Category Archives: Native American

Paddling Through the Currents of Events with the Grace of a Swan

Posted on by under Consciousness, Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized

A Full Pink Moon rises in our skies on Tuesday, April 7th.

But as many of you know, you can feel the effects of a hungry, and
digesting moon cycle a few days prior to, and after the actual Full Moon.

As this current pandemic event spreads,
so does early spring vegetation across the fruit plains of the Americas.

It can be hard not to resist the not so grand waters
of these rapidly shifting tides of life.

Navigating mixes messages can be like that.

There are many who just want life to go back to normal again.

Some of these people are the same people who
have been waiting on the world to change.

But without an inner directed focus, and spiritually
driven internal shifts, it will be harder to experience any
transformation of becoming the change you want to see in the world.

Staying put, and remaining at home seems like
an easy enough mantra to follow.

Unless it is not.

We are invited to turn inward, and reexamine everything.

Polluted canals in Venice are clearing up,
and dolphins are swimming into inlets that hadn’t been.

With less cars on the roads, and jets in the air,
the planet can rest, and take a deep breath.

If this isn’t a time of a planetary, and universal deep
energetic spring cleaning, then I don’t know what is.

Like an agitated swan, maybe the current waters of life
are enough to make you hiss.

But upon a deeper reflection, may Swan awaken an embracement of
staying afloat through grace under fire during an Aries time of year.

A New Moon on the 22nd, brings new beginnings, along with the
current spirit of the season right now.

Like the Corona virus, Spring is a season of transition
that is not without its mixed messages.

There are rememberances of the ghosts of winter in the air,
of old ways of doing things, that might conjure up nostalgia.

And there are the winds of change in the air, like other times
in human history where massive changes have taken place.

It’s easy to forget that when we have been conditioned to
buy into the business as usual mantra.

Like the Hopi elders say, we are the ones we have been waiting for.

Consider that, another name for corona is crown.

The crown chakra is what connects us to our universal connection to Spirit.

We are living in a time of our crown chakras waking up on Planet Earth.

While being quarantined isn’t the preferred outcome,
we are being given an incentive to awaken this prophecy.

Further movement into Spring’s outgrowth of energies,
reflects the rising light, peaking on the Summer Solstice in later June.

As light starts moving downhill after that, will we see
the darkness of this current pandemic clear up?

How will we all continue to respond to its aftershocks,
readjustment, realignment to a new normal way of being?

With the winds of Climate Change picking up, we do have the opportunity
to come down into our souls, and be in our hearts with each other.

We are being prompted to let go of our attachments to our
deeply engrained habitual distractions that have kept us
sufficiently medicated on life supports.

The present moment contains all that is.
You can heal the past, and create a new future trajectory.

This is authentic power, and you can step into your
power at any given moment.

One step, one moment, one breath at a time.

This can become your new reality, and your new habit
of sacred ritual.

Mindful walking, breathing, and way of doing things
shifts your experience with reality, as does the
reality around you changes.

Till we tweet again peeps,

Ari

Here is the link to my new school website. May it be a holistic wellness mind-body-spirit resource for your soul: https://abouse22.weebly.com/

Sometimes Slow and Steady Wins the Race by Following a Turtle’s Pace

Posted on by under Consciousness, Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized

In today’s fast paced, high octane, and trigger happy world,
doesn’t it feel like a politically radical challenge to hit
the pause button, and remember to hit the BAR?

Just pull up a chair, and Breathe And Relax!

May this be a mantra to live for on this Full Snow Moon.

I was talking with a coworker recently, and he admitted
that he worries about having panic attacks, and gets
nervous about focusing on his breath.

He’s probably in the normal majority of people in that way.

But what if only we take a moment to picture a turtle to slow down,
and accept the sublime invitation into the present moment?

Who would I be if I tuned into the sacredness of the
life force that lives in my body?

The showtime of the living now is all there ever really is.

And when you awaken to right now, you start to recognize
that you might as well say yes to it.

Think about how a turtle just knows the futility of
trying to push the river.

