As I said in my first examination of this card, the Lord of Ruin is much more about what we invite into our lives with negative and unhelpful thought patterns, than it is about outside events. When we pay close attention to the things we wish ourselves, ensuring that our thoughts are as bright as possible, we attract goodness and positive energy into life.

If, on the other hand, we are careless in examining what we think, feel, desire and dream of... allowing ourselves to slide into habits that diminish us, living more by fear than by love... then we draw bad things into life.

The trickiest bit about this positive thinking business is that its effects project into the future, and we are strongly affected by our experience of the present. If things seem to be going wrong, life is heavy and difficult, we tend to have negative reactions to things. Unfortunately, though, having those negative reactions in the present condemns us to further difficulties in the future.

So you can see it is essential to somehow break out of the downward spiral. Positive thinking is a habit. So is negative thinking. And, as with all habits, it can be very awkward to change the pattern. Constant vigilance is required. We need to monitor our thoughts and feelings VERY carefully. And as soon as we discover that we are starting to think dark thoughts we need to pounce, snatching that thought up and determining where it has come from.

This applies as much to our deepest inner responses as it does to our responses to external stimuli. Life is always throwing the curve ball at you, just to see if you can catch it. And harmonising yourself with the rhythm of life is - beside being the greatest reward of all - a very big challenge.

It does help, though, to try to interpret events in terms of your own reactions... this gives you a good reason to watch yourself carefully in the present. Try this - find something that you currently feel unhappy, frustrated, shocked, hurt about... Take a good look at the overview of this... try to separate the differing elements of the problem.

Now, carefully go back over the last few months (or years) looking for something in your own actions, thoughts, feelings that seems connected with this unhappy situation. And take a hard look at how your thoughtforms might have created it.

And whilst going through this process remember... rule number 1 is to refuse to be judgmental, guilty or angry with yourself. Do that and a while down the line something will happen as a result of treating yourself badly. Rule number 2 is to accept what you find, do what you need to do to mend it, and then enjoy the sense of positive energy that comes from treating yourself and life with love and respect.

One interesting point is that once you get the hang of locating which impulse created which event, you become much more expert at catching things fast. The manifestation of your thought or whatever also speeds up... this has the excellent effect of making sure that you correct a thing before it causes maximum damage!!!