Tag Archives: Consciousness

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

Dreaming with Salamander and cleansing withTurkey Vulture

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I remember walking along the trails with a student, when he noticed a salamander.  After exhaling dead air, I felt alive after taking a conscious breath of fresh air.  Further along the festival of Life, I became engaged in another conversational flow with one of the cats I roll with from around the way.  After helping him pick up some fallen branches left over from Hurricane Sandy, I said a prayer of gratitude for the storm’s minimal impact in our neck of the woods, while simultaneously expressing a silent blessing to our friends to our South that were affected more dramatically.  Given that I had just cast my absentee ballot, our conversation quickly cut to a commercial about going blue.  Although I didn’t turn into a wolverine or get depressed while listening to my feline friend’s assertion to vote in that hue, it saddens me that we are merely one step away from a dictatorship here in the United States, in that we are more polarized than ever in our collectively boxed-in mindsets.  But seeing two women on a presidential ticket here in the USA fills my heart Chakra green with hope!  When we truly walk in alignment with Nature, we shift our focus less on the odds by levitating into the realm of Infinity, where holographic possibilities abound.  With turkey vulture and salamander as a spirit guides, we ride the thermals of life, elevate our Auric vision and invigorate our energetic field around us.  Moreover, we shed our old skin to make way for rebirth and effectively navigate the elemental forces of land and water.  In this process, we co-create Heaven on Earth by consuming a healthy spirited diet, while feathering each other’s ripple in a positive vibration of Love and Light.

If we are to co-create a more egalitarian culture here in the Nation, the Americas, Planet and Universe throughout, we need to heed the cadence of Classroom Mothership Earth and the heart of Great Spirit.  All creatures, great and small, above and below are equal in the eyes of Great Spirit and we are all nourished by our Mother Earth.  Nature has an organic way of leveling the playing field and we see that play out in Climate Change.  Some of you have noticed that I have selected Tom Brady as a metaphor for staying calm in the pocket, especially when blitzed by unpredictable and turbulent weather patterns in the form of Giants.  Tom Brady personifies someone who may not have been blessed with the greatest natural talent, but he has become greatness by avoiding catastrophes time and again.  Specifically, the future Hall of Fame quarterback effectively demonstrates T’ai Chi like subtle movements in the pocket, psychically reading and adjusting to relentless defensive storm fronts and maintains a wide open angle gaze downfield, while believing in the possibility of making a big play, against apparent all odds.  Now if you think I’m throwing low balls at the rest of the team around him, I’ll bet that turkey vulture would concur that would be a foul ball.  Like a salamander, Brady slithers between the elements and demonstrates metamorphosis right in front of our eyes.  Like switching gears from running and passing, Mother Nature shows us similar shifting fronts of waning light and movement toward the dark.  Here in the Northern hemisphere, we officially turn our clocks yinward in the week ahead.  Masculine-yang energy is fading to black as feminine-yin energy is becoming more dominant, until it’s climax on the Winter Solstice and the end of the Mayan Calender on December 21, 2012.

Given the corporate media’s compartmentalized view of Nature’s new normal, we must get into alignment with Climate Change by embracing this phenomenon, rather than resisting it.  Humanity has a say in how we navigate this process and rather than hate the media, we must become the media.  On a personal spiritual front, experiential wisdom reminds us that what we resist persists and we must become the change we want to see in the world.  Yes, large socialist mega-corporations that continue to rape and abort our Mother need to wake the f-bomb up and stop fracking around folks, as my Midwestern aunt that likes to rant provocatively asserts.  We are spiritual beings having human experiences.  As such, we have the capacity to right the ship, come about and lead an unprecedented shift in consciousness while floating on the waters of life.  When we see things in our field of vision that are alarming, the Universe is providing us an opportunity to send the power of Love to whatever floats in our orbit.  That means that we acknowledge our anger and other flood of negative emotions that arrive and then gently breath those feelings out, while sending them Love for compost.  In a sense, we swim on land and surf the shifting tides into a New Age and Paradigm, one step, one breath and one moment at a time.  This kind of mulching has a much more pleasant stink to it than getting stuck in the muck.  By sending Love to our inner space, we shift from pollution to healthy renewable energy for all to share. 

