By Marcia Bender
Here we are in January 2013, the first month of what many are calling the dawn of a Golden Age, the start of a new grand cycle in time filled with opportunities. Those of us who were not preoccupied with the possibility of the world ending on the winter solstice probably spent some time thinking about the things that we wanted to change about ourselves and in our lives in this auspicious New Year. When you have lived as long as I have, there is a realization where New Year’s resolutions are concerned, “We “make ‘em and break ‘em.” It is human nature to think of all the exciting changes that we desire and to resolve to make this the year to put the effort into a new beginning and a new start.
It is true that the only way that we can find Inner Peace is to find Self. It is also true that this takes a tremendous amount of effort, evaluation, self-analysis and responsibility. In the end, sadly, we just resolve to make the changes next year. However, it does not have to be this way. We do not have to accept less than we deserve. There is a way to make the changes and, in doing so, change our lives.
In 1776, our forefathers wrote a constitution and on July 4, 1776, they officially called it The Constitution of the United States of America. Webster’s defines constitution as: 1. a setting up; establishment. 2. an appointing. 3. a making up; composition. 4. the way in which a thing is made up; structure; organization; make-up. 5. the way in which a person is made up; physical or mental make-up. So where am I going with this? Read number 5 again and let it sink in. Those forefathers were inexperienced, many very young, most afraid to go against the establishment but they had A DREAM, goals and lofty ideas for the future. They were tired of doing what everyone else said that they must do and so they wrote a constitution. Wouldn’t it be exciting if you could write your own constitution? Guess what? YOU CAN.
Why write a constitution for yourself? It’s because all of your life OTHERS have written YOUR constitution for you.
The people that have written our constitution and continue to write it are: parents, schools, peer groups, churches and religious organizations, the government, and mass media. These “others” do not mean us harm; in fact, they believe that they have our own best interests at heart. Tarot tells us that there are many paths to enlightenment and that we are not sheep that must be like everyone else, think like everyone else, and do the same things that everyone else does. There is only one way to find Inner Peace and to find that we must find Self.
One Path does not work for every individual and to become enlightened you must find the Path that works for you.
You have to take responsibility and learn to think for yourself. If you write your own constitution, you can find the answers that work for you.
There are many things that must be done in order to successfully accomplish this task. To find yourself, you must lose the ego, the big ME. You must take responsibility for yourself and evaluate the messages that you are sending to yourself. Yes, you are sending yourself messages, consciously and subconsciously, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Many of these messages are negative. You must ask yourself, “What do I need?” What will make me happy?” It is not easy to self-reflect. It takes much time, effort and faith. Most important, you must stop listening to what others tell you that you must be and find out what and who you are. I believe that this is the only way to find harmony, balance, happiness and peace in life.
We have talked of the “others” who are sending us messages, and we can do something about them—don’t listen and don’t take them so much to heart. But what about the messages that we are sending to ourselves? Are we sending ourselves the wrong messages? The self will believe what we tell it.
If you send the message to self that you are ill, you will be ill. If you send the message to self that you are useless, you will be useless. If you send the message to self that you are miserable, you will be miserable. I could go on and on with this, but I am sure that you get the message. You are what you think and you can change your thought patterns.
In the final analysis, the only real way to find happiness and inner peace is in our own hands. No one else can find it for us and if something works for one person, it is not a guarantee that it will work for everyone. We have the choice to either drift along with the established pattern, blaming our unhappiness and failures on others and “bad luck,” or to take control of our own lives and thought patterns and rewrite the script. So, think it through, write it down, and live it!
And remember, Knowledge is the Greatest Power, so Walk in The Light
Marcia began her career as a school teacher, working with preschool through inner city high school students. She has worked with all aspects of Metaphysics for over 40 years and specializes in Tarot and Numerology. Marcia’s clients and students are in every state and throughout Europe. Marcia has taught over 400 students to “read” the Tarot for the purpose of self-guidance and to use the powerful symbolism of the Tarot to reach higher levels of spirituality. Her column, Spiritually Speaking, originally ran for 8 years in Attitudes Magazine. Email marlou2000@aol.com