A Quick Guide to Working With Crystals

Finding the Right Crystal:

Ask anyone experienced in crystal use & they will tell you that the best way to select a crystal is to find that one that “feels” right. What does that mean? Simple, if you pick it up & it feels like it belongs there or it really catches your eye, that’s the one for you. When working towards a goal or purpose, research the crystal(s) that best suit the goal & then go shopping. However, be open to what the universe is telling you. If you go to the store to buy amber but quartz calls to you, there’s a reason. Often, when we set out to accomplish something, there are underlying reasons, motivations, & energies that we need to deal with but don’t realize it. The universe will guide you to what you need, even if it doesn’t agree with the book. Trust the universe first.

Dolorous Stroke

by Brian Edward Rise

 
Blow by which Balin wounds Pellam with the Holy Lance. This is the reason, in the Suite du Merlin, for the reduction of Logres to the Wasteland. This is divine judgment for the sacrilege of using the Lance as a weapon. Malory also adapts this story. The wounded king is himself ill for many years until cured by Galahad.

On Truth by Blaise Pascal

“We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.”

Blaise Pascal

 

On Anger by Benjamin Franklin

“Anger is never without reason, but seldom with a good one.”

 

Benjamin Franklin

Beyond Reason: A New Look At An Old Devil

by Aries

Inside my mind is a court room. It is dark and sombre, a few shafts of light from high slit windows etch out sloping pillars of swirling dust. In the public gallery are a representative sample of the great unwashed; fighting, fornicating, eating, suckling piglets, and other sub-Bosch activities that lend atmosphere to the Baroque wanderings of my imagination. The judge is unhappy. Whatever happens, someone, somewhere, will hate him for it. In the dock are the three grand-dames from Shakespeare’s “Scottish” play, and I am counsel for the defence. The Advocatus Diaboli, I guess. In the witness stand is “Dance with the Devil” by Audrey Harper and Harry Pugh, and grave are its accusations. But first, let’s have its story.

Dove Goddess

by Dr Alena Trckova-Flamee, Ph.D.

 

Without doubt birds, and especially doves, played an important role in Minoan belief. According to a current interpretation, doves could be understood as embodiment (epiphany) of a divinity, a representation of a goddess in a bird form nearby her sacred place – a shrine or on a tree. This idea can be supported with literature: according to Homer the goddess was able to take on the shape of a bird. From the Early Minoan period the libation vases and amulets or models in a bird form existed in Crete and they were used for a ritual reason. We can observe a shape of bird even among the signs on the famous Phaistos Disc. The clay models of birds and their images on the ritual vessels are also amongst the regular furnishings of the shrines like those at Knossos, Gournia or at Karphi. The type of these birds has been a subject of long discussions between scholars, but usually they are considered as representing doves.