Tag Archives: Dreamtime

Swimming in Dolphin’s wake

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

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

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

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Journeying with Rabbit

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Here is one possible Shamanic journey that I would like to share with you. Basically, the journey process is about shifting our experience from our conscious or ordinary experience with reality, to an experience with the alternate, non-ordinary realities of the Dreamtime.  This is both a spiritual and scientific process, as our perceptions and brain waves change form, in that our state of consciousness literally changes when we journey and meditate.  We journey to become more conscious and awake during our travels in our material reality.
  • Light incense/candle
  • Start by drumming or rattling to a consistent beat in your sacred space.
  • Picture a rabbit in your imagination.
  • Feel and perceive rabbit energy in your consciousness.
  • Ask rabbit for guidance, let go and then follow rabbit wherever it takes you during your journey.  Be sure to thank rabbit for its gift to you.
  • Before returning to this reality, it is important to change your beat to a call back for an effective transition.  For example, after 10-20 minutes of drumming, I open my eyes and then hit the drum 8 times for 3 repetitions, then 3 times for 3 repetitions and then 7 times for 3 repetitions to signal the end of my journey.  But your call back can be in the form of a word, a thought or a mantra that works for you.
  • Record what arrives to you from your journey.

Dreaming a New Dream with Groundhog

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

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

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

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Riding Nature’s Thermals with Turkey Vulture

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

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

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

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Diving with Loon into the depths of the Soul

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Loons give their Penguin friends a swim for their bills in their depository to dive deeply into the water’s abyss.  Winter is a time that we turn yinward and dive deeper into our soulful inner sea of consciousness.  Winter and water represent feminine energy, the dark Yin on the Chinese symbol of the Yin and Yang.  Loon medicine helps us wake up to lucid dreaming or becoming more conscious of our dreams and visions.  Paying attention to our dreams helps us take a reflective look at our waking lives and empowers us to living more authentically.  We all dream, whether we remember our dreams or not.  If we want to have more of a say in our lives, then it stands to reason that we might take note of what our dreams are saying to us.  Winter also represents darkness and the death cycle in Nature.  Mother Earth’s heartbeat slows down at this time. Given that we are a living embodiment of Nature, we are meant to slow down too.  However, many of us have a tendency to resist our natural internal orientation during Winter by trying to stay up in our activity level.  Although balance is always important, your soul will know the deeper acoustics of harmony if you allow yourself a bit more rest and get in touch with the deeper feelings that accompany Winter’s energies of death, grief and loss.  Now is the time when our dreams and visions germinate, somewhat akin to the seeds underground that are beginning to start thinking about waking up as we approach the Chinese-Lunar New Year in early February.  Like buds on our trees, the dreams and visions we are pregnant with now will begin to fruit around the Spring Equinox in March and their manifestation power intensifies as we approach the Summer Solstice in June.

In modern society, especially here in America we get pretty fired up about our guns.  Many folks are citing our Constitutional right to bear arms and some even openly carry a piece by asserting their right to do that and don’t see anything alarming about it.  During my childhood, I grew up in Michigan–boy do we really love our guns there.  Some folks believe that having a gun will keep them safe.  But we have more gun related deaths, many accidental within the privacy of one’s own home, than anywhere else on the Planet.  The NRA is a powerful organization with a lot of money to assault our friends in Congress to shoot down sensible gun control laws.  We have a chock full of military style weapons that end up in the wrong hands out on the street where there are dangers of bullying, desperation and poor impulse control.  Since we love our wars, the resistance energy behind the mind-set of war predictably promotes more storms brewing ahead.  Instead of real homeland security and crime prevention by funneling our resources into positive community connections, treatment, education, healthcare, infrastructure and creating good jobs for the 20 million folks who want to work, our leaders balk at this by concentrating monies at the top of the food chain.  Beef:  It’s what’s for dinner.  I remember visiting my dad as a kid and on some of those visits, he taught me to shoot a 22 by the time I was 6 years old.  Although my dad liked to shoot from the hip and lacked an adequate understanding of childhood development, I do appreciate that he was strict about teaching me the basics about gun safety.  Guns symbolize power and security, but they often manifest danger.  Those of us in touch with our deeper feelings are  grieving the terrible tragedy that happened in Connecticut recently.  I once lived in Connecticut and still have close friends there, so the tragedy has weighed heavy on my heart.  But in the grieving process of this tragedy, I know in my heart that it will lead to an awakening as we move onward.  Even in death, there is rebirth.  I have gone through this process many, many times.  Haven’t we all?

