Rosary beads are gifted to young Catholics and frequently a set of beads will be handed down through generations as heirlooms. It is considered an honour to get given a set of rosary beads that are decades or more old, just as it would be if a relative left you anything else old and valuable. Old rosary beads can become very valuable, depending on what the beads are made of, their age and the type of metal used to string them together.

The Catholic Rosary is used to matter off the number of prayers said in repetitions in the same way that an abacus is used for counting money. Rosaries have ten small beads followed by a large one to indicate that the repetition ought to be started again.

It is an old style of prayer harking back to when people were less schooled. However, beads aid the person praying concentrate on the prayer and not on the counting as well.

Most Catholic rosary bead chains have enough beads for five cycles of prayers. This makes it easier for followers of the Catholic Church to repeat their prayers and do the penances metred out to them by their priest for ‘committing sins’.

In fact, the Catholic Church is losing ground very rapidly in Europe especially in such traditional strongholds as Eire (Southern Ireland) and the southern provinces of the Netherlands. They are also losing ground in Spain, Portugal and America, usually due to the sex scandals involving priests.

Whatever one thinks of the Catholic Church, the pope and the Catholic clergy, rosary beads are a feature of the history of mankind’s development in the West during the last 2,000 years. Whether you see Catholic rosary beads as a symbol of devotion to God or as a symbol of the Catholic Church’s tyranny over scared people, the rosary in itself is an interesting phenomenon.

Some people make a hobby out of collecting rosaries because they are broadly traded and can be quite valuable. It is not unusual for a set of Victorian rosary beads manufactured of a semi-precious stone on a gold chain to go for thousands of dollars at auction.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a number of subjects, but is now involved with religious beliefs in China. If you would like to know more go to What is Religious Belief?

I meditated. I would not drink alcohol for 48 hours before the evening that I had asked for permission to meditate; then I would exercise, bathe and lie down in a dimly lit room. I used to begin by relaxing my body.

The procedure that worked best for me was to imagine tiny factory workers in overalls at each muscle and, beginning from my feet, I would send them off for luncheon. I would walk them all up into my head and out of my ears so that I was ‘paralyzed’. Then, I imagined a crevice opening up in the middle of my mind and I forced my thoughts jump over it as it grew wider.

Petty thoughts disappeared quickly, but even persistent, deep-seated concerns would eventually fall down the crack. Then I would be left alone in me. I never got rid of ‘me’ strive as I might. The next step for me would be to ask a question.

An instance is: ‘How can I tell the difference between a meaningful dream and my mind just processing the day;s events?’ Invariably I would see myself, from the back or over head, sitting in a cinema or a theatre alone.

Then someone would appear on stage and start a film. The person would commentate and stop and restart the film until I understood the answer to my question. The person was nearly always the same one, but if it was not, I made him tell me his name before I would pay any attention.

In this state, people who saw me reckoned that I was asleep, but I could hear each noise that was made in the house and on the street outside. People said I snored as well, but I could hear myself snoring.

To this day, if I relax deeply, I snore but I can hear everything and am not asleep. My wife often turns the TV off when I am listening to it. I know that lots of men say that, which makes it more, not less, true. It shows that meditation is natural and that we can all do it if we give ourselves the opportunity.

When I was a teenager, I got into the habit of scribbling my dreams down, because I have the type of memory that remembers things once I have written them down. I can throw the paper away then and I will remember|.

Anyway, I can remember my dreams now without having to write them down, but what is more valuable than that in my mind is that I have always known if I am dreaming. One last thing, when I walk in my dreams it is on two legs but if I run it is on all fours like a dog. Many people have called me ‘wolf’ or ‘bear’ in my life, have they seen something? (My wife says she sees me as a wolf too)’

I do not mean anything weird, but it is something of a coincidence or not? Last year, I was talking to a girlfriend of my wife and she said that she runs on all fours in her dreams as well. She was flabbergasted when I said I did as well. How many more are there?

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a variety of topics, but is now involved with non-religious beliefs. If you want to know more go to What is Religious Belief?

