the Tree of Life

Lets see if I can get back into this.

2011-10-09T23:47:00.001-07:00

I have not posted in a long time. I basically forgot about this blog while getting swept up in life. So to get back on track, I will tell you what I've been up to. I decided a little while ago that I want to one day own and operate a little new age shop. I've been taking classes this semester for Business Administration with a concentration in retail and marketing. The financial accounting class is killing me though. Spending hours upon hours doing work that you still fail at while the work keeps piling up is not fun. Even though I realize finances are what rules business (along with creativity and marketing and such), the stuff in this accounting class seems waaay more complicated than what I feel would be necessary to run a little shop. Therefore I'm going to try not to let my likely failure of this class derail me from pursuing a career that involves my passion for the metaphysical. It is mandatory to pass Financial Accounting to get the degree, but I suppose the degree is not necessarily needed. I'll have an Associates of General Education. Hopefully that along with reading and gaining experience will take me where I want to be.

As a result of the stress of academia, I am learning something about myself. I can get so caught up in thinking about what I want and how to get it that I perhaps don't spend enough time really trying to improve myself in the here and now. I can get overcome by stress from failing at something that I might not think of my failure as another life lesson on how to deal with such. Sometimes a person simply is not going to be good at something he or she would like to excel at doing. Sometimes a skill can be acquired, but sometimes a person just has to work around the lack of that skill. All of this is okay as long as we can roll with the punches. Now I need to get back to who I am at the root. That person is a wise, spiritual, relaxed person instead of someone weighed down by worries and wound tight with stress.

Love yourself and love your life.

2010-08-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

Life is what you make of it. Few people can have every thing they want, and a lot of the time when we do get the things we want we have to wait a long time and work hard to get them. Sometimes people wake up in a bad mood and all they can think about is what they don't have. That is normal. What's unhealthy for your soul is when that is a regular occurrence for you. Be thankful for the good things you do have. Open your eyes wide and see the potential around you. See the sources available for support and the hearts that love you. Think about how awful life would be without the luxuries and necessities that you have, and maybe that will teach you to be appreciative of what is in your life. When we look at the world with appreciative eyes we can turn a perspective of being cursed into a perspective of being blessed. Also, the more appreciative your are of what you have, the more blessings you should gradually start to notice. Negativity breeds negativity. Kindness, gratitude, and other positive things breed more positive things. Forget that the tunnel to where you want to go may be long and dark. Instead pay attention to the light at the end of it.

Also, try to admit when you are wrong. It is more important to admit fault to yourself than it is to other people. However, if you consistently spout out irrational words and compulsive behaviors, people will not take you seriously. I hate seeing young women value themselves with the way guys (or girls if they are lesbians) value them. I've been there and it was an awful phase. I hate seeing girls who are going through that. You have to value yourself no matter what. Respect yourself. Love yourself. BE YOURSELF. Getting rejected by someone sucks, but it's not the end of the world and it does not decrease your worth as a human being. Don't lower your standards for less than you feel you truly need. If you lower your standards just so you can feel secure that you will always have someone, than you will live an unsatisfying life in which you are doing a injustice to every romantic partner you have, as well as yourself. Do not emotionally and/or physically whore yourself in search of some sense of approval and affection. Doing such causes you to be unstable and most good romantic prospects will overlook you for that reason. No matter how much you hate yourself, you deserve to have the love you want and not just the lust or infatuation you can get. Forgive yourself for your past mistakes and use what you have learned to become a better, stronger, and happier person. The past is not who you are; it is the device that brought you to where you are. Stop begging for praise and affirmation from those around you, and look for peaceful acceptance within. Compliments and such are nice to have, but remember the best compliment you can get is one that comes from yourself that you truly believe.

It's been a while.

2010-07-21T07:31:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since the last time I posted. Life got considerably busier. Life also got more complicated. After dealing with some rather stressful situations lately, I have truly learned how important it is to be able to sit back and enjoy the good things, and how important it is to have faith that difficulties will sort themselves out with time. If you are sleeping on an air mattress in a temporary home, be thankful for that instead of bummed that you are not on a Seally in your own place. If you are having problems with a loved one, be sure to be grateful for the support systems you have. Things can almost always be worse. Realize that and appreciate the blessings you have. It will bring a lot of peace to your life.

The Inner Goddess

2010-05-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

I seem to have been neglecting my inner goddess lately. It feels as though she is pent up within me and quite anxious to be free. I'm going to the park today with a friend. Maybe my spirit will feel more satiated out in nature. Perhaps I will ask for a little bit of quiet time to just relax and listen to the birds and feel the warmth on my skin. Have you taken the time to satiate your inner deity lately? Peace comes to us by not depriving ourselves of the things that makes our spirits soar. So, take time to go on a walk, listen to your favorite songs, dance, read, or do whatever it is that brings you peace and joy.

