The Magnificent Seven Encore

Kreativ Blogger awards are like Oscars, because they’re recognition from a writer’s peers. As you’ll see below, KB Awards involve “magnificent sevens.” Thank you, Susannah of Joy Frequencies for letting me take home my second KB logo this year! (Read about the first one here.) I nominated Susannah for a Lemonade Award in May, and she richly deserves that Lemmy for being an oasis of joy and inspiration. She brings sparkles to my life!

If you’ve been nominated in my list later in this post and want to pay it forward (optional, of course), here are the guidelines:

• Thank the person who gave you the award

• Place the logo on your blog

• Link to the person who nominated you

• Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting

• Nominate 7 bloggers for this award and post links to their blogs

• Send a message to let them know they’ve been nominated

Another Seven Things You May Find Interesting About Me

Since I’ve done this once before, I’ve decided to share seven new things about myself, so I don’t bore you. (If my colleagues nominate me for any more awards, there won’t be anything left to reveal in my memoirs! However, I’m willing to live with the danger.)

1. In my first career as a social worker, I spent eight years working with children and adults with developmental disabilities.

2. I have been married twice, and both men have two different colored eyes. (What are the odds of that?)

3. I went to Catholic high school for three weeks, and then decided I wanted to go to our public school instead. At the time, Evanston Township High School was rated in the top 5% of high schools in the country. I really left St. Scholastica because I couldn’t stand studying Latin, which was required. (In public school, I studied both French and Spanish and loved them. Maybe there wasn’t enough “romance” for me in Latin.)

4. As a sophomore, I wrote for the annual high school variety show. My creative partner, Bonnie Fox and I, envisioned ourselves as the new Rodgers and Hammerstein. (She wrote music; I wrote lyrics.) I believe we did the first completely original tune in the long history of the show. (Most songs were existing ones with new lyrics.) It remains one of the thrills of my life, the first time I heard our song performed live on stage.

5. As a graduating senior, I won the class award as the most promising student in journalism.

6. Unlike cartoonist Sandra Boynton’s hippo who never met a carbohydrate she didn’t like, I have, and it’s mashed potatoes. (I know it’s un-American, but I think it’s a texture thing.)

7. For a writing class I took in my early thirties at our local State university, I wrote a script for “All in the Family” in my Writing for Television class. It was critiqued by producer and famous TV writer, Mort Lachman. He was kind enough to be supportive and tell me both where I hit the mark and didn’t.


Seven More Blog Nominees That Get My Vote

The joy of doing this more than once is that I can share with my readers my new blog discoveries since we last met on a Magnificent Seven list as well as some time-honored faves.

Kelly Diels ~ If you write or read blogs, do not under any circumstances miss Kelly’s article on ProBlogger linked on her site, “Why Blogging is Like the Wizard of Oz.” This is this is the best article on blogging I’ve read to date by one of the best writers I’ve ever discovered. She shares her life in gutsy, humorous, deep and delightful way. Kudos, Kelly!

Red Door Diaries, A Creative Café by Lee Russell ~ Her motto says it all, Positive thoughts creating joyful conditions. Lee and I met when we both lived in Sacramento years ago. She was the graphic artist for Chironicles, the international newsletter on my astrological specialty, Chiron. (Chironicles had a wonderful run from 1992-95. Many of its best articles have been updated and posted on The Radical Virgo.) In the Red Door Diaries, Lee shares her journeys, both inner and outer with her usual creative pizzazz.

Midlife Musings on Perrie Meno-Pudge ~ I don’t love Perrie’s new blog just because I was the first guest blogger, but because it has the usual tone, style, and help in a fun atmosphere that the Perrie Meno-Pudge team is famous for. Congrats, Barbara and Joanne, for another mid-life rockin’ winner!

My Seat on the Beach by YaYa Bowman ~ Every time I visit this blog, I’m sorry I don’t do it more often. If that isn’t the sign of a great read, nothing is! YaYa’s personality just leaps off the screen along with her joie de vivre. Whether she’s addressing serious issues, like Domestic Violence Awareness month, sharing her milestones such as the return of the monarch butterflies to Santa Cruz, CA where she lives, or sharing her loves and their celebrations—especially her parents’ recent 60th anniversary—YaYa is sitting on that beach, living life to the hilt, and sharing it from the heart.

The Brat in the Hat the Rantings of a Grumpy Old Woman by Pop Art Diva ~ All of Pop Art’s blogs are the bomb, but this is one for a day when you really need a good laugh, when your dark side needs to let loose, and when you need to ROFL till you cry. She even sells products with “snarky designs to fit your snippy moods” in her Rantorium Emporium. The Brat is a medicine bag full of he-he-he’s that heal.

