Eating For Energy

Eating For Energy: Craft Witchcraft Dictionary on LUGHNASADH

LUGHNASADH: the festival celebrated Aug. 1, or August eve Sabbat. Also see NOS CALON AWST. marking the first harvest of winter food and ebbing of the Sun's (God's) energies and days grow short. A time to remember the bounty of food we eat and each meal an attunement to Nature. Also called: Aug. Eve, Lammas, and Feast of Bread. Pronounced: LOO n'sar.

(See also: LUGHNASADH, Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

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Eating For Energy: Encyclopedia II - Weight Watchers - POINTS program

The POINTS system is, in essence, a simple way to quantify a participant's caloric intake and energy expenditure. Various servings of food are assigned a specific number of points, and various types of exercise are assigned negative numbers of points; a program participant is allocated a certain number of points per week, with that number based on the individual's current weight and weight goals. The effect of this is that the participant is not restricted from eating any specific type of food, but they must stay under their total poi ...

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Eating For Energy: Holistic Health Therapy Dictionary on Reiki

REIKI: practitioners of this ancient Tibetan healing system use light hand placements to transmit healing energies to the recipient.

While the practitioners may vary widely in technique and philosophy, Reiki is commonly used to treat emotional and mental distress as well as chronic and acute physical problems, as well as to assist the recipient in achieving spiritual focus and clarity.

What is Reiki?

Reiki is the hands-on practice of channeling the life force energy which we all possess. This energy is used to balance and heal people in a positive, life-affirming way. Every person has the innate ability to use this energy and pass it along to others. Reiki does not stem from or require any particular religious belief, though we can see from the stories of Buddha and Jesus Christ that hands-on healing is nothing new to the human experience. People trained in Reiki techniques have had their metaphorical light switch "turned on" by a master teacher; in turn, they can heal others.

The 5 Reiki Principles

Just for today, I will give thanks for my blessings.
Just for today, I will not worry.
Just for today, I will not be angry.
Just for today, I will do my work honestly.
Just for today, I will be kind to my neighbor and every living thing.

*These principles are adapted from "The Reiki Handbook" by Larry Arnold and Sandy Nevius (Harrisburg, PA, PSI Press, 1982)

What can Reiki help cure?

There are many reasons to see a Reiki practitioner. Reiki is commonly used to allieviate symptoms of stress, headaches, depression, and tension. Reiki can help a person's emotional healing process or ease the effects of a crippling disease. Reiki is always positive, and can be used on all ages of people, including prenatal infants.

What is the history of the Reiki healing system?

Many people believe that the Reiki healing methods are similiar to those used by Buddha and Christ. The tradition may have been passed down by spiritual people in India and Tibet, and was relatively unknown to the "Western" world until recently.

One modern story of Reiki begins with Mikao Usui, a Christian minister and university president from Kyoto, Japan. In the late 1800's, Usui apparently embarked upon a several-year quest to find out more about this ancient healing system, attributed to the Buddhist philosophy of healing the mind, body, and emotional self through spiritual means. This experience culminated on Mt. Koriyama (in Japan), when after a 21-day period of meditating and fasting, Usui "received" the Reiki symbols and instructions on how to activate the healing process through their use. Usui then travelled throughout Japan teaching and healing people.

Usui's successor was Chujiro Hayashi, who made about 16 Reiki masters before his death in 1941. This included the first female Reiki masters, Chie Hayashi (Chujiros' wife) and Hawayo Takata.

It was Hawayo Takata who brought the Reiki techniques out of Japan to Hawaii and the mainland United States and Canada. Before her death in 1980, she had made 22 Reiki masters. From then on, students and practitioners of Reiki have grown exponentially.

What happens during a Reiki treatment?

