Spiritual Battle.

StormWarrior

This may sound strange, and I can't describe exactly what I mean, but do you ever feel like you are engaged in some kind of spiritual warfare? As if you are battling to overcome dark forces?

amazingemmet

All the time tbh, though the defintion of dark forces changes.

There's always thigns out there that will test you. When you open yourself up in the way I think your talking about while posting here you basically turn into a light house for less mundane things and from time to time they will test you. Keep strong and you will triumph. And beware the voices in your head that don't sound like you.

StormWarrior

But do you ever feel surrounded by evil, and as if the evil is fighting to gain control of your soul? And sometimes you wonder if you are really strong enough to overcome it?

barrett1965

All the time. I mentioned this to my counsellor a while back and he found it interesting.

amazingemmet

Without going into explicit detail if you knew some of the things that have occured to me so far in my life you'd be amazed. And for your info some of the things are what most people would consider good etc but they've still tried it on.

To level with you though most things that try take influence on this plane are generally of a lower order then other things and are easily fended off once you realise whats going on, the key is to recognise their attempts and for most people the voices is the hardest one to recognise its like some one just giving you a little prod ina direction you wouldn't normally go then another and another if you get me.

Most of the time you will be strong enough but there will be times when you won't these are the times you need to retreat and find help fast. It helps also if you can jsut turn your self off if you get me?

18AD

Might I suggest a banishing ritual of some kind for you personalised dark forces.
Or possily some sort of protection spell.

While all the time remembering that everything is under control

StormWarrior

what kind of banishing ritual?

18AD

You should make up a ritual that suits your self. Use symbolism that means something to you. Use things that make you feel safe or remind you of safe times. There's no need to go to ridiculous lengths and invoke angels of the north, south etc...

Or make some sort of talisman that reminds you of safety and carry it with you and whenever you feel anxious chant a mantra linked with the talisman.

Or you can conduct epic psychic battles a la Dragon Ball Z.

Make it up as you see fit.

Nevyn

I would suggest that you get a copy of Dion Fortune's Psychic Self Defence.

Living a spiritaul life and wanting more and wanting to be a better person is a struggle.
It meand we eaxmin oursleves and our life and fight to be the best us we can be.
Are there people, things, forces that do not want us to manifest and be all we can possible be ?

Sure.

But usually top of the list is ourselves, our own self doubt and negative ego
which will manifest in several ways of self sabotage.

Afirmations can really help with this, that you are a good person who is loved and deserves love and will be loved.

Everything else after that is telling the begrudgers be they people or engeries to bugger off.

Livign an active psiritual life can be heard but can also be rewarding.

Nevyn

18AD
The LBR is not for those those are not well versed enough to understand what they are doing.

Stormwarrior have you tought about getting and keeping tigers eye crystal on or about you ?

Talliesin

18AD wrote:

Here's three examples of the same ritual:
www.geocities.com/~firesilk/book6.html
www.kheper.net/topics/Hermeticism/LBR.htm
www.sacred-texts.com/bos/bos025.htm

Oh FFS!

The OP is saying that they are feeling like they're in a really bad place and beset by evil.

Do you really think that is the best time to start practicing the LBRP?
On their own?
With no relevant prior training?
From texts which conflict with each other and give little in the way of background?
With no mentor or direct guidance?

Reminds me of the old joke, "people making pipe-bombs from instructions they found on the Internet have too many fingers for their own good".

The difference being though that anyone with basic English has all they need to work out "pipe-bomb = bomb = thing that will explode". Out of context it can be easy to see the LBRP as nothing more than a banishing (i.e. makes things go away) assume that the things banished are just the bad things (which in one way is a pretty stupid assumption, but in another a pretty easy one to make) and worse of all the word "lesser" could make it seem like it's not much of a big deal.

As such the irresponsibility is entirely down to you for suggesting such a stupid thing.

18AD

I practice chaos magick so my views may be different to others. But the main idea is that you have the power to change whatever you will to change through the use of something known more commonly as the butterfly effect.

This incorporates use of rituals with a "strong" influence of your own personnal imagery.

I didn't mean for him to perform the given examples of the ritual as they would be meaningless to him.

Nevyn

I am sure that is she knew of such rituals she would not be asking here about them :P

Talliesin

18AD wrote:

I didn't mean for him to perform the given examples of the ritual as they would be meaningless to him.

Since when has chaos magic suggested that people operate in a vacuum?

I perform the LBRP in the classical form (Juedo-Christian imagery, Hebrew god names). It's concepts are pretty meaningless to me (I don't worship יהוה, and I generally avoid angels outside of that case) and I have to say its pretty powerful stuff.

You've also said nothing about where it's being performed. The LBRP pretty much blows away at everything (and I've felt the aftermath of some vandalous asswipe had performed the LBRP in the middle of a live stone circle, not pleasant) so it can very often be the very worse thing one can do.

What do you suggest the OP use for cleaning their dishes, hand grenades?

18AD

I doubt she'd be asking about them if she didn't know about them either.

The point is you can make up your own banishing ritual based on your own psychology and it will be more effective than a ritual made up by someone else.

Forget I mentioned the LBR as an example. I'll remove it if it's causing too much controversy.

Good luck.

[removed]

Talliesin

StormWarrior wrote:

This may sound strange, and I can't describe exactly what I mean, but do you ever feel like you are engaged in some kind of spiritual warfare?

Yes. I'm trying to live my life as authentically, honourably and as wisely as I can.

StormWarrior wrote:

As if you are battling to overcome dark forces?

Well, we come from different positions as to the metaphorical meaning of "dark" (in some of my best moments, I've been a dark force ) but yes. I'm trying to live my life as authentically, honourably and as wisely as I can.

