So, disaster struck me the other night, in the form of a busted tire as I was coming out of the Expo Center. My truck slid backwards on the slick pavement and right into the spikes they have installed at each exit of the parking lot. My tire deflated like a balloon and I pulled over, swearing and crying, by the side of the freeway on-ramp.
It was there, sitting in the dark, rain pelting down on my windshield, that I realized that I wasn't sure who to call to come help me. Even worse-- I didn't have my tarot cards on me to consult. I used to joke that I consulted my cards so often that I would wake up in the morning and do a reading to find out whether or not it would rain that afternoon. More than I do actual readings, I like to sit around and just shuffle the cards. It's soothing to me, and more often than not, I get the reading mentally from the cards. If I bother to lay them down, I already know which cards will come up, because they've been flashing in my head the whole time.
But for some reason, I didn't bring my deck with me that evening, and I began to panic. Desperation may be the true mother of invention after all. In a fit of inspiration, I found a piece of scrap paper in the bottom of my truck, and a pen and started ripping the paper into little pieces. On each piece, I wrote something. "Go" "Wait" "Yes" "No" "Ask for Help" "Bad Luck" and a few of the pieces I set aside and wrote the names of people I know on them. I folded the little pieces of paper up and stuck them in the lid of a tupperware container I had floating around my vehicle for months now, then I sifted through them while thinking of my questions. I fished out four or five pieces of paper and unfolded them on my lap.
I got an amazing reading. Much better than I might have gotten from my trusty tarot deck, simply because I designed the answers around the specific questions I had. No vague symbols, just straight answers. I called the friend who's name was drawn, she called AAA, drove out and picked me up. All was well.
The lesson I got from this little make-shift oracle experiment is that if I really want answers, I will have to design my own tarot deck one of these days. Instead of relying on someone else's system, someone else's interpretations.
Don't disasters always bring with them some amazing insights and unexpected gifts? Not to mention they help you figure out who your true friends really are.
I was driving earlier today and I saw a sign on the back of a tractor trailer: "Make my Day: Flash Me!
At first I chuckled at how typical this sentiment was for a trucker, but before I could finish my chuckle, I thought - how wonderful. Here was a simple and easy way to make this guy's day: merely flashing him. It got me thinking about what thing would make my day. Coffee? No. Lots of money? No. Fame, Fortune, the Fountain of Youth? No.
Could I find something as simple as this truck driver? Only now, have I realized what makes my day. Seeing the magic. When I can see the magic in everyday life - a moment of awareness or understanding or just a little bliss, that makes my day. When I find the enlightenment in a truck driver's desire for boobies - I've made my day.
Humankind is gradually moving closer to a blissful state of inner peace. I know this because according to an article on msnbc.com, anal sex among straight couples in on the rise.
According to results of a federal study released two years ago, 40 percent of men and 35 percent of women surveyed in 2002 said they have had anal sex with an opposite-sex partner. An earlier study published in 1994 showed that among heterosexuals, 26 percent of men and 20 percent of women had ever engaged in anal sex.
From a Tantric-sex-leads-to-enlightenment perspective, this is wonderful news. According to Tantric philosophy, the root chakra, between the anus and the penis or/vagina, is the place where kundalini, the serpentine power of enlightenment, is said to lie coiled and sleeping.
French Indologist Alain Danielou, in his book Shiva and Dionysus, explains the Tantric rite of anal penetration thus:
In Tantric yoga, the centre of Ganesha — the guardian of the gates — is found in the region of the rectum. The male organ, in directly penetrating the area of coiled energy, may help its brutal awakening and thus provoke a state of enlightenment and sudden perception of realities of a transcendental order.
What is the catalyst for such magnificent cultural metamorphosis? The MSNBC article theorizes that "The first and most obvious reason is the influence of porn, which is always trying to come up with new ways to titillate and to be naughtier," and quotes film studies professor Constance Penley of (my alma mater) University of California, Santa Barbara. “Anal sex did not used to be de rigeur in porn and now it pretty much is even for mainstream porn.”
