Post No. 448 - Reading

I'm incredibly busy and stressed at the moment (largely because of my day job, but other commitments are also having an influence), and my health is suffering as a result. Until I can post again, here's some reading which may be of interest.

• http://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2013/04/truth-and-meaning.html;

• this illustrates the problems men who are sexually assaulted have because of the stupidity of other people: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/01/danny-brown-oral-sex-kitty-pryde_n_3194881.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular;

• http://abraxas-journal.com/;

• http://wildhunt.org/2013/05/edwards-air-force-base-holds-first-wiccan-service-for-fallen-airmen.html;

• http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/0000/1870_howe_mothers-day.htm;

• http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usor&c=words&id=15428;

• very timely, very true, and a great exposition of why I don't fear Thurisaz: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2013/05/loving-nature-in-tornado-season.html;

• a site I'll be watching with some interest: http://www.politifact.com.au/, particularly in light of http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/public-cuts-can-create-waste-20130527-2n7sa.html and http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/why-i-quit-the-alp-20130526-2n50x.html;

• well done! http://www.dailylife.com.au/dl-fashion/when-men-pose-the-same-way-women-do-in-american-apparel-ads-20130523-2k21u.html;

• a very apt critique http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/the-six-things-wrong-with-the-most-watched-ad-in-the-world-20130521-2jyhf.html;

• yes! This is not actually surprising, it is just common sense for many people with adequate real life experience: http://www.dailylife.com.au/health-and-fitness/a-surprising-tactic-to-fight-anorexia-20130522-2k0rt.html;

• "Nanny in the Clouds" sounds like a potentially good idea (there are safety issues, checks on background etc which need to be considered but are not mentioned in the article): http://www.theage.com.au/travel/no-kidding-on-longhaul-flights-20130523-2k35c.html;

• http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2013/05/28/3769038.htm;

• as an engineer in the water industry (which has given me the sort of direct experience of "Third World" situations that River talks about), I love the inclusion of safe drinking water as an example of privilege: http://www.thorncoyle.com/podcasts/ElementalCastings_59_PCON2013_Pagans_Privilege_030613.mp3;

• interesting cross-cultural/interfaith article: http://covenantinterfaith.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/ritual-discussion-of-rachaels-trip-to_6.html;

• this article is arguable, but, well, here I am - and I would never move back to Queensland (partly the weather), to NSW, and have been reluctant to move to Tasmania in the past because of their history of discrimination against LGBTIQ people (considerable improvement recently, although still a long way to go - and all parts of Australia have problems with racism - see http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/30/racism-adam-goodes-intervention, for instance, and http://www.theage.com.au/comment/whitewashed-culture-has-dark-implications-20130529-2nbs2.html,http://www.theage.com.au/executive-style/culture/blogs/all-men-are-liars/getting-real-about-racism-20130529-2nb9h.html, http://www.smh.com.au/national/five-experiences-with-racism-in-australia-20130530-2neu9.html and http://www.smh.com.au/national/is-it-racist-to--your-racism-questions-answered-20130531-2ngcy.html) and pagans (bit unsure if there has been any change): http://www.theage.com.au/comment/welcome-to-victoria-the-progressive-state-20130509-2jak0.html;

• and a few more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/may/27/york-mosque-protest-tea-biscuits, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/may/28/iphone-thief-mobile-phone-snatched, http://www.theage.com.au/world/facebook-challenge-after-girls-death-leap-over-insults-20130527-2n7g7.html, and http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/may/29/facebook-campaign-violence-against-women;

• hmmmm .... : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0089LOOF4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0089LOOF4&linkCode=as2&tag=thewildhunt-20';

• interesting in light of the Catholic's Pope Francis' actions (which still include killing LGBT people through discrimination): http://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2013/05/the-good-in-other-religions.html.

[1] BPF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear")

My "blogiography" is here.  

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...  See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "pagans for peace" project, and here for my bindrune kit-bag.

• May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
• A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
• The secret to being (financially) rich is not to have lots of money: it is to have an income above the poverty line, and then make whatever sacrifices are necessary in order to live within 90% of your means.  
• Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master. 
• Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. 
• The means shape the end. 
• Spiritual love is far more than just an emotion - it is a concept, thoughts, actions and a way of living.

