Sunday, December 22, 2013

The Gift of Food is Love in Action

This is an excerpt from The Lightworker's Guide to Everyday Karma.

November and December are the months for food. Not just a little, but lots and lots of all types of food. These are the months when we make things we don’t make the rest of the year, when we experiment with new recipes, try new foods, buy more than we think we should and spend a lot of time at the grocery store.

No matter what your spiritual belief is, Jewish, Christian, Moslem, Hindu, in these months in the Western world, food is among the many things at the forefront of your thoughts.

Frankly, food is one of the most basic, elementary and precious gifts one person gives to another and this is absolutely a universal gift. All occasions are marked with food. In certain cultures only certain foods can be eaten at certain occasions. Some cultures fast - a denial of food - and then when they can eat again, it is not just a little food, it is a feast.

Food at the most basic level represents wealth and prosperity. In Feng Shui, one of the most important cures involves doubling the illusion of your cooking burners on your stove from the standard four to eight, using mirrors. The more burners, the more food can be prepared and shared.

One of the ways that specifically Hanukah and Christmas, Easter and birthdays are celebrated is food. The use of special foods, foods that symbolize culture, tradition and family heritage are prized, cherished. Recipes are handed down, from one generation to the other, each cook placing his or her own variation on that theme. Thanksgiving is only about food and the gratitude of actually having food.

So perhaps it is important to take just a brief moment and ponder how precious food is to us all. Food is not just for nourishment- providing the fuel to enable all the cells of the body to fire, to enable our heart to pump and our legs to move and our mind to function, food is essential to our emotional well being. That is why some foods - like macaroni and cheese, cheesecake and brownies - are just comfort food. They may or may not be good for us; it doesn’t really matter, at some level, they provide emotional nourishment beyond the physical.

So during the months of November and December as we plan our meals, ponder our recipes, watch the cooking channel and imagine all those amazing foods coming out of our own kitchens, maybe the real lesson of food is the service of giving.

When you cook, you give something of yourself - not just when you shred your fingers grating cheese, but when you think about the process of say, Christmas dinner - as an example. You think about it. You talk to your family asking them what they love, or what would they like. You try to make things that will please everyone. You consider making special things for each person because it means something. Of course you can buy food for a person, which is also a wonderful gift to receive as well, some foods from commercial houses are just wonderful, especially if you cannot be there with the person.

Back to your kitchen; so you study your recipes, and plan the meals or party menu. You shop - mostly repeatedly because some things have to be purchased at the last minute. When you can, you bake ahead you plan, and plan. When you are actually doing the cooking, you are focused on producing the most delicious food possible. That positive focus is positive energy and you give the food you are preparing positive energy. Remember: if you are angry don’t cook. People will taste it on a subtle level.

Perhaps you put on happy music as you cook, perhaps a friend or family member is helping you to cook and you are chatting and stirring and tasting. Your kitchen is warm, busy, really messy, and it smells great! This is love in action. Often what you cook, you give away as a gift, perhaps a cake, pie, cookies, soup for an ill neighbor. Cooking is the action of using your energy to create energy for another person out of the materials you have. You can’t just eat flour or spices, but combine them in a million combinations and you have a miracle!

So perhaps long ago, in the middle East another place famous for fantastic food, people also brought food to that manger to help that young couple with a new baby. Perhaps every time we share our food, we bring peace to our homes.

Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin in the kitchen, let it migrate to the dining room table and let happy hearts and friendly smiles warm your home. So over the next several days as you cook yourself silly, smile - you are love in action and that action is truly the gift of service.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Holidays,
Love, Tina

Photography by Tina Erwin

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Food Glorious Food! by Tina Erwin


The Holidays are only about food! Cookies, candies and delicious things from far away places with strange sounding names!! So, make an appointment to make cookies, warm, gooey, beautiful cookies. It warms your heart. Oh, to see these shots in detail, just click on each photo and they come up much larger. Enjoy!

 Shop in a gorgeous store whether it is in this country or in another country.


 Bring home some warm flavorful bread, especially pretzal bread from an especially exotic bakery.


Too busy to bake a special holiday or Christmas cake? So pick one up. Splurge, make your gift, a gift of food. Sometimes it isn't about the calories, and only about the glory of someone elses creation.



Love all those special olives and cheese? Find a super deli and just browse, inhale and be happy.


