THE HIGH PRIESTESS

Mystery Lady



Intuition, psychic knowing, contact with the Great Mystery-- The High Priestess represents the sacred feminine principle and deals with the science of the inner realms. She introduces us to the tools and inner alchemy of self-transformation. She invites us into the sanctuary of solitude to gain wisdom and to process all of our experiences, triumphs, dilemmas-- the profane and profound-- into spiritual gold.

The High Priestess is traditionally portrayed as a young maiden in long flowing robes-- solitary, unflinching, all-knowing-- sitting between two pillars. A circle or sphere sits in a crown on her head, and a crescent moon is underfoot. She holds a scroll in her lap, and upon her chest is a cross. What does it all mean? The possible meanings are endless, and I will have to leave you, dear reader, to your own studies-- and most importantly, the quest within-- to intuit what those meanings are... though if you want to get deep about it, here is where I'd start: http://www2.ida.net/graphics/shirtail/tarot.htm

All I can offer about the mysterious lady is what I've found in my own travels: that The High Priestess asks us to stand in absolute truth, integrity and self-respect, and to take responsibility for all we see and create in our lives. In return she offers us inner mastery and helps us to develop discernment, vision, prophecy and intuitive powers. The High Priestess within all of us supplies the keys to unlocking the courage and knowledge necessary to expand continuously into our greatest potential. Travel inward compadres-- you will be amazed at the treasures you find!


NEXT WEEK we visit The Hierophant... and stay tuned for tales of High Priestesses from around the world!

P.S. They bombed the moon.

NASA

Future Witch.

For all of you that have the Google phone, there is a free application you can download called "Sky Map". It rules. You just point your phone up to the sky and it tells you all the constellations you are under.

UM, MY THERAPIST NEEDS A GOOD THERAPIST...

What's a therapist to do when he finds himself going bonkers? Try asking the founder of analytical psychology-- Carl Jung himself. In 1913, at the age of 38, Jung found himself in what he called a "confrontation with the unconscious"-- otherwise known as a FREAKOUT. What ensued was 16 years of getting free, turn-of-the-century-style. In his spare time, Jung subjected himself to induced hallucinations, purposely straddling the line between the conscious and unconscious mind, and created a weird, unfinished work of genius which he called the Red Book.

Here is this possibly grandiose writer's possibly delusional diagnosis: Jung took on the role of maverick, offering visionary ideas and staying true to his convictions about the human psyche and pyschotherapy. As a result he found himself on the outskirts of his field and in opposition to the dominant culture of his time. That couldn't have been easy considering that he was a well-respected, successful and ambitious man with a family to support. Talk about a hot date with the unknown... I feel for you, dude.

To get the whole story, check out this article from the NY Times--" Carl Jung and Holy Grail of the Unconscious"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/magazine/20jung-t.html

GALLOWS HILL

In Salem Massachusetts 1692 eight young girls got very ill. They convulsed, screamed in horror, claimed to see visions of animals or creatures, ripped at their own skin, and quickly died. There were several other incidences, even including a dogs and cows dying. The people of the community were freaking out and needed an explanation for why such terrible horrifying deaths were happening, so of coarse, they decided the victims were bewitched. 25 innocent people were executed for witchcraft. None of them confessed to the crime. Admitting to witchcraft would have meant devil worship, and back in those days that definitely wasn't happening cause they thought that meant condemning their souls. Turns out, surprise surprise, the devil wasn't the culprit here. Science has shown that an outbreak of a hallucinogenic mold called ergot infected the rye crop in Salem that year, and it has a pretty scary side affect. Whatever it does makes your brain seize up, causing a person to convulse, the blood flow would get cut off causing their skin to tingle with pins, it would cause incredible visions, you would loose speaking ability, and then die. It sounds like a totally horrifying way to go. This piece of information doesn't make the story of the witch trials any less upsetting, if anything more upsetting. Sorry about that.

THE MAGICIAN

This week we explore the message of The Magician, the second card in the major arcana of the Tarot. Within each of us resides a magical, infinite force-- a creative "willpower" that stands in readiness to take on whatever life brings. The Magician points not only to the inner potential and power we travelers possess to create meaningful and fulfilling experiences, but also to the confidence and certainty that all tools, abilities and opportunities are now available to create our destinies.

Depictions of The Magician usually show a young man confidently wielding the four "elemental tools" of the Tarot-- the wand, fire symbol of inspiration and creativity; the pentacle, earth symbol of money and property; the sword, air symbol of thought and intellect; and the cup, water symbol of feeling and emotion. The Magician is master of all four elements, using them at will and with the certainty that mastery brings. He wields his tools with purpose, intention, efficiency and focus-- and he never misses his mark, because he knows before he even begins that success is assured.

