Karmic Relationships: The Great Flow Charters in the Sky

© 2010
by Joyce Mason

I first became involved in metaphysics in 1977. Little did I know, then, what a red-letter year it was! On November 1 of that year, the planetary body Chiron was discovered. Chiron would ultimately become my specialty as an astrologer, but not until we “met” eleven years later.

Another turning-point iconic event happened that changed the thinking of many people that year—the release of the first Star Wars movie. There’s nothing like cinema to convey cultural values and change them. Suddenly, we were saying, “May the Force be with you,” acknowledging that there was one joining power we could tap into. We were spouting Yoda-isms, words to live by from the tiny green wizened one.

“No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.”    ~Yoda, Star Wars

My intro to these subjects, as I’ve mentioned many times before, came from psychic and meditation teacher Betty Bethards and Unity Church. However, my own cultural context influenced the way I saw what would soon become a melting pot of ideas from different religions and traditions. Take karma for example.


While karma has many meanings and spins, they roughly parallel the idea from the Judeo-Christian West, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.” However, it adds the idea that you may be reaping your crop through continuous lifetimes.



What Are the Mechanics?

I was one of those overly curious kids who asked my father why so often, he wanted to invent a why swatter. When I received new information, sometimes before my physical and emotional maturity to handle it, I would always get hung-up on the mechanics. For instance, when I first heard about sex and how people “do it,” I had to get out two of my dolls, imagining the male to have an anatomically correct appendage, and experiment with how that might work logistically. I didn’t get it. Grown-ups must be acrobats! At least I get points for an inquiring mind.

The same thing happened to me with karma. Once I heard that you often go through many lifetimes with the same cast of characters, repeating similar scenes until you complete your “business,” I had to figure out a way to wrap my brain around something so complex. Here’s what I came up with. Maybe it’s a metaphor; maybe I’m channeling something. At any rate, it works for me as a touchstone for organizing my thoughts around karma and reincarnation.


The Great Flow Charters in the Sky

Remembering that I first imagined this idea in the days before social networking and many tools we take for granted nowadays, I envision that each person has a “team” of advisors, a karma committee if you will, helping him or her to map out his/her next incarnation for maximum learning. This is, essentially, what Betty taught us.

Considering my Catholic background and being raised by an Italian mama, I saw my committee as consisting of handsome young Italian-American men in blue pinstripe suits, sort of a white-collar version of the entourage of Tony Soprano. Only better looking. Only angels. They didn’t make their bones; they made their wings. Bad guys gone good, now rewarded with the important job of helping others even their own scores in their multiple lives.

They’re in a “peace room” of sorts, the heavenly version of a war room where strategies are plotted before the plotted arise and are planted on earth again, body and soul together, one more time. They have to figure out how this complex of people will meet up and have all the experiences they need with all the right people from their past karmic strings of events. What a job!

I envision several flip charts. On them, they are drawing complex flow charts. Each chart stands for an individual life. Imagine the number of charts in a room in order to dovetail all of a person’s primary encounters with the people who are their sources of “unfinished business.” I can barely conceive of the complexity of this. If I had been a come-lately to these ideas, I’d probably imagine some sort of computer program. But I’d lose something important with a more modern image.


Magic Marker Music

As the Queen of Synchronicity, I’m no stranger to karmic connections and karmic moments. When they happen, I can hear in my mind the squeak of the Magic Markers the Flow Charters use, their writing tools dancing furiously on those flip charts. I imagine the complex strategy it took for all the planets to align and the people nudged to get this moment to line up.

Example: Recently, a good friend of my ex-husband, “Pearlie,” was surfing the Net looking for information on the potent summer eclipses and current rock ‘n’ rollin’ in the sky. She came across my name in her Google search and wondered if I was the same Joyce Mason who was “Laramie’s” ex. She e-mailed me, and one thing led to another. We are both into astrology and poetry and had lots to talk about. I hadn’t spoken to Laramie since ’07 and gave her his contact info. Soon we were all e-mailing in a big chain of healing and helpfulness. In my conversations with Pearlie, she helped me revision my relationship with my ex, so wrought with past pain, I dismissed the good I got from him. “Talking” with Larry by e-mail, I could see he was the most healed ever, in a good relationship, and let go the last of any beating myself up for marrying him. I saw it was all good, even if it took decades to “get it.” What a gift!


