I wouldn't necessarily say "strange", although they might be considered odd or off color to some other more traditionally focused persons.  Namely, any of these views are Directly related to my personal philosophies of life and I have had people "question" me about them...because they didn't see the logic, when really all they needed to do was understand the practicality of the system, rather than trying to justify it by way of some higher power.  I don't believe in karma, although I do believe in Newton's Laws of Motion...I don't believe in karma in the sense that Westerners use it, but I have no issues with the traditional Sanskrit origin of it (it means action).  I don't foster a believe in good and bad (in black and white terms)...I prefer to see all of the shades of gray/grey and the patterns and technicolor beyond.  I recognize the duplicity of everything...that whatever is, is also not.  I revere the concept of Chaos greatly, because to me it is the end all with anything...as was so poignantly put by Robert Burns, later adapted by Jon Steinbeck for a novel of his (Of Mice and Men), "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry..."  And I fully support Murphy's Law...I mean who wouldn't !?  And I embrace Chaos in a rather brotherly fashion...which is beyond many people...I also see the "good" in that which is destructive, to include so called "negative" aspects of deital representations (plain English - god/dess figures.  I don't believe that anything is any more or less likely than anything else and that all things are possible, particularly if the right amount of force is put behind it...

Merry Sharing,
MTS

I know that a lot of folks are going through varying periods of stress and at this time - as the Universe and our planet's place in it, is also fluctuating...thusly us too!  So with that in mind I want to share with all of you some articles that I am looking at and finding to be very helpful in outlining some ways in which to help you deal not only with the day to day, but also the inner and deeper aspects...the internal foci which we all struggle with...the constant battle, etc and so on and so forth.

In many practices that I have read about involving harnessing the inner strength of a person as well as non invasive ways to deal with stress breath has been vitally important.  Now, not to add my musings to the large stack of other articles on the subject, consider this...breathing is one of the essential functions of life.  Air is one of the elements (sky or wind) included in the many different element systems throughout human cultures.  The in and out, the steady flow, the personal tide of being.  Breathe in that which is good, breathe out the negative...let each breath out be a cleansing motions, and each breath in be a charging motion.  Simple meditations often involve you harnessing the power of breath.  One practice that is very adept at this is Pranayama.  Pranayama is the practice of Yogic Breath and is an essential part of the practice - although it is not to say you cannot do a yoga asana without having mastered pranayama, your asanas will be that much more enriching if you integrate the two.  As I am a novice to both practices I cannot say more, but the subject is very much worth looking into...(Here's an article to get you started:  http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/1523?message_add=1).  If you further explore this site, which you may do freely without joining or subscribing (although both are free and I suggest doing so, that way you can get daily emails if you'd like, and may personalize your "My Yoga Journal" by bookmarking various articles within the site...) and there is an entire section dedicated to Pranayama with various articles and techniques.

A side bar to this conversation, if  you enjoy Pranayama, then you may want to look into a type of yoga (there are many types and you should choose what is right for you) and the use of mudras (a practice that is interlaced with yoga, yet may be practiced separately, it involves meditation and at times full asanas with hands in a certain placement, and sometimes mantras.)

Another vital part of human (and the life of Most organisms on Earth) is water (sea).  We all know the mandate that are bodies are X% water...that there is a crisis with the poles melting, the lack of fresh water.  There are many companies selling bottled water, playing to our fantasies of where the water is originating...mountain springs VS a water treatment facility...But all in all, no matter how we take it and or what think, water for many of us is very important.  As with breath, it is rejuvenating, revitalizing, energizing, cleansing, and consecrating.  We are all familiar with the uses of holy water - to bless and with advent of popular culture - ward off evil, etc.  It is used as a good luck charm, and for some pilgrimages are made on it's behalf (such as the Ganges River) or a number of sacred springs/wells attributed to canonized saints, etc.  But water is water, 2 Hydrogen, 1 Oxygen.  No matter where it came from and what else it contains, it's still water.  (Mind you with the issues of dysentery and various diseases, as well as the microorganisms and microbes, and insect larvae - like mosquitoes that make their home in water I am not in any way encouraging anyone to go find some random stream to drink or bathe in, I just mean to dispel some of the hardy myth we have placed on the origin of our water in that without the 3 molecules it wouldn't BE water.)

Many, like myself, simply do not intake enough water...causing a very serious issue to crop up - dehydration.  Funny I should mention this in the middle of the summer, but it is true enough a fact that there are many heat injuries a year merely from the fact of not having enough water in your system.  We sweat it out, cry it out, spit it out, urinate it out, at times we may vomit it out...but how many of us really take the time to think about just plain water and how much we take it forgranted in our daily lives.  How refreshing is a cool glass of water when you're hot and thirsty?  How nice is a long hot shower or bath when you're tired, how do you clean things?  All with water, without it where would we be....quite dry indeed!

So as you toil about your days, as you go to work, care for your family, and just go about your daily lives, please stop and have reverence for these two simple yet vital elements of living and have some gratitude for their existence in your life!

Ever Respectfully,
Murielle Tsarina Sorvista
Head Mistress T.O.G.

This is an article that I read through last night, rather it is actually a quiz to determine what your dosha is - as the title so aptly puts it.  However, this isn't really accurate, as a small amount of research on my part uncovered...http://www.yogajournal.com/health/498...There were many complaints about the person who wrote it out because people took the quiz and wanted to know the results, but neither the author nor the persons who left comments seemed to understand anything about the doshas.  So I sought this morning to elucidate and help these people, rather than making them shun something they just hadn't taken the time to understand.  I did not write the article, and while I understand that the system may not be understandable who does not practice ayurveda (even if they do yoga) I believe that with a little thinking and perusing around you can find your answers a lot more clearly.

