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The Dead Sea Scrolls are on tour, currently at The Discovery Center here in NYC. I went to the exhibit on New Year’s Day this year with my wife and mother-in-law (who treated us to the tickets).

The exhibit was well done, and it illuminated a big picture of the world as it was when the Dead Sea Scrolls were written and then hidden away. The exhibit was popular, almost crowded, and the section with the longest line displayed a fragment containing the earliest existing written copy of the Ten Commandments.

When I was in a Lutheran-based parochial school, I was taught that the Ten Commandments could be divided into two parts: the commandments regarding our duty to God, and then the ones regarding our responsibility to our fellow man. God’s wishes were simple. Worship Him, obey Him, no other gods, etc. And our responsibility to our fellow man was also pretty obvious: no killing, no stealing, no lying, no cheating with your neighbor’s spouse, honor your parents.

I do not identify myself as a “christian,” but I like & respect a lot of Jesus’ teachings. When it comes to the Ten Commandments, Jesus gave us a new one in John 13:34 “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” It was so important, he repeated it again in John 15:12 “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” (King James Version) And you know, if you follow this new commandment, it basically takes care of all the “no stealing, no killing, no cheating” stuff.

But as I was looking at the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit, I realized you could divide the Ten Commandments into three sections, not two, as I had been taught. There is that commandment about “coveting,”  (Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s. Exodus 20:17, King James Version) and yes, at first glance it does seem to be about our neighbors, but really it is telling us how to be. This commandment is for our own mental, emotional & spiritual well-being. It is telling us to stay focused on our needs, our own desires and ourselves. How can you “follow your bliss” if you are keeping an eye on your neighbor’s achievements?

My wife’s grandmother often told her “The only reason you should ever look in another person’s bowl is to make sure they have enough to eat, too.”

So, not bad: Keep your eyes on your own prize, and only keep an eye on your neighbors to see if they need any help. Sounds like a good way to live…

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Astrologically, signs indicate the world as we know it IS undergoing some major structural & philosophical changes, and it ain’t over yet.

As many astrologers know, the three outer planets, the slowest moving, the ones that symbolize mass movements & societal shifts, are all switching signs around the same time. This is fairly unusual. Pluto entered Capricorn full-time in Dec 2008. Uranus entered Aries full-time in April 2011. And Neptune will enter Pisces full-time in February 2012. These planets will be in these signs for a number of years. This is long term.

In a simplified nutshell, Pluto in Cap is symbolizing the economic collapse & the sense of responsibility the OccupyWallStreet movement wants to bring to the financial industry.

Uranus is about sudden chaos and upheaval, individual rights, freedom, new ideas and surprises. When it entered Aries this past Spring, Japan had its devastating earthquake and the so-called “Arab Spring” blossomed. You can also add the OWS Movement here too. Uranus symbolizes change.

And Neptune enters Pisces next February. Neptune is happy in Pisces, the sign it rules. Neptune & Pisces have affinity with each other. There is potential for another great spiritual awakening. Imagination and fantasy could run free. Compassion could swell and we could find a deeper connection with everyone, & everything, else.

OK. So we have chaos, change, responsibility, transformation, rich imagination and spiritual compassion. That’s quite a heady cocktail, and if mishandled, a potential for a real mess. Many of the old ways are no longer working. They need to be examined. The garbage has to be thrown out. New ways are needed to flesh out the new world. And if those new ways are created out of fear, we will all be in a bigger mess. Fear-based decisions are often made to lock things down, prevent change and keep it the way it was.

So if trying to lock down the old ways isn’t going to work, what are our options?

Creativity. Creativity is a word with more depth and usefulness than is often assigned to it. Say “creativity” and people think of painting, music, writing, dance, poetry… the arts in general. But creativity is ideally in use in our everyday life. To create something means to “bring something into existence that did not exist before.” So when you do something differently in your life, whenever you try a new idea, a new solution at work, a new way of driving from one place to another, etc… you are being creative. Dreaming up a new solution, even if it is a new way to handle your bills, or schedule your day or whatever… it’s all creative. It’s about giving birth to new things on every level.

