A Short Course in Numerology

The Number One

The number one stands in symbolism for the Sun. It is the beginning – that by which all the rest of the numbers were created. The basis of all numbers is one. This number represents all that is creative, individual, and positive. Without going into further details, a person born under the birth number of 1 or any of its series has the principles of being in his or her work creative, inventive, strongly individual, definite in his or her views and in consequence more or less obstinate and determined in all they as individuals undertake. This relates to men and women born under the number 1, such as the 1st, 10th, 19th, or 28th of any month – the addition of these numbers being 1 – but more especially so if they happen to be born between the 21st of July and the 28th of August, which is the period of the zodiac called ‘The House of the Sun’, or from the 21st of March to the 28th of April, when the Sun enters the Vernal Equinox and is considered elevated or all powerful during this period. It is for this reason, which you will observe has a logical basis that people born under the number 1 in these particular periods must have the qualities that I have given to all number 1 people in a distinctly more marked degree.
Number 1 people are ambitious, they dislike restraint, they always rise in whatever their profession or occupation may be. They desire to become the heads of whatever businesses are, and as departmental chiefs they keep their authority and make themselves respected and ‘looked up to’ by their subordinates.
These number 1 people should endeavor to carry out their most important plans and ideas on all days that vibrate to their own number, such as on the 1st, 10th, 19th, or 28th of any month, but especially in those periods I have described before, namely from the 21st of July and the 28th of August and from the 21st of March to the 28th of April. Outside of their own numbers, number 1 people get on well with persons born under the numbers 2,4, and 7, such as those born on the 2nd, 4th, 7th 11th, 13th, 16th, 20th, 22nd, 25th, 29th, and 31st, especially those born in the strong periods indicated.
The days of the week most fortunate for number 1 persons are Sunday and Monday, and especially so if one of their ‘own numbers’ should also fall on that day, such as the 1st,
10th, 19th, or 28th and next to that their interchangeable numbers of 2,4,7, such as the 2nd, 4th, 7th 11th, 13th, 16th, 20th, 22nd, 25th, 29th, and 31st.
The most fortunate colors for persons born under the number 1 are all shades of gold, yellows, and bronze to golden brown. Their ‘lucky’ stones are topaz, amber, yellow diamond, and all stones in these colors. If possible they should wear a piece of amber next to their skin.

The Number Two

The number 2 stands in symbolism for the Moon. It has the feminine attributes of the Sun, and, for this reason alone, although number 1 and number 2 people are decidedly opposite in their characters, their vibrations are harmonious and they make good companions.

Number 2 people are gentle by nature, imaginative, artistic, and romantic. Like the number 1 people they are inventive, but they are not as forceful in carrying out their ideas. Their qualities are more on the mental side than the physical plane and they are seldom as strong physically as those born under the number 1.
Number 2 people are all those who are born on the 2nd, 11th, 20th, or 29th of any month, but their characteristics are the more marked if they are born between them 20th of June and the 27th of July, this period being what is called the ‘House of the Moon’. I have added the seven days of the cusp to the 20th of July.
Number 2 persons and number 1 vibrate together and in a lesser degree with number 7 people, such as those born on the 7th, 16th, or 25th of any month.
Number 2 persons should endeavor to carry out their chief plans and ideas on days whose numbers vibrate with their own, such as on the 2nd, 11th, 20th or 29th of any month, but more especially during the period of the 20th of June to the 27th of July.
The days of the week more fortunate or lucky’ for them are Sunday, Monday, and Friday – the reason Friday is favorable in this case is that it is governed by Venus – and especially so if, like the number 1 people, one of these days, such as the 2nd, 11th, 20th, or 29th, and next to the these the interchangeable numbers of 1,4,7 such as the 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 19th, 22nd, 25th, 28th, or 31st.
The chief faults they should guard against are – being restless and unsettled, lack of continuity in their plans and ideas and lack of self-confidence. They are also inclined to be over sensitive and too easily get despondent and melancholy if they are not in happy surroundings.
For ‘lucky’ colors they should wear all shades of green, from the darkest to the lightest, also cream and white, but as far as possible they should avoid all dark colors, especially black, purple, and dark red.
Their ‘lucky’ stones and jewels are pearls, moonstones and pale green stones and they should carry a piece of jade always with them and, if possible, wear it next to their skin.

The Number Three

The number 3 stands in symbolism for the planet Jupiter, a planet that plays a most important role in astrology and in all systems of numerology. It is in the beginning of what my be termed as one of the main lines of force that runs right through all the numbers from 3 to 9.
It has a special relation to every third in the series, such as 3, 6, 9 and all their additions. These numbers added together in any direction produce a 9 as their final digit, and the 3, 6, 9 people are sympathetic to one another.
Persons having a 3 for their birth number are all those born on the 3rd, 12th, 21st, or 30th of any month, but the number 3 has still more significance if they should be born in what is called the ‘period of the 3’, from the 19th of February to March 20th-27th or from the 21st November to December 20th-27th.
Number 3 people, like the number 1 individuals, are decidedly ambitious – being in subordinate positions never satisfies them – their aim is to rise in the world, to have control and authority over others. They are excellent in the execution of commands – they love order and discipline in all things – they readily obey orders themselves but they also insist on having their orders obeyed.
Number 3 people often rise to the very highest positions in any business, profession or sphere in which they may be found. They often excel in positions of authority in the army and navy, in government, and in life generally – and especially in all posts of trust and responsibility, as they are extremely conscientious in carrying out their duties. Their faults are that they are inclined to be dictatorial, to ‘lay down the law’ and to insist on carrying their own ideas. For this reason, although they are not quarrelsome, they succeed in making many enemies.
Number 3 people are singularly proud – they dislike being under an obligation to others – they are also exceptionally independent and chafe under the least restraint.
Number 3 people should endeavor to carry out their plans and aims on all days that vibrate to their own number, such as on the 3rd, 12th, 21st, and 30th of any month but more especially when these dates fall in the ‘period of the 3’, such as from the 19th of February to March 20th-27th and from the 21st of November to December 20th-27th.
The days of the week more ‘lucky’ for them are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday – Thursday being the most important. These days are especially good if a number making a 3 should fall on it, such as the 3rd, 12th, 21st or 30th and next in order their interchangeable numbers of 6 and 9 such as the 6th, 9th, 15th, 18th, 24th, or 27th.
Number 3 people are more in harmony with those born under their own number or under the 6 and 9, such as those born on a
3rd, 12th, 21st, 30th
6th, 15th, 24th
9th, 18th, 27th
For ‘lucky’ colors they should wear some shade of mauve, violet or purple or some touch of these colors should always be with them and also in their rooms in which they live. All shades of blue, crimson, and rose are also favorable to them, but more as secondary colors.
Their ‘lucky’ stone is amethyst. They should always have one on their person and, if possible, wear it next to their skin.

The Number Four

The number 4 stands in its symbolism for the planet Uranus. It is considered related to the Sun, number 1 and in occult wisdom is written 4-1.
Number 4 people have a distinct character of their own. They appear to view everything from an opposite angle to everyone else. In an argument they will always take the opposite side, and although not meaning to be quarrelsome, yet they bring about opposition and make a great many secret enemies who constantly work against them.
They seem quite naturally to take a different view of anything that is presented to their minds. They instinctively rebel against rules and regulations and if they can have their way they reverse the order of things, even in communities and governments. They often rebel against constitutional authority and set up new rules and regulations either in domestic or public life. They are inclined to be attracted to social questions and reforms of all kinds, and are very positive and unconventional in their views and opinions.
Number 4 people are all those who are born on the 4th, 13th, 22nd, and 31st of any month – their individuality is still more pronounced if they are born in the Zodiacal period of the Sun and Moon, namely, between the 21st June and July 20th-27th (Moon period) and from the 21st July to the end of August (Sun period).
Number 4 people do not make friends easily. They seem more attracted to persons born under the 1,2,7 and 8 numbers.
They are seldom as successful in worldly or material matters as people born under other numbers, and as a rule they are more or less indifferent too the accumulating of wealth. If they do acquire money or have it given to them, they generally surprise people by the way they put it to use.
They should endeavor to carry out their plans and ideas on all days that have their number 4, such as the 4th, 13th, 22nd, and 31st of any month, but especially so if these dates come in their strong period from the 21st June to July 20-27th, or from the 2nd July to the end of August.
The days of the week more fortunate or “lucky” for them are Saturday, Sunday and Monday, especially so if their “own number” should fall on one of these days, such as the 4th, 13th, 22nd or 31st and next in order their interchangeable numbers of 1,2,7 such as the 1st, 2nd, 7th, 10th, 11th, 16th, 19th, 20th, 25th, 28th, or 29th.
Their chief faults are that they are most highly strung and sensitive, their feelings get hurt very easily, inclined to feel lonely and isolated and are likely to become despondent and melancholy unless they have achieved success. As a rule they make few real friends, but to the few they have, they are most devoted and loyal, but are always inclined to take the part of “the underdog” in any argument or for any cause they espouse.
For “lucky” colours they should wear what are called “half-shades”, “half-tones”, or “electric colours”. “Electric blues” and greys seem to suit them best of all.
Their “lucky” stone is the sapphire, light or dark, and if possible they should wear the stone next to their skin.

The Number Five

The number 5 stands in symbolism for the Planet Mercury and is versatile and mercurial in all its characteristics.
Number 5 people are all those who are born on the 5th, 14th, and 23rd of any month, but their characteristics are still more marked if they are born in what is called the “period of the 5”, which is from the 21st May to June 20-27th and from the 21st August to September 20th-27th.
Number 5 people make friends easily and get on well with persons born under any other number, but their best friends are those who are born under their own number, such as the 5th, 14th, and 23rd of any month.
Number 5 people are mentally very highly strung. They live on their nerves and appear to crave excitement.
They are quick in thought and decisions and impulsive in their actions. They detest any plodding kind of work and seem naturally to drift into all methods of making money quickly. They have a keen sense of making money by inventions and new ideas. They are born speculators, prone to Stock Exchange transactions and generally are willing and ready to run risks in all they undertake.
They have the most wonderful elasticity in character. They rebound quickly from the heaviest blow - nothing seems to affect them for very long, like their symbol, quick-silver, which Mercury represents, the blows of Fate leave no indentations on their character. If they are by nature good they remain so, if bad, not all the preaching in the world will make the slightest effect on them.
Number 5 people should endeavor to carry out their plans and aims on all days that fell under their “own number”, such as the 5th, 14th, or 23rd of any month, but more especially when these dates fall in the “period of the 5”, namely from the 21st May to June 20th-27th or from the 21st August to September 20th-27th.
The days of the week more fortunate or “lucky” for them are Wednesday and Friday, especially if their “own Number” falls on one of these days.
Their greatest drawback is that they exhaust their nervous strength to such an extent that they often fall victims to nervous breakdowns of the worst kind and under any mental tension they easily become irritable and quick-tempered, unable to “suffer fools gladly”.
Their “lucky” colours are all shades of light grey, white and glistening materials, but just as they can make friends with people born under all kinds of numbers, so can they make wear all shades of colours, but by far the best for them are light shades, and they should wear dark colours as rarely as possible.
Their “lucky” stone is the diamond, and for all glittering or shimmering things, also ornaments made of platinum or silver, and, if possible, they should wear a diamond set in platinum next to their skin.

