Thugad thall a chrom thruaill sloightear

Posted on February 7, 2010 by Trish and Rob



No, we didn’t hit the wrong keys for that title, it’s Gaelic, and we’ll get to the meaning and the astonishing  synchroncity related to that line.

You may recall that we wrote earlier about a synchronicity related to time travel that occurred during our visit to the Central Florida Scottish Games.   We also stumbled upon another one during that visit, but decided to wait until we’d obtained accurate details.

So, thanks to the avid research of Ron McGregor, chieftain of the American Clan Gregor Society, we now have the full story, an incredible trickster synchronicity from the Scottish Highlands, dating to the early seventeenth century.

First, some brief background. In the 16th century, the MacGregors engaged in a series of conflicts with the Campbells, who had absconded with land the MacGregors claimed as their own. To say the least, there was bad blood between the two highland clans. Finally, with the encouragement of the Campbells, King James VI issued an edict banning the use of the name MacGregor, hence, abolishing the clan. In 1604, the clan chieftain  was hanged in Edinburgh. The proscription on the name lasted until 1774.

So here’s the story. The main character is Callum MacGregor, grandfather of the famed Rob Roy. He lived as an outlaw–at least in the eyes of the Campbells–during the early years of the proscription. The Campbells repeatedly attempted to hunt him down, but Callum was an elusive target. In one incident, pursued by Campbells and their hounds, he managed to turn the tables. Callum hid in a cave, while an ally offered refuge for the Campbells along with an abundance of drinks. When the men were drunk and passed out, MacGregor’s kilt was draped over the sleeping men. The hounds were released, and upon smelling the kilt, visciously attacked their own masters as Callum escaped.

That was a good trick, but now comes the trickster. On another escapade, Callum was discovered hiding on an islet in Loch Katrine, and the Campbell men were camped on the woody shore, close enough for their voices to carry over the water. Callum had taken the precaution of sinking all the boats except the one he had used  to reach the islet.

Knowing the islet was barren, the Campbells figured they would starve Callum into surrender. As night fell, one of the band, a soutar, or cobbler by trade, lit a fire to prepare a meal. Callum took aim at the smoke, shouted a curse: “Thugad thall a chrom thruaill sloightear!” and fired. The bullet struck the cobbler in the forehead killing him. Loosely, the Gaelic translation means: “Get lost you slimy crook.”

But, in Gaelic, the word for crook has a second meaning: cobbler. The Campbells had heard the shout, but misinterpreted the meaning when the cobbler dropped dead. They quickly agreed that Callum had second sight and might pick them off one by one. After they fled in fear, Callum rowed to shore, escaped and lived to enjoy a peaceful old age in Glengyle.

(The source of the story is Clan Gregor, by Forbes MacGregor.)

The photo shows Trish and Rob standing with Sir Malcolm MacGregor of MacGregor, Bt, chief of the Clan Gregor, and Lady MacGregor, with Ron McGregor, (kneeling) chieftain of the American clan.

(The Bt, after Sir Malcolm’s name stands for barronette, as he is barronette of Balquhidder and of Lanrick.)

Posted in clans macgregor, trickster | 12 Comments

The Power of Pluto

Posted on February 6, 2010 by Trish and Rob

On January 21, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled two precedents about the First Amendment rights of corporations and said the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections. The repercussions of this ruling? According to the New York Times, this ruling will “have major political and practical consequences. Specialists in campaign finance law said they expected the decision to reshape the way elections were conducted. Though the decision does not directly address them, its logic also applies to the labor unions that are often at political odds with big business. The decision will be felt most immediately in the coming midterm elections, given that it comes just two days after Democrats lost a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and as popular discontent over government bailouts and corporate bonuses continues to boil.”

As I was listening to the story that evening on TV, my first thoughts went something like this: corporations can now fund climate change deniers and in my next life, I really will be living under a dome. The dome refers to a previous post about a hypnotic progression in which I saw myself as a tall, bald woman, living in a city completely encased by a transparent dome. The air outside the dome was toxic. This line of thought brought me to the power of Pluto.

Dissed by astronomers, Pluto was demoted to a dwarf star in 2006. But astrologers know better. Pluto symbolizes profound and permanent transformation. It’s all about power  and the abuse of power. It rules all that is hidden. In late January 2008, Pluto moved into Capricorn, the sign that rules corporation, politics, authority, government institutions. For some perspective on what this means – and what it might explain about the general state of affairs worldwide, here’s a brief foray through history.

