KAJAMA.COM NEWSLETTER

April 11 through April 17, 2022

Two important astrological events mark this week, as Mars moves into the spiritually-based sign of Pisces and the Moon waxes full in Libra. With Mars traveling through Pisces for the next six weeks, we'll be prone to following our intuition over the facts, as well as making decisions that are unsupported by logic. That's okay though, as bowing to the spiritual urges and acting on them is sure to take us where we want to go during this cycle. We'll be under the influence of the waxing full Moon all week, and this one is famous for surprising us in the area of relationships. It's not uncommon to get a text or call from someone from your past, or, to encounter someone so familiar we are sure we know them from a past life! And, if there are any areas of your life that are out of balance, this full Moon is sure to point them out so we can correct those and reclaim our equilibrium. Monday the Moon will cruise through Leo and offer a fairly easy going day, but once it moves into Virgo on Tuesday, we'll spend the next three days thinking, researching and expressing our ideas and thoughts with abandon. We'll need to take care though, as not all people agree with or appreciate our opinions, so assess your audience before waxing eloquent! The Moon moves into calming Libra on Friday and waxes full on Saturday, making for a calm and peaceful weekend. Enjoy!

Tarot: Looking at Both the Mundane and the Divine, by Lisa Freinkel Tishman, PhD

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

I'm a shaman and a mindfulness teacher. You may not think that these two identities are at odds, but I'm here to tell you: they are.

The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that a shaman, "is a man or woman who is regarded as having direct access to, and influence in, the spirit world which...empowers them to guide souls, cure illnesses, etc..." Shamans divine—"divine" here in the verb sense of the word. Shamans practice divination, meaning that they receive truth from divinity. Shamans light sacred fires, peering into the dancing flames. They gaze into the fathomless depths of an obsidian disc. Or perhaps they sift through the dregs of a holy brew and channel hidden messages. Shamans receive truth from the beyond.

In contrast, we mindfulness teachers are continually pointing folks back to the here and now: to this body sitting in this chair, sipping mint tea as the birds start to sing on this particular drizzly spring morning...Mindfulness, in other words, guides us back to our own ordinary experience: to this collection of skin and bones and intestines and hormones, moods and thoughts, burps and belches, eyelashes and finger nails and tastebuds.

Shamans channel truths from elsewhere. Mindfulness practitioners bring loving, non-judgmental attention to the world all around us. Shamans reveal—unveil the hidden. In mindfulness we just point: look here. It is what it is.

Shamans try to fix things, cure things, manifest new outcomes. In the ancient world, kings and commanders sought to win battles, gain wealth, woo their women with shamanic help. For every Stannis Baratheon seeking the Iron Throne, you had someone like the Red Women divining and spellcasting at his side. Heck, even Nancy Reagan had her astrologer, Joan Quigley. Nancy brought Joan into the White House after John Hinckley's failed assassination attempt on the President. She hoped a shaman like Joan could save Ronnie's life—preserve his power—and shape the future of the free world.

In mindfulness practice, however, we're not trying to shape anything. As I tell my students: nothing is broken, nothing needs fixing. Let's hunker down in life as it is—noticing what's already here and all around us. This is the path to accepting ourselves and to finding our way home. This is not about power, exactly. This is about peace.

Shamans offer power and influence from beyond. Mindfulness offers peace and humble self-acceptance right here.

How can I be and do both? Shaman? Mindfulness teacher?

In my book Mindful Tarot, in fact, I make a sharp distinction between between a "mindful Tarot" practice that points us to the world right before us—and a prophetic or shamanic practice that looks for answers from a world beyond.

But, I'm also living proof that when we deeply investigate what it means to be mindful—what it means to bring loving, accepting attention to the world all around us—then that's precisely when the world of shamanic magic begins.

I learned this truth at a silent Zen meditation retreat a few years back. I was the retreat leader, and part of my job was to figure out where everybody would sit. It sounds easy, but people were coming and going all week long—and since meals were being served in silence, in formal Zen style, right at our seats—my job included a complex game of meditation hall Tetris.

