Category: personal spirituality

Great Compassion Mantra, 大悲咒 (Free Book Download)

On By benebellIn free download, Magical in the Mundane, personal spirituality37 Comments

The Great Compassion Mantra of Avalokitesvara (Kuan Yin) is a dharani to be recited for purification, protection, and healing.

The image associated with the Great Compassion Mantra is the thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara, representative of the innumerable divine manifestations of Avalokiteshvara and from whose body sprung the birth of many other divine beings. In East Asia, Zhǔn tí púsà 準提菩薩, the Great Buddha Mother, is a manifestation of Kuan Yin. Matsu 媽祖, a goddess of the South Pacific, though Taoist in origin, has also become an expression of Kuan Yin consciousness. Or Ārya Tāra 多羅菩薩, a divine manifestation evolving from Avalokiteshvara.

A consecrated copy of the text is considered a powerful protection talisman. The dharani represents the spoken words of Kuan Yin as she recites the names of deities from many pantheons, including references to Shiva, Vishnu, and Indra. The Great Compassion Mantra is bestowed upon us by Kuan Yin so that we might overcome our suffering and—for those who seek it—achieve awakening.

Per Buddhist mythology, during a gathering of the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and gods on a remote mountain, Avalokiteshvara rose and requested permission to recite words to be transmitted to the people, so that the people could always commune and call to Avalokiteshvara through those utterances and be protected from karmic suffering.

Said Avalokiteshvara:

I have a mantra, the Great Compassionate Heart dharana, and now wish to proclaim it, for comforting and pleasing all living beings; for healing all illness; for living beings to attain additional lifespan; for living beings to gain wealth; for extinguishing all evil karma and weighty sins; for keeping away from hindrance and disasters; for producing merits of pure Dharmas; for maturing all virtuous roots; for overcoming all fears; for fulfilling all good wishes. Please be merciful and allow me to speak.

The deities permitted it and Avalokiteshvara proceeded to recite the syllables of the Great Compassion Mantra dharani. Anyone who recites the dharani with sincere heart will call out to Avalokiteshvara and will be able to seek refuge from any danger, harm, pain, or suffering.

The dharani represents the spoken words of Kuan Yin as she recites the names of deities from many pantheons (including references to Shiva, Vishnu, Indra, among others). As the mythology goes, the Great Compassion Mantra is Kuan Yin’s gift to us, a Key that will gain us access to spiritual awakening, greater understanding, wisdom, Divine Sight, and the strengthening of divine senses (also referred to as the four clairs–clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, and claircognizance).

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List of 2018 Bell Chimes In Episodes

On By benebellIn Bell Chimes In, Magical in the Mundane, personal, personal spirituality, tarot community, traditional witchcraft6 Comments

In the Fall of 2017, I started a fun little series on my YouTube channel, called “Bell Chimes In.” Here’s a refresher of the 18 episodes that came out last year:

List of 2017 Bell Chimes in Episodes

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“Bell Chimes In” is a video series on my YouTube channel where I pick a topic that is oft talked about and chime in with my perspective. In doing so, I hope you’ll chime back. After the video, please join in conversation with me through a video response, blog post of your own, or by adding your thoughts in the comments section of the video.

I hope this series won’t be about me. I hope that it will be about us, about discourse, and the collective ideas of a community. There will be a new “Bell Chimes In” video every Sunday for the first quarter of the year.

