HeeHee! HoHo!

Figured it out -- all three MindCast shows are now up and available for listening. Tell all your friends!  Newly added, Paganism & Heathenry with Troth Vice-Steer Dennis Ford and Sonoran Sunrise Grove, ADF, Vice-Senior Druid Mark Cantwell.

HaHa!

Had the podcasts working, then messed it up trying to add the third. I'll get it! I'll get it!

Getting things set up...

Now you can listen to podcasts of our first two shows by clicking on the XML link in the righthand column. The third is coming soon. I'll also add a link here to the website which is updated weekly, if not more. Stay tuned!

I haven't had a cold for 10 years! My secret...

Too many of my friends are sick! Here's the secret to staying well.

The last cold I had was the worst I had ever experienced. I'll spare you the details, but just know that it was so bad I had some serious complications that cost me too much!

I'm not going into all my rationale for how I figured out how to stay well. (You're welcome.) I'm just going to give you the facts about how to get well and stay well, especially during the winter/holiday season. If you have questions, or there is something I need to clarify, please comment!

Pretty much everyone is exposed to the same germs, but not everyone gets sick. The key is to get your immune system up and keep it up. The number one cause of immune suppression at this time of year (besides all the holiday stress we let ourselves in for) is SUGAR! Face it, it starts at Halloween and continues through New Years. We start getting colds right after Halloween, suffer through November and December and are the sickest in January.

Here's my prescription for avoiding colds and flu:

1. Never get a flu shot. Never! (I stopped getting them, and I stopped getting sick!) Raise your immune level to ward off evil germs.
2. Take lots of vitamin D3 -- most important of all. Read all the rationale for that online.
3. Get the Traditional Medicinals Seasonal Herb Tea Sampler. Or a box each of Echinacea Plus and Throat Coat. The instant you feel those lymph nodes swelling, start swilling these!
4. Take essential fatty acids (EFA's) daily. (Not just during cold & flu season)
5. A lot of people take extra vitamin C, but I find I get enough in my daily vitamin and the food I eat.
6. Stay away from juice (way too much sugar in concentration). Eat whole fruits instead.
7. What about sweets -- gotta have something now and then. For your drinks, use liquid Stevia. Yes, it's expensive, but I buy the 4 oz. bottles of Sweet Leaf from Amazon. I use 6 or 7 drops in everything I drink (except for water), and one bottle lasts me for months! I maybe go through 2 or 2 1/2 bottles a year.
8. If you must have holiday goodies (and who doesn't?) bake your own and pick your battles when you're at a holiday function. Bake your own with Whey Low sugar products -- found at www.wheylow.com. I use it in everything I bake without exception. I buy the sampler pack which has 2 pound packages of everything they make -- gold, maple, ice cream, powdered, and regular or diabetic granulated. You absolutely cannot tell the difference in taste or texture between Whey Low and regular table sugar.
9. Stay away from the obvious crap - doughnuts, store bought cookies and candies, grocery store pastries and pies. If you're going to indulge, at least make it worth it -- choose a high quality pastry from an artisan bakery or something homemade (use your best judgment).
10. Just say no to holiday stress. Start thinking about what it is that stresses you at this time of year and change it. Don't take or make any excuses. You and your health are far more important than any holiday activity, even (and perhaps especially) guilt-laden obligations. If you know it's going to stress you out, don't do it, or don't go.

Immune health starts in the digestive tract. If you eat/drink lots of sugar and high carb nastiness (think HFCS), plus have had rounds of antibiotics at least a couple of times a year, your immune system is pretty well decimated. If you eat lots of sugar and have had lots of antibiotics, you probably have more sick days than well. The antibiotics strip your digestive tract of all flora, good and bad. The problem is that intestinal flora is what protects you. Okay, okay, I said I wasn't going to get into the rationale, so TRUST ME. You have to get your intestinal tract healthy in order to have a healthy immune system.


It begins with all the yeast build up that happens once your gut is stripped by antibiotics. Then you feed it with carbs and sugar, and the yeast growth goes out of control. Just look up the symptoms of "leaky gut syndrome" and see how many of them you have. Once the yeast in your system goes bonkers, it starts attaching itself to the lining of the stomach and eventually perforates it (think ivy on brick), allowing undigested food particles into your blood stream. Then your immune response kicks in, treating everything as a foreign object. Your immune system can only keep that up for so long, and then you start getting sick. What do you do? More antibiotics. It becomes a vicious cycle.