This brings us to a chicken-and-egg question. Did pornographers start putting more anal sex in films because people like it, or did people start liking it because they saw it in films? Would it not have occurred to many people to go in through the back door until they saw it in a movie? Or were people too scared to try it until they saw "Annie's All-Anal Action 3"? Or maybe it was the filmmakers who were too scared to feature anal sex in their films until they read the above-mentioned federal study?
I'd like to think that the answer is none of the above. There may in fact be a higher collective unconscious operating here, and this unconscious messenger is gently whispering to us all, "Do me in the butt."
Yoga pants are the new sweats; you can wear them pretty much anywhere, even if you've never done a Down Dog in your life. However, the general acceptability of yoga pants doesn't extend to poorly made, ill-fitting sweatpants. Do not, under any circumstances, buy those polyester-blend sweatpants with the elastic at the ankles.
Only wear sweats or yoga pants that fit PROPERLY. Be honest with yourself, and choose wisely. No one should be able to tell what brand of underwear you are wearing under your yoga pants.
In the third century B.C.E., the Greek philosopher Chrysippus, head of the Stoic school of philosophers, is said to have died of laughter after feeding his donkey wine and watching it attempting to eat figs.
According to World Entertainment News Network/Hollywood.com, Quentin Tarantino has had some comments about his past livesamong them, an American slave, a Japanese gentleman and, "I've always had a thought maybe that I might have been Shakespeare in another life.
Well, California Psychics is offering Quentin Tarantino, the opportunity to get a free past life psychic reading if he's up for it to see who he really was. All he has to do is call 1-800-PREDICT
I got a peek at a study of the meaning of life today. It highlighted we need to preserve our internal selfish notion that our life means something now…
Want to know how important your life is, then just think about what would happen if you died right now? Just like everyone who's lived before you, living right now and those who will live after you... the world will move on with out any notice of your existence.
If the notion that your life is worthless to others bothers you, I’ll be nice…. It’s posssibllllllle your offspring, your offspring's offspring, etc... or something you've said could take centuries to root in social behavior and you can become the next Jesus. Feel better? No? Then what is it that you’re doing to make the world a better place? Are you voting? Driving an SUV because they’re cool or a hybrid for the "environment"? How about throwing red paint on someone because they’re wearing fur? Are you doing anything to help the world? Do you really know what your charities are doing with your money? Why does any of this matter? Really it doesn't.
If you want to get to the core of it, all of us need to do is follow the golden rule… "Treat others as you would like to be treated." See, that way if you were homeless, and needed food, you’d get it, because you’re already buying food for the homeless when they ask for it. They're treating you the same way you treat them. When you hold the elevator for someone and delay your trip by 10 seconds, someone else will do the same for you, so you're not 10 minutes late. The golden rule gets you farther in the world with your own selfish needs, because you bring meaning to others by applying it. Nothing else you do can achieve this, because it also shows others that you have reverence for them. You become valuable to others! This means, when you go, they lose something and you will be missed.
How can astrology help a lawyer in his daily activities?
In my opinion a lawyer by the nature of his job is a person who can really find astrology very helpful. He will be able to have a better look of the cases on which his is involved in and also it can help him improve communication with his clients.
Read Dan's suggestions here. I wonder if there are any lawyers who use Astrology as Dan suggests. Would you use a lawyer who consulted Astrology?
They say a brush with death can heighten your senses and bring a sense of renewal to your life, increasing your appreciation for every waking moment thereafter.
Don't feel like drinking a bottle of whiskey and getting behind the wheel to play chicken with the 18 wheelers today? Having unprotected sex in Thailand? Eating from that mysterious tupperware container in the back of your fridge?
Former Gov. Fife says now that those strange lights that appeared over Phoenix a decade ago were from another world and that he had a close encounter with an alien craft on March 13, 1997.
