6/5/12—Thinking a New Thought

Today's Draw: Two of Swords from Tarot of the Crone by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince. What thoughts are swirling around in your head right now? Are they productive and supportive? And if not, what other thoughts could you be thinking instead?

I'm really digging the description of this card from the book. She says that, while the Ace of Swords represents a state of being conscious, the Two of Swords is about the self-conscious. It's about the mind thinking about its own thoughts. 

I had never thought of it that way before...the mind thinking about its own thoughts. 

Anyway, reflecting on what the mind is thinking is what this card is about today. It indicates a time to rethink, analyze and confirm your thinking. Many times we don't even pay attention to our own thoughts as they barrel through our heads. 

Our own self reflection, or even reflection on other things, holds the purpose of deepening our understanding. This card suggests that changing the thought to something different can actually help us deepen our understanding more. So become aware of what you're thinking and consider how you can think something different.

For a good portion of my career it used to really rub up against my ego when clients would send something back because they didn't like the direction I had gone in. It's not something that happens terribly often, but it's inevitable in a creative career. You just can't please all the people all the time. While the first solution you presented may have worked well strategically and creatively, it didn't resonate with the client the same way. Or maybe, without knowing it, you inadvertently stumbled across some idea that's a no-no in their industry. There are many reasons why this would happen, most of which are not "we're sending it back because you suck."

Anyway, in my early years, I'd spend a lot of mental energy around "what I gave them before was brilliant and they just can't appreciate the wisdom of my genius!" Haha. But then I'd go back to the drawing board. Because I had to. And, without fail, the solution I would come up with in the second round would be, admittedly, a better answer than the original one. There was wisdom in their sending the idea back. So, I get it now. Most of the time I'll hit the nail on the head the first time. But when I don't, it gives me an opportunity to deepen my understanding of the client's business and needs. Either way, it's a good thing. 

In that case, thinking a new thought is probably why I'm still successful doing what I do today. The old thought is why people quit this business and move on. The old thought is what burns you out after 15 years. The old thought is what makes you bitter. And the new thought really made me better at what I do...it provided a deeper understand of the value of rejected ideas.

Another aspect of "thinking a new thought" draws upon on the subject of manifestation from yesterday. Our thoughts shape our reality...or as Mike Dooley says, "thoughts become things". If you really listened to your thoughts, you'd probably be surprised at how often you think self-defeating thoughts..."I suck at this", "I'll never lose weight" or "nobody loves me" are just a few examples. We do this, then wonder why we never get better at such and such, why we never lose weight and why nobody ever loves us!

Our thoughts become our reality. So thinking about the thoughts we think is an important part of creating change in our lives. Until we change our thoughts, we can't manifest what we want outside of our heads. 

So what have you been thinking? And what else could you be thinking? It's worth a thought.

1/24/12—Stepping Into the Void

Today's Draw: Two of Wands from the Tarot of the Crone. Do you feel like you're in a little bit of limbo right now, or are you walking solidly toward your future? Have you ever had a premonition about something....anything? And where do you stand on the whole 2012 thing?

This Two of Wands depicts the passageway between this reality and another. It's a passageway you created—a passageway to your future. But beyond that, you can't know exactly where it leads.

I saw a quote from Sue Monk Kidd today that said: 

"When you can't go forward and you can't go backward and you can't stay where you are without killing off what is deep and vital in yourself, you are on the edge of creation."

It's interesting that a number of people said they felt that way right now. Like there's a mass limbo out there that has caught us in its grasp. So we stand poised in this passageway for a moment, getting up the energy and courage to meet our destinies. 

There are perfectly normal, non-woo-woo, non-conspiracy-theorist everyday folk out there who feel that way about 2012. This is probably the biggest "anticipated question mark" in many of our lives. Y2K was up there. The Cuban Missile Crisis. Maybe the moments after 9/11. I can't really remember a whole lot of times when so many were questioning the future—curious, anticipatory, powerless. 

A priest, a St. Bernard and an Octopalian walk into a bar...

I'm pretty curious myself. Like the feeling in this card, I don't know for sure what to make of it—a year like any other? Some sort of something that changes our worlds forever? I could totally go either way. I believe in ETs and I believe the Mayans had contact with them, so my best guess goes to "something extraterrestrial". IF anything happens, that is.

I could swear I've told the story before about how, when I was between 3 and 5 years old, I lived in my sister's closet? I couldn't find the story through search, so I'll tell it again. It was a walk-in closet just off my sister's bedroom, in a dormer. My sisters were 7 and 8 years older than me. So this was how I got my own room and they got their privacy. 

Anywho, this room—this house—was creepy. It was old. And I had to sleep in a closet just big enough for a single bed and a small dresser. And my sisters used to make me ask permission to leave my room so I didn't interrupt their private big-girl business. So I was like a little prisoner in this space that I was pretty convinced was haunted. Because the room was in a dormer, it just ripe for capturing whatever energies might be floating around, too. *shiver*

Many believe we'll attain higher levels of enlightenment in 2012.

Well, while I lived in this room I had a number of "experiences" and a few very clear "premonitions" that were beyond my years. One was that I'd be a writer who lived in Maine. One was about a past life. And another was that something would happen in my lifetime that would cause many people to disappear and I would survive it. It didn't occur to me until many years later how people would "disappear"...would they die or just "poof!" And it also didn't occur to me that maybe surviving it might not be a good thing. Who knows?

Anyway, that's the baggage I bring into 2012, yet I'm still open minded, because who's to say the premonition was about 2012? I didn't fear this thing as a child, and I don't fear it now. I err on the side of "positive outcome" regarding it, if there's any notable outcome at all. Certainly I'm making earthly plans for 2013 and beyond. 

All of life, whether it's in anticipation of some new dimension of our life or Armageddon, is like this red hallway to the mystery beyond. It takes incredible courage to be a human being and stand at this threshold repeatedly throughout our lives and take those steps forward. Because not even the best psychics and mediums know what lies beyond. (Most of them, by the way, believe it's a huge shift in consciousness that's going to happen. No harm. No foul.) 

I get the sense with this card that the further I go down this hallway, the more I'm going to see into the dark. I don't know if that's logical. But that's the feeling I get. We get this amazing opportunity at adventure every day we're alive. And since some may be concerned they only have about 300 of those days left, it makes sense to make the most of every one of them.