Of course, I’m not advocating absolute silence. But I’ve noticed people around me seem to feel that the need to fill the world with noise, as if trying to assert that they do exist. And so do all their devices.  Have you ever been trapped in a waiting room with music playing over the speakers competing with the sound of the blaring television and over that they sound of the PA system summoning this person or that. Then add on that conversations, people talking on cell phones, and general noise caused by movement and machinery and you’ve got muggle noise.

The question then becomes what to do about it. Now, sometimes we can remove ourselves from the situation or at least be happy we don’t have to spend more time in places where noise is continually blasted at us. Other times, well, we find ourselves in a place where we can’t escape the noise.  What then?

I’ve discovered that you can fight noise with noise. In this case – white noise. I run it on my computer when I’m working and writing because really, I don’t want to listen to the muggle noise all day long.  And there are applications that let me create white noise using my phone. Just Google “white noise” and you’ll find plenty of options. White noise generators come with a variety of selections these days from the pure “static” sound that is technically white noise to a selection of nature sounds that have a soothing effect on our subconscious. I usually go for a combination of rain and ocean noises. If I have to defeat really loud muggle noise, I add in a something like thunder to drown it out. The only problem is I find myself craving a cup of tea and a mystery novel.

Beltaine (or Beltane) is one holiday that doesn’t seemed to have been converted by the early Catholic church into a more Christian celebration, though it did survive for some time as “May Day.” Remember those songs about the Merry Month of May? Those show that the old fertility association with Beltaine really hasn’t died out over the centuries, even though until recently one would have had trouble finding an actual Beltaine celebration.

But Beltaine is back. If you don’t have a Pagan or Wiccan friend, just do a Google search and you’ll find plenty of information and probably some local festivals in your area. But I always caution people to make sure they know what they’re getting into before they attend a Beltaine celebration. The rites, rituals and dress requirements can vary drastically. Some celebrations will involve people in pretty dresses dancing ribbons around a May Pole and having a pleasant picnic lunch. There might be some Celtic music and dancing and someone might build a fire to leap over for luck.  These are fairly safe celebrations for newcomers. Other can involve drumming, dancing late into the night, and various states of dress, including no dress at all. Unless you’re ready to jump into Beltaine with both feet, you might want to pass on these events. Or you can celebrate at home with a candle, flowers and a little merry making of your own.

My yard has a bit of a split personality. The front yard and garden are more public in the sense that anyone passing the house can see them. It’s a tiny front yard that the neighbor’s son keeps mowed so it appears neat enough to pass home owners inspections.  The back yard is fenced, shaded and private. It is where I write and meditate and where I often let nature run a bit wild. There’s no grass left as the space, which isn’t overly large, has been turned over to a mix of garden, ground covering and seating spaces. This lack of grass also means I don’t need a lawn mower to keep up with it, though the ground covering does get trimmed with a string trimmer now and then depending on the seasons.

And in this back garden I really do keep track of the seasons since the house is actually situated to emphasis them.  The sun moves along the length of the house and in the winter moves in the sky so that much of the garden is in shadow. So, when I start my spring plants, I have to put them in the back half of the garden for them to get sunlight. In the summer, the sun hits most of the garden and I retreat to the shade of the trees when I sit out.  My back garden has become an intensely personal space where I can go to retreat from the world and refresh from the stress of the day.

It doesn’t take an entire yard to create a secret garden.  You can claim an unused corner or that neglected side yard. Just add a comfortable seat and a few of your favorite plants. Screen it with an arbor or even a few plants in pots. Just choose a spot you can design to your tastes and not the for the neighbors. Then take a few minutes each day to sit in your spot and enjoy a cup of tea and perhaps a few minutes of meditation. Soon just walking into the space will have a calming effect.

We know music affects mode. You don’t even need to look at the psychic or spiritual aspects of life to see this. Just consider what a movie sound track is supposed to do.  Did you see Jaws?  Remember the dumm duumm duum that signaled the shark was near. That music was designed to make you sit on the edge of your seat waiting for the shark to attack. Watch any horror or suspense flick and you’ll be directly exposed to this effect.

So now lets think about it in the context of the spiritual. Man has long recognized the sacred connection with music, from Shamanic drumming to Gregorian chants to the current trend of Christian rock.  Music connects directly with the soul and then with the energy around us. It affects our emotions and our energy. When you listen to music, you raise your energy level.

But very few people think about what they do with that energy and where it goes. Or what might be the best music to listen to during the day to achieve balance and harmony in their life. I hear so many people listening to songs with angry and even violent lyrics without realizing that they are bringing that energy into their life and then reflecting it back to the universe.  While there is a time to enjoy every type of music, stop and think about the music you run as the sound track of your life. Is it in tune with the energy you want in your life? If not, then change the soundtrack.

