ab absurdum

Welcome to the library of forgotten knowledge. Blog about occult - 'knowledge of the hidden'. I will post about folk tales, mythologies, religions and beliefs. Everything about magic and paranormal. For more information please check the navigation bar. Feel free to suggest new topics!

[the-knowledge-forgotten]

Recently I've been digging into this topic rather deeply. It's a big inspiration for me. And, well... I like to scare the shit out of myself?

I think it started with a post I've seen about a year ago here on Tumblr. It's been posted by sixpenceee and concerned a game called Hide and Seek Alone (link). I suddenly remembered it few days ago and this post is the result.

Well, creepypasta, creepypasta. That's all fiction, right? Right...?

Who knows. As far as I know, the ones who tried might have not survived to tell the tale and warn us not to play. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Or, in other view, hey, it's internet. People can say whatever they want and claim it to be true for the sake of lulz.

One way or another, I am not going to attempt these (at least most of these) because I find inviting a malicious ghosts to my house for "fun" plain stupid.

Amen.

Though I'm seriously tempted to try the "Shadowside" ones... I'm highly attracted to the different dimensions... But about that in a minute.

Lemme tell ya a bit about creepypastas...

As you might know, creepypastas are short horror stories or other media that are collected and shared across the Internet with the intent of frightening or unnerving the reader, says aunt Wikipedia. The name originated from copy-paste stories that in the Dark Ages of internet you'd get via e-mail as a freaking annoying chains that threatened your life, or life of your loved ones, if you haven't shared them with a certain number of people. It later turned to "copypasta" and then finally to "creepypasta" as the stories were supposed to be... well, creepy.

First urban legends, later to turn into creepypastas, started in Japan. Or so I've heard. There was this one that originated in the late 70's - Kuchisake-onna ("Slit-Mouthed Woman") in which a woman has been mutilated by her husband, leaving her face slit, showing all her teeth. She returns as an evil spirit to chase children and pretty women. According to the modern version she's wearing a medical mask and asks her victims if she's pretty. If they say no, she will kill them. If they say yes, she'll take of the mask and ask "How about now?!" and cut them to look like her. You can confuse her by saying "average" or "so-so" and alike. Also by asking if you are pretty. It was also said that you can throw candies at her. She will start picking them up which will give you time to run away. But in most cases you can't run away. She'll just appear in front of you.

This rumor scared people so much that kids weren't allowed to return home alone, were to go in groups, often escorted by teachers.

In October 2007, a coroner found some old records from the late 1970s about a woman who was chasing little children. She was then hit by a car, and died shortly after. Her mouth was ripped from ear to ear. (x)

ಠ___ಠ

Hella, Japan is a Mecca of scary stories, I kid you not.

One of the most famous modern creepypastas is... Slender Man! I'm pretty sure everyone heard about this one so there's no need to explain. (In the rather unlikely case of you not knowing this story here's the link.)

Other well known stories are Jeff the Killer (that turned into very popular meme. Unfortunately I can't find more elaborate article that would be believable due to deletion of original story from creepypasta wiki.), BEN Drowned and The Russian Sleep Experiment. I've personally read the last one and hell, it was amazing.

(Edit: wow holy shit! Read Boothworld Industries: pt. 1, pt. n. 0_0 This is so inventive! Especially the "n" part. No idea how many spin offs it has.)

But. I was supposed to tell you about the games!

They are basically rituals you can preform on your own or with your friends to experience the fear of the unknown in the real life. One of the most classic ones is Bloody Mary. Yes, that's a creepypasta game.

Awesome thing, right?

Well... Not so much in my opinion?

See, as much of a skeptic as I am, I believe you should not play with ghosts, demons and all those things. Summoning beings is a really bad idea, no matter if you believe it or not. I can't stress that enough.

I especially don't understand the idea of inviting something presumably evil to your house and setting it to kill you? WHy woULd yOU Do tHAt????

Apparently because of that:

Rituals have been performed throughout history for a huge variety of reasons. One of those reasons is rebellion, and tempting fate is at its core an act of rebellion. If we can gamble by, oh, say, attempting to invoke the forces of darkness or what have you, and win—the winning is important—then somehow it’s a demonstration of our strength. It proves that we’re the highest-functioning power there is. We control our own fates—not some oogie-boogie creature we’ve been taught to fear by our elders and (so we’re told) betters.

(Read the whole article)

But some of those rituals are really cool. Even the concept alone is- Is just astonishing to me.

