A voluntary association or union (sometimes called a voluntary organization, unincorporated association, or just an association) is a group of individuals who enter into an agreement asvolunteers to form a body (or organization) to accomplish a purpose. Strictly speaking in many jurisdictions no formalities are necessary to start an association.

In some jurisdictions, there is a minimum for the number of persons starting an association. Some jurisdictions require that the association register with the police or other official body to inform the public of the association’s existence. This is not necessarily a tool of political control but much more a way of protecting the economy from fraud. In many such jurisdictions, only a registered association is a juristic person whose membership is not responsible for the financial acts of the association. Any group of persons may, of course, work as an association but in such case, the persons making a transaction in the name of the association are all responsible for it.

An unincorporated association has been defined as existing:

“…where two or more persons are bound together for one or more common purposes by mutual undertakings, each having mutual duties and obligations, in an organisation which has rules identifying in whom control of the organization and its funds are vested, and which can be joined or left at will.”

The freedom of association stands in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Article 20

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

For the collectivization of the means of production, it was originally envisaged that workers will revolt and forcibly collectivize the means of production. Once collectivization takes place, workers’ salaries would be determined in democratic organizations based on the amount of time they contributed to production. These salaries would be used to purchase goods in a communal market.

This contrasts with anarcho-communism where wages would be abolished, and where individuals would take freely from a storehouse of goods “to each according to his need.”

Thus, Bakunin’s “Collectivist Anarchism,” notwithstanding the title, is seen as a blend of individualism and collectivism.

Collectivist anarchism is most commonly associated with Mikhail Bakunin, the anti-authoritarian sections of the First International, and the early Spanish anarchist movement.

Some forms of anarchist communism such as insurrectionary anarchism are egoist and strongly influenced by radical individualism, believing that anarchist communism does not require a communitarian nature at all. Most anarcho-communists view anarcho-communism as a way of reconciling the opposition between the individual and society.

Anarcho-communism developed out of radical socialist currents after the French revolution but was first formulated as such in the Italian section of the First International. The theoretical work of Peter Kropotkin took importance later as it expanded and developed pro-organizationalist and insurrectionary anti-organizationalist sections.

To date in human history, the best known examples of an anarchist communist society, established around the ideas as they exist today, that received worldwide attention and knowledge in the historical canon, are the anarchist territories during the Spanish Revolution and the Free Territory during the Russian Revolution. Through the efforts and influence of the Spanish Anarchists during the Spanish Revolution within the Spanish Civil War, starting in 1936 anarchist communism existed in most of Aragon, parts of the Levante and Andalusia, as well as in the stronghold of Anarchist Catalonia before being brutally crushed by the combined forces of the authoritarian regime that won the war, Hitler, Mussolini, Spanish Communist Party repression (backed by the USSR) as well as economic and armaments blockades from the capitalist countries and the Spanish Republic itself. During the Russian Revolution, anarchists such as Nestor Makhno worked to create and defend—through the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine—anarchist communism in the Free Territory of the Ukraine from 1919 before being conquered by the Bolsheviks in 1921.

Early Developments~

Anarchist communist currents appeared during the English Civil War and the French Revolution of the 18th century. Gerrard Winstanley, who was part of the radicalDiggers movement in England, wrote in his 1649 pamphlet, The New Law of Righteousness, that there “shall be no buying or selling, no fairs nor markets, but the whole earth shall be a common treasury for every man,” and “there shall be none Lord over others, but every one shall be a Lord of himself.” During the French Revolution, Sylvain Maréchal, in his Manifesto of the Equals (1796), demanded “the communal enjoyment of the fruits of the earth” and looked forward to the disappearance of “the revolting distinction of rich and poor, of great and small, of masters and valets, of governors and governed.”

An early anarchist communist was Joseph Déjacque, the first person to describe himself as “libertarian”. Unlike Proudhon, he argued that, “it is not the product of his or her labor that the worker has a right to, but to the satisfaction of his or her needs, whatever may be their nature.” According to the anarchist historian Max Nettlau, the first use of the term libertarian communism was in November 1880, when a French anarchist congress employed it to more clearly identify its doctrines. The French anarchist journalist Sébastien Faure, later founder and editor of the four-volume Anarchist Encyclopedia, started the weekly paper Le Libertaire (The Libertarian) in 1895.

The collectivist anarchists advocated remuneration for the type and amount of labor adhering to the principle “to each according to deeds”;[19] but held out the possibility of a post-revolutionary transition to a communist system of distribution according to need. As Bakunin’s associate, James Guillaume, put it in his essay,Ideas on Social Organization (1876), “When… production comes to outstrip consumption… [e]veryone will draw what he needs from the abundant social reserve of commodities, without fear of depletion; and the moral sentiment which will be more highly developed among free and equal workers will prevent, or greatly reduce, abuse and waste.

First International ~  Anarchist communism as a coherent, modern economic-political philosophy was first formulated in the Italian section of the First International by Carlo Cafiero, Emilio Covelli, Errico Malatesta, Andrea Costa and other ex-Mazzinian Republicans. Out of respect for Mikhail Bakunin, they did not make their differences with collectivist anarchism explicit until after Bakunin’s death. The collectivist anarchists sought to collectivize ownership of the means of production while retaining payment proportional to the amount and kind of labor of each individual, but the anarcho-communists sought to extend the concept of collective ownership to the products of labor as well. While both groups argued against capitalism, the anarchist communists departed from Proudhon and Bakunin, who maintained that individuals have a right to the product of their individual labor and to be remunerated for their particular contribution to production. But, Errico Malatesta put it: “…instead of running the risk of making a confusion in trying to distinguish what you and I each do, let us all work and put everything in common. In this way each will give to society all that his strength permits until enough is produced for every one; and each will take all that he needs, limiting his needs only in those things of which there is not yet plenty for every one.”

Cafiero explains in Anarchy and Communism (1880) that private property in the product of labor will lead to unequal accumulation of capital and, therefore, the reappearance of social classes and their antagonisms, and thus the resurrection of the state: “If we preserve the individual appropriation of the products of labour, we would be forced to preserve money, leaving more or less accumulation of wealth according to more or less merit rather than need of individuals.”

..houses, fields, and factories will no longer be private property, and that they will belong to the commune or the nation and money, wages, and trade would be abolished.

– Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread

He said that a “peasant who is in possession of just the amount of land he can cultivate,” and “a family inhabiting a house which affords them just enough space… considered necessary for that number of people” and the artisan ”working with their own tools or handloom” would not be interfered with, arguing that “[t]he landlord owes his riches to the poverty of the peasants, and the wealth of the capitalist comes from the same source.”

In summation, Kropotkin described an anarchist communist economy as functioning like this:

Imagine a society, comprising a few million inhabitants, engaged in agriculture and a great variety of industries–Paris, for example, with the Department of Seine-et-Oise. Suppose that in this society all children learn to work with their hands as well as with their brains. Admit that all adults, save women, engaged in the education of their children, bind themselves to work 5 hours a day from the age of twenty or twenty-two to forty-five or fifty, and that they follow occupations they have chosen in any one branch of human work considered necessary. Such a society could in return guarantee well-being to all its members; that is to say, a more substantial well-being than that enjoyed to-day by the middle classes. And, moreover, each worker belonging to this society would have at his disposal at least 5 hours a day which he could devote to science, art, and individual needs which do not come under the category of necessities, but will probably do so later on, when man’s productivity will have augmented, and those objects will no longer appear luxurious or inaccessible. Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread

While many anarcho-communists are opposed to trade, some post-left and post-scarcity anarcho-communists, and ones with syndicalist sympathies, are not opposed to trade. Some support a non-monetary form of trade in the form of non-monetary commons. Others such as Tiziana Terranova easily see anarcho-communism being compatible with a non-hierarchical, open access, free association, non-monetary form of trade such as P2P

Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and state socialism which uses federations of collectivised trade unions orindustrial unions. It is a form of economic corporatism that advocates interest aggregation of multiple non-competitive categorised units to negotiate and manage an economy.

For adherents, labor unions are the potential means of both overcoming economic aristocracy and running society fairly in the interest of the majority, throughunion democracy. Industry in a syndicalist system would be run through co-operative confederations and mutual aid. Local syndicates would communicate with other syndicates through the Bourse du Travail (labor exchange) which would manage and transfer commodities.

Syndicalism is also used to refer to the tactic of bringing about this social arrangement, typically expounded by anarcho-syndicalism and De Leonism, in which a general strike begins and workers seize their means of production and organise in a federation of trade unionism, such as the CNT Throughout its history, the reformist section of syndicalism has been overshadowed by its revolutionary section, typified by the IWW or the Federación Anarquista Ibérica section of the CNT

Libertarianism is the advocacy of individual liberty, especially freedom of expression and action.Libertarianism includes diverse philosophies and organizations; all advocate either minimization or elimination of the state, and a goal of maximizing individual liberty and freedom.

One significant variable between libertarian schools of thought is the degree to which the state should be reduced, with minarchists advocating reduction to just state protection from aggression, theft, breach of contract, and fraud, and anarchists advocating complete elimination of the state. Another difference among libertarians is in groups who are supportive of private property rights in the ownership of land and natural resources and those who reject private individual ownership and often support communal ownership instead. These are often grouped as right-libertariansand left-libertarians respectively. ”Right libertarianism” has been described as better-known. However, many libertarians reject being described as either “left” or “right.”

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states a strict view of libertarianism “holds that agents initially fully own themselves and have moral powers to acquire property rights in external things under certain conditions,” and that “in a looser sense, libertarianism is any view that approximates the strict view.”

Also noted is that libertarianism is not a “right-wing” doctrine because of its opposition to laws restricting adult consensual sexual relationships and drug use, and its opposition to imposing religious views or practices and compulsory military service. The Stanford Encyclopedia further describes versions of libertarianism, such as “left-libertarianism” stating that this philosophy also endorses full self-ownership, but “differs on unappropriated natural resources (land, air, water, etc.).” “Right-libertarianism” holds that such resources may be appropriated by individuals while “left-libertarianism” holds that they belong to everyone and must be distributed in some egalitarian manner.

According to Sheldon Richman, “libertarianism is premised on the dignity and self-ownership of the individual, which sexism and racism deny. Thus all forms of collectivist hierarchy undermine the libertarian attitude and hence the prospects for a free society.”

Some minarchists believe a minimal state would be preferable, while more anarchist libertarians hold the belief that society functioning without any recognized government is preferable.

Matt Zwolinsky, writing for the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, describes the minimal state as providing only law enforcement, a judicial assembly, and armed forces; also described is the right-libertarian view calledanarcho-capitalism which holds that government can be completely abolished because private companies working for profit should provide the court systems, military, and police forces; alternatively, some of the more anarchist libertarians subscribe to libertarian socialism, which seeks the elimination of government with a view on property rights that differs from anarcho-capitalism.

Some ideals of libertarians exhibit a sharp contrast in the treatment of property rights, especially with respect to natural resources, with some libertarians advocating the grant of strong private ownership rights, and others holding that private ownership of certain resources allows people to take what is others have ownership of and, thus, should be avoided as being inconsistent with the basic principles of libertarianism.

Broadly, the view of ownership is one key distinction between left-libertarianism and right-libertarianism.

Classical liberalism is a philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets.

In the late 19th century, classical liberalism developed into neo-classical liberalism, which argued for government to be as small as possible in order to allow the exercise of individual freedom. In its most extreme form, it advocated Social Darwinism. Libertarianism is a modern form of neo-classical liberalism.

The term classical liberalism was applied in retrospect to distinguish earlier nineteenth-century liberalism from the newer social liberalism.

The phrase classical liberalism is also sometimes used to refer to all forms of liberalism before the twentieth century, and some conservatives and libertarians use the term classical liberalism to describe their belief in the primacy of economic freedom and minimal government. It is not always clear which meaning is intended.

In the United States, liberalism took a strong root because it had little opposition to its ideals, whereas in Europe liberalism was opposed by many reactionary interests. In a nation of farmers, especially farmers whose workers were slaves, little attention was paid to the economic aspects of liberalism. But, as America grew, industry became a larger and larger part of American life; and, during the term of America’s first populist president, Andrew Jackson, economic questions came to the forefront. The economic ideas of the Jacksonian era were almost universally the ideas of classical liberalism. Freedom was maximized when the government took a “hands off” attitude toward industrial development and supported the value of the currency by freely exchanging paper money for gold.

The ideas of classical liberalism remained essentially unchallenged until a series of depressions, thought to be impossible according to the tenets of classical economics, led to economic hardship from which the voters demanded relief. In the words of William Jennings Bryan, “You shall not crucify the American farmer on a cross of gold.”

Despite the common recurrence of depressions, classical liberalism remained the orthodox belief among American businessmen until the Great Depression. The Great Depression saw a sea change in liberalism, leading to the development of modern liberalism. In the words of Arthur Schlesinger Jr.:

When the growing complexity of industrial conditions required increasing government intervention in order to assure more equal opportunities, the liberal tradition, faithful to the goal rather than to the dogma, altered its view of the state,” and “there emerged the conception of a social welfare state, in which the national government had the express obligation to maintain high levels of employment in the economy, to supervise standards of life and labor, to regulate the methods of business competition, and to establish comprehensive patterns of social security.

Classical liberalism places a particular emphasis on the sovereignty of the individual, with private property rights being seen as essential to individual liberty. This forms the philosophical basis for laissez-faire public policy. According to Alan Ryan, the ideology of the original classical liberals argued against direct democracy, where law is made by majority vote by citizens, “for there is nothing in the bare idea of majority rule to show that majorities will always respect the rights of property or maintain rule of law.”

For example, James Madison argued for a constitutional republic with protections for individual liberty over a pure democracy, reasoning that, in a pure democracy, a “common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole…and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party….”

Social Darwinism is a term used for various late nineteenth century ideologies which, while often contradictory, exploited ideas of survival of the fittest. It especially refers to notions of struggle for existence being used to justify social policies which make no distinction between those able to support themselves and those unable to support themselves. While the most prominent form of such views stressed competition between individuals in free market capitalism, it is also associated with ideas of struggle between national or racial groups.

In sociology it has been defined as a theory of social evolution which asserts that “There are underlying, and largely irresistible, forces acting in societies which are like the natural forces that operate in animal and plant communities. One can therefore formulate social laws similar to natural ones. These social forces are of such a kind as to produce evolutionary progress through the natural conflicts between social groups. The best-adapted and most successful social groups survive these conflicts, raising the evolutionary level of society generally (the ‘survival of the fittest’).” The term has very rarely been used as a self description.

The term first appeared in Europe in 1877, and around this time it was used by sociologists opposed to the concept. The term was popularized in the United States in 1944 by the American historian Richard Hofstadter who used it in the ideological war effort against fascism to denote a reactionary creed which promoted competitive strife, racism and nationalism. Before Hofstadter’s work the use of the term in English academic journals was quite rare. The term “social darwinism” has rarely been used by advocates of the supposed ideologies or ideas; instead it has almost always been used (pejoratively) by its opponents.

n The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex of 1882 Darwin described how medical advances meant that the weaker were able to survive and have families, and commented on the effects of this, while cautioning that hard reason should not override sympathy, and considering how other factors might reduce the effect:

Thus the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.

The aid which we feel impelled to give to the helpless is mainly an incidental result of the instinct of sympathy, which was originally acquired as part of the social instincts, but subsequently rendered, in the manner previously indicated, more tender and more widely diffused. Nor could we check our sympathy, even at the urging of hard reason, without deterioration in the noblest part of our nature. The surgeon may harden himself whilst performing an operation, for he knows that he is acting for the good of his patient; but if we were intentionally to neglect the weak and helpless, it could only be for a contingent benefit, with an overwhelming present evil. … We must therefore bear the undoubtedly bad effects of the weak surviving and propagating their kind; but there appears to be at least one check in steady action, namely that the weaker and inferior members of society do not marry so freely as the sound; and this check might be indefinitely increased by the weak in body or mind refraining from marriage, though this is more to be hoped for than expected.

A Trade Union (British-English) or Labor Union (American-English) is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members (rank and file members) and negotiates labour contracts (collective bargaining) with employers. This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies. The agreements negotiated by the union leaders are binding on the rank and file members and the employer and in some cases on other non-member workers.

Originating in Europe, trade unions became popular in many countries during the Industrial Revolution, when the lack of skill necessary to perform most jobs shifted employment bargaining power almost completely to the employers’ side, causing many workers to be mistreated and underpaid. Trade union organisations may be composed of individual workers, professionals, past workers, or the unemployed. The most common, but by no means only, purpose of these organisations is “maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment”.

Over the last three hundred years, many trade unions have developed into a number of forms, influenced by differing political objectives. Activities of trade unions vary, but may include:

• Provision of benefits to members: Early trade unions, like Friendly Societies, often provided a range of benefits to insure members againstunemployment, ill health, old age and funeral expenses. In many developed countries, these functions have been assumed by the state; however, the provision of professional training, legal advice and representation for members is still an important benefit of trade union membership.
• Collective bargaining: Where trade unions are able to operate openly and are recognized by employers, they may negotiate with employers over wages and working conditions.
• Industrial action: Trade unions may enforce strikes or resistance to lockouts in furtherance of particular goals.
• Political activity: Trade unions may promote legislation favorable to the interests of their members or workers as a whole. To this end they may pursue campaigns, undertake lobbying, or financially support individual candidates or parties (such as the Labour Party in Britain) for public office.

Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. Syndicalisme is a French word, ultimately derived from the Greek, meaning “trade unionism” – hence, the “syndicalism” qualification. Syndicalism is an alternative co-operative economic system. Adherents view it as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing capitalism and the state with a new society, democratically self-managed by workers.

Anarcho-syndicalists seek to abolish the wage system, regarding it as wage slavery, and state or private ownership of the means of production, which they believe lead to class divisions. Not all seek to abolish money per se. Ralph Chaplin states that “the ultimate aim of the General Strike as regards wages is to give to each producer the full product of his labour. The demand for better wages becomes revolutionary only when it is coupled with the demand that the exploitation of labour must cease.”

Additionally, anarcho-syndicalists regard the state as a profoundly anti-worker institution. They view the primary purpose of the State as being the defence of private property and therefore of economic, social and political privilege, even when such defence denies its citizens the ability to enjoy material independence and the social autonomy which springs from it.  In contrast to other bodies of thought (Marxism-Leninism being a prime example), anarcho-syndicalists deny that there can be any kind of workers’ state, or a state which acts in the interests of workers, as opposed to those of the rich and powerful. Reflecting the anarchist philosophy from which it draws its primary inspiration, anarcho-syndicalism holds to the idea that power corrupts.[4]

Although anarcho-syndicalism originated close to the beginning of the twentieth century, it remains a popular and active school of anarchism today and has many supporters as well as many currently active organisations. Anarcho-syndicalist trade unionists, being socialist anarchists, vary in their points of view on anarchist economic arrangements from a collectivist anarchism type economic system to an anarcho-communist economic system

Insurrectionary anarchism is a revolutionary theory, practice and tendency within the anarchist movement which emphasizes the theme of insurrection within anarchist practice. It opposes formal organizations such as labor unions and federations that are based on a political programme and periodic congresses. Instead, insurrectionary anarchists support informal organization and small affinity group based organization. Insurrectionary anarchists put value in attack, permanent class conflict, and a refusal to negotiate or compromise with class enemies.

Contemporary insurrectionary anarchism inherits the views and tactics of anti-organizational anarcho-communism and illegalism.

Propaganda of the deed (or propaganda by the deed, from the French propagande par le fait) is a concept that promotes physical violence against political enemies as a way of inspiring the masses and catalyzing revolution. It also refers to the use of symbolic acts of violence against structural targets, in which the act is intended to evoke a broader meaning.

Propaganda of the deed is also related to illegalism, an anarchist philosophy that developed primarily in France, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland during the early 20th century as an outgrowth of anarchist individualism. The illegalists openly embraced criminality as a lifestyle. Influenced by theorist Max Stirner’s concept of “egoism”, the illegalists broke from anarchists like Clément Duval and Marius Jacobwho justified theft with a theory of la reprise individuelle (Eng: individual reclamation). Instead, the illegalists argued that their actions required no moral basis – illegal acts were taken not in the name of a higher ideal, but in pursuit of one’s own desires. France’s Bonnot Gang was the most famous group to embrace illegalism.

Propaganda of the deed thus included stealing (in particular bank robberies – named “expropriations” or “revolutionary expropriations” to finance the organization), rioting and general strikes which aimed at creating the conditions of an insurrection or even a revolution. These acts were justified as the necessary counterpart to state repression.

Class struggle is the active expression of a theoretical class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, leading ideologists of communism, wrote

“The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle”.

Marx’s notion of class has nothing to do with social class in the sociological sense of upper, middle and lower classes (which are often defined in terms of quantitative income or wealth). Instead, in an age of capitalism, Marx describes an economic class.

Membership in a class is defined by one’s relationship to the means of production, i.e., one’s position in the social structure that characterizes capitalism. Marx talks mainly about two classes that include the vast majority of the population, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Other classes such as the petty bourgeoisie share characteristics of both of these main classes

Marxist analysis of society identifies two main social groups:

• Labour (the proletariat or workers) includes anyone who earns their livelihood by selling their labor power and being paid a wage or salary for their labor time. They have little choice but to work for capital, since they typically have no independent way to survive.
• Capital (the bourgeoisie or capitalists) includes anyone who gets their income not from labor as much as from the surplus value they appropriate from the workers who create wealth. The income of the capitalists, therefore, is based on their exploitation of the workers (proletariat)

Not all class struggle is violent or necessarily radical (as with strikes and lockouts). Class antagonism may instead be expressed as low worker morale, minor sabotage and pilferage, and individual workers’ abuse of petty authority and hoarding of information. It may also be expressed on a larger scale by support for socialist or populist parties. On the employers’ side, the use of union-busting legal firms and the lobbying for anti-union laws are forms of class struggle.

Not all class struggle is a threat to capitalism, or even to the authority of an individual capitalist. A narrow struggle for higher wages by a small sector of the working-class (what is often called “economism”) hardly threatens the status quo. In fact, by applying “craft union” tactics of excluding other workers from skilled trades, an economistic struggle may even weaken the working class as a whole by dividing it. Class struggle becomes more important in the historical process as it becomes more general, as industries are organized rather than crafts, as workers’ class consciousness rises, and as they are organized as political parties. Marx referred to this as the progress of the proletariat from being a class “in itself” (a position in the social structure) to being one “for itself” (an active and conscious force that could change the world).

Marx thought that this conflict was central to the social structure of capitalism and could not be abolished without replacing the system itself. Further, he argued that the objective conditions under capitalism would likely develop in a way that encouraged a proletariat organized collectively for its own goals to develop: the accumulation of surplus value as more means of production by the capitalists would allow them to become more and more powerful, encouraging overt class conflict. If this is not counteracted by increasing political and economic organization by workers, it would inevitably cause an extreme polarization of the classes, encouraging the revolution that would destroy capitalism itself.

The revolution would lead to a socialist society in which the proletariat controlled the state, that is, “the dictatorship of the proletariat”. The original meaning of this term was a workers’ democracy, not adictatorship in the modern sense of the word. For Marx, democracy under capitalism is a bourgeois dictatorship.

Even after a revolution, the two classes would struggle, but eventually the struggle would recede and the classes dissolve. As class boundaries broke down, the state apparatus would wither away. According to Marx, the main task of any state apparatus is to uphold the power of the ruling class; but without any classes there would be no need for a state. That would lead to the classless, stateless communist society.

Corporate statism or state corporatism is a political culture and a form of corporatism whose adherents hold that the corporate group is the basis of society and thestate. The corporate group is typically comprised by political-economic power elites, for example those represented by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In other countries, the corporate group may be a specific national or ethnic group.