Stay True,

Ari

With Rat, We Find Success and Press Onward, While Leaving Behind Familiar Woodpiles

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I remember the energy of rat entering my consciousness this week and thought it poignant to reflect on our Nervous Woodland Creature friend for this week’s journal entry.  At school, we are reading the book The Rats of Nihm to our students, while they sit captivated by how shrewd the countryside rats are, with relation to their lab rat counterparts. However, it isn’t that country rats are superior to city rats or white lab rats, as elitist intellectuals might secretly suspect from positions of judgment.  Rats have been popular among social scientists, as they have shown an ability to form cognitive maps and reason.  In fact, if a rat learns where to go to get a tasty morsel of cheese as a reward and when the cheese is removed, the rat will learn a new pathway to the Promised Land.  We humans, on the other hand, tend to keep going back to the once Fertile Crescent, even when it is no longer serving us.  Rats are adaptable, restless, shrewd and are oriented toward success.  But getting attached to any energy, in the spirit of human ego, is somewhat akin to a rat developing an attachment to the comforts of familiar woodpiles.  Further, egotism seeks to strengthen its identity through the relentless pursuit of happiness, rather than knowing inner joy as a way of life.  Sometimes living authentically takes staring fear square in the face, stepping outside of familiar woodpiles and taking it to the edge for growth to occur.  And then blue jay flies in and reminds us that we have the right to become master illusionists, skilled politicians or pretenders to the throne.  But we also know that blue jay will show us how to become true wizards, real magicians, if only we allow for it.  Perhaps meditation on rat will help us succeed in becoming that.

Here in Maine and the nation throughout, we are restless as rats in our drive to level the playing field with gay marriage and voter registration being hot ballot-box items.  Some folks, particularly the dimensionally challenged dinosaurs of the old world want to hold folks back by scaling down human rights by blocking the expansion of certain rights to our human family.  I get a chuckle, in the black comedy sense, when so-called Christians pontificate about protecting the sanctity of marriage and right wingers cite protecting the sanctity of the voting process by finding clever ways to keep the riff raft out, so to speak.  And I get that some heterosexuals that sit on top of the majority have a sense of entitlement about their privileged status.  But what about when you are on the receiving end of deliverance?  What are these folks afraid of?  Was Jesus a bigot?  My understanding of Christ’s fundamental teaching was modeling Love as a way of life and His inspiring us to spread it liberally and unconditionally.  Moreover, the devilish fixed idea of hating the sin and loving the sinner is inconsistent with His message, though I can empathize with the compartmentalized indoctrination of the masses, particularly here in America.  Remember that Hitler sang Christmas carols to children as jews, gypsies, homosexuals and other fringe groups were incinerated.  Remember that Hitler commented that he wanted to come back to America, given our far greater harness on propaganda than Nazi Germany.  Forget not that America’s very own IBM literally made a killing through an exclusive business arrangement with the Nazis, by selling them the technological profiling precision that allowed for strategic genocide.  Prior to that, it was the sound economics of slavery, stealing land that was not for sale and cannot be owned.  How do we own what gives us life?  Do you realize that biological and germ warfare  nearly wiped out First Nation folks?  If “We The People” are going to heal our Nation, Planet and Universe throughout, then we need to clear our Karma.  All Karma means is the Higher Spiritual Law of Cause and Effect, which can be transcended.  When we step into the realm of Infinity, we know the realm of Intention and infinite possibilities.  Perhaps Dick Cheney has had a change of heart since he has had a change of heart and will see that elements of the 2005 Energy Bill that allows for underground pollution hurts all of us.  Where did you get those high cheek bones, Dick?  Maybe Mitt Romney will authentically see himself as one of the biggest welfare recipients around and realize his dependency on the liberal welfare state by his active participation in the Morman-LDS church, which takes in more government welfare dollars than non-Mormons in Utah.  Remember the Preamble to the US Constitutions speaks of promoting the “general welfare”, or a safety net that everyone should benefit from.  The only difference is that Mitt and his followers want the net to catch the welfare for his family, religion and the opulent minority, but not for the rascal multitude.  In his view, the overwhelming majority needs to be contained or else our natural leveling impulses are a threat to Country Club living.

