Podcast Episode: Letting Go Of Getting Stuck In Life By Being Present With Our Stuckness

Woman practicing Tai Chi barefoot on stone path with yin-yang symbol in garden

Check out this newly created experimental AI Podcast feature that aligns with my writing, compliments of WordPress.

Full Disclosure: Truly, I do take pride in my writing, and have yet to use AI for the written word. However, I have been having fun with playing around with AI for illustrations.

This version of 1 of my more recent writings stars 2 AI created characters named Pip and Mara.

Please enjoy the podcast & transcript below:

Pip: Classroom Mothership Earth — where getting unstuck, staying present, and surrendering to the universe are all on the syllabus, and somehow the homework is actually worth doing.

Mara: Today we’re covering work from Ari Joshua Bouse — one extended meditation on what it means to stop fighting your own stuckness and find your way back to the present moment. Let’s start with the heart of it: surrender as a path through.

Letting Go: Presence, Surrender, and Getting Unstuck

Mara: The central question here is deceptively simple — why do we get stuck, and what does it actually mean to let go? Not as a motivational slogan, but as a lived, embodied practice.

Pip: The post opens with a Rhonda Byrne line that stops you cold: “You can’t feel good when you’re feeling bad about feeling bad.”

Mara: That’s the trap in one sentence. The secondary suffering — the judgment layered on top of the original feeling — is often what keeps people frozen far longer than the feeling itself would.

Pip: And the post gets specific about what that looks like in practice. The reflection on getting stuck on other people’s stuckness, and taking it personally, is one of the more honest things you’ll read about how entanglement actually works.

Mara: The post frames it plainly: “experience teaches that it is freeing to stay centered, and observe those entanglements soften and relax.” Letting go of victim consciousness is described as a process — peeling away layers of an onion, not a single decision.

Pip: Which is where Tai Chi enters — not as a detour, but as a structural argument. Ancient meditative movement practices, the post says, integrate the brain’s hemispheres and re-pattern the neurological system toward emotional regulation. The body is part of the solution.

Mara: The post profiles Professor Cheng Man Ching, who brought Tai Chi to the West against the explicit orders of his masters. He once said he was approximately seventy percent Confucius and thirty percent Lao Tzu, and that learning how to be human takes a very long time.

Pip: Seventy-thirty is a surprisingly precise self-assessment for someone also teaching surrender.

Mara: The post also weaves in bibliotherapy — a medium using reading, film, podcasts, and other materials to support therapeutic change, especially between sessions. It traces back to an independent study in college exploring how clients get unstuck outside the therapy room.

Pip: That thread runs all the way to Pema Chodron, whose work the post closes with — a veteran Buddhist teacher the post credits as a leading force in bringing these principles to Western audiences.

Mara: The throughline is consistent: whether it’s Tai Chi, bibliotherapy, or sitting meditation, the practice is always about carrying the insight off the cushion and into ordinary life.

Pip: Stuckness, it turns out, is less a destination than a habit — and habits, given enough momentum, can be re-patterned.


Mara: Surrender as a technology for change — that’s the real thread running through all of this.

Pip: Next time, we’ll see what else the mothership has on the curriculum. There’s always more to unpack.

Please enjoy the original post that inspired this podcast at the link below:

Take care of yourselves everyone,

Ari

Podcast Episode: Plato’s Allegory Of The Cave

Empty classroom with wooden desks and chairs arranged in a circle under natural sunlight.
An empty classroom with wooden desks arranged in a circular formation bathed in sunlight.

Check out this newly created experimental AI Podcast feature that aligns with my writing, compliments of WordPress.

Full Disclosure: Truly, I do take pride in my writing, and have yet to use AI for the written word. However, I have been having fun with playing around with AI for illustrations.

This podcast version of 1 of my more recent writings stars 2 AI created characters named Pip and Mara.

Please enjoy the podcast & transcript below:

Pip: There’s a site called Classroom Mothership Earth, which is either a philosophy blog or the most ambitious field trip ever conceived — possibly both.

Mara: Ari Joshua Bouse writes here about education, consciousness, and the ideas that stay with you long after the bell rings. Today we’re following him back into a high school classroom and into Plato’s cave. Let’s start with what that cave actually meant.

Plato’s Allegory Of The Cave

Pip: The post opens with a prompt — describe something you learned in high school — and the answer isn’t a formula or a date. It’s a philosophy class that apparently rewired the writer’s entire sense of reality.

