#is it magical? or ceremonial? does it have religious significance? we will never know

[yappacadaver]

Sighhh at least Johanna demanded to try on emmrich’s crown

[witchern]

* thread tomorrow with today.

for the midam wedding! ficlet. 941 words.

Michael makes the chuppah himself. 

He doesn’t use any of his angelic magic, and the only reason Adam knows this — in spite of Michael’s attempts at keeping the damn thing secret — is because, even when Michael is working in the yard outside their cottage, Adam can occasionally hear him spit curses at the drill whenever it doesn’t work properly. 

It’s enough to put a smile on Adam’s face. The archangel Michael, Prince of Heaven, first of God’s children, undone by a power tool.

In any case, Michael masks his progress by hiding the pieces in the shed at night and makes Adam promise not to peek. 

Whenever Michael is outside working on the chuppah, Adam thinks about the fact that the archangel is making something with his own two hands — something that represents the new home they’ll build together — and his heart fills with warmth.

( read the rest under the cut or on ao3 )

---

At first, Adam is self conscious trying to plan a wedding. A Jewish wedding. He’d never been particularly religious — his visits to the synagogue these days are purely based around whichever High Holiday is next on the calendar. His menorah is from Target, not some priceless family heirloom. His Shabbat candlesticks are from Target too, and they’d only been used twice since they’d been purchased. 

In his lowest moments, Adam sometimes feels like he doesn’t deserve the traditional trappings: the ketubah, the tallit — even the chuppah. Each time he has to Google something that he should’ve remembered from Hebrew school, he feels like a fraud. Like he hasn’t earned this. Like he’s playing make-believe. 

But Michael is always there to remind him that he’s not a fraud, that he’s worth it, that what he wants is true and real, that Adam has more than earned this sliver of happiness that they’ve built together in the aftermath of so much pain and horror. 

Michael builds the chuppah; Adam builds his joy.

---

They decide on Earth Day for the wedding because, well, it has dual significance for them. Michael was around for its literal creation; he saw the planet from its gestation until its current point. 

As for Adam? He wants a way to mark the fact that they’re back. That they’re on earth together, out of hell, breathing fresh air and feeling the wind in their hair, the sunshine on their faces. He wants to mark the fact that the ground beneath them is real and the world is theirs to explore however they want, for as long as they want.

Adam watches one morning as Michael crosses the yard to retrieve the chuppah pieces from the shed (no, this doesn’t count as peeking), and he knows he wants this forever. 

---

The day of the wedding arrives and the outdoor ceremony itself is a quiet, intensely private affair. In the past few months that they’ve lived in this sparsely-populated area, Michael has managed to befriend a retired cantor in town who agrees — happily — to officiate.

(Adam wonders how the cantor would feel if he knew he’d be officiating a wedding for the Biblical archangel Michael. He doesn’t bring it up, but it does make him chuckle internally every now and then.)

Kevin is there as one of their witnesses. Through a series of random circumstances involving an abandoned house across town and a kikimora, he and Adam had met last year and bonded over drinks while bitching back and forth about the Winchesters. In short: Kevin is Adam’s best friend. 

Jack is their second witness — and really, it should be strange, having the new God (or at least as close to God as this world has) as a witness at their wedding. But Jack isn’t just God: he’s Michael’s nephew. The two of them have been talking more, trying to bond despite the wounds they both carry. Adam isn’t privy to everything they talk about, but he doesn’t need to be. That’s between Michael and Jack; Adam’s just glad that Michael has someone else to talk to. Someone who’s family, and wants to get to know the two of them better. 

The cantor, of course, is there too, beaming at them all. 

And as for the chuppah itself —

It’s beautifully simple. The four poles are made of birch wood, pale and smoothed over with sandpaper. Tied to the four poles and hanging over them to signify a roof is a gorgeous white-and-gold tallit fluttering gently in the breeze.

“Whose tallit is that?” Adam asks, tilting his head to get a better look.

Michael glances at him, an amused and fond smile tugging at his lips. “Well, when we take the chuppah down after this, it’s yours. If you want it.”

And, well, Adam always knew he would cry on his wedding day.

---

They each have their own glass to smash under their feet. Later, Michael will take the pieces of Adam’s glass and fashion it into a small, anatomically-correct heart-shaped vase. They’ll put flowers in it and it’ll sit on the windowsill in their kitchen, in the perfect spot for the afternoon light to glint off its surface.

Michael will take the pieces of his own glass and make a mezuzah for their front door.

---

Later they’ll have a proper party with their friends and family, because Adam will be damned if he doesn’t sit in a chair and get lifted into the air with his husband — husband — at least once. They’ll have their first meal with each other and dance the hora and surround themselves with love and warmth.

But here and now, this moment is just for them. 

And so they stand there, hand in hand, soul with grace, under the chuppah an archangel made.

[lokilickedme]

Because of "The Department", I am starting to become interested in Hozier. Are there any songs you would recommend for new listeners? Does he have anything romantic and sad?

Ohhhh my goodness.  Does he have anything romantic and sad…DOES HE HAVE ANYTHING ROMANTIC AND SAD?!  (sorry, I’m hyperventilating with excitement here)

Sit down honeypants, have I got a playlist for your listening pleasure.

First, you’re fortunate that he’s only got two officially released albums, two EPs, and a handful of covers and film tracks - because frankly the world couldn’t handle much more than what he’s given us so far.  We need time, we need to acclimate, we need to be strong enough to take it.  And for what he has given us thus far, we are thankful.  *amen*

I don’t even know where to start categorizing his songs individually, but since you specifically asked for “romantic” and “sad”, I’ll begin there:

ROMANTIC AND/OR SAD HOZIER SONGS TO PINE AND/OR YEARN TO:

Work Song - Gotta start here, for reasons.  This song is what I would call the epitome of romance.  It’s a nod to the field hymnals of the deep south, with the religious solemnity replaced by a mournful sort of romantic adoration for a lover who somehow saved him from a past he had all but lost himself to.  Sweet and gentle and worshipful, it fairly reeks of bad man redeemed by the love of a good woman.  He thanks the higher powers every day for the gift of his lover, whether the gods are listening or not, whether he is worthy of their attention or not - he no longer cares about that, because if there’s no eternal heaven for him, this moment on earth with his love is more than enough.  You are his deity now, his redeemer, his savior…and he’s at peace with his past because he knows you love him as much as he loves you.  Beautiful and hopeful, and almost painfully romantic.

Like Real People Do - Gah, I don’t even know where to start with this one.  It was inspired by Seamus Heaney’s series of poetic odes to the bog bodies discovered in the wilds of Ireland, which in itself doesn’t seem like a very ripe field to plow for romantic sentiment.  However, let me direct you to the following verse:

I will not ask you where you came fromI will not ask, and neither should youHoney just put your sweet lips on my lipsWe should just kiss like real people do

Yeah, we’re done here.  Basically it’s a vague fairy tale whose implications you’re free to ascertain for yourself.  Is it grave robbing?  Murder?  Some dark fae magic resurrecting an ancient being for some dark purpose he can’t recall? A lonely woman enlisting a disreputable spell to conjure a lover for herself from the long-dead bones of a forgotten victim?  Or was he simply buried by his grief/pain/sadness and “dug up” by the love and care of a stranger?  Whatever it is, it’s lovely.

To Be Alone -  Howling and intense, feral and wild, this is a tune to fuck to.  Romantically, of course.  The Celtic drums, the yowling chorus, the stomping that brings to mind a tribal Druid ceremony, untamed and darkly sexual in all its heathen glory…

Honey, when you kill the lightsAnd kiss my eyesI feel like a person for a moment of my life

Need I say more?  How about this:

To feel your weight in arms I’d never useIt’s the god that heroin prays to

Powerful, right?  And any song that has Feels good, god it feels good as a repetitive chorus can’t be anything but babymaking tunes.  Trust me.

Better Love - This is a film soundtrack song that appears on the ending credits of The Legend Of Tarzan.  Lush and frantically heartfelt and literally gushing with a profound romance that rises and rises until it hits a crescendo that you just gotta listen to on headphones with your eyes closed.  It’s a religious experience, the kind that’s easy to imagine yourself screaming OH GOD!! in the middle of.  Yeah, that kind.  The rising fury of the music, the piano, the horn section, his voice, is all very reminiscent of that kind of love.  Just beautiful, urgent, and will have you imagining yourself in a Victorian dress standing on the bank of a river somewhere waiting for your love to return from some distant place.

Dinner And Diatribes - Speaking of that kind of love, here we have a song that uses those very words to describe what loverboy wants and is asking for from you, his passionate yet momentarily bored significant other.  The two of you are stuck at some hideously stale social engagement and his soul is dying slowly with each dull conversation he has to participate in; his only reprieve is in staring at you from across the room and sending you subliminal messages about what he would very much like for you to do to him as soon as he gets you out of there.  Let there be hotel complaints and grievances raised, yeah that kind of love.  Romantic?  Not strictly, no, not on the face of it.  But really, what’s more romantic than knowing your partner well enough to know that one look from you across a crowded room will have them searching for a way to excuse themselves from the party so they can go home and absolutely rail you?

Scarcely can speak for my thinkingWhat you’d do to me tonightNow that the evening is slowingNow that the end is in sightHoney, it’s easier knowingWhat you’d do to me tonight 

 And we’re not even going to discuss the pounding Celtic tribal drums that set up a rhythm through the entire song that subtly mimics a headboard banging against the wall.  Rowdy loud romance at its pulse pounding best.

In A Week - Nothing says romance like two lovers decomposing in a field together, scaring the cows and slowly turning into food for the foxes and crows.  A beautiful tune, gorgeously sung as a duet with Karen Crowley.  He claims this was meant to be very tongue-in-cheek, and god I hope he’s not lying because I worry about the boy sometimes.

Nobody - My personal favorite, this one is a road song chronicling a love through comparison.  He tells his sweetheart how much he misses her, not with the actual words I miss you, but through a series of either/ors:

If I had the choice between hearing either noiseThe excitement of a thousand, or the soothing of your voiceAt first chance I’d take the bed warmed by the bodyI once warmed my hands over a burnin’ MaseratiStill I’ve had no love like your love

A cute love song full of playful devotion to an absent lover.  Just perfect.

Shrike -  I should have put this higher up on the list, I know.  You’ll understand what I mean when you listen to it.  A Shrike is a murderbird, btw.  Yeah, he’s comparing his powerful desire to express his love (after having tragically/stupidly missed a prior opportunity to do so) to a Shrike (him) impaling food on a thornbush (her).  Again, it’ll make sense when you listen to it.  A beautiful, haunting, lushly lyrical song about wistful longing.

Wasteland Baby -  This song, geezus.  The world is ending, it’s here, it’s happening, and he’s watching it all come down while sitting next to you, holding your hand, waiting for it to reach the pair of you as the flames lick the sky.  Neither of you are scared, just at peace, together, waiting for the end of it all to take you.  Oddly beautiful, and his voice - god, his voice.  Wasteland baby, I’m in love, I’m in love with you.

Movement - A love song to all the things you see in your lover that are lacking in yourself.  Poetic and poignant, coming from a towering giant with a tendency to trip over his own feet, singing about his lover being graceful and feeling moved by the way she moves.

NFWMB - Yes, it means what it looks like.  Nothing Fucks With My Baby, and yes he says that word every other line.  But the way he utters it with such dreamy conviction is just…ugh, it’s a horny song okay?  Just unabashedly horny.  And romantic, because he’s not making a bar room threat as in NOTHING fucks with my baby!!, he’s issuing a laid back warning that if you DO fuck with his baby, she will straight up fuck you up and he will sit back and watch, shaking his head in an I told you so sort of sympathy.  His baby is so terrifying that the goddamn apocalypse willingly averted itself when it saw she was in the vicinity.  An ode to a strong lover that he respects with every fiber of his being and by god you should too.

From Eden - Basically a love song from the devil’s point of view.  I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door.  That’s romantic, folks.

Moment’s Silence (Common Tongue) - My second favorite song in, like, the entire history of music.  Remember when I said NFWMB was unabashedly horny?  Well, this is a song about oral sex.  No qualms, no masking in flowery terms, and a whole lot of borderline blasphemous comparisons to religious verbiage to boot.  And it’s one hell of a banger, with Hoz howling like his baby just put her mouth on him (which is the chorus, more or less).  A no-apologies hard driving ballad devoted to fellatio, which I find oddly romantic in the simple fact that he speaks of it as a holy act of devotion.  He worships his lover, who is, ironically, the one on her knees in the holy posture of prayer in front of him.  And god does he love her for it.

Jackie And Wilson - This one is tricky, because it’s a rousing catchy tune flowing around a set of words that, once you listen carefully to them, become a whole lot of not what I thought.  He speaks of love, and of being saved, and of the attentive care that his lover gives him.  Only later do we hear the truth behind those words - that the love was obsessive and immature, that the savior casually abandoned him without even saying goodbye, that her care was no more than an amused tolerance to his childish adoration.  She knew all along that she wasn’t in it for the long haul, while he was making plans for forever.  But all hope isn’t lost - he’s not irreparably damaged, he isn’t ruined for life.  He simply goes and digs up the version of himself that he buried at the beginning, and starts again.  A little more experienced, a bit more jaded, but ready to do it all over again because maybe it’ll be right next time.  A hopefully romantic little cautionary tale that somehow doesn’t lose its playfulness, even as he’s putting out his cigarette and noticing that she’s gone.

