Pure Energy Work

[Elf Lord Chiewn]

missmagpie

Elf Lord Chiewn

Having a shield up constantly doesn't mean you're dealing with more outside pressures than usual.

I'm pretty sure I didn't say that. What I meant is that if/when a shield comes down you may be unequipped to deal with what you were keeping out. Doesn't mean it's any more or less than normal.

Fair enough.
My intent with shields is usually both protection and energy training, so that once they come down I won't have to bother putting up new ones.

missmagpie

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The main downside I experienced that was in any way similar was when when I strongly overcompensated in order to drive a perceived group of threats away before actually having to encounter them and got myself sick for a month because I exceeded my healthy output at that time.

Oh I've been there. Burning yourself out is so not fun. That's partially why I'm very selective with when and how I use my shields. Exhausting yourself to keep out something small seems like such a waste.

Not if it teaches you something worthwhile.
I'm glad I found out that I can expend more energy than I have available at any given time.  

[VisasMarr]

Fiddlers Green

In my society we call what you just described, Visas, as Geomantic Resonance. Any sort of impression that has had lasting and noticable effects on the geomany of an area, especially to the point of creating a repeated remnant of a strong emotion or such is considered a Twisted, Altered, or Maligned Geomancy. Tis why we are supposed to be so concious of the after affects of our actions, and just grounding into the local geomancy.
Now, this is not the same (altho the two can affect each other) as the Natural Resonance of an area (determined by the existant, unaltered Geomancy, and possible Genus Loci of the regio).
Of course, this is just my Society's public opinion of the matter.

Interesting. I've never heard of that, or come across it at all... I will be looking into it more. Thanks smile

Elf Lord Chiewn

I strongly dislike being in a certain habitation where a murder took place.

I've never been aware if I have been in a place where such a thing took place, I couldn't say how it *feels*, though I imagine it would definitly creep me out. I used to think places felt weird because people died there, but after watching my grandmother die, it didn't feel like I was trespassing or that something malignant had grown there, it just felt kind of empty, completly dead in regards that *sense*... haha, if that's what it is.. I can't say I feel confident that I'm not just off of my rocker.  

[Pelta]

Elf Lord Chiewn

I'm glad I found out that I can expend more energy than I have available at any given time.

Uhhh... Even if it leaves you sick for a month? I suppose if you're really desperate...

VisasMarr: I think what people sense in nasty places like where murders took place is residual malice. It aint nice, and sometimes effects the whole energy system of the place. People dying naturally wouldn't leave that much of a backlog because dying (sometimes) is a perfectly natural, peaceful thing.

Except when my grandfather's spirit made the huge tree fall down and the lights go out when we gutted my grandmother's house. He was not happy. He also left the tree hanging right over part of the porch, as if to say, "If you don't do this right..."  

[Fiddlers Green]

Sometimes you need that extra little omph immediately, even if it means days, months, or even seasons of recuperating... I tend to call these situations emergencies, but I've been known to be an alarmist. whee  

[Pelta]

Fiddlers Green

Sometimes you need that extra little omph immediately, even if it means days, months, or even seasons of recuperating... I tend to call these situations emergencies, but I've been known to be an alarmist. whee

xd True. I just hope it's gonna be something big to keep you out of action for that long. Actually I don't hope there's ever anything big at all. That's the better thing to hope for...  

[Elf Lord Chiewn]

missmagpie

Elf Lord Chiewn

I'm glad I found out that I can expend more energy than I have available at any given time.

Uhhh... Even if it leaves you sick for a month? I suppose if you're really desperate...

Considering that "sick for a month" didn't mean "utterly incapacitated," I consider it to have been well worth the price.

I'm a bit of an alarmist myself, I suppose.
But I'd rather spend a year recuperating after the big fight than lose it.

I think I need the occasional big confrontation.  

[Elf Lord Chiewn]

VisasMarr

I can't say I feel confident that I'm not just off of my rocker.

Welcome to Earth.
Food and drinks are to the left, annoying proselytizers are in hell. wink  

[Deoridhe]

Okay, other wuestions.

First of all, what is all of your opinions on "battries". I find that very often I have more energy (on the scale of five to ten times) than I need for any given task. Is setting it aside store or locked somehow a good idea, or not?

Another question is on energy quality. Do you think energy can have elemental or physical qualities (water energy, poison energy, etc...)? If you do, how would you characterize "formless" energy? As a concept, can it even exist, or is the energy we produce automatically tainted by us?

