Channelling

I would have been about fourteen the first time it happened – an experience not of my seeking where a troubled spirit decided she needed to speak through me. My mother gave me a pen and some blank paper and suggested automatic writing as a way of dealing with it. I had a crazy weekend, as Hariet (one r) vented her pain, and then she went away, leaving me feeling rather odd and washed out.

I didn’t actively seek anything like that kind of experience for a long time. There were other incidents when, under stress, things that were not me would slip in – benevolent presences, thankfully.

Then in a planned ritual some years ago, my working group – most of them less experienced than I, sought to channel something through me. I don’t remember much of it. Apparently the first thing I said was ‘I come from between fire and ice’ so perhaps it was a Jotun. It was big, heavy, slow, and it took me days to get over it. A strange experience for me.

It’ something I appear to be quite good at. I’ve not explored it much because I need a working partner where there’s enough trust, mutual understanding and shared inclination to make it really work. But I have channelled on a few occasions… opened myself to deities, male and female, to a fox spirit, land spirits. It works best when there is genuine need.

It doesn’t have to be an all or nothing experience. Channelling is about relationship and communication, opening up to specific energies. I don’t recommend playing at it, or opening and seeing what you get. I suppose it’s a bit like sex – works better where there is trust and familiarity. It is a soul-naked kind of intimacy, and to be taken by force, without your consent is not unlike rape. Have someone to watch your back, who is strong enough to call you home no matter what happens. Go a little way at first, explore, reach out, don’t give entirely of yourself unless the trust is there, and the confidence. It is not a game to play or a thing to do lightly. If it happens to you, that’s one thing, and it becomes necessary to deal with it. Seeking it for the buzz of encountering something occult is dangerous, and the odds of getting a friendly encounter are slim. Be sure of your motives, and do not force yourself upon the world of spirit, not unless you want it to treat you in kind.

Shadow Spider, Astral Spider Lore

Is it spiritual? Is it symbolic? The Shadow Spiders, also called Astral Spiders, and the lore surrounding them.

To take a look at the lore or beliefs that Ancient Cultures might of had, we have to focus more on Spiders themselves, what they are good at and what comes of it.

They are known to make webs, spinners and spinning itself is linked to the fates.

There is a story about the Athene (a Goddess) who became very jealous over a maiden named Arachne. Out of that jealousy, Athene turned Arachne into a spider. Who was Arachne? She was actually said to be a mortal who had a mind blowing skill of weaving. Later stories make her out to be boastful which was her downfall. Although, earlier ones say nothing concerning this, only that certain Goddess’s such as Athene and Minerva became very jealous of a mortal having such skills. Arachne was put through challenges and contests, each she won hands down. Her victory though became her end (or was it) as Athene turned her into a spider.  In later writings, Arachne’s skills were reduced to something less than Athene. Apparently as a mortal, her skill proceeded the Goddess in charge. It was only after that the priests of Athene rewrote her stories and she became something of a villain or a lesson not to outshine those of power.

After Arachne was turned into a spider, she was showed beside Athene and viewed as nothing more than a tool but a tool that always sat at the hub of the wheel of fate. It was still believed, especially by medieval writers that Minerva was the source to Arachne’s gift. It was Minerva who gave spiders the ability to spin webs that could foresee the future and of the fates. That’s what Arachne became known for, spinning the web of fate. And from those webs, which each of us had, the future could be foreseen. Later on, Arachne would not only be seen as a spider but one of the three fates themselves, women.

Now in Hindu beliefs, Maya was the spinner of webs. Her webs would be of magic and fate of course but also earthly appearances. The spider was the same if not another version of the Wheel of Fate, known in other cultures and in art. A Goddess was shown with the wheel and a spider would be sitting somewhere in the picture along with her.

We know some spiders devour their mates and this was also known in the Ancient World. This to them represented the destructive side of the Goddess since the Goddess, represented the creator and destroyer. She would destroy only to recreate again, rebirth and so on.

According to the Aztecs, spiders were the souls of women and they said that these women would come down from their ‘heaven’ by silk threads (the web) and would devour all of the men of earth. They were kind of like Valkyries (Norse).

In other lore, Odin’s horse was not what we think of a horse but a gigantic Spider, gray. It represented his fate or fate itself.

Man represented the fly caught in the web,(fate, destiny and so forth). The spider represented the Goddess. ‘May the Goddess eat the fly and give unto him new life.’ So in truth, it became just a part of death and then a journey into the new.

