Post No. 834 - Some minor, mostly magickally focused comments on “The Dresden Files” – Part Two (Books 7 – 8)

Other posts in this series: 

• Part One - http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/post-no-833-some-minor-mostly.html; 
• Part Three - http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/post-no-838-some-minor-mostly.html;
• Part Four - http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/post-no-848-some-minor-mostly.html.

More to be posted as I complete them.

Book No. 07 – Dead Beat
(ROC, 2005, ISBN 978-0-451-46091-2)

I was looking forward to reading this book – after all, it has a zombie dinosaur. I’m even more unmoved about zombies than I am vampires, but – hey, dinosaurs :) (which I used to be terrified of as a kid, after having seen Fantasia; I made myself see Jurassic Park [several times], and became interested in the science and then – hey presto! I’m now interested in the things … so long as I don’t have to go anywhere near a carnivorous one in real life).

• not knowing what comes after death (p. 19):
  I disagree with that: we do have good evidence (the concept of proof is a different matter, and one that I consider highly subjective – i.e., what one person considers proof, another won’t) of what comes after – see here, for instance.
• garlic to repel vampires (p. 21):
  As mentioned previously I have been told that it is garlic flowers, rather than the cloves, that do the repelling (see, for instance, here, here and here).
• there are plenty of incarnates like Mavra (I’m thinking of people I’ve had to put up with in office and “professional” [which can be incredibly competitive] environments, particularly before anti-bullying laws, clubs, etc). Another topic which comes to mind here is the potential for the “banality of evil”, although that clearly doesn’t apply to “Black Court” vampires like Mavra. See also here and here.
• necromancy and ectomancy (p. 36, but crops up at various places through the book, and is a major theme. I thought of this at around p. 130 – which has a good example of ectomancy):
  the term necromancy is defined by the online Oxford English Dictionary (OED) as “The supposed practice of communicating with the dead, especially in order to predict the future”. The Wikipedia article takes a similar view, but also notes that some people these days use the term as a reference to “manipulation of death and the dead”. It is the latter sense that the character Harry Dresden uses the term “necromancy” in the modern sense of the word, whereas my understanding is the original, broader term.
  Dresden also uses a term “ectomancy”, which I couldn’t find in the OED. However, I have found at least one other reference to it – here, so this is one of several instances where I have learned something from these books.
  Now, I am aware of claims that there are entities that allegedly scavenge energy associated with the transition we know as death, but I don’t count those with physical scavengers, who are playing an active part in the natural world’s recycling process and manage risks such as illness or disease in the process.
  In the context of the comments on page 130, we decorate “dead” things like nails and hair in honour of the natural processes of life, not the nihilistic ravings of the disturbed entity making the claim.
• building up energy for a working (p. 40):
  the diving board analogy is quite good. With regard to ways of building energy, I often use visualisation, flaming, breathing exercises, meditation, etc.
• perfect replication of cells (p. 48):
  in the physics-based context of the Dresden-verse, this is an excellent explanation of how wizards and witches are able to live much longer than muggles, and it the association of imperfect replication and aging is, I understand, reasonably well accepted in the real-verse. However, in terms of who lives longer in the real-verse, there are also scientifically accepted issues around genetic inheritance, lifestyle factors, etc, and also issues around how one works with nonphysical energy, emotions, thoughts, etc.
• with power comes responsibility (p. 61):
  yes, YES, YES! This theme is one of the reasons I LOVE this series of books – and it is a them which is so TRUE.
• duty to share knowledge to those who need it, but that knowledge comes at a price (p. 63):
  I consider that the character Harry Dresden is, in general, too reluctant to share the knowledge he has. That reluctance is understandable, given the particulars of the Dresden-verse, but in this-verse, the main constraint on passing knowledge is to make sure it does not go to those who could or would abuse / misuse / fail to use it (all three are serious spiritual errors, although not of equal import), and, at the same time, make it DOES go to those who need it – which is a little bit like making sure what kids are exposed to is age appropriate, but in a spiritual sense for people who are chronological / nominally adults. In that spirit, I started this blog, with (a) information on it that is largely relatively safe, (b) regularly topped up psychic protections around who comes across it, and (c) a few matters I am keeping to myself until I can find someone to teach face to face. Issues such as knowing how to ground and shield and flame and set up basic protection are fundamentals that, in my view, EVERY single sentient being – including all humans – should know.
