Few people understand the symbols we often see and the impact they can have on one's life. Author Bettye Johnson shares her experience with the Pot of Gold.

There is an ancient saying that at the end of every rainbow there is a Pot of Gold. Most people think it means money – wealth. It is this and more. It has also been said that the rainbow is a sign of God. This is not a treatise on religion, but more of sharing realizations from knowledge and experiences.

There is also a well-known statement: change your attitude and change your life. But how does one change an attitude? There are those who read all the self-help books and I have been one of those, and there are also those who seek the Pot of Gold by believing it means great financial wealth. It could also be that. Many become disillusioned because the use of affirmations and positive thinking has not brought them the financial rewards they thought they would get.

Getting to the root of the lack of not getting is very much like peeling away the layers of an onion. This is what I have discovered. I have realized that in order to change an attitude, the belief must be addressed and changed. How does one do it when our beliefs hold the emotions of guilt, fear, anger, resentments, regret and doubt?

We have a brain that is unprogrammed when we are born. Parents begin the programming by instilling in the baby their belief systems and dogmas. Added to this is input and influences by other members of the family, peers, religion, school, the media and government. Have you ever wondered why you might have an unhappy relationship with your mother or your father? Perhaps you had problems at school. There is a deep-rooted guilt covered up by many attitudes with the primary one being that you don’t measure up to someone else’s expectations and therefore you feel unworthiness. Could it be that why you didn’t measure up is because you also brought with you into this lifetime an innate knowingness of something else?

There are four beliefs that contribute to lack and they are guilt, regret, fear and doubt. We can use all the affirmations we want but first we begin by changing our beliefs, which are followed by a change in attitudes. Have you ever had a yearning inside that you wanted something different? I have and I wasn’t sure of what it was going to be. I only knew I was dissatisfied with my life. I was in a marriage that was dull and boring. A friend loaned me a book and the book had a message for me. I was searching for intimacy from a relationship. When I attempted to share this with my husband, he looked at me and asked if I wanted a divorce. I said yes, and the horse was out of the barn. I have never looked back with regret.

What has followed has been a journey of discovery - a discovery about me and who I am. I have searched high and low for the Pot of Gold. First I had to shed some old beliefs. I had never been a religious person, but after my divorce I sought a spiritual aspect of my life and became a minister of Divine Science. It was there that I met my late husband and he gave me the intimacy I had been seeking. Once I attained that, I began searching for something more. I realized during the short time I was a minister that religion promotes hypocrisy and I retired. I knew I didn’t want to be a hypocrite and that if I was going to talk the talk that I had to learn to walk the walk. My attitudes began to change because I began addressing beliefs.

When a new idea or new information was presented to me, instead of discarding it I began telling myself that it was a possibility. The more I told myself this, the more old beliefs fell by the wayside and my attitudes changed. This led me to the teacher, Ramtha the Enlightened One. I have been a student at the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, an academy of the mind for twenty years. One of the first things I learned was that adversity was the propellant for change. I also realized that too many people fall victim to adversity by failing to heed the opportunity for change. In Richard Bach's book Illusions, he had this to say: Every problem comes with a gift in its hands. I began to look for the gifts in all of my adversities.

I have learned to seek knowledge and not to accept Ramtha’s teachings blindly. I finally accepted within me that I was here to change and to experience the unknown. I have been encouraged to research and this I have done. I have expanded my knowledge base to include quantum physics, the biology of emotions, how the brain works, ancient history, religion and how it developed along with other subjects.

It has been an interesting odyssey from 1979 when I read a book that changed the course of my life. It has been a wonderful journey of self-discovery. What about the Pot of Gold? Having been taught about the light spectrum made up of the colors of the rainbow, it has taken me many years to finally get the message of the Pot of Gold.

The rainbow is God’s (or whatever name you choose to use) promise because just as the sun cannot be separated from its rays, neither can we be separated from the All-in-All, God, Isness, Creator or It. It is not outside of us as religions have taught. It is within each of us and we are here to experience our aspect of It. The reason we get so many versions is that each one of us is a unique aspect of God or It that is neither female nor male.

How do we change our beliefs? First we forgive our self of harboring guilt, regret, resentment, anger, fear and doubt. Now we can move into new attitudes and allow our Pot of Gold, which is our life to be filled with the manifestations of our dreams and our desires. We live on the plane of opposites. It is not possible for everything to always be positive. When I began to change, I learned that in the beginning it threatened my family who were use to the old me and friends began dropping away. The rewards for me have been attracting into my life new friends of like-mind and the fulfillment of dreams.

The Pot of Gold was created by wise beings from thousands of years ago as a sign or a symbol of our own divinity. We have all been part of the light spectrum and our dreams and desires come from those various frequencies. What we send out comes back to us according to the level of our acceptance. Each of us is our own Pot of Gold and those gold coins that are coming from the rainbow represent the fulfillment of our dreams, our desires and our experiences. Enjoy your own Pot of Gold. It is all within you. Change your beliefs and you change your mind. Enoy your wealth.