gifts
Holiday Gift Guide For The Zodiac Signs
You can find the perfect holiday gift for everyone on your list by considering the unique aspects of their astrological sign. Check out the great ideas below to discover the perfect solution for those difficult to shop for loved ones!
Aries
For the Aries people on your list, keep in mind that they love movement! Books, movies, apps or gifts related to cars, travel or the latest exercise trend will get their attention. Since they’re fire signs, you can’t go wrong with candles, incense or fragrances.
Aries also love to read up on the latest news, so consider extending their favorite magazine or streaming subscriptions, or adding a new one to their collection. Pennywise Aries will love a gift certificate to their favorite store, so they can shop for the best deals at all the post-holiday clearance sales.
Taurus
Taurus is the sign of luxury, so consider a gift certificate to their favorite clothing or all-inclusive store or website. In fact, gift certificates for a massage or a favorite restaurant will work too! These earth signs appreciate jewelry, travel and shopping.
Since a Taurus will be the first on the block to own the latest electronics. If you’re going all out, consider a new TV, computer, video game, or cell phone to make their holidays special. For a more practical gift, look for a book, magazine or streaming subscription, or movie about their favorite subject.
Seeing Colors In Music
When my dad became terminally ill in 2013, I turned to art and started painting. I had no ambition to become an artist; it was simply something I could do to take my mind off the stress of my father’s illness.
I started off blending and playing with colors, and eventually branched out to paint pictures that I soon discovered many people found appealing. When I became better at it, I started to incorporate music into what I was painting.
I would pick a song and play it on repeat to inspire me, until I was done with the painting. It was as if I was channeling the lyrics and melodies into the artwork. The music told the story of the art I was creating. I would then name the painting after that particular song and include the lyrics on the back of the canvas.
I also developed a new fascination with music and singing at that time. In time I began putting my art projects to one side, and instead began to focus on learning to sing. I continued the singing after my father passed away, and I found so much personal healing in it.
I didn’t realize how alive music really is and how intertwined my art would become with my singing. When I sing, I ‘see’ the lyrics as if they are being painted on a blank canvas in my mind’s eye. The main verses of the songs will often become large flowers, and the chorus and melodies will fill in the areas around the flowers with leaves and scrolled vines.
I learned recently that there is a scientific term for seeing colors and patterns when hearing music. It is a type of synesthesia known as chromaesthesia. Synesthesia is a perception phenomenon in which one experiences things through your senses in an unusual way. For example, a synesthete might experience a sound as a color, a word as a shape, or a number as a taste or smell. The person’s sensory perceptions are somehow combined or unified, almost like ‘wires that are crossed.’
A Time For Mindful Reflection
As the leaves begin to fall and the weather changes, I am reminded that change is a natural part of life. As the seasons change, it is natural for us to also shift and adapt, as our ancestors did for millennia.
Many years ago, a martial artist reminded me that when facing a difficult challenge in life that we are not able to avoid or change, we can still alter our view of the situation and find new meaning and resolution. What seems like the harshest challenges in our lives are often blessings in disguise. It often gifts us the opportunity to move forward and grow by changing that which no longer serves our true purpose and highest good.
We are living in an extraordinary time where natural forces are increasingly reminding us to become more responsible custodians of the environment that hosts our species. We must also become better stewards of the glorious physical temples that house our souls. The key to this is mindfulness. By adopting a mindful lifestyle, greater planetary care and self-care becomes second nature to us, and both our own lives and the world we live in will benefit exponentially.
Mindfulness allows us to be present in each moment, appreciating the beauty of constant change and the natural cycles of life even as it happens. When we become still and centered, we connect more deeply with ourselves and the world around us.
An endless array of spiritual practices and self-care endeavours, such as prayer, meditation, gratitude journaling and charitable volunteering can help us find peace despite any great change or challenge that may be confronting us. Make the effort to find your own desired outlet for connecting to your inner peace, as this undertaking will lead to a lasting fulfilment and joy that you can hold on to at any time throughout your lifetime. Continue reading
Spirit Visions, Dreams And Visitations
We all possess the gift. Most of us do not believe, or wish to tap into our psychic abilities. Some of us may not be ready to use the gift for good, so it’s probably good that God doesn’t allow some of us to access that part of our psyche.
We are all at different stages of development, but that doesn’t mean that one is better than the other – because some have the gift and some do not. It all depends on divine timing. We must learn as the lessons are given, until we evolve in such a way that we may tap into the gift when we are ready, or when God feels we are ready to bestow it.