• Chapter Six:
  this chapter is, in effect, a pretty good discussion on scepticism / denial / etc. The comment about people denying what they cannot fight out of fear is, sadly, true – and hence the need for more knowledge, as mentioned in the preceding point: defence against the majority of psychic problems and threats is often surprisingly simple.
  As mentioned previously, vampires / zombies / werewolves are not matters I claim any particular knowledge of, but the comments about the parallels between missing persons rates and herd losses to predators was intriguing, and I have tried – unsuccessfully – to check this on the internet.
  Some of the abilities mentioned on p. 73 are close to those claimed by Tibetan lamas, such as transmigration of the soul into another body. The easiest reference for that is Lobsang  Rampa’s “The Rampa Story”, but I have seen other Tibetan texts which cover that as well.
• the White Council and the wardens (p. 84):
  as mentioned previously, this is a story-telling device, part of the Dresden-verse, not this-verse.
• Deities, magick and expectations (p. 87):
  good comments here about the interactions between these three – particularly that, if one expects it, it is necessary.
• Sheila’s recall (p. 92):
  there is more to come on the character Sheila,  but this recall is actually an excellent example of the power of the unconscious to recall details that the conscious edits out for the sake of limiting our perceptions to what is manageable.
• pop culture references (p. 96):
  this is something Mr Butcher has discussed on panels, and is an entertaining part of the novels (there is even amusing one pop culture reference somewhere that Harry Dresden complains he is supposed to understand but doesn’t) – mostly. There are some that, as someone who is not a citizen of the USA, I have no clue about – and others that reflect the fact I have no interest in horror movies, computer games, etc.
• wear and tear of life and of being magickally active (p. 97):
  very true comments that I can relate to.
• Chapter Eight:
  this chapter has some good comments about power, and motivations for having / acquiring power.
• blackmail (general comment):
  one of the fundamental problems about agreeing with blackmail requests is that it sets a precedent for future instances. That is the reason governments, for example, refuse to negotiate with terrorists. I understand that, but, if I was in the situation that Harry was placed, I don’t know how I would react. Some of it would depend on the level of awareness that those being threatened had – for instance, if they understood the reasons for not negotiating with terrorists, I would be more inclined to resist; the close they were to me, the more difficult that would be.
  I have sometimes wondered what would happen if, say, the family member of a person killed in a piracy incident off Somalia sued those who had previously paid ransoms for making it more likely that the later incident occurred.
• limits on one’s ability to help (p. 113 – 115):
  it is good for people to understand that (i) there can be situations which are too big for them to get involved with, (ii) that other people with more skill / experience / (relevant forms of) strength may be able to deal with, and (iii) that trying to help those more appropriately skilled / experienced / strong people may be more of a hindrance than help – for instance, just being there may be a distraction. As an example of that, at the end of the film “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, there comes a moment when Professor Dumbledore has Voldemort contained in water: all that is needed is for Dumbledore to be able to keep the containment going for a few minutes until the aurors (maybe that’s a job description for me :) ) arrive – but Harry Potter wanders out of the safe area he has been in, and while Dumbledore is distracted throwing Harry back into safety, Voldemort breaks free, and the next three films eventuate.
• subtle influences associated with a demon (pp. 117 – 118):
  good discussion on this, which applies generally with regard to psychic attack.
• Harry Dresden’s behaviour towards Mort (pp. 123 – 124):
  is wrong – spiritually speaking. It is consistent with the flawed character that Harry Dresden is, and those flaws are essential for what is going to happen down the track, but, in this-verse, it raises the issue of what you are prepared to go without for the sake of being ethical. In my case, one example is an organisation I was invited to join when I was in my 20s: I specifically knew that they would teach me a breathing exercise which would allow conscious etheric travel, which is something I wanted then and still want now (astral travel is different), but I would have to agree to give them 10% of my income. As I considered that expectation of money to be unreasonable, I declined. I have not come across that breathing exercise anywhere else, but I still consider that I made the right decision (the right sacrifice, in a sense). (Interestingly, since then the group has become more public, and their books are now available on a public website … but still don’t have that particular breathing exercise :) – and do show things like a tendency towards patriarchal values, to the point of sexism, that I particularly disagree with.)
