January 8, 2014

• 2013 in Review

  I again did a reflection on year 2013 using the different houses of astrology. I know that there are different interpretations and schools of thought so I again gave my understanding of the meaning of each house.

  My year revolved primarily around the following roles or archteypes that defines me:
  - Father: My role as a father and family man
  - Mystic: My role as a mystic and student of AMORC
  - Student: My role as a student doing my PHD in Industrial engineering
  - Engineer: My role as an Management information Managers at the Parliament of South Africa
  - Warrior and Athlete: My role as a Tai Chi student.
  - Story teller: My role as a Distinguished Toastmaster.

  1st House – The self
  The self, the physical body, and appearance; independently taking action

  I maintained my body’s health as best as possible through the regular practice of Tai Chi. I did on average about 4 hours of Tai Chi per week in the Cheng Man Ching tradition. I changed my school where I did Tai Chi early in the year and I am happy with the change I have made. I did not had any major health issues to deal with and my heatlh is generally acceptable. I had taken two days of sick leave in totality during the year. I have aged which is evident from the grey hair that is starting to appear hear and there. My stomach is still physically my main source of concern when it comes to body image. I manage to keep it in check but it will call for continued vigilance. I can certainly improve my diet in the year to come. Although I dress neatly most of my clothing is dated since I have other finanial priorities as a parent that are more important than my personal preferences. I presented myself during the year with confidence in my leadership skills and had driven hard to achieve results of which some has evaded me.

  2nd House – Material matters
  Personal resources – material, mental, spiritual; security

  Financially I lived more in a scarcity mentality than an abundance mentality. Although the salary I earn is very good in terms of the place I live, several factors beyond my control has diluted my funds and cash flow. The economy has slowly impoveriched me as well as prices of basic commodities like petrol and electricity continues to increase. I can not put rich behind my name as one of my outstanding qualities. I had a small car accident during the latter part of the year but could at least manage to get the car fully repaired. My wife’s car finally gave notice that it is beyond a maintainable state and it had to be replaced. Although it has not impacted much on 2013 it will put some additional stress on the future. I incurred additional short term debt which is really a tragedy because it was my aim to stay out of debt in totality. However if I combine long term debt and short term debt against assets I do think my financial balance sheet has improved somewhat during the year. There are some critical maintenance tasks I need to undertake in my house that I could not address in 2013 which will remain a sore eye for me. Both are luxuries – one being my swimming pool that needs a total rebuild and the other is my fire place for the winter that needs to be replaced. Financially I do not see myself getting any promotion or any sudden new income stream in 2014 so financial resources will continue to demand careful budgeting and planning.

  Mentally I continued with my PhD in Industrial Engineering but my progress was far too slow. I will have to make a big effort in 2014 to get my PhD on a good track to be finalised in the end of 2015. I need to set aside better time management to accomplish movement in this sphere of my life. My university fees were paid by my work which did not put me under pressure. The biggest resource constraint is time. I have consciously not been as much involved with Toastmasters international as I would have liked to be. I participated in one competition and won the competition which was a boost to my ego. I hope that I can resume again a more active role in toastmasters in 2015.

  Spiritually this was a year of growth for me and deepening. As master of the affiliated body of my mystical fraternity I had to confront myself with my own spiritual understanding. The regular engagement with other members of the fraternity lead to growth within me that I could not have found on my own. The fraternity gave me all the resources and support to assist me to play this role at the best of my ability. The previous master, regional monitor and fellow officers assisted me a lot to grow in my role. My sense of self have increased and I am confident in the teachings I am propagating and investigating. I will be continuing in this role throughout 2014. One can fulfill the role only for two years so one year is gone and I have the opportunity of serving one more year before handing over to somebody else.

  Security wise we had a good year with no material losses or experiences of violence against me or my family. Crime statistics in South Africa has increased but in my suburb the crime seems to be uder control.

  In terms of my Work I sometimes lacked the support I needed to progress in my aims. Some areas moved really fast and others was very restrictive. But if I look back at what my potential is and the need then I still can not be satisfied with the resources that was made available to me to achieve my goals in 2013.

  3rd House – Knowledge and learning
  Information coming from, and into, familiar areas such as siblings or areas considered as local.

