We often see what we expect to see. People who expect to see angels as people with wings will have that vision. People who expect to see demons who look like giant lizards will have those visions.
There are other ways to see spirit guides, and these are worth considering. This is why ancient people could divine messages from the flight of birds, from meditating with trees, from fumes coming from fissures in the earth.
Is it not a blessing to find shade on a hot summer day? Is this a gift when you are hot and tired?
When you are walking and suddenly flowers are there along your path, and these flowers prompt feelings of gratitude and joy, are these not messages that lift your spirits?
When you ingest plants for healing, whether as tea, tincture, salve, bath salts, incense, or as seasoning in foods, are these not messengers from the earth, healing spirits come to us in solid form?
When you have a rapport with animals and you can communicate with them gently, is this not a spiritual bridge between different life forms?
Why wouldn't helpful spirits manifest as plants, animals or stones as well as people with wings?
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Why Do We Do This?
A young girl is trying to sail around the world, solo. Yesterday she had to be rescued in the Indian Ocean because of big storms.
Why would someone want to do something like this?
Once when someone was asked why he wanted to climb Mt. Everest, he responded, "because it was there."
For some people that answer may suffice, but I think that for people who want dangerous and unusual adventures, the answer is probably more along the lines of adding excitement to their lives.
Extreme sports offer a person an opportunity to test the limits of their capabilities, and the reward is in the feeling of satisfaction from having achieved something that few others can do.
Not everyone is into extreme sports, but there are other areas of our lives where we can experience excitement.
A person who starts their own business gets to challenge their own abilities and feels the incredible surge of energy when their efforts are paying off.
People seek this same sort of excitement and reward when they endeavor to become excellent at other things, such as a game, an art form, music, comedy or any number of other things.
Our need for excitement is an extension of our need for recognition. Who does not like to get compliments for things they have done?
Extreme sports is an extreme example. Poets, musicians, comedians, artists all have their chance to show what they can do at open mike nights or unjuried art shows.
Entrepreneurs can try starting new businesses any time they have an idea they want to try out and can get the necessary resources together.
Excitement motivates people to get more joy out of life. In extreme cases, people risk their lives for that excitement. In other cases, maybe we just have to stretch beyond our usual comfort zone. Either way, we get a greater sense of aliveness, and that enriches our experience. We just have to consider how big and what kind of a challenge we want to choose.
Why would someone want to do something like this?
Once when someone was asked why he wanted to climb Mt. Everest, he responded, "because it was there."
For some people that answer may suffice, but I think that for people who want dangerous and unusual adventures, the answer is probably more along the lines of adding excitement to their lives.
Extreme sports offer a person an opportunity to test the limits of their capabilities, and the reward is in the feeling of satisfaction from having achieved something that few others can do.
Not everyone is into extreme sports, but there are other areas of our lives where we can experience excitement.
A person who starts their own business gets to challenge their own abilities and feels the incredible surge of energy when their efforts are paying off.
People seek this same sort of excitement and reward when they endeavor to become excellent at other things, such as a game, an art form, music, comedy or any number of other things.
Our need for excitement is an extension of our need for recognition. Who does not like to get compliments for things they have done?
Extreme sports is an extreme example. Poets, musicians, comedians, artists all have their chance to show what they can do at open mike nights or unjuried art shows.
Entrepreneurs can try starting new businesses any time they have an idea they want to try out and can get the necessary resources together.
Excitement motivates people to get more joy out of life. In extreme cases, people risk their lives for that excitement. In other cases, maybe we just have to stretch beyond our usual comfort zone. Either way, we get a greater sense of aliveness, and that enriches our experience. We just have to consider how big and what kind of a challenge we want to choose.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Order out of Chaos
The question people like to ask is how decks of cards work. It is order out of chaos and the synchronicity of the appearance of cards that mirror what is going on affirms that there are no coincidences in life, only patterns we have not yet seen.
The cards contain images and ideas, each one different. When they are shuffled, there is no order. It is random.
So when a person selects some of the cards from the deck, they are extracting order from the chaos, and the flow of the cards they have chosen tells a story that is useful for them to hear at this time.
Why did they pull these cards now? Synchonicity. There must be some reason why they have come up now. It is ironic how the presence of the cards and the stories they tell intersect with what is happening in our life at this time.
