Married woman puzzled by rekindled high school love

A married woman in her 40’s, Christina (not her real name), wrote me about a high school love that had long been forgotten until it was rekindled 30 years later. What complicated things and caused guilt and fear is that her family belonged to an ultra conservative, militant Christian Charismatic movement. My columns have made her curious about reincarnation—how she and her lover may have been intimately connected in previous lives.

She married late, at 30, and now has a son and “a very responsible” husband. She said she led a quiet life until she met again her first love in high school.

“After graduation, I never heard anything about him, except that he got married early to a woman much older than he.”

After 30 years she saw him again. Something happened that she could not understand, “My knees trembled at the first sight of him.”

That fateful meeting led to something more serious. “I knew what we were doing was wrong, and I attempted to end it, but we always ended making up.

“He told me of places they had stayed in and I was surprised that I had lived in the same area during that time. One time, I was waiting for a bus when a car almost hit me. I learned it was he trying to get my attention, but didn’t have the nerve to approach me. He never saw me again after that because I moved offices. But we managed to continue with our affair, seeing each other whenever we could, but regularly texting and making phone calls.

“We are still in touch with each other. I do not have the heart to end our relationship. I would like to believe that in our past lives we may have had a connection with each other.”

Common case

Christina’s case is not unique.

There are reasons we relate to another person in either a loving or hateful manner. Unless we understand the workings of karma and reincarnation, we will not be able to understand such behavior.

Christina attended my seminar on “Soulmates, Karma & Reincarnation.” Next week Christina will relate what she saw during her past life regression in the seminar and how it explained her current relationship.

Note: My next Basic ESP & Intuition Development Seminar will be held April 26-27, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., at Rm. 308 Prince Plaza I, 106 Legaspi St., Greenbelt, Makati. Attend the Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) seminar to be conducted by Certified NLP Master Teacher, John Boja from California on April 12-13, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Tarot Card seminar to be conducted by Gina Gacer on April 19-20, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Interested parties may call 8107245, 8926806, or fax. no. 8159890.

E-mail innerawareness_2005@yahoo.com.ph or visit www.jaimelicauco.com.

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Can soulmates be of the same sex?

Can soulmates be of the same sex? This is the essence of the question I received recently from a “discreetly gay” reader whose name we shall withhold:

“As a young man during the 80s, I have always been interested in the paranormal. I have always believed in things like soulmates, karma, and reincarnation. I even became a member of the Rosicrucian for a while. I had to stop when materials coming from them had trouble reaching me in Saudi Arabia.

“I am now 48 years old. I am one of those whom you would call ‘discreet gays.’ Very recently I met a young man, 24, half my age. Although he is straight and is much younger than I am, we jibe so well and we could feel that we're on the same wave-length, so to speak.

“Our relationship is going so well—romantically, emotionally, spiritually, sexually and psychologically, that I am inclined to believe that we are soulmates, something that I’ve felt right from the very start but never told him. How surprised was I when one day, out of the blue, it was he who said that, perhaps, we are indeed soulmates.

“Our lives seem to run parallel with each other. We have almost the same life story, the same woes, the same problems. We even have so many similar characteristics and many things about us are the same. And one of the most surprising things is that we’re both Scorpios and both born in the year of the Pig.

“What could this all mean?”

“I have always prayed that one day I would meet a certain person that would have all the qualities that I hope for. That person I created in my mind has materialized in his being.

“Before I met him, many things contributed to making my life miserable and sad. I used to be a very positive person during my younger years but as I grew older, negativism and pessimism had set in. When I met him, everything changed. He has brought meaning, positivism, and inspiration to my life.

“His being a very optimistic person reminded me so much of my old self.

“Who could he be? I hope, indeed, my soulmate.

“I would appreciate your thought on my case. Thank you very much.”

Intertwined destinies

To answer your question, let us first understand what soulmates are, for there are several different definitions of the term. According to the American psychic and prophet, Edgar Cayce, who first spoke about soulmates in the 1930’s while in deep trance, soulmates are two souls who, after a series of lifetimes together, become so close to each other that their destinies become intertwined. They help each other evolve to a higher level of soul evolution, until they reach perfection and union with God.

From the above definition we can glean that soulmates are perfect partners who help each other attain a higher level of spiritual development which could not otherwise be achieved by being with another person. The main purpose therefore of a soulmate encounter is mutual help towards perfection, or union with God.

