But seriously folks...

Ok... so having tried Bibliomancy, and getting that mysterious answer about basket weaving, I decided to give it another try and ask this time for clarification.

So, I said, "Please explain the basket weaving answer," flipped open the magazine, and pointed at a place on a page. Well... I don't know how "illuminating" the answer was, but it was certainly interesting and cool.

Here it is:

Stacked like logs in the supermarket, next to the paper towels and the laundry detergent, they await burning. Nestled like eggs, each in its own cardboard box, they clasp tiny brittle buds inside fragile translucent shells.

Patient and inconspicuous, these wildest of creatures have been easily domesticated. In homes and offices, they take root on desktops, sprout from bedside tables, thriving in the darkest corners. Hanging from ceilings, they are flowering stalactites - one flick of a switch drives the sap through their veins, through pistil and stamen, and they burst into flame. Then there is no controlling them. They immediately speed away, leaving trails of fire in their wakes.

Sometimes, if you're lucky, one appears above your head. It glows there in the air for a moment, like some startled bird, before splitting open, spilling its brightness everywhere. "There is a crack in everything." according to singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. "It's how the light gets in."

~from James Geary

Speaking of Bibliomancy!

Check this out! A nude is covered with Braille inscriptions at a contemporary art show in Nanjing, China, by Cheng Yong, an artist interested in communication barriers.



Cool! A person you can read like a book... well, if you know braille, that is. Maybe if I had opened a book like this, I might have gotten a different answer? You think?

On the other hand, I'd much rather be reading THIS guy!



All kidding aside
(well not really)
what we have here is the REAL story!



LOL!

Basket Case? Me?

So, I did the aforementioned Bibliomancy exercise, at work today. I've got a cold, I don't feel good, and I do not want to be sick. Especially, I don't want to be sick at when I have to be at work at a job I hate.

So, closed my eyes, concentrated on this question, "How can I get well quickly?" and then flipped open a magazine and jabbed my finger at a page.

Here's what I got:

With a $150 loan, she started a basket weaving business that enabled her to lift her family out of poverty and to send her son to college...

And I'm like what??? I need to start weaving baskets? I need $150? I should have sent my kids to college? I'm a basket case? What?

Bibliomancy?

In traditional societies environmental symbols are called omens or signs. They are really symbolic interpretations of natural events and/or meaningful information about the past, present, or future that comes from apparently random events or sources.

The ancient Chinese examined cracks in the shoulder blades of sheep for omens, the Greeks studied the entrails of slaughtered animals, the Persions looked at fire, and Hawaiians read clouds, and Gypsies read events in the natural world around them.



A modern method to seek and read omens is called Bibliomancy, with is the art of randomly opening a book and getting an answer to a question. It is mostly used with a bible or a dictionary, but an enjoyable and creative variation is to use any kind of book or magazine picked at random. The creativity comes from figuring out how a paragraph on grilling shrimp can relate to your quesation about your love life, or what a photograph of an airplane in an advirtisement has to do with a question about your career. Frequently, though, the answer to your quesation will be stunningly obvious no matter where you look for it.

What matters...

Day 21 - Living by the book.

First, I turned to a straw house and a sweat lodge. I thought about how it would be so nice to sit in a small mild sweat with healing herbs and healing songs. I wish I could. And if I built a lodge, and got the wood and the rocks, it would indeed be possible.

Next, I turned to an old Cheyenne warrior. He looked very ... I don't know... weary would be a good word.

He put his arm around me and I felt the love. Like grandfather love. He said. "All that matters is that you do the best you can, that you live a good life."

And I said, "But what if I haven't lived a good life, what if I haven't done the best I can? What then?"

Then I saw behind me a vision of the past, and I saw a long river and deep mud, and fog. And he said, "And yet you have come this far."

I thought, "Yes, that's true, I have come this far." And I looked toward the future as the river meandered on through more mud and fog and wondered where the journey would end, and even what it was all about anyway.

He said, "All that matters is that you are here right now."

Then I saw how tired and sore he was, and I helped him to sit down, and rubbed his feet. I remembered that I could send Reiki into the past, so I sent him Reiki, and also his horse.

