Tag Archives: Animal Spirits

With Gulls, We See Beneath Red Herrings

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

A Full Worm Moon passed us by last week
Like Nature’s outwardly changing seasons
Our energetic tides ebb and flow internally

Herrings help us see the subtleties of communication
So that we become adept at reading what is
flying below the radar in our social environment

Genuine respect is a key ingredient to being a well-versed social animal
Our Divine constitution is awakened in this location

As shoreline birds,
Gull teaches us to see the writing on the wall and read between the lines

In between land and sea, shorelines are of places of great magic and mystery
Ordinary spaces between our busy events are wanting to be seen as extraordinary

Do you hear John Lennon’s voice fly in from the Dreamtime,
“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

Are you willing to sail away from an old hard land
and take a leap of faith onto the shores of a fluid New World?

Seagulls remind us that reality has both surface and depth

Powerful energies are intensifying and arriving through our perceptual pathways
Like when light is let in to brighten up a dark room
We don’t always like what we see

Meditation on allowing the sunlight to illuminate the shadows
is good medicine right now

When navigating elemental forces of land and air . . .
We need to learn to swim and fly
in the multidimensional waters and skies of Life

Body language is the psychology of communication
If we are what we eat and appetite comes with eating
Then may we drink in Herrin’s teachings to stimulate a healthy diet
to clean up the ecology of our daily lives

“The personal is the political”

Whether bleeding from our deepest cuts or flesh wounds
The time is now to release and let go of our old pains

Might as well weather our shifting fronts with transformational grace

Stay alert, stay aware and be present with what is
Try not to get sucked into the control dramas of others
Or your own insidious anxieties and chattering repetitive mental tapes

Be a spiritual watcher of yourself
We are aware that we are aware

A fortress around your heart might appear to serve as protection
from being stoned by others living in glass houses

But do you believe that the sweet surrender of vulnerability
will be held up by Universal pillars of Love and Truth
while holding a firm foundation of personal and cosmic intimacy?

See you further on up the trails,

Ari

Even on the Surface, Conscious Breathing has Great Depth

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

Dolphin guides our spirits in this material world
into remembering when Grandmother Moon
once wove patterns of the tides into our daily Earth-walk

Dolphins are speaking to us to help us remember
primal communication through sensing vibration and sound

Do you need to pay more attention to your intellectual development,
or communication issues regarding the psychology
of self in relationship?

Whether looking at conflict in world events
Or personal relationships –
Sometimes silence or even pausing to take a deep breath,
and think before we speak gives peace a chance

Water symbolizes creation, passion and sexuality
Feminine power gains sustainable momentum
when tapped into gradually, gently and softly

Picture the dominant Masculine Military-Industrial Empire
Breathing in the fresh air of these self-evident Truths
and then exhaling its complexities that blow things out of proportion

Before going scuba diving . . .
Remember to adjust breathing patterns accordingly
Blowing out tension by relaxing into deep belly breathing

We use our sonar (empathy) to tune into our natural bio-rhythms

Surf the energetic waves with a playful, light-hearted sense of detachment
But not without holding secure footing onto our boards

Dolphins lesson plans awaken our
curiosity, intellect and intuitive faculties

Let us bow equally to our oneness and diverse expressions
Without our breath, there would be no rebirth

Do you need to expand your awareness beyond your own family or pod
to see yourself as part of our greater Global community?

Emotional cleansing clears away stagnant water that needs to flow
Our Dreamtime reveals connections to old wounds that want to release and heal

Do you need to enjoy life and become more playful –
In spite of undesirable cosmetic imperfections?

Grieving our heartaches and sorrows is a sign to address pain we have stuffed
Otherwise, the pain builds and suffering continues

May we take back our outward projections

What does our awareness of our traumatic experiences
have to teach us about ourselves?

