Tag Archives: creativity

Out of the Body Experiences with Penguin

Posted on by under Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized

Penguin leaps out of the water and takes flight into the air
In this space, we are propelled out of our bodies . . . .

Meditation on Penguin awakens powers of dreaming lucidly
We are given access to multidimensional exploration . . .

Our souls leave behind our temples to venture deeper into
alternate states of the astral plane

Gently connect with the tides of this Full Wolf Moon to
psychically stream into your dream-team

May our spiritual wings power our vessels further
into oceanic depths of the Dreamtime

Meditation offers us safe passages for traveling inward
into the vast galaxies of our inner skies with
a safe haven anchored back in this Earth

But facing physical death is an unknown transition . . .

Losing our loved ones to death can be rough on the living
Unexpected deaths can especially leave us feeling angry,
confused, depressed and with deep sadness

Sometimes we just want to hide away from the rest of the world

We survivors are reminded of our own mortality
and feel survivor’s guilt as well as struggle with the lack of control
that we truly have for what happens to us

But we can control how we respond to these tragedies
Painful as it is to taste this bitter aspect of life –
We might as well do the best we can to lean into our feelings and be vulnerable

We are here to learn how to cope with life’s stress in the living moment
while we are still breathing

Make peace with yourself and with your loved ones who have passed on
You can help them ascend through the power of surrender and forgiveness

Get out alone in Nature and sit in the elements for a spell
If you are uncomfortable or having a hard time sitting with what is . . .

Free yourself to get down with the elements and just “let it be” . . .
This is a healthy way to loosen our entanglements with form

Doesn’t the cold chill in your bones from the wind
remind you that you are still alive?

And then isn’t the forecast of a scalding hot shower, saltwater bath or fire
something to look forward to?

Let go of that thought for a moment and just be mindful
of your surroundings and let yourself quiet down

Pretty soon, the animals will speak up and do their thing
What messages does Nature have for you to receive?

Let your inner child remember the surprise birthday party of every moment
Expectations are forgotten as exploration and discovery is your experience

May we be empowered to flex our co-creative dreaming muscles consciously –
so that we can weave them into our waking reality

We have explored how the Empire prefers to remain hidden by going unexamined
As such, we have been told a patriarchical story that
glamorize a dominant script of masculine power

But the Emperor Penguin is a good role model for redefining masculinity . . .
Showing us that Father Sun nurtures Mother Earth with loving warmth

Historically, a nurturing role has typically been ascribed to women and femininity
Penguin alters our traditional ideas of gender roles into a

New dream for humanity where we sew creative feminine threads
Woven together into a new masculine tapestry with energetic equanimity

Hope to see onward up the trails,

Ari

Listening to the Magical Music of Crows

Posted on by under Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized

Crows work together with watchful eyes
Their alert and wary energy symbolizes clear views of the horizon

They remind us that “today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday”

What messages are on their way for you to receive?

Time to recycle familiar infiltrated trash piles
to transform into renewal energy during a darkening moon

We are moving further away from Fall . . .
Days are fading into primordial darkness –
in a black like Crow kind of way

The Samhain marks mid-point between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice

Before too long –
The Winter Solstice will be here in the Northern Hemisphere
Our darkest day of the year before we begin to coax back the light

Seasons hold up mirrors revealing that
everything is transitory and ephemeral

In much the same way as our world is evolving . . .

Fossilized old world coins printed in a business as usual love story
Will crystallize into an egoless new world economy

Time to open your hearts to the idea of investing in loss
to cash in on win-win outcomes measured by the
exponential growth of getting what you no longer want

The time is now to honor the spirits of our ancestors
and let go of yesterday’s old wounds

May we give back the baggage that was handed down to us
and ask them to lighten their load by shedding dead skin
so they may walk in the light

Spirituality transcends physical laws
By bending the will of materialism

Peering into our shadow sides
Illuminates a pathway into our soul’s den to awaken creativity

Darker months give us the opportunity to see that
creation is born out of the feminine womb of life

Do you see the mystical and magical opportunities
for creativity in your daily routine?

