There will be a new giveaway coming on January 19th so look out for that! You’ll have a ball with it [hint]!!

It has been 6 years, now what

You might be asking yourself, what has been 6 years? On January 9, 2006 I made my first step as an official student of Milton Hershey School. This adventure led me to find myself and my dream of becoming America’s Future Talk Show Host. It was wild and today would not have been possible without entering that landscape of bittersweet chocolate.

Milton Hershey School is a boarding school established in 1909 by Milton and Catherine Hershey. Originally it was for orphan boys and over the years the school has made significant updates to allowing blacks and women to enroll. The major motivation for having the school was in the eyes of Catherine. She wanted to have children so bad, yet her health would not allow her, so her beloved husband, Milton helped make her dream into a reality. Now over a hundred years later the school still stands and the Hershey legacy continues to inspire people and children.

On January 9, 2006, I enrolled into this school with the sole purpose of redefining my life. I was beat and broken from before, but going on this new adventure, I was bound to the seas of growth . This school can help plant seeds for your adult years and I discovered the confidence to go after this dream of becoming a television talk show host.

Many struggles occurred in the first year while I was there and merely adjusting to the rules and consequences tested my Aries personality. I remember running out of my English class because I felt threatened and belittled by the teacher and students. I went to summer school because I did not apply my academic behavior fully. The frustration in understanding my sexual orientation was teetering as I tried to understand what it meant to be in love. Yet, through all of this the adults there were able to withstand my outbursts of rebellion, assign me consequences and move on. No grudges seemed to form, and I cherish that most of all. We simply learn from our mistakes and keep moving forward.

Above all the pains of being at the school, I learned to grow independently and look forward to working with the school on Alumni projects and maybe an internship in the coming months. All I can do now is write this post in remembrance of when I was given a new chance.  And every year it is good to celebrate the things that gave you renewal and rebirth. That is the lesson to be learned here because sometimes we can over look our firsts especially if it was going to a private school. But this is a new year and a new you so I invite you to remember your firsts today as I celebrate my 6 year anniversary of making it to the sweetest place on earth!

Today marks the beginning of my New Year New You blog giveaway series. This year long series is dedicated to giving you all a chance to improve and enhance your lives with special and cute products.

As I ventured through the last part of 2011, learning more about crystals, tarot cards, and auras, I began to see transformation in a new way. A metaphysical glow danced around me, and I truly believe that these alternative approaches to healing and guidance truly do work when you have faith. To me it is like praying, but sometimes that seems too abstract for the mind to keep believing in; so we have helpful tools like cards or crystals to make the language of the universe more coherent.

My first blog giveaway for the series for the month of January is the Aqua Aura Mini Bullet Necklace Giveaway.

GIVEAWAY ends Jan. 16, 2012

According to HIYA MOON, the sponsor of the giveaway

Aqua Aura crystal are said to to attract wealth and success, to bring forth esoteric wisdom, to relieve depression & anxiety, to assist in creating an aura of peace & well being in oneself and one’s surroundings and to enhance your ability to communicate inner truth. It has a soothing and relaxing effect on the emotional body, can be used to soothe anger, cool feverishness, release stress and is strongly connected to the element of water.

January in itself can be a tough month to transition into, because of the aftermath of being on vacation and having the responsibility to get out of the lazy haze that the holidays likes to bring to us. So this giveaway is to help you transition into the new year more easily and to enhance your healing abilities, as aqua is water, and water is a the healing element in the world.

I encourage you to keep coming back to the show as new incredible products will be coming to you. If you have ideas who would you like to see sponsor a giveaway, or you would like to sponsor a giveaway, please email me.

From HIYA Moon Jewelry:

 Each piece is one-of-a-kind and made with a natural, raw and color enhanced crystal point.

Now you have a chance to win a giveaway. Simply follow the instructions below to enter!