When I read this article last night I went through, as most would, and filled out the form, marking tallies by the appropriate dosha.  One thing I did not do was to choose 2 rather than one.  I find when it comes to these sorts of things that you should mark the Best answer, or the one that you would first choose, using your intuition.  It is only logical to consider that you would at an earlier or later time answer differently - after all we are always changing, as is the world around us.  The thoughts you have at 17 are not the thoughts you necessarily have at 27, and regardless of the simple differences in thought patterns and choices, you know more at 27 because you have been alive longer and the human condition is a convoluted process and merely simplifying it into just this or that will leave something to be desired for description.  It is true that many find fault with certain systems that are rather "black and white" but I believe that they are not understanding the real reasoning and purpose behind those systems and are presuming that everything should always be detailed and complicated, just beccause people are.

Moving on...I continued to search through the section on YJ that I found the dosha quiz and found a handful of articles that mentioned a bit more about the doshas (including "Know your stress type" and some others that are currently slipping my mind) and gave some descriptions for them.  Now my first thought was that these descriptions (all of them together) should have been included within the quiz at the end so that you could have a so called answer.  Yet as I am not the author I have no idea What their motivation for creating this quiz was.  But I notice that it is stated in these other articles several things that one must take into account to really have a better understanding of the system and not feel that it is completely lacking:  for one, you are born with a certain dosha.  This is according to the birth time and date in Vedic Astrology (a fairly good book IMO for someone beginning Vedic Astrology that goes over this is "Indian Astrology" by Komilla Sutton).  It gives quite a hefty little description for each of the signs, and so on and so forth.  However if you just want to ask some spot questions, please feel free to contact me with your birth date and time (in GMT) and I can try to help you.  Another thing is that your doshas are not static things, throughout your life they may and will change...if you were to look at your doshas at a time when you were having trouble eating or sleeping, or were very stressed you'll likely answer differently than at a time when you are calm and relaxed.  Obviously...so just because your doshas are  mostly Vata now, with almost not Pitta, doesn't mean in several days/weeks/months/years etc that it will be exactly the same.  And truly, aside from you being balanced and in "perfect" health and one with all of your bodies (spiritual, emotional, physical, mental, etc) you're not likely to answer the same, nor should you be inclined to...  So to me, these two factors are very important in considering "what your dosha is" as a Westerner might so quaintly put it which bespeaks one not understanding quite what the process is or why.

Another thing to note, I am somewhat familiar with the philosophy of the 4 humors, and if you look at the 3 doshas they exhibit some of the same concepts.  That when your body is more phlegmatic (kaphra) you will have different strengths and weaknesses than if it is more vata.  Also, dosha means weakness, but at the positive end of it there are strengths to each dosha, as well as preferences, tendencies, and a whole list of associations.  Ideally you would want your doshas in a fairly balanced state - which allows for give and take in your body, mind, and spirit.  However, true balance is an ever flowing thing, it is not something you go and pick up from the store and then have, rather something you must strive for...and you can think of it like this...there are times of more "perfection" and times of less "perfection" and until you stop being consisely measuring it is a moot point.

Again with the blogging eh?  Yes, indeed.  In the current state of mind I find that I give as much as I receive and that my contemplations reach fruition.  I notice right now that there is a habit that I always seem to pick up when I become deeply "religious" again...it is a feeling of detachment.  Now whether this may be deemed as a good or bad thing really depends on the situation, but for me the detachment enters all parts of my life in the totality so in some instances it can be seen as bad.  I am currently up and about, while my beloved is sleeping.  I am away from him and have been for some time now.  I may in fact be in the room with him, talking to him, and occasionally making physical contact with me - but my mind...is elsewhere, and in this fashion I do not give of myself as I should and ought to and in fact cause rifts between myself and loved ones.  Now I know that some of this cannot be helped.  There are certain journeys, many in fact, that one must make strictly alone.  Yet, the presence of someone near and dear should illicit some response and I find myself getting so carried away that I seem forever distant.  On the other hand, I also know that this is my path in life - to oscillate ever so much as does a balance.  To remove too much on one hand tips it one way, to add too much on another tips it again, and it is only with proper weights on each side and Patience, that the balance may be restored to it's level state.  And yet, I stand before you now as a Chaos Witch, an enlightened soul and I know all too well the fancy associated with "balance".  It is an ever move state of energy, the stasis that many attribute to balance is a stagnation and death without rebirth, a true ending - because only when everything is gone will everything truly be equal.  And such is the state that merely by the laws of science and nature and everything can not truly ever be gone, merely change it's shape, rearrange it's makeup and seem to the casual observer as though were different when it's still all the same molecules under a different guise...

The snakes they dance, the energy flows throughout my spine, through my brain and down again...I feel the warmth up and down my spine...the nervous energy associated with such a large amount of pure energy moving about...I can feel it....I have had this feeling once before, after "dancing" a meditation with Kali Maa and I tell you that it is truly an incredible feeling.  Albeit somewhat disconcerting the first time around - it is also enriching and energizing...but with all this energy flowing, it has no direction and therefore comes to no end but slightly disturbing my psyche.  On the positive side of it I feel very open to the Universe right now.  Now is the time when I am can receive, when I could be myself attuned, where my enlightenment resides.  And yet I am not ready to receive it all yet - so it is a jumbled mass of raw energy for me, a stormy sea of all that is - the primordial soup of creation and power...but just as well I will enjoy it just the same!