We have all been there before. You have given a relationship all you had and more, and it’s time to let that person know you are breaking up with them. This is no easy task as we all know. I’ve had my share of people leaving me or the other way around, and here are a few tips I learned along the way to make the process smoother for everyone.

Be honest. Sometimes you don’t want to hurt the other person by telling them the real reason you’re leaving them. You think that by making up a line, “It’s me, not you” that you’re doing them a favor but in reality, you’re not helping them evolve by being dishonest. There is always a way to tell your truth by choosing your words carefully in order to smooth the truth over. From experience, the more honest you are about why you’re leaving someone, the more they will grow and so will you. They might have a hard time accepting the truth now but later down the road, they usually end up thanking you for your honesty.

Finish one relationship before starting another one. Some people like to end relationships by starting another one. This is not only hurtful to the person you just broke up with but to yourself as well. Jumping into a new relationship before an old one ends is a way of avoiding facing some of your own demons and truths. Give yourself a mourning period to honor the recent person you shared your life with and to give yourself time to heal your love wounds too.

Carry yourself with class. Swearing, screaming, throwing stuff is not a classy break-up. Sitting down and calmly explaining why you’re leaving works better than throwing an emotional fit. Later when you look back on your life, you will be able to congratulate yourself on behaving well even though it was a difficult time in your life. If you feel you can’t break-up with someone without making a scene, word of advice: take your best friend along to help you emotionally.

Give some positive words. Before walking away, let the other person know the good things you had. Reinforce the positive aspects even if they’re small. Whenever you criticize someone in life, a good rule is to give them positive feedback too. No one is all bad or all good, and we all need to learn from our mistakes. Show them you’re not leaving with just the negative stuff but also some positive stuff. If you can’t think of any right away, write to them later to tell them some positive words.

We say that what goes around, comes around. If you learn to break-up with someone respectfully then you are planting a respectful future for yourself.

According to the Mayans, we have now entered into Katun 2, a time in which, “For half there will be food, for others misfortunes. A time of the end of the word of God. A time for uniting for a cause” as I wrote in an earlier blog. For Nostradamus, we are right in the middle of a world war III which he predicted will end in 2025. The Christians believe that 144,000 people will survive the upcoming undated Apocalypse due to special seals on their forehead. Edgar Cayce thought that the earth would be violently destroyed by floods and earthquakes soon. The Hopi’s predicted that we will see our earth change rotation and completely reverse poles.

The Chinese do not speak of the end of the world. Rather they tell us that we are entering the year of the water snake. The snake, according to the Chinese, is graceful, analytical, and likes the finer things in life. People who are born in the year of the snake are usually very good in finances, are great philosophers and theologians, and can wiggle their way around effortlessly. The snake for the Chinese is the most enigmatic and wise of all signs.

Personally I have always loved snakes. In my first novel Journey to the Heart, Lucina is afraid of snakes. Teleo tells her that snakes are symbols of our sexuality but also our creative energy, that the two are linked hand in hand. When Lucina gets bitten by a coral snake and nearly dies, she realizes that she must stop repressing her sexual nature and make peace with it. By the end of the novel, she is able to face a snake in the jungle and thank it for its wisdom and clarity on her path. One of the central themes of my first novel is that sexuality should not be repressed but rather welcomed and tamed.

In Greek mythology, the caduceus was carried by Hermes and is a staff with two serpents intertwined. It symbolized commerce and balance. Myth says that one day Hermes saw two snakes fighting together and separated them with his staff, which later became his main symbol and strength. Today that symbol has become our medical sign. There are two snakes coiled around a staff with wings above, reminding us that true health comes with balance and in my belief a sense of freedom.

Water is another central theme in my first novel. Water is all about emotions and letting go and surrendering. For the Chinese, water is the most powerful of all elements. It can eat away at a rock with time, no other element can do that. The power of the water snake year is thus about balancing ourselves, being wiser, and surrendering to the great currents around us.

I wish everyone a Happy 2013!

Edgar Cayce was born in 1877 in Kentucky, USA. His family were farmers and so he was raised very close to nature. As a boy, Cayce would often have visions while reading the Bible. It was evident early on that he had extraordinary gifts, such as being able to memorize entire books just by sleeping on them. At the age of 24, Cayce fell ill with a terrible throat illness and no one could help him. Going into a deep trance, he was able to “see” his illness and what treatments he needed to self-administer in order to heal. He recovered, and became a world-famous healer and seer. He is known today as the “Sleeping Prophet” because he would give predictions while in deep trance or sleep.