The Number Six

The number 6 stands in symbolism for the Planet Venus. Persons having a 6 as their birth number are all those who are born on the 6th, 15th, or 24th of any month, but they are more especially influenced by this number if they are born in what is called the “House of the 6th”, which is from the 20th April to May 20th-27th, and from the 21st September to October 20th-27th.
As a rule all number 6 people are extremely magnetic – they attract others to them and they are loved and often worshipped by those working under them.
They are very determined in carrying out their plans, and may, in fact, be deemed obstinate and unyielding, except when they themselves become deeply attached – in such a case they become devoted slaves to those they love.
Although number 6 people are considered influenced by the Planet Venus, yet as a rule theirs is more the “mother lover” than the sensual. They lean to the romantic and ideal in all matters of the affections. In some ways they take very strongly after the supposed qualities of Venus, in that they love beautiful things, they make artistic homes, are fond of rich colours, also paintings, statuary, and music.
If rich they are most generous to art and artists, they love to entertain their friends and make everyone happy around them, but the one thing they cannot stand is discord and jealousy.
When roused by anger they will brook no opposition, and will fight to death for whatever person or cause they espouse, or out of their sense of duty.
The number 6 people have got the power of making more friends than any other class, with the exception of the number 5, but especially so with all persons born under the vibration of the 3, the 6, and 9 or all their series.
Their most important days in the week are Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and especially so if a number of 3, 6, or 9 such as the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 187th, 21st, 24th, 27th, or 30th should fall on one of those days.
Number 6 people should endeavor to carry out their plans and aims on all dates that fall under their “own number”, such as the 6th, 15th, or 24th of any month, but more especially when these dates fall in the “period of the 6”, namely, between the 20th April and May 20th-27th or from the 21st September to October 20th-27th.
Their “lucky” colours are all shades of blue, from the lightest to the darkest, also all shades of rose or pink, but they should avoid wearing black or dark purple.
Their “lucky” stone is especially the turquoise, and, as far as possible, they should wear one, or a piece of turquoise matrix, next to their skin. Emeralds are also “lucky” for the number 6 people.

The Number Seven

The number 7 stands in symbolism for the planet Neptune and represents all persons born under the number 7, namely those who are born on the 7th, 16th or 25th of any month, but more especially influence such persons if they are born from the 21st June to July 20th - 27th, the period of the Zodiac called “the house of the Moon.” The planet Neptune has always been considered to be associated with the Moon and, as the part of the Zodiac I have mentioned, is also called the First House of Water, associated with water is then logical and easily understood.
Now, as the number of the Moon is always given as a 2, this explains why it is that number 7 people have as their secondary number 2 and get on well with and make friends with easily with all those born under the Moon numbers, namely, the 2nd, 11th, 20th and 29th of any month, especially so if they are born also in the “House of the Moon”, from the 21st of June to the end of July.
People born under the number 7, namely, on the 7th, 16th, and 25th of any month, are independent, original and have strongly marked individuality. At heart they love change and travel, being restless in their natures. If they have the means of gratifying their desires they visit foreign countries and become keenly interested in the affairs of far-off lands. They devour books on travel and have a wide universal knowledge of the world at large.
As a class they care little about the material things of life - they often become rich by their original ideas or methods of business, but if they do they are just as likely to make large donations of their wealth to charities or institutions. The women of this number generally marry well as they are always anxious about the future and feel they need some rock to rest on lest the waters of Fate sweep them away.
Number 7 people have good ideas about business - or rather their plans are good if only they will carry them out. They have usually a keen desire to travel and read a great deal about far off countries. If they can they will become interested in matters concerning the sea, and in trade or business they often become merchants and owners or captains of ships if they can get the chance.
Number 7 people have very peculiar ideas about religion. They dislike to follow the beaten track - they create a religion of their own, but one that appeals to the imagination and is based on the mysterious.
These people have remarkable dreams and a great leaning to occultism - they have the gift of intuition, clairvoyance, and a peculiar magnetism of their own that has great influence over others.
Number 7 people should endeavor to carry out their plans and aims on all days that fall under their “own number”, such as the 7th, 16th, or 25th of any month, but more especially when these dates fall in the “period of the 7”, namely, from the 21st of June to July 20th-27th, and less strongly from that date to the end of August.
The days of the week more fortunate or “lucky” for them are the same as for the number 2 people, namely, Sunday and Monday, especially if their “own number” falls on one of these days, or their interchangeable numbers of 1,2,4 such as the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 10th, 11th, 13th, 19th, 20th, 22nd, 28th, 29th, or 31st.
Their “lucky” colours are all shades of green, pale shades, also white and yellow, and they should avoid all heavy dark colours as much as possible.
Their “lucky” stones are moonstones, “cats-eyes”, and pearls, and if possible, they should wear a moonstone or a piece of moss agate next to their skin.

The Number Eight

The number eight stands in symbolism for the planet Saturn. This number influences all people born on the 8th, 17th, or 26th of any month, but more so if their birthday comes between the

21st December and the 26th January, period call the “House of Saturn (positive)” and from the 26th January to February 19th-26th, the period called the “house of Saturn (negative).
These people are invariably much misunderstood in their lives and perhaps for this reason they feel intensely lonely at heart.
They have deep and very intense natures, great strength of individuality - they generally play some important role on life’s stage, but usually one which is fatalistic, or as the instrument of Fate for others.
If at all religious, they go to extremes and are fanatics in their zeal. Any cause that they rake up, they attempt to carry it through in spite of all argument or opposition and in doing so they generally make bitter and relentless enemies.
They often appear cold and undemonstrative, though in reality they have warm hearts toward the oppressed of all classes - but they hide their feelings and allow people to think just what they please.
The number eight people are either great successes or great failures - there appears to be no happy medium in their case.
If ambitious, they generally aim for public life or government responsibility of some kind, and often hold very high positions involving great sacrifice on their part.
It is not, however, from a worldly standpoint, a fortunate number to be born under, and such persons are often called on to face the greatest of sorrows, losses and humiliations.
The “lucky” colours for people born under the number 8 are all shades of dark gray, black, dark blue, and purple. If number 8 persons were to dress in light colours they would look awkward and as if there was something wrong with them.
The number eight being a Saturn number, Saturday is therefore their most important day, but on account of the number 4 having influence on a Sunday and in a secondary way on a Monday, the number eight people will find Saturday, Sunday, and Monday their most important days.
Number 8 people should endeavor to carry out their plans and aims on all days that fall under their “own number”, such as the 8th, 17th, or 26th of any month, but more especially when these dates fall in the “period of the 8”, namely, from the 21st of December to January 20th-27th and from that date to February 19th-26th - also if these dates fall on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday or their interchangeable number, which is 4, such as the 4th, 13th, 22nd, or 31st.
Their “lucky” stones are the amethyst and the dark toned sapphire, also the black pearl or the black diamond and if possible they should wear one of these next to their skin.
The number 8 is a difficult number to explain. It represents two worlds, the material and the spiritual. It is, in fact, if one regards it, like two circles just touching together.
It is composed of two equal numbers, 4 and 4.
From the earliest times it has been associated with the symbol of an irrevocable Fate, both in connection with the lives of individuals or nations. In Astrology it stands for Saturn, which is called the planet of Fate.
One side of the nature of this number represents upheaval, revolution, anarchy, waywardness and eccentricities of all kinds.
The other side represents philosophic thought, a strong leaning toward occult studies, religious devotion, concentration of purpose, zeal for any cause espoused and a fatalistic outlook colouring all actions.
All persons who have the number 8 clearly associated with their lives feel that they are distinct and different from their fellows. At heart they are lonely, they are misunderstood and they seldom reap the reward for the good they may do, while they are living. After their death they are often extolled, their works praised and lasting tributes offered to their memory.
Those on the lower plane generally come into conflict with human justice and have some tragic ending to their lives. Those on the higher plane carry their misunderstood motives and lay bare the tragedy of their souls before Divine justice.
The occult symbol of 8 has from time immemorial been represented by the figure of Justice with the Sword pointing upwards and a Balance or scales in the left hand.
If a person is born under either of those peculiar numbers such as 4 or 8, and if the name number should also total up to a 4 when one is born under an 8, or to an 8 when one is born under a 4, then for material success it would be better if one added some letter [to the name] so that the total of your number is no longer 4 or 8, but one with a more fortunate vibration, making, say, a 1,3,6 or 9. Such a change in the majority of cases will produce most fortunate results and set up entirely new vibrations, which will change a lonely, unlucky life into one of happiness and success.
I would also strongly advise [those with the] combination 4 or 8 when they make the change by altering their name to produce another number …. To wear the colours and jewels I have set out for these numbers.
I also advise … selecting a house to live in whose number also gives the same vibration as the birth and name number.

