Emerald

@Dingo The way I fathom of my life purpose is to integrate all aspects of myself (on the individual level) and to use my knowledge of this integration to help there be more integration on the collective level. Metaphorically, in terms of Femininity, I view my role as to be a conduit for the Great Mother and to encourage the integration of the feminine (Yin), which has been suppressed from integration for many thousands of years... leaving society in a space of pain and aridity. And I try to heal and water this garden through cultivating a deep understanding of human nature and how consciousness grows. And then nurturing and teaching people from exactly where they are. This includes helping people (men and women) understand the nature of the feminine energy beyond the limited societal conscriptions around the feminine... which is the biggest obstacle to feminine integration. So, most people's association with the feminine is based around very few things... mostly beauty, sex, and motherhood. But these things are a drop in the gallon bucket of what femininity actually is. The inside view of feminine energy is all about connection, nature, integration, emotional awareness, stillness, darkness, mystery, compassion, relationship, the subconscious mind, and care for the Earth and all the creatures that crawl upon it. And I see it as my purpose to hold space for, understand, and nurture others and recognizing that all people are just as vulnerable as small children. So, the world is my baby, and I'm going to do my best to help it grow up healthy and strong. But I know I can only do this well in-so-far as all of myself is coming to the table. And it also depends on my masculine side to carve out space in the world for my feminine side. So, it is also my duty to integrate and nurture all aspects of myself, AND to develop my communication skills and forward moving energy as well. Ultimately, all well-developed people who have a life's purpose will need to integrate both their masculine and feminine aspects. Someone who only has their masculine side integrated will be able to express but won't have anything to express. Someone who has only their feminine side integrated will have things to express but won't be able to. The feminine is substance without movement. The masculine is movement without substance. You need both to develop yourself and to impact the world in a positive way.

It's "The Heroine's Journey" by Maureen Murdoch. It's a wonderful book that I read 6 or 7 years ago. It really helped me orient myself to my path. @Dingo

Well, your GF wants to keep the baby. So, you shouldn't try to get her to have an abortion or adopt as clearly she is set on it. So, you can either stay and be a dad, OR you can cut yourself out of their lives and pay child support from a distance. Those are your options. But honestly, I got pregnant when I was 21 and had my daughter at 22, and I've been able to do personal development and pursue my life's purpose just fine. And I'm the heavy-lifting parent out of me and my husband. Also, a great many of my friends had kids when they were 18. And they're doing fine. They have kids in middle school now. My daughter was a surprise to both of us. I wasn't scared. My husband was scared for a day but got used to it. And after we had the baby, it was like, "Honestly, is there anything that we're not doing now that we really want to do." And the answer was no. And having kids is so basic now.

I agree with this. Rule of law should prevail regardless of how it impacts the upcoming election for those on the Democratic side. But the reality of the matter is that rule of law won't be enforced because every single Republican will vote to keep Trump in office to avoid scorn from their constituents. So, the impeachment is a farce that parades itself as rule of law when everything is so partisan and done for political gain. So, nearly all Democrats voted for impeachment and all but one Republican (Amash) voted against impeachment in the house. Clearly, in a cut and dried case of corruption, everyone should be able to see that what Trump did was an impeachable offense. But even if they know that, it's too politically risky to vote for impeachment as a Republican because their constituents will vote them out of office. So, all Republicans (and in lesser degree some moderate Democrats in districts that went to Trump in the general election of 2016) have conflicts of interest in keeping the incumbent president. And if your jury has conflicts of interest in the case, you can't have a fair trial. And the process of impeachment itself within this system basically guarantees that the president will be acquitted in the senate because they need a 2/3 majority in favor of impeachment for the president to be impeached. And the disparity in the senate between Democrats and Republicans is never more than a handful of senators different. So, it basically guarantees that ANY president that gets impeached is highly unlikely to be impeached. I don't even know if Nixon would have been successfully impeached had he not resigned before-hand, to be honest. Everyone impeached in US history has always been acquitted in the senate.