I did my first candida cleanse with nothing more than diet modification and Kyolic Garlic. Garlic has antibiotic properties, too, but it is pickier about what it kills off. In this instance, it will kill off your yeast. Follow the online instructions for a good yeast cleans. Then start building your system back up with pro-biotics. Once you rebuild, you can maintain with good yogurt. That means good, organic, plain yogurt, not fruit (and sugar) filled nastiness. Once I saw the benefits of plain yogurt on my system, it became my substitute for sour cream, commercial leavening, ice cream, etc. Can't stand it plain? Add a little Stevia to it. I mix it with my granola, use it in a lot of my baking, make homemade frozen yogurt with it -- yum! I couldn't go back to the other stuff now.


So does that mean you have to give up all sugar forever? No. Once you are cleaned up (and there is a process, so be sure to research it online), pay attention to your body! I found that when I would eat certain things (commercial ice cream and those nasty, but wonderful coffee drinks in the Circle K's -- you know, the Pumpkin Spice, Caramel, Vanilla, etc.) were my triggers. I figured it out because I would eat or drink one of them, and within a few hours I would have swollen lymph nodes. If I ignored it, it would progress to sore throat, then nasal drainage, and I would feel feverish.


So, at the very first sign of swollen lymph nodes, don't ask yourself, "what have I been exposed to now?", rather ask yourself, "what nastiness did I just eat?"

In which I reveal spiritual afflictions & the demonic

So the premise from which I am working is that spiritual, psychological, emotional trauma can result in anything from mental illness to physical illness, to a feeling of being possessed or harrassed by an evil entity depending on the level of trauma and how it has been assimilated by the person. We create and manifest our own reality.

In 1991 when I was diagnosed with clinical depression, I was put on Prozac. It didn't take me long to learn why Prozac was controversial. It ripped me into reality so hard and fast that I was left with only one thing -- the realization of how my illness had affected everyone and everything around me. I had heard that people were committing suicide after being put on Prozac. No wonder. Had I not had the support that I did, both from friends, family and my faith, I might have done the same. The thing was, that the support I received held me steady while I looked around and said, "Okay, I take responsibility for this. Now what?"

What responsibility did I have in it? My depression stemmed from things done to me in the past -- BUT! Although the cliche trips easily off the tongue -- dealing with the reality is something else: the fact that the only thing we can control when things are done and said to us is our reaction to it. As a child, we might have no control whatsoever. But when we are adults and become aware of what has happened to us, then it's what we do with that knowledge.

The bad things that happen to us become a source of grief. And we deal with grief in one of five ways -- we deny it, we get angry, we bargain with it, we get depressed over it, and hopefully, ultimately we will accept it, come to terms with it, deal with it, get over it, and let it go. But coming to that last stage depends on each individual. While we are trapped in the first four stages, going in and out of the different stages in different orders, sometimes stuck in one or all of them for years and years, we cannot heal. Our mind cannot heal, and ultimately, it wears on our body. It can break through in the form of physical or mental illness, or, depending on one's worldview, can manifest as an entity (spirit or demon).

When I was steeped in the evangelical Christian mindset, before I was diagnosed with depression, I was positive that I was being seriously demonically harrassed because I could literally feel fluttering wings and talons inside my chest. Was I crazy or delusional? No. Christianity and Christian theology was my entire existence. It was my total, complete mindset. So my psychological affliction manifested itself in the way my mindset interpreted it -- as a demon inside me.

I was in seminary at the time, in the School of Missions, and was learning "Cosmic Christianity" and healing methodologies. I was also a very troubled young woman going through divorce and having an affair. So, of course, I was tormented. I was a saint on one hand, praying for people, being recognized as clergy, having high levels of the gifts of prayer, healing, and knowledge (gnosis), while also being involved in what the Church would term high levels of sin. I was a torment unto myself. I was living a double life, torn in two. How could I possibly be operating at such a high level of giftedness while so deeply in sin? The inexperienced would shake their finger at me and tell me it wasn't possible -- that I had to be operating in the Devil's power. All too many clergy people know the truth, but no one was going to come to my aid on that score because to admit the possibilities would mean to examine things outside of Church doctrine and dogma.