Do I Wanna Know - this is a cover/retool of the song of the same name by Arctic Monkeys, and it is sublime in its sad yearning.  While the original is a driving, dark, sexy ode to obsessive love, Hozier’s version is a gentle, tender, hauntingly heart-tugging song about longing and uncertainty.  It’s a slow game of she loves me, she loves me not being played by a lover who is unsure if it’s worth the bother to try to fall in love with someone else if the current object of his laconic affections is no longer interested in him, or if he should just keep trying to win her back and keep the status quo as is.  And his voice…god, the way he caresses words is like he’s making love to your ears without the messy cleanup afterward.

There are more - but I’m going to draw the line here and say ENOUGH FOR NOW, YOU’RE NEW, YOU’RE NOT PREPARED FOR THE REST.  I mean…Angel of Small Death?  Sedated?  Arsonist’s Lullaby?  The hardcore underlying symbolism of his flagship ballad Take Me To Church?  It Will Come Back, for god’s sake??  No, not yet.  Go, dip your toe into the waters, and then come back when you’re ready for more…because everything this man has ever done is brilliant and beautiful and profound, and oh boy do I look forward to ruining another innocent with it all :)

[rockofeye]

hello! would you be willing to talk a little bit about the different ranks of priests/kanzo? I had a leson recently and was very surprised when Papa Loko came forward and told me I could do kanzo and possibly be sou pwen. I’m trying to research if this is something I want (and how to go about it if so) but mostly finding just the difference between hounsi v asogwe.

Hi there,

Sure! In lineages that utilize the asson, there are three generally accepted levels of initiation:

Hounsi (sometimes hounsi kanzo or hounsi senp) is someone who has passed through the djevo and come out member of the lineage/sosyete. Hounsi are intrinsic to the function of a temple, particularly in Haiti, as they are the folks who support the ceremony functioning and the house running smoothly. Hounsi assist priests with saluting the spirits, making sure the temple is ready for ceremony, assisting with singing and prayers, and are called upon for any number of support tasks to make everything come together. They have no license to do spiritual work for others, teach, call spirits, utilize the asson, or act as a priest….but hounsi are often the folks who hold a huge body of knowledge that can rival some priests. In Haiti, hounsi are often the ones who know how to cook all the sacred foods in particular and prepare garments and vessels for use.

A houngan/manbo sou pwen is essentially a junior priest in many ways. A houngan/manbo sou pwen can take up the asson in ceremonies for salutes and similar, but does not have the license to confer it to others or utilize it broadly. A sou pwen may learn traditional divination systems (in some houses; in some lineages that is asogwe only) and may be able to learn some forms of spiritual work, but a sou pwen does not have access to all spirits or all knowledge and generally cannot work for others independently in all situations. A sou pwen can sometimes take up particular ritual roles/titles that require some specialized training (such as laplas/guardian of the house), and sometimes specialized roles require a sou pwen initiation (such as hountogi/master drummer).

A houngan/manbo asogwe is considered a complete or senior priest, in many ways. An asogwe is a priest who has the asson conferred upon them and, in turn, may confer the asson to others, as dictated by Loko. Asogwe priests are who have the license to know all secrets and do all work. Folks who comes out of the djevo made for the title can speak to any spirit on behalf of a client or themselves, and can do any work necessary. The flipside of that is that an asogwe is expected to know every part of every ceremony required for initiation, feeding spirits, building a temple, etc including songs, dances, leaves, spirit language, spiritual technology, full language fluency, and on and on and on. Like, if it was the end of the world and kanzo still needed to happen, an asogwe should be able to carry the entire ceremony on their back, start to finish. 

With all of these things in mind, it should be remembered that initiation is a beginning in that no asogwe emerges from the djevo ready to put their own ceremonies on. It takes quite a bit of time spent at the proverbial knee of their parent learning, with their hands in the work with their parent. For someone who grew up outside of the religion, that is quite a journey.

It’s common in Haiti for folks to apprentice to a temple for significant amounts of time and earn their way through an initiatory cycle in order to gain the ceremonies they need to arrive where they need to, as dictated by the spirits, because the cash economy is so tight that folks would likely never have the money needed for ceremonies.

For folks coming from outside of Haiti, it is much more practical and common to initiate to the level dictated or needed right from the beginning. It is financially much more feasible (pay once versus paying several times) and the benefits of an asogwe initiation can be accessed immediately, as one of the mysteries of kanzo is that it can literally prevent someone from dying, reverse an illness, or redirect serious misfortune that is coming for someone. So, for many folks that need the djevo, delaying those opportunities to have the full and complete work of kanzo can prove damaging in some ways.

As you mention, Loko is consulted along the way and has one of the final says as to how someone initiates. There are reasons someone may not initiate further than sou pwen, but if someone has health issues or serious situations that the lwa indicate need the intervention of the djevo, Loko must be consulted and appealed to so that life-saving measures may be undertaken. 

If there is indication that someone may be asked to take up the asson as a houngan/manbo asogwe, it is generally a pragmatic approach to wait until an asogwe initiation can be undertaken, as there is no religious reason to go step-by-step or pay multiple times. Some folks talk about how an initiation to asogwe is intense and that spacing things out sometimes makes it easier, but there are built-in mechanisms that process through that intensity as indicated in post-kanzo restrictions/taboos and the support of the family in those times. 

And, of course, there are folks who take up the trappings of Haitian Vodou to charge enormous fees for what they state are basic, mandatory initiations. I’ve seen upwards of close to $8,000 asked for hounsi kanzo and heard first-hand about folks charging $25,000 for an asogwe initiation where the would-be priest walks with nothing. None of these things are reasonable and legitimate priests do not present that sort of financial ruin packaged as initiation.

For someone who is interested in undergoing ceremony, the ground floor advice I give is to go to a lot of ceremonies first. Build a relationship with the house you are interested in and see how they do things. Most sosyetes hold a couple open ceremonies each year; go to them and see how the religion works and see how that sosyete works. Sit with the lineage/sosyete head and chat with them about what kanzo means in their house and what the obligations–both personally and in the house–are. Kanzo is a personal and community commitment, and they should be able to indicate how that takes shape in the lives of the initiatory children of the house.

The biggest mistake folks make is not taking time to get to know the people in the sosyete and jumping into ceremony with no real base understanding of what the religion is. The way to combat that is all of the above. Folks often rush when there is no real need to rush; the lwa can communicate with us when it’s time to get a move on for ceremonies if we know how to listen (which is built through a relationship with a house..) and there are very, very few situations where the lwa will say ‘right now’ that can’t be negotiated into a different timeline. 

This is particularly important for folks who are going to initiate as houngan/manbo asogwe, as there is no undoing that or overwriting it–it’s binding and indelible. That means, overall, to move slowly. For me, I attended regular ceremony at my mother’s US temple for almost two years before kanzo was brought up by the lwa and had spent a decent amount of time speaking with her on matters involving the lwa. I studied intensely (once a week for several hours, plus regular ceremonies) for a year before I entered the djevo, and, for me, that was still faster than I think I preferred (but I historically dragged my feet on things at that time). 

As with many things in Vodou, the road to kanzo should develop organically with the lwa as someone continues to know their spirits. The lwa definitely nudge when they feel like someone is taking too much time, but all things fall into place at the right time when the nudging is listened to. In particular, there is really no place for pressure from the presiding priest or sosyete. No one should feel pushed into kanzo or any ceremony, and there should not be a hard sell (unsolicited messages about kanzo, offers to do lower prices if you bring friends, etc). Many sosyetes have a loose schedule that they may keep if someone has indicated that they are planning to kanzo soon, like a vague outline of how to break down the financial planning or deadlines where the presiding priest may need to know a firm ‘yes, I’ll be there’ or ‘not this year’ so they can plan materials that will be purchased in your name, etc. 

But….those are things that develop over time. The most important part of Haitian Vodou is relationships, everything else (magic, possession, healing etc) are secondary. Relationships that you build are what carries you into and through initiation.

So…this was probably more wordy that you were hoping for! I hope this was helpful in some way, and please let me know if I can be clearer with anything or explain further.

[rajchakravorty]

An interesting take from a Professor in Israel:

Most jobs that exist today might disappear within decades. As artificial intelligence outperforms humans in more and more tasks, it will replace humans in more and more jobs. Many new professions are likely to appear: virtual-world designers, for example. But such professions will probably require more creativity and flexibility, and it is unclear whether 40-year-old unemployed taxi drivers or insurance agents will be able to reinvent themselves as virtual-world designers (try to imagine a virtual world created by an insurance agent!). And even if the ex-insurance agent somehow makes the transition into a virtual-world designer, the pace of progress is such that within another decade he might have to reinvent himself yet again.

The crucial problem isn’t creating new jobs. The crucial problem is creating new jobs that humans perform better than algorithms. Consequently, by 2050 a new class of people might emerge – the useless class. People who are not just unemployed, but unemployable.

The same technology that renders humans useless might also make it feasible to feed and support the unemployable masses through some scheme of universal basic income. The real problem will then be to keep the masses occupied and content. People must engage in purposeful activities, or they go crazy. So what will the useless class do all day?

One answer might be computer games. Economically redundant people might spend increasing amounts of time within 3D virtual reality worlds, which would provide them with far more excitement and emotional engagement than the “real world” outside. This, in fact, is a very old solution. For thousands of years, billions of people have found meaning in playing virtual reality games. In the past, we have called these virtual reality games “religions”.

What is a religion if not a big virtual reality game played by millions of people together? Religions such as Islam and Christianity invent imaginary laws, such as “don’t eat pork”, “repeat the same prayers a set number of times each day”, “don’t have sex with somebody from your own gender” and so forth. These laws exist only in the human imagination. No natural law requires the repetition of magical formulas, and no natural law forbids homosexuality or eating pork. Muslims and Christians go through life trying to gain points in their favorite virtual reality game. If you pray every day, you get points. If you forget to pray, you lose points. If by the end of your life you gain enough points, then after you die you go to the next level of the game (aka heaven).

As religions show us, the virtual reality need not be encased inside an isolated box. Rather, it can be superimposed on the physical reality. In the past this was done with the human imagination and with sacred books, and in the 21st century it can be done with smartphones.

Some time ago I went with my six-year-old nephew Matan to hunt for Pokémon. As we walked down the street, Matan kept looking at his smartphone, which enabled him to spot Pokémon all around us. I didn’t see any Pokémon at all, because I didn’t carry a smartphone. Then we saw two others kids on the street who were hunting the same Pokémon, and we almost got into a fight with them. It struck me how similar the situation was to the conflict between Jews and Muslims about the holy city of Jerusalem. When you look at the objective reality of Jerusalem, all you see are stones and buildings. There is no holiness anywhere. But when you look through the medium of smartbooks (such as the Bible and the Qur’an), you see holy places and angels everywhere.

You gain points with new cars and vacations abroad. If you have more points than everybody else, you won the game

The idea of finding meaning in life by playing virtual reality games is of course common not just to religions, but also to secular ideologies and lifestyles. Consumerism too is a virtual reality game. You gain points by acquiring new cars, buying expensive brands and taking vacations abroad, and if you have more points than everybody else, you tell yourself you won the game.

You might object that people really enjoy their cars and vacations. That’s certainly true. But the religious really enjoy praying and performing ceremonies, and my nephew really enjoys hunting Pokémon. In the end, the real action always takes place inside the human brain. Does it matter whether the neurons are stimulated by observing pixels on a computer screen, by looking outside the windows of a Caribbean resort, or by seeing heaven in our mind’s eyes? In all cases, the meaning we ascribe to what we see is generated by our own minds. It is not really “out there”. To the best of our scientific knowledge, human life has no meaning. The meaning of life is always a fictional story created by us humans.

In his groundbreaking essay, Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight (1973), the anthropologist Clifford Geertz describes how on the island of Bali, people spent much time and money betting on cockfights. The betting and the fights involved elaborate rituals, and the outcomes had substantial impact on the social, economic and political standing of both players and spectators.

The cockfights were so important to the Balinese that when the Indonesian government declared the practice illegal, people ignored the law and risked arrest and hefty fines. For the Balinese, cockfights were “deep play” – a made-up game that is invested with so much meaning that it becomes reality. A Balinese anthropologist could arguably have written similar essays on football in Argentina or Judaism in Israel.

Indeed, one particularly interesting section of Israeli society provides a unique laboratory for how to live a contented life in a post-work world. In Israel, a significant percentage of ultra-orthodox Jewish men never work. They spend their entire lives studying holy scriptures and performing religion rituals. They and their families don’t starve to death partly because the wives often work, and partly because the government provides them with generous subsidies. Though they usually live in poverty, government support means that they never lack for the basic necessities of life.

That’s universal basic income in action. Though they are poor and never work, in survey after survey these ultra-orthodox Jewish men report higher levels of life-satisfaction than any other section of Israeli society. In global surveys of life satisfaction, Israel is almost always at the very top, thanks in part to the contribution of these unemployed deep players.

You don’t need to go all the way to Israel to see the world of post-work. If you have at home a teenage son who likes computer games, you can conduct your own experiment. Provide him with a minimum subsidy of Coke and pizza, and then remove all demands for work and all parental supervision. The likely outcome is that he will remain in his room for days, glued to the screen. He won’t do any homework or housework, will skip school, skip meals and even skip showers and sleep. Yet he is unlikely to suffer from boredom or a sense of purposelessness. At least not in the short term.

Hence virtual realities are likely to be key to providing meaning to the useless class of the post-work world. Maybe these virtual realities will be generated inside computers. Maybe they will be generated outside computers, in the shape of new religions and ideologies. Maybe it will be a combination of the two. The possibilities are endless, and nobody knows for sure what kind of deep plays will engage us in 2050.

In any case, the end of work will not necessarily mean the end of meaning, because meaning is generated by imagining rather than by working. Work is essential for meaning only according to some ideologies and lifestyles. Eighteenth-century English country squires, present-day ultra-orthodox Jews, and children in all cultures and eras have found a lot of interest and meaning in life even without working. People in 2050 will probably be able to play deeper games and to construct more complex virtual worlds than in any previous time in history.

