Amazingly, we tend to ignore the bulk of human history when considering what is ‘natural.’  How humans lived for tens of thousands of years has imprinted itself in our genes, yet we ignore that programming, instead trying to live by what our culture says is ‘right.’  There are reasons for why we act the way that we do, feel the way that we feel, and they are not the result of the rise of patriarchal religions, or the Industrial Revolutions.  The conflicts that we experience are all too often the result of our genetic programming being at odds with our expectations.

Because humans did not have writing until very recently, little is known for sure about what life was like 20,000 years ago.  Anthropology is making great strides in uncovering the past, but its findings are still colored by modern cultural bias.  Case in point:  Hunter-gatherer societies.  When the European world discovered that there were societies in undeveloped parts of the world which survived by gathering and hunting, the male dominated society of the modern world automatically assumed that the males in those societies were the primary food providers, thus the label ‘hunter-gatherer.’  By studying the garbage of prehistoric peoples, we have discovered that they should have been called ‘gatherer-hunter societies.’  Hunting was not the primary means of getting food, but instead gathering was.

This has tremendous implications on our perceptions of ancient lifestyles.  Women were the ones who primarily did the gathering, from what we have been able to discern.  If women were the primary food providers, they would have been very important in the everyday life of a group.  It was not until the advent of agriculture that men became the primary food providers, which also was the time when male-dominated religions appeared, and the status of women diminished to that of domestic animals.

If a group of people depended on the able-bodied individuals to perform the necessary tasks of survival, that means that people of child-bearing years could not have been the primary caregivers of their children.  Spending time with your children was not a survival trait, because that would have kept you from carrying water, collecting fuel, gathering food, preparing it, and all the other things needed to keep the group going.  Perhaps this explains the affinity of very young children for the very elderly, because we are genetically wired to respond to those who would have been our primary caregivers for thousands and thousands of years.

Certainly, there are many other ways of explaining why parents and their children have so many difficulties, while those same children seem to respond to their grandparents and great-grandparents so much better.  We can attribute the desire of very young children to please the elderly to many things, but isn’t it easier to look at how humans lived for most of our existence?  Of course, this throws the concept of the ‘nuclear family’ as being the natural family unit out the window, which is not going to sit well today.  But the nuclear family is already endangered, as more and more people are raising children by themselves, or with their parents.

Looking at our behaviors in the context of what were survival traits for most of human evolution is, to me, the most logical way of determining what is ‘natural’ and ‘right’, not by using our cultures definitions.  The idea of ‘three square meals a day’ is no more natural than beating oneself with a stick every day.  It arose during the first industrial revolution, when people were only given one meal break during the work period.  Our bodies have evolved to eat small amounts of food all day long, not to process huge amounts all at once.  That is a biological fact, which cannot be changed no matter how much we want to believe otherwise.  I think that there are many more of them, which we have not discovered yet.

For some reason, many banks seem uninterested in trying to prevent foreclosures, repeatedly losing homeowners paperwork, ignoring attempts at communication, and generally acting like foreclosing on a property is in their best interests.  That may have been so in the past, but we are on the brink of a tidal wave in foreclosures, which will put so many houses on the market that banks will undoubtedly lose large sums of money.

Perhaps it is easier to just use the accounting tools to write off the investments than to work with a homeowner, but how many investments will have to be written off?  If a glut of foreclosed homes brings the market value of all homes down, who is going to gain?  Expecting someone to pay several times what their home is worth when they are out of work, or struggling with underemployment is not rational.  Yes, it is the right thing for those homeowners to do, but who wouldn’t think “I can be putting my money into something that is worthwhile, instead of merely adding to the wealth of some bank.”  If we believe that we are unlikely to ever pay off a home, and that home has depreciated substantially since we bought it, what is the motivation to go on struggling to make mortgage payments?

