Training Days.

I am starting to get the distinct feeling that in a company of strange people I am considered even stranger. This shocked me a little, though I suppose it makes sense. Everyone deals with the unexpected differently and trying to explain it with science, in this day and age, is not uncommon. And really, I am one to talk. My degree is in parapsychology, not in theology, so I too run on the theory that there is a scientific explanation for these things, or at least that science can measure them. On the other hand, why dispense with the old just to embrace the new? Mystics have used rituals to safeguard themselves from spirits and to achieve spiritual powers for centuries. If it's not broke, then why fix it?

I am not about to abandon the practices I have been relying on and that have been keeping me safe since my near death experience but that doesn't change the fact that when I talk about or do a kabbalistic ritual everyone here looks at me funny. I suppose, as Julie has sometimes opined, I should learn when to shut the fuck up and keep my ideas and opinions to myself. The problem is that this is how I have learned and how I see things and make sense of them. Also it's just all so interesting! It's frustrating that I can't talk about my theories with anyone, but then I suppose that's what this diary is for.

This is my first week of training here at Orpheus, and despite some troubles trying to fit in with my co-workers I think things are going well. I managed to go through most of the basic training quite easily once I grasped the concept. Of course my trainer, Ms. Darewell, thinks I'm crazy because of my "humming" but it gets the job done. Learning to project and manifest at the different levels was quite fun actually and I'm excited to start some more intensive training. Of course, the meditations required were almost laughable they was so easy but I won't tell Darewell that. I don't think she likes me as it is.

More interesting by far was the training on the different forms of ghosts and shades that I learned from Kate Dennison (so far the only member of this company I really like and the only one, I think, who doesn't think I'm a little batty). Particularly interesting to me are Mystery Group #1 and #2 (I know: such fantastically imaginative names. Sigh.) The former being people who can sort of create realms and things in the astral (I think) and the latter being violent and unstable ghosts. This last is quite interesting because it has sparked a theory.

Traditionally the term Qlippoth (shells) is the word used in Kabbalistic theory to denote impure beings: beings that obscure or hide their divine sparks, similar to the Christian concept of Demons, or even the Buddhist one. However Israel Regardie also refers to Qlippoth as the "the shells of the dead." I always thought this made sense considering the Kabbalistic idea of ghosts is that it is only one part of the soul, generally the guf, that remains bound to the lower astral realms. Thus, the remaining souls can be seen as "shells" of the former person: they are just one layer, like an Easter egg that has been emptied of it's yolk. Interestingly enough, the classes of ghosts as viewed by Orpheus seem to bear quite a bit of resemblance to how one would imagine a ghost with varying layers of its souls intact. For example a "blip class or drone class" could be seen as just a guf, an "echo class" could be seen as having a ruach etc. But I digress. My point is, if a Qlippoth is a being that obscures or hides it's chiah (or Higher Soul), then perhaps a ghost who has lost it's chia could also become a Qlippoth. This may explain the mystery class #2.

It is certainly worth investigating.