Practically Spiritual.

An interview with me at Kathleen Moriarty's blog BUDDHAFLY.

Check it out.

This American Life, This Fallen World

People ask me sometimes if I have any psychic insight on who will win the presidential election in the fall. Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to get an accurate read on something in which one is emotionally invested, and as much as I try to be objective and Krishnamurti-like, I'm totally emotionally invested in this election. I have no inside track on this. Wish I did.

The second most common political question that people ask is whether Barack Obama will be assassinated. I actually feel a lot of safety and protection around Obama, but even the dullest among us can see that his existence on the national stage is a provocative act. 

Gnostic Christians say that we live in a fallen world. Ayn Rand wrote that the first man to bring fire into human society was undoubtedly later killed for his innovation. That's just who we are. Individually, human beings can be real gems, but collectively we make a frightening mob. We descend with alacrity on anyone who tries to push us from our mud puddle.

For some reason, a great leader is able to cause a permanent change in our fallen world -- look at Martin Luther King -- but he often pays for it with his own life. There is a deep human instinct to kill our kings and sacrifice our gods. This is in part why people instinctively fear for Barack Obama.

I believe that we live in the dark age of the human soul. I don't know when this dark age began or when it is likely to end, only that we are in the midst of it. We don't know whether to stand bravely in front of an oncoming tank, like that man did years ago in Tiananmen Square, or lie down in front of an automatic lawn mower and let ourselves be chopped to bits, as another man did in one of this summer's blockbuster movies. Either way, we suspect, the result might be the same.

It may take another bout of evolution to make us change. But we don't yet fully understand evolution; some of us still don't believe in it. We definitely have no idea how to kick it into gear. (This is why New Agers pray fervently for "ascension," or a "consciousness shift.") In the meantime, we go about our small lives, trying to improve things in little ways, hoping for better times to come. 

In a fallen world, every light is of utmost importance. 

Going Invisible

I have a good friend who is an alchemist. One night we have dinner together in Provincetown, eating at a table on a deck overlooking the ocean. It is the weekend after Labor Day. The Cape Cod town is quiet as the bay.

I am midway through my salmon when my friend says, "Hey, look at her." She points at a concrete wall shoring up the rocky beach.

I'm not seeing anything noteworthy. "Look at who?"

"Her." My friend the alchemist keeps pointing at the blank wall.

I still don't see anyone. Then, finally, I do.

I don't understand why I couldn't see this person before. Well, to put it precisely, I could see her, but I couldn't notice her.

UPCOMING CLASS: "Opening To Tarot" in September

Taught in the cool and funky environment of Tea's Art Studio in Bedford, MA, this September class will offer a unique psychic attunement to the secrets of Tarot. Students will learn the meanings of all 78 cards and how to do accurate spreads for themselves and friends. Learn to do readings that offer both practical advice and spiritual insight. Tea will be provided. 4 Wednesday evenings in September.

Cost: $175

This class is limited to four students only. Please me email me or leave a note in the comments if you are interested.

Postcard From The Bermuda Triangle

Well, I try my best
To be just like I am,
But everybody wants you
To be just like them.

-Bob Dylan

I've gone through most of my life thinking that there's something profoundly strange about me. 

As a little kid, I was obsessed with drawing pictures and writing stories about imaginary characters. I could tell that most adults thought that this was a little weird and they wished I'd stop. I didn't. I couldn't.

As I grew up, I felt out of place in all the usual pubescent ways and then some, but I was beginning to think that these other people who emphasized "normality" so strongly in word and deed weren't so hot themselves. They really bored me.

I'm not sure when I gave up and just decided to be myself. This is a deeper and more difficult thing than it appears, because there's a lot to sort through, so much societal programming to examine and then to either discard or keep. It's like constantly preparing for a yard sale -- only the twist is that hardly anyone will recognize you by the end of the day. And you don't earn any money either.

So, my little boat sails further and further out to sea, with less and less baggage aboard. I've got radio contact, but it gets lonely out here. Is it possible to go crazy like this? Probably.

I recently bought some pajama pants at JC Penney. I don't know what they are made of but it is the most comfortable fabric I've ever felt in my life. (I don't get out much.) So then I start to think: why is all clothing not made out of fabric like this? Since it isn't, why don't I just wear these voluminous PJ pants all the time? It would be the most honest thing to do. These are the pants I like best and they are the most comfortable.

Fortunately (or unfortunately), the land where people don't wear pajamas outside the house is still visible on my horizon, getting smaller and smaller as I drift away. I shade the sun from my eyes and look back. Should I? Who will notice? Who will care?

Perhaps some people would see the sense in this PJ thing and join in. And society is going this way anyway -- with the exception of thongs, clothes have been gradually getting more comfortable ever since the days of whalebone corsets. Pajamas are inevitable. Forget tinfoil spacesuits -- PJs are the real wave of the future, kid.

But, see -- you've caught me. I'm weird but I still want company. You see the dilemma? It's tough. So, I'm wearing regular pants today.

Here's the real prob: once you've begun a spiritual life, your decisions are less and less your own. I may be able to sacrifice PJs-in-public in return for a more satisfying business and social life, but a deeper force is pulling me out anyway, stronger than any ocean current, and there's no telling where it will take me. Clothes are really the least of my concerns (which is what led to my whole brilliant PJ idea in the first place).

Real devotion to spirituality is almost guaranteed to make you weird. It has also made me profoundly happy and fulfilled, and improved all my relationships a hundred times over. But I'm a bit afraid to reproduce now. I'm sure the other mothers at my kid's playgroup are not going to want to sit around and discuss the Qabalah with me.

But I have an obligation to those women, and to everyone else I meet. Unlike a dear friend of mine, I'm not a cloistered nun, and even though my little boat often sails into lonely waters, I know that part of my path is to stay connected to the world. That, I suppose, is where it really gets interesting.