Money has been made available by the federal government to offset the loses that would result in resetting mortgages, yet banks are dragging their feet in taking advantage of it.  They seem to think that they must stick to the original agreement or else they will seem like pushovers, or something.  We are not through this financial crisis yet, and perhaps the worst is yet to come.  Having the value of the nations inventory of homes fall considerably would wipe out tremendous amounts of wealth, irregardless of whether a homeowner has paid off their mortgage or not.

Expecting consumers to return to consuming when they are terrified of losing their homes is completely unrealistic.  If we do not create an atmosphere of understanding and flexibility, we are likely to experience changes completely beyond our control.  Dealing with change means looking ahead, recognizing what is coming, and planning for it, not denying that change is ever going to happen.  We may not be able to prevent change, but we have the option of guiding it somewhat, of minimizing its impact.  The alternative is chaos, as we try to cope with things without any preparation.

I just came from my local university’s production of Amadeus.  The play is quite a bit different from the movie, as I remember it anyway…  much more a psychological drama than a whodunit.  At the end of the play Salieri vows to live forever by claiming to have killed Mozart, so both their names will be mentioned in the same breath down through history.  Unfortunately, no one believes him.  The play ends with Salieri declaring himself the patron saint of mediocrity.

I recommend the play to anyone who has a chance to see it.  It’s very thought-provoking, while managing to be both intense and funny at the same time.

Salieri asks what happens when you bargain with God to live a life of virtue in exchange for talent, and then you realize God has given the talent you asked for to someone who has no conception of the rules of the game – as you have always believed them to be.

In the play, Salieri didn’t change the rules, or change his idea of God, or change anything except the bargain.  He turned the God of his childhood into his enemy, and he turned the life of Mozart into his battleground with God.

What relationship the play’s themes have with how these peoples lives actually played out is debatable, and not really the point.

But it’s a question many of us ask ourselves: what happens when you’ve done it all just right, and then along comes someone who breaks all the rules and yet demonstrates complete creative genius?  What does this mean?

I identify with Salieri in a lot of ways – always prayed, always did the right thing, always sought to live a virtuous life.  And a great deal of creative possibility simply passed me by, wafted along by people who my rules wouldn’t consider acceptable (or possibly even sane).

Perhaps I decided not to battle with God in the same way the Salieri of the play did, because I’m a woman.  The relationship of a woman with a male god seems somehow different than the relationship of a man with a male god.  Somehow it doesn’t seem like a battle worth having, between a human woman and a male god.  I just ended up looking somewhere else for my definitions of prayer, right living, and virtue.  I found redemption (rebellion, too, maybe?) in goddess worship, astrology, feminism, and ultimately in realizing that my inner world is woman-focused in every possible way.

So instead of turning the creative rule-breakers of my life into my battleground with the divine, I’ve turned to them for inspiration.  Sure, I resist.  Even now, I resist.  Even now, I want to believe, somewhere, somehow, in the apparent solidity of the life I worked so hard to create.

But even more I want to believe in the power of creative rule-remaking.  I don’t want, like Mozart apparently did, to decide that any creative genius I might have needs to go hand in hand with self-inflicted disease and addiction.  I do want to create a world for myself and those around me where our truth can be unruly, passionate, escaping the bounds of polite society.  I want to create a world for myself where my truth liberates, rather than confines.  I want to create a world for myself where I can scream “NOOOOOO!!!!” when the centuries of “this is how life IS” come falling down on my head or bubbling up in my brain.  I want to create a world for myself where I can say “YEEEESSSSS!!!!” when it feels right to me.

The awareness is the first step.  And the awareness of “this is my no, this is my yes” – that may be the new divinity I seek.

From White Nights, one of my favorite movies from the 80s, two brilliant dancers each break some of the rules of their particular genres and make something SPECTACULAR as a result.  This being YouTube, the end is rather abrupt.  If I find a better clip of the same dance I’ll put it up.  In the meantime, enjoy.

Legalize medical hemp!  That is right, hemp.  Let’s quit beating around the bush and come clean with each other.  Marijuana is hemp, (well, okay, marijuana is the archaic Hispanic slang word for the flowers of the hemp plant.  But it is still hemp!)  Hemp has been cultivated by humans for thousands years because it is so beneficial.  For nearly that long, people have used it for its medicinal qualities.  Because smoking hemp alleviates a very large number of ailments, from pain to menstrual cramps.