Unfortunately, it will probably work in Trump's favor for the 2020 election. He's almost guaranteed to get acquitted by the senate because it has a Republican majority and it needs 2/3 of them to vote for impeachment. That would require at least 20 Republican senators to vote for impeachment which isn't going to happen. And when he's acquitted, it will stir sympathy and self-righteousness in his base causing even more of them (and some moderates) to come out in support of him in the general election. So, it's all just a bunch of smoke and mirrors by the Democrats, who want to appear tough on Trump to please constituents and tip the scales in favor of Trump if Warren or Sanders secure the Democratic nomination. All the while knowing that it won't do anything harmful to him.

Thank you and you're welcome! Glad to hear that my view on witches and witchiness in general was appreciated.

I think of a witchy woman as being one that is interested in the spiritual in direct connection to the Earth and our more natural/instinctual nature. So, there are a ton of women out there like that. Look in any place that celebrates the divine feminine.

Okay so there's two things that I pick up on. Number one, he wants to believe that he is smarter than everyone else and one of the FEW people in the know. This serves to bolster up his self-esteem... which perhaps is somewhat low. So, he uses judgment of the "unconscious masses" that don't know better... to which he sees himself as an outlier and thus better than them. Number two, he is a fundamentalist religious person. This allows a person absolute certainty in their beliefs because they were either A) taught that way by the people they love and relate that worldview back to the people they love. Thus, making it difficult for them to let the belief go. OR B) Uses the fundamentalist beliefs about the world and God to strengthen their identity which is oriented toward the ability to KNOW things about the world... thus using the religious beliefs to further strengthen their sense that they are right and others are wrong and proving himself once again to be one of the smart special people who is better than the unconscious masses. If I were to talk to him, I would avoid the topic of flat-Earth and religion and all that belief-oriented stuff... and I'd start asking him about how he feels about himself and his sense of self-worth... in a very gentle way.

Have you asked him why he believes that and why it matters to him so much? If someone is believing that the Earth is flat, it's probably for some reason that has nothing to do with the shape of the Earth. So, if you want to change his mind, don't go directly for a rational argument against why the Earth is round. Instead, try to understand and get him to see what those beliefs are scaffolded upon and he will likely let them go of his own accord... eventually. But never try to dismantle the viewpoint head-on. This will just cause the backfire effect and he will dig his heels in more on the whole flat-Earth thing. Instead, try to understand why.

To what degree do you actually want to sleep around? And to what degree is that desire artificially created by social expectations and a fear of being judged? If it's the latter, why is that so important to you? If you can answer that last question and see the need/desire to avoid being judged for what it is, it will likely get you out of this internal bind.

@assx95 This is a really good video about this dynamic. Also, you may want to look into some videos about co-dependency... which is where someone is willing to sacrifice all their boundaries for the other person in order to keep them there and try to get love. And it comes from a lack of self-love ultimately.

@Etherial Cat Your perspective has definitely given me some things to think about in terms of how this all plays out in a more diverse system, which gives me more context for understanding our system. And it may well be that your hypothesis is true that all systems will devolve similarly once the populace fatigues of the NeoLiberal corruption... and the split will be between those who support Fascism and others who vote Neo-Liberal just to avoid Fascism. That is what spawned Trump in the first place. People wanted change... and Donald Trump was definitely different. Right now, it's leading up to primary time in the US. And I'm using this time to put Neo-Liberal politicians feet to the fire and calling them out. And those crying "Blue no matter who" and urging progressives not to criticize the Neo Liberal Democrats much... because "We have to beat Trump". They are really running wild with that "We have to unify to beat Donald Trump" motto, while promising more of the same. And many on the center left are really not thinking strategically about things. Now is the time to weed out the weak ones since we have a few progressives among the hopefuls. We need Biden to be called out on his Neo-Liberalism, racism, shitty policy proposals, his handsy-ness, and his cognitive issues. We need Kamala Harris (who has since dropped out) to be called out for her despicable record as a prosecutor and all the things she's done to prop up the private prison industry. We need Pete Buttigieg to be called out for his issues with gentrification in the town he was mayor in and him being bought off by big money interests. That said, if it comes down to the general election, I don't want to just throw the election back to Trump (who could do a ton more damage in his last term) if any of those jokers secure the nomination. Which again, puts me in the same bind. So, I've been donating to Bernie Sanders' campaign and trying to support that in any way that I can, so that I don't have to make that decision. And I'll definitely weigh in your perspective since it gives me a bit more of an idea how things can eventuate from voting this way. After Trump, I'm imagining the Republicans will just get more and more Fascist. So, maybe, smaller price tags now to avoid bigger price tags later. But I'm still not sure.