Journeys Close to Home –Susannah nominated me for this current award, and I can’t resist nominating her back for this newest addition to her family of blogs. I already love her Joy Frequencies and astrology blog, The Lion and the Lightning Bolt; her newest makes it a triple-header! What a great concept, sharing adventures close to home, even though hers is not close to mine. Susannah journals about short trips with plenty of pictures, maps, and travelogue—perfect in these more cautionary economic times where people are discovering their own backyards and taking “staycations.” (This word actually won some sort of “new word of the year award” for its entry into the lexicon by the Dictionary People. I assume they are second cousins, once removed, of Miss Manners.) I am so enjoying the vicarious outings. I tip my hat to Susannah for her pulse on a big cultural need, delivered with delight!

The Jungle of Life by Lance – I just discovered this blog while searching for other bloggers who focus on insights. It’s an oasis of beauty (great photos, quotes) and balance as Lance juggles his life before our eyes with such grace, you can’t help but feel a part of it. For a great overview and feel for this blog, read Lance’s interview on Joyful Days. I think it’s an especially encouraging read to new bloggers about how to create community in the blogosphere.

I hope you're inspired to discover some new blogs and perspectives because of the Kreativ Blogger process. Do share your thoughts in the Comments.

Oracular Spectacular!

A Primer on the Use of Astrology, Tarot, Dreamwork and Other Oracles

© 2009 by Joyce Mason

At Hot Flashbacks, Cool Insights, I often talk about “playing the symbols.” This imaginary one-person band involves putting together everyday waking signs and synchronicities and sleeping dream ciphers for some resounding insights. Alternatively, we can seek guidance from symbol systems or oracles. In this article, also posted on joycemason.com, I hope to introduce you to—or expand—your knowledge of oracles and their value.

Q: What do tarot cards, fortune cookies, astrology, dreams and meaningful coincidences all have in common?

A: All can be used as oracles

“Oracle” has many meanings from hokey to holy. I am most interested in #5 in the Dictionary-com definitions, namely a divine communication or revelation.Oracles are symbol systems that help us receive insights or spiritual communications. I believe the Source of their inspiration follows strictly the orientation of the seeker. When you open yourself up to divine inspiration, the Holy Spirit, your Higher Self—however you see good guidance according to your personal beliefs—those are the forces that will shine through when using these symbols. If you are fearful, or if you want your “fortune told” where you have no power or spiritual backbone to co-create your own dreams in divine partnership, don’t be surprised to find negative energy in a tarot reading or other symbol system consultation.

Toolbox
Like any tool, oracles can be used for higher good or dubious intent. Think of a knife. In the hands of a skilled surgeon or premier chef, this tool can perform miracles of healing or nurture. In the hands of a serial killer—not. Like all tools, oracles run the gamut of agony and ecstasy. Again, the difference lies in the hands of the user. With oracles, the seeker often uses a medium—a consultant—rather than consulting the cards or other symbols directly, although people do both, of course. That’s why choosing your consultant is especially important if you use one.

The Medium Is the Message
Let me start with a couple of bad examples. I once worked with a woman who consulted a well-known, local astrologer on all her investments and life decisions. This was in the 1970s, but I swear, if ATMs were in operation back then, she’d have consulted her “friend” before she made a $20 cash withdrawal.

You can probably predict what I’m going to say without an astrology chart. Ultimately, my workmate lost her shirt by turning her power over to this woman’spredictions. It was a stark lesson about making a god of either the symbol system or the medium. Ironically, the astrologer also worked herself out of a job. They both lost. After all, how could my workmate continue to pay her for advice after she lost everything?The most horrible story I ever heard—same astrologer—was a reading wherein she predicted the exact date and time of a male client’s death—and he died exactly when she predicted! I was utterly appalled; convinced she had literally scared him to death. Few people would want to know this information. To ask for it, is—well—asking for it!

Still, I believe to this day that the astrologer in question abused her power over this man. Astrology can be (pardon the pun) dead accurate, but she would have no way of knowing his fate. Even if she did, “pronouncing” it took away any personal power he had over the outcome, which was not necessarily sealed. Specific predications can be a real power trip. (That’s why I refuse, personally, to make them.) The same symbols can portend literal death or any other major, life-changing transformation while the person remains embodied. Did the astrologer contribute to his death? Depressing thought, but I think it explains why these tools have sometimes had a terrible reputation. It’s all in how they’re used. Fortunately, in general, they tend to be used for higher good by most people I encounter nowadays.