There are no accidents in the universe, only patterns that we do not recognize until we step back and see them from a distance.
The random draw of the cards at this time provides the distance to examine the energies at work. Bringing them to the surface, exposed on the table top, both the subtle energies and the subconscious energies are suddenly made visible.
Our world is full of energies and movements that ripple beneath the surface, at moments visible, but largely invisible until our very motion, our free will of selecting cards, brings a sense of organization to our vision.
Each reading is a lens for examining our relationship to the chaos and how it appears as order in our life.
Each of our lives is a perfect example of making order out of chaos. The energies shape our perceptions and inform our free will choices when we see them.
Yes, there are things that are all around us that we will never see until we are ready. Yes, there are things that will never reveal themselves until we draw cards from the shuffled stack, and bring order from chaos.
Yes, this is how it works. When we choose to read, we choose to look at what is going on in our life. Chaos is always changing, and by our free will, we are always bringing order from it.
The cards contain images and ideas, each one different. When they are shuffled, there is no order. It is random.
So when a person selects some of the cards from the deck, they are extracting order from the chaos, and the flow of the cards they have chosen tells a story that is useful for them to hear at this time.
Why did they pull these cards now? Synchonicity. There must be some reason why they have come up now. It is ironic how the presence of the cards and the stories they tell intersect with what is happening in our life at this time.
There are no accidents in the universe, only patterns that we do not recognize until we step back and see them from a distance.
The random draw of the cards at this time provides the distance to examine the energies at work. Bringing them to the surface, exposed on the table top, both the subtle energies and the subconscious energies are suddenly made visible.
Our world is full of energies and movements that ripple beneath the surface, at moments visible, but largely invisible until our very motion, our free will of selecting cards, brings a sense of organization to our vision.
Each reading is a lens for examining our relationship to the chaos and how it appears as order in our life.
Each of our lives is a perfect example of making order out of chaos. The energies shape our perceptions and inform our free will choices when we see them.
Yes, there are things that are all around us that we will never see until we are ready. Yes, there are things that will never reveal themselves until we draw cards from the shuffled stack, and bring order from chaos.
Yes, this is how it works. When we choose to read, we choose to look at what is going on in our life. Chaos is always changing, and by our free will, we are always bringing order from it.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Support from the Universe
When you are doing something and you feel that you are in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing, this is part of the experience of knowing that this is one of the things you were born to do.
These experiences are available throughout our life if we keep our eyes and ears open and notice how we feel.
If you have ever decided to do something, launched some initiative, created some project, and received support for it along the way without having to struggle, then you know this feeling.
What that signals is alignment in the universe, harmony at a higher level, when you propose something, and those you present it to, readily agree.
We use our free will to choose from among the many things we could do. Our feelings usually play a part in this as well. When we know that this is something that needs to be done, and we act on it, we set things in motion and if our feeling is on target, the energies of the universe flows with us.
How many times in your life have you had this feeling?
These experiences are available throughout our life if we keep our eyes and ears open and notice how we feel.
If you have ever decided to do something, launched some initiative, created some project, and received support for it along the way without having to struggle, then you know this feeling.
What that signals is alignment in the universe, harmony at a higher level, when you propose something, and those you present it to, readily agree.
We use our free will to choose from among the many things we could do. Our feelings usually play a part in this as well. When we know that this is something that needs to be done, and we act on it, we set things in motion and if our feeling is on target, the energies of the universe flows with us.
How many times in your life have you had this feeling?
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Psychic Hearts
This week, I heard that a well known Atlanta psychic died of a heart attack. He was younger than me, and not obese, so the thought that he might go that way never crossed my mind. I knew him because Mickey and I worked some of the same places, and sometimes we would just hang out and chat in our comings and goings.
Thinking about this, though, caused me to remember something else. Many years ago, after another psychic died this way, one of my mentors who was also a psychic and a writer, shared his thoughts on the subject. Peter said that it was important to keep your heart clear when doing psychic work and healing work because the heart is the pivotal chakra in our system, and all of our most important work comes through the heart.
Peter himself later died of a heart attack, as did at least a few other psychics and healers who come to mind just now.
