The Way of the Peaceful Vampire

Reblogged from "The Vampire Diet" blog on amazon.com for Kindle (I gave myself permission)


Of all the modern vampires, I have a real soft spot for the Cullen family in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. Their "coven" reminds me of that quote from Richard Bach "The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life."

My brother-in-law is family both ways. On the surface, he seems like a happy-go-lucky athlete. Every now and then, you catch a glimpse of the deeply thoughtful, loving intellect that lies beneath. During this summer's visit, he said something amazing.

He's quitting smoking. Thank goodness...cigarettes will kill you, and I'd like the dude to hang around for a while. This time he said he is "at peace" with the idea of quitting. There is no doubt in my mind that he will quit this time. There is an ocean of profound under that one statement. It's a deep idea that applies here too.

It is so easy to fall into the mainstream diet trap...to focus on food & exercise while forgetting about the mind and spirit. This blog has been taking that turn lately too. Time to throw some esoterica at you.

You can argue that being happy will bring a healthy weight from a purely physical standpoint. If you reduce stress, there is less adrenal gland interplay with insulin production, glucose metabolism, and fat deposition.

You can make the same case from a mental-emotional standpoint. Mind and body are utterly connected. A contented outlook, combined with good information and a sprinkle of self-awareness, can find the non-physical connections to what we choose to eat. If you figure out why comfort foods comfort you, or discover why you don't pay attention to what / how much you eat, then you can go a long way toward making a healthy change. That doesn't even touch the way mood, appetite, and brain biochemistry are connected.

But then there are the spiritual aspects that diet books, nutritionists and mainstream fitness 'gurus' seem to avoid. Being at peace with your decision to live a healthier lifestyle is truly important. In tarot, the 9 of Wands card is often associated with the idea of "acceptance". But not the way you might think. Like I tell my tarot clients, acceptance doesn't have to mean acquiescence. This isn't about giving up or giving in. It is about taking off the rose colored glasses and dealing with the reality of a situation - to accept it for what it is so you can deal with it...calmly, peacefully.

This card, and my brother-in-laws realization, is also very close to Dharma Drum Mountain's "Four Steps for Dealing With a Problem": face it, accept it, deal with it, let go of it. Being at peace with what is makes it easier to be at peace with what we need to do.

It is so easy to drop into a fearful, defensive stance when it comes to losing weight or quitting smoking. I told my brother (you can skip the in-law stuff as far as I'm concerned) that I was trying to cut out sugar. Later on he didn't offer me a sweet dessert when he offered it to everyone else. It's a small thing, but to me it was huge. It was quiet, peaceful acceptance of what I'm doing. I wish there was something more I could do to support and encourage him in his efforts. A little peaceful acceptance can go a long way.

That's where a family-of-heart, like the Cullens, give us a good role model. They have a accept what they are, and solve the problem through an ongoing lifestyle choice. Except for the occasional adventure with humans, hunters, werewolves and Volturi, they are pretty much at peace with themselves.

We welcome our heart-family into our lives, and the same spirit can help with our physical health. Instead of fighting obesity, we can welcome weight loss and fitness. Instead of fighting cigarettes, we can welcome smokeless health. It's a subtle attitude difference, but an important one. Marc helped me learn that.

Thanks man. I appreciate it.

************************************************

For a tarot reading with the author, please visit www.ModernOracleTarot.com. For Holistic Health and Stress Reduction tutorials with the author, please visit www.RondaSnow.com.

Wood and Water

"Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water" - Zen Proverb.


I've put a lot of time and energy this week into my new writing project, "The Vampire Diet" - but no, this post isn't another one about insoluble dietary fiber. I'd always thought "Modern Oracle: Tarot for the 21st Century" would be my first big writing project, but after discovering "Twilight" and "Being Human", and remembering "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"...I decided to bring this to the front of the line, then it's right back to tarot. It is exciting to think of projects one after the other...a hopeful feeling.


It might be a little bit of a juggling act, but I hope to give both tarot and the book the attention each deserves. Not to mention the number one over-riding priority over all things...my husband and daughter.


We're having a family weekend. My husband is graduating with high honors with a Bachelor's degree in computer genius-atude with a concentration in god-emperor-geek-dome. I love science, and like to think I have a couple of IQ points to rub together - but even I can't keep up with this guy.  Congratulations to him! Celebrations all around. Whether it is made up of celebrations, family, or "chop wood, carry water" kinds of mundane tasks, life is precious, it deserves our full attention.


Will be back with new Tarot posts on Monday. Have a great weekend!


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

Truth in Fiction part 1

I forget the exact phrase...he may have been quoting something even older, I don't know...but saw an interview with the author Richard Clarke, when "Scorpion's Gate" was released. (Good book btw...fun read) Having written non-fiction before, he was asked why he wrote a fiction novel...his reply was the adage about how you can tell more truth through fiction than you can through nonfiction, basically.

That's true for psychic work too, in my experience.

Remember how Alice from Twilight was a good example of how "predictions" work, the power of choice and so on...

Remember how I said sports predictions are just for fun, kicks and grins...entertainment, just like sports are entertainment? Well, outside of the Steelers Nation they are...here, this is serious.

You know how children learn through play...same is true of psychics. We learn through play, and can speak truth through fiction.

Today's play and potential fiction is ...drum roll please...a yes/no reading for the AFC championship this weekend.

I don't remember if it was something I posted, or just chatter among my fellow citizens of da nation, but someone asked my prediction for the Steelers and the superbowl back at New Years, when I blogged those 'predictions'. Anyway, the impression I got was that the only real obsticals to the Super Bowl for the Steelers would be a team in either dark blue or dark green jerseys. That was before the season ended.

Like I should talk...I don't even know when the Super Bowl IS this year. (Did I mention I'm a hockey fan...GO PENS!). What color ARE the Jets away jerseys anyway?

To be honest, I was trying to make myself believe they are dark green and trying to flog up some pessimism about this weekend's game just to make myself think I'd made a good "prediction" then.

Can't do it. I wish I could sit here and say "I have a bad feeling about this, Luke". "I told you about those jerseys" "It doesn't look good" But it just doesn't feel that way, no matter what color shirts they wear for the game. There is an feeling of optimism that wasn't there three weeks ago.

It isn't a lock, by any means. As I imagine the two team logos, they go back and forth in which is brighter and larger. When the Steelers logo moves forward there is a dotted line leading to Super Bowl trophy (whatever they call it). When the Jets logo moves forward...there is a dotted line leading left out of the vision, away from that logo to something unseen.

See what I mean about so-called predictions and how they can change?

See? Fiction does tell truth...Alice was right, change the intent / choice, change the 'vision'. Yoda was right..."difficult to see. Always in motion is the future".

I still see the Jets as a bigger challenge than some may think. If the Steelers get an iota complacent, it could torpedo the whole thing. But what I 'see' is if the Steelers win the championship, they have a better than average change of winning the whole thing (Seven-burgh? One for the big toe?) But if the Jets win, I don't feel so optimistic for them

Ok, let's suck it up for a minute and go all 'miss cleo' on this and give my fakey so-called prediction: If the Steelers win the AFC, they win the Super Bowl. If the Jets win the AFC, they lose the Super Bowl.

Believe me, that is pure intuition since I have no freaking clue whatsoever who is even playing in the NFC....GO PENS!

The three card reading bears that out a bit "will the Steelers win the AFC championship in January 2011?...."maybe, leaning yes"

Will the Steelers win the 2011 Super Bowl...."maybe, leaning yes"

It's all still up in the air. And did I mention? - GO PENS!

Actually good luck to the Steelers, may the best team win. (And everyone in Pittsburgh knows who THAT is ;)

I'll be working on my dissertation research tomorrow, so tune in Friday for part 2...

Baihu

www.modern0racletarot.com

P.S. If you are in the Pittsburgh area, and would like to try a sample Reiki session at no cost to you, come to the Good Life Market on Banksville Road (in the plaza, a few doors down from Kuhns) between the hours of 10am and 2pm tomorrow, January 20, 2011. The sessions are part of my dissertation study. Anyone between the ages of 18 and 65 may participate except expectant mothers and people with a history of feinting. The study is about stress, and just asks a few questions before and after the Reiki as part of the study process. Thanks!

www.rondasnow/reiki-study for more details

Page of wands: "reciprocity"

I spent the weekend immersed in "Twilight" again...did readings for that promotional even most of the weekend, which sparked my daughter's interest, so also watched both "Twilight" and "New Moon" over the weekend.