The Giveaway:

(1) Aqua Aura Mini Bullet Necklace

Who can enter:

Anyone with with a valid email address.

How to enter:

Go to Hiya Moon Jewelry on Etsy.com and then leave a comment here on which HIYA Moon product is your favorite and why.

Bonus Entry:

**Leave a new comment per bonus entry**

Subscribe (under the Prilosec OTC sponsor logo) to The Bernard Charles Show

Follow Bernard on Twitter @BernieLuvsEllen and leave your Twitter Name in comment

Like America’s Future Talk Show Host on Facebook and leave wall post “Aqua”

Go to Hiya Moon’s Website and leave a comment here on which crystal you need in your life and why

Become a Fan of HIYA Moon on Facebook

Follow HIYA Moon on Twitter

Giveaway Ends:

A winner will be chose at random on January 16, 2011.

~~~~~~~

About the Sponsor:

My name is Matthew South and I’m the creator of HIYA MOON jewelry. I’m a dreamer, alchemist, artist and college student who currently resides in Iowa City, Iowa. HIYA MOON specializes in raw crystal and gem statement pieces and is the love child of combining my passion’s for rock collecting, fashion, graphic design and photography I am constantly inspired by the earth, space exploration, Ancient Egyptian & Native American cultures and anything magical. My creations are extraterrestrial, metaphysical, bohemian, bold and borderline avant-garde.

Official Giveaway Rules

The winner will be selected at random according to Random.org

The winner will be contacted via email.

If the winner does not reply within 4 days he/she will forfeit their prize and another participant will be chosen at random to win the giveaway.

One ‘bonus entry’ counts as one extra entry unless otherwise noted.

Have you felt different in 2012 yet? If not, you should since it’s a new year for the Gregorian calendar.

You might have noticed some spectacular changes to the look and feel of the site today. This new look has been inspired by multiple blogs, brands, and people in my life. I do not have full customization of the site; (WordPress has control over that unless I want to pay for it, which would not be an issue if I was sponsored) I do have the power to do some minor altercations, which I hope you like.

All rights reserved. 2012

The main logo for the show-blog is the full color image with the orange streak, which is of course my infamous orange scarf. As autumn approaches, I pull it out from the shadows and take it off usually at the end of spring, and sure enough I have worn this so often that I have the lunch ladies asking me where it is and strangers come up to me and ask if I am the orange scarf boy. Certainly, this scarf deserves more recognition and it seems to be a part of who I am, so I incorporated it into the logo design. Which was risky, because not everyone knows me and so they might think I am a scarf-only talk show host which would be nice, but not in the ballpark. I believe a lot of clothing can have personal meaning to people as they wear it either to commemorate a loved one or simply to make them feel warm when it’s cold outside. The story of my scarf is more of symbolic expression. The color orange represents self-confidence and creativity. Which in turn, resonates my mission of Inspire. Dream. Create.

Orange is very blatant and vulgar. It makes you immediately start having feelings. –Wolf Kahn

Much inspiration, dreaming, and creativity can spark a fire inside of anyone and so that takes me into explaining the yellow color of the text which merely compliments the orange scarf perfectly. The text is an awesome witchy font as I like to put it and represents my magical and dream-like self. It turns on the whimsy scope and makes it very different from the other talk show hosts. Basically, we have an underlying whirl of flames with fantasy all rolled into one.  This to me, feels like a ball of energy waiting to cast some awesome inspirations, dreams, and creations for 2012.

That is the magic behind the new logo. Also you will notice that the showcase tab has been disabled. This feature has been clogged with more spam then a grocery cart can hold so I opted to no longer have the option. However, if you are inspired and want to share your story please email me! I have emails to look over anyhow so feel free to talk to the host.

Some highlights to point out for the new year:

• 2011 site stats have been processed and can be viewed here.
• New Year New You blog giveaway series is going to be commencing soon, so please stay tune!
• Witch-Blog has a cute New Year journal to offer you, go check it out.
• Resolution: Obtain 1,000 Facebook Followers by the end of 2012 (if you can help me do that, I do appreciate it)

