Digging Into Groundhog Day, Underground Tunneling Toward The Vernal Equinox & Riding Off Into The Sunset Of Death, Whilst Awakening To The Dawn Of Rebirth

–Rumi

A Full Snow Moon on February 1st sheds moonshine on the birth of February, followed by the Imbolc aka Groundhog Day on February 2nd. Energetically, spring starts now because the seeds underground are starting to think about waking up from their winter slumber.

Whether the groundhog sees his shadow or not, the arrival of the Vernal Equinox on March 20th marks the official onset of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Autumn Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere. The equinoxes reflect the Nature’s balance of day and night; which reveals homeostasis of yin&yang/light&dark/masculine&feminine energies.

When I think of honoring the Imbolc tradition of the approximate halfway point between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, I think of the shamanic energy medicine of Groundhog as an animal spirit guide.

How many of us would benefit from waking up to an elevated state of consciousness that Groundhog awakens as a metaphor for reincarnation?

There are evolving souls in the spiritual community, who have shared that they have an attachment to a desire to not incarnate anymore, and would prefer to stay in the spirit realm after their experience in this lifetime ends.

While I respect a person’s sovereign right towards self-determination, there is wisdom in the old saying, be careful what you wish for. In order to really trust the Universe, you have to do the shadow work. The voices of trauma can be exhausting at times.

Groundhog energy medicine awakens death without dying as a real perceptible reality during the gift and many blessings of this lifetime. In this experience, we are reminded of the cyclical death and rebirth aspect of life. In every breath we take, a part of us dies, while another part of us is reborn.

Besides, science has confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we have trillions of cells living within our bodies that change like tastebuds over time. From that perspective, we really aren’t the same person we once were, nor will be in the future. Might as well learn to illuminate every cell in our bodies and learn to make them smile. There’s God(ess) in that.

For you gamers out there, playing video games is akin to the shamanic death without dying experience. You get to hit the reset button, start over, get a new life, and explore different levels. The program is already there and reveals itself when the time is ripe. Beyond that, it’s up to you how to play the game. Freewill within the program’s matrix. Once you know the program, you can transcend it.

Knowing our true identities as mostly luminous, formless beings of light can be the torch that carries you toward the perceptible reality that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes, we have find the eyes to see that the sun is still there, it’s just hiding behind dark clouds. More importantly, there is light within, no matter how consumed with darkness we might feel.

Just as an example, the classic American film Groundhog Day captures the sentiment of moving beyond the egoic realm of egocentric manipulation to waking up to the realm of Oneness or Unity Consciousness. Remember that Groundhog Day, like Halloween, derives from ancient traditions honored by our ancestors. I first saw this movie in High School and thought it was hilarious. Little did I know that I would end up going to college in the Pittsburgh area of Western Pennsylvania, where the film takes place, and later realize the profound spiritual depth of this movie that stands the test of time.

And then in the next clip below, we have an open hearted and high minded spiritually oriented conversation between Oprah Winfrey and Eckart Tolle to further capture the sentiment. I remember when I first picked up Eckhart’s new book at the time, The Power of Now. This was back in my social work graduate school days in Miami in the late 90s. The trauma of my mother’s suicide was still a fresh deep soul wound, and I was craving finding deeper spiritual meaning in my life to deal with the loss so that I could move forward. Upon reading the this book, I was struck by how his own suffering transformed into a radical spiritual awakening. I was inspired back Zen, and continue to be right Tao.

Flash forward to March, 2009, when Oprah brought to life the first free online planetary book club that explored this spiritual teacher’s next book, A New Earth. Both of my grandmothers died earlier that Winter. I felt triggered by their deaths, my energy field was gravely depleted, and l really looked forward to their live weekly webinar sessions. It was a light at the end of the tunnel for me at that time. I had already been working for several years as a day treatment social worker, in the same Public School community that I worked in over the past couple of decades. I still don’t know how I got out of bed to go to work in the morning during that time. Because we had meaningful connection, a concerned School Nurse I worked with at that time could see auras, and commented that she could see how weak my energy field was. Between Winter’s dirge, and my own grieving process, the time was ripe again for some more transformational inner work.