It’s kind of like the self defeating absurdity of trying to
kill your ego or make it an enemy to demonize.

Or the quackery of giving the Heisman pose to your Higher Self.
What are you afraid of saying yes to by accessing your personal divinity?

From a developmental psychology framework, we know that
the first stage of human development is trust versus mistrust.

Human beings are prewired to trust.

But of course that doesn’t happen when we don’t feel safe or
that we don’t belong to a greater community.

Of course, it is incumbent on all of us to learn how to work
with that on the inside.

And we all have to do our part to both manage ourselves,
and create a better world for all of us to coexist peacefully in.

Yeah, it may feel daunting at times, and we have a long way to go.

But if you think about a turtle dreaming about waking up, while
they are sleeping under a white, wintry blanket –
perhaps it will inspire you to ponder . . .

Do I need to come out of my shell and be more social?

Or do I need to turn inward, and be compassionately curious
about slowing down, and retreating from the world’s hurried pace?

Speaking of a slow, and low tempo, we can look forward to Big Night,
arriving sometime between the Spring Equinox in late March,
and early April.

That’s when the Frogs, and Salamanders head
for Vernal pools, and make their way across dangerous
crossroads of pavement where cars, and trucks traverse, in New England at least.

In our hustle, and bustle, we could stand to take stock
in Nature’s way, and follow a long term game plan
of Mother Nature’s creatures that have been here longer than we have.

Besides, an outgrowth of energy, and a faster pace will be budding
once we make our way to the equality of yang and yin energies
by Spring, and then increasing activity levels into the Summer Solstice in June.

They do have an innate wisdom about them, and we could stand to
pay more purposeful attention to their intelligence.

Celebrating our diversity within unity is something all
creatures can win by way of profiting off of mutual aid.

Till we tweet again peeps,

Ari

Releasing Old Stories, and Reworking New Scripts

Posted on by under Consciousness, Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized

A New Moon arrives on January 24.
And then after that, the Chinese New Year of the Rat on the 25th.

The duality of an old world dying, and a new one
birthing is laborious, and painful to watch at times.

This transition into a new age and paradigm
goes by different names, just like the moons.

Does that early leaf falling in late summer,
bring you into your fears about the waning light,
and cooler temperatures?

Like all transitions, many people are
questioning where they have been,
and where they are going in their lives.

Some say they don’t want to live on the planet anymore.

There are many forms that people play with to do
that in their consciousness by way of escapism, fantasies,
hitching a ride to another galaxy in a spaceship, running from
our feelings, or retreating into a personal bubble.

One of the ways people give up is through death by suicide.

Killing yourself is certainly one of the 10,000 ways into
the valley of death.

But there are more purposeful ways to expand our souls,
and liberate them, rather than by ending your body’s experience here.

Besides, it’s a really traumatic experience, and terribly confusing.

That’s why I try to be mindful of killing with kindness, and
remember to meditate on Groundhog to die without dying.

It makes sense to me that our ancestors celebrated the Imbolc,
because it marked the mid-point between the Winter Solstice, and Vernal Equinox.

The popular American holiday of Groundhog Day reflects
this symbolism because energetically Spring is starting already.

It’s good medicine to celebrate the light rising at the end of the tunnel,
and the wisdom to see light, and dark balancing each other out again.

As dark of a topic as suicide is,
it does not discriminate.

It doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, what your race,
ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation is, what political
party you belong to, or if you are an introvert or extrovert.

Suicide is something most people contemplate.
But most people don’t do it.

And one of the reasons people don’t end their lives is that people think about
the impact it will have on the survivors, and the holy hell it leaves behind.

One of the complexities of suicide is that people
who try to end their lives, or do end their lives
are sick of the pain, don’t want to deal with it anymore,
and wish their pain would go away.

As a survivor of a completed suicide,
it has been a long journey in working through my own healing process.

It hasn’t been easy to look forward to this month in a new way.

Anniversaries can bring all those feelings,
and old stories right back to the surface –
regardless of how deeply submerged or buried they were.

I can still remember getting the call that my mom
had left this Earth 25 years ago, like it was yesterday.

