Category Archives: Shamanism

Staying Afloat with Duck as an Emotional Guide

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

Whatever our circumstances might look like in this lifetime, our human brethren are emotional creatures that feel a strong yearning to belong and be included in fraternal sisterhood. Some of us, try as we might appear hellbent on avoiding and killing that aspect of ourselves. Living authentically however, is sobering us up to our need to regulate our emotional plight. Sure, we have plenty of things to distract us from our emotional bodies, like “work to do and bills to pay”. But those distractions only make it conveniently inconvenient to suppress and repress our emotional tides that inundate. During this powerful eclipse season and Full Moon coming soon to a theater of life near you, our emotional realities are intensifying. Between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, the masculine energetic light of day is rising, as are our spirits. Meditation on Duck is a free guide to tune in to. Its energies want to share its spiritual wisdom with you. When we allow Duck’s Chi to paddle into our souls, we are given emotional comfort and protection. We are in our element with water and given assistance while floating in the astral and emotional realms. Duck helps us drink in the waters of life and swim effectively and stay afloat in our emotional waters. Duck is a powerful spirit guide to maintain our Earthbound connection and let things roll off our backs when things get heated. If only our CEO-Government friends running the business of our military-industrial-complex would marinate on consuming Duck’s free-spirited teachings.

As the world burns, soapy pundits on the tele remain engaged and driven to distraction vis-a-vis the pontificating of ego-centered debates. Admittedly, fascism has its romantic undertones, but we need not choose to buy it. Words are used as weapons of mass distraction, but we have weapons of mass destruction that we need to clear. The time is now to shift our focus away from looking at our Mother Earth as a finite resource to deplete, to a living Being that gives us sustainable life. The engrained business as usual model that has been indoctrinated into our brains needs a new cognitive map. When we are identified with our minds, an endless sea of mental concepts and incessant accompanying emotional reactions are typically dominated by unrealized anxiety. And this hypnotic trance has a tendency to propagate a sleep walk through life. But in every breath we take, we have an opportunity to wake up. Rather than check out, we all have our part to do. For some it’s putting down the 40 ounces to slavery. For others, it might mean seeing through the veil that capitalism and socialism are really just opposite sides of the same coin. Instead of concretely looking at one another as separate and disconnected, one religion being right and the others wrong, qualifying the winners and losers mantra–we become in touch with our strong impulse to shift toward unity in our consciousness. We are leaving behind a bi-polar world of angels and demons, while co-authoring a New Chapter that includes a pluralistic and multi-polar New Earth script.

Ducks are sound creatures of habit and are good reminders to return to safe and comfortable aspects of ourselves when we need to feel safe within our Being. Their energies help us cope with our emotions gracefully. Meditation on Duck helps us acquire and access strategies in the areas of balance, emotional comfort, adaptability and adventure. Life is a journey, not without its labor pains. We all feel that right now, especially during these changing times of transition. The old world is burning, while stoking the embers of the Phoenix Rising. Do you need to establish balance, increase or pay more attention to your emotions and close relationships? Meditation on Duck is ready to help you receive consultation to those questions without charging a bill.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Father Sky-Mother Earth Meditation

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

Here is a meditation that helps us integrate the energies of the heavens and the earth into our Being. In this way, we co-create Heaven on Earth by becoming living conduits in this process.

–Find a space outside and get into a comfortable sitting position on the ground.
–Breathe in slowly through your nose and exhale slowly through your mouth, while feeling your belly expanding.
–Imagine the energy from the cosmos entering in through a tube in the top of your head (crown chakra) as you inhale.
–Imagine the energy flowing down though your body and exiting your buttocks (root chakra)–with a slight squeeze, as if you are going poop and flushing through a tube into the earth.
–Take turns reversing this process so that your inhalation and energy arrives from the ground up and exits from the top of your head during your exhalation.
–You can also integrate your heart chakra area by circulating the energy to enter and exit this area and work that into the feedback loop cited above.

What do you notice about your connection with Nature after this meditation?