Location shots: my kitchen, shops in Belgium, and Germany.
All photography by Tina Erwin. All rights reserved.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

KS&L 414 The First Thanksgivings in the New World by Tina Erwin

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  I have spent many hours speaking to the ghosts of Thanksgivings past, to those stalwart souls who survived the early years of life in these United States. I have often pondered just why it was so amazingly cold during those particular years. In 1776 the Potomac river froze over. In the follow on years, the cold was so tremendous that most babies died of starvation. It is a wonder that anyone survived the severe cold.        However, one year was especially viciously cold. The year was 1789. At the beginning of this year, an unknown volcano in Iceland belched out 56 billion tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere of this planet for a staggering eight months straight. That loss of sunlight created a devastating situation globally and ultimately led to the riots throughout Europe, and precipitated the beginning of the French Revolution. Rivers all over Europe froze. Crops died from the sulfur dioxide. There was famine across all of Europe – which pushed more people to come to the United States hoping for a better future. 

       Those plucky settlers who came to the United States were also affected by this massive amount of sun-blocking chemicals, for the jet stream would have spread this choking poison all over the planet. But no one knew this. All they knew was that every winter day was a torture of the unending struggle of never having enough to eat, never feeling completely warm and never having a sense of complete safety. I'm sure they must have wondered if life could possibly get any harder.
       Children died of starvation faster than adults. Very probably all would have perished without the kindness of the Native Americans who shared their ways, successful ways that seemed ‘savage’ to the Europeans but were the pathways that enabled the native peoples to thrive in this bountiful land. Perhaps that lesson is that there is bounty all around you if you know how to find it. Sometimes you simply need to have someone teach you how to see it and even sometimes what it looks like! 

       So as we gather around our plentiful tables, perhaps we can give special thanks to all of those people who paved the way for us to be here today, by sacrificing what was warm, plentiful and safe for the rugged, often heartless adventure, that was and still is, the United States.

 Photography by Tina Erwin   

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Rescue Remedy by Tina Erwin


       The Karmic Savings and Loan is primarily about how karma works and how we create, and are affected by karma in our lives. Sometimes, it is worthwhile to consider that to have knowledge about certain things means that we have earned the karma to know it. One of the interesting tenants of the spiritual path is that as we progress, we are offered certain tools to help us along that path and truly Bach Flower Essences are a miraculous tool to have. They are absolutely a gift from God.
         Everything that happens to us begins on the etheric level. Eventually, inevitably, it manifests on the physical level. So when we are faced with the physical manifestation in the form of a bruise, a wound, or grief we seldom think to treat that problem on the etheric level. However, the wise ones among us know that treating the etheric level automatically results in accelerating the healing on the physical level.
         A Bach Flower Essence is the energetic essence of a specific plant. God placed every single plant on Earth for a reason and through a miracle, a man named Dr. Edward Bach discovered how to translate the energy of specific, non-poisonous flowers into a form that can be used by human beings, animals and even plants.
         The most famous of Dr. Bach’s essences is something called Rescue Remedy. This is a creation from the essences of five plants: Star of Bethlehem, Cherry Plum, Rock Rose, Impatiens, and Clematis. This unique combination has the uncanny ability to virtually, instantly bring balance to the body in any situation, any trauma, and any grief. You can also use it literally every fifteen minutes or as long as the stressing situation lasts. The trick is to remember to use it.
         How do you use this amazing tool? Rescue Remedy comes in the form of liquid in a Brandy suspension, in a spray or pastilles. Delivery methods include:
         • placing several drops in a glass of pure water and drinking it slowly.
         • placing a dropper full under your tongue and feeling it penetrate your etheric body and bringing a measure of peace and calming to you.
         • putting a few drops in spring water in a spray bottle and spraying an individual if necessary.
         • Since it also comes in a spray bottle, spray it in your mouth or on a wound.
         • It also comes in a gummy form, called pastilles and you can chew or suck them to bring you balance.
         How and when do you use this magnificent, yet humble tool?
         • In an accident, the etheric body of a person or an animal is damaged. Use it on both wounds, points of trauma or orally or all of the above.
         • Do this for animals as well. Perhaps a bird flies into your window and is really stunned on the ground. If you can pick up the little creature, gently place one drop of Rescue Remedy in its mouth. Then hold it in your hands to give it warmth and healing. Within 5-7 minutes, the bird may simply fly out of your hands.
         • It would not be far fetched to use it on your car if it was in an accident where you spray the car with water and Rescue Remedy.
         • Consider using it for other injured animals or even plants that have been damaged.
         • If you have a stubborn blemish that will not go away, try Rescue Remedy on it neat, undiluted. Do the same thing with a wound, bruise, area of swelling, or ache.
         • In a death or divorce situation, use Rescue Remedy for trauma, Mimulus for fear and Star of Bethlehem for pure grief. This is an exceptionally dynamic trio.
         • Rescue Remedy on burns is incredibly important, because burns represent a fiery internal rage that has now become manifest in the physical body. Always look for what you are really ‘burned up’ about. If you can identify this early, take Rescue Remedy before you burn yourself. After a burn happens, use Rescue Remedy and Lavender Essential Oil on the burn.
         • Try Rescue Remedy on tumors, cysts anything. It only affects you physically in as much as you are treating the etheric body.
         It is worth taking the time to study how the Essences work and also to note that there are essences that come from wild flowers in Alaska, essences that are made by other companies as well. The point is that this is a very, very dynamic healing tool. Keep Rescue Remedy in your purse, your car, at home, at the office and in luggage when you travel. Be creative in how you use it and grateful that you even know about this amazing healing gift.
          Also, at this hectic time of year, using these essences can keep you much calmer, happier and with the feeling that you can handle what is coming your way, especially all those unexpected things that often seem overwhelming.