As you can imagine, that wasn’t an easy call to take,
even though I had tried to prepare myself for it from her previous
attempts, and knowledge of how extreme her shifts
between internal order and chaos could be.

I feel thankful to my family, friends, and fraternity brothers
who were there to cushion the blow, and help me see that
a safety net was there when I needed it.

There have been many ebbs and flows along the way,
regarding how I have handled this tragedy, or not handled it.

Like Sting, I have worn the royal crown of the King of Pain,
and traveled through Dark Knight of the Soul.

For a long time, I’ve been good at hiding that side of myself.
Wearing masks can do that.

But it can also show you who you really are before you are
ready to show your dark and shadow sides to others.

The old survival of the fittest paradigm is
part of a dying process, just as are old stories.

On some level, we have believed that “it’s just the way it is.”

People have been put into boxes, and believed in those boxes.

If you didn’t identify with one version of yourself,
or what someone told you about yourself.

Perhaps you’ve rebelled by becoming the opposite side of the same coin.

The grip of those old stories can be hard to let go of.

We humans have believed in them,
and developed attachments to those stories.

Like with all new moons,
this new moon coming is associated with new beginnings.

And so it is with the lunar energy of a new year.

Rats are shrewd creatures, and can symbolize prosperity,
according to Chinese astrology.

What shrewdness, and prosperity do you want to bring to the table,
and manifest on our Planet in the year ahead?

In social science, rats are associated with behaviorism,
and applied behavioral analysis.

Like humans, rats are intelligent creatures.

Sometimes, behaviorism gets a bad rap about
wanting to manipulate, and control people.

But any knowledge that gets in the wrong hands
embodies that kind of stupidity.

I recently saw an old you-tube interview with B.F. Skinner.
And it was illuminating to see him talk about how he
saw his psychology as a way for individuals to empower themselves.

And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that country rats have been
identified as smarter than city rats.

We all do better in smaller, more intimate circles where we feel
part of a community, and organically connected to Nature.

If you can see the maze for what it is, you can then
see yourself rewiring new cognitive maps.

These are the days of creating amazing portals into new ways of being.

Till we tweet again peeps,

Ari

The Howlin’ Wolf Full Moon, and the Chinese New Year of the Rat

Posted on by under Consciousness, Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized

A Full Wolf Moon blows in the cold winds on January 10th.

The distractions of the holidays have passed, and the
Sun driven Gregorian New Year eclipses us.

And now many are feeling depressed, as the void of coming down
into the wake of winter’s slumber is setting in.

These feelings are natural, even if demonized, and
feared in our glamorized world of being up all the time.

But we can look forward to a New Moon on the 24th, that is followed closely by
the arrival of the Chinese-Lunar Year of the Rat on the day after that.

Meditate on the tracks of Wolf government . . .
Wolves embody a delicate balance of hierarchy, and democratic principles.

Be mindful of the shrewd inspiration of rats to remember
our intellect to reflect, and evaluate on our current human plight.

Legend has it that even the Buddha was impressed when
Rat was the first one to come learn when he
invited all the animals to his teachings.

You don’t have to look very far to see
the climate of changing tides on the Planet today.

There are many things to grieve about the suffering
we see among our human brothers and sisters.

Yeah, it might be hard not to get seduced by the
enemies of hate spreading like agent orange across
the sands of time.

Watch the dinosaurs of the old paradigm fight tooth and nail
to protect a dog eat dog conditioned mentality that is oppressive.

Remember that those people are suffering the most are afraid
that their power is slipping away by believing that they
don’t have a place in a New Earth.

But everything about that kind of thinking
are merely examples of erroneous zones.

Even if you don’t understand what polarity consciousness,
or diversity in unity means, you probably already realize that
people are more divided nowadays more than yesterdays.

That’s why we souls have come here at this time,
because we must heal the illusion of our perceived separation.

But then again, every soul’s waking up process happens in
its own way, as does their personal transformational process.

As long as I have been on the planet, I have seen this
more pronounced now more than ever.

This is part of our awakening, spiritually speaking.

