This article originally apeared on John Michael Thornton's personal website in April and is reprinted with permission.
I’ve been thinking a lot about reincarnation recently. I think what started the thought process was reading an article on climate change and thinking, “Wow, the next time around is going suck.”
My first past life memory was one of cataclysm and destruction. I was running through the streets of a city that was crumbling from earthquakes and rising waters, clutching the hand of a companion. The memory ended when she was attacked, I don’t know if we made it to docks and escaped. I was fourteen when I remembered those few brief moments and spent years wracked with guilt, convinced I could have done more to save her and get us to safety. Hundreds, if not thousands, of years later and I am still trying to forgive myself for those last moments.
I’ve remembered snippets of other lives since then, I’ve even remembered dying, but nothing shook me to the core like that first memory. For years after recalling that life I was obsessed with never coming back. I learned what I could about reincarnation and even bought a book, from the humor section, called “101 Ways to Avoid Reincarnation.” I studied it obsessively.
Around the same time I read the book Starborn, by John Nelson, in which one character asked the question, “how could I possibly leave everyone I care about without helping them move on as well?” It was that question that catalyzed the soul growth and evolution of the character. It also deeply resonated with me, but at the time I just wanted to get out and never come back.
Twenty Seven years as a psychic has changed my perspective a bit, and I know my thinking will continue to evolve. This still often feels like a harsh and challenging planet to live on, but I’m no longer obsessed with making this my last life.
For many people the idea that this is your last lifetime on Earth is almost a boast, a moment of ego. The ida is they have evolved beyond this planet, and maybe they have, but to me there still seems like so much to do here on this lovely blue green planet. There are so many things to learn, so many souls to help, and so many gardens to tend (and trash to be picked up).
That doesn't mean I don’t read the news and think, “stop the world, I want to get off.” I wonder how I can exist, let alone grow as a sensitive soul amid so much ugliness. I remember that first past life memory and the horror I felt as we ran for our lives and the conviction I felt that this time, this life, I would do better. I would be better.
So, I know I’m not done. This will not be my last time around. When I feel tired and overwhelmed by the ugliness, fear and hatred I see in the world I will remind myself that my job is to make myself and the world a little bit better and if I fail today, there will be another day, another lifetime, another chance to be better.
Be Blessed,
This card is all about the different connotations of lying. Lying to others, yourself, being “less than completely honest”, manipulating the situation, lying by omission, and generally being tricksy just to name a few ways we can be untruthful. Now, it’s true that sometimes, we simply must lie or bend the truth for ethical reasons. Doctors will tell loved ones the patient died without suffering when he knows damned well the patient fought and suffered until the end. You’ll tell your partner it was “good” for you, too, just to help them feel a little better about themselves and so you can roll over and go to sleep. The coach tells the worst kid on the team that he can see “improvement” to give the kid a boost in self esteem.
My point today is to really examine your motivations behind your untruths. Are you saving someone’s feelings? Are you motivated by compassion and sympathy? Or are you lying to save your own skin or ego, to weasel out of something you don’t have the balls to straightforwardly say you don’t wanna do, or to get something you want at the expense of another?
If you’re lying to yourself about something, stop. Face your truth: you actually LIKE to smoke, you’re just too lazy to exercise, and you hate smoothies/love bacon. Do you have to do anything about the things you lie to yourself about? No. But if you have to lie to yourself to shut something up, then there’s a deeper urge that’s saying maybe you should do something about that. Food for thought.
Happy May all!
Annette Noyes
With your help, I would like to start a new feature in the monthly newsletters. I’m thinking it should be a sort of a “Dear Abby” style of Q & A on the subject of energy work, energetic practices, Reiki and the like.
Often non-energy workers, energy workers and Reiki facilitators alike ask me different questions. They range anywhere from what is energy work to how does Reiki work. Reiki facilitators often ask about various experiences they’ve had or wonder what to do next.
