like night and day. I was at the Theosophical Library again (which, btw JMG, had yours The Way of the Four Elements and The Book of Haatan on window display) and a book caught my eye. It was Joscelyn Godwin et al.'s book about the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, the one Paschal Beverly Randolph belonged to, and it was amazing to get into the mindset of a 19-20th century occult order.

One thing stood out to me, and it was a piece of advice I have been ignoring, or rather, misunderstanding its importance and meaning, just because I didn't know it was actually possible to be "grounded" and what that really meant. (Well, I don't but now I have the contour of an idea) This is vital for psychically sensitive people on the magical path because a lot(not all) of the material of modern training assumes everyone has their psychism shut-off and starts with practices to make the participant more sensitive, as a consequence, on a psychically sensitive person, it becomes unbalanced and can become very unbalanced if they already are, and probably are.

The relevant bit is this:

"PSYCHICAL CULTURE

A brief system of Soul Development, with Rules for Practical Occult Training, specially adapted to the Natural Requirement of the Western Members of the Exterior Circle of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor.

Introduction

The primary law to be remembered in all the every species of occult training is that of equilibrium. The scientific evolution of the latent powers of the human soul is just as much the result of methodical procedure and constant application as the training and education of the young. No sudden results can naturally be expected. If there are, they are premature and abnormal, and instead of cultivating them, they must be retarded, since the perfect harmony of equilibrium has been violently disturbed [already]. "

This makes perfect sense to me, someone that is sensitive, if trained in "Psychic Culture or occultism" without taking his already sensitive nature into account in ways he is probably unfamiliar with can experience something similar to a neurosis or a congestion of the nerves, mood swings, sleep cycle changes, headaches, etc. not because of his sensitiveness per se, but because he is probably over stimulated already in today's world because of it. I didn't know I was, both, psychically sensitive and overstimulated until I came to occultism.

Thus, I came up with a draft of a set of things to ask oneself to give an idea if you are sensitive (either from natural psychism, some types of neurodivergence (some types of adhd and bpd at least seem to make people psychically sensitive) or stress-trauma-induced)

- Do people around you tell you that your mood changes too often?
- Do you feel very happy or very sad but not much in-between?
- Do you find yourself on edge often?
- Do you, yourself, experience your emotions strongly?
- Do you find yourself knowing, doing or seeing things you later realize someone close to you or someone you follow was doing?
- Do you tend to be "disorganized"? In here I mean in physical cleanliness and order, not if you know where everything is, despite the mess.
- Do you find yourself making decisions based on connections that seem disparate?
- Do you get confused when you try to explain your reasoning to someone else when they ask how did you know/do that?
- Has it happened to you that you become overwhelmed in social situations to the point of discomfort and need to leave?
- Do you find it easier sometimes to explain things in metaphors or relate it to a different sense organ?
- Do you have a tendency to addiction, obession or avoidance?
- Is it hard for you to do things when you don't feel like it?
- Do people tell you that you are chaotic in your ways but you think it's others' who are too rigid?
- Do you see or used to see as a kid spirits/ghosts or other disembodied beings that others couldn't?
- Do you feel plants and animals "speak" in a subtle way?
- Do you feel embarrassed regularly after you said or did something while you were exalted?

Of course, this is just a set of questions to trigger a way of thinking about yourself, not a "personality test", so it is not the answer to them but the process of questioning that matters.

If someone is eager in taking magical training but thinks they might be psychic or sensitive, the good news is, you are probably going to be good at it, but you will have to wait on the good parts a bit, and that will be hard because its where you will probably feel comfortable with and is why you came to magic in the first place.

What we need is an emphasis on structure, because we probably lack it in comparison, but it is not an imposed and rigid structure what we need, but one that allows you to have a center that is always there to come back to. It is not about becoming a structured person, I really can't do that, it is about having enough structure so that you can move your psychism farther without its intensity sweeping up your feet, because that is what structure (and patience) is for the mind, a way of instilling into it the elemental Earth qualities and this is very important to have. Just like in taichi/qigong (well, the sample week I took of it) every time they move their energies out in front or above, they touch ground again, one way or the other, we need to do the same thing when we move our minds.

To me this is the hardest because it is in highly volatile situations that I can put my psychism to best use, I can see and intuit better than most people, so I thrive when what is required is quick thinking and attention to the moving things in front of me more than on habit, discipline or knowledge. On the contrary, on a context that requires structure and discipline I feel like a fish out of the water. The way to think about it is this: most people find the meditation and scrying parts of training foreign and incredibly boring; slow and not knowing what to do with them besides slogging through them and takes at least a few weeks or months to see results. It is likely those are your favorite practices; they come naturally and feel familiar and perhaps you already have your own techniques but didn't know that's what it was. On the contrary, journaling, a routine, planning, and finishing things seems incredibly hard, tedious and a way to take all of the fun out of the process, when for other people that part is easy and is what eventually gives them the confirmation that magic is real and takes them further into the work. Well, just as people with those skills need to train their minds in sensitiveness, we need to train our minds in resilience, strength and most importantly, how to regulate it, because we are unconsciously used to tune into something, letting it move with the environment and then reading that movement as intuitions. To gain control of your psychism with structure is power --for as much as it feels like it will bring you boredom and death (it only will feel like that if you try to become a structured person instead of just adding a little more structure at a time).