A Mystery

Day 20 - Living by the book.

Today, I spent time with two little girls. They were eating from an abalone shell - dirty, unkempt, seemingly uncared for. And I just wanted to scoop them up and wash their little faces and hands, and take care of them.

Then I began to wonder what it all really meant because they didn't speak to my mind, just to my heart. Did that mean that I needed to take better care of me? Or, maybe dirty and unkempt doesn't arbitrarily mean unloved and uncared for. Maybe they were happy and content to be eating what they were eating, to be as dirty as they were, and who am I to judge?

Did it mean that nourishment can be found where it's offered and not to judge the form in which it comes?

It's a mystery.

Bad Jobs!

Ok, so here I am hating my job... and come to find out there are worse jobs than the one I have... It's actually kind of a bummer. I'm going to lose my pity party sympathy just as soon as you see these pictures!





Well, I have to say that this last job doesn't look all that bad to me. I'd take it over the one I've got right now for sure! Well... maybe not FOR SURE... but for a big enough pay check, I'd consider it.

Hating my job!

I just love it when I can post stuff that my sister says, I don't know if you guys feel the same way or not, but since I love it, and it's my blog, I'm doing it anyway.

So, today I sent the following email to my sister:

I am really hating my job. Today I felt like I was going to throw up when I thought about having to come in. And here I am... my whole body almost rigid with resistance... I think it's because there will begin to be an ongoing and determined effort on the part of management to push push push for numbers and stats... and OMG I just HATE that. Plus, I heard that gas prices are expected to hit $6 a gallon by the end of summer, and so there's all that worry and fear... my income drops... and the idea of getting an even lesser paying job that I would like better seems out of the question... unless there was something really really close to where I live.

I have more to say, but I have to get this sent so I can get to work repeating meaningless platitudes over and over and over again for hours and hours and hours to the same people who call over and over and over again every day...

I'm feeling nauseous again just thinking about it.

And this was her reply:

Okay, as to your job, I’m going to yank out the Eckhart – sorry. The hallmark of conscious ‘doings’ is: acceptance, or enjoyment, or enthusiasm. Don’t resist reading this because it is very, very interesting and I’m not suggesting you just “Accept” your fate! Acceptance is the baseline energy field, enjoyment being higher and enthusiasm being an energy level that is higher than that. If you can’t bring a level of acceptance into your job, there is a message for you to go. The message sounds a little louder if the working conditions are setting up to put you in a position of being in trouble for not meeting goals, if that is not what you are interested in doing.

(side bar: absolutely right... I have no interest in meeting any one's goals but my own... no interest at all... nada.. nothing... zilch)

Now. At this moment in time you see no way to do anything else, so here is my unsolicited advice: meditate whenever you can, in your quiet alone time, driving, just waking up, etc, on the open-ended question of God – what do you want, what does creation want from me?

(side bar: OK, Gracie, here's the thing. I've been asking God and the Universe, and The Powers That Be what the hell they want from me for most of my natural life and a good part of my unnatural life... and if God or Whoever would just pop in for a nice little visit one day, or even do some writing on my wall.. whatever... that would be just great! But at this point I'm thinking that's never gonna happen... )

Hold the question space often, always, consistently. This is the field of all possibilities, the space of the unanswered, conscious question. Leave the answer to the universe – you are simply holding space for an answer and sometimes, creation needs time and circumstances to line up and sometimes that requires waiting. Know that you are not stuck at Unity forever. It is impossible. Nothing lasts forever. This too shall pass. And, while you are there, this is your doorway to freedom.

(side bar: so true... nothing lasts forever. One day I'll be DEAD, and that job will be OVER, and my financial problems will be SOLVED.)

Feel the resistance in your body and be with it without going into the story that you need to get away from the circumstance that is causing the resistance. For all we know, this is your whole life’s work, to dissolve a rigid wall inside of you that will melt walls in the world and pave the way for serendipity and spontaneous happenings for many, many people. The discomfort of resistance is intense, but the resistance is there and must be felt consciously or it will come back in every other form it can until it is brought out into the light of consciousness and transmuted into an enormous amount of energy.

