The Psychic Guide
Part 3: M-R
The Psychic Guide was a popular and integral part of the Diary for many years. I’m not sure which year it first appeared – it ‘s in the 1994 Diary, the earliest that I have in my archives (f you have any of the earlier Elfin Diaries, I’d love to see them!) Originally subtitled “A Miscellany of Curious Information”, it was just that – items that Caroline thought were interesting and / or odd. It was edited, updated and added to every year, and I intend to likewise keep this web version regularly updated.
The Macrocosm & The Microcosm
The macrocosm can be compared to a massive oak tree that has been growing longer than anyone can remember. This tree has lived through many changes in its lifetime. The microcosm is like the acorns from the tree which get scattered on the ground. They can be a great distance from the tree, scattered by the wind and animals but still containing part of the tree (if only in the acorn’s genetic code). Gradually these acorns become other trees, gathering new experiences with the strength and qualities of their parent already present.
The macrocosm is all the universe, galaxies, stars, planets and all the space in between. The microcosm is a miniature version and is the atoms, molecules, cells, subatomic particles and all the space in between them; we call this man. Therefore the universe is like a human organism on a giant scale and man a miniature copy, like the oak tree and the acorn. The idea is that man is a perfect replica of the macrocosm and that by exploring and using his own individual potential he can grow enough to understand and blend in with the universe as a whole, as the potential of an acorn to become an oak tree. The universe used to be a mass of energy filled with life potential or life essence in total harmony with itself; gradually the forces of change built up and the whole thing exploded sending millions of pieces all over the universe. One of these pieces is mankind, which vibrates with the same energy as the original mass but is separate (like the acorn when it falls off the tree). Some of the pieces of the essence divided over and over, while some formed into individual spirits which experience more intense forms of separateness by entering into dense physical matter; each bit had a small fragment of the original mass in it that vibrated with the same Life essence that is in every living thing.
We have all the knowledge and experience of all that original mass inside us; but we all grow our separate lives as well as having computer-like records of everything that has gone on before stored in us. When this life essence has been expanded to its capacity for knowledge, then it will gradually start to contract over millions of years and all the separate parts will come together again. But, because of the extra experience of all the bits that have been flying around the universe learning and experiencing, it will be different. The big new oak tree it will reform into will have lots of different branches added to it.
Magic
Magic is the ability, through training and natural skill, to manipulate a little known natural force to achieve changes in the magician’s or other people’s consciousness and to effect changes in the physical environment. This force is neutral in its normal state and can be used for good or ill. Magic is the conscious application of the laws of nature to utilise this force.
Manichaeism
Manichaeism was founded in the third century AD by the Iranian prophet Mani, who taught that the cosmos was a spiritual battlegound between Dark(evil) and Light(goodness), and that people had to continually fight for Light to overcome the evil Dark. It was a major world religion for the next 800 or so years, spreading through the Middle East and into China and Tibet. Suppressed and persecuted for centuries, it eventually became subsumed into Toasism and Buddhism.
Mary Baker Eddy
Mary Baker Eddy (1821 – 1910) was the founder of Christian Science. She taught that all matter and suffering is an illusion and that there is no personal God. Her rejection of hygiene, doctors and medicine for healing was not only because of her belief that sickness arises solely out of spiritual disturbance, but also because Jesus didn’t use any of those for healing; she also taught that nobody had any need to learn about health. These beliefs have unfortunately (and utterly predictably) led to many avoidable deaths.
Meditation
A means of allowing the deepest self to speak. Meditation is really only deep thinking, concentrated and free from distractions. It has an energising process.
Miracles
These are a flow of energy taking their natural form without any hindrance from man.
Mormonism
Also known as the Latter Day Saints movement, this was founded by Joseph Smith in the 1820s. Smith claimed he had been directed by an angel to the burial place of some golden plates that were inscribed in an unknown language; he was able to translate this writing, which turned out to be The Book of Mormon, the Mormons’ sacred book. This described how numerous Israelite families travelled from pre-Christian Palestine and populated the Americas; Jesus also travelled to America after His resurrection. Mormons regard themselves as Christian and also hold the Bible as sacred.
Names
The ancient Egyptians believed that the name of a person was one of their ‘bodies’, if you didn’t have a name you couldn’t ‘go on’ when you died, and you fell into the void. If you change your name, you change your vibrations. Most magicians assume different names because our names rule the nature of the events that gravitate towards us.
Numerology
The ancient scientific study of the connection between numbers and events in our everyday world. It was practised successively in the Vedic tradition of ancient India, by the ancient Chaldeans and Greeks and more recently by western numerologists. Numerologists can make a numerical analysis of a person’s name and birthdate and can then describe some of his or her important personality traits and point out any special potential for achievement.
Nirvana
Buddha said that there is a way out of the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth: to step off the wheel of Karma into Nirvana. In Sanskrit it means ‘blown out’ or extinguished’. Rebirth being the result of desire, freedom from rebirth signifies the removal of desire; so the flame is extinguished. Nirvana is a state of complete calm where cleansed souls dwell, free from space and time.
