Do You Astral Travel?

Be sure to check out the other Adventures in the Astral Realms groups on the other networks! The astral realms have a new permanent resident now. Robin Goodfellow passed into the Summerland late May 1st. Robin was a former lover and a good friend. He always had something humorous to say. I think he thought his diabetes was a huge colossal cosmic joke on him by the Gods and Goddesses. He always had a strong interest in the astral realms. I think he was doing an astral journey when he slipped into his diabetic coma and died.

Since we are both interested in traveling to the astral realms, we both have dream journals that we write in whenever we get the chance. My dream this morning was weird. I dreamt I was going to a ball, and trying to get to my room to change into my gown. The hotel the ball was at looked like my old dorm at Concordia College, Fjelstad Hall. It was a beautiful old place that looked like a 16th century manor house. It was the only dorm I would live in. In the other dorms, the rooms were like shoe boxes, with walls of cardboard. In the process of trying to find my room, I ran into my 3rd ex-hubby, who was dressed as a Confederate cavalry officer. I finally made it to my room, and put on my gown, which was this cotton number, red with blue oak sprigs. I had made it some years ago. I wore it a few times before I lost my figure.

Dreams, in some people’s minds, are transporting devices that take one to the astral plane, or if you’re stoned, the half-astral. The witches of old used to astral travel to their Sabbats and esbats. I have a theory about how they did it. They would smear the lower part of their besoms with flying ointment (the part that was shaped like a phallus and hidden by the twigs) and masturbate with it. The ointment would soak into the moist mucous membranes of their vaginas, and whoop! They’d be off to the Sabbat, where they’d dream the encounter. Just imagine what these sexually repressed women would be visualizing. Wild stuff, I’m sure. Our modern TV shows would have nothing on these women’s imaginations. Flying ointments had in them such tasty ingredients as deadly nightshade, henbane, and belladonna. Overdose and it was one bad trip, and the last thing you’ll ever dream. In other words, it was a quick trip to the Summerland, and the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th century’s version of a morgue. For a fatty base, they probably used either goose grease or lanolin from the wool they worked with. I don’t believe they actually used human baby fat. That was just something the witch hunters threw in to make them seem more horrific. The women were being tortured, so they’d agree to anything the inquisitors’ sick minds came up with. As you know, Torquemada came up with the Spanish Inquisition. The hunt for Witches gathered strength after the publication of “Malleus Malificarum” in 1484. If you can remember who wrote Malleus Malificarum, you get a cookie.

They were Germans, we know that, and the Germans were the most savage and barbaric of the Witch hunters. The Spanish Inquisition has nothing on the Germans. Whole towns and villages were put to the stake from the 15th into the 18th centuries. The only thing that stopped it was the encroachment of the Age of Enlightenment and Reason, wherein they decided that the women who claimed to be Witches were all insane. The reason we are bringing this up is that the Astral Realms are not always lovely friendly places with nice friendly beings. There are plenty of what I like to call “astral nasties.” The two monks who wrote that book are probably still roaming the astral plane, hassling Witches who travel there. There are many dangers on the astral plane. There are not only ghosts of the nasty humans who died, but creatures of all sorts, that would make Stephen King’s, Clive Barker’s, and H.P. Lovecraft’s creatures look tame by comparison. Stephen wants me to talk about hungry ghosts, so I will. They are from China and Japan, but a ghost doesn’t have to be from China or Japan to be ferocious and hungry, greedy for power. One such spirit is the shade of Adolf Hitler.

The Cthulhu mythos is full of astral nasties. The creatures of H.P. Lovecraft are extra-dimensional creatures. Dreamlands are part of the astral realms. Stephen has always been fascinated by the lands of Ylang and the Dreamlands. Stephen is still fascinated by the dark. I’ve been dark most of my life, but 28 years and a little over 3 months ago, I was forced to develop a light side, because at that time the light of my life was born, my daughter Janvier. Raising her was a revelation. She has a healthy darkside too, how could she not with me as her mother? But she’s still the light of my life. Since then, although I’m still dark, I have developed an appreciation for my light side. One of the actresses who portrayed Mary Queen of Scots for our guild always called me her ”sweet bright spirit”.

