Validation

In some of the old ways of doing things, it was harder to get validation for what we were creating. You had to find an agent to represent you and then they would try and find a publisher or gallery or music label that might be interested in making your creations more visible to audiences, customers, readers.

Today, we can write what we want and post it and then try and draw people's attention to it. We can post photos of our art and videos of our music.

Then it is just a matter of getting other people to take a look at it. With all the billons of websites out there, finding things can be real hit or miss.

But at least it is possible to get validation of our work sooner rather than later. That vote of confidence might be all it takes for someone to be encouraged to continue on with their work.

Of course, that is not to say that a person would not like to see their books published and sold, their art sold or reproduced or their music being bought and listened to by appreciative audiences. Who wouldn't like greater success?

At least the chaos of the Internet is a place to start. We no longer have to wait for a middleman for at least some people to consider our creations. For that, I am grateful. Aren't you?

Resuming Memory

How many times do we find ourselves in the position of doing something that we need to do, and then we remember we used to do this more frequently? How many times have we suddenly remembered to do something that at one time we considered a good regular practice?

How many times have we thought that we have wanted to get into work that was more aligned with our true spirit but we put it off?

How many times have we found ourselves in a job or position that we know we are not happy in, but we have resigned ourselves to it, because it is hard to find any job in this economy, so we settle?

All work is important, but in different ways at different times. When we are doing a job for survival because it was the only one we could find, it is still something we do efficiently so that we make some money. Then there are the jobs that we really want to do because it speaks to us, we feel that we are using our skills for a higher purpose.

So when we get ourselves back on track with what we wanted to do, it is not like we are learning what to do, but rather remembering what we used to know, and do and then resuming it.

Perhaps what we are remembering is how to move back on track toward what we want, even if we are operating in survival mode now.

Of course we can reset our goals. We do it all the time, but it is so much clearer when we do it consciously. All of us have had some experience of thinking that one career path would be what we wanted, but then we changed directions.

We need to take the pressure off ourselves sometimes. Example. If we have been frustrated getting that book we want to write started, then remind our self that our other work is our current source of income, and that writing the book is a hobby for now. That way we may free our self to get started by just loosening up and digging in. Then, when we have something to show, we can go to the next step.

Sometimes we are remembering our dreams and remembering our desires. Sometimes we are jogged awake and reawaken a dream that we forgot a while ago.

Rather than engaging in something new, we are simply resuming a memory and acting on it. There is an energy that is often gained if we reaffirm and earlier dream and pursue it with a renewed energy and more mature approach, the seasoning that comes from experience.

Yes, there will be times when we have let go of a dream because it is no longer inspiring us as it once did. That is when we let go, consciously, and then free our energy to set a new course.

Gathering Energy on the Yin Side

It is a luxury to be off for a few days and not have to get up at any particular time. To be able to just read books and watch movies, to listen to music and just let new ideas percolate through my system. To enjoy a leisurely bath. And a cup of tea.

Just cooking some simple, healthy meals and getting plenty of rest is a good enough way to spend the day. When I feel like getting active again, I will be ready to get moving again.

Sometimes you just need to recharge your battery. During my busy seasons, I can sometimes work for weeks without getting a day off, and since I enjoy doing my reading and healing work, I am happy to work as much as possible.

There are some things I need to schedule right after New Year's, and then get everything off to a high energy start.

I am enjoying the yin side of the equation right now, staying in with the heat keeping everything cozy, nestled in with a book on the history of cards, some music for a winter evening and snacking on some delicious home made bread that a client just dropped off.

What else would make this an even better evening? Only one thing. If you think you know what that is, call or email, and you could be the winner of..........................I will tell you when you call.

Alice in Wonderland Again

Alice in Wonderland time again.

In California one candidate for senator who cut 18,000 jobs when she was a CEO of HP says she is interested in saving jobs. Really?

So does a guy running for senator in Florida who made a billion in derivatives on the collapse of the mortgage market. Oh joy! Do we want to know what his next get rich quick idea is?