Pluto’s last transit through Capricorn occurred between November 1762 and December 1, 1778. Unrest and outright rebellion and revolution were evident during much of this period in Europe and in the colonies. Spain acquired Louisiana from France; Catherine the Great became queen and presided over wars with the Ottoman Empire; Britain struck a deal with Spain to exchange Cuba for Florida.The first partition of Poland also happened during this period, where that country was divided into three areas owned by Russian, Prussia and Austria.The Quartering Act was passed, requiring the housing British troops in private homes. Parliament passed the Stamp Act, its first serious attempt to assert governmental authority over the colonies. It was intended to pay for the huge national debt  Britain had incurred during the Seven Years War, but created a
serious threat of revolt. The Boston Tea Party also occurred during Pluto’s last passage through Capricorn. In other word, rebellion and collapse were the norm.

Now look at this timeline:
1/25/08- Pluto enters Capricorn 

3/10 -Dow Jones Industrial Average at the lowest level since October 2006, falling more than 20% from its peak just five months earlier

3/11: Federal Reserves outlines a $200 billion loan program that lets the country’s biggest banks borrow Treasury securities at discount rates and post mortgage-backed securities as collateral.

3/16: The Bush white house announces a plan to ease credit crisis. It includes provisions that require states to tighten rules for mortgage brokers and calls on lenders to make full disclosure of payment terms to buyers. Critics say the plan is too weak to have much effect.  The Federal Reserve approves a $30 billion loan to
JPMorgan Chase so it can take over Bear Stearns, which is on the verge of collapse.  The Fed had hoped the acquisition would avert a financial panic. Bear Stearns  sells for one-tenth of its market price.
Also on 3/16, Bear Stearns  is acquired for $2 a share by JP Morgan  in a fire sale avoiding bankruptcy. The deal is backed by the Federal Reserve, providing up to $30B to cover possible Bear Stearn losses.

 3/18 The fed cuts  short-term interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point.

In June 2008, Pluto – moving retrograde since April – entered Sagittarius again, where it had been between 1995 and early 2008, and resulted in idealogical fantacism. It moved direct again on September 8, headed for its appointment again with Capricorn. Coinciding with this movement:

9/7 – federal takeover of Frannie Mae and Freddie Mac. At that point, they owned or guaranteed about half of the U.S.’s $12 trillion mortgage market, and were now nationalized. This caused panic because almost every home mortgage lender and Wall Street bank relied on them to facilitate the mortgage market and investors worldwide owned $5.2 trillion of debt securities backed by them.


9/14 – collapse of Lehman Brothers

9/18- the fed loans too big to fail AIG $85 billion to avoid bankruptcy.Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke meet with key legislators to propose a $700 billion emergency bailout through the purchase of toxic assets. Bernanke tells them: “If we don’t do this, we may not have an economy on Monday.”

Late November: Pluto enters Capricorn again. Timeline?

11/18 – Treasury gives out $33.6 billion to 21 banks in the second round of disbursements from the $700 billion bailout fund. This payout brings the total to $158.56 billion so far

11/24 – The US government agrees to rescue Citigroup after an attack by investors causes the stock price to plunge 60% . They inject another $20 billion of capital into Citigroup bringing the total infusion to $45 billion

11/25 – The US Federal Reserve pledges $800 billion more to help revive the financial system. $600 billion will be used to buy mortgage bonds issued or guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Bank

That’s just for starters and was topped by the election, when Obama won and the Democrats were swept into power in Congress. In 2009, Pluto went after the health care industry, insurance, the still faltering economy and everything else that has dominated the news lately. Granted, events aren’t brought about by a single planet or transit. But Pluto works on deep levels and those individuals and institutions that have abused their power will be knocked down and  will have to rebuild from the ashes.

Posted in astrology, economy, Pluto, supreme court | 10 Comments

High Tech Synchro Revisited

Posted on February 5, 2010 by Trish and Rob

(image from Center for Touch Drawing)

On August 12, we posted an entry on high tech synchronicity. Synctxt  is a way to explore synchronicity from your email, phone or wherever and however you are connected to the Internet. It’s described as “a research experiment and self-exploration tool that combines modern technology with the concept of synchronicity as postulated by the psychologist Carl Jung.”

In a nutshell, the technology behind the software grew out of the Princeton Anomalies Research Lab, where it was discovered that humans could influence quantum scale events, even at a distance. Once you sign up, a random event generator is assigned to you 24/7 and periodically it generates a message through email or a text message, written by you. You can create up to 64 messages.Ours consisted of things like: Go with the flow. Relax. Time to withdraw. Whatever we need comes to us. Call so and so. Have you forgotten anything? We also included more specific messages related to our work, family, finances, etc

In the five months we’ve been subscribing, we’ve discovered some rather intriguing elements to this marvel. It actually seems to pick up on emotional/mental energy. You know how some days you bound out of bed, eager to get started with your day? On those days, it’s likely that your synctxt alerts will come in fast and furiously. The messages generated may not always relate to exactly what’s going on in your life,  but when you get a flurry of them, you know for sure that stuff in your life is moving.

