A litte off topic......

So many of you have asked me where I have been over the past year, and though I try to answer people as often as I can sometimes it has fallen by the wayside. I do apologize, it was not my intention to be gone for so long, but you see Life has taken an interesting course over the past year.

My grandmother was diagnosed with non small cell Lung Cancer. It's the type of cancer that cannot be cured, but can be fought. We started out with really high hopes as a family as she began her first rounds of treatment with Radiation and Chemo-Therapy. It all was going well and she suffered little to no side effects for a good long time. In fact it was going so well that we all nearly forgot that she even had cancer to begin with.

The doctors and nurses at the Cancer Center that she goes to have been some of the most phenomenal people I have met in my life! They have all been so caring and concerned for her from the very start, and that concern continues to this day.

Recently this with her diagnosis changed, a small tumor was found on the bone of her rib. This new development was rough as it caused her a decent amount of pain. So much in fact that she went through several  very strong pain medicines only to not be able to take most of them due to side effects. This time, as her Chemo medication changed she started to show more and more side effects, and it sort of hit us again......she has Cancer.

The ups and downs we've experienced since are the equivalent of taking a roller coaster ride from the top of Mt. Everest...straight down....then right back up again. It leaves your stomach in knots, causes stress and illness, and leaves you feeling confused and yes at sometimes hopeless.

She has been a fighter since day 1, especially since she was a Breast Cancer Survivor as well. She has been bound and determined not to let this Cancer beat her, and we commend her for that. Seeing the pain she goes through some days though is heart wrenching.

Something people tend to forget about though are the caregivers. The people that stand along side the Cancer patient and fight each day with them. The ones that help to feed, bathe, and care for them. The ones who are up all hours of the night with them, and take them from appointment to appointment with little regard for their own schedule, work or lives. The ones that sit there and watch as a person they love deteriorates before them, gets better, then deteriorates again.

This is what I have been doing this past year. I have been the caregiver for m Grandmother who is suffering with Lung Cancer. Each day is a battle for all of us, and there are some days where I am surprised that we find the strength to move on at all.

To all those that are suffering with any form of Cancer, or those that have lost loved ones dear to them because of it. Please take a moment each day to pray, send energy, and love to the patients, the caregivers, the families, and the Doctors and Nurses that care for them as well.

Doorways of Life....

One of the hardest things that we can ever remember is the fact that, in life, when one door closes another opens.

We have all been in a place before where it seems as if things are not going our way, are stagnant, or even coming to an end. The great thing about this though is that fact that it never really stops moving forward. You are bound to find some pitfalls along the way in your journey. Spiritual, physical, emotional, mental, all of these are going to have challenges associated with them when you travel down your path. Keeping in the back of your mind though that everything that is happening now is for a reason. It is all happening so that you can close a door on your path and open a new one to journey on. I can hear you now "Easier said than done there Thomas." and yes it is easier said than done, but at some point you have to just let go, and let Goddess! Let that hand guide you to where you are supposed to be instead of taking so much control that you wind up stuck knee deep in one of your pitfalls. Realize that you are guided by a higher power, a universal force, a Goddess or God. Let go of your control even for just a moment and let things play out the way they are supposed to.

I'm not saying that it is going to be good all the time, and in fact may lead to other stresses or "lessons" that need to be learned before that other door opens. The point is, that you have to shut down one end in order to open the other end. Sometimes in order to do that you need to simply let go. Its on of the hardest things that we as human beings can learn to do. We in the spiritual world are used to taking responsibility for our actions and emotions, sometimes so much so that we forget we are being guided in a larger scheme of things. Let that hand move you along, even if for a moment and experience it. Let if lead you forward to where you should be going and listen to what it has to say.

Those that fail at history...............

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away.....when I was in High School (well not that far for some but far enough for me), my history teacher mentioned a phrase to the class at the beginning of the year that made us all want to work a little harder. He said "Those that fail history are doomed to repeat it."

Now in my high school mind the first thing I thought was that if I failed his class I would have to go to summer school and take it over again. I'm sure that every other student there thought the very same thing as we sat wide eyed and trembled at the possibility of summer courses.

It wasn't until years later that the thought came to my mind again and I realized its deeper meaning.

"Those that fail history are doomed to repeat it."