Mara: The Humanities course had a teacher who, as the post puts it, “embodied his humanity” — theatrical, philosophical, running the room like a group rather than a lecture. The layout shifted between rows, clusters, and horseshoe configurations to keep energy moving through the space.

Pip: So the room itself was part of the pedagogy. The furniture arrangement wasn’t aesthetic — it was functional, designed to open something up in the students.

Mara: And what got opened up, specifically, was Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The post describes it this way: “the metaphor of humanity being asleep and trapped in own own darkness lit a fire in my neurons and energy field.”

Pip: That’s a sentence doing a lot of heavy lifting across several centuries of philosophy.

Mara: What it means in practice is that the allegory didn’t stay abstract. It landed as a personal reckoning — the post connects it directly to protective instincts, survival dynamics, and what it calls “death and rebirth” taking root in the psyche. This wasn’t intellectual exercise; it was identity-level disruption.

Mara: The class also covered Plato’s Republic against Pericles’ Democracy, the teacher’s own Theory of Good, and Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha. The curriculum was genuinely wide.

Pip: And the post notes that metacognition and superconsciousness weren’t yet common language — but that didn’t stop anyone from having those experiences. The concepts came later; the experiences came first.

Mara: The image that closes the reflection is the teacher drawing a diagram of the Cave on a blackboard, and the writer connecting that chalk sketch to ancient cave art. The visual form of the idea outlasted the lesson itself.

Pip: Turns out the cave has good acoustics for anything that echoes.

Mara: The throughline is that a single classroom encounter with one allegory can reorganize how a person understands consciousness — and keeps doing so long after graduation.


Pip: Shadows on a wall, seating arrangements, a teacher with chalk — small things that turn out to be load-bearing.

Mara: Next time, more from the mothership.

Please enjoy the original post that inspired this new podcast version at the link below:

Take care of yourselves everyone,

Ari

Podcast Episode: Embodying Paradox, Change & Humor In The Everyday Moments Of Life

Abstract swirling streams of water twisting around glowing blue and teal geometric crystals
Swirling water streams intertwine with glowing geometric crystals in an abstract composition.

Check out this newly created experimental AI Podcast feature that aligns with my writing, compliments of WordPress.

Full Disclosure: Truly, I do take pride in my writing, and have yet to use AI for the written word. However, I have been having fun with playing around with AI for illustrations.

This podcast version of 1 of my more recent writings stars 2 AI created characters named Pip and Mara.

Please enjoy the podcast & transcript below:

Pip: Classroom Mothership Earth — where the curriculum includes falling off your bike, losing on purpose, and calling all of it wisdom.

Mara: That’s actually a fair summary. Ari Joshua Bouse has a new post up exploring resilience, paradox, and how everyday stumbles become the practice itself. Let’s start with what it means to stop fighting the dark and work with it instead.

Embodying Paradox, Change and Humor In Everyday Life

Mara: The central question here is how resilience actually gets built — not by avoiding difficulty, but by changing your relationship to it. The post argues that resilience is cultivated, not inherited, and that the everyday moment is where that cultivation happens.

Pip: And the frame for all of it comes from a Taoist concept the post calls Investing In Loss. The setup is direct: “you might lose a game 99 times out of a hundred. But if you lose 99 times and you are paying mindful attention about your partners moves, you can learn their tricks, and spring the trap to win the 100th game.”

Mara: So the upshot is that losing, done consciously, is actually data. The mindset shift the post is pointing at is the difference between defeat and apprenticeship — same outcome, completely different relationship to it.

Pip: The bike and the swimming pool make the same case more viscerally. Most of us got water up our nose and fell off the handlebars and somehow did not develop lasting trauma from either. We just got back on.

Mara: Right — and the post uses that to ask a genuine question: how do we stay present in everyday life the way we were present when we were learning something genuinely new and a little scary? That’s where Dan Millman enters. The Way of the Peaceful Warrior gets name-checked as a long-running personal touchstone — a book recommended in high school, not fully read until after college, but never forgotten.

Pip: There is something quietly honest about admitting the book sat on the to-do list for years before it landed. Delayed absorption counts.

Mara: The post opens with two epigraphs that frame the whole thing. Eckhart Tolle on bringing in light rather than fighting darkness, and S. Kelley Harrell going further: “bless the darkness, hold the light, because the two aren’t divisible.” That’s the paradox the title is naming — not resolving the tension, but inhabiting it.

