This is a stupid question but I'm going to ask anyway thread

[AniMajor]

Adalyna

Finally on a completely different topic, a really, really different topic... In regards to the difference between astral projection, and lucid dreaming? Anybody have any knowledge or insight? I'm Relatively familiar with the concept of lucid dreaming, but some people suggest that when people dream their always astral journeying, so... it baffles me a little.

Thanks for letting me post<3

Astral projection is more like your "soul" leaving your body to go somewhere else, although, realistically, that explanation is wrong. Mostly because during astral projection, you're not actually separating or leaving yourself. It's more like dreaming, but of a real place. Lucid dreaming is knowing that you're dreaming while you're dreaming, while astral projection is like a really, really realistic dream. It's realistic to the point where, even after you wake up, you can't tell that it wasn't real.

Astral projection is possible during dreams, although it's really unreliable. It's so easy to fade back into regular dreaming that you'll only be somewhere else for a few seconds and you won't be able to tell the difference, in-dream, between the projection and the dream it faded into.  

[Adalyna]

AniMajor

Adalyna

Finally on a completely different topic, a really, really different topic... In regards to the difference between astral projection, and lucid dreaming? Anybody have any knowledge or insight? I'm Relatively familiar with the concept of lucid dreaming, but some people suggest that when people dream their always astral journeying, so... it baffles me a little.

Thanks for letting me post<3

Astral projection is more like your "soul" leaving your body to go somewhere else, although, realistically, that explanation is wrong. Mostly because during astral projection, you're not actually separating or leaving yourself. It's more like dreaming, but of a real place. Lucid dreaming is knowing that you're dreaming while you're dreaming, while astral projection is like a really, really realistic dream. It's realistic to the point where, even after you wake up, you can't tell that it wasn't real.

Astral projection is possible during dreams, although it's really unreliable. It's so easy to fade back into regular dreaming that you'll only be somewhere else for a few seconds and you won't be able to tell the difference, in-dream, between the projection and the dream it faded into.

thank you!  

[Maze]

Not sure where to ask this question, so hey, I can probably find worse places than this thread to ask it.

I saw my nephew's girlfriend today. She's pregnant. And I know this odd piece of "superstition" I guess you could call it about pregnant women that I, unfortunately, only half remember.

Supposedly, asking a woman "What's that on your hand?" or something similar, will help you deduce whether the baby they are carrying is male or female, because they will invariably look at the back of their hands or palm of their hands first.

I asked her this question, and she looked at the top of back of hands first - though, the action may have been invalidated by the fact that she had the hand curled around a glass first, which makes the back of her hand possibly the most logical first spot to look - which, if I remember right, means it's a boy.

I was wondering if anyone else knows or has heard of this one before, and whether I remembered right or not.

She's only at week 25 and they've decided not to tell anyone whether they're having a boy or a girl until the child is there, and I don't think I mind not knowing too much, but now I just want to know if I remember it right or not. XD

Knew I should've written it down when I heard it mentioned, but no~. It's not like I'd ever use this in real life or anything..  

[rmcdra]

What makes a being a God in Hellenistic religions?  

[AniMajor]

Question for those other Chaotes:

I don't shift paradigms that often (which is why I don't really consider myself a true Chaote), but how much shifts when you (general) do shift paradigms?

I ask because things are happening outside of my normal realm of understanding, but well within the way I'm shifting to. And I'm just trying to figure out if I'm reading way too much into what is going on based on vague understanding, or whether it it actually happening and I can do something useful about it.

Unless I've already shifted and now I'm being an idiot about this, which is a possibility. In that case, I'm just going to go sit in a corner for a while before I end up as a quote in "Worst Thing You Can Say As A Pagan."  

[rmcdra]

What were the worship taboos in Ancient Roman religions collectively called? I know there are three big taboos in Roman Religions but were they collectively called by a specific term?  

[Runs With Beetles]

question:
is it possible for one to summon baphomet using hoodoo rit, as long as one pays proper homage to the lwa of the gates?  

[Esiris]

Runs With Beetles

question:
is it possible for one to summon baphomet using hoodoo rit, as long as one pays proper homage to the lwa of the gates?

