Slade : Meaning of The Name Slade

Yes, my "real" name is Slade -- it's not a chosen name; I didn't change my name as a rite of passage; it's not a pen name, pagan name, or faerie name. It's just my name -- a damn cool one, if I do say so myself -- given to me by my Mama while I was still in the womb. She discovered it in the credits of a Western film -- it's most commonly found as the name of gigolos, gangsters, and cowboys. It's bad ass.

My parents, unfortunately, chose to call me by my middle name, which always presents a bit of confusion when people address me as my first-name "Eric." I grit my teeth every time someone calls my name off an official list or emails me with this glaringly un-familiar salutation. (It does however provide me with a built-in strategy for screening unwanted telephone solicitations -- anyone who calls and asks for "Eric"... I know it's not someone I want to talk to.)

If you look at my Vacation Bible School certificate from Mars Hill Baptist Church, you'll see that I have indeed been called Slade all my life.

Enough correcting and explaining -- I LOVE my name. It's more common as a last name in Britain, but it's a killer boy's name -- it's butch, its singular syllable is musically versatile and goes nicely as a middle name behind just about any first name. I often submit it to online name databases because it's a name I have grown up to dig and for which I am very thankful.

But it's not a name that was easy to find on a bicycle license plate or belt-buckle when I was a kid. It's not often found in baby name books or dictionaries -- over the years I've scoured any potential source for the meaning. When I first traveled to England in 1992, I discovered it as a common place name, last name, as well as in a British Name dictionary.

For years, the only meaning I knew was "dweller in the valley you can't see inside of."

Recently, linguist and phonosemantic genius Jeff Lilly of Druid Journal -- researched the name Slade and discovered the following:

Slade is an English name that ultimately derives from the Proto Indo European root lei or slei, meaning "slide". Lei/slei is also the ancestor of words such as slippery, slick, loam, and oblivion. In Proto Germanic, slei became the verb slidanan (ancestor of English slide), as well as the noun slido, from which is derived sled, slede, and sleigh. In Old English, this root was probably also the source of slade, which was used to refer both to the sole of a plow and a steep-walled valley (i.e. a valley with "slippery" sides).

This latter meaning ("valley, glade") gradually extended to someone who lived in, or was from, such a place. There are a number of towns in Great Britain and elsewhere called Slade, and it is a surname as well.

The sound of the name Slade is powerful, as is obvious from its homophones sleighed and slayed. Motion is inherent in it -- swift, directed, strong motion, but also expansion, like a river filling a valley. And the motion has an endpoint: it leads to decisions, and opens doorways.

-- Jeff Lilly, Druid Journal Word of the Day

Check out more of Jeff Lilly's truly unique exploration of words and linguistic lore at Druid Journal Word of the Day. In exchange for a donation to Jeff's site, you can request a phonosemantic portrait of your own name.

Seek Wisdom -- Practice Love

Manifesting the WHAT - not the HOW

Are you attempting to micromanage the Law of Attraction, limiting the Creator's ability to deliver all the abundance you desire?

Do you attach conditions to the requests you make of the Source? Do you have a bad habit of negating your invoices to the Universe as quickly as you make them? I've been working with a self-published author over at my day job Spiritual Blogging, but the lessons in Manifesting I've explored with him have universal applications.

Chris wrote a book about surviving the suicide of a loved one. He struck up a conversation with me one day at the cafe where I go to write in the afternoons, asking me what I was working on. I told him I was a writer and professional blogger. His eyes lit up as he began telling me about the book he'd written and was looking to publish.

"I'm not looking to get rich off this book, but I do believe the message is important. I just want to put it out there, but that's not going to happen until I can scrape together about $5,000."

"Why do you need $5,000 dollars before you can put your book out?" I asked.

"Oh, it's going to cost that much for the printing. I'm hoping my brother will pay me back some money he's owed me for the past few years, and if I combine that with the money I could get if I sell my motorcycle, I'll be able to pay the printer."

Hurdles of How's and Why's

During the conversation, Chris expressed an awareness of the Law of Attraction, the Secret, and he presented all the "right" vocabulary regarding manifesting techniques. Yet every time he mentioned a desire, dream, or goal -- and even though he used all the popular, optimistic New Age terminology -- his sentence structure betrayed a serious problem. He limited, negated, and unraveled What he desired with destructively detailed Hows and Whys.

