When I was growing up, the US holiday of Thanksgiving was surrounded by a lovely legend of two different types of people coming together for survival in a harsh winter. It was a tale of mutual respect. In this tale, the Pilgrims didn’t try convert the indigenous people, but learned from them. The Wampanoag tribe didn’t challenge the strangers in their land, but befriended them. It’s a lovely tale, and George Washington signed in a national holiday around it.

Historians challenge this tale and there is now a lot of controversy. The real story is not as simple or as nice as the one we get in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. It’s filled with all the complications and ugliness that seems to be present in any time we look at the real events and actions of our ancestors rather than the legend.

Added to that are the gatherings of families, with all their own imperfections and oppositions. As I write this, I am visiting my family, where I hover somewhere on the edge of being a perpetual 16-year-old. It takes a strong force of will to be my own man in this environment, and most of it is actually in my own head. Others deal with major clashes in areas of politics, religion, sexuality, work ethics, and pretty much every other possible way to differ. Why don’t we just call the whole thing off?

And, yet, I think there is something truly valuable in having a holiday that is focused on giving thanks.

“But, why? We can give thanks any time we want! We don’t need some sort of national order to tell us to be thankful.”

This is true. We don’t need a specific holiday to make us thankful. In fact, articles, such as this one published by the Harvard Medical School, say that a regular regimen of gratitude has enormous benefits to our psychology and well-being. Furthermore, there is evidence, like what is referenced in this Forbes article, that suggest we shouldn’t wait for things to turn out well to begin expressing our gratitude. We can, and should, be giving thanks every day.

For that matter, we don’t really need the wheel of the year. We don’t need a Yule festival to think of the light returning, renewal, and resurrection. We don’t need a Dia de las Muertos to think of our ancestors and to connect with their essence. We don’t need a New Year celebration to make resolutions for change. We can do these every day. Nevertheless, these traditional points in time cause us to reflect on these areas of our life. We get to put extra effort and focus into the idea. If it’s something that we’re not doing so well, it gives a target for making improvements. It’s a time for a do-over. We can dedicate ourselves to doing better from this point forward, and the traditions help us to focus our intent. The legends surrounding these holidays also help instruct us about how to embrace and act on the ideas we want to improve, even if they are apocryphal.

So far, I’ve done a good job of not talking too much about politics and lifestyle choices at my family gathering. I also notice that, personally, I need to up my gratitude game and will use this day to propel me into better habits. Here are things I’m going to start doing. Feel free to steal.

• I will be sending out a load of hand-written Thank You cards next week, some of which are way overdue. I don’t think there’s a statute of limitations on thanking people, though.
• I’m going to start a ritual of gratitude. Many suggest a journal, and that might be a good idea. I will certainly begin a sort of meditation or devotional to reflect on things for which I am thankful.
• I’m going to be more proactive with my gratitude, being thankful for the opportunity for success, whether or not the conclusion is known. How many people never dare? How many people are unable or unwilling to try? That I am on my chosen path at all is worth some gratitude.
• I’m going to work harder on finding ways to let people in my life know that I am grateful for them. I am going to work harder to let them know that I see them.

I am grateful to you for taking the time to read my thoughts. I am grateful to you for your support on my path. I am grateful for living in a time where our minds can meet, no matter who or where we are.

I hope that you find your own way to renewed and robust gratitude going forward. If the prominent legends and icons that surround the holiday are trouble for you, select your own and apply them. You don’t have to raise up the ideas that you don’t agree with—but you will benefit from a day focused on thanks, which will lead you more and more to being truly thankful every day. We’ll see those results evolve as we achieve it together.

Perusing the Interwebs I came across this article from amusingplanet.com about the custom of sharing mourning news with the bees, who would then help to spread the word of someone’s passing. The practice expanded to sharing with the bees anything that you wanted to pass to the spirit world because they were able to pass between worlds.

I seem to be controversial sometimes when talking to other psychics and mediums about whether anyone has the ability to make these connections. My thinking is that anyone can throw a ball. You may not have the skill and accuracy to do it in a way that is generally useful for sports, but if you had a strong desire you could certainly exercise that ability. Of course, there will always be those who due to intense training and natural talent will always throw a ball better than you. Anyone can throw a ball, though.

I try to never discourage people about their own intuition and abilities to connect with spirit. There are many techniques that help people to explore and develop these things. Telling the bees is one of them. While our modern sensibilities may laugh at this as naive superstition, look at all that is going into this. There is an acceptance of death. There is an idea of continuance. There is an acknowledgement that there are forces at work that are bigger than any of us individually. There is a willingness to be open to mysteries. We don’t know how or why the bees carry these messages, but we allow that they will. I think that’s beautiful.

