Vivian Hadleigh's Blog, page 3

Healing Relationships Using Soul-to-Soul Communication, Soulmates Part 3 of 4

When Personalities Get in the Way

Being soul mates or soul friends does not guarantee an effortless, magical relationship.

Sometimes one partner refuses to participate, sometimes external circumstances crash a lovely, loving partnership. Perhaps your soul mate died, or you’re separated for a long period and unable to converse regularly. Sometimes one partner simply doesn’t ‘get it’ and you would like to awaken the soulful connection between you.

The good news is that your soul-level connection permits a kind of multi-dimensional communication which isn’t as easy with ‘regular’ relationships.

The following meditation can be extremely helpful and comforting in almost any circumstance—even in cases where one soul partner opted out and refuses to see or speak to the other.

The beauty of it is, because you’re connecting to your soul partner or friend through the auspices of your soul-level or Higher Selves, you can say anything, express even thoughts and feelings that could be damaging in a face-to-face conversation, and you won’t create negative karma. This is because your respective souls are ‘translating’ the expressions of your personality into form and content that has meaning on that level.

In other words, this technique allows you free and full expression of frustrations, anger, longing and regret without fear of repercussions, because the wise, eternal and detached souls of each party are the mediators and translators.

Soul communion meditation & mediation

During the following meditation, your two souls communicate with each other on behalf of their respective people.

Then the souls ‘repackage’ or translate the information and insights and compassion they exchanged on your behalf, and convey it to their individual person, the incarnated extension of them, in whatever form is most effective, whether it’s in dreams, or gut feelings, or signs, or as clear messages during the session.

Preparation

To prepare for the meditation, create a quiet space, and place two chairs facing each other. As you do this visualization, remember that the more senses you use at each stage—imagining or experiencing sight, sound, taste, touch, feeling and intuition—the more parts of your brain are activated, and the more effective the meditation and its outcome will be. A good way to activate your senses would be to use the Four Elements Meditation available free on this site to begin your session. Then …

Sit in one chair, and imagine your soul partner sitting in the other. Remember, use all your senses.

Next, visualize your soul as a star high over your head, and imagine that a beam of light connects your soul to you, shining down through the top of your head, down through your body, and out the base of your spine to latch onto the molten core of the earth.

Then imagine your soul partner has the same connection with their soul star, and with the earth.

Complete the energy connection or ‘grid’ by imagining, seeing, or feeling a beam of light extend from your soul star to the other soul star.

Let it all hang out!

Next, give it all to your soul, everything, the good the bad and the ugly. Cry if you need to, or scream, but let it all hang out!

Take as long as you need, making sure to give yourself time to unearth levels of feeling that have been blocked because you’ve felt you had to hold back for social or karmic reasons. Even things you have suppressed because they felt personally dangerous can be brought to light here and healed if you choose.

Then sit quietly while the souls commune. And expect the unexpected, from having the soul partner imagined in the other chair actually converse with you during the meditation, to having their soul or yours speak to you directly, or having them contact you personally at the end of the meditation.

As often as you need

You can do this meditation as often as you like, and if you’re experiencing heartache or extreme distress because of this relationship, you should do it two to three times at a minimum.

Keep in mind that, since you’re working on a level beyond the desires and convictions of your personality, you don’t get to control what happens. Don’t think that you can do this meditation to create a desired outcome. That is the province of your souls.

Simply know that whatever occurs is truly for the highest good of everyone involved, and if you’re shocked or upset rather than comforted by the outcome, go back to your soul connection and ask for help and explanations.

If you’re experiencing heartache, and you’re willing to invest even a tenth of the time into your healing process that you’ve spent feeling miserable, you will not only be able to determine whether or not it’s time to move on—and then do it if need be—you’ll also have found closure in the process.

See Also: Soul Agreements – Soul Friends, and Coming soon: If Your Soul Mate Opts Out, all chapters from my book Embracing Life in a Challenging World.

Portions originally published in August, 2010, in the www.CaliforniaPsychics.com blog.

© 2008-2011 Outlook Amusements, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

A version of this meditation originally appeared in the CaliforniaPsychics.com blog, and is published with the permission of Outlook Amusements, Inc., the owner and operator of California Psychics ®.

Soul Friends and Frenemies – Your Other Soul Mates, Part 2 of 4

Soul friends are among life’s greatest gifts, partly because soul friendships just aren’t as fraught with challenges as soul mate relationships can be.

True soul mates often have to overcome obstacles like family disapproval, substance abuse, early life traumas leading to emotional problems, existing marriages and even careless indifference on the part of one mate.

But soul friends always seem to appear magically just when you need them most. When no one understands or supports you, when you’re facing a challenge you don’t think you can handle alone, that’s when a soul friend will show up, just in time, with exactly what you need.

How can you recognize a soul friend?

Usually when you meet them, something inside of you smiles and says, “There you are! I’ve been waiting for you to appear!”

That sense of delight and recognition happens for two reasons: first, because soul friends are almost always people you’ve known and cared about in many prior lifetimes, and second, because the two of you got together before you incarnated this time and decided when, where, how and why you’d meet, so you truly have been expecting them, and they you.

Balance

And soul friendships are always balanced. You’re there to help, motivate, support and unconditionally love each other equally, and, over time, you find you always receive as much as you give.