And how many people here who took physics are really squirming at the loose use of the term "energy"?  

[Starlock]

Deoridhe

First of all, what is all of your opinions on "battries". I find that very often I have more energy (on the scale of five to ten times) than I need for any given task. Is setting it aside store or locked somehow a good idea, or not?

Iiiiinteresting...

I'm not sure you can actually save up or store energy somewhere. Well, scratch that. I've used foci to store energy before such as a crystaline necklace and the like, but I haven't experimented with this much. I first tried this sort of thing before I even knew of the modern Witchcraft and Neopagan movements and the energy quality was never as good. However, I keep a charge on my athame nowadays and that one almost seems to amplify what I put into it rather than degrade it. The quality and retention of the stored energy probably depends on the substance you're using and your own mental bond to it.

Deoridhe

Another question is on energy quality. Do you think energy can have elemental or physical qualities (water energy, poison energy, etc...)? If you do, how would you characterize "formless" energy? As a concept, can it even exist, or is the energy we produce automatically tainted by us?

This is a tough one. I don't have any firm stances on this, just some hypothetical ideas based on what I've seen, experienced, and read. I think that for sure on some level people decide subjectively to label their experiences in a manner that suits them. From that angle, if someone labels an energy as having a quality, to them it does. I'm not sure if this is really an intrinsic quality to the energy itself, though, or if it is just a projection of its function that we place onto it. It may be that energy is energy is energy; it's just that when it is directed in different ways we experience it a bit differently and so we use different labels for it. Am I making sense or should I try to explain this again? confused

Deoridhe

And how many people here who took physics are really squirming at the loose use of the term "energy"?

It doesn't bother me, but then, multiple definitions of words never really bothers me; multiple definitions exist because they each are valid and useful in different contexts. When speaking of energy in the metaphysical sense, clearly we mean something a bit different than energy in the scientific sense. Energy in a metaphysical sense is more about subjective feeling than measurable physical phenomena.  

[Pelta]

Deoridhe

Okay, other wuestions.

Oh yay! I'm totally a wuss! blaugh

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First of all, what is all of your opinions on "battries". I find that very often I have more energy (on the scale of five to ten times) than I need for any given task. Is setting it aside store or locked somehow a good idea, or not?

I hadn't thought of this. I would think energy stored somewhere would either have to change, degrade or move somewhere else after a while. It isn't exactly static. It might take more willpower than it's worth to keep it stored for too long. But then again I haven't tried. It may well be possible under certain conditions.

What I do quite often is pour stuff into stones, usually to program them. But that as well degrades after a while and needs to be recharged. Except citrine. Cuz citrine's great. whee

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Another question is on energy quality. Do you think energy can have elemental or physical qualities (water energy, poison energy, etc...)?

I think it can have certain qualities that remind you of those things. You know how someone can have a "sunny" nature, or their head in the clouds. In a way that's like associating them with those concepts. So I would say energy can have associations to concepts depending on their impressions on the user.

I think it can take on certain associations depending on what someone wants to do with it. Some practises ascertain that spiritual energy is a combination of the other four alchemical elements. So what could be theoretically possible, coming at it from that angle, is to bring out certain components of it. So to make formless energy (if such a thing exists) take on the qualities of fire one can bring out or enhance what is already present.

I wouldn't do things like that. I impose form, as opposed to extracting it. I tend to see the stuff like a medium, like clay, that can be shaped into structures and concepts. Until shaped by exterior factors it is intrinsically formless. But that of course becomes problematic because exterior factors are constantly at play.

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If you do, how would you characterize "formless" energy? As a concept, can it even exist, or is the energy we produce automatically tainted by us?

I haven't really thought about these things much, so thanks for asking excellent questions. I know I already previously mentioned formless energy. However, the concept of purity is something virtually nonexistant in practise. Is it possible to have pure energy? In practise, I don't think so. The energy of places, people and things all take on different characteristics depending on the influences present. The aforementioned house where a murder took place is a good example. The concept of pure, formless energy is likely only a concept. But then again this is all pure speculation.

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And how many people here who took physics are really squirming at the loose use of the term "energy"?

Didn't take physics, but we could change the term if you prefer. The problem is finding a decent one that isn't tainted with cultural significance or fluffy connotations. Chi doesn't work. Neither does Ether. I generally don't think of it as having a name. It's just "Stuff." And nasty "Stuff" is just "Ick." xp  

[TatteredAngel]

Deoridhe

And how many people here who took physics are really squirming at the loose use of the term "energy"?

