Abbreviated Elemental Schema

Air Sword(Spade) Thinking Space
Water Cup(Heart) Intuition Time
Earth Disk(Coin)(Pantacle) Sensation Mass
Fire Wand(Staff)(Club) Feeling Energy

Media Noise Solutions

A few years ago I became aware of the term "media noise", a term which immediately intrigued me, yet seemed to be the perfect, self-explanatory expression of extraneous information. I don't remember where I first heard it, but a quick Google search turned up very few relevant entries, mostly bandwidth solutions for sale. I continued to ponder the subject and its implications in the interim.

Just yesterday I was reading an old blog entry by Jason Miller, on his Take Back Your Mind blog, which focused on meditation being the single most important routine for most people, not to mention the single most powerful tool for magicians. It suddenly occurred to me that "media noise" is actually an age-old problem, or, rather, phenomenon.

Though the term is relatively modern, the idea of the individual feeling swamped by information is something that has plagued us since the dawn of time.

Everyone has to make decisions. What do we believe? Do we follow our parents' choice of cosomology? Do we fall into a vocation which seems to present itself, or do we pursue what we really desire, regardless of the degree of difficulty in attaining it? Can we find a middle ground? Do we continue our education? Do we listen to other people's advice when we are attracted to someone, or do we follow our instincts? Who can we trust?

These problems are as old as the poet Homer and far, far older. The only difference is now we are inundated with advertisements and (often unsolicited) opinions via the various media outlets we expose ourselves to. We have a deluge of information pouring at us. The majority of this information is irrelevant and distracting, so it is referred to as "noise", and we try to tune it out, while retaining the useful stuff. But the key to dealing with it, and being able to properly process the right information, lies within the understanding that we can shut it off. All of it, when it gets to be too much to sort out.

I recently lost internet and television connection in my home, in anticipation of a move. For a few weeks I took a further step and avoided looking at newspapers. It felt wonderful.

I'm still stressing over recent serious vehicle problems, where I'll be living, whether the commute will destroy my next vehicle, how I can increase my income in one area to compensate for a loss in another, etc., etc.

That's where meditation comes into play, as the solution in coping with what you can't unplug from until you die. Being able to quiet the mind helps our focus. Much the same as a cup of coffee in the morning, a meal, or a few extra hours of sleep for the sleep-deprived suddenly improve one's attitude and perspective. Problems are still there, life is still present, but we don't feel so overwhelmed.