Tools for the Journey

TOOLS FOR THE JOURNEY. (ADDENDUM NO.1.)

 

Introduction.

This addendum is about some of the lesser known tools that you can use to help yourself navigate life to your satisfaction. Almost all of them are consigned by normal/mainstream society to the esoteric and ‘woo-woo’ and therefore you must be stupid if you use them. By now I hope that’s an indication for you that they are all entirely useful, and in fact enjoyable as well. 

People who pride themselves on being ‘rational’ and ‘intellectual’ like to show this by denigrating such things, with no understanding whatsoever of their value. It is also true that they can be used in a credulous and gullible manner. Basically, they are tools which can be used well or badly, but they are still tools. Consequently, few people talk about them or explore them, but they are there to be found, just not in the mainstream.

They deal with the subtle energies which you can perceive internally, and give you a handle on them and hence, life. They tend to be taken up by those who are sensitive to these energies, and in general far more women than men.

All of them can help you, given the correct attitude on your part. There is no need to be dependent on them, but they can be an enormous help in navigating life.

This addendum is about what they are and how you can explore and use them for yourself, to help yourself get to where you wish to go. More carrots, more carrots! Well, yes, but these can only come as long as you make absolutely sure that you are not misusing yourself or anyone else in pursuing these tools. Your motives for whatever you do must be clear to you and ‘clean’, otherwise it’s back to the Mirror Laws again – fooh! All powerful tools require ‘power’ to use them properly and humanely, and it is this ‘correct attitude’ on your part that will empower you correctly. Developing this attitude takes time, so have patience as well. 

Using these tools can be anything from a mild acquaintance to a whole world according to the depth of knowledge and interest you wish to have; it’s your choice. They are all a bit like double-edged swords; very powerful and it’s easy to cut yourself too! There are always people who learn these things to ‘fix’ others and those who learn these things to ‘fix’ themselves.

The correct attitude? Care, respect and sincerity on your part.

The primary problem with using them is the need to ‘get out of our own way’. We are brought up with the values, beliefs and attitudes of Western society, and that includes the worship of ‘godship’ and the way we feed our False Self Esteem, which means having a pack of assumptions about life that are not necessarily true. The result is that these assumptions will ‘trip us up’; we ‘fall over them’. All these assumptions live in our unconscious; we are unconscious of them. But all the esoteric arts deal with the internal energies which are perceived by the unconscious. Hence, our stories will ‘come up’ and our False Self Esteem, (a.k.a. ‘ego’ in lay terms), wants to keep said stories intact, while our InSelf actually wants to find True Self Esteem which means our stories and assumptions have to go and jump in the lake or we simply can’t get to TSE. So, it’s your full Self or your ‘ego’, and it’s a war in there – it really is, and most people would die rather than diminish or get rid of the FSE/’ego’, mainly because it feels like that’s all they have. But it’s a story, as in, it’s false and not true for your Inner Self.

Hence as soon as any of these tools give you the truth about yourself and life, it will ‘bump’ your ‘ego’ and you won’t like it, and will get cross, and so you won’t like the messenger, which is of course the tool you are using. And everyone wants to get rid of the messenger if it’s carrying ‘bad news’. Hence, the general consensus that they don’t work and are irrelevant. And hence, their use is entirely up to you.

There are plenty of books about them in esoteric shops (which usually need big cities to support them) and lots of stuff on the internet, but as usual, there is information and mis-information and how do you tell which is which? It’s good to find a good teacher who you like who can point you in the right direction. It’s also nice to be part of a group learning about them, and like-minded others can be found here.

However, a great many ‘sensitives’ get into these tools and do very well at them, and can use them to support themselves, and then adopt a superiority in the face of society’s judgement of them as entirely inferior. They also tend to accumulate a posse of devotees wanting to learn to be superior too. Remember, the Superiority/Inferiority Caper is all about accumulating FSE. So, everyone is still getting in their own way, and this may not be useful to you.

