The Ancient Whispers Newsletter

Welcome to the Ancient Whispers Newsletter, a multi-cultural newsletter with a little something for everyone of any creed or religion. Here you will find inspiring quotes, irreverent jokes, crafts, and most importantly, historical and/or religious scholarship. Every Wednesday a new edition should appear on this website with reminder emails sent out the night before to those who have opted to join one of the many forums and mailing lists to which I subscribe. If you wish to share this newsletter with others, please keep it intact with the original authors' names on all the articles. Any articles or sections, to which an author or URL is not affixed, were written by Candace (with the exception of the various jokes found herein).

Questions, comments, and topical requests are encouraged and should be posted to the AskCandace open forum at yahoogroups. I'd like to start a help column for the newsletter, so if you'd like to have your problem featured in a newsletter, let me know when you post.

Thought Forms –Their Limitations
http://www.tphta.ws/HSH_THFO.HTM This article reflects not only the limitations of Thought-forms, but also of man as created and creator.

A Ghost in the House
http://www.geocities.com/glfeltmate/ghost.htm
Do you have a ghost in your home? It may not be…

Thought Forms
http://www.mystae.com/restricted/streams/scripts/tulpas.html
A page consisting of dictionary-esque listings of Thought-form definitions.

June is the sixth month of the current Gregorian calendar and the first month of summer. It is the "door of the year," the gateway to the inner realms. The original name for this month was Junonius. It was named for the Roman goddess Juno, patron of the female sex, and so this month was considered an excellent month for marriages. As Juno Moneta, whose temple was located on the Capitoline hill in Rome, she was guardian of money and wealth. June is sacred to Juno and all gods and goddesses who preside over love, passion, and beauty.

The Irish call June Meitheamh or an t-Ogmios, the young month. The Anglo-Saxon name was Aerra Litha, "before Litha." The Franks called it Brachmanoth, "break month." June is called Fallow by the Asatru.

The first Full Moon of June is called the Hot or Strawberry Moon in parts of America. It is also referred to as the Strong Sun Moon, Lover's Moon, and Rose Moon, and it has been called the Moon of Making Fat and the Moon of Horses, and name similar to one of the names for May’s Moon. It shares the names Mead Moon and Honey Moon with July.

Cancer becomes dominant on June 21st as the sun passes from the constellation of Gemini. Roses are for those born this month. June plays host to many stones claiming to be its birthstone. Of them all, emerald is listed most, followed by agate, chalcedony, turquoise, pearl, cat’s eye, or alexandrite, in that order. Pearl and moss agate are also birthstones of Gemini, and moonstone or pearl is the birthstone of Cancer. Chrysoprase, sapphire, and topaz are also connected to Gemini, while albite, chrysoprase, emerald, green tourmaline, opal, pink tourmaline, and rhodochrosite are associated with Cancer.

Lunar Holy Days

The first Sunday of this month is date of the Bulgarian Rose Harvest Festival.

The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as the Double Fifth Festival, occurs on the fifth day of the fifth moon. It is one of the three most important of the annual Chinese festivals, the other two being the Autumn Moon Festival and Chinese New Year.
Chu Yuan, the divine poet, lived in the third century BCE, serving the King of Chu during the Warring States period. He enjoyed the full confidence and respect of his sovereign at first, but eventually he was falsely discredited by rivals and found himself in disfavor. During that time, he composed his immortal poem, "Encountering Sorrow", an allegorical description of his search for a prince who would listen to good counsel in government. Never able to regain his emperor's favor, on the fifth day of the fifth moon in the year 295 BCE at the age of 37, Chu Yuan held a stone to his chest and leapt into the Milo River in the Hunan Province. Respect for the minister caused the people living in the area to jump into their boats in a vain attempt to find him while other villagers threw rice dumplings in the river to distract dragons and evil spirits lurking in the water. This unsuccessful rescue attempt is a part of what the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates in its annual races. The annual Dragon Boat Festival was at one time a Pagan Summer Solstice ritual designed to appease the dragon gods of the rivers.

