Asking about Past lives....

[angel]

Greatings everyone,

Yesterday I asked for a past-life picture of myself. I received Hex 41, decrease. No changing lines at all. The only meaning I can come up with is something like ? don?t you have anything more important to query about??. I thought it could be done!.

I?ve been told that in tarot divination this kind of questions are more frequents.

I know, I know? isn?t this life complicated enough to wonder about past- lives?.
Sorry, I?m like a child, always asking.

I´d really appreciate your input here.


Thank you in advance.

 

[angel]

... OOOpppsss ... I meant Greetings

 

[hilary]

Greetings and greatings to you, Angel!

This is a little awkward, I'm not even 100% sure I believe in past lives... At the least, I think you'd have to say that they are 'past' only from your 'present' perspective, but in the mind of God they're all equally present - and so in parts of your own awareness that might also be true...

But if we were to take hexagram 41 as a picture of an individual... then we see someone making offerings with sincerity, from limited resources. They're probably obliged to quash their own immediate feelings about giving things up, understanding that it is done in the service of something greater.

You could jump in and say this must be a picture of a priest - or understand it on a less literal level, as a sort of emotional story of a life.

Anyone with any coherent thoughts about past lives, please help! Would you maybe look at the complement of this hexagram (31), or its contrast (42), to see the effects/ reflections of the past life in Angel's present life?

 

[heylise]

I think it is a beautiful image for a past life. If you look at the character for Sun, decrease, there is at left a hand. But the oldest picture of this hand was made of two hands joined. The meaning were to ?kowtow?, or to hold by the hand. A gesture of reverence or of holding fast. At right there is an empty vessel, with a circle above it, to indicate its emptiness.
One does not possess anything from a past life, the only thing one can bring along, is one?s soul or something like that, a receptive emptiness, open to receive a new life, or new experiences. Together with the hands joined in prayer or so.
To me it has a lot more meaning than all those people who were Nefertite or Napoleon. In this respect I agree with Hilary: it is hard to believe in past lives. But the empty soul going from experience to experience ? sounds good.
I don?t think the Yi gave you a scolding, on the contrary.
LiSe

 

[anita]

In Taoism and my spiritual path --m which is the same really-- past lives are very much a fact. We believe that we have had a 1000 lives in the past. The Buddha, one of our masters, said-- If you want to know about your past lives, look at your present one. If you want to know about your future lives, look at your present one.

It makes a lot of sense to me when I consider the things we carry along with us from past lives and which we cannot logically explain or account for -- such as why we're born rich or poor, sick or healthy, talented or untalented, etc.

In the end it all boils down to karma.

Besides, there is a growing body of evidence that comes from those who recall successfully their past lives, pointing out connections that they have no other way of knowing.

But all this is to no avail if we fail to recognise the real purpose of life -- to return to our divine origin.

Best for your Quest

 

[angel]

Hi everyone,

Let me explain shortly the reasons for asking about my past life. Reading/talking to the Yijing there are some big words like fate or Te, that makes me consider my present life: Why I was born white, male and in my family?. Why do I have some abilities and I am lack of others?. Are we really and completely free?. Big questions for a small mind. The query, as Hilary pointed out, was about trying to find a light about my present situation.

I must say I?m ignorant about karma and reincarnation but it seems to me to be a great system to control people?s behaviour, something like the catholic hell and heaven. Maybe Anita or somebody else could recommend me some good and easy book about this subject to broad my mind.

As for Hex 41, I did the reading with Lise´s Yijing. I love her ideographs and explanations. Congratulations Lise, you must be very proud of your work!. The Ding image was beautiful and the meaning about emptiness makes sense to me. Reading the image, made me think about a priest too, who knows?; trigrams made me think about a mountain and a marsh (everywhere); and then the symbol ? the noble one? restrains passion?. Here is where I got the meaning of not asking this type of questions. Mutual and opposite hex didn?t make any improvement in understanding the whole picture.

Maybe not knowing is the way to go in life. Too much information could kill our inner intuition and spontaneity.