So if you have any questions, please just email me and I’ll answer them the best I can here in the newsletter. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
To begin, I’ll address a question that comes up quite often. How do I ground?
Life can be messy. Life can be chaotic. Life can be busy. Life can be… well, you get the idea. And I sure don’t have to tell you how complicated life can be. Goodness knows we’ve all had our share of ups and down.
Just living life and getting through the rough patches, and sometimes even the smooth patches, can become stressful and can leave us feeling ungrounded and stressed out.
I thought I’d share a little bit of what I’ve been dealing with recently. A few weeks ago my father had hip replacement surgery. For most people, this is not too big of an issue. However, my father is 80, diabetic and a smoker. These are things that set off warning alarms for surgeons and anesthesiologists. But to keep this brief, suffice to say the surgery was “concerning”.
The surgery went very well and without a hitch. Recovery also has been perfect. The problem has been his rehabilitation to strengthen his new hip and the leg. First, he vehemently refused to go to a rehab facility. Getting him to understand the importance of going and finally to agree to it was a battle. One in rehab, he will only exercise during the therapy sessions, not when he’s relaxing in his room… as advised. His attitude: why should I do it again, I’ve already done it.
Dad’s now been in rehab for just over a week. The other day we had a meeting with the head of the therapy department and he advised that, because of the slow rehabilitation of the hip and leg, my dad stay in the center for another two weeks. He explained that if the joint and leg aren’t properly rehabbed and strengthened, he may not be able to walk well. My father became irate and absolutely refused, but after some coaxing, did agree to finish out the current week.
I worry that my dad won’t be able to be independent for long. I worry that he may be in pain. I worry that he may fall. I worry, period. And I become ungrounded and very stressed out.
So how do I ground and center? I’d like to say that it’s very easy… and technically it is. The tough part is just allowing it to come. But here are a few things that I like to do to ground and center myself.
Weather permitting, each day I like to take a walk in the yard. Enjoy the beauty of all the flowers and blooming trees. Experience the fragrances of all the blooms. Feel the cool, soothing breeze on my skin and through my hair.
I enjoy taking time to play with my dog. Not to think about anything beyond the fun and silliness of the games we play; tug-of-war, fetch, etc… I also like to focus not just on the moment, but on the amazing beauty of the communication between man and animal.
I like to give myself Reiki. It doesn’t have to be a long session, though that’s nice. Sometimes I’ll just sit down and close my eyes and ask the Universe and my spirit guides to blanket me with the loving energy of the Universe. Take a few deep breaths. It’s surprisingly energizing.
Take the time to water each of my plants, individually. By that I mean to look at each plant, examine the leaves and be aware of the changes, the growth, the color. Be in the moment with each of my plants. Are there new shoots? Does it need to be repotted yet? I also like to touch the leaves and feel their textures.
Sometimes I’ll steal a few minutes away and do something just for me, like read a few pages in a book or listen to some of my favorite music.
These are all things that help me to ground. They’re easy to do. Again, the trick is to stop your mind from going places it doesn’t need to be or to stop focusing on things I cannot do anything about right then. Just focus on the moment. Focus on the activity. Reconnect with the planet, with the minutiae of life.
Give it a try some time. It’s very relaxing and helps you get back to center.
And don’t forget, if you have any questions at all, large or small… please email me at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Way of the Wise Woman is the sacred passage of ageless time that guides a woman through the journey of her Wisdom Years. These are the years of The Wise Woman, as the passage of time increases a woman’s ageless wisdom with a deeper awareness and personal truth regarding her relevancy, presence, visibility, spirituality, intuition, voice and beauty.
The Wise Woman intuitively knows that it is not the process of time that defines her, but the ageless degrees of wisdom learned, earned and accrued through personal life experiences of joy and sorrow.
