Another Great Web site
Posted on | July 20, 2007 | No Comments
Online Tarot Course
Posted on | July 17, 2007 | No Comments
As most of you know, I’m a student of the Tarot. The architypical images resonate. New decks, old decks, a great deck can really speak to your soul.
I just signed up for an online course taught by one of my favorite authors examining one of the best decks ever. Here’s the information.
To sign up visit: http://www.maybelogic.net/
Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot
For over 35 years the Thoth Tarot has been one of the best selling and most popular Tarot decks in the world. Designed by Aleister Crowley and painted by Frieda Harris, it is considered by many to be the most important magical object d’art of the 20th century – it is also one of the most misunderstood. Crowley’s own “The Book of Thoth,” written in the last years of his life, is naturally the most authoritative work on the subject, and represents a synthesis of a lifetime of magical study and illumination. But, like many of Crowley’s works, it is hard to digest without a considerable background occult education.
Join author and Crowley expert, Lon Milo DuQuette, for an in-depth(and relatively painless) look at the classic and revolutionary structure of the Thoth Tarot; its artistic mysteries; and the secrets of sexual alchemy hidden within the stunning imagery of its 78 mini-masterpieces.
Visit us at: http://www.lonmiloduquette.com
Mail: P.O. Box 3111
Newport Beach, CA 92659
Another Thought-Provoking Web Site
Posted on | July 13, 2007 | No Comments
Check out this site:
http://www.emergentvillage.com/
These folks are trying to make Christianity relevant to most of us again and maybe move past dogma and back to love…
Creative Power – Scene Magazine Column – July 07
Posted on | July 13, 2007 | No Comments
Creative POWER
© 2007 Kevin E. Houchin
As an intellectual property and business development attorney, creative people surround me. I want it that way. I love it that way. I’ve been surrounded by creative people all my life, from the farm I was raised on (it takes creativity to get a few tons of tractor out of a mud hole), the guys in my fraternity house (engineers mostly), my fellow fine art undergraduates, the advertising pros I worked with before going to law school, my fellow law students, and now my clients. You’re surrounded by creative people right now too–just look around and notice all the creative energy filling the air around you.
Some people think creativity and successful business are opposites. They’re wrong. Creativity is the life-blood of business. Creativity is the POWER behind success in business and in life. You are probably no stranger to this, but sometimes things like invoices and deadlines distract us all.
Look around again. Look beyond the walls of your cubical, office, or studio. The business of creativity is changing. Look at Google. Look at YouTube. Look at MySpace. Visit CreativeCommons.org. The change may not seem that obvious, but it’s there and it’s very POWERFUL. The change is simply this – the face of creativity is leaving the fear-and-scarcity-based model of “protecting” creative work and moving toward an open-and-abundance-based model of “sharing” creative work. This is a profound shift enabled by digital technology. Those who understand, embrace, master, and BALANCE this shift first will make a living being creative and sharing the fruits of that creativity at the same time. That seems like true freedom to me…not a bad way to go through life.
While this is a profound shift, I think it’s very important to understand that this is not a new goal. The framers of the US Constitution understood that for society to advance, creativity (inventions and art) had to be shared. Each successive person must have access to the previous generation of creativity to build new ideas. Humanity advances through creativity. This truth goes back further than the Constitution. Check out the words of folks like Solomon, Jesus, Mohammed, and Buddha, and don’t forget to read the text of the Tao. It’s not just being creative that matters–it’s sharing that creative “fruit” with others that brings reconciliation and power.
In my law practice it’s easy to spot the people filled with this power. They’re the one’s who have easily committed everything they are and have to the idea, process, gizmo, or other form of creative expression. They’re “all-in.” They aren’t scared. They’ve surrendered their fear of being ripped off. They know that whatever they do in the future, they’re ALREADY successful. The only reason they’ve come to me is to make sure they are building the right balance of giving to society vs. receiving enough benefit to enable creation of the next contribution–be it painting, song, architectural work, cooking widget, branding package, or whatever fuels their passion.
I have some other clients who are wonderfully, prolifically creative, but sometimes get a bit caught up in the fear of getting ripped off. Obviously, one doesn’t want to invest literally years of one’s life in a creative effort, only to have the blessings of that effort redirected to someone who hasn’t invested the energy. Yes, there are people out there who are like creative vampires–sucking the benefits of the creative effort away from the artist or inventor, and sometimes those people can be hard to spot. Your lawyer can, and should, be a channel for your fears, allowing you to release that negative influence and concentrate on the true creative power of your natural calling. You should focus your creative energy upon sharing the fruit of your labor.