(side bar: OK... you're my sister and I love you. I also respect you and appreciate you. But I'm not sure that I agree here. It seems to me that what you focus on grows. And if I sit with my resistance... it just gets bigger and bigger until it's about to choke me. If, on the other hand, I put my mind to how best to avoid having to work while I'm at work, I feel much better about the whole situation.)

When you free up that energy field you will have all that energy behind your natural spiritual power and your experience of the world will be so much more supportive. This is something I know. I have spent years working on certain very uncomfortable energy fields inside me, and I have seen it operating in Carol very, very clearly, and beyond that, it is just plain true. I feel something real, focused, direct and almost channeled at times – that is a power that was freed up from doing inquiry for years.

(side bar: grudgingly I accept that you might possibly be right.)

Now, the fear story about gasoline is very crippling and it sounds like you are going to have to feel fear too. All of us are required to feel fear, but a fraction are capable of doing it consciously and changing fear energy into creative energy. I would, if I were you, work on the resistance first and to the extent you can, just notice the fear story tape running in your head. People love to generate fear and talking about future disasters like gas at $6 a gallon is right up there as a fear generator. There are more possibilities in the universe than either/or and the ego loves to think in very limiting terms like always, never, but and should. It will refuse to think in terms of IS because that is too close to God. Right now, gas prices are what they are.

(side bar: I'm actually really good at changing fear energy into creative energy. Really good at it. As a matter of fact, whenever I get nervous about anything, my first impulse is to start something new. And not something small and new either. Usually it's something hugely stimulating and creatively challenging. As a matter of fact, right now, at this moment I have 3 art pieces in "the cooker" and 4 in progress.

Hmmm... LIGHT BULB MOMENT... could it be that I have a belief system that says I cannot be creative if I don't have major discomfort going on in my life???)

Be a bowl?

Day 19 - Living by the book.

Turned right to an image of open bowls. This is the second time I've gotten this image, so I'm thinking it's significant. The other time I took it to mean "be open to what you hear" and I didn't even put enough significance on it to think it merited a note... so... here it is again.

So, what does it mean, I wonder?

• Be open and empty?
• Go hungry for a day?
• Are you ready to receive?
• Make a bowl?
• Fast?
• Be a bowl?
• Meditate on the image of a bowl?
• Draw a bowl?

I'm not sure, maybe some or all of the above. Whatever it is, I'm sure if I don't "get" it today, I'll "get" it when I'm ready.

And here we have....

LOL

Lost in the Maze

So I spent all day yesterday putting up posts about labyrinths, over at Mandala Madness, and I'm telling you, and as you can clearly see, it gave me quite a headache!



Not only that, but I ran into this really big snake!!

Hello to the Sun

Day 18 - Living by the book.

A pueblo Caique, Duck White, motioned for me to come into his lodge. And we sat in silence. Sage was burning.

We looked out towards the sunrise. The sky was pink and pale yellow. The sun not peaking over the horizon quite yet.

He said:
"Every day we greet the Sun and we make an offering. In this way we make a connection to the Sun that helps us live. And in the evening we say goodby, and come again."

I could feel the sun shining on my face. I felt the warmth and the energy. A wondering thought came, "What if you don't wake up until later in the day?"

He said, "When you first see the sun, that's when to greet the day. And when you first see that evening has come, that is when to say good bye. No offerings needed then, just a goodby for now and an invitation to return."

The Morning Star

Day 17 - Living by the book.

The "sad girl" today wasn't sad. She flashed me a smile, and there was a sparkle in her eyes not evident in the picture.

She showed me how she weaves her baskets. Her fingers were just flashing, she worked so quickly. Then she covered the basket with mud! I wasn't sure why.

She then took me to where the strips the bark off the trees in long thing strips, and I remembered the time when, during a shamanic training class, I was given a task to make a bag out of bark but couldn't figure it out because the bark was too brittle and stiff. I don't normally give up on things, but I did give up on that. When I told her that story, she laughed at me and threw the older bark away after crumbling it in her fingers. Then, she showed me how to get to the green part underneath.

I tried, but I couldn't weave a good basket. Mine was weak and flimsy. So, she laughed again at me and we went berry picking. She gave me a small round tightly woven basket for my berries, and we'd eat 2 or 3 for every one that went into the basket.

