Blogging Loona's Studies and questions

[loona wynd]

After a question by Kat in the God and Goddess forum I had to have a more indepth look at what my belief on the divine is and what my beliefs on the soul are and the like. This was my response to Kat. I am mostly posting it here as an additional spot of reflection on the nature of the divine, as well as to save it for use in the future so that if the question comes up I can pin point something I have already said before

I live a constantly evolving paradox in some ways. I am an omnitheist. Its an all encompassing view of the divine. I say all encompassing because depending on what sort of ritual I am working my view on the divine will change or be modified. I make room for experiences of the divine in basically any and all formats as I believe the overall Divine to be something that humans can not fully understand in our form. This also means I will and have experienced the divine in many different forms.

Basically I am a Hard Polytheist in that I believe in all individual Gods in pantheons and religions. I may not have encountered them all like I've never met to my knowledge any of the Gods associated with Chinese religions or Hinduism or even Native American traditions, but I still believe those Gods are individual beings. This also means that I Do believe in Yaweh/Allah/Jehovah or the God of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. I can't emphasis this enough. I just believe that they are an individual God among many.

This also means that when I work a ritual from the context of a soft polytheistic view where they believe all the Gods are one God and all the Goddesses are one Goddess I believe the God and Goddess of that religion are a unique God and Goddess whose impressions are a combination of the psychological archetypes of the many Gods and Goddesses in literature. So I believe that there is a God and Goddess out there who through modern Wicca and Modern religious witchcraft movements who is a manifested form and force of All Gods and all Goddesses, though each person in this religious form focuses on specific names to them it doesn't matter and to this divine duo the names do not matter. They are nameless and yet have many names.

Like wise my belief in the God of the three big religions allows me to attend church services with family members and treat it as I would the worship of any other God within their specific religious constraints. Yaweh and I have an understanding of sorts in that I believe in him and have accepted that he is the supreme God in those religions. However I never in the Christian tradition I was a heretic of sorts believing that the trinity was a set of three divine beings. So like I said we've reached an understanding of sorts that is uncomfortable at best for the both of us. I maintain my belief that he is one of many thousands of Gods and I treat the church services as that Gods particular style of worship.

In this way it is not any different than how I outlined I have approached the worship of Greek Gods and Norse Gods. In case you didn't see the post basically I said:

I find that recons so long as the worship of the different pantheons or cultures is separate then you can follow more than one path. Its about respecting the Gods and making sure that you worship them in a way that would have been appropriate in that particular culture.

This is also why recons who may worship different Gods in different cultures will keep the worship separate. The different cultural groups all had different styles and types of rituals. So it makes sense to worship Greek Gods with Greek Rituals and Norse Gods with Norse Rituals. It is also respectful as they were separate cultures.

In this way I treat Christianity as a culture which it really is. The Christian worldview has impacted the world culture in many ways, so when I go to church I feel that I am engaging in that aspect of the culture I live in, as well as the culture where this God (Yaweh) is worshiped.

I believe that all the Gods of the Greek pantheon are individuals. I believe that all the Gods of the Norse pantheon are individuals (to the point where even the tribal differences in views and concepts may actually be different divine forces) an so forth for each pantheon. I even believe that the 12 big Gods of the Greek pantheon and the 12 great Gods of the Roman pantheon who are often said to be the same beings are separate beings (Zeus and Jupiter are different Gods in my view and not the same as in other views of the two pantheons).

I have experienced too many different types of divine individuals to not believe that in some way all views of the divine are true. This is why I consider myself to be an omnitheist. While I believe that there are individual Gods and Goddesses (Athena, Frigga, Isis, Ceriweden, etc to name a few and only a few) as individual people (like I am different from you) I also believe that there may be an overruling God of each force like there may be a generic Goddess of Love and God of war that are essentially made up of all the other Gods of each force).

I have experienced individual divine forces and I have experienced overarching all encompassing divine forces. I believe all paths hold truths. This is why I believe that by studying all religions and philosophies I can gain even more insight into the divine and the mysteries of the universe. In this way I may also be a chaos magician where I change paradigms as needed for ritual and spiritual work, if so than I am a chaos witch. I've experienced too many different styles of the divine manifesting to not believe that all versions of the divine are true.

