Road safety is everyone`s concern, though many people aren`t even sure of what it means. This simple phrase covers a lot of areas, all of which involve staying safe and being responsible on the road. It applies to everyone who drives, cycles or even walks and the idea is to keep everyone out of harm`s way.
When it comes to road safety, cars and trucks are by far the most dangerous thing on the road. The sheer weight and speed make them potential weapons when used irresponsibly and this has brought about quite a few laws to help protect both those in the cars and those outside.
Drinking
Drunk driving causes over 13,000 deaths every year, but most people still think nothing of having a couple of beers before hitting the road. Unfortunately, even if you don`t feel drunk, your reflexes are impaired and even a few seconds difference can cause death when dealing with a motor vehicle.
While there are laws against drinking and driving, it still lies in the hands of the people to stop this problem. If you`re going to go out partying, assign a designated driver or call a taxi to get home safely. And don`t let others who have been drinking get into the driver`s seat.
Novice Drivers
New drivers are a high risk category. While everyone makes mistakes sometimes, some of those errors can be deadly. With this in mind, new laws have been passed in many states to help new drivers learn to drive safely. Extended learning periods, minimum required driving times and requiring new drivers to be accompanied by an older driver are all methods of keeping the roads secure while young people learn the ropes.
Alertness
After you`ve been driving for a while, it`s easy to get complacent, especially if you are very familiar with the route you`re taking. Did you know that the majority of accidents take place within a few minutes from home? People are familiar with their neighborhood, so they tend not to pay as much attention as they ought to, with tragic results.
Road safety means paying attention and being alert. Stop completely at stop signs, pay attention to the lights and keep an eye out for the unexpected. It`s also important to wear a seat belt and to strap children into their car seats, even if you`re just popping down the street for a moment. It only takes a second for everything to change and you want to be prepared.
Motorbikes and Bicycles
Of course, road safety isn`t only in the hands of those who drive heavier vehicles. Motorbikes are particularly dangerous to the rider because of the lack of protection. While a motorbike may not do nearly as much damage to a car as another vehicle might, these types of accidents have the highest rate of mortality. The safety factors can be boosted by using appropriate protective gear, driving responsibly and keeping the bike in good shape.
Bicycles can also affect road safety. We`ve all seen cyclists who fail to check behind them and swerve into traffic, or who dodge between vehicles in a hurry. This not only poses a threat to the cyclist, it can also cause a car accident as someone swerves to get out of the way. Drunk cycling might sound funny, but it`s also a huge cause of deaths in the US.
Road safety is something we all need to consider when out and about. Be responsible when you are out and about, whether on foot or driving and take care. Being safe is everyone`s responsibility.
Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Youth Criminal Justice Act, Drunk Driving, Bail, Criminal Sentencing in Canada, Criminal Law of Canada, Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69, Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, Criminal Code Section 342, Criminal Code of Canada, Dangerous Offender, Bill C-250 (37th Canadian Parliament, 2nd Session), Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, Section 98, Alibi, Life Imprisonment, Assault Causing Bodily Harm, Intimidation of Parliament, Bill C-215, Criminal Records Act...
Driving drunk can have a serious, long-lasting effect on all those involved. Most people who drink and drive do not think about the consequences until it is too late. The most frequent crime committed in this country is <a href=http://www.bestandanderson.com/victims-drunk-drivers.html>drunk driving</a>. Someone in the United States is injured every two minutes or killed every thirty minutes by a drunk driver.
Three out of every ten Americans will be involved in a drunk driving accident sometime in their lives. Over 18,000 people die in alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents each year. Over 40% of motor vehicle accident fatalities are alcohol-related and over twenty-five per cent of all teenage related motor vehicle accident fatalities involve alcohol. The aftermath of a drunk driving accident is long-lasting and costly. The legal costs can include jail time, fines, driver license suspension and other criminal penalties for the drunk driver and severe injuries and even death for the innocent victims.
The Costs of Driving Drunk
Alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents in the United States cost over fifty billion dollars every year. Drunk drivers have affected millions of lives, so it is essential to seek legal advice to learn about your rights when a drunk driver affects your life.