I have long felt the truth of the heart connection. When we are working, all of our energy centers are working, top to bottom, bottom to top. And whether you prefer to look at the body systems as consisting of seven chakras, three energy centers, or something else, the heart is still at the center of all of it.
That is why I feel that when the energy is flowing, I have no thoughts of technique, I just know what needs to be done, what is to be said, and when the movement of energy is complete, when has run its course for that session, when the connection with that person has moved what needed to be moved.
It is my experience that psychic and healing work does move powerfully through the heart, and that triggers movement in the other energy centers. Others may believe that it starts in the head, crown or third eye, but I know the heart, and it tells me everything I need to know.
Thinking about this, though, caused me to remember something else. Many years ago, after another psychic died this way, one of my mentors who was also a psychic and a writer, shared his thoughts on the subject. Peter said that it was important to keep your heart clear when doing psychic work and healing work because the heart is the pivotal chakra in our system, and all of our most important work comes through the heart.
Peter himself later died of a heart attack, as did at least a few other psychics and healers who come to mind just now.
I have long felt the truth of the heart connection. When we are working, all of our energy centers are working, top to bottom, bottom to top. And whether you prefer to look at the body systems as consisting of seven chakras, three energy centers, or something else, the heart is still at the center of all of it.
That is why I feel that when the energy is flowing, I have no thoughts of technique, I just know what needs to be done, what is to be said, and when the movement of energy is complete, when has run its course for that session, when the connection with that person has moved what needed to be moved.
It is my experience that psychic and healing work does move powerfully through the heart, and that triggers movement in the other energy centers. Others may believe that it starts in the head, crown or third eye, but I know the heart, and it tells me everything I need to know.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Curiouser and Curiouser
Alice in Wonderland used to say that. Does anybody else feel that when they look around everyday? Curiouser and curiouser.
Curious can be a good thing. It is that playful child part of us that exhibits the joy of living by looking at things and wondering why it is that way. Curiosity has led me to learn a lot of what I know. I picked up my first tarot deck and started to work with it just to see how it works. I also decided to find out what past lives were about because I was curious. And Reiki. And dowsing. And magic. And so many other things.
I wanted to live in different parts of the country, just to see what it was like to live there. And so I did. I wanted to see what it was like to have a large garden full of flowers, vegetables and herbs, and so I did. At one time I wanted to see how much satisfaction I could get out of refinishing furniture. So I did.
I have not kept on doing all of those things. Some things I did just for the experience, and then moved on to other things.
Many of the different jobs and career changes I have had in my life came out of that same curiosity. Some of those things I was curious enough to try included advertising copywriting, advertising sales, driving a cab, tending bar, being a waiter, being a security guard for the Chicago Cubs baseball team, custom picture framing for an art gallery, organizing blood drives for American Red Cross, editing a metaphysical magazine, editing a literary magazine, teaching creative writing, and working in a call center for a computer company, being a professional tarot reader. I may have forgotten a few things, but if you get that life can be not just an evolution, but an adventure, you get the point. Curiosity always stimulated me to try new things and I am happy I did that rather than spend my whole career in one type of business. I had fun doing most of these jobs.
Wondering what it would be like to do this or that for a living, wondering about all the different things that people do has always been a fascinating topic for me.
So far curiosity has added a lot to my life. Kids are more uninhibited in their curiosity than adults, so they try things just to see what it is like. They also ask questions which often strike adults as funny because they are not aware of social conventions and do not censor themselves. When many adults settle into patterns, they often lose their sense of wonder, and censor themselves, because they want to be seen as serious and important and so they tamp down their playful spirit. But of course, you can bring that playful spirit into the workplace too, although how you let it loose will vary according to the environment.
Kids like to see how things work, and that is why although they make a mess, sometimes they might even leapfrog ahead of adults and learn to do something like make a web page, which their parents might not know how to do.
The Alice in Wonderland effect is about a different aspect of curiosity. Frequently when I look at or listen to the news it seems surrealistic. Look at the top Google searches on any given day, and what most people are interested in seems curiouser and curiouser. If the top Google search for the day is about some minor TV celebrity who got a DUI, what does that say about the searchers?