Switching horses, we will officially enter into the Year of the Fire Horse on February 17th. Fire Horse’s energy reflects greater movement, decision, freedom and courage so that we can effectively gallop into unknown frontiers.

Perfect timing for much transformation on this year’s pathways ahead. But transformation isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Growing pains are part of the process, and we do need to get off of our cushions and live our lives. May the Chi of the Fire Horse heat up our saddles, and get us off our bums, so to speak.

Speaking of blazing saddles, the Eclipse Season further fuels the flames of transformation with a Solar Eclipse on the Chinese New Year, and then a Lunar Eclipse on March 3rd. Many of you are already feeling these energies before the first eclipse takes place.

Of course, the aftershocks of the Spring Eclipse season will carry on through College Basketball’s March Madness, the Ides of March, Vernal Equinox, and into the Aries time of year. The season of Aries the Ram starts around the onset of baseball season, and energetically always feels like a new year because it is the first sign of the Western Zodiac.

As we already know, eclipses are catalysts for change and shaking up the status quo in our inner and outer worlds. There’s nothing to be superstitious about with regards to any of these energies because, like the present moment, they are what they are.

More importantly, what matters is how we align with the energies at play. Hunkering down and riding the storm out are typical conditioned human survival instincts. But instead of running away from the weather by heading down to the shorelines to get washed out; consider what the animals like rams do in times of alarming weather fronts.

Rather than resisting and fighting ominous weather, they head for the mountains to gain a better vista so that they can intelligently secure deliberate footing that harmonizes with Climate Change.

Or you can curse the weather, fight against the current or push the river, so to speak.

May all Beings be free and live in the present moment of Inner Peace,

Ari

A Strawberry Full Moon, and a Powerful Eclipse Season

When I think of June,
I reflect on the energies of Butterfly,
and the powerful transformation they symbolize.

A Full Strawberry Moon arrives on Friday, June 5th.

It is also a Lunar Eclipse, marking the beginning of an
atypical three eclipses during an astrological eclipse season.

A Solar Eclipse adds heat to the normally rising intensities of
peak sunlight light during Summer Solstice on June 20th,
while the Winter Solstice comes about in the Southern hemisphere.

As such, it will be the longest day of light or night,
depending on where you are on Planet Earth.

The day after that, a New Moon reflects new beginnings of a new season.

And then the last Lunar Eclipse arrives on July 4,
Independence Day in the United States, followed by
a Full Buck Moon on July 5th.

Remember that Deer is symbollic of gentle allurment
into new adventures in consciousness.

Everything is changing so rapidly in the Universe today.

It is more important than ever to be gentle, and kind
on ourselves, and with our one human family.

But that can be challenging when examining institutionalized oppression,
like awakening to the reality of white privilege, white supremacy,
and resentments that run deep from those power imbalances.

What is underneath the protests, and rioting going on right now?

The truth is, nobody wins from abuses of power,
not even those on top of the pyramid.

A system that is set up to divide, and conquer winners versus losers
is unjust, and immoral – regardless of what line in the sand you stand.

Notice how the growing cost of these disparities invite more chaos
to level the playing field.

And then watch how chaos fuels increased security controls,
like the militarization of the police as people take to the streets.

But now more than ever, with the virus affecting our planet, and
the down-bound economic train affecting the human plight –

It appears more self-evident to me that the movement of labor pains are
intensifying as an old world dies, and a new one is being born.

We have been discussing this theme for many years now in this blog.

This is analgous to the way many people choose to have another child,
after their first experience with childbirth –
often do so because they often forget how painful giving birth is,
and how much work the labor of love is during the early stages of child rearing.

Some people say that about forgetting the reason we might choose
to incarnate as a soul on the Earth, or make the agreement to become mortal.

The miracle of childbirth is akin to any rebirth,
as well as the birth of a New Earth.

And within the blessing of these miracles,
there are also courses in curses.

Going back to the familiarity of an old world,
and an old paradigm is akin to the better the devil you know mentality.

Back when Lincoln was President, a lot of people didn’t want
to end slavery or deal with the consequences of systemic change.

