Near and Far

[kimberlysteele]

When I vacated the commercial space my lesson studio had occupied for 13 years, I had to re-home my two pianos, an upright and a grand.  The grand piano ended up in my parents' living room where it seems quite at home.  The upright went to my little house in Aurora.   My two cats have different attitudes towards the upright.  To Shadow, my black cat, it is just another object to climb and sit upon.  To Ash, my thoughtful gray cat, it is a source of fascination.  One of my piano students, a little girl aged 6, loves seeing the cats when she has her lesson.  During one of her recent lessons, Ash watched and listened from a nearby chair in rapt attention as she played her songs for the week.  When the keys are exposed, Ash takes special care to walk over them and not on them.  I suspect Ash will end up as a keyboardist or at least a musician in one of his future lives.

Once I asked, "What's it like to be a god?" 

I got an answer.  I'm not sure who answered.  It/he/she said: "It's like trying to teach an amoeba to play the piano."

In other words, I think the entity who answered me was trying to sum up how much patience and benevolence it takes to work with our species.  I also believe the entity was implying not all gods have interest in teaching amoebas to play the piano -- of course they don't.  It is human vanity that makes some of us think that human evolution and development is the summum bonum of a god's work.  The gods willing to work with us are very special.  It was our bumbling mistake to (temporarily) forget about them in favor of the false gods of Progress and other demons who told us what we wanted to hear.  I think our species is beginning to rectify that long series of errors though, slowly but surely, one person at a time.

Doctor Strange's Magical Shapes

If you've seen the movie or read the comic Dr. Strange, you know it's about a brilliant surgeon who gets into a car accident, nearly loses the use of his hands, and goes to Tibet in order to find an alternative healer.  He falls in with a weird group of ascetic monks in Kathmandu and learns magic.  Doctor Strange first appeared as a Marvel comic in 1963.  Though he was ostensibly created by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee, the character has more than a dash of Eliphas Levi and Manly P. Hall.  Dr. Strange and his posse spend a great deal of time reading old books, shaping and controlling their minds, and drawing magical symbols into the air.   

Back in the real, non-comic book world, we have the Sphere of Protection or SoP, one of many revived banishing rituals from Western magic.  The goal of the SoP is to create the non-literal, imaginary version of Dr. Strange's glowing pentacles and portals.  Dr. Strange can actually walk through the dimensional portals he creates to escape from his enemies into a desert or a mountainous taiga.  My landscapes exist in my mind.  Just like Doctor Strange, the better I am at drawing the magical shapes, the stronger my power becomes.  Unlike the good Doctor, I have an edge.  The gods help me with my shapes and they connect with me through the landscapes.  They help me in my daily practice to restore the balance I (along with the rest of humans) have lost.

Astral Gunk

Before I did the SoP, I had an astral gunk problem.  The astral plane is gunky enough right now that I often still have it though I never miss an SoP.  I can tell when it is gunky when I lay down to go to sleep and my mind races with images despite my intention to settle down and go to sleep.  There isn't much of a cure for this condition outside of constant prayer, which is why I sing the Orphic hymns.  When a popular music ear worm is burrowing through my brain in the astral muck, I replace it with one or more of the Orphic hymns for which I have composed music.  In this way I am able to bring gods closer and to drive demons further away.

The trouble with the time before I did the SoP was the closeness of the astral gunk.  Without any protection, the discord and upset of the modern collective astral caked me and insulated my poor, tormented brain from divine influence.  No wonder I saw God as indifferent, far away, and in the worst case scenario, non-existent.  The SoP repels the gunk like a daily shower repels body odor.  Prayer does this as well.  In the old days, the Catholic mass served the purpose for large masses of people.  These days, not so much.  

Demons Desire Dissolution

Demons are in their Golden Age right now.  Forget the horror movies that fixate on Satan being born a la Rosemary's Baby or Damien: that part of Revelations has already occurred.  Look at the broken families, the rioters with pink and purple hair and face tattoos labeling themselves as peaceful protestors, and the lies coming out of every pretty talking head on an airport TV screen.  This is Hell and we're soaking in it.  The Antichrist isn't just born, he's come of age, found a mate, and he's had his own pile of kids.  He'll become a grandpa soon, if current trends are any indication.