To this day, there are 14,306 predictions that Cayce made which are kept at the A.R.E in Virginia, the Association for Research and Enlightenment. Some of Cayce’s predictions include the assassination of J.F. Kennedy, the second world war, the advancement in medicine, and many predications to his daily visitors. Cayce’s ability to foresee the future, however, took a lot of energy from him and scholars say that this is what led to his death in January 3, 1945.

For the purpose of this blog, I would like to focus on his vision of the future of this world. His biggest prediction was that the Earth’s poles would shift. The whole world would be affected by this polar shift which he saw happening around the years 1998 or later. He saw that Japan would go under the ocean, that great floods would hit southeastern USA, and warned that the east coast would also be touched.

“Portions of the now east coast of New York, or New York City itself, will in the main disappear. This will be another generation though, here, while the southern portions of Carolina, Georgia- these will disappear,” he said in one prediction. Concerning Canada, much will be untouched, however, he warned of troubles in the West. For Northern Europe he predicated that everything would change, “In a twinkling of an eye”. In Cayce’s eyes, every major city near the ocean would disappear, and he mentioned Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City as being among these cities.

Cayce predicted that there would be great volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, mostly in the southern part of the hemisphere. From 1958 until 1998, the Earth would show great signs of these coming changes. The signs are all present, we just need to look at them, Cayce wrote.

Despite this dark vision of our future, Cayce always believed that we had the ability to turn the future around, that the future was not something written in stone. Like many prophets before him, Cayce stressed the importance of working with nature and showing compassion for all living things. Could we avoid the natural disasters? Perhaps not, but we had the intelligence to help nature and prepare ourselves for the shift.

Buddhism is a religion that focuses on reaching personal enlightenment and detaching oneself from the endless circle of reincarnation known as Samsara. Buddha’s teachings center around the importance of all things being impermanent and changing, of being detached from worldly desires and material possessions, and of being truly in the Now.

Buddha spoke about his vision of the end of the world known as “The Sermon of the Seven Suns”. According to this vision, the earth will go through seven stages of destruction known as the “seven suns”. Presently we are in the first sun, but after this sun, Buddha said that there will be no more rain and, “All seedlings and vegetation, all plants, grasses, and trees dry up, wither away and cease to be”. Thus the earth’s animals and all life will cease to be in the second sun. In the third sun all rivers dry up and in the fourth sun great lakes cease to be. The fifth sun brings about the drying up of the oceans; “After the appearance of the fifth sun, monks, the water in the great ocean is not the measure of a finger-joint”.

In the sixth sun, great smoke appears on earth coming from mountains (volcanos). Then the seventh sun appears bringing the following;

“This great earth, and Sineru, the monarch of mountains, flare and blaze, and become one mass of flame. And now, from earth and mountains burning and consuming, a spark is carried by the wind and goes as far as the worlds of God; and the peaks of Mount Sineru, burning, consuming, perishing, go down in one vast mass of fire and crumble for an hundred, yea, five hundred leagues. And of this great earth, monks, and Sineru, the monarch of mountains, when consumed and burnt, neither ashes nor soot remains” (The Sermon of the Seven Suns).

According to Buddhism, once we have reached personal enlightenment, we will no longer be reborn. Buddha promised that Nirvana is a state of being free from suffering, greed, anger and hatred. After one reaches Nirvana, one becomes  part of the whole and will never be reborn again. If we are indeed nearing the second sun, Buddha would probably recommend that we all start reading up on the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.

Reading Revelations is quite the endeavor, almost as confusing as reading Nostradamus. The language is loaded with bizarre metaphors and images that a rational mind cannot fully fathom. This revelation comes to John and speaks about the future on earth. It reminds us of a strange dream sequence that one could find in a Kafka novel. The book of Revelations has four distinct visions, each consisting of seven messages thus a total of 28 messages. The number seven in Christianity represents perfection. Most will agree that Revelations centers in on the battle between God and Satan or good and evil.

In the first seals, four hoursemen are predicted to descend on earth: Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. These horsemen ride horses that are white, red, black and green in that order. Following these evils, Revelations speaks of what is known as the “Rise of the Witnesses” or the dead coming back for justice. The ghosts ask God, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?”. Then comes the sixth seal, which I will fully quote below because it is one of the most famous passages of Revelations:

…”There was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood,  and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale;  the sky vanished like a scroll that is rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.  Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the generals and the rich and the strong, and every one, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains,  calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;  for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it?”

