Tag: imagination

chaosophia218:

Ever Dream This Man?

In January 2006 in New York, the patient of a well-known psychiatrist draws the face of a man that has been repeatedly appearing in her dreams. In more than one occasion that man has given her advice on her private life. The woman swears she has never met the man in her life. That portrait lies forgotten on the psychiatrist’s desk for a few days until one day another patient recognizes that face and says that the man has often visited him in his dreams. He also claims he has never seen that man in his waking life.The psychiatrist decides to send the portrait to some of his colleagues that have patients with recurrent dreams. Within a few months, four patients recognize the man as a frequent presence in their own dreams. All the patients refer to him as THIS MAN. From January 2006 until today, at least 2000 people have claimed they have seen this man in their dreams, in many cities all over the world. At the moment there is no ascertained relation or common trait among the people that have dreamed of seeing this man. Moreover, no living man has ever been recognized as resembling the man of the portrait by the people who have seen this man in their dreams.

THEORIES
Several theories have been developed to explain the mysteriously recurring presence of this man:
1. ARCHETYPE THEORY
According to Jung’s psychoanalytic theory, this man is an archetypal image belonging to the collective unconscious that can surface in times of hardship (emotional development, dramatic changes in our lives, stressful circumstances etc.) in particularly sensitive subjects.
2. RELIGIOUS THEORY
According to this theory this man is the image of the Creator, that is to say one of the forms in which God manifests himself today. 
3. DREAM SURFER THEORY
It is the most interesting theory and the one that has the greatest implications, but it has also the lowest scientific credibility. According to this theory this man is a real person, who can enter people’s dreams by means of specific psychological skills.
4. DREAM IMITATION THEORY
This is a scientific psycho-sociological theory which claims that this phenomenon has arisen casually and has progressively developed by imitation. Basically when people are exposed to this phenomenon they become so deeply impressed that they start seeing this man in their dreams.

Source: chaosophia218

justinbthemagician:

Leonora Carrington

English-born Mexican artist, surrealist painter, and novelist. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City, and was one of the last surviving participants in the Surrealist movement of the 1930s. Carrington was also a founding member of the Women’s Liberation Movement in Mexico during the 1970s

The Ancient Greek word for for prophet is “mantis,” which means “I am raving mad.” The greatest mystics in history, such as Teresa Avila and William Blake, were at times deemed mad and deluded by overactive imaginations. Madness, however, continues to be important for esotericists, witches and artists everywhere. British-Mexican artist Leonora Carrington was a Surrealist darling, an innovative and creative painter who loved to depict fairies, witches, chimeras and aspects of Celtic mythology. She felt that dreams were important communications from another plane and repeatedly tried to incorporate that same element of fantasy into her artwork.

Although she lapsed into mania and spent a year in a mental asylum in Spain from 1939-1940, she took strength from the experience and believed she could not have reconciled both sides of herself without it. Just as in Carl Gustav Jung’s famous psychosis (which resulted in his bizarre and noetic Red Book), Carrington emerged with a firmer stance on her individual purpose. Thus, on your journey you should embrace abnormalities and eccentricities; trusting that your mind will lead you to a greater path.

Imagination/Diaphane/Translucid

nv11:

I honestly think the idea of a Diaphane, as explained by Levi, is one of the most understated, underestimated, and underused ideas in western occult.

What is it? More or less it is our imagination, but understood to be more than just a faculty of perception. Instead the imagination is seen as the very foundation of our perception. You do not see the physical world, you imagine it in your mind. You do not perceive the astral either, you imagine it in your mind. The diaphane is like our own collection of symbols, images, ideas, associations, etc… Any and all signals–whether physicals, mental, or spiritual–are passed in and out through the diaphane, through imagination both conscious and unconscious.

Let us examine now the various points Levi makes about the diaphane, translucid, or imagination.

– Imagination, the diaphane, or the translucid (synonymous) is the faculty by which we perceive the spiritual and therefore exalt the intellect. Will is exalted through imagination by giving it power over the Universal Agent.

– It is through imagination that a magus can heal disease, change seasons, warn off death and raise the dead.

– Imagination is the vehicle by which our belief affects reality around us.

– Imagination + reason = genius

– It is vital for magick to increase the affinity of your diaphane with the great magical agent (train your imagination).

– The imagination creates our physical and non-physical perception. The only difference between a genius and a dreamer or a fool is that the creations of the genius are analogous to truth while the fool reflects through hir diaphane distorted perceptions (ignorance, confusion, karmic tendency, etc..).

– The difference between a true vision and a delusion is the clarity of the ray perceived by the diaphane. Trauma and mental constructs reflect the ray into a distortion and make the truth of the vision more difficult to perceive.

– Distinguishing between clear light and distortion is the job of the initiate.

– Dreams and visions are produced by the diaphane from the symbols always present in the astral fluid. Magick is the art of subjecting these forms to your will by the use of the diaphane.

– Spirits can be evoked into the astral space by the use of their symbol by the diaphane. Once brought into the space the spirit will control this astral form–which is perceived through the diaphane.

– Any idea put into words or symbols then becomes a living astral entity which travels through the diaphanes of other people when they perceive it. Through this the idea grows, evolves, changes with each perception.

– All actions, including ritual and mundane activity, are stored symbolically in the astral fluid and continuously affect our diaphane and through it our reality.

– The witches sabbath and astral travel occurs in the translucid.

– Vague, complex, or shifting patterns can be used to allow the diaphane to focus astral perceptions. Through this divination like scrying, coffee grinds, etc can be performed.

– For the wise magician to imagine is to see and to speak is to create.

– In daily perception the imagination is busy with sense impressions. Through techniques like trance and Gnosis it becomes more receptive to the spiritual and astral.

– Each person’s diaphane affects each other. Through this magnetism is experienced, affinity, affection, love.

– Symbols, incantations, and all other aspects of ritual are used to keep the imagination firmly in place where the will aims to direct it.

– Impressionable people have impressionable imaginations. They are useful in magick.

– Ritual magick is simply an intoxication of the imagination which produces profound effects on the magus.

– The more difficult or horrible the magical operation, the stronger the impact on the imagination. Other forms of intensifying the experience also work.

– Affect the imagination and it will in turn affect the nervous system, which will then affect the whole.

By the way this is all from just part 1 of dogma and ritual. I ran out of time on lunch so feel free to continue from part 2