All posts by Kristi

Kristi Beisecker is a graphic designer, photographer, printmaker and alternative scientist whose interested in making images through two contrasting elements. She is also a blogger in lifestyle, travel, wellness and health, art and design, beauty and fashion.

Altar Table

image by paganspride via ebay

Say hello to my new altar table! I finally found an altar table in my budget range ($25) that I could afford. Apparently I’m going through a transformation and it just feels like the right time to finally set up a permanent altar. Plus I need a place to ground and meditate for work. I just hope it won’t end up being too small, but it looks like the size of a very large laptop to me in the picture. I thought that since I’m going through a transformation it was the right time to make a permanent altar. Yay!

Review: Science and Human Transformation – Subtle Energies, Intentionality and Consciousness

About a month ago I ordered the next book in my research studies, Science and Human Transformation – Subtle Energies, Intentionality and Consciousness by William A. Tiller, PHD. I imagined the book would be a follow up for Tuning the Diamonds by Susan A. Renison. While I am not quite done with the book I’ve got about a chapter left, I will write the review. The book is definitely a step up from Tuning the Diamonds in technicality but the subject is for the most part is similar if not the same.

This book deals with these supersensible domains of Nature and how we might expand our present-day scientific thinking to meaningfully map out these new territories. The break with the past will come, in part, by accepting that, like light and sound, our present band of cognition gives us a window on only a very small portion of Nature’s total modes of expression. Likewise, space and time, although key variables the brain uses for cognition of the information impinging on our physical sensor arrays, are not necessarily the only nariables or the best variables for cognition of the broader domains of Nature. – Preface (pg iX).

Tiller spent many years researching subtle energies and their effects on human intentionality and consciousness. The book begins similarly to most books on the subject of metaphysics and subtle energies where the scientist tries to change the current “paradigm” of modern physics to include subtle energies and their thoughts on the subject. I don’t think changing the paradigm of modern physics is the right answer, but rather create a new universal model to include subtle energies, which I suppose could be seen as the same thing? The first chapter has discussions such as; A Biological Radiation Detector, A Few Other Psychokinesis Studies, Monitoring Subtle Energy Events in A Healer, Some Photographic Evidence of Subtle Energies, A Partial Catalogue of Subtle Energy Phenomena, Children As Subtle Energy Detectors, Magnetism As A Factor In The Subtle Energy Arena and A Working Hypothesis. This book is definitely not for someone who is new to the subject and has no scientific background of the Universe. It is a fabulous follow up for Tuning the Diamonds, but it definitely could use some work. The Source Field by David Wilcock and Tuning the Diamonds by Susan A Renison have one thing in common and that is a theory or overall concept where they research their concept and write the book according to their own theory/concept. The difference in Science and Human Transformation by William A. Tiller is that there isn’t a major theory/concept but discussions and reports from experiments he’s done. So it is a little hard to follow for the average reader if they, again, do not have a scientific background regarding the Universe. However, it is an excellent book to provide “food for thought” as it describes experiments done by Tiller and his colleagues.

 

There is an unseen matrix which gives form to the seen. It is in constant flow and harmony through an instantaneous exchange of information in every direction. From a higher dimensional perspective the multiplicity of seemingly disparate laws that govern our observational experiences appear to come from a common simple origin. According to Tiller, “—the entire human species seems to be part of one vast organism”. Thus, each individual influences the dynamic equilibrium of this multidimensional model. In Tiller’s negative space/time model, the subtle energies which make up our etheric body vibrate at speeds fast than light. The flow is not only outward, but echoes back to the source in a panholographic pattern that reflects the state of each individual element,  the part reflecting the whole and the whole influenced by every part. Each person may be defined in terms of a vibrational tone, merging with others into chords creating greater or lesser harmony, all part of a grand symphony with harmonic and subharmonic scales and overtones all merging into the one note of Creation, the vibration of love. – Preface,Science and Human Transformation (pg iX)

 

The next book I am going to read next is ‘Morphic Resonance: The Nature of Formative Causation’ Rupert Sheldrake. I’m excited for this book. Sheldrake please don’t let me down 🙁

When A New Science of Life was first published the British journal Nature called it “the best candidate for burning there has been for many years.” The book called into question the prevailing mechanistic theory of life when its author, Rupert Sheldrake, a former research fellow of the Royal Society, proposed that morphogenetic fields are responsible for the characteristic form and organization of systems in biology, chemistry, and physics–and that they have measurable physical effects. Using his theory of morphic resonance, Sheldrake was able to reinterpret the regularities of nature as being more like habits than immutable laws, offering a new understanding of life and consciousness.

