Can we adopt multiple personalities?

by Ashleigh Burns-Thompson

Do we adopt multiple personalities over the course of a life time?

I am asking this because I find that I no longer connect with the "personality" that wrote this blog.
I read the posts sometimes and feel separate and apart from this person.
Is this person me? Or....did I adopt this persona, as a coping mechanism?
Perhaps now that I no longer need the coping mechanism. I no longer identify with the persona?

Now don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed learning, exploring and creating magick. It added a spark to my life. Yet, I am no longer interested. Been there done that sort of thing. I even feel like clearing out the books, donating them or giving them away....and adopting a new passion to explore.

The guilt being that I invested so much time and money in them. Would I want to turn to them again? Would I wish to feel the weight of a Magick novel, reference book in my hand? Do I keep them for my daughter?

Is this a phase we all go through? Or is it one that I go through???

Are we really a spirit just putting on a body suit and moving through life?

Do we just have masks to switch around when needed?

Creating my own god

In reading "The Power of Myth" as told by Bill Moyers in interviewing Joseph Campbell, I was struck by this particular quotation:
"A god is the personification of a motivating power or value system that functions in human life an in the universe- the powers of your own body and of nature. The myths are metaphorical of spiritual potentiality in the human being, and the same powers that animate our life animate the life of the world."


I began to wonder if the inability to attain my goal, is because of my disbelief that any god will support such a goal. 
I need then to break down the goal to its very essence, its underlying energy, and to "create" a god that supports my ideas and mimics the energies needed.
My myth needs to be reflective of the spiritual goal that i am trying to reach.
Creating my own god......my own personification of myself as I wish to be......funnnnnn

Wait a minute! I've been here before!

Talk about being trapped in a cycle. I am creating a book which pulls together essays from my blogs and journals, and had to browse through them to pull out the appropriate material. Most of my journals have mundane stuff and griping. Its how I relieve stress sometimes. But what was glaringly obvious is that, even after 5 years, the issues which I had then are the same issue I have now.

I haven't grown? I haven't moved forward? Such a revelation gave me another headache instantly! As if I hadn't already been battling headaches enough!Themes which came forward are:
1) Didn't like managing and working for people
2) I wish for enough money (in the millions) so that I could pursue my dream
3) The blissful state I feel when doing my biggest love and wishing I could do it full time

You know, I could kick myself. I haven't done anything in five years to say that I have moved on from those issues or grown. I saw where I kept going around and around in circles. Leaving the job, trying to start a business, not having enough money, having to go back to work, hating the job, leaving the job, trying to start a business, not having enough..... you get the point.

I know that I have to work for myself. I know that I can. What I have to plan is the products which I can create using these images that I paint. I also need to find some way to cut down my expenses to make it more feasible. Hmmm.... I must break this nightmarish cycle. Its starting to feel like a really bad dream.

Spiritual Explorations of a Different Kind part 2

Avatar-the Last Airbender


A few years back some college boys from the USA "created" a character called The Avatar, who was a little boy, a least in this life. He was a reincarnated spirit of a long line of AVATARS whose spirit returned to Earth every one thousand years to assist the Human Race through a difficult trial period. Pointing out the similarity between that and Hindu philosophy which has a "god" descend to Earth every thousand years is another blog all together.

Any who, my point was just to observe this cartoon series in its brilliant exploration of this little boy of simple origin, with the knowledge and power to become great, but needed to experience the human condition as the "key" to unlock these special abilities. His Spirit has been here several times before, but his body, and his talents shift depending on the task he needs to perform in this incarnation.

Avatar the Movie


Then there was this Movie, Avatar. In this movie, (besides the other themes which are screaming at me to discuss but will be at a later blog) the conciousness of the individual is transfered to another body which is more suitable to do the job which is required. Thats all I would say about this movie which is relevant to this blog's theme. (So tempting.....)


Surrogates


This third one, Surrogates explores the type of world where we are able to choose our bodies. The physical appearance of the individual is dictated by their desires.n How ever, in losing themselves in these surrogates, the individual loses touch with what it means to be Human.

These are just three movies which address this theme of the Avatar.....the idea that the physical body in temporary, interchangeable,and that the individual actually resides in its own conciousness and not in the physical body.

The message is simple. We are not our bodies. Our bodies are simply the vessel in which we travel this life. Our true selves lie in our conciousness which remains regardless of which body and which lifetime we are currently engaging in. What is new in the Movie Avatar and Surrogates is that we can actually choose to change the body in our current incarnation, and experience different realities in one lifetime.


This idea is found throughout many writings in theosophy, magick and occult studies. That our physical body is actually created by our conciousness is one theme which can be founf in tibetian writings, christian theology, Magickal philosophy etc.
That we are spiritual beings which incarnated several times to grow spiritually is another. That we evolve at every incarnation, and what we are given in each incarnation are the tools we need to learn the lessons we need at that incarnation.

That we are spiritual beings, learning lessons in each life; collecting these lessons in our inner conciousness, and that we know more at each incarnation than we are aware of.

This is how the majority of the Human race is able to explore spiritual themes these days, through books, film and media. Those individuals who can, tap into the evolutionary stages of spirit, and present the ideas to the mainstream for their exploration. Those who see past the entertainment factor are elevated in spirit.
Now imagine if we could go through eternity retaining some of the memories or skills from previous lives? Or, perhaps we can, before we die, decide who we want to be in our next life? Suppose we do have this power, and never used it simply because it never dawned on us?

And this is my brain going off on a tangent again...........

"My father is a christian, My Mother is a nothing"

So my son goes to a private Catholic School, with nuns and the like, right next to a chapel none the less. The issue of First Communion came up. He absolutely refused to do the ceremony. Says he a christian...... I let him be. The nun corners me in the school car park to protest that I was not doing my parental duty by insisting that he do the First Communion thing. She asked " Your son says that his father is a born again Christian and his mother is a nothing. What does he mean by that?"

Funny, the convent upbringing just hit me right in the face and I went into Pavlov mode. "Sidestep the question." says the good me.. "Tell her you are a witch!" says the bad me.

I shrugged and made some lame excuse about following his father's (ex-husband actually) wishes.

I couldn't understand Maddonna. Guy Ritchies complained that she didn't allow her kids to celebrate Christmas. In my house we celebrate darn near everything. The island we live on is multi-ethnic, and there are holidays for every religious or ethnic group. That helps. My household has one witch/neo pagan whatever; two born again Christians, one sort-of-Catholic; one who is too young to decide and one nothing. My Catholic baptised son is experimenting with Dragon Magick.....although he doesn't know it.....he was born in the year of The Dragon and that has stuck in his head. He believes he has powers......he knows more than he realises.

My point is that if I, or any parent for that matter wish to follow a spiritual path, then we should understand that our children too may not wish to follow that same path. We should respect that, just as much as we wanted people to respect our choices. We make the excuse that our children are too young to know better. They are not. They have been given the same tools to make that decision as we have, and that's spirit. Their desire to experience something, stems from their desire to have growth of that spirit. Desires and experience take one down a path of spiritual growth. Even if it leads to a decision to change paths, or continue. Its Growth, and this is needed for learning about yourself truly.

So we celebrate Christmas, because Santa encourages them to wish for their hearts desires. This may transalate in later life to set goals...and keep life alive. (Even though I was sorely tempted by the black Christmas Tree balls this year) I think life on this island is too limited for me to limit them from their hearts.............

Blessed Yule, Merry Christmas, Happy Eid, Happy Kwaanza, and all the other festivities we celebrate.