Category Archives: Uncategorized

Cardinal Virtues

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I remember visiting the river recently, watching cardinals flocking together and featuring quite an aerial show.  Cardinals are beautiful birds and their cycle of power is year-round.  When flying with the energy of cardinal, we see that everything we do in our lives is important and we renew our life force or chi, if you will.  I like to think of cardinal as program development for the self.  Given their rhythm of 12, cardinal foreshadows our consciousness to gaze onward, as the end of the Mayan calendar approaches us on the Winter Solstice, December 21, 2012.  A myriad of theories postulate why this date is significant to humanity and our home, Classroom Mothership Earth.  One thing is for certain–getting stuck in the mud with fear will not be helpful.  In fact, what we resist will persist.  So, what can we do about it to stay in the flow?  We humans must be prepared for ceremony, prayer, meditation and working proactively with the spirited energies that are visiting us now and will continue to intensify as this date approaches.  None of us know where we are going, not really.  However, staying open to the flow is good medicine and even modern science confirms the power of human beings gathering in ceremony, prayer, meditation and focusing on making positive interpretations about what we see in real-time.  Personally, I am looking forward to hosting another annual fire ritual with my mates from the Clubhouse around the Winter Solstice.

True, so much tyranny exists in our dying old world and that is not fair and balanced.  I once heard a wise psychologist define that fair is that everyone does not get what they want, but they get what they need.  Also, I remember an astute psychiatrist once define pathology as merely deeply ingrained behavioral patterns.  In the spirit of that, systemic change is needed on our planet today and our consciousness must evolve if we are to survive.  There is too much hate that divides us.  Yes, we are diverse expressions of Creator, but we also share in Unity as One.  When Chick-fil-A finances anti-gay groups that try to convert folks in therapy groups from gay to straight and advocate for the criminalization of homosexual behavior, this does not celebrate one human family.  But when the creators of the Muppets flew the coup of their financial backing of Chick-fil-A, that is a step toward Unity Consciousness.  However, when the NRA and our friends in Congress repealed laws that took Federal Assault Weapons off the streets back in 2004, their decision to do that played a role in helping make it more convenient for the terror that took place recently in an Aurora movie theater massacre.  As a citizen in the USA, what a complicated mixed-message it is to send that we could be punished for how we might be  naturally oriented, but we are normally allowed to buy military style weapons to use out on the street.  Alas, my heart-mind particularly remembers learning in my CPR training that 95% of accidents can be prevented.

While the political will would certainly help tip the Critical Mass to come about, every individual has the freedom to choose how he responds to what comes his way.  That being said, it would be a much more gentle world if the choice was to play in a clean park without having to worry about bullying gang activity, stray bullets and/or residual land mines.  What will happen in this year’s presidential selection?  Lyndon LaRouche has called president Obama a modern-day Nero and a fascist.  Putting Obama aside for a moment, the alternative candidate is a businessman who hides his tax returns and hoards money in offshore investments like the Cayman Islands, a Swiss bank and huge deductions for his ballet horse.  When enough of us calm the voice of the ego and instead heed the inner voice, we will hear the answer blowing in the wind.  Meditating on cardinal can help us become whistleblowers in life by adding color to it.  When we allow spirit to flow through our hearts and minds, we organically facilitate taking flight into a positive, peaceful transition into a New Earth.  

Stay True,

Ari

With Bat Medicine, The Dark Night Walks In Sunlight

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I remember when Mark Twain observed that “there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”  Here on Classroom Mothership Earth, we are living in a land of chaos, confusion and tragedy.  If we look beneath the surface symptoms and acting out of our human family, we realize that our provocative behavior is clearly speaking to us.  In the USA, our friends in Congress are still balking at leveling the playing field that promotes more equal access to concrete services such as affordable health care and housing.  Further, a horrible massacre somewhere in Middle America took many innocent lives away from folks who merely thought they would escape for a spell by watching a film called the Dark Night Rising.  Front and center of our planet’s hot mess, is the Middle East, where a Perfect Storm is brewing in the land once called the Fertile Crescent and home of Abraham–paradoxically the father of the world’s three dominant religions.  Given all this shit hitting the fan, flying with bat is a good remedy for cross pollinating our transition into a New Age and Paradigm.  Alas, the Joker in me notices that this town needs an enema.