Let's have a look at few.

Disclaimer:

I won't tell you here how to preform the rituals exactly, though I'll give you their names. Everything is on the web so you can look for the "recipes" on your own.

Hereby, I take no responsibility for whatever happens to you if you actually try.

Black Cat Scratch This seems to be fairly safe and easy game. You need a partner for it. They sit on the floor, you lie down, facing ceiling with eyes closed, and put your head on their lap. They start rubbing your temples lightly, telling you one of the two possible stories that are included in original instructions and after they finish you should have scratches on your back that you didn't notice appearing. Doesn't sound half too bad. But on the other hand... mystery scratches appearing on your body out of nowhere? Not creepy at all.

Dark Reflection Ritual That's an interesting one, revolving around the belief that breaking the mirror brings bad luck. What if I told you that you can preform a ritual that will bring a REALLY BAD LUCK on you for six hours and if you survive you'll be awarded with a strike of incredibly good luck? This game is advised to be played with a group of people. Apparently there is a finite amount of negative energy that a mirror can hold and spreading it to more people can help lessening it. There are also some fail-safes you can preform if you find yourself in a life-threatening situation, but let's be honest here, the game might be pretty freaking lethal. Just imagine the Mystery Spot or Bad Day at Black Rock episodes of SPN. So many bad things can happen...

The Hosting Game It's getting freaky. By doing certain things you invite a gathering of ghosts to your house. You stand in the threshold of the room the gathering is in, back to the black corridor. Remember to be very polite, thank the guests for coming and do not look back no matter what. If you do the ritual correctly you should hear whispers or rustling in the room and quiet "thank you" behind you. If you do it incorrectly or the matches used in the game won't fire up... you have uninvited guests...

Dark Music Similar to the one above, but maybe a bit more dangerous. By doing a series of activities you invite a ghost to play an instrument you've left for it. But be cautious. As incredible and nice as the music might be, the ghost is easy to anger. Don't move, don't make the slightest noise. If you manage to anger the spirit after all... There is an escape way: you have to end the ritual The Forgiving Way. It has to be preformed in under 15 seconds. If you fail... I'm sorry.

Okay, time to kick it up a notch...

The Midnight Man or The Midnight Game If I had to choose between this and Hide and Seek Alone or The Living Doll I would pick this game without a second thought. But that's quite subjective since I REALLY hate dolls. Especially the human looking kind that is used in The Living Doll... All of those three games are based on similar concept - hiding or moving around the house so the summoned being doesn't find you. Though there are significant differences between The Midnight Game and the possessed doll ones. In case of being caught in the latter the spirit probably kills you. In the former the Midnight Man - dark, tall figure - torments your mind with the visions of your worst fears. If you're fast enough you can escape him by forming a salt circle around you and staying in it till the end of the game - that is 3:33am. Whatever you do, don't let him catch you...

Daruma-san or The Bath Game Only reading about this game gave me chills. As the previous is kind of exciting, this one is plain scary. It's kind of a deadly version of Red Light, Green Light... You summon Daruma-san - Japanese woman who slipped in the bathtub and died. You go to sleep and when you wake up the play begins. Through the day Daruma-san will be getting closer to you, you'll be seeing her with your peripheral vision. If she gets too close to comfort you can stop her with a command or end the game by staring at her over your right shoulder and making a cutting motion with your hand, exclaiming another command. DO NOT let her catch you. Really. You also have to end the game before midnight, otherwise you give her permission to enter your dreams and that MUST NOT happen. Two plot twists: 1. You have to be cautions with ending game command because if she suspects you want to do it she might hide. 2. Don't under any circumstances replay the game. NEVER. If you summon her again she'll be as close as you finished the last time and that is... too close to stay alive...

And finally - Shadowside kind. As I said I'm incredibly interested in these. They seem to be like a cheat codes to our plane of reality. If you use those tricks you can enter the cow level, or another reality altogether. Funnily enough it usually seems to be the same one no matter the game, hence one name - The Shadowside.

If I'm not mistaken, that world have been first referred to as such by Reddit user FableForge in

The Shoebox Telephone This is a game that was already being played in juvie long before FF arrived, so it has a bit of a history. Or so I've read. This a game in which you call the dead. Or maybe something else... You never know. When the time is right you write a letter to the person you want to contact and read it to the phone you prepared from paper cup, string, shoebox and power object. Put it in the "booth" (wardrobe for example) with the paper cup standing on the box, then you go to sleep. You should wake up in the middle of the night, knowing the phone is ready to answer. DO NOT put the receiver anywhere near your ear if the box is open or the cup is knocked over. While taking the call DO NOT speak even if you're being asked questions. There is a possibility of dialing the wrong number which leads to not contacting anyone at all or a different person. They might try to pretend to be the right person and feed you misinformation. DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, dial a wrong number.