Adjust our breathing patterns to swim in life’s mutable waters
Altered states and New Dimensions are accessed when inner sounds
reverberate in outer manifestations

Becoming the change you want to see in the world is a good mantra to live by

A Full Worm Moon later on this week hints at softening ground
with reappearing earthworm casts
Robins sings songs of spring arriving
As maple sap begins to flow
Tapping of annual maple tree rituals are beginning

Masculine and feminine energies will flow together
in waves of synchronized oceanic swimming
On Spring Equinox in later March . . .
I hardly think a showcase of collective Olympic gold medals could touch that.

See you further on up the trails,

Ari

Riding Out the Winter Tides with Whale

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

Whale plunges us deeper into the collective seas of planetary consciousness
Fine tuning our eardrums into the life-beat of Mother Earth

Their sonar links us in to Her planetary heartbeat
Good medicine to meditate on our breathing patterns
Especially when feeling stressed about the weather

Whales are dedicated to their family
Their sonar is akin to an acute form of empathy

In the sense that we can learn to listen in
and hear subtle stirrings inside with relationship to self and others

This process increases our sensitivity

Drinking in deep, relaxed belly breathing
Is what’s on tap for a clear walking meditation

Leaving behind a clean wake for others to follow in

What a long Winter season it has been for many folks blanketed by snow
Cold as it is now, a powerful Spring Eclipse season lies on the horizon

Yang energetic intensities are rising
Light and dark forces are moving toward equal dance steps together again

Masculine and Feminine energies will be in equal alignment with one another
Come Spring Equinox in later March

While trekking the great outdoors,
Mother Nature reveals Her feminine power

My oh my, can’t She be unpredictable?
When riding out these changing tides,
It is helpful to tune into the echo chiming in to go with the flow

Picture Whale cresting near a shoreline
beneath the bounty of a mountain range

Can you hear a natural conversational exchange . . .
“Some people can hear themselves think amidst the din of everyday life.
I however need the mountains.”

Love is the answer

Whale blows steam into the waters of an egalitarian New Earth
May our medicine shields release and let-go of
dualities and demonizing perceived enemies

Picture holistic co-creative communities
Clean energy, drinking water, elections
and access to quality health care

The Empire relaxes its militaristic grip
On our Global Village

Good-bye Captain Americas
A Super Power fades away
Peace out to identifications with war-like ideology

Freedom is as freedom does

Are you ready to let go of self-crucifixion?
Might as well come up for air
Instead of drowning in repetitive mental tapes by the voice in the head

The time is now to listen to our “better angels”
So that we tap into our soul potential

See you further on up the trails,

Ari

Bighorn Sheep Rams

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

We enter into a New Moon and Chinese-Lunar Year
of interchangeable Sheep (Ram) Goat later on this week

Rams are stoic, mild-mannered, shy, kind and peace-loving creatures
Except during an impasse when they tend to butt heads.

New beginnings are subtly shifting their underground momentum
Slowly stirring and breaking the ice out of a long Winter slumber

Energetically, we are moving further away from dark-feminine-yin Winter forces
Closing in on budding light-masculine-yang Spring eclipses

We are beginning to adjust our footing from an
inner direction toward tactical outward expansion.

Like New Moons, Rams are associated with new beginnings

Their energies stimulate great mental activity
Akin to the internal marital arts
We are building momentum gradually

Signifying also the birth of a Pisces time of year
The last sign of the Western Zodiac

Winter is ending, while Spring is beginning
Symbolic of water and its powerful feminine forces of Nature

Are you acting on your ideas or just thinking about them?

Hopefully not impulsively without consideration for what we
might want to bring into our material reality from the Dreamtime

Meditation on self-respect and respect for others is always good medicine
While anticipating the arrival of waves of feelings that could come crashing in

Stoking the embers of curiosity and imagination
Increasing our energy and impetus to act on it
We remember that energy is energy
It’s what we do with it that counts

As we move closer to the trail head of a New Age
We are leaving behind past footprints

Picture a New Earth, where we are embracing our whole masculine/feminine and sun/moon Selves by developing deeper relationships with our transformational souls

May we fuel ourselves with a balanced mind-body-spirit diet
so that we organically increase our productivity with brighter light, hope
and less dense effort, duty and sacrifice

See you further on up the trails,

Ari

A Goat’s Good Footwork

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

We are setting foot into a New Chinese-Lunar Year soon
After recently passing over the mid-point between
Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox

Many of us find this hard to believe
Given we are plowed in over our heads with snow
It’s so hard to hear the seeds underground starting to think about waking up
But then again, Beethoven heard the music even when he was deaf

We tend to make, struggle with and not always keep new resolutions at this time
Meditation on Goat can help us
Overcome our adversity through determination

Do you need to apply more effort to complete your goals and objectives?

