Day: April 13, 2019

April 13, 2019 at 10:00AM by CWC When I was growing up, I was all about card games. I’d force my family to play Uno and Blackjack, War, or deal out a hand of Solitaire if I was alone. As a bona fide adult, I’m more interested in playing “What tarot card am I?” as I flip through the deck for spiritual guidance. The earliest tarot cards date to the early 15th century, Alexis Alvarez, an intuitive energy worker and spiritual advisor, tells me, and the earliest decks were right up my alley: They were used to play games, not seek knowledge. “It wasn’t until the 17th century that we began to see occult symbolism and magical meanings being attributed to the cards,” Alvarez says. “Nowadays, most people use the tarot deck as a divination tool,” the expert continues. “Divination literally means communing with the divine, or your higher self. Professional intuitive readers, energy healers, and coaches like myself use tarot cards…to get answers and higher guidance from source energy.” That’s not to say you have to be an intuitive in order to use a tarot card deck. “I believe anyone can use tarot cards as a tool for personal guidance and development, for divining the future, to obtain universal wisdom, for spiritual growth, and meditative contemplation,” Alvarez says. “I actually encourage everyone to get a deck, because it helps us get outside our heads and initiates us to follow our intuition.” So, how do I use them and what tarot

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April 13, 2019 at 06:00AM by CWC Have you ever been in a scenario where no word in the English language or any other (as far as you’re aware) effectively communicates how you’re feeling? For instance, I recently struggled to find a word to describe the emotionally charged heartwarming sense I felt when while my friend belted Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People” at a bar and my boyfriend came up behind me with a surprise chicken nugget. “Heartwarming” didn’t feel strong enough to encapsulate the big mood in which I was gloriously basking. So when I recently happened upon the sanskrit phrase kama muta, which essentially refers to being moved by love, I felt seen. And what’s especially sweet is that this term and what it represents, found nowhere in English, is something that connects people on a global level. One massive study of 3,542 participants from more than 19 countries who spoke 15 languages worked to identify and define what kama muta means cross-culturally, across the world. The results showed that it reflects a positive vibe evoked from watching or experiencing sudden and communal intense social interactions that might, say, move you to tears. This could be with anyone or anything—a parent, a partner, a YouTube video of a recently widowed grandpa getting a puppy, the puppy itself, a breaded nug of chicken, you get the idea. The emphasis is that you’re sharing an experience to joyful, and soul-stirring effects. If you’re still not sure if what you’re feeling

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