"Tell me again WHAT you require to put your book out there?" I asked.

Chris repeated that his "book is totally ready to go, but before it can be printed, I need to..." and he recited an even more detailed laundry list of things that must occur before his book can be published.

"So, you need the book to be printed. That's WHAT you need, right?" I prompted.

"Yes, but..." and again he launched into all the But's.

I stopped him. "Wait a minute, wait a minute. I'm trying to show you something here. Indulge me. Tell me WHAT you require -- just a simple statement of WHAT it is exactly. No if's, no and's, no but's. Again, what does the book need to be realized."

Simply State WHAT You Require

"My book needs to be printed," he said, "so it can... well exist. So people can actually read it."

I showed Chris that his ability to manifest THAT did not require any further conditions or circumstances -- that there were all kinds of variables and possibilities he was dismissing. He was misinformed about self-publishing -- the information he had was relevant about fifteen years ago. His idea of HOW a book could be published was locked in his (mis)understanding of all these requirements with limitations and details that were not even current or accurate.

What's even worse -- he was actually defining all the reasons his book would NOT be published -- in the very same sentence, the same breath. He was basically attempting to manifest something by declaring all the things that would keep it from ever happening.

"What if I told you that if you have written a book, you can move straight to producing, marketing, and selling it, without investing a dime in printing overhead? What if I removed that hurdle -- that printing price tag -- from what's keeping your book from being published?" Chris looked at me like I was about to tell him he'd won the lottery. I immediately brought Chris into 21st Century Book Publishing by introducing him to the wonders of consumer generated media and Print-on-Demand publishing.

I explained to him that What he had asked for was a way to get his book printed and bound, and that the Universe was delivering that to him -- not in a check, not in money -- but simply in the form of information that made his hurdles irrelevant.

The Creator has access to so much more than you may be aware of. Let the Universe do its job. Don't define HOW it must answer your requests for assistance.

A month or two passed and Chris found me in the cafe again one day. I asked him how the book was coming along.

"It's gonna happen, man!" He was very optimistic -- BUT... "The only thing holding me back now is finding someone to edit it. All the proofreaders want a really high feed to read it. So as soon as I can get a little extra money saved up to pay for having it edited, I can publish it through Lulu.com or Amazon BookSurge."

"Hold on. Wait. Let's edit your intentions first. WHAT do you need? No but's. No circumstances. No money conditions. What do you want? What assistance do you require, without any limiting factors?" I prompted. "Think carefully -- it's not money you need, it's a person, right?"

He was ready for me this time. "Okay, okay. I see. I need the Universe to send me an editor to read over my book."

"Give it to me, then," I said. "I will Red Pen it for you."

"But, how will I pay you? How much would you charge?" I could hear Chris's fear of its NOT happening beginning to pen a list of more hurdles to overcome. If he'd given me permission to talk to his spirit guides, there can be no doubt I would've heard them groan and throw their hands up in the air in frustration.

"You can pay me by recommending me to anyone who asks you how you got your book published," I said.

It never occurred to Chris that such a service could be bartered, or that there could be a value placed on it in a form other than dollars.

I edited the book for him. The next time he saw me, he was beaming. He whipped out a perfect bound copy of his book and gave it to me. I congratulated him and told him how proud I was of his accomplishment.

"Yeah, man, the only thing I need now is $2500 to put up a web site to promote the book so I can sell it," he said.

"WHAT?!" I almost came out of my chair.

"Well, yeah, that's what Web Developer X wants to put the site together. And I also guess I need a blog, like you have. I found a college student who said he could set up the blog for $250. So, once I sell a few copies of the book to people I know, off-line, I can pool the money from selling it and put up a web site."

Here we go again... "WHAT do you need, Chris?"

"I need a web site to promote my book. BUT -- I know that I could learn to do it myself, I just don't have the time to learn all the HTML, and all that. I mean, I could pay to set up a blog, but then I still wouldn't know how to actually use it. I'm setting a goal for six months from now."

"So, WHAT you need is a blog and someone to teach you how to use it yourself?"

"And at least a few hundred bucks to pay for it!" Chris just HAD to add that in.