In astrology, it’s no surprise that the 5th house, which is the house of creative self-expression, is also the house of children & romance. (The 7th house is about one-to-one relationships, but the 5th is about the creative part of love: romance.)

So yes, the future could look scary, but Neptune symbolizes imagination, and compassion. Uranus is about new ideas and change. Pluto in Capricorn is about responsible, reorganizing transformation. At this point in time, the tools are there for all of us to create a new era. Things will be different no matter what we do, but we can make them truly better.

Keep an open mind, & open heart, & try new ideas. Be creative. It’s the one super power we all have, if we do not give in to fear.

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“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” ~ Albert Einstein

We all have our own ways of listening to our intuition. Some people have gut feelings. Some hear voices. Some people get twinges in their toes… I dunno. But there is no one proper way to listen for your intuition. Sometimes the biggest issue is over-riding your programming.

A friend of mine “never gives money” to people on the street. She believes “they are only going to spend it in drugs or alcohol.” There are those people out there, yes. And this past week a young man approached her on the street, said his dad had thrown him out, and he could go live with his mom but he didn’t have the train fare to get to the city. She gave him $10.00, and he walked in the direction of the train station down the block. She said she believed him, but her programming told her to follow him and see if he bought a ticket. She didn’t. She over-rode her programmed thinking, and trusted and respected her intuition. She didn’t even ask him why his dad had thrown him out. She said she felt it “didn’t matter.” If you need proof to back up your intuition, then you aren’t trusting it.

Me, I get an urge to, say, squeeze doing the laundry into a busy afternoon. Just feel like I want to. Don’t know why. I get a little hectic running around sorting clothes and my wife says to me, “You don’t have to do it today. Tomorrow is fine.” I am naturally lazy. Gee, that sounds logical. So I pass on my “urge.” And sure enough, tomorrow is crazy, so is the day afterwards, etc., and I end up doing laundry 4 days later. No, this is not a big problem. It’s just laundry. But I ignored my urge. My bad. For me, “urges” that make no logical sense are one of the ways I sense my intuition. I have been practicing for years now to listen to those urges, but I am too quick to disallow them.

Often, when intuition makes itself known to us, there is no logic to it. Driving down the street going to work. Every day for 8 plus years, you have always taken this exact same route. One day you just feel like taking a side road. If you do it, you may never know why. But maybe if you ignore your urge, you end up in traffic caused by a jack-knifed trailer-truck and are stuck for 2 hours. Would that be worth it to you, just to “prove” your intuition? And how many times do you need to keep proving it to yourself?

Intuition works on many levels, from planning the weekly chores, to momentous decisions. Try to honor the scared gift, as Einstein says, and use logic as the faithful servant it is.

Now excuse me. I feel like doing the laundry again…

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
SPECIAL NOTE: The Practical Mysticism Expo is coming THIS COMING SUNDAY October 30th, 2011 • Noon to 5:30pm • One on One NYC, 34 W27th St., NY, NY • 11th Floor • $15 entry fee includes access to all 3 lectures and 1 group meditation • I will personally be giving a lecture on Health, Healing & The Seth Material. Individual Sessions are available for an extra fee, including tarot card readings, psychic readings, mediumship, and astrology. We will also be hosting a séance/message circle for an additional $5 fee. This expo was created by several gifted friends & myself to demystify the mystical, & translate spiritual methods into useful, practical, everyday tools. Our goal is to help you integrate the mystical into everyday life.

For more info, including lecture times, see
http://practicalmysticismexpo.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Practical-Mysticism-Expo/232700330122136

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=262140463823825

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Sometimes I visit the Yahoo!Answers horoscope section, to see if I can offer help to any budding astrologers. About 75% of the questions are usually boyfriend/girlfriend compatibility stuff, which I tend to ignore. And among those budding astrologers, there are a few of them that are, in my opinion, asking the wrong questions.

“What is the best planetary aspect to have? What is the worst aspect to have?” or “Which is the best sign of the zodiac for ____________ (fill in the blank).”

Best? Worst? Did I time travel back to when astrology talked about bad & good & benefic & malefic? There is no “best” or “worst.” There are propensities & inclinations & predispositions… and then we apply our free will.