See you further on up the trails,

Ari

Spider Guides Us into Climbing with Minimal Entaglements

Posted on by under Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized

A Full Hunter’s Moon
Weaves spirits into our material world

Grandmother Spider inspires us to get in touch
with our inner web designs

It is a good time to use our creative opportunities
without becoming entangled in dark webs of fate

Try to transcend polarizing viewpoints and boxed in thinking
Consider appetizing possibilities rather than being
eaten alive by fears and limitations

We are Infinite beings being revisited by ancestors
during the Samhain through the window of a Divine Plan

May our meditations become enhanced by their past wisdom,
forethought and power for living in the here and now

Walking the center of the circle in balance keeps us grounded

The veils between our physical and spiritual worlds are thinner now
Are you being haunted by the ghosts of yesteryear?

There is so much help available to us from the spirit realm
All we have to do is ask and allow ourselves to receive their wisdom

Realize the death of your old self is merely a shedding of dead skin
Facing our fears of an unknown rebirth head on is less scary than
anxious avoidance of unknown possibilities

With a Hunter’s Full Moon
Fallen leaves reflect mystery and hidden realms

Let Nature mirror healthy reflections of divergent viewpoints
through an empathic and self-reflective lens of curiosity and warmth

See you further on up the trails,

Ari

Seal the New Creative Deal with Artistry

Posted on by under Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized

Seal guides us into the spiritual waters of imagination
Its energies awaken artistic expression and creative power

We are submerged in a deep-sea of creative and artistic expression
On this forthcoming New Moon in Leo

But if we don’t nurture the creative flow
We don’t have any place else to go . . .
Other than the trivial pursuit of anxiety

It need not drown your Lion’s pride

Thinking outside the box . . .
Tune into the realm of possibilities . . .

Sometimes, you just have to make the jump –
Trust that a safety net will catch you

Let the chips to fall where they may

Swimming into the depths of the ocean
Symbolizes our transition into a New Age

In this mad world . . .
“We’re never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy”

But keep in mind the definition of insanity
is to keep doing the same thing over and over . . .

And expecting different results

Balance between yin and yang happens again
On Fall Equinox come September

Here in the Northern hemisphere

Our clocks are turning “yinward”
The dark night of our inner worlds rises again

In the Southern Hemisphere
Balance happens on Spring Equinox

On the opposite side of the same coin
Where extroverted Yang will gain momentum

See you further on up the trails,

Ari

Listening to the Magical Tunes of Black Crows

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

Crows sit all along the watchtower in large flocks of communal roosts
A symbolically predictive omen for changing weather patterns

Further movement into a New Earth previews trailers of clearer forecasts
Revealing that we are all One

Connecting the loose threads of our multidimensional heartstrings
Striking a chord that we are all in this together

Meditation on the Law of Impermanence
Reminds us that everything is transitory and ephemeral

Is it a time for you to begin a new course of study?

Fireside storytelling awakens the flames of shared human experiences
Breathing in Samhain marks mid-point between Autumn air and Winter Solstice
A good time to honor our ancestors and exhale Karmic wounds of yesterday

Is a message on its way for you to receive?

Reflecting Nature’s intentional expression for letting-go
And feeling thankful for our vulnerability

Should you be more alert and wary?

Spiritual laws transcend physical laws
By bending the ways of our material world

Watching our shadow-side teachings remind us to attend to the nuts and bolts
Cultivating structure, consistency and predictability in our daily walk facilitates
Coming down into our souls from our high perches of observation

Try not to sweat the small stuff of nervous woodland creature energies

Creation is born out of the feminine womb of life
Master magicians see illusionary veils cloaking other realms
Mystical vibrations of co-creativity are woven into everyday life

Are you noticing everyday opportunities to make magic in your daily routine?

When sitting still in the driver’s seat
We keep our eyes on the horizon and in rearview mirror
Watching the wheels balancing in the eternal now

Picture a tree soaking in sun
Rooted deeply into our Earth’s dark soil
Together we stand in alignment with the elements

Shapeshifting ourselves into transformative inner peace
Shining intrinsic Divine Light onto our darker edges

Leave it to Full Beaver Moon this week to cue us to “set traps”
Before our internal swamps become frozen
Turning our clocks back yinward
In preparation for the cold by blanketing our souls with “warm winter furs”

Remembering when our soul power breathes effectively through our human voice
We are honoring every moment as a past teacher,
the living present as our creation
and the future as our inspiration

See you further on up the trails,

Ari

We The People

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

“American people are the new Indians of the 21st Century.”
Privately squatted by the Empire’s Powers that Be
Profiting off the backs of workaholism is modern slavery.
Smells of imperial tyranny . . .