It also works on days when you get out of bed as sluggishly as a snail. You feel out of sorts – physically, emotionally, spiritually, whatever. Often, the messages generated on those kinds of days act as butt kickers, as if the universe is telling you to get your act together, to get the show on the road, to forgive the past and just, well, move on.

Then there are the times the alerts seem be tricksters. For instance, on Jan 4-5 South Florida experienced really cold weather (at least for us) – in the low to mid 30s. So on the 5th  we found seven synctxt alerts, a sure sign for a high energy day, right? And two of them said, “Chill.” We had written that message as a reminder to relax, but it addressed the weather situation!

A few days later, there were eight alerts today, and I knew that something had to be moving, shifting. So late that evening, Rob says, “Hey, Whitley Strieber has a new journal entry up. Knowing that my editor had sent Strieber my novel, Esperanza, to Streiber, asking him to blurb it, I  replied, “Oh, c’mon, Whitley, please blurb Esperanza.”

Five minutes later, I received an email from my editor with Strieber’s blurb.

So does synctxt work? It definitely has done so for us. It works especially well if you compose your messages with thought and deliberation and if you update your messages periodically. We plan to continue our subscription!

Posted in synctxt, technology | 11 Comments

Rock on!

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Trish and Rob

Here’s one from Haley Luttrell of Cincinatti.

A favorite among my grandma’s many stories of synchronicity – She was building a rock wall at her house and had run out of rocks just short of finishing. As she is taking a break to decide what to do – a truck goes around the bend in front of her house and some stones fall out into her yard…the exact size and number she needed to finish her wall.

Not bad, Grandma! But here’s one about a guy who is bad, although you wouldn’t know it by his name.

One of the most popular early rock ‘n’ roll song was Johnny B. Goode, by Chuck Berry. So it turns out that Jonathan B. Goode, better known by everyone as – of course – Johnny B. Goode, had his picture on the front page of the Palm Beach (Florida) Post on Feb. 1. Actually, there were 40 tiny mug shots of Goode, because he has been arrested 40 times in the past 40 months. Quite a record. Johnny is suffering from a mental illness as well as addiction, and gets arrested for loitering, pestering people for money, shouting obsenities in stores, pounding on the walls of Wal-Mart and stripping naked in a strip shopping center.

Usually, a judge releases him within a day or two, sometimes he stay in jail longer. All his arrests are misdemeanors. Finally, he spent the past six months in a hospital attending to his addiction and mental illness. Now he’s out. It’s a sad story, we wish him well, and we’ve got to say it: Johnny be good!

Posted in Johnny B. Goode | 2 Comments

One Year Anniversary

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Trish and Rob

My goal (Trish) is to learn to do more 
 of what Stinky Petunia the cat is doing!

Today is the one-year anniversary of our blog. We’d like to thank all of you for your support and interest and the many fantastic synchronicities you’ve shared.

We’ve launched a website for our book today, too. The domain name is synchrosecrets.

We’re including a feature called “Synchronicity of the Week,” so take a look at our first one. And,  please continue to send your stories. We’ll pick out the best for the week and post it. And, of course, we’ll still have daily synchronicities here on the blog.

Posted in anniversary, website | 16 Comments

Two of a Kind

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Trish and Rob

Jeff  brought this synchronicity to our attention. It appeared in the U.K.’s The Telegraph and involves odd name connections. In this story, the name is Geraint Woolford – not exactly a Smith or a Jones, right? I liked Redon’s Buddha image image for this story. Trust me. It’s a lot more interesting than photos of the two Woolfords!

The Story

The only two men in Britain named Geraint Woolford ended up in neighboring beds in the same hospital.  Geraint Woolford, 77, was a patient at Abergele Hospital in North Wales when Geraint Woolford, 52, was admitted. Both are retired policemen.

The senior Woolford is a past president of the Conservative Club in his hometown of Llandudno.The younger Woolford is  the current vice-chairman of the Conservative Club 34 miles away in the town of Ruthin.The men had never met before and after checking back into their family trees found they were not related.Checks with public records  showed they are the only two people in Britain named Geraint Woolford.

