Heart Warmth in the Winter

The earlier sunsets, the cold. It is a perfect time to light a fire or turn up the heat. Part of warming up our homes is the spirit of celebration, the welcoming in of visitors and guests. During the quiet times between social events or concerts, there's energetic pulls from memories of past joys related to the seasonal events.

Since Thanksgiving landed so close to the beginning of December this year, we are still basking in the good feelings of that holiday as we begin this month.

Personal connections often come to the fore at this time because of this, and it is not the same on other holidays. Are there people we would like to see that we have not seen in a while? Do we feel like celebrating all the good in our lives with our friends, especially since some of them are having a hard time? We lift their spirits and ours at the same time.

The feelings and emotions we have around Thanksgiving, Christmas, Yule, Hannukah, Winter Solstice, Kwanza or other festivities are much more powerful than feelings about other holidays.

All of this creates warmth during this cold month. The feelings of connection remind us of what we love about the people in our life. This is a way we draw up energy. It gives us that glow that brightens our aura. Our fire within.

Every time we come into the house out of this bitter cold, we are grateful to be enveloped in warm air as soon as we step inside. Seasonal parties are like that. The warmth of friendship lights up our spirits.

Images that show stark winter scenes where we see the skeletons of the trees, rather than their foliage, covered by snow and ice inspires desires for warmth. Instinctual response.

Sometimes the fire we are gathered around are in fire pits or fireplaces. It is always the energy between us that is the fire.

 

Gratitude in Work & Life

 

Gratitude is not always obvious because we do not always recognize it right away. Recently, for example, I was kicking myself for making a mistake, but the mistake turned out to be beneficial. So now I am grateful for something I was upset about upon first look. Spirit moved me in this situation.

Has that ever happened to you?

When I wake up in the morning, my first expression is to my spirit guides. This is what I say:

"Thank you for giving me this day. With your help, I will make the best use of it.

Do you have any new ideas for me today? Is there anything you want me to know?

And thank you for keeping me healthy and strong."

This sets the tone for the day. I expect good things to happen, even the unexpected people and events that may come up.

Gratitude can change our relationships with people.

A long time ago, for example, I was working on the sales team for a publishing company. At first, I saw the best salesperson as my competitor. Then he taught me some of his techniques and I got better and we both did well. I was grateful for this teacher, and the energy at work changed.

Among many clients, I have heard stories about how they were sad and distressed because they lost a job, but a short time later they were even happier because they got a better job. So maybe instead of cursing the person who fired us, we should thank them. Gratitude.

The same thing often happens in relationships. One is a near miss, with some great moments, but the whole thing didn't work. Then the next relationship is what you want. Sometimes we need to experience what we don't want to get clarity on what we do want. Grateful for the experiences that prepared us for the best fit.

By consciously acknowledging the positives in our lives, we cultivate a mindset that not only elevates our mood but also strengthens our resilience in the face of challenges.

This simple yet powerful shift in perspective encourages us to appreciate the present moment, fostering a deeper connection with ourselves and those around us.

As we integrate gratitude into our daily routine, we feel more at peace, even while dealing with turmoil, solving problems, doing what we need to do.

Picture this. Your aura expands hugely when you are projecting feelings of love, joy, happiness. You exude confidence. When you are projecting fear and doubt, your aura shrinks.

Expressing gratitude opens the way to creation. If you are looking to build your business, draw people to you with that big aura.

Thank you for connecting with me. I appreciate all of you.

Ghosts make great Halloween decorations and whimsical costumes. How many of us dressed up in a sheet to go trick or treating?

Yet, the origin of the word from the old English word gast, meaning breath, spirit or soul. A German word which may have also been a root meant guest. Another root word contributed to the origins of a word that meant excitement or terror or an old Norse word meaning rage.

The origin of the spelling with the h in it originated in 15th century England when a printer who used Flemish typesetters who used the term gheest, a Germanic spelling.

Originally it did not mean haunting, but many years of literature and stories fashioned that sort of aura about it with a big wave of popularity spewing from the seances and spiritual movements of the Victorian era.

When we consider these roots, there is another aspect that is part of our consciousness at this time of year, when we have just celebrated Halloween, Samhain and Day of the Dead.

Jack-O-Lanterns were originally carved and and scary costumes put on to scare away evil spirits during the darkening nights leading into the cold winter.

But the Day of the Dead altars were created to honor the memories of the spirits who recently departed, to wish them well on their journey.

When we work with our spirit guides to help us gain guidance and insight in our desires and efforts to make the best of our efforts in life, we are indeed connecting with the spirits of non-physical characters who once were very real, inhabiting bodies like ours.

In this way, we can interpret a positive meaning from someone ghosting us, as our spirit guides enter our space to help us and protect us. How many times did you have an accident, but not get injured seriously? The ghost of one of our protectors inserted themselves in there.