For more information on Bach Flower Essences, look for the book/phamplet: Bach Flower Essences for the Family by Wigmore Publications September 1993. ISBN 0-946982-05-8

Sunday, November 10, 2013

KS&L 411: Find the Courage to Do the Right Thing When Karma Shuffles the Deck by Tina Erwin


       We are living in times of heightened awareness of the United States Constitution. Most people don’t know on a comfortable basis exactly what the Constitution actually says about freedom, but we quote it as if we do.
       The entire point of the Constitution is to protect the rights of the individual against the ravages of grabs for power like any big government is likely to do. This is the macrocosm.
       The microcosm is the issue of doing the right thing. This is quite a bit harder to do than it would appear. Just do the right thing. Straightforward, easy to get, just do it.
       That’s pretty easy if the issue is basic right and wrong. It’s quite a bit harder if the issue is about 28 shades of grey. Maybe it comes down to loyalty.
       The military makes every single member take an oath to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.”
      Well, protecting the country from a perceived foe is pretty straight forward, but what about protecting our precious Constitution from ourselves? From that domestic enemy? Who might that be realistically? Here are two real life examples.
       Many Christmases ago, a very wayward sailor decided on Christmas day that he and a few cohorts were going to take over a nuclear submarine. Pretty astounding, I know. They made quite a plan. None of their shipmates knew about it. But someone who never took any kind of an oath did know this was going to happen, the girl friend of the master planner. So she tipped off Naval Investigative Service. She saved countless lives. She did the right thing because she is an American who believes in basic goodness.
       But what if doing the right thing domestically is questionable? What if you know that your government is doing terrible things, is violating every constitutional right that we all hold dear? What would you do? What if you believe that the government’s justification for this action is the grossest violation of the Constitution? What if you learn that your government is lying to the American people? What would you do?
       What if you find yourself in a position to advise a high-ranking government official to do the right thing? What if his decision could affect the lives of thousands? What if he tells you it is for the protection of a fleet, or ‘innocent lives’ and yet you know in your soul the ends of his plan do not justify the means he is considering: the shredding of the Constitution.
       Courage is not action when life is easy.
       Courage is action when karma shuffles the cards and deals you the hand of a lifetime. Deals you the hand that will make a critical difference for all of history.
       It’s corny isn’t it, standing up for the right thing? But what if all of us, in our day-to-day jobs stand up for the right thing, when it isn’t popular, cool or politically correct?
       If you know it’s wrong, Say So!!!!
       If it violates the Constitution, Say So!!!
       If what this person is planning will do more harm than good, STAND UP AND BE COUNTED!
       Patriots don’t wake up and decide to be patriots. Patriots wake up to find themselves standing the midst of do or die situations and in that karmic shuffle of the deck, there he or she is, holding on to that spiritual ideal that is our Constitution.
       If you know that our government is harming us, and you are a politician, use the correct political means to change what is happening. Be a patriot in that critical moment. This is why you were voted into office.
       Can you be spiritual and be a patriot? Heavens, I hope so! Doing the right thing, working hard to discern what is the right thing is why being on the spiritual path is so challenging. No one said this would be easy.
       Stand up and don’t just thank a veteran. Be that patriot. Be the person who stands up for the right thing in every moment that you can. Find the passion in you for changing what is clearly wrong.
       Sometimes that will be to defend trees.
       Sometimes to defend bees against annihilation by greedy fertilizer companies.
       Sometimes it will be to stop bullying in schools.
       Sometimes it will be to hold politicians accountable for violating the public trust.
       Sometimes it will be to hold government, physicians and pharmaceutical companies accountable for all of the lies about vaccines.
       Sometimes it will be to stand up for children.
       Hold people accountable.
       Be your own patriot.
       Do the right thing.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

