Tag Archives: Climate Change

Communicating with Catbird

Posted on by under Consciousness, Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized

Last week, we traveled with Duck as a spirit guide to help us effectively navigate our emotional waters. This week, Catbird facilitates our effective language and communication skill development. Given human relations are complex and multidimensional, learning to communicate effectively with one another is no easy task–especially when a cat’s got our tongue. Be that linguistical challenge as it may, Catbird helps us understand variation in sound and teaches us new forms of communication. Sometimes speaking with one another feels like trying to speak a foreign language that has not yet been learned. An important component to our program development as clearer communication channels, is our shared empathic connection to one another. While this phenomenon takes place in our hearts, communication through language amplifies from our throats. However, as we transition into an New Age, our ability to communicate through telepathy and other psychical mediums is cross-pollinating in our flowering blossoming. Catbird helps us be mindful of what we say, how we say it and who we say it to. Its medicine can help us discern what we publicize and what we hold within our secret gardens. At the end of the day, it is probably good medicine to express, rather than repress or build bricks around our hearts as self-defense mechanisms. The trick is to be respectful in our authenticity and not be too over the top with our self expressions during the emoting process.

Are folks unnecessarily meddling in the affairs of others or do you have a propensity to gossip around the water cooler? Sometimes, those of us finding ourselves in the parenting role get lost in it. And we can get good at enabling our children, while perceiving we are helping them. Of course, it is seductive to do that in any relationship, so it is wise to ask ourselves where we are on the map with that? It is also sound intelligence for parents to ask ourselves when setting a limit, we ought to be asking ourselves why? Avoiding power struggles is good medicine. At the end of the day, children need clear limits set and follow through with both logical and natural consequences. Balanancing structure, consistency, predictability and also bringing in novel experiences is the spice of healthy parenting and child rearing. Some folks feel disempowerd when physical force is taken away as an option to control children. But punishment is merely a way to instill fear into our Being and thus, teaches avoidance of getting caught. The old ways of “spare the rod, spoil the child” are now becoming recognized as globally ineffective, as while true discipline–which is the Latin derivative of teaching, is how we learn to evolve in our human family.

True, the democratic process can be messy, but not with positive long-term effects. This is why we look seven generations ahead in our actions. National security and Global security really starts within the Soul, in the home and beyond. We know that there is order in chaos, the Chinese symbol for crisis and opportunity are the same. Rather than looking at our plight in a problem-oriented lens, where crisis’ are “averted”, we step into the realm of Infinity and allow ourselves to see solutions. Teachers still have control in their classrooms, as parents still have control in their homes, but it is a more organic process, where our children tend to behave and do the right thing even when you are not around to come down with a heavy hand. Adults that do not learn to balance freedom and responsibility really struggle with governing themselves, unless they learn to integrate this knowledge into their Being. On some level, Malcolm X woke up while he was in jail and then woke up even more deeply after returning from Mecca–just before his physical death. The Rapture is not about doom and gloom, it is an internal experience available to all of us, if only we allow for it. The Kingdom of Heaven is an internal state of consciousness free for all to experience. In this sphere, we are without fear of exclusion from a private membership that has its privileges for a few elites to indulge in. The “Rule by Secrecy” mantra is waning.

With the wings of Catbird, we are weaving the energies of fertility and creativity into our daily Earthwalk. This spirit animal guide is good medicine to consume when opening up to new relationships wanting to awaken in our lives. Are you ready to allow for development in the area of communication? As multidimensional beings, perhaps meditation on Catbird’s lesson plan will reverberate sound and crystal-clear communication with our Universal brothers and sisters that want to reveal themselves to us, while co-creating a New Earth together. With today’s Full Moon and final eclipse of this powerful Spring Eclipse season, may we “ride the incoming energies of this lunar eclipse with the solar winds at (our) back” in our ascension onward. Maybe it will blow your mind, but our minds are designed to be like wizardly parachutes that appear out of this world.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Staying Afloat with Duck as an Emotional Guide

Posted on by under Consciousness, Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized
Person standing on mountain ridge overlooking sunrise and distant hills
A lone hiker stands atop a mountain ridge watching a stunning sunrise over layered hills

Whatever our circumstances might look like in this lifetime, our human brethren are emotional creatures that feel a strong yearning to belong and be included in fraternal sisterhood. Some of us, try as we might appear hellbent on avoiding and killing that aspect of ourselves. Living authentically however, is sobering us up to our need to regulate our emotional plight. Sure, we have plenty of things to distract us from our emotional bodies, like “work to do and bills to pay”. But those distractions only make it conveniently inconvenient to suppress and repress our emotional tides that inundate. During this powerful eclipse season and Full Moon coming soon to a theater of life near you, our emotional realities are intensifying. Between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, the masculine energetic light of day is rising, as are our spirits. Meditation on Duck is a free guide to tune in to. Its energies want to share its spiritual wisdom with you. When we allow Duck’s Chi to paddle into our souls, we are given emotional comfort and protection. We are in our element with water and given assistance while floating in the astral and emotional realms. Duck helps us drink in the waters of life and swim effectively and stay afloat in our emotional waters. Duck is a powerful spirit guide to maintain our Earthbound connection and let things roll off our backs when things get heated. If only our CEO-Government friends running the business of our military-industrial-complex would marinate on consuming Duck’s free-spirited teachings.