Mara: The shadow-boxing image the post offers — awakening to shades of your hidden self in a mirror — suggests the inner work and the outer stumbling are the same practice, just different angles.


Pip: Lose on purpose, get back on the bike, and hold the light and the dark at the same time. Straightforward advice, if you don’t mind the bruises.

Mara: That tension between difficulty and openness seems like the thread worth pulling next time.

Please enjoy the original post that inspired this new podcast version at the link below:

May all Beings be free of suffering, and awaken to God Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness, Unity Consciousness, Diversity Within Unity, Inner Peace and the Universal Pillars of Love And Truth.

Gemini Awakens A Twin Full Blue Moon At The End Of May

Two women sitting cross-legged on a patterned rug, facing each other and holding hands in a room with plants and crystals

“The real measure of our lives has to do with your Values, not your valuables; by your Goodness, not your goods; by your Self-Worth, not the weight of your wallet.”

-Dr. Wayne Dyer

Following a powerful Wesak Full Flower Moon on May 1st, a New Moon in Taurus will happen on May 16th. Spring energies are springing, in the Northern Hemisphere at least. Everything is ephemeral, and it’s hard not to feel inebriated by the seasonal energies of growth and transience that are reflecting back to us from Nature.

This new moon gives us a friendly reminder that a deeper sense of stability comes from self respect. Deeper respect comes from accepting ourselves for who we are over what material things we manifest, and perhaps become identified with.

Nothing wrong with manifesting abundance in the 3D realm. But we can align with calmer and restorative energies by focusing on how short term actions may affect long term gains. Imagine the possibilities when politics and the stock market consistently reflect that kind of mindset.

When we accept that change is a natural part of life, then we are more equipped to embrace that change is the only constant in everyday living.

I focus on this when dealing with the losses that we face with our loved ones during our lifetimes here. As a human being, I still get sad when people (including animal friends) close to me get sick and suffer, die unexpectedly or those who have lived a good life or die by natural causes. And of course I grieve the death and dying process of those I have never even met. But what I am mindful of is reminding myself to have the self respect to not get sucked into the dirge.

Truly, facing our own mortality is sobering. Because I had to face my own mortality and loss of innocence at a younger than normative age, I woke up to the truth that doing so gave me an opportunity to work with the feeling of facing my own death. It isn’t that I don’t have my fears. I just move through them by trusting that the light of consciousness will guide me toward the end of the tunnel.

Many people, like my dad, have experienced that process during near death experiences. But you don’t have to physically die to know the experience. Just as an example, the sacred medicinal energies of Groundhog is a friendly reminder that the shamanic death without dying is a real possibility.

But it is also freeing to awaken to our soul purpose, know that our time here is limited and it’s what we do with this precious gift that counts. It’s like the old story about the zen master whose students are watching him die, and they are perplexed because as he’s taking his last breaths, he grieves his own death by asserting that he wants to live!

Speaking of death and rebirth, Gemini season will be in the air from around May 20 till the Summer Solstice on June 21st. During this timeframe energetically, our chi will be flowing from our lower chakras to our upper chakras to support creativity, self-expression and our desire to share. Communication is doubly powered up by Gemini, if you’ll pardon the astrological pun.

The Twins reflect our status as part creature and part divine. As spiritual beings having human experiences, we exist as the form of a mortal that has incarnated in this lifetime.

Coupled with our form identity, we have a formless eternal identity that reflects a central Law of Thermodynamics positing that energy cannot be created or destroyed. Our souls live within our bodies during the gift of this lifetime. Our bodies are our temple, but they are temporary because we all die. However, our souls live on. Interestingly, science and spirituality are converging on this Universal truth beyond a shadow of a doubt.

There will be a Blue Sagittarius Moon on May 31st. A Blue Moon only happens approximately every 18 months or so, and occurs when we have two Full Moons in one calendar month. Blue is symbolic of water, loyalty, trust, and faithfulness.

This extra Full Moon at this time invites us to release old aspects of ourselves that no longer serve us so that we can move forward in alignment with who we are becoming. The winds are at our back for taking risks and opening up to a sense of adventure in our daily lives.

An optimistic and longitudinal approach to life; such as communicating with our ancestors, can invite abundance and good fortune. Remember that there is so much help in the spirit realm just waiting for us to tap into, if only we ask and allow ourselves to receive their collective crystalized wisdom.

But then again sadness, sorrow and hardship are natural parts of reality that are not to be suppressed or repressed. We can lean into them, and discover acceptance of them as part of the totality of our experience.