The Number Nine

The number nine stands in symbolism for the planet Mars. This number influences all persons born on the 9th, 18th, and 27th of any month, but still more so if their birthday falls in the period between the 21st march and April 19th-26th called the “House of Mars” Positive or in the period between the 21st October and November 20th-27th called the “House of Mars” Negative.
Number nine persons are fighters in all they attempt in life. They usually have difficult times in their early years, but generally they are, in the end, successful by their grit, strong will and determination.
In character, they are hasty in temper, impulsive, independent and desire to be their own masters.
When the number nine is noticed to be more than usually dominant in the dates and events of their lives they will be found to make great enemies, to cause strife and opposition wherever they may be and they are often wounded or killed either in warfare or in the battle of life.
They have great courage and make excellent soldiers or leaders in any course they espouse.
Their greatest dangers arise from foolhardiness and impulsiveness in word and action. They are also peculiarly prone to accidents from fire and explosions and rarely get through life without injury from such causes. As a general rule they go under many operations from the surgeons knife.
They usually experience many quarrels and strife in their home life, either with their own relations or with the family they marry into.
They strongly resent criticism and even when not conceited, they always have a good opinion of themselves, brooking no interference with their plans. They like to be “looked up to” and recognized as the “head of the house”.
They are resourceful and excellent at organization, but they must have the fullest control, if not, they lose heart and stand aside and let things go to pieces.
For affection and sympathy they will do almost anything and the men of this number can be made the greatest fools of, if some clever woman starts pulling at their heartstrings.
As a rule they get on with persons whose birth date is one of the series 3,6, or 9, such as those born on the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 18th, 21st, 24th, 27th, or 30th of any month. All these numbers are in harmonious vibration to the number 9 people.
This number 9 has some very curious properties. It is the only number in calculation that, multiplied by any number, always reproduces itself, as for example 9 times 2 is 18, and 8 plus 1 again becomes the number 9 and so on with every number it is multiplied by. 
This number is supposed to be a fortunate one to be born under, provided one controls it and is not carried away by the excesses of temper and violence that it also represents.
The “lucky” colours for persons born under the number 9 are all shades of crimson or red, also all rose tones and pink.
Their most important days of the week are Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, but more especially Tuesday, called Mars day.
Number 9 people should endeavor to carry out their plans and aims on all days that fall under their “own number”, such as the 9th, 18th, or 27th of any month, but more especially when these dates fall in the period of the 9, between the 21st of March and the April 19th-26th or from the 21st of October to November 20th-27th. And when the 9th, 18th or 27th falls on their own day, as mentioned earlier, or one of their interchangeable numbers which are the numbers 3 and 6, such as the 3rd, 6th, 12th, 15th, 21st, 24th, and 30th.
Their lucky stones are the garnet, ruby, and bloodstone and they should wear one of these stones next to their skin.
For all purposes of occult calculation the numbers 7 and 9 are considered the most important of all.
The number 7 has always been understood to relate to the spiritual plane, acting on the God or creative force on the Earth, and being creative, it is the uplifting “urge” toward the development of the spiritual in humanity.
The number 9 on the contrary, being in the planetary World, the representative of the Planet Mars, is the number of physical force in every form and consequently stands in relation to the material.
When this explanation is carefully considered it throws an illuminating light on the mysterious text in Revelation…
The number 9 representing man and everything to do with the physical and material plane, is the number of force, energy, destruction and war in its most dominant quality. In its relation to ordinary life it denotes energy, ambition, leadership, dominion. It represents iron, the metal from which the weapons of warfare are made, and the Planet Mars which stands in Astrology for the Ruler of the Zodiacal Sign Aries which is the sign of the zodiac which governs England.
Then number 9 is considered fortunate to be born under provided that the man or woman does not ask for a peaceful or monotonous life and can control their nature in not making enemies.
Famous people born under the number 9 - Theodore Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant, Jay Gould, Kepler.

from Cheiro’s Book of Numbers, Cheiro, Hind Pocket Books, Delhi. Cheiro was the most famous psychic reader of the late 19th and early 20th Century. His main tool was palmistry but he combined this with numerology and astrology and was able to predict with deadly precision the significant events of his client’s lives. The only person at Cheiro’s same level of accomplishment and fame, equally unknown to most people of this era, is the American astrologer Evangeline Adams. Ms. Adams maintained offices in Carnegie Hall in New York City during the 1920’s and 30’s and had a slew of successful clients including J.P. Morgan who attributed much of his success to Ms. Adam’s astrologically based financial advice.
Cheiro’s biography, which I found used in the Pilgrim’s Bookstore in Kathmandu, was fascinating. An English nobleman, Cheiro managed to end up in Calcutta in his early 20’s, met an Indian at the dock who said he knew Cheiro was coming and took him off to study the occult sciences of ancient India for 3 years.
I suggest to anyone with even a small amount of time to study carefully Cheiro’s suggestions. Cheiro’s commentary about the number 8 seems accurate from my observations. I can’t stress this enough.

Sports Nutrition My Experiences

updated at http://ballantynesinspiredmusings.blogspot.com/2016/06/sports-nutrition-updated.html 

Sports Nutrition

My Experiences

Nothing has so enhanced my continuing performance as a hiker, trekker, mountain climber and cyclist as modern sports nutrition. The following are some of my opinions and experiences after almost 40 years of strenuous activity.

1. CytoMax sports Performance Mix – Tangy Orange https://estore.cytosport.com/product/cytomax-r

The single most important supplement I take during exercise. Hydrates the body better than water alone. Generally, I consume 1 scoop in 10-12 oz water every hour hydrating by the clock not my perceived need. Note ONLY the tangy orange flavor has the ‘Herbal Lift’ caffeine boost from guarana, which I believe is much preferred. Recently upgraded to stevia sweetener from, what I called, rat poison.

Note that D-ribose is recommended for chronic fatigue sufferers and others. My experience is Cytomax works better – usually the flavors without the guarana herbal lift. Cytomax, and a few other brands somewhat similar, are used for rehydration in neo-natal clinics and cases of acute dysentery/diarrhea.

2. Trace Minerals Research Electrolyte Stamina Tablets

http://www.traceminerals.com/products/energy-performance/electrolyte-stamina-tablets

I take 2 every hour while exercising. You MUST sustain your serum electrolytes during continuous exercise. Mineral depletion is the main reason, IMO, people conk over dead at races, probably potassium and magnesium deletion.

3. Magnesium

Magnesium deficiency is probably the most prevalent problem of most athletes. I addition to the magnesium I get from Cytomax and the electrolyte stamina tablets I take 500 or 1000 mg. additional magnesium a day. Magnesium glycinate is the preferred form, as suggested by Teitelbaum. https://secure.endfatigue.com/store/products/publications/from-fatigued-to-fan/

4. Post exercise recovery nutrition

After 2 or more hours of exercise I am careful to take a carefully crafted post exercise protein/mineral/carb drink. The components are:

        A. Whey protein isolate – natural, stevia sweetener http://www.allstarhealth.com/de_p/26558/BODYSTRONG_100PERCENT_Whey_Protein_Isolate_Natural.htm

        B. 500 mg magnesium

        C. 500 mg. arginine/250 mg. ornithine [Jarrow brand]

        D. ½ scoop Cytomax or, preferably, Cytocarb, just the carbs of Cytomax http://www.cytomax.com/products/cytocarb/cytomax-cytocarb2/?tab=technical-details

With this post exercise drink I NEVER get muscle soreness or ravenous cravings to eat 1 and 2 days after a big hike or climb AND I recover enough to do a big exercise again the next day although I seldom do that.

5. Daily trace mineral supplement – smooths out heart and brain function

Trace Mineral Research Concentrace Trace Mineral drops -- http://www.traceminerals.com/products/liquid-tablet-minerals/concentrace-ionic-minerals  

Take only 10-15 drops a day, allow at least a month for it to begin working. By itself this removed a heart arrhythmia I had for 40+ years and, IMO, greatly contributes to my being depression free, along with niacin, noted below. I have run an unsupervised ‘clinical trial’ of about 20 people on Trace Mineral Concentrace and niacin and none have resorted to mood or mind altering medications.

6. Niacin – I take 500 mg./day every day. A known anti-depressant https://www.google.com/search?q=niacin+depression&oq=niacin+depression&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.5214j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8 also improves heart function and cholesterol. I have had people avoid certain cardiac procedures by taking niacin and Concentrace.

7. CoenzymeQ10 – increases the hemoglobin’s capacity to dissolve oxygen in the blood. I currently take 100 mg. of Jarrow’s Q-Sorb http://www.allstarhealth.com/f/jarrow-q-absorb_coq-10_100mg.htm   [equivalent to a larger dose of another brand/formula] per day. My performance noticeably drops off if I stop taking this. A few months after I first began taking CoQ10 I went to the Himalayas and was tested by a scientific expedition and I had the highest dissolved oxygen of anyone they tested including all the Sherpa [97% while walking at 13,000’, the Sherpa ran 95% and lower].

8. Vitamin C 100 mg. – Calcium ascorbate or Ester C. The only one I can currently recommend is http://www.allstarhealth.com/f/solgar-ester-c_plus_1000mg_vitamin_c.htm . I take 1000 mg. per day AND one 1000 mg. tab every 2 to 4 hours of a big climb or hike. I’m convinced the vitamin C assists sugar metabolism preventing muscle soreness, but I can’t prove it by the literature or any health “professionals” I’ve talked to, such as Olympic trainers.

9. MUSCLETECH Hydroxycut Hardcore Elite http://www.allstarhealth.com/f/muscletech-hydroxycut_hardcore_elite.htm is a spectacular energy boost, mostly from caffeine. I sometimes take ½ a capsule 4 hours or more into a long climb or hike. This stuff has some INTERESTING ingredients, like coleus! Having a logy day? Take ½ cap [approx. = 1 espresso shot]

My current view is that minerals are more important than vitamins. I have a lot of other opinions and things I have tried. Email me. 

Polio

‘First the word, then the plant, lastly the knife.’  Aesculapius of Thassaly, c. 1200 B.C., considered to be the first surgeon. I think word should probably be capitalized, as in Word, probably from the Greek logos, as in, ‘In the beginning was the Word.’

            I had polio once. Not many people know that. Even I have forgotten pretty much about it but I’ve had to really dredge around for stories for Jane. Surprisingly, I keep finding them, all buried beneath a muck of later happenings. Anyway, it all started because I got pissed off. Pissed off at my parents for sending me to Boy Scout camp in the Adirondacks instead of the lovely and expensive summer camp I had gone to in Maine for two summers. The kids who went to THAT camp were all wealthy. A couple of the Rockefeller kids went there. I had a few bathroom problems at camp in Maine. It wasn’t until thirty years later I ever figured out what the heck that was all about.

Other than the bathroom problems I did spectacularly well at camp. I was voted the best camper of my age group each summer I attended. No one ever said anything to me about that except the other kids at the camp who knew what an honor it was. They, all of them, were not only rich, but also smart. I am sure many of them are lawyers, doctors and magnates of all kinds now as are my many classmates from Dartmouth. I got to be the best camper because I was so all around competent, especially at canoeing, camping and shooting. I was the only one who didn’t have a counselor in my canoe with me on canoe trips, as I was such a strong paddler even though I had never been in a canoe before my first time at camp.

I recall when I was eleven we all took a big trip along the Maine coast and the weather began to come up so we paddled to an island with a house on it. The counselors broke into the house and put as many kids as they could inside. I set up my jungle hammock outside and climbed in. I set it up just like they said for rain but lowered the top way down so it completely covered me. It began raining in the night and the counselors came to get all the rest of the kids into the house because their bedding was all getting wet. And me, I was so sound asleep and dry they had to shake my hammock for minutes in the pouring rain to awaken me. I was totally dry and angry they made me get up and go into the house with all of them. I won lots of NRA awards for my shooting at camp also. I have been a gun nut all my life until recently.

