Woah, not cool!Originally Posted by anubisa
Jokes aside, I think the best way to practice is to read a lot, follow your intuition, and form your own thoughts from your personal experiences. No book or resource, in my opinion, can give you as much insight as your own experiences; that said, they're a nice stepping stone.
I'm going to strongly second Corbin's post, mostly because its stuff I would say too.
With that, I'm going to advise that you read three books...mostly because they are from three different perspectives with examples of things three different people have done as part of their practice, even though at least two of them are on radically different paths now than they were when they wrote those books.
1) To Walk a Pagan Path (I've actually blogged quite a bit about this book)
2) Circle of One by Diane Sylvan (this one is lovely and short written by the author when she was a solitary Wiccan, but one doesn't have to be Wiccan to get something from it)
3) Ritual by Emma Restall Orr (this one is a book on ritual, written from the POV of a certain flavor of Druidry and has a lot of guided imagery and things you can do, but you don't have to be into Druidry to do it that way)
I'd also recommend the bonus reads of Drawing Down the Moon by the late PBS journalist Margot Adler, though it was written about 30+ years ago at this point, and is quite weighty...its very interesting and still one of the best coverage (though dated) of the history and breadth of Paganism's development in the US.
“You have never answered but you did not need to. If I stand at the ocean I can hear you with your thousand voices. Sometimes you shout, hilarious laughter that taunts all questions. Other nights you are silent as death, a mirror in which the stars show themselves. Then I think you want to tell me something, but you never do. Of course I know I have written letters to no-one. But what if I find a trident tomorrow?" ~~Letters to Poseidon, Cees Nooteboom
“We still carry this primal relationship to the Earth within our consciousness, even if we have long forgotten it. It is a primal recognition of the wonder, beauty, and divine nature of the Earth. It is a felt reverence for all that exists. Once we bring this foundational quality into our consciousness, we will be able to respond to our present man-made crisis from a place of balance, in which our actions will be grounded in an attitude of respect for all of life. This is the nature of real sustainability.”
~~Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
"We are the offspring of history, and must establish our own paths in this most diverse and interesting of conceivable universes--one indifferent to our suffering, and therefore offering us maximal freedom to thrive, or to fail, in our own chosen way."
~~Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
"Humans are not rational creatures. Now, logic and rationality are very helpful tools, but there’s also a place for embracing our subjectivity and thinking symbolically. Sometimes what our so-called higher thinking can’t or won’t see, our older, more primitive intuition will." John Beckett
Pagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
I don't follow any system. I have read some modern pagan books and maybe a couple of websites and found most of them useless for me.
I've always liked the actual myths (and try to see what they mean) and (accurate) academic sources like the history of the culture/religion and translations of poetry and texts. I prefer unbiased sources and I like to learn how the ancients lived and worshipped. Then there's past lives...
Another thing to consider is your personal philosophy right now.
Last edited by ingridstjerne257; 12 May 2020 at 16:55.
Bolden mine
Past lives now there is a rabbit hole you don't want to go down to seek enlightenment.
There are hundreds of "Professional" readers just waiting to take your money and give you a past life reading. Almost as many as their are professionals waiting to tell you about "forgotten" memories of a traumatic nature that are influencing you today from either a past life or your youth. Then lets not forget about the Tarot reader and their past life spreads waiting to reveal those hidden nuggets of "influence" that have carried over and are impacting your current incarnation.
I recall when "hidden abuse" was the big thing in the psychology field in the late 80's and hypnosis could help you "discover" those forgotten incidents. Amazingly past life regression / recall filtered into the pagan / occult community shortly there after and it's been part and parcel here ever since. Psychic's suddenly found they could rake in money by going into trance, read the cards or contacting the spirits to see into a person's past life. In most instances a good reader can put more into the person's mind than what the person actually might think. Have done it myself on many occasions just to prove a point. Combination of power of suggestion and how memories are stored over time.
Not to say there are not true examples of past lives and recall of them on record. But never encountered any that are useful as a means of reconstruction of any spiritual / historical value. Especially that can be proven and validated in most instances beyond some basic familial information to certain families or some historical information of a very broad nature.
For instance I have what might be "past Life" memories I can prove are WWII era and I know the people died. One is on an S class submarine, the other on a B-17 bomber that lacks a belly turret so probably an A or B model. Can tell you quite a bit about both of them. Only thing is they are brothers but have never found a pair of brothers that match the criteria, nor the sensation they have a familial bond to me. Think being the family genealogist I'd surely have found that by now.
That doesn't even touch blood memories. What might be so called DNA memories I suppose but definitely carried down through the blood. Ironically passed down from mother to child if my memories are an example. I'm male but I have memories I know to be from my mother and prior to my birth and from her childhood. As I've gotten older they have faded (i'm 61 now). Had other memories that were probably from my grandmother but prior to my mother being born but no way to validate those as my grandmother has long since passed by some of them my mother could confirm. Granted not a lot of them but just a few that were more present during my youth. Of course all prior to my birth, or prior to the birth of my mother if they pertained to my grandmother as I believed.
But past life memories that is a slippery slope in general. Far to many turn out to be influenced by other sources than actual previous lives lived.
I'm Only Responsible For What I Say Not For What Or How You Understand!
Hi monso leedra,
I disagree. I found past lives to be helpful for myself and some others I conversed with. I learned how to do it from a knowledgeable person, yes I did pay and that person was genuine.
Some of the gods tell me about it when I ask them, too.
Past life study has been around for millennia. I offer it as a suggestion, not a requirement, if one wishes to pursue.
Last edited by ingridstjerne257; 13 May 2020 at 10:04.
When an entity, spirit, deity it doesn't matter what it is really, chooses you, it will ask permission, and you can question its intentions, ask it to identify itself. Since you dedicate some of your precious life energies and time and experience the transcendental you can choose what you wish such as, full possession, reincarnation with re-possessions until a specific task is accomplished, give free will to the entity, ask for assistance, make a pact, a pact of protection or a friendship, or ask for guidance, or permissions and teachings to develop yourself in the occult.
If you do full possession with your soul, a deity can come with not only a spirit but also a spirit guide and some slave demons which are used by the spirit to accomplish certain tasks, it can also communicate with other spirits/entity, mate with other deities, summon others, and feed from other deities/ life forms/ sun/ nature, etc, from which some gain their powers.
This is the safe zone so I'll just leave it at. If it works for you and makes you feel good then that's what you need
I'm Only Responsible For What I Say Not For What Or How You Understand!
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