Now this is going to be one of those rambles, I may go on for hours, and well i might just say a whole sentence, lol.

Fear.

Being afraid.

Of what?

Of whom?

Of a place?

Of an event?

Does the fear of the past invade your present?

Does fear control your life?

How can we turn this deep seeded fear, that we might not even realize we have, into a healing of the Self?

When we look into the mirror is what that is reflected back at, our self, the result of this fear?

The professionals say that most often those who are fat, yes, I said the F word, are that way as a means of protecting their Self from something. As type of sheild, or barrier.

It can also be a means of keeping inside that which we are hiding from.

If you have spent the main portion of your life being sexually abused, you may see yourself in danger if you are svelt and attractive, so you hide that part deep under layers of fat, to protect your Self from being abused yet again.

Are there times in your present when your find yourself growingly uncomfortable, at times reaching a point of needing to flee?

You look at the moment, and there is really nothing to warrant this flight mode.

If you stop and look at it, from a different point of view, is there something from your past that is infuencing your present reaction?

Now comes the fun part, this might not even be from this lifetime. We have the fun of often times trying to figure out, is this from my 'current past' or my 'past past'

Case in point. I worked with an old acquaintance, ie from a past life, also part of a seven fold flame (nother story, lol) she could not stand smudging. Now granted she was very pagan, and smudging comes into play alot of times. When someone would light a smudge stick, she would run out of the room, in a total panic. After her and I met, I had a dream and in it I was running, smoke surrounded me, and someone was behind me. I had been holding her hand, but I lost her, she tripped and fell. Smoke engulfed me, in terror I ran. I jumped into a pond. (Did I mention I am terrified of ponds, and bodies of water in general, that I cannot touch the bottom of, or know I can swim all the way across? Not to mention I have the nose from hell when it comes to smelling things burning, like hot wiring!) Smoke filled my lungs. I drowned in that pond. She died in that fire. Alot of prairie grass consists of, you guessed it, sage grass. Her mind, associated that death with the smell of burning sage grass, it instilled a fear in her to run for her life, literally. �She could not recall past lives, even though she was far more 'advanced' in magick overall than myself. After I had this dream, and granted I had only known her this go round for a short time, and had not even gotten into the whole magick thing, I told her about my dream, and it was a very aha moment for her. After that she got better about smudge sticks. We had a day of the dead altar every year at the children's museum, and the gentleman did the whole ceremony, including smudging it, he was astonished when one year she stayed while he smudged it, as in the past she always ran out. She figured out why she was terrified, and was able to begin to overcome it.

Do you do things that you are not comforatale with simply because for some reason you fear speaking out, and not doing it?

Is there some reason from you past that reflects in this decision making process. �If you say no, will there be punishment? If you do not 'follow the rules' do you fear being cast out of a group? Family or friends?

At some point in time, did you go against the masses, and in return you were chatised from the community, cast out, alone, abandoned for thinking your way and acting upon it? Did you perish, cold and alone, wishing upon wishes you could change things back to the way they were? So now, you go with the flow out of that same fear.

Generally speaking it is safe to say that the strong points in our pasts, no matter how past they are, can also be our strong points.

Just as our past fears can destroy us, so too can our triumphant moments build us up, give us hope, give us strength, give us courage.