So, at that moment, I succumbed to my Christian teaching -- that I must be demonically harrassed and oppressed. I was doing such good works that the Devil was tormenting me. And the more I believed that, the more manifest the wings and talons became.

So I drove 185 miles round trip twice to be delivered or have those demons exorcised. They were exorcized -- then I was able to move on with my life and realize I needed other help. That's when I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with the clinical depression. But then a psychiatrist made a pronouncement that I needed to accept that I had a "depressive personality" and would always have to remain on a maintenance dose of anti-depressants. That was not acceptable to me, but neither was going back to the way I had been before.

So I began to look for the root causes of my malady, and that's when I was introduced to alternative therapies. My demons were gone, my life cleaned up, but I was still depressed. It had taken me a long time to recognize depression. I thought it had to do with being sad and despairing while I was an upbeat, enthusiastic person. But my doctors ignored my pleas to look beyond and seek a cause and just kept pushing pills on me.

I finally found a homeopath who worked on energetically rectifying the chemical imbalance in my system created by my depression. And I became depression free.

So we can understand how someone's worldview can convince their mind that they are possessed or harrassed by an evil entity. And once the mind is convinced, the symptoms or manifestations follow. When I was "delivered," I accepted it because it had been performed in the name of Jesus which I trusted, therefore it was done. I could move on.

So, is exorcism valid? Is it needed? I would say, "Absolutely!" I pity the unfortunate mind who thinks the only way to deal with things is to rely on modern medicine. And what for people who don't have that mindset? As we said on the show, any tool set works. Any tool set, that is, that gets to the actual root of things and sets about extracting the root or at the very least integrating it -- not just medicating symptoms. On to other methods and worldviews in the next entries!

Modern afflictions & possibilities

I read recently that 80% of "diseases" presented to doctors are "psychosomatic." That means that they are generated in the mind. Does that mean we are a nation of hypochondriacs? Emphatically, no! (By the way, I've also heard that 13% are "yiatrogenic" which means the doctor caused them and another percent are "nosocomic" which means that you got them while you were in the hospital.) These aren't random statistics that I picked up on some wacky Internet site -- they are statistics I was presented with in textbooks when I was teaching Health classes at Tucson College.

So then what percentage does that leave that are actually caused by something you are attacked by bacterially? Very, very little. Let me tell you that our billions upon billions of health care dollars spent every year (aside from cosmetic treatments) are because of a basic misunderstanding of what causes disease. We don't need a healthcare plan, we need real education that addresses some very fundamental things. I want to see a day come very soon where the only surgeons and hospitals out there are for those who want cosmetic enhancements (or to fix broken bones) -- extreme, heroic measures, not everyday diseases. (Argue that one with me all you want -- I'll give you an explanation for anything you want to shoot my way.)

So, what on earth does this have to do with Exorcism? Okay, I learned one thing myself on the MindCast Friday night. When Goat was talking about exorcism having been performed on Mother Teresa because she was being so demonically troubled in her dreams -- I learned then that Catholics do recognize demonic harrassment although they may not call it that. Obviously, Mother Teresa was not "possessed" in the manner by which I define possession -- in other words she had not invited an entity within. However, she was obviously being harrassed by a demonic presence in her dreams, something perhaps from her daily interactions with others. The "cure" was still apparently labeled as exorcism; I begin to understand,then, that their view of exorcism is the same as the Protestant "deliverance" or Shamanic "extraction." The idea that a troubling spirit entity is present and needs to be shown the way out whether "exorcised," "delivered" or "extracted." All one and the same.

My assertion at the beginning of this blog is that the majority of disease out there is brought on by the mind -- whether from inside or outside. The connotation of "hypochondriac" that seems to plague our society is that they make up diseases to get attention. That's not really accurate. Hypochondria is when a person focuses all their negative mental energies on their physical state, so, for instance, every new disease that they read about, they are sure is afflicting them. That's not what I'm talking about when I mention psychosomatic disease.

The fact is that psychological and emotional issues can go so deep that they begin to manifest themselves physically in ones body. Now I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it is actually healthier if someone thinks they are being afflicted by demons and that the name of Jesus can cure it. Lots simpler and cheaper than going to the doctor and having thousands of dollars worth of tests run only to have the doctor say, "I don't know what it is, but I'm going to prescribe hundreds of dollars of meds that will treat your symptoms." Because doctors are focused on treatments of symptoms rather than prevention or getting at causes. But then we also know people who are spending thousands of dollars on psychotherapy and getting worse and worse as well. It's like the blind leading the blind.