• example of using ectomancy (p. 130):
  rather cool example, actually: I’ll keep that in mind for my magickal workings.
• dream sequence with Harry’s dead father (pp. 136 – 137):
  I actually consider this to be an example of great mediumship – the sort of thing one can see demonstrated by GOOD mediums in Spiritualist churches (and NOT demonstrated by BAD mediums).
  It also shows the character development that harry experiences, as, in previous books, he had stated no-one knew what happened after death, but now he is starting an arc that will lead to considerable awareness / experience of that.
  The main thought I had when reading this, though, was that fear has evolutionary survival value. I’ve read a theory that being paralysed with fear would result in a small mammal a few tens or a hundred or so million years ago being less likely to be noticed by a big dinosaur stumping its grumpy, low-blood-sugar way through the jungle in search of a tasty morsel. Nowadays, that is less likely to be of benefit when one is terrified by, say, an out-of-control bus that one needs to get out of the way of, but, in general, fear is still something to take note of, although one may need to change the evolutionary response (which is NOT only fight or flight: it also includes network and nurture, but the stupid scientists apparently only used male lab rats) which we have imprinted into our brain stem for the modern world. Thinking is how we do that.
  (I have a theory that Deities may have helped “create” this reality by bringing a characteristic into existence – for instance (and I am simplifying grossly here), maybe Týr brought the concept of social justice to the world (this came in well before the Viking era, though), or Heru (“Horus”) the concept that one’s home / family / hearth was something to protect. If that is so, which Deity brought fear into the world, and how does one work with them so that one can better react to fear?)
• Anthropomancy (p. 167):
  this exists, and is wrong, as far as I am concerned – whether it involves taking human or animal life (haruspicy is the word for the latter). It is, as with ALL psychic tools (Tarot, dowsing, etc), a way of getting round the blocks that one has to being psychic and getting accurate and relevant impressions oneself. To take another life – possibly painfully – to cover one’s personal inadequacies is, in my view, spiritually abhorrent.
  It also does come at a price – part karmic, part the inherent damage associated with the act (which is similar to the damage use to create a horcrux in the Potter-verse).
  My view may be partly influence by my many years as a Buddhist (I am not Buddhist now), but it is a view I held as a child, when I lost faith in the neochristianity I was exposed to at Sunday School when they said animals didn’t have souls. I can vouch for them having that, as the three cats sleeping on the bed beside my desk as I write this have all been with me in previous incarnations.
  This has been a point of division in Pagan and Shamanic circles.
• courage vs. fear (p. 185, pp. 227  229):
  this is a particular theme being explored in this book, mostly in the context of standing up to stronger forces. It is largely in the same sense of courage as “going over the top” in a war, when one’s physical survival is at risk – or certain to end. As such, it misses out on the less spectacular, but equally – or even more so – admirable courage of “doing the right thing”, as shown by whistleblowers, parents trying to raise their children to be as good human beings as is possible, etc, although moral courage is very capably explored in other books in this series (e.g., “Turn Coat”, Proven Guilty”, “Summer Knight”).
  Another example of courage is sacrificing oneself for others’ benefit, perhaps by staying in a soul-killing job to support a family, or taking on caring for someone.
  In the magickal world, tests of both physical and moral courage can occur. As an example of physical courage, when I was learning in the 80s, I was channelling so much energy under my 50 kg rose quartz crystal that I actually felt I was at risk of dying: I must have passed any test that was involved, as I relaxed, and put up with the pain, and survived. Tests of moral courage come about every time we have to fight off psychic attack, or make a decision about “right” or “wrong”.
  The other really major point that can happen here is: we can all change. The inclusion of the character Waldo Butters as a key part of the fear side of the debate becomes very significant a few books hence.