The ‘Spiritual’ world also has the same sort of problems. People who are ‘psychic’ still have to sort out their own motives.

The more you can get out of your own way, the more useful these tools can be for you in your endeavours. The Treasure Tool outlined in the previous chapter is very useful for ‘busting stories’, so it’s a great help, as long as you can cope with having your ‘stories’ busted!

There are social costs if you pursue these things, as you will get further ‘beyond the pale’. However, there are compensations too, especially in being able to find good carrots. So, explore on.

As you explore further along ‘the path less travelled’, you are more likely to find relevant help in these tools according to how much you care to adopt them. This is why it’s worth getting to know them now rather than later, because they all take time to ‘get into’. Anyone getting as far as this in this book will already be exploring, so keep going.  

ALL of the topics below are potentially interesting for you. So, how do you choose? You start with what appeals to you or ‘falls off the shelf’ in the bookshop or library, and ‘follow your nose’, as in, whatever piques your curiosity, as in, whatever you want to stick your nose into. 

Dreams.

‘The royal road to the unconscious’ (Freud).

Any well-interpreted dream gives me the feeling of someone ‘out there’ (ie, not me) who knows more about me than I do myself, and that person is trying to tell me something that I need to know.

Of all the things in life around and in us, it’s dreams that help us to realize that someone who isn’t ‘you’ is trying to help us/you in your life.

The basic tenets for looking at your dreams is that all aspects within that dream are you (Jung), whether animate or inanimate. By this I mean that if your dream includes a tree blocking a window in your house, you will want to know what the tree has to ‘say’ to you, including why it is in such a position, as well as the window, not to mention the house. More people understand that any people or animals are also ‘saying’ something to you in your dreams, but elements and structures also ‘speak’. This is actually a useful attitude to develop for life in general.

Dreams need to be recorded as close to their occurrence as possible. We forget them so quickly. This is another reason for society to ignore them. They are so eminently ignorable. But, like any ‘tap on the shoulder’ from life, that ‘tap’ has to get ‘harder/stronger’ to make you take any notice. How long do you want to wait? Until the truck comes along? Many people do. So, make it as easy as possible for yourself to record those dreams first thing. As you lose those dreams, you really do lose your dreams in your life.

And it’s not just the recording of them. Most people need help ‘unpacking’ or ‘unravelling’ them, and then it’s a case of finding someone who can, and since working out the dream’s meaning takes time, it will cost you to pay others to do that. If you don’t have the money, or don’t want to spend it that way, then it’s a problem.

Another thing to be aware of is the need to avoid anything that messes up your mind. And our society is into a lot of things that mess up our minds; drugs and pharmaceuticals, addictions, alcohol, smoking, phake phood, and tonnes of sugar and crook fats. All of these mess up your ability to be clear about what you have and what you want, and what’s important to you. In effect, it makes it more difficult for Life to ‘talk’ to you, and so it cannot help you very much. 

Dreams can carry an enormous amount of information; not just the dream itself but also your reactions to it during the dream as well as at the end. All this information needs to be unpacked or untangled or unravelled, meaning you pull it apart and deal with its strands one at a time.

Another problem with dreams is that others will tell you how to interpret them with standard ‘meanings of symbols’ and there are lots of ‘dictionaries of symbols’ out there. But your meanings are yours. Your dream is your InSelf trying to communicate with you and it has to use the ‘language of your life’ to do that.

I have also seen ‘Judgers’ (MBTI) use concepts such as asking what people ‘have’ specifically in their dream and then interpreting the symbolism of that specific thing. An example might be to focus on a physical object, say of a vase in a dream and to look at its colours and shape for their meaning symbolically. This may work for a Judger, but Perceivers need to look at what they feel and think about their dreams. Once again, there is this difference between Judgers and Perceivers. As in, you need to be careful about thinking you have ‘the answers’ for anyone else about their dream, or in fact, that others have ‘answers’ for you.