I was born right around the time that Richard Nixon resigned –
probably right before he would have been impeached.

People forget that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
left his comfort zone of black churches.

He did that with great courage by venturing out into the unknown
to protest the Viet Nam War, and social injustices by crossing over into
the the dominant White, Middle-Class America, and the world at large.

Civil Rights is about asserting the right for everyone to
have equal access to resources. It is about asserting
that we all deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

Now we have a Billionaire Class gangster at large in the White House.

But he is just part of the Old Testament Goliath
that represents a dying old world.

The vanity fair of the ego should be our servant
but not our master.

A tao centered way of an Aquarian New Age is on its way,
but we are in the labor pains right now.

It is a similar feeling to when you experience loss
when someone you love dies, moves out of your life,
you go through a death of your old self, your child leaves
for college, you go through a break-up, a divorce,
or leave a job, along with coworkers you see everyday, etc.

Perhaps the gender identity, or your sexuality has
changed, and you now view that part of you as dead,
and a new part of you as born.

Out of the great void, arises a new light, and energies
that come alive inside of you when you
let them flow through your Being.

But around here, part of playing the blame game,
and being a blamenator, is to take things personally.

In this sphere, we see criticisms as personal attacks,
and then become defensive.

I know this because I have been good at those things during my lifetime.
In fact, I have been gifted at it.

At some point, you have to get sick of being sick, and realize
that by softening your will, and by surrendering to the
will of the Universe, you aren’t losing or selling out.

If you can access faith and trust, it will shed light
in the tunnel of darkness – however dimly lit.

By not drawing your sword, and going to war with another person,
you are actually getting in touch with yourself on a deeper level.

Remember that the definition of insanity is to keep doing
the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.

And here we are with our weapons of mass destruction, wars, cyberbullying,
and deleting each other because we fear our apparent differences.

We have to stop attracting this kind of energy if we are
going to stop creating it.

We can have our philosophical disagreements, and work
them out through peaceful, and non-violent means.

If you want make a difference, like Ghandi said,
you have to become the change you want to see in the world.

Instead of being seduced by your anger, hate, fears, etc.,
listen to your internal informers, and be curious about why
you are really feeling that way.

Respect isn’t an entitlement.
It may be earned, but it should be given no matter what.

Might as well make respect a daily habit.

Do you remember the Golden Rule?

Heaven and hell are inner states of consciousness.

You always have a choice about which gate you go through.

You can heed the call of your lower self (demons), and make
the transition into your Higher Self (better angels).

It isn’t about walking around with a yoke around your neck,
or following the dictates of what society says you should.

You’ll know when your head and heart are in alignment when
you do the right thing just because it’s the
right thing to do out of your own goodness.

It doesn’t matter who agrees with you, or who is on your side.
Just try to see souls over roles when you co-mingle with our human family.

Till we tweet again peeps,

Ari

On The Full Cold Moon & Winter Solstice, May We Remember The Souls That Have Passed On

Posted on by under Consciousness, Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized

Dark days reach their pinnacle on the Winter Solstice this December.

Given that many souls historically leave
the planet around this time of year, it’s easy to become a sucker for the dirge.

It is important to grieve our losses.

But it is also important to be thankful for their lives, and then let them go
so that we can awaken to new relationships in spirit.

And it will be a New Year soon that brings tidings of new beginnings.

If 2020 doesn’t bring a heightened sense of new vision,
then it’s hard to see what year will.

May it be good intellectual property in the Chinese-Lunar New Year of the Rat.

Try to remember the spirit of the season, and the meaning behind the holidays.

Rampant consumerism makes it hard not to get deflated about the
peer pressure to run the hurry up offense, and mad push to shut up and shop.

Perhaps we may be inspired to come down into our souls,
like our ancestors traditionally did around this time.

But remember that in the tunnel of darkness, there is a flickering light.
And that light will get a little brighter every day after Winter begins.

Before you know it, it will be the Imbolc, which signals
the approximate halfway point between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox.

Bears, Groundhogs, and Chipmunks are either asleep, are about to hibernate now.
But they will be waking up before too long.