When alcohol is involved in a motor vehicle accident it is considered an aggravating factor. That is why someone who pleads guilty or is found guilty of drunk driving should receive a harsher sentence. When you are a victim of a drunk driving accident, it is important to know who is liable for the accident. The obvious answer is the drunk driver. In some instances, the party or parties who supplied the alcohol may also be held liable. This is referred to as “dram shop liability”. Therefore, you may have multiple claims to file. An <a href=http://www.bestandanderson.com/firm.html>experienced drunk driving accident attorney</a> will be able to make certain you obtain the maximum amount of compensation you are entitled to.
Drunk drivers may also be subject to criminal charges. Some states offer programs to reimburse crime victims when a drunk driver does not have liability insurance. Your attorney will help you recover losses from these programs that offer assistance to victims of drunk drivers.
Drunk drivers and the chaos they cause are responsible for enormous amounts of pain and suffering.
About the Author
If you or a loved one has been the victim of a drunk driver and you live in Orlando, Florida or the surrounding area, please visit the website of Florida personal injury attorneys Best & Anderson, P.A., Attorneys at Law today to learn about your legal rights and what compensation you may be entitled to.
By the way . . . I'm not racist. And life itself is ludicrously sexist. Our Baptist Church was colored only, and we worked very hard for civil rights during those times, but hardly at all for women's rights. This story is partly about that silent and much neglected fact.
When the Negro menfolk in front of the fateful scene at the colored hotel got together for the photo of the murder of Dr. Kane, they pointed their arms wildly in circles, more or less in the direction of the sniper. Shocked utmost, they couldn't think or point straight. They had been the great black man's protective entourage. Lots of people would have died to have taken those bullets, and those young men were no exception. But it was too late; Dr. Kane was dead of several gunshot wounds in his hotel room.
So the men were quite put out, completely frightened witless, as they gesticulated like waving palm fronds in a house fire. Screaming loudly, appearing to be forever lost, they were nonetheless an equivocal bloblike group of all male togetherness. I stood there, trying to get to the hotel room, unable to push past their bunched up moving group.
I was the maid. I had to go inside, into Dr. Kane's hotel room. I had the equipment around the corner. I was waiting - because I was stark staring terrified the sniper would shoot me. He was right around the corner on the opposite side of the tracks, only about a hundred feet away. And he had a gun with an excellent sight. Pausing momentarily, I was standing there realizing something, and then I hated myself completely. I had been told by our hotel management to go mop up the room.
I had to get at the hotel room's towels first. I would be cleaning up some excess blood, slightly. And of course, in the popular and famous colored hotel we were working at, the towels ran short sometimes. I was stuck taking the blame for that, and they were constantly threatening to fire me from my job for breathing. In spite of them, I liked the man who had been kindly staying at our hotel - for being what he wasn't: a fat comic.
Dying in public was such a martyr thing to do. Martin the Martyr - what a name, what a fate. He was a serious victim like me, a social pawn. I was in love with the guy for breathing, even though he wasn't. I still wanted to. Anyway, I was stuck standing there, idiotically wondering if James Earl Ray, the assassin as it turned out, liked to shoot hotel maids.
I finally let out a dry chuckle. Both of those young men, famous and infamous, would have to face a terrible final reckoning. Life was totally unjust and unfair. I had no real man in my life to take care of me. Also, I had no unearthly paradise known as Heaven, especially anymore. Now that Dr. Kane was dead, who knew what was going to happen next?
Trembling with both fear and rage, I had a feeling the murderer was going to shoot me. Meanwhile, I had to plan something to get in there to mop up the room, if I wanted to keep my job. Coughing into my fist, I thought I'd rather be shot dead than to undergo such ridiculous indignity.
Then Joshua Jackson ran into the room. I thought, the guy is going to check on the "amazing grace character" in there, namely a Baptist fountain of blood. Y'see, our church worshipped such strange stuff as "fountains of blood of Jesus." They hated it, but we Baptists were supposed to go be Jesus more so than we ever seemed to. It was somehow important culturally. So I wondered if he went in there to mourn, or worship.
Suddenly, it hit me that someone else was going to see it all. Childish curiosity almost got hold of my so-called "soul." I wanted to see what was happening briefly, but felt screamingly depressed. Not because I wasn't bathing in a fountain of Jesus' amazing blood, like our church was always singing about, but because I had to hold my amazing job. The streets are not a pretty thing to do, especially when you're colored in the Deep South. Mostly I had to go in and do my job, or I'd be fired.
