Creatures & Lore

[one-off]

Is there a book that is reliable to tell me about the beings out there?

Like and encyclopedia of mythical beings. I'm asking because if I go out and find something myself since I'm new I'd probably get scammed by some fictional nonsense some random person wrote for children. I'd love something recommended that had pictures and descriptions in it.

Also, I would love some books on the histories and stories of these beings races. I'm no where near summoning or evoking beings at the moment, but the encyclopedia would be fascinating to me. I love history also. The best part of reading a history book on this is that it combines my love of fantasy novels with my love of history since it'll be true stories about these beings! I could kiss you! [yay]

[one-off]

I kept digging and found this on this forum:

Folklore and Mythology:

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html
http://www.bellaterreno.com/art/default.aspx
http://www.orkneyjar.com/index.html

The bellaterreno is a 404, but the rest seem on point!

Thanks Cyberdemon!

Still is there an encyclopedia of creatures that you would recommend?

[Rin]

I'm not sure if this is what you're after, but William Mistelle wrote a few books about his experiences working with the various elemental species, one on Undines specifically, then one with a section containing recorded interactions with and stories from each of the four elemental beings (undines, sylphs, salamanders, gnomes). They make for very interesting reading.

[Clockwork Ghost]

If you want an interesting 18th century view, you could check out the works of Carl con Linné, better known as Carl Linnaeus, who compiled quite an impressive glossary of mythical creatures. He didnt believe in Pelicans though, or certain species of frog, but he was quite confident that the satyr, the phoenix, and the manticore existed. He did have some good reason for doing so as the Narwhal had just been discovered, and thats about as fucked up looking an animal as the platypus, so a manticore didnt really seem that far fetched.

[Nahemah]

The bellaterreno is a 404, but the rest seem on point!

Thanks Cyberdemon!

Still is there an encyclopedia of creatures that you would recommend?

Those are my links, from an old resource thread, actually.

http://cryptidz.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Cryptids

This sort of thing? Or more mythic/ folkloric?

I will check if I have anything else in my files and post if I find something.

I'll be updating resource thread links soon too.

[one-off]

Thanks for the resources!

From my understanding all of the mythical creatures are non-corporeal. I mean it may be possible for certain animal spirits to have magical natures. For instance once I was thumping my old black cat on the head, roughhousing with her like she was a dog, and she scratched my thumb and left a light scar. I've since gotten rid of the cat. Now, on a few occasions the scar would swell up and start itching like it's a fresh wound trying to heal.

There may be something going on there that I don't know about related to the cat. So I'm sure other animals have things going on I'm also not aware of.

That's something for a later study years down the road, what I'm interested at the moment has more to do with identifying and understanding astral creatures because I'll be able to actually see and interact with them vs crytids which may or may not exist.

Things like the elementals, the fae, dragons, gods, angels. Any other things I'm not aware of. Correct me if I'm wrong but Angels aren't typically found in the astral plane right? They reside in the spirit plane which is beyond the mind plane. So anything found below the spirit plane besides humans and animals/plants are considered demons/fallen angels?

Anyway, I don't really want to get into this black and white classification I'd just like to know about the different types of creatures that are of the astral nature and can be interacted with through training. I'm like a kid n a candy store, but I realize that this isn't a game and I won't bother contacting anything until I'm well prepared. But, learning about what's out there shouldn't be dangerous correct?

[cyberdemon]

I have plenty of local, endemic lore.. but they're all in my head and in a different language. But they're all pretty much the same about ghastly entities with the same sort of description. At this point I couldn't tell if being cliche and repetitive meant they're truly endemic or just myths is the problem.

[one-off]

I have plenty of local, endemic lore.. but they're all in my head and in a different language. But they're all pretty much the same about ghastly entities with the same sort of description. At this point I couldn't tell if being cliche and repetitive meant they're truly endemic or just myths is the problem.

That's interesting. Like local spirits tales which could just be myths and you don't know. Are you of the mind that spirits do exist and can be worked with/viewed when one astral projects? I'm seeing people here have different training. So different beliefs.

[cyberdemon]

I have plenty of local, endemic lore.. but they're all in my head and in a different language. But they're all pretty much the same about ghastly entities with the same sort of description. At this point I couldn't tell if being cliche and repetitive meant they're truly endemic or just myths is the problem.

That's interesting. Like local spirits tales which could just be myths and you don't know. Are you of the mind that spirits do exist and can be worked with/viewed when one astral projects? I'm seeing people here have different training. So different beliefs.

Personally I'm not one to say that they cannot be worked with. That goes down to the classification of "spirits" in general. Where I exist, astral projection is hardly mainstream and all the lore talk of seeing creatures in manifested form, ie. physical, visible forms. It's been a very, very long time since I personally saw "spirits" with my own two eyes and they didn't exactly follow the current mainstream description.

At the moment the most prominent features are:

• long hair / hairy / furry creature
  red eyes
  inverted feet
  teleportation by creature
  gigantic disproportionate proportions (eg. really long arms or legs)
  almost always malevolent intent
  causes the observer to faint

The last point is what bothers me the most. For years I used to follow a local radio talk show about paranormal sightings. Up to 90% of all the recollections would invariably say the tale ends when the observer has seen his enough and faints, to be found by people later on. This is something that's NOT very "Western". Western recollections of lores hardly ever talk about fainting people, do they? So again, this is an endemic feature I suppose.

[Desecrated]

I don't think there is any great book covering everything, you kinda have to piece together things from different sources.

C. W. Leadbeater - The Astral Plane: Its Scenery, Inhabitants And Phenomena
C. W. Leadbeater - Invisible Helpers
Leadbeater - The Hidden Side of Things - Vols. I & II

Ted Andrews has written a lot about spirit animals and similar subjects.
Paracelsus wrote a lot about elementals.

