Oneiromancy is a form of divination based upon dreams. It is a system of dream interpretation that uses dreams to predict the future.

The word comes from the Oneiroi, the sons of Hypnos the Greek god of sleep. Usually such dream interpretation is of a prophetic nature as opposed to the modern psychological version whereby dreams are often seen as clues to the present state of the dreamer, as in the scientific field of oneirology.

The interpretation of dreams was particularly prevalent in ancient Egypt where the dreams of the Pharoah were given great prominence. Oneiromancy also occurs in the Christian bible, as when the Magi are told in a dream to avoid Herod on their journey home.

For many cultures in the past, oneiromancy was seen as a science rather than an art. The use of flexible imagery and artistic interpretation is similar to some of the modern psychological approaches to dreams such as Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious and archetypes.

Diwali, popularly known as the festival of lights, is an important five-day festival in Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, occurring between mid-October and mid-November. During Diwali, lights illuminate every corner of India and the scent of incense sticks hangs in the air, mingled with the sounds of firecrackers, joy, togetherness and hope.

The celebration commemorates the return of Lord Rama from his fourteen-year long exile, and his vanquishing of the demon king Ravana. In joyous celebration of the return of their king, the people of Ayodhya, the Capital of Rama, illuminated the kingdom with earthen oil lamps and burst firecrackers.

While the Diwali is popularly known as the festival of lights, the most significant spiritual meaning is the awareness of inner light. The celebration refers to the light of higher knowledge dispelling all ignorance, the ignorance that masks one’s true nature.

In each legend, myth and story of Diwali lies the significance of the victory of good over evil and the lights that illuminate our homes and hearts. It is the light that empowers us to commit ourselves to good deeds; that which brings us closer to divinity.

Bauhinia purpurea is a species of flowering plant in the legume family native to Southeast Asia. Common names include Hong Kong Orchid Tree, Purple Camel’s Foot, and Hawaiian Orchid Tree.

It is an evergreen tree or vine with large thick leaves and striking purplish red flowers. The fragrant, orchid-like flowers are usually 3-5 inches across and bloom from early November to the end of March. The generic name commemorates the Bauhin brothers Jean and Gaspard, Swiss botanists. The two lobes of the leaf exemplify the two brothers.

Although now cultivated in many areas, it was discovered in 1880 near the ruins of a house on the shoreline of a western Hong Kong island near Pok Fu Lam. Apparently, all of the cultivated trees derive from one cultivated at the Hong Kong Botanic Gardens and widely planted in Hong Kong starting in 1914.

The Bauhinia double-lobed leaf is similar in shape to a heart or butterfly. A typical leaf is 7 inches wide, with a deep cleft dividing the apex. Local people call the leaf “clever leaf” and regard it as a symbol of cleverness. Some people use the leaves to make bookmarks in the hope that the bookmarks will bring them good luck in their studies.

Sea Purslane or Shoreline Seapurslane (Sesuvium portulacastrum) is a mat-forming, creeping seaside plant in coastal areas. It helps stabilize shorelines and dunes and is very useful for preventing erosion. It is native to the southeastern coastal US from North Carolina south through Florida, the Keys and throughout much of or all of the Caribbean.

It has thin, short, leathery leaves that are about 1″ long and thick, smooth stems of up to 3 feet. It also has attractive, small, somewhat inconspicuous white to purple or pinkish blooms. The tiny flowers are solitary in the leaf axils and bloom all year.

The leaves are edible, contain valuable vitamins and minerals, and have a crisp, salty taste. Medicinally this plant has been used to treat scurvy, a vitamin C deficiency and is sold in Asia as a vegetable. In the Caribbean, the leaves are pulverized and used to soothe puncture wounds caused by venomous fish.

Kairos is an ancient Greek word meaning the right, opportune moment, or supreme moment. The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time in between, a moment of undetermined period of time in which something special happens. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative nature.