Yeah, you’re both human, and occasionally there can be friction, but it rarely lasts.

Special insight

Another giveaway that someone is a soul friend is that they understand something about you that no one else understands.

You’ve been teased all your life for being too emotional? Your soul friend is either just as sensitive or sees your sensitivity as a gift that they admire and respect.

Or you’re mystical and psychic, but from a family of pragmatists, and married to a pragmatist, and suddenly a soul friend who has even more far-out gifts than yours makes a special effort to meet and befriend you just when you’re about to go through major life changes.

And then there’s the challenging kind …

There’s another kind of soul friend who isn’t as pleasant to acknowledge, although, if you look back, you’ll probably remember having that same sense of recognition when you first encountered each other.

This soul friend sees through your facades (i.e. also really understands you), and prods you to learn and grow by challenging your beliefs or pointing out where you’re achieving less than you can. This kind of soul friend pushes your buttons and sometimes makes you mad, but somehow you still admire and respect them.

You even find yourselves both motivated by the same kinds of goals, and discover you’re on the same page regarding what needs to be done so often it’s uncanny.

Time doesn’t matter

Soul friendships can begin in high school or grade school and continue throughout your life, or they can last just a few months or weeks before they’ve run their course.

Soul friends can be in your age group, or much younger or older.

Soul friends are sometimes lovers who help you recover from a divorce or abuse.

Or you meet in a situation which requires exactly the skills and gifts that you have as a team, and you find yourselves working creative and/or organizational miracles, producing more work together than any ten individuals could do alone, and having an absolute blast while you’re doing it.

Service and giving

Soul friendships seem almost always to involve service, too, and often soul friends help each other clear karma by doing service projects together.

You and your best friend from high school end up being the people everyone in your small town turns to for help and advice. Or perhaps a number of soul friends meet and are jointly inspired to create or expand an organization that serves a very timely need for hundreds or even thousands of people, helping others evolve or learn important new skills.

They always help you grow

Soul friend relationships are life-affirming, positive and growth-oriented. They incorporate healing, expansion, inspiration and a sense of connection and bone-deep mutual understanding that is priceless.

When you’re with a soul friend, your horizons expand, you realize that there’s more to you than you thought, and you suddenly discover you have more than enough energy, hope and motivation to meet any challenge life sends your way.

And even when a soul friendship is short-lived, you’ll remember that friend with a smile for the rest of your life.

See Also: Soul Agreements – Coming soon:  Soul to Soul Communication, and If Your Soul Mate Opts Out, all chapters from my book Embracing Life in a Challenging World.

Originally published in August, 2010, as “Soul Friends” in the www.CaliforniaPsychics.com blog.

© 2008-2011 Outlook Amusements, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

This article originally appeared on the CaliforniaPsychics.com blog, and is published with the permission of Outlook Amusements, Inc., the owner and operator of California Psychics ®.

Spring Equinox Myth and Meditation – Balance of Masculine and Feminine

Return of the Son to Balance the Feminine Force

Since Samhain or Hallowe’en the Goddess has walked alone.

Only her pregnancy since Imbolc assures her that she will again meet her sacred partner and consort at the Spring Equinox.  While the Virgin and Crone aspects of the Goddess are whole in themselves, the Mother aspect of the Goddess wants and requires a mate for fulfillment of her cyclic destiny.

She finally meets him at the Spring Equinox, which occurs annually in the Northern Hemispheres between March 20 and 23.

We humans usually experience this change vividly with the most startling astrological shift of the year. The Sun leaves the peaceful, dreamy and spiritual sea of Pisces and enters the fiery, assertive sign of Aries at the Equinox.

Suddenly we are jarred out of our dreamy winter and spring states. There’s a collective awakening to the fact that it’s time to get moving, to forge new paths, to conquer obstacles, to race toward goals, to accomplish something vital NOW!

While Christian mythology has placed the rebirth of the Son/Sun at the Winter Solstice, older traditions time the god’s emergence at the moment that hours of light become longer than the hours of darkness.

Both Spring and Fall Equinoxes are about balance, a moment of perfect equilibrium in the annual cycle of seasonal changes, when dark and light, feminine and masculine meet as equals. In the Spring they begin their courtship.

Universal energies are seen as having both masculine and feminine elements in many mythologies worldwide, opposites whose dual presence is required to bring the Universe into a state of harmony and balance. The Taoist Chinese symbol for yin and yang, with its swirling, almost-touching curves of black and white, each with a dot of its opposite at the heart, is probably the most popular image that illustrates this concept.

Black and white in this context are not about good and evil. Rather, they are balancing and necessary forces, like day and night.

Because the Northern Hemisphere seasons are cycling toward more light now, the god is in his ascendancy at the Spring Equinox. The goddess is becoming a mature female, and she, of course, is met by her equal—the god as a warrior armored with the Sun, full of vigor and fertility. They both are reaching sexual maturity, and are ready for a relationship. By the next pagan holy day, Beltane, they will become mates and consorts.

Preparation

Helping the Goddess find a worthy mate can be done ritually or internally through meditation and visualization. However, this is not easy in today’s world, because we lack both the examples and the rituals to help our young men move from adolescence to full maturity. All too many modern men never do make the transition.

