Awareness July Metanoia 2013 online edition

METANOIA JULY 2013



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METANOIA EXECUTIVE AND STAFF

A NEW WAY OF THINKING

PUBLISHERS

SALME JOHANNES LEIS & ALLISON PATTON

COPY CHIEF

CALEB NG

EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS

JR LEIS AND HEINO LEIS

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING

DAL FLEISCHER

PHOTO ARCHIVIST CONTRIBUTORS

GALINA BOGATCH Maureen Bader Alex Barberis Andy Belanger Donald J. Boudreaux Tim Brown Brian Croft Miki Dawson Cheryl Gauld Kulraj Gurm Marilyn Hurst Peter and Maria Kingsley Marilyn Lawrie Hank Leis

METANOIA MAGAZINE is a publication of METANOIA CONCEPTS INC. For questions, comments, or advertising contact by Phone: 604 538 8837, Email: metanoiamagazine@gmail.com, Mail: 3566 King George Blvd, Surrey, BC, Canada, V4P 1B5 2

Salme Leis Chris MacClure Seth Meltzer Caleb Ng Janice Oleandros Allison Patton Cara Roth Kaela Scott Pepe Serna Dan Walker Harvey White

METANOIA CONTENTS

A NEW WAY OF THINKING

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Executive Summary It’s All In Your Head Featured Artist Dale Maria Campbell Tahlthtama

Mindfulness-Based Chronic Pain Management A doctor re-examines chronic pain The Rant On Feeling Groovy Healthy Summer Do Be Do Be Do Be Do Aware This! Lessons from philosopher, The Atlantis King On the Set of Aguruphobia Interview with Pepe Serna Will to Power British philosopher, Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes, explains Nietzsche Lijiang to Shangri-La Part I By Dan Walker Missives Boudreaux Strikes Again!

The METANOIA Horoscope

It’s good for you

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Executive Summary It’s all in your head! That’s why this month’s magazine is about awareness, mindfulness and reaching the inward cosmic recesses of your mind, to recreate and define your universe.

Pain can be managed by you! Your creative endeavors can explode into a forward movement with ideas that will make you an artist, an actor, a doctor, a writer, or whatever it may be that lurks within the capacity of your thinking and your will to power.

If it’s not sexy it’s not very interesting.

This month we have found some of the most provocative and innovative thinkers that are on our radar at the moment.

Please enjoy and become the new you in your new way of thinking.

-Metanoia

The latest work of artist, Moriyuki Kono, and other pictures in THE GALLERY

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Artwork on the cover entitled “Oceanic”, creator goddess and protector of the ocean world, and artwork on executive summary page by Michael Soloman. A self taught Canadian artist who in his own authentic style, has broken the mold to create works that are at once emotive, disturbing, evocative and healing.

His universal images of wisdom and balance offer sanctuary and opportunity for reconnection to a better reality.

Having works in Canada, the United States, Hong Kong and Australia, he is currently devoting his inspiration to images of elegance and power. Find Mike and his artwork at: www.soloman.ca

Dale Campbell Featured artwork and interview: Dale Campbell is a Canadian First Nations carver from northern British Columbia. She was born in Prince Rupert, BC, in 1954 and is from the Tahltan nation of Telegraph Creek. She is of the Wolf clan.

METANOIA

METANOIA METANOIA March/April 2012 Edition

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NEW WAY OF THINKING

The New Face of BC Politics

By Hank Leis

President of the BC Conservatives White Rock-Surrey Constituency Association

Dr. Allison Patton, MBA

The Greek origins of the word Metanoia [met-uh-noi-uh] convey the notion of an experience or a moment that is transformative.

In fact the change itself would be so remarkable as to shift paradigms and these shifts actually would cause a change in behavior and ultimately the consequences of those behaviors.

The articles in this magazine are intended to introduce a different way of thinking so that ideas and notions we take for granted can be reframed in such a way as to renew our life by making it more interesting, challenging and rewarding.

Many of us have abandoned our intelligence, our ability to think, our various gifts for being able to create and instead joined the masses whose only goal is to perpetuate the species and dwell in a complacent and apathetic state amounting to nothing more than mere existence.

We at Metanoia believe we are all capable of more than that and more importantly are able to generate epiphanous moments for you. We hope that our plethora of deep-thinking writers will be able to transform your life into something meaningful and wondrous. Every one of us, to a varying degree, has experienced these moments and most of us who have been so transformed are driven to rediscovering the process that first allowed us our enlightened clarity of mind.

Naturopathic Medicine Week 2011 May 9-15

METANOIA METANOIA METANOIA March 2011

June /July 2012 Edition

METANO Apollonia Vanova

Sings us...

Thank you for 10 years Present

The Rant

the December 7

Steve Nash Christmas Bash

DECEMBER 2011 SPECIAL EDITION

METANOIA 778-788-0073/604-542-5213 jninkovich@stevenashsportsclub.com

Vancouver Is Burning June 2011

CAND Health Fusion Issue

An Interview with

Events list & schedule

Betty Mobley

H

George P. Shultz

cont.

METANOIA

ie ab ull er Lynx, Her Pa ssion, Her L

s

magazine

July 2011

TOUR DE WHITE ROCK

“Lullabies”

WILL JOHN CUMMINS BE ABLE TO CHANGE BC’S POLITICAL LANDSCAPE?

THE RANT GEORGE SHULTZ PART 3 Interview with a Statesman

Daughter of Texas

La lumiere d’une Chandelle

METANOIA METANO

In the last decade, scientific advancements have given insights into human phenomena that were previously thought science fiction, such as the viral theory as a contributing factor in the feeling of “love”. Anthropologists may have noticed nuances in human behavior early in our development, but these scientific discoveries now actually explain the physiology of “metanoic thinking”. Our own behaviors are being re-examined in light of these discoveries about brain function, and in particular that our usual way of thinking leads us to our usual results. Moreover mostly we do not think- but react- not unlike reptiles- and this process does not always serve us well.

WeThank You For 10 Years!

magazine

Humankind is evolving, and more and more the primitive fears that govern our behaviors are being discovered to be limiting rather than opportunistic. What we are discovering about ourselves is what our evolution is all about; the beast within will soon be quelled and what will emerge is anybody’s guess.