Rats, now the cat is out of the bag and the rat is tempted to scurry back to familiar woodpiles.  But with rat consciousness, we are equipped to use our collective intellect and transcend the comforts of old securities in consciousness by releasing old, dysfunctional energies and patterns of behavior.  With the arrival of Autumn, an election coming up and the end of the Mayan calendar coming down the pike on the Winter Solstice in December 21, 2012, we are officially in transition.  Yes, there is forceful opposition to co-creating a more egalitarian New Earth, we have the spirited Universal winds at our backs that cannot be stopped.  Nature reminds us that change is inevitable.  True, we have two republicans running for President.  Barak Obama, being the moderate and Mitt Romney being the right-winger.  Both are candidates of Wall Street and carry allegiance to a dying world, but one offers a slightly more paved causeway to a New Age and Paradigm.  Regardless of who wins, please remember to focus on your own inner spiritual growth and evolve in that light.  Just be, let go and enjoy the ride!  And remember to step up to peace by standing your ground when bullies try to prevent you from getting out to vote!

Stay True,

Ari

With Squirrel Energy, We Playfully Get Down To Business Without Going Too Nuts

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I remember playing basketball and doing my job with a student this week, when he called out to me, “Ari look, a squirrel”.  Here in the Northern hemisphere, the seasonal transition into Fall is rapidly approaching us and we are venturing back to school, work and getting organized, while saying good-bye to summer.  Meditation on squirrel reminds us that our business can be our pleasure, if only we allow for it.  In a sense, this week’s blog was falling out in the doing, while leaving its passing behind.  And the doing becomes less robotic when we are truly present with what is and our busy doings become awakened and more about being.  Summer is waning and on this Equinox, light and dark will be in balance, if only briefly.  At this junction on Nature’s cycle, the Autumn Equinox is somewhat akin to the Spring Equinox, when masculine and feminine energies are also equal.  Right now, we are looking forward to the masculine-light waning and the dark night of feminine energies rising until their peak on the Winter Solstice on December 21, 2012, the first day of Winter.  Isn’t it synchronistic that squirrel medicine carries a 12 week cycle and the end of the Mayan Calendar is approximately that distance into the future?  Yes, we are living in exciting times on our planet today, but not without the labor pains associated with giving birth to a New Earth.  Squirrels are especially powerful medicine at this moment and when watching them being squirrely, we are reminded of their spirited teaches on being prepared, but hopefully without going too nuts in the process.  Does anyone else out there get a chuckle from watching our squirrel brothers and sisters bursting with nervous energy, scurrying around, while stashing their acorns and sometimes forgetting where they buried their treasures? 

I remember when “911” happened like it was yesterday.  In fact, I knew something like this event was coming–in the sense that I could feel it.  At the time, I was working at a group home for children in State custody that had been severely abused and neglected by their birth families and they were already at school.  A couple of my co-workers came in and asked if I knew what had happened and directed me to the TV in the living room.  Although I was only in my mid-twenties at the time, I had not lived a sheltered life and I understood what was going on in our world geopolitically.  I realized that many folks on the planet, including a growing number of  folks here in America, lived without a sense of security and experienced terrorism in their day-to-day lives.  Sadly, but understandably, terrorism seeks to disrupt the status quo and uses violence as a means to justify the end.  This crazy idea is similar to the fundamentalist belief in the maximum economic profit business model that wealthy nations use to exploit poor nations on our planet today.  But violence, although illegitimate and foolish, predictably begets more violence.  We reap what we sow.  Stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, which the United States continues to hoard more than any other nation, is asking for more of the same.  However, if we want to eliminate this clinically insane nightmare, then we need to start balancing cooperation with competition and clean up the resources that we share by co-creating win-win solutions, rather than adopting a quick fix, band-aid approach.  Isn’t it obvious that the old ways do not work any more?  As humans, we have historically been at our best when we are at our worst.  But the times, they are a changin’ and we need to get out on the forefront and proactively get in alignment with Nature to facilitate our transition into a New Age and Paradigm.  Can’t you hear the arrival of John Lennon’s energy saying, give peace a chance . . . that’s all we’re asking, is give it a chance . . . it’s never been done.