In this day of high drug prices, many people can find help for their problems without having to spend large amounts of money, if they have access to medical hemp.  It may seem strange to think of smoking grass to ease a medical condition, but it works, and far better than any man-made drug, in many cases.  The biggest result of legalizing medical hemp will be the reduction in profits of the big drug companies, because hemp will replace many over-the-counter remedies as well as some prescription drugs.

The federal government, in the guise of the Attorney General, has announced that is no longer going to persecute growers and users of medical marijuana if they are complying with state laws.  This is a clear call for the states to establish enlightened laws regarding the use of hemp for medicinal purposes.   Hemp and all of its products were legal less than 100 years ago, and would still be legal except for the greed of a small number of powerful people many years ago.  Those people managed to win a propaganda war that turned the country against something which it had never heard of, marijuana, allowing the passage of legislation which made growing marijuana illegal.  Marijuana is hemp, and hemp was a major commodity at the time.  But, through legal maneuvering, continuing propaganda, and various other strategies, these people kept hemp off of the market, which is what their goal was.

The entire concept of marijuana causing extreme behavior was cooked up by this group, as a means of confusing the public.  If they had come out and openly called for a ban on the production of hemp, they never would have gotten anywhere.  So, our current beliefs and attitudes about marijuana are the result of propaganda.  We need to ignore the propaganda, and restore a wonderful drug to our medicine chests, one that will not cost us our retirement to use.

I’ve been wondering what IS that thing going on inside me these days…  I have lots of great stuff going on in my life.  I have friends, family, I am gainfully employed in MUSIC in an era of economic uncertainty.  I have so much going for me.

So what IS that thing inside me that is kind of making me feel like I’m being dragged down?  It’s deeper than some inner critical voice, it’s like a feeling, based on some old belief…

I think it’s like a boomerang reaction to more actively coming out in my daily life.  It’s weird, I’ve had several rather public situations in the last few weeks where I’ve come out to support and even acclaim (which is weird, the acclaim bit – LOL).  And then I sort of shut down emotionally.  It’s like, I feel great, almost like an emotional high, and then I just sort of collapse into myself. 

If this were about recharging, regeneration, something like that, I’d be all good with it.  But it feels like something else.  It feels like an old belief dragging me back.

Frankly, it makes me feel unstable.  I feel like I can’t make a decision, can’t figure out what I want to do in life, can’t move ahead, can’t stay where I am…  so I sit and wait for something to happen and then I react.  Because I’m worried that any action at all will be wrong, or a bad reaction to something else.

And then I get anxious over something and rush to deal with it.  Which exhausts me, so then I stop and just kind of blank out mentally and emotionally.  Then there’s more stuff coming up to deal with.

It’s such a weird place to be.  I think I’m learning how to live with an open heart.  I don’t know that I ever did really live with an open heart until recent years.  And now I’m experiencing what it’s like.  When I live with an open heart, I take more risks, I reach farther for my hopes and deeper inside for my dreams.  I try out new ways to care for people.  And I’m realizing that sometimes what I have called openness in the past is not openness, but giving away my personal power.

So to be open is to be powerful, and to be both clear and unclear at the same time.  To be open is to express who I am in my relationships.  To be open is to allow for the kind of rapid change of perspective that I’m experiencing recently.  I seek clarity, balance, equilibrium, peace, bliss.  What I have is a state of not knowing that can either be enlightenment or despair, but not much in between.

My old belief – what IS it?  What IS that thing?  I’m not sure.  Maybe it’s a revisiting of all those beliefs about “women can’t do anything but be wives (to men of course) and mothers” – maybe it’s a belief that says that having an open heart is a recipe for brokenheartedness – maybe it’s a belief that says that joyful imagination is wrong and only worry will get you ahead in life.  It’s kind of a mishmash, really.