The Painful Truth about Exiting a Relationship by Tina Erwin

          The sad truth is that divorce is happening at an ever-constant rate. We all wish it weren’t true, especially the children who suffer at the apparent loss of love, but it is a ruthlessly recurring reality.
         Yes, we know: everything happens for a reason, a reason we can’t always see, a reason we may not want to face and a cause that we wish could have been avoided. At least you know you aren’t alone. Maybe it would be good to have a guidebook on how to breakup, as if a “how to” could somehow make it a wee bit less painful. And a guy who offers us hope that there is life after the “D” word has written just such a book.
         Frank Love’s, How to Gracefully Exit a Relationship offer that road map out of the emotional chaos of divorce. As you read his book, he offers what appears to be often hard won experience in what not to do as well as what to do. He encourages the reader to ask questions, to seek answers to queries about the relationship and it’s foundation. He also offers the reader a pathway through the often emotionally blinding maze of cruel emotions that act has handmaiden to the word divorce. The irony of Frank’s book is that if you read this before you get married, you may not end up in divorce in the first place. Much of his point of view is how to have and maintain a stable and long-lasting relationship.
         The Lightworker’s Guide to Healing Grief also offers a look at divorce through the eyes of grief, especially the grief that children feel.
        
   Divorce is so common these days that it is the unusual child who has “original” parents still married to each other. No matter how many divorces there are, when it happens to a family, it usually causes a profound sadness, and all parties will grieve it in their own unique way. Yet it is even more than this.
Divorce is a shockwave that undermines any individual’s concepts of love. For some, it is the end of family love—that unique nucleus of safety, security, and happiness. Divorce creates a sense of vulnerability that will always have to be grieved. The safe haven of your home no longer exists. The love you trusted and the people you trusted have betrayed you. Now you have to open an entirely new chapter of learning how to live and to love again when the love that was your foundation in life is shattered. . .
The sense of security all parties used to have is gone now. The couple made a commitment, and someone did not keep it. One of them becomes an alcoholic or abusive, and changes have to be made. This situation may seem like emotional abandonment. Another way to look at this is to realize that a different path has been chosen, one away from hurt. Grieving this choice will eventually move the family into a better place.
Sometimes you each have to realize that something has to end before something else can begin in your life. Grief is part of this process.” (The Lightworker’s Guide to Healing Grief, pages 6-7)

         All relationships/marriages struggle to make it work over time. Bright, blinding, new, romantic love is seldom realistic. The romance will ultimately wear off and the realities of personal habits, childhood traumas, and personality anomalies, which affect each of us, will surface in any relationship. What determines whether or not your relationship will survive is how true you are able to be to each other on a day-to-day basis. It’s hard work.
         Long marriages look like a lucky break, but the luck is in the insight, loyalty and skill each person brings to the table. A marriage that starts out off kilter will be instantly off course unless both parties welcome compromise into their lives and begin to face the realities of being an adult, of being a whole person.
         Some personality problems are not reparable. (I know it’s absolutely sacrilege to say this but it’s true.) Some personalities will not be able to overcome severe sexual, physical or emotional abuse. That person will try, may seek counseling, but sometimes, nothing can change who and what they became because of what someone did to them. Some souls can overcome staggering abuses and be amazing spouses. No one can know this until the attempt is made to see it through at least for a while.
         Everything happens for a reason. Frank Love also addresses this quite well and most gently. Even though your heart is breaking, sometimes ending something that is toxic will eventually free you to have a better life. Everything happens for our greater good even if we cannot see it at the time. The person who rejects being a ‘survivor’ and embraces being a whole, functioning, happy person will ultimately live the happiest live because he or she will have embraced the lesson at hand and moved forward with that dauntingly acquired book of wisdom.

    Frank Love’s, How to Gracefully Exit a Relationship is available on Amazon.com.
 Tina Erwin's The Lightworker’s Guide to Healing Grief  is available on in ebook and print-on-demand through Amazon and wherever ebooks are sold.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

KS&L 413 How do Religions Affect the Dead? by Tina Erwin

 
Did you ever wonder how what you believe in mortal life affects you when you are dead?
         I bet you’re thinking to yourself, “Why would I care? I’m alive and busy? What does it matter? Why would anyone actually care about this?”
         Weird concept? Absolutely. Really, when you think about it, there is so much other really important stuff to think about that why would anyone spend any time on this?
         Bet you’re also thinking that this is way too morbid a topic for anyone to discuss, but hey, it’s Halloween and right now (whether or not it’s Halloween), being ‘dead’ is ‘in.’ After all, All Hallows Eve, is that exceedingly popular time of the year when discussing the dead, ghosts, method of death, myth and legend is absolutely a cool thing to do. Whatever would ghost hunters do without all those dead people walking around, creating orb fests for their cameras?

