Good and Bad Auras

[Sage]

Depends on your relationship with the llama. Define "had."

 
Your Honor, I did not have sex with that llama.

[Fireof9]

Your Honor, I did not have sex with that llama.

Define sex, cause apparently according to the dude who was at the time the most powerful man on the planet, there are things you can do with cigars that are not actually sex. I say we have no place arguing with him, but I am Canadian so my view may be a bit skewed.

[Fireof9]

Depends on your relationship with the llama. Define "had."

 
Bah - you beat me to it!

[Aett of Cups]

Is there a way one can sense the good or bad in someone? I know people can sense auras and know if someone has a significant amount of energy but I wonder if people can give off positive or negative energy. Wondering if you can sense if someone has a good heart or that their heart is corrupted and or tainted just by sensing them.

 
A couple of general points:

I'm polyamorous and believe in unions of three-or-more people that are healthy and loving.  Most people don't realize it unless they know about polyamory, but our society is often very monogamo-centrically judgmental.

I'll chime in as a moral and experiential relativist.  Even, in very rare instances, on the issue of rape.  Ever see the part about the lust killing in the movie Seven?

Thanks for the laughter too.  I needed that today.  Besides, my being a horny little pervert - while it may have annoyed a goodly number of people - has never hurt anyone.

And for the main topic...

Given that I believe we cannot clearly define good and evil in an absolute sense, I tend to perceive auras of two main types and for two main groups of people.

Two types:

I tend to see an aura that's based on my perceptions or, usually in cases of someone I know quite well, an aura that's based on the perspective of whosever aura it is.  The former is the better aura to look for in most cases.  The latter is iffy; based on this method, someone who is about to kill me but feels that it's justified might radiate positive or justice-seeking energy.  Fortunately, I tend to see auras most easily when they conform to my own feelings (and I'm guessing that's true for most others).

Two groups:

People who are largely unaware of their own energy (especially those who haven't met their shadow selves) seem to radiate (to me, at least) at least three structures or shells: one represents energy counter to my will or well-being at the moment ("bad" energy), one represents energy correspondent with my will or well-being at the moment ("good" energy), and at least one structure  connects them and is neutral to my will or well-being at the moment.  But I think my mind is doing some oversimplification when that goes on, and I find I can sometimes split the aura into more parts (only in my perception; please don't attack another's aura without a very, very good reason).  Doing this, while sometimes tedious, can give a better read.  To my mind, one of the best methods is to perceive the person as radiating energy in correspondence to the four (or five) elements, while highlighting anything strongly contrary to or correspondent with my will and well-being for the sake of safety.

I think people who are largely aware of their energy (especially those who've had some contact with their shadow selves) are a little easier to read, all things being equal (though they're more likely to notice you reading them, thwart you, or disguise their energy in some circumstances).  They seem more like almost-one being.  It's like their energy works in a unified way, even though the unity involves opposites-in-tandem that can be hard to read at times.  There's only one self; you just have to be able to see its parts.  Of course, this kind of field would best represent someone who's fully integrated with their shadow; someone going through shadow process can jump back and forth between configurations - or mix them - in confusing ways.

I wouldn't try to claim this is a universal method at all, but I hope the ideas I've conveyed can help others make useful aura templates.

[Chabas]

That's controlled anger, not blind rage. If oppressed people have a riot that's not good now is it? Riots are uncontrolled and you hurt more innocents. Revolutions expresses controlled anger while riots expresses anarchy and blind rage. I know Christians have said that wrath is one of the seven deadly sins. I see wrath as blind rage. Anger is in all of us. You cannot eliminate anger. You can only control it.

 
Hi. So I was reminded this week that Sekhmet may be hands-off with me, but that doesn't mean she doesn't own my ass, so I should probably comment here. 'Cause you know what? Sometimes, a riot is what it takes. Doesn't mean it's not painful or chaotic or scary. But sometimes, you HAVE to upset the order in a way that cannot be ignored to get back to what's right. Sometimes, you have to cut away the dead meat in order to save the parts that are still healthy. And sometimes, that isn't pretty.

I've been watching the Arabic spring with a special kind of awe, because THAT IS SEKHMET AT WORK. This is the uncontrolled rage that is needed to set right things that have grown so misformed that there is no saving them. It's taking up the knife to remove the tumor. Is it hard to determine how long you need to keep going? Not only how deep you need to cut to get rid of all that's sick, but how deep you can cut before you start damaging the healthy bits? Damn sure it is. But that doesn't mean it doesn't need to happen.

