From the Dreamland

Around 1 1/2 hours ago (from the time I began typing this at 1:00pm), I felt that I had to be somewhere for a reason... I felt I had to be asleep for some reason. At first, typical of any person, I decided to just ignore it, but the pull was simply too great, and the weather confirmed my suspicions.

So I slept.

And although it took me awhile to actually sleep, I eventually entered the dream world. In there, I saw myself driving a car, going along some rather twisted roads that had a blue walk way that was snaking through the entire city, with some people and a dog I apparently know (but never met yet).

Then I was teleported to a scene where was someone who tried to escape the dreamland, following the "procedure" (asking permission, going through the maze of lucid dreams and portals abound, and finding the door that leads out), but apparently something wasn't right.

Then a change in the scene (again): I was attending some sort of banjoree or military celebration, and I was an NCO who, during part of the exercise, wanted to lower the penalty of the cadets in my cadre by offering to do some of their push-ups in their stead. The CO told me to make us 5 and we all do the same number of push-ups. Ceremonies interrupted the punishment-giving, so we were able to sneak out... but somehow I saw a small opening where I saw what I knew was the sun but instead was a bright crystal blue that was changing shape, and with its change in hue from white to blue, my dream's sky also changed to blue then black.

Enter another scene: of pure chaos, where there was fire, darkness, a blue crystal sun, and I overheard talking cows saying that someone was trying to escape the dream world "without permission", among other things. A chubby buddy (supposedly someone I'm close to but never met yet as of to date) began to drive an ice cream truck - with me hanging over the roof of the truck, and cows and other creatures spilling over the street, looting and pillaging just about everywhere. Then near the end of the road we found someone who was supposed to be the one handling the situation, stuck in a trailer van with some other people. I overheard two things:

1. We were supposed to head to an airport and then from there go up the mountain to enter a room full of doors, stairs, and floors

2. Something was destroying the dream world

Then near the end of the dream I saw Dream (resembling the 2nd Dream Lord from the DC comics.. but not quite), with his booming voice, saying: THIS DREAM IS OVER.

Although, not quite.

After the dream dissolved I watched my buddy do a sort of monologue (ala-cinema movie), about him visiting a neighbor of his, with him knowing that everything was a dream since he was with his wife and kids but she left him long ago...

... the strange part was, he was supposedly visiting someone *else's* dream in THAT dream.

Sounds crazy? Perhaps. But then again, how many remember their dreams so lucidly?

Magick and the Family

I've been unable to post in part because I've been adjusting to being a new father for my little darling Altheii. At first I wanted to post this from a somewhat academic point of view, but I think it would do better if this was on a more personal standpoint.

First and foremost, no matter what my daughter may think in the future, I'm glad that she came into my life, and no matter how much she keeps her mother and I awake, I still love her for who she is, who she would choose to be, and who she would become.

So how does magick come into play here? What does magick have to do with being a parent? In the language of other theological fields, I suppose we could call it "spiritual development", if not "moral development". Basically how we influence our children as we grow up would not only help shape or change their aura/personality, but also help them prepare for the future. And as magick is the desire + the creativity to do so, we all craft magick in little ways to help develop our children...

... as I'm sure everyone at least once in their life thought they could raise kids just as well as, if not better than, their parents.

I used to think -- and to some degree still do think -- that my dad never really cared for me enough, never really was there for me. So I've done a lot of thinking on how *I* would take care of my own child if I were a father. Now that I am one, I guess I have to admit that no matter how many classes you attend, or books you read, about parenting, there's never a real absolute way to know how to become a parent other than to learn first-hand... that, and you best learn from your own parents as well. That still doesn't prevent you, however, from doing your own thing and raising your child as you see fit, even if it's radically different from the way our own parents raised us; otherwise, we would still be whipping our children with discipline sticks, or worse totally abandon children the same way some parents abandon us their children.

This combination of knowledge passed through the generation, desire to raise our children as we think best, and creativity to help adapt to and overcome the various challenges life throws at us, pretty much summarizes how we weave our own magick through our traditions, passed down to use through the generations, and developed further by our own need to adapt to this changing world of ours.

Now on a more occult approach to how magick works in the family: the creation of life is considered by some to be the most powerful and primal source of energy in the universe, and I agree that it is a very potent force to be reckoned with. Newborns in particular emit this powerful aura that can still be shaped and developed further by parents if they wish to do so, and which is also why infants and the prepubescent youth were the ideal choice as a human sacrifice ages before, and why locals in the provinces here in the Philippines fear mystical creatures such as the manananggal, who feast on the unborn (and not only for their physically delectable taste mind you). This potent force in the universe thus readily attracts entities both good and bad, although thankfully parents are given the natural tendency to protect their young*, thus giving them a better chance at life in any plane of existence. No matter how twisted the emotion may be to some, love - the desire to give - is a powerful protective force that hinders many a leser being from harming a tightly bonded family, although some may be tempted to test this love by throwing in so many distractions and poking at each individual's weaknesses, thus giving us so many family issues that most of the time are really minor faults whose effects simply stack up and eventually weaken or sometimes destroy the family.

As I end this post to continue caring for my little girl (and so that I could actually eat breakfast), I'd like to say this:

Life force is the source of magick, magick being the will + creativity to manipulate energies in the universe

Life force (man) + life force (woman) -> life force (child)

Since life force is within us and all around us, I suppose we could safely assume that the potential for magick is in all of us and within the family as well, yes?

* may not be applicable to all species