Corporate statism most commonly manifests itself as a ruling party acting as a mediator between the workers, capitalists and other prominent state interests by institutionally incorporating them into the ruling mechanism. Corporatist systems were most prevalent in the mid-20th Century in Europe and later elsewhere in developing countries. However, both in academia and practice, Corporate Statism (or Corporatism as it is also sometimes known) has fallen out of favour. Globalisation and economic and social diversification are both credited with corporate statism’s decline.

According to this critique, interests, both social and economic, are so diverse that a state cannot possibly mediate between them effectively through incorporating them. Social conflicts go beyond incorporated dichotomies of labour and capital to include innumerable groups. Furthermore, globalisation presents challenges, both social and economic, that a corporate state cannot sufficiently address because these problems transcend state borders and approaches. It therefore differs from Corporate nationalism in that it is a social mode of organization rather than an economic nationalism through private business corporations.

The term corporatism is based on the Latin word “corpus” meaning “body”. Formal corporatist models are based upon the contract of corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, scientific, or religious affiliations, into a collective body.

Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a political system where the state, usually under the control of a single political person, faction, or class, recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible. Totalitarianism is generally characterized by the coincidence ofauthoritarianism (where ordinary citizens have less significant share in state decision-making) and ideology (a pervasive scheme of values promulgated by institutional means to direct most if not all aspects of public and private life).

Totalitarian regimes or movements stay in political power through an all-encompassing propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, a single partythat is often marked by personality cultism, control over the economy, regulation and restriction of speech, mass surveillance, and widespread use of state terrorism.

The notion of “Totalitarianism” a “total” political power by state was formulated in 1923 by Giovanni Amendola who described Italian Fascism as a system fundamentally different from conventional dictatorships. The term was later assigned a positive meaning in the writings of Giovanni Gentile, Italy’s most prominent philosopher and leading theorist of fascism. He used the term “totalitario” to refer to the structure and goals of the new state. The new state was to provide the “total representation of the nation and total guidance of national goals.”

He described totalitarianism as a society in which the ideology of the state had influence, if not power, over most of its citizens.

The purpose of a bureaucracy is to successfully implement the actions of an organization of any size (but often associated with large entities such as government, corporations, and non-governmental organizations), in achieving its purpose and mission, and the bureaucracy is tasked to determine how it can achieve its purpose and mission with the greatest possible efficiency and at the least cost of any resources.

Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for a private profit; decisions regarding supply, demand, price, distribution, and investments are made by private actors in the free market; profit is sent to owners who invest in businesses, and wages are paid to workers employed by businesses and companies.

State capitalism consists of state-ownership of profit-seeking enterprises that operate in a capitalist manner in a market economy: examples of this includecorporatized government agencies or partial ownership of shares in publicly-listed firms by the state. State capitalism is also used to refer to an economy consisting of mainly private enterprises that are subjected to comprehensive national economic planning by the government, where the state intervenes in the economy to protect specific capitalist businesses. Many anti-USSR socialists, as well as many anarchists, argue that the Soviet Union was never socialist, but rather state capitalist, since the state owned all the means of production and functioned as an enormous corporation, and exploited the working class as such.

Corporate capitalism is a free or mixed market characterized by the dominance of hierarchical, bureaucratic corporations, which are legally required to pursue profit. State monopoly capitalism refers to a form of corporate capitalism where the state is used to benefit, protect from competition and promote the interests of dominant or established corporations.

Finance capitalism is a term in Marxian political economics defined as the subordination of processes of production to the accumulation of money profits in a financial system. It is characterized by the pursuit of profit from the purchase and sale of, or investment in, currencies and financial products such as bonds, stocks, futures and other derivatives. It also includes the lending of capital at interest. Finance capitalism is seen by

Marxists as being exploitative by supplying income to non-laborers.

The term political radicalism (or simply, in political science, radicalism) denotes political principles focused on altering social structures through revolutionary means and changing value systems in fundamental ways.

Historically, radicalism has referred exclusively to the “radical left,” under the single category of far-left politics, rarely incorporating far-right politics though these may have revolutionary elements; the prominent exception is in the United States where some consider radicalism to include both political extremes of the radical left and the so-called “radical right.”

Radical Right is a term used to describe various American political movements that are conspiratorial, atuned to anti-American or anti-Christian agents of foreign powers, and “radical”. The term was first used by social scientists in the 1950s regarding small groups such as the John Birch Society in the United States, and since has been used for similar groups worldwide.

The term “radical” was applied to the American groups because they sought to make fundamental (hence “radical”) changes in American institutions and remove from political life persons and institutions that threatened their values or economic interests. They were called “right-wing” primarily because of their opposition to both socialism and communism and their ultraconservative or reactionary tendencies which limited new access to power and status.

Conservatism (Latin: conservare, “to preserve”) is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism and seek a return to the way things were.

Anti-imperialism, strictly speaking, is a term that may be applied to a movement opposed to any form of colonialism or imperialism. Anti-imperialism includes opposition to wars of conquest, particularly of non-contiguous territory or people with a different language or culture; it also includes people opposing the expansion of a country beyond earlier borders.

Left-wing nationalism describes a form of nationalism officially based upon equality, popular sovereignty, and national self-determination. It has its origins in theJacobinism of the French Revolution. Left-wing nationalism typically espouses anti-imperialism. It stands in contrast to right-wing nationalism, and has often rejected racist nationalism and fascism.

Classical Marxists have unanimously claimed that nationalism is a bourgeois phenomenon that is not associated with Marxism. However, certain interpretations of the works of Karl Marx have claimed that although Marx rejected nationalism as a final outcome of international class struggle, he tacitly supported proletarian nationalism as a stage to achieve proletarian rule over a nation, then allowing succeeding stages of international proletarian revolution. Marxism, in certain instances, has supported nationalist movements if they are in the interest of class struggle, but rejects other nationalist movements deemed to distract workers from their necessary goal of defeating the bourgeoisie.[9] Marxists have evaluated certain nations to be “progressive” and other nations to be “reactionary”.

Types of rebellion

A limited rebellion is an insurrection, and if the established not recognize the rebels as belligerents then they are insurgents and the revolt is an insurgency. In a larger conflict the rebels may be recognised as belligerents without their government being recognised by the established government, in which case the conflict becomes a civil war.

There are a number of terms that fall under the umbrella of rebel and they range from those with positive connotations to those with pejorative connotations. Examples include:

• Mutiny, which is carried out by military or security forces against their commanders
• Nonviolent resistance or civil disobedience, which do not include violence or paramilitary force
• Resistance movement, which is carried out by freedom fighters, often against an occupying foreign power
• Revolt, a term that is sometimes used for a more localized rebellions rather than a general uprising
• Revolution, which is carried out by radicals, usually meant to overthrow the current government
• Subversion, which are non-overt attempts at sabotaging a government, carried out by spies or other subversives
• Terrorism, which is carried out by different kinds of political or religious militant individuals or groups

The anarcho-syndicalist orientation of many early American labour unions arguably played an important role in the formation of the American political spectrum, most significantly of the Industrial Workers of the World. The United States is the only industrialized country that does not have a major labour-based political party. This has not always been the case. In 1912, for example, Eugene Debs (a founding member of the IWW) polled 6% of the popular vote as the Socialist Party presidential candidate – a significant portion of the popular vote considering that this was 8 years before the adoption ofuniversal suffrage in the U.S. Some political scientists would, in part, attribute the lack of an American labour party to the single member plurality electoral system, which tends to favour a two-party system. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as Duverger’s law.

In political science, Duverger’s law is a principle which asserts that a plurality rule election system tends to favor a two-party system. This is one of two hypotheses proposed by Duverger, the second stating that “the double ballot majority system and proportional representation tend to multipartism.”

The second unique problem is both statistical and tactical. Duverger suggested an election in which 100,000 moderate voters and 80,000 radical voters are voting for a single official. If two moderate candidates and one radical candidate were to run, the radical candidate would win unless one of the moderate candidates gathered fewer than 20,000 votes. Observing this, moderate voters would be more likely to vote for the candidate most likely to gain more votes, with the goal of defeating the radical candidate. Either the two parties must merge, or one moderate party must fail, as the voters gravitate to the two strong parties, a trend Duverger called polarization.

A third party can only enter the arena if it can exploit the mistakes of a pre-existing major party, ultimately at that party’s expense.

.

Proportional representation (PR) is a goal of voting systems.

Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation (PR) in elections returning multiple candidates (e.g. elections to parliament). They can also be used as part of mixed additional member systems.

In these systems, parties make lists of candidates to be elected, and seats get allocated to each party in proportion to the number of votes the party receives. Voters may vote directly for the party.

The order in which a party’s list candidates get elected may be pre-determined by some method internal to the party or the candidates (a closed list system) or it may be determined by the voters at large (an open list system).

Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party’s candidates are elected. This as opposed to closed list, which allows the usually much fewer, active, members, party officials, or consultants, to determine the order of its candidates and gives the general voter no influence at all on the position of the candidates placed on the party list. Additionally, an open list system can also allow a voter the alternative of voting for the party as a whole without expressing a preference between individuals. There are differences possible between varying open list systems, each giving the voter varying amounts of influence. Voter’s choice is usually called preference vote.

Proxy voting, has two forms delegable voting and delegated voting, and are procedures for the delegation to another member of a voting body of that member’s power to vote in his absence, and/or for the selection of additional representatives, as in the case with transitive proxies. Proxy appointments can be used to form a voting bloc that can exercise greater influence in deliberations or negotiations. A person so designated is called a “proxy” and the person designating him is called a “principal.

Anarcho-pacifism (also pacifist anarchism or anarchist pacifism) is a tendency within the anarchist movement which rejects the use of violence in the struggle for social change. The main early influences were the thought of Henry David Thoreau and Leo Tolstoy. It developed “mostly in Holland (sic), Britain, and theUnited States, before and during the Second World War”.

The main precedent was Henry David Thoreau, who, through his work Civil Disobedience, influenced both Leo Tolstoy and Mohandas Gandhi’s advocacy of nonviolent resistance.

Violence has always been controversial in anarchism. While many anarchists during the 19th century embraced violent propaganda of the deed, Leo Tolstoy and other anarcho-pacifists directly opposed violence as a means for change. He argued that anarchism must be nonviolent since it is, by definition, opposition to coercion and force, and that since the state is inherently violent, meaningful pacifism must likewise be anarchistic. His philosophy was cited as a major inspiration by Mohandas Gandhi, anIndian independence leader and pacifist who self-identified as an anarchist. Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis was also instrumental in establishing the pacifist trend within the anarchist movement. In France anti-militarism appeared strongly in individualist anarchist circles as Émile Armand founded “Ligue Antimilitariste” in 1902.

“Gandhi’s ideas were popularised in the West in books such as Richard Gregg’s The Power of Nonviolence (1935), and Bart de Ligt’s The Conquest of Violence (1937). The latter is particularly important for anarchists since, as one himself, de Ligt specifically addressed those who lust for revolution. ‘The more violence, the less revolution,’ he declared. He also linked Gandhian principled nonviolencewith the pragmatic nonviolent direct action of the syndicalists. (The General Strike is an expression of total noncooperation by workers, though it should be added that most syndicalists believed that the revolution should be defended by armed workers.)”

Among late 20th-century anarcho-pacifists was autarchist Robert LeFevre, who based his pacifism on his belief in the inviolability of property rights. LeFevre also spoke out against war, which he considered to be a product of the state, and was convinced of the power of non-violent resistance.

“An Anarchist FAQ” is an FAQ written by an international work group of social anarchists connected through the internet. It documents anarchist theory and ideas while arguing that social anarchismis a better form of anarchism than individualist anarchism, which it critiques.[3] It also explores other debates internal to the anarchist movement, and counters common arguments against anarchism. It has been in constant evolution since 1995. While it was started as a critique of anarcho-capitalism, by the time it was officially released it had become a general introduction to anarchism.

For An Anarchist FAQ“the attraction of pacifism to anarchists is clear. Violence is authoritarian and coercive, and so its use does contradict anarchist principles.” “(Errico) Malatesta is even more explicit when he wrote that the “main plank of anarchism is the removal of violence from human relations”.

Anarcho-pacifism tend to see the state as ‘organised violence’ and so they see that “it would therefore seem logical that anarchists should reject all violence”.. Anarcho-pacifism criticizes the separation between means and ends. “Means,…must not merely be consistent with ends; this principle, though preferable to ‘the end justifies the means’, is based on a misleading dichotomy. Means are ends, never merely instrumental but also always expressive of values; means are end-creating or ends-in-the making”

While anarcho-pacifism is most commonly associated with religious anarchism such as Tolstoyan Christian anarchism and Buddhist anarchism, irreligious or even anti-religioustendencies have emerged. The anarcho-punk band Crass polemicised a variant of anarcho-pacifism whilst at the same time explicitly rejecting all religions, especially the symbols of ‘establishment’ Christian theology. Opposition to the use of violence has not prohibited anarcho-pacifists from accepting the principle of resistance or even revolutionary action provided it does not result in violence; in fact it was their approval of such forms of opposition to power that lead anarcho-pacifists to endorse the anarcho-syndicalist concept of the general strike as the great revolutionary weapon.

Anti-organizationalist insurrectionary individualism

Italian anti-organizationalist individualist anarchism was brought to the United States by Italian born individualists such as Giuseppe Ciancabilla and others who advocated for violent propaganda by the deed there.

Anarchist historian George Woodcock reports the incident in which the important Italian social anarchist Errico Malatesta became involved “in a dispute with the individualist anarchists of Paterson, who insisted that anarchism implied no organization at all, and that every man must act solely on his impulses. At last, in one noisy debate, the individual impulse of a certain Ciancabilla directed him to shoot Malatesta, who was badly wounded but obstinately refused to name his assailant.”

Organizationalism vs. Insurrectionarism

As anarcho-communism emerged in the mid 19th century it had an intense debate with bakuninist collectivism and as such within the anarchist movement over participation in syndicalism and the workers movement as well as on other issues.[14] So “In the theory of the revolution” of anarcho-communism as elaborated by Peter Kropotkin and others “it is the risen people who are the real agent and not the working class organised in the enterprise (the cells of the capitalist mode of production) and seeking to assert itself as labour power, as a more ‘rational’ industrial body or social brain (manager) than the employers.”.

Platformism is a tendency within the wider anarchist movement originally theorised by Nestor Makhno and is mainly based on his concept of anarchism and the organisational theories in the tradition of Dielo Truda’s Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft).[1] The document was based on the experiences of Russian anarchists in the 1917 October Revolution, which led eventually to the victory of the Bolsheviks over the anarchists and other groups. ThePlatform attempted to address and explain the anarchist movement’s failures during the Russian Revolution. The book drew both praise and criticism from anarchists worldwide.

The Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft) was written in 1926 by Dielo Truda (“Workers’ Cause”), a group of exiled Russian anarchists in France.

The pamphlet is an analysis of the basic anarchist beliefs, a vision of an anarchist society, and recommendations as to how an anarchist organization should be structured. The four main principles by which an anarchist organization should operate, according to the Platform, are ideological unity, tactical unity,collective action, and federalism.

Until recently, the platform was known in English as the Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists, because the English translation was based onVoline’s mis-translation of the original and not the Russian original.

The platform argues, “We have vital need of an organization which, having attracted most of the participants in the anarchist movement, would establish a common tactical and political line for anarchism and thereby serve as a guide for the whole movement”.

The Platform has 4 key organizational features which distinguish it from the rest of the anarchist movement. They are:

• Tactical Unity – A common tactical line in the movement is of decisive importance for the existence of the organisation and the whole movement: it avoids the disastrous effect of several tactics opposing each other; it concentrates the forces of the movement; and gives them a common direction leading to a fixed objective.
• Theoretical Unity – “Theory represents the force which directs the activity of persons and organisations along a defined path towards a determined goal. Naturally it should be common to all the persons and organisations adhering to the General Union. All activity by the General Union, both overall and in its details, should be in perfect concord with the theoretical principles professed by the union.”
• Collective Responsibility – “The practice of acting on one’s personal responsibility should be decisively condemned and rejected in the ranks of the anarchist movement. The areas of revolutionary life, social and political, are above all profoundly collective by nature. Social revolutionary activity in these areas cannot be based on the personal responsibility of individual militants.”
• Federalism – “Against centralism, anarchism has always professed and defended the principle of federalism, which reconciles the independence and initiative of individuals and the organisation with service to the common cause.”

Anarkismo.net is an international anarchist-communist, platformist and especifista news and discussion website. Its news service is one of the select publishers included in the Google News aggregator. It was launched on 1 May 2005.

Since then it has published over 17,000 articles in a variety of languages

Especifismo (English: specifism) is one of the two main forms of anarchist activism championed by FARJ (Federação Anarquista do Rio de Janeiro) and otherSouth American anarchist organizations, the other being social insertion. Especifismo emerged as a result of anarchist experiences in South America over the last half of the 20th century starting with the Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU), which was founded in 1956 by anarchists who saw the need for an organizationwhich was specifically anarchist.

Especifismo has been summarized as:

• The need for specifically anarchist organization built around a unity of ideas and praxis.
• The use of the specifically anarchist organization to theorize and develop strategic political and organizing work.
• Active involvement in and building of autonomous and popular social movements via social insertion.[

The Communist Manifesto, originally titled Manifesto of the Communist Party (German: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei) is a short 1848 book written by the German Marxist political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It has since been recognized as one of the world’s most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the Communist League, it laid out the League’s purposes and program. It presents an analytical approach to the class struggle(historical and present) and the problems of capitalism, rather than a prediction of communism’s potential future forms.

The book contains Marx and Engels’ Marxist theories about the nature of society and politics, that in their own words, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” It also briefly features their ideas for how the capitalist society of the time would eventually be replaced by socialism, and then eventually communism.

Mercury poisoning (also known as hydrargyria or mercurialism) is a disease caused by exposure to mercury or its compounds. Mercury (chemical symbol Hg) is a heavy metal that occurs in several forms, all of which can produce toxic effects in high enough doses. Its zero oxidation state Hg⁰ exists as vapor or as liquid metal, its mercurous state Hg⁺ exists as inorganic salts, and its mercuric state Hg²⁺may form either inorganic salts or organomercury compounds; the three groups vary in effects. Toxic effects include damage to the brain, kidney, and lungs. Mercury poisoning can result in several diseases, including acrodynia (pink disease), Hunter-Russell syndrome,and Minamata disease.

Symptoms typically include sensory impairment (vision, hearing, speech), disturbed sensation and a lack of coordination. The type and degree of symptoms exhibited depend upon the individual toxin, the dose, and the method and duration of exposure.

How to Replace Mercury Fillings

Mercury fillings began being used in dentistry over 100 years ago. In recent years, the safety of these types of fillings (also known as amalgrams) has come under scrutiny. Mercury is well-known for its toxicity, and mercury fillings contain over 50 percent mercury. Holistic practitioners question the safety of having mercury fillings in our mouths, and wonder if ingestion of this toxin accounts for the rise in cancers and other chronic diseases over the last few decades. Because of these concerns, removal of mercury fillings is becoming a common procedure among holistic dentists.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You’ll Need:

Holistic dentist

1) Visit a holistic doctor first. A naturopath or other doctor experienced in dealing with toxic metals can put you on an immune-system boosting protocol prior to removing your mercury fillings. Through the use of certain herbs like garlic and specific vitamins, you can help prepare your body for the procedure.

2) Locate a dentist who is experienced with replacing mercury fillings and practices mercury-free dentistry. Many dentists will not have experience performing this procedure. During filling removal, you could potentially be exposed to high amounts of mercury, so picking an experienced practitioner will help maintain safety.

3) Schedule your appointment. Remember, your appointment may take several hours, depending on the number of fillings you have to remove.

4) Go to your appointment. Make sure your dentist offers you an alternative source of oxygen during the removal procedure, to ensure you aren’t inhaling any mercury gas. Also, your dentist should cool the fillings before removal, cut them into chunks, use a high-volume suction system, and use rubber dams inside the mouth.

5) After your appointment, consider taking chlorella. Chlorella is an algae that has been touted for its ability to bind with heavy metals and remove them from the body. Chlorella can be found in virtually any health food store.

Methylmercury exposure

Outbreaks of methylmercury poisoning have made it clear that adults, children, and developing fetuses are at risk from dietary exposure to methylmercury. During these poisoning outbreaks some mothers with no symptoms of nervous system damage gave birth to infants with severe disabilities and it became clear that the developing nervous system of the fetus may be more vulnerable to methylmercury than is the adult nervous system. Mothers who are exposed to methylmercury and breast-feed their babies may also expose their infant children through their milk.

Signs and symptoms

Common symptoms of mercury poisoning include peripheral neuropathy (presenting as paresthesia or itching, burning or pain), skin discoloration (pink cheeks, fingertips and toes), swelling, anddesquamation (shedding of skin).

Because mercury blocks the degradation pathway of catecholamines, epinephrine excess causes profuse sweating, tachycardia (persistently faster-than-normal heart beat), increased salivation, andhypertension (high blood pressure). Mercury is thought to inactivate S-adenosyl-methionine, which is necessary for catecholamine catabolism by catechol-o-methyl transferase.

Affected children may show red cheeks, nose and lips, loss of hair, teeth, and nails, transient rashes, hypotonia (muscle weakness), and increased sensitivity to light. Other symptoms may includekidney disfunction (e.g. Fanconi syndrome) or neuropsychiatric symptoms such as emotional lability, memory impairment, or insomnia.

Thus, the clinical presentation may resemble pheochromocytoma or Kawasaki disease.

Inorganic mercury compounds

Mercury occurs inorganically as salts such as mercury (II) chloride. Mercury salts primarily affect the gastro-intestinal tract and the kidneys, and can cause severe kidney damage; however, as they can not cross the blood-brain barrier easily, mercury salts inflict little neurological damage without continuous or heavy exposure. As two oxidation states of mercury form salts (Hg⁺ and Hg²⁺), mercury salts occur in both mercury(I) (or mercurous) and mercury(II) (mercuric) forms. Mercury(II) salts are usually more toxic than their mercury (I) counterparts because their solubility in water is greater; thus, they are more readily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract.

Mercuric cyanide

Mercuric cyanide (also known as Mercury (II) cyanide), Hg(CN)₂, is a particularly toxic mercury compound. If ingested, both life-threatening mercury and cyanide poisoning can occur. Hg(CN)₂ can enter the body via inhalation, ingestion, or passage through the skin. Inhalation of mercuric cyanide irritates the throat and air passages. Heating or contact of Hg(CN)₂ with acid or acid mist releases toxic mercury and cyanide vapors that can cause bronchitis with cough and phlegm and/or lung tissue irritation. Contact with eyes can cause burns and brown stains in the eyes, and long time exposure can affect the peripheral vision. Contact with skin can cause skin allergy, irritation, and gray skin color.

Mercury cyanide was used in two murders in New York in 1898. The perpetrator, Roland B. Molineux, sent poisoned medicines to his victims through the US mail. The first victim, Henry Barnett, died of mercury poisoning twelve days after taking the poison. The second victim, Catherine Adams, died of cyanide poisoning within 30 minutes of taking the poison. As in the suicide cases, the difference between the two cases may be attributed to differences in the acidities of the solutions containing the poison, or to differences in the acidities of the victims’ stomachs.

The drug NAP (n-acetyl penicillamine) has been used to treat mercury poisoning with limited success.

Organic mercury compounds

Compounds of mercury tend to be much more toxic than the element itself, and organic compounds of mercury are often extremely toxic and have been implicated in causing brain and liver damage. The most dangerous mercury compound, dimethylmercury, is so toxic that even a few microliters spilled on the skin, or even a latex glove, can cause death.

Methylmercury is the major source of organic mercury for all individuals. It works its way up the food chain through bioaccumulation in the environment, reaching high concentrations among populations of some species. Larger species of fish, such as tuna or swordfish, are usually of greater concern than smaller species.

(FDA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advise women of child-bearing age, nursing mothers, and young children to completely avoid swordfish, shark, king mackerel and tilefish. Limit consumption of albacore (“white”) tuna to no more than 6 oz (170 g) per week, and of all other fish and shellfish to no more than 12 oz (340 g) per week.