No small feat, we just climbed over a Snowy Full Moon
Now descending on downward
Be careful scaling slippery slopes
Like reacting to images of measles, security compromises
and possibilities of hackers stealing your identity

In these changing times,
Now more than ever, we need the energy of Goat for keeping
sure footing so that we can trek onward toward the summit

The dying ways of an old world are no longer working for us anymore
It is getting harder to bury our heads in the sand
By changing channels and cutting to commercials

We see the arrival of a New Earth Age of Aquarius
Coming through the Womb of Life

On some level, we all experience

The darkness of Her labor pains

And the sunlight of intensifying Spring energy rising

Is Goat signaling you that a new endeavor is about to enter your life to
Pursue slowly, industriously and carefully?

Single-minded focus can be good medicine in a world where
Many folks are all over the place with their boundaries
But the catch to this level of targeted attention is
being overly stubborn, narrow-minded or too rigid
By getting boxed-in the ghettos of the mind

Have you been working too hard and need to lighten-up?

Chewing on Goat’s hearty food for soul
Helps us digest Its traits of ambition, perseverance and
Appreciation of Nature and earthly delights
Balancing frugality and modesty
With enjoying creature comforts and physical pleasures

See you further on up the trails,

Ari

Tunneling Underground with Groundhog

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

Groundhogs radically lower their body temperature, respiration and heartbeat
Securing a protected slumber to keep safe and sound while frozen in time
During this week’s Full Snow Moon

Do you ever feel like you are sleepwalking through life in a hypnotic trance?
Every day is the same
Like Bill Murray’s character in the iconic film Groundhog Day
Even when killing himself, he cannot escape his suffering

But there is a way out of our suffering by leaning into our pain

A Groundhog’s Winter hibernation
Symbolizes death and rebirth while we are breathing
Waking-Up the embers of underground unconsciousness
Unearthing mysteries of death without dying

Pregnant with dreamy seeds of who we want to become
When Spring Eclipse season buds into our consciousness
While slumbering in dark tunnels of our soul

Lucid dreaming sheds light on our underground digging and tunneling
Do you feel your subconscious mind waking-up?

Life and death are deeply mysterious unknowns
But we do not have to physically die to live
with a healthy relationship with our mortality

Regardless of the weather forecast, unexpected changes happen
Order and chaos are in a fluctuating tango
Our boarders and edges soften with time

Are you sending clear signals for boundaries you want respected?

Mercury in retrograde resurrects relationships from our past
Use this period to release and let-go of stagnant energies
Like feeling abandoned, rejected, resentful or bitter
Gently allowing healing to take place instead of developing an attitude

Regarding past regrets . . .
Remember that you win when you choose forgiveness
Give yourself permission to grieve so that you can move forward

Are you handling the accompaniment of mixed and conflicting feelings
that are rising up to the surface without getting stuck in global overwhelm?

But rather than skillfully avoiding our pain and discomforts
Through sophisticated symptom relief . . .
If only we develop our tolerance threshold, accept and even embrace
our internal deaths and rebirths with grace

We breathe in the fresh air of every living moment . . .
And then exhale its death in the next moment of kin . . .

We can let go of our resentments and digest bitter
Relaxing the charge we have felt by our pain

If only we learn to live in the present as it happens
We gently allow a distant past of abuses or projected future fantasies
Pass with care

We awaken to the metaphor of reincarnation
Transcending the Law of Cause and Effect
Reworking and revisiting Groundhog Day
Into a magical mystery tour of
Right Now!

