January 22, 2004 (January 21 in North America) will mark the first day in the Year of the Monkey by the Chinese calendar. For the Chinese, this will be Year 4701. You do not have to completely change your own calendar, though, to appreciate the aspects of the coming Year of the Monkey, or to reap the benefits. You can determine a lot of what a year will bring by taking a look at what it means to be born in the Year of the Monkey. People born under this sign are usually successful in any field they choose. Decision-making is easy for them. Their excellent memories help them to be unusually well informed. They are allowed to pursue their own instinctive course in life, and they stand a good chance of becoming famous.

So what does this mean for the rest of us? These aspects mark the Year itself. This could well be the time to start the business you always dreamed of, take up French lessons, or any of the myriad of things that you are always thinking of trying, but haven't had the nerve. This is the year to shine, to be a superstar in your own right. Open your own mind to be the playful, agile monkey swinging through life from one adventure to the next- the sky's the limit!

Do be careful of jealousy in a Monkey year, though- including jealousy within yourself. If you can keep yourself focused and your nose out of other people's business, the Year of the Monkey can be a very rewarding year. At Objets d'Art & Spirit, we carry candles dressed especially for the Year of the Monkey, to help you resonate with the year and gain the most you can out of it. We also offer personalized candles for you in this year. These candles feature a small reading for your sign, and are dressed specifically for you. It is also traditional of many cultures, be they Eastern or Western, to do cleansings at the New Year. We offer an assortment of baths for both the body and the spirit.

Many people begin a new year resolving to make changes in various aspects of their lives. These resolutions are often bold statements of intent, and contain the seeds of desire to be different in some way. How many times have you resolved to do things differently, develop different habits, or change yourself or your life in some way, only to end up disappointed when you don't achieve the results you hoped for? This happens when you are looking only at the surface and don't examine the root of the problem. Making a declaration of the intent to change is a good beginning, but a firm understanding of the root problem is required for change to be possible.

Examining the motives behind the change you're proposing is an important part of the process. To succeed at anything, there must be a firm commitment to the action as well as the expected outcome. Deciding to lose weight because you don't like the way you look has far less impact than deciding to take action to make your body healthy. The negative impact of not liking your looks is far less compelling than the positive impact of making your body healthier. Making a career change, moving to another town, or ending a relationship are not always answers to problems, they are often symptoms of a desire for change that may have nothing to do with the actions you take.

Root causes have a way of hiding in your subconscious mind. They are often created by traumatic experiences, and your mind has a tendency to bury, forget and internalize pain and negative experiences, storing them away as reminders that only come up when something related to the original experience in some way, such as a sound, sight, smell, or words, triggers a pattern in your brain that is a deeply programmed reaction to the stimulus. You may find yourself reacting without necessarily understanding why you are doing what you are doing, only knowing that you are compelled to do so by something deeply internalized. Without extensive knowledge of your personal psychological makeup, usually gained through years of counseling, therapy, and introspection, it is difficult for you to pinpoint your own buried root causes because their nature is to remain buried and act silently on your psyche.

There are numerous ways to isolate and access a root cause creating a specific behavior pattern. Being in nature often helps the mind and spirit to expand and relax, allowing thoughts and truths to surface and be examined. Talking to a friend, counselor or therapist can provide insights from within, and from another party. Dreams may be recorded, interpreted and examined. Oracles often provide answers to questions that may shed light on deeper levels of your psyche. A well-matched meditation program that suits your personal lifestyle may allow your inner and outer selves a more accessible dialog. There are many ways for the truth to surface and be put to work.

A psychic reading can shed light on your inner needs and their outer manifestations. Your guides and angels, who have been monitoring your progress through life, often have unique insights into your true motivations and needs. By asking direct questions about specific areas of your life, you take control of the reading process and receive results that will help you move forward into the future you desire and deserve.

I offer targeted Specialty Readings for all areas of your life. These readings can help pinpoint your obstacles and suggest positive solutions to help you move toward success and happiness in a more meaningful and permanent way. To learn more about the readings I offer, please visit my website.

We have heard all our lives that we "should" set New Year resolutions. Usually we put down the things we believe we "must" do. Our resolutions are not always what we want but what others want for us.

Briefly, I want to explore New Year's Resolutions from the perspective of energy. The simple law of energy is "Energy follows intent." What most people don't realize is that our intent is established by our belief systems, not what we wish we believed, but what we do believe.

We may "believe" that we deserve to have a loving relationship or financial abundance. To discover if that is what we truly believe in the deepest recesses of ourselves look at the results of our lives. Do we have loving relationships? Do we have financial abundance? If we want them then we do not have them which means we do not have a belief system of deserving loving relationships or financial abundance. The harsh reality about belief systems is that we get what we believe. If we want to know what we believe, look at what we have in our lives. And there are no excuses. "If only's," are the words of victim consciousness, which is a belief.

