pleiadesdreaming

Once a week, I perform a formal blessing in which I bless everybody who has signed up for it.

In order to be blessed next Wednesday, please click here and sign up on my website.

I require people to sign up anew each week, to make sure I have everybody's full consent for each blessing (and to keep things manageable for me). I.e. if you'd like to receive blessings in future weeks, too, you'll need to return to the "Blessings" section of my website each week and sign up on the most recent post.

ecosophia

We are now approaching the end of the fourth year of these open posts. When I first posted a tentative hypothesis on the course of the Covid phenomenon, I had no idea that discussion on the subject would still be necessary all these years later, much less that it would turn into so lively, complex, and troubling a conversation. Still, here we are. Crude death rates and other measures of collapsing public health are anomalously high in many countries, but nobody in authority wants to talk about the inadequately tested experimental Covid injections that are the most likely cause; ~~public health authorities~~ government shills for the pharmaceutical industry are still trying to push through laws that will allow them to force vaccinations on anyone they want; public trust in science is collapsing; and the story continues to unfold.

So it's time for another open post. The rules are the same as before:

1. If you plan on parroting the party line of the medical industry and its paid shills, please go away. This is a place for people to talk openly, honestly, and freely about their concerns that the party line in question is dangerously flawed and that actions being pushed by the medical industry and its government enablers are causing injury and death on a massive scale. It is not a place for you to dismiss those concerns. Anyone who wants to hear the official story and the arguments in favor of it can find those on hundreds of thousands of websites.

2. If you plan on insisting that the current situation is the result of a deliberate plot by some villainous group of people or other, please go away. There are tens of thousands of websites currently rehashing various conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccines. This is not one of them. What we're exploring is the likelihood that what's going on is the product of the same arrogance, incompetence, and corruption that the medical industry and its wholly owned politicians have displayed so abundantly in recent decades. That possibility deserves a space of its own for discussion, and that's what we're doing here.

3. If you plan on using rent-a-troll derailing or disruption tactics, please go away. I'm quite familiar with the standard tactics used by troll farms to disrupt online forums, and am ready, willing, and able -- and in fact quite eager -- to ban people permanently for engaging in them here. Oh, and I also lurk on other Covid-19 vaccine skeptic blogs, so I'm likely to notice when the same posts are showing up on more than one venue.

4. If you plan on making off topic comments, please go away. This is an open post for discussion of the Covid epidemic, the vaccines, drugs, policies, and other measures that supposedly treat it, and other topics directly relevant to those things. It is not a place for general discussion of unrelated topics. Nor is it a place to ask for medical advice; giving such advice, unless you're a licensed health care provider, legally counts as practicing medicine without a license and is a crime in the US. Don't even go there.

5. If you don't believe in treating people with common courtesy, please go away. I have, and enforce, a strict courtesy policy on my blogs and online forums, and this is no exception. The sort of schoolyard bullying that takes place on so many other internet forums will get you deleted and banned here. Also, please don't drag in current quarrels about sex, race, religions, etc. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules.

6. Please don't just post bare links without explanation. A sentence or two telling readers what's on the other side of the link is a reasonable courtesy, and if you don't include it, your attempted post will be deleted.

Please also note that nothing posted here should be construed as medical advice, which neither I nor the commentariat (excepting those who are licensed medical providers) are qualified to give. Please take your medical questions to the licensed professional provider of your choice.

With that said, the floor is open for discussion.

Current Mood: somber
Current Music: Yes, "Yours Is No Disgrace"

kimberlysteele

The word “spoil” comes from the Middle English “to plunder”. Though you would think such a word as spoil would mean to corrupt or degrade, the implication is actually far more violent and implies the hide being stripped from an animal. I also find it interesting that people who become intoxicated say “I’m so wasted”. Drugs and alcohol are an attempt at attaining the ecstasy of spiritual achievement without any of the chop wood, carry water work it takes to achieve. They waste the potential of the individual and disguise self-indulgence as self-realization. I’m talking to you, Timothy Leary.

When I was meditating for this essay, I made a list of the most spoiled people I have ever known in my personal life. I am sad to say there is a long list of them and they all ran neck and neck for the championship. One wrecked her rich parents’ car and blamed her parents for the brakes of the car being too quiet and responsive. Another compulsively cheated on his mate with randos from social media apps and then whined about feeling alienated in his relationships. One had a father who bought her an affordable home and then later became homeless because she refused to hold down a job and could not make the payments. One inherited his grandmother’s house and let it fall into decrepitude while his mother delivered his lunch every day because he either could not or would not cook. He viciously criticized his mother, often saying he hated her guts.

The spoiled think they are owed. They have a belief that wealth appears from nowhere. The last concept they can grok is the idea that wealth does not just appear from thin air, whether it is in the form of mommy and daddy’s money or emotional connection. They are of every intellectual level and they aren’t necessarily rich, though all the ones I knew had more than a little money. Their main common ground is a lack of perspective. When it comes to getting their own needs met, they become sociopaths who will shove anyone and everyone under the bus for the sake of gratification. As you can guess, they fall easily into addiction of various types. They are narcissists who do not improve with age.