Same thing with the 60s, when old roles, and ways of doing
things were changing, as is always the case during
cultural wars, like we are in right now.

There are those who say they just want things to go back to normal.

And yet, the normal we all knew was really a nightmare that was
merely the better devil otherwise known as a security blanket in consciousness.

Some people call the Age of Aquarias a great awakening of
our superhuman powers, a new human, or Homo Luminosity.

When we focus on the positive, and look for the silver lining, it doesn’t
mean that we don’t notice the dark, and stormy.

That would be like an ostrich burying its head in the sand,
or a toddler plugging its ears, and making noise to tune out
the unwanted perceptual experience.

What it does mean is that we can focus on our breath or a mantra to
help us be in the present moment, and realize that we can’t control
everything that happens to us.

Instead of paying attention to the 10,000 things that are waiting to
distract us from the truth of who we really are, we are training our selves
to pay purposeful attention to waking up to self-actualization, or our soul purpose.

But, to a much larger degree, we can control how we respond or
react to what comes our way.

Yeah, it does take work to adjust to the changes that accompany
movement from a grub to a caterpillar to a butterfly.

It is unrealistic to spiritually bypass one form over the other.

Before you can fly in the heavens,
you have to learn how to move along on the ground.

May we recognize the butterfly effect of our actions.

What are you building in the shadow areas?

What will they look like if they were to come out into the sunlight?

Through the polorizing rise in nationalism, and globalism, we can relax this
barrier by stepping into a unified field of awareness.

Just imagine the possibilities of sustainable green energy jobs, access to
energetically clean resources, like quality education, health care, meaningful
work for our human family, and all sentient beings.

Many people were very skeptical when the New Deal came about during
The Great Depression era in the United States.

But when the private sector dried up, and people were without jobs, there was no
more hiding behind the veil of band-aids, and skeleton life support systems.

Humanity does have a tendency to be at our best, when we are at our worst.
And humans do have a strong survival instinct, and are socially driven creatures.

We are creatively cognitive creatures craving meaning with deep feelings.
You can try to quell those with a garden variety of distractions.

But at the end of the day, it would be like
trying to convince a grub to not turn into a caterpillar,
or trying to con a caterpillar not to transform into a butterfly.

See you further along the trails,

Ari

Slowing Down Our Pace with a Spiritually Protective Turtle’s Shell

Turtles have been living on this planet longer than dinosaurs
Humans have been living on Earth less than that

And yet many of us are living like dinosaurs, caught up in a karmic loop
of the reptilian mind – obsessed with order and control issues

A perpetual state of fear is the psychological reality for many
the glass is seen as half empty, which creates anxieties about the fear of loss

But Turtle’s shells reflect safety, security and protection

It’s always good to slow down and return to the mindfulness of our breath

With a Solar Eclipse New Moon, and Lunar New Year arriving this week
Stirrings of Spring energies are waking up underground

Can you feel their movement into new beginnings and foreshadowing
of above ground changes in the air, like a fading stock exchange
and military-industrial complex?

We are all children of God, even Donald Trump
The time is now to purge and release our ideas of separation

Us and Them kind of thinking is devolution
Demonizing our demons will not bring us to the Light

Why are there movements to impeach Donald Trump,
hold power abusers accountable, create a more equitable economic system,
nurture minority/woman’s rights, and
provide safety nets like universal health care?

Will Trump quit before he gets impeached, then live out the rest of his life
pontificating about being persecuted, and ensconced in seeing himself as a victim?

Why is there such push back to justify going to war against perceived enemies,
under the guise of national security?

It is because oppression needs to have a privileged few on top,
and an overwhelming majority on the bottom to feed the machine

But we are all in this together . . .

Human beings are complex creatures, and our relationships
are greater than the sum of our parts

Look upon one another as mirrors to help us reflect the light of love and truth

Remember that it takes less energy to love than to hate

It has been said that Dog is “man’s best friend” . . .