Possible? Maybe- but I'm not sure it's smart.  

[Yanueh]

Assuming I ever get in the mood to create a magic circle, why can't I just step out by opening and closing it like a curtain with my bare hands? Or zip/unzip it like a tent? xd  

[AniMajor]

Yanueh

Assuming I ever get in the mood to create a magic circle, why can't I just step out by opening and closing it like a curtain with my bare hands? Or zip/unzip it like a tent? xd

I think the whole idea is that the circle it's just there to look pretty, but it changes the space inside of it. Like building a house. The house doesn't contain any more special stuff than the outside of it just by existing. But it's different, because when you're inside a house, your're no longer outside.

Or better yet, think of it this way. You know when you're a little kid and you played the hot lava game, where you had to not touch the floor. It's like that, except the inside of your circle is safe to touch, and the outside isn't until the game (ritual) is over.

I really don't see why you can't unzip it or part it like a curtain, especially if you're using a physical representation of your magic circle like a rope or string. It's just that you can't just step out, like you can't just go through the wall in a house.  

[Yanueh]

While reading something that tells you that you have to use a wand or an athame to "cut" your way out of a magic circle and un-cut it, I found myself thinking, "and why can't you just open it like a curtain with your hands?" razz  

[AniMajor]

Yanueh

While reading something that tells you that you have to use a wand or an athame to "cut" your way out of a magic circle and un-cut it, I found myself thinking, "and why can't you just open it like a curtain with your hands?" razz

I'm not sure. I thought things like athames and wands were there as an extension of yourself, so it would make sense that you could just use your hands. It probably all just depends on the visualization of the circle, and whether you really need the ceremony and stuff of cutting the circle.  

[Esiris]

AniMajor

Yanueh

While reading something that tells you that you have to use a wand or an athame to "cut" your way out of a magic circle and un-cut it, I found myself thinking, "and why can't you just open it like a curtain with your hands?" razz

I'm not sure. I thought things like athames and wands were there as an extension of yourself, so it would make sense that you could just use your hands. It probably all just depends on the visualization of the circle, and whether you really need the ceremony and stuff of cutting the circle.

In Wicca- the athame is made a specific way and has specific "symbols" on it. I'm not an initiate, but having read some stuff I'd guess that those symbols have a magic their own and the process has to do with making those kinds of practices work a certain way within a Wiccan circle.

Or I could be completely wrong! blaugh

Since lots of neo-paganism came from mimicking Wicca without keeping the meaning- I don't see why a non-Wiccan circle (which is often a different creature than a Wiccan one) couldn't be "cut" open with a hand or stuff.  

[Ultramarine Violet]

Esiris

In Wicca- the athame is made a specific way and has specific "symbols" on it. I'm not an initiate, but having read some stuff I'd guess that those symbols have a magic their own and the process has to do with making those kinds of practices work a certain way within a Wiccan circle.

Or I could be completely wrong! blaugh

Since lots of neo-paganism came from mimicking Wicca without keeping the meaning- I don't see why a non-Wiccan circle (which is often a different creature than a Wiccan one) couldn't be "cut" open with a hand or stuff.

The way of making an athame and the symbols that mark it, from what I understand, have more to do with preparing it to behave a certain way with some types of energy.

My teacher has said often that "Method is nice, but in the end it's all headology." Basically meaning that the most important thing in magic is intent - tools are just that, tools, and the first tools humans had for anything were the hands. If you're comfortable with the feel and the visualization, it should be a-okay to cut out of a sacred space with your hands, unless you're practicing within a tradition that specifically dictates otherwise.

I've also heard of people visualizing a circle wide enough to encompass the nearest housecoat and bathroom, just to cover their bases, though I don't tend to do it myself, except at the request of other participants. sweatdrop  

[too2sweet]

I think (other than within specific traditions which may have certain requirements), the key is that you are clearly visualizing a door (of sorts), that can be opened and closed without disturbing the rest of the circle. So in theory you could make that door in whatever way you choose. The zipper method might be ok, but the curtains maybe not so much - that sort of implies that there wasn't a complete "un-broken" circle.