“I have told you time and again… and I tell you again…: You form your own reality. You form the world that you know, and you form your own images. And there is no justification for violence. Now the words sound simple. None of you has fully accepted them except as they apply to others.
“You must apply them to yourself. You must look within yourself and apply these truths, and learn from them. They are not theoretical ideas. They are realities.
“You operate in accordance with those truths whether you realise it or not. It is not enough to listen [to me]: you must look within yourself. It is not enough to play games. It is not enough to squint at yourself… to look at one motivation… to accept partiality.
“Do you want to know what freedom is? Then I will tell you. Freedom is the inner realisation that you are an individual, that you do create your reality; that you do have freedom – and the joy, and the responsibility – of forming the physical reality in which you live. Then you can change the reality. Then you are free to move…
“You are not free when you say, ‘The idea works for everyone but me; my symptoms are caused by something else; and when I am violent, different rules apply. Everyone else forms their physical reality, but not me: my reality is caused by heredity or environment. Every other nation, every other people form their own violence and [are] responsible for their own miserable condition, but my people – they are right! Any problems that they have had are caused by other agencies beyond them!’
“Then, you are not facing yourselves individually or as a people. You are meant to look at your physical condition, to compare it against what you want, and what is good – and change the inner self accordingly. Any evils in the world are symptoms of your own inner disorders and are meant to lead you to cure them.
“There is a beauty and a strength and a joy in looking within yourselves, and a freedom from bondage [subservience]. And I hope that when I am finished with you all, you will taste some of that joy and freedom! You will not get it from a book. You will not get it like your chocolates [indicating some candy on the table], wrapped in a merry box. You will not get it by making exceptions. You will not get it by saying, ‘I am the exception to the rule!’ You will not get is by running away from yourself. You will find this freedom by learning to look inward, and by realising that you create the reality that you know.
“There are no exceptions to this rule. Your success and your failures alike, you have yourselves created. If you would but understand, this is the truth that would make you free.”
(‘Conversations With Seth: Book Two [June 1974], Susan M. Watkins, 2006, Moment Point Press)
IshaiyaFreshlySqueezed 
In the week this has been the only instance of devilled eggs in any context; as for further mystery I await your clue. I lead a low-key life …
So I’m guessing that this daft little experiment has only served to reinforce your own nebulous attitude toward such things? Well, let me set up a new control. Because I am so convinced that what I am telling you is as I say it is, any possible arrogance aside, then at the point that you see Devilled Eggs and Lemons together in the same context, then let that be a message from your subconscious that the message has actually got through to your normal waking consciousness, and when it does then it the purpose of all this will make perfect and very clear sense. It’ll be one of those lightbulb moments. However, it will only happen when you least expect it, most likely when you have already long forgotten it, or not.
It is only your waking conscious that has got the problem with any of this to begin with. The woes of the world do indeed rest on the opinions of your physically perceiving waking self alone.
Maybe Devilled Eggs and Lemons will never materialise in the same context for you in this life-time. Oh well, I can live with that oddly enough. But the thought exists now in its own right, it has its own integrity, and will be activated the moment you choose it to, at what ever level of consciousness is appropriate.
For someone who leads such a low-key life, you have a lot going on in that warm fluffy head of yours.
I don’t think it’s daft at all.
Now here’s an observation, make of it what you will—first, are you familiar with the game ‘Yahtzee’?
I used to love playing Yahtzee with my lovely Nan.
Great. Then you’ll understand and relate—
Just this lunchtime The Spouse and I were continuing our unholy Yahtzee war. Very soon into the game I got the feeling I was not only going to win, but invincible. I opened with some nondescript usual Argus rubbish, then my next turn a Full House in one—then after that first three twos, then a two, then a two making a Yahtzee. A turn or so after, I did it again—same numbers in the same sequence. Spouse was having conniptions.
Another turn or so later, I threw three twos and Spouse said a few naughty words under her breath, and even before I took my next throw I knew … and it was, another Yathtzee. Three yahtzees in one game, for me almost a record, but all of them twos.
Now, I’m usually very unlucky with sixes … to wrap the game up—and again knowing what was about to happen, a fourth Yathzee!
Was I somehow cheating? I never cheat. Foreign to my nature. But for the look on her face, I’d gladly do it again …
That’s very impressive, you must have felt quite victorious considering your spouse’s track record. You can’t be accused of cheating if it isn’t actually a confidence trick. You know when I was younger and used to play board games, card games, pool, it used to be said that I had beginner’s luck. However after a while that explanation doesn’t really wash anymore does it? Particularly if you find yourself consciously influencing the outcome ….. Polar bear, polar bear, polar bear….Bi-polar bear… hang on how the hell did he get in there?… bugger… polar bear….