According to psychologist Carl Jung, the psyche of every woman contains a balancing male presence (animus), just as men’s inner landscapes contain a feminine presence (anima). The masculine or animus is the spark, the doer, the creator and organizer, the aspect that acts out in the world. The feminine or anima attracts, inspires, conceives, gestates and nurtures. She is the womb.

Bringing the polar opposite in your own psyche into greater maturity and psychological health is probably the most powerfully healing thing you can do on the Equinoxes, for yourself, and for all life.

Because the masculine force is struggling to find healthy expression in modern culture, and especially if you don’t have a strong, positive, mature masculine force in your life, you may want to begin your preparations for Spring Equinox by buying and reading the book King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette. This extremely popular and accessible book has been a big seller since the early 1990’s, and even though reading it is quick and easy, it will probably permanently and profoundly change your idea of what separates men from boys.

The Spring Equinox is an opportunity for women to go within and conjure your inner masculine or animus as the most self-actualized, compelling, protective, strong, and responsible being you can imagine. Imagine him taking part in your life, and what how you would want him, as the anchor and magnet for masculine energy in your life, to take part.

For men, this is the time to dig deep into your experience, personal history, dreams, and imagination, resurrecting and creating high and far-reaching values and ideals, ones which can inspire you to expand and grow as a man.

Meditation

The meditation itself is simple. Find a quiet and relaxing space, have note-taking tools on hand, get comfortable, and go within. You may want to use the clearing and grounding meditation which is free to listen to and/or download on this site.

Imagine that you have placed all the inspiring, uplifting, positive values, plans, goals, ideals and tasks you’ve created for your inner masculine entity in a golden bowl which sits in front of you.

Next imagine that in your heart chakra or heart space is a luminous golden egg which, when it opens, reveals the sacred twins of your essential masculine and feminine natures. Notice their relative positions, the strength of each one’s energy, and how they relate to each other.

Visualize or feel yourself stepping into your heart chakra and pouring the golden bowl full of the powerful energy, ideas, and feelings you’ve created into your masculine essence, through the top of his head. Watch him expanding, becoming more light-filled, clearer, energetic, and vivid as you pour. Tell yourself, and him, that this expanded state is permanent, and that he will continue to be empowered and expanded by the energies you have poured into him.

Finally, step back and look at your inner masculine and feminine presences together. Do they match? Are they suitable for each other? Will they support and enhance each other as they help you navigate your day-to-day world?

If not, allow your inner Wise Being to consider how they may be brought into balance by deepening and strengthening the feminine, and use those insights in the coming months, to be completed during your Fall Equinox meditation.

This is a chapter from my book Sacred Cycles: Ancient Doorways to Inner Space.

Soul Agreements – Blessings and Challenges, Part 1 of 4

Many spiritual teachers say that every person’s soul purpose is nothing more—and nothing less—than to experience joy, expansion and the growth of wisdom and compassion, lifetime after lifetime. Exactly how that joyful expansion and growth are accomplished, however, is up to each individual, evolving soul.

Soul purpose vs life purpose

It’s important to remember that there’s a big difference between soul purpose and life purpose.

Your soul purpose is conceived of and directed by your eternal self, your soul, and usually unfolds in stages that can last several lifetimes. You could call each stage the soul’s ‘current mission.’

Your life purpose, on the other hand, is basically a set of goals and objectives which were developed by your soul specifically for this present incarnation, with the intent of furthering your soul’s current mission.

Planning your incarnation

And when you, as your soul, sit down at the Big Conference Table in the Sky to plot out your next lifetime’s goals and objectives, you’re not alone.

With you are usually many members of your soul family, individuals who have traveled with you through several lifetimes, or a few, and who join you in plotting an intricate web of interconnecting life threads, encounters that will assist or challenge you, and them, to make the most of your coming incarnation.

Together you plan when and where you’ll meet. You cheerfully build in obstacle courses and synchronicities to keep things interesting.

You decide on gifts and difficulties for your individual personalities, and whether you will take the role of friend, lover, family, spirit guide—or even enemy—this time around.

And don’t forget free will

And just to keep things suspenseful, you give each soul’s incarnated personality the free will privilege of ‘opting out’ of any agreement, at any time, perhaps with karmic consequences, perhaps not, depending on how you make your choices, and why.

Your soul agreements are the result of all this creative brainstorming among eternal beings. And, while it’s is not true for everyone, many people discover that nearly every one of their important relationships has a soul agreement.

How will you know?

There are a number of ways to recognize the existence of a soul agreement in a relationship, although the specific parameters of the agreement aren’t always so easy to pinpoint.

Always, the relationships are intense and full of meaning.

Usually, when you meet there’s a sense of recognition that’s irresistible, and that can be misinterpreted by your personality or ego, especially when the possibility for romance exists.

Often the relationship has built-in challenges or obstacles that require effort and commitment to overcome.

Conversely, it can be so easy in the beginning that when obstacles do appear, it’s shocking, and can cause the relationship to collapse.

Appearances can be deceiving

What if the parent or sibling who caused the most difficulty and heartache in your youth is actually a friend from prior lifetimes, one who agreed to take on the unpleasant task of helping you build your emotional and spiritual strength through challenge? Or to help you to balance karma by learning to treat them, in all their awfulness, with forgiveness and unconditional love?