But what I want, underneath that old belief, is an open heart.  I want an open mind.  I want a free imagination.  I want to live love without limits.  I want to live love where it seems ridiculous, impossible, not politically savvy.  I want to live love where it seems impractical, unemployable, naive.  I want to live love where it seems detrimental to me to do so – and I’m realizing that in some scenarios, to live love is to set up very firm boundaries; while in others, to live love is to open to possibilities I never could have imagined.

I think that’s it.  I think I’ve become a little afraid of my imagination.  I’m not sure where she’ll take me next.  And I’m not sure I have the strength for it, the heart for it, the brains for it.

But I’d really like to try.
Make a decision and then make the decision right. Line up your Energy with it. In most cases it doesn’t really matter what you decide. Just decide. There are endless options that would serve you enormously well, and all or any one of them is better than no decision.
- Abraham-Hicks – 2-21/98

Probably, if you intend on celebrating Halloween, you are making your plans.  What costume to wear, which party to go to, how you are going to get home, that sort of thing.  But there is another way of celebrating this strange pagan holiday, one which is much older than costume parties, Trick or Treating, and drunken brawls.

This is a good time to remember those who have passed on, the parents, grandparents, old friend, trusted advisor.  All about us, here in the Northern Hemisphere,  Autumn is taking hold, and the Life Force is withdrawing from the land.  So it is natural to think of the dead at this time of year, to remember them to others, to refresh our own memories, by reading letters, looking at pictures, listening to music.  Tell your children about your grandma, or uncle, and the things that you remember them doing.

And celebrate the fact that Nature is balanced, that there is some force which counter acts the incredible drive of the Life Force.  Because, without Death, there would be no room for new life, nothing for living things to eat, no change to make way for new, and possibly better, adaptations, mutations.

To many ancient people, this was the end of the year, when every thing hibernated, or became dormant, or just plain died, leaving behind eggs, or seeds, to great the next Spring.  This was a time of conservation of resources, because the long climb to when there will be food around is just beginning, with many months to survive.  After Halloween, people stayed indoors, and spent the few hours of light working on handicrafts, and thinking about the people that they loved, living and dead.

If you don’t feel inclined to go out drinking, or attending some huge costume party, remember that there are other ways of celebrating this ancient and strange (to us) holiday.

The stores are bulging with candy to hand out on the upcoming pagan celebration at the end of the month.  This is probably the weirdest, most convoluted, mixed-up celebration in America, a day when we send our children out to do the exact opposite of what we normally tell them, a day when we want to be haunted, a day that everyone seems inclined to recognize.  What is this ‘all hallowed saints day eve’ celebration, any way?

Halloween, or All Hallowed Saints Day Eve, is the residue of one of the most spiritual of the ancient celebrations, or sabbats, on the witchcraft calendar.  As with other pagan holidays, what we know today is the Christian church’s attempt to bring the ancient celebration into the religious framework of the  church.  Christmas is another one, and some calendars still mark Candlemas on February 2nd.  These are celebrations which pre-date Christianity by thousands of years, and which are deeply ingrained in the psyche of people of Western European descent.

On the Wheel of the Year, early November is a time when Death is recognized and celebrated.  This sounds strange to us today, because Death has been ignored, hidden, and denied for most of modern history, but to ancient peoples, Death was as immediate, everyday, and essential as Life.  Without Death, Life cannot continue, for Life feeds on Death, and Death makes room for new Life.  Death was viewed as a doorway into another realm, not as an ending.  Death was not associated with any kind of judgment, nor with reward or punishment.  When people died, they became part of a spiritual realm, still able to influence the realm of the living, but removed from it.

Because the dead were considered to be still aware of the living, and able to influence events in the realm of the living, the living recognized the dead, venerated them, worshiped them.  The dead were remembered by the living, through rituals, story telling, the passing on of family heirlooms and treasures.  Because Death is all around us during the late Autumn, that was the time to remember and to cherish the dead.  It was commonly believed that the veil, or curtain, between the realm of the dead and the realm of the living was partially pulled back during that time, as the Life Force ebbed from the land.

