Mart Gnosis

Tabletop fountains and feng shui applications go way back. It has been well-established in feng shui community that a well-designed tabletop fountain attracts prosperity and abundance in one’s life. If used wrongly and inappropriately, a tabeltop fountain can cause more harm than good.

construe three remarkable awful impacts of a tabletop fountain before applying it in your home:

1. At any price, avoid putting the tabletop fountain on right side of the door. Infidelity may be warded off in one’s intimate relationship by putting the water feature on left side of the doorway. Your husband is more probable to cheat on you when you position the tabletop fountain on the right face of the doorway. right side refers to the side that is joined to your right hand when you look at the door from interior of the household.
2. The size of the water feature should be directly proportional to the size of the room in which you plan to station it. Big sized water fountains like an elegant shishi odoshi when placed in a small room may produce too much energy and thereby result in hyper-energy environment.
3. It is primal to pick the fountain statuettes wisely. statuettes that are channeling unsuitable pictures and images should not be placed by your tabletop fountain A blissful angel statuette or a fairy figurine are ideal for beautifying your tabletop fountain.

Every entrepreneur, including an NJ Accountant, may benefit from comprising a tabletop fountain and averting these three pivotal mistakes.

“You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing”
Ps.145:16

Have you ever wondered what the passions and talents are that God has given you, and what you should do with them? Have you ever wondered if God has a dream for your life?

I was talking with some friends about these issues and one of them said: “What if I look inside and look at my life and don’t find the answers to these questions, or don’t find anything?” While I understand the uncertainty of her reply and her timidity, thinking that way fails to acknowledge that God has given each of us special passions to accomplish what He wants done in the world. And He has given us abilities to carry those passions out! They are part of our DNA of God-designed gifts. When we say that we might not find “anything”, we are saying we aren’t human. We might as well be a robot going through life.

Our Mission in Life
It is been said that our mission in life is to exercise the talents and motivations we most delight to use, in the place or setting God has caused to appeal to us the most, for the purposes which God most needs, again, to have accomplished in the world. Could you describe what this would be for you? That would mean describing your strongest passions, where you want to put them to use, and the purposes and people they would serve. Apart from God’s leading and some personal reflection, this could be a tall order!

Understanding Our Purpose
Purpose can be found when we discover the specific purpose for which we were created and to which we are called. We all seem to want to fulfill a purpose bigger than ourselves.

A reminder: “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph.2:10) What were you created to do? Ask yourself if your activities and “work” are fulfilling some of God’s purposes for your life? You might be doing “meaningful” things, but they might not be what God had in mind for you.

Another friend of mine (a very talented woman) recalled to me that her church had asked her if she would accept a particular job. I have no doubt she would have carried out that responsibility with talent and commitment. However, I sensed she was holding back. I asked Cindy, “Are your passions really in this job? Does it motivate you?” Her answer was no. She suddenly realized this was not her calling.
She turned the job down. Later, she found other ways to use her abilities that did motivate her and enable her to serve in her church. I credit Cindy with recognizing that God gave her heart passions for a reason, and if she were faithful to those passions, a way would open up for them to be used.

Thinking About Our Heart Desires
There is a lesson here for all of us. We need to not only recognize our strongest passions, but reflect and pray about them. Why? They are hallowed ground. They hold the secret to the purposes for our life! We can find our passions or heart desires by looking over our life and listing our most satisfying achievements or accomplishments. Such achievements can come from school, church, work, home, hobbies, volunteer work, and can go back to childhood.

For example, you may find you were you always leading, serving, helping, communicating, organizing, solving problems, entertaining, or inspiring others. Anything you did which was based on something important to you was tied into your motivational pattern. Discover what those motivations were and how they were used throughout your life. Write them down. They represent “where your heart is” and what God has planted in you! This information can be helpful to you in making life decisions and choices.

