Summer Magic and Spiritual Refreshment

It is summer and the time when many of us break from our routines to enjoy entertainments that refresh our spirits. Summer vacations and activities are meant to lighten us up and let the joy of the season bring a lighthearted break from work. 

One of the most popular plays of all time is Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, which is about the characters slipping in and out of different versions of reality, traveling in alternate universes to the delight and amusement of audiences.  

 Do you think that is worth a few moments of consideration?

For example, we often ask ourselves questions about our life's purpose and why we have taken on some of the patterns we have in our work and our love life. Many of us have changed our religious and spiritual practices. Some of us have also included new activities in our lives, especially creative activities that we had put off and now decided to finally use to express ourselves and give ourselves a creative outlet. New joy and energy come into us when we finally decide to quit thinking about something and do it. When we dance, make music, art, start writing or just go for more walks, we suddenly feel the flow of joy and healing.

What are these other dimensions? They could be parallel worlds where things seem to operate differently.

Consider the distance or closeness you have in various aspects of your life. Do you feel sometimes that you are an observer here? That your point of view is fluid? This often happens when we are in a major transition, and has everything to do with our progress in adjusting, changing or verifying the path that we are on.

We are spirits having a human experience rather than humans having a spiritual experience. Have you given any thought to the ramifications of this concept? How do you view your life? 

If you would like to talk about this, give me a call. 

Dreams do come true and the experience of fluidly moving between dimensions can be as magical for us as it is for Shakespeare's characters.  

The Power of Enthusiasm

It has been said that to enjoy swing dance, all that is required is joyful enthusiasm and a ready partner. Much of the pleasure and adventure in life only requires these same two ingredients.

How many times have you wanted to try something new but hesitated because you didn't want to go by yourself?

But sometimes, that beginning of the new journey is all about you deciding to get up and go, and in so doing, finding others who enjoy the same things as you do.

Part of the adventure is simply being willing to get started and trust that you will meet others who share your enthusiasm.

How many of the things in life that give you pleasure and satisfaction are things that you simply had to learn by doing? Yes, most of them. Of course, at times we need teachers to show us the way to do things and give us knowledge about subjects we want to learn more about. But in the end, it is still all about getting up and putting one foot in front of the other.

How many things can you do that only require joyful enthusiasm and a ready partner?

If we remove all the other considerations from the picture and just get going, how much more joy would there be in our life?

A Moment at Sunset

This evening I was sitting by the window facing west, having a drink and watching the sunset. I am feeling quite happy with the progress of events right now. No, no sure things, but delicious opportunities.

I have opportunities again to do more of the work I love most. I am relaxing, knowing that tomorrow will be a long drive to the next gig. That's fine. I am ready.

For now, things are moving forward. New friends. New work. More dancing. More music.

It is always a good thing to toast the setting sun, and feel gratitude for what is going well.

For now, I offer you this one simple thought. Nothing more complicated.

Just toast the setting sun and feel gratitude.

Manifesting Magnificently

One of the important things to remember about manifesting is that it is the goal that is important. We need to state what we want in clear terms and be open to creative solutions.

At the same time, we want to state our desire in such a way that we rule out ways of manifesting that may be detrimental to us.

Focus on your goal, take action steps to get there, and let the strength of your desire shine through.

When magic is happening, manifesting can take mysterious shapes.

It is not tricky. You just have to be clear.

Your action steps, willfully expressed, help define, as does the desire. As a result, we may find that at times we need to redefine our vision.

When those three sides of the triangle are firmly in place, they are powerful. If you are not getting what you want, check those three sides to see how strong they are and if one or more of them needs to be rebuilt or reinforced.

Out of Context

The story of Augustin Hadelich, who I wrote about yesterday, touches on the story of another great young violinist, Joshua Bell. Some experts see the two as comparable talents.

In 2007, Joshua Bell was put on a baseball cap and ordinary clothes and stood playing Bach on a Stradivarius in a Washington subway station. The thousand or so people who passed by while he was playing obviously thought he was just a street musician playing for tips.

