Sea Gull Journeying Meditation

Sea Gulls
Photo courtesy of K. Bouse

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

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

With Gulls, We See Beyond Red Herrings

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

Dolphin Meditation

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

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

Swimming in Dolphin’s wake

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

Turtle Meditation

Here is one possible Shamanic journey that I would like to share with you.  In a watered down sense, the journey process is about shifting our consciousness–merely a perceptual shift, potentially leading us into a transformational experience with reality.  We journey to become more conscious and awake during our travels in our material realm, giving us more power and freedom in our lives.  Journeying and meditation aid us in becoming the change we want to see in the world.  For example, during a journey meditation this week, I encountered a huge whale while swimming as a sea turtle in the ocean.  Although the sight of the whale was overwhelming, I allowed myself to hold a position of curiosity and empathy, while simultaneously realizing that the whale meant me no harm.  Remembering to be conscious of our breathing helps us calm our anxieties and remain in the present moment as it unfolds, but intentionally without projecting spin onto whatever front comes our way.
  • Light incense/candle
  • Start by drumming or rattling to a consistent beat in your sacred space.
  • Picture a turtle in your imagination.
  • Feel and perceive turtle energy in your consciousness.
  • Ask turtle for guidance, let go and then follow turtle wherever it takes you during your journey.  Be sure to thank turtle for its gift to you.
  • Before returning to this reality, it is important to change your beat to a call back for an effective transition.  For example, after 10-20 minutes of drumming, I open my eyes and then hit the drum 8 times for 3 repetitions, then 3 times for 3 repetitions and then 7 times for 3 repetitions to signal the end of my journey.  But your call back can be in the form of a word, a thought or a mantra that works for you.
  • Record what arrives to you from your journey.

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

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

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

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

Riding Nature’s Thermals with Turkey Vulture

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

Resurrecting the Light with Beetle

Last week, we followed Dog tracks.  Along the trails, I found myself being more affectionate with my family and mindful of boundaries in relationships. While celebrating the Winter Solstice, we noted hot topics of gratitude and letting go, while coaxing back the light.  On the Gregorian calendar, we embark on 2013 and continue pressing onward in our Consciousness’ assent.  We are in the process of Climate Change and co-creating a New Earth right now and you are It.  Some folks were terrified of Doomsday scenarios that promised the end of the world.  Others were disappointed about being disappointed that our dying old world didn’t fall off the cliff, while immediately being transformed into a Golden Age on the day after.  But aliens didn’t take over and Hillary Clinton went to the hospital–thankfully receiving quality health care without worry of how to pay for it.  Soon we welcome the arrival of the Chinese-Lunar New Year, as Spring begins budding underground with Groundhog.  Before too long, we will know energetic balance again on the Spring Equinox in March.  I awoke the other night to a clear vision of a Beetle gleaming across my inner sky.  Like the Sun’s movement across the sky, Beetle moves from East to West.   Mother energy has been revisiting us at this time, as feminine-yin energy is dominant and we are turning more inward.  Meditating on Beetle medicine is like tapping into a mutable orientation.  Whether we are Franz Kafka or an Average Joe, we are all capable of metamorphosis.  Is anyone else inspired by a bug’s capacity to radically change from an egg to a grub stage and then fly away as a winged creature?  In women, this is somewhat akin to menopause or “mentalpause” as I have heard it called.  Do I embrace this heated change or fight it like a war on something I reject? 

During our tracking right now, many of us remember our heavy heartfelt losses.  There is much pain and it is hard to make friends with that.  Picture the horribly uncomfortable position of grieving the death of a partner, while giving birth to a new child simultaneously.  Some folks have lost their jobs, their homes or gone through gut-wrenching break-ups, separations or divorce.  Even our worried well in the pampered West, are waking up to the hard times we are living in.  Others feel like they don’t know who they are anymore and are uncertain of who they are becoming.  In the mystery of Life, has anyone ever lost a loved one to suicide, unexpected death or any other permanent physical good-bye?  It is a mixed blessing to feel the spirit of the season and also really feel the deep hurt and anger regarding our myriad of deeply traumatic soul wounds, including the inequities, pain and suffering on our planet today.  After I lost my mom to suicide, I felt abandoned and forced to enter into adulthood with deeper wounds than your average Bear.  I had already felt that before she whacked herself, but the void widened, part of me died as well.  But it wasn’t the first time I felt that way, nor will it be the last.  Tempting as it was pursuing career goals, objectives and being driven to distraction–doing the inner work is always what yields fruitful  and sustainable returns.  Living isn’t really sustainable until we wake up to our deeper feelings, while stoking the fiery embers of passion and courage to move toward intimacy, while letting go of egocentric avoidance tactics that keep us asleep.  Some of us have fantastic avoidance mechanisms in place that get in the way of us getting in touch with our deeper souls. 

The old world of white privilege is dying too and it is OK to grieve that.  Some white folks feel like they are losing their country and for them, things seem to be getting worse and they are feeling resentful about it.  Some complainants at the top of the economic food chain do not think it is fair that they might have to pay a little more if the Bush tax cuts fade away.  But a simple perceptual shift reveals that when the playing field is leveled for everyone else, there is enough and we can all win.  When I see a community of straight white men going out on a limb and intimately sharing their feelings around a fire and cheering for gay folks being allowed to join our formerly exclusive club–it fills my heart with hope to see Karma being cleared.  Yes, social change is slow and Great Spirit works in mysterious ways.  Human rights, gay rights, gender equality, civil rights, worker rights and culturally sensitive mental health assessments and testing and equal access to resources are all manifestations of our forward progress.  But we need to remember that conservative energy anchors us in our traditions and be sensitive to that too.  Sometimes this looks like taking one step up and two steps back. 

We cannot always be in control of our lives and remain in our inner peace bubble.  Spiritual beings having a human experience need to come down from the mountain and learn to be on the ground with our fellow brothers and sisters.  Sometimes, our securities wane gradually, while at other times they wash away instantly.  We need to remember that we can control our attitude and how we respond to the cards that are dealt, regardless of how uncomfortable we feel about them.  But the democratic process is messy.  We are all in this together and we all have a say in the great waves of changes coming our way.

Stay True,

Ari