NMR ISSUE 33

An Urban Wicca
Ancestors Calling
Astrological Forecast 33
Communion of With the Dead
Editorial 33
Esoteric Symbology of the Tarot
Fighting Abuse in Our Community
Gathers
Letters 33
Parrot
Prayer to the Rain Father
Samhain - An Offering to the Ancestors
The Cremation
The High Holy Day of Samhain
The Magical Flute
The Seven Faces of the Soul, Part I
The Sin of Guilt
The Spirit World
The Stealing of Wicca
The Two C's of Dark Seduction
Turtle

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The Spirit World

By Fred McNary

Over several years, I have contacted what can only be called spirits. This discourse is both to relate what I have received from them, but also to dispel the notion that any contact with them has the hallmarks of Messages from God. They also don't seem to be (or I will not accept them being) messages from the Devil. I'm sure by now that you may have had the thought, OK, is he a Christian? In answer: no, I'm Pagan.

I take them for just what I believe them to be, contact with me by those that are not of this world. Anyone can do this mental contact, it does not take special skill. Many do so but refuse to admit it, seemingly because of superstitious fear of the unknown, and portions of their religious training that make any common sense approach taboo.

Despite what others may say, you don't need to be religious, but to venture into this world requires physical courage. You never know what you will encounter. It can range from an old friend that has passed away, to a negative entity that undertakes to overwhelm you with feelings of dread.

My experience is that while you may have the crap scared out of you (as I have many times!) there's little chance of them taking over! Taking over requires that you agree to that takeover. One could make the point that there seem to be those that become worn down by a long term attack, but that is another matter for discussion. If you relinquish your own human free will, step back from the authority of your own mind, then they can take over, but not until you allow them to do so by running in abject cowardice from a situation you can and should easily control.

In that mental plane, the worst thing you could meet is yourself: The vague fears that lurk in the dark recesses of our own minds, brought about by some sort of preconceived idea that we are condemned because of some kind of poorly defined guilt. A Guilt trip laid on us by others, or, as may be the case in many episodes, some kind of sermon of guilt put in place by your religious beliefs.

The bulk of these contacts are when I am asleep, or in that middle ground between sleeping and waking. This conforms to the mental classification of an altered state of consciousness. This is not some high-flown ability possessed by few; it's as simple as thinking of someplace other than you is right now. Take a moment and think of someplace you have been that you liked very much. As the thoughts of that special place diminish, you are returning from an altered state. —No big deal! It is that simple, anytime you are wool gathering lost in thought, or thinking about something that is not directly in front of you, you are in an altered state. Humans go into this state many times a day.

I would add that contact with them nearly mandates an altered state; it is not given to many to be able to make this form of contact in any sort of daily life setting. Speculation offers that perhaps the mind cannot sustain this type of activity while strictly in the here and now. One might offer that the expanded stimuli could overload the mind, causing trouble in trying to sort out what was here, and what was over there.

I sharply distrust those that go into a trance to acquire information from that other side, as all that we have to go on is their word, with all the human inaccuracy and personal bias entailed. I tend to not believe them, and I'm sure there are others who feel the same. I note a tendency to adopt a superior attitude that suggests distortion of the messages to establish a controlling/superior tone over those that the messages are conveyed to. In other words, a power trip.

That other side is much more complicated than this world. It differs in many respects, among them is the ability to make direct mind-to-mind contact, called telepathy. The language is different, they have concepts we don't have, or that we once knew and have forgotten. They communicate by thoughts that contain whole concepts as a single word, and the way the single word is phrased results in a completely different meaning.

The so-called tone of any mental contact is quite difficult to describe, it is a subtle shading or nuance given to the word. In many cases, the tone of the contact reveals that the other person is a male or a female, just as we usually know the person on the phone is male or female. For an example: We can say oh as in oh, well. Or we can say Oh?, with a rising inflection that denotes surprise, or disgust regarding the information we have received. This ability exists to a much higher degree in that other world.

