The Many Flavors of Hunger
Psy ~~~ The Craving is like longing to soak your self in cooling water while you're on the verge of shut down from heat exhaustion.
Empathic ~~~ Having the color leeched out of the world leaving it gray and mostly flat is disheartening as anyone who's been through what this metaphor describes can attest. Empathic feeding is an artist with a pallet of multicolored depth standing just above you offering it to decorate your world for you (the only problem is that though you can spell out guidelines the artist still provides his/her own interpretation so you don't always know what you're going to get).
Elemental ~~~ This hunger is truly as varied as the elements themselves; the flickering rising lust of flame, the deep driving desire of earth, the tantalizing beckoning of air, the seductive thirst of water. Yet universal to all is the immediacy of the sheer range of scope, where the elements are both directly and tangibly right in front of you and also ringing and thrumming throughout the cosmos. They are both old and new, limitless and fleeting and they can work well together or be as fickle and jealous as the most jaded lovers. An element of hunger linked with all of them is the pang of being isolated and the draw to feel that sense of freedom and power from just being in the moment without time, without politics.
Pranic ~~~ We've all felt lusts and this can go hand in hand with it, they tend to build on one and other however some of the traits I've noticed tied uniquely to feeding are thus; when more physical contact is just more sensation, not a change in intimacy. When it's all about provoking the person (persons) around you (being provocative is not always an aggressive thing of course). When the sensation caused by withdrawing is one of a hollow and a growling stomach, almost as if someone took a melon baler to your middle and scooped out a chakra. Or when your driving force behind interaction disregards the social or emotional effects of your actions, and your physical enjoyment of the situation (or lack there of).
Sanguinary ~~~ A warm rushing tingle within the blood stream, an aching in the gut (much like with pranic hunger but on a different level) and an aching in the teeth and jaws to clamp down on something, preferable multiple times.
Now all of these are broad categories and do not touch on mixing, feeding for specific reasons, or the separation between the Positive and Negative feeding aspects inherent too any of them.
I will give a first look at that below.
Eclectics and a first look at the Pos Neg factor
One of the complexities faced by eclectic feeders is the delicate balancing act between the polarized positive and negative energies. Over balance in them on either side of the spectrum and you find yourself not only ill fed and in poor health, but going through alterations of personality as well. This balance requires a high degree awareness of ones self and the energies being taken in. Hunger cannot be allowed to be the defining factor else damaging habits could readily be established. I shall give a few examples to illustrate. Over feeding from negative fire energy can shorten ones temper, and over the long run establish behavior patterns that lead one to nearly seek out conflict and to take stark offense at the slightest of perceived infractions. While on the other side excessive positive psy energy often leads to the impulses toward over diplomatic choices. Trying to be everything to everyone and thus being inconstant and untrue, this good natured deceit both to yourself and others. So you see for the eclectic feeder the ability to feed on neg & pos energy is a double edged sword. The phrase resistance will be punished co-operation will be rewarded is particularly apt. For while feeding in an unbalanced fashion may quickly lead to the above complications as well as many others it also confers a number of benefits. Beyond the obvious increase in opportunities to feed, there is also the chance to balance instabilities of other origins, an example of this is that when deeply depressed or angry there is often the opportunity to re-attune and balance your moods simply by being in proximity to those that do not in them and drawing on the ambient energy they give off.
Another example is that while neg energy can confer strength pos energy confers healing, allowing for a great deal of well-being to be derived from their combined resonance's.
As always questions, comments or conversations are welcomed and desired, and I may be reached via pharaohborn@yahoo.com
Gray Angel
"for sake neither darkness nor light for either absolute is blinding"