There is a certain little animal (kinda cute really) who is very misunderstood and creates a healthy respect for it’s power when people encounter it. I can sort of relate to that description in a way for my own self.
This little animal is a loner and doesn’t get out of the way of any other animal, going it’s own way and is sort of in it’s own world and is self confident in that way. This animal is peaceful and pretty much fearless. I found that out last night. They move slowly and calmly–also similar to myself I think; or as I perceive myself to be anyway.
This animal, if it feels threats, will strike back but only as a very last resort. I am this way too. They give warnings first if they are going to strike back at a predator and I’d like to think that I do too.
This animal will draw in people at times and other times they repel others or people disappear. I laugh but can relate to this pattern in myself too and am okay with it preferring for people to leave me alone on occasion. There are times to draw people in and times to avoid others. I think that’s true for everyone really.
The animal I am referring to has markings that replicate and indicate kundalini or life force energy.
It is said when this animal shows up around you, it brings the message about using the life force energy and creative energy effectively.
This animal is also very quiet or silent and does not make bragging or barking noises and doesn’t announce itself but just don’t threaten it.
This animal can adapt to most any situation and I can be this way too… making the best of things or focusing on the silver lining so-to-speak.
This animal is more active at night and I similarly am more nocturnal.
PSYCHIC MESSAGE/MEANING: They say that when this animal shows up in your life in any way that it means that you will have opportunities to bring out new respect and self-esteem and to focus on self-image.
This bushy, fluffy black and white animal graced my back porch eating from the food I leave out for the stray cats.
I turned on the porch light and tapped on the window and started to open the door to create sound for this critter to move so I could tell what it was from the distance. Hmmm… is that a raccoon?
But this little ball of fluff just kept on eating barely bothered until there was excessive noise from the door (that sticks) starting to open and then moseyed off ever so slowly in its own slow, methodical sweet ole’ timing.
Yep, a skunk is what it was, as it raised its little head in response to the increasing noise that I was making and started to leave, the white kundalini stripe down it’s back was more than obvious!
My next thought, what message does it bring for me? Thus, this blog.
PS– like I said, it was kinda cute actually… or so says the shaman within
WARNING: this is a vent; read at your own risk. Awakening at 3:30 AM
So anyway. Okay. That’s probably IT. Neighbor karma! And they say if you don’t fight against the karmic consequences; that is if you accept without resistance, this releases the karma.
Are they butchering their own meat for dinner with a chain saw? Or grinding up ice cubes in a blender to make frozen margaritas to get drunk on? Or shoving what they can shove down the electric garbage disposal? You have to love the way they yell right over the top of the noise—even when the grinding sound isn’t happening and they are within two feet of one another—yelling at the top of their lungs! What’s that about, huh? Say, What!?!!?? If you are Indian (from the country of India – not to be confused with Native Americans), please ask yourself why you scream at the top of your lungs when it isn’t necessary?
Mindrolling Monastery in Dehra Dun North India
Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? This ain’t no monastery and (that’s not all!). Besides that…
I can’t get no… I can’t get no…. I can’t get no… SATISFACTION! (Rolling Stones)
Remember back in the mountains when the new neighbor massacred an acre of perfectly healthy and happy trees displacing numerous trees and deer and birds, et al –? (I’m talking to long time followers of my blog.) There was a disturbance in the force – a horrid ripping up of the pre-peaceful energy field – it felt terrible. Awoke to that same feeling at 3:19 AM! Voices shouting—a woman’s voice! NO, don’t tell me they’re at each other again downstairs.
Lovely! The young people in the next building were on their patio whooping, hooting and hollering to the silence of the night. Humans around here are just blowing off steam, releasing their stresses is the guess. Why oh why does this particular kingdom of beings (human kingdom) who have the most advanced brain potential on the planet act like dogs? No, dogs are much more intelligent; they bark for a reason; at least most of the time. Unfortunately, this same level of intelligence is not able to be attributed (at least by me) to the downstairs Indian neighbors and the young “drunk-at-3:30 AM-hooting-into-the-trees-neighbors” who live in the next building a mere 30 feet from the one we’re in. Watch out! There’s competition for the human idiot of the weekend prize around here—the Indian couple below me now has competition.