Whitsunday, an annual Christian festival marking the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the disciples, is celebrated on the seventh Sunday after Easter. However, like most Christian holidays, Whitsunday was at one time a Pagan fertility festival. It was celebrated in Europe with a "heathen feast" that marked the death of the spirit of Winter and the birth of the spirit of Summer.

According to English folklore, if a baby comes into the world on Whitsunday, he or she is destined to either commit an act of murder or to be murdered unless a chicken was put into the infant's hand and it was made to squeeze the creature to death. A foal born would either win a race or kill a man. Whitsunday is also associated with drowning. Some would not go to sea unless a bride steered the ship, and those who had drowned were thought to return to take new victims. Children often had their heads massaged with salt to prevent their being taken by fairies.

Gawai Dayak

Mother Earth

Shapatu of Ishtar

Apollo

Secular (Centennial) Games

Cataclysmo

Buddhist ritual for young girls

Marion Zimmer Bradley

Secular (Centennial) Games

Bellona

Socrates

Traditional corn dances of the Pueblo people

Saint Gobnatt of Ireland- Domna

Atlantis sank

The Egungun

Bendidia

Vestalia or Vesta Aperit

Mens

Lindisfarne Day

rain today means a wet harvest

ancient rice festival

Famadihana

Vestalia or Vesta Aperit

Grace Cook

Salem Witch Trials

Day of Anahita

Can thought take on physical form and acquire an independence of their own? Examining the tale of the tulpa.

Writer and anthropologist Carlos Castaneda tells the story of how he and his sorcerer teacher Don Juan Matus were sitting on a bench in downtown Mexico City in the early 1970's. Don Juan was attempting to explain the ancient Mexican shamanic idea that true creativity originates in the magical realm of the 'nagual'. Castaneda was finding it all hard to grasp, and asked Don Juan to define exactly what he meant by creativity.

Curious Creation

'Creativity is this,' replied Don Juan, cupping his right palm and bringing it up to the level of Castaneda's eyes. Castaneda found it extremely difficult to focus on Don Juan's hand and struggled until beads of sweat ran into his eyes. Finally there was a 'pop' and Castaneda's eyes and head jerked free. On Don Juan's palm was a strange-looking rodent, resembling a squirrel, but with quills on its tail. like a porcupine. 'Touch it,' said Don Juan softly.

Castaneda ran his finger over the rodent's furry back and, as he did so, he noticed something that threw him into nervous spasms; the 'squirrel' was wearing spectacles! It was so unbelievable that Castaneda began to laugh hysterically. The rodent started to grow in Don Juan's palm, until eventually it got so huge that it went completely out of Castaneda's field of vision and disappeared.

According to Castaneda, Don Juan had created a real live, flesh and blood creature using only the power of thought and imagination. This may appear far-fetched, but sorcerers the world over claim they can do just this. Tibetan yogis, for instance, claim that they can create physical objects and even living beings, known as tulpas, by imagining them in their mind's eye.

The 'reality' of tulpas is, however, far from cut and dried, even for those who create them. Tibetan mystics believe that all the phenomena we perceive, including the apparently solid world around us, are products of our imagination. To the Tibetan adept, the reality or unreality of the tulpa is simply not an issue: 'solid' matter and thought forms both exist on the imaginal plane, so neither can be considered 'real' or 'unreal'.

To prove their understanding of this, initiates of Tibetan dream yoga subject themselves to a ritual known as the 'Dance of Chid', which involves conjuring up, or visualizing, a horde of grotesque tulpa demons, along with a tulpa double of themselves. The magician then has to will the demons to attack his double, and remain completely calm and composed as the hideous thought forms rip it apart and eat it. If the magician succeeds in staying calm, then the demons can not harm him, because he has truly accepted the dream-like nature of reality, and accordingly, has no fear of such creatures. If, though, he still sees reality in 'nuts and bolts' terms, then he empowers the demons and risks insanity or death from fright.