The Mystique of Karma

Speaking of husbands, I recently had cause to discuss with another friend from faraway what a minefield it is to offer opinions on someone else’s marriage, no matter how close the friendship. What Anne said is both commonsense and so profound:

Ultimately, what's between us and our husbands is part of that mysterious alchemy that no other person can ever fully know (including us, some of the time!)


Wow! Dare I say, the same goes for karma—or maybe it goes for karma foremost, because what marriage would not be a karmic relationship? I suspect that people have been incarnating far too long on the earth plane for first-time encounters. That’s my humble opinion, anyway, while clearly understanding that time is a human-made concept.

The resonance of karma is what pulls people together, I believe. We recognize each other energetically. One of my favorite, far-out astrological writers, Barbara Hand Clow, believes that we retain our same Ascendant in our birth chart lifetime after lifetime. One thing the Ascendant or rising sign has to do with is how we look. In other words, she believes we retain looks similar enough from one incarnation to the next to be recognized by our karma mates. Even though that’s a radical idea, if feels right to me.


How Karmic?

Karma is a matter of degree, but I think that it’s simple to tell how hot it is by the intensity of the magnetism when you first meet someone. It could be a “romantic” relationship, a friendship, or any form of bonding. There’s a strong pull-in and a sense of rediscovery. It’s like when you haven’t seen an old friend for years, and you pick right up where you left off. Only you don’t consciously “know” this person yet in this lifetime, so you can’t figure it out by “normal” logic.


Details Please! Past Life Regression

I’ve had several past live regressions (PLR) in my day, a form of self-exploration that I would recommend that you try only with a trusted practitioner by way of a personal referral. I learned amazing things, including my role as an astrologer in Atlantis and how much trouble it got me into, which explains why I’ve been somewhat resistive to reclaiming that vocation in my current lifetime.

I know that my husband, Tim, was also my husband in an Atlantean lifetime. (It was a long civilization, and I think I had more than one time ‘round in that lost world). He took care of me when I was disabled, and now I am returning the favor in helping him navigate his health issues in our current life.

The karma between my birth and adoptive families was explained so well by one of my PLRs, I no longer wonder why it had to happen that my birth mom gave me up. It was inevitable, a role reversal with my adoptive mom in a prior incarnation.

Through love, through friendship, a heart lives more than one life. ~Anais Nin

What If You Don’t Believe in Reincarnation?

You don’t have to believe in reincarnation for this concept to work. In today’s world, life is so fast and jam-packed with experiences, we live numerous lifetimes in any given incarnation. I guess I’m the poster girl for meeting up with people from my past lives and passions within this life … and bringing the relationships to some sort of positive balance or conclusion. I find myself talking about that a lot lately, so it’s obviously something I feel compelled to share as a major cool insight pattern at this time.

Completing circles—that’s what it’s all about. Balancing the favors, love, good and bad feelings and coming to a higher understanding of the essence of each individual on your Great Flow Chart in the Sky.