Positive Outcomes
Examples: As a consultant, I have helped people out of thorny dilemmas and have foreseen the potential for happy marriages later realized in tarot or astrology readings. I use oracles directly for myself on an ongoing basis, and now with years of practice my use of them is refined. I am able to see new angles to problems and personal tendencies I want to change. Symbols never cease to amaze me with their simple wisdom.

How Does It Work?
My theory is that oracles work like a symbolic mirror and magnet. Symbols have strong universal meanings. Much is contained in their simple patterns, and more importantly, the person who seeks guidance will fill in the blanks with the personal details needed to make the symbols meaningful.The magnet part: Everything on earth has an energy field; every person and thing resonates. When we seek guidance, we are drawn to the energy—or it is drawn for us through the reader—that matches the frequency of the issue on which we want guidance. When you shuffle a tarot deck, for example, and put the energy of your question into the cards, the “right ones” fall into the layout. Magical!

It’s no different with any of the other symbol systems. We are drawn to want an astrology reading when the vibration of the issue is creating internal pressure for resolution, so we seek out an astrologer when we have significant transits or activity in our astrology charts. Our subconscious gives us dream material, asdoes our internal synchronicity machine, our magnet for meaningful coincidence.Once when I taught a dreamwork class, I spoke about encountering people I was thinking about or repeated encounters on a topic I felt were “signs.” A surprised participant said, “You talk about real life the same way as dreams.” Exactly! When we have the eyes to see, the symbols and signs are all around us. Our subconscious is in constant dialogue with us, and when we pay attention, we can get limitless Higher Direction.

I Want to Try It. Where Do I Start?
If you haven’t done this before or haven’t done much of it, here are my suggestions—probably good for seasoned oracle users, too:

1. What system appeals to you most? Start there. If astrology fascinates you, go there first. If you can’t remember dreams, maybe you need a little more work on bringing the subconscious to waking awareness before you can use this one.Do tarot cards call you? Runes? The I Ching? If you don’t know, visit a metaphysical bookstore where you can look through many of the symbol sets or books on them like a kid at Christmas. Let yourself be drawn to the images or system that calls you.

2. Approach oracles with the wonder of a child. These systems are completely about connecting guidance to your own inner tracking device, your intuition. Play with them and respect them with wide-eyed wonder. Their optimal guidance will flow through your openness.

3. Get trusted referrals for consultants. A personal referral from someone you know and trust who has seen this particular astrologer, tarot reader, or dreamworker is always best. The metaphysical bookstore or resource center isanother source. Try someone at a local psychic fair—the one with the longest line! Reputation rules when it comes to trusting someone to work these channels with you. If someone “doesn’t feel right,” don’t open yourself to that person.

4. Take what fits, toss the rest. This was the advice of my first mentor in all things intuitive, the late, great Betty Bethards, a San Francisco Bay Area psychic and meditation teacher. I have lived by it with optimal results. No “reader" can be 100 percent accurate because his or her own experiences can’t help but influence interpretation, at least a little. That can be handy, if they have like experiences and lessons to learn, or it can put you off track, if they don’t.

While most good readers do their best to avoid putting their own “stuff” into interpretations, the translation of symbols is a tricky business. The analogy I like to use is a ballpark. It’s easy to get into the right ballpark or neighborhood on an interpretation because of the breadth of content each universal symbol holds. That’s what makes them so powerful, like the oak tree contained in an acorn.

However, to find the right seat in the ballpark really takes reaction, dialogue, and sorting from the seeker. If you don’t actively participate, you will suffer pronouncements instead of helpful insights. Which brings me to the final point:

5. Be an active participant in all readings with a consultant. Ask questions. Give your opinion. Say when something feels right or when it feels off. Be sure you walk away getting your key concerns covered. It might not be quite as complicated as being a patient in an HMO system, but the idea is the same as navigating this bureaucratic form of medical care. You have to be your own patient/seeker advocate. The best readers will welcome you as a co-pilot on the adventure of going a layer deeper into your inner growth during your time together. You enter the sacred ground of your psyche together. Your reader needs to respect the inner sanctum, your needs, and your help to make it a meaningful journey.

Sealed with a Ms.
I thought it would be fun to draw a tarot card to seek Higher Guidance in wrapping up this article. At first when this idea came to mind, I thought, “Huh?” Using these tools has made me respect these inspirations, no matter how sillythe light bulb over my head might seem at first.Turns out, I’m also going to be able to illustrate how anything can become an oracle. I “got” that the words I should Google were “tarot oracle.” They led me to a new deck I hadn’t heard of, literally called the Tarot Oracle. Click on the link and look at the Magician Card, that Mystical Ms. She’s for us; I’m convinced of it! She’s juggling the stars and her key words are Intuition, Taking Chances.Take a chance on your intuition. Oracles will expand your sense of inner knowingness and connection to All That Is.