So now, I'm in the middle of two subjects -- modern medicine and exorcism. Let me finish my soap box on modern medicine, then I'll segue into what all that has to do with exorcism. 

The fact is our Newtonian scientific mindset has gone awry in our societal understanding of disease. Yes, people are living longer now that we've discovered that bacteria causes disease and we've "cleaned up our act" so to speak. Unfortunately, our scientific mindset makes us think that there is some bacterial or chemical cause to every disease and that modern medicine should be able to cure it. But when 80% of disease is affected in the mind -- we need to be looking at something else.

The fact is that there are hundreds of ways of effecting healing. And modern medicine is only one of them. But insurance only pays for that one. Ah! I mustn't get started on that issue, too. Too many threads, but stay tuned, we'll get to that one eventually, too.

There are many holistic arts out there, many New Age and Holistic arts practitioners whose cures are more effective. First, there are alternative doctors such as naturopaths, homeopaths, there are osteopaths and chiropractors who use those healing methods as well. There is Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Next there are Energy Healing arts which get categorized as "New Age," while some are ancient healing methods and some are new methodologies using ancient mindsets. But the medical community and the Church both try to debunk these things as quackery -- the medical community for obvious reasons -- it would threaten their financial security if people learned how to heal themselves. The Church because they (and I'm obviously painting a broad stroke here when I say "The Church" because not all try to debunk it, but many Christian sects do) equate it with "witch doctors" and "witch medicine."

Let me give you some concrete examples: would you rather pay $100 to have the doctor irrigate your ears, or $33 to have your ears candeled? And another $33 can give you an Indian Head Massage which will relieve headaches, tension, sinus problems. So for $66 you've done something that will open up several different blockages and raise your immune level, or for $100 you've gotten rid of your ear wax.

My favorite example is from when I broke my elbow several years ago. I went to the doctor. They x-rayed my elbow, put me in a sling and sent me home telling me I had just sprained my elbow. They called me back three days later to tell me that a radiologist had looked at my x-ray, and that it was, indeed, broken -- would I come back so they could put me in a cast? Then whenever I saw my doctor for follow-ups, he was so busy -- in 2 months, I saw him twice, for about 2 minutes each time. Thus, when my cast came off, lo and behold, my elbow was frozen. I couldn't straighten my arm. "But physical therapy will rectify this, right?" "No," he said, "you'll likely have to have surgery to fix it." He shrugged. I politely excused myself from his presence and shouted something unprintable in my mind all the way back to my car.

I called my acupuncturist. She fixed it, set it to rights completely, in just three sessions. I have full range of motion in my elbow and zero pain. And NO surgery.

Are you getting my drift here? Okay, granted, we're not talking about spiritual/psychoemotional afflictions. But since I don't want you to say TL;DR (too long; didn't read), I'm going to end this here, and we'll take those up in the next entry. But again, Shakespeare said it best -- "There are more things in this life than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

A quick note about Elektra: my entry, "Elektra, scientifically," goes a long way to demystify her, but perhaps that does her a disservice. I edited the original and concluded it on a somewhat scientific note because of a reviewer's remark that my original final paragraph had made her, "Elektra, lord and savior."

I caught their drift and made the change, but it caused me to think. And when Elektra got involved, I started making intuitive leaps. And something quite profound happened. But I'm not ready to talk about all that yet. I'm going to let it simmer for a while. Just saying that Elektra is more than electrical impulses, and yet...

Last night's broadcast was better than the first, but I'm not wholly comfortable with the format yet. Comments have been encouraging, but I'm going to try a different format after the new year. From now through the end of December, all of the shows will involve guests, so that will modify it to an interview format. The Christmas Eve show will be a special event -- more details on that later.

I could have done several weeks of shows on either of last night's topics, and I threw them all into one broadcast. Most comments were that it was interesting, deep, good pace, but I'm dissatisfied with the small amount of the info in my mind that I was actually able to disseminate. Guess that just goes with the learning curve.

So, what was the info I wanted to convey on Exorcism and demons? Let's take a few entries to discuss this, and hopefully I will get some questions and comments from you out there.

