Mercury Retrograde and Writers

Posted on September 20, 2009 by Trish and Rob

In Roman mythology, Mercury is the winged messenger, the god of trade, commerce, profit. In Greek mythology, his counterpart is Hermes, messenger of the gods, the guy with the winged sandals who is associated with travel, orators, thieves, poets and poetry.

So in astrology, Mercury – ruler of Gemini and Virgo – became the planet that governs communication, travel, the conscious mind. Three times a year, Mercury turns retrograde – that is, it appears to move backward through the heavens. When this happens, stuff doesn’t work quite the way it should. Travel plans go awry. Electronics act up. Computers crash.Cell phones stop working. Communications go haywire. Any contracts you sign during a Merc retro will be revisited later, for sure. Old friends and lovers may resurface. Old issues rear up. We’re being told it’s time to slow down, regroup, revise.

So Mercury is retrograde right now, in Libra. It started on 9/7 and goes until 9/29. On the 7th, our blog post went black and we lost electrical power in our neighborhood. A reminder.

Between 9/10-12, we attended the Book Heritage Festival in St. Augustine, Florida. We arrived late Thursday afternoon. Great bed and breakfast in the old town, comfortable accommodations, perfect room. Good, we thought. Mercury retro must be on hold.

We thought our talks/workshops were to be held on the Flagler College campus and decided to get a jump on the Mercury retro by walking over to the college Thursday evening and locating the appropriate rooms.

Short walk. But the campus is sprawling, it was hot, we were hungry. As we went from the administration building to the student union and on to the library,it became apparent that no one had heard about the book fair. We finally stopped in at a used bookstore and the owner directed us to Casa Monica, a hotel across the street from the college. Mystery solved. We located the room for my workshop Friday morning. If we hadn’t looked Thursday evening, it’s likely I would’ve missed the workshop.

Rob was supposed to talk at a local high school Friday afternoon. The school was so new it didn’t show up on mapquest or the Magellan. The media specialist at the school had provided him with specific directions on how to get there. So Friday we get to Casa Monica for my workshop, but Rob can’t find the directions to the high school. He makes a mad dash back to the car – half a mile away. I went in to start my workshop on storyboards as a tool for novel writing and realized I had brought the wrong storyboard! I was talking about one novel and looking at the storyboard for another one.

Meanwhile, Rob returns to Casa Monica. The directions to the high school were tucked away in a pocket of his backpack, which he had with him the whole time. We were hopeful that the Mercury retro stuff was done. Sure enough, he made it to the high school with time to spare.

What we seem to learn repeatedly from Mercury retrogrades is that it’s a period when you’re supposed to slow down, revise, review, rethink what you’re doing. But even with the best laid plans…well, ole Mercury/Hermes may be the ultimate trickster.
Trish
***
Trish knows the way of the stars. She is the author of eight astrology books. In addition, for the past six years, Trish (with a little help from me) has written 13 Sydney Omarr astrology books a year – one for each sign of the zodiac, and an annual covering all the signs by the month. In her ‘spare’ time, she does private astrology and Tarot readings…and writes a novel a year.
Rob
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Rob writes half of these books – that’s not just “a little help!”
– Trish

Posted in astrology, Mercury, retrogrades, St. Augustine, writers | 14 Comments

Jenean’s UFO and MIBs

Posted on September 19, 2009 by Trish and Rob

Photo taken 1957-58, Edwards Air Force Base
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This synchronicity is from Gypsy Woman, whose stories we have posted before – here and here. Her synchronicities are always richly textured, complex, and intriguing. This one is no exception!
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In the late 60s, Jenean and her children were traveling by bus from Little Rock to Monroe, in northeastern Louisiana. The bus was full, so they had to share seats. Her son, five at the time, was sitting next to the window. On a rural stretch of road between Sterlington and Monroe, which were about 15 miles apart, her son tugged on her arm, drawing her attention to the window.