Keep in mind that the forthcoming Summer Solstice reflects peak sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere. Time to frolic in the festivities of the season.

In the Southern Hemisphere, it will be the Winter Solstice or the darkest day of the year. Coaxing back the light resurrects a felt sense perception that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

May all beings be free from suffering and awaken to God Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness, Unity Consciousness, Diversity Within Unity, Inner Peace and the Universal Pillars of Love and Truth.

Ari

Remembering The Great Invocation

Happy Wesak Full Flower Taurus Moon today Folks!

In the spirit of Christ Consciousness, Buddha Nature & the Earthy grounding energy of Taurus…

Please scroll down to the Great Invocation below that was shared recently by a spiritual teacher that I have had the good fortune to work with.

Person meditating cross-legged on rocky mountain at sunrise with clouds and peaks

From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into human minds.
Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into human hearts.
May the Coming One* return to Earth.

From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide all little human wills –
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the centre which we call the human race
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.

May All Beings Be Free From Suffering and Walk In Alignment With God Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness, Unity Consciousness, Diversity Within Unity, Inner Peace and the Universal Pillars of Love and Truth.

Ari

Taking An Energetic Forrest Bath With Taurus The Bull & Basking In Buddha’s Light Of Compassion on The Forthcoming Wesak Full Moon on May 1st

Although Aries season is coming to an end, it’s fiery energies are not to be missed on a New Moon in Aries on April 17.

This New Moon is a powerful time for reaching out to the Universe, asserting our needs, asking for guidance, and then allowing for manifestation to show up in the creation of our lives.

Energetically, Taurus season is a period of grounding and embodiment. Time to slow down into a more deliberate rhythm that is in alignment with Nature’s cycle. 

Following the spiritually assertive fiery energies of Aries, the Bull lands and builds foundations.

From an energetic perspective, the root chakra governs our sense of safety, survival, and belonging to the Earth.

I remember when I first felt drawn to spiritual power of shamanism by creating meaningful and purposeful rituals around mundane experiences.

Creating rituals can awaken seeing the sacred in everyday moments that can breathe in new air into the dead air of stale old ways of doing things that have become robotic.

Just as an example, we can help reduce anxiety and increase our sense of stability when we recognize our inner abundance, and imagine roots growing into the ground from the soles of our feet.

Besides, this practice makes for a healthy walking meditation ritual.

When people choose to work with these energies consciously, we are invited to reconnect with the physical world as a sacred space.

And we also become equipped to develop our spiritual fulfillment through the felt sense experience of the five material senses typically associated with the 3D realm.

We are in alignment with the spiritual nature of Taurus when we turn ordinary routines such as; making tea, showering, working out or even grocery shopping into intentional rituals where we are present.

Instead of spiritual bypassing, may we give ourselves permission to be fully present in the physical body rather than escaping into abstract thinking.

Because our bodies are our sacred vessels to connect with the present moment.

Remember that a sense of Divinity awakens by stopping to smell of flowers, mindfully tasting a meal or feeling the grass underneath your feet. 

Does your daily life align with your soul’s true values?

Keep in mind that when we are working with our shadow sides, it is wise for us to be mindful of the cravings to our creature comforts or familiar routines that ends up avoiding deeper inner work.

Perhaps instead, choosing rest or a walk out in Nature could be better options for you than attending a ritualistic social engagement that will probably leave you feeling exhausted at this time.

The Wesak Full Moon will happen on Friday, May 1st, which is in alignment with the Buddha’s birth, attainment of enlightenment and physical death.

Further, the spiritual and sacred ceremony around these energies reflects Divine Love, Divine Light and Divine Power flowing down to Gaia and all Sentient Beings.Friday, May 1, 2026.

Many of our ancestors considered the Wesak Full Moon as the most powerful full moon of the year. And to this day, many spiritual travelers honor our sacred connection to the consciousness of this full moon as Master Co elaborates on in the video below (with Master Choa Kok Sui’s picture in the background) :

As you can see, May can be seen as a high octane spiritual portal month, amplified by many powerful energetic shifts and new beginning frequencies beaming in. Wide open windows to cosmic vibrations are more perceptible at this time.

For example, 2026 marks the start of a new 9 year cycle.

The beginning of May is a good time for initiating new projects, setting new foundations, emphasizing independence, leadership, and authentic identity.

