posted September 01, 2012 05:52 AM            

I'm taking notes, guys! The discussion is so cool. I wanna experiment and play around with stones too, and charge things with wishes and stuff! Hopefully my Capricorn Moon will help with the stones thing. In fact, maybe today I'll meander by the lake shore and see if a stone or two catches my eye! If not I'll at least try to swing by the library or local New-Age gift shop for a handy book (just to get started #LibraMerc )

Though...I think I'll have to put aside the Virgo Rising vanity, as ideally my magic stones will be pretty and sparkly and at least semi-precious, (or is that Leo Mars vanity...?)

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Xiiro: Of course because my friend is Pluto in Libra, she just shrugged and said, "and?"

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Damn! Sounds nice to be a Pluto in Libra. I'd probably want to investigate, learn more, remember not to share my secrets to someone so poisonous...as bad as that sounds.

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Faith: but never felt capable of pinpointing or articulating even to myself what the differences are

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Yah I'm with Xiiro. With Pisces, I'd imagine more of a seamless merging concerning what you know and what qualities they have, not like, say, Virgo which would be able to pinpoint and articulate. But omg I don't know anything about these rock things, so if Xiiro has a differing opinion, don't be afraid to shoot me down, lol!

Speaking of Virgo Moon, two of my close friends have Virgo Moons. Very good opinions, quite knowledgeable...when I come to them with problems, they're good at giving common sense, practical advice. Another good friend of mine has a Scorpio Moon and I go to her with problems too, and her advice is just as great, if more convicted (which I find endearing.) The Scorpio Moon friend's advice though seems like she just KNOWS be it subconsciously or what all whereas the two Virgo Mooners rationalize an answer out.

The wonders of astrology!

So, Xiiro, from your Sag Sun-Neptune to my Cap Moon-Neptune, let's see if maybe I can try to tap into some psychic abilities too (sans-drugs)

All this talk of mysticism has me feeling all spectral - I just need some pastel clothes, flowers in my hair, and a walk in the forest...kinda like with these songs! The first one even gives me a Pisces vibe. The other? Maybe...Aquarius. (x/x) I even have a lake at my feet and a mountain at my back where I'm currently living.

posted September 01, 2012 11:35 PM            

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Originally posted by RedScorp:
In fact, maybe today I'll meander by the lake shore and see if a stone or two catches my eye!

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Originally posted by RedScorp:
I think I'll have to put aside the Virgo Rising vanity, as ideally my magic stones will be pretty and sparkly and at least semi-precious, (or is that Leo Mars vanity...?)

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HAha I remember the last time I purchased a car, I was very happy with it, because it was sleek and black, new and shiny. I took it through a car wash when it started getting dusty and when I got home I noticed scratches, about an eighth of the width of a baby hair, all over the car. They happened as a result of the fibers in the cleaning tools brushing up against the granules of dust.

I was so sad, because my car was pretty for like 4 days and I ruined it in a matter of minutes! HAHaha I had to pull myself aside and explain that microscopic scratches, which were only noticeable in the areas where the sun reflected, even all over the car, where not actually of any interest to anyone but me, and my car looked exactly the same as the day I bought it to everyone else.

Oh Moon and Saturn in Virgo... (pet, pet)

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Originally posted by RedScorp:
Damn! Sounds nice to be a Pluto in Libra. I'd probably want to investigate, learn more, remember not to share my secrets to someone so poisonous...as bad as that sounds.

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It actually IS really nice having Pluto in Libra. Even if our generation felt like we were in limbo, because our Pluto in Leo parents were too busy with their own interests to invest in our growth. But we are a facilitator generation. Before our generation there were no computers or interwebs, equal rights for many groups were rare or only observed publicly before our generation, we were a generation born into a golden age of science, art, technology, environmentalism, and exploration (brought on by the end of the Cold War). We were the first generation made to feel that we could do anything we put our heart into. We were the first generation to rave, the first generation born with a natural belief in questioning authority. Same sex kids first fought to attend prom together in our generation, girls sued schools that didn't let them participate in "boy" sports. We were one of the first generations to have parents put us in rehab and mental hospitals as a popular method for not being able to control us. We were the first generation to grow up with commercial pharmaceuticals and an almost completely unnatural diet. We were the first generation to come into adulthood after our world turned into a George Orwell book. We were the first generation to witness female astronauts, to elect a U.S. president with an ethnicity other than white. and we did things like this... Listen Up Bisches!

It's a very strange feeling, because Pluto becomes light, gentle, copacetic, and airy in Libra. We obsess about people interacting appropriately, diplomacy, and fairness. Our Pluto doesn't get its way by sucker punching people in the face, it instead sits down, gets to know a situation and people involved, and comes to a decision that deeply benefits everyone. I hope that continues when we get old enough to start governing countries.

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Originally posted by RedScorp:
With Pisces, I'd imagine more of a seamless merging concerning what you know and what qualities they have, not like, say, Virgo which would be able to pinpoint and articulate.

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Originally posted by RedScorp:
Speaking of Virgo Moon...

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Originally posted by RedScorp:
...kinda like with these songs! The first one even gives me a Pisces vibe. The other? Maybe...Aquarius. (x/x) I even have a lake at my feet and a mountain at my back where I'm currently living.

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Originally posted by RedScorp:
Lastly! I'm curious...what vibes do the two of you get from me? Sign-wise, planet-wise...hell, even house-wise! I hope it's not a bother to ask, but you both are so knowledgeable! I'm revelling.

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Your Scorpio-Virgo/Sag-Saturn energies are the most noticeable to me. When we first met, you had a soft reticence about you (which could have been your Moon), but the more comfortable you get, them more your Sagi nature comes out.

If you have specific questions they would be easier to answer rather than going on endlessly about my impressions. =)

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Originally posted by RedScorp:
Speaking of stones and potentials...I think I will want at least one set of ten stones, each one charged or naturally imbued with energy akin to each planet. I don't think I'll take the Pluto stone out often (since getting laid ain't exactly a priority...nor do I need help with it ), but I'd like to have it just because.

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Many years ago I created a stone bead bracelet representing my natal chart. That was fun. Don't exclude Pluto though, it is great for helping transformation happen and getting stuck situations to processes. I used to walk around with a pouch filled with stones in my pocket, each helping with a specific issue that day, or adding to my ambiance like wearing perfume.

Be careful with what you use them for, just like my hooker stone, you can't just tell a stone, "Act this way". You can modify it's energy to resonate with a specific planet or vibration, but its essential structure will still play a part in how that energy is expressed.

Because the hooker stone was tiger's eye (Strength of will) and deep royal blue (communication and balance of emotions) I originally carried it as a pocket Prozac. It worked well too, it just happened to have the unexpected side effect of making people want to bone down. It is not an exciting lesson to process, that when you are in a balanced emotional state, you attract people who do not love you.

I had a set of planet stones, but I used them for scraying. I drew a 12 segmented circle and tossed the stones in it, then read the energy of the planet in whatever house it landed. (e.g. Sun stone in 5th House - time to get your party on gurl!! LOL But a bit more in depth).

posted September 05, 2012 02:38 AM            

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Xiiro: Our tastes in music (at least what I have seen of yours) is very similar.

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Here, these are some of defining songs (feel free to send me some lmao!): 1 2 3 4 5

Warning: not all of it is obscure, deep, or meaningful.

Those scraying stones sound cool! "But a bit more in depth" LOL what u talkin' about, NO DEPTH! Yeah it sounds kinda difficult to find out what the stones do...I dunno if I'd have to meditate on them and see what comes to mind or carry them around and be like, trial or what all, hahaha.

posted September 05, 2012 06:54 AM            

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Originally posted by RedScorp:
feel free to send me some

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GD this POS thing. It erased my long-a$$ response. Well unfortunately it is too late in the evening to remember my earlier response, so lets just commence with the sending!

1
2
3
4
5
6
7 - For the Venus in Scorpio =)
8
9
10
11
12

Several are from old favorites and I added the "Let's Have A Ki Ki" song because it is just awesome.

EDIT ~ Here is roughly what I wrote last night:

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Originally posted by RedScorp:
Soft reticence, tho? I didn't know Capricorn was a soft reticence-y sign...maybe it's the Neptune conjunction.

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That's exactly what it is I think. One of the less talked about parts of the Piscean energy is its inherent ability to hide or camouflage its self. Pisces or Neptune influenced planets like to sit behind the scenes, understanding every angle, then appear once they are comfortable with the situation. In some cases, they may never appear, or delegate a person to speak on their behalf.

Capricorn is a constructive energy which takes what it has been given, and utilizes those materials to best function in a specific job. The energy is applied to both the world and the self. Therefor a Cappy Moon (for example) will mainly be focused on how to best maintain comfort, emotional order, and a sane/responsible/useful personal environment. Capricorn often creates an interactive external shell which shelters the inside from harsh external energies. This creates a workspace where the Capricorn planet can observe the energies bombarding the shell, select the useful ones, and utilize them at its own pace.

Your Capricorn Neptune is the most readily available resource for your Moon. It can be used as a cloaking devise or a sound dampener, allowing your emotions to choose when to be noticed and when not to be. Once you have assessed a situation more completely, you can decide which environments are safe for exposing your emotions, and which may be hostile, unstable, or counterproductive.

I wonder though, do you ever get phantom feelings, or feelings which creep up on you from nowhere? Do you react more emotionally than what seems appropriate, to certain situations or topics? Are there some times where you feel completely without emotion?

posted September 05, 2012 02:35 PM            

My little Sam has been sick so it's taken me longer than I thought to get back to the convo here. So nice to see that the discussion kept rolling! All sorts of good stuff to look at and listen to.

Let me just say, I love both your musical tastes! But they don't sound very similar to me. RS's songs are more upbeat and clear sounding, Xiiro's are more mellow and flowing. Is it just me thinking that? Xiiro, I used to listen to Tori Amos all the time, love Mazzy Star too! Ahhh, the 90's. And RS, thanks for introducing me to some new stuff I never heard before but like.

If anyone cares, whenever anyone asks about my musical tastes, first name that comes to mind for me is Stephin Merritt, who's had several bands over the years.

If You Don't Cry

Give Me Back My Dreams

But You're So Beautiful

Here in My Heart
(Venus Neptune conjunction theme song)

Young & Insane

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
GD this POS thing. It erased my long-a$$ response.

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That sucks, obviously, and I hate missing something you've written. It looks like the last two posts I made were consolidated into one post, with some parts missing, and some blunders that I edited out came back again to haunt me ("Happy full moon in Virgo?" No..obviously, it was in Pisces. Total brain malfunction.)

I'm keeping copies of my posts from now on and will have to be careful to post right the first time.

Anyway, thanks for explaining more about how Buddhism works. I love this:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
For example, one is suggested to attend to their mind in the way a mother attends to a new born child. Carefully embraced and with fingers counted, the mind can feel free to expose all its vulnerabilities without judgment.

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I've really been trying to do this, or at least to notice when I am being too hard on myself and stop. I actually, really say to myself, "hit the eject button" when I notice that I am on a negative wavelength, and I imagine a dramatic, immediate escape from that whole mental environment, like a pilot ejecting from a plane.

One thing, though...how does the Buddhist hierarchy comport with all the head chopping? Is there a special way to regard the Dalai Lama...something between reverence and detachment that I don't have the word for?

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
I haven't played with homeopathy at all, so I am not the best person to ask. What I have seen, it does seem a bit more like energy work than physical medicine.

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Yes, the homeopathic remedies don't contain any physical trace of the substance they are derived from, just the essence, and the more dilute the essence, the more potent the cure. So it's an energy thing. As a side note, it correlates to a theory I have, that the more subtle a line of communication is, the more potent it is.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Stones are like energy candy for me. The feeling of looking at an assortment of stones under a glass display case is similar to a kid ogling candy. Each one is a little voyage with its own story to tell.

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I can actually relate to that in a very undisciplined way, because the local natural history museum keeps a stunning array of crystals in well-lit glass cabinets, in their own room. I am always trying to stay in that room as long as possible while my family cavorts around the stuffed wolverines and plays in the dinosaur exhibits. I just stare and stare and stare. Occasionally someone passes through the room, nods, and walks out, and I look at their backs incredulously: "How can they just leave?"

I think this is my 8H Pisces moon just being present with the crystals. It's nothing to articulate (Aquarius Mercury) or to use (Cap sun), it's just something to do with rapt attention, that feels invigorating and awe-inspiring.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Their energy becomes more complex when they are payed attention to instead of looked at as lifeless hunks of matter...

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Good to know! And I guess this is a tangent, but it reminds me of how some quantum physicists are saying that atoms behave differently depending on whether or not they are under observation. There is reciprocity to the observing, even from supposedly inanimate material.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Perhaps a silica or iron deficiency. lol

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LOL! Hope not, but that's funny.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Especially in the case of ametrine (citrine and amethyst having grown together in the same stone), one could create a sphere of burnished psychic light which gobbled up any negative energy it came in contact with.

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Yeah, I need that stuff. Thank you again for talking to me about crystals, I appreciate it so much.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
I'm not sure I follow. My inner nerd is having an argument with my inner spiritualist over the possibility of the question referring to Star Wars. Could you please elaborate so I can decide which one gets to answer your question?