Do you remember Tetris? That video game where you manipulate falling blocks so that they slide neatly into place? At this retreat, I needed to figure out how to arrange the room throughout the week. I had to keep all the gluten-free people in one corner of the hall, and all the vegans in another. And where would I seat Sally, who had to avoid legumes at all costs? Could Billy take her place at mid-week, or would his life-threatening allergy to onions and garlic confuse the cook and the food servers too much? In this complex culinary choreography, how could I make sure everyone got safely and promptly served throughout the week?

I remember sitting during a meditation period one day and instead of bringing my attention mindfully back to my breath, I couldn't stop obsessing over a mental map of the room. I focused my mind's eye on an internal image of the hall, picturing how I might move chairs and mats around as the week unfolded and participants, with their nut allergies and such, came and went. In my mind's eye, I kept shuffling the pieces of the puzzle around, trying to map the perfect flow of bodies. I was trying to fit everything into place.

The effort was exhausting! My mind couldn't stop churning.

And suddenly it dawned on me: this is what we do with all of the pieces of our lives, every day. We create mental maps, as it were, of places and people and things of our world—and then we try to maneuver the parts so that everything fits.

We do this in ways both subtle and obvious. At the more obvious level, I might imagine my drive to work, picturing how the traffic flows at 7:35 a.m. and trying to plot the perfect, quickest, easiest route from door to door. At a more subtle level, I might worry about a difficult conversation I need to have with my boss once I get to work, and I might picture all the things I could say and all the ways she might respond—trying in advance to control the dialogue and achieve a favorable outcome.

But the fact is, when we play Tetris with the world, we often lose. We all know how easy it is for our mental maps to be wrong, and for our calculations to fail. Traffic patterns often defy our expectations, and difficult conversations often go sideways. The truth is, it's hard to maneuver our lives. All too frequently, the world pushes back. Life usually refuses to slide neatly into place.

That's why I love the Tarot so much. When I draw the cards and lay out a spread, the pieces of the puzzle fall precisely where they fall. My job as reader requires that I interpret the pattern right in front of me. I don't get to move things around—to return that pesky 10 of Swords back to the deck, or to move the 9 of Cups into its place. I can't play Tetris with Tarot. The cards I've pulled are precisely what I must work with. Anything else would feel like a cheat and a dodge. If I'm going to get serious about Tarot, I need to make sense of whatever cards I pull, learning to interpret them in their own terms, right here and now.

Indeed, Tarot teaches me to accept the hand that I've been dealt.

What a metaphor for life! How often do we take a long deep look at what is—at the cards we've been dealt, in life—and accept them without hesitancy or reserve? But such is the work of mindfulness, where we bring open and kind attention to our present-moment experience. Mindfulness asks us to take our time, to open our heart, and to accept the patterns of life just as they are.

In this mindful decision to play the hand we're dealt, we also find the origin of shamanic empowerment. The shaman's insights emerge from the patterns that the world provides, whether she consults the wheeling constellations of the sky, the spread of the cards, or the reticulated swirls of a crystal quartz.

Because the insights of the shaman can seem profound and life-changing, we tend to think their source lies beyond mere appearances, beyond the everyday. But indeed, the shaman's true strength precisely derives from the everyday. She refuses to turn or twist things around. She sees, deeply, the ordinary patterns that others bypass. Her power lies in her ability to examine the world unwaveringly, in its truest form. She really looks at the world, precisely as it appears, here and now.

Jesuit theologian Walter Burghardt once called mindful contemplation, "a long, loving look at the real." Mindfulness requires gentleness and love, and a deep willingness to encounter reality.

Being a shaman requires the same love, the same extended embrace of our lives. If shamans have the power to cure and transform, this power begins in love.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2019. All rights reserved.