I don’t know about the sound of one hand clapping, but I do love the sound of one marker squeaking.

~~~

Photo Credit: WHITEBOARD by Tuulijumala | Dreamstime.com

“Love from Both Sides,” An Interview with Author Stephanie Riseley

Today, Stephanie Riseley stops by Hot Flashbacks Cool Insights as part of her blog tour to introduce her new book, Love from Both Sides. Her timing couldn’t be more perfect as I prepare to shift this blog on June 17 from a baby boomer focus toward spirituality, women’s issues, and especially the development of our intuitive gifts as guidance-- that thing some people call “women’s intuition.”

Stephanie is here to share one of the most unique flashes of intuition of all time--how to continue to commune with a loved one after death.

Stephanie, I’d like to start our time together by quoting one of your five-star reviews. I believe JM Shepherd’s description on Amazon is the perfect introduction to you and this book:

To call Stephanie Riseley’s Love from Both Sides amazing is like calling Niagara Falls a stream. This book is astonishingly ahead of its time. In the midst of her stunning grief, real-life hypnotherapist Stephanie Riseley is revisited by her newly dead husband, Dan. This is supported by similar episodes between Dan and his son, Sam.

Certainly, in your work as a hypnotherapist, you’ve probably encountered people who have had similar experiences … but what was your first reaction when it started happening to you? In a big way?

Stephanie: I thought I was delusional, of course. But because my background is from UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute, and I’m an expert at “coding out” mental disorders, I kept checking myself – and I seemed quite sane. What helped me most, however, was that Sam, Dan’s son, had been telling me for four months that his dad was talking to him – and he was. Dan just couldn’t get near me, because every time he did, his energy triggered such an intense longing and loss that it sent me falling back into mourning-hell, until four months after he died, when I was so exhausted from the pain that I finally got angry. And because of that, my energy shifted, and Dan’s energy was able to break through the mourning. That was the beginning of the “communication.” And what might help readers now is to skim the first four chapters online.

Joyce: Give us some nitty-gritty. What did you and Dan talk about—and what larger lessons about life and death seeped into your conversations?

Stephanie: Love from Both Sides is the conversation between a newly dead husband (who has a good sense of humor) and his flipped out wife. When Dan died, he’d just spent four years trying to start an internet business, and he’d hocked our life up the wazoo. (Nothing un-American about that it turns out, yes?) So he was gambling, and he lost – but I paid the price, because when he died, I was left with nothing. No retirement, no savings, no insurance. I was 53, and I was like a deer in headlights. Everyone thought I would become a bag lady, and I did too! So, mostly Dan constantly assured me that I had the skills to get myself out of this, if I could just stay calm. Fear, he said, is toxic. It’s a virus – it’s contagious. So he was able to give me the “larger lesson” that allowed me to see the situation as an opportunity to develop my skills. Which, amazingly, I did! And the reader witnesses a transformation and a hard fought progression as I go from “flipped out widow” to “free at last” myself. It was a quite a trip!

Joyce: I hear you not only talked to your husband, but became acquainted with your over soul. Tell us about the over soul concept, what it was like to get to know it, and a few key nuggets of wisdom you gleaned from this new relationship.

Stephanie: Everyone has an over soul – and that’s just a word to describe who “you” are in that other “reality.” It’s all conjecture, because we’re talking about something that can’t really be described because of language. As the Taoists say, “Those who say don’t know. And those who know can’t say.” Or as Dan would say, “It’s like Wittgenstein – too big to talk about.” (He was a philosophy graduate student at the University of California-Santa Barbara in the late ‘60s.) But there’s a chapter in the book called, “Who the Hell is Enoch,” and one night I was sitting there channeling Dan, when he just stopped. And I said, “Are you still there?” And he said, “Yes, but I’m just afraid you won’t give me another chance.” (This life wasn’t the first life where he’d said one thing, and then done another!) And at that point, my own over soul, Barushe, just got furious with his over soul, Enoch. It’s was all so weird and but fascinating. And what was even weirder for me, was that once I got in touch with my own over soul, he told me I had “agreed” in the In Between (Heaven or what Buddhist’s call the “In Between”), to be a conduit for information, and that I had the wiring to “take dictation.” And so years before I finished Love from Both Sides, I sat and took dictation, and “typed” three “Cobalt Blue Books.” They are completely channeled – they’re on my website: www.StephanieRiseley.com – Excavating to the Core – A Seeker Soul’s Guide to the Authentic Self, is the first. Moment by Moment – A Seeker Soul’s Guide to Joyful Exuberance was second. The third is The Seeker Soul’s Guide to Sensational Sacred Sex.

Joyce: I liked what another reviewer said: Some people might fault you for continuing mental conversations with Dan for so long, but what grieving person wouldn’t want to connect with a lost loved one? I’ve talked to my lost loves, and sometimes I get answers from them in their voice in my mind; but you, of course, have taken that dialogue to a whole other level.

Is there a down side to communicating between worlds?

