s'plendeur magazine the 12 olympians compressed

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the MIDTOWN ATHLETIC CLUB at Weston

family and staff was involved through their bones into this cause, to help those in need

in a country that truly needs support in a beautiful country that is dying day by day

just like many other countries in the world. For now, is my job to put a little seed of

love in a society that needs lots of it, and if we as a team can expand this conscious-

ness to others indeed in a decade we will be living in a better way or at least more

conscious about what the planet and hu-manity really needs.

Our pretensions in this issue were to make

a parallelism between Ancient Greece and

these new times; happens that not every-one is noticing how much we are coming

back to basics when it comes to human be-havior and I noticed that a few years ago,

when I decided to study the ones that were going to represent The Olympian Greek

Gods and Goddesses. They didn’t notice at all, but I was day by day observing them,

the way they walk the way they behave, the way the were living theirs lives and one

by one they started fitting the old Carl Jung Ancient Greek Archetypes, and it be-

came not only and interesting research, but a very pleasant experience for me and

for all those who were involved and sur-

prised when I started asking them if they could represent certain archetype. Their

beautiful “surprised faces” are the most

beautiful memory I will collect, since they didn’t expect they could reach the status

of Gods or Goddesses. Something I was-n’t surprised for, since I knew they were

The Olympians for a reason. But they did-n’t. Some of them were sort of ashamed

of being one, and actually when I started sending the articles, most of them were

really surprised about the resulting per-spective. They were chosen because of

their high quality human beings they por-tray.

They were chosen for the amazing achievements they have reached in life

although some of them are really young

and just starting what we call a produc-tive life. They were chosen for the beau-

tiful mind, beautiful soul and beautiful spirit and their capacity to represent a

perfect role model for this society that needs urgent care and can be given by

enhancing the good things that all this crew has, and has everything to make it

happen. I can only say one thousand times: THANK YOU so much for giving me

the chance to show the world that good people are all over the place and all over

the planet.

It has been a long way since we

all started to re-create this new version of S’PLENDEUR Maga-

zine. I personally am so grateful to see the final result not only

for the hard work done here but the huge and when I say huge I

run out of words, really huge support we’ve got from everyone

involved in the process. I can’t only limit my gratitude to my

team because this time, a won-derful family,

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What is love, Ahmed Abdelhamid Page 64 Highlighting, Designer Lissette Loddo Page 68 Belly Dance Secrets for Fitness and Rejuvenation, Keti Sharif Page 74 Cover D ’ ION Marketing Publishing

Features

Editorial Page 5

Marcia Sirota, MD Hurtful Parents Page 12

Inspiration Page 16

Greek Gods and Goddesses,

Who they really are Page 19

John Sinclair, How to move! Page 56

Vegetarian Wave, Catalina Rojas Page 58

Marcia Sirota is a Toronto-based psy-chiatrist and the founder of the Ruth-less Compassion Institute. Through the Institute, she empowers people to lead more conscious, con-nected and meaningful lives; most of all, she helps people to be happier within themselves, in their relationships and at work.

She founded the Ruthless Compassion Institute in 2009, to bring her ideas to a larger au-dience. Through writing articles and books, and doing speaking, workshops and personal coaching, Marcia continues to share the benefits of living with ruthless compassion with Canadians and others, globally. Marcia is the author of Emotional Overeating, published by Praeger Press. She is working on a new book series called the Short and Sweet Guides to Life. Volume Two is entitled, Women Decoded: The Secret Strategy for Relationship Success, and it will be available on Amazon in May 2015. In 2014, she wrote an article called, “Are You Too Nice at Work?” The overwhelming response (nearly 30,000 views on LinkedIn) confirmed her theory that being too nice backfires and makes people miserably unhappy. Marcia has appeared on TV Ontario, CBC radio, and has been a frequent guest on the Gar-land Robinette radio show in New Orleans, LA. She is a long-time contributor to Huffington Post and her writing has appeared in Moods Magazine. Marcia has lead stress management workshops for the residents of the University of To-

ronto, and has run groups for women on overcoming compulsive eating and unblocking

creativity. In April 2015, she won a Wellness Champions Award, recognizing her as one of

Toronto’s healthiest business leaders. 12

Misplaced Loyalty Toward Hurtful Parents FULL ARTICLE WRITTEN BY MARCIA SIROTA, MD Our feelings about our parents can be very complicated. Some of what we feel depends on how they treated us when we were growing up as well as how they treat us today. Sometimes, we just go along with what our culture or society tells us we should feel. If we have loving, supportive parents, the issue is quite simple: we love them back and appreciate everything they did for us. I It gets more complicated when our parents were less-than-ideal. If they neglected, rejected or even abused us, we grow up to believe that it was due to our own inadequacies. Children typi-cally blame themselves for what goes wrong in the parent-child relationship. Rather than holding our parents ac-countable for how they treated us, we take responsibility for what happened and then try to change ourselves in or-der to finally win the love they’ve been withholding. What we don’t realize is that when our parents hurt or reject us it has nothing to do with what’s lacking in us and everything to do with their inability to love and accept their chil-dren. Because it’s about them, no matter how hard we try to ingratiate ourselves to our parents, their feelings toward us won’t change.

When we fail to win their approval we might feel hurt or even angry, but many of us also believe that we haven’t tried hard enough to please them. The truth is, love is not a com-modity to be bought and sold. Our parents will love us if they are able to, and for no other reason. Still, it’s easier for us to keep blaming our-selves because it’s preferable to facing the unthinkable: the fact that our parents don’t love us. This is an extremely painful realiza-tion to come to terms with. Most people would rather do anything than accept this as the truth. Not only is it painful; it’s humiliat-ing. Even when we recognize that it’s not about our own failings, we don’t like the idea of ad-mitting to our friends or loved ones that we grew up with parents who were hurtful or re-jecting. There’s always the fear that others will wonder what we might have done to de-serve it. It’s also hard to silence the voice of the “inner critic” which continually tells us that it really is our fault. Paradoxically, those of us who were loved and accepted while growing up have a much

easier time separating from our parents than those of us who were neglected, rejected or abused. A secure, loving attachment during childhood leads to a healthy ability to detach as an adult. Those of us from the former group are able to see our parents clearly as the decent but imperfect human beings that they are and can live rich, fulfilling independ-ent lives. Those of us in the latter group have a much harder time letting go of our parents. We tend to be quite enmeshed with them in adulthood as we continue trying to win their elusive approval. Despite the fact that we might be angry at them and even have on-going conflicts, we continue to spend a lot of time and energy on this frustrating, unsatis-fying relationship. Sadly, the worse we were treated, the more we end up doing for our parents when we’re adults, and the more disrespect we tolerate. Loving parents create confident self-loving adults who won’t accept mistreatment from anyone. Bad parents raise children who are riddled with self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy. This group accepts being mistreated as a matter of course.

Loving parents never make their chil-dren feel guilty for the love and care they’re receiving, and never make the children feel responsible for taking care of the parents’ emotional or physical needs. Bad parents, on the other hand, go on and on about how burdened they are by their children and how many sacri-fices they’ve had to make in order to raise them. Children who were loved don’t feel in-debted to their parents and aren’t driven by guilt to attend to their needs after they’ve left home. The unloved group has been brainwashed to be-lieve, incorrectly, that it’s a child’s on-going role to care for their parents. These people are driven by a powerful sense of obligation. Beloved children grow into adults who love their parents and who are happy to be there for them when there’s a valid need. On the other hand, loving parents are reluctant to impose upon their adult children; not wanting to be a burden on them. Unloved children grow into adults who may resent their selfish, hurtful parents but who aren’t able to refuse their de-mands. Unloving parents see children as having been put on earth in order to fulfill parental needs, and therefore have no difficulty imposing on them. Sadly, those of us who were unlucky enough to have been raised by bad parents also get to be burdened as adults by their demands.