So, timing, a little planning and routine, exercise that makes you sweat and good daily habits, heck, basically anything that brings a stable daily-life, need to be taken as seriously as the spiritual practices. At least for me, it was really odd to understand that to engage safely and powerfully in magic you need to get good at the mundane, and especially if you are sensitive. But it really does, in fact, if you do the above, the farther you get into magical progress the more in control your psychism will be; the more you will want it to shut down and at the same time the mundane feels amazing and those little things you hated now are the place you come to rest to and recover for another trip into the mysteries. It is almost as if there is a karmic-need to perceive the subtle so the only choice you really have is to perceive it in a chaotic way as life throws it at you or to take control of it and make it happen how you want it to happen for a life in equilibrium.

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Location: Naf (Malkuth)
Current Music: MarcniUnion-Weightless

Some months ago I had the opportunity of learning an energy healing technique as well as receiving the first initiation at a distance and the next one in person based on the teachings of the Modern Order of Essenes which come from a set of practices that JMG had shared on his journal. My first thought upon reading that we are able to provide the spiritual basis for healing to another person really was an honestwell, that's rad. If you put some thought into, the fact that you can contact divine energies and make them flow through you and away into another person to prompt their bodies and minds to heal and balance themselves faster than otherwise, earning it the well-deserved label of spiritual healing, is actually quite outstanding.

Let me put this into perspective. In our modern age there is a well-established medical mafia, and in the U.S it holds the sole right to provide medical care and advice and they are willing to defend it with their teeth and nails if need be. Understandably so, since people that hope to work on what once was a very rewarding profession have to work their raw rumps for years to get a license as a General Practitioner, and more to get a specialty, which is for most doctors something to do if you want to be respected. All this in a goal-oriented society that has succumbed to manic money making as if their next breath depended on it -- only to be slapped with incessant regulations and very little autonomy of practice. With this sort of pressure it is just natural that there is a very strong emotional reaction to claims that there exist other modalities of healing that are not as pigheadedly material, which range from frenzied jealousy to visceral contempt, more so when the people that claim healing abilities acquired it with much less hammering of information into their skulls --because that is what covers most of basic medical education these days. This attitude stems from the notion that it is only the intellect, and to be fair, only the rational side of the intellect, that is worth cultivating when it comes to health, and on the surrogation of healing to chemicals more than on the skills of a healer and the natural ability of the body to heal itself. However, that it is understandable doesn't mean it is justified, since there are many other ways of healing than the pharmaceutical or surgical therapies.

Don't get me wrong, pharmaceutical and surgical treatments bring healing and indeed can save your life in a world where people just keep on getting sicker and they still stand as one of the greatest advances on the field and should not be ignored when necessary, but it seems to me that competent and ethical practitioners trained in them are ever more scarce in the United States and elsewhere as the years go on. With that lack of competence also comes a sense of arrogance towards patients and an overconfidence that comes from a socially perceived notion of accomplishment rather than the hard earned merit of skill. This attitude tends to make going to the doctor feel as if they are doing you a favor instead being taken care of. That's one of the things the insurance model does to the profession, given that doctors don't have to earn the respect of their patients as they once did, since a network just keeps feeding them clients and they are too worried repaying their education to care. All this can make the experience feel "standardized", alienating and void, in the same way that a meal from a fast food chain feels, that is, done by people that don't care or even hate their jobs following a recipe with ingredients from god knows where, but hey the nutritional facts are slapped somewhere so it must be good for you. Right?

That is why I find alternative modalities of healing so appealing, because they see you more as a complete human being rather than a few numbers on an overly expensive lab test or what have you. I just find it increasingly fascinating that someone by feeling my pulse, listening to my breath and examining subtle points on my body, can make a diagnosis and see how I am doing even before disease manifests. I also like when they ask me about my life and how am I doing emotionally and other aspects of what being human involves because as the Buddhists call it, we are a nāmarūpa, a body-mind, not two separate things, or more likely as many things as there are specialties. I've come to term this tendency the Butchered Chicken Model; a drumstick here, a thigh there and it doesn't really matter how all plays together, the chicken will actually not go and graze happily on the fields, because it's death. When it comes to a living being, the sum of the individual parts really does not make the whole. The vice of dissecting the body with endless abstractions and theories happens to have that effect on people and practitioners. When I am putting my health on the hands of someone I would like them to be skillful at working the body and how to listen to it, not be up-to-date on odd corner-case diseases that happen way out there or medical trivia that serve more as a form of entertainment than anything else, unless you are a sub-sub-sub specialist that sees a few patients from all over the world. Fortunately, there are many practitioners that take their profession with humanity, but the tendency is bad enough that looking for alternatives is very popular these days, specially the ones that focus on well-being instead of urgent and critical care.

This is where the teachings of the Modern Order of Essenes come into play. The Healing Hands, even though it is a basic technique that doesn't require excruciating training, I have seen can provide spiritual healing that eventually manifests as mental, emotional and physical well-being, and in some cases dramatically so. The thing is that it requires skills that only practice in some aspects of esoteric training can give you, and sitting at a desk cramming information cannot. It is with the help of these aspects that spiritual healing becomes more powerful with time and practice instead of just laying your hands in the air.

Developing these capacities is part of the training of the Modern Essenes and include the recognition of higher spiritual realities, the cultivation of compassion for all beings around you as their knowledge lectures say, by "walking for the benefit of all things", the development of the higher functions of the mind in meditation, the habit of relaxation to ease stress, the tonification of the body and the energy system through light self-massage and ritual and the capacities of listening to it through kinesiology. It is with these skills that the aspirant takes himself to a place where he or she heals himself and can help others heal themselves. The more the healer cultivates them, the more powerful the channeling of energy from the Divine and into someone else becomes, and it is then that spiritual healing happens, by restoring the connection to Spirit.