Thank you for your time and thoughts
I love you all

 

[candid]

Boy, this is a great question and even greater responses!

I'm left a little emotionally 'empty', concerning the question. Perhaps this relates to 41? There's something about looking backward which saddens me. It can also anger me, if I dwell on certain things. In looking backward, I'm reminded to control my anger and restrain my inclinations of remorse, worry, sorrow.

I'd much rather look to 31, where there's hope and mutual attraction. Where I may follow my Master as a sheep, and see what else this dream called life has to offer. That, in my opinion, is what Yi refers to as fate. I see it more as a potential of fate because if I'm not careful, I can really muck it up. If I don't allow myself to be led, if I refuse to follow the "Great Man", what happens to me is left up to chance. There's no following, and no chance courtship. Where is love then?

If I followed my past dreams as sign posts of past lives - I've died twice in battle (Revolutionary and Second World War), I've been to hell (of my own making through belief) rose up through the clouds and defied my Maker, been sent here again to finally get it right. Before being born this time, I determined in my soul that I would not buy into any sort of dogma. I wouldn't lose myself in worldly trappings. I would do this at any cost, would undergo any sort of torture and tribulation in order to preserve what is the real and true essence of who and what I am. I would use whatever power I have in my person(ality) to move forward, and I'd learn to not obsess about looking back.

Love,
Candid

 

[lindsay]

Hi, everyone!

And now a word from the village skeptic.

First, I agree with Candid that it is unwise to dwell too much on the past. Or rather, it takes a very strong person to face the past with any degree of honesty. Our minds make a lot of it up, invent, embellish, justify, sand down the rough places, heighten the contrast and deepen the shades. It?s a built-in survival feature, I believe. Fact becomes story becomes legend becomes myth, even within our own little lives.

Anyway, concerning past lives, reincarnation, and karma, I would like to bring up a problem that is sometimes called the ?economy of souls? dilemma. If you believe that souls are reborn again and again, you immediately run into a problem when you confront the fact of the massive growth in the world population. Where did all the new souls come from? Is there currently a mix of souls, some very old, some fairly recent, some brand new? How do you figure out which kind you have?

This is the point where animals, or even all living beings, are usually brought into the picture. The argument is that many more living beings than humans have souls. Maybe they all do. The theory of karma often views rebirth as a point of judgment: good beings are reborn human, bad beings are reborn as animals or worse. [Here I would like to make the observation that no one retrieving their past lives seems to remember being a grasshopper.] In other words, there is an ?economy of souls? in the world. At any given time, there are always in the world system the same number of souls, and therefore the same number of beings. Or perhaps there may be a slow decrease in beings, since a few advanced souls are occasionally liberated from the karmic cycle.

This view is very difficult to maintain in the light of historical biology, where huge swings in populations (remember the dinosaurs?) have been observed. It is extremely probable that the total number of living beings (souls) was considerably less in the Ice Age than at present. There is nothing in the ?economy of souls? theory that accommodates fluctuations of aggregate population except perhaps the idea of hell. I suppose the Ice Age may have been very cold on earth, but very hot indeed for millions of repenting souls.

Another idea is that there is a huge pool of souls somewhere waiting to be born. This is where new souls come from. I picture endless rows of benches with patient rookie souls waiting patiently and passing the time until the Coach finally sends them into the Game. Well, this explains birth, but it does not explain rebirth and karma. Karma asserts that souls are reborn over and over until they earn release from the wheel of rebirth. Everyone agrees this is a long process. In fact, bodhisattvas are supposed to refuse release until the last soul is liberated. Does that mean after the whole backlog of new souls waiting on benches have played the Game? No wonder the Indian sages invented the idea of the kalpa.

I find it difficult to make sense of the reincarnation/past souls/ karma thing until someone explains to me where all the new human souls come from. Maybe there are people with no soul. And why does everybody remember a past life in an important place during a significant and well-documented period of history? Didn?t anybody live in Kansas when Napoleon was alive? Maybe I?m just the village idiot, not the village skeptic.