A beautiful message

2010-04-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

I was reading a blog today that a woman on sparkpeople.com wrote and I teared up. The message was beautiful. She started by showing a picture of a baby girl and asking what words came to mind. The typical responses were "adorable, cute, precious, lovable". All positive words. These are the words that describe us when we come into life and for our first few years. Then bad things happen throughout our life and attach negative words to our images. Maybe we are brought up in a sexist environment where we are taught women are inferior and any bit of sexuality makes them whores. Maybe we are bombarded with images of thin people and told that we are unattractive if we are not 120 lb blonde bombshell. Maybe we did not always get the best grades in school and were told by people we are stupid. We often go through life forgiving those that hurt us, yet continuously attacking ourselves. You may, for example, forgive a man for cheating on you while at the same time thinking to yourself "It's my fault for not being good enough." She then shows pictures of a plus sized woman, an anorexic woman, and a punk woman. "Adorable, cute, precious, lovable" are not the words that typically first come to mind when these pictures appear. (Although I honestly thought the plus-size lady was beautiful.) She then tells women not to judge the women in those pictures because God sees them as *inserts baby picture here*. It was quite ingenious and touching. To sum it up, love yourselves. Forgive yourselves. Embrace your "flaws" or turn them into something you love. You are beautiful and don't forget it.

High Priestess

2010-03-01T19:56:00.000-08:00

For a long time I have felt like my soul was the soul of a Priestess. I have been against patriarchal religions and felt as though nature was my "church". I have had a fascination with gemstones since I was a child, and find intrigue in studying their metaphysical properties. I have the desire to connect to the Light and cleanse away negativity that attaches to me. This part of me has become even more awake in the past couple of years. I have no clear past life memories of being a priestess, just a feeling in the core of me that it was so. Tonight I looked up information on how to recognize if you have lived a past life as a priestess. The first site that really called to me had something of a confirmation to me. It showed a numerological equation in which you add up numbers of your birth date and if you get below a certain number you are inclined to have priestess energy. I added mine up and it equaled 2,000. As I continued to read it said that those individuals whose numbers added up to 2,000 have the highest priestess energy. If you would like to try this equation, here is the information I got it from:

Numerologically, one can be a High Priestess not just through virtue of memories and feelings but through Numerology.
If you add your birthdate vertically- for example:
If you were born November 29, 1951 you would write your birthdate:
11
29
1951
____
1991
The number that your birthdate totals is what is called by Mary Greer in her book Tarot Constellations, your High Priestess Year.

If you add each number together individually,
1 + 9 + 9 + 1 = 20.

And then if the total number is 22 or under, as Numerology and the Tarot are interconnected, and reduce it to its lowest common demoniator, in this case:
20 is reduced to 2
The Number 2 Trump in the Tarot is symbolized by the High Priestess.
Therefore this person is a High Priestess Numerologically and embodies that energy.

The Highest aspect of the High Priestess Numerologically is when your birthdate totals 2,000.
Such as if you were born, Oct 31, 1959
10
31
1959
____
2,000
This means that you embody the full archetypal energy of the High Priestess because there is no reducing the numbers from 20.

Meditation and Mantra

2010-03-01T12:12:00.000-08:00

I recently watched an instructional video on how to meditate. It, as it seems most instructionals on meditation do, instructed that the objective was to silence the mind in order to receive universal knowledge. The problem I have with this is "silencing the mind". I have tried this a number of times and become so frustrated that my mind is not silenced, that it ruins tranquility. Tranquility is what I think we should aim for with meditation. I feel the goal should not have to be to silence the mind, but instead to quiet the mind enough that you can focus on opening yourself to receive Divine/Universal light. The video I watched said not to use mantras because they keep you from "silencing" your mind, but a mantra came into my thoughts today while meditating that I was compelled to use. That Mantra is "Light as a feather and full of Light." I was feeling heavy-hearted for no particular reason and when I thought how I wanted my heart to feel I thought "Light as a feather and full of Light." I repeated it over and over again in my mind with my eyes closed and started to enjoy a wonderful color show behind my eyelids. I have heard of this color show being described as us viewing our own energy that resides within our auric field. Granted I saw blasts of a few colors, I noticed that violet was the most prominent color I was witnessing. Therefore I suppose I have a predominantly violet aura. As I continued repeating this mantra in my mind and watching the colors, the sense of heaviness in my heart did lessen. Perhaps it would have totally diminished if my meditation had not been interrupted. If you would like to try meditating with this method, I'd love to hear about your experience with it. I feel as though teaching everyone that they should use the same method of mediation is flawed because different things work for different people. If classic meditation does not work for you, create your own method. You should not feel like you are failing the process if you are on a quest of discovery for what works for you. After all, you know what works best for you. All you have to do is quiet your ego and listen to your spirit.

