Most people use a cell phone, or something similar, since there isn't a whole lot of actual bells ringing. It's just a reminder to stop what you doing and become the moment.

I am not going out gracefully. I still seek the fountain of youth. I want to feel good for as long as I do live.

I used to fear death and worry about it when I was 14 years old.

Now I just wonder about it and how I will die and I would like to be able to see into the future and see how I will die, ~~ and yet I don't know what I would do with that information.

I think at some point people consider suicide and whether or not they would ever do it, and if so under what conditions would they do it. I do not consider it to be an option unless I am about to be tortured for information that would put other people's lives in danger. Other than that, I will stick with it until my natural appointed time of death.

I have died before in many other lives, a few of them I remember, but most of them I don't. Here are some I remember:

1.) I was thrown into a pit of hungry lions and killed and eaten by them. Nice experience really. They were very appreciative of the meal. I could actually feel love from them... or joy, I don't know what it was.

2.) I was beheaded by a guillotine. Not much pain, a sharp pain at the back of my neck is all I felt. I was conscious for a few minutes after my head was severed. That was strange.

3.) Fell off a cliff. A quick exploding pain when I hit the ground.

Very interesting Jeannie. I hope you are doing well with all the information you contain. I always know that those who have a huge access to knowledge are usually either depressed or suicidal at times. I am not saying you are this way, just that I have known some people who contained an immense knowledge who always felt this way.

There was a quote Benjamin Franklin once said - The more you know the more depressed you get. The quote was written approximately like this. I would have to go back and look how exactly it is said, but the meaning I mentioned above is what he was saying. Everyone is different on how they digest alot of information and knowledge.

What would be interesting to know if EVERYONE can access information on their past lives or deaths.

I sometimes at a young age remember my past life. The problem is I am not sure if it is a past life or just a dream or just my vivid imagination, which is very grand in my head.

I was in the 1920's a hit man for one of the mobs in Chicago. Which one I don't know and I went to my apartment to the second floor to greet my girlfriend who I loved very much. Suddenly as I hugged and kissed her many shots went off and I remember holding her in my arms while on the ground. It was so quick! I remember seeing her shocked expression and I end up lifting away from my body watching (as a spirit or soul) how I held her in my arms.

I sometimes wonder if my love was so strong that in my new human form today can still remember and have difficulty letting go?

Yes it is interesting. I mean I hope I wasn't a hit man in my last life that is for sure, but I wonder why I dreamed this at such a young age frequently.

good idea. Thank you.

Good Morning everyone,

I went to the bookstore the other day to look at some art books. I can spend days just looking at beautiful artwork sometimes. I stumbled upon a box that had cards in it. I guess someone had it in their hands and changed their mind to buy it and put it in the art department. I am sure it belonged to the spiritual department elsewhere in the store.
I looked at it and read "Easy Tarot - Learn to read the card once and for all by Josephine Ellershaw (book) and cards created by Ciro Marchetti. After a cup of coffee and a stack full of books in my arms, I decided to buy these cards, primarily because the artwork really fascinated me. 78 beautiful illustrated cards.
As I opened it, it came with a map outline on where to put the cards if laid out correctly and of course a book of over 200 pages. I will read this book and see if I can actually lay the cards like a real Tarot Card Reader. I only know of one person who actually has the ability to read the cards and that is Jeannie. She is very good at what she does.

Anyway if you know anything about Tarot Cards or want to discuss about it then please do. It would be interesting to get pointers, history, experiences, or knowledge of what you know about it.

I also read Tarot. And, yes, anyone who wants to can learn how. The cards are a wonderful way to do a lot of self-exploration.

Oh that is good to know. Now I know two people who are Tarot Card Readers.

I have only known about this from Gypsy's when I lived back home in Germany. Yes I had some great Gypsy friends who I spend some time with. I never actually learned anything about what they do, but spent more time enjoying the time in restaurants feasting like a king and they feast like a king and queen over in Germany.

I know very little about this, but everytime I look at the cards (and I am trying not to at the moment), I want to go get a sheet of paper and starting illustrating

As a former Red Cross worker I always tried to make the person who is less fortunate feel good about themselves.

