Today’s Oracle takes us to the Taurus weekly for April 26, 2004
We often hear people say they wish they could find their true path in life. Are you among them now? Yet few people are prepared for the challenges and seeming sacrifices that one’s authentic mission in life requires. You’re about to discover that while following your deepest calling pushes you to your limits and is not necessarily blissful, it’s also the way that’s at once the best supported and where the real opportunities exist. For the moment, you may feel like you’ve got to go it alone, but don’t be fooled by that. Help is within reach, and will respond.
Note, The Oracle is a random selection from the Eric Francis horoscope archives. Each day we publish one entry from among the 10,000 in our database. It’s a little slice of horoscope history — but chosen by our Oracle program, which always speaks to the present moment. New horoscopes are published each Friday plus twice a month in Planet Waves subscriber edition and Planet Waves Light.
Eric, I’m a huge fan. Would love to see you write a piece on group stalking and lone stalkers. Particularly women who stalk women and this new electronic harassment where they are targeting people who aren’t considered the status quo or traditional in their views. Organized stalking is insane. I’m curious if theres anything in a chart that explains that life or death drive to effect someone they see as a threat. Mob them in public, invade their privacy with no guilt. No shame. Some really committed stalkers leave comments on sites of their victims just hoping that they see it. I don’t understand that secretive macabre need. I would imagine that type of personality would have some very interesting attributes. Please keep writing, you are teaching me much……33
Thank you, Oracle. But why do I suddenly feel that i will find no peace, or shall not hear what i need to hear unless i go somewhere there is no electricity? Maybe it has something to do with this…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0185ngn
Thought for the Day – Rhidian Brook – 25/04/2013
Duration: 02:55
Good Morning,
A four-year old girl has become the youngest patient to be treated for internet addiction. Psychiatrists said that the child displayed compulsive behaviour after being exposed to the electronic device and symptoms of withdrawal when it was taken away. Apparently, she’s being treated through a digital detox.
It’s easy to find this story shocking but I’m pretty sure I need some digital detox. In recent months I’ve developed a serious dependency on the internet: in particular a constant need to check messages, to communicate something to someone. So far I’ve done nothing to stop it; like caffeine or violent Nordic crime drama it’s socially acceptable. And, like a true addict, I am quick to justify myself:
‘It’s my job’ I say. ‘I’m a writer. I need to see how many likes I have. I need to check the ratings. And I have to do it now!’ It’s a problem. And even my children – who I nag for texting all the time – have noticed it: ‘Dad. You’re always on it.’ Things hit a nadir when, in the middle of family dinner, I found myself checking my messages. When my wife asked me what I was doing, I lied: ‘I’m just switching it off.’ She fixed me with a look. ‘Darling. We’re trying to have a conversation here.’
Denial, rationalization, delay. I have all the symptoms. But if I went to digital detox, what would they say? They could take away the technological applications, and that would be a start, but would it deal with the root issue? Isn’t this technology merely facilitating a pre-existing condition?
Before addiction was a word we used, people talked about attachment. They spoke of our desires becoming enslaved to certain behaviours, things, or people. These objects of attachment came to rule our lives. In spiritual terms, the attachment was seen as a form of idolatry; a little false god to which we give our time our energy, even our love. Behind my addiction I suspect there lies a fear: yes, a fear that I won’t be heard or read, but a deeper fear that I won’t be liked, or loved. Meanwhile, I’ve been putting my faith in the ability of the little gods to tell me what I want to hear.
Christian tradition says that God created us to love Him but that we usually try to fulfil this deep longing through an attachment to these objects. The initial antidote to this involves a detachment that frees the mind and will in order to open the heart to greater love. It’s not about finding freedom from desire (desire being a God given thing); it’s about enjoying the freedom of desire.
Perhaps if we can accept this grace of God’s love and enjoy the liberation it brings, we might no longer need to keep checking to see who likes or loves us. Perhaps then I might even be able to hear and heed the voice speaking to me across the table:
‘Darling. We’re trying to have a conversation here.’
Available since: Thu 25 Apr 2013