Despite the fact that they’ve done so little for us and have always put their needs ahead of our own, we maintain a sense of misplaced loyalty. It’s partly because our so-ciety insists that we must respect our parents, and partly because we’re still hoping for their love. We need to let go of our feelings of obligation and recognize that if we’d been loved, we would be happy to return the sentiment. In loving families, guilt and obligation never enter into the equation. We want to believe that we belong to a close, happy family, and for those of us who have this, we should appreciate it. For those of us who don’t however, it’s time to face the truth. We need to see that care-taking hurtful parents isn’t going to make them love us and it isn’t even going to make them happy. People who are so emotionally damaged that they’re unable to love their children aren’t really capable of happiness, either. They try to use us to meet some deep unfulfilled needs within them, but nothing we do could heal the emotional wounds that make them unable to love or care for us. We’re better off facing the truth about our parents; giving up our futile attempts at win-ning their love and focusing our attention instead on pursuing more obtainable and ful-filling goals. We can start by working on developing the self-love and self-confidence that our childhoods deprived us of. Then we can enter into relationships with people who are capable of loving and accepting us, just as we are.

www.marciasirotamd.com

As humans, we spend our pleasurable moments in fear that they will soon end and spend all of our painful moments fearful that they may never end. We are stuck in a cycle: pleasure and pain constantly being accompanied by fear. Recite this to yourself throughout the day: -There is no moment outside of this moment. -There is no day except for today. -There is no feeling aside from this feeling. If you are feeling pleasure, revel in it. Do not lose the moment by hoping that it never ends. By anticipating its extinction, one actually ends the moment. Pleasure cannot last forever. The idea of permanent pleasure is an illusion created by man. All is temporary. If you are feeling pain, do not avoid it. Feel it fully. Do not prolong the moment by hop-ing for its passing. In our desperate plea to end pain, we are only ensuring its exten-sion. The idea of permanent pain is an illusion created by man. All is temporary. This too, shall pass.

Alexandra Fernandez

Inspiration 16

Goddess Inspire...

Unveil your Inner Goddess Unlock Ancient Mysteries...

Sacred Bellydance www.vellyqueen.com

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18

The Olympians

have descended

GODS AND GODDESSES, WHO ARE THEY? We have been taught about these people and so far until now, they are part of what historians call: “Mythology”. My question is: Are they really a myth? I don’t think so. If truth be told, we can say that they fit the real pattern of Ancient Civilizations. Somehow, humanity thinks that this race has been the only race on the face of the planet and human arrogance is also saying that we are alone in this vast universe. Scientists have proven that is not possi-ble for us to be alone and the truth is, we can’t prove that we are alone only because we haven’t seen something different but the human race. Only be-cause apes share genetic info with human beings doesn’t mean that the whole human race come from them, and I will make you doubt now by ask-ing a few questions: Do we really come from the Apes? Do we look like them? Can genetics be mutated generation by generation until the monkey becomes a human being? Can genetics be mutated until the Apes become Asians? Albinos? Native Indigenous? Vast evidence has been found of huge skeletons, 7”5’ feet which is the exact measure of size of the Ancient Gods and Goddesses as it was depicted in so many walls in the Greek beautiful Temples. Why not to contemplate the idea of a different race of course more powerful because they were less weak that human race and that we de-cided to call Gods exactly because of the conditions they were built, their size and the easy way to surpass the gravity of our planet. What if we really are genetic experiment and yet, we were crossed with a super race that we were sharing the earth with on Ancient times. If that is the case, then we all really are Demi-Gods, and that’s why we all share the same power they left printed in our genes long time ago, and now it is awakening and that’s why our society is coming back to what our Ancestors taught at the beginning of times…. And now please behold: THE MODERN OLYMPIANS. C A

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LAURENT

S’PLENDEUR MAGAZINE © 2015

GOD

POSEIDON

GOD

POSEIDON

LAURENT

INCARNATES

Laurent incarnates Poseidon, the king of his own kingdom and his inner seas. His creative mind will lead him to manifest a resourceful life, a life full of doors and possibilities; the outer world that will be enhanced by what he shares from the inside. He will never keep anything for himself, he will share it all even his knowledge for the sake of a better society. Poseidon personalities are usually artists, creative, musicians all that have to do with letting out what is inside of that heart. His appearance will always be soft and ten-der due to these, his characteristics. Philanthropist, Compassionate, Intuitive and powerful, competitive, dignified, honorable ... Never satisfied with what he had accomplished, always in the search of truth. The God of inner emotions; he who governs the seas and the emotional waters. Like Poseidon, Laurent manages beautifully both of his sides. He moves the inner emotions just like the God he incarnates shakes the waters when it comes to transformation creating cyclones and hurricanes to all those who surround him. He has conquered the darkness and has come out clear; a beautiful being that cares about everything that surrounds him. Nevertheless, when his dark side is needed to set his point, he makes it clearly and if necessary aggressively and straight to target. He never travels dark waters; those are not his domain since those are Hades jurisdiction. Laurent represses his feelings, locks and buries them deep in the seas. His world is wise and full of great beauty, although under control, his emotions and passion can be felt all over the place especially when he is in his own waters where he is freely himself and displays his passion with no reasoning, the court. Capable of loving from the deepest part of his heart, this is his ultimate goal. He knows that the lack of this will create chaos in his inside world and is something he went out from, long ago. He has mastered life and wants his offspring to live this wild life to the fullest, even if it comes with tough lessons. He will provide stability to all those who surround him in his daily walk through this path called life. The protector of the innocents, the provider, he will learn from Zeus to add ob-jectivity to his life and Hephaestus will teach him how to deal with his passions and take them to his inner waters to be washed and banished forever.


NORMA


GODDESS

APHRODITE

NORMA INCARNATES

GODDESS

APHRODITE

Love, Beauty, Art and Grace are the 4 epithets that surround Norma who incarnates Goddess Aphro-dite. She is considered like this because of the power of transformation that she possessed by her own, since she makes deities and mortals fall in love with her to transform their lives through the power of love. Sadness takes the heart to deep dark waters that teach us how to heal and surren-dering to it will lead us to a full transformation. Is being said that love is the strongest force and by shaking this relaxing stages with love a beautiful transformation will emerge in beings and will re-main there for ever with the only purpose of evolve.

Norma takes this love in men and works hard for it until she gets what she wants bringing the per-son aside a huge shift of conscious that will serve to the higher purpose. She inspires her God po-etry and persuasive speech that are symbol of the power of love. Relationships are the most im-portant thing on her, that can be manifested through sensuality or a creative project. Aphrodite is very similar to Hestia, she will never measure her success in an objective way. Any one that is im-pregnated by her presence would be irresistibly attracted due to her “alchemia”, an energy that draws people towards her to initiate the transformation process to grow. Aphrodite has been con-fused with a Goddess of the “pure sexual” approaches; but she is nothing but a “transmuter” of dense energies that will enrich the lives of those who surround her. She has deeper sense of love and a very psychological and physical approach. She wants to meet and be met for her good qualities. Norma has no other goal than help and serve humanity just like the 12 Olympians here depicted. She only wants the others to dream and to dream high and her energy will help the oth-ers to reach this point of bliss. This is one of the reasons why most man conquer their dreams, be-cause there is always a woman feeding their dreams, and not many man feeding their wife’s dreams. Norma encourages love and beauty anywhere where she goes, leaving a huge print in the lives of all those she touches.