@Etherial Cat I'll definitely take what you said into consideration. In American politics, you know that it's basically going to come down to two candidates. And I always hated that and wanted to undermine that system. And up until Donald Trump (who has many fascist qualities), it was all just a bunch of Neo-Liberals. It didn't much matter who you picked because you knew things would basically run the same way. It was Coke or Pepsi. So, I haven't yet seen this strategy employed because you know that both the candidates are going to be corporatist Neo-Liberal center-right politicians. So, when Donald Trump was up for election and he was using his demagoguery against Mexicans, Muslims, and women, my response was to vote for Hillary Clinton at all costs even though I intensely dislike her. And that's because she would be the same kind of bad we'd always had. And Trump would be the same kind of bad plus much much worse for those especially in vulnerable communities. And my way of reasoning was that it was just too big of a risk not to vote strategically. Like, if I voted for Jill Stein instead (who was more aligned to my values and would help me protest the two-party system), I would not be able to participate in doing everything in my power to keep a Fascist out of office. And I would always wonder, relative to his actions (especially separating families and keeping immigrants in detention camps where they're dying) if I could have done something to prevent that as opposed to voting for Jill Stein because she matches my values more. So, I probably still err on the side of "prevent the Fascist coming to power at all costs" if that's a genuine threat (and it was), over the vote your choice regardless of outcomes and strategy. But I'll consider what you said because it could be used strategically against any disturbances to the status quo. And I am also very wary of anyone who is saying "Vote blue no matter who". I think that's a terrible take that perpetuates a lot of corruption in the Democratic party. That said, if all things stand to remain the same, I recommend voting your values instead of voting on who will likely win. So, for example, if it would have been Hillary Clinton vs Jeb Bush or something like that, I'd definitely vote third party. But I wouldn't feel comfortable taking a risk on letting a Fascist win because the vote is always super close between the two candidates. That's why the two-party system sucks. Edit: In a nutshell, because of our two party system, there isn't going to be a party that's out and out the Fascist party, like many European countries. For example, in Hungary there is the Jobik party (Fascist) and there are three other main parties. So, I could see, coming from that angle how the far right party's potential to gain power being the boogeyman to keep people with the Neo-Liberal status quo, and I will consider that perspective since it's different than what I'm used to in America. In America, for all my life up until Donald Trump, you've only gotten Neo Liberals in both parties who are basically Center-Right and there's very little difference between the two. So, I'm coming from a place of not experiencing the strategy of having one party be Fascist to encourage people toward Neo-Liberals, because up until now it's all been about the same. And if a Fascist gets the nomination in the Republican party, there is about a 50% chance of them getting elected in the first place, and that number only rises more when people ignore the threat and vote their values instead of voting strategically. So, it's a difficult situation when faced with such high stakes.

I'm fully on the side of strategic voting. Otherwise, you're just throwing your vote away. You need to vote like you're waging a war. You can't always have anything perfect. So, if you're throwing battles just to be "pure" or "voting with integrity", then I think that's a person losing sight of the overall goal of the war being waged and prioritizing their own identity concerns. And if it's your goal to be pure, you will lose the war. That said, there is great power in putting your foot down when things are mostly equal between the candidates. This is also a viable strategy for the war. But if you're faced with the choice between a Fascist and a Neo-Liberal... vote the Neo-Liberal even if they suck. But if you have an election between two Neo-Liberals and things will be otherwise the same... vote for what you actually want and try to change the system.

Law of Attraction, in the metaphysical sense, is really about mirroring your own internal state to you externally. And the internal state is a lot more than what the ego thinks it wants. So, Law of Attraction (if true... and my experiences seem to reflect it to be true) is already working its magic. You just have to know what you really want in order to ride the wave of what you're already attracting. And that wave is geared toward bringing you into alignment with yourself on the relative and absolute level.

@SunCat This is an out of body experience. I've only ever had them when I'm asleep, except once when I was really stressed and dealing with some trauma that just occurred.

Here is a video on it that I made a long time ago. But it gives an explanation of what it is. And I have a few more as well about inducing the state...

