PSYCHICBABBLESM

New Moon in Sagittarius 1996

by Marcy J. Gordon

Greetings USED KARMA readers!  Due to a fatal hardware crash, this month's column was written longhand on paper instead of on a computer keyboard.  I was without a computer for a total of eleven days - an eternity in today's wired world.  The new Moon is a good time to start new projects, so I spent the last one shopping for a new computer.

Going from keyboard to pen requires me to slow my thought process down in order to write.  At a typing speed of 100 word per minute, I cannot pen words anywhere near as fast as I can type them.  As a result, I am forced to choose my words more carefully than usual, and the re-writes are a bitch.  I can barely understand my own cross-outs and insertions.  We tend to forget how much computers have pampered us until we must do without them!

Normally this column writes itself. Ideas will rumble around inside my head for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks before the new Moon.  When I sit down on the new Moon to write this column, colliding ideas rush out of my head and turn into a new edition of Psychicbabble.  This month, however, there was no central core of ideas, no theme I had obsessed over, no opinions bursting to immortalize themselves into this space.  Ergo, I was forced to consult external forces for guidance and insights.

Thoughts on Randomness

A former music professor of mine (who also taught me to program in a language called APL) was fascinated with randomness.  He would frequently remark that randomness is the most highly ordered thing in the universe.  This observation is profoundly true, as demonstrated repeatedly through life experience. In fact, there is really no such thing as randomness, because all universal energies are linked in a divine cosmic order. The consciousness of divine creation is everywhere present. This energy is in us, all around us and flows through us.

The indigenous peoples of this Earth believe that all natural phenomena are omens - every cloud in the sky, every bird flying past our window, every clap of thunder.  Ralph Blum, an expert on the Nordic runes and spiritual life in general, says that "when seen in its true light - everything is a test."  He reminds us that the original meaning of the word "suffering" was undergoing, experiencing.

Taking this understanding to heart, then, the death of my computer hardware, though a seemingly random event, has forced me to stop and consider the contrast between a computer-assisted/wired existence and a standalone, low-tech one.  The biggest thing to cope with after the untimely death of a computer system is FEAR.  Even though all the data I really cared about were backed up, there was still that paralyzing moment of realization that "upgrade" really means "re-learning curve." 

Of course, much of the fear gets displaced once you have talked to the salespeople and picked out your system and handed over your credit card to get swiped.  Some of the fear, however, persists.  For example, during the time I was without a computer, a new client sent me some work he needed done right away.  Astonishingly enough, the quality of the work was probably improved by my having to write things out longhand instead of whip them off the keyboard the way I usually do.  A friendly neighbor let me use her computer and e-mail account so I was able to type up the work and send it off to my client.  Thus another unrealized fear was summarily dispatched.

Although this may seem incomprehensible to hard-core computer addicts, being briefly computerless did not have any detrimental impact on my life whatsoever.  The blacked-out days were filled with meetings, telephone calls, shamanic sessions, friends, books, musical instruments, cooking, the Science Fiction Channel and other meaningful activities.  This does not mean I was not happy to reconnect with my friends in cyberspace when I finally got the new system assembled and working.  It just means I enjoyed a bit more time with other aspects of my life - a not altogether bad thing!

Is it random that my computer died during the one month when I did not already have a topic for this space?  You tell me.

Divination

Since I had no pre-conceived opinion-laden topic for this month, my original plan was to employ a divination tool for inspiration on a column topic.  Divination tools are only as good as their users. Here is the first rule of divination: the answer's utility is directly proportional to the question's specificity.  (In computerese this principle is known as "garbage in, garbage out.")  The actual topic turned out to be assorted thoughts on coping with the untimely loss of a valued machine.  This topic has provided the following question for divination:

What personal lesson was I supposed to learn from sudden computer withdrawal and what wisdom does this lesson contain for others?

Now that I had a question, I had to decide on a divination tool.  Since divination tools are a hobby of mine, I have an assortment of them.  Generally I can intuit which tool to use at a given time, but again I was at a loss.  (I think the difficulties with finding topics and selecting divination tools was due to the powerful influence of Mercury retrograde this month.  I predict that this Mercury retrograde will be one of the worst in recent memory, as its effects were being felt six weeks before the actual transit.)

Not being able to select  a tool, I simply closed my eyes, took some deep breaths and listened to the message I received.  Here is what came through:

Peace.  Remember to make time to attain peace.

Given how easy it is to get caught up in the information overload of an electronic mail system and a good web browser, this is a valuable and important message.  While it is great to be wired, it is also great to sit quietly from time to time.

In the interests of peace, I hereby present a blank page for all of you to contemplate.  Take a deep breath, focus on the blank space and hear your own message.

Peace, everyone.  And may peace be with you.