2011 magazine Media Kit

METANOIA magazine

2011 Media Kit magazine Special Fall 2011 Edition

METANOIA February/March 2012 Edition

METANOIA

Individually, the context of one individual within a population of seven billion suggests his/her insignificance – let alone a lifetime in the span of eternity. And yet we still have this narcissistic sense that our existence is of tremendous relevance.

And while there may be something to this belief, how do these enormous discrepancies in size and time fit together to explain the relevance of this epic story? Simplified, what is the relevance of a person making a living to pay for food and shelter to the formula E=mc2. Our mission, certainly for Metanoia is to explore all those ideas, and to change ourselves and you in pursuit of this intelligence. To put it another way, we want your brain to be engaged in way it never has been before. Are you ready for the challenge?

METANOIA

Pepe Serna

Actor, Artist & Motivational Speaker The Scarface Anniversary what it was like on set

2011 Media K 5

Dale Maria Campbell

TAHLTHTAMA Dale Marie Campbell, Tahlthtama, which translates to Tahltan Mother, is from the Wolf clan of the Tahltan First Nation. She designs and carves sculptures in wood, and engraves gold and silver with Northwest Coast themes. Recently she has also started to work with designs of sandblasted glass.

“I have been working as an artist since 1972. Dempsey Bob invited me to come and learn how to design and carve Northwest Coast traditional art. I also had the opportunity to be mentored by Freda Diesing, which was amazing. At this time I also was taught the art of tool making, which involved making the proper tools with the proper precision.

This knowledge helped me to have the right tools for the creation of my work.”

“I was fortunate to have Dempsey Bob as a teacher with one on one instruction for three years at his home. He once told me that he believed that I was a reincarnation of an artist from the past.

I never forgot that.”

Since 1976, Dale has exhibited her work in museums and art shows. In 1982 she also worked as part of a team of carvers on teaching/learning projects such as a 30 foot totem pole.

In 1984 she completed a course in basic silversmithing at the Vancouver Vocational Institute. With the knowledge of traditional Northwest Coast design, she taught herself the art of metal engraving.

“Some of my career highlights are winning a contest for the Museum of Northern BC logo and sign. I competed against some of the top artists of the region and won. The learning/teaching totem pole project was a big highlight for me because when I saw Freda Diesing’s pole I would dream of the day I would also be carving a large totem pole, and today I am one of a few women totem pole carvers.”

“The designing and carving of another 30 foot totem pole on speculation provided me an opportunity to learn about marketing my art. My brother Terrance Campbell worked with me on this pole, which took three years to complete. In 1991, this particular pole was purchased by the Prime Minister 6

of Canada, through a selection process, which involved 3 or 4 other top First Nations carvers from BC. My pole was selected. This pole was given as a gift of enduring friendship to the people of Hong Kong and we participated at the Canada Festival Days. My brother and I represented First Nations artists from Canada. As part of the festival we carved an 8-foot pole on display, to demonstrate through a live exhibition, the skills of a traditional carver. I also created an original silk screen print for the gifts to the guests who came to the pole raising.”

“I see the intent of my work is to develop and refine my work to the highest form that I possibly can and for me it is my way of feeling connected to the past, present and future of my people

and I feel that in my work.”

“If I come across a challenge in my work, I know that there is always a way to work with that challenge and I remind myself that there is a way to make it work for me and it reminds me that I am continuing to learn and develop through my work. Never give up – there is always a way. I would say this is an important part of my creative processdetermination and perseverance to continue in my work.”

In March, Dale placed first out of 700 artists that participated in the Phoenix Heard Museum show.

To contact Dale or to view her work go to www.dalemariecampbell.com

“Volcano Woman” in alder with argellite labret One day the chief ’s son decided he would go hunting with some of the other young men. He decided to take his father’s carved Cormorant hat, even though he was not allowed to. Off they went in a canoe, the Cormorant hat placed on the chief ’s son’s head. When they arrived to where they wanted to hunt, the son took the hat off and started to throw it around. They hunted and once finished went back to the canoe and started a fire to cook some meat. There were frogs all over the place. The son and his friends decided to play with the frogs. They tortured the frogs and threw them into the fire. Later that day they returned to the village.

Volcano Woman or Mother Earth was very angry about the ordeal. To punish the boys and their village a volcano erupted destroying them and the village. Only one woman and her daughter were spared.

The people of the village were punished because the son and his friends showed no respect towards the Cormorant hat, the chief ’s regalia, and to Mother Nature.

“Crying for Medicine” frontlet in alder with abalone inlay and ermine A great hunter, named Floating, while out hunting saw a small bear running along some distance away. He chased the bear and saw that it got weak and stopped to rest. It went into a hole in the middle of a cliff. Floating thought to himself, “That’s not a bear, it’s something else”. He could not get to the bear, so he went back to the village, and made a plan to return to the hole and lower a slave in the basket, and when he brought him back up the slave brought back blue flies. The next time he brought up ants, then frogs, and last tallow. Then Floating decided this was all to be used as medicine, so he mixed it all together.

He would take it hunting, and shake it and then he would get whatever he hunted for. In fact he would get whatever he wanted. He became very rich. When his estranged wife heard of this she came back and tried to move back in with him. She had hurt him and he decided because now that he could have any woman in the village he would not take her back. This medicine is still being used today and whenever someone gets ‘love crazy’ it is attributed to the love potion called “Crying for Medicine”.

Wolf and Raven totem in glass and maple

Eagle Dance in glass, cedar, and stainless steel

Killerwhale totem purchased by then Prime Minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney

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My Change in Clinical Career: Teaching Mindfulness-Based Chronic Pain Management (MBCPM) to Chronic Pain Sufferers

By Dr. Jackie Gardner-Nix

Dr. Jackie Gardner-Nix is the author of “The Mindfulness Solution to Pain” (with contributing author, Lucie Costin Hall, New Harbinger Publications Inc), and has written and narrated many meditations for pain sufferers (www.neuronovacentre. com).

She graduated as a scientist and physician in the UK and emigrated to Canada to take up a Terry Fox Cancer Research Fellowship in 1982. She has been an advocate for good pain management, initially in cancer patients, and, for the last 15 years, in noncancer pain sufferers. She is a Chronic Pain Consultant at St Michael’s Hospital and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and an Assistant Professor in the Anesthesia Department at the University of Toronto, Canada. She has three daughters and a grand daughter, and lives with her husband in Toronto, Ontario.