If you are a member of the other 5 Adventures in the Astral Realms groups, you know that the astral realms are huge. They cover not only this planet, but all the other planets circling around other stars. They cover every landscape, not only the real ones, but also the fictional ones. There is a #10 Baker Street in a fictional London. In case you just landed here and don’t know what that is, it’s the rooms and office of Sherlock Holmes, the hypervigilant detective created by Arthur Conan Doyle. He roams the astral too so if you are being chased by an astral nasty, call on him, along with Dr. Strange. Every mythical or fictional character roams the astral realms, for after all, this is where they were born, it being only a very short trip to everyone’s subconscious, and to Jung’s collective unconscious. I mentioned Dr. Strange up there, and the reason was that his encounters with earth’s enemies take place on the astral plane.

Pathworking is a form of astral astral journeying, also known as traveling on the planes. You can use a Tarot card to do this. Like I’m doing right now. I selected the Page of Coins. The Page of coins is a rather androgynous looking young person, richly dressed with a gemmed headband. Beyond hir is a tree. S/he stands as though a guardian of this place. S/he could also be an astral guide. Beyond hir are fields and meadows. There is also a river lined by bushes or shrubberies. All I could see were fields of green marijuana plants. Oracle cards can be used as well; anything with a scene will work. When we walk along the river with our astral guide, what do we find? Who do we meet? Not all interdimensoinal beings are evil, either. It runs about the same proportion as people on earth. Do your own research. Don’t take our word for it. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve read with the deck or not. Throw the canned book meaning you’ve worked so hard to memorize out the window. You’re not doing a reading, you’re astral traveling. It doesn’t matter what the card means. What matters is what you see when you’ve stepped inside the card.
You can also meet fellow astral travelers while astral traveling. Again about the same proportion of evil to good people as on planet earth. A lot depends upon your attitude. If you’re sure they’re evil and hostile and act hostile towards them, they’re going to be evil and hostile towards you. That’s a version of the mirror image effect. Things you encounter are not separate entities, but different aspects of yourself, that are sentient. It’s like the different characters in your dreams all being parts of you. It’s also related to the Doppler effect and the shadow effect. Your shadow is the personification of all your repressed and unexpressed qualities. If your intuition senses a separate being, then it is a separate being, not you yourself in another form.

If you try to communicate with someone you encounter on this plane, 1. you’ll be successful 2 the connection can be severed and something like an electric shock hits your body and bounces you back, 3 nothing happens. If you have any other scenarios, we want to hear about them. I have one: 4: You develop a relationship with this person, and you become astral pen pals. We would like to hear about your own personal encounters with astral entities other than yourself.

Astral projection is one of the more common psychic abilities. It is also taught by the more prominent magickal orders such as the Order of the Golden Dawn, IOTA, Fraternas Saturni, and the OTO, as well as most, if not all, of the traditions of Wicca and Witchcraft. This is a very popular topic, with hundreds of books written on the subject, including book(s) written by the indefatigable writing team of Denning and Phillips. Astral travel is also known as OOBEs Out Of Body Experiences. It’s supposed to be a really difficult process, but my shaman teacher ladyoflove taught me to just visualize where I want to go, and go there. Isaac Bonewits in his Real Magic [sic] and Authentic Thaumaturgy goes into elaborate detail about OOBEs. Stephen personally prefers the term “astral projection”, but OOBE is the commonly scientific term, but Stephen likes the ancient terms. Stephen thinks the term OOBE is about 50 years old, and originated in the paranormal movement with Robert Monroe’s books. Stephen met Monroe once. How far back does the term “astral projection” or “astral travel” go? In the ‘80s, the actress Shirley Maclaine promulgated OOBEs heavily. How about if you do some research into Ms MacLaine’s work in OOBEs? Get back to us here on it. I didn’t read any of her books because I was sure that they were the usual kind of claptrap that celebrities write. After all, I had known about this stuff since at least the mid-70s, and I was sure that I was a Jennie-come-lately where that was concerned.