Stephanie: What you experienced was real, Joyce. And Love from Both Sides helps validate people’s “weird” experiences. So many readers have written to tell me of their own husband/wife/lover coming back to them, connecting, and then making love to them. But because it’s so strange, it makes people feel shame or just crazy.

The downside? Channeling can be a huge energy drain, and because to that many channels develop major health problems. Jane Roberts, who channeled the wonderful “Seth” books, died while channeling the last book, The Way Toward Health, which is ironic, yes?

Joyce: Very. Speaking of energy, you mentioned there was a big, energetic surprise to these communiqués that few people have talked about up till now. Are you willing to give us just a little preview of what your subtitle means—just enough to make us to run right out and buy the book?

Stephanie: That energies, spirits, ghosts… whatever you decide to call them, those essences that emanate from another dimension can physically connect with those they’ve just left. Which means, believe it or not, that they can have sex with those they love, and they do it all the time. Once again, I get the e-mails to prove it. And in my case? Dan was so flirtatious and funny… and in some ways, more seductive as a spirit than when we were married. But mostly, “Love from Both Sides,” makes it possible for a “shift” in thinking, because the reader experiences sex as the sacred energy that it is.

Joyce: Readers describe the experience of your book as everything from healing to hilarious—very engaging and emotionally evocative. Is this kind of communication for everyone, or do you think it takes a certain kind of personality to do it—or appreciate it?

Stephanie: Everyone has the “wiring.” But just like everyone has the ability to play a violin, not everyone will become an Itzhak Perlman. But like playing a violin, “connecting” takes patience and practice, and if you practice, you’ll get good at it.

Joyce: As a memoir writer myself, I have to say you knocked it out of the park for unique subject matter in our genre. What will you write about next?

Stephanie: I’m writing about what’s going on now – in our age group. It’s wild. I know – I’m a therapist. Now that the kids are grown, we’ve done our share, we’re ready to really own our power – and for women I think “Owning Your Inner Courtesan” and becoming sexy and powerful could be fun to write about. So much new research into sexuality done by women (finally!) proves that what turns women on is simply being adored, worshipped and desired. (Read What Do Women Want in the New York Times Magazine, Jan. 25, 2009.)

In my hypnotherapy practice, I help people connect with their “inner selves,” power and sexuality, because I help them lose weight and get healthy. Living in a healthy body makes people happy, and if people get happy – they get healthy! From my perspective, there’s nothing more important right now – especially for people in our age range, because there will be no medical care available when we need it. There are just too many of us, right? So, it’s really up to us to take responsibility for our own health. And that’s why I love what I do – I make people happy and healthy!

Joyce: I know you have a great sense of humor, so I hope you’ll hear this with my playful intent. I described you and your book to someone as, “She talks to her dead husband, but otherwise, she seems completely normal—fun and cool.” One of the things I most want to accomplish, as I shift my blog focus, is to share any phenomena that’s new to people in a grounded way and to assure them these things aren’t woo-woo or crazy.

Unusual experiences have been a way of life for you and me, but not everyone. How do you think we can best share them so that they are likely to be well- received and make others less fearful of developing their own sensitivities?

Stephanie: There is simply an explosion of the kind of material around. Who hasn’t noticed that religions are having a nervous breakdown? And because of that people are seeking alternate ways to connect with the “divine.” I was just at the Louise Hay’s, “I Can Do It” weekend, and there were so many scientists speaking. My own teacher, Brian Weiss, MD., is a Columbia /Yale educated psychiatrist, whose many books validate the existence of Past Lives, and the power of Past Life Regression. Or you could read Bruce Lipton’s, “The Biology of Belief,” if you want to ground yourself cell biology, and how the power of the thoughts can heal your body. It’s all good. We’re living in time of shifting belief systems – and it’s exciting!

Joyce: Lastly, where can we buy Love from Both Sides?

Stephanie: Amazon.com is the big gorilla in book sales right now, Barnes&Noble.com has it, too – and Barnes & Noble carries it online as well as on many of their store shelves.

Thank you so much for honoring us with a visit on your blog tour. I can tell you, Love from Both Sides just ascended to the top of my summer reading list.

I never asked you or your blog tour team how you found Hot Flashbacks, but my cosmic tractor beam is clearly on overdrive. Thanks for beaming yourself into my world and rocking it!

Stephanie: Thank you, Joyce! I’m looking forward to the comments!

~~~

Stephanie Riseley is a Certified Hypnotherapist. She helps people unleash the power of their own subconscious minds to help them achieve their goals. She also does Past Life Regressions, and she trained with Brian Weiss, MD. She holds a Master’s degree from UCLA, and an undergraduate degree from UC- Berkeley.

Stephanie will respond to comments on this post.

Comments reminder: Don’t forget our blog comment contest through June 19! Readers who comment on this post only will be entered into a drawing for Stephanie's book, Love from Both Sides.

Comments on other posts will be entered into a drawing for Capital Crimes: 15 Tales by Sacramento Area Authors.