I know times are tough and the tides are changing.  And it is painful to watch folks make jokes out of anxiety with relation to tragedy.  However, without that roaring laughter, there would be no Tao.  So, why not stop the insanity by invoking the energy of bat to help us fly with our transitions during the process of becoming something new.  Moreover, bat can help us effectively navigate the darkness by facing our fears and laying to rest the death of the old self.  When we let go of who we were and accept what is, we then clear space for new energy to take flight into our being and prepare for changing tides.  With bat, we are equipped to spread our wings and fly onward in our soul’s infinite journey through birth, death and rebirth that is akin to the Buddhist idea of reincarnation.  As humans, we have not learned how to effectively emote.  Rather, we tend to react to the weather outside instead of mastering our own internal weather patterns.  In our outer directed culture, we have been well-trained to play the blame game and indulge in victim consciousness.  But remember that as participatory audience members in the theater of life, we are all mirrors for one another that reflect back aspects of our one  human family.  Sometimes, we like what we see and are attracted to that.  Other times, we do not like what we see and tend to react with an attitude of judgement and avoidance.  Or maybe we become a martyr and carry a heavy ego-centered burden. 

In our dying old world, we have trashed the beautiful park that was given to us by Creator.  As humans, the time is now to take responsibility for our creative selves and for our shared land that we live with.  The age of viewing ourselves as separate and disconnected from one another is disappearing into the dead of the night.  The New World will reveal itself when each individual sees the Light of Day in his consciousness.  This is what god-realized humans have modeled to us in our human history.  When enough of us reach this Critical Mass, we will come about by balancing our part Divine, part creature being into living authentically and respectfully with one another.  In the meanwhile, we humans really need to heal old wounds and learn new ways to live in harmony with one another, our planet and Universe throughout.  By listening to bat, we hear a callback that echoes a message that even in death, there is rebirth.

Stay True,

Ari

Union of the Snake

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I remember puttering around the garage recently, stepping into the backyard for a spell and sharing an unexpected intimate moment with a snake gazing my way from his vantage point in the grass.  Given that I was about to embark on an adventure to my 20 year High School reunion, I took my encounter with snake as an omen to shed our old skin, while allowing for a smooth transmutation process into becoming something new.  Given the changing tides, this summer is an especially hot time for reunions and gatherings.  When we face the music and participate in the theater of life, it is not always an easy buffet of feelings to consume and digest.  We are all mirrors for one another, albeit diverse expressions of Great Spirit (God, Universe, etc.).  As mirrors, we do not always like seeing the snakes reflected back our way.  However, when we tap into the fire of snake medicine, it invokes within us the process of alchemy that facilitates healing.  By embracing our own power, we wake up to our authentic selves.  In releasing our own suffering, we open up to compassion and love.  Remember that the Buddha arrived at this Earth plane to show us compassion, while the Christ arrived to show us Love.  When we heed their wisdom and walk in this Light, we facilitate the healing of ourselves, the planet and Universal Consciousness throughout by co-creating Heaven on Earth one moment, one slither and one breath at a time.

Has anyone else out there had a tendency to play with fire and get burned in the process?  In the theater of life, facing the music and taking it to the edge sometimes is an experiential learning opportunity for growth, here in Classroom Mothership Earth.  Sometimes, ingesting the poison of the bite stokes the inner flame of alchemy to wake up to our own immortality.  Perhaps our dying selves and dying world will be the death of us, but with every funeral comes a new birth.  Regardless of one’s belief systems, those of us that know the power of prayer and meditation know a direct experience with Divine Energies that are available as powerful resources to us, if only we ask.  At this junction of Nature’s cycle, it was so nice to celebrate good times with old friends and breathe in new life, while exhaling dead air.  While many folks avoided directly participating in our celebratory ritual, I know the good vibrations will be felt by even those that did not show up.  When we effectively integrate our masculine and feminine energy and heal polarity in our consciousness, we light the torch of fire medicine.  In the spirit of that, we create passion, desire, procreation and physical vitality on the material plane; ambition, creation, resolution and dreams on the emotional plane; intellect, power, charisma and leadership on the mental plane; and wisdom, understanding, wholeness and connection to Great Spirit on the spiritual plane.  Does anyone remember the scene from The Matrix when Neo visits the Oracle and the little boy in the waiting room says to him something like, try not to bend the spoon . . . that’s impossible . . . instead, imagine that the spoon isn’t there.  Readers, do you see that magic is no more than a perceptual shift in consciousness?