Prevention

Mercury poisoning can be prevented (or minimized) by eliminating or reducing exposure to mercury and mercury compounds. To that end, many governments and private groups have made efforts to regulate heavily the use of mercury, or to issue advisories about its use. For example, the export from the European Union of mercury and some mercury compounds has been prohibited since 2010-03-15.^[29] The variability among regulations and advisories is at times confusing for the lay person as well as scientists.

^[30]

Country	Regulating agency	Regulated activity	Medium	Type of mercury compound	Type of limit	Limit
US	OSHA	occupational exposure	air	elemental mercury	Ceiling (not to exceed)	0.1 mg/m³
US	OSHA	occupational exposure	air	organic mercury	Ceiling (not to exceed)	0.05 mg/m³
US	FDA	drinking	water	inorganic mercury	Maximum allowable concentration	2 ppb(0.002 mg/L)
US	FDA	eating	sea food	methylmercury	Maximum allowable concentration	1 ppm
US	EPA	drinking	water	inorganic mercury	Maximum contaminant level	2 ppb (0.002 mg/L)

The  EPA issued recommendations in 2004 regarding exposure to mercury in fish and shellfish. The EPA also developed the “Fish Kids” awareness campaign for children and young adults on account of the greater impact of mercury exposure to that population

Prognosis

Many of the toxic effects of mercury are partially or wholly reversible, either through specific therapy or through natural elimination of the metal after exposure has been discontinued.  However, heavy or prolonged exposure can do irreversible damage, particularly in fetuses, infants, and young children. Young’s syndrome is believed to be a long term consequence of early childhood mercury poisoning. Mercuric Chloride may cause cancer as it has caused increases in several types of tumors in rats and mice, while methyl mercury has caused kidney tumors in male rats. The EPA has classified mercuric chloride and methyl mercury as possible human carcinogens (ATSDR, EPA)

Detection in biological fluids

Mercury may be measured in blood or urine to confirm a diagnosis of poisoning in hospitalized victims or to assist in the forensic investigation in a case of fatal overdosage. Some analytical techniques are capable of distinguishing organic from inorganic forms of the metal. The concentrations in both fluids tend to reach high levels early after exposure to inorganic forms, while lower but very persistent levels are observed following exposure to elemental or organic mercury. Chelation therapy can cause a transient elevation of urine mercury levels.

Dental amalgam

Dental amalgam, an alloy of about 50 percent elemental mercury, was first introduced in France in the early 19th century.

In 2002, Maths Berlin, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Medicine and chair of the 1991 World Health Organization Task Group on Environmental Health Criteria for Inorganic Mercury, published an overview and assessment of the scientific literature published between November 1997-2002 as part of a special investigation for the Swedish Government on amalgam related health issues. The report concluded: “With reference to the fact that mercury is a multipotent toxin with effects on several levels of the biochemical dynamics of the cell, amalgam must be considered to be an unsuitable material for dental restoration.”

Dental amalgam controversy

Dentists who advocate the use of amalgam point out that it is durable, cheap, and easy to use. On average, resin composites last only half as long as dental amalgam, although more recent studies find them comparable to amalgam in durability, and dental porcelain is much more expensive. However, the gap between amalgam and composites may be closing. Further, concerns have been raised about themendocrine disrupting (in particular, estrogen-mimicking) effects of plastic chemicals such as Bisphenol A used in composite resins.

In addition to health and ethics issues, opponents to dental amalgam fillings point to the negative externalities of water contamination and environmental damage of mercury, especially since its use by dentists goes largely unregulated in many places, including the United States. The WHO reports that mercury from amalgam and laboratory devices accounts for 53% of total mercury emissions. Separators may dramatically decrease the release of mercury into the public sewer system, where dental amalgams contribute one-third of the mercury waste,  but they are not required in the United States

Exposure

A study conducted by measuring the intraoral vapor levels over a 24-hour period in patients with at least nine amalgam restorations showed the average daily dose of inhaled mercury vapor was 1.7 µg (range from 0.4 to 4.4 µg), which is approximately only 1% of the threshold limit value of 300 to 500 µg/day established by the World Health Organization, based on a maximum allowable environmental level of 50 µg/day in the workplace. The World Health Organization (WHO) notes that exposure can be greatly increased by personal habits such as bruxism or gum-chewing, and cites a report which found a 5.3 fold increase in mercury levels after chewing, eating, or toothbrushing. They report that amalgam is estimated to contribute 50% of mercury exposure in adults. In the studies the WHO reviews, daily mercury exposure estimates range from 3 μg/day to 9 μg/day.

A Swedish study of autopsies examined the mercury levels in brains and kidneys and found a strong correlation with the number of amalgam fillings.  A German study found that mercury urinary excretion was significantly higher in those with dental amalgam fillings.

The NIDR Amalgam Study, performed on a cohort of an adult military population of 1127 healthy males, found that based on their cross-sectional data, it is estimated that, on average, each ten-surface increase in amalgam exposure is associated with an increase of 1 ug/L mercury in urine concentration.

Research on monkeys has shown that mercury released from dental amalgam restorations is absorbed and accumulates in various organs such as the kidney, brain, lung, liver, gastro-intestinal tract, the exocrine glands. It was also found to have crossed the placental barrier in pregnant rats and proven to cross the gastrointestinal mucosa when amalgam particles are swallowed after amalgam insertion or after removal of old amalgam fillings.

Various diagnostic methods exist to detect the level of mercury in the body, including blood tests, urine tests, stool tests, saliva tests, DMPS or DMSA chelation urine tests, hair analysis and others. Opinions differ on which of these tests, if any, is the most accurate, although mainstream scientific research tends to place the most weight on chelation urine tests or stool tests when trying to assess chronic levels, or on blood or urine tests when trying to assess recent acute exposure.

The degree of accuracy which can be expected from urine based mercury tests given the observations cited above (outlining the drop in mercury excretion levels, after two years, in children with amalgam fillings despite a constant or increased magnitude in the level of mercury exposure) indicates the possibility of clear limitations in the efficacy of urine based mercury tests as an accurate statistic for the purposes of dental studies.

Further, none of these tests can link mercury levels to dental amalgams for methodological reasons, except (a) on an epidemiological scale; or (b) through measuring levels before and after dental work. Studies have investigated both angles and results have differed, fueling the controversy since the scientific data remains inconclusive and has not yet proven either safety or danger.

Health effects

Peer-reviewed scientific studies have come to opposite conclusions on whether the mercury exposure from amalgam fillings causes health problems. A 2004 systematic review conducted by the Life Sciences Research Office, whose clients include the FDA and NIH, concluded that “the current data are insufficient to support an association between mercury release from dental amalgam and the various complaints that have been attributed to this restoration material”. A peer-reviewed Journal of the Canadian Dental Association article holds that “it seems likely that humans may have evolved with a threshold level for mercury below which there is no response or observable adverse health effects”.  Another review published in 2005 by the Freiburg University Institute for Environmental Medicine found that “mercury from dental amalgam may lead to nephrotoxicity, neurobehavioural changes, autoimmunity, oxidative stress, autism, skin and mucosa alterations or non-specific symptoms and complaints”, that “Alzheimer’s disease or multiple sclerosis has also been linked to low-dose mercury exposure”, and that “removal of dental amalgam leads to permanent improvement of various chronic complaints in a relevant number of patients in various trials.”

In 2002, the Food and Drug Administration issued a statement on dental amalgam which asserted that “no valid scientific evidence has shown that amalgams cause harm to patients with dental restorations, except in the rare case of allergy”.  A 1991-1997 study of 3162 patients in Sweden and Germany found that 719 of those with mercury fillings, or 23 percent, tested positive for systemic allergic sensitivity to inorganic mercury on the MELISA lymphocyte proliferation test. In a smaller group of 85 patients who suffered from symptoms resembling Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and had their amalgams replaced with composites and metal-free ceramics, “over 78 percent reported improvement in health status as compared to the period prior to metal removal.”

In 2001, the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of 31,000 adult Americans, NHANES III, covering 1988-94, was published by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). It isstatistically valid for all 180,000,000 adult Americans. The survey found that the number of dental fillings was significantly correlated to incidence of cancer, thyroid conditions, mental conditions, diseases of the nervous system including MS, diseases of the respiratory and genito-urinary systems, and disorders of the eye, circulatory and respiratory systems.

At the time of the survey (1988–94), the vast majority of dental fillings placed were silver amalgam.

However, the  FDA, various supreme court judges and others vehemently DENY that these findings or any others of a similar nature have any correlation nor do they sufficiently demonstrate causation.

A 2003 monograph on mercury toxicity from the World Health Organization concluded that:

• Studies on humans and animals have demonstrated that dental amalgam contributes significantly to mercury body burden in humans with amalgam fillings.
• Dental amalgam is the most common form of exposure to elemental mercury in the general population, constituting a potentially significant source of exposure to elemental mercury, with estimates of daily intake from amalgam restorations ranging from 1 to 12.5 μg/day, the majority of dental amalgam holders being exposed to less than 5 μg mercury/day.
• Intestinal absorption varies greatly among the various forms of mercury, with elemental mercury (as found in amalgam) being the least absorbed form (<0.01%)
• Absorption also varies according to individual factors such as gum chewing and bruxism (tooth grinding).
• The number of restorations – amalgam or otherwise – is declining, largely due to improved dental hygiene, in all industrialised countries examined declining by 38% since the 1970s in the USA and over 65% in the ten years from 1986 in the UK
• Although several studies have demonstrated that some mercury from amalgam fillings is absorbed, no relationship was observed between the mercury release from amalgam fillings and the mercury concentration in basal brain.
• However, in the same report it was concluded that “…even at very low mercury levels, subtle changes in visual system function can be measured.”

Removal of amalgam fillings

Some practitioners may also recommend that patients with amalgam fillings have them removed and replaced, particularly if the patient is experiencing the symptoms that they attribute to the use of amalgam. These professionals recommend that unprotected amalgam removal should be avoided even in routine dental procedures to avoid exposure to mercury vapor and amalgam particulate matter.

Attempts in lawsuits

Organizations opposed to amalgam use, such as Consumers for Dental Choice, claim to have over 65,000 studies on file implicating amalgam fillings as the cause of a diversity of health disorders. These studies have been used in various lawsuits, and were the main contributing factor to the passage of Californian legislation concerning the issuing of warnings to patients about mercury, and to the federal bill introduced in 2002 proposing that amalgam fillings be made illegal after 2006.

Child-care credit
A credit is so much better than a deduction; it reduces your tax bill dollar for dollar. So missing one is even more painful than missing a deduction that simply reduces the amount of income that’s subject to tax. If you pay your child-care bills through a reimbursement account at work, it’s easy to overlook the child-care credit. Although only $5,000 in expenses can be paid through a tax-favored reimbursement account, up to $6,000 (for the care of two or more children) can qualify for the credit. So, if you run the maximum through a plan at work but spend even more for work-related child care, you can claim the credit on as much as $1,000 of additional expenses. That would cut your tax bill by at least $200.

You must request the taxpayer ID number of the summer camp or care provider to put on the Form 2441, along with its name, address and telephone number (in some states). Get this information before placing your child in the camp’s care. We’ve heard from parents that some people get downright rude when asked for that ID number at tax time the next year. Turns out those care providers weren’t planning on reporting the income. Oops.

There is no tax benefit for sending your child off to overnight camp for the summer. Why get a credit for summer day care and not overnight camp? Who knows.

If you’re already paying for day care, after-school care, or private school, you’ve probably used up your cost allotment for Form 2441.
Summer is also a good time for remedial courses, or for special training for children with learning disorders or other physical or nervous issues that can be identified by a doctor. Those costs may b.e applied toward your medical expenses. If you have a flexible spending account at work, build these costs into your plan for next year. You could pay for up to $5,000 worth of “medical” expenses with pre-tax dollars. That could put about $1,500 right back into your pocket.

[u][b]Can I take a tax deduction for the money I send to my son in prison and money I spend on clothing?[/b][/u]

Dear Reader,

You cannot take a tax deduction for money sent to your son in prison — or sent to anyone else, for that matter. Money, food, clothing, toys, and other items sent to a person is considered a gift, and gifts are not tax deductible. (The only exception to this is when you give money or other items to a qualified charity. Charitable donations can be included as an itemized deduction on Form 1040 Schedule A.)

The short answer to your question is No.

However, if your son lived with you for more than half the year and if your son did not provide more than half of his own financial support, then you may be eligible to claim your son as a dependent under the qualified children rules. You can demonstrate that you provided most of your son’s support if (1) your son lived with you for more than half the year, and (2) you can show that your son did not provide more than half of his own support. You did not say how long your son has been in prison.

So let me provide an example.

Angela, a single parent, has two children, Barbara and Charles. Both children live with her. Charles gets in trouble with the law and goes to jail in July. Charles stays in prison the rest of the year. Based on this scenario, Angela may be entitled to claim both her children as dependents on her tax return. One of the crucial tests for claiming a dependent is that the dependents cannot provide more than half of their own financial support. Angela can prove that both children lived with her for more than half the year. Angela can also prove the neither child provided more than half of their own support. In the case of the son in prison, he is clearly not earning an income and providing his own support.

While this specific situation (an incarcerated dependent) is not mentioned in the tax law or IRS instructions, I based the scenario above on a Tax Court case from 2002 (T.C. Memo 2002-258 [PDF]). The issue in that case was whether the parent could claim her son as a dependent and as a qualifying child for the earned income credit even though her son was in prison all year. The Tax Court reasoned that since the parent did not provide more than half of the child’s support, the parent could not claim the son as a dependent. Furthermore, since the son did not live with his mom for more than 6 months of the year, the mom could not claim her son for earned income credit purposes. However, the definition of a dependent has changed since the Tax Court issued its decision in 2002. Under the new rules, it may be easier for an incarcerated child to be claimed as a dependent, since the new law provides that dependents cannot provide more than half of their own support.

It should be noted that other child-related tax benefits such as the head of household filing status, the earned income credit, and the child tax credit have different eligibility criteria. The Head of Household status, for example, requires that a taxpayer must provide more than half of the dependent’s financial support; and this might not be the case if the child is incarcerated.

For more information on claiming a dependent, you should read “Personal Exemptions and Dependents,” (Chapter 3 of IRS Publication 17) for all the details about the criteria for claiming a dependent.

Can Two Taxpayers Claim the Same Dependent?

Splitting the tax benefits of dependents between two taxpayers

The way the tax laws are written, only one person can claim a dependent on their tax return. However two parents may be able to both claim tax breaks associated with a child, provided the custodial parent agrees.Generally, only the custodial parent is eligible to claim the following tax breaks:

the dependent’s personal exemptionhead of household filing status (if applicable)child and dependent care tax creditchild tax credit and additional child tax creditearned income tax credit, andexclusion for dependent care benefits

However, the custodial parent can waive his or her right to claim a dependent in favor of the non-custodial parent.

The non-custodial parent would then be able to claim:

the dependent’s personal exemption,child tax credit and additional child tax credit, andtuition and fees deduction or the education tax creditsEven after releasing the claim to a dependent, the custodial parent would still be eligible to claim the following child-related tax benefits:head of household filing statuschild and dependent care tax creditearned income credit, andexclusion for dependent care benefitsHow to Split the Child Tax Benefits

In order to split the tax benefits related to a dependent, the following four criteria must be met:

The parents are divorced, or legally separated, or lived apart at all times in the last six months of the year;The parents provided over half of the dependent child’s total financial support; The child is in the custody of one or both parents during the year; and

The custodial parent waives his or her right to claim the dependent using Form 8332 or a substantially similar document.
The custodial parent is highly advised to execute Form 8332 to release his or her claim to the dependent’s exemption. Other documents such as divorce decrees, separation agreements, and child custody agreements may not provide the same level of detail as Form 8332. It’s advisable to always prepare Form 8332 when parents agree on splitting the tax benefits for a particular dependent.

Form 8332 must be given to the non-custodial parent, who will then attach this form to his or her tax return. The custodial parent should keep copies of the form as well.

Claiming the Tax Benefits for Higher Education:

Only the parent who is claiming the child as a dependent would be eligible to claim the tax benefits for college and other post-secondary education.

These tax breaks include the tuition and fees deduction, Hope credit, American Opportunity credit, and the Lifetime Learning credit.

However, these tax deductions and credits are not available for people whose filing status is married filing separately. Additionally, these deductions and credits are subject to income phase-out limitations. If neither of the parents can claim these tax breaks, they may want to forgo claiming their child as a dependent, thereby allowing the child to claim these tax breaks for herself.

Cautions when Splitting the Child-Related Tax Benefits

Two taxpayers should not attempt to claim the same dependent.
This will trigger an automatic IRS audit of both tax returns.The noncustodial parent should always attach Form 8332 to his or her tax return to claim the tax benefits related to the child. The IRS is aggressive in denying dependents and other child-related tax breaks when this form is missing.

Custodial parents can revoke their waiver.

Noncustodial parents should carefully review each year whether they can claim a dependent.

This sharing of the child-related tax benefits is available only to taxpayers who are the child’s parents. Splitting of the dependent’s tax benefits is not available to other family members.

Who’s the Custodial and Noncustodial Parents?

The custodial parent is the person who is eligible to claim the dependent. Usually, this is the parent with whom the child lives for more than half the year. If the child lives with both parents for more than half the year, then the custodial parent is determined using the tie-breaker tests for qualifying children.The noncustodial parent is the other parent. In other words the parent who is not eligible to claim the dependent, unless the custodial parent waives his or her right to claim the dependent.

Claiming Dependents:

Rules for claiming children and relatives as dependents

Nov 16 2010

Being able to claim a dependent on a tax return is tied to a number of related tax benefits….

Taxpayers who claim dependents can claim an additional personal exemption for each dependent. Also, taxpayers may be eligible to claim the child tax credit, the child and dependent care tax credit, and the earned income tax credit. Unmarried taxpayers who support a dependent may be eligible to file as head of household.
With all these tax benefits tied to claiming a dependent, it is important to make sure that you really can claim the dependent on your tax return.

Basically, you can claim a dependent if the person meets one of two criteria:

qualifying child or

qualifying relative.

And here, briefly, are some guidelines to help you out. First, the qualifying child rules always take precedence over the qualifying relative rules. So if someone can claim a dependent using the qualifying child rules, then no one else can claim the same dependent using the qualifying relative rules.

Secondly, both sets of rules are designed to award the dependent to one and only taxpayer.

For example, under the qualifying child rules, the child must live with you for more than half the year. Under the qualifying relative rules, the taxpayer must provide more than half of the dependent’s total support. While a bit complicated, these rules are designed to eliminate confusion over who gets to claim the dependent.

Thirdly, the IRS will always audit tax returns where two or more taxpayers attempt to claim the same dependent. Only one taxpayer will win. The taxpayer who loses might also lose the related tax breaks such as child tax credit, earned income credit, or Head of Household filing status. What that means, is that the taxpayer who loses the IRS audit will have to pay additional taxes, plus penalties and interest. That makes dependent audits one of the most expensive audits that a taxpayer can endure.

To protect yourself, you should make sure that you are eligible to claim the dependents. Separated parents should also review the rules for sharing the tax benefits of a dependent. You should gather any documents that would support your claim. It would also be advisable to get a written agreement with an ex-spouse detailing who gets to claim the dependents and for which years.

These rules enable you claim a child as a dependent.

Qualifying Children:

To be claimed as a qualifying child, the person must meet four criteria:

Relationship — the person must be your child, step child, adopted child, foster child, brother or sister, or a descendant of one of these (for example, a grandchild or nephew).

Residence — for more than half the year, the person must have the same residence as you do.

Age — the person must be

under age 19 at the end of the year, or

under age 24 and a be a full-time student for at least five months out of the year, or

any age and totally and permanently disabled.

Support — the person did not provide more than half of his or her own support during the year.

Some Tips about Claiming Qualifying Children

The qualifying child must live with you for more than half the year. More than half a year means, at minimum, six months and one day. If you share custody, you may want to keep a log of where the child spends the night in your calendar or day planner.

The new rules state that the qualifying child must not provide more than half of his or her own support. This is different from the old rules. Under the old rules, the taxpayer had to provide over half the support for the child. The change makes it easier for families relying on public assistance, charity, and gifts from family members to claim a dependent.

You might still be able to claim the child as a qualifying relative if the child does not meet the criteria to be a qualifying child. But the qualifying child rules always prevail over the qualifying relative rules. So you’ll want to make sure the dependent would not qualify as a qualifying child for someone else before claiming a qualifying relative on your tax return.

Tie-Breaker Tests for Claiming a Qualifying Child

If two or more taxpayers claim a dependent as a qualifying child in the same year, the IRS will use the following tie-breaker tests to determine which taxpayer is eligible to claim the dependent. The tie-breaker tests are listed in order of priority.

The child will be the qualifying child of:

the parent,

the parent with whom the child lived for the longest time during the year,
if the time was equal, the parent with the highest adjusted gross income,

if no taxpayer is the child’s parent, the taxpayer with the highest adjusted gross income.Some Additional Tips for Tie-Breaker Situations

A child can be the dependent of at most one taxpayer. If you qualify to claim the child, then be ready to submit documentation to the IRS to support your claim.

Chances are the child will spend at least one day more with one parent than the other parent, since there are usually 365 days in a year. Consider keeping a log of where the child spends the night.

If the child spends exactly equal time with both parents, the parent with the higher income will be able to claim the dependent. Both parties can prevent an IRS audit by reviewing these tie-breaker rules in advance, and agreeing on who gets to claim the dependent.

The non-qualifying parent can claim the dependent ONLY IF the qualifying parent releases his or her claim to the dependency exemption. You accomplish this by using IRS Form 8332, Release of Claim to Exemption for Child of Divorced or Separated Parents (PDF document). You can indicate on this form for which year or years you agree to release the exemption. You can also revoke the release if you later change your mind.

(Continued from Page 2)

Taxpayers may claim a dependent for a person who meets the criteria for a qualifying relative. A dependent is a person who meets either the qualifying child or the qualifying relative definitions.

Six Criteria for Qualifying Relatives

To be claimed as a qualifying relative, the person must meet all of the following criteria:

Not a qualifying child – The dependent cannot be a qualifying child of another taxpayer.

Gross Income – The dependent earns less than the personal exemption amount during the year. For 2009 and 2010, this means the dependent earns less than $3,650.

Total Support – You provide more than half of the dependent’s total support during the year.

Relationship – You are related to the dependent in certain ways.

Joint Return – If the dependent is married, the dependent cannot file a joint return with his or her spouse.

Citizenship – The dependent must be a citizen or resident alien of the United States, Canada, or Mexico.

TIPS

These are the same five tests from the old rules for claiming a dependent.

These rules apply to any dependent who is not a qualifying child.

They apply to people such as cousins, parents, grandparents, and other people you support.

Qualifying Child Test

Generally, taxpayers will not be able to claim a dependent if that dependent qualifies to be the qualifying child of another taxpayer. So you will want to check the qualifying child rules to make sure no one else can claim the dependent.

The IRS has clarified this criteria. A taxpayer may claim a dependent as a qualifying relative. A dependent will not be considered a qualifying child of another taxpayer if that dependent’s “parent or (or other person with respect to whom the individual is defined as a qualifying child) is not required … to file an income tax return and (i) does not file an income tax return, or (ii) files an income tax return solely to obtain a refund of withheld income taxes.” Source: Notice 2008-5 (pdf). While this may make it easier for you to claim a qualifying relative, it will be more important than ever to be diligent in making sure that you can claim the dependent.

Gross Income Test
Generally speaking, a dependent is someone you support. So, logically, that person should not be making enough money to support himself or herself.The gross income test is tied to the personal exemption amount. For 2008, the personal exemption amount is $3,500. This amount increases to $3,650 in 2009.

