Note; Each section by each practitioner is marked by color; Akelta in Purple, Hysteria in Pink, Eilana in Blue, and Mania (Noc) in Red.
2lv
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Akelta Wilde
Practitioner at Satan & Sons
~The Carnivàle of the Sun…the Carnivàle of darkness… ~
Summer is the time of the sun. It is the reign of the light, the warmth, the freedom. All these are symbolic of the energies that the summer months bring and the celebration that comes with that. The summer is a time of freedom and fun. The Carnivàle is an event that celebrates that. It is in essence fun, wild, and free.
The Symbolism of the Sun and the Summer Solstice are many. We have the Warmth and the Light of the Blazing Sun overhead, we have the endless growth and abundance that is all around us in the rich and fertile Earth. We have fertility and growth and we have endless time at hand.
Summer is a time to celebrate the individual consciousness within ourselves and to embrace the spiritual awakening and unique energies of this powerful consciousness. It is about reaping what you sow and the power of growth and life in the world. The summer is the time of life when the world is in full bloom and everything is growing.
During the summer months we are called to let the inner fire inside of us grow, thrive and burn away all that once bound and restrained us. Burn away the fears and inhibitions and just open up and allow our inner essence and let our true self come alive!
It is a time to let go of what we have outgrown and what no longer serves us. It is a perfect time for self reflecting, looking at who we are, what our values are, and what direction we wish to take in life. During the winter months when resources are scarce our energies naturally tend to hoard. But during the summer the world is ripe with growth and fertility and there is abundance all around. During the summer we shed what no longer serves us and lighten our energetic load.
The Solstice is connected to the crown chakra, it is connected to source energy and also the essence of dignity within us. Many people embrace and speak of the light of the crown chakra, but like all chakras in the body there is a darkness in it that is never discussed. The Darkness of the crown chakra is the dark energies of the soul. The crown chakra is one of incredible light and brightness. We are told the brighter the light the darker the shadow.
This is true of both the crown chakra and of the sun when is at its peak. Though they are few, the shadows are dark indeed in the places they reach. They are thick and concentrated and the will and desire of the subconscious becomes alive. The darkness of the crown chakra is the balance of dankness in our soul. We are beings of both darkness and light, and everyone has an individual balance. This is actually a perfect time to understand that balance and learn about what it means to you. What does darkness mean to you?
Make sure you take the time in summer to get out and enjoy the sun, but also honour yourself and honour the darkness in your soul. It is a time when exploration of the darkness is easier as there is less to explore. The deep dark shadows are exposed and we can really take the time to let go of what it is that haunts of and plagues us.
Shadow work and releasing the elements of darkness in us can be daunting at the best of times, but there are times when it is easier. When the shadow’s hold is weakened and we are able to explore and embrace them with ease. There are many symbols which reveal this journey and the Carnival is one of them.
The Carnivàle… it often brings to mind image of fun, play, excitement. For those horror buffs it brings a surreal world of terror. The truth is that it is both. It is a place of wonder and amazement but it is also a world of terrible darkness and sinister desires. It is a world that on the surface appears safe, but is actually dangerous and foreboding, much like the subconscious.
The Carnivàle is an essence of magick and mysticism. It is surreal and seductive. It is untamed. It is run by wild beings who travel the lands setting up shop but for a short time to take us into a fantastical world of wonder before vanishing into the ether. It is the perfect symbolism of the shadow of the sun. For here we have a place on the surface that seems playful and fun, but in reality houses a dark underbelly that is ripe for the awakening of the self and the healing of the soul.
The Carnivàle is one that hides deep secrets. Much like the reign of the sun. When the sun is at its brightest, the shadows are most concentrated. They are thick and rich, full of darkness and sublime murky depth. The Carnivàle has creatures that are other worldly, freaks that reveal the dark and forgotten side of mankind, rides that seemingly lift our spirits and take us to other worlds, attractions and amazements, magick, illusion it is all there and though it appears light it is one of incredible darkness, but it is a place of unjudged darkness and that is important. We are expected to enter other worlds, we are expected to embrace the darkness and indulge the one sinister delights presented before us. It is the perfect place to explore these elements and symbols that are inside our own heart.
Many people use the light and the sun to hide from their subconscious and hide from the infernal shadows that sleep in their soul. It is why people dread the cold looming months of fall and winter, but revel in the brightness of summer.