I used to employ the same tricks when playing Black-Jack, much to my opponent’s frustration because they couldn’t comprehend how I was managing to win so much, no matter how well the cards were shuffled.
Work it on some more dear Argus, it’s most certainly a sign of a little synchronicity and dare I say it, evidence of conscious influencing at will…
I think I commented or posted somewhere on a statistical improbability that intrigued me no end. In brief, new Tarot pack (Hanson Roberts). Many mega shuffles, cut deck. Note card. Replace. Do the same again, and again … I forget the numbers but The Star kept coming up, it was something like “usual randoms, 3 max, 2 a couple of times, singles lots, Star 9”. No, not a typo, but nine.
If I were running any kind of formal trial that would be statistically significant (of what I have no idea).
I only got the idea to trial it after it had already caught my attention. Interestingly when I tried (several times) weeks later to replicate the trial I got almost random results, but on one occasion The Fool kept being dominant, on another The Hermit. Random results for the rest except for one or two that I don’t remember enough to be dogmatic about … I think 5 pentacles was one of ’em.
I used the tarot for years, like you often intrigued at the frequency of certain appearing in extremely well shuffled spreads. I used to keep a log so that I could also notice other patterns within events that would crop up to see if there was any correlation. Of course there was. Particularly effective have been the Runes, which I indulged in very heavily. One particular Rune would appear just before a family relative would turn up unannounced, as infrequent as that actually was over the years. Then this particular Rune attached itself to the arrival of my father, never an entirely satisfactory occurrence, so even now whenever I see its shape in the branches of a tree, or a fallen twig, or whatever it may be I know that my father is due to appear within the next 24 hours, and without fail he does!
The Star card used to be one that would turn up frequently too, at one point almost every time I picked up the deck, shuffled it as randomly as possible, cut the deck at random places choosing cards from within the deck, and not from the same place either. I found that I would go through periods of certain Tarot cards, or Runes for example that would appear and once I managed to crack the message, or circumstances changed then so would the pattern of cards. The King of Batons/Wands would turn up every time I asked a pertinent question, and still does no matter what deck I use. Suffice to say I no longer rely on such devices, if I read anything of an exploratory ilk it tends to be Seth related, but other than that I am utterly convinced that coincidence does not exist and that there are patterns that are inherent in everything within our experience of reality, patterns that have great relevance to us if we know how to interpret them, and actively use them.
I think it’s fascinating though that you’ve had similar results with your cards. Do you use the tarot much?
Only as a research tool. I still think there’s a lot of old wisdoms therein, but perverted over many years and ‘experts’ to the point where the original lose-leaf book has been almost completely lost.
I’ve dabbled with runes too — have you never noticed how very little similarity there is between modern ‘runeology’ and translations/interpretations of the original rune poems?
Almost anything and everything has been or is used as an oracle; taken to the point where it’s obvious that the vehicle itself is possibly meaningless—all is in the Driver.
I get a giggle from rabbiting through Tarot selections in Spook shops—I haven’t yet seen but doubtlessly will at some stage a ‘Tarot of the Garbage Collectors’ … I also think that as an oracle the Tarot is being misused, I don’t see that as ever having been it’s primary purpose—but so little of the original ‘book’ has survived we may as well.
That aside, I identify strongly with my own meanings for the Hermit and the Star. The major trouble is all the wannabe psychics (some of them well intentioned) and charlatans; and of course the ‘good’ followers of ever-merciful Jesus who given half a chance would burn all Tarot users on top of a big pile of said “Devil’s Picture Books”.
I may even post on this, too … no wonder letters are wearing off my keyboard …
I went through a phase of collecting Tarot decks, mainly the more unique ones with the unusual and impressive artwork. But I no longer use them as a tool for self-exploration. I remember my eldest brother years ago told me that my interpretation of these things was most important, so although I read the odd book and looked into their history, I never really got that involved with that side of it. I like you don’t like to be told how to do things, not even by a book. I take from it what I want and do the rest of the work myself.
Same with the runes, read all the available books even the really rare old ones, then defaulted to my own intuition. So I have my own version of their names and meanings as they relate to my world view. I use them now and again, actually I look for them a lot when I’m out and about, especially when I’m out hiking in the wilds. Damned handy for providing a heads up of things to come along the trail.
I do relate very strongly myself with the Star and the Hermit, also the Coins 5, or as it is in my well used deck Grail 5. That particular card appears without fail no matter how long it has been between readings, it can be years sometimes. It used too really frustrate me every time I saw the depiction of a boat out at sea lost in the fog. I get it now, and every time it appears it makes me laugh, it reminds me that the universe/my greater self/whatever will always have one over on me, there will always be things that I have yet to remember. One day that fog will clear completely 🙂