If you are taking care of someone who is dying, try to adopt the attitude that is best suited to their personality, to the nature of their illness, to whether or not they have religous beliefs and to whether or not they believe in rebirth. Do everything in your power to help the dying person relax by creating a peaceful atmosphere around him. If you are agitated, he or she will be disturbed by many thoughts and feel uncomfortable. In Buddhist terms, there is a danger that you might provoke negative tendencies in him.

I stumbled upon this today and thought it would be nice to share.

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

~His Holiness The Dalai Lama

I have known that for a long time, great minds think alike

Those who think like this have truly great minds. Be proud you have a great mind wise one

I call some of my friends 'slaves to money'. Without taking a moment's rest, they exhaust themselves running here and there; they are forever leaving for Japan, Europe, or Korea, and do not dare to take anykind of holiday.

Naturally, if their activities are devoted to benefiting others or to developing their country, one can only rejoice at such an effort. Those who have noble goals and who work night and day to realize them deserve praise. But even in these cases, it is good to take a rest from time to time to preserve one's health. It is better to be useful over a longer period, and at a moderate pace, than to make inordinate efforts that are shortlived.

For example: I took a 3 hour nap

Do you have friends or know people who only talk about money and work day and night to only talk about more about the money?

If so what suggestions do you have for someone who is unhappy and cannot change their lifestyle when working day and night and talking about money all the time?

I would point out a responsibility they have for themselves, and for their families to stay healthy and take the time for their problems.

I have spend this last week helping Darla to design the last 25 cards in our 80 card deck. Today we are working on the five and eight of cups.

Last week we finished the nine and ten of swords. We have 19 cards to finish.

I can't wait to print and use my first new deck. I'm so excited.

The only thing I would offer is Joan Bunning's web site.

I personally like the way she lays out the meaning of each card. I just like the bulleted format and the abstract way she lays this out. I actually printed all of these meanings out and put them in a 3-ring binder. (I'm too cheap to buy her book )
The Individual Cards
http://www.learntarot.com/cards.htm

The other thing I found really nice on her site is the story of the journey of the Fool.

You can read it here. It's only one page long. I found this to be very helpful in my understanding of tarot.

The Fool's Journey
http://www.learntarot.com/journey.htm

Finally she offers a whole course on learning Tarot here:

The Course
http://www.learntarot.com/course.htm

This is remarkable information. Thank you kindly for giving me some pointers and history of the Tarot Card. I will also share information from the book I am reading on a different thread one day. Who knows I may try to lay the cards down as a beginner of course online here on mingle. I find practice is what we all need. Some more then others. Who knows James maybe if you like we can create our own deck for fun in the future. I was thinking of a medieval fantasy look based on the writings I have been doing or maybe a sci fi type of illustrations with little green martians. Still contemplating how the designs should look if I am to do this. I have another deck of cards from Heidi Darras called the "Mystic Dreamer Tarot" which has also breathtaking illustrations on their 78 card layout. This book as 240 pages to read.

I was even astonished to find a deck of tarot cards for those who worship the dead. The illustrations where probably the best of all the tarot cards I have seen in the bookstore and the price to go with it. $79.95 is what they wanted for their deck of cards. I am not ready for that yet

James have you actually layed out some cards yet? What is your experience thus far, or are you working on actual spells instead?

I have done a couple of serious layouts and self-readings.

In fact, I explain one of them in some depth in the third post of this thread:

http://mingle2.com/topic/show/181706

It truly was a phenomenal reading!

It couldn't have been more perfect.

And even though it gave me information that I basically already knew, I still found it useful and interesting. I have the whole spread recorded in a 3-ring binder. Just to keep a record of it.

I've also had some luck with come 'Creation Spreads' that I did.

Again, these spreads were a similar type of question.

Like, "How should I go about this?", or "What do I need to know to accomplish a certain thing?"

Those kinds of questions seem to produce the best results.

One thing about divination is that I truly don't have any questions that I seriously want to ask right now.

That might seem odd, but it's true.

From what I've read (and based on my own personal understanding of tarot and divination techniques in general), is that they only work if you're very sincere about what you want to know.

If you're just playing around for the sake of goofing off, or only mildly curious, or worse yet just 'testing' the system, then it's not going to work because you're 'soul' (or higher self), just isn't into the process.

So since this is my belief of how it works, then it can only work for me when there is something I seriously want to know about.

But at the moment I'm just don't have an questions that I'm seriously concerned with knowing the answers to.

And yes, I have moved on to other things as well.

