What Can We Expect on 12/21/2012?

I posted this info last year, as we approached the year 2012. Now that the long-awaited winter solstice is approaching, I thought you might like to read it again. The beautiful graphic was created by my friend and fellow author/artist Kathleen Valentine.

You’ve heard the dire predictions––supposedly based on the Mayan calendar––that the world will end on the winter solstice. But what can we really expect?

First of all, astrologers don’t believe the Maya meant that the world would end on December 21, 2012. Instead, their ancient calendar pointed to the end of an astrological age. Each age, according to their calculations, lasted about 25,500 years. This corresponds to what astrologers call the precession of the equinoxes, meaning the amount of time it takes the spring equinoctial sun to move backward through the zodiac and arrive again at the same point from which it started. (Of course, the sun doesn’t really move, but that’s how it appears to us from our vantage point here on Earth.) Thus, 12/21/2012 signals the true beginning of a new age: the Age of Aquarius.

It’s interesting to note that 12/21/2012, from the perspective of numerology, is an “11” day––the number of Aquarius. Aquarius, as you may know, is the eleventh sign of the zodiac, but there’s more to it than that. When you add the digits of the date (1+2+2+1+2+0+1+2) you get a sum of 11. Numerologists consider 11 to be a “master number.” Master numbers resonate with intensity. They offer increased opportunities for growth, awakening, and accomplishment. They demand more from you and require you to function at a higher level of awareness.

Eleven is the number of the visionary, the avatar, the inventor, the person who leads by offering a positive example. It’s also linked with humanitarianism, equality, balance, truth, and integrity. In the Tarot’s major arcana, the Justice card is number 11.

When we’re under the influence of the number 11, we may experience lightning-like bursts of insight or situations that propel us to act quickly, drawing on intuition as well as intellect. The repetition of 11s, as in 11:11, can be seen as a portal into other worlds or realms of consciousness.

What all this suggests is that 12/21/2012 brings conditions that will require us to think outside the box and to address problems with a more elevated and expanded vision. We’ll have to be more honest with ourselves and others, and behave with greater integrity. We’ll be called to make changes that benefit humanity and take into account the good of all, not just a few. We’ll see continued efforts to right wrongs and establish more balance between the haves and the have-nots. In short, this winter solstice sounds a wake-up call for all of us and offers us an opportunity to usher in the long-awaited Age of Aquarius.

A blessed solstice to all! 

The Best Thing You Can Do for Yourself––and It's Free

One of the best things you can do for yourself every day is meditate. In The Best Meditations on the Planet, my coauthor Dr. Martin Hart and I present 100 meditations anyone can do to improve mental and physical well-being. The following excerpt explains just some of the scientifically researched benefits you can get from meditation. Our beautiful, full-color book features lots of photographs and step-by-step techniques. It's available from Amazon and bookstores, or you can order it from my website's book section.

What Can Meditation Do for You?

Meditation only takes a short period of time each day, costs absolutely nothing, requires no special equipment or accoutrements, and can be done successfully by anyone, anywhere, anytime. Meditation could be the single most valuable tool we have available to heal ourselves and our planet.

During the last two decades, hundreds of scientific studies have been conducted at more than 250 universities and research facilities internationally to examine meditation’s efficacy. Although devotees of the practice may assert that meditation can do everything from create world peace to make you a better lover, clinical research clearly shows that meditation’s benefits are substantial and far-reaching. Here are just some of the amazing results top scientific and medical researchers have linked to meditation:

• Meditation lowers blood pressure and decreases the risk of heart attack and stroke.
• Meditation boosts intelligence and academic performance.
• Meditation stimulates stem cell growth.
• Meditation saves companies money by reducing employee absenteeism.
• Meditation enhances athletic performance.
• Meditation decreases substance abuse.
• Mediation relieves depression and anxiety.
• Meditation aids weight loss.
• Mediation eases chronic pain.
• Meditation reduces hyperactivity in children.
• Mediation improves memory in the elderly.
• Meditation increases longevity.
• Meditation deters crime. 

How Meditation Works

When you meditate, you stop thinking about work, relationships, finances, and daily chores, and become present in the moment. Mental chatter ceases temporarily and you experience a state of relaxation in both mind and body.

The changes you experience can actually be measured physically. During meditation, your heart rate and respiration slow. Brainwave frequencies decrease from the usual 13–30 cycles per second (the beta level of consciousness) to 8–13 cps (the alpha level). Brainwave activity also shifts from the right frontal cortex to the left. Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D., a researcher and neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, has been studying meditation’s effects for more than two decades. When he examined the brains of Buddhist monks to see how meditation affected their neural physiology, he discovered the left frontal cortex (the part of the brain linked to happiness) was more active in the monks than in people who didn’t meditate.

During meditation, the brain also steps up production of endorphins, the proteins that enhance positive feelings. According to a recent clinical trial of 97,000 subjects conducted by the Women's Health Initiative, positive, optimistic people enjoy longer, healthier lives than their negative, pessimistic peers.