Jay hadn’t been back for a prescription for his opioid medications for severe back pain for months. He should have run out long ago, not something patients on opioids for pain do lightly, as the withdrawal can be severe, and he wasn’t an addict, buying drugs on the street.

In addition, he looked relaxed and had lost a tremor he had had on every clinic visit. “I am on less than a quarter of my doses now, doc”, he said. “I separated from my wife, moved in with a childhood sweetheart and we are very happy. My back pain is now just an ache, and not limiting me as much anymore. In fact I think I could work full time now.”

That, and many other stories, led me to the mind-body connection in pain management.

And it applies in many other disease scenarios I can think of. Working with neuroplasticity: the brain changing in response to new habits, new psychosocial circumstances and self-care, became my new direction in clinical medicine.

The hours I spent intensely listening to chronic pain sufferers to discern their needs informed me of the courses I eventually designed for them. What we saw in clinic was only the tip of the iceberg, and to really

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manage their chronic conditions we needed to get under the surface. I wanted to empower the patients to go below the surface themselves, to encourage healing by seeing and addressing issues which had perpetuated their disease processes, keeping them returning repeatedly for more band-aid fixes.

Childhood adversity: exposure to a parent death, divorce, alcoholism, depression or another troubling mental disorder, a sibling with a lethal illness, sexual, physical or emotional abuse, factored large in the narratives of those coming to my pain clinic. On enquiry, more than 90% of them had childhood adversity to which they had responded strongly, though many not realizing that till really asked to think about it. These were also, perhaps, the more highly sensitive members of society, the ones Elaine Aron wrote about in her book: “The Highly Sensitive Person”.

The out-pouring of stress hormones recurrently can become habit-forming. These affect many systems in the body, redirecting blood flow to help us “run from the tiger”.

When ingrained from childhood we may not notice the body’s recurrent reactivity, but living in a “clenched body” has certainly resonated with many of our patients. The immune system, undermined when stressed, doesn’t just protect us from infection but also performs our tissue repair, even from the wear and tear of everyday living, much of which occurs at night when we are in the deeper stages of sleep. Clenched bodies cannot relax enough to reach those sleep stages. The younger body is more forgiving but, beyond age 30, the systems are wearing out.

Fibromyalgia, depression and other disorders can also set in after the major stress is over, when the person “should” be thriving.

This might be adrenal fatigue: the stress glands accustomed to jolts of highly intense stress and not functioning without: perhaps we use up our allowance, borrowing from tomorrow to use it today. We need a baseline level of

stress hormone to keep us well. The analogy here is obesity-related diabetes where we use too much insulin, and exhaust our insulinproducing cells in the pancreas. It’s as if the cells go on strike!

After training in the world famous Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course in 2001 with Jon Kabat-Zinn, I adapted and honed it to establish the MindfulnessBased Chronic Pain Management (MBCPM) course. I needed to reach those who had never heard of Mindfulness or mind-body connection, who were afraid of a 3 hour class, afraid of doing yoga on the floor in front of others, or could not access Toronto from where they lived in Ontario. The course had to be available without seeing the facilitator initially 1 to 1, as this was teachable to many participants simultaneously. Jon had taught me MBSR in a class of 130. Currently some of my classes include over 80 chronic pain sufferers at several telemedicine sites simultaneously.

Our programme admits over 300 chronic pain sufferers three times a year. We have served over 40 Ontario communities.

I use similar philosophies for teaching our course to clinical colleagues, including those who are training to be facilitators to teach our courses. When I tried to teach colleagues the course differently, they asked that I just teach them the same as the patients. We are all “broken” in some way.

I learnt that doing clinical teaching in groups isn’t just cost effective: there is an enhanced therapeutic effect and healing in their camaraderie and shared purpose. We schedule small group work within the large groups, without discussing their health issues which brought them there, so that participants get to know one another and look forward to coming. I realized that learning as a group is more convincing, and changes habits, even in the face of stress, more reliably.

I am a “guide at their side” in the courses.

What they learn can bring up some very big

The Rant

insights into why they are sick, which can be unnerving for them.

The first part of the course guides their meditation and mindfulness practice to increase their resilience and respond with more equanimity to challenges, preparing them for what’s to follow. The middle of the course is about how pervasive stress is throughout the body-mind, and its connection with pain, which helps them correlate symptoms with thoughts and emotions. To mitigate stress, selfnourishing, exercising and sleep hygiene are next. They learn how the “broken” parts of their body are shunned by their minds, and they acknowledge “fighting” their conditions, which isn’t conducive to healing, or to staying well. A meditative body scan gets them back in touch with their bodies, which is surprisingly healing.

Choosing positive words: “collaborating” with pain (not struggling or fighting); pain is a “message” not a nuisance; changing the “should” to “could”; our gentler vocabulary becomes their new empowering “Self Talk”.

We examine stressful relationship habits, which frequently perpetuate ill health.

Empowering them further, we introduce them to their creative abilities: art, collages, poetry, to express the connections of past experiences to current health issues and how their life journey is changing. Insight can change how they cope with their world and their pain. Some may need to find therapists to work though what comes up for them; most seem to manage without. Some participants have said the work done in group did more for them than many sessions of 1 to 1 therapy in the past.

This work is both exhilarating and exhausting for the facilitator in keeping them all safe and on track, so self-care for me and our new facilitators is crucial. We have our own support group, and I have my own mindfulness teacher who “re-minds” me to care for myself.

Part of that balance comes from spending time on my own meditation bench, practicing living in each moment nonjudgmentally. Like my patients, all who know me will also fare better if I am well.

And, to be credible, I must live what I teach.

On Feeling Groovy

by Hank Leis

G

ood ranting is an art form. One cannot simply come up

with some subject to complain about unless one is engaged. Today the sun is shining, the temperature is warm, in my backyard a fawn has just been born to our resident deer, the flowers are blooming, I work with smart, young, attractive people who do homage to me by pretending to listen to me and in my middle age (70 years) I feel the power of my virility the way a teenager feels it when his girl of the moment slips off her undies. In other words, I feel damn good!