When swimming with Loon, we dive deeper into our souls, as our collective consciousness shifts onward.  Instead of God Bless America or Allah Bless Muslims, we dream God Bless Mother Earth and all living creatures.  Loon helps us understand the depth of our connection to the Dreamtime and reminds us we are all cut from the same cloth of Great Spirit.  Creator’s original Blueprint was a loving One.  Sadly, but understandably, that got distorted.  Given that we are all a reflection of that image, meditation on Loon helps us perceive this in our Being and make friends with that.  We are all living embodiments of All That Is.  Since we are all One, albeit diverse expressions of that oneness, killing someone else is ultimately directed at the self.  Although this truth is mind-boggling, I came to a point where this made sense to me intellectually.  But now I am arriving at a deeper intuitive understanding of this truth in my Heart.  That is why we speak of killing with kindness.  When we come out of our inner peace bubble and remember that there are no enemies, then we truly co-create a New Earth together one step, one breath, one moment at a time.

Stay True,

Ari

With Lizard, We Consciously Draw Our Dreams and Visions To Scale on Classroom Mothership Earth’s Blackboard

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A long time ago, I remember catching wind of a fantastic story that the Star Wars saga was actually based upon true events that took place in the Pleiades constellation.  I don’t know about that, but by George, has anyone else heard about a UFO documentary coming soon to a theater near you that posits a revelation of the truth about extraterrestrial involvement on Earth and our collective history?  In the spirit of that, has anyone heard the reimagined story of Master Yoda shedding light on Anakin Skywalker’s curiosity about the difference between Heaven and Hell?  Yoda respected Anakin’s natural Force (Chi) sensitivity and power.  Given that Anakin respected Yoda’s wisdom, he sought counsel from his reptilian friend, by asking Yoda to describe the difference between these places.  First, Yoda became uncharacteristically provocative with the young Jedi by putting him down, calling him a bastard son of a slave and elaborating in that manner. Given his orientation and propensity toward reacting to his anger without reserve, Anakin lit up his saber and was ready to behead his deeply respected Master teacher.  At that point, Yoda said, “hell that is.”  Immediately, Anakin remembered his True Self, relaxed, calmed down and cracked a smile as he put away his saber.  At that eternal moment, the wise lizard asserted, “Heaven this is . . . Physical location they are not, but internal state of consciousness they are.”

Here on Classroom Mothership Earth, a growing number of us are realizing that a deeper reality lies beneath our conscious minds and surface reality of our Planet.  Poignantly, I noticed a lizard arriving in my consciousness recently that served as a bell of mindfulness to pay attention to synchronicity, signs, symbols, dreams and visions.  In the theater of Life, it’s as if lizard is there to help us realize that we are the dreamer behind the dream by watching ourselves with a healthy, detached perspective.  By consciously allowing the arrival of the Dreamtime into our material reality, we are invoking a light-hearted dance between spirit and form.  Meditation on lizard is good medicine for that.  We are here to wake up to the reality that we are spiritual beings having human experiences, not the other way around.  But in our developmentally delayed cultural wars between our attachments to the egotistical mental constructs of us and them, we have been programmed to view ourselves as disconnected and separate from one another and from Great Spirit.  However, we are all One and we are here to wake up to the awareness of that.  I like to dream big and envision peace in the Middle East and a Garden of Eden there now as a Fertile Crescent it once was.  However, I know that I am also part of the heaviness that resides in the energetic field that envelops the old world of Abraham, founding father of the World’s Big Three religions.  Some folks view Israel as a democracy, while carrying a separate intellectual concept that perceives the rest of the region otherwise.  But with respect to the classic Woodie Guthrie song, both lands are part of Great Spirit, meant to be shared in harmony.  We are all part of the land, as the Earth is our Mother.  What we do to Her, we do to ourselves.  While I envision the global dismantling of weapons of mass destruction, I know that I have to disentangle the tentacles of egotism that resides in my Being.  It is seductive to worship the god of judgment and opinion, like a good armchair quarterback.  When we wake up to the awareness that mind is an illusion, we are no longer unconscious robots in the human-made constructs of the world.  When the CEO’s and workers of fast food corporations awaken to the perspective that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, perhaps they will break bread together by enacting a more livable, equitable and sustainable business practice.  Somewhat akin to effectively digesting last week’s hungry Lunar Full Moon, we stick in alignment by shifting gears that facilitate a healthy digestion process when cooking up a New Earth–particularly as we move closer to the Winer Solstice on December 21, 2012.  It might feel like small potatoes, but even one fry can make a difference in France and beyond.