Photo Credit: ESOTERIC ATMOSPHERE © Starblue Dreamstime.com

For more on oracles, including How I Read Tarot Cards and some of my favorite ones to use, visit the Oracles page on joycemason.com.

Seventh Heaven! Hot Flashbacks Wins Kreativ Blogger Award!

First a Lemmy (Lemonade Award), now a Kreativ Blogger Award—both big honors as nods from my fellow bloggers. I’m grateful to my friend, Eileen Williams of The Feisty Side of Fifty for this affirming recognition. Feisty is one of my regular blog stops. Eileen celebrates not just the idea that “the best is yet to be,” but that the best already is happening among women in full bloom!

If you’ve been nominated in my list later in this post and want to pay it forward (optional, of course), here are the guidelines:


· Thank the person who gave you the award
· Place the logo on your blog
· Link to the person who nominated you
· Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting
· Nominate 7 bloggers for this award and post links to their blogs
· Send a message to let them know they’ve been nominated

Seven Things About Me You May Find Interesting About Me

1. I started taking private voice lessons at age 3. When I was 5 years old, I auditioned for the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour, the boomer version of American Idol. I sang “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window.”
   
2. As a writer, I was first a poet in the ‘70s—read at coffee houses and taught in California’s Poetry in the Schools program.
   
3. In 5th grade, I won the Excellence Medal for being the most well rounded student. (Like Gypsy Rose Lee, I pride myself on being “very versatile.”)
   
4. I spent over half my civil service career in “garbage” and recycling—environmental protection programs.
   
5. I am addicted to Agatha Christie’s Poirot and am in the process of watching all the DVDs. Can’t get the theme song out of my head, known as an earworm. (I’m terribly prone to them.)
   
6. I am a reunion junkie. I have found all my lost loves, including birth mom and first boyfriend—we’ve been married since 1998.
   
7. My husband Tim likes to say, “I didn’t know I was lost,” regarding #6, but he wanted to find his way into one of these bullets and add his two-cents worth. He thought you might want know I have these seven qualities: humorous, deep, a unique worldview, an affinity for language, childlike, generous and loyal. (No wonder I hunted him down and snapped him up again!)

As Eileen mentioned in her own Kreativ Blogger post, I share the dilemma of too many faves to limit myself to seven—but I’ll honor some of the others in another recognition cycle. Here’s my list:

Seven of My Favorite Kreativ Blogs

Gail Goodwin's Blog: Gail is the inspiration behind Inspire Me Today, starting the list with a two-fer, both described next.

Inspire Me Today: As one who thrives on written inspiration daily, if not hourly, I hit nirvana when I discovered Inspire Me Today, “Best of the Best Inspiration DailyTM.” No hype: This blog earns its catchphrase and my utter respect for its diverse, daily and inspired interviews. Gail’s creation, the Daily asks, If today were my last day on Earth and I could share 500 words of brilliance with the world, here are the important things I'd want to pass along to others? Gail’s blog gives us a more personal lens on life from the woman who created Inspire Me Today and The Global Hug Tour.

Diva of Tiny Foods: Am I the only one who never knows what to bring to the potluck or family dinner, even if they only assign me an appetizer? It’s not that I’m inept in the kitchen, but I’m busy. I require the Rachel Ray approach to cooking or prepping food—30 minutes or less. PopArtDiva in one of her many hats—this time a chef’s hat—offers up easy-to-fix tidbits that delight with artistically yummy recipe cards. Keep “spreading the joy of small food one bite at a time!”

The Muffin: Another grand women’s cooperative blog (who bakes muffins one at time?) that boasts never being stale. From the bakers of WOW—Women on Writing—this place is breakfast for writers and three squares a day in inspiration. Since all bloggers are writers, if you blog, take break. Have a muffin.

Second Chance at Your Dream: Dorothea Hover-Kramer, Ed.D., RN hosts this site on learning about using energy psychology’s self-help resources for achieving an optimal second half of life.

Six Word Memoirs – If you think 140 characters makes for concise writing on Twitter, wait till you try telling a story in just six words. I love these two-second reads. Many are nothing short of brilliant, and as a writer, I have to hand it to the rising creativity of the masses in these micro-memoir tidbits.

Spirited Woman Blog - What an ensemble cast of creative, spirited bloggers! Diverse topics include astrology, books, children, creative arts, current affairs—and on and on. If you can’t find it here, I doubt it exists, and you won’t find it done with more style, pizzazz, and celebration of life.

I love this opportunity to share resources that truly move me. Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you for the richness your creativity adds to my life.