@Mondsee It sounds like an astral projection experience. The radio fuzz is the sound you hear when you're in sleep paralysis which is the gateway to astral projection. Now, in terms of the content of the experience, it sounds like you were experiencing things on the more ultra-normal side. Often times, when I have out of body experiences, I'll be immersed in the environment that I fell asleep in with very few divergences from consensus reality. And occasionally, I'll experience something of the nature you mentioned, where I go somewhere else. But the thing that's really marked about these experiences is that it feels very real and you can hear that high pitched radio fuzz noise, which some attribute to a change in frequency and tuning into another dimension of yourself. I also posit that it might be because you are awake when your brain waves have become slow and low-pitched enough to hear with your ears.

He's not. He really believes that.

It's so silly how people believe that they can take pills to sober up and get a clearer picture of reality. Try the no pill approach and actually see reality for what it is.

This problem has to do with either split of the shadow Queen archetype being out of wack in both partners. So, the healthy Queen is someone who is concerned with the inner workings and social dynamics of her "kingdom" or "hive". So, it has a lot to do with setting boundaries and making decisions that are good for herself/himself and also good for their relationships. But when someone has a disintegrated Queen archetype... the shadow Queen emerges in one of two forms. One form of the Shadow Queen is that of the People Pleasing Queen, who will disregard their own boundaries and better judgment just to please others. And also, they are more focused on people pleasing than toward making decisions that actually benefit themselves and others. They become doormats who lose sight of their own boundaries. The other form of the Shadow Queen is that of the Socially Manipulative Villainous Queen. And she rules her kingdom/hive with false niceness. But she really thrives off of breaking people down emotionally and manipulating her loved ones against their own interests and on another. All of this for the sake of her own entertainment, as the villainous Queen loves drama and creating social discord. Or whenever she sees the opportunity to manipulate the situation to her own selfish benefit, then she will manipulate others into working against their own interest. And relationship-wise (and even friendship-wise), self-sacrificing "People Pleasing Shadow Queens" attract villainous and manipulative "Villainous Shadow Queens" that are looking for their other half (and an easy target). And since the archetype of the Queen is present in both genders, you will see it happens regardless of gender. The trick is to know that both are seeking completion in each-other. They're trying to integrate their Queen by loving the aspect of her that has been cast into the shadow. The people pleasing Queens are externalizing their love and resistance toward their inner villain Queen by loving/submitting to a villain Queen, that they see as inherently evil. The villain Queens are externalizing their love and contempt for the people pleasing Queens by loving/abusing a people pleasing Queen, that they see as inherently weak and cowardly.

It's very interesting that you read my tone as "triggered" as my emotions were pretty flat-lined when I read your post, though honestly I did roll my eyes a bit because it didn't seem like sarcasm... it just seemed like you were saying dumb things that only made sense if you were in favor of pettiness and tyranny. I was like, does he really think all this petty stuff is good for the country? And that's specifically why I asked. I was just confused and genuinely curious about what you were trying to convey. But I've heard so many things of a similar vibe (ironically and un-ironically) before that I've gone metaphorically nose-blind to all of that. It's not really shocking because it's just a common part of culture now, especially on the internet. It's just like, "Eh... people think like that sometimes. Oh well... hopefully this fad falls out of vogue soon." It's a bit like how I used to be afraid of cockroaches as a kid before I lived with a cockroach infestation. I dealt with cockroach infestation in my early teen years for a year or so, and because of the "exposure therapy" I literally have zero emotional response to cockroaches. It's the same with hackey socio-political opinions and tired "edgy" jokes for similar reasons. I can't find anything in what you wrote funny or offensive, so the sarcasm doesn't really read nor does your opinion make much sense. Also, I'm still confused because your meaning is still not clear. Were you being sarcastic about Trump being awful and serious about the "#MakeAmericaGreatAgain"? Or were you being serious about Trump being awful but being sarcastic about the "#MakeAmericaGreatAgain"? If it's the former, it's a really dumb take because clearly what you said about Trump is true in terms of his background, and he does empirically embody those qualities. So, it again, opens up this conundrum of "Do you think pettiness and tyranny is what makes a country great?" Hence the confusion. If it's the latter, okay. That makes sense in relation to the facts you presented. But it nullifies a lot of the other things you said as well. Hence the confusion. Either way, I think the eye-roll was warranted.