He was in Washington to play at the Library of Congress and he regularly sells out symphony halls, commanding $100 a ticket. Yet, that morning in the subway, no one recognized him.

The Washington Post put him up to the idea to see what would happen.

How often do we fail to recognize talent when it is out of context?

Is a musician only good if they are booked into a concert hall? Is an artists only good if a gallery or museum features their work? Is a writer only good if a major publishing house publishes their books? Can we recognize true beauty when it pops up in unexpected places? Do we have trouble recognizing true beauty and true talent when it pops up in unexpected people?

Dreaming, Breathing, Quickly, Deeply

What is it that you want now more than anything? What would you do if you if this moment could be exactly as you wish?

Would you turn to see the face that goes with the voice you have been hearing? Would the touch you desire be soft? Would the comfort of the touch open to a whispered sound only audible between the two of us?

Do you know what I was dreaming? I had a feeling that your dream overlapped with mine. That is why when we talk, there is a similarity in our visions, and the things you want to say I say, and the things I want to say, you say.

When we dream and then it comes true, it is precognitive, and these dreams can become stunning in their intensity as we breathe deep and digest the idea that we are here now and we swim toward each other in this liquid atmosphere that surrounds us when we are engulfed in a feeling we savor. It totally surrounds us, this feeling, and we swim in it, and we breathe without effort, quickly, quickly as we look all around to see if we are really swimming, then deeply as we know we are here, and the waters part and we walk through them together, feeling the lifting of water, the lifting away of whatever we were thinking of a moment before we were here.

Stellar Connections

I wonder what prompted the first people to look at the stars and see constellations. There are millions of lights in the sky and they have always been stimulating to our imaginations. Is that because we have some ancient memory out there? Or is it because the sheer immensity and beauty that extends wider than our field of vision and suggests the limitless possibilities of the universe?

So then what was it that showed people the constellations? Were they simply looking for their gods and goddesses in the sky? What made those ancient seers relate those alignments to people and their personalities?

Now that we have had how many generations of people working with this model of thinking, and we see how the planets relate to our personalities and the constellations represent archetypes in people. Today it is common conversation for peoples to talk about the personalities of Leo, Scorpio, Pisces, Virgo, Aries, Aquarius and all the rest.

What was the thought process that led early people to look up at the sky and make these connections? Where else might we find connections?

2 Hands & 2 Feet into the Future

What Does It Mean to Have a Personal Goal? The answer to this question is both obvious and not.

When we have a personal goal, it gives us something to aim for. It motivates us to try harder, enlarges both our vision and our reach.

So while personal goals can serve to get us something we want, it is also stretching us beyond that.

Working toward personal goals can move us into bigger realms, into evolutions of our body, mind and spirit.

Having a personal goal is an engine that drives us into our future. We do have a hand in our future. Two hands, in fact, and two feet.

In the course of our life, we will set goals and achieve them and then set new ones. We can also fail to meet goals we set and then reset them. There is wisdom, strength and victory in either outcome.

So take a look at your goals. You have two hands and two feet to get you into the future. These are your magic wands. These are your tickets to ride. Your imagination sets the course, and your hands and feet get you there.

Personal goals hold the keys to our imagination. Are you ready to unlock it?

Constellations of Remembrance and Joy

Once again, we are on the threshhold of the fall, the autumn, the most deeply felt season.

We begin it by giving thanks for all that we have harvested this year. While for some of us, that may be crops or gardens that we grew that gave us wonderful gifts of flowers, herbs and vegetables, for others it may have been the gift of new friends, new jobs, a new place to live, the recovery of health, and new opportunities.

We are surrounded by the magic of seasonal change as we observe the leaves turning color, and those that don't have much color going from green to brown, trees being stripped of their foliage by the wind to reveal their bones, their skeletons, their stark outline against the sky.

