Melanie

As a former wiccan who on occasion still does a ritual spell or two I will try my best. There are three main differences in ritual spell casting that magic through cultivation have more difficulty to achieve. 1) The unconscious mind- for many the most important aspect of the ritual is the act and preparation itself. The act of collecting the material placing the stones, candles, ect, drawing the circles all help open ones mind to what is possible with there own mind and energy. The act of the ritual becomes an act of opening ones unconscious mind and accessing your own intuitive energy. 2) Natural enchantments and energy- the parts of ritual magic often include stones and other materials such as wood, metals, ect. all of these will have there own energy and natural magic that with the manipulation of ones own energy can be amplified and even change according to the magic users need. Then the ritual items can be used to offer you more energy while you perform the spell. 3) collective unconscious- ritual magic has a practice that components of it if not the entire act has been repeated over generations, this repetition throughout time has made the acts symbols. These symbols can connect to the collective unconsciousness especially when energy and an open mind is added to the rite. If you'd like I could go into more details but that's some of the basic reasons behind rituals.

So your suggesting that without an arbitrary symbolic ritual that I could be wrong but I'm not aware of any becoming a Taoist rituals, we are not really Taoist but fans of Tao? Tao is a spiritual practice not a religion, it has no dogma so to be one you just need to believe and learn its basic practices and ideas.

I'm enjoying some Tao for breakfast its, omn-nom-nom

love it

Hmm, would that make Tao closest to Hydrogen on the periodic table, Well the Tao particle would obviously be part of hydrogen so if you spilt the hydrogen atom somewhere in the explosion you'd be bound to find the Tao particular. Or maybe the Tao particle would be in one of the components of the components of hydrogen, maybe its in a quark. I'm sure if we keep braking down these tiny little pieces we are bound to find the Tao at some point.

I asked Wujing tortoise he said he enjoys the serenity, warmth and food I offer him its much better then the pet store he was bred in, it gives him time to meditate and enjoy being, even if its just in a wooden habitat most of the time, he just requests that we keep the f***'n cat out of his habitat and as always fresh romaine lettuce. I asked Annaleas the kitten, when I could get her calmed down enough to ask her a question, she said, what's outside? Is that the place where it rains, I don't like the rain, what was that noise? Run! That's all I could get out of her.

*Raises hand meekly* Um, I claim I'm a Taoist I'm just not very good at being one, I'm too wishey washey wobby sobby to ever be Wu.

Recent event in my life have made me question my status as a strict vegetarian. I have been a vegetarian for ten years, I never tried to convince others to become one and I didn't become one for desire of purity. Simply put I didn't want my life maintained by the sacrifice of life from other animals if I could avoid it. I also rarely slipped in my diet and never on purpose, until recently that is. My wife (not legal living in Texas) became a vegetarian soon after we met despite my insisting she didn't have to be, she's trying but still eats meat about once a week. Twice this year I have purposely ate fish, the first was a gift from my neighbor. When we first moved in our neighbor hated us because we are lesbians but we eventually won her over. She gave us salmon cakes in a show of neighborly friendship. The second and more recent was my wife and I got invited to go fishing, but my wife didn't want to go unless she intended on catching something and if she caught something she'd want to eat it. So to get her to go and enjoy herself agreed I'd share what ever she caught. She ended up catching a catfish that took myself, my wife and our kitten two evenings to eat. So where am I getting with this? Each time I felt guilt for eating the fellow creature, but I got over it by remembering stories of strict vegetarian practices being broken in order to maintain humility and be humble. The sacrifice of the creature is honored as well as the appreciation for the person offering it. One of the main lines in justifying a bend in being a strict vegetarian is 'Its not what goes into your mouth that currupts the spirit but what comes out of it'. Im still a vegetarian despite these recent slips and I recognize even more now that my diet is not an act of vanity or separation but an appreciation for the sanctity of life, well animal life at least.

Oh my gosh sinfest, I loved that, Derpy is so cute, I even listen to the doctor whooves episodes with her And to Cat Pillar, awesome I'll take my tortoise out of hiding now.

I was wondering how this thread lasted so long, now I know its because magical creatures got involved.

Ya a kitten attacked my leg when I was outlining her eyes and since it was the last step I just accepted the millimeter or two off. Her cutey mark is a brush and she watches over my paint tubes and cans.

This is my little pony

I always feel empathy, intuition, and basic feel of someone's aura is a better indicator then the eyes, its a least more consisten by my experience.

I was imagining something more like tranquilizer guns or knock out gas pellets that way the hunter could still get a photo of the animal as a trophy and the animal would just wake up groggy an hour later. That's what I imagined shoot and release hunting could be, that or use paint ball guns. The rainbow colored deer would be the slowest in the forests.

Hello, welcome to the group, we look forward to reading your posts.

That's fantastic Marblehead, I look forward to seeing your daily flowers during the often flowerless winter months <3 Thank you

What do you like to create? Are you able to create without the burst of creativity?

We shared it with the Kitty because it was too big for her to eat before it would have gone bad and smelly'd up the apartment.

I don't think they delete accounts like that because what you state even the 20 something post you made are part of the archive that is the Tao bums. Personally I'd just stop coming here if I felt as you do rather then try to insult others. Move on your own path rather then scoff at the paths of others.

Hmm so the best way to not think of pink elephants is to not be told not to think of one and just think your everyday usually non pink elephant inclusive thoughts because thinking of not thinking of them is a thought about them. Hmm this racism against pink elephants doesn't seem to solve anything I'd ask what your beef against such a helpful species is but I rather not think about it.

Thank you Sean <3 your awesome and the mobile version is spiffy too.

Welcome to the group and upgrading from Lurker status

Wa wa what? *tears up* I must hide my tortoise!

Not a bright as I hoped it would be and my wife teased that I should stick with my fairies and robots and leave the flowers to nature so it might be a while before I paint another flower.

Impressed impressed I think that's a metallic olive color