A third person active in politics, whose company pled guilty to defrauding Medicare and state health programs and paid $1.7 billion in fines for that, does not want to see any health care reform. Gee, I wonder why?

Still think that George Orwell's 1984 was fiction? Years ago, when we read that novel in school, most people thought that the idea that anyone could rewrite the actual public record and recorded history that radically was simply exaggerating for the sake of writing a dramatic story.

But here we are. People like these will buy enough advertising to convince some people that they really are looking out for our best interests.

Being a fiction writer gets to be a tougher job every day. how can you be more mind boggling than the news?

Of course, it will be hard for anyone to top the quote from the oil exec who said he was tired of talking about the oil spill in the Gulf because "he wants to get his life back." No doubt the families of the people who died on his oil rig, and the fishermen who can't fish, are thinking the same thing.

These characters make Alice in Wonderland seem normal.

Popular Romance

So tonight and tomorrow night, I will be doing tarot readings for people at the Rocky Mountain Romance Convention, a huge get together of romance novelists and their fans.

This should be a good fit, since one of the important questions most people ask about is their love life.

As of this date, I have been reading a lot of mystery, detective, suspense novels, some of which contain a bit of a romantic story in them, but I have not been reading romance novels.

The woman who runs the used bookstore where I trade most often says that she cannot keep enough paranormal romance in stock. There is a huge demand for stories that involve vampires, ghosts and such. Interesting that that category is so hot right now. Then again, those ghost busting shows have never been more popular on TV and mediums who bring messages from the dead have been popular for a number of recent years. So are vampire novels, tarot decks, and TV shows.

It will be interesting to see what all this means live and in person. I am looking forward to it. I think I am about to get another perspective on what puts the pop in popular. I expect that it will be a lot of fun reading for this group.

The Pop in Popular

There was a time in my life when I read tons of non-fiction, history, biographies, how to books, self help books and for fun, some mainstream fiction. I knew that millions of other people were busy reading mysteries and romances, but I just never got around to that. There were so many subjects I wanted to know more about that reading for fun usually got squeezed out, except for perennially irresistible writers like Tom Robbins and Kurt Vonnegut. But they were the exception rather than the usual fare.

Then one day several years ago, I felt like it was time to read some popular fiction just for fun. I was wanting to relax with an intriguing story populated with interesting characters.

The change started when I used to have long commutes to and from work and I wanted something else to listen to besides what was on the radio. You can only tolerate so many traffic updates while you are sitting in it, or hearing the same few bits of news and music repeated over and over. I went to the library and the bookstores and started listening to books on tape and CD while I was driving. I enjoy a well told story, and some of the authors who write popular fiction are good storytellers. You are not going to learn a lot of facts from them or get tips on how to improve your life, but you can get a story with interesting characters who make you want to know what happens next.

I liked listening to their stories so much that I started picking up more of the books in print by those authors. When I found an author I liked, I kept reading them, then looked for others who also had a style that appealed to me.

Now I know why some authors are popular. Of course, you can only read so much, so it is natural to gravitate to storytellers who really click with you.

Interesting to observe how we change over time.

Imagination's Importance

What would our life be without our imagination? A lot less, that's for sure. Think about the simple function that novels, and by extension, movies, play in our lives. It is our imagination that lets us travel to places where we have not been physically. It helps us experience what it must have been like to live in different times, as different people.

Imagination plays a vital role in providing stress relief. When we come home from work, and we set aside our personal business for a while, we enter into a more peaceful state of consciousness as we read a book or watch a movie, and imagine for a little while what it might be like to be someone else, be somewhere else and do something else. It is our waking dream state.

It is more than just entertainment. Think what our life would be like without our imagination? Probably at a much lower subsistence level, for one.

Many people tout the importance of positive thinking and creative visualization. These are simply other terms for using your imagination.

