Tag Archives: Climate Change

Swimming in Dolphin’s wake

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

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

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

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Riding with Whale

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

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

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

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

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

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

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

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

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Dreaming a New Dream with Groundhog

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

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

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

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Riding Nature’s Thermals with Turkey Vulture

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

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

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

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Resurrecting the Light with Beetle

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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

Dog as my Co-Pilot

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Does anyone out there remember the bitter taste that accompanies being taken out of inner peace?  While sitting in the hot seat recently, I reflected on my own tendency to get distracted from the distractions, while yielding at taking a closer look at the cumulative effect of what has taken root.  Haven’t I already been there, done that?  Didn’t I already deal with this old wound and can’t I just get on with it?  Did I mention getting really pissed off about it?  But it is the journey, not the destination.  Meditation reminds us that within the process of taking a closer look, we wake up to the deeper layers of our souls–while carrying an accompanying gift bag to make friends with that.  If you are anything like my dying old self, perhaps you have allowed your ego to play spirited tricks on yourself to keep you asleep.  One popular technique is cleverly bypassing the deep hurt of traumas, such as abuse and abandonment issues.  Have you observed the voice in the head that asserts a convincing argument that you have successfully bypassed a putrid stench that you would rather avoid smelling?  However, from a position of empathy, how can I expect to truly blossom into a new flower and sow the seeds of Love, if I do not allow myself the shitty job of composting?  When working Dog medicine in the positive, Dog is a good reminder to heed their message to delve deeply into our soul’s sense of service to others.  The spirit of dog helps us remember our human shortcomings, both in self and in relation with others.

Descendants of coyotes and wolves, I can’t help but appreciate Dog’s presence during the past 10,000 years of our human story.  When I was a child, sometimes I felt myself transform into a greyhound as soon as my feet hit the playground during recess.  I would impatiently stare at the clock and fantasize about the bell signaling to us that it was time to get outside and play.  In fact, it was a magical experience that I shared with constitutionally similar alpha male types that featured behaviors labeled today as AD/HD in clinical speak.  While at a holiday brunch with friends recently, this memory inundated me when a woman commented that she thought a greyhound would be a good fit in our home, should we ever add a dog to the litter.  And then I shared a heartfelt connection with a similar canine breed while tracking in the woods.  I don’t know how our cat with queen bee and feral tendencies would feel about it, but I don’t think the guinea pigs would feel threatened.  And our child is getting older and could help out with the care-taking responsibilities, so I want to be open to the possibility.  In the meanwhile, you don’t have to be a dog lover to feel inspired to be more good-natured, affectionate, friendly, travel in packs and see the good in folks without being judgemental.  Dog is a good remedy to become more devoted in our relationships and nurturing and protective as parents.  Dog also helps us remember to be more discriminate with our personal boundaries and remember to not give our power away to others when looking for direction.  There’s nothing wrong with seeking consultation or guidance through friends, therapists, coaches, etc.  But when it comes to our own souls, we need to explore the depths of information available there.  Ingesting Dog’s energy teaches us how to be more affectionate and faithful companions.  As adults, we teach our children how to become healthy humans by having fun, playing and enjoying life.  Remember that modeling is the most powerful form of teaching.  The old world of “do as I say, not as I do” or “children should be seen but not heard” is dying, as is too permissive, negligent and rigid parenting styles.  Discipline comes from the Latin word disciplina, which means to teach.  Lecturing my own child and students about being a spiritual being having a human experiences is not as powerful or meaningful as working together to prepare a family style meal and hugging good-bye after breaking bread with folks from the office.  It doesn’t matter if you are a union member or not, we all need to tend to our core.  How do you like them apples? 

When we take an authentic look within ourselves and the world around us, we feel the deep anger and hurt from real gut-wrenching atrocities and inequities that abound our Planet today.  The other night, I had a clear dream of a dirty nuclear explosion, juxtaposed with an elaborate, composting mechanism that produced green energy, leaving a crystal-clear Carbon Footprint.  Even gated communities and executive neighborhoods in leafy suburban communities have a darkness on the edge of town.  Whether we target greedy wealthy individuals that throw temper tantrums about so-called fiscal cliffs, blame secularism, gay folks for raising kids or Jeremy speaking in class today–we need to dive deeper to find the pearl within.  There will be no peace in our world until we find it within ourselves.  Riding with Dog as your co-pilot will help you effectively navigate through your journey.  On December 21, we said good-bye to our last Winter Solstice on an old Mayan Calendar.  On December 28, we welcome our last Full Moon of 2012.  Did anyone else feel a shift in our collective consciousness?  In a community of men, we stood around a fire and expressed our deep feelings of gratitude, letting go and hopes for a better world, while coaxing back the light.  Further, we reflected that all it takes is a perceptual shift to dissolve our violent and aggressive tendencies to let go and let God when Life’s happenings feel out of control.  At the end of the day, Great Spirit created us in a Blueprint of Love.  Now if the predator in me remembers that at the scent of a de-cleater during our next Sunday morning football game, we’ll all breathe cleaner air, while here on the ground.

