#spiritual experience

[mountainfolkfaith]

To Hell And Back: My Experience with Hekate

I was a Hekate devotee for 6 months. Those 6 months changed my life.

The Dark Mother was in my life from June 1st, 2023 to December 31st, 2023. She led me through enormous transitions, major life decisions, and the darkest night of the soul I've experienced yet. She was my guiding light through it all.

When She Calls

She came to me very directly. I had 3 dreams 3 nights in a row along with many signs in my waking life. In the first dream, I was looking at a drawing of a black cloaked figure with someone else. They were talking about Hekate, and I could feel immense power coming from the drawing.

I found a stick shaped like a key in the second dream. Later that day in waking life, I went to the mall and saw a store surrounded by torches with black dog statues. She had my attention.

That night before I fell asleep, I asked Hecate what type of relationship She wanted to have with me. She answered. In the third dream, I was given a magical wishing well. I was tasked with the mission to go into the wishing well. I jumped down and was overwhelmed. There was an entire other world! I saw tall, huge trees lit by the full moon. I was afraid, but I overcame my fear and found courage to continue. I heard “You are here to spread love and light. Just by being you. That is why you’re here. That is your purpose.”

When I woke up, I knew there was work to be done with this goddess.

Devotion Through Transitions

Our work began quickly. Hekate Lampadios lighted my way from being a travel nurse to moving to Colorado and finding stability. I took a staff nurse position at a great hospital that I was already working as a travel nurse at. My husband and I packed our things and moved across the country.

One day when I was doing a mundane task, the idea fell into my mind to go back to school to become a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. I was shocked at the idea and felt fear. What if I'm not good enough? Don't I have enough problems of my own that I need to work through? She answered those questions in due time.

She reignited my love for my practice. I explored all kinds of folk magic -- English, Welsh, Celtic, Appalachian. I also investigated my ancestry searching for any fulfilling connections. I worked with herbs, picked up scrying, and overall honed my craft.

The Dark Mother's Initiation

After I moved to Colorado and began adjusting to my staff job, She asked me to dig deeper. The deeper I researched into witchcraft, the deeper I committed to my practice and to Her. I was all in. She led me to a witchcraft initiation from the deep South where my roots are. For 10 days, I arose at sunrise and recommitted myself to my practice and Her at a local park. I completed the initiation. I was about to be taught extremely important lessons that will affect me for the rest of my life.

Journey Through The Underworld

Hekate challenged my deeply embedded subconscious fear-based Christian worldview in a way that had never been done before. She led me to demonolatry. I came face to face with remnants of the brainwashing I faced from being raised a fundamentalist Christian. The tendrils of these beliefs dug into my psyche and told me all kinds of nasty lies. I faced my fear, trusted Hekate, and ventured forth into uncharted territory.

After a month of dancing with "devils," all communication dwindled until it eventually ceased. Even from Hekate.

I was distraught. The logical part of my mind reasoned that if the presences I was feeling and the voices I were hearing were real, they wouldn't just vanish. So, I came to the conclusion that it must be spiritual psychosis. I made it all up. All of it. My entire spirituality was a stress response. As if that wasn't hard enough, I was hit with a mysterious illness two weeks later. I had COVID-like symptoms but never tested positive for it. I had difficulty breathing, was bed ridden, and spent a lot of time in doctor's offices trying to figure out what was wrong. I took 3 months of medical leave from work.

This led me to have a nervous breakdown and seek out a psychiatric evaluation.

Hekate Deichteira (Teacher)

As my body began to recover from the mysterious illness that no test detected, I found answers for a different piece of my life. The psychiatric eval showed no signs of schizophrenia. The conclusion was psychosis induced by extreme stress and PTSD. I was referred to a psychiatrist for medication management.

After finding a combination of medications to control my anxiety, I began to realize just how much anxiety I was living with on a daily basis. I stabilized and put my spiritual practice out of my mind for the time being. I regained function that I hadn't experienced ever in my life. I can now be social, have energy for daily chores, and feel positive and confident. Getting this medication has changed my life completely for the better, and I feel like I can be the best version of myself.

As I was going to my psych appointments, I got to know my provider -- a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. We've had several conversations about spirituality and how she believes that everything I experienced was real. She helped me restore faith in my spiritual practice and pick up the pieces to build something new. I told her about how I was interested in being a Psych NP, and she's helping me find clinical placements while I'm in school. I'm also on the waiting list for EMDR therapy.

Final Thoughts

If Hekate comes into your life, be prepared for your life to change.

I still have no idea what I got sick with after my initiation, but I've read about other people getting unknown illnesses after initiations, awakenings, or other spiritually significant events.

After all of this, I am a new person. I have more gratitude for each day and rebuilding my strength. I have new definitions for what a "bad" day is. The spirits I worked with in the past are slowly making a new, stronger connection with me. It's as if I'm being taken more seriously after this time period.