The Dubthab Rite

One of the most famous examples of the creation of a tulpa concerned the redoubtable French traveler Alexandra David-Neel. She spent 14 years in Tibet and, out of curiosity, set about performing the Dubthab rite, which reputedly ends with the tangible manifestation of a thought form. In Magic and Mystery in Tibet, she recounts how she chose to create a monk who was 'short and fat, [and] of an innocent type'.

After a few months performing the rite, which consisted mainly of disciplined visualizations, she started to catch glimpses of the phantom monk. 'His form grew gradually fixed and life-like looking,' she remembered. 'He became a kind of guest in my apartment.' It got to the point that even when she was not consciously thinking of the monk, he would appear anyway. 'The illusion was mostly visual,' she claimed, 'but sometimes I felt as if a robe was lightly rubbing against me and once hand seemed to touch my shoulder.'

In the end, the monk's presence became troublesome; it took on a life of its own and became sly and malignant. David-Neel had lost control of the tulpa. To her dismay, it took about as long to dissolve the phantom creation as it had to create it.

Some occultists claim that thought forms can be created inadvertently, by a combination of thought and emotion. In Psychic Self-Defence, the English occultist Dion Fortune describes how she was thinking negative thoughts about someone who had wronged her. Laying in bed in a semi-dozing state, she thought of the Fenris wolf-demon from Nordic mythology, whle at the same time contemplating revenge.

'Immediately I felt a curious drawing-out sensation from my solar plexus,' she reported, 'and there materialized beside me in bed a large wolf. I knew nothing of the art of making [artificial] elementals at that time, but had accidentally stumbled upon the right method - a brooding state, highly charged with emotion... and the condition between sleeping and waking.' Although she was very frightened, Fortune managed not to panic, and forcefully ordered the beast out of the house.

She would have dismissed the experience as a nightmare, except that, that same night, someone else in the house reported dreaming of wolves, and seeing the eyes of a wild animal shining in the darkness. The realization that her creation had been in some sense tangible, and the fact that she did not wish to follow what she described as the 'left hand path' of magic, led Fortune to 'reabsorb' the creature back into herself.

The idea that you can simply think something into existence is dismissed as impossible by most rational people, yet 20th century theoretical physics suggests it may well be possible. As far back as 1932, the English astronomer Sir James Jeans asserted that: 'Mind no longer appears as an accidental intruder into the realm of matter; we are beginning to suspect that we ought rather to hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter.' Today, the majority of quantum physicists accept this as a basic truism.

Creating Universes

Theoretical physicists Werner Heisenberg and John A. Wheeler, for example, speak of an 'observer-created universe', admitting that the act of observation and so the consciousness of the observer determines the behaviour of the sub-atomic world observed.

Many psychologists have also taken such notions on board. Professor Stanislav Grof, one of the founders of Transpersonal Psychology, goes as far as saying that 'if one makes an honest assessment of quantum physics, consciousness research, Oriental spiritual philosophies and shamanism, one cannot help but come to the conclusion that consciousness can modify phenomena in the material world.'

In short, many eminent thinkers believe that matter as least to some degree can be molded by thought and consciousness, and that it may be possible to create tulpas or thought forms with the power of the mind. Ultimately, though, whether such creations have a tangible existence independent of their creator's imagination is open to debate. Much of the evidence that this is the case is anecdotal and therefore hard to verify.

Chaos Magic

The practice of creating tulpas and thought forms is still very much alive today among contemporary practitioners of magic. The British chaos magician Dave Lee claimed to have created a 'healing servitor' (or thought form) that could be used by anybody who knew of its existence.

'One particular group started working with it and they specialized in working healing magic in rave clubs,' explained Lee, 'At the beginning of the evening they'd, do an invocation, and leave a sigil [magical symbol] on the dance floor which would get dance off as the night wore on. Then, using the collected energy of the dancing to develop magical focus, the group would direct the power, via the servitor, against the retro-virus HIV, hepatitis C, and so forth.'

Apparently, this magical group has reported a spectacular number of remissions from AIDS-related conditions. 'One guy's face was covered in Kaposi's sarcoma [malignant skin tumors] and that's gone,' said Lee, 'and a whole bunch of people's T-lymphocyte [cells central to the body's immune response] levels have gone through the roof since this work.'