The problem, with feeling so good, is that one doesn’t feel driven to do anything.

The moment is absent of anxiety. It is as if all challenges have been removed and detachment from them has allowed one to become serene and peaceful. Of course there is the residual guilt one feels about things one should be doing or ought to have donebut when sunshine abounds in the usually dreary climate of British Columbia-one wants to frolic on the beaches or take walks on the mountain trails. Making millions of dollars or changing the world through politics seem more like preoccupations

of the insane. Love, peace and tranquility actually make sense-even though the evening TV news and the newspapers describe a world where bloodshed, poverty, and revolution are the order of the day. I watch this horror with a sense of detachment because right now that is not my world. It seems odd that people are screaming at each other, burning down homes and their places of work, essentially destroying the present in order to create future possibilities. But today, I simply do not care. Like a battered wife, I need respite from a world that in my now very pleasant paradigm, has gone insane.

In my world today, my children are doing well, my business is profitable, my future looks good, and I enjoy the time I spend with my friends and family.

I am sorry that this rant is not very interesting or profound and I assure you that I will do better in subsequent rants. By the next issue, there will be enemies to diminish, causes to fight for, people’s lives to randomly destroy, and reasons to go to war. Bear with me for not feeling upset with anyone. I will do better tomorrow.

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Healthy Summer

By Dr. Allison Patton

The French Riviera in summer brings thoughts of gelato, café au lait, azure beaches and beautiful jewellery.

To meet a long lost love and spend the afternoon gazing out over the town from atop Le Chateau is to feel alive, exhilarated and succulent. As I meander down the path toward the city, the colors of the bougainvillea are intense and pleasing to my eyes.

Oh, to feel this way every day of my life, that is a gift bestowed upon but a few; and for a moment it is mine.

Looking around me, right at this moment, what do I see? Pause, what do I hear? Pause again, what do I smell? Most importantly, what do I feel? Perhaps I sense a quickening of my pulse, or a lightness in my being.

Although I may notice areas of discomfort in my body and things about how I feel that I would like to be different, change often happens incrementally to one area of my life while I am focusing on something else. It is in the moments, the subtle moments each day that I take notice of my surroundings and it is in the noticing that I begin to experience the changes.

My business partner introduced me to Dr Amit Goswani, a retired professor of physics who just appeared in the award winning documentary, The Quantum Activist, and his quote is something to consider as a way for me to live in these moments: “It is not just do do do. It is not just be be be. It is do be do be do.”

By Dr. Allison Patton is a publisher of Metanoia magazine and a naturopathic physician at the Mountainview Wellness Centre with a focus on weight loss, mental health and hormone health. Her clinic is open seven days per week with a walkin clinic each Sunday from 10-4pm.

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Discover a New You...

➤ Rapid Weight Loss Talk with Dr. Allison Patton

Wed., July 17th at 7- 8pm held at Mountainview Wellness Centre. ➤ Rapid Weight Loss Talk with Dr. Allison Patton Wed., Aug 14th at 7- 8pm held at Mountainview Wellness Centre.

Starting in June Now Open Walk In Clinic Sundays Sundays 10am-4pm 10am - 4pm

604.538.8837

3566 King George Blvd., South Surrey www.mountainviewwellnesscentre.ca 11

AWARE THIS! The Atlantis King

Find the Atlantis King on his YouTube channel, Facebook, and at www.thespiritscience.net

The King of Atlantis Hath Returned. The mission? To ENHANCE and EXPAND human consciousness. The plan?

Inject the global Internet with Medicinal Media. The Secret?

Everything real was once imaginary.

The Atlantis King is partnered with the paradigm shifting team at Creator Course and Spirit Science; it is these partnerships that have helped thousands of people find their light, their alignment, their purpose and their bliss.

Watch out...You could be next…To master your emotions and to find the heaven of the present.

"Being the awareness that there is attachment brings out the alchemist in you that can turn unhappiness to JOY!"

So awareness… Awareness. You will feel the pain of attachment if you ever feel a disconnect like a drain of energy that leaves you anxious stressed upset or confused, if you feel this way concentrating on a few breaths will protect you from being overwhelmed by suffering, you go from being the sufferings to being the awareness there is suffering. This awareness is the state that brings about the enlightened person that knows himself and in doing so knows everyone else too… on quite a profound level….

Being the awareness that there is attachment brings out the alchemist in you, which can transform unhappiness to joy! and why does being still magically transform you into an alchemist able to transmute harmful emotions into blissful ones? Because when you are in your awareness you’re tuning yourself into harmony with the energy of the universe. This energy is infinite; we can do anything we want with this energy. Anything you could ever want with your finite human mind! When you manage to interrupt a hurtful emotion and then remember what bliss feels like. You are now in the champion state to be able to make decisions from and to bring you back to living in flow. Choose this practice now and whenever you suffer you are reminded that its time to get connected to get back in flow and to step in the heaven that is found in the present moment. Please do not reflect the suffering that you have felt back into the world.

The world is not hurting you, it is yourself… If it does anything 12

at all, really. Now that you are aware of this you cannot help but notice how much energy negative emotions cost to experience they are exhausting you’ll find down the track that you simply get bored of feeling negative states that you used perform for an energetic reaction from your surrounding people. Instead of doing this; simply relax into your awareness and realize you are filled with the infinite energy of the universe - and can only think of sharing because we have SO much!

But you can’t get an energy response from me cuz I’m just a computer screen… that drinks…. Instead you are filled with the infinite energy of the universe and can only think of sharing for we have so much! I don’t think I have said this enough but I really do love you the people you are all fantastically crazy and you are really funny as well you do some really funny things.

I cant wait to see what you get up to, I really do love you lots and its fantastic to spend time with you here. Just stop beating yourself up with an imaginary fish from the past… that was a metaphor….

-The Atlantis King

A new CD by Apollonia Vanova “ For Tatyana and Atlas, who touched my soul with innocence, beauty and unconditional love.”

- A. Vanova

“Playful, intimate, soaring and melancholy. They evoke a place long gone, simple, tender and innocent memories of childhood.”

-T.York “A mellow musical aperitif that sets the listener off into the night feeling like they have been a part of something special.”