“I looked up and there, in the sky over the fields beside us, was a huge object – an unidentified flying object. I remember being so startled that I closed my eyes and then reopened them to make sure I was really seeing what I knew I was seeing. Sure enough, the UFO was still there and the other passengers on that side of the bus were all looking at it, talking about it. Passengers from across the aisle got out of their seats and crowded into the aisle to see it better. By then, there was a lot of commotion – people wanted to get off the bus, passengers telling the driver to drive faster (which he did), and all the while my children and I are watching it, spellbound.

“It seemed to be moving very slowly, parallel to us, very low in the sky. Low enough for us to see it out the window without straining to look upward. I can’t say how far away it was, but I can say it was close enough that the textured surface of the body was visible.

“I remember trying to memorize all the details of the craft – its size, shape, color, how it moved. It made no sound, none at all. No engines were visible. No wings. There was nothing at all characteristic of a plane. Its size was at least that of a football field. It was oval/circular, with a domed top. Think of a donut with a glass dome. But it was more oval than round. The glass seemed clear, but I don’t remember being able to see through it. There was a row of what appeared to be windows or lights encircling the bottom of the domed top. The object’s body was gray, like a battleship, and not shiny. I remember there was what seemed to be a bit of “texture” or “mottling” to the matte finish – almost like old cast iron cookware looks.”

“The UFO continued moving alongside us for quite a distance, more than just a few minutes. Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared beside us, it made a 45 degree turn to then right and upward and was totally out of sight instantly. I mean, it literally zoomed! away. And still, there was no sound. The bus was now traveling at a high rate of speed as the driver really was attempting to out run it and most passengers were anywhere from hysterical to more hysterical.

“By the time we pulled into the Monroe station, there were already news reporters there. I just wanted to get my children and leave, to get away from it all. By then, I felt fearful about the experience – as if “they” were “looking for me.” This feeling was overwhelming. As a matter of fact, I left the station without even getting our luggage. We took a taxi straight to my mother’s house, but even then, by fear didn’t subside. I desperately wanted to flee – literally – to somewhere that my children and I could not be found.

“To this day, I am unsure of my profound reaction. I had grown up having seen UFOs in our many travels, they were discussed by our parents. UFOs were nothing new to me. Yet, I’d never responded with anything but total curiosity before. This experience was my first up close and personal encounter. There was absolutely NO doubt what this object was, let alone what it was not. It was daytime, clear.

“Shortly after our arrival, my mother’s phone begin to ring – reporters and law enforcement. Several days later, several men dressed all in black – I kid you not – came knocking on the door to interview me. They identified themselves as being with Wright Patterson Air Force Base. I told them what I saw and they had me draw a diagram of the object. I did so. They took it with them. At least one of the men gave me a business card when I asked for it. Some time later, when I phoned the number on the card, there was no such number. I called the base direction, but no one had heard of the person for whom I asked.

“Some of the news reports identified this “object” – seen by a bus full of people – as nothing more than a “smoke cloud” emanating from an industrial site in Sterlington.”

***
Okay, here comes the synchronicity. As Jenean was editing this story for her blog, her house phone rang – which she and her family never used – and the incoming call was unidentified and from Ohio. “We don’t know anyone in Ohio, have no business there. The only association I have with Ohio is that it’s where Wright Patterson Air Force Base is located. When I answered the phone, no one there.”

Apparently, Wright Patterson AFB is well known in UFO lore. Project Blue Book, the Air Force’s “official” investigation of the UFO phenomenon (1947-1969) was headquartered at Wright-Patterson. According to UFO researchers and theorists, this base, along with the Groom Lake/Area51 installation in Nevada, is where wreckage of the Roswell UFO crash was shipped via a B-29. Everything was allegedly placed in Hangar 18.
***
Message to Aleksandar:

Posted in Jenean, MIBs, UFOs, Wright Patternson AFB | 22 Comments

Cassadaga

Posted on September 18, 2009 by Trish and Rob

Back in the 1800s, a medium from Pike,New York was directed by his guide – Seneca – to establish a Spiritualist community in the South. He ended up in central Florida, which was mostly swamps and mangroves, totally uninhabitable in my book! But on December 18, 1894, the Cassadaga Spiritualist camp was officially chartered.