I harp on the spoiled because I was insufferably spoiled at at least one point in my life. I am spoiled and in recovery. As a spoiled person, I remember comparing myself to others all the time, including celebrities. I always perceived people as having more than me in some key way. I wasn’t at all able to look clearly at those with less; I was in almost complete denial it was possible to have less than me. Such an attitude of having less than others traps you in its agenda. I vaguely remember Gwyneth Paltrow describing herself as “poor” during her brief friendship with Madonna.

Spoiled written all over her face

Spoiled people, especially women, tend to get caught up in the plastic surgery gamut. Those of a certain income level who can choose from a list of procedures. They amass a list of “things done” and “parts improved” until they become eerie amalgams of the young and flawless — a tiny sculpted nose, plump cheeks, a chiseled jawline, round breasts, concave waist, smooth skin, fattened lips. Each feature on its own would not be jarring, but when they all appear on one person, the effect is jarring. It screams Wendigo! Martha Stewart’s latest appearance is deeply unsettling. She is 83. It is clear that for all her achievements, including surviving an unfair prison sentence, the only thing that mattered to her all along is look doable as a great grandmother. To the spoiled, nothing this planet can offer will ever be enough.

Ingrates and insatiable appetites

No TV show is sadder than Hoarders. I can’t even watch it because if I do, I will immediately have to do a banishing ritual or two, meditate for at least a half hour, and then clean my entire house and yard. Yet I am surrounded by hoarders and hoarding. I have too much stuff and though I have improved a great deal in the last decade or two and written an actual book about minimalism called Sacred Homemaking, I would not call myself a minimalist! The most spoiled people have problems with too much stuff. It tends to go with the territory. The kid I mentioned before who inherited his grandmother’s house let the place become disgustingly dirty and full of junk. I mentioned his vociferous ragging on his mother. The spoiled are terrible to their loved ones. Another spoiled peer of mine went on a multi-thousand dollar shopping spree in the department store because her mother made the mistake of lending her a credit card. One hit his mother as a child when she would not buy him a toy or generally agree to whatever he wanted to do. One adult who lives with his mother refused to walk the dog when the mother was laid up with back surgery. She hired a dog walker. He also let her lug in the weekly grocery shopping despite being perfectly able bodied. Not once in his adult life did he spare her a chore. It goes without saying that he did not mow the lawn; she hired people for that too. No good deed goes unpunished by the spoiled and boy, are they LAZY.

I have lived with my parents many times as an adult with my much-older husband in tow. I believe we lived with my parents four times in total from our marriage in the year 2000 until 2016 when we moved to our small home in a nearby suburb. Living with one’s parents does not have to be a bad arrangement for the parent or for the adult child. The arrangement only turns septic if the parent is toxic (mine were not) or the child is spoiled. In our case, my husband and I pulled our own weight. I cleaned, cooked, bought food and household supplies, and generally left every room tidier than I found it during all of those stays. At no point did I want to be more of a burden than I was as a chronic failure-to-launch.

The rapidly expanding population of autistic and semi-autistic adults along with ridiculous real estate prices and near-Weimar levels of inflation all indicate that the trend of living with one’s parents as an adult is not going to end any time soon. Since so many generations have made a career of spoiling their children (whatever they are on the spectrum) we are looking at a living hell of animosity and people who feel like they are serving a life sentence because they must live with family.

It begins

Autism produces some Class A brats because the urge to molly coddle a damaged child is hard to resist, especially when the child has a meltdown caused by oversensitivity or straight up pain. The reaction of the parent is not to deprive or punish but to continue to comfort and indulge the child. The child soon learns that tantrums pay dividends.

Autistic or not, the brat learns that he can upend his food dishes if he does not like what he is served. He can maraud, scream, and terrorize until he is satisfied, and he is never going to be satisfied. He will demand to have his needs met and his parent (or whoever is unlucky enough to be in charge) will become his servant, providing for him, cooking, cleaning, purchasing, serving his meals, cleaning his messes, all while taking a litany of abuse.

Kids grow up quickly and the spoiled child who is given a choice about doing dishes (she chooses no) or walking the dog becomes an overgrown Baby Huey with no adult skills and far too much time on her hands. She certainly cannot survive on the streets. The one I knew whose father bought an affordable home for her and became homeless is now dead. Heaven forbid the parents cut them out of the will or disown them because they will not do well as wards of the state.

To those of you with young children: the next time your young child throws a tantrum, please, do not give in! Stand strong, deliver discipline, and set limits. A minute of harshness could save your kid’s life forty years in the future. Damn, it could probably save the entire future.