The idea of being able to communicate psychically with these influencers is seen in a different light after such an encounter.

Interestingly, technology offers us practical explanations for all this. Here the ghost in the machine takes on a few new twists.

For example, we accept the fact that invisible waves of energy can connect our phone calls through the air, though walls and over great distances. So if our phone calls can penetrate physical barriers to bring us messages, why not messages from the spirits of people who are no longer in physical bodies?

Spider webs are like the world wide web. Somehow, when we type and send a message to someone who lives somewhere else in the world, somehow that message finds its way through the whole world and goes exactly to the at person. Spider webs connect things that are not usually connected, and their lighter than air fabric catches their lunch for them.

So if we can send messages to another person in this world, who is nowhere near us, with no physical connection to them, why is it difficult to believe that spirits of ancestors and relatives who we knew and loved in this lifetime cannot continue to communicate with us even after they are no longer living in their bodies?

Kind of funny how in modern uses of the word, we now say that someone ghosted us if they just go away with no further messages.

Obviously, sometimes we want to leave situations that are not serving us well. Ghosting is leaving without notice, rather than giving someone the courtesy of a farewell message. And sometimes ghosts come to serve us with no formal advance or farewell message.

Certainly, we prefer some ghosts over others.

From present to absent, we all have ghosts.

Sometimes we get ghosted and sometimes we are the ghost.

 

What's Spooky?

 

One of the creatures that is always part of Halloween decorations is bats.

The illustration above is by the artist Brianna LaVarta, who specializes in drawing animals and birds. She always seems to find a unique perspective in the way she brings them to life. The bat above and the prairie dog below are both her work.

Here, for example, she shows the bat entering the fall season with rose hips, so instead of the vampire kind of take, letting us see the bat as a creature of life, rather than death. After all, it does us favors like eating mosquitoes. And it is the only animal that can truly fly, not just glide.

What else do bats do? They also eat fruit and pollinate plants. Agave, which produces tequila, is pollinated by bats. Think about that when you are sipping a margarita. They use sound to navigate, and they live for decades.

They are generally shy and avoid humans. They are most active at night, dusk and dawn, the hours that many of our ancestors regarded as the prime time for doing rituals. The times of day when we change, the times of day when we welcome in the rising and setting of the sun.

The way they hang upside down call to mind the Hanged Man in tarot, who looks at the world upside down, thinking outside the box, seeing things from a different angle.

Only a few varieties of bats, a small portion of the whole, feed on blood, aand these live in a few places in Central and South America.

Writers like Bram Stoker conflated them with legends of undead creatures, and that promoted those concepts. Their connection to Halloween grew out of the bats attraction to the Celtic Samhain bonfires. The large bonfires were to scare away evil spirits, and they attracted insects, which in turn, attracted bats. As nocturnal creatures, their presence was associated with the spiritual nature of the holiday.

Do you think of bats differently now?

With this and the suggestion to try at home below, do you have a new insight about Halloween now?

To see more of Brianna's art, go to:

https://www.briannalavarta.com/

Uncovering Our Desires

There are two ways that this season helps us uncover our desires.

One is that when we wear masks and go to parties, we are really expressing what we like, and the whole idea of costumes lets us do away with all rules for this event, and so we give ourselves permission to show a side of ourselves that we do not usually show.

As we dress up for parties this season, let's think about that a bit more. What aspect of your personality are you showing off that you would like to experience more often?

Would that really be something you want to do, or is this only a fantasy or a joke for one night?

Does you costume express something that you want more of in your life?

Does your costume reveal a side of you that you always keep secret?

How do you want to be seen? How do you want to be seen at the party? How do you want to be seen in real life?

What are you ready to uncover?

The second way we get in touch with our true desires this season is later this month when we remember those who have gone before us who made a powerful impression on us. That I will write about next issue.ur life?

Does your costume reveal a side of you that you always keep secret?

How do you want to be seen? How do you want to be seen at the party? How do you want to be seen in real life?

What are you ready to uncover?

The second way we get in touch with our true desires this season is later this month when we remember those who have gone before us who made a powerful impression on us. That I will write about next issue.

Our Labors

Labor Day Weekend celebrates the work we do all year to make our living and earn our income.

The photo above is shows the images of people working from the Light Seers Tarot and the Elemental Wisdom Tarot. The same card by different artists, both showing people busy at work.

When we pause to take a look at what we do for work, it is fascinating to observe our evolution. Our labors are one of the primary focuses of our life. Unless we have inherited a trust fund or won the lottery, we all have choices to make about how we earn a living. And that is one of the biggest choices we get to make in life.

How the wheel of life turns. Those of us who are a little older had to learn how to use computers as they entered the work place. Now there are generations who have had computers and smart phones all their lives.

All this tech development means we need millions of people to do the work of electricians, plumbers, heating and air, welding, carpentry, machining, engineering and more of those old traditional skills.

