Real Life Woo Woo

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Well. I've had an interesting weekend.

I've been feeling pretty awful lately; bloated, slow, with an unhappy tummy. I just have not felt like eating. Finally, I decided that if my body didn't want to eat, I wasn't going to make it, and I started what I thought was going to be an 8 day juice fast.

You can start laughing now.

I lasted all of 30 hours on my juice fast before I cracked and ate part of a donut. And a scrambled egg. And the rest of the donut.

And two pieces of pizza.

And a kit-kat bar.

(This dietary recitation may give you an indication of why I've not been feeling well in the first place. I usually keep this kind of stuff out of the house, but lately things have been kind of odd.)

Now, 4 hours since breaking my fast, I am thinking perhaps I should have stayed on it. I wasn't hungry, I WAS feeling better; I was a little weak and tired, but I suspect that my body still needs a break.

What I found interesting was how, when I mentioned to my dad that I was doing a juice fast, I made a point of mentioning that it had nothing to do with anything spiritual. Yes, fasting has been said to have spiritual benefits; more clarity of thought, more awareness; I was hoping for these things, but they were not my driving focus.

That got me thinking how, really, a lot of supposedly "woo woo" things have real benefits. Meditation, for example- I avoided this for years simply because I wasn't into "that stuff". Oh, no, I wasn't crazy, I had my feet firmly on the ground (and my head firmly up my ass, really). Now, I do it on a regular basis. Not because of any magical purpose, but simply because it helps me find my center, be more grounded and more calm. I have a tendency to get wrapped up in my own head, and run and run like a mouse on a treadmill until I am emotionally and mentally exhausted. Meditation gives me an opportunity to clear out the clutter, get in touch with what is real and let everything else go.

Tarot, I think, serves a bit of the same purpose; it gives you the opportunity to look at things from another point of view. Not everyone accepts that; I have seen someone take an obvious "No!" in a spread and twist it in their head until it said what they wanted it to say. It was astounding, really. But taken with an open heart and an open mind, a tarot spread can help you step back and look at your life, and really take responsibility where you have been avoiding it- or release the responsibility for things beyond your control. Tarot can show you that there's hope when you'd thought there was none, and sometimes, sadly can say, "Hey- this is going to be really, really awful for awhile". Never good to hear- but at least you're prepared.

To be perfectly honest, I still have a lot of suspicion about tarot. How does it work? Why does it work? Is it really just people taking generic meanings and applying them to their lives however they fit? However, I've seen enough creepily accurate spreads to realize that there is most likely something deeper, something really special that happens when you lay out a tarot spread. Even if there's not, people are taking from the readings things that they need to hear.


(That juicer up there is a Waring. It's the one I have. If you must buy a juicer, do yourself a favor and skip this one. It wastes a TON of juice.)