My Summer Solstice break

With the publication of this essay, I am taking a mini-break from new essays until the week of July 6. During that time, I plan on putting up an Open Post on my Dreamwidth blog for anyone who wants to chat. I will be posting excerpts from my upcoming book, Sacred Homemaking: A Magical Approach to a Tidier Home, which is going into production this fall if all goes well and is slated for production by my publisher, Aeon Books, in Spring 2026. I’m not traveling or anything, so I’ll be commenting and generally available over the next 2.5 weeks, just no new essays. Thanks for understanding. I plan on touching grass no matter how hot it is.

neptunesdolphins

Another in the series of animals, Gods, and spirituality

This worldwide Order of Birds ranges from the tiny Elf Owl of North America to the huge Eagle Owl of Eurasia. As predators, Members of the Owl Family regard anything that moves as fair game. While the Elf Owl eats insects, the Eagle Owl feasts on deer. Because most Members of the Owl Family fly at night, they occupy the same niche in the eco-system as hawks and eagles. Native Americans called the Owl Family “Night Eagles”.

Members of the Owl Family are divided into two groups. The older, smaller group of Barn Owls and Bay Owls (Tytonidae) are distinctive with their heart-shaped faces. They have longer skulls, beaks, and legs than the newer group of owls (Strigidae) do. The round-headed owls, that most people see, are from the larger Strigidae Family.

Because so few birds are nocturnal and the majority of owls (Strigiformes) are, people respected but distrusted them. Japanese regarded Barn Owls and Horned Owls as demonic. In Borneo, Scops Owls were thought of as ill omens to be avoided at all costs. The Romans believed that any owl sucked the blood of babies. Meanwhile, parents of various Native American nations would tell their children when they misbehaved that “owls will get you.” In Mexico, people will say “when the owl cries, the Indian dies.”

A fearsome being, the Slavic Strzyga (Strigoi) is a “vampire” spirit who takes the form of an owl. With her two lines of teeth, the Strzyga will suck blood, take people’s life energy, and finally eat their insides. Remembering her human life, the Strzyga will hunt down the people who had hurt her. Because of her hunting at night, people will rarely venture out after dark.

Various owls are associated with different Gods. In Hawai’i, Pueo (Hawai’ian Owl) is a protector. As ‘Aumakau, Pueo is the ancestor guardian who watches over the family. Because a Barn Owl saved Genghis Khan from his enemies, Mongolians revered her. Meanwhile, Celts look upon the Tawny Owl as one of the five oldest animals on earth. One of the animals associated with the Norse Goddess Frigga is the Great Horned Owl.

Lakshmi, the Hindu Goddess of Wisdom, has a sister – Alakshmi who takes the form of an owl. Often, Alakshimi will give Her Sister bad advice. As an owl, She indicates the arrogance and stupidity that accompanies excessive luck. Depending on the region of India, owls can either be good fortune or messengers of death.

The Cailleach of Celtic mythology is often linked with the Barn Owl. As a Hag Goddess, the Cailleach has dominion over the night and the winter. Meanwhile, the Barn Owl has a ghostly presence at night. Moreover, the Gaelic word for owl is “cauileach-oildhche,” which means “night-cockerel” or “the white old woman of the night.”

Ancient Greeks welcomed the Little Owl as their Goddess of Wisdom’s Friend. Athena is shown with the Little Owl (Athene noctua). One of this Goddess’ epithets is “Glaukopis,” which means “Bright Eyed.” The owl represents her wisdom and sharp vision.

Hypnos, the Greek God of Sleep, takes a form of an owl from time to time. In some of the myths, He flaps his wings to bring sleep. Considered to be benevolent, Hypnos could put even the Gods to sleep. Like the owl, He governed the liminal place between wakefulness and sleep. (The Romans called Hypnos, Somnus.)

Members of the Owl Family represent the fears, anxieties, and wisdom of people. However, to see owls as they truly are, brings about a greater appreciation of their role in nature. Owls are master predators that keep their territories from being overrun by rodents. Various owls have exploited all kinds of environments ranging from frozen tundra to arid deserts. In fact, the Barn Owl makes her home on nearly every continent on earth. Members of the Owl Family live in dead trees, on buildings, and burrows in the ground. They hunt during the day as well as at night.

Owls seek their own counsel in what they do. They seize what opportunities there are and then exploit them to the maximum. The Owl Family teaches you to follow your own inner wisdom. Seek your own counsel and increase your opportunities.

For further reading:

Mike Clelland, “The Messengers: Owls, Synchronicity and the UFO Abductee.” 2020.

Mike Clelland, “Stories from the Messengers: Accounts of Owls, UFOs and a Deeper Reality.” 2020.

ecosophia

Midnight is upon us and so it's time to launch a new Magic Monday. Ask me anything about occultism, and with certain exceptions noted below, any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer. Please note: Any question or comment received after that point will not get an answer, and in fact will not be put through. If you're in a hurry, or suspect you may be the 341,928th person to ask a question, please check out the very rough version 1.3 of The Magic Monday FAQ here.