The Magician calls us to come into full harmony and integration within, to bring our internal powers into a unified focus so that we may fully utilize our power and manifest real results in the physical world and in our experiences. A tool you can access right this minute to become The Magician? Take a deep breath. Right now. Do it again every time you think of it. Commiting ourselves to simply BREATHING WITH INTENTION can do wonders to unify the internal realm, provide focus and access the wisdom of our inner voices.

And so my fellow travelers, I invite you to breathe! Wave your wands, flip your pentacles, hold your cups, wield your swords and CREATE AWAY!


Next week we search the inner realms with THE HIGH PRIESTESS...

Nature Scene.

"Spell of the Sensuous" might be one of the most eye-opening books ever given to me. At first I was unsure if I would even be able to get through it-- it's full of big words and tangling webs of philosophical thought-- but just when I thought it was going to be the driest book ever and that I would have to shamefully explain to the person who passed it on to me that it was too difficult a read, I came to a part in the book where a philosophy written by Maurice Merleau-Ponty blew my fucking mind.

A chapter entitled "The Mindful Life of the Body" was the first of many chapters to shatter some life-long illusions for me. Here it is expressed that our experiencing "self" is with our bodily organism. This at first terrified me, as I am used to identifying myself as something without a "shell" or of the flesh, although I am aware of my body, highly aware of it and most of the time feel anxious and trapped in it. Here I was invited to look at my body as the life experience itself, that without this body I could not hear the ocean, touch the grass, be touched, or taste. That the sensory aspect of this body is how we come into contact, not just with this life on earth but with ourselves, where we can reflect, we can think, we can learn. "Far from restricting my access to things and to the world, the body is my very means of entering into relation with all things." Dudes, maybe this isn't that big of a deal to anyone else, but if I really think about it, so much of my behavior comes up for judgment. This is a good thing. This book called me to take a step back from the hustle of my urban life, my monetary worship, my slavery to "the man", and remember that there is a magic connection between all things-- the river, the grass, the snakes and rabbits, the blue of the sky... the EARTH, dudes.

I constantly have feelings and thoughts like "this is bullshit" when I look around at society and watch as we all just accept this industrial world as freedom, and that if all the grocery stores closed we would all starve. Its like we have been brainwashed into believing that all this "convenience" of technology and mass-produced packaged food is for our benefit. No one wants to look at how we treat the animals, the earth, our own bodies because we are convinced that the way we have it is great. The most incredible civilization ever. It's sick. We are so victimized by our needs that we have forgotten that not only has this earth provided everything, but we have detached ourselves from its magic, its infinite knowledge, and its compassion.

"Spell of the Sensuous" literally turned my thoughts upside down, shattered illusions, and held me responsible in an incredible way. READ IT. The author truly understands the magic of earth, the magic of language, and shows us how deeply rooted in ecology it is. The only downside is if you live in a city you may never view it the same, because you may realize how incredibly sold short you are, and will probably make plans to move straight into the forest or tropics or desert as soon as you can. Yes! Country witch!

All in the Stars.

Susan Miller is a bad ass astrologer. Her website Astrology Zone gets over six million hits a month. Her horoscopes are beyond on point and you get very insightful information on the planets, how they are transiting through the signs, retrograding planets (mercury is gonna retrograde this month people so be aware), and information on the moon and its phases in your sign. She is a bad ass!

astrologyzone

PHOENIX LIGHTS.

On March 13th 1997 ten thousand residents of Arizona all saw the same thing. Glowing amber orbs in the sky, perfectly in a V formation hovering just above the mountain tops. Sightings and 911 calls occurred from 5:30 p.m. until 2:00 a.m. all claiming to be experiencing the same thing. Huge glowing contained light hovering above, moving slowly past them, completely silent. Not one person was hurt in the incident, it seems that most people feel very excited, and curious and amazed by their experience, not at all afraid. So cool.

Phoenixlights.org

RUMORS!

The great library of Alexandria Egypt. I was reading this book the other day that claimed "the church" burnt down this library and all of its ancient texts and scriptures regarding religion and spiritualism. So I checked it out. Not necessarily true.

First lets talk about the library itself. Legends say it was a pretty rad place. Famous scholars hung out there, there were several gardens, even a zoo. I think it was connected to a museum or was part of one. Anyway it seems like back in the day it was the place to be. So why would anyone wanna burn it down?

Well the first rumor takes place in 48 B.C. when Julius Cesar accidentally torched half the damn town, including the library, or some say part of it. He was burning some ships or something in order to keep the enemy away during some wild war with Ptolemy the 8th, co-ruler of Egypt. I guess everybody makes mistakes.

The second rumor is of a guy named Theofilius, who was ordered by Christian Emperor Theodosius to destroy all "pagan" temples and Theophilius did what he was told. I couldn't really find any more information on this rumor except I guess Socrates wrote about it in a book in 440 B.C, which is about 50 years after the event supposedly took place. I think it is pretty safe to say that the Theofilius dude was obviously an insecure little prick.

