May this be the day things change

Dare I comment on this?

I'm afraid if I start, I won't stop and will devolve into screaming.

Somewhere, somehow, this madness has become a viable strategy for crackpots who aren't happy with the number of dates they've gotten, what someone else worships, or worse because they woke up and decided they would like to try to kill people and see what that's like.

When did that happen? How have we become so warped as a society that this is somehow a path that is even open for consideration? How has violence, extreme violence, become such a commonplace response to stimuli? And what's more important, what can we do about it?

I could rage against the lax gun laws, and if you know me, you already know my thoughts on that. So, I won't. I could rage against the ease with which people can get guns illegally (heck I could get one tomorrow and no one would be the wiser). And I'm not going to do that either. I could ponder the thought that I've been having that the paradigm of computer games and movies which show people dying again and again and then coming back like nothing ever happened has changed our consciousness and our awareness of death and its permanent status. (I read for enough young people who tell me that have contemplated "the suicide" [their words] as a method of dealing with their unhappiness to know that they aren't truly aware that they won't come back to a better, brighter future after they have died. They don't seem to grok that it is permanent. And we spend time talking about that during their readings before I give them the number of the suicide hotline and the therapist I know who lives closest to them [yes, I keep a database].) There are any number of issues we could highlight as the reason so many choose this as a course of action.

But, in the end, it doesn't matter because people are dead. Young people who had dreams and lives they wanted to live are gone. They will never have the chance to live their purpose. That is what matters. And what's more, the guy who killed them is dead and that means we can't study him and find out what transpired inside his twisted brain that made this an okay thing to do and apparently to promote on cchan beforehand. 

Because ultimately, that is what I want to know and change. I want to know why these people are doing it. I want to know what sort of issue inside them calls them to this extreme and abhorrent course of action. I can't help thinking that if we figure it out, we will be able to change the future.

I hope so. I hope we can determine the root cause of this decision and figure out a way to avert it. Or it will get worse. 

I am an idealist. I want to see and live in a society where no one kills or is killed. I want to see us all work together to usher in a peaceful world. This morning that ideal feels much farther away. And yet I cling to hope.

My heart and thoughts are with those who are wounded and the families of those who were murdered. 

May this be the day things change.

Today's Tarot: The Tower (radical revolutionary change. Get in front of it, if you can)

Yegads, how do I write about the Tower? It's change. It comes upon you. It often takes you by surprise. It kicks your butt and often, very often, it leaves you bedraggled and exhausted but clinging to a new shore on which you will leave a vastly different and generally better life.

When a client draws this card, I almost always end up saying, "Life will never be the same," as part of the explanation for what is happening or what will happen.

The best we can do is prepare but even those careful preparations don't mean a hill of beans compared to the awesome power of the Tower.

I'll give you an example from my own readings. A client, Marla* came in for a reading. In the slot that represented the immediate future (the next two to four weeks), she pulled The Tower. (As you can see from looking at the image below, the image shows a building that is exploding because it is being struck by lighting.)

"Marla," I said. "Things are about to change. Life will never be the same. Sometime in the next two to four weeks everything will be different. The key is to try to ride the storm as best you can. Often things are better in the end, but in the moment, it can be daunting if not downright excruciating."

I was sorry that I had to be so blunt, but I've learned not to question what I need to say. As soon as I question it or try to put my own spin on it, I end up being wrong. If I just say what I feel pulled to say, no matter how strange, it ends up being on the right track.

Moving on...

Three weeks later to the day, I got a voicemail from Marla. "Watch the news tonight," she said. "I'm on it because my house blew up."

What???

It turns out that there was a gas leak. She and her husband just barely managed to get out okay but they lost everything. They were devastated. And that my friends was the Tower working in their lives, quite literally. Generally, it's a more metaphorical explosion that leaves everything changed, but I learned that day that sometimes, it's very, very real.

You might think this is the end of the story. But, remember how I said above that the Tower often leaves you different but better?

Here's the end.

About eight months later, Marla came back in for a reading. She had a very specific question. "Do you think I am a bad person for not being upset that my house blew up?" She asked as we sat down.

"What? No, absolutely not," I replied. "If you've found a way to be okay with this, that's a very good thing."

"Well, see, I'm a packrat," she continued. "And we've been thinking about moving out of the house and into an apartment and I was facing over thirty years of stuff to give away or throw away. But then, the house blew up, and now I get to start completely fresh."

So, there you have it. In the moment, the Tower wrenched them out of everything they new, everything familiar, everything that had been theirs. It gave them a completely blank slate whether or not they wanted one. In the moment, it destroyed everything. In the long run, it gave them a brand new start.

Today, if something huge changes in your life, I encourage you to look at it like an opportunity. In the moment, it might be blindingly painful, yes. In the long run, you will pick yourself up on the farthest shore, and you will be reborn.

(link to the image: http://api.ning.com/files/pxnq-7mondsTDfdkagvuBZV-TjEgdJcY1DQo7ZSc1HGsqxnkNK3lmr8kzkv4eDZW8f5RgrJqyFs0pAEQaLGFlwbN9BmGgA6F/tarotthetower.jpg)

*Names have been changed.

This Week's Element: Fire

In "Life Elements" we discuss the transformative nature of Fire. Fire changes everything it touches. It is an alchemy by which one state of matter will change into another. If you want to cultivate the ability to enact change in your life, meditate on Fire's evolutionary nature. In order to begin one thing, you must end another. In order to create something, you must destroy something else. Fire does both, perfectly.