Stay True,

Ari

Remembering the Geese on Mythical Journeys

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I remember hearing ancestral wisdom whispering to us that it is a good time of year for letting go.  Here on Nature’s cycle in the Northern Hemisphere, we are approaching the Winter Solstice, the darkest time of year, where folks are turning yinward and many souls are exiting Classroom Mothership Earth.  On some level, this time signals an end.  However, from a cosmical energetic perspective, we all embark on a dying experience, whether realized or not.  In this process, a promise of re-birth awaits.  Yes, we are well-trained by a developmentally delayed perspective that tells us to fear death, be afraid of the dark and forget spirit, particularly in America.  Rather than embrace the Unknown, we tend to fear what we don’t know, while some of us cling to blind faith and continue skating on the thin ice of modern life’s sea of intellectual concepts.  Others check out by indulging in a garden variety of distractions, opiates of the masses they are in this world of 10, 000 things of bling-bling.  Is that bad medicine or what?  Those in the advertising industry know that most of us do not really feel comfortable in our own skin and so they make a killing by profiting from us buying into a perception that the consumption of certain products will somehow enhance our self-image. But these remedies are really only skin deep.  In the spirit of that, flying with geese offers us the opportunity to soar within our True Selves and access the hero within Life’s mythical quest. Geese fly in a V-formation and epitomize balancing competition and cooperation vis-a-vis a sense of harmonic teamwork.  Meditation on their V-formation, a figure 8 sign of infinity, helps us enter new portals to new possibilities, new ideas and venture to distant places in our spirit-mind-body vessels.  If you are exclusively identified with the surface layer of the material realm, it is true that membership has its privileges, accompanied also by pleasure, pain and suffering.  Meditation on geese facilitates flight into deeper realms, where acausal connections and phenomena await.  I hardly think strict behavioral psychologists would take notice when conducting their social science experiments.  Even if you dismiss the existence of something, are you not acknowledging that it is real, on some level?

Whether or not Barack Obama is the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln, the connections between the two men are striking.  Slavery has been a sad reality in our human family’s history.  Although overt Apartheid is thankfully a dying breed, today’s slavery hides behind master illusionism.  Lincoln once said, “as I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master–this expresses my ideas of democracy-whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.”  Both the oppressor and the oppressed suffer.  Will Obama and other leaders be master pretenders to the throne or will they access their inner royalty and use their positions to empower the massive change that our Mother and the overwhelming majority need to enact here on Classroom Mothership Earth?  Rather than letting go of 18, 000 workers, companies like Hostess could choose to let go of the temptation to increase CEO compensation by 300% and upper management by 200% and the gall to ask a federal judge for an allowance of 1.8 million in bonuses to top dawg executives.  How sweet is that? Moreover, if Pepsi is really the choice of a new generation, then they will use their presence in Uganda to stop the spigot of bigotry of an anti-gay bill that is backed by some Evangelical Christians that have close ties to a constellation called The Family.  I hardly think Michael J. Fox’s former TV character Alex P. Keaton would approve of those family ties, conservative as he was on that show. Internet freedom is also at risk at the UN conference in Dubai by threatening new restrictions on free speech.  Climate Change is trending right now and becoming a hotter topic–a global reality that humanity must deal with, whether we want to or not.  Our survival depends on it.  If we embrace Climate Change and effectively weather the changes so within as without, then we will make the quantum leap with grace. However, if we resist it, then it will persist in a way that tastes more bitter than the fracking insanity that sticks like tar in the sands of our Mother’s belly today. Even our nervous woodland creature friends know that denial isn’t just a river in Egypt, ma chucka.  When the floods arrive, they usually find themselves moving to higher ground, rather than getting washed out. 

On the playing field of life, some of the guys from around the way like to play football on Sundays.  Maybe we’re playing on borrowed time and a loony bunch, but that doesn’t stop us from flocking together on cold mornings.  Even a guy in his 60’s still runs the field and inspires the rest of us that you’re never too old to play. Last week, I caught wind of a flock of geese and signaled their cadence to my teammates.  The view feathered our ripple, spirits soared and our game really took flight after that.  We all take turns playing quarterback, evenly mix up the teams and usually balance cooperation and competition.  While love taps and occasional de-cleaters happen from time to time, arguably the most aggressive act in the archives was when one disgruntled squirrel character threw the acorn at another hyena player, to stop his endless running commentary.  But of course that didn’t work and the hyena is still laughing and talking smack.  Some guys have dropped out due to fear of getting hurt.  But there is risk in every breath we take.  Taking it to the edge requires trusting that the Universal pillars of Love and Truth are a real safety net that catches us and sets us free.  In the Great Spirit of that, when ingesting the free energy of geese in our internal slow-cooker, we marinate on the traits of fidelity, perfectionism and adventure.  Given that geese are vegetarians, flocking toward increased veggie consumption or eating a vegetarian diet for a while might be good chicken soup for the soul.

