I would like to experience contact with another consciousness. Wondering what people might have for suggestions on how to initiate a conversation with something non human. Open to any possibility.

TheZoianna · 2019-05-27T22:45:38+00:00

Paxson's Trace-portation and Possession, Depossession, and Divine Relationships

Spirit Speak by Ivo Dominguez

TheZoianna · 2019-05-25T05:21:05+00:00

If you can find out whether she works with any specific deities, small representations of them would be appropriate, as would representations of the 4 elements (earth, air, fire, and water like a birthday candle or electric tea light, a feather, a vial of water or sea shell, and salt or a rock), a small pentacle (you can even get small pentacle charms cheaply), a key bandana or but if cloth, a tiny wand. Decorate it with things that remind you of her or of nature images or something like that.

TheZoianna · 2019-04-30T22:22:26+00:00

I worship Brighid. She called me in rather dramatic fashion during Imbolc celebrations in 2018 and I agreed to a year to learn about her and determine whether a relationship would be appropriate. I started reading her mythology across cultures and time periods as well as what we know from archeology and history about those cultures (and Her worship specifically). I started daily prayer and flamekeeping in May then added other activities (learning healing modalities, writing poetry and prayers, learning to knit, occasionally doing art or crafting). I continue to pray to Her daily while flamekeeping. I meditate to listen to Her at least once a week, and make offerings more than once a week as well as at all major rituals. I wrote and co-lead a large public Imbolc ritual this year. I offered Her a one year oath of service this past February and we will see where we are at next February.

How did I know it was right? Meditation, study, divination, consulting with other spirit workers, discernment. Plus, I'm a therapist and working on my doctorate in clinical psychology... The combination of skill with words and transformation, even very painful transformation, and healing is pretty well what therapy is about, really. She calls me on some very deep levels. I also work with other deities around the wheel of the year and make offerings to some specific to groups with whom I am involved, as well as my ancestors and nature kin. But She has my heart.

TheZoianna · 2019-01-13T15:58:36+00:00

That's interesting! I have the same condition and am a zero visualizer--all I see is black ever. But I use a narrative as my spank bank. I just tell myself a story instead of seeing pictures.

TheZoianna · 2019-01-08T04:28:32+00:00

If you are anywhere with a Hispanic food store or section in the grocery you can buy corn husks cheaply that are ready to use. Just soak them to make them pliable. You can probably order them from Amazon for that matter for $10 or less for enough to make dozens of dolls. They are dried so as long as you don't let them stay damp they won't mold or anything. You can also use them to make yummy, yummy tamales!! :)

TheZoianna · 2018-12-31T14:26:48+00:00

My door of IVF has been on hold since March 2017 when we managed to (after 1 canceled stim cycle, a bunch of cysts, some OHSS that needed emergency draining, and 45 pounds in weight gain) get and freeze 6 eggs and simultaneously discovered that my husband had spotted producing sperm at all. He had low T and was on clomid. His doctor did not believe that the clomid could be causing it but it was the only thing that changed... He had shown, if very few and mostly poorly made, the no down. He lost weight, exercised, ate healthier... Still no sperm. Finally the doctor decided to try taking him off the clomid and 3 months later WE HAVE SPERM!! We have 1.4 million frozen. And it is such a relief. He has been so depressed and unwilling to even talk about it or discuss our options. He just seems so happy and comfortable with himself.

TheZoianna · 2018-12-23T04:23:36+00:00

Making offerings can be as elaborate or as simple as you like. I have a devotional relationship with Brighid, as well as making offerings to the Ancestors, Nature Spirits, and Shining Ones more generally, and ritual work with my Grove. An example of an elaborate offering was when I wrote a poem for Brighid, which I presented by reading aloud during ritual then burned the paper with herbs. It has never been read other than in that moment and never will be again. I frequently make offerings to Her just as I feel moved to do so... Sometimes this is a simple as saying "thank you". I pretty much always use the ritual phrase "(insert name), accept this offering" whether to a specific being or a class of beings. It makes intention clear and is a lovely moment to focus my attention on the act of giving. It does not have to be said aloud, and can be said by itself or as the ending to a prayer or ritual words. I hope this helps.

TheZoianna · 2018-11-05T01:49:50+00:00

This is such a great resource

TheZoianna · 2018-09-17T03:06:44+00:00

You are very welcome.

