The Illusion of Deprivation

Up until now, deprivation is something many of us have not seriously had to deal with. In light of the impending financial situation many of us will be finding ourselves in, the act of desire and the emotion of deprivation may become an issue. Deprivation as in the act of dispossessing, the grieving there of and the loss of dignity as a result. An Illusion, in the context of a deception, or misleading impression of reality, that causes the deprivation.

While it may be assumed the root of the illusion lies in envy, it is not always envy, which helps to perpetuate the system. Envy, is such an insidious emotion, and is really detrimental to those who are trying to practice the law of attraction in a positive way. The law of attraction states that what you send out is what you get back. As it applies, envy would not get you the position of being envied, but the negativity of more to be envious of. Whether you realize it or not we all practice and are recipients of the law of attraction. So whether or not you intend to create situations for yourself you are. If this is true, if the law of attraction simply is, it would make much more sense for us all to unlearn some of our wrong, or unhealthy thought patterns and replace them with less harmful however positive thought forms. Rather than being envious of those whose good fortune seems to have landed them something we desire, be it an item, a position, or simply their quick wit, it would be healthier for us to celebrate their good fortune with them, be happy for them, bless their prosperity and part with the knowledge they will celebrate with us when it becomes our good fortune.
We have been conditioned to believe owning trend setting items makes us appear important, or capable of manipulating capitol to an extent, enabling us to possess trend items that symbolize prosperity, and social dominance. The illusion is the unspoken assumption, which implies, status, self-esteem; belonging, fitting in, and having arrived are monetarily attainable. The deprivation of wanting to attain social status, and the disappointment, loss of self-worth, and assumed or not social status, because there just simply isn’t a way to make it happen, can be emotionally devastating. But do we really understand why we feel we are so deprived; do we really consciously separate the want of the item from the desire to be socially acceptable? Maybe if the illusion can be examined it can be disarmed.

It seems to be human nature, or perhaps we are hard wired this way. The manufacturers know this just as well as the advertisers who push the products. It is the social elite who decide the products that make the list. If the advertisers do their job correctly the social elite are guided to make the assumption of what the next item on the list should be, and if you don’t, or are not in a position to purchase it then you must not be elite enough to be a trendsetter, to be the leader of the pack, or the Alpha. It is an illusion, because it is, by it’s very own definition, a deception, which is ever changing. It is ever changing because there is an endless supply of new trend purchases to be had, and for the alpha to stay alpha they have to be ahead.

For those who are not the social elite, the race to not be ostracized as an outcast because of a financial inability, or unwillingness to play the game is a fine line. The insinuation rampant in our society that you are not, or are less than if you can’t or won’t accomplish the acquirement of specific physical possessions, is another aspect that feeds the illusion. Nonconformity to the social norm is also dangerous both to the nonconformist and to the illusion itself. For the nonconformer, it is a threat to the very existence, which provides the opportunity of the pursuit of happiness. Nonconformity can be mistaken for a form of mental illness, because nonconformity itself is a criterion by which some psychological disorders are diagnosed. If one is perceived in their environment as being antisocial because they are not participating they can be ostracized, out of the assumption something is wrong with them. If there are enough who are not conforming, it is a threat to the illusion because the illusion cannot survive without participants. A non-conformist can be in control as long as their strength of character, and authenticness, is rich enough to through their individualism make them appear desirable to the social elite.

Where did we as a society, get to the point to where individuals are cast according to what we can physically manipulate rather than the integrity of an original authentic individual, with character. It is rather the exact opposite of authenticity, which seems to be rewarded. For many it is the ability to willingly follow policy or to prostitute oneself for money. In prostitution I mean the act of selling ones morals, ones ideals for a paycheck be it corporate institutions or flipping burgers for a chance to either exist paycheck to paycheck or to achieve beyond that by strategically purchasing pieces of the illusion.

We for the most part in our society do not have an equitable exchange of energy for compensation. Do you believe the people who work in the industries at minimum wage are given equitable exchange for their effort? With our increasingly active lives we patron the conveniences made available by the instant service industries, to save time, or as we can. In many of these industries workers have to show up sick or not, or be looking for another position. Do you think this is okay? Is it morally acceptable? It seems this too is a form of preying on the weaker, or less fortunate, at least until they can find the means to acquire a position with a more equitable exchange.

If your arrival to the elite has been purchased through prostitution, then what value is it? And that is not to say everyone is in prostitution. There are those who are fortunate enough to actually earn compensation for what they do, enjoy their positions, without having to sell out, however far and few between. If your position or the company you exchange for is one, which preys on the weaker, takes advantage of and perpetuates the illusion being sold in the current market, then how is that morally acceptable? Should it be?

