Check out my newly written, non-fiction short story that was recently published in the Edge of Humanity Magazine. Please feel free to click on the link below to see this inspirational writing that captures the the spirit of the “thinning of the veils” season. This writing was inspired by real events that took place in my life many moons ago and honors my Grandma’s presence in my life today. And while you’re at it, give our friends at Edge of Humanity Magazine a buzz by supporting the great work they are doing there:
Tag Archives: Death and Rebirth
Soul Liberation!
When gently gazing at my disease to please in the mirror . . .
I compassionately see your own need to be needed reflecting back at me.
Are they really any different?
Such attachments invite seductive medications, like band aids or other life support systems.
But when we find the courage to go beyond drinking the Kool Aid or ingesting anesthesia;
We have the opportunity to take back our projections.
There is an awakening into a mystical quest through the Dark Night of the Soul . . .
A rebirth flickers like a light at the end of a tunnel.
These inner dimensions are worth examining!
Old relationships have been built on the bonds of attachment.
When they burn in a funeral pyre, they are called by the fire to transform.
Alchemy is sparked on the inside.
A ripple effect is felt by others, whether realized or not.
This is cosmic karma at play . . .
When a minority healthy perspective lives in a room full of insanity,
it is easy to be seen as an outcast.
Because from the position of normative madness,
wellness can feel like the odd man out, or woman if you are one.
Except that from a clearer perspective,
you see from a new reality that is now as obvious as it once was hidden.
Another entanglement with form has been released . . .
A dismantling of an ego-identification is not without feelings of loss.
And then there is grieving in the death of the old self with that.
Spirits are lifted and freed from their entrapment of excess baggage.
There is a relaxation from feeling suffocated or feeling tugged on by suffering.
A full bellied breath of fresh air is empowering;
Now that’s soul liberation!
Here is an inspirational old folk song that I recorded recently:
A Song About A Mother And Son’s Sacred Spiritual Conversational Connection
Wise Fool is song that I wrote several years ago. It was inspired by an old poem written by my mom many moons ago, during one of her psychiatric hospitalization’s from one of her severe bouts of depression. What evolved from her poem is a spirited conversation that arrived out of meditative experiences in the dreamtime. This song is also inspired by the spiritual energy of Coyote, aka the “trickster”, which generally symbolizes the balance of wisdom and folly. Some of my old friends used to call one of my “signature” facial expressions, “the grin”, which reveals this part of my personality. Today, I look at Coyote, and my mom’s Spirit as part of my Spiritual Light Team, which I activate everyday, prior to an early morning intentional prayerful-meditation. I do this by simply saying, “Activate Spiritual Light Team.” And then I typically follow this by saying, “We ask God Directly (Creator/Great Spirit/Universe/Higher Self), and the Archangel’s of the Highest Order, to help Us awaken Our Multidimensionality, walk in alignment with the Universal pillars of Love and Truth, becoming the change We want to see in the world, through the gateway of Inner Peace, one step, one foot, one breath at a time. And for all Your love, support, and guidance along the way, We thank You, We thank You, We thank You. Amen).” Remember that even in darkness, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Wise Fool
Alone in a place no one can see.
Sit fools spinning dreams of who they might be.
Images and colors flickering, remain undefined.
Serving only to remind.
Are your feelings pulling at you tauntingly?
Smoldering beneath the surface cautiously.
Does your frigid exterior got your smile frozen?
Clinging tentatively to distorted visions.
Like a vampire bite, dark emotions carry venom.
Attaching blame when I become a victim.
Feeding off the energy of another.
God help me, for I’m a psychic blood sucker.
Are your feelings pulling at you tauntingly?
Smoldering beneath the surface cautiously.
Does your frigid exterior got your smile frozen?
Clinging tentatively to distorted visions.
Groundhog Day and I’m dead again.
A fleeting shadow is there no end?
Searching for an exit, fools eyes find none.
Until I awaken and see we are one!
Wishing you all wellness & inner peace!
Ari
Releasing Old Stories, and Reworking New Scripts
A New Moon arrives on January 24.
And then after that, the Chinese New Year of the Rat on the 25th.
The duality of an old world dying, and a new one
birthing is laborious, and painful to watch at times.
This transition into a new age and paradigm
goes by different names, just like the moons.
Does that early leaf falling in late summer,
bring you into your fears about the waning light,
and cooler temperatures?
Like all transitions, many people are
questioning where they have been,
and where they are going in their lives.
