I won’t pretend that the ego didn’t try to rear its ugly head and have me ‘fight for my rights’.  I knew they had no leg to stand on in court.  But because I was well aware of the ego’s machinations, I simply watched my emotions and did not judge them or put meaning on any of my thoughts and feelings.  Soon, the ego voice died down from lack of fuel.  And I was able to move into profound meditation with the end result of feeling nothing but deep love and compassion for this opposing group.  To come from a place of attack is to come from a place of fear.  I cannot know what their fear was, but I suspect it has something to do with their belief in their superiority (specialness) and authority (exclusive) and I threatened that in them for some odd reason.  Truly, if you don’t feel threatened, you don’t attack.

Now don’t get me wrong.  There are times where you have to fight.  But I have learned that it is always most effective to let our soul decide for us what action to take.  Why?  Simply because it is always connected to Divine Source and has a much larger view point on situations and knows the ‘highest’ ways to deal with issues.  So I sat in meditation and came to realize that I was being tested once again.  Could I see past this incident and feel only compassion for this group? I did and still do.  A deep feeling of sadness and pity arose towards them.  To be lead by ego throughout one’s life cannot render much happiness.  It can only keep you in chains.  I also realized that this group could only upset me to the level I allowed them.  We are only as wounded as we choose to be.  And with that, I realized they had not wounded me at all.  And I was free!

I once heard the line “… the ego is indifferent at best, but vicious at its worst.”  This is so true, as I watch the news and read the newspapers.  I don’t do this on a daily occurrence because the news media tends to cater to the ego.  But we can’t deny our egos.  To be free from its incessant need for being ‘right’ and running the show, we have to just see it for what it is - a frightened little child trying to be the big tyrant ruler so it can feel safe.  The more we can dispassionately observe it, the less power it has over us.  This is true liberation.  This is the path of ascension.  It is true soul integration.  By watching the ego in an unattached manner we become the soul.  We become Divinely-aligned and attuned.  This is a place of great peace and joy.  It is a place of needing nothing because one is filled with All.  It is a place of knowing yourself as sister and brother to All.  It is a place of knowing, without a shadow of a doubt, that you are a Child of the Light.  And in that knowledge is all given and therefore, there is no need to take away from another.  In this alignment to All is an exquisite bliss that nothing on Earth can touch.  So now you can see why I am so grateful to this group.  They have left me with one of the greatest gifts possible - my Holy Self.

I wish you all peace and joy!

In my experience, angels have been created by God/Source/Creator - whatever Divine name you like for the Originator of All.  I like the word ‘God’ because I’m lazy and I like that it holds only 3 letters.  Anyway, these beings of light have been created especially to comfort and guide us.  They are experts at inspiring us.  So go ahead - use them!  They’ll be delighted!

What many people don’t seem to know is that the angels are eager to work with us.  Why?  Why would they want to subject themselves to our craziness?  Because, the more we can ‘lighten’ up the world, the more joy and bliss gets radiated throughout the universe.  It’s a win-win situation.

So, what does this mean for you, mere mortal that you are?  It means you can start giving yourself permission to receive spiritual aid and guidance.  If you have already been doing this - congratulations!  If not, then start now.  You see, the angels cannot give full support without your permission.  They will not go against your free-will.  So, go ahead, call them forth today!  Right now!  Why not?  You have nothing to lose.

Angels will primarily assist you in matters of spiritual growth.  They will assist you to their greatest capacity.  But know that if you have a request from them that comes from your ego, they will quietly ignore your request.  They will not promote the machinations of the ego.  They work at increasing your own spiritual light.  They will be only too happy to partner with you in acquiring more wisdom, compassion, joy, etc.  And believe you me, these are worth far more it’s weight in gold than you can ever imagine.  These qualities will go with you far after your death than would a shiny new car.

Not that there is anything wrong with asking for a car.  If the angels perceive that this will not increase ego-tendencies in you, they will be only to happy to bring the perfect car to you.  After all, if having a reliable car at a reasonable price will create more peace of mind in you, they will be only to happy to oblige.

So, how do you communicate with these beings?  Simple: talk to them as you would a friend.  Let them know your thoughts and feelings.  (They know them already - but it helps you to clarify them.)  And don’t be scared because they know your thoughts - yes, even your darker, uglier thoughts.  They know them and they still love you.  Why?  Because you are beings of light yourselves.  So give them your ugly thoughts.  Tell them you are having difficulties forgiving so-and-so and it hurts your heart to hold all this anger.  Ask the angels to help you forgive.  They will be thrilled to help you with this.

Another area where we need the help of the angels is in forgiving ourselves for having judgments.  Here’s a little tip for you - if you are here on Earth, inhabiting a human body - you are going to have judgments!  Most likely quite a few in just an hour’s time.  THIS IS NATURAL.  What is not natural is to judge yourself for having judgments!  So what to do with this conundrum?  Don’t place meaning on your judgments.  Simply note them “ah, I’m having a judgment” and let it go.  Pure and simple.  No need to say to yourself that you are a worthless piece of …. because you are ‘judging’.  Or even worse - believing your judgment to be truth!  That’s the ego at work.  What you will find overtime is that by shrugging off your judgments, you will become disengaged from them and have far more peace of mind.  Having peace of mind opens the spiritual floodgates even more!  You will find yourself far more loving of others and far less guilt ridden.  You will start to see others as simply human rather than ‘poor saps’ or ‘***holes’ or ‘jerks’ or ‘idiots’ etc.  You will notice that in time, you don’t even have those name-calling thoughts anymore.