See revolutionary changes in communication, connection, and social networks as on their way.

Manifestation is in the air, and those of us on a spiritual path should especially be intentional with our words and thoughts because they will carry unusual weight this year.

Keep in mind that spiritual awakenings are part of these manifestations.

Are you experiencing sudden inspirations, intense dreams, or emotional highs and lows?

Will old patterns or relationships that no longer resonate gently fall away during this time to make room for a deeper frequency version of yourself? 

May all beings be free from suffering, and awaken to Inner Peace, Diversity Within Unity, Unity Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness and God Consciousness.

Ari

Embodying Paradox, Change & Humor In The Everyday Moments Of Life

“Instead of fighting the darkness, you bring in the light.”

–Eckhart Tolle

“In the end, bless the darkness, hold the light, because the two aren’t divisible.”

–S. Kelley Harrell

Now more than ever, our resiliency needs to show up in our everyday humanity.

We all have the capacity for resiliency.

Resiliency doesn’t come from having a charmed life, not having to deal with stress, nor facing obstacles that get in our way or living in a bubble.

Rather, it’s something that we cultivate, like building energy for better strength and conditioning.

In much the same way as the Taoist idea of Investing In Loss, imagine the darkness you face is like a ghost that you are playing with rather than fighting.

Just as an example, you might lose a game 99 times out of a hundred.

But if you lose 99 times and you are paying mindful attention about your partners moves, you can learn their tricks, and spring the trap to win the 100th game. Your mindset of losing shifted, like the saying, “if you had fun, then you won.”

That’s Investing In Loss in a nutshell.

Because you remained open, let go of perfectionism, and learned that it’s the process that matters along the way.

As you are shadow boxing in front of a mirror, imagine yourself awakening to shades of your hidden self.

Perhaps blind spots will be revealed when you allow the light to come in, and shine brightly on your soul.

Just as an example, do you remember learning how to ride a bike or how to swim?

Some of us never did learn how to do either for different reasons.

But most of us who did learn how to ride, and swim know that novel learning curves didn’t come without falling off our bikes or getting water up our nose.

Somehow, most of us made it through learning a sometimes painful new skill without losing a limb from the bike accident or drowning in the water.

And most of us got back on the bike, and back in the water without developing PTSD from falling or sinking.

So how do we allow ourselves to be mindful of the present moment in everyday life?

I remember an old High School teacher who recommended a book called The Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman, during my Senior year. I didn’t read the entire book till after I graduated from college. But I remained intrigued, and never stopped looking forward to reading it

In fact, the Peaceful Warrior message resonated so much that I read some more of Dan’s books after that, and then watched the film adaptation many years later, after it came out in 2006.

Check out the short video below that reinforces his mindful approach to life’s everyday moments:

May all beings be free from suffering, awaken to Inner Peace, and open up to the realm of Cosmic Consciousness,

Ari

Riding A Whale Of A Tide, Surfing Waves Of Climate Change & Emptying Into A Watery Pisces Sea Of Consciousness

Galloping into the year of the Fire Horse on February 17th, seasonal transitional energies are blowing in the wind, and kicking up dust along the frontiers ahead. Pisces season starts a couple of days after that till the forthcoming Equinox in later March.

Keep in mind that the Eclipse Season further fuels the flames of transformation with a Solar Eclipse on the Chinese New Year, and then a Full Moon Lunar Eclipse on March 3rd. Many of you are already feeling the energies of the Spring Eclipses now.

Mercury will be in Retrograde on February 26th-March 20th. This mysterious Twilight Zone reality aligns with free-spirited, soul traveling and meditative Pisces. Nothing to get superstitious about, just allow yourself to go with the flow, and embrace the unknown waters waiting to spring forth new perceptual experiences, if you’ll pardon the pun.

A Full Worm Moon on March 3 reminds us that Spring is arriving, and the early bird gets the worm. Everything is ephemeral because the Law of Transience reflects that seasonal changes are in the air, and we are reminded that the only constant is change.

Speaking of Spring, the Vernal Equinox on March 20th reflects the seasonal transition between the end of Pisces and the beginning of Aries. It’s out with the old, and in with the new. New life is bursting at the seams with new growth and energies. The reason that Easter, which will happen on April 5th this year, is often associated with eggs is because eggs are symbolic of fertility, new growth and rebirth.

Does anyone out there remember that 70s TV Show called Mork & Mindy, about an ET who comes to Earth in an Egg Shaped Spaceship? Isn’t there a non-coincidental felt sense of resurrection in that?