Of course, the bees have been struggling for some time. There are many environmental causes attributing to this decline in bee health and population, but could it also have something to do with our turning away from spirit? Would it make any difference if we were to enlist the bees again as metaphysical messengers? The gist of it all is recorded in this wonderful poem by John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) found in The Poetical Works in Four Volumes. 1892. It is presented here from bartleby.com.

Narrative and Legendary Poems
Telling the Bees

HERE is the place; right over the hill
  Runs the path I took;
You can see the gap in the old wall still,
  And the stepping-stones in the shallow brook.

There is the house, with the gate red-barred,
  And the poplars tall;
And the barn’s brown length, and the cattle-yard,
  And the white horns tossing above the wall.

There are the beehives ranged in the sun;
  And down by the brink
Of the brook are her poor flowers, weed-o’errun,
  Pansy and daffodil, rose and pink.

A year has gone, as the tortoise goes,
  Heavy and slow;
And the same rose blows, and the same sun glows,
And the same brook sings of a year ago.

There ’s the same sweet clover-smell in the breeze;
  And the June sun warm
Tangles his wings of fire in the trees,
  Setting, as then, over Fernside farm.

I mind me how with a lover’s care
  From my Sunday coat
I brushed off the burrs, and smoothed my hair,
  And cooled at the brookside my brow and throat.

Since we parted, a month had passed,—
  To love, a year;
Down through the beeches I looked at last
  On the little red gate and the well-sweep near.

I can see it all now,—the slantwise rain
  Of light through the leaves,
The sundown’s blaze on her window-pane,
  The bloom of her roses under the eaves.

Just the same as a month before,—
  The house and the trees,
The barn’s brown gable, the vine by the door,—
  Nothing changed but the hives of bees.

Before them, under the garden wall,
  Forward and back,
Went drearily singing the chore-girl small,
  Draping each hive with a shred of black.

Trembling, I listened: the summer sun
Had the chill of snow;
For I knew she was telling the bees of one
  Gone on the journey we all must go!

Then I said to myself, “My Mary weeps
  For the dead to-day:
Haply her blind old grandsire sleeps
  The fret and the pain of his age away.”

But her dog whined low; on the doorway sill,
  With his cane to his chin,
The old man sat; and the chore-girl still
  Sung to the bees stealing out and in.

And the song she was singing ever since
  In my ear sounds on:—
“Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence!
  Mistress Mary is dead and gone!”

1858.

When you are mourning someone, when you want to send a message to one who has crossed, try telling the bees.

“Fake it ’til you make it!” the wisdom goes. In other words: if you don’t feel like you are what you want to be, just act in the role and it will eventually become reality. Dress in the clothes. Talk the talk. Spend time with the people. Do the things. Pretend if you have to.

I’m a fan of this thinking, but I’ve decided that there is an even stronger idea. Cosplay yourself.

Cosplay is basically what we’ve all done on Halloween. You dress up as someone. But, for cosplayers, Halloween happens all year round. These people go to astounding lengths to bring their visions to life, which is much more in tune with what we are trying to accomplish with ourselves.

The problem with “faking it” is that you are fake. It has this aspect of being an imposter. The intention is to get you to be bold. As you are bold, you find that you actually were able to do the thing all along. Your powers come from within. But, sometimes we have problems getting over the fake part. 

I find that cosplayers provide some excellent inspirations for becoming. Maybe they will resonate with you, too.

1. You identify with what inspires you

When cosplayers come out, they connect with what inspires them. They seem to delight in being recognized as their characters. People call them by that name and take pictures with them. It’s OK if there are other Spidermen or Wonder Women. It’s OK that the costumes may come from different eras of the character. It’s OK if some costumes are more party quality than film quality. It’s all about honoring that vision as best as one can. 

We need to be true to the vision, and not worry about what others are doing, except to be inspired by them. It’s always about realizing the vision as well as you can. Even though the casual observer might see a group as all the same, the discerning observer will find the nuances that make us a special connection for them. Your variation, your uniqueness is an asset.

 2. It’s not about perfection

People bring varying degrees of resourcefulness and artistic skill to their creations. Even those attempts that are considered “bad” are recognized. People still take pictures. Do they know they don’t look like the costume in the movie? Of course, they do! While some of them might be considered extra-optimistic, they came out of the house; they took it out on the street. They let the mask lend them a little extra courage to let go and have fun with it. It was likely a positive, memorable experience. If nothing else, it was a day out of the dreary treadmill of the ordinary.

We usually worry too much about perfection. We make the plan and want to execute the plan. Ultimately it is about whether or not the goals are achieved. Learn the lessons when things go astray, but don’t forget the actual goals. It’s OK if things get a little ridiculous from time to time. Strike the pose and be the thing. Your passion may transcend whatever you think of as imperfections.