See you further on up the trails,

Ari

Facing North with Lynx

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

Facing North with Lynx
We venture across space and time
Discovering hidden lost treasures

How do we allow past lives
Illuminate the shadows of the present
To set sail toward clear skies ahead?

Nature gives birth to our blueprint orientations
But we are free to make our own footprints

What has been passed on to you by your ancestors?

While tracking with our snow shoe paws
We awaken to Heavenly knowledge of Dreamtime

What secret forecasts are hiding behind the clouds?

Remember that solitude need not be a lonely experience

Are your distractions a sleep-aid to your soul promptings?

Think outside the box . . .
What solutions do you hear echoing from stillness speaking?

Do you see or hear an unseen core of truth?

Lynx medicine is akin to spiritual x-ray vision
We peer deeper into our empathic connections in relationship

What do we do with this information?

As we move further away from the Winter Solstice
Closer to Groundhog Day, Chinese-Lunar New Year and then Spring Equinox
It becomes easier to see the light at the end of the tunnel

But in this darkness, it is a good time for
watching our surfacing dark feelings with a gentle gaze

Painful as they may be, it is wise to be informed by them
Without holding onto the shores
Or becoming consumed by their emotional darkness

May we write injuries in dust, benefits in marble

It has been 20 years since my mom killed herself
Half my lifetime ago

Leaving behind so much grieving for all of us
Such a challenge digging through the dark without losing sight of the light
Hasn’t been the first time I’ve been knocked down
And it won’t be the last

But the bell I choose to listen to
Is a bell of mindfulness

When I look to the past, I live in the present, with my eye on the future
Whatever I get hit with
I’m going to keep getting back up
And you can too

Lynx is a good reminder to hold onto knowledge with watchful eyes
Knowing that sometimes silence is a higher form of honesty
Even in transparency, we respect confidentiality

Now Mercury is in retrograde
Let go of left brain, rational, logical trying to figure it all out cognitive processes

Might as well go with the flow and open up to allowing
creative, intuitive, illogical and feminine faculties
to come out and play

Are you trusting your instincts?

Open minds channel alternative pathways and novel thinking

Seeing ourselves as eternal springs with an unlimited internal well of resources
helps shift from a victim mentality toward our True soul power

Clean care and clean Love burns greener energy into our atmosphere

Feed your soul with full-bellied laughter
Let your love and light shine on by wearing a genuine heart-smile

See you further on up the trails,

Ari

Spiritual Awakenings with Hawk

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

Hawk swoops in this week
Circling our dreams
Visionaries of air
Are these spirited winged creatures

Akin to Mercury
Weaving creativity into our daily living
Awakening conversations with the Universe
Remembering magical songs like

We Shall Overcome

Even if this mantra feels like a Twilight Zone retrograde

Hawk medicine signals us to become observant of
Obvious signs lurking beneath shadowy surface realities
Shedding Light on synchronicity

Pay attention!

If only we can open-up to being clear channels right now
We can discern our intuitive hits
Amplifying our capacity for accurate reception of Universal truths
from illusionary realities

Imagine what a beautiful world we could live in
When the political will of intention
Reveals an abundant air of clear skies with clouds of shared resources
From neurons to neighborhoods

Supporting the rising tide of the overwhelming majority
Watering a critical mass of co-creativity
We work toward a common sense goal of mutual aid and respect

A heightened sense of awareness
Conjures up increased responsibility
to see the big picture
without getting lost in pesky details

Don’t get lost in ungraceful emotional reactivity and fixed ideas
Let those stories become introverted opportunities for self-reflections
Might as well allow for personal discovery of your judgments and positions
Be mindful of your feelings and keep them with self-control
rather than being a victim by giving away your power to someone else at close range

Like the light of Grandfather Sun
Seeing with a keen eye and bold heart
Hawk helps us know when to grab an opportunity
or hold discernment of hazards that counteract our freedom of flight
so that we remain grounded

Teaching temperance
Knowing harmony in moderation
We become strong and powerful
Through a soft and gentle way of being

See you further on up the trails,

Ari

Out on the Ponds with Loon

Posted on by under Consciousness, Energy Medicine, Native American, Original Prose, Shamanism

A waning Full Moon and Western New year passed us by last week
Later on next month we come into a Chinese-Lunar New Year
Streaming in undercurrent tides of Spring energetics

From dusk til dawn . . .
Loon guides us further into the oceanic depths of the Dreamtime
Calling out to us to reawaken hidden selves

Do your underwater dreams want to come up for air?