• types of nonBPM psychic attack (pp. 195 – 196, 199 – 201, 279 – 281, 395 – 396, 422, 437 – 438, 448 – 449):
  if one shifts what is happening from the physical to the non-physical, there are some very good examples of the wide range of types of nonBPM psychic attacks which can occur in the real-verse. In all such instances, a very useful defence is contacting one’s Higher Self. As with all such skills, the time to develop that (through meditation) is NOT when one is under attack and in need of a well-developed proficiency in that skill …
• Valkyrie (pp. 207 – 208):
  this is a better, more feminist description of a Valkyrie than many others I have read: these Valkyrie are what they are meant to be – women warriors! It is only the last millennia of neochristian social engineering that have left us thinking women can’t or inherently don’t want to be warriors. This description gave me the inspiration for a Valkyrie Tarot that I am working on (as with many things, time and energy restricts what I can get done * SIGH * )
• the US health system (p. 218):
  is really stupid. When I was in the Correllian Tradition I came across several instances where people couldn’t afford critical health treatment, and I dread the possibility that we could wind up with such lunacy here. If there is to be a change, I would rather it was towards the UK system, but people presume a lack of good will on the part of most other people using the health system, and thus object to money - which attitude is actually a particular outcome of the non-UK systems, although the UK also has (predominantly rich?) people who object to their system.
  What is interesting in terms of this review was the throw away question about what premiums would be for a 250 year old. In my case, here in Australia, I have an officially preserved medical age of 30 years, because of when I took out health insurance, so, if it was me that was 250, I could possibly do quite well :) … but, if that was in the Dresden-verse, the age-defying characteristics of wizards would mean one probably wouldn’t need to use it all that much. Darn.
• shooting at ambulance drivers (p. 220):
  sadly, this happens in a few places – I’ve even read of morons attempting to sexually assault female ambulance drivers because they thought the women were strippers.
  This page also shows the problem of scepticism in the medical profession, which is a MAJOR problem in the real-verse.
• claimed benefits of necromancy (p. 225, and pp. 330 – 338):
  this is a very interesting discussion – e.g., benefits of Einstein still living is counter-balanced by down-side of Hitler still living.
  This issue was also explored in the BBC  “Torchwood” series “Torchwood: Miracle Day”, and Katharine Kerr’s Deverry series with the prolonged life of the character Nevyn.
  In my case, I would that there is a benefit in being able to digest one’s experiences and “reset” in-between incarnations when one is mortal.
  However, there is an argument to consider that maybe we could / should live longer – which has been mentioned by a number of sources, including Lobsang  Rampa.
• the exhaustion of persistent pain (p. 226):
  yes, absolutely true  just ask my or my partner’s arthritis :)
• Cowl and Kumori: as a general thought, I hope their backstory comes out in a future book.
• devouring spirits to take their power (p. 245):
  I have never heard of this before reading it here. I thought it might be a case of Mr Butcher’s research being better than mine, but when I started looking into it, I found it in the computer game world – is that where this comes from?
• purpose / underlying assumptions for wards (p. 250):
  as with the character Harry Dresden, I build wards for limited purposes. Their strength is gradually eroded by the soup of energies that exists in the real-verse, so they need top up from time to time (provided life does not distract me), and I may provide an extra boost to deal with any extra problems. This whole situation of prolonged attack is one that is worth thinking of.
• creating chaos as a preparation for a nonBPM event (p. 273):
  this can happen in the real-verse as well.
• being good with what one is familiar with (p. 280):
  very true.
• thaumaturgy (p. 299):
  the online Oxford Dictionary defines “thaumaturge” as “A worker of wonders and performer of miracles; a magician.”
  The Wikipedia article quotes Isaac Bonewits as saying this is "The use of magic for nonreligious purposes; the art and science of 'wonder working;' using magic to actually change things in the physical world."
  There is a wiki on the Dresden-verse, which describes thaumaturgy along the lines of “as above, so below” – create a link with something, and you can track them (which is a very limited definition).
  I don’t normally use this term. For some reason, I have a notion that is somehow connected with “low magick” (done by witches and other everyday people), as opposed to so-called “high magick” (done by Ceremonialists and others who created a distinction around a millennia ago that included slightly neochristianising their stuff so they could avoid the vendettas of the neochristians; this definition of “high magic” as something that is city related is new to me – see also here) – see here and here and , but every time I try to check how I got that notion, I cannot find any reason for it. Possibly it is a carry over from a previous life.
  I’ll go with Isaac Bonewits on this one
• loss of Wardens (p. 357 – 361):
  this can happen in the real-verse as well, although not as a result of death in battle: more usually it is the distractions / temptations / demands of everyday life.