Also: I will not be putting through or answering any more questions about practicing magic around children. I've answered those in simple declarative sentences in the FAQ. If you read the FAQ and don't think your question has been answered, read it again. If that doesn't help, consider remedial reading classes; yes, it really is as simple and straightforward as the FAQ says. And further: I've decided that questions about getting goodies from spirits are also permanently off topic here. The point of occultism is to develop your own capacities, not to try to bully or wheedle other beings into doing things for you. I've discussed this in a post on my blog.

The image? I field a lot of questions about my books these days, so I've decided to do little capsule summaries of them here, one per week. This is my eightieth published book, though it's also one of my first! Many years ago, not long after I became an initiate in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF), I started collecting scraps of data on the 22 emblems that are included in the degree ceremonies, and self-published a little staplebound booklet about them. A couple of years ago, I was contacted by some other Odd Fellows who were trying to increase interest in our old (and yes, rather odd) initiatory order and asked to permit a reprint. That saw print earlier this year. It's a specialized title, mostly of interest to those who are members or or interested in Odd Fellowship, but it has some fascinating stuff in it. If you'd like a copy, you can get it here in the US and from your favorite online retailer elsewhere.

Buy Me A Coffee

Ko-Fi

I've had several people ask about tipping me for answers here, and though I certainly don't require that I won't turn it down. You can use either of the links above to access my online tip jar; Buymeacoffee is good for small tips, Ko-Fi is better for larger ones. (I used to use PayPal but they developed an allergy to free speech, so I've developed an allergy to them.) If you're interested in political and economic astrology, or simply prefer to use a subscription service to support your favorite authors, you can find my Patreon page here and my SubscribeStar page here.

I've also had quite a few people over the years ask me where they should buy my books, and here's the answer. Bookshop.org is an alternative online bookstore that supports local bookstores and authors, which a certain gargantuan corporation doesn't, and I have a shop there, which you can check out here. Please consider patronizing it if you'd like to purchase any of my books online.

And don't forget to look up your Pangalactic New Age Soul Signature at CosmicOom.com.

~~With that said, have at it!~~

***This Magic Monday is now closed and no further comments will be put through. See you next week!***

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Yes, "Roundabout"

milkyway1

Yet another announcement today! :-)

As most of you might be aware, there was a recent convention in Glastonbury by readers of JMG's ecosophia sites.

I wrote a report about this convention, both for the folks who couldn't attend, and for those who could and would like a keepsake of sorts...

Click here to download the Glastonbury report from my website.

milkyway1

The eleventh essay in the "Inner Work with the Planets" series is now available over on my website.

In this essay, we leave the sphere of Saturn, the last and outermost planet, and move yet further up to... Well, why don't you read it for yourself? ;-)

ecosophia

As mentioned in my earlier post on the England trip, one of the things I did in Glastonbury was the consecration of a new bishop in the Universal Gnostic Church: as far as I know, the first bishop in the tradition in Europe. Regine Becher -- that's her on the left -- lives in Karlsbad, Germany; regular readers here will know her by her Dreamwidth handle, Milkyway1. Many of you may know that she's been extremely active in the Modern Order of Essenes, teaching an online class in the Essene work and doing a great deal of healing practice as well. Thus I was delighted to have the chance to ordain and consecrate her while I was in England.

I admit to being very curious as to how her work as a bishop will turn out in the cultural environment of continental Europe. Here in the US, being a bishop of a small alternative religious body is practically normal -- you can tell that this country, from colonial times onward, was the refuge for every religious oddball in Europe. In Germany, by contrast, the great age of religious eccentricity is centuries in the past at this point. It's a very different environment, and I applaud Regine for being willing to make the effort to implant our odd tradition in Germany's soil.

Please join me in congratulating Bishop Regine!

Current Mood: very pleased
Current Music: Myrdhin, "Keridwen"

kimberlysteele

I am happy to read your Ogham free of charge -- that's how I hone my divination skills. Please limit your reading request to four or fewer Ogham cards: though this can take many forms, here are some common ones (all of them are basically combos of 4 cards):

-a single three card reading for the week or month and a one-off, one card reading

-four questions about four separate items that require one answer (card) per item
-a one card reading to answer a specific question and a three card for a more nuanced question
-Two separate readings, two cards a piece exploring the positives and negatives of two different choices

I am happy to do Ogham readings confidentially via email -- just email me at k steele studio at gmail during the allotted time/before deadline. I cannot answer health questions. If you have a question about health or another sensitive, private matter, provide a bunch of non-identifying information and the Ogham will be able to figure it out even if I don't. I'm serious... the Ogham actually tend to "know" things without me being privy to what is going on.

Please note I take time off during Solstices and Equinoxes for Druid stuff and because sometimes I simply need a break.

My next planned break is from Saturday, June 21, 2025 - Friday, July 11, 2025.

I take reading requests from whenever this post goes up on Friday night until 8pm US Central Time Saturday.

For a more in depth look into how I read and interpret the Ogham's symbols, please visit my website druidogham.wordpress.com.