While there are those that say that other side does not exist, from a combination of superstitious fear and sometimes religious guilt, I say from my own experience, it does. No, it is not necessarily the concept of Heaven, complete with Angels, but another thing entirely. The concept of Heaven, streets of gold, Heavenly choirs and all the rest is simply made up by the Church to coerce the members into believing that the Church had all the answers. —No Church ever had, and no Church ever will.

I hold that the Churches turn away from addressing any cogent remarks about this area of our lives, since to do so would negate their place in the scheme of power and money they seeming to hold so dear. These centuries old practices were started to offer the congregation supposed relief from the day-to-day drudgery that was their lot in this world (partially thanks to that very same Church, through tithing). And these dogmatic beliefs were to confirm and buttress the Church tenets by repetition. While memorizing the doctrine was favored, honest inquiry was sharply discouraged. The notion of unlimited riches was one of the ideals the peasant classes could aspire to, the idea of food without working, the idea of moving from place to place without effort, and all it cost was contributing to the Church, professing beliefs—the rest was automatic. In my own mind, it just ain't so!

To those that fear these beings (Ghosts, Demons), I say: Stop and think—you have loved ones that have passed over to that side, perhaps your own mother or father, or a beloved grandparent. If your mother should suddenly appear to you in the middle of the night, what possible reason do you have to fear her? What conceivable fiendish mechanism could transform her from a kind and loving being, into some dreaded monster intent on your destruction? The answer is: there isn't any. She is still the same kind, loving being she was—just on another plane of existence. Suppose you think your father is still harboring a grudge from some long past incident. But if we look at all the evidence about this type of scenario, the incidents where any parent came back to punish a child are damned rare! And even then the reports are subject to doubt.

Sometimes it's a case of: Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story! That supposedly deserved punishment largely existed in the mind of the earthly person. It is a manifestation of some form of guilt, either real or imagined. By virtue of what it becomes within the person's mind, further honest inquiry stops.

All the scary tales of various kinds of harm befalling those that saw a ghost can be traced to the reaction of the person that saw it. Tales of various ghostly apparitions have been written about for centuries, biased (and embellished) by many tellers of the tale. And if you take a common sense look at the tale, you find that the fright of the person involved in the incident is the real culprit. If you see a ghost, and run off a high cliff, that was not the fault of the ghost, it was your own reaction to fear.

From the very volume of reports about this class of phenomena, we can logically assume that they do in fact have some grounds in reality. Yes, some are made-up, but some are real—disbelieved, but real. Quoting a comparison I saw some time ago about this whole area of metaphysical happenings and their validity: If there were one tenth the evidence that the San Francisco Golden Gate Bay bridge were unsafe for traffic, it would be closed in an hour!

In common with others who have written about this field, I also offer that there are divisions among those that are on that other side. Just as there are those that have it all together, those that seem to be rather loosely connected and those that haven't got a clue over here, I offer that though they have passed on to another plane they are still of that same classification. Being dead does not make them some sort of fount of wisdom. It does make them privy to information we don't have.

If they were smart over here, they are smart over there. If they were less than fully endowed in the mental department over here, they are the same over there. If they handled the truth rather loosely over here, the same can be said of them over there. And, just as it is over here, some of those of negative character on that other side seemingly don't recognize the truth, or have only a passing acquaintance with it. And, just as humans do, they use the truth, or portions of it, to suit the needs of the moment.

The same ego we have, they have (among those that were human). And what we are given to understand here from that other plane is filtered through the mind of the person that receives it, (subject to their own bias). Also, it was put into the receivers mind by a spirit that may not have the complete truth themselves—or is unwilling to relate that truth. Messages are also subject to the innate bias of the receiver. Further complicating things is the innate bias we, the listeners, ourselves have. Between all three, what do we believe? What we find out ourselves!

There is a gradation in the mental/moral quality of those on that other side, ranging from extreme positive ability to utter ethical degradation. Some are almost godlike in their abilities, able to offer sound cogent advice on your conduct, and you will easily grow to rely on them. (We will discuss the others later.) There are books by the dozen on the market that purport to contain these messages, complete with who they were and what they did. The authors' claims boggle the mind. If that particular spirit does have the ability author claims, then where is the new symphony, the new works of William Shakespeare, the new statue by Michelangelo, and the rest of the works coming from the various creative talents? Sadly, there are none, and I wish it were otherwise.

