Ahead of her Time

Sinead O'Connor saw clearly. She saw what the Church was doing in Ireland and she brought light on it - and frankly,  they tried to crucify her for it.   There's something so powerful when someone can see a cultural disease and clearly speak to it.  

But she saw other things clearly too. How the music industry wanted her to be pretty,  and she shaved her head;  how they wanted her to be docile and she rebelled;  how they wanted her to be overawed by them and she said she never wanted to be a pop star in the first place.  She saw herself so clearly - a protest singer who shone a light.  

I love the quote - in Rememberings, "A lot of people say or think that tearing up the Pope's photo derailed my career. That's not how I feel about it," she wrote. "I feel that having a No. 1 record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track."

I know she is a complex being and not everything she did made sense. But she came from a pure place,  and it took a few decades for us to catch up with her,  and see that most things she said were absolutely true and right.  I am grateful to her,  for the risks she took,  and for how hard she struggled to show us Truth. 

Anxiety

Anxiety - even the mention of the word can make us feel anxious.  Throughout the Covid years I was speaking to a lot of people with increasing issues with anxiety.  And somehow they all felt,  once Covid felt like it was behind us,  the anxiety would decrease.  But there is something about long exposure to anxiety,  it sensitizes us to it.  So the more you are anxious,  the more anxious you can become - feels terribly unfair!  

The best advice I've found for dealing with it, is getting out into nature - a walk in the woods,  by the river,  or the ocean -  works wonders.  But sometimes we are far away from nature,  and getting out of the house on our one day off and trying to find some nature just adds to our stress.  So... I've been recommending guided meditations downloads and aps.  

But first I'll start with a disclaimer.  I absolutely believe that these can help,  but I'm also incredibly picky.  One wrong detail and I'm out of there,  no longer relaxed and in touch,  but rather irritated and more anxious!  So I can reject then on the basis of accent,  of back ground music,  of one wrong word.  But I believe in them,  so while I am picky and reject far more than I accept,  I keep ploughing on till I find the one that works for me.  These have worked for me or been recommended by people I trust and have worked for them.  They may not work for you,  and that's not on you or on the product, it just didn't connect to you.  If they don't work, please just look for another one - and if you find one that really does work for you, let me know and I'll add it to my list of referrals.  

I've listened to literally hundreds of guided meditations,  and this is one of my favorite creators - Belleruth Naparstek. ,  she speaks so kindly and so wisely.   I also like the work by Andrew Weil, he writes a lot about food,  but his CD on music,  with Kimba Arem ,  was just so healing and calming. Also the very well named,  Anxiety Release app comes highly recommended.  

So take a deep breath,  and dive into that world and see what speaks to you... 

How does tarot work?

Had a talk with an old friend about Tarot recently. She asked how I did it and I started with logistics,  a tarot deck,  78 cards (more than a playing card deck),  I always start with the same layout (the Celtic Cross) and do the readings, responding to how the cards fall, in what order.  

But how does it work? 

The body is made up of water and energy,  with a bit of calcium and thickener for the organs and bones.  What we know about the body is growing in leaps and bounds,  but what we know about mind and spirit is much more circumscribed.

I don't know how the energy of the body attracts some cards and repels others.  Because I do so many readings,  I see the magic of it all the time. Does it work because we both want it to?  I've read for real sceptics and had very accurate readings.   I gave her the example of the reading I did recently with the man drawing justice reversed and it turns out he was in the middle of a court case that was not going well.  How did he draw that card and not another?  I don't know that.  

But I do see it time and again.  People with money problems have their pentacles reversed,  people with pain in the hearts draw the three of swords. And equally importantly, people who are in good places relationship wise, don't draw the 3 of swords.  They draw the 2 of cups or the Lovers.  

I believe in psychic phenomena,  so I see evidence of it all the time.  It's hard to have a clear explanation,  but I say,  sometimes you sit next to someone on the bus,  someone you have no interaction with,  and you can see if they are happy or sad,  excited or bored.  The cards take it a step further,  happy about love,  bored with work,  or excited about work,  sad about past love. 

And that's what you go to a tarot reader to see - the pattern and how it is reflecting your life. 

When you are new to a place

I spoke to someone who had recently moved from Ireland and was charmingly lamenting the changes.  Even waiting for the bus could be a bewildering event.  He didn't realize you had to flag down the bus in order to get it to stop,  and a bus roared by,  while clearly seeing him standing there.  Eventually another waiting passenger explained that this stop serviced 4 different routes and if the didn't flag the bus down (by waving clearly) then the bus driver just assumed he was waiting for a different bus and drove on by.    

I do a lot of tarot readings for people who have just moved to New York.  I often talk about managing expectations.   We know how things worked back home,  and sometimes those expectations just bite us when we move somewhere new, especially somewhere as big as New York.   The first six months can definitely feel overwhelming at times.

It's up to us,  the new person,  to see that we have moved and this different place might have good reason for doing things differently.  Or they just might have different customs,  no good reason,  but everyone else does it that way,  so you may have to be the one who adapts.  Or you can bring your better coffee and people come to your café and soon you've changed the local culture. Either way,  there's often no malice,  just different expectations/customs and as long as you keep that in mind,  it's easier to deal with.