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LOL, my bad, sorry!

I think what I meant was, people have ways of manifesting their will through various means: witchcraft, harnessing the power of intention, and prayer come to mind. My question was, do you think all spiritual paths can lead to the same attainment of this "supernatural" power, where, in respective persons... prayers are heard, intentions are granted, spells succeed? Where the person is just flat-out more powerful?

I guess I'm wondering why anyone would go down the traditional route of learning witchcraft when you've demonstrated that one can do it without props, and I seem to have landed on a way to do it without any training at all. And why should anyone learn to have effective prayer if the religion itself is just a useless tool in the end? Ultimately, is the power of intention the raw power that's being cultivated, and if so, what's the best way to tap into that? I would think that maybe meditation is the answer? Because that is open to all people, and the effects one would have would benefit all people, not just the religious (as prayers might) or the witch (as spells might.)

Or here's a succinct version of the question: can meditation alone increase one's ability to manifest things in reality that they are wishing for, the way witchcraft does? Can it just amplify one's effect in the world?

I don't know, I like to think that miracles are happening all the time because people are generating them.

I know this is a babbly response, just forgive it please...I've re-written it a few times and can't make the thought process any neater, but I still want to show you my babble and see if you can make anything of it.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
It's a very strange feeling, because Pluto becomes light, gentle, copacetic, and airy in Libra. We obsess about people interacting appropriately, diplomacy, and fairness.

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I thought it was just because I'm a Rabbit! But I do agree with this. Like, if anything is going to make me fight in a Plutonian way, it's going to be for Libran values to triumph. "Everyone get along DAMMIT! Play fair!"

I am pro-peace in an age of war and my Pluto Virgo friends drive me up a wall with their nutty foreign policy. Like, it looks so good on paper so it must be right?? I shouldn't even go there.

posted September 05, 2012 08:12 PM            

Welcome back! Sorry to hear that Sam is feeling icky. I would not feel excited about being sick in this heat. :P I hope he feels better soon.

Red, I edited my previous response with a generalized version of my previous response. I hope it is coherent.

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Originally posted by Faith:
Let me just say, I love both your musical tastes! But they don't sound very similar to me. RS's songs are more upbeat and clear sounding, Xiiro's are more mellow and flowing. Is it just me thinking that?

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The 90's were a great time for music, though our pop music was kinda crap. Pop music now days is more creative IMO.

I like your musical tastes Faith, they are a bit industrial meets 80's euro pop. Your taste reminds me a bit of the Donny Darko Soundtrack. I especially liked The Magnetic Fields. The last song's lead voice reminded me a bit of Chinese throat singing (oddly enough) or even this guy (did someone say "the 90's"?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_9iWATOveA I don't know why. Any song about girls giving acid to boys who bother them and luring them into a garden with tigers is okay by me. LOL

The Here In My Heart song is beautiful. The lyrics are great and the tune is a bit Abba-ish (which I am a fan of) =)

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Originally posted by Faith:
I'm keeping copies of my posts from now on and will have to be careful to post right the first time.

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Originally posted by Faith:
I actually, really say to myself, "hit the eject button" when I notice that I am on a negative wavelength, and I imagine a dramatic, immediate escape from that whole mental environment, like a pilot ejecting from a plane.

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Originally posted by Faith:
One thing, though...how does the Buddhist hierarchy comport with all the head chopping? Is there a special way to regard the Dalai Lama...something between reverence and detachment that I don't have the word for?

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To my understanding, the Buddha taught that we reach nirvana by looking inward, not externally. Here is a nice article on the subject http://www.budsas.org/ebud/whatbudbeliev/191.htm . It gets a little preachy, but the point is made in the first three paragraphs:

"Oneself, indeed, is one's savior, for what other savior would there be?
With oneself well controlled the problem of looking for external savior is solved, -- (Dhammapada 166)

As the Buddha was about to pass away, His disciples came from everywhere to be near Him. While the other disciples were constantly at His side and in deep sorrow over the expected loss of their Master, a monk named Attadatta went into his cell and practised meditation. The other monks, thinking that he was unconcerned about the welfare of the Buddha, were upset and reported the matter to Him. The monk, however, addressed the Buddha thus, 'Lord as the Blessed One would be passing away soon, I thought the best way to honour the Blessed One would be by attaining Arahantship during the lifetime of the Blessed One itself.' The Buddha was pleased by his attitude and his conduct and said that one's spiritual welfare should not be abandoned for the sake of others.

In this story is illustrated one of the most important aspects of Buddhism. A person must constantly be on the alert to seek his own deliverance from Samsara, and his 'salvation' must be brought about by the individual himself. He cannot look to any external force or agency to help him to attain Nibbana."

Buddhism is a non-violent teaching, so one would not be expected to actually decapitate someone they met on the road. The act is figurative, a way of mentally freeing a person from their attachments to views about others. In this sense I have decapitated the Dalai Lama, because he is not any more a Buddha than the birds circling outside. The title Buddha means "the one who woke up" and "waking up" is a capacity equally available to all beings. Though some may have experience, they are no greater or more holy then others. Putting others up on a pedestal, and giving power to external objects distracts us from turning in and making personal progress.

It is clear when one researches, that the Buddha was focused on communicating a message, not being followed or worshiped. The same can be said of Christ and look how his message evolved.

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Originally posted by Faith:
Yes, the homeopathic remedies don't contain any physical trace of the substance they are derived from, just the essence, and the more dilute the essence, the more potent the cure. So it's an energy thing. As a side note, it correlates to a theory I have, that the more subtle a line of communication is, the more potent it is.

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Contrarily, I agree with your assessment of communication (given those who are communicating share understanding). I think volumes can me communicated through a smile or a look, but if two people don't understand each other, those subtleties become subject to misunderstanding.

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Originally posted by Faith:
I just stare and stare and stare. Occasionally someone passes through the room, nods, and walks out, and I look at their backs incredulously: "How can they just leave?"

I think this is my 8H Pisces moon just being present with the crystals. It's nothing to articulate (Aquarius Mercury) or to use (Cap sun), it's just something to do with rapt attention, that feels invigorating and awe-inspiring.

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Originally posted by Faith:
it reminds me of how some quantum physicists are saying that atoms behave differently depending on whether or not they are under observation. There is reciprocity to the observing, even from supposedly inanimate material.

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This rule not only applies to quantum physics, but it is apparent in our everyday life. The essential point is that energy is capable of not only being a particle, but a wave. Before energy is perceived it is spread out into a wavelength like water, but the moment it is looked at, the energy appears to be an individual particle. Here is an example of how that manifests on a greater scale:

Take a couple deep breaths and just take inventory of how you feel and what your mind is doing.

Now notice what happens when I say the word "DOG".

Your concept of dog has existed since you first saw one, but now it exists as an object floating around in your mind. This happens because you are now looking for "dog" where before "dog" was dispersed into the expanse of mental data.

The same happens with physical objects. Everything you are not paying attention to right now only exists as part of a mush of unaccounted for data, where all the things you are paying attention to, exist as definable, interactive, objects.

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Originally posted by Faith:
I guess I'm wondering why anyone would go down the traditional route of learning witchcraft when you've demonstrated that one can do it without props, and I seem to have landed on a way to do it without any training at all. And why should anyone learn to have effective prayer if the religion itself is just a useless tool in the end? Ultimately, is the power of intention the raw power that's being cultivated, and if so, what's the best way to tap into that? I would think that maybe meditation is the answer? Because that is open to all people, and the effects one would have would benefit all people, not just the religious (as prayers might) or the witch (as spells might.)

Or here's a succinct version of the question: can meditation alone increase one's ability to manifest things in reality that they are wishing for, the way witchcraft does? Can it just amplify one's effect in the world?

I don't know, I like to think that miracles are happening all the time because people are generating them.

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I think in the beginning, intention is the energy to cultivate and master. The experience teaches us we are connected to something greater than our tiny bodies. In my experience, meditation and self reflection is the key to understanding intention deeply. Meditation does lead to "supernatural" abilities. In Buddhism there are levels of contemplation which arise as one continues practicing deeply. These levels or stages are called Jhana and open the mediator to different psychic abilities, different physical abilities, the ability to see one's past and future lives, etc.. The interesting point about meditation is that as one reaches these stages of contemplation, the desire to use these abilities becomes less interesting (this may be because one's sense of self and situation transforms as they deepen their awareness). The Jhana are explained pretty well and the explanations seem pretty plausible. Achieving them is simply a matter of deepening one's meditation.

In some cases, people are just born with "witchyness". Perhaps they are abilities which follow the person from a previous life. Regardless of making an effort to sit and meditate, paying attention to how things work gives way to a deeper relationship with intention. A distinctive trait of shaman, wizards, witches, and practitioners of spiritual things is intelligence and observation skills. In many indigenous tribal cultures, people with flexible genders, developmental mutations, and survivors of trauma were marked as spiritual leaders. All these traits lead a person to deep and broad understanding which "normal" people can have a more difficult ability to grasp.

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Originally posted by Faith:
I am pro-peace in an age of war and my Pluto Virgo friends drive me up a wall with their nutty foreign policy. Like, it looks so good on paper so it must be right?? I shouldn't even go there.

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posted September 06, 2012 03:45 AM            

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Xiiro: a Cappy Moon (for example) will mainly be focused on how to best maintain comfort, emotional order, and a sane/responsible/useful personal environment. Capricorn often creates an interactive external shell which shelters the inside from harsh external energies. This creates a workspace where the Capricorn planet can observe the energies bombarding the shell, select the useful ones, and utilize them at its own pace.

Your Capricorn Neptune is the most readily available resource for your Moon. It can be used as a cloaking devise or a sound dampener, allowing your emotions to choose when to be noticed and when not to be. Once you have assessed a situation more completely, you can decide which environments are safe for exposing your emotions, and which may be hostile, unstable, or counterproductive.

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Omfg it's all very true I think I might cry that's how accurate all that is lmao! Now what effect does Uranus have, being only 2 degrees away...? Or the fact they're all partying it up in H5?

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Xiiro: I wonder though, do you ever get phantom feelings, or feelings which creep up on you from nowhere? Do you react more emotionally than what seems appropriate, to certain situations or topics? Are there some times where you feel completely without emotion?

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Hmm, phantom feelings, no, creep-y feelings, no. More emotionally than appropriate...I strive to keep my reactions measured and in check, but sometimes more emotions rise than what's shown, ahaha! And completely without emotion, a few times here and there, yah.

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Faith: thanks for introducing me to some new stuff I never heard before but like.

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Oh yah sure if you like it then miSSION ACCOMPLISHED!!

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Xiiro: I was linking some of my more obscure interests to broaden the spectrum

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Obscurity eh...? Well, here's some more obscurity: A B C D

I tink you might like iamamiwhoami, Xiiro. The songs, videos...everything that project produces is really rich with meaning. The bounty series (my favourites being t, linked previously, and o) took me a bit of digging to really find out the story behind it, hahaha!

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Faith: my Pluto Virgo friends drive me up a wall with their nutty foreign policy. Like, it looks so good on paper so it must be right??

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Xiiro: Pluto in Leo and Pluto in Virgo... They should have elected our generation into office the moment we became old enough to read and write.

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posted September 06, 2012 05:56 AM            

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Originally posted by RedScorp:
Now what effect does Uranus have, being only 2 degrees away...? Or the fact they're all partying it up in H5?

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This type of person feels freedom of expression and freedom to make one's own choices are a fundamental right. When life does not offer those options, their waters will become uneasy and unpredictable. They can be idealists when it comes to their emotions and personal freedoms. They could therefor experience relationship issues, from building emotional connections with an "idea" of a person, rather than the actual person. It is important to remain aware of emotional avoidance with others, as the way it works in their head is so much more enjoyable than how it tends to play out in real life.

It is also important to be aware of one's desire to dictate how emotional interactions will work, in an effort to protect one's own emotional freedoms. This is really just forcing others to follow one's rules (which paradoxically is one of the very things this type of native despises).

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Originally posted by RedScorp:
I tink you might like iamamiwhoami, Xiiro. The songs, videos...everything that project produces is really rich with meaning.

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Here are a few more favorites:
Llama
Cat
Donkey
Walruss
Budgerigar
Mouse
Cantaloupe

posted September 06, 2012 12:13 PM            

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Originally posted by RedScorp:
Omfg it's all very true I think I might cry that's how accurate all that is lmao!

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Seems Xiiro often makes people cry... by using his masterful understanding of astrology, it's like he can introduce people to themselves.

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Originally posted by RedScorp:

Can't beat Air for diplomacy and human affairs, especially Libra.

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My thinking is that Libra probably is the most egalitarian sign. Gandhi was a Libra, not that that proves my whole point, but he demonstrated the Libra knack for revolutionizing by simply striking a balance.

It's not to say Libra Pluto is superior to other Pluto signs, but is it better-suited to diplomacy roles? I think so. The fact that I retain my Virgo Pluto friends (of which I have many) in spite of strongly disagreeing with them about many things is a testament to the way I value diversity. I don't say to them, "Your politics is psychopathic," I say, "We've read different things and come from different backgrounds. I would love for you to take a look at this book sometime."