Having two patients on the same ward with the same name caused a headache for staff who had to make sure they were dealing with the right one.The younger Woolford, who was in hospital for a partial knee replacement, said: “They had to double check and triple check everything. But we’ve both definitely had the right operations.It was just uncanny that we ended up in the neighbouring beds. I think the hospital would have been glad to see the back of us. It was a nightmare for them.”

The older Woolford, who underwent a hip replacement operation, arrived first. “They came to me and said that there was another Geraint Woolford coming in. I said, ‘Don’t be silly – there is only me here. There cannot be two of us.’ We had a lot of fun in hospital. Every time the staff came to me I said: “Are you sure that’s for me, are you sure you’ve got the right one?”

A hospital spokesman said: “It was an amazing coincidence – the chances of the only two Geraint Woolfords being admitted at the same time must be millions to one.”
+++
Interesting, too, about the police and club connections and that both were in the hospital for joint replacements.

Posted in names | 5 Comments

On the Road

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Trish and Rob

 Whether we’re headed across town or across the world, travel removes us from normal routines and habitual thinking.  We’re open to new experiences, uncanny encounters, and all the high strangeness the universe can muster. Travel is the door that opens us to synchronicity.

This travel synchronicity comes from T Thorn Coyle, teacher and  author of several  books on magic and evolutionary witchcraft. She’s also a pagan minister. What we particularly like about this story is that we’ve all been in the situation she describes – on a plane, seated next to a stranger. Is the seating random or synchronistic?As we wrote in a post way back in February, the seating may not be random at all.

Thorn tried to book a flight direct to Charlotte, North Carolina, but couldn’t find one. So she had a layover in Chicago. On the flight between Chicago and Charlotte, she and another woman were in the same row, with a seat between them that was filled with the other woman’s papers and books. Thorn settled in with her music and book while the other woman typed away at her computer. About an hour into the flight, the pilot announced they might encounter turbulence during the descent because of storms around Charotte.

In Thorn’s words:

This woman turned to me and said, “If I reach out and touch you, it is just to reassure myself”. I said that would be OK, and returned to my music and my book. Moments later, the plane shook and her hand reached out. The turbulence passed. Another jolt, and the hand reached out. I pulled off my headphones to tell her it was fine for her to hold the armrest, or indeed my own arm. I saw that she seemed frightened, so began talking her through breathing slowly and down through her feet. Between rounds of turbulence, it came out that I sometimes counseled people with anxiety.

“Really, you work with people who have panic attacks?” she asked.
Yes, sometimes, though not always. “I do spiritual direction,” I said. “I’m a Pagan minister.”

More turbulence. The plane rocked, she gripped my arm. At that point, things began to get much worse for the plane and for her. I leaned over, holding her arm, talking her through breathing. “Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth. Imagine breathing down to your feet.”

She began to whimper and beg for help. It soon became apparent that though we were both trying, she was barely keeping herself together and was heading into full, hyperventilating panic. I told her to hang on, cleared the seat with one hand, got her computer out of her lap and to the floor and said, “I’m coming over.” And I did, buckling myself one handed into the new seatbelt, and pulling her toward me with one arm. The physical enfoldment was not going to be enough, so I threw my aura around her, and asked my contact, LVX, to help. As I murmured that she was surrounded by light and safety, she settled down, resting in my arms. We sat together and breathed as the plane bucked and shook, fighting the wind and rain. We kept breathing and
centering, breathing and centering, for about half an hour, until the plane finally touched ground.

There is more to the story, of course. More effort on both our parts, more snippets of words spoken and energy exchanged. But mostly, the story is, she was afraid and asked for help and I responded.

Once on the ground, she thanked me, calling me “a general among soldiers”. I gave her a few more techniques to try and told her she could contact me, and gave her a bit of LVX to call upon for the journey back to Chicago, and recommendations for Rescue Remedy. Mostly, I told her she needed to deal with this, because putting herself through such strain and terror was not good.

How are we like her? She had sought out hypnotherapy, but talked herself out of believing in it. She is busy. She works. She has children and a partner. She always manages to come last, leaving herself in panicked situations when she most needs the structure of some day-to-day support. What in us, right now, needs to
learn something new, or practice something old, so we are prepared for what may come?

In her crisis, she knew to ask for help. How often do we ask for help? How often are we willing to be vulnerable? How often do we know we have a need, but are avoiding it? What in us prefers the strength of our resistance, bolstering some part of self? What in us needs to control so badly we cannot trust that the pilot
will safely land our plane?

I feel grateful to this woman for all of these reminders, for these lessons, and for giving me both the opportunity to help her and the chance to reflect on the parts of my ego that still engage in the dance of avoidance. So today, I asked for help to face the tasks that are in front of me.