Reconstruction Zone!

Countdown to June 17 …

… More Details and First Post on the New, Widened Road

Dear Cool Insighters,

I can’t wait another day—much less another month—to share my plans to refocus the Hot Flashbacks, Cool Insights blog toward spirituality, women’s issues, and especially the development of our intuitive gifts as guidance, that thing some people call “women’s intuition.”

The shift will take some behind-the-scenes planning, like a new blog slogan and some site reorganization. The same types of posts about better living through insight will continue, just more on intuition and spiritual guidance—topics you’ve already seen here. This transformation is compliments of a loud cosmic hint, the same guidance I plan to talk more about from now on and to help you learn to see and hear as much as possible in your own lives. I had a huge aha moment that this is the true core of my book that this blog was created to complement.

Boomers: I’ll keep a recurring “cool saging” feature for the generation I’m proud to be a part of. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’m a founding member of Boomer Authority on Twitter. I have volunteered to monitor posts on the topic of spirituality. As you can see, that’s a blend of both the old and new blog emphasis. I’m at the stage of life where, having really lived, Auntie Mame style I’ve learned a lot. My age or stage isn’t as important as the epiphanies and tools I’ve found that have helped me live a rich life and keep on beat with my passions and purpose. My toolbox is what I really want to pass onto you. The tools work whether you’re 20 or 120.

Meanwhile, stay tuned! Join me in anticipating our expanded audience: women of all ages and men who what to “play the symbols,” too.

--Joyce

PS – Your comments are welcome on this post or one-on-one: hotflashbacks@gmail.com.


Photo Credit: CONSTRUCTION CONE © Juliengron... Dreamstime.com

Hot News Flash! Writer Joyce Mason Website

It’s complex, dense, deep, and fun. It’s a web site years in the planning. It’s joycemason-dot-com!

If you wonder about life's mysteries, your purpose and special gifts ... my new website is for you.

Discover my many other facets as a writer. My memoir-writing baby boomer persona is just one. Joycemason-dot-com will be home to everything else I write besides this blog, starting with my body of literature that has proven timeless for decades on astrology, dreamwork, and other symbol systems. If there is one thing that joins all my writing, it’s this: I play the symbols. I see signs in commonplace occurrences as well as the moon, stars, and meaningful coincidences.

There are articles, old and new, and links to my writings on other web sites. I look forward to introducing current readers of Hot Flashbacks to my other works. I also hope to reconnect with many old friends and clients who knew me when these topics were on my front burner—and when I still did individual astrology charts and other spiritually oriented consultations. You’ll find links to other people whose works or products help me share what I’ve learned in the Symbol World. The last tool in my medicine bag from my former practice, Inner Growth Work, is flower essences. Who knew a few drops of a tincture taken under your tongue a few times a day could transform emotions?

There’s an expanded bio, information on books and publications already in print or online, and previews of writings in progress. You’ll discover my poetry—my first genre, also symbol rich—and my genres I call M-in-M’s for short—memoir, inspiration, and mystery.

But the mystery of my new site? Don’t let it linger! Why haven’t you clicked on that link yet? Or this one?

Thanks to all my Cool Insighters who check it out, and if you find it’s for you, I hope to be seeing you in both my cyber “pads” often.

Join me for the fireworks! And let’s crack open some champagne.

Edgar Allan Poet

“Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore.’”
--Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven

The title of this post followed me home like a lost puppy. I knew it was a message from my GPS—God Positioning System—telling me I was supposed to go somewhere with this idea fragment.

As the poster girl for Follow Your Inner Guidance, I trusted and allowed myself to get sucked into the adventure. Here is what I’ve pieced together, so far.

Tracking the Mystery
Edgar Allan Poe was indeed a poet, among other things. I never knew he was credited with creating the detective-fiction writing genre, one I dabble in. (I like to say I write M-in-M’s for memoir, inspiration, and mystery.)

Mostly, he wrote a lot of dark, macabre stuff—also a lot about mourning. Not only have I experienced a lot of losses in the last year; I also realized this week how much I miss writing poetry. It was great to reconnect with some poets at a recent writers’ conference and to get reacquainted with my own poems. I wrote many of them in the ‘70s, when a number of them were published in various literary journals. I was into the local poetry scene, enjoyed reading my work at coffee houses, and taught in the Poetry in the Schools program.

I even met my first husband at a poetry reading. He was an angry heckler. When I moved into his building a few months later—a big surprise to us both—he was so nice to me, I didn’t even recognize him as the awful guy from that night. When he copped to it, I thought he had to be kidding. Love is blind.

