Nefastos wrote:
For example, people with psychological traumas often tend to repeat their experiences unto others, either directly or indirectly, if they are not consciously trying to understand what has happened. It's somewhat similar with (other) astral phenomena: Because the experience is so strong, that intensity of an experience - which may be just a result of its uncommon nature - becomes like a proof of its truthfulness. So people who have extraordinary experiences might take their messages as with the face value, not considering how messed up the astral world of extrasensory perceptions actually is. Seeing or hearing special things may be a subjective proof that the more occult world exists, but it's not a proof that a thing seen or heard is a hard fact.
Agreed. I have observed closely a person with a tremendous psychological trauma, and was amazed by their strength in not putting that trauma onwards into the world. They say that it's rather hard and I can certainly believe this. So it's easy for me to understand what you mean with a reference to this astral phenomena and the similarity therein.
The majority of people do take everything they experience as a hard proof, I suppose mainly because this happens to
them, so it "must be true". In a way this is very understandable. Sometimes I've seen this take a dangerous path- a person who believed that certain deities are guiding their path, and that a set of symbols is somehow bigger than this person is. And then the astral visions begin massively, and they are unable to control this in any way. And when it starts to come in situations like during driving a car it's actually potentially lethal.
For some reason many who I discussed with seem to consider "the invisible world" somehow more meaningful than this world. Personally I see this as a mistake- from a magician's point of view, we are actually in a rather good spot here in Midgard when it comes to our work. And I do think that one should always firmly base their roots here and to take things with a certain patience and cool-headedness. The best tool is to be calm. It's so easy to go astray; one can believe good of all beings, but soon enough may face the problem that not all beings share the human idea of "good" or "bad", and that the workings of various entities may seem completely alien or autistic to us. This does not of course mean that we would not be able to learn from these experiences, but to me the definition of the word "teacher" does refer to a conscious choice to teach something. And I do not suggest that these beings would be "evil", simply that they are very different from us and therefore can not be judged by the human morals or working principles.
Nefastos wrote:I think it's not uncommon for one to have spirit guides. But even those guides which think they're acting benevolently may be misguided themselves, in addition to which there is chosen (or "demonically natural") conceivement. That's why we should always "test the spirits" instead of just taking their word without some amount of healthy scepticism.
Personally for me, my power or spirit guide, or whatever we want to call this (if this is a internal or external force is another topic and I'll leave it out of this) is a little tricky to work with- fickle, trickstery and somewhat impulsive or even a little "autistic"- as I can certainly be as well from time to time. So I do not take it for granted so much and try to analyse these experiences with care and if possible, from a distance. Actually, I don't even work with this continuously as I think it's important to have "mundane" periods, when one focuses completely on the physical world- builds their physical strength, meets people, so forth.
Sometimes my scepticism hinders as well, as I refuse to believe anything, or even something that blew my mind yesterday I begin to doubt within the matter of days. Yet some things I have accepted as experiences I can take to be true.
I do think that our view of these kind of workings with spirits is a little different, Nefastos, as I lean on the shamanic way of working, and for you another approach works better. But I suppose the outcome is somewhat similar.