One night my dearly departed grandfather came to me in a dream. He was driving this very old-fashioned car, which I later learned he used to own when I paged through the pictures in an old family album. He just was there, he didn’t say anything. I was embracing the light he had brought with him. It was such pure love and just filled me up, and I was so happy and content. I also knew and sensed there were other beings of light present, who may have helped him to make himself known to me.
He came to me so that I could say goodbye to him and tell him that I love him. I felt so good being able to say goodbye. It gave my mind the sense of calm and closure I needed. I needed to say goodbye, because I never got that chance while he was still alive.
During his visit my grandfather also gave me the gift, and while doing so I also had a taste of the blissful energy of the afterlife. In life he always used to tell me that if he was able to he will one day come through from the other side to visit me. He did and I am grateful.
Soul Circle Family Ties
Children choose their parents and families before they arrive in this world. In spiritual terms there is therefore no difference between a biological child and an adopted child. All souls belong to a soul group or soul circle, no matter what their chosen physical incarnation and human family structure may be.
The soul of an adopted child is just as much part of her family’s original soul circle as that of her sister, who chose instead to be physically born into the same family. They have both been part of their soul circle for eternity, and always will be.
Parents of adopted children, who also have biological children, will tell you that they feel the same spiritual and emotional bond with all their kids. They experience the same levels of attachment, connection, and love with each child. Spiritually aware parents often also report that they feel they have known the souls of both their adopted and biological children in previous lifetimes, or that there was an instant soul recognition the moment they first saw each child.
We choose our earth families, parents, and physical bodies before we are born. Our soul knows before birth the physical traits, capacities, and disabilities our body will have in this lifetime, as well as the talents, gifts, shortcomings, and limitations we will have in our chosen incarnation.
We also decide how we wish to join our chosen human families, including by birth, surrogacy, adoption, and even the blending of families. These choices our souls make are determined by our chosen soul purpose and life path. There are many karmic reasons why soul circle members may prefer adoption, instead of biological birth.
The Divine Source Of Psychic Awareness
One of my favorite Vedic hymns is the Absolute mantra which can be translated this way:
That is Absolute (Divine), this is Absolute (Divine),
Absolute (Divine) rises out of Absolute (Divine).
If Absolute (Divine) is taken out of Absolute (Divine),
Absolute (Divine) remains.
It is my personal belief that this mantra is a key to understanding our existence, and also gives us insight into where psychic phenomena come from. We are all interconnected through a Divine matrix, but the daily perception of our experience is that of duality or separateness. We do not consciously share our awareness with trees or other people, but the Divine matrix is still present whether we recognize it or not.
So, how does this explain psychic phenomena? These are my theories, but that being said, they are theories that have their roots in various spiritual traditions. We may never fully understand psychic phenomena, but it is my personal conviction that it happens when a level of the Divine consciousness seeps through into the consciousness of an individual.
Some psychics experience intense empathic impressions, where they experience the emotions of another individual, while others communicate with spirits or ultra-terrestrial beings, such as the angels and guides that observe and influence our everyday lives.
The veil of duality is slightly removed for people who have these abilities and they can therefore interact with these beings on a higher plane of consciousness. Gifted psychics can also see into the past and the future, because they are able to transcend the duality of time. This is also a manifestation of the Absolute, since the Absolute transcends even time itself.
The Good Old Days Of Tribal Service
Someone once asked me the question: why do you do what you do? Most psychics might say that they do it because they love helping people. I gave it careful some thought and realized my answer would be the same, but under different terms. That isn’t to say that I don’t love helping others, but there would be different boundaries, if I was free to choose.
I work in the New Age ways, as well as in the indigenous traditions, and I pride myself on the knowledge I have gained in order to truly blend the East with the West. If I had a choice, I would work in the indigenous tradition of my ancestors, especially regarding how one is remunerated for your service.
In the indigenous way, each village had a spiritual person that they called by various names, including Medicine Man, Shaman, Healer, Guru, Oracle, Soothsayer. It was the way in those cultures to take care of the spiritual leaders of the tribe, in terms of their material needs. They shared equally whatever they had with their spiritual leader.
As a result, the spiritual leader didn’t have to focus any of his time on meeting his material needs, such as keeping a roof over his head, or thinking in terms of where his next meal would come from. Instead, he could devote all of his time and energy to spiritual matters.
His payment for his gifts didn’t include whatever the tribe used for money or barter, or if it did, it was not thought of in the same context. In other words, anyone in his tribe could come to him at anytime, with any kind of spiritual issue, and he could address it however he deemed necessary, according to his own sense of direction and spirit guidance. He didn’t have to consider time, energy, and money. He didn’t have to require payment in terms of the time he spent or what was required, because he was so esteemed by his people that they took care of his worldly needs, so he could devote himself to their spiritual needs completely. What a concept! Right?