The summer can hide that which we fear and seek to get away from, but it always lingers, it always hides in the shadows and it is only through the exploration and understanding of those shadows that we can realize the truth and the wholeness of the self. The Carnivàle is a place this becomes possible.
It is a place where we can embrace the dark child and really understand who we are, the freak inside of us free of judgement. We don’t have to act according to what society dictates in the walls of the Carnivàle, we can shed that image and embrace a more holistic and true image of the self and who we are.
It is during this time through that we are given an amazing gift. This is a gift of freedom true freedom where we enter a dark mirror world of the self and come face to face with that dark essence. It is a place though that is untamed and unjudged and the perfect place for us to experiment with this darkness and really understand it. We learn about it and we learn about our place within it. And its place within us.
The Carnivàle is symbolically perfect as a Dark spiritual path of the shadow. It is a place where this is explored and attained. Do not be afraid to venture into the shadow and know that there are deep and real truths in your soul that are crying to be heard. Truth to its fullest is realized and we are really given a chance to understand ourselves and understand the darkness that we carry.
There are few place that carry that old essence of freedom, the Carnivàle is one of them. The old Carnivàles carries a mysterious energy which entranced those who attended them. It was the place where those who were misshapen and disfigured could find a place and it was almost surreal in its otherwordliness. This acceptance of the darkness is why this is so important to the Dark Journey of our Soul.
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Hysteria
Practitioner at Phantasmagoria
~Liberating The Sacred Clown & Seeing life itself as an endless Carnival~
Within each and every one of us there sleeps a perfectly wacky, whimsical perceptual force primed towards the natural chaos and non-linearity of life. It is the inverted side of our orderliness, the part of us that knows freedom in the boundlessness of expression, expansion, in moment by moment immersion .. and all over, under, within bodily contentment far beyond the thresholds of pleasure and pain..
This is our sacred clown, holy fool, divine jester, what certain Native American tribes deemed their Heyoka; it is the innate part of us that is not contained by rigid dogma and subconscious programming. It sees upside down, inside out, in all manners of colors and sensations, always looking through and beyond that which is presented and into some random aberration that captivates its discerning, highly flexible and contortionistic awareness.
Our present day does not honor the force of the sacred clown and its role in liberating the spirit. By way of this we see a world overrun with walking machines so completely out of touch with themselves and their humorous relationship with life that they are withering into a state of substance malnourished techno-oblivion.
People are scared into stagnation, so unwilling to step into the uncertainty of that which they can't fathom, bound by the dismay of their cynicism, made slaves to their primitive fears. It is a huge feat to even -consider- starting anew amidst a flux of hyper-dependent promises. Instead we overthink, overanalyze, and under-act, forever circling around possibilities that eventually collapse in on themselves through the inertia of a mind made black and white. Everything is taken so seriously. SO SERIOUSLY. Including ourselves. All the beauty in our strangely enticing damnation is made into a giant fright fest where people can only ever play the role of victim, calling out for someone or something to save them from the big bad wolves that circle their internal wonders.
Really, why -do- people take themselves so seriously? The sacred clown asks us. What exactly is this game we're playing and why are so many playing if it has done nothing but robbed them of their joy and soothed them with complacency? Security is the prize and the expression it is distorted into is only an ever elusive bully that cuts us down and limits our potential. We are so stuck within this adolescent relationship to the world and to what we deem to be life that any forms of rebellion we -are- capable of expressing turn into willful self sabotage. Like playing hooky with our dreams, we want to stay inside this house of imprisonment instead of actually immersing ourselves into the boundlessness of chaotic possibility.
And what is living life with your sacred clown liberated and free like? You may be wondering... Intrigued at the prospect of there being an antithesis to the hellhole of what may have presented itself as the grand reality of life and humanness.
With your sacred clown liberated you are not afraid to consider outside the scope of what you may be living, your view is broad and whimsical with a touch towards the ecstatic. You disregard the status quo in favor of your inner voice, no matter how crazy or unorthodox it may seem. You are wild and free, entirely able to move from one place, situation, and relationship to the next without bringing the pain of the past along with you; you see starting anew not as destructive to that which others would try to cling to but instead as a splendiferous new journey that you willingly embark upon each and every time.
You are disruptive in presence, your very being seems to challenge the idea of what is possible in any given moment, there is an air to you and your strange ways that seems to float above the grid most are tethered to. Your thoughts may feel or seem upside down at times, for you are artistically floating through the uncanniest webs of existence and can pull from anything and anywhere with pristine cogency, distilling insanity for its oodles of wisdom.