Or perhaps you and another member of your soul clan will decide to spend a few lifetimes meeting and loving, but unable to find your way to happily ever after. Perhaps this choice will help you each develop your capacity for faith, your trust in the long-term, many-lifetime promise of consummated love, or your ability to give and receive wholehearted, unconditional love in spite of conditions. Or so that at least one of you will be forced to develop self-reliance or the ability to commit fully to the greater good of spouse and children rather than personal gratification.

It’s not always easy to divine the intent behind soul agreements, especially the ones that are painful, usually because when you’re focused on the personality level, you lack the necessary perspective.

But your angels and spirit guides can often help you at least understand what your soul wants you to learn from the experience. Astrology, numerology and psychics who specialize in soul relationships could also help.

The freedom of understanding

When you look at each of your relationships as though they contain a soul agreement, you get a whole new perspective about the purpose and meaning of what’s happening between you.

When you look at any relationship from a soul perspective, even when you haven’t figured out the details of a particular agreement, suddenly things become less personal, the drama that accompanies personality conflicts dissipates magically, and you are freed to learn the things that your soul had in mind when it created the agreement before you were ever born.

Coming soon: Soul Friends, Soul to Soul Communication, and If Your Soul Mate Opts Out, all chapters from my book Embracing Life in a Challenging World.

Originally published in August, 2010, as “Soul Agreements” in the www.CaliforniaPsychics.com blog.

© 2008-2011 Outlook Amusements, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

This article originally appeared on the CaliforniaPsychics.com blog, and is published with the permission of Outlook Amusements, Inc., the owner and operator of California Psychics ®.

Your Karma & Life Path Revealed – Astrology & the Nodes by Sign

The North and South Nodes in astrology are windows into your past lives, your potential in this life, and the nature and purpose of your karmic relationships.

Also known as the Dragon’s Head (North Node) and Dragon’s Tail (South), the Nodes are not planets, but points calculated for where the Moon’s orbit intersects the apparent path of the Sun relative to the Earth, called the ecliptic. These days most astrological charts or wheels show you where your Nodes are located (although usually only the North Node is shown, since the South is always exactly opposite), and an astrologer can calculate them for you quickly and easily.

Whether or not you believe in past lives, the South Node has important information for you about ways you sabotage yourself. Whether it was learned in childhood or in a prior life or series of lives, the South Node represents your default mode, the attitudes and behaviors you revert to when you’re stressed, and which keep you from growing emotionally and spiritually. Many believe that you begin to outgrow South Node habits and beliefs when you reach your 30’s, but sometimes they can be difficult to escape.

The South Node can also tell you about past life or karmic connections with others in your present life. If a person you’re involved with has a planet near your South Node (conjunct), or you have a planet near theirs, the nature of the planet will tell you a lot about your prior incarnations together. If, for example, the planet is Venus, you were probably lovers or family; if it’s Saturn, that person was probably an authority figure for you, and possibly one you resented.

Your highest potential, your growing edge is described by the North Node. Although it can be uncomfortable at first, it is by reaching for the highest qualities of the sign where your North Node appears that you learn to release the comfortable but unhealthy habits of the South node.

Say, for example, that you have your North Node in Virgo or your 6th house, and South Node in Pisces or your 12th house. Your habitual response to stress is to escape, to space out, numb out, retreat into your imagination or video games (both harmless and fun unless overdone) or drugs and alcohol. But no matter how you resist, life keeps pitching you into circumstances where the only solution is to do what Virgo does best – pay attention to details, analyze and organize.

Once you begin to tune in to the gifts of your North Node, an interesting thing happens: you ultimately find yourself flowing easily along the axis between the North and South Nodes, developing ways to blend them to achieve the higher goal, and, suddenly you uncover buried treasure! Hidden by your default attitudes and behaviors are the talents and skills of your South Node which you developed in past lives, and which you can now use fully and consciously.

Here are some thumbnail sketches about what your pairs of Nodes (or Nodal axis) can mean according to the astrological signs in which they appeared when you were born. If you’re familiar enough with astrology to know which house each sign naturally rules, and you know your birth time, you can figure out the house placement of your Nodes and its added interpretation as well. For example Aries-Libra also describes 1st house-7th house Nodes. If this grabs your interest, there’s a lot more you can find out about Nodes in signs and houses, and even more you can learn by seeing how your Nodes relate to your other planets.

Aries/Libra – This axis teaches understanding of self through self actualization (Aries) and balanced, authentic relationships (Libra). Until balance with the opposite is developed, Aries South Node tends to be insensitive or selfish; Libra South can be co-dependent or indecisive.

Taurus /Scorpio – On this axis you learn about your values and resources through intense experience, with Taurus focused in the physical realm, Scorpio the emotional. Before the Nodes come into balance, Scorpio South Node is driven by crisis and drama, Taurus by materialism.

Gemini /Sagittarius – Together these signs have the goal of integrating the lower and higher minds, the rational (Gemini) and the philosophical (Sag). Until the North and South Nodes work together, Gemini South Node can be scattered and lost in detail, Sagittarius South dogmatic or overly idealistic.

Cancer /Capricorn – With the goal of mastering responsibility to self and to others, Cancer is concerned with personal emotional and spiritual needs, Capricorn with society’s rules and structures. Out of balance, these South Nodes trigger the family/work conflict with too much focus on one or the other.