The more you use the Treasure Tool, the more you may be able to help yourself with your dreams, and once again, you need the correct attitude to doing so, but you won’t be able to use the TT if you have the wrong attitude anyway, as in, it will be useless to you.

The basic useful steps and questions for dreams (not to mention, life) are…

All things in your dream are telling you something you need to know and they are all you; they are all aspects within you. So, list them all and go through the list, and write it all down.

What does each item/person/thing mean to you? What are the associations for you, as in, what do you associate with x, and use your own words for this? The ‘amplifications’ to each concept are the social meanings of images and motifs that arise in your dream. What are they for you?

What is happening in your life in general? What are your current concerns?

What was happening in the last few days?

What would be a symbol for the dream?

What would be a succinct title for the dream?

When the ‘answer’ feels right, there is some sort of ‘ding/click’ of recognition within you, and that’s what you’re looking/feeling for, all the time, even if you didn’t want to know. (But you needed to or you wouldn’t have had the dream.)

Why bother doing it yourself? Well, you may want to know what they mean and haven’t the money to pay for help. But working them out for yourself can be quite amazing, and sometimes the play on words is simply funny. And it can be enjoyable and satisfying, and that includes the ‘horrible’ ones, which don’t necessarily have ‘horrible’ messages. And to repeat, it strengthens your contact with your own unconscious, ie, your InSelf which is ultimately God, and Life, and Self, to you, and rather more powerful than your little conscious ‘you’. And it’s very nice to be ‘talked to’ by someone wholly with your interests at heart.

REF:

Anderson, J. T. (2018) The Dream Handbook; the Ultimate Guide to Interpreting Your Dreams. Sydney, NSW: Hachette Australia.

Reiki.

Reiki is a great tool for helping you with healing yourself and others. It is passed on through ‘Attunements’ along with teaching you how to use the energy. It feels to me as though these attunements help by ‘lining up your internal cells’ so it seems to help with integrity and ‘living right’ for yourself. Attunements go up to 3 levels and Master and it’s worth going as ‘high’ as you can, nor does it need to be once only. However, having attunements doesn’t make you a healer. It’s the healing yourself first that does that. ‘Pranic Healing’ is another of these energy healing systems.

There is a lot of information on the Internet, and what you will be able to do will depend on where you live and the availability of teachers and therapists.

REF:

Stiene, B. and Stiene, F. (2003) The Reiki Sourcebook. Winchester, UK: O Books.

Astrology and Numerology.

These are both ways of describing and hence codifying subtle energies. Hence, they are a language, and you get to learn the language. Once again, it’s up to you what you want out of them, and your intrinsic level of interest in them.

Astrology.

If nothing is an accident, then at some level, unconscious to you, you have chosen your chart and that point of time to be born. What, then, have you chosen? There’s a tonne of information about your own personality to be found here. It’s well worth learning what your chart ‘says’ about you; what your strengths and weaknesses are. However, ‘the stars incline; they do not dictate’. Be aware that there is no definitive ‘fate’ here. The world ‘out there’ will change as you become more conscious, and you will be able to use more of yourself in your own endeavours. 

You can use your natal chart to identify the main concepts.

The Nodes are useful for you to help identify your intrinsic attributes/skills. The South Node identifies skills from the past which you can use, while the North Node is telling you where you’re heading (doing North Node ‘things’ brings you satisfaction and/or ‘luck’). Both of these bits of information are entirely useful for you for identifying your ‘path with heart’. If you have any squares to your Nodes, these will block you and must be attended to. You will feel ‘driven’ in these areas. (Also, very useful to know.)

Chiron, quincunxes, retrogrades and the 12th house seem sent to try us, but again, are useful when you can work out what they’re trying to tell you. When oysters are irritated, they make pearls.

Conjunctions are complexes in the personality, and in different signs or houses are even more complex.

Women can find studying the minor planets, many of which are named after goddesses, very informative. Also, Black Moon Lilith.