Identifying the Setting/Activity That Appeals the Most
After listing your heart’s desires, consider using them in different settings and perhaps in new activities. Make a list of those settings and opportunities. You will find one or two will stand out more than the others. I made a list of the ways I could use my passions, and was intrigued to find out that even though those passions were part of each possible activity I listed, some activities still “grabbed me” more than others. That was a revelation!

Beware of letting logic get in the way! God may be calling you to stretch yourself and to journey into un-chartered waters. List the different settings that come to mind. Be especially aware of the setting that really motivates you and gives you a sense of knowing and peace that you have found your dream. When you “leave” that activity, you lose your interest. When you “return” to that dream it won’t let go. You could describe the setting in detail: where it is, what you would be doing, whom you would be serving, and how they could benefit. Pray about it, and if it seems right, you have undoubtedly found God’s dream for you. His will is also made know in other ways. (See November, 2003, What Should I Do With My Life? http://www.followyourheart.info/articles/art200311pr.html)

Realizing God’s Dreams Reside in What He Has Already Given Us
When we start to discern the unique design of talents and motivations within us, we start to discern His will for our lives. We have a big dream that has been woven into our being since birth. Our mission is “written in our members.” It is there to draw us toward the life we were born to love, toward what we were made to do, and toward a place of His choosing. We won’t be ourselves until we are there!

God has a mission, a purpose, and a dream for your life. May you find what He would have you do— the place where you could serve and fulfill that dream! You may be used in different ways over your lifetime, in keeping with your passions and talents, and in keeping with where you are in your life.

Happy dream journey,

Judy Peterson

©Copyright 2006 - Judy Peterson. All Rights Reserved.

I have read many books in my life and have often wondered which one I would choose for required reading for seniors in high school. Surely one of these is Dr. Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. This remarkable man was a survivor of the Holocaust and in this beautiful book we learn how he endured and created and loved, in spite of the inhumanity.

To quote from the Preface by Dr. Gordon Allport:
“Hunger, humiliation, fear and deep anger at injustice are rendered tolerable by closely guarded images of beloved persons, by religion, by a grim sense of humor, and even by glimpses of the healing beauties of nature a tree or a sunset.”

Another quote: “In the concentration camp every circumstance conspires to make the prisoner lose his hold. All the familiar goals in life are snatched away. What alone remains is ‘the last of human freedoms’ — the ability to ‘choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances.”

I have been a student of the Holocaust for many years, and have had the privilege of meeting people involved in it. I typed and edited Return to the Hiding Place for Hans Poley, who was the first person to enter the Hiding Place. Hans stayed with the ten Booms for about nine months, then went into the underground and was eventually arrested and sent to a concentration camp himself. There is a video tape available from Heros.org about Hans and his book. It is a remarkably Christian book by a true hero. I’ll never forget a statement Hans made, that those who knew nothing about what it was to deal with such horror could never understand what it was to “become Christian again.”

The one sentence that summed up Dr. Frankl’s book is from the preface, “[T]he ability to choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances ….” I am tired of reading about the frivolous lawsuits and incessant complaining about molehills. The world does not owe us a living, nor a life! When we read of these survivors and liberators and the absolute hell they went through, how in the world can we complain about another thing?

======

Frankl wrote the following while being marched to forced labor in a Nazi concentration camp:

We stumbled on in the darkness, over big stones and through large puddles, along the one road running through the camp. The accompanying guards kept shouting at us and driving us with the butts of their rifles. Anyone with very sore feet supported himself on his neighbor’s arm. Hardly a word was spoken; the icy wind did not encourage talk. Hiding his hand behind his upturned collar, the man marching next to me whispered suddenly: “If our wives could see us now! I do hope they are better off in their camps and don’t know what is happening to us.”

That brought thoughts of my own wife to mind. And as we stumbled on for miles, slipping on icy spots, supporting each other time and again, dragging one another on and upward, nothing was said, but we both knew: each of us was thinking of his wife. Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of the morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds. But my mind clung to my wife’s image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness. I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look. Real or not, her look then was more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise.