I love Hekate and all She has taught me during my time with Her. My spiritual practice is now wholly mine, and I fear no demon, hell, or spirit. I am more stable than I have ever been. She will always be here to guide me to a better future no matter the cost. What she has given me is priceless. I am reborn. She has returned me to Aphrodite who has watched over me since birth. I am home now.

Always respect the Dark Mother.

Hail Hekate.

[lokavisi]

My friend gave an absolutely beautiful sermon at our UU congregation yesterday about what healthy mysticism looks like. It's one of those things I can struggle to articulate when someone asks me how I could possibly believe in something so fantastical without scientific proof. Or when dealing with extremely spiritual people who think scientific fact has no place in their understanding of the world. This is one of those things that I wish everybody, on both ends of the spectrum, understood. So I'll let her explain it to you better than I ever could 😁

Side note: You can follow her blog on the Glasse Witch Cottage website or Facebook page. She has decades of experience in witchcraft and paganism and is a fountain of knowledge. And like myself, she is both UU and Heathen!

[lackablazeical]

Fun storytime before work:

Me and my friends went onto a campsite (it was supposed to be closed but shhh) to burn things we didn't want anymore (so I burned a picture of someone who left me, one friend burned school textbooks, one burned a shirt from an ex)

And when we first got there, we had been talking to the woods/the universe, and eventually we had said 'hey! If you want us to leave, give us a sign. A bird cawing, a shooting star, a deer, like a buck, or a bunny or something! And we will stop the fire and leave as soon as possible.'

So we managed to get all the way thru the burning and then, all at once, both a shooting star and a bird cawing (a single caw, and keep in mind its like 1 am)

So we put out the fire and book it out, and on the way down we SEE A BUCK. So yeah I drove down a mountain at 60 what about it

Anyway sometimes I remember the universe, even tired and busy, likes to listen

Also YES we did leave offerings for her (chicken and weed, we didn't have any tobacco sadly)

[wingedprincesskoala]

Absolute magic on stage! I'd LOVE to be there in the audience. Totally my jam *_*

[disaster-delia]

Lana Del Ray's "Video Games" is a spiritual experience

[mafaldaknows]

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Em … uhhh … what ? 😏✨🖤✨🤭

OMG same 😆😆😆

[santmat]

"Light is always within us. When the mind is settled, we see that Light. When this state is developed, we see it everywhere, even with open physical eyes. You see the dark veil, and the Light within that. In the Light you see the blue sky and the golden center shining resplendently -- in the still pose of mind; and when you try to make and use your own efforts, your mind's still pose is disturbed, and you lose it. We need not make any efforts. Our clutching will stand in the way and retard our progress. We should, however, make effortless effort. "Sit fully devoted and fully absorbed with the inner gaze fixed, losing all sense of effort -- as effort involves a taint of ego -- leaving all to the Master within." (from an unpublished book of Kirpal Singh on meditation practice)

[faeyramaeyra]

🌷 First experience with Crystals! 🌷

*5 year old me, on a school trip to an old mine, walks into a lil shop and sees a chunk of amethyst*

Me: Pretty rock 🥺

Me: I’ll find something else to buy, I don’t need it

*Half an hour later after having a really bad nagging feeling*

Me: I NEEEEEED YOU, You’re coming home with me ☺️

Tip-Jar

[everythingbutresolved]

Never underestimate the inherent power of the simple phrase: "will you help me?"

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes, it won't be perfect but it'll be my best. Here, my hand is empty but it's yours to take.

[macbethz]

get high go outside put this on and smoke RN to unlock secret emotions

[marlasbreastlump]

i love you dead mystery baby

[betweenthetimeandsound]

Madonna of the Sea

I:

An errant tide brings me to you, but you only hope for those above the surface, those with much more to lose than I.

Flotsam, girls with only pearls, torn lilies when they only grown up amongst dust and fire--arsonists who learned out of despair.

Only I swam down towards you, grabbing my hands onto your child, pleading for a friend as banknotes float down to the bottom, their value squandered to the sand.

II.

I hold my breath, glancing at the sky. A little bit of oxygen will determine my life.

III:

"If you can survive, all of this will pass."

I cannot barter my life like a slab of butchered meat from a wayward goat, nor volunteer me for the cross, like a blanched lamb who found its way toward the city.

I don't want my body to pass over like barnacles on the shore, but deep calls onto the deep, and I'm submerged in much more than seawater.

Let me overcome these waves, if only through a miracle. Let the chains of doubt unravel, and let me break the surface.