Leo /Aquarius – Giving love is the goal, Leo by loving individuals and sharing one’s personal gifts, and Aquarius by loving society as a whole, and putting the group’s needs first. Out of balance, the Leo South Node can be self centered and egotistical, Aquarius can be a rebel and a rabble rouser.

Virgo /Pisces – These Nodes are about realizing there is perfection in everything, Virgo in the physical, rational world, and Pisces in the creative, spiritual realms, Virgo by analyzing, Pisces by merging. Before balancing, South Node Virgo can be fussy and critical, Pisces deceptive or impractical.

Want to know more about your Karma and Life Path?

Check out these Karma posts: Understanding Karma; Karma, Your Life Path & Numerology; and Fate versus Destiny-Free Will, Karma & the Law of Attraction.

And these Life Path posts: Do You Know Your Life Theme?; Astrology & Your Life Theme; Numerology & Your Life Purpose, Path or Theme

This article was originally published in March, 2009, as “Your Karma Revealed” on the www.CaliforniaPsychics.com blog.

© 2008-2011 Outlook Amusements, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

This article originally appeared on the CaliforniaPsychics.com blog, and is published with the permission of Outlook Amusements, Inc., the owner and operator of California Psychics ®.

Fate Versus Destiny – Free Will, Karma and the Law of Attraction

Because the Universal forces of fate, destiny, karma, free will, and the Law of Attraction are so intertwined, it’s difficult to understand one completely until you have at least a basic idea of what the others mean. So, here’s a primer:

Fate is what is in place at your birth, whether it’s brown eyes or a troubling family. Fate is also created in this lifetime by choices you make, the different routes you take into your future—although this kind of fate is not immutable.

Karma, based on the memories and experiences of your soul or eternal self, is what attracts challenges and opportunities, blessings and tragedies, with the intent of bringing past experiences and actions into balance.

The Law of Attraction not only turns the wheel of karma, it also brings into your life what you focus on most day-to-day, whether it’s what you fear or what you long for.

What Is Destiny?

Your fate, your karma, and the Law of Attraction are all important ingredients of destiny. But the essential ingredient, the key that turns them into destiny, is the unique essence of who you are in this lifetime, right here, right now, and how it dictates the choices you make using free will.

Destiny is what you weave from the threads of fate, karma, the Law of Attraction, and your vital, evolving dreams, desires, and goals. And, like you, your destiny evolves.

Say, for example, you were born under the sign of Virgo. That’s your fate, a basic structure you live within. Suppose that you had a past life where you were relentlessly and destructively critical of others, and your eternal self has decided to provide the opportunity to balance that karma this time around by having you be a Virgo.

Your destiny is created by choosing whether to use Virgo’s ability to recognize when things are out of alignment to either belittle or heal people and situations in your life. Then the Law of Attraction magnetizes appropriate life circumstances based on your choice to use Virgo’s gifts positively or negatively. And, thus, a part of your destiny is created.

Life Mission or Purpose

People often get destiny and life mission/life purpose confused, and view each one as a single, shining beacon of light and potential which was put into place before your birth and illuminates your future, a kind of ultimate pass/fail life test.

Although that belief can be both comforting and intimidating, it’s not wholly accurate, because it doesn’t take into account free will.

Your life mission is determined by your soul, and represents a stage in an ongoing, unfolding process of evolution during a series of lifetimes.

For example, your soul may be exploring the idea of duality and balance, and has incarnated for several lifetimes on planet earth, whose two-sex way of propagating life sets up perfect laboratory conditions. Your life mission, as dictated by your soul, could be to immerse yourself in the experiences of duality, both positive and negative, through relationships, the dispensation of justice, or the reality-bending practice of politics.

It’s not so much about doing and being, as it is about experiencing and then perfecting wisdom.

Soul mates, soul family, and soul ties

The concept of soul mates has come to be a kind of fuzzy romantic ideal, when it’s actually a function of karma and soul development. What’s crucial to remember is that even with soul contracts, free will and the Law of Attraction play a major part.

Sometimes you can recognize an intense soul connection, and believe passionately that you were meant to be together forever in this lifetime. Yet, you can be balked by circumstances. Perhaps the other person is using their free will to create a different destiny, one which does not involve a relationship with you. Or their soul has chosen to have only a short lifetime. In other words, your destiny can be affected by others’ fate and free will.

Astrology, Numerology, and Psychics

Psychics, astrology, and numerology can all help you identify important components of your karma and destiny.

Psychics can see glimpses of your soul’s intent, as well as what’s waiting for you down the road you’re traveling now, and suggest alternatives. Astrology can show broad karma, the basic ingredients of your character and the timing of pivotal events. Numerology also identifies building blocks of your character and karma, and reveals the dominant forces at work in various phases of your life.

Bottom Line

But you still have to add the essential ingredient:  free will. You get to choose. That’s what it’s all about!

Want to learn more ? This and other insights – including ways to use find surprising insights using astrology, numerology and Tarot – are in my book Embracing Life in a Challenging World.

© 2008-2011 Outlook Amusements, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

This article originally appeared on the CaliforniaPsychics.com blog, and is published with the permission of Outlook Amusements, Inc., the owner and operator of California Psychics ®.

