Synchronicity for the Day: Music No. 3

I was sitting in my office today, debating with my boss about whether we thought Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was going to be a good movie. He says he thinks it will be visual effects porn but have a dumb plot; I think I will like it. He said he thought the idea was ridiculous, and I pointed out that the movie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is in the works for next year, so more tomfoolery is on the way. At that moment, a White Zombie song (More Human than Human, video below) comes on my iPod, which I am listening to with one ear bud in while I work. Nice. The Zombie apocalypse is at hand.

Ok, now it gets even more awesome. As I'm finishing this blog post about a zombie synchronicity, yet another Rob Zombie song comes on the old 'pod. Pussy Liquor (audio below), from the House of 1000 Corpses soundtrack. I just want to make it clear that out of 904 songs on my iPod, there are 3 Rob Zombie songs on there, so that song had a 0.003% chance of playing while it was set to random.

Board Session: Quest for Career

I've noticed that all my posts lately have been about synchronicities, which is OK, but I'm sure it's getting old for everyone but me. So today I'm going to talk about a board session I had last night.

My husband and I use our talking board about once a week, give or take. I would say that most of the time we're usually asking our non-physical friends about practical matters: what's going on with this car I'm trying to buy? Will there be any issues with this trip we're taking next month? Should I go ahead and do this or wait? Last night was no different.

While I am currently comfortably employed, I have recently resumed my job search. I'm getting the bills paid, but the job isn't going anywhere. There is nowhere for me to move up, and I'm not in a position that is going to make me happy forever. So it's time for me to move on. I've been poring over my usual sources of job listings, applying here and there for positions I think I can do, and will meet my needs for a creative outlet.

Our friends on the board have strongly suggested, nay, told me that I need to put the pedal to the metal and get on with applying for jobs, because the timing is right for me to land something great. I feel like a lot of hoopla has been made that this next job will be some sort of big deal; a major step for me in the direction I want my career to go. The pressure is on, so to speak, for me to not fail and find something awesome. They are saying it's going to happen. Astrologically my transits are ripe for a solid opportunity very soon now (in early to mid July I have transiting Jupiter trine both natal Jupiter and Saturn, for anyone to whom that means something), so I feel like I don't want to miss out on some potent growth opportunities that are being handed to me on a silver platter at this point.

So last night we were on the board and we started out as usual, hands on the leaf, waiting for movement. I hear some people giving advice about using talking boards who suggest that you immediately ask if anyone is there, but I think in the last 10 years or so, there has only been maybe one or two times that no one was there, and there were special circumstances which are too boring to elaborate on right now, so we really don't see any need to do this. Whoever is there will start "talking" when they're ready. We just sit there and wait for the leaf to start moving. So the leaf gets in gear and starts tooling around the board, in the typical exploratory manner we have grown accustomed to seeing whenever a "new" person has joined us. They are "looking around" as they like to say, to check out the layout of the board, see what their options are as far as what letters/symbols/etc. they have to work with, and generally gather energy.

I'm not a big promoter of ritual and ceremony - I find that it makes people focus on the routine rather than its meaning -  so I really have no formal way that I feel like I need begin a session, or in which to address our disembodied guest for the evening. These are people as much as any of us, and I feel I should just talk to them in a respectful manner the way I would talk to anyone to whom I was going for advice. I have no need for a bunch of silly formalized language and phrases, trying to mold the session into some sort of candles-and-incense mystic carnival sideshow. As I've said before, it's like talking to a friend on the phone - you can't see them, but you know they're there.

All of that being said, I will admit that because people are creatures of habit, and I am no exception, I've settled into a bit of a routine when we begin a board session. It doesn't have to always go the same way, but it seems so far to me to be the most logical conversational progression. Usually once the leaf has made its initial rounds and settled back on the center All Seeing Eye design, awaiting our questions, I will say Hello (and they will usually say "hello" back; there's a Hello at the top of the board), and then I will ask who we are speaking to tonight. Most of the time they spell out their name. Many of the names are ones that we have never heard of, like Abdus, who we talked to maybe a week ago. I've never heard of anyone with this name, but when you're on The Other Side I guess you get to call yourself whatever you want. The only times they don't spell out their name are when we're talking to someone we are already familiar with, which does happen as we do have some people who are involved with us on a more long term basis. Then they might just move the leaf to their Sun sign (like Sagittarius), or to where it says "You Know" on the board, and we often do know who it is just by the feel of the way the leaf is moving around at that point. Each entity feels a bit different in the way they move the leaf, and we are getting better at ascertaining a number of things from their board-side manner, as it were, such as how much energy they seem to have at their disposal, how experienced they are at using this method of communication, and sometimes even if there are other entities present who are interfering with their ability to talk to us. Last night the person we spoke to called himself Thortin (maybe Thorntin, not sure if I saw an 'n' in there).