That’s all folks! A new year has begun and there are new looks to be had and new goals to be set. Thank you for sticking with me as I continue to venture on this wild journey of becoming America’s Future Talk Show Host.

]]> http://bernieluvsellen.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/ding-dong-2011-is-dead-and-the-show-has-a-new-look/feed/ 0 bernieluvsellen The Bernard Charles Show 2012 logo http://bernieluvsellen.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/book-review-the-awakened-aura/ http://bernieluvsellen.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/book-review-the-awakened-aura/#comments Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:17:52 +0000 BernieLuvsEllen http://bernardtalks.com/?p=2263 ]]> Review by Bernard-Charles

The Awakened Aura: Experience the Evolution of Your Energy Body. Kala Ambrose. Minnesota: Llewellyn, 2011. 207 pp.

Buy on Llewellyn.com for $11.96

There is much more to see and feel in this world than what mainstream society has realized and Kala Ambrose truly lifts the veil of mystery and gives her readers the gift of sight in her new book, The Awakened Aura: Experience the Evolution of Your Energy Body. Ambrose conjures an interdisciplinary approach to understanding auras, using ancient teachings and applying them to modern society for any soul to understand; at the same time, she recognizes that our auras are evolving at a faster rate. As new technologies are rapidly developing and more people choose to follow these Eastern practices and teachings more readily, this book is a quick tool to reference and sharpen our most reverent sense–our third eye. This 207-page publication describes what auras really are, how people can see them, and where people can test their aura-seeing abilities, but the most riveting aspect of the book comes when Ambrose reveals a discovery that the entire human race is currently experiencing: a cosmic evolution within the auric fields.

The book tackles this phenomena rather lightly in the beginning, yet towards the end of the book Ambrose makes her point even clearer, most likely because many people cannot see auras. So if you’re like me and cannot see fun colors and patterns around people or plants, this introductory approach makes it much easier to understand the difference of the old aura and the new one that Ambrose claims to see. Yet, there is only one drawback that constantly teetered in my head while reading–belief. Are such things called auras actually real?

Kala Ambrose has been drawn to auras her entire life.  She explains that in school, she would color outside of the lines merely because she saw that those colors were outside of the contour lines in real life.  Like any child, she thought mimicking what you see in reality was the best teacher. It was natural for her to see auras and to discover an evolutionary change. The problem with all of this is that not everyone can see the presence of auras. I knew this immediately going into the book  and so it was a goal to try and see any auric activity I could witness.

Like many books dealing with the body, mind, and spirit; concepts of self-transformation are very personal. With this, I am compelled to reveal to you a very small intuitive inkling that The Awakened Aura offers truth. When I was in math class of my public school, I was very apt in paying attention to my surroundings because I was bullied. I had to develop a system for survival. One day this notion caused me to look at my math teacher while she was passing out tests and suddenly I saw a white light outlining her body. This memory was long forgotten until I read this book.

After reading and practicing a meditative exercise that Ambrose suggests, I intuitively felt that what I saw was my teacher’s etheric field, the first shell in the layers of auras detailed in The Awakened Aura. This simple realization of my own personal encounter with auras was truly enlightening. The issue I am having now is the ability to see auras again. Consequently, I remembered some advice Ambrose gives to beginners:

If you haven’t been on a bike in twenty years and get back on one, you are going to be a little wobbly and unsteady. It’s the same thing if you don’t continue to practice seeing auras once you start viewing auras. –Page 66

These words ring true since many agree that practice makes perfect.  I am forthright in keeping an open mind, because without this book I would have forgotten all about my classroom experience; thusly I would not be able to connect with another advancement in personal growth. So I will continue meditating and allow The Awakened Aura to be a guide when it comes to strengthening my evolving energy body.