Can You Believe in Certain God/desses or All of Them? (original thread and question for the post quoted)

Suffice to say this basically outlines most of my concept of the divine. My views of the divine are constantly evolving and changing. I've had too many different experiences to not be willing to be open to every possible avenue for the divine to manifest. Though because I also believe in the power of the mind I also think that we can create divine forces or manifestations of the divine energy through names and other experiences. In essence this is where part of my experience of the five Gods and Goddesses outlined in my Grimoire thread comes from.

Those divine beings are basically a separation and division of the five different types of Gods and Goddesses I have experienced through different versions of modern Eclectic Wiccan lore. I thought that because there were essentially five different ways I saw the Gods manifested that there were five distinct Gods and Goddesses worshiped in Wiccan traditions. The more I study and think about the different God forms and Goddess forms and associations I see the more those five Gods make sense.

So I figure I'm developing a tradition that treats the seasonal versions of the Gods as individuals and the Moon Goddess and Sun God as separate beings. I'm still developing experiential lore in meditations to support this particular divine setting but so far it seems to make sense. The season energies are very different so the Gods involved in each season would be different.

[loona wynd]

The post from Kat asking me what I thought about her understanding or the divine further lead me to consider and think about what my beliefs are in general. I never really specifically outline my beliefs to any one in discussions unless they ask such as like when Kat did in the thread previously linked. In general I like to try and keep discussions more open and flowing towards generic views and concepts. This way I can help people find ideas to look into without giving too much of myself forward.

I know that when it comes to spirituality and spiritual posts we can never really get outside of our own beliefs and experiences. We can try to be as objective as we can when writing out information about basic practices and concepts as well as divine associations. However in the end what ever we say and mention will always have a flavor of our personal views and understandings of the universe. Its just the way things are.

Since this blog is entirely about my own personal path and how it has been developing I think its about time I actually discussed what some of my beliefs are. One thing about my beliefs is that while I do have core beliefs how I understand that has been known to change and evolve. This is a good thing. When my understanding of my beliefs change or how I apply my beliefs changes it means I have grown and developed quite a bit spiritually.

The whole idea with spirituality for me is to develop my sense of connection to the universe and to my Gods. As my experiences change in the world around me and as I learn new things I may change my beliefs. I don’t believe in having solid and steady unchanging beliefs. For me to have an unchanging or to be unwilling to change beliefs and practices when given different experiences means that I am not willing to grow as a person. In nature that which does not grow or change dies. The same thing can happen to a persons spirituality. If they are not open to new experiences and developments they will not grow spiritually and their spirituality and personal spirit can die.

Now that I have explained some of that background information I can actually start to tell you a bit about my personal beliefs. As it has been mentioned before this blog serves mostly as a place for me to sort out information and concepts for my personal path and practices. This blog also serves as a way for me to try and form a cohesive path pieced together out of many different fragments and forms to be one united path.

So where should I start? I guess I will start with my belief in the divine. This is actually one of the simplest and most basic beliefs that I have. It has evolved out of study and reading of multiple sacred texts and mythologies. This belief has also developed out of my personal study of folklore and fairy tales as well as personal experiences in the spirit worlds and in worship with many different Gods,

I personally would call myself an omnitheist. I basically outlined the overall view of Omnitheism in my last post here. Omnitheism is essentially the belief in all deities and all divine experiences as true. I do not need to know about or experience and have personal relationships with all deities to believe in them. In holding this belief I can respect every path on the planet equally as all of the Gods worshiped are equally valid in my view. I have had personal experiences with to many different God personalities to say that some Gods exist and others don’t. So I believe that they are all real. In the end I believe that what each of us experiences with the divine force is true for us and maybe us alone. Though I have personally found inspiration and refined concepts and ideas when examining and discussing how other people experience the divine.

I think the next thing I will touch on is cosmology. My cosmology is complex and simple. I believe in many other worlds. I believe that because of all the Gods all the different heavens exist as do all the different underworlds. I believe that they are all separate realms within a basic three realm paradigm. All the realms of the Gods are in the upper worlds and heavens. All of the underworlds or lands of the dead are in one location with this reality or earth in the middle.

That is the basics. This is where it gets a little more complicated. I also believe in realms for individual spirit types. I believe there is a realm for all fire spirits and all water spirits you get the idea. I also believe in realms of the elements. I also believe in a realm where all form of Dragons live and exist. I believe in a realm and world of the elves as well as the dwarves and other spirits. I believe that these worlds exist here along side this world in ways that we can’t really see and experience.