Then a big bear rose up behind the bush and I was reminded of a story of the berry picking woman who was killed by just such a bear. But the girl I was with raised up her hand and the bear stopped in it's tracks.

And she said, " It's good to play and have fun. If there's going to be a bear he will come even if you are being serious and unhappy. That wouldn't stop him. he comes when he comes, so play and have fun."

When she said that, I looked at her and I said, "Who are you?" She said, "Morning Star." I said, " The Morning Star?" Her reply, "It's the same star."

And she took my face between her hands and kissed my forehead, leaving a star, and she said. "Play and be happy." Then she took the bear and left.

Feeding the Ducks

Day 16 - Living by the book.

Today again I pulled up "Waiting for the Snake Racers" and again I can see that my mind is just racing around - here and there and there and here. So I sat with it for a little while and focused on the Leaf Dancers. Which was helpful.

Then I flipped to another page and found a shaman in the midst of a Duck Ceremony. And he said, "I'll pray for you." As he began to speak the words of the parayer, I let them flow over me. My mind was still racing, and so I worked on really trying to be "in the moment" with it.

Everytime I stirred or tried to ask a question, he put his hand on my heart, pushed me back and said, "Shhh. I'm praying for you."

Finally it felt complete and he seemed to be unzipping me to let the energy out.

Then I asked him what could I do, and he said, "Three days in a row feed the ducks." and I got a visual image of my pond. And when I said, "But I have no ducks," he just smiled and said "Feed the ducks."

So, I grabbed a bag of sunflower seeds and headed out to the pond. And it was so much fun! I fed the illusive invisible ducks, and it really settled me down. Then I saw a huge school of baby goldfish swimming close to the surface. That was really neat. All in all, it was a very centering, peace building experience.

What you should know about snakes!

While researching snakes, I came across this nifty little tidbit. It's a list of do's and don'ts when it comes to snakes.

A. Don't cross a snake's path unless you slide or shuffle your feet.
B. You'll have leg aches - other diseases - bad luck.

A. Don't eat in front of a snake.
B. When you get older, your throat will close.

A. Don't watch a snake swallow it's food.
B. Your neck will swell up.

More fun and funny stuff at my new website: Hey It's Me

A. Don't watch a water snake swallow.
B. You'll lose your voice.

A. Don't open your mouth when you see a snake.
B. He'll jump in.

A. Don't kill snakes or lizards.
B. It will make your heart small - dry up - you will get a crooked back.

A. Don't burn a snake.
B. You'll get sores - rash.

A. Don't kill a snake when it is raining.
B. Lightning will strike your house.

A. Don't put a snake in the open when dead.
B. The lighting will bring it back to life.

A. Don't put a dead snake on a rock.
B. You'll cause a thunderstorm - it will come back to life.

A. Don't kill a snake with your hand.
B. Your hand will swell up.

A. Don't go to the bathroom in front of a snake.
B. He will be jealous of your wife and turn her yellow.

A. Don't pick up things between two fingers.
B. Only snakes do that.

A. Don't watch snakes having intercourse.
B. You'll go blind.

A. Don't step on a snake.
B. Your legs will swell up - get crooked.

A. Don't draw in the sand with your fingers.
B. Snakes will come to it.

A. Don't talk about snakes.
B. They will come around.

A. Don't laugh at a snake.
B. It will bite you.

A. Don't make faces at a snake.
B. It will bite you some day.

A. Don't spit at a snake.
B. It will get after you.

A. Don't watch a snake crawl out of its skin.
B. You'll get sick or jump out of your skin.

A. Don't shoot an arrow at a snake.
B. It will go crooked - hit something else - be spoiled.

A. Don't run over a snake in your car.
B. You'll have a bad life.

A. Don't break snake eggs.
B. The snakes will get you.

A. Don't wear anything made out of snakeskin, especially boots or shoes.
B. You will get crippled.

A. Don't touch a snake.
B. It has nothing and it will make you have nothing.

A. Don't call a person a snake.
B. You'll be bitten by one.

A. Don't urinate on roads that cross each other.
B. That is the same as a snake trail

~Navajo Taboos; Ernie Bulow, 1991

Talking is for later

Day 15 - Living by the book.

