greenfairy
philosopher wood nymph
- Joined
- May 25, 2012
- Messages
- 4,024
- MBTI Type
- iNfj
- Enneagram
- 6w5
- Instinctual Variant
- sx/sp
Yeah do you know any good Dungeon Masters? Mine is an asshole.
Unfortunately (for you) I know nothing of these things.
Yeah do you know any good Dungeon Masters? Mine is an asshole.
That's awesome! I hope he's ok...There was a venerable old oak tree where I used to live, who seemed quite the arboreal conversationalist, at least until he was threatened with destruction to make way for a drive-through pharmacy. His name was Nicodemus.
This is quite true. The book I recently read and am now in the process of taking notes on, Pagans and Christians by Gus DiZerega goes into all this. It's an awesome book, which I think anyone with interest in paganism should read.As Greenfairy described, many of us see the many deities of the various pantheons as simply different facets or aspects of a single divine entity. This balances male and female, and other polar opposites in a way that leads to creativity/creation. But not all pagans share this view. Paganism is a religion of common practice more than common faith, meaning that in our groups we share common ritual which makes a communal spiritual experience possible, but each might interpret it differently, in accordance with his/her individual beliefs.
In my tradition, we use the word "witch" to refer to the spiritual side of things (for both men and women), and the word "wizard" to refer to the more skills-based side, e.g. manipulating energy, understanding herbs, plants, crystals, etc. One must develop both sides to be balanced and effective. A witch is someone who has learned enough to attend to his/her own spiritual needs, to be an effective priest to him/herself, but this definition is rather specific to the tradition in which I was initiated.
What was your conclusion that you are INTP?
I rarely second-guess people's self-typing, and see no reason to do so here. You are decidedly different from all the INTPs I have known, though, and I know quite a few.My conclusion about my type? Yeah, I had decided it when I created the thread, and I found no overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I did a lot of thinking and found out new things about myself, though.
So what got you interested in witchcraft and such?
Unfortunately (for you) I know nothing of these things.
I grew up listening to Celtic music and being read folk tales, and from as early as I can remember I've felt like I belonged in some sort of pagan European/Celtic tribe or village, and that I have a husband there. I never wanted to be a princess, just a happy village person. I was pagan and didn't know it. As I grew older I found additional places and times where I felt like I "belonged." I also didn't know that modern versions of paganism such as Wicca existed until I was 23 or so, because I live in the Bible Belt. All the important beliefs, principles, and values I have now which I outlined in my document are ones I have always believed, just not known how to explain. I was never not pagan. And witchcraft just came with the discovery.
Past life memories and feelings are one of the things I have always "just known." They feel as real to me as anything else I've experienced. It's like I've done these things, it's just been so long that the memory is fuzzy. I have a Celtic husband, I am a ballerina, I use a bow and arrow, and I write kanji with a brush in Japan; I just went to sleep and woke up somewhere else. This is most of where my Si goes. I have a lot of things which are like muscle memories, and I've just forgotten the details of how to do them. When I try to do these things in real life, they come really easily to me and people are surprised.
I understand if you call me crazy for saying this, and I would applaud your skepticism. But it's my reality since I live in my own head, so I have no choice but to accept it. And trusting my subjective/intuitive feelings has always been beneficial to me rather than destructive, so it can't be that crazy.
I rarely second-guess people's self-typing, and see no reason to do so here. You are decidedly different from all the INTPs I have known, though, and I know quite a few.
I thought this was the NT section...
OH! So you're the DM...
*ahem*
"After a troublesome day of hacking vulgar dæmons, I am quite weary. Where is the nearest brothel?"
Spot check.
(My Wis is only +3 so you know I'll not be cheating)
*rolls die*
What role do things psychic play in your life? Do you place much emphasis on such things? How do others feel about your doing such things?
What makes you believe in psychic ability?
It's another thing I have "just known." I have always had "unique" intuitive perceptions, and perception in general. For instance, I see letters and numbers (and most things really) in my mind as having colors. This is called by psychiatrists "synesthaesia". But people have colors in my mind too, and only in recent years did I learn that I was actually seeing auras. (I don't see them in as great detail as people who do energy work with it though. I haven't really developed it that way.) I never thought this was anything unusual until I asked someone what color they thought Thursday was, and they said they didn't think it was any color. I get mental pictures for everything, even abstract concepts and trains of logic.
One of my Wiccan teachers told me I was empathic. I'd always had a sneaking suspicion I could feel other people's emotions, but of course I had no proof. And I'd always thought the idea of being psychic was cool, but I didn't think I was since I didn't have experiences like you see on TV or whatever. I got into astrology when I was 12, and soon started trying to guess people's signs. I've actually gotten good at it. I'm definitely correct more often than random guesses would be. The signs have different "vibes," much like I see people on here saying about types.