Anyway, I waited a long time for Mr. Jackson. I thought I heard mumbling sounds and some thrashing. I waited until it settled down, figuring that while I harrumphed to myself, the amazing toy man - at least, people treated him like he was one - was getting dead in the usual way. Previous to my maid job, I had been a nurse at a county hospital. I had seen people die. I would miss the amazing toy man to myself, but I was getting impatient, and I had to get back to my house at five o'clock or five thirty and fix dinner for my abusive husband, or he might beat me - or even kill me. That's why I didn't suffer much over the death of Dr. Kane., aside from worrying over whether the assassin would shoot me too.
Why bother? If my death didn't matter, why mourn someone else's?
Coughing, I wondered if Dr. Kane abused his wife Coletta. I was a bold Coletta fan to myself in my own Hitchcockian Star Trek Twilight Zone. Fairer skinned than her husband, she was a much learned lady and his intellectual equal. I was also part white, kind of Semitic, having to hide myself from strangers, sometimes. Because I wasn't really Jewish, but I came from those roots and looked medium toned racially impure. The hotel the great man had been killed at was one of the few places that would hire me, as back in those days places didn't often hire colored folk, along with the white people geriatric hospital - at which I had been a bed pan orderly.
At the hospital, when someone died, we had to vacate the bed rather quickly. You don't leave dead people lying around for very long. You get them down to the morgue and they then get shipped out by car to the funeral home. Standing around outside the hotel room was getting to be rather obtuse; I couldn't keep the people downstairs waiting any longer. I'd have to get in there, sniper or no sniper, even if I died doing it.
So after a long time of feeling like cowering, I finally breathed a big sigh of relief and shouted, "So are you still over there yet?" I screamed really loud, but got no response. Gathering myself, I waltzed the ten million light years around my maid cart. Death was actually real. I had to leave the hotel cart behind - because it could barely fit around the wall's corner. I thought as I left that I was to blame for not getting around it. I paused. I went back and tried to pull the cart around, and managed to get it in front of the room.
Then it dawned on me what a nice hotel this had been for a fat man who was now in Paradise. It had housed many of the greats of jazz and black culture in its time, including comedians. But Dr. Kane was not truly a fat comic, as he'd been dead serious about everything he'd ever said, which involved getting human rights for colored people and getting rid of racial segregation. I was in favor of that, but not very grateful, being an abused wife with a small daughter at home. I was not in Paradise myself, not yet, but I briefly had to wonder where "He" had gone.
He was so cool, I smiled to myself. But then, clutching my throat, I realized he was so - dead. And he was inconveniently leaving a mess for me to clean up. I frowned summarily, and froze up. But I thought, well, it's really only some blood, nothing special I haven't seen before. Any diseases didn't really matter to me, as I'd been exposed to them when I'd worked in the hospital. And Mr. Jackson had raced right in as I had read he had done in the papers. The man had done his track at college.
I finally got the cart into the room by jerking and pulling it around the tight corner. I was standing behind the cart in the room with the dead great man. I was solid there for two seconds, hoping that all "great men" would die someday. One of them was coming home to me. I wondered briefly about the relationships between suns, moons and stars, and life on Venus and Mars. "Fly me to the moon," I muttered to myself under my breath.
Meanwhile, I understood that any second now, unimportant I was possibly going to be executed. Briefly, I had seemed to see the assassin's face by looking over yonder. Gazing down at the dead man's corpse, I stared for a moment into an unequivocal "maybe." I would join him by jerking around like a demented puppet, or not. My heart sunk as I realized that such a death would not have anywhere near the honor of Dr. Kane's death. His had been an assassination; mine would be an accident. I was merely the hotel room maid - and was being made fun of by impertinent people.
Would the gunman shoot me? And for that matter, did I really care? At least we'd go down in history together, although I could only picture the brief newspaper story reading, "Maid dies after Dr. Kane." I had been involved in civil rights protests, but only as a minor participant. I was a nobody.
