Why Make an Altar?

Today’s Oracle

My software angels choose this oracle quote for you today:

260) The fastest way to become rich as to socialize with the poor; the fastest way to the become poor is to socialize with the rich. -- Nassim Taleb

You can use my Potent Quotes Oracle page whenever you need help.  Hold a question in your heart, and see what quote comes up for you when you scroll down.  It will be a response to your question.  Play with it.

 

Quotations act as little doorways into new worlds and new perceptions. They consist of distilled genius. 

Get the Wizard's Handbook on Oracle Creation and have fun with oracles. 

Why Would You Want to Make an Altar?

Why would you want to make your own alter?

First – It’s fun.

Second – You literally get to take your connection to the Sacred into your own hands without the need of an intermediary.

Third – During the process of making the altar, you may learn something about yourself and your connection to the Sacred.  You may have insights into the core of what’s happening in your life.  Your prayers will become more effectively pointed as a result.

Fourth – Building an altar focuses your intent.  It puts muscle into your prayer or into your manifestation.  Just wrestling with the design opens up your Buddha brain.  And that opens your heart and soul for insight to enter.

Another Book Giveaway

I’m giving away my well beloved Kindle book Altar Making: An Active Meditation for Healing Your Heart and for Deepening Spiritual Meaning in Your starting November 23, 2013 at 12:01 AM PST – ends midnight, PST November 27, 2013.

Take advantage of this offer and let your friends know.

Here’s how I’m using altar making this week…

I Survived My Surgery

You may know that I had hip replacement surgery on Oct. 21^st 2013.  I survived and am healing well.  Rehabilitation takes months and I’m walking without a cane now.

After major life events, I find I wonder, “What’s next?  Where is my life taking me now?”

You may recall my recent pre-surgery blog post -- Relax, You’re Going to Die.

In that blog I included these instructions:

Relax, you’re going to die.
There is no-where to go
And no-thing to do.

And from that view point ask

What’s the next right thing to do?

I survived.  I’m healing.  I can relax, I’m going to die.  So, what’s the next right thing for me?

During my preparation for the surgery, the idea of making a mobile of origami cranes came to me.  After the surgery the image stuck, so I’m creating an altar with cranes.  It will be a mobile.

Cranes

Cranes symbolize happiness, good luck, longevity, and peace.  As I live into being an  elder, these seem like good things.

You can watch this video to learn to fold them here.

Gotta go and create now.

I expect that whilst constructing the mobile, collecting the windfall cedar branches for  cross bars, folding the cranes, I’ll have a better sense of the next right thing for me.

May you be light hearted and free,

William

P.S. My newest book Drawing the Sacred: Communing with the Sacred through Drawing - An Illustrated Journey echoes all these ideas.  Go read the description and consider getting it.  It makes  a great holiday present.  At 8 x 10 inches, the trade paperback version makes a great coffee table book.  One with soul.

P.P.S. Please let your friends know about this.

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Crane image courtesy of Anusorn P nachol / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

 

Cure Diabetes?

Today’s Oracle

My software angels choose this oracle quote for you today: 

375) There is a deep-seated misconception that being intuitive is a gift. It’s not. There is no such thing as a gift for intuition. I have finally realized that courage is the true gift, and intuition is sharpened as a result. Either you develop the ability to respond physically to what you are hearing, feeling, and sensing on the inside – or you don’t.  

Responding to others takes guts. What determines whether or not you have those guts is self-esteem. It is a strong sense of self. It is a willingness and ability to take charge of yourself.

You don’t need a lot of self-esteem. A little bit goes a long way; suddenly you are generous enough to give up the need to control other people.  

You don’t need to become 100% empowered. A 51% to 49% ratio will do this trick. Just get to the point where you’re conscious enough to hold yourself accountable for your own feelings.  

