§velte Mirada©

Fairies:

We were wandering through the fairy woods when we came upon this wee sprite playing hide and seek with her shadow.

She paused to give us a mischievous wink and, just before disappearing with a pop, blew us a fairy's kiss. For a moment we could see nothing but a dazzling cloud of magical dream dust - (a common phenomenon with fairy kisses). This of course is to prevent people from seeing exactly where they went. Still there is no better luck you can have than to be sent a kiss from a fairy.

Angels & Heavens:

During the coming years many prophecies, both positive and negative, will come forth and it is important how you perceive and accept what is being said. Yes, each and every thought, expression and action has an energetic signature and adds to or detracts from the overall radiance of the Earth. The Earth is being monitored carefully as well, beloveds, to see when your planet will be ready to move forward to the next level of illumination. As you all are aware, there has been much devastation and cleansing on the Earth over the past decades and, yes, it will continue as a necessary part of the overall plan for the greatest good of all.

Astrology & Astronomy:

constellations:
Mankinds fascination with the stars and the heavenly motions has existed since time immemorial.

Although in the great wheel of time the same stars fill the sky today and mans place in the cosmos has not changed by much, our remote ancestors may have realized something that has evaded the minds of modern stargazers.

Why do ancient monuments and myths record knowledge of a cosmos that is inexplicable by our current theories of time and space? How can we improve modern astronomy using the light from the past?

These and other questions will be explored in this presentation. It will be shown that the star Sirius plays a central role in the astronomy of ancient traditions, one that has been amply justified by recent observational experiments. In addition, ancient records and modern observations are integrated to challenge the orthodox theory of Precession.

Sun Sign Astrology gets a lot of press. However, with a little thought, it is rather intuitive to feel that dividing the entire human population into only 12 categories (the 12 Sun Signs) is far too simplistic. The truth is, every individual on this planet is complex.While the sign position of the Sun is meaningful, there is much more to Astrology than just the Sun. In fact, Astrology is just as delightfully (and sometimes maddeningly!) complex as people themselves. Besides the sign of the Sun, each person has a Moon sign, Mercury sign, Venus sign, Mars sign, and so forth. Furthermore, each of the planets and luminaries fall in particular houses (there are 12 in all) in their birth charts (also called natal charts). Character is also believed to be influenced by the relationships the planets, luminaries, and points have with each other.

The colours that astronomers give stars are only slight tints. Close up, a red supergiant, many times more luminous than the Sun, would overwhelm our eyes so much that they would register only white.What you have here is a globular cluster being eclipsed by the moon of a giant and hypothetical gas planet. This image appeared on the front cover of the September 1999 issue of the prestigious US magazine Asimovs Science Fiction.

half-elves:
Half elves are always a mix of elven and human. Those extremely rare beings that are a cross with another race are given other names, and described elsewhere (n.b. These are not part of official Forgotten Realms material). The mix is not necessarily half and half but they are always at least 50% elven. They either have an elven parent or at least two elven grandparents. The exception to this is those half elves born in a half elven community. The offspring of two half elves will also be a half-elf.

The children of those half elves who mate with elves are themselves considered to be half elves.

In fact elves will always consider any being that has human somewhere in their ancestry to be a half elf, no matter how small the proportion of human blood in their veins.

Sacred Places:

In the modern western world we think of numbers as a part of math used in basic calculations and measurement, a 'quantitative' function only. The ancients understood well that numbers also had a highly symbolic 'qualitative' nature and used this characteristic to add layers of meaning to their writing, art, and architecture. Ancient Eastern ways of thinking involved symbolism on most levels of everyday life. Understanding the important qualitative or symbolic aspect of number helps scripture to come alive and provides greater insight into temple design and worship as well, since both utilize ancient eastern use of symbolism extensively.

Prophecies & Mediums:

"The more people will know, the less they will love and care for each other. Hatred will be so great between them that they will care more for their different gadgets than for their relatives. Man will trust his gadget more than his first neighbour...

"Among people of a nation far in the north, a little man will appear who will teach men about love and compassion, but there will be many hypocrites around him so that he will have many ups and downs. Not one of these hypocrites will want to know what is real human grace, but his wise books will remain and all the words he will say, and then people will see how self-deceived they were.

Plants - Sacred & Spiritual:

The coconut palm is also known as the tree which grants all wishes. The nuts are an essential part of Hindu religious ceremonies such as weddings. They symbolise complete usefulness, selfless service, prosperity and generosity. Coconuts feature in many South Asian mythological stories and legends.

A lotus flower. In Hindu and Buddhist cosmology, the unfolding flower embodies the endless Ocean of Creation.

Lotus In India, as in the rest of the world, the veneration of nature has inspired artists for thousands of years. The Buddhist temple at Sanchi is encrusted with elaborate stone carvings of plants and animals. The lotus flower appears many times here, underlining its importance as a symbol of purity and spontaneous generation in Buddhism.

The lotus flower is also important in Hindu temples. Temples dedicated to Vishnu depict the lotus flower in a variety of positions and stages, such as beneath the seated Sri Lakshmi, or growing from the navel of Vishnu. The appearance of plants in temple art is not random, but particular to the god, goddess or event that the building was built to honour.

Mystics & Alchemy:

"Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled." -- The Kybalion.