As a vegan I had multiple opportunities to join a group of violent Marxists called Direct Action Everywhere or DXE.  DXE was the group known for its PeTA-like antics of sending groups of people into restaurants and grocery stores to shame them for eating meat.  Unsurprisingly, DXE ate itself within a few years of its creation when it became apparent that nearly all of its founders and higher ups were grifters and sexual predators.  That's the problem with using shame as a weapon -- if you have a great deal to be ashamed of, it will come back to bite you.  DXE's approach was one of dissolution.  Though DXE stood for direct action, its actions were always fixated on dismantling the "evil" work of others instead of building up the powers of good.  If they were being truthful, they would have called it Dismantle Times Everything.  Demons want to dismantle things.  When Antifa or some random feminist agitator speaks of dismantling the Patriarchy, what they are actually talking about is the urge of demons to smash the good works of others into smithereens.  Clogged with astral gunk, the unwitting tools of demons become saturated with poison until their own families and friends are dismantled.  Religious practices designed to send the gunk away have become poisoned as the gunk itself, for instance a church service I once attended with an Erma Bombeck styled comedian who sought to convert Christians but was a thinly-veiled recruiter for the Prosperity Gospel.  In my opinion, Joel Osteen's Prosperity Gospel and its McChurch ilk is straight up Satanic, which is why I'll have nothing to do with it.

The funny thing about those who claim to fight demons and the demonic is how ass-backwards their approach is.  If I want to clear a clog from my drain, I don't attempt to force it out by clogging the sewer with more hair and other crap.  Any materialist approach to unclogging the astral is inherently doomed, which is why donating money to Joel Osteen never helped anyone get to heaven.  Antifa's antics create more miasma than they dissipate.  Smashing the windows of someone's store only helps the demons driving you to hurt others and eventually kill yourself and your family, especially if your motivation to smash the store's windows was materialistic, such as wanting the expensive shoes inside.

Hexing, cursing, and rioting only give the other side the appearance of being more virtuous.  That's why I don't do it.  I am very good at hexing and cursing as I have often explained.  I have dark, dark thoughts that are the product of my wacky past lives and my current quirks -- I just don't act on them.  I know a thing or two about it.  I don't do it though, because I'd rather not backslide into astral gunk.  I've already been there and it sucks; no thanks.  I no longer allow myself to become like the evil I want to dismantle.  I do want to dismantle tyranny, for sure, I've just had an epiphany that made me realize I was going about it wrong back when I was full of astral gunk.   The first step to get out of the hole is to stop digging.  This amoeba, with copious help, will learn to play the piano... eventually.

 

Comments

[nightwatchwaits]

Thank you. Blessings.

[kimberlysteele]

You're welcome! Blessings back at you.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for this essay, Kimberly!

I didn't know about the Dr. Strange comic book, very intriguing... there is occult information in the most surprising places, hidden in plain sight.

Along the lines of the Orphic Hymns, I have been reading Hesiod's Theogony every day and find it helps me to focus my prayers.

I loved the bit about your cat. Have you ever seen a video of Nora the piano playing cat? She lives with a music teacher too.

-Water Rabbit

[kimberlysteele]

Thank you Water Rabbit! What a great idea -- I need to read that one.

I have seen Nora. I love her. She's the closest thing I have ever seen to a cat composing music.

[(Anonymous)]

x-
erika

[(Anonymous)]

Nice post. A lot of people do far too much 'solve' and not enough 'coagula'. There's a thing called the 'Broken window fallacy' that destruction can lead to a net economic improvement by stimulating a 'repair' industry. Not so, as this wiki article outlines in more detail: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window
I could go on about energy flows, entropy, ecology and systems theory related to the above, but that is very much a post for another time.

On another point, I feel like my dog must regard me similarly to how I regard the gods - essentially timeless and immortal (we must barely appear to age in a dog's lifespan), providing them with untold bounties for seemingly no reason, instructing them to do or not do things for reasons they cannot understand, and spend most of our time doing things which do not relate to them at all, and again, make seemingly no sense. However, I love my doggo, and she is an endless source of amusement and joy to me. I hope that I am the same to my patron gods.

Random thing I've wondered of late as well - is there something in the unnatural coloured hair dyes which makes people ultra suggestible or suppresses their higher reasoning? Or is it just that the people with both those traits feel the need to group themselves accordingly and the bizarre hair colours are a convenient way of doing so?

I then remembered that this exact plot element was in the film "Cabin in the woods", where the blonde hair dye makes one of the protagonists act like a stereotypical "dumb blonde" as she is being offered up as a sacrifice to some elder gods.

Mr. Crow.