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE

Your children are not your children. ... They come through you but ... they belong not to you ... for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow KAHLIL GIBRAN

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW

People I'm currently following or reading, or have considerable respect for, include: 

• Red Catherine, a Romani woman living on Artemis, in South Australia; 
• T. Thorn Coyle; 
• The Wild Hunt; 
• Under the Ancient Oaks; and 
• the Order of Scathach.

Tags: discrimination, lesbian/bisexual/gay, paganism, peace, philosophy, politics, religion, society, transgender/transsexual/bigender, violence, 

First published: Fryrsdagr, 31st May, 2013

Last edited: Friday, 31st May, 2013

Post No. 447 - National Sorry Day

Today in Australia is "National Sorry Day" [2]. My partner has written this about it on her Facebook page:

"Today, in Australia it is National Sorry Day. I send my heartfelt sorrow and regret. I offer healing energies for all those people who suffered and still suffer, lest we forget!"

I second that.

[1] BPF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear")

My "blogiography" is here.  

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...  See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "pagans for peace" project, and here for my bindrune kit-bag.

• May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
• A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
• Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master. 
• Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. 
• The means shape the end. 
• Spiritual love is far more than just an emotion - it is a concept, thoughts, actions and a way of living.

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE

Your children are not your children. ... They come through you but ... they belong not to you ... for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow KAHLIL GIBRAN

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW

People I'm currently following or reading, or have considerable respect for, include: 

• Red Catherine, a Romani woman living on Artemis, in South Australia; 
• T. Thorn Coyle; 
• The Wild Hunt; 
• Under the Ancient Oaks; and 
• the Order of Scathach.

Tags: racism, society,

First published: Sunnudagr, 26th May, 2013

Last edited: Sunday, 26th May, 2013

Post No. 446 - The need to simplify life, and some speculations

A speculation: can cats smell energy?

Many people who come across psychism tend to focus on the visual skills (such as clairvoyance), which is a reflection of how much we tend to focus on vision in our lives: we have become visual creatures, with senses such as smell diminished (perhaps beneficially so, given city living!). Nevertheless, our other physical senses exist, and have non-physical counterparts, one of which is a psychic sense of smell.

Cats are actually very "olfactorily oriented", to coin a phrase. Dogs get the publicity for their sense of smell, but my experience is that cats are very nearly as keen to use their sense of smell as dogs. When I get home, our cats want to smell my hands to work out where I have been, what I have been doing, and what I have experienced. If I've been particularly stressed at work, they might make a face as they come to that smell, and then keep going with their review.

If I've been healing, they are particularly interested in my hands and lower arms, which is the part of me that the energy flows through. If I've been at a development class, my partner's daughter's cat would be particularly interested in sniffing my third eye.

So ... can cats smell energy?

A speculation: work harder

Why, many people would ask. Well, the simple truth is that many people actually want to be doing more - they don't want the so-called idyllic life of lazing around in luxury,or on a tropical island. They want to feel useful, to feel that they are making a beneficial difference, and to be constructively using the resource of time that they have. They may have a day job out of the necessity of paying the rent, but they will then do other work to get a sense of value from existence.

I've touched upon this previously, when I made the following comment in relation to diabetes:

"I support and endorse campaigns to improve physical health and mental health in society, but in my opinion they will not go close to reducing the rates of diabetes until they start to at least make the connection between diabetes and non-physical aspects such emotions AND A DESIRE FOR MORE MEANINGFUL/SPIRITUAL LIFESTYLES."

The problem, however, is that they're voices are getting drowned out - partly by the noise of those fools who want the assurance of everyone else having the same values as themselves [3], and partly by the advertising juggernaut that the out-of-control servant of society known as business-and-commerce has created and refined in order to direct society in the direction that business-and-commerce wants. I've mentioned previously that I think "the economy" has become the new religion of society. Both of these statements are, to some extent, simplifications: there are beneficial things that business-and-commerce can do, but it is, in my view, vital that business-and-commerce be reined in, and that all start to see that it is a servant with the purpose of creating a better life and a better world for people, and to enable people to do what it is that they want to do that is spiritually justifiable - in other words, for the "Highest Spiritual Good".

