Brigid Bishop on Life, Love and The Art of Living

I asked my Sociology Professor whether I was better suited for Sociology or Psychology based on my writings and a description of what I do here as a New Age Life Coach.

I gave him a copy of "The Dating Game:  Insights Into Affairs of The Heart" last Friday, asked him to take a look at it when he had time, and asked him if based on what the content of my book was, if I was more suited to Sociology or Psychology.

Much to my surprise, when I went to class this morning, he told me that he had written a review of the book on Amazon!  He told me that he did enjoy the book and my writing style, and really made my day!  I couldn't wait to get home to read what he had written!

And here is the review of my book from a Sociologist!

Mxxxxxx Pxxxxx, PhD at PSU wrote:
(Name removed to protect his privacy)

I am so happy!!

Grades for my first semester back in school finished posting this afternoon and I am happy to say I achieved a 4.0!!!!

This may not seem like a big deal to a lot of people, but it certainly is to me!!!

It's a huge challenge to return to school full time at the age of 50 and to continue working and running a household, writing and being the head of a family all at the same time.  I am VERY excited that I was able to achieve this level of accomplishment at the end of my first semester back.

It would be absolutely fantastic if I could achieve a 4.0 each and every semester in the future, I'll sure try, but I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't.

It's a great start on the path to achieving this long delayed goal of becoming a psychologist.

The course work will become increasingly difficult and demanding, but, I am going to continue to aim high!!!

Thank you to all of my wonderful clients who have offered their support and encouragement as I adjusted back into academia!!  I love you guys!!!

Many semesters before me yet, but this is truly an encouraging start.

My schedule is returning to normal now, as all of my Summer Session Classes and my Fall Semester Classes allow me to return home by noon to begin working, so look for me at my regular times!!

WOO HOO!!!  I DID IT!!!

If you have a dream of your own you'd like to chase, I'd like to remind you that the sooner you begin, the sooner you will achieve it!!!  GO FOR IT!!!

Practical Advice for Choosing an Advisor

I consider myself a very professional and ethical Reader, and as such, I feel it my duty to educate any who are willing to learn, on the practice of choosing an advisor that will provide you with a value-added experience, and not false hope or even worse, dark despair.

When we are in a crisis and searching for answers, we need to reach out and seek those answers. This is natural. Perhaps our friends and support network are tiring of hearing our lament, or we want to keep our problems private from those close to us, this is when we reach out to readers.

The problem is, there are many so-called "advisors" out there who do not have the skills, education or experience to provide you with professional counsel. If you are not careful you could end up on the phone with a "card flipper" who considers reading the insert that came with their tarot deck as an understanding of the tarot, or worse, someone claiming to be psychic who is pulling answers out of the air for you.

When you are looking for an advisor, I strongly recommend that you steer clear first and foremost of those who claim to use "no tools" and say that they are psychic, clairvoyant, clairaudient, clairsentient, etc. etc. etc., unless someone you trust has recommended them to you or you have some particular intuitive draw to the advisor. 

 Although some of these claimants may well possess a talent in one or a few of these areas, it is very difficult to validate. If a reader is using tarot, you know that they are using a tool that mankind has utilized for centuries to tap into the human psyche, and you are able to question them as to how they are divining their interpretation, thus achieving validation through the interpretation of the cards.  I have nothing against using someone claiming psychic abilities, but be sure that someone has recommended them to you or you have some other reason to feel comfortable with their abilities.

NEVER and I mean NEVER go to someone who claims to be 100% accurate.

NO ONE is 100% accurate, it is impossible.  As well as those who claim to be 99.9% accurate and so forth.  There is NO MEASURABLE WAY to track an advisor's accuracy, so any claims of a stated percentage of accuracy, in mathematical terms, is FALSE!

PLEASE BE SURE TO THOROUGHLY READ THE ADVISOR LISTINGS.  IF THE LISTING SAYS THAT THE ADVISOR DOES NOT PROVIDE GENERAL READINGS, PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT THEM AND EXPECT THEM TO GIVE YOU A GENERAL READING.  IF THEY DO NOT PROVIDE A SERVICE THAT YOU ARE INTERESTED IN AND CLEARLY STATE IT, PLEASE LOOK FOR AN ADVISOR WHO DOES!  You can also email an advisor before hand and ask how much information they need to read for you.  Myself, I need a clear question and the first names of the persons involved.  Asking me "What can you tell me about Joe?" is not a clear question.  Asking me "What are Joe's intentions, thoughts and feelings toward me?" IS a clear question. 

You are looking for projections in human behavior, and humans, even the most banal humans, are quixotic at best, and at any given moment can change. A humble reader is going to be honest and direct with you, and state to you that this is what is "likely" to happen, no reading is written in stone. Each interaction you have, or the person you are reading about has, following a reading, can possibly change the course.

You cannot possibly ask every foreseeable question, therefore, you cannot know for certain what the chain of events that happen after your reading will cause.

The rule of thumb is: If you like the outcome of your reading, stick to the same path, make no changes, if you do not like the outcome of the reading you receive, consult the cards and ask, what, if anything, can be done to change the outcome, and adjust your course of actions accordingly.

Look for readers who are experienced, perhaps they have been reading for many years, perhaps they have written a book (like myself), or have some type of credential or verification to show that they are serious about what they are doing. 

Choose a reader with life experience, a work history in the mainstream in a position of managing other people, experience as a parent, step-parent, a reader who has been married, perhaps divorced, someone who has lived life and experienced difficulties, preferably with experience in the situation you, yourself, are dealing with.  You wouldn't ask a childless person for parenting advice, so why would you ask a person who has not had a healthy relationship in years for advice?  They have no insight.

Just as you would not ask a homemaker for business advice, why would you call someone who has never held a position in business for career advice?  Be careful as to who you contact for advice.  Relationship advice, seek someone with a history of successful relationships.

Okay, now you've found a reader who seems mature, experienced and educated.

If at any time, any reader, tells you they can "fix" your problem for a fee, (by burning candles, casting spells, etc.), disconnect immediately and never call them again. They are trying to take advantage of you and they are not ethical. Although the practice of spell-casting is recognized by many religions, as are candle burning rituals, these practices should be done by you, yourself, for maximum potency, and if you have an interest in performing these spells or rituals, many ethical readers will teach you how to do them for yourself as part of your reading sessions and not offer to do them "for you".  Your energy needs to be a part of any ritual work and is only totally effective if YOU do it YOURSELF.

Now, you found someone who has all of the qualifications we've discussed and is ethical as well. To get the most out of your reading, don't call them up and say "tell me about my love life". You will get what is known as a "cold read". This is not necessarily inaccurate, but it will be very general and not as in depth as you would like. The cards are multifaceted, and not knowing the nature of your situation will make it much more difficult than it has to be for the reader to tap into your situation. You wouldn't go to a counselor and sit down and say "Tell me how to fix my life", would you? It's the same with an advisor.

For instance, you ask a vague question about where your relationship with so-and-so is going and the Two of Cups appears at the base of the reading.

The advisor can interpret this in several ways to say the least.

This could mean you two are married, were married in the past, are very much in love, or that your current love interest is married to someone else, or that he or she was married in the past.... a lot can be deciphered by the surrounding cards, but why make the reader guess, it takes the focus off delivering clarity and puts the pressure on the reader to "prove themselves".

Instead, when you contact a reader, give them a brief summary of your current situation, and then ask your question. It will save you time and money and you will get a much clearer and concise reading from your advisor, thus, more quickly cutting to the chase of what you may need to do in order to achieve your goals.

Please understand that tarot reading, despite how it has been viewed and how some readers present it, is not a cure-all and end-all as to what is going to happen in your future. It is a guide, a tool, to help you to make the choices that are right for you, to help you to see what the potential of your situation is and to hopefully inspire you to grow and to learn. Tarot should help you to let go of situations that no longer work for you, give you projections of what is likely in store for you, teach you how to be prepared for what is coming down the road toward you and give you insight into other peoples' thinking and their feelings.

So, I hope this helps you the next time you are cruising for a reading to make an intelligent and wise choice in who you choose to let into your psyche.

Peace!

Brigid Bishop

 

You May Also Enjoy:  "You Are Who You Meet!"