Reflecting on technology that is out of this world, what’s up with the mysterious comet 3I/ATLAS?

Of course, there are mixed reviews but check out the scientific quote below:

“Scientists say that 3I/ATLAS has likely been traveling through interstellar space for a long time . . . University of Oxford astronomer Matthew Hopkins is part of a team of scientists that think 3I/ATLAS, discovered on July 1, 2025 by the ATLAS Survey Telescope, is around 7 billion years old . . . All non-interstellar comets, such as Halley’s Comet formed at the same time as our solar system, so they are up to 4.5 billion years old,” Hopkins said in a statement. “But interstellar visitors have the potential to be far older, and of those known about so far, our statistical method suggests that 3I/ATLAS is very likely to be the oldest comet we have ever seen.”

Remember that comets are historically seen as harbingers of change, in much the same way as Eclipse seasons are known as shakeups in consciousness. Think of them working collaboratively together as catalysts for transformation.

Dreamy Pisces awakens oceanic visions of water and its multidimensional beings, like whales, that live in its element. I remember when I had two specifically similar perceptible transformative shifts in consciousness during experiences with Whale consciousness.

The first encounter in consciousness happened while submerged in a pitch black sensory depravation floating tank filled with saltwater. And then the second experience transpired a few years later during a holotropic breathwork workshop in 2016.

Holotropic breath work was invented by the Grofs, two therapists who developed a natural way to access altered states through breathwork. Evocative music played during the breathing session, followed by non-verbal mandala artwork afterword as a way to silently integrate the experience. To learn more about holotropic breathwork, check out the link below:

GROF® BREATHWORK.

During the encounters with Whale, I had authentic shapeshifting experiences, where I literally turned into a whale, energetically speaking at least. It’s hard to put into words what happened to me.

Looking back on these experiences, I felt as if I went into a deep dive into a previously unexplored empathic frequency. Even though I was aware that I was still a human being in a pitch black coffin-like saltbox of water; at the same time I had also transformed into the consciousness of huge whale in the depths of the ocean.

During the breath work meditation, I shifted into the energy of whale again. This time however, my consciousness experienced a frequency shift by ‘swimming’ into a perceptibly deeper and higher form of consciousness.

As I ‘swam’ through the waters while still embodying Whale consciousness, I encountered and also transformed into all of the animal spirits found in the first edition of my first book, Something to Chew On. The best way I can describe the experience is that it felt like I was reading the energy of the book’s material from a deeper state of consciousness that involved a telepathic-empathic form of awareness.

As heartwarming and mindblowing as these experiences were, they felt so natural. It was as if I was literally tuning into the heartbeat and frequency of our living planet Gaia.

Ah, talk about taking the plunge into unchartered waters, and an evolving co-regulative communication between an author and their muse!

Writing about consciousness is merely using the form of words as signposts to point in the right direction. Perhaps the consciousness of writers will awaken from their own lyrics, just as the consciousness of the readers will awaken from reading the author’s poetic prose. Tapping into our sense of resiliency is key. The short inspirational clip below features Mexican-American, Detroit native singer-songwriter Rodriquez that further amplifies the sentiment:

At the time of the aforementioned experiences with Whale, I had a a sound intellectual, and early spiritual understanding of the old spiritual and scientific stories that whales had big brains, great intelligence, and carried the heartbeat and consciousness of the planet.

But I was also working on getting more in alignment with my soul purpose; as in deepening my learning curve to go beyond my intellect into a more intuitive realm of knowing.

My experiences with Sacred Whale Medicine certainly invited newly awakened portals of perception and consciousness expansion.

Interestingly, humans are mostly water, in the sense that water makes up the majority of our form.

Curiously, water is a conductor of sound and an elemental force of primordial creation.

But beyond that, we are mostly formless, energetic beings of light.

May we ride the waves without getting washed out in the surf.

From that perspective, this wisdom reveals that humans are creative beings who can align with sound and light frequencies that can change our vibrations.

We are both form and formless. The formless shines through the form, and is the presence or light of consciousness that illuminates our form because it radiates from the inside out.

Further, this process can lead to a dimensional shift in our consciousness that is a real perceptible and felt sense experience. That’s why there is a growing reception to the movement in sound and light therapy as effective forms of energy work.

