New Tech for Occultists? | Technomancy | Forums

(I hope it’s socially acceptable netiquette on this forum to revive old threads. I assume that it is, because this forum has a relatively low volume of posts, and because I think I saw a thread where Jarin did the same. I’m pretty sure it makes more sense to reply to the only thread in this sub-forum instead of making a new thread on the same subject.)

I’ve spent a long time on AppShopper picking out apps for my iPad. (AppShopper has better search tools than the App Store.) Here are the relatively magical or spiritual ones that I use. Or, at least, that I found and expect that I might use. 

• Universal breathing: Pranayama free, sold by Saagara. It uses sounds and diagrams to tell the user when and how to inhale and exhale, so your breathing exercises don’t fall out of rhythm, but keep a steady tempo. It’s sort of like using a metronome. I’ve used this before yoga, singing, and exams, and it makes a noticeable difference.
• The philosopher’s garden: Tree of life, sold by ServiceMedia. An interactive, immersive game for learning about the Kabbalah. It’s very pretty, I wish there were more educational programs set up like this. I don’t get a *feeling* about the Kabbalah like it’s WHOA TRUTH. But I figure I should learn about it anyway, because it will help my understanding of a lot of occult and cultural concepts, particularly the Tarot.
• LS Epic Tarot for iPad, by Lo Scarabeo. I spent ages trying to find the perfect Tarot app. You have a logbook of all readings, ability to take notes on whole readings or individual cards, ability to write your own meanings for the cards, reversals, several spreads, and a variety of actual Lo Scarabeo-published decks to choose from. (Unfortunately, the app doesn’t include my favorite Lo Scarabeo deck, Egypt Urnash’s Silicon Dawn. I have a hard copy of it. Even though the digital version would be missing spot-gloss features, I’d feel safer about using the app for travel. The nice thing about Tarot apps is that cards never get lost or bent. Oh, and you don’t need Internet access, like you would to use the Tarot reading features on Aeclectic.net, Tarot.com, or Llewellyn.) Its flaws are that its default card meanings all assume that you’re asking about romance, and it doesn’t give different card meanings depending on card positions as Tarot.com does. Don’t any other Tarot apps or programs offer the latter feature? Anyone here know?
• TarotPac HD Free, by Tobytek. I used this one for a lwhile before spending the money on the above.
• Alethiometer, by Nimble Phonics. A simulation of the divination device in Pullman’s series of fantasy novels, His Dark Materials. It has a lot of advantages over other divination systems: you have to think more about the formation of your question because you have to deliberately choose three symbols to describe it, and you can get the same symbol several times in a reading, emphasizing its importance.
• Psycards, by Keith Chan. Kind of a novel little oracle deck. I don’t think I’ve seen hard copies of this.

There are a few topics where I expect to find the perfect app answer, but I haven’t found them yet. I’ve tried a few I Ching apps, but I haven’t found any that do all the things that I would hope for it to do. Any recommendations? Any recommendations for yoga apps, too?

I’ve found less spiritual, magical, or occult software for the PC, since I’m more cautious about installing things on there, where weird software could do more damage.

• Journey to the Wild Divine. Biofeedback hardware and software. (I stumbled across it second-hand, for a tiny fraction of the cost.) The software immerses the user in a Myst-like glamorous landscape, where you travel around, solve simple puzzles, follow along with guided meditations and thought experiments, listen to short lectures, and get past obstacles where you use the included biofeedback hardware as the controller. Overall, it’s one of the prettiest things I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, the software refuses to install on Windows XP or 7, even in Compatibility Mode (Windows’s built-in emulator of earlier Windows operating systems).
• Astrolog. I can’t make heads or tails of this program, since I don’t know astrology, but apparently it’s good.
• A different software simulation of the Alethiometer than the one for the iPad. This one was freeware that was available on the official site for a while. I had to dig through Archive.org for ages before I finally found a copy of the program that works.

I’ve also uninstalled nearly everything from this PC to try to troubleshoot it recently, so… I don’t get to list some of the other programs. I don’t even remember what they were. I think I had some very limited divination programs for DOSbox.