The current situation is particularly problematic when we come to the great crisis of climate change, which is but one of the many current crises facing this world. And that leads into the next point I wish to cover.

The need to simplify life

Our society has dessert spoons, and soup spoons, and smaller cutlery that is supposed to be used for entrees. This is redundant, and exists these days largely so people can belittle others who "do the wrong thing" from the point of view of social conditioning - which is about controlling other people. Yes, there are functional differences between dessert spoons and soup spoons, but they can actually be used successfully for the "wrong" function. Similarly, in most cases, normal cutlery can be used for entree. [4]

We don't need this level of complexity. It exists probably as an extension of the initial development of the notion of social status, which is possibly a warped misrepresentation of the valid concept of spiritual stature, and thus this complexity based on status and having a way to put other people down for social mistakes has, in my view, no valid reason to exist.

As another example, clothes don't need to be ironed. They function perfectly well in terms of protecting us from the elements without ironing. If people see someone wearing un-ironed, wrinkled clothes, the response is usually some form of belittling - and yet the person who does not iron is consuming fewer resources, and has more time and energy available for the more important things in life. (Having spent several years washing clothes by hand when I lived on a boat, and being aware how dirty some clothes can get for people - which includes women! - working in trades, not to mention those with young children, I am actually in favour of clothes washers, by the way, as they do genuinely save time and labour ... provided that is not used as an excuse to have more clothes.) It is an affectation that is about social control - the establishment of social status, diversion of time and energy into trivialities, and giving a chance for the small-minded to vent their spleen.

And then if we get into houses - well, don't get me started on houses. We've watched some large houses being built in our neighbourhood recently, and they appear to me to be purely about ostentation, not function. I consider aspirations around houses are one of the biggest sources of environmental and social problems in Western culture - and hence the comment I have in my signature block (A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others).

I feel similarly around having excessive numbers of electronic devices (for instance, I am happy to watch movies on my PC rather than a bigger screen), and on that I know I am not alone. There was an article in The Age on this some time ago, and you could look here, for instance (that blog may be worth a look more generally).

Technology is not always an enemy of the process of simplification - for instance, it has made interaction at a distance more effective, which is a development that goes back to the telephone. Hopefully that will eventually lead to a reduction in pressure to commute. Mind you, for that to happen, the world of commerce-and-business will have to catch up. When lap tops became available, I argued that I could work on the train if I had one, but the moronic manager I had at the time would only allow me to claim half the time I had spent working on train as work time, so I told him where to shove that requirement and stayed peacefully enjoying doing some reading in my commuting time.

That particular moron drove me to the brink of suicide several times, and was a perfect example of all that I consider wrong in the world of business and commerce ... I'm glad I've met people since who've shown me the good side.

Here are a few bindrunes which might help if you want to build up some energy in the world along the lines I've just discussed:

Make Do

Simplify

Asceticism

[3] I see this particularly around those who want children, and do not feel comfortable with others choosing otherwise. There are some particularly good comments on that in a recent article from The Age.In fact, here are a few articles:

• "A few things you shouldn't say to a childless woman", 8th May, 2013: http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life/a-few-things-you-shouldnt-say-to-a-childless-woman-20130507-2j55n.html;

• "Hey girls, stop slut shaming", 6th March, 2013: http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life/blogs/my-jennaration/hey-girls-stop-slut-shaming-20130306-2flet.html;

• "Rise of the mono-lunchers", 7th May, 2013: http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/rise-of-the-monolunchers-20130506-2j39g.html;

• "Coles, Woolies and misguided outrage", 7th March, 2013: http://www.theage.com.au/business/coles-woolies-and-misguided-outrage-20130307-2fnr1.html;

• "Are we as comfortable with same sex parents as we think we are?", 30th April, 2013: http://www.dailylife.com.au/life-and-love/parenting-and-families/are-we-as-comfortable-with-same-sex-parents-as-we-think-we-are-20130430-2iqha.html;

• "Trial via social media a problem for courts", 17th April, 2013: http://www.theage.com.au/national/trial-via-social-media-a-problem-for-courts-20130416-2hygz.html;