In welcoming squirrel’s spirited streams of energy, we remember how to balance letting go of our stockpiles that no longer serve us and tap into our reservoirs for a future rainy day.  Our spirited Nervous Woodland Creature friends are offering us powerful energies to release dysfunctional relationship patterns, fixed thought processes, programmed beliefs and objects that once brought security, but are no longer serving us–without going too nuts in the process!  This is somewhat akin to a toddler giving up his pacifier and learning to soothe himself, rather than relying on the object of his affection.  In our modern world of 10, 000 things, it might mean giving up some old clothes and giving them away to someone who really needs them more.  Systemically, perhaps this looks like giving up our addiction to foreign oil and replacing it with free energy for the entire planet by tapping into the Earth’s natural energy centers, as true wizard Nikola Tesla once envisioned.  Maybe that is too far-fetched for some, but burning less fossil fuels and finding more organic ways to cultivate energy that is cleaner for all of us is possible.  Bringing in the energy of squirrel is merely one source that is pollution free, particularly if worked in the positive.  For those at the top of the food chain, it might mean giving up tax breaks and sharing a bit more with the overwhelming majority–picturing buying us time and saving us money.  It might mean looking another sentient being in the eyes, perceiving the mirror and realizing that we are all cut from the same cloth.  In tapping into squirrel consciousness, we co-create a safe place for an untroubled heart and mind, where wisdom and caring are gathered and stored and anxious fears about the future magically disappear. 

Stay True,

Ari

Union of the Snake

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I remember puttering around the garage recently, stepping into the backyard for a spell and sharing an unexpected intimate moment with a snake gazing my way from his vantage point in the grass.  Given that I was about to embark on an adventure to my 20 year High School reunion, I took my encounter with snake as an omen to shed our old skin, while allowing for a smooth transmutation process into becoming something new.  Given the changing tides, this summer is an especially hot time for reunions and gatherings.  When we face the music and participate in the theater of life, it is not always an easy buffet of feelings to consume and digest.  We are all mirrors for one another, albeit diverse expressions of Great Spirit (God, Universe, etc.).  As mirrors, we do not always like seeing the snakes reflected back our way.  However, when we tap into the fire of snake medicine, it invokes within us the process of alchemy that facilitates healing.  By embracing our own power, we wake up to our authentic selves.  In releasing our own suffering, we open up to compassion and love.  Remember that the Buddha arrived at this Earth plane to show us compassion, while the Christ arrived to show us Love.  When we heed their wisdom and walk in this Light, we facilitate the healing of ourselves, the planet and Universal Consciousness throughout by co-creating Heaven on Earth one moment, one slither and one breath at a time.

Has anyone else out there had a tendency to play with fire and get burned in the process?  In the theater of life, facing the music and taking it to the edge sometimes is an experiential learning opportunity for growth, here in Classroom Mothership Earth.  Sometimes, ingesting the poison of the bite stokes the inner flame of alchemy to wake up to our own immortality.  Perhaps our dying selves and dying world will be the death of us, but with every funeral comes a new birth.  Regardless of one’s belief systems, those of us that know the power of prayer and meditation know a direct experience with Divine Energies that are available as powerful resources to us, if only we ask.  At this junction of Nature’s cycle, it was so nice to celebrate good times with old friends and breathe in new life, while exhaling dead air.  While many folks avoided directly participating in our celebratory ritual, I know the good vibrations will be felt by even those that did not show up.  When we effectively integrate our masculine and feminine energy and heal polarity in our consciousness, we light the torch of fire medicine.  In the spirit of that, we create passion, desire, procreation and physical vitality on the material plane; ambition, creation, resolution and dreams on the emotional plane; intellect, power, charisma and leadership on the mental plane; and wisdom, understanding, wholeness and connection to Great Spirit on the spiritual plane.  Does anyone remember the scene from The Matrix when Neo visits the Oracle and the little boy in the waiting room says to him something like, try not to bend the spoon . . . that’s impossible . . . instead, imagine that the spoon isn’t there.  Readers, do you see that magic is no more than a perceptual shift in consciousness?

Snake’s energy has potential to awaken our Divine Life Force within (Chi).  If you would like to tap into this power, please consider keeping yourself energetically clean by psychically bathing yourself in white light and flushing whatever toxic debris remains down your spine, through the soles of your feet and into Mother Earth for her to receive and compost.  By embracing our power with respect to our relationships, we wake up authentically to our True Selves.  Shamans of the Americas have shared stories of a dying, snake-like god named Quetzalcoatl that would someday return.  In this Light, we will explore fantastic mythical stories like this in future blog conversations.  If anyone out there has a poignant story to share, I would excitedly welcome that.