  My PhD obviously took most of my learning emphasis. My PhD is focused on Information management with a specific emphasis of information as a critical resource in the democraic process of a legislator in a democratic country. I read many articles on interoperability, enteprise architecture etc.

  I completed during the year a course in TOGAF which is a standard for enteprise engineering which is good for me to have completed. I attended tHe Oracle User Group of South Africa’s conference which gave me a deeper insight into the aims and objetives of Oracle South Africa.

  Within my role as master in my philosophical fraterity I have read a lot about the Rosicrucian philosophy and Alchemy. I continued with my studies of the teachings of AMORC the Rosicrucian order.

  4th House – Development heritage
  – the physical abode, family, the end of an issue

  My own house was a place of relative peace. Both my son and daughter that are still at school did extremely well and brought home fantastic results. They work by their own accord and I am greateful to be their father. My son finished his first year in secondary school and seemed to cope well being at boarding school. He and my daughter excelled in art. During the latter part of 2013 it seems as if my children matured more an there were less sybling rivalry and more cooperation. My eldest daughter with ADD and who did not finish school succeeded in maintaining her job as a assistant at school with only one drama for the year.

  5th House – Centrifugally and leadership
  - creative recreation and its results, children, lovers and artistic pursuit.

  My Afrikaans presentation for a competition about a Mouse in the house was successful sine I won the competition.

  I manage to finish three oil paintings during the year both inspired by the Most Holy Trinosophia written by St Germain and which is an Alchemically based treaty of the triune path of wisdom. One painting was that of a monk, the other of a prisoner and the other of a chamber of initiation.

  I lead Parliament’s chess team to the National Legislative games and we got a third price at the tournament.

  At work in my role as manager of the business analysts and the information architect, we achieved the objectives that we set ourselves despite loosing two business analysts. There is definitely room for improvement in my management style in terms of motivating the Business Analysts and coordinating their work to contribute more effectively to the institutional goals and objectives.

  I was requested to attend some key strategic planning sessions for the 5th term of Parliament. Both the Support services branch strategic meeting and later the overall meeting where the combined leadership met to discuss the outcomes of the different branches’ strategic planning meetings. At the first I made a good input but at the second I was less impactful with my contribution.

  I performed the role of Chief Judge at a show case event of the Toastmaster’s Youth Leadership.

  As the Chair person of the Tai Chi Club I secured for the first time that the club got official sports clothes to practise with.

  As master of our affiliated body I organised a successful day of presentations around the topic of Levels of human consciousness with the focus being on Science, Art, Philosophy and Spirituality. Eight speakers spoke and the event was attended by more than 30 people.

  6th House – Analyzing and serving
  - the daily domestic routine, health and diet; breaking habit patterns; duty and service.

  I maintain a healthy life style in terms of doing Tai Chi, proper sleeping habits and avoiding sugar in my drinks. Generally I eat a healthy diet but there is room for improvement by avoiding take away food every now and then. I ate more salads due to a Food market that opened up close to where I work.

  My service was through the vehicle of my AMORC affiliation.

  7th House – Marriage and cooperation
  - Personal relationships, business partnerships and legal issues

  I extended my relationships within my work environment during the year and worked well with my fellow workers. The nature of my work requires a lot of cooperation. There are several places where I had excellent cooperation and where we worked well together.

  My marriage was stable and beneficial. I work well with my wife as a team on domestic issues and especially in raising our children. My wife allows me a lot of space to explore different philosophical avenues.

  8th House – Death and transmutation
  - Transformation, beginning or ending, death and birth, money

  My father went through transition in August 2013 which was a big loss for me. I focused on the values that made his life a worthy life. His work ethic, tenacity, love for life and love for my mother will continue to be an inspiration for me in my life. I missed my father since he has left us but when I look at him I do so with gratefullness for that which he gave me through his example in my life. The time was a real challenge for my mother. She still cries about every time I have contact with her.

  The death of Nelson Mandela had a profound impact on the world, South Africa and on me as a South African.

