"If someone were to ask you where you came from, how would you respond?"

Of course, in practice, I'd respond in accordance with what they expected, and I'd probably talk about a small outer London suburb. But asked out of the blue, without expectations to respond to, I'd say I come from here. (And maybe point down at my feet meeting the ground.)

"What music has impacted or influenced your life the most? What music has most recently spoken to you?"

The music that's influenced me most... Bach's 'cello suites, I think. They feel deeply ingrained in me, as if I'd be a different person without them.

Also there are the great works I had a chance to sing in when I was quite young - like excerpts from Vivaldi's Gloria when I was about 8, way too small to cope, but completely delighted by the joyful tunes. Then there was Mozart's Requiem at school when I was 11 - the music teacher drummed that into us so well, phrase by phrase, that I still know most of the alto part by heart.

And the music that's spoken to me most recently - very different - is Eliana Gilad's wordless, healing, meditative music, from the ancient Hebrew tradition that I didn't know at all before I met her. It has an amazingly direct, physical, reharmonising-from-the-inside-out effect.

Eliana is a wonderful musician but her web presence leaves something to be desired! Some of her work can be found via http://www.voicesofeden.com, and some via http://musicpeace.squarespace.com/dealing-with-stress/ - this is her Quiet in the Eye of the Storm course, with healing sound exercises for personal use as well as music just to listen to.

"Have you ever had a psychic or paranormal experience, whether an NDE or a strange premonition that later proved true? What was it like?"

Yes, in a way. At least, I've had 'premonitions' that came true - it generally seems to happen when I'm convinced I'm just imagining things and playing lightly with ideas, not attempting to 'predict' anything. Like the time I walked down to orchestra imagining what it would be like if a German 'cellist joined - not something I'd ever thought about before - and met a new, German 'cellist at the door.

I imagine that whatever latent 'psychic' capacity I have is used when I interpret readings, without my ever being aware of it. I just 'happen' to dwell on whatever aspect of the hexagram speaks most directly to the querent's concerns. I don't know how this works - but then, I don't see any need to know.

I just put up a post at my regular I Ching blog called 'How New is your Year?', talking about the value of a reading for the year, to open up possibilities of real change.

(It's not such a badly-timed post... Happy Chinese New Year for tomorrow!  :) )

It occurs to me there's another prerequisite for newness, and that's authenticity. Change has to begin at the centre. I can't expect to stay the same person as before and suddenly start eating differently (for instance), just because some voice from 'out there' says I should.

Honestly, how many New Year resolutions are basically 'should'?

I should lose weight, exercise more, meditate, be healthier, be richer, be more generous, be more enlightened...

I reckon we periodically mistake the 'out there' source of these for 'in here': hard not to, when everything around you tells you that not only should you be thin, but you must naturally want to be thin. Or rich, or whatever.

So then 'lose weight' becomes 'our' resolution or goal, and then we don't reach it (again) and feel as if we've let ourselves down (again). Nuh-uh... it's more that we never involved our true selves in the first place.

The change has to be ours - from the core, somewhere behind and beyond all the accretions of should.

This is yet another reason why I'm partnering with Eliana Gilad for Opening Space for Change: she knows the way in.

And on that note: today is the final day for the 'early bird' discount on Opening Space for Change. Please visit the page now and sign up if you feel drawn to this. It'd be wonderful to have the opportunity to connect with you on the calls.

It seems to me there are three parts to a real I Ching reading - or any other kind of divination, for that matter.

By 'real' I mean 'life-changing' - not necessarily your whole life, but something about it. Might be which computer you own or what you're doing next weekend, might be the underlying principle you live by for a year or how you understand your purpose in life. The point is that there's change, inwardly or outwardly, and not just an 'oh, how interesting...' reaction.

Anyway. The three parts:

1. Opening
2. Connecting
3. Integrating

Part 2, 'connecting', includes the whole process of interpreting the reading - getting insights as to how it applies, working out the message. It tends to get most of the attention.

Part 3, 'integrating', is where that connection and interpretation actually translates into real change. You understand your purpose in life in a new way, so you take steps to get some training, for instance. Or you understand your relationship in a new way, so you stop thinking about separation and renew your commitment. Or you see how a new computer would pay for itself in time saved, and so you buy one. This is why you made the reading in the first place - with the intention that something would be different.

Part 1, 'Opening', is the subtlest of the three - almost invisible, by comparison. Yet this is where it all begins. This is where you open yourself up - create space in your mind and time in your day - to hear your question and receive an answer.

The outward signs of 'opening' might be lighting a candle and shuffling cards, or sorting stalks. Or writing about the question for a while - or talking it over. (Part of the service I provide is a free call to discuss the question, and I can often hear the 'opening' happening as we talk.)

The inward process? Harder to describe... you know it when it happens... and it's clear enough when it doesn't happen, because then there's no connection and, in the end, no change.

It's vitally important - it's the space for the reading to breathe and come alive - it's especially hard to do when stressed and anxious, ie when you most acutely need to be able to hear an oracle.

Hence...

Opening Space for Change on February 1st and 8th...

Probably that the help/ sage advice/ stellar insight I so earnestly want to offer is not always, necessarily, what's wanted or needed in the moment.

Further, that if I can let go of the compulsion to 'be useful', I'll probably be of far greater service. I'm thinking here of my guiding hexagram for the year: 2, Earth, the Receptive. Hexagram 2 definitely suggests someone in search of ways to be of service - and advises doing this through being acutely sensitive to guidance.

Actually, being a diviner is a big help in learning this one. I listen with my whole self to people's problems, and then I must clear out my own ideas about what's needed to make space for what the I Ching has to say. I get daily practice in being of service through receptivity.

So yes, I am accepting this one, it just takes time...

Oh, that's a really, really easy one! My husband. I get to gaze at him and talk with him and learn from him and help him and laugh with him, and oh wow I am just so brilliantly clever to be married to such a man!

Wish I could include a photo, but he's shy...

May we all come home to where we are.

May we all sink our roots deeply into our own earth.

I wish I could add this to the 'events' section here at Gaia, but sadly 'Your telephone' doesn't count as a physical location.

Anyway... I'm running a free teleseminar on the 27th, to talk about powerful change and the I Ching. It's about how you connect with an oracle, why you'd want to, and how readings can become a way of personal transformation. (It's not particularly about the mechanics of 'how to cast a hexagram' etc, though I'll be happy to answer any questions you have about that, too.)

Even if you're more interested in/ familiar with other oracles - tarot or runes, for instance - you'll probably still find something here to interest you. I'm running it to celebrate the launch of next month's I Ching Class, but it's definitely not just a pitchfest. Those are boring; divination isn't.

Click here for details and to sign up. (Important, so you get your invitation emailed to you with call-in details.)

I've just been reading some marketing stuff... I do, from time to time. And the writer said that when you want to get a launch underway, you start out by making a huge splash, maybe with a spectacular or controversial claim. Hence all the people who announce the death of this, the manifesto for that, the blueprint for the other.

Gosh, I thought, how could I ever translate this dauntingly intense marketing stuff into something like divination?

...


If you listen carefully, you may hear the echoing sound of a penny that dropped.

Divination means you can ask the spirit - the ground reality of creation - any question, and it will answer you.

That's any question - so anything in your life can be a doorway to spiritual learning, if you can only be present and open it. Not just the shiny 'spiritual' things, the retreats and practices, but the everyday, dull, mundane things like broken computers or family squabbles or public transport. And not just the dramas and changes, but the ongoing patterns - and not just what happens on the outside, but the inner stories and imaginings. Everything is an opening - wherever you place your attention, it's already a channel.