One might venture that those spirits were fully capable as they inhabited bodies of flesh, but the spark that drove them to create here in this world seems to be lacking in them over there. Further, one might offer that the drive to create is; in some fashion, linked to sex or the simple procreative drive. And since sex is either nonexistent over there, or limited in scope compared to anything we know, this difference might be the answer to this lack. Some report that there is sex on that other plane; but over there, it is the complete combining of two people, not the fragmented frenzied coupling we know here. I have not experienced this phenomenon, but others claim to have.

One of the marks of those spirits that have a negative slant to their natures is their attempts to still try to have sex with humans (regrettably, mostly women; female spirits that seek sex with men are a minority). With all due respect to the authors of the various legends of Incubi and Succubi (spirits that supposedly exist for the sole purpose of sex and prey on humans), we find little or no evidence that they exist. We should look with doubt on all the tales about them as mere religious dogma.

The various books about messages from spirits treat us to a reiteration of the same kind of ideas those spirits had in life—often mingled with a variation of a religious belief that may have come from the mind of the author. This apparent trait does not invalidate their abilities, but it should draw attention to the actuality of the situation. Otherwise we swallow their fiction hook-line-and-sinker.

Consider this for a moment: If we assume that this world is a training ground, a boot camp, some sort of basic training, we see that while we would like all the help we can get, if we are handed otherworldly advice, we learn nothing. We start by tending to not believe it, as it does not coddle our predetermined ideas. Plus, no one ever benefited from well-meaning help that aided for the moment, but did not prepare them for the real test of life. For example: We can give a child the answers to a mathematics test, and the child will pass with flying colors—only to fail miserably the next time. We did that child no favor, they still do not know how math works.

The same can be said of advice we get from that other world. Should we use any advice we get, we may succeed for the moment, but we cannot be sure we will succeed the next time. In addition, we rapidly start to develop a dependency on that help, tending to become entangled by that aid, and unable to function without it. Then we did ourselves no favor. Dependency is one of the pressing problems our society faces.

The gradations of those on that other side include some that are of the finest we can imagine, and some that seemingly have not progressed far enough to function as humans. Some of these other worldly beings seem to be of quite limited intelligence, incapable of serious thought, childlike in the extreme, either trapped in or relishing repetitive action cycles, but not capable of acts of malice or vindictiveness. The terms simpleminded and limited apply.

Among the tales of ghosts there are those bent on destruction, causing trouble and deaths. Any serious search of the circumstances around one of these tales typically results in evidence that there was more to the tale than was told. They saw a ghost and died!—the facts are as told, but they may have neglected to tell you that the person had a bad heart. In such a circumstance, seeing a traffic accident might have had the same result. The ghost had little or nothing to do with it.

There are tales of those that were taken over by an evil spirit, a Devil, a Demon and on and on. When you hear one of these horror tales, ask what the state of mind of the person was before the incident. Usually they were not too tightly wrapped in the first place. Yes, you can be taken over, but not without your full permission. Ruling by the consent of the governed is just that, you give the ruling person your permission to rule you. If enough peasants revolt, the rulers are thrown out. Human free will is inviolable, and it can be set aside only by relinquishing responsibility for your own control. No one takes over without your permission, outright or implied. If you agree to let a person take over management of a country, a state, or your own free will, that's one thing; but refusing to defend your country, state, or free will, is implied consent and cowardice.

I had to develop an ability to discriminate what type of being I was talking to. In my case, sometimes it is actual thinking of the words; sometimes it is mental pictures. Just as there are all kinds in this world, there are all kinds in that world.

Humans tend to equate the presence of light as Good, and blackness as Bad. In my own case, this is totally untrue. To clarify your own thinking, and give you some kind of baseline, I would suggest that you adopt the attitude of goodness is as goodness does. React to one of them in accord with how they treat you. If you are well treated, treat them well, if they indulge in some less than desirable act, snub them. Cut them dead. One of them more or less makes no difference, there are thousands of them.