Whatever the reason, my Dad stopped taking me to church with him when I was about 14. I did not miss it. However, I continued to wade through my mother’s books on Tibetan Buddhism and my father’s books on yoga. I say ‘wade through’, but I thought the ideas absorbing and ‘naturally true’, although I rarely talked about them with my parents.

The only discussions we had regularly in those days were concerning dreams, but we had discussed dreams since I was about six. One of my earliest recollections, when I was around six, was going down to my parents after being sent to bed and complaining that I could not sleep because ‘the Indians kept talking to me’ - I was referring to native Americans.

My parents did not shout at me or tell me ‘not to be stupid’. Instead, Dad came up to my bedroom and spoke to the Indians, explaining that I needed my sleep. I could still see them, but they stopped talking to me. The next weekend, my wallpaper was changed for one with cowboys and Indians on it and I never had that ’situation’ again.

During my teens, one of my favourite times of the week was discussing my dreams with my mother while eating breakfast. One day I was telling her that my dream the previous night had been about her and me standing on a jetty in Portugal, when a car stopped by us. She interrupted me and said that she had had the same dream. She described the car, it’s colour and what took place next.

We had had the same dream and she showed me a book on Astral Travelling. I had already read it, but it was fantastic to have had a personal, practical example. There was no holding me from then on.

I started arising three hours before I had to go to school to do yoga exercises both physical and breathing variations. I meditated for hours each week. My father’s mother must have got to hear of this and she asked me to go down to visit her.

She applauded my curiosity in what she called spiritualism - she would not call it the supernatural, because she said it was as natural as breathing. Anyway, the purpose of the summons was to warn me of the dangers of carrying out spiritual exercises ‘without permission’.

Real spiritualists, she said, asked permission to ‘hold a seance’ at least a week beore carrying one out, which is why seances and services are held on a regular basis. The person holding the seance or service needs to organize protection for those attending the session. This is quite simply done and almost always granted, but you still have to ask.

My grandmother claimed that people do not transform into angels merely because their body has worn out. There are decent dead people and mischievous dead people. Without permission, that is without a guard, these mischievous spirits can enter the living body through the base of the spine and cause that person to appear to be mad - literally out of his mind (because someone else is in there too).

She made me promise there and then never to ‘do anything spiritual’ without permission, but particularly never to use Ouija boards and never ever to ‘attempt anything’ if I was under the influence of any drugs that made me ‘lower my guard’.

At the age of 13-14 in South Wales in those days, I had no idea about drugs or alcohol, but I have never forgotten my promise, because I know that my grandmother hasn’t either.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a variety of subjects, but is now involved with non-religious beliefs. If you want to know more go to What is Religious Belief?

The wondrous displays of color that define the world around us are manifestations of light and, as such, each possesses a unique frequency. The attraction we feel to certain colors is not a matter of pure chance-we experience the beneficial affects of color even while blindfolded. We are naturally drawn to those colors that lift our mood, expand consciousness, and restore health.

Color therapy, also known as chromo therapy, allows us to harness the power of individual color frequencies to heal the body, positively influence our emotions, and achieve a renewed sense of inner harmony through sympathetic resonance. Colors do not directly affect the composition of our physical, mental, or aura, but they noninvasively alter the vibrational characteristics of diverse elements of the self so that each resonates at its proper healthy frequency.

It is easy to overlook the colors that saturate our personal and professional environments. Yet these, whether in the form of the paint on our walls or the clothing we wear, can influence our thoughts, behaviors, and feelings to an extraordinary degree. The colors we like best are often those that we need most in our lives, and there are many ways we can utilize them. Basking under a colored lightbulb or gazing at an area of color can stimulate or calm us depending on the color we choose. For example, red stimulates the brain, circulatory systems, and first chakra, giving us an energy boost, while blue acts on the throat chakra, soothing the body and mind. And when we do not feel drawn to any one color, we can still benefit from the healing effects of white light, which is an amalgamation of all the colors of the visible spectrum. It is a cleansing color, one that can purify us on many levels.