There are tonnes of books out there. Have fun with them. I am loathe to recommend any single title as a starter because there are plenty, and you need to find one that suits you, and then go on into areas that interest you. As with all disciplines, the calibre of the teaching varies, so look around.

Numerology.

Numerology is another useful and different way of describing subtle energies. Even just the basic numerology of your birth date and birth path can be useful to you, and there’s an awful lot more. Both Millman and Stein are very good books to begin with and refer to. You can use them to find what numbers ‘work’ for you, and which don’t. It’s also useful for understanding some of your basic attributes and once again, there’s some information about where you’re heading and how you tend to get there, along with some strengths and weaknesses.

REF:

Millman, D. (1993) The Life You Were Born to Live; a Guide to Finding Your Life Purpose. Tiburon, CA: H J Kramer.

Stein, R. (2000) The Complete Numerology of Love. Port Melbourne, Victoria: Lothian Books.

Divination tools.

There are quite a few divination tools out there. In general, they work by helping you be aware of what your unconscious has to say. The personal unconscious is connected to the collective unconscious, which is quite a lot of information. Once again, the problem is getting out of your own way. The more attached you are to the outcome, as in, upset if you can’t ‘have it’, the less you will be able to be relaxed about what you are asking. This will introduce nonsense into your reading for yourself, which is what everybody warns you about.

However, becoming familiar with at least one system can be very useful. For example, if you want to move to another area/region of the country to live and are unfamiliar with the tradesmen and services there, you can use these kinds of tools to give you more information, instead of ‘flying blind’.

The most important aspect of using any such tool is the questions you ask. The simpler the question, the clearer the answer can be. It’s a bit like asking 20 questions with ‘yes/no’ answers to ultimately define what you are looking for.

So, it’s up to you to use questions that the tool can answer and that’s a skill that can be developed. If you get a ‘nonsense’ answer, you may have asked a ‘nonsense’ question.

I like to start with ‘please tell me about the most beneficial outcome’ for questions pertaining to a particular issue. 

Both the Runes and the I-Ching are useful tools for many people. Once again, there is a lot of information out there about how to use them.

Dowsing.

Again, there’s lots of information about dowsing, whether using a pendulum or rods.

Again, it’s very easy to affect the reading if you are not relaxed and calm, and you probably need to be reasonably cheerful as well. Many people use it to great effect. I have more trouble keeping out of my own way with dowsing, and sometimes need to use a more detached system. 

REF:

Graves, T. (1989) The Elements of Pendulum Dowsing. Ringwood, Victoria: Element Books.

The Tarot.

The tarot cards hold a lot of information in them and hence take more time to learn. It’s often best to attend a class in them.

Choosing a pack. There’s ‘stuff’ about waiting to be given a pack. There’s nothing wrong with choosing your own.

The packs vary immensely and there are a lot of them, so which do you choose? Although it’s nice to pick one that appeals to you visually, be aware that they will all have the maker’s biases and own understanding of life well and truly embedded in them, and that may not suit you. A great many modern packs have all the women as beautiful younger ‘goddesses’ and/or of the ‘barbie-doll’ or ‘fairy’ variety with no experience in their faces, along with ‘powerful’ or ‘wise’ (handsome, bearded, older) or naked men (with improbable dicks) of ‘war-games’ or ‘gods’ mode; again, not much reality to be had here. The Lovers card is often portrayed as a couple ‘making love’, whereas the card is actually about what is important to you, or what you value, and that is your choice.

My preference is the Rider-Waite pack, but there’ll be plenty of people who will say that’s ‘old-fashioned’, whatever that actually means. I consider it to have a great deal of depth, as well as being properly human. The Osho deck is a lovely pack but more specific in its meanings. Again, choose what suits or appeals to you at the time, and go on with that.

There are also a lot of other divination packs out there, so there’s plenty to explore, but learning at least one is useful.