Lindsay

 

[louise]

Hi Lindsay, funny you should bring this question up. I was reading posts on another site this morning (Spiritboard) and it seems to be a widely held view amongst the people there that there are many souls currently incarnated on earth that used to be incarnated on other planets in other galaxies. They seem to believe this is especially so with people born after 1975 and give them the name of 'Starseeds'. Apparently earths a pretty desirable place to incarnate at the moment, because we are facing some big changes
globally and its a great time to advance your soul growth ? So that could solve the numbers problem could'nt it ? Billions of other life forms on other planets, billions of souls ?

For some reason I always thought i worked in a munitions factory in the war - not very exciting is it - perhaps i dreamt it - still not a very exciting dream either.

 

[lindsay]

Of course! Other worlds! Other galaxies! That clears up everything. Why didn?t I think of that? I?m such a narrow-minded bean-counter sometimes.

Thanks, Louise.

Lindsay

 

[candid]

*laughing here* Actually, its a fair consideration, the migration of souls. Its something the human race has a history of doing here on earth - migrating. Now we as a species are 'trapped' here on earth. But what if we weren't? Wouldn't some of us, at least, be migrating to other planets just as we migrate to other states, providences and countries? Its not an illogical possibility, as possibilities go.

Louise, just yesterday I saw a couple of old WW 2 posters. They were female images of women who worked the factories during the war. They appeared strong and with noble spirits. Not an image I'd ever be ashamed of, for sure! Hey, maybe I was firing 3"x50s off the starboard mount that you actually made!

Possibilities are wonderful things to ponder. All one can be certain of, however, are here and now. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Love ya,
Candid

 

[louise]

Hey Candid, for some reason I often think of that pig that appeared in your garden in the summer (I'm a bit hung up on omens at the moment) In retrospect did you feel it was a good omen - life did seem to pick up for you after that time didn't it. (Sorry folks off topic again, can't find original thread)

Have decided to stick to notion of being munitions worker as Candid has provided me with a noble image.

 

[hilary]

I know some women who did work in munitions factories in the war! (A welder, and one who glued the planes back together after they limped home from raids and dogfights...)

And thanks to them I've picked up a song celebrating
'the girl who makes the thing that oils the cog that coils the spring that [...somethings the something that somethings] the knob, that works the thingumabob.
It's a ticklish sort of a job
Making a thing for a thingumabob.
Especially when you don't know what it's for.
But she's the girl who.. [etc!]
..that works the thingumabob that's going to win the war!'

The here and now sounds good to me. When I was in my teens, the first time my religious beliefs (all my own invention!) were really challenged was by the parish priest. On reincarnation, he just asked 'Isn't it rather a cop-out?'

What I still don't quite understand is why there would be a need for reincarnation in the great scheme of things. Isn't it all accomplished with greater simplicity and economy if you create yourself (at least in the ways that can be done 'down here') in just one lifetime?
I find it's a ticklish sort of a job believing in things when I don't know what they're for!

(But for some reason, I find the realisation that 'past' lives would really be simultaneous from your eternal soul's 'point of view' makes me feel much better about the whole idea...)

 

[louise]

hi Hilary I've always believed in reincarnation. I first heard the idea when I was six and my teacher said she had been a cow in a previous life. I just couldn't resist saying 'you're one now'. But seriously it always seemed somehow obvious to me, as soon as I heard the concept it seemed like something I had always known.

From what I've read, the point you make at the end of your post is absolutely right. From the souls 'point of view' all our lives are simultaneous - time only being a construct for our current dimension.

As to what its for ? Its like evolution, in each successive lifetime we grow towards greater consciousness and nearer to unity with God (if we play our cards right) We can't possibly fit in all experiences into one lifetime. We need many to know being rich/poor, powerful/powerless etc.
Well maybe we don't 'need' them, but God just likes playing at pretending to be different people, creating dramas and stuff, apparently so s/he can know herself more fully. Hmm well thats the idea anyway. I don't know if thats true anymore than anyone else does - its just always felt true to me.