Dream a Little Dream

2010-03-01T01:15:00.000-08:00

I know well that sometimes life just gives us a heavy case of the "blahs." We get dissatisfied with the pace of things and where we are. Either things are too chaotic or too boring. We wish we could just pack a bag and go on a vacation. I know that is not generally such an easy task though. So here is what I think you should do;

Daydream. That's right. You probably did it all the time when you were a kid. If you have nowhere physical to escape to that interests you, you can always try escaping with the mind. Stop worrying about your bills or your relationship problems for 10 minutes. Close your eyes and imagine yourself visiting a country you long to see, or even your favorite spot in the park if it's winter and it's been to cold to visit it. Heck, you can even invent your own paradise in your mind. A place where you are in charge and everything is beautiful. Just escape the craziness for a while. Being too sensible is just asking for trouble, at least in my opinion.

Ask Your Guides

2010-02-28T18:05:00.001-08:00

I recently have been quite excited to get the book Ask your Guides by Sonia Choquette. I am on a very low budget so I went to the swaptree site and traded a book I already had for this one. So if you have any old books lying around you don't want, you can go to www.swaptree.com and see if you can trade your book for this one.

I got this because I was on a search to get in touch with my spirit guides. I looked at customer reviews for different books, and this one was the winner. The book is set up in parts to help us understand the spiritual nature of things and come into communication with our own network of spirit guides and angels. I have read from the first two chapters today and here is what I have learned:

1) Before you can recognize and communicate with your guides, you need to recognize your own spirit. This means you need to become truly aware of who you are in your core. What makes you feel elated and at peace? What drives you? What feeds your soul? These are the questions we must answer to discover our true selves. We need to recognize what comforts our souls and interest us, and make time for ourselves. We must also be sure not to feel guilty for taking time for ourselves. If nothing more, give yourself 15 minutes a week to just relax with your thoughts, uninterrupted by your kids or your coworkers. This can be something as simple as going into your sunroom with a cup of tea and some classical music. By being sensitive to our own soul's needs, we nurture our spiritual well-being. We can reach and understand our guides when we achieve a sense of inner peace and spiritual identity.

2) We are made up of energy, and the next step to recognizing the spiritual energy of divine beings like our guides and angels, is being able to attune to the energy of those around us. We do this by closing our eyes to what we see when we look at a person, and instead open our hearts to feel a persons energy. You do not want to absorb this energy into yourself, but you do want to be able to identify the "vibe" a certain person emits. The author talks about how she can just sense her daughters energy. She used an example of a time her daughter was supposed to be spending the night with a friend. The author went to the mall and just felt like her daughter was behind her. A few minutes later she heard her daughters voice and saw her at the mall with her friend. This step is helpful because our guides exist on a higher energy frequency than the one we exist in, but by becoming in tune with the energies around us, we can start to be able to lift our energy to meet our guides.

Now I have been rambling on about spirit guides in a manner like I expect you to just know what I am talking about. So, allow me now to explain what a spirit guide is. A spirit guide is a spirit helper that is assigned to offer us guidance when we seek it. They are our link between the earthly plane and the true Home in the spirit world.

This is all I have learned from the book so far. I'll have to inform you all of what I learn as I continue to read.

Remember to Laugh

2010-02-21T12:36:00.000-08:00

Most of us will face many hardships throughout our life times. Granted it is in human nature to worry, we must remember to laugh. I was reading a book and a woman talked about how a "spirit comedian" helped her relieve stress during a difficult time in her life. The woman said when she closed her eyes she would see a Native American man pulling all sorts of stunts and making silly expressions. She said he would keep on acting silly until he made her laugh. She then talked about the freedom of spirit and relief laughter brings. Reading it, I knew that it was the truth. Maybe you don't believe in spirit helpers, but there are more "realistic" ways of achieving laughter. When your mind is clouded with worries or sadness, go and watch a funny movie or listen to the comedic rants of the late George Carlin. Laugh and feel some of your grief slip away from you. My boyfriend gets annoyed by it, but I have a tendency to laugh sometimes when I am nervous or upset. I guess you could say I'm sort of like Kitty from That 70s Show in that regard. The truth is that the laughter helps me to take whatever drama that is going on a little less seriously. Sometimes we all need to take things a little less seriously. The misery of today sometimes leads to the laughter of the future.