        So here I am thirteen years old and bored stiff out of my mind and my parents figure they can’t afford to send me to Maine for camp for two months but instead send me to Boy Scout camp for one month with a bunch of nerds and black kids. I hated the Boy Scouts. I was a tenderfoot for 3 years in the Boy Scouts; me, the best 9 and 11 year old camper. As it turned out, it would have been a lot less expensive if my parents had sent me to Maine. I think I got polio from a black kid who had a real high fever. He was wandering around delirious and no one would pay any attention to him. The nurses didn’t like the black kids because they would all get hard ons whenever they would go to get shots or whatever at the infirmary. The doctor would take his little red rubber mallet and hit these guys right at the base of the hard on making it go down immediately. The doctor had to be in the infirmary all the time. Anyway, I took this kid by the arm and put him to bed and got him some water and made him feel comfortable, which he very much appreciated. I could see it in his eyes. I began to get a fever myself the next day but thought nothing of it. I returned home from camp a few days later and seemed to have a cold or something. I had been quite sickly as a child, colds, earaches, etc.

Soon though I began talking like Donald Duck. My mother made an appointment with our family doctor who immediately sent me over to an ear, eye, nose and throat specialist. This guy said I had polio. Ah, polio, schmolio. A big stupid ambulance came to the house a few days later and carted me away to the huge Westchester County (NY) hospital, called Grasslands, where a special polio ward was set up in what had been the solarium. The place was filled with kids. I loved it and I loved being out of the house. My condition deteriorated. I had bulbar polio, the kind that paralyzes your throat and goes down into your lungs and eventually your diaphragm, which when paralyzed puts you in an iron lung.

My paralysis progressed down my throat so that I had to use a suction tube to remove saliva from my mouth and eventually I wasn’t able to eat at all. Thank God nothing was forced upon me. Well, that’s not quite true. I was given a spinal tap so they could check my spinal fluids. The problem was they let a student nurse give me the tap and she played around with a needle in my back for at least fifteen minutes not getting any fluid while I was held forcibly in the fetal position by about 4 big nurses. Finally, the head nurse grabbed the needle and swiftly tapped my spine but I had nerve damage to my spine and a bad back that lasted for almost 30 years until I applied some very intense non-traditional healing remedies to my back, healing it totally. So, totally for a lark, and somewhat by chance, I spent one summer in the moving business when I was 50 years old. I moved 6 apartments and houses full of furniture and belongings with a Mexican guy I found. I was the one who lifted up the ends of the piano while they rolled the dolly underneath. My guy’s 10 year old son, Carlos, always came with us. They jokingly called him Carlos and called me Carlitos, the diminutive. What a panic. That was the name I had been called at home until I was about 6 or 7 and by some of my parent’s South American friends until I was well into my 20’s.

 This was the very end of the non-heroic period of medicine, right before doctors began to intervene severely in the progress of illnesses, killing many patients like me who needed to be sick and get well on our own.

‘First, do no harm.’  Hippocrates, precepts

I was not able to eat for about three weeks and my weight went from 175 down to 113 lb. I spent my 14^th birthday in the hospital. The new and radical treatment for polio was hot compresses. I was wrapped twice a day in what seemed to be pieces of Army blankets that had been steamed and heated. The nurses and this one doctor on crutches who had had polio himself would wrap me totally in these horrible scratchy woolens and then wrap all that in more blankets greatly raising my body temperature. I think what really worked though was the congregation at our local church praying for me. I was the only kid in the congregation and one of only 2 kids in town who had polio so the prayers were pretty concentrated. I had been an altar boy and crucifer at the church and the rest of the family was pretty involved too. I could feel everyone’s prayer, that’s how strong the energy was.

        After two weeks of treatment I began to get better. I had come in with one of the worst cases in the ward and here I was the first, and really only, one to respond well to treatment. I have a theory that the enforced fasting was crucial in my recovery. Back then prisoners from the county jail managed an extensive orchard and garden on the hospital grounds and I began to be able to down fresh peach milkshakes. I began participating in the surreptitious wheelchair races we kids began having. It was great as visitors, including, or maybe especially, parents, could only come a couple of times a week. I was the first one to go home. I cried when they told me I had to go; I wanted to stay in the hospital. I could never figure why everyone was so upset about this polio thing anyway. I had told everyone all along that I would be ice skating by wintertime. I simply ignored all of their patronizing glances and I could see that they had convinced themselves and my parents I had a long recovery ahead of me. I got back to school a month or so late for the 6^th grade. I was a minor celebrity for only about 2 days; you know how 14 year olds are. After a month or so I began to hate taking the school bus every morning with all those nerds so I began walking and hitchhiking to school, about 4 miles. I did it for the whole school year and the next year too. Of course, I was skating that winter; I ice skated the whole winter. No one ever messed around with me when I wanted something or wanted to go somewhere. They discovered the polio vaccine about six months later. I vowed to myself to never again get sick like this and to stop being sickly, as I had been all my life and also to not be sick to get back at my parents.

“But above all things my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.”  James 5:12

Having recovered, I stopped going to church and proceeded to my next illness, alcoholism, which lasted a lot longer than the polio. No hot compress cure there! 

        Unless I tell them, no one who knows me now notices the slight paralysis I have in my face; it shows when I’m tired sometimes. I’ve wondered in later years if perhaps I have residual effects from the polio. My psychic advisor always thought so, especially when I contracted Lyme’s disease at 45, some 30 years after having polio. It’s one of the dualities I live with, hyperactivity and paralysis. Everybody has them, dualities that is. It’s always much easier to see other people’s dualities than our own. Much.

Letter sent to the River Rats of the Ledyard Canoe Club at Dartmouth College

Dear Fellow Rats,

I MUST relate to you 3 of my most memorable trips on America’s most beautiful river, the Hudson. The first two were from Kingston to Nyack by one man canoe, a Sawyer Summersong, over successive 4^th of July weekends in the mid-1980’s. My very first time out in the Sawyer was the first 3 day trip. I parked at a boatyard in Kingston for $3 and loaded up the Sawyer, a thoroughbred of a vessel, skittish at rest and a dream underway. I carefully stepped off the dock right on the centerline, put my other leg carefully into the boat, grabbed the gunwales and over we all went, me at a crouch, the paddles, the gear, the water bottles. The 3 or 4 onlookers were particularly horrified as I had told them of my grandiose scheme to paddle to south of Nyack, about 80 miles down river. Anyway, I got underway at the next try by stepping in from the water at the boat loading ramp. The secret seemed to be in pushing off to get the boat moving slightly whereupon it became much more stable. I exited Esopus Creek into the Hudson and was shocked to find rolling waves out past the lighthouse. I quickly learned to quarter the Sawyer into the waves and ski down the other side as the Sawyer had a very low bow and stern.

I camped that night at about 9 pm wrecked tired having only stopped once all day. I set up my tent on the only spot of open ground I could find on the riverbank, a small raised rocky spot of ground. I had no idea I had camped 20 feet down a steep embankment which carried the New York Central - AMTRAK - freight trains to God knows where, Lorain, Ohio I suppose. The first train came through at 3:30 am. I thought I was on the tracks. Then the rain started. A torrent. The small spot of open ground I’d camped on turned into a small island in the middle of a now rushing stream. The floor of the tent undulated from water running under it. Thank God it didn’t leak. I became sick, feverish and unable to move. I lay naked on my air mattress under my sleeping bag all through that day and night immobile for 36 straight hours. The next morning I began again after the longest sleep of my life.

Down the Hudson Highlands past West Point, Popolopen Creek, Bear Mountain, Storm King. Beautiful. You can have the Rhine. I cooked dinner under the Bear Mountain Bridge and watched the 4^th of July fireworks. Then the question? How to get to Piermont, the picturesque river town south of Nyack, the next day to leave for vacation on Shelter Island? Irrational alternatives all.

1. Bail out of the trip and call for a ride.

2. Hitchhike home stashing the canoe to complete the trip at a later time.

3. Paddle all night and go for it.

Well, at 6:30 the next morning I glided into Piermont, shouldered the Sawyer and carried it up and up and up the hill a half mile to home. I had paddled for 22 straight hours. My head rocked and I was dizzy for 2 days but I didn’t have a single sore muscle due to the wonderful ergonomics of the Sawyer.

The next year I did the same trip somewhat more conventionally with 2 nights camping out on the way down river. I satisfied my life long desire to paddle naked past a major metropolitan area at Newburgh. I began to dress by first putting on only my sunglasses and savored wearing nothing else, and then added my hat, then my shorts. Simple things are always best appreciated by their periodic absence, water, clothes, loved ones. I found a lovely crescent shaped beach across from Newburgh on the second night. Upon landing I went over to a fresh campfire that was still smoldering and pushed at it with my toe. It magically burst into welcoming flames. There were mulberry trees in full fruit all around. The white, pink and black berries were falling on the beach and into the water where they were gulped by occasional carp. My tent still has stains from these berries. I ate mulberries of all three colors for dinner as I was too tired to cook. I ate them until I was almost sick from them and then crawled into my tent just as the fireworks across the river were starting up. The flashes from the fire works were like a surreal light show as I watched through the gossamer mosquito netting of my tent. I ate nothing but mulberries again the next morning and haven’t been able to eat one since.

I beached at Stony Point late in the afternoon of the next day, out of water, dying for a drink. I climbed 200 feet up the embankment to the old Revolutionary War battlefield and the water fountains. Later, after dark, I glided past the Grassy Point Marina. A 30 foot power boat started up its engines so I revealed myself by shining my small flashlight which hung on a lanyard around my neck. The captain turned on his powerful spotlight and spied me out about 40 feet from his boat. “I see you. You’re crazy, but I see you.” was all he said. What to reply to that? I just silently glided away in the dark. I paddled the length of Haverstraw Bay, past Hook Mountain and finally beached around 1 am at an ancient dock in Nyack. I returned the stares of late night diners and drinkers as I carried the Sawyer through the city streets to my waiting Subaru station wagon.

My last trip was a five hour paddle from Bannerman’s Island north of Cold Spring on the Hudson down to Stony Point. A first test for my $120 custom made canoe paddle from Brad Gillespie. A double bend beauty of balsa and diamonds and opaque kryptonite bordered with mahogany brown basswood. I hang it on my wall for decoration when I’m not using it. Push off and paddle. I didn’t check the tides. A strong afternoon wind is at my back. I’m in luck. It looks as though the tide is going my way. I’m three feet from the shore opposite West Point. The tide is running 5 mph in my favor. Shut up and paddle. I’m flying. The Sawyer was always fast but never like this. No canoe has ever gone faster. Every stroke sends it skyward and it skips on the atmosphere like a spacecraft reentering. Shut up and paddle. Don’t talk to people who aren’t there. 55 strokes a minute. 10 on one side then 10 on the other to straighten my track. Past the power plant where that guy got killed in the explosion. Boy did we celebrate at Kelly’s Bar after that happened. Moose milk by the pitcher full. The recipe? Of course. 1 can lemonade concentrate, ½ bottle vodka - any brand will do, fill the blender with ice, and whiz. Drink while still cold. They say moose knock trains off the tracks in Alaska.