Our imagination can pave the pathway for the physical acts to follow. Cavemen imagined the hunt before they went on the hunt. Inventors imagined the bow and arrow, the wheel, the observatory, the vase and the sailboat before they invented them. Inventors still work this way, whether they are working on new aircraft, new computers or new phones.

Our imagination is also our gateway to psychic ability. The ability to see beyond the ordinary physical reality is how we open our second sight.

Our imagination has aided and enhanced our survival instincts and it has also contributed to our enjoyment of life and the development of everything from music and art to literature and games.

Exercise your imagination frequently to keep it fluid. It is a key to success in every aspect of life.

Connection

Visual art, in addition to music and writing, is a third creative means of expression that is finding new outlets on the web. Just as writers have to find agents or publishers, artists traditionally seek galleries to represent their work.

Tarot artists have created decks that are only available from them on their own websites, and so have other artists. The obvious challenge with the Internet is that it is so massive that you can post marvelous things out there, but people still have to find their way to your site.

So although the web offers creative people an opportunity to express themselves with complete freedom and make a profit from their work, getting traffic to a site is a major marketing challenge.

And even though I appreciate these freedoms, I think that most of us who work creatively still dream of seeing hard copies of our work in people's hands, or on display in stores. I don't think that is just a vanity. I think that there is something that makes it real when you experience a tangible object. like sitting in your easy chair reading a book, seeing a painting hanging on the wall, looking at the cover of the CD as you put the disc on to play. These experiences take on a different level of reality when you come into contact with the physical object.

For these reasons, I feel that there will always be a demand for some hard copies, at least for hard copies of our favorites, and one of the ways that becomes possible is when creators develop a large enough following on the web, and then others will give them more consideration and perhaps create and market hard copies of their work.

Satisfaction for a creative person comes from the act of expressing themselves, and that is enhanced when they get feedback from others who enjoy their creations.

With the advent of these new technologies and all the changes in the way we work and play, challenges are different, but the essence remains the same, and that essence we all seek is connection.

Between Reader and Writer

New technology has also radically changed the fields of writing and publishing. What you are reading right now is a perfect example of this. I took up blogging because it is an efficient way for me to write what I would like to write and then share it with whoever wants to read it. And not one piece of paper has to be used in the process. All you have to do is visit this site to read it.

In the past, I self published two books of poetry. It was not just the printing that was expensive, but there was an incredible amount of work involved in visiting bookstores and trying to get them to carry my books, and most insisted on consignment, which means you are putting your product out there with no compensation until after it sells. So I did tons of performances and readings to introduce people to my work. Lots of work for a little bit of money.

Later on, I wrote a couple of books, but could not find a publisher who was interested. They had lots of questions about my platform, and disappointingly few questions about what I wrote about. Platform in their terms means that you have an audience already built up, ready to buy your book. For example, if a person has their own radio or TV show, they have a way to promote their book on the air every time they broadcast. Publishers also like to rush things into print when a person or topic is suddenly hot. So where the publishing process used to take a year or two to get your book on the market after they decided that they wanted it, celebrity books can be popped out in a matter of months, from start to finish.

Since I was not famous on that level, they were not very interested in what I had to offer. Many other people have had this same experience. Before the Internet, the only alternative was to publish it yourself, paying a printer then driving around with a box of books in the trunk of your car, selling them wherever you can. Now you can share your work on a website or blog, or offer versions that a person could download. And you don't have to give one thought to trying to convince some agent or publishing company representative that you really do have something worthwhile to offer them. You present your writing directly to the readers.

You just put it out there and see what kind of feedback you get. Some days you get lots of feedback, some days you don't, but there is a very satisfying feeling to be able to be able to express yourself in writing, without any censorship. Plus it offers an opportunity to make new friends and have interesting conversations with people you might never have met otherwise. Some may live in other parts of the country or other countries. Discussions can take place in person or by email.

Once again the challenge is how the creative person can make money for their work. What I have done is put a paypal donation button on my blog so that people who enjoy what I do can support my efforts. I have written over and published more than 600 pieces on this blog so far, and anyone who wants to read them can access all of them for free. That represents a lot of time and effort on my part, and donations are a way for readers to show their appreciation, and will help me make a living as well. I thought this option is a simple, gentle way to go forward.

