Asteroth's Domain

Recently I had a chance to visit an old monastery here in the Czech Republic. You can read my 'normal' posting about the visit and the place itself on my Czech Republic blog for background details but in short Rajhrad is just outside of Brno and features an old Benedictine monastery that has been in existence for thousands of years. We actually visited the place to take a look at the Kodex Gigas which was on display there.

As I walked into the Monastery church however the atmosphere took my breath away. Such energy! As I began to look around, I noticed more and more strangeness in what is a Catholic church - esoteric and occult symbols everywhere and barely hidden at that.

I should have observed entering the building to be honest that this was a church with some sort of occult context. The front of the building features a beautiful virgin Mary inside what I consider to be quite an occult symbol - the womb opening....

But what initially struck me about the interior was the layout which appeared to fit the Tree of Life and the decoration behind the alter which surely is the Tree of Life!

Amazons electronic book reader - the Kindle - provides people the opportunity to download books and read them on the device. A few weeks ago I made Inner Journeys available to Kindle readers an was today surprised to find it is selling too!

Apparently my book is #8 in the Occult category, #11 in the Magic category and #13 in the Mysticism category....

Amazing.

A friend's email turned my thoughts to purpose which, coincidentally, has been a theme on my mind and in my life for the last two weeks anyway. Each of us is here with a purpose and each of us should try to live a purposeful life. The funny thing is that at times we do but then we drift until fate reminds us with a big prod that we should focus in on that purpose again.

When I read the bible, I get a sense of purpose in Jesus. At all times, in all actions, words and thoughts he is purposeful. In that regard, he is truly different to each of us. We get hooked into life. The little things, the mundane, the necessary and before we know it, we are drifting aimlessly through life again.

This has certainly happened to me of late. I got so wrapped up in stuff I lost the bigger picture - the one with a sense of purpose. I drifted and it felt like I was stuck in the thickest mud. A friend of mine reminded me to try to step back and see the bigger picture - see the purpose as it were. It was a jolt back into reality for a while but I know that being me, I will drift again... and probably sooner than I care to imagine.

Last night, I was sitting on the patio and working on the Hexagram book while reflecting on the events and lessons of the last week or so. I guess I drifted off into that inner place of solitude and quiet for a few moments as I suddenly had the feeling that cogs were turning. The machinery of the Universe seemed to be re-starting around me - slowly - but for sure something is happening behind the scenes.

I was thinking - ah, at last, motion again. And then it struck me I hope I like the way the machinery turns and where it arrives. I have for sure felt like I was walking through mud this last 18-months making little or no progress. Perhaps, the events of the last week or two has triggered some inner movement again? I hope so but at the same time I wonder what the Universe has in store for me next?

I open CNN.com this morning and it is all bombings in different countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan and Iraq and more.... My immediate reaction is what on earth are these people thinking? What makes someone hate so much that they will kill themselves and others imagining that they will immediately go to heaven for their act? Does it not say clearly and categorically "God is love" in most holy books across all faiths?

If "God is love" and, as revealed to me by Asteroth, "Love is Acceptance", then why do religious leaders have to deny acceptance of anything other than their own views of God? And exactly which God are they following? I suspect that they are following that God of power, greed, avarice and jealousy whose name I do not know because in fact this is not a God at all but an aspect of themselves. I suspect that what they so hate in others is simply a projection of something that they hate about themselves.

Love works wonders. Mother Theresa was able to turn around criminals and murderers with love and love alone. If these people really had a mind capable of independent thought perhaps they would also consider that killing another human is tantamount to killing God, killing yourself. They might just see that in each of us there is an eternal flame that is a spark from the one flame that ever burns brightly.

Astral projection. What is that?

I used to believe that Astral Projection was the ability to leave your body consciously but I have come to the conclusion that that is more aptly termed an Out of Body experience. I'm unsure that I have ever been able to do that though it may have happened to me. Not enough evidence yet to be able to assess.

But Astral Projection - to me, this is simply the ability to imagine. Imagination is the powerhouse of magic anyway and those of us endowed with a good imagination find ourselves with a two-edged sword to work with. On the one hand, imagination is as I say the powerhouse of magic but, on the other, it is the bane of life if we are not careful to exercise control.

Long ago, I realized that my imagination was very powerful. I can simply be somewhere else anytime I chose via my imaginative faculty. But, I can imagine all too easily all sorts of things that are not there in life if I don't keep a grip and I can too easily slip away when perhaps I should be more focused on the outer reality of life. Indeed, it is a two-edged sword and, like all other magical faculties, its use demands concentration, will and appropriateness.

Over time, I have come to believe that Astral Projection is simply the ability to travel on the astral plane using our imaginative faculty. Everyone does it they just don't realize they are doing it.

Many who are interested in occult matters appear to have something of a right-sided brain and are artists, artisans and poets. Sue Vincent, whose website - Dreamscapes I blogged about previously, is one of those multi-talented people who you wonder just where they find the time.

Sue writes poetry but also paints and I have to tell you her artwork is amazing. You can see the mystical and occult influences in her work quite clearly too. She was kind enough to send me some pictures of her art to post here and they are reproduced, with permission, below;

Starways

Into the Light

Sue sells many of her works from her website - at great prices - to supplement her income. She also takes on commissions - and if I needed a painting, she would be my first choice.

A few months ago I was given a silver bracelet. The origin of that bracelet was that it had been found somewhere and being a masculine bracelet, it was offered to me. Of course, I accepted it with thanks and commenced wearing it. After a few days it fell off. Evidently, it had a broken ring and this was why it had been lost and found in the first place.