Snake’s energy has potential to awaken our Divine Life Force within (Chi).  If you would like to tap into this power, please consider keeping yourself energetically clean by psychically bathing yourself in white light and flushing whatever toxic debris remains down your spine, through the soles of your feet and into Mother Earth for her to receive and compost.  By embracing our power with respect to our relationships, we wake up authentically to our True Selves.  Shamans of the Americas have shared stories of a dying, snake-like god named Quetzalcoatl that would someday return.  In this Light, we will explore fantastic mythical stories like this in future blog conversations.  If anyone out there has a poignant story to share, I would excitedly welcome that.

Stay True,

Ari

Bear Like Me Revisited

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For those participatory audience members in the theater of life, you might remember that I wrote about Bear medicine in last week’s blog installment.  Given the girth of Bear’s energy, I am still digesting the omnivorous experience.  In the spirit of that, I climbed a tree yesterday, watched the ripples of the river from atop a branch and tasted the sweetness of the life’s honey from a higher vantage point (my wife and child might have a different version after I climbed back down, returned to the den and was stoked by the grounding reality of being a husband and parent again).  Does anyone else out there remember climbing trees as a kid?  If there was something to climb and then jump off and free fall, then I did it.  Back then, the School of Hard Knox delivered plenty of concrete reminders about grounding me back to Earth.  Some of us outgrow such childish behavior and become sensible adults.  Others, fall out of a tree like I once did and subsequently choose to set a clear, Confucian rules throughout their journey to “never do that again”.  But then there are those of us that are more like Herons and find it within ourselves to find the security to follow our own path through creative trial and error.  Yes, the naturalistic social scientist geek in me realizes that there is a realm of predictability, patterns and cause and effect, which is wise to pay attention to and master. 

However, as the deep seeing mystics understood and a growing number of folks in the scientific community are beginning to “prove” the existence of mythical realms once thought fantastic.  Here, a “hidden” realm beyond the Law of Karma, where the Quantum world of Infinity awaits us, if only we allow ourselves to transcend boxed in mind-sets and the robotic doings of life.  Bear reminds us of a Map of Consciousness, where infinite possibilities await when one authentically opens up to it in with respect to boundaries of self and others.  During this process, folks feel this alternative form of energy, whether realized or not, and the planet and beyond benefit from mutual aid.  As we transition from a dying old world into a New Age and Paradigm, it is not without the labor pains of the birthing process.  I know Summer is a hot time, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere and we all feel the heat from the Americas, planetary consciousness and the Universe throughout.  In fact, our reptilian friends in Congress are already trying to scale back health care reform and big money is being seriously greedy by blocking Chicago factory workers from buying their own place of employment.  Here in Maine, L.L. Bean flexed their muscles by ignoring a petition by a family farm and local rural residents to stop fireworks from lighting up a family farm that scared the daylights out of both domestic and wild animals.  I could hear a mourning dove singing a spiritual protest song during my morning jog.  I wonder what small business advocate Newt Gingrich thinks about these examples of liberal excesses of the Corporate Welfare State?  What might Newt have to say about “Merica” and Her tendency toward enabling Multinational Corporations to over indulge in Socialist strategic alliances that violate every conceivable Free Market principal?  Putting Newt aside, I wonder if the Corporate Media and educated business class barely skipped a beat when the Top Dawgs in the 1% held meetings behind closed doors to lead the charge to criminalize the freedom of the internet?  Being a bit of an empath, I understand the outlook of the Opulent Minority quite well.  I realize that, for many in this privileged class, Earth is a playground where there are winners and losers and the winners should be able to play at will, without any accountability.  Many among this ilk believe that Healthcare is a privilege and not a right.  But while I empathize with their plight, I disagree with it.  There is enough and we can all win.  No human is superior or inferior to any other human and/or sentient being. 

