/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>47146571
>I've been doing a lot of "minding the gap"
...perceiving boundaries?
>It's been a little unignorable frankly.
Do you wan to go deeper into this?
>The unique roles of each of the Sages, even with only 3 having tangible identities so far, is very interesting to me in how their various roles of maintenance or even loose oversight over Gensokyo, inside and out, all come into play
Yeah the sages are very interesting characters. Okina-sama is the one I am most familiar with. I feel like she is extremely powerful and very complex. I researched the various deities and ideas related to them and I hit a point where I was genuinely unsure if I wanted to even go further at this point.
>she is inherently a being of action, even if that is expressed in more passive or behind-the-scenes ways
Interesting. I can see it, but how did you come to this conclusion?
>as those fox sightings you mentioned may imply
Not totally out of the ordinary, but unusual enough to warrant some news about it. There are city foxes here, but that park is somewhat far away from any big natural enviroments. So it does feel a bit significant that I have a dream of Ran directing me there and then there being fox sightings there a few weeks later.
>>47146851
OK, cool.
>>47147185
I'm pretty sure you can become a shithead through other spiritual means too if you let it get to your ego or lack a solid enough moral system.

I do think shrooms and such can be dangerous and lead people to wrong paths, yeah. But the only thing that can be really done is to compare the experiences with other experiences. Are the insights and the type of attidutes and behaviors that emerge from psychedelic experiences consistent with (positive!) spiritual experiences? If so, as garbled it might have come out, then there was probably some kernel of truth to it.

Mostly I think it is just rushing for results when a more patient, gentler aproach would be better suited to many, me included.
>>47147201
Fascinating! The Koga Saburou tale is interesting, because both going below ground and coming back and snakes are are themes related to various rebirth narratives in many cultures.
>>47147424
Since this does seem to be aimed partly at what, would you care to elaborate what you mean? What do you even mean with ignorance? I don't think I am content with ignorance, if I was I probably would have never started anything like the first thread? Or the study of things which led my life up to that point. But I am trying to some extent self-regulate the intake at this point, because I feel like I need to build better fundamentals and improve my physical health. But yes, there are still great many things I am probably very ignorant about, no doubt about that. I'm just curious where has the impression that I am content with ignorance come from?

As for interpersonal relationships needing mending, yes, ignorance has been part of why things have gotten to the point they have. If I had viewed humans the same way as I view now ever since I was a child things would have been different. If I had this view I now have five years ago things would have been different.

But everyone involved has their own baggage. I'm not shifting blame, I am setting context. The difference now is that I have been called to make amends and I have been given the strenght and understanding needed for doing that. So I think that beyond ignorance there have been very much very concrete things that require mending.

>>46942728
>To be certain of uncertainty, that's enough, and it's closer to the truth than any scientific theory can reach.
A certain element of "I don't have to know everything" can be very healthy too.
>>46942738
>especially considering how self-talk, language, and certain chemical interactions can fundamentally rewire the brain.
Yes, very much so, and there are many who say that such is the essence or all there is to magic. I personaly think some of them are a bit insincere about it. Saying it's "all in your imagination, but so is so much of else". But they never quite say who is "you" or "imagination". A rhetorical tactic to make the mystical more palatable, perhaps.
>I'll be quick to admit I have basically zero idea of where to start in terms of practical application.
I am currently looking around for a good structured program to restart my practice properly again. In the meantime, I am working with the Magickal Protection from Gallery of Magic. The book series has a very mixed reputation, this one in particular is scoffed at as "baby magic", but it's exactly why I started again with it. Someone in the "esoteric scene" that I respect greatly and whom I believe has their heart in the right place (probably the most important quality in a human being) recommended it exactly because it's "baby magic".

It's accessible, the rituals are doable for people with zero experience and it doesn't involve any unwholesome entities (unless you really hate angels for some reason I suppose?). And most importantly, it teaches something very, very important: protection. Of course, it's important not to overdo it and get paranoid. I also asked the kami for their permission before I started doing it. Which is why now that I am doing the bigger 33 day ritual in it which involved invoking "personified virtues" I am also giving particular attention to the kami so they don't feel left out. Everyone more experienced in the audience is now allowed to laugh at me.

One book I used back in the day six years ago which I could mostly recommend to others was Ogdoadic Magic. The organization on which it's system is based on however later developed a creepy, elitistic cult vibe. I think some of the breathing practices involved with the meditation excercises from it made me kinda dizzy from what I remember.

Beyond that, I have started meditating again (very good even for non-magic purposes) and keeping a journal of things that crop up while meditating. I also keep a dream journal.

Tarot is a great system for really developing a sense of the archetypes from a western POV.
>Sounds unpleasant to experience, but described this way honestly kinda funny.
I see the humor in it myself later on. There were some really tragicomic stuff along the way. A totaly botched ritual in the forest at night where the candles got blown out and I was left scared shitless in the dark, me jerking off on to sigils scribled on paper to "activate" them and then hastily burning them off in the backyard of the apartment complex where I used to live...
>The way you speak of it, unironically the answer was just to double-down and go on with it.
With the kami, yes. A lot stress came out from the tension of experiencing it but not wanting to see it as real even when it was happening. They got annoyed partly because some of the stuff I had posted, partly because I was refusing to pick up the phone so to say.
>>46942766
>partly the reason that structured ritual instructions and the like exist.
I can't understate how absolutely wrong I did everything on the first try.
>There are obviously the imposter types, and the ones that show up claiming to help only to then lie, but that's what the various methods of protection are for.
Yeah this is a spooky aspect of it all. I have a feeling that the impostor types like impostor people though.
>>46942790
So true!