© 2008-2011 Outlook Amusements, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

Imbolc/Candlemas – The Meaning and Power of Innocence

The Day of the Pregnant Virgin

On Imbolc (also Imbolg) the goddess emerges as the Maiden Bride of the returning god. She waits for the fires of Beltane (in May) to celebrate her marriage.

Like a crocus peeking up through the snow, the Triple Goddess in her Virgin or Maiden aspect comes forth shyly as the days grow almost imperceptibly longer.  She brings sweetness and innocence, and the promise of Spring, into our lives.

To ancient peoples she brought hope that their stores of winter food might last long enough after all, and today shows us her lovely face just when we are most weary of cold, and ice, and rain, and overcast, and being stuck indoors.

Also known as Candlemas or the Festival of Lights (and Groundhog Day) this cross-quarter Pagan or Gaelic holy day is usually celebrated on February 1 or 2.

The Celtic triple goddess Brid, Brigid, Brigit or Bride, appears on that day wearing a radiant crown of candles, pregnant with the seed of the god who will be her groom at Beltane.  She ensures that the home fires continue to burn through the remaining days and nights of Winter.

The image of the Pregnant Virgin is one that can be confusing to our modern sensibilities, since we have been taught that virginity is a matter of being untried or intact sexually, and an innocent is seen as naive at best, ignorant at worst. Neither state is valued these days.

In ancient times, however, a Virgin was something quite different: a woman whole in herself, not needing a relationship or children to confer value on her. The Vestal Virgins of Greece and Rome, priestesses of sacred sexuality, are an example.

And innocence, in its true meaning, is the ability to look at things uncorrupted by evil, malice or cynicism…to be able to look at the world untainted by preconceptions.

Samwise, Frodo’s loyal companion in Lord of the Rings is an innocent, as are Beauty in Beauty and the Beast and the iconic Julie Andrews character, Maria, in The Sound of Music.

The myths of Virgin goddesses, which abound worldwide, contain important ideas for modern women and men. And Mary, mother of Jesus, is not the only Virgin mother besides Brigid. Buddha’s mother, Maya, brought him forth in a Virgin birth; Chinese goddess Shin-Mu birthed a savior son to bring grain, and the Aztec savior god Quetzalcoatl was also born of a Virgin mother.

To discover the symbolic meaning of Virgin birth is challenging, and it requires that very innocence—that lack of preconceptions and cynicism—which is a hallmark of the Goddess as Maiden.  Carol S. Pearson’s The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By, has an excellent discussion of the power and value of The Innocent. Another important book is The Pregnant Virgin by Jungian analyst Marion Woodman.

In a way, Virgin birth is a form of alchemy. Alchemy involves the transformation of base metals into gold through the magical infusion of spiritual energies. Mary, Maya, Shin-Mu and other Virgin goddess conceived their sons in collaboration with the larger forces of the Universe in some form, either through angelic visitation or through direct communion with the Divine in dreams or ecstatic states.

Women and men can use the metaphor of Virgin birth, and the energies of Imbolc, to create their own alchemical magic with this simple meditation.

 

Meditation

Find a quiet and relaxing space, get comfortable, and go within. Have note taking materials nearby. You might want to use the clearing and grounding meditation in the final chapter of Sacred Cycles: Ancient Doorways to Inner Space, which is a free download on this site’s meditation page, as a beginning.

After you quiet and center yourself, look within your physical and spiritual bodies to find the core of creative energy. People familiar with the chakra system may want to begin their search in their second chakra, which is just beneath the navel, and near a woman’s womb.

Once you’ve found the core of your creativity, the source, imagine yourself, or see yourself moving right into its center. Search the area for a special spark of sacred energy, the liveliest, brightest spark in your creative core. 

When you’ve found that spark, imagine taking it into your hands, and nurturing it.  You can imagine using drawing, painting, dance, songs, chants, breath, essential oils, incense, anything that you feel inspired to do, to add energy to the spark.

Then help the spark find a form, a container that will bring it out into the world without limiting its possibilities. Allow yourself to be innocent, free of cynicism, hopelessness, and the lifelong feedback you’ve had about can’t, won’t, impossible, silly, and so on.

Is there a form or vehicle for this spark, one which will let it reach its full magnificence with your nurturing help, but without your interference? You have until the Spring Equinox to nurture this precious possibility and help it find its magical vehicle.

And you needn’t stop the nurturing activities when you emerge from this mediation. Why not create an altar to support your process, and do something every day to add to the building energy?

The Virgin Goddess holds the secret needed by every parent, whether the child is a spiritual avatar, an idea, or a human child:  you are whole in yourself, and when you collaborate with the Divine, you carry within yourself all you need to work this alchemical magic.

What have you discovered within yourself? How do you plan to nurture it? Please share by commenting!

This meditation journey, along with ones for Beltane, Lughasadh and Samhain, as well as the Solstices and Equinoxes, is available in my book Sacred Cycles: Ancient Doorways to Inner Space, available on Amazon.com, and soon to be on Nook, Smashwords and Kobo.

 

Understanding Karma

Contrary to popular belief, karma is not about reward and punishment. It’s not about blame. It’s not about fate. It’s not even about divine retribution.

