I think it's just what you become comfortable & familiar with. To me, the Sun is masculine, the Earth is feminine. The Sun transmits the seed-energy, the Earth receives and is fertilized. I guess it's really more the Sun/Earth relationship... but whenever I think 'sun' the next thing I always think is 'moon' (M-O-O-N that spells MOON, sorry... fell off my track) - I never think 'sun' then 'earth', when it's really Terra that's the polar opposite of Sol. I'm always open to hearing new ways of thinking about things, but that's something that's ingrained in me to such a point that it would never feel 'true' to me. All the planets' sexual orientation are kind of hard-wired in my head... except maybe Mercury and Uranus - they're kind of androgynous.
The Villoldo book is, well, it's the book I'm reading in the bathroom. I keep buying books, even as I'm trying to get rid of books. It's pathetic, and I may need a BA group (Books Anonymous). As I've been getting rid of my witchier tomes, I keep buying more herb books, cook books... and books on shamanism. Books that are connected to someone who is connected to shamanism, no matter how marginally. I've heard of soul retrieval before, but Villoldo's was the first book I've explored that deals with it specifically.
Soul retrieval reminds me of one of the later Castaneda books. I don't remember the title, but it involved a woman who was a painter - she went searching for Castaneda, ended up camping out at his house w/some old gardener or handy-man or something & he started her on a process called 'recapitulation'. She would suspend herself in a sleeping bag in a tree (a low-budget sensory deprivation chamber) & relive moments from her past. In the process, she was removing psychic threads from people in her past & reclaiming herself.
I know it's probably not the end-all-be-all book on soul retrieval. I already know that I am probably not going looking for bits of myself that are stuck in old plays. For some reason, I think as I've been writing my 'life story' (all 32 years of it, what I can remember), I'm finding out that I can grieve now for dead cats and feel better afterwards. I'm writing about people I knew who affected me negatively for the most part - and I really don't feel anything about them - not hatred, not love, not grief. It's all in the past - and I've kind of integrated my past selves with me in the here-&-now. I get the feeling, simply because Villoldo talks about time being continuous, he's going to probably get into changing FUTURE dialogues, troubleshooting upcoming contracts BEFORE you sign the bottom line - that I'm kind of curious about.
I know I'm not the poster child for mental and emotional health, but I accept myself with all my flaws & demons. They're my demons, dammit! (LoL!) I also seem, as the years pass, to be more accepting of other people's flaws & demons because I can recognize myself in their mirror. I am still working on acting like I'm as accepting and tolerant as I'd like to think I am - sometimes, I'm surprised my karma doesn't kick my ass on a daily basis.
Re: Old Sol & Soul Retrieval
The Villoldo book is, well, it's the book I'm reading in the bathroom. I keep buying books, even as I'm trying to get rid of books. It's pathetic, and I may need a BA group (Books Anonymous). As I've been getting rid of my witchier tomes, I keep buying more herb books, cook books... and books on shamanism. Books that are connected to someone who is connected to shamanism, no matter how marginally. I've heard of soul retrieval before, but Villoldo's was the first book I've explored that deals with it specifically.
Soul retrieval reminds me of one of the later Castaneda books. I don't remember the title, but it involved a woman who was a painter - she went searching for Castaneda, ended up camping out at his house w/some old gardener or handy-man or something & he started her on a process called 'recapitulation'. She would suspend herself in a sleeping bag in a tree (a low-budget sensory deprivation chamber) & relive moments from her past. In the process, she was removing psychic threads from people in her past & reclaiming herself.
I know it's probably not the end-all-be-all book on soul retrieval. I already know that I am probably not going looking for bits of myself that are stuck in old plays. For some reason, I think as I've been writing my 'life story' (all 32 years of it, what I can remember), I'm finding out that I can grieve now for dead cats and feel better afterwards. I'm writing about people I knew who affected me negatively for the most part - and I really don't feel anything about them - not hatred, not love, not grief. It's all in the past - and I've kind of integrated my past selves with me in the here-&-now. I get the feeling, simply because Villoldo talks about time being continuous, he's going to probably get into changing FUTURE dialogues, troubleshooting upcoming contracts BEFORE you sign the bottom line - that I'm kind of curious about.
I know I'm not the poster child for mental and emotional health, but I accept myself with all my flaws & demons. They're my demons, dammit! (LoL!) I also seem, as the years pass, to be more accepting of other people's flaws & demons because I can recognize myself in their mirror. I am still working on acting like I'm as accepting and tolerant as I'd like to think I am - sometimes, I'm surprised my karma doesn't kick my ass on a daily basis.