Eye of the Tiger

Posted on by under Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized

Pouncing down the trails head, we look forward to a New Moon this week on May 10th and a Full Moon leaping down the month on May 25th. Also, we celebrated the Beltane last week, otherwise known as May Day. This ancient sacred tradition “honors and celebrates the sacred marriage of masculine and feminine, yin and yang” and the “inner union with the Beloved.” It marks the mid-point between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice and fertilizes harmony between our spiritual and material growth or walking in alignment with “one foot in spirit, one foot in ground.” Tiger synchronizes with the New and Full Moon cycles as its energetic power time. Consuming Tiger’s spirited medicine helps us develop our passion, power, devotion and sensuality. Meditation on Tiger will wake up your sensitivity to touch. Tiger’s are skilled swimmers, so their energy reflects connection to the elemental forces of water. They are colorful and unpredictable, reflecting the world we live in and the changing times we are swimming in on Mother Earth today. In Chinese Astrology, their sign is seen as adventurous, powerful and passionate and symbolize the dark night of the New Moon and the sunlight of the Full Moon. Given that “traditions are time-tested proof that things work”, meditation on Tiger, in conjunction with a fire ritual facilitates burning away Winter, while shifting our gears full-throttle by igniting Spring.

Something is changing in the sea of consciousness on our Planet today. Although it is a process, it is becoming more difficult for folks to ignore. The garden variety of band-aids used to quell the symptoms that are roaring out to us are less effective in covering up the spirited energies streaming in now. Whether the arrival of symptomatic reactions manifests as distorted visions, racing thoughts, chronic headaches, lethargy, terrorism, mania in the global Stock Exchange–the intensity is rising and the times, they are a changin’. The perception of polarity, duality or “us and them” needs to be released from and healed in our consciousness. Living authentically and respectfully in a global village requires us to sit with the tension of opposites that exists within our individual and collective souls. Every man has a woman inside of his Being, just as every woman has a man within hers. When meditation is embraced as a popular way to consume a spiritual diet, we will see the proliferation of this understanding reflecting in our outer world for everyone to notice as obvious. Right now, you really have to take a close look for the evidence and hold that focus, given the reality of the dark and stormy weather patterns. The smoke and mirrors of our World are an illusion that carry a reality to that perception. In the realm of Infinity, the possibilities of blazing New Trail into a New Frontier are there for us to clear, if only we allow for it. But it is a process that we all have to step-up to on a case by case basis. The Golden Age is not a fixed ideal, where we find ourselves living in after a long, strange trip. Rather, when we change the way we look at the world, the world we look at changes. In this way, we become the change we want to see in the world. We are co-creating novel neuronal pathways inside our brains, signaling our conscious evolutionary next step in our program development.

We all have a basic need to feel safe and secure. However, looking to our outer world to provide that meal for us to eat is frequently met with a receipt for poor digestion. At the end of the day, we all need to access and acquire our internal power for a sense of safety and security. Our spirited animal friends are here to help reflect that back to humanity. True, it is a jungle out there. But have you ever watched animals frolic and play, even among predators and prey? They are good reminders for that. We are shifting from a divisive, compartmentalized view of the World that looks either matriarchal or patriarchical in our shared history, toward Unity Consciousness. In the words of Mr. Miyagi from the film The Karate Kid, we are “different, but same.”

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Cleansing Frog Meditation

Posted on by under Meditation, Shamanism

Frog is a powerful animal spirit totem for cleansing your soul during your travels in your spirit-mind-body vessel. Consuming Frog Medicine helps the purification and detoxification process of cleansing your soul. May the energy of Frog help you clean up both your inner and outer world. Doing this proactively helps us weather our experiences with Climate Change and effectively transition into a New Age and Paradigm. Here is a shamanic journey meditation to assist you in this area:

*Light incense/candle.
*Start drumming to a consistent beat that feels natural to you. A simple bongo drum works well. Get into a comfortable position, relax and breathe.
*Picture a frog in your imagination and feel its energy coming into your Being.
*Ask Frog for any guidance that you feel is appropriate for you. Being specific with your question is helpful.
*Continue drumming for 10-20 minutes and gently allow yourself to receive whatever arrives to you in your consciousness.
*Thank Frog for its spiritual medicinal offering.
*Remember your callback by opening your eyes and changing your drumbeat. A callback facilitates the transition back into our material reality. A callback can also be in the form of a word or mantra that you prefer. My callback consists of 3 sets of 8 beats, then 3 sets of 3 beats and then 3 sets of 7 beats.
*Record your notes of whatever messages Frog brought to you. These messages might be in the form of feelings, lyrics, sounds, visuals, smells, etc. Let go and gently allow your soul to inform you as you travel along during your daily walking meditation.

Heavenly Umbilical Chord Meditation

Posted on by under Meditation, Shamanism

Here is a meditation I would like to give you that I carry with me in my walking meditation tool-kit. It is a helpful resource in staying connected and in alignment with the Universal flow.