I am not completely above petty quarrels (obviously) but my general approach to people of all backgrounds is open and inclusive.

@Xiiro,

posted September 06, 2012 09:02 PM            

Random stuff up front:

Did you ever notice how "Aloha" sounds a lot like Hello, in pig Latin?

And isn't it neat that RS's Neptune is conjunct my sun, and my Neptune is conjunct your sun, and your Neptune is conjunct your sun?

Those are my amazing discoveries for this evening...now where were we? =)

Well I just watched the Severn Suzuki speech for the first time ever, can you believe that? Loved it! Kids can seem larger than life sometimes, just by being real.

I think what our generation has figured out, though, is that we are each responsible for our own impact, and institutions like the UN can only have a negligible impact compared to what we can all do, just by being the change we want to see in the world.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Sorry to hear that Sam is feeling icky.

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Thank you! He's better. It's actually been cold and damp here the past several days, so it was a "cold" cold, not a hot cold.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
I especially liked The Magnetic Fields.

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Oh! All the bands are Stephin Merritt's creation...basically all that music I posted comes from one dude, the guy with the frog voice. He's a gay Capricorn; I love his melodrama. I naively thought everyone knew him from this 90's "cult classic."

LOL about Crash Test Dummies, though (and anyone else with an extremely deep bass voice, no offense to them, it's just odd.)

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
I shatter the world like a flat plane of glass....if it keeps reoccurring I consider it a "deeper issue" and elect to sit with instead of destroying it.

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Thumbs up to shattering, and I think I know what you mean by "sitting with it," too. I'm new to that...'just started after reading Eckhart Tolle a few years ago...and I must say, it still feels weird, but is weirdly helpful. Like, "I am in pain, this is my pain, ouch, oooouuch, yep it's pain alright" instead of something like, "What's the fastest way to forget this or convince myself it's not even happening?"

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Originally posted by Xiiro:

Just like Christianity, the religion of Buddhism has different traditions or denominations....Here is a nice article on the subject

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I really can't figure out how denominations even happened in Buddhism, it's all very foreign and exotic to me, but I like it that way. I might be able to talk to a Buddhist on the other side of the world in real time, because the physical frontiers are no longer obstacles, but there are always new mental frontiers. I love it. As for the article, I agree that it gets preachy at times, but it was still a good clarification. Reading it, I kept thinking, "Really, I thought the best we could do was love life?" It's a conflict between simplicity and the complexity of reincarnation and working toward "Nibbana" in my mind now. But in the meanwhile, how's this for a quote?

If the day and night are such that you greet them with joy
And life emits a fragrance like sweet-scented herbs
That is your success
All nature is your congratulations.

-Thoreau

I guess that presumes you aren't growing up in North Korea or something, though.

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:

I am skeptical of the idea that less physical material = more energetic charge.

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And well you should be, because I just made that up. Ha! No, it's not really an "energetic charge." I don't know what it is. Neither does wikipedia:

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The low concentrations of homeopathic remedies, often lacking even a single molecule of the diluted substance,[9] lead to an objection that has dogged homeopathy since the 19th century: how, then, can the substance have any effect? Modern advocates of homeopathy have suggested that "water has a memory"—that during mixing and succussion, the substance leaves an enduring effect on the water, perhaps a "vibration", and this produces an effect on the patient. However, nothing like water memory has ever been found in chemistry or physics.

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I can go along with water having a memory, I've read enough about water to see the plausibility in that. But I don't know how modern homeopaths explain the efficacy of the remedies. I'm a little shocked that you don't use them? I use them a lot, especially arnica for my children's constant bruising and spraining from seeing how high up they can jump off ladders without breaking any bones.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
If the purpose of homeopathy is to trick the body into constructing an energetic version of the remedie's essence, then why not just administer the object without processing it?

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Oh, cuz some of the remedies are made from poisons. It's based on the law of "like cures like," so if you are feeling poisoned in a way (using the term loosely) then you take a "whisper" of a real poison that causes the same effect, and somehow that power of suggestion translates into your body mounting an immune response of its own against the actual ailment. Sort of like vaccinations, where the body says, "I detect an intruder here, let's fight!" and it takes its fight strategy from its assessment of the tiny bit of bacteria there, or whatever. I guess with homeopathy, the body works harder to figure out what that whisper is, the quieter the whisper is.

It's been a long time since I've read about homeopathy; but I have used them a lot and often with dramatic results. Like I can give a two-year old with a high fever homeopathic aconite instead of an NSAID and bring the fever down immediately. To me, this alone says there is more than just placebo effect at work, but I think it's something people would have to experience for themselves to be able to grasp. Just like other subtle medicines.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:

I think volumes can be communicated through a smile or a look, but if two people don't understand each other, those subtleties become subject to misunderstanding.

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Hey, this is where this mega-conversation began, isn't it? =) Talking about how people with birthdays close to ours just GET us better. It's actually quite lovely...like belonging to a tribe or race of people with a similar mental DNA. I love astrology for recognizing what ought to be obvious to people, but isn't.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:

Never Ever go to a gem show. HAha

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Little spirals are forming in my eyes even at the mention of a gem show! Are there a lot of "weirdos" there, talking to the crystals? Will you tell me about these shows?

Guess what, I did get to see the crown jewels in London. But they actually have you stand on a conveyor belt that whisks you past them. No gawking, no traffic jams, no gem groupies...kind of sadistic I think, to just tease people like that. "Look at what the monarchy has and you don't. And you never will. Good day."

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Your concept of dog has existed since you first saw one, but now it exists as an object floating around in your mind. This happens because you are now looking for "dog" where before "dog" was dispersed into the expanse of mental data.

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I see, so our power of concentration literally concentrates a dilute, potential impression into a compact mental image. Is this also applicable to how we can just be still and "listen" and gather knowledge seemingly from nowhere? Can we summon knowledge by "funneling" it through, perhaps, a particular manner of concentration?

Talking with you I am often grasping for straws, trying to see what the implications are for the new ideas you put on the table.

As for the cartoon, that's the very one I saw and was thinking of when I mentioned how the atoms behave differently under observation. Now, I have to wonder whether the camera was emitting anything that threw the electrons off. I know, the physicists must've ruled that out before going public with their discovery, I just always feel better hearing the whole, complete story from head to toe. (Which makes life difficult when you have a splash chart, a lot of children, and no time for comprehensive research on every little thing.)

posted September 07, 2012 03:31 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
Did you ever notice how "Aloha" sounds a lot like Hello, in pig Latin?

And isn't it neat that RS's Neptune is conjunct my sun, and my Neptune is conjunct your sun, and your Neptune is conjunct your sun?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
I think what our generation has figured out, though, is that we are each responsible for our own impact, and institutions like the UN can only have a negligible impact compared to what we can all do, just by being the change we want to see in the world.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
LOL about Crash Test Dummies, though

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quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
"I am in pain, this is my pain, ouch, oooouuch, yep it's pain alright" instead of something like, "What's the fastest way to forget this or convince myself it's not even happening?"

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quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
I really can't figure out how denominations even happened in Buddhism, .... I guess that presumes you aren't growing up in North Korea or something, though.

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It's funny you bring up Thoreau. One of my Buddhist teachers quotes him often in dharma talks and "Walden Pond" has been poking me to read it over the past couple of years. Considering the whole homesteading thing coming up, it's probably a good idea.

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Originally posted by Faith:
And well you should be, because I just made that up.... Just like other subtle medicines.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
Little spirals are forming in my eyes even at the mention of a gem show! Are there a lot of "weirdos" there, talking to the crystals? Will you tell me about these shows?

Guess what, I did get to see the crown jewels in London. But they actually have you stand on a conveyor belt that whisks you past them. No gawking, no traffic jams, no gem groupies...kind of sadistic I think, to just tease people like that. "Look at what the monarchy has and you don't. And you never will. Good day."

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Gem shows are generally filled with rednecks LOL, or rich people.. people who own mines, jewelry making tools, or enough cash to excavate and trade. Here is a good example.... drool OMGROX

quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
I see, so our power of concentration literally concentrates a dilute, potential impression into a compact mental image. Is this also applicable to how we can just be still and "listen" and gather knowledge seemingly from nowhere? Can we summon knowledge by "funneling" it through, perhaps, a particular manner of concentration?

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Quantum Superposition
and
Schrödinger's cat/Many-Worlds interpretation

Quantum Superposition is mentioned in the above cartoon, but not really elaborated on. It is however, the reason why the electron acts both ways in that experiment. Superposition essentially means "inhabiting all possible positions". This is best described in the theory of Schrödinger's cat. The theory states that if you put a cat in a box, include a mechanism that can randomly release a poisonous gas into the box, and seal the box up, you will not know if the cat is dead or alive until you open the box and see for your self. The theory also states that until you look inside the box, the cat exists in a state of superposition. In the box, the cat has died, has not died, has transformed into a purple dog, all possibilities. But which cat the observer sees in the box, is only revealed after the observer opens it.

This theory doesn't only live in boxes however. The observer also exists in a state of superposition, because she is not the only observer who could open the box. What if she had to take a pee, leaving her assistant to open the box instead? Opening a box with a dead or living cat in it, is only one of the infinitely possible outcomes of this experiment. This leads to something called the many-worlds interpretation which states that the moment the observer opens the box, the universe splits off into a cluster of universes, where each possibility happens. In one the cat was dead, in another alive, in another the cat was a dog, in another the observer was a dog (poor cat). In the many-worlds view, the universe splits off at every decision, from a decision to blow up the Moon, to blinking or not blinking at a certain moment. This means the world you are conscious of is not the only world and the you, you are conscious of is not the only you. There is a world where you are married to a different person, a world where you died when you were 12, a world where you are president, and a world where you can fly. Who you are right now is simply an inhabitant of a chain of universes which lead up to this present moment. Every you shares the same history, but spreads out as it passes into the future. I believe this is very close to true, but a slightly-object oriented way of observing things (though in a many-worlds scenario, it is true in some universe...perhaps this one?).

I believe there are infinite universes also, but I believe superposition includes all times and all spaces. I believe the world has already ended and has not yet been born. I believe we experience things, times, and places as separate because it... well, I can't think of any reason other than "because we think it is interesting or fun". Perhaps we are our own dream. When I think about the linear observation of time passing, it brings me back to our earlier conversation. The one about how game designers can stop and start the game wherever and whenever. It also reminds me of an old video game I got when I was a little kid. I played it for a couple days and then found myself more interested in the device than the game. I noticed when you pressed on the screen, the liquid crystals revealed copies of the main character, in every possible position on the screen. I realized when I played I wasn't moving the character across the screen as it appeared, I was directing electricity (via the buttons and joy stick) through the liquid crystal medium, and telling it which positions of the character and the world to display.

I think that is what happens here. This "world" contains every possible "ME", every possible "HERE", and every possible "NOW" (though the concepts of me, here, and now are also unmanifest in superposition). The world is in a superposition state, it is no-thing when left alone and any-thing when poked. Our consciousness observes the medium and lights up the many "ME"s, "HERE"s, and "NOW"S involved in our progressing story (or opens the cat box). Like the video game, it appears as though consciousness is choosing a specific path out of all paths. Convincing its self we are passing from point A to point B, as a certain person, in a certain time.

I believe this is also how reincarnation works. As an individual I perceive my self as existing here and now, I have a series of past lives, and a series of future lives yet to come. When I leave this body though, I see I inhabit just one segment of a chain which (as a person) seems to stretch from past to future. I believe when we both die, our consciousness could choose to jump into each other's chain and experience each other's life (or even one of each other's past/future lives). Reincarnation is only linear when we are in the body, but it becomes a pick and mix of chains stretching from samsara to enlightenment, when we are no longer subject to the rules of bring in a body. This means the past life memories you have belong to "Faith" not the part of you observing "Faith's" life. I think this is why the Buddha's teachings are about becoming aware that we are not everything we see, but the actual awareness of everything we see. It seems the Buddha's teachings are about deepening one's relationship with whatever exists after this form dies away, and learning to not quickly scramble to "adorn skins" (as Adam and Eve did) when the body is gone and we discover we are naked.

Soooo LOL to answer your question. Anything is possible and I think your response shows you get it, though if I were writing it, I would word your sentence, "so our power of observation literally objectifies an unconditional, potential "sensation" into a compact experiential dynamic".

This would certainly apply to being still and receiving information. The unconditional and potential soup out of which our awareness plucks carrots and hippos, is kinda the "Akashic Records". The Akashic Records are not a library one astral projects to and checks out a book on the mating habits of Scandinavian water fowl. It is a level of awareness which embraces the understanding that all answers exist in a super-positional state and one needs only to "be aware of an answer" in order to gain information. One should also therefor, be able to summon knowledge. Being aware of something takes practice though. Knowing the difference between awareness and thinking would probably be the key to summoning information.