Back to my visit from the muse bearing the nagging words in my head, “Edgar Allan Poet.” I suspect her point was stop mourning and start celebrating poetry again. How did I get to “nevermore” when it came to poems? I used to be ravenous about the genre. Heaven knows, I can always be reached by wordplay if all else fails or I have accidentally turned off my GPS.

Maybe I’ll start on the road back to poetry by sharing one of my poems from my archives with you. I found a more recent one (only 10 years old instead of 30). It even has a boomer theme. Here goes:

Poem by Joyce Mason

To My Childhood Friend at 50…

Where did the time go …
the bus stop …
old neighborhood …
avoiding Fran in the cafeteria …
dances at the ‘Y’, raging hormones, neuroses… acne?

Adolescence merged maturity,
not so much an off-ramp as an artery,
just another turn in the road,
a road not taken by most of us at heart
(we’re called baby boomers):
Mid-youth
gray hair
menopause.

Did you get your card from AARP?
Did you think you’d see the day?
Yet there is a freedom here:
a time to re-evaluate
to quit worrying over meaningless things
to know that we won’t be
in this bottleneck forever …

… and that, too, is a godsend.

Now, for the dreams not realized:
we still have time to catch up
without killing ourselves.

Before we go:
a book for me,
the starring performance for you …


… but above all, knowing
that if life is measured
by the friends we choose
and love we gain
we’re on the expressway
together
in the car pool lane.


Quote the Maven, Evermore
It’s clear; I still love poetry. Lots of people don’t, but poetry is all around us—songs, jingles, prayers, an especially good comeback. Some precocious pearl that pops from the lips of a child. Poetry all.

I’d love to hear your comments on poetry and things poetic—even if it’s only poetic justice. It doesn’t need rhyme or reason.

Think about this, too. Have you have said “nevermore” to certain passions of the past? Is it time to reconsider?

Yellow Highlighter ...

… orange or lime green … take your pick from the pallet of hues for giving emphasis to points you want to remember when you’re reading. I can’t imagine life without these handy tools to help me see at a glance what’s important. They are memory joggers I have used ever since I can remember (high school? college?). They are even bigger godsends in these days when our minds are increasingly stuffed with too much information.

But there are other markers for highlighting, and they are figurative, not literal. They work as a cosmic hint for getting our attention--or as bookmarks for a place in memory that we need to note for later follow-up. They can mark a specific incident or verbal exchange. In the moment, they stir a feeling of discomfort or significance, often that we can’t yet identify.

Here’s a recent example, which takes a little intro:

My close circle of women friends—my spiritual support team—take an annual trip near Lake Tahoe to the cabin of one of our members. Over the past couple of years, we have started to do Soul Collage, a great artsy and intuitive way, essentially, to make your own personal tarot deck. If you’re familiar with tarot and know the collage based Voyager deck, think of a process where you create your own unique version.

Running late, as ever, I was eating my cereal the morning we were leaving for Tahoe. In-between spoonfuls, while chewing, I was cutting last-minute images out of magazines for our Soul Collage session at the cabin the next day. An ad with a $100,000 bill caught my eye. I said to myself, “That goes in one of my cards,” and I snipped it.

I had these errands left to do: chiropractor, get gas, get coffee, and get cash. I hoped to combine coffee with cash, thinking that if I used my ATM card, they’d give me cash back. Not Starbucks’ policy. Drat.

That meant that I’d have to go a few doors down to the Safeway and hit the ATM. My bank, Wells Fargo, has a branch inside the grocery store. After getting my 40 bucks, I put my purse on the little podium with the ATM envelopes and various banking program brochures.

Something caught my eye … a brochure with a $100,000 bill on the cover. The $100,000 bill I had clipped less than an hour before out of that magazine was still in yellow highlighter in my visual memory. I picked it up.

It was a contest for financing your dream, and the bank was giving a $100,000 prize for the best short essay … but the deadline was that day. There were only two ways to enter, by mail and online, and it was too late to post something …

… so I phoned ahead to my friends and asked someone to take their laptop on the trip so I could spend an hour cranking out my 250-word essay. With a little help from my friends—we have great synergy—we titled it Banking on Boomer Insights. It’s a proposal to create a press that would help me and other boomers write and distribute our memoirs and books on other topics of interest to the More Experienced (ME) Generation.

As I say in Hot Flashbacks, we need to reclaim the custom of indigenous people everywhere of giving back our wisdom to our communities … of teaching them how to really live …

… and if learning is the subject, we’ll need those highlighters. I can almost hear them squeaking …

Not only do I hope I win the contest; I’ll be just as happy to know I illustrated how opportunity is in plain sight if we only learn to play the symbols. Think of the chances we pass up just because we don’t get the hints the universe puts right in front of us every day.