Some say they don’t want to live on the planet anymore.
There are many forms that people play with to do
that in their consciousness by way of escapism, fantasies,
hitching a ride to another galaxy in a spaceship, running from
our feelings, or retreating into a personal bubble.
One of the ways people give up is through death by suicide.
Killing yourself is certainly one of the 10,000 ways into
the valley of death.
But there are more purposeful ways to expand our souls,
and liberate them, rather than by ending your body’s experience here.
Besides, it’s a really traumatic experience, and terribly confusing.
That’s why I try to be mindful of killing with kindness, and
remember to meditate on Groundhog to die without dying.
It makes sense to me that our ancestors celebrated the Imbolc,
because it marked the mid-point between the Winter Solstice, and Vernal Equinox.
The popular American holiday of Groundhog Day reflects
this symbolism because energetically Spring is starting already.
It’s good medicine to celebrate the light rising at the end of the tunnel,
and the wisdom to see light, and dark balancing each other out again.
As dark of a topic as suicide is,
it does not discriminate.
It doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, what your race,
ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation is, what political
party you belong to, or if you are an introvert or extrovert.
Suicide is something most people contemplate.
But most people don’t do it.
And one of the reasons people don’t end their lives is that people think about
the impact it will have on the survivors, and the holy hell it leaves behind.
One of the complexities of suicide is that people
who try to end their lives, or do end their lives
are sick of the pain, don’t want to deal with it anymore,
and wish their pain would go away.
As a survivor of a completed suicide,
it has been a long journey in working through my own healing process.
It hasn’t been easy to look forward to this month in a new way.
Anniversaries can bring all those feelings,
and old stories right back to the surface –
regardless of how deeply submerged or buried they were.
I can still remember getting the call that my mom
had left this Earth 25 years ago, like it was yesterday.
As you can imagine, that wasn’t an easy call to take,
even though I had tried to prepare myself for it from her previous
attempts, and knowledge of how extreme her shifts
between internal order and chaos could be.
I feel thankful to my family, friends, and fraternity brothers
who were there to cushion the blow, and help me see that
a safety net was there when I needed it.
There have been many ebbs and flows along the way,
regarding how I have handled this tragedy, or not handled it.
Like Sting, I have worn the royal crown of the King of Pain,
and traveled through Dark Knight of the Soul.
For a long time, I’ve been good at hiding that side of myself.
Wearing masks can do that.
But it can also show you who you really are before you are
ready to show your dark and shadow sides to others.
The old survival of the fittest paradigm is
part of a dying process, just as are old stories.
On some level, we have believed that “it’s just the way it is.”
People have been put into boxes, and believed in those boxes.
If you didn’t identify with one version of yourself,
or what someone told you about yourself.
Perhaps you’ve rebelled by becoming the opposite side of the same coin.
The grip of those old stories can be hard to let go of.
We humans have believed in them,
and developed attachments to those stories.
Like with all new moons,
this new moon coming is associated with new beginnings.
And so it is with the lunar energy of a new year.
Rats are shrewd creatures, and can symbolize prosperity,
according to Chinese astrology.
What shrewdness, and prosperity do you want to bring to the table,
and manifest on our Planet in the year ahead?
In social science, rats are associated with behaviorism,
and applied behavioral analysis.
Like humans, rats are intelligent creatures.
Sometimes, behaviorism gets a bad rap about
wanting to manipulate, and control people.
But any knowledge that gets in the wrong hands
embodies that kind of stupidity.
I recently saw an old you-tube interview with B.F. Skinner.
And it was illuminating to see him talk about how he
saw his psychology as a way for individuals to empower themselves.
And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that country rats have been
identified as smarter than city rats.
We all do better in smaller, more intimate circles where we feel
part of a community, and organically connected to Nature.
If you can see the maze for what it is, you can then
see yourself rewiring new cognitive maps.
These are the days of creating amazing portals into new ways of being.
Till we tweet again peeps,
Ari
On The Full Cold Moon & Winter Solstice, May We Remember The Souls That Have Passed On
Dark days reach their pinnacle on the Winter Solstice this December.
Given that many souls historically leave
the planet around this time of year, it’s easy to become a sucker for the dirge.
It is important to grieve our losses.
But it is also important to be thankful for their lives, and then let them go
so that we can awaken to new relationships in spirit.
And it will be a New Year soon that brings tidings of new beginnings.
If 2020 doesn’t bring a heightened sense of new vision,
then it’s hard to see what year will.