Sharing is the key to the successful creative business. It always has been, and it always will be. Whoever shares the most, will receive the most. Whoever provides the most value will receive the most value. You might say “Houchin, that’s crazy. Look at Microsoft.” Yes, for years Microsoft has zealously protected their brands and inventions. Some say the company has been a creative vampire, resulting in huge profits. One can also look at this company and say they have provided a great deal of value at a very reasonable price to a huge number of people. I CHOOSE to use MS Word on my Mac because it gives me the most value for my money. In one sense, this is a perfect example of sharing and receiving. But you don’t have to look far to notice things are changing. The open-source concept is starting to get real traction in the software industry. Royalty-free models have been working in music, photography, and art for years. Google Alerts may be putting traditional clipping services out of business. It doesn’t cost anything for a MySpace page or to watch videos on YouTube. CreativeCommons.org gives away intellectual property licenses that help people share. The process of sharing evolves, just like the results of creativity.
The power of creativity is found in sharing the results. How powerful are you now? How powerful will you be in the future?
—
Kevin E. Houchin is principal of Houchin & Associates, PLLC – a copyright, trademark, arts & entertainment, business development, and branding firm located in Fort Collins, Colorado. To contact Kevin, call 970-493-1070 or email kevin.houchin@houchinlaw.com.
Practical Spirituality by James Arthur Ray
Posted on | May 14, 2007 | No Comments
Great Book!
Here’s a little excerpt:
“One day God and Satan are sitting together, drinking some red wine. God produces an envelope. ‘What do you have there?’ asks Satan.
‘Truth,’ answers God.
Satan replies, ‘How about giving it to me?’
‘What will you do with it?’ ask God.
Satan replies with a sly smile, ‘I’ll make it into a religion.'”
This little passages follows these three paragraphs:
Being impeccable consists of so many different facets. The perennial myth of impeccability tells us of the individual in human form who, through commitment, focus, and discipline, elevates himself to the level of the gods.
Through many ages and many cultures we have been taught of these god-men, Dionysus, Osirus, Quetzalcoatl, Wiracocho, Buddha, Christ, and a multitude of others. For each, the myth has been the same: birth, death, transformation, transfiguration, and rebirth.
Unfortunately, when we do not live out the messages of the myths, we convert the study about them into dogma and create a religion. When this occurs, the role of the great ones immediately becomes oppression versus liberation.
Isn’t this exactly what I was talking about in yesterday’s post?
“Christian Response” to The Secret
Posted on | May 13, 2007 | No Comments
It happened to me again yesterday, I was confronted via an article in the local newspaper with someone (actually two people working together this time) claiming to have “the Christian” response to some topic – in this case the movie “The Secret“. Again, my brain about exploded. Why, because several things were happening again:
- Someone was standing up and claiming to be “right” on a spiritual/”Christian” matter – who are we to know?
- Someone was claiming that it’s even possible for there to be a single “Christian” response to anything – how many denominations of Christian are there now? IF there was “one” “Christian” answer, shouldn’t it come from the Pope? Yet, we as Christians don’t all accept his word as speaking for all Christians. Heck, a lot of Catholics don’t feel in their hearts that the Pope speaks for them. So, where do a couple of everyday Joann’s get the authority to give THE Christian answer to something that doesn’t even need to be questioned in the first place?!
- The responses they were claiming to give were simply a matter of how we semantically label “God.” Do you think God cares what name we use, don’t you think that a the spirit of creation and “Godness” is above our human labels. I’m betting the Spirit is happy whenever a Human follows the rules of loving one another as ourselves – no matter what label we use for the creator.
- The responses they gave, while Biblical, were based on a single, literal, interpretation of scripture taken out of context.
- Worst of all, their approach ultimately requires people to turn off their brains, blame God for their circumstances, and abdicate one’s own personal accountability for one’s infinite, undying soul. As we will see, I believe God gave our souls these bodies and this short lifetime to improve ourselves spiritually by engaging our brains, souls, and bodies, in every way we can in order to get closer to that spirit of creation.
Why does that get me all worked up? Because history has shown over and over again that when one person stands up and says “I’m Right – this is THE ONLY WAY TO THINK,” bad things like political or religious despotism follow. Think holocaust, the inquisition, witch hunts, and wars of aggression. When someone stands up and says “this is the only way” my default position becomes “that’s the one way I’m NOT going!”