I love that song, I'm sure if i had been a munitions worker I wouldn't have had a clue what I was doing, it would have all been 'thingumbobs' to me - happy in the knowledge that the noble Candid was firing them off somewhere.

BTW, when since has economy and simplicity been a template for creation ? What on earth would be the point of hippopotomi, and the other billion complex and diverse creatures in our universe. Its not as if God wants to get it over with as quickly and efficiently as possible is it ? Apparently he even made me ?

 

[cassandra]

Omens and syncronicities are one of my favorite subjects. Candid's pig stuck in my memory too. Candid, I'm curious if any unusual events clustered around the pig sighting. There are some very interesting examples of these things in the book 'The Tao of Syncronicity'. I think of an omen as a foreshadowing. Syncronicity comes in several different guises, one of which is the occurrence of unusual events that follow a major event and are sort of a post-shadow. I remember one of the latter that happened to me... will never forget it.

I once spent an entire day in court having my character ruthlessly besmirched. It practically broke my heart since it was a person who was once close to me. I went home in the lowest of moods - felt as if my spirit were broken. It was pouring down rain that day and when I got home, I looked out on my deck and right in the middle was a bird just sitting there in the rain. It was the most pathetic sight... it wasn't moving and it was sopping wet. I'm sure something was wrong with it but there was nothing visible. It just looked like I felt, completely dejected. I went outside and gently scooped it into a box with a towel in it and layed the box on it's side so the bird could get out if it wanted to. I put the box under the awning of my house where it was dry. What else was I to do?

Time as it relates to syncronicities and omens has always intrigued me too. I have a friend who has the strange habit of remembering events in reverse as if he were on a time line. Imagine yourself on a timeline moving forward and at any given point you stop, turn around, and look at the direction you just came from. If you imagined that that new direction was the future, then events closest to you would appear to precede events that were actually further in the past.

It has been documented also that victims of traumatic events have this strange habit of reversing events too. They often think of an event that happened after the tramatic event as having triggered the event somehow.

Wrap you mind around that one for a minute and then blend it with the whole omen/syncronicity concept. I've often wondered how this fits in with the idea in the Yi that there is a backward movement.

Sorry to get so far off the thread but I was suddenly inspired by it

 

[lindsay]

Dear Hilary,

If I even had a clue how chronologically separate lives could appear simultaneous from an eternal point of view, I guess I?d feel much better too. But since I cannot fathom the simultaneity of temporally discrete events, nor imagine what things look like from the viewpoint of eternity, I think I?ll help myself to a glass of LiSe?s wine, and accomplish the same result. Eternally speaking, that is.

Did I miss a post somewhere that explained all this?

Lindsay

 

[louise]

Awh Cassandra thats a really touching story of the bird. Apparently birds are very common bringers of omen. This one though seemed to mirror the state of your soul. What I'd love to know is what happened to the bird ? Did it recover and live ? I read somewhere - was it here ? how what the creature that appears as an omen does/ what you do for it/ is very significant.
Someone said he came home and a bird was in his room banging against the window - what did it mean ? He was asked "what did you do for the bird" and he replied "I set it free". He was answered, "then it is about your freedom". If the bird mirrored your soul that day then you symbolically took you soul in and nurtured it.

I tried to start a thread on omens but no one responded (sob)I find it really interesting -particularly the way animals can appear like guides - magical.

OMG its still bugging me that Hilarys parish priest dismissed a fundamental belief of hinduism, buddhism, ie reincarnation as a 'copout'- simple as that, just dismissed half of the worlds belief system just like that !! Okay Louise - calm down - am I over reacting or is that utter arrogance/ignorance ? Sorry, sorry in advance for any hurricane like behaviour.
Lindsay where are you I need to throw a 200lb man.

 

[hilary]

Hello Louise,

Oh dear, I'm afraid I've misrepresented poor Father Darrell. He's actually quite something, and I've a feeling he and you would get on very well, in an extreme-weather-warning kind of way.

