Eye of Horus

The Eye of Horus, an ancient Egyptian symbol which represents many things such as psychic abilities, protection against evil spirits, renewal and protection against bad luck. It is found everywhere in Egyptian art. The origin of the eye lies in the myth of Isis and Osiris. Angry Set killed his brother Osiris to the succession of the throne. Horus went to avenge his father’s death by having a duel with Set. However, during this battle, he lost his eye. But since the rest of the Gods felt Horus was rightful heir to the throne, they stepped in to help. Thoth, the Egyptian moon god and one of the patrons of the magickal arts, healed his wound and nurtured the eye back to health. The ‘RX’ symbol used by pharmacies had it’s origins in the Eye of Horus.

Other names for this symbol include, ‘Udjat’ and ‘Wadjet’ meaning “Whole One”.

Meditation

People meditate for various reasons. For some it is a way of getting closer to Spirit. For others it's about clearing the mind for inspiration and creativity. I believe meditation is what one makes of it. I believe it has been very useful for me. Studies have shown the meditation is beneficial to the health. The happiest people are the ones who take the time to clear their mind, detach themselves from the world for a moment and relax, no matter how stressful their days have been.

Active meditation is what I do on a daily basis. In my case, the active meditation is dancing. I find that when I do so, I ususally get answers or ideas for projects I work on, most of the time unintentionally. Active meditation is a very simple process and anyone can do it if they choose. For me, it's simply zoning out, except not really because I'm very aware of what's going on. It happens a lot when I'm dancing. Most of the time when I dance, it becomes an active mediation and the music in the background helps me to stay focused.

Here is a link I found on active mediation that may help you understand. Although what they are suggesting people do is not what I have originally learned about active mediation, I can relate to a lot of what is being said on thgat page.

Sitting down meditation is something I find is a little difficult for me. The following are links about meditation that may be helpful for you or anyone else interested in learning about meditation:


Learning Meditation
Meditation: Holistic Online (has various methods of meditation)
Wikipedia: Meditation
Meditation: Innervibrance

Ankh

The ankh (crux ansata)- One of my favorite symbols which was (and still is) believed to be the key to eternal life. It was regarded as one of the holiest symbols in Ancient Egypt. Although the origin of the symbol is unknown, there are many parts of the symbol that has conjured up abstract meaning. The Ancient Egyptians believed that it symbolized air and water, the two elements needed to sustain life. People today believe that the symbol itself means the creation of life; the top loop representing the vagina and the cross piece and central support symbolizing the penis and testicles. The two coming together, thus we have the creation of life. Some say it is the key to the doors of the underworld.

The ankh is not only regarded as an ancient holy symbol worn by Ancient Egyptian lovers and fans as well as the followers of the Kemetic Faiths (modern Egyptian, Neo Pagan) but also by those of the Gothic faith. It is not uncommon to find the ankh in many of Ancient Egypt’s art; usually the Gods and Goddesses are holding the ankh. Depending on the art your are looking at, you may find Gods and Goddesses holding up the ankh to a Pharaoh’s mouth as to give eternal life to them. Sometimes the ankh is mistaken for the Christian cross, especially when people go to jewelry stores and regard it as the creativity of the artist. In no way is the origin of the ankh to be regarded as a Christian symbol (other than Coptic, Christianity’s oldest form which originated in Egypt) simply because it has been around longer than Christianity itself.

Spiritual Gardening

You know, with Spring passing by and summer coming in about a month, I've been doing too much thinking and not enough action. This year I wanted to focus on gardening, but with so many new things coming up this year, I couldn't get into it. I believe that we can bring spirituality into anything we do, but today I wanted to focus on gardening. Some would say, "Well, that's dumb. What would spirituality have to do with gardening?" and I say, "Everything".

I mean, the entire story of creation is all in gardening. One plants a seed, and things will turn out depending on how you take care of it and it's surroundings (you reap what you sow). It's great pleasure in seeing how things grow and turn out based on your compassion, patience and caring. Both of those are fundamental in many religious beliefs (but where is it shown through religious people...who knows?)

