Some Notes on Psychic Self-Defense

[kimberlysteele]

I have always been oversensitive.  At nearly half a century old, my hearing is still good enough to require earplugs when I sleep.  When I was a child, I was plagued by oversensitivity.  Overstimulation with too much loud noise or stress causes me to break down or have a panic attack.  This happened reliably in episodes throughout school and young adulthood.  When I am in crowds, I am bombarded by the moods and thoughts of those around me.  I cannot read them exactly, but I can get a fair enough idea.  This phenomenon used to make any public school or crowded shopping center into a living hell, depending on the day.  I say "used to" because approximately six years ago, I took up the Sphere of Protection as a daily practice.  At the time of this writing, I have missed doing the SoP only one day, and that was the day I rescued my deceased aunt's cats from her home.  I have no problem with commitment; if anything, my tendency is to overcommit, which is why I refused to have children in this lifetime.

A Dime a Dozen

Oversensitivity may make me sound as if I am a special snowflake but actually it is as common as dirt.  Lots of people dress up their oversensitivity by calling themselves empaths, star children, sensitives, or psychics.  The only difference between a self-professed empath and the average Jane is awareness of the condition.  Many people refuse to acknowledge their own psychic tendencies as a matter of pride: there are plenty of religious people who close themselves to any messaging from the subtle planes with the enthusiasm of a hack plastic surgeon wielding a liposuction cannula.  They do this so they can practice idolatry and stuff themselves to the gills with holy book quotes to use in imaginary and real debates.  Even more common are the people who embrace addiction in order to escape awareness of the spirit worlds.  The resulting imbalance is a shift from the pole of oversensitivity to the equally bad opposite of undersensitivity.  Lepers are undersensitive.  The nerve damage caused by the mycobacterium leprae dulls the senses until the extremities such as fingers and nose become useless and fall off.  To be psychically oversensitive is like having no skin and to be psychically undersensitive is like having leprosy.

The Age of Ick

For me, the Sphere of Protection, along with discursive meditation and daily divination, creates a thick and formidable barrier between me and the psychic onslaught of our demonic age.  As I have mentioned in a previous essay, we live in an era that Incans tried to deliberately take an incarnation hiatus from.  Our materialist era is ruled by demons and overrun by them: they're having a field day.  There are an uncanny number of leaders from major religions who give lip service to fighting demons while taking every action to be exactly like them, from Joel Osteen in his mega-mansions shutting out the flood victims from his mega church to the local Buddhist center that forces little kids to wear Satanic symbols on their faces so adults can soothe themselves with fear porn fairy tales that MRNA clot shots are safe and effective.  

The Physical

The first line of psychic self-defense is physical.  Psychic balance is often dependent on a stable blood sugar level.  Just as I become hangry (portmanteau of the words hungry and angry) and lightheaded when I skip meals, my oversensitivity gets out of whack.  I am much more likely to have an overstimulation panic attack if I have not eaten well or if my blood sugar is too high or too low.  For this reason, becoming a vegan in 2010 helped me balance out much of my oversensitivity because it stabilized my digestion and regulated my blood sugar.  When I was a child, I often went without eating until I was lightheaded and dizzy, especially in the mornings because my body does not do well with breakfast.  I get nauseous if I eat a large meal within two hours of getting up and I become ravenous by 1pm regardless of whether or not I have eaten breakfast.  My blood sugar was a roller coaster ride by the time I was sixteen, so it is no wonder I was suicidally depressed by that point.  The cure for me was regular small meals and loads of fiber from fruit and vegetables.  

Physical surroundings absolutely affect your psychic state.  If your living space is cluttered and trashed, your brain just might reflect the same conditions.  Making my bed and straightening my living quarters goes a long way in pushing the chaos of modern life to a distant periphery.  At least once a week I try to spend some time at the forest preserve.  The Japanese call this practice shirin-yoku or forest bathing.  Just as the term would imply, forest bathing removes lots of psychic gunk and gives you a fresh, clean astral body.  As a native Midwesterner, I find great solace from prairies and woodlands.  The spirit of the land here is among my greatest comforts.  For others, the best places on earth may be mountains, lake shores, or oceans.  