I am currently trying to minimize my use of PayPal. If you'd like to make a donation, I would be grateful if you did it here:

http://buymeacoffee.com/kimberlysteele

Your prayers of blessing to the deity/deities of your choice are welcome whether or not you can donate.

ecosophia

Welcome back to Frugal Friday! This is a weekly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up every Friday, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course, and I have some simple rules to offer, which may change further as we proceed.

Rule #1:  this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc. I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #2:  this is not a place for you to sell goods or services, period. Here again, I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #3:  please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about.  Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.

Rule #4: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.

With that said, have at it!

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: George Winston, "Rain"

ecosophia

Yes, I'm back home in East Providence, RI, now. As promised earlier, here are a few of the details.

Travel is easier. It's been eleven years since I last flew, and I was surprised by how little hassle I had getting to and from England. The security and customs process on either end of the flight is little more than theater these days; no doubt the fact that both countries have fairly porous borders takes a lot of the urgency away. The most unnerving discovery I made is that airport food has improved. I expected the usual vile slop, inflicted on travelers who had no other choice; getting a genuinely decent burger and good beer in Logan Airport left me wondering if I'd somehow slipped into an alternative timeline or something.

London is London. I shouldn't like London. It's sprawling, crowded, raffish, and not especially clean, but for some reason I always feel comfortable there. I took several long walks through various London neighborhoods without any hassle at all. It's a polyglot jumble of people from all over the planet, as it's been for the last three centuries or so; if that distresses you, I don't recommend going there. To forestall one of the obvious questions, yes, there are a fair number of people in Muslim dress there, but no more than I remember from eleven years ago; for that matter, most of the big new religious buildings I saw there were Hindu temples, not mosques.

Glastonbury is weird. This will doubtless explain why I like it so much. It hasn't changed appreciably since my two earlier visits; the used book stores are still packed with obscure occult tomes, and eccentrics parade down the streets, so I fit right in. The various ancient sites haven't gotten any younger, and of course neither have I -- I climbed the Tor in decent time, but had to stop and rest twice on the way up, which I hadn't needed the last two times.

A good time was had by most. You can judge the character of London these days by the fact that of the three readers I met my first day in London, one is Mexican, one is Irish, and the third is a British descendant of Indians expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin. Inevitably, we ate Thai food for dinner. The next day I walked for a few miles to have lunch with an editor of the online magazine UnHerd, where some of my essays have been posted, and then took the Tube to meet one of my publishers in Clerkenwell.

I had two book signings in London, one at Watkins Books on the 3rd and the other at Atlantis Bookshop on the 4th. Both were well attended. The second was enlivened by two people fainting -- they're both fine now. Then it was off to Glastonbury, carpooling through London traffic and then through green countryside and dubious roads into the west. Readers and friends started turning up almost immediately on my arrival. So did pints of Mena Dhu, a Cornish stout that makes Guinness seem just a little thin and pale. (You can literally eat the foam by the spoonful.) Friday we wandered through the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, visited the White Spring, and then climbed the Tor; Saturday and Sunday we met, around fifty of us, at the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms for a variety of talks, and then went to the George and Pilgrims, a fifteenth-century pub, to talk until closing time. I also did Essene Apprentice attunements for eight people, ordained two Gnostic priests, and consecrated a Gnostic bishop. (I'll give her a proper announcement sometime soon.)

Monday the 9th I was back on the road, carpooling with more friends, and stayed the night with yet another reader and friend, an alternative-health practitioner who cheerfully calls himself "a back-street quack." To describe our conversations as strange would understate matters considerably; that is to say, I enjoyed myself immensely. Tuesday I squeezed in time for a video interview with UnHerd -- I'll post a link once it's available -- and then I was off to Heathrow and on my way home.

The 11-year itch. It didn't occur to me until I got to Britain that I've gone there at 11-year intervals: my visits there have been in 2003, 2014, and 2025, always in June. I'd like to go back a little sooner than 2036, but partly that depends on the return of the arrangements that allowed freighters to take up to 12 passengers, which closed down during Covid -- I don't feel I can justify air travel more often than I have to, given the ecological impact. Nonetheless, it was quite something to celebrate my 63rd birthday in Glastonbury with a substantial gaggle of friends. I'd be remiss if I neglected thanks for Oliver Rathbone of Aeon Books for arranging and facilitating the London end of the adventure; Brigid Brennan for making all the arrangements for the Glastonbury end of things; and all the other participants who helped make this a memorable and pleasant experience. Thank you, one and all!

Current Mood: good
Current Music: Al Stewart, "Terminal Eyes"

neptunesdolphins

Since various notable people have been discussing starting colonies on Mars, while others tell of discovering life in outer space, I decided to ponder the metaphysics of cosmotheology. As a Polytheist, I wonder how Outer Space and Extraterrestrials (ETs) will affect Polytheism, in general. Can the various cosmologies of Polytheism accommodate ETs or colonies on the Moon? How do rituals and traditions respond to realities beyond cultural beliefs? What is Polytheism’s place in the cosmotheological landscape?