After practicing these techniques on me and on several people at a distance and in person I have had the chance to see how this takes place in the healing process. One of the first things I noticed is the importance of the participation of the person requesting spiritual healing. According to the MOE teachings, underlying every conditions there is a spiritual disconnection and an accompanying elemental imbalance. Since all healing is spiritual healing once this connection is restored, the blockages start to give way to health until they reach your body, passing through your emotions, thought process and intuition. If someone requests spiritual healing and forgets about it for the duration of that period, he will benefit to some degree but if he engages in an active participation on the process the results come much stronger, so guiding them through the basics of relaxation, self-examination and compassion can take spiritual healing into a whole 'nother level. Otherwise, it is like trying to make a car run smooth and steady on the curves of life without having good tires, a well-greased engine and a balanced driver at the wheel. Sure, a polishing is always good, but it won't last unless the whole system is engaged. And that is the thing that has to change, for health is not a commodity but something we have to work for constantly if we want to break The Cycle of Disease. It can be as simple as having them take more walks, eat more fresh food or learning to relax.

Something noteworthy on my quest through spiritual healing is that once you help other people it becomes obvious that it is indeed the Divine the heals, not yourself, and it is important to keep it in mind. The process of becoming a spiritual healer allows you to become a conduit for the energy rather than using your own. There are reasons for this. The first one is that, due to the nature of the energy body, we want to avoid passing on impressions to the consultant and it's inverse, keeping the impressions of the consultant yourself. To work this out a constant connection to the Divine is important, as well as doing a simple cleansing ritual before and after providing spiritual healing. This keeps things clean for everybody. I personally do a small prayer before and after to the deity I am the Healing Hands of requesting for help and guidance as well as thanks and it does make a big difference on how the energy manifests.

Furthermore, when the consultant requests general healing I find that when I activate my hands and try to feel the person I get a similar feeling to when I am in a room and can sense their vibes. If they feel angry or anxious I direct the healing into that; if I feel them depressed and with a lack of vitality I color the energy towards that; if I pass my hands a few inches away from the skin and along their bodies and there is a spot where I feel "static" I direct there. So it is possible, even though it is the Divine that heals, to be guided and feel what the person or animal needs the most at the moment by fine tuning the energy your are directing towards them.

There are some other things that are useful to know when undergoing, or performing spiritual healing. The first that I have noticed pertains distance healing. Every time that I have performed this energetic healing after guiding the person through a basic relaxation exercise and having them aware when the energy flows, they feel the energy almost physically which tells me that it went through all the way down from the spiritual level of healing to the etheric level of healing. Talking with some other practitioners it seems to be that is the case more generally. When it is not possible to do that, the Divine seems to trigger situations in which the consultant finds the corresponding opportunities for healing. With the people that are on my list, I have received messages of things changing in their lives, activities taken, including visits to doctors after avoiding them or finding particularly good ones as well as rash relationships taking a better tone. I assume this is due to the fact that the connection happens only at the astral level of being and then it takes shape there, whereas if the person is focused, or present, the energy becomes denser. Visualization does help too, I try to feel and see the person and see and feel the energy coming in through my left hand, moving through me and being sent through the right hand seeing the person now in front of me more vital, radiant and healthy. When at a distance, saying their name out loud also creates better rapport, if available, as well as treating the healing energy going through you with reverence rather than pride.

There were a couple of cases that are worth mentioning alongside with the care needed given the reaction I've seen when the consultant is in a fragile state of health, has a chronic condition or is of advanced age. I offered spiritual healing to a woman of 70+ years old that had severe arthritis on the hands and some recent digestive issues. A few moments after doing the process she started burping, having hiccups and a little bit of nausea. Even though these didn't last long and she felt better after half an hour or so, the digestive problems gone, I think it is better to start gently to avoid these side-effects, or to have them happen more slowly. Similarly, a young woman going through a bad cold, general weakness and headaches, immediately after performing the process she felt "things coming out of her", energy moving I presume, dizziness and a little after she felt a mild burning sensation underneath her skin from the energy channels opening up. This lasted just a few minutes and self-massage and rest took care of it. Once this was over she felt tired, headache gone and went to sleep to wake-up rested in a better condition. Again, being gentle at first might've eased this process, since restoring the energy flow after it has been shut by stress and disease can be too energetic at once. So far, I have only seen this happen when the Healing Hands are performed in person and only in a few cases where the conditions are meant. This is also why I suspect the teachings mention a way to show them how to do self-massage on themselves.

Lastly, there was the case of Gulliver the axolotl from Rhode Island. I saw him shy and unmotivated on his fish tank. I offered a blessing using the Blessing Walk, to which he responded by opening his eyes with curiosity. After that, I decided trying the Healing Hands on him, after which he slammed his body towards the glass and did a little dance. So, animals also seem to love it! After close to a year of practicing and performing the methods of the Modern Order of Essenes, these are some of my thoughts and I am eager to keep learning them and seeing the effects of a modality of healing that puts an emphasis on restoring the connection to Spirit.

The Modern Order of Essenes teaches spiritual healing as part of a religious practice. It does not teach any medical modality. No initiate of the Order, except one who has earned the legal right to do so in some other context, is authorized to diagnose, treat, or prescribe for any medical condition. None of this should ever be used in an attempt to claim that Essene healing, or anything else mentioned in this essay or the training course of the Order, is a medical treatment.

Current Mood: energetic

I've been practicing the MOE material for a while now and one of the first things that I noticed is that I was also getting more vibrant and healthier as a result, as the lectures promised.