AHMED

GOD

ZEUS

AHMED

INCARNATES

GOD

ZEUS


Or maybe not. For this archetype to grow and evolve day by day, he will have to develop so many other archetypes like Poseidon, God of the emotions that will teach him how to feel with passion and deliver-ance, a Hades, master of the unconscious to be more spiritual and less materialistic; a Dionysus that will teach him how to feel life with his 5 senses, introducing in his life a more recreational dimension. Al-though for a Zeus man this is sort of difficult since he is the God of Gods, the owner of the Olympus and it has been like this for millennia, so his high self esteem will not allow other Gods to intrude.

Ahmed, The Patriarch Ahmed incarnation of the Father God by excellence is a crea-tive being, sometimes punitive, and if provoked, will punish for disobedience. A social nice man that can charm with only a small look and like his inner God is always under control, and reason and decision are over any other quality of his soul. He is the pattern of our modern societies all around the world. He as Zeus, is the governor by excellence, army chief, the ag-gressive high executive, president of a company and in addi-tion, a leader by birth. When a man is dominated by this ar-chetype, feels the urge to establish his own kingdom. He will search for a house and a family with that aim.

He will marry his Hera (Goddess of the holy matrimony) that will administrate well his home and takes care of the family getting involved the less possible since he knows that woman and man have specific roles in society and also because his job is very important and the engine of his life. Marriage is for him and strategic alliance, and if he picks wrong he will feel that the commitment is a heavy load. With woman is the conqueror by birth, blessed with beauty, both mental and physical is available to enter into the feminine world with certain ease and stay there probably forever; he will have so many adventures before he finally finds his better half. His wife has to remain faithful to him until the end of times. He allows himself to have some privileges that might keep in secret.

NASILIS


GODDESS

HERA

NASILIS INCARNATES

GODDESS HERA


Majestic, stunning and beautiful. This is how Nasilis incarnates our Greek goddess Hera. Is believed, that her name significance is “Le grand dame, which means “the great lady”. Every time she walks in, people have to turn around just like the symbol that she represents , the royal peacock. Hera had 2 different arche-types, the marriage Goddess and the jealous Goddess. She attracted the eyes of God Zeus, the patriarch, womanizer, brusque, turbulent, God of ligh-tning. Is been said that the honeymoon lasted for 300 years and as soon as it ended, he came back to his promiscuous life. She retires to the confines of earth and seas remaining in the deepest darkness ever known. Nasilis a beautiful smile always greets you from the first contact with her; her royal look embraces the powerful joy and cheerful as she is but can drown into pain easily as well. She portrays a great longing for being in the right marriage, and just like her incarnation, she waits until this right man, that fill her heart appears taking her to the most beautiful gardens of soul. For her a relationship is not com-plete without marriage and she knows that for this, has to wait for the right knight. She feels incomplete, lonely without being surrounded by those that are willing to receive all of what she has to give away, her own love. Faithful, capable of baring whatever it comes to keep herself into what she calls the right state of a Goddess, an instant connection with her soul mate that will join her life and be her heavenly companion no matter the difficulties.

She as a friend will teach you how to wait for the right person to come, she will send energies of love to let you understand the real meaning of being in a sacred couple and not let the initial pas-sion to overwhelm you and fall into what I call “short stand relationships” or relationships that will lead to the obsolete sensation and dead of the relationship and still hang from there. As absurd as it can look, she believes more in the idea of a couple than being divorced, and this is where all her fear comes from. She will notice soon that, that love in the way she wants, will appear and will bring that happiness she has been looking for. Is a price for her wait for the right people to come by her side, wisdom that has taken her to the place she is and become what she has be-come, a perfect Goddess Demeter.

MARIANN


GODDESS

ATHENA

MARIANN INCARNATES GODDESS ATHENA

TRAVELS LIFE THROUGH WISDOM AND STRATEGY. Goddess of intelligence, wisdom, a queen warrior, therefore pragmatic, disciplined ambitious, socia-ble, the patriarchs defender. Extremely feminine although her favorite environ-ment is the men fields were she is well known as a winner. Mariann or Goddess Athena will never use offensive tactics, because her defense is very solid and well grounded. She has control over every situation what gives her the power given by credibility. As wise as she is, these characteristics she embody make her speak shoulder to shoulder with a subtle “dignity” to any authority figure and still look fresh and convinced that she will get it her way, because she knows her wisdom will lead her and those who surround her to the right path of knowledge and growth. She knows she nur-tures her business environment with the spice of the female warrior, strong but delicate, “rushy” but assertive; has a tremendous ability on making things happen since her brain, both sides right and left are in perfect balance. She seeks for pure knowledge, new frontiers, new fields and protects those who support her in her way to the top with no distractions allowed. Her strong character al-lows her to enjoy male and female environments since she will be the soul of the place wherever she decides this place will be. Her lover is just one, she will never waste her precious time in frivolous approaches that will leave her exhausted and can distract her from her real life goals. She will step up for her goals and will do whatever it takes to conquer them, with no fear to criticism. Athena or better say Mariann will play her female

cards only if it is the last option she has and only if she thinks it will be a part of a larger strategy. She knows her brain will conquer it all. She will do whatever is needed to maintain her position. This Goddess prefers to work better in the company of men who she thinks are better challengers when it comes to personal and business success, always perfect as the right hand of the Big Boss, realistic, diplomatic, since she loves alliances to make good things happen. Intuitive and very open when it comes to harsh topics since her high self esteem al-lows her to enter into dark fields and become not a survivor, but the owner. Men find her very interesting due to her large baggage of wisdom; they think she knows how to speak in so many “soul and brain languages” what makes her very multifaceted. As a wife and as a mother she will follow the same pattern: “STRATEGY”. She looks power-ful and that’s her most precious aphrodisiac. She will live in a shell until you prove your hon-est feelings towards her and her troops. She sacrifices too much of her personal life for the sake of duty. The day that she listens to her heart she will experience the most complete happiness ever felt within her. She will learn how to connect with her inner light that hap-pens to be extremely radiant, that’s why she needs Aphrodite friends to learn how to relax for the sake of pure love and romanticism not only to the outside but to the inside.

RAPHAEL

S’PLENDEUR MAGAZINE ©

GOD HERMES

RAPHAEL

GOD HERMES

The messenger of the Gods, mischievous, inventive. Of magnificent presence, Raphael walks around his domain from side to side. Managing his soft talking in a very subtle way to teach his students all his wisdom. Lively, is pretty noticeable the way he wants to adventure himself to life after he had swam dark waters finding his Goddess Hera just by the sea shores. The communicator between worlds; spends so much time under the effect of Gaia, mother nature, which gives him the power necessary to fulfill his life and the ones he love and live inside the light that conquered after he entered into a big turmoil. Still young, he discovers the sense of living and uses the temple to forge a nice foundation for a brilliant fu-ture. The soul of the party, smiles to all and captivates his hearts in some many ways. In Olympia this God was called a “thief”, but never with a bad intention, never evil. A thief of hearts inside a society that needs so badly the creation of more people that like him, sends love to the universe day by day. A bit naïve but this characteristic is what makes his charm reach beyond the frontiers. A very good lis-tener, a God that can stay calm and can give mature advice despite his age. Family, traveling and different cultures are his passions and he loves sharing this with a lovable environ-ment. His biggest good: “His loquacity”. There is reason why he is called the messenger of the gods, Raphael incarnates his qualities in the same fascinating way. He convinces, he sells and he makes it his way to make people obey. He always knows how to commu-nicate and does it in a wonderful way. His mind is very open and very flexible showing great curiosity for what he experiences around. He pre-fers to keep walking and finding new things just in case he misses something. He is not able to descend from the heavens as easy as the others Gods, but surely by using his communicative skills he will get his way even to underworld if he decides to do it.