His point, insofar as my 15 year old self got it, was that I hadn't examined the idea at all - I'd just collected it from Hinduism, and basically adopted it because it wasn't Christian. I think I was using it to avoid questions of heaven/ hell, ie of absolute outcomes from actions in this life.

I certainly I never could believe in the idea that people who do bad things come back handicapped, or as animals, or whatever. That also requires you to believe that being an animal is somehow lower than being human (I remember starting arguing against that one at age 4 or so... never stopped since...). Then there's the belief that handicapped people (like my brother) are reaping the harvest of past sins, and so are people born into a lower caste (and so their suffering is right and proper, ordained by universal law). Now that is a cop out. (It's probably also an appalling distortion of Hinduism, but it does seem to get about a bit.)

But the idea of reincarnation, or multiple incarnations, just for the joy of it and the complexity - yes, I could get to like that. And I'm sorry I missed your omens thread.

Hello Lindsay,
I'm sure you don't really have any trouble with this. Just use that superior masculine spatial sense, the one that means you never have to ask directions

.

Think of time as two-dimensional: like Cassandra's line through past, present, future. To reach eternity, which is timelessness, you add in a dimension (or an infinite number of them, but my mind isn't up to that). You take your line, like lifting a pencil from the table, and you can look at it from another point of view. From the end, it looks like a dot. All the points on the line are part of it.

Talking about these things rapidly gets silly, because we will insist on talking in past, present and future tenses (and using words like 'simultaneous' - oops). But I think it makes as much sense to say 'spacetime is created now' as it does to say 'spacetime was created n billion years ago'. Probably even slightly more.

But then for us, 'creation' implies 'not there before, is there now...'. Obviously, you can't describe the creation of time itself in such terms - you get nonsense. I'm using the word 'creation' as a convenient label for something just the other side of my ability to imagine.

I think Stephen Hawking said that looking back to the 'beginning of time' (paradox already...) was like tracing lines drawn round a sphere back to a single point on its surface where they meet - and then asking where they went next.

Dear Cassandra,

I love the way you play with your timeline! Have you read the introduction to Wu Jing Nuan's Yijing? I think you'd be very much at home there. He first really brought home to me the Chinese idea of a river of time that flows from its source in the future, past us here in the present, into the past.

My mind is boggling too much for comfort, I think I'll go to bed

 

[louise]

I agree with you Hilary that its very dangerous to suppose that people who are suffering are doing so because of some past misdeed. If we believed that it would be a cop out, we would never try to change or improve anything, and whats worse may feel superior to those less fortunate than ourselves. I think it says in the Bhagavad Gita that as humans we cannot possibly understand the way karma works. We can understand it vaguely as a concept, but we certainly can't evaluate the way it works out in the lives of individuals.

 

[cassandra]

Louise,

At the time of the bird incident, I had the sense to know that it was somehow related to me and that how I responded was important. I knew this because of reading of such things and that I often dreamed of myself as a bird at troubled times in my life. I think anyone would have at least sensed the connection had it happened to them.

I don't know what happened to the bird. I dreaded going outside to find it dead after that but finally got up the courage to look. I didn't find it anywhere in the yard. I took that to be a good omen.

I didn't mention this the first time around because I feel a bit silly about it, but I went a bit further than I described. I actually searched for a worm and put it in the box with the bird. I have to laugh about it now but at the time I felt that I needed to do everything I could possibly do. In caring for the bird, I was taken away from my problems and feeling sorry for myself. People often do this when they have suffered a major loss... devote themselves to helping others who have suffered similar losses. Mine was just all in one day and I didn't have to go searching for the opportunity... it showed up on my deck.

 

[candid]

My head is spinning from reading your thoughts! Or, is it just the wine?

