Day: July 27, 2017

Closed Circuit: Why Some Posts Going Forward are Password Protected

On By benebellIn Closed Circuit, personal59 Comments

Like so many of my colleagues, I come from an earnest place and share what I believe will be valuable resources, for free, and just like so many of my colleagues, we experience this: those you’ve fed come back to bite you in the hand. Each one of us deal with that in our own ways. For me, this will be my approach.

Here’s why certain posts are under lockdown going forward. People readily acknowledge that they’ve been enriched by the content I provide, take from it freely, exploit it, but then–forget “thank you” that’s just asking too much–they can’t even restrain themselves from hurling ad hominem attacks at me in public forums. How do you acknowledge you’ve benefited greatly from someone’s work and then in the same breath, say that you actually hate that person? It’s okay to hate my personality, but then you should avert your eyes and not keep coming back for second, third, and fourth helpings of my content.

It’s as if you’re standing out in the town square cheerily handing out free cookies and on an ongoing basis, certain folks keep coming back for the free cookies but immediately after enjoying the cookie, punch you in the shoulder. Or, as they walk away with your free cookie, smirk and say to anyone within earshot, “Man, isn’t she such a horrible human being? The rest of you don’t seriously like her, do you? I mean… look at her. Horrors. Plus, her cookies are shit. Munch, munch, munch…” What do you do? Most people call it quits and just stop handing out the free cookies. I didn’t want to go that route, since I enjoy baking, but I was also getting fed up.

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Taoist Mystic Dreamwork and Oneiromancy

On By benebellIn divination, personal, personal spirituality, Taoism14 Comments
Psst…these are not pics of the underworld. These photos are from Lava Beds National Park in California. You need to visit there sometime.

Someone in my “I Ching and the Practitioner” course asked about Chinese dreamworking. Though delving into the subject fell a bit outside the scope of the I Ching, I thought it’d make an interesting closed-circuit blog entry.

My mother’s specialty is dreamworking and oneiromancy. She works primarily through the realm of dreams. Allegedly. The lawyer in me, I think, or maybe it’s just the enduring skeptic, feels compelled to add “allegedly.” This rambling does not come from a place of personal expertise, because I’ve always been the opposite of my mother. I am not a dreamworker. I would say I don’t dream at all, or at least I rarely remember my dreams. I don’t receive prophecies, divination, or forecasts of any kind through my dreams. No–that’s not entirely true, but it’s true enough for me to assure you that I am no expert. So I’m speaking from a point of neutral, outsider observation, as the daughter of a shamanic dreamworker.

By the way, she would never identify herself as a shaman. She doesn’t use anything to identify herself. Others, however, when she isn’t around, or when describing my mother, may use certain terminology. But she would never call herself anything other than “wife, mother, daughter” those kinds of titles. I’m the one taking the initiative to say “shaman” because it’s descriptive of what she does. You’ll see what I mean.

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