I am opening this space to discuss and share your experiences with me and others. This can be as a kind of follow up for the condition you are asking spiritual healing for, to tweak some aspects of it and to share ways you or I have found useful when undergoing spiritual healing to see how different people with different stories and bodies respond to spiritual energy.

The one thing I request from you is that during this period I would like to hear from you at least once or twice. This is not only for convenience --I have found out that spiritual healing works much better if there is any form of action on both sides and keeping the conversation is a way to keep the engagement up and actually, the more you do, the more you will bring down the energy into a more defined form in your life.

Once more thing, I won't be accepting anonymous request anymore, so please log in or sign with your name or moniker.

Current Mood: amused

If you have a question, I'll be happy to use geomancy or the tarot about it. That said, divination is like weather forecasting not a tablet of truth handed down from above. The conditions that divination taps into are in constant flux, the same as atmospheric pressure and the Moon. There might also be some profound readings, but by and large, given that most of us have ordinary lives, the readings have an ordinary tone. Only ask questions which you want to know the answers and please take the time to meditate on the reading.

Thanks for stopping by!

If you wish to make a donation for the readings in order to provide a cup of something warm to the diviner in turn you can do so through Paypal by clicking the pentacle.

Hello All!

Short announcement. Divinations that were pending from the last couple of weeks are now posted or will be when my signal gets back and it picks it up. Given the situation I've tried to make them more elaborate than usual and of course comments or questions are welcome as always. And again, my apologies, I forgot I had used the same post I did last time, and it messed with my schedule. Monday, when I tried to get back to it, the Godzilla cluster at work decided it was a good time to break while I was on-call and the rubble is still bouncing. Not making it up, that's how we call the really, really big machine! Before I knew it, it was already time to catch my flight... So again, my apologies to all that waited unnecessarily.

Thank you all,
Augusto

Current Mood: embarrassed
Current Location: A hotel room thousands of miles from where I was yesterday

Quite a few people ordered, and are just receiving, the set of raw materials for preparing their own set of cell salts and since many are about to start the process it would be a good idea to have a space to discuss or ask other people questions about the process of creating them and their use, so we can use this space for that.

Please sign with an identifier if you are commenting without an account, otherwise I'll delete the comment, and let's do our best to keep it civil and respectful.

If you are looking for preparation instructions you can find them here

Later, I will edit this entry with links to reading material for easy access

Pictures are not only welcome, but encouraged :-) You can do so by replacing "url", leave the quotes, with the url of your image if you upload it somewhere. Just by sure your editor is set to HTML. <img src="url" />

Current Mood: excited
Current Location: The Lab
Current Music: Thunder

I've seen comments about people interested in Linux as an alternative to modern OS's, either as way to distance themselves from the commercial options which take control of as much of the computer as profits dictates or to improve performance of their hardware as Linux is much less resource hungry than it's modern counter parts. So, what is Linux? It is an open-source operating system that started when the mad genius of Linus Torvalds wrote its 'kernel', the inner most part of the operating system that handles very low-level stuff. You can think of this part of the OS as the equivalent of the autonomic nervous system in the human body --that part of you that is in charge of regulating that there is never a single milliliter of fluid in the wrong place; keeps your heart beating and your lungs pumping, while we use our time to figure out what's up with living. The kernel does the same for the machine, so while it takes care of the vitals, it allows more software to be written at a higher level on top of it so that the programmer doesn't have to worry about what is not needed for his purposes as the OS interfaces with it behind the scenes.

The kernel of an operating system, given it's complexity and use of programming languages with specific purposes, it is not usually the thing people focus on creating, so when Richard Stallman --the giant of open-source software that kickstarted the whole movement with his MIT spawned Free Software Foundation-- had his operating system GNU (Gnu Not Unix) coming hot off the compilers, which lacked a kernel, it was an obvious step after the two met at a conference in Europe given they both agreed on the importance of having free software. And they were right. One of the main reasons why the internet and it's edge isn't today some demon-spawn version of AOL or some other corporate nightmare offered as a service is because Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds et al stepped up and created infrastructure that was accessible to everyone.

So we've got GNU/Linux which makes up a full OS meant to compete and be compatible with Unix, another operating system of the time which was proprietary, though later just referred to as Linux to refer to the whole thing. An OS, in the strict sense, however, doesn't have all the commodities that we are used to, like a graphical user interface. You can think of it as the bundle of nerves and organs that make up the human body, but without the enclosing muscles, skin and bones. The complete, functioning, "human being", a complete OS that can be used by someone today without hardware or software specialized knowledge, in the Linux world, is called a distribution (distro) or flavor of Linux and the most popular and user friendly of all the flavors of Linux is called Ubuntu.

Below you can find instructions on how to install it on a USB either to try to make an old computer work, making your current one a little better instead of getting a new one or just because you want to get a little distance from the current options, which are getting worse and bloated. You would be impressed how much faster a cheap laptop runs with it when one supporting the latest Windows would barely crawl. As a matter of fact, Richard Stallman does that on principle and gets the hardware that is approved by the Respect Your Freedoms organization. From their site: The "Respect Your Freedom" certification program encourages the creation and sale of hardware that will do as much as possible to respect your freedom and your privacy, and will ensure that you have control over your device. There are very funny pictures online of Stallman being compared to the modern, entry-level, would-be software engineers sporting 4 screens and a GPU powerful enough to train neural networks, being used to run a text editor and Instagram when he writes the OS that powers big chunks of the internet on a cheap white laptop, which is a lesson that we can make use of when it comes to productivity and the use of resources.