Even today, the Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico, a deeply ritualistic, formalized remembering of the ancestors.  In spite of the Christian church insisting that there was NO spirit realm, that the dead were unaware of the passage of time between their death and the Day of Judgment, many peoples in Western and Northern Europe clung to their ancient customs, afraid of offending their forebears by ignoring them.  This was the most spiritual time of the year, when many people experienced communion with dead persons, or at least, felt the presence of loved ones who had passed on.

In order for the Christian church to bring a celebration into the church, it had to designate a reason for it, a justification for the celebration.  With the Yule Tide, it was the fiction that Christ had been born on the day of the celebration of the return of the Sun, just after the Winter Solstice.  With the celebration in witchcraft of those who had passed on, an aspect of Life that we call Death, a catchall was created.  The holy day of November first is the celebration of the lives of any person who was considered a saint, even if they had never been sanctified by the church.  This all-inclusive category allowed family members to venerate loved ones, under the pretense that the loved one was ‘as a saint.’

That is the reason for the holy day, or holiday.  That is why ghosts are a part of the celebration.  But the spin that the Christian church put on the whole affair had nothing to do with the original celebration, or sabbat, and does not reflect its intent.  It was probably one of the most peaceful, loving, contemplative sabbats, of the eight on the Wheel.  People were already conserving their resources, knowing that there were many months to go before food would be easily found, and the weather often was cold and bleak.  Harvest celebrations, themselves a recognition of the importance of Death in life, had been held just a few weeks before, so people were not anxious to see each other, as they would be by the time of the Yule.  There was no evil associated with this time, no fear of the unknown.  We have created those things in modern times, perhaps out of our frustration at not being able to observe what was probably one of the oldest annual celebrations on the Wheel of the Year.

Growing hemp is currently illegal in the United States because of federal law.  Hemp has been illegal to raise in the 1930’s as the result of a campaign by a small number of individuals.  Their interest was in getting the most popular source of fiber off of the market.  Hemp was widely used, in many applications, including making clothing and paper.  It was also a source of animal feed, and the oil from hemp seed is one of the highest quality oils in the vegetable kingdom, being so fine that it could be burned in lamps.

Synthetic fibers produced from petroleum were just coming on the market, but they were not popular.  At the same time, William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper magnate, was anxious to get paper made from hemp off of the market, so that he could profit from a new process which made paper from wood pulp.  Hearst owned vast tracts of forest in the American west, which were not very lucrative during the Depression, and he had just purchased rights to a process which used sulphuric acid to break down wood pulp, releasing the fibers in it.

A third character in this tragedy was a rabid law enforcement official who was trying to create an empire in criminal justice.  Harry Anslinger was the top cop in the country, and he wanted more cops, even though Prohibition was coming to an end.  He became aware of the interest Hearst and members of the DuPont family had in taking hemp off of the market, and proposed (well, one of them did,) a prohibition on hemp, in disguise.  Hemp was far too popular to be driven off of the market, but by outlawing the production of a little-known hemp product, Anslinger was certain that he could twist the law enough to keep farmers from planting any more hemp.

‘Marijuana’ was little-known slang term for hemp, a Hispanic word which means ‘the flower of the hemp plant.’  By creating a furious newspaper campaign against something which no one had ever heard off, and getting biased testimony in front of Congress, Anslinger managed to get a bill passed which had the effect of making growing hemp  illegal.  Use of hemp as a drug was not perceived as a problem by the general public, because it was so rare.  Therefore, the propaganda that ‘marijuana’ could make people murdering maniacs after only one use was not disputed.

One of the reasons why hemp is so widely cultivated in areas not under the sway of the US is that the plant will grow practically anywhere, so fast and tall that it shades out most other plants while producing more fiber per acre than almost any other plant, including trees.  That fiber is biomass, the stuff that we break down to produce alternate fuels.  Hemp will out produce corn in biomass production hands down, and do it in soils that are marginal, or even worse.  Hemp does not require large amounts of water to grow, like corn, nor does it require intensive cultivation or pest control.

