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The Four Seals Miao are a tribe of the Miao ethnic group in southwestern China. Not wearing silver jewels like other tribes, the Four Seals Miao distinguish themselves with four multi-color square designs embroidered on the front, back, and sleeves of women’s frock. The colors of their clothes are usually blue or black. Women wear short pleated skirt. Some women like to wrap their hair bun with a wide blue cloth which can reach 12 meters.

A village called Maige is hometown of the Four Seals Miao. The village in Miao language means ” a place with many plants”. Long time ago, a tribe of Miao had to migrate to the mountainous areas in southwestern China after they were defeated in a war. They wanted to have a peaceful life, but not harassed by the enemies anymore, so they decided to destroy all their identity documents. When a Shaikh was ready to throw the four big seals, the symbols of the tribe, into fire, a girl stopped him: No! Before you burn the seals, please print their patterns on my clothes. So, the soul of our nation will never die.

Since then, this Miao tribe kept a tradition of embroidering four colorful square patterns on women’s clothes. And they got a unique name the Four Seals Miao.

The Four Seals Miao are famous for their extraordinary batik technique with a history of over 2,000 years. Women use a special knife dipped into melt wax to paint exquisite patterns like animals, birds, and flowers onto a white cloth. The cloth is then dyed in blue liquid, and placed into boiling water to take away the wax. At last lovely blue designs are printed onto the cloth.

Women in the tribe are responsible for making the embroidery. To prepare a set of clothes for holidays, they can spend seven to eight months working. Their frocks have a big, multi-layer collar embroidered with colorful designs. One square design - the largest of the four seals ” embroidered on the front of a frock is especially striking. Their pleated skirts are highlighted with horizontal lines symbolizing the rivers and lakes their ancestors crossed during their migration through China.

Their houses are constructed with dirt and stones. Corn is their staple food. Rice is expensive food which they can only eat in holidays or new years. They farm on the mountainside. Everyday women have to climb the mountain to fertilize their farmland. Sometimes they go back and forth 6 to 7 times between their home and the farmland. Their life isn’t easy.

Festivals are held especially for single, young people to choose their partners. Every year, on the fifth day of the first lunar month, they will hold a famous Flower Dance Festival where young people get together to talk, sing, and dance. For several nights, they will have a bonfire party where they sing songs to express their love.

The ceremony of releasing soul of a dead person from purgatory is also held during this festival. One man is selected to wrap his body in the dead person’s clothes, singing and dancing, with the Lusheng music as a background. In this way, the dead person’s soul could ascend into the heaven.

The people in the tribe like to raise thrush as one of their hobbies. Kept into a cage, a thrush makes beautiful sounds which are pleasant to hear. Some thrushes are trained to imitate the sounds of other animals, including hen, rooster, cat, and dog. Go to their village on a beautiful sunny day, you will hear the sweet songs of a thrush.

5 Things You Can Do to Enhance Your Natural Psychic Ability

Psychic ability is something that is innate in you, so all you need to do is to learn how to develop it. You may have advanced psychic abilities, so you just need to refine your skills; or you may feel that there is still a lot of room for improving your psychic ability. In any case, here are some things you can do to further develop your natural gift!

1. Learn to MEDITATE and VISUALIZE.

Begin developing your psychic ability by learning the basics of meditation and visualization. Meditation and visualization will help you maintain focus and channel your attention and energies. Meditation helps you to have more control over your mind, and visualization increases your ability to see with your Third Eye.

2. PRACTICE READING YOUR FRIENDS’ MINDS!

Why not make your psychic development a fun activity? Pick a friend who is willing to participate in your psychic development and practice reading your friend!

Find a quiet place where you and your friend can sit comfortably across each other. While observing silence, your friend thinks of a specific person, thing, or incident, and focuses on that thought in his or her mind. On the other hand, you relax and clear your mind completely. After a while, try to get a feel of what your friend is thinking of. When you are confident with your guess, confirm this with your friend to see if your answer is correct!

It may take a few tries (and lots of laughter with your friend) before you start picking up things correctly, but that is perfectly alright. Eventually, with practice, you will be more receptive to the energies of people around you, making it easier for you to connect to and pick up thoughts from them.

3. ENJOY A GAME OF WHATS NEXT?

Whats next? You must answer this question in this activity. Its quite fun and you can do it anytime and anywhere you are! Basically, what you do is try to sense whats coming up next ” it could be the color of the car that will pass by next as you sit in a coffee shop, or the kind of salad you will find served at the dinner table. Eventually, you will notice that it’s becoming easier for you to declare whats going to happen next!

4. TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR DAILY TAROT.

Every morning, pick a Tarot card from your deck. Determine what it means on your own, based on your own perception. At the end of the day, refer to the Tarot guide that comes with your cards.

Later on, as you continue to do this, you will see a stronger connection between your own perception of the card and its actual meaning. You will also see this strong correlation reflected in how your day actually turns out, which means that your own perception of things is becoming more accurate.

5. ASK FOR A PSYCHIC READING.

Having a psychic reading will also help you in developing your psychic ability. Being able to feel a psychics energies can inspire your inner psychic. A good psychic can also identify any blocked or reserved energies within you, and help you release and fully utilize them. A psychic is also a great person to talk to when it comes to the development of your psychic ability, since he or she is someone who has mastered it already.

Boosting Your Psychic Ability

Psychic Ability is something that you are born with. You may have experienced knowing who was calling on the phone, or if a letter would be coming within the day, or maybe even what someone was thinking. During these occasions, it was like you just naturally knew what had yet to occur.

The level of your psychic ability may differ from others. You may have more advanced abilities than others, or you may feel as though you have yet to discover it. In any case, psychic ability is a natural gift which you already possess; you just need to develop it so you can put it to good use!