May it be good intellectual property in the Chinese-Lunar New Year of the Rat.
Try to remember the spirit of the season, and the meaning behind the holidays.
Rampant consumerism makes it hard not to get deflated about the
peer pressure to run the hurry up offense, and mad push to shut up and shop.
Perhaps we may be inspired to come down into our souls,
like our ancestors traditionally did around this time.
But remember that in the tunnel of darkness, there is a flickering light.
And that light will get a little brighter every day after Winter begins.
Before you know it, it will be the Imbolc, which signals
the approximate halfway point between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox.
Bears, Groundhogs, and Chipmunks are either asleep, are about to hibernate now.
But they will be waking up before too long.
They remind us not to resist turning inward to meditate, contemplate, and
rejuvinate our souls, while slowing down, and resting in our dens.
When I think about the death of Winter,
I remember my old football Coach Mac, who died recently.
He was a big man, with a heart of gold.
And he was even once crowned offensive MVP in the historic collegiate Peach Bowl.
That’s a rare occurance for a lineman, where the game is really won and lost.
Coach came into my life when I was a High School Senior,
and inspired us to live by the mantra, “count on me.”
I tried to remember that when I didn’t want to go to practice, had a bad day,
if my general spirits were in the pits, worrying about my depressed mom, or
everyday experiences with excruciating back pain at the time.
Little did I realize back zen, that embodiment of this mantra,
would become a lifeline later in life right tao.
This positive self talk strategy helped us get through a seemingly
impossible season where our players were dropping like flies.
Unfortunately, some teammates quit, got injured, or even kicked off the team.
I wasn’t the only player that didn’t come off the field
until halftime or the end of the game.
And what we lacked in numbers or size, we made up for by being slow.
But even in the curse, there were plentiful shared blessings on the field,
that have become even greater treasured lessons for life.
Like the way Mountain Lion licks its wounds, and jumps
back onto the path, after being knocked off its tracks.
When you get knocked down, you get back up, suck it up,
blow the blood and snot out of your nose, and go back to the huddle.
Sometimes, your soul leaves your body when you get the
wind knocked out of you, your ears are ringing, you
see “the flash”, and then its lights out.
Elbows, and hands inflate like balloons,
after getting hit so hard – it leaves you bruised and battered.
Days could go by before buises would come up.
By then, the scar tissue were like a new set of pads.
We learned about the difference between pain and injury.
And sometimes that’s a fine line when you can’t afford to be hurt.
Glory wasn’t something we experienced much in my High School
football days, as in we rode the wave of over a decade-long losing streak.
We were a trophy soccer town, without a youth league,
and barely enough players willing to sign up for a violent game,
for the privilege of playing on a team with a bad reputation.
You know how difficult it is to rise up out of the throes of hell,
when sleeping under the security blanket of apathy.
Riding the team bus to away games was like a riding in a herse
on your way to a funeral procession.
But when our new coach came to town,
he resurrected a new hope into our learned helplessness.
We started developing a scholarly attitude about football,
and reported on the legends of the game that had otherwise
been foreign to young players that only knew about the stars on TV.
Coach wanted us to learn how to become men,
instead of just acting like men.
He metaphorically referred to our girlfriends as “Mary Lou”,
and used to say, “you think you’re married, and you’re not.”
Coach emphasized being respectful as a way of life, encouraged
taking responsibility, and frowned upon making excuses, or blaming others.
And although he had his favorites,
he didn’t play favorites, nor did he do drama.
I try to be like him in that way, and I respect others like that too.
We were the Indians – named after a local tribed called Tunxis.
So when I remember the Indians, I think of Coach Mac.
He was a class act, and a good Chief to be touched by.
But he was a human being, and not without his faults.
People tend to forget that part of our humanity is our dark sides too.
I’ll be standing around a fire in a community of men
to celebrate, and honor this Winter Solstice.
We will focus on gratitude, and letting go.
Fire rituals can be good medicine for that.
Do whatever you can to get in touch with the natural spirit of
the season, and connect with your deeper soul purpose.
We are meant to align with the Universe,
rather than try to control or resist its power.
Till we tweet again peeps,
Ari
A Full Moonlight Shines on Groundhog and the Shadows of Old Masks
A Full Snow Moon arrives earlier than usual this year . . .
This Full Moon is also a Total Lunar Eclipse
Its energies, like the NFL/Super Bowl hype is performance enhanced!