The Three Kings Another game brought to us by FableForge. It also is about contacting beings from beyond our realm. This one though is much more mysterious. You have to prepare a "throne", facing north, in a completely dark room. Then you put two chairs facing each other on the sides and place mirrors on them. The chairs should be positioned in a way that when you're in the throne you can only barely see your reflection with your peripheral vision. There are multiple fail-safes in the game as a fan working behind you, your phone, candle, bucket of water, your partner. After preparing the room you go to sleep to wake up at 3:30am. You have to be in the throne by 3:33. If the doors to the room are closed, the fan doesn't work, your phone for some reason isn't charged DO NOT CONTINUE. Leave the house with your partner and return only after 6am. If everything is right, you sit yourself in the throne, not looking directly at the mirrors or the candle before you, only ahead into the darkness. There should be something in each mirror. Your Fool and your Queen. Which is which? You don't know. Notice that they also don't know if you're their Fool or Queen, hence The Three Kings. You can ask them questions. They may or may not be answered. Remember to be polite. It does not befit the King to be vulgar and unpleasant in a such fine company.

The Hooded Man Ritual First ritual that will take you physically to another dimension. You are calling for a cab from another world driven by a Hooded Man. It's best to use rotary telephone. And I'm serious when I say "calling". Following certain directions, you dial a number and then say to the receiver "Hello? I need a cab." If you preform it right, outside your house should appear an empty car. You go there and go to sleep. You should wake up at 3:30am. If not - get out and go home. Otherwise you'll fall asleep and the next time you wake up you'll be an a highway with the Hooded Man behind the wheel. There are different possible scenarios. - If you try to speak to the man, you will fall asleep and wake up in your house. - If you try to pull his hood off, you will fall asleep and wake up in your house. - If you panic and try to get out of the still moving cab, you will die. - If the cab at some point stops and someone gets in, don't talk to them. They will kill you. If you want the ride to end you have to lean to the driver and say "I have reached my destination." You should fall asleep and wake up in your house. Though if you want to you can continue the ride. But the further you go the landscapes get more and more bizarre and it's harder to get back to your own reality. No one knows what happens if the cab stops...

The Elevator to Another World The second ritual leading to the Shadowside. In comparison to the previous one this is more suitable for exploration. I think you're allowed to look around and then go back. But honestly, I'm not sure. As I was saying, these are like cheat codes. You go to the elevator in a building that has at least 10 floors and you press buttons taking you to different storeys in a certain order. Here's the interesting part: at the 5th floor a young woman joins you. You are not allowed to look at her or speak to her. If she appears it means that the ritual is successful so far. Now you press the button leading to the ground floor, but instead the elevator leads to up to the 10th. You know that you've arrived at the right destination if there is no one there. If you want to go back you have to make another elevator ride. But. If you notice something off about your world repeat the return sequence until everything is right with your dimension. (Go read The Gateway to Another World. It's really cool. Also the story of someone actually preforming the ritual.)

As you might have noticed both The Hooded Man Ritual and The Elevator to Another World are in some way similar. They lead you someplace else. Someone might or will join you on the way. You are not allowed to speak to them. Also the descriptions of the encountered world are alike. It's dark, the sky is discoloured, often reddish.

Side note: keep in mind that in those descriptions I intentionally didn't give you all instructions or tell you about all possibilities. If you want to preform the ritual research or ask me for details.

I'd like to tell you about one more game that piqued my interest. It's different than the rest. It's called...

