Sofus' Esoteric Studies Page

(You can find comments on select readings)
A fair warning: I will be rambling about my beliefs here.

I read a lot (and have even more books, but haven't had time to sit down and really read them all) about almost anything. Things that are high on my list are Qabbalah, Magick, Tarot and Chakras, while paganism, shamanism, astral work and other more esoteric studies are also on my list of things I read.

I generally tend to think of myself in the intersection between Paganism, Christianity and Buddhism. While I do not think any of the three really fall under esoteric studies, I do think they all are very related to this. My primary interests have always been of a more mystical nature trying to get in touch with the spiritual and esoteric side of them.

Most of my beliefs have been forged over many years of reading many books, having had many discussions with many people and just thinking and empirically trying things out when doable.

One of my root beliefs is that of being in charge of and being responsible for my own life and actions. Everything I do, everything I do not do, everything I think... they will all come back to me either in this life or the next. As I have always been a physically strong and big person compared to most people I interact with, I have also developed a very strong sense of power bringing responsibility. The more power you have the more you have to be careful how you (mis)use it.

The way I see it, as with everything else in my life, there must be a sense of balance and really in the end all things realted to each other really are the same at the end. They just have different paths for how to reach this end. You see this in religion (I think all religions really are trying to get at the same ideas, concepts, morality, spirituality and ethics, just from different cultural and individual angles). You see this in martial arts, you see it in education, in living in science in all things. It is quite fascinating, I think, when you sit down to think about these things. Unfortunately, as with most everyone else in the western world, I do not have as much time to give in this endeavour as I would like.

I have spent much time on christian and jewish mysticism. In particular, learning about the Tarot, Magickal studies and the Tree of Life. I am very much a believer in mind over matter as well. Meaning that I do believe that harnessing your power of concentration and belief, you can do amazing things like healing yourself and others as well as being able to manipulate the physical world. I believe in the astral world, astral projections, and higher powers/entities, reincarnation, group souls, and the idea that we are here for our soul to learn one or more key concepts. If these are not learned we'll go back to learn them in another life. Time and space is really for the narrow-minded, though I too have been unable to get myself out of the box
But why are so many people reluctant to think about these issues? I do not know. I find it puzzling and sometimes quite frustrating how closeminded people are to even think about alternative ideas.

---

Readings

While my studies take me on a more alternate path than most people, rest assured that I am just a normal guy
Most of these readings are primarily an intellectual drive to learn about things, while some of them have helped shape my core beliefs. I would like to be more serious about these studies, but have no time and it is hard to be motivated when people around you do not understand and would rather have you not study these things at all. Ah well, if it was easy, everyone would do it I guess

Below, find comments and information on readings by different authors and on different topics. If you would like me to add comments or links on a particular topic, please let me know. The only high level comment I have about my readings is that I have learned to stay away from books published by Llewellyn Publishers. I find almost all of their books to be bad quality with no substance and low informational content. While I in general try not to make judgements, I feel fairly strongly about this.

---

Authors

Below, find comments on authors: Vera Stanley Alder, Carlos Castaneda, Aleister Crowley, Janet and Stewart Farrar, Dion Fortune, Eliphas Levi, Mouni Sadhu, Arther Edward Waite and Baird T. Spaulding.
The one author that probably has had the greatest impact on me is Mouni Sadhu, and I would encourage anyone sharing my interests to read some of his work.

If you find errors in my facts or if you would like me to comment on other authors, please let me know.

Vera Stanley Alder

While I do not agree with many of her views and explanations, I did find good points and ways of looking at the world in her books The Finding of the Third Eye and The Fifth Dimension.

Carlos Castaneda

While I have read most of the books by Carlos Castaneda, I have finally decided that I don't really like his angle and description of things. The books are still a worthwhile read, as they are very thought provoking and do bring up a lot of interesting ideas.

Aleister Crowley

I have tried to read Aleister Crowley, but find him very hard to read. He seems to find a lot of pleasure in using obscure words and references, rather than say things straight out. While I can understand a lot of the reasoning behind this, I think there is a nice tradeoff between the two and I think Crowley is just too extreme in the obscurity factor.
To find out more, you can also check out the Aleister Crowley Foundation.

Janet and Stewart Farrar

When I first approached the priest who did my hand-fasting ceremony, he pointed me to books by the two Farrars. Their books (that I have read) are fairly light but give a good introduction to wicca.

Dion Fortune

I was introduced to Dion Fortune when I read her book on Psychic Self-defense. This was one of the first books I read that got me interested in the area of mind power, spirituality and magickal studies.

Eliphas Levi

I have read some of his work and find it easy reading, though also a little high-level and vague at times without enough details or references, but much easier to read than Aleister Crowley. I have some doubts to his accuracy and knowledge based on my own readings and comments from other authors. I do not yet have enough knowledge to have a strong opinion on the matter.