There have been occasions when I felt that I had been handled badly by a being that was brightly illuminated; and on the other hand, I was warmly thanked for something I had done by a being that was so black it seemed to soak up light. I was honestly puzzled by the thanks, and I asked for what? She `said' For? and ????? As though I should know what she was talking about. The words were a bird-like twittering in a language we know nothing about, uttered at very high speed. I had no idea what I had done, I still don't, nor why I was thanked. I have given that type of entity the designation used in TV transmission work, where a segment of the bottom of the screen in your picture contains a portion of data that acts as a control system that tells the set how to display the picture—TV technicians call this blacker than black. The entity was black, not the black we regularly see, but of a shade of black that seemed to actually soak up light. The outlines of the entity are quite difficult to see. If we can assume anything from this, we should assume that we must take them on an individual basis, just like humans.

In my own experience I find that the degree of illumination has little to do with their merit, or lack of merit. This being that warmly thanked me (there were mental overtones of it being female) was seemingly involved in a process wherein it moved from the plane of existence where I could view it into another. I can only write what I got an impression of, and I had seen that moving from one to another plane before. To my human mind, it just seems to go around a corner that is not there. It exists from the toward you nearest point, backwards or away from you, and then it has a point where it blurs the view in what we could call a transition point, and then the rest of the entity enters that corner, or other space, and is lost to view.

The old writings speak of gates, in the sense of that location being an opening into that other plane. What better name? The name doors also applies, portals, or doorways if you prefer. Whatever the name, the function is the same. That area allows travel from this plane to another. Further in this vein, one might speculate that they have this ability to create, (if the term create applies) these openings at will, regardless of where they happen to be. One also might speculate that this ability is dependent on some gradation of proficiency they gain as they continue to exist.

I will not endorse the limited view that there is only one other plane of existence, i.e., Heaven. In the diversity of creation we find, this would be seriously short-changing those on that other side. I contend that the number of other universes (parallel if you will) are quite vast, possibly numbering into the millions. In truth, there may be so many that our limited human minds can't encompass the number.

Each can be quite different, some so close to ours that they vary only in an imperceptible degree. Others can be so different that we are instantly aware that humans have no business there. No, there is no keep off sign, we just know we don't belong there.

The human concept of time is also a severe limitation, one that some of those on that other side do not share. An analogy is time as a book: Each page is, say, ten years. The book is very thick, the binding is quite flexible and there are no covers. If we open that book so far that the first page meets the last page, we have created a circular form. Further refine this by assuming the center binding becomes small enough to disappear, leaving only a cylinder form. By starting at the center of this form, any page on that form becomes available by simply entering that form at that page. This is the only way I can convey that time is not the constraint it is said to be. This aspect of life in that plane is so loaded with possibilities that speculation about it may be grossly over simplified or pointlessly speculative.

Among those on that other plane are those that (from some flaw in their character) wish to cause humans trouble. These are the ones that all the so-called horror stories come from. Some are content (or seemingly so) to just bug us, and some set about to cause real trouble. To a degree, this depends on the amount of negativity they have accumulated, and their ability to manipulate circumstances. I suggest this trait of being negative is learned. I cannot subscribe to the idea that this was born in them. I think it is acquired through their duration experiences, and exacerbated by their reluctance to learn, a high degree of ego gratification, greed and lust to control others. (We have no word for their existence. It isn't life as we know it. We can't say they were born, as we know the term, we have only words we use to denote continuing existence, so I use the word duration.) We have those in this life that seem to relish not learning, preferring to remain indifferent and malicious to the end. They prefer vindictiveness and ego gratification, they seem to like sadistically inflicting pain on others, and they carry this trait to that other side. I find that they are cowards when it comes down to the bottom line. A show of force usually sends then running. I said it takes courage, and with these types, it is mandatory! A bully is a bully, either here or there. A muscle-bound thug is a thug, regardless of where they are.