Once again, creativity has gone from essence through various types of forms, then back to essence again.

Tarot Stories

Among the many varieties of tarot sets, there are those which accompany a strong narrative text. For example, in the Tarot of the Cat People, Karen Kuykendall created a whole world of planets where different tribes of cats lived. In the Legacy of the Divine, Ciro Marchetti imagines a world that survives a cataclysm. Luis Royo is the author of a book of the Third Millennium and a Tarot of the Third Millennium. There is a Decameron Tarot by Giacinto Gaudenzi inspired by the medieval tale of the same name by Giovanni Boccaccio, a Dante Tarot inspired by Dante's Inferno, A Wonderland Tarot inspired by the book Alice in Wonderland and the Fairytale Tarot by Karen Mahony, Alex Ukolov, and Irena Triskova, The Inner Child Tarot by Mark & Isha Lerner and Christopher Guilfoil.

Then there are the sets based on mythology. There is an Arthurian Tarot, Druid Animal Oracle, Medicine Cards, the Mythic Tarot, based on the Greek Myths, Llewelllyn Tarot, based on the Mabinogian of Welsh Myths, Babylonian Tarot, Ancient Egyptian Tarot, Norse Tarot, Kalevala Tarot (Finnish, the Voodoo Tarot, and a variety of Celtic inspired tarot sets.

In each of these cases, plus many more that might be named, We get an opportunity to correlate things that are going on in our own life with other well known stories, and sometimes it is easy to garner wisdom from the well told tales, which in these sets all have dynamic art.

In standard tarot decks without an overriding narrative structure like these, there are sets of symbols and pictures on cards that the reader can fashion into a story. The framework of the standard decks gives the reader much more freedom to improvise, although the structure can also suggest a powerful context and font of wisdom to draw from.

It is your choice how you prefer to work or how you prefer to use them as a meditative device or teaching tool.

In the cases where a deck was created to go along with an existing text, the artists have enlarged the scope of the book by creating a parallel illustrated book to go along with the text to form the equivalent of a text with 78 illustrations.

In standard decks and oracle decks where everything can mix and match randomly and make sense, the storyteller, the reader, is the one who forms order out of chaos.

It is an interesting dynamic either way. We simply have to choose what method we prefer to work with, and some of us switch around for the challenge presented by variety, the chance of the shuffle challenging complacency.

The Well of Creativity

The death of J.D. Salinger today prompts a fascinating question. After writing one of the most popular American novels of the 20th century, Catcher in the Rye plus a couple of books of short stories, he quit writing and lived a very reclusive life. He guarded his privacy to such an extreme extent, he tried to prevent other authors from writing biographies of him.

On the other end of the spectrum of creative productivity, we find popular authors who seem to produce a new book every six months, with some of them writing under pen names because they are afraid that they could water down their brand name if they produce too many books.

One of my writing teachers used to say that the world might be better off if more authors accepted the fact that they only have one good book in them.

Between these two extremes, another author, Joseph Heller wrote Catch 22, which is another of the most popular American novels, whose title itself became a popular catch phrase. He did write other books, but nothing ever came close to the impact of Catch 22. It must be a sort of weight on a person to always have that question hovering over them that wonders if he will ever again produce anything as great as his most famous work, even though he has produced other books.

It is a fascinating question to contemplate. Why or how do we hit our limit of creativity?

Ray Bradbury, author of many great titles, including Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Illustrated Man, Zen and the Art of Writing, and many other titles, insists that he has never had writer's block. He says that he has always loved writing and that's what he has always wanted to do.

How many times can a person go to the well of creativity?

I cannot answer that question, but I can observe that some of the writers who have produced a great many titles have created many great works, while some prolific authors keep rehashing and warming over something they did well once or twice.