If the claims of Lee are to be believed, it would appear that the creation of thought forms which have tangible effects in physical reality, is indeed, a possibility. The fact that theoretical physics is also coming round to this idea is another reason why these unlikely entities should not be dismissed lightly.

Creation of a Thought-form is easy. Many do it everyday without even realizing it. A Thought-form can be an individual entity, even semi-self-aware, or it can be very short lived and dependant upon its creator for sustenance. If you perform daily positive affirmations, you are creating a limited Thought-form which attempts to bring about your will.

A thought form is a structured energy form created to carry out the specific task for which it has been programmed. A Thought-form may leave your person to achieve its assigned task before returning to nothingness, while another may remain with you, drawing energy from you until its task is complete.

Thought-forms can be put to any use you have the imagination to devise. The more complex the task, the more “intelligence” the thought-form may need to complete it. A complex Thought-form is more likely to develop self-awareness as par for course as it meets the challenges you set for it. You may create one Thought-form to be a personal protector, and another to “fetch” you things.

There are positive and negative Thought-forms. Depending upon your intent and emotional state of mind when you create a Thought-form, it may be negative and destructive or positive and helpful. Obviously, negative Thought-forms are more likely to get out of control and possible come back to haunt you, literally. A negative Thought-form or “Vampiric” Thought-form may return to you after you set its task, to feed on your energies and cause you harm.

A Thought-form can be created in any image you wish. Use creative visualization to form one that best suits your intention or purpose for it. You may feel most comfortable with angels or fairies, dragons or unicorns, robots or aliens. Or you may design something completely unique for some specific task. Design your Thought-forms in accord with your aesthetics as well as their usage.

Once you have visualized your Thought-form as completely as you feel you are capable, it is time to assign it its task. First tell it precisely and as specifically as you can what you want it to do. You can also make use of your spirit guides, asking them to help you relay your will to the entity you have created. In relaying your instructions to your Thought-form, also set parameters and limitations. Without limits, a Thought-form will not know when to stop working. This can become dangerous - as in the story of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice when the construct did not know when to stop bringing water and created a flood. You can tell your Thought-form both how to go about accomplishing its task and create tools for it to use as well. Though you may think something is obvious, don’t assume a Thought-form will have the same moral framework or common sense that you possess. If you want to prevent it from doing unintentional harm, tell it to complete its task without harming anyone or anything. Tell it to go back to nothingness when it has finished its task to prevent it from becoming a Vampiric entity afterward.

Bacax is an obscure god of North Africa, a rare example of a deity adopted by the Romans, which retained its given name. He is thought to have been a cave god.

Description: Chickweed is a group of approximately twenty-five plants found in Europe and the temperate and Arctic regions of the United States and Canada. It prefers the cool climates and shady spots. Depending upon where it is found, it may be an annual or perennial weed, usually creeping. The stem is brittle, growing from four to fifteen inches high and two and one-half feet long. The succulent leaves are opposite and entire, ovate linear or lanceolate. The lower leaves grow from long petioles and are sometimes sticky to the touch, varying in size from each node. The higher leaves lack a stem, and the joints are slightly swollen. Chickweed is distinguished by a line of hairs which grows along one side of the stem only and which changes sides at each leaf node. The small white flowers (one-fourth to one-half inch across) bloom from the beginning of spring till the end of autumn in terminal, leafy cymes or solitary in the leaf axils. Each has five petals, though these may be so deeply divided that they appear to be ten. The petals are shorter than and alternate with the sepals. Chickweed may open on sunny days, usually around nine in the morning, but close on rainy or cloudy days. The oval fruit capsules are hairy and cupped in calyx. Chickweed is considered a “sleep plant,” not for any occult reason, but for the fact that at night the leaves rise to meet and shelter delicate flowers

Effects: gentle
Planet: Moon
Element: Water
Associated Deities:

Traditions:
Gramen leucanthemum, also called Stitchwort, is a relative of Chickweed said by Dioscorides to help woman bear a son.