You are unafraid to temporarily forego security as you trust that growth is not supposed to feel safe and comfortable, it is a thrill ride and the moments that scare you the most are the ones that bring you the greatest wonder. You find beauty, humor, and inspiration in what may be horrifying circumstances, and this helps you to release from them much easier. You are not intimidated by the unknown but instead enlivened by it and all that it may deliver to you, seeing it as a merry go round of fascination and mystique.
You can see deeply into the structures of people, the humor of humanity amuses and excites your curiosity so you are naturally primed towards exploring and excavating what most shy from. You are unable to be held in place or controlled by anyone, for you are in a powerful relationship with the mysteries and see past the limits of others trying to impose their manipulations. You are sensorially cracked open and awed by the strange array of feelings and experiences that living has in store for us all.
You are awake and attuned to the chaotic wonder of life. You never impose your idea of what things should be like and instead embrace whatever palette is presented to you so that you may make the most of it. This is freedom, this is a powerful container for housing the sublime. The world is your Carnivale, and you are somehow the ringleader and all the performers bound into one.
Everyone, as based off of their energies, inclinations, awarenesses, passions, etc, has a unique expression of the Sacred Clown archetype, and no matter how square you may believe yourself to be you house these energies deep down somewhere within the wild labyrinths of your unexplored vastness. Some people have clowns attuned to and aligned with particular aspects of the physical reality while others have clowns attuned and aligned with facets of the dimensional beyond, some people have clowns that are very surreal and unusually different, others have clowns that merely reflect and make a game out of the reflections.
The clowns are so individual to us and to what we choose to embody, they are this dynamic force within us that grows and evolves alongside our conscious expression. And just like the inner child, the shadow, the anima/animus, whatever else, we can either to choose to nourish and nurture them or disown and repress them which directly correlates to the quality of life in its particular 'domain' that it rules over. If you feel averse to change, rigid in modality, bound by whatever idea of progress you may have... you may have an off kilter clown running amok within.
Life in itself is full of surprising twists and turns that should delight us and tickle our sensibilities. Part of liberating the Sacred Clown involves a deep attunement to the unconscious and the wellspring that flows from there, you begin to give away some of your conscious control and need to exact everything and you allow the wonders to flow through you unmediated. This does not mean you lose the will to act, in fact it is very often the opposite, you gain a will that is transcendent in quality and untethered to linear methods and patternings.
You begin to live life on a grand scale instead of going from day to day to day to day. You understand the role of the phantom clown calls that pull you into strange, sometimes unnerving and intimidating scenarios. You trust and honor that everything has its purpose, and that still, you have a conscious role to play alongside that. You do not submit your power to the divine jester and expect everything to fall into your lap with just a few funky twists and turns, you have to be willing to be decimated time and time again until you get to the place where you would like to be. If you are not satisfied with where you are, you do not -re-act from fears but you act from a willingness to surrender to the chaos, trusting in the deeper flow of it all.
I have an incredibly intimate relationship to this force and have encountered it very heavily throughout the whole of my life. When first engaging with what had been the scariest expression of it I had known thus far, surrendering the only life I had known up until that point and dive bombing into the unknown world with only trust, I had an emblem of it tattooed on my wrist, a jester skull. It was death and humor and sporadacity and being cracked open, drowning in overwhelming emotions and possibilities, but having a twistedly fun time along the way.
The experience of it is different for everybody though and it has many faces, it can be very scary ... yet it can also be incredibly gentle and elevated in quality. It is a stream of energies that really represents pure freedom, beyond conditions. When you can waken this within you, there is an untouchable quality to your nature. It is very invigorating, sometimes lonely, but always inspiring. It pushes you into this crazy kaleidoscope of your inner wonders and curiosities, and the transformations it brings are intense, reverberations of your divinity. You can never command it though, it is not like self directed 'progress' where you can dictate the quality of what turns out, it is evolution at its rawest; dirty, primal, driven by death and sex and cycles of pain and pleasure pushing you ever further into what you could never before fathom.
In order to navigate the seas of possibility we have to have an inner guidance system that is directly reflective of that chaotic, ever shifty, oceanic flux, this is where the clown comes in. It is a powerful force of enlivening empowerment that will take you where you never thought you could go. It does not see the world according to the stories it has spawned, but instead through immersion..listening for the sounds and sensations that call to it and its divine passions. It is a part of the sacred web you hold within and holds a very special role in liberating your spirit within a sometimes dense and clunky world.