Today, the camp consists of 57 acres with 55 homes, two lakes (Colby Lake and Spirit Lake), a haunted hotel, a bookstore, gift shops, and mediums, psychics, astrologers, tarot readers, healers. I first went there in the 1970s, when I was in graduate school, and had a mind blowing reading with a psychometrist, Wilbur Hull, a quadrapelegic. After Rob and I met in the 1980s, we began going there every so often, usually when en route elsewhere. Over the years, we got to know Hazel Burley, one of the mediums in the camp, and her husband, Art.

The friendship started around 1984, when we were walking around the quiet streets in town, checking out the various little houses, most of them posted with signs that read, Reverend So and So, followed by the person’s psychic expertise. The sign outside of Hazel and Art’s place was simpler:

So we went in and had readings. The synchronicity in our meeting Hazel was that her mentor had been Wilbur Hull, the quadrapelegic with whom I had my first reading in Cassadaga. Ever since then, we always drop by Hazel’s when we’re in town.

On our way back from the book fair in St. Augustine, we stopped overnight in Cassadaga, stayed at the haunted hotel (that’s another story) and this morning, dropped by to say hi to Hazel. We hadn’t seen her for three years and discovered that her husband, Art, passed on in December 2006. But as always, Hazel is the paragon of graciousness and intellectual curiosity and the three of us settled in her comfortable reading room and talked.

The conversation turned, invariably, to her wonderful collection of books. She pulled out a 1962 edition of a Sydney Omarr book that we’d never seen. Thought Dials, based on his numerology system.

Since Rob and I have been writing Omarr’s astrology books since 2003 when he died, we were most interested. We were also curious about whether our contract for these books is going to be renewed. We didn’t tell Hazel about our contract concerns, but she said, “Let me show you two how his marvelous thought dial works. Think of a question, then you each turn the dial to three different numbers.”

As she was demonstrating how it worked, we both had the feeling that Omarr was giving us a reading about the future of his books! The upshot? Rob’s numbers added up to a 1, mine added up to a 9. The beginning, the end. And the interpretations that Omarr had written for these two numbers perfectly describes the situation.I’ve since ordered the book so that when this whole thing shakes out, we can post his words, about those numbers.

There’s a certain synchronicity in timing here, too. We had thought about dropping by Hazel’s the night before, but learned this morning that she hadn’t been home. So our timing for this morning was perfect. She was home and in between clients.

– Trish

Trish and I also both had readings with a couple of the psychics who live just outside of the camp. The ones who aren’t members of the Cassadaga Spiritualist Association, as Hazel is, usually are card readers, not mediums. The association is very strict on rules and adding new people.

Trish’s reading was positive about her career and things in general. I sort of complained that psychics usually are very positive, because it makes you feel good, like you got your money’s worth. They rarely tell you that anything negative is coming your way.

So I had a reading with a guy named Mike, who used a native American deck. I picked eight cards and he talked for 45 minutes. When he got around to asking if I had any questions, I asked about my left foot, which was fractured this past summer. “Will it get better so it doesn’t bother me anymore?”

He answered instantly: “Oh, that foot is going to give you pain the rest of your life.”

Hmm, so much for complaining about positive readings. That’s a good example of a trickster synchronicity.
Rob

Posted in Cassadaga, Hazel Burley, mediums, Numbers, psychics, Sydney Omarr, travel | 14 Comments

Jasper and the gyro

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Trish and Rob


Jim on left, NASA Gyroscope below

Here’s a new tale from Jim Banholzer, who keeps the folks in Idaho aware of synchronicity.
***
I have a friend who enjoys adventuring into the great outdoors in pursuit of collecting rocks and gems. Some of her finds she turns into jewelry, which fits well on her, when she dons it at her waitress job. We’ve talked about how sunlight after hard rains creates optimum field conditions for finding obsidian and crystals, as they sometimes stand out like tiny stars.