Stay True,

Ari

Bear Like Me Revisited

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For those participatory audience members in the theater of life, you might remember that I wrote about Bear medicine in last week’s blog installment.  Given the girth of Bear’s energy, I am still digesting the omnivorous experience.  In the spirit of that, I climbed a tree yesterday, watched the ripples of the river from atop a branch and tasted the sweetness of the life’s honey from a higher vantage point (my wife and child might have a different version after I climbed back down, returned to the den and was stoked by the grounding reality of being a husband and parent again).  Does anyone else out there remember climbing trees as a kid?  If there was something to climb and then jump off and free fall, then I did it.  Back then, the School of Hard Knox delivered plenty of concrete reminders about grounding me back to Earth.  Some of us outgrow such childish behavior and become sensible adults.  Others, fall out of a tree like I once did and subsequently choose to set a clear, Confucian rules throughout their journey to “never do that again”.  But then there are those of us that are more like Herons and find it within ourselves to find the security to follow our own path through creative trial and error.  Yes, the naturalistic social scientist geek in me realizes that there is a realm of predictability, patterns and cause and effect, which is wise to pay attention to and master. 

However, as the deep seeing mystics understood and a growing number of folks in the scientific community are beginning to “prove” the existence of mythical realms once thought fantastic.  Here, a “hidden” realm beyond the Law of Karma, where the Quantum world of Infinity awaits us, if only we allow ourselves to transcend boxed in mind-sets and the robotic doings of life.  Bear reminds us of a Map of Consciousness, where infinite possibilities await when one authentically opens up to it in with respect to boundaries of self and others.  During this process, folks feel this alternative form of energy, whether realized or not, and the planet and beyond benefit from mutual aid.  As we transition from a dying old world into a New Age and Paradigm, it is not without the labor pains of the birthing process.  I know Summer is a hot time, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere and we all feel the heat from the Americas, planetary consciousness and the Universe throughout.  In fact, our reptilian friends in Congress are already trying to scale back health care reform and big money is being seriously greedy by blocking Chicago factory workers from buying their own place of employment.  Here in Maine, L.L. Bean flexed their muscles by ignoring a petition by a family farm and local rural residents to stop fireworks from lighting up a family farm that scared the daylights out of both domestic and wild animals.  I could hear a mourning dove singing a spiritual protest song during my morning jog.  I wonder what small business advocate Newt Gingrich thinks about these examples of liberal excesses of the Corporate Welfare State?  What might Newt have to say about “Merica” and Her tendency toward enabling Multinational Corporations to over indulge in Socialist strategic alliances that violate every conceivable Free Market principal?  Putting Newt aside, I wonder if the Corporate Media and educated business class barely skipped a beat when the Top Dawgs in the 1% held meetings behind closed doors to lead the charge to criminalize the freedom of the internet?  Being a bit of an empath, I understand the outlook of the Opulent Minority quite well.  I realize that, for many in this privileged class, Earth is a playground where there are winners and losers and the winners should be able to play at will, without any accountability.  Many among this ilk believe that Healthcare is a privilege and not a right.  But while I empathize with their plight, I disagree with it.  There is enough and we can all win.  No human is superior or inferior to any other human and/or sentient being. 

Now I realize my voice may fly below the radar, but I am also expressing sentiments in concert with the overwhelming majority.  It isn’t always easy being a free-spirited dreamer, but I know I’m not the only one.  My garden variety of friends are teaching me that the salt of the Earth, the movers and shakers are the ones who till it.  In my spirited dance, my plea to the Opulent Minority and the rest of us is that we all must be caretakers of our own internal gardens here on Classroom Mothership Earth.  It is good medicine to share and to release judgments on your neighbor.  So what if the USA and Israel have more Goliath like military might than the David’s of the world?  Does that mean we should use it for preemptive strikes and systemic bullying?  Just because IBM had the technology to allow for the precise profiling for the Nazis to strategically execute the atrocities of the Holocaust, does the ends of profitable business justify the horrific means?  Bear encourages us to stand our ground.  The more of us that freely tap into the energy of Bear medicine will become the Critical Mass that will help humanity stay afloat and effectively navigate into an unchartered New World together.

Stay True,

Ari

Playing Opossum with the Intention of Diversion and use of Appearances

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I remember watching an opossum from my kitchen window recently.  At first glance, I thought I was watching an engorged squirrel that was performance-enhanced by a cocktail of drugs, like the folks you see on the TV in the professional sports arena.  However, after my perception cleansed, I stood mesmerized by my opossum friend’s climbing strategy, as he traversed the branches high atop the backyard tree.  If one way didn’t work, he simply found another route and patiently changed his trajectory by traveling along another, more effective path.  Although it was not long before I knew that I would dig a little deeper into this Classroom Mothership Earth lesson, I remembered to breathe, stay present and gently allow the communion with my climbing friend to unfold organically.  Although I was eager to meditate on the spiritual significance of this spirited encounter, I needed to remember one of Oprah Winfrey’s favorite mantra’s, “be here, be now”.  As I stood in the place that I was, I know that while Oprah loves her shows, I wore my bare feet.

