Guest Authors – Page 21

Immortal Blues: Part Eight

May 1, 2011 by Administrator, posted in Guest Authors

By Greg Bullard

Welcome to part eight of the nine part fiction series “Immortal Blues” by Greg Bullard. The end game approaches. Motivations are revealed, as well as the blues man. If you need to catch up, here is Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, and Part Seven.

I took comfort in the sound of hastily retreating feet as, slowly, my breath returned to me. Each gasp was like a fresh dagger wound in my side. Gingerly, I reached down and probed the area where I had been shot. The bullet, hot to the touch, was pancaked to my surcoat, just over my ribs. I wedged my thumb nail under it, pried off the flattened chunk of lead, and then sucked at my burning fingers.

Probing at the dent in my side, I found it extremely tender. An ungodly pain was spreading from that area. Wincing, holding my side, I struggled to my feet. Reorienting myself, I stumbled on towards home.

Every few blocks I paused, leaned against a wall and caught my wind. The act of breathing was horrific. The pain I could stand, but the stench of refuse and soured garbage, which clung to my clothes, rose up with each intake of air, filling my mouth and nose, turning my stomach.

At my hobbled pace, I figured the ninety minute walk was going to take me twice that long. This left me a lot of extra time to think. What the hell had I gotten myself into? How had I started down this path? I let my memory wander.

The centuries piled one on top of the other and everywhere I turned, I kept seeing her. She was mostly known as Breo-Saighit in those days – the Flame Arrow of the Isles. Long before the split, when our people, the Tuatha Dé Danann, were one, I could survey any battlefield and see her there. In a time when giants and gods walked the Earth, we waged war constantly. Her fiery mane was a beacon, a rallying point when we crushed the Fir Bolg. We fought back-to-back for a time when we rose up and threw off the yolk of the Fomoriai. All those years, all those battles, yet we never really spoke. We were too different, her and I.

When the split came, she represented the worst of what I hated. She let them strip her of her place and turn her into a puppet of their surrender. Saint Brigid they dubbed her, Muime-Chriosd – Foster Mother of Christ, or simply, Saint Brigid Búadach – Brigid the Victorious.

She and those like her embraced the new religion and heralded the slow descent of the old gods and the rest of the People of Dana. Like the mid-summer sun, falling slowly to the horizon and the inevitable cloak of night, so too did we fall into the dark. The Unseelie they called us. We fought, but we were few to their many. I led the 100 in battle and we were never defeated, but neither were we able to achieve a real victory. One by one those around me fell further to embrace the darkness they had been cast into. Their forms grew hideous as their souls warped. I just grew more stubborn, but otherwise never changed.

I don’t know when it happened, but at some point, I came to realize that the flame-haired wisp of a girl, who had fought and killed by my side, still haunted my memories. Time turned to the present decades, and change came rapidly to the world. The moon bridges were fading and more and more our people sought shelter in the comfort of Tír na nÓg, rather than face the banality and decay of Earth.

I visited Earth though, often. I could not bear knowing that I lived in the basement of the heavens and would never see the red-headed seductress of my memories. More and more, it gnawed at me that, once before, one of my kind, one of the fallen, the Unseelie, had crossed to the light and joined the Seelie court. If he could, I could.

The process is not so simple as asking though. At the least, there is a sacrifice required of any who choose to ascend the stairway and join the light. The same is not true of the trip down – one need simply fall. We don’t get many takers on our end.

The most significant sacrifice is two-hundred years in exile. I have spent the lion’s share of the last two-thousand years frolicking on Earth. I have spent decades without feeling the need to return to the courts. And yet, now that absence is voluntarily required of me, each morning and evening twilight, the bridge of stars is created to the otherworld and it pulls at me. Turning away from that bridge is a steadily growing pain that I will endure twice a day for the next 198 years, if I am to succeed. Worse, I can only try this once, and if I am to court Breo-Saighit, I must not fail.

That all brought me to that early, April, New York City morning, hours before dawn twilight. Each breath was still painful, but most of my range of motion was back. I could move quickly if I had to do so. Still, nothing explained what had happened to me. I slunk through the shadows, pouting like a petulant princess, fighting a losing battle against the temptation of telling myself that this couldn’t possibly be happening to me – others, perhaps, but not me.

I am inviolate. I am first born of the Sidhe. I am nobility. I am immortal. I tried hard to believe myself, but whispered in my thoughts, along with these statements of feigned-certainty, were little, dreary clouds of doubt. I am in pain. I stink of garbage. I want to go home.

As I neared my home though, I grew tense and troubled. Something was amiss, but I couldn’t put a finger on it. To all of my senses, the world was as it should be. In my mind’s eye, everything appeared fine, but again, there was that doubt.

I had almost convinced myself it was paranoia, when I crossed the street half a block from my door and heard him – the blues man. In two steps, I had oriented myself to the sound. It was coming from my bedroom window.

Snarling and shrugging aside the pain, I quickened my step until I had broken into a jog. I had just poured out of the staircase into my living room, while the last notes of Robert Johnson’s “Love in Vain” were falling down around me in a puddle of heartbreak and agony. My eyes fell on the face of the blues man, and I understood.

About Greg Bullard:
Greg currently resides in Austin, TX, trying to do his part to Keep Austin Weird. While his wife, Julia, and daughter, Emily, both work hard to keep him on his toes, it is Julia’s red editing pen that does the most work. When he is not muddling his way through some fiction, he usually writes about What Greg Eats.

Immortal Blues: Part Seven

April 17, 2011 by Administrator, posted in Guest Authors

By Greg Bullard

Welcome to part seven of the nine part fiction series “Immortal Blues” by Greg Bullard. Aine Marina hangs around long enough to create more questions than answered and again, shots are fired. If you need to catch up, here is Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, and Part Six.

I stared into those deep brown eyes, alit with foreign thought, and in that instant, my memory betrayed me by dragging me backwards through time to a small hill, a green meadow and a beautiful girl so many centuries ago.

I was a conqueror, grown weary of battle. The scent of blood and flash of metal death no longer sustained me. Instead, I hunted true emotion, raw feelings, first pleasure, final pain and more. I was a skilled hunter.

The hunt had brought me to that hillside, where my lips stalked the flesh of the human woman who would ascend to be Queen of the Fey. She shuddered beneath my touch and trembled at the slightest brush of my fingertips on her blushing skin. Amidst that knee-high grass and the warm caress of the spring sun, I achieved my greatest conquest to date, drinking deep of the love-spilled tears of a once-virgin princess.

As clear as yesterday, I remember the passion aflame in those emerald eyes, framed once in alabaster skin and again in a fan of loose, red curls, spilled out around her on the hillside. I snapped back to the brown eyes before me, framed once in olive skin and again in long, straight hair of the deepest black. Impossibly, yet actually, they were the same eyes.

“It has been far too long, Your Majesty,” I inclined my head to her, politely, yet without a trace of subservience. “I admit, I had not expected you, but I am pleased none the less that you are here. Will you allow me to show you about the city? It’s a marvel of human creation.”

Marisela blinked once, doubt spread quickly across her features and was, itself, chased out by fear before she collapsed in front of me. I caught her inches before her head struck the hardwood floor.

Cradling her in my arms, I brushed the hair from her forehead and passed my senses over her. She was uninjured, but asleep in a fullness of depth and peace from which she would not soon awaken. The alien presence was gone, and along with it any sense of my own confidence that I somehow controlled this situation.

I stood with Marisela draped in my arms and looked questioningly at Isabella.

“Place her on her bed,” Isabella coughed, clutching at her cane she steadied herself. “Then you must leave.”

I was ten blocks from the Crone’s house, flitting from shadow to shadow, when the tidal wave of questions that I should have asked, came, unbidden. Why did you say you were sorry? Why must I leave? Did you know Aine Marina was coming? Why weren’t you more surprised?

I started to double back, but I’d made good progress towards home and it was late. Still, the state of events was confusing and frustrating. Over and over, I kept asking myself, had I just been played? If so, how long was the setup?

The trip home was nerve wracking. I had to double check each street and alley to insure I wasn’t observed, and no matter how clear it looked, I kept seeing movement in the shadows, but I knew no one was there. I kept telling myself I was just being extra careful. My little ink spot of darkness, absent the moon, stood out all too easily on the big city streets.

Finally, I made it safely across the Manhattan Bridge, and then down to the streets below. Walking in the shadows of the bridge, no longer quite so concerned with the moon, I let my guard down a bit. That’s when I was spotted.
Two drunks stumbled out of the backdoor of a dingy tavern, right into my path. I stepped around them, still mostly lost in my thoughts when I realized that one of them had spoken to me.