• "Learning to live with the legacy of violence", 9th March, 2013: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/learning-to-live-with-the-legacy-of-violence-20130308-2frka.html;

• "Facebook 'erodes any idea of privacy' ", 8th April, 2013: http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/facebook-erodes-any-idea-of-privacy-20130408-2hgkm.html;

• "It's good to aspire, but know what you're aspiring to", 12th May, 2013: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/its-good-to-aspire-but-know-what-youre-aspiring-to-20130511-2jemu.html;

• "Another day poorer, deeper in debt", 1st May, 2013: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/another-day-poorer-deeper-in-debt-20130430-2ir5t.html;

• "Why are you still stealing Game of Thrones?", 4th April, 2013: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/blogs/blunt-instrument/why-are-you-still-stealing-game-of-thrones-20130404-2h7wl.html;

• the thing about being "astonishingly boring", is that it leaves so much time and energy free for more important things than just bloody shopping: "I know what I like: why most of us stay true rather than think outside the square", 4th April, 2013: http://www.smh.com.au/national/i-know-what-i-like-why-most-of-us-stay-true-rather-than-think-outside-the-square-20130403-2h77k.html;

• "Do men fake orgasms?", 16th April, 2013: http://www.dailylife.com.au/life-and-love/love,-sex-and-relationships/do-men-fake-orgasms-20130416-2hxxb.html;

• "The body image video every woman should watch", 17th April, 2013: http://www.dailylife.com.au/health-and-fitness/dl-wellbeing/the-body-image-video-every-woman-should-watch-20130417-2hz3v.html (we do not need the level of cosmetics that we use!!!);

• "Is this the best body image message ever?", 12th March, 2013: http://www.dailylife.com.au/health-and-fitness/dl-wellbeing/is-this-the-best-body-image-message-ever-20130312-2fxxp.html;

• "Do women apologise too much?", 6th March, 2013: http://www.dailylife.com.au/life-and-love/work-and-money/do-women-apologise-too-much-20130301-2fb7i.html;

• "Stop telling women to be afraid", 6th March, 2013: http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/stop-telling-women-to-be-afraid-20130306-2fjy5.html;

• "Stop calling dads incompetent", 2nd April, 2013: http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/stop-calling-dads-incompetent-20130402-2h3ye.html;

• "When did it stop being OK for men to hold hands?", 13th March, 2013: http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/when-did-it-stop-being-ok-for-men-to-hold-hands-20130313-2g098.html;

• "Academics say fat-bashing doesn't fly", 6th April, 2013: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/academics-say-fatbashing-doesnt-fly-20130405-2hc63.html;

• "Exercise guru labels outdoor fitness groups 'embarrassing' ", 13th March, 2013: http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/exercise-guru-labels-outdoor-fitness-groups-embarrassing-20130312-2fyg7.html.

[4] Where, however, we need more spoons is in the case of the chronically ill. Something I have discovered as a result of discussing this post (in real life, not on-line ... and with my partner who used to be a nurse) is that spoons are used to discuss energy - e.g., how many spoonfuls of energy will it take to get out of bed, and how many do you have available.

[1] BPF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear")

My "blogiography" is here.  

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...  See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "pagans for peace" project, and here for my bindrune kit-bag.

• May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
• A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
• Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master. 
• Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. 
• The means shape the end. 
• Spiritual love is far more than just an emotion - it is a concept, thoughts, actions and a way of living.

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE

Your children are not your children. ... They come through you but ... they belong not to you ... for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow KAHLIL GIBRAN

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW

People I'm currently following or reading, or have considerable respect for, include: 

• Red Catherine, a Romani woman living on Artemis, in South Australia; 
• T. Thorn Coyle; 
• The Wild Hunt; 
• Under the Ancient Oaks; and 
• the Order of Scathach.

Tags: animals, control, economy, psychism, society,  social status,

First published: Manadagr, 13th May, 2013

Last edited: Monday, 13th May, 2013

Post No. 445 - Welcome to Mabon

On Thursday of this week, autumn came to our garden - the leaves started changing colour, although there had been changes to the flexibility of the trunks of the small potted trees, and some change of leaf colour, before then - but it wasn't quite clear whether or not the change of colour was the return of the dry spell, or the arrival of autumn. So ... as far I am concerned, Mabon was on Thursday of this week :)

In terms of the seasons of the indigenous people, we are in, and have been in since around the start of April, Waring, the wombat season.