Life, among other things is about lessons. We enter situations and meet people and make choices all in order to learn a specific lesson from it at some point. We have a choice in all of this mind you, to either learn the lesson, or not. This is the deeper meaning. All those times that we failed to learn the lesson we were supposed to, those times of anger, grief, annoyance, pain we will repeat. These are usually the situations that we fail to learn lessons from because we get so emotionally involved within them that we cannot objectively learn from them.

These situations will come up over and over, again and again, until we finally buckle under and learn what we are supposed to learn. It is quite possible the hardest thing that we can force ourselves to do when confronted by these types of situations. We get caught up in our emotions, its part of being human. The idea here is to allow yourself ample time to get out of the emotional round-a-bout, and then take a step back. See things from the wider perspective.

Part of self awareness is recognizing patterns in your life. Learning when certain things are going to come back around that great wheel and smack you in the butt! If we instead learned from these situations wouldn't we then be able to incur a better come a round from that wheel? If the wheel is full of nothing but positive life lessons than that is what is going to come back again and again.

This isn't to say that negative ones aren't going to manifest from time to time, after all there needs to be a balance and sometimes a person needs that extra kick in the bum in order to get the lesson learned, but all in all its about objectivity and awareness.

Next time you find yourself in a situation where you know there is a lesson to be learned, and you are so caught up in it emotionally, recognize it and take that step back. Try to view things from all angles, meditate, converse with your Guides, do what you need to do to see things objectively so that you can begin to learn the lesson that is in store for you.

Creating your own Guided Meditation

Guided meditations are found nearly everywhere within the New Age and Spiritual areas of study. They are used to help keep the mind from wandering as well as to experience something specific in order to learn or grow from it. Guided meditations, or visualizations; gently lead the participant through a series of events. This type of meditation is great for the beginner, and can help prepare one for deeper more fulfilling meditations.

Though there are many different guided meditations available, they can have faults with some people. Some find that the meditation is not aiding them in relaxation, or bringing them through things they want to experience. In this case one can create their own personal guided meditation by using a few easy to follow guidelines and equipment.

Before beginning to create a guided meditation it is a good idea to gather a few materials to start. A computer or pad and paper, and a digital recorder or recording device is good to start. After materials have been gathered, following these guidelines will help in creating a personal guided meditation suited to your specific needs.

Relax and Record:

            Guided visualizations have a clear beginning, middle and end. You should know how you will enter the meditative state, what you want to experience once you get there, and then how you plan on returning from that state. It’s a good idea to write down the generalities of what you want so you can better outline your purpose for your guided meditation. It is usually good to start with some sort of progressive relaxation method before getting into the actual guided meditation. This is done so that the body can relax and release the day to prepare for the meditative state. Keep this is mind as you begin to outline your guided meditation.

Music:

            Music can aid greatly in guided meditation. The music you select should be instrumental with either no vocals, or light chanting or singing. It’s best to not choose music that has harsh vocals or a lot of singing as this tends to take the mind out of the meditative state. Listening to the music before hand will help as well, that way you can be sure that it is soothing and relaxing, but won’t put you to sleep. Another thing to look out for in music is abrupt stops or abrupt spikes in sound or tempo; this too can jar a person from the meditative state.

Description:

            The key to a guided meditation is being descriptive. In essence the meditation is leading a person from one point to another allowing them to experience certain things. For them to experience these fully t is best to be as descriptive as possible. Using a lot of adjectives in your meditation helps in this. You do, however, not want to be too descriptive. If a guided meditation focuses too much on the descriptive nature of things it can make the meditation ineffective for two reasons. First, it will not allow the person experiencing the meditation to use their own imagination, and create and see the things that they may need too. Second, if too much time is spent describing something, the mind can begin to wander and get bored and tired, causing the meditation to be completely ineffective.

When you pull all of these steps together, you can start to actually record the guided meditation. Write, or type it out so that when you begin to record it, you have a clear focus, and don’t forget anything important. When you are ready to record the meditation on your voice recorder be sure to be in a clam relaxed state, with no outside noises or influences to bother you. You want to have the music playing softly in the background, but your voice should be the foremost thing being recorded. Speak softly and calmly, but with punctuation and inflection to your words.