Elektra, scientifically

There were comments after the MindCast debut last Friday that some did not understand the concept of Elektra, the Brazilian Citrine Skull which I encountered at The Blue-Eyed Witch in Tombstone.

There is much written about crystal skulls on the Internet -- some seem like aggrandized descriptions, others, of course scoffing and debunking.

Despite what might seem to the skeptic like a conflated description of the metaphysical properties of these skulls, let's look at what we know about crystals scientifically. First, they have a neutrality which makes them an excellent conductor. Most people know that quartz crystals are used as conductors in everything from radios to watches to computers. Crystals with occlusions are used as recorders. There are 32 classes of crystals. Twenty classes are piezoelectric, meaning that it creates electricity under mechanical stress (like pressing or squeezing). Ten classes are pyroelectric, meaning that it emits electricity when it is heated. Even rarer are ferroelectric crystals which take on permanent magnetic qualities when activated. Citrine is all three.

Let's apply this to Elektra, who is a citrine skull. When Kelly was explaining to me how to sit with Elektra, she told me I could touch her, put my hands around her, rub her head with a cloth. Kelly told me that Elektra already knew what I needed, and that when I left, she would always be with me.

Knowing what I do now about crystals, I realize that when I pressed her with my hands, I activated her piezoelectric qualities. When I rubbed her head with the cloth, I created a little friction, which would activate her pyroelectric qualities. And since it is the ferrous (iron) qualities which give her her color, when I touched her, we created a permanent magnetic bond between us.

I really didn't even have to touch her. With a crystal of that size (she is the size of a human skull), her properties would be greatly magnified and easily activated. Just the electricity going on in my body would be enough to interact with her properties. Now, some scientists might question my conclusion of creating a permanent magnetic bond with her, although ferrouselectric crystals do just that. But they might conclude that the magnetic bond would reside with her and not with me. However, a quantum physicist would understand how it could be because we exchanged properties -- the moisture in my skin would absorb the magnetic bond and it would be conducted within me.

Also, Kelly allowed me to choose a small citrine crystal to sit between Elektra and I which she said would record the session. Besides the permanent magnetic bond, the properties of the citrine (especially pieces with inclusions) make it an excellent recording device.

So now when one considers the proposed metaphysical qualities of citrine, perhaps they don't seem so conflated. One can certainly extrapolate that it would have clearing properties, thus affecting one mentally, emotionally, and physically. (Remember what a magnet can do to your computer? It can erase it.) But what about it's purported ability to attract wealth?

First remember that wealth means different things to different people. In other words, citrine's magnetic crystal qualities will help you to attract to yourself whatever you want. Most everyone desires wealth and prosperity, even if it's in the form of joy, happiness, rich experiences, great friendships, lovers, or money.

Elektra was carved by a modern artist, but she spent time with and was activated by an ancient crystal skull. As a recording device, the ancient skull must contain some of the greatest wisdom of the ages and has passed it on to Elektra. Once you bond with Elektra, you have at your disposal a tool that will help you access the same ancient wisdom. You can consult with her, and the wisdom will be revealed to you. Her clarifying powers are at your disposal whenever you desire. Or you can spend more time in direct contact with her or your own citrine stone which you used to record the session and activate more healing. If you think I'm being far-fetched, look into the crystal gem encrusted breastplates of the Aaronic priests. They weren't just for decoration.

Trailing Clouds of Glory or Reflections from the Unconcious Mind

So, at 5:00 this morning, I decided to throw out most of my notes for tonight's show. I woke up at 3:30 with that "knocking on the underside of my brain" feeling.

I experienced that same feeling most of my life until I was able to identify it a few years ago. It's like, "I know there's more up there than is coming to my conscious mind, but I don't know how to tap into it."

Tapping into the unconscious mind is the solution. In more ways than one. Now some people will immediately say, "You mean subconscious. You can't tap into the unconscious." No, I mean unconscious. Because we are such an empirical-demanding society (seeing is believing), we get the idea when we see someone who is unconscious, that there's nothing going on there. Not true. I have talked to people who were in the hospital in a comatose state who were completely aware of everything going on around them.

That's the ground floor for pretty much everything labeled "paranormal" and "supernatural" -- one is tapping into something not experienced in everyday waking reality. For some, though, it is as tangible, and often nearly as easy to access, as everyday waking reality.