Gazing off into the far distance, I twisted my narrow lips into a thin smile, daydreaming that one of these overgrown boys had summarily died for me. I was about to make up for the debt through my chosen husband if I didn't get home in time, and I was immobilized by the thing called death that was behind me. What if the crazy sniper so much as saw another human back? Would I find a proper towel in time? What about the fat man's lacy white kerchief? Would they arrest me if they thought I had stolen that? And that thing on the floor was no longer human; it was a motionless death trap. In the shadows, it loomed large - as the Specter of Death.
Not to worry, I told myself. I smiled the Black Cat, an African grin that means you're not afraid, and began the search for towels. Sooner or later, they would come to collect the body. I wrangled with myself, and then I "got it up" – already - and went to the Spartan little bathroom, did my business, and flushed it, but shakily. It was like the room was spinning all around me, a kid's ride in an obscene amusement park, waiting to die.
I successfully wiped, washed my hands and got out, but then I remembered I needed to get some towels. I had to go back and collect them - while facing the awful cataclysm in the room behind me. The dead great man's body was in outer space for a moment, but I was definitely in my own disembodied living body, breathing for a space of time longer.
I received the anointment of the towels in a white shaggy pile against my chest, and stalked slowly out to the room. The great man's sad corpse was still bunched up, lying there. He was partly turned onto his right side, wearing a dark grey business suit and oozing puddles of blood.
I looked behind me to see if anyone was watching, and gave the corpse a medium kick to see if anything was going on. Nothing was, so I began the mop up with the towels. I poked him gently, and then I looked closely at his beautiful, handsome black face, so Negro and with a fine mustache.
It was extremely destroyed. It had been there, but it was not there. It was a cave with no smile, peeled back and sunken in. As it was dark in the room, I didn't feel like throwing up, though I almost did. Throwing my head to one side, I could see out the glass window. The sniper was still over across from me, disassembling the gun. He was visibly shaken. I began to realize once again that I could see him, and so did he. What should I do?
What if I acted like I was friendly? Would he buy it, coming from a colored lady who might have loved the dead man for trying to win human rights for our people? Or would he think perhaps an underprivileged woman would not have respect for him, as his speeches had oft mentioned men and children, but not women, usually speaking of "the brotherhood of man?"
My hands trembled as I bent partway over, but I knew that I had to hurry and get home. My husband was always trying to make me come home by five or five thirty, or he'd threaten me. I glanced at my watch. Then the loudest, most obnoxious sound occurred, filling the air around my head with its sad smelliness - a final, ceremonial and gratis fart.
I breathed in an elegant, funky sigh, which was at least partly a painful sob, bending over to mop at the sunken body some more with a small face towel. I suddenly saw the larger hand towel I was looking for, scrunched up against me; it was so thick, white and fluffy, and I dabbed at my tears. I cursed myself for showing my pained feelings in front of the sniper.
Rubbing at my dripping nose, I let the towel drop from my heaving chest. I soaked up some of the major blood, waving it at the still visible sniper, and stuffed it briefly into my green apron's pocket - while thinking something about what a great man this dead guy might be. In a world of sexism where wife abuse was common, was it possible to be great, even if you were dead – or especially if you were dead? Briefly, I wondered, and gulped.
I stuffed the red stained hand towel all the way clear down into my pocket. And I used a face towel to wipe off my right hand with the other wedding ring on it, deciding to keep only the hand towel. Sniffling, I determined to keep myself from crying - or feeling anything further. I was only soaking a towel in blood to sell it later, not mourning the dead, and this man was not a relative of mine, or anyone who could help me any further.
I left the corpse behind, and then I looked at the door that wasn't exactly being pounded on. I heard noise, but nothing coming near the room. Well, I went out on the balcony and waved the towel at whoever was still across the way, and saw the man who had killed Dr. Kane. I waved my towel at him, smiling the Black Cat to let him know "all was well." I was taking my chances. He was at the end of dismantling his gun, and he seemed to look down - as if his faith in humanity had greatly died.
Much relieved, I knew now he wasn't going to shoot me. I memorized his ugly features, but figured they would find him, so I wasn't too worried. The great man's entourage had seen him earlier, and had probably summoned the cops. I heard later they chased him all the way to England.