Following this prediction, an angel calls out that no harm shall come to the servants of God who bear a special seal on their foreheads. There is a total of 144,000 servants of God protected with seals on their foreheads. These special chosen ones will bathe in a new world we are told; “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

In Matthew, we are told that those who shall inherit the earth are the mild-tempered ones: “Happy are the mild-tempered ones, since they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). So the New Testament, although it predicts a very gloomy period on earth also reassures us that there will be a time when no more suffering, no more pain, and no more hunger or famine shall reign. Although Revelations begins as a very dark prophecy much like Nostradamus’ predictions, it does give some hope that part of humanity shall survive the Apocalypse and will see a brighter future on earth.

Michel de Nostredame (1503-1566) was born in Saint-Rémy de Provence in France.  Nostradamus is famous for his knowledge of herbs and it is said that he invented a magical rose pill which protected people against the plague. In his later life, Nostradamus became known as a psychic and very famous people consulted him notably Catherine de Médicis, the Queen of France at the time. Many people have been fascinated by his famous prophecies which are difficult to understand because they are a mixture of languages and word play.

While writing his famous prophecies, Nostradamus is said to have entered a meditative trance in order to see into the future.  Scholars naturally edge away from claiming that he was a real “psyhcic” but for the purpose of this blog, I will join those who claim he was a prophet and psychic. The first important detail we should know about his predictions is that they do not end on the Mayan end date, December 21, 2012. Nostradamus says himself that his predictions start from the year 1555 and end in 3797. If you have watched the famous 2012 Hollywood movie in which we see the Earth being destroyed by earthquakes and floods, this is pretty much a good summary of Nostradamus’ predictions except he never stated the world would end in 2012.

If you have the patience and time, do read through his prophecies but be very patient with them: they are vague, ambivalent and often the only thing we understand from them are fascinating dream-like images. Nostradamus’ famous prediction concerns a huge European war which will leave great destruction and damage in its wake. He indicates the start of this war is 1999 and the end 2025.

Just before this war begins, “The republican schoolhouse will fall/ There, except for a few, they will be choked dead”,  says one of the quatrains. Scholars have interpreted this as meaning that the US government will fall and many will be killed. Shortly after this, Nostradamus predicts that Muslims shall invade Europe starting in the Mediterranean and going into Italy after. He goes on to describe that one leader shall unleash a nuclear bomb which will destroy many people in Europe.

The good news, though, is this:

“The human realm of Angelic offspring,
Will cause its realm to hold in peace and union:
War captive halfway inside its enclosure,
For a long time peace will be maintained for them”.

After all this destruction, predicts Nostradamus, shall come peace for a thousand years. Although some are still scratching their heads and wondering about these “angelic offspring”, others are just content to know that help is on the way and the future bright and peaceful.

The Hopi believe that the earth was already destroyed three times before and that we are in the fourth Earth now, soon to enter the Fifth Earth. Since the world is out of balance and has been for a long time, the Hopi say that the twins are returning to Earth, Poganghoya the guardian of the North Pole and Palongawhoya, the guardian of the South Pole.  The twins are returning to Earth to switch the Earth’s rotation back to its original direction which is counter-clockwise.

Soon after their arrival, the prophecy says the following changes will begin to happen:  “They will start as fires that burn within us, and we will burn up with desires and conflict if we do not remember the original teachings, and return to the peaceful way of life”. So the Hopi prophecy speaks of purification from the inside out and warns us to return to the original teachings. What are these original teachings? That we must live from a place of spirit and heart, and return to nature, the forest and the lakes. These people, the “Pahana”, are the ones who will survive the Great Purification.

Those who do not return to heart and spirit and nature will endure the following:  “Many will appear to have lost their souls in these final days. So intense will be the nature of the changes that those who are weak in spiritual awareness will go insane, for we are nothing without spirit. They will disappear for they are just hollow vessels for anything to use.” The end of the world for the Hopi will come with great confusion for those who refuse to alter their ways, and insanity and chaos will reign for these people. Then will come the “Red Dawn”. This is a period in which the whole of our reality will suddenly change overnight and, “Many things will then begin to happen that right now we are not sure of their exact nature”.