Service is a carrot of payment back in kind
Rabbit in me says lettuce hit rewind
May our souls carry a heavy burden of past incarnations?
Inspiration to rework our issues through gradual confrontational self-reflection
Loosens up our entanglement with form,
while lightening up our emotional reactions

We have the right to remain silent
To hear stillness speaking spiritually
Might we consider it culturally?
And yet singing songs of freedom vocally!

Honesty and gentleness in relationship
facilitates a mutual understanding
Allowing our inner voices to come outside and play
Giving birth to our creative power

Taking pleasure in our daily list clears space for awakened doings
Cleansing the doors of perception cultivates peace of mind
Being positive hits our internal reset buttons

We are all psychics – from empathic connections
To anticipating rush hour commutes
(and) taking alternative routes
Staying grounded while becoming aware that we aware
Sometimes the logical mind does not compute . . .

Making paradoxical friends with wanting more and having everything we need
Crow medicine shows us everyday “magic in the mundane”
Transmutes ordinary moments into extraordinary Polaroids
Weaving in creativity into our mental lists

Infusing perceptual shifts of spiritual energy
A ray of light shining on in our shared world of form
Recapture a little of the glory of
through the mind-set of a child
carrying a light-hearted air

You have a right to be serious and uptight
but that gravitational pull can be a downer
Especially in a hurried shower . . .

In our travels, remember our rituals and routines
in tote with items of power

Tell me Syngenta, Bayer, Monsanto and Donagrosciences . . .
How does a bee reach Nirvana with neonicotinoid-insecticides?

Two hawks fly by on Valentine’s Day
An embodied omen that spirited physical movement cultivates fluidity
Viewing new vistas during our Earth Walkabout
Pushing our edges and trimming our borders
Being an active participant in the Life’s theater

Gently letting anxiety and waning Full Moon pass with care
to Occupy an inner peace World’s Fair

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Weaving Webs with Spider Co-creatively

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

Does anyone notice the abundance of spider webs out on the trails? Although small in stature, Spider’s medicinal powers weave creation into our daily lives. The energy of Spider inspires us to walk in the center of a circle, but without getting too swayed in any one direction. Maintaining a balanced perspective is a key ingredient to Spider’s teachings. Waking up to the spider within informs us of “instant Karma” and the power of our actions. Sometimes, our actions have unintended consequences. This is why we want to weave an intention of a pure heart and clean mind into our spirited travels, so that our souls will manifest into our material realm in that light. “So it was that Spider wove the first primordial alphabet, as she had woven the dream of the world that had become manifest.” Spider is shaped like a figure 8, symbolic of the sign of infinity. In this space, we open to the kaleidoscopic portal of the Quantum world. Three is a magical number. As such, Spider expresses magic in the form of creative expression, effectively asserting that communication and a convergence of its web’s spiraling energies at a central location. We all have a primordial desire to freely express ourselves with authenticity. And when we do not heed this prompting, we feel held back.

There is still much secrecy woven into the Imperial matrix of our Planet today. We see the veils thinning when the surveillance practices of the NSA were revealed by whistleblowers recently. The light of consciousness wants to illuminate the shadows. Don’t the pundits realize that comparing President Obama to a Nazi is akin to “calling the kettle black”? What is so romantic and sensuous about fascism in the first place? Like a perceived utopia, the idea is that the “ends justify the means”. But Life isn’t like that. Let us remember that the dominant majority likes to go unexamined. Who is authorizing the attack of the drones, the endless wars and escalating violence on Earth? Humans that get caught up in an illusionary web struggle with seeing the writing on the wall and beyond the “world of 10,000 things.” Our fears and limitations will entangle us unless we find creative ways to express ourselves authentically and respectfully. The arrogance of getting too ensconced inside a self-woven web blinds us from what lies along the intra-galactic outer rim. Spider shows us that “time is God”, in that there is a Divine Plan, while providing linkages to the past and the future. But not at the expense of the living moment. Self-awareness is a key that unlocks the padlocks of unconsciousness, spiritually speaking. An effective transition into a New Age is a process and it starts with your unfolding. As a matter of fact, we are all of spirit, thus spirit matters.

