Highs and Lows

Why the domain solely of manic-depressives, formerly, now called bi-polars?
Since the current thought is that we all should dwell somewhere in between ecstasy and misery, then what of the highs that inspire?
I mean the natural ones, of course.
It's a cosmic thing, allowing oneself to feel things strongly.
Without this sort of passion, the fuel necessary for attainment, for creating great works of art, and for simply being able to navigate life is lacking.
We need not go as far as a Van Gogh in our passions, nor in wrong directions, but as long as we are sane and sober, allowing oneself the flights of fancy that children feel almost all the time is mandatory both to open healthiness and to accomplishing what we were born to do.
The lows that often accompany or follow the highs of achievement or of temporary failure are merely a time for the body to heal in between major pushes toward creating the life one wants, and can easily be turned into restful, regrouping period.
Viewed as a natural sequence, like waves on the sea, instead of compulsively, as those who pursue the highs constantly, every ebb and flow seen as riding on a constant current toward our goals, rather than as a depressive state, the lows can be as useful as are the highs.
After all, we're not automatoms and we all need rest.
Mental rest as well as physical, and actually, we need to take time away from creativity in order to bring a freshness to our tasks.
While taming our need to take wrong directions, and realizing that the highs have great power, like lightning bolts, using self-discipline to use this lively state that either we have summoned randomly or that we have learned to cultivate, is the way winners actually win.
Those whose lives stay amid the gray areas might plod along nicely, but they seldom reach the height of achievement that their more passionate fellows can.


In another posting I'll addres the cultivation of these passionate, creative states.
For now, realize that where there is no depth, or height, of feeling, there is no greatness, no flights of fancy, and no wild joy without its' counterpart of coming down.
As with Icarus, we cannot aspire to remain higher, so we must, at times, admit defeat, if only in the tiredness of our bodies, so accept in peacefulness and gratitude the down times.
We need them to remind us of our frailty.
Our egos need these respites and grounding.
Not as fun, perhaps, but necessary, these gray times, in order to scale new horizons, to gear up for those wayward, colorful, and sometimes uncomfortably high heights of passion.

Cosmic Thoughts

After all the flurry of excited would-be billionaires who'd consumed whole the advice found in The Secret - the book that had re-opened the time-worn subject of basically, wishing on a star, and getting something for nothing - have settled down, especially post th eeconomic fall-out and now, the Gulf of Mexico world disaster, we all have to have our doses of reality.
Where is the cosmic in all this cold water in our collective faces?
Wait - aren't I breaking a cardinal cosmic rule in speaking not in positive trems, but solely in terms of what is? Not of what should be?
Yes.
Sometimes we must face reality.
And mourn.
And clear out our sad, our sour, our angry, and our negative emotions, plus our fury at being totally helpless in huge situations, like life and death, that we simply cannot wish away.
More than self-discipline is required when thinking of all the innocent wildlife now dying or worse in the Gulf, and when feeling the anger toward the sociopaths who care only about profits when our beauitful planet is being fouled and ruined.
And, when all our finer values are being thwarted, we're being lied to, and when our hero-worship has turned into bitter disappointment.
I, too, had had such hopes for our new president Obama, and when he didn't act immediately to oversee the operations, as anyone knows he should have, in the Gulf, I realized that he was certainly not an FDR, or even a Jimmy Carter or a Clinton.
At least they had true affection for everyone, including the wildlife - and - they understood that what affects one part of Nature affects us all.
My sense of justice has taken a huge fall.
I've been in depression to some extent ever since the gusher began in the Gulf of Mexico.
This is actually far worse than losing a close loved one.
It's like a war.
It affects every being and every place around it.
It's much larger than the grief of one individual for one individual - this collective murder of so many, this complete destruction of so beautiful an area is so much worse!
After all, we in these generations have a mandate of honor to pass down a better world than the one that was handed down to us - or at the very least, to maintain it in as good condition as it was when it was given to us.
It is God's world, too, and the good among us know that He told us that we had the responsibility to take care of it FOR Him in Genesis - where mis-translations had put "dominion", the original text had said "responsibility for".
There is no more important relationship than the one we have with God, and secondarily, with ourselves.
For anyone who is not a psychopathic sociopath, this is a heavy burden to bear, and yes, we all have a part in this, even if it was not to had paid enough attention to the takeover of our values by the powers that be.
I'd love to raise a voice and raise an army of honorable legions who could realign all of us with the public good, and instead, I, like all of you, merely pray.
And yet, praying is perhaps the strongest thing we can do, along with voting when we get the chance.
Empowerment?
Isn't Cosmic Magazine all about empowering us to change our lives?
Yes, in normal circumstances it is.
But life is not always uplifting. Or posttive.
And sometimes all we can do is be brave.
And help in any way we can.
I am currently in the Gulf, and I have donated and assisted, and yes, prayed a lot.
I will continue to do so.
Will you join me in prayer many times daily for all the innocent beings who are affected, including the people who live on the Gulf, of course, and for the sea, and for the sand, and the air - for all the world that God had given us to protect.
It's time for us to make protecting it for Him our foremost aim, and to turn our prayers and our aims into action.


