Tag Archives: Chinese-Lunar New Year

Reflecting Back and Looking Ahead

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A Western New Year approaches, as does a
Full Wolf Moon at the beginning of January . . .

Let us heed the echoes of Wolf’s heartbeat!
Tracking into February, comes the arrival of the Chinese/Lunar New Year of the Dog

Meditate on the spiritual energy of Dog to walk into new energies –
that awakens pathways into a deeper compassion for all of humanity,
in spite of our human shortcomings that bubble up in our wake . . .

Consider taking your repeated exposure to your:

hate-oriented images of Donald Trump, a miserly Wall Street,
reptilian minded friends in Congress
(that metaphorically represent an obsessive, manipulative, controlling, and
down right abusive dying old world power structure that pits us against one another)

And replacing them instead:

With new pictures of Love and Light!
At the end of the day, that’s how we disarm the Beast as within, so without

Let us heed the call to scale back the toxicity of a dog eat dog mentality,
and seductive militaristic fantasies of a global fascist state

Not Israel, nor any other single nation-state should be designated as an
offshore base or be given preferential capital for global supremacy!

We should all be getting the message of oneness,
and equal opportunity in a multi-polar new world!

Everyone’s intrinsic talents should be
cultivated and developed to their fullest potential

But not at the expense of stepping on someone else who falls through the cracks!

Violence, and security systems that build walls that prohibit freedom of speech,
Should be examined with a reflective, and heartfelt intellectual examination . . .

Our world, and one’s personal spiritual evolution depends on
self-reflection, and forward free-thinking!

May this New Year bring you much wellness, inner joy, following your bliss,
a relaxation on ego-driven emotional reactions, and a forgiving attitude
to inspire our planet, and universal consciousness!

See you further up the trails,

Ari

Groundhog Day Resurrects the Imbolc

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Groundgog Day arrives this week . . .
A passing New Moon, and waxing Full Snow moon is coming soon

The energies of February eclipse season are stirring seeds of change in our world
These rising tides of changes in consciousness are not met without resistance

Just yesterday, Father Time delivered the birth of the
Chinese-Lunar New Year of the Rooster into our Mother Earth

It is also the traditional Imbolc, a time when our ancestors honored
Nature’s halftime celebration between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox

So whether or not Groundhog sees his shadow,
Groundhog medicine awakens underground forces

May the Goddess Brigid be the fiery light at the end dark tunnels . . .

Meditate on Groundhog’s spiritual guidance on death without dying . . .
What old self needs to die, what New Self wants to grow?

If you are willing to take a deeper and higher responsibility in life,
then you can transcend cause and effect

You can let go of your suffering, and be free from that kind of slavery

In spite of cold weather, and darker days

Groundhog reminds us that the seeds underground
are contemplating the waking up process to blossom in the Spring

Are you ready to tunnel into and examine the catacombs of your soul
to recycle that compost so that it will blossom in the Springtime?

If you take issue with some else’s perceived transgressions . . .
Are you able to express your feelings without going straight outta woodland?

Just because you might feel justified in your emotional expression through
provocative and aggressive language does not make your delivery OK

Love always wins in the long run,
never the dark forces of hatred and bigotry

Part of being human is learning to differentiate and individuated from our
emotions without becoming our emotions

What matters is how we express our emotions
We are more likely to get respect when we give it

Or you can be a victim and continue to live in hell

This requires us to hit the pause button, and stop, think and relax before
responding to the situation at hand . . .

Be the Aquarian New Age transformation you want to see in the world!

See you further on the trails,

Ari

The Cocks Have Come Home to Roost

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At the tail end of this week,
Rooster swoops with enthusiasm into the Chinese-Lunar New Year . . .

Their energies awaken humor during dark times, and resurrect a
new sense of optimism in a world where we need that now more than ever

Do you remember when Malcolm X was demonized by the
Empire for his accurately reflected comments following JFK’s assassination?

Behind the scenes, the truth is that he was speaking
about reaping the poisonous seeds we have collectively been sewn . . .

Yes, there are mysterious forces at work on the dark side of the moon
But Rooster signals the light of day on this new year moon shine

Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration reflects an old world fading away
when we look back in our rear view mirrors . . .

What can we learn from, let go of, release and resurrect
with fruitful transformation in the year ahead?

Past lives matter, in the sense that we might take back the night and
march into the sunlight in the here and now in the light of day!

That doesn’t happen with violent insurgence, and warring tribes on social media

Nor does it happen by being hard on yourself by denying or
getting stuck in an adult-child vicious cycle of guilt and shame . . .

Sexuality is a co-creative process of intimate partnership . . .
A convergence of masculine and feminine energies dancing together

We have spoken of the interplay between order and chaos . . .

The Chattering Monkey rears its ugly head of fear, worry and anxiety

Security and control issues come up when other pathways are revealed,
sometimes through less graceful testing of limits set by authority figures

It can be challenging not to take rudeness, disrespect and a
youth-centric sense of entitlement personally . . .

Many of us from the old world learned a different quality of respect through
aggressively being put in our place by adult authority figures through manipulation

But Rooster asserts His sun onto dark energies and puts them in their place
The light of Consciousness illuminates the shadows

May Rooster call out your deepest and darkest experiences that are buried
deep within you subconscious so that can be looked upon with gentle authenticity

Do whatever you can to be mindful of your thoughts, through soft compassion

See you further on up the trails,

Ari

Rising Light with Bald Eagle’s Flight

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Bald Eagle lights our way over a waning Full Wolf Moon . . .