Now I realize my voice may fly below the radar, but I am also expressing sentiments in concert with the overwhelming majority.  It isn’t always easy being a free-spirited dreamer, but I know I’m not the only one.  My garden variety of friends are teaching me that the salt of the Earth, the movers and shakers are the ones who till it.  In my spirited dance, my plea to the Opulent Minority and the rest of us is that we all must be caretakers of our own internal gardens here on Classroom Mothership Earth.  It is good medicine to share and to release judgments on your neighbor.  So what if the USA and Israel have more Goliath like military might than the David’s of the world?  Does that mean we should use it for preemptive strikes and systemic bullying?  Just because IBM had the technology to allow for the precise profiling for the Nazis to strategically execute the atrocities of the Holocaust, does the ends of profitable business justify the horrific means?  Bear encourages us to stand our ground.  The more of us that freely tap into the energy of Bear medicine will become the Critical Mass that will help humanity stay afloat and effectively navigate into an unchartered New World together.

Stay True,

Ari

Bear Like Me

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I remember when a fellow virtual blogging friend liked that I referenced the  Law of Attraction and invited me to share a related story in reference to this Divine Law.  In the spirit of that, I serve up this week’s story to share with you.  In my day gig of working in public schools, I know we all get a little stir crazy as the school year winds down to a close.  However, during this transition, I remember to maintain perspective via the Jimmy Buffett earworm that if we couldn’t laugh, we’d all go insane.  In fact, I kept dreaming about hiking with some cats from The Clubhouse, in the mighty White Mountains, while at the same time practicing letting go of outcome during the visualization process.  Although now considered small in stature, modern scientists tell us that long ago the White Mountains in New Hampshire were once a Goliath of a range compared to the Colorado Rockies.  When traversing the Presidential Range, embracing Climate Change and getting down with the elements is a key dynamic in a successful hike.  Cold, wet and windy weather mixed with rocks, roots and some tactical climbing is always more challenging when slippery when wet.   Although our forecast looked bleak, we were livin’ on a prayer by keeping our feet on the ground and seeing the forest through the trees. 

After two full days of peaks and valleys, five, 4000 footers and coming down from the mountaintop, we were all thankful for Highland Hut’s family friendly atmosphere, hot showers and hearty meals.  After our off the grid jaunt, my hiking brothers could not wait to introduce me to the opulent Mt. Washington Hotel, where big Whigs from another era used to travel via horse and buggy to enjoy the rustic scenery in decadence.  Now readers, you might think we were more likely to make contact with a bear out on the trails, while away from civilization.  Not so.  Just after parking our car at the Mt. Washington Hotel, I barely caught a peripheral glimpse of  a very large creature running past us with the distinct sound of claws on pavement, when one of my hiking buds excitedly identified the animal as a bear!  A few tracks later–after playing an old arcade game that was out of this world, we visited an underground tavern called “the Cave” and told our story.  Further, an employee came out of hibernation, nodded and informed us that this friendly creature was a local and merely following his daily ritual of knocking off local dumpsters in search of his daily bread.  Aye, aren’t bears good reminders for us to tap into our own natural resources within the depth of our souls?  In a karmic sense, bear may facilitate our making life’s choices from a position of personal empowerment, rather than egotism.  Given bears connection to trees, we are reminded that trees are conduits linking Heaven and Earth.  With Yang dominating the season in this neck of the woods, we are more energetically equipped to manifest knowledge, fertility and growth right Tao.

As I look back on our time out in nature, I realize the experience was the death of me.  When listening in on ghostly storytelling that accompanied the  grand old hotel and nature spirits, I look back on a private encounter with a dead man walking that serves as a good reminder that we are indeed spirits in the material world.  With bear in our consciousness, we are equipped to navigate the waters of the subconscious and unconscious mind.  When heeding the deafening sound of silence, the inner voice strikes a thunderous chord reverberating from the soul’s den.  While tapping into the Dreamtime and bringing back to Earth what arrives to us from Infinity, we are able to see through the smokescreen world of 10, 000 things and bling bling.  And bear reminds us that life tastes sweet like honey, if only we allow ourselves to directly experience it by moving beyond egotistical intellectual concepts and the robotic doings.  Do you hear what I hear?  Do you see what I see?

