Whilst I'm on this trip of getting to know myself better, I thought I'd find out what kind of an aura I have. Rather than pay a lot of money for a Kirlian photograph (and possibly find out something I really didn't want to hear!), I did it the easy way, by answering a few questions on the Internet. I kind of like the idea of this, as 'life coach' is a role that appeals to me and one I often find myself in and I like even more the concept that I have 'ideas to change the world'. Who wouldn't!-

Your Aura is Violet

Idealistic and thoughtful, you have the mind and ideas to change the world. And you have the charisma of a great leader, even if you don't always use it! The purpose of your life: saying truths that other people dare not say Famous purples include: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Susan B. Anthony Careers for you to try: Political Activist, Inventor, Life Coach

Cliches aside, recently I've become pretty interested in not only astrology, but other forms of 'divination' as well. It's not so much a way to see the future for me, as a way to clearly and impartially see what goes into making the present. With the law of synchronicity, all things relate to each other, so the patterns of cards, the falling of coins and the movements of planets are all part of that same universal pulse.

Mostly, these methods are a bit of hassle, as you have to have your I-Ching or tarot cards at the ready and to know what , but a new way has made an appearance- the online computerised version! I found this site, called

You just type in your name and your question (though I doubt it actually reads either, though it may effect the process in some mysterious way) and any one of a number of methods will give you your 'answer'. I tried it and it 'works', that is, it seems relevant to the question and made me much more aware of the factors involved and how I wanted to proceed. It certainly offers you more methods than you could dream of, especially regarding tarot cards (an area I used to be a bit scared of, to be honest, until I realised that the morality involved in 'properly' interpreting them is just the same as that in The Bible, the I Ching, the Bhagavad Gita, or whatever, all about being honest and natural). There are umpteen types of decks and spreads (card arrangements) there, and the interpretations flash right up on the screen. I personally like doing it on the big TV, on my PS3, as it is more relaxing in the living room.

Other methods offered are runes of various kinds, a simple coin toss (you can even choose between different country's coins) and a 'yes- no' pen that will tilt in the direction of your answer. One of the most interesting things there is a 'personal profile' that will use numerology to find the 'value' of the letters in your name and then find an appropriate tarot card, rune, words and famous historical figures that correspond to you.  Here is my information, you just type in your information there to find your own one. To be honest, it makes no sense at all to me, though it is interesting that my tarot card and rune seem to coincide, however far off the mark they seem to be!

Gideon Philip Davidson

Nickname:
Starfire

Birth Name:
Gideon Philip Davidson

Birthdate:
9/25/1972

Tarot Card
(Equivalent of "9/25/1972")

The Chariot: Victory through might. Advancement through bold action. Change through force. Order established through vigilance. A trying situation mastered by balancing opposing forces against each other. Discipline, individual effort and endurance will turn the tide.

Rune
(Equivalent of "Gideon Philip Davidson")

Uruz symbolizes the Auroch, a member of the ox family that became extinct long ago. This rune represents the strength, bravery, and endurance of this animal of old. Uruz portends the ability to meet problems head on and to overcome them. When the world was new, warriors used to test their strength against the Auroch. Hence, this rune has come to represent the masculine principle and the capacity to meet a challenge.

Birth Mates
(Equivalents of "9/25/1972")

Elle Macpherson, Erwin Schroedinger, Faith Hill, George Bernard Shaw, Halle Berry, James Gandolfini, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, Nelson Mandela, Nick Cave, Oliver Stone, Pancho Villa, Penelope Cruz, Stanley Kubrick, Yasser Arafat

Public Role
(Equivalents of "Gideon Philip Davidson")

Words that embody things that may be a part of you are "Lace".

Words that embody people or things in your periphery are "Adversary, Affair, Alien, Anticipation, Apocalypse, Arm, Camera, Celebration, Coin, Consort, Deck, Demand, Devotion, Dream, Duke, Globe, Home, Invention, Joke, Jubilation, Key, King, Life, Lock, Monster, Moonlight, Rapport, Resistance, Submission, Surrender, Synergy, Trumpet, Typhoon, Universe, Vortex".

Private Persona
(Equivalents of "Starfire")

Words that embody your presence are "Atlantis, Freemason, Knowledge, Playboy, Society".

Words that embody the people or things that you interact with are "Allure, Ghost, Heroin, Husband, Jungle, Knight, Leather, Romance, Rough, Spite, Wealth, Whore, Worm".

Words that embody people or things in your periphery are "Constellation".

As evidence that there is something in this, it says that Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Ladin share the same tarot card, name value and birth path. Seeing all the words flying around in correspondence with my name made hardly any sense to me, reminding me a bit about all that stuff about lucky numbers and colours fortune teller say to people. I am into knowledge and understanding, not superstition- which is not at all to say that this is an example of the latter- just that believing it without understanding it would have that effect.