Here’s to having the eyes to see yellow—and the ears to hear that delightful squeak!

Believe Everything You Hear

Last time we talked about two simple tips to begin expanding your intuition—alone time, especially spent in meditation, and learning not to criticize your creations, thoughts, or ideas. These include strong feelings or a sense of knowing that might crop up as you develop your inner eyes and ears. Same goes for any funny little messages you might pull out of thin air.

Let me give you a couple examples. When I used to do tarot readings, using the Motherpeace round deck, I had a special way of using the cards with my clients. First, I’d ask them what images jumped out at them, while I listened carefully. Next, I’d say what jumped out at me. Only last would I consider any classical meaning of the card. Between us, we very often got a closer, more personal interpretation than “going by the book.” The blend of my stand outs and my client’s would give a profound reading of his or her subconscious. My observations often added a perspective or insights--what s/he was too close to a matter to see clearly. The cards simply pulled out the client’s inner knowing with a little help from me as interpreter. Synthesis of an experience isn’t so easy while you’re in the middle of it, especially when it involves strong emotions or complex situations and choices.

I remember one reading in particular where my client drew a card—which one I couldn’t tell you now—but as she did, the old train tune started ringing in mind, The Atchison, Topeka & the Santa Fe. The process made it mandatory for me to spill the beans on anything I “got.” I felt ridiculous telling her about this goofy song.

As we began exploring the context of her situation, it became clear that she was feeling railroaded to make an unwanted change by her love interest. So, that’s what the train song was saying! The mere realization that she felt coerced was the key to empowering her to get out of a gnarly dilemma.

Second, and most dramatic, was my intuition on where I’d find my birth mother. (Complete details of that drama will be in my second book, COMPLETE CIRCLES: More Hot Flashbacks from My Lost & Found Life.) From the beginning of my six-month search, I “knew” she was in San Francisco, only 90 miles away. In the beginning, I pooh-poohed this thought as wishful thinking. “You just want it to be convenient,” I said, talking to myself as though I were completely delusional.

By this time in my life (1986), I was tired of ignoring intuitions that turned out to be true. I figured I had nothing to lose to give it a shot. San Francisco is exactly where I found her, even though she was originally from the East Coast. I had no conscious reason to believe she would have conveniently relocated nearly next door to me. Finding her changed both our lives for the better in a big way. What I would have missed if I hadn’t listened to myself—at last?

Let me reiterate, both of these intuitive “hits” sounded ridiculous to me! Consider believing everything you hear with your inner ear, and if it seems goofy, take notes and realize you just may not have put it all together yet. These intuitive scraps are like puzzle pieces that you learn to fit together with time, trial, and error.

About once a year, I have what I consider a seminal dream—one that lays out something big that’s going to happen to me in the months to come. My dramatic dream in 2006 had a lot of symbols about being on a one-way road straight up. It was lighting up all my fears of success and the responsibilities that would go with it.

But in that dream, a Mervyn’s store was prominent. It drove me crazy for months till I finally figured out what it meant. MERVYNS turned out to be an anagram. Rescramble the letters and you get MY NERVS. I was struggling with high interocular pressure and a possible diagnosis of glaucoma.

To protect your eyesight with glaucoma, you have to lower the (interocular) pressure to avoid damage to the optic nerve. Suddenly, I saw the double entendre! To protect my vision, I had to lower the pressure. This applies to my creative vision, too, and lowering the pressure is why Mervyns—MY NERVS—was beside my road to success. I’d have to tend to my nerves, keep the pressure in my life down, if I were going to pull off this writing life and all that goes with it.

Journal everything! Dreams, crazy things you think or hear. The only way to learn your personal symbology and messages from “The Supremes” is to play with these tidbits. In one of my favorite books on the subject, Higher Creativity by Willis Harmon and Howard Rheingold, the authors pay much homage to how answers bubble up when we’re “offline”—playing, dreaming, or doing something else other than what we normally do. Something right-brained and non-linear. This works the same as the meditation and quiet time mentioned in the last post.

Of course, this is unlikely to happen with one mediation, long-distance run, or ride on the Ferris wheel. Inspiration/intuition loves repetition, even ritual, and I have a hunch this is one reason why knitting has become so popular again. Gathering that wool into a lovely creation allows for woolgathering of another kind. My own Messages from on High are so hilariously delivered, at times, they also keep me in another kind of stitches.

Let me know about your progress in amping up your intuition by slowing down your thoughts … and allowing those really helpful and life affirming mind messages to jump up and be heard.