Stay True,

Ari

Feasting With Turkey, We Give Thanks For Our Shared Blessings

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I remember hearing stories about turkey leading the flock by harmonically harvesting balance, here on the ground of Classroom Mothership Earth.  For example, turkey notoriously drives squirrels nuts when She levels the playing field by taking back squirrel’s stockpiled hoard.  Whether a nervous woodland creature’s modern-day version of Robin Hood, or a Shaman from the Americas, turkey is good medicine for warding off evil spirits.  Have you ever noticed a room lighten up-almost immediately after someone new enters a shared space, where the air just felt heavy with an attached negative vibe?  If so, you might have been the free recipient of some turkey’s shared blessing.  Turkey’s strength lies in their numbers.  When consuming their energy, turkey has the potential to awaken inner vision, feminine energies and infinite possibilities.  In our modern world of 10, 000 things and bling-bling, the more humanity consciously consumes turkey’s positive spirited energy, the more we co-create a more equitable and sustainable New Earth.  Isn’t this just another utopia (or dystopia), ego-centered labeling mechanism describing a totalitarian new world order, communism, socialism and/or devilishly fixed idea of Heaven?  No.  What we are talking about right here, right now is a perceptual shift in consciousness, starting at the intrinsic, individual state of consciousness and reflecting back that picture of the world around us.  From the perspective of Great Spirit, turkey reflects win-win scenarios where abundance is available for all of us to share.  We become the change we want to see in the world. 

Have folks caught wind of the forecast that Wal-Mart workers will strike on Black Friday?  Don’t we already have way too much stuff?  How much money do the heirs to the Wal-Mart empire really need anyway?  Is it really too much to ask that the working folks of Wal-Mart earn a livable wage, with access to the same health care as Wal-Mart’s top dawgs enjoy?  Cheap for me to say, I’ve hardly shopped at Wal-Mart since it came on the scene.  However, when I pass one of their stores, I imagine the building running on renewable energy, with a greenhouse-like park atop its structure and a garden-like oasis that families and children can safely enjoy.  Maybe a sweet penthouse nestles there, like an oversized wolf den, where the landlords and groundskeepers live like Hobbits, boroughed within the structure.  But I digress.  We have much suffering, polarity and disparity on Earth today.  Climate Change is forecasting stormy weather that is affecting the way we live.  Are we going to allow ourselves to get in alignment with Nature, or are we going to resist the changes in weather so within and as reflected in our outer world?  To date, we humans have been so outer directed in our program development.  And yet, we are pre-wired to evolve into our Higher Selves, where the cosmetic and insatiable old world of the dying ego is losing its grip on our plight.  Great Spirit resides within all of us, just waiting to awaken to flow like a fountain of youth that gives freely and replenishing itself endlessly.  When we enough of us awaken within ourselves by welcoming turkey’s shared blessings, we simultaneously co-create an egalitarian human family of politicians, business folk, movers and shakers and salt of the Earth folks that intuitively know reciprocity and egoless harmonic giving and receiving.  At this moment in time, we will see turkey’s meditations reflected more clearly in our internal experience with external reality, with an unfolding convergence.

Being present is not always easy.  In fact, it is easier to be distracted from the present moment, hypnotically lost in the robotic doings, than to merge with it.  Yes, there is an endless commentary from the voice in the head that feeds off incessant, predominately unconscious and mostly repetitively negative thoughts and the accompanying choir of emotional reactions.  When we become aware that we are aware, we create space around our thoughts and attached emotional reactions.  The more frequently we become a passive observer, the more we are equipped to watch this drama unfold like a movie before our eyes, without reacting to it.  When this becomes an integral part of our daily walking meditation, we start replacing those pesky soap operas, by consciously choosing to co-direct a solution focused script.  Perhaps the ring tone of this melody sounds like a John Lennon earworm singing, I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round.  In dreaming a new dream, solutions are our focus, rather than creating problems that the ego insatiably feeds on.  The most important prayer, if you will, is to carry an attitude of gratitude with what is happening right now in this present moment.  Find a way to say thank you to whatever the situation might bring.  Like a vampire bite, dark emotions carry venom.  Bloody serious.  Why not sink your teeth into turkey to ward off foul food for thought?  In spirit of birds of a feather flocking together, use this energy to drink in the turkey medicine in you, pass it on and be pleasantly full. 

