The Astral Bog, Continued

[kimberlysteele]

Dreams and sleep are supposed to be a respite from the daily grind, but the collective astral has become so bad, dreaming now fails to fully perform its intended cleansing function. Dreams are not the refuge they once were to our ancestors.

“Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams
Beside a pumice isle in Baiæ's bay,
And saw in sleep old palaces and towers
Quivering within the wave's intenser day,
All overgrown with azure moss and flowers
So sweet, the sense faints picturing them.”

-Percy Shelley

Escape From Chicago, The Reboot

Wouldn’t it be nice to dream of blue seas and ancient mossy towers like a Romantic poet? Instead, my recurring dream is Escape from Chicago, a bad movie with infinite sequels where I rush through a terrifying, hostile, melancholic hellscape intent on catching a bus, train, or just a momentary break from being assaulted by a car. I haven’t been to Chicago in three years. Chicago is a hopelessly stuck-up, Woke, dirty, and expensive shooting gallery run by a mayor who looks and acts like a malevolent space alien, and for these reasons I have no intention of returning within the next 75 years… that is to say, EVER. Nevertheless, I dream of being in college again and commuting home. College was over 25 years ago and I have no plans on obtaining further degrees; try telling that to my dream-self.

There’s a theory that the more of an astral mess a person is, the more they are likely to have terrible dreams or not to remember their dreams at all. Not remembering dreams at all is a bad sign, and I become concerned when I cannot remember mine. Supposedly the further along one is upon the path, the less sleep and dream time one needs. Yogis have a reputation for needing only 3-4 hours per night. I find that since I started my serious foray onto the Path, I have gone from needing 8 hours or more to a steady diet of 7, but this could also be a regular side effect of aging.

The general state of the astral has become so clogged and septic, I don’t know if the lot of us sleeping 10 hours a night, including yogis, would help. In a goofy way I am grateful to drive a car, because the roads are an excellent litmus test of astral plane conditions. Lately, there’s more road rage than I have seen in my lifetime. One out of every five cars routinely blasts whiny rap music where a severely-autotuned voice belches profanity to a loop that sounds like an perpetual Nike commercial. The Wokester stands at the stoplight corner waiting to cross, his mask neatly covering most of his face despite the fact he is solo and the temperature is well upwards of 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Tonight I saw a person in a souped up muscle car revving and weaving a tight S-curve in heavy traffic because he was frustrated at not being able to fly past the car ahead of him at 80 miles per hour. The modern suburbs are a place where angels fear to tread and the city is worse. We are in the darkest, most disillusioned era in human history. To seek enlightenment right now is to attempt to float in a tsunami. No matter how far along on the Path one is right now, the astral is still a gray, forbidding place clogged with busybodies and busywork. I cannot control the milieu of my nightly dreams (my astral environment) any more than I can control the fact there are superhighways bisecting my state.

Astral Tourism

There are self-declared mentats who seek to control the dream environment and to turn sleep into a big lucid dreaming playground where everything is beautiful (or at least funny) and nothing hurts. In essence, they want to turn dreaming into a long episode of masturbation, be it mental or of the usual kind. I tend to think they are spinning their wheels until karma smacks the smugness out of them, but like I always say, I could be wrong. We are meant to learn from dreams. Those who refuse to do so remind me of the American tourist stereotype. Instead of offending the French while in Paris, the astral tourist lumbers around dreams slaughtering the language and missing subtle cues as he desperately tries to sop up “experience”, all the better to later inflict upon others with an optional slide show.

Where Did I Go?

I am not easily anesthetized. I cannot be put into a trance. Because of my weird propensity to fight off states of unconsciousness, my use of antidepressant drugs back in the day resulted in the ability to drop into lucid dreaming states. I was able to pull my etheric body away from my physical body from a young age before going on anti-depressants (I weaned myself off of them by force at age 22 against the orders of my psychiatrist at the time) and going on serotonin reuptake inhibitors enhanced this talent.  When I separated my bodies, I was able to clearly view the first layer of sleep which takes place in the lower astral. The lower astral is scary and attracts the sort of shady characters who cause poltergeist hauntings. It is also full of ghosts of people who either do not know they are dead or who committed suicide. Because it is the closest layer to Meat World, the lower astral can get physical very easily — this is why people plagued by hauntings end up with superficial scratches or bruises from angry spirits. The entities in the lower astral can mount an attack and use a mixture of their own force plus the human’s own psychological state to stigmata a wound into being. Hauntings on the material plane are the astral equivalent of bedbugs or mice infestations: they can have something to do with cleanliness but not always.