On the global weather front, our human race stands on what I like the call the confrontational crossroads fence yet again.  And like a virtual blogging friend also poignantly chimed in, “when confronted with a spiritual or dogmatic crossroads, a man first holds fast to his beliefs. He then thinks and challenges the new thought. He finds any reason to not accept it, while simultaneously knowing that he could easily be wrong. He then moves into the sphere of crossroads and is confronted by the face of truth. He can only accept truth and change, or deny truth and remain stagnant in growth.”  Moreover, I remember my old self using the powerful and yet primitive psychological coping strategy of denial to win an argument with my peers.  When the conversational topic became too threatening to my worldview, like Rush Limbaugh, I simply ended the conversation by arrogantly asserting, “I’m right, you’re wrong and that’s all there is to it.”  Today, here in the USA and the planet throughout, humanity has become dramatically polarized.  We have fought wars based on drawing rigid lines in the sand, we have suppressed and repressed the masses of folks that perceive and desire the “chimes of freedom flashing”.  While it is true that we have been like “sheeple” that have gone along with the herd and we have allowed the wool to have been pulled over us by the corporate illusionist behind the curtain–the time is now to end “separate, but equal”.  We are all One and if we are to move beyond ego (intellectual concepts, beliefs, dogma, rhetoric, etc.), then we need to recognize the demonic shackles of the ego when they are drawn within our own being.  For example, does it really make sense that our homosexual brothers and sisters–whether oriented and/or choosing that lifestyle, should be discriminated against and not allowed the same legal and spiritual rights as the majority of us that define ourselves as heterosexual?  Is it not obvious that this is the same line that was drawn for women and folks of color?  It is time to let go of the “great deceiver” that orders us to “obey thy master”, “shut up and shop” and judge one another as superior and/or inferior.  The truth is, there are no enemies out there, rather, the Kingdom of Heaven is within and it is equally available for all of us, if only we allow for it.  It’s about a state of consciousness, sweetheart! 

Moving onward, we are birthing into a New Age and Paradigm, but not without the labor pains that accompany the delivery of the Promised Land that many of us envision.  As we co-create Heaven on Earth and step into the realm of Infinity, we need to remember that this is a slow process (although paradoxically rapidly accelerating).  Moreover, this colorful process of co-creation happens one step, one moment and one breath at a time.  Perhaps this week, you might start by picturing an opossum and asking yourself the following reflective questions:  are you acting or about to act in an inappropriate manner?  Do you need to strengthen your appearance?  Are others putting up false appearances in front of you?  Do you need to divert attention away from some activity?  Are others trying to divert your attention?  Is it time to go into your own bag of tricks and pull out some new strategy?  Opossum medicine can help you balance magic, parlor tricks and real-life Wizardry in your life right now.  And please remember to stay light on the feet and keep your footing, while cutting back to inner peace on the playing field of Life.

Stay True,

Ari

Bee Real (even if you are not sitting on a Hill in Cyprus)

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Here on Mothership Earth, we are welcoming Buddha’s Light on the forthcoming powerful Wesak Full Moon.  In our neck of the woods in Northern New England, the peak of His Light arrives around midnight on May 5.  However, for many of you tuning in from many other parts of the world, the energies of the Wesak will radiantly illuminate on May 6th.  In some circles, folks prayerfully wish us well by coming from the intention of  “Love and Light”.  When I hear these words, I immediately picture Buddha and Christ co-creating Light and Love in our world and showing us our Divine nature in our human form.  Today, in this “world of 10, 000 things”, I can feel their energy with us right Tao as we awaken our consciousness on our planet one step, one breath, one moment at a time.   Yes, there is global tyranny on the surface of our classroom.  While some are fighting for basic survival, others sit in pomp like the “boasting of thieves after a looting” and some are getting lost in the robotic doings of life, by just trying to provide a better life for their children.  Regardless of what your situation looks like on the surface, nature offers us glimpses into her spirited realm that we may invoke within our individual consciousness and awaken to the Light Buddha revealed to us through his human incarnation and Infinite Spirit. 