The Astral

At the risk of being too obvious, I'll make mention that the people around you affect your psychic state.  If you have no choice but to be around toxic people -- say you live with your parents and they're awful but you love them because they're your mother and father after all -- the next best alternative to moving out is to refuse to react to any drama they throw at you.  Relentless positivity and humor is kryptonite to narcissists and drama queens.  If they cannot get a rise out of you, they soon implode because it forces them to look at themselves instead of fixating on what you are doing wrong.  

There is great power in shutting up.  You are the ruler of the kingdom yourself; don't abuse your power.  Gossip is entertaining, I get it.  It can feel like medication when you're wounded.  Schadenfreude is addictive -- if it wasn't, tabloid magazines would not be a thing.  But here's the thing: people who have active and meaningful lives do not gossip.  It's a weird aspect of having meaning in your life that the urge to gossip just falls away.  

When I say you do not owe anyone anything, I mean it.  It's not my fault if someone is looking for advice that I don't feel fit to give.  I no longer make conversation because someone else might feel silence is awkward.  My company is pleasant enough I think, and if it isn't, I don't give a rat's derriere.  I know I have the ability to make conversation: I have conversations with trees, for Pete's sake!  But it isn't my job.  

Another thing I no longer do is explain.  Less is more.  People don't need to know why all the time.  It's not their circus and not their monkeys.  People usually have more than enough to worry about without being burdened of a detailed explanation of my modus operandi.  The easiest way to win friends and get people to like and respect you is by shutting up and asking them something about themselves.  

There are things that my closest family members will never know about me.  I like my secrets. I am taking them to the grave.

The Mental

The final wall of psychic self-defense is the creation of magical shapes inside and outside of the mind.  If the average, ignorant media slave's signature is a hot mess of violent crayon scribbles, the well-defended psychic's trademark is a complex symphony of beautiful and symmetrical shapes not unlike an unfolding kaleidoscope.  In my case, the Sphere of Protection, musical Orphic hymns, and geometric gardens provide an intensive shield against modern manias and agendas that would otherwise warp and twist my efforts.  Of course there are other ways to eke out one's own magical shapes -- in the old days, that's why churches were so beautifully and carefully designed and took centuries to build.  

I realize these notes may raise more questions than they answer.  That's both good and bad, I suppose.  

 

Comments

[k_a_nitz]

One of the great boons of remote working has been the distancing from attention vampires

[kimberlysteele]

I can see how that would be the case. It’s nice not having to work with thirsty individuals in general.

[(Anonymous)]

Ayeh. Oversensitivity on the various planes is, IMO, the same thing a lot of us are trained to call "introversion" and that's what? Half the population? It has lots of manifestations, and people deal with it in lots of ways, but... it's all the same family of things, and probably wouldn't be much of an issue if we didn't live in a crowded, overstimulating kind of world.

I get migraines from overstimulation. Finally had to stop drugging myself for those (long-term NSAID use is does nasty things to one's liver and digestion, and gets less effective over time also), and just listen to what my body was screaming at me: "Stop *doing* that! Less noise and flashy lights and people!"

I don't SoP (in Ecosophian: I follow a mystical path, not a ceremonial one ;) ), but organizing my life around a regular practice of prayer and meditation makes all these things so much better, when I can manage it. I don't think it makes me more tolerant or less sensitive. I think it makes me more likely to make the right decisions about how I spend my time. I suck at it, of course, so I hope God gives me plenty more time to practice at it!