Beyond the vastness of auras, Ambrose takes the reader back into the world of healing temples where other teachings like Feng Shui, herbal teas, power of color and sound, crystals, foods, clothing, and dream interpretation all enabled a person to overcome the adversities in life. Today, this book marks a beginning of a new era in evolution and should be appreciated. Ambrose digs deep to not only uncover why the roots of the ancient are still relevant to the 21st century, but also where this auric transformation is bound to take us as we enter the end of the Mayan calendar.

Kala Ambrose is host of Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show (www.exploreyourspirit.com) and national columnist for the Huffington Post and Examiner.com. She is also author of 9 Life Altering Lessons: Secrets of the Mystery Schools Unveiled, Ghosthunting North Carolina, and The Awakened Aura: Experiencing the Evolution of Your Energy Body. You can follow her on Twitter at @KalaAmbrose

The Broken Heart Necklace Set Giveaway winner has been released!

Find out who it is here!

If you would like to suggest Etsy Shops that you would like to see sponsor show giveaways please email me at OfficialTVHost@facebook.com with the shop name and what item you would like to see as an exclusive giveaway! 

“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.” -Hamilton Wright Mabie

This is probably Mr. Mabie’s most famous quote and it was recently associated with a blog post about Yule that I had come across. I was simply astonished because Yule or the Christmas season is a very specific time when everyone sure enough decides to open their minds and bodies to allow the holiday spirit enter their hearts. Hamilton Wright Mabie (1846-1916) was an American essayist. 

According to Witchvox Central in an article about Yule (Winter Solstice) 

Yule is the time of greatest darkness and the longest night of the year. The Winter Solstice had been associated with the birth of a “Divine King” long before the rise of Christianity. Since the Sun is considered to represent the Male Divinity in many Pagan Traditions, this time is celebrated as the “return of the Sun God” where He is reborn of the Goddess

I certainly believe this time of year opens people to want to love especially since it is a time to rejoice no matter how you see it, the sun is coming back for spring and we celebrate that through either praying to Jesus, setting up the nativity in our homes, or worshiping “the birth of a ‘Diving King.’” 

GIVEAWAY ends Dec. 26, 2011

Nonetheless, I overlook the details because it is about the essentials. And the essentials here are that there is a reborn, child-like state of innocence entering the world again. It is the highest peak of darkness and so we can rejoice for the coming season of Spring which solidifies rebirth. This instinctive feeling of winter ending brings us closer and warmer. Hence love for one and all and why not in front of a fire. 

So I would like to share with you all the gift of winter warm-ups so that you can feel the conspiracy of love during this blessed season.

Winter Warm-Ups

1. Go out and buy some delicious hot cocoa- If you don’t like hot chocolate than tea
2. Put on some sweatpants, socks, and wear a big sweater- Comfy clothes are a must
3. Make your yummy drink- If others are around offer them some Yule-ness
4. Crawl up in bed or a chair/sofa  with a blanket-Feel how the blanket surrounds your body
5. Lay your hands in your lap and just sit/lay there in the present moment- You can play relaxing music or have a Christmas movie on
6. Just feel the Yule spirit around you-Take note of the sounds, feelings, colors, and tastes from the experience
7. If you like to read, write, or watch movies do that- Also remember to drink your drink *Don’t burn your tongue*
8. When you experience these art forms during this time, allow your mind to wander- Place yourself in the character’s shoes or reflect on your year
9. You may also use this time to meditate or do a lovely card reading-The goal is relaxation and self-observation
10. Choose 1 word to describe what you’ve experienced and carry this word into the New Year with you-This can be a seed to plant in the spring by making a New Year’s resolution, so that by Harvest time you can reap the benefits of this remarkable realization

I have created this winter workout so that you can enjoy the holiday season without the negative things that come along during a rather depressive and dark time. Truly, tis the season is about self-evaluation and contemplation. Explore the inner depths of your soul and feel the love spark a cozy fire. I hope this helped you as it helped me when I am in a slush of brown snow. 