As the world burns, soapy pundits on the tele remain engaged and driven to distraction vis-a-vis the pontificating of ego-centered debates. Admittedly, fascism has its romantic undertones, but we need not choose to buy it. Words are used as weapons of mass distraction, but we have weapons of mass destruction that we need to clear. The time is now to shift our focus away from looking at our Mother Earth as a finite resource to deplete, to a living Being that gives us sustainable life. The engrained business as usual model that has been indoctrinated into our brains needs a new cognitive map. When we are identified with our minds, an endless sea of mental concepts and incessant accompanying emotional reactions are typically dominated by unrealized anxiety. And this hypnotic trance has a tendency to propagate a sleep walk through life. But in every breath we take, we have an opportunity to wake up. Rather than check out, we all have our part to do. For some it’s putting down the 40 ounces to slavery. For others, it might mean seeing through the veil that capitalism and socialism are really just opposite sides of the same coin. Instead of concretely looking at one another as separate and disconnected, one religion being right and the others wrong, qualifying the winners and losers mantra–we become in touch with our strong impulse to shift toward unity in our consciousness. We are leaving behind a bi-polar world of angels and demons, while co-authoring a New Chapter that includes a pluralistic and multi-polar New Earth script.

Ducks are sound creatures of habit and are good reminders to return to safe and comfortable aspects of ourselves when we need to feel safe within our Being. Their energies help us cope with our emotions gracefully. Meditation on Duck helps us acquire and access strategies in the areas of balance, emotional comfort, adaptability and adventure. Life is a journey, not without its labor pains. We all feel that right now, especially during these changing times of transition. The old world is burning, while stoking the embers of the Phoenix Rising. Do you need to establish balance, increase or pay more attention to your emotions and close relationships? Meditation on Duck is ready to help you receive consultation to those questions without charging a bill.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

With Frog, April Showers Bring May Flowers

Posted on by under Uncategorized

Frogs help us remember how to evoke changing weather patterns by singing harmonically with Mother Nature. Perhaps these vocalizations are more raw and less polished than the popular voice. And yet, their melody is powerful and music to the clairaudient ear that resonates deeply within our souls. In the beginning, there was sound. In that vibration, our spirited songs of freedom were born. This reverberation asserts that we are all diverse expressions of Great Spirit. It is true that we are a rainbow of different orientations, but we are all cut from the same cloth. There is no us and them. We are one human family. If corporations are people too, then we wake up to the awareness that we all benefit from a spring cleaning in our souls. Developing tolerance for our diversity is a “step-up” for many folks. A step further is to integrate acceptance of what is into our Being. Frog helps us purify and detoxify blockages in our souls, so that we are equipped to move more gracefully with the changing tides during our experience with Climate Change. As more of us become hip to this vibe, we witness a proliferation of this Oneness reflecting in our material realm. In this process, we help clear the way for spirit to weave its way into our world. Ingesting Frog medicine is good food for the soul and amplifies our power by becoming clearer channels, serving as conduits for radiating cleaner energy. This internal purification and detoxification facilitates the internal experience of inner peace, which decreases pollution so within as without.

While we are one human family, we see that we have been raised with much dysfunction and toxicity. We have been programmed by our societies and parents to follow certain rules and rituals, often unconsciously and without review. In Maine, there’s an old saying, “that’s just the way we’ve always done it.” But part of our healing, especially in Spring, is “out with the old, in with the new.” We can learn from Frog and shamanic network of animal friends how to get back into alignment with Nature. Do you remember the scene in Rocky 3 when Apollo tells Rocky that he has lost the “eye of the Tiger”, but that he is going to help him get it back? Given where we are at in human history, the timing of the spiritual wisdom, “if not now, when” is critically important. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. The corollary is also true. In much the same way as the Buddha, even children raised in ideal situations have an underlying yearning to wake up to the emotional sensitivity that there is more to life that creature comforts and pampered privilege. Through our dirty waters of suffering, Frog breathes in a renewed sense of harmony into our lives and rekindles the notion that there is great peace and joy in taking time for yourself. With its connection to the water element and the lunar cycle, we look back to the waning Wesak Full Moon and are inspired by clearing out our muddy waters and drinking in crystal clear fresh water. Whether you are an atheist, agnostic or a devout believer, Frog is here to remind us to do whatever we can to get closer to Great Spirit. Some ways we can bring in this energy into our lives are going for a walk in the woods, taking in a deep and cleansing deep breath, asserting “stop”, unplugging from technology, staying away from the news for a while, taking a long, relaxing bath, going for a swim or just getting near the water for a spell. We all need to give ourselves a break from information and choice overload. In our modern world, tapping into Frog’s energy might even make you a bit of a rebel. How do you like to weave Frog’s cleansing energy into your life?