  I aquired two rats as pets for the first time in my life. It changed my view of rats considerably. I have never known that rats are such intelligent creatures. I got bitten for the first time by a female rat who had babies while I was looking for pet rats. I bought two males which turned out to be a male and a female and I became the proud owner of 11 new baby rats on 31 december 2013. To my shock and horror since I did not at all suspect the one rat to be a female rat.

  I started with a new Tai Chi School in the beginning of the year. I started as chairperson of the Tai Chi club at the Parliament of South Africa. I started as master of a Philosophical fraternity of which I had been a member since 2005.

  I introduced to Parliament the product Metasonic as a new method for automating processes. I deployed a new demo of the Oracle business intelligence suite to demonstrate business intelligence capabilities.

  9th House – Spiritual work.
  - travel and that which is alien; study and places of education ; books and publishing.

  Spiritually my emphasis has shifted to the development of my pshycic body and awakening my psychic centres based on the Rosicrucian teaching of vowels sounds, the Law of the Triangle and different methods of breathing. I also realised the value and importance of group work where the group strives towards being an ideal society that live a common set of values.

  I made an intensive study of the Most Holy Trinosophia which inspired much growth in me.

  10th House – Career
  - Social status, career, and how the community classifies you, the path with a heart, — the life activity which brings personal fulfilment.

  I developed a system for measuring and improving information management maturity within an institution. In terms of this model the Maturity of information mangement of the Parliament of South Africa improved with almost 10% during the year. I had not been able to implement the Business Intelligence system I believe is needed in the Parliament of South Africa to improve performance management and reporting. Progress had been made towards the implementation of an integration architecture that will integrate information across the different sytems used. I had been intimately involved with two critical business cases which had been driven through the system that will impact on the operation of the institution namely a system to manage Expense claims of Members of Parliament and a Legislative drafting solution. I managed to improve the quality of our Knowledge repository for our enterprise architecture.

  The biggest boost for the year was winning the iCMG Enterprise Architecture awared 2013 for Transformation and Planning. I submitted a nomination in the beginning of the year describing the manner in which we developed and executed the 2009-2014 ICT strategy in Parliament. I was teh lead architect for this project. We were under the lsit of finalists in two additional categories. Getting global recognition for the work done was really a great boost to my ego and gave me added confidence in the work I am doing.

  11th House – Relations and social awareness.
  – groups, friends and counseling
  I am still active in supporting the plight of a group of Afrikaner Boere that strives towards self determination. I firmly believe that the playing field is not equal as long as the goverment employs racial laws and policies like affirmative action, black economic empowerment, ground redistribution and University and sport quotas to redress inequalities. I do think these things can be addressed along non racial lines. With the coming national elections in 2013 I am throwing my weight behind the Freedom Front Plus a minority party with about 0.25% of the number of votes cast. They have changed tact and hope to work closely with other minority parties to achieve certain goals. As the only party fully focused on the protection of minority rights they get my support irrespective whether they get votes or not.

  I made some friends during the year but my one friend remains the bastion of defining friendship for me. Since we live far from each other we see each other only about once or twice a year. However I have to define him as a true friend who remaind a friend through the last 15 years. Besides him I met several aquantances and people and develop many good relationships but I am not a person who has many friends. I have one online friendship that truly had been a good friendship where we exchanged many ideas and thoughts. My friendships grew mostly throug my affiliation with AMORC and my practtice of Tai Chi.

  One of the highlights of my year was attending an art exhibition of one of my Friends who is a professional artist.

  The online Afrikaans group I established two years ago for general conversation in Afrikaans had been going strongly due to an excellent group of administrators that run the group for me. My main task is to ensure everybody keeps to the main rules of the group. The group now has 2196 members and is still expanding. I am still an administrator for a Tarot related group on Facebook as well with 2582 members. This group often help me to keep my interest in the Tarot active and alive.

  I attended the first Philosophical Dinner meeting held in South Africa in Cape Town.

  I attended the Chinese new year function as well as the end of year function of the Tai Chi School. In the latter I partcipated in a demonstration that we did during the end of year function, demonstrating the ten essences of Tai chi as well as the first sequences of the Chang Man Ching short form.

  12th House – Sacrifice/Abstract
  - Alone, that which is hidden; illness, intuition and psyche.

  This category will remain hidden and not written about.

  • 6:39 am
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