Todays card brings (not Alice for a change) but Jasper to mind.

In the books, the vampire Jasper has the extra talent of being able to physically affect people's moods by affecting their physiologic response to the situation...

That speaks mostly to the mind/body connection and holistic health in my mind, but that is another kettle of fish for another day...

Today the page of wands speaks of reciprocity...that sort of give and take that comes with being a part of the whole of the universe.

This card also always reminds me of the "rule of threes"...what you give to the universe comes back to you threefold.

Here is how I connect that idea to the character of Jasper...

Some people think that the "rule of 3" can be interpreted literally, physically - that if you give money or goods or time...then those acts will increase your wealth or the gifts you get from others. That may be true, and that is part of it.

But you give other things to your life and those around you, and those less-tangential, esoteric things reciprocate as well.

What mood do you give those around you? A smile, a warm word, a pleasant disposition might be more valuable and meaningful to someone than gold.

Jasper gave calmness. Jacob was Bella's own personal sun and was just a "happy person". We can give those and have those come back to us. "Birds of a feather" and all that.

Anger and crankiness are self-perpetuating. It is a kind of magic to be around negative emotions and continue to radiate your own calm and happiness...to be your own personal sun. It is a greater magic still to transform those moods to warmer more positive ones....that is where the page of wands starts to become the Magician.

So this card reminds us to reciprocate kindness with kindness, and in the face of adversity, to radiate the things we want reciprocated back to us.

Wishing you a repeating loop of happiness

Baihu

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

Tarot and a Bowl of jello

This is an over-simplification.

But analogies like this, I like to think, are what Einstein meant by "thought experiments". This is imperfect, certainly, but I think it gives a little insight to why psychic readings work the way they do, and why predictions are so un-helpful, and why I still love the way Stephanie Myers crafted the Alice Cullen character and how her visions change with choice...

Imagine, if you will:

Imagine a big clear bowl filled with cooled, set gelatin dessert. Imagine it being your favorite color and flavor - cool, light and inviting.

Now imagine putting one spoonful on one side of your plate, and a second spoonful on the opposite side of your plate.

The jello is a smooth, connected, integrated whole. Just like time and space is an integrated whole.

Imagine the first spoonful is a psychic reading, tarot card reading, or some other "fortune telling" method. The reading is a real experience...something you actually hear, see and do. It is a little spoonful of your life and experience.

Now imagine the second is a bit of your future...some real experience that you actually hear, see and do.

Both times and experiences are isolated bits of the wholeness of you life, your time, your space. They come from the same integrated source...both spoonfulls come from the same bowl of jello.

Because they are related, we can tell something of the one from the other. We can intuit what is PROBABLE about the second spoonful from trying to figure out a little about the first spoonful. We can't sense or examine the first spoonful in a lot of detail, but we can form impressions about it from color, smells etc...sort of like looking at it through sunglasses, but not able to touch or taste it...

Now here is where things get tricky...

Just because the first spoonful is cool, spoon-shaped and seems to be one thing....it doesn't mean that it is going to say that way.

Just because a reading sees one probability doesn't mean things are going to stay that way.

For example, by the time you turn your attention to the second spoonful of jello, things can change. There is no way to tell WHEN you will sample that second spoonful. The plate may sit out long enough that all the jello melts, and becomes very dissimilar to what was seen at the reading. The reading, our look at the jello before, is 100% correct for that spoonful at that point in time...but 100% wrong in later experience. You may act to change things...add to the second spoonful to make it larger, or you could drop the jello off the plate entirely. Your actions, or the actions of things beyond your control (like the heat in the room that melts the jello) can change your actual experience.

Melted or cold, jello is all jello, and a reading can give you insight how to accomplish what you want. If you don't like gelatin, you can act to scoop it back into the bowl. You can not act, and let it melt away. Or if you love this flavor of gelatin, then you can act to scoop out more for your plate.

Interconnectedness, wholeness makes intuition possible. We are part of the greater whole...and our thoughts, intents, actions, words, inactions...all impact that world, and our future.

Wishing you the insight to use your jello wisely, and a tasty, satisfying dessert in the process ;)

Baihu

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

How to Find your Soulmate part 2

A. writes:

I'm 23 and single. I feel that my soulmate is out there, and that we will be together, but I wonder when. I know we'll be together when we have learned what we need to learn to be perfect together. What do I need to learn? What do I have to do to be perfect for him? I haven't made a 'list' because the things I want are caring, concern, understanding and the like. What else do I need to learn?

Your question shows beyond a doubt that this is something close to your heart and soul, and that you have put a great deal of love and thought into this! In fact, you have very nearly answered your own question, no cards required! What I'd like to do, in fact, is give you a few ideas to think about in addition to what you've written here...things that helped me just when I was in your situation in the past...

Probably the two biggest helps for a situation like this was advice from my teacher Sallie Christensen and from reading Richard Bach...in fact, if you are a reader at all, I would suggest first "Illusions: the adventures of a reluctant messiah" and "Bridge Across Forever" by Richard Bach if you haven't read them already.

I think you are right on the money with the idea that you haven't met your soulmate as a matter of readiness. But what if it is his readiness and not yours? What can you learn from this waiting time?

The obvious lessons are patience, and the importance of the two over the one and all that...

But there is more, and my hunch is that the key for you is happiness and manifestation rather than patience, and compassion for others above yourself...here is what I mean by that.

You "get it" about wanting the right things, You get it about this being about spirituality, intangible qualities, and love above all...

So what's the hold up you might ask?

Two things...first is a last chance, so to speak. Once you are in a long term soulmate relationship or marriage, you are a different person. Things will never quite be the same again. You can't cross the same river twice as they say. Your soulmate and the universe may just be giving you a moment to breath. This might be a chance to take one last look around, breath in the fragrance of the GOOD parts of the hear and now, a chance to be happy, enjoy and appreciate the way life is now before moving on to bigger and better things. A graduation party so to speak.

Another, and possibly more important opportunity here is a chance to learn the feel and process of manifestation / attraction.

I realize you are an advance student, and are probably well aware of those concepts, like attracts like and all that. This is a good opportunity to really feel, know and EXPERIENCE it.

"The list" is usually a first step for people who haven't really come to terms with what they want with the clarity that you have. But that doesn't mean it has to be all literal and physical attributes. Writing the caring and compassion you envision will help bring it into your life as much as wanting blue eyes or something. In fact, my belief is that those attributes are more important than a list of physical characteristics and, because you feel most deeply about them, they will manifest more strongly.

If you are spiritual and intuitive enough to know and trust that your soulmate really is out there, sometimes it is easy to forget the nuts and bolts part, and flounder in the physical, actually meeting part of things. Like Sallie told me once - you are so attuned to looking for your soulmate that you send out an "I'm taken" vibe.

Instead of "I have a soulmate and I KNOW he is out there and just waiting for us to be ready to meet" Try sending a different wish to the universe...send the message through the ether directly to your soulmate (whoever, where-ever and when-ever he is), that you are receptive and ready..."I want you, I am ready for you, please come to me". Maybe try making that list of soulmate qualities as a way of inviting him into your life...put all the caring understanding intangible qualities right at the top, put the things most important to you first...than keep going and include every last little detail.

Then, as always, put the list away, trusting things to manifest in their own good time. To paraphrase: "the best way to make the universe laugh is to tell it your plans"...or in the words of that old Phil Collins song..."you can't hurry love". The universe, your love and your relationship with your soulmate is unfolding just as it should...no matter what the calendar says.

I hope that helps, at least a little. Keep up the good work. I think you are totally on the right track, and things will unfold in time. Be patient with your soulmate, and yourself. You'll meet when you are both perfectly ready. In the mean time, enjoy the hear and now, and use this time to learn the feeling of manifesting good things into your life. Like attracts like, what we send out to the universe comes back to us...those are important lessons. We all could use a reminder of that from time to time.

Baihu

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

P.S. As a reminder... there are no such things as predictions, so no one can predict when or where or how you will meet your "soulmate"...read "Alice Got it Right: Twilight Predicts the Future" for more information.

Alice, Twilight and the Ace of cups

(To order a tarot reading by the blog author with a similar philosophy to "Alice", please visit www.modern-oracle-tarot.com.)

I still love tinkering with the ideas in Twilight. Stephanie Myers got it so right with Alice. The choice, the changes. Very Yoda like…”always in motion is the future”

Twilight reflects another thing very well… the way everyone depends on Alice’s visions and the minor meltdown that happens when she and Jasper….well, I won’t spoil that bit…

Real world psychic readings are like that in a way…it is so easy to depend on readings rather than take responsibility. I’ve ranted for YEARS about how it is a matter of choice and personal responsibility…NOT fate, time or predictions….yet all the time people still ask when they’ll get pregnant and if their boyfriend will come back to them…

The truth is, we don’t need to rely on readings, to obsess over them. They are guides, signposts…but they are not the path OR the one walking it…

We don’t need to rely on Alice because in reality, there is a little Alice in all of us.

Today’s card is the Ace of Cups: it’s traditional meaning is “inner light”. The meditation that comes with it is “we are all psychic”

As a general rule, barring age and physical debility exceptions, everyone can drink from a cup. We all have intuition, and we all can access it one way or another.

So why are some more sought out? Why are there the “Alice”s of this world?

My opinion is that it is right hemisphere access…the corpus collosium for all you science geeks out there. We all have a right hemisphere to our brain. We all have intuition…some of us can bring that information over to our language centers and communicate it a little better than others.

Everyone can drink from a cup, but some can describe the wine inside a little better than others.

It may not be your talent, your passion to read for others, but you CAN follow your own intuition.

You may not be able to wax poetic over what you taste, but you CAN drink from the cup of psychic ability.

You may not be able to see trackers and hordes of vampires, but there is a little Alice inside all of us letting us know what path to take.

Wishing you a satisfying drink from the psychic cup.

Baihu

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

Alice got it right. Twilight predicts the future...

…or more accurately tells what telling the future is like.

After getting some requests this fall to work at Twilight themes parties, I read the books just to see what all the buzz was about.

Today, finally saw the movie…

As an aspiring writer wannabe (nonfiction), I’m impressed with Ms. Myers skill. I full on expected to hate the books, and thought it was going to be some superficial bubble-gum teen angst romance. In some respects, it is. But I was sincerely impressed with her skill at using the first person. It creates enormous empathy with Bella, you experience everything with her. And the sudden shift to Jacob’s point of view has all the more impact because of it. Well done!!

Of course, being in this business, Alice is one of my favorite characters. She has it exactly right. Her visions change in response to choice and decision. What she sees now, might be totally wrong if someone changes their mind and intention later. She sees along the path of greatest probability, not some sort of fated certainty.

That is exactly how it works. At least in my experience. Asking Alice to see something isn’t a lock. Asking a psychic or tarot reader is even less of a certainty. The web of choice, decision, intention and change is even more complex, wavering and unstable than in the fictional world of twilight.

So hats off to Stephanie Myers for putting that idea into the mainstream. It’s going to make my life a LOT easier. It is true that fiction can tell more truth than reality. I can talk until blue in the face about how choice impacts future, how you can CREATE your own future by the CHOICES you make. Here this teen romance (with enough vampires and shape-shifters to keep it interesting for the rest of us) has make the idea real, and understandable.

Plus it is just a well – crafted, entertaining story, start to finish.

If you haven’t read it, I can recommend it for teen girls and women. Might be a little too high estrogen for the guys though. Although the vampire aspects did keep my attention and I would typically rather shove bamboo under my fingernails that watch sappy romantic dramas. I’m all about the action, sci fi, fantasy sort of fiction. You know, Dune, Harry Potter, Tara Harper, that sort of thing. So Twilight might be palatable for guys that like that sort of thing too.

Well there you have it…a fortune-teller sort of book review. FINALLY a book and movie that gets the psychic / tarot prediction thing right, in a simplified sort of way.

Bravo and thank you!

Baihu
www.modern-oracle-tarot.com