A couple of hints for effective advertising:

A picture tells a thousand words

Even more important nowadays than it used to be is a picture of some sort, seeing that everyone is so graphically attuned because of the internet. Don’t let them ‘mouse off’ your ad (literally or in their minds) because your picture is not eye-catching.

The eyes are the window of the soul

Better than any old picture is your own picture, especially if you are the service provider. People want to know that they can trust their bodies or psyches to your care.

Click here for our print ad rates.

Contact us:

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

1300 730 326 | 03 9899 5852 | 0434 548 458 | 0434 547 216

For years I've been publishing what I thought everyone in this niche wanted, but it has not totally pleased me.

Yes, I was serving Spirit and the niche, and was very fulfilled in that sense, but not my own artistic sense. So now I am finally publishing the magazine that I want to see, and I believe that others will enjoy it too.

Also, when we started in 1989 this niche was tight and we were all explorers. Now many people are adventurers in the realms of finding options to mainstream ways of thinking, living and being and many of them are perhaps put off our fabulous content by our previous more old-fashioned presentation.

Have a look at the new arty prototype, if you haven't clicked it already.

The cover you see here – except for being a low resolution photo – is the 'real' March cover.

The internal pages of the prototype are comprised of some of the actual March articles to come, some Latin dummy articles to give you an idea of the new layout, and some old material which you may recognise from last July's magazine, again put in to exhibit the new layout at this stage. They will be replaced with new articles in March.

Stella Woods' astrological predictions and following my passion

Little did I know, when I read Stella's predictions in our December magazine about the arts and fashion, that we'd be covering them ourselves, and so soon. I've always loved the arts myself and, the skinny models aside, have seen fashion as an art as well.

So I was ready to hear Spirit's message to me when it was introduced by the talented photographer, Amaresh Wardha. Amaresh had kindly provided the front cover of the Jan/Feb magazine (see the virtual copy here).

He's a brilliant fashion photographer (as you can see here) and so he suggested fashion – though he also suggested animals and landscapes. While the latter two didn't do it for me, one night I was wrestling with fashion in my head, and by the time I went to bed, I could see how we could include it in LivingNow. I was over the moon! When I put my head on the pillow, in fact, all the words on the front cover just piled into my brain – all the F's and then all the H's, and then the big G-word was all that was left to complete the set!

Probably no need to tell you that Spirit works in interesting ways – within ten days the manner in which I thought we could include fashion had morphed from being based on more 'ordinary' model sizes to being based on green fashion. It was only later that I recalled what Stella Woods had said in her column about fashion, and realised it was there staring at me all along, as she said it in both December and Jan/Feb magazines:

11) The arts will continue to flourish both on and off line as Neptune in Pisces stimulates our appetite for film, fashion, beauty, glamour and music.

13) Sustainable fashion is here to stay. Expect a growing move towards organic and natural fibres and increasing interest in where our clothes come from and whether those making the clothing were properly paid and properly treated.

The rest of Stella's predictions can be read here.

Finally I would like to acknowledge and thank the person who has supported and shared this journey and whose handiwork you see on the dummy pages – Belynda Simpson. She has worked on and off for me since the year 2000 and is the talent behind lots of the display ads in LivingNow. If you'd like to have a savvy/sassy/sexy display ad (and flyers, cards, etc.) made for you, she can adapt to any style, having worked on ads and magazines ranging from the local paper to high end women's magazines. Her email is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

If you would like to advertise in this new-look magazine, here are the rates. Choose your placement from cool story pages or extremely economical networking pages.

Warm wishes
Elizabeth

We have over 75 people offering you advice in this one magazine this issue – 75 editorial points of view for you. How could that be?

Well, it's like this. I had a burning desire to bring advice to everyone around the 2012 phenomenon. Yes, as most people know, 2012 is not just a year but rather a milestone of sorts. The Mayans predicted the end of something or other on supposedly 21st December. There's been much speculation. Some have even suggested disastrous consequences. However, while none of us knows completely, it seems pretty obvious that, where there is a death, there is always a birth. This is totally in line with Mother Earth's cycle – no escaping it – and it seems a bit like gravity to me in its inevitability. So, even if there were an ending of something, then it's not an ending.

For me, I'm convinced that we are not all going to suddenly 'wake up and find ourselves dead' because we don't all have lines on our palms indicating a sudden departure. Yes, I have seen many things come true from reading a palm in my past. Indeed it's what really got me into this spiritual stuff. I used to consider myself an atheist and I was taught palmistry by an old guy in the accounts department at work. Ben Jonson was fascinating, a direct descendent of THE Ben Jonson (look him up on Google – no time to expand here). He was Jewish, born in China, raised in India and had learnt palmistry from the servants there. I became quite adept at it (can't remember the finer details now – so don't ask) and, after seeing so many correspondences between what was written on the palm and what had occurred in a person's life, I realised that there must be some sort of grand plan.

One of the old dead dudes in the Old Testament also asked for God to show him his destiny in his hands – so I decided that maybe there was an intelligence behind our physical appearance. This was back in the 70s – I had many a free bottle of wine or dessert when a waiter saw me reading someone's palm over a dinner table. I'd find another palm stuck under the candle flame and an offering in the other hand.

Anyway that was then. Back to now – we'd all have a big break in our lines if something sudden were to happen to end our physical bodies, and this is not so. Hmmm... what could it be then?