An excellent and timeless book to read on this topic is Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich." It has been around for decades. There are people who have brought wonderful people, places, events, abundance into their lives by following the strategies in this book. Many have read this book multitudes of times (one more than 80!)

Perhaps the best New Year's Resolution each of us can make is to discover what belief systems are governing our lives and how to change those that are no longer serving us. Keep that New Year's Resolution in your mind and heart every day this year and you will have come to you all manner of ways of fulfilling that resolution.

Winter wonderland activities planned by Shasta Vortex Adventures for your enjoyment, education and spiritual growth are off and running! Two new tours offered this year are the Earth High Holiday Celebrations and the Sacred Springs Tours. Acknowledging the seasonal cycles of the High Holidays involves a process of following the sun's path around the Earth. Consciously celebrating the diversity of these 45-day cycles brings blessings to our self and all living things in nature. These are times to renew the ancient remembering that we are no greater than the trees, the birds, or the gentle deer.

Candlemas and Saint Bridget's Day come on February 1st, along with the first inklings of Spring. Saint Bridget, is honored for her powers of increase, healing, poetry and the blessings of springs and wells. We honor this occasion with a fire ceremony, partake in the blessing of candles, make Bridget crosses, enjoy a beautiful meal around the fire and share each other's poetry. Spring Equinox is on March 20th, where day and night meet in balanced union - a good time for new beginnings and to plant seeds for future projects. Then comes May Day on May 1st, bringing the promise of fertility to the land as the sunlight grows stronger. Other High Holidays include Summer Solstice, First Harvest, Autumn Equinox, Celtic New Year and Winter Solstice.

Sacred Springs Tours occur at various springs in the Mt. Shasta area, which are sacred initiation sites. Each site offers different qualities to the sincere initiate. Everything in nature has a symbolic meaning and natural springs represent connecting to one's Source. When approaching the site following one's own spiritual preparation and intention, these places have the ability to bring forth deep healing and understanding.

Our first Sacred Spring Tour was held on November 8th, honoring the Harmonic Concordance. We had 14 hardy, dedicated participants who braved the pouring rain for four hours straight during the tour. Each were cleansed in many ways (besides the rain) with initiations on the healing of separation, merging with the Earth Mother at the crystal cave, blessings by the fairies and other elementals, and the Delphi Oracle future readings by Raylene at Sulphur Spring's headwaters. Crossing the raging stream (newly swollen from the downpour) was a bit of magic itself, as one participant 'accidentally' found a perfectly built wooden plank bridge to lay across the torrential waters - one of the highlights of our trip. Profound experiences were shared by many on this very powerful day.

Table of Contents

What will the coming year look like, and how will we respond to the changes. Updates and Predictions in the final years of a Mayan Galactic cycle.

If your not feeling the pressure now…. then I think we better take your pulse! We are about to hit year 5 of the 13 year count down to the Shift of the Ages. Year 5 begins on Solstice (December 21, 2003). Yeah… it feels like a capacitor about to blow. We are being pushed to the limit. We feel crowded out of our current lives while being prepared for new shining realities. The problem seams to lie in the fact that we are stuck somewhere in the middle floundering around like fish out of water.

It was a powerful year with many highs and lows. Months went by where nothing seamed to be happening and other times everything was happening at once. The building pressure makes us face issues we thought we had long since healed. We are finding new places inside our ourselves where we feel empty and unfulfilled. This doesn’t sound like a pretty process, but this uncomfortable time is just what we have been asking for! Yeah… its true. This pressure is the gas, the power, the FORCE, we need to knock us out of our programmed, mechanical inertia so we can move forward. The empty place inside of each of us is being readied to be filled with new purpose and intent. It is OK that you might feel un-inspired or feel you have no direction. If you feel like you are in the void… beached with a huge whale, Bravo!!! Your on the right track!

The Star Elders told me many years ago that basic rules or programs of consciousness would change. They said the rules to the big game were going to transform. They shared that the way we approach life and how we operate in the world would change. To my frustration at the time, the Star Elders never said what the changes would be, or when they would shift. BUT.. this year I have been made aware of TWO of these rules of consciousness that have changed! And they are HUGE… MASSIVE and PROFOUND…

Rule 1 … was that humanity has hit critical mass… this means enough people are doing enough good to tip the balance into the light. Oh YES! We went from being ruled by darkness to being ruled by light. It is now truth over lies, love over hate, wisdom over illusions, compassion over self interest

Rule 2 … is simple to share, yet difficult to live. Rule 2 is we don’t have to learn with pain and suffering anymore, we can learn with joy and abundance. It sound so simple to do… but have you tired to relax and be really happy without sabotaging yourself? I wonder why so many of us are still in pain, why do we still lack direction, struggle with lack and why do we feel like just giving up now and again.