TINA

GODDESS

PERSEPHONE


TINA

INCARNATES

GODDESS

PERSEPHONE

Goddess Persephone…. To me, the Queen the Greek Ancient World. She who was kidnapped by the Darkness and was send to the underworld. Against her will she lived and learned all what the underworld had to teach. Despite all what it has been said about her and yet despite of being the wife of Hades who has been depicted like the devil itself, we have to remember that she was taken to him by force. Tina like her reincarnation in Goddess Persephone decided that being there was not going to be a fatal thing. When in hell, you live strange situations, awkward, that lead to desperation and all this fire of hell has been used by her to burn everything that is not part of the divine plan she has traced. Each one of us has a bright and a dark side. But no one wants to reveal it, when it is in this revealing that we can find the real peace and the endurance of the soul. By masking our inner demons were not help-ing anyone and were not making anyone believe we are perfect and that’s why human beings are perfect because we have to be willing to accept we all have a dark side. The story of the sides of the coin is per-fectly real. And she is the only one who has mastered being in hell, and when we are there and learn the tough lessons that hell can set, you come being the owner, and of course being the queen of the light as well, since the goal of getting into deep waters or fires, is to enlighten and make your soul shine; that’s the real purpose of love. Some lessons in life look tough but is from those lessons that Tina has learned and what makes her so wise, and it gets better, what makes her so happy. We all learn from having a friend like this; the lessons of life that she had lived are not for everyone. Is being said that Gods send the toughest battles to his bravest warriors and if you get the chance to know her, you will see a wonder-ful soul that now is shining in wonderful beauty in the outside. She accepts that energy comes from light and darkness, and knows how to balance, making her one of the most balanced Goddess of this pantheon. She recognizes her truth and lives it up to scale. In the honor of those that are fighting to conquer their inner demons. She will teach you how to get out of the darkness for she has conquered her own inner world. She has battled the worse so she can clearly see what is good. She will never give up since she doesn’t see a shift like something bad and that’s why now she inherits the throne of a Potential Queen and will seat there until another Persephone can take her place. She, unlike the other Goddesses accepts her dark side to the fullest and as and integral part of her, but now that she is out and free, will always remain by the light because that’s what darkness is for, to see the light clearly or, what is the light without the darkness…. NOTHING. This queen of light in both worlds deserves to be honoured in each one of us, so we will be able to free ourselves from what is not letting us evolve.

JOHNNY


GOD

ARES

GOD ARES JOHNNY INCARNATES

When I first saw him I saw it just like what his incarnated God is, a warrior. Someone difficult to approach due to his “Marsian” ( from Mars ) nature. Fast, a hard worker, he doesn’t do it for money he does it for the sake of his evolution as a human being and the evolution of the others, as a spiritual being, as a God. His parents Zeus and Hera called him “the odious”; his Sister Athena asks:” Doesn’t he have a law?” But like his archetype Johnny he competes every day with himself to be a better being and to have solid spirit therefore, he works from the outside to conquer his inside, which is even richer than what we can expect. To me a God that still hasn’t been recognized for what he really is. A tender heart that approaches the innocents to help them when in need. Someone with trusting eyes but at the same time with a huge shield made from the most beautiful material: WISDOM. A person that deserves the front position on a fight for he has been trained and endured to perform at 100 %. A person that has no fears and develops resources from materials that weren’t even there in the first place. Creative. Unseen. Pierces the hearts of the people that surround him demanding from them to give their best if not, their highest potential. Hot tempered, what makes the first approach a bit difficult to get, but then, when you discover his nature, a warm heart leans out from unsuspected sources of huge love. Sometimes we can find him inside the bottle, just like the little genie. Those are times when is better not mess up with him, he can become unstable and can send some fire to your brain not because he is in-side his darkness but because he needs to retire long periods of time to put his ideas in order and come back to his conscious state of mind. He uses this times to recharge and to bring the Ares back on track as fast as possible. He needs to learn how to relax more often to be capable to lift his loads in an easier way. Life can be smooth for him al-though he still doesn’t know how to get there, but for that we need to learn how to read his body lan-guage to see which one is the best moment to take him out of the bottle.

A God full of Wisdom, knowledge that has been taken from so many lessons. A god that descends from the heavens and will have his place in the throne of Olympia in that very mo-ment that he recognizes himself like someone greater that what he thinks he can be.


CAROLINA


GODDESS DEMETER

GODDESS DEMETER

CAROLINA

INCARNATES


Carolina's most important relationship is the one she has with her daughter, just like the Goddess she incarnates in this modern days, the biggest in significance since being a mother is the function that motivates her to nourish the others. Strong, passionate, organ-ized and with a very good taste developed by her artistic skills. Caro will never jeopardize the wellness of her offspring. Stubborn, patient, perseverance are the qualities of this incar-nated Demeter. She operates in the 2 most beautiful levels: Cares about the physical needs and supports emotionally and is very understanding. She will never reveal how she feels even though life can be overwhelming at times especially when she feels that her presence is so needed, may this be her daughter or work; she could fall in depressions and that, can make her lose her sense of freedom. Demeter can be happier when she feels peo-ple need her very much. I foresee within her that her power lies on being a good mother which she relates and trespasses into her professional life bringing her success specially because is one of the great multi-taskers. She acknowledges that her impact in her daugh-ter’s life will be revealed in all of the fields of her existence. She has the power of self ex-pression, self realization, and can be the single mother because she knows she has every-thing inside to succeed in this path of life over the earth. She will need an Athena as a friend to learn how to say no when is needed. She will learn from her when to stop giving so she won't become exhausted and break her nourishing mission as well as earning how to set priorities, like her own, for instance, in the first place. She will learn how to reach that elder wise Demeter on her last years and will be an example of wisdom, motherhood and deliver-ance for all coming generations.

Carolina like the Goddess she incarnates is in charge of making the harvest of her temple to be abundant for her and for all those that surround her. A beautiful nourishing woman and mother. This golden haired Goddess daugh-ter of Rhea and Cronos, was the 4th wife of Zeus.

Egyptianbag therapy is traditionally performed with a bundle of

steamed herbs, milk and rice to soothe the body and soul. The

heat opens the pores and allows the balancing fusion of herbs to

bring a deep medicinal heat to your muscles, release tension, de-

toxify and revitalize your mind.

Influenced by Ancient Medicine, the herbal compress is an inte-

gral part of Eastern healing practices and Massage, which com-

bines rhythmic massage, acupressure, gentle stretching, energy

work, and meditation with the use of the herbal poultice filled.

The Herbal Poultice is a deep heat medicinal muscle treatment

that dates back to thousands of years when a hot pack medicine.

The body absorbs the heat, combined with the organic herbs to

help reduce aches & pains, stimulate circulation, increase lym-

phatic drainage, detoxify & condition the skin.


Robby

GOD

hephaestus


Robby

Incarnates

GOD hephaestus

The creative gift that Hephaestus portrays is firmly rooted on Earth, this Earth that we walk day by day. The only Olympian God that worked. He was expelled from Olympia since he didn’t fit that arrogant world of the Gods. He was much more humble than that and decided to dedicate his life to what really matters for him;” Teaching and his family”. He finds in all this work and goals the magic and magnificence needed to evolve as a human being. In this “Supreme Workshop of him” he has no rivals, but likewise the modern men he identifies himself with his work and he is totally lost out of it. Luckily, he is one of most revered and loved of all the Gods of Olympia. Robby incarnates a very need for “keeping his mind busy” and doing something at all times; meaning that for him is difficult to stay still without feeling lost. Power and appearance is not something that he wants for real. Although he has all the skills, being the God that has worked the most and suc-ceed in any attempt. Powerful, muscular, strong, robust, good looking, this God gains his gifts by working the earth very hard. Robby will never allow this floor to shake, for this will be his damnation. Fire is his favorite word, explosive, the inner fire as an expressed metaphor; he lives his life in a constant acceleration, at fast speed. He doesn’t need to speak much, his body tells it all. Sure he had past to so many Aphrodites that harmed his heart, but he finally found his Goddess Aglaea. He needs her always and forever, she inspires him to be who he is. She is the engine of soul, his breath of life, without her, without this beautiful Goddess he wouldn’t be who he is. He represents the masculine inner beauty sprouted into a man that can free all his emotions and remains calmed at the same time, hence, some-thing present in his interior became something visible to all the world and remains in the books of times like a wonderful example for future generations.