Human beings evolved to delight in vivid sunsets and rainbows, to enjoy the sensations awakened by particularly eye-catching color, and to decorate our spaces and ourselves with bright colors. In essence, we evolved to love the light because of its harmonizing influence on every aspect of the self. When we pay attention to the potential affects of individual colors, we can modify our spaces, wardrobes, and habits to ensure that we introduce the colors that speak to us most deeply in our everyday lives.

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Part of being human is the search for an individual identity. Bound to this strong need to establish a unique persona, however, is an equally intense desire for acceptance. It is when we find our individual tribes that both are satisfied. Our tribe members are those people who accept us as we are without reservation and gladly accompany us on our journeys of evolution. Among them, we feel free to be our imperfect selves, to engage unabashedly in the activities we enjoy, and to express our vulnerabilities by relying on our tribe for support. We feel comfortable investing our time and energy in the members of our tribe, and are equally comfortable allowing them to invest their resources in our development.

The individuals who eventually become members of your unique tribe are out there in the wide world waiting for you. You are destined to find them, one by one, as you move through life. Sometimes your own efforts will put you in contact with your future tribe members. At other times, circumstances beyond your control will play a role in helping you connect with your tribe

If you look about you and discover that you are already allied with a wonderful and supportive tribe, remember that there are likely many members of your tribe you have not yet met. On the other hand, if you feel you are still living outside of your tribe, broadening your horizons can help you find your tribe members.

However your life develops after you come together with your tribe, you can be assured that its members will stand at your side. On the surface, your tribe may seem to be nothing more than a loose-knit group of friends and acquaintances to whom you ally yourself. Yet when you look deeper, you will discover that your tribe grounds you and provides you with a sense of community that ultimately fulfills many of your most basic human needs.

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Though your honesty may not always endear you to others-for there will always be those who fear the truth-you can nonetheless be certain that your integrity is never tarnished by the patina of deceit. Since frankness and sincerity form the basis of all life-enriching relationships, your word is one of your most precious and powerful possessions.

We are also hurt by the lies we tell and the promises we break. Integrity is the foundation of civilization, allowing people to live, work, and play side by side without fear or apprehension. As you cultivate honesty within yourself, you will find that your honor and reliability put people at ease. Others will feel comfortable seeking out your friendship and collaborating with you on projects of great importance, certain that their positive expectations will be met. When we promise more than we can deliver, hide from the consequences of our actions through falsehoods, or deny our true selves to others, we hurt those who were counting on us by proving that their faith was wrongly given.

If you do catch yourself in a lie, ask yourself what you wanted to hide and why you felt you couldn’t be truthful. And if life’s surprises prevent you from keeping your word, simply admit your error apologetically and make amends quickly.

You can harness the power of your word when you do your best to live a life of honesty and understand what motivates dishonesty. In keeping your agreements and embodying sincerity, you prove that you are worthy of trust and perceive values as something to be incorporated into your daily existence.

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Past lives can be fascinating and entertaining, or emotionally seductive, and we can get lost in them, losing touch with the most important thing-the life we are living right now.

Of course, there is a deep connection between our past lives and our current life, so it’s sometimes hard to say where one begins and the other one ends. For example, we may be aware that one of our closest friends or partners is someone we knew from a past life, and that connection feels like an unbroken chord reaching into the past, reminding us of the vast nature of the soul. We may have issues with this person that stem from the past, or we may just be blessed with a deep love that we are fortunate to have with us in this life. Either way, the issues must be resolved in this life, in the present moment.

The love is our gift to experience in this life, not in the past. In many ways, the gift of dealing with our past lives is the profound revelation of how truly eternal we all are. Once we comprehend this, we can let go of focusing on the details of the past and simply allow our awareness of the eternal to positively influence our ability to be in the present moment.

You will know you have received the full fruits of past-life exploration when you find yourself even more powerfully present in the eternal now. The past becomes less distinct as it resolves itself, merging with the present and the future in the nexus of consciousness that holds all time and space. We realize that this moment holds everything within it, the resolved and the unresolved, the past and the future, and that it is from this moment that we must live our lives.