What's interesting about the hunger/blood sugar thing (it's more hunger than sugar, IMO) for me is, I "see" a lot of stuff that isn't there in a material sense. Static from perhaps the astral and etheric: largely meaningless visual clutter, like visual snow, phosphenes, object halos, and persistent afterimages-- that sort of thing. I am a slow reader because of it-- nothing at all wrong with my reading comprehension, but it takes me extra time to sort the words on the page out from the shimmers and sparkles and little rivers of light that move around the text. These things get more pronounced when I haven't eaten in a while, or if my blood sugar gets low for other reasons (this used to happen when I'd eat something sugary, spike, and then crash hard four or five hours later). BUT, there's a difference between fasting for religious reasons, while praying and attending services, and just not-eating because... nothing in the fridge, or I was away from home and there was nothing safe to eat (fairs and festivals are the worst-- overstimulated, dehydrated, and no food!). When it just happens, it's like the volume gets turned up on all the static and noise, and I'm likely to get a migraine with it. When I do it deliberately, it's like... the volume's still turned up but there's more likely to be a signal in the noise-- geometrics, images, and sometimes meaning. It's like getting just a wee bit of control over the focus knob. What would it look like if I had better discipline?!

Since I'm diabetic and check my blood sugar often, I can say this happens at completely normal blood sugar levels, so it's not strictly *low* blood sugar that does it. There's something about the fasting state that's important here, even at normal glucose numbers.

On the Astral: You are dead right. We'd all be better off if we just kept our mouths shut and listened more! On the one hand, you can't listen if you're talking. And on the other, every time you talk, you're opening up a gate in your defenses: your life-energy flows out, and you maybe don't get to be choosy about what comes in!

On the mental: The sign of the cross is a pretty darn effective magical shape ;) But I think music is also a "magical shape" in this context. Committing large blocks of beautiful/meaningful music, with or without lyrics, to memory gives you a fearful weapon when it comes to keeping the noisy world out of your head. I'd say it's even one of the primary reasons to learn, and to teach, an instrument.

[kimberlysteele]

Fascinating. Blood sugar is poorly understood by allopaths -- my instinct is that it is at least partially determined by astral clutter that filters down to the etheric, which means it can be affected by reprogramming the imagination. Part of my problem as a kid was that I was constantly traveling by car. I get car sick very easily, and if my digestion is not functioning well (not eating enough, being constipated, eating the wrong things) then it is much worse.

My hatred of cars and driving is profound and it's absolutely crazy that I ended up driving a car. I was willing to sacrifice a car-free lifestyle for the ability to see my parents 2x or more a week.

Have you tried willow bark for migraines? Between willow bark and the McCullough protocol, I have been able to ameliorate if not avoid them. Willow in the Ogham is Sensitivity but also Flexibility. It allows the sinuses to "bend" like a willow branch and flow is restored to a happy medium instead of too runny or too clogged.

That's very interesting about seeing halos and so forth when you're hungry. My vision gets like that too.

Keeping silent is what I believe the ancients wanted us to meditate about when we encounter the symbol of the Virgin. The Virgin is the ultimate keep-it-to-yourself model, though like most symbols, we aren't supposed to take it literally/dogmatically. Not listening and being a blowhard opens a certain barn door on the astral, and I don't think its physical representation is near the head but probably a lower orifice...

Agreed with you wholeheartedly on music as magical shapes. Composer Kim Carcone calls music "decorating with sonic waves". Learning an instrument or how to sing is very intimate, especially if you write your own music. It's like being your own decorator instead of hiring one LOL.

[methylethyl]

Willow bark is one of the few things I haven't tried! And I have not heard of the McCullough protocol. I'll read up on it. So far, what works the best is just keeping things regular and even, in every aspect of my life: a regular bedtime, blood sugars as level as possible, regular digestion, regular schedule. Life doesn't always work out that way, but the more I can manage it, the fewer migraines I get.

I see the halos all the time-- they're just more noticeable when I'm hungry ;)

The Virgin: very much so. You'd never know it from the way modern folks celebrate it, but Christmas and Easter used to be the different, almost opposite poles of the liturgical year. Easter is the big, public, out-loud celebration. The victory! Proclaim it to all the nations! Christ is risen! Christmas is the opposite. It is the quiet feast, secret, in the dark of winter and the dark of the world, here is kindled the little light that will someday illumine the world... but not yet. Now just a tiny spark to nurture and protect-- it is a feast of the Virgin and child: this is a great and holy wonder, and we stand awestruck with the shepherds. Let all mortal flesh keep silence.

