To be a Taoist means many things to many people. To be a practitioner of Contemporary Taoism simply means to have realised that we are all minute parts of an indescribably large Whole (the Tao), and to choose therefore to 'Flow Like Water' and live in a spontaneous, natural manner. This blog is about: Personal Growth / Spiritual Development as guided by the principles of Eastern Philosophy, particularly modern philosophical Taoism; Developing constructive habits and achieving success with minimal effort; Meditation - Taoist, Zen or otherwise. See 'What In Lao Tzu's Name is a Contemporary Taoist?'

Monday, October 23, 2006

Does God Drop Cosmic Hints?

Most people are familiar with the practice of reading the symbolism in dreams, but some people believe that the "universe" or God (or whatever) communicates with us by dropping cosmic hints in the form of signs or omens.

I have actually always leaned slightly towards having a cynical view of all this, but then again ... my argument against (no proof) is easily turned against itself (no proof that there aren't "signs" either).

Anyways, all I know is that my elbow hurts and that the events of the other day were pretty wacky. Stella Woods, who I am yet meet in person, is an astrologer who writes for the same magazine as I do (LivingNow magazine. Go to the astrology section to read Stella's fortnightly updates). She sent me this following interpretation of the accident:

"3 is the number of creativity so 33 is one of the most creative years of your life. Snakes represent feminine wisdom and whether the bulging belly was from a tasty mouse or pregnancy/eggs etc it adds to the fertility/female symbol.

And as for the fact you didn't kill the snake but ended up breaking your elbow - the elbow represents changing direction and accepting new experiences and bone fractures, rebelling against authority and structure. So you changed direction on the bike and ended up breaking your structure.....

I'd say you're trying to tell yourself something about "where to next and what do I need to change?" If it's your left elbow it's the feminine side (unconscious), if it's the right elbow its the masculine side (conscious)."

Flow Like Water...


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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's amazing how someone can take something that happened and "read" signifigance into it, especially if it is so vague as to be impossible to "prove" in any meaningful way. Don't forget the burden of proof is on those making the assertions, and in that, astrologers have failed for thousands of years.

"3 is the number of creativity" - really? Why? What evidence backs this up, rather than, say, 7? Pretty vague - what does this mean?

"so 33 is one of the most creative years of your life" - again, how do you prove this? What do you mean by "most creative years"? If you write a book at age 35, does that mean it will suck, since 33 was your most creative year (one of, rather - nice escape clause there)? So vague it's pretty meaningless, again.

"Snakes represent feminine wisdom" - to who? Snakes are feminine, snakes are masculine, snakes are snakes. Which cultures use snakes as feminine, and why should it apply to you? Snakes are common and different cultures used them in many different ways. Why is one specific interpretation used and not another - and used in such a vague way as well. What is "feminine wisdom" any way?

I do really wonder at the tasty mouse = bulging belly = female. Is she saying that women are fat? If it was not pregnancy (and since I am unfamiliar with the breeding habits of snakes I can't say if it is plausible or not), then why should a surface/appearance detail make some difference, except for those seeking to find some reason or meaning in it. This is the sympathetic/homeopathic magical thinking, and once again, this line of thinking has never proven itself accurate in any way (except when it is so vague that people fit facts to the prediction to make it "proven").

To people looking for "meaning", you can find it in taking a dump ("the brown swirls are indicative of creativity...").

Here's the "meaning" of the event. When biking, either run over the snake or try to steer better and not have an accident. Why some people have to feel a need for outside justification (or perhaps ego gratification - "look, the Universe/God/Whatever really cares for ME!") and go to such ridiculous lengths is beyond me.

Before assuming that god/whatever sends messages, those who say things like that need to establish that (a) such an entity exists, (b) such an entity is intelligent, (c) such an entity can communicate with us, (d) such an entity wants to communicate with us, (e) this entity can manipulate everything to hide these messages (although this brings up another idea - if it can hide meaning in random events, then it can hide the meaning from you - or make you believe any meaning it wants) - and more. The basic assumptions behind such beliefs should be challenged. When they can't prove them (anymore than they can prove that astrology actually works), simply looking at the probability would tell you that such an event is so highly improbable as to be impossible. CSICOP and the JREF (randi.org, I believe) have more on these matters and make interesting reading.

Critical thinking is a lifetime process.

5:49 am

 

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