The Doors of Your Mind This is more of mind exploration than actually meeting with the supernatural. Just like in Black Cat Scratch you have to lie down with your head on your partner's lap. The main thing in this whole game is to relax. You have to be in a kind of meditative state. Your partner should rub your temples in a slow, circular motion. Close your eyes. Relax... Your partner is a guide in your adventure. They should start with something along the lines of "You are at one end of a very long corridor. There are numerous doors on both sides of this corridor, spanning the entire length. I want you to explore these doors and the rooms behind them. Describe to me what you can see, hear, touch, and feel with great detail." You should pay attention to everything. The outside look of the doors you'll find might hold some hints of what's behind them. Some are closed? Check if you don't have a key on you. Listen to your instincts. Something tells you not to open those doors? Then better don't. There are few warnings: - If you find yourself in the room full of clocks, DO NOT touch any of them and leave IMMEDIATELY.  - If you meet an old woman, DO NOT speak to her and leave IMMEDIATELY. - If you meet a man in a suit, describe him to your partner. They should end the session no matter how long you've been there. And if they aren't able to, again, DO NOT speak to him and leave IMMEDIATELY. - Sometimes rooms lock you inside. Avoid getting locked with your worst fears. Your partner might need to shake you awake. How to end the game: Your partner has to verbally guide you out of your mind. The exact words depend on them, but remember to close all the doors you've opened. You can play this game as much as you like. And apparently this is not a creepypasta. It's an actual thing that works! So on this one occasion here, have the link. I'd love to hear if you tried and what you've saw. But as nice as it might seem I'd prefer you to be cautious nevertheless. Your mind is not always a friendly place...

As you can see there are many strange games you can play to give yourself a heart attack. Whether they are real or not is up to you to decide. As far as I can tell there are many unexplained things on this world and it might be unwise to poke them with a stick. But try if you're brave enough. I'd love to hear the results. If you survive, that is...

Finally, I'd like you to ponder on few questions that arose in my mind during this research.

Let's say it is all real. Who came up with that? Who discovered it? What is the origin? How did you know riding the elevator in a certain patter will make you arrive somewhere unexpected?

Why certain hours and numbers can be found in many rituals?

Why do you have to run from the room full of clocks?

Who is the woman in the elevator or the Hooded Man? 

Who are the old woman and the man in the suit you meet in your own head? What are they doing there...?

Maybe you will find some answers for that in my next publication.

Thank you for reading!

You have a marvelous day... ʘ‿ʘ

[jessehimself]

It’s an old custom in the United Kingdom that when a visitor sees a money tree, he wedges in his own spare change. When you hammer in your coin, you make a wish. These trees are literally covered in the wishes of strangers. Most of the money trees are in Cumbria in West England and Portmeirion, along the Afon Glaslyn River in Wales. The tradition goes back to 18th century Scotland when florins were hammered into trees with a prayer to take away sickness.

text provided by http://www.wimp.com/oldtree/

[the-knowledge-forgotten]

Mnemonics.

Extension of the comment I wrote under this post.

Okay lemme tell you a thing: I love this tutorial because it's good for creating spaces in your imagination and exercising this amazing ability of your brain.

But.

Mind Palace is a technique of remembering and storing your knowledge. What is shown here is basically only creating a place in your mind. Nothing more. (But, yeah, it's a good step towards actual Mind Palace and it's explained marvelously.)

If you want something like Sherlock have it will take some more effort.

It's better to start with simple mnemonics and then going to the most complicated one that Mind Palace is. But you can create your place now if you want. It's required to be very familiar with it, so the longer you have it the easier you'll be able to move around and find what you need.

Here is rough summary of what I know based on a book "Mind Palace" by Kszysztof Galos. The book is in Polish so I translate some details as I go.

After finishing note: This is definitely NOT a summary. I basically wrote everything there is in this goddamn book...

Let's start with simple mnemonics:

Purple ones are often used in education, don't require imagination and are used to remember things for long periods of time/forever.

Blue ones on the contrary use imagination and you can remember long lists for short time. (I was annoying my friends in high school by making them list me random stuff up to 20 points and I was remembering the lists in under a minute. But those sort of mnemonics aren't good for abstract concepts.)

Okay, let's start with the ones on the right.

Rhymes - Short sentences that rhyme are known to be easier to remember. For example In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. - the "discovery" of America. In this sort of mnemonics the material that we have to learn enlarges (elaborating mnemonics), but paradoxically is easier to remember. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Acronyms - out of few reducing mnemonics of this sort the most popular and the most effective are acrostics. You take first letters of every word you have to learn and create a word or a sentence with them. Like ADEK - vitamins that dissolve in fat, or HOMES - big lakes of north America. In specific cases we can change the list of words we have to remember into something else that is easier to remember. For example the eight small bones in the wrist: Navicular, Lunate, Triquetrum, Pisiform, Multongular (Greater), Multongular (Lesser), Capitate, Hamate: Never Lick Tilly's Popsicle, Mother Might Come Home. Fun fact: the more ridiculous they are the easier it is to remember them.