With this in mind, please note that in this post I’m not saying any of this is the only way. The ways to God are as infinite as God, who are we to know a single way? Fundamentalist Christians will say “but Kevin, JESUS CHRIST was and is GOD. He knew the way.” They’re right. Jesus Christ knew the way to God. He knew the way to himself. And he tried to communicate this knowledge to his followers. Some of that knowledge and truth found its way to us in the Canonical Gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John (especially Mark and John), and from the letters of Paul.
The next logical response is that if Jesus knew “the way” and we agree on that, then when he said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except THROUGH me” in John 14:6, they tend to remove this from the context of the conversation being recorded and interpret this statement to be one of EXCLUSION of every other spiritual path. Countless people have been murdered throughout history (otherwise known as “converted by the sword”) by the thinking that in this verse Jesus is excluding all other paths to God.
When read in context, Jesus is using this statement to introduce the “Spirit of Truth” several verses later, right before he says what is in my opinion the single most important sentence in the Bible, John 14:20, which states “On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”
Christ in You… You have the power of Christ in you.
How are you using it? Are you being a good steward?
Before reading any further in this blog, read John 14 and 15. It’ll take you about 2o minutes tops. If you read these two chapters of the Gospel and come away thinking Jesus intended Christianity to be exclusive of all other faiths and paths to God, then I’ve got my work cut out for me in this blog – and you’ll probably hate it.
If you’ve frequently wondered how a loving Christ could found something that has been so splintered, distorted, and the actual source of evil at many times in history, then becoming accountable for your own spirit may help restore your faith.
Finally, let’s take a look at the words of Jesus himself on the subject:
John answered, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.” But Jesus said to him, “Do not stop him; for whoever is not against you is for you.” Luke 9:49-50
I think it’s about time “Christians” stop judging and start loving.
I’m back
Posted on | April 18, 2007 | No Comments
We finally launched the new site and all the new collateral materials. So, now I’m back on the spiritual front and will be adding new posts, quotes, and reference materials fairly regularly over the next few weeks.
I’ll be back soon…
Posted on | January 21, 2007 | No Comments
I haven’t been posting much here for the past few months because I’ve been working very hard on bringing my design, legal, and spiritual interests into form as one business.
I’m launching a new kind of firm, one that provides marketing services – especially branding – in combination with intellectual property and business development law. The spiritual element is that I’m doing this because I believe every human has within them a spark of divinity and that they fuel that spark when they are building and being creative. Houchin & Associates will help people focus on their personal creativity and help them build their businesses or other professional success – fueling that spark of divinity into a roaring flame.
We’ve worked this concept and admission of the spiritual element of business into the marketing materials and the tagline. The tagline will be “guiding value” which plays off my tarot card “The Hermit.” The marketing materials will also incorporate, subtly, the words Fiat Lux and the Aramaic equivalent – which includes the Yod character discussed elsewhere on spiritcurve.
Finally, the “universal architecture” illustration based on the Kabbalistic tree of life is very prominent in the entire business model. As soon as the materials are ready, I’ll post them here and include a link to the new Web site www.guidingvalue.com. Thanks for your patience.
FYI, I have a draft of a paper on the sybolism of “the point within the circle” that I’ll be posting in the next few weeks as well.
Why work?
Posted on | November 7, 2006 | 2 Comments
Why do you do what you do?
What Values drive you?
Here’s why I work with creative people and businesses:
I believe the spark of divinity exists in each and every human being and that spark of light is kindled and built into a roaring, life-sustaining flame when people create. Creativity is the hand of God actively working in this continuing experiment that is our world.
By helping creative people and businesses reach their goals I’m doing nothing less than helping people reach their potential and unleash the power of their individual divinity.
What I do differently from many lawyers is COLLABORATE with my clients. I don’t know everything. Each client’s situation is different and requires a different combination of my skills. I like to enable my client’s vision.
Creative people need a sense of ownership in each project, a sense of spirit and empowerment that comes through collaboration rather than the paternalist attitude embodied in many lawyers today. My goal is to allow my clients to actually enjoy working with their lawyer and truly consider me a trusted advisor and member of their leadership team.
Interesting Web Site:
Posted on | October 30, 2006 | 1 Comment
http://www.religioustolerance.org/
Book Recommendations
About Kevin
Kevin E. Houchin is an attorney, artist, teacher, author, and principal of
Houchin Consulting, PLLC, a copyright, trademark, arts & entertainment,
business development, and branding firm located in Scottsdale, Arizona.
To schedule Kevin for keynote speeches, workshops, or seminars, call 970.231.2426
or email
kevin@kevinhouchin.com.