Sure, some qualities and aspects of anyone’s chart are more challenging, like squares or oppositions, but squares or oppositions generate a lot of strength and energy, and when you learn how to handle them well, they can be wonderful assets to have. An evolved person can turn a square into a trine, or an opposition into a conjunction.

And yes, some qualities and aspects flow smoothly, like trines and sextiles, but I have also seen people with lots of trines and sextiles in their charts and they do little with their lives and coast along. (And that may well be their path in this life, to learn how to let go and flow.)

Last week I had a client who had a number of planets in her twelfth house. Old time astrologers called it the House of Undoing. I call it the House of Unconscious Awareness, as do many other astrologers. And yes, it can have challenges attached to it, but if you learn how to deal with it, it’s yours to use. My client is a professional healer & psychic, with an excellent success rate. Looks like she took the unconscious/intuitive path to manifesting those twelfth house planets. Not so “bad” after all…

Here’s a little anecdote about bad & good that some of you may know:

A farmer’s horse gets out and runs away. His neighbor says, “That’s bad.” The farmer says “Maybe.”

Three days later his runaway horse returns with two wild horses in tow. Now the farmer has three horses. His neighbor says, “That’s good.” The farmer says “Maybe.”

The next day, while trying to tame the wild horses, his son is thrown and breaks his leg. His neighbor says, “That’s bad.” The farmer says “Maybe.”

And a few days later, the king’s men come through the area conscripting young men for military service. They pass over the farmer’s son due to his broken leg. His neighbor says, “That’s good.”

The farmer says “…maybe.”

If you are investigating astrology you would do well by forgetting terms like “best” or “worst.” Wouldn’t hurt to put those concepts into perspective in every day use. Life is not a contest. There are no medals and awards. Hopefully, we face what comes our way and deal with it.

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NOTE: On Friday August 26th, 2011, (three days away!) starting at 8:00pm, I will be giving a lecture on The Seth Material, focusing on and exploring how our emotions and beliefs affect our illness, health & healing, at The Eyes of Learning (Long Island’s Oldest and Most Respected Metaphysical Learning Center) in Hicksville, NY. More details are available here at http://eyesoflearning.org/programs-and-events

The Eyes of Learning Center always has interesting talks and demonstrations scheduled. If you live on Long Island, check them out.

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(I wrote Part 1 last year… find it here: http://wp.me/pJ9hq-5d )

Intuition, as important as it is, can be as light as a soft breeze and as transparent as morning mist… so how do we feel it, see it and pay attention to it?

It starts with acknowledging all those things we consider “coincidences.” How many times did you “know” who it was when the phone rang, and discovered you were correct? That’s not just a coincidence. That’s intuition. “If you pay more attention to what you think of as coincidences, you will discover another kind of order that underlies the recognized order you follow.” (The Unknown Reality, A Seth Book by Jane Roberts,Volume 1, Session 693, Page 135)

And we each have our own way of being intuitive. Me, I “know” when a client is going to cancel an appointment when I visualize the calendar in my head and the appointment is missing. Or I know because I don’t “feel” like working on the chart, and sure enough, the client calls to move the appointment. We all have our own method of talking to ourselves intuitively, and it is worth it to look for your way & pay attention to your style. And to reinforce ourselves every time we catch ourselves being successfully intuitive & tell ourselves “See? I can do this!”

But many of us do our very best to talk ourselves out of it. Recently I did an astrology reading for a client who has a very strong intuitive/psychic streak in her chart. She has had ample evidence of this in her life, yet she often talks herself out of believing in her abilities. She feels her logical & intuitive sides fight with each other. And for her, they do, and so they do, too, for many of us. We are living in a time when intuition is often regarded as not scientifically provable, and therefore does not really exist. We only think it exists.  Uh-huh.