There are many astral realms. One of the realms is Da’ath in the Abyss. Stephen thought that Da’ath was the Abyss. I explained to him that Da’ath is in the Abyss, in the same way that Vatican City is in Rome, but it’s not of Rome. It could well be one of the places one goes when one rises on the planes.

The next time I call Isaac Bonewits, I’m going to ask him if he goes off on astral jaunts while the chemo needle is in his arm. I know that if I, Goddess forbid, ever had to submit to the chemo needle, that’s what I’d do. That or read a book. I think that when I had to go under anesthesia to repair my ankle almost 2 years ago, that I astral traveled. I called Isaac, but he didn’t answer.
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Many people have had near death experiences, which Stephen considers to be astral projection. In the auto accident in which he sprained his shoulder, the Goddess Brigit appeared to him and told him, “Your time has not yet come. You are My son.” On June 7th, 2008, I was at a Masonic dinner, when I had a GERD/gas attack. I got up to go see whether the ladies’ room had a couch I could lie down on. I remember lying there, and thinking that couch was awfully hard. I opened my eyes only to find all these worried Masons looking down at me. That’s as close as I’ve gotten to an NDE.

Thus we see that we may astral travel either voluntarily or involuntarily. Do share with us your astral projection and astral travel experiences.

Here’s the situation: Jason Rosenthal, probably a Christian Republican, the new CEO of Ning, intends to put the Ning networks on a paying basis. That means no more free networks, no more joining other people’s networks for free, either because you know that the owners of the paying networks are going to pass their exorbitant costs onto us. What do you say to that? Make a noise, make a big noise. Make a noise so big and loud that Rosenthal can hear it. The next noise he’ll hear is the thundering of many footsteps as we all leave. We have to fight for our rights. We can’t let assholes like Rosenthal dictate to us. This kind of fascist BS should not be allowed to happen. We should do a letter writing campaign to fight this a-h. We have to fight this biotch. This fascist crap cannot stand. We have to get going right away. If everyone protests, it’ll make him go broke and he’ll be fired. We got support for our position from an unexpected quarter. A friend of mine, whom Stephen can’t stand, both because of his politics and his lovestyle (he’s a Reagan Republican and a Gorean) said that what Rosenthal was doing in phasing out the free services was a bad business decision. “People would be coming to him from the free services to get the premium paid services, but he’s cut that part of his Market out. He should keep both.” Let’s boycott Ning, and any of the networks that cave-in to his Gestapo tactics. If any network says you must pay to play, just say no, and get all your friends to say no too. Spread it around, tell everyone you know. Don’t keep it a secret. I have been sending my blog to all the Ning networks I’m on. “We have to stop this neo-Ning fascism,” says Stephen.

We need at least $3000 to move. 916-455-2267 is Stephen’s number for multimedia readings. Just 93.75 readings would do the trick. Don’t stand by and figure that your neighbor or your friend will do it, so you don’t need to. We need your donation too. Every little bit helps. Don’t forget that you can donate to Stephen’s Paypal account. abbottsinn@gmail.com. Also call 1-800-ASK-KEEN and ask for Stephen6580. Or call 1-800-280-8496.Stephen 1580 Stephen now has.$250 in his account which is not enough to pay rent.

One of the psychic reading services that Stephen works for has changed hands. Zodiac (Celebrity Psychics.com) has changed hands and names. It is now Psychic Power. They are recruiting new readers. Stephen gets $50 for anyone who signs up and $100 for someone who signs up and racks up 500 minutes.

Stephen’s done it. He’s gone over to Chase with me. It came to a head because an agent at Bunko de America told him that he had enough money to write $900 in checks to our landlady to pay off his back rent when he didn’t have the money. Now you should understand that Stephen is even more math challenged than I am. He was sick for 5 days with asthma symptoms and wasn’t able to call them to ascertain his balance, or he would have caught the error sooner. They charged him $900 in overdraft charges, and paid everything except for the Rhapsody charge, and his porn. Now I can understand why they wouldn’t have paid the porn one, but the Rhapsody? Why didn’t they pay that one? He just called Bunko de America, and they still won’t own up to any of their responsibility in this. SSI plays a role in this whole thing too because they toyed with him for two hours, letting him think that they were going to cut him an emergency check, then reneged on him. Now folks, this is two hours when he could have been doing readings, and getting his overdraft down. And they turned around and called the sheriff on him. So maybe now you understand why Stephen is so depressed and angry. I realize that you’re probably all out of compassion. I know I am. But the need is real, and the need is dire. He is no longer suicidal, but another setback could send him over the edge again. Of course I have a plan of action now if he turns suicidal again. I’ll call 911, and have him go in on a 5150. In this state, that’s the code for in danger of harming himself or others. This way he’ll get the help he needs.