I came to your depths, and asked for your hands. Make my dreams blossom like lemon trees, and they will come back to you, anew. --Elda Mengisto

[xtruss]

Why Parents Still Try to Ban ‘The Color Purple’ in Schools

Four decades after it was released, Alice Walker’s enduring classic remains at the forefront of the battle over what is available on library shelves.

— By Erin Blakemore | August 22, 2023

Alice Walker reads from her Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning novel, The Color Purple. Since it was first published in 1982, the critically acclaimed book has been targeted by movements pushing to censor the book's subject matter. Photograph By Johnny Crawford, Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP

When Alice Walker’s The Color Purple hit bookshelves in 1982, it blew away critics, became a nationwide bestseller, and endeared itself to readers who found pain and inspiration in its pages.

But in the years since its publication, the acclaimed novel has become famous for another reason: It’s one of the most challenged books in the nation, withstanding criticisms aimed at its depictions of race and sex, its portrayal of abuse and agony, and even its spelling and style.

Here’s how The Color Purple became one of the nation’s most banned books—and why it continues igniting controversy to this day.

“A Spiritual Experience”

Walker, who grew up in Jim Crow-era Georgia, described writing the book as a “spiritual experience” inspired by the strength and grit of the Black Southern women she made her heroines. The epistolary epic follows 40 years in the lives of its main characters Celie, Shug, and Nettie, who survive incest, domestic abuse, and racism in the early twentieth century—all while carving out joy, independence, and dignity along the way.

When it was released in 1982, the book immediately caught the attention of both the critics and the reading public, who praised the book for its portrayals of both the brutality and sorrow of racism and sexual violence and its celebration of Black women.

It was critically acclaimed, winning both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for 1983, and inspired a popular 1985 film directed by Stephen Spielberg and starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey.

Banning ‘Purple’

But something else accompanied the novel as its renown grew: controversy. Though educators recognized the book’s potential as a teaching tool, some parents and community members objected to its presence in school curriculums and libraries.

The first major attempt to ban the book occurred in 1984, when a parent petitioned against its use in an Oakland, California classroom. In a 1985 essay, Walker recalled reading frequent updates on “how the banning was coming along” and watching the book’s sales skyrocket.

“I felt I had written the book as a gift to the people. All of them,” Walker wrote. “If they wanted it, let them fight to keep it, as I had to fight to deliver it.”

Fight they did. Though the Oakland schools ultimately decided not to remove the book from classrooms, the book has consistently been challenged nationwide since its publication, repeatedly making it on the American Library Association’s list of most frequently challenged books.

Why Parents Challenge the Book

Attempts to ban The Color Purple usually contest Walker’s use of slang and profanity, the book’s portrayal of brutal Black men, a same-sex encounter between the two main characters, and its depiction of sexual violence in its first pages.

“One can eat from a cafeteria or a dumpster…but one would hope those placed in charge of our children would have exercised better oversight,” wrote one parent in a characteristic 2013 challenge in Brunswick County, North Carolina. (The book has survived multiple attempted bans in the Brunswick County school district.)

But the same pages that provoke ire in some have inspired others.

Oprah Winfrey, who endured sexual abuse as a child, later recalled reading the first page of The Color Purple “and thinking ‘Oh God, I’m not alone.’” After Winfrey co-starred in the first movie adaptation of the film, she began talking about her own experiences on her talk show.

TV historians now credit the self-disclosures inspired by Walker’s book with helping Winfrey develop her winning confessional interview format.

Modern Attempts to Ban the Novel

Efforts to ban The Color Purple have continued during a recent wave of attempted book bans.

In 2022, the American Library Association documented over 1,200 attempts to ban or restrict library materials—double the number of challenges from the previous year—and most of which attempted to remove multiple titles from shelves.

Among them was The Color Purple, which was removed from library shelves in Florida’s Indian County School District at the request of a parent group that objected to 156 of the books on school shelves, claiming the books contain everything from pornography to critical race theory. Though the district’s school board declined to ban The Color Purple, it did remove five of the other books on the list and approve a permission slip allowing parents to restrict their child’s use of school library books.

With news of an upcoming movie adaptation of the acclaimed musical based on the book, The Color Purple is poised to regain the national spotlight. Only time will tell if the movie will spark more challenges—but for now, the legacy of a book one 1982 reviewer called “indelibly affecting” is secure.

To date, the book has sold over 5 million copies—a number sure to rise as a new generation meets its heroines.

[rrreverieee]

mate im not joking when i say i saw a holy angel descend when i watched mahiros gbb24 producer wildcard, shit was literal fire bro on god

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

"A kernel of truth lurks at the heart of religion, because spiritual experience, ethical behavior, and strong communities are essential for human happiness.

And yet our religious traditions are intellectually defunct and politically ruinous. While spiritual experience is clearly a natural propensity of the human mind, we need not believe anything on insufficient evidence to actualize it."

-- Sam Harris