I figured it was for the best. If my own husband ever murdered me, I didn't think anything real would be done about it, so I didn't care whether or not they caught Dr. Kane's murderer. It didn't bring him back to life or undo anything that had already happened. It's not that I was ungrateful when it came to the wonderful things Dr. Kane had done. I merely needed the money. I had a young daughter to raise, and might have to leave my husband. Surely the amazing towel would make me a fortune, once I found the right collection-minded buyer.
Most importantly, I now held the amazing, blood-soaked hotel towel. The martyr-born sacred object was finally in my cold fingered grasp. I knew that it would sell someday as prime memorabilia. It had no special scent of justice on it. I walked away from my job in the room. I was going home at last. I had the most expensive towel I had ever collected in my life. I smiled. I was going to make My Favorite Martyr appear in human history later, all by myself. I had established a collector's item - in my own greedy mind. All I had to do was wait a couple years, after the hubbub had died down.
Here came the reporters. I stepped back against the outside floor's metal railing, and one of them brushed a certain body part as they all shoved their way into the room. I was jerking like a puppet, my heart was pounding, and I had been there and in on it, all the way. I had both an incredible story - and the hotel towel. The one from the room he'd died in, the very room!
As the flashlights popped, I turned to race down the stairs. Uneducated me was holding a small fortune in her blood-reddened apron. I collected my amazing "character," as money-oriented as it may be, and knew I was going to be late home. If so, my husband might beat me up, or even kill me. But I had a chance at life nestled in my apron pocket.
"I hate men, all men," I chanted to myself as I descended the first flight of stairs. "I'm doing this for my daughter and me. You can't stop us!"
Dead men take vengeance, I suppose, from a time and a distance away. Banging into the stairs railing, I was looking down far onto the ground below. It seemed to zoom upwards, as my stomach did flips, and I lurched. Pulling away, I was diving around the stair's corner in a lost little world that I was only too glad to throw away. The railing was there, hard, tempting me to throw myself off. Trembling, I did not jump over the edge.
"There's no such thing as justice; I'm not evil." I thought perhaps I lied, but while thinking I might be right. After all, when was my life ever fair? "Don't judge my by the color of my skin; judge me by how much money I've got," I breathed to myself, glancing down at the metal steps below. Their peeling paint attested to my poverty stricken life, which would surely change.
Sighing, I collected myself and "established justice" by waltzing down the stairs. It was wonderful of me to judge a man - not by his skin color - but by my amazing towel. The dead Dr. Kane had helped someone else out again. I thought to myself, surely he would approve - if he knew about it. And if not, so what? He'd be another hard headed, hard hearted man. I didn't believe he was like that, and hoped for his blessing. Still, I felt a little guilt ridden, taking a hotel towel soaked in his dying, martyred blood, only to sell it.
I was headed home in a big fat hairy hurry with a gift from God himself in my green hotel maid apron's pocket. I was going to keep that amazing towel for several decades, until it was worth some big bucks in the Heaven which I would surely never obtain, as it didn't exist.
Years later, I sold the amazing "Elvis Presley" souvenir towel. I could find no one who wanted to buy the one from Dr. Kane. For you see, I told everyone that it contained the blood of the amazing "Elvis Presley." And so I sold the towel to the one "true believer" in Elvis the Pelvis - who had tried to come on to me after I got the Black Eye from my abusive husband. The divorce had settled - and I'd gotten custody of my daughter. She had talked me out of selling the towel as Dr. Kane's, saying that it was in poor taste to sell an American Negro martyr's blood.
"Just say it's Elvis Presley's blood," she said, "Nobody cares about him; he was only a white Indian who sang really well, not an important martyred political figure responsible for the lives of millions of people."
I still went to my church sometimes, but it was filling up with other colored people with angry characters, so I left. I was hiding like sixty, but at least I had someone well convinced about the nature of the amazing "Elvis Presley" towel. I finally sold it on EBay, where we traded pictures, and he really went for the Elvis routine. He himself was rather handsome, and we dated - for awhile. He threw me over for some blonde chick with a limp. He kept telling me he had to take care of her.
In my dreams, in my sleep, I was "burninhellvalkery" - my EBay username - who had sold her soul to the Devil. But I received only $500 in cash for said amazing towel. It helped put my daughter through school, and she excelled at most of her subjects. But she was killed by a drunk driver last August. She had been nice, but she tended to blame me for taking the towel of a fat - but macho - martyred Negro comic…
…away. Take it away, whoever you are. Take it away. And play jazz on it forever.