Stay True,

Ari

Flying with Catbird

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I remember being among old friends recently, while having a whale of a good time on Nantucket.  We enjoyed a nautical reunion of sorts, with my first mate and other kindred spirits.  I know the times they are a changin’ here on Mothership Earth and was reminded of this truism when I caught wind of a captain’s tale of a decreased great white shark population as we sailed around the way.  However, what really sunk my teeth into his story and wet my palate was when our captain speculated that the predators might return before too long in greater numbers, given the current migration of seals returning to the island.  Whether spending time on the ocean, the shoreline and/or land, being out in nature reminds us that we humans have much to remember about Her organic leveling impulses and living in harmony with one another and our environment.  I wonder if John Kerry and his homies beached along the coastal McMansions ponder such nuances? 

Back at the homestead, a catbird poignantly revealed itself and feathered my ripple during its power time of spring and early summer.  When paying attention to the signs and synchronicity in the theater of life, we realize our spirited encounters with animal friends are conduits helping us bring in awareness from the Dreamtime into our grounding material realm.  When we walk in a balanced harmony with one foot in spirit and one foot in ground, we increase our co-creative human potential to effectively hold a positive vision for humanity.  As I look back on my novel encounter with old friends, I remember to heed catbird’s lessons in expanding our connections with one another by celebrating Diversity in Unity and deepen our capacity for effective communication when flocking with like-minded birds of a feather.  Moreover, catbird medicine also pours a short but soulful and sweet beverage to drink in that adds spirit to our social environment.  For example, if you are taking a yoga, tai chi, qigong and/or some other meditation class once or twice a week, consider bringing in more of that energy into your personal daily routine and own sacred space.  Perhaps you might consider indulging in nature and organically find like-minded friends that share your taste for divine encounters.

I find my spirited encounter with catbird a call to this birds wisdom to read one another more effectively.  And the meditation 101 mantra really is about focusing on thyself first.  Not in an egotistical way, but in a way that effectively expresses oneself authentically and respectfully.  Given that the most important marriage and relationship for anyone is with our own self, then it makes sense to get to know our True Selves on a deeper level.  When swimming with local sharks, I can hear the Jimmy Buffett energy in me singing fins to the left, fins to the right.  And then it magically arrives in my sea of consciousness how to chum it up and digest my time with the cats in my walkabout.  How about you?

Stay True,

Ari  

 

Butterfly Affect

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I remember an encounter I had the last weekend with a black and gold-colored butterfly.  Admittedly, I noticed my lower chakras fleetingly take flight in vibrating with jealousy, envy and some heaviness as I watched this spirited winged creature’s ability to flit about gleefully, while tasting with its hands and feet.  But then I recollected my choice to stay away from overindulging in getting stuck in the mud by basking in these emotions.  By allowing ourselves to be informed by our lower self, we become equipped to move forward by opening up to the feeling of joy that butterfly medicine conjures up internally.  However, it can be tempting to find clever ways to bypass this inner space, with particular sensitivity to the ego and/or intellect’s ability to build self-protective fortresses.  Energetically, butterfly is good reminder that it is possible to carry a playful, light-hearted sense of detachment in getting the job done.  In spite of their heavy responsibility of cross-pollinating the planet while spreading the love, butterfly shows us that it is possible find their energy within our human shell in real-time.  Is anyone else out there mesmerized by butterflies sociability and memo to self that asks thyself, where am I on the map of consciousness?  On the personal front, when digesting this question, perhaps some delicious food for thought would be to ask yourself what developmental stage you are currently in.  Are you in the egg stage of an idea (beginning), the larva stage (manifestation), the cocoon stage (program development) and/or the final stage (transformation)?  When there is work to do and I need to lighten up, I try to remember to picture butterflies kissing a garden variety of flowers within my being.