Our journey continues as we honor those we knew who crossed the veil this year, savoring the powerful holidays of the Celtic Samhain (Halloween) and Dia de los Muertos (the Mexican Day of the Dead). These are always moving celebrations, as they should be. We celebrate birthdays, and we should take a day to remember those who have moved on to the next plane of existence, who were once an active and influential part of our life.

When we come to the civic holiday of Thanksgiving, it is really an extension of the celebration of gratitude we begin at the Autumn Equinox, which arrives tomorrow, along with a full moon. Both the seasonal holiday and the civic holiday are part of the same spiritual tide, that of remembrance and acknowledgement.

By the time of Yule, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, we have moved past our mourning, our remembrance, humility and gratitude, and now we are in full blown celebration with many gatherings of friends, family, festive music, special foods and drinks, joking, storytelling, music and dance. And we celebrate the return of the light, the Sun, heralding the new year, the return of hope, the triumph of joy.

There is no constellation of special days of this magnitude anywhere else in our year. As we journey through it, let us be conscious of the ceremonies of thanks for the year past and omens of the planting the seeds of power for the year ahead.

The portrait of our human journey is now painted in saturated colors, and we are privileged to walk once more through this living gallery where the most fantastic images come to life, and we realize that they are us. We are both radiantly alive, sensitive and sensuous, rich with feelings, wisdom and whispered intimations of destiny. We are now in the sacred space where we look both forward, backward and become more centered in our present.

Greetings to autumn and the onset of winter! Light the fires to welcome them and ourselves, home.

The Named

Then somewhere along the way, as our ancestors contemplated the forces of nature and other people, the stories of gods and goddesses emerged.

Interestingly, these characters embodied all aspects of personality, from courage, pain, heroism and sacrifice to love, beauty, nurturing, compassion, healing, curiosity, kindness, violence, cruelty, vision, magic, wisdom, competition and cooperation.

When we apply one of these names of the gods and goddesses to ourselves, we are invoking that energy that the name represents to aid us in our quest.

We invoke them as forms of protection and we also invoke them as guides on our path to greater aspirations.

So as we go through different phases of our life, we sometimes choose different names and different guides. You have probably met people who have taken on different spiritual names. Perhaps you have even done this yourself. Even when a person changes their mundane name, it is a reflection of this principle.

As the name of our gods and goddesses inspire us and elicit responses from others, we begin to understand the power of the magic of the spoken word as well as the power of naming.

Celebrating Magic and Mystery

I have always thought that the most intriguing thing about this whole realm of metaphysical matters was the magic and mystery that are constantly unfolded before us, offering life adventures that delve straight into the heart of the unknown and exciting.

Curiosity has always driven my desire to learn. It just seemed like the next natural step when presented with something as mysterious as tarot, past lives, reiki, tantra, gardening, herbalism, aromatherapy, drumming, dancing, shamanism, witchcraft, I Ching, tai chi, runes, dowsing, mythology, ghosts, remote viewing, psychic phenomena and more. Perhaps it was not way for everyone, but when introduced to mind expanding, mysterious concepts, I wanted to know more. To me, these are endlessly fascinating topics. Once I had an experience of a thing, I was drawn into the mystery and these enlivened my life.

Metaphysical fairs are a great way to explore these topics and indulge your esoteric tastes in the company of friends, seekers and other open minded people.

I am glad to be an active participant in such events. My life has certainly taken some unexpected turns because of all this, and I am glad I did it. If you were to ask if there was anything I would like to change if I had a do over, yes, there is. I just wish I had started all this even earlier. Life is fascinating, and there are so many ways explore it. The doors to excitement and exploration are only limited by our willingness to journey on these paths.

There are so many choices, any entry point that calls to you will be a great place to start. Or if your journey has been interruped or sporadic, a place to resume your quest to get the juice out of life.

Acceptance

Today I was just noticing how adapting a mood of perception helps s person slide right into the phase of livelier partner. Feel the whole process taking shape.

Acceptance is the final grace note of Elizabeth Kubler Ross' five stages of grief.