Numbers into letters - this is a technique that requires some practice. Basically you can remember long chains of numbers, like Pi, by creating a sentence in which words have the number of letters equal to the numbers we want to remember. 3.14159265358979 can be encoded as "Now I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics". Now - 3 letters, I - 1, need - 4, and so on. Cool, right? 8D

Stories - creating funny stories can help to quickly remember the facts. Again the more ridiculous and funny it is the easier you'll remember. Like... The direction in which stalagmites and stalactites grow: When a woman has ants in her pants, the mites go up and the tights go down. ;>

Right.

Now the left side.

So here we use imagination. This is incredibly powerful tool and I want you to remember that. You can create anything with it. Dang, a whole UNIVERSE! So compared to being a god of your own infinity of dimensions I presume mastering those mnemonics will be a piece of cake.

I must say that I mostly use this kind of creative memory techniques because they are way more effective than the ones above and they are fun.

The techniques I'm about to describe are based on Chain Association Method. General idea: if we replace an information with a word and imagine it, the probability of remembering it increases. (tremendously, I'd dare to say.)

So here we go:

Chains - first of all, you need to know that the more colourful, the more vivid, the more detailed the image is the better and for longer you will remember it. It's important to try using all your senses. So if you imagine a sausage, try to recall how it smells, that it's slick and greasy under your fingers, the sound of frying it and so on. Now, the actual chain technique consist in linking one point of the list with another (wow like in a chain). I'll show you how it works by giving you an example because it's way easier to understand that way. So let's make a list of: phone, sausage, book, cabbage. - phone/sausage - Now, imagine hearing your phone ring, but when you reach for it you grab a greasy and warm sausage. Uhh... yuck. - sausage/book - the idea of using sausage as a bookmark seems really ridiculous, but that is why you will remember it. So picture putting a sausage inside a book, leaving fat stains, and closing the volume at the same time squashing the sausage inside. - book/cabbage - oh no! What is that?! All pages in the book changed into cabbage leaves! They are tattered on the edges and your whole palms are covered with sticky juice. See? This is pretty easy.

Bookmarks - Well, basically it's something that I just described. It's clashing images together. Making them: - crash with each other - stick to each other - stand one on another - stand one under another - stand inside another - change into one another - exchange the situations with one another - weave with each other - let them speak - let them dance - let them exchange colours, smell, action

Visual-Rhyme Bookmarks - it's assigning images to every number that looks like said number and then a word that rhymes with a number. 1. brush, pencil, feather, pen, candle...     gun, bun, won, son / (first) burst, cursed 2. swan, duck, goose     blue, blew, flu... Blah blah. You get my drift.

Alphabet - you can attach images to letters like A - ace, B - bee and so on. You can also use NATO phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta...), which is harder but also very good.

Specific cases - mnemonics are incredibly plastic, which enables to remember very different things like... Physics and Mathematics formulas. I'll show you something that I've learnt two years ago and I still remember it - aka the only Physics formula that I know to this day. Formula for First Cosmic Velocity. Ding:  

How did I remember that? "Gmyro in the house". Sounds strange, right? But Gmyro is my friend, and a house is a root. It looks like a house, doesn't it?

Okay, we're done with simple mnemonics. Time for...

Mnemonic Major System.

Uuu, scary.

Mnemonic Major System was invented in the 17th century by Stanislaus Mink. Due to increasing amount of available information new, better, memory system was needed and there it was. Better than any other, allowing to remember any kind of numbers, dates and events. It's based on imagination and phonetic alphabet, and to this day is the most advanced mnemonic technique. 

This wibbly-wobbly thing is vital part to becoming Sherlock. Seriously. If you want to have Mind Palace like he does this is important. Though it's... hard.

Main Code.

The base of MMS is a phonetic alphabet in which numbers are changed into consonants.

Have this Wikipedia chart because I'm a lazyass.

There are also other versions. For example Derren Brown uses this:

l

n

m

r

w, f, v

b, p

t, d

h

g

I actually can see why he likes this version better.

Creating Matrix

As I said the key to this whole thinger-majinger are consonants and all the other letters are irrelevant in the matrix we're gonna create. So basically to every number from 0 to 9 you create words that consist the matching letter from the chart above (we're gonna use the Wikipedia one, not the Derren Brown one). For example:

0 – Sow, Snow, Zero, Zoo 1 – Dye, Tie, poT, Doll 2 – kNee, Nose, Noose 3 – Ma, Milk, Moon, Mice 4 – Row, Rose, Rice, Rope 5 – Law, Letter, Leaf, polL 6 – SHoe, CHair, Joint  7 – Cow, Car, Glue 8 – Fee, Worm, Fork 9 – Bay, Book, Bee, Bark, Pool, Pork

You can put your consonant in the middle or the end of the word if you want. It doesn't matter. Also it's better if you create your own matrix with your own images. You will remember it better.