As I write this, we are resting after a hectic period - it was particularly hectic and exhausting for my partner - helping to organise and run a fund-raising event at the spiritualist place we volunteer at. I've never cooked for more than 25 people at a time, but I'm not a fancy cook (basic only ... think I'd make more of a short order cook, whereas my partner is a chef :) Actually, we did have a professional cook - who attends this place from time to time - there to help us on the night, and he did a marvellous job of getting us organised and delivery flowing together), so I was more of a gopher for my partner and the other woman involved. 3 days of prep and 70 meals later ... phew!!! Still, it was a pleasure to work together, and it all, to pinch a word from my partner from something she wrote about this, had a wonderful symbiosis.

From a purely personal point of view, I was asked to do a few channelled energy healings along the way, which is one of the reasons I wanted to start going there in the first place, so that aim is still being met.

It was interesting to talk to one of the guests and one of the trainee Ministers about symbols, and it was also interesting to come across someone there who has an interest in paganism, and who would like to do something more about that. Hmm. I had asked the gods/goddesses / "those in Spirit who help me" to get me more connected with people "of like mind" at work ... guess I hadn't fully twigged that, as far as they're concerned, my work is at the spiritualist place, not my day job :)

Ah well, I'll just have to ask again, being a little more precise :)

And now to finish updating my notes for a crystal workshop I am to run next week ...

[1] BPF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear")

My "blogiography" is here.  

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...  See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "pagans for peace" project, and here for my bindrune kit-bag.

• May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
• A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
• Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master. 
• Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. 
• The means shape the end. 
• Spiritual love is far more than just an emotion - it is a concept, thoughts, actions and a way of living.

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE

Your children are not your children. ... They come through you but ... they belong not to you ... for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow KAHLIL GIBRAN

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW

People I'm currently following or reading, or have considerable respect for, include: 

• Red Catherine, a Romani woman living on Artemis, in South Australia; 
• T. Thorn Coyle; 
• The Wild Hunt; 
• Under the Ancient Oaks; and 
• the Order of Scathach.

Tags: purpose, seasons, about me,

First published: Sunnudagr, 12th May, 2013

Last edited: Sunday, 12th May, 2013

Post No. 444 - A kit-bag of bindrunes

PS - my second "kit-bag of bindrunes" is here.

As recently promised, here is the current batch of bindrunes. I'll add more, better images (although that does NOT stop you using them now) and extra information (particularly about some of the additional runes which have been create in the designs) over time.

Enjoy :)

 Able-bodied (rough draft)

 (I developed this helping the elderly with frailty.) 

Asceticism

Awareness (rough draft) 

 Balance (interim image)

Calm (interim image)

Civility

 Equanimity (rough draft)

Group Leadership 

(this will be the key to a new online shrine I hope to make soon)

Hope

Humility (interim image) 

Inclusivity

Make do

Openness

 Perspective (rough draft)

Progressiveness (and self care)

I have spent several years living in the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne, an area I was led to believe was quite inclusive of LGBTIQ people. However, I've actually experienced discrimination at a rate around 20 times than when I was living in Frankston -the Pines - the Mornington Peninsula. I've thought about this, and discussed it with several people, and considered cultural issues / gentrification / the unacknowledged stress of being crowded, and have ultimately decided that what the area needs is just a good old dose of progressiveness ... and lo! and behold! when I drew a bindrune for "progressive", I found that I had come up exactly the same design I had for self care! Which is interesting, as it suggests to me that being progressive is being caring of oneself, and being caring of oneself requires a certain amount of progressiveness ... Hmmm :) 

 Reasonableness (rough draft)

Renewal
(apologies for cutting off the top - the final copy will be complete :) )

 Respect (interim image)

 Responsibility

Reticence

 Safety (rough draft)