Thinking is just head prattle. If the primordial goop were a record, the mind is a phonograph needle. It drags along the surface, analyzing the grooves and contours, and shouting out, "BUNNY!... guys, bunny. This is definitely a bunny". It's like having our very own head-gemini, commentating out loud as it scans the shapes in the goop. After a while of identifying shapes and putting them in relative files, the mind starts going through its files. An image arises which reminds the mind of that girl who stole your boyfriend, the mind starts pulling out her file, pastes her picture to the wall, draws lines between her and other people, or her and the person you should have been when last dealing with her.... blah blah blah. All stuff one needs to be deeply aware of before they can master something like pulling information out of their butt. Occasionally the thought mechanism will tap into higher information, but it generally gets twisted and warped in an effort to get it in the right box.

I have a feeling I have stopped making sense LOL

Okay, I think sleep is calling me. Have a good one guys. =)

posted September 07, 2012 09:54 PM            

Today was such a strange day. Every thought process I had turned into a pretzel; I keep confusing myself.

'Wrote you a long reply but don't feel right sending it. You've given me a lot of interesting, clear stuff to think about and a messy, half-baked answer won't suffice.

So I hope to refurbish or completely revise my draft tomorrow.

Hope your night is starry and fun!

You too, RS. And any lurkers.

posted September 08, 2012 09:38 AM            

Despite its adverse health effects, coffee is lovely for clearing out cobwebs. I've edited the monster I wrote yesterday and feel optimistic presenting it now...not necessarily because I've deemed it high-quality, but maybe because I'm enjoying a spell of caffeinated overconfidence, and I'm just running with it.

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Putting others up on a pedestal, and giving power to external objects distracts us from turning in and making personal progress.

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Hero worship is so fun though. Golden calves are so pretty!

But I do understand what you are saying. It's like there is an either/or choice: we can externalize "divinity" by having a person up on a pedestal, or even by having a warped, excessive reverence for nature, and then we will have this weakness, this detachment from ourselves-as-part-of-everything. OR, we can just learn to blend in and be everything. Like your Buddhist hot dog vendor joke, "Make me one with everything."

Maybe when other people make us FEEL like one with everything, like when our synastry with them makes us feel more rigged up to the galaxy, we misplace our affection, giving it to them instead of the whole dazzling bigness that we now feel plugged into.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Not everyone wants to do everything on their own, so refining external dependency out of their spiritual walk is not practical. I think things become less effective, but everything has a use, even if that use is to cause agitation and spur breakthrough.

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Ah ha. Yes, makes sense. I like doing everything on my own, and I forget that people are different. 'Appreciate the reminder.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
The interesting point about meditation is that as one reaches these stages of contemplation, the desire to use these abilities becomes less interesting (this may be because one's sense of self and situation transforms as they deepen their awareness). The Jhana are explained pretty well and the explanations seem pretty plausible. Achieving them is simply a matter of deepening one's meditation.

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Thank you, I never heard of Jhana before (except a girl I knew with that name.) I just skimmed through a long article on the Jhanas. I'm torn between wanting to memorize it all (because it's so fascinating to me, when mental states are concretely organized and described like that), and complain that it's exasperatingly complex and unattainable for me, anyway:

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The jhanas do not arise out of a void but in dependence on the right conditions. They come to growth only when provided with the nutriments conductive to their development. Therefore, prior to beginning meditation, the aspirant to the jhanas must prepare a groundwork for his practice by fulfilling certain preliminary requirements. He first must endeavor to purify his moral virtue, sever the outer impediments to practice, and place himself under a qualified teacher who will assign him a suitable meditation subject and explain to him the methods of developing it. After learning these the disciple must then seek out a congenial dwelling and diligently strive for success. In this chapter we will examine in order each of the preparatory steps that have to be fulfilled before commencing to develop jhana.

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No do-it-yourself, at-home version....sadly enough.

As for using supernatural abilities...I think one of my greatest desires is to understand human potential. If I had those abilities, I think I would just delight in finally knowing that those powers exist...not in using the powers, but in loving existence for being that broad.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
In some cases, people are just born with "witchyness".

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Like you!

And I wonder if I have any? My Pisces sun/Aquarius Moon best friend, who grew up next door to me, keeps lecturing me to never brood over anything. She insists that out of everyone she knows, I'm the one who seems to have the strongest ability to manifest whatever I concentrate on. Maybe she's right. That being said, she practically had a heart attack every time I was pregnant and worried about birth defects or complications. For all I know, her yelling at me to block out all negative possibilities is what helped my children turn out so well. =)

You and I have this in common, we both have great, long-standing best friends.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
In many indigenous tribal cultures, people with flexible genders, developmental mutations, and survivors of trauma were marked as spiritual leaders.

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I could just go on and on about this. Lexx, on this forum, is a hermaphrodite, born with male and female anatomy, and Lexx is a genius. I started researching the whole issue because of Lexx, and found that every single hermaphrodite/androgyne on YouTube has an incredibly gentle, wise, compassionate spirit. A sane society would have to see that.

So, too, with the survivors of trauma, how wise they tend to be. One of my favorite books is Man's Search for Meaning, by Victor Frankl, about surviving German concentration camps. He talks about a fellow inmate who had to watch his wife and children all being massacred as soon as they were captured. But the man went on to forgive every single person around him and practically glowed with the light of love. Frankl speculated that this "light," which involved a kind of fearlessness about death, is what saved the fellow from abuse by soldiers. He seemed to dissolve violence wherever he went.

I don't know if it's true but I like thinking of it.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Being non-confrontational and convinced that people are essentially honest (or at least comprehend the law of "respect me, I'll respect you"), we were willing to believe those myths until the proof started vanishing from the pudding.

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OMG tell me about it. This hits a raw nerve.

Losing that pure trust in the adults and systems around me felt like losing my soul. It was something that I had to regain and redevelop on my own terms, but I'm still not at the point where I feel intact...maybe because the institutions and customs of this culture are so hopelessly cracked, from my perspective. But at least as an adult, I have the power to investigate them and reach my own conclusions, and the freedom in that is so healing. To just have my mind free. To give the cracks names and be compassionate toward them.

Also, having children and being able to tell them my side of the story has been therapeutic. Breaking the chains of Catholicism, instilling a healthy skepticism toward the media, government, consumer culture, reality itself...all of that feels like attaining something that I was meant to do. And I am encouraging critical thinking and widespread reading, two of the great Libra-generation hallmarks.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Just those understandings alone creates a space around one's pain and allows one room to relax around it, "This pain is impermanent, as it arises, so will it fall. I am the observer of this pain, the pain is not me". Pain is actually a great teacher...

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Yes. So well said. I just copied it because it's worth repeating.

I could go on and on about space and emptiness and how much I love it, but it'd be more appropriate to leave this an empty, quiet space, methinks. =)

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
The three schools of Buddhism are Theravada, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna.

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Again, thank you. I'm relieved that there are only three, and impressed that you can spell them and make those funky phonetic marks with your keyboard.

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
It's funny you bring up Thoreau. One of my Buddhist teachers quotes him often in dharma talks and "Walden Pond" has been poking me to read it over the past couple of years.

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I'm not such a fan of Walden, but I DO love his essay Civil Disobedience, and I love being civilly disobedient as well.

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
I still can't get my head around the homeopathy thing. It seems pretty contrary to everything I have been taught, other than just being magically charged (which you can do with any object).

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LOL... I am having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that you can't wrap your head around this. But you're right...it's the possibility that the homeopathic remedies are just "magically charged" that intrigues me, and that's why I brought it to your attention in the first place.

Please humor me for a minute...if they are, could it mean that the originator of homeopathy, Samuel Hanhnemann, cast a spell that has lasted for centuries? Or invented a body of spells that other homeopaths/witches can use? The craziest part would be, that the spell would have to work on the machinery that automatically produces these remedies.

That's just one possibility that comes to mind...another similar scheme would be that there is power in myth, and the collaborative agreement between all people who create and use homeopathy sustains the power of the medicines. This is somewhat like an idea that PixieJane mentioned on another thread about how astrology works: maybe there is a collaboration between the people and the planets about what means what, and it's ever-evolving. Which goes back to the reciprocity thing we are talking about.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Have you considered your witchyness could have something to do with your ability to get results?

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Not until you asked that. But this doesn't sufficiently explain to me why they don't work all the time. With homeopathy, you either have the exact, right remedy which fixes the problem, or you don't. The remedies either work dramatically or not at all. Could it just be my own frame of mind that's the determining factor of efficacy? Don't know.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
OMGROX

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I liked the video even if the surroundings were dim and flea markety. Watching that, I'm reminded of how much I love the amber and anything iridescent, like opals. Does that say anything about my personality, that you can think of? Or...more generally speaking...do strong gem preferences indicate stuff about people?

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Quantum Superposition
and
Schrödinger's cat/Many-Worlds interpretation

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I LOVED your discussion about this and will ruminate on it for a while before replying.

I'm working my way through your musical animals list and adore the cat song. Still laughing that you included Budgerigar. I've always had a mental block against comprehending that it's just like a parakeet. First image that pops into mind is "badger"...then it morphs into a bird, making me laugh.

You're talking to a weirdo alright. But thank you.

posted September 08, 2012 05:48 PM            

I hope the day finds you well. Yesterday was an odd day, I popped out a few vertebrae trying to lift my brother into a truck (the age monster is catching up with me). Then to the chiropractor to get zapped and snapped, then to my parent's house to discover their chickens had gotten into my forest garden again. If you have never dealt with chickens, they are sweet creatures, but essentially feathered pigs. They will tear up a garden in no time. So, I spent most of yesterday juggling ice packs, rest, and fortifying fences. I was so ****** I chucked one of the chickens out of the garden and into the boughs of a pomegranate tree. LOL bad Xiiro, Pluto opposed Aries ASC requires a lot of paying attention to one's actions and not getting carried away with the intense feelings which arise.

enough of all this clucking about fat chickens and their destructive feet. Let the responding commence!

quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
But I do understand what you are saying. It's like there is an either/or choice: we can externalize "divinity" by having a person up on a pedestal, or even by having a warped, excessive reverence for nature, and then we will have this weakness, this detachment from ourselves-as-part-of-everything. OR, we can just learn to blend in and be everything. Like your Buddhist hot dog vendor joke, "Make me one with everything."

Maybe when other people make us FEEL like one with everything, like when our synastry with them makes us feel more rigged up to the galaxy, we misplace our affection, giving it to them instead of the whole dazzling bigness that we now feel plugged into.

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Here's an idea, keep the legs and stop making the race so hard on your self. We are more of a burden to others with no legs than when we are when we can carry our own weight.

hehe touchy subject. My parents are both people like this. Sacrifice everything for one external thing. My dad does it with religion and my mom does it with my step-father. If both were taken away from either of them, they would be completely lost in the world. And to prove their devotion, they forsake everything else, including their relationship to their families. Having Pluto in Libra conjunct DSC, you would think I would find the idea somewhat romantic.... but no. There is a level of compromise in relationships, but if a guy wanted me to give up everything for him, I would get him in touch with a good therapist.

quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
No do-it-yourself, at-home version....sadly enough.

As for using supernatural abilities...I think one of my greatest desires is to understand human potential. If I had those abilities, I think I would just delight in finally knowing that those powers exist...not in using the powers, but in loving existence for being that broad.

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Why not? The Buddha did it his self, and he was just some dude who sat under a tree. All it takes is a true desire to practice (a teacher is a good suggestion, because it is someone who has experience, but the Buddha had no teacher either). That is one thing I appreciate about the teachings, if every human except you were to die off, you had never heard of the Buddha before, and one day you decided you wanted desperately to find an end to the suffering and confusing nature of life. If you sat under a tree and just payed attention to your breath, you could reach nirvana too. No teacher, just following a path that has existed even before the Buddha.

Your comment about just wanting to know these abilities exist is along the lines of how your mind changes with meditation. You begin to see how your slightest actions effects your world. I mentioned before that enlightenment is referred to as a candle flame being extinguished. It appears one's involuntary actions are extinguished, and everything becomes an action of responsibility and intention.

quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
But the man went on to forgive every single person around him and practically glowed with the light of love. Frankl speculated that this "light," which involved a kind of fearlessness about death, is what saved the fellow from abuse by soldiers. He seemed to dissolve violence wherever he went.

I don't know if it's true but I like thinking of it.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
Also, having children and being able to tell them my side of the story has been therapeutic. Breaking the chains of Catholicism, instilling a healthy skepticism toward the media, government, consumer culture, reality itself...all of that feels like attaining something that I was meant to do. And I am encouraging critical thinking and widespread reading, two of the great Libra-generation hallmarks.

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I appreciate being able to do this with my sibling's children. Though I am careful to not expose them to ideas which challenge their parent's views. Recently for example, I was having dinner with my niece and she asked me, "Why is God going to destroy the world?". It brought me back to being a kid her age (about 9) and facing all that crap. I said to her, "I don't believe God is going to destroy the world, but that is because I have done a lot of research about it. I think it's best to do your own research if you are curious and come up with you own conclusions. Sometimes we are told something is true and it ends up being true for someone else, but not true for our self. That doesn't make one person right and another person wrong, it just makes us all different". Then she went back to asking me about Greek mythology and constellations. LOL

quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
Again, thank you. I'm relieved that there are only three, and impressed that you can spell them and make those funky phonetic marks with your keyboard.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Faith:
I'm not such a fan of Walden, but I DO love his essay Civil Disobedience, and I love being civilly disobedient as well.