Others have told me of an attempt to take over the body of a sleeper when they were traveling in that other plane, and the person stopped Astral traveling because of this. They adopted a method of protection to prevent this in the future. Since methods like this are peculiarly individual, I can't offer a generic method. It will also depend on your religious belief system. Many suggest the symbol of the cross, some suggest the five-pointed star, some the six-pointed Star of David. If you hold with the religions these symbolize, you should get the degree of protection you wish. I have found that the simple assertion that a human's will is the strongest single thing we have at our disposal does the trick. There are those that may have their feathers ruffled by this statement, for them I have paraphrased the 23rd psalm to: Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow, I shall fear no evil, because I'm the meanest SOB in that valley! And I mean it! While crudely put, it states that I have no fear of those that I meet on that other side. You must develop this inexhaustible courage also.

I hope I have met and defeated the worst black beast we know—my self! The perspectives of your own personality that you discover over there are the real enemy, not some fancied horror you have imagined. Magick says you must cross the Abyss, you must endure the Dark Night of the Soul. Those that have not really thought about this feel it represents some horror straight out of the worst nightmare. It isn't! It's your own mind and its dark corners. This life is a sort of Boot camp, a training ground, and part of that training is facing yourself. Once you have faced the worst part of yourself, all the rest of the so-called terrors of that other side are scaled down to an unprejudiced size.

In some cases, the entity that seems bent on causing trouble may be an old spirit, having gone through many lifetimes, although sometimes having never been in physical body. (I firmly believe in reincarnation.) In those that have never been in bodies appears the highest level of negativity. In some few cases, they are the so-called Evil entities that are magnified by the teller of the tales into presumed Devils, Demons, Evil Spirits, and all the other frightful names out of history and mythology. I classify them as either positive or negative, with all the gradations between.

There is some type of agreement between all of them that some acts of conduct are acceptable, some are not. There is a limitation on what they may do, and what they may not do. However that limit is trespassed many times. I feel that human free will is one thing they must accept, but there are those in this class that attempt to subvert this to their own ends. How this agreement was brought about, and how it is controlled we do not know. I have some ideas as to how it came about, but as far as I know, there never has been any record of exactly what took place.

All these spirits must conform to the rules set down by others on that other side to control that vast arena of conflicting egos and ideas. But many of them seem to delight in seeing how far they can go, how badly they can trespass on our rights. Without human empowerment to take over, or the failure of the human involved to defend their free will, then, and only then, can these negative entities distress and harass humans. Being unaware of this power of free will seems to be the loophole the negative entities use; the failure to defend our rights also plays a large part.

We have the right of choice to be either good or bad, to conform to the laws, mores, and rules of society, or to flout them. Today we are treated to sociopaths. Those who seemingly know no rules of conduct, have little or no morals, and refuse to conform in any way. One might make a case wherein those people have met and liked, or met and were conquered by a negative personality that they allowed to take them over. The Medical profession seems to be at a loss to treat this type of person. They persist in their mode of behavior, and if their transgressions are severe enough, we lock them up.

Over many centuries the tellers of the tales about this area of our lives stress that joining up with the negative side gives power to those that join—power to bend the world to their will, coerce others to do their bidding, order others around, rule the world, and all the rest of the egotistical mind-games some humans crave. In any overview, the efforts they have made come to no good end. Common sense dictates that we turn from what they say, and redress any wrongs they have done.

Now that we know what they are, how do we combat them? One of the best ways to give them little or no room in your mind, is to try to develop a positive mind set—the firm conviction that you will have little or nothing to do with any spirit that seeks to coerce you to do any bidding that is not your own, or does not meet with the standards set by our society.

How to know when you may face one of them is another problem. If you have a disturbing dream, do your best to recall it. Remember the details, look at the scene if there was one, think about what the feeling of the dream was, what emotions did it bring out, and what was the direction of action. If it was coercive in action, a push to do something, think about what it was. Does it pass the test of a socially acceptable act, was it illegal, did it involve harm to another, would you be ashamed to admit you did it, and was it an attempt to get you angry? Anger is one of the most common characteristics of negative entities, from sly promptings to blazing anger that makes you feel sick inside.

Ego is another facet of many negatives, they indulge in acts that seem to set new meanings to the words gall, nerve, Chutzpah, cheek, insolence and arrogance. It seems this is all part of their scheme to coerce humans to do their bidding by overpowering with their might and majesty and creating outright fear based on early religious training.

