PLEASE INTERRUPT!

Picking up on the idea that when people come together in a group, there’s the potential for greater input from our friends in Spirit: if you happen to be at an event where Tarot techniques are being demonstrated or other magical media are being explored, (such as at my magical chat sessions at the Triple Goddess), and you have a sudden inspiration or insight into somebody else’s reading (or your own), or into whatever is being discussed, please feel free to speak up! Don’t feel that you are interrupting, because you may be picking up on messages from the spirit mentors. Even if something pops into your mind that seems out of context, it may make sense to someone else, and be just what he or she needs to hear.

ENERGIZING OUR SPIRIT MENTORS

As I prepare for this year’s round of Tarot demonstrations at the Triple Goddess, I’m thinking about what we might be able to do to increase our awareness and appreciation of the spirit helpers who may always be present, but whose inter-connections are amplified in such higher energy situations. First, however, I want to clarify what I mean about our spirit connections.

In my October 25, 2008 entry, “Spirit Helpers Converge,” I discussed how psychic mediums have observed that we are accompanied by spirit guides, and if that is true, when different people come together, that also enables their different spirit guides to come together and exchange information. When I talk about us being accompanied by our spirit guides, I understand that as an extra-dimensional connection. I don’t actually think that we drag our spirit helpers along behind us. In other words, it’s not like when you see a mother of three children who has her kids in tow as she goes in and out of the shops in a mall. So, we’re not actually dragging the spirits along wherever we go, in that sort of manner. However, because of their concern for us, they maintain a psychic connection which allows them to be more present for us when there is a need, or when special conditions amplify that connection.

When we go to a place such as a bookstore where other people are going to think, read, and talk about spiritual and metaphysical things, and where the shopkeepers have done a lot to create the right kind of ambience with incense, music, crystals, and other beautiful things and sensory delights, our psychic connections are indeed very much heightened. On top of that, we are interacting with other people whose connections to their spirit mentors have similarly been energized. Not only do all of these otherworldly openings make it easier for our spirit friends to communicate with us individuals, they also make it easier for them to communicate with each other. So even if the spirits are, in a sense, communicating through connections across Time and Space, they are at the same time very much present—with you there in the same room, and hobnobbing with each other.

When, on previous occasions, I have put people through that little spirit greeting ritual where you turn to the persons on either side of you and say, “Hi, I’m So-and-So; I greet you, and I greet your friends in spirit,” that sends energy around the circle, and it’s also a genuine way of recognizing the Spirit World, to further enhance communication. A good reason for energizing this spirit-to-spirit connection is that spirits aren’t all knowing, but different spirits do have access to different pools of knowledge. So, let us say that two individuals, Joe and Mary, don’t know each other, but happen to be present at a spiritually elevated gathering. It may be that one of Joe’s spirit guides knows something that will be useful to Mary’s spirit guides, in helping them assist Mary. The more that spirits are able to help humans, the greater a blessing it is for them, as well, because it is actually more difficult to earn good Karma in Spirit Land than it is in the human realm, (which is why, from the Buddhist viewpoint, human incarnations are the most advantageous).

Spring's New Life

Today is Spring Equinox, but for this part of Michigan, Spring really got underway around March 5th, when the blackbirds came back. One day you still don’t see any blackbirds, then the next day you see a few, and the day after that it’s an explosion, with blackbirds criss-crossing the skies, and their okarees are ringing from every direction. Also, on March 16th, I heard a few frogs; the next evening, the bell tones of the spring peeper chorus were ringing out, in full swing. People in different parts of France and Belgium listen for the first frogs, as that signals the beginning of Spring for them.

I’m very encouraged that the President has sent the Iranians Noruz greetings, (for their New Year on Spring Equinox), with an offer to turn a new leaf in diplomatic relations. [A good link for things that Iranians do to make the year ahead auspicious is http://www.farsinet.com/noruz/haftsinn4.html]. It is likewise encouraging that the Secretary of State is talking about hitting the “reset” button on U.S.-Soviet relations. As I believe I mentioned in a previous post, it would be nice if we could just redo the 21st Century, to make it more auspicious.

As the Sephardic saying goes, “Let us say auspicious things, so that we will hear auspicious things.”

If you would like to hear and see some auspicious things, come on out to see me at the Triple Goddess on April 5th, (from 1 to 3 p.m.), when I will resume my first-Sunday-of-the-month sessions in Tarot magic and discovery, as well as other seasonal enchantments.