Come to think of it, I’ve always had neighbor issues (karma?) even back into my late teenage years. The man in the house next door used to stand on is porch (only feet from bedroom window) and call his little black dog named “sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooH-TEEeeeeeeee”, correctly spelled “sooty” until I wanted to pull my hair out! Then years later there was the neighbor who would send her son to my house to play soon as she got home from work so she could entertain her latest boyfriend. And then we had the old couple who… well, never mind. Yeah, neighbor karma.
Maybe they (downstairs Indian couple) got some message yesterday—who knows? Loud Indian People, I’ll say it again–Loud Indian People! Well, let’s start with Friday night; they always come back from Monsters, Inc. (Lowe’s Headquarters) on Friday nights really geeked up and louder than any of the other days of the week. I was into my writing when they blasted in downstairs, their voices escalating as the night wore on. I tried to be tolerant—obviously another bad day or week for them and they’re fighting about it again. I put my headset on and piped into my ears via my headset the meditation and relaxation music that I’d spent hours ripping off CD’s last week. I was prepared!
Go ahead freakazoid Indian peeps! I’m prepared. Can you believe that over certain music –which I had playing full blast as loud as it the volume will go—that I could still hear them at certain times?
I was writing the lesson on astrological elements and modalities—earth, air, water, fire and cardinal, fixed and mutable signs. The lesson I was writing was a bit complicated to explain so to keep my focus, keep myself sane and to keep my sense of humor, when they’d yell out below me, I’d yell back that the male part of the couple has won the biggest mouth of the week award and I congratulated him duly and properly in my own language to match their voice volume (loud) while they barely took a breath, not listening to a word! Not that they could hear a thing over their non-stop vocal drama. She would wail out in a long vocal diatribe on occasion and at the same volume, I’d hoot and holler back in response that unfortunately, try as she might, she wasn’t nearly as obnoxious as her male counterpart although at times it was rather close. Then I’d wish her better luck for next week and go back to my typing certain they did not hear a word over their own vocalizations. Did you ever hear pig calling? No. Really. It’s a sport in certain parts of the American’s—they have pig calling contests. I really think this Indian couple should enter; they’d win@! — hey, don’t judge me; this blog and that are my ways of DEALING.
I can’t imagine what the heck they’re grinding down there but from the shouting, it’s getting pretty exciting for them right now.
Mindrolling Jetsun Rinposhe
Yesterday morning I played an hour of Her Eminence Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche for their listening pleasure (and mine). She may have (who can know for sure?) out talked them putting them into a more quiet trance for the rest of the day. Who knows really since I made it a point to be out most of the day with the family—it was my grandson’s birthday. But before I left, their voices were subdued. Thank you Rinpoche!
There’s the Mindrolling Monastery in India. Do theses Monkey Mumbai’s (as I lovingly call them) know about it I wonder? It’s located in the foothills of the Himalayas in Dehra Dun in North India. Well, if they can calm down downstairs, I’d like to contemplate further the Yanas! The first step to this is to accept my neighbor karma with love, compassion, toleration and did I say acceptance, yeah, several times now.
May I accept what I cannot change! I am no longer in the peaceful serene mountains. I am not in living in a monastery. I am in the middle of slumdogs, making the best of it, accepting my karma, learning toleration, but to love this is a bit of a stretch; I’m tolerating until I get to go home. Let there be peace on Earth (the kind that doesn’t come from alcoholic overdose or scream fighting with others until exhausted – the real kind).
Well, the grinding stopped downstairs, so maybe I can get some work done now. Yeah, it’s Sunday but parts of me don’t know that—an old throwback habit from my peaceful, serene days in the mountains. Many times I did not know what day or time it was.
Oh, to finish on a positive note—the celebration of my grandson’s birthday was such a contrast! We had a lovely dinner together at Olive Garden Restaurant (his choice) and came back to a little party at home wherein we played a few rounds of Catch Phrase, and then his mother read to him a list of memories about him that we all submitted to her beforehand at her request. His task was to guess whose memory it was. Then we each read 15 things we love about him (since it was his 15th birthday, 15 attributes or virtues, etc.). Again we had these prepared ahead of time to read. It was very beautiful actually.