Has anyone out there ever drank in and felt buzzed by watching bees flitting about in their industry and flight, while cross-pollinating the flowering of our Garden?  Are you producing enough, enjoying the fruits of your labor and/or so busy you never have time to do what you want?  Are you pregnant with an idea, fertile with your creativity and/or need to examine your own sexuality or attitudes toward sex in general?  When folks meditate on bee consciousness, does anyone else out there feel inspired to transcend life’s roadblocks and transform into something greater to accomplish the seemingly impossible Quest?  Perhaps this looks like merely getting out of bed in the morning, staying away from certain substances and/or staying alive.  For others, it might be remembering to breathe deeply and slowly when feeling anxious, overwhelmed and/or stressed.  Yet for some, it might mean opening up to birthing the idea of a more equitable global economy, where resources are shared and we all win, rather than protecting “the minority of the opulent against the overwhelming majority.”   I wonder if others out there have relevant experiences in this area and I would welcome hearing your stories of how bees have inspired you. 

Given that bees taste with their legs, they provide us with a friendly reminder to stay rooted while traveling on the ground in our human vessel, hopefully without getting stung.  Readers, have you ever pictured a tree that serves both as an antennae to the Heavens, but also grown strong roots channeled deep into the Earth?  This is one way to step into the realm of Infinity, rather than getting stuck in the quicksand of insanity.  Moreover, as we buzz along here on Mothership Earth, perhaps we might heed the wisdom of Ted Andrews that arrives via the lyrics, “the elixir of life is as sweet as honey, and the bee is a symbol that promises us that the opportunity to drink it is ours if but we pursue our dreams.” 

Stay True,

Ari

Feeling a bit Loony, while On Golden Pond

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Has anyone out there seen the American film classic, “On Golden Pond”?  Every time I see a Loon swimming on a body of water, I can still hear the Ethel in me saying, “look at the Loons, Norman, do you see the Loons?”  And while staying afloat on the waters of life, I sea my consciousness naturally expanding organically.  Loons are like miniature submarines and have the capacity to dive deep and stay under water for five minutes.  I wonder if liberally funded scientists of the military-industrial complex were inspired by Loons when they designed their underwater vessels?  I know it’s a developmentally delayed perspective to design clandestine weapons of mass destruction, but that’s what happens when We “go skating on the thin ice of modern life”, as Roger Waters sang a Loony Toon when he flirted with the blurring line between genius and insanity. 

Ah, Loons–don’t they remind Us of Our human power to dream lucidly and re-awaken old hopes, wishes and dreams?  Can’t You hear the Beatles earworm singing, “living is easy with eyes closed”?  Moreover, I have heard it said that “comfort is joy”, but isn’t it also true that ignorance is bliss?  Meditation on Loon medicine reminds Us to pay attention to Our dreams, even those We may have cleverly hidden, suppressed and/or repressed in Our hearts,  “ghettos of the mind” and the “Darkness on the Edge of Town”.  It is real that Our collective Nervous Woodland Creature energy might like to avoid looking at “what lies beneath”, in much the same way a Rat avoids leaving the comforts of his woodpile.  However, if We allow Our True Selves to look beyond the veil with a cursory glance, We just might notice what otherwise is revealed to Us when We choose to take the plunge into the unchartered depths of the Soul.  In this process, We are afforded the opportunity to explore gateways into other dimensions that stoke the primal embers burning within, that are otherwise missed in the robotic doings of everyday responsibilities. 

As We effectively transition into a New Age and Paradigm, I take notes from Loon as We swim away from a dying Pisces Age into an Aquarian Age.  I’ve heard it said that “Aquarius is about rebellion against how one is supposed to be, and it is anti ego. Aquarius hates tyranny and appreciates equality and freedom. Aquarius walks the thin line between genius and crazy and loves to travel the network of mind and intellect.”  For those of Us that feel particularly loony in normally mundane social situations, I encourage You to marinate on and digest what Loon has to teach You when you incrementally expose Your Self to situations that You may have previously avoided out of anxiety.  If only We allow for it, Loon has the potential to help Us decrease anxiety and increase One’s level of comfort as We crawl out of Plato’s Cave toward the light that illuminates the shadows.  In the spirit of that, please enjoy the energies of the New Moon in Aquarius and the fiery breath of the Chinese New Year of the Dragon on January 23, 2012.  In keeping my ear to the ground, I hear rumblings that it’s a good time to stay on track and reflect on where We are on Life’s map.

I Hopi You are well,

Ari