Category Archives: Uncategorized

With Gulls, We See Beyond Red Herrings

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Sea gulls, or more properly herrings, symbolically represent powers of perception and the subtleties of communication. Hailing primarily from shoreline communities, these creatures understand what it takes to navigate the mystical union of land and sea. While communicative nuances such as empathy, telepathy and other psychical abilities are flying below the radar, even conservative psychology recognizes that humankind predominantly communicates on this level, whether realized or not. Meditation on Herring is good medicine for us to heed their wisdom so that we communicate more effectively with one another. Given our modern technological advances, such energetic patterns are being measured with rigorous scientific data and machinery. While some folks in the healing arts community rely on technology to listen to energetic signals within a client’s body, others prefer using their intuitive faculties as practitioners. Of course, striking a balance is key. Using technology is a tool, but developing ourselves as spiritual Beings is a primary ingredient to a healthy Life diet. Waking up to a multidimensional awareness is not always easy, particularly for those of us who are dimensionally challenged. Awareness leads us toward integrating our emotional bodies, by releasing blockages, with our intellect. Living authentically means that we nourish our souls, while navigating the elements. Consuming a walking meditation way of living is a key ingredient to effectively digesting our soul food.

Waking up recognizes the experience that we have much drama and toxicity on our dying old world. We hear stories about UFO’s and USO’s on air, land and sea. What is going on beneath the surface of our material reality? Whether confidently dismissed or believed as real, we must understand that on some level, there is a reality to the perception that there is more going on here than meets the eye. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, we know the oppressive, Establishment Majority prefers to remain unexamined and hidden. Although concentrating wealth further toward the top of the pyramid is a developmentally delayed perspective, arrogance and greed are powerfully blinding dark emotions that carry a vampire like venom to their bite. We all experience this, but thankfully a growing number of us are allowing maturation to kick in and gather fair and balanced information about what this news has to inform us. Even our more provocatively bullying friends in Congress must be seen as mirrors for our sociopathic, predator like ways that insidiously feed on mass carnage. Humanity all shares predator and prey qualities within our Being–we are all living embodiments of the yin and the yang, masculine and feminine and light and dark flowing within ourselves. Our freewill allows us to live in denial and get stuck in victim consciousness by maintaining blaming and judgmental attitudes. But by continuing to live in this nightmare, even our Nervous Woodland Creature friends would assert that we would be swimming in a familiar old river in Egypt, ma’ chucka. It is only when we are unconscious, spiritually speaking, that we act out in the cannibalistic manner that our Global Leaders are modeling to us from the top down. What is so terrifying about leveling the playing field? Sure we have color TV, but how much better off are folks of color and the overwhelming majority of us in real-time? The privileged few have more now than ever and are relying more heavily on military might to protect that way of life. If corporations are people too, then why can’t they be held accountable for their crimes? Those of us that understand good discipline recognize that natural and logical consequences are powerful teachers, rather than ineffective punishment that foment more terrorism and violence. We have so much Karma to clear. Many of us in the healing profession understand that our system is sick and in dire need of systemic treatment. When the California Coastal Commission asserted no thank you to the Navy’s plan to proceed with their underwater sonar blasts and bombing, Great Spirit and our oceanic cetacean friends were pleased with that vote. Human beings are inherently good and when cultivated with love, sometimes tough love, we learn to effectively integrate our shadow sides into living in harmony with all sentient beings and machines alike. With Mercury in retrograde, it’s a good time to make amends with past relationships and remember patience with respect to the communication signals we are sending and receiving.

Remembering to consume Herring’s spiritual therapy is a sound way to ingest a hearty and medicinal energetic diet. Why not wash our spirited food down with a Divine cup of Sacred Feminine water element? Their spirited teachings help us develop our communication abilities with one another. Welcoming the energy of gulls into our consciousness helps us tune into the harmonic convergence of the Planetary and Universal sound of Great Spirit. Given the spirited energies coming down the pike, it is especially important to stick in alignment with Nature’s shifting tides, while heeding the Universal heartbeat. And it is a sound that resonates in our collective souls.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Swimming in Dolphin’s wake