His aunts gave him a savings account in their name that they opened for him and a booklet of the account and deposit slips – the account being for saving for his first car. We supported this with our own monetary gifts and he received a few video games and his mother’s big gift to encourage his music and this he was so thrilled with it—a violin! We all then enjoyed a totally awesome ice cream cake which was especially good since we’ve all been dieting. A warm, beautiful family evening!
Later I came home to bathe, sleep and be awakened at 3:30 AM to the party of drunks hooting at the trees on the balcony next door. Such is life, the acceptance of my neighbor karma, and now we’ve come full circle.
Judging from the voices below, I feel another teaching from Her Eminence Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche in my immediate future!
PS—why do people SLAM cupboard doors? Answer?: because they can (I suppose?) Accepting my neighbor karma—trying to send love; help me Buddha!
….and as I end this diatribe they are screaming at each other below me. Meditate? Ha! Perhaps a charnel ground meditation for me today? Chad– Perhaps and if I must.
I have something on my mind… an inner question. Maybe it’s a silly one. I have been dealing with issues in the cellar—a long story that I won’t bore you with involving a dehumidifier and a damp, leaky and unfinished half-basement.
There’ve been salamanders down there—I’ve caught a glimpse of them once or twice in all the years that I’ve been here. So that is what it is—really a non-issue. I just go down there to throw in the wet clothes into the dryer and then rush back up. I have seen this toad though fairly consistently over the past year. Oh, he’s small really and brown and he’s slow and seems old—doesn’t jump around much and isn’t afraid of people. He holds his ground. When the landlord is here or the Exterminator for the mice [which are no longer an issue, thank you] comes, I always ask what they see down there and every answer is the same: just a little frog.
Yeah, I think frogs are green and toads are brown but I don’t know for sure—this guy seems like a toad since he’s brown but we’re seeing the same little critter. I used to stare at him and he at me while I put clothes in and out of the dryer, the whole while saying, “Okay don’t you jump–just stay where you are we’ll be fine—you leave me alone and I’ll do the same”.
Now that I’ve been going down there to deal with a dehumidifier issue–sometimes several times or more a day I’ve been down there lately. And of course, each time I see Samuel. Yeah, I name things and so I call out to him when I’m there, “Hey Sammy where are you?” Or “Sam, what-z up dude?” Now, I don’t know why I think this little brown toad is an old male, but that’s my delusion maybe.
I’ve been thinking about him lately and wondering if he is in a hell-realm there and if I should find a way to scoop him up somehow and take him outside. What’s he eating down there? Maybe crickets or spiders or something and of course the leaky basement provides some water for him when it rains. But now with a dehumidifier down there, maybe I’m messing with his ecosystem?
How would he do outside? He’s been in that hell-of-a-realm for a good while and he’s slow and maybe sick… could the outdoors be worse for him? After all, who am I to interfere with Sam’s karma?
I think of a Buddhist teaching about how our ego/personality mind will create problems where none exist or will worry just to give itself a job to do if you don’t give it something better to do.
And I do have better things to do. I need to get a life, right? I have a lot of home and yard projects and my psychic work and other things that I’d like to call “a life”. I want to get this issue with Sammy the toad out of my mind! I’m going to turn to the tarot cards—believe it or not—to ask what to do about Sammy. Should I leave him alone or try to get him out of the hell-of-a-realm, scooping up and escorting him outside? Maybe ole’ Sam has lived down there longer than I have –maybe he was born down there and maybe didn’t just somehow hop in around a weak cellar window by mistake. Who knows?
The bottom line question: With all things considered, is it best if I leave this toad alone? What should I consider about that? Okay, so I am going to grab my cards because I just want this to be resolved in my mind and I’ve decided that I will go by whatever the oracle says here! So, let’s shuffle….
O boy! 5 of Wands [image above]. A guy in a boat, surrounded by stormy water. My first thought is that this toad got washed into the cellar somehow during a storm. Actually, I am thinking of that year when we had the remnants of Hurricane Irene… there was a lot of water. So, apparently, he’s been down there for years. I was only renting here for about a year or so when the rainy leftover’s of hurricane Irene came through here.
Listen, hold on a second… I have to put some seed in the bird feeder outside. I put a day’s worth in during the morning hours because otherwise, this raccoon that looks like a big dog (I swear he looks like a German shepherd dog size-wise) comes by at night and eats it all. I’ve caught him red handed. I tap on the window when I see him and he sheepishly walks away! Anyway, the birds are calling…be right back.