We seldom meet and marry our perfect partner or soulmate in a single lifetime. It takes many lifetimes of earth existence to develop such closeness with another human being. The reason for this is that we still have to work out our karma with other people and our soulmate also has to work out his or her karma with other individuals. When they are done with such obligations or have paid off their karmic debts with others, then soulmates will definitely meet and be married to each other. From that lifetime onwards they will always be together until they achieve perfection and union with God.

Before that happens, the two may be involved with other partners or with other people with whom they have to settle some karmic obligations. They may even be of the same sex. But they are not, strictly speaking, soulmates. They may be called “soulmates in the making,” a term I have used to refer to those whose lives are evolving together with another in a very intimate and soul satisfying manner. I believe that in the end, when the two souls are ready for each other, they would be male and female, because one needs the help of the other in all aspects of their being. This is the Yin (female)-Yang (male) combination in Eastern philosophy that creates the whole.

Cayce compares a soulmate relationship with either “a torque to the groove,” or with “a tenon to a mortise.” Torque and groove are two aspects of the same metal when twisted. A tenon is a protrusion or extension, which perfectly fits an opening called a mortise. So there can only be one soulmate for each of us, but we can have several karmic partners in a given lifetime.

Note: Attend the Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) seminar to be conducted by Certified NLP Master Teacher, John Boja from California on April 12-13 at the Inner Mind Development Institute, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. For more details, call 810-7245 or 8926806.

http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view/20080324-126165/Can-soulmates-be-of-the-same-sex

Did Jesus also have past lives?

The Catholic religion, to which majority of Filipinos belong, has always emphasized the divinity or divine origin of Jesus Christ. “Jesus is our Lord and our God,” intone the faithful. And every Christian evangelist of every denomination has been harping on that same message since the time of Paul, the Apostle.

The divinity and godhead of Jesus has been so much ingrained in our collective psyches that we often forget and sometimes even comes as a shock to some of us, that Catholic dogma also says that he is truly man at the same time.

God cannot die, but as man, Jesus suffered and died. This is what Holy Week is all about, the remembrance of Jesus’ suffering and passion. It is only at this time of the year in fact that the whole of Christendom remembers the humanness of Jesus.

And as a true human being, he must have also gotten hungry and ate like any other man. And like other human beings, he must have also urinated and moved his bowels. What’s wrong with that? Nothing! It’s just that we never think of Jesus as also human.

As a man, he must have fallen in love also. And there is sufficient evidence, particularly in the Nag Hammadi texts, which were discovered in 1945 in Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt, that he had some romantic relationship with Mary Magdalene. Some authors even go to the extent of asserting that the two got married and produced a child. But there is no evidence for this theory.

Reincarnations

Now, the next question is, if Jesus were truly man, did he also undergo a series of reincarnations on earth?

Yes, according to the American psychic and prophet, Edgar Cayce, who, while in a deep trance, revealed that Jesus had undergone some 30 previous incarnations before becoming the Christ.

It is a revelation that the awake Cayce could not accept. Being a very devout Christian lay preacher and Sunday school teacher, he could not believe what he himself had said while in a trance. He considered such a notion as heretical and that’s why for two long, agonizing months, he stopped all his trance readings until he could figure out and got convinced the message was not coming from the dark side or from the devil himself.

Who did the sleeping Cayce say Jesus were in his past lives? He mentioned only several of them. Jesus first came on earth as Amilius, an incarnation in spirit form only. Then he was Adam, the first physically created man, according to Genesis. Then he was Enoch, a man who “walked with God,” according to the Bible. Then he was Melchizedeck, a priest and prophet at the time of Abraham. Then he was Joseph, a son of Jacob, who was sold in slavery by his brothers. Then he was Joshua, the successor to Moses who led the Israelites into Promised Land. Then he was Asaph, the chief musician and seer in King David’s court. Then he was Jeshua, a priest who helped re-establish the worship of God after the Israelites’ return from captivity in Babylon. Then he was Zend, father of the religious leader, Zoroaster. Then he was Jesus, the Christ.

There were also trance readings of Cayce which hinted that Hermes, a god of Ancient Egypt, may also have been an early incarnation of Jesus, as well as Buddha, the Enlightened One. But these personalities were not explicitly identified by Cayce.

Puzzling statements

If it is true that Jesus underwent several previous incarnations, then it can help explain some puzzling statements made by Jesus as mentioned in the Christian Bible.

