Esoteric
Archived Posts from this Category
a “brain location” for spirituality?
Posted by maebius on 12 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Esoteric, Healing, Questions, Random, Technology, testing
Interesting article from LiveScience hints at a “brain location” for spirituality.
Technically, it is more related to a personality trait called self-transcendence. Self-transcendence “reflects a decreased sense of self and an ability to identify one’s self as an integral part of the universe as a whole.“
http://www.livescience.com/health/spirituality-brain-link-100211.html
My thoughts on this study are a bit divided. On one hand, it’s always kinda interesting to me how Science keeps tapping away at the walls of our unknown in search of the hollow passages and studs behind them.
On the other hand, while the physiology is described here as a deficit, could it not be that lessened Ego is actually better, and those unspiritual types are less adapted? (like having webbed feet, which are cool, but not most efficient at perambulating around town?)
I still think there’s not enough details here to really base a potential-filled claim like “Brain Bits that cause Spirituality” so I’ll simply choose to ignore and gloss past that particular facet of the headline. The study itself holds some nugget of muse-worthiness at least.
Food for thought, but I’m not sure of there’s empty calories here, or whole grains. 
Full Moon sacrifices
Posted by maebius on 01 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Druidic, Esoteric, Faerie, Moon Muse, Outdoors
This saturday, I was driving to meet a friend for dinner when I struck and killed a deer. My new car (3899 miles *sigh*) is a bit broken up, and the young button-buck was killed.
It may sound gruesome to some, but we kept the deer and are in the process of preparing it for venison this week.
Additionally, I have plans for a number of bones (and the skull) if I have success in cleaning/preparing them, which is a learning process for me. Prior animal bones I have had access to were found outside and pre-bleached by time, weather, and biological processes.
My pondering now, (and question to any readers here) is how to best preserve the animal remains, both in the literal physical sense, and a more spiritual/shamanic/etc sense.
I’ve honored the spirit of the deer with a quiet candlelit ritual saturday evening, but I’m completely learning-as-I-go in the idea of actually ‘harvesting’ the other parts respectfully. Wish me luck!
My dog has already requested a leg bone, and another is destined for a “talking stick” type of scepter. One rib popped up in my dreams last night as Useful, but no details as to the final use. The skull will hopefully preserve well and be gifted to a friend of mine with a great affinity to Deer. The rest, will most likely join the compost pile and garden for added calcium and to treat the nibbling field mice in our barn.
The car will be repaired, my own physical health is unharmed. I’d like to make the most of the noble animal who was ’sacrificed’ in the accident.
Another churchy tale
Posted by maebius on 25 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Church, Esoteric, Faerie, Music, Silly
This week at the UU church I [still] attend, was an informal service whereupon members of the congregation had been invited to share a short excerpt from a favorite book, and how it inspired them.
One lady read from Grapes of Wrath, and shared how it changed her outlook on Humanity and Humility, reading of the horrid selfishness of people below their station. She had grown up in a wealthy NewEngland community, and formerly looked down her nose at “poor farmers” until that book made her re-think things.
One man shared a bit from Oral Microbiology and how it changed his view of our communal relationship with ‘the good microbes’.
Yet others shares inspiring sermons, quoted from Martin Luther King, Ghandi, and more traditional “English Literature” such as Flowers for Algernon, and Where the Red Fern Grows.
However, by far my favorite was an older lady who shared “The Hobbit” as her favorite book. She explained briefly that we adults are often told to get our heads out of the clouds, and how this “kids book” showed that even as an older adult, it was “OK to have an imagination”. She also referenced the new movie Avatar, as an example of world-building freedoms and whimsy-wonder.
Instead of reading an excerpt from The Hobbit, however, she admitted that she once submitted music to a “Fanzine” on Middle earth back in the 80s. She had set the first parts of Galadriel’s Song of Eldamar to music, and then launched into a lilting A Cappella song, the lyrics of which are below.
To say the fact I could honestly answer “heard a lady sing in elvish” to the question of What I Did on Sunday, is awesome.
This UU thing may not be entirely spiritually ritualistically filling, but it’s still a fun community to be growing a part of.
(My son also has now expressed interest in going as he misses the other kids. Also, he has learned not to jokingly blow out the small candle I light in the evenings after starting to understand the reasons for lighting a candle “Representing the Love and Mystery that some people call God/dess”)
Galadriel’s Song of Eldamar
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew:
Of wind I sang, a wind there came and in the branches blew.
