Voyager View

A few days ago, Joy Star commented about how a large, cosmic perspective can put fear in its place, connect us with our place and power within the Cosmos.

Then soon after, news comes of Voyager clearing the Oort cloud and truly entering interstellar space. This is where science and spirituality meet and dance, and create breathtaking beauty. Think about it – something created by humankind within our lifetimes (or at least recent enough to be in the news during our lifetimes) is now in interstellar space, outside of the solar system. We have dipped a toe into infinity.

Next time you feel angry, afraid, powerless or small, remember you are part of the Cosmos. You are inseparable from all-that-is. You are as much part of the Universe as is Voyager. Look at the situation from Voyager’s perspective.

Look through infinity’s eyes.

Caroline Porco on Voyager’s big goodbye:

Even today – especially today – as we celebrate our new official status as interstellar explorers, I feel as though that intrepid little vehicle is carrying a bit of me and you along with it, as it begins its never-ending travels across the galaxy and among the stars. And because of it, we, the inhabitants of Earth, have finally arrived at eternity’s door.     

via centerforinquiry.net

Today's Tarot - High Priestess

"Magic's just science we don't understand yet" 

- Sir Arthur C. Clarke

"Classic" post - Parallax

"Classic" post from May 2010 about psychics reading for themselves, psychics reading for other psychics, and how all psychic / tarot readings are a collaborative effort.

"Camera 1, Camera 2, Camera 1, Camera 2" ~ Wayne's World 2

Ever play with that trick of eyesight? Close one eye, and hold up a pencil so it lines up with an object in the distance. Then switch eyes and the pencil seems to jump to one side. Things don't line up the same way.

In astronomy, this is called parallax. In anatomy this phenomenon where the brain combines two slightly different views from two slightly different viewpoint gives us depth perception...it allows us to see distance. Two eyes lets us live in three dimensions. It helps us to not walk into objects and learn our environment the hard way.

A similar idea is true in Tarot and psychic work. Getting a reading isn't predicting the future...it is getting a second look, a separate viewpoint that lets us see with greater clarity and understanding. It helps us be a bit more perceptive, and not have to do every little thing the hard way.

Two third-eyes are better than one.

Even those of us who do readings will sometimes GET one to improve our understanding, fill in any blind spots.

I like to think of psychics consulting psychics, and doing formal tarot readings for ourselves is a bit like binocular vision...two views that can be fused together into a higher quality, more useful vision. It is a bit like the very large array of radio telescopes made famous in the movie "Contact"...each person, psychic or not, has their own individual "radar"...their intuition. When we communicate with another antenna, it gives a result that is like having a dish as large as the distance between them...put alot together and you have one giant telescope!

If one eye is closed, then depth perception doesn't work. If one telescope is down, the array doesn't work as well. We each bring our part to a reading. You bring your insight too. Working together, we double our view. Depending on a psychic, or a reading to "predict" the future, or what will happen is third-eye-blind. And I don't mean the music group. 

Work together, by combining your knowing and insight with the reading, taking responsibility for your actions and decisions...working with the psychic that way, you can see farther into the cosmos.

Wishing you eyes-open clarity

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

Is Tarot Effective?

Q. Is it effective?

A. That was the sum total of the question in my inbox.  I'm guessing they mean is "are tarot readings effective".

Just pure common sense says that it depends on what you mean by "effective".

Is chicken soup effective as a tasty meal? Yes.

Is chicken soup effective as a cure for the common cold? Not a lot, but it helps a little by adding fluid intake.

Is chicken soup an effective cure for baldness? No, not in any way.

So what "effect" do you want Tarot to have?

Some still expect Tarot readings to have the very old-world, earth-is-flat "effect" of predicting the future in exact detail. If that is the expectation, is Tarot effective? No.

If you embrace the more modern understanding...based on probabilities, observed outcome, time as the fourth dimension kind of popularized physics...that your choices create the future, so psychics can't predict the future...in that way of looking at things, is Tarot effective? Sometimes. "When they change their mind, the vision changes" (Jasper Cullen in "Twilight")

If you look at Tarot esoterically then the answer changes again. Tarot is a folk-art expression of common-sense advice, and a creative tool, that helps us explore alternate ideas and solve problems more creatively...if you define Tarot in those terms, is it effective? YES, TOTALLY!

Wishing you a day that doesn't need Tarot's problem-solving.

http://www.ModernOracleTarot.com

Paranormal Proof

Nobody likes to be wrong.

That is the problem with proof. When something is proven right, another thing is proven wrong, and there is natural resistance to that.

Was watching one of those "ghost hunter" shows on TV earlier. They are interesting, not because they prove or disprove life after death, but because they are generally an interesting window to human nature. Tarot is too.

Why the need to PROVE anything? Who is being convinced? What does it matter if we prove our way of thinking to another human being or not?

I have a hunch it is tied to that basic need to "belong" and the even stronger need to communicate. After all, communication and social, coordinated effort is a survival skill from way back. And, we like to convince people to our way of thinking...that way we don't have to be wrong.

Why can't the answer be "yes" or "all of the above", though. Isn't tolerance of other views a compassionate thing?

Both science and religion have a sort of dualistic bias. If it can't be scientifically proven, then it is dismissed, ridiculed, even oppressed (like scientific medicine oppresses holistic medicine through archaic legislation, but that is another, off-topic rant).

Some religions are well known for its "believe what we believe or to hell with you" attitudes.

A certain amount of judgment and classification is needed for us to understand our world and get along in it...But I wonder how far beyond our own judging and understanding we should venture. If the journey is what matters, more than the destination, perhaps the process of reasoning, deciding, rejecting, believing is all more important than the final conclusion. And if the process is what matters, can't each conclusion have validity? No matter which lens of understanding we use, shouldn't each lens be respected by virtue of the process that formed/chose it?

Like everything, it seems to me, it is a balance of opposites. We must test, judge, rationally (scientifically) test what is true and valid for us. We choose what to believe. The two together form what we know. *

So why run around shouting at ghosts, chasing them with emf meters and digital recorders? Why tell people that they will suffer an eternity if they don't join a particular belief-group? Why not just live by the basic agreed-upon rules of society (don't kill anybody, don't take anybody's stuff, keep your promises and don't tell outright lies) but beyond that, believe what you believe and that's that.

Sounds pretty ironic, coming from a blog-writer that does nothing but spout opinion...

Also ironic...this is an exercise in just that believe-what-you-believe and not care about proving anything to anyone motif.

After decades of self-editing and keeping opinions to myself, this blog has been a fascinating practice in running ideas up the flagpole...if anyone salutes, thank you! If not, that's ok too. I have no proof to offer, and no interest in doing so. It is a hard-won but good place to finally be.

And you?

*"Believing is one thing. Knowing is another." ~Chris Fleming

"...I would like to make one thing quite clear...I never explain anything" ~ Mary Poppins

Wonderful Life

"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality."

~Carl Sagan

I have "The Wonders of the Solar System" with Professor Cox playing in the background as I write this. The card I drew today is the Page of Coins...it's meaning, wonder.

Coincidence, perhaps, but also possibly synchronicity. A reminder of the wonder of it all.

This series reminds me a bit of Cosmos. The views and sunset are beautiful, and the artwork of planets and galaxies is enchanting, as those things always are. The writing is on the verge of poetic, just like Dr. Sagan.

Does knowing the truth about living on a tiny planet around a middle of the road star, on the edge of a common galaxy - does knowing that diminish the beauty of blue skies and sunsets and the sight of the Milky Way on a dark summer night? No, not in the least. A rose by any name is as sweet...and a life seen through the twin spectacle lenses of science and compassion is breathtakingly, spectacularly beautiful.

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

Spiritualilty and the Science Geek

There is a notion - I think it is a misconception - that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive.

I think they are both parts of a greater whole; complimentary, dynamic, harmonious, united.

Science and spirituality are like yin and yang...two different aspects of a greater whole...

Everyone has heard of the quote attributed to Einstein about "religion without science is blind, science without religion is lame". Religion isn't even on the map as far as I'm concerned. I'm talking about something bigger.

Religious adherants are slavishly devoted to their rules and superstitions, talking snakes and magic dishes. Scientists can, at times, be slavishly devoted to their notions of linear logic and quantifiable measurement. The difference, the difference that renders religion obsolete is that science can change in the face of reason. Science learns and grows

That is why I'm talking about spirituality and not religion. Spirituality learns and grows. It can change in the face of experience and emotion.

Science and spirituality both experience truth and the cosmos directly. They just do it through different measurements and criterion.

Spirituality accepts subtle perception, emotion, intuition and imagination as valid experience. Science looks for causality and tangible measurement. Both accept quantum leaps...one of atomic energy, the other of understanding.

I suggest that there is a third mind-set...the spiritual science geek.

The spiritual science geek is a freethinker, and accepts that which is proven, not that which is preached. The spiritual science geek requires proof, and repeatable experimental evidence. But that evidence may come as meditation, perception and an individual "knowing" of truth. What science can't measure, but what can be experience and repeated (love, compassion, honesty, intuition, creative imagination) are still valid.

True, spiritual and so-called paranormal phenomena don't follow A+B=C logic. It is just as much a misunderstanding to claim that quantum physics is misused to "explain" these phenomena...

Quantum physics does not explain or prove anything spiritual. Spirituality does not diminish or disclaim the rationality and healthy skepticism of science.

If "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof" as Carl Sagan asserted, (and I agree) what more elegant and extraordinary proof can there be than direct perception and understanding? Human perception, and the deep, profound direct knowledge of personal truth is, in my opinion, extraordinary...yet at the same time it is something we all posses. Not so much of a paradox, that, if you find wonder in the commonplace and magic in the mundane.

I think the notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive, and at odds with each other come from two places: the idea of "proof" and the need to convince others.

What science demands as proof is different from what spirituality accepts as proof.

What science sees as proven it sees as truth for all...it should sway everyone

When spirituality sees one way as proven it is either personal enlightenment or becomes dogma and religion, at which point spirituality ceases in many cases. But that is another story.

A spiritual science geek seeks proof, tests evidence, repeats experiments on some level...even if it is just in deciding who to believe.

A spiritual science geeks sees truth in proof...and in perception.

It is a mistake to confuse cause with parallels. The fact that there are parallels in how quantum physics is described and how psychic work is described doesn't mean one caused the other. It proves nothing, debunks nothing. The parallels and analogies simply suggest that both science and spirituality are shadows of a greater truth. The "fringe element" comes from the same root source as mainstream science...they are from the human mind, heart, consciousness, perception and experience. They can co-exist without exclusion and without contradiction.

That's why I follow both Mythbusters and Deepak Chopra, CERN and Buddhism_Now on twitter.

All is one, all is well.

Baihu

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

Page of Coins: psychic tarot daily meditation

Page of Coins: Understanding something mentally or scientifically does not stop the heart from seeing the wonder or miracle of life.