Seven Knocks On The Door
It’s 3:54 AM and I’ve been awake since 3:15. I have to admit that I’m tired enough to go back to bed, and it’s not like I’m unnerved or anything so I suppose that I could. On the other hand, I would only be in bed for another hour or two, so I think to myself, “why bother?”
So here I sit typing here instead. Hmph.
Back on the 12th of June I experienced a knock on the door as well, but the difference between that experience and this is that, this time, there about seven knocks. Also, the knock that woke me on the 12th was louder; it had a bit more forced behind it.
This morning’s knock had no real force behind it, though it wasn’t particularly soft. There was also a pattern to it as though the knocker was attempting - but not quite succeeding at - the “shave and a hair cut, two bits” pattern. Read the rest of this entry »
Topics: Paranormal | No Comments »
When Does “Religion” Become “Mythology”?
I ran across a very good question the other day at ecauldron.net entitled, “When does ‘religion’ become ‘mythology’?”
Out of respect for the original poster I will not reproduce their entire post here (I haven’t been given the permission to do so). Besides, the thread itself has some thoughtful, interesting, and maybe even insightful responses that I think are well worth reading.
As I mentioned in my response in that thread I thought that I would have a quick answer to the poser’s question, but it turned out to be not nearly so easy to give a straight response! Ultimately, I think that the response lies with the individual, though I accept that the general public may share a similar opinion.
There’s no reason to repeat the post here though, and you would probably enjoy reading the other thoughts in the thread as well. If you enjoy the subject, which I can only assume that you do because you’re here, then read the thread When does “religion” become “mythology”?
~Steph
Technorati Tags: religion, mythology, spirituality, god, goddess, pagan, paganism
Topics: Spiritual Theories | No Comments »
Must We, As A Species, Accept Death To Move On?
I was having a conversation this morning and the subject of death was brought up in an offhanded way, but it made me think about our situation as a species.
Religion is something that has always put its greatest effort into holding back the human race. When it was discovered that the Earth is not the center of the galaxy, religion wanted to kill the man who revealed this truth. When science makes discoveries that can prolong human life, cure diseases, and even potentially “cure” some types of paralysis, it’s religion that wants to make it all stop.
Sure they have their reasons, but they really don’t matter. The only thing that truly matters is the results of their actions, and those “results” are holding back the human race in its entirety.
In addition to this we have the wars that we’re currently seeing in the world today. I am not so naive as to think that wars would never happen without religion, but they bear pointing out. These religious wars and killings are focused on control and, of course, on holding back entire cultures.
You see the running theme here.
So my question, as the subject of this post states, is “Must we, as a species, accept death to move on?”
The reason that I ask this question is because I think that the answer is “yes”. At its very heart, religion is all about “the after life” or “the spirit world”. Regardless of what you call it it’s “the place that you go to after you die”. The reason for this is because humans fear death (I certainly do, to be honest) and many people need these comforts.
The answer then is simple: In order to move beyond religion we - as a species - are going to have to come to terms with the fact that we’re all born to die. It’s harsh I know, but unless science makes some significant progress then we’re all likely going to die.
Even if science did make such a breakthrough then you could bet that religions would be screaming at the tops of their lungs in an attempt to prevent it, or even destroy it!
Which is exactly my point. If religion had its way we would all still be ignorant of the fact that our planet orbits the stars (and not the other way around). If religion has its way, stem cell research will be killed regardless of how humane the process of gathering those cells may be. Because religion has its way, many people even today still believe that the Earth is only six thousand or so years old despite how obviously incorrect that is!
For the human race to make the progress that it needs - from fighting diseases to elonging life and controlling our out of control population numbers - we are going to have to move beyond religion. In order to do that we, as a species, are going to have to come to terms with the idea of death.
It is of no small irony that only after embracing death will the human race be able to cure the worse of our afflictions and be able to live, perhaps even to the point of elonging our life span to hundreds of years or more.
Could insecurity be at the root of the greatest of all human evils?
~Steph
Technorati Tags: religion, death, living, human, human race, future, hope, science
Topics: Spiritual Theories | No Comments »
Poltergeist? A Knock On The Door
This happened a few days ago.
I typically wake up early for my morning jog, sometimes rising as early as 4:30 in the morning with no alarm clock. On this particular morning, however, I was comfortably dozing away the very early morning hours.
Everything was going swimmingly until two loud raps occurred on my bedroom door.
As you may imagine this woke me and was all together a bit out of place. Investigating to see who could have thought it so important to be awake at that hour, and to wake me up with them, I found that there was in fact no one there… that I could see, anyway.
The knocks were obvious and strong, but there was nothing threatening or otherwise negative about them. They were simply a couple of strong knocks, as though a very big fellow were at my door.
Could some entity have found it odd that I had not yet wakened for my morning exercise? Hmm, well I certainly appreciate the assistance, even though I wish that the spirit would have waited until I had slept a bit longer… 
~Steph
Technorati Tags: paranormal, poltergeist, ghosts
Topics: Paranormal | 1 Comment »
Beginning Circle Casting w/ Stones
I came across a discussion thread today that has some very good tips for anyone who is new to circle casting and may want to use stones as part of their practice. The thread, titled Elemental Correspondences of Crystals and Gemstones, is over at The Cauldron, which is a good source for this kind of information.