Ogdoad
This is a group of eight deities worshipped in Egypt’s Old Kingdom from 2686 to 2134 BC., centring around the city of Hermopolis. It consisted of four male and four female divinities, each pair representing different aspects of the four primordial elements (water, infinity, invisibility and darkness). Eventually, these eight combined to give birth to Ra, the Sun god.
The Oh-My-God! Particle
This is not a joke. On the evening of the 15th October 1991, astrophysicists in Utah detected a space particle travelling at an astonishing and unprecedented speed of 99.999+% of the speed of light. Since then, hundreds of similar high-energy particles have been detected, all of them apparently originating somewhere around the Ursa Major constellation. Not to be confused with the God Particle.
Parallel Universes
Also Multiverse/Many Worlds. This is a theory that other universes exist alongside our own. The concept has existed for millennia – the ancient Greek philosophy of Atomism proposed that an infinite number of other worlds existed alongside our own; in 1952 Erwin Schrödinger said that his equations showed that “multiple histories” could exist simultaneously. However, many physicists have argued against the idea, on the basis that it’s a metaphysical concept that – while interesting – cannot be either proved or disproved.
Paracelsus
Born Theophrastus von Hohenheim, Pracelsus was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance. A pioneer in several aspects of the medical revolution of the Renaissance, he emphasised the value of observation in combination with received wisdom. Having years of practical experience working as a physician and army surgeon, he became a highly vocal critic of the conventional medical practices of the time, Called the “father of toxicology”, he originated the phrase “The dose makes the poison.”
Petrichor
This is the name of the earthy scent released when rain falls on dry soil; the word was coined in 1964 by two Australian scientists who put together the Greek words for stone (petra) and the fluid that flows through the veins of gods (ichor). It’s produced by a compound called geosmin released by soil bacteria, plus an oil that plants secrete into the soil during drought as a kind of survival mechanism. The aroma of petrichore signals the end of a drought, which is perhaps why humans find it so pleasant.
Philosophy
Philosophy is an organised system of belief and knowledge which seeks to explain the universe, the natural forces operating in the universe, the purpose of existence, the correct manner of organising and living one’s life and our relation to the world and each other.
Precession of the Equinoxes
This is caused by the gravitational attraction of the Sun and Moon on the bulge at the Earth’s equator, which causes a slow backwards movement of the Equinoctial point (0° Aries) along the Sun’s apparent path amongst the stars during the year. The complete retrograde (backwards) cycle of the Equinoctial Point takes about 25,800 years. It is because of precession that astrology is frequently challenged by those sceptics who think the zodiacal signs are the constellations of the same name and who point out that when astrologers say that the Sun is in Aries 0° degrees (at the spring equinox) it is actually 5 degrees into the constellation of Pisces at the present time. (This applies only to Western astrology, by the way; Vedic astrology does not divide the 360 degrees of the Zodiac into even 30° slices, but uses the movements of the planets through the modern constellations that we see. )
Precognition
The personal knowledge, not founded on prior knowledge or events, that some future event is to occur. Precognition can come in dreams, thoughts, feelings or sensations and can apply to people or situations such as fires or earthquakes.
Psychokinesis
The ability to move objects using only the power of the mind.
Pyramids
Pyramids have been built in many parts of the world, not just Egypt. They can be found in the Middle East, North Africa, Central America, Mexico, China, Indonesia and India. The earliest pyramidal structures were the ziggurats in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) which were built around 3000 BC. Most pyramid structures were used as temples, and pyramids built solely as tombs are fairly rare. There is no mystery about how any of them were built – it just needed lots and lots of human labour, plus basic engineering knowledge.
Quantum Mechanics
Quantum mechanics is the fundamental theory in physics that describes the behaviour of matter and light at the atomic and subatomic scales. Unlike classical mechanics, it reveals that energy is discrete (quantized), particles behave like waves, and measurements are probabilistic rather than deterministic. It defines technologies like transistors, lasers, and MRI machines.
Reincarnation
Reincarnatiin, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that nonmaterial essence of a living being begins a new lifetime in a different physical form or body after biological death. It’s a central tenet of Buddhism, Hinduism, Sihkism and Jainism, along with various esoteric systems such as Kabbalah, Manicheaism and Gnosticism.
Remote Viewing
An ability similar to clairvoyance whereby individuals can supposedly view specific locations, objects and events that can be anywhere – other cities, countries or even planets. The USA spent 20 million dollars on Project Stargate (a scientific project researching remote viewing), and psi research over a period of 20 years, but concluded that it simply didn’t work.
Rosicrucianism
A 17th century group of monks who claimed to have found secret and powerful mystical knowledge. The original founder in the 14th or 15th century was a German, Christian Rosenkreutz (Rosy Cross), who it is claimed, lived to 106 years of age. He was educated by monks and when young went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land before going on to Arabia and Egypt. He learnt much along the way before returning to Germany. For a while he became a hermit, before forming the order of The Rosy Cross with four friends. They invented a secret language and were concerned with medical matters, particularly healing. The Rosicrucian Order exists today and is a world wide educational and philosophical organisation.