• the leader of the wardens not knowing Harry has been abused by Morgan (pp. 363 – 364):
  if this happened in the real-verse – e.g., a business CEO didn’t know about hazing / bullying, the CEO would quite rightly be found incompetent, and held to account. The same applies to spiritual / psychic organisations.
• metaphysical imprint / mass (pp. 376 – 377):
  this is true enough – and crops up in other books, but up to a point. As an example of where it doesn’t apply, I have found cats can go in and out of circles without disturbing the circle at all.
• night (p. 382):
  it would be interesting to compare the Dresden-verse view of night with the elemental cycles based view in Katharine Kerr’s Deverry series.
• emotional control (p. 383):
  Harry Dresden always has reasonable emotional self-control / self-discipline when doing magick. After the last few decades, my control is not what it used to be … SIGH.
• joke by Cowl (p. 390):
  I quite liked this joke – and most of the other humour scattered throughout the books (but not all: I don’t think that would ever be possible, to have everyone happy with all aspects of something).
• the subtlety of negative psychic control (p. 406):
  this is an excellent example of this. In the real-verse, it would be countered by persisting with clearing, and by tuning in to one’s Higher Self.
• faith (p. 431):
  yeah, right. This is good for the story, but, in terms of magickal theory, can be viewed as manifestation through positive thinking. As such, one needs to be aware that the energetic connections can be manipulated, blocked or twisted by others.
• some things are more important than survival (p. 444):
  yes, absolutely.
• ritual vs. rite ceremony vs. vs. spell:
  sometimes I consider people get themselves into quite a tizz over things that don’t really matter – a bit like the stupidity over folding vs. scrunching toilet paper (solved by doing both, as someone I know does), or which end of the egg to cut open (from “Gulliver’s Travels”). Some this is just things like ****** regional variations, for Goddess’ sake!
  As far rite, ritual and ceremony go, I’m not going to buy into this one – and I won’t accept Harry’s definition of this, either. I’ll give a few links here so you, Dear Reader, can contemplate and possibly make up your own mind: here, here, here (which points out that rite has a more generic usage as well),
  I will buy into the definition of (magickal)  spell, however: to me that is an act of active magick which is intended to last beyond the act whereby it was created.
• zombie dinosaur (p. 455 on):
  this is the only interest I have had in zombies – and, as I have already mentioned, I was looking forward to reading this book from the moment I found out that a zombie dinosaur was involved :)
• magickal styles during combat (pp. 460 – 462):
  good examples for consideration of.
• comments by Harry’s dead father (p. 508):
  very wise comments here. I particularly liked that, as long as one believed one was responsible for one’s choices, one basically a decent human being. It’s a little simplistic is a few extreme cases, but it has a subtlety and elegance that could be useful for most everyday situations.
  I will meditate on this.

Book No. 08 – Proven Guilty
(ROC, 2009 (?), first pub. 2006, ISBN 978-0-451-46103-2)

• Chapter One – this is a good development of the tension over the Laws of Magic in the Dresden-verse, and a lead up to further discussion on them in this and subsequent books. It is worth reading this and thinking about the ethical issues for the exercise of doing so.
• unsavoury magic (p. 17):
  should be described as nonBPM (in the this-verse :) ), or at the very least negative magick – NOT “black magic”, which contributes to the ubiquity of racism.
• “Black Staff” (p. 19):
  again, colour problem, but: as described, the position is a spiritual no-no. From a long term perspective, as described, it would be better to let the organisation end, and work on starting something better – something which was better based on ethics, true spirituality, the use of compassion and authentic presence, etc. HOWEVER … it could also be argued that the position is more like a form of magickal military special forces, which slightly alters the perspective – but not the requirements for ethics, etc.
• use only 10% of our brain (p. 23):
  this is not actually correct: see here, which includes a comment from over a century ago about people not reaching their full mental potential, which is a different matter.
• Chapter Three:
  in this Chapter, protagonist Harry Dresden has a conversation with the shadow of a demon that is in him. This effectively describes a useful exercise in reviewing why one does things – i.e., getting one’s ethics and worldview and so forth established and described … at least, as best one can do at that time; it is the sort of thing that is worth doing now and again for growth and ethical review.