Lately, the lower astral and all of its nastiness has been bleeding, for lack of a better term. Anyone who isn’t doing protective banishing rituals or engaging in meaningful, thoughtful relationship with a deity via prayer is toast. The feeling right now reminds me of the heat waves we get here in the Upper Midwest. There is a several week buildup of hot, humid weather that is perfectly unbearable followed by a violent storm. The last storm we had brought tornadoes and was followed by a short break of cool weather, then the next spate of humid weather crept in over a period of days. The astral storms we face are anyone’s guess. Will they bring riots, like the times Antifa and BLM were allowed to run amok trashing businesses and ruining entire neighborhoods? Will they bring plagues, like the plague of fear that disguised the manufactured control mechanism of Covid-19? Will Wokesters bring a revolution that puts their own heads on pikes?  Only the gods know, and they're not giving away any spoilers.

Comments

dreams...

[randomactsofkarmasc]

This is a well-timed for post for me. I have recently started remembering more of my dreams, and I cannot say that I like them. I try to figure out what they mean. Sometimes, I have no clue. It is good to know that my dreams aren't 'all me', but are influenced by the crazy *out there*. Thank you.

Re: dreams...

[kimberlysteele]

Thank you! I would guesstimate my own dreams are approximately 10% influenced by my choices and 90% reflective of the general astral plane. I can choose how I react to situations in dreams, and I have been trying to cultivate Stoicism. For instance, two nights ago, I dreamed that a man stole my car. I tried to get the car back and failed in the dream, but I did not act like my old self, who would have gotten angry in the dream. I also do my best to call upon the gods in my dreams when I run into worse trouble than being a car-theft victim. That's a hard one, because in dreams we are stripped to our instincts, and the instinct is still fight or flight, not to pray to the gods. Perhaps the astral tourist masturbators mentioned in my essay have different ratios of control over their dreams, but they are also hell bent and determined to turn their own experiences of the astral plane into a hall of gilded mirrors. I don't try to control the aspects of dreaming because I don't feel they are mine to control. I think astral tourists think of dreaming as an internal video game.

Re: dreams...

[randomactsofkarmasc]

I am participating in JMG's High Magic book club. After the first chapter (and some not-so-subtle hints from my Tarot), I set up a small shrine to Hermes. One of his epithets is 'bringer of dreams'. When I have questions for him, I ask him to let me know in a dream. The dreams that seem like the obvious answers to my questions have a very different feel about them. Other than that, I don't seem to have any control in/over my dreams, except sometimes I can tell I am in a dream that I don't like and I'll make myself wake up.

I have been slowly incorporating more cleansing/protecting rituals into my life. I've been doing the SOP for over a year. I recently started doing the hoodoo bath. Today was my first time wearing a little red sack with salt and a bent nail to work. It worked great. Would keeping one by the bed keep the general astral plane out of my dreams?

Re: dreams...

[kimberlysteele]

How totally cool! I have a shrine to Demeter and a shrine to Bastet. Mercury is conflicted in my natal chart but I did notice that when I completed the tune for the Orphic Hymn to Hermes, some of those conflicted aspects lightened up. Of course this was also assisted by discursive meditation.

I also wear the red bag amulet -- last year I grew some of the hottest peppers known to mankind in my garden, and though they weren't edible, they make great amulets. Those red pepper amulets don't seem to affect the astral plane as much as the etheric. I find they are best for deflecting trouble from other people during interactions.

As for dreams, they are the astral plane, so there is no way of keeping the astral plane out of dreams! Have you read my article on bedside geometrics? I find they are excellent for remedying the astral plane environment of my sleeping area, which in turn improves sleep.

https://kimberlysteele.dreamwidth.org/26916.html

Re: dreams...

[randomactsofkarmasc]

I will save some of my peppers for amulets this season. (I had some last summer... I let them steep in vinegar to use on greens. At first, the vinegar was incredibly spicy, but it has mellowed and is quite tasty.)

I have not read your geometric article yet. It is now on my to-read list. :-)

Thank you!

[youngelephant]

A couple thoughts...

-you had me cracking up about Chicago :)
-Lucid dreaming can be used as an effective spiritual practice, but yes most people get into for reasons akin to masturbation. I used to hang out in LD communities and had to leave for this reason
-I think the dismal astral conditions create openings on the higher planes as JMG has hinted at
-Ever since getting serious about occultism my dreams have pretty much ceased for the most part

[kimberlysteele]

Thanks for your thoughts!