---

quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
Please humor me for a minute...if they are, could it mean that the originator of homeopathy, Samuel Hanhnemann, cast a spell that has lasted for centuries? Or invented a body of spells that other homeopaths/witches can use? The craziest part would be, that the spell would have to work on the machinery that automatically produces these remedies.

---

Our entire impression of the world is mind. Everything from, the reason people actually eat McDonald's food to our personal beliefs are the product of being "influenced" in some way.

quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
But this doesn't sufficiently explain to me why they don't work all the time. With homeopathy, you either have the exact, right remedy which fixes the problem, or you don't. The remedies either work dramatically or not at all. Could it just be my own frame of mind that's the determining factor of efficacy? Don't know.

---

It could also have something to do with the value of the experience winning out over the desire to not endure the experience. We don;t like being sick, but sickness happens, and often as the result of neglect (emotional, dietary, etc..). Sometimes it is more important to experience illness than have it be patched up.

quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
I'm reminded of how much I love the amber and anything iridescent, like opals. Does that say anything about my personality, that you can think of? Or...more generally speaking...do strong gem preferences indicate stuff about people?

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Do either of those fit? I am attracted to clear or odd energy stones. Quarts, Danburite, Diamond, Iolite, Scapolite, Hyalite, Moldavite.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Faith:
I'm working my way through your musical animals list and adore the cat song. Still laughing that you included Budgerigar. I've always had a mental block against comprehending that it's just like a parakeet. First image that pops into mind is "badger"...then it morphs into a bird, making me laugh.

---

posted September 08, 2012 11:53 PM            

Any ways, Xiiro;

My moon stellium is semi-square Saturn, which is supposed to be quite similar to a square. So, that could be a contributing factor to the reticence of which you mentioned! (Capricorn sign, Saturn aspected...)

posted September 10, 2012 02:40 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by RedScorp:
SooOOOOoo sleepy I'm @ a friend's house and man, so many drunk people walking around outside.

Any ways, Xiiro;

My moon stellium is semi-square Saturn, which is supposed to be quite similar to a square. So, that could be a contributing factor to the reticence of which you mentioned! (Capricorn sign, Saturn aspected...)

But man we going to the theatre for a late night preshow catch ya'll later! Cowboy boot RedScorp, OUT!

---

Quite the party animal! LOL I hope you got some sleep.

My understanding of the difference between Octiles (Semisquares and Sesquiquadrates), Squares, and Oppositions (they are all related) is that Octiles manifest as challenges determined to transform us. A call for us to face our problems so we can be a useful participant in our future. It is a challenge which prepares us for taking on a greater form.

So, Saturn would not just have difficulty with your Moon stellium, but your world would reinforce that challenge. People could often comment on your emotional distance as if dropping a hint about something you should work on. People could call you out or treat you like you are being emotionally irresponsible when Saturn and your Moon clash. It is an aspect which doesn't afford much forgiveness when the challenge arises. It pokes and prods you to go out and have experiences which help you face the reality of the problem.

posted September 10, 2012 03:03 AM            

Theory: because the challenges are from the outside, could that relate to it being considered a "minor" aspect? It seem major aspects really shape our personalities and such, but the semi-square, for example, is more of a worldly challenge rather than a person shaper?

Also...at one point on da big TV, Nicki's new video showed and I was like omg loOKS FUN!! (Then, as an after thought, I had the idea to see if you've already seen it lol)

posted September 10, 2012 03:40 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by RedScorp:
Theory: because the challenges are from the outside, could that relate to it being considered a "minor" aspect? It seem major aspects really shape our personalities and such, but the semi-square, for example, is more of a worldly challenge rather than a person shaper?

---

It's a good theory, though I see minor aspects as influencing change within the person too. Minor aspects do seem to lean toward influential environmental factors more. That could have something to do with the harmonic cycle though.

Conjunction
Opposition
Trine
Square
Qunitile
Sextile

all the Major aspects are included in the above list and associated with the self-oriented signs in the lower hemisphere of the zodiac (Aries - Virgo).

Septile
Octile
Novile
Undecile
Semi-sextile

are all Minor aspects and associated with the environment-oriented signs in the upper hemisphere of the zodiac (Libra - Pisces)

posted September 10, 2012 10:30 PM            

Is your back back? I'm sorry to hear you got hurt because you are getting so old. Hope you are spinally spiffy, and that your brother is well.

Thanks for telling me about throwing a chicken into the pomegranate trees. I never thought you would be the type to do that, but then again, you Germans never suffer foolishness gladly, do you?

I like the Pluto opposite ASC...a nice, caveman counterpoint to all your elegance, and something my wicked side can relate to.

Will you tell me about your forest garden sometime? I love garden stories.

I'm wondering if we all get a little less tolerant when the sun is transiting through Virgo. What do you think? I am such a perfectionist these days, feeling prickly about minutiae and innuendo-type stuff that I usually don't even notice. For instance, my family went out the other night and we passed a chain restaurant called "Red Robin, Burgers and Spirits." We've passed this place at least fifty times. But suddenly I was just fed up with that name.

Me: "RED ROBIN. BURGERS...and SPIRITS?!"
Hubby: "Yeah."
Me (disgusted): "I'm supposed to think of a red robin, a hamburger, a bottle of whiskey and/or a couple of ghosts all at once?"
H: "Mmm"
Me: "What is their problem??"
H: "Dunno."
Me: "Too complicated!! Their marketing people should all get fired. No way am I ever going there."

I have known many Virgos and they aren't that easily irritated, but I wonder if they feel itchy like that all the time. If so I'm glad to be a Virgo void.

Let's talk Quantum Superposition.

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
This leads to something called the many-worlds interpretation which states that the moment the observer opens the box, the universe splits off into a cluster of universes, where each possibility happens.

---

I appreciate the enormous scope of this theory but feel incapable of commenting on it. If there are infinite possibilities for every nano-second of action comprising the opening of the lid, it all gets too big for my comprehension. This reminds me of how I felt, standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon for a quick tourist stop. Apart from, "That's huge," I basically had no comment.

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
This means the world you are conscious of is not the only world and the you, you are conscious of is not the only you. There is a world where you are married to a different person, a world where you died when you were 12, a world where you are president, and a world where you can fly.

---

This is the part I do like tinkering with. I could have died in a car accident when I was 23 (my car was totalled), and I've often thought, "Maybe I actually died then, and this is an afterlife." I've also considered that in a parallel universe I am a more ideal version of myself, I am the person I would have become had I eaten a more optimal diet, suffered fewer blows to my ego, self-actualized...then there is the junky me who lost everything to a crack addiction...and every other girl in the infinite hall of mirrors. (Or boy, if I became transgender.)

Whoever formulated this theory, I share similar thought processes with.

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
This "world" contains every possible "ME", every possible "HERE", and every possible "NOW" (though the concepts of me, here, and now are also unmanifest in superposition). The world is in a superposition state, it is no-thing when left alone and any-thing when poked....Like the video game, it appears as though consciousness is choosing a specific path out of all paths. Convincing its self we are passing from point A to point B, as a certain person, in a certain time.

---

Very VERY cool analogy that will stick in my head. Thank you.

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
I believe when we both die, our consciousness could choose to jump into each other's chain and experience each other's life (or even one of each other's past/future lives).

---

Egads, I don't know how to picture this one, though. What AM I, if my pattern of disintegration and reconstitution is susceptible to "alien" takeovers by other beings? How could it be me and my story if it was ever you? I keep thinking that the ultimate definition of self is a sort of cohesiveness. I draw energy to myself and sustain myself by it, and the nature of all this give and take is ME. And the story of that continuum of a special way of processing energy is MY story. I could never process energy like you, that'd be parasitic wouldn't it? It'd interrupt your karma, whatever YOU are.

Then again...in dreams, I am all kinds of people. Maybe the way I knit my experiences as other people into one "master experience" of life is the ultimate self...and whether these are dream selves or actually incarnations is inconsequential.

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
I think this is why the Buddha's teachings are about becoming aware that we are not everything we see, but the actual awareness of everything we see.

---

My friend RW Emerson talked about becoming a "transparent eyeball," and I think the concepts are probably similar. (As a side note, maybe this ties in with the Eye of Horus you saw on that chaos witchcraft symbol, and the eye archetype in general??)

If I think of myself as essentially a locus and mode of awareness, then karma becomes the sum total of experiences shaping the quality of my current state(s) of awareness, and the chain of experiences leading up to this can become impersonal, because the whole thing is impersonal. Crikey I am going cross-eyed trying to make sense of this. What I mean is, I can see how I could have been you in a past life and vice versa if I de-personalize everything, if karma takes on a life story of its own that is "occupied" by a stream of vehicular life forms.

I just don't know what ties this life I'm leading to former incarnations then..if there are a finite number of previous lives that "I" have led.

Xiiro, I can't see this far down the rabbit hole.

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
I would word your sentence, "so our power of observation literally objectifies an unconditional, potential "sensation" into a compact experiential dynamic".

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Exquisite.

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
The Akashic Records are not a library one astral projects to and checks out a book on the mating habits of Scandinavian water fowl.

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LOL! Thanks for the heads up. 'Will look elsewhere for information about Swedish duck seductions.

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Instead we make the self the connection, the center of love, and we become an avatar of love.

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Sounds beautiful. I guess it goes without saying, that I wish I could do that and be that. And know people like that. You seem kind of like that. Does your heart tend to feel warm and contented? Mine doesn't. Maybe it's a Cap thing...the tundra as a default state of existence.

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
hehe touchy subject. My parents are both people like this. Sacrifice everything for one external thing. My dad does it with religion and my mom does it with my step-father.

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Heavens to Betsy your father is STILL religious?

If you don't mind me saying it, the way you've described your childhood gives me the impression that you were emotionally orphaned by the time you were 10.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Xiiro:
If you sat under a tree and just payed attention to your breath, you could reach nirvana too....It appears one's involuntary actions are extinguished, and everything becomes an action of responsibility and intention.

---

Strange to be able to reap so much from so little. I'm starting to feel myself "cornered" into a commitment to meditate. Hopefully I'll get good at it fast and won't have to pester you with millions of questions about enlightenment anymore...'cuz I am self-conscious about taking advantage of your generosity.

quote:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Then she went back to asking me about Greek mythology and constellations. LOL

---

She's lucky to have you for an uncle. I've never had more than small talk with an uncle, and I've had many uncles, most of them dead now. All small talk with them, except for the uncomfortable, improv hypnosis sessions my Pisces uncle subjects everyone to. I never knew what was up with him. He is one person who can get right up into my face and make me cry, either from shame or catharsis, one or the other, and you just don't know what the f*** he is going to say any time he comes near you. He's probably a recycled Celtic shaman, himself.

Anyway...

Thank you for the links about the gem meanings, the descriptions do fit neatly. Opals help with clairvoyance and, as you may have intimated from my previous posts, I am fine with becoming omniscient. Fire opals are good for the heart (I need that.) Amber is aura-clearing and good for gaining perspective on your current path.

I like that you are into odd stones...does that make you kind of like their amplifier, spokesman, when you use them? Can you be like a conduit for their message? I wonder what the diamonds want to talk about. Their hardness reminds me of horses somehow, because the impression I get from horses is very soothing..."It's okay to be small, I will take care of you." And the impression I get from diamonds, similarly.."It's okay that you are hard, nobody is as hard as me no matter how hard you try."

Talking to you sometimes feels like being Alice in Wonderland, because stuff that would ordinarily seem insane becomes apropos and, indeed, the only thing I can think to say.

Today was a beautiful day, quintessential early fall weather with a good mix of clear sun and shadows, blown over with chilly winds. My Pisces moon just wanted me to plunk down someplace outside and be as lazy as possible. It would've made a fine day to be a monk...but I can only guess.

Before I go, thank you for the music...this Bon Iver song is a poignant accompaniment to today's mood, and I'm going to go listen to it for the fifth or sixth time now. RS if you are reading, Xiiro nailed it about the Rooster-plus-hormones costume, but I like the sad Nicki song very much. So thanks.

posted September 11, 2012 06:48 AM            

My back is doing better thank you. I am a bit ashamed of my chicken anger, but it is the same chicken that had torn up the garden every day for the past few weeks (regardless of the measures I took to fortify its boundaries). Luckily the night after I chucked the chicken, I finally caught her breaking in. I boarded up the hole and the garden hasn't been touched since.

It is a stupid human trait to personalize animal behavior, we especially subject our domesticated pets to guilt and degradation for acting out of their own nature. Whenever I visited the garden and saw it chewed up, it was more of a "well, I guess that's what I get for failing to chicken-proof the garden effectively". I think the anger was just the combination of being wounded, needing to rest, and having to attend to the garden before the problem became worse.

quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
Will you tell me about your forest garden sometime? I love garden stories.