Not having any other great insights elsewhere, I thought I'd touch on this. Yes, I squirm a little. I squirm when I conceptualizing things for myself half the time. I was raised to be a skeptic, and I am. Everything I do requires either an acknowledgement to myself that it may well all be psychodrama or thorough investigation.

I get very frustrated, because I dabble in quantum physics, but I am by no means a math or physics person, so I end up stumbling around concepts a lot. However I know that if I am talking "energy," in a magical sense, I also have to take it in the context of what I know, and that's the quantum physical. I've heard witchy people trying to toss around "quantum physics" as an explanation for magic, including Her Majesty Ravenfluff, and that makes it even harder to make serious connections.

That said, I still try, because I believe that if I'm working with real energy, I'm still working with the sciency kind. And I'm comfortable with not having all the answers because we don't even have all the answers for what we already know to be true and easily observable. Just wrapping my head around the idea that matter is made up of tiny vibrations is magic in and of itself. The world is weird, and we are scientifically aware of that weirdness, which is actually pretty comforting for me.  

[Fiddlers Green]

Deoridhe

First of all, what is all of your opinions on "battries". I find that very often I have more energy (on the scale of five to ten times) than I need for any given task. Is setting it aside store or locked somehow a good idea, or not?

If you have spare, I don't see why not... it may depreciate over time, but it still may be a good idea...
Like storing food for emergencies...
On an aside, pillaging energy from active circuits to store I would object to.

Quote:

Another question is on energy quality. Do you think energy can have elemental or physical qualities (water energy, poison energy, etc...)? If you do, how would you characterize "formless" energy? As a concept, can it even exist, or is the energy we produce automatically tainted by us?

Based on the operational definition we are using for Energy (my society uses the term Vis) I would say there are many different flavours.
all depending on the circuits they are operating in and other factors.
They may be able to be altered, or even changed to different flavours...
Sometimes thru natural means as the geomancy runs from one landscape to another, from a river of fresh water to a sea of salt... salt that is collected and eaten by people protesting unfair laws in India... people who then die and become food for worms, worms which go on my hook and catch a fish fo- Well, you get the idea. wink
Typeless, or raw Energy is just fine conceptually, but actuallizing it would be very difficult, if even possible... Isolating it from any system which would grant it a flavour would be an interesting project...

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And how many people here who took physics are really squirming at the loose use of the term "energy"?

I squirmed at the raw arrogance of my physics professor...
I despised his ability to blithely and dogmatically press his pet theoreys (those he favoured, and those he created) on us without satisfactoraly answering simple Whys and Hows... it really enbittered me to the "Scientific" community as a whole.
Also, I am of the Mutually Intellegible camp of language theorists... generally not caring quite so much about a(n alledgedly) misused word, so long as clear communication occurs.  

[Deoridhe]

Fiddlers Green

Typeless, or raw Energy is just fine conceptually, but actuallizing it would be very difficult, if even possible... Isolating it from any system which would grant it a flavour would be an interesting project...

And might or might not be ultimately fruitless. When I think of "formless energy," I tend to think of Ginungigap, but that is, itself, a flavor - as it were.  

[Deoridhe]

Okay, another thought - what's your view on dreams and how they scan in to energy work? For instance, I had been storing energy in a ring of mine, more as something to do than any goal in particular, and then dreamed about the stones in it cracking and falling apart. I interpreted this to mean my idea wasn't the greatest and so stopped; valid call? Questionable?  

[TeaDidikai]

Deoridhe

Okay, another thought - what's your view on dreams and how they scan in to energy work? For instance, I had been storing energy in a ring of mine, more as something to do than any goal in particular, and then dreamed about the stones in it cracking and falling apart. I interpreted this to mean my idea wasn't the greatest and so stopped; valid call? Questionable?

I tend to come down on the side of "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar". I hold that not all dreams have meaning and take into account the intellegence of the individual in question when they wonder if a dream has meaning.

I am also a huge fan of Sacred Sleep- and tend to practice it quite often. In such situations, I am very careful to examine if there is meaning from me or from something else.

It's the animist in me. If I had that dream, I would have asked the gemstones if they were "full". After all, I can cram alot into something. That doesn't mean that something is comfortable.