In the years since its first publication, Sheldrake has continued his research to demonstrate that the past forms and behavior of organisms influence present organisms through direct immaterial connections across time and space. This can explain why new chemicals become easier to crystallize all over the world the more often their crystals have already formed, and why when laboratory rats have learned how to navigate a maze in one place, rats elsewhere appear to learn it more easily. With more than two decades of new research and data, Rupert Sheldrake makes an even stronger case for the validity of the theory of formative causation that can radically transform how we see our world and our future.

RUPERT SHELDRAKE, Ph.D., is a former research fellow of the Royal Society and former director of studies in biochemistry and cell biology at Clare College, Cambridge University. He is the author of more than 80 technical papers and articles appearing in peer-reviewed scientific journals and 10 books, including The Presence of the Past, The Rebirth of Nature, and Seven Experiments That Could Change the World.

In the future

I keep having a vision of me working in my trolley studio and she is sitting on the bench near my desk on her laptop smiling over at me while I talk to a client on the phone. Its’ strangely incredibly romantic, the love of my life working along beside me in my studio. Alas, but it it only a vision… and not reality.

Weekly Tarot #13

nine of wands – knight.swords – two of pentacles – king of wands | Looks like some kind of conversation between a king of wands male (probably my boss). I’m gonna feel stressed some how next week.  Yes, I definitely had a conversation with my boss about the menu I am redesigning.

Next Week’s Reading:

Six of cups – Three of wands – Seven of Coins – Eight of cups

Return. Longing, waiting/receiving. Frustration/Failure. Crossroads.

Tremont Tearoom Menu

Alex – my boss or the “Guardian” – at the Tearoom asked me to redesign the menu. In order to produce more for the same amount I split a 8.5 x 11 page into 8.5 x 5.5 so they could print out two menus in one sheet of paper.  I used the colors that are painted on the walls of the tearoom and the image on the cover is one they already use on their facebook page. I just fiddled with the type until I got it to be spaced out nicely. Not too fond of the yellow color as the header for the pricings, but it works.

 

 

Libro de Lumine – Book of Light

Since I’m not wiccan, I follow a spirituality that is based on eastern influences more so than pagan or wiccan influences. Its’ a personal “mysticism”. I fell in love with the look of a grimoire but wanted something that fit me stylistically better. I found this cool stencil at AC Moore and it was a swastika which is a perfect symbol to represent the way I see the world, but it is stylized and not obvious. I found the corner adornments at michaels as well as the leather. I wanted a journal where I could print things out and take pages out if I needed to. I think one of the many reasons why I don’t fill a bounded journal is because I hate writing, but typing I don’t mind. SO I’m going to print out pages from my blog and things I find on the internet. It’ll be nice to have a physical journal of my spiritual experiences. I just need to find a lock… 🙂

Altar/Meditation Space

Since spirituality seems to be an ever increasing presence in my life, I think its about time to get an altar/meditation space. My current desktop altar isn’t cutting it. I need a space in my room that is *specifically* for meditations. I’ve been thinking about cleaning out one corner of my room that faces west. Now the religion I have only really known to use an altar is the Wiccan/Pagan religion and they align their altars to North. But my desktop and computer area is already facing north and there is no way am I going to move my desk around. My desk came with a miniature extension table to store a printer. Since I’m home from school, I’m gonna have to clean that off since its’ storing craft supplies right now and move my printer to it. Once I clean that area out I think I will have enough space for a small meditation altar.

HOWEVER, this space is facing West. So I’ve been doing research about the significance of having an altar face West and apparently there’s some significance from the eastern traditions which is perfect.

 

In the Buddhist tradition,

B. The Location of a Buddhist Altar

It is ideal to set up a Buddhist altar in a dedicated room. If the building is of two or more stories, it is proper to set it up on the top floor. If there is no dedicated room available, a quiet place or a room which can be closed up for quiet meditation at the regular practice time should be selected.

The orientation of a Buddhist altar depends on the main Buddha worshipped. If the practitioner majors in the Pureland school, the main Holiness should be Amitabha Buddha And hence the altar

should be oriented toward the East. In case of the Healing Buddha who eliminates misfortunes and prolongs lives, it should be orientated toward the West. (All notes below are added into the English translation by Dr. Lin. Note 1: Amitabha Buddha’s Pureland is in the West, hence the altar ideally is to be set up such that when we face Him, we are facing the West. A similar remark applies to the case of the Healing Buddha whose Pureland is in the East.) If the wall available is not of the ideal orientation, it is also fine to ignore this point. It is proper to select a wall with sufficient illumination so that it is easier for the practitioner to concentrate on gazing at the holy images .