On the national and global front, there are potential storms brewing and things are heating up.  Here in the USA, we have modern laws that are somewhat akin to Jim Crow of yesteryear.  In Florida and other states in the nation throughout, we have the Stand Your Ground Law that basically says shoot first and ask questions second.  All republicans and however many democrats failed to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which simply attempts to level the playing field of making a livable wage for all working folks.  Does “my country tis of thee” remember that many of the lawyers, politicians and police were cloaked behind white robes and burning crosses by night?  Who payin’ you?  But there is a new hope . . . US Representative John Kline of Michigan supports the Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012, which tries to alleviate the financial burden that many college students are facing.  And Burger King, Wendy’s, McDonald’s and Safeway have committed to eliminating gestation crates from their supply chains.  The country is divided and “the line it is drawn and the curse it is cast.”  In birthing into a New Age and Paradigm, we really need to move beyond fancy ego-centered rhetoric and actualize the philosophical ideals that our Founding Fathers envisioned in their Higher Selves.  If we search our collective memory, there was a time not long ago that indigenous Americans practiced something much closer to a free market, than the fundamentalist allegiance we have to maximum economic, profit-driven capitalism that liberally supports the welfare of rampant consumerism.

With butterfly energy, creativity is in the air and mental powers are active.  This time of year, I start dancing to the beat of T’ai Chi outdoors, while focusing on allowing my body to float like a butterfly without getting stung like a bee.  Readers, I don’t know about you, but I know I have learned many painful lessons from the school of hard knox.  The lesson plans from this curriculum can feel like heavy metal and reverberate like a choir of chattering monkey’s.  And though I respect the wisdom I have acquired from accessing these classroom assignments, I prefer Butterfly’s mantra that says that growth can be gentle, joyful and sweet like flowers, if only we come to our senses by allowing for it.

Stay True,

Ari

Managing the Dragon’s Fire Within

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I remember when a brotherly teammate once reminded me of my own oscillations between order and chaos.  Back in High School, we played sports together–riding the wave of a 12 year losing streak on the football field, but exchanging a textbook handoff and going undefeated for some years in track.  While some of us embrace our power, many of us fear it and subsequently choose to slay our internal dragon.  Sometimes, we do this by trying control everything in our lives, such as over indulging in work and practical matters.  Here on Channel Tao, I remember the power in staying light on the feet and adding color and magic to life, when watching dragonflies flitting about o’er grassy ball fields.  In fact, their aerial feats are somewhat akin to UFO and USO sightings that have dazzled scientists and the general public alike.  As I sit here submerged in my consciousness, I cool my own dragon fire when noticing our very own secret government’s role in liberally funneling taxpayer monies into the Pentagon, while cloaked under the auspices of “foreign technology” and “research and development”.  Why is it that senators and congressmen ignore the call to allow the government to “meddle” in our lives by providing single-payer healthcare to “promote the general welfare” of our citizenry?  What makes it the epitome of public enemy to ask for a more equitable structure, where the top dawg 1% pays their fair share and our taxes are more evenly distributed?  Isn’t it homeland security to level the playing field?  But if there is a bailout on Wall Street and/or a war to fuel, then the bailouts are arranged without Federal Reserve!

Long ago, legend teaches us that dragon, in his great power, was once wise and a master illusionist.  But he was tricked by coyote to prove his power by turning himself into a dragonfly.  Somewhat akin to a black sorcerer, or a gifted propagandist, dragon got caught up in his own facade by falling for coyote’s prank and subsequently lost his power.  I wonder if Bob Dylan channeled this story from the heavens when he transcribed and sang the lyrics, “the first one now will later be last”?  The truth is that we are all one.  When we step into the realm of Infinity, abundance awaits for everyone and we can all win.  Money is energy and merely depends on the value we attach to it.  And Great Spirit reminds us that it is wise to let go of our attachments.  Further, as spiritual beings having a human experiences, we are always going to flirt with our attachments because our Source is housed in a human shell with the desire to want more.  But do we allow ourselves to remember gratitude by staying calm in the pocket and cutting back to inner peace like Tom Brady and Barry Sanders, respectively?  When getting distracted from holographic messages from an iBot, negative thoughts, emotions, parenting and work to do and bills to pay–is it possible to remember that we are both part Divine and part creature, rather than getting lost in the robotic doings in this “world of 10,000” things?  As we transition into a Golden New Aquarian Age and Paradigm, the demonic shackles of ego will need to rest in peace, while our awareness rises in the spirit of celebrating the good times of Diversity in Unity in our Collective Consciousness.  Please use the energies of the Lunar Full Moon Eclipse on Monday, June 4 and the approaching Summer Solstice on June 19, 2012 to guide you in transforming your consciousness to take flight.  While there is truth in the saying that men are like the Sun and women are like the Moon, the reality is that we all have masculine and feminine energy oscillating within our Being.  Moreover, we need to remember that there exists a Divine Marriage between this Yin-Yang dance and that balance is key.  Energetically, this is a good time of year to manifest and transform our consciousness in our lives and say good-bye to devilish, fixed ideas that box us in. 