Chickweed seed and young tops have a tradition of use in bird food, hence the plant’s common name. Stellaria, its scientific name, refers to the shape of the flowers.

Magic:
Carry chickweed or use it in spells for love or to maintain a relationship.

Known Combinations:
Combined with Elecampane, chickweed is considered a treatment for hydrophobia.

According to Dianecht, chief physican of the Tuatha-de-Dannans, a porridge made of hazel-buds, dandelion, chickweed, and wood sorrel boiled with oatmeal is a cure for colds.

Medical Indications: (Caution:) Parts Used: herb
Chickweed is a carminative, demulcent, emollient, laxative, and refrigerant. It is useful for both internal and external inflammations. A decoction (three heaping tablespoons in a quart of water reduced to a pint) may be used in cases of serious constipation. It is an appetite suppressant and may lower blood lipids. Chickweed also reduces mucus build up, so is a useful expectorant. It is good for bronchitis, colds, and coughs, as well as circulatory problems.

Apply crushed leaves directly or make into ointment with Vaseline for bruises, irritations, itching, warts, and other skin problems.

Nutrition:
Chickweed is quite edible, having a slightly salty taste, and is available year round. It may be eaten like spinach, raw of boiled for five minutes. Add the leaves or flowers to salad.

Add four cups of flowers, leaves, and stems to stew with rabbit, chicken, or beef. The seeds may also be used in soup as a thickener.

Blanch two cups of chickweed for three minutes, chop in a blender, and add to two cups pancake batter with one and one-half cups water, one egg, one-fourth cup oil, and one teaspoon baking powder.

Mercantile Uses:
Though goats will not touch it, everything else will to greater or lesser degree. In fact, it is a common seed found in commercial birdseed mixtures.

I am a feather on the bright sky
I am the blue horse that runs in the plain
I am the fish that rolls, shining, in the water
I am the shadow that follows the child
I am the evening light, the luster of meadows
I am an eagle playing with the wind
I am a cluster of bright beads
I am the farthest star
I am the cold of the dawn
I am the roaring of the rain
I am the glitter on the crust of the snow
I am the long track of the moon in a lake
I am a flame of four colors
I am a deer standing away in the dusk
I am a field of sumac and the pomme blanche
I am an angle of geese in the winter sky
I am the hunger of a young wolf
I am the whole dream of these things

You see, I am alive, I am alive
I stand in good relation to the earth
I stand in good relation to the gods
I stand in good relation to all that is beautiful
I stand in good relation to all the daughters of Tsen-tainte
You see, I am alive, I am alive

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Quote : Will Rogers
Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

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The Power of Stones: Brookite
For past articles and the bibliography, please go to the
Power of Stones Archive.

Brookite forms tabular and plate-like crystals ranging in color from red-brown to black with a metallic to diamond-like luster. It assists in withstanding intolerable situations and allows one to go with the moment. Any beliefs which do not allow for progression will be corrected. This stone attracts and retains energy and it can be used to dispel fatigue and apathy.

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Humor : Weak

There was a new preacher who wanted to rent a house in the country. The only house available was rumored to be haunted. Since the preacher didn’t believe in such things, he rented it. It wasn’t long before the ghost made its appearance. The preacher told his friends about the ghost, but they didn’t believe him. They told him the only way they would believe was if he would take a picture of the ghost. The preacher went home and called for the ghost. When it appeared, the preacher explained the situation and asked the ghost if it would mind having its picture taken. The ghost agreed. When the picture was developed, the ghost wasn’t visible. Feeling very disappointed, the preacher called again for the ghost. When it appeared, the preacher showed it the picture and wanted to know why the ghost wasn’t in it. The ghost thought a minute and replied, “Well, I guess the spirit was willing, but the flash was weak.”

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A Dreamer's Guide : Parachute to Party

For past articles and the bibliography, please go to the
Dreamer's Guide Archive.