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Remembering when to go with the flow, not push too hard against the river, be soft, gradually allowing momentum to build and let go of our left brain, logical-rational minds is not always easy. Especially, when many of us feel the shifting tides and spirited energies flowing into our consciousness. Swimming with Dolphin is good medicine for that. Authentic living asks us to take a fair and balanced gaze onto Life. Some of us might not like hearing the news that our lower selves deliver us–especially when arriving in the broadcast of negative emotions. But information is what it is and we have a right to give ourselves permission to grieve during the dirge of our old selves. In that light, it sounds true that we are washing away the toxicity, breathing in fresh air and watering the seeds so that they may blossom into new growth. For some of us, we might be doubting Groundhog’s forecast for an early spring. However, Winter is waning and coming soon Spring almost here. At this time, light and dark, masculine and feminine energies will share an equal marriage, if only briefly. Dolphin’s teachings resonates within our inner waters and its medicine serves as Universal Manna for our soul’s nourishment. In the beginning, there was sound. With Dolphin as our guide, we see and connect with our greater global community. Water symbolizes creation, passion, sexuality and new dimensions. Beyond nostalgia, sometimes when looking back on our past relationships, we notice past regrets and feel sad about that. Sending telepathic messages to someone is one way to heal, while opening up our hearts to a deeper sense of empathy, understanding and bringing in more heartfelt compassion into our Being.

Has anyone out there seen the film, The god’s must be Crazy? In that vain, Coke is suing to block a recycling program that will help facilitate our transition through Climate Change. On the other hand, the Violence Against Women Act will now protect all women from abuses. But why do we limit our protection against violence at all? From a developmental perspective, it is easier to identify with the perspective of an abuser-bully than the experience of a victim because of the misconceived power that entails. Why are friends on Capitol Hill so terrified about allowing maturation to kick in here? We all have growing up to do and Karma to clear, but leadership serves as a role model to our World. The so-called sequester cuts are killing programs that serve as a safety net that have protected the “General Welfare” of hundreds of thousands of our mentally ill and formerly homeless brothers and sisters and kids in Head Start. And our politicians continue to push for a self-fulfilling prophecy for yet another world war, when they promised the first one would end all wars. This time, Israel is being encouraged to taunt Syria and Iran, as things continue to heat up in the Middle East. Wyoming opened up lands to unrestricted wolf killings that threatens their recovery. While we hear political-business rhetoric about how government should stay out of our lives, at the same time Facebook gobbles up $430 million in government subsidies so that they don’t have to pay a Red Cent in taxes. The clear channel says consumption is being pushed on us and then we are punished for taking the bait and getting hooked–even though it is a scientific fact that punishment doesn’t work and isn’t a form of discipline. If we have to petition to stop the killing of our underwater friends, we have a right to ask why our Navy is conducting an underwater sonar program in the first place. Who are you serving here? We all have a right to the Truth and a need to trust that we can live harmoniously with one another. We will all win as we move away from fear and stay as close to Love as possible.

When swimming in Dolphin’s wake, we remember to integrate playfulness into our walking meditation. In the spirit of that, we receive guidance to pay attention to our body rhythms and energetic patterns fed to us by Great Spirit. Ingesting Dolphin’s medicine helps us access the hidden caverns and underwater cities within the depths of our souls. Classroom lessons are teaching us how to build a bridge between our material realm and Dreamtime. Meditation on Dolphin helps us dive into our primordial history, remember the power of our breath and communicate more effectively with one another.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Whale Meditation

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Here is a shamanic journey meditation that I have been doing this week to help stay in the flow. For newcomers to the journeying meditation process, this is merely a perceptual shift in consciousness that freely allows us to turn inward and access inner peace. In the spirit of co-creating peace on Earth and the Universe at large, we need to start with ourselves. Given the scientific and spiritual truth that we are all connected, we are literally cut from the same cloth. While some might feel small and insignificant, the reality is that we are consciousness, rather than what consciousness has identified with. In this Light, we embody the presence of the expanding Cosmos. From this perspective, we are powerful and grand. But not in an egocentric sense, for that is always small regardless of how inflated or deflated.

*Light incense/candle.
*Start drumming to a consistent beat. Relax and breathe. This is very important.
*Picture a whale in your imagination and feel its energy in your Being.
*Ask whale for guidance in an area that you need help with. 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 whale for its spiritual medicinal offering.
*Remember your callback by opening your eyes and changing your drumbeat. A callback facilitates the transition back into this reality, or 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 whale 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.