But there are times when we have something in mind that we want to know and sometimes people wonder if they should ask the question or will that lead the reader on?  Yes, you should ask the question, especially if you have something that you really need or want to know the answer to. It will lead the reader to look at the cards in relation to that question, but it won’t necessarily lead them to provide what people think of as “the answer I want” because the reader may not even know the answer you want.

Let’s take a couple of common questions – love and career. Now, if you ask “will I find love” or “will I find a new job” the tarot reader is probably going to want to give you a positive answer. Anyone is probably going to want to be able to give you a “yes” answer to those. But are you phrasing that question the right way?  For example, you might want to ask “is it better for me to remain in my current position or find a new job?” Or “is the time right for a new relationship?”  Often this will allow the reader to find a better answer in the cards and sometimes it may not be the answer you expected.

Now looking up spiritualism itself, the site did better: A philosophic doctrine, opposing materialism, that claims transcendency of the divine being, the altogether spiritual character of reality and the value of inwardness of consciousness.  So, like other user contributed sites, it looks like two different people wrote these entries. One has a better grasp of the subject.

When you seek a psychic reading, you may find yourself working with a spiritualist. Now a spiritualist just uses different gifts to give you the information you need. While a tarot card reader will read the cards, and a palm reader will read your hand, a spiritualist speaks with those who have crossed over and returned to provide the living with guidance.

While many different types of psychics can provide you with advice and guidance in life, if you want to speak with a loved one who has died, you’ll want to seek out a spiritualist or a medium.  These are the two terms used by those who speak to the dead. Or as Hollywood would have it – those who see dead people.  Though not everyone who sees ghosts is a medium. It is a specific talent that takes work and practice to develop.

But I’ve added the app because I know I’ll forget to check the moon each night and I do want to try some “moon magic.”  Oh, that magic might simply be meditating outside in the light of the full moon, but that is a start for most of us.  But this spring I may try doing some planting according to the moon phase. That’s a long held tradition, though I’m going to have to look up what I should plant when.  Is it “above ground crops on the full moon, below ground on the dark moon” or the other way around?  I don’t know if it’ll make a difference but my plants could probably use the help.  Hmm, I wonder if there’s an iphone app that will send me messages reminding me to water them.

Okay, the above is joke. But what brings it up is that over the weekend, an acquaintance was asking me for advice on dealing with a problem with the energy in her home. I sent a few simple suggestions including a suggestion that she do a cleansing if she was familiar with the practice. She wrote back that she didn’t have faith in cleansing because they didn’t last. Not that they didn’t work, but that after a time, the negative energy built back up.

I realized that she, and it seems many I knew in the same group, are under the perception that a sage cleasning is something that only needs  to be done once and “poof” the problem is solved. Oh, if only that applied to vacuuming.  Look, you don’t clean your house once and expect it never to get dirty again. So the same goes for cleansing. It’s actually a practice you should do with some regularity.  How often will depend on your house and the ongoing energy build up. And not every cleansing needs to be a complicated procedure. I work regularly with the energy in my house and burn incense for meditation or even just because I like the smell, but the result is that constant energy work keeps the energy cleaner.

Those who meditation or regularly do spiritual practices in their home may be keeping negative energy at bay without even realizing it. That’s good. But if you have a problem with the energy in your home, learn how to cleanse your house and do it regularly.  Don’t let the negative energy keep building and go seeking advice only when it gets to be overwhelming.  You don’t need to become a negative energy hoarder.

Which may be at the heart of the problem many of us have with New Year’s Resolutions. Yes, I’ve got a couple in mind this year. I want to strive to journal and meditate more regularly. But I also have to give myself the freedom to fail at those goals repeatedly throughout the year.  See, that permission to fail is where we fail.

Every year people I know set goals for the upcoming year. (An astounding number of these goals have to do with weight loss. I really think there might be more important goals in life to focus on and that those might even lead to less focus on food and perhaps get you where you need to be.)  Before Spring most people I know have failed at and dismissed their goals and gone back to their normal routines. There’s a reason for this – routines and habits are extremely hard to break.

We’re too hard on ourselves. Old habits are hard to break. New habits take time to form. And if at first you don’t succeed, many of us seem to believe we will never succeed. We berate ourselves for lack of will power and give up on the goal.  But one guru I studied with when asked what people should do if they broke the meditation and dietary habits suggest by him looked surprised and said “well, start again.”  That’s the part we sometimes miss in New Year’s goals. It’s not the magic of the day that makes a goal succeed. It’s not following through and never failing. It’s knowing that when we slip, we can start again.