One early morning, after sharing a raindrop of synchronicity with her, I asked her about her own meaningful coincidences. She responded that recently, after showing off a homemade jasper necklace to some inquisitive customers, she told them on a whim, that if she ever has a son, she would love to name him “Jasper.” Within the hour a young lad of about seven entered the diner with his family, and introduced himself as Jasper!

Soon after, she mentioned another significant twist of fate. In this case, while moving some items into her new home, she came upon an old notebook, which had leafed open to a page featuring the word “gyroscope” scribbled in her own ancient handwriting. As she pondered why she had written this singular word on the yellowed sheet, a song came over the radio, with the male singer’s voice synchronously crooning, “gyroscope.”

Next, my friend told me that she had been staying up late,until three in morning for several days, in intense preparation to get her move finished, before school restarts. According to her schedule, it looks like when school starts, she’ll need to be either studying or working almost every waking moment, leaving no time for her earthly rock hunting pursuits.

This sounded stressful and I spent some time contemplating my friend’s dilemma. An hour or two later, I re-entered the cafeteria with an interpretation of her gyroscope synchronicity. I mentioned that gyroscopes are used for keeping balance and that if two gyroscopes were mysteriously spinning for her at the same time, than maybe the universe was prompting her to become better balanced and get a little more sleep, so she doesn’t crash. I explained how gyroscopes are used in Segways–personal transporters–to help keep them upright. This reminded her that a Segway brushed by her closely during our local Wagon Days parade, only days before,though she was unaware it contained a hidden gyroscope.

As Segways are seldom seen in our valley, it made the three-point synchronicity feel as precious as her jasper necklace and we agreed that synchronicity rocks as much as a field of shining gem-stars.

Posted in balance, gems, gyroscope, names, rocks | 22 Comments

Welcome!

Posted on September 16, 2009 by Trish and Rob

…to visitors from unknown news and mystery links and from dailygrail.com. We finally realized the additional traffic on our blog today was coming from these two sites. Many thanks!

Posted in blogs, links | 4 Comments

Seeing St. Augustine

Posted on September 16, 2009 by Trish and Rob


I gave two talks on synchronicity last week in St. Augustine, Florida, one to 120 high school students, the other to a group of mostly seniors at a writer’s conference. None of the high school students had heard of synchronicity. But they seemed to get it.

Since they were expecting me to talk about life as an author and to give them the inside scoop on the Indiana Jones saga, I let them in on a secret. I told them that they were all on a quest, whether they knew it or not, and whatever that quest might be, they needed to know at least one form of magic as they ventured out.

“Listen closely,” I said, “because I’m going to give you a doorway to that magic. It’s called synchronicity-meaningful coincidence.” I added that when they went through that doorway, their lives would change. They would come to recognize that in addition to our everyday world of cause and effect, there exists an underlying reality where stuff happens, as if by magic. And through synchronicity they can be guided to their own personal holy grail.

The four teachers in the room looked stunned. It was a different sort of lesson.

The other group knew Trish and I were talking on synchronicity, but most didn’t know what it meant. So, again it was back to explaining basics, keeping it simple, and inundating them with astonishing examples, many of which we’ve posted here. In fact, we were able to project our blog on a big screen. They particularly liked the Three Roberts and the Two Teapots.

At least a couple people comprehended what we were talking about, and said they really enjoyed it. But they turned out to be New Age types, one calling herself a metaphysical minister, the other recommending that we visit Cassadaga, the spiritualist community. More on that tomorrow.