For example, one message I received arrived in the form of a spirited heartfelt-telepathic exchange with Whale. The clear message I heard is that we are here to learn to balance cooperation and competition for mutual aid and live harmoniously with one another. We need to raise our vibrations to this sound frequency that resonates in our souls.

Riding with Whale

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Remembering when to connect with the energy of Whales helps up tap into our soul’s purpose during our venture here.  But even within our day-to-day routine, we can know an awakened doing, where we let our soulful presence shine onto the world around us when we are going about our doings.  In our Being, paying attention to our breathing patterns during our walking meditation is a key ingredient to a sustainable healthy Life diet.  Of course, drinking plenty of water doesn’t hurt and we all benefit from equal access to clean drinking water and water to play in.  Legend tells us that Whale carries the consciousness of our Planet’s history.  I even heard somewhere that a long, long time ago whales flew in the air.  Right now, ingesting their medicine aids us in understanding sound and frequency and learning how to connect to the Universal heartbeat of Love and Truth to light our way and stay afloat.  As such, we loosen up and dismantle our rigid boundaries so that our energy flows more freely like water in our relationships with one another.  We still respect one another’s personal space, but in a way that allows for soulful exchanges and heartfelt connections in an authentic and respectful fashion.

When remembering to take an honest, gentle gaze on our Planet today, it is like reading a parody of a fairy tale that we ought to be embarrassed to read to our grandchildren when it comes to our current relationships with one another.  Whether subtle or provocative, what is it about violence that is so engrained into our human family system as a preferred way of life?  What is it about fear that is so dominant in our psyches?  What is the Navy so afraid of in that they continue using sonar weaponry that is decimating our whales, dolphins and other cetaceans?  What else is going on in our ocean’s depths they aren’t telling us about?  Yet, our friends in Congress continue pounding their war chests by pouring more money into dirty energy, a bloated military, weapons of mass destruction and the commercialization of assault weapons, crime rhymes, violent movies and video games readily available on the shelves.   Does our experience with Climate Change have to be so traumatic?  No.  We have the capacity to facilitate this process, move with the shifting tides by radically accepting every moment exactly as it is and even finding the courage to embrace the living moment, rather than resist it with a fight.  Pacifism is not about being passive and condoning the sickness in our world.  It is about radical self-control, effective self-government and making a conscious choice to say peace out to violence directed at the self or toward another.  When we make friends with that, we will know peace on Earth.  Remembering to be gentle on ourselves and creating space to get to know our souls on a deeper level is part of Whale’s teachings.  If only our World leaders would move beyond short-term tunnel vision and see the forest for the trees as well.

As we loosen up our rigid thought patterns and boundaries, we open up to the flow of Love to pour into our souls.  Meditation on Whale and the water element in particular is good medicine for that.  When we allow our relationships with ourselves and one another to flow like water, we become more equipped in staying buoyant with our tension and relaxing into the living moment, regardless of how heated it gets.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Slowing Down with Turtle’s Medicinal Teachings

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When we remember to integrate Turtle’s energy into our consciousness, we welcome a conscious intention to retreat back into our shell from the chaos around us for a spell.  In this place, we are more connected to our Mother Earth and to the darkness of feminine-yin energy.  In much the same way as our oceans, we learn to stay low and kneel before our bounty, rather than constantly striving and trying to make things happen through force.  Instead of trying to “push the river”, we gently allow Turtle’s spirited traits of wisdom, longevity, patience and perseverance to flow into our awareness, take root and connect to our primal essence.  Turtle is the oldest symbol of Mother Earth in Native American teachings.  In this light, we are encouraged by Her teachings to give back to our Mother, as she has given so much to us.  It will not be long before Spring arrives and Life abounds.  We all win when we sow the seeds of Love and reap the fruits of Truth.  This music to Great Spirit’s eardrums.