You cannot claim a dependent who earns $3,500 or more (for 2008). Exceptions to this rule are children under age 19, or children under age 24 who are full-time students, by using the criteria for qualifying children. The children must be under age 19 or 24 at the end of the tax year. If the child has turned 19 during the year, then the child must be a full-time student for you to still claim him or her as a dependent. If the child has turned 24 during the year, then you can no longer claim the him or her as your dependent. If you support someone older than 19 (or 24) who has no income, or under $3,500 in income, then you may be able to claim this person as a qualifying relative if you meet the other four tests.

Total Support Test
You must provide over half of a person’s total support during the year.

Let’s say two people equally support a dependent and split all expenses exactly 50-50. Then neither person can claim the dependent as a qualifying relative, because no one provides over half of the dependent’s support.

There are two exceptions for the Total Support Test.
If multiple people support a single person, they may file a Multiple Support Agreement with the IRS to allow one person to claim the supported person as a dependent.

For example, let’s say three sons all equally support their mother. Since no one provides over half the mother’s support, they could file a Multiple Support Agreement, IRS Form 2120 (PDF document) to allow one of the sons to claim the mother as a dependent.

The second exception is for children of divorced parents.

Generally, the custodial parent is allowed to claim the child as a dependent under the qualifying child rules. Three situations will allow the dependent to be claimed by someone other than the custodial parent. (1) All parties supporting a child file a Multiple Support Agreement. A Multiple Support Agreement, IRS Form 2120 (PDF document) would have to filed with the IRS. (2) The custodial parent releases his or her right to claim the dependent to the noncustodial parent. The Release of Claim to Exemption (IRS Form 8332) (PDF document) would have to be filed and attached to the noncustodial parent’s tax return. (3) A divorce decree finalized before 1985 grants the non-custodial parent the right to claim the dependent if the non-custodial parent provides at least $600 of support during the year.

Relationship Test

The relationship test is critical to being able to claim a qualifying relative. Some types of relationships have no residency requirements.

For example, you can claim your parents as dependents under the qualifying relative rules as long as you meet the other criteria, and your parents don’t have to live with you. Other relatives have to live with you for an entire year before you can claim them as a dependent. Find a full list of

Relationship and their Residence Requirements on the next page.

Relationship Test for Qualifying Relatives

To meet the relationship test, the dependent must eitherbe related to the taxpayer is one of the following ways, orlive with the taxpayer for an entire year, and the relationship must not violate local laws.

Qualifying Relationships with no residency requirement

The dependent will meet the relationship test for being claimed as a qualifying relative if the dependent is related to the taxpayer in one of the following ways:

son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter, great grandson or great granddaughter, stepson or stepdaughter, or adopted child,brother or sister,half-brother or half-sister,step-brother or step-sister,mother or father, grandparent, great-grandparent,stepmother or stepfather, nephew or niece, aunt or uncle, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, father-in-law, or mother-in-law, orfoster child who was placed in your custody by court order or by an authorized government agency. TIPS

Qualifying relatives who are related in one of these ways need not live with the taxpayer. As long as you meet the other four tests (gross income, support, citizenship, joint return), you can claim these qualifying relatives as a dependent.

Relationships established by marriage do not end with death or divorce. So if you support your mother-in-law, you can claim her as a dependent even if you and your spouse are divorced.

WHAT’S NEW

The rules for claiming a foster child changed. Under the old rules, a foster child had to live with you for an entire year before being claimed as a dependent. Now, you can claim a foster child starting with the year that the foster child was placed in your custody.

Qualifying Relationships with a mandatory residency requirement

The dependent will meet the test to be claimed as a qualifying relative if:

The person is a member of your household, andThe person lives with you for an entire year, andThe relationship between you and the dependent does not violate local law.

For example, you may be able to claim cousins, friends, boyfriend or girlfriend, or domestic partner as a dependent under the qualifying relative tests. These qualifying relatives must live with you for an entire year, and must meet all the other criteria for qualifying relatives (gross income, support, citizenship, joint return).

The relationship, however, must not violate local law. For example, if your state prohibits co-habitation with a married person, then you cannot claim that person as your dependent even if you meet the other criteria for claiming a dependent.

TIPS

Domestic partners may be claimed as a dependent under the qualifying relative tests.Cousins may be claimed as a dependent under the qualifying relative tests.

Relationship Test

To meet this test, a child must be:

Your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, or a descendant (for example, your grandchild) of any of them, or

Your brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or a descendant (for example, your niece or nephew) of any of them.

Adopted child.

An adopted child is always treated as your own child. The term “adopted child” includes a child who was lawfully placed with you for legal adoption.

Foster child.

A foster child is an individual who is placed with you by an authorized placement agency or by judgment, decree, or other order of any court of competent jurisdiction.

Table 3-1. Overview of the Rules for Claiming an Exemption for a Dependent

Caution. This table is only an overview of the rules. For details, see the rest of this chapter.You cannot claim any dependents if you, or your spouse if filing jointly, could be claimed as a dependent by another taxpayer.

You cannot claim a married person who files a joint return as a dependent unless that joint return is only a claim for refund and there would be no tax liability for either spouse on separate returns.

You cannot claim a person as a dependent unless that person is a U.S. citizen, U.S. resident alien, U.S. national, or a resident of Canada or Mexico.1

You cannot claim a person as a dependent unless that person is your qualifying child or qualifying relative.

Tests To Be a Qualifying Child Tests To Be a Qualifying Relative
The child must be your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or a descendant of any of them.

The child must be (a) under age 19 at the end of the year and younger than you (or your spouse, if filing jointly), (b) under age 24 at the end of the year, a full-time student, and younger than you (or your spouse, if filing jointly), or (c) any age if permanently and totally disabled.

The child must have lived with you for more than half of the year.2

The child must not have provided more than half of his or her own support for the year.

The child is not filing a joint return for the year (unless that return is filed only as a claim for refund)
If the child meets the rules to be a qualifying child of more than one person, only one person can actually treat the child as a qualifying child.

See the Special Rule for Qualifying Child of More Than One Person to find out which person is the person entitled to claim the child as a qualifying child. The person cannot be your qualifying child or the qualifying child of any other taxpayer.

The person either (a) must be related to you in one of the ways listed under Relatives who do not have to live with you , or (b) must live with you all year as a member of your household2 (and your relationship must not violate local law).

The person’s gross income for the year must be less than $3,650.3

You must provide more than half of the person’s total support for the year.4

1 There is an exception for certain adopted children.

2 There are exceptions for temporary absences, children who were born or died during the year, children of divorced or separated parents or parents who live apart, and kidnapped children.

3There is an exception if the person is disabled and has income from a sheltered workshop.4There are exceptions for multiple support agreements, children of divorced or separated parents or parents who live apart, and kidnapped children.

Age Test
To meet this test, a child must be:

Under age 19 at the end of the year and younger than you (or your spouse, if filing jointly),

A full-time student under age 24 at the end of the year and younger than you (or your spouse, if filing jointly), or

Permanently and totally disabled at any time during the year, regardless of age.

Example.

Your son turned 19 on December 10. Unless he was permanently and totally disabled or a full-time student, he does not meet the age test because, at the end of the year, he was not under age 19.

Child must be younger than you or spouse.
To be your qualifying child, a child who is not permanently and totally disabled must be younger than you. However, if you are married filing jointly, the child must be younger than you or your spouse but does not have to be younger than both of you.

Example 1 – child not younger than you or spouse.

Your 23-year-old brother, who is a full-time student and unmarried, lives with you and your spouse. He is not disabled. Both you and your spouse are 21 years old, and you file a joint return. Your brother is not your qualifying child because he is not younger than you or your spouse.

Example 2 – child younger than your spouse but not younger than you.

The facts are the same as in Example 1 except that your spouse is 25 years old. Because your brother is younger than your spouse and you and your spouse are filing a joint return, your brother is your qualifying child, even though he is not younger than you.

Full-time student. A full-time student is a student who is enrolled for the number of hours or courses the school considers to be full-time attendance.

Student defined. To qualify as a student, your child must be, during some part of each of any 5 calendar months of the year:A full-time student at a school that has a regular teaching staff, course of study, and a regularly enrolled student body at the school, or

A student taking a full-time, on-farm training course given by a school described in (1), or by a state, county, or local government agency.

The 5 calendar months do not have to be consecutive.

School defined.
A school can be an elementary school, junior or senior high school, college, university, or technical, trade, or mechanical school. However, an on-the-job training course, correspondence school, or school offering courses only through the Internet does not count as a school.Vocational high school students. Students who work on “co-op” jobs in private industry as a part of a school’s regular course of classroom and practical training are considered full-time students.

Permanently and totally disabled.
Your child is permanently and totally disabled if both of the following apply.He or she cannot engage in any substantial gainful activity because of a physical or mental condition.

A doctor determines the condition has lasted or can be expected to last continuously for at least a year or can lead to death.

Residency Test

To meet this test, your child must have lived with you for more than half of the year. There are exceptions for temporary absences, children who were born or died during the year, kidnapped children, and children of divorced or separated parents.

Temporary absences-
Your child is considered to have lived with you during periods of time when one of you, or both, are temporarily absent due to special circumstances such as:

Illness,

Education,

Business,

Vacation, or

Military service.

Death or birth of child.

A child who was born or died during the year is treated as having lived with you all year if your home was the child’s home the entire time he or she was alive during the year. The same is true if the child lived with you all year except for any required hospital stay following birth.

Child born alive.
You may be able to claim an exemption for a child who was born alive during the year, even if the child lived only for a moment. State or local law must treat the child as having been born alive. There must be proof of a live birth shown by an official document, such as a birth certificate. The child must be your qualifying child or qualifying relative, and all the other tests to claim an exemption for a dependent must be met.

Stillborn child.

You cannot claim an exemption for a stillborn child.

Kidnapped child.

You can treat your child as meeting the residency test even if the child has been kidnapped, but both of the following statements must be true. The child is presumed by law enforcement authorities to have been kidnapped by someone who is not a member of your family or the child’s family.

In the year the kidnapping occurred, the child lived with you for more than half of the part of the year before the date of the kidnapping.
This treatment applies for all years until the child is returned. However, the last year this treatment can apply is the earlier of:The year there is a determination that the child is dead, or

The year the child would have reached age 18.

Children of divorced or separated parents or parents who live apart.
In most cases, because of the residency test, a child of divorced or separated parents is the qualifying child of the custodial parent. However, the child will be treated as the qualifying child of the noncustodial parent if all four of the following statements are true.

The parents:

Are divorced or legally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance,

Are separated under a written separation agreement, or

Lived apart at all times during the last 6 months of the year, whether or not they are or were married.

The child received over half of his or her support for the year from the parents.

The child is in the custody of one or both parents for more than half of the year.

Either of the following statements is true.

The custodial parent signs a written declaration, discussed later, that he or she will not claim the child as a dependent for the year, and the noncustodial parent attaches this written declaration to his or her return. (If the decree or agreement went into effect after 1984 and before 2009, see

Post-1984 and pre-2009 divorce decree or separation agreement , later. If the decree or agreement went into effect after 2008, see Post-2008 divorce decree or separation agreement , later.)

A pre-1985 decree of divorce or separate maintenance or written separation agreement that applies to 2010 states that the noncustodial parent can claim the child as a dependent, the decree or agreement was not changed after 1984 to say the noncustodial parent cannot claim the child as a dependent, and the noncustodial parent provides at least $600 for the child’s support during the year.

Custodial parent and noncustodial parent.
The custodial parent is the parent with whom the child lived for the greater number of nights during the year. The other parent is the noncustodial parent. If the parents divorced or separated during the year and the child lived with both parents before the separation, the custodial parent is the one with whom the child lived for the greater number of nights during the rest of the year.

A child is treated as living with a parent for a night if the child sleeps:

At that parent’s home, whether or not the parent is present, or

In the company of the parent, when the child does not sleep at a parent’s home (for example, the parent and child are on vacation together).

Equal number of nights.
If the child lived with each parent for an equal number of nights during the year, the custodial parent is the parent with the higher adjusted gross income.

December 31. The night of December 31 is treated as part of the year in which it begins. For example, December 31, 2010, is treated as part of 2010.

Emancipated child. If a child is emancipated under state law, the child is treated as not living with either parent. See Examples 5 and 6.

Absences.
If a child was not with either parent on a particular night (because, for example, the child was staying at a friend’s house), the child is treated as living with the parent with whom the child normally would have lived for that night, except for the absence. But if it cannot be determined with which parent the child normally would have lived or if the child would not have lived with either parent that night, the child is treated as not living with either parent that night.

Parent works at night.
If, due to a parent’s nighttime work schedule, a child lives for a greater number of days but not nights with the parent who works at night, that parent is treated as the custodial parent. On a school day, the child is treated as living at the primary residence registered with the school.

Example 1 – child lived with one parent greater number of nights.

You and your child’s other parent are divorced. In 2010, your child lived with you 210 nights and with the other parent 155 nights. You are the custodial parent.

Example 2 – child is away at camp.

In 2010, your daughter lives with each parent for alternate weeks. In the summer, she spends 6 weeks at summer camp. During the time she is at camp, she is treated as living with you for 3 weeks and with her other parent, your ex-spouse, for 3 weeks because this is how long she would have lived with each parent if she had not attended summer camp.

Example 3 – child lived same number of days with each parent.

Your son lived with you 180 nights during the year and lived the same number of nights with his other parent, your ex-spouse. Your adjusted gross income is $40,000. Your ex-spouse’s adjusted gross income is $25,000. You are treated as your son’s custodial parent because you have the higher adjusted gross income.

Example 4 – child is at parent’s home but with other parent.

Your son normally lives with you during the week and with his other parent, your ex-spouse, every other weekend. You become ill and are hospitalized. The other parent lives in your home with your son for 10 consecutive days while you are in the hospital. Your son is treated as living with you during this 10-day period because he was living in your home.

Example 5 – child emancipated in May.

When your son turned age 18 in May 2010, he became emancipated under the law of the state where he lives. As a result, he is not considered in the custody of his parents for more than half of the year. The special rule for children of divorced or separated parents does not apply.

Example 6 – child emancipated in August.

Your daughter lives with you from January 1, 2010, until May 31, 2010, and lives with her other parent, your ex-spouse, from June 1, 2010, through the end of the year. She turns 18 and is emancipated under state law on August 1, 2010. Because she is treated as not living with either parent beginning on August 1, she is treated as living with you the greater number of nights in 2010. You are the custodial parent.

Written declaration.
The custodial parent may use either Form 8332 or a similar statement (containing the same information required by the form) to make the written declaration to release the exemption to the noncustodial parent. The noncustodial parent must attach a copy of the form or statement to his or her tax return. The exemption can be released for 1 year, for a number of specified years (for example, alternate years), or for all future years, as specified in the declaration.

Post-1984 and pre-2009 divorce decree or separation agreement.
If the divorce decree or separation agreement went into effect after 1984 and before 2009, the noncustodial parent may be able to attach certain pages from the decree or agreement instead of Form 8332. The decree or agreement must state all three of the following.The noncustodial parent can claim the child as a dependent without regard to any condition, such as payment of support.

The custodial parent will not claim the child as a dependent for the year.

The years for which the noncustodial parent, rather than the custodial parent, can claim the child as a dependent.
The noncustodial parent must attach all of the following pages of the decree or agreement to his or her tax return.The cover page (write the other parent’s social security number on this page).

The pages that include all of the information identified in items (1) through (3) above.

The signature page with the other parent’s signature and the date of the agreement.

Post-2008 divorce decree or separation agreement.
The noncustodial parent can no longer attach pages from the decree or agreement instead of Form 8332 if the decree or agreement went into effect after 2008. The custodial parent must sign either Form 8332 or a similar statement whose only purpose is to release the custodial parent’s claim to an exemption for a child, and the noncustodial parent must attach a copy to his or her return. The form or statement must release the custodial parent’s claim to the child without any conditions.

For example, the release must not depend on the noncustodial parent paying support.
The noncustodial parent must attach the required information even if it was filed with a return in an earlier year.

Revocation of release of claim to an exemption.

The custodial parent can revoke a release of claim to exemption that he or she previously released to the noncustodial parent on Form 8332 or a similar statement. If the custodial parent provided, or made reasonable efforts to provide, the noncustodial parent with written notice of the revocation in 2009, the revocation can be effective no earlier than 2010. The custodial parent can use Part III of Form 8332 for this purpose and must attach a copy of the revocation to his or her return for each tax year he or she claims the child as a dependent as a result of the revocation.

Remarried parent.

If you remarry, the support provided by your new spouse is treated as provided by you.

Parents who never married.

This special rule for divorced or separated parents also applies to parents who never married and lived apart at all times during the last 6 months of the year.

Support Test (To Be a Qualifying Child)

To meet this test, the child cannot have provided more than half of his or her own support for the year.

This test is different from the support test to be a qualifying relative, which is described later. However, to see what is or is not support, see Support Test (To Be a Qualifying Relative) , later. If you are not sure whether a child provided more than half of his or her own support, you may find Worksheet 3-1 helpful.

Example.

You provided $4,000 toward your 16-year-old son’s support for the year. He has a part-time job and provided $6,000 to his own support. He provided more than half of his own support for the year. He is not your qualifying child.

Foster care payments and expenses.

Payments you receive for the support of a foster child from a child placement agency are considered support provided by the agency. Similarly, payments you receive for the support of a foster child from a state or county are considered support provided by the state or county. If you are not in the trade or business of providing foster care and your unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses in caring for a foster child were mainly to benefit an organization qualified to receive deductible charitable contributions, the expenses are deductible as charitable contributions but are not considered support you provided. For more information about the deduction for charitable contributions, see chapter 24. If your unreimbursed expenses are not deductible as charitable contributions, they are considered support you provided. If you are in the trade or business of providing foster care, your unreimbursed expenses are not considered support provided by you.

Example 1.

Lauren, a foster child, lived with Mr. and Mrs. Smith for the last 3 months of the year. The Smiths cared for Lauren because they wanted to adopt her (although she had not been placed with them for adoption). They did not care for her as a trade or business or to benefit the agency that placed her in their home. The Smiths’ unreimbursed expenses are not deductible as charitable contributions but are considered support they provided for Lauren.

Example 2.

You provided $3,000 toward your 10-year-old foster child’s support for the year. The state government provided $4,000, which is considered support provided by the state, not by the child. See Support provided by the state (welfare, food stamps, housing, etc.) , later. Your foster child did not provide more than half of her own support for the year.

Scholarships.

A scholarship received by a child who is a full-time student is not taken into account in determining whether the child provided more than half of his or her own support.Joint Return Test (To Be a Qualifying Child)

To meet this test, the child cannot file a joint return for the year.

Exception.
An exception to the joint return test applies if your child and his or her spouse file a joint return merely as a claim for refund.

Example 1.

You supported your 18-year-old daughter, and she lived with you all year while her husband was in the Armed Forces. The couple files a joint return. Because your daughter filed a joint return, she is not your qualifying child.

Example 2.

Your 18-year-old son and his 17-year-old wife had $800 of interest income and no earned income. Neither is required to file a tax return. Taxes were taken out of their interest income due to backup withholding so they filed a joint return only to get a refund of the withheld taxes. The exception to the joint return test applies, so your son may be your qualifying child if all the other tests are met.

Example 3.

The facts are the same as in Example 2 except your son had $2,000 of wages and no interest income or backup withholding. No taxes were taken out of his pay and he and his wife are not required to file a tax return, but they file a joint return to claim a making work pay credit of $124 and get a refund of that amount. They file the return to get the making work pay credit, so they are not filing it only as a claim for refund. The exception to the joint return test does not apply, so you cannot claim an exemption for either of them.

Special Rule for Qualifying Child of More Than One Person

If your qualifying child is not a qualifying child of anyone else, this special rule does not apply to you and you do not need to read about it. This is also true if your qualifying child is not a qualifying child of anyone else except your spouse with whom you file a joint return.

If a child is treated as the qualifying child of the noncustodial parent under the rules for children of divorced or separated parents or parents who live apart described earlier, see

Applying this special rule to divorced or separated parents or parents who live apart, later.

Sometimes, a child meets the relationship, age, residency, support, and joint return tests to be a qualifying child of more than one person. Although the child meets the conditions to be a qualifying child of each of these persons, only one person can actually treat the child as a qualifying child to take all of the following tax benefits (provided the person is eligible for each benefit).

The exemption for the child.

The child tax credit.

Head of household filing status.

The credit for child and dependent care expenses.

The exclusion from income for dependent care benefits.

The earned income credit.

The other person cannot take any of these benefits based on this qualifying child. In other words, you and the other person cannot agree to divide these tax benefits between you. The other person cannot take any of these tax benefits unless he or she has a different qualifying child.

Tiebreaker rules.

To determine which person can treat the child as a qualifying child to claim these six tax benefits, the following tie-breaker rules apply.If only one of the persons is the child’s parent, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parent.
If the parents do not file a joint return together but both parents claim the child as a qualifying child, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent with whom the child lived for the longer period of time during the year. If the child lived with each parent for the same amount of time, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent who had the higher adjusted gross income (AGI) for the year.

If no parent can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year.
If a parent can claim the child as a qualifying child but no parent does so claim the child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year, but only if that person’s AGI is higher than the highest AGI of any of the child’s parents who can claim the child. If the child’s parents file a joint return with each other, this rule can be applied by dividing the parents’ combined AGI equally between the parents. See Example 6 .

Subject to these tiebreaker rules, you and the other person may be able to choose which of you claims the child as a qualifying child.

Example 1—child lived with parent and grandparent.

You and your 3-year-old daughter Jane lived with your mother all year. You are 25 years old, unmarried, and your AGI is $9,000. Your mother’s AGI is $15,000. Jane’s father did not live with you or your daughter. The rule explained earlier for children of divorced or separated parents or parents who live apart does not apply. Jane is a qualifying child of both you and your mother because she meets the relationship, age, residency, support, and joint return tests for both you and your mother. However, only one of you can claim her. Jane is not a qualifying child of anyone else, including her father. You agree to let your mother claim Jane. This means your mother can claim Jane as a qualifying child for the dependency exemption, child tax credit, head of household filing status, credit for child and dependent care expenses, exclusion for dependent care benefits, and the earned income credit, if she qualifies for each of those tax benefits (and if you do not claim Jane as a qualifying child for any of those tax benefits).

Example 2—parent has higher AGI than grandparent.

The facts are the same as in Example 1 except your AGI is $18,000. Because your mother’s AGI is not higher than yours, she cannot claim Jane. Only you can claim Jane.

Example 3—two persons claim same child.

The facts are the same as in Example 1 except that you and your mother both claim Jane as a qualifying child. In this case, you as the child’s parent will be the only one allowed to claim Jane as a qualifying child. The IRS will disallow your mother’s claim to the six tax benefits listed earlier unless she has another qualifying child.

Example 4—qualifying children split between two persons.

The facts are the same as in Example 1 except you also have two other young children who are qualifying children of both you and your mother. Only one of you can claim each child. However, if your mother’s AGI is higher than yours, you can allow your mother to claim one or more of the children. For example, if you claim one child, your mother can claim the other two.

Example 5—taxpayer who is a qualifying child.

The facts are the same as in Example 1 except you are only 18 years old and did not provide more than half of your own support for the year. This means you are your mother’s qualifying child. If she can claim you as a dependent, then you cannot claim your daughter as a dependent because of the

Dependent Taxpayer Test explained earlier.

Example 6—child lived with both parents and grandparent.

The facts are the same as in Example 1 except that you and your daughter’s father are married to each other, live with your daughter and your mother, and have AGI of $20,000 on a joint return. If you and your husband do not claim your daughter as a qualifying child, your mother can claim her instead. Even though the AGI on your joint return, $20,000, is more than your mother’s AGI of $15,000, for this purpose each parent’s AGI can be treated as $10,000, so your mother’s $15,000 AGI is treated as higher than the highest AGI of any of the child’s parents who can claim the child.

Example 7—separated parents.