Using modern brain-scanning technology, researchers have discovered that meditation produces long-term physiological changes as well. A UCLA study, led by neuroscientist Eileen Luders, Ph.D., demonstrated that meditation actually increases the size of the brain. The study’s results, released in 2009, showed the areas of the brain associated with attention, focus, and positive emotions were larger in people who meditate regularly than in non-meditators. Meditation causes changes in cell metabolism, too, according to another study performed at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind/Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and reported in Medical News Today in 2008. The changes, explained Dr. Jeffery Dusek, co-lead author of the study, were the opposite of those induced by post-traumatic stress disorder.

These and other clinical studies reveal that meditation strengthens the part of the brain linked with positive emotions while counteracting the destructive impact of stress and anxiety. Indeed, stress reduction may be the key to meditation’s beneficial effects on health. At least 60 percent of all doctor visits are due to stress-related problems. “It’s hard to think of an illness in which stress and mood don’t figure,” points out Charles L. Raison, M.D., clinical director of the Mind-Body Program at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

The brainwave changes induced by meditation also boost stem cell production, enhancing the body’s ability to regenerate and repair itself. Leading stem cell researcher Doris Taylor, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Repair at the University of Minnesota, measured the blood of Matthieu Ricard, French philosopher and author of the book Happiness, before and after meditation. The result after only fifteen minutes of meditation “was a huge increase in the number of positive stem cells in [his] blood.”

But you needn’t be a Buddhist monk or a “meditation marathoner” to reap the rewards of meditation. Both Richard Davidson and Sara Lazar, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, have studied meditation’s effects on ordinary, middle-class Americans. "What we found out,” says Davidson, “is that after a short time meditating, meditation had profound effects not just on how they felt but on their brains and bodies."

For twenty-first-century Westerners struggling to cope with ever-increasing stress in their professional and personal lives, turning to this ancient Eastern practice may be the answer to enjoying happier, healthier, longer lives.

Excerpt from My Erotic Novel Tarotica

The popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey has reawakened readers to the delights of erotic fiction. My erotic romance TAROTICA––a mystery about a young woman exploring her sensuality and the world, and a young winemaker who's running for his life––takes you on an exciting journey across the US and, simultaneously, through the twenty-two cards of the Tarot's major arcana. Coffee Time Romance called it "one of the hottest books I have ever read. This is one road trip I would love to be on." Amazon's reader reviews rank it 5-stars. It's available as an e-book, audiobook, or in print version through www.ravenousromance.com as well as www.amazon.com and other places. (BTW: I wrote this X-rated novel under the pseudonym Amber Austin.) I hope this excerpt whets your appetite for more.

Miranda Malone watched a menagerie dressed in sequins, feathers, and black leather parade down San Francisco’s Market Street. The Castro’s carnival atmosphere was more outrageous and exciting than she could have imagined. When a young African man dressed like a gumball machine invited her to drop a dime into his codpiece, she laughed and caught the handful of rainbow-colored treats that spilled out. Miranda knew plenty of unusual characters back home in Salem, Massachusetts, but none compared to these. Even with the new purple streaks in her long dark hair she felt a bit ordinary.

            She’d flown into California three days ago to begin a cross-country journey she’d been planning for seven years. Originally she’d intended to take the trip right after graduating from art school. But then her father was diagnosed with cancer and she’d stayed home to care for him. Now, with the money from his life insurance policy, she could finally follow her dream.

            A tall man wearing only body paint and a boa constrictor passed Miranda and wagged both his snakes at her. She shrieked, then dissolved into giggles. Three trumpeters with gold lamé G-strings strolled by. A masked man in a jester suit abandoned the parade and approached Miranda. Throwing his arms around her as if they were long lost friends, he hissed in her ear, “Don’t scream.” Something hard jabbed into her ribs.

            Before she had time to react the man was hustling her through the crowd. “Do you have a car?” he asked and poked her in the ribs again. This time she saw the gun.

            She nodded.

            “Take me to it. And no funny stuff.”

            Fear and anger surged in her stomach as the reality of her situation sank in. Struggling to keep her emotions from clouding her thinking, Miranda tried to recall what you were supposed to do in a case like this. She couldn’t run––the streets were jammed with people––and if she yelled this crowd would probably mistake her plight for some kinky foreplay ritual. If they could even hear her over the hullabaloo. She reached for her cell phone, but the man noticed and snatched her purse away. In San Francisco, a man carrying a purse didn’t even attract a glance. 

            When they came to the spot where Miranda had parked her rented Kia, she considered kicking the car hard to set off the alarm. But nobody paid attention to car alarms anyway, and she didn’t want to provoke the man in the jester suit while his gun barrel was nuzzling her bra.

            He rummaged through her oversized purse and found the keys. Maybe he just wants the car, she hoped. But her hopes dissolved when he unlocked the passenger side door and shoved her in.

            “Climb over,” he ordered. “You’re driving.”

            She crawled over the console, banging her knee on the gearshift. Keeping the pistol trained on her, the man got in beside her and fit the key into the ignition.