They remind us not to resist turning inward to meditate, contemplate, and
rejuvinate our souls, while slowing down, and resting in our dens.

When I think about the death of Winter,
I remember my old football Coach Mac, who died recently.

He was a big man, with a heart of gold.

And he was even once crowned offensive MVP in the historic collegiate Peach Bowl.
That’s a rare occurance for a lineman, where the game is really won and lost.

Coach came into my life when I was a High School Senior,
and inspired us to live by the mantra, “count on me.”

I tried to remember that when I didn’t want to go to practice, had a bad day,
if my general spirits were in the pits, worrying about my depressed mom, or
everyday experiences with excruciating back pain at the time.

Little did I realize back zen, that embodiment of this mantra,
would become a lifeline later in life right tao.

This positive self talk strategy helped us get through a seemingly
impossible season where our players were dropping like flies.

Unfortunately, some teammates quit, got injured, or even kicked off the team.

I wasn’t the only player that didn’t come off the field
until halftime or the end of the game.

And what we lacked in numbers or size, we made up for by being slow.

But even in the curse, there were plentiful shared blessings on the field,
that have become even greater treasured lessons for life.

Like the way Mountain Lion licks its wounds, and jumps
back onto the path, after being knocked off its tracks.

When you get knocked down, you get back up, suck it up,
blow the blood and snot out of your nose, and go back to the huddle.

Sometimes, your soul leaves your body when you get the
wind knocked out of you, your ears are ringing, you
see “the flash”, and then its lights out.

Elbows, and hands inflate like balloons,
after getting hit so hard – it leaves you bruised and battered.

Days could go by before buises would come up.
By then, the scar tissue were like a new set of pads.

We learned about the difference between pain and injury.
And sometimes that’s a fine line when you can’t afford to be hurt.

Glory wasn’t something we experienced much in my High School
football days, as in we rode the wave of over a decade-long losing streak.

We were a trophy soccer town, without a youth league,
and barely enough players willing to sign up for a violent game,
for the privilege of playing on a team with a bad reputation.

You know how difficult it is to rise up out of the throes of hell,
when sleeping under the security blanket of apathy.

Riding the team bus to away games was like a riding in a herse
on your way to a funeral procession.

But when our new coach came to town,
he resurrected a new hope into our learned helplessness.

We started developing a scholarly attitude about football,
and reported on the legends of the game that had otherwise
been foreign to young players that only knew about the stars on TV.

Coach wanted us to learn how to become men,
instead of just acting like men.

He metaphorically referred to our girlfriends as “Mary Lou”,
and used to say, “you think you’re married, and you’re not.”

Coach emphasized being respectful as a way of life, encouraged
taking responsibility, and frowned upon making excuses, or blaming others.

And although he had his favorites,
he didn’t play favorites, nor did he do drama.

I try to be like him in that way, and I respect others like that too.

We were the Indians – named after a local tribed called Tunxis.

So when I remember the Indians, I think of Coach Mac.

He was a class act, and a good Chief to be touched by.

But he was a human being, and not without his faults.
People tend to forget that part of our humanity is our dark sides too.

I’ll be standing around a fire in a community of men
to celebrate, and honor this Winter Solstice.

We will focus on gratitude, and letting go.

Fire rituals can be good medicine for that.

Do whatever you can to get in touch with the natural spirit of
the season, and connect with your deeper soul purpose.

We are meant to align with the Universe,
rather than try to control or resist its power.

Till we tweet again peeps,

Ari

November Rain & A Full Beaver Moon

Posted on by under Consciousness, Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized

November has arrived, and days are becoming darker
in the Northern hemisphere.

We are moving closer to the Winter Solstice,
our darkest day of the year.

But following that, we begin coaxing back the light.

When the shades of Mercury in Retrograde are drawn,
it can fog the left brain, and leave you feeling cloudy.

Here in Maine, November is traditionally the gloomiest month of the year.

Given the thinning veils between spirit and material realms,
and the end of daylight savings time, there are many natural feelings
associated with the dark energies around death, dying, and darkness in general.