For example, consider the following passage from John (8:56-58):

“Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see the day of my coming; he saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to him, “You are not even 50 years of age and you have seen Abraham?”

“Jesus said to them, ‘I am telling you the truth, before Abraham was, I am.’”

Why did he say that before Abraham was even born he was already there?

If what Cayce said was correct, that Jesus was at one time Melchizadeck who lived during the time of Abraham, then what Jesus said makes sense. He was indeed already there even before Abraham was born. He must have known his past incarnation as Melchizadeck.

I realize that many people in this conservative Christian country do not accept the concept of reincarnation, much less apply it to Jesus Christ. For the word “reincarnation” cannot be found in the Bible. But as Cayce clearly pointed out, “One can read reincarnation in the Bible and another can read it out again.”

Note: The next Basic ESP & Intuition Development Seminar will be held April 26 to 27, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at Rm. 308 Prince Plaza I, 106 Legaspi St., Greenbelt, Makati. Interested parties may call 8107245, 8926806, or fax 8159890. E-mail innerawareness_2005@yahoo.com.ph or visit www.jaimelicauco.com.

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A deeper meaning of the tarot

Interest in knowing one’s future has always been part of human nature. But such fore knowledge has always been elusive. And therefore man has either discovered or devised means of somehow predicting what is to come. And those who are able to see the future have always been regarded with awe, if not with fear, by certain people.

One of the earliest and most mysterious of these devices for telling the future is a deck of tarot cards, whose real origin or history is almost completely unknown. The earliest mention of it is in the 14th century, but other commentators consider it to be of more ancient origin.

I agree with those who say that knowing how the Tarot card originated and who discovered or invented it is not so important as knowing how to use it. In the same way that it is not so important to know who discovered fire or invented the wheel as knowing how to use it.

Interest in the tarot card waxes and wanes with time, like the phases of the moon. In times of great economic hardships and uncertainties, interest in knowing the future becomes almost an obsession for many people. In times of great prosperity and economic growth, interest in it wanes.

Now, people’s interest in knowing what the future will bring seems to be on the rise. Fortune tellers, clairvoyants and tarot card readers are in great demand. And I’ve been receiving calls if I knew any good card reader from even the most highly educated and intelligent people.

This is not surprising, for even heads of states, from King Saul of ancient Israel to Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of France and Abraham Lincoln of the United States have been known to consult seers and fortune tellers during their reign.

Most popular device

The tarot deck composed of 56 minor arcana and 22 major arcana cards (total of 78) has become the most popular fortune-telling device in the West. There are at least 300 different tarot cards and the number of new designs grows every year. But they all follow the same basic pattern and divinatory meaning.

Unfortunately, interest in the tarot card has been confined mainly to its uncanny ability to tell the future. But the tarot is much more than that. It is also a device to unravel the deepest mysteries of the universe. One author referred to the tarot cards as “78 steps to spiritual development.”

My interest in the tarot was triggered by a Russian mathematician and mystic named P.D. Ouspensky who wrote a very intriguing and thought-provoking commentary on the tarot in his book “A New Model of the Universe” which I read way back in 1976. P.D. Ouspensky was a follower of Gurdjieff, a man of great wisdom and mystery who developed a good following among the intellectuals and wealthy people of Europe at the turn of the 20th century.

According to Ouspensky, “Outwardly the tarot is a pack of cards but in its inner meaning, it is something altogether different. It is a ‘book’ of philosophical and psychological content, which can be read in many different ways.”

Being the mathematician that he was, Ouspensky could not help observing the relationship between the tarot and mathematics. He continues: “The system of the tarot, in its deeper, wider and more varied sense, stands in the same relation to metaphysics and mysticism as a system of notation, decimal or other, stands in relation to mathematics.”

According to Ouspensky, “In order to become acquainted with the tarot it is necessary to be familiar with the idea of the Cabala, Alchemy, Magic and Astrology.” And to really appreciate it, I might add, one has to have some basic knowledge of philosophy, psychology and even numerology.

Significance of tarot

Whoever discovered or invented the tarot, according to Ouspensky must be more than just a genius. For mere intelligence cannot fathom its real depth and full significance of its symbolism.

Quoting the occultist, Eliphas Levi, Ouspensky pointed out, “An imprisoned person, with no other book than the tarot, if he knew how to use it, could in a few years acquire universal knowledge and would be able to speak out on all subjects with unequalled learning and inexhaustible eloquence.”

