The Dreamstream

"I sail on a tide that is not what it seems. The souls is a ship
that rides the dream-stream."

Witches get their musings from many different places. Some seem
to "know" things that are interpreted as being "beyond their years"
leading to the romantic idea of past lives or other such unarguable
reasoning. The will usually settle for whatever sets their
imaginations to rest with a smile and a nod. Then they will later
swear to it with a passion. I never went around saying that I am
some ancient soul who has somehow retained a good bulk of
information from past lives. I really like to spend my time focused
on the present. The Gods know I have enough going on in the here and
now without worrying about what happened a million yesterdays ago.

As with most I have had good and bad reviews on things that poor out
of my head and into the world. Some works get praise for their
clarity and some works get ripped apart, normally not because they
are not worthy of reading but because the reader can't offer
anything themselves but negative feedback or they think that they
can somehow prove something with lame attacks on other peoples work
and successes. My absolute favorite line is when someone comes along
and says "Snow....YOU ARE NOT A GOD!" Probably a good thing for them
that I'm not. Otherwise they would spend the rest of their lives as
a big fat ugly hermaphrodite for being disrespectful. Always thought
that respect should be earned. Therefore, you don't always have to
respect your elders. But you should respect your betters. And
this "young pup" thinks up more crap in a day than most of
those "elders" have in their 30+ years of practice.

So how exactly do I do what I do, know what I know, and write what I
write?
Well....first off I have an obvious attitude problem. My great
double edged sword because not only do I dislike ignorance but I
have a reoccurring disdain for the Gods themselves from time to time
and how they choose to get involved when it suits them most. So with
them, I'm the defiant child who is just too cute to punish for the
most part. But again, like me, they often say that respect is
earned. The Gods are really not impressed by boasts and titles. And
for the most part they aren't going to waist much time with people
who just don't have it in them to follow the path so to speak.
Either you got it or you don't. And I for one would be happy to see
less of those who don't have it. They're waisting every ones time,
leaching off of other peoples works, and bottom line is that they
whore out witchcraft with their bullshit.

Now add a brain to that attitude problem. I have this real moron
thing I like to do from time to time called "thinking". And I will
ponder over some of the most ridiculous crap you could ever imagine.
I have some level of interest for every topic and I often pursue
that interest. Often for no other reason other than to find out
about it. Last summer I kept getting hit with these little people
saying that I "claim to know everything". Which I don't. But just
for fun I did offer them to challenge me on the idea. Sent out an
open invitation to everyone around to try and stump me. They got to
ask a question, pick a topic, or otherwise make general asses of
themselves, and I had to write and article for each without any
researching. Only 5 questions came out of it and I answered 4 of
them with no trouble. The last one stumped me the first time.
But....it wouldn't stump me now! And that's the key.

Normally when I get mused into writing anything I get the title
first. Just like with this article. There is no general idea or
theme. Just the title. And they could come from absolutely anywhere.
Book, song, movie, road sign, history. Anywhere. The title becomes a
focal point in a meditation technique that again is a combination of
what I learned in martial arts and what I have learned in pagan
studies.

Now, some people have these really odd ways of going about
meditation. They have to have their alters, candles, incense, music
(often not pagan by any standard), salt, water, (which they never
actually do anything with), atheme, wand, photos the printed off of
the computer, offerings and incantations to the Gods and
the "Guardians of the Watchtowers" (WAAAY to much Hollywood there
but ok....whatever floats your fairy wand) , robe, casted circle
(which is a real pain in the ass when the cell phone rings half way
through) , black mirror, stones, crystals, jewelry, jar of herbs,
cauldron, mom's photo of great grandma Erma (who was a witch and
didn't know it... but it helps us to impress the kids when we have
no other credentials), book of shadows (that has a full 3 pages in
it that are COMPLETED!) for note taking, the juju bag they made at
the last Pagan Pride Day festival while setting at the pick nic
table daycare center for the kiddies in the back of a park as far
away from civilization as possible to prevent the ever dangerous
burning at the stake thingy that happens all too often these days.
Now me on the other hand......I just go to bed.

I get theses titles and then I seem to have to allow them to mature
in a way. But they never mature during the day or when I'm fully
awake. Instead I have to keep the title in my mind and get to a
place in meditating on it that is somewhere between sleep and awake.
It's a sort of grey area where you still have conscious though but
you have lost the senses of time and place. Over the years I've
managed to build up a resistance of going one way or the other and I
can hold myself there for hours on end with little effort. The
interpretation of this place and mental imagery is like a long white
hallway with countless doors on both sides. Sometimes there are even
doors on the ceiling and floor. The hall goes on forever and each
title is like a key to just one of those doors. Once the door is
opened then the post will flow through with very little actual
thought from me. Which is why I often have to go back and read my
own works to know what they are about.

I came up with this technique when I was a teen because despite my
efforts I had a very hard time getting comfortable in the textbook
meditative positions. And if your focused on your discomfort then
your not going to get a lot done. I could simply block out the
discomfort but that too requires effort, energy, and focus that i
should be using on the meditation itself. I never thought it
disrespectful, or hindering to just get into a comfortable position
no matter what position that is when your on a mission to attain
information from someplace beyond yourself.

Over the years it got to be a habit and nearly a reflex until I was
able to put any title, person, or place in my mind just before and
travel the conduit to the doorway that would lead me to that person,
place, or topic. Add some astral projection training and dream
interpretation information to all of that and you get my way of
writing what I write about.

When it comes to my style of writing, I think that everyone has a
sort of figure print to how they write. How they talk and how they
write should be the same on a forum such as this. Some people talk
normally but their writing is so formal it's stuffy. The work
doesn't flow and they find themselves going this way and that.
Spending more time on their grammar than their message. And that
will suck the life right out of anything.

Of course I'm a creative writing major in college. And I have a
natural talent for running off certain things that are charged with
a lot of energy (see paragraph 6). I really don't know too many of
my works that come out like textbook stereo instructions. But I do
have the tools and techniques in my head to write a college level
work with words and phrases that will completely baffle most readers
in to wondering what in the blue hell I am saying. Not really much
point in that. I write on the level of the majority of my readers.

Odd thing is that the source of my works offers them to me in the
same fashion that I offer them to the rest of the world. The voice
behind the doors is always mine. With that detail in mind everything
changes and what we see as being outside is actually in. Learn how
to do that and you'll never have to buy another book.

Angel Snowden - 2006