For several months that bracelet stayed on a table forgotten until recently, I took it in for repair. I got the bracelet back on Friday and put it around my wrist.

Tonight, as I walked home, a strange thought struck me out of the blue. Friday was when all hell broke lose and since then I had felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders. Furthermore, I could recall that the few days I had previously worn that bracelet, I had felt weird and acted with a certain emphasis on some of my less nice traits. Could it be?

I removed the bracelet earlier this evening and within hours I feel a lot better. That bracelet will never be worn by me again.

It's dark, like coal in a hole
Physical vision obstructed
Inner sight clouded, obscured
Images of archetypes and aspects
Float by, gloat by, not I
Surely this cannot be me?
What are these ghouls I see?
And why do they look like me?
I ache, painful anguished cry
It's done with cruel love they say
Sometimes this is the only way
To learn, to grow, to accept
Oh how I wish I simply slept
Somewhere I know there is light
Judging what is wrong and right
I yearn for that light
To once again regain my sight
Shifting scenes and actors
Enemies and soulful benefactors
Voices far away they say
Follow us out, have faith and know
The light hasn't gone away
The light never left you
Its you that lost your sight
Look and listen, it's still there
Find courage, find the strength to say
The eternal light is in me and you
That eternal flame which still burns bright
You search too hard, like any man
What you seek is right there
Right there in front of you..............

One characteristic of occult training is a 'trained mind'. Dion Fortune talks about that quite a lot in her works and it is certainly true that the work we do rewires the brain and results in a mind that is able to perform visualization and concentration on demand. I read last night with great interest in 'Moon Magic' how Dion's character, La Fay Morgan, talks about building an astral temple using visualization and the trained mind. I can do this too these days and actually very easily when I put my mind and my training to it.

But, that Shadow, he robs me of my ability to concentrate, to visualize - he utterly disrupts my 'trained' mind. How? It's almost like the old idea of the devil on one shoulder and the Angel on the other. The Angel is saying... "yes... good... now visualize the windows.... great... looking good... yes - you can do it...". Meanwhile the Shadow is smiling with his arms folded occasionally saying things like - "You know right now she is screwing you over?" "You really think this stuff works?" and "Jeez, why don't you watch some Internet porn - it's far more interesting than this!"

The Gods always have the last laugh. I see their humor in coincidences that ripple through life.

As I go through what appears to be a difficult and painful time of self-realization, I am forced to admit that some amazing coincidences have occurred already;

1. Francis, a man I talk about briefly in Inner Journeys, suddenly contacts me after an absence of 20 odd years. It's as if he announces his availability to assist once again and a conversation with him I had on Saturday turned my thinking inside out;

2. I suddenly start writing the new book again after leaving it alone for months and months;

3. In looking for volunteers to help with the book, I meet up with Sue here and we share experiences;

4. I pick up a book I haven't read in ages and re-read it to find amazing meanings in it I had not seen before (Moon Magic by Dion Fortune);

And many others.....

I have this sense of activity going on around me... I feel it in my stomach and the nape of my neck. I am in pain - anguish even - but everything is dropping into place and I am gutted that I didn't see these things until just now.

A long time ago, during the SOL course, I met my shadow during several meditations. It was not a pleasant experience. I wrote about it in Inner Journeys: Explorations of the Soul as follows;

"It is an ugly old man plumpish and feminine in the sense that the facial difference between the sexes appears lost in age. My sense is of someone who is nervous and twitchy. Full of contempt for everyone, dry, wizened and angry. I call him ‘Mr. Angry’. He pops out when I least expect it and embarrasses me. Yet the anger and contempt is only the surface of a lot more unpleasantness. I’m puzzled by the rapid nervous movement. He won’t look you in the eye – fear. He is afraid of many things. I feel a sense of my fear in him. In my dreams, I sense his presence and then things happen – like I get thrown around by an invisible force. It’s the same in waking life – he comes out WHEN I LEAST EXPECT HIM TO."

But, in the end, I let my guard down again....

Coming face to face with an image of your shadow is scary, horrifying even. But this weekend I had a worse experience and that is coming face to face with the shadow as an active part of yourself in the physical world. Suddenly, it became crystal clear to me how this aspect of myself really is and what impact he has on the people around me. I was and still am devastated.

Strange that sometimes my life just seems to all come crashing down around me - although its not as bad as others I can think of I hasten to add. You ask for something with an expectation that it will happen and the delivery just seems very strange. What am I talking about? Yesterday I made an appeal to the Gods to help get my life moving again. I knew they listened but how they acted was both abrupt and totally unexpected. Whatever next I wonder?

I am finally working on a new book and I finally got a draft chapter and exercises out to several volunteers or Guinea Pigs this week. I'm excited about this book which really came to me towards the end of doing the SOL course a few years ago. Since then I have been obsessed on and off with the hexagram and learned a great deal more through reflection and meditation.

However, I do need a publisher for the book so if anyone can recommend a publisher worth trying I'd appreciate it very much. My experiences with Thoth haven't been very good and I don't want to waste this one via self-publishing.

In addition to publishing the material as a book, I plan to turn it into a course and workshop if I can find the time.

Stay tuned for further updates later.....

Inner Journeys continues to sell but recently I worked to get an electronic version together for the Amazon Kindle device... as a result, I can now offer a PDF version of the book for sale too.....

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