Double isms in this blog post title. What does that mean??
It means this blog post will be a little deeper than my other ones, depending on how much I can articulate.
First things first, What is Occultism?
Category: Spirituality
bookmark_borderBloodstone Pyramid Crystal
Striking Bloodstone pyramid gemstone. Great for grounding your root chakra. Base is 2 1/4″
If you would like to know more about the metaphysical properties of Bloodstone, this link from HealingCrystals.com goes in depth.
SOLD
bookmark_borderRainbow Cobra Drawing from Guided Meditation
Even though I haven’t blogged and I haven’t drawn or made new art, I have been creating. It may not seem like it, but everyday – every hour, every minute, every second we are all creating with our thoughts. And simultaneously, we are also destroying thoughts, ideas and mental patterns that no longer serve us.
Continue reading “Rainbow Cobra Drawing from Guided Meditation”
bookmark_borderWhat Does the Term ‘Occult’ Mean to You?
The term ‘occult’ seems to have a bad rep (depending on how you perceive it I suppose) – do a quick Google image search and you’ll see mostly dark, visual interpretations of the word. Different people interpret it in so many ways and that’s fine, everybody’s entitled to their own creative vision. In movies however, the occult has often been mostly portrayed as something weird, dark and scary. Synonymous with black magic, it’s become a permanent image in people’s subconscious that it’s an evil thing that can call in demons, vampires, witches, ghosts and otherworldy beings that can harm you.
bookmark_borderDeath Tarot & Sacred Symbols Oracle Card
The Death card appeared to me twice this week – first it was Death from the Sacred Symbols Oracle deck with the skull and rose at the beginning of this week on Monday, (top left)…
and then last night when I came home from work. I was sitting at my desk talking to a friend on the phone when I randomly pulled the Death card again from my HK tarot deck (bottom right).
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Edit 10/2/19: some people have asked me where I got the HK tarot deck. I got it from Etsy but I don’t think the person is making them anymore. Sorry! I’m guessing it was a bootleg and the person didn’t want to get sued by HK / Sanrio for using their images.
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I had a few other decks on the table so I decided to pull the other Death cards from them for this photo: top right is from the Albano-Waite deck and bottom left is from Camoin / Jodorowsky’s Tarot de Marseille.
The reason why I have all these tarot and oracle decks is because I am learning from them, they guide me throughout the days of the week. I feel better prepared for real life situations (whether I am consciously aware of them or not), and I admire the artwork too. The Tarot is a teacher. I’ve barely been studying the Tarot for only about 4 years now and I guess this is my method of learning; I learned that the same cards tend to come up in different decks. It probably doesn’t make sense to others, but for me it helps me to see comparisons. Consider it a double or triple confirmation. Some decks I use more frequently than others and so they end up sitting on my desk for months.
Reflecting on all the violent events so far this year made me realize even more that Death is and will always be a constant part of our lives. Someone is probably dying right now at this very moment, but we’re not aware because it’s just another day. So we only pay attention to what we see on TV and social media. We cannot dictate to Death who lives and who dies; Death doesn’t care if you’re gay, a person of color, a cop, a rich or poor person or someone of authority…
Death comes for everyone, this is the ultimate truth. Once you strip away all the complex feelings that humans attach to death – grief, sadness, hate, anger and everything in between…
there is just that, the natural part of life. It seems unnatural that a person dies at the hand of another, but at the same time this is and has been the history of human civilization. A person dies, and another one is born. It’s the cycle that keeps on going, no matter how we feel about it. The World Tarot card appeared to me this week too.
Death is certainly the most painful of all teachers. It is the one that is hard to let go of, to get over with and move on from. It’s especially painful for us who are still alive because we’re the ones who have to keep on living and remembering.
My mom passed away 10 years ago from cancer. I feel as if it was only in these last 4 years when the Tarot showed itself to me, that I started to feel like I could live again.
This is not to say that your feelings and emotions are invalid. They are valid and you have a right to feel the way you do. You can grieve and experience all the feels for as long as you need to, this is what it’s like to be human. Just know that this too shall pass, and that you have people that understand what you’re going through.
Where there is death, there is also rebirth, growth, transformation, healing, a new way of seeing things, a different perspective and so much more. The effects of death are far-reaching; peace, love, unity, justice, karma, and other cause and effects can spring from it. It really puts me in awe.
bookmark_borderHow to Add a Custom Background to Your Drawings in Photoshop
This is a new marker drawing that I made today. Most of my artwork is usually feminine in nature so I wanted to channel in some masculine energy. I also promised to type up a tutorial so here goes!
Here’s a simple technique that I like to use for my drawings. Beginners new to Photoshop can follow along 🙂
I am using Adobe Photoshop 2015 by the way and the key commands I use are for Mac. Control key is the equivalent of the Command key on a PC.
1. I scan the drawing at 300dpi and it gives me this large TIFF file. You can take a pic with your phone, email it to yourself and download it from there but I find that the resolution isn’t high enough. I could be wrong though, feel free to try it.
2. My scanner software (Image Capture) is kinda janky so when it scans, it gives me a washed out scan. To fix this, I usually hit Command Shift L or Auto Levels in Photoshop. Or I adjust the Levels and Curves until I’m happy with it. In Adobe Photoshop CC 2015, it’s now called Auto Tone in the Image menu.
3. I want to add a cosmic background to the blacked out area of the drawing. It would be good to find a background that’s about the same size of your scanned image. In your layers panel, double click to turn your locked background image to a layer so that it can be edited. It’s going to become Layer 0.