 Self care ... and Progressiveness

I have spent several years living in the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne, an area I was led to believe was quite inclusive of LGBTIQ people. However, I've actually experienced discrimination at a rate around 20 times than when I was living in Frankston -the Pines - the Mornington Peninsula. I've thought about this, and discussed it with several people, and considered cultural issues / gentrification / the unacknowledged stress of being crowded, and have ultimately decided that what the area needs is just a good old dose of progressiveness ... and lo! and behold! when I drew a bindrune for "progressive", I found that I had come up exactly the same design I had for self care! Which is interesting, as it suggests to me that being progressive is being caring of oneself, and being caring of oneself requires a certain amount of progressiveness ... Hmmm :)

 Self Discipline

 Self Reliance

Simplify

 Slowing

 Spirituality

 Welcoming

[1] BPF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear")

My "blogiography" is here.  

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...  See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "pagans for peace" project, and here for my bindrune kit-bag.

• May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
• A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
• Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master. 
• Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. 
• The means shape the end. 
• Spiritual love is far more than just an emotion - it is a concept, thoughts, actions and a way of living.

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE

Your children are not your children. ... They come through you but ... they belong not to you ... for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow KAHLIL GIBRAN

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW

People I'm currently following or reading, or have considerable respect for, include: 

• Red Catherine, a Romani woman living on Artemis, in South Australia; 
• T. Thorn Coyle; 
• The Wild Hunt; 
• Under the Ancient Oaks; and 
• the Order of Scathach.

Tags: energy work, runes,

First published: Wodansdagr, 8th May, 2013

Last edited: Wednesday, 8th May, 2013

Post No. 443 - Oops

Oops.

Oops? Let me explain - but I have to begin with some background :) And before I start on the background, I would like you to read this:

• "Motorists driven to distraction by their own devices", 4th May, 2013: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/motorists-driven-to-distraction-by-their-own-devices-20130503-2iyow.html.

Scary, eh? Now, that explanation.

In my day job, we're trained to consider safety - it's called "safety in design", and I'm glad that legislation and business procedures now make such a big deal about it. It was harder to get people to take safety seriously when I started, over 30 years ago, in engineering. I've even had a stint, early in my career, as - technically - a Mine Safety Officer ... mind you, the "mine" was actually still an operating cattle property in inland Queensland, with the "mining" confined to drilling to confirm where coal was (they found it was too expensive to mine the coal, so didn't develop it in the end :) ). Still, we had safety issues to consider, including the over-confident driving of field assistants, so - at the suggestion of a contractor who was working for us - I arranged some advanced driving lessons, using the driving instructor of a nearby, actually operating mine, to prevent more accidents (no serious injuries in my time, fortunately, but some damage: 'twas a bit hard to do this when I had three months experience after Uni ... ).

Anyway, between that, seeing some serious accidents (such as three teenage girls walking beside a road who were run over by a truck which slid when an idiot in a car cut in front of the truck and caused the truck driver to brake hard to avoid hitting the idiot in the car), having people close to me lose significant others as a result of car accidents (including drunk bloody idiots) and a friend who worked in a respite care house caring for, amongst others, people with ABIs ("Acquired Brain Injuries"), including people who had ABIs as a result of car accidents (this sort of experience is a very good way to get beyond the media's often favourite statistic of deaths), I tend to be somewhat sensitive about the issue of safety in relation to driving. I'm certainly not a fault-free driver - I've had accidents, but at least they've all been injury free, minor things. (And then there was the time my car was hit by a willy willy - a small tornado - and lifted over to the other side of the road, but that's a different matter ... :) )

Tailgating is probably the biggest driving crime in my opinion - and make no mistake about it, it is a crime, both under the road laws AND as an example, in my opinion, of attempting to intimidate someone into committing a crime (i.e., "monstering" them into driving faster or dangerously, so the tailgater can get somewhere quicker) - that I see. Fortunately, I'm finding that using the "slowing" bindrune - see below - and a firm mental projection of "back off" seems to stop most people doing this - well, to me, at any rate. I have less success trying to use it to stop other people being tailgated, which is probably because of the karmic and learning requirements of those incidents being those of the people involved, not me.

"Slowing" bindrune

And that's a clue to what I am going to lead up to in this post.