Frog is the rainmaker and is a true weather person that is capable of weather control. Its medicine encourages us to wash away the dirt in our lives. As such, meditation on Frog reflects metamorphosis and creativity into our waking lives. Given their amphibian nature, consuming Frog’s spirited energy links us to water and land and helps us stay grounded and emotionally sensitive with respect to the boundaries of self and relationships. Meditation on Frog can assist us in vocalizing our truths powerfully and respectfully. Given that Spring and Summer are its power times, we need to use its energy effectively so that we do not blow things out of proportion. Frog is good spirited soul food to consume while digesting Climate Change.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Singing With Robin

Posted on by under Uncategorized

I remember us receiving tweets last week from Chickadee reminding us to gently sing truthful songs of freedom. Perhaps not coincidentally, while out on the trails, I caught wind of a harmonic convergence between Robin and Chickadee. In their diversity, I noticed their unity when competing for food both peacefully and cooperatively. I don’t know if they particularly liked each other, but they didn’t seem to carry an air of judging one another as either inferior or superior. Don’t you love feeling your consciousness take flight when seeing birds of a feather respectfully flocking together? Robin feathers our ripple by belting out a melodious song that Spring has arrived. Robin encourages us to sing spirited songs and get into alignment with our Mother’s budding spring energy. Although robins don’t always leave us behind when the food supply is plentiful, they are among the first of their kind to return. Robin medicine affords us an opportunity to see that something new might want to move into our lives. Their energy facilitates growth during the birth of a novel and creative experience. Developmentally, their lesson plan aids us in acquiring and accessing traits in the spheres of being daring, communication skills and musical appreciation. The rusty-red coloring of their belly hints at the kundalini rising. Potential conflicts over territory are resolved through song, thus their blue eggs are symbolic of our throat chakras. How many great blues singers had Robin totems? As a singer-songwriter and a musician, I am a late bloomer. But it is never too late and there is so much help waiting for us in the spirit realm. Spirited energies are wanting to manifest now more than ever. They are free access to resources for all of us to share and they are channeling through our powerful animal friends as preferred mediums.

We know that during our experience with Climate Change, there is dark and stormy weather inside that reflects in our outer world. Many folks find security in their consciousness by becoming identified with something to anchor themselves. But at the end of the day, we can only really stand in our own personal authority and become secure with that. Some folks say that we are doomed and that we have passed the so-called tipping point of no return. Tempting as it is to have a cow about that, did anyone out there catch wind of the news that if we start grazing large herds of livestock on 1/2 of the earth’s barren or semi-barren lands–we could take enough carbon from the atmosphere to return to pre-industrial levels, according to an ecologist, “carbon ranchers”, organic consumers and climate activists? From a brain-program developmental perspective, we humans have the capacity to move from the primitive reptilian part of our brain to the pre-frontal cortex. This is how we evolve into what some folks call Homo Luminous, or from our more demonic selves into our more angelic selves, if you will. From a soulful place, this is what our awakening process reveals to us in our walking meditation. In Maine, a Healthy Kids Act is being considered to protect kids and the environment from chemicals of “high concern.” We are what we eat, in our spirits, our minds and our bodies. Consuming the energies of a New Moon on this Wednesday, Earth Day on April 22 and a Full Moon on the 25th can help facilitate the digestion process during our shifting tides. Becoming secure within our own personal authority by staying rooted is powerful medicine to ingest right now. When we stand in this space in our Being, we reduce pollution and sow the seeds of Love and Truth that will light our way into co-creating a Heavenly New Earth, Golden like our eighth Chakras.

I am reminded by the wisdom that our “intentions from the heart do have the power to change the world.” In that light, a most satisfying mind-soul dance step happens when we open up to allowing our heart’s sun and venus to shine out and amplify our heartfelt connections with one another. Growing up with a parent with clinical depression, I felt suffocated and needed to build a protective fortress around my heart. But with a super-sized energy field, extreme empathic sensitivity to the feelings of others and a security in my intellect, a part of my heart leaked blood for psychic vampires to feed on. Given that I indulged in their indulgences, coupled with my built-in anger, I became comfortable with my familiarity of victim consciousness. This Spring, may we allow the light to illuminate the shadows by all of us manifesting an internal spring cleaning, a la out with the old, in with the new. Imagine if the movers and shakers of the world collectively concentrated their energy on building green classrooms, where music classes took place in green-house like facilities, where robins were teacher’s aids in carrying out music lessons. Forget about band and chorus. Now isn’t that sound of music a harmonic convergence to our ears?

