Black Magic - Excerpt
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Seen with fresher eyes,...typography still evokes the wonder and fear with which it startled the medieval world. It is a black art that borders on artificial insemination....Type is writing that is edited, shaped, doctored, and made to reproduce itself through artificial means; and writing itself is a kind of gene-bank for ideas.... [T]ypography is a means of implanting the fruits of chosen minds and lives into the minds and lives of others. Set loose in the world, it is...like the malaria-bearing mosquito, able to spread ideas as indiscriminately as viruses or germs.
--Robert Bringhurst in Jan Tschichold,
The Form of the Book, 1991
posted by VICKY @ 9:36 AM,
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That ol' black magic is back!
by Michael Pickering
November 28, 2003, was Black Friday. That sounds ominous. In a way, it is, for BF is the Friday after Thanksgiving, the first shopping day of the Holiday season.
How retail sales go on that day is considered by many retailers a barometer of how the rest of the most important shopping season in the retail year will be.
It is called Black Friday, because a very successful Holiday Season will often push business' numbers from the red into the black.
In the beginning, I'm sure that many merchants were still feeling a little ominous, for business in recent years hasn't been good, as we all know, and Black Friday has been a bummer.
But all the signs have been indicating otherwise.
An excellent third quarter--growth of 8.2%--great Labor Day sales, positive Beige Book reports, American manufacturing activity higher than it has been in twenty years.
Well, Friday has come and gone and the Ol' Black Magic is back.
The prophets were right, myself included .... Sales that day were reported as "solid", up 5% from the previous year. This Season promises to be one of the best in five years.
The Great American Consumer, the backbone of our financial system, is spending, because of low interest rates, the improving economy, an upswing in the stock market. From that first day, there has been very little browsing and a whole lot of buying. Although shoppers always welcome bargains, if what they want isn't discounted, they buy it anyway and merchants this year haven't taken as many markdowns as in the past.
New Yorkers are using Internet shopping in conjunction with store shopping, not as a replacement. Nationwide, Internet sales are expected to grow 21%.
Here's what is being bought so far and not only as gifts, but as self-purchases as well: Luxury--jewelry, watches, handbags and high heels, anything cashmere. Apparel--dressy and career, often brightly colored. Toys--there doesn't seem to be a gotta-have-it item this year. The classics are doing well, Barbie ... Lincoln Logs. Electronics--flat screen TVs, digital cameras, DVD players.
The economy is on a roll as the stock market climbs and investors are starting to believe that what roared back to life this summer is here to stay.
The service area job market has been steadily improving, and now, as manufacturing companies report exceptionally big jumps in new orders as well as backlogs, involving everything from computers to building materials and chemicals, more and more jobs are and will become available. Unemployment is on a downward tailspin.
In Manhattan's Retail Leasing, a great deal of the available space has already been leased and asking rents have stabilized and are moving up. Last spring, it was reported to be up an average of 3.5%. The average asking rent for ground floor space along primary retail streets has increased 4.9%. The luxury increases are more impressive. Madison Avenue's Golden Mile is up 38%; The Luxury Walk of Fifth Avenue, 22%. Tenant activity has been described as "vibrant" and there has been more landlord flexibility. The Big Box is back--bigger and better than ever. The momentum continues ...
If the third quarter of this year was excellent, the fourth promises to be fabulous!
And I have little doubt that the excitement and success of the last quarter of 2003 will spill over into 2004 and continue, making next year one of the best we've experienced. And, although 2004 will be wonderful, just wait until '05.
posted by VICKY @ 9:34 AM,
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Black Magic: Religion and the African-American Conjuring Tradition
Black Magic: Religion and the African-American Conjuring Tradition. By Yvonne P. Chireau. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2003. 222 pp. Illus. 22.95 [pounds sterling] (hbk). ISBN 0-520-20987-7
Magic and religion are closely interwoven in African-American cultural traditions. Although magical practices and ideas were certainly not identical with black American religious beliefs and institutions, they operated as counterparts to each other. Both have engaged with spiritual issues and with the sense of forces and powers beyond people's immediate, empirical realities. Particularly in local vernacular cultures, magical spiritual traditions such as Conjure, Hoodoo, and root working have coexisted with Christianity as part of a general moral and conceptual framework. Within this framework, the somewhat arbitrary categories of religion and magic have included cultural forms and practices that are remarkable historically for their complementarity rather than their opposition or incompatibility.