 

Retrograde Schmetrograde!

 

The Newly "BED" Game

 

 The Proper Usage of the Transitional Man

 

Tough Love In the Garden of Eden

 

Thyme In a Bottle

 

Why Do People Cheat?

 

What is Your Power Animal?

 

The Bridal Bouquet

(This Article Contains Links to More Wedding Rituals and Myths)

 

Independence, Codependence and Interdependence

 

Premarital Ponderings at 2 a.m.

 

On The Outside Looking In

 

 

Visit Brigid Bishop

 

If I am not available, please try a well-qualified Advisor in my group:

 

 Advisors Trusted by Brigid Bishop .

 

 

For further insight, Read "See Dick Run"

 

It's almost over, thank goodness!!!  Finals week.  My first semester back in college since 2000 and I survived!!!!

I am happy to say I am fairly certain I am going to pull a 4.0, (won't know for sure until my grades officially post), and I feel a sense of satisfaction at having finally taken the steps to pursue this long delayed goal.

As a divorced mother of two and working more than full time as an Operations Manager in the printing industry while raising my children alone, I attended college at nights way back when.  Then as I continued to be promoted in the printing industry and the kids became adolescents who needed more and more of my attention, I had to stop attending.

Then came time for them to go to college.

Last June, my eldest son completed law school and passed the bar over the summer and I decided it was finally my turn to pursue my long awaited dream of becoming a psychologist.

I have many more semesters ahead of me until I obtain my PsyD, but, I am happily at the start of my journey and intend to pursue it relentlessly until this goal is completed.

I guess I shouldn't get too excited about the semester being over because I am attending class straight through all three Summer Sessions to accelerate my program, but hey, it's one semester down!!!

I have one more final, tomorrow, in Human Development, and then Summer Session I starts on Monday.  (No rest for the weary, lol).

Anyway, for my regular clients, I will be back to my normal hours of availability as all of my classes will be in the morning hours for the Summer Sessions, and luckily, the Fall Semester as well.  (I really lucked out there).

So, starting Monday and through December of this year, I will be back to being available from noon until 11 p.m. EST every weekday, excluding holidays.

Thank you all for your patience with my crazy schedule this semester and for your continued support of my return to matriculating!  I really do appreciate it!

And, as always, I hope that you are pursuing your dreams as well!

Brigid

Many of my regular clients are familiar with how I came to be a Professional Tarot Reader, however, those of you who are unfamiliar with me, (or never thought to ask), may be curious about how this strange career arose.

If you have read my listings at all, you are aware that I have been a student of Tarot for some forty-two years.  Many are shocked, and think, gee Brigid, you barely look like you are old enough to have that much experience ;)  !  LOL!

I am fifty, yes FIFTY, years old, or as I like to say, twenty-nine with twenty-one years experience.

So you did the math, and you have correctly calculated that I begin to read tarot at the tender age of eight years old.  How could this happen?  Did I grow up in some metaphysical, hippie-parented family?

Oh no, my dear, quite the opposite.  I grew up in a strict Irish-Catholic family, attended private Catholic schools, I was the fourth of five children, and my parents were like Archie and Edith Bunker.  Dad was a WWII veteran, with a Silver and a Bronze Star, and also a veteran of the Korean war.  Dad was an 82nd Airborne "Pathfinder", they were the guys who landed first at Normandy, lit the beacons for the gliders, and basically were the first behind enemy lines, and in the Korean War he was a Ranger........but that's an entirely different story.  Mom was a Registered Nurse and worked with juvenile tuberculosis patients, and later, with the mentally handicapped.

So how did this young girl in a strict religious conservative family get her hands on a Tarot Deck?

Well.....my oldest sister was ten years older than I was, so when I was eight, she was eighteen.  We shared a room, and when my sister Karen went away to college, the room became mine!  And, as all little sisters are prone to do, any belongings she had left behind instantly became my property!  What I found hidden under her "secret" loose floorboard in her room (along with some pretty interesting hallucinogenics), was what was to become my very first Tarot Deck.  It was the Rider-Waite Deck, and evidently someone had given it to Karen as a gift, and she had hidden it and never even opened it.  What I found out many years later was that she was actually afraid of the cards!  Along with the deck, there was a book on Tarot by Stuart Kaplan.  My fascination began.

My mother worked third shift, so each night, after she left for work and I was thought to be asleep, my adventure in Tarot would take place.  I studied and read, flipped the cards out and looked up their meanings.  At the age of eight my questions were primarily about what would happen to me when I grew up, and my interpretations were awkward at best.  This continued for some time, and then, I started to frequent the local library looking for books on Astrology and Tarot and going deeper and deeper into the study of these subjects.

One day, while at a local bookstore with my mom, I found a new deck that I really wanted to try out, and I had to find a way to buy them without my mom knowing.  I did, and I sneaked them into the house, but didn't hide them right away.  Mom found them and did she ever flip out!!!  She went nuts and burned them out in the backyard and dragged me across the street for the priest to give me a lecture on opening the door to letting evil spirits into my life and our home.

Well,  even at the tender age of eight, I understood the cards well enough to know that the priest (and my mom), were just too prejudiced against the stereotypes to understand what I was pursuing.  So I cooled it, briefly.

I became more covert in my studies as my Mom began taking too intent of an interest in my personal library, and my ephemeris, (used to calculate astrology charts by hand), disappeared, certain astrology books would evaporate off my book shelves, and Mom spent a lot of time burning things in the back yard....

Years passed, my studies deepened, I became a teenager and began reading for friends and kind of got a reputation of being a bit "spooky".

I became an adult, took my first job as an Electronics Buyer in 1980, and of course the circle of people I read for widened. 

I married, had two children, became an Inventory Manager, then worked my way up after my divorce to an Operations Manager in the printing industry.  I spent many years working my tail off to support my family and all through the years I never stopped reading cards for the people I met along the way.

Then I decided I was going to change industries, I went to a Thermography Plant as the Plant Manager, a great job, I was "The Boss" of the whole organization, I owned two homes, etc. etc. etc.

The plant shut down.

I was laid off for the first time in my life.

I could "sign up" for unemployment, but it was only about 1/8 of what my income normally was, I panicked.  I was frantically job hunting, and then I thought, wait, let me take this time to write a book on Tarot, a subject I love.  I wrote my book and began reading professionally (ie. for money). 

My business took off!

I was now able to set my own hours, work as little or as much as I wanted, and......BONUS.....I absolutely LOVED what I was doing!

I gave up the job search and NEVER returned to the rat race.

It's the old adage "DO WHAT YOU LOVE, THE MONEY WILL FOLLOW".

And that, my dear friends, is how Brigid Bishop became a Professional Tarot Reader.

3/7/12

Since I originally wrote this blog five years ago I have remarried, my children have "left the nest", and I am now the proud momma to three fur babies, my surrogate children!  Two Boxers, Bella and Jillian (aka "The Bean"), and a calico cat who thinks she's also a Boxer, named Sophie.

I have been on Keen full time since 2003, part time since 2001...it's been over a decade.  I'm not leaving Keen, but I am taking my life coaching, relationship coaching and writing career to the next level.

A new chapter in my life is dawning.  In the five years since I originally posted this blog (I updated the ages for this repost), I have published three books, a series of Tarot Journals with 24 Volumes and I have several more titles on the way!  I have returned to school full time to become a psychologist.

Life never stops changing and hopefully we never stop evolving.

So here I am at the age of 50, plotting for my next career development...  I stand by the phrase "Do what you love, the money will follow!".

Here's hoping you are pursuing your bliss as well, and making a productive contribution to your own life!

Check out my new series of Tarot Journals that began releasing this week!

I developed this Tarot Journaling Method years ago as I worked with many differing decks.  I read myself many times over the years, most especially when going through major life changes.  I found it very helpful to be able to go back and review my readings and interpretations against what actually was happening in my life.

In this way I was able to develop a comprehensive understanding of the complex meanings of the Tarot and the combinations of cards that arose.  I was also able to see how, at times, my own actions shifted events, either to the positive or negative, of my desired outcome.    

I produced this book in 24 different Volumes so far, the only differences between them are the covers, and the energies one will feel as they work with them.