The north doesn’t feel right to me. I just don’t seem to have any spiritual connection to the North, however, only during rituals and meditations do I face the North… I really do feel a strong pull towards to the to set up this altar.

The early Christians also faced West,

Worshippers in the courtyard could witness the sacrifices offered in front of the holy of holies, and knew that therein God dwelt behind a series of curtains, through which only the high priest could pass.  Priests and people faced west toward the Presence of God, the Shekinah.  With the entrance in the east, sunlight was admitted in the morning, while the structure provided a modicum of shade over the courtyard in the hot afternoon.

Most spiritualists say you should put a place that is easiest for you. Just orientate the ritual/circle to north when you are actually doing one. For some reason I seem to have a strong elemental connection to water (the element of the west) right now. Dunno why.

Upon doing more research however I found this pagan thread in a forum where someone asked the question, The Altar-is it ok to have it facing the west? 

One reply really resonated with me,

Your altar should face the direction that is taught in your tradition. Usually this would be the North or the East. The West is the direction of endings, imagination, the subconscious, and dreams; I don’t know of any tradition which uses it on a regular basis.

Of course!! Subconscious, dreams, imagination, all things related to the third eye! No wonder I feel a strong connection there. But I *DO* like what other traditions say about the Presence of God being in the West. Also I get a lot of sunlight this time of year and to have it shine down on my altar would be cool. So I think that’s settled, I will put near that wall when I’ve saved enough monies for the table I’m thinking about buying.

Weekly Tarot #12

four of pentacles – queen of cups – nine of swords – two of wands | Next week, I’ll be holding onto something, perhaps something emotional related. Something will come up and it’ll cause more worry/stress and indecision. | Well a co-worker of mine convinced me to text Kris this week. He said it was a window of opportunity – after the holiday. I’m anxiously waiting for her to text back. Its getting really ridiculous for me to keep holding on because I want to move on but something tells me I shouldn’t. The week of the 10th something is supposed to happen. I just don’t know what to do anymore and how to handle this emotionally. 

nine of wands – knight.swords – two of pentacles – king of wands

Looks like some kind of conversation between a king of wands male (probably my boss). I’m gonna feel stressed some how next week.

Jessica – “He Sees.”

Ever since my pineal gland has been pulsating occasionally I get random names and such pop into my head. Sometimes they mean nothing at the time, and sometimes they relate to something. As I’ve blogged about before I’ve been going through a lot of heavy emotions lately regarding a relationship that I’m expecting to blossom but I’m really in no position to be the active pursuer anymore. Real frustrating. Anyway, this week a name, Jessica, popped into my head and I thought it was weird because I haven’t been connected to any Jessicas of late. I recently joined an online social network called, Temple Illuminatus and its a bunch of people who are into the occult arts and sciences – not only that but the maturity level is decent, no fluff in other words. I posted my experience as well with a tarot reading I did on it – I never use reversals – so for some reason I felt it was necessary for me to do reversals. I haven’t been great at reading for myself lately because of all these heavy emotions clouding my intuition and judgement.

For the reading I got;

hanged man rv (shadow) – 9/wands (past) – page/cups (present) – king/cups (future) – queen/swords (highlight)

For me, the shadow represents unseen motivations in the situation and the highlight represents something clouding the situation and/or something important to be aware of in the situation.

