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Oct. 30th, 2008
Why BookOfMirrors?
This is the journal entry I was talking about, and while I had no knowledge of it at the time, I think it's very appropriate, and I agree with the concept.
Generally, I picked the name![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bookofmirrors (Grrr... RoseQuoll still down...) because I had pretty recently become a part of the pagan community down here... my first experience with real pagans... and had learned that, in addition to the Book of Shadows, wherein aspiring witches wrote down lessons and spells and whatnot, there was also a Book of Mirrors, which was more like the witch's journal/diary, presumably for writing deep thoughts. Seemed like a great name for an online journal.
There are so many layers to it, though.
First of all, I very strongly believe in sayings such as "We despise in others what we hate most in ourselves" and "You see the world not as It Is, but as You Are" and the like. Everything is mirrors. We reflect our world - not in the sense that the external world causes what we do, but in the sense that we make our own choices based on what we see through our own limited filters - our mirror, if you will. We don't look through a window into the world, but see only facets of ourselves, disguised as other people/situations.
That's not to say that a lot of hard work/therapy/navel-gazing/etc. doesn't allow you to see past the mirror. It can/does. Although I'm inclined to think that, for the most part, it only allows you to recognize when you're seeing the reflection, rather than actually allowing an unobstructed view through the window. I'm not 100% sure on this one. Need more data. :)
Also, for most of my quasi-adult life, I've had a keen interest in psychology and therapy. I wasn't a psych major for nothing, even though I ended up in nursing rather than graduate school. The first thing I wanted to be (well, y'know, besides a ballerina, or Cher-of-the-70s) was a psychologist. And what does a therapist do but reflect? They take advantage of the reflections that their clients see, and show them their own face, their own soul. They tilt the mirror, and show different angles. They show which angles blind, which distort... and if you're very lucky, and have a client that's up to it, which angles show a clear picture. And maybe even how to see around the frame to the big world outside.
For a while, my (for lack of a better word) motto was "I am the Blade and the Mirror"; by which I meant that I felt my task in life was to help others cut away their own false layers, so that they could see their own True and Beautiful Reflection. I'd like to think that, on the rare occasions I make deep posts any more, that just sharing of myself does that.
I've somewhat moved away from that as a vocation, even though I'm still taking the Core Energetics classes, but I think that it's still something I do, something everyone does.
I'd like to think I do it with more consciousness, but who knows?
Maybe I'm still just looking in my own Mirror.
This is the journal entry I was talking about, and while I had no knowledge of it at the time, I think it's very appropriate, and I agree with the concept.
Generally, I picked the name
bookofmirrors (Grrr... RoseQuoll still down...) because I had pretty recently become a part of the pagan community down here... my first experience with real pagans... and had learned that, in addition to the Book of Shadows, wherein aspiring witches wrote down lessons and spells and whatnot, there was also a Book of Mirrors, which was more like the witch's journal/diary, presumably for writing deep thoughts. Seemed like a great name for an online journal.There are so many layers to it, though.
First of all, I very strongly believe in sayings such as "We despise in others what we hate most in ourselves" and "You see the world not as It Is, but as You Are" and the like. Everything is mirrors. We reflect our world - not in the sense that the external world causes what we do, but in the sense that we make our own choices based on what we see through our own limited filters - our mirror, if you will. We don't look through a window into the world, but see only facets of ourselves, disguised as other people/situations.
That's not to say that a lot of hard work/therapy/navel-gazing/etc. doesn't allow you to see past the mirror. It can/does. Although I'm inclined to think that, for the most part, it only allows you to recognize when you're seeing the reflection, rather than actually allowing an unobstructed view through the window. I'm not 100% sure on this one. Need more data. :)
Also, for most of my quasi-adult life, I've had a keen interest in psychology and therapy. I wasn't a psych major for nothing, even though I ended up in nursing rather than graduate school. The first thing I wanted to be (well, y'know, besides a ballerina, or Cher-of-the-70s) was a psychologist. And what does a therapist do but reflect? They take advantage of the reflections that their clients see, and show them their own face, their own soul. They tilt the mirror, and show different angles. They show which angles blind, which distort... and if you're very lucky, and have a client that's up to it, which angles show a clear picture. And maybe even how to see around the frame to the big world outside.
For a while, my (for lack of a better word) motto was "I am the Blade and the Mirror"; by which I meant that I felt my task in life was to help others cut away their own false layers, so that they could see their own True and Beautiful Reflection. I'd like to think that, on the rare occasions I make deep posts any more, that just sharing of myself does that.
I've somewhat moved away from that as a vocation, even though I'm still taking the Core Energetics classes, but I think that it's still something I do, something everyone does.
I'd like to think I do it with more consciousness, but who knows?
Maybe I'm still just looking in my own Mirror.