3. You can mix it up

One of the things that cosplayers like to do is witty mashups. They combine ideas for puns, like Ash Wednesday, above. They gender bend. They play with time. They play with genres. Anything that can be imagined is fair game. Not everyone will get it. Some will need it explained. Even then, some will go “Meh.” But some subset will fully appreciate the creativity and cleverness that went into realizing that vision. 

We are encouraged to be pure, to be one thing. There is a wonderful quote from science fiction writer, Robert Heinlein:

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.

“Specialization is for insects.”

— Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love^[

Marketing teaches that we need to be a box on the shelf with a single, recognizable thing. That may be true from a marketing perspective. However, humans are not made to be just one thing. Our curiosity, our multifaceted nature, our ability to try and do many different things make us naturally diverse. A laser focus might help you achieve a type of success, but what will you leave behind? 

Consider that if it feels right to you to combine some things that may be uncommon that you should listen to those feelings. Again, your unique set of flavors will create something that no one else can be. Just because something’s never been done doesn’t mean that it can’t be. Allow your inspirations to come from several different directions and combine them in a way that no one else has considered. Once people experience your version, it may be that everyone wants one! You may inspire others with something they believed was impossible. 

Manifesting our paths is an amazing act of creation. Some visions do require some precision and attention to detail. Some are more intuitive and flowing. In either case, it’s not about faking, it’s about realizing. Understand that you are always making it, no faking required. Let yourself be inspired by these cosplayers to bring your vision to life. If some days that works better in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle outfit, then “Cowabunga!”

As you may know, in addition to my spiritual work I offer what I call paranormal entertainment at saulravencraft.com. I am regularly featured at the Museum of the Weird, where I give tours of the artifacts and a brief taste of what I do, normally in the form of intuition games.

(This article was typed using voice dictation, as an experiment.)

The other night, I was at the Museum of the Weird until midnight. It was a long night, with many tours, and large groups, and I was ready to change modes. The wizard needed food badly. I was walking back to my car, where I had been fortunate enough to get free street parking on a Sunday. Often it is not available, and I have to park in the garage, so I have to keep an eye on the time lest my parking rate jump to the next level. That means I normally leave 6th Street to get something to eat. Also, 6th Street becomes a sort of teenybopper haven at night and I end up feeling like the old guy in the club. Hell, I probably am the old guy in the club!

An Austin staple, and there are fewer and fewer of them left, is Casino El Camino. They are a pretty chilled out, grownup bar, with a kitchen that stays open until 1:30 a.m. A while back, they had a fire, and were closed for some months. I don’t go there as often as I should, and had not been for some time. I walked by, then thought “I should go in and check it out.” I turned around. Then I turned back toward the car. Then I turned back around, thinking “I don’t have to worry about parking. Why not?!”

I walked inside, and started looking for a place to be. As I’m wandering, someone calls my name, “Saul!”

I look, and there is a table of three gentlemen whom I had seen earlier in the museum. I remember that one of them acted as “The Guardian”  for a game that we played. One of them explained to me, that they had just been thinking about me. In fact they had hoped to catch me at the museum, but arrived too late. They decided to go to Casino El Camino and get something to eat. Actually, with the timing that they said, they had probably left just a few minutes before I did. There’s always some break down, and other details to deal with at the end of the night. I rarely get to leave right at midnight.

They invited me to sit down, and we had a lovely conversation. They were an interesting bunch, in town for business, and do some pretty heady technical stuff. Essentially, they analyze  power utilization in major data centers, really major data centers. They have been in the heart of iTunes. They’ve been in the heart of Netflix. They’ve been at the heart of places they couldn’t even tell me about. Their analysis allows someone running a data center to see where there might be impending hardware problems. It also provides a model to aid in projection of future needs. Fascinating!

As a bonus, the music that night was a wonderful blend of old-school offerings. We heard everything from classic rock to Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass! By the time it was all done, all of my stress of the day was gone. It was just what I needed!

What  intrigues me is the way that all this came about. They sought me out. They were thinking about me. I walked right by where they were. Normally I would have kept on walking, but something kept drawing me back to that place. Did they manifest me? Did I go in there because somehow I connected with their thoughts of wanting to see me?

These are the sorts of little things that make my world so interesting. It’s easy enough to chalk it all up to coincidence and just get on with things. I find that these sorts of coincidences stack up as I continue to make my way down the rabbit hole. In one of my presentations, I note that “When we tune into things, it’s not like a big glowy thing. It feels like a coincidence, so we blow it off; we forget about it.”  Noticing how these coincidences stack up is part of what takes you off the main, boring path and onto a manifesting path. On its face, my silly little incident doesn’t mean much. But, lumped in with all of the other similar events, it shows me that things are happening. More than that, it reminds me that I should expect things to happen. How fun is that?