# Title of Episode Video Length Date of Publication Blog Post
19 Good Witch; Bad Witch 13:15 01/07/2018 N/A
20 Race, Culture, and Spirituality 18:44 01/14/2018 N/A
21 Demonology 20:17 01/21/2018 Link
22 So You Wanna Create a Tarot Deck? 7:50 01/28/2018 Link
23 Tradition vs. Solitary 18:39 01/28/2018 N/A
24 Do No Harm? Diet and Spirituality 19:55 02/04/2018 N/A
25 What is Déjà Vu? 16:22 02/11/2018 N/A
26 Authenticity; Truth Seeking 15:15 02/18/2018 N/A
27 Spirit Guides, Patron Deities 15:45 02/25/2018 N/A
28 Starseeds and Multiverses 17:51 03/04/2018 N/A
29 Saturn Return (and Decisive Age) 15:20 03/11/2018 Link
30 People of Color in Spiritual Spaces 20:33 03/14/2018 N/A
31 Mercury Retrograde 11:16 03/25/2018 N/A
32 Selling Spirituality 14:52 03/30/2018 N/A
33 Three Truths I’ve Learned 18:56 04/14/2018 N/A
34 Seeds of Doubt 12:21 05/23/2018 N/A
35 On Reiki: An Opinion 14:43 05/26/2018 Link
36 The Privilege of Beauty 12:27 09/01/2018 N/A

Click Here for the Complete Bell Chimes In Playlist

Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven (Jiu Tian Xuan Nü, 九天玄女)

On By benebellIn Bell Chimes In, I Ching, personal, personal spirituality, promotional9 Comments

I love watching videos of people sharing their deeply personal experiences with deities of different pantheons and what those experiences have meant to them, so now I’m sharing one of my own. =)

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We’ve arrived at our final installment of the “Bell Chimes In” series for 2017. For those of you who’ve watched all 18 episodes, thank you so much for coming along on this journey with me. As I close out the year of venturing into the terrain of YouTube (I know I am no pioneer on this front, but it was for sure an unfamiliar and new adventure for me), I should probably share with you why I ventured out in the first place: the Lady of the Ninth Heaven.

Continue reading “Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven (Jiu Tian Xuan Nü, 九天玄女)” →

Your Year Ahead Twelve-Month Tarot Forecast Reading

On By benebellIn cartomancy, divination, personal spirituality, professional tarot, tarot, tarot community6 Comments
Selecting a significator card. Deck pictured: Golden Universal by Lo Scarabeo.

For quite a while I offered a Year Ahead twelve-month forecast reading, but I received so many requests in 2017 that the reading type burned me out. So I won’t be offering it in 2018, but it’s an incredible tarot reading methodology and one you can absolutely do for yourself. So in this post I’ll show you how you can do my Year Ahead forecast reading all on your own.

The Year Ahead forecast reading consists of the following steps:

  1. Solar Return Astrology Analysis
  2. Preliminary Four Worlds Reading
  3. Elemental Key for the Year
  4. Twelve-Month Four-Quarter Projections
  5. Six Points Revelation Spread
  6. Power Word for the Year

Now let’s address each in turn.

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The Irony (or Maybe Paradox) of the Empath

On By benebellIn Magical in the Mundane, opinion, personal spirituality, Taoism, traditional witchcraft11 Comments

Imagine yourself at Point A and you need to get to Point B, which is several winding hallways away. You are focused with this one objective, to get to Point B. However, as you start your way through the halls, flanking both sides of the hall are television and radio sets, every one of them on full blast, images of compelling narratives blinking at you from the glaring bright screens, and you catch snippets of phrases from the radio that sound important, that you wish very much you could stop and listen to acknowledge, but you’ve got to get to Point B and none of what’s bombarding your senses in these hallways relate to your destination.

The practical maybe even all too obvious advice is to ignore the distractions, stay focused, and get yourself to Point B, stat.

Now what if all those television and radio sets buzzing at you also happen to represent sincere cries for help. What if those weren’t television and radio sets but telephones, each one ringing at you and every ring is someone calling for you, hoping you’ll answer and give just one minute of your time, just one little moment, so that you can use your know-how and skill sets to help them solve their life problems.