Mouni Sadhu

I like reading anything written by Mouni Sadhu. I find the books I have that were written by him to be very good. In particular, "Concentration" and "Ways to self-realization" are quite good.

Baird T. Spaulding

The six-volume set in his experiences in the east are fascinating, and much of what he describes falls into my own beliefs as well. If you are interested in reading about someone else's first-hand experiences of telepathy, mind-over-matter and reincarnation among others, you should give these volumes a try.

Arthur Edward Waite

I have read some of his work and find it easy reading, though also a little high-level and vague at times without enough details or references, but much easier to read than Aleister Crowley. I have some doubts about his accuracy and knowledge based on my own readings and comments from other authors. As with Eliphas Levi, I do not yet have enough knowledge to have a strong opinion on the matter.

---

Topics

Below, find comments on the topics: Magick, Meditation, Mind Power, Paganism, Qabbalah, Shamanism, Spiritual/Religion and Tarot.

These are just some of the topics I have read about. Other topics that I also find fascinating are the Rosicrucians, the Masons, the Knights Templar, Zen, Palm Reading, Astrology, Numerology and general mystic lore. More scientific topics that I am interested include the study of black holes, quantum physics, philosophy, psychology, cognitive science and more. Unfortunately, I do not have as much time as I would like to read all of these (and I tend to procrastinate more than I should for an indepth study in any one of these areas.)

If you find errors in my facts or if you would like me to comment on other topics, please let me know.

NOTE: I have just recently started writing up these, so some entries are still empty.

Magick

To be filled in at a later date.

Meditation

Meditation; what is it and why do it?

Mind Power

Anything from concentration to telepathy to teleportation to astral travel. I include all this as part of your mind and what you do with it.

Paganism

Paganism is a very nature oriented religion. Because of this, it pays a lot of attention to the seasons. This attention to seasons is broken down into the more symbolic quarters, where each quarter represents many attributes that are associated not only with each season, but also with particular elements of psyche, personality and the universe. Some of the more obvious attributes are of course air, earth, fire and water, as well as passion, wisdom, knowledge, intellect, fertility, and love just to name a few. All of these attributes are usually associated with a quarter (east, west, ...) which in turn is also associated with a season (fall, spring, ...), which each have certain spirits associated with them. This setup is very similar among many cultures and religions (Archangels Rafael, Gabriel, Michael, and Uriel for the christians and jewish, for example.)

Paganism, being nature oriented also focus on the many aspects of the earth and the universe, where each aspect can be thought of as a separate Goddess or God (the Earth-mother, or the Father of the universe, etc). [Note, this is my view on it. Other pagans would most likely have a different view on this]. I am very spiritual, so I read a lot in to the symbolism of these aspects of the universe.

Qabbalah (aka Kabbalah)

To be filled in at a later date.

Shamanism

I recently (over the last few years) have been reading up on different shamanic ideas, as I have always been interested in Native American mysticism. I came across the book "Soul Retrieval" by Sandra Ingermann, which got my renewed attention to this topic. I found the book very inspirational.
In my readings I found, much to my surprise, that shamanism has its roots world-wide and stems not only from the Americas but can be found in the whole world. All these are amazingly similar in their root beliefs. I would like to learn more about this, but I do not think that this is right for me. I did turn to a shaman when I had a tumor in my right elbow (turned out to be a benign tumor, which is now gone and I have 99% flexibility and full strength back)... I was very intrigued by my interactions with her and even found my power animal which I have been spending time with from time to time. It is amazing how calm and full of love I get whenever I spend time with it.

Spiritual/Religion

I consider myself very spiritual. I believe in an everlasting soul. I also believe that this soul reincarnates and is part of a bigger whole that we can tap into. I believe in the layers of spritualism closely related to the Qabbalistic view of the tree of life. Using this model of belief, it is easy to see where all my other beliefs fit in and why I do believe that studies in chakras, tarot, meditation, qabbalah, etc. can help us open these doors to our spiritual side.
I have read on various religious beliefs, primarily christianity, buddhism, shamanism, wicca/paganism and the bhagvad gita. It is amazing that there is so much similarity between all of these in terms of the core message of love, tolerance, respect and morality. With these messages, it is surprising that there still is so much violence and hate based on religious beliefs. The only thing I can think of is that this must be a basic human characteristic. If true, this is something each of us must overcome and strangely enough, religion ought to be one answer for this. Very ironic
I consider myself to be part of all and none of these religions; or rather, I believe in all of these based on my own interpretations. However, I do not consider myself to be part of any religious institution do to their rather strict and sometimes unnatural interpretation of their scriptures.

Tarot

To be filled in at a later date.