I think that Polytheism will adapt and embrace the new realities. The many cosmologies of Polytheism already include multi-universes, non-physical realms, and orders of existence. For Polytheists, the universe is rich in spiritual meaning. All life exists in a web or reciprocity within a vast interconnected universe.

A reflection of what Polytheism is was written by the monks of the Saiva Siddhanta Yoga Order (Note 1) in their pamphlet “Gods and Gods of Hinduism.” They stated, “It must be clearly understood that God and the Gods are not a psychological product of the Hindu religious mind. They are far older than the Universe…They are loving overseers and custodians of the cosmos, earth and mankind. The Hindu cosmological terrain envelops all of humanity. It is not exclusive.”

The statements of the Hindu monks encompass Polytheistic thought. Polytheists do see the Cosmos as an interconnected web of relationships. As a part of that, the Gods move beyond the known Universe. The monks further state that the “Gods are the fountainheads of its (Universe) galactic energies, shining stars and sunlit planets.” Adding ETs to the Web of Life would not be so disruptive.

Meanwhile, how does a Polytheist approach to residing off the Earth? For example, how does living in a colony on the Moon, affect the worship and veneration of Luna or Nanna-Suen or any other God of the Moon? What form would that devotion take? Living on the Moon changes the relationship between the devotee and the God. What about colonies on Mars, where the Moon is not seen? That would mean a new relationship would develop.

In Sumerian Polytheism, Nanna-Suen measures time. As He waxes and wanes, Nanna-Suen delivers gifts from his Barge until He returns to the Underworld. During the Dark Moon, He is a Judge there. Could the Moon be His Barge, with the colonists his people? Could time be measured with a period of the “Dark of the Moon” and “Full of the Moon?” I believe that Nanna-Suen will whisper to his devotees in their dreams, what He wants. Rituals will take a new form, since the colony is on the Moon. As for Mars, Nanna-Suen may have the two Moons be his agents, or the Gods of the Moons of Mars will make Themselves known.

I believe that Polytheism will adapt to the new circumstances. New Gods will emerge, and old Gods will take on new attributes. The Gods will reveal new ways of venerating Them. Divination is always available for asking what They want. Reading the original myths and cosmologies will uncover new ways for devotion for life off the Earth.

Notes:

Note 1. The monks reside on Kauai, Hawai’i.

Suggested Reading:

Davis, Andrew, “Metaphysics of Exo-Life.” Grasmere (ID): SacraSage Press. 2003.

Meade, Shannon, “Faith in the Cosmos.” Machiasport (ME): Shannon Meade. 2024.

O’Meara, Thomas, “Vast Universe.” Collegeville (MN): Liturgical Press. 2012.

Weintraub, David, “Religions and Extraterrestrial Life.” London: Springer Book. 2014.

milkyway1

kimberlysteele

I am not all that bright. My creativity and uniqueness are something to behold, but when it comes to raw candlepower, I am a mid at best. I don’t always make smart decisions and that is why I have six cats. There is no reason any person of my lower middle class income level should have six cats. To my credit, only three of the six live inside my diminutive home (three are friendly ferals), however, their food and litter cost more than our human groceries per week. Their care and feeding take up a good thirty percent of any given day. Taking on six cats was not a smart or logical idea… yet here I am. There is meowing in the background as I write this.

I am in plentiful company: humans are not very smart. Our level of intelligence is somewhere between unicellular slime and demigod. The notion that we are the smartest beings in the solar system just because we walk on two feet and build a bunch of junk is laughable. For one, we’re not intelligent enough to do spacetime travel because we don’t have mental bodies sufficient to understand that space and time are illusions. We aren’t smart enough to cooperate on a consistent basis: our systems are fraught with waste, entropy, and unnecessary bloodshed. Our doctors are so stupid, they treat their human patients as if they were cars with interchangeable parts. Our men and women of god are usually hypocrites, hebephiles, and pedophiles. Our politicians and celebrities are slaves to a depraved System that vampirizes children and babies for profit.

Humans are not only stupid, we are extremely lazy. Entire civilizations have checked out where meaningfulness and earnestness are concerned. Their citizens have all but reneged on human decency and diligence and have instead fully embraced mindless egotism and zombified compliance. Going the saner path would require actual work they are not willing to do. We begin to see why the old holy books routinely featured an angry god who wiped the Earth clean with a flood and told a few survivors to start over.

As I mentioned in my previous essay about banishing rituals, I was atheist until about ten years go. Atheists like to think of themselves as super smart and I was no exception. The new atheist movement named themselves “brights” around 2003. Richard Dawkins, who is someone I consider to be more idiot than savant, attended the 2003 Brights movement conference. The Brights, also known as the Godless, proudly flaunted their atheism on the world stage for a hot minute. If you’re cringeing, well, I’m cringeing harder because I actually used to consider myself one of them! At any rate, Dawkins is neither the first nor will he be the last retard to declare his truth to be the only legitimate one.