Maria Alejandra


Goddess

artemis

Maria Alejandra

Incarnates

Goddess

artemis

To me, she personifies the free spirit, a youngster that grew up early and is enjoy-ing her life by trying whatever opportunity life puts in front. Full of goals and pas-sion for life; tireless and obedient when it comes to perform her duties. Tends to overload her life since her energy is very high. Her mind always says yes even though her body claims her for some spare time and “she” time. She doesn’t know how to say no, and that makes her very vulnerable. Sweet and ten-der, any God will appreciate her not only for what she is conquering in her still young world but for what she is already revealing at her short age. As all the God-dess she bears a strange maturity that has been forged by the rich life full of com-plex situations that she had lived. She looks immune to fall in love just like Arte-mis the Goddess she is incarnating, but she has mastered living and providing herself alone and maybe waiting for that God that once stole her heart and will not complete her but complement her existence. She doesn’t need to find any ap-proval because she approves herself already to the fullest. Fulfillment, competence, independence from the opinion of the others and worried about defenseless women. She is the archetype of the older sister, so she will make a very good mother; sexual connection for her is something that requires emotional commitment and maturity. She enjoys a very active life. Vital, free, im-petuous, sassy, athletic and competitive. From a friend Hera she will learn how to be more accessible, she is so absorbed by her inner world, feelings and purposes that she forgets that there is an outside to perform as well. A rich beautiful small world that will be revealed by her inner beauty that surely is clearly screened in the outside and will take her to stages of life never suspected.


Daniel


God

apollo


Daniel is God Apollo the God of Sun, power and musical artists…the overachiever Daniel represents a masculine attitude that observes and acts from the distance. He is mental, intellectual; he prefers thinking and feeling just like the archetype he is reincarnating today. De-spite this, he evaluates objectively. He'll be very successful in life for he had all the tools to raise very high. Even when he seemed fogged he knows everything will be alright he believes in him and his thrive to fulfill all his goals. He is realistic and may demand lots of efforts but he will conquer them all since his spirit is strong and decisive. Daniel, just like his archetype Apollo, is an elegant and attractive looking man, impeccable with surprising results and manners. Sports are his way to unclog whatever he needs to unclog. Apollo’s usually fulfill with perfection the parents wills, as a son, he is very humble and it will be replicated when it comes to be a father, duty that will make him grow as a human being since he was born to be one of the good ones. He uses the mind and the spirit to take decisions with-out letting his emotion get on the way. He does everything with so much ease. He doesn't allow himself to feel hurt, reason why he rather to remain in the distance, he values politeness and avoids danger at all times, for that he is a very good observer. Daniel, the kind of man that does it always right, whatever goal whatever duty he seemed to know how to do it.

Daniel Incarnates

God apollo

. Daniel seemed distant some times, but just like Apollo, his warm heart and sweetness can be no-ticed at the moment you approach him with a smile. He must learn how to deliver that smile before someone has to take it out of him J. Still young but very mature, Daniel will reach any goal in his life by putting a bit more of emotion into his daily routine to make it become a life mission that can bring him and the ones around, lots of happiness.


Brittany

Goddess

hestia

Brittany

Incarnates

The vivid incarnation of spirituality, the moon, the wizard, the healer… Brittany a free fairy spirit, innocence that transcends all planes of existence, ethereal like no other. She will never risk herself into the world to explore its savage nature just like an Artemis or an Athena, she belongs to the home may it be a temple or a modern home. Focused and very inde-pendent from masculine figures. Calmed, peaceful, with serene eyes is the most comprehensive woman I have ever met. That’s why I dare to say she will be a perfect wife and a perfect mother since she was born for it to happen. Her mind is virginal and extremely clean. Free of all toxic elements that earth could provide through humanity. At first look she appears to be surrendered to people’s tantrums, but she does know how to maintain her inner autonomy and reigns the world silently. She incarnates Hestia to her fullest. Brittany the Goddess of Spirituality, she is the fire of the homes, she enlightens the lives of all those who surround her comforting them and grants total integrity to it. Wise and tremendously intuitive, Brittany as Goddess Hestia incarnates the woman perfectly connected to her inner self. She knows how to capture the essence of every situation and this is how she gets into people’s heart. She foresees beyond the appearance. She enjoys loneliness since this allows her to deliver to meditation and connection with the richness of her inner world. She represents, the hermit, the mystic, the priestess. This is why she needs Athena around to make her land her wisdom and intuition into Gaia, or Mother Earth and bring all of her manifestations into this one reality, the dense world; and make a good living in this ma-terial existence. She needs an Artemis that will teach her how to stay firm into life’s decisions. The man that will get her attention will be her Hermes, the messenger, the communicator; he will be her sentinel while in intimacy and will help her to communicate with the whole world.

Goddess hestia

Sergio

God dionysus

Sergio

Incarnates

God dionysus

"Receive this god [Dionysus] . . . I hear, that he gives to mortals the vine that puts an end to grief." Herodotus, Histories 2. 123 (trans. Godley) (Greek historian C5th B.C.): "The Egyptians say that Demeter [Isis] and Dionysus [Osiris] are the rulers of the lower world. The Egyptians were the first who maintained the following doctrine, too, that the human soul is immortal, and at the death of the body enters into some other living thing then coming to birth; and after pass-ing through all creatures of land, sea, and air, it enters once more into a human body at birth, a cycle which it completes in three thousand years. There are Greeks who have used this doctrine [the Or-phics], some earlier and some later, as if it were their own; I know their names, but do not record them." Solitary, a very unusual pattern, sensual. He likes to experience the world through all the senses. Sometimes he feels that he doesn’t fit the culture he belongs to. A mystic, vagabond, a lover. A man that dedicates his life towards one single goal:” Keeping his temple safe”. As a temple I refer the body, that body that was given us the day we arrived this world. Hugo, vivid incarnation of his God Dionysus, is certainly a replica of what ancient Greek Gods used to do to keep his physical body not only in shape but healthy. Restless and full of energy; energy that uses to perform through his whole day. It seems that all this adrenalin expelled makes him hallucinate at certain point which brings him happiness since is something he has all day long. As the representation of the God of wine, he drinks the wines of life, living it to its maximum levels; he has mastered his drunkenness by living it eternal, in an eternal state of bliss. His wine keeps him safe from the outer world, this world, a world that doesn’t give him as much as his inner world does. His mind has to be busy; he doesn’t need to think he just “do”. He knows how to do it and does it perfectly. Not time, not space, there isn’t anything that can stop this Dionysus rage that takes him to his upper worlds and keeps him is state of grace. This Dionysus respects every part of his body and as the God of Fruit and Vegetation he represents his archetype to the fullest. “We are what we eat” is what he says, and pretends to teach this doctrine as well as he does with temple care doctrines. His lonely world can be awaken since is the God of parties and games.


Perseus the boy who lived. Persistent, persuasive, coura-geous, and a strong fighter. Not a God but a demigod, Perseus was thrown to the mad waters of the seas by his mother's father Acrisio, that years before, was told that he will be killed by his own grand-son, and avoiding this, he sent his daughter Danae to the gold prison where she spent a long until Zeus who happened to be in love with Danae, became gold rain and seduced her and got her pregnant to give birth to brave Perseus. Acrisio, not believing in the roy-alty of his newborn grandson, threw Danae and the baby to the waters. Danny, just like Perseus had a very tough start-ing. Having born by the 30th week of pregnancy, and small as a little puppy, survived to the dark waters. Having fought for so many days between life and dead, Danny survives his first great batlle against the dark seas of dead. Having con-quered one of the most fear-some lessons he became a survivor. With the madness of the father and the tenderness of the mother this Perseus be-came the protector of many on Ancient Greece.