Blessed to you all. Enjoy your season tidings and Yuletide cheer! Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

The Evergreen Swag Hand Poured Candle Giveaway winner has been released! 

Find out who it is here!

ALSO

Don’t forget to Enter the Broken Heart Necklace Set Giveaway (Ends 12.26.2011)

ENDS: Dec. 26, 2011

You can find my Yuletide Blessings post by clicking here.

Also check out the other blog party participants by clicking on the official Yuletide Blessings badge:

Tarot popped into my life briefly when I was 17. I bought an Egyptian deck in London and thought it would be wonderful, and slightly cool, to read the cards. The cards and I just didn’t mix so after a very short love affair, probably in the region of about 10 minutes, I dumped them in the back of my wardrobe, never to be seen again.

Fast-forward 10 years and the tarot bug was biting again.  This time I bought a sensible, traditional Rider Waite deck and never looked back. I read whatever I could and practiced whenever I had a spare minute. And from that one, innocent deck came a tarot addiction and a husband (that’s a story for another time).

I honestly have no idea how many decks I own. With oracle decks, I would guess about 100.  Once you begin, you just can’t stop! And, sadly, most of them remain in a couple of big storage chests, as there’s not enough time in the day to admire so many little pieces of art. This was one of the reasons why I began to do the Witch’s forecast each day – I have the opportunity to rummage through Tarot decks.

Another reason for the daily card is it’s good for me! With so many things going on in life, I find it can be all too easy to push daily readings aside and use the time up elsewhere (like working, cleaning, feeding kids).  It’s sad when life gets crazy-busy and important stuff slips, but I’m sure that happens to you too. Anyway, I’ve found if I write about the card on my blog then I’m dedicated to doing it daily. I think it’s a win-win situation as I get to indulge in a little tarot and both my readers and I can use the card as guidance through the day.

It’s been another 10 years since my tarot addiction began and I’ve read professionally for hundreds of people either in person, by phone or via email.  I’ve developed my own style for reading but it took quite a time to trust my intuition. If you want to read Tarot then that’s the biggest hurdle. You can memorise the traditional meanings of the 78 cards, and you can use a book to guide you through spreads, but it’s when you actually ignore this ‘training’ and let the inner voice speak that the tarot really bonds to you.

I sat for hours with my little Rider Waite deck and the book Learning the Tarot by Joan Bunning.  Those two items are actually a good starting point for any tarot newbie, as you can begin to learn the meanings of the cards. However, it wasn’t long before I began to feel the Rider Waite to be a bit too ‘flat’ and that is where my collection began.  The artwork on the cards began to speak to me and I found I could get just as much information from looking at the images as I could recalling the standard meanings. 

Buying a Rider Waite deck is important for any tarot reader as it’s such a ‘standard’ deck, but couple it with another pack which imagery ‘speaks’ to you on a subconscious level too.  Check out the cards on Aeclectic Tarot if you need some inspiration (just don’t blame me if you get addicted too). Use the Rider Waite when you want to test your recall powers and your other one when you want to practice reading via the pictures.  Try it and see what happens – you might be quite surprised.

Learning the tarot can seem daunting at first but remember it’s not a science. There are traditional meanings associated to cards but you’ll find they have more personal meanings to you too.  Keep a notebook and draw your own card of the day. At the end of the day, look back and see how that card interacted in your life. Retrospective readings are absolutely great when you are learning the cards!

Tarot is a great tool for self-exploration, guidance and direction. If you have a desire to learn then I encourage you to bite the bullet and get a tarot deck (consider the Rider Waite or the Universal Waite as first decks). If you just want to enjoy a card of the day without the hassle of drawing cards yourself, then I’d love to see you over at my blog for the daily witch’s forecast!

Connect with Witch Lyn:

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