Therefore we can say that those who are using the tarot merely as a fortune-telling device do not really understand its deeper meaning and metaphysical significance.

As Jan Woudhuysen in his book “Tarot Mania, The Definitive Guide to the Tarot,” pointed out: “There is much more to the tarot. In ordinary fortune telling we use the cards to give us an answer about the future. The esoteric system allows us to use the cards to answer many other types of questions, and what is more, to suggest new ones.

“The ability to make use of the inherent powers of intuition is the reward given to those using system and the ability to generate new questions the unique attribute.

“The tarot can be used to help you come to terms with yourself, or to understand other people. If we can understand ourselves better, we have an opportunity to grow. If we understand other people better, we can build up better relationships.”

Note: The next Basic ESP and Intuition Development Seminar will be held March 15 and 16, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Cagayan de Oro City. For details, contact Jessica Tomacas at 0920-9235704.

E-mail jlicauco@etsamail.com.ph. Visit website at www.angelfire.com/journal/licauco

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Desecration of mystical mountain

Last week, I went up the mystical Mt. Banahaw in Dolores, Quezon, once again, after more than 10 years, in response to a call for help by a descendant of Agripino Lontok, the mountain’s first known mystic and hermit.

I was accompanied by two former students, a male architect who was a frequent visitor to the mountain and a female real estate broker who had never been there but was very curious about its legendary mysteries.

The original inhabitants of the mystical mountain are very concerned about three things: first, the plan of the barangay to collect fees from people going up the mountain; second, the construction of unauthorized and questionable structures; and third, the unabated and indiscriminate cutting down of plants, herbs and trees with medicinal and/or mystical significance.

Old residents and mystics led by Lontok’s granddaughter Estela Lontok Abela are trying to put up a foundation that will protect the mountain from human predators and to preserve its natural features as dictated by the spirits.

Lack of strong leadership

Their efforts at putting up a common or united front against the onslaught of modernization are stymied by lack of funds and strong leadership. Electrification has brought the noise of the lowlands into the mountain.

“We are not against electrification as such,” explained Estela and her followers. “But we are against putting electricity in the sacred places, because one can no longer pray and meditate in peace, which is what pilgrims come here for.” They said there are so many distractions that compete for one’s attention. Thus, the traditional tranquility of the place could hardly be found anymore.

The charging of a fee to anyone who goes up the mountain during Holy Week has given rise to suspicions of anomalies and corruption. “Who accounts for all the money collected? Where do they go?” These questions, according to some old residents, have not been answered adequately.

Mt. Banahaw has been declared a protected National Park and is an important watershed area. But the old residents do not see the place being protected as much as it should be.

Recently, there have been stepped-up military activities in the area reportedly due to the presence of New People’s Army rebels. But according to the residents, they have never encountered any NPA in the area. “Everybody who comes to Banahaw is here either to pray and meditate, cleanse his spirits, or get amulets and charms. But some have come to dig for treasures.”

Unless some drastic and concerted effort is done fast by the local and national government, the predictions of the spirits may still come true. A medium was told 15 years ago that, “when the noise of the city reaches the mountain, that will be the end of mystical Mt. Banahaw.”

Estela and her followers do not wish to see the prediction come true too soon.

I recall that in the early ’80s, when there were yet no concrete steps and railings leading to the Sta. Lucia Falls, we used to hold on to ropes and roots of trees to negotiate the steps in the descent to the canyon. During wet seasons, the muddy steps become slippery, but no accident ever occurred. But with the concrete steps and nylon ropes, I was told there was recently somebody who plunged to his death when the rope to which he was hanging on broke. “The spirits of the mountain must really be angry,” murmured our hosts.

The paths leading to St. Jacob’s Well and some mystical places are now cemented. This makes a lot of difference in one’s mood and attitude.

Whereas before, we had to be very careful and must have full concentration in negotiating the narrow and rocky paths, now we can do so with ease and even talk to our companions without danger.

The old mystics and hermits of Mt. Banahaw know they can’t stop the modernization of the mountain, but they are hoping this can be done without totally destroying the very thing that has made Mt. Banahaw the mystical and mysterious place that has attracted people to it in the first place.

Note: The next Soulmates, Karma & Reincarnation seminar will be held March 8, 1-5 p.m., at Rm. 308 Prince Plaza I Condominium, 106 Legaspi St., Greenbelt, Makati. Interested parties may call 8107245, 8926806, or fax 8159890. E-mail innerawareness_2005@yahoo.com.ph

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