When Justice Comes Up

In previous posts, I discussed Justice as the year card for 2009, because 2+0+0+9=11, (unless you use a deck in which the Strength card is Number 11). If, during the course of this year, you are doing a Tarot reading in which the Justice card comes up, (or in special cases, Strength), in addition to thinking about what that card normally means, and what it may specifically mean in the context of the reading in question, you might also think about how the issues that are being addressed in that reading tie in with the Year's larger stream of events, as well as the "Zeitgeist," i.e. the spirit of the times. Indeed, in any given year, if the card for that year comes up, it may mean that your reading has special meaning in terms of that year's events--that issues that are being played out in the larger world that year have some direct bearing on you. By the same token, when you are doing a reading and various Major Arcana cards come up, whether in reference to the present, past, or future, you might want to do a quick calculation to see what years those cards might correspond to, and then consider whether those particular years of your life had or will have some bearing on the circumstances which you are enquiring about. This is just another way that numerical analysis adds interesting new levels to interpretation.

Mardi Gras Greetings

Today is Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, so large numbers of people in Europe, South America, and select parts of the U.S. will be experiencing the culmination of a short but intense season of masked balls, parades, parties, and other carnivalesque activities before they commit themselves to a period of fasting or giving up various personal indulgences for Lent. Some American communities, clubs, and other organizations try to imitate Carnival with Mardi Gras celebrations and such, but because most of us don’t follow that with a period of self-imposed deprivation, it’s not as energizing an experience as it is for people in countries where they take it seriously. For example, for the sake of convenience, various local organizations will have Mardi Gras celebrations on the weekend after Fat Tuesday—obviously, they’re not in sync with the psychic energy wave, which is all about the highs and the lows. Feasting followed by fasting, followed by an eventual return to normal, adds dimension to life. (Here in Michigan, Fat Tuesday is Paczki [pronounced poonchkee] Day, named after the rich donuts that are a part of the Polish heritage in certain Michigan cities; however, our grocery stores and bakeries will continue to sell paczkis for at least a week after Fat Tuesday).

Like Halloween, Mardis Gras enables people to experience “the principle of the Fantastic,” which can be a way of remaking oneself. If a person suffering from some sort of malaise gets out and takes advantage of seasonal feasts and fasts, especially the ones that allow you to dress up and frolic in fantasy costumes, it’s like hitting the “reset” button for the body-mind. After the highs and lows, the person returns to a reinvigorated homeostasis. I think this is worth experimenting with if you are trying to get out of a rut, but you don’t need to indulge in alcohol, which is dangerous to yourself and others, because you can try better, high energy outlets, such as dressing up in costume for singing, parading, dancing, and theatrics. In traditional societies, all of those high energy activities were also a way of reinvigorating the earth and putting on a performance for the gods and spirits—as I have remarked in previous commentaries on the Feng Shui of Halloween.

Candlemas Hags

In my last post, I mentioned how I used the seasonal card search technique with Mason and Franklin’s “Fairy Ring” Oracle, to see what this Candlemas-tide (which extends to “Old Candlemas,” aka Valentine’s Day) might bring, and how the flanking cards were the Blue Hag of Winter and Dame Habetrot, who the Oracle depicts as something of a Summer Hag. Because I was doing a personal reading, I took it as a philosophical statement related to personal growth issues. I wasn’t thinking in literal terms, but our Michigan weather has made the transition from bitter, biting cold to yesterday’s record high of 66 degrees, all within this week before Valentines, (though the Winter Hag is about to reassert herself). So, the winter to summer reading also turned out to be a weather prediction. A lot of people downplay prediction, arguing that the cards are meant for more noble meditative purposes, yet when the cards’ images manifest themselves in such a noticeable outer-world way, it is a satisfying demonstration of how the physical world can reflect the imaginal world of the Oracles.

Happy Candlemas!

Being one of the celebration-minded, I view the solar holidays as having a “tide” of about two weeks, due to all of the old European holidays that cluster around the solstices, equinoxes, and cross quarter days, as well as all of the historical calendar adjustments. Because February 14th, was known as “Old Candlemas,” we can stretch the meditative energy of Candlemas at least until Valentines’ Day.

Because “The Fairy Ring” Oracle (by Paul Mason and Anna Franklin) has eight cards representing the old pagan festivals, one of the techniques that I have demonstrated at the Triple Goddess is how to use this deck to see what sort of fairy-world energies you can experience at different times of the year. So, if you happen to own that deck, you can see what you can expect from this Candlemas-tide by shuffling, thumbing through the deck until you find the “Imbolc” card, and then looking to whichever cards are flanking it to get an idea of what late winter/early spring has in store for you.

In my own case, I got “The Blue Hag [of Winter]” on the left, and on the right, the fairy Habetrot, (who is a spinning hag, but in this deck, pictured in green and bordered with flowers). That certainly makes a statement about the transition from deep winter to the re-greening of the earth, and offers some philosophical insights into the crone energies in one’s life, and how a winter hag might make the transition into a summer hag.

Time to light a candle. If I may quote from my book of candle spells: “May this candle fair and bright, cheer us all through winter’s flight. Bless us through snow and storm and rain, until the Spring has come again” [“By Candlelight, Rites for Celebration, Blessing, and Prayer,” p. 140].