According to ancient Greeks, Kairos was the god of the fleeting moment, a favorable opportunity opposing the fate of man. Such a moment must be grasped by the tuft of hair on the personified forehead of the fleeting opportunity, otherwise the moment is gone and can not be re-captured. This is personified on sculptures of the representative deity by the back of head being bald.

Kairos was central to the Sophists, who stressed the rhetor’s ability to adapt to and take advantage of changing, contingent circumstances. In Panathenaicus, Isocrates writes that educated people are those who manage well the circumstances which they encounter day by day, and who possess a judgment which is accurate in meeting occasions as they arise and rarely misses the expedient course of action.

Kairos is also very important in Aristotle’s scheme of rhetoric. Kairos is, for Aristotle, the time and space context in which the proof will be delivered. Kairos stands alongside other contextual elements of rhetoric: The Audience, which is the psychological and emotional makeup of those who will receive the proof; and To Prepon, which is the style with which the orator clothes their proof.

The American Alligator inhabits wetlands that frequently overlap with human-populated areas. They reach adulthood at about 10 years of age, at which time they are about 7 feet long. The oldest males may grow to be 16 feet and weigh up to 1,200 pounds during a lifespan of 30 or more years.

Adult alligators will eat wild boars, deer, dogs of all sizes, and livestock including cattle and sheep. The gizzards of alligators often contain gastroliths. The function of these stones is to grind up food in the stomach and help with digestion. This is important because alligators swallow their food whole. These gastroliths are also used in buoyancy control.

Alligators generally have a green, brown, or nearly black color with a creamy white underside. Algae-laden waters produce greener skin, while tannic acid from overhanging trees can often produce darker skin.

Although alligators have no vocal cords, males bellow loudly to attract mates by sucking air into their lungs and blowing it out in intermittent, deep-toned roars. Male alligators engage in infrasound bellowing with their midsection very slightly submerged, making the surface of the water sprinkle. Recently it was discovered that on spring nights alligators gather in large numbers for group courtship, known as “alligator dances”.

It has been suggested that people who are more grateful have higher levels of well-being. Grateful people also have higher levels of control of their environment, personal growth, purpose in life, and self acceptance. It has been demonstrated that people who were more grateful coped better with a life transition. Specifically, people who were more grateful before the transition were less stressed, less depressed, and more satisfied with their relationships three months later.

Gratitude has been said to have one of the strongest links with mental health of any character trait. In one study concerning gratitude, participants were randomly assigned to one of six therapeutic intervention conditions designed to improve the participant’s overall quality of life. Out of these conditions, it was found that the biggest short-term effects occurred when participants wrote and delivered a letter of gratitude to someone in their life.

This condition showed a rise in happiness and a significant fall in depression, results which lasted up to one month after the event. Out of the six conditions, the longest lasting effects were caused by the act of writing gratitude journals where participants were asked to write down three things they were grateful for each day. These participants’ happiness scores also increased and continued to increase each time they were tested periodically after the experiment.

In fact, the greatest benefits were usually found to occur around six months after treatment began. This exercise was so successful that although participants were only asked to continue the journal for a week, many participants continued to keep the journal long after the study was over.

Psychologists have addressed the hypothesis that fear of death motivates religious commitment, and that it may be alleviated by assurances about an afterlife. Research on this topic has been equivocal. People who are firm in their faith and attend religious services are the least afraid of dying. People who hold a loose religious faith are the most anxious, and people who are not religious are intermediate in their fear of death.

A survey of people in various denominations showed a positive correlation between fear of death and dogmatic adherence to religious doctrine. In other words, strict interpretations of the Bible are associated with greater fear of death. Furthermore, some religious orientations were more effective than others in allaying that fear.

Fear of death is also known as death anxiety. This may be a more accurate label because, like other anxieties, the emotional state in question is long lasting and not typically linked to a specific stimulus. The analysis of fear of death, death anxiety, and concerns over mortality is an important feature of existentialism and terror management theory.

While it is important to be aware of potential and real threats, it is just as important to react appropriately to them. For most of us, our initial startle response subsides as soon as we realize that there is no actual threat or danger. So when the fear of death is reduced, chance of dying also reduces exponentially.