Here's another important gospel question. I'll direct it at Mormons because there are so many of us around here, but it works just as well for people of other
Balance denotes the benefits of keeping the use of your energies justifiably proportioned between your pursuits. The symbol Yin and Yang is used to represent the balance. Yin and Yang is possibly the most elegant and sometimes elusive definition of Balance there is. While Balance is rarely if ever perfect, being far out of Balance means that while one part of you may be thriving tremendously, another part of your life may be wilting.
Balance indicates a need to find and maintain a level physical and spiritual state. It suggest you may be concentrating your energy on one or a few things so much that you are neglecting other important aspects of your life. While this is often necessary to make immediate gains it can lead to missing out on the diverse richness of life in the long term.
Areas of Influence: Isis had numerous areas of influence. As her cult grew in popularity she absorbed the roles and titles of many earlier Goddesses including: Nekhebet, Bast, Hathor, Serket and Mut.
Her main roles are Mother and fertility Goddess and Goddess of magic and Healing.
The titles: Great Goddess, The Divine One and The One Who is All are a testament to the power and appeal of this Egyptian Goddess who had temples dedicated to her as far away as Britain.
She was described as the Goddess of Magic, Great Lady of Magic and Lady of the Words of Power. This was in recognition of her magical gifts and understanding of power of magical words. The ambitious Isis mastered these abilities after she poisoned Ra and offered to heal him in exchange for her secret name. By sharing this secret all Ra’s personal power and knowledge was transferred to Isis.
Together with Osiris she ruled the Gods until he was killed by Set, her jealous brother.
Unable to accept his death she used her magic and healing to bring Osiris back to life and he fathered her child Horus.
Set found out and destroyed Osiris again, Isis used magic once again and granted Osiris immortality.
The Goddess ran away and brought up Horus in secret. She is revered as an excellent mother and there are several works of art that depict her with her son on her lap. She also became a fertility and Earth Goddess as shown by the following titles: Lady of Green Crops, Mother of the Gods, Mother of the Universe, Queen of the Earth. In this role she became the protector and patron of woman and children.
This Goddess was associated with all of the elements: earth as a fertility Goddess, air through her association with wind especially the North wind, fire as a solar Deity she is described as Maker of the Sunrise and the Brilliant One in the Sky and lastly water as she was linked to the flooding of the Nile.
She had so many different areas of influence that she earnt the title of Lady of Ten Thousand Names.
Origins and Genealogy: She was the daughter of Nut and Geb, her siblings included Osiris whom she married and Set and Nephthys. Her only child was Horus.
Strengths: Ambitious and a loyal wife and mother.
Weaknesses: She wanted to win and maintain her power at any cost.
Isis’s Symbolism Her name means female of the throne and she was often illustrated with a headdress showing an empty throne suggestive of both her husbands’ absence and that she was the seat of the Pharaoh’s power.
Alternatively she is shown with a solar disk and horns or even with a cow’s head.
In her funerary role she was often given wings and carried the Ankh symbolizing immortality.
Sacred Animal: The cow, snake and scorpion.
Sacred Birds: Hawks, swallows, doves and vultures.
Isis’s Archetpes The Mother
The Mother is a life-giver and the source of nurturing, devotion, patience and unconditional love. The ability to forgive and provide for her children and put them before herself is the essence of a good mother.
In its shadow aspect the Mother can be devouring, abusive and abandoning. The shadow Mother can also make her children feel guilty about becoming independent and leaving her. It is not necessary to be a biological Mother to have this stereotype. It can refer to anyone who has a lifelong pattern of nurturing and devotion to living things.
Isis is an archetypal Mother figure, a good mother to her son Isis, she is also said to have nursed the Egyptian Pharaoh and to have been a fertility Goddess for the Earth and her Followers.
The Witch
Uses knowledge of the universal laws of nature, the conscious mind and esoteric powers to manifest their desires.
The shadow Witch uses their gifts to increase their own power.
Isis is guilty of this when she uses magic to poison Ra and tricks him into giving her all his power and knowledge
How To Work With These Archetypes The Mother: You are exhibiting the features of the shadow Mother if you smother your children and are over protective. Encourage independence and allow children to make mistakes but be available to give care and advice when it’s needed.
The other shadow Mother is the one that abandons her children, or is so busy that she has no time for nurturing her young.
The Witch: The Witch maybe one of your Archetypes can if you have the gift of understanding how to transform situations, influence people, and make your visions and dreams a reality.
The Shadow Witch reminds you not to use these abilities to gain power over others as this is not magic but sorcery.
The building of the magickal personality brings us to something else; each one of us has the actor within him or her. As Shakespeare put it, so beautifully and poetically:
All the world’s a stage And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts.”
The Magickal Self acts as the interface and point of transition from the mundane world to the spiritual realms. It is you, in your higher form of vibration that will more closely match the rhythms of the other worlds you are transiting. It is the trained you that as you progress along the Path also grows and expands to encompass more of knowledge and experience you have gained and reflect it back so that it may be recognizable and usable in your magickal workings.
The form your Magickal Self takes will vary in accord with your energetic changes as you move forward in your work and study. For some, they see themselves in a physical shape and form, although it will not resemble their physical coloring, build or stature at all. For others, this form may more easily take a geometric shape that holds the more highly refined state of their energy. In either case, as the physical form is densest in matter that shape will most likely not be the form taken as there is the need for a more refined energy within the astral realms. Whatever form this Magickal Self may take it is recognizable by you because it still remains your consciousness; just in its spiritual form such as:
Younger Self, Talking Self, and Higher Self In The Feri Tradition: Sticky One, Shining Body, and Sacred Dove Hebrew/Qabalistic: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, Yechida Generically in the Metaphysical Paths: Lower Self, Middle Self, Higher Self and Spiritually Evolved Self.