“Yous dere,” he slurred in the drunken, thick Italian-American accent of a Brooklyn native, “Yous gots some cash for me and my buddy ‘ere? Eh? We’re busted.”

I shrugged, shook my head and continued walking – and maybe offered up a few choice words about his state of employment and drunkenness. I then went back to ignoring the fool and his friend. That’s when, for the second time in a few days, I heard the unmistakable click of a hammer being drawn back on a gun.

I wheeled and fired my most menacing glare at him. Normally that does the trick, but I think he might have been too drunk to care or notice. He swayed back and forth, barely maintaining his feet, while the blued steel barrel of his snub nose .38 wavered back and forth, pointing in my general direction.

“Careful friend,” I said, again in my most menacing tone, “it’s been a bad week already and you’re quickly getting on the wrong side of me.”

“Di’ja hear that Antony? We’re on ‘is bad side,” he blinked, steadied himself a bit and tried to make an effort to aim the gun at me. “You knows what? You’re on our bad side too,” he added, “what says yous empty yah pockets and see about getting on our good side. Eh?”

Fed up, I blinked and flicked my hand in his direction, shifting reality slightly in the process – at least, that’s what was supposed to have happened. His eyes went wide at my gesture. There was a moment of panic on his features and then fire blossomed from the end of the gun.

The world never slowed down around me. Time didn’t flow like cold molasses from a full jug. The end of the barrel flashed with fire, and then the hammer of the gods slammed into my chest.

I crumbled to the ground, dropped in my tracks and the breath exploded from my mouth in one great gasp. I was left writhing amidst the trash and filth of the city’s worst streets, and I was scared. Something was very, very wrong.

Geek Month in Review: March 2011

April 6, 2011 by Administrator, posted in Books, Geek Stuff, Guest Authors, Movies, Science

By JB Sanders

Immortal Blues: Part Six

April 3, 2011 by Administrator, posted in Guest Authors

By Greg Bullard

Welcome to part six of the nine part fiction series “Immortal Blues” by Greg Bullard. We say good-bye to The Crone, Isabella, and hello to a frenemy from the past. If you need to catch up, here is Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four and Part Five.

“What the hell do you want?” Marisela spat venomously, temper flaring and smoldering in her pitiless, black eyes.

In a snap I made a decision, perhaps rash in hindsight. In an amount of time difficult to measure, I had her wrapped in my embrace and my lips were pressed against hers. Instantly, her mouth parted, giving way to my advances, allowing my tongue to twirl and wrestle with her own. I could feel the core of anger seething within her. Slowly, with that impassioned kiss, I drew the roiling, writhing emotion into myself and drank deeply of the raw power within it.

Seconds passed and I felt my reserves of energy and emotion refilling. She would be exhausted – I felt her strength flagging now, but I was in no mood to coddle the temperamental girl. Like her great – many times removed – grandmother before her, she would learn the price of my companionship, and, in time, she would learn the value of it.

The sun sat behind my broad shoulders, casting lengthy shadows through the open doorway, darkening the room beyond. The large clock in the corner ground out the seconds on aging gears; I could count the rotation of those gears by the brush of steel on steel and the creak and whine of the spring that drove them.

As Marisela lost her battle for consciousness, my lips left hers. Catching her as she collapsed, I eased her into a chair near the doorway and covered her with the hand-stitched shawl that had been draped across the back of the chair – a gift I had given Isabella long ago, one of many gifts.

“Has it been so long, my Knight of Swords?” Isabella asked, her gravelly voice grating in the silence.

I turned to her. She stood in the shadows of the doorway to her sitting room, bent over a gnarled wooden cane. She had stood quietly, unmoving for the better part of a minute. I had known she was there.

“It has been that long and longer, my sweet,” I answered softly, in a clear unwhispered tone.

Unflinching, she held my gaze and asked, “Ah, my sweet is it now?”

“Now and for decades before.”

“It’s time though, isn’t it?” she sensed the weight of the moment.

I nodded, there was nothing else to say really. Crossing the few steps to her, I knelt on one knee. Taking her twisted, tobacco-stained fingers, I wrapped them in the strong, flawless skin of my large, but delicate hands. I marveled at the strength and warmth in her fingers.

Bowing my head, as if in prayer, I bent over her hand and muttered softly. Opening her fingers gently, I brought the still-soft skin of her palm to my lips and planted a lingering kiss there. Where the skin glistened with the slight moisture of that kiss, a tear fell from my eyes to mark the same spot. I blinked, tear and kiss were gone.

Her voice quavered slightly as she spoke, “Don’t mourn for me, my Prince.” Gaining determination, she continued with strength, “I have seen too many moons; I am ready to feel my mother’s embrace. You gave me life and amazement beyond the years a bright-eyed young girl once thought possible.”

“I gave you nothing of the kind, Isabella.” I shook my head, “I only repaid a love I never deserved by lending you grace that the gods should have freely given one such as yourself.”

“Time grows short.” Changing the melancholy subject, she pulled me to my feet, then held out her hand, “Show me what you have brought me.”

Offering her the crook of my arm, I escorted her to her table and helped her into her seat. While she adjusted, I removed the folded, linen cloth from my coat pocket. Sitting it in the center of the table, I unfolded the corners, revealing the demon’s claws.

She licked her lips and eyed the claws. Without moving her head, her eyes tilted up to regard me and she asked, “Once I have your answers, is that it then? Do I find my eternal peace tonight?”

“Were that it was so easy. You have lived long drawing on the strength of my gentle touch. You drank deeply, such does not pass in a night. I cannot say how long you will live – days, months, years perhaps?” I shrugged.

“And Marisela, is she next for you?” she seemed concerned.

“Who is to say? In kissing another, I broke the tie that has held you and I close for so long, but the other I kissed need not receive my favor as you did. Time will tell the whole of that story. For now, she hates me, and hate is just another emotion I can use to feed my existence. I expect her to hate me for years to come.”

She stared off in space for several minutes, time which I gladly gave her. Seeming to resolve herself to the situation, she turned her attention to the claws laid out on the table before her.

From the pockets of her peasant dress she extracted an intricately carved elm rod, inlaid with True Silver runes. Touching the tip to her forehead, she closed her eyes and held that pose for a slow count of twenty. When her eyes opened they burned with energy and vitality. She struck the demon’s claws sharply with the charged rod.

Just as before, when I disposed of the flesh of the beast, the claws burst into flame at the touch of the True Silver. This flame burned without heat though. It burned with the cool, grey light of the full moon.

Isabella gazed intensely into the dancing flame, as if hypnotized by each flicker and lick of the tongue of unnatural fire. She could read it like a book, its secrets unable to hide from her scrutiny.

In a few blinks the claws had burned away completely, leaving not so much as ash to mark their destruction. Still she stared into that same spot. I waited, semi-patiently, and by that I mean not at all really.

Finally, she spoke, “I’m so sorry.”

The delicate scent of meadowsweet filled my nostrils and my gentle breathing became a sharp inhalation. Forcing myself to turn slowly, I saw Marisela in the doorway. She regarded me with eyes that were not her own.

She spoke to me with a voice that likewise, was not her own, “How does it feel to be the hunted?”

Inclining my head in a graceful bow, I didn’t let the sinking feeling in my gut touch my features or my voice as I said, “Aine Marina, it’s been so very long.” I inserted the slightest of pauses before adding, “Your Majesty.”

For More Money, Balance Your Give and Take: Part Two

March 22, 2011March 22, 2011 by Administrator, posted in Guest Authors, New Age

By Rose Rosetree

This is a follow up to the previously published “For Money, Balance Your Give and Take: Part One”. Did you miss it? Well click here to catch up!

How well do you really balance give-and-take? Let’s not just assume, not when we can quiz.

The Financial Flow Quiz

There’s no avoiding it. When your goal is to Magnetize Money, you’ve just got to learn how to take. Balancing give and take would be lovely, though optional. But you can’t avoid this fact of life here at Earth School: To Magnetize Money, you definitely need good circuits for taking, both emotionally and materially. Financial flow is a money-related term for this. Which habits do you have? Answer TRUE or FALSE to the following seven questions.

1. Before I receive, I must give.
2. The more I give, the more I will get.
3. Because of my financial situation, I must give more than I receive, more than is fair. That’s just how my life is right now.
4. At this time in my life, I am able take more than I give, which is just fine with me.
5. There’s no point in asking for what I want. Love from my significant other means he or she will anticipate whatever I need. If I have to ask, it’s too late. He or she wouldn’t understand.
6. Provided that I keep on doing good, I will receive my reward eventually.
7. If short on cash, I should tithe or donate seed money to my church. Then God will pay me back with abundance.