[methylethyl]

Ha! When I look up McCullough protocol (even with +migraine), all I can get is a zillion results for covid protocol recommendations. Ah, well.

[kimberlysteele]

The McCullough protocol is a very fancy name for what people in poorer countries than the US, Australia, etc. do instead of running to an allopathic doctor every time they have the sniffles. It involves diluting Betadine and a little salt in purified water and gargling, nasal spraying, or otherwise importing that water into the nasal cavities and back of the throat at the onset of symptoms such as a runny nose or a sinus headache. The Betadine (or hydrogen peroxide if you're allergic to iodine, which many are) is diluted to 1-2 percent, though I personally have used slightly stronger solutions sometimes. Along with Vitamin B, C, and D and a reasonably colorful, mostly made from scratch diet and moderate exercise, it is exceptionally powerful in preventing colds and flus. But of course the powers that be love to call us quacks and freaks because we don't choose to be enslaved by Big Pharma.

[methylethyl]

Aha! I can see where that'd be helpful to people whose main migraine trigger is sinus issues. Weirdly, I've never had sinus problems. Mine are more often triggered by the same things that trigger epileptics: loud noise, flashing lights, and overstimulation more generally. I don't do amusement parks or action movies anymore ;)

[kimberlysteele]

I have a badly deviated septum so if my sinuses are the slightest bit inflamed, BINGO, I cannot breathe out of my nose and I often get a headache. Sucks to be me!

[(Anonymous)]

oof! You poor dear! I am lucky to have a gigantic nose ;)

[illyria2001]

I get nauseous if I eat a large meal within two hours of getting up and I become ravenous by 1pm regardless of whether or not I have eaten breakfast. My blood sugar was a roller coaster ride by the time I was sixteen

This sounds exactly like me (I am a couple years older than you but still of the same generation). My blood sugar never went high, but it would drop to the point where I would almost faint. I do well with a low-carb diet, and the carbs I do eat are complex carbs; I also avoid processed foods as much as possible. I often wonder how much of the modern world's problems are caused by diet.

[methylethyl]

IMO it explains quite a lot of the modern malaise. Before low-carbing, it was not unusual for me to register blood sugars anywhere from 60 down to 35, for no apparent reason. Apparent to anyone paying attention of course, just not to me, living on processed cheese and Dr. Pepper... :/

[kimberlysteele]

I think diet is a huge part of it! Garbage in, garbage out. My blood sugar rarely gets high either, and when it does, I get violently want-to-barf ill. I hate throwing up, so I take every pain to avoid that state, and that includes not bingeing every other day like a typical American.

[causticus]

As it just so happens, just a couple hours ago I did some shirin-yoku in the forest-park right around the corner from my house. I walked out of the woods totally refreshed after I drank in the etheric delights the flora had to offer. Your mileage may vary, but I noticed the energies are especially serene now that we're in Lughnasadh season. My aura feels thoroughly cleansed. No craziness or melodrama in those woods!

[kimberlysteele]

It is so nice to walk into an ecosystem in balance. Mama Earth is the master gardener always trying to teach us noobs how a proper ecosystem works.

The book I'm working on, Sacred Homemaking, addresses the living space as its own ecosystem. We humans like to think we are special and apart from nature but we are nature. Just because we're crafty (kind of like ants, but not as proportionally strong) we think that we're not in nature all the time. Sacred homemaking is about improving one's immediate natural surroundings: the apartment or house!

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Kimberly,

Thanks for your post. A quick question from me - would you describe yourself as a 'night person'?