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The moment I stepped on to the plot of land I purchased, I knew it was going to happen. There was actually a natural path leading into it, so I got to see the plot from the inside (which was rare, because the forest is wall to wall plants). Here is the best video I have seen so far, of what the land looks like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-vQ-KIbcSA

When I got home, I realized I had killed every plant I had ever tried to grow. I become overly cautious and suspect the worst when the plant becomes a bit dry or changes color. I usually end up over or under watering... gardening used to be a fairly stressful experience. See, my Cancerian side wants to feel the whole thing out, but it then passes the task to my Virgo Moon, which inflicts some horrible botanical Munchhausen By-proxy thing on the poor plant. Then to top it off, the list of horrible diseases my Moon decides the plant is suffering from, is overheard by my Sun in Sag which immediately screams, "BY GOD MAN, THE DAMNED PLANT NEEDS WATER!" So I drown the sh!t out of it and it dies.

I realized I needed to practice farming before I could effectively homestead. After some contemplation, I considered the fact that my parents own an acre of land (most of which just sits there). So I went to them and asked if I could plant them a food forest. They agreed, we planned out what crops to plant, and then collected the materials.

I ended up with a 12x38 foot patch of land; uneven, sun baked, clay, covered with crabgrass and other weeds. I strangled out the weeds by laying cardboard, then covering it with several layers of plant matter, horse manure, and straw. I put down stepping stones around the area for easy access to plants, then built a fence to stave off attacks from evil chickens, peacocks, a golden retriever who loves to dig body-size holes before sunbathing, and the tiny mut who thinks she is a cannibalistic gopher.

Next I planted the following trees:
Mulberry
Red Malaysian Guava
Ice-Cream Bean
Jackfruit
White Fig
Three different varieties of grape
and
Mango

Next I planted beans throughout the whole garden to fix nitrogen in the soil. After the beans flowered, I cut them off at the root and composted them for further use. I then added:
Passion Fruit vine
Blackberries
Snail Vine (for the peacocks to eat instead of flying into the forest and eating the sprouting plants
Lots of different beans, cucumbers, melon, peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatillos, verities of salad greens, herbs like basil, cumin, fennel, mustard, thyme, squashes, aloe, jasmine, red morning glories, lambs quarters, amaranth, beets, carrots, and pineapple. The chicken ate all the herb sprouts, so I replaced them with nasturtium. I am about to start planting papaya and date, though I may wait until next spring. I am growing some horsetail right now and considering adding that as a weed barrier and source of biomass.

Oh, I also put a terracotta jug at the top of the garden, tilted it on its side, and burred the bottom of it in soil. Then I filled it with soil and planted sweet alyssum pouring out of the mouth and weaving around/between the stepping stones as a ground cover. Similar to this, except white:

Aside from chickeny destruction, it all seems to be coming along well. Once I started to understand how plants worked, it just kinda clicked.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Faith:
I'm wondering if we all get a little less tolerant when the sun is transiting through Virgo. What do you think?

---

Haha we have Red Robin here too, but they must called Ghostbusters cause they got rid of the spirits. Here it's just called "Red Robin (Gourmet Burgers)". You are not missing out, it's a bit like Denny's and TGI Friday's had a baby.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Faith:
This is the part I do like tinkering with.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Faith:
Egads, I don't know how to picture this one, though. What AM I, if my pattern of disintegration and reconstitution is susceptible to "alien" takeovers by other beings?....and whether these are dream selves or actually incarnations is inconsequential.

---

If I were to inhabit your life, I wouldn't feel like a "Xiiro" experiencing "Faithness". I would feel like a "ME" being a "Faith". It goes beyond that though when you consider superposition. We are both currently inhabiting each other's lives right now. When I said "After we die" it was a bit misleading, because me being "Xirro" now is just a dot floating in the mass of space/time. Me being "Faith" now, is also just a dot floating elsewhere in the mass of space/time. Just as the air in my lungs and the air in your lungs may feel like our personal breaths, but is simultaneously just air abiding in different bodies, in different places, at different times.

I think your example of being different people in dreams is a perfect one! And to include an extra head turner, while you are being a dream self, you are simultaneously being "Faith" sleeping. All the time, you don't feel like "Faith" sleeping WHILE being a dream character though. Both characters exist in a super-positional state doing their own thing, the only shift made is your awareness from one scenario to another.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Faith:
I just don't know what ties this life I'm leading to former incarnations then..if there are a finite number of previous lives that "I" have led.

Xiiro, I can't see this far down the rabbit hole.

---

Sorry to always bring up Buddhism, but it is where I have found a lot of my answers. This topic is one of the "Fourteen Unanswerable Questions" Here . None of us can go much further down the rabbit hole. It only drags us into systems of thought which are distracting and useless. Life is experienced in the present, everything else is a memory or a fantasy.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Faith:
I guess it goes without saying, that I wish I could do that and be that. And know people like that. You seem kind of like that. Does your heart tend to feel warm and contented? Mine doesn't. Maybe it's a Cap thing...the tundra as a default state of existence.

---

The surest way to never experience self love, is to sit on the sidelines and wish you could have it. I think one of the challenges with Capricorn lies in its utilitarian nature. If Cappy doesn't have an example or the materials to recreate something, they enter a "fake it till ya make it" mode. When we turn inward to work on our self, all of us start out lost. When Cap tries without comfortable examples or materials, the hand of Saturn falls from the sky and slaps them up side their head, "FAKER! I know all your games, you can't fool me, you OBVIOUSLY don't know what you are doing in here, go read a book and get back to me when you are more prepared".

The key to resolving this is realizing the first truth of transformation, "The first step to resolving a problem is acknowledging there is a problem". By understanding there is a problem and turning inward, Cappy is already on the correct path. Capricorn is sensitive to lies, falseness, and irresponsibility, because being treated with aversion, neglect, and apathy are the root of their inadequacy. Faking it is not an attempt at self-deception, it is how Capricorn puts up their shield and walks into the dragon's lair. The point is not to run away when the dragon breathes fire and knocks your shield down. =)

Having Mercury in Capricorn, I am very familiar with these mechanisms. I think one of the most helpful things for me was when a friend said, "I noticed the saddest thing today. I caught myself just cussing my self out. At a specific point I had to stop and seriously consider how long I had been letting myself get away with being so abusive. I couldn't get myself to agree to be nice, but I did make a promise to never say anything to myself that I wouldn't say to a person in public; at least afford my self the same respect I would afford a stranger". That effected me deeply and I added the stipulation, "I won't hold my self to expectations which I wouldn't hold others to.

Today I actually heard a comedian suggest treating the self in the same way we would treat our own son or daughter. I liked this because she added, "That way, when you say "I love you" or "you're beautiful", you actually mean it".

2. My heart is slowly becoming more warm and contented, but it has taken work. I still have trouble giving love to my self (a Neptunian trait). In meditation it is suggested one begins by extending love to the self, then to people who are close, then people you know and like, then people you don't know, then people you have trouble with, then the whole of the universe. I had a big problem beginning by extending love to my self. Mostly because this part of the meditation is used to generate intense love energy. While researching I found a dharma talk where the monk suggested focusing on a puppy, baby, or kitten before focusing on the self, because it is easier to give love to one's self after it has been ignited by something cute.

The point though is to practice feeling that same feeling inspired by a puppy, when you consider your self.

3. It is easy for us Cappy energy people to become the best losers we can be, when we feel unprepared for winning. When I first started meditating, a minor part really bugged me. People suggest maintaining a relaxed half-smile while meditating. It is said to be the ideal position for one's face.

I never felt a reason to smile, it just felt fake for me. It brought me back to my childhood as a performer and all the times I was told to "SMILE" (pushing up both corners of their mouths with their fingers). The act of forcing a smile felt like a performance, and I didn't want that feeling to be part of my meditation. It was only after I faced serious abandonment issues and a bunch of other gnarly personal problems, that I noticed myself smiling naturally.

When I asked what to do if I didn't feel like smiling, I was told by the monastics, "Smile anyway until it doesn't feel forced". My internal response had something to do with "faking a feeling not leading to the actual feeling", but now I get it. Meditation feels good. When everything falls into place, you enter this space of "nowhere to go, nothing to do". It's like strolling through a field with flowers and butterflies, we walk around with dumb grins on our faces. Grins are a byproduct of feeling happy. They didn't suggest faking it because it would immediately lead to a genuine experience. They suggested faking it, because it would automatically put me in the same room with my attachment to not being happy. I never did fake it, out of principal. Fortunately I faced those feelings later, in other ways and was able to let my self win at meditation.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Faith:
Heavens to Betsy your father is STILL religious?

If you don't mind me saying it, the way you've described your childhood gives me the impression that you were emotionally orphaned by the time you were 10.

---

Religion is just not something my dad is capable of identifying his self without. He is a Scorpio Sun (conjunct my Uranus), Moon Gemini (exactly opposed my Sun, square my Moon) with Venus/Mercury in Sag (conjunct my Venus/Ceres). For him, the world is a battle between good and evil and those forces manifest for him emotionally. He has found a set of rules he can adhere to which will reward him with deliverance from his darkness, if he devotes enough of his self to following the rules (Mars in Libra conjunct my Pluto/NN and Saturn in Aries conjunct my Eris/SN).

My sister looked at me weird when I told her I thought my dad was my lover in a former life (I don't blame her, it is a weird thing to hear), but look at how strong our synastry is. The Venus connection alone gives me the feeling that no matter how weird he becomes (Jupiter in Aquarius), I always love him and (for some reason) comprehend his inner workings.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Faith:
Strange to be able to reap so much from so little.

---

I hope I am not making you feel cornered. My intention is just to express what has worked for me, without the assumption it will work for others. If you feel some of these things could work for you, then I'll be happy to help you investigate them. Otherwise please understand I have no expectation or need for you to follow my same path. If anything, I want to help you discover options for choosing your own adventure.

I don't feel taken advantage of... to be honest, one good thing about Moon Virgo/Sun Sag is how rarely we get taken advantage of. Virgo is too observant and Sag is never interested in feeling obligated. Many of us will bend over backward for people we like, but never to the point of compromising our own self-respect, and always of our own volition. Virgo loves fixing stuff and Sag loves traveling around the world finding answers for Virgo to polish up and present. If you find us someplace, it is because we want to be there, not because we just don't know how to say no. =)

quote:

---

Originally posted by Faith:
All small talk with them, except for the uncomfortable, improv hypnosis sessions my Pisces uncle subjects everyone to. I never knew what was up with him. He is one person who can get right up into my face and make me cry, either from shame or catharsis, one or the other, and you just don't know what the f*** he is going to say any time he comes near you. He's probably a recycled Celtic shaman, himself.

---

I think I am the lucky one really. My niece's birthday is the day before mine, so she teaches me a lot about myself. I appreciate how inquisitive and thoughtful she is. I grew up with only aunts (and uncle-in-laws, but they were all muted out by the amount of estrogen flying around family gatherings) and they did their best, but none of them were people I was interested in attaching to.

They are all a bit off, for example when my Libran aunt found out I was gay, she took me to the movies to see "Priscilla Queen of The Desert" and gave me an ABBA CD. LOL Her intentions are the best of them all, but all of them are slightly wonky.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Faith:
I like that you are into odd stones...does that make you kind of like their amplifier, spokesman, when you use them? Can you be like a conduit for their message? I wonder what the diamonds want to talk about.

---

Of course the buzz comes from certain chakras being opened or drawing in certain energies. Plus after I feel a feeling, I can duplicate that wavelength and channel or direct that energy at others. So I guess in a sense I am learning something useful, but I basically like stones because they get me stoned... I admit it, send me to gemholics anonymous.

Diamonds feel hard and clear to me. It is great protective energy and a good energy for creating energetic tools. Diamond is bright and penetrating and ironically enough for a clear stone, it is a very structuring and grounding stone as it helps the root chakra to open. I like your impression of diamonds, you have a very personal synergy with the diamonds you have met. It sounds like it would be a perfect protection and bravery stone for you.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Faith:
Talking to you sometimes feels like being Alice in Wonderland, because stuff that would ordinarily seem insane becomes apropos and, indeed, the only thing I can think to say.

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Originally posted by Faith:
Today was a beautiful day, quintessential early fall weather with a good mix of clear sun and shadows, blown over with chilly winds. My Pisces moon just wanted me to plunk down someplace outside and be as lazy as possible. It would've made a fine day to be a monk...but I can only guess.

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Originally posted by Faith:
this Bon Iver song is a poignant accompaniment to today's mood, and I'm going to go listen to it for the fifth or sixth time now.

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Taak tu lakin

posted September 12, 2012 12:45 AM            

How is everything? Thanks so much for that whole, lovely post. And thanks for the kind Mayan greeting. 'Happy to think of just how many other cultures have adopted exceptionally friendly, trusting salutations...and with my 9H Jupiter Aries, any chance to be reminded of far-off lands is appreciated.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
I am a bit ashamed of my chicken anger

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Really? It's okay, at least you don't eat the chickens. That's what I do...although I sometimes go for weeks as a vegetarian. What always breaks the chicken fast is my own insistence on getting protein at every meal, coupled with the fussiness and lack of availability of tofu (my favorite protein source.) But my diet and the excuses underpinning its wild, haphazard nature is a long story.