A typical session will last between a half-hour and an hour. You should wear comfortable clothing and try to refrain from eating for at least half an hour before your appointment. Most practitioners work on massage tables, though if you prefer to sit up that is fine. Your practitioner will ask you to take a few deep breaths and relax into a mild meditative state. They may play relaxing music or light a candle to assist you. Then they will place their hands on your body in several different areas (such as the top of the head, over your eyes, on your belly, or the soles of the feet) in succession. Usually they will spend a couple of minutes in each position, depending on where they feel they should direct the "flow" of energy. All you need to do is relax and breathe normally.

You may feel warmth emanating from the therapist's hands; this is a normal reaction. It is also common for your body to tingle slightly. You may even have surges of emotions and memories. However, you may not "feel" anything at all; but after the session is over, you may notice that you are more relaxed or centered than before. Remember to keep an open mind, even if you are not sure of the benefits that Reiki can have for you. If a person is "closed" to the idea, it blocks the flow of energy.

(See also: Reiki, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

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Eating For Energy: Ayurveda Ayurvedic Dictionary on Spiritual Remedies

Spiritual Remedies

It is an unquestionable truth of life that the most precious possession that you have is your very own spiritual self. As we tend to move away from that intrinsic part of ourselves the body gets trapped by negative energies, which are the root cause of ailments. Spiritual therapies channelise your energies back on the right track, by venturing deep within yourself.

As God's children, all individuals have a part of divinity in themselves. By invoking the strength of that divinity through the control over ones thoughts, one can shape ones life very strongly. It is therefore important that one should attempt to root out all negative thoughts from the mind and concentrate on only the positive ones.

The negative thought patterns which cause ailments are anger, criticism, resentment and guilt. It is utterly impossible to maintain a healthy body under such distressed condition. For instance, criticism indulged in over long periods will often lead to disease as arthritis. Anger turns into things that boil and burn and in the long run infect the body and it also leads to heart ailments. Resentment eats into your system and ultimately leads to tumour and cancer. Guilt always seeks punishment and leads to all sorts of pain.

Next to hate, worry is just about the worst form of self-destructive mental activity. Hatred is the most severely damaging mental activity. It poisons the body and the mind and its effects are almost permanent. Similarly if you have no will to live, you are unlikely to have a long life. On the other hand, if you intend to live with a positive mind, you will definitely live a long and healthy life. Thus a person who exercises, meditates and thinks positively, is telling his body that he wants to stay healthy throughout his life.

Think of the experiences in life that you wish to be fulfilled. And you will find your thought patterns taking real shapes. This phenomenon is called metaphysical causation. This describes the power in the words and thoughts to create experiences. And explains the connection between thoughts and your physical self. Thus a stiff neck could easily be indicative of inflexibility in a person to listen to the other side of an argument.

So if need be, be willing to change your words and thoughts and watch your life change right before you. The way to control your life is to control your choice of words and thoughts. Since no one can delve into the depths of your, but you. Although easier said than done, this can be achieved better by practicing the arts of relaxation and concentration. For which one can in turn take the help of music and mantras.

See also: Music Therapy, Mantras)

(See also: Spiritual Remedies , Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Dictionary, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

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Eating For Energy: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Name

Name The Word or Logos may be considered in a twofold aspect as Voice and Name, reminiscent of the Sanskrit nama-rupa (name and form), technical terms inasmuch as nama is not merely a human utterance but contains the idea of creative sound, and rupa (form) signifying not so much mere vehicle, but the conscious production of the creative akasa or sound.

In Simon Magus' Gnostic system, the first three pairs of emanations from divine fire are mind and thought, voice and name, reason and reflection; the first in each case is masculine, the second feminine. A name evokes a thought, which is a creative power, but in itself is the production of a creative thought.

People have concealed their names; others refrain from speaking theirs. The name becomes much more potent when spoken, for then is added the power of vibration. Most names of things are counters, for they differ in different languages; yet even these names acquire power by familiarity. But there are real natural vibrational names for things; to know the real name of a power gives one mastery over it and enables one thus to evoke that power. For this reason great secrecy throughout all past time among initiates has been preserved as to the real names of powers, deities, etc. The four-letter name of Jehovah is popularly described as ineffable and incommunicable, although the four letters are merely human makeshift for the vibrational energy of which the Tetragrammaton is a mere symbol. These epithets may mean that it cannot be spoken and communicated, or that it must not. If it cannot be spoken, then it has to be discovered by each one for himself.

