Don't let the "visions" you see, or "voices" you hear be the hallucinatory byproducts of poor health
FIND BALANCE
While pursuing spirituality, remember to take care of your body and mind, or rather your "equipment" as psychic medium, John Holland, refers to it. Most people treat their cars, or their computers, or any of their "stuff" better than they treat their own bodies/minds. In America, at one point the most prosperous country on Earth, the "Breadbasket of the World," a large part of its citizenry walk around dangerously obese and at the same time malnourished. How can that be?
If you're feeling out of sorts for some reason, assess your habits and lifestyle first (see questions below) before looking for "spells" and crystals and whatnot to make you feel better. What are you doing to yourself?
Listen, none of this post is about making you feel guilty: it's none of my, or anyone else's business what you do with yourself. This is about developing CONSCIOUSNESS regarding 1. the CONNECTION between your experiences and the condition your mind and body are in, how the two are connected, and 2. how YOU DO HAVE CONTROL over the quality of that connection. The only way to develop consciousness is to be AWARE, and the only way to be aware, is to ask yourself the tough questions, answer them honestly, then make any necessary changes.
Don't let the "visions" you see, or "voices" you hear be the hallucinatory byproducts of poor health. Take responsibility for the health of your "equipment," including your mind. Make any needed corrections --you know what they are. FIND BALANCE. Do right by yourself first (so many people don't do right by themselves). If you still need support, THEN ask for help.
BUT FIRST, WELCOME TO HELL
You know, I love living here. There's a lot of great things about Western culture, about America, about California ...but America's healthcare system ain't one of 'em! I can't stress this enough: "healthcare" as we're accustomed to in Western civilization, in America especially, is based on financing insurance and pharmaceutical corporations, not on providing healthcare ...that's the last thing on their minds. It's a huge, multi-billion dollar, greed-driven business complex, whose only goal is pimping your body out to generate revenue. It wants you alive, but unhealthy enough to where you need pharmaceuticals and surgeries. They've created a toxic, living hell for our bodies.
So what can you do?...bottom line, you have to take care of yourself, yourself, whatever country you live in. In America, especially, you've got to get militant about it because you live in a toxic environment carefully designed to make and keep you sick. That's just the way it is. Don't whine and get all emo about it. Just take care of yourself.
The American healthcare system, if you want to call it that, provides endless fodder for comedians.
A Change is Gonna Come: Gwen Olson and Jennifer Shaw
Expose the Pharmaceutical Industry
THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF YOUR DIET
It's really important to assess your diet: On an average day, what's your TYPICAL MENU consist of? For example, what did you eat all day yesterday? ..the day before? ...today? Think about it.
Again, don't let what you think are "paranormal experiences" simply be a matter of lack of self care. This is another biggy, perhaps the biggest one, for maybe 95% of people visiting this board, it seems. You really are what you eat. There are people who post on this message board that I could empathically feel are totally spaced out (it makes me whoozy just reading their posts). I could "feel" they haven't eaten a good meal in weeks, maybe months, and that they've followed that up with a cocktail of toxicity (cigarettes, drugs, whatever). I think other people on here sense this too, and when they read whacky posts here, they don't even reply to them.
If you're in your teens or early twenties, your body is not done forming yet, so your metabolism is in the highest gear it will ever be in your life because it's working to make your body be what it will be. So this is the worse time ever to be depriving your body of food. It needs "fuel." Badly. If you're not eating right, and/or filling your body up with a lot of chemicals, it's like flooring the gas pedal of your car knowing there's only 1/8 tank of gas left. How long do you think that's going to work before the car starts sputtering, and eventually stopping?
Once someone PM'd me wanting a spell or some other energy work to make them "feel better," that she was mysteriously feeling worn out, even though she didn't do drugs, didn't drink and seemed to be getting adequate sleep. When I asked her what she ate all day, every day, she said something like carrot sticks and crackers (I'm not kidding!), that she was really "into raw foods." She wasn't getting any protein or carbs. I was surprised she didn't pass out on a regular basis. Something was definitely very wrong with that picture. I advised her to talk to a counselor about it, and forsake the metaphysics for now.
So on that note, here's something to consider: if you have emotional issues pent up inside, perhaps you may be using food in a negative way to take out your emotions, a way to feel physically "in control," though emotionally you're not. You need to talk to someone instead. Ascetic eating practices, or vegan/vegetarian diets not done correctly, etc., could be masking eating disorders such as bulimia or anorexia.