4. Hit W on your keyboard to select the Quick Selection Wand tool, third tool on your toolbar.
5. With your Layer 0 still selected, on your image click the area you want to select and see how much it covers. You will see a selection (some people call it marching ants). If you need to select more additional areas, hold down the Shift key and click another area. The more solid the area is, the better your selection will come out.
6. Now that you have a selection, hit Command Shift I or go to Select menu > Inverse. This changes your selection. You won’t see it until you put a mask on it.
7. With your selection still active and your layer 0 still selected, at the bottom of your layers panel, click the Add Layer Mask tool, third one from the left. This masks or hides the area that you selected.
8. Now you can bring in your cosmic background by dragging the file right into your Photoshop document from wherever it’s located. It will place the file right smack in the front so once you’ve adjusted it to your liking (size and position), hit enter or return; now you can move that cosmic background layer to the bottom of your layer stack.
9. Make sure to hit Command S to save your work! Save often if you’re doing a lot of edits.
10. I like to play with the blending modes in the Layers panel, the tab that says Normal but has a dropdown menu. I added another layer and played with gradients and changed the blending modes on there too.
Endless fun!
If you want to practice with the files I used, you can download them here.
bookmark_border11:11 Synchronicity
It seems like every single day whether I am at work or at home I always see 11:11 on my phone, computer or digital clock. It’s been like this for months now. I see other number sequences often too – like 111, 222, 333, 444 & 555. Sometimes 666, 777 & 888. 888 because I work for a company that deals with lots of phone numbers. I end up Googling the meaning of these numbers often because I see them so much.
And it becomes even more in depth if you’re studying the occult meaning of the numbers themselves in conjunction with the Tarot. Talk about going deep into the rabbit hole, I am going to reserve that for another blog post (and when I can actually articulate it).
Patience vs Synchronicity
Patience is good. Synchronicity is better. Patience can be defined as bearing or enduring without complaint. It is the act of “giving time” to that which will come to fruition. It is the hope of things to come.
On the other hand, synchronicity is that which knows no waiting or enduring. It recognizes that all is complete in the moment. It provides all in this very moment. It knows there is a perfect time and place for all, and one who experiences synchronicity knows of the harmony between the person and the completeness of the moment. One in synchronicity is not waiting for the rain to stop so that the garden may be tilled, but instead appreciates the rain in all its splendor, along with the situation that it creates in the moment.
Source: 11:11 Synchronicity – Repetitive Numbers and Their Meaning
bookmark_borderThe Masonic Influence
I just realized that I have a lot of original content that I created for myself to use for social media stuff and really just for the sake of creating and experimenting; for example this one was my old Facebook cover photo from 2013. I always like things to match to the point where I become obsessive over it, like my cover photo and my avatar. What can I say, it’s one of the few things I CAN control.
I used an old drawing that I scanned (the woman with a rose and a skull); I then played around with colors and gradients in Photoshop. For some reason I was drawn to using bright colors, triangular shapes and checkerboards at the time – not really knowing the significance of each. I then created a black square shape, duplicated it and layed it out, grouped them together, flattened them and used the Perspective tool to create the floor. The white part is just one big shape.
I hope to type up a decent tutorial soon on how I create my graphics, so my blog posts can be more useful and have some kind of value to you, the reader.
Here is a good reference of the meaning of the checkerboard in Freemasonry
bookmark_borderLet’s Get Weird
The original title of this post was actually “How Weird Is Too Weird?”. I changed it because I did some keyword research on Google & it told me that this title gets more searches than the one I had in mind. Go figure.
Let’s face it, we’re all editing ourselves constantly…especially on social media or anywhere online that is public. Being weird can’t really be wayyyy too out there, can it? Sure, most everyone is saying nowadays “stay weird, be yourself, etc”, but what are the actual consequences of that?
Luckily for me, since my day job has to do with adult content – being weird is part of the job. If you are a creative person, then being weird is a given.
But for the rest of us, perhaps we have to keep it under wraps. Most people still have to set up some kind of private or semi-anonymous account because in reality, what if your employer or a family member is snooping? What if someone just doesn’t like you and wants to use it against you? Many people are still judgmental. Lots of things come to mind, really.
We are free to express ourselves but with restraint, sound judgment and consideration for others.
I just wanted an excuse to post a new, weird sketch to go along with this blog post. Believe it or not, coming up with topics to write about is helping me come up with more ideas to draw. It’s a win win and I’m stretching my creative mind a little bit further each day. And I am thankful for that.
I need to buy hiliters though because I’m tired of the same 3 colors I’ve been using.
bookmark_borderDrawing – Tektite Unicorn
I participated in a tektite guided meditation last night & posted an animated version on Instagram today (something that I just did pretty quickly in Photoshop), so here is a still version. Have I told you that I enjoy making GIFs? Well, now you know 🙂
From Robert Simmon’s Book of Stones: “Tektites carry the energies of a number of extraterrestrial streams of communication and information. These stones, whether they are themselves Meteorites or not, vibrate with high-frequency pulsations which can put one in touch with ETS.”
And that accurately describes what I experienced: I floated from a desert landscape into the night sky, exchanging energy with my star. After that, I traveled further into space and landed in an area that was similar to Superman’s home, Kryptonite. Ice-like and blue, except it wasn’t. I encountered & merged with a being that morphed from a unicorn, to a sea horse, then into a pulsating, wavy, transparent sea slug until it grew larger & became glints of colored light. It was overwhelming that I was literally blinded by the light! Did you get the song reference? Super trippy indeed. Thankful for the experience!
I still want to learn how to animate really well in After Effects, as well as create 3D graphics in Cinema 4D. I really just want to animate my visions. I just want to play, experiment and have fun. There are so many things I want to learn…
so a rough drawing made with office supplies will do for now.