About the Author
Executive Director and President of Rainbow Writing, Inc., Karen Cole writes. RWI at http://www.rainbowriting.com is a renowned inexpensive and affordable professional freelance writers, book authors, ghost writers, copy editors, proof readers, coauthors, manuscript rewriters, graphics and CAD, digital and other photographers, publishing assistance and screenplay writers, editors, developers and analysts service.
VANCOUVER CAR CRASH PICK UP TRUCK HITS HOUSE POSSIBLE DRUNK DRIVER
The Feminine Power of the Full Moon in Gemini and Venus in Sagittarius
Even if Thanksgiving is over I still feel as if it is a special time of the year and somehow holidays. And it is! The year is nearing towards its end; Christmas is almost there and we have to decide how we want to spend that time. Christmas is always the best with children and I remember fondly my childhood Christmases with my family. They would be the baking of cookies and the preparation of handcrafted gifts for my parents. I remember evenings with candle light and Christmas music.
Maybe we do not need to spend big money to make it a memorable time and we can get creative in how to create something special for our family. With the economical challenges we are facing there is definitely an incentive given for creating new rituals and ways to celebrate without spending a fortune. This weeks forecast from Monday November 30 to December 7, 2009 is centered on the feminine with the Full Moon opposing Sun in Sagittarius joined by a wide opposition of Venus. But you will also find value in the discussion if you just want to look up information about the planets in their signs. Full Moon in Gemini on Tuesday The Moon is representing the principle of life and life sustaining nourishment, the archetypal mother and child. The Moon is how we feel and perceive life. It is our emotional filter and inner ground we stand on. The Moon in our personal charts is indicating what we need to feel safe and comfortable and gives insights into our family dynamics in our family of origin.
The Full Moon is at her fullest power and extension and is accompanied by a high level of awareness with the opposing Sun giving the fullest light of consciousness. Full Moons keep my cats out all night on important cat business and might gift me with more restless nights.
Statistically there is more drunk driving and brawls in the bars which doesn’t seem to be in alignment with a higher consciousness. But maybe we use those measures to insure we don’t feel or see too much about ourselves. Not everybody values more clarity and exposure of unconscious inner material to surface and we all have a personal way to navigate the currents of life. Full Moon in Gemini has a high flexibility and is more mentally colored then in other signs. Gemini is ruled by Mercury and is an air sign. We feel curious, adventurous and like mental inspiration, exchange of new ideas or discussions. We will feel socially inclined, get together with our friends and enjoy the pre holiday mood. It is a good time to write our Christmas correspondence and send our packages off to far away loved ones.
The time of Thanksgiving and Christmas is centered around family. And even if we cannot choose our family, we can make sure to take care for unfinished business and reach out with forgiveness if needed. Forgiveness is never for the other person it is always for ourselves to find a harmonious inner place with others. It doesn’t mean we necessarily like the other person but we can still love them on a deeper inner level.
This Full Moon in Gemini will give us the neutral perspective and analytical measures of our inner emotional dynamics. If used properly Lunar can help us to find the right words and higher perspective to truly make it a season of peace and harmony. Venus in Sagittarius on Tuesday When Venus has joined the Sun and Mercury already residing in Sagittarius we will feel an inner expansion and exhilaration. Venus the Goddess of love, harmony and beauty feels very gregarious and loves to share herself. But with three planets in this sign there is a tendency to also be very righteous about our personal perspective of life and might push us into preaching our truth a little too forceful and turning into a missionary.
The balance between Venus in Sagittarius and Full Moon in Gemini is in the balance of the broader spectrum of choices and a multitude of inspiring ideas of the Gemini spirit with the bigger overview and more meaningful perspective of Sagittarius.
Get ready for a delightful week with lots of fun, impressions and social interactions.
Uranus in Pisces Turns Direct on Tuesday The innovative and rebellious spirit of Uranus will step more into the foreground and prepares us for the last conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius next week. Uranus is sowing and sprouting the seeds for big collective changes through revolution, innovation and inventions. Uranus is the role model and rebel who is carrying the new paradigm and steps non-hesitantly into the unknown future based on his inner vision and guidance. Venus Sextile Saturn on Friday Our joy can flourish within self set boundaries. Common sense prevails. Spending does not need to go overboard on Christmas shopping sprees, because we already have set our intentions on what is truly important and in the true spirit of Christmas for us earlier on in the week. We can feel closeness and intimacy with our friends and family without impingement.