Mother of God, give me patience, I silently prayed. "As before, WHAT you need is information. What you need could also be a WHO," I suggested.

"Exactly. But, man, I have to admit something -- I asked around. That dude over there told me you charge $3000 to set up a professional blog."

"Didn't you just tell me that you wanted to learn how to do it yourself?" I reminded him.

"Yeah, that would be ideal."

Chris had not up, until that time, even explored my blogs (that I know of). I handed him a card with the link to my D.I.Y. Problogging Tutorial. "I do charge $3000 to develop a web site. And I'm not taking clients right now, either. But what I can do is give you the information to do it yourself. That'll cost you about $60. You can accomplish everything you want this weekend, if you really want to badly enough."

Chris had set up round after round of specific, narrow scenarios that he believed had to occur in order for What he required to be taken care of. He placed hurdles of How's and Why's in front of all his goals. He presumed limiting factors like X amount of dollars -- he even over-stated HOW the financial assistance he thought he required would come to him, from what source, and in what time frame.

None of his assumptions were accurate. All he really needed to ask for was the assistance to see his book realized. That was the WHAT -- and it didn't come in a form he could've ever predicted. Who knows, if he hadn't met me, maybe he would've met a printer who would've read the book and believed in it so much he would've printed it for him for free? Or maybe he would've met a design student looking to build up his portfolio, willing to work on the web site for the experience?

Maybe, maybe... There are so many maybe's. So many potential variables that you can't predict. There are so many serendipities at work in the world...

Miracles don't need you to manage the details -- they just require you to notice and receive them, and to act upon the opportunities that present themselves to you.

The next time I saw Chris, he had been reading my tutorials, and my articles on Spiritual Blogging, and this site. He said he'd read every article in the Shift Your Spirits Archives in basically one marathon round of surfing.

"Man, can I ask you something? About my spirit guides? Everything I wanted to do for this book -- you just handed me all the answers. None of it was about the money I was attaching to it. It was all information. Do you think maybe my guides led me to you, in response to what I was trying to manifest?"

What do you think?

Angels are messengers. We are called to be one another's angels, every day. Obey the impulse to speak to a stranger. It's not always about you...

It wasn't about me.

I just acted as the cosmic delivery man. Chris' enormous accomplishment was well within his reach. I was uniquely positioned to simply point it out to him. Hey, I even made $60 for my trouble.

Seek Wisdom -- Practice Love

Familiars — Angels with Fur

Some of your pets are members of your god posse -- the team of guardian spirit entities who attend you on your life's mission — incarnated in animal form.

Borrowing from the Wiccan tradition, I refer to the elevated relationship between human and animal souls as a familiar.

In a very literal and tangible way, there are no relationships on earth that teach you more about the benevolent spirit entities who attend you in this life than your animal familiars. Not all your pets or domesticated animals are familiars -- the designation of familiar is very special and unique label.

The cat familiar is simply the most popular or well-known -- the traditional classic -- but this special spiritual relationship is not limited to members of pagan faiths or to any particular species of animal.

Here's what I personally believe about our familiars:

When you connect to an animal and she becomes your familiar, you elevate her spirit to the human sphere of consciousness. You know the ones you've done this with -- they stand out clearly among your pet/owner connections -- they become more human than animal. You willfully -- by your divine grace and choice -- lift the soul of your animal companion up to our level.

As a kid it always disturbed me that Christianity said animals did not have souls. There can be no doubt that if there are souls to be had, at all, period, by any living entity, then your familiars have souls -- a different kind of soul than a wild animal.

Like a spirit guide, ancestor, or guardian angel does for you, you become the sponsor or patron of this creature's spirit. Unlike a human child who emerges or breaks off from your physical body, but has an independent soul -- and so only requires a temporary dependence -- you bring your animal familiar into your spiritual body -- your aura. You lend a piece of your spiritual bubble to her -- she actually becomes part of your soul.

This is why you can't be technically alone with another human in the room, yet your familiar can be by your side, with you, in your most private physical space. When she leaves her physical body behind, she literally will not "go to heaven" because she is tethered to your aura and will remain with you, for good.

You are here to experience and learn how to love unconditionally. Your animal familiars are the most obvious, visible form of "guardian angels." They may even be the only kind of guardian that manifests a physical form you can easily perceive.