So in spite of the activity here and the rising interest in synchronicity, there are still a lot of Dicks out there – so to speak. (No offense, Mr. Cavett, but your name lends to synchronicity.)
Rob

Posted in St. Augustine, writer's conference | 19 Comments

Circus Synchronicity

Posted on September 15, 2009 by Trish and Rob


Here’s another story from Isabella Rajotte of Montreal who earlier gave us the sounds of synchronicity.
***
One week before performing on a circus show for a corporate event in Cleveland, I searched for a CD of jazz trio, the Susie Arioli Band. I’d heard their music on the radio and loved it, but I couldn’t find the CD. I left Montreal on a Friday night and performed at the circus in Cleveland.

The show went well, and on my way back I almost missed the airplane. The owner of the circus, who had invited me, wanted souvenirs for her children, and that delayed us. So the plane was ready to go when we reached the gate. A man thought everyone was boarded and had taken my seat by the window. He moved over to his original seat in the middle, and introduced himself as Shane Mackenzie.

I told him about my circus performance, and he said that he was also a musician. “What kind of music?” I asked.

“Jazz. I’m the bass fiddle player with the Susie Arioli Band.”

Posted in circuses, music, travel | 4 Comments

It’s called synchronicity, Dick!

Posted on September 14, 2009 by Trish and Rob


Dick Cavett is a smart guy, but apparently he has never heard of synchronicity. He needs to read some Carl Jung, who coined the term–or at least basic information about him. Also, reading Arthur Koestler’s Roots of Coincidence would help.

But it’s great that Cavett is bringing synchronicity to a larger audience via his column in the New York Times, and asking readers for help in explaining his own mind-boggling experiences. In May, he was baffled by a synchronistic encounter with a playwright.

Now in his latest column, he reveals that months later he’s just as baffled. He also asked readers to recommend books on the meaning of these puzzling coincidences, and we really wish that we could recommend Seven Secrets of Synchronicity . But no book till next August.

So in Cavett’s new story he stops at an outdoor book fair. He’s in a hurry and only has a few minutes. He walks up to the closest table, picks up a book at random without looking at its title and opens it to the middle and starts reading. The paragraph he picks describes a house and its owner in detail, and to his astonishment, it’s the house he has just purchased three days earlier and the owner he just purchased it from.

Thanks to Musingegret for leading us to the column.

Posted in books, dick cavett | 30 Comments

The Grasshopper

Posted on September 13, 2009 by Trish and Rob

This story is another one of those quirky synchronicities we all recognize as odd, but it’s anyone’s guess what the deeper meaning is. Maybe it’s just to illustrate how like attracts like! It’s from Mysteries of the Unexplained, but a Google search on Graham Sutherland, the artist mentioned in the story, indicates tat the story is nearly as well known as the various participants.

British novelist J.B. Priestly told this story to writer Arthur Koestler in a letter he wrote in February 1972.

Priestley’s wife – British archaeologist Jacquette Hawkes – had bought three large lithographs by Graham Sutherland that she took up to the bedroom to hang the next morning. As Priestly explained in his letter to Koestler: “They were leaning against a chair and the one on the outside, facing the room, was a lithograph of a grasshopper. When Jacquetta got into bed that night, she felt some sort of twittering movement going on.”

So of course she does what anyone would do: got up and pulled back the covers. And there was a grasshopper. In the bed. “No grasshopper has been seen since. No grasshopper has been seen at any other time in this house.”

Posted in grasshopper, Jacquette Hawkes, JB Priestley, law of attraction, writers | 13 Comments

ESPERANZA

Posted on September 12, 2009 by Trish and Rob


Esperanza
12″ Tall

A while back, I went looking for a photo of a message in a bottle for the post by the same name. I came across a website that sells them and clicked on a pretty picture with a message in a bottle, selling for $63.95.

It’s called Esperanza – the name of my new novel that will be published by TOR Books!
– Trish

Posted in books, creativity, writers, writing | 3 Comments