A fellow temple member contacted me tonight about his insights into the reading and it made total sense. First he sees that the hanged man represents action in something that I don’t see having any action – something that’s been stagnated so to speak – “no more searching for answers, no more needing to wait, maturity, answers.”  9/wands in the past is someone who has been fighting their way through and trying to search for answers. Presently the page of cups is showing, in some decks the page holds a heart crystal in one hand this fellow member sees this as my intuition giving me a message from the heart (a.k.a “Jessica”). In the Future position represents the person or a person who, “responds to emotional needs, a good person to be in love with or with a relationship – compassionate – it is an answer to your prayers“. What about the queen? I asked them. “This could mean you, my friend. – You strike me as very intelligent. This person out there is very, very emotional – something that would be good for you. You might scare her away being, well, too much yourself.” Be more open? I asked. “See this queen as a shadow yes. More your inner feelings… less talk – more on her level for now. They need this at least in the beginning. See it as a warning to still be you, but not as boldly. “ My friend continued the conversation by returning to the hanged man – “This refers to your ‘actions’ – will you take the advice once you meet this person, or will you take no action.. and blow it all away by scaring them away… without showing how emotional of a side you have. I see this as a wonderful omen.” Me too!! That’s why I asked cause it was so clear. I exclaimed. “Keep your senses open now… you need to be ready… you may have only one first impression here – or – a second chance.” After this I excitedly go search for the meaning of the name “Jessica”! Why had I never thought of the symbolic, etymological or metaphorical meaning of the name Jessica!!! Jessica \j(e)-ssi-ca\ as a girl’s name is pronounced JESS-a-kah. It is of Hebrew origin, and the meaning of Jessica is “He sees”.“YES…keep your eyes open..be ready to be YOU (from the heart)…and SEE the opportunity…and take it (Hanged Man REV)” affirmed my friend.

Weekly Tarot #11

three of wands – eight of coins – emperor – ace of cups

I have seen the emperor represent agencies or companies that I’ve applied to in the past and having it be next to the eight of coins seems really positive to me. Ace/cups to me in the past HAS represented disappointment but it can also be overwhelming happiness. I just clarified it with the 2/cups so it could just be a new partnership at the marketing firm! Trying to not get ahead of myself here, but the three/wands could represent that I have waited a great deal finally my efforts are paying off and my ships are coming in (job). This look real positive for the office/graphic design position. We’ll see what happens. :-)
Well, yes, I did go to the interview with that company and did come out with a bit of disappointment because the job wasn’t exactly what I’d like to be in it was very basic graphic design and not so much conceptual design. But I did receive positive feedback from my Boss at Tearoom about my first day so that’s good. Just gotta work on my interpersonal skills with them, get back into being my old self.

four of pentacles – queen of cups – nine of swords – two of wands

Next week, I’ll be holding onto something, perhaps something emotional related. Something will come up and it’ll cause more worry/stress and indecision.

 

 

First Day at Tearoom

So things went really well at tearoom today. Just a bit heck tick and hopefully on Wednesday it wouldn’t be as stressful. One of the things that surprised me the most was how hard it was to focus on a person and their question for 30 minutes!! Total shock for me about how difficult it was to milk the reading. I definitely have some catching up to do and more practice. Holy wow. But I liked being there and was comfortable. I only had a one customer who was kinda rude to me either she was rude or just really uptight. So that reading was kinda draining as I tried to keep things going on but she just wouldn’t give me enough feedback to feed off of lol. Anyway I’m sure when things will get easier it’ll be better. But its nice to finally have money coming in. I’m really just amazed that the Tremont Tearoom popped into my head for a place to work and then I emailed them and two weeks later I’m working there lol. I wish a lot of things in my life were this way, but these people actually understand me and my weird quirks. 😛

 

I am really really hoping tomorrow’s interview will come through because I really want to move out and I found a beautiful apartment in Dorchester. Its’ spacious and awesome! I just wish that it was closer to the place I’m interviewing tomorrow, but being in Boston I’ll have plenty to do around where I guess if I move to the countryside there won’t be much to do I’ll just have to drive further, no biggie.

Things seem to be looking up and I do feel like the energies have changed a bit. And honestly I do think the solar flares this week had something to do with it.

I had another pineal session last night and information about the energy of shapes came through. Its’ not much different than qabbalah but I’ll be writing a post on it shortly.

Tremont Tearoom #2

So I went into the Tearoom again and I am officially a psychic there!!! I’m so excited. I’ve always wanted to work/be paid for my spiritual services professionally. I don’t feel comfortable charging for my services as an individual but this is with 19 other psychics so it feels more natural to me to do it this way. The owner was really impressed with my reading I did for me. The only thing he criticized was my obvious nervousness. I did tell them this was my first time reading professionally but I guess it doesn’t matter in this case. I just hope my nervousness is just from being judged and analyzed during the hiring process and it will go away once I start to relax more there. I have 14 hours and work Sundays (12 – 6pm) and Wednesdays (12 – 8pm). My mom was funny she was like, “Well you can always fake being calm“. Yes I could, but psychics tend to be generally sensitive to subtle things like that. 😉
Then one of the other psychics there when he was officiating me said, “The energy in this room feels weird. I’m gonna smudge it again. Its probably because of all the new people.” And I was like, “Sorry its probably my fault.”  😉