Aside from the 5 of Wands being about unnecessary hassles, petty annoyances and trivial issues, I still don’t know what to do. However, I do feel the card guided me to an understanding of how the toad got there to start with. It seems that this card is telling me not to worry about it… that it’s a trivial issue.
Actually, I already know that. I just want to know if the toad is suffering I guess. Let me shuffle again. It doesn’t seem like a healthy environment down there… not much light coming in. Don’t toads need sunlight? Maybe I should google toad information but that is going to get my mind in even a worse tangle I’m sure!
I’m going to a yes/no format with my cards now… aces are indicators of a yes. Is the little guy suffering by being in the cellar environment? Yes or No? (I added the words “by being in the cellar environment” at the end because while he may be suffering because all sentient beings do, my question is made more specific by adding the words in quotations to make the question more specific.) Or we could ask: Is the suffering of this sentient being increased by being in the cellar? I like that wording better.
YES Answer; Ace in 3rd Pile is YES indicator
Oh, shoot! Darn. I got a YES answer to that question—Ace in the 3rd stack. And in the other two stacks of 13 cards, the top cards [which can also be ‘read’] are ‘The World’ and ‘4 of Wands’. Gee, the 4 of Wands is about being outside of the home and happy. And ‘The World’ is about ending/completion. I’m starting to get the feeling that I should find a way to scoop up the toad and get him outside. Maybe I will wait until my grandson comes to help me with that drama/trauma. I don’t want to hurt Sammy, you know?
Well, let me ask another Yes or No Question. If this toad’s suffering is increased by being down in the hell-of-a-realm basement, shall I then scoop him up and take him outside? Maybe he’s used to it down there and to take him outside would increase his suffering or a predator could get him; after all, he doesn’t hop much. Geesh. What a can of worms my mind opened up here!
Okay, so shall I scoop him up and out? Yes or No? Well. I get a NO to that one with a very weak, well yeah maybe indicator—an Ace [of Swords] in the 2nd pile. The Ace in the 2nd pile is saying, “Well, you could but really no you shouldn’t.” That’s the way this Yes/No spread works-the rules.
NO Indicator: No Ace in 3rd Pile
You know I think that this frog’s fate [or this toad trouble] is a doomed destiny either way and maybe we should let him die a natural death where he’s used to his surroundings and where he won’t be beat up worse [9 of Wands]. He seems to be coping down there. The landlord may be sending some workers to clean up some building materials that were down there since I moved in. I will tell them to be careful of the toad if they see him; hopefully he will go hide away from the workers. The other 2 cards I received were 9 of Wands and 5 of Pentacles [Coins]. Yeah, you can see the contemplation that I’m doing about this reflected in the 5 of Pentacles and the 9 of Wands is probably a reflection of the beat up toad [I’m not sure but he may be missing a leg; thus the hopping problem] and also it is me beating myself up over this issue. LOL
I send him love and healing now and am not afraid of him hopping toward me like I used to be. He may have lost a leg when he traveled via the gutter system during the storm. Bless his heart. I’d forgotten that — I had that thought last night when I saw him hop while I was down there; it was a strange hop and he sits tilted. I think one of his legs is gone. 😦
I would like to bring him sunlight as a gift and a green lawn. Last night I did leave a light on down there… I mean what the heck, light is light even if it is artificial. Like I said, bless his heart.
Maybe you will send him a little love. Yeah, I know, he’s only a little brown toad with only one leg but all sentient beings deserve to be free from suffering.
Now, I have settled this issue. The cellar increases his suffering, yet I should not try to scoop him up to take him outside—we should let him remain in his familiar environment because either way, his journey on Earth is about over. There are several indicators — the 9 in the of Wands; 9 indicate endings. And the other indicator of the end of the line for this toad is the card of The World–the last card of the major arcana; the card indicating a completed cycle.
It is more humane not to traumatized him further through my act of scooping him up and putting him outside; he’s used to [accustomed to] his present environment and is probably coping the best as he can–just the same as we all are.
May he, and all sentient beings, be free of suffering!
There is a certain little animal (kinda cute really) who is very misunderstood and creates a healthy respect for it’s power when people encounter it. I can sort of relate to that description in a way for my own self.
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