Occasionally we stop and take stock of ourselves.

Is our health ok? How about our family, and the other important relationships in our lives? Our education? Our career?

And usually we find ourselves wanting in one way or another. We could be a little healthier, our family could be a little more tightly bonded, and frankly we could be making more money than we do. And so we might draw up a list of goals, or at least join a gym or try to buff up our resumé. And we might follow our new plans for a week or a month, and maybe we’ll even make some hard-won progress in these areas.

Frankly, this whole process is ridiculous, from start to finish. I’m as guilty of this as anyone else — but our greatest progress, our greatest growth, our greatest achievements — the moments we look back on most fondly — are never the result of logical planning. You can’t lay out your grandest life moments in a datebook. This is LIFE, not a weekend retreat.

You will grow this year, and you will triumph over remarkable odds, and you will reach heights you don’t yet dream of. Most of us do not even realize how successful we are…

But forget trying to plan it all in advance. The best you can hope to do is set a trajectory and provide the fuel. And even that will fail if you’re not listening to where your heart says you should be going.

Gifts of the Crystal Spheres

Every moment, Spirit is sending us energy – growth energy, change energy, transformative energy. Some transformations happen between one day and the next; others build for years, and change us in ways we do not recognize until decades have passed.

We can ignore this energy; we can block it; we can fight it; we can throttle it; we can dismiss it; we can grab it and use it; we can fill ourselves with it as a vessel fills with water or light; we can guide it gently — whatever we want. It is a gift from Spirit to us, a true gift — a gift with no strings attached whatsoever.

Astrologers call these energies transits and progressions, and traditionally these things used to be labeled “bad” and “good”. A “good” transit would mean pleasant fortune and positive energy; a “bad” transit could mean a mugging or a plague. Today, astrologers usually recognize that even the “bad” transits have vital lessons to teach us, and instead might talk about “difficult” transits. For some transits, the growth and achievement seem to flow almost effortlessly. For others, the growth is accompanied by pain or disappointment.

The transit — the energy — the Gift — will arrive in its own time. It will come whether you want it or not. And painfully or joyfully, you will move a little further down your spiritual path.

Painfully or joyfully! If only it could always be joyfully…

Meeting Your Teacher

Joyfully — in fact, I was introduced a couple of months ago to a very simple technique for meeting troublesome situations and turning them towards joy. It takes a little time and inner work, but I’ve had good success with it.

The trick is to recognize that the trouble and pain is coming from having an unhealthy relationship with the energies that Spirit is granting us. We need to open up communication with this energy and allow it to help us in ways that bring us joy rather than pain.  In principle, the method is simple.

• Identify the source of the trouble. If you’re working with transits or progressions, then you can nail down the energy’s type and timing precisely. Otherwise, you can look at your problem squarely and get its parameters firmly in mind.
• Talk to the energy.  Dialogue with it.  Recognize that you can accept this energy in the form of a guide, and engage with it as you would any other guide — via cards or other divination tools, meditation, prayer, whatever it is you do.  If you are stuck at this step, see below for some recommendations.

Ask the energy to take the form of an individual you can address directly. And then ask some pointed — but polite — questions! What lesson are you here to teach? What service are you here to render?

Once you know these answers, you can ask to have the energy manifest in some other way — something that will serve you, instead of tripping you up. Remember, the energy is a gift to you for your personal growth. Use it how you want! Or if you prefer, dismiss it entirely (politely, of course).

My mother told me that she once dreamed that she met a transit in person. The transiting planet — Mars, I think it was — said to her, “Ok, I’m here! Can I help you with anything?” My mother said thanks, but not right now; and he simply left. She had no trouble from that “bad” or “difficult” transit at all.

Again and again in the last six months, I’ve run headlong into situations that traditionally are full of trials and tribulations:  changing bosses at work, moving to another town quickly, scraping along the edge financially, even divorce.  Yeah, divorce!  And each time I’ve turned, mentally faced the difficulty, and said, “Wait a minute.  I know I’ve got a big pile of lessons to learn here.  But instead of using a mallet and a sledgehammer to knock sense into me, could we maybe just talk about it over some tea?”  And everything has unfolded amazingly smoothly.

It’s as if all I had to do was break the bad habit of beating myself up.

Contacting Guides

Now, the whole issue of guides and contacting them is a thorny one.  On the one hand, you may not believe in guides as “exterior” beings, and see them as subconscious archetypes or something similar.  Or maybe you’re not sure.  And on the other hand, you may have trouble “contacting” whatever they are, finding it hard to distinguish whatever “messages” there might be from background noise or your own thoughts, or maybe you’re getting conflicting messages, or…

I already offer meditations to help you contact guides, here.  But visualization meditations aren’t for everyone.  If you’re looking for something simpler, more down-to-earth, more approachable, with quicker results and a little more hand-holding, you might want to try a downloadable package offered by my friend Slade here.  The package is not free, but it is fairly priced, and it is excellent.

There has been no one, no one, who has helped me more than Slade — I’ve read every one of the articles on his blog, I’ve exchanged a novel’s worth of emails with him, I’ve talked on the phone with him for hours…  The touchstone of Slade’s message is his great saying:  “It’s not supernatural, it’s super-common.”  It really isn’t that hard.  Guidance — from guides or your subconscious, whichever — is trying to reach you all the time.  You’re probably already hearing it, but not recognizing it for what it is, and not giving it the attention it deserves.  Slade’s package will teach you how to listen.

(Full disclosure:  I am an affiliate of Slade’s, so I will receive a portion of his sales.  But I hope you know I’m not in the blogging game for the money.  I offer all my stuff in exchange for donations, after all.  Slade’s stuff is awesome:  that’s the only reason I’m mentioning it.)

Oh yes…  And the meditation that comes with the package is a hum-dinger.  It’s designed to charge up an object with spiritual energy to assist you in receiving guidance; but it doesn’t just do that — it blows the top off your head!  Here’s the actual complete text of the email I sent Slade ten minutes after I finished his meditation.

Just got done with your meditation.  I can baerly put words together.  That was fantastic.  Just fantastic.

For my object, I chose a silver Navajo ring.  Absolutely perfect.

Gorgeous.  Gorgeous.

Man, I’m still coming down.  !!

The meditation is available separately as a free download here.  Definitely try it out…  But make sure you don’t operate heavy machinery for at least an hour afterwards. 

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DJ Almanac 2008. Physical version now available at my printing cost: $7.29. Free download of complete PDF.

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