Posted in planes, travel, writers | 13 Comments

Just for Fun

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Trish and Rob

 Matisse – Mimosa

Occasionally, I Google synchronicity just to see what links come up. When I did it recently, I was astonished at the variety of businesses and groups that have that name.

Some of them are related to spirituality, healthier living, the mind/body connection. But the majority have zero to do with synchronicity and a couple of them made me laugh out loud. The word “synchronicity’ seems to be a buzz word of some sort. Here’s a sampling. I’ve linked the ones that either have something to do with synchronicity or which seem to understand the concept.

 
– a boutique
-a theater group in Atlanta
-an art gallery in Michigan
-a Canadian Magazine
-an online magazine – synchronicity seems to be the main thing, there’s a good list of recommended books, but way too much advertising for tarot and psychic readings
 -bookstore in Atlanta
– singing quartet
– consulting firm
-2 marketing companies
– figure skating club in Denver!
-traditional Chinese medicine consultants
– fine arts gallery
– web design company
– ceramic art business

-global finance and philanthropic company – this one is curious. Based in Bermuda, it seems to be both an off-shore global finance company and a philanthropic foundation. The “synchronicity fund” mentioned here appears to manage the funds of hedge funds. Not sure how that’s connected to synchronicity, but the website is well done. 

– spiritual talk radio show – synchronicity and related content

-Last, but not least: an album by The Police

‘If you act as you think
The missing link
Synchronicity’

Posted in words | 6 Comments

The Trickster in Sweden

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Trish and Rob
 

Sometimes, idle surfing around the Internet turns up some really odd synchronicities.This one from Sweden, involving a weight watchers clinic, has the trickster’s fingerprints all over it.

Apparently, while 20  clients of a weight watchers clinic in Växjö, in south-central Sweden, were lining up to be weighed for the week, the floor started to rumble. Some of the people in line thought it was an earthquake. Stuff flew up in the air. Then the floor in a corner of the room collapsed, fault lines spread across the rest of the floor, and other parts of it gave away.

Quoting the article: ”  Luckily, all of the dieters escaped uninjured and managed to move the scales to the corridor, which was not damaged in the accident, and were able to complete their weekly weigh in.
The cause of the floor’s collapse remains under investigation.”
 
Pretty strange, right?

“We suddenly heard a huge thud; we almost thought it was an earthquake and everything flew up in the air.
***
Hmm, maybe they should limit their weigh-ins to 15 people, instead of 20.

Posted in trickster, weight | 5 Comments

Void of Course Moon

Posted on January 30, 2010 by Trish and Rob

 

In the Jungian scheme of things, divination systems – I Ching, tarot, astrology to name the most common – fall under the giant umbrella of synchronicity. When you toss coins, lay out cards, study transits you’re actively engaging synchronicity. So with this in mind, here are a couple of synchronicities involving the void of course moon.

The moon changes signs every two and a half days.  It’s said to be void of course when it has left one sign and isn’t quite in the next sign yet. It can last for minutes or hours. Supposedly, when the moon is void of course, confusion rules. Things don’t come to fruition. It’s wise not to start new projects or relationships. The problem with this advice is that the moon is void of course often. However, if you’re scheduling something ahead of time, a look at the void of course tables on an astrology website might be helpful.

Phyllis Vega, my friend and co-author on Power Tarot, called me the other day to tell me a void of course moon story. Her daughter, Sharon, and granddaughter, Jessie, were supposed to go skydiving in the keys on December 28. The weather wasn’t great, so the takeoff was delayed until 1:00. Then it was delayed again. Then it was cancelled altogether. Phyllis, who is also an astrologer,  knew that Mercury went retrograde on 12/26, which might account for events, but also checked to see if the moon was void of course.  “I never paid much attention to the void of course moon, but sure enough, it went void of course at 12:54 PM, six minutes before they were supposed to take off for the jump.”

 A void of course moon and a Mercury retrograde also played havoc with the election on November 7, 2000. Mercury, the planet of communication and travel, had been retrograde for several days when the polls opened on the morning of November 7. The moon was in late Pisces.Around 8 PM that night, the major networks called Florida for Gore. At 9:05 PM, the moon went void of course as it left Pisces and hadn’t yet entered Aries. And at 9:24 PM, Mercury turned direct after several weeks in retrograde motion. Around 10 PM, the networks said that Florida couldn’t be called yet.So we had a communication snafu, with the networks announcing Florida too early, and we had a void of course moon, which means the election didn’t reach fruition.

Fortunately, on Nov. 2, election day this year, Mercury will be direct.

Posted in 2000 election, astrology | 11 Comments