I received a lot of interest in the earlier photoset of the sky burial I posted a while back. I recently came across another one, this one is done in a different more hands on style. There is a lot more work with the caretaker really dismembering the body. Still fascinating to take a look, but of course be warned that it is graphic.
Shivian talks about when it’s time to really ditch a spell. It’s worth a read. Two common mistakes I see with people are those who continue to do the same spell/ritual repeatedly when getting no results, and those who assume that one fail means it’s time to drop it and move on. So here is a small checklist of things to run over before you decide to drop it.
Have a tough choice? Let your subconscious make it. Here is an interesting article about letting your brain work subconsciously to make decisions, and how that tends to work out better. I’ve often recommended anapana as a decision making tool, it focuses the conscious mind and leaves the background clear to process everything else.
Want to give your friends fake memories? Here is the basic how to. (By the way, you owe me $200 for the time I bailed you out of jail) I bring this up for two reasons. First, as someone with past life memories, I continually stress to others that memory isn’t solid and unchanging, that’s why it needs to be recorded and why it can’t necessarily be trusted. Secondly though not explicitiely said here, we can rewrite memories, which is why magickal journals are important, for you would be amazed how even the best of us can trick ourselves into remembering something working out differently than it did.
Another fantabulous Whisky Rant over on Rune Soup. As someone with past life memories of forgotten civilizations…no kidding, as someone who is working on a history degree this is part of the stuff I have to battle with. History doesn’t always make sense the way we want it to, and while I’m not saying what’s right and what’s wrong we have to question history. Who benefits from what survives, and who benefits from how history is constructed. Also as someone how has been suspicious (to be polite) of the Egyptian Indiana Jones it’s nice to see some more criticism against him.
There is more to magick than just memorization, check out a matching of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning/Knowledge (a theory I love and is a big part of one of my degrees) and magick. Then ask, are you doing it right?
Lastly I have one quartz mala left in my store, so I decided to mark it down and try to move it. Last one, so get it while you can, I probably won’t make more outside of custom orders for a while.
sky burial
Wednesday Webshare: Corpses, Pants, Sex, and Greeks
To start off my Wednesday Webshare I thought I’d remind readers that I have a small etsy shop BlueFlameMagick Supplies. I sell consecrated pendants, malas, and divination services. I’ve been thinking of listing more of my services on there to make it easier for people to contact/contract me. Anyways three items I want to call attention:Quartz Mala, of which there is only the one; Custom malas, which are fun to make, I’ve been asked to make them for the Three Rays of Witchcraft, Hekate (twice), Hermes (twice), Lilith, Samael, Lucifer, Vajrasattva, and the concept of Ice; and lastly the Chthonic Mala, because they’re back in stock, and were the first item I had that ever sold out (also jokingly called the most Goth item I’ve consecrated).
I shared this on twitter quite a while back, but it really deserves to be shared again. This is fairly graphic, so consider yourself warned. Below is photo documentation of a sky burial (jhator), an example of excarnation. I really enjoyed it. If you’re unfamiliar with the practice this is a Himalayan form of disposing of the dead. It’s a great reminder of impermanence. In the burial a body is partially (or completely) cut up, and left for carrion to eat. It’s fascinating to watch how it all happens (I love the photo of the guys running away from the vulture swarm), you can also see where some of the idea of offering the body in Vajrayana Buddhism (specifically in Chöd) came from.
Speaking of Buddhism, not sure what to wear to meditate? How about $995 meditation pants? I’m pretty sure Buddha wore them too. And people worry about commercialism and religion.
Such pants may not be on as long as normal pants, as apparently meditating boosts the sex drive. I will say that some of you know me, and no more needs to be explained. Though it does make me curious about celibate monastics, no sex, lots of meditation, poor guys.
While it seems overly simple, and is your basic sympathetic magick, there is some evidence that destroying or throwing away written negative thoughts helps you get over them. Like I said, it’s simple, but considering some of the ideas behind sympathetic magick (not to mention psychologizing and giving form to things) it’s not too surprising.
To go back in time, The Unlikely Mage has recently started his Agrippa for the non-Medievalist. He’s going through The Three Books of Occult Philosophy chapter by chapter and giving a synopsis, explaining some of the background material, and trying to have it make sense to modern readers.
Polyphanes has started a series of posts on the depth and seriousness of magick. It’s an attitude I understand and love seeing expressed, I recommend everyone check out Getting Burnt by the Stars.
Going farther back io9 asks Can we bring the Greek Gods back please? I know more than a few people who are upset at the implication they left, but it’s a fun article on the “advantages” of bringing back the Greek gods.
Also from io9, and also dealing with Mediterranean culture, do you want to look like a Vestal Virgin? A hair-stylist goes out of the way to learn how to recreate the iconic hair style and gives some brief instructions on how to do it.