–Picture a luminous Divine thread from the Heavens connecting to the top of your head where your Crown Chakra is.
–Feel yourself being nourished by this Divine Light flowing in through the top of your head, pulsating down your spine, Chakras, body and exiting through the balls of your feet, or bubbling wells if you are into tai chi and qigong.
–Gently allow the residual energy to exit three feet into the Earth for organic compost. This process is free mulching for the soul.
–If you are into Reiki, you may also picture the appropriate symbols to enhance this powerful meditation.
–Repeat as needed.

Bonus material:
–Feel your heart open up and connect with other energies around you, allowing yourself to give and receive this Divine energy. Imagine yourself elevating your own consciousness and the consciousness of others.

When out on the trails of Life, this is one way we step into the realm of Infinity and co-create Heaven on Earth.

Chakra Balancing Meditation

Posted on by under Meditation, Shamanism

Energy medicine is a healing and proactive approach to wellness. Ideally, we catch our health issues at the energetic level, before they leave their mark on our spirit-mind-bodies. In that light, Chakras are spinning discs that are part of our energetic bodies and are designed in perfect alignment by Great Spirit. As such, remembering to balance our chakras on a daily basis has a powerful cumulative effect on our overall well-being and vitality. If you are into Reiki, you may picture the appropriate symbols to increase the power of this meditation. Some folks see, hear, feel and sense Chakras differently, if not at all. Try not to get hung up on that, as there is ego in powers of perception. It is a colorful world so within, as without and folks tend to perceive differently.

–Focus on your breath and put your hands in the prayer position and open them up like a peacock to open up Sacred Space.
–Visualize your luminous energy field (a white mist around your spirit body in front of you).
–Visualize your spherical Root Chakra that is Red in color and is located around the base of your spine. Take your right hand, placing it in that area, in front of your body and slowly spin your hand around in a counter-clockwise direction 10 times to unwind your Chakra. Release any unwanted energy to Mother Earth to be cleansed and composted. Then spin your Chakra 10 times in a clockwise direction to re-balance it. During this process, just watch and notice whatever comes up for you and gently let it pass without judging and/or labeling it.
–Continue along in this way with the rest of your Chakras.
–Sacral Orange is about 2 1/2 inches below your belly button.
–Personal Will/Self Esteem(Yellow) is at the base of your breastbone.
–Heart Chakra (Green) is in the middle of your chest area.
–Throat Chakra (light blue).
–Third Eye (Indigo) in the middle of your forehead just above your eyebrows.
–Finally Crown Chakra (Violet) at the top of your head.

After feeling comfortable with the above Chakra meditation, perhaps consider trying the next two more advanced forms.

–First, visualize a Golden spinning disk like halo (like we see in renaissance art) a couple of feet above your Crown Chakra. This is the eighth Chakra.
–Finally, the Ninth Chakra, the realm of Spirit is everywhere, but I like to think of it as “the Spirit in the Sky” where We become One with Everything. I perceive my Eighth Chakra taking off like a disc shaped spacecraft and flying to and merging with the Ninth Chakra, Great Spirit, which is everywhere.

Weaseling Our Way Through Our Meditations

Posted on by under Meditation, Shamanism, Uncategorized

For many thousands of years, humans following the shamanic path have been journeying to visit the spirit realm to bring back heavenly knowledge into the material realm. We have a Full Moon today, which is a powerful time to use its energies to fill your meditation cup. Try to use its spirited energies for power rather than react to them through force.

*Light incense/candle.
*Start drumming to a consistent beat that feels natural to you. A simple bongo drum works well. Get into a comfortable position, relax and breathe.
*Picture a weasel in your imagination and feel its energy coming into your Being.
*Ask Weasel for any guidance that you feel is appropriate for you. Being specific with your question is helpful.
*Continue drumming for 10-20 minutes and gently allow yourself to receive whatever arrives to you in your consciousness.
*Thank Weasel for its spiritual medicinal offering.
*Remember your callback by opening your eyes and changing your drumbeat. A callback facilitates the transition back into our material reality. A callback can also be in the form of a word or mantra that you prefer. My callback consists of 3 sets of 8 beats, then 3 sets of 3 beats and then 3 sets of 7 beats.
*Record your notes of whatever messages Weasel brought to you. These messages might be in the form of feelings, lyrics, sounds, visuals, smells etc. Let go and gently allow your soul to inform you as you travel along in your walking meditation.