For example, in witchcraft I have three stones that I use to answer 'Yes/No' questions.

So if I merely want a yes or no answer I reach for my bag of stones and toss them out to see what they have to say.

Those stones seem to have been giving me reliable information thus far.

Although, it's hard to say for sure.

When they say 'No'. I just don't do whatever I was planning on doing. So I have no way of knowing whether that would have been a disaster had I done it anyway.

However, so far, everytime they's said 'Yes', I went ahead with my plans and things have worked out smoothly.

I guess the only way I'll know they aren't working is to keep using them until they say, "yes" and then have that experience turn out to be a disaster.

Thus far, I haven't run into that.

But I've only been doing this for a short time so there's not a lot of history to it.

I got this Magick Stones idea from one of Scott Cunningham's books so it's only been since Ruth started the first of these Wiccan thread series and recommended Scott's books.

But look at me know! I'm already deep into Penczak!

I like these Magic Stone though. Owl keep them for as long as they seem to be working.

But they only do a 'yes/no' type of question.

But you can put a lot of questions into that form.

However, tarot is much better for question like, "How do I go about something".

I mean, you can get a whole story from a tarot layout.

You can't get that from three pebbles.

So I like tarot for the more complex questions.

How to go about things.

Or "What do I need to know" about something.

Questions that can't be answered with a simple yes or no.

Here's a nice site that does tarot layouts for you on the computer.

You might find some of these layouts interesting.

When you do a layout the first paragraph after the layout tells what the layout is best used for. Then each position is explained in detail below that.

I like the Cross and Triangle spread for "How do I go about this?" type of questions.

I think it has good positions and tells a nice story with respect to how to go about something.

http://www.facade.com/tarot/

You can learn these spreads on the computer, and then use your own deck of cards to deal them out.

I also like the Creative Process spread, but that's because I'm always looking to do creative things.

So I imagine what I want to create (maybe a song or music). I meditate on it for a while, whilst slowly shuffling the cards.

Then when it "feels ready" I lay out the spread.

I've have pretty good luck with the Creative Process spread.

But it truly seems to work better the more seriously I use it.

By that I mean, if I just think causally, "What if I wanted to create this?",... and then deal out the cards I often just get a jumbled mess that doesn't mean anything.

But if there is something that I'm seriously prepared to delve into and I'm having "writer's block", or "muscian's block", or "Artist's block",....

Then I turn to the cards, I hold them, and suffle them 'intuitively' as I feel to do so.

All the while thinking about what it is that I'm having trouble with.

Then when I lay the cards out they have MEANING!

And they usually get me moving again with a fresh idea.

Not exactly fortune telling. But divination of creativity none-the-less.

I tend to be a pragmatic witch. If the Magick can give me a nudge in the right direction it worked!

It's better than the stalemate block where I was before!

I must say you have done quiet alot of research as I read the other thread. I learned alot just reading that alone.

I would say that it just takes time. A step by step process.

Sometimes I wonder and I am not trying to get anyone upset here. That is not my intent, but I think about how there are well thought out answers to each of the 78 cards that can be universal.

What I mean by universal is that if a person asks a certain question for example: Will I get a job this year?

That there is a universal answer that 90% of the people would agree to and then is used in the tarot card deck. That each card is carefully thought out to give a answer that most people would accept.

Now if this is to be true then I ask myself that regardless the order of the cards shuffled and presented on the spreadsheet one uses the questions or answers to a persons interest will have a "universal answer" that 90% of the people would agree with.

Now I am not saying that this alone is acceptable. I think that the one who is the tarot card reader has immense personality skills, communication skills, and ability to understand a human's mind and emotions to add to the cards readings that a book presents.

What are your thoughts on this?

Hi James,

I looked up the author Christopher Penczak and see that his spouse is Steve Kenson who is a roleplaying game designer for various games that made it big at its time.

You know I like fantasy and text roleplaying games as you know I have attempted to run a few games myself here on mingle.

I think paganism and witchcraft really is my cup of tea not only for its powers, spells, and history, but also for my imagination

I thought I share this with you


One of his students asked Buddha, "Are you the messiah?"
"No", answered Buddha.
"Then are you a healer?"
"No", Buddha replied.
"Then are you a teacher?" the student persisted.
"No, I am not a teacher."
"Then what are you?" asked the student, exasperated.
"I am awake", Buddha replied.