Beyond the Sun, beyond the Moon, the foam was on the Sea,
And by the strand of Ilmarin there grew a golden Tree.
Beneath the stars of Ever-eve in Eldamar it shone,
In Eldamar beside the walls of Elven Tirion.
There long the golden leaves have grown upon the branching years,
While here beyond the Sundering Seas now fall the Elven-tears.
O Lórien! The Winter comes, the bare and leafless Day;
The leaves are falling in the stream, the River flows away.
O Lórien! Too long I have dwelt upon this Hither Shore
And in a fading crown have twined the golden elanor.
But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?
Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen,
Yéni únótimë ve rámar aldaron!
Yéni ve lintë yuldar avánier
mi oromardi lisse-miruvóreva
Andúnë pella, Vardo tellumar
nu luini yassen tintilar i eleni
ómaryo airetári-lírinen.
The melody was vaguely akin to “Spancel Hill” (video link)
Dragons
Posted by maebius on 25 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Esoteric, Faerie
A short quote today, which made life quite more bearable at work. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”
-G. K. Chesterton
Commitment Rushes
Posted by maebius on 12 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Esoteric, Healing
(Note to the person who asked for this, sorry, I wrote it a few days ago and had it stuck in Draft-mode. Here ya go finally.)
My wife and son have been taking Karate at a wonderful dojo near us for about two months now, and it’s awesome to see how the kid especially looks forward to classes and practices at home without any prompting. Finding that ‘thing’ you like to do is an important part of a healthy lifestyle.
However, what I was musing about is not finding a hobby, but the feeling that happens when you formally decide to make long-term effort in it. More specifically the moment of Shift when you make the decision and act upon it.
In our case, the financial outlay to attend karate for 12 months, for two people, somewhat shocked my wife. She was not concerned as drastically with the dollar amount (though that was part of it and affected a vacation plan as we shuffled the checkbook around). Instead, she kept mentioning the fact that she feels really weird/scared/impressed/burdened/freed by the fact she promised to take up an activity, twice a week, for 52 weeks, and WILL be held accountable to her promise by an “authority figure” she respects (the Sensei).
Her reaction led me to ponder other areas in life with Pivotal Moments, and how finding them can be used along a Spiritual Path.
Consider things like jumping out of an airplane, or cliff diving. Those I’ve spoke to about such activities (I’ve gone skydiving) admit more often than not that the actual freefall and landing is great, but the reason they do it is that moment of Can’t-take-it-back asthey first spring from a solid platform into the open air. The feeling of Commitment, of Willful Action is where it’s at.
I think on a deep level, that sane sense of Decision is at work in most profound Spiritual experiences, regardless of how the practitioner explains it. Devout christians often speak of “Dying to Christ” at some dark stage of life, and being lifted up again in Hope/Love due to that dedicated abandonment. Similarly, a wiccan casting circles, or Drawing Down the Moon (or any number of spiritual traditions having similar “ego-stripping”) reacts similarly in allowing the Goddess to manifest in them.
When we let go, or first step off the platform of solid daily-grind, we usually can expect Great Things. Maybe not always Safe things, but Great Changes. Harnessing that Change for a better life is the goal of any Spiritual practice, I often think.
Even when the Willful Action is meant to harm, as in the case of a suicide, I’ve heard anecdotes from survivors regarding a moment of clarity/regret/freedom felt when the act of jumping, cutting, or swallowing is performed, and before the pain or darkness creeps up. I know of one person who admits being glad they attempted suicide, not because they almost died, but for that sudden Eureka of Life-worth-living even as they tried to end their life.
There are probably hundreds of quotes along these same lines, and is a big part of many Eastern religions.
To lose yourself is to find it.
“Banish the ego and develop the spirit of surrender. You will then experience Bliss.”
Or as I prefer to think of it,
“If you want to kiss the sky, better learn how to kneel. On your knees boy”
Blessed Solstice!
Posted by maebius on 21 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Church, Druidic, Esoteric, Festivals, Music
As the sun is reborn, I hope the light of your lives shines brightly and strong, wherever and whatever that Light shines with for you.
As a musical interlude here’s three awesome songs. First, one that was performed by a wonderful brother&Sister act in church this past Sunday:
The Christians and the Pagans”
Next, two songs by the band Gaia Consort (whom I love), with the first being more Christmas-y and festive, one I listened to while standing outside under the stars and invoking Awesomeness.