Yesterday it was hard to get away from the fact that it was the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. There were articles like this one from Newsweek, of all places: Winter Solstice 2017: Meanings and Celebration Ideas From Witches, Druids and Astrologers. Like many events in the wheel of the year, the Winter Solstice, or “Yule,” is a threshold. (Many think all that singing about Yule-tide and such is about Christmas. Have some fun with that!)

Crossing a threshold is a big deal. Some of them are hard to get to and they are all worth noting, but what is most important is usually what happens on the other side of the threshold more than the doorway itself.

Many of us are familiar with the lunar cycles, the waxing and waning of the moon. Metaphysically, one will aim to manifest things in the waxing—growing—energy and to banish or lessen things in the waning—diminishing—energy. With a solstice, we are working with the solar energy, a much longer, but no less important cycle. For many months we have been working our way away from the sun and its energy and power has been growing less and less. When we are furthest from its influence we are much more ruled by the lunar energy, connected with emotion, intuition and many of the more shadowy things. It is no coincidence that this season between Samhain (Halloween) and Yule (Christmas-ish) when the veil between the physical world and the spirit world is considered thinnest. It is no coincidence that these are the times when we think about what we want in our future, make plans and resolutions. This is a time when the darkness and the weather turn us inward to hearth and home, family and friends. We are a little more focused on survival, and the blessings that allow us to survive. If we are quiet enough to listen, we tune into a lot of stuff here.

Now it’s the day after Yule. (I had to finish this a little late, so it’s technically a couple of days after.) The sun is returning. The days are already getting longer. Just as the new moon marks the lowest point in the lunar energy, Yule marks the lowest point in the solar energy. It is returning, bringing more light and warmth with it. This is the time to begin nurturing all of the things that we want to grow, all the plans that we have. New Year’s resolutions aren’t just a quaint tradition. They are proclaiming our goals and what we want to bring about, using the power of the growing sun.

Interestingly enough, I did a mini reading for a mother and daughter that we will call C and S. One of them took a reading with my tarot cards, the other used my common playing cards. These are the cards they drew.

These are actually the same card. The pentacles of the tarot evolved into the diamond of the playing card. The knight evolved into the jack. Clearly, this mother and daughter have their destinies tied together. The message of the cards is also ideal for Yule. This is earth energy, what we nurture and grow, what grounds and centers us, where our true bounty lies. The knight is a card of questing, of pushing forward, of getting away from the comfortable and journeying forward.

From my perspective this is exactly what the post-Yule energy is all about. We’ve sheltered ourselves from the darkening days. Now it is time to look toward the planting season and the work that leads us to the next harvest. Don’t we have a good deal more of cold to look forward to? Of course we do! But as we wait for the spring, we will begin to prepare our minds and our means for action when the sun, again, warms the earth and the ground is ready.

We have learned from our time of enhanced intuition and spirit connection. We have been inspired by revelations. Our vision has changed or clarified. Now it is time to begin building the path to realizing that vision.

What do you think about the solstice alignment thing?

This was a question I was actually actually asked by someone at the Museum about the solstice. I think they were referring to the event mentioned in the article I referenced above about the two astrological events coming with the solstice. We are hitting the end of the Mercury retrograde (the favorite metaphysical excuse of many for many problems) and the sun moving from Sagittarius and into Capricorn.

My opinion on any events is that we need to know what the conditions are, but that we don’t cancel our important journey. If our intentions are sound we don’t cancel them because the ride may be a little bumpy. We use what we know about the conditions and plan accordingly. Clearly the rising energy is going to require that we be organized and that be prepared to do some detail work and deal with some levels of process. Continuing with the travel analogy, airport security is going to be tighter and they are going to be cracking down on all the rules for this trip, so we know the rules and we follow them. If faced with an obstacle, we work with the system to fix it. We won’t make this trip based on luck as much with planning… but we will still be home in time for the family. We may need to pack more carefully and leave earlier. We may need to send some packages that we had planned to carry. There are answers to everything, but we need to be prepared.

I feel this way about any interesting astrological event. Understand it, but don’t be ruled by it. We will likely be affected in some way, but we’ll work our way around it.

Looking forward

Looking forward is exactly where we should be right now. We are through the darkest part. Everything is onward and upward from here. Make plans. Make important plans. Envision what you want to manifest and grown in your life. Make clear intentions and begin the groundwork to manifest them in the upcoming year. You are still driving. You are always driving.