I ask because I've noticed a certain sub-type of people (of which I am one), with the following traits:
- Semi-nocturnal - for me, my day is effectively shifted back by about 3 hours, so left to my own devices, I would get up around 9 or 10am, eat breakfast/lunch at 1pm, dinner around 6pm, night snackos at 10-11pm and go to bed at 1-2am.
- Introvert
- Prefers cold to warm, dark to light and quiet to loud
- Some degree of psychic sensitivity (for me, I guess I'm lucky in that this manifests as synchronicities and the ability to pick up thoughts from people - however, it seems I can broadcast thoughts unintentionally as well!)
- Difficulty with timekeeping, which may result in a vaguely obsessive relationship to time
- Generally a slightly obsessive personality (so if I get into a book I like, I can read it for 8 hours straight)
- Difficulty understanding other humans
- Some degree of intuitive knowledge of magic, such as the effects of salt, vinegar and other etheric properties
- Dislike/aversion to strong sunlight (but for me I also hate the rain. Strong winds, snow and fog are all enjoyable for me though)
- Affinity for nature, and animals may be unusually tame around them (dogs absolutely love me for some reason, which drove me nuts before I had a dog. Cats also like me, but I'm allergic!)
- Slightly clumsy or unco-ordinated, as though unfamiliar with using a human body
- Short temper/impatient
- Either lack of morality or moral absolutism
- Mischievous, trickster-like, Mercurial nature
- High requirement for novelty, but may be fascinated by relatively simple things

I've had multiple friends who are like this too, an ex-girlfriend like this (that was a volatile combination!) and several colleagues like this. It's a strange assortment of traits to be honest, and especially for multiple people to share them. Please note that I am not ascribing any of these traits to you though, I'm just laying them out as part of a theory I will detail below (and I noted an overlap with the psychic sensitivity).

I remember you posted a while back about hot weather as well. We are in the midst of a heatwave here, and I can tolerate it, but I certainly don't like it. Strong sunlight feels like it is overloading me, like a battery charged past capacity. Dawn (if I ever see it!) and dusk light are fine though.

Oh, and I LOVE forests. I just feel like melting into the shadows in woodland, all my senses just come alive.

Anyway, it's interesting you posted the link to your demon essay in this one as well - I remember replying to that one, and someone replied to me mentioning about Fae and djinn. I'd recently read The Mothman Propecies and and it doesn't come out and say it, but Fae seem to be associated with a lot of UFO phenomenon. Anyway, though I didn't post it, that message set me off thinking whether any humans living today could be reincarnated Fae, and then (see where I'm going with this?) whether I myself might be one. I think I mused in a previous post about how I thought I might have been a Cold War spy in a past life? Well let's just say that I don't think I've been human for all that many lifetimes.

Apparently as a 2 and 3-year-old child, I used to terrify my mother by saying that I was a changeling and that I came from a place called 'Clambery woods' (I've looked it up, it doesn't exist), and I actually even have a slightly Elfin look about me.

Anyway, the purpose of that preamble was that perhaps what we medically diagnose as various 'mental disorders' are actually just the symptoms of souls who are ill-adjusted for the human form they currently occupy.

A common aspect of Aspergers, for example, is not feeling at home in one's body, which as you recently pointed out, sadly now frequently gets diagnosed as being transgender. I know as a teenager I could have easily been swayed if transgenderism had been a thing back then.

I read how autism/Aspergers could potentially be a result of mild heavy metal poisoning (possibly from vaccines, which contain them as adjuvants), or from environmental exposure to oestrogenic compounds in drinking water (autistic brains seem to show a strange mix of male and female brain structuring), but what if the cause is something far more esoteric? Fae appear to have no real genders, other than what we assign them, and the impression I get is that they are almost like sentient light, or the 'smokeless fire' djinn are described as (hence the time distortion, supernatural speed, ability to create glamour illusions and the 'flash burns' often reported by UFO/Men-In-Black contactees), with bodies that exist only on the etheric and astral levels, but who have been driven almost to extinction in some places due to an over-abundance of metal in the human built environment. Hence there may be a lot of Fae souls looking for homes.

The New Agers were always going on about Star children and Indigo kids, perhaps they were half-right, but the souls didn't come from the stars...

Anyway, I might be talking nonsense with all this, but it's late, and I should probably go to bed. Hope that was at least entertaining!