Danny

Incarnates

Demi-God

perseus


Perseus is an example of persever-ance, skills, good manners and ro-manticism. This archetype will bring those who portray it, the assurance of having the work done and com-pleted. He has the characteristic of the gods but the sensitivity of the real human being. The only one of the archetypes that can land in both worlds spiritual and physical and feel safe in both of them. Despite of his short age, Danny cut his first medusa at the beginning of his life, and through this life, he has been fighting even more; having the best skills to battle his fights, and the protection of Zeus who called Poseidon to calm the water for he and his mom can get safely to Ar-gos the island where he grew up, and met his Andromeda to finally live happy and fulfilled.

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JOHN SINCLAIR Movement is Life

Over the last 35 years I have dedicated my life to Movement. From my earliest memories I recall always being on the MOVE! What makes that statement so profound is that we all have that mem-ory. Our earliest memories have all been about some sort of movement. Usually at an early age it focused on Play and Discovery. It usually involved your parents, grandparents, siblings and even friends. One thing is certain, Movement is Life! There is no way that you would currently be alive if it was not for Movement. Let us clarify that statement. Movement could be defined as a transition from one position to another. This can occur in the fol-lowing 4 areas of our life: Physical, Emotional, Mental, Spiritual Physical Movement can be in multiple directions and dimensions- forward and backward, side to side, or up and down. If you are to think about our existence on this planet we exist in at least 3 dimensions. This existence be illustrated as that of a sphere. As we age that sphere may shrink, meaning that our ability to have a large physical capacity for movement diminishes. It is my roles as a movement expert to ensure that your ability to move within a very large sphere exists for as long as you shall live. When we transition through life we need to be able to deal with obstacles and overcome those ob-stacles. Today, many physical deficiencies and diseases exist due to our inability to move effi-ciently. This will have a profound effect on your ability to function at your highest level of "Life Performance.” As a result, your emotional, mental and spiritual well being will suffer. “Life Performance” can be considered as the ability to do what you want to, need to do and have to do at the highest level of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual function to help support and provide for yourself, your family and your community. We all shall strive to the highest level of life performance in order to give the best possible experience for the people around us. It is what we want for our children, and perhaps what our parents wanted for us. It is a shame that we as a society have determined that is acceptable to lose that ability as we age and expect that we cannot function at a level that still creates optimal Life Performance. I believe that we still have the ability to stay young at heart, mind, body and spirit. The only road map that I have been able to find that delivers us there is through 3 dimensional movement. My purpose is to create an environment that is conducive for people on our community to find their fit. To be able to chase their movement dreams and to make them a reality. If it is for life performance, sport performance, executive performance or weekend warrior performance we all have the right and opportunity to excel as we were designed. We are a multidimensional, highly organized organic being yet we are all unique. We all have different aspirations, goals, objectives and expectations, obstacles and stresses, body types and different structural make ups. Yet we all crave the same thing. Sustenance. The sustenance for life. Movement is our delivery system for enhancing life. The only question is….how do you like to move?

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VEGETARIAN WAVE BY CATALINA ROJAS

Vegetarian diet is a boom these days. For Health and Ethics, every day there are people in the World that stick to this gastronomic wave. In the whole world, there’s a boom of restaurants with very good offers. Still there are few good vegetarian res-taurants compared with the number of the meat and chicken places, pizza res-taurants and Italian gastronomic offers, for example; in recent years the growth of this market has been significant. In fact, nowadays a major part of food es-tablishments include in their menu op-tions food for this segment of the popula-tion.

Being a vegetarian means not eating any animal product, including all kinds of fish or birds. Nevertheless, some of them consume eggs and milk, or dairy products. That group is known like `ovo-lacto-vegetarians´. Those who avoid completely every product of animal ori-gin are called pure vegetarians. Of the previous topic has been proved that the ovo-lactovegetarians are more healthy that those who eat meat and the veganos are even more healthier than the ovo-lactovegetarians. There are two clear reasons which the people choose this way of life and they reject the animal meat. The first one is because health is affected with the meat toxins, and the fat that these contain damages radically the cardiovascu-lar system. The second has its base in the ethics, the re-sponsibility with the environment and the ecological sup-port. But there are more classifications or branches of the vegetarianism. Inside this gastronomic current the ovo-vegetarians are distinguished also: these consume eggs, cereals and vegetables, but not milk and neither dairy products. Lactovegetarians include in its diet, milk, cereals and vegetables, but not eggs. Those that follow macrobiotic diets are based on the consumption of food of the area where they live and they have to be of biological cultiva-tion; they consume cereals, vegetables and animal origin meats from animals that have been fed ecologically and that they have not been dealt with antibiotics, hormones and nitrites after sacrifice. Nevertheless, only they eat chicken or fish, twice a week maximum. This is one of the strictest diets within the vegetarian wave. The macrobiotic one corresponds to a philosophy that has as unique principle, the theory of the ying and the yang, founded over 5,000 years ago by the philosopher Fu Hi.

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His followers are convinced that the majority of the illnesses, if not all, are caused by an inadequate Ph

in the blood. According to the specialists in the topic, if we manage to stabilize the acidity in the body,

we will be able to fight to a terminal cancer. And, ¿how to do it? By means of the adequate use of

food. The mixing is dangerous: the macrobiotic vegetarians will never eat fruits or fruits juices at the

same time that breakfast and the lunch.

They eat them between one and another, but never with less than four hours of difference. Be-sides, after 5 pm they have prohibited the con-sumption of this food because they alter the Ph of the blood. The vegetarian diet is very healthy for the body, whenever adequate balances among the food exist. The ingredients utilized as base of its foods are: the brown rice orizica 3, a variety of rice with con-structive glutinous quality and high-quality en-ergy; sesame oil, extracted in cold and with highly nutritious value; soy and miso sauce , fermented food prepared from soy, rich in proteins and en-zymes; the sago, starch of the achira; vegetables of biological cultivation, and vegetable proteins as tofu and seitán. In the development of this topic we could observe the faith that followers have in this type of diet, because they have seen cured more evicted by the medical science with the monitoring of a simple diet. Those that follow the frutarian diet, are the ones that only eat fruits, dry fruits and seeds. The vegetables that con-sume fruits are considered botanically, as is the case of the tomato and the pepper. Those that continue the diet raw foodists eat it every crude oil: fruits, vegetables, cereals and vegetables.

Nothing can be cooked at more than 42 degrees centigrade. The reason? To preserve the greater quantity of enzymes, mineral and vita-mins possible. The hygienist diet is the one that follow the ones that support the raw movement, but that admit to cook some steam things, so the food will not lose its nutritious qualities. The semi-vegetarian diet covers those who eat mainly fruits, vegetables and cereals, but that do not rule out the possibility to eat some fish occasionally. Other less strict allow themselves the consump-tion of chicken by their low content of grease. The protein should be replaced in some way with the by-soy products, vegetables and grains, though, when this is deficient, problems appear like lack of minerals like iron, calcium and copper among others. It is important to emphasize that those who follow a healthy diet, with vegetable oils pressed in cold, whole wheat flours, natural sweeteners and a strong percentage of fruits and vegetables, will manage to maintain the adequate weight. We will rarely find a vegetarian with excess of weight. And although the concept of healthy food is not equal to light food, the vegetarians look for good quality food that helps anyone to be well maintained and in good shape.