We can experience it in that concert flowing with the musicians, but also simpler experiences as well. Once we come to accept that this person who did something made a conscious choice and we are supporting it. Then agreement sets things into motion, acceptance opening doors.

We are happy when they played some of our favorite songs and we are happy when they come up with an unusual expressions of what we created,

We accept the gift o those who died and at the same time celebrate the adventures of those who survive. We need to plan clearly now and launch into the waves.

Once we have acceptance we can open up to the coming experiences and see what happens, and we sense the flow is much smoother. Same happens when a career path dies. Open up and accept opportunities and let love shape what comes next. Something totally unexpected might be perfect.

Now that we have reached acceptance some things just seem to fall into place and the execution is sweet. Acceptance lets us accept the gifts presented to us effortlessly and use then efficiently. No regrets, no anger, no disappointment. Just doing.

Then comes the realization. Why didn't we do it this way from the beginning? We might have too much philosophy, too much thinking, and not enough doing. In the doing we shine. Yes, it is simple, elegant and powerful. Accept, and do.

Finding a Way to Do What You Love

When people are faced with trying to find a new career, they often thrash about and wonder what that could be. I know I did for a while. I kept applying for jobs simply because they held out the promise of a higher salary, but ultimately I had to come to grips with the fact that I did not really care about those jobs and chose not to pursue those possibilities any more.

Once I got clear on the fact that I really wanted to do something that I could get out of bed eager to do every day, everything changed.

I looked at my involvement with tarot, past lives, reiki, music, and other metaphysical pursuits over the years and realized that for as much as I enjoyed doing those things and for as much positive feedback I had gotten from clients that I had never really made an effort to make that my full time source of income.

That was partially due to the fact that earlier in my life I really enjoyed my day jobs and felt no desire to change that.

Now I am placing all of my attention on shifting out of my day job and into life as a full time reader and healer. Making that decision helped me organize my energies much more clearly and I am steadily making progress toward my goal.

Have you overlooked the obvious for yourself?

There are many people who have taken a hobby or favorite recreation or activity and turned it into a business they love, which also supports them.

Your whole world view can shift radically when you quit thinking of your career path in terms of getting this next job because it pays a little more, or shifting into something you don't really want to do simply to have a paycheck.

Yes, I am practical, and I have had to also take some of those jobs from time to time just to get some cash flow. The difference is not resigning yourself to thinking that the rest of your life has to be like that.

Look at the things that you really love to do. Then do some brainstorming and networking to investigate and consider all the different ways that you can make a living in some way connected to that love.

It may not be easy, but if you stay focused, you can find a way. Remember that old saying, "Where there's a will, there's a way"?

Dreams of Dreams

Are our dreams within our reach or are they really farther removed than that? Why is it that when we wake up in the midst of an awesome dream, we lay for a moment savoring the parts we remember?

While still in the thrall of a dream, we can see all the beautiful developments, and then we tell ourselves that it is not real, it is only a dream. Yet, there are ways to make dreams real.

What has been the energy of the other world in our mind is simply what we are stirring up before they have materialized in our daily life. In the in between dream state, we sense that we can reach out and touch the others in our dream. We sometimes find ourselves riding around town or to a little place in the country, along the beach, into the woods or up a mountain road to a place where we just came to enjoy the sensations. And in time we feel those vibrations and discover that some of the clothes from our dream fit real nice and some of the things we thought about doing are now what we are doing.

So as your energy settles down, look at how it is moving and how you would like it to move. Yes, that dream state that is still within arm's reach.

When we give our sleep guardians various offerings to help us sleep, other gateways open, yet these dreams are also within arm's reach of our waking state. And some days we feel like we can reach out and touch them, and live in them. You see, there is not such a great distance between the world of our dreams and the world of our conscious living. We just have to reach for it, and close the gaps between the two dreams, the dream of life, and the dream of dreams.

13, the Number of the New Order

Today being Friday the 13, there is a lot of folklore and superstition associated with Friday the 13. Today we are experiencing the only one we will have this year. Last year 9 times the 13 fell on a Friday.

