Baba Ram Dass

I always go to my local farmers market when it in season, to get my Organic local produce and check out whatever goodies people are making and selling. There is a small used book vendor that I can never pass up, Always finding a couple gems to come home with me.

A couple years ago, while browsing the Spirituality section, I came across “Be Here Now” by Baba Ram Dass aka Richard Alpert.

The book took me by surprise when I read  through it, Its  got a couple small chapters, an introduction, then chapters on spirituality, meditation and yoga.  The majority of the book is full spread pictures, amazing pictures,like Mandalas, Sigils, enlightened beings, deities goddess,and demon-esque type creatures. With the large text flowing through the pictures like a river . I had an Amazing experience just reading this book. I also picked up “Autobiography of a Yoga” by Paramahansa Yogananda (this is quite a longer read). which is amazing as well.

Lets just say I  devoured “Be Here Now”.  I went on to listen to all of his lectures or “Sat-sangs” online, as well as this other books, documentaries, and anything else I could find.

Let me tell you a bit about Ram Dass for people that are new to him, his story or his material.

He was a  professional and had a doctorate  in psychology and had a a permanent position at Harvard, where he worked with the Social Relations Department and the Psychology Department where he was a therapist. This is also where Timothy Leary worked and the two came good friends.  They both started to experiment with psychedelics, in and out of the work environment and, after a scandal at Harvard both left their positions.

Now  Richard Alpert , considered himself an atheist and as “inured to religion. I didn’t have one whiff of God until I took psychedelics.”  But after his years with Leary and his psychedelic experiences he became a seeker and left for India in 1967 on a spiritual journey.

He wanted to find out if there was a way, or people that understood why Psychedelics can cause mystical experiences, and if there was a way to do it without mind altering compounds. In India he met  Neem Karoli Baba, called Maharaj Ji which became his Guru and he spent some time with.  He spent many years working and learning with different gurus and spending time in different spiritual retreats and meditation centers. All the while he was still working with LSD and other psychedelics.

He came back to the states, and was well know in the psychedelic and spiritual movement. He traveled around for years giving talks and lectures. Sharing his experiences and wisdom. He is gifted speaker, and the talks are deep,charming and funny. He covers things like his Psychedelic and mystical experiences, Self awareness , love, death, yoga, mediation and eastern religions and teachings.

He turned into the Psychedelic Guru.

He still is, in my book.

When asked if he could sum up his life’s message, he replied,

“I help people as a way to work on myself, and I work on myself to help people … to me, that’s what the emerging game is all about.”

That resonated with me on a deep level.

I recommend Listening to some of the talks on YouTube. I will post some here that are my favorite to get you started. There are hours and hours of these talks out there. I have listened to all I could find. Some of them 2 or 3 times. Just something I keep coming back to.

 

Ram Dass, Here We All Are, Be Here Now.

 

 

 

This remarkable collection of tapes by Ram Dass was recorded at a workshop at the opening of Naropa Institute in the summer of 1974. It represents Ram Dass’ core teaching on the Bhagavad Gita, one of Hinduism’s essence spiritual texts.

Course focus on karma yoga and bhakti yoga,  predicament in teaching the Gita,  pure transmissions,  rituals,  reinvesting Spirit by becoming it, Gita as living experience,  stages in the evolution of consciousness,  identifying with a different plane of reality, emptiness, creating your own universe,  making life a vehicle,  experiencing the Gita,  identifying with Arjuna and identifying with Krishna.

There plenty more to find online. Ram Dass had a stroke some years back and has stopped traveling and giving lectures , but he still teaches from his website and holds retreats in Hawaii every year.

www.RamDass.org

 

who are your favorite spiritual teachers?

The Age of the Goddess. Promthea

This is the first entry in this new blog of mine.

So first thing, the name.

Life as a Modern Mystic, I Ms.Mystic will be the creator and host of this blog. I like to think of myself as a mystic, and that encompasses many things. Instead of trying to list them here in my first post, or in an intro somewhere ( which I haven’t done, but will get to). I will let you figure out what a Mystic is, and who I am by reading my posts and following my blog.

What I want to start this blog off with a comic book character named Promethea, who is a Goddess and superhero from the world of “Immateria”(the Afterlife, Hyperspace, alternate dimension, Spirit realm, etc). Created by Alan Moore who is a known occultist, magician, comic book writer and anarchist, along with other talented artist.

The Madman himself

On a side note. Ms.Mystic is also the name of a comic book and female superhero, but shes not quite as badass as Promthea.

Ok, so growing up female, comic books weren’t really my thing, I had flipped through a couple but nothing drew me in. Decades later, Promethea lands in my lap. Being A Mystic I have studied most of the spiritual paths and submerged myself in Esoteric and Occult literature.

When I started reading Promethea I became completely engulfed in its world of magic. The comic is drowning in Occult ideas and symbolism. It throws  you into concepts such as the Kabbalah, Tarot, Tantric sex, Psychedelia, mind expansion, and much more.

Lets go through some of my favorite occult references, first The demons of the Goetia  show up, to try and put a stop to the new form of Promethea (Sophie Bangs), of course they are sent/summoned  from a corrupt business man name Solomon.

Promethea kick their asses, but in the process her friend and guide Barbra is killed and disappears into the immaterial for good. Sophie (the host of Promethea) knows nothing about magic or the occult and is approached by Jack Faust a famous magician to help to teach her. The deal is, if she sleeps with him (he is a hideous old man to her) he will give her the run down on magic. She agrees, though not happy about it. It turns into a full romp of Tantric sex, the sex being a lesson in itself.

Then her magical staff the caduceus, ( which has two snakes heads which are alive and talk to her) take her through,  Crowley’s Thoth Tarot deck like its some magical carnival ride, explaining the meaning behind the cards and much more. She meets the whore of Babylon and her followers. She has several run ins with Crowley himself, along with A.O. Spare and John Dee each adding to a piece of her story.

The majority of the books is her roaming around the different Sephirots of the tree of life. Each comic book an adventure through a certain Sephirot until she reaches the top and merges with the source, which was my favorite moment in the whole series.
For anyone that has had a mystical/psychedelic experience, this will really resonate with you. Her consciousness blends with the white light, the highest vibration, the source. its beautiful.

 

I could go on and on about this comic, but there is no way to express the magic that this book is. I believe that this is a grimoire created by Alan Moore for summoning Promethea and it has to be experienced personally. The Occultism is just dripping off the pages and the art created by J.H. Williams III and Mick Gray is fantastic and changes from book to book, this really helps to emerge the reader into the content.

 What I found interesting is that Promethea is invoked into the material world through her hosts, most recent one is Sophie Bangs by writing about her. To explain this concept a little lets go to Moores definition of magic.

A quote from Alan Moore, taken from the documentary about him, The Mindscape of Alan Moore

“Magic in its earliest form is often referred to as “The Art.” I believe that this is completely literal. I believe that magic is art, and that art, whether that be writing, music, sculpture or any other form is literally magic. Art is, like magic, is the science of manipulating symbols, words or images to achieve changes in Consciousness. The very language of magic seems to be talking as much about writing or art as it is about supernatural events. A Grimoire for example, a book of spells is simple a fancy way of saying grammar. Indeed to cast a spell is simply to spell, to manipulate words to change peoples Consciousness. I believe that this a why an artist or writer is the closest thing in the contemporary world that you are likely to see as a shaman. Since I to a certain degree believe art and magic to be interchangeable, it seemed only natural that art should be the means by which I express magical ideas.”

It is clear to me after reading this comic book, that it is actually a grimoire created by Moore for invoking Promethea into your life. Who doesn’t need a little superhero in their lives? I surely do!