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There is the idea that vegetarian food makes people be hungry and therefore many of them continue with the regular diet. But the differ-ence between one and another is that with the vegetarian food the body remains lighter. The meats are difficult food to digest, and that is the reason why people feel heavy or full, which does not mean that they be better fed. Lesser Meat the healthier The most convincing argument to adopt a diet without meat, at regarding to personal health, is the undeniable correlation among eating meat and the different illnesses moreover, if the heart is involved. Investigation proves that in cultures where the consumption of meat is reduced, pains are practically nonexistent.

The Journal of the American Medical Associa-tion reported that a vegetarian diet can pre-vent between the 90 and 97% of heart ill-nesses, since the consumption of cholesterol is diminished and there are less possibilities that accumulate fat in the body. The arterio-sclerosis, for example, is very weird in the vegetarian world. The radicalists in their topic affirm forcefully: "Eating meat is killing us". The National Can-cer Institute , in the United States, adopted a program called ‘Five a day', in which encour-age the Americans to consume five portions of vegetables and fruits a day. This, the spe-cialists in natural health say, bioenergetics and homeopathy, is a good beginning; but would do lack the second part of the cam-paign that was called ‘Zero a day ', referring to

And it explains that the risk of illness grows dramatically, even, when a small quantity of this protein is added to the diet. This it is understood perfectly when one considers that the meat contains approxi-mately 14 times more pesticides than the food that stems from the plants. After a while, the human body simply `gets bored´ of dealing with these toxins, surrendering to illness and finally to death. Meat toxins accelerate the process of premature aging. Therefore they shorten the projection of life. The investigators compare the human body with a complex machine of high tech engineering. And, as every machine, our agency receives better some fuels that others. This is a dependant to the 100% of the function of its capacity. The medical registrations of the entire world show that meat is the worst fuel for human machine function therefore charges a very high tax. The toxins of the meat accelerate the process of premature aging hence they shorten the projection of life. They have infinities more odds to arrive at the age of 90. Vegetarians, unlike the rest, those that do not have long term contamination in their blood, have more expectations of life plus a better quality which makes endings much easier. Knowing to eat vegetarian is the most powerful form of reaching the good health. The Vegetarian Com-panies of England and United States consider that this way of life provides only benefits to our agency. For example, the vegetarians have fewer possibilities to suffer illnesses heart illnesses, as well as hy-pertension, obesity, diabetes, cancer, intestinal disorders, stones in the kidney and in the blister, and even osteoporosis. And really, with a simple course of four hours, you will learn to choose the adequate food to create a balanced and healthy menu for their family. Nowadays we find in the supermarkets great variety of organic products and food as brown rice, tofu, the by-products of the soy, cereals, etc. What is not there will be able to be found in the naturalists and organic stores or markets.

the total elimination of the meats and the dairy products. T. Colin Campbell, one of the key investigators in The China Study –the largest diet and health inves-tigation never done before–, affirms: "In the next 10 years, one of the things that we are going to listen the most is that the animal protein is one of the most toxic nutrients than there have exist".

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The majority of the organizations that watch for health on a worldwide basis they advise a low diet in fat, and rich in fiber and vitamins. The World Health Organi-zation ( WHO ) considers that is vital to reduce the consumption of fat and to in-crease the intake of fruits, vegetables and cereals. The majority of diets for sick people, or the ones that Medical Centers recommend, introduce almost all the components of a vegetarian diet. Then? What are we waiting for? If we are still lazy the lets visit a couple of good places that offer incredible dishes, start experi-menting with this new style of nourishing our bodies. Is never too late to give our body the tools that need to be S ” PLENDEUROUS healthy!!

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What’s Love? When you think of your past love, you may view it as a failure. But when you find a new love, you view the past as a teacher. In the game of love, it doesn't really matter who won or who lost. What is important is you know when to hold on and when to let go! You know you really love someone when you want him or her to be happy, even if their happiness means that you're not part of it. Everything happens for the best. If the person you love doesn't love you back, don't be afraid to love someone else you’ll never love a person you love unless you risk for love. Love strives in hurting. If you don't get hurt, you don't learn how to love. Love doesn't hurt all the time. Though the hurting is still there to test you, to help you grow. Don't find love, let love find you. That's why it's called falling in love because you don't force yourself to fall. You just fall. You cannot finish a book without clos-ing its chapters. If you want to go on, then you have to leave the past as you turn the pages. Love is not destroyed by a single failure or won by a single caress. It is a lifetime venture in which we are always learning, discovering, and growing. The greatest irony of love is letting go when you need to hold on and holding on when you need to let go.

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We lose someone we love only when we are destined to find someone else who can love us even more than they can love their selves. On falling out of love, take some time to heal and then get back on the horse. To love is to risk rejection, to live is to risk dying, to hope is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the great-est hazard in life is risk nothing! To reach for another is to risk involve-ment, to expose your feelings is to ex-pose true self; to love is to risk not to be loved in return. Love - isn't how much you can get, but how much you can give; it's not about giving up, but holding on; not about how you say, 'I love you,' but how you show it's true. It is something far more precious, but something far more fragile. Hold on to it too tightly and it will crumble in your fingers. Hold it too loosely and the wind might blow it away and shatter it on the cold ground. Listen to the voice in your heart but be absolutely sure the voice comes from your heart. If you love someone, let them go. If they return to you, it was meant to be. If they don't, their love was never yours to begin with. It's ok to kiss a fool, it's ok to let a fool kiss you, but NEVER let a kiss fool you.... Ahmed Abdelhamid

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Lissette, the modern artisan, the new pouch maker. Ancient Greece has a extend foundation when it comes to handicraft, arti-sans, musicians, drama and painters among many other disciplines. Continu-ing with this path of parallelisms between ancient Greece and our modern times, we could not leave behind the importance of the use of handbags then and now. The origin of the handbag is said to come from the usage of totes by men during biblical times.

Highlighting Today

“Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs show men wearing purses around the waist, and

the Bible specifically identifies Judas Iscariot as a purse carrier.

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The aegis refers to several different things in Greek mythology. Robert Ranke Graves in “The Greek Myths” (1955) asserts that the aegis in its Lib-yan sense had been a shamanic pouch, filled with powerful ritual objects

belonging to Athena.

Handbags were used by the Babylonians and Assyrians from 1500 BCE to 550 BCE. They were richly embroidered and used for religious ceremonies.”

No wonder we now have so much care of this precious talisman and we all want more than one. Now and then this artifact carries the deepest secrets of a woman. The pouch is a form that has existed since prehistoric times. Made from vegetable fibers twisted together or animal skins, the bags appear to have held many functions, ranging from seed storage to burial contain-ers.

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Lissette, our chosen archetype representative, incarnates to the fullest the role of the female artisans in Ancient Greece with a lot of creativity and with the highest level of sophistication, her designs have reached this modern times with stunning quality. A true goddess that day by day thrives to better herself and those around her. A fully dedicated wife and mother, but a person that acknowledges that the best status for self realization is going through hard work and the total development of the skills she clearly knows, she has as a gift. Qualities and assets that are clearly revealed in the most important accessory for a woman. This, what I call “A woman’s talisman” has been misunderstood through the pass of time. The materials used, every stitch to make a product like this determines how good the artisan is so selling them become selling a piece of art. Each material evokes a dif-ferent vibration, a different mood, and like in Ancient Greece, can be used as a protec-tor hence the sensation of loss when the handbag is lost at least for a few seconds. Call us empty headed, but the origins of the bad understood handbag goes further fashion, style and price. For us a piece of art and Lissette prime designer for Culto Handbags, has made a product that integrates, beauty, good taste, hard work and high standards, ready to dignify the S’PLENDEUR of our modern woman.