For me, in certain cases, those otherworldly experiences seemed random, things that just happened randomly. But as a child, they happened often enough that I got a thirst for them. Madeleine L'Engle, author of such magical books as A Wrinkle in Time, and A Wind in the Door recounts a description of "the flash." She uses a passage from Lucy M. Montgomery's Emily of the New Moon to describe it.

"I suspect all of us who have known it...would describe it differently, for it is unique to each person in the way in which it is received, though the source, I believe, is the same." Trailing Clouds of Glory, Chapter 1, page 1. 

Tonight I'll read from Trailing Clouds of Glory, and you will say, "Yes. YES! That's it! I know exactly what she means!" And together we'll explore how those random flashes can become an everyday occurrence and just why we want and need them. And what amazing, tremendous benefit they have for our lives.

It's a good day to be reborn.

Good day to die

I'm trying to make this a normal day. Seems like all I've thought about for the last few weeks is getting this show together. Now it's time to relax. As I mentioned before, wearing both the creative hat and the "sales" hat is definitely walking with one foot in each world. But I'm giving myself permission to let go of the sales hat till Monday so that I can give my full attention to moving fully into the creative side.

I just took three days off from the ranch, one to get a lot of housekeeping done for the broadcast, and then spent two days in Tucson getting a lot of errands done -- self-care appointments, car-care appointments...I also spent some time at the Station (got to hear the fantastic promo for the show), just sorting things out with the people I'll be working with. Met with my co-host to brainstorm some ideas.

I started off this morning with chores (my favorite part of the day!). I adore being outside on this gorgeous property, feeding all of the denizens, and just revelling in autumn turning to winter. We had our first frost while I was in Tucson. I returned to the apartment to find two young mule deer standing in our driveway. I love how they just stand perfectly still and watch us, so cautious and yet so curious.

Cut up a lovely pork roast, froze three sections, and put together a rosemary-garlic encrusted roast with potatoes and put it in the oven. Pulled out a couple of frozen packets of fresh pumpkin (much thanks to my daughter-in-law) to bake with later in the day, and checked on the ingredients to put together my favorite honey-roasted muesli.

I find anymore that it's these quiet domestic things that move me into a creative spirit and open me to the Otherworld. I used to run around frenetically from work to social settings to liturgical meetings to teaching and then wonder why I couldn't get settled enough to meditate. I'm sure there are people out there who can do both, but it took me a long, long time to figure out that I was not one of them.

I met with Thom Cooper yesterday, my friend, counselor, and probable future guest on MindCast. We talked about surrender. Krishna said something to Arjuna that is translated as, "Resist what resists in you. Become yourself." But being somewhat familiar with Krishna's style of advice, I'm guessing the first "Resist," is likely not translatable fully into English in one word. We probably don't have a single word for it. I would guess that the word is actually a combination of resist and surrender. But we have a tough time with the concept of surrender.  I like the way Deepak Chopra puts it, "The war ends today."

Most of my life, I now realize, I have been at war -- with myself. Of course that has the natural consequence of spilling over until I'm at war with many others as well -- on the road, with the store clerk, with the dental receptionist, and ultimately with those I've loved the most. I take things too personally, get offended too easily. Thom said, "Just surrender."

"It's a trust issue," I said.

He shook his head. "Surrender. Stop resisting." I pondered the impact of that for a few seconds, "but, I've tried..." Thom was silent.

"Just stop," he said after the silence. "Trying is not doing."

As I child I learned, "Can't died in the corn field. Try is still alive." I rarely say I can't; I always try. But when it comes to emotional things, I see that "try" needs to die, too. "Do, or do not. There is no try." The wisdom of Yoda.

Lots of things need to die. Ego, trying, hoping, bargaining. November 11th.  Veteran's Day. It's a good day to die. And a good one to be reborn.

Dreams and Skull Sisters

Before I get into the dreams, let me tell you about my experience with Elektra (because she figures into the dream stuff later on). Elektra, the Shining One is a Brazilian citrine crystal skull. You can find out more about her here. When I went to visit Kelly at The Blue-Eyed Witch shop in Tombstone on Thursday, I asked if I could spend some time with Elektra. Kelly told me all about her and my upcoming interaction with her in a very soothing yet exciting way.