• involvement of mundane law (pp. 38 – 41):
  Murphy has a good point about magickal stuff not being above the law: as my ethics page points out, any fraud by me is actionable under law – but I am also protected against attempts at blackmail (it has been tried on me – once, and unsuccessfully), assaults, abusive language, etc. It cuts both ways.
  Going back to the book, on the other side of the coin, there is a good point about how using nonBPM magick will change the user – subtly, and in unhealthy ways. It’s probably a bit like psychically gargling with a toxin before spitting it onto someone else, or what I wrote about anthropomancy and haruspicy when reviewing “Dead Beat”, or this article, which includes the following: "He also said that a [Navaho] witch can perform this type of ceremony only four times in his life, because if he tries it more than that, the curse would come back on the witch himself. He also told me that if the intended victim found out about it, then the curse would come back onto the person who had requested it." Perhaps one could even consider it from the point of view of a mental / psychic cause / effect or action / reaction point of view – i.e., does pushing nonBPM out of oneself into the world create a back pressure of nonBPM onto one’s own mind, and thus inherently damage oneself?
• “Little Chicago” (p. 51 – 52):
  what a fascinating idea! I quite like the concept, but … it would be a lot of work, dowsing with a good map can be quite useful, and – when I master it – etheric travel is also probably easier …
• time magic (pp. 55 – 57):
  fairly standard discussion, done well. Should be read by newbies.
• symptoms of aggressively nonBPM magic (pp. 57 – 58):
  well discussed in this section.
  Zimmer Bradley’s “Heartlight” and “Dark Satanic” had some useful information on this as well (and some stereotypical, less useful information).
  My work is based around the biggest source of nonBPM energies in the world: everyday people, living everyday lives with stress, time pressure, money problems, office politics, family dynamics, etc.
• choosing magickal tools (aka “props”) (p. 61):
  choosing tools that are personally meaningful is always better – and that is in many books, along with advice to speak from the heart when doing magickal rituals as well. For newbies, however, some form / structure / examples can help narrow the field of possibilities down from “the entirety of creation” to a more manageable selection thereof …
• “manipulation” (i.e., nonBPM, negative psychic control) through wheedling (p. 65):
  this behaviour is WRONG – utterly, completely, absolutely, WRONG. It is wrong spiritually, ethically, socially, and in every other way. I know quite a few people who think it is a normal part of living, particularly if one is less physically strong than others, but it isn’t. This is control – purely and simply nonBPM, negative psychic control, realised through words and body language. It is how some people later graduate to such things as getting others to commit murder on their behalf. It is offensive, NOT cute, and anyone who thinks it is cute needs to read the following:

Females, get over 'cute'. Get competent. Get trained. Get capable. Get over 'cute'. And those of you who are called Patty and Debby and Suzy, get over that. Because we use those names to infantalise females – we keep females in their 'little girl' state by the names we use for them. Get over it. If you want to be taken seriously, get serious.

Jane Elliott

• Harry’s talk to Molly (pp. 82 – 83):
  I know many people who could have benefitted from Harry’s talk to Molly – some of whom I used to live with. Because of their behaviour, I have been unable to do the more subtle psychic work that I used to (e.g., set up the sort of gentle healing babies in hospitals need), let alone the heavy duty clearing work I want to get back into. Sadly, I now think I will probably be unable to do anything like that until I retire – money, time, energy, other commitments, etc are all getting in the way :(
• different parenting styles (p. 94):
  The issue here isn’t “which parenting style is correct”, which is a nonsense question, but:
        which style is best for which child?
        how much of each parenting style needs to get used for each child?
        how can one know when to change parenting style?
  I posted once about these sorts of issues, under “A plan for having kid(s)”, in Post No. 489 - Attaining mastery.
• horror movies: as a general comment, ho hum …what's for tea?
• effect that killing has on the killers (pp. 136 – 137):
  unlike previous mentions of the effects of nonBPM actions on those who do them, this is looking at the effect of what could be considered nonBPM actions on people who are doing them for BPM reasons – e.g., the police officer who stops someone who is on a killing rampage by shooting and killing the killer.
  In the real-verse, not everyone has enough authentic presence to stop such rampages (although I know former Archbishop Desmond Tutu once stopped a many from being necklaced), which means the choice is either (1) allow such people to go on such rampages without any check, and send the world backwards to being worse than a jungle, or (2) accept that the lesser of two evils is to stop such people destroying not only the people they have killed (and their Significant Others), but also stopping them from destroying – or setting back, at least - the potential for the world to be a better place.