Our animal familiars are pure, unconditional love incarnate. They are the "sure things" in your god posse. Anyone -- no matter your physical appearance, personality, handicaps, abilities, talents, or human qualities -- can have this relationship. It transcends judgement.

The miracle you have manifested with your familiar in this lifetime is one of your A+ love lessons learned. You've already created it. It will never go away; it can't be reversed. She is on your Team for good. What she can continue to do for you one day will change -- but then she will become a small piece of your love -- your power -- that is not bound to the physical world.

There are certain tasks that my different guides and guardians are best equipped to handle for me. When I am asked to send my thoughts and prayers for someone's animal companions, I literally send my departed familiar Cera to deliver those messages. This is a kind of magic she is especially qualified to execute.

In honor of my familiar Cera's passing June 25, 2004, this week I'm exploring the phenomena surrounding the Animal Spirits in your God Posse with a brief series of articles:

• The passing of a pet -- a life loved to completion

• Euthanasia -- the flower of life blooming in reverse

• Shifting your perspective on the Angel of Death

My love for my familiar taught me so much about how the relationships with my guardian angels and spirit guides work... I can't dump the richness of familiars in one post. It has taken me three years to process the experience and control the emotions enough to revisit my fifteen year relationship with Cera and celebrate her as my "angel with fur."

Seek Wisdom -- Practice Love

Erin Pavlina - Interview with A Psychic

Psychic medium Erin Pavlina drops by Shift Your Spirits for an exclusive interview. In only a year and a half, Erin's popular blog and her one-on-one intuitive readings have endeared her to many.

Combining out-of-this-world topics with a down-to-earth style, Erin's articles will inspire you to shift your consciousness, "remember where you came from," and reclaim your sense of meaning and purpose.

With her trademark candor, eloquence, and grace, Erin opens up about some of her greatest fears and challenges in answering her spiritual calling.

Slade: You've written about the turning point in your life -- which you call The Emergence -- an ultimatum presented to you by your spirit guides:

"In January of 2006 my spirit guides told me I had a decision to make. Embrace my abilities fully and use them to help people remember where they came from and why they chose to incarnate, or sink into a 3rd dimensional life forever. It was actually a tough decision for me..."

What were some of the fears holding you back?

Erin Pavlina: One of the biggest fears I've struggled with during my life is fear of trying and failing, so my default behavior has often been not to try at all because then at least I can still have my dream. If I try and fail, the dream is over. I also feared being ineffective. What if I tried to help people but couldn't? To which Steve would always counter, "What if you tried to help people and you could?" which may have terrified me even more. With great power comes great responsibility, right? I've always had this idea that I shouldn't even play the game unless I know in advance I can win. But you can't know that.

So in January of 2006 it all came to a head. My guides had been pushing me for years and I was of the mindset, "Wait… I'm not ready. I don't know if I can do this." Finally they sent me the leverage I needed. I felt like I'd been handed a superhero suit but hadn't put it on yet, and they told me if I didn't start using the suit they were going to give it to someone who would. They allowed me to feel, just for a few moments, the suffering of all the people on the planet. It overwhelmed me. It was like they opened my heart chakra to encompass the entire planet. It was emotionally painful and devastating. They said, "People are suffering every moment of every day. You can help them, and you won't even try." That got me. I decided right then and there that if there was even a remote possibility that I could help end suffering on our planet then I must try it.

I discovered that courage does not come before you take action, courage comes when you take responsibility and then decide you must take action.

Slade: You use your psychic abilities to assist others -- we all seek spiritual guidance with problem areas of our life. Beyond asking your spirit guides to support you in helping other people, what are some of the things YOU personally ask your guides to help you with the most?

Erin Pavlina: Mainly I ask them to teach and train me so that I can serve people better. I ask them for advice on how to reach more people and make a positive impact on our planet. I ask them to explain difficult concepts to me. And sometimes I ask them why something happened and what its place is on my path, or what lesson I'm supposed to learn from it. They're also great at alerting me to dire situations like if I forgot to buy bread. :-)

Slade: You contemplate and write about Mysteries -- so much of your mission involves shining a light in places where there will always be some remaining Question Mark. Are there any paranormal subjects that just flat-out stump you? Are there any aspects of mysticism that people ask you about that you just think "I wish I knew... I just don't get it... I feel helpless, here... Can I pass on this one"?