A cold winter blanket makes for warm self-reflection

Old hopes, wishes and dreams are wanting to express themselves right now
Submerged within the depths of our sea of consciousness

Are you allowing your imagination and dream life to work for you?

Venture across the outer waters of your soul’s terrain
Into mysterious dark places wanting to see the light of day

Do you need to get our of your box and
become more comfortable in different environments?

Silent lucidity changes the trajectory of our dreams
Shifting our gears into unexplored trails of our unfolding life maps

Are you having a hard time distinguishing fantasy from reality?

Cultivating a sacred space breathes stability into
our free-spirited fluctuations in feelings and imaginative possibilities

Home is where the Heart is
But not without minding your head

Do you ever feel like your life is a re-run of a reality show gone mad?

Take a step-back and become a spiritual watcher
noticing how our thoughts and feelings connect
the dots of our repetitive behavioral patterns

Are we allowing ourselves to grieve those close to us that have passed on recently?
Feeling the funeral procession and ring tone of feelings that
reverberate in ghostly acoustics

Facing our own mortality can be terrifying . . .
Begging questions regarding what happens to us when we die?

In the death of Winter, unexpected losses leave behind
dark and stormy mixed emotions
When faced authentically, they add to the complexities of living

And celebrate their time alive we will
While tuned in to a spirited living drumbeat in your soul today

Listening to our bodies reveals balancing work, play, rest and diet

Without meditation as a critical part of our daily routine
It will become harder to sit with what is now
and moving onward along the trails ahead
Distractions to following our soul path will become more challenging

A slow and low tempo heeds
Universal promptings that are designed to return our energy to ourselves

See you further on up the trails,

Ari

Soaring into the New Year with an Eagle-Eye View

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

Last week, we tracked with Wolf
This week, we remember our canine kin howling in hunger
Digesting psychic lunar connections on this
Sunday’s Full Wolf Moon

We’ll see you on the Dark Side of the Moon

Now a soaring Eagle in flight
Illuminates our Divine nature
While keeping our free-spirited feet
Deeply rooted in the Earth

Eagle inspires our human family to balance our spirited heavenly state
With our feet on common ground
In this space, we are good stewards to our Mother

A Gregorian New Year passes us by
Setting foot into 2015
Tis the season to look beyond instinctual preferences
To making practical choices that better serve our well-being in the long run

What places inside of yourself needs refinement?

Perhaps an eagle-eyed view will reveal Higher Self vistas
Flying beyond immediate weather fronts

Have you been walking in the footsteps of your shadow selves?

Loving both our light and dark sides
Illuminates the alchemy of Eagle’s powerful medicine

We The People and our Earth are in transition
Like Her, we are sentient beings
As Her children, we are also in process of ascending up the mountain
In the everywhere air where Great Spirit resides

We are all seeds that have been planted – do you feel them stirring?

Intimacy is a reciprocal exchange between open hearts beating together
with authentic soulful expression

What is lurking beneath those pesky emotionally triggered arguments?
Is there a deeper pain in your soul that wants to awaken and be heard?

Playing situational football in life
Signals mutable cadences and audible calls
But it is equally good to stick to the game plan
And stay on track without mental rigidity

We are a land of hopes and dreams
May we be clear about our intentions
Having faith and trust that our Dreamtime will come about
But not without releasing our attachments and letting go of preferred outcomes

What seeds do you want to water in the year ahead?

Will you be driven by your emotions or see what is behind them?
Fly like an eagle over co-creative win-win realities
To snatch up for our planet and beyond

See you further on up the trails,

Ari