Human beings have been cultivating hemp for thousands of years, and with good reason; it is one of the best, most versatile, and strongest natural fibers that we know of, while being cheap and easy to grow. We can produce large amounts of biomass for alternate fuels without having to take away room for plants that we can eat.  The United States is still trying to keep other countries from producing hemp, but increasingly, they are being ignored.  There is simply no rational explanation for the attitude of the American government towards hemp.

I’ve been spending time talking to an old friend of mine about a life once lost. My friend Anthony. It’s been almost 2 years since we really sat down and spoken. I must admit it was nice. He helped cleared my mind on several issues and what theories he had of what has been happening. Me and him use to have our own “religion” so you could say. We had our theories and our own beliefs and we held them close to us.

We talked about all of it. Right off the bat. Not even a Hello was said. The funny part is that it was all over Xbox live while he was on Fallout 3 and I was on Mercs 2. So in the middle of us blowing shit up and shooting the hell out of people we had a deep talk about life and spirituality. He brought it to my attention that the thing I have been doing, seeking outside for answers on religion, than looking inside was placing more curiosity into my life.  He said that the only person who is going to know what is right for you is only yourself. You make up the ideas and follow them, you live comfortably in your own way. It felt like a heavy  burden was lifted from my shoulders.

The problem was when we spoke of some one who was suppose to start a band called Ravens Immortal with us, we found out that sometimes you need to go to the past even in dark places to truely understand what really happened. But to follow an old belief seems strange and painful. I suppose it’s not the believing part of it but the once meditation we where looking for. We came up with many theories on what happened, and why it did. In the end the confusing is now who was lying? Was it really all a lie from the begining or was the second time around, all the things that I was told a lie?

What she told me to believe the first time seems so illogical and what she said the second time, why she said it all, made sense. Yet when I tried to find out what happened, every time I asked, she ran away from it. Avoided it all! Obviously suspicious grew inside me. Then Anthony suggested after thing that happened, her parents must of done something pretty bad for her to avoid the questions so quickly, so aggressivly. So what really did happen that summer 5 years ago?

It all comes back to going through an old theory to understand everything, an old belief. To find some hope and put a rest to this all. Hopefully a beautiful outcome.  At least I’m going to approach this with caution and this time a clearer mind.

After reading most of this, it’s very confusing and really it’s meant for a small handful of people to understand. These are just my thoughts getting out about a tough situation.

Sincerely,

Spooky McGee

Strange as it may seem, the expression ‘May Day’ is not a call in distress.  Instead, it is a referenece to an ancient holiday, or sabbat, called Beltane, the first of May.  In the witchcraft belief system, on this day, the marriage between the Goddess and the God is consumated.  This is a time when the Life Force is pouring through the world, seeking to couple with itself.  Fertility, vigor, growth, these are the qualities celebrated at this time.

May Day has been celebrated in many parts of Europe up into the last century, with the May Pole dance, where young women would wind colored ribbons around a giant pole by dancing in a pattern that wove in and out.  Sexuality was celebrated openly, which inspired the saying “Hurray, hurray for the first of May.  Outdoor intercourse starts today!”  Of course, intercourse has been going on outdoors for some time prior to this date, but, for humans, the weather generally becomes more conducive to such activities at about this time.

In the witchcraft belief system, the Goddess and the God travel through their life cycles each year, being born at the Winter Solstice, growing through the winter, until they are betrothed at the Vernal Equinox, then the marriage is consumated at Beltane.  Both deities mature, the God becoming first the Green God, symbolizing the energy of growth, and then the Dark Hunter, the Goddess becoming the Mother, and then the Crone.  Both of them die at Samhain, in early November.

The Christian church suppressed these beliefs, and supplanted them with static images of the male and female aspects, devoid of sexuality.  So the role models for the different stages of our lives disappeared, leaving us groping for understanding of the feelings that we experience in the different phases of our lives.  This is especially true for males, whose sexual awakening became tainted with the evil of lust.  There was no place in the Christian mythos for the rutty, faithless young god of witchcraft, nor a way of expressing the power of the Green God.  The Dark Hunter, the force of Death in the cycle of Life, was completely excised, turning Death into an evil to be feared, instead of a gateway to new beginnings.