The more information in the pack, the more you can use it for yourself and practice with the more mundane enquiries first. It’s also useful to pick some cards each day and see how they pan out for you, as a way to learn what the cards mean to you.

An example of a mundane use would be finding a tradesman that would suit your purposes.

Pick out a list of names from those advertised and write them down.

Ask ‘dear Tarot (or whatever) please tell me about the most beneficial outcome of using so and so’ and go down the list choosing a card for each. Experiment with using different fingers for choosing the cards from the pack, or different methods of shuffling and choosing and so on. Shuffle like shuffling cards and choose with a finger, or shoosh them around face down on a flat surface and choose them by looking at them, and so on. The cards will tell you about each person. If you are holding the pack in your hand, the bottom card is where you are ‘coming from’ and the top card remaining in the pack is the outcome.

It can also be handy to add in an ‘other question’ for more information about your query or even about some other factor you may not be aware of.

REF:

Fenton-Smith, P. (2007) Tarot; Masterclass. Crow’s Nest, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin, Inspired Living.

The Symbolon pack.

The Symbolon pack is referred to as a ‘Tarot deck’ but it’s not a ‘Tarot’ in terms of having the same themes about energy – earth, air, fire and water. On the other hand, you can use it as a Tarot deck, but it has a lot more real psychology of people in it. I find this pack the ‘strongest’ in terms of psychological understanding and insight. It can help you become more conscious. The pack’s creators are German, and one of the creator’s (Peter Orban) books are in German and have not been translated, which I consider a great pity. The English language instructions and meanings that come with the deck are a bit stilted, mostly because of being translated, and need to be read with care, but it’s wise to persevere. They are also a great help in understanding the psychology of your Astrological natal chart, ie, of you. This is also a very beautiful pack.

There is a website that has ‘softer’ meanings, which I find less useful to me, but in the end, you need to check for yourself. I use these cards to help me find my ‘blind spots’ which of course show up most when I’m upset about something, usually someone. And sometimes it has taken me quite a while to work out what these cards are actually saying. To me these cards are like having a friend who can tell me the truth about me; tough and accurate. With the caveat that your care, respect and sincerity are required. 

I use them both upright and reversed, considering that if they are upright, I’m ‘getting there’ in terms of the outcome, and if they are reversed, I’m not and need to work on ‘the way through the problem’.

As for the spreads, the questions I ask are for a card about; the ‘root cause’ or basis of the problem; me, the other(s), and our relationship(s), and the current outcome. It’s perfectly possible to ask more questions, and about family members, significant others, children, and so on. ‘Spreads’ are just ways of asking questions.

Using your body for information.

Muscle-testing.

Muscle-testing is part of Kinesiology which is a very useful skill to learn and have, and you can make a career out of. But be aware that as with all other methods, your own ability to clean out your own motives will affect your ‘answers’, hence ‘bias’ will enter and be difficult to spot. Hence, be careful of your ‘accuracy’ and ability to trust your methods. This can be done using other methods as well at the time, which can test this and confirm or not. Many therapists employ more than one ‘discipline’ as a method of cross-checking and making sure. This is a very valuable thing to do.

Finger testing for ‘yes-no’ questions.

Here, I am talking about a very small part of that discipline using simply the fingers of your hands to help you make decisions about whatever. An example could be ‘should I leave this plant in its pot or will it do better if I plant it out? These are not earth-shattering questions.

Instructions for the method I find most useful are on the Perelandra Nature Centre website under their PKTT Self-Testing page.

Annette NOONTIL.

Annette Noontil was the author of the book ‘The Body is the Barometer of the Soul; so be your own doctor, II’. (There is a part 1, but it’s not needed here.) This book helps you to ‘look inside’ for your own thinking whenever you have an ailment of any kind. It is similar to the better-known book by Louise Hay titled ‘Heal Your Body’, but Annette has a lot more detail, so I find it more useful. Here is another tool to ‘crunch’ the ego, and a great way to learn to take responsibility for yourself (something else we don’t like to do).