Instructions

Preparation: Get a media that can store the OS and you can plug or insert to your computer, 8GB is more than enough and common these days for USB drives. Make sure that the information on the computer you are going to install Ubuntu on is backed up somewhere as well the the media because it's going to get whipped in step 3.

Step 1: Download the version of Ubuntu that has long-term support (LTS). This is the version that is well tested, and so recommended, contrary to the latest release which has all the new features. This file you downloaded is called an image. You have to "burn" this image into a USB or a DVD to make it an "installation media" that will prompt you during the process wherever you plug it in, which is not the same as just copying the file into it, this makes the media bootable.

Step 2: Once you have downloaded the image and you have your USB or CD/DVD available put it in the computer so that we can burn the image into it. For this, we can use Balena Etcher which supports all platforms and just makes you drag and drop the image and select where to burn it. After you've downloaded and installed Balena, open it up, select the Ubuntu image you downloaded, tell it where to burn it to (your USB or CD/DVD), click "Flash" and wait. Once it finishes, you have a bootable USB. That means, you can plug it into a computer and have the USB use the computer's hardware to boot and load the Ubuntu installation wizard or just look around a simplified version of Ubuntu.

Step 3: Make sure that the installation media is inside or plugged in the computer and then turned off. Turn it on again and you should see the Ubuntu welcome screen that will prompt you through the rest of the installation process or looking around Ubuntu if you don't want to install it yet. If not, you might need to press F12 while rebooting and look for boot order section, in there you will see your installation media, select it or move it up in the boot order list to the first choice. Save and exit and it will boot into it.

More detailed instructions can be found here: How to install Ubuntu

Note: This general, three step process serves for installing any OS from Windows and Mac, or Ubuntu and Kali to the strange land of satirical Hannah Montana Linux (I am not making this last one up). However, the more specialized distribution you have the more setup it will require. Other popular versions you could try are MX Linux and LinuxLite for old hardware or Kali Linux if you want to have access to security and pen testing tools.

More pictures of Stallman programming in odd places with cheap laptops can be found, in typical internet humor at: https://rms.sexy/

Edit: Apparently Stallman is involved in quite the controversy. I was not aware of it until it was mentioned in Ecosophia and interestingly enough it is likely related to the Epstein scandal. As far as it concerns me, it looks like he spoke in the wrong moment. He resigned from MIT and the Free Software Foundation after he "downplayed" the role of alleged connections of MIT faculty and Epstein, including the famed Marvin Minsky. Soon after, the sensationalist press went against the man and uncovered things from his past which ended up in defamation case and several online opinions and websites for and against Stallman. It's unfortunate, the man seems, from the few videos I've seen of him, a good intentioned person that was in the wake of Physics professor Walter Lewin's scandal at the same institution years prior. Today he is dealing with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer of the lymphatic system and he seems optimistic about the prognosis. He was the person that first showed me how philosophical ideas can be applied to the real world in a relevant way when my mathematics teacher recommended we watch a conference he gave in Spanish about software that is libre, not gratis.

I found this site with the accusations and Stallman's response

And here you can find a video of Stallman at the University of Calgary

Current Mood: thoughtful

If you have a question, I'll be happy to use geomancy or the tarot about it. That said, divination is like weather forecasting not a tablet of truth handed down from above. The conditions that divination taps into are in constant flux, the same as atmospheric pressure and the Moon. There might also be some intense readings, but by and large, given that most of us have ordinary lives, the readings have an ordinary tone. Only ask questions which you want to know the answers.

Thanks for stopping by!

If you wish to make a donation for the readings in order to provide a cup of something warm to the diviner in turn you can do so through Paypal by clicking the pentacle.

Even though questions about medical, legal or spiritual issues are okay, within reason: any actions taken from the information of the readings are entirely the responsibility of the querent and do not replace nor pretend to be professional legal or medical advice nor spiritual or psychological counseling.

Current Mood: determined

I've been practicing the MOE material for a while now and one of the first things that I noticed is that I was also getting more vibrant and healthier as a result, as the lectures promised.

I am opening this space to discuss and share your experiences with me and others. This can be as a kind of follow up for the condition you are asking spiritual healing for, to tweak some aspects of it and to share ways you or I have found useful when undergoing spiritual healing to see how different people with different stories and bodies respond to spiritual energy.

That said, there is something that I need to change given the amount of people and the effort required for the operation. If you are part of the list I will keep you for 21 days and after that there will be a hold until an update is given. This is not only for convenience --I have found out that spiritual healing works much better if there is any form of action on both sides and keeping the conversation is a way to keep the engagement up and actually, the more you do, the more you will bring down the energy into a more defined form.

Current Mood: determined

I've been practicing the MOE material for a while now and one of the first things that I noticed is that I was also getting more vibrant and healthier as a result, as the lectures promised.

With that in mind I thought it was a great win-win-win. The consultant wins, my initiator wins, and I win; so I am opening this space to discuss and share your experiences with me and others should you be willing. This can be as a kind of follow up for the condition you are asking spiritual healing for, to tweak some aspects of it and to share ways you or I have found useful when undergoing spiritual healing of the Essene kind and as a research project to see how different people with different stories and bodies respond to spiritual energy.

That said, there is something that I need to change given the amount of people and the effort required for the operation. If you are part of the list I will keep you for 21 days and after that there will be a hold until an update is given. This is not only for convenience --I have found out that spiritual healing works much better if there is any form of action on both sides and keeping the conversation is a way to keep the engagement up and actually, the more you do, the more you will bring down the energy into a more defined form.

If you practice the MOE Healing Hands, what do you think of expanding and sharing the list?

Current Mood: energetic
Current Music: Light, rhythmic music

And one more.

If you have a question, I'll be happy to use geomancy or the tarot about it. That said, divination is like weather forecasting not a tablet of truth handed down from above. The conditions that divination taps into are in constant flux, the same as atmospheric pressure and the Moon. There might also be some intense readings, but by and large, given that most of us have ordinary lives, the readings have an ordinary tone. One more note, it is very common for people to look for comfort and hope in divination, in my experience that is a bad idea, so only ask questions to which you really want to know the answer.

Thanks for stopping by!

If you wish to make a donation for the readings in order to provide a cup of something warm to the diviner in turn you can do so through Paypal by clicking the pentacle.

Even though questions about medical, legal or spiritual issues are okay, within reason: any actions taken from the information of the readings are entirely the responsibility of the querent and do not replace nor pretend to be professional legal or medical advice nor spiritual or psychological counseling.

Current Mood: peaceful
Current Music: Sounds of Isha-Rising

Rejoice! Well I am rejoicing, for I've recovered some of my peace of mind from the past nightmarish six months. So I am opening another one of this and this time I'll be doing it a bit differently. In the past it has taken me quite a while to get back to you with your readings and I noticed, and my oracle suggested too, that I should reply faster in order for the connection to remain fresher, and also... it's nicer of me. So, here we go again.

If you have a question, I'll be happy to use geomancy or the tarot about it. That said, divination is like weather forecasting not a tablet of truth handed down from above, so take the advice I give you through the reading as such. The conditions that divination taps into are also in constant flux, the same as atmospheric pressure and the Moon so do not take the readings as something written in adamantium or what have you. One of the sources of misunderstanding in divination is to overblow things because an "oracle" and all seeing eye said. There might be some intense readings, but by and large, given that most of us have ordinary lives, the readings have an ordinary tone. So keep that in mind, basically the tone of a readings matches, quite exactly in fact, the tone of the situation. So, say, the card Death doesn't mean the same in a situation about turning in a project as in another about a bedridden patient!

If you wish to make a donation for the readings in order to provide a cup of something warm to the diviner in turn and to keep this offering going on you can do so through Paypal by clicking the pentacle.

Even though questions about medical or legal or spiritual issues are okay, within reason:
Any actions taken from the information of the readings are entirely the responsibility of the querent and do not replace nor pretend to be professional legal, medical advice nor spiritual or psychological counseling.

Be sure to ask questions to which you want to know the answer. Also, divination doesn't always tell you about things you already know about, actually, it almost never does! My suggestion is that you question yourself, especially on things that make you think or flinch if any, and consider the points mentioned from a stance of possibility not of confirmation bias or it's diametrical opposite, falsification bias.

These offerings that I give are geared towards helping you by finding a way of incorporating the replies of the oracle into your own personal life, so please leave a little bit of background and I'll be happy to discuss in the comments to compensate for the lack of physical contact, to create rapport with your situation and thus provide more useful readings.

Thanks for stopping by!

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: The divining room
Current Music: The sound of a fridge, late at night

And here is another one. If you have a question, I'll be happy to use geomancy or the tarot about it. That said, keep in mind that divination is like weather forecasting, not a tablet of truth handed down from above, so take the advice I give you through the reading as such. The conditions that divination taps into are also in constant flux, the same as atmospheric pressure and the Moon.

Instructions Please leave your question stated below with a little bit of background about your situation. I would appreciate very much if you replied back to it so that we can both work towards making it useful for you and also for me to refine my divining skills. If you want to know how your week or month or the likes is going to look like or you want to gain insight into a situation, I'll be happy to assist you.

Please note Be sure to ask questions to which you want to know the answer. Also, divination doesn't always tell you about things you already know about, actually, it almost never does! My suggestion is that you question yourself, especially on things that make you think or flinch if any, and consider the points mentioned from a stance of possibility not of confirmation bias or it's diametrical opposite, falsification bias. Any actions taken from the information of the readings are entirely the responsibility of the querent and do not replace nor pretend to be professional legal, medical or psychological counseling.

If you wish to make a donation for the readings, though it is not required, you can do so through Paypal by clicking the pentacle.

Some time has passed so here is another divination offering. If you have a question, I'll be happy to use geomancy or the tarot about it. That said, divination is like weather forecasting not a tablet of truth handed down from above, so take the advice I give you through the reading as such. The conditions that divination taps into are also in constant flux, the same as atmospheric pressure and the Moon.

Instructions Please leave a little bit of background about your situation or, if you practice magic, or are up for an experiment do the following. Take note of the time and place where you are and leave it in the comments. Take a moment to put both your mind and and your body into the present moment, feel your weight, your thoughts and your environment, become present. Perform your banishing ritual if you have one, if not, an opening prayer is enough. Before you imagine a door with a sacred sign for you and the time and place of your location inscribed in golden letters. In your imagination, stand up, walk and open the door. You have entered my private divining room, and yes, it has multiple rooms and this one is just for you. In the room there is a table with a red cloth and a deck of cards. Focus on your query or situation and shuffle the cards there. Leave the deck for me to pick up and you can go out the door, close it and return to your body. Close with another banishing or closing prayer or clap once loudly.

Any actions taken from the information of the readings are entirely the responsibility of the querent and do not replace nor pretend to be professional legal, medical or psychological counseling.

Please noteBe sure to ask questions to which you want to know the answer. Also, divination doesn't always tell you about things you already know about, actually, it almost never does! My suggestion is that you question yourself, especially on things that make you think or flinch if any, and consider the points mentioned from a stance of possibility not of confirmation bias or it's diametrical opposite, falsification bias.

If you wish to make a donation for the readings, though it is not required, you can do so through Paypal by clicking the pentacle.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: The divining room

A tree full of amulets against the Evil Eye

Evil Eye is one of those things in daily life that exhibit a clear magical effect --the eyes and thoughts of others directed at you when they turn into jealousy, envy, anger or just plain attraction. The Kabbalists call it ayin horé, the Italians maloccio, the Scottish droj shuil, the Mexicans mal de ojo, the Romans oculus malus etc. People with sensitive nervous systems know this very well and if you start paying attention, you can almost tell what is happening when it is at work. Let's take the example of a compliment about your new charming piece of jewelry. What is the other person thinking as she does this innocent act? Many times, it is a genuine comment, but many other times it isn't actually a compliment but a reaction to mask the actual feelings of jealousy that we all feel from time to time when we see something that we like or would like to have. There is a distinctive quality, for example, between jealousy and a compliment and that is the direction the energy is taking. One gives and the other draws.

It is the latter that we need to treat with some care, and more generally with noxious energies and foreign desires, for the same reasons that we wash our hands before eating. It is not a big thing by itself but add it up or make someone really, really angry and you might lose your keys, hit your little toe against the furniture's corner or even get a headache. One way or another, especially when someone is fuming about, they might be doing unintentional magic against you as their thoughts are quite literally calling on you --calling you by name, and by image-- even if so in the split second that happens in between two moments of self-awareness and without real ill intentions.

This has happened to me too many times to ignore. I lost one of my Tarot decks to a barista that approached me, looked at it with some clear fascination when I was offering readings at my favorite bar and a few hours later it was gone. I lost the deck as soon as I went out and I was sure it was in my bag. It is as if someone called its name and jumped right out of it!

What can we do about this? It is one of the most widespread bits of folk magic in Mexico that wearing a red string of yarn or similar on the left wrist or ankle, or both, prevents those energies from hitting you and your possessions directly. The same piece of string, we attach to street facing plants to prevent them from withering out of the jealousy of neighbors and others; to newborn babies and children specially, to protect them from receiving this energy during their development with all the attention they get from all sorts of people; to our things so that in our daily errands they stay tied up to us and even pets.

I don't happen to know why such as simple charm can have such an effect, but it certainly seems it does. I have them on me and on my backpack for example and ever since I do, I also noticed something interesting. People just look at them less, as if they became invisible to a degree or as if it absorbs it, cutting the connection. The fact that the color red is the lowest frequency on the visible spectrum might give us some insight as to why this is. We could attempt to draw some symbolism from the knots and the circle too. Circles and closed loops contain, so do knots, belts and girdles for example. The path the Sun traces around the sky ties us into existence; the magician's circle protects him during his operations; a hairband prevents hair from becoming a mess; and in this case it creates a protection from the weight of people's eyes and minds.

Its origins are equally mysterious. Mexico been the deeply syncretic country it is I don't think it would be easy to trace it in its modern form, if we can point at single version at all --these days you can see red strung wrists and ankles from CEO offices to the most distant villages in the middle of Oaxaca as well as on Lionel Messi's wrist and several other celebrities. Some say it's origins can be traced to the Jewish story of Rachel; some others say that the story was a later addition ascribed to the folk practice in order to Judaize it since the red string tied around one's finger is mentioned in the Tosefta, in the Mishnah, Shabbat 7 Halacha 1, as a custom of the gentiles and therefore not allowed for Jews to imitate. In its present form you can find it sold as souvenirs near the Western Wall with little pieces of paper that have the Ben Porat prayer printed on them or anywhere else in the world in esoteric shops and the likes.

A red string showing the myth of Rachel's tomb

The Bible tells the story of the matriarch Rachel, wife of Jacob who gave birth, after many barren years, to two sons, Benjamin and Joseph to which's end she passed away from this world and lies buried on the roads in between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Complicated cultural and historical reasons aside, today people wear pieces of string that have been tied around Rachel's tomb seven times as a charm for protection and so do many other people outside of Judaism. If they are related or not, it seems hard to tell but today it is widely used among the people that follow the traditional guidance since, for example, it is said that on a baby too much eye can cause crying or even fever. I don't have a baby but reading sites about "what to do when people look at your baby" or "how to diagnose evil eye on your kid" suggest that it is a thing. It certainly has been my experience.

There are many versions, the ones I know are more or less variations of the same. My school has it that the color red connects you to your ancestry by blood and thus it carries the full weight of your lineage; another way of seeing it is that it is the color of the planet Mars and so on. There are versions with little blue eyes on them, given that it is harder to commit something hidden if you are being watched; there are versions with seven knots around the string or the string tied with six successive knots after the first one that unites the ends. You can probably knock yourself out about it, but here are some instructions of how I do it.

Get yourself a piece of red cotton yarn, any other red string or a red ribbon. I have found that plain, unbraided threads work better to keep the circle symbolism. You can add beads to it, deer eye seeds or other amulets that you associate with protection. Traditionally the thread needs to be tied by somebody else on you, or you need to tie it for somebody else. It is said that it is more powerful if your mother or grandmother does it, but I have done it by calling on the Mother Earth or just by reciting an incantation and tying it myself with good effect. There really isn't much to it, you just grab the string and tie it on the left wrist or ankle. Some other people put a ribbon covering the hara the area about two inches below the navel, like a belt around the waist for children and curanderos and traditional dancers wear a red belt in the same area for a similar purpose. You can use symbolism on top of it, 7 knots on the Kabbalistic version mentioned above, yo can just tie it normally and do seven knots in the end, or three knots, one per ray of the Three Rays of Light for example; or even the union of opposites into a single whole, etc.