In my own case, one of the only saving graces I have ever possessed is that I have always known I could be wrong, and that is why I am slightly smarter than “brights” such as Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris, as well as any given monotheist theologian or imam. I don’t stake my entire self-worth on being right. I am also at peace with being retarded. I’m comfortable with it. To this day, Dawkins and Harris do not even know they are retarded and poor Hitchens died before he could figure it out.

So long and so very hard LOL

I’m sad I have to say this, but becoming less retarded is one of the key reasons we are incarnated here on Meatworld. Some lessons can only be learned the long and hard way. Some alchemical processes take so long that only a billion or more illusory spacetime years can get them done, for instance evolving the soul of an amoeba into a pianist.

Long ago, a bunch of medieval Catholics refined the concept and practice of discursive meditation. It is an understatement that discursive meditation is one of the great traditions the West has given to the world. Discursive meditation is a procedural method of deliberately limiting thought until the singular subject of that thought has been treated to a thorough amount of expounding, unpacking, and illumination. Benedict of Nursia is credited with putting discursive meditation on the map and making all the monks of his order do it on the regular, but I am confident discursive meditation was practiced throughout the medieval Christian world before he put his stamp on it. Medieval Europeans were a great deal more intelligent than the Progress narrative insinuates. Not only did medieval peasants have vibrant intellectual lives, they were far more connected to the rhythms of the land and the beauty of existence than we are. Proof of their superiority lies in the Gothic cathedrals they left behind. Our peoples will leave islands of ocean plastic waste the size of Alaska, spent uranium, and janky concrete.

The medieval peasant was smarter, braver, and more conversant with the Divine than you because the thought leaders of his time were immersed in discursive meditation even if he personally was not. Limits are power, whether we are talking about the walls and pipes of a hydroelectric dam or the exclusion of inferior ingredients in a treasured soup recipe. Via limits, discursive meditation improves lives. It improved mine and it can improve yours. If everyone on Substack took up discursive meditation for 10-20 minutes a day for a year, we would be looking at a burgeoning revolution in addiction recovery and dramatic collapses in mainstream media far more pronounced than what we are seeing now. Positive infection happens.

Voice in your head

It’s not that NPCs lack voices in their heads or internal dialogues. We all have voices and internal dialogues. Every person has a unique spiritual ecosystem just as he or she has gut flora. The ecosystem is a mishmash of different selves and outsiders. Beings such as the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA), ghosts, egregores, fairies, demons, feeders, larvae, and a motley array of beings who pass through without interaction are par for the course. You are not alone and you have never been alone. You were conditioned into rootlessness after being born in a spiritual Dark Age of endemic metaphysical handicaps. You were shoehorned into dismissing the spiritual world, and if you were raised in monotheism, you likely had it worse because you were told most of the discernible spiritual world was evil and Satanic.

You are a blind leper in a vicious game of dodgeball, unaware that your nose and fingers have fallen off. You are dimly aware that you in constant pain and that something isn’t right. You need a banishing ritual or its traditional mass equivalent stat. You also need a way of preserving what is left of your own dwindling strength so you can stop wasting your magical energy, otherwise known as intention.

Most of us have problems with intention and again I am no exception. My Achilles’s heel is eclecticism, which is the urge to jam several lifetimes of accomplishment into a single human incarnation. Discursive meditation has been a godsend in discerning which activities I am best suited to spending my time on and which are better left behind. Limits are power.

Where does your mind go?

When I first started discursive meditation about ten years ago, I was still solidly atheist. That said, the skeptic in me had no problem with ten to twenty minutes a day of severely limited thought. My first meditations were deceptively simple. A pencil. A sandwich. The piano. The number five. My daily contemplations grew to include terms or phrases such as “cleanliness is next to godliness” and “middle age”. Only later did I build up the fortitude to tackle problematic subjects such as troubled relationships, my own shadow projection, and past lives. Once I had my sea legs, I was able to gain tremendous insight to most of my own problems. I became my own best shrink. I struck at the roots of my own stupidity, pride, and self-sabotage. There is nothing quite like isolating one’s own culpability in discursive meditation to put an end to one’s own bad behavior. Removing the bullcrap and sanctimony drives an iron pin through the heart of the pale, squirming grub of egotistical complacency. The phrase “everywhere you go, there you are” sums it up: instead of running away as most humans do from self-reflection, discursive meditation exposes you to your own inner workings. Confront the way you think; this is the key to much, to paraphrase Dion Fortune. As Apollo said, know thyself.

Stop waiting for the world to change and change yourself. Discursive meditation is a direct route to self-change. It is unfortunate that some who are reading this will find ways to dismiss what I have said here because I am a non-Christian occultist. Yes, I am both of those things, but I believe Jesus himself wants you to revive the tradition of discursive meditation. I believe He (or someone uncannily like him) popped into my ecosystem a couple of times and said “Hey you… tell them I said this!” He said that gratitude and generosity sublimate to the power of seven. He also said that discursive meditation, a.k.a. the old Catholic contemplation that made the West formidable and great, should be revived. In short, Jesus is no fan of whiners and whining. He would much prefer you use the ancient tradition of His church to clean up your own corner instead of crying about somebody else’s pigsty.

