In my previous post I talked about using the Tarot to outline your project. There is no doubt that having a good outline is the preferred way to tackle any writing project. It's very comforting to know which way the story is going so you can take it there. I read recently that writing without an outline is like jumping in the car and starting on a journey without knowing where you are going. That would be anathema to many people. On the other hand, for some, it would be the epitome of adventure.
I read a book by Stephen King on writing a while back. I like what he said. I have to admit it's been awhile and I don't have it in front of me, so I may be sadly misquoting, if so, forgive me Mr. King! What he said was along the lines of "anything anybody tells you about writing is wrong, including me!" His point, I believe, is that you can read tons of books on writing, and I have, some of them agree on some points, disagree on others. You can become greatly confused unless you realize that what each writer is suggesting is what works for that one writer. By all means, read, get ideas, find methods to try. Don't be too upset if they don't all work for you. You will find tools that work with your project, and your own style of working. Writers are, if anything, different individuals. All of us have different viewpoints, different skills and different interests. Pick what works for you, toss the rest and don't feel too bad about it.
Another point, at least for me, is project specific. In my own experience no two projects have evolved the same way. One story grows from a character who appeals to me, another from a scene that appears full blown, still another appears with the ending already known. Each has its own problems, and requires different amounts and kinds of work to finish. You do what you have to do. Now and then a scene appears from nowhere, I write it down, another scene pops up later and it goes with that one. Not a very organized way to work, but it happens. Notebooks, file cards and/or the computer work well to contain those elements. Easy to enter them, file them (especially using the TiddlyWikiWrite tool I talked about in a previous post), and re-assemble them when the time is write. It's especially good when you are working on project A, and while you're in that creative frame of mind, scenes from a new project B pop up. You get them down, file them away, play with them later. By all means, get them down. I've forgotten whole encyclopedias of story ideas, thinking I'd surely remember them later!
A lot of writers, and some of them successful, do indeed start a story and just see where it takes them. They establish their characters and see where they go. No doubt, they waste some time doing that, although even scenes unused can be reused somewhere else, besides it all counts as good practice.
Be an organized writer, but organize it your way. Have fun, that's what it's all about. Certainly be willing to learn new ways, but don't agonize over it or try and force your round peg self into a square hole. Do what works.
Enjoy the journey, with or without a map!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Outlining by Tarot
So, here I am. I have three bonafide writing projects going, and a couple more in stasis. All have found new life partly because of some very nice usable writing software I've reported on before. All three main projects are also now nominally outlined, at least as much if not more than I have ever done in the past, using my tarot tool.
Here's how it works. Some knowledge of the tarot in general is helpful, but not critical. I have been taking classes from my tarot-teacher partner, Cat Dancing, and it has been a great help. The information is available in a lot of places, however. I'll give some basics below. For the most part this is directed only at using the tarot as a writing tool. Reading the tarot is a whole different subject!
If you know nothing yet about the tarot, think of a deck of regular playing cards. Usually, the court cards have pictures of the king, queen, jack. The numbered cards only have groupings of the suit, 5 clubs, 3 hearts, etc. A "standard" tarot deck has those same cards with two big differences. The suits are swords, cups, pentacles, and wands. Also, the court cards have one more character with king, queen, knight, page. This group of cards in a tarot deck are called the minor trumps. In addition, the tarot deck includes major trumps, a group of twenty two other cards including: The Fool, The Lovers, The Sun, and so on.
I have a lot of tarot decks. Most came from garage sales, personal gifts, and the local Half Price Books store. I used to collect the decks just for the art. Only a few do I actually read with, and not all would be much help for writing purposes. One of the best basic decks for this would be the standard Rider - Waite - Smith deck. (Let's call it the RWS for short) This one can be found almost anywhere. The selling point for this deck is that every card is illustrated with a scene. Some of the decks available only show the groups of each suit, much like those playing cards. The RWS deck, as I said, has a scene for each card. It is this that can give a new tarot reader, as well as a writer, some clues on meanings of cards. I would consider the RWS deck the basic deck for this, although there are several newer decks derived from that one that may speak to different writers even more clearly. One that I currently like is the Cosmic Tarot, by Norbert Losche. (U.S. Games). The characters appearing in this deck seem vaguely familiar, as if they were based on various classic film stars. This goes a long way for me in suggesting characters. Another interesting one is the "Flash Card Tarot" by Linda Nadeau. This deck has some rather unusual but often useful illustrations on one side, and the meanings and description on the back. It can be a useful imagination spark.