Your love life will be trouble-free if you used a Parachute without difficulty. Any problems with a parachute indicate someone you love will let you down. Watching a parachute float downward is a warning not to go to extremes. Your family will be increased if you saw many people using parachutes. Your enemies will face dishonor if the parachutist was killed upon landing.

Leading a Parade may mean recognition for something you worked on. If you simply marched along in a parade, you may soon receive some unexpected and unwanted visitors. Watching a parade is a sign of an increase in income. A parade of marching soldiers augurs you will be the recipient of faithful love, and a parade of boy scouts means you will forgive your enemies. A religious parade predicts treachery, while a national parade foretells work without happiness. A protest parade means great satisfaction will belong to you.

Entering a Paradise augurs a happy marriage, and if you were in a paradise, you will forgive those who have wronged you. You will have an accident if you felt unwanted in paradise, and being thrown out predicts a family breakup.

Emotional conflict or sexual inhibitions are hinted at by a dream of Paralysis whether it was your own or someone else’s. Total paralysis foretells a crisis of conscience over something you want to do but feel you shouldn’t. Partial paralysis may have something to do with a fear regarding your sexuality. If your spouse was paralyzed, you will lose affection for one another.

Patience is the right tool to overcome your difficulties if you dreamt of a Parapet. Danger and worry is indicated if you were kneeling on a parapet, but falling on one means your difficulties will be overcome through your own efforts.

A Parasol is a good omen for your love life if you saw it outdoors. Someone will come to your aid if you held a parasol over your head. An open parasol predicts prosperity. If seen inside, it is a presage of unexpected money or a gift. If it was opened inside however, your love is on the rocks.

Receipt or mailing of a Parcel is a prediction of a change in the near future.

You may take a trip to a hot area if you dreamed something was Parched.

Any Parchment is an augury of release from current worries or the successful outcome of some pending legal matter.

You carry a hurtful secret if you Pardoned someone, but you will be uncomfortable if others pardoned you. Asking for a pardon is a warning of trouble. If a criminal asked for forgiveness, you will not be pardoned in the waking world.

Dreaming that you were a Parent pertains to a surprising turn of events in regards to something you considered a lost cause. If you saw your parent(s) or in-law(s), an awkward situation will require all your diplomacy to get you out of it. Dreaming of anyone else’s parents means that you can count on friends to help you out in a jam.

Visiting Paris can been an omen of carefree social activities, but be careful not to be drawn into something you cannot easily afford. If you were going to Paris, you are being watched.

A Parish means there are no obstacles to your future. If you were a pastor of a parish, your affairs are in confusion.

A public Park in good repair is a presage of an exciting love affair, though if it was neglected or trashed, it augurs a lonely period of readjustment. Walking in a park is a sign of a family increase, while sitting in a park alone predicts an increase of income. If you seated with your sweetie, your enemies will meet their punishment.

Parking or attempting to park may indicate it is time to end a relationship.

Parliament in sessions is a warning that you may be cheated. Advancement is the augury if you were a member of Parliament.

If you saw a Parricide, you will have a peaceful life. Killing your own parents is a bad prediction for business.

A talking or noisy Parrot foretells irresponsible gossip from which you will actively need to defend yourself.

Parsley is a forerunner of success. If you saw it growing, your success will be due to hard work. Serving it or eating it indicates the success will be due to intelligence and unusual lucky breaks. Buying it is a prediction of security.

Parsnips are a warning not to settle for less than you deserve.

You will have a life of annoyance if you Parted with a friend, and bad finances if you parted ways with a relative. Success in every undertaking is foretold if you parted with an enemy.

A good Partner bodes well for your business or personal relationships. If there was anything off between you and your dream partner, you are entering a time of change.

You will need patience and strength to withstand a period of trouble if you dream of a Partridge. Don’t despair; your problems will be more annoying than serious. If it flew away or landed, you will succeed in business. Abundance is augured if you killed one.

Attending a Party is more fortuitous than giving one. The less pretentious the affair, the better the omen.

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Quote : Robert Half
No one can be right all of the time, but it helps to be right most of the time.

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