Perhaps it is as simple as getting out of our own way to be able to go to the well. Perhaps those who have huge blocks are simply unable to open their mind and go farther. Sometimes people get overwhlemed and shocked by their early success are never quite able to comprehend or come to grips with it. And there just may be those who have written one or a few excellent books for which they will be remembered and they have nothing else to write.

It is a fascinating question. How many times can we go to the well?

Creative Evolution

This morning, I read an article about Sting performing a winter Concert in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The photo showed a bearded man dressed in 19th century clothes accompanied by Northumbrian pipes, mandolin and other acoustic instruments. His choice of songs was drawn from European early music and old English composers such as Purcell, Southwell, Warlock and Schubert. They say that he even sang in a lower range than is usual for him. All in all, a far cry from the musician who became famous for his performances with the band the Police. Reading the review made me wish I had been at that concert.

Creative people often evolve in unexpected ways. Author Walter Mosley initially became famous for writing detective novels set in Los Angeles in the 50s and 60s, then branched out to write science fiction. That's an unusual shift, and no doubt there are fans of his detective novels who didn't follow him very far into science fiction. Then again, he picked up other new fans because he did. And, of course, some fans like all of his work. Just like some of the people who enjoyed the music of the Police in years gone by might now be savoring the sounds of him performing in the context of an early music consort.

Many of us go through similar evolutions by following our creative instincts and pursuing work and projects for which we have passion and enthusiasm. In my own case, I am happy to just be a tarot reader, tarot teacher, a tarot dealer, a herbalist, gardener, past life facilitator and reiki healer. When people ask me if I would like to be a magazine editor again, I can honestly answer no. I successfully created and managed publications for years, but that was then. I have no desire to do it again. I am happy to be of service to people on a one-on-one basis. My life is simple in that manner of speaking and very fulfilling. I do have a busy schedule, but it all revolves around my reading schedule. It is an evolution.

I know that many of you are doing things right now that do not look like what you were doing a few years ago. That may puzzle some puzzle some people, but it is all part of our learning curve, our creative evolution.

Mystery of Mysteries

The enduring popularity of mysteries is as simple. We want to know why things happen and how things happen. Of course, at the end of it all, we may never know how or why things happen, although people like stories that wrap up neatly at the end.

We might not know why someone killed someone else. Was it a plot? Did the person just have a nervous breakdown and snap? Was the person simply amoral and killed for fun? Did they plan to do what they did, or was it just a crime of opportunity?

Were the people who stole other people's money through fraudulent scams simply looking for a way to get rich without working? Were they insecure people who wanted to become famous by committing big crimes? Did they think that amassing wealth would catapult them into a better or more important place in the world, no matter how they got their money? Or did they simply stumble into a loophole that they kept working until they got caught?

Of course, even in crime novels, just like in real life, the bad guys get away and the good people are not compensated and do not find that everything has worked out well for them. Then again, in some stories they do.

The mysteries of life are just as complex and confounding. Many of us have questions about why we were born into this time, into this family, into this place. And we may or may not get answers to these questions.

We may wonder what happens after we die, but all we have are anecdotal stories from near death survivors. All the rest is simply belief. Whether we prefer to think of the afterlife in terms of heaven and hell, Valhalla, the Summerlands rr reincarnation, we will not know if any of this is true until we get there.

The mysteries of what we are doing here and what kind of relationship we have with spirit are harder to unravel than why somebody committed a crime or how they did it. We love mysteries and that is why a person can always have a popular radio or TV show about psychic phenomena, ghosts, ESP, UFOs or ancient civilizations. We love to try and figure these things out. Even if we ultimately cannot, everyone loves a good story.

There is no culture on earth that does not have stories or mysteries. From creation stories and mythology, to ideas about heroes and their quests to what happens after we die, we have always had a hunger for stories. It is part of being human.

Cue Cards

Most people think of tarot as a method of looking into the future and finding answers to questions about situations. This is the most common use of tarot.