I expect that in time a lot of this stuff will be exposed to the light of science and be found to hold deep and important truths. In the mean-time, it is a good route to understanding yourself (depending of course on whether your religious views can accept it), or others. They offer a totality of possibilities in a microcosmic form, opening the way to intuitive understandings of the whole that our rational mind baulks at. What we can consciously choose to do is to always make sure to look for the positive in all things- something I always encourage those around me to do, too, as our outlook decides the direction we take. Whilst we won't always find what we expect, we will certainly experience what we really want to! Feeling makes reality, what we feel becomes real.

One thing I've become very interested in over the holiday season is astrology. I'm personally a libran, represented by the scales- a symbol of harmony. Reading about it's qualities it really does seem to apply to me really well. I always want to have a harmonious environment and get along with everyone, even to a fault and I love balance in all it's forms. I find it hard to make decisions as it seems so important to make exactly the right one, though when I do it is generally right. I also have a taste for art, nice surroundings and avoid things that are crude or unpleasant whenever I can- but enough about me! What does your star sign mean to you?

Many people will tell you that astrology is just a load of old hocus-pocus and maybe it ultimately is. but it certainly fills in the gaps as to understanding who we really are and gives me a way of understanding why relationships with others and even our lives as a whole, play out the way it they do, with their otherwise surprising bends and turns, and our own otherwise baffling (even to me) desires. Life is all a journey of coming to terms with who we are and moving towards who we want to be- generally a more perfect embodiment of our sign's best qualities.

Anyway, here's a little about us Librans, with more where that came from and all the other signs, here-

You’re born under the sign of Libra, which represents the element of air, or the intellect. You’re most definitely a thinker — you like to use your mind to tackle problems. Libra is the seventh sign of the zodiac, which refers to relationships of all sorts and your connection to the world around you.
People know you as someone who loves to socialise. Your outgoing nature and love of communicating brilliant ideas to people around you is one of your strengths. You’re rarely at a loss for words … even on your worst day you have the gift of the gab!
You not only have the ability to share your ideas in a very natural way; you also have charm in the way you convey your feelings. This is another of your very positive traits. Even people who don’t agree with what you have to say can’t resist you and will usually behave well around you — you’re simply a nice person.
Your love of communication makes you an excellent mediator and negotiator. Coupled with the fact that you’re always reasonable in the way you deal with people, this means your friends and co-workers can always depend on your having a balanced viewpoint, even in the fiercest of arguments.
In fact, if there’s a problem with you, it comes out of the fact that you’re so good at seeing all the sides of a problem and staying impartial. This makes it hard for you to commit to one side of an argument — you don’t want to be seen as biased, and you want everyone to like you!

 (Venus, the 'Libran' planet)

... An interesting site to explore is this one, as it lets you find out something about the specific day on which you were born, which is far more specific than the generalities of you 'sun sign'. For me though, as a libran, who is apparently always seeking greater harmony and developing relationships with those around him, the details of compatibility are the most interesting. I can certainly see a lot of truth to this in my own life and the people around me and it is much more refreshing than seeing things in terms of people's backgrounds or cultures, as astrology talks about universal attributes which we all share.

So which sun sign are you? Do your daily or birthday horoscopes make any sense? Do you find what is said about your relationships to wring true, or ring hollow? For me one explanation for why this may all make sense is the one offered by the famous Psychologist/ Psycho-therapist Carl Jung. He says that if everything in the universe is connected and changing synchronistically, seeing the way the stars move or the way coins fall, or even the lines on our hands or left-over tea leaves sit, all reflects a small part of this great whole, but a connected and reflective part. That is, they have a pattern in harmony with everything else, that with the right knowledge can be interpreted so as to explain other things, seemingly unrelated. Who really knows, it is all about having a feel for these things after all. But I think there is a lot of truth in them, at least in terms of the nature of our present, if not our as-yet undecided future.

Now I’m in my new place, roomy but in a way not so much so, with all the boxes waiting to be unpacked, my main entertainment is watching DVD’s on the iBook. My choices might not be yours and even the names are hard to pronounce! How does a night of Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi followed by a bit of Naqoyqatsi sound?

Yes, I’m speaking Hopi and these are the titles of a trilogy of visionary films, by the famous director Godfrey Reggio. Although you may see the likes of Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas listed as producers, in fact they just wanted their names to appear on the credits to encourage more people to see them. Although, like me until recently, you probably haven’t heard of them, they are some of the most successful films ever made, even now still being shown on the big screen every now and then around the world. This is partly because they aren’t just films, they are experiences.

There is no script, but aren’t silent, as they feature dramatic, hypnotic (some might say repetitive) soundtracks by Philip Glass, but there is no voice, no narrative, other than the occasional chanting of the Hopi words after which they are named. They also have no plot, other than whatever meaning underlies the order in which the images appear and reach no conclusion- the viewers are left to decide for themselves what the whole things mean. Reggio himself lived 14 of his early adult years in a monastery, in silence, prayer and fasting, so seeing the modern world, with all its chaotic complexity must have been quite a shock to him. These films offer a journey through our world from a fresh perspective- if you see them, be prepared for a radically new take on the world we live in.