When we allow the light to illuminate the shadows, we look authentically at our natural orientation, especially our shadow sides.  When we keep our wits about us to laugh at ourselves like the full bellied Buddha, we see that Nature often holds up a mirror for us to look at, particularly our shadow sides. Ingesting lizard medicine is a good remedy for this walking meditation.  Saying yes to the energy of lizard means that we say yes to increasing our perceptual powers and heightened sensitivities to physical, emotional, mental, psychic and spiritual subtleties in perception.  But remember to proceed with caution and be mindful of the ego’s trickery during this process.  Increasing our true power means we are neither superior or inferior to anyone else.  There is ego in powers of perception.  Awareness understands that we simply are what we are and it is what it is.  We are consciousness itself, rather than what consciousness has identified with.

Stay True,

Ari

Bear Like Me

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I remember when a fellow virtual blogging friend liked that I referenced the  Law of Attraction and invited me to share a related story in reference to this Divine Law.  In the spirit of that, I serve up this week’s story to share with you.  In my day gig of working in public schools, I know we all get a little stir crazy as the school year winds down to a close.  However, during this transition, I remember to maintain perspective via the Jimmy Buffett earworm that if we couldn’t laugh, we’d all go insane.  In fact, I kept dreaming about hiking with some cats from The Clubhouse, in the mighty White Mountains, while at the same time practicing letting go of outcome during the visualization process.  Although now considered small in stature, modern scientists tell us that long ago the White Mountains in New Hampshire were once a Goliath of a range compared to the Colorado Rockies.  When traversing the Presidential Range, embracing Climate Change and getting down with the elements is a key dynamic in a successful hike.  Cold, wet and windy weather mixed with rocks, roots and some tactical climbing is always more challenging when slippery when wet.   Although our forecast looked bleak, we were livin’ on a prayer by keeping our feet on the ground and seeing the forest through the trees. 

After two full days of peaks and valleys, five, 4000 footers and coming down from the mountaintop, we were all thankful for Highland Hut’s family friendly atmosphere, hot showers and hearty meals.  After our off the grid jaunt, my hiking brothers could not wait to introduce me to the opulent Mt. Washington Hotel, where big Whigs from another era used to travel via horse and buggy to enjoy the rustic scenery in decadence.  Now readers, you might think we were more likely to make contact with a bear out on the trails, while away from civilization.  Not so.  Just after parking our car at the Mt. Washington Hotel, I barely caught a peripheral glimpse of  a very large creature running past us with the distinct sound of claws on pavement, when one of my hiking buds excitedly identified the animal as a bear!  A few tracks later–after playing an old arcade game that was out of this world, we visited an underground tavern called “the Cave” and told our story.  Further, an employee came out of hibernation, nodded and informed us that this friendly creature was a local and merely following his daily ritual of knocking off local dumpsters in search of his daily bread.  Aye, aren’t bears good reminders for us to tap into our own natural resources within the depth of our souls?  In a karmic sense, bear may facilitate our making life’s choices from a position of personal empowerment, rather than egotism.  Given bears connection to trees, we are reminded that trees are conduits linking Heaven and Earth.  With Yang dominating the season in this neck of the woods, we are more energetically equipped to manifest knowledge, fertility and growth right Tao.

As I look back on our time out in nature, I realize the experience was the death of me.  When listening in on ghostly storytelling that accompanied the  grand old hotel and nature spirits, I look back on a private encounter with a dead man walking that serves as a good reminder that we are indeed spirits in the material world.  With bear in our consciousness, we are equipped to navigate the waters of the subconscious and unconscious mind.  When heeding the deafening sound of silence, the inner voice strikes a thunderous chord reverberating from the soul’s den.  While tapping into the Dreamtime and bringing back to Earth what arrives to us from Infinity, we are able to see through the smokescreen world of 10, 000 things and bling bling.  And bear reminds us that life tastes sweet like honey, if only we allow ourselves to directly experience it by moving beyond egotistical intellectual concepts and the robotic doings.  Do you hear what I hear?  Do you see what I see?