Yes I understand there are slackers, but if we weren’t in pursuit of the illusion would there be? Could it be possible some slackers act from resentment of the illusion, which they perceive to be unattainable? Is being a slacker more or less moral than one who prostitutes their morals for money? More or less evolved, or enlightened than?

To continue to allow ourselves to feel we are deprived until we can attain a possession which states we are somebody is to continue to do ourselves a great injustice. No one should be measured by the possessions they have but rather by the authenticity of who they are, by their character. No one can make us feel we are less than, unless we first allow it. So you want that super cool sports car? There is nothing wrong with that. But before you go get yourself one, honestly question first why you desire it. If it is, to make people envy you, or to get you noticed, to buy your status, you just might be disappointed. But, if you want it because they are fun to drive, and or you appreciate the art form, the beauty of the way it looks, then your expectation of what you are buying is not being built on illusion.

This article comes from my effort to explain one aspect of life to my children. It is out of my effort to have them grow into individuals with wisdom and understanding as well as to have a rich fulfilled purpose in their pursuit of happiness in their lives.


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Advertising, The Psychological Influence on Our Children

It starts out simply enough, our kids watch cartoons, but to pay for those cartoons advertisers need to by ad space right? Well it wouldn’t make much sense for companies, which manufacture appliances to advertise to children. Since the potential target watching the cartoons, would not in the least bit be interested in how many wash cycles a washer has. It makes sense for the companies, which cater to children use this time to target their market.

Since it can be readily assumed, children for the most part are not in control of the money, they, the advertisers have achieved, what I perceive to be, the top of the art form in psychologically pin pointing the formula that works while also reaching an all time low of sinister implications used in ads.

The ads have to:




Convince the children this is what they want so much so to enable the children to convince their parents to, or allow the children to purchase, the item.

There is also the insinuation that if they don’t already have one, they better get one fast or they aren’t cool, or in the “in” group

And if their parents don’t get them one, then apparently their parents do not love them enough to help them join the cool “in” group.

If your not careful, it can instill in your children to be envious of those children, who do.


What is really sinister about this is that it sets kids up to when they grow up and start earning money on their own, to stay in the cool “in” group by purchasing the items deemed to be necessary, by whom? The advertisers, to once again stay in the cool “in” group.

Hence the old game of keeping up with the Jones’s

And assuming you have kids, have you noticed that more than 90% of the toys your kids have they do not play with? Oh sure they may empty the toy box out to get to the bottom of it, or strew toys around the house which get left out and forgotten under the sofa, but do they really spend quality time interacting with the toy?

The solution? I don’t know if there actually is a foolproof solution, but this is what I do.

When my kids ask me for something I know is advertised, I tell them I’ll look into it and think about it. A lot of times depending on their age this is enough. As they get older however, this doesn’t work quite so well. I begin explaining the art of advertisement. When they start to understand, I begin to explain to them the psychology behind the ads by asking them questions such as what do you think this toy is supposed to do? Why do you think you want it? To start to help them make the connection that the toys often do not physically perform everything that has been implied it does. From past experience the children themselves can recognize this because they have indeed been disappointed. As well that what they have been led to assume it is supposed to do, as in make them be loved unconditionally by their parents, get them in the “in” group, it does not, and this they can understand as well. I also explain that when the item does not perform as promised the children end up disappointed, once again and begin to search for something else which has the magic formula of doing what it is supposed to do, which of course does not exist.


So does this mean that my kids live in a toy free, advertisement free environment? No, however, it does mean that I do not purchase toys that are advertised unless it is something I know my kids will play with repeatedly over a course of time. By the same principal I also do not purchase clothing that advertises tween or teen music of the moment, movies or movie characters or anything from the companies I feel to be the most egregious offenders in the children’s advertising industries. Instead I purchase something I know they will actually play with or enjoy, or clothing, which emphasizes their unique personalities, which I know they will love.
And too by their persona not being associated with things they are more authentic individuals, and because they are so, are also popular in their peer groups.

I believe that in doing this I am encouraging my children to have healthier self-esteems and to not associate their identities with property. Or to compare their lives and what they do not have with the ones who do. I do all of this while reinforcing the love I have for them and explaining also that it is because of this love that I do not want them to fall in the trap of believing something, which is not true about themselves, and the life long pursuit of that which cannot be purchased.


Look for yourself at the implications in the advertising, and open your mind and evaluate for yourself just how far reaching you believe the effects of the implications go.

Let me add here this is My opinion and observation, upon introspection.