Karma is simply a matter of cause and effect, a kind of natural law which brings into our present existence the consequences of what we have thought, said, done, or caused to have done in the past. Basically, karma is a kind of boomerang which returns to you that which you put out into the universe, either in this lifetime or in others.

The origins

The term ‘karma’ is actually a Sanskrit word, Sanskrit being a sacred language more than 5,000 years old. The concept of karma seems to have originated in Eastern religions, beginning with Buddhists and Jainists, and then evolving and expanding its meaning through the Hindu and Sikh religions.

Eventually it found its way into the West, into Christianity, Theosophy, New Age philosophy, Spiritism, and Paganism (the law of return or Threefold Law). Even psychology pioneer Carl Jung saw karma as a crucial element in his concept of synchronicity, or ‘meaningful coincidence.’

How does karma work?

In every moment, as you use your free will, think your thoughts, and take action out in the world, you are creating pleasant or unpleasant karma.

Jainism, one of the originators of the concept of karma, teaches that karma is simply a tool, a means for your Eternal Self to thoroughly experience an aspect of life or living, or a theme, through many lifetimes. You revisit the theme until you have gained all the knowledge possible, and until the issues no longer matter to you, until you are no longer emotionally attached to them.

Buddhism teaches that your motives and reactions are every bit as important as any action, saying that ‘unskillful’ actions or causes, in other words ones accompanied by craving, resistance or delusions, are the ones which produce unpleasant events.

Working through karma

Meditation, counseling, spiritual study and other self-actualizing techniques help you learn to approach things from a higher perspective, to take life less personally. They help you, bit by bit, to stop being a host for ‘unskillful’ motives such as craving, fantasy or resistance—in other words, to achieve emotional maturity and detachment.

As Carl Jung once said regarding unresolved emotions and the synchronicity of karma, “When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate.”

So, rather than being the Fickle Finger of Fate, or the booby prize in the Lottery of Life, karma is actually the natural law which allows your Eternal Self to gain broad knowledge, skill, maturity and wisdom while it goes adventuring, one life after another, on this earth plane! I’ll illustrate with one of my own spiritual experiences.

A shift in perspective

Several years ago my Spirit Guides gave me a funny but life-changing message/experience about the purpose and nature of reincarnation.

On this sunny afternoon years ago, I was sitting at my computer messing with an ancestor of today’s super-popular role playing games. My character was a novice wizard who was such an idiot that he kept dying, taking wrong turns, misreading messages, and generally making progress toward winning the game impossible. When my revelation occurred, ‘I’ (the wizard) had died for about the tenth time in an hour and I was laughing hysterically at ‘my’ latest pratfall.

Suddenly I popped out of my living room and into a realm of light, and there I could see myself playing my game…and I could see my Higher Self sitting above and behind me, playing me and experiencing just as much fun and excitement and laughter as I was…and I could see and feel a vastly powerful, primal archangelic energy above and beyond my Higher Self, playing it (and thousands of others), and having just as much fun as the rest of us. Filling and surrounding all that was a blindingly brilliant, resonant presence of Light and Being which is beyond my ability to quantify or describe which emanated: ‘This is the truth of life!’

As my Guides and the Source taught me that day, rather than being about doom and gloom, karma is, instead, a mechanism of the great game of life which our Eternal Selves participate in for adventure, for learning, for growth, and for the sheer joy of it! And our mission (should we choose to accept it) is to experience life, and karma, exactly the same way.

© 2008-2011 Outlook Amusements, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

This article originally appeared on the CaliforniaPsychics.com blog, and is published with the permission of Outlook Amusements, Inc., the owner and operator of California Psychics ®.

 © 2008-2011 Outlook Amusements, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

Wow! My Blog Was Nominated …

My thanks for my surprising nomination to vivacious book reviewer, blogger, and author of Mirror Deep – Joss Landry at http://josslandry.com/blog/

The Rules:
 Display the award logo on your blog.

Link back to the person who nominated you.
State 7 things about yourself.
Nominate 15 bloggers for this award and link to them.
Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award’s requirements.

Seven thing about myself:

I recently moved to New England after spending most of my life on the West Coast, from Seattle to San Diego.
My adult daughter, who was diagnosed with such severe learning disabilities they told me she’d never read above third grade level, recently graduated cum laude with a BS in Cell Biology.
I used to have two huge wolf dogs (one weighed 146 lbs), and I still miss them terribly.
I’m allergic to paper.
I recently retired after nearly 30 years as a professional psychic and channel.
There are only two things left on my “things I’ve always wanted to do” list: to experience kayaking and Tantric sex.
One of my favorite pastimes is editing romance, suspense, thriller and YA indie authors’ manuscripts. Curious? Visit my Demon for Details Manuscript Editing site.

Here are my nominees for this delightful award. Check them out! Some are already well known, all are worth browsing!