If going through a breakup or divorce, one might want to use the Journal Volume “Freedom”.  If one is embarking on a new relationship, perhaps the Journal Volume “Love” or “Romance” will appeal to them, and so forth.

I also keep my Tarot Journals separated by subject matter, so if you are on a path with multiple situations developing simultaneously, you may want to have dedicated journals for each subject.

As I said, there are 24 Volumes in all, the Titles (Energies) for the differing Volumes produced to date and releasing this Spring are:

Journey
Renew
Enlightenment
Hope
Freedom
Boundless
Out of The Haze
Within
Enflamed
Awakening
Beginnings
Flow
Serenity
The Fire Within
Sea of Tranquility
Limitless
Harvest
Romance
Love
Receive
Meditations
Splash
Glow

Each cover has been designed to express the energy suggested by the Volume Title, to help you to keep your focus in your Tarot Journaling.  There should well be a cover style suited to nearly every taste and situation amongst the versions.

I hope you find my Journals a helpful tool in your personal and spiritual growth.  They are beginning to populate Amazon as of 3/31/12, there will be a total of 24 coming out in the upcoming week, so watch for a style you like!

Thank you.

My First Exposure to Paranormal Activity

 Autobiography Excerpt

 

When I was a little girl I was the apple of my grandpop’s eye, how was I to know that my childhood and my place as “baby” of the family would be so brief?

At the age of six, and the youngest of four existing siblings, my younger brother was born.

“Baby of The Family” no more!

To make matters more complicated, Danny was born with a severe heart defect, the ventricle did not move back and forth in a rhythmic beat, but it stopped, for every two beats of the heart, Danny’s heart beat four.  He also had several holes in the center of his heart, so there was a risk that the blood from one side of his heart could mix with the blood from the other side, causing immediate death.

In 1968 he was given a fifty/fifty chance of surviving until the age of six months.

At six years old, I had yet to have had any experiences with death, but I grasped enough of the emotions around me to know that this was serious and that my baby brother needed all of the attention that was once shone upon me, placed on him.

I had two more years of childhood before I “grew up”.

At age eight, my oldest sibling, a sister, went away to college, my next brother in line had a full time job after school (he was 16) and didn’t get home until 11 or 12 at night, and my next brother after that ran away from home (he was 15), so I was the oldest child at home.

My parents both worked.  Mom worked midnight shift at a hospital for the mentally handicapped as a nurse and Dad, who had been a teacher prior to my birth, worked construction now and lots of overtime.  When the day was over, he played as hard as he worked, shooting darts, drinking with the guys, etc.  Mom had to sleep sometime, so she slept when I got home from school and I took care of my little brother until my oldest brother came in from work around midnight.  Dad would be out.

During this time, my beloved grandfather, now 80 years old went blind from glaucoma.  It became my responsibility to walk down “the hill” to his house and prepare his evening meal and lay out his breakfast for the next day.

I loved my grandfather very much, and at eight years old, this was a labor of love.  He had been 72 years old when I was born and he lived to be 93, I lost him when I was 21.

So, in Second Grade, when I came home from school, I changed out of my Catholic School Uniform into my “dungarees” (we didn’t call them jeans in the late 60’s, early 70’s) and my “tennis shoes” (the word sneakers was not in our vocabulary yet) and walked down to grandpop’s house, six blocks away, prepared his meal, kept him company while he ate, washed the dishes, empty the ashes from the coal stove in the kitchen and the warm morning heater in the living room, stoked the fires and fed them with coal, laid out his box of cereal, bowl and spoon for his morning meal within easy reach and then returned home so my mom could go to sleep before her midnight shift at the hospital.

If she made dinner, my little brother and I ate it, if not, I made something for us and tried to keep my two year old brother entertained, but not over stimulated, due to his heart condition.  Not easy work at the age of eight.  Have you any idea how hard it is to prevent a two year old from running when they want to run, but they aren’t allowed to run because of their weak heart?  I do.

At eight p.m. I would run my baby brother’s bath, bathe him, brush his teeth and then read to him until he fell asleep between 9 and 9:30, then I would wake my Mother up so she could get ready for work and start my homework at 9:30 p.m.

Because the house we lived in was haunted, yes, you read that right, the house was most definitely haunted, I always hated when 10:00 p.m. rolled around.  In 1970 they used to put out a public service announcement that said “It is 10 p.m., Do You KNOW Where your Children Are?”  I hated that announcement, because it meant Mom was leaving to catch a ride to work, her shift started at eleven, and it also meant that I would now be alone, in this haunted house, with just my little brother asleep in his crib and my dog Missy, a Rough Collie, to keep me company until either one of two things happened.  Either my big brother Kenny would get home from work around Midnight, or my Dad would wander in from being out and about as he was wont to do on occasion.  I had to wait up for them to come home because Mom made me lock the door and for some reason, back in that time, it was the only time our door was locked and no family members carried keys to the doors to the house.  I don’t remember the doors to our house ever being locked during the 60’s and the 70’s, ever, only when I was home alone at night with Danny.

So, at 10 p.m. my anxiety would frequently begin.  “The Outer Limits” came on at 10 p.m. and the beginning of that TV Show always scared the s*** out of me, it said “There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat, there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits. Please stand by.”

If I had forgotten to change the channel before it came on I would literally LEAP into action to change that station as quickly as I possibly could!  Another show to be avoided at all costs while in the house alone was “The Twilight Zone”, Rod Serling could have well been the Devil himself if he appeared on my TV screen while in that house alone.  I can still feel the way I did back then when I think about it, stark fear.

An eight-year old has an active imagination and does not need stimuli like this when home alone in the dark of night.  I was frequently very frightened during the hours until someone came home to relieve me of my duty of sentry and allow me to go to bed to get some sleep before awaking at 7 a.m. to get ready for school the next day.

It was on one of these nights that I had my first direct encounter with one of the ghosts that inhabited the home.

The history of our home was quite interesting.  My parents got a real bargain when they purchased this single home with four bedrooms way back in 1968, and the reason became apparent long before we moved in, the house was known, not rumored, but KNOWN to be haunted.

The house had been built to be a Rectory and had functioned as one for over seventy years, until St. Anthony’s Church built a new and modern Church and Rectory and put the old Rectory on the market.  The house lay empty, void of life, for seven years before my parents, moving to the area from the city, purchased it, and my father scoffed at the idea of it being haunted and bought it against my mother’s protests.

To date each of us inhabiting this home had heard strange noises and had some odd experiences, but, as yet, no one had seen anything “haunting” directly.

While my dad was from Philadelphia, my mother had been born and raised in this small town and was well aware that the house was said to be haunted by spirits seeking redemption, drawn to the priest who had ministered to them in life, and after his death, it was rumored that he had left a promise empty and inhabited the home yet in an attempt to fulfill the forgotten commitment to a lost soul.

I believe this is true.  Years later when looking at a family photo taken in the garden of this home there is a disturbing image of several disembodied entities in the walkway in the background that I believe are photos of the actual ghosts.  I do not doubt this.

So, back to our story.

It was a summer night, no school the next day, so I could stay up as late as I wanted even after my brother or dad should return home.  The crickets were chirping and I had successfully avoided the introduction to “The Outer Limits” and I was reading one of my favorite books as a child, Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. 

Danny was in bed, sleeping peacefully in his crib and Mom had just left for work.  All was well in my late-night eight year old world.  Johnny Carson was on TV and I was curled up on the big sofa in the front room with my book when my dog, Missy, started behaving strangely.

She was at the bottom of the steps and she was barking and whining and pacing in circles.  She kept pausing and looking up at the top of the stairway to bark and then pacing and whining again.  The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.  Something was wrong.  My dog never acted like this.  My fight or flight instincts were activated immediately.

I didn’t want to, I was extremely frightened, but I had to, Danny was upstairs.  I walked over to the bottom of the stairs where Missy was carrying on, as I walked toward her I heard furniture moving at the top of the stairway.  My mom had a dry sink at the top of the stairway beneath a large mirror, the sound was coming from there.

I reached the bottom of the steps, and although I was afraid to do so, I looked up, I had to, Danny was up there.

To my shock and surprise the dry sink was pulled away from the wall, on an angle, and as I watched, it SLAMMED back against the wall!