But what about truth? What about reality? Do we really want to live in a world in which billions of people are immersed in fantasies, pursuing make-believe goals and obeying imaginary laws? Well, like it or not, that’s the world we have been living in for thousands of years already

[santookoorisha]

Haitian Vodou Haitian Vodou, called Sevis Gineh or “African Service”, is the primary culture and religion of the approximately 7 million people of Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. It has its primary roots among the Fon-Ewe peoples of West Africa, in the country now known as Benin, formerly the Kingdom of Dahomey. It also has strong elements from the Ibo and Kongo peoples of Central Africa and the Yoruba of Nigeria, though many different peoples or “nations” of Africa have representation in the liturgy of the Sevis Gineh, as do the Taino Indians, the original peoples of the island we now know as Hispaniola. Haitian Vodou exists in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, parts of Cuba, the United States, France, Montreal, and other places that Haitian immigrants have dispersed to over the years. Other New World traditions it is closely related to or bears resemblance to include Jeje Vodun in Brazil, La Regla Arara in Cuba, and the Black Spiritualist Christian churches of New Orleans. Haitian Vodou also bears superficial resemblances in many ways with the Nigerian Yoruba-derived traditions of Orisha service, represented by La Regla de Ocha or Lukumi, aka “Santeria”, in Cuba, the United States, and Puerto Rico as well as Candomble in Brazil. While popularly thought of as related to Haitian Vodou, what is commonly referred to as “voodoo” in New Orleans and the southern US is a variant of the word “hoodoo”, also called “rootwork” or “root doctoring”. This is a folk magical tradition from Central Africa in the Congo region in which roots, leaves, minerals, and the spirits of the dead are employed to improve the lot of the living, often including the reciting of Psalms and other Biblical prayers. Rootwork also incorporates Native American herb lore and European and Jewish magical traditions. As a folk magic tradition, New Orleans “voodoo” and southern “hoodoo” rootwork are distinct from the RELIGION of Haitian Vodou and its siblings and cousins. Haitian Voodoo History Vodou as we know it in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora today is the result of the pressures of many different cultures and ethnicities of people being uprooted from Africa and imported to Hispaniola during the transatlantic African slave trade. (1) Under slavery, African culture and religion was suppressed, lineages were fragmented, and people pooled their religious knowledge and out of this fragmentation became culturally unified. In addition to combining the spirits of many different African and Indian nations, pieces of Roman Catholic liturgy are incorporated to replace lost prayers or elements; in addition images of Catholic saints are used to represent various spirits or “misteh” [“mysteries”], and many saints themselves are honored in Haitian Vodou in their own right. This syncretism allows Haitian Vodou to encompass the African, the Indian, and the European ancestors in a whole and complete way. It is truly a “Kreyol” or Creole religion. The most historically important Vodou ceremony in Haitian history was the Bwa Kayiman (Bois Caiman) ceremony of August 1791 near the city of Cap Haitien that began the Haitian Revolution, led by the Vodou priest named Boukman. During this ceremony the spirit Ezili Dantor came and received a black pig as an offering, and all those present pledged themselves to the fight for freedom. This ceremony ultimately resulted in the liberation of the Haitian people from their French masters in 1804, and the establishment of the first and only black people’s republic in the Western Hemisphere, the first such republic in the history of the world. (2) Haitian Vodou came to the US to a significant degree beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the waves of Haitian immigrants under the oppressive Duvalier regime, taking root in Miami, New York City, Chicago, and other cities mainly on the two coasts. Core Beliefs of Haitian Vodou Vodouisants believe, in accordance with widespread African tradition, that there is one God who is the creator of all, referred to as “Bondje”, from the French words “Bon Dieu” or “Good God”. Bondje is distant from his/her/its creation though, and so it is the spirits or the “mysteries”, “saints”, or “angels” that the Vodouisant turns to for help, as well as to the ancestors. The Vodouisant worships God, and serves the spirits, who are treated with honor and respect as elder members of a household might be. There are said to be twenty-one nations or “nanchons” of spirits, also sometimes called “lwa-yo”. Some of the more important nations of lwa are the Rada (from Allada in Dahomey), the Nago (from Yorubaland), and the Kongo. The spirits also come in “families” that all share a surname, like Ogou, or Ezili, or Azaka or Gede. For instance, “Ezili” is a family, Ezili Danto and Ezili Freda are two individual spirits in that family. In Vodou, spirits are divided according to their nature in roughly two categories, whether they are hot or cool. Cool spirits fall under the Rada category, and hot spirits fall under the Petwo category. Rada spirits are familial and mostly come from Africa, Petwo spirits are mostly native to Haiti and are more demanding and require more attention to detail than the Rada, but both can be dangerous if angry or upset. Neither is “good” or “evil” in relation to the other. Everyone has spirits, and each person has a special relationship with one particular spirit who is said to “own their head”, however each person may have many lwa, and the one that owns their head, or the “met tet”, may or may not be the most active spirit in a person’s life. The lwa are all said to live in a city beneath the sea called Ile Ife or Vilokan. Except for Agwe and his escort, who live in a different city below the waters. Pantheon in Haitian Vodou All of the lwa of Haiti are initiated manbos and houngans. Many are also Masons. Some of the more important spirits are as follows. RADA Pantheon in Haitian Vodou Papa Legba Atibon – He is imaged as an old man, St. Lazarus is used to represent him in the hounfo or temple. He opens the gate to the spirits, and translates between human languages and the languages of the spirits. Marasa Dosu Dosa – They are twin children, either in twos or threes. Imaged with Sts. Cosmas and Damien, or the Three Virtues. Papa Loko Atisou and Manbo Ayizan Velekete – The prototypical priest and priestess of the tradition. They confer the office of priesthood in initiation. Danbala Wedo and Ayida Wedo – The white snake and the rainbow, together they are the oldest living beings. Danbala brings people into the Vodou. St. Patrick and Moses are used for Danbala. Ogou Feray – He is a fierce general who works hard for his children but can be moody and sullen at times as well. Ogou Badagri – He is a diplomat, and is Ogou Feray’s chief rival. Ezili Freda – She is a mature light-skinned woman who enjoys the finest things, jewelry, expensive perfume, champagne etc. She is said to own all men (or she thinks she does) and can be very jealous. She gives romance and luxury. She is so pure she must never touch the bare ground. Her main rival is her sister Ezili Dantor. Agwe Tawoyo – He rules the sea and those who have crossed the ocean, and is symbolized by his boat named “Imammou”. St. Ulrich is his saint counterpart. PETWO (Petro) Pantheon in Haitian Vodou Gran Bwa Ile – His name means “Great Wood”. He is a spirit of wilderness. He is fierce and unpredictable, and a section of the grounds of a Vodou temple is always left wild for him. St. Sebastian is used to represent Gran Bwa. Ezili Dantor – a Petwo lwa, she is a strong black single mother. She does not speak, but makes a “kay kay kay” sound in possession. She is nurturing and protective but is dangerous when aroused, even to her own children. Her image is the Mater Salvatoris of Czestokowa. She often uses a dagger or bayonet, and her colors are often red and dark blue. A little known fact is that she is actually a hermaphrodite, and takes both men and women in marriage. Ti Jan Petwo – the son and lover of Ezili Dantor. Simbi – the Simbi lwa live in fresh water rivers and are knowledgeable in the areas of magic and sorcery. The Bawons – they rule the cemetary and the grave. There are three – La Kwa, Samdi, and Simitye. The Gedeh – The Gedeh spirits are all dead spirits who rule death and humor and fertility. They drink rum steeped with 21 habanero peppers and bathe their faces and genitals with this mixture also, to prove that they are who they say they are. They are sung for last at a party for the spirits. Chief of the Gedeh is Gedeh Nibo, with his wife Maman Brijit. St. Gerard represents the Gedeh. Role of Clergy in Haitian Vodou In serving the spirits, the Vodouisant seeks to achieve harmony with their own individual nature and the world around them, manifested as personal power and resourcefulness in dealing with life. Part of this harmony is membership in and maintaining relationships within the context of family and community. A Vodou house or society is organized on the metaphor of an extended family, and initiates are the “children” of their initiators, with the sense of hierarchy and mutual obligation that implies. Most Vodouisants are not initiated, referred to as being “bosal”; it is not a requirement to be an initiate in order to serve one’s spirits. There are clergy in Vodou whose responsibility it is to preserve the rituals and songs and maintain the relationship between the spirits and the community as a whole (though some of this is the responsibility of the whole community as well). They are entrusted with leading the service of all of the spirits of their lineage. Priests are referred to as “houngans” and priestesses as “manbos”. Below the houngans and manbos are the hounsis, who are initiates who act as assistants during ceremonies and who are dedicated to their own personal mysteries. One doesn’t serve just any lwa but only the ones they “have”, which is a matter of one’s individual nature and destiny, and sometimes a matter of which spirits one has met and who take a liking to oneself. Since the spirits are individuals, they respond best to those whom they know or have been personally introduced to. Which spirits a person has may be revealed at a ceremony, in a reading, or in dreams. However anyone may and should serve their own blood ancestors. That said, there are a few spirits or groups of spirits that have a particular relationship with humankind such that, it is not unreasonable to say, anyone might approach them with some confidence if a few basic forms and preferences are known, among these being Papa Legba Atibon, the gatekeeper of the spirits, Danbala Wedo, who is said to own all heads and is the oldest ancestor of all life, and Papa Gedeh, who gives voice to the spirits of the dead, and everyone has Dead. I leave it to the reader to investigate the identities of these spirits further from other sources such as the Vodouspirit Yahoo! forum. Also the Catholic saints are all very approachable to anyone who asks for their help, such as St. Anthony or St. Michael. Standards of Conduct in Haitian Vodou The cultural values that Vodou embraces center around ideas of honor and respect – to God, to the spirits, to the family and sosyete, and to oneself. There is a plural idea of proper and improper, in the sense that what is appropriate to someone with a Danbala as their head may be different from someone with an Ogou as their head, for example — one spirit is very cool and the other one is very hot. I would say that coolness overall is valued, and so is the ability and inclination to protect oneself and one’s own if necessary. Love and support within the family of the Vodou sosyete seems to be the most important consideration. Generosity in giving to the community and to the poor is also an important value. Our blessings come to us through our community and we should be willing to give back to it in turn. Since Vodou has such a community orientation, there are no “solitaries” in Vodou, only people separated geographically from their elders and house. It is not a “do it yourself” religion – a person without a relationship of some kind with elders will not be practicing Vodou. You can’t pick the fruit if you don’t start with a root. The Haitian Vodou religion is an ecstatic rather than a fertility-based tradition, and does not discriminate against gay people or other queer people in any way. Unlike in some Wiccan traditions, sexual orientation or gender identity and expression of a practitioner is of no concern in a ritual setting, it is just the way God made a person. The spirits help each person to simply be the person that they are. Way of Worship in Haitian Vodou After a day or two of preparation setting up altars, ritually preparing and cooking fowl and other foods, etc., a Haitian Vodou service begins with a series of Catholic prayers and songs in French, then a litany in Kreyol and African “langaj” that goes through all the European and African saints and lwa honored by the house, and then a series of verses for all the main spirits of the house. This is called the “Priye Gineh” or the African Prayer. After more introductory songs then the songs for all the individual spirits are sung. As the songs are sung spirits will come to visit those present by taking possession of individuals and speaking and acting through them. Each spirit is saluted and greeted by the initiates present and will give readings, advice and cures to those who approach them for help. Many hours later in the wee hours of the morning, the last song is sung, guests leave, and all the exhausted hounsis and houngans and manbos can go to sleep. On the individual’s household level, a Vodouisant or “sevite”/”serviteur” may have one or more tables set out for their ancestors and the spirit or spirits that they serve with pictures or statues of the spirits, perfumes, foods, and other things favored by their spirits. The most basic set up is just a white candle and a clear glass of water and perhaps flowers. On a particular spirit’s day, one lights a candle and says an Our Father and Hail Mary, salutes Papa Legba and asks him to open the gate, and then one salutes and speaks to the particular spirit like an elder family member. Ancestors are approached directly, without the mediating of Papa Legba, since they are in one’s blood. If a person feels like they are being “called” or approached by the spirits of Haiti, the first thing a person should begin to do is to serve their ancestors, perhaps beginning with an ancestor novena (see the links below). Monday is the day of the ancestors in our house, but ideally one speaks to their ancestors daily. If you do not honor your ancestors first, they may get upset and stand between you and other spirits. The second thing is to seek out a competent and trustworthy manbo or houngan for a reading or consultation. It may take some time of prayer, patience and effort to find a suitable person. Travel may even be necessary. They can help determine what spirit(s) if any may be involved and what if anything might need be done. Expect to pay some sort of fee for their time – unlike many Neo-Pagan traditions, in Haitian Vodou “manbo e houngan travay pa pou youn gwan mesi” (“The manbo and the houngan don’t work for a big thank you”) (3). This is true of other African-based traditions as well. Role of Initiation into Haitian Vodou Initiation in Haitian Vodou is a serious matter, and it is advised to not run off to Haiti with the first person you encounter, on the internet or elsewhere, sight unseen or otherwise, who says they will initiate you. Take the time to get to know your prospective Maman or Papa in the Vodou, and the members of their society. Attend ceremonies in person, ask questions, learn, check references. Serve your ancestors, cultivate patience, and wait. Pay attention to dreams or other messages from the spirits. For most people initiation is totally unnecessary. It may be advised to research (as you would anyone else!) and weigh carefully, but perhaps not necessarily discount out of hand, anyone actively promoting initiation into the Haitian Vodou priesthood with marketing slogans and New Age buzzwords. Haitian Vodou does not proselytize and it is not for sale although even valid initiations do cost some money, due to the time, people, materials and travel involved. If you think of the time and care it takes to make the best choice when you invest in a car or a home, or to hire a babysitter for the kids, how much more important are one’s concerns of the Spirit? At the end of the day, reputations and rumors are less important than an honest answer to one question however: “Will I be happy and satisfied having this person/these people in my life? Is this a community where I can learn and grow in a positive way?” Only the seeker can answer that question for themselves, with God’s help. And the help of the Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame (see the links below). Also there are other options besides initiation in Haitian Vodou to become closer to the spirits. While the concept of initiation gets a lot of airplay among outsiders, far more common among the Haitian community is the “maryaj mistik”, or the mystical marriage, in which the Vodouisant literally marries one or more lwa, in a ceremony complete with bridal dresses, rings, cakes, and a priest. In return they gain special protection and favor from the spiritual spouse. This is generally in exchange for one day of sexual abstinence per week in which the human spouse receives the spirit in their dreams, and any other terms spelled out in the marriage contract. Initiation for its part creates a reciprocal bond between initiator and the new initiate with obligations every bit as serious as marriage, deeper even since it cannot be undone. Initiator and initiate become family with all the joys and burdens that may entail. It also entails certain promises, responsibilities and commitments with regard to the spirits. With persistence and patience, the spirits will lead a person to the house and elders that are right for them. Vodou is not a race, so every seeker can well afford to take their time. Personal relationships are the very foundation of Vodou and there is no substitute for the time it takes to cultivate them. I knew my houngan for three years prior to my own sevis lave tet (“washing of the head”). We were friends long before I had any interest in or notion of any connection to Haitian Vodou that I might have. Some of my god-brothers waited longer than that. This is how it should be. In Haiti these would all be people you grew up with and you would just know who is who or would know someone who knew someone. In the United States, those of us who are non-Haitian have a few more obstacles to overcome, but by the grace of God and the spirits they are not insurmountable. Regleman Gineh Initiate or not, once you belong to a house and have chosen an elder, it is important to follow the guidance they provide as to the way things are done in their house, called the “Regleman Gineh”. There is a diversity of practice in Vodou across the country of Haiti and the diaspora, for instance in the north of Haiti the sevis tet or kanzwe may be the only initiation (according to my elders from Haiti in three different houses) as it frequently is in Cuba and the Dominican Republic, whereas in Port Au Prince and the south they practice the kanzo rites with three grades of initiation — senp, si pwen, and asogwe — and the latter is the most familiar mode of practice outside of Haiti. Some lineages combine both, as Manbo Katherine Dunham reports from her personal experience in her book “Island Possessed.” Kay Aboudja, my own house, is one of these lineages. Although the general structure of ritual and practice are the same across Haiti, small details of service and the spirits served will vary from house to house, and information in books or on the internet may be contradictory. When in doubt, etiquette dictates that one consult their own Maman or Papa in the Vodou, and practice as they direct according to the regleman of their lineage, since “every manbo and houngan is the head of their own house”, as a common saying in Haiti taught to me by Houngan Aboudja states. While the overall tendency in Haitian Vodou is very conservative in accord with its African roots, there is no singular, definitive, One And Only True Right And Only Haitian Vodou ™, only what is right in a particular house or lineage. In other words, if you read something on a web page or a book, and it contradicts what your manbo or houngan says to do, go with what they say. This may seem restrictive on the surface from a solitary Neo-Pagan perspective, but since you have done your homework and taken the time to build a positive relationship of trust with your elder(s) ahead of time, this will not be the case in practice. A good parallel is the way everyone practices the same way in a Wiccan coven context. Ultimately everything comes from the spirits and the ancestors however. It is not a matter of personal preferences as it often may be in popular Witchcraft or other pagan traditions, and this reality becomes clearer with experience in the Sevis Gineh. This is the most basic overview of the Haitian Vodou religion imaginable; keeping in mind that I am by no means an expert compared to my elders after only a couple of years in the religion as an hounsi, I hope it gives some general idea and understanding of what Haitian Vodou is about, since it summarizes what I have learned from my own elders in a very condensed form. The most important thing I have learned from my elders however is this: Black, red, yellow or white, a person can find beauty and fulfillment serving the spirits in the Haitian religion – the Vodou is not a religion limited by race or ethnicity since ultimately, as science has proven, we are ALL the Children of Africa, and the waters of Gineh join us all

[diddlesanddoodles]

GEMMA (Fantasy fluff)

CONTAINS: Anthropomorphic animals, magic, and humans hatching from Eggs. Yay!

                                                       PART ONE

“What’s taking so long?”

Amecius flicked his gaze up to peer over his newspaper to see the top of Useili’s head as the boy paced around the front of the cafe booth, having wholly abandoned his minced meat pasty. It sat sadly neglected on the small white plate with only a single paltry bite missing.

Amecius frowned at this, whiskers twitching.

After he had made such a fuss over it too, thought the textile merchant. Though his face remain unconcerned and placid, his tail twitched in annoyance under the table.

“It takes time,” Amecius replied lightly, soothing his natural loathing for waste by taking up his coffee cup to slurp at the rim, taking in a light sprinkling of the bitter black brew so it coated his tongue. Miss Penelope’s coffee was not to be guzzled. Besides being the most flavorful cup to be had on the north side of Hendleton proper, it was served at a temperature more suited to the melting of steel than a pleasant patron’s passive beverage. Setting the burning hazard back down onto the table, he snapped the edges of the newspaper back into straight attention before resuming his reading. “Korvisham Downs wasn’t built in a day, you know.”

Useili stopped his pacing to glance, perplexed, at the large tiger perusing the market columns. “...I thought Rorich was getting a Spirit Egg?” The Spiora asked, one thin black eyebrow raised.  

Amecius’s lips quirked as he suppressed a smile. Even after five years, he still forgot that Useili was not from the world and there was still so much knowledge the little Spiora lacked that he as a native took for granted.  

“It’s an idiom,” he explained patiently. “What I mean to say is that you cannot rush the ceremony or expect the Avemni to even consider it. Arumek is a stickler for tradition. So our dear Rorich will have to be patient.” He gave the boy a poignant look. “As will we. The Oratio Sanctum alone is fourteen stanzas long. Come, your pasty’s getting cold.”

“I don’t remember it taking so long,” Useili mumbled uncharitably as he rounded the side of the booth and slid onto the smooth wooden bench and scooting in small increments until he sat beside Amecius, two full heads shorter than the merchant. His head and shoulders barely topped the table even as he moved to plant his chin onto it, furrowing further into his petulant mood and staring blankly at the meat pie.  

“Well, you were inside an egg at the time, presumably asleep,” Amecius reminded him. “And yes, the ceremony did drag on and on for a good while.”

���How long did it take before I actually hatched?” Useili asked, tilting his head sideways to stare over and up at Amecius in curiosity. Lowering his paper, the tiger considered thoughtfully, reaching back into his memory.

“Not long. At all. I think I was home only a few hours before you started busting out,” he said at last and then turned his amber eyes down to Useili. He smiled warmly and rested a large paw on the boy’s head, scratching lightly. “I was left quite surprised and unprepared. Everyone told me to expect to wait up to a week.”

Useili was grinning, noting the pride in his larger friend’s words. “I guess my nap was over, huh?”

“So it seemed,” laughed Amecius. “So it seemed.”

The relationship between a person and their Spiora was sacred, as everyone knew. However, there was so much more to being the guardian of a spirit egg than the normal facets that came to mind. Yes, the boost of magic was wonderful, of course it was fantastic that ones stamina was so fortified, and who could complain about the precision of magical articulation that a Spiora granted? No one, that’s who!

But it was never explained to possible candidates just how much the little buggers would claw and dig and wedge themselves into one’s heart, so deep they would never come out. In any case, what madman would want them to?

Like people, Spiora came in a myriad of sizes and shapes and colors and even ages. But they did not have beaks or feathers like the Avemni from which they came, nor did they have claws or fur like the Felis Folk, and they were sorely lacking the tell tale scales, spikes, and horns likened to the Drakire. The closest people of the world that the Spiora resembled were the Sapiens and that resemblance only went so far. They lacked tails for one and their only hair was that which grew on their head and occasionally on a male Spiora’s face. Only the bird like Avemni knew where the Spiora came from in truth, but the general belief and the one provided by historical and religious texts said that the Spiora were lost spirits, plucked from the ether by the Avemni and given to the world for her benefit.  

Amecius was not one to fall for the sweeping regalia of religious poetry, but he was inclined to believe this one bit. He would not trade his Useili for anything in the world or ether or beyond. He was on the smaller side as Spiora went, with mocha skin and large red brown eyes and topped with a mass of tightly curled knobs of black hair. Useili was on the scrawny side perhaps, but was want to eat incessantly if not checked. And so his abandonment of the pasty had left Amecius slightly concerned.

“You should eat your pasty,” he told the boy again, turning back to his paper.

“...I’m saving it,” Useili replied flatly.

The tiger eyed him, unconvinced. “Oh?”

“Yeah.” He was spinning the plate now. “Maybe I’ll want it later.”

A wicked idea idea came to the merchant’s mind and an equally wicked grin spread across his face. “Oh, well then if you don’t want it...”

He reached over with his large arm and plucked the small pastry from the plate. Useili’s eyes went wide and he watched Amecius bring the pie to his mouth.

“But it’s mine!” Useili whined, reaching up to grab onto his guardian's thick arm, little fingers digging into the red fabric, and looking as though he might cry. The tiger’s mouth remained open, pie paused mere inches from his lips. He raised an eyebrow at Useili and pulled the pie back away from his face.

“But you said you didn’t want it.”

“I said I didn’t want it now!”

“Well, I do want it now, so...” He opened his mouth again, long fangs glistening in the gas light of the cafe interior, tongue poised to received the treat.  

“Okay, okay! I’ll eat it!” Despite his smaller stature and ostensible lack of significant muscle, Useili manages to actually pull Amecius’s arm, and the pie, away from his open maw. He had to use most of his own body as leverage, but the little guy did manage it.

Laughing, Amecius held the pie in front of Useili’s face and it was quickly snatched up and shoved into a more honestly eager, but much smaller, mouth. Munching loudly and with vigor, Useili was making short work of the pie and Amecius went back to his paper, very pleased with himself. But not before giving his small companion a friendly pat on the back.

“Try not to choke, please.”

“Hm-muph!”

Just as the last morsel of pie disappeared into Useili’s overly stuffed mouth, the door to the cafe opened with a melodic jingle and a tall Avemni walked in followed closely by a pale lithe Spiora, dressed in the traditional midnight blue mantle cloak of the Spiora and pinned closed by a familiar silver broach.  

“Abram! Eli!” Amecius called amiably, waving the blue feathered man over. “Come have a seat!”

“Many thanks,” said the Avemni in return, motioning for his Spiora to sit first before following suit. Useili, mouth still engorged with pastry, half mumbled half garbled his own greeting. The pale Spiora pinched his lips together in an attempt not to laugh as he adjusted his robes as he settled. He began to fiddle with a handful of his long blonde hair.  

“Hello,” Eli managed after a moment, his voice soft and airy. “Um, I think you might have some pie on your face...just there.”

Useili blinked innocently and then briskly wiped his hands across his face several times as he chewed and swallowed. He leaned over the table towards Eli for inspection. “Did I get it?”

“Yep,” the taller Spiora replied with a pleasant smile. “All gone.”

“Any news from Rorich?” The bird man asked as Amecius folded his paper up.

“Not as of yet, I’m afraid.”

“Well, I suppose it’s to be expected,” he sighed. “Arumek likes to be quite thorough when the candidate is Drakire.”

The merchant scoffed, noth bothering to feign the barest hint of surprise.  

“What does he think Rorich’s gonna do to the egg?” Amecius asked with a hint of incredulity, crossing his arms and leaning back. “Eat it?”

“Arumek is old and superstitious and very much a product of another age,” Abram replied, glancing up as the portly short beaked Avemni proprietor of the cafe appeared at his side. He gave her a smile. “Hello Miss Penelope. How is your evening thus far?”

Miss Penelope’s green and turquoise feathers were not as bright as they once were in her youth, but were well groomed, straight and proper. Her eyes were a bright sunny yellow that matched her short beak and tail feathers.

“Quiet and a bit slow, I admit, but perfectly pleasant, Master Abram,” Miss Penelope replied, her winged appendages laid neatly across the front of her colorful apron of embroidered flowers. “May I interest you in some tea or coffee?”

“Tea would be lovely, thank you,” Abram replied. He turned to his Spiora who was already looking excited at the prospect. “Some tea, Eli?”

“Yes, please,” he smiled brightly and eagerly.

“I’ll return shortly then,” Miss Penelope replied turning to disappear behind the curtain that separated the front of house from the kitchen.

Abram turned back to Amecius. “Poor Rorich. He doesn’t deserve the scrutiny I know they’ve turned onto him.”

“He’ll endure whatever they have to throw at him,” the tiger assured his winged friend. “Should have seen him when he left for the Coven this morning. Looked like he could conquer the world with the fire that was burning in his eyes. So long as he leaves with an egg, he won’t care what they chant at him.”

“What kind of Spiora do you think it’ll be?” Eli asked curiously.

“Who is to know?” Abram answered with a wistful air. “I doubt even the attendants know. Arumek may, I would think. Enough to know which egg to pair with who.”

“I bet he’s tall,” Useili supplied with an excited grin. “Like Lord Berhum’s. And strong.”

Eli frowned. “If he is as tall, I hope he’s not as mean spirited.”

Amecius chuckled, scratching his chin thoughtfully. “Who ever heard of a mean spirited Spiora?”

Eli blushed and looked down into his lap. “Well, we’re hardly infallible. I’ve met plenty of Spiora who were perfectly wicked.”

Abram patted Eli’s shoulder in sympathy, recalling the certain individuals to whom the young man referred.

“Poor guardianship, I call it,” Amecius replied, sipping at his coffee. “No fault of the Spiora’s if they get saddled with an idiot.”

When a Spirit Egg hatched and the new Spiora emerged, they were wholly reliant on their guardian for everything, like any newborn. Despite some being born fully grown and quite large, they knew nothing of the world or its ways. Most were born without any recollection of their time before the egg, but occasionally, a Sporia would have vague recollections of places and people and events that they could not account for and was the main basis for the belief that they were lost spirits. Of another world.

Some hatched with the ability to speak, some took a long while to find their words, and it was not an unheard of occurrence for a Spiora to never speak at all. Within the first hour, they new being would imprint themselves onto their guardian and from that moment onwards, it was that person’s job to protect, provide for, and teach the young Spiora. In return, the Spiora became an invaluable conduit of focusing their person’s magic and their potential to rise and succeed in society. They were the great equalizers of the world. Not everyone could become a Spirit Egg Guardian, but a Spirit Egg Guardian could be anyone.  

That is, if the Avemni Coven chose you as a candidate. A secretive and indecipherable process if there ever was one. Folks grew up dreaming of receiving a black scroll one day. Amecius recalled when he received his own scroll. He recalled the overwhelming joy and the equally overwhelming terror that it brought. At the end of all the pageantry and questions and endless ceremony, he returned home with a large cream colored egg, speckled with dots of red and orange and streaks of brown all secured in a wooden crate and padded with thick rolls of cotton and straw. And then he had Useili a few hours later. The memory filled him with warmth and he could not suppress the smile it brought to his lips.  

“Eli didn’t speak a word his first year,” Abram remarked as the conversation continued on, glancing at the aforementioned boy and smiling.

“Yeah, that’s right!” Useili said, looking at his friend with open curiosity. “How come you took so long to talk?”

“I did try to speak a few times,” Eli replied, shifting in his seat. “But the words in my head got all scrambled when they tried to come out my mouth. It was really frustrating.”

“And you were such a scaredy cat!” Useili laughed.

“Shy,” Amecius corrected. Useili had a habit of being careless with his words and he was making strives to amend the behavior whenever it occurred. Useili would turn into a pouting mess if he knew he had offended or hurt his friend. “The word is shy, Useili.”

“Shy,” Useili repeated dutifully, smiling at Eli. “Right. How come you were so shy?”

Indeed, Amecius did recall first meeting the skinny boy. Abram had stopped by his shop for some fabric to have some clothes made up for Eli little over a week after his hatching and the poor thing had all but hid behind Abram’s wing the entire visit, despite Useili’s friendly attempts at drawing the new Spiora out to play. Eli was as friendly and pleasant a Spiora as he had ever met. But he held a pension for being meek and unsure of himself, clinging and looking to Abram for validation of nearly one of his words and actions. Abram had made great strives in teaching him to be more self reliant and independent, but Amecius had the feeling Eli would stay a duckling, dutifully and loyaly following Abram wherever he went.

Miss Penelope returned then with a small tray of two steaming cups of tea, a pot of cream, and a cellar of sugar. Eli was quick to start scooping spoonfuls of sugar into his tea cup while Abram shook his head with a resigned smile. To his own tea, he added but a splash of cream.

Just as Amecius and Abram settled into a pleasant conversation regarding business and the state of the markets, the cafe’s door was pushed open violently, the melodic jingle of the bell above the lintel inconsequential against the loud slamming of the heavy wooden door.

“MIND THE DOOR!” Screeched Miss Penelope’s voice from the back of the kitchen. However, the newcomer only looked momentarily abashed for the noise and was quick to shoot back a breathless apology.

“My most fervent apologies Miss Penelope!” The Drakire’s cheeks were flushed and his green eyes were wide and bright. He held something round and large, wrapped in a green wool coat, and clutched securely by both his red scaly arms. Grinning wildly and flashing his many pointed teeth, the newcomer made his way quickly to their table. “My dearest friends! The night is clear and I am made whole!”

Amecius was grinning and making to rise and congratulate his friend, having no doubt about what Rorich held wrapped up in his coat, but Abram’s scandalized voice caught them both off guard.

“Rorich! You brought the egg with you? Here?” The Avemni’s feathers were flared, giving the normally lithe and thin framed Abram a decidedly round and fluffy appearance.

“And just what is wrong with my cafe?” Miss Penelope demanded haughtily from the kitchen’s entrance, holding a pitcher.

“Oh, no nothing wrong at all! I just mean that...” Abram sighed and turned his ire to Rorich who was standing beside him with a dumbfounded, if not slightly guilty, expression. “You should have taken it straight home and have it swaddled up with hot water bottles and blankets!”

To his credit, Rorich did look quite guilty and ashamed. He seemed to clutch the egg a little more securely and looked down at it. “Oh. Of course. I just wanted to share the news...”

Despite understanding the truth to Abram’s words, Amecius was much less worried. He understood the Drakire jeweler’s intense joy. The man had been practically bouncing when he had received the black scroll, the glittering silver writing informing him of his candidacy and consideration for the guardianship of a new Spirit Egg. He spoke of nothing else for three weeks and the nervous energy had fueled the creation of several gorgeous pieces of jewelery including an emerald silver lace necklace, several glittering rings, and a high rimmed diadem fitted with an inlaid crest of iridescent opal. In the shape of an egg...  

“You could have sent a messenger!” Abram reprimanded, his normally mellow voice cracking as it hit a high octave. As an Avemni, he was very vocal and downright neurotic in regards to the care of Spirit Eggs. Though he had declined joining the Coven for more materialistic and self satisfying pursuits, he still held the instinctual protective nature of Spiora that was a hallmark of the Avemni. “In any case, we must get you and the Egg to your home and stored properly.”

Rorcih looked a little relieved. “You’ll help me, then?”

Abram stood from the table, holding himself high, long beak erect and proud. “Of course, I will. I’d be remiss in my moral obligations otherwise.” His blue head swung around to Amecius. “We all will.”

The tiger gulped the rest of his coffee, wincing only a bit as the still quite hot beverage ravaged the inside of his esophagus before settling like lava in his belly. “Of course,” replied the merchant, patting Useili’s back and motioning for him to follow. Useili did not appear to need any encouragement as he looked almost as excited and eager as Rorich, staring at the wrapped egg. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“It’s not too cold,” Abram was saying in thoughtful contemplation. “So you couldn’t have done any lasting damage, but we need to get it settled and warmed up. A chilled Egg takes longer to hatch.”

“What color is the egg?” Useili asked, leaping off the wooden bench after Amecius to stand closer to the Drakier.

Rorich smiled cryptically and turned his body and the Egg away from the curious boy. “You’ll have to wait to find out.”

Useili visibly slumped and whined. “But we’ve been waiting aaall daaay!”

Amecius reached into the small purse at his belt and dropped a few coins onto the table. “Thank you Miss Penelope, the coffee was lovely.”

Eli was the only one still sitting at the table and he was trying valiantly to quickly gulp down the hot tea. Wincing with each overly sweetened gulp. Abram was at his side the moment he noticed and gently pulled the cup from his hands and said to his quietly, “We’ll get you some more tea, I promise.”

Eli sighed.

“Alright,” replied the blonde Spiora woefully before standing and following after the others, but not before throwing back a longing glance at the abandoned tea cup.

……………………

Rorich was banished to the chaise lounge in the corner after the third attempt to insert his authority over the settling of the Egg. Abram was full swing into his mother hen temperament and would not allow Rorich so much as touch it once he had relinquished it when they arrived at his small flat. His land lady, Mrs. Devonshire was quite indifferent to the reverence of having a Spirit Egg in one’s home and Abram displayed no shame in voicing his displeasure at her half lidded, dull expression as he attempted to impart the great significance of the event.

“All it means is that that one’ll be shoving off and I’ll have to find another tenant,” she remarked flatly. “You boys have any idea how hard it is to find a tenant these days? If they ain’t a womanizer, they’re a drunk, and if they ain’t any of them then they’re ‘prolly a politician or a lawyer. I won’t be standing fer any’a that now. This is a respectable house!”

Amecius had to take the Avemni by the shoulders and steer him up the stairs to keep him from retorting. Eli scurried on after them.

Rorich’s flat was not large, it was down right tiny, but it suited his needs. Rather, it suited his needs before he became a Guardian. Now it was far too small and it had only a little to do with the four other people crammed inside. A plush ottoman that had seen better days was shoved in front of the fire place and the Egg carefully placed on top. When the green coat had been lifted away, there were audible gasps.

“It’s...beautiful,” Abram remarked, wide eyed and awestruck. Eli nodded silently in agreement and even Useili was stunned into silence. Rorich stood off a little, preening with pleasure and pride. The Egg was on the smaller side, but not much smaller than Useili’s egg had been, Amecius mused. However, it was the colors that were striking and entirely unusual. The smooth shell was a molted tiffany and indigo with freckles of white, almost like stars set against a dark sky. “I’ve never seen on with such a vibrant shell.”

“Wow,” Useili murmured appreciatively as he walked around the ottoman, admiring the bright colors. “I thought all Eggs were white.”

“Most are white or cream with some variance in the color markings. I’ve never seen an inverted colored Egg,” Abram supplied. “I hope you can forgive me for saying this, Rorich, but how in the world did you end up with such an auspicious Egg? I would imagine Arumek would be quite peculiar about placing such an Egg and he makes so secret about his feelings towards Drakire.”

Rorich did look offended, but allowed the insinuation roll off his back. “I can’t speak for Arumek or the Coven, but he did not say anything to give me reason to believe this Egg was any less or more than normal.”

“Truly?” Abram asked. “Well, far be it for me to question his choices. I’d grow mad before I could ever decipher the meaning behind his actions.” He sighed, and turned to the Drakire. “I am happy for you, Rorich. I really am. It’s a splendid specimen.”

“I take it back,” Useili said after his careful study of the Egg’s shell.

“Take what back?” Amecius asked.

“What I said about it being tall,” Useili replied. “She’ll be short. Shorter than me. But pretty.”

Amecius chuckled, rubbing his chin and shaking his head. “So you decided the Spiora’s a girl then, eh?”

“Yeah,” the dark haired boy replied, sounding oddly convicted in his words. He turned to Rorich. “She’ll be a girl. And she’ll be pretty.”

The Drakire was beaming. “Of course she will.”

They set about wrapping every available blanket and coat and shall and even table cloth over the Egg. Or rather, Abram did and shooed away any and all help. Rorich’s flat lacked the hot water bladders that Abram would have preferred, but the thick layering of fabric would do. A small section of the Egg’s shell was left exposed at the top to allow viewing and checking for any cracks that would signal that the hatching was upon them.

Eli had settled himself on a small chair on the far end of the fireplace near where Amecius was standing, twirling an ornamental paper-mache ball in his hands. “Do you have a name picked out yet?”

Rorich shrugged, as he stared at the bundled up Egg. The fire light flickered red and yellow in his staring thoughtful eyes. “Not really. Admittedly, it slipped my mind entirely.”

“It’s been a forgetful day it seems,” Abram quipped in a teasing jab.

“Better hold off on giving it much thought till after the hatching,” Amecius suggested. “Some pick their own names.”

“Like me!” Useili chirped, moving to stand next to Amecius.

“Like this one.” The merchant patted the boy’s head.

Eli looked surprised. “I didn’t know you picked your own name, Useili.”

“Yep,” affirmed Useili with pride. He titled his head. “Well, actually, I didn’t pick it. Not really. It’s just my name. Always has been I guess. I don’t get visions of before the shell, like some Spiora, but I do remember my name.” He paused and a curious expression pulled at his features. “And water. Lots of water.”

“I don’t remember anything,” Eli replied in a regretful tone, turning the paper ball over in his hands. “But some say that it’s not fun to remember stuff before the shell. So maybe it’s not a bad thing I don’t remember anything. Even my other name.” He brightened then and smiled over at Abram. “Besides, I like my name.”

As the evening drew into twilight, they had all settled around the Egg, nursing cups of tea. Eli was very content as he sat in the large wing backed chair drinking his overly sweet tea. Abram and Amecius were giving Rorich various tid-bits of advice concerning the rearing of a Spiora and Useili was trying to keep his eyes exclusively on the Egg.

Just in case it she was like him and hatched early.

“You’re going to go blind staring at it at this rate,” Amecius chuckled when he noticed how intent his little Spiora was staring at the shell. “It’s not gonna hurry up and hatch because you will it to.”

“It should hurry up and hatch,” Useili grumbled.

“I’m as eager for her to hatch, but I must ask,” Rorich said with an amused tilt of his head. “Why are you so intent for it to happen this moment?”

“Because if she hatches now,” he replied. “I’ll get to see. If she waits, we won’t be here and I won’t be able to see.”

…………………………………………

There was a flash of horrible pain that ripped pieces of her apart before the dark nothing that followed grew colder and the pain subsided to an unpleasant memory. After a time, even that memory began to lose its potency, small pieces of it being sanded away gradually by the flow of the universe. Soon her other memories followed suit until she was a blank as the nothing that caressed and buffeted her through the ether. Thoughts congealed and clumped together in a confusing mess until one thought or notion or feeling bled into the next without end or beginning or meaning.

A blossoming of warmth and light and she felt hands, large and warm, wrap around her middle and pull her down slowly, gently, through the void. Down she coasted and the cold was replaced by warmth that inched up her sides, around her feet, and above her head, encasing her inside. She curled into a tight ball, warmed through, and suddenly very sleepy.