The third and maybe the most insane rumor is one that takes place in 642 where an Arabian army set to rid the library of all the books that contradict the Koran. Rumor says they burned the books to heat bath water for the Army. Gotta love a warm bath.

These rumors are consistent in all the different places I looked on the internet. I haven't read any books on Alexandria and really the most credible information source I visited was Wikipedia and the Alexandria Library home page. So don't quote me on any of this. So what have we learned from this legend of rumors??? What has history taught us this time??? War, religion, and warm baths are really selfish things! Ha ha. No, really, Here we observe that shit went down then, and it is still going down today. The library of Alexandria was probably a really bad ass place to be and it got burned down in some way out of selfishness, or ignorance. And maybe today we can get a little more honest and a little less freaked out by other people and how they want to party, so we don't have to bury the truth in a bunch of rumors.

The dude could fly.

Daniel Douglas Homes (pronounced "Humes") is a lesser known psychic medium that perfomed crazy acts of wonder in the mid 1800's. His claim to fame is the title "the man who could fly." He worked mostly for the rich and the elitists, performing seances in broad daylight for proof that he had nothing to hide and his gifts were real. The guy's seances sound pretty awesome-- he could levitate, invoke "phantom hands" which the sitters could hold, and it is said that he could manipulate his body, elongating it as much as 11 inches (which is totally weird, like, why would you do that?), and probably his most intense performance (and there are only 3 witnesses to this), he held a seance in his apartment and levitated off the ground and flew out the window where he hovered 3 stories above the ground. CRAZY! Now, many people thought this dude was a fraud, mostly because he claimed to be a medium and not a magician. Even Harry Houdini claimed Holmes to be a total poser and said he could perform the same acts.....BUT HE NEVER DID!!!

Of the 1,500 recorded seances D.D. Homes performed not once could one person figure out how he did the things he did and was never once "proved" wrong. Pretty bad ass.

THE FOOL

What better way to launch Witch Party: The Blog, than to offer our humble guide to The Fool-- the first card of the Major Arcana in the Tarot, which consists of seventy-eight cards total, and which by the way, is one of the most ancient modes of divination on this here planet Earth! Some say The Fool is actually the last card in the deck, but whether first or last, The Fool points to a brand new way of being or mode of life and the very beginning of a journey or new project-- um, hello Witch Party...

The Egyptians, who invented the Tarot, saw The Fool as humanity-- the bewildered, non-perceptive "slaves of matter", taking our mistakes with us, heading for new mistakes. Traditional representations of The Fool depict a young man on the start of a journey, happily whistling along, heedless of the enormous precipice over which he is about to fall.

Now, before we alarm ourselves, let's consider our human condition. Are we not on a great journey into the unknown? And haven't we all at some point in our lives experienced new beginnings? Whether within the realm of our families, careers, relationships, or other areas of our lives, new beginnings are many times accompanied by uncertainty, unstable curiosity, ignorance, and most importantly, innocence. The message I see is to go gentle on ourselves as we integrate new ideas and skills, to remain open, and to expect clarity only after a few leaps of faith.

So, welcome to Witch Party's first birthday party! Here's to our mistakes, and to the learning from our mistakes... Here's to our expansion and our learning from our expansion... And here's to our traveling and our fellow travelers-- may our journeys be chock full of new ideas and new ways of looking at our worlds, and at the very least, interesting and fun!

Next week... The Magician!

Psychic Youth. Daydream Nation.

Hans Berger 1873-1941. German guy who invented the EEG, which measures human brainwaves. He died before its potential fully manifested, but the EGG is used in hospitals today to diagnose epilepsy and brain tumors. I don't know much more about him but what is amazing that he discovered is this-

Beta-The person is active and awake, the brain operates 12-15 cycles per second and up. this is conscious mind.

Alpha-brain activity occurs 6-14 cycles and up. This is where daydreaming takes place. It is said most hypnosis also takes place in this range.

Theta- Between 4-8 cycles per second. Emotional experiences are recorded here.

Delta-4-5 cycles per second. This is an unconscious state.

When we sleep the brain goes out of beta, through and out of alpha and theta, and into delta where it stays for a hot minute before it cycles back up to theta, then alpha where you dream for a while. Everbody's sleep cycle is different and changing all the time so it is unique to the individual how many times they will go in and out of delta and back to dreaming.

Why is this interesting?? Because it is said that most psychic experiences happen when your brain is chilled out, in an altered state, all tranced out or whatever a.k.a the Theta sate. So now the question is, how do I get there from the Beta state? Dudes its as easy as 1 2 3. Literally. What Hans Berger discovered is that just by simply closing your eyes your brain chills out to alpha. So then if you just count 1 2 3, you chill even more. Practice! Party on Hans Berger style.