Here on our dying old planet, there is a New Earth blossoming.  But during the stormy weather of Climate Change, chaos is in our midst.  Living authentically recognizes that we are given permission to grieve, to shed our tears and raise our fists to the developmentally delayed world that our souls have incarnated into right now.  We have so much help available to us from the spirit realm, but with much resistance and unconsciousness that serve as roadblocks.  The toxic systemic programming we have in place in the modern world no longer serves us.  Although I deeply empathize with the desire to avoid or escape from looking at these alarming messages being revealed to us, we need to remember not to shoot the messenger and only kill with kindness.  We are right to powerfully assert to our bullying friends in Congress and leaders of First World nations to stop the insanity.  We need to develop equal access to resources so that we have a viable safety net to catch our global citizenry.  Moreover, we need to treat one another with dignity and respect.  Sleepwalking through life, while armed with blocked and negative energy kills in a subtler than the increased probability of killing another by packing heat with a concealed weapon might.  When we walk around trigger happy, while plugged in to the voice of the trauma, we are more likely to perceive things as a threat and shoot from the hip.  We assert that all souls are entitled to a safe and healthy childhood.  Our souls naturally desire to embody happiness as a way of life and follow its bliss.  Isn’t it is good news that meditation as a way of life has the potential to free you from bondage?  In our business run society, there is almost always a fee for service, a price to pay and a debt to incur.  In this madness, isn’t it attractive to know that meditation is free and now more accessible in a variety of forms to explore.  By shifting our focus on our breath, we return to the present moment without projecting onto or attaching stories to the past, future or situation at hand.  Staying calm in the pocket is helpful to both yourself and everyone else.  Accepting what is and even having the courage to embrace whatever arrives on our path, is ultimately much more pleasant than resisting what is.  This concrete awareness is our call to nurture one another, while moving forward.  It is paradoxically both a challenge and an opportunity to understand that this process feels too slow, while at the same time everything feels too fast.  There is much polarity to heal so within as without.  Perceiving ourselves as interconnected to one another helps us celebrate our diversity within our unity, while increasing our empathy.  In this light, we can become the change we want to see. 

Turtle’s shell represents protection and a friendly reminder to turn yinward, honor our feelings and pro-socially assert them when we are called to do so.  When we attune to the Mother-goddess within our Being and ask Her for help, we awaken to allowing abundance to flow into our lives.  Our reptilian friends are essentially living dinosaurs and embody amazing survival instincts.  They are omnivorous and opportunistic, so their medicine teaches us to slow down, pay attention and see the opportunities that fleetingly pass us by during our daily walkabout.  Our journey to Heaven is through the Earth.  When we step into the realm of Infinity, we know Oneness and see that we are all interconnected.  Isn’t that a drumbeat of empathy we can all rock on?

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

How far down the Rabbit hole do you want to go?

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As deeper souls, the leaps we take in our creative development are not without moments of stopping on a dime, hopping around and sometimes having an effective exit strategy.  Rabbit medicine reminds us to harness our creativity by getting in touch with our own fertility.  Further, our business can be our pleasure, while Rabbit helps us bring play into our work.  When our avocation is our vocation, we paradoxically notice results even though we have let go of outcome, through learning the process of investing in loss.  Given their 28 day birth to independence cycle, the energy of Rabbit symbolically links us to the Lunar calendar.  Rabbit embodies the internal martial arts by modeling quickness and defensive action.  Given that rabbits are most active at dusk and dawn, their spirited teachings serve as a portal to the Faery realm, or the space between the material and spirit realities.   

Climate Changes today require that we face great developmental challenges during the transition into a shifting consciousness and New Age.  Our friends in Congress act as roadblocks by enacting back door deals that cut entitlement programs, while boasting like thieves after a looting.  Their gall to give away the niceties of Democracy to protect their own egotism is alarming.  Palestinian activists were bullied off their tent villages by Israeli soldiers, in much the same way our Native American brothers and sisters were by American troops at that time.  But today, our weaponry is more sophisticated and concentrated than it was back then.  With women’s rights on the rise, how do men redefine masculinity in a way that moves beyond wimp or Rambo?  Given the education to prison pipeline that exists in modern America, how do we discipline our children effectively so that they learn from natural and logical consequences, so that they become more inner-directed and self-governing?  Otherwise, our children will look forward to society making decisions for them by locking them up in institutions like prisons and mental hospitals.  This starts in the womb of the home.  Parents need to understand that by giving our children too much freedom, but without setting age-appropriate limits is a receipt for disaster.  I have a brother in jail who is a poster child for this manifestation and will essentially spend his 30’s locked up, provided he exhibits good behavior.  If we do not teach our children the skills to handle the accompanying price tag of responsibility, then we set them up for failure.  I know past students who have fallen prey to mental illness and criminal behavior because they did not learn to take ownership for their actions, make amends and move forward.  Instead, they have given away their power by becoming victims.  In many cases, bad parenting, disability advocates, lawyers and school boards only concerned about the bottom line help perpetuate this vicious cycle.  What we have here is systemic toxicity that certainly isn’t healed by more offshore drilling, drone strikes, manufacturing pesticides that are killing bees and the US Navy decimating our oceans with sonar military might.  Is this not a developmentally delayed value set?