And I find myself doing the same thing, even after all my years trying to put these kinds of ideas into practice. A couple of years ago, in a hurry after flying into an airport, I had a “feeling” I wouldn’t find my luggage in the usual way. I stopped and “listened” for a second or two, and I felt my luggage WAS in the airport and not lost, so I went to the carousel and watched in frustration as everyone else’s luggage snaked past me three, four, five times. I was ready to go to lost & found when I stopped myself. If I “knew” it was not going to be found in “the usual way” I was going to have to try something different. So I walked the opposite direction about 30 feet and found random luggage piled to the side. And there were my bags. Someone had removed a bunch of luggage before I got there and shoved it off to the side. I grabbed a cab & met my friends with moments to spare. And I was annoyed. Why did I ignore my intuition? Maybe I just had to prove it to myself again.

Sometimes, when we do follow our intuition, when we get that urge to walk a different direction than we usually do, or drive a different way, we may never know we avoided some misfortune. Sometimes we don’t get a “payoff.”  It’s tough to follow intuition because it is so… well… illogical. And it is supposed to be illogical. We need to learn to have faith in ourselves by recognizing the method and moment we “feel” it, reinforcing our successes & building up a track record to feel more comfortable and confident trusting ourselves.

And ultimately, science is on our side. It has been established we have two halves to our brains, and for the most part, in most people, the tasks they do for us are very distinct. The left brain is the linear, logical half; the “ego” if you want to use that term. The right brain is intuitive. So, right brain + left brain = whole brain, We all want a whole brain, right?

So listen.

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NOTE: On Friday August 26th, 2011, from 8:00pm, I will be giving a lecture on The Seth Material, focusing on and exploring how our emotions and beliefs affect our illness, health & healing, at The Eyes of Learning (Long Island’s Oldest and Most Respected Metaphysical Learning Center) in Hicksville, NY. More details are available here at http://eyesoflearning.org/programs-and-events The Eyes of Learning Center always have interesting talks and demonstrations scheduled. If you live on Long Island, check them out.

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Many people seem to doubt themselves, seem to believe something is wrong with them, somehow. It is such a strong feeling, that people who appear confident and certain often impress us. And yet, just as often, when those very same confident people write their autobiographies, or sit for in-depth interviews, they end up admitting to periods of doubt or uncertainty, worrying if they could measure up. No one seems to be completely immune from this.

And to a degree, there are plenty of methods used to take advantage and exploit that feeling. Many religions saddle us with some form of worthlessness, whether they call it “original sin” or “karma” or some other religious excuse. I mean really, why would your God create a bunch of losers? Seems like a shabby piece of work for a God. Or else we had for centuries the idea that kings & queens (or tsars or sovereigns or emperors or what-have-yous) were better than us. Thankfully some of that attitude has crumbled.

But not all of the newer ways have been improvements. Recently one of my blog visitors was reading an older post, and in answer to a philosophical question I asked, added a comment explaining to me that I was a narcissist and that’s why I asked the question. He or she suggested I get help for my “problem” (although they did not seem to be getting help for their “problem.” Go figure.)

And at first I was a little upset, and gave some serious thought to the comment. Where does narcissism end and self-perception begin? Some narcissistic traits can also be the traits of self-starting success stories, too (not that I am one, yet) so who watches the watchmen who declare it an illness or a condition, as opposed to desirable traits for success? It seems to me we as a society are deigning certain aspects of personality as “problems” or “conditions.” Many people simply are who they are, and it is society’s rules and attitudes that limit them. As the “church” loses strength in our increasingly scientific world, it seems now we rely on science and psychiatry to tell us how “bad” we are. If it ain’t “original sin” making us worthless, it’s narcissism or OCD or Asperger’s or any other excuse to supply us with the appropriate feelings of worthlessness. I am not dismissing people who seek treatment for any condition that might be hampering the best possible manifestation of our lives. I think we are all fine the way we are, but there are always ways to grow and evolve.

So I am advocating we all stop beating ourselves up. Let us all (me too!) try to stop believing there is something “wrong with us.” Doing penance is way overrated. To me that is “artificial guilt.” (See below.)

Remember the mistakes so you don’t make them again. Also remember, without occasional mistakes, how would we know we were on an appropriate path for ourselves?

