Introductions... Are A B!#*h Options

Hello all! You can call me Mace, I'm from an tiny secluded town in the Pacific Northwest, and in exactly 5 days i will be legal to smoke, gamble, and sign up for a credit card. Not that I plan to do any of them, unless of course you have a turkish chocolate cigar handy. Damn they're good (IMG:style_emoticons/default/thumbsup.gif)

I've been interested in the occult (magick, otherkin, etc...) since i was very young. I've first dabbled in the occult about two and a half years ago, then off and on since then, though whenever I've started to get serious i then proceed to be swept up in other events going on in my life. I believe that ritualistic magic is very effective for myself as it tends to focus my easily distracted mind. I am ,however, more interested in those more direct paths to manipulating the world around us.

I would be grateful to anyone who is willing to share effective methods for balancing oneself. I believe that some of my attributes result from some kind of inbalance. For instance: my temperature hovers around 96.8, and my blood pressure is 58/104. Stimulants and depressants have inverse effects on me, caffeine=sleep, alcohol=energetic. Strangely I seem to have no pressure points. My body metabolises things very quickly. I have a mild case of OCPD and I test out as highly gifted. I pan out as a highly gifted procrastinator.

As far as paranormal experiences, I have had a few minor run ins but nothing extraordinary. I talked to some kind of entity(ghost or otherwise) named Bones from ages 2-4. I would write it off as a normal imaginary friend, but my mother tells me that my conversations were much too fleshed out to be the product of a toddler, and that i could see this "Bones". Personally I have no recollection of this guy. Is there a way to tap into this former connection? I still live in the same house. At 4, my brother made me watch the movie Leprechaun, which really scared me at the time (now the little ugly thing is either funny or completely lame). So, from 4-12 I lived in fear of what the darkness held. Most of the time i was just paranoid, but several times i had real physical encounters with something. A product of my experiences from an earlier period of my life maybe? Who knows. At 15 I became extremely fascinated by vampires. A little surf online and I was among fellow teenagers who believed that they were BECOMING vampires (IMG:style_emoticons/default/zombie.gif) . Their signs of "awakening" were traits that i possessed (good night vision, low body temp, slow pulse, paleness, sharp canines, thirst for blood? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/whistling.gif) ) Luckily I decided that i wasn't an awakening blood sucker and resumed sunbathing. In Belgium,where i spent my junior year on exchange, (learned french, made some great friends, visited 50-100 bars, learned how to dress, and travelled a bit) I was however certifiably attacked by a vampire. I awoke briefly in the night to an opened window, a dark and distinctively female presence crushing me down, and a sharp pain in my neck before struggling briefly and falling back unconscious. The next morning i was incredibly weak and a quick look in the mirror revealed a set of bite marks on my neck. Whatever attacked me certainly wasn't a confused awakening adolescent so despite not being one, i have had a vampiric encounter.

Being in Belgium must have affected my biology somehow, because my body has been functioning differently ever since. I can no longer stay up for endless amounts of time without tiring(84 hours was my record), endure cold, or even apparently create psi balls. I've actually started to have normal reactions to medicine(never used to) which might actually be a positive. If you have an idea why these changes happened or how to reverse them I'd be happy to hear it.

Alrighty, I'll wrap it up with a normal short biography(probably should be at the beginning, huh?). I am the youngest cousin in an extended Catholic family of 50 (in a town with less than 1k people). I am a scholar-athlete, i play football, basketball, track, rugby(in Belgium), and golf, albeit my school being in the smallest sports classification (IMG:style_emoticons/default/showoff.gif) . I am President of the NHS and the student body. I'm a voracious reader, an occasional hunter, a music lover, a fitness freak, a song writer, an aspiring novelist, and a multi-college applicant(15of them). Lest you think I'm rich because of exchange, know that my mother is a janitor and my dad is 500 miles away and unemployed. I work for my money, I've done it for the past 4 years. And lest you think I'm arrogant, know that I'm homely(lots of acne)(got a spell for that?), introverted, and have too many other flaws to list.

Et voilà, finalement, le conclusion. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/004.gif)

There you have it. You now know me better than most of my family and certainly all of my friends. Any social veiling or dishonesty was stripped away for the writing of this. Perhaps in the reading of it, you've already grown to like or dislike me. If the latter, I urge you to please delay your final judgment. I'm not always like this. Promise.

Now that you know of some of my experiences, problems, and desires perhaps you'd care to share some insight?

(Why couldn't I have spent these words on writing an admissions essay?)