Once I know who we're talking to (and I'm mostly asking to be polite; I feel like it's kinda rude to just barge in asking for a favor, i.e. Please Give Me Advice, without even the courtesy of an introduction), I then typically ask if there are any messages that They would like to relay to either me or my husband. Then we proceed from there, trying mostly to ask all of the questions and sort out all of the pressing issues for one of us at a time, and then we move on to the other person's questions. This way there's less confusion about who the message is for.

When we arrived at my turn for messages last night, Thortin said to me (and I'm paraphrasing because I didn't write down the exact words), "I need you to be honest." My husband and I both got the feeling that this was a segue to him asking me a question. I agreed to give an honest answer, and he asked, "Are you ready to be the bread winner?" When I speculated aloud as to what the implications of this question were, he continued saying that if I was ready, it will happen, but that I will have to "give up a little of [myself]". I wanted to know what he meant by that, and he replied that some of the things that I am currently embroiled in I will no longer have time for, namely my Astrology group meetings, and possibly even this very blog. He implied that I would not have as much time for these activities as before. I found this a bit depressing, and said as much. He asked, "Do you want a career?"  We had a lengthy back-and-forth regarding the choices I would have to make - what is most important to me, what am I willing to give up. I chewed on this aloud for a bit and said that what I most wanted was to make my mark on the world, but I didn't want a job that would send me home stressed and unhappy at the end of the day. I would not choose this path if it was going to be lined with unhappiness as a price for making money. I know a number of people whose headaches are in proportion to the size of their paychecks, and I don't want to go down that road. He assured me that this career path They have in mind for me will be indeed hectic, but it will be something that I will enjoy doing. In this case I said that I was, then, in fact, ready once again to kick ass and take names. I have had a good rest in my low-responsibility job for the last year or so, and it's time to move forward. To this, Thortin responded that They have found an opportunity that is the right one for me, and based on my response, They will make a push for me to get a good shot at it.

So now I am going forth with vigor, in hopes that I have some help on this venture. Today I was driving home and (like a total nutbar) talking to myself aloud in the car, planning what I would say to imaginary job interview questions. In the middle of me trying to hone my potential responses, I was treated to the following song popping up on my iPod, when it was set to shuffle:

Once again the Universe is talking to me. Yeah. It's time.

Synchronicity for the Day: Words No. 2

Here's a quick one: I'm listening to the radio while a look through my unread emails at work. At the very moment that someone on the radio says the word "trio", my eyes moved to the next email in my in-box, whose subject line began with "trio." Simultaneous. I took this word in through my ear (just the one ear, I was listening to the radio with one ear bud in), and my eyes at the exact same time through two completely unrelated avenues. Perception via two different senses, via two different origins, of the same word at the same time. The trio on the radio referred to a group of TV personalities, and the trio in the email was from a news article about a team of criminals. I've been seeing these type of simultaneous synchronicities a lot more frequently lately.

Synchronicity for the Day: Words No. 1

Saturday morning I enjoyed an obvious and immediate synchronicity. I opened up my web browser, and as I glanced around one of the things I saw was a news article headline about a raccoon that was rescued from a storm drain in Michigan. I did not click on the link to the article, but went to check out my Facebook messages. In my in-box I was treated to a detailed account from my mother about how she discovered a raccoon at her front door during the night, and how its complete lack of fear of humans forced her to almost close the door in its face because it would have sauntered right into the house. 

These two "raccoon" mentions were within less than a minute of each other. This is a good example of how I use event timing to judge whether I will count an occurrence as a synchronicity. Raccoon is not a word that I necessarily hear every day, but it's not that uncommon. But because I saw the word in two places only a few seconds apart, I'm choosing to record this instance. If the two occurrences were a day or more apart, I would probably not count them. I'm kind of using the question, "What are the odds?" as my personal yardstick. At this time I have no assessment of the meaning behind this particular instance.

Synchronicity for the Day: Numbers No. 2

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia.

That’s right people. Try to wrap your tongue around that bad boy. And try not to giggle like a thirteen year old at the innuendo in that last sentence. That’s the name of the fear of the number 666. Revelation 13:18 says, “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number [is] Six hundred threescore [and] six.” It is this biblical reference that links this number to the Anti-Christ, and an assortment of superstitions and fears within the Christian faith have developed and persisted even today.

I don’t personally have this fear, as I am not a Christian, and have not been convinced that the entire contents of the Bible are true, either in a historical or moral sense. And since I am not burdened with this particular fear, when I have happened to meet people who have it, I find it hilarious. I once had a coworker who was telling a story in the office of a time that she was on vacation and the hotel room they assigned her was number 666. She demanded to have it changed because she was genuinely uncertain, despite the humorous way that she relayed the incident, as to whether it mightn’t bring her bad luck, or be a bad omen. I personally found this to be ridiculous. I don’t believe that any one number is particularly good or bad in and of itself. I acknowledge that I may take note of numerical coincidences and patterns that I see play out (this very post is about the same subject), but I’m not moving hotel rooms or demanding that a building rename the 13^th floor for me.