Now that you have your deck. You need some way to interpret the cards. First, try just studying each card, see what it suggests to you. Your first and best guide is your own intuition! Most decks come with their own little book, sometimes a big book, that explains the meanings. Let that be your second resource. Not everything listed in the card descriptions will be useful in your writing, but some will suggest ideas to you. There are many other books online and in print that give card information. The ultimate would be "Tarot for Writers" by Corinne Kenner. (See my link below). Ms. Kenner describes each card and what is useful for the writer, as well as giving many useful "spreads" or layouts to use. Corinne Kenner also has a useful companion book, "Tarot Journaling" that is just that, using the tarot to journal more effectively.
Now that we have those basics out of the way. Here is how I use the cards:
1. Outlining a book - Give some thought to what you intend to do. Let's say you want to pick a card for each division of the planned work. This might be chapters for a book, scenes for a play, perhaps steps in the journey. Come up with a usable number. I like to think it chapters, if I am working on a book. Forty-four is a sort of average number of chapters for many novels.
Shuffle the cards a number of times. Seven times is supposed to guarantee randomness. I personally shuffle three times, cut, then shuffle one more time. People draw cards in various ways. I like to just deal off the top of the deck in the order they are in. If we are outlining forty-four chapters, deal the cards out face up one by one in four rows of eleven.
Some of the cards will be upright, some may be reversed. If we want added complexity, we can take the reverses into account, or we can simply see them all as upright. Make a list of the cards. I use the novel software I'm using (yWriter5 in this case) and note the card into each chapter notes. As you note each card, notice anything that catches your attention about the card that may indicate character, or plot, or setting, anything, and write that down as well. You might then look up each card in one of those books or resources and make additional notes.
It may be that some of the chapters thus laid out may need to be re-arranged for better flow. It's okay to do that. You can even discard cards that don't seem to work, and draw new ones. The tarot police won't care. This is your tool, you use it however works best for you. In my initial layout for my mystery novel, the first card drawn didn't really work for me as first chapter, however, I put is aside as an indicator of overall story, and used the second card as first chapter, and the rest fell into place pretty well. Don't be afraid to deviate. This is just a starting place, idea material. Once you have the larger divisions, the chapters, laid out in this manner, you may want to re-shuffle and draw cards for minor divisions, like scenes. It's all up to you. As for meanings, you can be literal, or imaginative. The Death card may mean a literal death, in your story, or it may be a major transition of some sort. The Fool can mean an innocent stumbling into the scene, or it might be time to look at things from a fresh point of view, to use "beginner mind" as the Zen teachers put it.
2. Character - You can draw cards to help define your characters, maybe even suggest names (with some imagination.) The court cards are most helpful for this, although any of the other cards can also suggest characters, or the character's traits. As you make a bio for your characters, use the tarot to suggest entries for those areas that aren't clear to you yet, background, habits, goals, that sort of thing. Simplest would be one card for one item, see what it suggests. Many times I use a 3 card spread. I do the usual shuffle, cut the deck somewhere near the center. The top card in the exposed half is the middle card. The card just below it is the third card, and the card that was just above it is the first card in the three card row. These three can mean many things, but I usually rank them in some sort of past, present, future context about whatever I'm getting a reading on. I just pulled three cards in this fashion. The Hermit, Justice, and the Chariot. I'm using the Cosmic Tarot deck. The Hermit shows a mystical guru type, almost a stereotypical hippy, sitting in the night near a lantern. A seeker. Also someone to seek out for knowledge, perhaps. Justice shows a woman with a crown between night and day. Scales of balance are in front of her, she sees truth. The Chariot shows a chariot, pulled by two wild horses, one black, one white, being driven by a kingly figure away from a castle. What might this mean to you? Perhaps it is a character, loner type, with a non-traditional education, seeks justice as society dictates, but is trampled by the established justice system.
3. Series - I projected my mystery novel into a series of novels with the same protagonist and settings. I spent a lot of enjoyable time inventing his hometown, and peopling it with interesting characters, why not make further use of it all? Besides, as I did all that background, I came up with a few ideas of other stories to tell. So, I thought, how about twelve books ? I did a twelve card layout similar to the "chapter" spread above. I let each card represent a book. Interestingly, the stories I had already thought of fit rather well into one of the twelve topics. In some cases titles were even suggested by the cards and the imagined situation. So, now I have a rough outline of where the whole series is going. That's good to have for any kind of series character.
For instance, The Hanged Man card came up. One of my ideas was a mystery involving genealogy. Bingo! Another card was the Wheel of Fortune. Ready made spot for something about the lottery!
These three techniques can give you a starting place. Enjoy!
Here's how it works. Some knowledge of the tarot in general is helpful, but not critical. I have been taking classes from my tarot-teacher partner, Cat Dancing, and it has been a great help. The information is available in a lot of places, however. I'll give some basics below. For the most part this is directed only at using the tarot as a writing tool. Reading the tarot is a whole different subject!
If you know nothing yet about the tarot, think of a deck of regular playing cards. Usually, the court cards have pictures of the king, queen, jack. The numbered cards only have groupings of the suit, 5 clubs, 3 hearts, etc. A "standard" tarot deck has those same cards with two big differences. The suits are swords, cups, pentacles, and wands. Also, the court cards have one more character with king, queen, knight, page. This group of cards in a tarot deck are called the minor trumps. In addition, the tarot deck includes major trumps, a group of twenty two other cards including: The Fool, The Lovers, The Sun, and so on.
I have a lot of tarot decks. Most came from garage sales, personal gifts, and the local Half Price Books store. I used to collect the decks just for the art. Only a few do I actually read with, and not all would be much help for writing purposes. One of the best basic decks for this would be the standard Rider - Waite - Smith deck. (Let's call it the RWS for short) This one can be found almost anywhere. The selling point for this deck is that every card is illustrated with a scene. Some of the decks available only show the groups of each suit, much like those playing cards. The RWS deck, as I said, has a scene for each card. It is this that can give a new tarot reader, as well as a writer, some clues on meanings of cards. I would consider the RWS deck the basic deck for this, although there are several newer decks derived from that one that may speak to different writers even more clearly. One that I currently like is the Cosmic Tarot, by Norbert Losche. (U.S. Games). The characters appearing in this deck seem vaguely familiar, as if they were based on various classic film stars. This goes a long way for me in suggesting characters. Another interesting one is the "Flash Card Tarot" by Linda Nadeau. This deck has some rather unusual but often useful illustrations on one side, and the meanings and description on the back. It can be a useful imagination spark.
Now that you have your deck. You need some way to interpret the cards. First, try just studying each card, see what it suggests to you. Your first and best guide is your own intuition! Most decks come with their own little book, sometimes a big book, that explains the meanings. Let that be your second resource. Not everything listed in the card descriptions will be useful in your writing, but some will suggest ideas to you. There are many other books online and in print that give card information. The ultimate would be "Tarot for Writers" by Corinne Kenner. (See my link below). Ms. Kenner describes each card and what is useful for the writer, as well as giving many useful "spreads" or layouts to use. Corinne Kenner also has a useful companion book, "Tarot Journaling" that is just that, using the tarot to journal more effectively.
Now that we have those basics out of the way. Here is how I use the cards:
1. Outlining a book - Give some thought to what you intend to do. Let's say you want to pick a card for each division of the planned work. This might be chapters for a book, scenes for a play, perhaps steps in the journey. Come up with a usable number. I like to think it chapters, if I am working on a book. Forty-four is a sort of average number of chapters for many novels.
Shuffle the cards a number of times. Seven times is supposed to guarantee randomness. I personally shuffle three times, cut, then shuffle one more time. People draw cards in various ways. I like to just deal off the top of the deck in the order they are in. If we are outlining forty-four chapters, deal the cards out face up one by one in four rows of eleven.
Some of the cards will be upright, some may be reversed. If we want added complexity, we can take the reverses into account, or we can simply see them all as upright. Make a list of the cards. I use the novel software I'm using (yWriter5 in this case) and note the card into each chapter notes. As you note each card, notice anything that catches your attention about the card that may indicate character, or plot, or setting, anything, and write that down as well. You might then look up each card in one of those books or resources and make additional notes.