In much the same way as Easter’s connection to eggs, Mork’s egg-like spaceship, and of course past Creation stories of the Cosmic Egg . . . Check out the sign of the times Harmonic Egg featured in the video below:

Remember, the Truth is that we will tip the scales on our Planet and beyond our current state of consciousness when we move further away from fear, and instead closer to Love. Fear has been perpetrated onto us by certain old powers that be that are afraid to give up their control issues.

Keep in mind that when you are in a place of Joy and Light, it’s harder to get seduced or bogged down in the heaviness of the world or give up your power to others. The Power of Love isn’t going away. Consider the clip below as a friendly reminder to have the Grace to know that the Truth of the power of Love shall set us free!

May all Beings be free and awaken to the dimension of inner peace,

Ari

Racoons Unmask Natural Internal Martial Arts Wizardry & Magicianship

 Whenever suffering occurs in your life, whether coming down with the flu or not getting the job you wanted, you seek to know it fully rather than resent or deny it. Instead of distracting yourself, with fantasies, or worries, you focus your attention calmly upon the felt sense of what is happening. As you perform this task, you become acutely conscious of your reactive “arising’s” and the potency of their force. They too, are to be included within that, same wide, still embrace. You do not free yourself from narcissistic or self-disgusted longings by suppressing them, but by accepting them as the arising of habitual inclinations, which may be psychologically, culturally, religiously, or instinctively conditioned.

–Stephen Batchelor

When contemplating darkness and disguise in the throes of this wintry dirge, I think about the sacred energy medicine of Racoon. These sentient beings embody the self-defense mastery of the internal martial arts. When we play around with opening and closing our eyes in the 3D realm, we are playing with form by putting on a mask, and accessing a primordial creative power within. For those Star Wars geeks out there, the clip below reinforces the felt sense experience of letting go of our conscious minds by seeing without seeing:

Stepping into new dimensions and accessing deeper realms are real possibilities with Racoon consciousness. This spirit guide is a friendly reminder to do a deep dive into the popularly unpopular fear of the unknown. Rather than avoidance, we become inviting of spiritual awakenings into new ways of looking at ourselves. But if we choose to ignore such soul promptings; perhaps the reality based, felt sense experience might otherwise remain hidden or unavailable to our naked eye’d view our previously unexamined selves.

Racoon’s transformational vibrational frequencies align with traits that can support growth in fine motor skills, such as dexterity; as well as a sensory diet, like self-stimulation forms like self-massage, and bodily compression. They certainly can also inspire cleaner eating approaches, like washing our food, and emphasizing a plant based diet. Or maybe you like to pluck away on a musical instrument. Close your eyes, picture a racoon and see what happens organically.

From a heartwarming and mindbending felt sense of spaciousness, the internal martial arts help us cool down from the inside out. This differs from the so called external martial arts; which have traditionally emphasized relaxed on the outside, intense on the inside. But like astronomers and astrologers, social workers, psychologists and many therapists and other energy workers; you can be both and we need all of them.

Speaking of the internal martial arts, check out William C.C Chen’s demonstration below. He used to come to the place that I took classes many moons ago. The ‘Studio’ was heavily influenced by his teachings. And sometimes he would come visit, and do special weekend workshops. I remember meeting him once. He certainly filled the room with his form, which was a real shared felt sense experience by many of my old teachers and peers in that community:

May all Beings be free of suffering, and experiences Inner Peace as a way of Life,

Ari

Firing Up Our Horses & Blazing New Saddles Into The New Year Ahead

A Full Wolf Moon on January 3, 2026 lays early tracks into the New Year. May our inner Wise Wolf guide us into new pathways in consciousness. The energy of Wolf is a powerful teacher in soul development. Humans have much to learn about the governance of wolves. Their politics of living reveal a hybrid approach that balances a healthy sense of both individualism and collectivism. Like the old saying, no man (or woman if you are one) is an island. Wolves have a clear pecking order but rely on each other for interdependence.

When I think about the wisdom of Indigenous People, it’s hard not to remember the longitudinal seven generations ahead perspective from the Iroquois Nation of the Americas. From a politics of living standpoint, we give purposeful attention to the way our actions now will impact seven generations ahead, or approximately 150-210 years into the future, in human-centric terms at least. And of course the converse is true in the way that we look at the past and how it affects us right now. We have relationships with everything, whether realized or not.

New beginnings on the New Moon in Capricorn on January 18th heats up our saddles, so that we are equipped to blaze new trails into vast frontiers of our technological and social emotional learning in the new year ahead. A lot of people are talking about AI these days. Of course there are both positive and negative applications in the advancements in AI. Find a middle way when walking in the circle of romanticizing or demonizing AI, technology, the human and planetary plight, etc.