Bill withcomb - The magicians companion is a great 600 page dictionary for almost everything magical. It's great when you need a fast reminder on a subject and don't have time to read an entire book about it. There is some basic stuff about parallel planes, realms and astral journeys in there.

Robert Monroe - Journeys Out of the Body (300,000 copies sold to date, this is the definitive work on the extraordinary phenomenon of out-of-body experiences, by the founder of the internationally known Monroe Institute.)

Annie Besant - Thought Forms
Erin Pavlina - The Astral Projection Guidebook
Rudy Rucker - The Fourth Dimension: A Guided Tour of the Higher Universes.

Old books with monsters and all sorts of fun are called 'bestiarium' or 'Bestiary'.
If you want books about general mythology I suggest books from the publisher 'Senate', they can be found pretty cheap in second hand stores.

[Desecrated]

I have plenty of local, endemic lore.. but they're all in my head and in a different language. But they're all pretty much the same about ghastly entities with the same sort of description. At this point I couldn't tell if being cliche and repetitive meant they're truly endemic or just myths is the problem.

That's interesting. Like local spirits tales which could just be myths and you don't know. Are you of the mind that spirits do exist and can be worked with/viewed when one astral projects? I'm seeing people here have different training. So different beliefs.

Here in Scandinavia magic has been tied to supernatural beings for a very long time, Especially trolls and vättar.
I found that a combination of local lore, ethnological studies an fairy tales gives some really good clues on how to behave around these things.
Try to find any local Folklorists or museums that are centered around your community and you'll usually end up with lots of help.

[Desecrated]

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
Four Treatises of Theophrastus Von Hohenheim Called Paracelsus
Saint Augustine - City of God
Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of All Ages
Lucas Jennis - Musaeum Hermeticum

[one-off]

Excellent! Thank you all for being so generous with your knowledge and resources.

I'll be sure to gorge on all of this tantalizing knowledge in repayment.

@Cyberdemon

I haven't had the time to go out and mindle with the local occultists here in this city. Mainly because I don't really want to until I'm more advanced in my own initiation. So I couldn't give you an honest answer about the lore here. But the mainstream thing is more tailored to alien sightings, abductions, and government conspiracies. Who knows if an of it holds merit. Typically people don't faint though, they give full accounts.

[Caerdon]

One that I have that is quite...large:
the Dictionary of Mythology by J.A. Coleman

[cyberdemon]

This is going to sound dumb but I'm pretty sure that in a few hundred years JK Rowling's Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them is going to be a grimoire of sorts.

[one-off]

I just finished C. W. Leadbeater - The Astral Plane: Its Scenery, Inhabitants And Phenomena.

My mind is blown. You all know how I've been asking questions about stuff going on with me. I found explanations for other things I haven't asked about yet, and many verification on some scientific theories I have.

One particular thing I discovered from this text was on Cyberdemon's local lore, and it's cliches. One of the inhabitants (though rare) which can be found are werewolves.

The origin was fascinating. When a perfectly brutal or cruel person first astral projects, the astral body is in a state where it can be seized upon by an entity which would then use it's etheric matter to materialize physically as some form of beast, typically a wolf. Then it would roam the countryside going on a killing spree. Any damage done to it would also be done to the physical body through repercussion. The materialization can't typically stray too far from the original body.

The person retains this form when they "die" and sever the connection to the physical form. Then they have ways of attempting re-materialization.

Another explanation are the non-human inhabitants that like to play tricks on people. Some have the ability to materialize and also can cast glamour on people to appear any type of way. Illusions basically even an illusion of feinting.

Now I have an extreme urge to progress through my IIH training to actually obtain astral vision and projection. It's fascinating! Reading another book on it would just torture me. But, when I started I just couldn't stop reading and ended up reading nearly the entire thing in one sitting.

[cyberdemon]

I just finished C. W. Leadbeater - The Astral Plane: Its Scenery, Inhabitants And Phenomena.

My mind is blown. You all know how I've been asking questions about stuff going on with me. I found explanations for other things I haven't asked about yet, and many verification on some scientific theories I have.

One particular thing I discovered from this text was on Cyberdemon's local lore, and it's cliches. One of the inhabitants (though rare) which can be found are werewolves.

Werewolf/wolf aren't part of my endemic, although the descriptions add up. Looks like I need to get a hold of this book. Do you have an e-copy to share?

[Desecrated]

I just finished C. W. Leadbeater - The Astral Plane: Its Scenery, Inhabitants And Phenomena.

My mind is blown. You all know how I've been asking questions about stuff going on with me. I found explanations for other things I haven't asked about yet, and many verification on some scientific theories I have.

The oldies are sometimes the goodies.

[one-off]

Can't thank you enough.

It also helped clarify the magick of level 1 in IIH. I'll share, someone may find my discoveries interesting. Plus it gives me an opportunity to be corrected.

The mind training, besides gaining control of my mental faculties, allows me to stop the unconscious creation of elementals. The mirrors to the soul, besides the fact of identifying the temperament of my soul, actually paints the picture of the elementals I'm currently surround by on the astral plane. The act of using cold water to wash away certain black mirror traits is working by it actually pulling off the principles which the Black mirror related elementals use as leverage to prolong their existences. The impregnating of food, air and water with a wish creates an anchor for a thought. The thought creates the elemental who's job is to carry out my wish. I consume the impregnated matter and the anchor for the thought gets absorbed into my matter which transforms me into a power source for my elemental even when I'm not actively thinking about it's instructions. The thought/wish is resonated from my being 24/7.