Stay True,

Ari

Flying with Catbird

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I remember being among old friends recently, while having a whale of a good time on Nantucket.  We enjoyed a nautical reunion of sorts, with my first mate and other kindred spirits.  I know the times they are a changin’ here on Mothership Earth and was reminded of this truism when I caught wind of a captain’s tale of a decreased great white shark population as we sailed around the way.  However, what really sunk my teeth into his story and wet my palate was when our captain speculated that the predators might return before too long in greater numbers, given the current migration of seals returning to the island.  Whether spending time on the ocean, the shoreline and/or land, being out in nature reminds us that we humans have much to remember about Her organic leveling impulses and living in harmony with one another and our environment.  I wonder if John Kerry and his homies beached along the coastal McMansions ponder such nuances? 

Back at the homestead, a catbird poignantly revealed itself and feathered my ripple during its power time of spring and early summer.  When paying attention to the signs and synchronicity in the theater of life, we realize our spirited encounters with animal friends are conduits helping us bring in awareness from the Dreamtime into our grounding material realm.  When we walk in a balanced harmony with one foot in spirit and one foot in ground, we increase our co-creative human potential to effectively hold a positive vision for humanity.  As I look back on my novel encounter with old friends, I remember to heed catbird’s lessons in expanding our connections with one another by celebrating Diversity in Unity and deepen our capacity for effective communication when flocking with like-minded birds of a feather.  Moreover, catbird medicine also pours a short but soulful and sweet beverage to drink in that adds spirit to our social environment.  For example, if you are taking a yoga, tai chi, qigong and/or some other meditation class once or twice a week, consider bringing in more of that energy into your personal daily routine and own sacred space.  Perhaps you might consider indulging in nature and organically find like-minded friends that share your taste for divine encounters.

I find my spirited encounter with catbird a call to this birds wisdom to read one another more effectively.  And the meditation 101 mantra really is about focusing on thyself first.  Not in an egotistical way, but in a way that effectively expresses oneself authentically and respectfully.  Given that the most important marriage and relationship for anyone is with our own self, then it makes sense to get to know our True Selves on a deeper level.  When swimming with local sharks, I can hear the Jimmy Buffett energy in me singing fins to the left, fins to the right.  And then it magically arrives in my sea of consciousness how to chum it up and digest my time with the cats in my walkabout.  How about you?

Stay True,

Ari  

 

Kissed by a Dolphin

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Has anyone out there ever been kissed by a Dolphin?  Although I have not been blessed with a physical smooch, I have repeatedly experienced sacred encounters while swimming along side porpoises in the Gulf of Mexico.  One time, I swear I received an unexpected surprise that felt like a telepathic, heartfelt kiss by a porpoise swimming only feet away from me!  Ah, “Dolphin . . . Breath of the Divine, Manna of the Universe, in Oneness We entwine.”  Perhaps it has been awhile since a Dolphin encounter as provocative as the former for yours truly, but I am inspired by Lao Tzu’s energy in me to get out after it as I heed his lyrics, “Nature is the best physician.”  In this “world of 10, 000 things” and bling, bling, why not tap into Dolphin medicine’s free-flowing Spring.  In my internal martial arts studies, I remember noticing that in the process of getting “it”, “it always comes back to the breath”.  And it Sounds True that if We want to really live, then We must remember to breathe!  Why not become aware of Your own breathing, as it transmutes an unconscious experience with Life to a conscious One.  “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”–Alice Walker

Further, if We allow Dolphin’s energy to swim into the waters of Our Consciousness, We say yes to Dolphin’s year-round teachings to discover hidden caverns and underwater cities within the depths of Our souls that exist in the Dreamtime.  Has anyone out there seen the Australian film, ‘The Last Wave’?  I think the film is a flowing stream of consciousness reminding Us to remember how to dream–something We have largely forgotten in Our modern, Western world.  Even though I am still dreaming of a free for service economy, I can hear ‘Men at Work’ singing an old Aboriginal folk spiritual . . . “Do you come from a Land Down Under?  Where women glow and men plunder.  Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?  You better run, you better take cover.” Many of Us have gotten lost in a sea of conceptual, mental concepts and the robotic doings of Our daily responsibilities and distractions.  But Dolphin is here to remind Us to draw a bridge between Our material realm and the Dreamtime, by putting Us “on notice to be mindful of Your body rhythms and patterns of energy being fed to You from the Creator.”  I choose to drink in from a hopeful Spring that asserts that there is so much help available to Us from the Spirit realm, if only We clearly ask for It and allow for It, come what May.  I think the Boss energy in me is right when he sings, “it takes a leap of faith”, when We make the conscious choice to surrender to the Will of the Universe.  Easier said than done!  Do You need to pay more attention to learn something new, to your intellectual development, communicate more effectively to others and/or enjoy Life more by becoming more playful?  Dolphin energy can help You in this area. 

