Firstly as it is the colour of menstrual blood it is a stone of fertility.
As a gift it is a symbol of happiness and loyalty. lt is thought to be a antidote to plague and fever. Women were known to wear it around their waist to help with the menstrual cycle. If it obtained unlawfully it will bear a curse upon its wearer until it is returned to its lawful owner.
By Bhikkhu Khantipalo
If one has no meditation teacher from whom one may request a meditation subject, then one has to rely upon one’s knowledge of one’s character in order to prescribe for oneself a suitable meditation. There are forty meditation exercises (kammatthana) noted by the great teacher Buddhaghosa as being suited to certain types of character. For the purposes of meditation, he considers six characters: faithful, intelligent, and speculative (in which the skillful roots of non-greed, non-hatred and non-delusion are variously dominant); and greedy, hating, and deluded (in which greed, hatred and delusion, the unskillful roots, are dominant). The trouble here is twofold: firstly, very few “pure” types can be found, most people being mixtures of two or more of them — and moreover ever-changing mixtures; and secondly, it is rather difficult to judge which class one’s character belongs to since one’s own delusion and pride are apt to blur one’s judgments.
Continue reading “40 Meditation Exercises as listed in the Path of Purification”
by Dr Anthony E. Smart
Avatars were like messengers, aspects of the gods who descended to Earth. In the Hindu mythos, the Avatars of Vishnu are many: firstly, Matsya, which appeared as a fish, to the good king Satyavrate, he and his family, and seven sages and their families having escaped the terrible flood which swamped the world, drowning all its wickedness, mirroring the Great Flood of Christian myth. Like Noah, Satyavrate escaped the deluge in a great ark, filled with the beasts of the earth, and the birds of the sky.
Alistair Livingstone
Inspired, no doubt foolishly, by a new moon and the Cramps`”Psychedelic Jungle”, I have decided to enter the Thelema vs Chaos debate. This is of course an impossible task, which is no doubt why it appeals to me.
Firstly, what is it that distinguishes Thelma from Chaos? In Starfire, Mick Staley attempts to distinguish Thelema from Crowleyanity. Thelema he suggested pre-existed Crowley`s formulation of it. This immediately causes problems, since for the majority of magicians, Crowley = Thelema. But if it can be accepted that there is a something which exists independently of Crowley`s writings, then it must be this something (Thelema) which is to be contrasted with Chaos Magick. The core of this something, I suggest, is the Will. Is this idea of the Will in any way opposed to Chaos?
Witch's Well 