         But this entire season begs the question: would we have as many ghosts as we surely have if religions treated living and dying completely differently?
         This persistent question demands an answer. Perhaps the best answer comes from the ghosts themselves. Ghosts, when people actually take the time to talk to them, will actually tell you that they have absolutely no idea what to do when they leave their body.
         One woman from the early 1700’s told me that she was angry that the Bible didn’t tell her what to do now that she is dead. Nothing was as she anticipated it. She asked me why her Christian faith was so silent on this critically important point.
         A man who committed suicide         had no idea that living, yes, living in the ‘afterlife’ was pretty much as miserable for him as living in the life he had just exited. He was pretty sure that God wouldn’t welcome him, so he had absolutely no idea what to do next.
         Another woman in the 1600’s had no way of accurately discerning that she had in fact died. She complained that her preacher did not warn her what it would be like. In deference to her minister from that time, the truth is that he didn’t know either what death feels like. Really, who does?
         Children, who have approached those of us who cross the dead over to the Heaven World, have told us that they had no idea that they were dead, much less what they were supposed to do next. They begged us to help them.
         Christian, Jewish, Muslim and all of the plethora of belief systems that populate the cities and countries all over the world simply do not address the steps to take once any person leaves his or her body and instantly ceases being ‘a person’ and immediately becomes ‘a soul’ or ‘a ghost.’
         It would be so helpful if people could actually understand how to determine if they have died. You wouldn’t think this is such a difficult question, but it is perhaps the most critical question. Dead people continue to speak to the living, continue to want that drink of alcohol, that heroin fix, that piece of chocolate cake. They continue to grieve a lost loved one, or a lost life, their own or someone else’s. Who you are does not cease when the last mortal breath is taken. Who you are continues, simply in a different dimension.
         Religions, most of them, fill people with visions of fire and brimstone, a great image for Halloween, but not so great for children, for adults who have led good and honest lives, who have loved, learned and yearned for a peaceful place upon death. Laying someone to rest may help the living but it doesn’t do a thing for the dead.
         If you have been told all of your mortal life that you were born in sin and that you will die in sin, why in heaven’s name would you know what to do at death?
         If you were told that Christ, that divine being eternally hanging on all those tortured crosses all over the world, died for your sins, how can anyone ever be worthy of his love after that horrific a sacrifice? How can you, a measly, muddled mortal ever compete for entrance into that divine club in the 5th dimension when you are just full of sin?
         No church ever tells you that you will be forgiven if you simply ask for help, that angels, those concierge guides of the Heaven World, are standing by to escort you to a better place. Yes, angels will help you into the Heaven World no matter how you died, who you were in life, what you have done or who you harmed. You have only to ask for help.
         Maybe that’s the rub. Maybe religions have a hard time fully appreciating that God will embrace us all: the good, the bad, the murderous and the mostly innocent among us.
         Maybe religions would be horrified to realize that there is no religion in the after, there is only the Heaven World wherein reside God, Christ, Buddha, and all of the other astounding beings who have tried with marginal success rates to help us find our way home.
         Ironically, it is only the Tibetans who help their believers know what to do to transition from the mortal body to the etheric body. They even guide you in the correct position to take at death, if you know that death is coming. They help you to know that love awaits you so that you do not need to enter that 4th dimensional land of the unknown without remembering that it is temporary and that the light will be there. They fill their people with hope, not fear. What a concept! They keep it simple and like the message of Christ, remind people that death is that entrance into life everlasting, not death everlasting.
         Several years ago I went to a restaurant in San Juan Capistrano, with my daughter. While sitting there, I kept getting the sense that there was a teenage ghost standing by asking for help. Finally I put my colorfully delicious turkey/cranberry sandwich down and spoke to him. I asked him if he was the person everyone was speaking about in the front part of the restaurant. Apparently there was a luncheon in the bistro to honor this young man’s life. He told me that he kept trying to tell them that he was right there! He didn’t go anywhere! He kept asking me why they couldn’t see him. He even tried to ‘connect’ with his minister who was leading a prayer before the meal. I reminded him that he probably couldn’t see ghosts of loved ones past either when he was alive. He nodded sadly and looked down where his feet would have been.  I quickly brought in an angel to guide him to the Heaven World.
         Most people in the religious hierarchy, and I do not call them leaders, because leaders actually lead you somewhere, rather than to a dead end, have no idea themselves what to do at death. It’s easy to point the finger, to cast blame, but the truth is, no one told them either what happens next.
         Can you imagine the paradigm shift if people knew what to do when that last breath leaves us?
          