Let me close with this quote from the Seth Material… (bolding below is mine)

“If you can sit quietly and realize that your body parts are replacing themselves constantly — if you tune your conscious mind into the consideration of such activity — then you can realize your own state of grace. If you can sense your thoughts steadily replacing themselves then you can also feel your own elegance. You cannot feel guilty and enjoy such recognition, however. Not on a conscious level. If you find that you are berating yourself because of something you did yesterday, or ten years ago, you are not being virtuous. You are most likely involved with artificial guilt. Even if a violation occurred, natural guilt does not involve penance. It is meant as a precautionary measure, a reminder before an event.”

The Nature of Personal Reality
Session 636, Page 152

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When astrologers look for personality in a chart, we first check out the faster moving Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus & Mars, and usually pull in Jupiter & Saturn, too. Even Saturn, the slowest moving of this bunch, passes through each sign in roughly two years, so these are the planets that accent the differences between us. The ongoing combinations of all these planets in changing signs and houses produce a wide variety of personalities.

But the “generational planets” (Uranus, Neptune & Pluto) move so slowly, the signs they are in often symbolize the tone & overriding qualities of an era. When a generation gets a name (Generation X, the Lost Generation, Baby Boomers, The Greatest Generation, etc) it can often be traced back to the effects of Uranus, Neptune & Pluto, solo or combined.

I am a Baby Boomer. Most of us had Pluto in Leo. Pluto is about transformation. Leo is about celebrating the self. And most of us were caught up in the self-oriented “do your own thing, man” from the 60s, transforming the idea of serving society as a conforming, traditional citizen into one of distinct individuality. Many Baby Boomers also had Uranus, the planet of disruption and new ideas, in Cancer, the sign of home & family, symbolizing our desires to overturn ideas of traditional domestic situations. And we had Neptune in Libra, giving us idealized concepts of relationships.

My parents’ generation has Pluto in Cancer. They transformed the idea of extended families living in the same home to separate homes for the nuclear family. And the generation before them took Pluto in Gemini and transformed communications with phones and radios and movies.

I am simplifying. A look at all the effects of the outer planets would take too much room here. But I think there is an interesting metaphor to be taken from the balance between the inner and outer planets, the “personality planets” and “generational planets.”

Everyone’s life is a mix of satisfying their personal paths and goals, and having to respond to the world in which they chose to be born. And when we are responding to the world in which we have chosen to be born, we are in many ways connecting to the roots we have with everyone else in our generation. Whether we flow with the themes of society at the time, or fight back against them, or even simply ignore them by going our own way, we are all working with our common generational roots. We are all growing from the same soil, even though we consist of quite a variety of plants in the fields.

And the funny thing is, before the outer planets were discovered, back when astrology charts didn’t have “generational planets” to link us together in big social groups, individual human rights were not respected at all, even as a concept. Of course, worldwide, we still have a ways to go in the direction of universal human rights for everybody, but we know the concept and believe it should be spread far and wide. And this concept was realized and encouraged only after we realized we had more in common, after we realized deep down, we were all dealing with the same things in our own distinctive ways.

And this realization points me in the direction of pantheism. We are all one, connected, and yet each of us is utterly unique.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
SPECIAL NOTE: The Practical Mysticism Expo is coming this Sunday June 12th, 2011 • 11am to 6pm • One on One NYC, 34 W27th St., NY, NY • 11th Floor • $15 entry fee includes access to all 4 lectures and 2 group meditations • I will personally be giving a lecture on astrology & one-to-one relationships. Individual Sessions Available for an extra fee, including tarot card readings, psychic readings, mediumship, and more. This expo was created by several gifted friends & myself to demystify the mystical, & translate spiritual methods into useful, practical, everyday tools. Our goal is to help you integrate the mystical into everyday life.

For more info, including lecture times, see http://practicalmysticismexpo.com/

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This past Sunday I tried avoiding responsibility.

I was walking to brunch with my wife & mother-in-law, and it happened I was on the opposite side of Ninth Avenue. Out of the corner of my eye I saw what appeared to be a pigeon, perhaps with a broken wing, flutter a few feet and land in the middle of the avenue. I thought its demise was going to be moments away and thought “oh dear… at least it won’t suffer very long.” But there wasn’t enough traffic and a woman walking her dog picked it up, and it flapped away over to the curb. By now my wife & mother-in-law had crossed the street and my wife asked me what was going on. I was ready to walk away and go get brunch, wanting to assume the dog-owner would take care of the situation, but sometimes my wife serves as my moral compass. I told her a pigeon appeared to be injured, and started calling information on my cell phone to get the number for the Wild Bird Fund rescue organization, in order to pass the situation off on someone else.