Missy started howling!

I leapt into action and ran half-way up the stairs, afraid to go near the dry sink, I climbed up the banister and over the railing along the upstairs hall and ran into Danny’s room where he lay sleeping in his crib and grabbed him, and exited by climbing back over the railing and down the stairs and ran next door to the neighbor’s house banging on her door with a two year old in my arms and a collie at my heel.

She was awake and let me right in.  My mom had told me if there was ever an emergency to go to this neighbor and I did so as quickly as possible.  If seeing furniture move of its own volition was not an emergency I don’t know what is!

She stayed by my side as I put Danny back to sleep on her couch and she tried to comfort me as best she could, but she was scared too.  She was a member of St. Anthony’s Parish and she knew the stories of the old Rectory being haunted better than I did.

My brother came home after Midnight and she waved him over to her door and told him what happened.  He would NOT go in the house that night, asked her to keep me and Danny overnight and told her he would go sleep at a friend’s house. 

By the time my father came home I was fast asleep on the couch with Danny.  The next day or two Mom took off work until I was ready to go back to “the routine” again, but I never felt safe or secure in that home.

Despite it all, I found my way….

 

 

 

Copyright © 2008 Brigid Bishop

This content may not be copied or reproduced in any way without the express written permission of the author.  You are welcome to link to or bookmark this page, but please contact the author via Keen Mail if you wish to reproduce this article in whole or in part. 

This is an excerpt from The Autobiography of Brigid Bishop currently under production.

 

 

 

 

Strange Dreams

To Dream The Impossible Dream? 

Are You “The Other Woman?”

Why Do People Cheat?

Surviving An Affair

Once a Cheater, Always a Cheater?

He Left His Wife, Now What?

When The One We Love Is With Someone Else

Independence, Codependence and Interdependence

The One, The Myth Exposed

 

If I am not available please try the well-qualified Advisors in My Group,

(Which is by invitation only),

Brigid Bishop Recommends

To Ensure That You Continue to Receive Quality Advice.  

 

Careful What You Wish For!!

On The Outside Looking In

 

Taking Calls 11 a.m. until 1 a.m. EST weekdays,

just use the "Arrange a Call" Feature 

To hold your place in line!

 

A perfectly valid question to ask a Relationship Coach.  A frequent question that a Professional Tarot Reader hears. 

When will he say he loves you?

This is a very valid question to ask if you are within the scope of the first three to six months of a relationship.  Many people are wise enough to take the time to wait and see how their relationships develop before blurting out those three big words.  In fact, if someone blurts them out any sooner than that, it may well be in just a spur of the moment fashion, pertaining more to infatuation or the intensity and passion of a new love affair, rather than a true verbalization of emotion.

It also depends upon your level of emotional maturity.  Of course, if you are a teenager, three to six months can be an eternity as few relationships at that age have any real longevity, but if you are a mature adult and you really are concerned with your partner telling you he loves you, take this factors into consideration.

1) The length of your relationship. 

As stated, the length of your relationship is the first point to consider.  If it is less than three months old, are you sure that you are feeling love yourself or is it the blush of a new affair?  Take your time and slow down.  Don’t worry if he loves you, focus on how you feel about him!

2)  If you have been involved for more than a three month period consider whether your partner is attentive and consistent.

If you can count on your partner to be consistent in communication with you, if you are dating on a steady basis, meeting each other’s friends and families and generally sharing your lives with each other, you may be at the point when this love will be expressed.  It is likely to happen during this time frame for most couples who continue to develop to a deeper level of commitment.

If your partner, on the other hand, is sporadic or inconsistent with you, if you find yourself being in an “on and off” state, or if you just see each other every once in a while it is not likely that you are going to hear those words any time soon.

3)  If you have been seeing each other for more than six months and he hasn’t said it yet….

If he is consistent and attentive, he should definitely be expressing this sentiment by the nine month point.  If not, you may be in a dead-end relationship. 

How can you tell?

He is sporadic with time and communication.  You can’t count on him to know that you will be spending time together, you are always worried whether or not he’s going to call to make plans with you.  He is socializing regularly without you, with other friends, or may still be dating other people openly (or discreetly).

If this is the case after a nine month acquaintance, this is just a casual dating situation and if you are looking for “true love”, you aren’t going to find it here!

4)  If you have been dating for longer than nine months and he still hasn’t said it…..

Then he may have a warm and affectionate feeling for you, but the man doesn’t love you.  If you have to ask someone else, when someone you’ve been dating for nearly a year or LONGER is going to verbalize love for you, he isn’t going to say it.  He may hold you in high regard, he may care for you, he may have plenty of affectionate feelings for you, but does he “love” you?  No.

If a man cannot tell you that he loves you by the end of the first year of dating or beyond, then he is not viewing you as a life partner, he is viewing you as a pal.  Someone to take out, be physical with, enjoy spending time with, a companion, but not a life partner that he loves and wants to commit to.

Odds are if you are dating for more than a year and he hasn’t said he loves you that he is still shopping around and you are the one that “will do” until true love comes around.  Instead of trying to MAKE the man fall in love with you, which is utterly IMPOSSIBLE, your best bet is to let go, move on, and find someone who will appreciate and love you.

I know this sounds harsh, but after ten years of coaching women through relationship issues, I have found that the women who are brave enough to let go and move on are the women who find the love and the partner that they desire.  Those that hang in there and try to force the relationship to develop, or think that by staying they will make it happen, frequently find that they have wasted months, possibly even years, on a dead end relationship.

Where do you want to be a year from now?  If you are comfortable with a long term dating situation, then that’s great!  However, if you do want to be loved and cared for and become a true life partner to a man who is sincere, don’t waste more than nine months waiting for a man to express his affections.

If you leave, yes it may hurt, but you are then free to find someone who truly DOES care.  The upside is, if he really DOES love you and was just having trouble expressing it, he won’t let you go for long.

To gain more insight into making your relationships work for you, purchase a copy of Brigid Bishop’s The Dating Game, Insights Into Affairs of the Heart, available on Amazon and Kindle.

Want to learn to read Tarot for yourself, friends and family, maybe even Professionally?  Pick up a copy of Brigid Bishop's Book and Workbook set Uncloaking the Tarot, available on Amazon and at fine booksellers everywhere!!!

Although I certainly appreciate client loyalty and hope that our relationship will continue to grow, I realize that sometimes we just need a second opinion or a fresh perspective on our situations.

I have formed a group of New Readers to Keen and spent today weeding out some of the inactive listings and searching for "New Talent" to invite to join this group.

If you are interested in getting a new perspective in your situation, please consider trying one of the members of my group, New Readers, Fresh Perspectives.

All of the Advisors in this group are relatively new to keen.com and will have less than 5000 points in their ratings but have diverse talents to offer.

I am also looking to recruit New Advisors who are sincerely interested in building a full time career or a steady part time career through helping others here on Keen.com. Please be sure to submit JUST ONE LISTING for membership, all others will be rejected, read the join page to ensure that you are following the instructions correctly.  You may not have any listings with over 5000 points to join this group.  No Email only listings are accepted.

If you are a New Advisor with less than 5000 points on all of your listings and you are logging in at least once per week to maintain and build your practice you are welcome to submit one listing to the group, please be sure to read the conditions of joining us found on the "Join This Group" page prior to submitting your listing.  I do not accept listings that are Email only nor do I accept listings that sell Pay to View emails on their pages as their primary mode of interacting with clients.

Listings that appear inactive for more than three months are removed periodically from the group, I only wish to assist those that are truly dedicated to pursuing this career path and have the gifts to sustain a client base reliably.

I will be hosting a Tarot Reading Class tonight, however I will be available for calls and callbacks this evening if you wish to contact me directly.

If you prefer to work with a more experienced advisor, please visit Trusted by Brigid Bishop to ensure you continue to receive quality advice.

 

 

The Newly "BED" Game

Tough Love In the Garden of Eden

Thyme In a Bottle

Why Do People Cheat?

What is Your Power Animal?

 

Why do People Cheat?

Let’s start with women.

There is a misconception out there that men cheat more frequently than females.  In my personal observations I find this to be untrue.  I receive just as many calls from women who are being unfaithful to their husbands and significant others as I do from women who are involved with a man who is either married or seriously involved with another woman.