Thousands of years of rituals and passed-on beliefs were turned out, replaced with something alien.  Even though we think of the Christian beliefs as ‘natural’, they have been imposed upon a backdrop of witchcraft tradition.  This leads to confusion, uncertainty, as we instinctively feel what has been celebrated for thousands of years, yet we frame those feelings in beliefs which have only existed for a comparetively short time.

Beltane was one of the major sabbats, along with the Yule Tide; Eoster, at the spring Equinox; and Samhain, in early November.  Beltane falls at a time when there is little work to be done in the fields, there are no crops to harvest, so people had time to celebrate.  What they celebrated was the sexual act that brings about Life.

Mozambique (South East Africa) : People believed that the Earth was a living creature and may have some problems. When it gets sick with fever it chills and the earthquakes occur. Many old cultures believe that every thing is living and has a soul so it is not surprising these people to have such a belief.

          West Africa: West Africans believed that the Earth was as a flat disk. A mountain holds it from one side and a giant from the other side and the giant’s wife holds the sky. When the giant stops to hug her wife the earthquake occurs. Gods holding sky and earth is a common belief also.

          Indian (Asia): In Indian it is believed that eight elephants hold the earth. When one of them gets tired it lowers his head and this results an earthquake.

         Central America: They believe that the Earth is square and four gods hold it up from corners. When they think that the Earth is overpopulated they tip to get rid of surplus people. Most likely this was an explanation to the deaths in an earthquake.

          New Zealand: The Earth is the mother of the young god Ru. When Ru kicks or stretches earthquake occurs.

           Peru (South America): When an earthquake occurs, Maimas run out of their houses and shout “I am here! I am here!” They believe that, earthquake is the footsteps of the god. He walks around and counts the people and Maimas try to work his job easier.

          Assam (between Bangladesh and China): It was believed that there is a civilization under the earth. From time to time they shake the Earth to check if there is anyone still living on the surface. When earthquake occur children shout “Alive! Alive!” to make the people inside hear them and stop shaking.

         Japanese (Asia): First belief was about that a spider carries the Earth on its back and shakes the earth when it is angry.

         The second belief is a giant cat fish named Namazu lives under the Earth. Ii a wild fish and only the God Kashima can restrain it. Kashima is the god protects Japan from earth. Whenever Kashima relaxes his guard, Numazu fusses and causes earthquake. Now it is known that catfish is a good earthquake detector

          Altaic Tartars: Similar to Japanese belief these people also believe that big fishes cause earthquakes. The God created the Earth as a large disk and placed it on the endless ocean. Sudden movements of three fishes under the Earth cause earthquakes.

          East Africa: A giant fish carries a stone. On this stone there is a cow holding the earth on one of her horn. Sometimes her neck get tired and she changes the horn the Earth is on by tossing the Earth from one to another.

          Babylon (Mesopotamia): Babylonians believed that earthquakes are caused by Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. These were wandering stars and additional gravity of the aligned planets causes earthquakes.

          Mexico (North America): The devil and his devilish friends inside the earth want to cause a trouble on earth and uses cracks for this.

        Belgium (Europe): When the people are very sinful the god punishes them with a series of shocks.

         Latvia (Europe): A god carries the earth in his arms through heavens. When he feels himself bad he touches the earth with his hand and this causes the earthquakes.