Financial Flow Quiz – Keeping Score

You did great on this quiz. Every answer was correct… or at least useful for diagnostic purposes if you’re seriously interested in being able to Magnetize Money. Some perfectly good answers can decrease your odds at earning big wealth. Why? For one thing, answers about give-and-take aren’t just answers. Beliefs about giving run very deep, creating patterns about expectation. Therefore, every answer you just gave could be linked to a self-fulfilling prophecy. That’s a belief so strong that, automatically, it pulls support from your subconscious mind and sets up auric modeling all over your energy field. This, in turn, evokes subconscious reactions from others. Even a lukewarm, slight, belief that blocks your financial flow will activate support from the whole Universe, both microcosm and macrocosm. If you believe strongly enough, you will magnetize many life experiences to support your choice. Sometimes this process is called synchronicity, meaningful coincidence. Another term could be “dooming yourself to relative poverty for the rest of your life.”

Yes, hello! Financial consequences flow from all of your answers, even if they are based on emotional or spiritual or religious or social aspects of your current lifestyle. So remember this. You can always change your mind. A strong position could be modified without having to be discarded altogether. Changing some of your answers to our Financial Flow Quiz could help you to Magnetize Money as never before. So let’s consider your options and beliefs related to financial flow.

1. Before I receive, I must give.

If TRUE: Some of us love being the one who always gives first. Certainly this sequence sets up a fine rhythm that can help a person to feel worthy of receiving.

However, this belief has a downside. Automatically you’ll block your luck – things that come to you freely without your first giving a thing. Besides, what happens when you interact with another person who also, rigidly, needs to always give first? Both of you will be stuck energetically. Most likely, neither of you will receive much.

If FALSE: Belief that you can receive without first giving in any particular situation, couldn’t that improve your financial flow? Today could become your lucky day… because you feel worthy to receive, whether or not you give a thing.

Of course, Earth School does include universal laws, such as karma. This inevitable cause-and-effect dynamic produces consequences from every thought, word, and action. So, if you routinely take without giving back much at all, neither in advance of receiving your windfall or afterwards, your long-term prospects may not be great.

2. The more I give, the more I will get.

If TRUE: When you’re in a glorious flow of giving, this belief can set you up to receive money galore. Say that you have talent for a particular kind of work. Giving is easy, even delightful. Of course, wealth can grow that way. Even when you contribute at work or at home without huge enjoyment, strong resolve to give can help you build long-term success. Writers who make a really convincing case for this include two of my favorites, success expert Brian Tracy and prosperity expert Emmet Fox.

Unfortunately, giving can also be done in situations where a person would be a fool to expect any immediate return on investment. Think of enabling a drunk or pouring water into a leaky bucket. Giving makes a grand choice but a tragic reflex.

If FALSE: So you believe in evaluating your business investments on a case-by case basis? That’s smart. In Never Give Up, Donald Trump offers some wise words about this:

Sometimes you work as hard as you can on something, and it doesn’t work out. The question is: How do you know when to give up? I usually tough it out longer than most people would in a similar situation – which is why I often succeed where others have failed. I also know that sometimes you have to throw in the towel. Maybe you failed, but you probably learned something valuable. Chalk it up to experience, don’t take it personally, and go find your next challenge.

3. Because of my financial situation, I must give more than I receive, more than is fair. That’s just how my life is right now.

If TRUE: Certain financial scenarios involve giving more than you receive. You know it. Maybe the recipient knows it, too. Only you can decide if giving that much, really, is worthwhile in the long run.

What if your main strategy to Magnetize Money has been to marry rich, so your whole life is focused on making that happen? Or what if Grannie Gaack holds the promise of inheritance over your head, bringing all the joy and gaiety of a lead balloon? Does that person’s money mean that much to you? How much are you willing to sacrifice?

To make life choices wisely, let’s get one thing straight. Nobody can really force you to give more than you agree to give. Therefore, if you have agreed to an unfair amount of giving, you might ask yourself why. On some level you do have a choice.

Dare to consider your options realistically. Could you be receiving more than you think, some kind of secondary gain or deeper personal agenda? Or might you be living an outdated belief or fantasy? Not every experiment must be followed through to the bitter end. (Remember Angie’s “dream marriage” to Arnold in our last chapter?)

Even if you don’t change a thing about your external situation, an honest assessment might free up your financial flow. As for the belief about “I must give more than I receive,” that is totally negotiable.

If FALSE: What could be the opposite of the “I must give” belief? “I never give more than I choose to give.” This alternative could be very empowering, leading to much greater flow of wealth. Think of a buffet-style restaurant, set up as “All you can eat.” Doesn’t it feel great to take what you wish? You’re not necessarily being greedy, merely enjoying a certain abundance.

Refusing to sacrifice to the point of pain – that hardly disallows healthy amounts of giving. In fact, to an outside observer your behavior might appear identical to the behavior where your answer was “TRUE.” For instance, you might seem to treat Grannie Gaack just the same way as in our first scenario, perfectly polite, only now you are secretly laughing your head off over the lead balloon aspect. Check out her arm muscles, lifting that heavy thing!

4. At this time in my life, I am able to take more than I give, which is just fine with me.

If TRUE: Resourceful Reader, a yes to this notion can really help you to Magnetize Money. It doesn’t make you ethically questionable, like some bank robber. If only you knew the whole story, you might be awed at how much you have already given, in this lifetime and countless others as well. Being truly willing to accept the payback, why not?

If FALSE: So it isn’t okay with you, receiving more than you appear to give right now? You can Magnetize Money on the pay-as-you-go plan. However, you might want to reconsider. Karma from your past actions doesn’t only have to be bad, you know.

5. There’s no point in asking for what I want. Love from my significant other means he or she will anticipate whatever I need. If I have to ask, it’s too late. He or she wouldn’t understand.

If TRUE: Many a lifestyle is based on this form of give-and-take. The technical term for it, alas, is “co-dependence.” You may not have to go back far in your family tree to find ancestors who were co-dependent in ways that limited financial flow. Possibly this kind of emotional dynamic was compatible with making a great deal of money. But probably not.

If you enjoy living with our Belief #5, it can be a sweet surrender. Personally, though, I would encourage you to explore how much sweeter your life could be without this belief. It heads my list of joy-sucking ways to live, especially the version that substitutes “God” for the term “significant other.”

If FALSE: You do believe in asking for what you want? What, you call that “communication”? Excellent. That’s certainly how I would prefer to be treated on the receiving end, since omniscience isn’t one of my virtues. Co-dependence in personal relationships has a way of leaking into workplace relationships as well. The opposite choice, direct communication, can make it way easier to Magnetize Money.

6. Provided that I keep on doing good, I will receive my reward eventually.

If TRUE: Maybe you were brought up to believe this as central to your religion. You might even have been promised an “eternal reward.” While it’s true that good karma flows from every generous thought and action, note the horrible implications in Belief #6. Fie on that sad word “eventually”! Tomorrow never comes, unless you count ideas like “Eternal reward.” Maybe Belief #6 isn’t the easiest way to Magnetize Money.

If FALSE: What would the opposite version be? “If I keep acting selfish and creepy, it will never catch up with me.” That Opposite Version of Belief #6 may seem strange, yet for many a millionaire it apparently works just fine. Of course, the person’s conscious justification might be quite different, such as “My family has always been rich, always will be rich. How could we not, given our genetic superiority?” (This language comes directly from one of my Give-and-Take Snapshots, actually.)

Using energetic literacy to profile the very rich, I have found many variations on this Opposite Version of Belief #6. What I have not found, however, is anyone who keeps around this kind of STUFF… and also is happy. Personally, I prefer a different alternative, “Of course, I always do my best in life. I claim the consequences of my past good karma NOW.” Can you see how a belief like this could improve a person’s bank balance? (Maybe the person’s emotional balance as well!)

7. If short on cash, I should tithe or donate seed money to my church. Then God will pay me back with abundance.

If TRUE: Tithing means that you give 10% of your income to your earthly source of spiritual inspiration. The ancient custom of tithing is just plain beautiful, as well as good karma.

Many a prosperity writer (including two of my favorites, Catherine Ponder and Florence Scovil Shin) has described amazing spiritual demonstrations that began with giving to charity. Televangelists Oral Roberts and Joel Osteen have built their careers, in part, by inspiring the faithful to give, and give generously. In fact, Roberts was the first Protestant to popularize seed money. “If you want God to supply your financial needs, then give SEED-MONEY for HIM to reproduce and multiply,” Rev. Roberts wrote in “The Miracle of Seed Faith”.

How is seed money different from tithing? According to America’s first televangelist, “In tithing, you give after you have made the income. In Seed giving, you give before in expectation of return.” In 1987, Roberts warned viewers that God would “call him home” unless they sent him $8 million in contributions. (As a result, his loyal viewers contributed $9.1 million.)