It may be that some of the chapters thus laid out may need to be re-arranged for better flow. It's okay to do that. You can even discard cards that don't seem to work, and draw new ones. The tarot police won't care. This is your tool, you use it however works best for you. In my initial layout for my mystery novel, the first card drawn didn't really work for me as first chapter, however, I put is aside as an indicator of overall story, and used the second card as first chapter, and the rest fell into place pretty well. Don't be afraid to deviate. This is just a starting place, idea material. Once you have the larger divisions, the chapters, laid out in this manner, you may want to re-shuffle and draw cards for minor divisions, like scenes. It's all up to you. As for meanings, you can be literal, or imaginative. The Death card may mean a literal death, in your story, or it may be a major transition of some sort. The Fool can mean an innocent stumbling into the scene, or it might be time to look at things from a fresh point of view, to use "beginner mind" as the Zen teachers put it.
2. Character - You can draw cards to help define your characters, maybe even suggest names (with some imagination.) The court cards are most helpful for this, although any of the other cards can also suggest characters, or the character's traits. As you make a bio for your characters, use the tarot to suggest entries for those areas that aren't clear to you yet, background, habits, goals, that sort of thing. Simplest would be one card for one item, see what it suggests. Many times I use a 3 card spread. I do the usual shuffle, cut the deck somewhere near the center. The top card in the exposed half is the middle card. The card just below it is the third card, and the card that was just above it is the first card in the three card row. These three can mean many things, but I usually rank them in some sort of past, present, future context about whatever I'm getting a reading on. I just pulled three cards in this fashion. The Hermit, Justice, and the Chariot. I'm using the Cosmic Tarot deck. The Hermit shows a mystical guru type, almost a stereotypical hippy, sitting in the night near a lantern. A seeker. Also someone to seek out for knowledge, perhaps. Justice shows a woman with a crown between night and day. Scales of balance are in front of her, she sees truth. The Chariot shows a chariot, pulled by two wild horses, one black, one white, being driven by a kingly figure away from a castle. What might this mean to you? Perhaps it is a character, loner type, with a non-traditional education, seeks justice as society dictates, but is trampled by the established justice system.
3. Series - I projected my mystery novel into a series of novels with the same protagonist and settings. I spent a lot of enjoyable time inventing his hometown, and peopling it with interesting characters, why not make further use of it all? Besides, as I did all that background, I came up with a few ideas of other stories to tell. So, I thought, how about twelve books ? I did a twelve card layout similar to the "chapter" spread above. I let each card represent a book. Interestingly, the stories I had already thought of fit rather well into one of the twelve topics. In some cases titles were even suggested by the cards and the imagined situation. So, now I have a rough outline of where the whole series is going. That's good to have for any kind of series character.
For instance, The Hanged Man card came up. One of my ideas was a mystery involving genealogy. Bingo! Another card was the Wheel of Fortune. Ready made spot for something about the lottery!
These three techniques can give you a starting place. Enjoy!
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Rainy Day Writing
Stormy last night. Slept pretty good. Pretty involved dreams all night. I didn’t remember any worth writing down this time. Well, okay, there was one. I was going along as an observer on a balloon flight. Huge balloon, made up of light clear plastic, like dry cleaner bags joined somehow. Wasn’t hot air or gas, we were riding inside the bubble somehow. Anyway, I didn’t really get inside. A couple of women I’ve known were going up and inviting me along. There was a rope ladder through a hatch in their ceiling that led into the balloon, but the opening in the trap door was too small for me to get through. there was a larger opening nearby, but that led to a different balloon they had. Somehow one of them switched things so I could climb on up through the large opening and still get there. Not sure I want to cogitate too much on the connotations. That’s about all I remember of that dream, anyway. It ended about the time I crawled into the balloon. It was a large open space with a lot of braces.
I mostly intend to do some work today on my Deputy Constable Penn Sadler story. It takes place in a precinct of mostly small towns in central Texas. A fictional county and so forth that bears a great resemblance to where I grew up, and where I live now. I’m planning a series of novels for the same area. I was a bit taken aback by Bill Crider’s “Sheriff Dan Rhodes” series. He has very much tapped the same vein. I love the books, though. Encouraging to see that it can indeed be done and well.
My main character, whom I’ve named Penn Sadler, is a native of the area, which I’ve called Shin Oak. He had been a county Deputy Sheriff, spent a little time as Acting Sheriff when the previous one left office under a scandal. Penn was defeated in his run for the office by some political chicanery and left the department, which pleased both him and his new boss. Penn is a good officer, so he got a job as Deputy Constable with an old friend, Constable Sam Hart, under his local Justice of the Peace, Sara Beth Adams.
Penn keeps up with matters in the Sheriff’s Department through his old friends there, as well as friends in other state departments. Contacts he cultivated through his previous career and a few high profile cases he had helped with. These contacts serve to draw him into many of the sorts of cases a Deputy Constable wouldn’t normally handle.
I've also been consciously using my tarot system for plotting/outline both the book and the series. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out, huh? As the man said, I can hardly wait to see what I write next!
I mostly intend to do some work today on my Deputy Constable Penn Sadler story. It takes place in a precinct of mostly small towns in central Texas. A fictional county and so forth that bears a great resemblance to where I grew up, and where I live now. I’m planning a series of novels for the same area. I was a bit taken aback by Bill Crider’s “Sheriff Dan Rhodes” series. He has very much tapped the same vein. I love the books, though. Encouraging to see that it can indeed be done and well.
My main character, whom I’ve named Penn Sadler, is a native of the area, which I’ve called Shin Oak. He had been a county Deputy Sheriff, spent a little time as Acting Sheriff when the previous one left office under a scandal. Penn was defeated in his run for the office by some political chicanery and left the department, which pleased both him and his new boss. Penn is a good officer, so he got a job as Deputy Constable with an old friend, Constable Sam Hart, under his local Justice of the Peace, Sara Beth Adams.
Penn keeps up with matters in the Sheriff’s Department through his old friends there, as well as friends in other state departments. Contacts he cultivated through his previous career and a few high profile cases he had helped with. These contacts serve to draw him into many of the sorts of cases a Deputy Constable wouldn’t normally handle.
I've also been consciously using my tarot system for plotting/outline both the book and the series. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out, huh? As the man said, I can hardly wait to see what I write next!
Friday, May 14, 2010
Furry Meatloaf Varmints
I have had pets most of my life, although I must say when I've had bouts of being single, I've avoided having pets. At those times I was either living where they weren't allowed, or I just didn't want the obligation of having to return home to feed one, or whatever. I could stay away from the house without worry. Now, it's a different story. I'm attached. And attached to, evidently.
Cats have us. Four of them. I love them, I really do. My lady love had three cats and a dog already when she added me to the menagerie. We lost one cat and the dog along the way, and added two more cats. So, the current count is four cats. All neutered males.
Oldest is Simba. He's a reddish tan tabby my step-son brought home when both were much younger. He's a bit codependent and needy, as well as being the one most likely to be underfoot. He's also the one most often asking to be fed, then promptly tossing his cookies in unhandy places. (By the way, I'm talking about the cat here, not the step-son, although, now that I think about it... well... never mind.) Add to that Simba's propensity for forgetting to use the cat box, and it makes life interesting. Oh, yeah, he dislikes doing his business outside, and comes inside to do it. We have two large litter boxes, sometimes it doesn't seem like nearly enough.
Next in age is Salem. My partner, Cat Dancing, was at a retreat in Missouri, not far from the town of Salem many years ago, when a car arrived bearing a hitch hiking kitten. The retreat was held at a dog sanctuary, not a great place for a kitten. Someone rescued the kitten, Cat made friends with it and brought it home. Salem is the boss cat of the menagerie. He's the cool, calm, collected one who knows his regal place and allows the rest of us to serve him. Salem is a black and white tuxedo cat. Rarely any fuss or trouble.
Panthera is next. We originally got two kitten rescues, Panthera and Pongo, together. Panthera is a solid black short-hair. I labeled him with the imaginative nick-name, Goober. Don't tell anyone! He's a real character. We also call him the inspector, he's always into everything, especially spell working, or tarot reading. Very witchy cat. He's also a bit of a bad boy. He's the one least likely to come inside when it's time to each evening. We let the oldest three out during the day, usually, but bring them in at night, Panthera is the kid going "ahh, c'mon, Ma, just a few more minutes!" We lost his playmate Pongo, a Siamese mix, to neighbor dogs some time back before he was grown.
Last is Meixa, pronounced "Meeka". He's another Siamese mix, seal point. Meixa is still a kitten. He was another rescue we got very small. It took awhile for him to trust us, now he's quite cuddly, and very rambunctious. He usually draws any or all of the other cats into wild chases and wrestling matches through the house. Amazing how such small animals can sound like stampeding buffalo at times! Meixa also likes to chew paper and cardboard boxes, a trait he shares with the late Pongo. Meixa took up shredding some boxes where Pongo left off. Cat wanted a lap cat when she got Meixa, but while he's cuddly at times, joining us in bed, he rarely will settle in a lap. He chooses, instead, to seek us out for attention when one of us is sitting on the porcelain throne deep in thought.
Any or all of the cats may be in bed with us during the night, causing us to adjust the placement of our feet. Getting up in the dark can be an adventure, or maybe a mine field, between furry speed bumps and the occasional messy surprise. Several of the cats also like to help me feed the aquarium fish, ready for another episode of kitty television, I suppose. Each one of them is a totally different individual, and they keep us guessing.
Cats rule!
Cats have us. Four of them. I love them, I really do. My lady love had three cats and a dog already when she added me to the menagerie. We lost one cat and the dog along the way, and added two more cats. So, the current count is four cats. All neutered males.
Oldest is Simba. He's a reddish tan tabby my step-son brought home when both were much younger. He's a bit codependent and needy, as well as being the one most likely to be underfoot. He's also the one most often asking to be fed, then promptly tossing his cookies in unhandy places. (By the way, I'm talking about the cat here, not the step-son, although, now that I think about it... well... never mind.) Add to that Simba's propensity for forgetting to use the cat box, and it makes life interesting. Oh, yeah, he dislikes doing his business outside, and comes inside to do it. We have two large litter boxes, sometimes it doesn't seem like nearly enough.
Next in age is Salem. My partner, Cat Dancing, was at a retreat in Missouri, not far from the town of Salem many years ago, when a car arrived bearing a hitch hiking kitten. The retreat was held at a dog sanctuary, not a great place for a kitten. Someone rescued the kitten, Cat made friends with it and brought it home. Salem is the boss cat of the menagerie. He's the cool, calm, collected one who knows his regal place and allows the rest of us to serve him. Salem is a black and white tuxedo cat. Rarely any fuss or trouble.
Panthera is next. We originally got two kitten rescues, Panthera and Pongo, together. Panthera is a solid black short-hair. I labeled him with the imaginative nick-name, Goober. Don't tell anyone! He's a real character. We also call him the inspector, he's always into everything, especially spell working, or tarot reading. Very witchy cat. He's also a bit of a bad boy. He's the one least likely to come inside when it's time to each evening. We let the oldest three out during the day, usually, but bring them in at night, Panthera is the kid going "ahh, c'mon, Ma, just a few more minutes!" We lost his playmate Pongo, a Siamese mix, to neighbor dogs some time back before he was grown.
Last is Meixa, pronounced "Meeka". He's another Siamese mix, seal point. Meixa is still a kitten. He was another rescue we got very small. It took awhile for him to trust us, now he's quite cuddly, and very rambunctious. He usually draws any or all of the other cats into wild chases and wrestling matches through the house. Amazing how such small animals can sound like stampeding buffalo at times! Meixa also likes to chew paper and cardboard boxes, a trait he shares with the late Pongo. Meixa took up shredding some boxes where Pongo left off. Cat wanted a lap cat when she got Meixa, but while he's cuddly at times, joining us in bed, he rarely will settle in a lap. He chooses, instead, to seek us out for attention when one of us is sitting on the porcelain throne deep in thought.
Any or all of the cats may be in bed with us during the night, causing us to adjust the placement of our feet. Getting up in the dark can be an adventure, or maybe a mine field, between furry speed bumps and the occasional messy surprise. Several of the cats also like to help me feed the aquarium fish, ready for another episode of kitty television, I suppose. Each one of them is a totally different individual, and they keep us guessing.
Cats rule!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
The Avatar Course
As I said in an earlier post, I was in the Avatar course all last week. Actually I started a couple of days late, and I didn't graduate till Monday evening. So now, I am an Avatar! It was pretty awesome. I must say I will probably be assimilating what I've learned for some time to come.
These days, if you mention Avatar, of course, most people think about the movie. (Truly awesome movie, too!) A few do recognize the concept from studies of Hindu and a few other religions. The course has little to do with either. I will only touch on a few of my overall thoughts on it here. You can go on to check out www.theavatarcourse.com if you wish to know more.
Simple idea, really, with far-reaching goals. The idea, to bring about an enlightened planetary civilization one person at a time, not by telling anyone WHAT to think, but rather cleaning out the cobwebs so they CAN think for themselves, meanwhile achieving true compassion for fellow beings. There is nothing exclusionary either, no "us or them" thinking. We're all on this planet together.
Each one of us sees "reality" through our own set of filtered lenses. Filters not all of our own choosing, but picked up rather willy-nilly from unbelievably random sources in our past. The Avatar course, starting with Part 1, Resurfacing, gives us the tools to decide for ourselves which beliefs are useful and which aren't. I'm not talking about particularly religious beliefs here, but diverse "lessons" we may have taught ourselves, or had imposed on us, for whatever reason in the past, and that may no longer be valid. The idea is to use the tools to sort them out, keep useful ones, clear out the rest.
There are no religious doctrines involved, no judgments levied, no right and wrong. Find out what is in there, and make your own decision what you want to keep. We all have things in our mental attics that are unbelievably trivial that continue to shape our lives today. Some beliefs served a solid purpose at one time, and no longer do, but they are still locked up in there. Others, like the weird smell of Aunt Gertie's hash, linger with no purpose, other than to give us heartburn.
Ever clean out your sock drawer? Get rid of all those un-matched, ragged, or out of style socks? How about cleaning out old programs, swap files, other detritus, out of your computer? All of that makes it more efficient, doesn't it? Defrag your mind? Yeah, kind of like that.
I took Part One, Resurfacing, last year. My partner, Cat Dancing, took the full course and went on to become an Avatar Master. That is the course I intend to follow as well, now that I have the rest of the basic course, (parts 2 and 3) behind me. We are heading out to Florida in a few weeks to do just that.
I believe it is well worth doing. Check out the website and see for yourself. There are free intro classes in most cities. See the site to locate a local master and intro. If you are here in Central Texas, let me know and Cat can talk to you.
These days, if you mention Avatar, of course, most people think about the movie. (Truly awesome movie, too!) A few do recognize the concept from studies of Hindu and a few other religions. The course has little to do with either. I will only touch on a few of my overall thoughts on it here. You can go on to check out www.theavatarcourse.com if you wish to know more.
Simple idea, really, with far-reaching goals. The idea, to bring about an enlightened planetary civilization one person at a time, not by telling anyone WHAT to think, but rather cleaning out the cobwebs so they CAN think for themselves, meanwhile achieving true compassion for fellow beings. There is nothing exclusionary either, no "us or them" thinking. We're all on this planet together.
Each one of us sees "reality" through our own set of filtered lenses. Filters not all of our own choosing, but picked up rather willy-nilly from unbelievably random sources in our past. The Avatar course, starting with Part 1, Resurfacing, gives us the tools to decide for ourselves which beliefs are useful and which aren't. I'm not talking about particularly religious beliefs here, but diverse "lessons" we may have taught ourselves, or had imposed on us, for whatever reason in the past, and that may no longer be valid. The idea is to use the tools to sort them out, keep useful ones, clear out the rest.
There are no religious doctrines involved, no judgments levied, no right and wrong. Find out what is in there, and make your own decision what you want to keep. We all have things in our mental attics that are unbelievably trivial that continue to shape our lives today. Some beliefs served a solid purpose at one time, and no longer do, but they are still locked up in there. Others, like the weird smell of Aunt Gertie's hash, linger with no purpose, other than to give us heartburn.
Ever clean out your sock drawer? Get rid of all those un-matched, ragged, or out of style socks? How about cleaning out old programs, swap files, other detritus, out of your computer? All of that makes it more efficient, doesn't it? Defrag your mind? Yeah, kind of like that.
I took Part One, Resurfacing, last year. My partner, Cat Dancing, took the full course and went on to become an Avatar Master. That is the course I intend to follow as well, now that I have the rest of the basic course, (parts 2 and 3) behind me. We are heading out to Florida in a few weeks to do just that.
I believe it is well worth doing. Check out the website and see for yourself. There are free intro classes in most cities. See the site to locate a local master and intro. If you are here in Central Texas, let me know and Cat can talk to you.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Taking Avatar
Behind on my blogs this week. I'm in the middle of taking an Avatar course at The Domain in Austin. My partner is a Master, I'm trying to catch up! Not about the excellent movie, nor Hindu religion, worth checking out. Read about it at www.TheAvatarCourse.com.
Namaste!
Namaste!
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