For our purposes we will be working with the three designations of Lower Self, Middle Self, Higher SELF and The Spiritual (or Evolved) SELF.
Lower/Physical Self: I Have The Lower Self (Lower Mental) is our primal instinctual nature. This is the physical body we inhabit and the conscious self that responds and reacts to stimuli in the physical world through our senses and tactile abilities. This is our place of foundation and the place from which we concretely and tangibly build the world around ourselves. The Lower or physical self obeys the laws of time and because of its density in energy the laws of space and its place within it as well.
Middle/Emotional Self: I Want (to Become) The Middle self more closely relates to the subconscious mind. The place of dreams and aspirations; of emotions and feelings. We Feel rather than thinking our way through this world. This is the first place of desire and the catalyst that yearns to become more than we are and can experience in the physical self. The Lower Self says “I Have or possess this” and the subconscious feeds it the “want and desire” that enlivens and creates connection to what we have acquired.
Higher/Mental SELF: I Will Become The Higher Mental self is the super or Higher conscious self. It knows the results of the subconscious desire working upon the conscious mind and has transcended to a place of “knowing it will be”. This Higher Self has developed a state of “awareness” and from that awareness evolves the Higher Will. It is not the will of baser ego, but instead the Will to create, to manifest to exist. This is the part of Self that is not confined by the bounds of linear time and space.
The Spiritual SELF (The Divine Spark) : I AM The Spiritual SELF is the continued contact and communication with the impulse of the Divine. There is no longer a need to Have or possess. There is no desire for anything for it is all and at once formed and formless. It is the realization that there is no separateness, only union and synthesis from which all other states of form emanate. It is the Divine Spark that is contained within us all and moves with us as we pass from lifetime to lifetime.
The way in which these parts of self interact when creating and calling forth the Magickal Self are multifold. Each is dependent and interdependent upon the other for forming, coalescing and finally birthing that magickal being that is inherent within us all. The subconscious generates the desire to shape and form the appropriate interface that will allow for movement and access to the higher planes. The conscious self, having been stimulated by the subconscious begins the work of creating the shape and image that magickal form will take.
If you have a firmly established Magickal Persona, this process usually occurs at the point of putting on your ritual grab, a sacred amulet or ring. It intensifies and builds in substance as you enter sacred space. And, once the circle is cast, the quarters called and the energy of the ritual space changes its vibration and intensity the Magickal Self comes forth more fully to begin the work at hand. As the conscious self seeks the contact of the Higher consciousness (Higher Mental) this form begins to interact with the energies and planes that are being accessed in the ritual.
If you are just beginning the process, every ritual, every magickal working that is done with focus and intent will strengthen and bring into greater substance that Magickal Self. In those rare moments, when all the parts of self are in alignment and balance with each other the consciousness rises to a place of opening to the Spiritual SELF. This of course, is the ultimate goal and is not something easily attained. This contact usually comes through the subconscious mind rather than the conscious waking mind; and can be likened to a brief flash of brilliant light where you are completely at one with the Universe, its mysteries and its source. These moments are quite rare and even with diligent practice towards that end they occur in their own way in their own time (often lifetimes) , if at all.
So what is the importance of knowing about these various selves? And, what does that have to do with a Magickal Self?
Use this analogy and think on what it truly means: As we develop our Magickal Self the physical being becomes something like a cocoon. Time passes and the affects of weather and all manner of outer influence go unnoticed by what is being transmuted within. Eventually, and at just the precise moment in time there is movement within the cocoon- from which the “lightness and grace” of an ephemeral butterfly (or the Magickal SELF) emerges, a completely different form from its original with access to different sets of skill and understanding of other worlds. Its world is different from that of its former state as a caterpillar. It is through a similar state of metamorphosis that each time the call to the Magickal Self is issued the potential for a more enlivened and more refined state of being is held. And as we move through these new worlds, we are as the butterfly, transformed and empowered to soar towards our Divine nature.
_____Author: Robin Fennelly ____________________________________
Footnotes: Online Course: A Year and A Day on the Wiccan Path. R.Fennelly
Lord of Lights: The Path of Initiation in the Western Mysteries. W. E. Butler
Thanks to a court ruling Friday, Utah may soon recognize the unions of same-sex couples who wed in the state's brief marriage equality window.
WWW.ADVOCATE.COM
there is no reason to steal from mickey d's or any other fast food place...go when they're not as busy (they'll appreciate that), then go inside and let them know you haven't eaten today and would they please be willing to get you something cheap so you could at least have something in your stomach...some of the best times to go are after a rush, cos then they'll usually have burgers and fries that they'll need to dump into the wastebasket anyway...
Have you ever been walked into a room and suddenly felt drained of all life and energy? Chances are you were a victim of a psychic vampire. I'm not talking about the cape-wearing vampire wannabes out there. Psychic...
A scientist reports that cats release the hormone oxcytocin, called the "love hormone," in the company of people and pets they're close to. We know cats can love, but see what scientists have to say here: http://bit.ly/1kciRQj
“I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?” ― John Lennon
Fans of the magical saga prepare yourselves: Harry and his pals are back!
WWW.HEART.CO.UK
OK. Don't freak out. This is not an attack on your faith. This is just acknowledging the things you may take for granted. I hadn't even thought of most of these. It's informative and non-judgemental. Just pointing it out. Are there any they missed? Are there things that people like me miss?
Privilege is often seen as a loaded and accusatory word. But it's far from that. This isn't about having guilt, or shame, it's about understanding what benefits people get from having it, and then trying to be aware of them in every day life, and trying to address them. That's it.
If you identify as Christian, there’s a good chance you’ve never thought about your privilege. Let's try to make the US truly safe and accessible for folks of all belief systems.
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