Visit Olivia's help site here at the Audubon Society and please help this precious girl save the Gulf.

And please donate to the Humane Society here.

Astrology, Tarot, and Other Divination Tools

Cosmic Magazine covers most of the explorations into the unknown, and I'd like to open a discussion about astrology and other cosmic tools for self-knowledge if not for divination.

I have chosen a photo of a plain deck of cards for illustration rather than a deck of Tarot cards.

My premise is that divination techniques that people use to offset their natural fear of or attempts to control the future are essentially useless and that the real treasure in these systems is self-knowledge.

Just as Jung and even Freud used mythology in their seeking to understand patients and to unravel the painful memories that held them in mental illnesses so, too, do we all use the simple and universally-applicable sentences in our varying astrological headlines as a focus point in order to know ourselves better.

Yes, there are studies proving that our psychic "powers" can affect outcomes, and yes, The Secret has many devotees despite the obvious lack of prosperity around us, and yes, faith is an absolutely vital element of survival, but really, these systems, aside from enriching skilled practitioners, are mainly valuable for their routes to knowing ourselves better.

I am not attempting to offend die-hard believers. I am simply stating an opinion - one that does not depricate the use of such tools but that applauds the constructive and non-divination uses of them.

As psychologists use blotted images, as hypnotherapists use dreams and dream-states, so, too, can we use images, myths, pictures, and yes, plain decks of cards, in order to enter states of receptivity in order to allow different aspects of our minds to step forward, to suggest better thoughts and habits, and to approach the divine.

Knowing the future wouldn't be fun, anyway.

Being Cosmic Means Caring and Being Compassionate

Above all, spirituality is the meaning of being cosmic, so we're positive you'll all want to join us in visiting this site and helping innocent infants:

Eeriness, Or Why We All Love To Get Creeped Out

The so-called "fear factor" is a large part of our lives as apes.

The type of primate we are is behaviorally more ably seen in the lives of chimps and of baboons rather than in the more placid moods of our other brethren in the ape family tree.

Although baboons are monkeys rather than apes like us, we're all primates, of course. We just happen to be of the jumpy variety which also bestows a marvelous ingenuity and an innate love of fun. Watch any juvenile apes or monkeys and see how often our own beloved games of hide and seek, chase, and jump-out-of-the-shadows-to-scare occur.

Along with swinging from gym equipment and all kinds of other activities, we all adore being scared and/or scaring others in our turn.

The rush we get from the idea that something or someone might get us is one reason we love ghost stories and tales of the unexplained. Did you know that next to children's movies, scary films are the most lucrative at the box office?

We all love a good Stephen King book and our goose-bumps start arising at the very thought of a horror film.

Yes, other species and other families of species also love chasing and hide and seek games, including our own pets, but here we're discussing us, so bear with me.

While fish, frogs, insects, and every other being love to play, we've taken it to such an extreme that even written words excite us into a netherworld of close-to-death type thrills.

Since fun and jumpiness are part of all of us - part of all our animal family - then it's no great surprise that scary tales, films, and mysteries are so popular with humans. Our nervous systems, along with that of all other species, evolved in order to react to surprising stimuli, so that we'd be able to survive when a goblin-like predatory presence, whether of our own specie at whatever stage of our evolution or not, would spring in our direction. Our sensory organs kept reacting and ever-reaching to be able to respond to the extent that we eventually evolved - out of sheer will? - the ability to first, feel, then, presumably, move, then hear, taste, and finally, see the world around us - complete with ever-spreading systems of nerves to make us ever more jumpy.