What I have been thinking about - initially, at any rate - is the issue of people using mobile phones while they are driving. The article I started this post with indicates that up 1,000 Victorians will be killed or injured as a result of this sort of activity in the next five years - so it is clearly something of some significance. From personal experience, I've had people nearly wipe me out when they were on the phone, and it is easy to pick the distracted driver amongst a few others (they inevitably slow and wander off the driving line). How to stop them doing that?

Well, I tried using Isa [2] - in other words, surrounding the phone with astral ice. That would, I hoped, freeze the phones temporarily, almost as if the connection had been lost temporarily, but would later defrost and allow the phone to be used. I had a few misgivings about what would happen if a driver looked at the phone, but decided to try it on a driver on the phone who wasn't near any cars other than me. I wasn't quite sure whether or not it worked, but a couple of times it seemed to after 30 seconds or so - which I didn't like, as I don't want to have 30 seconds with my concentration reduced from driving (another recent article suggests that as soon as attention goes off the road for more than two seconds, the risk of an accident increases).

Anyway, before I was able to take this any further, I had the work trip to Brisbane that I mentioned in a recent post. While away, my phone ... froze a few times :) Karma much? And hence the oops (although, subject to the issue of size of karmic return, which does impact on the order in which karma - good and bad - is returned, that does suggest my karmic status is not too bad, for karma to be returned so quickly; I wrote about this previously - see here).

OK, so I decided I would start to rethink my approach, and realised that a better way would be to increase awareness so people voluntarily stop using their mobile phones inappropriately. That led to the bindrunes below for safety and awareness: my idea was I would project the bind rune of awareness onto the outside (the sheath) of the person's aura, which gives them the choice to let it in or not, then hook it with the rune Eihwaz [2] and draw it up into a bindrune for safety above the top of the person's aura - symbolising increasing awareness of safety.

Awareness bindrune (rough draft)

Safety bindrune (rough draft)

Natty idea, I thought - until driving home last night (well, it was last night as I wrote this bit :) ), when I came across a situation where a tram was approaching from the opposite direction, a car was entering from a side street on my right to cut across in front of the tram (we drive on the left here), another car was entering a side street on my left (not quite lined up with the other - and neither car coming in from the side streets seemed to have noticed the other), and a pedestrian running across the street in the middle of all of it (probably to get on the tram).

End result? I sent safety bindrunes every which way. I have absolutely no way of knowing whether any of this worked, but at least no-one hit anything or was hit.

Phew. I'm glad of all that happened before, so that I had that tool available and ready to go.

I've also decided that I'm going to put a selection of my bindrunes up in a single post (linked to in my signature block) so others can use them if they wish. The initial ones are a mixture of rough drafts and more polished drafts (although none are what I consider finalised). I'll update them, and add more, as I keep working.

Watch this space :)

PS - if the price of me saving one life or preventing one major injury was accepting phone problems, my initial inclination would be to say that's fine. However, that could be interfering with others' planned growth experiences (which are not always pleasant), and thus what I SHOULD have done was to ask that everything I do be for the Highest Spiritual Good, and let my BPF Guides sabotage me where that was for the HSG. As it happens, I think the safety bindrune is a better approach - but it still needs to be done "for the HSG". I possibly wasn't allowed to think of it earlier, as the phone problems were actually pleasant feedback for me, and given some of the other pressures and stresses in my life, that was good.


[1] BPF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear")

My "blogiography" is here.  

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...  See here for my group mind project, and here and here for my "pagans for peace" project.

• May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
• A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
• Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master. 
• Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. 
• The means shape the end. 
• Spiritual love is far more than just an emotion - it is a concept, thoughts, actions and a way of living.

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE

Your children are not your children. ... They come through you but ... they belong not to you ... for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow KAHLIL GIBRAN

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW

People I'm currently following or reading, or have considerable respect for, include: 

• Red Catherine, a Romani woman living on Artemis, in South Australia; 
• T. Thorn Coyle; 
• The Wild Hunt; 
• Under the Ancient Oaks; and 
• the Order of Scathach.

Tags: about me, energy work, free will, runes, safety,

First published: Wodansdagr, 8th May, 2013

Last edited: Wednesday, 8th May, 2013