I developed The Way of the Wise Woman to empower women on how to embrace their wisdom years as a sacred time of increased conscious awareness in pursuit of ageless personal authenticity, purpose and well being. Many women see their wisdom years as an opportunity to become leaders and changemakers within their chosen field to create the change they wish to see in the world. Yet the Wise Woman intuitively knows that to become positive leaders and changemakers within the world or one’s personal environment, they must first become leaders and changemakers on a deeper, more sacred level within themselves.
Career Path Success new program, The Way of the Wise Woman, recognizes that in order to create personal change and transformation, we must first address Who Am I on deeper levels of self and spirituality with greater awareness of our intuition.
We achieve this through our Way of the Wise Woman 3 Step Sacred Empowerment System which is the core of all our transformative services. These 3 Core Sacred Empowerment Steps are:
A Movement To Empower Ageless Women of Wisdom
We are moving through an evolution of spirit as consciousness is rising with the awakening of the sacred feminine energy. This awakening is creating an awareness that the suppression of women is no longer tolerated as they seek to break outdated paradigms of what women should be.
Ageless women of wisdom is a movement to empower women to awaken and take back their powerful gifts of sacred feminity that encourages community, peace, healing, nurturing, intuition and love. Ageless women of wisdom do not seek to dominate but to bring harmony through balance with the divine masculine. Ageless wisdom states once we bring these divine energies into balance we enter a time of peace within ourselves and globally.
Just Ask A Woman
And as the old saying goes, if you need something done, just ask a woman. In this case, just ask an ageless woman of wisdom, for she is rising to the occasion to balance the energies, no longer invisible or irrelevant, but powerful in the spirit of her presence and voice. The ageless wise woman rides in on the winds of transformational change and not the traditional white horse to save the day. And with the voice of our ageless wisdom, we powerfully shout,“ Giddyup!”
I am Mary Jane Brigger, Woman’s Sacred Empowerment, and Intuition Development Consultant, Ageless Wise Woman and Owner of Career Path Success, LLC, I have over 35 years of corporate, small business, career building, spiritual guidance and personal transformation experience to address women's specific mind, body and spiritual needs.
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Join Mary Jane Brigger for "The Empowered Intuition 3 Step Development System - BEcoming Your Intuitive Wise Woman" Thursday, June 6th from 6-9 pm!
Monday morning our beloved dog Dart passed away at home. Joe and I were with him and he was held and loved as he passed, he had been with us twelve and a half years.
It was a dark and stormy night when I found Dart lying huddled in the rain next to my driveway. The headlights from the car illuminating a skinny, wet dog with big brown eyes and floppy ears. I did not want a dog, but I dried him off and gave him some fresh water and a place to sleep on the porch resolving to find his owners in the morning.
He was full grown when his showed up with a blue collar and no tags. I started asking the neighbors and my dog loving mail carrier, Mary, checked her whole route, trying to find his owners. When I would tell him, “Go home!” he would just look at me. After a few days of him living on my porch, not inside because I did not want (and could not afford) a dog, Mary said, “I think you have a dog, you should get him to a vet.”
My parents and my friend Sherry helped me out with a few bucks for the Vet and suddenly I had a dog, a very quick dog, who happily responded to Dart – Dartanian when I was feeling pretentious.
He wasn’t very well trained at first, but he learned fast, except he kept peeing on the potted tree in my bedroom. So one day I hid in the closet so I could jump out and catch him in the act. He never peed in the house again.
I quickly came to believe Dart was sent to me to be my protector, maybe my familiar, but he was definitely a faerie dog. The strange spirits that would float through the neighborhood dispersed when he was around, nervous clients quickly calmed and the groundhogs stayed out of the garden. He even helped a few friends who were afraid of dogs, especially big dogs, past their fears. It was rare for him to dislike someone, but I always listened when he did.
Over the last few years he started slowing down, but he could still disappear when he wanted to, and he still tried to patrol the boundaries of the yard. Around Christmas we started carrying him up and down the stairs as he grew weaker, unless he darted around us and got to the stairs first.
Monday morning he was gone. He was my first dog and the very best Dart in the world.