  This is a concept I have discussed many times – generally in the context of rescuing  uncooperatives (and, as a result, those being controlled by the uncooperatives. One day I must explore adding occlumency from the Harry Potter-verse to what I have written about control and how to resist it … for which I currently recommend being proficient in, and regularly using, basic skills such as flaming, grounding, shielding / protection, meditation (particularly when it is used to enable contact with one's Higher Self), looking after one's psychic health, looking after one's health on other levels (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual), dealing with issues (such as lifestyle vulnerabilities [see for instance, here, here, here, here, here, and elsewhere on my main blog]), and, above all else, CLEARING … ).
• psychic predator(s) (pp. 142 – 143):
  although the protagonist Harry Dresden uses the term “spiritual predator”, I prefer to reserve the term “spiritual” for more pleasant / constructive / BPM topics. As described by Harry, the predator is basically a sadist using psychic, as opposed to physical, tools.
  I’ve done quite some work on the topic of phages (see here and here) as a result of the concepts described in this book, which is another example of finding guidance wherever one can find it.
• clairvoyants impressions of Murphy and drug addict (pp. 151 – 152):
  except for the neochristian overtones, these descriptions are fairly accurate, actually.
• the toughness of the character Pell (p. 159):
  this is one of the most important lessons from this book. This character has NO psychic power or knowledge whatsoever, and yet he persists and resists and, eventually, will outlast it, through sheer stubborn “toughness”. By being dedicated to being one’s true self, one can endure a great deal (although there are limits).
• phobophage (p. 161):
  This led to my posts on the topic of phages (see here and here). – another example of getting something good in the real-verse from this series of books :)
• the war between the Seelie and Unseelie courts (p. 177):
  I find this a bit overdone, particularly as my impression of the matter is that it is more like the dynamic balances represented by the Taijitu (the so-called “yin-yang symbol). There are opposing polarities, but they are dynamic, which leads to constant renewal, rather than being bulls with locked horns.
  I do know, however, from having read ahead, that this apparent conflict has a twist that is yet to be revealed … :)
• colour associations (p. 208):
  I agree that the associations people have with colours tends to relate to what they were first taught about them. In addition, people tend to perceive colours differently (e.g., ask a room of people to visualise the colour green, and you will probably get a different shad for each person), and character / life experience will influence matters as well. For instance, I have strong negative associations with the colour red, because of my experiences of male aggression and warfare; others relate to the positive aspects of this such as passion, life, energy, etc.
• redirection of inbound energy (p. 228):
  this is fairly standard amongst reasonably advanced magickal practitioners. Kerr  Cuhulain’s Order of Scathach has some training on this, but you need to be a member to access those lessons now – which is better, as it had too much access to non-members such as myself. I think, from memory, some of Kerr Cuhulain’s books have information on this as well.
• blasting rod (p. 256):
  this has been mentioned earlier in this series of books, but I’ve only just now thought to mention that I haven’t heard of such a thing anywhere else. There are few novel ideas in this book – such as the shield bracelet, which I’ve made a non-bullet-bouncing paper version of (gives emotional and psychic protection only), and hope – one day … * SIGHS * - to make in copper, and the blasting rod could, I suppose, be considered a specialised version of a wand … .
• anger (p. 261 – 262):
  this is a good description of what can happen when anger takes over – in this instance, someone bleeds to death that protagonist Harry Dresden could have saved, but he was letting rip against an entity that had already been largely beaten.
• the problem of people with guns (p. 264):
  in this case, people firing blindly, whilst panicked, kill and/or injure people they can’t see in a darkness induced magickally by “the baddies”. Although Harry Dresden does use guns, he emphasises several times in several of the book that they can cause injuries to other people as they pass through walls, ricochet, etc.