When did you become a vegan (if I understand that correctly, that you are a vegan)? Did you go "cold turkey" without meat or ease into it?

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Here is the best video I have seen so far, of what the land looks like...

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Oh, that is marvelous! I have no idea how you will make that dense jungle your habitat, but I wish you the very best of luck and inspiration, making it as paradisical as possible. And I am already smiling because I trust that you will pull that off.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
So I drown the sh!t out of it and it dies.

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Yeah, that's how I garden. It weighs heavily on my conscience. I know it's an eminently fixable personal issue: STOP drowning your plants and they will be okay. But I haven't had a plant in a long time. I killed a cactus and lost all confidence. Some day in the future I will recover from this horticultural learning disability, I just know it. It's something that I feel is my destiny.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
I strangled out the weeds by laying cardboard, then covering it with several layers of plant matter, horse manure, and straw.

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Is that technique called lasagna gardening? A friend of mine did something similar and she calls it lasagna gardening. It's what I would have to do here, as well, since the ground is extremely rocky.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
....a golden retriever who loves to dig body-size holes before sunbathing, and the tiny mut who thinks she is a cannibalistic gopher.

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Aw! I <3 pups.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Next I planted the following trees...

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YUM! Never even heard of some of these but I love fruit and want to know what they are about. White fig? Ice-Cream bean? Sounds like Willy Wonka. And how strange that your climate is friendly to tropical plants. I always forget how big and diverse America is.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Oh, I also put a terracotta jug at the top of the garden, tilted it on its side, and burred the bottom of it in soil. Then I filled it with soil and planted sweet alyssum pouring out of the mouth and weaving around/between the stepping stones as a ground cover.

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SO pretty. Thanks very much for the garden tour...and I don't mean to beg, but when your crops come in and you start whipping up fantastic menus, it's no shame to brag about all the luscious food you are making here, you know? To me, it reads like poetry.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
It goes beyond that though when you consider superposition. We are both currently inhabiting each other's lives right now. When I said "After we die" it was a bit misleading, because me being "Xirro" now is just a dot floating in the mass of space/time. Me being "Faith" now, is also just a dot floating elsewhere in the mass of space/time.

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I see how my thoughts of you, and vice versa, can become like an abstract kind of "inhabiting," if that's what you mean? But then... the "you" in my mind is very fuzzy, just an odd mix of impressions and guesswork, and the "you" of reality is probably much different from the you that is in my head. So, back to square one, I am not seeing how there is any cross-existence, if you will.

And do you mean that we cross-exist with everyone or just the people we are focusing on, because we are talking to them? Hmmmmm

I'm always open for new ways to think myself out of loneliness, so others are welcome to participate in Faithness if they want, but I would hate to miss out on the thrill of being duplicated, being relieved of the burden of my singularity, just because I cannot grasp what is going on. So yeah...can you please try to explain this one more time?

I am finishing up a little glass of wine from a local winery and, with the genius that *spirits* can impart, (love that word "spirits," just not with hamburgers and birds) it occurred to me that I should tell you this story. My same friend who gardens using the lasagna method of gardening, she used to practice applied kinesiology (with my apologies to your Virgo moon if I botched the spelling.) She quit because she realized that she could alter the results by thinking certain things. The way she demonstrated this to me was as follows: she had me hold something with my left hand while pinching my right thumb and index finger together. I pinched hard, and she couldn't pull my fingers apart. Then she paused, took a breath, and pulled my fingers apart as if I had no strength whatsoever. Floored, I asked her how she did that. She replied, "I just thought...'she is allergic to that food in her left hand, it's poison to her'...and it immediately acted as poison to you."

In an incident like that, my strength responded to her brain as if it were my own brain. It's like we were energetically on one circuit. Is this ANYTHING like what you mean about "being" other people? Sorry if I am way off but this is all that's coming to me.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
And to include an extra head turner, while you are being a dream self, you are simultaneously being "Faith" sleeping. All the time, you don't feel like "Faith" sleeping WHILE being a dream character though.

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Yeah! WOW that is SO good! It's like Faith the sleeper is the disinterested goddess of the whole world of dream people...and then I have to wonder if I, awake, am just like one of those Russian nesting dolls, living inside the dream of a bigger Faith. =) I am tickled pink with this. The idea makes a fun toy, especially after all the esoteric stuff I can't fathom.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Sorry to always bring up Buddhism, but it is where I have found a lot of my answers. This topic is one of the "Fourteen Unanswerable Questions" Here . None of us can go much further down the rabbit hole.

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I love Buddhism and am nothing but grateful for your allusions to it. My learning style is slow (Saturn opposite Mercury) but once I get something, it sticks. These bite-sized bits of Buddha are perfect for me. And I am so happy about these limitations put on the inquiries...it's like they mark off a big chunk of mental territory and declare "This is the home of the mind." It feels comforting, to know that for many Buddhists, the scope of inquiry is a settled matter.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
One of the downsides to being me, is the impossible standard to which I hold myself. It is second nature to loathe myself for making simple mistakes, for not being observant, for not successfully accomplishing a task by a certain standard.

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I don't know why I am shocked that you hold yourself to a very high standard when it's apparent in every bit of creativity you exhibit here.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
When Cap tries without comfortable examples or materials, the hand of Saturn falls from the sky and slaps them up side their head, "FAKER! I know all your games, you can't fool me, you OBVIOUSLY don't know what you are doing in here, go read a book and get back to me when you are more prepared".

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Laughing my head off. I'm such an obvious bookworm and this is just me.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
The point is not to run away when the dragon breathes fire and knocks your shield down. =)

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Right. I just tend to get all disoriented when facing my dragons. No, correction, I am disoriented in general. So it's not like I run away, it's like I can't see WTF is going on at all. And I fear becoming a dissolute entity, like confusion personified.

Please don't hold me to that, it's just a rough and sketchy self-portrait after a long day...I'm sure I could strike on some definite priorities, some concrete raw materials of personality if I thought about it. The oddity of all this brings my Chiron in Aries to mind, about which some internet guru proclaimed, that people with this placement may feel like they don't even exist. I can relate...cuz I evaporate.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
It was only after I faced serious abandonment issues and a bunch of other gnarly personal problems, that I noticed myself smiling naturally.

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You? Personal problems? I am smiling myself, to imagine it. You seem excellent. As for the abandonment issues, all I know is that your childhood seems to have set you up for that.

But you are an independent, self-reliant Sag...maybe the abandonment fears are resolved now?

Up until a few years ago I used to worry about everyone rejecting me, because I was still so raw from college break-ups and losing friends because of geography and the religious nuttiness I went through. Then..it's weird...I realized that no matter what anyone thinks of me, I am still the same person. And somehow this made my fears go away. It's not like anyone can walk off and take chunks of me with them, can they? Only if I define myself by the chemistry I have with them...but even then, I don't need them to be there to remember basically how I spark or fizzle in combination with them.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
My sister looked at me weird when I told her I thought my dad was my lover in a former life (I don't blame her, it is a weird thing to hear), but look at how strong our synastry is.

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Makes sense to me after you described it. Synastry solves all kinds of puzzles doesn't it? =) Actually, before we get off this topic, I want to tell you that you gotta see the synastry between my father and sister, it just explains so much about my home life....a picture saying a thousand words. Some other time, though, I'm zonking out now.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
The Venus connection alone gives me the feeling that no matter how weird he becomes (Jupiter in Aquarius), I always love him and (for some reason) comprehend his inner workings.

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I love that. Me and my Saturn, we think LONG term affections, permanent affections are wonderful...and after all the weird stuff you and your dad went through, to still be copacetic on any level seems almost miraculous. How nice.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
I recall a wise woman once suggesting subtlety results in potency... Now if only I could remember who that was... It is amazing what one uncovers from stripping away complexity.

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Oh yeah, that girl with the homeopathic snake oil! Seriously, though, thanks for reminding me...subtle = potent.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
I hope I am not making you feel cornered.

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No, and my apologies for not being clear. I corner myself when I reach convictions about certain things, and the need to meditate is one that's been coming together from various sources and synchronicities and whatnot.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
I think I am the lucky one really. My niece's birthday is the day before mine, so she teaches me a lot about myself. I appreciate how inquisitive and thoughtful she is.

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Aw. It's GOT to be a mutual feeling. I wish I had someone like that in my family but, freakishly, I was the only earth sign in the family (out of my four grandparents, two parents, their six children and thirteen grandchildren)...I was the only earth sign, until my Sam was born (right on the Taurus-Gemini cusp, but still a Taurus.) Now get this, I am also a singleton sun, it's the only earth in my chart. Doesn't that fit so well? I love astrology for the little jokes you can find in it.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
They are all a bit off, for example when my Libran aunt found out I was gay, she took me to the movies to see "Priscilla Queen of The Desert" and gave me an ABBA CD. LOL

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She sounds really nice. Um... did she get you a bottle of spray tan, too? hehehe Not meaning to stereotype but if you do spray tan I could use some pointers.

Not even done replying but I am getting an eerie feeling like I am breaking some kind of law, or rule of etiquette, with this length, so I am just going to say goodnight, peace, and all the best to all of you.*

posted September 12, 2012 07:02 AM            

I am well thanks. Things have been a bit busy this week as my mother tip-toed off to get a facelift and called me early Monday morning to take care of her/run their business while she recovers. It is always funny to see how people who have never taken drugs act, while under the influence. She is particularly susceptible to medication and at one point, I contemplated putting mittens and a cone-of-shame on her. I left her side for 2 min. on Monday, to deal with an office matter. I returned to her having removed her bandages and strewn them all over the floor.

Apparently anti-anxiety meds put her into a state of somnambulism and render her an honest version of her self (which is basically a 2 year old with ADHD). LOL Fortunately she was off the meds all day today, and is slowly becoming more sane.

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Originally posted by Faith:
What always breaks the chicken fast is my own insistence on getting protein at every meal, coupled with the fussiness and lack of availability of tofu (my favorite protein source.)

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It is an interesting book if not for the dietary information, certainly for the insights into what humans are built to eat and how the earth facilitates that need for us (vs how we have been trained to eat and how we force the earth to facilitate that for us).

When I went all raw fruit, I documented my intake on this site http://cronometer.com/. I was astonished to discover I was getting all my daily required protein without any "protein" foods. The protein scare is a myth which keeps certain industries in business, we raise cows for their protein and they eat grass all day. What then is their great secret that we seem to be so lacking in as a species?

>puts SOAP box away<

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Originally posted by Faith:
When did you become a vegan (if I understand that correctly, that you are a vegan)? Did you go "cold turkey" without meat or ease into it?

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It's funny, because before I went vegan I thought, "oh God, this is it, this one is going to be tough" and then it was a walk in the park. I actually liked it more because it challenged me to be creative. Before I went 80/10/10, I thought. "Now this is REALLY it, this is going to take a lot of will" and it too was a walk in the park. I just feel so clear and alive with both diets, and there is nothing more disgusting than the first meal you eat off your diet. I was so shocked to discover how stoned fat food makes you feel, after eating only fruit for a few days. Regular food feels as addictive as cigarettes and it is only noticeable if you have ever tried to quit both. It actually made me feel mentally slower, emotionally numb, and physically sluggish. I guess I was an ideal citizen. lol

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Originally posted by Faith:
Is that technique called lasagna gardening? A friend of mine did something similar and she calls it lasagna gardening. It's what I would have to do here, as well, since the ground is extremely rocky.

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Originally posted by Faith:
YUM! Never even heard of some of these but I love fruit and want to know what they are about. White fig? Ice-Cream bean? Sounds like Willy Wonka. And how strange that your climate is friendly to tropical plants. I always forget how big and diverse America is.

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Originally posted by Faith:
And do you mean that we cross-exist with everyone or just the people we are focusing on, because we are talking to them? Hmmmmm

I'm always open for new ways to think myself out of loneliness, so others are welcome to participate in Faithness if they want, but I would hate to miss out on the thrill of being duplicated, being relieved of the burden of my singularity, just because I cannot grasp what is going on. So yeah...can you please try to explain this one more time?

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Let's use another example:

Picture this as the map of your life, from birth to death -

The center is your moment of birth, while the ends of each branch represent the different ways your life comes to an end in each universe. Each path branching out from the center is a different universe spawned from your experiences (every time the cat's box was opened throughout your life). Awareness is the light shining through and illuminating every branch of the snowflake. Each branch is filled with the light of awareness and therefor awake with individuality. The light doesn't spend certain moments illuminating certain parts of the snowflake, nor does it begin in the center and widen its beam outward as time passes. It simply shines "aware" in all areas of the structure simultaneously.

The awareness in the center of a branch, can look back down its historical path (including the points where other paths branched off) and also imagine all the possible future avenues from that vantage point. In this very moment your awareness can do the same thing. You can look back at your previous path (even see the paths you didn't take) or imagine all the paths you could take from this moment. If a single "particle" of awareness penetrated a single microscopic point in the snowflake, one moment of your life would be animated with awareness. From that single animated moment, there would be an apparent past and future. Awareness shines through every part of the snowflake simultaneously though, so somewhere right now, awareness is experiencing you being born, getting married, and reaching the end of your life. Every part of your snowflake is illuminated.