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Weaseling Our Way Out of a Rock and a Hard Place

Posted on by under Uncategorized

The energy of Weasel is powerful medicine for us to ingest right now on Nature’s cycle. We are standing at a crossroads. Our old ways, old world and collective hold of the ego are losing its firm grip on us. But there are still many, particularly those in positions of high power, who are fighting tooth and nail to resist the arriving of massive changes coming soon to a theater near you. With Climate Change, Mother Earth is growing more vocal against the raping of Her by an overindulgence in masculine-yang energetic perspective that is depleting our natural resources, trashing Her and us according to the gospel of the Almighty Dollar. Yet at the same time, we are experiencing a flowering of consciousness that is cross pollinating humanity and our connection to our beloved Mother Earth. Looking back on the Spring Equinox, we remember Nature being a healthy role model of harmonically balancing our masculine and feminine energies in a sweetly satisfying spirit-mind-body soulful dance step. One powerfully green and free form of alternative energy is Weasel. When consuming the energy of Weasel, we are equipped to access and acquire its spirited teachings of ingenuity, stealthy, sly and secret circumvention pursuit of our goals. Do you remember when the Americas were forcefully taken over by European colonialism? It was Weasel’s medicine that revealed to our Native American brothers and sisters the hidden intention and agenda of the folks coming over on boats to the New World. In this light, what are our shadowy friends in clandestine meetings up to in their moving and shaking? As we move further into spring and closer to the Summer Solstice, more spirited energies are streaming into our consciousness in the form of an astrological showering of eclipses. The more aware and in alignment we are with this information, the less reactive we are to it. What we are talking about here is tunneling beneath the pop headlines that disseminate information we are intended to see. But even in the dark, there is light.

Perhaps Weasel was helpful to a Federal Appeals Court recently, by standing up to Mega-corporations, when oil and gas leases were denied access to scenic public lands in Wyoming and Utah. Was it Weasel that assisted David-like local municipalities by enacting local bans or moratoriums on Goliath-like oil and gas companies to prevent gas drilling and “fracking” that pumps millions of gallons of chemically treated water into the ground to extract gas from deposits deep down in our Mother’s veins? Synchronistically, Weasel parallels a recent movement of politicians that are beginning to see through the Fog of War by taking a stand against the War Hawk mentality in American foreign policy. In short, Hawkish agenda du jour seeks to push for more Drones and robots that popular films such as the Terminator and Robocop showcased in the entertainment industry, under the guise of a self-fulfilling prophecy back in the 1980s and 90s. Do we want to reenact the warmongering history of the Old Testament or do we really want to manifest a New Covenant by co-creating a Divine marriage between Heaven and Earth? Great Spirit is helping us wake up to a higher quality of respect. Rather devolving into a reptilian-brain, fear-based respect that mirrors a gangbanger mind-set, we need to clear our Karma by earning respect back from our more vulnerable populations. The oppressor must welcome the oppressed to the negotiating table with transparency and trust so that we may heal our wounds. With great freedom comes great responsibility, as the same systems that oppress can liberate. Taxation with Representation in part looks like crafting legislation that eradicates our Weapons of Mass Destruction without blowing things out of proportion. But we all need to do our part. Weasel’s medicine can silently help us pursue the process of inner peace by dissolving our internal warheads, so that the waves of this energetic Tsunami are felt across our Planet and we are universally inundated.

When remembering to consume the free-spirited energy of Weasel, we learn how to pursue our goals, while staying out of trouble. Do you need to weasel your way out of situations that don’t appear to allow for it? Do you need to develop your own observational skills? Are you being too vocal in your pursuits? Do you need to dig deeper into your soul? Are you and others being honest? Weasel is powerful medicine that aids us in developing our observational skills, read between the lines, see beneath the surface and perceive the truth behind the smoke and mirrors. We are able to hear what is really being said and see multiple consequences to an event, much like playing chess. May we use its medicine to shine our light in a discreet fashion for mutual-aid. The time is now to ascend from a dimensionally challenged perspective, so that we may open up to a multi-dimensional worldview that values a deeper heartfelt connection to one another.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Swimming in Dolphin’s wake

Posted on by under Uncategorized

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

Posted on by under Uncategorized

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?

Posted on by under Uncategorized

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

Posted on by under Uncategorized

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

Posted on by under Uncategorized

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