You, your husband, and your 10-year-old son lived together until August 1, 2010, when your husband moved out of the household. In August and September, your son lived with you. For the rest of the year, your son lived with your husband, the boy’s father. Your son is a qualifying child of both you and your husband because your son lived with each of you for more than half the year and because he met the relationship, age, support, and joint return tests for both of you. At the end of the year, you and your husband still were not divorced, legally separated, or separated under a written separation agreement, so the rule for children of divorced or separated parents or parents who live apart does not apply.
You and your husband will file separate returns. Your husband agrees to let you treat your son as a qualifying child. This means, if your husband does not claim your son as a qualifying child, you can claim your son as a qualifying child for the dependency exemption, child tax credit, and exclusion for dependent care benefits, if you qualify for each of those tax benefits. However, you cannot claim head of household filing status because you and your husband did not live apart for the last 6 months of the year. As a result, your filing status is married filing separately, so you cannot claim the earned income credit or the credit for child and dependent care expenses.

Example 8—separated parents claim same child.

The facts are the same as in Example 7 except that you and your husband both claim your son as a qualifying child. In this case, only your husband will be allowed to treat your son as a qualifying child. This is because, during 2010, the boy lived with him longer than with you. If you claimed an exemption, the child tax credit, or the exclusion for dependent care benefits for your son, the IRS will disallow your claim to all these tax benefits, unless you have another qualifying child. In addition, because you and your husband did not live apart for the last 6 months of the year, your husband cannot claim head of household filing status. As a result, his filing status is married filing separately, so he cannot claim the earned income credit or the credit for child and dependent care expenses.

Example 9—unmarried parents.

You, your 5-year-old son, and your son’s father lived together all year. You and your son’s father are not married. Your son is a qualifying child of both you and his father because he meets the relationship, age, residency, support, and joint return tests for both you and his father. Your AGI is $12,000 and your son’s father’s AGI is $14,000. Your son’s father agrees to let you claim the child as a qualifying child. This means you can claim him as a qualifying child for the dependency exemption, child tax credit, head of household filing status, credit for child and dependent care expenses, exclusion for dependent care benefits, and the earned income credit, if you qualify for each of those tax benefits (and if your son’s father does not, in fact, claim your son as a qualifying child for any of those tax benefits).

Example 10—unmarried parents claim same child.

The facts are the same as in Example 9 except that you and your son’s father both claim your son as a qualifying child. In this case, only your son’s father will be allowed to treat your son as a qualifying child. This is because his AGI, $14,000, is more than your AGI, $12,000. If you claimed an exemption, the child tax credit, head of household filing status, credit for child and dependent care expenses, exclusion for dependent care benefits, or the earned income credit for your son, the IRS will disallow your claim to all these tax benefits, unless you have another qualifying child.

Example 11—child did not live with a parent.

You and your 7-year-old niece, your sister’s child, lived with your mother all year. You are 25 years old, and your AGI is $9,300. Your mother’s AGI is $15,000. Your niece’s parents file jointly, have an AGI of less than $9,000, and do not live with you or their child. Your niece is a qualifying child of both you and your mother because she meets the relationship, age, residency, support, and joint return tests for both you and your mother. However, only your mother can treat her as a qualifying child. This is because your mother’s AGI, $15,000, is more than your AGI, $9,300.
Applying this special rule to divorced or separated parents or parents who live apart. If a child is treated as the qualifying child of the noncustodial parent under the rules described earlier for children of divorced or separated parents or parents who live apart, only the noncustodial parent can claim an exemption and the child tax credit for the child. However, the custodial parent, if eligible, or other eligible person can claim the child as a qualifying child for head of household filing status, the credit for child and dependent care expenses, the exclusion for dependent care benefits, and the earned income credit. If the child is the qualifying child of more than one person for these benefits, then the tiebreaker rules will determine which person can treat the child as a qualifying child.

Example 1.

You and your 5-year-old son lived all year with your mother, who paid the entire cost of keeping up the home. Your AGI is $10,000. Your mother’s AGI is $25,000. Your son’s father did not live with you or your son. Under the rules explained earlier for children of divorced or separated parents or parents who live apart, your son is treated as the qualifying child of his father, who can claim an exemption and the child tax credit for him. Because of this, you cannot claim an exemption or the child tax credit for your son. However, your son’s father cannot claim your son as a qualifying child for head of household filing status, the credit for child and dependent care expenses, the exclusion for dependent care benefits, or the earned income credit. You and your mother did not have any child care expenses or dependent care benefits, but the boy is a qualifying child of both you and your mother for head of household filing status and the earned income credit because he meets the relationship, age, residency, support, and joint return tests for both you and your mother. (Note: The support test does not apply for the earned income credit.) However, you agree to let your mother claim your son. This means she can claim him for head of household filing status and the earned income credit if she qualifies for each and if you do not claim him as a qualifying child for the earned income credit. (You cannot claim head of household filing status because your mother paid the entire cost of keeping up the home.)

Example 2.

The facts are the same as in Example 1 except that your AGI is $25,000 and your mother’s AGI is $21,000. Your mother cannot claim your son as a qualifying child for any purpose because her AGI is not higher than yours.

Example 3.

The facts are the same as in Example 1 except that you and your mother both claim your son as a qualifying child for the earned income credit. Your mother also claims him as a qualifying child for head of household filing status. You as the child’s parent will be the only one allowed to claim your son as a qualifying child for the earned income credit. The IRS will disallow your mother’s claim to the earned income credit and head of household filing status unless she has another qualifying child.

Qualifying Relative

There are four tests that must be met for a person to be your qualifying relative. The four tests are:

Not a qualifying child test,

Member of household or relationship test,

Gross income test, and

Support test.

Age.

Unlike a qualifying child, a qualifying relative can be any age. There is no age test for a qualifying relative.

Kidnapped child.
You can treat a child as your qualifying relative even if the child has been kidnapped, but both of the following statements must be true. The child is presumed by law enforcement authorities to have been kidnapped by someone who is not a member of your family or the child’s family.
In the year the kidnapping occurred, the child met the tests to be your qualifying relative for the part of the year before the date of the kidnapping.
This treatment applies for all years until the child is returned. However, the last year this treatment can apply is the earlier of:

The year there is a determination that the child is dead, or

The year the child would have reached age 18.

Not a Qualifying Child Test

A child is not your qualifying relative if the child is your qualifying child or the qualifying child of any other taxpayer.

Example 1.

Your 22-year-old daughter, who is a full-time student, lives with you and meets all the tests to be your qualifying child. She is not your qualifying relative.

Example 2.

Your 2-year-old son lives with your parents and meets all the tests to be their qualifying child. He is not your qualifying relative.

Example 3.

Your son lives with you but is not your qualifying child because he is 30 years old and does not meet the age test. He may be your qualifying relative if the gross income test and the support test are met.

Example 4.

Your 13-year-old grandson lived with his mother for 3 months, with his uncle for 4 months, and with you for 5 months during the year. He is not your qualifying child because he does not meet the residency test. He may be your qualifying relative if the gross income test and the support test are met.

Child of person not required to file a return.
A child is not the qualifying child of any other taxpayer and so may qualify as your qualifying relative if the child’s parent (or other person for whom the child is defined as a qualifying child) is not required to file an income tax return and either:

Does not file an income tax return, or

Files a return only to get a refund of income tax withheld or estimated tax paid.

Example 1—return not required.

You support an unrelated friend and her 3-year-old child, who lived with you all year in your home. Your friend has no gross income, is not required to file a 2010 tax return, and does not file a 2010 tax return. Both your friend and her child are your qualifying relatives if the member of household or relationship test, gross income test, and support test are met.

Example 2—return filed to claim refund.

The facts are the same as in Example 1 except your friend had wages of $1,500 during the year and had income tax withheld from her wages. She files a return only to get a refund of the income tax withheld and does not claim the earned income credit or any other tax credits or deductions. Both your friend and her child are your qualifying relatives if the member of household or relationship test, gross income test, and support test are met.

Example 3—earned income credit claimed.

The facts are the same as in Example 2 except your friend had wages of $8,000 during the year and claimed the earned income credit on her return. Your friend’s child is the qualifying child of another taxpayer (your friend), so you cannot claim your friend’s child as your qualifying relative.

Child in Canada or Mexico.
A child who lives in Canada or Mexico may be your qualifying relative, and you may be able to claim the child as a dependent. If the child does not live with you, the child does not meet the residency test to be your qualifying child. If the persons the child does live with are not U.S. citizens and have no U.S. gross income, those persons are not “taxpayers,” so the child is not the qualifying child of any other taxpayer. If the child is not your qualifying child or the qualifying child of any other taxpayer, the child is your qualifying relative if the gross income test and the support test are met. You cannot claim as a dependent a child who lives in a foreign country other than Canada or Mexico, unless the child is a U.S. citizen, U.S. resident alien, or U.S. national. There is an exception for certain adopted children who lived with you all year. See Citizen or Resident Test , earlier.

Example.

You provide all the support of your children, ages 6, 8, and 12, who live in Mexico with your mother and have no income. You are single and live in the United States. Your mother is not a U.S. citizen and has no U.S. income, so she is not a “taxpayer.” Your children are not your qualifying children because they do not meet the residency test. Also, they are not the qualifying children of any other taxpayer, so they are your qualifying relatives and you can claim them as dependents if all the tests are met. You may also be able to claim your mother as a dependent if all the tests are met, including the gross income test and the support test.

Member of Household or Relationship Test

To meet this test, a person must either:

Live with you all year as a member of your household, or

Be related to you in one of the ways listed under Relatives who do not have to live with you .

If at any time during the year the person was your spouse, that person cannot be your qualifying relative. However, see Personal Exemptions , earlier.

Relatives who do not have to live with you.
A person related to you in any of the following ways does not have to live with you all year as a member of your household to meet this test.

Your child, stepchild, foster child, or a descendant of any of them (for example, your grandchild). (A legally adopted child is considered your child.)

Your brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, or stepsister.

Your father, mother, grandparent, or other direct ancestor, but not foster parent.

Your stepfather or stepmother.

A son or daughter of your brother or sister.

A brother or sister of your father or mother.

Your son-in-law, daughter-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law.

Any of these relationships that were established by marriage are not ended by death or divorce.

Example.

You and your wife began supporting your wife’s father, a widower, in 2004. Your wife died in 2009. In spite of your wife’s death, your father-in-law continues to meet this test, even if he does not live with you. You can claim him as a dependent if all other tests are met, including the gross income test and support test.

Foster child.
A foster child is an individual who is placed with you by an authorized placement agency or by judgment, decree, or other order of any court of competent jurisdiction.

Joint return.
If you file a joint return, the person can be related to either you or your spouse. Also, the person does not need to be related to the spouse who provides support. For example, your spouse’s uncle who receives more than half of his support from you may be your qualifying relative, even though he does not live with you. However, if you and your spouse file separate returns, your spouse’s uncle can be your qualifying relative only if he lives with you all year as a member of your household.

Temporary absences.
A person is considered to live with you as a member of your household during periods of time when one of you, or both, are temporarily absent due to special circumstances such as:

Illness,

Education,

Business,

Vacation, or

Military service.

If the person is placed in a nursing home for an indefinite period of time to receive constant medical care, the absence may be considered temporary.

Death or birth.

A person who died during the year, but lived with you as a member of your household until death, will meet this test. The same is true for a child who was born during the year and lived with you as a member of your household for the rest of the year. The test is also met if a child lived with you as a member of your household except for any required hospital stay following birth. If your dependent died during the year and you otherwise qualified to claim an exemption for the dependent, you can still claim the exemption.

Example.

Your dependent mother died on January 15. She met the tests to be your qualifying relative. The other tests to claim an exemption for a dependent were also met. You can claim an exemption for her on your return.

Local law violated.

A person does not meet this test if at any time during the year the relationship between you and that person violates local law.

Example.
Your girlfriend lived with you as a member of your household all year. However, your relationship with her violated the laws of the state where you live, because she was married to someone else. Therefore, she does not meet this test and you cannot claim her as a dependent.

Adopted child.

An adopted child is always treated as your own child. The term “adopted child” includes a child who was lawfully placed with you for legal adoption.

Cousin.

Your cousin meets this test only if he or she lives with you all year as a member of your household. A cousin is a descendant of a brother or sister of your father or mother.

Gross Income Test

To meet this test, a person’s gross income for the year must be less than $3,650.

Gross income defined.
Gross income is all income in the form of money, property, and services that is not exempt from tax. In a manufacturing, merchandising, or mining business, gross income is the total net sales minus the cost of goods sold, plus any miscellaneous income from the business. Gross receipts from rental property are gross income. Do not deduct taxes, repairs, etc., to determine the gross income from rental property. Gross income includes a partner’s share of the gross (not a share of the net) partnership income.

Gross income also includes all taxable unemployment compensation and certain scholarship and fellowship grants. Scholarships received by degree candidates that are used for tuition, fees, supplies, books, and equipment required for particular courses may not be included in gross income. For more information about scholarships, see chapter 12. Tax-exempt income, such as certain social security benefits, is not included in gross income.

Disabled dependent working at sheltered workshop.

For purposes of this test (the gross income test), the gross income of an individual who is permanently and totally disabled at any time during the year does not include income for services the individual performs at a sheltered workshop. The availability of medical care at the workshop must be the main reason for the individual’s presence there. Also, the income must come solely from activities at the workshop that are incident to this medical care.
A “sheltered workshop” is a school that:
Provides special instruction or training designed to alleviate the disability of the individual, and

Is operated by certain tax-exempt organizations, or by a state, a U.S. possession, a political subdivision of a state or possession, the United States, or the District of Columbia.

“Permanently and totally disabled” has the same meaning here as under Qualifying Child , earlier.

Support Test (To Be a Qualifying Relative)

To meet this test, you generally must provide more than half of a person’s total support during the calendar year.

However, if two or more persons provide support, but no one person provides more than half of a person’s total support, see Multiple Support Agreement , later.

How to determine if support test is met.

You figure whether you have provided more than half of a person’s total support by comparing the amount you contributed to that person’s support with the entire amount of support that person received from all sources. This includes support the person provided from his or her own funds. You may find Worksheet 3-1 helpful in figuring whether you provided more than half of a person’s support.

Person’s own funds not used for support. A person’s own funds are not support unless they are actually spent for support.

Example:

Your mother received $2,400 in social security benefits and $300 in interest. She paid $2,000 for lodging and $400 for recreation. She put $300 in a savings account.

Even though your mother received a total of $2,700 ($2,400 + $300), she spent only $2,400 ($2,000 + $400) for her own support. If you spent more than $2,400 for her support and no other support was received, you have provided more than half of her support.

Child’s wages used for own support.
You cannot include in your contribution to your child’s support any support that is paid for by the child with the child’s own wages, even if you paid the wages.

Year support is provided.
The year you provide the support is the year you pay for it, even if you do so with borrowed money that you repay in a later year. If you use a fiscal year to report your income, you must provide more than half of the dependent’s support for the calendar year in which your fiscal year begins.

Armed Forces dependency allotments.

The part of the allotment contributed by the government and the part taken out of your military pay are both considered provided by you in figuring whether you provide more than half of the support. If your allotment is used to support persons other than those you name, you can take the exemptions for them if they otherwise qualify.

Example.

You are in the Armed Forces.

You authorize an allotment for your widowed mother that she uses to support herself and her sister. If the allotment provides more than half of each person’s support, you can take an exemption for each of them, if they otherwise qualify, even though you authorize the allotment only for your mother.

Tax-exempt military quarters allowances.
These allowances are treated the same way as dependency allotments in figuring support. The allotment of pay and the tax-exempt basic allowance for quarters are both considered as provided by you for support.Tax-exempt income. In figuring a person’s total support, include tax-exempt income, savings, and borrowed amounts used to support that person. Tax-exempt income includes certain social security benefits, welfare benefits, nontaxable life insurance proceeds, Armed Forces family allotments, nontaxable pensions, and tax-exempt interest.

Example 1.

You provide $4,000 toward your mother’s support during the year. She has earned income of $600, nontaxable social security benefits of $4,800, and tax-exempt interest of $200. She uses all these for her support. You cannot claim an exemption for your mother because the $4,000 you provide is not more than half of her total support of $9,600.

Example 2.

Your brother’s daughter takes out a student loan of $2,500 and uses it to pay her college tuition. She is personally responsible for the loan. You provide $2,000 toward her total support. You cannot claim an exemption for her because you provide less than half of her support.

Social security benefits.
If a husband and wife each receive benefits that are paid by one check made out to both of them, half of the total paid is considered to be for the support of each spouse, unless they can show otherwise.
If a child receives social security benefits and uses them toward his or her own support, the benefits are considered as provided by the child.Support provided by the state (welfare, food stamps, housing, etc.). Benefits provided by the state to a needy person generally are considered support provided by the state. However, payments based on the needs of the recipient will not be considered as used entirely for that person’s support if it is shown that part of the payments were not used for that purpose.

Home for the aged.
If you make a lump-sum advance payment to a home for the aged to take care of your relative for life and the payment is based on that person’s life expectancy, the amount of support you provide each year is the lump-sum payment divided by the relative’s life expectancy. The amount of support you provide also includes any other amounts you provided during the year.

Total Support

To figure if you provided more than half of a person’s support, you must first determine the total support provided for that person. Total support includes amounts spent to provide food, lodging, clothing, education, medical and dental care, recreation, transportation, and similar necessities.

Generally, the amount of an item of support is the amount of the expense incurred in providing that item. For lodging, the amount of support is the fair rental value of the lodging.

Expenses that are not directly related to any one member of a household, such as the cost of food for the household, must be divided among the members of the household.

Example 1.

Grace Brown, mother of Mary Miller, lives with Frank and Mary Miller and their two children. Grace gets social security benefits of $2,400, which she spends for clothing, transportation, and recreation. Grace has no other income. Frank and Mary’s total food expense for the household is $5,200. They pay Grace’s medical and drug expenses of $1,200. The fair rental value of the lodging provided for Grace is $1,800 a year, based on the cost of similar rooming facilities.

Figure Grace’s total support as follows:

Fair rental value of lodging $ 1,800

Clothing, transportation, and recreation 2,400

Medical expenses 1,200

Share of food (1/5 of $5,200) 1,040

Total support $6,440

The support Frank and Mary provide ($1,800 lodging + $1,200 medical expenses + $1,040 food = $4,040) is more than half of Grace’s $6,440 total support.

Example 2.

Your parents live with you, your spouse, and your two children in a house you own. The fair rental value of your parents’ share of the lodging is $2,000 a year ($1,000 each), which includes furnishings and utilities. Your father receives a nontaxable pension of $4,200, which he spends equally between your mother and himself for items of support such as clothing, transportation, and recreation. Your total food expense for the household is $6,000. Your heat and utility bills amount to $1,200. Your mother has hospital and medical expenses of $600, which you pay during the year.

Figure your parents’ total support as follows:
Support provided Father Mother

Fair rental value of lodging $1,000 $1,000

Pension spent for their support 2,100 2,100

Share of food (1/6 of $6,000) 1,000 1,000

Medical expenses for mother 600

Parents’ total support $4,100 $4,700

You must apply the support test separately to each parent. You provide $2,000 ($1,000 lodging, $1,000 food) of your father’s total support of $4,100 – less than half. You provide $2,600 to your mother ($1,000 lodging, $1,000 food, $600 medical) – more than half of her total support of $4,700. You meet the support test for your mother, but not your father. Heat and utility costs are included in the fair rental value of the lodging, so these are not considered separately.

Lodging.
If you provide a person with lodging, you are considered to provide support equal to the fair rental value of the room, apartment, house, or other shelter in which the person lives. Fair rental value includes a reasonable allowance for the use of furniture and appliances, and for heat and other utilities that are provided.

Fair rental value defined.

This is the amount you could reasonably expect to receive from a stranger for the same kind of lodging. It is used instead of actual expenses such as taxes, interest, depreciation, paint, insurance, utilities, cost of furniture and appliances, etc. In some cases, fair rental value may be equal to the rent paid. If you provide the total lodging, the amount of support you provide is the fair rental value of the room the person uses, or a share of the fair rental value of the entire dwelling if the person has use of your entire home. If you do not provide the total lodging, the total fair rental value must be divided depending on how much of the total lodging you provide. If you provide only a part and the person supplies the rest, the fair rental value must be divided between both of you according to the amount each provides.Example.

Your parents live rent free in a house you own. It has a fair rental value of $5,400 a year furnished, which includes a fair rental value of $3,600 for the house and $1,800 for the furniture. This does not include heat and utilities. The house is completely furnished with furniture belonging to your parents. You pay $600 for their utility bills. Utilities are not usually included in rent for houses in the area where your parents live. Therefore, you consider the total fair rental value of the lodging to be $6,000 ($3,600 fair rental value of the unfurnished house, $1,800 allowance for the furnishings provided by your parents, and $600 cost of utilities) of which you are considered to provide $4,200 ($3,600 + $600).

Person living in his or her own home.
The total fair rental value of a person’s home that he or she owns is considered support contributed by that person.Living with someone rent free. If you live with a person rent free in his or her home, you must reduce the amount you provide for support of that person by the fair rental value of lodging he or she provides you.

Property.
Property provided as support is measured by its fair market value. Fair market value is the price that property would sell for on the open market. It is the price that would be agreed upon between a willing buyer and a willing seller, with neither being required to act, and both having reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts.

Capital expenses.
Capital items, such as furniture, appliances, and cars, that are bought for a person during the year can be included in total support under certain circumstances. The following examples show when a capital item is or is not support.

Example 1.

You buy a $200 power lawn mower for your 13-year-old child. The child is given the duty of keeping the lawn trimmed. Because the lawn mower benefits all members of the household, you cannot include the cost of the lawn mower in the support of your child.

Example 2.

You buy a $150 television set as a birthday present for your 12-year-old child. The television set is placed in your child’s bedroom. You can include the cost of the television set in the support of your child.

Example 3.

You pay $5,000 for a car and register it in your name. You and your 17-year-old daughter use the car equally. Because you own the car and do not give it to your daughter but merely let her use it, you cannot include the cost of the car in your daughter’s total support. However, you can include in your daughter’s support your out-of-pocket expenses of operating the car for her benefit.

Example 4.

Your 17-year-old son, using personal funds, buys a car for $4,500. You provide all the rest of your son’s support – $4,000. Since the car is bought and owned by your son, the car’s fair market value ($4,500) must be included in his support. Your son has provided more than half of his own total support of $8,500 ($4,500 + $4,000), so he is not your qualifying child. You did not provide more than half of his total support, so he is not your qualifying relative. You cannot claim an exemption for your son.

Medical insurance premiums-

Medical insurance premiums you pay, including premiums for supplementary Medicare coverage, are included in the support you provide.Medical insurance benefits. Medical insurance benefits, including basic and supplementary Medicare benefits, are not part of support.

Tuition payments and allowances under the GI Bill-
Amounts veterans receive under the GI Bill for tuition payments and allowances while they attend school are included in total support.

Example.

During the year, your son receives $2,200 from the government under the GI Bill. He uses this amount for his education. You provide the rest of his support – $2,000. Because GI benefits are included in total support, your son’s total support is $4,200 ($2,200 + $2,000). You have not provided more than half of his support.

Child care expenses.
If you pay someone to provide child or dependent care, you can include these payments in the amount you provided for the support of your child or disabled dependent, even if you claim a credit for the payments. For information on the credit, see chapter 32.Other support items. Other items may be considered as support depending on the facts in each case. Do Not Include in Total Support

The following items are not included in total support.

Federal, state, and local income taxes paid by persons from their own income.

Social security and Medicare taxes paid by persons from their own income.

Life insurance premiums.

Funeral expenses.

Scholarships received by your child if your child is a full-time student.

Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance payments used for the support of the child who receives them.

Multiple Support Agreement

Sometimes no one provides more than half of the support of a person. Instead, two or more persons, each of whom would be able to take the exemption but for the support test, together provide more than half of the person’s support.

When this happens, you can agree that any one of you who individually provides more than 10% of the person’s support, but only one, can claim an exemption for that person as a qualifying relative. Each of the others must sign a statement agreeing not to claim the exemption for that year. The person who claims the exemption must keep these signed statements for his or her records. A multiple support declaration identifying each of the others who agreed not to claim the exemption must be attached to the return of the person claiming the exemption.

