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I have a group of colleagues who half-jokingly, half-sincerely refer to themselves as the Shamanic Hackers of Karmic Justice. The joking part of it is that the title is so over-the-top ostentatious that it keeps them from taking themselves too seriously. The sincere part is that they really do engage in shamanic work designed to […]

In the early 1990s, actors Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder were engaged to be married. In honor of their love, Depp got a tattoo that read “Winona Forever.” After the relationship fell apart, though, he had it altered to “Wino Forever.” If you’re faced with a comparable need to change a tattoo or shift your […]

In the Bering Strait, Russia and America are 2.5 miles apart. The International Date Line runs through the gap, meaning that it’s always a day later on the Russian side than it is on the American. I suggest you identify a metaphorically similar place in your own life, Scorpio: a zone where two wildly different […]

Although obstacles and difficulties frighten ordinary people, wrote French painter Théodore Géricault, “they are the necessary food of genius. They cause it to mature, and raise it up . . . All that obstructs the path of genius inspires a state of feverish agitation, upsetting and overturning those obstacles, and producing masterpieces.” I’d like to […]

Yes, I know that the bull is your totem animal. But I’m hoping you’re willing to expand your repertoire, because it’s a ripe time for you to take on some of the attitudes of the king of beasts. Consider this. The naturalist and shaman Virginia Carper notes that lions have strong personalities but cooperate well. […]

In 2011, I may do a tour of North America, performing my show “Sacred Uproar.” But for the foreseeable future I need to shut up and listen. I’ve got to make myself available to learn fresh truths I don’t even realize I need to know. So, yeah, next year I might be ready to express […]

South Carolina now requires subversive people to register with the state if they have the stated intention of overthrowing the government of the United States. I have no such goal, so I remain free to operate unlicensed in South Carolina. I am, however, participating in a movement to overthrow reality — or rather, the sour […]

The Weekly World News reported that a blues singer sued his psychiatrist for turning him into a more cheerful person. Gloomy Gus Johnson claimed he was so thoroughly cured of his depression that he could no longer perform his dismal tales with mournful sincerity. His popularity declined as he lost fans who had become attached […]

Educational specialist Dr. Howard Gardner believes I.Q. tests evaluate only a fraction of human intelligence. He describes eight different kinds of astuteness. They include the traditional measures — being good at math and language — as well as six others: being smart about music, the body, other people, one’s own inner state, nature, and spatiality. […]

Photons work hard to get from the heart of the sun to the surface. They can take up to 160,000 years to complete the 400,000+-mile journey. And yet once Earth-bound photons get topside, they travel the 93-million-mile distance to our planet in just over eight minutes. I foresee a metaphorically similar situation unfolding in your […]