Stones are something that I’ve always enjoyed but I never put a lot of work into. I wonder why that is? I actually have a very nice gemstone collection. I really should put it to use some time.
Stone work can be very powerful. An old friend of mine used to practice shielding magick using his stones. His favorite was this first sized chunk of bloodstone; oh wow was it beautiful. I remember picking up that stone and the charge that I got off of it was simply amazing! I was bouncy and in a state similar to a “sugar high” for quite some time after holding it.
He was quite good at what he done.
At any rate, check out that information if you’re curious. 
Technorati Tags: magick, gemstones, crystals, stones, stone work
Topics: Mystical Theories | No Comments »
Limbo No Longer Exists? Yet More Thoughts On Organized Religion
According to an article on Yahoo news it seems like Limbo is now a thing of the past. Or are they saying that it never existed at all?
This is one of the areas (of many) that I have a problem with organized religion. They like to tell people that things are absolute fact, that they have the truth, but every now and then they go and change what they’re teaching. If something is an absolute fact then how does it change? How do entire levels of existence, such as Limbo, cease to exist at the swipe of a pen?
Topics: Thought | No Comments »
Theories of The True Form of The Divine
Some time back I began to ponder the question, “What could be the true form of the divine?” I asked this question because, despite the many myths of the gods/esses, it doesn’t seem to make logical sense that a deity would be a gender. This lead to other questions, such as, “Why would a deity require sexual organs?”, “A digestive system is part of a human body; why do they need one of those?”, and so on, and so forth.
All of these questions, and more, were demanding to be asked because the deities are not physical beings. They therefore do not require physical things.
So what form, I wondered, would a divine being be?
Topics: Spiritual Theories | No Comments »
Impressions & Poems
Strong as any wind,
tempered, mighty, consistent.
Bright and warm as the sun,
my golden lady.
Gentle and comforting as the moon,
m’lady of waters.
As giving & bountiful as the earth,
she is as a joyous Prana.
Patient as any wave,
guiding & loving mother.
Proud, strong, wise.
My goddess Aine
A realization came to me as images and emotions flowed through my mind. “The gods speak to us through their images”, perhaps more literally than most would think.
This may be an explanation of why and how there could be so many gods and goddesses of the sun, of the moon, and of the same season and so forth. Perhaps these things are not so much what they control or govern, but are representative of Them, individually. All of those things which make up their qualities as individuals, and perhaps their personalities.
To become closer to our goddesses and gods perhaps we should meditate on those things which have been attributed to them for centuries. The answer to Them could be obvious, in front of our faces for the longest time. Once again we (humans in general) may have taken to interpreting their symbols in an all too literal fashion.
A note about the text above, I don’t know how to express the “Prana” idea that I had. The desired image is one of always giving not just life, but “heartfully” or, perhaps, “joyously” giving a life energy… an essence of life… to all living things; “as a continuous breath”. Read In The Forest for an idea.
Technorati Tags: spirituality, goddess, Aine, pagan, paganism
Topics: Spirituality | 1 Comment »
Georgia and The Bible
Shadows In Motion is not intended as a place for me to talk about what’s happening in the news. I’ve done that in the past and quite frankly it was not a very interesting way - for me - to keep a blog.
However, this is a situation that I can’t help but to comment on. I will do my best to keep my usual thoughtful approach to the topics that I submit to SIM, strange as they may be.
With that said I would like to take a moment to vent about the following news:
ATLANTA - Georgia is poised to introduce two literature classes on the Bible in public schools next year, a move some critics say would make the state the first to take an explicit stance endorsing — and funding — biblical teachings.
As you may imagine this struck me as a horrible idea, but this is not a blog where you’re going to read the author (moi) going off on a tangent. I could, mind you, but that’s not what I want SIM to be about.
The good news in this situation is that the bible course is not going to be required. In addition to that, the schools in the state of Georgia will be able to decide individually whether they want to include this bible-based class at all.
Topics: News & Updates | No Comments »
Thoughts On Alien Life
The subject of non-terrestrial (alien) life is gaining momentum as an every day subject. Alien life in the form of bacteria is being brought to collective consciousness by NASA, and aside from that, more and more people accept the possibility that we’re being visited by intelligent life forms. It seems that even the news, though certainly still taking their gigglesome approach to the topic, is also more willing to report on the possibility of visitors.
Even I have seen some strange sights in the skies, though I can’t say that they were alien in origin: A star that had sat still for twenty or thirty minutes quickly crossed the sky to the horizon of the rising sun and once again became motionless. A foo-fighter chased a jet that was flying over our house and then shot straight up and vanished. Another seemingly motionless star decided to land beyond the distant line of trees, changing colors from that of a twinkling star to shifting reds and blues before it passed below line of sight.
There are definitely odd things out there, but what are they? Obviously I can’t answer that question, but let’s assume that aliens exist. Then we can ask some very fundamental questions that may have not yet been asked.
Topics: Other Oddities | No Comments »