So take a good look at your eating habits and be honest with yourself.
Train Your Brain to Eat Healthy Foods
MAKE MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL SELF-ASSESSMENTS
After assessing the physical, it's useful to then examine the mental/emotional aspects of your life:
How is your LOVE RELATIONSHIP if you have one, and how are your JOB and HOME ENVIRONMENTS? Dealing with any energy vampires in the vicinity? What that means is people who consistently dump on you or otherwise enmesh you into their drama somehow, and always leave you feeling "tired" (mentally and/or physically, usually both) after you deal with them. This will affect your health as well, and by extension, will affect your spiritual path.
Have you recently underwent a MAJOR LIFE CHANGE: marriage, divorce, move, new job, death of a loved one, birth of a baby, etc. If so, be easy on yourself. It could feel like you've been hit by a truck. I've had people ask me about the "negative spirits" or "negative energy" bothering them, and when I mention the huge life change they've just experienced, they shrug it off like it's nothing, like it didn't affect them. They don't make the connection.
If you've been hit by an emotional truck lately, nurture your physical/mental self. Ease up on the spiritual practices for now. Streamline them down to the basic essentials for a while, no stress. Processing major life changes can be like experiencing the "death cycle." You may need to go through the 5 steps we usually associate with death: denial, bargaining, anger, grief, acceptance. And then you may need to do it all over again until it's fully processed in your soul. Again, Goddess is not just around and outside of you, but inside you as well. Take extra time to honor the "goddess within" during a major life change, and lay low for a while.
OTHER PHYSICAL SELF-ASSESSMENTS TO MAKE
Do you consume drugs? And if so, which and how often? Do you drink alcohol, smoke? If so, how frequently? Should you get help for addiction? A good clue is considering the effect your being intoxicated has your relationships with people around you ....makes them better, or worse? Also, how well do you function the next day? Are you meeting your goals?
Again, this is not about being a bad person, it's no one else's business. But it's worth it to think about the affect these things have on your body and mind, and ultimately your spiritual experiences.
And on a typical night, how many hours do you SLEEP? What's the quality of that sleep ...peaceful, or do you leave the TV or the radio on in your room? I've read a ton of articles about sleep, but the bottom line always seems to be that science still doesn't fully understand why we need sleep so badly. We just do.
Besides walking from the car to the front door, how much EXERCISE do you typically get per week? The amount of exercise you get will affect how you feel.
MENSTRUAL CYCLES
Moontime is not a curse
Since it seems to me that the majority of people who visit this message board are female, I want to briefly address this subject. But note that if you're male, learning more about this can help you be understanding and respectful about menstrual cycles of the females around you. Make yourself useful: how can you help them feel better? Be thoughtful. Patriarchal Western culture has done a fabulous job of totally disconnecting humans from natural rhythms of the Earth, our home, and from ourselves. Divine Feminine energy, in all its forms, has been lowered and ridiculed by this culture. When you bring up menstruation, it gets giggles, or snide remarks. "Judeo-Christian thought" has reduced it to being perceived of as "the curse." IT IS NOT A CURSE! The real curse is how women (and men) treat their bodies without respect, when our bodies should be treated like the reflection of Goddess they are.
Goddess
There used to be honor in tribes regarding menstrual cycles, a reflection of the creative Universe, part of creation, the essence of life. Cultures in times passed, all over the world, had the kind of diets which provided women with nutrients that curbed the iron-loss, cramps, irritability and other symptoms associated with menstruation. That's because women at one point were in charge of whatever the prevailing "healthcare system" was, no matter what part of the world they lived in --they were the witches, the medicine women, the shamanesses, grandmothers, and mothers who oversaw the health of the bodies/minds of the tribespeople. As a result, women ate healthier diets, had a voice in their well-being, didn't toxify themselves but respected themselves.
The Goddess is an analogy for life force itself. You're not islands; it's not all about you. You're part of a bigger pattern, the fabric of a much greater whole. If you get that, then you could understand Goddess. When females are girls, they need to learn how to honor themselves, their bodies, their minds; one day they will be women, and will encounter a lot more problems without that sense of self respect. When males are boys, they need to learn how to honor themselves by honoring and respecting the women and girls around them; one day those boys will have wives, daughters, and nieces of their own.