Just admit that you’re jealous, or embarrassed, or that you could betray a friend. Just get a little bit honest with your shadow. The moment you arrive there, you can really start dealing with your life. - Caroline Myss: Invisible Acts of Power, Healing the Heart of the World 

You can use my Potent Quotes Oracle page whenever you need help.  Hold a question in your heart, and see what quote comes up for you when you scroll down.  It will be a response to your question.  Play with it.

Quotations act as little doorways into new worlds and new perceptions. They consist of distilled genius.  

Get the Wizard's Handbook on Oracle Creation and have fun with oracles. 

 

Cure Diabetes?

The number one best seller with the unfortunate title: Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back To Health by William Davis, MD blew my  mind.  It may also save your life or more likely prolong your happy years. 

These paragraphs from the book set the stage:

After three months [being wheat free], my patients returned to have more  blood work done.  As I anticipated, with only rare exceptions, blood sugar had indeed often dropped from diabetic range to normal.   

Yes, diabetics became nondiabetic.  That’s right:  Diabetes in many cases can be cured – not simply managed – by removal of carbohydrates, especially wheat, from the diet.  Many of my patients had also lost twenty, thirty, even forty pounds.  (My emphasis.  WW) 

But it’s what I didn’t expect that astounded me. 

They reported that symptoms of acid-reflux disappeared and the cyclic cramping and diarrhea of irritable bowel syndrome were gone.   

Their energy improved, they had greater focus, sleep was deeper.  

Rashes disappeared, even rashes that had been present for many years.   

Their rheumatoid arthritis pain improved or disappeared, enabling them to cut back, even eliminate, the nasty medications used to treat it.   

Asthma symptoms improved or resolved completely, allowing many to throw away their inhalers.   

Athletes reported more consistent performance. 

All that in three months. Holy Cow. 

Later he adds heart disease and other details to the already impressive list of conditions that stopping wheat consumption affects. 

I’ve been using the Slow Carb Diet from Four Hour Body for over two months.  (See my Blog Post.)  In that program, I didn’t eat grains of any kind six days of the week and then I ate whatever I wanted on the seventh day including grains, including wheat.  This was not a wheat free diet.  Just mostly wheat free. 

In a second, I’ll tell you my blood results. 

Hi my name is William, and I’m a recovering wheat eater. 

Wheat can be addicting.  It is for me.  When you digest the gluten in wheat, it converts to gluteomorphin, which jumps across the blood brain barrier and attaches to your opiate receptors, just like heroin and other opiates.  Yikes. 

No wonder that the day after my pizza craving was consummated, I wanted more, even though I was hung over from what I had just consumed. 

The wheat you eat today is not the wheat of years ago.  And certainly not the wheat of 9000 years ago.  About 50 years ago, researchers and scientists started an intense program to hybridize wheat to feed the world.  They were successful in that effort. 

The mistake was thinking that all that messing with genes wouldn’t effect the nutritional value of the wheat.  They didn’t do animal testing or human testing along the way before essentially introducing the new wheat into the world where farmers grow it nearly exclusively.

A Naysayer

A naysayer says that this wheat sensitivity is overstated and only applies to a small number of wheat eaters.

I disagree, but who cares. 

It’s easy to test.  You just quit eating wheat and every food that contains wheat – and wheat’s in 100s of things.  Do that for a few weeks or three months and see how your health improves.  If nothing changes, wheat wasn’t your problem. 

Back to my Slow Carb Diet.  My blood test after two plus months found me more solidly in the happy zone with my sugar levels.  My heart risk indicator which is based on my cholesterol profile was the best ever.  My triglycerides were perfecto. 

Was it wheat?  Probably.  It was certainly better carbs – substituting legumes for grains, Eliminating fruit and fruit juices. 

Test it for yourself.  Read the book. 

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back To Health

My research staff likes this one: 

Wheat Belly Cookbook: 150 Recipes to Help You Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health 

You can find other Wheat Belly books here.

 

Walk in beauty,

 

William

 

P.S. Please let your friends know about this.