Regardless of your religious affiliation, Belief #7 can awaken the power of self fulfilling prophecy, as well as set up superb karma. Beyond that, any positive action in concert with your Highest Power can raise your vibrations, helping to improve the overall quality of your energy field.

If FALSE: If funds are low, instead of requesting a heavenly bailout, you might prefer to figure out how to earn more money. You might choose to evaluate your career, the path you’re taking, and how your skill sets could bring you more money. Instead of needing more idealism, you might need less. For instance, consider the story of Abe, one of my clients. He refused a promotion and quit his job because he disapproved of the emotional dynamics of his office manager. But was Abe’s job to do therapy on the office staff? No, he was a nurse, sent out on assignments away from that somewhat dysfunctional office. Abe was the one who suffered through months of unemployment, while his imperfect boss stayed very comfortably employed.

You might choose to question reflexive giving (of money, or free mental health services, etc.) as a way to fix your finances. An alternative to Belief #7 might be, “When short on cash, I solve human-level problems as best I can.” Tithing and seed money are lovely, but not when used as attempts to bribe God.

Healing that Give-and-Take Balance

Are you worried yet? Many a prosperity seeker is terrible at taking. Most success seekers need help with it, too. But I promise you. Dysfunctional give-and-take patterns from your past and present can be changed. No time is more powerful than the now. Nor is any memory more powerful than your own consciousness in the present moment, complete with your buzzing-bright aura. Sure, you can improve your God-given ability to take.

Co-dependence is a good problem to rule out – or solve. Many books offer excellent advice, starting with “Codependent No More”, by Melody Beattie.

Being a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) can require some skills, too. Otherwise, you’ll be at a disadvantage with highly insensitive persons. Effective resources begin with the pioneering psychotherapist who discovered HSPs in the first place, the great Dr. Elaine Aron. “The Highly Sensitive Person” was written for the 1 in 5 people with the lifelong gift of sensitivity. (Aron’s website is www.hsperson.com.)

Empaths can also have problems with give-and-take. Did you know that every talented but not-yet-skilled empath constantly pulls in STUFF from others? Splat, it goes right into your aura, messing up all your gifts and especially your circuits for give-and-take. Effective techniques require subtle but effortless shifts of consciousness. See www.empoweredempath.com.

All three skill sets – those for empaths, HSPs, and co-dependents – can prevent problems with financial flow. To heal patterns from the past, you might also need a few professional sessions to heal old STUFF from cords of attachment, etc. So many good options! Before you avail yourself of a single one, however, try the following energetic workaround.

Right Your Balance of Give-and-Take

It’s never too late to balance these two Heart Chakra databanks: Giving to Others and Receiving from Others. Patterns of imbalance can creep up on us. Over giving, you might often worry that “I need to give more.” Over-taking, you may feel as though “I never have enough.” With either imbalance, however, there’s a surprisingly easy remedy. To heal that deep balance, don’t go deeper. Go surface. Do a reality check, based on objective life. Make a list, folding the paper in half lengthwise. Use each of these headings for one of the columns: things I have given and things I have received.

For context, think of a particular situation that bothers you now, related to business or your personal life or both. For three minutes, write on that topic. Write fast and free, whatever pops into your mind. Emphasize the objective facts: hours, favors, money, you name it. How do the two columns compare? Can you draw any practical conclusions about how to handle this particular relationship from now on? Following up can impact your way of living… all the way down to evolving your Heart Chakra databanks.

Objective Truth Can Set You Free

Energetic literacy can support your balance of give-and-take, but never let the literacy itself become a distraction. In this regard, energetic literacy is exactly like all your other success and prosperity skills. None of them is meant to substitute for common sense about how to handle objective reality.

For 16 years, my client Alice worked for the “Acme Accounts Association.” It seemed to her like a great success story. Alice had worked herself up from receptionist to account manager, hourly employee to salaried. Alice was proud of herself. Except, slowly, success turned ugly for this hardworking new account manager. Over a period of three years, impossible amounts of work were thrown at her. Alice kept trying to catch them. She knew the meaning of hard work. Besides, she was no quitter. Working far into the night, Alice often slept under her desk.

How did she keep herself going? Alice used prosperity principles. All that giving had to come back to her, right? Plus, she knew what she wanted. Keeping her goals clearly in mind, this gal insisted on staying focused on the positive. According to the prosperity teachings Alice believed in, she was doing everything right. Except her work load never became more manageable. Alice’s requests to hire support staff were ignored. Inevitably, an emergency came up with one of Alice’s big accounts. She was blamed for the problem. The big boss called Alice into his office. He told her, “We’ll let it go this time, but you must promise us this will never happen again.” “I can’t promise.” Alice blurted out. To her own surprise, she added, “I quit.”

Following this incident, Alice booked a healing session with me. Recounting her sad tale, Alice expressed amazement that she had resigned. “I still can’t believe it,” she told me. “Acme has been my life for over 16 years.” Fortunately, I could help Alice to cut her cord of attachment to that big boss. His rage and her over giving made a toxic brew. As is typical for these energy structures on the level of auras, imbalances from the cord of attachment were flowing through Alice’s subconscious mind 24/7. No matter what happened later in her career, this pattern would have kept on replaying subconsciously for the rest of her life.

Except now it wouldn’t. After having the cord removed permanently, Alice went on to research career alternatives. I supplied the perspective of energetic literacy to help her evaluate whether work choices could support all her chakra databanks, not only the ones about giving. Never again did Alice want to equate “My job” with “Give 98%, Receive 2%”. Right before out session ended, my client’s voice turned thoughtful: “You know, Rose, after six months, I could have told they didn’t appreciate me. And they never would. If only I had paid attention!” As for you, right now, have you been paying attention to financial flow at work? That means objectively paying attention, not the subjective version, living as Alice used to do. Never let what you want become a substitute for what is.

About Rose Rosetree:
Rose Rosetree first wrote about chakra databanks in “Cut Cords of Attachment: Heal Yourself and Others with Energy Spirituality”. Since that was published, in 2007, acceptance of this term has grown. Googling “chakra databanks” three years later, Rosetree was a bit surprised to find nearly 72,000 hits. Rose’s new how-to, published in the fall of 2010, directs the deeper perception skills toward success and prosperity. “Magnetize Money with Energetic Literacy: 10 Secrets for Success and Prosperity in the Third Millennium” is available through her publishing company, Women’s Intuition Worldwide (Secure online ordering is at www.rose-rosetree.com, or call toll-free 24/7 at 800-345-6665.)

Working in the mind-body-spirit field for 40 years, Rosetree has over 350,000 copies of her books in print worldwide – equivalent to more than two national bestsellers. She teaches workshops and facilitates phone sessions of Aura Healing and Transformation, also described at www.rose-rosetree.com.

Immortal Blues: Part Five

March 20, 2011 by Administrator, posted in Guest Authors

By Greg Bullard

Welcome to part five of the nine part fiction series “Immortal Blues” by Greg Bullard. Ready? Fight! If you need to catch up, here is Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four.

Dodging quickly to the right, I aborted my charge, narrowly avoiding the extended claws of the multi-armed behemoth.

The demon, snarling with rage, wheeled his massive form, dug into the concrete floor with clawed feet and hands, adjusted his momentum with shocking ease and leapt straight for me.

Like a matador at his finest, I danced adroitly to the side, exposing the subway’s third rail directly behind where I had been standing, right in the path of the airborne fiend. I waited for the smoke, the sparks and the heady aroma of charred demon flesh.

You can imagine my irritation when he landed on the rail and nothing happened. I can only guess that my scream – excuse me, my battle cry – had damaged more than just the lights. Whatever it was, there was no juice to make the demon do the subway shuffle.

This also didn’t leave me in the best of positions. I sprung backwards, but still felt the sharp impact of razored claws sliding across my ribs.

Thankfully I had suppressed my usual overconfidence long enough to take a few precautions. I took the time last night to dig a little something out of my closet – you know, just for those special occasions when people shoot me or demons claw me.

The long talons raking down the mesh rings of my True Silver surcoat bruised a rib or two, but I didn’t want to think about what would happen if it were still in my closet.

Using the momentum imparted by the demon’s blow, I rolled backward, coming to my feet in one smooth motion. Extending myself while the demon readjusted, my left sword dug a furrow into the creatures back, a long, straight gash of smoking, ruined flesh.

Rinse and repeat and you have a breakdown of how the next five minutes went. The demon was massive, quick and fierce. His saliva was caustic, his blood poisonous, his claws razor sharp, and for all that, he never really had a chance.

When all was said and done though, I knew I’d been in a fight. I was bruised, disheveled and soaked with sweat. My breath was coming in great, ragged gasps. For a moment I just stood there, staring at the torn, scattered remnants of the demon.