I do find that when women cheat, they are prone to cheat at a higher percentage due to dissatisfaction with the current primary relationship in hopes that the new lover will provide them with what is missing in that primary relationship.  More women than men seem to venture into cheating situations to find their next serious relationship.

Some women, a minority, cheat for the pure excitement and recreational sex, but these are women with very strong masculine energies.  They look at the extracurricular relationship as just that, and have no intentions of turning into a real relationship.

Personally, I believe that it is best (and healthiest), if you are looking for a new relationship, to end the primary relationship before becoming involved with a new lover, and this is simply to avoid the complications and obstacles that the cheating itself brings about.

When a man has a relationship with a woman outside of her marriage or primary relationship a lot of factors go into why he is doing it.  Of course, it is possible that he is falling in love and that he wants a relationship with you as much as you do with him, but, again, this is a rarity.

If the “Other Man” is single and fully unattached, he may want more with you, he may be one who wants you to end your primary relationship and launch a full-blown relationship with you.

How can you tell?

He will pressure you to leave your partner, he will ask you straight out “When are you going to end it so we can be together”.  It’s that simple.  He will also be there for you in other ways, perhaps he encourages you to move out of your home or provides financial assistance.  If you lover wants to become your number one, you will not have to ask, you will know.

If he is not exhibiting any of the aforementioned behaviors, then he is most likely enjoying the convenience of having a woman in his life without the obligation or commitment a normal relationship would require, and if you truly are looking for your next “real” relationship, stop wasting your time with this particular guy as he is not going to be there for you when and if you do exit your marriage.

What if your lover is also married?  This complicates the situation even more as you are not in a relationship triangle  you have now entered into a relationship square. 

Of all the different forms of affairs, this is the most complicated and most likely to fail in transitioning into a dedicated relationship between the two of you.

First of all, you are both cheating.  Why are you cheating?  You may be looking for an outlet for your sexuality and your personality and want nothing more, if that is the case, you know what you are doing and have no high expectations of the affair changing into something more.  However, if you are looking for more, you may be in danger of being extremely disappointed if he is not also looking to change partners.

In this case, it is very important to find out what his motivations for cheating are and what his expectations from the affair are.

Let’s look at why men cheat.

Some are also looking for their next serious relationship and are not comfortable leaving the marriage until they have secured a new partner, this is very unhealthy and reeks of codependency, however, it does happen.

Some men just succumb to the biological predisposition and their animal instincts.  They aren’t looking for a new partner, they are looking for pure recreational sex outside of their primary relationship.  They may be fun and charming, but their heart lies with their primary relationship, even if their body doesn’t.

This may be very hard for some people to comprehend or accept, but a very high risk time for these types of men (the biologically weak), is when their wife or life partner is pregnant or has just given birth.  Naturally if you are the other woman you may want to believe that he is cheating on his pregnant wife, or newly maternal girlfriend because he suspects that the child is not his, but in the majority of instances, this is not the case.  Sexual experience outside of the primary relationship in this instance is usually due to the male having a Madonna/Whore complex OR because the wife or girlfriend is incapable of having sexual relations due to the trauma of having just given birth or the discomfort of a late-term pregnancy.  If the man you are cheating with falls into this category, you are probably having an affair that is purely sexual in nature.

How can you tell if your affair is “just sex”?

The time you spend together is limited to sexual activity.  The primary goal being sexual gratification, no dating, no dancing and dining, just hooking up for the physical release and nothing more, is a dead give-away.

Some men cheat because they actually fall in love with another woman.

They didn’t plan it.  It just happened.

There was something innately missing in their primary relationship and the other woman comes along and possesses the spirit and personality required to evoke feelings of love and attraction within the man that may no longer exist with his wife or significant other.

Sometimes the man does not even realize that his marriage is lacking until he meets this other woman.

How do you know if this is the case with your affair?

Absent the fact that he is married or committed elsewhere, your relationship is caring and passionate.  He is attentive to you and your needs, he makes time with you, and he spends time with you doing a lot of things besides the horizontal bop.  He will tell you straight out that he is going to leave his marriage and he will tell you when, but the most important thing is that when the time comes HE DOES IT.

Affairs of the heart are complex and complicated, much more so than affairs of the body alone.  When the heart is involved, the intensity is there, the sharing is there and the man and the woman are both there.

It is a myth that all loves that begin while one partner or another or both are committed elsewhere are doomed to failure.  There is no blanket formula for love affairs that begin with cheating.  If it were true, when some say that “men never marry the woman they cheated with their first wife on”, there would be very few second marriages indeed.

I look at it this way.  Back in the olden days, when people truly expected to be married for life, people married very young but their life expectancy was much shorter than what it is today.

It is also a fact that as technology provides the human race with more and more leisure time and less time required to focus on utter survival, we have more time to examine relationships, to choose to renew or end or begin again.  People grow at different paces.

If two people marry in their late twenties, will those two people grow at the same pace and in the same direction?   Sometimes yes, sometimes no, we are not the same person at forty-five that we were at twenty-five or thirty-five, and neither are our spouses and lovers.  The person we loved ten years ago may have evolved (or failed to evolve) into someone we no longer want for a life mate, and so we move on.

Of course, it is always best to begin a relationship one-on-one, but there are times when this just doesn’t happen.  We can’t judge a book by its’ cover, nor can we project that a relationship is doomed to failure because of a less-than-perfect beginning.  In the same vein, we can’t project that a relationship will last because of love and passion, that goes for first marriages and relationships just as much as it does for subsequent ones.

Why do people cheat?

The list is endless.  This is just the tip of the iceberg and the most frequent causes that I have seen in my personal and professional experience.

Copyright © 2007

Brigid Bishop

This content may not be copied or reproduced in any way without the express written permission of the author. You are welcome to link to or bookmark this page, but please contact the author via Keen Mail if you wish to reproduce this article in whole or in part.

 Other Subjects Included in "The Dating Game"

Cheating and Affairs

The Relationship Limbo

The Geometry of Relationships

Masculine and Feminine Energy

Codependence, Independence and Interdependence

He Left His Wife.  Now What?

Need Help Sorting Out Your Relationship Concerns?

Visit Brigid Bishop

HAVE YOU PICKED UP YOUR COPY OF "THE DATING GAME" YET? A must read no matter what your relationship status.

The Dating Game
Insights Into Affairs of The Heart
Authored by Brigid Bishop

Social networking sites, cell phones, texting, online chat and dating make it easier for us to access each other, but more difficult to form solid emotional bonds.

The 21st Century has life and relationships moving at a pace never before realized in earlier cultures. People are plugged in and connected on a 24/7 basis, yet, many still struggle with establishing healthy relationships.

The Dating Game provides insights into modern relationships and provides the reader with strategies for coping with dating, breaking up, affairs, divorce and codependency issues.

Find dating tips and relationship strategies that will help you build the healthy connections you want and begin making your relationships work for you.

Written with a sense of humor and true understanding of what the single person is facing today.

Copyright © 2010 by Brigid Bishop

In order to understand men you need to understand the male biology and psychology, which is not difficult to do, it is primal in nature and there are some simple basics.

Men are hard-wired in a very different way than women, and although we have evolved into a higher form of being above the animal kingdom, many of those animal instincts affect men and women to this day. So how do we begin to understand the male animal?

Men, first of all, have less synapses in their brains connecting the left (thinking) hemisphere, and the right (feeling) hemisphere of the brain. What this means is that men take a bit longer to translate thoughts into feelings and to understand the reasons for their feelings. It is harder for a male, biologically, to get in touch with his feelings than it is for a female, who has more synapses connecting her thoughts and feelings.

Men also have the primal instinct to breed with and impregnate as many females as possible in order to ensure propagation of the species. This is why men are more prone to infidelity within relationships than women. The evolved male will resist the temptations once committed, but the pleasure seeking male may well not allow prior commitments to prevent his immediate gratification from occurring.

Men have some fairly basic psychological needs. The male ego needs to feel a sense of trust and respect, if you are always doubting what the man in your life says, his intentions and motives, it will undermine his need to feel trusted and may well push him away. Give him the benefit of the doubt unless you have good reason to think he is being dishonest and you will go far in gaining his affection.