Erin Pavlina: I definitely don't feel like I know everything. I've had a lot of personal experiences in many paranormal areas, so I enjoy passing on what I've learned. I have no problem telling people, "I don't know." I am always learning and expanding my knowledge, so in the areas where I have expertise I will pass it on, and in the areas where I don't, I consider myself a student like everyone else. But I always keep an open mind. I never decide in advance what is and what isn't. I like to experience something for myself before I say whether I believe in it or not. Specific examples of areas where I don't consider myself an expert: ghosts and hauntings, kirilian photography, astrology (besides the basics), palmistry, tarot card reading, telekinesis, and aura reading. But I'm an expert in areas like lucid dreaming, astral projection, psychic skills, mediumship, life after death, dreams and premonitions. Like a doctor, I have my specialties, and then there are other areas where I have just a passing knowledge or interest.

Slade: The points in life at which we are most desperate for spiritual guidance, assistance, answers, a nudge in the right direction are often the most challenging or tragic. The biggest personal transformations or the most powerful changes, at the moment when they are happening, can feel like the Universe has a big wrecking ball aimed right at your life. When you most need your spirit guides to come through loud and clear -- when you are most required to proceed on faith -- are often the moments when you feel the most alone, spiritually lost, intuitively blind, deaf, and dumb...

Can you describe a moment or event that felt like the "end of the world" that later revealed itself to be a necessary transformation -- a heartbreaking challenge that you can now look back on with gratitude? Or somehow see that you WERE being spiritually guided, even though it didn't seem like it when it was happening?

Erin Pavlina: I've had many such occurrences in my life. In 1999 Steve and I were in really poor shape financially. The publisher we had a contract with to publish one of our games cancelled the deal just as we were completing the project. Up until that time we had been receiving cash advances from the publisher to fund our work, and we were living on our credit cards. With the cancellation of the deal we stopped receiving any money. Our expenses at the time were $5,000 per month and we were making just $500 per month from a few shareware games. Our debt was well over $100,000 and the minimum payments on our credit cards were $2,000 per month. As you can imagine, we didn't have enough money for rent and food, let alone money to pay our credit card bills. It was an extremely stressful time for me as creditors called non-stop and our landlord was trying to kick us out of our apartment for not paying the rent on time. We faced homelessness. It was a fearful time for me, although I have to say that Steve never feared and never hit the low that I did.

We declared bankruptcy, picked up the broken pieces of our financial life, and did anything and everything to earn money just to eat and live. But we learned a great deal from this experience. We learned never to live beyond our means. We learned to rely on ourselves for income instead of working for someone who might pull the rug out from under us at any time. We learned to budget and save. And we recovered. Our income increased steadily as we began to tune in to our purpose in life. We found that when you serve others and give of yourself, then abundance is the natural result. I don't think I would have fully understood abundance until I'd gone through lack and scarcity. So I consider the entire experience one of the most valuable lessons I've ever learned. I believe that if we hadn't gone through such a low point financially that we may have continued making the same mistakes that led to bankruptcy. So I thank the universe, my guides, and higher self for allowing us to learn that lesson early on when it didn't matter as much as learning it today would be.

My advice to others who are going through a low point or a time of despair is to find the lesson in it as soon as you can so that you can begin to recover. Life will keep on sending you the lessons, so the sooner you learn them, the sooner you move past them. Don't fight the lesson. Just learn and move on. And there's no need to berate yourself. Just keep doing the best you can. And never lose hope for a brighter future.

Slade: Blogging has proven to be a major component of your spiritual mission. What practical pro-blogging advice can you share with other spiritually motivated writers who want to follow in your footsteps?