Two of the myths that suggest to a lot of people that 13 is a bad luck number is the story from the Christian myth of the Last Supper where Judas was the 13th guest, after the 12 apostles. In Norse mythology, there was also a huge feast of 12 gods going on when the 13th, Loki, arrived.

Judas gave the signal that turned Christ over to the Romans for his execution, while Loki's mischief resulted in the death of Balder, the sun god. Both were catalysts for great change.

The Judas kiss changed everything. Without it, Christ might have continued being an itinerant teacher and healer for who knows how long. Maybe his followers would have been loosely organized with no centralized authority, like Buddhists. But the crucifixion, resurrection and the merging of politics and religion under Constantine, complete with the establishment of the HQ of the church in the lap of the HQ of the Roman Empire changed the whole trajectory of that story.

For those of you with an irreverent sense of humor, check out Tom Robbins' novel, Another Roadside Attraction, where he speculates that the apostles really stole the body and hid it, then told everybody that Christ ascended so that they would have a more powerful story to build their new religion on.

Another religious story that pivots on Friday the 13 is when King Philip of France ordered the arrest of all the Knights Templar on that date, cementing the place of that date in history and kicking off a whole new generation of secret societies and conspiracy theories.

The story of Balder is also a game changer. Frigg, Balder's mother, and Balder both had a prophetic dream of Balder's death. She asked every creature and plant to agree not to hurt him. She neglected to secure a pledge from mistletoe because it seemed insignificant. At the feast, the other gods were playing a game of seeing how impervious Balder was to all assaults. Loki, however, knew about mistletoe and his mistletoe spear killed Balder. Frigg sent a messenger to Hel, the keeper of souls after death, to ask for his release. She agreed to do so if every creature in the world would mourn for him. All agreed, except one, so Hel stipulated that he could only return after Ragnarok, the battle at the end of the world which destroys everything and kills all the old gods, clearing the way for a whole new world to be born, and with new gods to rule it, led by Balder, the Bright and Shining One.

I do not regard 13 or Friday 13 as bad luck.

Some people refuse to travel on Friday 13, more than 80 percent of high-rise buildings lack a 13th floor. Many airports skip the 13th gate. Hospitals and hotels regularly have no room number 13.

Some numerologists consider 12 a complete number. There are 12 months in a year, 12signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 apostles. In exceeding 12 by 1, the 13 association with bad luck has to do with just being a little beyond completeness.

But remember that there are different ways to do numerology. In simple numerology, the number 13 becomes 4, the number of foundation and order.

13 has as many good connotations as bad.

We do well to remember that before the church changed the calendar to what we use now, we did not have all these months with odd numbered days. We had 13 months that were all equal in length, consisting of a 4 week moon cycle.

Traditional witches formed their covens with a membership of 13, bringing yet another spiritual perspective to the number.

There are 13 stripes on the American flag. In the Great Seal of the United States there are 13 olive leaves (with 13 olives), 13arrows, and 13 stars. These form a triangle over the eagle with the number 13 on each point. On the reverse the pyramid has 13 levels.

A baker's dozen contains 13 items.

Apollo 13 was the only manned spaceflight intended to land on the moon that failed in its mission. However, the courage and ingenuity of the men aboard resulted in all of them returning safely to earth, becoming a story of great inspiration, rebounding from the potentially fatal results of the explosion of an oxygen tank. Its fame has eclipsed other missions in which everything went as planned.

So you see, there is more to suggest that 13 can lay the groundwork for strength and new beginnings as there is to suggest that it is bad luck.

UFOs and Understanding

What if UFOs are simply waiting for us to continue beating each other up in wars and pollution before they swoop down while we are weak? By the time they announce that the are taking over and subdue us with their superior technology, we may feel like the Indians, Africans and aboriginal tribes facing the European armies and armadas. It will be a change so radical that it will be difficult for many of us to attend.

That is one scenario. Perhaps the second one is that we continue our space program and eventually we meet the inhabitants of other planets and make friends with them. Perhaps trade is developed and we become aware of the multitude of other ways of living out there. Our adventure opens our eyes.