What do you do? Do you still ignore the “distractions,” stay focused, and get yourself to Point B, stat? Or do you stop and answer those calls? If you stop to answer every call, you’ll never arrive at Point B, which is a destination you really, really want to arrive at. Do you stop to answer only some of the calls but not others? How do you discern which to answer and which to ignore? Speaking of calls, what’s your calling? In the midst of this chaos, you start to wonder: what exactly is your calling anyway? Is it to stop and answer as many of these calls as you can and that in and of itself is your life purpose? Or is your life purpose still to try to arrive at that destination Point B?

That’s the irony, or maybe paradox, I don’t know which, of the empath (which, by the way, my digital device keeps telling me is not a word and keeps wanting me to change to “empathy”).

Continue reading “The Irony (or Maybe Paradox) of the Empath” →

Moon Block Divination | Tinkering Bell #5

On By benebellIn divination, free download, Magical in the Mundane, personal spirituality, Taoism, Tinkering Bell11 Comments

Chinese moon block (Jiao Bei, 筊杯) is a form of divination that you’ll often find at Taoist or Buddhist temples. There may be a dish of moon blocks by the altar and the purpose is for you to ask your question to the deity venerated at that site, then throw the moon blocks for a yes or no answer. They’re used to communicate directly with gods and spirits. The traditional perception here is unequivocally that of divine communion.

Predecessors to the moon blocks are covered in the video, from the tortoise shells to the clam shells. I also instruct on how to clean out two clam shells from your next seafood dinner and ritualize them in preparation for divination uses.

Priests, priestesses, shamans, and witches, in particular witches from those cultures who lived by the seas, would use clam shells (or small tortoise shells) for divination.

Eventually, the concept evolved into the red moon blocks that are commonplace today. They’re one of the oldest forms of Chinese divination, alongside the I Ching, though throughout history, have taken many forms.

This video practicum teaches you how to divine with moon blocks (or clam shells, tortoise shells, etc.) and how to consecrate and empower a set to become used exclusively for divinatory purposes.

Supplemental Handouts

The following ritual instruction is for charging and empowering your divinatory tool, specifically your moon blocks, to be used for spirit communications. The instructions can be followed for either clam shells or tortoise shells.

Empowering Your Moon Blocks

(Download PDF)

Your Divination Cheat Sheet is a quick reference guide for the meaning of each divinatory result from your moon blocks. Alternatively, if you opt to use clam shells or tortoise shells instead, an interpretation guide is provided for both as well.

Divination Cheat Sheet

(Download PDF)

Buying Moon Block Sets Internationally

If you’re feeling enthusiastic about traditional moon block divination, then you might be interested in buying your own set of moon blocks. You can often find international sales of these through E-Bay or Etsy.

My general personal recommendation, if you are buying it international, is to source from Taiwan. Broadly speaking the Taiwanese tend to be more superstitious and religious about these things, and so they are going to be more attentive, more thoughtful, and craft-wise, more serious about their moon block production. Culturally, mainland China is more atheistic and capitalist-oriented, so just in terms of probability, you’re not as likely to find a seller who is actually a practitioner of craft.

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Homework: Your Practicum

Following each installment of the series will be a suggested practicum, or homework, for you to try out. Homework material presumes that you are an occult practitioner who is working on developing your craft.

Craft Your Own Moon Block Set: I say “moon block” for convenience of reference here. You can use clam shells (probably the easiest for most people to source) or empty tortoise shells (if that’s something you have access to). Even if you decide you really like the red wooden moon blocks and end up buying a set for yourself, I recommend crafting your own divination set because the process of crafting your own divination set from scratch is insightful on its own merits. You can even cut two cross-section slices of a thick branch for two disks to be used. Paint one side one color to represent yin, and the other side a contrasting color to represent yang. Or find two flat, rounded stones of about equal size and inscribe the two sides to symbolize yin and yang. Then follow the “Empowering Your Moon Blocks” reference guide provided above to consecrate and charge your divination set for divine communion.