Says the Christian Apocalypse: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." The name thus denotes the essential character of the being.

(See also: Name, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

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Eating For Energy: Mysticism Magick Dictionary on CATHARI

CATHARI

In 12th Century France, the Cathars were also known as the Albigensians, elsewhere sometimes equated only slightly less accurately with chiliastic Manichæanism (the belief in a dualistic universe ruled by Good and Evil) and early Gnosticism. They held that the world was created by a blind demiurge and is under the dominion of Evil. The Albigenses (from the town of Albi), believed that Lucifer was God's first son and Christ his second son, whose role was to bring spiritual order to Lucifer's evil domain. Most historians persist in describing the Cathari as sexual "puritans" but it was actually reproduction that they condemned. Their priests did not eat eggs or milk because they are the by-products of reproduction.

It is most curious that contemporary mention of this sect almost always ignores this most important aspect, viz. their insistence that human reproduction or procreation is the only unforgivable sin. Since this world is hell, to foist existence on innocent beings is a crime. Hence, they were the first practitioners of compulsory birth-control.

Some of the Cathari were quite ascetic frequently fasting, always chaste and were called Parfaits or "Perfects", hence the modern French dessert. Others believed that sodomy was a logical way of avoiding procreation. In Bulgaria, where Cathari were equated with the Bogomils, sodomy was routinely practiced as an alternative to reproduction hence the origin of the word "bugger" from Bulgar.

The Cathari (and other Gnostics) understood what our postmodern world has forgotten. A society that puts all of its meaning, purpose, faith and future into its children, is a society that has lost touch not only with the present and with its sense of responsibility it has lost touch with life itself. Those least qualified to teach are those who are most fertile. Those who grind out children like links of sausage cease to take the slightest interest in the very things that their children value the most and those things that most ought to concern society, what most needs to be preserved. People who have had children no longer demand of themselves the time, energy, courage or inclination to attempt the rigorous, perilous and unpredictable experimentation essential to authentic personal, social and racial growth.

As the Catholic Church was considered by the Cathari to be strictly "the work of the Devil" and the Cross an affront to God, the Cathari were universally despised. The Church opposed this heresy vigorously through pogroms and massacres, so that by 1330 there were no more of them left to persecute.

(See also: CATHARI, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

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Eating For Energy: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Elemental, Elementals

Elemental (Elementals) Used by medieval European mystics, such as the Fire-philosophers, Rosicrucians, and Qabbalists, to signify those classes of ethereal beings evolved in and born of the four elements or kingdoms of nature. Ordinarily they are spoken of as existing in four classes corresponding to the four popular elements air, fire, water, and earth; but theosophy describes these kingdoms of nature as seven or even ten in number: four of the material or quasi-material range, and three (or six) of highly ethereal and even quasi-spiritual substance. They are often described as nature spirits or sprites.

More strictly, the word is confined to those beings who are beginning their evolutionary growth, who have developed in their constitution but one of the four elements -- that one from which they were born -- and who are therefore in the elemental state of growth. It is a generalizing term for all beings evolutionally below the minerals. Nevertheless, by extension of meaning, the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms are often referred to as families of elemental beings, though in more advanced stages. An elemental, therefore, is a being who has entered our, or any other, universe on its lowest plane or world.

There are three kingdoms of the elementals below the mineral kingdom, each of which has seven (or ten) subdivisions, and every entity high or low has passed through this stage at some time in its career.

There are four commonly recognized great classes of these unevolved beings, called by the medieval European mystics gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders -- elementals respectively of earth, water, air, and fire. These elementals are not only the inhabitants of and born from the respective elements, but really are the elements themselves. They are from one viewpoint simply nature forces, tools of the higher intelligences, and actually perform all the physical work of the world.

