For an overview of and foundation for this series, see HERE The second row has asked us to take a closer look at our beliefs and how we live them, in good times and bad. We come to terms with the idea that being good, sometimes, is its own…or only…reward. If we have done this, we have experienced Death, particularly the death of the ego. Once the ego lets go of its demands that “if we are good people, then only good things should happen to us,” we become Temperance. Temperance is a pretty cool card. She is perfect balance and grace under pressure. She is always exactly who she is regardless of whether she is spinning on a Wheel or hanging upside down (as in the Hanged Man). In

Do you know James Arthur Ray? If the name is unfamiliar, events surrounding him may bring to mind why his name has been in the news. Ray was a "New Age Guru" preaching the gospel of The Secret with its revelation of the Law of Attraction to his well-heeled followers. Energetic and charismatic, he made lots of money, and perhaps developed a bad case of hubris. He apparently thought he knew how to run a traditional, Native American sweat lodge. He didn't. Of the fifty-five people who entered the lodge (two to four times what is usually practiced) after a day-and-a-half of fasting, nineteen had to be hospitalized with symptoms that included vomiting, trouble breathing, hallucinations,

For an overview of and foundation for this series, see HERE There has been a lot of focus on the self. This journey has required a lot of work on our part, what with all the self-mastery, making decisions, and living our own truths. You would think that the purpose of all this work would be to create a good and easy life. If we do all the right things, then things should go well for us, right? Hmmmm. The challenge of this row is Justice, to always do the right thing, to always be just, to always live in a way that reflects your code of ethics. That shouldn’t be so hard, right? They are your beliefs, you picked them, so it should be a piece of cake. But life isn’t a cakewalk.

As with most ancient traditions, everyone wants to claim that theirs is the oldest and that all other traditions came from them. In the Western Abrahamic religions, both Christianity and Islam arose out of Judaism. Interestingly—some claim due to the monotheistic approaches of these faiths—they all claim that their's is the real religion and their God is the real God. Well, this is not going to be a discussion of that. The world's third largest religion by number of adherents is Hinduism (about 1 billion followers) after Islam (about 1.5 billion) and Christianity (about 2.1 billion). However, I have to question whether it is appropriate to call any of these a single religion. Various