If Donald Trump is as awful you yourself said, why did you hashtag it out with the phrase "Make America Great Again"? Shouldn't you have written out #KeepAmericaPettyandTyrannical instead if you truly think that way about Trump? Or do you genuinely think that being petty and tyrannical is what makes this country great? So, "Make America Great Again" is just another way of saying "Let us be assholes because that's the natural way of things"!

Actually, though it's true that cultural conditioning has a way of getting us to color certain things as feminine and masculine arbitrarily and keep things in boxes like that, it's very important to recognize that femininity and masculinity are real subtle energies that imbue all living and non-living systems... and often do so in ways that are recognized in esoteric texts, cultural customs, and myths across eras and cultures. Basically, what I'm saying is that femininity and masculinity (as subtle energies) are not conditioned but innate. We all have a unique energetic signature that is an interplay between the feminine and masculine... as does everything in existence. That's the meaning of the Yin/Yang symbol. And if you've tuned your sensitivity enough, you can actually pick up on these energies as themselves instead of as their culturally understood expression. Think of the feminine and masculine energies like a light and our cultural conditioning like a lens that that light refracts through in a particular way according to our conditioning and environment. And most of the time, women will have more feminine than masculine energy. And most of the time, men will have more masculine than feminine energy. But there are plenty of exceptions and people who have an even mix of both... or men that are more predominantly feminine and women who are more predominantly masculine. Now, I'll tell you why it's so important, especially now to recognize the existence of these two energies instead of ignoring their existence. Our world in many many ways is built so that Yang is valued over Yin. The masculine is valued over the feminine. And this needs to be fixed, otherwise our technology (masculine principle) will overwhelm Mother Nature (feminine principle)... and we will not survive as a species. So, I used to believe the same thing that you do, that masculinity and femininity are just social constructs. But then, I experienced directly the Divine Feminine and could no longer deny its existence. And ever since then, I've been working on re-integrating my feminine side... which was being repressed. But because I didn't believe that masculinity and femininity were real, I kept labeling everything that was in the masculine principle as good and everything in the feminine principle as stupid or trite... thus exacerbating the imbalance that already exists in greater society. So, if you have any stakes in wanting gender equality, there has to be a recognition that femininity is different than masculinity in order to realize how much our society is in a state of masculine imbalance and feminine repression... which is also causing huge global scale problems, like global warming, exploitative wars left and right, extreme income inequality, and so many other ways where the shadow masculine has taken over because the feminine is not valued. So, while human beings are mostly the same, we must also honor those differences and recognize the realness of Yin and Yang. Otherwise, we remain in a state of thinking of things as neutral... but neutrality is really just more masculinity in disguised. You ever notice that gender neutral clothing just looks like men's wear? That's one small tell that our vision of gender neutrality is still being influenced by patriarchal thinking, which sees the masculine as default.

Orange has a really hard time with emotions and the feminine because Orange has a lot of emotional stakes in its own ability to compete. And men especially have a hard time leaving Orange because men are socially looked down upon more than women for being in touch with emotions and expressing anything that would get in the way of their ability to compete. Manhood is fetishized and looked upon as an ideal all the way up until Green, and Female-ness is seen as lesser up until Green as well. So, it's harder for men to abandon that story where there is hope to meet the ideals of manhood from Orange and below... and that's true even if most men will never experience those ideals. It's a carrot on a stick... but very few can let go of the desire for the carrot and will keep coloring in the lines of social expectations to mitigate their feelings of unworthiness. And that is done through Orange's achiever nature who wants to be the best with women too. So, it really comes down to the man's ability to experience himself as a complex emotional being as opposed to a stoic achiever and/or failure who doesn't live up to that expectation. So, it's about a man being aware and honest with himself about his emotions and reading them in a more nuanced way. The masculine orientation toward emotion tends toward detachment and distance which simplifies things... but it insulates them from experiencing the full complexity and high definition resolution of their emotions. But if a man learns to integrate his feminine side, he will be able to see his emotions clearly for what they are in a way that's closer up. And with a little skill, he will both perceive and be able to articulate his boundaries and feelings. And this will paradoxically make his masculinity shine through in a more brilliant way. So, it's really about the ability to see yourself in a radically honest light, and to honor your feelings and boundaries. Sinking into being more and allowing yourself to let go of extreme attachment ambitions to be at the tippy top of the hierarchy... to which emotional awareness and honesty is antithetical.