Nungali

Its a significance aspect of western rituals as well . Some refer to it as 'astral' 'doing a ritual in or on the astral' , but they are really 'mentalising' it IME . Its also good for practice and learning , if you have to perform a part in a ritual . I used to do dawn meditation while riding my motorcycle to work , imagining / visualising myself doing the body postures and actions . In some cases , where physical ritual is required , only ever doing it mentally might not be enough . Ideally one would be involved mentally, physically emotionally and spiritually .... 'enflamed' . On the other hand , some ritual is perhaps only ever meant to be performed 'mentally' , or partially mentally ; eg, one can visualise offerings in the graveyard , or one can go to the graveyard and visualise .

Thats a must ! Make it next in your studies

Well, yes, I DO have better things to do than try to be a bit understanding and find 'another reason' for your attitude and tactics of late - of which, I am not the only one here to notice and comment on . Okay then , I shall simply ask you ; whats wrong with you lately ? Good !

The Queen of Sheba visits King Solomon

Odysseus and the Sirens

Man ! You could make a fortune if you developed that ! ' Dual Lotus Kundalini Twister ' - you could market it here on TDBs .

Regarding the bolded - our friend Dawei seems to be doing a bit of that lately . Which detracts from the conversation and subject at hand . When its bought up, he just leaves the conversation . I'll put it down to 'lockdown stress' . (I dont really know , I dont have it at all, I am personally enjoying it ... but apparently its tuff on a lot of people that live differently to me . )

.... that was the feet though . As far as sitting with another and both of your thighs touching the others thighs ... ... try it . at McDonald's of course

Now he is on to something ! https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=boko-maru [ " What I had seen, of course, was the Bokononist ritual of boko-maru, or the mingling of awarenesses. We Bokononists believe that it is impossible to be sole-to-sole with another person without loving the person, provided the feet of both persons are clean and nicely tended. " ]

Solve et Coagula

Just about anything by Arthur Racham, especially his trees The Tempest Woman in the Woods The Trees and the Axe

Not only do I agree with the bolded, I think it is factual and observable. So let's ' take it as a given'. Now these realms and beings - whatever they are - seem affirmed by nearly all ( ie all cultures across time and locations ) so we have to acknowledge it as part of human experience / collective reality . But, as you point out " they just see their particular take on the subject " . So my question to you ( and anyone else) is ... what is the original form or impetus that generates these various expressions ? ( Of course, during this little exercise , one cannot say their own or any one ' particular expression / take on the central reality -) In case that isnt clear I will give an example ; Harpur cites an experiment where a phenomena experienced by Pacific Islanders is related to various peoples / cultures - in its essence ; people are in the forest , they get a strange tingling feeling, their body hair rises, they feel apprehensive, then a glowing sphere descends and hovers between the trees, They see a woman in the sphere and she communicates with them, it isnt a normal communication, they can not exactly pin it down or describe it . But afterwards they feel somehow changed and different . The explanations given after the story is related range from " It is a visit from the fairies and that was queen of the faries ..... it was the Virgin Mary a typical UFO encounter of the 2nd kind , etc " The Pacific Islanders where sure it was 'a visit from the ancestors ' . So, without taking a cultural perspective ( eg , you cant just say 'they are all UFOs or all types of Virgin Mary visits )..... What do you think it was .... or is ... what do you think is going on BEHIND these 'cultural interpretations / clothing ?

I started building a bathroom so will continue with that . Its separate from the cabin, more a bathhouse. Its between some huge turpentine trees and palms , I have planted tree ferns and various sorts of palms and tropicals and ferns around it . It sits up off the ground, half the walls are glass, done the framing and roof, the plumbing and gas heater is in, got the insulation paper on, about to start some wide and thinner ( 'board and baton' ) merbau ( an ecological managed rainforest timber ) external cladding Waiting for the tiler to turn up . Its one large wet room , just with a shower and basin and taps . I got an oval shaped 'on the bench' carved stone basin . So June will be finishing off and fiddly bits . Also A friend in the city has finished re building his old school Bonnie ( triumph motorcycle) and wants to come up and stay and ride Waterfall Way with me . Triumph and Enfield up the mountain.* My birthday on the solstice . That will do for 1 month . *