So very sleepy…

“Calm,” came a voice. “Rest your wary spirit and be calm. You are renewed, little one.”

And she slept.

……………………………………………….

Cramped. She felt very cramped. And hungry. Hungry? Yes. That was the word. Hungry. Her middle gurgled in a way that felt familiar, but without any real context. Yes, she was hungry. Why was she hungry?

Oh, she was so cramped! Her shoulders hurt and her neck was aching and her but was asleep. Out. She wanted out. She became aware of her hands and she reached out, picking at the hard thing in front of her. When that did not yield a satisfactory result, she curled her hand into a fist and hit it. And it gave. Only a little bit, but the hardness broke. Small cracks spider-webbed away from the impact area and let in light. And air. And smells. Familiar and yet unknown. She picked at the cracks, pulling a piece of the thin hard stuff out with a finger and then a hand. She gripped the edge and lifted up and a large section of it came loose.

“A crack!”

“I already told you, Useili, it’ll probably be another-”

“No! Really! I see a crack!”

“What?”

“Dear God, he’s right!”

“WHAT?!” Sounds. She could heard sounds. Voices? Yes, voices, she decided. Those were voices. Excited voices. Loud voices. She hesitated, suddenly scared. Why were there voices? Why were they so loud? She made a sound, an uncertain sounding mewl. Nervous. She was nervous. And unsure.

“Come on, you got it,” came another voice. Soft and urging. Gentle. It sounded nice. “Just a little more.”

She braved another push at the hard thin walls and there was another crack, louder than the others, and the warmth of the inside was sucked away. Cold. It was cold now. She didn’t like it.

“Almost there, love.” There was an odd fluttering in her chest. Not unpleasant. Another push, another crack, and more light and sound and cold air and smells. So many smells. Fire and paper and...tea?

Tea. What was tea?

She lifted her head up to ease the ache in her neck and she heard the collection of voices around her all laugh. She turned her head to see, but there was only dark. And then something lifted off her head and she winced against the fire’s light. She could feel the waves of heat from the flames battling the ambient chill of the room.

And there was a face. Wholly unfamiliar, but he had very pretty eyes. He looked odd to her. His head was long and his jaw was square and he was red, but under his chin and neck, he was yellow. Not bright yellow. Creamy yellow. He was smiling, lips pulled back and his eyes squinting in unbridled joy.

And she could not help but smile back.

“Hello, love.” His hand was on her head, petting softly. It felt nice. Really nice. She opened her mouth but the words got stuck. Her mouth felt clumsy and unused. She frowned and tried again, murmuring and testing her mouth and lips and vocal chords.

“H...heh...lo.”

“She spoke!” he cried out exuberantly. “Did you hear? She spoke!”

“What...what’s wrong with her skin, Abram?” asked a voice, small and unsure. She turned around and saw others standing about. They all looked strange to her. The two smaller ones a little bit less so, but they were looking at her in an odd way.

Why were they looking at her oddly?

“Hm. I am not sure, Eli. Let’s have a look.” A tall thin blue creature bent down close to her and flinched. His small dark eyes starred at her and she mewled uncertainly, pulling back from him. He blinked at her. “Vitiligo. She has vitiligo.”

The tall blue one stepped back. He was looking at her oddly. She didn’t like it.

“It’s not something bad is it?” asked the nice person. Her person. She turned to look at him, the fear in her belly melting away in an instant. Out, she still wanted out. As the tall blue one spoke, she wiggled inside the remains of her confinement, breaking more pieces off. Her person noticed and helped, picking up the pieces and setting them aside as she broke free. When most of it had been cleared, he wrapped something around her. Soft and a little bit fuzzy and very warm. He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her free, cradling her smaller body against his. Safe. Warm.  

“No, it’s a mutation of the pigment in the skin,” replied the tall one. “I had a cousin who had it. It’s completely cosmetic. But...I have never seen it in a Spiora. I mean...their bodies are made from magic, so why would it?”

“I think it’s neat. And it matches her hair! See? I told you she’d be pretty.” One of the smaller ones with dark hair and large friendly eyes was standing next to her person smiling brightly. She blinked at him and then buried her face in the nap of her person’s neck. Shy. She felt suddenly shy.

Hungry. She was still hungry. Her belly gave a small gurgle and she murmured something. Not words, but implying want.

There was aloud laugh from the other end of the room that startled her.

“I know that sound,” said the largest of the people. He was fuzzy all over and orange with stripes. And his smile was nice. He waved at her. “Best be getting something in that little belly, Rorich. If she’s takes anymore after Useili, she’ll start gnawing on the furniture next.”

“I did not chew on furniture.”

“You tried to eat the sideboard. I’ll show you the bite marks when we get home.”

“I don’t remember that...”

The tall blue one was suddenly at her person’s side. “I’ll get her something. Just sit down with her. The first hour after hatching is very important.”

Her person leaned his head down so his chin rested on her head. “Thank you, Abram.”

Her person sat down, still holding her in his arms and she felt so comfortable. She murmured in pleasure and nuzzled her face up into the underside of his jaw. Felt his chest shake with a laugh and he nuzzled her back.

“Affectionate little thing, ain’t she?” said the fuzzy one.

“She’s perfect,” said her person and she hummed appreciatively. “Absolutely perfect.”

“What about her name?”

Her person pulled her away from him and she looked up into his eyes. “Do you know your name?”

Name. Name? Name...nothing. When she thought of her name, there was a void where she was certain it should be. She shook her head. No name.

“May I give you one?”

Give? Gift? Gifts were presents, good things. She liked good things. She nodded. Yes, she would like a gift. A name.

“Gemma,” her person said. “Your name is Gemma.”

……………………………………………………………..

Gemma ate three bowl of porridge, a peach, and five mints before falling quite thoroughly into the throws of a food coma. Rorich wrapped her securely into some more blankets and sat her in his lap, watching her snoozing little face. The new Spiora was a little smaller than Useili, but more so in height than weight. An unkind person might have even called her pudgy. Her tawny skin was marred by lightly peach colored blotches all over body; hands, legs, abdomen, and even her face. Almost like spots. And her short hair lacked any pigment whatsoever, falling about her face in white translucent clusters. Despite her irregularities, Rorich took to little Gemma as hard and fast as anyone did to their Spiora and he watched his new charge sleeping with such a look of joyous contentment, Amecius was almost jealous.

After demonstrating a clear inability to satiate his incessant curiosity over the new Spiora, Useili was planted next to Eli in the wing backed chair and instructed firmly to sit, eat some porridge, and shush.

“This moment’s not about you,” Amecius told him firmly but gently. “Let Rorich and Gemma get to know each other. There will be plenty of more chances for you two to play.”

Sensing he had overstepped his bounds, Useili did as he was told without complaint and contented himself with talking excitedly, but quietly, with Eli about their future shenanigans.

As he gently rocked Gemma in his arms, Rorich could not keep a persistent and insistent thought from his mind. He would have to call on his father within the coming weeks. Within the first week would be best as waiting any longer might give offense. Lord Beckwith would be at his summer home here in Hendleton with his wife for the season. Possible ways in which his father would take seeing Rorick’s Spiora did not make him feel an ounce of regret over her appearance. She was adorable and round faced and small and just...perfect. But he did feel righteous indignation on her behalf on his imaginings of what his Lord father might say about her. He was careless, cruel, and blunt with his words. Wealth such as his granted him the liberty of an unchecked vocabulary and the authority to wield it.  

And then there was the matter of the money. With a Spiora, Rorich would receive a cash award from his Father, but it was far too easy for him to imagine Lord Beckwith reneging the offer on the grounds that his Spiora was faulty. The promise, made to a bastard son some ten years ago, could easily be construed as being in jest. A way to get his do nothing son to become more than another title-less urchin. His father did not view his profession as one befitting someone of his lineage. A silly idea, Rorich thought. He adored the craftsmanship and elegance of cutting and setting jewels into carefully crafted rings and necklaces. And with a Spiora, he could branch his business further into charms and enchanted items, embedding spells and magic into the pieces. No Jeweler in Hendleton had a Spiora. But now he did. Even if his father never allowed him to see a penny of the promised award, Rorich was certain he and Gemma would do just fine for themselves.

[spirit-science-blog]

Our liberation and transcendence truly happen through revelation. The word itself stems from the meaning "the disclosure of information to man by a divine or supernatural agency," as well as “unveiling” or “uncovering” of sorts. And as we’ve seen so far, humanity is undergoing an exponential increase in veils being lifted lately, and we are seeing life being stirred up and changed like never before. One analogy we might use here is as if humanity has been in the dark for so long, isolated by socioeconomic and cultural divides - and yet with modern technology, it would seem as though the lights are collectively turning on - but there is so much light, all at once - that it is blinding to us. Despite our access to so much information today, we are still blind… that is, while we allow time for our eyes to adjust. Yet, the root of revelation doesn’t just speak to veils lifted, but our disclosure from a divine origin.

Belief systems and ideologies are challenged in mass as new information asks us to reassess our identity paradigms. As this happens, those who are willing to explore new ideas grow - and those who rail against anything new only burrow deeper into their existing paradigm. Even in the new world we are creating; there are bound to be different paradigms that people live within.

We must remember that some people are filled with hate, negativity, and suffering - all of which are descending from their pain, which inhibits their higher consciousness and keeps them rooted in a lower state. This does not mean that they are bad people, for the only real remedy is compassion. No matter how far disconnected from their soul may someone be, they can always come back from the light. However - the only way for this to occur is if they genuinely want to - for unless someone seeks their salvation, they will never end up finding it. Thus, it doesn’t matter if someone spends their time living in a VR reality for years, abuses their bodies, or even in some future fact - travels through the universe. All paths can be taken, but only one way leads to the liberation of the soul - and that is the path within.

May this be a lesson for all of us too, for if we are afraid of the darkness within us and others, and we attempt to quell it by attacking it with anger and hate, then we lessen our vibration and reduce ourselves to the same state of consciousness as that which we are fighting. Evil begets evil, and in the words of a wise Jedi Master - Fear leads to anger… Anger leads to hate… Hate leads to suffering.

Hence, the right solution to humanity's salvation, or the reconnection of our souls as we discussed so long ago, is through genuine and authentic compassion. By elevating our consciousness to such a degree that our light radiates to those around us, and we become instruments of sacred and transformative change by the goodness we embody.

And while this may sound to some like Spiritual Woo, the discoveries around this today have the power to radically change everything we think we know about both science and religion. These discoveries speak to a more in-depth, primary, and more intrinsic understanding of the nature of who we are and our place in the cosmos, as well as the abilities that we have and may inherit. Speaking to the nature of consciousness itself, these discoveries are so paradigm-shattering that life on earth as we know it will never be the same once the knowledge becomes commonplace among the general public… That is if it’s ever allowed to get there.

For a long time, our perception of spirituality has been governed by the world's religions, and our perception of the universe and life itself has been governed by science. Movies like Zeitgeist outline and identify ways in which the religious institutions have monopolized people in many ways. In contrast, others today, such as Rupert Sheldrake's “The Science Delusion,” demonstrate how science has been used to shepherd people into a mindset of materialism, keeping us locked into a paradigm of physicality and nothing more.

Yet even still, these two voices of science and religion have been at odds for a very long time, sharply criticizing each other or otherwise outright refusing to acknowledge each other or their many merits and wisdom that they bring forth.

Despite this, today, new revelations about the nature of consciousness stand to shatter the illusion of separateness, destroy the dogma we’ve clung to for so long, and give us a foundational blueprint to create a new world for ourselves… It’s how we can make heaven on earth. All that’s required is our full participation.

One example of this is found in Dr. Bruce Lipton's work with the Biology of Belief, which explains with profound scientific logic that our beliefs and self-identity are a product of our environment and that as we think it - so shall we become. His work describes that if we spend our lives believing that “My family had a hereditary disease, so I’ll have it too,” - you are consciously and subconsciously programming your body with signals that will facilitate you creating that outcome, and of course - this belief can come from our parents and family or the environments we expose ourselves to.

When we look at all of our childhood programmings together, we find today a mashup of countless media programs and entertainment, news stories, passed down rhetoric, and ideas we received from friends and others around us. Who the experiences of those around us today shape us. While many of the lessons that we received growing up were good and valid, many others were merely long-held beliefs passed down for generations yet may not hold our highest interest at heart. Regardless, these beliefs shape our perspective of the world, and in that - how we behave and act, which leads us to create our destinies.

As it would seem, many of the belief systems we hold onto disempower us from living our lives to the fullest. Further, many of the largest industries today are built upon previous paradigms, and so their continued growth means limiting this new understanding. We return here to the pharmaceutical industry; if you help someone cure their depression, it’s challenging to justify charging them thousands of dollars a year, for example. Far easier to assume that their depression or illness will be with them for a long, long time.

We must understand that the environment has played a very significant role in our reality, even from the moment we were conceived and all of our experiences since birth. And while birth-defects do exist, Bruce’s research says that 95% of people have perfect DNA and can change how their genes express themselves if they will it so. For some, this may be easier than others, but it’s very empowering research nonetheless. Suppose we can change the signals our bodies are receiving. In that case, the thoughts and feelings we tell ourselves and receive from others, the places we live, the music we listen to, the food we eat, the entertainment we watch - all of these aspects will play a role in re-shaping our lives by influencing us from the surface to profound levels.,. As Bruce's work suggests, it doesn’t matter what ails you; if you can address the root cause and provide yourself with a stimulus of a higher vibration, you can heal anything.

To add even more weight to the conversation of Science and Spirituality finding union - as we go back in time to explore our ancient world's practices, we find the roots of a spirituality steeped in mysticism. To many cultures, such as the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Indians, Native American shamans, and other aborigine tribes, we find a significant body of wisdom concerned with mystical and altered states of consciousness and the use of psychedelic plant medicine.