Nature reveals an unfolding process of changing weather fronts that sometimes shows us uncomfortable forecasts. However, we can move gracefully in our spiritual growth. There is a sense of security in a New Age and Paradigm, in that if one way doesn’t work, another way will. Recognizing that there is predictability in unpredictability can be liberating to the psyche. It is natural to want to feel a sense of security, order and control. But within any healthy structure, there needs to be novelty. I hardly think any child diagnosed with AD/HD wouldn’t get too bored with the status quo and act out to show the system that it’s being too rigid. At the same time, too much permeability and permissiveness is out of balance and dangerous as well. By spinning with the dark night within, Spider helps us weave our primordial creations so that our creativity walks in the sunlight and wakes up to the light of day. Are you weaving your dreams and imaginings into reality? Are you using your creative opportunities? Do you need to write? Are you feeling closed in or stuck? Do you know where you are on the map? Are you or those in your orbit walking in balance? Are you moving toward a central goal or scattered in multiple directions? Are you staying focused? Are you over-involved with others or too self-absorbed? Are you becoming resentful of yourself by not focusing on your own accomplishments, or resentful of others by focusing too much on their accomplishments?

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Black Like Crow

Posted on by under Uncategorized

Soaring further with Spring energies, we catch wind of an out with the old and in with the new Crow Medicine show. Coming soon in the theater of Life, we will bear witness to a fiery astrological light show of consecutive eclipses streaming in. We will consume a powerful Full Moon on April 25th, a New Moon on May 9th and another Full Moon on May 25th to celebrate the grand eclipse finale. I don’t know if there will be a supernatural war between werewolves or vampires, but we have some bloody serious conflicts going on our Planet today. Things are particularly heating up in the Middle East and North Korea. Our Armageddon friends are licking their Doubting Thomas chops just waiting to pound their cynical chests by arrogantly asserting their self-fulfilling prophecy of doom and gloom. But there is a darkness on the edge of town. In that light, it is a challenge to become your own boss, rather than auctioning off your power to some charlatan. Crow is a powerful clairvoyant that peers into our forecast, while becoming a detached observer into a co-creative and fluid future. Crow is a powerful omen of change. Relaxing your gaze, so that your eyes feel a bit cross-eyed and slightly blurred vision will help you tap into Crow’s medicine, while paradoxically seeing more clearly. This is somewhat akin to Mayan legend of cross-eyed folks peering into the future. Is there a natural connection between Autists and Shamanism? Forget about those silly parlor tricks. Crow’s depth helps us acquire and access communication skills, wariness and intelligence. Their energy reminds us of the magic in everyday Life. In the spirit of protecting sensitive information, Crow will help you know magical knowledge and hold a secret, when silence is the higher form of honesty.

As we have discussed, Black is the color of creation, night and maternal feminine energy. With Crow, the darkness of night literally walks in sunlight. In a sense, Crow personifies the Taoist yin and the yang at play, weaving magically before our eyes. Why is it that black has conjured up fear in the collective consciousness of our modern world? America was built off the backs of free labor, predominantly by African-Americans during slavery forced unwillingly to work on command. When slavery was officially abolished, we witnessed an increase in incarceration among blacks, shackled and drawn. Have blacks received their fair share of their slice of the pie they brought to the table? Some statistics might hint at that, but we know that dollar for dollar, blacks are still earning less than their white counterparts and carry double the unemployment rate. While W.E.B Dubois might cite a rise among the “talented tenth”, can’t you hear Booker T. Washington still singing a “Dissatisfied” blues song among working folks? With Crow, we see that there are still systemic barriers in place serving as roadblocks to a more level egalitarian playing field. Part of my passion and sensitivity in serving the population I work with in my profession, is to help prevent our students from falling through the cracks and end up in institutions like jails and mental hospitals. Still predominantly white men, our friends in Congress seem to carry an air of the very sense of entitlement they complain about. While crafting the Rule of Law the rest of us are expected to follow, these pillars of the community appear to feel above the limits they are setting with the rest of us. But there is a movement for a proposed 28th Amendment to the US Constitution that says, “Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not equally apply to the senators and/or representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the senators and/or representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.” If only our friends in Congress and the rest of those at the top of the food chain would allow maturation to kick in and realize that we all win by heeding the political will of the people. This is homeland security for the entire population of our Planet.