 

P.P.S. Get Notified: Have you filled in your email at the top right corner yet?  Do it now while you’re here.  Obviously, you can unsubscribe anytime if it doesn’t serve you.

 

 

 

 

Relax, You’re Going to Die

Today’s Oracle

My software angels choose this oracle quote for you today:

 

217) From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone. -- Alice Walker Nov. 5, 2008 in a letter to Barak Obama.

You can use my Potent Quotes Oracle page whenever you need help.  Hold a question in your heart, and see what quote comes up for you when you scroll down.  It will be a response to your question.  Play with it.

Quotations act as little doorways into new worlds and new perceptions. They consist of distilled genius. 

Get the Wizard's Handbook on Oracle Creation and have fun with oracles. 

 

Relax, You’re Going to Die

“Relax, you’re going to die.”

Death may not be THE challenge, but knowing that you’re going to die is.

Most folks spend tons of time, money, and energy  pretending that death will not come to them or their family.  People distract themselves with endless addictions and other ways so that they don’t notice the elephant in the room.  Each decade marker they cross twinges a bit more.

I found that when I turned fifty, I began to think I might be mortal.   I thought a bit more when I turned sixty.  In both instances, I watched the awareness of death fade into the mists of denial. 

Soon, October 21^st, 2013, I will go into the hospital for my second hip replacement.  It’s a generally safe surgery, but just like driving a car, I have no guarantees that I’ll survive the journey.  I attend to getting my affairs in order – wills and such.  Tell people I love them.

So, I enjoyed the synchronicity of finding this Kindle book – Relax, You're Going to Die at the time I was contemplating death and life.  (It was free when I got it.  It may still be free when you read this.)

Tai Sheridan, the author, is a Zen Buddhist priest, of course.  No one else but Zen practitioners have such a sanguine view of death and life.  Indeed, it could be the whole point of Zen.

He has written a dozen or so poems on the subject of living and dying in Relax, You're Going to Die.  I found the poems fun, supportive, and comforting stuff.

You have read my favorite Zen aphorism before:

There is no-where to go

And no-thing to do.

I have updated it:

Relax, you’re going to die.

There is no-where to go

And no-thing to do.

And do next right thing?

I’ll leave you with one more of my favorite Zen aphorisms.

Death is certain.

Time of death is uncertain.

How then to live your life?

Relax, you’re going to die.  I find it oddly comforting and freeing.

=> Relax, You're Going to Die

Walk in beauty,

William

P.S. Thanks for downloading Drawing the Sacred: Communing with the Sacred through Drawing - An Illustrated Journey.

P.P.S. Get Notified: Have you filled in your email at the top right corner yet?  Do it now while you’re here.  Obviously, you can unsubscribe anytime if it doesn’t serve you.

 

Last Day Book Giveaway

This is the last day I will be giving away my Kindle book – Drawing the Sacred: Communing with the Sacred through Drawing - An Illustrated Journey .

 

 

Ends at midnight PDT Wednesday, Oct. 9^th, 2013.

 

 

I love the book and its 39 paintings and drawings.  I reveal my heart and soul in each image.

·         If you like art, you might enjoy Drawing the Sacred. 

·         If you want to learn to draw, this book might inspire you.

·         If you want motivation to make pilgrimages to Sacred places, this will inspire you.

·         If you want to see the Sacred in the ordinary, Drawing the Sacred will show you some ways.

·         If you want to deepen your connection to the Sacred, then by all means get Drawing the Sacred.

Read what the reviews say.   They may inspire you.  They sure inspired me.

 

Go for it => Drawing the Sacred.

 

Walk in beauty, the book will show you how,  

William 

P.S. Pass this on to friends, Facebook, tweet, you know how… 

Here’s a cut and paste for you: 

My friend, William Wittmann is giving his enlightening Kindle book, Drawing the Sacred, away NOW.  http://amzn.to/1dQBzem Retweet. 