Well, this topic has been absolutely enthralling for the past 30 minutes of reading. I have to admit Mace, you have a lot to say. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) This is a good thing, it'll help you get your questions answered if you're thorough. I live in a small town myself and can relate to a lot of what you've said.

And lest you think I'm arrogant, know that I'm homely(lots of acne)(got a spell for that?), introverted, and have too many other flaws to list.

Well, I don't know about a spell, but I got one hell of a paste that might help you. I used to have outrageously bad face acne. Not anymore (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I got a suggestion from my girlfriend's mom about a tomato paste that worked out amazingly. Take the meat of a tomato and mash it up into a nice paste. Drip a good amount of lemon juice and add a dash of salt into the paste and mix well. (Amounts will have to be experimented with to get the right balance for your body). Apply the well mixed paste to any affected area and let sit for about ten minutes. (If you have any acne that is unpopped, be sure to pop before applying, it helps clean and disinfect the area.) After ten minutes wash it off with a soft cloth and lukewarm water. Throw the cloth in the washer and repeat every night for about a week. You will notice your acne decreasing after about that first week. Make sure that after that first week you experiment with more or less lemon juice to help get the maximum result. A pinch of salt seems to be what works best for everyone I've met, so I'd recommend just that.

On the druidic score, no idea, personally...sorry. Not something I've gone into myself. There are probably some other people here who could help, though. I've read a bit about shamanism here and there...but I have no idea if that and druidism are considered the same, at all.

On the subject of druidism, I've read quite a bit into the subject. Shamanism and Druidism are two completely different subjects. Druidism was practiced primarily by the Celts, so naturally reading material is extremely hard to come by. I personally have only read excerpts from google searches myself, but from that and a forum search I've learned enough to know that looking into Druidism will take a lot of dedication and plenty of patience. Just like with all modern practices you're going to have to filter out the new age jibber jabber and do a lot of research to find the real tid bits of information. Not much I can suggest there other than use common sense when reading information.

What are you doing to practice energy raising?

On the subject of energy works, I've established a daily psionic ritual that I perform every morning, lunch, and evening (if appropriate). It involves working with energy flow and observing the way energy reacts to influences of life upon inanimate objects and other forms of nonliving structures. Really what I've discovered on this subject was through a deep self-analysis and an open way of thinking. Sometimes it's best to explore things spiritually rather than follow a set code. Challenging the norm is what creates new innovations in all fields.

I think in my present location theres a lot of potential for druidic magick. What kind of end results does druidic magick seek?

Druidic magick deals directly with the harmony of Man and Nature, using the world around us to foster this bond into something akin to love in the most basic form. Obviously there is so much more to it, but your best bet is to do a forum search on "druid" or checking the shamanism forum (?not sure here, it's been awhile since I read it?) for information about druids.

I do not like Crowley, if anything he seems to have done nothing but bring a bad name to magick. Franz Bardon seems like a much more respect-worthy modern "founder" if theres anyone to name.

Franz is one of my favorite authors. His writings have helped me understand some underlying concepts of magick that I otherwise was unable to grasp. All of his books have been immensely interesting for me and have been some of the few sets of writing that I've been able to actively pursue. I recommend all his writings to anyone willing to be open minded enough to read them.

In the end, it's rare to find people of your own age with any true concept of what you're going through. Yes, older and wiser people out there went through it, I don't deny this. However, something about talking to someone going through the same experiences as you just helps with getting the whole picture in nearly anything.

To conclude, feel free to PM me or ask any questions you have. I may be younger but I've been researching non stop for over a year and a half now and been doing some lighter reading for a year before that. I like to think I understand most basic concepts, even if I don't grasp all of the technical ones. You can look to me for help with energy flow and astral work, as those two subjects I've studied immensely and have been practically applying them effectively and on a daily basis for nearly a year now. I wish you luck on your quest for knowledge (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

SP

EDITS
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After taking some time to search the forums, I found this topic on druidism for you. It has some potential reading information that may or may not answer some of your questions on the subject.

http://www.sacred-magick.org/index.php?showtopic=4905

I'll look into finding some more information on it for you (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

CONTINUED:

Here's a compilation of sites that I found on the subject for ya. (May or may not be redundant.)

http://www.religioustolerance.org/druid.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid (Light reading material on the history of the subject.)
http://www.fatheroak.com/ (Looks to be an interesting read, I'll get you some more information on it after I read through it. Feel free to read ahead!)
http://www.wildideas.net/cathbad/druid.html (More light history.)

Not much to really be found right off. I'll look into what I've given you a little more thoroughly and see what I can get you from that. Hopefully this makes the subject a little easier to read on.

This post has been edited by SPoison: Dec 26 2007, 12:15 PM