Tarot for Guidance

2010-02-11T11:43:00.000-08:00

Tarot card reading is notoriously known as a way of fortune telling. It can be more than that though. I have found, just as I am sure many others have, that tarot can be a marvelous tool for guidance. Have you ever had a problem you just could not seem to figure a way out of? Tarot can help with that. Are you not sure what direction to take your life? Tarot can help with that. Do you wonder if you are in a dead-end relationship? Tarot can even help with that. I'll tell you how.

First you need to choose a deck. There are many tarot card decks to choose from. The most popular deck is the Rider Waite deck. Being that it is the most popular, most tarot books use it as the example to teach tarot. Also, many decks are based off of the symbolism of the Waite deck. Another popular deck is the Thoth deck. There is a great site called www.aeclectic.net that lets you browse through many tarot decks showing images and reviews of the decks. Find a deck with images that speak to you. You need to feel a level of comfort and liking with the deck you choose. It will make reading your cards a better experience. The deck I use is the Mystic Dreamer deck.

Second you need to study the symbolism and meanings of the tarot cards. There are plenty of sites on the net with good information. One such site is http://www.crystalinks.com/tarot.html . Also, I recommend having at least one good book on the tarot. The internet is fine for study, but it's just plain handy to have a book near you when you are doing a reading to help you figure out how to interpret what you are seeing. I recommend It's All in the Cards: Tarot Reading Made Easy. I will say though that some tarot decks, like mine, come with a symbolism book devoted to that specific deck. I actually find the book that came with my deck to be the most helpful. You will also want to perhaps have a seperate tarot book devoted just to spread styles. The most popular spread is the Celtic Cross spread, but even it has variations. There are a wide range of tarot spreads that can be used for a wide range of situations.

The Reading. Decide what your reading will inquire about and which spread you want to use. At the start of each reading ask God (or whatever divinity you pray to) to cast a circle of divine white protective light around you during your reading to keep out malicious energies. Ask that your cards be cleansed of their last reading and that your reading is blessed with accuracy. You may want to ask your spirit guides or angels to help with the reading. While you shuffle your deck, listen in your mind for an instinct to stop shuffling because the deck is shuffled as it should be. Do not shuffle your tarot cards as one would roughly shuffle playing cards. Your tarot cards are a divination tool and should be handled with care. There is one other method in which you don't necessarily need to shuffle to choose the cards to lay out. Some people like to go through the deck one card and a time and lay down certain cards when they get an impulse to. When you lay your cards out, if the traditional meaning of a card does not feel right to you, don't be afraid to look closely at the card and take your own interpretation of it. It is wise to keep a journal of all of your readings in order to track your progress.

I love Kahlil Gibran quotes.

2010-02-11T00:40:00.000-08:00

"Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother. "

"I existed from all eternity and, behold, I am here; and I shall exist till the end of time, for my being has no end."

"I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit. "

"In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed."

"March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path. "

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. "

"Pain and foolishness lead to great bliss and complete knowledge, for Eternal Wisdom created nothing under the sun in vain. "

"Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary. "

If you want to read more Gibran quotes, click here.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

2010-02-09T01:30:00.000-08:00

I know there are many theories out there on this, but I will share the ones I'm aware of. Novus Spiritus (The Church founded by Sylvia Browne) claims that we choose the horrid things that will happen to us before we come into life because living through those experiences will strengthen and better our souls. I'm not completely sure what I think about that. I mean it seems accurate for some people that they come out of a bad situation stronger and better than ever. However, there are some people that just lose their minds and kill themselves. I don't think suicide is really improving your soul. Christians seem to always say that it is either the devil messing with you or God testing you to see if you will still have faith when your life is in the crapper. I don't really like these theories either because I think blaming "the devil" on everything that goes wrong in my life gives him power over me. I frankly am not comfortable with that. Also, I like to think that God is loving, not a jealous entity that tests you in a manner that a cruel spouse would. My outlook is that a great and loving God does not want to put you through torment to prove your love and devotion for Him. I suppose my guess as to why bad things happen to good people is because bad people like to take advantage of good people. They like to take a good person and kick them when they are down, then kick them down again when they try to get up. So I guess people can blame their bad fortunes on the universe all they want, but I think ultimately we just have to accept that there are a lot of dark souls in the world who will do anything, including hurt people, to get their way. I suppose this is one of the main causes of human suffering. If anybody else has a theory as to why good people get crapped on so much while some bad people seem to get almost everything they want, let me know what you think.