After the recording has been completed be sure to try it out. You may find that you need to change some things, be more descriptive in certain areas, or even change the way you enter and exit the meditation to be sure its smooth and not jarring to the mind or body. After you have perfected it you can easily create guided meditations to suit any need you may find, and explore many different areas that you may not have been able to go before.

Personal and Space Protections

I am sure that you have heard the term protections at least once or twice within your psychic, pagan studies; but what does it actually mean to be protected and to use protections? First we need to talk a bit about two different kinds of protections (and I’m not talking about condoms or guns here either!). There are personal protections and space protections. The first focuses on people, and the second on a location.

Personal protections work on individuals, either you or others. This type of psychic protection is used to keep out negative energy or influences, keep from people stealing your energy, and keep your energy flowing strong and positively around you. Personal protections are usually used every day. Now there are a few different theories about them, and even a few different ways of doing them (saving that for another time). The theory that I follow is that personal protections should be re-done every 6 hours. The reason for this is that the energy of the poles shift every 6 hours, and in order to keep them strong you re-do them as the energies change. Some believe that every 12 hours is the pole change, it really is all according to what research you have done and follow. Personal protections keep you safe from negative people and energies, psychic energies that should not attach themselves to you, psychic vampirism and attack, and the appearance and creation of holes in the aura. The protections keep your energy flowing smooth and strong, keeping your aura strong and your energy high. For those of you that d divination or mediumship, it aids in keeping spirits that are nasty at bay and not allowing them to “enter” the medium to talk. Pagans and spiritual people that do paranormal investigating use protections for that reason as well, keeping the spirits at a distance in order to remain spiritually and energetically safe.

Space protections do much of the same thing. They protect a location from negative energy and create a “sacred space” in order to draw in positivity, or practice magick. Space protections are usually a bit more ritualistic and stronger than personal protections, though not always. Traditionally speaking one should do a space protection at least once a week. Now those that practice magick will be doing protections more often. This is because every time they do ritual, meditate, or practice magick they need a “clean and sacred space” in order to work. The most common space protections that you will run across are those for the home and the work place. This doesn’t always mean just your home or work space, it can be other peoples home or work space as well. It can even be locations that do not belong to you in order to aid in negativity removal.

Now that you know a bit about the two main protections it will be easier for you to understand and protect in certain situations. You are more likely to understand when to use a space protection, or a personal protection in your work.

A note on Spirit Guides

People tend to throw around the words Spirit Guides but aren't really sure what exactly it all means. Many people think that Spirit Guides are Angels, and though that may be somewhat true in some aspects it doesn't really describe what Spirit Guides are.

The theory (and I say theory because there are mnay different beleifs regarding this topic), that I follow is that we are all born with 2 Spirit Guides. These guides may take the form of loved ones, people from history, angels or whatever (usually to keep us comfortable in some way). They have certain tasks to preform with us, one is the Life Guide and one is the Protector Guide. The Life Guide is responsable for our ay to day activities and choices, they help to keep us on our greater path (so long as we are open to listening) but never push us (there is free will after all). The Protector Guide is there to keep us safe as we travel our path. Now there will come a time now and again where we need to experience pain, loss or hurt in order to learn and grow from it, but for the most part the Protector Guide will keep us safe. These two guides are the ones that are most commonly referred to as Guardian Angels. The difference here is that Guides can be humans that have passed on and then watch over us to guide us. Angels however (from the true history and information on angels) were never human, and though we may all also hav a Guardian Angel they are not the same as Spirit Guides.

Another thing to note is that as people travel throughout their lives they may pick up and lose guides along the way. Moving, startign a new job, getting married, going to school, all these things can cause a new guide to appear in your life if you are in need of them. Most often these other guides will stick around for as long as they are needed and then go on to aid someone else. When I first started my blogs and my article writing I came across a new guide that was there to help me put my thouhgts into words, (fortunately that guide has stuck around in order to continue to help). In fact I was please to recieve a Spirit Guide Drawing from my friend and Medium Charles Filius. He was able to capture my guide exactly and draw him for me in order to re-affirm his aid in my life.

There are a lot of ways to meet your guides as well, mainly through meditation, and it is recommended that a person that wants to study within Paganism and Psyhic work meet their guides at least once. Other pagans will continue to meet their guides and speak with them on a daily basis. In fact, pagans that do divintation may "channel" their guides or even other people's guides in order to give future, past or present information while doing a psychic reading.