Enjoy!
Christmas Spirit
Posted by maebius on 11 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Church, Esoteric, Festivals, Healing, Stories
I was typing up a short musing on the holiday spirit, and how to re-find it in hte midst of crazy work schedules and crass commercialized holiday culture-spam.
Then in the course of cleaning out my feed reader, I stumbled upon this bit of wisdom.
I’ll admit it stuck a nerve and I just sat in my desk here at home, closed my Warcraft game, and almost wept for …um.. joy? remorse? inspiration? Not sure what emotion it drew out of me but it was such a profoundly cathartic thing, I had to share.
http://domesticwitch.blogspot.com/2008/12/santas-wisdom-to-pagans-author-unknown.html
Strange, isn’t it? There’s no one phrase I can pick out of this posting that set me off, but after I read it, things just sloooowly clicked and rushed aside, like some sort of “Kundalini rising” energy movement.
Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!
Fire? Ice? It isn’t really an ending.
Posted by maebius on 18 Nov 2009 | Tagged as: Druidic, Esoteric, Outdoors, Random, Uncategorized
**edit: still trying to fix formatting. Blog exploded again. Must be a weekend thing….
I have been reading an interesting book, which I referenced in a prior post, called “Dies the Fire“, which describes a post-apocolyptic world where humanity is struggling to survive after an Event causes technology to fail.
After finishing the first book in the series, I vividly recalled the poem by Robert Frost, pertaining to the end of the world.
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Now, the physisist in me always reads this and thinks the poem relates to how the universe will end, either collapsing upon itself in a reverse Big-Bang, or expanding forever into a cold infinity.
Then, I realize that in speaking of desire and hate, perhaps it relates to how the earth itself will end for us. Either in the cold calamity of a Nuclear Winter, or some unknown firey ending that has to do with passions overwhelming rationality?
Yet, then beyond these things, the Druid in me realizes that the poem itself is slightly flawed. The world will not really end, not really.
It may be absorbed into the churning inferno of our star, which may in turn collapse within the Universe itself, or we may explode it with a Doomsday Device, but it will not end. No more than the leaves that fall on the ground each autumn are gone. They merely transform and rejoin the bio-stream as compost and creature.
A wise man once said, “We are all Star Stuff”, and I agree. To stardust we will all return, and when the stars fade, we’ll still be Universe-stuff. We just might not recognize it as ourselves.
BloPoWriMo – 5 kid magic faith
Posted by maebius on 12 Nov 2009 | Tagged as: Esoteric, Random, Sprogling
No deep musing today, as I am recovering from night-shift-day-shift-night-shift schedule this week at work, but I wanted to mention a cute inspiring comment I heard this morning.
I’ve been reading ‘Dies the Fire‘ recently and was briefly explaining “The Change” that happens at the start of the novel. This Change is a plot device essentially causing electricity and gunpowder to stop functioning, leading to a return to a bronze-age level of technology.
This morning, as I drove my son to school, he started excitedly telling me that some Changes use a different magic, and cars still work.
I was a bit confused, since he was “asleep” when my wife and I were talking, but he followed with this observation:
“The melting frost on the car window is going UP, and the sky’s all white instead of blue! I wonder what else can magic change?!”
His eyes were shining and a grin brightened his face. I had to simply look outside and smile, with a slight awe-tingle on my neck as well.
Aren’t kids amazing?
What can’t magic, and the hope that drives it, change?!!
So mote it be.
Halloween Again…
Posted by maebius on 30 Oct 2009 | Tagged as: Druidic, Esoteric, Festivals, Moon Muse, Uncategorized
I sometimes am astounded that I have been at this blog for about 3 years now, and it all started with a Story of the Birds.
As much time has passed, I still remember.
Our decorations are up, our costumes are completed, and this weekend we prepare for the annual feast of Candy! (I am a robot and the kid’s a vampire, not sure which of 3 ideas the wife is planning)
Beside that celebration of gluttony and glee however, I also prepare for a nice quiet meditation out on our porch, under the silvery light of the moon, thinking about my relatives beyond the Veil.
Have you celebrated their lives lately, even though they are no longer living? Say hello again, this weekend if you get a chance. Reconnect, even if their spiritual beliefs are different from yours. Remember them, if even for this one day.
After all, you’ll be meeting them eventually, and might as well have them remember you too.