I’m reading a book on change and in the first chapter it had me thinking. It asked to think of a change you want to make and write out your beliefs as they come to you, no matter how negative. My change is wanting to lose weight. Here are a few of the old beliefs that popped into my head:

- It’s a life-long, losing struggle
- It requires a lot of time and energy
- It’s expensive [fresh food can be expensive] 
- People won’t like me if I’m thin
- My body betrayed me
- People who are always ‘good’ are boring
- I’ll turn into a conceited bitch

As I was writing them out I realized most of them – if not ALL are so outdated and I don’t believe them anymore, but they’re obviously still swirling around in the background for them to come to the surface so quickly and easily. I’ve been trying to lose weight carrying around all these old, negative beliefs like a ton of bricks! No wonder I never got anywhere…

“You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.”
– Albert Einstein 

Ain’t that the truth! lol…

So… okay – my belief system is an old beast that needs to be shot so I can get a new set of warm fuzzy beliefs about weightloss. Here are a few I’m trying on for size:

- Losing weight is easy
- Eating healthy is an opportunity for creativity
- My body deserves healthy food
- I love who I am no matter what the scale says
- I won’t change as a person even if I get down to a size 8, and my friends and family will be happy for me!
- The price of fresh, healthy food is small compared to the benefits of health and longevity I’ll achieve
- I didn’t have any good role models growing up, and didn’t how the foods I was eating were affecting my body… rapid weight gain in my mid to late 20s was due to being insulin resistant, not because I was a glutton… and now I know and understand my body so much better so it will never happen again!

I also think there’s something to be said about identity. I’ve either been overweight or struggled with body image for the past 25 years or so. It’s got to be a ‘part’ of me in some way – I identify with that ’struggle’… so maybe not having that as part of my subconscious life is just foreign to me… who knows. I also know that I’ve never accepted my current size either. When I dream, I’m thin as I was back in highschool… so there must be some sort of self esteem issue back there. I’ve come a LONG way over the years. I used to be a scared, sad wall-flower of a girl who had no hope and envied everyone around me. I can’t imagine being that way again. It feels like another lifetime! Losing weight is really the last big issue I want to change for myself – not for anyone else. I know I’m ready. I know I’m not afraid of being thin like I was as a kid. I should say ‘fit’ vs. ‘thin’ – it’s all relative. Thin on me is 170 lbs. It’s thin for me, but I’m not talking super-model aspirations. I prefer being solid and strong. I think of a tiger – that strength and beauty vs. something like a giraffe. lol…

Anyway, so far so good. I’m enjoying this book, and how it’s opening my mind, making me aware of what’s already IN my mind, good or bad. I haven’t gotten through enough of it to feel okay about recommending it yet, but here’s a link if you’re interested in checking it out: The First 30 Days…

Every time I’ve dieted, I’ve failed. I’ve mentioned that before. It wasn’t for lack of trying, but I think growing up with an obese mother who constantly told me ‘we were built to pull the plows!’ hee hee hee… and my best friends mother telling me I was ‘chunky’ compared to her twig of a daughter, having overly critical grandparents who watched every bit of food I put in my mouth and made me ‘work’ for my meals by playing tennis for a certain number of hours, followed by a certain number of laps in the pool… even my dad telling me when I should and shouldn’t have seconds or have dessert. It all ended up in the junkpile of my subconscious. I know a lot of the beliefs I have aren’t even MINE! That’s the frustrating part. It’s like I have a tape recorder filled with everyone else’s beliefs about ME in my head. Now I need to erase them and start again I guess. I thought that changing how I feel about myself was enough but I guess not. Now I have beliefs I don’t agree with but there still in there. lol… why do we humans have to be so complicated?  ;)

So… now I’m working on evicting all these beliefs that don’t help me reach my goals. I’m getting there. I’m ready for change – I CAN change and I’m doing it. And I’m enjoying the journey now.  =)

                                                                                            (photo by Mark Twell)

Article contributed by Laina Maxwell

Believe me, it wasn’t that long ago that I was among those that thought being “conscious” just meant I didn’t have a concussion.”

Bottom line, being conscious is simply knowing, with every cell in my body, every breath I take, every heart beat I experience, that there is so much more to know than what I think I know.

  Laina Maxwell is a certified Life Coach and founder of The Center for Awareness, LLC in Atlanta, Georgia and creator of the Power of Awareness Workshop series.  For for more information, visit www.thePowerofAwareness.com or write her directly at laina@thepowerofawareness.com