Knowing I had to get out of here, I knelt, and cut a few choice items from the demon, things he wouldn’t miss. Stuffing those away in a pocket, I felt fatigue setting into my muscles. My hands were beginning to tremble as I bent over my small pouch of True Silver, whispering words quietly in an ancient language.

A warm, gentle heat spread in the palm of my hand as my prayers to Dana took effect. A soft glow rose from the opening of the pouch. I wept a little at the cost of so much True Silver, but I didn’t see a choice. It’s not like alligator-in-the-sewer can be used to explain shredded, flayed demon body in the subway.

Sighing, I sprinkled the contents of the pouch on the lifeless body. Where the imbued True Silver dust touched the demon’s flesh, it flashed white with flame and shriveled to ash.

Seconds later, the stench of the demon was replaced with acrid clouds of smoke. The once blood-spattered walkways were black with soot and ash. Officially, after a short investigation, they would call it an electrical short, caused by a ruptured piece of steam pipe falling on the main line. Unofficially, they would try not to think about it too hard.

I looked wistfully at the corridor down which my mysterious blues man had disappeared. That trail was long since cold. Shouldering my way deeper into the tattered remnants of my long coat and the shadows that hung, clinging to my form, I made my way through the tunnels under the city to the subway entrance nearest my place.

An hour later, I was showered, changed and felt a helluva lot better. I took a few minutes to store some goodies around my person. Who knew what would happen next? Also, I refilled the pouch of True Silver dust from my dwindling, private stash. I’d have to see about refilling it, which wouldn’t be easy.

For a long twenty-count I stared at the complex lunar calendar on my wall. It showed a few things that weren’t on your typical lunar calendar, which is probably why it covered the whole wall. As I pondered it, an itch in the back of my mind was telling me that I shouldn’t even be thinking for a second about going out tonight. So of course, I was thinking about going out tonight – damn the full moon.

Dana and I are on good terms, as evidenced by the fact that she still answers my prayers. The same can’t be said for all of the gods and goddesses. Aine Marina, for instance, has it out for me. It’s a long story, but let’s just say she doesn’t like being tricked into giving up the goods. I say she had a fine time that night and should let bygones be, but she feels differently.

Whatever, the end result is, the light of the full moon won’t touch me. I’m used to the shadows and to a life in the shadows, but that’s not the same as walking along in a little black spot on a bright night – that kind of stands out, and all my best efforts to mask or hide that shadow are useless. Usually it means that for a few nights a month I catch up on my reading while she gets her petulant little kicks. Tonight it was going to be a pain in my ass, but what can you do?

I needed to talk to the Crone again. Touching the pocket of my long coat, I could feel the gnarled claws of the demon. That should be all she’d need to give me some real answers.

Ostara Spinach Quiche with Dawn Hunt

March 17, 2011 by Administrator, posted in Food/Drink, Guest Authors, Magic/Occult, Wiccan/Pagan

By Dawn Hunt

Spring. Just the word on my lips seems like a sigh from deep within my heart. Warm breezes that hold a linger of Winter’s bitterness and evenings seem to hold off night just a touch longer then the night evening before. Even now, in the cold of late February, with snow and ice still piled out my window the sun seems stronger than just a few weeks ago. I even saw the first robin of the season just recently atop a huge pile of snow in a parking lot promising Spring will be here before we know it. Although, technically, the first Fire festival of Imbolc in Feb, signals the warming of the Earth most of us won’t really feel it until Ostara. By mid to late March the first tulips bravely poke their heads up from under the seeming dead ground a remind us of all the promise that Spring holds. You may even notice a bit more Fairie activity. If you do any Fairie Work, you know they become ever more active as the air warms and the flowers begin to bloom!

Unlike the Winter celebration of Yule most of us tend to not think of food by the time Spring shakes off the final bits of snow from her branches. Most people, me included, are regretting all the rich foods we have consumed over the winter months and dreading the warm months of tank tops and bathing suites. We no longer want to be confined to our homes under layers of sweaters and blankets. Like a brave daffodil we want to emerge from the blankets of cold and get out of the kitchen. But what we are forgetting is that Spring is the perfect time to celebrate Earth though Food!

Early Spring brings with her so many wonderful foods of the season. You will start to see asparagus on sale at your local grocery store and out of nowhere Cherries seem to take over the produce department! Some farmers markets open with offerings of lettuce and the first fresh herbs of the season. Now, I realize in today’s world that we can get these things any time at any large grocery store, but Spring is the time when these foods are natural and local to our region. Focusing on seasonal eating to stay connected to spirit and Mother Earth is not the only form of Kitchen/Food Magick there is, but I find it to be a very important part of my spiritual path and one that is very easy to share with others.

Ostara usually lines up with the Christian Holiday of Easter. Being raised in a traditional Italian Catholic home meant that Easter was solemnly observed. But one of the many things I never understood about the Holiday was what was the big deal with all the Eggs??? We would decorate them, hide them, eat them, bake wreath breads that looked like nests with eggs in them and the list went on. Why Eggs??? Eggs are a traditional fertility food. No surprise there! Eggs symbolize the fertility of Earth and encourage growth from within her sleeping belly to the new beginnings of growth. Eggs are one of the best foods to work with and eat at this time of year to help us bring forward all the seeds we have planted in the Winter months. Remember, fertility is not just about making babies, but about bringing forth new life in your job, relationship, personal goals, ANYTHING!

With so many wonderful foods to celebrate Spring it is hard for me to just pick one recipe to share with you. Ostara comes first, but just behind it is Beltane and I could talk forever about my most beloved Beltane! But first things first: Ostara sets the stage for Spring and below is a really quick and easy recipe from my cookbook, “Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery Cookbook”. Here I have combined the fertility of Eggs with Spinach. Spinach is a money food. That is right, a MONEY food. So this recipe is a great one for helping to bring growth to financial prospects or investments. It is also great if you are in need of a raise. Just remember to think clearly, meditate on what it is you need and that it harm none.

Ostara Spinach Quiche

9 Eggs
1/2 cup Milk
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 8oz package chopped Frozen Spinach thawed
1/2 Yellow Onion chopped fine
1 cup shredded Swiss Cheese
1 refrigerated Ready Pie Crust
pinch dried Parsley
Salt & Pepper to taste

Heat oven to 350. Form pie crust in 9″ pie pan and set aside. Beat together eggs and milk with wire whisk. Set aside. In a medium skillet, heat oil and sauté onion for 3 minutes or until tender not brown. Add spinach and sauté another 5 minutes. Add spinach mixture to beaten eggs and beat again until combined. Add salt and pepper. Stir in 3/4 cup of the cheese. Pour into prepared pie crust. Top with remaining cheese. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until center is set.

About Dawn:
Dawn Hunt is the owner/president of Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery. Her products include everything from Herb and Energy infused olive oils to cooking tools. Her self-published cookbook has sold more than 250 copies in 6 months. She is currently working on a compilation Cookbook with Christopher Penczak and the Temple of Witchcraft called “Tastes of the Temple” due out in 2011. She teaches classes on Kitchen Witchery, Food Magic, and Seasonal Cooking on the East Coast. To find out more information, to purchase products, or for booking visit www.CucinaAurora.com.

For More Money, Balance Your Give and Take: Part One

March 15, 2011 by Administrator, posted in Guest Authors, New Age

By Rose Rosetree

Would you like to earn an extra $10,000 this year, with more increases to follow? My latest book aims to help readers do just that.

“Magnetize Money with Energetic Literacy” uses the third millennium technology of researching auras all the way down to the level of chakra databanks – detailed information about different aspects of life. Reading auras doesn’t mean seeing colors, I have a trademarked system for reading auras through ALL your personal gifts.

Everyone can become literate in this way. And whether you consciously read auras or not, everyone does it subconsciously. My term for that is “auric modeling”. Another term might be “separating truth from hype.”

I saw one too many of my friends brought to the brink of bankruptcy because they were trying really, really hard to use Law of Attraction practices.

I wondered what was happening at the level of auras. Extensive research became the basis for a Magnetize Money Program. This how-to includes auric tell-all profiles of 20 top prosperity teachers, including Rhonda Byrne, Esther and Jerry Hicks, Abraham, and Napoleon Hill. I researched hundreds of others also, to learn what auric modeling showed about who-you-be. Surprising findings also are reported from my “energy interviews” of Law of Attraction teachers, Born Again Christian teachers, and the 50 richest people in the world.

In “Magnetize Money with Energetic Literacy”, I go on to share ways to help readers improve their own auric modeling, positioning them to become more successful. In the following excerpt, I invite you to consider the financial implications of your balance of give and take.