End of trip. Carry the canoe 4 blocks to Mike’s dad’s house in Stony Point followed by a couple of little boys asking questions. Bum a ride back up to Bannerman’s, home by 9 pm or so.

And now? I look out at the Pacific here at Newport and Laguna and Dana Point. It’s just not the same. Too cold. Great whites. Maybe get an ocean kayak and split from here to Baja. Paddle naked past San Diego? Maybe.

And from Nessmuk. “Nessmuk, I can’t wait until we can go out and rough it.” “Rough it! We don’t go out there to rough it. We go out there to smooth it. We get it rough enough in the cities and on our jobs.”

Keep it smooth. Paddle. Paddle. Paddle.

Fond regards, Carlos

Postscript: These two long canoe trips were taken in 1987 and 1988 when the Hudson still had a terrible reputation for being polluted but was, in fact, quite clean from previous years of cleanup. The 80 mile stretch of river I traveled passed 300 year old Dutch estates before entering the highlands, rocky wooded hills towering over the river. Canoeing down river as I did was like going back a hundred years in time. Many people on the riverbank wistfully watched me glide by and half waved, knowing it would break my stroke to wave back. In all my years back east I never saw anyone else in a canoe on the Hudson. The strange malady that struck me may have been a reaction to my living with a woman who had MS although she was quite ambulatory. When I lived with her I would wake up exhausted and it would take my entire 2 hour yoga regimen to get going. I got bitten by a deer tick at that camp on Shelter Island that I had to rush home for and 9 months later contracted Lyme’s disease. Perhaps I’m overly empathetic sometimes. It was VERY difficult for me to get correct medical treatment, as Lyme’s was unknown in the New York area I was in at that time. A psychic had diagnosed me so you can imagine the resistive reaction I got from the three doctors I was forced to go to. I ended up with my right leg paralyzed having to use a crutch for a while. Gurujii interceded in these karmic difficulties when he arrived that summer to visit from India and he healed me although I still have some slight paralysis deep in my right calf muscle.

Sic transit Gloria mundi! That’s for sure.

Sic transit Gloria mundi! That’s for sure.

Actually my Dartmouth experience was a disaster. Born in Ecuador to American parents, I arrived at Dartmouth a promising student from an eastern prep school exempting out of several courses and had a 4.0 average my first term but soon deteriorated rapidly in all areas of my life. Expelled for two years at the end of the first term of my junior year, I returned, completed my course work in June of 1966 but was not granted my degree as I failed a part of my then required comprehensive examination in Chemistry. I am certain I hold the class record for receiving my degree the last – it was finally given to me in 1993 29 years after y’all graduated.

It was not until 1973 I discovered I had an alcohol addiction coupled with a mental affliction, anosognosia – an inability to diagnose oneself[i]. To know is to be healed!

I left campus for the last time in June 1966 with additional disciplinary marks. Immediately getting a job on the space program I spent the next years as a computer analyst at the Space Center in Houston and Cape Canaveral. It was very heady rubbing shoulders with the original astronauts as they trained on the flight simulators I worked on. I went from expulsion to flying to the moon in 1968 in the simulator. After the lunar landing I worked on large communications networks. When the drinking finally stopped in 1973 I became a very highly regarded independent computer consultant for another eight years, then stopped working altogether in 1981 at the age of 39, also, I believe, a first in the class.

Spiritual interests have consumed my life for the past forty years. I left my wife and young daughter in about 1980 and travelled to India, making fourteen trips so far, staying with my guru at his small crumby ashram on the banks of the Ganges. Additionally, I have been trekking and climbing in the Himalayas nine times, eight trips to the base of Mt. Everest. I really haven’t lived anywhere for the past thirty years, camping out here and there with friends and in odd places. It’s one thing to go camping because you like to go camping and quite another to go camping because you have no place else to live. I once spent four months camping in my tent at the base of Mt. Whitney in California which I climbed a number of times, once up and down in less than eight hours.

Five years ago when I was 65 I took a maintenance job at a summer camp in Mammoth Lakes, CA up in the mountains. I sort of ‘came to’ one morning spraying full strength Listerine in the urinal to eradicate the smell and wiping down the fixtures and everything else with Windex. I looked at myself in the mirror and said, “You know, I never imagined it would turn out this way.” As summer ended my then girlfriend asked me what I was going to do. I said, “Oh, probably go off camping in Death Valley for the winter.” She said, “Well, you can camp out with me in Los Angeles.”

So here I am! Los Angeles has been superb. I could never have imagined its many advantages for me. My health is very good - I hike up to thirty miles a week in the mountains nearby. I do have one thing cooking away in background. Four years ago a psychic told me I would be raising my granddaughter. My daughter got married a year later and had twin daughters just a year ago [September 2013], sooooooooooooo

From my current vantage I would say of all the assets one could have the one that has been most important for me has been GOOD LUCK and a lot of good friends. I mean friends you live with sometimes for years.  

Regarding my spiritual experiences, God is a question of supply and demand - No demand, no supply. My spiritual advisor once said I maintain my edgy lifestyle to force myself to remain spiritually seeking.

Garth Brooks - ‘Pushing Up Daisies’:

There's two dates in time that they'll carve on your stone

And everyone knows what they mean, what's more important

Is the time that is known in that little dash there in between

Yeah, that little dash there in between

Carlos Ballantyne – Class of ’64 multiple record holder

---

[i] “Anosognosia, as the condition is known, is one of the most eccentric neuropsychogical presentations one is likely to encounter. The word – which derives from the greek nosos, “disease”, and gnosis, “knowledge” – denotes the inability to acknowledge disease in oneself. Imagine a victim of a major stroke, entirely paralyzed in the left side of the body, unable to move hand and arm, leg and foot, face half immobile, unable to stand or walk. And now imagine that same person oblivious to the entire problem, reporting that nothing is possibly the matter, answering the question, “How do you feel?” with a sincere, “Fine.”… Decartes’ Error, Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, Antonio Damasio, Avon Books, Pgs. 62,63

LAX

I have been lax in updating my readers on my latest adventures but rest assured I have been having them. I have lived in 7 different places in the first 8 months of 2011. Things seem to have settled a bit as I have been in the current place for 3 months. Time to BIM – write my newsletter has been scarce as has Internet access at times. A little re-cap:

• I got my second hip replacement in May 2011 correcting the tweaking detailed in my Everest Interruptus post. I was walking 3 miles a day beginning the 11^th day after surgery. In the fifth week I hiked 30 miles through the Santa Monica Mountains here in LA.
• I am back to training for the Himalayas and have been hiking from 20 to 40 miles a week in the mountains. I attribute a lot of my rapid recovery to http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Grass-Servings-8-5-Ounce-Container/dp/B00112IM56 . I bought a jar of it and gave it to my world class ortho surgeon, Dr Andrew Yun.
• I also credit my acupuncturist, Miranda Brocki of Santa Monica for my great current health. I am taking Reishi mushroom extract from her and a mixture of herbs for longevity and strength.
• I took http://www.landmarkdirectaccess.com/  course in October and impressive things have happened. I am a great believer in Landmark Education offerings and spent 10 years ending in 1990 taking all the courses and seminars they offered including the est Training, The Forum, the Six Day Advanced Course, many seminars, and assisting at the Six Day. To briefly summarize Direct Access: “we”, humans, store our thoughts, feelings, and thoughts about how we experience ourselves AND our actions in neuronal patterns. When a situation in the present causes a neuronal pattern to become active ALL the thoughts and ACTIONS associated with the pattern become active. We do not have choice in how we act. When I have time I’ll attempt to write this up more cogently in a newsletter. Some of the references associated with the course are Demasio - Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain ; Ludwig Wittgenstein ; Edmund Husserl ; Martin Heidegger

So, of all the stuff that’s happened the best was camping in the desert in Death Valley at natural hot springs for all of February and March as I had nowhere else to live. https://picasaweb.google.com/115628322404008008798/Trips_2011

The full Moon of March 19^th, 2011 was the Super Moon. I was sleeping in my tent in high 30’s temperatures in bright moonshine with the tent illuminated like a light bulb. I would never have chosen to go camping at that time but was forced into it – I had nowhere else to go!

I meet a lot of accomplished people. I read tons by really bright people. The thing that seems of inestimable value is ACTING – going there, seeing it for yourself, EXPERIENCING IT – whatever that is for you. Getting back to the neuronal patterns, we, whoever and wherever we are, are situational. Generally, to change your patterns change your situations! Go to India – go to the desert – GO.

More later

I know, it’s not later yet. I decided to start a hedge fund as a result of being in the Landmark work – it seemed like the most outrageous thing I could think of to do!. A few weeks later I was applying for Food Stamps but did not qualify.

 

Everest  interruptus

MY “other” hip went out when I was training for the Himalayas on Mt. Whitney in Feb-Mar 2011. I had to leave LA late January as I had no where to live so I went camping in the desert – in Death Valley at the hot springs. When the weather deteriorated I moved in to Lone Pine to my friend Doug’s hostel. Most days I climbed the Mt. Whitney road up a couple of thousand feet in snow and ice.

Anyway, my hip is tweaked. Happily, my ortho surgeon, Dr Andrew Yun from Santa Monica is anxious to take me on. I told him I had a commitment to be the oldest American to summit Everest and had everything I needed except for my joints so he said, “Well, let’s work on those joints!” LOL So, no Himalayas this year. As Dr says this one is easier than the other one which was severely congenitally mis-aligned, I am hopeful to maybe try summiting Cho Oyo next climbing season – 2012, year of the Dragon.

Ever intently,

Carlosjii

BIM 54 - randomly published

Ballantyne’s Inspired Musings #54

September 2008

Vox clamantis in deserto

The voice of one crying in the wilderness

The Mount Everest of Spiritual and Philosophical journals

An oracle for the wise

Subscriptions $25 or more – the more you send the more you get. Available only by email .pdf

Lilly Strengths

William Lilly was a famous English astrologer in the 1600’s. Lilly caused much controversy in 1666 for allegedly predicting the Great Fire of London some 14 years before it happened. For this reason many people believed that he might have started the fire, but there is no evidence to support these claims. He was tried for the offence in Parliament but was found to be innocent. Lilly had a way of classifying planetary strengths in a natal horoscope giving a weighted numeric value to each planet in a person’s horoscope.