Here are a few other uses to consider. I use them as a way to transmit reiki, so that when a person is getting an insight into the question, they are also receiving some reiki energy with that answer to help heal and empower them in their choices.

If you are writing something and you need a fresh insight or idea, pull a card or a few cards to jump start your writing. It can be a great source of inspiration, because it is bound to stir things up.

For life coaching or relationship coaching, the cards can play a role in guiding the conversations and the insights. They can be used to facilitate dialogue. For example, to draw a few cards to identify strengths or weaknesses that need to be addressed. They can prompt examinations of relationships and motivations from different angles.

As a thought for the day, a great aid to meditation and reflection. Let your mind discover all kinds of meanings of each of the cards, just the first or most obvious interpretations. Stretch your mind.

These are just a few of the other ways of using the cards that most people do not think about.

In the best sense, they can prompt us, and give us cues as to our next best move.

The Magic of Words

When we read, we enter into a meditative state, in which a private communication transpires between the written words put together by the author and the images, and stories that we create in our mind as a result.

How many times have we been disappointed when a book that we enjoyed reading is made into a movie? Why? Because as we read, we pictured the person described by the author, and that may look nothing like the actor selected to play that part.

Another thing that can happen is that a subtle sequence of events that leads to some important plot twist in the book might be left out of the movie altogether in favor of some scene that lends itself to easier graphic depiction.

Then, of course, when actors, directors, script writers and cinematographers are busy doing what they do, they may invent things that were not in the book, or even shift the emphasis from what the author intended.

When we find a quiet spot in our schedule and in our living space, spending a little time with a book and savoring the printed word is like a mini-retreat, engaged in slowly watching a movie that plays in our mind.

Our favorite authors are also mentors to us, when we are reading them to learn something. When we study a subject through their eyes, we learn from their point of view, and if they have communicated with us effectively, we find ourselves taking their books off the shelves for advice.

This is obviously true of non-fiction books particularly how-to books, but works of fiction have their value in another perspective. For one, a novel can help us see the world through the eyes of another, which can help us to understand people and events that we know nothing of first hand. Fiction can also help us journey through time and imagine what the world was like for our ancestors, as well as helping us envision possible futures.

It is magical when you think about it, that one person can write something and those who read it can share the experience individually, yet different readers can find different understandings from reading the same book. The magic of the quiet moments of reading and writing parts the curtains between worlds.

Picture This

You wouldn't know this without me telling you, but one of my daily uses of the tarot is to let it inspire my writing every day.

Sometimes when I am mulling over different ideas and thinking about what to write, I draw some cards and make a spread, and that points me in a direction or helps me choose between the various possibilities.

Those of you who only think of tarot as a fortune teller's tool might be pleasantly surprised at how well it works as a self teaching guide. If you draw one card or several with the intention of finding a life lesson to reflect on each day, you will find your tarot deck to be a valuable, handy and easy to use method, same as a lot of people use books of quotes or thoughts for the day or meditations for the day.

If you have never used the tarot in this way, try it.

Point of clarification. A tarot deck contains 78 cards, including 22 major arcana, 56 minor arcana, divided into numbers 1-10 and court cards in 4 suits.

There are many other kinds of decks that people like to use although they are not tarot decks. These are referred to as oracle cards, and they can work just as well for many people. Many of these have varying numbers of cards, may not have suits or court cards or be divided into major and minor arcana. The most popular decks include Animal Cards, Angel Cards, Soul Cards, Power Deck, Psy Cards, and playing cards, although there are many others out there, more than I could name.

Consider a deck of cards as a self study tool plus a way to enhance your creativity, in addition to being an oracle, and in this way you open yourself to making fuller use of your deck. And yes, you can play games with it, just as you use playing cards, although the imagery opens itself to whole new dimensions of uses, since there is a picture on every card.

The fact that every picture tells a story is quite useful, like having your own little art gallery in your pocket, with story lines that never get boring because they always change.

Is Your Life a Fairy Tale?

We get a number of chances in our lifetime to rewrite our story. If have never done so, you can rewrite it today, reimagining and recreating the next chapter.