The Imbolc, or the halfway point between Winter and Spring
also arrives this week, along with Groundhog Day
Our days are getting longer, and light/dark will be
equal again by the Spring Equinox in March
May the spiritual powers of Groundhog’s consciousness
awaken a death without dying experience
Although wearing masks is a natural part of being human,
living authentically means coming out of hibernation . . .
Time to come above ground and leave our shadow selves behind . . .
A Full Moonshine is a revelation into our Higher Selves
Digging deeper into our souls revisits lessons from past selves and before lives
What do those lessons have to teach you in the here and now?
See you further up the trails,
Ari
Shared Constellations With Bear
Bear Medicine represents introspection
Shy unless provoked – gentle giants are they
Meditation on Bear reminds us of the wisdom that
Truth is sweet like honey
Setting us free
Do you need to venture deep within yourself and
draw on your instinctive powers or other natural resources?
Our inner lights are fading yin-ward into the shades of waning Full Moon
Standing in the space of knowing is a marketing free zone
When we enter the center of a circle, there is nobody to convince or sway
Are your judgments off-center?
Do you remember when the stock exchange crashed
and the wealthiest Americans began paying around a 90% tax rate?
Meditation on the Taoist idea of investing in loss reveals
A Bear market knows the time is now to let our
Bullish and expansive material emphasis go into hibernation
We venture closer to the dark night of Winter Solstice
Now is the time to let our greed and arrogance rest in peace
There is a natural impetus to come back down to earth right now
in our relationships with one another, her creatures and our planet.
A more sustainable and equitable way to live wants to express itself
The more the empire tightens its controlling grip
the more unwanted disorder falls through its cracks
and the more painful this process will be
We set our souls free from feeling trapped in our physical bodies
By knowing we are all created in the image of Creator
We bear witness to the death of the illusion of the material reality
Entanglement with form relaxes by
letting go of our sense of expectation and outcome
Do you need to withdraw from the ways of the world for a spell?
Or do you need to come out of your cave and be more social?
We become pregnant with ideas during dimming lights
Dreaming of planted seeds growing in the underground basement of our souls
Spring Equinox on horizon signifies
a rebirth with arrival of budding Spring Eclipse Season
Cubs want to come out and play
All we need is patience to think before we speak
Being open-heartedly inquisitive in our politics of living
Cultivates plasticity of the mind
Revolutionary zeal without the hate
Loving ourselves is loving our planet
Are you using your helping abilities properly?
Prayer is an active, yang-masculine way of stating our intention for
manifesting and expanding – like sending a message out to the Universe.
Meditation is a receptive, yin-feminine state for
contracting and welcoming messages from our
subconscious and unconscious faculties.
We are all an embodiment of masculine and feminine energies
designed for walking with one foot in spirit and one foot in ground
Edgy dark magicians are only able to pull the wool over
us as long as we buy into the hellish nightmare that we are separate from God
But Christ was an embodiment that shed light on a way and truth
reflecting the Kingdom of Heaven as an intrinsic state of Being
Happiness will not come about by the objects of our affection
Do you believe in your capacity to quiet your mind and
receive solution-focused messages from that stillness?
Can you hear your inner voice speaking to you through the sound of silence?
Our treatment of bears mirrors how serious we are about
the preservation of our environment and natural resources
Reminding us of the possibility that bears, humans
and all God’s creatures can live together in harmony
After this latest American election cycle – beyond the cheers and jeers
of preferred or unwanted outcome
Are you seeing the good deep within all situations?
See you further on up the trails,
Ari
Tuning in to Soulful Echos with Bat
Gazing through a lens of a shamanic death of old self
We look forward to a rebirth with fresh new perceptual eyes
Are you using your talents to the fullest?
Facing our fears – even in our darkest hours
Beneath the deep lies a beacon of light illuminating the shadows of our souls
Are you working your orientation in the positive?
Remember hanging upside down on playground equipment of yesteryear?
A return to childhood innocence
and hidden caverns of unexplored Self are born unto us
Letting go of old habitual patterns of thoughts, feelings and behavior
Is a funeral procession that leads to a surprise birthday parade of novelty
Are you letting your dreams pass you by?
We are responsible for the business of envisioning seven generations ahead because we are the ones we are waiting for
Remember when smallpox was intentionally distributed to our
Native American brothers and sisters?
Oh rats, what about the European black plague?
