Iowa State Singers: Even When He Is Silent

Twelve Signs that a Ghost is Near

 

 

Below is my reply to a fascinating post on a fine blog that I just discovered.

 

The spirit who is primarily in contact with me is very gentle. He gives off warmth rather than cold. I personally haven't encountered many who give off cold, usually I don't feel any kind of temperature change from their presence.
My great grandfather was able to see spirits and knew when people were going to die. I often have precognitive dreams when people are going to pass or if something traumatic is going to happen. I wish I could see the spirits as my great grandfather did, but I've only seen two human spirits. I can sense them, however. I sense their emotions.
I like to write about the paranormal as well but I've become a bit shy about doing so after receiving numerous hate messages over the years. I'm trying to become involved in writing again and not let people dissuade me so much.
I enjoyed finding out about your blog.

 

~Cie~

Broken Heroes

Nicolo Lothario

The prompt from Prompts Galore asks us to "write about coming to the realization that your heroes are only human."

Several times the realization has been one of these: guy seems like the perfect catch. He's married with kids, seems like a great husband and father, oh, if only I could find someone like...

Great googly moogly! So sorry, Spouse of Cheating Dog. Turns out that instead of being such a good guy after all, he's a rampant womanizer. Not going to name names, but I've been sorely disappointed by having perceived no few of these cads as heroes in the field of romance and can only count my blessings that I wasn't the poor fool who ended up with them. Not being pretty does have its perks. Guys like this ignore the existence of women who look like me.

Circa 1973



My father actually was one of the good ones. He and I didn't always get along. He had certain very conservative ideals that didn't jibe with my very liberal ones. He could be overbearing. However, he had a genuinely good heart, and I could always count on him being there when I needed him.

Until a hemorrhagic stroke severely compromised him, and thereafter he developed vascular dementia and congestive heart failure and spent six years with both his physical and cognitive health declining until he finally, mercifully, passed from this world in a peaceful room at the hospice center.

Everything dies, but the long, drawn-out way my father died pretty well shook my belief in an ordered Universe. Good people are allowed a merciful death, right? They don't have to suffer for years and years, becoming more and more fearful as the twilight takes over their mind, right?

Well, that was the most naïve thought ever. We should probably scan my head and see if I even have a brain, or if I long ago replaced it with a rotting lump of Limburger cheese.

Malcolm Young was my hero from the time I was twelve years old. He doesn't really look or sound like one might think a hero would. He's tiny, somewhere around five foot three and weighing something around 110 pounds when he's been eating hearty. He's a shy, nondescript man with a quiet voice. So, what would cause me to think of someone like that as a hero?

Malcolm took no shit from anybody, and he didn't like crappy behavior. He disliked bullies. He was sympathetic to people who were victimized by the mean-spirited sort who gets off on putting others down. In other words, I knew from the start that he cared about people like me, who tend to be the target of the mean-spirited lot. People who are shy, who aren't conventionally attractive, who are even, dare I say it, mentally ill. That's what makes him a role model, and, yes, a hero.

His family seems to have some genetic tendency to cancer and vascular disease. So, you'd figure it might be one of those things that would take him out. Oh, but no. He couldn't have gotten lucky and died from the heart problems that he had in the early 2000s, or the stroke that he had in 2014. That would have been too easy.

Nope, instead he has to be dying from a horrid form of dementia that has literally shrunken his brain and left him so he can't remember the things he did during his life, or the people he did them with. This disease took him from being a low-key but decidedly brave hero and a very independent personality to being a very sick, very confused victim whose once-alert eyes are bewildered and terrified, and who requires constant supervision.

You know where my faith has really been shaken in this whole mess?

The idea of a benevolent, ordered Universe seems rather improbable to me.

I'm not an atheist, but I haven't believed in the Church God for years. Deism seems far more plausible to me than theism, given the nature of things. I can buy the idea of a grand creator, but I don't really think it gives two fucks about us. Oh, it may be benevolently disposed to its creations, but it's also pretty detached, much like a person who raises fish whose purpose is to repopulate lakes and streams. This person cares about the fish as a population. They don't focus on the fish as individuals.

I think we're kind of on our own, as far as things go. Yes, I believe in a soul that survives the death of the body. To me, reincarnation seems the most likely course of events. Energy never dies, it simply changes form, and the spirit is pure energy. Eventually, it will find another body to inhabit. That's how I see it, anyway.

Sometimes my thoughts on the matter are similar to Sam Winchester's.

And sometimes they're more like Paul the Tavern Owner's.

"Look, there’s sure as hell demons. And maybe there is a God. I don’t know. Fine. But I’m not a hypocrite. I never prayed before and I ain’t starting now. If I go to hell, I’m going honest. How ‘bout you? "

Unlike Paul, I used to pray. I was once a devout Catholic. My father was a devout Catholic. He prayed. I'm not sure it did any good, but I'm not so arrogant that I'd 100% say it didn't.

The only thing I know for sure is this:

A benevolent, involved deity wouldn't allow its creations to suffer the way that so many of us do. If the deity is involved in our lives, I, like Stephen Fry, have but one thing to say to it:

How dare you!