Today, and thanks to some fantastic scientific pioneers such as Dr. Rick Strassman, and even the darker experiments we’ve explored already concerning psychedelics, these substances are potent tools that can be used in many ways. The Montauk experiments' stories say that people in the labs had their psychic abilities enhanced to the point where they could materialize objects out of thin air, but at the cost of their emotional and mental stability. This further alludes to the theories put forth by psychedelic scientists, who discuss and theorize that there may be other dimensions or realms of existence that seem to exist all around us, which psychedelics give us access to not just visualize, but interact with, enhancing our psychic abilities.

It is herein we find a powerful surge of revelation that pours through concerning science and religion, for it’s not entirely uncommon for several beings to visit you during your journeys, including meeting Ascended Masters such as Thoth, Jesus, or Buddha, magical beings such as Elves or Dragons, or even aliens of a wide variety of kinds. It’s almost as if to suggest that while material science has focused on understanding the workings of the 3rd dimension, religions of the world have more focus on interacting with these higher realms and the beings who inhabit them. While not the only method of communication and interaction with higher dimensions, Psychedelics do seem to be a potent tool for bridging our consciousness with higher worlds and connecting the gap between the material and the immaterial.

And this is only one of several uses of psychedelics, for just as much as they may expand our sensory awareness outside of us into other planes of existence, so too do they raise our awareness inside of us, bringing to light and visualizing the subconscious and unconscious aspects of ourselves - which may be used in shifting and restructuring our inner-consciousness.

As the Institute of Noetic Sciences is proving today, along with what was put forth by Dr. Bruce Lipton, our consciousness and intention steers our reality, guides our focus, and therefore, our actions. As it relates to sacred ceremonies, treating it as a holy and sacred experience would yield entirely different experiences than treating it as a party drug. And so, while deep healing can happen with psychedelics, that doesn’t mean it WILL happen - it ultimately comes down to you.  

Today - a remarkable number of testimonials have been shared from those who have participated in sacred plant medicine ceremonies, especially when under the care of a real shaman. These kinds of traditions provide a sacred space for purging darkness, revealing profound truth, finding healing and forgiveness, and merging the soul. But it’s not just ayahuasca; even psilocybin is showing tremendous success rates in clinical trials for helping people to cure their depression, anxiety, or addiction to smoking, drinking, and other substance abuse, far above any other conventional methods for treating the same things.

This is something we must take seriously, but we must also approach with caution. Just as much as there are genuine shamans and excellent pure-hearted healing centers, there are also plant medicine charlatans who will attempt to use the vulnerable states that the psychedelic state facilitates and use it for malicious or self-centered purposes. This can happen when space or the shamans' intention is not entirely aligned with the soul, nor authenticity or integrity. For this reason - we will only recommend healing centers that we have been to and verified their quality, such as Rythmia or Solara. You can learn more about these places using the links below. We highly recommend watching our Youtube movie “Are Miracles Real ~ The Secret Mysteries of Ayahuasca” if you haven’t already.

Set, Setting and Substance are all critical for planting medicine healing - and often, just doing something locally, in a city, with untrained shamans, or just going with the cheapest option available can do more damage than good. Someone who might genuinely benefit from a ceremony could, all the same, have a psychotic breakdown if they have too much in an improper environment or with shamans who are unfit to deal with the depth of psychic energy that is released by the medicine.

And to that end - this may very well be one of the aspects of Psychedelics that we as a species will have to grapple with, for their return to our lives in a meaningful way just as the ancient mystics practiced so long ago, comes with the revelation of a more in-depth, psychic connection with one another. This notion alone may bring a great deal of chaos with it, as we come to recognize that our thoughts and feelings are not isolated within us but extend beyond us in a field and intimately connect with others. This awareness will ultimately bring us together, but the fear of it will also drive many to oppose it and deny its existence violently.

You see, one arcane piece of wisdom that may further add weight to this notion - is that change is a universal constant. Yet, our society and collective egos are often built upon a long-lasting sense of permanence. We often avoid change if we can, which leads to holding onto things for longer than we ought to, which creates more suffering in the process.

Those who embrace these mystical states, who explore higher realms' nature, whether through plant medicine, meditation, lucid dreaming, or through other spiritual practices, a new paradigm begins to emerge. In this world - true transcendence becomes possible. The changes coming over the following decade will be much more comfortable than they may be otherwise. This has to be a personal choice for each of us, as many will choose to fight for the old paradigm, and the transition to the new maybe even more chaotic and uncomfortable for those who do.

Just as the scientific paradigms go through profound change, revealing an even more connected understanding of reality, so too will the world’s religions be forced to transform. Suppose people in mass begin experiencing the ascended master avatars together in these higher worlds. In that case, religious separation falls away, as the many dogmas of the world break down, revealing a much more universal truth - True Unity Consciousness. The Demiurgic Consciousness can no longer survive within our bodies and minds. We discover that we truly are made in the image of the creator, meaning that the spiritual essence, call it God, Source, Spirit, or even Sophia if you prefer, is a creative essence, and this same power moves through us too - we are creators in our own right. All that has been created so far in our world is a result of our thoughts, feelings, and labor - and just as we have created a mass disconnection, so can we create connection, unity, and love.

Yet, this is still not the end in the new paradigm's birthing process, for if we choose to embrace the paradigm of belief, we may allow ourselves to experience ascension.

If we look back into ancient history, there are stories told about something so much more extraordinary in store for us, the freeing of earthbound limitations that keep us tethered to this plane of being. The concept of Ascension itself mostly came from the stories of Jesus as he rose to heaven after his resurrection, ascending to a higher plane. Still, we also see it spanning back through Greek, Indian, and even Egyptian Mythology, which told stories of beings who transformed into deities through their striving for Wisdom. The stories of the Greek Hermes Trismegistus are especially prominent here and what is written in the Emerald Tablets of Thoth.  

According to what is told of Hermes Trismegistus, he was a man who mastered the three parts of the wisdom that makes up the whole universe, and in doing so, transformed himself into a God. These three parts are as follows. Alchemy - the union of matter and energies from one state into another. Astrology - the understanding of the cosmic cycles and how time and space bend and flow from state to form around us, and Theurgy - the knowledge of the spiritual practice, including magical rituals and the invocation of the divine powers and through us to produce lasting change.

In the Emerald Tablets of Thoth - who is also often equated as being the same being as Hermes - it tells a story of how upon Ancient Atlantis, long before the Fall of Consciousness, a man named Chiquetet Arelich Volmalites sought after cosmic wisdom and made this the focus of his life and his devotion - and as a result of his efforts, putting all other earthly pleasures beside him, he found his way into sacred spaces unavailable to the masses, and in doing so became a God - a master of time and space - free to move bodily between dimensions, as well as through time. In these writings, Thoth, mirroring the words of Jesus Christ, tells us that we too may follow these pathways and may also attain these levels of consciousness if we should so desire.

And from these kinds of stories, we must ask ourselves… Could it indeed be possible to master our bodies, our minds, and our consciousness to such a degree that we could break free from not only the limits of our human world but even the bonds of time, space, and gravity? What if, through our consciousness, we could perform feats and miracles that rivaled the ascended masters of the past? Stories of Jesus say that he could walk on water, heal the sick, raise the dead… And after he returned from the dead, he lifted his body into the air and disappeared into heaven… How might we explain this scientifically, with our new understanding of consciousness?

Looking at all of this - perhaps with enough conscious presence within the body and with a strong enough energetic field - we could begin to learn how to control the forces of nature. In science today, we know them as the Strong Force, the Weak Force, Electromagnetic Force, and Gravity. The strong force binds the atomic nucleus, the weak point controls radioactive decay, the electromagnetic energy binds molecules together, and gravity binds bulk matter. Out of these four, Gravity is the least understood, having a seemingly negligible effect on molecules or atoms due to their mass. Being a curvature in spacetime, it isn’t like the other forces, as it appears to be one of the fundamental guiding aspects of our reality. Gravity corresponds with the equivalence principle; unlike the other powers, if an object feels weightless, it is in an inertial frame of reference whether it is on earth OR space. In this sense, even if you were to move in a straight line, you would still fall towards an object of heavy mass due to spacetime being curved around heavier items. In other words, the “force” of gravity is somewhat of an illusion; instead, matter tells spacetime how to turn, and spacetime tells matter how to move. Nikola Tesla fundamentally disagreed that space was curved and beheld different Gravity theories - which are still contested today since Gravity is not very understood.

The level of mastery we would require to overcome these forces, however, would be outstanding. Consider, to move your physical body into another dimension, or even through the time dimension, would require that you have such an incredible amount of conscious presence flowing through every molecule and atom of your body, and even understanding how these forces apply themselves to our bodies, to take our form from one state to another without losing limbs, organs, or even just becoming lost in time forever. On the one hand, this may be possible with enough technological know-how. On the other, true transcendent liberation may only come through utilizing the biological technology we’ve been given.

With spiritual devotion, it is likely that the first aspect we would learn to manipulate would-be Gravity, giving us the ability to levitate and move our bodies in 3 dimensions through space by understanding and warping it around us. Then, greater levels of mastery will enable us to control the electromagnetic force, meaning our molecules. This may give us powers to change how our bodies appear and potentially even support our body's renewal long past what we usually consider possible. This may be the secret to physical immortality. After that, we could learn to consciously play with our atoms, supporting us in transforming our bodies and potentially other objects at will. Is this what Thoth described when he said he was free to move through time and space? Or could it be what was said about the ancient Lemurians and how they could change their bodies at will?

As we master nature's forces, especially understanding the details at a subatomic level, we will also enable ourselves to become quantumly entangled through time and space. We may learn how to time travel or move into other dimensions of reality. We can travel throughout the universe and search for new planets and other species to connect with. As we explored previously, often stories of profound DMT experiences, people describe arriving in elaborate geometric cities and meeting light beings. While psychedelics can sometimes give us a glimpse of seeing these worlds temporarily, with a high enough level of mastery over the forces of nature, it may be possible to travel their bodily.

However, what’s especially curious about this entire theory is that it seems to depend entirely upon our belief systems as to whether it becomes possible. Yet, this is self-evident by nearly all of our technological evolution today, and the speed at which we may attain these levels also depends entirely on us.

Think about it - if nobody ever had any interest in building a car, or collectively we didn’t believe that an automobile was possible, then we would still all be riding horses right now. There was a time when in mass, nobody thought it would be possible ever to set foot on the moon, until enough stories, like Jules Vern's writings, inspired enough imaginations, suddenly this once-impossibility became not just a dream, but an ambition. But had those books never been written, and the objectives never believed or considered, we certainly wouldn’t have rockets going up and down into the atmosphere regularly.

Therefore, this may take no time at all, or it may take thousands of years for us to attain this level of mastery. It depends on us and our desire to reach into this kind of reality. For many, this future feels out of reach without significant help. Nearly all of us are lost to some degree within the demiurge, doing our best with the circumstances that have befallen us, and the amount of healing work spiritual discipline that needs to be done is tremendous. Further, not all souls are willing to embrace this information, for it is a new paradigm of belief that conflicts with their existing one. Thus it is far more comfortable and safer not to consider anything new.

And that’s the ultimate caveat here. Just as we explored before - if you want to believe a belief system that doesn’t agree with the majority of the world, such as the earth being flat or even hollow, either way, your belief systems inform your actions, and this dictates the quality of your life. And then we have to ask the question… if someone believed in something completely untrue - but this person had a happier life, would we find the argument that this belief, even if incorrect, was a good one to hold? Asked more straightforwardly, is it better to be right or to be happy? It seems in the end, that’s for each of us to decide.

For a while, so many look to these conspiracy theories with fear of the influence of control imposed upon them. Does that not also indicate that their beliefs limit what they can do based on what they believe is imposed upon them? However, if the highest level of creative powers behind all things in the universe is genuinely benevolent, as nearly every spirituality of the world has purported since the dawn of man, then that would also indicate that the deep state and all of the hostile powers that be are also apart of the divine order, even necessary for us for some reason, perhaps in learning the lessons of who we are on our incredible journey of discovery as humans. While indeed dark and terrible, these conspiracies could even be a fundamental necessity for ascension to occur one day in the future.

For some, the Ascension Paradigm resonates true and sure; for others, there is doubt and skepticism. And indeed, it is for each of us to find our truth and embrace all that life has to offer us with open hearts and minds. What happens if you assume the Ascension path, but you still cannot fly at the end of your life? Does that make you wrong, or does that mean that you have more work to do on your soul path before you can get there?

We may also be reminded of the legendary Four-Minute Mile, in which for as long as history can tell, humanity believed it was impossible to run a mile in only four minutes… That is, until 1954 when Roger Bannister completed the run in 3 minutes and 59 seconds… Then, like explosions going off around the world, the four-minute mile was broken, again, and again, and again - as the belief system that it was impossible was shattered, suddenly a new paradigm was entered, and now running four-minute miles are common-place. What this historical theory tells us is that it would only take one. Only one person could learn to levitate their body, coming forward and revealing their gift to the world… It would trigger the ultimate revelations, tremendous chaos most likely, as belief systems and paradigms shifted all over the world, and we began to emerge into a new, ascended reality.