And today we are hearing about a bloody red scare named Ebola
But facing our fears head on is less scary in long run than
identification with “better the devil you know” programming
Be mindful to give peace a chance amidst fascist undertones
among friends that are typically liberal-minded otherwise
Religion is as religion does
May we remember that at their core,
religions are inspired by Divine expression
Flowering snowball effect rippling through our mass consciousness
Changing leaves are eclipsing us in the Autumn air
Old bedtime stories are falling back
Birthing into novel ways of co-authoring our world
Right now, even a soliloquy is becoming a grand performance
Embodying our dreams and visions opens portals to Universal awakenings
Hearing echos of good vibrations amplifies ring tones of optimistic thoughts
Taking a deep breath of cosmic vastness illuminates
empathic heartfelt connections with our expanding and retracting Nature
Leaving behind a playfully light-hearted
and healthy sense of detachment in our wake
Breathe in fresh air to levy floods of stress and tension
See you further on up the trails,
Ari
Weaving a New Creative Dream with Spider
Grandmother Spider weaves creative energetic designs of
Inner Peace into our outer world
Are you using your creative opportunities?
Figure 8 body symbolizes infinite possibilities
Try not to get caught up in an illusionary web of fate
Into this world of 10,000 things
Are you spinning your dreams into waking reality?
Sail in multidimensional seas without getting shipwrecked
Or forgetting where you are on the map
Transcend Karma by rising above polarizing viewpoints
Rather than getting eaten alive by fears and limitations.
Got impasse?
Allow for alternative solutions
While paying attention to opportunities along the trail’s edge
We are Infinite beings
See the wide open field of Divine Plan
Know the mysteries of the past, how they impact our future within living moments
While keeping your footing and handing off burdens that aren’t yours to carry
Dancing gracefully with balanced steps within the center of the circle
Without getting trapped in robotic autopilot
Or lost in left brain miscalculated Mercury Retrograde Twilight Zones
Are you following through with a creative artistic outlet?
Picture clouds to shift inner landscapes to float with changing weather fronts
Are you feeling entangled in what you have woven?
Increasing intensities during Autumnal Eclipse Season shine light on soul
An impetus to release old mental tapes and programming
that box in and dim a soul intended for expansion
Picture a waterfall and effortlessly let stream of thoughts flow in right direction
So that we can shift into gear of colorful New Earth
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
With a Hunter’s Full Moon of Dead Leaves
We leave behind our fears of hidden realms
And open up to entertaining divergent viewpoints with curiosity and warmth
See you further on up the trails,
Ari
Nurturing Our Earthbound Connection so that Our Soaring Souls Have a Safe Landing Pad to Return
Are you feeling depressed about living your life in the way that feels
programmed by external forces –
as dictated by society, family, friends and peers?
Do you want to live in alignment with your own soul’s purpose?
Do you feel that you suffer from the “disease to please” –
Pressured to fill a need for someone else out of a sense of duty and sacrifice?
If not now then when will master pretenders untangle from
this illusionary web and get wise to this act?
It is safe to turn inward for radical self-examination . . .
Watching what arrives from what once upon a time was submerged –
with a patient and kind heartfelt lens.
In our letting go of control and rigid attachment to expectations –
We open up to abundant Universal surprise birthday parties.
Robin Williams’ unexpected death is a sad reminder . . .
The knife of suicide cuts a deep wound into dark caverns of our psyches.
It is a terribly tragic loss that shakes our foundation.
Suicide is wickedly confusing to a lost soul with
devastating unintended consequences.
But it is not a preferred exit strategy.
Avoiding our pain leads to more suffering.
With meditation we learn to just sit with what is . . .
Rather than exiting with anger and denial.
Physically ending a hellish inner state of consciousness
is not a cease-fire on our souls.
We must rise up from the ashes of our inner demons
Summoning our “better angels.”
As the old saying goes –
Lessons will continue to revisit us until learned . . .
Whether in this life or the next.
Mother once said depression is like a storm that you ride out
without knowing where it will take you.
The cosmetics of our modern world will never fill our soulful appetites
like the Light of Consciousness.
We have discussed the relationship between brother order and sister chaos –
Formless energies awakening into our world of form.
Learning to co-exist in harmony is best medicine.
Out on the streets, jungleland takes root.
A lethal weapon meets arrested development . . .
When will our world’s movers and shakers open up a level playing field
by embracing our diversity within unity?
Remember that in every breath we take . . .
We witness a death and rebirth.
See you further on down the trails,
Ari
Classroom Mothership Earth 