Maybe you remember how that fragment of Lakota Sioux language became popular among the hippies after the showing of Dances with Wolves. It means “We are all related,” or “We are all connected,” and threw an interesting side light on the movie that gave some people their first awareness of the inhumanity of the genocide carried out by their army and government on the original native Americans.

Now we are at the time of New Year's Resolutions, which almost everyone seems to regard as matters of will power. And most are happy to make them while being sure they won't be able to keep them.

Making New Year's Resolutions that work is NOT a matter of will power. It's a matter of technique, the results of which look like magick. Here's an overview to help those who want to do it again, but this time without failing miserably after a week or so.

Today is January 1st 2009 by the calendar used by many Western nations. January 26th will be the beginning of the Chinese New Year of the Ox signifying prosperity through fortitude and hard work, a good year to be born for would-be Chinese entrepreneurs. That used to be the way people became prosperous here. Now of course they do it by cheating, lying and lobbying. But it isn’t the year 2009 for the Chinese. They are not a young country. For them it’s the year 4710.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a song almost as likely to be heard this time of year as I’m dreaming of a White Christmas. Like all songs it has a little story and some trivia associated with it. Here is the modern story, and we’ll try and pull in some ancient stuff at the end to connect Rudolph with the far past.