Grimoire Reference Page: Before you memorialize this divination method in your personal grimoire, work with the method first. Take some time to try different approaches to the method first, such as crafting your own moon block set, trying different materials, from the clam shells to wood disks or stones, etc. Your creativity is your only limitation. If you really want to get your hands on the red moon blocks, then do so and work with that for a few moon cycles. Finally, once you’ve got a personalized hang of the process and how it operates for you as opposed to what I say in this tutorial, log your divination how-to in your grimoire. Be sure to take notes during the video lecture on the historical and cultural background of the divination method and include those in your grimoire as well for context.

Your Empowerment Word

On By benebellIn divination, numerology, personal spirituality21 Comments

Some of us like to divine or in some divinatory way generate a word to motivate us, keep us focused, and get us through the times to come. This can become your word of the year, or if you’re kind of the non-committal type, then your word of the month, or word of the day, whatever works for you.

Below is a list of 88 words I’ve generated for your divinatory fun. You can use a site like random.org and in the top right corner, input 1 for Min. and 88 for Max. Then click “Generate” and see what number you get. Cross-reference that number with the below listing and find the word corresponding with that number.

If you want to get mystical and fancy, before you hit “Generate,” whisper a petition, prayer, invocation, evocation, call upon your spirit guides, do what you got to do to feel like the moment is special, and then get your random number.

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Talismanic Charm Bracelet for Protection

On By benebellIn personal, personal spirituality6 Comments

The charm bracelet itself began as an amulet or talisman used to ward off evil and harm. Charm bracelet talismans made from shells were documented in Africa 75,000 years ago and were also used in ancient Egypt. Medieval knights wore charms for protection. Then it was in the early 20th century that the charm bracelet came back as a fashion accessory.

This post is a DIY how-to for crafting your own talismanic charm bracelet and some commentary on the different purposes such a talisman can offer.

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Failing to Predict Disaster

On By benebellIn divination, opinion, personal, personal spirituality, tarot community6 Comments

My mother possesses an eerily keen sense for what’s to come and can feel future events in her bones. But I remember this one personal tragedy that had blindsided her. None of the talismans, trinkets, doodads, protection circles, shielding, prognosticating, or spirit guides prepared her for what happened. It shook her to her core and she had no choice but to acquire wisdom the hard way. Knowledge is one thing. Wisdom is another. If you accept that there is a greater Divinity, then sometimes our knowledge is blocked so that we can have clearer access to wisdom.

I recall once hearing an interview of a well-known celebrity psychic medium who attained fame and fortune for that ability to see what is to come, and yet when that medium’s own mother came down suddenly with a terminal illness and then passed on, that medium did not see it coming, at all. In the interview, that medium talked about the wisdom gained from that hard check to the ego.

Why is there such irony in this world? Those who seem to have the Sight cannot see coming the worst of all calamities. They’ve built a paradigm around the ability to forecast, so that we can plan ahead and prepare, and yet that one thing that needs the most planning and preparation they could not predict.

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Selling Fu Talismans

On By benebellIn Bell Chimes In, Fu talismans, Magical in the Mundane, personal, personal spirituality, Tao of Craft (book), Taoism, traditional witchcraft4 Comments

In this episode, I answer a question that was presented to me: Can a non-Asian craft and sell Fu talismans to the public?

I recorded the video rather on the fly on the same day the question was presented to me, and didn’t fuss over my face before recording, so now in retrospect when I see the video, I cringe. Ugh. This is what happens when you don’t check your hair or makeup (the eyeliner was already smudging after a long working day) before you hit “record.”

The Fu talisman is a form of Chinese sigil magic that dates back to 400 BC and was later integrated into Taoist mystery traditions around 100 AD. If you’re not familiar with what a Fu talisman is, check out the below links:

The book description for The Tao of Craft (linked here) offers some insights into what a Fu talisman is. On the page of Fu talisman instructables (linked here), you’ll also find images and examples what some Fu talismans look like.

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Continue reading “Selling Fu Talismans” →