Why should anyone think that that would be easy?

Most of the nasties around external to our plane aren't very strong. Most of them aren't particularly nasty for that matter (just as many people aren't always but will from time to time when an opportunity arises).

Dion Fortune's Psychic Self Defence is indeed worth reading. It's old fashioned in many ways (read it like its written by an elderly relative who tends to say embarrassingly bigoted things, but who still has some life experience that shouldn't be dismissed).

There are plenty of techniques that can help. One of the most effective is also one that can be learned safely by someone with zero experience of any sort of paranormal, occult or spiritual technology: A good hearty laugh.

Not a snide laugh, or a superior laugh, or a laugh that hide's fear or uncertainty, but a good hearty laugh that comes naturally when you are in the company of good people* enjoying each other in a healthy way.

Some people have a problem with that because it can seem like I'm not taking matters seriously. And I'm not. I'm not taking them seriously because to not take things seriously all the time can have seriously positive effects.

* Good people in this case means their good to be with and make you genuinely feel good about yourself. Generally good people in this sense will tend to be good in other senses, but as far as the matter of concern here goes only the fact that they are good to be with is important.

StormWarrior

OK thanks. I will get some tigers eye and check that book out.

joseph dawton

Going back a bit to the original comment.

My life is a constant battle to keep on what I see as the right path, not least because of my own human weakness. Apart from that, 'other' forces do exist that attempt to lower your consciousness and wear you down, many of the most powerful of these are other people - psychic vampires, negative spoilers etc they can be far more destructive than astral entities if we let them affect us.

At times I've been able to see the energy or aura of other people, animals and tobjects when in a Hightened State of Consciousness (HSC) but most people (like myself) cannot stay in this state for long. I once spent a couple of days in this state which I found hard to return from, I almost went nuts - everything looked different and I could 'see' light and dark energy everywhere. These days I am a lot more careful about where and when I enter a HSC, but in my ordinary state I am still aware that all of that is there like radio or TV signals even though I am not seeing it.

It's important to remain grounded and also not to get paranoid about evil forces etc. I've learned the hard way that fear actually attracts these energies to you and paranoia can become like a spiral vortex. Getting on with normal life but with a weather eye on protecting yourself and spotting the out of the ordinary is sensible. I've found as experience and ability grows so do the challenges and more 'dark forces' may confront you than before as we undo the blinkers of accepted 'reality'.

I've often felt issolated and maybe a bit mad experiencing this stuff, but it's a common experience and reassuring I find to know that there are many of us experiencing the highs and lows of spiritually evolving.

StormWarrior

Are you able to induce a HSC at will?

joseph dawton

That depends on how I am feeling, if I am agitated or upset or even too tired then no I can't. If I am in a 'normal' frame of mind it can be achieved by meditating or journeying. If I am then able to 'wake up' whilst still in this state then interacting with the every day world is possible too, I am not always able to do this but have done so very successfully at times. Just like on some days I feel more physicially energetic than others this kind of work is very variable and unpredictable.

I once met HJ Brennan and have read his excellent book 'Astral Doorways' which is no-nonsence and very practical. At the time I used to suffer total paralysis when in a HSC or Shamanic Trance, Journeying or whatever term you prefer. He said that this is a common problem at the beginning and may take considerable concentration and continual practice to be able to be in both places at once. Of course both places are the same place really, but our brains struggle to deal with two versions of reality at one time.

maitri

I believe it very wise to see such experiences as projections of (your) mind, and thus nothing to fear. As experiences they are "real", of course, in the sense that you do have them, but I am very convinced that they are from the mind and not from an external malevolent source.

In many spiritual traditions (including some Christian) it is normal that people get odd feelings and visions at some point, but they are encouraged not to pay to much attention to them because they are but reflections of mind itself.

18AD

There's an interesting idea known as 'Chapel Perilous' or 'The Dark Night of the Soul'. It marks a transitional period in ones life when things seem to be going against them as a result of the change, often accompanied by a sense of stagnation and inertia.

Talliesin

maitri wrote:

I believe it very wise to see such experiences as projections of (your) mind, and thus nothing to fear.

One of the reasons that genuine, wholesome laughter is so beneficial in such cases is it works whether it's a projection of the mind or a psychic mishap, or both.

Similarly with simple meditation techniques, they calm the mind and make you more able to deal with any negative psychic experiences (they also form a basis for more advanced work - the LBRP I advise against earlier for example is very useful, but only if you've some groundwork done first).

StormWarrior

Does anyone here know anything about sacred geometry? I know nothing about it, other than what I've just read about how looking at these patterns can alter your state of mind or something.

joseph dawton

that's a bit of a change of subject, why don't you start a new thread?
In the meantime wikipaedia is a good starting point, there is tonnes of info on the web.

18AD

StormWarrior wrote:

Does anyone here know anything about sacred geometry? I know nothing about it, other than what I've just read about how looking at these patterns can alter your state of mind or something.

Check out mandalas.

Transcendental numbers may also be of interest.

Maybe try numerology in relation to geometry. Look up symbols and decipher their meaning using the methods of numerology. Some examples would be a pyramid, star of david, pentagram, even a square, which has it's own modern sacred meaning

See if you can derive your own meaning from numbers and geometry.

Maybe check out some of the more modern stuff such as fractals.
Good program here for zooming and fractalising:
http://wmi.math.u-szeged.hu/xaos/doku.php
There's bucket loads of spiritual conotations associated with fractal behaviour these days.

You may want to check out some higher dimensional shapes aswell.
Maybe google or wiki, hypercube, polytopes.