Symington said he's always believed that life existed elsewhere. "The universe is a big place and we're conceited to think we're alone."
Want to get an in depth introduction to tarot reading? Well I have the perfect site for you. Rob over at Rob's Magickal blog has started on an 8 series introduction to not just tarot reading, but the number cards in a tarot deck. Just his first post blew my mind. I had no idea it was so ... fascinating. And here I thought tarot card reading was random (just kidding).
For some reason people tend to think that the pip cards are the hardest part of the tarot to learn to read. They’re actually the easiest, easier than both the court cards and the trumps.
Air is an active Masculine element. However it’s unseen and can’t be touched, and yet it is still able to effect the world (ie wind). Because of this Air is associated with thought. Air encompasses ideas, abstracts, intelligence, knowledge, imagination, ect. It also encompasses subjects like mathematics, theoretical sciences, philosophy, ect. Much like Water, Air is flexible and can take on the shape of a container. However Air is an active force, not a passive force. It has the ability to effect the world, although this ability is limited and its form is flexible and ever changing. Because of this Air is associated both with the present and with freewill.
The Kabbalah is a complicated subject. It basically discusses the creation of life, the universe, and everything. And as such it has to take abstract concepts that can’t fully be comprehended and bring them down to something resembling a human level. The end result is a system that can be studied for a lifetime, or even thousands of lifetimes, and still not be fully understood. And even if you did understand it, you could never really manage to impart that understanding to someone else.
and
The nothing wasn’t there first. It could only come into being when it’s opposite, the something, existed. The same goes for the something, it can only exist when the nothing also exists. This is the first duality, and so the universe turns on this principle. But as I said no one knows the true beginning of things, and the something and the nothing are not it. So what was before the something and the nothing? Something else entirely, and something that doesn’t turn on a duality. And the heritage of this something else is still intertwined into this universe, and it’s the third thing that creates the triplicity under which all things exist.
Okay, we’re going to talk about numerology, or what the numbers mean. As per our tarot pips, we’ll be looking at numbers 1-10. Each of these numbers corresponds to a Hebrew word and a sepiroth.
I can't wait to see how the rest of the series goes!
Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free? That is the penetrating, insightful question that Laura Session Stepp, author of Unhooked is asking. Here is a translation guide to this this quaint foreign phrase: "Cow" is a word that means "woman." "Milk" is a term that means "sex." The question is addressed to men, who naturally would have no need for a cow, as their only interest is in milk. And please, don't ask "where's the beef." There isn't any.
Stepp's wholly unoriginal thesis is that the young women of today are suffering from a shocking lack in sexual morality and failing in their position as sexual gatekeepers. She asserts that the trouble with the young people today is that they have no interest in finding loving, emotionally committed relationships, and are instead only interested in "hooking up," which is the term that the kids today use for what back in my day (the late eighties and early nineties) people of my generation called "ye olde fuck 'n' run." Or something.
Despite her troubled moans and wails, Stepp doesn't have me convinced that there's a problem here, because no one could ever convince me that human beings have suddenly ceased to have a need for emotional connection with other humans, or that their desire for long-term relationships has expired. Do I belive that young people are experimenting with casual sex? I certainly hope so. I also feel that the ability of people in their late teens and early twenties are capable of feeling love -- unlike Stepp -- despite the fact that they might not be currently in pursuit of a life partner.
Hand-wringing and tsk-tsk-ing over the moral lapses of the younger generation is a time-honored tradition, so I find Stepp's conclusions about the prevalence of casual sex between young adults not at all surprising. What I do find surprising is that she could find an audience for her preposterous assertion that an entire generation has lost the ability to experience romantic love.
Wow - did anyone else notice that today is the first day of Spring? I know I have been a busy little bee this month. Earlier this week, I found a bunch of lilacs at the local Farmer's Market. Lilacs are an amazing find in Los Angeles, because it doesn't get cold enough (i.e. freeze) for lilacs to really bloom. But here I was, faced with gorgeous purple fragrant lilacs. Lilacs that reminded me of midwest summer breezes. Here's a photo to feast your eyes on. Now that says Spring to me!