Make of that what you will… I could be wrong!

How to do a discursive meditation:

Choose a subject in the form of a physical object, word, or phrase. Do not choose more than one subject. Limits are power. Christians can use a phrase from the Bible, and you’ll observe the Bible’s verses are conveniently partitioned and numbered for contemplation purposes.
Get a notebook and pen and put it somewhere within reach.
Sit in a straight-backed chair with your feet on the ground and take a few deep breaths. A little discomfort is OK as long as it is not extreme.
Limit your thought to the subject alone. If you’re hungry, too freaking bad. If you’re thinking about a deadline or an annoying person, cancel those thoughts for ten minutes. Only think about the subject and all its aspects.
Once you have thought about the subject, isolate three aspects of it that crossed your mind. For instance, if I meditate on a pencil, I can think about its etymology (pencil means “little tail”), where it was made (likely China), and my own preference for mechanical pencils. Write those observations down in your book.
Quit after ten or twenty minutes. Don’t overdo discursive meditation. It’s actually heavier exercise than you would assume. Once you get good at it, you can go longer.

neptunesdolphins

The month of mid-June to mid-July in Sumer is called “Su-numum” after the Akiti Su-numum (the Ploughing Festival). Ploughing has begun and will continue for four more months. This month is also referred to the “Month of the Barely Seed,” reflecting the preparation for the planting season. Stones and stubble are removed, and the rows are ploughed. Burnt offerings of fruit and oil are made to the plough. (Traditionally, the festival is started at the full moon after the summer solstice.)

Since Su-numun is also the onset of summer, there also rituals that focused on death and mourning. The first day of the month is “The Festival of the Canebrake (Apum).” (This was traditionally held on the new moon after the summer solstice.) “Canebrake” refers to the burial practice of wrapping the corpse in a shroud and laying it in the burial marshes. “In the reeds of Enki” refers to the canebrake receiving the body. Burial marshes were common. This was also the time of the Dead to wander among the living.

During this month, the Greater Wail (Ergula) was conducted. During the festival, it is customary to read laments such as “Lament over the Destruction of Ur” and “Lament over the Destruction of Ur and Sumer.” These laments were read while the priests and people walked around the city walls. The “Time of the Great Wailing” commemorates when Ur was destroyed by the Elam and Sua peoples in 2004 BCE. (Some scholars believe that the Greater Wail is also related to the moon being in the sky the shortest time on the shortest night.)

milkyway1

Unit 9 of the Modern Order of Essenes course is now available. You can access it here on my website.

kimberlysteele

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neptunesdolphins

The fourth month of the Babylonian year is named for the God of Fertility and Shepherds. With the advent of the hot, dry season, the month of mid-June to mid-July is called “Dumuzi (Tammuz).” For this month of summer, Dumuzi goes to the Netherworld to live for six months. The months between June and September are the months that the Dead can roam among the living. This was the time of ghosts and rituals against prolonged illnesses.

On the 18th day of this month, the statue of Ishtar (Dumuzi’s wife) is washed, and Dumuzi’s one is anointed in oil. Starting on the 25th day, people honored his death. On the “Day of the Striking,” Dumuzi’s statue is displayed. During “The Day of the Screaming,” people wailed for Him. On “The Day He is caught,” barley is burned and his statue is thrown out the main gate. (This refers to the Galla coming from the Underworld to fetch the God.) On the “Day of the Stall (where He was captured),” Dumuzi’s statue lies in state. At this time, a priest whispers prayers into the statue’s ears. Then on the last day, “Day of Redemption,” the fields are cleared (the Dead Dumuzi). Afterwards, symbolic sowing of the fields for the next harvest is done (the Reborn Dumuzi).

At the Solstice, a ritual to adjust the imbalance between day and night is conducted. This was the time when the moon appeared at the shortest period during the night. The Daughters of the Esagil (the House of Day), Sillushtab and Katuna move to the Ezida (the House of the Night). Meanwhile the Daughters of the Night, Gazababa and Gunisurra go to the House of the Day to strengthen the night.

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In the Shadow of Mt Parnassus

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Weekly Blessing 77 – Wednesday, June 25th, 2025

Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 200

Spoiled: Utterly Wasted

OWL FAMILY: Inner Wisdom

Magic Monday

Report on the Ecosophia Convention in Glastonbury

Signs From Above

Universal Gnostic Church: A Fourth Bishop

Ogham Readings on Saturdays

Frugal Friday

Back from England

My Polytheistic Perspective on Cosmotheology

Weekly Blessing 76 – Wednesday, June 18th, 2025

Y'All Need Discursive Meditation

Sumer: Month of June-July

Modern Order of Essenes Course – Unit 9

Ogham Readings on Saturdays

Babylonian Month of June-July

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