We should start seeing the out picturing of these new rules in the coming few years. Why does it take so long you ask? It takes a while for all of humanity to understand and operate from the new rules. We don’t get a guide book in the mail to tell us how to play the new game, it is by trial and error that we discover that what worked before may not work now… the learning process takes a while. We will discover that joy helps us awaken faster than pain. We will find working from integrity and honor pays off better than manipulation and deceit. Patience…

December 21, 2003 marks the 5th year of a 13 year count down, to the much anticipated and highly prophesied Mayan Calendar. We might remember the very powerful beginning of this 13 year cycle. December 21, 1999 was the turn of the millennium and while many celebrated wildly, many were in the trenches with concerns over apocalyptic Y2K predictions.

By the time we come to 12/21/2012, life will change significantly. WHY? Let me share a bit of basic Mayan cosmology 101. . .

This year I went to Brazil. I fell in love with the people, the energy, and the community around the healer, psychic surgeon, John of God. And I learned about truth, hope and manifesting.

Abadiania, located on top of a quartz deposit, is a gathering place of people for all over the world looking for healing. I think the most powerful aspects of the phenomena there is the feeling of connection and hope. People come there to connect with spiritual healing, they come in hope, they share hope, and they allow miracles.

I got the message to bring this feeling of hope back, to charge all the quartz crystals with hope, and charge them with the healing frequencies available in Brazil. Also, in order to create hope, we need to heal our masculine natures so that we are able to actualize our dreams in the world.

Inspired by the healing at Abadiania, I gave a workshop on fifth chakra (speaking truth, creativity, and commitment). The workshop evolved into healing the masculine image in the world, so that we can support our truth, our word, in the world. Also, fifth is about change and creativity, which requires a healthy masculine to support its actualization in the world.

Create a clear vision of the positive masculine (suppotive, decisive, able to accomplish in the world. Then, when you "speak your truth," by clearly stating what you want, your word will be made manifest.

As we human beings adjust to the ever-increasing speed of modern life, many of us find ourselves becoming impatient in ways that would have been unimaginable a few decades ago. We curse our computers for being too slow, sigh when forced to wait in line at the ATM, and shouldn’t that pizza be here by now? While it is wise to respect deadlines and to perform duties in a timely manner, it is spiritual folly to demand that everyone and everything around us move at the pace we dictate. Most of us need to become more patient.

Patience is a mental skill that anyone can cultivate and eventually master. There are two approaches: the mental, or spiritual, and the practical. Here are some methods for cultivating patience on the spiritual level.

- Look First Within. Use self-examination to discover why you react impatiently to certain situations. Identify the interior and exterior factors involved, then mentally weigh each one to distinguish what’s truly important from what’s not. Do some soul searching to determine where your attachment lies, then devise a plan for wresting yourself from its grip.

- Practice Restraint. Stop and consider the harm you might do by acting or speaking impulsively. Then mentally list the immediate and long-term benefits of holding back.

- Get Real. Adjust your perceptions to the reality of the situation. Don’t work yourself into a lather over nothing.

- Affirm Patience. You will become more patient if you affirm daily: “I am always in charge of my energies. I am clear, calm and relaxed. I go easy on myself and others. I enjoy living in the quiet strength of patience.”

I mentioned in Part I of this article that the need to learn patience comes up frequently my Life Purpose Readings. But it would be wrong to conclude that every person who exhibits impatience came here to learn patience. An impatient person may simply be behaving from an unchallenged attitude learned early on from parents. Impatience can also be a symptom of other faults, such as inflexibility or lack of empathy. And sometimes impatience stems from chronic naivete about how much time it takes to get things done. Generally, behavior patterns are not reliable indicators of what is “written” on one’s Sacred Contract, because appearances are so deceptive.

Would you believe there are some oils known to protect against Electro Magnetic Field or cell phone radiations like:

Red Pine, Pinus resinosa grows in Northern America. Its oil is very similar to the Cypress one. It is traditionally used to prevent against negative influences. In Europe they used to surround the cemeteries. It heals the energy field and allows love to flow between all living beings. It stimulates the adrenals glands and the circulatory system and helps also the respiratory system.

Niaouli, Melaleuca quinquenervia, is known to protect against radiations, according to Dr. Penoel and Franchomme. It is also used to revitalize, stimulate, and help deep burns and clean wounds. “In conjunction with radiation therapy for cancer –according to Pat Davies-- applying a few drops to the skin before each session of cobalt therapy will protect against burning of the skin and it has been shown to reduce the severity of such burns”. It also strengthens the immune system and supports the endocrine system, purifies, removes pollutants and excessive fluids from the body. It is “used to defend us from psychic attacks”, according to Gritman Guide to E.O.!

Frankincense, Boswellia carteri: By making incisions into its bark, drops or “tears” are collected reminding us of wounds. This resin cures the wounds, has healing power and stimulates the immune system. In the past, it was burnt to drive out evil spirits. It can help to let go and forgive.

Mikael just created a blend for you: CELL/EMF radiations with Red Pine, Niaouli, and Frankincense.

Put a few drops on your wrists. Or three drops on a handkerchief you can carry, or get a vial you can wear all day around your neck!