Journeying with Pelican in our Meditations

Posted on by under Meditation, Shamanism

When we get shamanic in our meditations, we take a step into the realm of Infinity so that we may bring back spiritual insight into our material reality. This is how we become the change we want to see in the world, in the spirit of if not me, who and if not now, when? When we do this, we wake up to living more consciously and intentionally.

*Light incense/candle.
*Start drumming to a consistent beat that feels natural to you. A simple bongo drum works well. Get into a comfortable position, relax and breathe.
*Picture a pelican in your imagination and feel its energy coming into your Being.
*Ask Pelican for any guidance that you feel is appropriate for you. Being specific with your question is helpful.
*Continue drumming for 10-20 minutes and gently allow yourself to receive whatever arrives to you in your consciousness.
*Thank Pelican for its spiritual medicinal offering.
*Remember your callback by opening your eyes and changing your drumbeat. A callback facilitates the transition back into our material reality. A callback can also be in the form of a word or mantra that you prefer. My callback consists of 3 sets of 8 beats, then 3 sets of 3 beats and then 3 sets of 7 beats.
*Record your notes of whatever messages Pelican brought to you. These messages might be in the form of feelings, lyrics, sounds, visuals, smells etc. Let go and gently allow your soul to inform you as you travel along in your walking meditation.

During my journeying meditations this week, Pelican is helping me glimpse deep within my soul the power in releasing my judgments that I have carried inside myself and with others. When we hold this space in our souls, we take back our projections and experience inner peace. When we all do our part in this area, we co-create win-win realities, a peaceful New Earth and experience harmony on our Planet and multidimensional Classroom throughout.

Sea Gull Journeying Meditation

Posted on by under Meditation, Shamanism

Sea Gulls
Photo courtesy of K. Bouse

We journey and meditate to co-create Heaven on Earth, or build a New Earth. When we bring this energy into our Being, we are more likely to manifest what we see in the Dreamtime into our material reality. This is how we become the change we want to see in the world. May the energy of Herring assist you in effectively navigating the winds of change and shifting tides. In the spirit of that, we remember that birds of a feather, flock together.

*Light incense/candle.
*Start drumming to a consistent beat that feels natural to you. A simple bongo drum works well. Get into a comfortable position, relax and breathe.
*Picture a sea-gull in your imagination and feel its energy coming into your Being.
*Ask Herring for any guidance that you feel is appropriate for you. Being specific with your question is helpful.
*Continue drumming for 10-20 minutes and gently allow yourself to receive whatever arrives to you in your consciousness.
*Thank Herring for its spiritual medicinal offering.
*Remember your callback by opening your eyes and changing your drumbeat. A callback facilitates the transition back into our material reality. A callback can also be in the form of a word or mantra that you prefer. My callback consists of 3 sets of 8 beats, then 3 sets of 3 beats and then 3 sets of 7 beats.
*Record your notes of whatever messages Herring brought to you. These messages might be in the form of feelings, lyrics, sounds, visuals, smells etc. Let go and gently allow your soul to inform you as you travel along in your walking meditation.

Dolphin Meditation

Posted on by under Meditation, Shamanism

Here is a shamanic journey meditation that I have selected to share with you this week to stay in the flow of Nature. Journeying with Dolphin helps us bring back visions from the Dreamtime so that we may bring more of that energy into our material reality. This is a spirited way to consume healthy energy medicine that is good food for the soul.

*Light incense/candle.
*Start drumming to a consistent beat that feels natural to you. A simple bongo drum works well. Get into a comfortable position, relax and breathe.
*Picture a dolphin in your imagination and feel its energy coming into your Being.
*Ask Dolphin for any guidance that you feel is appropriate for you. Being specific with your question is helpful.
*Continue drumming for 10-20 minutes and gently allow yourself to receive whatever arrives to you in your consciousness.
*Thank dolphin for its spiritual medicinal offering.
*Remember your callback by opening your eyes and changing your drumbeat. A callback facilitates the transition back into our material reality. A callback can also be in the form of a word or mantra that you prefer. My callback consists of 3 sets of 8 beats, then 3 sets of 3 beats and then 3 sets of 7 beats.
*Record your notes of whatever messages Dolphin brought to you. These messages might be in the form of feelings, lyrics, sounds, visuals, etc. Let go and gently allow your soul to inform you as you travel along in your walking meditation.