I also hold the nine worlds in Germanic mythology as part of my paradigm. So it holds that else where in the cosmos the realms and the worlds of the other spiritual paths and Gods would be there as well. I have not experienced all of them but I can see them all being there. They are all tied together through the web of human experience which will bring me to my next belief and concept.

I believe in Fate. Fate is the web of reality. Fate is the universe. Fate is all of us interacting together in a way we can not all understand. Fate is the way that we are all interconnected and related on a spiritual and universal level. Fate is everything around us, all that we see hear and experience and all that exists on the other side of the world at the same time unseen and essentially unknown to us.

Fate is that which must happen based on that which has gone before. Fate is a combination of events that work together to create what which we know and see as the world we live in. Fate is also how the unseen worlds and the unseen forces in the universe work for us and against us. Fate is cause and effect. Fate is basically all options at any time but only that which fits according to the patterns woven in our lives will come out to pass.

I will say more on fate at a later date. For now we are a part of fate and fate is reality. This forms a large part of my world view and the view of reality around me. It also plays a little into my belief and understanding on what magic is. Though part of my belief in fate and my belief in the many underworlds and afterlife is a belief in the soul.

I believe in a soul. I also believe in an afterlife. My belief in the soul plays a role in my belief in the afterlife and in the other worlds. My belief in the soul is one of the core beliefs I am setting for this tradition. I believe that the soul is actually not just one thing but a combination of five different spiritual forces that work together to form an individual life. I believe that in essence the soul is eternal but it also changes forms and has different parts. Each part has a different role. Because the belief in the soul is complex I am going to leave it at this: I believe in a soul that is the force of life that allows us to live and have experiences. It is what makes a person or being alive.

I believe in spiritual realms for different spirits. So I believe in many different spirits. I believe that all animals have a spirit inside of them or an individual soul. I also believe that there is a spirit ruling over all domestic dogs for example and the like. I also believe that each individual species of plants have their guardian spirit of that plant species as well as individual souls. I even believe that stones and crystals also have a ruling spirit and an individual spirit.

I also believe in Genis Loci or the spirits of places. I believe that mountains have their own spirits. I believe that ponds have their own spirits. I even believe that small ponds can also have many spirits in the area like mountain spirits, broke spirits, as well as the spirits of all the plants and animals in the area. I believe homes posses individual spirits. I also believe that the land our homes our build on also have individual spirit forces.

I believe in magic. Magic I believe is a practice, a force, a skill, and a craft. I believe that magic is the energy we use to cause changes in this world. I also believe that magic is the force that causes change in this universe. I believe magic is the force of change and creation. Its a force for creation and destruction. Magic is a force for life and for spiritual gain as well as daily gain. Magic is also a mystery and a tool by which we can access the mysteries of the universe.

I also believe in psychic abilities. I believe that we can sense and see spirits. I believe that people can sense and see spiritual energy and personal energetic fields known as auras. I also believe that we can contact guardian spirits and receive information from them. I believe that we can also tap into some higher selves and spirit forms and use tools like tarot cards, runes, shells, bones, and other objects to tell or gain insight into the future.

I believe that we all have these psychic abilities. I do believe that we need to learn how to train them and work with them though. I believe that psychic abilities like these provide us all with excellent ways to understand the world around us. It is also through our psychic abilities and practices that we can experience spirits, Gods, and travel to the other worlds. So I believe that learning what our specific psychic senses are strongest and working with them to be developed is essential to spiritual development.

I believe in spirit world travels. I believe that we can travel in spirit to the other worlds. I believe that these travels help us understand and experience the mysteries of the universe. These travels give me insight into the different types of spirits out there and how they may work. Its how I meet spirit guides and how I have experienced some Gods and the spirit realms. Astral travel and shamanic journeys are central tools to this practice.

So there you have it. You have some of the basic beliefs that I hold. As I said some of the beliefs I hold are very complex and could use more attention than warranted in this one post about the basic beliefs I have. Those beliefs like the ones on the cosmology, fate, and the soul are going to be written about in more length as time continues. For now you at least know where my basic beliefs are.

As always if you have any questions for me about my beliefs or anything I post or say here please let me know. I will answer them to the best of my ability.

[loona wynd]

One week ago I was accepted into an 18 month training course in the Feri tradition of witchcraft. I am very excited about this training opportunity. I am hoping that this training can help me flush out a few of my beliefs and practices. There are many things in the Feri tradition from what I have read that already resonate with something I already believed in. One of those beliefs is in the many part soul. I believe that we all find and are given opportunities to take lessons and trainings at certain times for a certain reason.

[loona wynd]

I've been really enjoying my newest book A witches world of Magick. I'm only two chapters in but this book is a gold mine of folk lore and folk magic. I learned a lot about the evil eye and other gesture based magical practices. The idea of no tools body magic was fascinating. There was a lot of information there and it covered practices from different cultures.

The chapter on mixing magic and potions covered many different concepts I hadn't really thought about before and included legends to go along with them. Some of the potions I had heard about and seen in other places. Still it was interesting to see what this author had to say on that perspective.

This book is one that I know I am going to be reading again and again. I think it is going to be a good resource as a general idea and concept for folk magic and folk lore. I know there is a lot this book doesn't cover. However the footnotes are fantastic, which gives me a wonderful reading list.

The next chapter is on container and containing magic. I'm interested to see what this book has to say on the matter. I've experimented at this point with two different forms of container magic- mojo bags and a jar spell. I'm still actively working the jar spell. I don't think this chapter deals just with that form of magic though. The chapter on potion magic included many things I wouldn't have normally considered potions, though it would fit under "mixing magic".

In general I have gotten behind on my reading and reviews. I'm working through a tarot book as well right now. This tarot book is actually helping me understand the Major arcana better. Its also making me want to watch Buffy the Vampire slayer again. Still the information on the card meanings is consistent with other sources. By relating them to Buffy characters I can see the depth of what the author was saying about the meanings and symbols to the card.

I was also working through and reading another Hoodoo book, but at this point I am going to restart that book at another time. Its been so long that I lost context for a lot of what I was reading in that book. That and I want to reread and take notes from Mama Starr's book. The information in that book was so intense it needs note taking.

So I'm hoping I can find balance in the next few days to work on both new products and concepts for my business and doing my book reading. The reviews are part of my business work as well. Its a connection to a publisher and its a connection to the world. By reviewing books I can get on good terms with the publishers and may find openings to being published myself.

[loona wynd]

Yesterday I started the process of moving and transcribing some of my notes into pages and entries into my BOS or Grimoire. I spent some time yesterday going through a stack of notes that came from one specific book on traditional witchcraft as well as sifting through and looking at the Material in the Temple Grimoire. By sifting through my notes in notebooks and my personal additions to the Temple Grimoire I can when I look through my BOS see a bit more about where I have grown from and where I am going to be developing spiritually.

I know over the next several days I am going to have a lot more material to sift through and add to my book. Though I do enjoy this process. It is tedious. That being said I always seem to get something out of the process of sorting and sifting this information. Sometimes its just a recognition of where I was and where I now am, and other times its an "Oh yeah I remember that experience now". When you have been involved with witchcraft as long as I have it goes to serve that I wouldn't necessarily remember every single experience I have ever had and every exercise I have ever done.

Whats interesting is that not all of the material is going to be placed in the same portion of my Book. The trad witchcraft notes I have are actually broken up into a few different sections. I have one for an "overview" of traditional witchcraft, I have a pile of notes sifted through on the concept of fate and the soul, the God and Goddess, and other spirits involved in that particular craft. Though since most of the notes are quotes from the book, I now have to take those quotes and essentially rewrite the gathered information into my own voice and views.

So I will have more information in my worldview section, my soul and afterlife sections, and my what it witchcraft section. I will have information on the God and Goddess I can add to my Book. However there is not nearly as much information on the God and Goddess in those notes as I would like. Granted the concepts in that book are mostly focused on the idea of Fate and that worldview that I guess it makes sense. I was planning on rereading the book soon any way when I do a traditional witchcraft book review. So who knows. The notes I have may make more sense later on than they do right now.

One of the things I have added into my book today was a section on making magical sandwiches. The book I mentioned in my last post gave some really good information on how you could make a sandwich to suit and fit magical needs. This would be a nice act of kitchen witchcraft. Now I personally eat a lot of sandwiches. They make for easy and light portable lunches that can also be filling and balanced. Those pages are going to be referenced multiple times. I can guarantee that. Its also another way for me to be working with kitchen magic and kitchen witchcraft.