And then when we talk about Chinese astrology, it will be the Year of the Fire Horse on February 17th. Unlike the sun based Gregorian calendar, the timing of the lunar-based calendar changes from year to year, depending on where the lunar cycle falls.

An awakening of Fire Horse’s archetypal forces reveal greater movement, decision, freedom and courage so that we can effectively giddy up into unknown frontiers.

The forthcoming Eclipse Season further ignites the changes coming down the pike in 2026; starting with a Solar Eclipse on the Chinese New Year, and then a Lunar Eclipse on March 3rd.

Remember that eclipses are catalysts for change and shaking up the status quo in our inner and outer worlds. New and Full Moons during eclipses are like regular New and Full Moons on steroids. New Moons are always associated with new beginnings and Full Moons are always associated with heightened energies. There’s nothing to be superstitious about with regards to any of these energies because, like the present moment, they are what they are. What matters is how we align with their energies.

In much the same way as horses being key drivers in expanding humanity’s sense of collective freedom; advancements in AI, robotics, and celestial discoveries will be amplified over the next several years. We will be reworking the way that we take care of ourselves, and organize the business of our lives.

It’s as if these shifting energies in consciousness are hitting the reset button. As such, we will be equipped to upgrade our internal systems so that we can effectively integrate, and align with the changing frequencies that we will continue to be faced with, and need to tune into.

Our humanity needs to catch up to our significant technological advances during the digital age we have been living in. This transformation will lead to our collective consciousness evolving into alignment with Cosmic Consciousness, Diversity in Unity, and a generalized sense of Oneness. Check out the short clip below from the 1995 film Powder that illustrates the point:

Keep in mind that the changing tides and new waves of spirituality and consciousness will continue to gain momentum by flowering and blooming into a New Earth; where we are literally co-creating Heaven on Earth in more healthy normative ways.

Like the old REM song, it’s the end of the world as we know it. Gone With The Wind will be the dying old segregationist ways of Us and Them. Rather, we are moving further into a We and Us approach. Check out their music video that artistically amplifies the sentiment:

In this frequency, everyone belongs, and awakens to their soul purpose and recognizes their unique role to play during the transitional process of a New Aquarian Golden Age and Paradigm. When enough of humanity shifts into this frequency in a normative way, consciousness transforms into harmonization with Cosmic Consciousness, aka God, Christ, Unity, Collective Consciousness etc.

Truly, the escalating violence, dirty energy, emphasis on maximum economic profit, rise in polarity consciousness, or the duality playing out in the 3D realm are catalysts to the break down of the old ways that no longer serve. Moreover, these systemic breakdowns will create spaciousness and make room for what’s next for us as we make forward progress in our evolutionary process. The more present we are, the less our suffering will dominate the playing field.

We will continue to move away from the past coveted egoic positions of power, towards soul power, standing in our personal authority, and becoming the change we want to see in the world.

Otherwise, if you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem, so to speak.

Paradoxically, living through the digital age gives us incentive to enter into a new chapter of universal planetary consciousness. The Earth already has a heartbeat. Might as well listen to it with an open heart and mind. The ride is far more graceful and joyous when we say yes to it because what we resist persists.

Everything is accelerating and revolutionizing. This is why it is more important than ever to slow down, be mindful of our breath and stop and smell the roses. Think of the revolution as something different from anything that we have ever gone through yet.

Speaking of revolutionary energies, it’s always a good idea to check your own inner state of consciousness as you navigate life’s everyday aches, pains, pleasures, situations and moments. Remember that you can’t feel good when you’re feeling bad about feeling bad!

As mindful meditation becomes the new normal; these awakening truths will become self-evident within our individual and collective constitutions, if you’ll pardon the Declaration of Independence pun.

Artistic, philosophical, spiritual and technological movements will become further aligned and harmonize with each other toward a deeper and higher reality than the conventional one we have known.

As the old narrative fades away, emerging healthier relationships will leave us with a more perceptible sense of emotional, financial, and spiritual rebirth.

2026 will reinforce awareness and presence in humans embodying love, empathy, compassion and kindness. May we recognize ourselves in the mirrors reflecting back to us any blind spots we might have missed. Everyone matters, and we can all win.

May all people be free and experience inner peace as a way of life,

Ari