With Rabbit as Animal Spirit guides, we can acquire the skills of gentleness, versatility, quickness and creativity when studying their lesson plans.  Do you need to slow down?  Have you been too busy hopping from one project to another?  Do you need to bring more compassion and modesty in your relations with others?  Are you unconsciously asking Great Spirit to bring more of what you are afraid of to your waking reality?  Remember the wisdom of what we resist persists.  Remember to breathe in your feelings, while allowing yourself to experience and embrace them running through your Being and then releasing them to Mother Earth for healthy compost.  As we transition closer toward the Spring Equinox, it becomes clearer that our growth may arrive in leaps and hops.  When we pay attention to the signs and attune to the Moon, we become more equipped to snatch up the carrot of opportunities that briefly arrive in our field of vision.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Dreaming a New Dream with Groundhog

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Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it is a hump day of sorts.  In America we celebrate Groundhog Day, but its precursor is otherwise known as the Imbolc, the mid-point between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox.  Many of us feel the cold wind whistling deeply in our bones and get uncomfortable with the deep silence reverberating within our souls.  But we also know that in stillness, there is a wisdom that speaks of an arriving light from the heart of darkness.  This is a time in Nature’s cycle when we are “pregnant with the seed of the sun.”  Groundhog is good medicine for waking us up to that.  With Groundhog as a guide, we understand death without dying and the metaphor of reincarnation.  Moreover, we are at a powerful time to rise above our egotism and heed the call of our soul’s purpose.  As spiritual beings having human experiences, our priority while traveling here is not merely to make money and become a celebrity.  It is only when we become identified with those goals, where the ego feeds on our Being like a psychic vampire.  Rather, our purpose is to wake up to the reality that we are one with All-That-Is.  We all have star-dust in us, are influenced by the energies of the planets, their moons and we all rock.  In that light, Groundhog helps us dig through the mysterious underground tunnels of our souls and bring back hidden treasures of the Dreamtime to seed into our material world.

In our digging, We The People are waking up to our soul’s prompting that America needs to model effective leadership by shifting Her values away from bottom line profits and violence.  Instead of liberally funding corporations and Pentagon pork projects, we shift our resources toward the health and safety of our global citizenry.  We are moving into a consciousness that is waking up to celebrating our Diversity in Unity.  In this process, we are co-creating a world where we are all entitled to knowing the power of Love and being treated with dignity and respect, regardless of how much material wealth we have accumulated or privilege we were born into.  But there is great resistance to the Climate Change we face.  Like anxious rabbits, our friends in Congress are fleeing from enacting effective legislation that will take military assault weapons off the shelves.  The more that we resist gun control, the more the movement will persist.  If we don’t proactively adopt some Common Sense discipline here, like a parent setting a limit with an acting out child with a toy, our right to bear arms will be taken away.  This is a paradox that the NRA and folks that pack heat because they can must understand.  There is a far greater and sustainable fire power in peaceful and non-violence strategies for societal change.  The violence is waking us up to that, as evidenced by the Peace Movement being larger than we have ever known.  But you probably won’t see that on the News tonight.  In Maine, there is a grassroots movement to stop Tar Sands oil from flowing through pre-existing refined oil pipelines.  Also, there is movement for ranked choice voting, or ‘run-off’ elections that will impact our legislature and Governor that represents the manifestation of spiritual values into politics.  But we must let go of our addiction to war as a way of life and let this die without killing ourselves.  We have a war on hunger, poverty, crime, obesity and drugs, etc.  Last time I checked, we are losing all of these wars.  As we have discussed, there is a way out of this insanity.  My mom didn’t whack herself because she wanted to die.  Rather, she took her life because she wanted to escape, avoid her pain and the dramatic, ego-centered suffering she attached to her pain.  Although there is Freewill, our actions have consequences.  In her case, she created much more pain and suffering, not less.  She has since walked into the Light, though it has taken hard work that was a missed opportunity for her to do while she was breathing.  How many folks could stand to tap into the energy of Groundhog?  How many premature deaths could be prevented and lives sustained with the help of Groundhog medicine?