This is how Yvonne Chireau approaches the phenomenon of conjuring. She considers the prevalence of supernatural traditions in African-American experience and their eclectic sources, beginning with slavery and racial subjugation, and then moving to the indigenous religions of the western and central regions of sub-Saharan Africa from which black slaves were taken. She clearly resists any notion of an unbroken, essentialised African lineage, seeing such traditions as a variable intermixing of older cosmologies and newer spiritual conceptions. The newer elements in these traditions derived mainly from white society and were largely of immigrant European origin. There is a clear continuity of cultural exchange between the different ethnic groups, along with the correlations between African-American and Anglo-American spiritual beliefs, especially in their heterodox vernacular manifestations. It was this intermixing that reinforced the convergence of "magic" and "religion" in ways that were cumulative, creatively renewed, and adaptable to situation-specific actions, events, and processes. Conjure, along with Christianity, served multiple purposes, each meeting needs that the other did not, yet both involved attempts to find meaning in people's experiences and to regain a degree of control over the course and circumstances of their lives. At least at certain times, they became integrated as dual sources of empowerment.
Supernatural traditions in African-American vernacular cultures operated with the critical distinction between practices that harm and practices that heal. Chireau devotes two separate chapters to these. Harming magic could be directed to individual whites, but just as significantly acted as a means of expressing hostility and aggression within black communities, being employed "to punish criminals and wrongdoers; to attack opponents; to combat evil forces; and to retaliate against enemies and perceived adversaries" (p. 60). Less frequently, Conjure harming practices also featured in slave conspiracies, those associated with Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner being notable examples. There was, nonetheless, no absolute dichotomy between such practices and those designed to heal and restore. Seeing it in that way derives from bipolar conceptions of the sacred, dividing it sharply between its dark and dangerous side and its light-bringing, positive one. Within African-American communities these practices co-existed in the realm of spiritual power and had the potential to move either way and be applied in a malign or benign manner. That is why "conjuring specialists both cured and caused injury" (p. 74). They helped people "defend themselves against afflictions that were both seen and unseen," and yet in doing so they "set up a self-perpetuating cycle: causing harm and curing it" (p. 89). In both respects conjuring practices were part of a deep-seated vernacular pragmatism in black spirituality.
Chireau's final chapter examines what were largely twentieth-century manifestations of Conjure and Hoodoo, particularly following the Great Migration and the urbanisation of black people in the United States. While this final chapter is not as detailed or analytically finessed as it could be, Chireau offers a clear sketch of how African-American "magic" became commoditised as well as influencing musical forms such as the blues. She also shows how an academic interest in black folklore developed in the early twentieth century, one that to a greater or lesser degree was informed by the evolutionist ideas of the time. Although she does not note the fact, these ideas skirted close to the contours of black stereotypes, and while evolutionism has been discredited as a theoretical paradigm, it continues at times to resurface in some of the us/them distinctions of racialised stereotyping.
Chireau shows how the development of black American supernatural traditions coincided with a decline in the volume of imported African slaves from the late eighteenth century. What this entailed was a creative adaptation of cultural tradition to the American context, a process that went hand in hand with the embrace of Protestantism by large numbers of black Americans. Chireau quotes a white physician writing in 1829 of black people who, despite being "rampant Christians," also demonstrated a profound "faith in evil genii, charms, philtres" and "habitually indulged in an infinitude of cabalistic rites and ceremonies, in which the gizzards of chickens, the livers of dogs, the heads of snakes and the tails of lizards played a mysterious but very conspicuous part" (p. 54). Such detail is characteristic of the fascinating examples and cases explored in this book. Through them and the generally close readings she offers, Chireau has produced a rewarding account of areas of African-American experience that have been inadequately understood. The most important of these concerns the relation of magic and religion in African-American experience, and Chireau provides a convincing argument that, although distinct in various ways, they were far from being contradictory. Instead, contrary to evolutionist principles and values, they have operated as congruent features in the changing patterns of African-American life for at least the past two centuries.
by Michael Pickering
posted by VICKY @ 9:28 AM,
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meditation and how to meditate.
Meditation is a technique, or practice that usually involves focus on an object, perhaps a candle, a sound or your breath. If you are having trouble with focus or concentration? | ||
 | As you meditate the number of random thoughts occurring diminishes, as does your attachment to these thoughts, and your identification with them. This is because you are usually not aware of all the mental activity that you are engaged in. Meditation allows your mind activity to settle down and results in you becoming more peaceful, calm and focused. | |
Meditation is great for stress management. Remember stress occurs in your mind, that doesn't make it less real. It means your mind is the key to remove stress from your life. You will experience, relaxation, increased awareness, mental focus, clarity and a sense of peace if meditation is practiced regularly. The following physiological effects of meditation have been documented
Meditate frequently and you will find that you gain a deeper | ||
www.spiritual.com.au/meditation.html
posted by VICKY @ 9:27 AM,
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Your Name Is Your Mantra
MantrasWhat's in a name? How do you "feel" about the name you chose for yourself in this physical incarnation?
What beliefs do you attach to it? If we have trouble honouring our name then without a doubt we will have trouble honouring our full 'energy' in this body that we have chosen for ourselves this time around.
Our name identifies us. Others are able to identify us through our name. So what energy do we attach to our name and what energy do others attach to our name?
Your name is a very powerful mantra that you can use for yourself, it completely connects you to your energy that is contained in this physical body, it can be utilized for grounding and protection. If there is a part of us that does not totally embrace our name, then an aspect of us becomes disconnected to our own personal power and expression.
In the days of the Great Mystery Schools that were anchored here on Earth, students were given another name that was not the one that they walked in with. They were told not to share their new name with anyone else, as it was believed that if they did, they would be giving away their energy to that person. It was thought that the robbing of ones soul would not happen if only you knew your 'sacred' name. This sacred name was your 'mantra' that would build you a strong etheric field.
So if we look at the impact that must happen on our energy when others use our name. When they say our name they are coming from their own belief system of how they see us, and who they believe us to be, and IN THAT MOMENT WE BECOME THAT, we become who they think we are. If their belief of you is one of acceptance and of love the tone or vibration that it sends through us is uplifting, on the other hand however if it is one of condemning then that vibration must cause some interference within you.
Take note next time someone uses your name, how does it make you feel? This feeling plays a important part on your reaction to them, and with what "energy centre" you choose to use in your response. It is important to work with the energy of our names and the 'beliefs' that we attach to it, so that we do not allow our energy to be contaminated by others and contaminated by our hurts of old that we are still holding onto.
Nothing or nobody can ever have power over you unless you choose on some level, consciously or not, to give it!
OUR POWER IS ONLY EVER TAKEN FROM US, WHEN WE GIVE IT AWAY.
To reconnect and reclaim this we must go back to our earlier years when we first dishonoured and felt unaccepting of our name, or learnt that our name was not acceptable.
Have you shortened your name? Have you changed your name? Do you not like saying your name? Do you not like using your last name?
Here are just some examples of thought patterns that you may be able to relate to as relevant to your belief system. Along with them are some suggested affirmations that may assist you in this process, it is important that you find the words that sit most comfortably with you, ones that will best empower you.