Chicago is a hot red mess.

Interesting -- yeah, the lucid dreamer scene, as much as they try to paint it as fluffy unicorn glitter farts and rainbows and fun times for all, strikes me as skeezy and reckless.

Hmm, openings on the higher plane, yes, I recall him mentioning that. I've been doing a series of meditations about how this heavy, materialistic era is in its weird way a time of rest for certain forces. My mind is just barely grasping at the edges of the concept.

I'm thinking you probably still have plenty of dreams, but maybe you are lucky that your mind doesn't need to sift through them consciously. Mine does.

Chicago

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I escaped from Chicago years ago, and yet I'm actually flying into Chicago next week, for a 2 week stay, visiting family, taking a vacation of sorts. Kimberlee, you should break your 3 year exile; we could meet up in the Loop and get all woke and rob a Macy's or something? ;)

-- Tangerine Crunchy Filbert

Re: Chicago

[kimberlysteele]

Neat! Does your family live in the city or the suburbs? I'm in the far west suburbs (Aurora).

You know what's interesting is how the Marxists of BLM betray themselves. Robbing Macy's, Nike, and Target is bougie to the teeth. Why would a Marxist want slave-made designer status shoes?

Re: Chicago

[(Anonymous)]

I've been to Aurora & Naperville many times, but I used to live in the city, on the near north side in Logan Square. My family lives in both city & suburbs, and I'll be staying in Skokie.

re BLM, you're right, robbing the Macy's is too bougie. How about robbing the Museum of the Art Institute? I think I'd start by raiding the south asian wing, and move on to the modernist art. [note to FBI reading this: I'm just joking guys!]

-- Tangerine C.F.

Re: Chicago

[kimberlysteele]

Skokie is more like Wokie right now -- it seems the further north and towards Lake Michigan one goes in Illinois, the worse masking, virtue signaling, and wokeness intensifies! I'm considering moving my Studio all the way out to Yorkville to semi-escape the Woke crowd.

Re: Chicago

[kimberlysteele]

You're welcome to come out to Naperville (my Studio) or my house in Aurora. My garden is looking good!

Re: Chicago

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you! It would be nice to meet a fellow Ecosophian in real life. Also, I'd be interested in discussing the possibility of a music lesson. I understand that you teach music, and I'm interested in learning how to vibrate divine names.

If you're interested in this, maybe I could create a dreamwidth account and then direct message you, to discuss further? (don't really want to put my email or phone number up on a public blog)

-- Tangerine C.F.

Re: Chicago

[kimberlysteele]

That would be wonderful! I'd be delighted to meet you and it would be super fun to have you as a student for a day. My studio is in Naperville: http://kimberlysteelemusic.com/location Feel free to contact me at k s t e e l e s t u d i o at Gmail.

[cutekitten]

I must have missed part 1, can you point me to it?

It’s a shame what’s happened to Chicago. Sonkitten loves the various museums but I’d never take him rhere these days.

[kimberlysteele]

I agree with your son, Lady CK! I miss the museums as well, and all of the restaurants! Not worth it for a second.

Here is the original Astral Bog article: https://kimberlysteele.dreamwidth.org/19397.html

Curious

[(Anonymous)]

So I’ve enjoyed your writings for a while now, but I’m wondering about this dream business. It seems that by this framing your dreams can either dominate you, or if you can take control of them than this is somehow “masturbating.” Do you think that there’s also a way to gain some control that’s also legitimate, or is that not possible in bad conditions?

Re: Curious

[kimberlysteele]

There's a balance as far as taking control, just like anything. In the case of the two videos I link to by Habiba Awada and Tarl Warwick, both of them are engaging in astral tourism when they lucid dream. It's fine to occasionally control a dream or to just have fun and indulge one's whims on the astral plane. You can do this while fully conscious as well... it's called a daydream! Of course for some people this isn't possible. Habiba Awada's approach is unwittingly malevolent more so than Tarl Warwick's. Awada promotes the idea of directing all of one's dreams towards ego gratification and self indulgence whereas I think Warwick is just goofing off (par for the course with him). I think Awada is the one in for a karmic one-two punch along with the rest of the salary class.

Re: Curious

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you, that makes a lot of sense. I hadn’t watched the videos; the “escaping reality” aspect is pretty creepy. I was thinking more of taking some control over a dream that involved a malevolent attack or something like that. The “tourism” definitely seems reality defying and totalitarian.