Druid, philosopher, psychologist & creator of divination decks (with his wife) Philip Carr-Gomm http://philipcarrgomm.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/love-makes-sense/
Author of YA, spiritual, and space operas C. B. Williams http://chroniclesofcbwilliams.com/
Paranormal YA & romantic suspense author  L j Charles http://ljcharles.blogspot.com/
Romance author Zoe Dawson/Karen Anders http://www.zoedawson.com & http://www.karenanders.com/
Erotic romance author Kitty DuCane http://www.kittyducane.com/
Romantic suspense & time travel author Teresa Reasor http://www.teresareasor.com

http://mymusesmusings.blogspot.com/
Sizzling paranormal romance author Sadie Hart http://sadiehart.com/
Sizzling romantic suspense author Sharon Hamilton http://sharonhamiltonauthor.blogspot.com/
Author of an amazing variety of novels Joan Maze http://joanmaze.webs.com/
Author/editor/publisher and take-no-prisoners blogger Zetta Brown http://zettasdesk.com/
Romance author & Accidental Cowgirl Kit Frazier http://kitfrazier.com/wordpress/
My favorite blog for writers, Writers in the Storm http://writersinthestorm.wordpress.com/
Author Delin Colon’s blog for her book Rasputin and the Jews http://therealrasputin.wordpress.com/
One of my absolute favorite blogs with several absolute favorite authors, Word Wenches http://wordwenches.typepad.com/
Scrumptious spiritual/Tarot blog by Sally Felt http://sallyfelt.com/

Karma, Your Life Path & Numerology

Karma and life path go hand in hand to create the turning points, the challenges and opportunities, that define our lives. Numerology is the simplest of all divination systems, and what you can learn from doing these simple calculations can be mind-boggling, and life changing! Next week: Understanding Karma

Karma is not about punishment and suffering — it’s about acquiring wisdom and achieving balance over a cycle of lifetimes. If you resist the lessons, yes, it can cause difficulty. But if you willingly learn to understand and then follow your karmic path, it will lead to great wisdom and strength.

Numerology reveals several aspects of your karma, which you can discover from your birth name, current name, and birth date. As with most numerology, the information is very easy to calculate and the insights can be remarkably helpful. So, break out pencil, paper, and calculator and prepare to learn some cool stuff!

Karmic Test Numbers

There are four double-digit numbers, which can indicate important karmic challenges in your life: 13, 15, 16, and 19. The first three numbers bring more than usual change and challenges into the area of your life that’s affected. 19 is more about initiating action than responding to events.

Karmic Test numbers only matter if they appear as your power/destiny number, or in your name as your Inner Self/Motivation/Individuality Number, your Impression/Heart Self /Personality Number, or your Expression/Outer Self/Mental Number. In each case, you can learn how to deal with your karmic test by understanding the essence of the base number. For example, 13 is reduced to 4 (1+3=4), and is normally written as “13/4,” and in order to master the 13 test, you need to apply 4′s abilities of diligence, organization, and profound understanding of patterns and systems to the part of your life involved.

Test 13/4 – Learn to use spiritual values for all of your structures. Choices, relationships, and businesses built on anything else go awry.

Test 14/5 – Learn detachment. You don’t get to keep things for long in the area of life affected — learn to let go and look forward to the next adventure.

Test 16/7 – You are the lighting rod in this challenge. Wherever you go — to a new job, a new relationship, a new locale — your presence triggers change. Ride the lightning bolt.

Test 19/10/1 – In this challenge, you must put your originality, courage, and independence to work in service to humanity. You have many, many karmic encounters.

Karma Numbers

To discover other numerology source of karma insights, first analyze your birth name and current legal and everyday names.

After you’ve done that, just write the numbers 1 through 9, each on a separate line, down the side of a page. Then, next to the number 1, write down every occurrence of a letter which vibrates to the number 1 (A, J, and S), and so on through 9, until you’ve written down all the letters in your birth name. Then do the same thing on separate pages for each of the names you presently use, both legal and everyday.

Any number which has no letters next to it is a Karma Number. Note how your karma changes with your names.

1 – Lack of motivation, confidence, and direction must be transformed into initiative and independence. You start with the first step: positive thought.

2 - Vacillation, stagnation, and apathy can be retrained by acting supportive and learning sensitivity to others’ needs.

3 - Change difficulty in expressing feelings, lack of sociability, and lack of imagination/creativity by finding creative outlets and learning meditation.

4 - Lack of concentration, haste, and disorganization are healed by discovering your own way of organizing all areas of life, plus exercise and physical work.

5 - Resistance to change, intolerance and fear of the unknown respond well to constructive use of your high vitality, and yoga to teach physical flexibility.

6 - Irresponsibility, lack of interest in your domestic situation, and carelessness require calm surroundings, proper diet, and a service to a cause.

7 - Generalized fear, mental fuzziness, and lacking awareness of spirituality respond well to meditation, careful diet, and periods of quiet and meditation devoted to developing faith

8 - Lack of self control and stability – especially with money – and poor judgment, change as you understand the law of cause and effect:  by your own actions, you create your reality!

9 - In only this case, two or fewer letters equaling 9 indicate karma. Coldness, or jealousy and rage, can be tempered by selfless service, which will awaken creative abilities and bring control of emotions and personal detachment.

After you find your karmic numbers, you might say to yourself, “Oh! So that’s why I am that way!” The next thought will be: “Hey! Now I can see how to strengthen and honor this part of myself, which I’ve always found so difficult.” Go for it!

And if you have questions, just ask!

© 2008-2011 Outlook Amusements, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

This article originally appeared on the CaliforniaPsychics.com blog as Karma & Numerology, and is published with the permission of Outlook Amusements, Inc., the owner and operator of California Psychics ®.