The need to feel respect means that if you have an issue or a problem, he's likely to help you, he wants you to have confidence in his abilities, so don't be afraid to discuss your issues with him. He may not actually "fix" things for you, you have to do that, but listen to his advice and let him know you appreciate him trying to assist you.

Don't constantly communicate 24/7 with him, you don't have to make him feel that you are insecure (lack of trust) about him. This is an issue with many men. When he receives twenty text messages a day from you he is going to tire of the constant barrage of messages and cease responding and probably cease initiating communication.

When you are apart for your day at work attend to your own business and allow him the space to feel he misses you. He will be much more attentive if he gets a chance to miss you being a part of his day than if you are always there at the touch of a button.

Men aren't that difficult to understand, give them space, respect, trust and they will show you that they care and are interested in you too.

Where did The Devil come from?

 

Where did The Devil come from?  Why is he depicted with horns and hooves, or by a goat-like creature.  Is this what he really looks like?  Is he real?

Well, in my personal belief system, evil does exist.  It manifests in many ways, and I do believe there are evil entities in the supernatural world.  I also believe that The Devil manifests in this evil energy, but where did he come from?

Ancient man was a nature worshipper.  He was in awe of the Sun, and the Moon, and the rivers and the weather.  These became his "Gods".  As nature worshippers, when ancient man had a productive harvest or a successful hunt they celebrated by worshipping and giving praise to the natural world around them.  Celebration of past successes evolved into rituals in advance of future endeavors to ensure success, so, after a successful hunt and prior to embarking on a hunt, ancient man would don the pelts and skulls and remains of there last successful hunt.

Ancients placed the head of their game over their own to dance and celebrate around that ancient fire..........they used "sympathetic" magick to achieve their goals.  Dancing around with the head of a deer on their shoulders prior to embarking on a hunt made them feel ritually charged with success, one of the earliest forms of magick.

New religions evolved.  Religions that worshipped a supreme being rather than the natural world around them.  Whenever a new religion evolves, recruiting converts becomes a primary occupation, whether through violence or education, it has happened throughout history.

When a new religion evolves, what happens to the Gods of the old religions?

They become The Devils of the new religion.

For some reason, in human nature, mankind has been unable to co-exist in harmony with those that have a differing belief system, and the easiest way to populate a new religion is to create a fear of the beliefs and symbolisms of an old religion.

Hence, the Judeo-Christian Devil was born from one of the Gods of an ancient pagan religion.

The Devil, to me, is an energy, not a manifested being as depicted herein.

Brigid Bishop

 

Is There Room In Christianity for "Other Beliefs"?

Can God and Darwinism Coexist?

by Brigid Bishop 

Yes, I believe that they can and do.

When I think of the Bible Story of Adam and Eve and the garden of Eden and how they "ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge", I look at that as a metaphor for consciousness evolving in the earliest primates to be called "human".

I believe that The Bible is a book written by men in order to explain where we came from.

When man evolved from the apes, he became self-aware, as it is written in the Bible, when Adam and Eve realized that they were naked, they became human. To me, this constitutes a separation and evolution from the animal state into the human state. The ability to think, to imagine, to emote, are all human characteristics to me and they are maximized in the ability to speak and communicate and exchange ideas with others, (eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge).

Yes, God created man, however, I do not believe that he just manifested man from blowing spirit into swirling dust, I believe that God began by creating the earth and as life developed and evolved over the thousands and thousands of years of the early planet, man evolved as the ape learned and grew and adapted to the environment created by God, so yes, I believe that Darwinism and God coexist, and it makes sense to me.

God evicting Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, so to speak, is another metaphor to me that says "now that you have consciousness you must think for yourself and not function on instinct alone", and this is when we became human beings. While in The Garden of Eden we did not have to work or toil or think or dream, we were like the cherished pets of God. Childlike in nature as we were innocent, we could not discern right from wrong. With the ability to make judgments we lost our innocence, and that original sin is what made us break free of the animal kingdom and become mankind.

It is said that "ignorance is bliss", think of the Garden of Eden as living in blissful ignorance, an evolved primate, not yet human. Exiting the Garden of Eden is having knowledge and evolving up to human awareness, we are no longer animals that live by instinct alone, we can and do think, so now our ignorance (and innocence) is lost forever.

I believe that The Bible story of Adam and Eve already encompasses Darwinism.

 

 

Copyright © 2008 Brigid Bishop

 

Tarot Tips:  When Will?

Myths and Truths About Tarot

Is There Room In Christianity for "Other Beliefs"?

What Is a Spell?

Stop, Drop and Roll!

 

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This is a sample report of a Natal Chart Analysis.  I am currently providing these Natal Astrology Chart Analysis Reports through Keen Mail for $39.99, you need to provide your date of birth, place of birth and time of birth if you wish to request a report like this.  Your report is sent via Keen Mail after you have processed your payment request within a 3 day time frame.

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Astrology Reports by Brigid Bishop

 

Chapter 1: How You Approach Life and How You Appear To Others
Gemini Rising:

    You are always questioning and learning, and you seem young and alive no matter what your chronological age, for your mind is always alert, curious, flexible and open to new experiences. You have a childlike enthusiasm for anything new and you learn easily, but you also get bored rather quickly. You can be something of a scatterbrain, for you tend to have so many ideas and irons in the fire that it is hard to keep track of them all. You need and crave variety, change, mental stimulation, and an active social life.

    Articulate, clever, often funny and witty, you are always a refreshing and interesting conversationalist. You enjoy meeting and interacting with a variety of different people. You are friendly, flirtatious, and charming in a light, playful way, and no matter how badly you may be feeling, you never appear heavy or somber. You may seem frivolous to other, more serious souls. You have a sense of humor and a sense of perspective that prevents you from taking yourself or life too seriously. In fact, you may seem flippant or unconcerned about matters that others consider very important.

    In general, you respond to life mentally and objectively rather than emotionally, and you may not empathize with people very much. You do not like to be weighed down with too much responsibility or with others' emotional burdens. Furthermore, if you cannot UNDERSTAND something reasonably and logically, then very often you would prefer to ignore it, including your own and other people's irrational feelings, desires, and needs.

    Consistency and reliability are not great virtues of yours and your life is apt to be full of changes and movement due to your restlessness. You become nervous and fidgety if things are not moving quickly enough. You are interested in what is current and up-to-date, the newest trends in thought or style.

    Your gifts are a quick mind, verbal facility, a flair for language, social sophistication and polish, the ability to communicate, converse, and build bridges between people and between ideas. You tend to become an incessant chatterbox or gossip if you do not have work or other involvements that utilize your mental, verbal, and social skills.

Chapter 2: The Inner You: Your Real Motivation

Sun in Aquarius:

    You are a freedom-loving, strong-willed, and independent-minded individual, and you insist upon living your own life as you see fit, even if that means ignoring convention and tradition. In personal relationships you cannot be owned or possessed, and while you are willing to share yourself with another, you do not always adjust easily to the emotional give and take of a close relationship. Though intellectually open, you can be enormously stubborn, opinionated, and inflexible on a one-to-one level. You have strong convictions and feelings about fairness and equality, and you try to live by your ideals, but your ideals about how people SHOULD treat one another don't always take into account human weaknesses, differences, and needs. You probably dislike sentimentality and traditional gender roles and "games".

    You are fair, intelligent, objective, rational and often let your head rule rather than your heart. You seem rather self-sufficient and detached emotionally because you are capable of putting aside your personal feelings and viewing things dispassionately. But once you make up your mind on an issue, you are difficult to sway and can be rather dogmatic.

    You think in broad terms and are concerned with the world beyond your own personal sphere - your town, nation, or even planet. You are likely to become involved in community affairs, social organizations, and groups of all kinds, or to have a keen interest in such. You enjoy being part of a group endeavor and often find yourself organizing, managing, or supervising group activities.

    Forward-looking and progressive, you harbor great hopes for the future. You stay current and up to date, and respond to contemporary cultural trends, both in terms of personal style and in terms of ideas. When young you were very influenced by your peers and by group pressures and by all the "latest crazes". You have an experimental mind and are attracted by the novel.