Isaac Asimov once said that any technology sufficiently beyond our current capability will appear to be magic. We have a magical world here and now. There are even more out there.

We take time to absorb shocks. Those who grew up when every home did not have their own phone, are now using cell phones. Those who had some of the first black and white TVs with their constantly distorting screens and fuzzy reception now have big flat screens at home as good as the ones in theatres.

People can get as much information out of their laptop as they could out of a reference library. Although this is true, going to the library was an experience. Photo processing places, which were a fixture on our landscape, are now not needed. Video rental stores are getting hollowed out due to the success of online sources of movies. CD sales have been free falling as people download onto digital players. Writing letters used to be an art form, something special when it arrived, put in a drawer for reading again and again at later times. Now we email.

All of this has been radical for us. But what if something like creating a crop circle was done with the flick of a light switch? What if we could understand each other using telepathy, bypassing all language blocks and education deficits?

There is more that I cannot see right now, but these seem to be the two predominant scenarios.

But wait, here is a third. What if we enter a stage of evolution where we all become as gods and goddesses in the great stories?

The war scenario has been dominant because war has always figured heavily in our stories. But what now if new stories arise and become dominant where there is some sort of trade and cultural exchange that melds us?

How would we live through a ginormous change like that? Crop circle photos always prompt me with questions like this, as do photos of Stonehenge, Newgrange, the pyramids of Egypt. People are still trying to retell new versions of the ancient myths as a way of digesting them and reconciling them with what we know and our sense of reality.

What happens when we tell new stories? Do we get closer to understanding?

Working Between Two Worlds

What does it mean to start your own business? To me, it means taking an idea and doing what it takes to make it real, building it up until it provides enough income so that you can live on it while generating enough business to continue and grow the business.

Developing an idea through your sweat equity until it takes on a life of its own is a very satisfying feeling. Those of us who do not have enough of a nest egg to entirely finance their start up and don't want to have partners in order to get access to more money so that they can retain their ownership and vision, usually have to work some other job or jobs until the vision really gets rolling.

Manifesting has become a popular term in recent years, but creating a new business from an idea takes a lot of hard work, time, energy, willful action, in addition to having a clear vision of the goal.

There are times when there is a real flow between vision and action, when you are moving in the direction of your dream and you are getting support from customers and others who help propel you forward and add substance to the dream. In those moments, the process feels very magical and you feel very blessed.

Every person who starts their own business has some experience of this. Whether you have done it once or a few times, there are ups and downs, but when the sense of agreement in the universe is strong, there is an exciting feeling, a satisfying feeling that is part of the creative process.

Whatever your dream is, as it becomes more solid, it feels like walking in two worlds, and in a manner of speaking, it is.

Dealing with a New Deck

Since I had to start using another deck after the theft of my favorite, I decided to try something different. I do have a second copy of my favorite, but it just felt like making a change was the right thing to do. Learning to work with a new deck would stretch me, challenge me.

It is true that if you know how to read tarot, with a strong grounding in the basics of the methodology, that you can read with any deck. Of course, each artist that designs their own deck adds some touches that may offer new insights and new possibilities for interpretation. Some tarot art is simply a refinement of the familiar images, with perhaps more finely drawn pictures, perhaps more crudely drawn images, more intense coloring, more pastel coloring, so in other words, different pictures, but still very familiar imagery and patterns.

Then there are some changes in the art that are philosophical, such as changing the magician from a juggler or slight of hand trickster to a ritual magician or a shaman. Or changing the Pope to the Heirophant, or a Buddha, or a character who looks like a monk or priest. With such changes there are not only changes in art, there are changes in interpretations and meanings.

So I always find that it expands my abilities and opens my mind to new possibilities when I use different decks.

There is also another factor that seems important to mention. The deck that was stolen from me I had been using for more than 10 years. Opening a fresh pack of the same deck just isn't the same as shuffling the deck that has been used in thousands of readings before.