If We swim with Dolphin in the oceans of Life, We invoke Its medicine of knowing Our primordial history and remembering the power of breath and sound.  I know the experience of being highly sensitive to the vibrations of others, as I feel them reverberating within my soul very organically and naturally.  However, even those of Us whom are oblivious Our deeper Selves and/or less aware of the energies of others, We all stand to benefit from learning how to incorporate conscious breathing and sound into Our daily transactions.  How many panic attacks could be derailed by simply taking in a deep breath through the nose and slowly exhaling through somewhat closed, pursed lips and repeating this process three times?  Picture calming, relaxing thoughts, perhaps a waterfall and say positive self-talk statements, such as “I am relaxed”.  After this brief walking meditation, see how you feel and repeat as necessary.  However, if You begin to feel dizzy, please sit down and rest for a spell.  After all, Water symbolizes creation, passion, sexuality, new dimensions, forces and is the Element of all Life.  Remembering how to breathe consciously empowers Us to heal Our Selves in mind-body-spirit within the unchartered waters of Your True Self.  In the spirit of that, I strongly encourage You to meditate on Dolphin and consciously connect the dots of your thoughts, feelings and behaviors.  Consider getting outside for some fresh air, play, explore and remember to breathe!  Sea beyond Your small pod, toward Our greater Global community.  And please be mindful of the hungry energies of the Full Moon on March 8th and the waning digestion process thereafter.

I Hopi You are well,

Ari

Journeying Underground with Groundhog

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I remember when my mom used to say to me, “how much wood would a Woodchuck chuck if a Woodchuck could chuck wood?”   And then we would both share a heartfelt chuckle.  Today, my own child laughs with me as I tell her that story about her “grandma Karen” that she’s never physically met.  Although it has been 17 years since my mom tragically suicided and accompanying deep wounds within following that, She has been lovingly re-visiting me lucidly in my Dreamtime, during the Deep Void of Winter, here in the Northern hemisphere on Mothership Gaia.  Perhaps as We digest Groundhog’s death without dying medicine, Our planet’s slowing Pisces heartbeat will breathe New Life into Our Hearts as We transition into a whole New World of Aquarian Unity Consciousness. 

Who knows, maybe the crystals next to my head in bed are helping me see more clearly these days . . . when I die tonight, I’ll eat A Slice of Heaven and digest it Mystically well . . . I pray to God (Universe) to bathe me in Light as I leave behind my human shell.  Although I don’t condone my mom’s Last Exit, Her spirit is inspiring me to internalize Groundhog’s mysteries of death without dying.  Has anyone out there ever seen the American film classic, “Groundhog Day”?  On the surface, it’s vintage Bill Murray and full of humor guaranteed to raise One’s serotonin.  However, in its depth, Murray’s character personifies a metaphor for Reincarnation and inspires Us to transcend Karma and egotism by coming full circle spiritually.  If We allow Our Selves to tap into Groundhog’s energy, We have the opportunity to Venture into the Unknown and consciously bring back sacred knowledge from the Dreamtime.  Paradoxically, when We effectively journey into the realm of the Great Unconscious, Groundhog medicine helps Us feel more alive, in that it won’t be the last time We commit suicide, from a Shamanic, death without dying perspective. 

Additionally, one way to explore a Shamanic journeying experience is to meditate on Groundhog this week.  If You are feeling particularly adventurous, perhaps consider pounding on a drum in Your sacred space, ask this Power Animal-Totem-Spirit Guide what It has to teach You, remember gratitude for It’s shared lessons while drumming and then practice letting go of whatever gifts You received during your journey.  Groundhog medicine has the potential to help Us with discernment and clarifying what boundaries are appropriate for Our Selves in relationship with others.  Now I realize that I am fun-gi (especially when eating organically grown mushrooms) and remember that being a clearer channel is connected to leading a cleaner lifestyle.  Moreover, I notice that I’m burning cleaner gas when I stay away from gluten and am feeling sublime when “40 ounces to freedom” while consuming four, 40’s of spring water per day (95 total ounces is probably a good hash mark for most of You).   It’s as if Groundhog’s mantra is to remember to stay grounded, while leaving your human shell behind . . . good “Chicken Soup for the Soul”, if you will. 

I Hopi You are well,

Ari