My open blog for people who want to read my books,articles, and any other things that I might produce, keep track of storytelling engagements, listen to my less demented rantings, and generally play nice (or naughty, I'm easy... as is widely known).
The Dybbuk
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With Halloween just around the corner I am going to record one or two gruesome stories. A friend, Nick, suggested something about a dybbuk - the dibbukim are ghostly entities that possess living flesh, often because they have some task left incomplete in this world that must be done (frequently connected to the idea of teshuva, repenting for wickedness as the dybbuk are decidedly unhappy, often unpleasant ghosts). This tale is a combination of several short anecdotal accounts - too brief to make stories in their own right - overlaid with a brief and ugly snippet of recent history. If you want to understand what a greifer is, have a look here.
I hope mashing up stories does not offend any Jewish people who might listen to it (let me know if there's a better version of a dybbuk story that I could record if this one does give offence). I thought about making this tale more graphic, but decided better of it.
The Ipswich Pagan Council is hosting an afternoon seminar/discussion to introduce interested newcomers to the different varieties of paganism that can be found in Suffolk. This will take place on Saturday 4th December, 12.30pm at the EEFA Centre on St Helen's Street, Ipswich. It is free to attend, refreshments will be provided (if you want to bring some lunch with you, feel free). We will look at the different traditions, theology, festivals, and moral codes found within various types of paganism. For further details see Facebook Event for Intro to Paganism
The meaning of life is a topic that has taxed the greatest (and the least able) minds since the dawn of human existence. It was brought to mind again recently in a discussion with a friend who suggested that having a meaning to one’s life was vital to good mental health. Numerous psychologists, philosophers and scholars agree both a sense of purpose, and the degree of spiritual reflection that precedes finding a purpose, are highly beneficial. It is better to have a sense of why you are here than to merely trudge from day to day in a largely pointless routine. In fact, many have argued that just having a purpose in itself is actually far more important than the exact nature of the purpose. One of the key questions in the matter of meaning is the source of that meaning and what is actually more than a linguistic nicety ~ do we discover the meaning of our lives, or create it? That is to say, is the meaning already determined (whether by a god, Wyrd, karma or anything else) and ...
The video is a reflection on the story of Demeter and her daughter Kore (later Persephone) from a Jungian point of view. This is primarily as a basis for discussion in the Suffolk Jungian Circle at the end of the month but, as ever, it might be of some interest to others as well. I have included reflections on how the myth can be understood and applied in psychological contexts from the viewpoints of Kore, her mother Demeter, and her eventual husband Hades.
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