Are you beginning a new course of study? Are you being alert enough? Mediation on Crow may assist you in gaining clarity to those questions, own your own magical powers and bend the laws of the material plane. Today, skeptics will often say “show me the science!” In that vein, the Quantum world reveals what the spiritual reality already understands–that it is possible to be two places at once. This is somewhat akin to the practice of spiritual shape-shifting, or becoming the fly on the wall, so to speak. In a Karmic sense, ingesting Crow Medicine assists us in balancing the past, present and future right now. In this light, we transcend the Law of Cause and Effect and become the inner peace we want to see reflected in the World.

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

Butterfly Affect

Posted on by under Uncategorized

I remember an encounter I had the last weekend with a black and gold-colored butterfly.  Admittedly, I noticed my lower chakras fleetingly take flight in vibrating with jealousy, envy and some heaviness as I watched this spirited winged creature’s ability to flit about gleefully, while tasting with its hands and feet.  But then I recollected my choice to stay away from overindulging in getting stuck in the mud by basking in these emotions.  By allowing ourselves to be informed by our lower self, we become equipped to move forward by opening up to the feeling of joy that butterfly medicine conjures up internally.  However, it can be tempting to find clever ways to bypass this inner space, with particular sensitivity to the ego and/or intellect’s ability to build self-protective fortresses.  Energetically, butterfly is good reminder that it is possible to carry a playful, light-hearted sense of detachment in getting the job done.  In spite of their heavy responsibility of cross-pollinating the planet while spreading the love, butterfly shows us that it is possible find their energy within our human shell in real-time.  Is anyone else out there mesmerized by butterflies sociability and memo to self that asks thyself, where am I on the map of consciousness?  On the personal front, when digesting this question, perhaps some delicious food for thought would be to ask yourself what developmental stage you are currently in.  Are you in the egg stage of an idea (beginning), the larva stage (manifestation), the cocoon stage (program development) and/or the final stage (transformation)?  When there is work to do and I need to lighten up, I try to remember to picture butterflies kissing a garden variety of flowers within my being.

On the national and global front, there are potential storms brewing and things are heating up.  Here in the USA, we have modern laws that are somewhat akin to Jim Crow of yesteryear.  In Florida and other states in the nation throughout, we have the Stand Your Ground Law that basically says shoot first and ask questions second.  All republicans and however many democrats failed to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which simply attempts to level the playing field of making a livable wage for all working folks.  Does “my country tis of thee” remember that many of the lawyers, politicians and police were cloaked behind white robes and burning crosses by night?  Who payin’ you?  But there is a new hope . . . US Representative John Kline of Michigan supports the Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012, which tries to alleviate the financial burden that many college students are facing.  And Burger King, Wendy’s, McDonald’s and Safeway have committed to eliminating gestation crates from their supply chains.  The country is divided and “the line it is drawn and the curse it is cast.”  In birthing into a New Age and Paradigm, we really need to move beyond fancy ego-centered rhetoric and actualize the philosophical ideals that our Founding Fathers envisioned in their Higher Selves.  If we search our collective memory, there was a time not long ago that indigenous Americans practiced something much closer to a free market, than the fundamentalist allegiance we have to maximum economic, profit-driven capitalism that liberally supports the welfare of rampant consumerism.

With butterfly energy, creativity is in the air and mental powers are active.  This time of year, I start dancing to the beat of T’ai Chi outdoors, while focusing on allowing my body to float like a butterfly without getting stung like a bee.  Readers, I don’t know about you, but I know I have learned many painful lessons from the school of hard knox.  The lesson plans from this curriculum can feel like heavy metal and reverberate like a choir of chattering monkey’s.  And though I respect the wisdom I have acquired from accessing these classroom assignments, I prefer Butterfly’s mantra that says that growth can be gentle, joyful and sweet like flowers, if only we come to our senses by allowing for it.

Stay True,

Ari