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Belly Dance Secrets for

Fitness and Rejuvenation

By Keti Sharif Sphinx Festival Director Cairo Egypt

Belly Dance for Fitness Is on the Rise!

Why has Belly dance steadily gained popularity as the new fitness solution for busy women? The most impor-tant factor in sustaining an exercise program is the 'fun factor'; Belly dancing comes with great music, exciting moves, noisy coin belts and its own special dress code. When one considers safety, the emphasis on posture, core stability, and mastery of technique makes Belly dancing a low impact workout that tones and conditions the body, in keeping with a very modern approach to fit-ness!

The Three Sporting Ss:

The 3 Sporting Ss of the 21st century are strength, stamina and suppleness. Personal trainers encourage women to take several classes a week: a yoga or Pilates, aerobics or cardio and then some light weight training for muscle tone. However, Belly dancing offers the three Ss in one glittering package. Slow sinewy movements improve supple-ness and postural alignment. Constant, repetitive moves build muscle strength and definition, with the body often using forces of resistance to create the move. To obtain a great cardio workout, shimmies, energetic accents and vibrating moves boost oxy-gen to the muscles, and more importantly, burn fat, and continue burning it.

Why Do Some Women Who Belly dance Become Fit While Others Don't? The secret of harnessing the magic of Belly dancing is to learn how to sustain certain elements to create a powerful workout effect. It is important to understand that two categories exist: 'Dance for expression/art' and 'Dance for fitness'. Keeping the two separate will make it easier to construct a workout. Repetition is important, and so is a solid, steady beat to drive the movement for 'Dance for fitness'.

It is paramount to do the movements correctly, making sure they generate from one’s core, (the containment of energy generated in the lower abdominal and pelvic mus-cles). This action must be conscious; one needs awareness in order to access core strength to support the lower back, lengthen the spine and maintain optimum postural alignment. I have seen many dancers unable to execute correct technique because their entire postural alignment is out of balance. It is a teacher's role to correct her stu-dent's posture from the beginning and teach how to dance from the core. Movements that begin from a strong core or center of the body will improve the posture, help re-balance the endocrine (hormonal) system and will make other muscles function in fully supported and balanced action. Correct posture is essential for those who suffer from any form of back problems. The truth is that many women around the world are danc-ing in a free-form way that can stress the lower back because they are not using mus-cles correctly. Posture is paramount! Luckily, an instructor can teach it, and a student can learn and incorporate it within weeks. How Can Belly Dancing Tone Muscles and Give Definition? For suppleness, the sinewy moves that are randomly used in Taqsim movements and dance articulation, must be repeated, sustained and done methodically as a focused taqsim workout - using a variety of upper, mid and lower body taqsim movements - for at least 30 minutes for real toning benefits to take place. The music should be slow and meditative, at approximately 80 beats per minute. The moves that create muscu-lar definition are: snake arms, undulations, belly rolls, shoulder rolls, hip circles, figure eights and slow traveling steps. Floor work can be included, and since Belly dancing

doesn't stretch the legs muscles enough, it would be wise to include some leg toning exercises. Yoga is good to incorporate into the dancer's weekly training and one can combine Yoga poses with Belly dance isolations. How Can Belly Dancing Make Dancers Stronger? Lifting arms high over the head engages muscles and is a form of resistance that will tone your biceps and triceps. For increasing strength, one must do it regularly, so there should be a drill or repetitive factor. The dancer should push arms up higher than normal to create a successful workout. Thigh muscles powering accents, shim-mies and hip moves will creating a tension and resistance too. Because the grounded nature of Belly dance causes thigh muscles to continuously contract to sustain hip movements, it is also a natural leg strengthener. However, it is a good idea to balance this with some muscle lengthening exercises such as: kicks, leg stretches and lifts against a ballet bar, wall or even on a chair. The aim is to get the leg high and use its own weight as resistance to work the muscles. The belly rolling moves will improve the strength of the abdominal muscles, and thus, support the lower back. Does Belly Dancing Burn Fat? The good news is that regular cardio workouts at least four times a week for a mini-mum of 30 minutes of sustained vigorous, low impact exercise will alter the body's BMI (basic metabolic index). In other words, dance, shimmy, do traveling moves and step to 120-130 BPM and the body must burn fat. The music here is important, and it should be fast and steady. The arrangement of songs should build up, peak, and slow down only at the end. Remember: posture, core strength and repetition. A reasonable sweat is a sure sign of fat burning. The body does get used to certain exercises, so try to vary the movements used every few weeks. How BPMs Affect the Hormonal System: At 130 BPMs (beats per minute) the body's hormonal systems activate (the feeling of excitability) and at this level of activation, the hormones begin to re-balance them-selves, including dopamine and seratonin levels (the feel good hormones). 130BPM is often the tempo of the faster Egyptian pop, drums, Fellahin, and Turkish Chiftetelli mu-sic. Belly Dance Improves Digestion and Assists Weight Loss With regular abdominal work in your Belly dance, the digestive system is activated and strengthened through wave-like contractions of the muscles, which offer a kind of 'internal massage'. Shimmies also activate and stimulate the digestive process. Inter-estingly, psychoacoustics specialists have found that 130+ BPM tempos improve the speed at which the body digests food, by releasing digestive hormones, adrenalin, and thyroxin. With regular fast dancing, circulation improves, and therefore, so does digestion. The entire body's cells are better nourished and the blood supply increases, resulting in an overall sense of “well-being” and increased energy levels.

"I have the Belly for it! Why does Weight stay around my Belly?” WEIGHT GAIN through the middle of the body is the first sign of metabolic imbalance of insulin in the body. Unfortunately, it often accompanies the ageing process, and usually starts at around age 30! Chinese medicine and Taoist exercises use the BEAR exercise to improve pancreatic function, by walking with the belly protruding to create a rubbing or massaging effect on the pancreas. It is very similar to the abdominal movements used in Belly dance. Belly dance exercises that massage the pancreas are the abdominal exercises, including the hip circles, pelvic rolls and undulations. Raising the arms actually helps lymph nodes under the armpit clear excess toxic waste from one’s body. Did you know that orchestra conductors usually outlive the band? It's true! Lifting your arms is healthy and detoxifies. Rolling the belly and hips regulates the sex hormones produced by the gonads, which in Chinese medicine rule the entire endocrine system. How to LOSE WEIGHT and Re-balance Insulin Levels • Avoid sugar and flour products which raise insulin levels dramatically • Avoid large meals and have 6 small meals throughout the day • Have a fresh vegetable juice daily in the morning • Do the 3-4 Belly dance workouts a week • Do other creative artistic or sporting activities you enjoy 3 times a week. Chinese herbalists say pancreatic dysfunction occurs when life is too “serious!” Glowing Skin with Belly Dance: Belly dance workouts can improve circulation, and hence, improve skin tone and radi-ance. You can buy a loofah and use it after workouts when showering in order to re-move dead skin cells and improve circulation to fight cellulite. Shimmies reduce cellu-lite around the bottom by breaking up the adipose tissue and freeing the brown fat that creates the cellulite “pockets.” So, shimmy regularly! Emotional Re-balancing Through Dance Dance is an expressive, dynamic form of kinesthetic art that requires a special kind of mastery that relies on awareness, movement, balance and spatial geometry. Although dance presents itself as a physical art, it brings out emotive response through the body's articulation of the music. On an emotional level it is liberating, uplifting and helps the dancer experience instinctive rhythmic patterns and feelings. Since its days as an ancient fertility rite, Belly dancing directly supports sexual and sensual function of a woman's body. It improves all aspects of her life: fitness and hormonal re-balancing, confidence and communication, sensual expression, and dynamic living. Happy dancing to you all!

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Cheryl Andiön

Editor in Chief Patrick Shewerman

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