This Principle embodies the truth that "everything is dual"; "everything has two poles"; "everything has its pair of opposites," all of which were old Hermetic axioms. It explains the old paradoxes, that have perplexed so many, which have been stated as follows: "Thesis and antithesis are identical in nature, but different in degree"; "opposites are the same, differing only in degree"; "the pairs of opposites may be reconciled"; "extremes meet"; "everything is and isn't, at the same time"; "all truths are but half truths"; "every truth is half-false"; "there are two sides to everything," etc., etc., etc.

Mysteries & Enigma:

crop circle
To most eyes, the 2005 crop circle season seemed bolder and more imaginative in its design sweep than the previous one. Though 2004 had been no disgrace, there appeared to be a new impetus and adventurous nature behind the ever-evolving shapes gracing the fields this year.

Ghosts & Spirits:

The supernormal appearance of a dead person or animal, or of a living person too distant to be within the normal perception of the observer, apparitions are quite uncommon and are rarely seen more than once, apparitions of the dead which are seen repeatedly over a period of time and which apparently haunt the same location are commonly known as ghosts, most recorded cases or reports of apparitions are more likely to be associated with the living Doppelganger than of a dead person or animal, few sightings are visual, most however involve the sensing of a presence sometimes accompanied by touch, hearing strange noises, perhaps thumps, rapping's, moanings and smells of unexplainable odors.

Gods & Goddesses:

Manannan is a Manx/Celtic God from a time and a pagan religion that precedes Christianity and even the written word. He comes from a time when man's relationship with the Earth was vital for daily survival, and where mutual respect for the elements was of great importance. He was known in many lands as the God of Oceans, a lord of storms and weather, a master of magic, and a friend to all who let themselves dream. Manannan walked the lands and was known as a personality full of mirth, humor, as well as wisdom.
Little has changed over time. Manannan still thrives as a god to this day, offering his protection, guidance, and companionship to a new generation as well as souls that have lived through many lifetimes. I hope this temple functions not only a tribute to Manannan, but also a source of valuable information.

Sci-Fi & Utopia:

stargate
Some wondered of "metaphysical" stargates where astral soul projection could occur while others had questions about etheric energy alignments between points in interstellar space allowing vibrational energies to pass through distances of space along the space-time continuum. This is what I was talking about from the moment I mentioned time-dimensional doorways, and the entities that can and do move through them.

Philosophy & Metaphysics:

Every one of us has our very own light cone which defines for us the present state of the Universe, along with what we experience as logical causality and thus the passage of time. Every light cone is unique, so no one can ever precisely agree on what is happening where or when. Of course, the differences are negligible except under relativistic conditions, such as near the speed of light or the singularity of a black hole, but they are real and they are there, all the time. The "wherewhens" of spacetime are relative. In fact, since everything we see in space, from our own bodies to the distant quasars, are images from the past, the actual present state of the Universe is never seen.


That Light is not somewhere "else", not somewhere "beyond" our physical existence, nor is it simply a universal condition that existed in the distant past and is now out of reach. It shines within us right now as the very source of our being. In that Light, we are quite literally unified with the entire Universe. We always have been and always will be.

This transcendental state of unity is certainly an abstract concept, and in metaphysical languages we might have to refer to it as a higher dimension, but that higher dimension is not separate from our everyday experience of the physical world. On the contrary, it provides the very substance of our entire experience of being here now. It is the "stuff" of both consciousness and matter, from our living bodies to inanimate rocks to the distant quasars. If that Cosmic Light were not shining forth at this very moment, nothing whatsoever would exist.

Readings & Divination:

The Tarot has entertained card lovers for centuries. Yet while its symbolic content has been traced to a variety of influencessuch as social hierarchy, the Virtues, Biblical and classical allusions, astrology and perhaps even alchemythese do not explain why the Tarots designers settled upon these specific images, or why they arranged these images in a particular sequence. Could the trumps also have been influenced by the Hebrew alphabet, as esotericists have long claimed?

In the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn one was expected to copy one's own tarot deck from a master copy and to color it; however, in only a few contemporary orders, such the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA), are students expected to even color their own decks. Although I enjoy and respect many commercial tarot decks, I believe that at some point each serious student should design his or her own deck embodying their understanding of the Arcana. Indeed, as one's understanding evolves over a lifetime, it's not unreasonable to expect to design and construct several decks.

Runes are an ancient Germanic alphabet, used for writing, divination and magick. They were used throughout northern Europe, Scandinavia, the British Isles, and Iceland from about 100 B.C.E. to 1600 C.E. Runic inscriptions of great age have even been found in North America, supporting stories that the Vikings arrived in the Americas long before Columbus.Tacitus, in Chapter X of his Germania, describes a form of divination used by Germanic tribes:"To divination and casting of lots, they pay attention beyond any other people. Their method of casting lots is a simple one: they cut a branch from a fruit-bearing tree and divide it into small pieces which they mark with certain distinctive signs and scatter at random onto a white cloth. Then, the priest of the community if the lots are consulted publicly, or the father of the family if it is done privately, after invoking the gods and with eyes raised to heaven, picks up three pieces, one at a time, and interprets them according to the signs previously marked upon them." I've been working with Runes since 1994, when I was introduced to their use at a family reunion. I'm of Norse heritage. I believe that this is why I found a natural affinity to runes, although one certainly does not need to be Scandinavian to use them.

Runes are an oracle from which one seeks advice. They work best if you detail your current circumstances and then ask a specific question. Rune readings are sometimes obscure. They hint toward answers, but you have to figure out the details. This is when the rune casters intuition becomes paramount. Some times the Runes "sing" to me, and their meaning becomes instantly clear.

Daydreaming:

Meditation:

Buddhism:

Astrology: