How to help this process of maintaining one’s path:

 
1. Insure that your energy level is high by focusing on the unique beauty and shape of everything, especially nature.

2. Try to experience a feeling of closeness, the feeling that no matter how far away something is, you can touch it, connect with it.

3. Breathe in this energy by taking deep conscious breaths, holding each about five seconds before exhaling.

4. Visualize that each breath pulls energy into us and fills us like a balloon; experience becoming lighter and more buoyant.

5. After you breathe in the energy, check your emotions. Do you feel love? This is the true measure of whether you are really connected. Love is not an intellectual concept or moral imperative. It is a ackground emotion that exists when one is connected to the energy available in the universe.

6. Once you are connected with the energy, examine your thoughts.
* The words you habitually will through your head in an attempt to logically control events stop when you give up your control drama.

* As you fill up with inner energy, other kinds of thoughts enter your mind from a higher part of yourself.

These are intuitions. They appear in the back of your mind, sometimes in a kind of daydream or mini-vision.

7. When you have acquired enough energy, you are ready to consciously engage evolution, to produce the coincidences that will lead you forward.

* Remember your basic life question–the one your parents gave you–because this question provides the overall context for your evolution.

* Next you center yourself on your path by discovering the immediate, smaller questions that currently confront your life.

* These questions always pertain to your larger question and define where you currently are in your lifelong quest.

* Once you become conscious of the questions active in the moment, you always get some kind of intuitive direction of what to do, of where to go.

* The only time this will not occur is when you have the wrong question in mind. The problem in life isn’t in receiving answers. The problem is in identifying your current questions. Once you get the questions right, the answers always come.

 
* After you get an intuition of what might happen next, the next step is to become very alert and watchful. Sooner or later coincidences will occur to move you in the direction indicated by the intuition.

I really must go back. But I miss tai chi more.

Finally this season’s Mercury Retrograde phase is over, so I can have time to update. Here’s a lovely meditation exercise I picked up online (though I forgot where, yikes):

Before you go to bed at night, fill up a paper cup (a white natural recycled cup would be best) with the purest water you can find, preferably natural spring water (not distilled) from a verified pure source and respectable eco friendly company.

Before laying down, close your eyes, thank the universe for your day, and focus on what you would like your reality to be for tomorrow. What would you like the universe to bring to you or show you, and what would you like to give.

After you have in your mind what you would specifically like from the universe tomorrow, look at your paper cup of water, and focus those thoughts unto the water as if the water were the whole universe (it is).

Then, to further manifest and have the water help you, write on the
paper cup your wishes or intentions that you thought of for tomorrow.
Sometimes this may just be a general good principal, such as,
“tommorow I would like to be amazingly creative and glowing with love,”
or it can be as specific as you want such as, “tommorow I would like to
solve my challenge with such and such a situation.”

After you do this with complete clarity of mind and gratitude, drink half
of the cup of water, and go to sleep knowing that the water is
reverberating with great intensity and acting as a magnifying antenna to
the universe. The water in your body that you drank already has your
intentions in it and is still connected to the water in the cup which is
connected to EVERYTHING and it is working its best at helping you
send your message to the universe. Its structure IS actually changing
to your thought and this is provable by science to even the most
skeptical naysayers. As you sleep, your subconscious mind will
continue to communicate with the water, both in your body, and that still
in the cup, and it will change its structure into what you concentrated
on, so that when you wake up in the morning, and finish the other half
of the cup of water, you will literally be drinking your dreams!

This will have them reverberate even more powerfully through your
whole being. Do this every night, and see what happens, miracles
multiply and health increases at ever faster rates. Water is the most
beautiful, mutable and affected thought physical substance that we
humans have. Water is the ultimate physical manifestation within the
hologram of our existence, and if you love your water, it will love you
back and help you along your path. Water is alive and aware.

Share and enjoy.

Hehe. I hope this works.

Oh, here’s something I should post about singlehood, as it cracked me up a bit, but honestly, I’m getting bored with being all by myself. Or maybe it’s just my PMS talking.

So far I’m really bent on getting serious with yoga. I’ve found 2 new places to go to, at least every Monday (before work) & Tuesday (after shift) & maybe try out Pilates while I’m at it.

Again, from the amazement that is e-mail.

Give up complaining . . . focus on gratitude.

Give up pessimism . . . become an optimist.

Give up harsh judgments . . . think kind thoughts.

Give up worry . . . trust divine providence.

Give up discouragement . . . be full of hope.

Give up bitterness . . . turn to forgiveness.

Give up hatred . . . return good for evil.

Give up negativism . . . be positive.

Give up anger . . . practice patience.

Give up pettiness . . . put on maturity.

Give up gloom. . . enjoy the beauty that is all around you.

Give up jealousy . . . pray for trust.

Give up gossiping . . . control your tongue.

Give up sin. . . . turn to virtue.

Haha. I’m still working on it like you wouldn’t believe.

Is it coincidence or what that my Housewives Tarot deck wants to make itself prominent right before Mothers’ Day?  I only realized it at the last minute. Oh, yes, yikes, the review. Anyway, I’d like to greet everyone that even if the occasion’s already over, especially my young mom patrons. I was able to hug my mom twice after how many YEARS, & I sure miss her despite everything. We’ve never really got along well ever since I got into high school, you see, but she’s still my mother after all, & I really wouldn’t want to disappoint her anymore. But I’m still my own person, & I know being truly myself wouldn’t really make her happy, & for this reason I so miss my father, who’s always been understanding of my whims. In fact, he’s actually the reason why I’m still distraught today, & for this post. He’s always been praying for me for the longest time, & I can always feel that. Sometimes I would feel like he has not one, but two guardian angels looking after me wherever I go. Now that he’s gone, though, I’m not sure how everything’s going to work out, but that’s fine with me. I guess I have to be more secure with my faith.

With this, I present this e-mail excerpt I got today. Sorry if it runs a bit too preachy, & I think I’m not that much of a Christian anymore, but here goes. Haha, sometimes spam is the best stuff to read whenever I’m online:

HOW TO PRAY FOR YOUR CHILD
Author Unknown
May 13 2008

1. Pray NOTHING hinders your child from accepting Christ as his/her personal Savior early in life. (Matthew 19:14)

2. Pray your child learns to know God and will have a deep desire to do God’s will for his/her life. (Psalms 119:27,30,34, 35).

3. Pray child hears stories from the Bible that will be a basis for his/her decisions throughout life. (Ecclesiastes 12:1, Psalms 71:17).

4. Pray child will develop a keen sense of right and wrong and that he/she will truly abhor evil and cling to that which is good. (Psalms 139:23-4).

5. Pray child will increase in wisdom (mentally) and in stature (physically) and in favor with God (spiritually) and man (socially). (Luke 2:52). This prayer covers his/her total development to his/her full potential.

6. Pray that child will develop a thankful heart and a positive mental attitude. (Psalm 126:2-3, Romans 8:31)

7. Pray that God protect child from Satan and his/her wiles in every area of his/her life. (John 17:55, Psalm 121)

8. Pray that God would destroy the enemies in his/her life whether they be weaknesses, lying, selfishness, etc. (Psalms 120:2; 140).

9. Pray that God would make him/her successful in the work God has for him/her to do. (Psalm 118:25, 139:9-10)

10. Pray he/she have a strong sense of belonging to a family that is loving and dwells together in unity (Psalms 133, Colossians 3:12-14).

11. Pray he/she will respect authority. (Romans 13:1, Ephesians 6:1-4).

12. Pray that his/her entire life will be a testimony of the greatness and love of Christ. (Phillippians 2:15-16 Thess 5:2-3)

If you pray one of these a month, you will have your child covered for a year!

 

I’ve highlighted the ones I like best. ♥

& yes, I do read the Bible everytime I get the chance, & I have high regard for my secular Religious Education instructor in college, whom I got stellar grades from, who handled my freshman & senior classes, & who taught us the relevance of homosexual orientation (she was going by the syllabus, mind you!) & divine inspiration. I wonder how she is now. The old maid who taught me Christology in my sophomore year & made me do voice tapes every grading period just so I could pass in her class is now dead but at least she would praise me unabashedly to her younger students, alongside the ranks of these two honor students-since-birth who graduated cum laude in my school from my very own department (one already passed away because of cancer, though, & she was rather pretty). I have now gone down in history as one of her best protegés ever, haha, even if I’ve grown up to become less geeky & zealous with Catholicism = Christianity (because Tarot has already won me over). I hold my dad responsible for my awareness beyond Catholicism, as he himself was interested in publications such as The Plain Truth, anti-liberation theology (probably brought upon by his work), & anything else New Age that dealt with psychism & pranic awareness. What I would call chi, he would call prana. It should be obvious by now that I was the only one in the family whom he could talk to regarding controversial subjects, & yet everytime I would press him for more details, he would just tell me to focus on my youth & everyday terra firma drama. I guess he had a point, I was only in high school then. We didn’t talk much about tarot cards, though, & I wasn’t really interested in them to begin with, but voila. His last advice about my reading them was that I could strive to find a way to incorporate biblical references in my sessions. & I told him, not to worry, Dad, everytime the Hierophant card pops up, it comes naturally… it just can’t be helped. He influenced me to pay reverence to the Virgin Mary as my spiritual Mother as much as God Himself is my spiritual Father, without being holier-than-thou & freaky. He taught me as well how to ask for wisdom & guidance ALWAYS, & to praise Them wholeheartedly. Being the incorrigible idiot that I am, I would still question God’s supremacy & existence even in my prayers, & I would tell my dad all about it, challenging his own views in turn. Haha, cocky, I know, but that’s why I love him, because I could talk to him like a friend without bypassing his authority. He would remind me of my responsibilities but he would still lovingly spoil me anyway. Despite our dysfunctional family, I’m proud to have him as my dad, & I hope to make him proud of me finally someday. I wonder if my real name will ever live up to its meaning. (Haha, & funny, after Googling my first name up, I discovered it to be a name for a doom metal/progressive rock band & a black metal/thrash band respectively LOL — I think I like the latter better! They’re Japanese, too! ^_^ MySpace is only good for band profiles, seriously, IMHO.)

So, there, I miss my parents, & I still worry about what they’ll think about me, especially with what I’m getting myself into lately, but despite everything, I would like to assure them that perhaps this is the process of growing up the hard way, & I’ll try my best not to cause them any more problems. But of course I’d like to thank them for taking care of me whenever I do get into trouble, hehe. I might not be able to give them a grandchild anymore ever, but that’s fine, right?

Entry title courtesy of Erma Bombeck.

So far, my vibes are right on track. I’m amenable to doing readings on the 13th & 20th of this month, which are favorably Tuesdays, but I’m OK with Saturdays, too, especially on the 31st. My almanac agrees. So yeah, let’s not waste them good ol’ summer days, especially with the proverbial scattered rainshowers & thunderstorms intruding at the most inopportune moments. June should be a most auspicious month, but I still hate getting drenched while I’m in transit. Well, anyway, you know where to find me. I’ll be available as early as 10 AM.

I’ll be reviewing my Housewives Tarot deck this week. For now, enjoy the deck’s official website & experience the cards there through a short free reading.  This is such a cute deck, but I had to stash it away for some time because it was getting impossible to read through the brooms (signifying the suit of Wands) without consulting the dainty guidebook. It’s being cooperative again, surprisingly. My favorite cards du jour? The Hermit & The Star & The Devil, LOL (I’m sorry, I’m a sucker for chocolate cake like that, I swear, & the deck’s rendition of The Devil is the coolest EVER!) Go take a look & see if those cards appear in your own virtual spread.

It was a rather fun day yesterday, as I tried reading for my guy colleagues & they tried to interpret certain images in turn for me. It was crazy, though, as my head was spinning after the fuss. Happy birthday, J, & good luck. Thanks, R, for hanging out with me until lunch & until you couldn’t take it any longer. Haha. You should bring your Comparative Tarot deck next time. You guys sure have a knack for this. Why don’t you try learning MORE about tarot-reading?

Too bad I wasn’t able to read for my barista friends as promised, but tomorrow should be a good time, after a stupendous way to have paid overtime at work.

Then by Friday, my other colleagues should line up for requests, LOL, this is fun. I’m on a roll, so better take advantage of it. I love May Day.

I guess it’s needless to say that everybody loves my Golden Tarot & Osho Zen Tarot decks. But all my sets, especially my quirky Tarot of the Witches, are potent, too. I think I’m happy with my loot, but I really should find the rest of my Chinese Tarot cards — this is the second time the deck has been incomplete.

Hopefully next month should be a great time to check out other tarot readers, & I can’t wait to talk about the craft et al with them. Sometimes solitary practice is exhausting, & I love getting new perspective. Maybe I should sign up for an art appreciation-through-writing class, too. The travel writing workshop I went to was super, though, as it helped me contemplate more on the journey within & introduced me to more wonderful individuals & then ponder about my future in creativity…

By the way, my favorite card for the week would have to be the Inner Voice (equivalent of the High Priestess) from the Osho Zen Tarot deck. ♥ I like the tranquility the imagery evokes & it does emphasize my need to get in touch with the silence within. Thing is, I’m having trouble channeling that at the moment.