This morning while I was half awake and having my first cup of coffee, I heard something about attacking and boarding some boat and I thought it was going to be another incident about Somali pirates, when it turned out to be about Israel and some Turkish ship, I think. It used to be that talk of pirates usually referenced Long John Silver, Jean Lafitte, Bluebeard or Captain Hook.
I saw an article about research in Columbia about preventing dementia, and I thought, isn't that the place where most cocaine comes from? Are they trying to use cocaine to prevent dementia? Really? Or is it just a coincidence that both these things are coming from the same country? Curiouser and curiouser.
One other morning I thought I heard some reporter say that BP was going to try and hoover up their oil spill onto some ship, and they were somehow going to be able to filter the water out from the oil and take the oil to a refinery. Or maybe I was just dreaming that's what I heard. Curious. I wonder if that can be done?
Sometimes listening to a news report after just waking up can seem as otherworldly as a funny novel or a funny movie. Sometimes even when I am wide awake, the world gets curiouser and curiouser.
Curious can be a good thing. It is that playful child part of us that exhibits the joy of living by looking at things and wondering why it is that way. Curiosity has led me to learn a lot of what I know. I picked up my first tarot deck and started to work with it just to see how it works. I also decided to find out what past lives were about because I was curious. And Reiki. And dowsing. And magic. And so many other things.
I wanted to live in different parts of the country, just to see what it was like to live there. And so I did. I wanted to see what it was like to have a large garden full of flowers, vegetables and herbs, and so I did. At one time I wanted to see how much satisfaction I could get out of refinishing furniture. So I did.
I have not kept on doing all of those things. Some things I did just for the experience, and then moved on to other things.
Many of the different jobs and career changes I have had in my life came out of that same curiosity. Some of those things I was curious enough to try included advertising copywriting, advertising sales, driving a cab, tending bar, being a waiter, being a security guard for the Chicago Cubs baseball team, custom picture framing for an art gallery, organizing blood drives for American Red Cross, editing a metaphysical magazine, editing a literary magazine, teaching creative writing, and working in a call center for a computer company, being a professional tarot reader. I may have forgotten a few things, but if you get that life can be not just an evolution, but an adventure, you get the point. Curiosity always stimulated me to try new things and I am happy I did that rather than spend my whole career in one type of business. I had fun doing most of these jobs.
Wondering what it would be like to do this or that for a living, wondering about all the different things that people do has always been a fascinating topic for me.
So far curiosity has added a lot to my life. Kids are more uninhibited in their curiosity than adults, so they try things just to see what it is like. They also ask questions which often strike adults as funny because they are not aware of social conventions and do not censor themselves. When many adults settle into patterns, they often lose their sense of wonder, and censor themselves, because they want to be seen as serious and important and so they tamp down their playful spirit. But of course, you can bring that playful spirit into the workplace too, although how you let it loose will vary according to the environment.
Kids like to see how things work, and that is why although they make a mess, sometimes they might even leapfrog ahead of adults and learn to do something like make a web page, which their parents might not know how to do.
The Alice in Wonderland effect is about a different aspect of curiosity. Frequently when I look at or listen to the news it seems surrealistic. Look at the top Google searches on any given day, and what most people are interested in seems curiouser and curiouser. If the top Google search for the day is about some minor TV celebrity who got a DUI, what does that say about the searchers?
This morning while I was half awake and having my first cup of coffee, I heard something about attacking and boarding some boat and I thought it was going to be another incident about Somali pirates, when it turned out to be about Israel and some Turkish ship, I think. It used to be that talk of pirates usually referenced Long John Silver, Jean Lafitte, Bluebeard or Captain Hook.
I saw an article about research in Columbia about preventing dementia, and I thought, isn't that the place where most cocaine comes from? Are they trying to use cocaine to prevent dementia? Really? Or is it just a coincidence that both these things are coming from the same country? Curiouser and curiouser.
One other morning I thought I heard some reporter say that BP was going to try and hoover up their oil spill onto some ship, and they were somehow going to be able to filter the water out from the oil and take the oil to a refinery. Or maybe I was just dreaming that's what I heard. Curious. I wonder if that can be done?
Sometimes listening to a news report after just waking up can seem as otherworldly as a funny novel or a funny movie. Sometimes even when I am wide awake, the world gets curiouser and curiouser.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
The Velocity of Hi Tech
At big outdoor festivals, sometimes parents will bring their children to me for a reading. Interesting how perceptive some kids are and what kinds of questions they come up with.