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As we walk upon the earth, we walk upon a living being more similar to ourselves than we imagine. Just like us, the earth has both a physical body and an energetic body, complete with a chakra system identified by ancient mystics and modern scientists alike. Gaia, as the earth is called when acknowledged as a living entity in her own right, has her own life force and her own path of unfolding, separate from us, but including us. Human beings and Gaia are intertwined on every level, not just the physical, and an awareness of her chakras can help us to acknowledge, heal, and enable her on her path, just as she selflessly returns the favor to us.

It is generally agreed that Gaia has seven major chakras distributed evenly across her body and connected to one another via two lines of energy that intersect at various points on the earth. The first chakra is located at Mount Shasta in Northern California; the second is in Lake Titicaca in South America; the third chakra is in Uluru-Kata Tjuta in Australia; the fourth chakra resides in Glastonbury in England; the fifth chakra is at the Great Pyramid in Mount of Olives; the sixth chakra is in Kuh-e Malek Siah in Iran, and the seventh chakra is in Mount Kailas in Tibet.

In addition to her seven major chakras, she has minor chakras and other vortexes of energy that are significant to her life-energy system, and all these energy centers need caretaking. Just as we can heal ourselves through our own chakras, we can heal and support Gaia through hers.

While it would be a wonderful experience to visit one of the earth’s chakras, you can always participate in loving and healing Gaia wherever you are. Maintaining an awareness of the regions in which her chakras reside can be very powerful. You may place photos of the locales on your altar, sending healing energy to each of her chakras during your meditations. As you consciously connect your energy system to her energy system, the true meaning of groundedness reveals itself? it is a relationship with Gaia in which we acknowledge our calling as the caretakers of her soul.

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To some degree, approaching life with an open heart is as simple as shifting your attention onto your heart. Approaching life with an open heart means that we have opened the door to this greater consciousness, taking up residence alongside it in the seat of our soul. Fortunately, at this time there is a lot of support for this shift energetically as well as practically.

Eventually you will be able do this any time, any place, but at first it may help to try it in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. Simply sit with your eyes closed and draw your breath into your heart. As your breath expands your chest cavity, your heart expands and opens. You may feel tenderness or sadness in your heart, and you may also feel relief. Any emotions that arise can be effectively witnessed and healed through the meditation process, which benefits both your physical heart and your energetic heart.

The more you practice, the more you will find your heart opening to your own presence and to all the situations your life brings.

Opening our hearts may make us feel pain or tenderness vulnerable, which simply means that they need our loving attention as we cleanse and heal them of past hurts and blockages. This process asks us to practice some of the heart’s greatest lessons-patience, compassion, and unconditional love. On the other hand, we may take up residence as effortlessly as a bird returns to its nest. In either respect, approaching life with an open heart simply means returning to our true home.

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After a full day out in the world, stories, words, images, and songs from any number of sources continue to play in our heads hours after we encounter them. Even as we lie in bed, in the quiet dark, our minds continue noisily processing all the input from our day. This can leave us feeling unsettled and harassed. It also makes it difficult to take in any new information or inspiration.

Our minds need clearing just like a crystal, a space, or an office. This needs to be done so new ideas, information, and inspiration can come about.

Too often, the activities we choose to help us relax only add to the clutter. Watching television, seeing a movie, reading a book, or talking to a friend all involve taking in more information. In order to really clear our minds, we need a break from mental stimulation. Once we are mentally relaxed, we can begin the process of clearing our minds. Most of us instinctively know what allows our minds to relax and release any unnecessary clutter. It may be meditation or time spent staring at the stars. Whatever it is, these exercises feel like a cool, cleansing bath for the brain and leave our minds feeling clear and open. Activities like yoga, dancing, or taking a long walk help to draw our attention to our bodies, slowing our mental activity enough that our minds begin to settle. Deep breathing is an even simpler way to draw attention away from our mental activities.

Setting aside time to clear our minds once a day creates a ritual that becomes second nature over time. Our minds will begin to settle with less effort the more we practice. Ultimately, the practice of clearing our minds allows us to be increasingly more open so that we can perceive the world as the fresh offering it is, free of yesterday’s mental clutter.

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