A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth–that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world may still know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when a man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way–an honorable way–in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life, I was able to understand the words, “The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.”

In front of me a man stumbled and those following him fell on top of him. The guard rushed over and used his whip on them all. Thus my thoughts were interrupted for a few minutes. But soon my soul found its way back from the prisoners existence to another world, and I resumed talk with my loved one: I asked her questions, and she answered; she questioned me in return, and I answered…

My mind still clung to the image of my wife. A thought crossed my mind: I didn’t even know if she were still alive, and I had no means of finding out (during all my prison life there was no outgoing or incoming mail); but at that moment it ceased to matter. There was no need to know; nothing could touch the strength of my love, and the thoughts of my beloved. Had I known then that my wife was dead, I think that I still would have given myself, undisturbed by that knowledge, to the contemplation of that image, and that my mental conversation with her would have been just as vivid and just as satisfying. “Set me like a seal upon thy heart, love is as strong as death.”

======

Yes, Father, set us as seals on Your heart, and help us to see the beautiful and noble and to be grateful!

The origins of the science of astrology are obscured by time but without doubt all the ancient records from various civilizations refer to it as a sacred science, and, particularly in past times, it was studied alongside what was then regarded as its twin science: astronomy.

Astrology probably evolved from primitive times when man first related the events of his life to a power stronger than himself. At the mercy of unknown elements affecting human life, he no doubt tried to find a rational solution by seeking to link his destiny with the heavenly bodies that were displayed in the night skies.

However, from the earliest records to which we have access, from the time of the earliest known civilizations, astrology was already established as a sophisticated system of knowledge. It identified the planets, symbolically divided the sky into zodiacal signs and what is more important, had some knowledge beyond the forms of celestial bodies as to the interpretation of their invisible influences upon the human psyche and life on our earth.

Every ancient civilization - Egyptian, Chaldean, Sumerian, Chinese to name a few, had their own astrological systems. And nearly all the ancient scriptures have interesting references to astrology. It increases our respect for this knowledge to know just how deeply it has been a part of human culture. Some claim that the first great astrologers mentioned in history are Petosiris and Necepso, believed to have lived in the reign of Rameses II of Egypt. Others such as the classical writer Simplicius in the sixth century AD says that he always heard that the Egyptians had kept astronomical observations and records for a period of 63,000 years. Diogenes Laertius dated Egyptians to 48,863 years before Alexander the Great. Martianus Capella corroborates this by telling that the Egyptians had secretly studied Astronomy for over 40,000 years before they imparted their knowledge to the world. Chinese knowledge of astronomy dates back to 18,000 years ago. The text Vedanga Jyotisha in Indian Vedic literature shows Astrology to have been known in times which pre-date known history.

There is a great deal of evidence to support that astrology and astronomy were both integral to the culture of people both east and west. Modern archaeologists confirm that many relics continue to come be found, that directly refer to both astronomy and astrology in past ages.

Obviously beyond studying the evidence that is available, we can only speculate as to the real time of the birth of Astrology but can feel very certain of its validity as a science and its serious application. In earlier times this would have been the province and responsibility of the priesthood who used it in the temples for healing; scholars within all cultures studied and assisted in advancing the science and it was certainly used by rulers in promoting the welfare of their country and in planning strategies for defence and campaigns to extend their power.

Although it is well known that rulers over the last centuries in the western world have employed astrologers to assist in determining ‘auspicious’ dates for events of importance, from Queen Elizabeth I to Napoleon and even some of our present day rulers, astrology now provides knowledge which is accessible to all.

There are many practical applications of both serious and more frivolous purposes which are presently being explored by enterprising people, and these include gardening, horseracing, weather prediction, animal breeding and many others.

Its most popular application in modern times however, has been to help the individual in self- analysis. As well, professional psychologists are beginning to observe the benefits in helping them understand the different types of personality and behaviour. This is perhaps the area most deserving of the old association as a ’sacred’ science which relates the great natural forces outside our world to the activities and interests of humanity on our own planet.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Astrology