Yesterday, I read for a 10 year old boy who says he has his own website. It is altogether possible that this boy knows something about computers and websites that I don't. Kind of a stunning thought for me. When I was 10, all I knew about was baseball and bicycles. I didn't even know about girls yet. That is still in this boy's future too.
Amazing how rapidly all this changes. Just 10 years ago, IT was still a sort of prestigious job that paid well. Today, the giants in the computer industry are busy remaking it into another minimum wage job. They are paying around $10 an hour for new contractor hires. By comparison, you can get paid $10 an hour for walking somebody else's dog, cleaning houses, being a clerk in a retail store, or working in some fast food restaurants. It's all just a grind on the same income level.
Since the housecleaning, dog walking and fast food jobs can't be shipped to India, they have more job security than somebody who works in IT. Ironic, eh? People usually have the impression that I make a lot more money than I do when they hear what company I work for, but that is an impression left over from when they used to have mostly American employees and actually pay them well. Layoffs and pay cuts among the experienced, better paid people are the norm now. And there are people further up the food chain whose jobs are going to India too.
So next time you call someone because you are having trouble with your computer, if they speak English as a first language, don't be surprised if they ask you if you want fries with that. It is simply a reflexive response left over from their last job or their second job. Some of the new hires have never done anything but hamburger work or burrito work before. Initially, they think that this is pretty cool, but it takes a while for them to see the big picture. The guy sitting next to me supports his family by delivering pizzas after he finishes his shift on the glorious Global Services Team for the day. On that job, he makes more than he does here, but not many people want to spend their whole life delivering pizzas.
The thing the company likes best about the new global economy is that they can hire people in India for about $4 an hour. That is what is meant when you hear about a company called India Business Machines. We have seen IT jobs run the cycle from good paying, prestigious jobs to minimum wage whatever jobs in the space of just 10 years, the life span so far of the young man at the beginning of this story.
Who knows what the world will be like when this 10 year old Bill Gates look alike enters the world of work?
Then again, the discovery of girls may alter his course one day. Who knows what will happen then?
Yesterday, I read for a 10 year old boy who says he has his own website. It is altogether possible that this boy knows something about computers and websites that I don't. Kind of a stunning thought for me. When I was 10, all I knew about was baseball and bicycles. I didn't even know about girls yet. That is still in this boy's future too.
Amazing how rapidly all this changes. Just 10 years ago, IT was still a sort of prestigious job that paid well. Today, the giants in the computer industry are busy remaking it into another minimum wage job. They are paying around $10 an hour for new contractor hires. By comparison, you can get paid $10 an hour for walking somebody else's dog, cleaning houses, being a clerk in a retail store, or working in some fast food restaurants. It's all just a grind on the same income level.
Since the housecleaning, dog walking and fast food jobs can't be shipped to India, they have more job security than somebody who works in IT. Ironic, eh? People usually have the impression that I make a lot more money than I do when they hear what company I work for, but that is an impression left over from when they used to have mostly American employees and actually pay them well. Layoffs and pay cuts among the experienced, better paid people are the norm now. And there are people further up the food chain whose jobs are going to India too.
So next time you call someone because you are having trouble with your computer, if they speak English as a first language, don't be surprised if they ask you if you want fries with that. It is simply a reflexive response left over from their last job or their second job. Some of the new hires have never done anything but hamburger work or burrito work before. Initially, they think that this is pretty cool, but it takes a while for them to see the big picture. The guy sitting next to me supports his family by delivering pizzas after he finishes his shift on the glorious Global Services Team for the day. On that job, he makes more than he does here, but not many people want to spend their whole life delivering pizzas.
The thing the company likes best about the new global economy is that they can hire people in India for about $4 an hour. That is what is meant when you hear about a company called India Business Machines. We have seen IT jobs run the cycle from good paying, prestigious jobs to minimum wage whatever jobs in the space of just 10 years, the life span so far of the young man at the beginning of this story.
Who knows what the world will be like when this 10 year old Bill Gates look alike enters the world of work?
Then again, the discovery of girls may alter his course one day. Who knows what will happen then?
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