-Wildy Haskell For CD Purchase or Download:

Maple Music 1-877-944-5144 WWW.APOLLONIAVANOVA.COM

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Pepe Serna as Nanak in the feature film, Aguruphobia

On the Set of Aguruphobia with

Pepe Serna

Pepe Serna as Nanak and Jade Puga as Crystal Luna in the feature film Aguruphobia.

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Co-writer, actress and producer, Jade Puga as Crystal Luna

Catching up with the iconic colorful and wonderfully talented Pepe Serna who stars in the upcoming indie feature film from Safada Y Sano Productions ‘AGURUPHOBIA’ opposite Jade Puga and Directed by Richard Montes.

Q: Tell us about your next project?

Pepe: I star and Co-Produce the upcoming feature Aguruphobia, a Safada Y Sano Production, written by Jade Puga and Richard Montes, the creative team behind the film. It’s a spiritual dark comedy that takes place in Los Angeles and delves into the new age self-help world.

Q: What does Aguruphobia mean?

Pepe: Aguruphobia is the title of the film and a play on words it refers to the character Crystal Luna (played by Jade Puga) who is agoraphobic-afraid to leave her home and to her obsession/ paranoia with my character of the guru Nanak thus A-Guru-Phobia.

Q: Tell us about your character?

I play Nanak an internet spiritual guru who is a mix between Walter Mercado and Deepak Chopra. In the film I am a commercialized guru selling happiness

and hope to help people through my teachings and of course I also sell products such as tea, autographed photos, mugs, posters and books of my teachings. In the film my biggest fan and top Nanak merchandise seller is Crystal Luna, played by up and coming hyphenate Jade Puga who also co-wrote and Produced Aguruphobia.

Q: What attracted you to the role of Nanak in Aguruphobia?

Pepe: I was intrigued by the idea of “celebrity” and the idea of how a public persona can become all encompassing and overtake who the real person is.

My character- the guru Nanak in this world is a celebrity who teaches about love and happiness when the cameras are on and I wanted to see what was behind the mask. I was impressed with the way Jade and Richard dealt with this idea of celebrity and the last scene between Crystal Luna and Nanak is somewhat of a showdown I believe that Nanak has an unveiling where we finally meet Nanak the man behind the guru behind the make-up and cameras.

Q: Can you share something fun about the shoot?

Pepe: (laughing) I will never forgive Jade and Richard for sticking me in that black wig!

Q: Why Aguruphobia? Why now in your career would you take on an indie film?

Pepe: The script that Jade and Richard wrote is colorful dynamic, pulsating, funny and has a strong message of togetherness and hope for humanity.

I have always strived to be part of projects that speak to me on a creative and personal level. When I first read the script I felt an instant connection to the themes of the piece and wanted to be involved. After talking to the director Richard Montes I knew that I would be in safe hands his gentle caring spirit and stern leadership would take this script to the screen in a way I would be proud.

Q: What most excites you about Aguruphobia?

Pepe: Being able to share with audiences across the world a character like no other I have captured on camera and sharing with the world two new talents Director and Co-writer Richard Montes and Star, Co-Writer, Producer Jade Puga.

Q: Any last remarks?

Pepe: Please stay abreast with all things Nanak by liking Aguruphobia’s facebook page http://www.facebook. com/aguruphobia and visiting our site www.AGURUPHOBIA.com

On set a moment between Director Richard Montes and the star, Pepe Serna

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Nietzsche-Will to Power By ©Sjöstedt-Hug hes/Ontolog ist ics MMXII

subjective aspect, are this will. This will does not add to the force, it is the force understood from within.

Now, Schopenhauer considered this Will to be the will to survive, to maintain itself in its phenomenal differentiation. Nietzsche advances the theory, so that the Will becomes not the will to survive but the will to power.

The subjective element of energy is a striving to assimilate more energy to its purpose, to its telos – that is its power. Thus, the will to power is a teleological principle that underlies everything.

Everything strives for power, for the most subconsciously.

The will to power is the central tenet of Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy. I shall seek to outline it through four aspects: the ontological, the organic, the psychological, and the societal.

- ONTOLOGICAL ASPECT of the Will to Power Nietzsche disavowed the mechanistic pre-Einsteinian physics of his age sired by Newton.

Instead, he argued that what was called matter was, in fact, a representation of force, or energy.

This was informed by his readings of Schopenhauer and Bošković amongst others, and inspired by Heraclitus: all is force against force, nothing more.

Now, the physics of his age, and the general physics of today, consider only the objective aspect of matter-energy – the relational properties accessible to all. Following especially the arguments of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche asserted that there is also a subjective aspect to energy – that is, a subjectivity. This subjectivity is not consciousness as such, it is rather akin to a feeling, a desire, a drive – a will.

All forces, which are listed today as being of four types, in their 18

Though teleological, the will to power is not a libertarian principle.

That is, Nietzsche is not advocating free will. The will to power is not free.

In fact, Nietzsche rejects free will along with the determinist mechanism, because consciousness does not cause actions, but merely accompanies them.

To be concise: All is force. Force has a subjectivity. That subjectivity is a striving for development – a will to power.

“All mechanical events, in so far as an energy is active in them, are really the energy of the will … [we] designate all effective energy unequivocally as: the will to power. The world as it is seen from the inside, the world defined and described by its ‘intelligible character’ is simply the ‘will to power’ and that alone.” (Beyond Good & Evil, §36) ORGANIC ASPECT of the Will to Power From this ontological aspect of will to power derives the organic aspect. In fact: ‘Life is merely a special case of the will to power.’

(The Will to Power, §692) Schopenhauer and many today

believe that the will to survive – the survival instinct – is the ultimate drive of all organic beings. For Nietzsche, the will to survive is merely the lowest degree of the allencompassing will to power (see Beyond Good & Evil, §13).

If an organism is threatened it will defend itself, but only because its death would end its power. If a being is not threatened it would seek to develop, to advance, to grow, to gain power. This is not greed; this is growth – this is reality.

The will to power does not, of course, merely apply to humans and other animals, but also plants, fungi, and all else. A tree would seek to would seek to grow its root and gain resources just as a person would seek to develop his health, strength, wealth, and status.

‘Life itself, in its essence, means: appropriating, injuring, overpowering those foreign and weaker; oppression, harshness, forcing one’s own forms on others, incorporation, and at the very least and the very mildest, exploitation … Life simply is the will to power.’