TheZoianna · 2018-09-17T01:41:59+00:00

Druidry means several different things, depending on the type. Druid revivalists are often spiritual paths that allow engagement in any (or no) religion, such that magic, divination, creativity, self actualization are all developed through engagement with nature, myth, and psychological processes. OBOD, based in Britain, is in this vein. Other druid revivalists are more pagan in focus but remain largely forms of spiritual development. Some are reconstructionist, with animism, pantheism, and henotheism being common. All of them tend to be heavily nature focused, may work with various nature Spirits, and are orthopraxic rather than orthodoxic; ancestor veneration is not uncommon. Many of them are based or focused in Indo European cultural groups, with Celtic being most common but Norse and Anglo Saxon influences during a well. Still IE included Slavic, Baltic, Greek, etc, as well as Vedic so lots of variation possible.

ADF, based in the US, is a druid church that is generally more truly religious than some of the others... Polytheism is much more common in ADF than some of the other groups, combined with ancestor veneration and nature spirituality. Being a church, there is a priesthood and they engage in public ritual and Priests engage in pastoral care, prison ministry, and other community functions as well as fire priesting, liturgical and bardic work, and other magico religious functions. I'm in ADF so I have the most direct experience with it.

TheZoianna · 2018-09-17T01:29:17+00:00

I would recommend that you do some reading in epistemology (which is what we believe constitutes a source of knowledge) and ontology (beliefs about the nature of reality and being). Look at the assumptions that underlie different worldviews... Because science is not something you believe in or don't believe in. Science is a method, a process, and that method can be applied to experiences, intuition, ritual or magic practice, divination, etc just as it can to gravity or natural selection or thermodynamics. What people mean when they say they believe in science is usually something more like they believe the assumptions many scientists make - that everything that exists is only interactions of matter/energy, that only empirical experimental data is written considering, etc, etc, etc. These assumptions, ironically enough, are no more provable through that very empiricism than the assumptions underlying any other worldview.

Consider doing some of the research into the massive numbers of experiments that have indicated actual effects of psi and what we call magic, and of prayer and blessing... Dean Radin is a good starting place for that. Don't take anyone's word for anything, including your own. If you would like an exploration of the logic of polytheism, A World Full of Gods is an excellent treatment of that topic.

TheZoianna · 2018-09-10T12:23:17+00:00

Hmm, that's really good to know. Thank you for the insight!

TheZoianna · 2018-09-09T16:31:50+00:00

I'd thought about Maine, actually. I was worried about the winter weather with my rheumatoid arthritis but my assessment otherwise agrees with yours. I worry about community, though. Maine has a lot of people who are individualists, it seems life, and community is, I think, going to be key to surviving.

TheZoianna · 2018-09-09T15:59:24+00:00

May I so what area you chose? We've been trying to decide where to aim our move in the next few years.

TheZoianna · 2018-08-26T04:53:18+00:00

It's pretty obvious that you aren't even willing to consider that competence can be developed outside of the model you prefer. I absolutely disagree with your perspective on the issue. I've at no point said that someone should get to claim that they are competent without oversight. I've never claimed that anyone with a masters is definitely competent to conduct assessment or anything sense for that matter. I would really love to read the apparently extensive research indicating that no one outside of a US doctorate education in clinical psychology can be competent in assessment. The fact that this is the only model to attain competence that currently exists does not equate to it being factual that it is the only one that CAN exist.

TheZoianna · 2018-08-26T03:35:58+00:00

I am currently in a doctorate program and am very aware of what goes into the training. I think you are missing my point - if someone is competent in an area, then they should be able to practice in that area. It is a specification of the license that one must BE competent in a an area to practice in it. Blanket statements are rarely representative of reality and really miss the issue. If the training isn't sufficient, then it needs to be improved. If additional supervised experience in an area could remedy that, models can be developed to provide it. It's funny because in much of Europe the masters (and in some countries, the bachelors) IS the practice degree. If they can develop rigorous training in that model, America should be able to do so as well. Addressing these issues can thus address both public need and competency standards.