Please and thank you. 

: )

Kindle Invites You to Heaven

Here's the press release for my book. I thought you might enjoy it:

Seattle, WA, USA.  “An invitation to step across a threshold into an unknown place that turned out to be heaven,” Dr. Alexandra Gayek, an early reviewer said.  William Wittmann’s newest Kindle book, Drawing the Sacred will be available for free download until 11:59 PM PST Oct. 9, 2013.

 

“What does that mean?” I asked Wittmann.

 

“This book shows people how to connect to the Sacred by using tricks that artist’s use.  And if you practice these ideas for a bit, you move into the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus and the Buddha talked about.

 

“It’s pretty cool,” Wittmann said.  “The book has lots of stories, one for each painting or drawing in the book.  They’re there to be illustrations of connection.  Not so much to be illustrations of great art.  In fact I intended them to be simple enough that people could feel safe about trying to draw or paint for themselves.”

 

In my interview with William, he wanted to remind us that people can download  Kindles on any computer, phone, or iPad.  “Amazon wisely provides free software right from the book’s page,” he said.

 

And as Dr. Gayek said, “Drawing the Sacred is the most delicious one yet.”  (This is Wittmann’s 15^th book.)

 

You can get the book here

 

=>  http://amzn.to/1dQBzem

 

Remember the FREE book offer ends Oct. 9th at midnight PST.  Seattle Time.

Walk in beauty,

William

P.S. Pass this on to your friends, please.
=> http://amzn.to/1dQBzem

Kindle Book Giveaway Active NOW

It’s Here – Go Get Your Free Book Now

: )

Go for it => Drawing the Sacred: Communing with the Sacred through Drawing – An Illustrated Journey.

You can get more information on the book here.  Note: this one is for the paperback edition.

=> http://www.bodyandsoulmentor.net/MentorBlog/?p=708

Or

=> http://www.bodyandsoulmentor.net/MentorBlog/?p=713

 

Remember, You Don’t Need a Kindle to Read Kindle Books

The nice boys and girls at Amazon will provide you with software to read Drawing the Sacred on your laptop, your desktop or even your phone.  Certainly, your iPad.

Go for it => Drawing the Sacred

Walk in beauty,

William

P.S. Tell your friends about the offer.  Facebook it. Please.

And remind your friends they don’t need a Kindle to enjoy it.

Thanks.

: )

Kindle Book Giveaway

Almost here…

I will be giving away my Kindle book – Drawing the Sacred: Communing with the Sacred through Drawing – An Illustrated Journey  starting at 12:01 AM PDT on Saturday Oct. 5^th, 2013 and ending at midnight PDT Oct. 9^th, 2013.

The Book Works for Photographers, Too

One of the books early readers enjoys the book and finds kinship with it as a photographer.

Even if you don’t draw and don’t want to draw you probably carry a camera with you all the time as part of your phone.  Right?

Can you imagine … making each day a spiritual journey of connection to the Sacred using the ideas in the book. 

At 12:01 AM PDT on Oct. 5th the book costs NADA, zero.

 You’ve got nothing to lose and you could see God. 

Seems like a simple choice to me.  Get the book.

Go for it => Drawing the Sacred: Communing with the Sacred through Drawing – An Illustrated Journey.

Remember, You Don’t Need a Kindle to Read Kindle Books

The nice boys and girls at Amazon will provide you with software to read Drawing the Sacred on your laptop, your desktop or even your phone.  Certainly, your iPad.

Go for it => Drawing the Sacred

Walk in beauty,

William

P.S. Tell your friends about the offer.  Facebook it.  Please.

And remind your friends they don’t need a Kindle to enjoy it.

Thanks.

: )

P.P.S. You can get more information on the book here.  Note: this one is for the paperback edition.

=> http://www.bodyandsoulmentor.net/MentorBlog/?p=708

Or

=> http://www.bodyandsoulmentor.net/MentorBlog/?p=713