Now I’m in need of readings too. I need to put in my share of our moving money. My PayPal account is tezra.reitan@gmail.com. For a donation of $5, I’ll send you a copy of one of my books, and for $32, I’ll give you a reading by phone. For $20, I’ll send you a copy of all five of my books. 916-457-7476 is my number. I can’t give you a multi-media reading, because I don’t have my webcam and headset hooked up yet. For that, you’ll have to call Stephen at 916-455-2267.

Our friend Julie Maahs has a book out called the Serpent and the Stag. It can be found at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/10619. I urge you strongly to buy a download, and tell your friends. She is publicizing it through viral marketing; or what used to be called word-of-mouth advertising. She’s directing the book towards a Pagan audience. It’s a murder mystery with nice contorted twists and turns. When I read it, I saw it as though it were a movie and I was the lighting director/art director. If you review books, contact her at julie@your-taxes.com and she will send you the free coupon code so you can get a free download. She wants a copy of the review, so send her a copy. I sent her a copy and also posted it on Blogger.

We’re sorry that we haven’t been around much, but March was a really bad month for both of us. There’s been a lot of stress around here. The putties have been expressing it by either barfing or eliminating everywhere except where they should. Stephen has been getting his sick migraines. I just recovered from a bout of walking pneumonia and the boogie woogie blues.and high blood pressure, in spite of the blood pressure med I’ve been taking the past year and a half. I still have a nasty cough that makes me sound as though I have what used to be called consumption. At least I’m no longer either whooping or gasping for breath like I was for a few days. I’m sure I got this illness because my immune system was down from all the stress I was under. At least I can function through it better than when I got it 32 years ago, when I would come home from work, eat something, and plop into bed until the next morning. Then, during that attack of pneumonia, I had body aches and a fever. My skin hurt. But in this bout I’m not as sick. It’s just that Dr. Jones wasn’t happy with the amount of air my lungs were taking in. She asked me if I were wheezing. Not this time around. At least I didn’t notice any.

We still don’t have a house-mate, but because I re-ran that ad in the SN&R last Thursday, I expect some nibbles soon. The very people we want to attract as a house-mate are scared to live here because of the neighborhood. Well, I’ll tell you about neighborhoods. Every neighborhood is at risk now because gangs have wheels and money. No neighborhood is safe anymore. I’m a woman, and I feel safe on this street. One of you must know someone in Sacramento who needs a congenial cheap place to live. We have an 11,000 volume Pagan/magickal library, a long slender backyard, a fire circle, and a cauldron. We have satellite TV too and a workshop where you can pursue your craft or artificer dreams. Stephen just renewed his craigslist ads today, and I’m going to do it tomorrow.

There are five putties we need to give up. Ordinarily I would’ve said “free to good homes,” but a very wise friend told me this past weekend that we should charge something for them so that the prospective owner demonstrates that s/he has enough disposable income to care for a pet. So we’ll charge the nominal $10. We’re looking for people who love cats as much as we do.

We greatly fear that Isaac Bonewits, founder of the ADF, and foremost Neo-Pagan, may be dying. We are trying to keep a positive spin on this in line with the Secret, and the Law of Attraction, but his doctors are not hopeful. They came out and said , “This man needs a miracle,” so we have been doing rituals towards that end. We talked to Brigit on the Goddess phone and everything. I realize full well that losing many people that you love is the price of longevity, but I’ve lost too many recently. To lose Isaac on top of losing Robin Goodfellow is just too much for me.

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