Readers, have you ever heard of the old saying, “you are what you eat?”  In the spirit of that, I like to embark on a cleanse every now and again, typically around the quarterly equinoxes and solstices here on Classroom Mothership Earth.  Given my experience, I wanted to share with you a four-day cleanse that I caught wind of by the great Seneca Tribe here in North America some years ago.  Each day is believed to clear different areas in the body.  The first day cleans out the colon.  On the second day, toxins, excess salts and calcium deposits are released.  On day three, mineral-rich fiber flows through your digestive track.  Finally, the blood, lymphatic system and other organs are nourished with minerals.  Remember to drink plenty of water every day, but accompany that with fruit only on day one, herbal teas only on day two, veggies only on day three and broth only on the final day.  This cleanse offers our human shell a meditation 101 opportunity to watch without judgement the thoughts and feelings that arrive in our consciousness and then let them gently pass with care.  Although this may seem daunting, I find this experience good for the souls personal empowerment.  On the personal weather front, have you put on too much weight or do you look like a scarecrow?  Have you tended to the changes you have wanted to make in your life?  Are you resisting change when it would be wise to do otherwise?  Do you remember wisdom in what we resist, persists?  As we become the change we want to see in the world, please remember that we are what we eat!   

Stay True,

Ari

Playing Opossum with the Intention of Diversion and use of Appearances

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I remember watching an opossum from my kitchen window recently.  At first glance, I thought I was watching an engorged squirrel that was performance-enhanced by a cocktail of drugs, like the folks you see on the TV in the professional sports arena.  However, after my perception cleansed, I stood mesmerized by my opossum friend’s climbing strategy, as he traversed the branches high atop the backyard tree.  If one way didn’t work, he simply found another route and patiently changed his trajectory by traveling along another, more effective path.  Although it was not long before I knew that I would dig a little deeper into this Classroom Mothership Earth lesson, I remembered to breathe, stay present and gently allow the communion with my climbing friend to unfold organically.  Although I was eager to meditate on the spiritual significance of this spirited encounter, I needed to remember one of Oprah Winfrey’s favorite mantra’s, “be here, be now”.  As I stood in the place that I was, I know that while Oprah loves her shows, I wore my bare feet.

On the global weather front, our human race stands on what I like the call the confrontational crossroads fence yet again.  And like a virtual blogging friend also poignantly chimed in, “when confronted with a spiritual or dogmatic crossroads, a man first holds fast to his beliefs. He then thinks and challenges the new thought. He finds any reason to not accept it, while simultaneously knowing that he could easily be wrong. He then moves into the sphere of crossroads and is confronted by the face of truth. He can only accept truth and change, or deny truth and remain stagnant in growth.”  Moreover, I remember my old self using the powerful and yet primitive psychological coping strategy of denial to win an argument with my peers.  When the conversational topic became too threatening to my worldview, like Rush Limbaugh, I simply ended the conversation by arrogantly asserting, “I’m right, you’re wrong and that’s all there is to it.”  Today, here in the USA and the planet throughout, humanity has become dramatically polarized.  We have fought wars based on drawing rigid lines in the sand, we have suppressed and repressed the masses of folks that perceive and desire the “chimes of freedom flashing”.  While it is true that we have been like “sheeple” that have gone along with the herd and we have allowed the wool to have been pulled over us by the corporate illusionist behind the curtain–the time is now to end “separate, but equal”.  We are all One and if we are to move beyond ego (intellectual concepts, beliefs, dogma, rhetoric, etc.), then we need to recognize the demonic shackles of the ego when they are drawn within our own being.  For example, does it really make sense that our homosexual brothers and sisters–whether oriented and/or choosing that lifestyle, should be discriminated against and not allowed the same legal and spiritual rights as the majority of us that define ourselves as heterosexual?  Is it not obvious that this is the same line that was drawn for women and folks of color?  It is time to let go of the “great deceiver” that orders us to “obey thy master”, “shut up and shop” and judge one another as superior and/or inferior.  The truth is, there are no enemies out there, rather, the Kingdom of Heaven is within and it is equally available for all of us, if only we allow for it.  It’s about a state of consciousness, sweetheart! 

Moving onward, we are birthing into a New Age and Paradigm, but not without the labor pains that accompany the delivery of the Promised Land that many of us envision.  As we co-create Heaven on Earth and step into the realm of Infinity, we need to remember that this is a slow process (although paradoxically rapidly accelerating).  Moreover, this colorful process of co-creation happens one step, one moment and one breath at a time.  Perhaps this week, you might start by picturing an opossum and asking yourself the following reflective questions:  are you acting or about to act in an inappropriate manner?  Do you need to strengthen your appearance?  Are others putting up false appearances in front of you?  Do you need to divert attention away from some activity?  Are others trying to divert your attention?  Is it time to go into your own bag of tricks and pull out some new strategy?  Opossum medicine can help you balance magic, parlor tricks and real-life Wizardry in your life right now.  And please remember to stay light on the feet and keep your footing, while cutting back to inner peace on the playing field of Life.

Stay True,

Ari

Blue Like Heron

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I remember when I was catching up with folks at our 10 year High School reunion and peer poignantly chimed in, “at some point I realized nobody else was gonna do it for me”, as we reflected on growing up and becoming adults.  Today, as our twenty year gathering rapidly approaches, these profoundly true lyrics revisited my consciousness after recently encountering a great blue heron.  Given the rising tide of Occupy movements, perhaps we might call on blue heron to Occupy Our Selves, while dabbling as spiritual beings having human experiences here on Classroom Mothership Earth.  At this juncture on Nature’s clock, is anyone else out there powerfully inspired by heron medicine that invokes within us aggressive self-determination, self-reliance and learning to stand firmly rooted in the Earth on your own two legs?  Are you in awe of these magnificent creatures that tend to view themselves as king of the marsh?  While co-creating Heaven on Earth in a New Age and Paradigm, herons are a good reminder that we cannot soar in the Heavens if we do not paradoxically also learn how to stay grounded.  Moreover, during the waxing on of this eclipse season, it might be tempting to for spirits to soar out of control and forget about balance.

On the global weather front, the reptilian ways of the dinosaurs keep scaling back the leveling impulses of the masses by their “rule by few” mantra, while still pledging their allegiance to the bottom line and almighty dollar.  Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, do you see that by nurturing a global economy that supports livable wages for all of Earth’s caretakers is a win-win for both the top dawgs chillin’ atop the pyramid and the overwhelming majority of us breaking our backs to keep the Boat afloat?  Are you able to picture a waterfall, tame the Nervous Woodland Creature energy and stay calm in the pocket like Tom Brady during peak intensity at the Summer Solstice on June 20, 2012 in the Northern Hemisphere and its waning aftershocks thereafter?  In my clinical experience, I have learned that like physics, all systems resist change–human beings being no exception.  In fact, we humans are quite good at keeping ourselves in boxes by protecting the status quo that is liberally marketed to us by systemic illusionism.  But with heron consciousness, like Climate Change, there is security in knowing that there is predictability within unpredictability, order in chaos if you will.  If one way is not working, as humans, we are pre-wired with the hardware to reflect and figure out another way.  With the energy of blue heron, change is literally on the way.

During this eclipse season, keep your eye out for solutions that might be invisible and undocumented to the naked eye.  It is wise to pay attention to relationships that revisit your consciousness, while remembering to maintain perspective.  Watch what your relationships have to say to you, remembering to hit the pause button before being trigger happy in the excitement that accompanies its flowering, and perhaps before wilting and becoming the death of you.  Nature reminds us of Life’s fleeting transience.  As we swim away from victim consciousness, blue heron has the potential to help us stay true to our selves, while wading here on Earth.  Further, while taking flight in the Heavens into the realm of Infinity, heron helps us see where solutions abound, if only we allow for it.

Stay True,

Ari