Form 2120, Multiple Support Declaration, can be used for this purpose.

You can claim an exemption under a multiple support agreement for someone related to you or for someone who lived with you all year as a member of your household.

Worksheet 3-1. Worksheet for Determining Support

Funds Belonging to the Person You Supported

1. Enter the total funds belonging to the person you supported, including income received (taxable and nontaxable) and amounts borrowed during the year, plus the amount in savings and other accounts at the beginning of the year. Do not include funds provided by the state; include those amounts on line 23 instead 1.

2. Enter the amount on line 1 that was used for the person’s support 2.

3. Enter the amount on line 1 that was used for other purposes 3.

4. Enter the total amount in the person’s savings and other accounts at the end of the year 4.

5. Add lines 2 through 4. (This amount should equal line 1.) 5. Expenses for Entire Household (where the person you supported lived)

6. Lodging (complete line 6a or 6b): 6a. Enter the total rent paid 6a. 6b. Enter the fair rental value of the home. If the person you supported owned the home, also include this amount in line 21. 6b.

7. Enter the total food expenses 7. 8. Enter the total amount of utilities (heat, light, water, etc. not included in line 6a or 6b) 8. 9. Enter the total amount of repairs (not included in line 6a or 6b) 9. 10. Enter the total of other expenses. Do not include expenses of maintaining the home, such as mortgage interest, real estate taxes, and insurance. 10. 11. Add lines 6a through 10. These are the total household expenses 11. 12. Enter total number of persons who lived in the household 12. Expenses for the Person You Supported 13. Divide line 11 by line 12. This is the person’s share of the household expenses 13. 14. Enter the person’s total clothing expenses 14. 15. Enter the person’s total education expenses 15. 16. Enter the person’s total medical and dental expenses not paid for or reimbursed by insurance 16. 17. Enter the person’s total travel and recreation expenses 17. 18. Enter the total of the person’s other expenses 18. 19. Add lines 13 through 18. This is the total cost of the person’s support for the year 19.

Did the Person Provide More Than Half of His or Her Own Support?

20. Multiply line 19 by 50% (.50) 20. 21.

Enter the amount from line 2, plus the amount from line 6b if the person you supported owned the home. This is the amount the person provided for his or her own support 21. 22. Is line 21 more than line 20?

No. You meet the support test for this person to be your qualifying child. If this person also meets the other tests to be a qualifying child, stop here; do not complete lines 23–26. Otherwise, go to line 23 and fill out the rest of the worksheet to determine if this person is your qualifying relative.

Yes. You do not meet the support test for this person to be either your qualifying child or your qualifying relative.

Stop here.

Did You Provide More Than Half?

23. Enter the amount others provided for the person’s support. Include amounts provided by state, local, and other welfare societies or agencies. Do not include any amounts included on line 1. 23. 24. Add lines 21 and 23 24. 25. Subtract line 24 from line 19. This is the amount you provided for the person’s support 25. 26. Is line 25 more than line 20? Yes. You meet the support test for this person to be your qualifying relative. No. You do not meet the support test for this person to be your qualifying relative. You cannot claim an exemption for this person unless you can do so under a multiple support agreement, the support test for children of divorced or separated parents, or the special rule for kidnapped children.

See Multiple Support Agreement , Support Test for Children of Divorced or Separated Parents or Parents Who Live Apart , or Kidnapped Child under

Qualifying
Relative.

Example 1.

You, your sister, and your two brothers provide the entire support of your mother for the year. You provide 45%, your sister 35%, and your two brothers each provide 10%. Either you or your sister can claim an exemption for your mother. The other must sign a statement agreeing not to take an exemption for your mother. The one who claims the exemption must attach Form 2120, or a similar declaration, to his or her return and must keep the statement signed by the other for his or her records. Because neither brother provides more than 10% of the support, neither can take the exemption and neither has to sign a statement.

Example 2.

You and your brother each provide 20% of your mother’s support for the year. The remaining 60% of her support is provided equally by two persons who are not related to her. She does not live with them. Because more than half of her support is provided by persons who cannot claim an exemption for her, no one can take the exemption.

Example 3.

Your father lives with you and receives 25% of his support from social security, 40% from you, 24% from his brother (your uncle), and 11% from a friend. Either you or your uncle can take the exemption for your father if the other signs a statement agreeing not to. The one who takes the exemption must attach Form 2120, or a similar declaration, to his return and must keep for his records the signed statement from the one agreeing not to take the exemption.

Support Test for Children of Divorced or Separated Parents or Parents Who Live Apart

In most cases, a child of divorced or separated parents will be a qualifying child of one of the parents. See Children of divorced or separated parents or parents who live apart under Qualifying Child, earlier.

However, if the child does not meet the requirements to be a qualifying child of either parent, the child may be a qualifying relative of one of the parents. In that case, the following rules must be used in applying the support test.

A child will be treated as being the qualifying relative of his or her noncustodial parent if all four of the following statements are true.

The parents:

Are divorced or legally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance,

Are separated under a written separation agreement, or

Lived apart at all times during the last 6 months of the year, whether or not they are or were married.

The child received over half of his or her support for the year from the parents (and the rules on multiple support agreements, explained earlier, do not apply).

The child is in the custody of one or both parents for more than half of the year.

Either of the following statements is true.

The custodial parent signs a written declaration, discussed later, that he or she will not claim the child as a dependent for the year, and the noncustodial parent attaches this written declaration to his or her return. (If the decree or agreement went into effect after 1984 and before 2009, see

Post-1984 and pre-2009 divorce decree or separation agreement , later. If the decree or agreement went into effect after 2008, see Post-2008 divorce decree or separation agreement , later.)

A pre-1985 decree of divorce or separate maintenance or written separation agreement that applies to 2010 states that the noncustodial parent can claim the child as a dependent, the decree or agreement was not changed after 1984 to say the noncustodial parent cannot claim the child as a dependent, and the noncustodial parent provides at least $600 for the child’s support during the year.

Custodial parent and noncustodial parent.
The custodial parent is the parent with whom the child lived for the greater number of nights during the year. The other parent is the noncustodial parent. If the parents divorced or separated during the year and the child lived with both parents before the separation, the custodial parent is the one with whom the child lived for the greater number of nights during the rest of the year. A child is treated as living with a parent for a night if the child sleeps:

At that parent’s home, whether or not the parent is present, or

In the company of the parent, when the child does not sleep at a parent’s home (for example, the parent and child are on vacation together).
Equal number of nights. If the child lived with each parent for an equal number of nights during the year, the custodial parent is the parent with the higher adjusted gross income.

December 31.

The night of December 31 is treated as part of the year in which it begins. For example, December 31, 2010, is treated as part of 2010.Emancipated child. If a child is emancipated under state law, the child is treated as not living with either parent.Absences. If a child was not with either parent on a particular night (because, for example, the child was staying at a friend’s house), the child is treated as living with the parent with whom the child normally would have lived for that night, except for the absence. But if it cannot be determined with which parent the child normally would have lived or if the child would not have lived with either parent that night, the child is treated as not living with either parent that night.Parent works at night. If, due to a parent’s nighttime work schedule, a child lives for a greater number of days but not nights with the parent who works at night, that parent is treated as the custodial parent. On a school day, the child is treated as living at the primary residence registered with the school.Written declaration. The custodial parent may use either Form 8332 or a similar statement (containing the same information required by the form) to make the written declaration to release the exemption to the noncustodial parent. The noncustodial parent must attach a copy of the form or statement to his or her tax return. The exemption can be released for 1 year, for a number of specified years (for example, alternate years), or for all future years, as specified in the declaration.Post-1984 and pre-2009 divorce decree or separation agreement. If the divorce decree or separation agreement went into effect after 1984 and before 2009, the noncustodial parent may be able to attach certain pages from the decree or agreement instead of Form 8332. The decree or agreement must state all three of the following.The noncustodial parent can claim the child as a dependent without regard to any condition, such as payment of support.

The custodial parent will not claim the child as a dependent for the year.

The years for which the noncustodial parent, rather than the custodial parent, can claim the child as a dependent.
The noncustodial parent must attach all of the following pages of the decree or agreement to his or her tax return.The cover page (write the other parent’s social security number on this page).

The pages that include all of the information identified in items (1) through (3) above.

The signature page with the other parent’s signature and the date of the agreement.

Post-2008 divorce decree or separation agreement.
The noncustodial parent can no longer attach pages from the decree or agreement instead of Form 8332 if the decree or agreement went into effect after 2008. The custodial parent must sign either Form 8332 or a similar statement whose only purpose is to release the custodial parent’s claim to an exemption for a child, and the noncustodial parent must attach a copy to his or her return. The form or statement must release the custodial parent’s claim to the child without any conditions. For example, the release must not depend on the noncustodial parent paying support.

The noncustodial parent must attach the required information even if it was filed with a return in an earlier year.Revocation of release of claim to an exemption. The custodial parent can revoke a release of claim to an exemption that he or she previously released to the noncustodial parent on Form 8332 or a similar statement. If the custodial parent provided, or made reasonable efforts to provide, the noncustodial parent with written notice of the revocation in 2009, the revocation can be effective no earlier than 2010. The custodial parent can use Part III of Form 8332 for this purpose and must attach a copy of the revocation to his or her return for each tax year he or she claims the child as a dependent as a result of the revocation.Remarried parent. If you remarry, the support provided by your new spouse is treated as provided by you.Child support under pre-1985 agreement. All child support payments actually received from the noncustodial parent under a pre-1985 agreement are considered used for the support of the child.

Example.

Under a pre-1985 agreement, the noncustodial parent provides $1,200 for the child’s support. This amount is considered support provided by the noncustodial parent even if the $1,200 was actually spent on things other than support.

Alimony.

Payments to a spouse that are includible in the spouse’s gross income as either alimony, separate maintenance payments, or similar payments from an estate or trust, are not treated as a payment for the support of a dependent.Parents who never married. This special rule for divorced or separated parents also applies to parents who never married and lived apart at all times during the last 6 months of the year.

Multiple support agreement-
If the support of the child is determined under a multiple support agreement, this special support test for divorced or separated parents or parents who live apart does not apply.Social Security Numbers for Dependents

You must show the social security number (SSN) of any dependent for whom you claim an exemption in column (2) of line 6c of your Form 1040 or Form 1040A.

If you do not show the dependent’s SSN when required or if you show an incorrect SSN, the exemption may be disallowed.No SSN. If a person for whom you expect to claim an exemption on your return does not have an SSN, either you or that person should apply for an SSN as soon as possible by filing Form SS-5, Application for a Social Security Card, with the Social Security Administration (SSA). You can get Form SS-5 online at www.socialsecurity.gov or at your local SSA office. It usually takes about 2 weeks to get an SSN. If you do not have a required SSN by the filing due date, you can file Form 4868 for an extension of time to file.Born and died in 2010. If your child was born and died in 2010, and you do not have an SSN for the child, you may attach a copy of the child’s birth certificate, death certificate, or hospital records instead. The document must show the child was born alive. If you do this, enter “DIED” in column (2) of line 6c of your Form 1040 or Form 1040A.

Alien or adoptee with no SSN.

If your dependent does not have and cannot get an SSN, you must list the individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) or adoption taxpayer identification number (ATIN) instead of an SSN.Taxpayer identification numbers for aliens. If your dependent is a resident or nonresident alien who does not have and is not eligible to get an SSN, your dependent must apply for an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN). Write the number in column (2) of line 6c of your Form 1040 or Form 1040A. To apply for an ITIN, use Form W-7, Application for IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number.

Taxpayer identification numbers for adoptees.

If you have a child who was placed with you by an authorized placement agency, you may be able to claim an exemption for the child. However, if you cannot get an SSN or an ITIN for the child, you must get an adoption taxpayer identification number (ATIN) for the child from the IRS. See Form W-7A, Application for Taxpayer Identification Number for Pending U.S. Adoptions, for details.

I loved dancing for as long as I can remember.. Though I didn’t grow up with a privaleged life I’ve seemed to always have an intensely passionate one. Everything I do.. I do it with my whole heart, which seems to come with the territory of choosing  jobs that match your passions. Sex. Yes I’m going to say it though many think it taboo. I am a sex worker  to some other names to describe my line of work could be sexual practitioner, whore, ho, slut, hooker, prostitute, stripper, madame, pimp, home-wrecker, exotic entertainer, feature performer, pole worker, acrobat, entertainer, independent contractor, escort, hostess, stage dancer, stage performer  or  performing artist; it’s highly subjective and depending on who would be describing me, us, them, or themselves.

Personally, I like to think of myself as a Sexual Healer. A SEXUAL HEALER?!? WTF? WHO DOES THIS BROAD THINK SHE IS? MOTHER THERESE? Well, maybe. Laugh… go ahead get it out while you’re still cynical. There are people that do like me though… love me perhaps, and revere me at best. The truth of the matter is, no matter what your occupation… it is all about the intention you are putting in your work.

While there are “bad seeds” everywhere in life, there are also good ones. I consider myself to be a superb one. I love my clients… and why wouldn’t I? They put organic vegetarian food in my mouth, used clothes on my back, a nice rented apartment (less than a mile from my work) over my head, they pay me adaequtely enough to buy clothing for multiple (11) children, make donations to salmon restoration and other varying charities, start a retailing/consignment business, pay my car insurance, and still they afford me the privelage of going to the chiropractor to fix my f*cked-up-pole-back ( a job disabilty resulting from nearly a decade of acrobatics). Yes, all this and I only get  to go to work and play with my sweeties part-time

I used to not be quite so appreciative though.. I used to not make shit for $$$ either. I know you all are probably wondering… How much $$$ does this insane ho make… Well first of all, I’m not insane (I’m just not that easy to explain) and second of all I don’t make 6 figures yet (and never have before in this incarnation, don’t believe my folks have either).

Money can’t buy you Love

I get paid for my time and my expertise. My esthetic appearance, my aura, my charisma, and the fact that I am an authentic human; all of these attributes and more come into play. When men (or women) tell me I am beautiful.. I digest their comment, I appreciate it, I look them in the eyes… deep into their soul and I remind them and myself that, “Beauty comes from the inside, the way we look is just a reflection of what the inside of us looks like.”  I do have a very healthy sense of self worth, because I don’t measure the essence of my being upon the amount of verbal praise I receive. I can feel when people love, adore, or respect me… those expressions of genuine caring do sink in, and I have enough gratitude, and I have experienced enough loss of the ego to truly connect with their souls as well. I love and respect them too, that is something that you can not ever buy, or own; love is intuitive and it does seem that my caring, compassion, empathy, understanding, nurturing, sexual energy and friendship can be rented… but these are all things that I have taken the time out of my life to develop… I am worth something. They say everyone has a price, I merely measure mine in the amount of time I spend… my rates are based upon thee amount of energy I put in.

People need people

I need people. I come from a large family, and though I don’t like to blame that solely for my loneliness I find myself going back to that mind set over and over. “If only I hadn’t grown up in such a large family maybe (as an adult) I would be more able to cope with my “down-time” (which somehow I’ve made the connection of it also meaning my “alone-time”. Honestly, I don’t mind being alone so much now as am I evolving spiritually  at the speed-of-light instead I have come to the conclusion (via process-of-elimination) that I actually just really do prefer to spend my time in the company of other sweet loving people? Don’t you Scrooge?

Sexual Healing

Here I am incorporating a  list to give others an idea of which practices I pick and choose bits from and apply them to my line of work. I wanted to give you all another perspective i.e. my personal perspective and applied science regarding the true nature of my business. I really do love my work… there is so much more to this occupation than meets thee eye. Explore your sexuality. I do and I love every minute of it.

Please enjoy…

Tantra~

(Sanskrit: तन्त्र; ” weave ” denoting continuity), (anglicised tantricism or tantrism) or tantram (Sanskrit: तन्त्र) is a religious philosophy according to which Shakti is usually the main deity worshipped, and the universe is regarded as the divine play of Shakti and Shiva The word Tantra also applies to any of the scriptures (called “Tantras”) commonly identified with the worship of Shakti. Tantra deals primarily with spiritual practices and ritual forms of worship, which aim at liberation from ignorance and rebirth. Tantrism has influenced the Hindu, Bön, Buddhist, and Jain religious traditions. Tantra in its various forms has existed in India, Nepal, China, Japan, Tibet, Korea, Cambodia, Burma, Indonesia and Mongolia.

There are a number of different definitions of tantra from various viewpoints, not all of them necessarily consistent. Robert Brown notes that the term tantrism is a construction of Western scholarship and that:

It is not a concept that comes from within the religious system itself, although it is generally recognized internally as different from the Vedic tradition. This immediately makes it suspect as an independent category.

Rather than a single coherent system, Tantra is an accumulation of practices and ideas which is characterized by the use of ritual, by the use of the mundane to access the supra-mundane, and by the identification of the microcosm with the macrocosm. The Tantric practitioner seeks to use the prana (divine power) that flows through the universe (including one’s own body) to attain purposeful goals. These goals may be spiritual, material or both. Most practitioners of tantra consider mystical experience imperative. Some versions of Tantra require the guidance of a guru.

In the process of working with energy, the Tantrika, or tantric practitioner, has various tools at hand. These include yoga, to actuate processes that will “yoke” the practitioner to the divine. Also important are visualizations of deity, and verbalisation or evocation through mantras, which may be construed as seeing, listening internally, and singing power into a stronger state within the individual, resulting in an ever-increasing awareness of cosmic vibration through daily practice. Identification with and internalisation of the divine is enacted, through a total identification with deity, such that the aspirant “becomes” the Ishta-deva or meditational deity.^[9]

Tantrism is a quest for spiritual perfection and magical power. Its purpose is to achieve complete control of oneself, and of all the forces of nature, in order to attain union with the cosmos and with the divine. Long training is generally required to master Tantric methods, into which pupils are typically initiated by a guru. Yoga, including breathing techniques and postures (asana), is employed to subject the body to the control of the will. Mudras, or gestures; mantras or syllables, words and phrases; mandalas and yantras, which are symbolic diagrams of the forces at work in the universe, are all used as aids for meditation and for the achievement of spiritual and magical power.

During meditation, the initiate identifies himself with any of the numerous Hindu gods and goddesses representing cosmic forces. The initiate visualizes them and takes them into his mind so that he unites with them, a process likened to sexual courtship and consummation. In fact, some Tantric monks use females partners to represent goddesses. Also, in left-handed Tantra (Vamachara), ritual sexual intercourse is employed—not for pleasure—  but as a way of entering into the underlying processes and structure of the universe.

Relation to Vedic Tradition~

The Tantric tradition may be considered as either parallel to, or intertwined with, the Vedic tradition. The primary sources of written Tantric lore are the agama, which generally consist of four parts, delineating metaphysical knowledge (jnana), contemplative procedures (yoga), ritual regulations (kriya), and ethical and religious injunctions (charya). Schools and lineages affiliate themselves with specific agamic traditions.

André Padoux notes that in India, tantrism is marked by a rejection of orthodox Vedic tenets. Maurice Winernitz, in his review of the literature of tantra, points out that while Indian tantric texts are not positively hostile to the Vedas, they propound that the precepts of the Vedas are too difficult for our age, and so, for that reason, an easier cult and an easier doctrine have been revealed in them. Some orthodox Brahmans who accept the authority of the Vedas reject the authority of the Tantras.

N. N. Bhattacharyya explains:

It is to be noticed that although later Tantric writers wanted to base their doctrines on the Vedas, the orthodox followers of the Vedic tradition invariably referred to Tantra in a spirit of denunciation, stressing its anti-Vedic character.

Tantra exists in Shaiva, Vaisnava, Ganapatya, Saurya and Shakta forms, amongst others. Strictly speaking, within individual traditions, tantric texts are classified as Shaiva Āgamas, VaishnavaPāñcarātra Saṃhitās, and Shakta Tantras, but there is no clear dividing line between these works, and on a practical basis the expression Tantra generally includes all such works.

Secret ritual

Secret ritual may include any or all of the elements of ordinary ritual, either directly or substituted, along with other sensate rites and themes such as a feast (representing food, or sustenance), coitus (representing sexuality and procreation), the charnel grounds (representing death and transition) and defecation, urination and vomiting (representing waste, renewal, and fecundity). It is this sensate inclusion that prompted Zimmer‘s praise of Tantra’s world-affirming attitude:

In the Tantra, the manner of approach is not that of Nay but of Yea … the world attitude is affirmative … Man must approach through and by means of nature, not by rejection of nature.

In Avalon’s Chapter 27: The Pañcatattva (The Secret Ritual) of Sakti and Sakta (1918), he states that the Secret Ritual (which he calls Panchatattva, Chakrapuja and Panchamakara) involves:

Worship with the Pañcatattva generally takes place in a Cakra or circle composed of men and women… sitting in a circle, the Shakti (or female practitioner) being on the Sadhaka’s (male practitioner’s) left. Hence it is called Cakrapuja. …There are various kinds of Cakra – productive, it is said, of differing fruits for the participator therein.

Avalon also provides a series of variations and substitutions of the Panchatattva (Panchamakara) “elements” or tattva encoded in the Tantras and various tantric traditions, and affirms that there is a direct correlation to the Tantric Five Nectars and the Mahābhūta.

~Sexual rites~

Sexual rites of Vama Marga may have emerged from early Hindu Tantra as a practical means of catalyzing biochemical transformations in the body to facilitate heightened states of awareness. These constitute a vital offering to Tantric deities. Sexual rites may have also evolved from clan initiation ceremonies involving transactions of sexual fluids. Here the male initiate is inseminated or ensanguinated with the sexual emissions of the female consort, sometimes admixed with the semen of the guru. The Tantrika is thus transformed into a son of the clan (kulaputra) through the grace of his consort. The clan fluid (kuladravya) or clan nectar (kulamrita) is conceived as flowing naturally from her womb. Later developments in the rite emphasize the primacy of bliss and divine union, which replace the more bodily connotations of earlier forms. Although popularly equated with Tantra in its entirety in the West, such sexual rites were historically practiced by a minority of sects. For many practicing lineages, these maithuna practices progressed into psychological symbolism.

When enacted as enjoined by the Tantras, the ritual culminates in a sublime experience of infinite awareness for both participants. Tantric texts specify that sex has three distinct and separate purposes—procreation, pleasure, and liberation. Those seeking liberation eschew frictional orgasm for a higher form of ecstasy, as the couple participating in the ritual lock in a static embrace. Several sexual rituals are recommended and practiced. These involve elaborate and meticulous preparatory and purificatory rites. The sexual act itself balances energies coursing within the pranic ida and pingalachannels in the subtle bodies of both participants. The sushumna nadi is awakened and kundalini rises upwards within it. This eventually culminates in samadhi, wherein the respective individual personalities and identities of each of the participants are completely dissolved in a unity of cosmic consciousness. Tantrics understand these acts on multiple levels. The male and female participants are conjoined physically, and represent Shiva and Shakti, the male and female principles. Beyond the physical, a subtle fusion of Shiva and Shakti energies takes place, resulting in a united energy field. On an individual level, each participant experiences a fusion of one’s own Shiva and Shakti energies.

Maithuna or Mithuna ~

A Sanskrit term used in Tantra most often translated as sexual union in a ritual context. It is the most important of the five makara and constitutes the main part of the Grand Ritual of Tantra variously known as Panchamakara, Panchatattva, and Tattva Chakra.

Although some writers, sects and schools e. g. Yogananda consider this to be a purely mental and symbolic act, a look at different variations (and translations) of the word maithuna clearly shows that it refers to male-female couples and their union in the physical, sexual sense and is synonymous with kriya nishpatti (mature cleansing). Just like neither spirit nor matter by itself is effective but both working together bring harmony so is maithuna effective only then when the union is consecrated. The couple become for the time being divine: she is Shakti and he is Shakta. The scriptures warn that unless this spiritual transformation occurs the union is carnal and sinful.