This culture has subverted that way of life. Who's in charge of healthcare now? Multi-billion dollar corporations, not caring people who love you. So you've got to find balance by LOVING YOURSELF. If you're female, and you're feeling bad right now, you have to REMEMBER TO ASK YOURSELF how close your period is from today? If it's on its way, it's not unusual to feel worn down, or irritable. If it's here, or just passed, do you think you need to take iron or herbal supplements to balance blood loss and hormone shifts? Make a habit of marking on a calendar the days of your period, so at least you'll have some idea when to expect it next. Then, prepare for it accordingly. Party less (if at all), and rest a lot more. Take some iron, and/or eat lots of dark greens and other iron-rich foods. Stay away from stressful people and places until you're feeling up to it. Honor this time. Tell them you need your space.
Make the connection
It doesn't surprise me when I hear women say things like the following, like on day two of a period or something:
"Geez. You know, I just can't figure out why I'm feeling so run down now. I know I ate well --well, I skipped breakfast entirely, but later I did I have a hotdog, a couple bags of chips, and several sodas today, so, hmmm. It must be all this 'negative energy' around me [that parallels when Christians say, "it must be the devil bothering me" -it's always something someone else is doing], or, I know ...it's a 'psychic attack.' Yeah, that's it. I just need a spell or something to make me feel better, or carry a crystal ....oh, and by the way, do you have a lighter I could borrow? I need a smoke."
Now, what's wrong with that picture? There's no CORRELATION in her mind between 1. her lifestyle habits, 2. her body's needs, and 3. how she's currently feeling. Rather, there's just looking for a quick fix. Male or female, this attitude toward your body will get you sick, if not killed.
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THE MOON LODGE
"The Moon Lodge is where women gather during their menstrual time to be at-one with each other and the changes occurring in their bodies. Long ago, during this special time of moon cycles, women were removed from duties of family and allowed to retreat to the Moon Lodge to enjoy the company of their Sisters.
Traditionally, the Moontime is the sacred time of woman when she is honored as a Mother of the Creative Force. During this time she is allowed to release the old energy her body has carried and prepare for reconnection to the Earth Mother's fertility that she will carry in the next Moon or month. Our Ancestors understood the importance of allowing each woman to have her Sacred Space during this time of reconnection, because women were the carriers of abundance and fertility.
As Grandmother Moon is the weaver of tides ( the water or blood of our Earth Mother) so a woman's cycles follow the rhythm of that weaving. When women live together in a common space, their bodies begin to regulate their menses and all will eventually have their Moontime concurrently. This natural rhythm is one of the bonds of Sisterhood.
Women honor their sacred path when they acknowledge the intuitive knowing inherent in their receptive nature. In trusting the cycles of their bodies and allowing the feelings to emerge within them, women have been Seers and Oracles for their tribes for centuries."[a lot longer than that, actually --Elisa]
--From The Sacred Path Cards by Jamie Sams; Illustration above by Linda Childers
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The Earth realm we live in is a
classroom of dualities, though there's
only one energy underlying it all. How
males treat females is an indication of
the quality of their connections to Divine
Feminine energy within themselves,
and vice versa.[/size]
THIS WEBSITE AS A RESOURCE OF BALANCE, AND A DISCLAIMER
This website is full of good tips about herbs, connecting to the environment, and taking up spiritual practices. There's good stuff here, community. If you are even remotely interested in Wicca, witchcraft, paganism, or spirituality in general, cultivating a sense of balance and connection is crucial. However, if you're just "in it for the spells," then you're really limiting yourself, quite frankly. You'll be treating your spirituality like a pill you pop once in while, while never understanding nor dealing with the underlying issues.
I hope some of this helps. I do have to note that if you've made some assessments, and concluded that you need help, then get professional physical or mental healthcare. No part of any advice I give is meant (by me, the owner of this website, and all related parties) to be construed as a substitute for professional medical or psychiatric treatment. I know I hate the healthcare system here, but I'm not saying don't consult a doctor if you have to, either. I am saying there are many things you could do on your end so that, hopefully, you never have to consult one. Use magic, rituals or spellwork in conjunction with mundane health care, never in lieu of it.
My prayers for good health, balance and peace are with you. You can do it!!
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