As much as I agree with the last paragraph above there is also another side to it . One can be awake enough to see truth .... the internal truth in any of the writings, but the 'clothing' of this truth and underlying themes can also be detected by the 'awakened' For example, Christianity has an element of guilt and redemption in it , and certainly it is a 'death cult' sacrificial religion. On a very simplistic level we can detect this by asking what the purpose of life is meant to be from a specific religious outlook . I have heard the 'qualified' Christian ( famous and or respected teachers or leaders ) declare " To serve God' ... even ' to fear God ' or , for a lot, its to avoid hell or gain admission to 'heaven' . Other religions have other definitions , eg Zoroastrianism says the purpose of life is to have and lead a good and enjoyable life . So IMO one seems about guilt suffering and redemption and the other seems about acceptance and rejoicing . - Internal 'truths' that are VERY different .

some people NEVER are able to do full lotus and some find it a snap right from the beginning . When I was younger, more flexible, didnt have arthritis and years before I had a hip replacement I could do full lotus, rise up on my knees and lie forward on my chest and press my hip bones onto the floor, while still in full lotus . And that was not due to years of practice, I was just constructed that way . ( and in case you are wondering about my problems now, I had a motorcycle accident that damaged my hips and pelvis, compounded by years of work heavy lifting after the accident . ) I knew a guy that just could not even squat , no way he could do it . I didnt understand this back then , I thought it was all a case of stretching . Then a while back, here on TDBs , we where having a similar discussion, either on lotus , or it might have been martial arts (? ) and people where giving various opinions , someone posted a series of pictures of xrays of various peoples hips and femurs. The range of shapes and angles really surprised me , there was a great variation . So, in your case it might be some stretching and conditioning of softer tissues is all thats needed OR maybe you are just not constructed in a way that makes lotus easy . If your not , dont worry , lotus pose isnt the Holy Grail . You are not going to 'fail' if you cant achieve it . I think the key is to gradually work to it and use conditioning , dont try to force it .

I assume speechless is better than shouting ? I'll try and keep it down until you get over the hangover , okay .

He appeared to have left the room so I was yelling so he can hear me. Anyway, I think he is gone now ? regarding 'ignoring stuff ' ..... I meant stuff like this . There are a lot of recent accretions in western astrology and some astrologers do well by ignoring them and concentrating on essentials.

Here is a different 'take' on rain (in Indonesia ) . Golden Rain - I did a gamalan workshop years back and got to play in one , the guy that directed the workshop ( the head of the gamalan orchestra of Sydney Uni ) was very proud of this piece , it was written by his teacher and won acclaim . However we never tried to play it ! Phew ! The beginner piece we did was complex enough for me . Each part for the individual isnt that complex , but when it comes together .... WOW ! ( I chose the two largest gongs to play .... being more of a bass/ rhythm/beat type )

I totally agree with you that for the bible to 'work' for you , you do need to 'put your intellect aside ' . I have noticed that many many people who believe in and use the bible have been successful in this .

We never had a bible , nor where encouraged to read it . Even in 'religion' a subject we had every day . back then, I dont know about now. the Catholic School didnt teach from bibles, nor did we personally have one . It was ' the catholic catechism ' - basically a highly censored version of extracts . I am sure YOU can guess why . Reading the bible yourself will get you into ;trouble' without the 'leraned' there to explain it all to you But apparently , reading the bible is also a great inspiration for some

Mathew 4 : 19 ? I dont think there is any consensus on where the actual border is between Pisces and Aquarius . The constellational maps we use now are fairly modern and in some cases, very strange ( eg . a border runs along the side of an asterism , shoots out at 90 deg , goes around one remote star and comes back again to continue up the side of the asterism , ) In older times they use stars as markers . Also constellation got changed , 'they' cut off Scorpio's claws making it heaps smaller and gave them to part of Libra which made Libra comparatively enormous. One problem here is The Astrological Ages are astrological but the idea of constellations and the EP moving through them is an astronomical process. So astrologers need to make their own constellational systems . Your astrologer friend, mostly using the Sun , perhaps does it by ignoring the above and working on angular relationships ( and maybe star markers ) . I know of some astrologers that ignore just about everything except the angles the planets make with each other in relation to the Sun . Others judge it by looking at the asterism of Aquarius and considering its furthest stars as the boundary . Even looking up the difference between these two is confusing , as the source material is confused ; Constellation of Aquarius; Asterism of Aquarius ;

Yeah , or waaaay back in the past - an astrological 'Great Year' is nearly 26.000 Earth years long . We will have to ask Mark .... as I dont know what he is on about . Oi Mark ! What you on about ?