 Photography by Tina Erwin

Sunday, October 20, 2013

KS&L 412: Why Do Clothes Make the Man or Woman? by Tina Erwin

    Why do clothes make the man or woman? Why does what any of us wear matter at all? Why aren’t mini skirts appropriate for the Board Room and why aren’t denim overalls acceptable for sales calls? What is it about style, cut, color, fit, and texture that determine how people perceive us?
       Perhaps the answer lies in the cliché that notes that a picture is worth a thousand words. Whatever we happen to be wearing acts like a motion picture for the person meeting or greeting us. Without realizing it, we are communicating a great deal about ourselves to the person in front of us. The more perceptive the person, the more they can learn about us in even a split second of time.
       Everything we wear acts like a visual clue to who we are, what we believe in and how we perceive ourselves. We live in a world of symbols and we know that we are acutely affected by specific symbols. Every piece of jewelry, cuff link, shirt and shoe is a quiet testimony to who we are.
       Add to this array of symbols, an added facet of expectation. We each have an expectation of what we expect a person in a specific role to look like and actually wear. For example, we may be able to accept that our physician is wearing denim, but only if the denim is below the waist in the form of jeans. We would not have confidence in the man if he walks in wearing bib overalls and a straw hat. Our expectation has to marry what we see for us to begin to trust the person in front of us.
       Excessive makeup, micro-mini skirts, skin-tight sweaters and heavy jewelry would be utterly incongruous for a United States Senator. No one would vote for the woman because she is sending a message that no voter would accept. She is seeking to represent ‘the people’ and that representative, regardless of party, has to be seen as dressing in a discrete, professional manner, one that will engender respect.
       Military uniforms are only about symbols. They are all specifically designed to command respect from everyone up and down the entire chain of command. When one military person even glances at another they can instantly tell if this person is an officer or is enlisted, how long they have been in the military by the strips and/or insignia they are wearing and their branch of service. They can also tell what level of respect to provide based entirely on that person’s uniform, regardless of whether they are male or female. When military salutes are rendered and returned, each military person is reminded that they are only saluting the uniform, not a person specifically. This is most helpful in cases where you have a distinct dislike for a superior. Literally, a military uniform is virtually a personal storyboard.
       Jewelry alone tells us a tremendous amount. Some rings tell us marital status while others reveal how outlandish our personality is. Wearing a Star of David, Christian Cross or Crescent Moon? Obviously you want everyone to know and respect your particular faith. One female former Secretary of State wore specific lapel pins to communicate her level of power and the unspoken messages she deliberately intended to convey. Too much jewelry is a distraction and too little jewelry is austere. Ultimately any item of clothing or accessory worn becomes a question of balance.
       We also need to remember to dress for the job we expect to have. If you ever want to be chairman of the board, CEO, dress the part. Eventually you will see yourself in that position. Command respect by what you wear.
       We would all be wise to consider the very specific, yet subtle messages we are sending when we dress each morning. Our job necessitates what we wear and the messages we are supposed to be sending out [which is why some companies have a very specific dress code]. Our personality determines how we will send that message. Our sense of balance and mood will determine the fine details of our clothing for this or any other particular day. Ultimately, it really is the outer symbol of clothing that portrays who we are on the inside.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