Now a huge number of humans take pills by the handful in order not to react so extremely to mere ideas inside their heads of what might occur in the realm of possibilities, and yet we still arrive in large herds to the opening of every frightening film we can find.

We are a funny bunch, aren't we?

The Beyond

We all wish we knew everything about the mysteries of life, and of death.
Investigating, thinking, reading, and praying will only go so far in our satisfaction to know what our vast future of endless ages will really be like.
The saner among us, the realists, insist that anything other than "Dust to dust", is merely wishful thinking and self-delusion.
So why would this - even if it is either mass delusion or individual - the "Opiate of the people" - or not, be good for us?
Since we cannot know more than a tiny bit about even the act of dying, let alone about whether or not we will ever meet loved ones again or waken to an oasis of bliss, the reason to become or to continue to be a believer is simple - it's healthier.
Studies prove that the trusting souls among us are happier - and happier means healthier!
So encourage your fairytales, if that's how you view belief systems like religions, and allow yourself to dream good endings for yourself and for us all, and even, if you must, dwell on a better world where justice will be served to the wicked or even better - where they'll be allowed to examine their bad ways, to really feel the harm they've caused, and to feel actual sorrow - which is what is missing from psychopaths - and thus, to be eventually redeemed.
It's a matter of faith for most who follow religions, but for too many now, floundering amid seas of New Age mish-moshes of half-told tales, fragments of truths, and watered-down beliefs, there aren't enough strengths left of a religion to hold one's soul together.
It's always nice to attend churches or temples or whatever a religion has to offer.
Longevity? Is that one of your fitness goals?
Then join a congregation.
They tend to be healtheir, happier, and - yes = the idea of a nice community is a great way to extend your life.
So whether there is a Great Beyond behind the Great Divide, whether we get rowed across the River Styx or get waved into the Pearly Gates is not important - living a good life with a heart filled with hope, like the little birds who greet the morning sun with no further thought than that they are loved, blessed, and that they want to rejoice in the returning warmpth of the solar orb - with trusting in goodness as a theme, with generosity as one's nature, and with gratitude as one's constant mood - and most of all - living with Compassion for ALl Beings and doing something every day to help the helpless ( go here and save some lives now with just a click!) will only enhance your life and help to extend it, imbue it with quality, and, when you're on your deathbed, bestow a feeling of satisfaction adn a knowingness that by your presence on Earth you've been a blessing is enough.
The Beyond is not a certainty, but our lives today are. Make your life a blessing and you will be blessed in return!

More Of Ocean's Cosmic Articles at  Cosmic Magazine

Cosmic Magazine is proud to announce that five new guest bloggers have been invited to post on our Cosmic Magazine Blog. Some of them are authors who publish articles in the actual Cosmic Magazine, and some are new to our venues.

Ocean, whose blog posting appears above, is a well-known musician who has a keen interest in investigating otherworldliness. Her self-help articles in the fields of spirituality, health, fitness, and beauty have proven her to be an expert in these fields, and as a novelist her writing will make our blog even more enjoyable.

Cosmic Magazine accepts articles from writers who are interested in the genres we love to publish.

Cosmic Magazine Publishes Articles On The Inner and Outer Cosmic Realms

Cosmic Magazine is in the first stages of adding numerous authors to its' rosters, and this month we've aadded six whose talents range from health and fitness to spirituality.
Don't we all love exploring fresh ideas? And mysteries?
It's innate - our curiosity - born into all beings.
Haven't you ever played hide and seek with a little fish?
All of us have a liveliness of intellect and a need to find out more about the world around us, whether we're huge, like elephants or whales, or tiny, like the cute little insects who buzz around us, playing games - whenver humans open their minds enough to notice, that is.
Cosmic Magazine is all about keeping our minds and hearts open to discoveries and to analyzing old mores to find new explanations and new ways of thinking about stale ideas.
In the last decades, people have begun again, finally, to open their minds to the possibilities of things that their forebears had absolutley closed theirs to, and to examine even sacred beliefs in the light of new facts.
Nothing takes away from the old religions, unless some insist on literal interpretations of everything, and the more we find out, the more awesome the idea of God becomes.
Exploring how our minds work, how our emotions behave, and psychological areans, mythologies and how they have helped to answer some of our most basic quests for understanding, and the otherworldliness of our misunderstood and extra senses are just some of the subjects that we will explore here at Cosmic Magazine.