That feeling of connection to your tools or other frequently used items is a tangible one. In the case of an heirloom, there is that sense of connection with the person who gave it to you. In the case of a tool which is very familiar, there is that feeling of familiarity with that tool and how it works. It is the energetic connection between a person and the things they use frequently.

When things like this happen, we just have to recognize the change and move on. The new deck worked well and customers commented on how beautiful it is and how much they enjoyed getting their reading with it.

Although I still feel like I lost an old friend with the disappearance of my old deck I do feel that I was both pleased with and challenged by the new deck. After a long weekend of handling it, I began to feel like this would be a good new tool for me to work with. It is one of those growing experiences that we are all dealt from time to time, whether we want it or not.

The Cards on the Table

You have probably heard some strange stories before, but here is a new one.

This weekend, I am doing tarot readings at a big three day festival in Boulder. Booths are very expensive, so I share the tent with two other readers to make the cost reasonable. As we have done in the past, we took what we need to work down there the night before the festival opened and set up the tent. Then we leave it for the night. This is common practice for outdoor festivals.

This morning, when we arrived, we found that someone had gotten into our tent and went through all of our bags. That's odd. All three of us keep very busy schedules and sites like this are usually secure.

Oddly, the only thing they took was the tarot deck which I have been using for years doing public readings. I had it in my bag at the festival site so that I would be all ready to go. In the suitcase with it was a brand new deck still in the shrink wrap that I am offering for sale. It is a very strange perp who would take the deck that is well worn and in a rather simple bag, rather than a brand new deck still in the factory wrap.

So I pulled out a couple of other decks that I have been getting familiar with and did my readings with them. That was no problem, because once you have many years of reading experience, you can read with any deck, with of course, some adjustments for variances different artists create.

I had been so connected to the old deck that I was beginning to feel that I needed to change for a while just to stretch my mind. When you go back and forth with different decks, it helps to sharpen your wits and open to additional insights. But of course, I never would have gotten rid of that deck, just brought out others more often.

So there you have it. Another strange but true story of weird criminals. And another amazing chapter in the life of this tarot deck. This is the same deck that gale force winds blew off my table last year, but a couple of other people helped me get all the cards back. So either the deck is now being used by the person who stole it or it was passed on to someone else. Or perhaps they just threw the cards away and kept the bag. Who knows? If this is the biography of a tarot deck, it is quite a story and quite a journey it is on.

Of course, there is one other possibility. Perhaps the person who stole it will start to think about the fact that it is a very well worn deck and start to feel a strange compulsion to return it. We will see.

Un-Ascended Masters

I always get a kick out of it when I see postings for people interested in ascension in various forms. I can state for the record I am not. I like being here, now, on this planet. Earthiness feels really good.

There are postings out there claiming that 2012 will be some sort of an ascension. That whole series of apocalyptic novels was about ascension of a sort. Supposedly, all the people of a certain religious persuasion would be floated up to the great beyond, while the rest of us are all Left Behind. That's fine with me. I prefer to think of it as Left Alone.

Seems to be a real mishmosh of ideas these days. One of those card sets using the theme ascended masters contains my old pal Pan, along with Archangel Michael, Parmahansa Yogananda, St. Germain, Christ, Buddha and a whole bunch of other assorted folks. I kind of wonder if Pan would consider himself an ascended master. I kind of think not.

I attach no significance to 2012. I think the old stone carvers just got tired once they got a few thousand years ahead. I see is as just another marketing gizmo for some people.

As far as real changes taking place here on this planet, shifts in consciousness, yes, that is happening, in all aspects of life. But everybody who has a better idea for how to do things can't just float on up out of here, nor do I think they will. We need some un-ascended masters to stay grounded and do what needs to be done here.

I am perfectly content to enjoy life in the here and now, and see what happens after I die, after I die. Un-ascended masters have plenty to do while they are here. The ones who feel a need to float away, let them. Those of us who are left alone will find plenty of ways to enjoy our stay. Right, Pan? I know you are still here.