Stay True,

Ari

Isn’t Owl Medicine a Hoot?

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I remember our child coming home from school, sporting an owl’s mask recently. Some moments thereafter, I was having a conversation with folks in a shelter from the storm and couldn’t help but feel captivated by an owl statue nesting there.  Following that, I received a spirited forecast from some friends that included owl’s significance at this time on Nature’s clock.  Owl’s medicine is powerful and we recognize its wisdom when paying attention to the omens in our lives, particularly when watching Channel Now, here on Classroom Mothership Earth.  In becoming more conscious in our program development, we are noticing ring tones getting louder that are arriving in our consciousness in the forms of visions, dreams and deeper feelings.  In our awakening, we see our soul’s recognition of these nuances and making the necessary shifts in alignment with our changing tides accordingly.  When we allow ourselves to heed the calling of Great Spirit, the Universal Quarterback if you will, we empower ourselves to expand our collective awareness, rather than analyzing exclusively from our intellect.  There is nothing wrong with using our intellect. However, if we only rely on our intellect without balancing our awareness and intuition, then we will collectively continue participating in the current nightmare we are living in, proliferate human egotism, suffering and our ultimate extinction on our planet.  When Jesus said, “be of good cheer!  It is I; do not be afraid”, what he was talking about is humanity waking up to the I Am Presence within our own inner state of consciousness.  In the spirit of that, we co-create Heaven on Earth.  The Christ wasn’t telling us to develop a devilishly fixed idea that demanded our blind worship of a mental concept of an iconic rock star.  He wasn’t asking us to be groupies, rather he was asking us to evolve into the light of consciousness.  I believe that Creator manifested Christ Consciousness into the body of Christ so that we embody Being when we are awake.  Like Christ, consuming owl energy assists us in effectively seeing in the dark without being afraid.  When we perceive through owl’s lens, we peer into the future, akin to the psychical power of clairvoyance.  Beyond the realm of probability and statistics, lies the higher realm of Infinity, where possibilities abound. 

We are at a crossroads today in our Nation, Americans, Planet and Universe throughout.  Not long ago, the United States was in a civil war when Abraham Lincoln our Nation’s President.  The Country was divided then, as it is today.  Slavery existed then as it does today.  Both the master and the slave suffer from the shackles of ego-centered oppression.  We are more polarized than ever and on the brink of something unknown, as many prophesies and calendar’s have forecasted.   While we almost had our first orange President (but with white ears), we still have our first biracial President of European and African decent.  Curiously, owl hints at reincarnation.  Has anyone else out there observed that Barack Obama looks strikingly similar to Abraham Lincoln, in both physical stature and energetically?  Have you heard the positing that Obama is the reincarnation of Lincoln?  Will he suffer the same fate for standing his ground on the edge of the cliff as we all gaze into the Great Void of the unknown?  Many of us are sleepwalking through our lives, as if in a hypnotic trance, lost in the robotic doings of life and completely identified with the voice in the head.  Who is that voice?  Do we have the courage to take the quantum leap into unchartered territory?  When you read the politics of this blog, do you find yourself feeling whacked at times?  That is what it feels like to wake up and it does not feel comfortable or secure.  But there is security in knowing that waking up is both a death and a rebirth.  Waking up means we are willing to allow ourselves to effectively weather the Climate Change of  growing pains when shedding our old skin and rising up from the ashes like the phoenix.  Do you have a tendency to resist the weather inside of you and as reflected in the outside world around you?  Or, do you consciously accept what is and say yes to the situation as it unfolds, through radical internal non-resistance and pacifism?  This does not mean we condone the tyranny.  Rather, it means that we accept what is.  In that acceptance, we harness our power and take conscious action to do something about it.  By releasing negative pollution within, we send it into the fire and transform this energy into a renewable higher vibration.  This is what happens when we heed the messages from our lower Chakras by feeling those experiences organically and then sending them love, by cutting back to inner peace by sticking in alignment with our Higher Chakras. 

Now is the time to be in alignment with our spirit, mind and bodies.  Now more than ever, it is a good time to give thanks and let go.  We are all living vessels traveling here together.  Now is the time for our business and political leaders, the haves, the have a little, want mores and the have-nots to accurately reflect policies that embrace what is good for the goose and gander alike.  There is enough and we can all win.  There is nothing to be afraid of.  The power and labor of Love is a boundless energy that springs eternal.  In the music within, can’t you hear the earworm, celebrate we will because Life is short but sweet for certain?  Remember that the moon will still shine, the sun will still rise and our darkness is our sunlight.

Stay True,

Ari