Re: Curious

[kimberlysteele]

TED influencers of the class Awada occupies are hyper-concerned with perpetuating myths that "every single person can be whatever they want and have whatever they want if they want hard enough". Awada's mentality is a particularly poisonous aspect of the Progress narrative. Her karma will arrive when she faces her first hard "NO!" from the Universe. I have seen it happen to people who buy into the Progress "the Universe owes it to me that all my dreams come true!" trope. When misfortune strikes, it devastates them because they genuinely believe they are owed everything they've ever wanted, and up to a certain age, most of them are used to getting nearly everything they've wanted. They have a lot of dissonance when they are reminded most of their perks come at the expense of the less well-monied and the less-powerful. They don't like acknowledging karma because they consider themselves exempt.

[lp9]

Been seeing a lot of what you describe. We drove from the mid-Atlantic to the Rust Belt recently and the drivers were insane, especially for the mid-Atlantic suburban portions. It was scary.

I have very vivid dreams off and on, but they have been extremely vivid recently. I asked on Magic Monday about repercussion (the term JMG used to explain). My dream was so vivid that I felt physical pain after waking up in the spot where indicated in my dream - it happened yet again after I asked the question. This time it was during prayer to a deity to whom I regularly pray (divination assured me that was the source and nothing malevolent). I physically FELT it and it was much stronger than the tingles, etc. I usually feel. And I also asked here for an Ogham reading about another dream that felt like a "big dream."

I performed my nightly SOP while staying at my parents' house and it was like pushing through Jell-O to expand the sphere.

Things are getting weird.

[kimberlysteele]

Thanks, it's always reassuring to hear that other sensitives are perceiving the same sludge on the astral plane. I have had dreams like that. I woke up with scratches a couple of times, and since I don't move in my sleep, I'm pretty certain they were not self-inflicted. This was during my teenage years. You have to wonder what would be happening to us if we were both unaware of the astral bog and not doing a daily banishing ritual.

[lp9]

Yes, that is a very scary thought! In my dream, I was picking berries and felt a pain on the back of my left hand. I looked down and small, bright green worms were burrowing into my skin. I pulled them out and for the next 24 hours (after waking), my hand ached and ached right where the worms had been. It still hurts now if I think about it too much. And that's WITH three years of a daily SOP under my belt, nightly prayers, meditation, and divination!

Last night I had a dream about a psychopathic rich dude tossing a woman overboard from a massively tall yacht, as well as one about missing a turn on a "Michigan Avenue" which resulted in our car sliding in the snow into a frigid lake or river while the people watching just shrugged. Among many, many other dreams last night. It's one of those phases where I wake up exhausted from all the dreamtime goings-on.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Kimberly,

I've been wondering about the astral plane affecting us because of our unhealthy etheric bodies.

I think of the different planes as sort of a beaker filled with liquids of varying density. The different fluids can stay separated naturally, like a layer cake. But if any of the layers is disturbed, this allows other fluids to take their space.

Maybe the decades of etheric body abuse brought on by unhealthy, processed foods, lack of nature, sunshine and being outside, plus porn and drug addiction has weakened the etheric body so badly that the lower astral seeps into it.

What kind of affect would the lower astral have on the etheric body?

[kimberlysteele]

In my case, my lower astral state is a mess right now because of my cat's situation. I'm noticing my etheric body has become vulnerable as a result. I feel like I have a bad cold or flu even though I have no viral symptoms such as sore throat or runny nose. Also, my hot flashes are 10x worse because of my emotional state, which is somewhere between guilt and black-hole severe depression. Hot flashes are definitely an etheric as well as a physical disorder. I may try a hoodoo bath tonight. I felt better after the SoP, which I didn't do until about an hour ago -- I usually do it in the morning -- however, overall, it's like having a child's umbrella in a rainstorm.

[(Anonymous)]

Very sorry to hear about Kiki. I just cannot understand the insanely stupid decisions that have been made because of covid. I see why you gave them an earful. If we had an honest media, the horror stories would have been everywhere.

I wonder if people put this crazy level of trust in the government because they're afraid of the alternative, that they've been lied to their whole lives.

On the other hand, my PMC boss, who hated Bush and thought the gov't was evil, now completely trusts everything they do.

[kimberlysteele]

Thank you, I appreciate it.

The vaxxed are starting to drop like flies. Videos all over the non-legacy media and TikTok of people who suffer strokes or stroke-like symptoms, myocarditis, VAERS is off the charts. And we have not begun to see the way the shots will affect fertility.