My wife said, “Let’s go see what we can do, if anything.” Visually, I couldn’t make sense of what I saw. It looked like an extra long two-tone pigeon. It seemed stretched out, and the dog-owner said, “These two pigeons seem to be stuck together,” and sure enough, when I squatted down and assessed the situation (at my wife’s encouragement), there was a gray pigeon and a beige pigeon joined together foot to foot. I saw the two feet joined in a small tangle of thin thread. I tried pulling the thread apart with my hands. Nope. I looked up to see 8 to 12 people gathered around observing. Spontaneously I called out “Does anyone have a knife, or something I can cut with?” Some guy said yes, and while he got it out I pulled at the threads to get a clearer working space. The beige pigeon was flapping her wings a bit and another woman from the crowd stepped forward and gently cupped it, to keep her still. The guy handed me the knife (a switchblade, incidentally!) and I cut the tangle apart. The woman holding the beige pigeon stood up with the bird in her hands and asked, “What should I do?” I told her to put the bird down on the curb. The bird happily flew away. My wife told me later on the small crowd applauded as the bird took off, but I didn’t hear it at the time. Unfortunately, the grey pigeon appeared to have a broken neck, and was dead. I assumed when they had been co-joined and trying to fly about, somehow the grey one got injured. So I wrapped it in a bag I found in the corner wastebasket and “buried” it there, walked off the brunch and scrubbed my hands thoroughly before I ate.

This incident stayed with me. I am not retelling this to paint myself as any kind of a hero, because I wasn’t. I was ready to walk away, even though I kinda felt I “should” get involved. I started thinking about having to keep the bird until a shelter opened on Monday… about the delay to eat… about how hassled and inconvenienced I thought I would be… but my wife pointed me back in the direction I needed to go…. and so at least one bird was saved. That was sweet.

And all that hassle & inconvenience I anticipated? Well whaddya know, a helpful crowd formed around the incident and assisted me. (Man, that guy had a switchblade!) So it was all actually pretty easy! Took 5 minutes tops. I spent too much time thinking negatively.

I believe in following my bliss. I believe I need to take care of myself, to be able to serve the universe. And I also believe the universe sometimes taps you on the shoulder and says, “Hey, you can take care of this.” And I believe that, because I believe the universe takes care of me all the time, and since I believe we are all “one with the universe,” sometimes we get little assignments to do. And it is our responsibility to do them.

As Teddy Roosevelt once said “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
SPECIAL NOTE: The Practical Mysticism Expo is coming on Sunday March 27, 2011 • 12noon-5pm • One on One NYC, 34 W27th St., NY, NY • 11th Floor • $10 entry fee includes access to all 4 lectures • Individual Sessions Available for an extra fee, including tarot/angel card readings, psychic readings, mediumship, palm readings. This expo was created by several gifted friends & myself. More details will follow at www.practicalmysticismexpo.com

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I imagine most of us would love to know the future. We all want to be prepared, alert and on top of things, either good or bad, and knowing the future seems very beneficial… and to a degree, it is. History is littered with all the ways we have tried to scope out the future, from Joseph in the Old Testament interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams & the oracles at Delphi in Ancient Greece to modern weather & climate forecasting. Along the way we have consulted tea leaves, entrails of slaughtered animals, tarot cards, astrology, psychics and numerous other techniques. And great literature has been written about people who were given signs of the future and misinterpreted them badly. And we also have those who believe predicting the future leads to subconsciously creating self-fulfilling prophecies.

Allegedly the future isn’t here yet. Or does it already exist in some form? How else do accurate forecasters do their thing? We all probably know someone who saw a psychic or astrologer who accurately predicted events that could not be easily explained away by mere chance.