When I do readings for high school after proms, I am hearing more of the young graduates going into various trades, rather than college. They are making good choices, and they will be in careers earning a decent living doing important things that need doing in less time than it takes to go to college.

I see irony in the fact that 20 and 30 years ago, learning to write computer code was the gateway to a great paying career. But now AI is going to write code and we need electricians, plumbers and HVAC technicians to keep the server farms running. Imagine how many other turns of the wheel we will witness.

Other skills that continue regardless of other changes include chefs, hairdressers, barbers, aestheticians, teachers, tailors, and many other skills. All require knowledge plus practice, and many of us have worked at more than one skill during our lifetime.

Interestingly, mom tells me that even during the depths of the Great Depression, hair salons were always busy. Looks like tattoo artists will always have work to do no matter what else is happening, too. Interesting which businesses survive economic turmoil and which ones don't.

And even though the there are always new trends in the types of restaurants we patronize, people who know how to cook are always needed.

And of course, since we are living longer now, there is also a great need for people who can work in elder care, nursing and caregiving. Plus all the recent wars that have created more amputees and other seriously wounded people who need specialized care.

We all have had to learn new things all along the way. Those of of us who work in natural healing and metaphysical arts have had to learn new skills too.

Everyone has some skills they were born with, and as we choose our path, whether we become good at them depends how how much we focus on it and develop it. We have to acquire the skills needed to become excellent in our practice.

The wheel of life keeps on turning.

Earlier in my life, I edited magazines, and it was a good career path for me, but it is not something I would recommend to a young person now, and that feels funny to me. But in recent years, so much of our information has moved online, many magazines have gone to online only versions or went out of business. When I was growing up in Chicago, there were 4 daily newspapers, and I delivered a route for one of them. Now there are 2. This morning I discovered that by the end of this year, the daily newspaper for metro Atlanta, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, will no longer be printed, only online. A new world indeed.

And on the other hand, there are stories about how people have dropped out of high tech jobs to become organic farmers. Or people who gave up office jobs to become brewers, bakers, dog sitters, artists on Etsy or some other entrepreneurial venture.

The biggest employer in the US once was General Motors. Today it is Walmart. Back in the 1950s, the wealthiest city in the US was Detroit, because of all the auto workers making good wages. Today it is Silicon Valley because of the high tech industries. Not so long ago, a person could tune up their own car, change the oil & air filter with a few screwdrivers and wrenches. Now auto mechanics have to use computers to diagnose and make some repairs.

There are jobs that people are doing now that did not exist when I was growing up, and there will be jobs in the future that do not exist yet.

I always express my appreciation to others for their work, and it always feels good to receive that appreciation as well.

There is value in all labor because it is an important part of our lives.

The two biggest choices we all get to make are about how we are going to make our living and who we are going to love.

Use love to make all your choices. People who are doing work they love always find ways to do it better. We all feel best when we can get up every day looking forward to what we have to do. If we are not there yet, what will it take to get there?

Flip the Script!

When we have an AHA! moment that flips the script, our entire world view changes in an instant.

Here is a story that illustrates the point. Once a young girl was riding in the back seat of the family car, sitting between her two brothers. Her parents were in front driving down the highway when traffic came to a halt, due to some problem up ahead.

Their car got rear ended and her brothers and parents were badly injured. When the emergency fire crew arrived and they pulled them out to transport them to the hospital, she did not have a scratch on her.

It was a long recovery process before her brothers and parents recovered and healed. She was amazed and grateful when they recovered, and she kept telling everyone what a miracle it was that they recovered so well.

She kept thinking that way until one day someone pointed out to her that she was the miracle, not them, because she had come out of that huge multi-car pile up without a scratch. All of a sudden, her concept of herself shifted, and she wondered why she got the miracle? Now she sees her place in life differently, and acts differently.

When we dig into our own subconscious power and set a new goal for our self and then we accomplish it with a renewed effort, minus any significant physical change in our body, that is simply our own will and desire expressing itself more fully, without the previous limitation.

Flipping the script unleashes our true power. I have demonstrated to many of you how simply changing your mind changes the size of your aura. Changing your mind about the way you see things changes your ability to do them.

Take it another step further. What if your quit worrying about what could go wrong and started getting excited about what can go right?

What if you were using your abilities more fully?

What if you flipped the script on the way you see incidents or developments in your life?

I love helping people find these visions.

The card above is the Hanged Man fromt the Time Tarot by Eugne Vinitski and Elsa Khapatnukovski. Savor the irony of a Time Tarot created by artists from a country famous for making watches, Switzerland.

The Hanged Man in Tarot is not harmed, he is simply hanging upside down to see things from a different angle. He is thinking outside the box. The clock by his head prompts the question. Is it about time for a change?

Notice how when things are not going how we like it seems that time just drags, but when things are going how we like, time just seems to fly?