So now we have the basic word-pegs ready. You have to remember them to the point that imagining those things will be as easy to you as counting. (or will be equivalent of counting)

The follow-up pegs up to 100 can be created like that:

92 - BasiN 77 - CaKe 45 - RolL

And so on.

There are two fundamental ways to enlarge our matrix so we can code even tens of thousands of facts. Both methods have their pros and cons, but it's up to you to choose which one suits you better.

The first method - creating every single new peg from 100 to 1000. It's incredibly time consuming and requires to swallow a dictionary. But the con is that we don't have to strain our imagination muscle.

The second method is the same that you will use after creating the ones from 0 to 999 - you have to create only ten pegs for every hundred or for every thousand and combine them with the ones you already have.

Let's go straight to thousands.

1000 - 1999 something in a big block of ice 2000 - 2999 covered in thick oil 3000 - 3999 burning 4000 - 4999 pulsing in the bright purple light 5000 - 5999 made from soft suede 6000 - 6999 completely transparent 7000 - 7999 smelling like your favourite aroma 8000 - 8999 in the middle of the motorway 9000 - 9999 on the blue sky

Again, it's better if you create your own pegs.

I'll give you few examples on the use.

6014 - transparent TuRtle (or whatever you have for your 14) 5658 - a word we have for 658 like... SHeLF and then 5000 peg - suede. So you have suede shelf .___. (or if you picked the other method you'd go with 58 word, then the 6 hundred peg and 5000 peg. e.g. PINK suede shelf :D)

We can use the same method to create every 10 thousand, then every 100 thousand peg and as many other as we want.

I hope my gibberish is understandable p_q

You can use sites like major-system.info to generate yourself a matrix if you don't want to do it yourself.

Remembering phone numbers

You can "save" phone numbers in your head using Major Mnemonic System. If you've got at least 0-9 pegs from above it should be easy. The only thing you need to do is change numbers into letters, find words and link them somehow to the wherever you want to call.

Like...

Florist - 9271531 -  PiNK (927) TaiL (15)  MeTeor (31)

So you imagine a meteor made of flowers with a pink tail of fire. That's actually pretty cute. (ʘ‿ʘ✿)>>>>>>

Or if you really swallow a dictionary like I said earlier you can remember something like 2110019563214201 with only one word: antidisestablishmentarianist (it's an actual word. I checked).

You can also use this for remembering you schedule oooor historical dates (you can even make yourself pegs for months), or any dates in general, or whatever you like tbh. It can be even used for card tricks. >_>

But you wanted to hear about Mind Palace, right? So here we are.

Mind Palace

First records of using memory technique as Mind Palace (also called The Method of Loci) date hundreds upon hundreds of years before Christ. It was used by ancient Romans and Greeks and was described by them in their works.

Anonymous user in a work The Rhetorica ad Herennium, the oldest surviving Latin book on rhetoric, dating from the 90s BC, writes about the basic rules of creating The Palace, advising keeping the right distances between every fictional element (around 10 meters), and proper, not too bright, illumination.

In the palace you put every single thing you want to remember, coded in all of the mnemonics I described above. This place is like a storage of your memory, granting you easy access to whatever you are looking for.

There is this theory that your brain keeps everything you ever remembered, but the threads which you'd have to follow to find your memories get old with time to finally fray and break. Mind Palace is basically that link that makes you able to find your information.

This is what The Mind Palace is.

Thanks for reading. I'm never doing something like this again _^_"

[neverwintermute-blog]

[the-knowledge-forgotten]

Alphabets - runes

Runes are one of the best known out-of-use alphabets on Earth. As far as I can tell there are many different modern versions of them. I personally met three, in which in one I could write fluently since I was 12.

Runic alphabet, also known as Futhark (from six first letters), was used to write in various Germanic languages before popularization of Latin alphabet. The first scripts in runes date back to 150 AD and were written in certain type of runes which are called Elder Futhark.

Let's work with that one since it's the same that is used to read fortune from, and I will talk about it some other day.