Of course, we have been taught to fear the dark in our modern world.

In fact, religions have demonized the dark –
even at times enslaved, and burned people at the stake out of fear.

Just look at how we glorify our attachments to our bodies,
and fear the extinction of them.

But our souls, like the yin and the yang have both sunlight and dark nights.
Every soul has masculine and feminine energies living within it.

You do not have to be seduced by your fears or your dark side.
If you are, then you will become consumed by them,
and attract more of the same.

The opposite is true if you focus on the positive,
and look for the silver lining.

The key dynamic to embrace your oneness with everything,
and celebrate the diversity that makes you unique.

How do you see yourself right now?

Do you see yourselves as separate from others?

Are you becoming the change you want to see in the world?

In my experience, Winter has been a hard time for me,
as the date of January 25, marks the tragic date of my mom’s
death by suicide many moons ago – 25 years to be exact.

Sadly, it is getting harder for people to live on the planet,
and more people are ending their lives.

I feel their pain, and I get their plight, as most empaths do.

The trick is not to cut yourself off from the gift to feel, nor
take the pains of others personally, and also to know discernment with
relation to boundaries.

But according to the Chinese Lunar New Year,
January 25 signals the Year of the Rat.

The social science geek in me appreciates the connection between Rat, and
rat psychology – a derivative of behaviorism, a form of the
science of psychology.

We have been conditioned to buy into a material world that
peddles a dangerous game of rewards and punishments.

Many people that don’t fit into that paradigm,
feel left out, lost and alone.

But the spiritual power of Rat invites meditation onto another possibility.

Do you remember the story about when the Buddha welcomed
the arrival of all the animals to his teachings,
and the first one of 12 to show up was the rat?

At the precipice of a New Age and Paradigm,
the time is now to redefine our idea of success.

We need to become more shrewd in our doings, and awaken strategies to
more effectively tame our nervous woodland creature energy.

Mindfulness is a way out of our suffering that allows us to breathe
in the power of now as it awakens in the present moment.

Meditation trains us to leave the depression of the
past alone, and calm the anxiety of the future.

It is not a cure, but it is a skill that can be developed,
and improve with practice.

The Beaver Full Moon rises in the skies on November 12.

Given their industry, and creative exit strategies,
the energies of Beaver can help you spring the traps in your consciousness.

Remember that consciousness is behind everything,
even the most advanced human brains,
and other intelligences at play.

So you might as well forget about outwitting Nature, or getting caught up
in the manipulations of the egoic mind’s behavioral traps.

The Universe is not out to get you, nor is it an enemy that needs to
be beaten up, subjugated or killed.

At the end of the day, we all need to build new neurons, neighborhoods,
and make friends with our own inner space.

When we do that, alternative energy is cultivated in a way
that is based on the Universal pillars of Love and Truth.

Till we tweet again,

Ari

A Full Harvest Moon Rises, And Light and Dark Become Equal Again on Autumn Equinox

Posted on by under Consciousness, Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized

Greetings Peeps,

The tides of change are not slowing down on the planet today.

Like riding a rollercoaster, you can raise your hand to the heavens,
twist and shout out to your god, let go, and enjoy the thrill of the ride.

Or you can resist every moment, and be seduced by your fears.

The dance between these realms of experience are akin to
how we weather the nature of the climate.

If you really lean into narcissism, and think you can control everything,
you’re likely to take everything personally, and probably slip
back into the old world of a savior complex.

In that sphere, it’s easy to feel either an inflated sense of self,
or completely deflated.

Sometimes, this shift happens on a dime.

I’ve traveled down that lonely road inside myself, and I know I’m not
the only one.

It’s hard not to let the barriers in place knock the
wind out of you.

Before you get back up, stay on the ground for a moment, feel the Earth
beneath you, merge with Her, and gaze at the clouds.

Maybe even climb a tree,
or sit beneath one for awhile.

What does that do for you?

But if you lean into your feelings of vulnerability, you can open up
to receiving the pillars of Love and Truth by way of the Universe.