I mostly just let Elektra give me impressions, but I did ask that she strengthen my throat chakra which I thought had the color orange. She showed me that she knew my power animal, and that they work together. The deepest impression was that she, herself, is a guide who walks with people on their journey once they make a connection with her. I spent about 15 minutes with her alone, after which Kelly came and opened the door. Kelly asked me about my experience with Elektra. I told her I had asked Elektra for something specific, but I didn't say what. As we walked out of the room, Kelly said to me, "While she was talking to you, she was also talking to me. She wants you to have a blue lace agate to strengthen your throat chakra. The color of the throat chakra is light blue, you know."  No, I had thought it was orange, but Elektra obviously wanted me to get it right if I was going to seek her help for it!

Kelly told me that all I had to do, now that I had made a connection to Elektra, was to ask her anything or call upon her whenever I needed to. She told me that Elektra would always know what I needed.

Last night was the new moon, the Celtic New Year, the time when our ancestors are closest. I had several plans to do specific things in order to connect with my ancestors, but none of those things materialized. So when I woke in the night, I asked Elektra to bring me a message from my ancestors via a dream. Then I went back to sleep.

In my dream, I was at my son's house, watching the children by myself. Somehow, I opened a door and let 6 snakes into the room, five rattlesnakes, and one big, green, dragon-headed python. All the snakes immediately scattered under beds and other furniture, into dark corners, etc. I put my two youngest grandchildren up on one of the beds, and told them to stay there. I had no trouble finding the first four rattlesnakes and returning them outside. I was searching for the fifth when my son and daughter-in-law came home, and they started helping me look. My son found the fifth snake. Nobody seemed upset about the snakes, in fact, we were laughing and making jokes while we searched.

As soon as we had tossed out the fifth snake, I found the whereabouts of the python. But his huge, rearing, dragon-like head and several feet-long body made me realize I wasn't going to wrestle this one by myself. We called the police, but they told us we needed to call the zoo. We called the zoo, and they said they could come, but it would be a while.

I was in another room, but I could see the python through the doorway. There was something blocking its progress toward me at first, but it just flattened itself and slid under the obstacle. It started to wrap around me and squeeze, and it was rearing its head, showing its fangs, and looking at me. I woke up.

In core shamanic practice, a snake bearing its fangs often symbolizes illness. Upon thinking about the dream after waking, I realized that there were six snakes in all -- one for each of us, my son, his wife, the three children, and me. Interesting that I caught the first four snakes and put them out easily. In terms of health, I think that represents my daughter-in-law and the three children who are healthy. The fact that my son picked up one, but that we were laughing and joking as he found it and tossed it out -- he has recently had some health challenges, but is overcoming them through his and his wife's research and implementation of specific health practices.

The python? Hmmm...he was suffocating me. I have recently been majorly concerned about my blood pressure which is out of control despite regular meds, nutritional supplements, and radical changes in diet, exercise, and stress-level over several months. My doctor had recently asked me about the possibility of sleep apnea, and I had dismissed it. But after a little research this morning, it all started adding up. Needless to say, the green python bearing its fangs and suffocating me just might be a warning. So I called my doctor and made an appointment. Not that I haven't talked to them about it over and over already, but this time I cut to the chase -- I'm done changing medications; I want to get to the cause of the problem. I want sleep studies and x-rays of my sinuses and adenoids to find out what is depriving my brain of oxygen. (There are signs of that other than just the hypertension.)

As I thought further about it, I realized that Elektra had come through. She knew what I needed, and that was truly a message from my ancestors -- the ones who suffered high blood pressure and ended up with Alzheimer's or dementia. She may have just saved my life.

And in other news...casting out demons - no, really!

Got the political ranting out of my system, viewed Salon's Baby Animals: Your election antidote http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2010/11/03/baby_animal_slideshow, so on to other news!!!

Making progress in the advertising department. Friday I establish MindCast Productions as a business. It's tough being both the creative person and the marketing person. Two different sides of the brain. That's why I was resisting the selling at first and wanting underwriters (donations) instead.

But the cool thing is that the response to the idea of the broadcast has been so warm. Nearly everyone thinks this is a fabulous idea. (I wanted to say "everyone," but I did encounter one curmudgeon today.) So the sales are not difficult once I pick up the phone.