Thank you for your time,
I hope you enjoyed reading this,
I also hope that it indeed gave you something to think about.

All in Rue Thyme

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Living by The Moon

Preface to the By the Moon Articles


It was some time ago that I, quite by accident, was introduced to the practice of living by the moon. At the time I thought, no, this doesn’t work, and what? Are you kidding me? People used to do things this way? But, through all of my skepticism and doubt, over the years I have found that indeed, it does make a difference. Does it make a difference because I believe it does? Or is it just simply coincidence? Or does it really just work this way? I don’t know. But this is what happened in my life.
I was at the time 26 or 27, and I had planted some Zinnia seeds by my patio, it was the first time I had ever tried growing plants from seed, and much to my surprise they actually came up and thrived. So I decided to plant more, well these sprouted, but they grew up spindly and then when they got leaves, the stalk was to weak to support the leaves and they fell over and died. They were in the same soil, the same amount of sun, the same water and I couldn’t understand why the others had done so well, but these had just mysteriously died.



My mother in law had come for a visit, and knew right away what the issue was and she told me that a long time ago it was common practice to plant things by the moon. Her father had been a farmer and she had grown up with this knowledge. It was her opinion that because I had planted the second set of seeds against the moon it was no wonder they had not thrived.

Over the next few years, I considered this new, albeit strange information, which to me seemed like something akin to witchcraft having been raised deep in the Bible belt, but not on a farm. However, I made a decision. In the future when I planted things I would follow the rule and after a while I tried again to start something from seed against the moon, and the same thing happened. So I concluded, for what ever reason it must work and I have been planting lush, bountiful gardens with the moon ever since.

One day I had gone to the bookstore with a friend and there on the clearance rack was a book entitled Moon Time by Johanna Paungger and Thomas Pope. I bought that book and learned that planting by the moon isn’t the end of it, it goes into many different aspects of life including cutting your hair to grow slower or faster, setting fence posts, pouring concrete, etc.

What I have come to realize through the law of attraction is that everything, absolutely everything has a vibration. For example, we all know that Lavender is soothing. From my perspective it is the vibration of lavender that allows it to be so. It is not only the assigned vibration, but also as through the years people have been using it with the intent that it has this property, has in effect made it so, or more so. When you use something with the intent that it’s vibrations work, you are also attuning that property into it.

While I understand that in today’s technological environment and the right now impatience we seem to live our lives by, it is difficult to grasp some of the older ways of doing things. It seems archaic, old fashioned and even a bit mysterious. I realized this after my brother in law, who also was raised on a farm but more of a ranch, called me a witch for telling him we can’t plant that now, or that it would be better if we planted it when the moon was etc. It amuses me that he would think so, and I assure you I am not. My saving grace was that his father was also well versed in the knowledge, but they had not chosen to do things this way.

There are however a lot of us who have become aware that the influence of the moons energies are still, and I suppose always will be, evident in our day to day lives, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. If one where to take into consideration the full moon and the status of the emergency rooms across the country, and the increase in police sirens during this time, (we live in the city) along with the fact that the moon controls the waves of the oceans and we are ourselves at least 70% water, as archaic as it may seem and even though it also seems to be without reason or logic, we are still descended from our ancestors and still affected by the vibrational energy that is all around us.


The information I am basing my moon related articles come from many different books and almanacs, including the Old Farmers Almanac, which has been published since 1792.


To find the phase and placement of the moon go to:
http://www.almanac.com/astronomy/moon/index.php
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The Ghost of Ina Mary

This past summer, I had asked my mom if she had an old window because I wanted to use it as a window dressing in my dinning room. She didn’t have an old window, but she did have an old mirror she thought would work for what I wanted, so they brought that instead.

It looks as though it may have been from an old dresser or a door from a medicine cabinet in an old house. At one time it was painted white, but now the paint is peeling, and the silver on the mirror is thinned in several places to a transparency that adds interest to the piece. I wanted to add dimension to the dinning room and at Christmas time and Valentines and Easter, I had plans on hanging ornate glass ornaments from the bottom as a way of more decorating and more for me to do as if I didn’t already have enough. But it was just something I wanted.

It sat in my dinning room for a while glass facing the wall until I decided to hang it during a cleaning spree. It stayed up for about one week, and this is why. One Friday evening, while I was out on the patio, my son John, 18 at the time, approached me and said that Ann, 5 at the time, had come to him and told him she was hearing voices. That is the point where I choked on my coffee; I sat up straight, and listened as John recounted what he had been told. At the time Ann did not know John and I were talking, she was busy playing and watching T.V. He said that she entrusted to him that she couldn’t sleep at night because these voices are keeping her up.