It is the Nature of the Universe to provide us with signs and synchronicities.

The choice is ours to tread lightly on the surface, or scuba dive
into the shark infested waters of oceanic depth.

If you awaken to the reality that you are a soul that chose to become
mortal, then you know that everything during your time here is
transient and ephermal.

When you see from this vision, it is easier to go out on a limb,
and discover the gift of life, and how precious our time is here.

And it’s easier not to become this lifetimecentric in your viewpoints,
as in what’s in it for me, I’m gonna get mine kind of thinking.

The only thing about greed being good is that it shows us the
carnage of our fear of loss.

But then again, it is natural for expanding souls to welcome abundance,
so long as we cultivate an attitude of gratitude in our everyday footsteps.

Human beings are complex creatures.

But it is in our DNA to wake up
to becoming spiritual watchers while having human experiences.

It is important to learn how to play situational football in life.

Sometimes it’s go time, and you gotta run with the ball.

Other times it’s time to take the scenic route, smell the roses, or take a catnap.

If you’ve noticed Groundhogs, they ate a lot of food over the summer, often on
wet, rainy days to get ready for their wintery slumber.

Same with the chimpunks, scurrying around, and procuring their source.

And although squirrels keep on keeping, as nuts as they are –
they don’t seem to forget how to play and have fun.

Even if they do forget where they buried their acorns.

Till we tweet again,

Ari

As The Sturgeons Run, The Dragonfly

Posted on by under Consciousness, Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized

A Full Sturgeon Moon arrived in the skies yesterday.

Many of our ancestors noticed these great fish run,
and liberally give us a peak seasonal catch.

This Earth, and Her creatures have given us so much of their bounty.

You’d think our Mother’s wisdom would
take root in our consciousness, and that we’d be hooked.

The time is now to give back.

You don’t have to hug a trees, go to protests,
become seduced by a savior complex, or pound your chest about your political
beliefs to convince everyone that you have all the right answers.

But what you really can do to move with climate change is become the change you
want to see in the world by noticing your own climate on the inside.

That’s damn near impossible when you’re demonizing yourself or others,
feeding off your anger, hatred, and fears.

As a living soul, you came here to experience life by waking up to
the reality that you are a spiritual being having a human experience.

We are collective souls, and we can cocreate heaven on earth.
This knowledge has been also passed on by our ancentry.

A loving blueprint was designed by Creator, and imprinted in our DNA
with the universal intention to rewire itself in our being.

Have you ever heard the saying that
today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday?

Might as well replace those fears with peaceful, calming thoughts, by
following the river of life, with all of its twists and turns
without getting damed up in our thought forms.

Be mindful of the way Dragonfly brings
the magic of color in our world.

Do you see the intersection between the energies
of dreamtime and material reality?

Dragonfly medicine shows us the ability to hover in the air,
and reflects powerful pictures of light prisms that are
captured in the eye of Nature’s still frames.

But even as the torch of the summer season wanes, there is still
an abundance of beacons to light our way.

Before long, it will be back to school, back to business,
and time to reorient to the industry of a new season.

Many people have mixed feelings about the celebratory vibrations of
summery tonic falling back into the prism of Autumn’s foilage.

Won’t be long before light and dark are equal again on the Fall Equinox.

Like many professional athletes, teachers refer to this
transition as shifting gears from the off season to adjusting
their craft of their game plan accordingly.

As children age, many of them awaken their perception to mixed feelings
about these scheduling changes that are coming down the pike.

Their are various emotional reactions to the changes in routine
that are coming down the pike.

But it is how you move with these transtions that really matter.

Remember your heads and your hearts.

Let them dance together in alignment with the spirit of the season.

Till we tweet again peeps,

Ari

Please feel free to check out my new author website developments at:

http://www.aribouse.com

Nature Breathes In Another Berry Sweet Full Quarterly Moon Review

Posted on by under Consciousness, Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized

Father Sun will reach his zenith on the lightest day of the year
on the Summer Solstice on Thursday, June 20th.

Is it a coincidence that Father’s Day is on the Sunday before that?

Adding to the festivities is the arrival of a
Full Strawberry Moon on Monday, June 17th.

There are a lot of celebrations in the air right now.
High School graduations, and award ceremonies galore.

I wonder what would happen if these seasonal celebratory
vibes were less staged, compressed, and instead were
organically woven into everyday life?

And what if celebrations were less about recognizing winners and losers –
but more about simply catching each other being good, like
noticing random acts of kindness?

When I think about the power of empathy in relationships,
I remember to notice the common core standards of the sun and the moon.

Without one, we would not have the other.
Nor would we have any water to drink, air to breathe, or planet to live on.

The Sun has his fire, and the Moon has her emotional tides.
But they don’t judge each other for their different approaches.

They are good role models that way.

We could stand to remember that when we think about the
popular desire to win an argument with someone else.

Who really wins anyway?

If the Sun remembers to bring his light to the Earth,
and the Moon remembers to bring her waters –

Then it stands to reason that we can learn from the Nature about
the power of male and female energies working together during these
difficult times of change and transition that we are living in right now.

Nobody really wins with dripping sarcasms, and us and them kind of thinking.

Yeah, you might feel special when you are given a secret decoder ring to
belong to a club that boasts privileged entitlements.

But a sense of entitlement – that things will be given to you,
or you should get your way, is a receipt for unhappiness.

It isn’t easy to be present with someone who is saying
something that you don’t like to hear.

And it doesn’t get any easier when someone is abusing their power
by throwing their voice by using disrespectful language.

Perhaps you feel fed by getting charged, or developing an attitude
against someone or some group of people that you demonize or see as an enemy.

But you aren’t going to balance the wheels by making them pay
via a punitive, heavy hitting consequence.

A lot of people in jails still see themselves as victims,
and don’t take any responsibility for their actions.

And plenty of folks in mental institutions never leared how to emote,
or speak their truths through the voice of mental health.

To wit: that doesn’t just go for the workers in those social environments.

You all know about the rampage of school shootings these days.
We aren’t going to reduce violence by adding more bullets on the streets.

Remember that those hardest to love are the ones that need it the most.

And you are not going to be able to give love to the tough ones if you
put your nose to the grindstone,
and forget to make yourself a priority to love yourself.

Otherwise, you’ll just burnout and develop compassion fatigue.

Rather, you’ll actually strenthen their resentments, and build
their impetus to retailiate against you, instead of be more more likely
to see where you are coming from.

Just look at the way President Trump,
and plenty of faux news pundits do that in everyday current events.

A lot of people that are Trumpites, follow him because of their
hatred of Hillary Clinton, and the Politically Correct movement.

Or they saw him as the lesser of two evils, and felt like a muzzle was
taken off their mouths because he says things that you felt,
but weren’t supposed to say.

Just like that opposite side of the same coin thought when they took
down Nixon during Watergate.

Real systemic change must come from the inside out.

The times we are living in, like back in the 60s, shows us
that the stars are aligning in a way that we can
cocreate systemic transformation.

But to do that, we need to align with the
Universal pillars of Love and Truth

That doesn’t happen when you hate the guy next door
because you don’t like his politics or the way she looks.

See you at the next trail junction,

Ari

New Tanka and Haiku Poetry

Posted on by under Consciousness, Native American, Original Poetry, Original Prose, Shamanism, Uncategorized

Woodpecker Drumming
Hawk soars O’er a new moonshine
Like Mercury in
Retrograde, Fox can be a
Trump Trickster that sells fake news

Let go of concrete
Logical/rational thought
Instead of being
Seduced/punched by your fears
Become your transformation

Picture calm, peaceful
thoughts that breathe fresh air into
your soul so you can
see Love and Truth that values
Equality and freedom

Is an Alien 
event coming to reveal 
new dimensional
challenge of looking at things
differently than we do?

A Full Worm Moon is
Coming on Spring Equinox
Robin gets its meal

Are you a programmed
sheep herded by big money?
See with your own eyes!

You can build a wall
But an old paradigm is
breaking down right now

Till Next Time Peeps,

Ari