How dare you let little children be molested and murdered. How dare you let there be wars. How dare you let my son's friend, who is only 18, get bone cancer. How dare you let my father struggle on for six years, losing his ability to control his body and his mind. How dare you give my aunt dementia. How dare you let Malcolm Young's mind be destroyed and force him to keep living in a terrified, bewildered state. How dare you allow all these things, and the countless other horrors? Seriously--how dare you!

I don't believe in the Church God. But in the event that he exists and hears what we say, that is what I have to say to him.

My final thought on the matter of heroes:

The church god actually used to be one of my heroes. I lost faith in him years ago.

~Cie~

The Prophet Muhammad's Treatment of His Wives

Faux News and their ilk spin Islam so Muslims appear to all be extremists. This sermon tells of a far different side of Islam.

Extremism is always bad. The majority of Muslims are not extremists.

~Rose~

A to Z Blogging Challenge 2015: W is for Songs of Worship

Religion can be a loaded subject. 

We are not promoting any one religion over another.

We are featuring songs which may have spiritual significance to people with certain beliefs.

No belittling or bigoted commentary regarding anyone's beliefs (or lack thereof) will be tolerated.

~The KHEL 666 Krew~

Songs which have spiritual significance can move people emotionally, and perhaps get them in touch with the realms that exist beyond the physical.

For a Buddhist, chanting and instrumentals which invoke feelings of peace and relaxation are essential.

For Christians, a song of this nature can remind them of the peaceful messages taught by Jesus, and of his great sacrifice.

Jewish songs invoke feelings of celebration and reverence, keeping traditions alive and celebrating those who have gone before.

Muslim chants are often very powerful and moving, invoking strong feelings of spiritual reverence.

Pagan beliefs practices are extremely varied. Wiccan and Pagan songs celebrate various gods and goddesses, or the beauty of nature. Unitarian songs of worship tend to focus on peace, tolerance, and togetherness rather than religious beliefs. 

 I hope you have enjoyed my choices demonstrating songs of worship from various belief systems. I am not an expert on religion, and the thoughts expressed are simply brief explanations of my understanding of the music utilized by a few of the world's religions.

Peace,

DJ Illsa

Cross-Posted to:

KHEL 666

One Love

Healing and Release Spellwork April 24 2015

Music suggested by Teammate Opal

I would like to do these spells at least once a week. However, it is often much longer. There is a threefold factor: work, family, and the fact that I don't believe in my abilities.

My son's friend has fairly well distanced himself from everybody, so it's difficult to know how he's faring. It's hard for me to continue with spell work without progress reports. I'm somewhat going on blind faith. I really want him to heal, but I suppose I have to be prepared to accept the possibility that perhaps he doesn't want to. He's only 18, but he's had a very hard life.

My special friend is not doing well, physically. His mind continues to deteriorate, yet his body remains alive. He wants to be released at this point, but something keeps him holding on. I think I have some idea what it is, but he's asked me to keep it confidential. 

Here are our element cards for the day:

Heaven: The Key from the Stargate deck. This represents self discovery and realization.

Air: From the Healing with the Fairies deck.

Sexuality. My son's friend is transgender female to male. He has a history of sexual abuse. Sexuality is a thorny issue for him.

Water: From the Magical Mermaids and Dolphins deck

Break Free

Both of the people I'm working to help have certain issues that they need to break free from.

Earth: Dog from the Medicine cards deck

Meaning: Be loyal to yourself and true to others. 

Fire: From the archangel oracle deck:

Indigo and Crystal children

My son's friend has an advanced and sensitive spirit which has been broken by others. Healing of his soul as well as his body is essential.

May we all be blessed and receive the guidance we need. I feel that we are all lost in some way.

~Cie~

A to Z Blogging Challenge 2015: T is for Theism

I actually enjoyed listening to this sermon, although it raises for me the sort of issues that initially made me begin questioning the belief system of my childhood.

I was raised Catholic, and was very devout into my teen years. I began to wonder why the God I worshiped seemed to bless some and curse others. I had quite a difficult time during my teen years and wondered why God hated me when I tried my very best to do good and went to church each week as well.

It wasn't that I was perfect. I was a bit of a rebel. I smoked and I liked to party at any possible opportunity. But I was kind to others. I wondered why that didn't count for something.

Biblical literalism was the first thing to go from my belief system. The church was the next thing. I couldn't abide the many judgmental attitudes that I encountered among the believers.

I am still rather convinced that there is a higher power, or at least I strongly believe in the possibility of one. However, I no longer believe in the rather egotistical deity that I was taught to worship in my childhood. 

I can't align my own thoughts and beliefs with theism, because I find a deity that demands worship from its creations or it will cause them to suffer regardless of whatever positive and helpful traits they may have extremely off-putting. Deism makes more sense, as far as I'm concerned. A being so advanced that it could create the Universe surely would be beyond such a petty emotion as egotism.

The God of the bible (at least as interpreted by the majority of those calling themselves Christians) is an abusive parent who demands unquestioning adulation from his creations. I refuse to worship any being which is that egotistical. If there is a higher power, I believe it judges our actions, not our willingness to fawn over it.

~Morella~