If you have been seeing yourself as someone who had a difficult life, had some bad breaks, never had the kind of job you wanted or a relationship that was just like you dreamed of, pick up a pen or pencil or start typing on your keyboard, and write the story the way you want it to go. Then begin living it.

How many fairy tales do we recall from our childhood? How many of those stories were tales of transformation? Why is it that it is easier to believe a fairy tale than it is to believe our own life?

In fairy tales, a person can be beaten down to the lowest levels, but then rise up again. Look at mythology and again we find tales of transformation.

These stories were created by our collective ancestors to show us what is possible even in the face of great obstacles, horrible enemies and extremely difficult conditions.

When we are summoning our own stories, we frequently call up from our own history the parts of our lives which have been difficult, but we do not continue on through to the part where the hero triumphs. Why not? Are we not as worthy as those characters?

Let us get to the next chapter where we emerge from the mess and the trouble to a better life where things work out for us. If you can imagine your life with a different ending, you can begin living it.

Hans Christian Anderson wrote "Every man's life is a fairy tale."

Just as there is magic in stories, there is magic in us. Bring out your magic and rewrite your story. The sooner you write it, the sooner you can begin living it.

What is Cutting Edge?

So many people use terminology like "cutting edge" to describe their new business these days, but what really is cutting edge?

It was not so long ago that getting a job in any kind of office meant men wearing suits, ties and short haircuts to work, women wearing dresses or skirts and heels. I always felt it was uncomfortable and absurd to insist on dressing in a suit and tie when it was 90 or 100 degrees outside.

What I see as real cutting edge is the use of computers to enable more people to have their own business. You can dress how you like, communicate with customers wherever you are thanks to the cell phone and laptop. Remember when if you were in sales or some other job that required you to leave your office to do part of your work, and you had to keep change in your pocket and look for cell phones to call customers back or call your office? Now, it is noteworthy when I do see a pay phone.

The web is the real cutting edge. You can present your self and your business however you see fit, and you can change your web page every day if you want. Where we used to type letters and mail them, we can now email someone and get a response within minutes, or the same day.

We can post our writing, our art, our music online for everyone to experience and enjoy without needing the official representation of an agent, although real life agents can help open other doors for us.

Many of the wonderful healing modalities that people offer now are not new at all, rather just that many people have a new level of appreciation of old modalities such as herbalism, aromatherapy, massage, meditation, sound therapy, shamanic healing, psychic readings, dream interpretation and energy healing.

After a century of ignoring all these things in favor of drugs and surgery, we are willing to reconsider these ancient methods. And of course, drugs and surgery are often the best or only course of action for some problems, but the traditional ways can work for a lot of other things.

I was surprised the other day to be driving in my car, listening to the radio and hearing and advertisement for a medical marijuana dispensary. Surprised, but not really. It was just a matter of when.

Anyone who knows the history of this issue knows that it was all politics that made it illegal in the first place, same as the prohibition against alcoholic beverages. The ban on marijuana was just as futile as the ban on beer. It was inevitable that it would become legal again. In spite of the billions of dollars wasted on hiring more police and purchasing all kinds of equipment, there are more smokers now than there used to be, not less. Just like people refused to quit drinking beer when it became illegal. So it is not completely legal yet, but we are stepping in that direction. It is nothing but stubbornness on the part of politicians that keeps the new prohibition on the books. It will end completely one day. We are already moving in that direction.

The web helped inform people about medical marijuana and gave people ways to motivate voters. Marijuana itself it not new. Ancient people were using that too. The legal dispensaries are now able to use the web to connect with customers. These are the parts that are new.

Perhaps the prohibition on beer and alcoholic beverages would have ended sooner had there been computers and internet back then. Perhaps. Perhaps stubborn politicians would have insisted on denying reality for years after it was apparent then too. It is just their nature. Remember the Emporer's New Clothes?