A long time ago, there was a fisherman named Urashima Taro. He found a sea turtle being harassed by some mean spirited children and saved the turtle's life by giving the children some coins in exchange for the poor animal. Taro released the turtle into the ocean and went home. The next day, while fishing, the sea turtle came to visit Taro to thank him for his good deed. The turtle, in a gesture of gratitude, asked the fisherman to climb onto his massive shell, whereupon the turtle dove into the ocean and carried his passenger to the Coral Palace under the waves.
In this palace, lived a beautiful princess. The princess's attendants were ladies wearing colored dresses with seaweed in their hair. Many days passed in happiness for Taro, who spent time with the princess. After a while, Taro began to feel guilty and homesick. He told the princess he needed to go back to be with his family, and she bade him goodbye crying bitterly and sent him off with a beautiful carved box, instructing him never to open it. "It will bring you luck if you never open it"
Riding the sea turtle, Taro arrived back on shore to find that everything had changed. His family's house was gone. He asked the first person he saw what had happened to his house. The stranger informed him that there hadn't been a house there for a hundred years.
Poor Taro realized that much time had passed while he was in the Dragon Palace. He succumbed to self pity and sat down by the shore. He thought to himself "I have no family. I have no house. I have nothing-- but this box." So, he opened the box, against the wishes of the princess. The box emitted a white smoke that engulfed him, turning Taro into an old man soon to die. The princess had given him a box containing his true age.
So I'm at work today, and I told this famous Japanese fable to some people standing there. When I was done, I asked them what they thought the lesson of the story was. Maybe the lesson was that Taro should have stayed with the princess? Or was the lesson not to leave your family?
I got two very different responses.
The customer, looked up at me in all seriousness and said "I've taken peyote before, and realized that your life is the box," he said tracing a square shape around his head in the air. "And suddenly, the box opens...and then you're old. And then you're dead. Yeah, man. I totally get it. "
My co-worker's response to the story was to shake his head and simply say, "Fucking women..."
My response? The real lesson is that if you really want to get to know someone, tell them an ambiguous Japanese folktale. You'll find out all sorts of interesting things about them, apparently.
I want to believe in psycho/tele-kinesis. I loved the movie Firestarter. I read books about telekinetic psychic children and astral projection when I was a kid. So yeah, I want to believe.
Featured here is a man who is "proving" his spoon-bending mind techniques. Watch for yourself. Read the comments on the associated blog post on mind-energy.net.
I've been trying to reprogram my thoughts lately. It came to my attention, because I was at a dance class with a friend of mine, where we had to stand the entire time in front of the mirror. I told her that I liked to wear a little make up and tried to look nice before class because if not, I'd stand there and nit-pick at myself in the mirror the whole time. It would start with a stray thought about the size of my thighs, and how they looked in my workout pants, and then onto what my hair is doing, or the circles under my eyes, or whether I look older than the other girls in the class. My brain never lets up.
After confessing this bad mental habit to my friend, she turned to me and said that I should work on this because talking badly about yourself and your appearances over a period of time is actually the same as being a victim of verbal abuse. It has the same negative effects on the psyche and the body.
My mind is verbally abusing my body every time I criticize it.
I think she's right. Furthermore, I've dug up some resources to check out for all you who share in this internal dialogue problem.
Secular groups Monday applauded a public acknowledgment by Rep. Pete Stark that he does not believe in a supreme being, making the Fremont Democrat the first member of Congress — and the highest-ranking elected official in the U.S. — to publicly acknowledge not believing in God.
One of my favorite bands is Gomez, and they're favorites of mine because of songs like "Get Miles." The lyrics:
I love this island
But this island's killing me
Sitting here in silence
Man, I don't get no peace
The waves upon my shore take me away, piece by piece
Gonna leave everything I know, gonna head out towards the sea.