(Beyond Good & Evil, §259) Now, an individual organism (socalled) may gain power by entering into a symbiotic relationship with other powers – especially if it is relatively weak. The power of the whole increases the power of the constituents therein.

For instance, bacteria can gain advantages by living symbiotically with a human being who is also thereby advantaged. Further, a human being may gain advantage by being part of a group – family, tribe, state, religion, ideology, etc.

It is here where characteristics such as compassion, courtesy, generosity, empathy, etc., can play their part. But, always, ultimately, for the power of the group and the individuals who are therein united.

For

continued on page 21

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Nietzsche, a human being, in himself, is already a multiplicity of wills to power. Ideally, one will would dominate giving style, harmony, and direction thereto (see The Joyous Science, §290). Incidentally, in this respect, Nietzsche also moves away from Schopenhauer, as the latter considered an organism to be a single Will rather than a multiplicity. For Nietzsche, an organism is a hierarchy.

Nietzsche believed in evolution – a theory dating back at least two and a half thousand years to Anaximander and Empedocles.

But he rejected Darwin’s version of evolution. He considered it reactive rather than proactive.

That is to say that he considered Darwin to presuppose the essence of a life form to be a will to survive that merely reacts and adapts to its environment rather than proactively seeking to dominate its environment and thereby empowering its species.

Moreover, Nietzsche advocated soft inheritance, the inheritance of acquired characteristics, rather than the pure neo-Darwinist theory of hard inheritance – the former of which is now re-emerging under the name Epigenetics.

It is important to note that the will to power is not some vitalistic, spiritual principle that exists in addition to a body. Rather, it is numerically identical to the body, but known immanently. It is ontologically one with the body, but epistemically distinct.

- PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT of the Will to Power Our ultimate telos, then, is power.

Not pleasure. Not knowledge. Not fellowship with a god.

For Nietzsche, most pleasure is an after-effect, a byproduct of overcoming an obstacle – that is of overpowering an obstacle; be that an enemy, an examination, a phobia, a fear, anything that stands

in one’s way. Although people may consciously believe they are acting in order to ultimately attain pleasure or happiness, it is not consciousness that causes one to act, it is will – will to power.

Note that, in contrast to most thinkers today, Nietzsche argued that pain, in fact, was not to be devalued. Obstacles cause pain, and only through obstacles can we advance our power. Without obstacles and pain, we would not have evolved into the powerful, complex organisms we are today.

Pain is necessary for life. It makes life more advanced. As Nietzsche famously stated, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’

(Twilight of the Idols, M&A, §8).

So, it is not consciousness that causes actions. In fact, human consciousness itself is a product of the will to power. We only perceive that which was of power importance to us, our ancestors. We are mostly blind to the majority of reality which plays little role in our power.

This is parallel to Henri Bergson’s thought.

Most of our actions are performed subconsciously. One is not conscious of one’s legs’ intricate motions when walking, for example.

The main role of consciousness is to present to the will (or wills) possible actions vis-à-vis their consequences. The will then determines the action by which action offers the most power. Being prudent employs consciousness, but one is still determined by the will which seeks power.

The will to power is subjective, but it is not the same as human consciousness. Very seldom do we become conscious of our true nature.

The will to truth, the desire for knowledge, is again subsumed

under the will to power. Often, gaining knowledge is a means to gaining power. As Francis Bacon stated, ‘Knowledge is power.’ But not always is this the case: often a falsity would serve us better. A cult’s dogmas, for example, may deliver more power to the leaders and followers than if the members acknowledged their falsity.

In fact, virtually, all our beliefs are false. We merely believe what is in our interest, our power interest.

There are exceptions, but these are rare.

To begin with, our consciousness already delivers us distorted presentations of reality. Our senses are biased. Consequently, Nietzsche is known as a Perspectivist, because beliefs are based on perspectives of power, albeit subconsciously.

A person who feels enslaved will value freedom, as its manifestation would yield power to that person.

A person who has more power may value justice as this can be used to earn him ascendance over those more powerful. A person with overflowing power may value the love of humanity as it is, for him, his body of control (see The Will to Power, §784).

Indeed, a person of power would be courteous and friendly, and may genuinely love his enemies as they present means, obstacles, for him to test his strength. A lion would not be angered over a mouse; his relative power is too great.

Defensiveness betrays weakness.

‘Well-meaning, helpful, goodnatured attitudes of mind have not come to be honoured on account of their usefulness, but because they are states of richer souls that are capable of bestowing and have their value in the feeling of the plenitude of life.’ (The Will to Power, §932). continued on page 22

21

Religious belief, for the most part, is a perspective based on subconscious power considerations. Nietzsche singles out Christianity which for him is a perspective of the weak. It offers metaphysical punishment to one’s enemies as a real physical punishment is not an option. It offers an afterlife of eternal peace, only a value to someone who suffers from life. It offers a slave morality of virtues that benefit the weak – compassion, humility, servility, equal rights, etc. – and presents them as objective, absolute.

Christianity is, itself, a power structure originating in an underclass of the Romans, the latter having a different morality based on their perspective of relative power.

All morality is false – or, rather, no morality is absolute or objective.

In this, Nietzsche echoes the arguments of the ancient Sophists whom Plato sought to refute, unsuccessfully in Nietzsche’s eyes.

All characteristics have had their days as virtues or vices depending on whether they served the power of their subjects. Even mindless violence was a virtue in Homeric Greece.

– SOCIETAL ASPECT of the Will to Power – The danger of Christianity, and the slave morality it has spread, is, from Nietzsche’s own perspective, that it values the weak and mediocre over the great and as such has halted humanity’s power progress.

Christianity’s legacy is so ingrained within western culture that alleged atheists even presuppose this perspective’s valuation unwittingly.

For example, Utilitarians, such as J.S. Mill, simply assume as axiomatic that pleasure is of higher value than pain, and that each person should have equal rights when 22

calculating the consequences of an action. Likewise, socialists believe in equality as axiomatic without being able to prove why it is an objective value. For Nietzsche, socialism is tantamount to Christianity without the god.

But, without the god, there is no sanctioning of this slave moral.