For as long as I can remember, I have been petrified of flying insects that make any kind of buzzing sound. This is my only phobia. I absolutely freak out when I hear that noise in spite of being rationally aware that insects can't harm me. I have been led to believe that I may have had a past life as one of the children of Israel held captive in Egypt, and I wonder if this could have anything to do with a plague of locusts. What can you tell me about this and how can I erase this irrational fear? Thank you for the work you do!

Love,
Mags

Dreamchaser:

Mags, I just love your question. We all have irrational fears from past lives. One of mine is of fire. It turns out I was burned at the stake, so that makes sense to me. In your case, you have had a few past lives that involved buzzing insects. The one you mention was not really the worst. The locusts descending on Egypt scared you because it was so loud, but the locusts did not harm you or your family.

I am very hesitant to say this because it sounds like such doom and gloom. You asked, however, so I will tell you what I hear: You are most afraid of the buzzing sound because it reminds you of the flies that were around you when you lay dying in at least three different lives. One was on a battlefield when you were a male soldier. Another was in a desert, where you had been left to die. In yet another, the buzzards and/or vultures had already started to feast on you, so you can imagine how traumatic THAT was. You associate that buzzing with horrible death.

I have always been terrified of snakes. When I say terrified, Mags, I mean I stop breathing, stop moving, time itself just stops. I started to realize, however, that the more spiritually evolved I became, the closer I could get to the snakes at the pet store. One day I was standing in line there and I turned around and a man was holding a corn snake directly behind me. The first thing I noticed was the incredible coloring on this snake's body. I then noticed the fluidity of the snake's movements. I had a sudden urge to reach out and touch it like I do every other animal that I am allowed to touch. Trust me though - I resisted that urge!

I then started to look at the other snakes in the store and notice their coloring, etc. I realized that they were not going to hurt me. I realized that they are much like a Great White Shark or any other misunderstood creature. If I am going to say I live in the NOW with everything that is, I guess I better figure out how to get along with everything.

I've told you this story because I want you to try to stay present in the NOW so you can really see insects and appreciate their coloring and the way they move. If you learn about your nemesis, especially as a being that shares this Universe with you, you are less likely to be afraid of it. I wish you loving encounters!

*****

Astrea:

Mags! You've lived a lot of past lives. With your birthday, there's NO WAY you could be here for the first time! The plague of locusts in Egypt is probably just ONE experience that has built this phobia and fear into your Harmony. There must have been several incarnations where you encountered noise at a higher level than most people can stand. If you examine this, you'll find that it's more than bug noises: trains, loud cars - anything uncomfortably loud is going to upset you. Bugs are just one manifestation of this for you.

Many Geminis seem to live around lots of noise. You draw it to you for some reason. Whether it's a past life issue or current life issue doesn't really matter; I see noise following Geminis around. The double energy that you have around you makes things that are noisy seek you out. How many times have you been watching television when the phone rings, and then sirens tear down the street while you're trying to have a conversation with someone? Then a dog starts to bark, the cats in the neighborhood start a fight - it goes on and on!

You can't go through life worrying about buzzing insects, and you can't wear earplugs all the time. I recommend you find and see a local past life regressionist who can help you find out why the bugs bug you so much! That lifetime in Egypt is a great place to start with someone who can guide you in exploring where all of this began for you.

If there isn't anyone specializing in this kind of therapy in your area, you can begin to discover these past lives for yourself by using ordinary Rider Waite Tarot cards and a lovely book by Edain McCoy called Entering the Summerland. The book itself is about Death, but it's not depressing. In the appendix, you'll find a system for discovering your past Incarnations with Tarot cards. As a first step, this system works well and is very accurate. If you can't find it in the store, your local library should have a copy.

While all the information you get from whatever path you choose will be ENLIGHTENING, I must warn you, Kiddo. I don't feel that Egypt was the ONLY unpleasant encounter you've had with insects during other Incarnations. Prepare yourself before you begin for some unpleasant images, and remember: the truth may be upsetting, but it will ultimately set you free.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.