When we keep Groundhog in our meditations, we are equipped to learn how to die without actually physically leaving Earth.  Groundhog has great power to guide us through the darkness, so that we see light at the end of the tunnel.  During this journey, there is a restful sleep during the dirge, a parallel process to the slower heartbeat deep within the Earth right now.  May Groundhog help you allow the light illuminate the shadows within your souls so that you see this reflection in your outer field of vision.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Studying Wolf’s Teachings

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I remember when Cat Stevens sang, “another Saturday night and I ain’t got nobody”.  A nice tune, but was he was tapping into the Moon-Dog of his soul when he penned the lyrics?  At the end of the day, it is our marriage to the Divine Light of our own souls that light our way.  Wolf’s spirited teachings guide us into the inner dens of our souls so that we will get to know ourselves on a deeper level.  Wolf offers us guidance regarding effectively using our instincts, intelligence and knowing when to be alone and when to be with family and community.  Given a Full Moon this Saturday night, it is a good time to meditate and journey with Wolf.  In this frigid cold front we are experiencing in Maine, it is difficult to imagine that the darkness is waning, while trotting toward the Chinese-Lunar New Year and Groundhog Day in February and the Spring Equinox in March.

During these shifting tides in our lives, we are asked to endure many hardships.  Right now, there is talk of yet another US war in Mali and a desire to expand the drone war without the consent of Congress or the American public.  Killer whales in the Pacific Northwest need more protection from the Endangered Species Act, not less.  Congress failed to re-authorize the Violence Against Women Act, while the Pentagon agreed to expand the use of women in the military.  In the Middle East, there is a non-violent Palestinian movement to put a cease-fire on land being taken by the Israeli Netanyahu government.  Even in a relatively free society like America, if a bank wants to take away your home or the government wants to put a highway in the middle of your town (that predictably dislocates your community and creates a ghetto), then they will.  Similarly, when my mom took her life 18 years ago, she pulled the rug out from under all of us who loved her.  In spite of all the traumatic exposure, the deep soul work is yielding a place of celebration, but without being as invested, regarding my relationship with her death.  I feel her spirit with me and keep her close to my heart every day.  There is an old picture of her in my sacred meditation space that I now look upon with a gentle gaze.  But arriving at this place has not been easy.  In fact, there has been much pain and suffering.  What is the difference?  Pain is an inevitable experience in life, while suffering is a choice.  We suffer when we attach dramatic stories to our pain.  And there is ego in that.  We begin to let go of suffering, when we start accepting our pain, while loosening the grip that our egos have on our Being.  This is somewhat akin to getting sick.  We have a choice to resist our illness or we can choose to accept and perhaps even embrace our illness as part of our holistic experience.  Yes, a part of me died when my mom left this plane, I crashed and burned on the inside and I still miss her today.  But as we have discussed, even in death there is re-birth.  Even physical death is merely a transition and what matters is how we navigate the Climate Change that we face. 

We are consciousness, rather than what consciousness has identified with.  Whatever labels we attach to ourselves is really the ego trying to strengthen itself and perpetuate its fragile existence.  But it is never enough, as the ego has an insatiable hunger.  Do you feel that your relationship would be just fine if your partner would just change?  Do you feel like you would be happy if certain things had gone differently in the past, or that the current situation was somehow different from how it is right now, or if you were relaxing in some future paradise?  Even folks in the spiritual community often fall prey to clever tricks played by the ego, by perceiving oneself as on a spiritual path, while constantly striving toward “getting it” or seeking Enlightenment.  In my own humility, I can related to that.  But digging deeper into the den teaches that it is in the waking up process that understands that in the surrender, letting go and embracing the unknowing, there is a form of security and protection in that.  During our awakening, we are clearing space for what lies ahead in our journey–our current lives, next incarnation and beyond.  We are capable of releasing spirit’s entanglement with form while we are still breathing.  May the energy of Wolf help guide your path and be a faithful, loyal and protective guardian.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Meditation with Turkey Vulture

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Here is a meditation I did recently out in a boarder-edge area in the backyard.
  • Light candle/incense of choice.
  • Visualize a Turkey Vulture effortlessly riding the thermals, while gleaming the skies.
  • Hold snow (or ice-cube) in fist while breathing in and focusing on fiery dark emotions while gazing onto flame of candle, picturing a rainbow and waterfall.  Reiki folks can picture symbols too.
  • Exhale the darkness within to release as compost.  If you have a beverage, take a sip and spray out like a whale/dolphin.