The Hopi prophecy concludes on the note that our sisters and brothers from other galaxies are returning home, and will once again walk this Earth with us. The Hopi prophecy is an urgent reminder that if we do not return to our natural way of living and spirits that we might not live to see the Fifth Earth.

The Mayans did not see time the same way we do. They perceived time as cycles which they called katuns or cycles of 20 years. Each cycle had a specific energy or theme such as peace, destruction, deception, etc. These katuns repeated themselves over and over again throughout time and there were 13 katuns which repeated themselves every 260 years. Since 1993 we are in the fourth katun which is said to be a time when the Supreme Deity shall return to Earth and start a new era. What most writers forget to mention is the following information.

After 2012, we are entering katun 2. Here is where it gets interesting. The Mayans wrote that during katun 2, “For half there will be food, for others misfortunes. A time of the end of the word of God. A time for uniting for a cause.” So the Mayans did not view December 21, 2012 as the end of our world but rather as a drastic transformation towards a new era. What is interesting though is the depiction of this transformation.

In the last page of the famous “Dresden Codex”, one of the three surviving manuscripts of the Mayans to this date, we see something amazing. A large dragon pours forth water unto the earth, and a goddess also pours water over the earth. Water comes from the sun and moon symbols on top of the image, and at the bottom stands the God of the underworld with a staff pointing towards the water. Did the Mayans foresee through their precise astronomical vision that our world would see a tragic flood or tsunami that might destroy half of the population? Were they warning us to change our ways or suffer the wrath of the water dragon?

By the way, this might be just coincidence but we are entering the water dragon year according to the Chinese calendar… (Gulp)!

Marvel movies lately are coming out quicker than hot buns. It is no wonder that they are so popular amongst all age groups because they are all linked to one strong message: no matter what happens in your life, you will get through it if you find courage and strength. Nothing could be truer of the movie “The Green Lantern” starring Ryan Reynolds. This movie speaks about accepting our true selves, finding inner strength, and fighting darkness with nothing but our vulnerable human side.

When the ring first reaches Hal Jordan, he is uncertain as to whether or not he can uphold the great responsibilities it bears. He doubts himself continuously and wonders why on earth the ring has chosen him. He believes that he cannot possibly be the Chosen One. As time goes by, he slowly learns to accept himself and realizes he is not like other humans in that he has less fear than most.

Once he accepts who he is, a human who is less afraid than others, then he must learn to tap into his inner strength as a warrior of light. He goes through a training with other Green Lanterns who throw him around until he develops a fast reaction to attack. It is only when strong warriors start to throw him around that he wakes up, gathers his courage together, and steps up to the challenge.

At the end when he faces the dark entity called Parallax, he is able to defeat darkness. This happens because he has accepted his vulnerable human side, and accepted that he might not win but he will die trying. Hal Jordan’s character in this movie reminds us of the importance of being vulnerable but at the same time courageous in the face of the unknown. Equipped with self-knowledge, inner strength, and humility, we can face the greatest darkness ahead and overcome anything.

The other day I was sitting in my kitchen when I heard a ruckus coming from a group of crows outside. Puzzled and curious, I went to look at what the fuss was about. To my surprise, I saw my cats chasing a huge crow around my yard, and several other crows cawing from above. Automatically, I brought my cats inside, thinking that somebody was going to get hurt if I didn’t act. Later on in the day, I came back outside and found the same crow trying to fly but unable to.

I realized then that it was wounded and that the crows above were its protectors. They follow this wounded crow everywhere it walks, and caw when there is danger below. When they are not watching from above, they are walking next to it below, making sure nothing bad happens to their fellow crow. The other day I saw the team of crows around the hurt crow, crossing the street with it! It was a beautiful and mystical sight to behold indeed.

This story reminds us of the importance of working together in this world. If the other crows had abandoned the wounded crow, it would probably have died by now. Working as a team we can survive longer and better in this world. We can watch out for each other, give each other advice, guide each other, and help each other through difficult times. Like in the animal kingdom, humans need a support network, and without it, I believe our lives would be much more miserable and hard.

Sometimes we think we are alone in our suffering but we forget to look around and notice our team members around us, shouting encouragement, walking next to us, even helping us cross the street. If you find yourself like this wounded crow presently, do not forget to look up at the team above or next to you,  and give thanks for their support, whether visible or invisible.