    Your strong points include your concern for human welfare and social betterment, your sense of fairness and democratic spirit, and your vision. Your faults are your stubbornness and inflexibility, and a tendency to be very obtuse and insensitive when it comes to personal feelings and human needs.

Sun in 9th house:

     World travel, foreign cultures, and studies which expand your intellectual horizons and broaden your understanding of the world are very attractive to you.

     You have a philosophical turn of mind and are concerned with seeking answers to the big questions of life or getting the overview of any situation. Abstract concepts and/or plans for the future occupy your mind much of the time.

Sun Conjunct Mercury:

    You tend to see things from your perspective only and to be rather subjective. You also enjoy talking and expressing your views but you don't always listen as well. You have a clear mind, a love of learning and new experiences, and need constant mental stimulation and activity.

Sun Conjunct Venus:

    You are loving and well-loved by others, and have a strong need for kindness, friendship, and affection. Your artistic and creative powers are also well developed and you do everything in a harmonious, gracious, pleasing manner. Aesthetics are very important to you. Your personal appearance and attractiveness are also very important to you.

Sun Conjunct Jupiter:

    You are blessed with abundant optimism, self-confidence, and cheerful generosity. Your good will and friendliness win you many allies. You also have grand visions and aspirations, and the desire to succeed in life in a big way. You expect the best, and usually get it.

Sun Square Neptune:

    You are extremely sensitive and imaginative, and you can get lost in your dreams, fantasies, and visions. You are attracted to artistic and creative pursuits, the world of color, beauty, and emotion. You are also drawn to mysticism and have deep spiritual aspirations and yearnings. Gentle and peace-loving, you may lack the will and competitive spirit needed to make your way in the world. You are often impractical and may seek to avoid or escape the hard realities of life.

Chapter 3: Mental Interests and Abilities

Mercury in Aquarius:

    You are a progressive thinker, open and receptive to new technologies and breakthroughs in science, and the latest discoveries in any field. You have high expectations and a deep belief that mankind's problems can be solved through the use of our creative intelligence and inventive mind. You have no patience for those whose conservative, unimaginative outlook limits their capacity to find solutions and envision a better future. You also like to keep abreast of current developments in world affairs, for you instinctively know that what happens in one part of the world affects everyone. You have a strong humanitarian impulse. Practically speaking, you have an aptitude for organization and enjoy being involved in cooperative endeavors or businesses that are contemporary and innovative.

Mercury in 9th house:

     You have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and wisdom and for an ever broadening understanding of life. You are the perpetual student and will be involved in higher education, philosophy, or religion. Law, broadcasting, publishing, or the field of communications are also areas that interest you. World travel and studying other cultures are also strong urges of yours.

Mercury Conjunct Venus:

    You appreciate aesthetics and have a fine sense of form, design, and beauty. You could develop considerable technical skill as an artist, designer, craftsman, or creative writer. You could also sell objects of beauty - artistic products, cosmetics, jewelry, etc.

    You have the ability to please and harmonize well with others and tend to ameliorate relationships between people. Your sense of humor, tact, and personal charm are of great benefit to you in any work with people on a one-to-one level.

Mercury Conjunct Jupiter:

    You enjoy philosophical speculation and theorizing about abstract ideas and concepts. You are interested in the broad view, universal principles and systems, seeing connecting relationships and patterns, and seeing the whole picture rather than its component parts. You have a great respect and thirst for knowledge and education, and are the proverbial "perpetual student". You also have a talent for teaching and sharing your knowledge, and as a teacher you present yourself as a fellow participant in the ongoing quest for understanding rather than as an authority.

    You may become involved in television, publishing, or other fields that involve sharing ideas with large groups of people. You excel in areas that require long-range planning and foresight, and can therefore be very successful in business, but you are rather sloppy and haphazard when it comes to implementing your ideas in a concrete way. You should leave it to someone else to take care of the details. Travel or long-distance contacts and communications will play a large role in your life and work.

Mercury Square Neptune:

    Your mind is highly imaginative and creative and you possess dramatic, artistic, or musical abilities. As a child, you enjoyed daydreaming, fantasizing, pretending, and probably lived in "your own little world" a good deal. You perceive things which are not obvious to other people and you have an uncanny ability to "read" people and situations without being told anything about them. However, you must learn to discriminate between a true psychic perception and your imagination. Learning to discipline and focus your mind is necessary if you wish to use all of your creative potential. Otherwise, you could be simply a dreamer.

    Communication with others is difficult for you because you often find words frustrating and inadequate to express your experiences and perceptions. Also, you may purposefully mystify or deceive others.

Chapter 4: Emotions: Moods, Feelings, Romance

Moon in Aquarius:

    You are not easily moved by emotional displays and can be curiously detached from your own and others' emotions. It's almost as if you could turn your feelings on and off at will so you should be careful not to leave the switch "off" too often, for you could easily become too impersonal. Family ties and attachments are not as important to you as they are to most people and you often consider your friends closer to you than your blood relatives. Certainly, your sympathy and concern extends much beyond your immediate family. In your personal relationships, you insist upon a certain amount of independence and the freedom to pursue friendships with as many people, of both sexes, as you choose. You do not appreciate a jealous, possessive partner.

    You feel comfortable in an atmosphere that is open and experimental, and you have little taste for convention and tradition.

Moon in 10th house:

     You work well with the public and have an instinct for what the public wants and will respond to. Having a "nest" is not especially important to you, and you may invest more of your emotional energy into your career or public life than in your private life. Providing for and caring for others in a professional capacity is very likely.

Moon Opposition Uranus:

    You crave excitement, change, and discovery, and cannot tolerate a routine or lifestyle that offers little in the way of surprise or challenge. Excitable, spontaneous, and enthusiastic about anything new, you may be perceived by others as being too impulsive, especially in personal relationships. It is not easy for you to make or keep commitments, since you don't know how you will be feeling from one day to the next. Emotional freedom is very important to you. Your domestic life can be very unstable - but you like it that way.

Venus in Aquarius:

    You are open and unconventional in your attitude towards love, romance, and sex. You enjoy socializing, bringing people together, and having many friends of both sexes. You value friendship very highly and are, in fact, more comfortable being a friend than a lover. You desire an intellectual rapport or spiritual bond with your love partner, but deep intimacy and emotional bonding do not come easily to you. The role of "husband" or "wife" in the traditional sense doesn't appeal to you, and you abhor jealousy and possessiveness since you feel that no person truly "belongs" to another. You appreciate a love partner who will allow you plenty of freedom and is not very emotionally demanding.

Venus in 9th house:

     You are attracted to foreigners, exotic places, traveling, and to people who can expand your horizons, teach you something, or show you places and worlds you have never experienced before. Sharing a philosophy or ideal with your love partner is important to you.

     Also, you feel a love and kinship for people everywhere, not only with your own family, nationality, or group. Finding similarities and making links between people from differing backgrounds or with different perspectives is a gift of yours.

Venus Conjunct Jupiter:

    You are bighearted and openhanded with both your money and your affections and you are not happy if you have to budget or restrict yourself in any way. Pettiness or stinginess is foreign to your nature and you feel most comfortable in an elegant, beautiful atmosphere. Asceticism is not for you. Gracious and charitable, you enjoy sponsoring social events or cultural activities. You have an optimistic, friendly attitude towards others and tend to bring out the finer side of people. You fall in love with someone who is successful, noble, and idealistic.

Chapter 5: Drive and Ambition: How You Achieve Your Goals

Mars in Aquarius:

    You are very socially oriented and work well in cooperation with others. You may be active in community affairs or unite with others of similar ideals and intentions to work toward a common goal. Progressive and democratic, you are not concerned with hoarding personal power or having authority over others. You are a team player.

    New, unconventional methods appeal to you, especially ideas that involve bringing people together or creating fairer working conditions - such as networking, profit-sharing, job-sharing, etc. New technologies also interest you.

    Your energy level is high but somewhat erratic.  You can be impatient, rebellious, and inconstant in pursuing your aims.

Mars in 9th house:

     You have passionate convictions and will fight for them when challenged. You are willing to dedicate a great deal of your energy and force to an important cause, and you'll act decisively on your beliefs, rather than simply espousing them.

     Sometimes you get so involved and identified with your ideas that you cannot really be receptive to anyone who opposes you philosophically.