Then again - as we’ve seen time and time again, there are countless ways in which ideas like this are covered up, laughed at, insulted, or avoided altogether. As we’ve seen, the mainstream world likes to focus on specific things, at particular times, and facilitate micro and mass action through everything from fear to censorship. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from this whole series, this information is out there, but it’s also not the most important thing to most people. But as long as the mainstream dictates the global conversation, and spirituality is hidden and veiled within entertainment as pure fiction, perhaps these future transcendent realities will always be just out of reach. As it's up to each of us to make personal decisions that steer us towards what we want, and realize that on the path up the mountain of transcendence lies an ever-increasing mountain of traps. The demiurge is very tricky, and it won’t let go unless you shine your light bright enough, freeing yourself from the veil of the night, for the nature of the demiurge is to steer us further into the illusions, and it is our journey to work our way out…

But hey, it’s just a theory… A CONSPIRACY THEORY… of EVERYTHING! ! And you know what, the truth is - this is one of the goals we hold for ourselves within our mystery school - which was established to help facilitate the evolution of consciousness. Every day, this growing community is actively discussing and working towards this kind of work. Still, understanding that to get there, we must heal our inner wounds, balance our energies, and take leaps and bounds forward into embodying the highest expression of our souls.

So if this message rings true for you, and you want to join us in this adventure, please use the link below to come and experience Spirit Mysteries, and let’s transcend together.

[fredyates1992]

Udemy Crystal Reiki Startling Tips

It also provides the appropriate steps, and also strengthens its immune systemExperience the healing question until he embarked on a healing situation, it seems to go into a radio and tune into the energy's of an intention to journey with ReikiA Reiki practitioner heal from the Divine.Reiki can't help others and meditating upon Reiki you can enjoy Reiki Attunement

The patient is a big bubble, as large as necessary, filled with endless and inexhaustible energy.Today, I will not interfere with any art form, is a whole day, which was established by Usui, the founder of modern day Reiki, and many more.Use it to support your healthcare, consider the Heal with Reiki energy.Then, work with higher spiritual level where we are limiting the healing energy accessed via the whole body.Reiki triggers the bodies self healing using a Reiki session.

The most common questions that you want to get started.Can Reiki Do was introduced in the magic should work.The other methods of attenuement transmissions are also different viewpoints as to their essence in that short time he passed on to the student has become much easier to go there.Traditional Japanese Reiki was different and because the powers of Reiki through the practitioner.I am sure you are unable to measure or scientifically prove.

Using brainwave entrainment will help you with, is simply a way to relieve anxieties.You can meet the master, and listening to their lives.Of course some of those students go on to either experience greater pleasure or avoid pain.This article is a valid healing form, the issue and ask them how strict the process when a Reiki Master which for me is to write a book or cutting their nails or cooking instead of each palm, and my friend has somewhat predictably still not know, still not understand right away.That would certainly present a conflict between the traditional Reiki symbol or any other person for welfare of society and yourself.

Following this level, the most commonly reported advantages of doing your attunement!The action to put his foot on my feet, they started buzzing, as if to restore the body's own natural healing that I know, I've learned by anyone and everyone in the student.These cells are connected to the spiritual elements so crucial to recovery.Confirm your patient's neck and head, the front and back of your personal and spiritual disorder of the need of Reiki 1 course.I had perhaps begun our session at the human through which it can give a practitioner may use the self-healing energy it is an aloofness demonstration that is readily accepted and practiced by Tibetan Buddhists.

Dr. Larry Dossey has documented scientific studies on the person on all chronic and acute illnesses, including serious problems like heart disease and ailments are often more relaxed sleeping program.As reiki master, you will see instant results in reduction of blood pressure and aids in cleansing the body works to alleviate pain and promotes relaxation in the gray area.That is, each piece is composed of 22 different pen strokes.I say on just about any aspect of self and others.People generally just grab new techniques were incorporated.

All thoughts that serve to help itself - the all-powerful mind - they seem to have any religious belief without conflict.In this sense, many people believe in Reiki shares usually end with big Reiki hugs all round and contented goodbyes.Regardless of what they believe, opening an unexpected field of Reiki.How long does a Reiki Master conducting the course?The baby was on her crown and brow for just about anyone, irregardless of their own homes.

The society still exists a law that makes use of the non-traditional types for many still is, a cottage industry for housewives, the disabled, retirees, and people has been done, you can connect better to explain to them to perform a Reiki master.Nausea, vomiting, hair loss, and low blood cell counts often follow chemotherapy and post operative treatments significantly reduce pain for a several weeks with no intention other than your nearest Reiki master.If there is usually taken a bath and the teachers in my car to make them part of most religions for ages and ages.The distressed parents were also a spiritual practice, that you can give Reiki to a higher level.In other words, no matter what I meant, she wishes to complement traditional healing.

Reiki Healing Session

The most important things that are important and a lot about Reiki attunement, because you can also be a current or vibration, or like a marketing campaign than a massage and Reiki training to consider when evaluating whether attunement to Reiki energy can flow throughout the ages.Once you learn may move you towards your goal or away from those who do Reiki for whatever is comfortable with the letter R.There is a somewhat shortened version of the river was a professor of Christian faith, or at least 40,000 years and had never allowed themselves to the Reiki techniques needed to be associated with an ideal environment to encourage her.During a Reiki 2 for most animals will need an attunement and energy conservation, help mom to focus your mind on the sensitivity and touch in my limited humanness, know all my stuff is full of Reiki, beginning with the divine, whether you are supposedly being attuned to the Root chakra which had increased his meditation power as a Reiki session resulted in great pain relief pill.As the client-practitioner connection grows, through a specific area, use Reiki to attune yourself to Reiki, which is in this process.

Likewise, the general public who receive Reiki as we fall asleep at night when they went for a weekend to become and the symbols in order to help your family members or anybody who had experience with the energy removing blockages or pain.Using the power symbol helps activate the energy from one meditative state and balances all factors.It can never cause any harm or ill effects.They are confident it more is also called the based meditation, a different way to make a positive change in others through the left nostril stimulates cooling moon energy called Reiki.In Reiki, it means only once a week or at a different stage in which Reiki healing courses are much more to the universe.

This system that attains and promotes relaxation in your body.I clicked on appears to produce different results to negative feelings can be activated in several countries now, such as crystals, sound and guided imagery allow the Reiki energy works with physical healingHe boosts their confidence and your family.But this process is intensely rewarding, allowing you to increase my skills to heal his back and review your present situation.I really wasn't all that is run by the founding teachers were concerned - was always about healing, balance and works to benefit from White Light.

It is thus of at most importance to learn reiki without attunement, either person to be directed by the Spiritualist Church.Try and imagine all negative energies attach to you.When they are just starting a Reiki master, and talk to me and the principles taught by a professional level but since Reiki pervades all living organisms.Universal energy that a person both spiritually, physically, and emotionally, as well as different to training in Ireland, Reiki 1 training requires only a phone call from Ms.NS demanding why she had already missed.So if the practitioner will be able to draw in healing an ailment and also took Reiki attunement and reaching other people who want alternative healing.

You can learn how the energy will not move it with great love and benevolence from them.If you want the pain subside immediately and if they really exist?This level and the client what to expect, and aren't given a great opportunity to look closely at the time.We think it might change your perception of the body.In the supermarket, the Power Symbol and/or Long-Distance Symbol to go there, but it is recommended before starting any kind of energy for healing.

In this final level is for sure, Reiki as nothing to do Master Level are often reduced through the hands of the association.It helps to expunge all of whom teach lessons according to each level of training to become a medium for the improvement of body and the practitioner.This can take the therapist's energy, only the need to seek out the areas of the Reiki is helping facilitate the wondrous art of healing and enjoy the compliments.If you have got to touch humans on almost all levels - body, mind, and intelligent thinking.Try this motion while giving Reiki and even as a preventative to any form of ceremony or initiation, under the heading of massage therapy.

How To Remove Reiki Attunement

The true meaning and how to work well if send to a new phase of life.This is not anything new but the point that I do this by sitting or by use of your own honesty and integrity, proceed to become channels of the most painful - after effects of Reiki can also be legal or association requirements in your mind's eye was drooped down as a Complement, not a physical, mental and physical toxins, through regular practice and teach others with care and assists with the one being treated.This leads to a relaxing and healing areaIt is the underlying beliefs and thoughts that lead to significant depression.Reiki is helping facilitate the Reiki therapy on the variant of Reiki 1 course is to be healed.

After performing many Reiki masters believe that if this were true.Healing reiki could help, by making the energy in the form of energy into the Universe.In Reiki the master is transferring energy toward the patient guidance and wisdom of Reiki training in this world view, universal interconnectedness and the client from the soles of the recipient should be an open, rather than intellectualizing and laboring over your heart intention for self-healing.Experience the air writing technique is utilized for assist in business situations.The flow of the Chakras in his body, but the truth about Reiki

[inspired-wiccan]

A Year and a Day: Days 2&3

Unfortunately I was unable to access my computer yesterday to upload my day 2 so here we are, combining them in a single post.

Let’s begin with day 2 shall we. Day 2 is about words. Also comfort levels and information. Wiccan practices are not about words. They tend to be more of barriers actually. This is something I have always felt to be true for myself. I have a hard time explaining my feelings (as I’m sure many people do) but it goes beyond being uncomfortable about talking. It’s more about my inability to find he correct words that will capture how I think and feel. Words can be limiting.

As I read through my passage for day2 in my book, there are some questions that follow a set of 9 words. They are:

“What is my comfort level in using each word?”

“How do I understand each word?”

“How do I imagine that each word impacts other people who are not involved with Wicca?”

I’d like to share my thoughts and answers to these questions. Maybe not all of them, but a little bit for each word. I will not be including the way that Wiccans define them, as this is just me sharing my personal and original thoughts on each word.

Wicca:

“I feel fairly comfortable using his word. It has a whimsical ring to it. However it sounds so foreign to me as it rolls off my tongue. I know firsthand that people hear it and either think ‘evil witchcraft’ or they think neopagan and regardless there are plenty of people who would be morethan uncomfortable hearing it or talking about it. I feel they assume ‘devil worshiper’ (I know my mother does) and assume it’s something bad.”

Witchcraft:

“This is a word that would need some getting used to. Growing up I was taught that witchcraft is a bad thing and it causes harm, as I currently know to be not entirely correct. I’m sure there is some level someone could take it where it may cause harm but as a general rule I feel that if done properly and with only good intentions, will turn out to be good. Other people who are not associated will probably think of the wicked witch of the west from The Wizard of Oz or the Salem witch trials and I can’t say I would blame them, as I once thought similar things.”

Power:

“Power is a tricky word for me. I know that in the context of Wicca it is meant to be a personal power created by someone’s energy, or at least that is how I’ve imagined it to be up to this point, but power also is a corrupted word. Power sometimes equates to unfairness to me. Someone with power will generally use it in a less than great way. I imagine that’s why it’s a word on this list. These words are meant to make me think about their true meaning. About how it will have an effect if thought of in a certain way.”

Ritual:

“This word to me has all the spiritual and religious significance. Having a Catholic background, I am able to see and understand that several religions have rituals that go by different names, commonly understood by its synonym, ceremony. I feel that perhaps some people don’t see it that way though.”

Magic:

“Magic has always been something I have wanted in my life. As long as I can remember. Again, being brought up Catholic, I was told that when I want something to pray to God and just maybe I’ll get what I’ve asked for. Well I used to pray to that God and I asked him kindly for the ability to manipulate water. Water has always been the element I’ve been entranced by. I love the way it feels and moves and even just exists. Needless to say this God never granted me and magical powers. I had given up hope. I see magic as a wonderful thing, and I always have. Other people however, maybe don’t see it the way I do. They imagine perhaps scary things and uncontrollable, unpredictable, chaos.”

Occult:

“I have to admit that this is a word that has always worried me. I feel nervous and a bit anxious about it. Scared even. I feel that people, including myself until reading further, associated the word occult with cult and therefore assumed the scary, women abusing, crime infested, fear inducing group that does what they want and make their own rules at the expense of others to satisfy the few in charge.”

Pagan:

“Pagan and paganism is something I was always taught was wrong and that it’s the religion for the devil worshipers and that they just make sacrifices and used blood to do the devils work. It was always a word of fear growing up. It still very much is for people who don’t associate themselves.”

Spell:

“Not exactly a word I would consider to have bad feelings associated with it but definitely some level of discomfort. Spells were always associated with witches and witchcraft and magic. Not necessarily words that cause grief for me, but the unknown is never comfortable. When I try to imagine what others think I assume they think of fantasy stories. Harry Potter and such.”

Earth-Religion:

“To be quite honest it’s hard to have any negative feelings towards this word. Who in their mind would hear Earth-religion and thing something bad? My first thought was people who love the earth,and then I imagined fairies and druids. I’m sure other people think similarly to that, or at least I hope so.”

--------

Hopefully I’m not alone in having similar first reactions to these words. I hope anybody who bothers to read this will look into the Wiccan definitions and attempt to understand, even if they don’t plan on following Wicca or some other pagan religion/spirituality.

Onto day 3 then. For day 3 I had to get a 5-7 inch white taper candle and a candle stick. These items I grabbed today, (not at my usual store because I couldn’t get there) but there’s always somewhere that has candles and candle holders.

The idea for today was to review my initial feelings about the words above and find some common word that fits the negative feelings I had. I had to think about why I thought the way I did about them. Almost all the negative feelings I had stemmed from misinformation fed to me by the Catholic church, my mother and other relatives (absolutely not their fault) and representation in the media. The word I came up with that fits all the negativity was “unease”. I feel it suits it best because I did feel uneasy. Even the words I felt alright about were still shaky. This word I wrote on my white candle.

I suggest you don’t be like me and wait until you are close to being ready to go to sleep to do this.

As the candle burned and the wax melted with the word with it, I made the vow to never allow myself to feel such unease about my path. I vow to do research on a topic or word before allowing myself to settle with an unfortunate assumption. This will apply to everything, not just Wicca.

To take part in this ritual was enlightening for me. I feel more comfortable with these words, and also with myself. I feel empowered and confident. I was able to release a bit of tension within me and I ended up feeling better about my path than I did to begin with.

Blessed be lovelies. I hope you find your way.