When Nietzsche stated that ‘God is dead’, he meant that if one does not believe in God one has no logical right to believe in the morality which this deity ushered in (see The Joyous Science, §343 (and §108 & §125). We must develop and start thinking in terms ‘beyond good and evil’ – the name of one of his later books.

To conclude: the will to power is the fundamental force of all reality.

We observe this power as activity around us, but we can feel this power only within ourselves. In its epistemic immanence, it is not spatial and so as such cannot be measured; but, in its objectivity, it is the world and cosmos of which we are a part. ©Sjöstedt-Hughes MMXII

Biography

Peter Sjöstedt-H (“Sher – stet – aitch”) was born in Sweden and raised in Britain, in both cases at the geographic extremities: Skåne and Cornwall respectively. He was known as the ‘Little Philosopher’ as a child and continued this repute through his later education, gaining a BA (hons) degree in Philosophy and an MA degree in Continental Philosophy from Warwick University, finishing with a first class dissertation on Kant and Schelling in relation to ‘Intellectual Intuition’.

He then moved to the capital and worked as a Philosophy Lecturer for six years at a private college in central London, interspersing regular teaching with talks at public courses, on the internet, and at conferences such as the University of Arizona’s ‘Towards a Science of Consciousness’ interdisciplinary conference in Stockholm. Last year he returned to the awe-inspiring land of Cornwall with his German partner and their young son. He now works as a digital artist – continuing his parents’ profession – and as an independent Philosopher, giving public lectures here and there.

His main interests lie in the Philosophy of Mind and in the attempt at fusing the philosophies of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Henri Bergson.

Peter Sjöstedt-H can be contacted via youtube.com/ontologistics , facebook.com/ ontologistics, or at peter@philosopher.eu

The Dan Walker Chronicles

Lijiang to Shangri-La Part I Dan Walker is an adventurer, a businessman and raconteur. He has visited every country in the world. His trusty Rolls Royce has taken him across many continents. He includes his grandchildren in some of his travels allowing them to select the destination. Originally, he hails from Victoria, British Columbia, but now resides in Costa Rica. At our request he has honoured us by writing a journal of his most recent trip to China. We are pleased to present the Dan Walker Chronicles.

Lijiang is a city of 1,370,000 people where almost 60% owe their income to the tourism industry, according to our guide. The other main employer is agriculture, largely wheat, corn & potatoes - the altitude is too high for rice. There are 22 ethnic groups that comprise 57% of the population, the rest are Han Chinese. There are no tall buildings as it is in an earthquake zone.

We have been told farmers have their own plot of land, and they keep any income they generate from farming; however the government owns the land and can take it away by compensating the farmer.

The old city, a world heritage site, has a population of about 12,000 Naxi people, the ethnic group our guide belongs to. They have the delightful tradition of women doing all the hard work while men paint, write, read, carve wood, play music and make their wives proud by being good hosts when guests are over.

There used to be 30,000 in the old city, but many have moved to the new city as rents increased. The old city covers 3.8 Km2 (1 ½ square miles). No wonder my feet hurt so badly after we walked it!

The city goes back 800 years. It is interesting that the Chinese government not only tolerates ethnic groups, but encourages them to maintain their language, costumes, and

traditions. Many don’t speak Mandarin, as they communicate with each other in their own language.

After a 30 minute drive we caught a cable car up Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The area is beautiful, with a dazzling blue lake, coloured by mineral deposits, and the mountains are covered by pine forests.

The top of the cable car is Lijiang is 3.400 meters (11,152 feet) and the tallest mountain in the group is 5,596 meters (18,355 feet) high. To get to the cable car there is first a line to catch a bus (they are lined up one after the other), a 15 minute drive through the mountains and then to the cable car line. Out guide, Li, says in high season the line can be 2 hours.

While waiting for the bus we noticed a performance going on with horses and many Naxi people in costume, so we inquired but our guide says it wasn’t in our program. We insisted upon seeing the next performance, so she reluctantly agreed - we paid for the tickets.

Our arrival back at the base area coincided perfectly with the start of the next performance, which proved to be more than worthwhile. The cast of 350 portrayed a history of the Naxi people, and their part in the tea route. It seems every boy’s dream was to be the leader a caravan crossing the high and dangerous pass into and across Tibet.

The performance was outdoors, and when it started to rain employees quickly passed out free rain capes to the almost 1,000 spectators.

The next stop was another small, old village where we had a low end lunch before looking at some frescos painted in 1380, during the late Ming Dynasty. They had been partly destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, but are still quite well preserved. There is also a large Buddhist/Taoist temple we explored.

Black Dragon Pond near Lijiang in Yunnan Province with Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in the background

After that it was back to the hotel, where we tried out the huge indoor pool before marching into the maze of streets of the old town again. The guide says you haven’t truly

A view of the rooftops in the old city portion of Lijiang

explored the area if you haven’t become lost, so I guess we qualify!

She was programmed to show us through the old city, but we had enough of her for one day so told her to take the night off. One line she had that I thought was funny was that she tells groups that if they can’t remember her name just call her MBA - Married But Available. Marilynn didn’t think it was quite as funny. She told Marilynn that women don’t like her because their husbands do.

For dinner we decided to venture into the old city again. I followed the route that got us back last night, but Marilynn decided we should take a new route of shop lined streets with few restaurants.

After changing direction various times we found a small area of restaurants, so sat at one, ordered a couple of beer and were relieved to see the menu had English. Unfortunately no one who worked there had English or Mandarin, so requests and explanations were unsuccessful.

After ordering several dishes the waitress came back with the order pad, in Chinese characters, and crossed out the item we wanted most, so Marilynn cancelled. We paid for the beer & left. I found a route out of the old city near the hotel entrance, where we went into the bar for drinks and snacks. We are both starting to reject food, there has been so much. This hotel is one of the best that we have stayed in anywhere in the world.

23

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by DON BOUDREAUX on JUNE 5, 2013 in SEEN AND UNSEEN, TRADE Here’s a letter to the Washington Post: Dear Editor: Harold Meyerson dislikes foreign trade, in part because it destroys some American jobs (“Go slower on free trade,” June 4). And so Mr. Meyerson favorably quotes one of Congress’s staunchest protectionists, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH): “A trade deal, says Brown, ‘should both protect workers and small businesses and better prepare them for globalization.’”

