Monday, May 15, 2017

Our Stories, Past & Future




Have you given much thought to how our own stories guide us?

There are both the conscious stories we tell our selves about our life so far and what may be ahead. These stories of what may be ahead are shaped by our current attitudes and energies.

Let me offer a few examples to help illustrate.

One of my sisters had her own property management business for many years, but she recently sold it so that she could devote her life to creating art. She could have stayed in the property business, but she chose to sell it to one of her employees. She has always had a creative nature, and she always wanted to be an artist, and when she was looking over some of her old journals, she noticed how that fact had been part of her for a long time, so she decided that she would change her life right now and do that. I think that her work is beautiful and she will succeed, but more importantly, she is remaking her life so that she can live out her story, the story of what she has always dreamed of being.

This is an example of someone simply making a conscious choice and acting on it, and it is her acting on the story she has had inside her all this time.

During my years of reading for people, I have seen this same scenario in others. They may keep pushing some creative thought off to the back burner while they tend to their current career, relationship and life activities. 

Now, of course I realize that not everyone is in the same situation that she is in, but we can act on them at least in stages. For example, a few of my current clients are working on their writing while they hold other jobs. Their dream is to complete manuscripts and sell them. And I feel from what I have read of their work that it is possible. The step from creating your work to marketing it is a separate step, so their success in that manner remains to be seen. However, they at least have the satisfaction of having done something, and this feeling is valuable to each of them because it increases their sense of self, knowing that they can do something and they have expressed themselves in a way that they feel is important.

Other of my clients have other desires, such as painting, dancing, playing a musical instrument, singing, photography, pottery, sculpture or other forms. Sometimes that is what is revealed in a reading, and when it comes up, they realize that they can do something to pursue their dream and tell their story, one step at a time. For example, turning off the TV and going out dancing one night a week, or setting up a studio area where they can pursue their creativity while still holding other jobs. There is a profound joy in taking action. Acting on those other stories we have about ourselves reveals an important aspect of our life.

Sometimes people refer to this as finding their purpose in life. It is not as if their is a book somewhere where we look up our name and find out what we are supposed to be doing. We decide what we are to be doing. Desires that have been pushed to the back burner are part of us. When we bring them forward, our reality changes.

What we discover by doing so is that we have some talents, skills and abilities that we have allowed to remain dormant. If our gut feeling tells us that this is not something we still care about, we can erase that idea from the stories we will act on. But if we do a gut level check on ourselves and find that the desire to engage in another activity is strong, then we need to find a way to act on it.

So you see, sometimes my readings are not so much revealing something bizarre that a person would never have thought of. Rather, it can be a confirmation for them to go ahead and pursue it.

What are the stories we have been telling ourselves? That we are not really good enough to do something else? Or that we will do something different after we retire? Or that other people will think that we are silly for pursuing such visions? What we find when we pursue our visions is that we make new friends in the process who will help us stay on track.

Another method I use for helping people get a good look at their stories are through past lives. 

In my own case, I began investigating this simply out of curiosity. I was always curious why I was born with one leg not properly formed and an ability to write. Doctor were able to rebuild my leg through many surgeries so that I could have a normal life in that regard. But the desire and ability to write was not something that had anything to do with surgery. Through past life work, I discovered that I was born with a sign that this life was not to be about champion athletics, but about expressing visions. Discovering this did not make me change my life, it simply confirmed that I was on the right track.

When I have done past life sessions for others, they also have revelations about why some visions, ideas or desires are always coming back to them in fragmentary ways. These deeper realizations surface in ways that might seem random or fanciful to us, until we recall a past life where that was a major factor.

Past life recall helps us understand why we may have a fear or phobia in this life. After all, we are all born with differences in this area. And we may also marvel at the fact that talents, skills and abilities we have in this life may have been important to us in a previous life.

If, at this time, you think that all of this might be silly, you might find value in the process. No, it usually not possible to prove that a person lived a previous life, but if we simply look at the patterns in our life, there is a lesson there. And this lesson may help us alter the story that we tell ourselves about who we are and what we do. Knowing this can help change our life for the better. Examining our own stories can help us point a way to a happier future, beginning now. Whether you choose past lives, cards, runes, dreams, numerology, spiritual consulting or some other method, these are simply tools for helping us get more out of life. 