Here are some sample incantations:

"By the power of Jesus Christ may this thread keep you from all evil, now and always. Amen"

"By your mother, grandmother and all your lineage; by the power of your father and your grandfather may you be always protected by their vigil. Ometeotl"

"Dear St. Michael by your might and your sword, protect me."

The Ben Porat or other protective prayer can be prayed over too.

If the string falls, get rid of it by burning it, burying it if it is a natural fiber or throwing it away in the trash or on the sewer. That usually happens when it is already 'done'. If for some other reason you want to take it off or replace it, don't use metal to cut it. Either break it, untie it or burn a bit of it so it comes loose and then dispose of it. As with all magic, it works even better if you yourself abstain from gossiping or murmuring badly about someone but neither of the points above are something that needs extra caution or concern.

Overall, I have found this bit of research fascinating and I hope it helps get an idea of its traditions and how to do it. There seems to be more avenues to it than I expected, and its history seems to go very far back and across cultures. With that in mind I hope you can enrich your practice and that it be helpful against the constant panopticon we live on today. So there you go, the read thread. Let me know how it works for you if you do!

Current Mood: peaceful
Current Music: Light in Babylon - Badarech El Hayam

Another month has passed so here is another divination offering. If you have a question, I'll be happy to use geomancy or the tarot about it. That said, divination is like weather forecasting not a tablet of truth handed down from above, so take the advice I give you through the reading as such. The conditions that divination taps into are also in constant flux, the same as atmospheric pressure and the Moon. Any actions taken from the information of the readings are entirely the responsibility of the querent and do not replace nor pretend to be professional legal, medical or spiritual counseling.

Be sure to ask questions to which you want to know the answer. Also, divination doesn't always tell you about things you already know about, actually, it almost never does! My suggestion is that you question yourself, especially on things that make you think or flinch if any, and consider the points mentioned from a stance of possibility not of confirmation bias or it's diametrical opposite, falsification bias.

These offerings that I give are geared towards helping you by finding a way of incorporating the replies of the oracle into your own personal life, so please leave a little bit of background and I'll be happy to discuss in the comments to compensate for the lack of physical contact, to create rapport with your situation and thus provide more useful readings.

I'll be replying to questions a week or so after New Year. Thanks for stopping by!

If you wish to make a donation for the readings, though it is not required, you can do so through Paypal by clicking the pentacle.

Does the covid vaccine cause heart attacks and other serious diseases in a considerable amount?

The amount of Pobl's (people) really makes for an interesting pattern, since there are four of them of which the Llawenydds is the same amount. The rest of the figures are Merch (girl), Carchar (prison) and Gwyn as Left Witness, Judge and Right Witness. It is strange to see such an emphasis on Pobl but it makes sense since this is a reading for a public health matter. For this reason, I have not interpreted the triplicities the same way that I would do on a normal shield chart at all but just the judge and witnesses.

Overall the situation is hard to tell from the perspective the people because of Carchar and perhaps deliberately concealed, it is an unfavorable figure. Merch is unfavorable with unfavorable figures and tells me the situation has been manipulated heavily and it is also concealing something else.

In a statistical significant sense, it seems that the serious side effects of the covid vaccines are big enough to be considerable, more than it is accepted, but the amount of how much that would be seems to be perceived greater than it is, given that statistical casualties don't necessarily mean personal tragedy but it seems to be a really serious matter nonetheless.

Llawenydd is bad for secrecy, and we have four, specifically on the position of the world and the past. I wonder if this is due to the fact that vaccine side effects have become hard to hide from the people and that some clarity about what they actually do is starting to come up. Things seem to be changing considerably on that aspect and the current developments of the matter, with respect to a year or two ago, seem to agree.

In the past couple of decades there has been an increasing interest in the traditions of Latin America and in particular the ones from Mexico, though many others also come into the fore on a more careful examination. The reasons for this are many, among such as the fact that there are millions of latinos in the United States looking to tap into their roots in a land that saw such a tremendous massacre of local traditions while trying to get a better outlook for their families.

As with all disruptive things this has also fueled some fairly heated arguments about who can call themselves the bearers of tradition and who can't and how it should be practiced. There are many complicated karmic and historic wounds that still need to be tended to but besides those there also needs to be a process of acceptance and healing in order for this sacred knowledge to be made use best. In my opinion part of that process needs to happen by accepting that most of what the Mexicas, the Incas and the Native Americans had was lost forever in its original form and that the cultures and the people that currently have the remaining knowledge are as contemporary citizens of today's world as you and I.

In the same way, our cultures are not the same as they were when the temples of Tenochtitlan last saw their ceremonies and at least much of what we consider Latino culture today is actually heavily influenced by European and African sources on top of what remains from the past, very much integrated in a way that we can call our own. That is not to diminish its very rich value but it needs to be considered carefully for the same reason that this is one of the first lessons in Traditional Mexican Medicine, which uses Hippocrates's humoral system and works with the codexes of several Spanish friars and men of wealth to derive at what we can call today a complete system of therapeutics, magic and religion.( Read more... )

Current Music: Viene de Mí - La Yegros

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