Before you get rich, must your aura contain a perfect balance of give-and-take? If I said “Yes,” I’d be lying. (And horrors, lying is so bad for the aura!)

Most of us know how to divide human beings into two categories: Givers and Takers.

Actually, Resourceful Reader, to Magnetize Money we need three categories: Givers, Takers, and People who balance give-and-take.

Whichever type of person you want to be, you can give yourself that kind of life. Or take it for yourself. Or give-and-take it for yourself.

Before you choose – which I’m going to ask you to do before this chapter is done – let’s remember another interesting fact of life. If you wish to magnetize major amounts of money, your realistic options drop down to two: being a taker or being someone who balances give-and-take.

That’s right. To gain financial success in this world, you don’t have to be a taker but it sure helps. And you can’t be purely a giver. Sorry, but it’s true.

Financial Flow

You can’t be a softie in personal life (habitually giving without expecting a thing in return) yet somehow become a totally different person at work (e.g., strong and commanding, always preferring to take). Okay, maybe you can think of exceptions where a big giver made piles of money. Marilyn Monroe comes to mind. But she didn’t get to keep that money for long, did she?

With energetic literacy, there’s always more to learn about how people tick. Each individual is extraordinarily unique at the level of auras, so there can be exceptions to my rule that earning money requires strong auric modeling as a taker. Still, my conclusion about the importance of taking is based on a lot of research.

I had to research this particular topic. Meaning that, personally, I needed to. My natural inclination, and habits, and STUFF, used to make my motto “Give 95% of the time. Receive last, and even then, be sure to add generous quantities of guilt.”

For decades into my career, this pattern limited my success. As my work became better known, however, I got “lucky.” I began receiving emails galore requesting free help with aura readings, empath coaching, etc. My husband and I don’t live on air, nor do we own the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Therefore, I had to learn how to say “No.”

Eventually I sorted out basic concepts like “Professional services require payment.” This paired up with “Friendships require give-and-take in healthy balance.” Once I became clear about this, my business income doubled, then continued to grow.

Your income may grow, too, when you learn the lessons of my give-and-take “interviews” with the Forbes Magazine list of “The 50 Richest People in America.” When photos weren’t available, I went on to the next picture on the Forbes list. Strictly speaking, my scope of research became “The 50 richest people in America with photos available for the article in Forbes Magazine 2009.” Especially for this research, I developed the following prosperity protocol.

The Give-and-Take Snapshot
1. Heart Chakra: Emotional Giving
This chakra databank relates to qualities like openness to other people, caring, and emotional generosity.

2. Heart Chakra: Emotional Receiving
This chakra databank reveals a person’s patterns with receiving praise, interest, admiration, and other emotions from significant others. Both positive and negative emotions count here.

3. Throat Chakra: Intimacy in Close Relationships
How close is considered “too close”? Quality and quantity of social connection, both, can shape patterns of intimacy.

Before you read a summary of my findings with The Give-and-Take Snapshot, want to take any guesses about how well the super-rich do intimacy?

First, the Bad News

Altogether my research revealed much to admire… and even more to increase my compassion. What didn’t I find, alas? Nobody (and I mean nobody) in this group gave more than he or she took. Only two showed an equal balance. More on them soon.

That’s right. Nobody out of the whole crafty, cash-laden crew, came close to what you probably do, which is to give early and often. Sure, over the decades I have used energetic literacy to research plenty of humbler folk. Most people give more than they take. During these years, I have also researched plenty of the rich and/or famous. Many are lovely, some not. I have been hired to do face reading at parties with budgets of half a million dollars or more. Some of these partygoers show, through their auric modeling, great willingness to take emotionally but not such a great willingness to give. One incident in particular sticks in my memory.

Give-and-Take at the Party

Arnold was a trim 40-something attorney, impeccably dressed. His wife Angie was glamorous, gorgeous, and groomed, staring with fascination as I read her man’s face. He had to go first, of course.

As I summarized talents and potential challenges, Arnold listened intently. Okay, to be more accurate, he smirked and preened. His adoring Angie was so attentive, she reminded me of a cheerleader. I practically expected her to leap up and do cartwheels.

When Angie’s turn came, I really wanted to help her feel good. She didn’t appear valued much by her high-powered husband. To avoid boredom, he began walking around the den. This was, of course, no ordinary den but a mega mansion version, stocked with very expensive-looking toys. Arnold picked up one trinket at a time, as if shopping. Meanwhile, I was telling Angie things like, “That huge curve to your eyebrows suggests that you focus on emotions when dealing with people.” Angie would hold up her mirror as if seeing her surgically perfected face for the very first time. Angling and posing as if in wonderment, she would ask big, strong Arnold for advice. “Arnold, honeeeeey, am I like that? What do you think?” Arnold, clearly, couldn’t care less. He kept on oogling the nearby toys, ignoring his wife.

Warren Buffett sets a far better example of prosperous give-and-take. Emotional giving delights him; he finds it easy. Emotional receiving doesn’t overwhelm him, as he is used to being appreciated. This rich man balances both sides of life. And when it comes to intimacy, the man has finesse. Very loving to his significant others, Buffet knows how to manage his less important emotional investments, scaling down closeness to the appropriate level for each relationship.

Who was the other big winner with my give-and-take profiles? Meet “Aden.” (I’m keeping him anonymous because this relatively favorable research is still not entirely flattering, as you’ll soon see.)

Aden: The Give-and-Take Snapshot
1. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Giving 90 feet. Huge presence to this man! Aden’s kindness is powerful, mostly, because he lives so passionately. This uncommonly zesty guy hugely enjoys giving to his favorite people.

2. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Receiving 90 miles. Not just an altruist, Aden expects to receive abundantly. Emotionally, that means being shown both obedience and loyalty. This mega-billionaire demands the highest standards of behavior. “Anyone can be replaced.” (Yes, you read that right.)

3. Throat Chakra Databank: Intimacy in Close Relationships19 feet. Intense, very human. Big moods, living large.

Don’t be discouraged by Aden’s “Anyone can be replaced.” Beliefs like this aren’t required to Magnetize Money. But do consider Aden’s insistence on receiving. That’s not so optional.

Emotional Perils of Wealth

Let’s get real. To judge from their auras, most of the mega-rich are emotionally impoverished. Starting these profiles, I expected nothing of the kind. Net worth numbers like $40 billion (for Gates) or $37 billion (for Buffet) sound great. But what are the social consequences of having so much wealth? The resulting attention can be crazy making. Think how your entire family might suck up to wealthy old Auntie Annette. Then multiply that suck up factor by what, a zillion?

Every one of America’s top 50 wealthiest must deal with that unpleasant kind of interest. It’s compounded daily, through flattery, groveling, and otherwise fake behavior. Besides the family members, the friends, the gold-diggers, how about all the rage from underpaid employees worldwide? Professional jealousy and competitiveness can also be directed at these highly visible targets. Ouch!

One of my most touching research subjects was a top billionaire whose financial standing had dropped significantly in recent years. Sure, he still made the top 50 wealthiest people in the U.S., but how much happiness did that buy him?

Antonio: The Give-and-Take Snapshot
1. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Giving 6 inches. Disillusioned, bitter.

2. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Receiving 90 miles. “Other people never give enough for it to feel real. Certainly they don’t give enough to make me feel better about my bad luck.”

3. Throat Chakra Databank: Intimacy in Close Relationships 9 inches. “Nobody really understands me.”

Antonio has hit bottom emotionally, with a ratio of give : take of 6 inches: 90 miles. But what about other mega-billionaires?

The findings below are typical for America’s wealthiest. First names throughout are fictitious, of course, allowing these folks to cling to whatever privacy remains in their lives.

Alex: The Give-and-Take Snapshot
1. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Giving 3 feet. Believes himself to be very generous. Has a completely different standard for giving than for receiving.

2. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Receiving 100 miles. Enjoys every bit of status, money, etc. as a form of emotional feeding. It strokes his personal ego.

3. Throat Chakra Databank: Intimacy in Close Relationships 3 inches. Tells his closest people what he thinks they want to hear.

Adolfo: The Give-and-Take Snapshot
1. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Giving18 inches. “Everybody has a price, and I hate to overpay.”

2. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Receiving 50 miles. “Gaining people’s respect and adulation is standard operating procedure for me. I require it, really.”

3. Throat Chakra Databank: Intimacy in Close Relationships 19 feet. “I really prize those close relationships. With all my responsibilities, it’s so helpful to babble to get the attention I need.” Of course, the quality of this chakra databank suggests that Adolfo does way more than his share of the talking in these so called “close relationships.”

Ahmed: The Give-and-Take Snapshot
1. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Giving 8 inches. “I have such contempt for ordinary people. Unfortunately, so few extraordinary people are available to take the time for relationships, even with me.”