When I finished this meditation, I noticed the snow ball melted quite fast.  In fact, I felt like I thawed out too and noticed a lift after the experience.  Turkey Vulture helps us see the colorful energy fields in Life.  Isn’t that the kind of energy we want to bring into our World?  As above, so below.  So within, as without.  I would welcome your experiences with this meditation or other meditations like it.

Riding Nature’s Thermals with Turkey Vulture

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Do you remember heeding the cadence that calls for us pass on judging a book by its cover?  If we look beyond a cursory first glance, Turkey Vulture personifies this metaphor.  Have you ever got a rise while watching these birds effortlessly riding thermals by using Earth’s energy centers with minimal effort? Their message to us is that when we effectively integrate spirit into our Being, we can transcend matter.  Rather than focusing on our limitations, we levitate our consciousness toward perceiving infinite possibilities.  Instead of looking for forecasts that call for doom and gloom, we make a conscious choice to see the silver lining and make only positive interpretations.  On the spiritual path, we become the change we want to see in the world by doing the inner work necessary to actualize those changes we want to see.  We cannot co-create sustainable energetic changes in ourselves and our world, unless we choose to do the inner work.  Otherwise, the changes in climate are merely external and cosmetic.  Winter is a powerful time to stoke the embers within, as is meditation on Turkey Vulture waking us up to that.  Turkey Vulture helps guide spirit into our Being with its medicine of purification, death and rebirth and new vision.  Collectively, we need all the help we can get with that right now. 

On the surface, many storms are brewing and Climate Change is the new normal.  We are giving birth to a New Earth, but not without the accompanying labor pains. Some folks describe this transition as moving from a Pisces age to an Aquarian age.  It’s kind of like when your old self dies.  During the dying process, a new identity is emerging as a rebirth.  It takes time before the dust settles.  Rome wasn’t built, nor destroyed in a day.  Last week, we watched a US campaign to end the occupation by holding Israel accountable to US and International law.  Wal-Marts in Ohio and Texas continued breaking their company promise to keep assault rifles off its shelves.  Whether its BPA’s in foods or PED’s in humans, capitalist doctrine, based on primarily maximum economic profit tries to convince us that we should augment ourselves.  But there is a deep place of self-esteem that reminds us that we are OK just the way we are.  In sports news, linebacker Manti Te’o admitted to having a fantastic relationship that appears to have been a figment of his imagination.  Haven’t we all done that?  While fantasy and alternate realities are real on some level, we have to learn how to stay grounded in this reality.  Meditation is a healthy strategy for us to become the change we want to see in the world, but it can also become a skillful avoidance tactic.  At the end of the day, we all have to act.  Martin Luther Kind, Jr. didn’t just sit around and dream.  He took it to the edge and realized that his dream was bigger than his physical life.  MLK wasn’t just spinning dreams of who we might be.  He lived it.  Going to jail and risking his life to do the right thing was horribly uncomfortable, while staying on the pulpit and receiving liberal doses of applause was ego-gratifying for sure. 

We are living in hard times.  There is much pain and suffering on our Planet.  But what an opportunity for us to wake up.  If you find yourself having a sense of entitlement that you should have a better life, then take the action steps to change yourself on the inside first.  There is a sense of Armageddon here.  But you do not have to get stuck in that place, nor do you have to overindulge in it.  With Turkey Vulture as a spirited guide, we use whatever natural resources are available to us to nourish ourselves and continue onward’.  If only our friends in Congress, World leaders and everyone else on the Planet would make this internal shift.  It is going to take hard work to shift our consciousness and tip the scale.  Believe it is possible and take action.  Even if it is gut wrenching to watch a predator eat an innocent prey, take a closer look and examine why Great Spirit revealed this moment for you to notice.  What message(s) does the predator and prey have for you to apply to your life?  Pay attention to your feelings and dreams and take notes.  It requires taking inventory on yourself, rather than getting preoccupied with the distractions and giving away your power to those distractions.  This is not about being ego-centered.  This is about getting to know yourself on a deeper level and therefore enriching your understanding of others.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari