Author Nick: SororZSD23
Name: Dee Rapposelli
Site: http://sophia-dione.livejournal.com
About Author: I am a medical writer/editor by profession and have been an educator in the local neopagan community, officiating in ceremony and providing workshops and lectures on various topics. I have interests in ancient mysticism, medieval Hermeticism, Chaos magick and other forms of post-modern sorcery and shamanism, folk magick, post-modern paganism, and historical perspectives on witchcraft, magick, Wicca, and the development of neopaganism.
Otherwise, I've been an adherent of Advaita Vedanta (a form of Hinduism) for most of my life and also have background in forms of Buddhism, Kashmir Shaivism, and Kundalini yoga practice and phenomenology.
A number of mystical ideologies operate under the premise that existence as we know it was not created by a primordial, self-caused entity, popularly called God. Rather, they operate under the premise that existence is an emanation in which the primordial First Cause (that is, “God”), although remaining unchanged also divides and transforms Itself through [...]
“Nothing is true; everything is permitted.” Popular lore has it that the 11th century ascetic Islamic fundamentalist Hassan ibn Sabbah, who purportedly was a mystic and mastermind of an assassin squad, said it right before he bit the dust at age 90 years. The phrase, as it stands as a Chaos Magick slogan, was actually [...]
Like other religions, Wiccans and Pagans have legends about how their traditions came to be. Like adherents of some of those other religions, such as . . . hmm . . . fundamentalist Christianity, many Wiccans and Pagans believe that their legends are historical facts. These concepts continue to be widely promoted and repeated (and [...]
In contemporary Western Occultism, the Northern quarter represents the womb and tomb, the dark moon, night, winter, earth, and form and potentiality. Whereas the Southern quarter is associated with assertiveness and action, the Northern quarter is associated with the vehicles of action: the body and will. In it is the will and potential to exist. [...]
“You must keep the mind fixed on one object, like an unbroken stream of oil. The ordinary man’s mind is scattered on different objects, and at the time of meditation, too, the mind is at first apt to wander. But let any desire whatever arise in the mind, you must sit calmly and watch what [...]
The wand is the quintessential mythical tool associated with the magical worker or occultist. It also is an important ritual implement in Western magic and mysticism. Like the sword and dagger, the wand may represent the element of air or the element of fire. Whereas the blade is an aggressive magical weapon that penetrates and [...]
The ritual cup is a magical and mystical symbol and a tool important to both pagan and Christian spirituality and mysticism. The cup represents the element of water. As a ritual tool representing water, it rests on the western side of the altar. As a meditation on the water element, the cup is associated with [...]
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