Certain of the horoscopes in my large database have Lilly Strengths worth mentioning. From my studies any Lilly Strength over 20 is notable and will express itself in the life. Roughly one horoscope in 25 has a Strength over 20 of one of the planets.

George Soros               Mercury 27 & Jupiter 28

Father Terry                Mercury 25

Ruth Y.                        Mercury 25

Pat Allen                      Mercury 24

Suzanne Caffee            Mercury 26

Ashley Robbins            Mercury 25, Jupiter 24

Susan M.                     Mercury 27, Mars 25

Osama bin Laden         Mercury 33

Dr. Pirnazar                 Mars 28

Donald Angle               Mars 28

Silda Spitzer                Mars 26

Princess Anne              Mars 24, Mercury 21

Dora W.                       Mars 29

Brugh Joy                    Mars 24

Betsy H.                      Mars 23

Warren Buffet              Mars 23, Jupiter 21, Venus 20

Julie Poole                   Jupiter 21

Kevin Ryan                  Jupiter 23, Venus 21

Chris Robbins               Jupiter 27

Tony Robbins               Jupiter 25

Anna Smith                 Jupiter 26

Dr. Julie Ralls               Jupiter 26

Karl Rove                    Saturn 27

All the people I know with high Mercury Strengths are extremely intelligent AND they have a capacity to express and create in the world by their writing and speaking. The mental gifts extend to the intuitive. Simplistically, they are very F’ing smart - to a greater degree than you CAN be aware. In other words we judge people and situations from our own frame of reference. Few have a frame of reference to judge Lilly strengths over 20.

Those with high Mars Strengths are dangerously unaware of their willfulness and capacity to move events to their liking – and their destructiveness to themselves and others. They MOVE things the way they want and it all seems correct – ‘Oh, this IS God’s will. It’s all going just how I wanted it to’. Strong Mars have a limited capacity for true surrender. The tough events they INEVITABLY BRING TO THEMSELVES are a result of - “That which we do not bring to consciousness appears in out lives as Fate.” K. Jung A good suggestion to these people is ‘DO nothing and look within’, BUT the Martian personality NEEDS resistance in order to experience itself so they constantly seek it out and create it when it’s not there. Ill health from middle age on seems to be the unconscious way of taking down the inner stress level – sometimes permanently.

Those with high Jupiter Strengths seem to blithely meander through always getting saved from any real bad luck, usually just in the nick of time. The problem is that of excess. “Jupiter is not always the cosmic Santa Claus it is made out to be.” Doris Hebel, Celestial Psychology. My Jupiter is 22 – high but not over the top. I have been miraculously saved ‘in the wink of an eye’ from 2 deadly diseases - polio and alcoholism. I also experienced a quite miraculous recovery from a bad case of Lyme’s disease - unless I have it now and don’t know it. ANYONE with a Jupiter Strength over 20 should be considered rich regardless of their actual financial circumstances. Bill Gates has a 19 Jupiter, Melinda, 21.

One of the most extraordinary cases is that of Susan M. who I met soon after I moved to Mammoth in 2001. It was not until some time afterwards I noticed her Lilly Strength readings. Curiously, Susan is about 4’ 9” and it has been difficult to get much information. A Berkeley Ph.D. in Art History and then the director of a large college museum Susan unexpectedly came back to California and lives in her parent’s house in Mammoth. From her energy and looking at her palm my deduction is she had a mental breakdown – as I told her the first time I met her when I looked at her palm – and has been taking fairly heavy mood altering medications ever since which has severely blunted the extraordinary powers and mentality indicated by her horoscope. This guess on my part fits exactly the fated ‘burn out’ or illness scenario I suggest is the tempering of those immensely Martian.

Osama’s Mercury Strength is 1.5 to 2 ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE higher than any other strength for any other planet for anyone else in my database. If everyone else is on a scale of 70 to 100 this is 1350. As the Jewish talk of the Lamed Vov[1] who rule the world creating the triumph of righteousness, and the Yogis speak of Himalayan ascetics seated on simple blankets in a cave unobtrusively bringing truth to human affairs, such also is the obeisance we must accord this overarching intelligence.

In case you didn’t get a specific invitation I have created a Yahoo Group named Astrolos and posted there a number of essays, including this one, I’ve written about astrology over the years – most fairly recent. You can join the group without having a Yahoo account and you may be able to read the essays without even joining. They are .pdfs in the Files section.

What Are You Thinking

“For those of us attempting to live in the world in a more conscious way, there can never be enough reminders, for we humans are such forgetful creatures. Michie delivers the message, make us smile and feel like we are walking with an old friend. That morning I was given both reminders and some loving encouragement.

The page I opened to was where Michie is quoting his teacher, Rinpoche Geshe Trungpa, "We all tend to have habitual thoughts, or attitudes, and we need to be very careful about these. Often they build up and have a cumulative effect which is immense. As Buddha said in the Dharmapada:

'The thought manifests as the word
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love born out of concern for all beings...
As the shadow follows the body,
As we think, so we become.'"

And as Michie points out in the section about karma that follows, "Our mindstream, our choice...we are the authors of our own future happiness or misery." How empowering the "thought that we have the opportunity to transform our whole experience of reality." With this in mind, my reality (which was never really so bad to begin with) and my day got a whole lot better.” Kay Goldstein, MA teaches meditation and writes poetry, fiction and articles addressing the challenges and joys of daily living and spiritual practice. www.kaygoldstein.com From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kay-goldstein/what-are-you-thinking_b_118935.html

My Commentary - It may be that the Lilly strengths point to inner repetitive mindstreams which inevitably manifest. I know I have an inner attitude that I will always be taken care of. I even hear a small voice inside asserting that when I get doubtful or under duress. When I was losing a house I loved living in in the mountains of New Jersey in 1980 - a 28 year Saturn cycle ago – I found a deck of tarot cards my wife had left behind. I laid out a spread and the top card was the 10 of Pentacles – the most good fortune you can have. I said to myself ‘nothing bad can ever happen to me, I can do anything I want and will always be taken care of’. I acted on this months later by ‘retiring’ at age 39 vowing to not work anymore.

I suspect this is the mindstream of those with high Lilly Jupiter Strengths. In other words, George Soros had the repetitive thought ‘I am going to make $XXXXXX pounds on a trade’ and just happened to be there when the Bank of England broke, making a billion dollars for himself on a single, albeit large, leveraged currency bet.

I can only extrapolate that the mindstream of those with high Mars strengths, having lived with a Mars 29! runs something like ‘I can do this, I can MAKE it happen, I ……’. The underlying problem can be too much ‘I’, despite the MANY accomplishments they have experienced. The Mars 29 had been divorced 4 times by the age of 35, 5 by 42 and it’s quite certain it was the totally right thing to do each time – from the ‘I’ perspective.

I suggest the high Mars, needing resistance to experience itself, CREATES the problems to surmount. This is a far different mechanism than that of the Jupiter which is essentially one of surrender. In the Jupiter case you are attempting to make your will the same as God’s – in the Mars case you are attempting to make God’s will the same as yours. Note that both methods or paths are the same, but only at the highest level of spiritual consciousness. Clearly, the easiest path seems to one that of Jupiter. Paramahansa Yogananda talks about God’s bounty being like a gentle rain. Some people go around catching it with teaspoons, others with large buckets. The Jupiterian motto might be ‘Trust in God and carry a big bucket’.

Look at the result [Warren Buffet] of both a high Jupiter AND a high Mars! And with Warren’s high Venus he managed to marry and have kids with a nice Aquarius, Susan, who he did not live with for the past 25 years AND as soon as Susan died Warren at last married the Latvian waitress of his favorite restaurant in Omaha, with whom he had lived for many years. Susan’s house in Laguna Beach got sold soon after she died. When questioned about successors at Berkshire‑Hathaway Warren has said there is a plan written out but it won’t be opened until after his death. He and his high Mars quipped "when they open that envelope the first instruction is to take my pulse again."

So here’s a Jupiter story. A few years ago I got pissed at Warren, for no apparent reason, - Oh yes, it was about my Geico insurance bills - and decided to DO something about it. I thought for a month or longer where Warren’s sensitive point might be using one of my background mindstreams. At last I had it. I wrote him a longish, nasty letter explaining how his conglomerate had wrecked a nice little insurance company I had been insured with since the 1960s when I lived in Washington, DC. I then launched into an excoriating rant about how Warren had never done anything for ANYONE, had threatened to essentially disinherit his children so they had to work, AND that, conversely, Bill Gates was using his intelligence and scientific methods to eradicate polio. I went on to say I had been on a remote island in the Andamans at the Millennium and had seen a graffiti-ish notice to get polio vaccine. I related my own case of polio and went on again that Warren had never done anything for the world except create a number of millionaires through their ownership of Berkshire-Hathaway stock. AND as a final insult I called him the Mr. Magoo of money. Some four to six months later Warren announced he was turning his entire fortune, estimated at $40 billion, over to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The point is, me with a 22 Jupiter, relatively penniless and homeless, camping out in a friend’s office for months at a time, thinks nothing of writing a letter like that to the wealthiest person in the world fully expecting a result – and it happens. How? Who knows? Note I DID write the letter as an 8 ½ x 11 postcard using the Strathmore card stock I mentioned in the previous BIM.

I refer anyone who wants to investigate further the powers of the mind to ‘The Holographic Universe’, mentioned in BIM 20, September 1997

Indeed if the universe is a holodeck, all things that appear stable and eternal, from the laws of physics to the substance of galaxies, would have to be viewed as reality fields, will-of-the-wisps no more or less real than the props in a giant, mutually shared dream. All permanence would have to be looked at as illusory, and only consciousness would be eternal, the consciousness of the living universe. Pg. 159, The Holographic Universe [THU]

"The world is nothing but an objectified dream," says Paramahansa Yogananda, "and whatever your powerful mind believes very intensely instantly comes to pass. THU

The idea that we can psychokinetically alter events that have already occurred is an unsettling notion, for we are so deeply programmed to believe the past is frozen as if it were a butterfly in glass, it is difficult for us to imagine otherwise. But in a holographic universe, a universe in which time is an illusion and reality is no more than a mind-created image, it is a possibility to which we may have to become accustomed. Pg. 226, THU

Ram Dass, of whom I am not a great fan, possibly due to my envy, has a great concept of unasking questions. I sometimes now will say, "I'd like to un-ask that question", in the brief space between having asked a question whose answer I really don't want to know and the answer not having yet been given. Questions suitable for unasking could be, "How much did you have to drink last night?” "Have you been with anyone else since we started going together?” "Why?” etc. - you get the idea?