From another point of view they may be looked upon as life-atoms in different stages of evolutionary growth; and being in various degrees of evolution they are variously spiritual, ethereal, astral, or material, running through vast ranges on all these planes. Thus they exist everywhere: in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and all the tissues of physical nature. Through their agency we perform all our bodily or mental activities.

The three kingdoms of elementals actually build and form every new planet or world, beginning in serial order with the lowest of the three kingdoms, preparing the globe for the advent of the mineral kingdom, to be followed in turn by the vegetable and higher kingdoms in regular succession. The elementals are not only the matters of nature, but when acting together and used by higher intelligences become the forces or energies of nature, such as electricity, magnetism, light, vitality, etc. Unconsciously, human and other beings use them in the carrying on of all their bodily functions. For example, our bodies cohere through the automatic aid of the elementals of earth; and the elementals of fire give us our bodily heat.

The four kingdoms of elementals, existing in the four elements, are also known under the general designation of fairies and fays in the myths, fables, traditions, and poetry of all nations, ancient and modern. Their names are legion: peris, devs, jinn, sylvans, satyrs, fauns, elves, dwarfs, trolls, nixies, kobolds, brownies, banshees, leprechauns, pixies, moss-people, good people, good neighbors, wild women, men of peace, white ladies, and many more. They have been seen, feared, blessed, banned, and invoked in every quarter of the globe in every age.

These elementals are the principal nature forces used by the disimbodied human dead, very real but never visible "shells" mistaken for spirits at seances, and are the producers of all the phenomena except the purely subjective. They may be described as centers of force having instinctive desires but no consciousness as we understand it. Hence their acts may be what we humans call good or bad, indifferently. They have astral forms which partake, to a distinguishing degree, of the element to which they belong and also of the universally encompassing ether. They are a combination of sublimated matter and a purely rudimental mind. Some remain throughout several cycles relatively unchanging, so far as radical change goes, but still have no separate individuality, and usually acting collectively, so to speak. Others, of certain elements and species, change under a fixed law which Qabbalists explain. The most solid of their bodies are ordinarily just immaterial enough to escape perception by our physical eyesight, but not so unsubstantial that they cannot be perfectly recognized by the inner or clairvoyant vision. They not only exist and can all live in ether, but can handle and direct it for the production of physical effects, as readily as we can compress air or water for the same purpose by pneumatic and hydraulic apparatus; in which occupation they are readily helped by the human elementaries or astral shells.

More than this, they can so condense the ether as to make for themselves tangible bodies which, by their Protean powers, they can cause to assume such likeness as the elementals themselves are at the time impressed to assume, this being caused by their taking automatically as their models the portraits they find stamped in the memory of a person or persons present at a seance. It is not necessary that the sitter should be thinking at the moment of the one represented: the image may have faded many years before. The mind receives indelible impressions even from chance acquaintances. As a few seconds' exposure of the sensitized photographic plate is all that is requisite to preserve indefinitely the image of the sitter, so is it in incomparably greater degree with the mind. Unable to invent anything or to produce anything of itself, the elemental automatically reflects stamped impressions in the memory of human beings to its very depths; hence the nervous exhaustion and mental oppression of certain sensitive natures at spiritualistic circles. The elemental will bring to light long-forgotten remembrances of the past: forms, images, even familiar sentences, long since faded from memory, but vividly preserved on the astral tablets of the imperishable book of life. The elementals are very imitative, having neither developed will nor intelligence of their own which they self-consciously use, and hence tend automatically to copy forms in all the higher kingdoms. They have therefore many shapes or bodies, some of the more advanced taking even a quasi-human form.

Some of the elementals are said to be friendly, others unfriendly, to humanity not because of any deliberate intent on their part, but simply because mankind happens to be in such evolutionary position that it is affected one way or the other by them. Also, as different people contain in their constitution a preponderance of one of the elements over the other, they are more sensitive to the elementals of their predominating element.