Mercury Shifts into Capricorn on Saturday The Mercury in Capricorn will be carefully planning for the coming holidays and establish the budget and needs. Capricorn is an excellent planner and organizer and will help us to keep on top of the many demands on our time and resources this month.
On Monday there will be a conjunction with Pluto which can take us into more obsessive thinking and tends to dig up hidden layers in relationships. We might fight about something with our spouse or get anxious and overwhelmed. Pluto always brings intensity and cleans out the pathways for a closer and more intimate relating afterwards. I always think about Pluto as deep cleaning in areas which have gone stagnant and stale. Renewal and rejuvenation comes out of it. The Gemstone for the Week is Apophyllite Apophyllite is under the influence of Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron and therefore very fitting for this and the coming week. Apophyllite is a very rare, light green, four-sided, diamond-faced crystal found in only one place on the Earth, in Poona, India. The Poona mine was closed after some years of operation due to the objections of citizens to the dynamiting in the middle of their city; thus this is a very rare stone and good pieces are hard to find nowadays.
I love this stone because of its unique generous qualities for the heart. In its natural crystallized form it can be set into beautiful pendants and worn right over the heart. This is a stone for the heart chakra and connects us to the Christ consciousness and love in its highest form. This energy is focused in our heart and connects us with the quality of compassion as a result of realizing who we really are: eternal spiritual beings of love, experiencing ourselves as humans on this earthly plane.
The light color of Apophyllite is soft and gentle, almost like a fragrance, and its energy very subtle, soothing, and expanding. The heart’s longing is to experience communion and oneness with God, with life in all its facets. It is the longing of the soul to melt the shell around the heart and heal its wounds, and compassion is the natural outcome of this process.
The planet Chiron represents the wounded healer. Chiron shows us our deepest hurt on the astrological chart. He shows us where we need to heal ourselves and where we can become a healer for others as a result of our own experience. Chiron and Neptune are hand in hand, joining their energies together to help us experience the highest truth of love and compassion: this is what we call “Christ consciousness.”
Apophyllite also may bring up emotions that are not in line with the Christ consciousness. It may work as an accelerator of spiritual growth by helping us to cleanse ourselves of grief, anger, jealousy, and fear— all the so-called negative emotions—by realigning ourselves with the truth that we are divine consciousness. This crystal is one of the most powerful healers for the heart and thus it is a stone for healers. It is very beneficial to wear this beautiful, unique gem over the heart, or for meditation you may put it on your third eye or on your heart chakra. It goes very well together with the Ruby or Spinel, which add other aspects of the heart.” [1]
It makes a wonderful gift for yourself or a loved one and you can have a look at some examples on my website Shaktijewelry.
If you like my approach to astrology, you can sign up for my newsletter and I will send you a free weekly astrological weather report forecast on the universal flow and planetary positions. If you know what is going on in the heavens you can then align yourself for more joy and success in your life. What I like about the abilities of the gemstones is that they offer a remedy to relax stressful aspects and positions in our personal chart as well as for the time quality of the present moment.
Enjoy your week, aloha and many blessings, Shakti.
Shakti Carola Navran: astrologer, jeweler and author
Shakti Carola Navran is originally from Germany, living in Maui, Hawaii, is a professional jeweler, astrologer and author with a lifelong spiritual journey; she has been crafting personalized Soul Jewelry since 1977.
In her book Jewelry and Gems for Self-Discovery: Choosing Gemstones that Delight the Eyes & Strengthen the Soul she teaches you about how to read your personal horoscope and blue print for your life. Then you will be able to balance yourself in your most important areas with your 12 main healing gemstones, you could call your true birthstones.
Jewelry and Gems for Self-Discovery is a treasure chest of ideas on how to select, purchase, and wear jewelry that will enhance your body, heart, mind, and soul. Find out more about it on her website http://www.JewelryandGemsforSelfdiscovery.com and see her astrological weather report at http://www.jewelryandgemsforselfdiscovery.com/blog/ .
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