I would like to thank my old high school classmate Isai for coming over to my humble abode & asking for a reading last week. I hope your weekend was eventful as forecasted. I hope to see you again very soon, of course, but let’s wait until after May 5.

& I just love red envelopes all the more now.

“To sum it up, the red envelope tradition in feng shui is a means of protecting the ancient knowledge, as well as showing respect for the person who shared this knowledge with you.”

It’s really not about going overboard, but you know, I get happy sometimes with the most trivial of things. So, yeah, get some at National Bookstore & spread the luck around. I might also ask for a five-element pagoda keychain from my patrons. It’s just about the same price that I charge, so it shouldn’t be a hassle. Get feng shui items from Mandarin Gate in V Mall, Greenhills & you might even get discounts.

I’ll be free this Tuesday (yay, Earth Day!) & Saturday for tarot readings. Usually I’m at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Salcedo cor. Ayala branch  but this Saturday I’ll be somewhere else, as I have a prior engagement to go to. I’ll be starting as early as 10 AM.  

& oh, here’s this cool feng shui tip I got online… I might as well share it.

Remember that ‘Treasure Map’ you began at the New Moon of the 8th of this month? Well, now you have these next three days of this Full Moon to complete it. See what you want. Literally, visualize a plan and then put it down on paper with pictures from magazines or by writing affirmations or even by putting together a video diary of all the things that you want in your life. Just make sure that you complete this ‘map’ by the end of this Full Moon period in order to land among the stars with all your intentions. 

You know me, I love wishlists. I hope this helps us all. ♥

I don’t care what other people say about Paulo Coelho anymore, because I like how he seems to validate my thoughts. This is why I read tarot & why peers ask the cards the same thing sometimes:

“The only way to make the right decision is to know what the wrong decision is. You have to examine the other path, without fear & without being morbid, & then decide.”

However, from the same book where that was derived, interestingly, from the Personal Vices chapter, this is what I get:

“Pity those who reduce the cosmos to an explanation, God to a magic potion, & humanity to beings with basic needs that must be satisfied, because they never hear the music of the spheres. But have even more pity on those who have blind faith, & who in their laboratories transform mercury into gold, & who are surrounded by their books about the secrets of the Tarot & the power of the pyramids. Neither of these kinds of people know Thy law that says, ‘Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.’

Sigh. But I am still outside looking in with wide-eyed gusto despite everything. I still feel that this is going to be my year. So hooray for my 30 Things To Do At Least Before I Die… Errr, I Mean, Before I Hit 30.

• Learn more about feng shui, & have fun with interior decorating.
• Get a driver’s license.
• Learn kendo.
• Learn more about wine appreciation.
• Get a makeover. Seriously.
• Be more diligent with yoga.
• Experiment with cooking more.
• Work on my supposed writing prowess.
• Take care of my new puppies attentively.
• Have my room repainted to a soft pink.
• Take care of areca palms & orchids.
• Collect more scented candles. Maybe even make them myself!
• Wear sunscreen more regularly.
• Go back to strength training.
• Get a new pair of rollerblades.
• Smile more, even when cranky as hell.
• Don’t take crap from powertrippers.
• Work on expressing my distaste/indignance/fury more constructively.
• Take up oil painting classes.
• Update my bookshelf/iTunes.
• Save more money.
• Save the world, one plastic bag & bottle at a time.
• Learn how to assemble a desktop computer.
• Take more pictures.
• Master a new language.
• Learn how to swim again.
• Prepare for my retirement.
• Update my resumé.
• Get a new tarot deck, like the Victoria-Regina set.
• Revisit my childhood home at least every 2 weeks.

Yep, I’m ready to take the challenge. ♥

Be willing to take a risk on something that moves you emotionally or spiritually. You may have the opportunity to benefit from wise and patient council from an older, mature “male” influence who may come into your life or be awakened within you. This King can guide or teach you by example, not words, how to become more compassionate, patient, and calm to fully commit emotionally to your goals or ideals. He may have wisdom that comes from metaphysical study, parenthood, dream inspiration, travel, or volunteerism, and his leadership will probably be quiet, but experienced, if not a bit on the romantic or idealist side. Try to be inspired by his sense of adventure and the excitement that can be felt in the joy of simply waking each day. If you are he, then happy and fulfilled you can be. If you are the one who comes under this King’s influence, be forthright, watch, listen, and learn from him, for his teaching can mold your beliefs, values, your definition of success, nay, your very life, for the better.

Though I wish you didn’t have to leave me so soon.