By Bernhard Guenther
Guest Writer for Wake Up World

Recently we’ve experienced the last of seven Pluto-Uranus squares. It was quite a ride since the first square of this series occurred in 2012. Personally, it felt like my life was being taken apart, spit out and reassembled, diving into the shadow and bringing it into the light of awareness, integrating unconscious aspects as they were being mirrored back to me in everyday life situations. Something seems to be accelerating in the “field”, I can feel it in my body.

A big shift has happened within myself, which is something that is very hard to put into words – perhaps some of you can relate to this? It’s akin to a new frequency/vibration which has anchored itself, forcing me towards a new approach, encouraging me to let go of outdated belief systems/views, trusting myself more, and engaging with my intuition as I go beyond the limits of the rational/logical mind.

Three Techniques to Read People

The art of reading people to ignite your super-senses

By Judith Orloff M.D. | Psychology Today

As a psychiatrist my job is to read people, not just what they say, but who they are. Interpreting verbal and nonverbal cues, I want to see past their masks into the real person. Logic alone won’t tell you the whole story about anybody. You must surrender to other vital forms of information so that you can learn to read the important non-verbal intuitive cues that people give off. To do this, you must also be willing to surrender any preconceptions, or emotional baggage such as old resentments or ego clashes, that stop you from seeing someone clearly. The key is to remain objective and receive information neutrally without distorting it.

My birthday balloon and I going for a walk.

When you're an adult, having a birthday can suck.

I have no problem with getting older. In fact, the older I get, the happier I am.

I don’t like them because I can’t honestly answer the question, “What do you want for your birthday?”

The socially appropriate answer for my age is some version of “I don’t need anything, but thank you for the sentiment!” Had you asked me that when I was a kid, I wouldn’t have hesitated to describe the top 3 things I wanted with enough detail to make you regret asking in the first place. So what changed?

Am I more mature? Yes.
Am I less frivolous? Sure.
Am I less deserving? No!

If we had the chance to design our life experience any way we wanted, we would probably all choose a life filled with as much happiness, peace, and bliss as possible.  We would all choose gummy bear lives.  How many of us would choose to include heartbreak, pain, darkness, stress, depression, and suffering?

It’s our natural instinct to avoid suffering.  In fact, it’s a biological mechanism that is meant to protect us.  But as much as we like to avoid pain and suffering in our lives, sometimes it is best to go through the suffering, instead of trying to go around it.   When we stop resisting suffering and take the time to digest it, it is literally the greatest catalyst for personal transformation.

Many of you have spiritual self protection practices. While we understand the reason you have adopted such habits, we would like to offer a tweak to that practice that will best honour who you really are.

When you focus on self protection, you are stating to the universe that there is something you need protection from. It is coming from a fear of being victimized, which is still playing in old energies. Spiritual self protection, in effect, separates, while you are trying to move into the energies of unconditional love and unity consciousness.

What you are really aiming for is energetic clarity. You are looking to shine your own wonderful energy, clearly, brightly, and unimpeded, as you claim your authentic power. It is standing in your spiritual sovereignty, owning your truth and your divinity, demonstrating that nothing can be stronger than you as a beloved piece of Source energy.

Do you see? The steps of self protection and energetic clarity may be exactly the same. It is the intention that makes all the difference in the world. ~Archangel Gabriel

Ben Decker, Guest
Waking Times

“Personal transformation can and does have global effects. As we go, so goes the world, for the world is us. The revolution that will save the world is ultimately a personal one.” -Marianne Williamson

Last year, on December 5th, a young man was shot and killed by a police officer at the Hollywood & Highland intersection, right around the corner from my Los Angeles apartment. This happened in a flurry of news stories of other cases of US police using deadly force. With the news came several disturbing photographs, including a photo of two police officers pointing their guns down at the man’s dying body sprawled out on the Walk of Fame.

I experienced a powerful wave of complicated emotional response. Images of riots, tear gas, guns & ambulances flashed through my mind. It was overwhelming.  I felt my heart cave in. I immediately fell to my knees in prayer, tears streaming down my face. This is bigger than gun laws and law enforcement, bigger than Hollywood, bigger than racism. When things like this are happening, it is an indication of something nefarious about the world we are living in, about the health of our culture, and about the future of the reality we are creating together.