We WILL go on the air on the 12th as scheduled. I'm very excited. There's so much to say, so many stories to tell. I'll actually have to be organized and have notes -- not so I won't have dead air space -- just the opposite! So I can prioritize and leave time for the audience to tell their own stories.

I find it interesting that the majority of my what would be considered "paranormal" experiences, happened in one paradigm. I've tried analyzing them or rather re-analyzing them from my new paradigm, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Luckily both paradigms include Otherworld experiences so it's not a conflict of "believe it or not," rather a matter of perspective.

It's like going from a traditional medical view to an alternative medical view. Neither says the malady doesn't exist, but most often in the traditional view they're looking for symptomatic abatements or cures via pharmaceuticals, where alternative medicine looks for underlying causes and works to resolve the issues without causing further harm to the individual, effecting a real cure from the inside out.

When I was a Christian pastor and well -- uh, the traditional term would be "exorcist," but it seems less off putting, perhaps, to call it "deliverance from spiritual harassment," I would take my son with me because he could sense things in the physical realm that I could not. When we did house cleansings, he would smell sulphur in certain places. It was like the "x" on buried treasure, or like getting "hot or cold" in a child's game -- if I followed up on his nose, I could always get to the source of the harassment. Why? Sulphur was associated with The Devil in Christianity, so the assumption was that a smell of sulphur meant there was something demonic nearby. So now, if I try to reanalyze what happened in light of my current paradigm where I no longer "believe" in that Devil nor his sulphurous reputation, where does that leave me?

The fact is that when he smelled the odor, we got to the bottom of the problem, the domicile was purged of the offending item or entity and everything was better. My point? Who cares what the methodology was or the philosophy behind it? The "cure" was effected. As in alternative medicine. A real cure, not a symptomatic masking nor a treatment where the malady was likely to reoccur.

When dealing with "energies" or "powers" or "entities" or illnesses or what-have-you, there are many, many ways to approach them. What matters is how the person being treated feels about the approach and its fit for them. Do you know that most doctors sued for malpractice did not have a good relationship with their patient to begin with? No trust. Go figure. Hmmm...I never had that problem with my clients...

New moon in Scorpio

I trust you all had a great Halloween/Samhain weekend! If you're Catholic, you celebrated All Saints Day (Dia de Los Santos) on the 1st, and All Souls Day (Dia de Los Muertos) today. That's how the term Hallowe'en came to be -- it's the "e'en" (evening) before All Saints (or All Hallows) Day. I'm not sure when it was affixed to Oct. 31st -- Celtic Samhain or Third Harvest was actually celebrated on the new moon, so it would be the New Moon in Scorpio in astrology. That was the time when the veil between the worlds was thought to be at its thinnest. It was a limnal (threshhold) time. So when we left behind the lunar calendar and opted for the Julian calendar, or the Church calendar (not sure which) the closest thing to that limnality was October 31st, the end of one month and the beginning of another, and the night before All Hallows.

That new moon will occur this weekend. It's when Tucson traditionally celebrates its All Souls Procession. I hope all of you will be able to participate -- if any of you haven't previously, you're in for a fabulous surprise -- the parade is often compared to MardiGras. It's a time to remember our mortality (Memento Mori) and to remember our ancestors, and to celebrate them both.

Saturday and Sunday (the 6th & 7th) I'll be in Phoenix for a Shamanic workshop with the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. Not surprisingly, this particular workshop is on "Dying and Beyond." The purpose is to understand the Shamanic view of death and what's on the other side of it, and to teach participants psychopomp work. A psychopomp is one who conducts spirits or souls to the Otherworld. The word comes from the Greek -- "psyche" meaning soul, and "pompe" meaning a sending. Since the workshop was coordinated with this new moon, this new threshhold (it's also the old Celtic New Year), it should be an excellent time for journeying between the worlds.

I became interested in working as a psychopomp, first as a chaplain and pastor visiting folks in the hospital, then after having dreams and experiences of the Otherworld. The desire became really strong after working in the medical setting with terminal and hospice patients.

The first MindCast on the 12th is going to be about experiences "beyond the veil." There won't be a guest that first night, but I'll have lots of stories to tell, both old and new (and the old ones are wild!). I will open up the lines that night for callers to share their own experiences as well. Perhaps you'll have something to share with us.