Then it continues:
I love this city, man
But this city's killing me
Sitting here in all this noise, man, I don't get no peace
The cars below my street take me away piece by piece
Gonna leave everything I know
Gonna head out towards the sea
And finally:
I love this planet, but this planet's killing me
Sitting here in all this grass, man, I don't get no weed
The sweat coming from my palms takes me away piece by piece
Gonna leave everything I know
Gonna head to the galaxy
This song reminds me of myself at times: never content where I am, always longing to be somewhere else. And when I get somewhere else, I'm ready to leave again, if not physically, then mentally. Where is this "somewhere else" I'm always thinking I should be?
The speaker blames external influences -- the waves, the noise -- for his angst, but finally admits in the last verse that the trouble -- evidenced in sweating palms -- originates from within.
Peace isn't somewhere else. The only place peace can be found is right here, right now.
I’ve known D. forever, and we’ve each helped each other through lots of shit over the years. When his wife K. took the forum and was bowled over by it, he decided to attend. I was intrigued, because I like learning about ways people hack their personalities. But not so much so that I was ready to throw down $450 to go with him. He called me from a break to tell me that the Forum was really rocking his world, and that he’d love it if I would be his guest on Tuesday night for his “cult graduation.” I agreed to go with him to check it out.
A few days later, I saw my friend J. for lunch. When I told her that I was going to go to this thing with D. she exclaimed, “Oh no! Not the Forum!” She told me she’d been to those Tuesday night things three or four times, because friends of hers cajoled, wheedled and pleaded with her to do so. And each time she went, she was subjected to a hard sell to sign up for the Forum. When she refused, she said that some of her friends got very angry with her, and she’d even lost a couple of friendships over it.
Gossip site Jossip.com is breathless over rumors that Christina Aguilera is coming into the studio drunk and recording songs about oral sex:
The last day [Christina] came in she was drunk, and made a song about oral sex--and her giving it. It was recorded so she called her psychic Belinda Bentley and asked if it would leak and, if it did, would it ruin her career.
"Naturally, we're wondering if any of this could be this could be true. If so, what exactly could this mysterious recording tell us about Christina's oral stylings?
Over here at Daily Mantra we really could scarcely be less scandalized by the idea that Xtina might like to knock back a few drinks and make up songs about head -- in fact, it just makes us think she'd fit right in at one of our office parties. What caught our eye was the mention of psychics!
Curious, I checked out Belinda Bentley's web site, and found that although the spirits may be telling her all about our dead relatives and our future doings, they've clearly had nothing to say on the topic of good web design.
As far as what they said about the sucking in Christina's songs (and I mean that literally, for once), I'm not privy to that information. But Christina, if you're reading this -- and I feel confident that you are, now that I know you're into the whole psychics thing -- here's my prediction. The tape will not leak out and destroy your career if you take three simple steps:
1. Destroy the recording.
2. Stop recording things you don't want other people to hear.
3. Burn a purple candle and a bundle of sage in the northwest corner of your house at midnight tonight.
The spirits also told me that you actually only have to do two of these things, but they said that it would have to be up to you to figure out which two.
This week I'm in Austin at SXSWi - an interactive technology conference. What does this have to do with spirituality? Well nothing really. I'm just following my passion for technology. But something interesting came across my email this morning. AstroBarry was writing about the recent lunar eclipse and upcoming solar eclipse and how this was a big deal. I was intrigued, so this morning before heading out to my panels I read his post.
This eclipse isn't just wrapping up the events of this most recent six-month chapter of life. It's a much larger turning point in the macro-level astro-cycles that define generations. And what we're seeing now are but faint whispers of the tide-change headed at us over the next several years. Yes, it's that big.