The original version looks like this:

I can write in an alternate version I've found in a book about dragons. It's adjusted to my language, thus it has different symbols. But it works the same way. Here it is:

From my experience, you can adjust most of the alphabets to any language as long as it has... letters. It would be quite hard to adjust something to e.g. Japanese or Japanese to something. So yeah...

There is also a version I've found in the back of Hobbit, on the map. It is Tolkien version and it's made to work with English.

Here we have additionally

Which is kind of mix of the Elder Futhark and the runes I know. Or both my "dragon runes" and Tolkien runes are more similar to Anglo-Saxon runes. Who knows. I don't work in that field. (On the picture you can see two mistakes Tolkien made and I don't blame him, because O and A are very easily mistaken. Besides who would like to redraw the whole map after making two small typos that probably no one will notice?)

I treat runes as letters and only that. Just like Latin alphabet. But in fact, each symbol has a meaning - word or phrase - and a name.

Fehu means wealth or cattle. Ūruz - aurochs or if ûram - water Thurisaz means "The god Thor" or giant Ansuz - "one of the Æsir (gods)" Raidō - ride, jurney Kaunan means torch

And so on.

All meanings can be found on various sites like this one, so I think there is no need to quote them all in here.

I think there is not much more to be said about runes as an alphabet, so I'll just wrap this up.

So if you want to learn writing in some other alphabet I highly recommend this one for the start.

Runes are easy to adapt to any language and due to their simple structure are very nice to learn. Also they work as Latin letters, which is yet another convenience. Don't be afraid to add your own diacritics. It will hurt no one and definitely make it easier to write and read in different alphabets. Though I must warn you, as fluent you might be in writing, reading is much harder.

Next in alphabets: Enochian.

[thedappledsky]

There is no power hierarchy of herbs in hoodoo. It doesn’t matter if you harvested your rosemary during Mars hour on a Tuesday. It does not matter if you buy your herbs in the store or grow them. It does not matter if you wild craft your herbs. These concepts are ones found in European herbal magic, and do not transfer over into hoodoo. Herbs are perfect as they grow from the ground, created by God to be of use. 

[herbalcraft-deactivated20171026]

I do not assign myself to any specific ” path” and I feel this is truly important. If you feel by collecting a specific way or time will make the difference for your intended uses, sure. But in general. They are always just perfect.

[the-knowledge-forgotten]

Though, in fact, it does matter if you're harvesting herbs for medical use. Maybe not always, but usually. There are periods of plant growth in which they have the highest amount of active chemicals that are so important in that cause. For example you should pick lavender when the flowers only start to open. It doesn't have anything to do with phases of the moon or anything. But, if you want to smell the Evening Stock you better go at night. ;>

[the-knowledge-forgotten]

Common Juniper (juniperus communis)

Out of various uses of this plant's berries like spicing up meat, aiding healing urinary tracts (due to its antibacterial properties), helping up kidneys and alimentary canals (diuretic and cholagogic properties), I wanted to point out one small, not widely known use - it works miracles with headaches.

Here's what you have to do:

Take a spoon of juniper berries and crush them in a mortar (if you don't have one take a wide knife and squash them with the side of the blade). Then put them in a cup and fill half of it with boiling water. Cover it and leave it for 30 minutes to brew. Then drink the infusion. You can repeat that after few hours.

This drink doesn't have strong taste and smells nice, so don't worry. And it works like a dream. At least for people I know. I even heard it works with migraines.

Picture source: wikipedia Edited by me.

[the-knowledge-forgotten]

Hello again :) I just read your article and I have a question. I heard that you're not supposed to lend your tarot deck, because tarot deck is bonded with the owner (or something like that) and it won't work for other people. Do you know anything about this?

Yeah, I’ve heard about it. Though I’ve never paid much attention to it since I don’t know anyone beside me who reads Tarot.

Though, in some way, it might be true. It’s like talismans and all sorts of charms. It’s yours, it’s for you, you use it and no other person should. But I don’t think that others not being able to use them is the case. I treat it like, I don’t know, sort of taboo. It’s like lending something very private and intimate to other person.

[the-knowledge-forgotten]

Tarot - preface

Most people associate Tarot with old ladies covered in trinkets and strange colorful outfits that hurt our eyes. They sit in a dark, stuffy rooms, lit only by candles, behind small round tables with crystal balls in the center.

The other part of population when hears “Tarot” immediately thinks about crappy TV shows where you’re ordered to touch the screen to be healed, but the healing will only be complete if you send $4857 here and here.