Ram Das’s guru, Neem Karoli Baba, was from the same city in India as my guru. Neem Karouli Baba came to visit Gurujii’s ashram on one of the peak mela days when 5 million or more bathe in the Ganges and the small ashram fills with HUNDREDS of people. Gurujii went to clear the place and threw out everyone he did not recognize, including Neem Karoli Baba, who dressed like a begger wrapped only in a cheap blanket. Gurujii was later to say it was the biggest mistake he made in his life.

Somewhat happily, my writings about Gurujii and the ashram have not created the buzz and commercial stir that happened to Maharajii, NKB, after

Ram Das’s writings, when thousands of Westerners descended on the crumby little place NKB had in Allahabad. Almost no Westerners have been to OUR, my guru’s, crumby little place on the banks of the Ganges outside Allahabad.

      

The picture on the left is the ashram in 1989, the right in 2000. The conical structure at the far right is the tomb of Gurujii who was buried yogic style seated in the full lotus position then the grave filled ½ in sugar and ½ in salt, covered with dirt and then capped with the monument.

A Few Concluding Thoughts

The whole of this world and all the schemes of the mind are but creations of thought. Discarding these thoughts and taking leave of all conjectures, O Rama! Obtain peace. As camphor disappears in fire, and rock salt in water, so the mind with the atma loses its identity. All that appears is the knowable, the mind is called knowledge. When the knowable and the knowledge, are both destroyed equally, then there is no second way (i.e. Duality is destroyed). All this movable and immovable world is the vision of the mind. When the mind has attained to the unmani avastha there is no dvaita (from the absence of the working of the mind). Mind disappears by removing the knowable, and, on its disappearance, atma only remains behind. The Hatha Yoga scriptures as quoted in 'Hatha Yoga', Theos Bernard, Rider & Co., London, Pg. 76.

The Essence of Yoga

Concentration: Its Spiritual Uses

1 - Now yoga is explained

2 - Yoga is the restraining of the mind stuff (Chitta) from taking various forms (vrittis)

The true organ of perception is the brain not the secondary instruments, the sense organs such as the eyes and ears. What is thought? Thought is a force like gravitation. The mind is not intelligent. The Soul uses the mind as its instrument to perceive the external world. The real universe is the occasion of the reaction of the mind. A book form or an elephant form or a man form is not outside; all that we know is our mental reaction from the outer suggestion.

The real man is behind the mind; the mind is the instrument in his hands. It is his intelligence that is percolating through the mind. It is only when you stand behind the mind that it becomes intelligent. When you give it up it falls to pieces and becomes nothing. Thus you understand what is meant by the chitta. It is the mind-stuff, and the vrittis are the waves and ripples rising in it when external causes impinge on it. These vrittis are our universe.

The bottom of the lake we cannot see, because its surface is covered with ripples. If it is clear and there are no waves , we shall see the bottom. The bottom of the lake is our own true Self; the lake is the chitta, and the waves are the vrittis.

The chitta is always trying to get back to its natural pure state, but the organs draw it out. To restrain it, to check this outward tendency, and to start it on the return journey to the Essence of Intelligence is the first step in yoga, because it is only in this way can the chitta get into its proper state.

3  At that time (the time of concentration) the Seer (Purusha) rests in His own (unmodified) state

As soon as the waves have stopped and the lake has become quiet, we see its bottom. So with the mind: when it is calm, we see what our nature is; we do not mix ourselves with the modifications of the mind, but remain our own selves.

4 At other times the Seer is identified with the modifications.

For instance, someone blames me; this produces a modification, vritti, in my mind, and I identify myself with it, and the result is misery.

The numbered paragraphs are from the ancient Hindu scriptures, the Sutras of Patanjali, the italicized commentary following is by Swami Vivekananda From ‘Raja Yoga’, Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, New York

My commentary - At the yogic level of aspiration the quest is to NOT manifest through thoughts in the mind. Once all thoughts stop the Seer becomes Himself. At my currently much lower level of consciousness, that is, the level of attempting to create ‘positive’ thoughts, my important mindstream remains;

·       This is my last lifetime. I will not have to come back again.

·       Everything I need will come to me

·       I may have to live for a long, long time to finish up in this lifetime.

·       I will remain healthy and pain free

Again, the point is, if the mind does create your Reality then choose POWERFUL, fulfilling mindstreams for yourself. After all, your therapist can’t do it for you!!!! LOL

A Little Note on 28 Year Saturn Cycles

David-san

I am going to have to abandon my storage locker in Irvine but would like you to pull a few things from it for me before Sept 9.

I’d like to keep;

• Canoe paddle
• Yellow handled axe
• Blue hanging clothing bag with a few jackets etc
• Black briefcase with old Dell Laptop – You can keep or throw away the computer but I’d like the briefcase. I don’t want the info on the hard drive to get out.
• the book ‘Gods of Change = Pain, Crisis, and the Transits of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto’ by Sasportas
• Pair of cowboy type boots probably in one of the blue round bags on the floor
• a new pair red and yellow running shoes also in a blue bag
• A small ammo case of hand tools

If you want the Canon printer or office chair take them otherwise I’ll give them up

Just leave the key at the office after you exit telling them I’ve made my last payment.

Many thanks

Carlos

Ah yes, to live in India AND the US at the same time is dicey!!!!!!!

LOL

Supplement Update

8/12/2008 I ate a 2 cup bowl of muesli at 8:30 AM after arising in the backcountry outside Bishop. I ended up at Mono Lake at 3:30 pm to go bike riding and had not eaten since the muesli. What I took;

24 oz. black tea with 1 scoop of CytoMax Natural Electrolyte, cool citrus flavor

2 scoops CytoSport Recovery mixed in about 20 oz water

2 Electrolyte Stamina tablets

1000 mg. calcium ascorbate

I cycled for 30 miles climbing about 1500 vertical feet at 6500’ to 8000’ altitude in the next 2 hours. The point here is the newer high tech nutritional supplements are worthy of looking in to by EVERYONE. For example, I routinely take a large 24 oz bottle of water with one or 2 scoops of the electrolyte mix just to stay hydrated in the mountain sun.

I found out about the Electrolyte Stamina tablets from the owner of a health food store in Joshua Tree who told me she got all the UPS drivers on them as they had to drive around in 115 degree weather in the high desert with their doors open. I recommend these for anyone. As I recall this was the first case I asked someone if they could tell me about something I didn’t know I didn’t know about.

And a bit more about olive oil. It has been found that olive oil can cure H pylori, the cause of stomach ulcers and stomach cancer. You can look it up.

WOW MOM

A friend of mine was sharing how she always wanted to get a tattoo on her butt - W on one cheek, O in the middle, and W on the other cheek so when she did naked cartwheels across the front lawn to show her mother her tattoo it would flip from WOW to MOM to WOW to MOM…………

“It's alarming when the media tries to remove voter participation from the political process, when they shift from reporting the news to making it themselves. I'm reminded of the old Groucho Marx line about the fellow "who stuffed spaghetti with bicarbonate of soda, thus causing and curing indigestion at the same time." William Klein

“The gnarlination began right across the street there.”  Someone describing the beginning of a tough period in their life

“Those days of spiritual midgetry still occur.” heard around the campus

$$$$$

"If banks feel they must keep on dancing while the music is playing and that at the end of the party the central bank will make sure everyone gets home safely, then over time the parties will become wilder and wilder.  That might not matter were the consequences limited to the partygoers.  But they are not." Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, June 2008 - or as Nouriel Roubini has put it ‘profits have been privatized and losses have been socialized’.

Most Americans think this stuff has nothing to do with them.

And more brilliant financial and geopolitical essays from http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/

Dear Candidate Obama

If you select Joe Biden as VP I will vote for McCain [and hope he has a stroke while in office]. 

1.    Biden is too old to be an agent for change

2.    Biden is a blowhard, self-aggrandizing Scorpio son-of-a-bitch VERY incompatible with your Leo energy.

    3.    Biden is ignorant about foreign affairs AND was responsible for the deaths of 000’s of Nepali civilians due to his backing of that war-mongering Aunt Jemima Colon Powell’s $millions of military aid to the alcoholic dysfunctional King of Nepal and the Army.

Carlos.  Etc.       

Actual postcard sent to Obama HQ. I sent it as an email also and got a thank you for sharing my thoughts about the vice presidential nominee.

Adventurama Drama

It’s hard to write about the adventures of the past several days at Lake Tahoe. I arrived at the Lake late Sunday afternoon and swam and lolly-gagged around until after sunset. Arriving back at the swimming hole Monday afternoon I dove into 4 foot swells and battled currents and surf crashing over the rocks for almost an hour. Again I had not eaten since 8 hours before but had plenty of energy from CytoMax electrolyte drink and CytoMax carb gel. Late in the afternoon I drove to Mammoth stopping at the Bridgeport hot springs around 9 pm. Incredible silky mineral rich water, perfect temperature, a planet and star filled sky to look at while soaking in the outback springs. I woke up this morning and ……….who could I possibly tell. So I didn’t.

Dear Innermost Self, Bhajananand,

Divine love and blessing to you. Here all the ashramites are fine. By the grace of the Almighty and our Gurudev, we are enjoying our divine life peacefully and hope the same for you. Convey my heartfelt pranams to Almighty Mother Dakshineswari of Laguna Beach at Her lotus feet.

After a long time I am sending this e-mail. I hope that all the programs at Kali Mandir have been done successfully by Mother’s grace and by the cooperation of devotees, disciples and coworkers.

…I pray to Almighty that He may grant you good understanding, happy life, peace of mind, good health and wealth with your friends, your disciples and with your coworkers.

Convey my blessings to Parameswar, Rampriya, Sadanand, Kalyani, Shambho, Devadas, Jayashree, Usha, Milli, Chandan, Ridhi, Irene, Nandu, Tarini & Carlos.

Rest all is OK.

Thy Innermost Self,

Guruji Omanand                

I’ve migrated to last on the list but at least I am still there. Letter from my guru’s successor to a disciple who lives at the Kali Temple in Laguna Beach.

more disappointed by the things that you didn't do

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain from the Airstream website

also "Don’t stop. Keep right on going. Hitch up your trailer and go to Canada or down to Old Mexico. Head for Europe, if you can afford it, or go to the Mardi Gras. Go someplace you’ve heard about, where you can fish or hunt or collect rocks or just look up at the sky. Find out what’s at the end of some country road. Go see what’s over the next hill, and the one after that, and the one after that." Wally Byam, founder of Airstream Trailers, from the website

The camping season here is about to move south from Mammoth which, despite the lovely warm days, will become much cooler, usually in a short storm from that moves through in lat September. I hope to be out of here next Tuesday or so and will move the cloud of uncertainty surrounding me to Lone Pine and then to a week or so in the Saline Valley at the hot springs. I’ve become mildly obsessed with trailers again as a guy showed up in the last days the camp was open with a 1954 Silver Streak.