I know I have a lot to learn and a lot to do to grow. One area I am hoping to grow in is in having more actual day to day practices. Today I got an e-mail from my teacher in the Feri tradition which consisted of a handout with several different daily rituals and practices that can be included in the practice of Feri witchcraft. Glancing over the handout gave me a few idea of things I can start doing to get ready for my training in the Feri tradition.

So yeah. That basically covers the last few days and my spiritual work.

[loona wynd]

Today is Belatine. I am never quite sure exactly what this festival means to me. So for myself honestly today I said a prayer written by the author Rae Beth and gave an offering. I acknowledge the passion of the God and Goddess. I feel the sexual drive and energy of the day. Tonight I may do something with my fiance'. Aside from that I dont know much. There is a large local gathering I have on Sunday and for me that is my real celebration of Beltane.

[loona wynd]

Today I spent some time adding information to my Grimoire thread here. It was important for me as it was part of confirming and reminding myself who and what I am. Right now I am going through some crazy and difficult times. It feels like things are out of control, and really maybe they are. There are definitely many forces in my life that I can't control right now. So I need to start focusing on that which I can control.

I am going to let these feelings and issues propel me to work magically and spiritually towards some goals. Today as I was adding the information to my Grimoire here I remembered what it means to be a witch. For me as a witch I can't take these forces sitting down. I need to grab the bull by the horns as it were and do what I can to make things work. While I can and will accept that many things are out of my hand, that doesn't mean I can't get to work on doing something. Going with the flow is one thing but if I can do something to make these forces flow more gently than I will.

Reminding myself that I am a witch today and what it means to be a witch today not only helped me deal with the emotional rollar coaster, but it also helped me regain my confidence and my self assurances. Now I remember part of my identity. Now I can work on healing myself and my identity in the past and now. I can find a way to work magic to heal and bring prosperity.

I can do something for my life and I will.

[loona wynd]

Today I actually dug deep into my roots as a witch and as a pagan. I remember how important prayers were to me as a child, and how that for many years prayers were how I worked magic and connected to deities. It was writing a review for one of the first books that I ever read as a witch that really made me remember that aspect of my practice and craft. Its interesting how a simple practice of saying a prayer can be so forgotten in this world that we live in. There is so much emphasis on herbs and crystals and actual physical actions that often the simple actions of saying a prayer for health get forgotten.

Rereading this book has taught me much I had forgotten yet had been rediscovering as well. The one thing that this book really reminded me about was the process and practice of writing different types of prayers. There are a few spirits that I have started to work with that need to have prayers written for them that I can say on a daily basis. This book helped me to remember how to write those prayers. So hopefully in the next few days I will have more prayers written for my spirits.

[loona wynd]

This has been one crazy week for me. First I find my biological mom on Facebook and then I had a meeting with the Small Business Development Center. To top it all off I have a big event tomorrow where I am going to be selling my goods. Most of the week has been spent preparing for that event. So despite all the ups and downs that I have had its been a good week. I feel good about my productivity overall.

I was able to make all sorts of new jewelry for my business and my fiance was able to pound out some new leather products for us as well. In that way it was very productive and worth while. I wish I had been able to make a few new herbal products for the business but I didn't have time or funds to really make the few things that I wanted to make. Thats ok though. I should be able to have some new products for the next event or at least one of the events I have coming up shortly.

I have several new herbal product ideas. I have an idea for a hex breaker incense and spell set. I have ideas for a line of incenses for the angelic forces as well as other incenses that I want to make. I also have more tinctures I want to craft and I want to start exploring oils and perfumes. There is a lot that I want to learn to make and there is a lot that I can learn how to make. It just takes time and effort, money helps too.

I've grown a lot through the building and developing of my business. I have had to learn new spiritual crafts and had to expand my concepts and ideas. That and I grew as a person to. I have become more responsible. In general my outlook on life is a bit more adult. I dont seem to have as many flights of fancy as I have before. Its been a wild ride, and the ride is still going. Being a business owner is a lot of work, but if it is something you love to do and are passionate about its worth it.