The first of them and in my view the most successful and watchable of them (some say the most successful movie of the entire ‘80s due to it’s constant replaying at film festivals etc), is, Koyaanisqatsi meaning in Hopi Indian, "life out of balance." It shows first the dramatic beauty of the natural world and then layers upon layers of what we humans have built upon it. Together with the powerful Glass soundtrack, one wonders how much sense our way of life makes at all.

 The second, Powaqqatsi, shows the lives of the vast majority of the world, mostly in the developing countries. It shows their various endeavours at different levels of technology- from fishing or carrying loads on their backs to the high-tech neon of Hong Kong. It shows the beautiful moments that all exist simultaneously- the glint in a child’s eyes, the emotion of worshippers. It shows how life is changing throughout the world. The Hopi name means a sorcerer who draws his energy from the lives of others, which I assume means the way the powerful in the cities drain others of life- but with all it’s richness, the film avoids being no more than a mere message.

Finally comes the one I saw first of all, which really impressed me and still does, Naqoyqatsi, an entire film in which not one frame has been left unaltered by digital editing. As the words at the end define it-

“Na-qoy-qatsi: (nah koy' kahtsee) N. From the Hopi Language. 1. A life of killing each other 2. War as a way of life. 3. (Interpreted) Civilized violence.”

What it ends up being is an exploration of technology, whether it be for peaceful communication, warfare, or both. Just as the very Internet this is being transmitted on was originally designed as a safeguard in the event of a vast nuclear attack, this ‘dual purpose’ of man’s creations is everywhere to be found. What makes this in some ways the most topical of the three is it’s scenes of war in Iraq (albeit in the first Gulf War) and fascination with newer technologies such as Dolly the cloned Sheep. It also comes across as the most cynical; with a dark and brooding soundtrack by Glass bringing the sense that ultimately all technologies really will be perverted by greed and human weakness. Yet it also has images of innocence and hope interspeced...from now on, the world will be as we make it.

One thing that impressed me most of all, other than having the most intelligent use the kind of abstract computer graphics you see in screensavers I’ve yet seen, is the scenes where newsreel of the kind of violent demonstrations you see in the news are interspersed with scenes from equally violent cartoons and video games, all cut to the rhythm of Glass’ music. Disturbing stuff, yes, but it certainly makes you think about what kind of a society we really live in, in which people are pushed to such extremes or on the other hand, such extremes are seen as the stuff of good gameplay.

The film enters the realm of the virtual… as the website puts it,

“NAQOYQATSI takes us on an epical journey into a land that is nowhere, yet everywhere; the land where the image itself is our location, where the real gives way to the virtual. As the gods of old become dethroned, a new pantheon of light appears in the integrated circuit of the computer. Its truth, becomes the truth.

Extremes of promise and spectacle, tragedy and startling hope fuse in a digital tidal wave of image and music. In a poetic nanosecond, NAQOYQATSI give utterance to a new world coming, a new world here.”

If you are going to give these films, now finally available on DVD a try, I’d start with the first Koyaanisqatsi. By having (arguably) the most strikingly beautiful images of the three, it’s the most unmissable. Unfortunately, it’s style has been copied so much it will no longer seem new. But a copy’s never as good as the original. As for the second, I don’t have the patience to watch it all the way through in one sitting, but it has it’s moments. The third really makes you think, I have to say, it’s not always the most uplifting experience out there, but it has it’s own powerful beauty and certainly breaks new ground. It also has the best soundtrack thanks to the rich chords of Yo-Yo Ma’s cello and some of the most ‘spell-binding’ imagery. If you are looking for the kind of experience you got from ‘2001- A Space Odyssey’ in a more recent film, this might be the thing for you.

 What made this an especially fortuitous occasion for me was the inclusion of their new DVD ROM. Just on the day my order was processed (equally mysteriously, being September the 11th), they started a limited program of including the next-generation DVD ROM as evaluation copies, a product that will cost twice what I paid! This came as a great surprise to me, a mini-miracle, as being the hoarder that I am, I would certainly have wanted this new, searchable version as well, as it contains about twice the original's materials and so much more of the website. I now have it backed up on my hard-drive, as a virtual-DVDthat I can read whenever I wish. It may also be a form of good karma, as I very sincerely ordered it with a wish to help the website, which I am often visiting for inspiration and I even regard as the single-most important site on the Web today. I joked with the owner that he had just proved that the God, gods and Buddhas I had been reading about really exist! I also offered him the free use of my photos.

So, want to know the myths of Atlantis? Got it here. Want to know how alchemists sought out the philosophers' stone? It's right here. Want to know which works inspired Tolkein's Lord of the Rings? They're here, too. Interested in what Jesus might have done, in the parts of his life that aren't in the Bible? Unofficial histories are right here. Got it all... now just have to find the time to read it!