You can also meditate with the angels.  You might want to pick a different angel to work with each day.  Perhaps on Monday you would like to work with Gabriel, than Tuesday with Uriel, etc.  You might find that you have a real affinity with Zaphkiel and decide to work more profoundly with him.

Or you may prefere to keep it more generic.  You may prefer to simply go through your day calling in ‘the angels’ whenever you have the whim.  You’ll know their presence very well after a while.  (When I work with angels, I usually feel a soft stroking of my face or my hair.  I can also feel their angelic energy as well as see them clairvoyantly.)

Of course, you can also go quite esoteric and decide to work with the angels of the Tree of Life.  These angels are adept at taking you from the ground-zero of the ego right into the supernal realities of Spirit.  It is a marvelous system, but you will need to give yourself some time to pathwork the tree.  It is not achieved over-night.  Nor is your enlightenment!

The point is:  there are endless ways to work with angels.  The decision as to the how is up to you!

So take your time!  Enjoy the ride!  Utilize the tools at your dispossal - co-partner with them thar’ angels today!  You won’t regret it.

There is still much debate about the origins of these cards – were they created as a game in Italy, or were they first created for spiritual work by our Medieval forefathers? But this matters not to me. I couldn’t care less! Why? Because I know, first hand, the value of these cards as a profound mystical tool for enlightenment. The Western Tradition is a very wise and uplifting system. Though we have all heard of and are still surrounded by the Eastern Spiritualities, our own has been with us for just as long though it is still debased as ‘occult’ by many. When you look up the word occult in the dictionary, it primarily means ‘hidden’. And yes - our Western Occult Tradition was very much hidden until not so very long ago!

Now, if you were to walk into a metaphysical bookstore today, you would be barraged by a sea of tarot cards, each with its own theme and focus. There are decks with animal themes, moon garden themes, Celtic focus, Goddess themes, Angelic focus, etc. Some retain the more traditional meaning/symbology of tarot, while others go off on a wide tangent. Not that this is bad. Tarot/Oracle decks are great tools for opening and expanding your intuitional skills. However, if you want to do deeper spiritual work with these cards, you will need a more traditional deck. Some newer decks just make it harder for us to see the hidden teachings of tarot. Indeed, some of the newer cards are truly ‘oracles’ rather than ‘tarot’ decks. But don’t despair, these more esoteric decks are still at hand. For instance, in my view, the Rider-Waite deck is the deck that comes closest to depicting the wisdom of our own Western Sages. Yes, it’s true: we do have a long-standing Western Spiritual Tradition. It’s just been kept underground until the 20th century. Well, it’s easy to understand why – speak your truth and you get burned at the stake, or tortured, or starved to death, or all of these, etc. Hmmm, I don’t know about you, but I’d keep quiet under those circumstances.

So, let’s get back to the more traditional tarot decks, the esoteric type, and what they offer. Tarot, by the way, simply means ‘the law’. It means spiritual law. This means that the cards are depicted in such a way as to guide you on a system of self-mastery and initiation into higher and higher consciousness. It is a graded process. This is where Kabbalah comes in. Kabbalah is a very ancient tradition, taught orally in the beginning (to males 40 and over). By the way, Kabbalah has two other ways of being spelled: 1) Qabalah - the more ancient esoteric Jewish tradition also taken up by Western Occultists over the centuries; 2) Kabbalah - the more universal term used today; and 3) Cabala - the more mystical Christian tradition. I have looked into all three and have worked predominantly with Qabalah and Kabbalah. You have to be careful with Qabalah because this can go into some pretty weird ‘magical’ stuff. So your safest bet is on Kabbalah. However, it’s always a good idea to look into all three to have a well rounded knowledge on the subject.

But I digress! Kabbalah has this wonderful diagram for working through spiritual mastery: the tree of life. Without going too much into detail, the tree of life is a schematic diagram that leads you from delivery of personality foibles and weakness into Soul alignment and embodiment, and then into full Spiritual Union with your Divine Self and reawakening into God. And guess what? Yup – our Western mystics developed a system to utilize (or perhaps created) the cards to progress upon the tree – the tarot. The cards are used in ‘pathworking’ the tree. The cards take you from level to level to level.

How can this be? The symbols on the cards are arranged and portrayed in such a way as to unlock the wisdom of your own Soul/Self and even union with God/Source/Creator. You do this through meditative practices mostly. It takes years of practice and study to reach any type of proficiency working with this system, but it is so incredibly worthwhile.

But if you are not interested in putting in that type of time and effort, tarot can also be used to discover your own soul patterns and life purpose. This is done through numerological work. Once your own personal cards are discovered, you can work with them to bring more alignment into your life’s path and purpose.

Lastly, tarot can simply continue to be used for divination. I have used them for this purpose for years. Do I avidly follow them to make my decisions? Certainly not! But I do like to use them when I feel ’stuck’. I usually always get some ‘aha’ revelation that helps me get unblocked in a situation.

You see, over the years, I have come to see all spiritual tools as such – tools! Not more, not less. You don’t place a bunch of meaning on a frying pan – you simply use it as a tool to fry your veggies, eggs, etc. You don’t carry the pan around with you and try to do everything with it. It has its place and it stays there. Tarot is very much the same – you use it to divine when you feel the need and then you carry on with your life. Even the tarot cards would tell you so!