Their spiritual guidance symbolically reminds us to
spread our wings in the heavens,
but not without keeping our feet firmly anchored in the earth

We all came here as diverse expressions of oneness
to co-create heaven on earth . . .

All too often that is forgotten in the illusion of separation

May we remember that Dr. King spread his wings from the pulpit of black churches
but in his walk into the general public, he never forgot his roots

King reflected a deep spiritual truth that the only way to
dismantle hateful darkness is through the light of love

Many folks are struggling with the aftershocks of election cycle insanity . . .
It is challenging for a lot of people to stomach a Donald Trump Presidency

Try to see beyond the smokescreen . . .

Can you dig deeper through the fears projected by black magic that sells
control of the evolutionary process of a fluidly flowering New Age?

Look to the changing seasons to realize no guarantees
can execute a fool-proof game plan

Natural forces are at work that transcend human-centric program design

We are moving into a realm of infinite possibilities . . .

This is the space where order and chaos, move as fluctuating energies,
like the yin and the yang

The Lunar Chinese New Year roosts in later this month . . .

A little further on down the trails, we tunnel into Groundhog Day, while the
Imbolc marks the mid-point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox

February Eclipses are brewing to blow in the winds of new beginnings . . .

Sunlight continues to gain momentum, albeit while softened by dark nights

See you onward up the trails,

Ari

Groundhog Day Resurrected

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Groundhog Day comes out of hiding this week
May we be inspired to face our shadow sides while tunneling through
dark nights of our souls during Winter’s wake

Isn’t the labyrinth of our inner tapestry an expansive and deeply mysterious place?

But with the ascent of yang rising toward alignment with darkness
Spring Equinox arrives in March . . .

Bringing energetic balance to the Force

But before that, a Chinese Year of the Monkey
swings in next week to signify a new Lunar calendar year ahead
and remind us of the power of community

We are digging further into a New Age of Aquarian unity
Reawakening us to the reality that we are all in this together . . .

Regardless of our superficial differences to the naked eye
or cursory glance of illusionary divisions

You are not alone

A beacon of light is becoming harder to ignore

Groundhog’s seasonal sleep –
reflects death without dying

If only we allow the light to illuminate the shadows

Remember Winter’s death breathes life into Spring’s rebirth . . .

Purposeful underground digging allows for seeds of our
subconscious minds to walk in the sunlight

If you peer into Nature, you will see examples of life and death everywhere
But we do not have to physically die to experience rebirth

Consider a game plan for this lifetime that gives you an opportunity to
play every down like it’s your last

Make sure it is you that commands the call for the
boundaries on the playing field that you want respected

Remember to maintain your own integrity in your daily business transactions

Take a deep breath of fresh air in every living moment . . .
And then exhale its death and let go of it . . .

Awaken to the metaphor of reincarnation …
Transform the Law of Cause and Effect –

Realize that you are a creation of your thoughts
Become conscious of them and transform your thoughts
so they are in alignment with the Golden Rule

See this reflect in your everyday outer reality as our collective Higher Truth . . .

Let us live in the here and now while revisiting and redefining Groundhog Day

Hope to see you onward up the trail,

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

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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

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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

Howlin’ Wolf Pack Revisited

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

We remember when liberal curiosity makes friends with conservative restraint
Live and let live
Releasing our coat of armor reveals graceful beauty –
Casting an enchanting spell on one another

Surfing Life’s ebb n’ flows or swimming against the currents

Breathe in the freedom to weave in playful Dreamtime
Breathe out stagnant work habits
Everything old is new again
Imaginative presence is mental martial arts

Colorful eating for the Chakras burns clean energy

Group psychology is a tool to free our minds
Let us not forget
the same systems that oppress can liberate

“We are all Indians . . . Our spirits should be puncture proof”
All are deserving of infinite universal blessings
From polyracial-ethnic cross-pollination that society boxes into white and black labels
(and) those oriented otherwise
Being Native American is a state of consciousness
Thank you to our Elders that have stuck with us

Who am I?
I am all in just being with what is
When Earth cries an acid river of tears
we hallucinate a collectively designed nightmare

Listening to the Great Void of winter
Chinese-Lunar New Year, Groundhog Day and Imbolc passing
Moving us over the hump toward Spring Equinox

Plan of action is a fluid guide for manifestation

Naming and owning our feelings allows mutuality in
authentic conversational partnership

Marching to our becoming collective soulful drumbeat
Gradually gaining gentle and powerful momentum like water
Restructuring our thoughts into positive affirmations

Embracing our unique eccentricities –
Make Love not war with your individuality
Respectfully in community

Imagine . . .
Endangered species supporting one another in mutuality –
old stories posit humans being descendants of wolves
Wolf government is a complex balancing act
of hierarchical pecking order and democratic principles . . .
Does this harmonic convergence sound familiar?

dinosaur developmentally delayed paradigm that asserts:
“bad for people, good for business”
This fool’s gold quackery is bad medicine even for
the movers and shakers at the top of the food chain
Equanimity in business is good practice (win-win)

Naughty bullies need love too
There are no enemies brothers and sisters

Way to break the mold Pete Seeger
Your Spirit is music to my ears

Studying Wolf’s Teachings

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

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

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

See you further on down the trails,

Ari