Mr. Crow

[kimberlysteele]

Thanks for this deep dive! I remember quite a few of my past lives at this point going pretty far back and the bottom line is I don't think I was ever a fae. I've had my own encounters with them as a teenager. They are scary as hell and there are entire orders of them who absolutely despise humans. Some of them (from my limited understanding and of course I could be wrong) are in league with demons with the agenda of corrupting or damaging humans. Some of this is revenge for what we've done to them and the environment and some of it is just plain malice. I agree with you that many are seeking incarnation because their souls are roaming free with nowhere else to go. Of course flesh incarnation is only one choice in a buffet, so it's anyone's guess how those free souls will end up.

Yes, I am naturally nocturnal. I do have a choice, so I hit the sack at about 1-2am and get up at 9 or 10. My temperament is very fiery. It took many years to control my temper -- discursive meditation was the ultimate key to understanding what that was about. My main issue is that I am an astral and etheric energy geyser. My giant hair is a physical symptom of that non-physical phenomenon. It's both good and bad.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, as I say, it's only speculation - it could be something else entirely, or just an archetype which a sub-set of the population falls into. But that's interesting that you are also nocturnal and with a short temper. Have you ever done one of those Myers Briggs personality tests? I'd be interested to know the results if so (go on 16personalities if you're interested), but if that's too private to share, that's absolutely fine.

I also used to have untameable hair (as does my mum), before it decided to leave me... As you say, I think I actually just generate too much of my own etheric and astral energy (so being in sunlight really does overcharge me) and I have to discharge it regularly through physical labour or some mad project or other, or else it shorts out and I do something self-destructive like stay up until sunrise reading about lizard people, whilst writing pages of crazed, barely-comprehensible notes and theories and eating nachos.

I've never encountered any Fae, but I am well aware they aren't all sweetness and light (well, they might be light, but in the same way a 10 kilowatt laser beam is 'just' light). Much like humans, I'm sure they come in many flavours, including some which actively hate humans, but most of them appear to just have the moral compass of a crocodile rather than being explicitly evil (in the Buddhist sense of deliberately causing suffering for the sake of suffering). I get the feeling many of them just want to be left alone in their forest homes though, which may explain why some then hunt humans in National Parks (I posted a while back about the Missing 411 phenomenon in National Parks - I think a lot of disappearances can be explained by Fae).

I've been listening to a really interesting podcast on Japanese folklore and supernatural Yokai creatures recently (It's called "Uncanny Japan", if you're interested) and there was one episode about Tengu. Tengu seem to have a remarkable similarity to Western Fae - the name of the Studio Ghibli film "Spirited Away" actually refers to a Japanese phrase for being taken to the world of the Tengu, where time passes at a different rate (sometimes faster, sometimes slower), just like the land of the Fae. I was already aware of the long-nosed red kind of Tengu, but not the blue type, which are known as... Crow Tengu! I laughed when I heard that - they seem pretty cool, and are more just trickster-ish than their fearsome red cousins.

I forgot to reply the other week as well, but you mentioned about a future sentient raccoon species - have you seen the Studio Ghibli film "Pom Poko"? I think you'd like it - it's about the raccoon Yokai known as Tanuki!

Mr. Crow

[(Anonymous)]

Hmm, I was just thinking, and re-read my original comment - from what I know of JMG (and from reading his blogs for about 9 years, I think I could say I have a reasonable insight into his psychology), he would also fit most of those trait descriptors, and (assuming he's telling the truth), he remembers having quite a few previous (human) lives, which would somewhat put paid to the Fae theory. He's also a gemini, like me, for whatever that's worth.

I think this may be an archetype after all. I mentioned Myers Briggs above - I don't mind saying that I'm an INTJ, which is described as "The Mastermind" or, less egotistically, "The Architect", who are apparently the most independent-minded of the types, and practically immune to peer pressure. I remember on the corona open posts a while back (before Christmas, I think?) someone mentioned Myers Briggs and there were a LOT of INTJs, and none of them got the jab. INTJ is apparently only about 4-5% of the population, so to have it so over-represented in the forum was quite interesting.

As I said above, I have a dog, but personality-wise, I'm actually much more like a cat.