Are those only people who can make a reading?

From experience I can tell you that definitely not. Anyone can read Tarot, whether they believe it it or not. I’m serious.

When I started, I was really pessimistic about the idea, but I thought hey, why don’t give it a shot? And I must admit that when I made my first readings I was genuinely surprised. To be honest, I still am. Because those not even painted, but mechanically printed, pieces of cardboard were telling me the truth. Why though? There’s nothing magical about it! You can sit in your room in the middle of the day, with your sibling arguing with your parents in the next room and it will work as good as ever.

To test it, I was asking about things I know. Like past of certain people, even mine, some near future events, points of view on things and simple advises. And… they all worked out.

Reading tarot is simple. The only things you need is a Tarot deck (obviously) and a book with exemplary interpretations on cards, sometimes called keys to Tarot. Yeah, something like that does exist. You don’t suddenly know your future by looking at a bunch of pictures. Even I, after using Tarot for years, don’t remember the meanings of cards. I don’t really bother to do so, because I have the book and I don’t intend to make readings for money, which definitely requires remembering all 78 of them.

There are different kinds of decks and different kinds of interpretation books. You have to remember that those books are examples, tips. That and nothing more. You should loosely base your readings on them, not quote strictly from other people’s work. They made them themselves, probably basing on other works. And so on.

You have to let your intuition lead. That’s the catch about Tarot. Intuition and ability to make a whole answer out of vague and sometimes pretty complicated information that cards provide you with. But, I assure you, if you’re not born with it, it comes with practice.

In the books (I use one made by Hajo Banzhaf. I can’t really tell which exactly, because I have a copy in my own language, but original is called Gut beraten mit Tarot. I have no idea where to find version in English or how it’s called.) you can also find layouts, which show you how to place cards and tell you the meaning of the space that it’s in. It is crucial part of a reading. If you don’t place cards in right positions you’ll get nothing or some gibberish. Of course you can draw one card and it can as well stay in your hand. You don’t have to put it anywhere.

This layout is called "The Next Step":

For me this is the simplest layout you can get. It tells you the nearest future. First card tells you current situation of the one asking, second - something that is currently irrelevant and we shouldn’t pay attention to that, third - things that are relevant, and the forth - the next step that we ought to make/ we will make/ something that will happen and when that happens we should make another reading. If we want to, of course.

There are also layouts that consist of 15 and more cards. They are much harder to interpret and it takes waaay longer. The example of such layout is Inanna’s Descent into the Underworld which is made of 15 cards. It's based on the Sumerian myth under the same name. And it looks like this:

But fret not, with some work they can be read. Though I don't recommend these for beginners. I don't make many this complicated layouts because I don't have the need to. That one answers some deep spiritual questions that aren't asked very often or, as far as I can tell, at all, so it's not that popular.

As for the cards alone, I told you there are different types of decks. I use Rider-Waite, because I find it the most… legible. In the images you can find symbols that can help better decipher the meaning of each card and actually make it easier. Besides they are really nice to look at. (Like that’s important…) It was first published in 1909 and now is the most popular deck in the world.

I haven't used many decks. I got another one from my friend for Christmas and it's... I don't even know what it is. For me it looks like some strange scribble with no meaning. But every person will like something else. Choose the set that seems good for you and don't mind other people. You will read those cards, not them.

As far as Tarot structure is concerned - it's made of 78 cards and divided into Major Arcana and Minor Arcana. The former is made of 22 cards (from 0 to 21) and the latter of 58 cards. In a way Minor Arcana resembles normal playing card decks. It comprises of 4 suits - cups (♥), coins (♦), swords (♠) and wands (♣), but they have 14 cards each. Suits have cards numbered from 1 (Ace) to 10 and royal cards which are page, knight, queen and king. As you can see what differentiates Minor Arcana from regular playing cards is one additional royal - the knight.

It might sound complicated and scary, but in fact it is not. You'll get a hang of it very quickly.

I guess that's all for now, but let me tell you one last thing: I might have presented Tarot like something trivial. I might have stripped it out of all magic and ruined the whole climate, like I was talking about the brands of headphones, but believe me when I tell you that as much as I simplify it, those "pieces of cardboard" hold a great mystery. They can tell you things you, or person you're doing the reading for, don't want to know. Always ask yourself if you're 100% sure you want the answer. There's always something dangerous about playing with things we're not supposed to know.

Some things are better left unsaid.

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Expect more on this topic.