Ahh, the wild pig. Well let's draw some lines here on it. First, she was a really fat pig. In a sense, I'm becoming fat. I've landed an interesting job, totally unexpectedly. I have nice wheels to get around this vast desert land. While living as a hermit, I'm still making friends. My abode is tiny, but it abides in a magical land filled with mystery and intrigue. The stars come down to kiss me each night, so bright and alive... so close, I can almost grasp them. Second, I'm realizing just how little I know. (back to pigs and fishes) I realize that I have a Master, and my most efficient use of the time I have left here would be to listen to him. I'm stubborn as the donkeys that wander the black mountains where I live. Not very smart, really. Not half as smart as I've convinced myself before moving here. I'm glad I have a good Teacher who is patient and willing to endure me. Finally, the pig was wild. It didn't conform to me just because I'm a bit more refined, or so I like to think. Likewise, I am not to conform to any group, any faith system or formula. I'm wild, and that's how I'll always be. Stubborn, stupid and wild. And, grateful to have a patient Teacher.

Cassandra, the bird was you. You gave love, and through that act, you've received love in return. You loved yourself when it seemed no one else would, or could.

Hilary, its so good to read your posts again. Is it just me or have you been growing? I sense a deeper maturity, though in a sense, you'll always be a little girl. Hope that doesn't offend you. I mean it endearingly.

Louise, have you designed that Lindsay torpedo yet? My trigger finger is getting a bit twitchy. Must be the pig... or the wine again. Wait, I don't drink wine! Damn the torpedo - full speed ahead!

Candid

 

[louise]

Doesn't sound silly to me Cassandra. I did something similar with a fledgling that had fallen from the nest once. I think your story will stick in my mind like Candids pig did -its quite beautiful.

Candid you sound absolutely on top form and raring to go !! I'm really pleased bad times have turned good for you

 

[hilary]

I'll second that!

I don't know about growing, but I have just been updating the 'age' entry on my profile - erk! And I'm very happy to hear I'll always be a little girl. Honestly, Uncle.

 

[pmccormack]

I have spent the past three months or so dealing with past life therapy. It's a form of hypnosis that brings your past lives into focus to help you deal with what ever problems you face in the present.

I must say it's a difficult concept for most people to embrace and although I have always been fascinated with the various case studies I'd read, especially Brian Weis' work, I was skeptical that it could work for me.

I have been involved in a heartbreaking relationship for the past three years and kept wondering what the universe wanted me to learn from it. Certainly there had to be some value in all that pain. Well it seems that this man and I have always been together in some way or another and the lesson I have been trying to learn is about detachment.
Now I'm not sure if I totally understand what that means. But I know that I tend to attach myself pretty securely to the people I love and then am devastated when they leave.

So I suppose I am beginning to see that there is a greater purpose than inter personal relationships. All of my "past- lives", by the way, were pretty ordinary in each time period, but the lesson was the same.
Anyone else out there with a similar experience?

 

[bfireman]

Hello all-

These posts have been incredible reading. Just listening and learning... I have been real busy lately having left my job and trying to piece a new business together, just popping in now and then. Seems there has been lots going on.

Pmccormack- Hello! To answer your question... yes I have had a very similar experience. This summer I had a real powerful talk(via phone after sending a photo) with a channeler who channels your spirit guides. Honestly, I was not really that skeptical going into it but after the fact I had no doubt she was the real deal. (I would be happy to pass along her contact info if anyone wants it... just email me privately.) Anyway, these guides recounted various "past lives" and their impact on the present. As stated earlier in this thread by others, I am very open and flexible in mind regarding these things and personally do not have any rigid beliefs I hold onto regarding the literalness of past lives, karma, soul, etc... Just know from experience there is much more going on than the tangible nature of life(hex2) that we so strongly identify with. IMHO. Anyway, the woman with whom I was speaking did not know me at all, yet the conversation with these "spirit guides" was so unbelievably pertinent to my life and own experiences it just blew me away. The major lessons were not the same, but very inter-related and relevent to the situations I was facing at the time.