Insighting a Riot

Ever since I started writing HOT FLASHBACKS, COOL INSIGHTS: I have tried to remember when I first realized I was highly intuitive and how I developed this useful skill. And I do mean skill, not gift. While some of us are better wired from the get-go for transmissions from the cosmic soup and collective consciousness, I believe anyone can rewire their house.

Granted, certain hormonal events took my transmissions off that chart, but the wiring was already there and in frequent use. My complete hysterectomy just flipped the switch. It stuck ON. I sometimes wonder how I can run this much intuition without a brownout, blackout, or an electric bill so high, I’d be tempted to move to Amish Country.

One way I learned to listen to myself and put my ear to the ground of extrasensory perception, a good name for simply heightened senses: I spent a lot of time alone as a kid. (That old photo is me at three.) I was raised as an only child until I was six, during my most formative years. My brother was much older, left the nest early, but I was the oldest kid in my neighborhood. When you’re four and the kid next door is two-and-a-half, you have nothing in common after the first five minutes. Out of boredom, I would start lording it over the little kids. If I didn’t get sick of myself, their mothers shooed me away. I needed to go pick on someone my own size—except that there were only six houses within walking distance and only two of them had children.

So, I spent lots of time learning to entertain myself. Don’t remember what I did before I could hold a #2 pencil and write. (I can barely imagine such Dark Ages before written language.) I remember a lot of crayons, construction paper, blunt-tip scissors and coloring books; also being glued to the Tube. Early TV shows were so wholesome and creative. Some of my faves were Kukla, Fran & Ollie, Tom Terrific, and, of course, Ding Dong School. I annoyed my mother to tears with “time to go get your mothers.” She was busy playing Betty Crocker, doing whatever ‘50s mothers did to make homemaking a full-time career. She couldn’t have cared less about Miss Frances and her overly cheery, daily dose of what we did at boob tube school each day. I think Mom considered rewiring her, as in pulling the plug.

The late, great Betty Bethards, a San Francisco Bay Area psychic, was my first spiritual teacher in the late ‘70s when I began seeking something to fill the void when I left the Catholic Church. Like most gurus, she is a staunch advocate of daily meditation. She taught a wonderful, simple style that is great for the newbie. Whether it’s Christian contemplative prayer, Buddhist meditation, or Transcendental Meditation, so popular in the ‘70s, you have to spend time alone and much of it quiet time, to hear yourself think-- and to listen to hear Spirit or Inspiration talk back.

I believe this quiet time or any other form of being alone with your mind is the one necessary environment for developing intuition. We need techniques to let go of our own mind chatter, then to allow free-flowing input of thought forms. Some of them will be our issues sorting themselves out—but sort they will, and you’ll find the nuggets of answers versus a ball of confusion. If you’re quiet a little longer, inspiration and true genius will pop in, along with directions about what to do next to make your life work. Call it creativity, intuition, the Holy Spirit—whatever you call it, it’s the nectar of a fulfilling life. Guess you could say I believe God is in your own head; however you perceive Him/Her/It/Them. (I like the expression God/Goddess/All That Is.) Intuition is merely a pipeline to divine direction, one you can tap into by sitting still.

Another way I was lucky: I didn’t have a lot of early critics. My mom thought the sun rose and set in me, that anything I created was a masterpiece. Just like my mom, your Inner Mom has to be supportive of you, if you’re going to start reading in-between the lines of life. It shocked me that grown-ups lied so much—that I could tell they were lying. I wouldn’t dare call them on it, when a person was bigger or more powerful, even if I knew they were completely full of it. Actually, my intuition—and yours-- will lead you to solve your own problems without having to embarrass them or make them lose face. Let the law of karma take care of them while you rock on. However, once I was older, wiser, and in my own power—all bets were off. When the stakes are high, I’d have to call ‘em on their crap.

I feel a little subversive sharing these tips! Especially since, at various times, I’ve used these skills to make a living. Thank heaven there’s not a teamsters union for psychics or I’d be kicked the truck out of the place for giving away trade secrets.

Yet I figure, I’m like the Do It Yourself Network—DIY. There are those who will take the time and trouble to do it themselves. Others will hire a repairperson. I have done both, and doing it yourself when it comes to seeking direction is much more empowering. Imagine access to divine inspiration and cosmic repair 24/7!

But if you’re a do-it-yourselfer who’s dying to make your life work better, stick with me. We’ll really start to see things together. This is how I think it should be, people having this skill so highly developed, we have direct conversations with Spirit like Tevye’s chats with God in Fiddler on the Roof.

All other fabulous applications of intuition and insights aside: Imagine what a riot it would be, if everyone developed their inner lie detector.

NEXT: Believe Everything You Hear