So what does this have to do with SXSW? At first nothing, but the session I attended this morning hinted at bigger things. Tim Ferriss gave a 30 minute inspirational talk about the 4 hour work week, which basically talks about how you create a sustainable scalable dream life by defining what you want, eliminate what doesn't give you what you need, automate what you duplicate and liberate yourself to experience life. He said Americans work about 8 more weeks a year since the 1960s and get paid less to do so. Life is about being here - so slow down and enjoy it.
That's good advice. Now I'm going to read his book and get to optimizing my lifestyle.
Shhh. . . The filmmakers of "The Secret" want to tell you a secret. And it's the most powerful secret of the whole wide universe. The entire self-help/New Age world has been buzzing for months about this movie, which of course is a book, too.
I was told about "The Secret" by a hypnotherapist colleague of mine, who linked me to the online video, which was "leaked" in its entirety last October/November. I watched the entire thing. Of course, a week or so later, the "leaked" video was no longer online. Brilliant marketing - just like the drug pushers - first hit's free.
So the film starts out with all this esoteric imagery - ancient scrolls being unrolled, stone tablets being rubbed over papyrus, all sorts of mystical stuff, all the while, narrations of people talking about how big "The Secret" is and how powerful it is, and how all the ancient peoples knew what it was.
Fox News Interview with the man behind the mask, creator of the DreamMaker, Bruce Gelerter.
Lucid Dream Induction Mask-- DreamMaker
Comes with Mask, circuit board, detection kit, Lucid dream workbook, a copy of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge and the instruction manual.
Mask Design Details: made of black silk with soft foam eye pieces, stretchy head band with an adjustable velcro piece to fit snugly around your cranium. Overall design is comfortable to wear, not bulky or constrictive. The foam is high quality and very soft, so as not to irritate the skin around your eyes. I was able to fall asleep wearing it, which says a lot in regards to comfort and light blocking capabilities.
Circuit Board Design Details: The circuit board runs on two AAA batteries (which are included), and features a headphone jack (optional for the alarm), reality test/reset button, volume adjuster for the alarm, dip switch, Q-Time adjuster, brightness level adjuster to control the LED lights (four per eye), infrared motion detector and a speaker.
Test the circuit board, program it and slip it inside the black eye mask-- then go to bed and see what happens. If all goes well, in 20 minutes the motion detector kicks in and waits for rapid eye movement to signal the alarm and or lights, which brings the sleeper to a slightly awakened state, whereupon they can hit the 'reality check' button located on the upper left hand side of the mask and reset it for another round, which eventually induces lucid dreaming as well as out of body experiences.
Advaita ("nonduality"): the truth and teaching that there is only One Reality (Atman, Brahman), especially as found in the Upanishads; see also Vedanta ( Source: Yoga Journal )
There is no difference between what is within and what is without - there is no duality in the world. All is One. All is Consciousness. There's no reason to ask "Why" anything is - everything just IS.
"Question: What is advaita?
Answer: "Dvaita" translated from Sanskrit means "duality", so "advaita" is "non-duality".
Dvaita is duality, simultaneous directing of one's attention both to the physical plane and God. So "advaita" is "non-duality. . . Later, the majority of people incarnated on Earth develop religiousness and so the state of "dvaita" gets started, that is duality, simultaneous directing of one's attention both to the physical plane and God. But as a result we must attain "advaita", when we wholly devote ourselves to God alone." Source: Religious Book.
After reading the post, I felt like I just discovered a $20 bill in a pair of pants that's been hanging in my closet for months. Only, this was more like a bar of gold. His theory shed a new concept on the ultimate question of “Why am I alive” that I'd never thought about before and it felt refreshing.
Here’s the epiphany: If a system such as as our universe was created with intelligence by what we humans call God, what benefit would arise? (Of course, I realize this question could be pointless, but just for a moment, lets assume the system was designed to deliver a benefit and done so with intelligence.) Our system is filled with balance: good and evil, night and day, hot and cold, happy and sad, etc... . The benefit to an intelligently designed system that shows balance could exist help to contribute to the bounty of God in a quest for true omnipotence. In essence, God is not perfect, God is flawed and learns and grows with us. God needs us as much as we needed God because of our ability to provide our experiences into the "God" collective. In essence, God experiences everything through us and learns from us.