Was it that you felt your name was:
BELIEF Too Masculine: I honour the male within me, and feel safe to express the female within me Too Feminine: I honour the female within me, and feel safe to express the male within me Too Plain: I am safe to express my uniqueness Too Different: I honour my individuality and uniqueness Too Wimpy: I deserve to ask for what I need and receive it Too Harsh: I can still have my personal power and be sensitive
Go back to that place that you can remember as a child when you started to have a reaction against your name, it may take form as being teased at school, maybe a name that rhymed, or a tone that was spoken to you that was scolding. Or you took on a judgment that was directed at someone else, just because you had the same name as them.
Wherever it comes forward, go to that place and reassure your child in that moment that YOU think their name is 'magic', or 'wonderful'. Allow the 'child within' you to feel safe enough to reconnect with this long forgotten wounded part. There maybe some resistance at first and this is natural as it has been a long time since this place has been visited.
Just keep working with it until it feels natural, and then work with the affirmations that are most appropriate for your own personal issues. Then allow this part of you to express your name in a positive loving way, maybe draw your name with beautiful colours and objects around it. Or sing it, chant it, tone your name, make it glorious in its expression through the channel of your throat until you find it harmonious and it resonates comfortably in your being. As you do this feel your energy slipping firmly inside your body, a very snug fit feeling that this body was made perfectly for you.
Chanting your name is also a very effective method in reclaiming your own energy where others have either consciously or unconsciously connected to you!
Start by saying your name 'I am and only (name). There is no one within or connected to me that is not (say your name). Say it with intent, mean it, feel it deep within your heart centre, so that your need is stronger than theirs.
This tool will clear and align your own energy. It is a very good centering tool, allowing you to feel and think with more clarity, removing any unwanted clutter that has been picked up during your daily activities.
Our name and the re-owning of it can have valuable strings attached to it from other beliefs and perceptions we have about ourselves, reclaiming these can be a beautiful process of self discovery. Enjoy your journey!
www.spiritual.com.au/articles/meditation/mantras-name.htm
posted by VICKY @ 9:25 AM,
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Tantra Techniques & Buddhism
Vajrayana buddhism, which is one of the main three paths of Buddhism, partially relies on various tantric techniques rooted in scriptures known as tantras. The most important aspect of the tantric path is to 'use the result as the Path'; which means that rather than placing full enlightenment as a goal far away in the future, one tries to identify with the enlightened body, speech and mind of a Buddha. The buddha-form which one can best relate to is called the yidam which is a Tibetan term or 'personal buddha-form'. In order to achieve this self-identification with a buddha-form, much symbolism and visualization is used in Buddhist tantric techniques.
Secrecy is a cornerstone of tantric Buddhism, simply to avoid the practices from harming oneself and others without proper guidance. It is not even allowed to explain the full symbolism and psychology of the practice to the un-initiated, which leads to misunderstanding and dismissal. Tantric techniques may initially appear to consist of ritualistic nonsense; however, it should only be practiced on the basis of a thorough understanding of Buddhist philosophy and strictly following the traditions.
Tantric techniques include:
Repetition of special ritual phrases which are called mantras.
use of various yoga techniques, including breath control (Pranayama), yantra and the use of special hand positions (mudras)
Use of an extensive vocabulary of visual aids, such as cosmic mandala diagrams which teach and map pathways to spiritual enlightenment
The use of ritual objects such as the vajra and bell (ghanta), hand drum (damaru), and many other symbolic tools and musical instruments
Use of specialized rituals rooted in Vajrayana cosmology and beliefs
Importance of a guru-disciple relationship, for example by ritual 'empowerments' or 'initiations' wherein the student obtains permission to practice a particular tantra.
Of most importance are the oral transmissions given by a tantric master. These teachings are only given personally from teacher to student and are secret, because they demand a certain maturity of the student. Otherwise they might have a negative effect. Such teachings describe certain aspects of the mind and how to attain them, realize them by certain practices that can be dangerous to ones health if not prepared thoroughly, as such states of mind are normally experienced at the time of death. A mature yogi 'dies' in the meditation and comes back again, experiencing all the levels of mind.