Now as you journey into this special Carnivale event listen close for the clown that writhes within you and embrace its peculiar dances. Move into the chaos with splendor and grace, and trust, and you will find your most effervescent freedom in colors, tastes, sounds so lurid and brilliant. It's time to celebrate and release your wacky...
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Eilana
Practitioner at Satan and Sons
~Finding and Awakening Lost and Forgotten Pieces of yourself through the Carnival~
As children, many have fond memories of the Carnival. Its appearance brought with it a sense of wonder and excitement. The rides, the attractions, the games, the shows and the delicious treats. It was an experience that brought something magical into physical reality, that evoked joy and awe in many hearts and lives. The bright colors, the sights, the sounds and smells all often conjure up dear memories, but how many of us as adults return to the Carnival and see it the same way we did with the eyes of a child? How many of you still ride the carousel or one of the teacup rides?
Of course some people might, some people remain young at heart and don’t care what others think, but more often people do stop doing those things. They stop doing things they love. They drift away from parts of themselves or who they were as children and it is just an accepted part of aging or ‘growing up’. This is something we are told to do. We’re programmed and repeatedly reminded that certain things are for children and once you reach a particular age you shouldn’t do them anymore. I remember as I reached different points in my teenage years it was no longer viewed as acceptable to partake in certain activities and I was pushed to do other things that were more age appropriate.
This is a recurring theme for many, as we are told to leave things behind and become what the world, what society, what our families want us to become. The intention is of course so that we can survive and be successful, but what happens when you achieve success? When you accomplish all of the goals everyone wants and feel a sense of longing and emptiness in your soul? By then, maybe you realize you miss things from your childhood. Most people are familiar with the feeling of nostalgia, but it often stops there.
Maybe we’ll do something every once in awhile that we haven’t done since we were children. Something ‘silly’, then feel ridiculous for doing it, or maybe even hold back as we take the actions. Maybe you will get on the carousel but feel embarrassed. You may feel that people are judging you, and maybe they are. We’re at times shamed for ‘acting like children’ as adults, it’s looked down on and most people spend the rest of their lives sitting with nostalgia and doing nothing about it because of the shame that is laid on them.
The idea of a spiritual Carnival to me was one that held such incredible possibilities. The chance to do something people might not understand, that might be judged. To explore and remember the pieces and parts of ourselves we left behind. To bring them back and appreciate the magic they held for us and go into different places that we’ve shut down in ourselves or closed off. To re-awaken the inner child and see life from a place of child-like wonder, to immerse one’s self in a spiritual and sensory experience and let the mind wander where it may.
I wanted to see where the journey would take me. I had long been pondering nostalgia, the feeling of doing things for the first time and how over time, repeated exposure to the same activity or situations, the magic wears off and we become bored with things that once gave us so much pleasure. I thought about how to get that feeling back or how to regain the feeling of enjoyment.
What would it be like to re-enter the Carnival, a spiritual carnival, as an adult? To reopen one’s self to this, in a relatively safe environment, from the comfort of your own home or wherever you may be logging on from, and share the experience with other people? What might we learn, uncover or remember?
Doing this as a group, as a community and sharing experiences, we not only get to enjoy ourselves and find out things about ourselves, but also about each other. We often will see parts of ourselves reflected back to us in the words of others, yet from a different perspective than our own. We all have our own unique perspective and life experience that is only ours. This can give us insights but it can also blind us. Having a group to share in and explore with can illuminate points and perspectives we may not see otherwise and it makes the entire experience richer.
The Carnival itself, the sights and attractions can awaken things within us. So too can seeing the results of others. If you’re willing to step into the Darkness, to reconnect with the lost parts of yourself and release judgment, what will you find?
Maybe it is what you’ve been longing for. The joy that was lost, the pleasure and things you were told were gone and left in the past.
There’s only one way to find out.
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Mania
Practitioner at Jackalope
~Divine Dissonance & the Sacred Grotesque~
We are, largely in part, a disconnected society from the world and the interwoven nature of our 'human breed', something most walk through every day with little to no regard to what they are partaking in and how beguiling it really is.
It's true to state that when we choose to approach life sensually -- to really see, smell, taste, touch and hear as a mortal spirit and not merely a functional vessel, we become more attuned to the hidden lying in plain sight.
And to do so, extends our contact with what lies beyond the veil as well.
There are expressions in this world which act as innate gateways into that revelation of the spirit, and the most truly penetrating are those of dissonance.