Greek lore…three women of the fates:

• Clotho (pronounced in English IPA: /ˈkloʊθoʊ]/, Greek Κλωθώ IPA: [klɔːˈtʰɔː] – “spinner”) spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle. Her Roman equivalent was Nona, (the ‘Ninth’), who was originally a goddess called upon in the ninth month of pregnancy.
• Lachesis (/ˈlækəsɪs/, Greek Λάχεσις [ˈlɑkʰesis] – “allotter” or drawer of lots) measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her measuring rod. Her Roman equivalent was Decima (the ‘Tenth’).
• Atropos (/ˈætrəpɒs/, Greek Ἄτροπος [ˈɑtropos] – “inexorable” or “inevitable”, literally “unturning”,^[4] sometimes called Aisa) was the cutter of the thread of life. She chose the manner and timing of each person’s death. When she cut the thread with “her abhorrèd shears”, someone on Earth died. Her Roman equivalent was Morta (‘Death’). –Wikipedia

Remember, one of those names in Greek lore concerning the 3 fates was Arachne. So one of the names above is indeed linked to her.

So, in summary but without end, spiders seem to be linked with the Goddess, some Gods, the Wheel of Fate, spinning, weaving, each individual human, the world, creations and creation.

Now, here is a picture of the Wheel of Fate:

Now lets look at a web…

Notice the main lines which always seem to be straight. Then you have the curved lines, connecting the straight ones. So, is it possible that the web is indeed connected with the Wheel of Fate? If you go by mythology, it is.

Look at a dream catcher…

 

Dream Catchers are getting more Celtic in design with their curved features but, an actual dream catcher was not so curved. It looked like an actual web. The purpose of the web was to catch negativity so that no harm would come to the sleeper. It would trap bad dreams and let the good ones flow through.

See the hole in the center? That’s where the good dreams would flow through.

I suggest you take a look at a show that has been airing on the History Channel. This week is called Armageddon week and even though I don’t buy into the whole ‘end of the world scenario’, in fact I don’t even believe that’s what prophecies are trying to convince us of, there is one very interesting show that I watched last night concerning Nostradamus and his Lost Books. There were drawings he did and in quite a few, there was the wheel of fate.  A man is indeed the wheel of fate.

Now they do show it on the show, so if you can catch it, go right ahead. The people or experts trying to decipher the code focused on the book, claiming it could be the book of life and the fact that it was empty whereas in the other pictures it was not, and then the wheel of fate above, means it could be the end. However, I see this differently. I see it as being a new era, age where as life begins again. The pages are blank only because we are starting something new.

Interesting stuff, check it out. They discuss Hopi prophecy and so forth which also says, some of us will go on into this new age while others do not.

For further reading concerning lore…

You can check out the Grandmother Spider lore that the American Indians believe in. This is the most common lore that is out there though so I didn’t really discuss it here. I will probably do another article concerning spiders and the wheel of fate so stay tuned for that one. This one is getting pretty long to read so I am going to give your eyes a break lol.

Resources used:

http://www.mythinglinks.org/ct~weaving.html

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/8116/story.html

http://www.wic.org/artwork/spiderw.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachne

The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths & Secrets, Barbara G. Walker

The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Witches Second Edition, Guiley

The Witch Book (Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, Wicca and Neopaganism, Buckland

Hynagogia & Shadow People: Round Two

A little bit more on Hypnagogia –I wanted to comment on some of the information out there.

In the period of waking up or falling asleep sufferers of hypnogogia feel awake in the mind but paralyzed in the body.

The above statement is not completely true. Not all people experience paralysis. For those who do, they do not experience it all the time and some people only experience it in the beginning, if at all.

Let me also point out that if you are going to research this, it is spelt Hypnagogia not hypnogogia. Hypnogogia is a common misspelling of the word.

That’s all I am going to say about Hypnagogia for now. We will go back into it later on once I weed out the info concerning it.

So what is on the agenda for today?  Let’s go back to the Shadow People.

To refresh your memory:

Shadow people (also known as shadow men, shadow folk, or shadow beings) are supernatural shadow-like creatures of both modern folklore and traditional native American beliefs. According to folklore, they appear as dark forms in the peripheries of people’s vision and disintegrate, or move between walls, when noticed.^{[1][2]—Wikipedia}

Possible explanations for Shadow People :

*Other World—dimension: Some people theorize that these beings come from another level of existence, other world or another dimension. Some believe that this dimension sometimes overlaps with ours, letting us catch a glimpse of them.

*Watchers: Some believe that these beings are what they call, “Watchers’. Now theories vary here and you will find people who actually relate them to the Watchers of the Fallen Angels. Some relate them to the Watchers of the biblical sense which did not fail God, or they have a whole other legend following. I think its important that people wash the ‘evil’ sense away from these theories though. As long as we fear it, hyping ourselves up, we will never discover the truth. Personally, I believe this is your own back yard. Nothing can hurt you unless you let it. Until we figure out what these beings are, its best we keep the fear at bay. This way we can come to some conclusion and investigate.

*Evil: With the above being said, I have to mention that one of the most common beliefs out there is that these beings are Evil, a devil or demons and some people go as far as to say , it is Lucifer himself. I can’t agree with that, sorry. I do not want to judge other people on their experiences but once people get passed the fear, there are too many positive and interesting testaments out there concerning this phenomena. I doubt that if it were Evil, that would be so. Fear kills us from discovering the truth…from fear comes ignorance and from ignorance, blindness…period.