We had an interesting conversation about some of our past paranormal experiences, and what needed to be done. John also told me about a recent incident he had while he was at his girlfriend’s house, where he sometimes is allowed to sleep in the living room. He had seen Ina Mary, my husband’s adoptive mother in the T. V. screen, but it was very brief and in between the state of not really being all the way asleep and not really be all the way awake. He further mentioned that in his opinion I had been careless in hanging that, what he called an old antique window in the dinning room and he thought that was where the "whatever" they are were coming from.

He then left to go out on a date with his girlfriend, and the entire conversation had taken place without Ann’s knowledge.

A little while later that same evening I was still out on the patio going over what John had said and thinking about what I needed to do, when Ann came out the door and asked if she could tell me a secret. Usually this means that she wants to tell on her brother, or tell me she loves me, it’s her way of getting my attention. I had a broken pair of sunglasses on the table and she picked up the loose eye piece, held it up to her eye, and quickly moved it back away from her eye and said "I saw something" I said "what did you see," she said "it was a ghost, and it’s going over next door" She then lowered her chin and looked at me through her eyes as if to gauge my reaction, as though she thought she might get into trouble for telling me and said "Mom, I can see them without this" and she indicated the eyepiece. Then she said, "Mom, you know that girl from the farm that died while you were pregnant with me? I said "Who?" She repeated, "You know the one that died while you were pregnant with me?" I said "Ina Mary?" She said "yes, she is here with me now."

Ina Mary had indeed passed in April the year that Ann was born, from complications of Alzheimer’s. Ann had not been told to my knowledge about my being pregnant with her when Ina Mary passed, or for that matter exactly what Ina Mary looked like, we do have pictures but they are not displayed and no one has gone through the pictures with her yet as she has not expressed an interest in knowing any background information on the extended family, present or not.


Ann reported she had also seen Ina Mary in the T.V screen in our house, just like John had, but now it was in my house, not his girlfriends. Then she said there were others, many others. She talked more so about a little boy a little older than her and his sister and their mother. She also, just like John, thought they were coming in through the mirror. When she stopped as though she had no more to tell, I started asking questions. She was unwilling to talk about some of the more "scary" ghosts except to tell me they wanted her to do things she knew she wasn’t supposed to do, but she would answer questions about the little boy and his family. She also reported that Ina Mary scared her as Ina Mary wanted to keep Ann close and Ann felt that Ina Mary wanted Ann to join her so Ina Mary could keep her safe.

I can’t remember at this time what the little boys name was, but I did get her to ask him and try to pin point it down to about what period they were alive and passed and she reported back they were here before I was born, but after my mom was, and that they had lived on the property next to us.

After our conversation had ended, the first thing I did was go in and take that mirror down and put it out of the house. Then I gathered all of my quartz crystals, or anything that could be used as a hiding place, and submerged them in a basin with salt water from kosher salt, and proceeded to "clean" my house.

Ann was extremely upset with me. While she didn’t want the scary ghosts, or Ina Mary to stay, she didn’t want the little boy and his family to leave. She reported they were all packing their things and moving on to somewhere else.

I started having Ann sleep with me in my bed again so I would know if she got up in the night. This has been a few weeks ago now, and she is just this week starting to move somewhere less crowded.

As for the mirror, this next full moon I will disassemble it, wash it with salt water, and place it face up to be cleaned by the energy of the moon. Should this not work, then I suppose I will have to bury it face down. Off of my property!

What I have come to understand is that "things" which belonged to people sometimes contain their vibrational energy. You might want to think twice about that old antique you want to buy. If you are in an old house where many people have lived, then that house and possibly the land under it, could have vibrational resonance energy left over from those people.

Sometimes people pass and don’t realize they have, sometimes they think we are the ghost, and sometimes these people have chosen not to go into the light. Sometimes they just simply hang around to watch the people they are attached to.

Ann is the 4th of my children to hear voices and I think possibly the first at her age to see them, so this was not exactly the first time I have had to do this. The last issue was with John who had a "friend" who also had friends in the form of flies, It took me a couple of days to figure it out how it was in the dead of winter this year that we had flies in the house, and I don’t mean one or two there were hundreds, and I would, in desperation spray them, way out of character for me as I do try to be as "green" as possible, and sweep them up, only to have them replaced in a couple of hours by more! The American Indian Ritual worked for this too, but you do have to be sure and do this with intent. For instructions on how to get rid of ghosts please see my article at: http://www.ehow.com/how_4514014_rid-ghosts.html

I hope you enjoyed my ghost story, this really did happen
Thank you for reading,
All in Rue Thyme

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