Dissonance can be defined as
the anomalous, discordant, and unharmonious. This is central to the paranormal as manifest in our world and it is the usurper that by it's appearance, causes us to understand the phenomenal.Luckily for us in the exploitative parade of unseen brutalities, awaits many stimuli to assault the senses. Bringing shock, awe, fear and wonder all at once to our hearts, our intellect and our spiritual core.
The grotesque, obscene, uncanny portents that may arise at any time, in any place, and always when you least expect are so foreign to the complacency of today's abiding citizen.. shunned and deflected, yet made innately sacred in our shunning and deflection. Like a holy relic none should look upon, we enhance fear by fearing.
At the same time we are cloaking it, keeping it safe by administering a pandora's jar that tempts us into a controlled falsehood of the likeness.. horror movies, pseudo-reality television, the evening news..
That misleading taste of the forbidden which spurs us or we can make simple jest about because it's been integrated into our daily dealings. Isn't that in itself a merry-go-round of dread?
But what categorizes the truly sacred grotesque.. these are not merely the things our practical nightmares are made of, no.. but the dissonant and unfathomable entry of them.
When those uniquely provocative, perplexing energies of the dissonant course through us in an instant they awaken the otherworldly through the distorted, disillusioned perspective. The reality that this existence in which we live, is in actuality a dormant sideshow seeking reconciliation.. to marry abnormality with normality for divine solace.
Fundamental truths we avoid and overlook, given how they twist and turn our senses into places we don't know what to do with or how to deal with, are the juxtaposition to a mundane comprehension and experience of life.
These are the things which cause us to take pause, and therefore -- vividly receive the elements surrounding us.. to attune to our perception, where we once were walking along disregarding.
The lines blur of dream and now, real and surreal; one can find and transcend a veil that most of us willingly reinforce by avoiding what we deem 'perturbing'.
I ask.. What disturbs the bliss or comfort or normality of your physical being? What is it you least want to think about right now, or in any perfectly contented moment of your waking life?
Now the unimaginable takes shape.
This hyper-reality, lingering and seeping deep into the recesses, marks a gateway into the metaphysical when surrendered to. It occurs via the upheaval of our expectations and personal boundaries or conditions.
What transmits to be unshakeable by our body and consciousness, the creeping memory and feeling that lingers long after the fact, is inconceivable in the manner of supernatural phenomena.
In other words the supernatural begins with you; a heightened awareness of what is around you in it's gritty and overlooked aspect. For the mundane cognition this is serving as a natural shamanic doorway to that beyond.
We ourselves have made this so, we are the dreamer and the dream.
The shadows of our internal world are the exquisite devils, strangers, holding out a hand to us.. Taking it can go so far as to facilitate out of body experiences, dishevel psyche at the root.. shaking loose an apple of discordant wisdom.
Is it the dissection of a frog in your school days?.. every little vein so palpable, beautifully vivid and fragile. Masks worn like flesh upon muscle and bone. Or something far more sinister?.. What makes you cringe, what loosens the tethers of your mind, what makes you unwell or tense or morbidly afraid? What are the phobias, what are the unpleasantries, what are the oppositional, disorienting horrors you face?
These are your spiritual liberators, if you allow them to be.
Some such realities are universally triggering to us as human beings, entombed in the memories of our ancestors; many come together to characterize an underbelly unique to the individual.. we each have different things we cannot or will not face that make our heart race, make us unnerved, disgusted or unhinged. Recognizing these, and actively looking them dead in the eye is the divine sadism of our mortal will! Often what we least want to experience but therein the pathway to mysteries of the modern self, the modern age. Mysteries in which we are all welcome to partake and evolve through, though initiation still implores a descent to the underworld..
So wondrous it is, how the most uncomfortable things we can fathom and cannot have such power to transform us, for better or worse.. the key is allowing oneself to delve into the abominable, to entertain the disconcerting, in order to illuminate oneself to the incredible.
When we find ourselves in that place, entertaining what dwells beneath the surface of a body or a moment or a world.. thriving or dessicate, suddenly the beauties and splendors come alight as well. Nuances of matter and being illustrated within our human experience, liberating thusly the spiritual decadence of our higher being.
Just like the bruises imprinted upon every day existence that send a shockwave through the spine making us more alert, more HERE.. a conscious, willing exploration into those reaches of pure energy enliven your psychic mind and spiritual bonds. A little death here, a gasp or a moan, can only bring release to the once unknown.