Erin Pavlina: I didn't realize when I started my blog that so many people would be interested in just hearing my personal stories. I think people like to know that there are others out there just like them who have gone through or are going through what they are experiencing. Blogging has enabled me to reach a community of people who no longer feel so different, or so alone, or so weird. I know I've inspired other psychics, mediums, and healers to start their own blogs which is wonderful! I also recommend that people be open and honest. It's okay to say "I don't know" and it's okay to admit when you make a mistake. Don't try to be all-knowing. I'm also very big on sharing my process. I know some psychics like to keep their process a secret, but that suggests a scarcity mentality. I believe that if more psychics and mediums discussed their process openly the field would gain more credibility. Be proud of who you are and what you do. And when people write to you and tell you that you're going to hell send them some love and some light and hit the delete key. :-)

from ErinPavlina.com: "Erin Pavlina is a spiritual intuitive, lightworker, and psychic medium who uses her gifts to help people remember where they came from and get their lives back on track... You will find articles and insights designed to help you remember where you came from and why you're here so that you can live your life consciously and on purpose."

You are invited to discuss this interview at the forum Erin hosts with her husband, Self-Improvement blogger Steve Pavlina.

Update: More Erin Pavlina Interviews you should explore:

• Erin talks to Jeff Lilly at Druid Journal

Do Spirit Guides Ever Leave You?

Yes, actually there are some spirit guides and benevolent guardian entities who come into your life only to assist you for a specific, intense period -- some of these may be significant events, life changes, personal challenges, or tragedies. But these experiences, events, and the spiritual assistance that coincides with them are not always negative; you may just need a boost to help you achieve a specific, positive goal.

Transit Guides

I'll give you an example of a guide who recently came into my life and then "left."

I've been aware of these temporaries before -- I now call them Transit Guides -- I theorize that they coincide with astrological transits. I've learned to notice their entrances, and to question what they may signify.

This Transit guide position seems to be occupied, for me anyway, as one of only a few Roles that have a kind of rotating staff... There is already a "new one" since the last one left -- I have yet to define who or what it is, or what its role may be. It hasn't spoken at all. I've seen it, clairvoyantly... also not the norm for me...

Angela

Last summer, I met a guide named Angela, my "switchboard operator." She came in response to my request for assistance with performing an enormous volume of distance Readings for subscribers to this site. Actually, I asked for help and guidance launching and promoting Shift Your Spirits -- the idea to offer free Readings was a directive. My guardians told me to do it, and I flipped out over the potential challenge of reading for so many people -- I saw the enormous benefit, but was afraid I couldn't handle the workload. They promised me I would receive special assistance -- help came in the form of Angela.

Angela was not the first transit guide I've ever been aware of coming in for a specific time and purpose, but she was different in many respects -- she identified herself quickly, was not mysterious or quiet or vague but easy to engage, interacted with me pretty much daily, and then quite suddenly she said "Okay. My work is done here. Gotta go..."

It's not that I can't still contact her, it's just that she's kind of moved on to a new job. I became really attached to her in the months she was here, and then one day I started feeling like something was up with her -- I noticed her silence, then her absense, and even pulled out the Tarot cards to clarify what might be happening when I realized she was leaving...

(A few years ago, other intuitives kept telling me to put the cards away and allow my direct clairaudience to come through. I finally took the advice, with amazing success. I generally avoid using divination tools to initiate contact or rely on them as a sole means of communication; the tools and the results are inferior to channeling, but they can provide confirmation or specific details.)

Angela's response to my questions about her leaving me were very Lifetime Movie of the Week -- cut and fade, melodramatic (the cards probably enhanced the sense of drama). I was reminded of one of those scenes where the main character comes home, finds the guest room bed made, the closet empty, a note on the dresser...

I'm describing the Hollywood flavor of the scene somewhat flippantly; but I was very emotional. It was bittersweet. It was one of those Right Endings -- not necessarily a Happy one.

The most noteworthy thing about this very special episode of my life guest-starring spirit guide Angela is how clear the communications with her always were -- and particularly when she left. Out of all the Interrogations/Confirmations I've ever pushed, I've never had a Guide that was so impossible to dismiss -- there was very little to question, or wonder about, no vagueness, no subtlety.

Angela's connection was clear as a bell.

We generally speak to spirits and ask them to say "Hello" -- to give us a sign that they are with us.

Isaak Denisen, the author of Out of Africa, wrote of partings

"I'm much better at Hello."

It never occurred to me how literal it would be to experience a spirit saying "See ya, later" -- and how definitely real she seems because she's not there anymore.

Seek Wisdom -- Practice Love