            “Where are we going?”

            “Just head for the Golden Gate Bridge.” He waved the gun at her. “Move it.”

            Slowly she slid the car into the stream of traffic. As she navigated San Francisco’s famous hills, her mind scrambled for an escape plan. Suddenly she recalled one of those “Read this, it could save your life!” e-mails she’d received. Biding her time she began scouting about for something big and solid she could ram the Kia into, launching the air bags and bringing police to the scene of the accident. Soon she spotted a concrete bridge abutment, aimed for it, and sped up. 

Angels Among Us

Here's another excerpt from one of my recent books. It's a full-color, hardback book, rich with wonderful photographs of angels taken by real people who've had personal contacts with these divine beings. Available in the US through Amazon.com, and through bookstores in the UK.

Angels Among Us

We seem to have an innate need to believe in benevolent beings and a mystical realm beyond what we experience in our everyday lives here on earth. For thousands of years, people around the globe, from myriad cultures and belief systems, have sought and received assistance from heavenly helpers. Today, when so much of our world seems baffling, overwhelming, or totally out of control, perhaps it’s no coincidence that angels seem to be showing up in large numbers to guide us on life’s perilous journey.

In 2008, the Washington Post conducted a poll of 36,000 adults from various religious and nonreligious backgrounds. It found that most Americans think angels actively participate in our lives, and more than 80 percent believe miracles occur.

Many people say they experience the presence of angels during life-threatening situations or periods of hopelessness and despair. Russian artist Marc Chagall, for example, was shaken by self-doubt and ready to give up his profession when one bleak night a rustling of wings woke him from a sound sleep. A brilliant blue light illuminated his bedroom and a beautiful winged creature hovered above him. Chagall believed the angel had appeared to inspire and encourage him. For the rest of his life he continued to paint angels, which he considered manifestations of the highest form of love.

Angels frequently help us resolve earthly conundrums. Some of the world’s greatest geniuses, including Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein, admitted receiving insight and guidance from higher sources. Often these insights come to us in the form of epiphanies––“aha” moments––as if the sun suddenly emerged from behind a cloud and chased away the shadows in our minds. Other times awarenesses present themselves in dreams, meaningful events and “coincidences,” or through people who seem to have been sent to us at just the right moment, precisely for that purpose.

Medical personnel and Hospice workers often witness beings of light nearby when someone dies. It’s as if celestial tour guides show up, ready to shepherd the newly released soul into the wondrous world on the other side. People who have had near-death experiences regularly recount tales of being warmly greeted by luminous entities who resonate with love, peace, and joy.

After Jay Bailey of Kerrville, Texas died in an automobile accident, he found himself in a place permeated by radiant light. He recognized his mother and father standing nearby, as well as a powerful being dressed in a translucent ivory-colored suit that glowed, whom he refers to as the Brilliant One. Bailey felt safe, secure, and completely accepted. As he describes it, “The atmosphere is love; we feel such joy in togetherness.” The Brilliant One gave Bailey a choice: to stay in this other realm or return to earth. When he chose to return, he says, “I saw the Brilliant One pick me up and proceed into my body, head first. Liquid life-fluid flows into my body.” He awoke in the hospital after lying comatose for two weeks.

In his book The Evolution Angel, Todd Michael, O.D., an emergency and trauma physician who witnessed more than five hundred deaths, explains there really aren’t any angels, per se. What we interpret as angels are emanations of an omnipresent, loving, divine energy that pervades our universe. “The ‘angels,’ the ‘messengers,’ are just [God’s] way of showing himself in such a way that we can actually handle it.”

In this book, you’ll read stories from people of all ages, nationalities, and walks of life who reveal their stories of encounters with angels. Many of them believe that during their darkest hours angels visited them to provide protection, bring messages of hope, or offer miraculous healing. Some of their experiences are very personal; others are shared by large numbers of people. But these stories are more than mere recollections––they are accompanied by photos of the angels themselves. 

Mermaids: The Myths, Legends, & Lore

Here's an excerpt from my new book Mermaids: The Myths, Legends, and Lore. It's a beautifully illustrated collection of stories, sightings, and oddities about mermaids throughout history and from around the world. Enjoy!

Mysterious, magical, and mesmerizingly beautiful, mermaids have enchanted humanity for thousands of years. No matter where you go on Planet Earth, you’ll hear stories of these elusive and evocative sea creatures who are sometimes benevolent, sometimes destructive, but always alluring. They swim in the seven seas; splash about in rivers, lakes, and streams; and even frolic in fountains and wells.

Some researchers theorize that we’re drawn to the dichotomy of light and dark that mermaids embody. These lovely ladies are simultaneously desirable and dangerous. They can bring good luck or disaster. Seafarers have long swapped stories about mermaids charming sailors with their heavenly singing, then smashing their ships and drowning the hapless seamen. Mermaid myths usually depict these sensuous sirens with a dual nature—they can be benevolent or malevolent, depending on what mood they’re in at any given time. Like women, it’s a mermaid’s prerogative to change her mind—and when she does, watch out!