--Chabas

[Sophia C]

Hi. So I was reminded this week that Sekhmet may be hands-off with me, but that doesn't mean she doesn't own my ass, so I should probably comment here. 'Cause you know what? Sometimes, a riot is what it takes. Doesn't mean it's not painful or chaotic or scary. But sometimes, you HAVE to upset the order in a way that cannot be ignored to get back to what's right. Sometimes, you have to cut away the dead meat in order to save the parts that are still healthy. And sometimes, that isn't pretty.

I've been watching the Arabic spring with a special kind of awe, because THAT IS SEKHMET AT WORK. This is the uncontrolled rage that is needed to set right things that have grown so misformed that there is no saving them. It's taking up the knife to remove the tumor. Is it hard to determine how long you need to keep going? Not only how deep you need to cut to get rid of all that's sick, but how deep you can cut before you start damaging the healthy bits? Damn sure it is. But that doesn't mean it doesn't need to happen.

--Chabas

 
Exactly, and thanks for posting this.

I think a lot of people misinterpret the chaos vs order approach of some Indo-European-focused Pagans, e.g. in ADF and some reconstructionist theologies. Some people assume that chaos is purely bad and order is purely good, but it isn't that simple. As ADF describes it, order can become "brittle" without the input of chaos. It can lead to tyranny and an obsession with control. The Xartus (Indo-European proto-World Tree) seems to have been fed by the chaotic waters from below. Order sometimes needs chaos to feed it, to keep it accountable. The chaotic Otherworld breaks into this world at Samhain, and a few other times, for a reason (in my Gaelic recon-ish thought).

I serve a goddess of chaos, and my UPG-based impression is that she's pleased when I engage in civil disobedience and non-violent direct action. She probably wouldn't object to violent direct action if there was a good enough reason, but I don't go there, personally - mostly for safety reasons. I respect those who can, in situations that warrant it, though. The Arab Spring is a perfect example.

[Darkhawk]

I think a lot of people misinterpret the chaos vs order approach of some Indo-European-focused Pagans, e.g. in ADF and some reconstructionist theologies. Some people assume that chaos is purely bad and order is purely good, but it isn't that simple. As ADF describes it, order can become "brittle" without the input of chaos. It can lead to tyranny and an obsession with control. The Xartus (Indo-European proto-World Tree) seems to have been fed by the chaotic waters from below. Order sometimes needs chaos to feed it, to keep it accountable. The chaotic Otherworld breaks into this world at Samhain, and a few other times, for a reason (in my Gaelic recon-ish thought).

Doo dee doo.
 

To choose order over disorder, or disorder over order, is to accept a trip composed of both the creative and the destructive. But to choose the creative over the destructive is an all-creative trip composed of both order and disorder. To accomplish this, one need only accept creative disorder along with, and equal to, creative order, and also willing to reject destructive order as an undesirable equal to destructive disorder.

      The Curse of Greyface included the division of life into order/disorder as the essential positive/negative polarity, instead of building a game foundation with creative/destructive as the essential positive/negative. He has thereby caused man to endure the destructive aspects of order and has prevented man from effectively participating in the creative uses of disorder. Civilization reflects this unfortunate division.

[Allec]

It sounds like what you're looking for here is a basic detect alignment spell. How easy this is depends on whether you consider yourself a magic user or a priest - it's a little easier for clerics, presumably because you have your own alignment requirements based on your deity. They get it at level one, mages and most other magic users at level two.

Unless you have developed a house rule version of the spell, rather than "detect alignment" you get to detect either good or evil, and it sounds from your question as if you'd be comfortable assuming that the absence of one is evidence of the presence of the other, but you have to be careful. Neutral is still a possible alignment, and accusing people of being evil simply because they're not good can have all kinds of ramifications both in terms of game mechanics and in terms of in-game politics if your DM rolls that way.

The cleric's version of Detect Evil requires a chant, a series of hand gestures, and the presence of a holy symbol. As long as your not bound or gagged, this should be a very straightforward spell for you to pull off.

Unless you live in the real world instead of Krynn, in which case you're kind of fucked.

I was going to post, but Jack here pretty much answered in better phrasing than I could.