2. Heart Chakra: Emotional Receiving 90 miles. “You get used to it after a while. What a bore, how people think they can flatter you in order to get your money.”

3. Throat Chakra Databank: Intimacy in Close Relationships 4 inches. “There will always be some people kept around to help me let off steam, but they’re disposable. They know it and I know it.”

Cuddling up to a Solid Gold Coin

Intimacy does appear to be a common trade off for high financial status. When the mega-rich make their bargains with reality, financial stability can be trusted somewhat, but people?

Andy: The Give-and-Take Snapshot
1. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Giving 14 feet. Everything and everyone has a price. “I give only as a shrewd investment.”

2. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Receiving 40 miles. He feels he deserves people’s adulation. In an odd way, he doesn’t even take the star treatment personally: “Life has been good to me. I expect life to continue to be good to me.”

3. Throat Chakra Databank: Intimacy in Close Relationships 6 inches. Intimacy? Now that’s a tough prospect. Andy believes that “Expressing what I want” means exactly the same thing as “Getting close to a friend.”

Arthur: The Give-and-Take Snapshot
1. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Giving 9 inches. “I don’t trust people much. Mostly they’re takers.”

2. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Receiving 100 feet. “People come at me constantly, so noisy, heckling me. It’s only so much sentimentality. As if I would fall for that!”

3. Throat Chakra Databank: Intimacy in Close Relationships 3 inches. “If I haven’t known you for 30 years, or you aren’t a blood relative, forget it. Even then, I have my suspicions. What do you really want from me?”

Andrea: The Give-and-Take Snapshot
1. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Giving 8 inches. Trusting people is hard, to put it mildly. “So many people try to get into my life just because they want my money.”

2. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Receiving 40 miles. “Sometimes it’s overwhelming, all the admiration and adulation. I can’t tell if it’s real or false. I do my best to survive.”

3. Throat Chakra Databank: Intimacy in Close Relationships 4 inches. “It’s hard for me to let down my guard. So many people are takers.”

Anabella: The Give-and-Take Snapshot
1. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Giving 12 inches. “I don’t have to be so generous to others, except I’m a nice person. Others in my position wouldn’t be so kind.”

2. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Receiving 1,000 feet. “I feel the pull on me of so many people, flattering and asking and demanding and whispering. It’s overwhelming, how much I have to take in.”

3. Throat Chakra Databank: Intimacy in Close Relationships 10 inches. “There are so few I can trust. Most people only pretend to be interested in me. They always want something.”

Inspiration from Enlightened Millionaires

Lovely and evolved people do sometimes make the mega-rich list. Most of them just aren’t lovely or evolved emotionally, not compared to the rest of their talents. The billionaire’s major life skills lie elsewhere.

As I researched away on these Give-and-Take Snapshots, I did encounter some lovely surprises. Magnificent qualities kept me going. I even found a few mega successful people whom I would consider spiritually Enlightened. For them, every chakra databank I read was strong, STUFF free, and joyful. Enthusiastically, I went on to survey additional databanks too, and every single one contained that celestial razzle-dazzle I adore – the blissful, balanced quality that is humanity’s destiny. Enlightened rich people are surely the real winners in life’s give-and-take sweepstakes. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have already been read in detail. Now meet Sergey Brin, among the spiritually wealthiest on earth.

Sergey Brin: The Give-and-Take Snapshot
1. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Giving 90 miles. Emotionally very generous, based on inner happiness.

2. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Receiving 100 miles. “I live in a generous world where I am always rewarded beyond what I give. I am so grateful for this.”

3. Throat Chakra Databank: Intimacy in Close Relationships 14 feet. Authentically friendly, interested in people. Enjoys getting close to others.

Talk about enjoyable! Let’s continue with Donald Bren, the real estate tycoon.

Donald Bren: The Give-and-Take Snapshot
1. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Giving 50 miles. Huge networker. Enthusiastic. Really loves people, especially socially important, influential people.

2. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Receiving 95 miles. “Life is absolutely thrilling for me. It’s one big flow of energy.”

3. Throat Chakra Databank: Intimacy in Close Relationships 80 miles. Identifying with the joy and energy in the lives of others, as well as his own life. “I feel huge joy everywhere.”

Finally, I was touched and inspired by profiling Steve Jobs. It’s well known that the founder of Apple computers has brought the world iTunes, iPod, and iPad. But did you also know that Jobs bought Pixar from George Lucas? So Jobs is partly responsible for “Finding Nemo” and “Toy Story.” No wonder this man is one of America’s most beloved business successes. Yet another reason could be his auric modeling. True, Jobs suffers far too much to be considered Enlightened quite yet. Even before all the STUFF is cleared out of his aura, Steve Jobs is impressive, exceptionally thoughtful for someone who has earned so much cash.

Steve Jobs: The Give-and-Take Snapshot
1. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Giving 5 miles. “I feel very lucky to have the people in my life who are close to me.”

2. Heart Chakra Databank: Emotional Receiving 100 miles. “I’m an acquired taste. It’s an honor that so many people have acquired it, but I would be a fool to depend on anyone’s admiration, except for genuine liking that comes from the people I know well.”

3. Throat Chakra Databank: Intimacy in Close Relationships 5 miles. Having these special people in my life keeps me sane, or what passes for sane. (A sense of humor is evident in this chakra databank, as well as others.)

Wow, a lively sense of humor – imagine finding that in someone so rich!

How will you choose to balance give and take? Only you can decide what would be a healthy balance. By living that, day by day, your accumulated choices will show up in your auric modeling. Financial consequences will flow accordingly.

Despite balancing your give -and-take, wealth can bring challenges to close relationships. One of my “interviewees” put it eloquently. Reading his chakra = databank about Intimacy in Personal Relationships, here is what I found in Albert’s Throat Chakra:

“Of course, I take all that big closeness with a grain of salt. I have seen too many careers end. Suddenly all the alleged friends evaporate. Although I enjoy what I have now, I no longer expect it to last.”

No, we can’t take it with us – neither the mansions like castles nor the “friends” who come along so eagerly to be bought or rented. What can we take along? Soul growth is cumulative. (Energetic literacy even allows us to peek at the luscious details.)

Beyond this, consider carefully as you design your own balance sheet in life. To Magnetize Money, it is required that you feel totally comfortable with receiving from others. Beyond that, if you have learned to balance give-and-take; if you insist on striving for true intimacy; if you manage to keep a sense of humor through it all – which may not seem like asking for majority shareholdings in the moon – wow, nonetheless! You will have accomplished something extraordinary for spiritual evolution. Clearly, that’s something most of America’s Richest haven’t yet been able to buy.

Immortal Blues: Part Four

March 6, 2011 by Administrator, posted in Guest Authors

By Greg Bullard

Welcome to part four of the nine part fiction series “Immortal Blues” by Greg Bullard. In the latest installment blues music reappears and leads the way to a discussion of why a demon might kill you. If you need to catch up, here is Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

Call it hubris.

I was feeling pretty pissy. It’s bad enough someone arranged to have a junkie take a shot at me, but providing him with a .357 Magnum loaded with cold, wrought iron bullets was crossing a line.

I was stomping along in a huff, not particularly caring who took notice of me, which was silly considering it was the middle of the afternoon. As you can imagine, I was carving a wide berth down the sidewalks of the Lower East Side, people were crossing the street or ducking into nearby doorways and shops to avoid me. To them, I must have looked like a loon – a tall loon, dressed in black head to toe, stomping along in a huff. I’m a world class huff stomper, trust me.

I’m not sure how long I’d been hearing the sing, song back and forth guitar notes of W.C. Handy’s, “The Memphis Blues,” before it struck me what I was hearing. Like a blood hound on a scent I threw my head back and turned slightly to the left and right, drinking in the sound, zeroing in on the direction.

My eyes caught the subway entrance cattycorner to me and my gaze and my hearing locked on that spot. Like a sweet miasma I could almost see the notes playing on the stale subway air, pouring forth from the otherwise dank concrete hole.

The last time I heard a great blues guitar, a guy tried to kill me. That’s enough to give someone pause, make them warily approach possible danger – normally. Remember that hubris thing I mentioned? I took the stairs two at a time, to hell with caution.

The subway station crowd was the typical mix of businessmen, teenage miscreants, housewives loaded down with shopping bags and otherwise un-noteworthy inhabitants of Manhattan, both savory and unsavory. As quickly as my vision fell on these people, I dismissed them; none were the one I sought.

Closing my eyes to mere slits to block out the distractions, I tried to follow the music, but the echo from the tile and concrete made it tricky. For longer than I wanted, I stood stock still, an island in a steady stream of humanity parting around me.