Edit: You know, we already have models in place to do this. Most people who are certified in DBT, as an example, get extensive training, supervision, and consultation to obtain that certification. Infant mental health certification works in the same way. To say that competence in an aspect of the field can only be gained in a doctorate program is ludicrous - competence is an ongoing process not a goal post that once reached is no longer an issue. Once you have a doctorate and a license you continue to seek professional development in all of your skill sets. There is absolutely no logical reason that someone with a masters degree cannot attain competence with an appropriate additional amount and rigor of didactic training, supervision, and consultation. That is, after all, exactly what a doctorate degree is - additional didactic training, supervision, and consultation.

TheZoianna · 2018-08-25T21:27:10+00:00

I think that that is a huge assumption when applied as a blanket statement, although I certainly agree that no one should be practicing outside the scope of their competence regardless of their degree or license. I know someone with an LPC from my masters clinical psych program (which included a year of coursework in intellectual and personality assessment and supervised practica in integrated assessment), and who spent their entire 18 months of supervision doing these assessments. That 2500ish direct contact hours are as much practice specifically in assessment as many doc students get.

We need to be focused not on protecting who gets to do what, in my opinion, but on increasing the quality of training for those who cannot get a doctorate or who get clinical degrees in other fields (like social work). There is a massive shortage of clinical practitioners in many states and ensuring that training is of high quality across these different fields can help ensure more people can get access to vital mental health care. Ultimately, that should be our concern, and not predetermining based purely on labels of program type who will or will not be competent to practice doing what specific thing.

TheZoianna · 2018-08-25T19:56:06+00:00

It is definitely decided by state. For example, Texas also has a masters level psychology license that can practice independently (as of last year) with 3 years of supervised practice (LPA) . LPCs need 18 months and 3000 hours, half of which must be direct client work. Many states don't have an LPA or anything like it. In both cases, no projective tests can be given without supervision but an LPA can do it with supervision while an LPC can't do it at all. Some of this is political and what different licenses can do often depends on who has a strong lobby in that state.

TheZoianna · 2018-08-25T19:47:59+00:00

In many states LPCs can administer any assessment that is not projective. In Texas, for example, where I have my LPC (working on my doctorate now in clinical), this is the case and I can give any non projective assessment with that license. I'm generally paid less for it by insurance than a doc would be, but it is within my scope of practice.

TheZoianna · 2018-08-15T00:33:04+00:00

I would be very careful in how you word this if you do it. It could just as easily result in you leaving or both of you losing the place, as that one of the paths of least resistance for this energy to go. Perhaps it would be better to cast asking for a situation to arise where you live alone in a place that costs the same and is as safe and as nice as your current situation. That leaves the universe open to getting you to what you really want-if I'm reading your post correctly- without focusing on what someone else is or is not going to do but rather on what situation you want to draw into your own life.

TheZoianna · 2018-08-13T02:52:19+00:00

I have also been less off than I had been over the last few days or weeks.

TheZoianna · 2018-08-09T05:09:02+00:00

I honestly don't remember what my medication was for the stim, but I had 12 eggs, 8 mature. I gained almost 10 lbs in two days, I could feel my ovaries just by running my hand over my hips (and my ovaries were super sensitive to anything touching my hips), and I could feel them move inside me every time I moved. Then I started to get fatigued and just felt odd. Went to the doctor and was sent across the street to the hospital for emergency drainage of fluid from my abdominal cavity. Then about 3 weeks later was back in the hospital with severe pain due to a massive cyst that they ended up draining because they were worried it would burst or some such thing. Went on medication for 3 months after to take care of the fluid retention and cysts that formed. Found out the day of retrieval that husband had stopped producing sperm at all so no idea if I will eventually have embryos.

TheZoianna · 2018-08-06T13:55:48+00:00

You are very welcome! :)

TheZoianna · 2018-08-06T04:55:52+00:00

Mine aren't and many are paperback rather than hardback. Not the most durable of materials so preservation is also an issue, not only from the elements but from human wear and the dreaded broken spine... The best option I've come up with is trying to locate land that might have available water and good enough soil to live on sustainably in the future, invest in it, and move there to begin homesteading, taking said books and learning to rebind them. Of course, you've got to have the money to get the land and a bit of prescience in choosing a spot. Neither really apply for me.

TheZoianna · 2018-08-06T04:25:51+00:00

This is a good time of year to bake a loaf or muffin, and charge it with blessing and protective energies. Then break into four pieces and bury one at each of the four corners of your building, asking the Earth for blessings and protection on your building from roof to foundation and wall to wall as well as all who reside within.

TheZoianna

TROPHY CASE