KS&L 410 Shape Shifting by Tina Erwin


There are all kinds of sophisticated on-line games, numerous movies about magic, sorcery, vampires and wizards out there that directly discuss the mystical elements of shape shifting. In these scary and challenging games, some magician is turning some hapless human into something else. Some wizards turn themselves into wolves. The point of the concept of game shape shifting is that we become something else. We don’t become someone else we become something else. 
Native American lore is replete with shape shifting, especially the wolf legends. A person changes their shape into that of a wolf, to disguise himself to gain access to ancient knowledge, understand the animal kingdom or to use spiritual stealth technology. So one would wonder if shape shifting is real beyond the games and legends.
Shape shifting is going on all the time, all around us and within us. All thought is energy. What we think, we create. We shift the energy of thought into shape. Sometimes we do not like what we have created and change that shape into something else. Consider that clay is the ultimate material to use to shift shape. The potter takes a humble lump of clay, adds the energy of thought and water and then molds it into a pot, urn, human sculpture or abstract form. At any moment he or she can shift that shape with the shifting of his or her own thoughts.
A peach shifts its shape from a gorgeous flower, to a green piece of fruit to a ripe piece of fruit, to rotten fruit to merely a seed. Then the seed shifts again into a new plant to become a tree to then create more flowers to perpetuate the shifting of shapes for the perpetuation of life itself in the world of peaches.
We are all shape shifters, shifting our shape from the moment of conception from a separate egg and separate sperm into an embryo. That embryo becomes a neonate, which then shifts into a fetus, which shifts over time into a living, breathing baby. At some point along the way, the soul enters the energetic mass of cells and becomes a personality. The newborn becomes a toddler who becomes a child, teen and finally an adult. Adults are constantly changing their bodies in so many ways until the body begins to shift its shape into the posture of eventual death.
Souls take many shapes. In some lives we are male, some female. Souls, like energy [which is neither created nor destroyed] are eternal: souls just change shape for the pure delight of the experience of all types of different lives. We are still the same soul, just shifting our shape to accommodate a new experience. Some lives we shift into what will become a deformed body, or a dwarf body. In some lives we take on giant shapes.
We even shape shift our experiences. Some lives we are wealthy, lose it all and shift into the experience of poverty. Some lives, we shift out of poverty into varying levels of wealth. Some lives we keep our basic physical shape and some lives we gain huge amounts of weight and have the experience of either dying from it or losing it and regaining our physical and emotional sense of balance.
We shift our shapes emotionally as well. Some lives we are immature all of our life, endlessly a child in an adult body. Some lives we are the parent to our parents, even as we are children. We shift our roles in life as well, constantly changing.
Perhaps the concept of shape shifting is a profound reminder that the only constant in life is change. Sometimes that change within us is a slow stagnation as we fiercely resist change of any sort. Sometimes it is magical in its utter transformation. Truly, some people go through a metamorphic process whereby they change from a mundane caterpillar personality into a magnificent butterfly. There are even those souls who do transform from a caterpillar into a night dwelling moth, occupying the darker aspects of life.
We are all shape shifters and so is life around us. Perhaps this is a unique way to observe and possibly accept change.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

KS&L Chapter 409: A Lesson in Frequency Part 3: Curse or Karma? by Tina Erwin


        Some crystals cannot be owned. Sometimes, the Earth wants to hold on to her treasures or at least make sure that the spiritual nature of the frequency stays in a spiritual location. Perhaps when we go back to the very beginning of the origins of the Hope Diamond we begin to get a clue as to why the stone appears to be cursed.
        What if no stone is cursed and all stones are merely a function of frequency? If you are not at the correct frequency level, you cannot own the stone. But there is more to it than that. What if the stone starts out in a gloriously high frequency simply by its very nature and how it is handled and by whom determine what happens to those who seek to own that which probably should not be owned by mortal people.
        There all kinds of stories about the Hope Diamond. Some say that it was stolen from the forehead of a statue of the Hindu goddess Sita. If the stone was used for religious purposes, the positive energy of the stone would have been magnified by the energy of the prayers around it. So if a stone that is vibrating with the powerful energy of prayer is stolen, what would that karma be for the thief?
        If someone purchases the stone from the thief, they are then buying into the karma of the situation, which is not going to be a happy thing. When you purchase anything used, you buy into the attached karma of the object.
        Imagine if you bought a gorgeous dagger set with fabulous gem stones, but the dagger as used to murder people, what is the karma attached to the dagger?
        Perhaps there is no such thing as a curse for any object. Perhaps there is only the karma attached to the object based on how and where it was originally used or abused. This is the Russian Roulette of buying any piece of antique jewelry. Powerful stones come with powerful energy and these stones will magnify the karma of what happened to them.
        Some objects carry so much powerful karma that you cannot readily clear them with traditional methods of washing, simple prayer, or charging them. Karma cannot be cleared that easily. Sometimes, it is wiser to step away than to own something that will rocket your own personal karma to the surface. Perhaps that is what Harry Winston did when he eventually purchased the Hope Diamond. He wisely donated it to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958 to be the main attraction of a new gem collection. There it currently resides.
 
 Perhaps that is also the case with the Bahia emerald, it will never be owned by anyone because the frequency is too high for anyone to personally own it.


Sunday, September 29, 2013

KS&L 408: A Lesson in Frequency Part 2: The Bahia Emerald Ownership Saga by Tina Erwin