Monday, May 1, 2017

Hidden in Plain Sight




Important things often are hidden in plain sight. When we have those moments of enlightenment and we realize it, we learn to see the world around us in new ways. We are awakened to a new way of seeing, feeling and getting things done.

Example 1. We all see the night sky. But those who have studied the constellations and know the mythology, astrology and folklore associated with them see different things in the sky than we do, or than astronomers do. Two people look at the sky and they see very different things.

Example 2. When people come to visit and see a deck of playing cards, they think that we just like to play card games. But for a person who knows how to read them, this same deck can open portals for communication that no one else sees. And there is a long history of people using playing cards to do readings. After all, playing cards and tarot share the same origin.

Example 3. Being happy is a choice we make every day. The most important thing we control is our own mind. Where our thoughts go, our energy goes. The way we look at the world has everything to do with how our life goes. We do not have to wait for someone or something to make us happy. We can simply decide to be happy.

Example 4. Many of us can walk through a yard, field or forest and perhaps may admire the simple beauty of various plants, but a person who is familiar with plants can show us how to harvest and use them to help with healing as well as flavor our food, make a delicious cup of tea or make other useful household and magical items out of them.

Example 5. When I was a kid, I collected rocks and stones. I simply appreciated the beauty and the feel of them. As I studied, I knew which ones were formed by fire, water, movements of the earth, and which fragments may have been shaped by hand. I displayed them in science fairs. Later in life, others showed me how stones can be used for healing and divination. Suddenly there was a whole new way of seeing the rocks and stones I had enjoyed since childhood. And to this day, I feel that found objects make just as good a set of tools as buying polished stones.

Below you will notice that I am teaching a course in meditation and a course in runes. The meditation course is for a family in their home, so it is not open to the public. So maybe this is something you would like to do. If you and a few others would like to learn, I would travel to you. There are a variety of forms of meditation, and the desires and needs of the students can shape the content.




Now the runes are a whole different story. I have loved working with and studying the runes for decades. One of the things that really impresses me about them is that hundreds or thousands of artists have designed new card decks in recent decades. Quite a number are only sold on the artist's own website, so if you do not find that, you would never see them. Others that you may have seen on a website may be out of print and the only way to get one would be to buy from or trade with a collector.

Now the runes are a thousand years older than cards and yet every artist coming down the pike does not try to remodel them. There are only a couple of variant sets, which are also very ancient, and that speaks volumes to me about their intrinsic power.

There is an elegance and power to the runes that belies their simple appearance. Consider this. Only some of us are talented enough to make their own set of cards, but anyone can make their own set of runes.

The runes are always on my table when I go out to read, but most people choose cards. I think that the reason is simple. The runes are all symbols made of staves and chevrons because they were created before cursive writing. Since the art on cards is so visually stimulating people even glancing at them casually might say that one looks like their spouse or sibling, someone they work with or a friend and their mind starts traveling in that direction. Because the runes are so abstract, I feel that they propel me out there deeper and faster.

There are things that you can do with the runes that you cannot do with the cards. For example, you can channel their energies through your body. A martial arts master also showed me how martial arts are also encoded into the runes. In learning about them, you learn about mythology and folklore in addition to using them as a powerful tool to help you get more of what you want out of life. The runes can be put to work hidden in plain sight. For example, have you ever wondered why houses built of stucco and beams frequently have certain common designs on them? You know how ranchers make brands to mark their herds? There is a powerful way to combine runes that bear a resemblance to that, and these symbols can help us keep focused on our goals.

A person can pull one a day to meditate on. And the method of reading with them is called casting. It is not like shuffling a deck of cards and them picking a few. You take the entire set in your hands, activate them by shaking and mixing them and then you read the pattern in how they fall on the table. That pattern is as much part of the reading as the actual signs that are showing face up. They are tactile as well as visual.

Every once in a while someone expresses a real interest in them, so I decided to offer a course and see who is interested in learning how to use this beautiful, powerful set of tools.

Whenever we learn to see those things that are hidden in plain sight, we are awakened to a new way of being in the world.