*Ghosts or Spirits: It is one of the most common theories out there hovering right next to the Evil, demon one. People seem to believe that the Shadow spirit or being is just another type of Ghosts or Spirits. I think it is too simple of an answer BUT, if that’s all they have, then I respect that. Like us, they are just trying to figure this whole thing out right? And it is way better than the Evil thing.

*Astral projectors: Some people seem to think that these beings are someone astral projecting either from another dimension or from our own. Like people, they can be good or bad.

*Karma: Someone said that people begin to experience these beings once they start clearing out Karma. That’s all they said but later, I found many others who felt the same thing. Now even though this is at the bottom of the list for reasons, I thought it worth mentioning because it is a spreading reason.

*Succubus or Incubi: This is also at the bottom of the list and also fits under the whole Evil/Fear explanation. Apparently these people are having sex in their dreams and it is leaving them absolutely exhausted or drained.

Ancients Lore Concerning Shadow People

 

Egyptians called the shadow khaibut. The Egyptians believed that the khaibut was one of seven souls that each person had.

The Roman word for shadow was umbra, also meaning ‘the shade’ or the ghost of an individual who went to a place called the Land of Shades. The land of Shades was believed to be underground or part of an Underworld and after the person died, their shadow went there. In Greece, people were known to dedicate their shadows or give them over to a God such as Zeus. This was considered to be a marvelous sacrifice but at the same time or later on, fearsome. For instance, it was believed  that if a person went to the temple or sanctuary of Zeus Lycaeus, they would lose their shadows. For those who do not know, Lycaeus was believed to be the origin of Werewolves and from this particular story, maybe some of the lore concerning werewolves became born. In medieval times, werewolves and vampires were a phenomena that said that anyone cursed this way, lacked a shadow or reflection. They lacked soul.

Also in medieval times, cornering a witch and proving her to be one, the shadow played a big part. If someone sold their soul to the devil then they had no shadow—hence shadow being linked with the soul again. In Europe, people believed that the shadow beings desired blood and without it, couldn’t be reborn. Superstitions and fear spread like the black plague concerning a person’s shadow. People refused to let their shadows fall on graves, a rumbling river or near a cliff.

In biblical times, curses were spoken on a person’s shadow. For example in Numbers 14:9 –“Their shadow is departed from them.” Saying something like that meant undeniable doom and was the lowest of low. I gather that in today’s times, it would be worse than throwing shoes.

Now kicking aside the superstitious fear concerning the shadow, according to Pagans and those before them, in ancient times…a person who did not have a shadow was NOT a demon, a vampire, a werewolf or someone who had given their soul over to any devil.

They were believed to have went into some sort of eternal bliss.

Plutarch said, “At the end of the world, the blessed ones would be happy forever. In a state neither needing food nor casting a shadow.”

So if we take into consideration what the Ancients believed concerning ‘Shadows, Shadow sightings and people’, is it safe to say that the Shadow experience you have had, is indeed a spirit or ghost or someone who has passed on to the other side? Maybe, but then again I have to personally wonder…why are so many sightings the same? Why is the image that we see of the Shadow person always a common one? Is it that all dead people wear hats, or cloaks or are seen staring at the floor? Why are the shadows able to take full form or any form—animal, creature, man, while other dead people can only become orbs or when they take actual form, look like an actual person?

Where are the Shadow women?  Not one person I have interviewed, have I heard or read any reports concerning a Shadow person looking like a woman. I have read and heard of small shadow figures being no bigger than a child but people do not connect them with actual children. it is only the size that they are compared to verses the others who can be up to seven feet or more in height. No women…unless you listen to the incredible but draining stories of sex that some seem to link with the succubus and incubus theories. With respect, those aren’t enough to me. There aren’t enough of them being told on or off the internet. So there doesn’t seem to be any pattern there for me except maybe someone is having some awesome dreams and the rest of us should be simply jealous lol.

If the Shadow beings are ‘Watchers’ then does this make them some sort of guardian? And why do some attack or is it like Carry said, it was her own fear doing this to her. If they are Watchers, then what are they watching? Surely they know more than we do. Is there a reason some see them and others do not? The ones who see them, do they have a link or connection to these beings while others may have a connection to some other paranormal type thing? I know it has nothing to do with open mindedness. I have interviewed to many people that had no knowledge and or belief in them. It just started to happen and that’s when they started looking for answers. Some incidents start happening when people are children while others happened as adults.

I think we will need to look more into the Underworld or Land of Shades, which again means there will be more parts to this subject. We also have to look into the lore of the Spider and try to help people figure out what that is that they are seeing. Like the shadow people, there are very few stories out there but even less concerning the spiders. The only answers that these people are finding is that either they are crazy, dreaming or it is being confused with some spiritual symbolism or dream analysis. These people like my friend Carry know that this is not a dream. So pretty soon we will explore that one and I am sure we will touch base with some of our previous subjects as well.