He fixed me with an intense stare and said,

"Listen to me.
This is not for thinking and talking about, this is for doing. When you see how to take a ritual bath - go and take a ritual bath. When you see making an offering to the Sun, go make an offering to the sun.
Do first. Talk about it later."

And I was thinking,

Oh man, I better write this down!

And he said,

"No!
Go ... Be ... Do ... Now"

And so, of course, now that I've done the doing, I can't remember his exact words, or even his face. And I think that must be OK, because I've been busily "doing" ever since and it has been good.

An Appointment With The Teacher

For months now, I've been talking about needing to find a "teacher," someone to teach me about magick, shamanism, healing, spirituality, life, living, and all those things that I am so intent on knowing. Finally, one day I suggested to my friend Daniel that maybe I should just make an appointment and show up and wait... like for example, I could tell the Master of the Universe that I could be found every Sunday at 2pm sitting in the coffee shop at Borders in Lee's Summit, and to please send my teacher there to find me.

God often speaks to me through books, and I figured that if no one showed up, maybe I'd at least find a book or a CD, and if all else fails, I will have enjoyed a good cup of coffee.

However... always there's the buts and the howevers... it never seemed really practical or possible to commit to being in town at a specific place at a specific time on one of my days off, and I for sure wouldn't be able to commit for the days that I work. So... the idea just sat there... unattended and well... fermenting.

Then, when I was in Texas, my sister and I visited Barnes and Noble and I found a really cool book on the bargain table. The North American Indian by Edward S Curtis.

I opened it up and flipped through the pages, and stopped, riveted by the image of this most amazing person. He looked right into me. I could hear... yes, really... I could hear him chanting Lakota prayers... almost I could smell the sage... and the warm red earth... the feathers and the skins and the people around me... almost.

It was like a revelation. Here was my teacher... here were my teachers... I would take that book home, and every day as part of my morning meditation, I would open the book at random, meet with my teacher, and listen, and learn. Cool huh?

So... I've been doing that. Today marks the end of the 2nd week. It occured to me that it would be beneficial to post the teachings every day... this way I will be able to "track my progress"... leave a trail so to speak.

The posts are tagged "living by the book" and will be back dated so that they appear in the blog on the day, and at the approximate time they were received.

Note: I have been enjoying bloggers new feature that allows for scheduled posting, which means that I can have "days off" the internet and yet the blogs keep ticking along. Because these specific posts cannot be written in advance, they will simply show up here an there. If you don't want to miss any of them, you can simply click on the "living by the book" link in the sidebar under Stuff I Talk About, the most recent ones will come up first.

Blessings from my heart to your eyes!
Enjoy!

In the money!

Wow! I got my second google check today! $103.80! How cool is that? It took me a year and a half to get the first $100 and just 3 months later here comes the second one.

Not only that, but I got almost double the amount I thought I would get back from the State of Missouri income taxes... That check came today too. A whopping $27!! I rock!

What will I do with all this money??? Gosh! I might be able to afford a trip to the laundromat! Then I can wear clean clothes again. I'm sure everyone I know will appreciate that! Alternatively, I could put gas in my car and go get a pump for my washing machine so I can take the dang thing apart and fix it.

Choices choices... all these choices. And you know what? I really am grateful. I really am. Money coming in the mail. Now that's cool!

Check this out!

Kate Nicholas and her border collie "Gin" on Britain's Got Talent 2008 doing canine freestyle. It might be pretty cool... I'm not entirely sure, because I have crappy dial up and can only watch about 2 seconds at a time... so talk to me guys. Is it cool or not?

OOPS! I put up the wrong one! So if you looked at this earlier, it was a totally different video. Silly me! I must have been half asleep when I proofread and published this post! OK, so here's the one I was talking about:

Snail Medicine

Three days in a row snails have unexpectedly shown up for me. So, I thought it might be beneficial and interesting to find out what that might mean if it was indeed an "omen" or a "message" of some sort.

Here's the scoop on snails:

Oops! ... I am so sorry, but I did move this post to my new website, Hey It's Me, and it can be found in its entirety here: Snail Medicine