ELENA'S NEWSLETTER - 2024 No. 10

Dedicated to Entertaining * Educating * Enlivening

Elena Greco

Oct 31, 2024

Note: It is recommended that this Newsletter be viewed on a laptop or tablet.

In this issue:

Introduction: Let There Be Light!

CREATIVE CORNER
* One Year on Substack!
* Manipulating Minds

WELL-BEING
* Abracadabra! A Manual for Making Dreams Come True
* Life in Balance

RECOMMENDATIONS: strong women

Quote: Plato

October 30, 2024

Diwali is my favorite holiday! Whenever I mention it to others, though, I find that quite a few in the US aren't familiar with the holiday, which is a shame, because its celebration is exceedingly beautiful and inspiring.

Around one billion of the eight billion people around the world celebrate Diwali. The eighty percent of Indians who are Hindu celebrate it, and Indians of non-Hindu traditions there also celebrate the holiday in some way. Millions in the US celebrate Diwali, including the several million Indian immigrants here; in fact, every major US city celebrates it officially. (Kids get out of school on Diwali here in New York City.) It occurs on the night of a new moon, which is a different date every year, and the official celebration lasts for five days—although most of us in the US just celebrate on the official Diwali holiday, which this year is on November 1.

Best known as "the festival of lights," Diwali honors the triumph of good (light) over evil (darkness). That deserves a celebration!

And to be celebrated exuberantly with—you guessed it—light! Lighting candles and lamps, wearing brilliant colors, and shooting off fireworks are all part of the festivities. Placing garlands on the statues of deities (especially Lakshmi, which represents abundance), doing a thorough cleaning of the home, and exchanging sweets and gifts are also part of celebrating Diwali. The creation of rangoli with sand or rocks of rich colors and the wearing of the color red (which represents life and abundance in Hindu culture), are also common.

Holidays which overlap with the five-day celebration of Diwali are Halloween and Samhain, in addition to ancient harvest celebrations. Traditionally, all of these events acknowledge in some way the end of summer (light) and the beginning of winter (darkness). In this case darkness represents, not evil, but a time of hibernation, germination, and rejuvenation— a rich time of preparation.

In addition, these other holidays are said to be a time when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest, a time when the seen and the unseen co-exist, resulting in an ease in prophesying and clairvoyance. The Christian holidays of All Saints Day (celebrating the Christian saints and martyrs) and All Souls Day (honoring the dead) also occur in this time period, a result of the Roman Empire attempting to co-opt or replace the holiday of Samhain with Christian holidays once the Romans conquered Celtic land.

For me, all of these holidays merge into a yearning for good to triumph over evil yet again, for light to illuminate darkness—and most of all, for an opening to divine wisdom. And by "divine" I imply no religious connotation (I'm not a fan of dogma and adhere to none), but simply refer to the divine light within every single one of us. There is a higher wisdom within us that we often don't touch on or access in our busy daily lives. That wisdom is always available to us if we're willing and able to hear it. (There are ways to enhance that ability, which I'm happy to share if anyone is interested.) I invite you to take these special days to contemplate that guiding light within. Now, more than ever, that illumination is essential.

We currently face the starkest example in our country of good versus evil, light versus darkness, that I've seen in my rather long life (with a birthday coming up next week, I'm acutely aware of just how long it has been!). The new American versions of Nazis and religious zealots currently in our country represent (and perhaps embody?) the greatest evil that exists. They seek to take away our freedom, to destroy our humanity and to cause suffering on a grand scale. Our current extreme right promotes and thrives on the forces of hate and cruelty. Make no mistake, if the vote does not go as we hope next week, our country will experience something none of us thought possible.

How do we prevent that? Vote. It's really that simple. Did you know that in 2016, 100 million US citizens did not vote? Or that in 2020, one third of our citizens did not vote?

And so I ask everyone who is a US citizen to vote in this US election. I do know that it's often difficult to vote for a myriad of reasons, and I sympathize. But whatever sacrifice you have to make in order to vote, it will be exponentially harder to bear what comes to pass if you don't.

Hundreds of thousands of people gave their lives, literally sacrificed themselves, so that all of us had the right to vote and thereby maintain and sustain this great experiment and dream called democracy. Surely that serves as an incentive not to throw away the privilege of choosing who runs our country. There are many around the world who would be beyond grateful to have such a privilege.

So please vote! I've listed a few helpful links below.
Check your voter registration | NASS
Polling Place Locator - Vote.org
Issues - Kamala Harris for President: Official Campaign Website

Note: Comments about the ideas I share in this article are welcome, as always.

CREATIVE CORNER

All things related to creativity and the creative arts

One Year on SUBSTACK!

A YEAR AGO this month, I joined Substack and started writing weekly posts. One year and 55 posts later, I'm on a roll!

The posts of ELENA'S SUBSTACK encompass creativity, psychology, life technology, health, culture and a unique take on current events. Current series are Behind the Scenes, about the process of recording an album, and Life in Balance, about health and healthcare. Subscribe for free to receive weekly posts!

Substack ticks all the boxes for me: no advertising, no censorship(!), no penalties for not doing whatever it is they want you to do (listen up, Medium), no sudden account suspensions without warning (here's looking at you, Facebook), some great writers, both political and creative, excellent customer service, and a place for me not only to write, but to share and comment on political and cultural posts as I used to do on Facebook before its decline, and for others to have the ability to like and comment on my shared posts. It gives me creative freedom and the impetus to keep on writing!

Come join me: ELENA'S SUBSTACK!

Manipulating Minds

Photo by David Trinks on Unsplash

Manipulating Minds: The Use of Persuasion and Coercion in Cults, Authoritarianism, and Trumpism (click to read on Elena's Blog)

We live in "interesting times." Fascism is growing around the world, including here at home. Within these fascist elements are groups which seem to feed the fascist flame, authoritarian-type groups we might even think of as cults. Cults and fascists fit like hand and glove. In a 5-part Substack series—and also in a post on my own blog—I've examined the relationship between cults and authoritarian regimes at this point in time.

PLEASE CLICK HERE to keep reading on my blog....
Or read as a series HERE on my Substack....

WELL-BEING

All things related to health and healing

ABRACADABRA!
A Manual for Making Dreams Come True

Would you like to be more effective at translating dreams and ideas into reality?
The chapters of this book are a blueprint that will accompany and support you on your personal journey to making your unique dreams come true. Most importantly, if you do the work of this book, it works. Go ahead. Reach for the stars ... and grab them!
(And please give me a rating or review so that the book will appear in searches and sell!)

ABRACADABRA!
A Manual for Making Dreams Come True

RECOMMENDATIONS

If you can see it, you can be it! For too long, strong roles were given only to men.
Here are some of my favorite shows with women in strong roles.

RBG A really superlative documentary with lots of live footage of RBG. Available on several paid ones and free on Kanopy (use your library card for access).