Let’s make a deal. Government will agree to protect only those American workers and small-business owners who in return agree to stop buying foreign-made products.

For example, American steel workers will get protection from steel imports only if they, in exchange, agree to stop buying the likes of Toyota cars, Samsung televisions, Ryobi hand tools, Ikea furniture, Shell gasoline, Amstel beer, vacations to Cancun, and musical recordings by foreign artists such as the Beatles, Elton John, and k.d. Lang. They must also promise to stop buying the likes of bananas, cinnamon, and vanilla and, indeed, even American-made food items if these are shipped to their favorite restaurants and supermarkets in foreign-made trucks - or in trucks equipped with tires made by Michelin, Bridgestone, or some other job-destroying foreign company. These workers would be permitted to drink only Hawaiian coffee; they must quit drinking the Colombian, Guatemalan, and Ethiopian coffees that they’ve become accustomed to drink. Oh, and absolutely no diamond jewelry, as those gems come from Africa. (Sorry, ladies.)

Small-business owners likewise will get such protection, but only in return for their agreement not only to stop consuming foreign-made products, but also to never sell their outputs to non-Americans. These businesses must, in addition, promise to use in their operations only American-made inputs - such as aluminum, wood, chemicals, and insurance services - even when foreign-made substitutes are available at lower prices or in higher qualities.

Deal?

Sincerely, Donald J. Boudreaux Professor of Economics and Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center George Mason University Fairfax, VA 22030

Slavery – Even Temporary – Is An Offense Against Humanity

by DON BOUDREAUX on MAY 29, 2013 in CIVIL SOCIETY, WAR Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal: Dear Editor: Gen. Stanley McChrystal joins the discordant chorus of anti-American voices calling for mandatory national service (“Lincoln’s Call to Service - and Ours,” May 30).

Of course, Gen. McChrystal is convinced that government coercion of young people to “serve” in programs designed by politicians and operated by bureaucrats is pro- rather than antiAmerican. But what’s more central to the American creed than the manifesto in the Declaration of Independence that every individual possesses “unalienable Rights” which include “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” - and that government’s sole purpose is “to secure these rights”?

Not even the most twisted reading of the Declaration can make Jefferson’s words consistent with a practice of robbing young people temporarily of their liberty. That foundational declaration of American principles simply leaves no room for any policy of enslaving, even if only for a year, young people to serve Gen. McChrystal’s (or anyone else’s) notions - however high-minded in principle, if always arrogant in practice - of “citizenship” or “service” or “commitment” at the expense of these young-people’s pursuit of their own happiness as they themselves judge it.

Slavery, even for a limited time, is an atrocity. Gen. McChrystal’s proposal deserves the same scorn that America’s founders unleashed on their would-be masters in Britain in 1776.

Sincerely, Donald J. Boudreaux Professor of Economics and Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center George Mason University Fairfax, VA 22030

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Your

HOROSCOPE Cancer JUNE 22-JULY 22

By Onieh Siel

Scorpio OCTOBER 24-NOVEMBER 22

Pisces FEBRUARY 20-MARCH 20

Change is a many splendored thing.

Change automatically gives you new pathways to new discoveries.

Your accomplishments are not to be relied on to give you status. Your newly discovered interests and how you pursue them is what gives your life the zest you are looking for.

Find people who are detail oriented to do things for you so you don’t have to do them yourself. You have an overview which gives you an edge over others on everything you undertake. Stick to staying on top of every situation and you will end up at the bottom.

In order for life to be worthwhile, then what you are engaged in is shifting paradigms and perceptions.

There is no single way of looking at things that feeds your senses that delights them. If God wanted us to see flat surfaces we would have no perspective in our vision.

Leo

Sagittarius

Aries

JULY 23-AUGUST 22

Express yourself with intent and honesty. Doing so allows you to reveal what lies beneath. Talking out loud is communicating with the self, so surprise and discover yourself by revealing to others what you have not revealed to yourself.

Live by abandoning the lies you tell yourself and others to be approved of or liked.

Virgo AUGUST 23-SEPTEMBER 23

The future is now and the past is what makes it so. Today’s results are all manifestations from past activities so when you think of the events that affect you- all are consequences of the choices you made long ago. Reflect on all the small tradeoffs you are making today that lack integrity and think of the consequences all of them will have on your tomorrow.

Libra SEPTEMBER 24-OCTOBER 23

“I’m stressed out” is usual in your mantra. But you like it that way because it makes you important and gets you attention. But getting that attention does not serve you well. It is not productive and eventually it makes you fall behind everyone else. Seek joy in all you do.

NOVEMBER 23-DECEMBER 21

The special people in your life are the ones you choose to make special. Often the reasons you choose them is guilt or some other unhealthy obligation that offers nothing new in the way of opportunities. Your friends define who you are and if they are of the same old variety, then so are you.

Capricorn DECEMBER 22- JANUARY 20

Being pulled in many different directions means you don’t have the personal integrity to see the forest for the trees. Integrity is not about compromising but about having the courage to express the truth no matter who it hurts or offends. It means not worrying about whether people like you or not.

Aquarius JANUARY 21-FEBRUARY 19

Take a trip to a place you’ve never been. Meet people and learn how they think and why they do things differently. Then reinvent yourself in small ways and big changes will follow. You never wanted to be a duplicate of your parents- so go away and come back a different person. Otherwise, just stay away, forever.

MARCH 21-APRIL 20

Business and pleasure should never be separated unless one desires a complacent, meaningless and single dimensional life. All experiences are an asset to the reservoir of resources to be used in the challenges that face you every day.

Every moment of your life is the experience. You are writing the story of your adventure each day, and if you think not, then someone else is writing it for you- and you have to reason to complain.

Taurus APRIL 21-MAY21

Focus on the impossible and discover how to make it possible.

Most people live a mundane life and wonder why nothing interesting ever happens to them. But you know that you are different from all the others. Go for the gusto and make yourself into a living legend.

Gemini MAY 22-JUNE 21

Improve your life by not bettering it. Take on challenges that improve your life by teaching you how to do things you are normally afraid of. If fear is the only motivation you have then you will always be clinging to the past no matter how morbid or unrewarding it may be.

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