The web makes it possible for like minded people to meet without leaving home. The web makes it possible to do the kind of research that used to require a trip to the library. Of course, there is definitely something to be said for getting out of the house and interacting with real people.

So what is really cutting edge? The methods of communication we now have. The content of what we are doing is really timeless in most ways. Styles cause the actual presentation of messages to be different, but what is inside the message is familiar. Cell phones and laptops have changed communication as much as cars and aircraft have changed travel, only faster.

What is important is not really so much about what is new. It is really about what works.

Once Upon a Time

"Once upon a time" is one of the most famous magical phrases ever uttered and is one of the most powerful spellcasting techniques ever created. As soon as we hear those four words, we pay attention and are transported into another world.

Storytelling is an art form as old as humans, as old as spoken language. It was one of the first forms of magic, one of the first forms of entertainment, and it has served us well from the time the first cavemen and cavewomen gathered around the fire until this very day.

For thousands of years, older people told stories to younger people and they came to see the world around them in a new way.

Then about a hundred years or so ago, some people thought that these traditional stories might be too scary for younger people, so they edited them to removed some of the darker aspects of the stories. Those of us who only grew up learning the tamer versions still got tremendous value and were emotionally moved by these stories. But in more recent years, when the original versions were republished, there was a rich new sense of discovery of whole new levels of the story that were revealed.

In some cases, it was like stripping a layer of gray or white paint off a piece of furniture and discovering finely grained wood underneath.

We didn't need to have the stories toned down in order to appreciate them. Generation after generation grew up hearing the old versions. When you hear family stories or history stories that are not cleaned up or toned down, aren't the original versions even better?

Questions About Past Lives

One of the questions that prompted me to inquire about past lives is this. Why are some of us born healthy while others of us are born with various physical conditions that require surgery to correct? Why do some of us have a fear of small places, or heights, or deep water or crowds which has no rational or logical explanation in any life experience?

Yes, a person could say that it is simply genetics or an inherited trait, but where would that originate? People certainly are born with conditions that run in families like diabetes or heart conditions. But not everyone in a family is born with a fear of heights or a fear of water.

It is interesting that in my own case, I was born with one leg not properly formed and it took many surgeries to correct. They did a great job with the surgeries and I have been able to get around just fine.Still, doctors advised me not to play contact sports like football because they were afraid I might break it and that they would not be able to get it set properly again. So one past life revealed that I was a great athlete in a previous life, but that in this life, I was born with an unmistakable sign that this lifetime was not to be about being a great athlete. Another aspect of that life is that I had visions that I wanted to express but was never taught to read and write. I also had other lifetimes where my ability to write was a pivotal part of the story. I have always wondered why writing came so easily to me. For a good part of my adult life, I made my living as a writer, editor and writing teacher. Today I write on this blog.

Sometimes another person's story will reveal that their fear of water might have been as a result of drowning in a past life. Or a pain in a certain part of their body is related to a severe or fatal injury in that part of the body in another life.

Or a certain relationship pattern reflects patterns present in other lives. When we notice that we keep repeating a certain pattern, we have an opportunity to change it. Perhaps we never even realized we had a pattern until we recalled some stories and noticed the similarities.

That is why sometimes we feel like we know someone, even when we have just met them. They say that we reincarnate in groups, so that is why when a person is recalling a past life story, they feel that the person in one story reminds them of someone they know in their present life. Perhaps they do not look the same, but their energy, characteristics and manner are clearly recognizable.

Brian Weiss and other well known authors on the subject of past lives offer many examples in their books of how many people found release from fears, pains and anxieties after stories were recalled. Sometimes it is simply peace and freedom from anxiety that are found. Sometimes it was relief from a recurring pain, and sometimes it was just the ability to relax and be able to sleep through the night.

In my own case, it was the doctors who reconstructed my leg, but knowing that there was some reason, or at least a plausible story from my past, that explains why I was born with that physical challenge plus an ability to write that helped confirm for me that I am on the right track and that using my available energies in the way that I do fits a larger picture and confirms the pattern already working in my current life.