Being empathic has a unique set of strengths and challenges. Especially for an INTP (inferior Fe, and shadow Fi). I get all this emotional energy from people, and since I don't really recognize it well in myself, I both get confused about what emotions are mine and what are someone else's, and I project things onto people which aren't necessarily there. And I'll feel what someone is feeling, but not have the slightest idea why or what I should say to them to make them feel better. So I just avoid emotional people. The projection works like this: say one of my superiors at work talks to me about a mistake I've made. I can sense he's feeling stressed because it's busy, and my inferior Fe wonders if I am part of the reason he's stressed. My Si recalls past experiences where bosses have been unreasonable and yelled at me, and my emotions about those situations bubble up and confuse themselves with what I'm feeling from him, and so the feeling is magnified, and I project onto him that he must be angry at me. When in reality he's just stressed because it's busy, and the situation isn't anything personal about me at all. Once I consciously know that, it happens a lot less. My hypersensitivity is connected to Si and Fe rather than Fi, and it's magnified with being empathic. When I can wrap my mind around something, my feelings usually comply.
When I feel emotion from people it's like feeling it in myself. I can't readily put a label on it- it's just a jumbled up mass of intuitive perception and a physical feeling. Unless there's a clear reason for it, like if I'm watching someone experience something traumatic. I feel it acutely and want to cry with them. I like to think I'm so tough, but I feel these things against my will, like my psyche goes into theirs. The first time I cried at a song I was super embarrassed and secretly hated myself. But it was really therapeutic, because I felt a connection to people. I can identify with Fi to some extent this way, with the difference that I don't seek emotional experiences out. I personally am not all that emotional, so strong emotions in other people seem way more dramatic and traumatic than they are- because if I was being that emotional, it would be over something really awful. My emotions have multiple layers, and it takes me a lot of introspection and analysis just to label some of them, and then come up with the reasons why. I'm actually very good at analyzing people psychologically with what I intuitively feel from them.
In one empathic incident I had recently I was hanging out with the guy I'm seeing. He had said he'd been feeling depressed lately. We were lying on my bed with my head on his chest near his heart, and trying to cheer him up. I had started to feel depressed to and didn't know it. He said he had to go and couldn't spend the night. When he said it I felt really sad, like I wanted to cry. Then something in my mind said, "Hey, this is not normal. You've never felt like crying in this kind of situation before- what's up?" I figured out I was feeling his emotion, internalizing it, and since I had nothing to feel sad or depressed about, it grabbed onto the only thing available which was that I would rather he stayed; and produced an overreaction from confusing his emotions with mine. (I told him, and he said he'd stay after all.) It was because I'd been around him for awhile and my head and heart were near his heart. I've had a couple of other instances where I've been lying like this with someone and my heart felt suffocated, and I found it physically hard to breathe. That kind of freaked me out.
It makes social interaction difficult. Since other people are more emotional than I am, and I don't always know why, I just went around feeling overwhelmed by people's energy and thinking people were unpredictable (and so avoided them). Once I found out I am empathic, and learned how to use psychic shields, my life became way easier. Which is evidence that it is true. And like I say, it's my reality, so I kind of have to believe it and act accordingly, because doing so makes things easier.
I can use it for healing. I have a talent for balancing energy, particularly feminine and masculine; so sexual healing and energy work are natural for me. I do it automatically. I can intuitively sense what people are like sexually, and how that relates to their emotional and psychological needs, and give it to them. I don't really think about it most of the time, and it's not my motivation for having sex with someone. I just attract people who need what I have to give, and who have what I need, and we heal each other. I see it as a spiritual thing. The divinity in me connects with the divinity in you, namaste, etc.
The rational explanation: everything is energy. Electricity goes through living things. The heart has a magnetic field which spans several feet. Intuition is all the sensory information we receive combined, plus what it all tells us. Our consciousness couldn't possibly process it all, so it's processed in our unconscious mind, which sends its conclusions and relevant bits of data to our conscious mind. Psychic ability is simply highly developed intuition (Ne+Ni), and anyone can develop these functions, so theoretically anyone can develop psychic ability. (And opening and balancing the third eye helps.)
Sorry for this rambling wall of text; notice that when I'm talking about something purely rational I'm pretty organized, but when I'm talking about subjective things it tends to be a jumbled up mess.
What is your take on people being mediums and spirits in general?
What does that even mean, to be a medium or a spirit? Does it involve talking to the dead and being aphysical?What is your take on people being mediums and spirits in general?
What does that even mean, to be a medium or a spirit? Does it involve talking to the dead and being aphysical?
I cant help it but I think you are completly nuts. Nothing personal tho.