Here is where it starts to get twisted (too late). In order to understand, it is important to step out of linear thinking (this is the 4th dimension the kid in the video was talking about). Experiences only seem linear, because they look that way from our current perspective. I remember yesterday not because I somehow traveled through it, but because today, yesterday appears to be in the past. The part of me experiencing day-before-yesterday considers yesterday "tomorrow". All experiences happen in the "now", it is only when we look at life from inside the crystalline structure that we believe in things having a progressive beginning and end.

When it comes down to it though there are two important things to keep in mind. First, knowing this information does very little for improving our lives. And second, This is how reality has been revealed to me. It doesn't have to be this way for anyone else. The Buddha suggested we weigh everything we hear, and only apply that which is true and applicable to our own situation (including his own teachings).

There is more to this line of exploration and I will be happy to go further, but it just starts to become mental gymnastics at this point.

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Originally posted by Faith:
In an incident like that, my strength responded to her brain as if it were my own brain. It's like we were energetically on one circuit. Is this ANYTHING like what you mean about "being" other people? Sorry if I am way off but this is all that's coming to me.

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Originally posted by Faith:
And I am so happy about these limitations put on the inquiries...it's like they mark off a big chunk of mental territory and declare "This is the home of the mind." It feels comforting, to know that for many Buddhists, the scope of inquiry is a settled matter.

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Originally posted by Faith:
Right. I just tend to get all disoriented when facing my dragons. No, correction, I am disoriented in general. So it's not like I run away, it's like I can't see WTF is going on at all. And I fear becoming a dissolute entity, like confusion personified.

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Here is where meditation becomes so vital, because the more we practice being aware the less overcome with fear we become, and the less we identify "self" with the habits, fears, and struggles we are attached to. When the shield is destroyed, you are left to take a hard look at what exists behind the shield. If you still think you lack the strength, then consider how well you would do if your children were trapped in that chaos and the only way to get them out was to breathe and observe the feeling, until it evaporated (like a ray of sunlight on a cloud). Would you freak out and become defeated, or would you do what needs to be done? The moment things are put into perspective, you can see your strong nature. Pisces is great when it comes to playing with our emotions in order to keep things comfortable. Any time your mind says, "I can't do this" is a red flag indicating Pisces is pulling the strings. Pisces is also great for enduring fears for a greater purpose, when reigned in.

You are fortunate to be prone to evaporation (and I like the fact that you used a water related word), because it is amazing what we discover when the complexity is stripped away.

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Originally posted by Faith:
But you are an independent, self-reliant Sag...maybe the abandonment fears are resolved now?

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Originally posted by Faith:
Actually, before we get off this topic, I want to tell you that you gotta see the synastry between my father and sister, it just explains so much about my home life....a picture saying a thousand words. Some other time, though, I'm zonking out now.

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Originally posted by Faith:
I love astrology for the little jokes you can find in it.

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Originally posted by Faith:
She sounds really nice. Um... did she get you a bottle of spray tan, too?

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posted September 12, 2012 08:09 PM            

(Swedish greeting sounds like an expletive, haha)

Jumping right in...God dag, this is funny:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:

Things have been a bit busy this week as my mother tip-toed off to get a facelift and called me early Monday morning to take care of her/run their business while she recovers....I left her side for 2 min. on Monday, to deal with an office matter. I returned to her having removed her bandages and strewn them all over the floor.

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*My big fat Italian laughter* OMG that is so frickin' hilarious! What a great story, should be a scene in a movie.

Your mom sounds cute, bandages and all. I like Cancers, especially the borderline crazies. And it's so nice of you to take care of your mom. Just wondering, though...does she have a habit of throwing herself into situations that require a hero to come in and rescue her? Not that it's any of my business, I just tend to assume that every action is part of a larger pattern and I am curious if you do that kind of thing a lot. (?) Pardon my bad manners if that's nosy.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Being a 6th House geek, I have an odd interest in diet and nutrition. Reading a book called 80/10/10 (by Dr. Douglas Graham) was a big eyeopener. It is shocking how much protean we get from non-animal sources.

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Me, too! Sun/Mercury in the 6H, and I've got this big health library and have made my own kombucha, drank raw milk, and basically gone through most of the health nut rites of passage, like sprouting mung beans and sneaking brewer's yeast into my kids' smoothies.

For my tenth wedding anniversary, I asked my husband to buy me a heavy duty wheat grass juicer. I haven't used it much, but I keep thinking that if there is ever a famine in the land, I might be able to live off of regular grass juice. Your reminder about how cows are built from mere grass has me antsy to experiment with drinking more greens, right away. I once heard a persuasive lecture where the dude was saying that chlorophyll can act as an exact replacement for hemoglobin. Like plant "blood" can work like a transfusion on you...something like that.

Thank you for the book recommendation, I will look for it at the library. For a while now, I've been working off of the food theories (and fanaticism and stern warnings) of these five books:

Vegetarian:
* Ayurvedic Cooking for Westerners (my all-time favorite cookbook)
* Cook Your Way to the Life you Want (macrobiotic)
* Live Right 4 Your Type (Blood type diet, recommends vegetarianism for Type As like me.)

Omnivorous:
* Nourishing Traditions (Not that I would ever eat raw kidneys or serve them at a party like the author insanely recommends)
* The Schwarzbein Principle (The author is an endocrinologist who swears your adrenals are gonna keel over and you'll get fat in middle age, if you don't eat protein, whole grain, vegetables, and fat at every meal.)

All that philosophy has culminated in me eating this soup several times a week, occasionally for breakfast, lunch, and dinner: Saute ginger, scallions, and garlic in ghee or sesame oil, add assorted diced vegetables like broccoli stems, carrots, and squash, and soaked shiitake mushrooms. Add a quart of water. Boil, add quinoa-corn shell noodles or brown rice shells. Add tofu cubes if you have them, and freshly ground pepper. Simmer 10 minutes. Add some Bragg's Liquid Aminos and a big bunch of chopped spinach or watercress if you have it.

Put in bowl: chopped cilantro or cilantro paste from a tube, hot pepper sauce, sliced scallion greens, and a few drops of toasted sesame oil. Add soup.

"Be like OMG" ! =) I am telling you this because you are what you eat, and that's what I eat. So now the mystery is solved for you.

If I ever decided to be a vegan, it wouldn't intimidate me too much, I would just think, "Okay I will eat my soup for lunch and dinner every day." I might want fruit, or cooked quinoa with almond milk, sunflower seeds and flax oil for breakfast. And I do feel good when I eat like that. The fact that I can run around with my munchkins all day and still have energy left over to talk your head off just about every night lately, and you have the energy to respond, shows that 6H planets aren't all gloom and doom, right? We are living proof. =) You just have to learn the lessons and get on with it.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
When I went all raw fruit, I documented my intake on this site http://cronometer.com/. I was astonished to discover I was getting all my daily required protein without any "protein" foods.

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Oh that is SO Virgo moon, hehe. That you did get all your protein is an eye opener. That you have bona fide evidence to show anyone who challenges you on your lack of protein is commendable. It's SO like people to get mad if you don't eat "enough" protein, I've encountered a lot of that before.

Are you very skinny? I tend to think it all boils down to what kind of energy you want to have and what kind of body you want to have, assuming you are privileged enough to have choices.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Ice-cream Bean is a long, thick pod (similar to the shape and size variety of a cucumbers) filled with a white, cotton candy textured fiber, protecting its seeds. The fiber is edible and tastes a lot like vanilla ice-cream.

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It's like you just told me that dinosaurs have been discovered alive. The whole world feels wondrous and strange now that I know stuff like that happens. Too good to be true!!

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
The light doesn't spend certain moments illuminating certain parts of the snowflake, nor does it begin in the center and widen its beam outward as time passes. It simply shines "aware" in all areas of the structure simultaneously.

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I'm sorry for pressing you to do more and more mental gymnastics for me, but I love this description very much and for once I feel like being pushy was kind of worth it.

This thread is becoming like a favorite book of mine, that I will probably re-read and come to for reference at several points in the future. Thank you in advance from every edge of my glowing, snowflake self. (That I was born on the 6th and there are 6 points to the flake just makes the symbolism all the cozier.)

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Essentially we are the universe talking to its self.

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Hmmmmm!

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Buddhism actually defines exactly what one needs to do to reach nirvana....the actual teachings take you from point A to point B.

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I love it.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
The disorientation is good.

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'Was not expecting you to say that, and I am surprised and touched by your compassion about what I consider to be a major flaw.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
If you still think you lack the strength, then consider how well you would do if your children were trapped in that chaos ... Would you freak out and become defeated, or would you do what needs to be done? The moment things are put into perspective, you can see your strong nature.

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Have I harped on this too much already? You are brilliant. I don't even know why we are talking. But thank you, that makes perfect sense.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
I am happy to report that I think before I act now. That has made a huge difference in my life and creates the space needed to mend my habits.

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Yet another set of sentences that I am gawking at. I need to change my life in some huge ways, too. I would love to be able to connect with you again sometime in the future and let you know how successful I was at demolishing this outworn self and recreating something better. To do less, after a pep talk like this, would really be a depressing anticlimax.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:

I'll look forward to it. =)

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Oh, thank you...check this out:

I don't have a birth time for either of them so their moons might even be conjunct. The Juno-Venus conjunct Juno-Neptune? I'll bet that was in their composite 7H because by the time my dad died, they were living so much like husband and wife that some people confused them for it. (My mom died in 1990, my dad died the day after my birthday in 2007.) That Juno stuff, along with Dad's Pluto on my sister's Cancer sun/Mercury, the exact Chiron conjunctions and the Mars conjunction...I'm not saying anything outright inappropriate went on, not like that. It's just that, even though I ADORED my father, I found life with them completely intolerable. Couldn't be in the same room with both of them together, 'had to move out of the house as soon as I could.

'Interesting that my husband's Saturn is almost exactly conjunct my father's Saturn, which is tightly conjunct my Venus. Yeah, talk about marrying my dad...LOL!

And a few things from the other night's post:

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Today I actually heard a comedian suggest treating the self in the same way we would treat our own son or daughter. I liked this because she added, "That way, when you say "I love you" or "you're beautiful", you actually mean it".

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Sniffle sniffle. Like Tori Amos asked, "Why do we crucify ourselves?" It's the strangest thing that we do that. And everyone seems to, at one point or another.

There's this part of Eat, Pray, Love that reduces me to mush. In case you haven't read it (it's a chick book, after all), the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, is brutally self-critical. In one part, she walks into a big room and doesn't notice that there is a mirror on the other side. She catches her reflection and, for a split second, she thinks, all friendly, "Hey, I know that girl!" and starts to move toward her own image, smiling. Then she realizes who it is and is stricken with disappointment. "Oh NOooo... it's just me." I am all watery-eyed writing this. Just thinking of how every single person in that room might have turned around and embraced her and still, she would probably look in the mirror and go, "You just totally suck." Like being surrounded by water and unable to drink.

Yeah I kind of feel the same way, usually.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
I still have trouble giving love to my self (a Neptunian trait).

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So strange!

I wonder why that is Neptunian? I thought Neptune is supposed to be nice. Well, I am not mentally paralyzed, I will think about this for a minute. I can see why my Pisces moon does set me up for not loving myself, because I naturally try and make sure others are happy, without thinking as much about what makes ME happy. So I give myself the short end of the stick a lot. And it's a special challenge for me to waft through all the dreamy, cloudy Pisces impressions and land on what resonates with me and makes me satisfied.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
It is easy for us Cappy energy people to become the best losers we can be, when we feel unprepared for winning.

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Agreed.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
I crack up, because my dad would probably give me away at my own wedding, but the idea of me becoming a Buddhist completely estranged him from me.

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Your dad seems to have a similar religious disorder to the one my husband has. Hubby's NN is Scorpio and probably near your dad's sun. I hate to have extreme attention paid to issues that I consider to be of almost zero consequence, and have to stand my ground under tremendous pressure to capitulate. Sorry for whining. Just saying, religion can be SUCH a drag!

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Of course the buzz comes from certain chakras being opened or drawing in certain energies. Plus after I feel a feeling, I can duplicate that wavelength and channel or direct that energy at others.

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Is it common for people to be able to feel what's going on in their chakras? And your second sentence there makes me hope you will maybe beam some diamond energy at me one of these days, if you are bored and looking for a charity case.

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Originally posted by Xiiro:
Today was our second day of thunder storms without rain. Someone forgot to tell San Diego that it is okay to cry sometimes. I love thunder and lightning, but I love rain just as much.

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1) I also love thinking of rain as crying, and
2) Prefer to be outside in it whenever possible.

Well I have been yarning on and on, as usual I am blushing over the extreme length, but you never have to come back to the Xiiro thread ever again if you don't like! There's a certain beauty in the fragility of social situations like this, making you realize that the present is all you get...so thank you, it's all been like a gift.