[loona wynd]

Today I start my training in the Feri tradition. I am not going to be allowed to go into specifics about it, but I can talk about some of the general concepts outlined in each lesson. I basically can't share the exercises I do or the actual material, but some of the experiences I have I can share. I expected that. Its basically the same with any initiatory or specific tradition that people train in. The material is for that Tradition and those students alone. It was essentially the same way with the Temple tradition.

I have some interesting exercises to try right now dealing with the elemental guardians of Water and Earth in the Feri tradition as well as working with those elements and the elemental of those two elements. The approach to these elements is different than I have experienced before and its going to be interesting to try and work with them. The best part is going to be creating the elemental altar for the elements. Its something I have wanted to do my entire time as a witch but I have not yet been able to really bring myself to do it. So now I have a reason to do these things.

I am hoping that through the exercises, meditations, and ritual workings I can reconnect to my psychic self and my spiritual senses. They have been blocked for a while and it has been difficult to get going again. I may start doing some of the work I did with the Temple tradition again seperatly as I start to do this work, as that work was really good for developing my psychic senses and my psychic sight. That is afterall what the first degree in the Temple tradition is all about.

I have been looking forward to this work for a while. So we shall see how this works out for me. I am excited to start. I am always open to doing and trying new things. More training and more studies create for new experiences and a wider understanding of the spirits and the spirit world as well as providing access to different mysteries and mystery experiences.

[loona wynd]

The first week of my training has passed. I had a video chat session with my Teacher one night and met some of the other students that same night. The training in the Feri tradition is nothing like I have ever done before. This is a good thing for me. I wanted something new and different. I wanted to try and go in a new direction with my spiritual witchcraft work.

Most of the first week I spent reading the material and scribing it into my notes. I learn best through the process of writing up my experiences. By writing down the exercises I am able to go from reading to writing it. By writing and reading at the same time it gets programed into my brain for longer lasting effects. This is how I have always done my work with new witchcraft practices.

Still the exercises are not like anything I have seen or done before. The work in this class is more about self improvement and really knowing the self rather than the religious parts. Its about using the tools of Feri witchcraft for self transformation. Again this is what I really want right now. I really want to reach the next stage in my spiritual development and I think these tools might help.

There are some interesting prayers in this first lesson. It will be interesting to see what their effects are on me after a few weeks of using them. They have a very distinct purpose and I'm not entierly sure what that purpose is right now. Still thats ok. I am just learning this material. I'm sure everything will fit into place eventually as I learn more material and put more things together.

I'm going to be building a new altar this week as part of my training practice. One thing I have to do is be able to cast the Feri style circle on my own from memory by the end of the month. So that does mean having an altar set up for the ritual work. Which for me is fun. I enjoy altar building and ritual work. For me this is just going to be another one of the altars I do some daily work on.

I had some initial difficulties with one of the exercises. Thankfully some of the other students from past years have been able to help me and provide me with some insight into the exercise. I was thinking about it wrong. So now I can try it again and be able to find a way to make the ritual work for me. This I feel is a good thing.

Thats one thing I have found about the Feri tradition. While we are all given the same tools, we are encouraged to play around with the concepts and make them our own. This is not something I am used to when it comes to learning a tradition or style of witchcraft. Still it leaves a lot of personal freedom which is something I think I need.

[loona wynd]

The first month of training in the Feri tradition was very effective. I'm still trying to understand some of the content but the exercises have been effective in my daily practices and have made a difference in myself and how I feel throughout the day. So I guess I would call that a succsess. There is a lot of self work and self discovery here and I feel that I have started that process.

I still dont quite understand exactly what a middle pillar ritual or work is but I figure that I'll understand more as time goes on. The prayers and the breathing exercises though have started to make more sense to me. Granted reading the Spiral Dance has probably been a part of that. Starhawk was trained in the Feri tradition so that does make sense to me. Though I know that the Spiral Dance is a mixture of Feri and Reclaiming and Dianic witchcraft, it at least gives another set of eyes to see the exercises and concepts through.

I think my visualization skills are starting to come back together. I can see things more when I do some of the work. This is important as the visualizations are a large part of the rites and working I have learned recently. I know that its key in a lot of witchcraft and magical work.

I've actually been disappointed that it hasn't been as effective as it used to be for me. So I may need to add in the exercises I used in the Temple tradition to develop those skills again. They were effective and they did get me very strong in my psychic work.