• Charity (pp. 337 - 343):
  these pages show why the character Charity Carpenter is a lying, two-faced, hypocritical – er, not-nice person. I have little time for people who lash out at others for being open about characteristics / abilities they have, but suppress – such as closet LGBT people who are vindictive towards LGBT people. Charity is like that, and no matter how well she is portrayed as being a good and caring parent, I consider that essential dishonesty outweighs her “good” aspects. That, of course, is me being judgemental :)
• preparing for a major ritual (p. 353):
  as I’ve mentioned a few times, we live in a soup of energies – several soups, actually, at least one per level of existence, and different blends in different places on each level. As an example, the soup on energy I sit in at work is very different to the soup I live in at home – the latter being much better, thank the Goddess! There are comments on this page about the effects of the day and time constraints, and how that can impact on a major preparation for an intense ritual.
• Charity (p. 364):
  OK, so there is a little bit of redemption of this character on this page :)
• emotions feeding others (p. 373):
  this is actually a comment that applies to a lot of other situations – for instance, bullies and sadists feed off the emotions of their victims (which is why I am so fundamentally against the victims of bullying telling the bully how the bullying is making the victim feel – it is rewarding the bully, for ****’s sake! Internet trolls also get off on the emotions they cause.
• the downside of pop culture (p. 389):
  I’ve posted a few times about tapping in to the thought forms being created by the interest in Harry Potter (it’s less of an advantage now – pop consciousness has moved on, and is no longer feeding those thought forms as well) – for instance, using the Expecto Patronum spell as an actual magickal protective spell. This page gives the downside of that – generation of fear by horror movies.
  This consideration is based purely on the energetic aspects of these: there is a whole debate about whether the psychology of movies and games causes, exacerbates or brings out (all the same, as far as I am concerned, from the point of view of impact – but each would be approached differently in terms of seeking a cure) things like violence.
• friends are true family (p. 393):
  I agree. Some relatives are also friends, and thus count as true family.
• Deities (p. 40):
  this page has some neochristian rubbish from Charity – who is therefore back to being irredeemable, as far as I am concerned :) – and comments about Deities from harry that I disagree with. I don’t consider that they are less active – just less acknowledged / noticed. I consider many Deities exist to bring something important into physical existence: as long as that characteristic is in existence, the Deity is doing Her/His/Its job. Whether we know it or not is immaterial to what is actually happening – although if we know and ignore, that is just downright rudeness.
• the fae being affected by iron (p. 415):
  this is something mentioned from several sources (one of the books my partner has given me, as a gift, is a reprint of some old stories on this and other aspects of British fae mythology). That, the stories about kryptonite affecting Superman, and the real world existence of allergies – some being life-threatening - are all worth thinking about: what affects us adversely - and powerfully so – psychically and spiritually? How can we minimise exposure to them? Can we develop an immunity to them? In my case, lack of contact with natural energies is one such aspect; in terms of active influences – well, I’ll keep those vulnerabilities to myself :)
• having no fear left, and Summer Court at heart of Winter Court (p. 423):
  in the specific instance given on this page, Harry Dresden is able to overcome a phobophage because he has no fear left. It makes sense in that specific context, particularly the Teddy Roosevelt comment about “the only thing to fear is fear itself”, but in real life, fear is a more complex matter – and can have some survival value. (Also, if you don’t have fear to overcome, you’re not brace / courageous – just “fearless”, which is not necessarily a good thing.)
  Also, I see the Seelie / Summer Court vs. Unseelie / Winter Court aspect of the fae as being more like the dynamic balance and endless renewal of the Taijitu than explosive opposites akin to the reaction typically attributed to matter and antimatter.
• orphans vs. kids in families (p. 454):
  this is a moment when Harry, who was orphaned at an early age, reflects on the advantages kids raised in families have. Well, if they are genuinely BPM loving families, yes … BUT Harry has accomplished an enormous amount, despite NOT having been raised in a loving family environment - and some families are downright abusive.
• the White Council (towards the end of the book):
  the whole White Council concept irritates me – as it is meant to, by Mr Butcher. Their attitudes are questionable (although a case for their views will be presented in subsequent books), but their implementation of it is highly flawed – it is simplistic, liable to personal and political abuse, and needs – well, it needs more of the real world justice concepts.
• not a relationship of equals (p. 534):
  YES! A thousand times, YES!!!
• sex and energetic overload (p. 537):
  yes, some sex can cause an energetic overload, although the vast majority is actually beneficial. Masturbation is also beneficial from an energetic point of view – the warning against “solo explorations” is not correct. 

 Keywords:

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