The song was coming to an end, and with every note my desperation grew. As the last chord of Mr. Crump’s song played out, hovering in the air, I finally caught the aural scent. With long, quick strides, I reached the edge of the platform and turned to look down the track.

In the distance the darkness was broken by light spilling forth from a maintenance corridor. In that puddle of light sat a figure, clutching a guitar to his chest. As I watched, the figure stood and turned into the corridor, out of my sight.

Rushing forward, I leapt to the bottom of the small set of stairs leading down to the track area and that’s when I sensed it. Even as I skidded to a halt, my foolishness, hubris and rash behavior all collided with what little wisdom I had, giving me ample reason to kick my ass over it later – if I lived to see later. I had blundered into a deadly situation.

A large figure shifted in the deep darkness near the bottom of the stairs. As it shifted, an acrid odor wafted off of it, stung my nostrils and started my eyes watering. I knew that stench.

I blinked away the tears before they could really start and shifted my vision to adjust to the darkness. My eyes met those of the demon, our gazes locked and together we paused.

Now, it’s important to know that a demon will kill someone for a variety of reasons. He could just want to for personal reasons (yeah, demons have personal reasons, what?), he could be summoned and a killing could be bargained for, or, if someone’s capable of doing so, the demon could be summoned and compelled to kill someone – not an easy thing to accomplish, powerful magic.

Also, I’m not just any someone. If it was personal, he would have brought friends and picked a better spot. Besides, if it was personal, I would have known about it. You don’t build grudges like that without knowing what you did right or wrong.

As to bargains, any demon which had struck a bargain to kill me, would know instantly at the sight of me that he had bargained poorly. I don’t care what anyone tells you either, they’re not bound to those deals. It is honor that binds you to a deal, and demons don’t have any. The only deals they go through with are the ones in their favor.

In that instant, outside time, when my pair of eyes locked with his four pair of eyes, we both did the equivalent of whipping it out and measuring. I dropped any glamours masking my true aura. I let him see me in full.

All of the shadows swaddled around me fell away to pool at my feet in ready service to my needs. I stood exposed, revealing my true, glorious form. I wasn’t some simple Wee Folk set about the city for mischief and games. I am a Sluagh warrior, a Prince of the Unseelie Court, a Dark Sidhe loose in the world. I led the 100 in battle. My swords appeared in my hands by act of thought alone. The blades were forged from the metal bones of the old gods and quenched in the blood of my enemies.

The very air around me danced with the power of my presence, the light bent and flickered near me, creating an army of shadows ready to serve my whim. Waves of power rolled off of me, crashing into the world around me like the surging tide lashing out at the beach that eroded before it.

This is the point where any demon having accepted a bargain to kill me would say, screw that and flee. He didn’t flee. He had been compelled to kill me. I think I wet myself a little.

The instant was over. The demon bunched himself, readying a charge. Dozens of people were about to witness something that would leave half of them drooling incoherently for the rest of their lives. The other half would just suffer nightmares until they gave up sleep and later gave up living. I threw my head back and screamed, but it’s not what you think.

The full power of my unmasked voice rippled through and echoed off of the flat stone surfaces of the subway station. Most of the people hearing my scream were instantly knocked unconscious; the few who weren’t were thoroughly stunned. The lights of the station held out for a split second before the glass shattered, plunging the station into utter blackness. My swords flashed in that dying light before the curtain of dark descended over us. I rushed forward to meet the demon’s charge.

Pantheacon 2011 Report

March 3, 2011 by Administrator, posted in Events, Guest Authors, Wiccan/Pagan

By Deborah Blake

I don’t much like crowds. Or traveling. So why do I haul my witchy butt across the entire expanse of the country to go to Pantheacon? Because it’s worth it.

Pantheacon is the largest gathering of Pagans/Witches/Wiccans and assorted Heathens in the country, with well over 2,000 people attending over the course of four days in February. (I heard a rumor that they hit 3,000 this year for the first time, but I don’t know whether or not that’s true.) It is held at the beautiful Doubletree Hotel in San Jose, California, where they give you a warm chocolate chip cookie when you check in. Yum.

This was my third Pantheacon. I first went in 2008, after my book “Circle, Coven & Grove” came out. I had such a blast, I went back last year, and then again this year. My traveling companion from my first visit, my step-daughter Jenn, loved it so much, she actually moved to San Jose after last year’s con, so one of my perks was getting to spend some time with her. I also got to meet up with my fiction-writing partner, Lisa DiDio, who lives in Northern CA and took the train down to stay with me. We had a blast together.

On the official side of my visit to Pantheacon, I got to go to two great workshops (they literally offer HUNDREDS over the course of the 4 days, including classes given by such Pagan notables as Starhawk, and everyday folks who are willing to share their wisdom with others); a fabulous chanting workshop with the amazing Margot Adler, and a lovely, healing Pagan Death Passages ritual with the also-amazing Selena Fox (I had lost my beloved grandmother less than a week before PCon, so the timing was perfect).

Both these ladies are wise and warm and gracious, and I was beyond pleased to be able to spend a little time in their company.

I also took part in two Llewellyn events; a “Meet the Authors” and 110 Year Anniversary celebration (with cake) on Saturday night, and a Publishing Panel on Sunday morning. [I met a great new Llewellyn author, Melanie Maquis, at the Meet the authors event…you are going to want her new book, “Bag of Tricks”, when it comes out in June. I’m reading an advance copy right now, so I can write a blurb for it, and it is fabulous!]

I also led a workshop of my own, called “Spiritual Spring Cleaning.” There were about 80 people attending, and we had a great time. Raised a lot of good spring cleaning energy, too!

Of course, no trip to Pantheacon would be complete without spending time with my wonderful Llewellyn editor, Elysia Gallo. This year, Lisa and I decided to look for a really fun place to go out to dinner that first night, and we ended up at a Moroccan restaurant called, fittingly enough, Moracco’s. We dragged Elysia out with us, along with my step-daughter Jenn and her friend Madeleine. And, oh, man—the food! If you are even in San Jose, you have to track this place down. It was some of the best food any of us had ever had. We got a variety of things and put them in the middle of the table to share, which made it both cheaper and a lot more fun.

The desserts alone made it worth the trip. And the company was as good as it gets. We had a blast.

That’s Jenn, Lisa, me, and Elysia at Moracco’s.

All in all, it was another great Pantheacon. I got to see old friends, make some new ones, visit with authors I admired, meet a few of my fans in person (some of whom I’d already “met” on Facebook or Twitter), eat some great food, and even learn a thing or two. It was worth pushing myself outside of my comfort zone to do it, and I recommend it highly to anyone with the slightest interest in Paganism. Bring an open mind, as much energy as you can muster, and a few dollars to spend on goodies in the Vendors room. (Pagan chocolates…that’s all I’m saying.) And if I’m there next year, be sure to come on over and say hi!

About Deborah Blake:
Deborah Blake is the author of “Circle, Coven and Grove: A Year of Magickal Practice” (Llewellyn 2007), “Everyday Witch A to Z: An Amusing, Inspiring & Informative Guide to the Wonderful World of Witchcraft” (Llewellyn 2008), “The Goddess is in the Details: Wisdom for the Everyday Witch” (Llewellyn2009), “Everyday Witch A to Z Spellbook” (July 2010) and “Witchcraft on a Shoestring” (September 2010). She has published numerous articles in Pagan publications.

Her award-winning short story, “Dead and (Mostly) Gone” is included in the “Pagan Anthology of Short Fiction: 13 Prize Winning Tale”s (Llewellyn, 2008). Deborah’s first novel, “Witch Ever Way You Can”, was the winner or finalist in many RWA (Romance Writers of America) contests and received the EMILY “Best of the Best” Award.. Her fiction is primarily Paranormal Romance, although she also writes Fantasy, Mystery and Young Adult. She is represented by agent Elaine Spencer of The Knight Agency.

Deborah has been interviewed on television, radio and podcast, and can be found online at Facebook, Twitter, www.deborahblakehps.com and http://deborahblake.blogspot.com

When not writing, Deborah runs The Artisans’ Guild, a cooperative shop she founded with a friend in 1999, and also works as a jewelry maker. She lives in a 100 year old farmhouse in rural upstate New York with five cats who supervise all her activities, both magickal and mundane.

Search

Archives

Category: Guest Authors

Immortal Blues: Part Eight

Immortal Blues: Part Seven

Geek Month in Review: March 2011

Immortal Blues: Part Six

For More Money, Balance Your Give and Take: Part Two

Immortal Blues: Part Five

Ostara Spinach Quiche with Dawn Hunt

For More Money, Balance Your Give and Take: Part One

Immortal Blues: Part Four

Pantheacon 2011 Report