Simple Cleansing Ritual

2010-02-07T19:55:00.001-08:00

If you ever feel like you are being bogged down by stress and negativity, there is a simple ritual you might want to try to make yourself feel metaphorically lighter. That is a cleansing shower. You go take a shower and while in the shower you think to yourself that you are going to wash away your stress and negative emotions. You may ask God/Goddess to help cleanse you of your negativity if you wish. Close your eyes while showering and imagine that the water is washing away black, like if you were to just have died your hair black. This black however will be washed off from all over you though. The black is the negativity that has been polluting you. Picture in your mind the black water rolling off of you and going down the drain until eventually the water starts looking clear in your mind. If you keep an open mind and do this, it should help relieve you of some of your negative feelings.

Energy Healing

2010-02-02T09:22:00.000-08:00

There is a lot of skepticism out there in regards to energy heeling. Almost any doctor you talk about it with will probably snarl and tell you its a waste of time. I challenge you to be more open-minded that that. By no means am I saying shun medicine and modern science, I'm just saying maybe we should all give energy healing a shot at least once in our lives. For example, if you are terminally ill and doctors are saying they can't do anything for you, you might as well try an energy healer. Dean Kraft is one such healer.

He has been studied in a lab environment and proven to successfully have reduced the size of cancer cells by emitting a healing energy from his hands. His website boasts testimonials to his ability. One woman reports having a breast tumor disappear after one treatment. There is a man who reports that his baby daughter regained much of her hearing after being treated by Kraft. There is even a case of a man's brain tumor being disintegrated by the energy healing. I recently had the pleasure of watching a movie based on Mr. Kraft's story. The movie is called A Touch of Hope. He was not a believer of the metaphysical when he started out on his healing journey. He was a regular guy and a skeptic. After he went through quite a bit of scientific testing which proved that he had a remarkable ability to heal people, he finally accepted his ability. I don't know about you, but I love it when science receives evidence that the impossible is actually possible.

If you are curious about energy healing, you don't have to seek out a well known healer. Their are reiki practitioners available in different cities, and also books available on the subject to teach you how to tap into this innate human ability. Perhaps everyone will not be able to tap into that healing energy, but I think it is worth a try. I remember giving it a go once with a friend who had been having a consistent headache for a couple of months. To my surprise, I actually helped her get rid of her headache for a few days. I'm not claiming to have great access to this part of myself, but I will say that if God/the Universe wants someone healed that you are likely to be taken up on your offer to channel healing energy. I suggest reading up on the topic and next time your sweetie has a headache or a neck pain, give it try. If it doesn't work, it doesn't really hurt anything.

Air Force Acedemy designates a place for pagan worship.

2010-02-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35188048/ns/us_news-faith/

Hello progress! It's nice to meet you. Now I wish they could designate places like this all over the country for the public to go to. There are churches EVERYWHERE for Christian worshipers, now I just wish we could get a public area for pagans and new agers to worship in every city. Goodness knows that the Southern Baptists would throw a hissy fit though. It bothers me that in this day and age some people can still be so small-minded and intolerant. I know some ignorant people make fun of earth based religions thinking "they worship trees", but we all know that Christians base their worship on a tree too, a tree that has been processed into paper and had words printed on it. I say let your affirmations come from your heart, not from a book.

Temples on the Other Side

2010-01-31T14:08:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been reading Temples on the Other Side by Sylvia Browne. As the title states, it is about the various temples on the other side. So far I'm on Chapter 14, and it is a pretty interesting book. I'm not saying that I necessarily believe everything I have thus far read in the book, but I'm open-minded. Even if you are agnostic or what-have-you I think you might be able to enjoy this work. The reason being that the descriptions of the temples create a nice fantasy, if nothing more. Each temple has its appearance and purpose described. It also gives advice on how to meditate to visit each temple (except for one temple that can only be visited after death). I have not gotten to the chapters on meditations yet, but I am somewhat hopeful they might be useful. I personally don't have much luck with meditation because I have racing thoughts and when I do manage to calm them for a minute I just fall asleep. The only real criticism I have for this book is that some of the temples seem redundant. I say this because there is a temple of knowledge, a temple of research, and a hall of records. Why all of these things would not be combined into one temple is a bit confusing to me. When I get to the meditations chapters, I will let you know if I have any luck.

How to Choose and use Pendulums.

2010-01-31T13:39:00.000-08:00

http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-choose-and-use-pendulums

That is a hub I wrote a while back on how to choose and use pendulums for dowsing. If you are interested in buying a pendulum, I recommend checking it out.