I remember last year was the first time in which I've gone out on my own and plated some nasturtiums in boxes that sit on my deck. After planting the seeds and watering them a little, I said a little blessing and hope that when they grew, they were healthy and beautiful. And indeed, they were both. I made sure to take care of them by pulling out any weeds and grass that may have gotten in there through bird droppings or of the sort. I've never expected something that I've done myself to be so fruitful and needless to say, I was very proud of myself for discovering my "green thumb".

Another project I wanted to do that year was to make spiritual designs and symbols with flowers and rock formations, but I never got the time to do so. The best thing about these things is that they can serve nearly any purpose. They don't always have to be just flowers with spiritual purposes, you can have herbs that can heal wounds or plants that can keep bugs away. It's all in what you put into it.

The following links should be able to help those who wish to harness the power of creation and make a spiritually centered garden:

Spiritual Garden Design
Herb Guide
Insect-free Rose Garden
Allergy-Free Gardening
Gardening Basics with a Magical Twist
Sacred Gardens

Is It Humane?

At the time I'm learning of this story, it wasn't available on the news site I regularly visted. Someone else who searched and found a link to the story had it.

Class Dissection Of Live Dog Outrages Parents, Students

Didn't I just post the other day a nice story about a dog who rescued a human baby and began taking care of her as her own and humans can be insensitive and inhumane? I mean, I know this teacher may have had good intentions, but I just think he didn't think far ahead enough. I mean, yes, the dog was scheduled to go down and in a way, I think seeing something like that would be interesting. But my female instincts start kicking in and I really don't think it's right. I think it would have been better if the class had a chance to see a dog get surgery or something, I don't know. Anything but a dying dog.

Are They Paying You To Wear That?

You know, an English teacher of mine would always wear black and none of us really knew what brand of clothing he wore...so we asked him. He said that it's because the companies of the clothes he is wearing isn't paying him to advterise.

lol I thought it was a good point. I mean, I don't always buy clothes with a huge label on them anyway. But I'll joke around with people I know when they wear stuff like that and I say, "Is ___ paying you to wear that?" and they start laughing.

So ritually, my teacher would black out any of the labels (normally he buys the small label stuff). And of course, he wears black b/c it's his favorite color.

Humans and Animals: A Special Bond

Kenyans eager to adopt baby found with puppies

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Offers to adopt a newborn girl found among a litter of puppies after being abandoned are pouring in to the Kenyan hospital where she is being treated, and the stray dog credited with her rescue has a home and a name -- "Mkombozi" or "Savior."

Many people may say that animals have no sense of feeling or any of the sort, and it's all instinct. But there are many scenarios such as the one above that makes me wonder. Did the mixed breed dog who doesn't have an owner really do what she did out of instinct? Perhaps, as she is currently in the process of caring for her own. But how would the dog know that the baby left behind that shack was in distress? I know some domestic animals that go berserk when a baby cries. But this dog, whose four walls and roof are of trees and the sky, decides to take a crying baby and adopt it as her own. A human baby, an offspring of the human race that is known to abuse and mistreat the animals, is taken in by a dog.

No, This Not the Star of David

Some people are familiar with religious symbolism while others tend to be a bit shallow in such areas. It may not offend you as much if someone else's religious symbol is confused with another, but when you are the one who has to explain over and over that the symbol you're sporting is not the symbol one thinks it is, it can get a little tiring and annoying.

So surfing around the web, I saw the folloing bumpersticker (which inspired me to write this):



Some of you are probably like, "What? It most certainly is, it's a star! See?". But it's not just any 'ole star. Take a look at the following picture:



Now look up at the first one. See the difference? One star has six sides, the other has five. The first star is the not the Star of David (or the Seal of Solomon), but a pentacle. There are many different associations with that symbol. Most commonly, it is a symbol used by many Pagans. Each point represents an element; air, water, fire, earth and the top one represents spirit. With those combined, they are the elements used to sustain life. Another interpretation of the pentacle is that it represents life that is united through Spirit. That's the definition I go by.


Inverted pentegrams, though such as in the following picture is the symbol of the Satanists (which are not to be confused with Pagans) have a totally different meaning.