Possibly the use of entheogens
There is an aspect of sex in Buddhist tantra which is first and foremost intended as symbolic, although there is also an aspect of transforming one's sexual energy into a blissful consciousness which can then be directed towards achieving wisdom and enlightenment through the act of sexual intercourse. However, this has very little to do with 'having sex' in the normal sense; instead it is about controlling and directing one's sexual energies towards the greater goal. Sexual symbolism is common in Vajrayana iconography, where it basically represents the marriage of wisdom and compassion or method.
It is from the tantra that Vajrayana Buddhism gets the alternative names of Mantrayana and Tantrayana. The word "Vajrayana" itself comes from vajra, a Sanskrit word which can mean "diamond", "indestructible" or "thunderbolt" and which also has the connotation of "reality". This gives rise to two more names for Vajrayana Buddhism: Diamond Vehicle, and Adamantine Vehicle (adamantine means "diamond-like"). The vajra (or dorje in Tibetan) is an important ritual object which symbolizes compassion/method, while the bell symbolizes wisdom.
Vajra is also believed to be the weapon of ancient Hindu god Indra, which was made out of the sacrificial offerings of the bones of Rishi Dadhichi.
www.spiritual.com.au/articles/buddhism/tantra-techniques-buddhism.html
posted by VICKY @ 9:23 AM,
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Shri Yantra Mandala
The Shri Yantra Mandala is known as the symbol of wealth & prosperity. It is also known as the yantra of the Cosmos. The worship (editor: meditation on the yantra) of the Shri Yantra Mandala bestows peace, power, bliss and protection from evil. Shri Yantra mandala takes away all kinds of physical, mental or spiritual ailments.
The Shri Yantra Mandala is constructed with an intersection of nine triangles of which five triangles are pointing upward and four downward. A combination of these nine triangles makes the Shri Yantra Mandala the most dynamic of all Yantras. As the five upward-pointing and four downward-pointing triangles are intersecting and overlapping one another, they produce a total of forty-three visible triangles.
Shri Yantra Mandla has nine Chakras (groups) as follows,
1. BINDU - The point inside the central triangle and the center of the Chakra. It is known as SARVA ANANDAMAYI CHAKRA, which means a chakra of total bliss. It is the seed of the entire Universe, and it is beyond time and space.
2. TRICON – The Central triangle, which contains the Bindu. It is known as SARVA SIDDHI PRADA CHAKRA. The Tricon is presumed to be the primordial prakriti with three states of consciousness: Waking state, dream state and deep sleep state.
3. ASHTAR – A group of eight triangles outside the Tricon. It is known as SARVA ROG HAR CHAKRA – a chakra that destroys all diseases.
4. ANTARDASHAR – A group of ten inner triangles. It is known as the SARVA RAKSHAKAR CHAKRA – a chakra that provides all kinds of protection.
5. BAHARDASHAR – A group of ten outer triangles. It is known as SARVA ARTHA SADHAK CHAKRA – a chakra that helps to achieve all kinds of realization.
6. CHATURDASHAR – A group of fourteen triangles. It is known as SARVA SAUBHAGYADAYAK CHAKRA – a chakra that gives all good fortune.
7. ASHTADAL – A ring of eight lotus petals. It known as SARVA SANKSHOBAN CHAKRA.
8. SHODASHDAL – A ring of sixteen lotus petals. It is known as SARVA ASHAPURAKA CHAKRA, the chakra of fulfilling all hopes, of materializing all kinds of expectations.
9. BHUPUR – The square form with four gates. It is known as TRAIYELOK MOHAN CHAKRA, the chakra that attracts the three Lokas (planes): Physical, Astral and Celestial. Eight Siddhis (Powers) are present in this chakra, viz - ANIMA (atomicity), LAGHIMA (lightness), MAHIMA (might), ISHATAVA (power over others), VASHITVA (attraction of others), PRAPTI (attainment), PRAKAMYA (ability to assume a desired form) and BHUKTI (enjoyment of power).
www.spiritual.com.au/articles/meditation/shri-yantra-mandala_uk.htm
posted by VICKY @ 9:18 AM,
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