So for whatever reason, I one day got a bee in my bonnet to whip out my phone and take a picture every time I was out and about and saw someone with a car license plate that had the 666 in it. You know, for teh lulz. And I created a photo album on my Facebook page where I add these photos as they come up. At first it was just a dumb thing to do (OK, it still is), but now when I see one I get all excited. I frantically try to get my phone out and get the camera function working in time to capture the plate before the driver takes off. Sounds safe while on the freeway, right? Right??

That Dodge Dakota is the Devil!!!

Since I post these on Facebook, other people know about it and I encourage them to send me any plates if they come across them, but no one had sent me any yet. This morning my aunt calls me to fill me in on some family news, and she also mentions that she saw a 666 plate when she was out on her motorcycle and she wanted to send me a picture, but the driver turned before she could get a shot.

Then, later in the day, another Facebook friend, a former coworker, posted a picture on my wall of a 666 plate that he captured while he was driving. Nice! Two in one day!  I mean, I didn’t actually get a picture from my aunt, but her mentioning it was enough. I commented on my friend’s photo, telling him about my aunt and the plate she saw. He joked back that “these things come in threes; be on the lookout for another one!” to which I was able (I realized suddenly), to reply, “Trifecta complete!” because just last night I had snagged a pic of one of these plates just after leaving the bank.

Now I don’t impart any special meaning on incidents happening in threes especially. I just liked this dual synchronicity where not only did I have two different people think of me when they saw the plates on the same day, and I had just seen one myself, AND one of the people brought up the three factor when in fact his picture rounded out the three.

What does this one mean for me? Well, I did learn last night about a death in my family, albeit of a person whom I did not know extremely well. I can’t say that this incident, or the musical coincidence from yesterday really pertained to the passing of this person, but I think I would like to consult the Collective on the board and ask, mainly for my own record-keeping purposes. If I can begin to see patterns in this occurrences I am documenting, this may lead me to be able to interpret these synchronicities more easily on the future.

Synchronicity for The Day: Music No. 2

Last Sunday I was invited to see a relative's metal band play at a bar. I happily agreed to go, as I was excited to see him playing at some different venues. He told me on the phone that the band would be playing a couple of their own songs, and a couple of covers. One was a Judas Priest song, and another was a Blue Öyster Cult song called Godzilla, which he assured me I would recognize once I heard it. While I like me some metal, in the interest of full disclosure, I was a little kid in the 80s, so to be fair, I'm not intimately familiar with every song that was popular on rock radio at the time, unless it was by one of my favorite bands.

So I get to the bar, whose name suggests that it is a "Bar & Grill," although the "grill" portion consists of about five obligatory booths off to one side of the bar near the bathrooms where no one wants to hang out anyway, so let's just call it a bar, and I find a table near the stage. I have time to kill before his band is up, so I enjoy people-watching and playing a game I like to call, "How close am I to crossing that line?" This is a game I play with myself wherein I observe women who are way too old to be dressed like they are 18 and/or like it's 1986 they're trying to get the attention of a roadie at a Warrant concert. My hope is that I'll have the good sense to know my limits and somehow be aware of when I've reached the you're-too-old-to-be-wearing-that limit and just not do it. My I-don't-care-what-people-think-of-me attitude competes with this level of self-awareness, however, so I think it will be a challenge for me to know when I'm crossing the line.

His band takes the stage, and they make their way through their set to Godzilla. I was embarrassed to admit that I cannot say I remember ever hearing this song before. OK. I can live with that. The band was good and I'm glad I went.

This morning as I'm driving to work and listening to the radio, they were playing an old clip of a live version of Godzilla that was performed in the studio of this radio show some years prior. Now here is a song that I heard live last Sunday, and despite being told that it was a popular song and that I would know it, I didn't know it and was hearing it for the first time as far as I can remember. And then three days later, I'm hearing it again, and another live version to boot. I made it 30 years without hearing this song once, a song that apparently was a major hit, and now I hear it twice in a few days.

I've thought about what this particular synchronicity might be pointing out, and so far I haven't arrived at any conclusions, but I've committed to logging these as they happen, so here it is. If it turns out to mean anything later, which these things sometimes do, I'll update the post.

Little Fish in a Big Pond?

This jolting dose of perspective may make some of us feel insignificant, helpless, or even apathetic about their role in the grand scheme of things. Not me. It reminds me that I am a part of something universal, profound, beautiful, and infinite. It doesn't matter how big or small of a part I am. Some people sigh that they are only a tiny fish in a big pond, only one of myriad others. But each one is essential, and important. Because if you are not important, then nobody is important. And if no one matters, then it would be just the same if none of us were here at all, right? Wrong. Everyone matters. Everyone and everything is connected, and no chain holds together with broken links.

Once in a great while I manage to stumble upon a conscious awareness of this infinite connection. It has only happened maybe two or three times in my life thus far, but on those occasions it brought a lump to my throat because the feeling was so immense, the connection so far-reaching. That is what I wish everyone could really have a chance to feel, at least one time. I'm hoping that my path leads to a better understanding of how to experience this awareness intentionally, rather than by happy accident as I have so far.