On another note, I heard an incredible teching just last week by the current spiritual director of the New Kadampa Tradition, a Buddhist organization with centers all over the world. The teaching was on wisdom, and this is what the buddha had to say:" A girl had a dream. In this dream she met a boy and was happy. Then, she realized the boy was dying and became sad. Understand all phenomenon are as such" Really a lot going on in that quote, and very difficult to understand by the rational mind, but I think its relevent to the present topic. Why? Whether we "believe" in past lives, karma, the soul, etc. doesn't really matter... what matters is how we seek our happiness. In this quote above the Buddha is saying this happiness is a natural result of cultivating and understanding the true nature of mind. Thoughts are things, patterns of energy, and whether these regard past lives, dreams, direct intuitions, etc. what really matters is how one relates and integrates them into one's present situation in realizing they are all dependent on mind, nothing having its own, inherent indendent existence. This appearance of duality does not truly exist... it is like a dream... as the buddha said. Whoooaaa, probably going off the deep end here but do think it relates to this thread. Anyway, that link I posted in another thread by don Miguel Ruiz on the Toltec tradition, he is saying the same thing. Not buddhist, but the same exact thing. Past, present, future... who knows? It is all coming together moment by moment, and how well we understand the true nature of mind and cultivate this wisdom, the more at peace and happy we are. In the quote above, the Buddha says unhappiness results directly from this craving and aversion, how we relate to each moment as it arises. Mind creates its own reality, and thus we experience what we believe. The girl met a boy and became happy. She realized he was dying and became sad. Understand all phenomena are as such. Again. Whoooaaaaaa. Pardon me if I sound a bit nutty but I love this shit. Peace - Brian

 

[pmccormack]

Dear Brian,

Thanks for the insight- yes it all does sound like the same message. I have read the Four Agreements by Don Miguel- It blew me away. I think I might need to re-read it now. Presently I am re-reading The Celestine Prophecy which is amazing as well. I would be very interested in your spirit guide person.
Pat

 

[willow]

Wonderful reading, all of this. There's a line (that is part of this season too) that has always summed up my approach to such things: "But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart."

 

[anita]

Angel,

I would suggest 'Edgar Cayce's Story of Karma' which should be widely available as it is here in India. There's also Dr. Brian Weiss' Many Lives, Many Masters. Both are well known in this context of karma and reincarnation. I read a very interesting interview with Weiss in the Omni Magazine. He regressed his patients hypnotically so they could recall their past lives and discovered that they could thus cure themselves of their paranoia. For example, a woman who was petrified of the water and could not swim discovered that this was due to her drowning in a past life and when she saw this her fear of water left her. (I don't think I'd ever swim though I do splash around-- but that's more to do with showing off in swim wear!)

I myself have undergone hypnotic regression (through an audio cassette) and found both times that I was an Egyptian High priestess. Maybe that's why I had this strange affinity for the Moon Goddess Isis who I worshipped for many years. She revealed the path of Egyptian ritual magic to me in a dream when I was in my twenties. And believe me -- I didn't even know who this Goddess was till I did some research.

Maybe that's why I am a sort of priestess today in my temple. I just conducted the ancient Kyudo Ceremony yesterday as 'Conductor 2' -- in uniform and all that! I've done that many times, besides conducting the prayers and will continue to do so.

 

[anita]

A note to Candid -- on the lines of what Louise said about souls -- yeah, the universe is vast and earth is not the only planet with intelligent life. I believe that being born human is the highest of virtues because this is the only way to fulfill the purpose of life - spiritual enlightenment and freedom from the cycle of rebirth. The Buddha attained this freedom because of the Ceremony -- the opening of his third eye which is the Gate of the Soul and through which the soul exits at death to reunite with its divine origin. This Gate is closed with our first breath. This wonderful and secret ceremony (not a religion) is available to those with good karma round the world. There's a temple also in the U.S. Those interested can get the address from me.

Speaking of past lives, I know a woman who saw herself as a deer in another life. The Buddha himself was a rabbit who offered herself to the starving Maitreya in a past life. But he had to be born human to attain nirvana.

The Best for your Quest

 

[cassandra]

Hilary,

I read the intro yesterday to Wu Jing Nuan's Yijing and found it to be quite the tease. I would like to find something that goes into more depth. If anyone finds anything, please let me know!