The simple way to look at this is that we are in essence a small grain of sand on a beach. Each one of us, alone is in fact nothing, however with all of us, and our experiences, we become God. With out us, God’s experiences with the universes that (s)he(it)’s created, disappears with us.
I suppose that makes us borg and makes God... the Borg Queen?
L.A. is one of the world capitals of self-help. Sometimes it seems like every electricity pole, bulletin board and bus ad promises you some way to fix all the things wrong in your life. Most of them cost money, of course. And most of them have their organized detractors, devoted to convincing you of nefarious attempts to liberate you from your cash.
One of the big dogs in town is Landmark Education. Unlike the marketeers, they do little to no advertising, and relies on word of mouth to get people to their sessions. (As we’ll see later on, this has its positives and its drawbacks.) Landmark Education is the descendent of the widely known and widely lampooned est movement. A quick google search will clue you in to the rocky history of est, it’s disgraced founder and its legal adventures. I’ve included some links at the bottom as well, which cover info on est, Landmark, and a couple of instances of how it's show up in pop culture. Most of the debate centers around the evergreen question, “Is Landmark A Cult.”
Perhaps you're having communication problems with your spouse or can't figure out your next career move. Maybe you just have an eerie sense that something ominous is on the horizon. That eclipse you saw last night -- or didn't -- could be to blame.
A full lunar eclipse is a fraught symbol in the astrological world. One local criminal lawyer turned astrologer warned that it would trigger feelings of frustration. Another astrologer said it could foreshadow a terrorist attack in April.
A skeptic would call that hogwash, but half a dozen astrologers invited nonbelievers to review their past predictions, saying their results have been too accurate to be simply coincidence.
This week features a grand trine—or three planets forming an equilateral triangle in the sky—in the element of fire. Fire brings forth physical energy, bravery and force… the impulse to act by instinct, fast and free and forward, rather than thinking or waiting or weeping about what's done and gone or may never happen.
Are you ready to have an explosive week? I've got your matches right here.
I've never been able to swallow the idea that everyone born on the same day will necessarily have similar personality traits. However, I can understand why people love to read things about themselves, and from there, it's not a long leap to "this is about me, so it has to be real, because I'm real!" Fortunately, I found something that works for people like me, who don't believe in the stars but love to learn more about numero uno.
At The Personality Page, you can take a quiz that will place you into one of the sixteen personality types based on the well-known research of Carl Jung, Katharine C. Briggs, and Isabel Briggs Myers.
Jung's belief is that there are two basic kinds of "functions" which humans used in their lives: how we take in information (how we "perceive" things), and how we make decisions. Within these two categories, there were two opposite ways of functioning:
Extroverted vs. Introverted
Sensing vs. Intuitive
Thinking vs. Feeling
Judging vs. Perceiving
From these four categories you get sixteen basic personality types. I recommend taking the page's very interesting quiz. I learned that I'm an ENTJ, and I liked the fact that the information was based on something a lot more substantive than my birthdate, but of course that's a very ENTJ thing for me to say.
Reuters has a fascinating video story on Native Americans using ancient tracking methods to catch drug smugglers at the Arizona/Mexico Border. They are called the Shadow Wolves. Click to view the video.
"Don't just wipe the floor, polish it," the book instructs. "It's important to maintain a positive mood while cleaning."
While cleaning is important, what they are trying to communicate is not the task you are doing, but the awareness of the task you are doing. Cleaning the bathroom thinking about what you are going to do next, is not going to help you win the lottery. But if you give your full attention to the task at hand, you might win a little more self-awareness. And maybe that self-awareness says it's time to hire a maid!