Mr. Crow

[methylethyl]

I usually map either INTJ or ISTJ on those (Sometimes INTP), but don't find the descriptions particularly useful because I score right down the middle on everything but the "I", so one question more or less decides the other letters, and it changes with how cranky I'm feeling-- none of those profiles are a really good fit. It is like those "what gender is your brain" psych profile quizzes, where I always fall just to the "male" side of center. Like... ok, but what bearing does this have on *anything*? I'm still a straight, married, middle-aged mother of three.

IIRC a similar survey was carried out on Slate Star Codex, back before it was disbanded and reconfigured, with similar results: INTJs everywhere! One does wonder if that's simply the most common profile of people who enjoy intellectually-stimulating internet forums with strictly-enforced etiquette and no dogmatic viewpoints.

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry, me again. I don't know how I missed this before, but someone mapped the Myers Briggs onto Jungian archetypes, and guess what they put INTJ as..?

The Magician!

https://tr.pinterest.com/pin/594756694546011656/

Mr. Crow

[kimberlysteele]

The test thing is calling me an "Architect" or an INTJ-A. Here is the breakdown:

Mind
This trait determines how we interact with our environment.
48% Extraverted
52% Introverted

Energy
This trait shows where we direct our mental energy.
72% Intuitive
28% Observant

Nature
This trait determines how we make decisions and cope with emotions.
53% Thinking
47% Feeling

Tactics
This trait reflects our approach to work, planning and decision-making.
54% Judging
46% Prospecting

Identity
This trait underpins all others, showing how confident we are in our abilities and decisions.
60% Assertive
40% Turbulent

I don't think this test reveals very much. I have an artistic/philosophical streak and I tend to be the typical assertive Leo but otherwise it's nearly 50/50. My birth chart is much more smoking gun and tell all.

I agree with you that the fae are probably abducting people in national parks. There are plenty of fairy stories where a person is carted off to fairyland, either never to return or to return long after all the people they knew have grown old and died. I wonder if the people who disappeared will be plopped back down in Yellowstone or Denali or whatever in the year 2122, asking themselves "What happened?"

That podcast sounds very cool! Thank you for the recommendation. I have not seen Pom Poko. It sounds very cute.

[methylethyl]

Pom Poko: "Talk to your kids about Buddhist dancing cults. Before someone else does."

That's all I'm gonna say about that. More surreal than cute, TBH.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Kimberly,

Unless I missed it because I was reading too quickly, you didn't mention "not watching TV programs" as part of your psychic self-defense practices. If it's not too personal a question to ask, do you watch a little to some TV (perhaps, for example, old programs from decades past that were not so blatant in communicating toxic cultural messages)? I just assumed you don't watch any TV at all, but I am currently both curious and also bold enough to ask.

It's rather telling that there's so much clutter in the TV world currently, whether it's the 200-plus channels or the many different streaming services that can give "the average, ignorant media slave" many lifetimes-worth of visual media to watch even just once. While I was reading the Astral section of your blog post, I realized that I have been watching other people's circuses and other people's monkeys whenever I watch any modern comedy show. And unfortunately, I have been a media slave for so long in my life that I doubt I have any originality in creating magical shapes inside and outside of my mind.

-Eugene

[kimberlysteele]

I watch TV sometimes. Once a week, my mom and I watch several hours worth of TV shows and movies together. I also watch TV shows or movies from the internet while I work out on my exercise bike because the boredom of the TV distracts from the boredom of the bike that goes nowhere and vice a versa. I am not one who can read deep literature while huffing and puffing on my exercise bike. I am a visual learner and I often watch Youtubes on how to make stuff or how to garden if I'm not watching Netflix shows or whatever. Plus I have always loved horror movies despite 90 percent of them being total trash and I will always watch them as long as they exist.

Sometimes a comedy show is just a comedy show. Blowing off steam by watching someone else's creative output could actually teach you something. I have done productive discursive meditations on many films and TV shows! I wouldn't worry too much about TV and media unless they become a major time suck and an obsession that is keeping you from more meaningful pursuits.