Just a small note for you all, to get a clearer understanding on what Spirit Guides are and how they work. As always, if you hve any questions at all, feel free to ask!

I do Divination, do you?

Divination is a practice that has been used by Pagans for a very long time in addition to Psychics, Mediums, Channels and Sensitives. Divination is about seeing into the pas, present, or future in order to gain information about an event for healing or decision making. Often times when we do divination we see into the future of a situation in order to make a better choice for a problem, or see where a specific path we are on will head. This isn't the only use though. We can use divination as well in order to look into the past to find healing through an event that we have already lived through. There are literally hundreds of different ways to do divination, many of them you are already familiar with. I'd like to briefly talk about a few of my favorites here, not a complete list by far, so if there is somehting that you would like to add to the list, feel free to comment. Even comment if you have had a reading done with a specific form of divination, and what you thought about it.

Tarot: The art of Tarot actually started as a card game. No one is 100% sure on when or how the cards became used for divination practices, but it is one of the most common and well known forms of divination there is. You can ask the Tarot anything, and after practice (between knowing the cards themselves, and a little psychic development) you can tell the past, present and future from the Tarot cards. There are different layouts as well that will give you specific information (See my articles on Tarot to learn more).

Pendulum: The pendulum is a swinging implement that is used to answer yes or no questions. In addition to that you can sense energy or find lost objects using the divination of the pendulum. Pendulums can be made of metal, crystal, bone or wood. Either way it should be something that is natural and not man made.

Rune Stones: Rune stones are cast (thrown0 and then read in a specific manner in order to use them for divination. The Runes are Nordic in tradition and although they can tell the past, present, and future they tend to get to more of the "deeper" issues of a situation rather than the surface issues. This form of divination is also sometimes referred to as "casting bones".

Scrying: Whether you use a crystal ball, mirror, or bowl of water, scrying is often used by Pagans. You look for shapes, pictures, and even letters or words in order to answer specific questions. Scrying can go into past, present and future. In fact there are many ways of using the mirror to "see" into past lives and experience and learn from them from a distance.

Astrology: One of the most complex forms of divination that takes years to learn and even more to master. It works with reading the planets, stars and their positions in order to find out information. You can find out about a person, or even their lifes path in love, money and more if you know how to work with astrology.

Numerology: One of the most fun, and easiest (at east in my opinion) form of divination. It works with numbers, each number having a specific meaning. When the numbers are added (or subtracted) in a specific way, it gathers information on people as well as thei rlifes path and future. It can even tell you the specific energy of a certain item, name, address, phone number...whatever! I went numerology CRAZY when I first learned how to use it!

Palmistry: Reading the lines, curves, and forms of the hands and fingers can tell a lot about person as well as where their life is going, and where it has been. There is a lot more to palmistry than the simple 3 lines that many people know about, in fact a true palmistry reading can take a few hours to complete if everything is read from beginning to end.

Oracle Cards: Similar to Tarot cards but not entirely. Each Oracle deck has its own way of being read, as well as its own meanings, spreads and definitions. It is best to consult the beook that comes with your deck in order to read them correctly.

Nature Scrying: The same as scrying, but instead of using a bowl of water or a crystal ball you are using objects that you find in anture. Trees, clouds, a river or pond, any of these can be used to scry in. Using candle flames or smoke fall into this category as well.

So these are a few of my favorite divination forms to use. Believe it or not I actually use them for myself, and quite often too! I know there are a lot of books and information out there that say that a person can't "read" for themselves but there are ways around that. In fact what is best to do if you must read for yourself is to do it for a specific date in the future. I'm not talking two weeks ahead of time, try at least a month or two for starters. Do your reading and write it all down or record it. The reason a person can't read for themselves is because we cannot stay objective enough to take in the information. We can't take the cards for what they mean without trying to palce them into out lives (and sometimes we do that wrong). This way if you are looking at a few months ahead, you can stay more objective and then look back at the reading to see if it has worked the way it was supposed to in the first place.

Just a short list as I said, but one that it sull of the things that I tend to use most often as far as divination goes. If you ahve any favorites, feel free to comment!