So how can the future exist already? Or does it? I am not a person who believes the future is “locked in” but I do think we set things in motion. I do believe our “higher self” or our “oversoul” or whatever-you-call-it is making plans and setting things up. And although they might plan far into the future, the future depends on the roads & paths we are willing to take. In a personal example, years ago a friend of mine encouraged me to see a psychic with her. The psychic turned out to be remarkably accurate with me, including a few things two years ahead. But my friend heard things about her future she was dead set against, and those predictions did not occur. She changed her future. My future seemed ok to me, so I stayed on my path.

I think genuine psychics can do a good job tuning into your future, if you are open, but the further ahead they “see” the results may get fuzzier. There are a lot of choices we continually make, consciously & unconsciously, affecting our future and those choices will affect the predictions further down the timeline. So keep in mind, all a psychic is doing is telling you what you have already planned for yourself. If you don’t like it, do something about it. Make the psychic be wrong. It’s your choice.

Speaking as an astrologer, I make predictions about upcoming influences. I see planets moving across sensitive spots in a client’s chart, and I offer suggestions about their potential impact, but no specific prophecies. I might see a good time period coming to start a new project, or to travel physically or mentally, or to spend time assessing your self and your past emotionally, but the choice of how to handle these suggestions is always up to the individual.

Nothing can exist in the future that you do not want to be there.

It’s your life and your choices.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
SPECIAL NOTE: The Practical Mysticism Expo is coming on Sunday March 27, 2011 • 12noon-5pm • One on One NYC, 34 W27th St., NY, NY • 11th Floor • $10 entry fee includes access to all 4 lectures • Individual Sessions Available for an extra fee, including tarot/angel card readings, psychic readings, mediumship, palm readings. This expo was created by several gifted friends & myself. More details will follow next week.

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Knowing something can be relatively easy, perhaps as simple as memorizing a series of facts. Doing something with that information is a little different.

I know Paris is in France. I can look at maps and consult reference material if I wish to verify what I know… but getting to Paris from where I live (NYC) takes work. I have to decide how to get there (plane or boat across the Atlantic Ocean). I have to save money. I have to get a passport and visa. I have to figure out where I can afford to stay and then make all the arrangements via phone or e-mail. And then I have to put in the travel time, too.

Now when some other people decide they want to go to Paris, they may have the wherewithal and freedom to pack a bag, grab a cab to the airport and be in Paris half a day later. Others need to wait until they have the money and/or the available time-off from their responsibilities. But in any possible scenario, choices need to be made, plans set up, action taken.

The same applies to understanding and working with your astrology chart. A good astrology reading will give an overall view of yourself. It’s kind of like getting a map to your personality. And that’s it. You still need to plot your course and take action.

And this is how we cope best with the so-called “difficult” parts of our natal charts.

Personal example: I have Venus opposite Uranus in my chart. Venus (relationships) is opposing Uranus (chaos, the unexpected, the offbeat). This indicates I have a talent for upsetting and/or disrupting people, and they can do the same to me. (Oppositions usually involve other people.) For years, before understanding astrology, I was an annoying friend, someone you could rely on to say the wrong thing at the wrong time, to pull the rug out from under you, and be the bull in the china shop. I liked to refer to myself as iconoclastic. It was the only way I could explain my behavior. Somehow, I still had friends.

And then I got my chart read and I began to try and get a handle on my so-called “difficult” behavior, and began to learn to accept myself as I am. And now that I was aware of the nature of one of my “difficult” traits, I tried to find better ways to manifest it. And I learned to find ways to challenge and upset people in a loving way. As it turns out, being an astrologer, giving readings and counseling people are all ways to upset them and challenge them (fulfilling the “needs” of my personality) in a loving way. And I also learned to accept I will attract people who challenge and upset me, too… so instead of fighting back or putting up a wall, I try to understand that they are in my life to do exactly what they are doing. They are not the enemy.

The point is, there are always better ways to manifest the so-called “difficult” aspects and traits evident in your chart and personality. It starts with knowing what they are, and then taking action to steer them with the other skills and abilities you have, to get a handle on them, and not let them misfire randomly.

I know. Easier said then done. But if you don’t take some form of action, nothing will change.