Back to the over 75 people with advice and opinions – I was so wanting to bring you a gift from others this issue that I was pushing and pulling at my advertisers (as most of them are lovely people who have lined up to do 'light' work at this time) and yet they were not getting what I was wanting to bring you. I started writing an email to 9,000+ people to give them one final plea to do something and, as I was writing, I found that I was offering them to send in a dual contribution – editorial with their contact details and a little promotion as well – and I was removing the price barrier totally. I offered everyone to pay what they felt to pay. The result was overwhelming. In the end, four people took offence somehow with my approach or what I said, but there was a landslide of people who were so grateful and saw this as the sort of thing that has to happen if we are to move forward as a community in and beyond 2012.

You know, my little fear-based physical self wonders how that could possibly be, how could I find the $55,000 base line figure each month if it were just built on what people wanted to pay? How can any business survive that way? Is it just a sign that many of us in this niche are naïve about money, or even scared of it?

But then I look at all the 'Occupy' movements around the world, and hear the things they are exposing – about the greed at the top and the plight of the workers – and I wonder. Maybe there is a basis for paying what we think we should. Certainly communism has proven not to work, and certainly private enterprise works well when the person in the chair, the boss taking the risks, gets well rewarded. However, when the boss is exploitative, then it's no longer a humane system.

Gees ... many smarter brains than mine have tackled this issue with no resolution. I'd better stop while I can, but it does make me wonder if there is more than a haphazard coincidence in my deciding to throw this feature about the changes ahead open to people on a new payment basis. I certainly didn't set out to do that, although I had met Shakti Durga again at the Sydney Mind Body Spirit expo recently and was admiring her way of running her whole business, the Harmony Centre (see p.33), on donation. She told me that at first the donations didn't cover her needs, but gradually, as she changed her way of looking at it within herself, she found that they covered them very amply. At the time I found myself saying to her, "I wish I could run my business that way".

Suffice it to say that I am trialling the idea again in the next issue, which is our double month one, Jan/Feb. Next time the topic builds on this one, and focuses it a tad more – please see page 28 for details.

There are so many other people in this issue that are talking about 2012 and the changes to come – you'll find people directly speaking about this on pages 10, 11, 17-19, 28-31 and 37-38. I'll leave you to explore.

With love

Someone wrote to me the other day and asked if I had noticed that the times are calling for us to come into our hearts. Yes, have you noticed that so many articles that I've been led to publish over the last few months have been about loving, letting go of fear and coming from the heart? I figure that Spirit must be telling us something.

Again for this issue we have more – each with a unique way of expressing and reinforcing that message. In addition, this month, excitingly, there is an undercurrent of 'breakthrough' welling up.

Are you finding a breakthrough imminent? If not, I have the hunch that you will do soon, and I am pleased to say that this magazine will help you and many others to take that step.

I am convinced that is why we incarnated at this time – to learn to shine our light.

That reminds me of the Marianne Williamson quote (so often wrongly attributed to Nelson Mandela who simply quoted Marianne): "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

And Anthony Robbins says: "All personal breakthroughs begin with a change in beliefs."

Hmmm... what belief is keeping you trapped in fear today? Are you listening to the mainstream news too much perhaps? Or are you listening to a negative inner voice that has a message that was put there by an angry parent or teacher in the past? Would you consider changing your belief, looking underneath the fear to see what it is hiding, indeed what gift it is bringing you?

Would you consider showing your light, moving into your heart, loving yourself, loving others, and then maybe even going for the breakthrough?

The stories and ads in this issue will help you. Yes, I know you've probably heard these things 100 times, but don't you find that it is sometimes the 101st time that it really hits home? I certainly do. So jump right in and try out a process, either by yourself or with one of our dedicated advertisers.

Speaking of this, if you use one of our advertiser's products or services, would you please do me and them a favour? Would you let them know you first read about them in LivingNow? They need to know this. It is their advertising revenue that puts this magazine into your hands. Back in the 'ole days' you and other readers used to ring the advertisers, starting the minute that the magazine hit the streets. Now, what do you do? You think something or someone looks interesting or worthwhile – and you Google for more information. Then if you contact them they will likely think you happened across their website by pure chance.

So please tell them that you first came across them here. Make it your mission to do so. Do it for all magazines – not just for LivingNow – because we could all do with more acknowledgement in this day and age. The internet is amazing, but you don't get the synchronicity effect that you get with a magazine – and you certainly don't get the fabulous articles all in the one place – and the good energy of light and love from all our beautiful advertisers. If you tell them their ads worked, then we end up with more pages and more articles for you to read. It's a simple sum.

Are you one of the people who is worried about 2012? Then please be sure to read the article for reassurance, and also know that this same author, Sol Luckman, has given me a couple more articles about 2012 – so we might do a feature on 2012 in December with those and others. Hands up all those who'd like that. (Seriously, please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and let me know your thoughts on this.)

Would you like to become enlightened? Do you think your worries would be over if you did? Well, dammit, Robert Forman says in his article that it is not so, and he is pretty firm that we should have our feet on the ground and live life to the full, as well as having a connection with the 'Vast Infinite'. His prescription includes rock and roll, meditation, love, sex – all at the right times.

"The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century will not occur because of technology but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human." [John Naisbitt]

With love