Yet, it is possible to experience a form of maithuna without physical union. The act can exist on a metaphysical plane without sexual penetration, in which the shakti and shakta transfer energy through their subtle bodies alone. It is when this transfer of energy occurs that the couple, incarnated as goddess and god via diminished egos, confronts ultimate reality and experiences bliss through union of the subtle bodies.

Sex magic or Sex magick~

A term for various types of sexual activity used in magical, ritualistic, or otherwise religious and spiritual pursuits. One application of sex magic is using the energy of sexual arousal and/or orgasm to visualize an image of a desired result.

A premise of sex magic is the concept that the sexual energy is the most potent force the body contains, and harnessing the unique states that arise through sexual activity may provide an experiential conduit for the transcendence of an individual’s normally perceived reality.

One application of sex magic concerns the use of the orgasm, as some practitioners base their use of sex upon the power that they believe the orgasmic release contains. An example of this type of sex magic is the Great Rite of Wicca, a ritual that involves either symbolic or actual sexual intercourse and orgasm. This union between the High Priestess and the High Priest can represent the union between the Maiden Goddess and the Lover God.

English author and occultist Aleister Crowley used and wrote about sex magick in relationship to his religion and belief system, Thelema, and also used the orgasm as a magical tool.

According to author Samael Aun Weor and other practitioners, not having an orgasm is preferred, even for periods of months or years, and their form of sex magick is to mentally direct all of the sexual energy created during a mutual or solo sexual act into what they believe are higher forms of creativity and spiritual energy.

Kundalini (kuṇḍalinī कुण्डलिनी) Sanskrit, literally “coiled”.

In Indian yoga, a “corporeal energy” - an unconscious, instinctive or libidinal force or Shakti, envisioned either as a goddess or else as a sleeping serpent coiled at the base of the spine, hence a number of English renderings of the term such as ‘serpent power’.

Yoga and Tantra propose that this energy can be “awakened” by Guru, but body and spirit must be prepared by yogic austerities such as pranayama, or breath control, physical exercises, visualization, and chanting. It rises from muladhara chakra up a subtle channel at the base of the spine (called Sushumna), and from there to top of the head merging with the sahasrara, or crown chakra. The awakening is not a physical occurrence. It consists exclusively of development in consciousness. With awakening of the Kundalini our consciousness expands and we become more aware of the truth. When Kundalini Shakti is conceived as a goddess, then, when it rises to the head, it unites itself with the Supreme Being (Lord Shiva). Then aspirant becomes engrossed in deep meditation and infinite bliss. The arousing of kundalini is said to be the one and only way of attaining Divine Wisdom. Self-Realization is said to be equivalent to Divine Wisdom or Gnosis or what amounts to the same thing: Self-Knowledge. The awakening of the Kundalini shows itself as “awakening of inner knowledge” and brings with itself pure joy, pure knowledge and pure love.

However, like every form of energy one must also learn to understand spiritual energy. In order to be able to integrate this spiritual energy, careful purification and strengthening of the body and nervous system are required beforehand. By trying to force results, considerable psychic disturbances and at times even permanent mental damage can occur. A spiritual master who walked this path before is required to guide the aspirant. Often will be found that negative experiences occurred only when acting without appropriate guidance or ignoring advice.

Kundalini can only be awakened through the grace of a Siddha-Guru who awakens the kundalini shakti of his discipline through shaktipat, or blessing . A Siddha Guru is a spiritual teacher, a master, whose identification with the supreme Self is uninterrupted.

The most famous of the Yoga Upanishads, the Yogatattva, mentions four kinds of yoga, one of which, laya-yoga, involves Kundalini.

Goddess Kali

Kali is a Hindu deity representing life cycles (death & rebirth, destruction & rejuvenation, associated with eternal energy, goddess of time and change,”redeemer of the universe”, consort of god Shiva, the foremost among the Dasa-Mahavidyas ~ ten fierce Tantric goddesses, carries away the spirits of slain warriors and animals, slayer of demons, young and beautiful, has a gentle smile, and makes gestures with her two right hands to dispel any fear and offer boons, she creates AND destroys worlds) Many fear the dark aspects Kali represents death, chaos, confusion… Kali seems to be misunderstood time and time again. I believe the tarot card The Tower would be an awful good representation of the Goddess Kali. Explosive is this energy when it begins to manifest, scary – maybe… Exciting? Oh yes! Kali is very powerful… but SHE is not a demon.

In Hinduism there are actually two, not one but two Kali(s) One is the dark beautiful Goddess Kali, then there is the male Demon Kali. Both Kali(s) seem to have very similar physical attributes (black skin, protruding tongues, generally ferocious characters) but there are definitely differences in the personalities of the two deities.

Demonic Kali

In Hinduism, Kali ( káli; from a root kad “suffer, grieve, hurt; confound, confuse”, apocalypse demon) is the reigning lord of Kali Yuga. According to the Vishnu Purana, he is a negative manifestation of Vishnu, who along with his extended evil family, perpetually operates as a cause of the destruction of this world. His energies can be found with/in : gambling houses (casinos), taverns (nightclubs, bars), women of unchaste lives (whorehouses, porno sites, happy-ending massage parlors, street-walkers, escorts, strip clubs), slaughtering places (factory farms, military bases abroad) and gold (banks, credit agencies, wall street, large corporate entities, sweat-shops, consumerism). Weapon is the sword which can be translated as patriotical society. It is also said that there was a king (Nala) that was not practicing his spirituality with true intentions he was bewitched by Kali causing him to lose his kingdom. Kali is also known to ride a donkey (mascot of the Democratic party, party currently in office and up through out 2012).

What is a Yuga?

The names of the four Yugas of time— Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali—are named after “dice throws” from a game of dice popular during the Vedic period. Their order coincides with the favorability of each throw: Satya is the best throw, whereas Kali is considered the worst.

Hindus believe that human civilization degenerates spiritually during the Kali Yuga, which is referred to as the Dark Age because in it people are as far removed as possible from God. Hinduism often symbolically represents morality (dharma) as a bull. In Satya Yuga, the first stage of development, the bull has four legs, but in each age morality is reduced by one quarter. By the age of Kali, morality is reduced to only a quarter of that of the golden age, so that the bull of Dharma has only one leg.

Kali Yuga (lit. “age of (the male demon) Kali “, or “age of vice”), is the last of the four stages that the world goes through as part of the cycle of yugas described in the Indian scriptures.

During the Mahabharata, king Nala exorcises the disembodied spirit of Kali to a vibhitaka tree, the nuts of which were used to create the dice for the vedic dice game. Therefore, not only Kali’s name, but his penchant for gambling and reputation as being evil comes from this dice game.

The Bhagavata Purana states the very day and moment god Krishna left this earth, Kali, “who promotes all kinds of irreligious activities, came into this world.” Thus, Kali simply came into being because the prosperity brought by Krishna left after his death.

So it seems the Hindus also believe the end or rebirthing is near… things seem to be getting worse in every aspect of our planets future. It seems all we can do now is make a change in our own thinking, share it with others, and keep on living. Now is not the time to panic. If the end is near… Why just save your physical body? I have decided that I do not want to be stuck on this devastated earth all by myself, that seems much too lonely. I would rather live out my remaining days enjoying the sunshine, kissing my kids, sharing, inspiring, and loving all of you… if I could have just one more word of advice for the day~ evolve yourself spiritually… in the end that is all that will be left and all that ever was. Namaste

I live, die, breathe in the technological US. But I dream of India… So I have never been there in person, at least not yet in this incarnation..

I eat, sleep, and breathe in the flavors and images of India. Dream of these Deities they began to visit me before I even knew they existed.

India, my mother-land… the mother that I’ve never had. If home is where the heart is… my heart is with the people and the spirits of the Vedas, with India.

To feel as if I am still alive I immerse myself with pictures off the internet… imagining what it would feel like to be there and how much I would love to experience it…  oh the feeling I will get to set foot in India.

My people, my pride, my spirit says this is right… that tingle in my stomach awaiting the the day I can get online and book it… that golden ticket my heart will fly home on a jet; and then one day I won’t have to just look at these oh so beautiful images on my internet…

I’ll make touch down. Bare-feet on the soil, the Vedas ground…

Now THIS is our India…

Earthships are built to utilize the available local resources, especially energy from the sun. For example, windows on the sunny side admit light and heat, and the buildings are often horseshoe-shaped to maximize natural light and solar-gain during winter months. Likewise, the thick, dense outer walls provide effective insulation against summer heat.

Internal, non-load-bearing walls are often made of a honeycomb of recycled cans joined by concrete and are referred to as tin can walls. These walls are usually thickly plastered with stucco.

The roof of an Earthship is heavily insulated – often with earth or adobe - for added energy efficiency.

The Earthship, as it exists today, began to take shape in the 1970s. Mike Reynolds, founder of Earthship Biotecture, a company that specializes in designing and building Earthships, wanted to create a home that would do three things; first, it would be sustainable, using material indigenous to the entire planet as well as recycled materials wherever possible. Second, the homes would rely on natural energy sources and be independent from the “grid”, therefore being less susceptible to natural disasters and free from the electrical and water lines that Reynolds considered unsightly and wasteful. Finally, it would be economically feasible for the average person with no specialized construction skills to be able to create. Eventually, Reynolds’ vision took the form of the common U-shaped earth-filled tire homes seen today. As a concept, the Earthship was not limited to tires – any dense material with a potential for thermal mass, such as concrete, adobe, or stone could theoretically be used to create an Earthship. However, the earth-rammed tire version of the Earthship is now the most common design, and is usually the only structure referred to as “Earthship”.

Unlike other materials, rammed-earth tires are more accessible to the average person. Scrap tires are ubiquitous around the world and easy to come by; there are an estimated 2 billion tires throughout the United States. As of 1996, as many as 253 million scrap tires were being generated each year in the United States, with 70% being reclaimed by the scrap tire market (leaving perhaps 75 million scrap tires available for reuse as whole tires). In addition to the availability of scrap tires, the method by which they are converted into usable “bricks”, the ramming of the earth, is simple and affordable. The earth-rammed tires of an Earthship are usually assembled by teams of two people working together as part of a larger construction team. One member of the two person team shovels dirt, which usually comes from the building site, placing it into the tire one scoop at a time. The second member, who stands on the tire, uses a sledge hammer to pack the dirt in. The second person moves in a circle around the tire to keep the dirt even and avoid warping the tire. These rammed earth tires in an Earthship are made in place because, when properly made, they weigh as much as 300 pounds and can be very difficult to relocate. Additional benefits of the rammed earth tire are its great load-bearing capacity and its resistance to fire.

A fully rammed tire, which is about 2 feet 8 inches wide, is massive enough to surpass conventional requirements for structural load distribution to the earth. Because the tire is full of soil, it does not burn when exposed to fire. In 1996 after a fire swept through many conventional homes in New Mexico, an Earthship discovered in the aftermath was relatively unharmed.

Only the south-facing wall and the roof had burned away, compared to the total destruction of the conventional homes. After testing the walls of an Earthship in Ridgway, Colorado, engineer Tom Griepentrog said, “It is my opinion that the construction method is equivalent to or better than the general quality, strength, effectiveness, fire resistance, durability and safety that is required by the uniform building code.”

Currently, Earthships are in use in almost every state in the United States, as well as many countries in Europe. The use of insulation on the outside of tire walls, which was not common in early designs, is improving the viability of Earthships in every climate without compromising their durability. In the year 2000, Mike Reynolds, in partnership with Daren Howarth, launched Earthship Biotecture Europe, an organization that aims to explore and evolve the concept of the Earthship within a European context. Two more directors were appointed to Earthship Biotecture Europe in July 2006 – Kevan Trott and Kirsten Jacobsen.

Systems

The Earthship was designed as a structure that would exist in harmony with its environment and be freed from the constraints of modern shelters which rely on centralized utilities. It is important that the Earthship create its own utilities as well as use readily available and sustainable materials. In order to be entirely self-sufficient the Earthship needs to be able to handle the three systems of Water, Electricity, and Climate. While these systems are not exclusive to Earthships, a properly designed Earthship must have these systems.

Collection

Earthships are designed to catch and use water from the local environment without bringing in water from a centralized source. Water used in an Earthship is harvested from rain, snow and condensation. As water collects on the roof it is channeled through a silt-catching device and into a cistern. The cisterns are positioned so they gravity-feed a WOM (water organization module), that filters out bacteria and contaminants, and makes it suitable for drinking. The WOM consists of filters and a DC-pump that are screwed into a panel. Water is then pushed into a conventional pressure tank to create common household water pressure. Water collected in this fashion is used for any household activity except flushing toilets the conventional way. Rather, the water used for flushing toilets has been used at least once already: frequently it is filtered waste-water from sinks and showers, as described under “Greywater”.

Greywater

Greywater, water that has been used and is unsuitable for drinking, is used within the Earthship for a multitude of purposes once it is reclaimed. First, before the greywater can be reused, it is channeled through a grease and particle filter/digester and into a 30”-60″ deep rubber-lined botanical cell, a miniature living machine, within the Earthship. This filter with imbedded plants can potentially also be used to produce food (by using a fruit tree, …). Oxygenation, filtration, transpiration, and bacteria-encounter all take place within the cell and help to cleanse the water (Reynolds 2000). Within the botanical cell, filtration is achieved by passing the water through a mixture of gravel and plant roots. Because of the nature of plants, oxygen is added to the water as it filters, while nitrogen is removed. Water taken up through the plants and transpired at their tops helps to humidify the air. In the cell, bacteria will naturally grow and help to cleanse the water.

Water from the low end of the botanical cell is then directed through a peat-moss filter and collected in a reservoir or well. This reclaimed water is then passed once more through a greywater board (see earthship.net) and used to flush conventional toilets.

Often, any greywater that is made at earthships is not polluted enough to justify treatment (its “pollution” being usually just soap, which is often not environmentally damaging). At earthships, the use of plants placed at outlets of fixtures is then practiced to regain the water and the nutrients lost (from the soaps, etc.).. Usually, a single plant is placed directly in front of the pipe, but mini drain-fields are also sometimes used. The pipe is made large enough (5,08cm) so that the formation of underground gas (from the greywater) is avoided. This is done with kitchen and bathroom sinks, and even showers, washing machines, and dishwashing machines. The plants are usually placed indoors with the sinks and outdoors with the washing/dishwashing machines and shower (to avoid indoor “floods”). Also, with the latter, larger drain-fields are used instead of a mere plant being placed before an outlet.

Black water

Black water, water that has been used in a toilet, was usually not created within many of the earliest earthships as the use of conventional toilets was discouraged. Instead, in the early days composting toilets were advocated, which use no water at all. However, with the new greywater treatment system design (used in Nautilus, Helios, …) created by Michael Reynolds, flush toilets have now found a place in the earthship and the general water system has been redesigned according to the new “6-step process”. Now, when the newly included flush-toilets are used, blackwater is not reused within the Earthship. Instead, blackwater is sent to a solar-enhanced septic tank with leach-field and planter cells (the whole being often referred to as the “incubator”). The solar-enhanced septic tank is a regular septic tank which is heated by the sun and glazed with an equator-facing window. The incubator stores the sun’s heat in its concrete mass, and is insulated, to help the anaerobic process. Water from the incubator is channeled out to an exterior leach field and then to landscaping “planter cells”

(spaces surrounded by concrete in which plants have been put). The cells are similar to the botanical cell used in greywater treatment and are usually placed just before and under the windows of the earthship.

In cases where it is not possible to use flush-toilets operating on water, dry solar toilets are now advocated, instead of regular composting toilets. If this is the case, obviously no black water is formed and the use of an incubator is thus (usually) not necessary. Instead, regular “planters” (plants used for sucking up water/nutrients) are then used. When using regular planters as well, no chemical soaps or detergents can be used.

The space where the WOM (water organization module), graywater pump panel, pressure tank, (first set of) batteries, and POM (power organising module) and stored is in a small room referred to as the “systems package”.

The Earthship is designed in such a way that the sun provides heating, ventilation, and lighting. To take advantage of the sun, an Earthship is positioned so that its principal wall, which is nonstructural and made mostly of glass sheets, faces directly towards the equator. This positioning allows for optimum solar exposure.

To allow the sun to heat the mass of the Earthship, the solar-orientated wall is angled so that it is perpendicular to light from the winter sun. This allows for maximum exposure in the winter, when heat is wanted, and lesser exposure in the summer, when heat is to be avoided. Some Earthships, especially those built in colder climates, use insulated shading on the solar-orientated wall to reduce heat loss during the night (Reynolds 2000).

Yoni (Sanskrit: योनि yoni) is a Sanskrit word that means “source or origin of life”.

The ancient VEDAS contain the word YONI in various contexts. The original meaning of yoni was “Divine Passage”.  A child was considered to be born from a yoni of stars – constellations that prevailed during the child birth.

The Aryans had identified some 50,000 astrological yonis that favour a child’s birth. The term yoni was also used in agricultural references by the Aryans. A ‘fertile yoni’ meant a good harvest of crops.

The Veda known as the Ayurveda, or Science of Life, was the record of the ancient medicinal art of the Aryans. The Ayurveda was the only Veda that described yoni as a part of the female anatomy. Here the term was meant as a designation of respect for women who gave birth, thus contributing to the continuation of the community.

The word also has a wider meaning in both profane and spiritual contexts, including “spring, fountain, place of rest, repository, receptacle, seat, abode, home, lair, nest, stable”. It is also etymologically derived from the root yuj—like yoga and yogini—meaning, “to join, unite, fasten, or harness.”

In South Asian cosmology, the yoni is a “representation of the female sexual organ and thereby the symbol of the goddess Sakti, consort of Siva.

The yoni is also considered to be symbolic of Shakti or Devi in Hindu Tantra.

In classical texts such as Kama Sutra, yoni refers to the vulva.

El feurdj (the slit ) – It has this name because it opens and shuts again when hotly yearning for coitus, like the one of a mare in heat at the approach of a stallion.

El kelmoune (the vulva ) – This word serves as the name of a young woman’s vulva in particular. Such a vulva is very plump and round in every direction, with long lips, grand slit, the edges well divided and symmetrical and rounded; it is soft, seductive, perfect throughout. It is the most pleasant and no doubt the best of all the different sorts. It is warm, tight, and dry; so much that one might expect to see fire burst forth from it. Its form is graceful, its odour pleasant; the whiteness of its outside sets off its carmine-red middle. There is no imperfection about it.

El kelmoune (the voluptuous ) – The name given to the vulva of a young virgin.

El ass (the primitive ) – This is a name applicable to every kind of vulva.

El zerzour (the starling ) – The vulva of a very young girl.

El cheukk (the chink ) – The vulva of a bony, lean woman. It is like a chink in the wall, with not a vestige of flesh.

Abou tertour (the crested one ) – It is the name given to a vulva furnished with a red comb, like that of a cock, which rises at the moment of enjoyment.

Abou khochime (the snub-nose ) – Is a vulva with thin lips and a small tongue.

El gueunfond (the hedgehog ) – The vulva of the old, decrepit woman, dried up with age and with bristly hair.

El sakouti ( the silent one ) – This name has been given to the vulva which is noiseless. The member may enter it a hundred times a day but it will not say a word, and will be content to look on without a murmur.

El deukkak (the crusher ) – So called from its crushing movements upon the member. It generally begins to push the member, directly it enters, to the right and to the left, and to grip it with the matrix, and would, if it could, absorb the two testicles.

El tseguil (the importunate ) – This is the vulva which is never tired of taking in the member. This latter might pass a hundred nights with it, and walk in a hundred times every night, still that vulva would not be sated — nay, it would want still more, and would not allow the member to come out again at all, if it was possible. With such a vulva the parts are exchanges; the vulva is the pursuer, the member is the pursued. It is only found in a small number of women, who are wild with passion, all on fire, and in flame.

El taleb (the yearning one ) – This vagina is met with in a few women only. With some it is natural; with others it becomes what it is through abstinence. It is burning for a member, and, having got one in its embrace, it refuses to part with it until its fire is completely diminished.

El hacene (the beautiful ) – This is the vulva which is white, plump, in form vaulted like a dome, firm, and without any deformity. You cannot take your eyes off it, and to look at it changes a feeble erection into a strong one.

El neuffakh (the swelling one ) – So called because a torpid member coming near it, and rubbing its head against it a few times, at once swells and stands upright. To the woman who has such a one it procures excessive pleasure, for, at the moment of the crisis, it opens and shuts convulsively, like the vulva of a mare.

Abou djebaha (one with a projection ) – Some women have this sort of vulva, which is very large, with a pubis prominent like a projecting, fleshy forehead.

El ouasa (the vast one ) – A vulva surrounded by a very large pubis. Women of that build are said to be of large vagina, because, although on the approach of the member it appears firm and impenetrable, as soon as it feels the friction of the glans it opens wide at once.

El aride (the large one ) – This is the vulva which is as wide as it is long, that is to say, fully developed all round, from side to side, and from the pubic to the perineum. It is the most beautiful to look upon. As the poet said,

It has the splendid whiteness of a forehead
In its dimensions it is like the moon,
The fire that radiates from it is like the sun’s,
And seems to burn the member which approaches
Unless first moistened with saliva the member cannot enter
The odour it emits is full of charms.

It is also said that this name applies to the vagina of women who are plump and fat. When such a one crosses her thighs over the other, the vulva stands out like the head of a calf. If she lays it bare it resembles a saa for corn placed between her thighs; and, if she walks, it is apparent under her clothes by its wavy movement at each step. It is of all the most pleasing, the most celebrated, the most wished for.

Abou belaoum (the glutton ) – The vulva with a vast capacity for swallowing. If such a vulva has not been able to get coitus for some time it fairly engulfs the member that then comes near it, without leaving any trace of it outside.

El mokaour (the bottomless ) – This is the vagina of indefinite length, having, in consequence, the matrix lying very far back. It requires a member of the largest dimensions; any other could not succeed in rousing its amorous sensibilities.

Abou cheufrine (the two-lipped ) – This name is given to the amply developed vagina of an excessively stout woman. Also to the vagina the lips of which having become flaccid, owing to weakness, are long and pendulous.

Abou aungra (the humpbacked ) – This vulva has the mount of Venus prominent and hard, standing out like the hump on the back of the camel, and reaching down between the thighs like the head of a calf.

El rorbal (the sieve ) – This vulva on receiving a member seems to sift it all over, below, right and left, fore and aft, until the moment of pleasure arrives.

El hezzaz (the restless ) – When this vagina has received the member it begins to move violently and without interruption until the member touches the matrix, and then knows no repose till it has hastened on the enjoyment and finished its work.

El lezzaz (the unionist ) – The vagina which, having taken in the member, clings to it and pushes itself forward upon it so closely that, if the thing were possible, it would enfold the two testicles.

El moudd (the accomodating ) – This name is applied to the vagina of a woman who has felt for a long time an ardent wish for coition. In rapture with the member it sees, it is glad to second its movements of come and go; it offers the matrix to the member by pressing it forward within reach, which is, after all, the best gift it can offer. Whatever place inside of it the member wants to explore, this vulva will make him welcome to, gracefully according to its wish; there is no corner it will not help the member to reach.

El mouaine (the assistant ) – This vulva is thus named because it assists the member to go in and out, to go up and down, in short, in all its movements, in such a way that if it desires to do such a thing, to enter or to retire, to move about, etc., the vulva hastens to give it all facilities, and answers to its appeal. By this aid the ejaculation is facilitated, and the enjoyment is heightened.

El meusboul (the long one ) – This name applies only to some vulvas; everyone knows that vulvas are far from being all of the same conformation and aspect. This vulva extends from the pubis to the anus. It lengthens out when the woman is lying down or standing, and contracts when she is sitting, differing in this respect from the vulva of a round shape. It looks like a splendid cucumber lying between the thighs. With some women it shows projecting under light clothing, or when they are bending back.