As for what to do with this information, I generally use the Treasure Tool on it, but there are other authors who use other methods. 

REF:

Noontil, A. (1998) The Body is the Barometer of the Soul; so Be Your Own Doctor – II. Nunawading Vic, Australia: Noontil.

Natural Remedies.

Do not doubt that these things can help you, but you do need some knowledge of them to use them fully.

So many of these have been consigned to the ‘old wives’ tales’ category, ie, useless, and if you use them you are ‘deluded’/stupid/’unscientific’. This is basically a ‘slagging’ because Big Med wants you to be dependent on them and pay for their pharmaceuticals and treatments, and hence deride these natural things, which are usually cheaper overall, with far fewer side-effects. It is the commercial imperative alone that is driving this ‘delusion’ brainwashing, and it is you that gets to decide what you want for your welfare. It was the side-effects that made me start searching, as well as seeing others damaged by poor medical treatment. What I’m saying is that I did not wish to query the world of Big Med, and was reluctant to look for alternatives, but I had to if I wanted wellness, and have found great benefit in doing so.

Essential Oils.

The world of essential oils is vast and extremely interesting because of the effect of oils on our emotions, as in, they affect us emotionally as well as physically. They are a whole world of information, which can be investigated and ‘grown’ in that you can start ‘small’ and grow your own knowledge, to your benefit.

Hence it makes sense to use the finest quality oils that you can afford, including that they are completely clean of chemicals in growth and treated with great care and respect, which usually means time, which usually means money.

Aura-Soma.

Aura-Soma is a system of colours, herbs and crystals combined in small bottles called Equilibrium bottles.

The Equilibrium bottles are the heart of Aura-Soma.  There are at present over 100 (mostly) dual coloured bottles that contain the energies of plants, crystals and colour. They are living energies interacting with the human energy field when you stand in front of them, and also when applied to the body.  The base fraction consists of water (some of which comes from Glastonbury Well in England), herbal extracts, colour and crystal energies, while the top fraction is derived from vegetable oil, essential oils, colour and crystal energies.

Aura-Soma™ is more than a healing system; it is a tool for raising consciousness and creating balance – a non-intrusive and self-selective ‘soul therapy’ in which colour is the key. It works with the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical Energy Departments. [This information is from the Internet and Dalichow.]

I have included Aura-Soma because it is such a lovely healing modality, and is another of those ‘worlds of knowledge’ that you can use a little or develop into a lot.

REF:

Dalichow, I. and Booth, M. (1996) Aura-Soma; Healing Through Color, Plant, and Crystal Energy. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House.

Other Esoteric Modalities to Explore.

There is also lots of information out there about…

The Toltec World.

Wicca.

Flower Essences.

Chinese Medicine and Healing.

Other sources of esoteric information.

Channeling and Psychics and Mediumship.

I’m discussing these things because our society tends to think that the dead know it all and have all ‘the answers’, and ‘higher beings’ have the last word on everything. However, I have never felt that the information from these sources answered my questions as much as my own conclusions outlined in this book. That may of course just mean that my questions aren’t sensible, even if I think they are. But you get to decide for yourself.

Their (usually channeled) information is not necessarily grounded or actually correct for all, while the people who do such ‘mediumship’ still do plenty of fallible human things with their lives. If, as I suspect, the dead do split in terms of spirit and soul, then mediumship may be accessing the spirit only, by definition – the soul doesn’t ‘speak’ because it can’t. The Useful Understanding System (UUS) outlined in this book is based on our need to be on earth, as in, alive, to work out how to ‘Make our 2 One’ because we want to learn how to Create Life like God does while we are alive, because that brings the ultimate rewards. Learning how to do that will keep us occupied for quite some time. The more conscious you can become, (knowing yourself) the more creative you can be, with the logic that you will be less split when you die. Becoming conscious takes time, but growing in consciousness is delightful, so there’s no real hurry, except to get rid of the painful things, but there are fewer of them as you go on.