One meaning that I know of is the Sigl of Baphomet. Baphomet has the head of a goat and the body of either a dog, bull or donkey. I've also read that the inverted pentegram can also mean the desires of the earth over spirit. (Remember what I said about the top point representing Spirit? Notice how the top point in this image is upside down. That's how you can tell which symbol is which.)

There is also the pentagram. That's simply the pentacle without the circle around it such as in the following picture:



Although people have used the two names interchangebly. Five has been considered a magical number. click here for an excellent and accurate article on the meaning of this symbol. This symbol has been said to be some sort of divine symbol as you can find it's components all over the place in nature. I can't say I've search all over myself.

If you're interested in learning more in depth with these symbols, a good place would be to go here where the info isn't biased or leaning one way or another.

Now for a little info on the Star of David. Like I said before, it has six points. Or an easier way to notice is there are two triangle present in the symbol; one pointing upwards and one pointing below. Some have said that this symbol represents the notion of "As Above, so below". For more info on this symbol click here.

It's always good to learn and be knowledgable than to be stupid and spread falsities.

'Bewitched' statue plan bothers, bewilders

'Bewitched' statue plan bothers, bewilders

Personally I think it's disrespectful that they'd put the statue of Elizabeth Montgomery (a.k.a. Samantha Stephens) from the show 'Bewitched' in Salem, Mass. The Salem Witch Trials (Salem, Mass 1692) was about the religious intolerance and sufferings of Christians who called each other witches. It was basically the liberal open-minded Christians versus the more Puritanical (Conservative) Christians who were very supersticious. Anything they couldn't understand and random coincidences were considered "the work of the devil" or the work of "witchcraft".

The people who wish to have this statue up think it would boost tourism, but I think that's the last thing Salem needs. I've been there twice and it's CROWDED. Especially during all of October.

I think putting the statue in town will make the town more "Disney-like"...bringing TV to life and people having their picture taken. It's stupid and plain ridiculous. (BTW, I'm not a fan of Disney either)

Spirit Photos

I haven't posted here in quite a while. But I figured that today I will discuss pictures that people post online that are supposed to be of ghosts, angels, faeries, etc. since it came up in my studies.

I was looking around online for info and myths on spiritual creatures that pop up in various religions. I was concentrating on faeries, pixies and gnomes at the time when I stumbled across this site. On that page, there are at least three photos that the author claims to have captured faeries and/or other spirits. As much as I would love them to be real, I've learned that it's always best to be skeptical.Some of those I couldn't believe right off the bat because I didn't understand how an average camera could have taken such sharp images of these spiritual beings. Normally people see a little fuzzyness in a picture and say it was a spiritual being. They may be right or they might have captured a dust particle that came really close, who knows? If it were an aura camera, I'd probably believe it a little more.

Another reason why I didn't believe the images were real is because I always thought that such images would be best captured through your spiritual "psychicness" and not so much a camera that was made to capture the light patterns of this world (although there is a lot of debate on the validity of the aura camera, however, regardless, I'd like to take a picture from one for fun anyway). But it seemed to me that a lot of those images where pasted on using an image editing program, especially the one with the running oak tree creatures.

I'm not saying that these spiritual beings do not exist. I do believe that our world of time and space isn't the only possible world at it's level of existence. I do believe in spirits and another world other than the one we're living in such as the spirit world where our spirits reside after we die. However I don't think it's so possible to capture it so easily on a regular 35mm or a digital camera.

Holocaust Rememberance Day

Today is Holocaust Rememberance Day for people who don't know.


Shoah is the Hebrew word for "whirlwind." It is the term used to described the conflagration that swept up six million Jewish souls between 1938 and 1945. A war was waged against the Jews in which unspeakable atrocities were perpetrated against a defenseless people. Men and women, young and old alike, were butchered at the hands of the accursed Nazis, may their name be eradicated for all time. Every year, on Yom HaShoah, we remember the martyrs who sanctified the name of G-d in the camps, the ghettos, and in the gas chambers.

click here to continue reading.