He said he bought it from a shepherd in New Mexico a year ago after looking for a year or longer. It was in great original condition with the 50’s yellow Formica counter and table tops and a working shower. I found a 1947 Spartan trailer for sale on eBay and sent the listing to a friend whose family had been involved in manufacturing them.

Me in front of the Mammoth Lakes post office Saturday 9/6 looking to see if any birthday presents arrived a day before my 66^th birthday. An interesting thing happened on 9/7, the actual day – I got email congrats from 5 actual people over the course of the day AND 4 emails from web sites I had signed up for including

Guardian Soulmates dating site

British Blades custom knife site

MTBR – the mountain bike review

TTORa – the Toyota off-road forum

For my birthday I drove up to Mono Lake and then cycled 30 miles in glorious warm high mountain sun exulting in just being alive. After all, not everyone is.

9/10/2008 We’re closing down the camp – mostly schlepping stuff around, dog work. This morning early we were turning large wooden picnic tables on their sides leaning against trees. Several of the trees are old growth pines – 80 to well over 100 feet tall. My workmate was telling me how the Indians used to hug trees to get some energy in ‘The Time Before Horses’, when they ran everywhere. I hugged two giants this morning and as I went to grab each one I had this feeling of strength and immensity come to me and an inner vision that I, my life, was deeply rooted into life. The second tree sat on a small hill alone, As I hugged it it were as though it spoke to me that that’s how I was, up above, looking down, with roots going way into the earth.

confident that we won't be powerless.

Just had to send you my daughter Mary Ellen's blog.  (We're all just fine, by the way.  I lost half of a tree; Mary Ellen lost many shingles off her roof and still has no electricity.)

Date: Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:58:10 +0000

I just thought I'd pass along my blog from today.

Aware that we may lose electricity, but confident that we won't be powerless.

Love,

Mary Ellen

The Contraflow

Today, as of 4AM, all of our Louisiana interstates went contraflow. That means that the southbound lanes all flow North. Everyone south of us is heading North. The interstates are packed but creeping forward. The view inside cars shows not only passengers, but all of the possessions they deem vital.

The sun still smiles upon us, but an eerie anxiety cloaks people on the streets. If you examine their actions, you'll see common purpose behind it. The man on the corner is not weeding his garden, he's removing limbs that could fall through his window. The other is not cleaning the gutter, but extending the pipe so that the water won't back up into his house.

Yesterday my son had a birthday party to attend. Normalcy is reassuring for children; it was nearby, so we went. On the way, we stopped by a local bakery. The owner's first words were, "Do you want a free cake?" I laughed, not thinking he was serious. Then I looked at his face. His eyes said that this wasn't his first hurricane preparation weekend. "Seriously," he continued. He guided my daughter to the most gorgeous chocolate cake, removed it from its case and boxed it as he spoke. "We lost it all in Katrina," he explained. "The building was okay, but our freezers are the important thing. All of their contents were lost." He closed the box to seal in the over fifty dollar cake. "Then, who wants to stop in a deli-bakery after a storm? It's not like anyone will be coming by to buy cakes once we do have power." His recovery from Katrina had taken a long time. He braced himself to do it again. As he spoke, I encouraged him to bring the remaining cakes to the fire department where people had been filling sand bags all day. "The Police Station too," his assistant piped up. Although they would do their best to send off their remaining delicacies, the memory of the last hurricane's hit was etched on the kind man's face.

In the car, once again headed to the birthday party, my son had no hurricane worries. My daughter held the cake. At eleven, she was old enough to understand the hushed phone conversations and the news bulletins. From her seat she said, "Mom, maybe this means God is telling us that is really will be okay." I told her that I believed that it was a reminder that God is definitely here, and we said a special prayer for the bakery owner and his family.

Today the contraflow begins. We act counter-contra to the way we did only yesterday. Cakes we would have sold, we give away. We take what we have and see who it may help. We remember other storms and press on, heading upward, upstate, up with prayer. Our direction is not centered around the hectic haze of daily lives, but contra to that, our direction is for all those around us, all those we love. Today Gustav is still in the gulf, and the sun still shines.

Why does it take a pending storm for us to begin a contraflow?

Turning things around to head an upward direction-

Mary Ellen

How the U.S. Garrisons the Planet and Doesn't Even Notice

At the height of the Roman Empire, the Romans had an estimated 37 major military bases scattered around their dominions. At the height of the British Empire, the British had 36 of them planet wide. Depending on just who you listen to and how you count, we have hundreds of bases. According to Pentagon records, in fact, there are 761 active military "sites" abroad.

The fact is: We garrison the planet north to south, east to west, and even on the seven seas, thanks to our various fleets and our massive aircraft carriers which, with 5,000-6,000 personnel aboard – that is, the population of an American town – are functionally floating bases.

And here's the other half of that simple truth: We don't care to know about it. We, the American people, aided and abetted by our politicians, the Pentagon, and the mainstream media, are knee-deep in base denial.

Now, that's the gist of it. If, like most Americans, that's more than you care to know, stop here.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/engelhardt/engelhardt352.html

The failure of two empires

…The recent Russo-Georgian war was the last straw: from now on, Moscow, the Third Rome, the capital of the Eurasian empire to which all the numerous people of the empire have had a feeling of awe, a feeling that Moscow is also their capital, became a city of a foreign state. This feeling of Russia's foreignness is shared not just by the people of the Caucuses and Central Asia, but also by friendly Belarus, which offended Moscow by not supporting the Georgian war.

Now, Russia is more alone, more alienated and hated among the republics of the former Soviet Union than at any other time in Soviet and post-Soviet history.

…Still, the US's inability to defend its proxy Georgia, which it implicitly encouraged to attack South Ossetia, setting off the war, is a reflection of the broad geopolitical burden of Iraq and Afghanistan on the US's shoulders. These geopolitical debacles are related to America's increasing economic problems, for which no viable solution can be found in the context of present social-economic arrangements. The collapse of the American global imperial presence is structurally similar to that of the collapse of the Soviet empire. Neither Russia nor the US can be true imperial powers.

The geopolitical structure of the global order created by Stalin and his American adversaries in the aftermath of World War II is collapsing, not just on the Russian side but also on the American side. This implies that the future - at least the immediate future - is not so much for Pax Russika or Pax America, but most likely a push for increasing global anarchy. Dmitry Shlapentokh, PhD, Indiana University South Bend. He is author of East Against West: The First Encounter - The Life of Themistocles, 2005.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JI05Ag01.html

Hornswoggling Obsidian

I thought I’d grab a unique piece of the countryside here to take back – wherever back might be. A nice large piece of obsidian seemed good so I drove up to the top of my favorite hill the back side of which is littered with huge pieces of obsidian.

This is what the hill looks like – AFTER I got done creating the huge ruts and furrows trying to get my Toyota unstuck. The surface was smooth before I buried the thing up to the frame in loose obsidian and high mountain scree. Happily the Toyota – THE most capable off road off the shelf vehicle on the planet – was able to drive itself out – after 30 minutes of scary 30 degree down slope sliding.

Oh, the rock –

note the size 11 Blundstone boot attached the Horse year leg

Maybe 120 lbs, 24” x 10” x 14”. Once I located this purrfect piece I spent over an hour rolling it end over end up the hill 50 yards. It was so heavy even 2 people couldn’t lift it PLUS there’s no damn purchase on it.

So the next day, after thinking about it, I returned with my plywood bed board and rolled the rock onto it. Then, end-by-end, I levered the rock higher and higher, frantically shoving pieces of firewood and then large rounds of lodge pole pine under the ends of the bed board attempting to get one end higher than the tailgate. Taking a break I noticed that because the hill was so steep the downhill side WAS already high enough IF I backed the truck up to it from below. That’s where the problems occurred. I drove the Toy downhill a bit and experimented with backing up 3 times - no problema. So I confidently drove downhill past the rock on the elevated board and attempted to back up again. NADA. I dug in each wheel 12” or so while facing downhill the 1500’ slope. I won’t bore you with the rest of it – I got the G.D. rock, it’s in the back of the truck now. It takes up so much space I may have to abandon some of my stuff at camp when I leave tomorrow.

Oh, and why leave tomorrow? This morning when I emerged from my crumby trailer in the pine forest and walked toward the staff kitchen a large hawk flew about 20 feet away from me down the driveway opening in the 60-80 foot pines. It was unbelievable except it happened right in front of me.

I texted a friend who I knew was not driving a train at the time and got an instant Googleation. “Time to move on – follow the Hawk! Native American Hawk – spiritual guide when important direction change or decision about something must be found – Spirit of Truth, awareness, perceptiveness – the great messenger – ruthless & majestic.”

I’m outta here, I got THE ROCK, I managed to pay the fee for the next month on my storage locker, and enough gas money to get to LA.

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[1] There are not less than 36 tzaddikim/righteous persons in the world who receive the Shekhinah/the Divine Presence Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 97b, Sukkot 45b

           

The Lamed-Vovnik Andre Schwarz-Bart

RIVERS OF BLOOD HAVE FLOWED, columns of smoke have obscured the sky, but surviving all these dooms, the tradition has remained inviolate down to our own time. According to it, the world reposes upon thirty-six Just Men, the Lamed-Vov, indistinguishable from simple mortals; often they are unaware of their station. But if just one of them were lacking, the sufferings of mankind would poison even the souls of the newborn, and humanity would suffocate with a single cry. For the Lamed-Vov are the hearts of the world multiplied, and into them, as into one receptacle, pour all our griefs.

Thousands of popular stories take note of them. Their presence is attested to everywhere. A very old text of the Haggadah tells us that the most pitiable are the Lamed-Vov who remain unknown to themselves. For those the spectacle of the world is an unspeakable hell.

In the seventh century, Andalusian Jews venerated a rock shaped like a teardrop, which they believed to be the soul, petrified by suffering, of an 'unknown' Lamed-Vovnik. Other Lamed-Vov, like Hecuba shrieking at the death of her sons, are said to have been transformed into dogs.

When an unknown Just rises to Heaven, a Hasidic story goes, he is so frozen that God must warm him for a thousand years between His fingers before his soul can open itself to Paradise. And it is known that some remain forever inconsolable at human woe, so that God Himself cannot warm them. So from time to time the Creator, blessed be His Name, sets forward the clock of the Last Judgment by one minute. The Last of the Just