A militant mental defense is by far the most effective in denying them any power over you, but is hard to develop if you are overawed by a spirit. Dismiss any thought of them telling you what to do, and refuse give any ground inside your mind. Some of what I have gone through: arguments that were long and loud; attacks on my psychic body (with resulting physical bruises!); I have actually hit one in the mouth; pulled a knife on one of them; and was able to blast one of them with some kind of energy that I seemed to have. After a rousing fight, they seem to let you alone for a time, and it would seem that they don't like being defeated any more than we do.

One their attributes is a propensity to inhabit houses and buildings. We all have heard about a house that is haunted. Yes, there are houses that seem to have unwanted spirits. Yes, they seem to do things that fall into the category of evil. And yes, there are those that have an aversion to even passing by such a house. However, anyone that has the courage can rid a house of these spirits. Just as you can and should rid yourself of their attacks, so you can rid a house of these beings. I have used the following practices several times, and much to the surprise of others, they do the job.

House Exorcism

A negative entity within a house must be shown to be an indisputable fact by outsiders that can feel the vibrations of the entity. Those living in the house should be excluded from any judgment as to whether it is real or not; and any sources of possible this-worldly sounds, lights, or movements must be scrupulously examined for both simple causes and more involved ones. Ghost Hunters Guide lists methods of sorting out the cause of the so-called ghost noises from the worldly sounds caused by humans.

Once the reality of the entity(ies) has been established, the full permission of the owners or renters/lessors of the building must be obtained. Sometimes, the owner is quite reluctant to admit that the situation exists, since to do so may jeopardize revenue.

Should the entity be of more-or-less Christian characteristic, the well-known methods of intervention by a Religious figure (Priest, Preacher, Rabbi, etc.) performing the cleansing should prove adequate. It is in the cases where the entity is not of this type of belief system that more stringent measures must be used. There are cases where the person cleansing used the smudging technique from the Native American belief system and the entity pass several times through the smoke showing it was exempt. If more or less usual methods fail, the person cleansing must be of an alternative religion—one that admits the existence of, and the need to, exorcise negative entities for the comfort and security of the people there.

It has been shown that some entities of the various Elements, Earth, Air, Fire and Water, will have an effect on the persons doing the exorcism. It would seem to be a case of mutual interests, and those involved should beware. In one case a Water elemental did some damage to the woman conducting the ritual, causing her to have water retention in her feet, and a swelling of her eye. She was a Water sign in the Zodiac. It would be prudent to know the signs of the persons involved in any cleansing of structures, for this reason.

With a really vigorous spirit, one that has been shown to have a large amount of energy, the personal courage of the participants must be of the highest order. A team is only as strong as the weakest member, and should courage fail it will contribute to the strength of the entity. Some of the energy of an entity comes from the fear that humans have of that spirit. If you can fully control your fear, and not give in to the human urge to get away from it, you have a much better chance to control it, and drive it away. The whole team must be of one mind, it must be a solid front of determination, and it must offer only one option to the spirit, only one course of action—get out!

If past efforts have failed to rout the spirit, the next persons to attempt must have great courage and might need a higher degree of skill. There is no school that teaches this, it is learned through experience—both good and bad. That experience comes with a price—loss of energy, distressing personal experiences, possible attempts to take over the person, various physical manifestations, some sickness and other symptoms.

If smudging fails, spraying consecrated water (the Holy Water used by some Churches) should be the next attempt. Draw crosses over the windows (or hexagrams or pentagrams if the person is Jewish or Pagan). Wet down the windowsills, the doors, the doorframes and any other opening into the building with the liquid.

If all that seems of little avail, if it is felt that the spirit is of other than ordinary characteristics, then sharply stronger measures must be taken. That becomes another matter entirely?

To Be Continued

Fred McNary and his wife have experience with healing, and have encountered people afflicted by spirits. The McNarys have little fear of any spirits, and have driven off negative spirits from several people. In part, this material is the result of some of those confrontations.

Fred has been published in England (a seven part series) and the US, and has won a writing contest sponsored by Globe Magazine. He writes from an iconoclastic point of view and has no sacred cows.