El molki (the duellist ) – This is the vulva which, on the introduction of a member, executes the movement of coming and going, pushes itself upon it for fear of its retiring before the pleasure arrives. There is no enjoyment for it but the shock given to its matrix by the member, and it is for this that it projects its matriz to grip and suck the member’s gland when the ejaculation takes place. Certain vulvas, wild with desire and lust, be it natural or a consequence of long abstention, throw themselevs upon the approaching member, opening the mouth like a faminished infant to whom the mother offers the breast. In the same way this vulva advances and retires upon the member to bring it face to face with the matrix, in fear that, unaided, it could not find the same.

The vulva and the member resemble thus two skillful duellists, each time that one of them rushes its antagonist, the latter opposes its shield to parry the blow and repulse the assault. the member represents the sword, and the matrix the shield. The one who first ejaculates the sperm is vanquished; while the one who is slowest is the victor; and assuredly, it is a fine fight! As the poet says,

I have let them see the effect of a subtle shadow
Spinning like an ever busy spider.
They said to me, ‘How long will you go on?’
I answered them, ‘I will work til I am dead.’

El harrah (the fugitive ) – The vagina which, being very tight and short, is hurt by the penetration of a very large and soft; it tries to escape to the right and left. It is thus, people say, like the vagina of most virgins, which not yet having made the acquaintance of the member and fearful of its approac, tries to get out of its way when it glides in between the thighs and wants to be admitted.

El sabeur (the resigned ) – This is the vulva which, having admitted the member, submits patiently to all its whims and movements. It is also said that this vulva is strong enough to suffer resignedly the most violent and prolonged coitus. If it were assaulted a hundred times it would not be vexed or annoyed. It will show the same patience if it has to do with several members who visit it successively.

This kind of vagina is found in women of a glowing temperament. If they only knew how to do it, they would not allow the man to dismount, nor his member to retire for a single moment.

El mouseuffah (the barred one ) – This kind of vagina is not often met with. The defect which distinguished it is sometimes natural, sometimes it is the result of an unskillfully executed operation of circumcision upon the woman. It can happen that the operator makes a false move with his instrument and injures the two lips, or even only one of them. In healing there forms a thick scar, which bars the passage, and in order to make the vagina accessible to the member, a surgical garden will have to be resorted to.

El merour (the deep one ) – The vagina which always has the mouth open, and the bottom of which is beyond sight. The longest members only can reach it.

El addad (the biter ) – The vulva which, when the member has got into it and is burning with passion, opens and shuts again upon the same fiercely. It is chiefly when the ejaculation is coming that the man feelts the head of his member being bitten by the mouth of the matrix. And certainly there is an attractive power in the same when it clings, yearning to sperm, to the gland, and draws it in as far as it can.

El meuass (the sucker ) – This is a vagina which in its amorous heat in consequence of voluptuous toyings, or of long abstinence, begins to suck the member which as entered it so forcibly as to deprive it of all its sperm, dealing with it as a child drawing on the breast of the mother.

El zeunbour (the wasp ) – This kind of vulva is known by the strength and roughness of its fur. When the member approaches and tries to enter, it gets stung by the hairs as if by a wasp.

El harr (the hot one ) – This is one of the most praiseworthy vulvas. Warmth is in fact very much esteemed in a vulva, and it may be said that the intensity of the enjoyment afforded by it is in proportaion to the heat it develops.

El ladid (the delicious ) – It has the reputation of procuring an unexampled pleasure, comparable only to the one felt by the beasts and birds of prey, and for which they fight sanguinary combats. And if such effects are produced upon animals, what must they be for man? And so it is that alll wars spring from the search for the voluptuous pleasure which the vagina procures, and which is the highest fortune of this world; it is a part of the delights of paradise.

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The earliest reference to yoni tattva in Kaula tantra seems to be in the Kaula Jnana Nirnaya of Matsyendranath(English translation published by Prachya Prakashan, Benares, 1986):– One should always consume the physical blood and semen. (KJN, Patala

Other Kaula tantras deal with the subject of menstrual blood in very plain terms. Matrikabheda Tantra (Englishtranslation Indological Book House 1990) describes the different types:– “Shri Shankara said: The firstmenses appearing in a woman who has lost her virginity is Svayambhu blood. In a maiden born of a marriedwoman and begotten by another man, that which arises is Kunda menses, the substance causing the grantingof any desire. Deveshi, a maiden begotten by a widow gives rise to Gola menses, which subdues gods. Themenses arising in the first period after a virgin becomes a married woman is the all bewildering Svapushpa.”(MT, Patala

The very first chapter of the MT mentions a substance called sambal, described in the commentary as awoman’s menstrual discharge. This substance allows the tantrik adept to perform various sorts of alchemicaloperations.

The Kaulavali Nirnaya (Agamanusandhana Samiti, Calcutta nd), edited by Sir John Woodroffe, is a digest ofother Kaula tantras. Summarising chapter 18, Sir John paraphrases the tantra:– “there are people who regardsemen and menstrual fluid with disgust, but they forget that the body by which they hope to attain Liberation iscomposed of these two forms of matter, that the marrow, bone and tendons have come from the father and theskin, flesh and blood from the mother. It further says that there is no reason for man’s disgust for excreta orurine, for these are nothing but food or drink which has undergone some change and contains living creatures and the Brahman substance is not absent therefrom…All things are pure. It is one’s mentality which is evil.”(KN, introduction, pp19-20)

Reverence for Women

The Kaulas regarded female gurus very highly and there were many examples of yoginis or female tantriks. InYoni Tantra Patala 7 we find:–

“Women are divinity, women are life, women are truly jewels.” This sentiment is echoed in many other tantrassuch as Shakti Sangama Tantra, Devirahasya and elsewhere. A woman is the goddess:– “Worship carefully awoman or a maiden as she is Shakti, sheltered by the Kulas. One should never speak harshly to maidens orwomen.” (KJN, Patala 23)

“In Kaula every woman is thought of as a manifestation of the Goddess. No man may raise his hand, strike orthreaten a woman. When she is naked, men must kneel and worship her as the Goddess. She has equal rights with men on all levels.” (Occult World of a Tantrik Guru, Values Vol.IX)

“Women are heaven; women are dharma; and women are the highest penance. Women are Buddha; women are the Sangha; and women are the perfection of Wisdom.” (CT 8,30)

KamarupaThe Yoni Tantra hails from Cooch Bihar (Kocha), but many of the Kaula Tantras originate from Kamarupa. InPuranic legend, this is the place where the yoni of Devi fell to earth after the Goddess’ body was sliced into 50segments by the discus of Vishnu.

First Patala

O Lady Goddess!Worshipping in this manner, liberation is placed within a person’s reach.

A yoni worshipper should prepare the Shakti mantra. He gains wealth, poesy, wisdom and omniscience.If a person worships with menstrual flowers, he also has power over fate. Doing much puja inthis way, he may become liberated. The devotee should place a Shakti in a circle. She should be wanton,beautiful, devoid of shame and disgust, charming by nature, supremely alluring and beautiful. The devotee should worship her with utmost devotion. He should place her on his left, and shouldworship her hair-adorned yoni. At the edges of the yoni, the devotee should place sandal and beautifulblossoms. After smearing sandal on her forehead, the devotee should caress herbreasts.

After reciting the mantra for 108 times, while in her arms, the devotee should caress the breasts, havingpreviously kissed her on the cheek. The mantra should be recited 108 or 1008 times in the yoni circle.

After performing yoni puja using these methods, the devotee attains whatever is desired — there is no doubt ofit. The fruit of doing puja to the great yoni, deliverer from the ocean of misery, is life and enhanced vitality.

~Second Patala~

Which types of yoni should be worshipped and which bring good fortune?

The devotee should worship the mother’s yoni and have intercourse with all yonis. He may have intercoursewith any woman between the ages of t—–e and sixty.

He should worship the yoni daily, using the five tattvas. The forehead mark should be made from yoni tattva.

Firstly, in intercourse, the purified worshipper should draw the Shakti to himself by her hair and should placehis lingam into her hand. The lingam puja and the yoni puja should be performed according to the injunctions.Beloved One, red powder and sandal should be smeared on the lingam.

The lingam should be inserted into the yoni and there should be vigorous intercourse. He who uses thismethod attains the highest essence. A devotee should worship with the yoni tattva, of the form of yoni, thedeluder of the world, at night when it is full moon, at a crossroads.

Having seen the yoni full of menses, after bathing and reciting the mantra 108 times, a person becomes a Sivaon earth. One should recite the mantra after offering both one’s own semen and the yoni flowers.

By all means a sadhaka should haveintercourse in the yoni, previously caressing the Shakti’s breasts.One becomes instantlyregenerated and fully alive by using the water from washing yoni and lingam. After worshipping the great yoniaccording to injunction, one should make an offering. The water of the yoni is of three types and one shouldoffer it to the Shakti.

~Third Patala~

The miraculous Yoni Tattva Tantra is the best of all tantras.The only evil in sexual intercourse is disgust for blood and semen.

The yoni which hasbled is suitable for worship. Do not worship a yoni which has never bled.

Combining semen with menses and taking this in the hand, carefully offer itinto the Yoni.By worshipping the yoni one certainlyworships Shakti.

~Fourth Patala~

What knowledge in the three worlds can match the magnificence of the yoni tattva?

In this temperament there is exclusive devotion to the doctrine of the yoni. Onebecomes pure by making a forehead mark of yoni tattva.

~Fifth Patala~

One should always meditate on the pure yoni. One should always smear the yoni tattva on thebody. If one should place one’s lingam next to her vagina and then penetrate, one becomes liberated.

In the mutual friction of the lingam and yoni is great sadhana. The greatest thing in mantra recitation andsadhana is the outflow of semen and vaginal emission.

The powerful sadhaka, following the rule, should offer the augmented substance to the yoni region after mixing the semen and yoni tattva together.

The wise man should caress that yoni. After worshipping according to rule, one should not have intercourse. Oneshould only couple with the yoni that bleeds.

If one should worship a hair-adorned yoni, one becomes like a king. All acts become fruitful, no doubt of it. Onebecomes very wealthy if marking oneself with a forehead mark of yoni flowers.

A sadhaka wishing to worship a yoni,which is the form of the cosmos, should cause an erection and insert it into that thing which is Shakti Herself.Worshipping them, one becomes liberated while still alive, there is no doubt of it.

~Sixth Patala~

If a person should gaze at a yoni while ritually bathing, his life becomes fruitful. There is no doubt of this.

If a worshipper of the yoni tattva enters a dispute,after conquering all enemies he becomes ultimately victorious. What is the point of bathing in theGanges? What need is there to resort to sacred places? There is nothing equalling devotion to the yoni. Actingotherwise is useless. There is nothing praised in the world more worthy of praise than the yoni tattva.

One should bring together the yoni and the lingam and worship the tattva. One should place oneself inthis certain thing and give everything to Shakti. One should satisfy using the five tattvas in the shape of thevagina, which is the whole universe.

Liberation is achieved through enjoyment. Happiness is gained through enjoyment.Therefore, by every effort, a sadhaka should become an enjoyer. The wise man should always avoid blame, disgust or shame of the yoni.

If one should lick the elixir at the edge of the yoni, evil in one’s body or dwelling place is certainly destroyed.

The leftovers of both the Shakti and the Vira should be drunk.

If one should worship the yoni, bowing thrice with a flower, all karmas are destroyed and nothing in the threeworlds becomes unattainable.

~Seventh Patala~

After eating and drinking, one should then consume yoni tattva. Of all food, this is the food which should be worshipped fearlessly. Sexual intercourse in every kind of yoni is widely praised. Oneshould always smear a line of menstrual blood or sandal paste or semen on the forehead. This isthe core of true bliss.

There is no such thingas an inauspicious time. It makes no difference whether it be night or day, the 14th day of the waning moon orthe twilight time.

Women are divine, women are life, women are truly jewels. Always have intercourse with a woman andmeditate, whether she be one’s own woman or not. That which has been revealed to you is the whole essencehidden in all tantra.

At the time of consuming the substance, one should firstly offer it to one’s Shakti. Otherwise, one may first castwater into the vagina. The sadhaka should have sexual intercourse with his Shakti after enjoying food and reciting the mantra.

Now listen to the time when the semen-menses is emitted. If one should worship the yoni tattva,making a forehead mark with it, all defects and evils of a hundred births are immediately destroyed.

By yoni tattva oblation, the ancestors reside in paradise. One should always caress a nubile yoni. Ifone should divert oneself in the urgent dance after preparing the cavity of the great yoni, then one is freed fromall defects and stains of all births.

~Eighth Patala~

Without sexual union there is never liberation.Worship a nubile yoni in a highly ecstatic way.

Whosoever recites mantra in a supremely devoted way specifically to the yoni, the core of theuniverse, is within reach of liberation.

Meditate with yoni on the tongue, yoni in the mind, yoni in theears and yoni in the eyes. Mighty Lady, all sadhana is vain unless with the yoni. Therefore, reject other pujasand do Yoni Puja.

Tone 7: Resonant – Mystical Power

White Wizard is your Conscious Self -

who you are and who you are becoming. White Wizard is the Magician, whose powers are activated by wisdom that emanates from the heart. Such wisdom is not the intellectual understanding known in Western culture; it is the wisdom that comes from an alignment of mind and heart. An open, trusting heart is a refined tool of perception. Allowing yourself to ‘not know’ opens the door of the mind to a deeper understanding of the universe. White Wizard asks you to fully utilize this aligned mind to participate in magic. White Wizard invites you to step into self-empowerment. Empowerment comes from self-acceptance, integrity, and commitment to your evolution. Self-empowerment is not to be found outside oneself. Anything outside that brings you empowerment also has a divine foundation within you. If you feel a need for the approval of others, look to self-empowerment. When you feel effectively engaged, doing what gives you joy, your energy naturally expands to inlcude more of who you are, and magic flows synchronistically into your life. Claim your alignment with the highest wisdom. Call forth divine action in all that you do! Align your own will with divine will and your Essence Self. Be transparent, innocently allowing magic to come through you rather than needing to create it. Open to heart-knowing and limitless possibilties. White Wizard is a tool of the light, a conduit for the work of Spirit. A wise magician is spontaneous and transparent, allowing magic to come in rather than trying to control it or make it happen. A magician dances the dance of love through offering gifts of freedom to others. This is real magic. Freed from the need to use power to manipulate or control, a magician uses wisdom to manifest liberation and love. The harmonic wisdom of White Wizard is melody, the progression of signle tones within a composition. White Wizard symbolizes the sacred journey of your individual life. As a harmonic magician, you are a novel yet universal container for the expression of the Divine. While you play the melody of your journey’s spirit song, the Creator provides the harmony. Melody is to music what story line is to story. Utilize the elements you have chosen for exploration in your life – your gifts, talents, abilities, motivations, circumstances, and the other characters in your play. Orchestrate the most interesting and growth-engendering story line from this combination of possibilities. Understand that you are the player and the played in the melody in your life. White World-Bridger is your Higher Self & Guide. In this life-time you are being asked to release and surrender. Surrender is the opposite of giving up. It is freeing yourself from the desire to be in control, letting go of how you think things should be. Surrender is freedom. You are being invited to release yourself from the bondage of preconceived action, to let everything be all right as it is, so that you can live a more inspired life in the moment! You are being asked to take action in the process of surrender and release. You are requested to die a symbolic death, to surrender your limiting beliefs. Symbolic death unveils the self by cutting away the outgrown parts of yourself that no longer serve you. In such death, ego structures fall away to reveal the garden of the true self. Look for new ways of being, new people, new ideas, and new directions that will move into the vacuum created through surrender and release. Like yeast, surrender enlivens and empowers you to experience more of life’s fullness. Holding on to past patterns and grievances only limits the possibilities. Forgive yourself. Forgive others. Let go. Surrender whatever limits you. Face whatever you are resisting. In the experience of any loss, it is never too late to complete. Through your willingness to walk in the dark forest, insights and revelations will naturally emerge. White World-Bridger teaches you to let go and be. It represents the death of outgrown parts of the small self, which can be used as fodder or fuel for the regeneration into a more expanded self. The energy that is generated from the transfromation of these parts creates a refinement of your spirit. Also, by burning off the dross of the small self, a vacuum is created, drawing new people, ideas, and directions into your life. In the past, an old behaviour or belief system may have created a way for you to temporarily fel better about yourself by supporting your ego structure. As that ego structure is burned off, you create a pathway for Spirit to fully satisfy the same needs. Through your willingness to walk in the dark forest, the gifts of insight and revelation are provided. Accept the truth of your present situation. Through accepting what is, you are free to go forward. Change and growth become easier and more natural. Each experience in this enlivened state of surrender allows for more joy. The colour for White World-Bridger is forest green. You, like the symbol of the evergreen tree, are alive and green amidst the process of apparent death and trans formation of winter. Green creates a feeling of balance and restful calm. It is restorative and healing, grounding, and centering. If you wish to access the power of White World-Bridger, visualize forest green. Blue Hand is your Subconscious Self and Hidden Helper. Blue Hand is a gateway, an opening, a portal from one understanding to another. A clue to the meaning of Blue Hand is found in the meditation, “I am, by thinly veiled design, the threshold to other dimensions. In my ending is my beginning. The initatory gateway awaits.” Blue Hand is the seventh or last archetype in the cycle of development of primary being. It represents the power found in completion. Blue Hand is seen as a closure, which is really an opening to another level of being. Like the fluidity of moving water, Blue Hand is associated with the process of dance, mudra, and beauty. This movement is a metaphor for the ebb and flow of life. In meditation with Manik, experience the flowing quality that is the beauty of the cosmic dance. Remember this essence and this fluidity at times when your life feels most inflexible or lacking in beauty. Blue Hand represents the ‘beauty way’, the ability to see intrinsic beauty within yourself and in all things. Living the beauty way requires being in your full beauty and power. From this place, your self-authority naturally flows. This is the position where your ego is aligned with divine will. When you are standing in your full beauty and power, your very presence invites others to be all that they are. To the Maya, Blue Hand represents the deer, the gentle, serenely aware guide who walks in fluid beauty and grace, opening and revealing. The energy of Blue Hand will also help you to manifest spiritual skills – especially those intuitive gifts such as oracular divination. In each incarnation, you bring certain gifts. Each path – from priest and priestess to shaman and dancer to artist and gardener – carries varied tools and skills. You have chosen certain gifts and tools that offer you a way to interact with others and your life process. This may be as simple as calling on your innate wisdom and insight in order to see clearly the gifts and tools that you carry. Yellow Seed represents your Challenge and Gift. With maturity and awareness this challenge will turn into a Focus. This is what you desire to learn in this lifetime. One of the shadows of Yellow Seed is acting as the unawakened seed, the sleeper who wants to remain protected and invulnerable. In this shadow you may think you are serving yourself through this illusion of safety and security. Yet if you maintain distance from the world of possibilities outside your shell, your new horizons are kept at a distance. Take a risk, and reveal all that you are! Beyond the confines of definitions and self-concepts and the security of everyday patterns, the excitement of unknown possibilities beckons. Examine how protective limitations affect your natural growth. Such issues are reflected in phrases like, “My world works just the way it is”; “I can’t do that”; “I’m just fine the way I am”; or “I feel too inadequate.” The sae wall that is intended to create safety and security also builds a barrier that limits Spirit from creating new possibilities in your life. One way to access the transformation offered in the shadow of Yellow Seed is to realize that the seeds – your dreams, desires, and destiny – lie waiting within you to be awakened. In accepting that you are the fertile ground, you feel the authentic safety and security within, and the outside world becomes ripe with new possibilities. Red Serpent is your Compliment – something that comes naturally to you. “I am the flint and tinder of the sacred fire,” reads the meditation for Red Serpent. In the Great Mystery, flint and tinder represent the instinctive combustion that initiates movement in the physical body toward union with Spirit. When flint and tinder are brought together, the spark of divinity awakens and ignites the fire of your essence. Red Serpent invites the purifying spark of the sacred fire, the kundalini, to align and integrate your body, mind and spirit. Red Serpent can help you uncover apparent blockages in specific chakras to clear an align them. If you are working on a process of purification, invite Red Serpent to assist you. Red Serpent’s symbol is the serpent, representing healing and wholeness. This Mayan medicine can remove toxins, rejuvenate and transform dis-ease. Red Serpent is also known by the Maya as the kultanlilni, or kundalini, the energy that moves up from the base of the spine and out through the crown chakra. There are two aspects of this force, the ida and the pingala, representing its male and female polarities. One of the ancient secrets of Red Serpent is the activation of higher states of consciousness through balancing these two polarities so that they dance within us as one. Another metaphor for this serpent energy comes from the Mayan words luk umen tun ben can, or “those absorbed by the serpent of the sacred knowledge.” When the seven chakras are fully activated, one experiences an enlightened state. Red Serpent represents the basic structural apparatus of your motivations, instincts, desires, and your innate movement toward wholeness. Red Serpent asks you to shed the skin of your past and step into the fires of alchemical transmutation. In this, rebirth is revealed. This desire is an innate response encoded in the depths of your being. With the energy of Red Serpent, you learn to use the innate intelligence of the body. In this culture you may have become separated from this wisdom. It works like this: when you suppress and ignore your issues, your body receives and retains the unconscious metaphors of that which is ignored. This may be expressed through physical symptoms that bring your unconscious issues to conscious awareness. When this happens, work toward a more conscious relatonship with your body – and work with the physical metaphors in order to heal yourself on all levels. The body has a specific kind of consciousness through which messages are clearly delivered. In fact, the body itself is a living metaphor that mirrors your mind, emotions and spirit. However, the body also remembers all it has experienced, and consequently holds the consciousness of the past within it, including past wounds and traumas. In healing these, remember the innocence of your body. Treat it with love and respect. Open yourself to be aware of its messages and metaphors rather than storing them. Be willing to look at the positive intent beneath any symptoms or physical process your body is using to communicate. Explore whatever it may be asking you to see. In this alignment process, you can use images or energies that come to you in meditation or dreams. Journey through your body to catalyze and explore any sensations, colors, shapes, or images. In these times we have a profound opportunity to transcend both our physical and our spiritual genetics. The body’s integration provides an unparalleled opportunity for personal evolution. Learn to expand and utilize your senses to access your body’s wisdom and vitality. Don’t ‘think’ about it; simply allow your body to sense intuitively the solutions necessary for change and growth. Red Serpent also represents the connection between powerful physical/ecstatic experiences and the light of higher consciousness. This is an initiation of awakening through the body and senses, rather than in negation of them. As Jose Arguelles says in The Mayan Factor, “Like the Maya, we shall understand that the path to the stars is through the senses.” Within the body are held the keys to fully awakening our consciousness. This deeper understanding is expressed in tantric practices, where spirituality and sexuality are integrated and honoured as a means to enlightenment. Red Serpent represents the integration of mind, body and spirit. Red Serpent is associated with the sacred tools of the drum and the rattle. Drums and rattles can break down old patterns or bring energy into alignment. Your Tone is Tone 7 – Resonant Mystical alignment, self-acceptance, technician of the sacred, direct connection with the Source. Seven is the ray of Mystical Power, the foundation of the individual slef freed within the two points of polarity. Your soul calls forth your ability to decode the hidden mysteries. Claim your mystical wisdom by acknowledging your personal relationshp to the Source. Catalyze the mystical force of your seven chakras to propel you to the region of divine illumination. The consciousness of seven puts theory to the test, asking for practical application of your mystical power. As a technician of the sacred, you integrate the polarity of worlds into an operant foundation. You wear the seven-pointed star, symbol of the master artisan. Combine your feelings and intellect to transmute matter into mystical consciousness. Standing in simple self-acceptance, craft a light body from the column of light in your spine. Open your lotus to the world. You are the gift. Accept yourself unconditionally. Freed from the need for outside confirmation, stand open to your full mystical power. Align with the spinning mystery of the seven: seven chakras, seven planets, seven rays, seven steps of the pyramid – the seven stages of consciousness conjoined.

*** These excerpts were taken from the amazing book, “The Mayan Oracle – Return Path to the Stars” by Ariel Spilsbury & Michael Bryner