      When there are almost immediate difficulties with the ownership of anything, but particularly a precious stone, this is a seriously dire warning. The ownership saga of this stone is detailed by this piece written by the National Geographic channel. Underlined emphasis points are mine.
       “The Bahia Emerald was carried out of the rain forest by a team of pack mules. Along the way the mules were attacked and killed by a pair of black panthers and had to be carried by a team of men and a hand made stretcher the rest of the trip. 
       The Bahia Emerald was flown from Sao Paulo Brazil to San Jose California; shortly thereafter the stone was relocated to New Orleans and placed in a vault. Two weeks later Hurricane Katrina struck devastating New Orleans and leaving the vault and the Bahia Emerald submersed under 16’ of water for two months before it could be retrieved.
       The Bahia Emerald was then brought back to San Jose and stored in a seemingly abandoned building. On or about April 8th 2008 The Bahia Emerald was secretly transferred to an attorney’s office in Santa Barbara CA. where it was kept under 24 hour armed guard before being transferred once again to a Private vault known as Commonwealth in South El Monte CA.
       The Bahia Emerald was transferred in a black Cadillac Escalade driven by Jerry Ferrara and accompanied by Kit Morrison, from the Commonwealth vault to a private vault in Las Vegas Nevada.
       The Bahia Emerald was involved in a $197,000,000 banking transaction with Barnard Madoff, fortunately Madoff was led away by Federal agents just two days before the transaction was to be completed.
       The Bahia Emerald was involved in a transaction gone wrong involving a well known Columbian family at the Golden Nugget hotel Casino in Los Vegas NV that nearly ended up as a blood bath battle in the Nevada desert. (All identities Withheld).
       The Bahia Emerald was reported stolen to the L.A.P.D. by (identity withheld). The Bahia Emerald was questionably seized by L.A.P.D. authorities on or about Christmas Eve 2008 in Los Vegas, Nevada in an excursion led by Lt. Grubb.
       Lt. Grubb began to organize an excursion to Las Vegas. On the morning detectives drove to get the emerald, he told his deputies: "We're going to stop on the way and get breakfast. We're going to pick up a $400 million piece of evidence. On the way back, we're not stopping." When Lt. Grubb finally laid eyes on the emerald, he said, "It almost didn't look real." Shortly thereafter [a man] (Identity withheld) who reported the Bahia Emerald stolen bowed out of the case stating his life was threatened! To this day no criminal charges have been presented and no arrests have been made.  
       The Bahia Emerald court battle, one of the largest custody/lawsuits in California history, has gained an international following. National Geographic is conducting a 50 minute documentary about the Bahia Emerald and the incredible, almost unbelievable story surrounding it.” Source: National Geographic

       As of June, 2013 the Los Angeles County Court system has yet to determine the rightful owner!
       Some stones are so amazing that the karmic ‘weight’ that each brings with them, the energy of their frequency makes it impossible for one person or one family to own them. Such is the case with the Bahia Emerald.

Now let us turn our attention to Part 3: The Hope Diamond.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

KS&L 407 A Lesson in Frequency Part 1 The Bahia Emerald by Tina Erwin


This is a multi-part series on the frequency of certain stones. Sometimes winning the worst lottery in the world would be to own an outwardly gorgeous jewel, before discovering that you don’t have the correct frequency to actually own that jewel.
       I love emeralds. I lived in Medellin, Colombia, one summer when I was in college, and I remember the thrill of shopping for emeralds on my extremely limited college student budget. However, in 1971 there will still bargains to be found. I learned all about the two most famous emerald mines, the Chivor and the Muzo. The stones that come from the depths of the earth in these mines are a vibrant blue/green, so beautiful, so alive that it feels like a privilege to own one. Each mine has its own color signature. The clearer the stone, the deeper the blue/green the more valuable the stone and the more pronounced the ‘personality’ of each piece. Emeralds are soft, (not unlike Tanzanite), so cutting and polishing them require great care, especially the extremely expensive large stones. The larger the stone, the more pronounced the ‘personality’ and the higher the frequency of the stone. It is the frequency of the stone that really tells the story. So let us talk for a moment about The Bahia Emerald.
       The behemoth that is the Bahia Emerald was found in Bahia, Brazil in 2001. Bahia, Brazil is a tiny village in the northeast corner of Brazil inland from the Atlantic Ocean. Almost all quality emeralds come from Colombia, but not this one. This one was found in Brazil. Let’s take a moment and look at the staggering statistics that describe this stone:

- 24/01/12 - The 400 Million Dollar Bahia Emerald – Premiers on 29th Jan on NGC Inspiration

Description: 00 million dollar bahia emerald400 million dollar bahia emerald

v The stone and its granite matrix weigh in at 840 pounds.
v It has been valued at between $400-900,000,00 (yes that’s four -nine hundred million dollars.)
v The granite matrix of the stone contains the largest single emerald crystal ever found.
v The size is roughly 4’x4’x4’ making it the largest uncut emerald in the world.
v The estimated karat weight of the shards in the stone range from 180,000 to 1,900,000 karats!
v No one currently owns it despite numerous claims.
v It is presently housed in the Los Angeles County evidence locker, awaiting adjudication by a Los Angeles County Judge if that is even possible!
Stay tuned for Part 2: The ownership saga of the stone.