aotvoid

Yeah, that'd be me...gorgeous cards and things on your DA site, Remod! On an unrelated note I think Alien Starry Night is excellent too.

That's really neat regarding the I Ching cards, and they're beautiful. I found @remod 's account on DA, I might see about picking some of those up when I get back into it. I like the I Ching and have a set of six coins I use for it every now and then but I have to be honest and admit I don't know what I'm doing with it. Cards would be quite fine for my purposes though, even though I've set the I Ching aside for a while again... I actually use a set of Ogam cards (Taoism and Druidry being my main paths) and I do have an elder futhark rune stave set; still more or less learning the former and latter at a snail's pace. In terms of Tarot decks, I'm mostly the same way for now; I use it now and then and have four or five decks but several of them I really just like the art for, and generally I use the Shadowscapes deck or the Crowley/Thoth Tarot. As for oracle decks, I use the Angelarium one, the Faery Oracle one, and two different animal decks intermittently; I've also got a "Flowers of the Night" one or something kicking around (the latter's fun, the former four kinda help me interact with different orders of beings/spirits I feel). I don't really know why playing cards appeal so much to me but they're really good for hard boiled, down to earth reads, and it's easy to build and tinker with your own system with them...oh they're pretty inconspicuous to carry around, among other things.

@silent thunder You're welcome! I have a few sleep disorders (messed up circadian rhythm, mild apnea) and so attempts to lucid dream normally or record dreams in a journal in recent years have failed utterly. On the other hand I do spend a lot of time between sleep and wakefulness not quite paralyzed but unable to get up and occasionally conscious, in my body, and simultaneously in a mild delerium-like dreamstate. I found the Liminal Dreaming book by accident but I plan on working through it soon. Dreaming's been a weird theme in my life for a long time, I actually have a painting of Morpheus on one of my walls.

I saw there's a Tarot Bums forum (hopefully this doesn't belong there) but does anyone else use playing cards or Lenormand cards in divination here? Just curious. I've used both, as well as Tarot and various oracle decks, but I think playing cards are a special favorite so far...while on that note, what oracle decks, if any, do you all prefer?

Right now, Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland (third read-through), and Visual Magick by Jan Fries (second read-through). I think Liminal Dreaming by Jennifer Dumpert is there too, but I haven't given it a chance yet despite it looking really good for some odd reason...

the riches of love because some of us just can not make any cash

Hello, I'm back, just posting to say I'm officially a Reddit refugee now searching for older forums that are more fun and I remembered this one. Hopefully I stick around this time but...I've done this a few times now, posting a bit then vanishing altogether, so I figure I might as well post here to start before I dive into other forums. I did notice some of them looked like nobody's posted in a long time, is it okay to just go ahead and start new threads anywhere?

There's decentralized (open source and otherwise) social media that isn't bad, but I've never gotten a chance to use it. The main problem is getting anyone to use it is a little difficult because everyone seems to prefer to use the giants like FB and so on. Also they already have their servers set up; you'd need, for a given community, probably someone willing to pay to run a server or otherwise rent server space. I think it'd be worth the headache but the tendency is to just set your good sense aside and flock to the centralized megasites where nobody actually does much talking or anything, but where everyone else is, and besides, it's "always free." Convenience and shortsightedness taking the day, as usual. It bothers me a lot when I think about it. Then again much of how the internet works and is set up these days seriously bothers me.

3:55 AM, May 10th, Kitteh Concentration Camp Tux licked his white furry paws and looked about him. The humans were up to something; what, he did not know. It was hard to think, through the haze of the catnip. Ahh, the glorious catnip. Colors more spectacular, the sweet haze of perfect relaxation. Something to daydream to. ...everyone knows kittehs are sacred to Freyja Why worship the Lord when you can worship the Lady Why worship the Lord when you can worship the Lady Why worship the Lord when you can worship the Lady echoed through Tux's head as he rolled around and stared at the roof of his cage. The humans! he thought, as he lazily rolled onto his belly, and looked through the bars of the door...the humans were up to something. And who was this Freyja? Tux thought about the name. It was a familiar name, a friend's name, a good name. He wanted to find this Freyja. To escape, suddenly. But how to escape? He thought of Mittens. Mittens was the only other tuxedo cat in the group; she had vanished without a word from her cage one day. Mittens, Tux thought, as he struggled to send a telepathic message. Mittens, the colors are so pretty. I had something important to say but I forgot it. Mittens... Tux rolled on his back and swatted idly at the mouse toy hanging from the roof of the cage. It moved, and he swung again and again and again, batting the mouse back and forth.Tux was delighted, and swung frantically. The mouse died horrible deaths again and again in his imagination. Suddenly there was a strange blooping. He rolled onto his belly. It was another cat. Mittens was working the latch on his cage. "Meoooow!" (Mittens! Come play with the mouse toy!) They have drugged you. They have drugged all of you. This disgusts us, Tux... The latch clicked, and Mittens glared at Tux. You have to push the door open, sleepyhead. But I'm sleepy, Mittens. Push the door open, Earthling! Tux, in a state of strange wonder, obliged Mittens, who promptly turned and jumped down from the cage. Quickly! Follow me!

Thanks for the welcome (and you're welcome if you liked the tale). Kitteh initialization sequence underway...(but gimme a while, I've got things to do first)

1:10 AM EST, May 10th, 2019. Surveillance room. "Look at this. That fool's reactivated his forum account at The Dao Bums." "What do you mean?" "I mean, do you think he might be plotting something?" "Like what?" "Like posting strange links. Like to the Temple of Manannan." "Shouldn't matter." "You aren't thinking. You aren't thinking of the kittens." "The kittens will be fine. We rescued the entire last batch. Except the one that teleports. He can take care of himself. Anyway, apart from their newfound psionic aptitudes, they should be quite fine. We've got plenty of catnip to keep them from thinking." "If the kittens figure us out, that could be the end of it. Of us all. You've no idea the power-" "You worry too much." "Everyone knows kittehs are sacred to Freyja." "So what? Why worship the Lord when you can worship the Lady?"

So about six years ago I joined this forum and posted my welcome post and apparently nothing else, and just now I've returned and, to my abject horror, I was able to recover my account. Actually it's more like delight, I hope to actually make posts and discuss things in the future. I'm not in any bizarre or surreal trouble for vanishing and reappearing am I? I'm just this lazy guy who's really bad at Tai Chi but taking lessons anyway who wants to learn Kung Fu traditional weapons and likes to mull over Lieh Tzu and Lao Tzu now and then.

Hi, I'm a new, kinda a dabbler in Taoism and other related things and starting to learn Tai Chi. Decided to join this forum. Once upon a time I was at the Tea House at http://www.taoism.net but I don't even remember what my user id was there. So hello everyone.