[kimberlysteele]

Thanks! Simply put, it's easier to tear someone's good work down than it is to build your own good works. That's why most people succumb to cursing someone they hate instead of working on making themselves better.

That's a very good point about dogs, or in my case, cats. I was especially close to my cat Kiki and I hope we will meet again someday in a future incarnation. I imagine that she will be a dog in her upcoming life for whatever reason. Just as I wanted to help her move on to her next lives, I suppose that's what it is like for the gods and divine powers I pray to.

I believe the wacky hair colors are related to the unleashing of a specific demon: Paimon. Paimon is depicted as a slight, androgynous figure with webbed feet on a camel. I think Paimon is the driving influence behind the LGBTQIA&$#%@)#??? sickness that causes every third person on TikTok to either bark anti-Trump obscenities in their car or to permanently LARP about their peculiar sexuality after surgically mutilating themselves to look like a Satanic elf.

As far as horror tropes, there might be something to the hair dye thing. Cabin in the Woods is one of my all time favorite horror movies!

[(Anonymous)]

I think my peculiar sensitivity to the astral gunk (being able to get a good night's sleep is now just a distant memory) is probably because, to a large extent, that I have wasted a lot of my own energy dwelling on the sad, frustrating, alienating side of life in this society. This also seems to be true of two other sensitives I know who are experiencing the same problem with being helplessly unable to sleep well. My current thinking is that it will be the vaccine die-off/ sick-off that will be the catastrophe that will bring about the dissipation of the excess gunk. --Mr. Nobody

[kimberlysteele]

Have you looked into potential physical issues that may be causing your insomnia? I have trouble sleeping if I drink caffeine (even green tea) past 2pm. There's a whole list of things I do to help myself sleep. I do gentle exercise by riding an exercise bike for 40 minutes a day, I avoid eating fresh garlic despite loving the taste, always take a bath, go to bed at the same time every night, drink chamomile tea, etc. I'm not saying that the crux of the matter isn't the black oobleck, but from what I've noticed, these matters only have a chance of getting solved when we address them on all planes, from all sides.

Perfect

[miow]

This post REALLY spoke to me. Thank you!
Miow

Speaking of cats...

[miow]

Don't know if you will get this or even if I could ask, but here goes. I am just starting out on my path, as in, complete beginner. I am at the stage where I have to choose the Deities for my daily SOP and am at a loss. Do they have to be from the same pantheon? What does this question have to do with cats? Well, given that I share the ancient Egyptian appreciation of cats, I thought I should include perhaps Bastet. But the only God that has really made himself known to me *ever* is Cernunnos. Blessings to you.
Miow

Re: Speaking of cats...

[kimberlysteele]

I had almost the same issues when I pitched headlong into Druidry about six years ago. You really are better off assigning the deities of a single pantheon to your SoP. I use the Druid gods for mine, despite my work with the Orphic Hymns. I have asked if I should be using the Greek pantheon because of this and so far my Ogham say No, the Druid pantheon is fine. When I imagine the different stations of the SoP, I don't imagine actual human deities. I immerse myself in the spirit of place invoked by the particular element. For instance, when I invoke Esus to the West, I try to put myself in the mountainous taiga of the Yukon territories (despite never having actually been there) on an autumn day as the sun is setting. I imagine the same scene for the invocation and the banishment.

I have a statue of Lady Bastet and I worship her and pray to her even though she's not part of the pantheon of my SoP. I think she and Aphrodite may be the same goddess, though of course I am far from sure this is the case. You can have a healthy prayer relationship to several deities and use a completely unrelated set of deities for your banishing ritual. That's the joy of polytheism, I suppose.

Re: Speaking of cats...

[miow]

Wow thank you so much for sharing that, and also may I say how helpful your SOP and banishing video on YouTube is. I am delighted to hear about your Bastet statue. She will definitely be featuring prominently in my worship for I have a lifetime of gratitude to offer for the joy and love I have received from felines.

May I ask how you finally made the decision on which pantheon to use for your SOP?

Miow

Re: Speaking of cats...

[kimberlysteele]

You're so welcome, and thanks for the compliment on the video -- I am not a person who was meant for the video age, I'm always uncomfortable with making them! I too owe a lot to Lady Bast, but as for the other Egyptian gods mostly I have not felt a connection except for with Isis.

I actually made the decision to worship the Druid gods because they were the default ones of the Druid Magic Handbook. They are also the most difficult to research because of how secretive ancient Druids were and how they never wrote anything down. That said, I have always felt the Druid gods are very welcoming and gentle with neophytes like myself.