Mars Conjunct Saturn:

    You are very serious about reaching your goals and feel that keeping your nose to the grindstone is the only way to do it. Hard work, persistent effort, and concentration upon a single objective are the ways you achieve your aims in life. You exercise great self-control, even self-denial, in order to accomplish what you desire. You meet obstacles stoically and will struggle patiently through difficult circumstances. You feel that you must rely on yourself alone, that it's all on your shoulders, and you can be a harsh disciplinarian, expecting far too much from yourself and others. Often you hold yourself back, doubting your own power and ability. You may feel that you meet great resistance whenever you try to assert yourself or take initiative, and that is very frustrating to you. However, you have the power of endurance and a dogged determination to overcome all obstacles.

Chapter 6: Other Influences

Jupiter in Aquarius:

     Your strength lies in your ability to be innovative, open to new progressive concepts, willing to experiment and to reject customs and traditions when they cease to serve any positive function in the present. Also, you have an expansive view of the world, one that includes humanity and not only your own small, personal circle.

Jupiter in 9th house:

     You are very open-minded and deeply curious about distant places and ways of thinking and living that are different from your own. The urge to travel widely and to experience as much of the world as possible is very strong in you. The study of philosophy or religion also interests you a great deal. You benefit from your contact with other cultures, and you may be involved in linking those who are far apart geographically or philosophically.

Saturn in Aquarius:

     You have an innate distrust of groups and/or a cynical attitude toward society that may leave you feeling out of step and unable to participate in activities with your peers. Overcoming a sense of aloofness and alienation from others is an important task for you.

Saturn in 9th house:

     Your attitude toward religion, philosophy, and politics is very conservative and possibly narrow or rigid. On the one hand, you may believe in nothing that is speculative or intangible, requiring proof for any idea presented to you. Each idea is thoroughly and systematically examined. On the other hand, you may tenaciously cling to your grand philosophical or metaphysical beliefs and opinions, refusing to modify them or to be open and receptive to others' insights and perspectives.

     Your overall outlook on life is serious, and you may feel that life or God will punish you if you do not watch your step!

Uranus in Leo:

    You are part of a 7 year group of people who are unusually self-willed, proud, and egotistical. You are a group that defies authority and insists on having its own way. Parents and school teachers found that it was extremely difficult to discipline your age group. Governments that are repressive to individual expression and freedom meet a great deal of resistance from your age group, and you tend to rise up against any form of tyranny and oppressive rule.

Uranus in 4th house:

     Your childhood or your relationship with your parents was unsettling or unstable in some way, so that you may never have felt that you had firm ground beneath your feet. One of your parents may have been unusual, eccentric, or an inconstant influence in your life. Abrupt changes in location or in family relationships may have made you feel insecure, but positively you were given more freedom and less pressure to conform to conventions, which enables you to be more of an individual and less tethered to restrictive ideas of how one "should" behave, feel, or live.

Neptune in Scorpio:

    You are part of a 14 year group of people that have very intense psychic sensitivity and imagination. Your age group is very attracted to the strange, weird, and unusual. The sense of the macabre and bizarre is strong, and this is reflected in much of the music, art, and fashions of your age group. Novels and movies with mystery and chilling suspense are also popular with your age group. Emotional depression, drug use, and suicide are likely to be relatively high in your age group. There is also a deep mystical sense, and Eastern religions and meditation are very attractive to your age group.

Neptune in 6th house:

     You have a sensitive physique and may have allergic responses and sensitivities to foods, medicines, or anything you take in from the environment. Emotional stress and confusion seem to affect you physically, even more quickly than they affect other people.

Pluto in Virgo:

    You are part of a 15 year group of people that are driven by the need to find an ethical standard and a clear sense of what is right and what is wrong. There is a subconscious drive to straighten out all the world's evils and create a world of perfect order. There is a feeling of repulsion to anything ugly, dirty, or grotesque. Oddly enough, there is also often a fascination with these very things that are so distasteful, and often a feeling of hopelessness and despair about the world's condition.

    These inner, emotional and conflicting qualities are reflected in the attitudes and life styles of your generation. Most people of your age group are conservative and ethical, and a small minority goes to the opposite extreme and relishes being strange or unusual in appearance, and sloppy or even grotesque in manners and appearance. There seems to be no middle ground for your generation. Usually, the rebellious type of behavior comes out during adolescence, and tends to subside thereafter, and your age group tends to be very conservative in later life.

    Your age group is not very good at compromising and tends to have strong ideas about what is right and what is wrong. There is a strong feeling that you must extinguish evil in the world. Certainly, fostering good works is very commendable, but a categorical and simple-minded response to complex issues is not helpful. Your age group will undergo great transformations in attitudes regarding Good and Evil and will swing to great extremes. Your generation will also make great contributions in the areas of medicine and nutrition, ecology, and education.

Pluto in 4th house:

     There was much that was hidden or secret in your childhood home, and you absorbed a sense of shame or a feeling that you need to hide and protect who you are from others. One of your parents had an especially intense bond to you and profoundly influenced you, perhaps dominated or controlled you in subtle ways. Unlocking the secrets of the past, and learning to be intimate and close to others without controlling or being controlled are issues for you.

At least once per day, usually much more frequently, I receive calls from clients asking about exes from whom they wish to be "given closure".

Sometimes it is a freshly broken relationship and quite understandable that they would like to have a logical and mature discussion with the ex as to why the relationship failed, in order to learn from the experience and begin the process of moving on.

There are some clients, however, who are looking to be "given closure" for situations and relationships that are ancient history, perhaps having ended many months or even years ago. These clients tend to be stuck, they are unable to move forward into new relationships, forgoing any opportunities for moving on by waiting and wondering if they will ever "get closure".

They focus on wondering if their ex partner ever thinks about them, how they feel about them, even when the ex partner is obviously involved with someone new! They live in constant anticipation, regardless of how much time has passed, of the old flame making contact and some how, some way, "giving" them the "closure" that they need to move forward.

This is not only unrealistic, it is down right unhealthy. I find that the clients who have this insatiable need for the "gift of closure" are harboring the hope that the ex will see what a mistake they made and return to the failed relationship.

Some actually believe that unless they are "given closure" the relationship still has a chance of resurrecting itself, even if years have gone by.

Closure is not something you are given. it is not a gift.

Yes, some relationships do end with some very clear and defined energies of closure, most have been very long-term and committed in nature, such as marriages and engagements where social expectations are high, but clear-cut closure is the exception in relationships, not the rule. Closure is something that you TAKE.

In most cases, closure is an experience that you go through alone, not with your ex, but alone.

How do you "take" your closure?

There are many ways to do so.

Closure is simply an acceptance that the relationship you once had is now over. You are no longer partners. You are once again two separate entities who are now free to look for a more compatible partner. Closure requires letting go. Some people "take" their closure once their ex becomes involved with a new love, some take their closure after a month or two of no contact and no attempted reconciliation occurs, some take their closure when they meet someone new and feel a true interest in moving forward with the new person, everyone is different.

The people who never receive closure are the people who sit around waiting for their ex to "give" it to them.  They surrender all of their power to an  ex who has most likely taken their own closure quite some time ago, waiting for that "gift of closure" that never comes, from an ex who is long gone.

If you would like closure to your situation, reach out and take it, that's the only way to get it. It's all about acceptance. Accept the change that has occurred, you are not half of a couple, you are an independent individual and you can move forward, you don't need your ex recounting all the reasons the relationship failed to you. Will hearing your ex say "It's not you it's me" or "We grew apart" or "We fought too much" or "I just don't want to be in a relationship right now" really make you feel better? Will it make any more sense to you?

Does knowing with a certainty exactly why your relationship failed make it any easier to move on?  Perhaps, but waiting months or years for a "gift" that never comes is just wasting your time and energy.  In my experience, those who have an actual "closure" discussion rarely find comfort in it, it leaves them trying to argue the point/counter points of the relationship with the ex rather than freeing them to move on.

Instead look at it this way, we had a relationship, it did not work, think of the positives and negatives of that particular partnership and learn from them. Take the good into your next experience and leave the bad behind. Take you closure and move on! The sooner you do, the happier you will be.