In this Chinese New Year of the Dog, meditation on Dog can inspire
a deep compassion for our human shortcomings,
and loyalty to our one human family

See you further up the trails,

Ari

Minding Our Heads with Owl

Owl awakens wisdom from our dreams and meditations . . .
Symbolically connecting us to the feminine energies of the moon

See through the realm of deception . . .
With the clairvoyant vision of a wise old eagle of the night

These cat-like winged creatures primarily feed off Mouse . . .
Owls are good reminders that “we all have our blind spots”

Let Owl illuminate your shadow side and unveil the shady aspects of others

Moving with Owl further into darker nights of the soul . . .
Resurrects the Idea of Reincarnation

Here we are where everything old is new again
Are you being revisited by the ghosts of yesteryear?

Falling autumnal leaves are changing colors –
Reminding us that death is part of life

We bear witness to the curtains being pulled back –
Revealing a thinner veil between material and spirit realms

Looking back into the rear-view mirror upon ancient Greece
Athena is pictured as the goddess of wisdom

Wise up to the perception that modern Greece
Challenges the way of the dominant world economy . . .

A sneak preview to Goliath falling down –
We are glimpsing a portal into a New Age and Paradigm

Are you using or developing your intuitive and psychic powers?

Owl swoops in to take a deeper look at details, secrets or hidden knowledge

God is the Alpha and Omega . . .
An interplay between seen and unseen forces flowing together

Be mindful of the gravitational pull that
dark edges attract to feed off the energy of another

Yellow eyes reveal that even in dark, there is light

Try to recognize that being seen and heard isn’t a red alert . . .
But it does require trust and an open heart

Especially when reading prophecy, signals and omens

Becoming flexibility relaxes tension during these changing seasons

It might be the end of the world as we know it
But we are still here to light up our world with collective souls

See you further on 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

Preparedness for a Rainy Day Storage without Going Nuts

Meditation on examining our fears and uncertainties is a revolutionary revelation.
Forgetting where we buried our acorns jogs our memory of why we are here . . .

Part of the joy ride of watching a captivating movie
is the thunderous road of what the end will bring –
Uncomfortable as that might be, it keeps us well seated.

Autumn Equinox is rapidly approaching . . .
Here we are standing here my dear –
Gathering in preparation – getting organized and storing away
what we might need for a later day down the strand.

In these changing times and fortunes . . .
It is as if our nervous woodland creature friends on the trails are
Quarterbacks signaling cadences to us to command the field
for a sustainable game plan come playoff time –
Sensitively without driving ourselves or others nuts in the process.

We all need to learn how to manage our own energy.
There is a time for being active and a time for rest.

Getting in Lordship alignment with Universal Mystery
with empathy, curiosity, forgiveness and understanding –
rather than resistance – is good medicinal chi.

Out with the old, in with the new . . .
Letting go of clutter instead of hoarding promotes general welfare.

Sharing and releasing our greed is good harmony for all God’s creatures
with a free-spirited genetic blueprint to live
in accord with rhythmically balanced and soulful dance-steps.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Dog as Our Co-Pilot

Protection, faith and loyalty . . .
Are messages shared with us from our Canine family.

Descendants of wolves and coyote are they.
Are you being faithful? What about folks around you?

Selfless and playful generosity from a four-legged community.
Are you playing enough in your journey?

With Dog as our guide we retrieve
Spirited messages from the Dreamtime . . .

The only constancy is change.
Let go and let God in by trusting in unfolding fluidity.
What is passes us fleetingly.
Within this uncertainty is medicinal safety and security.

Dog is a protective co-pilot –
While navigating our inner trails.
Do you need to be more protective of your territory?

A true and loyal friend –
Dog reflects an authentic relationship with our Higher Selves.
Are you being faithful to yourself?

Nobility in the service to others –
In its true nature, Dog embodies a
tolerant spirit genuinely asking to be of service.

In the selfishness of going out to fetch . . .
There is selflessness in returning the catch.
We walk with balanced footsteps in giving and receiving.

Thank you Dog for your deep and compassionate understanding
of human shortcomings.
Are you showing unconditional love or allowing yourself to receive it?

Weaving in understanding into our developing story –
Awakens a deeper feeling of empathy for humanity.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

A Fantastic Meditative Empathic Conversation With Great Spirit

Imagining in the beginning

Nirvana, alienation and nothing in between

And so it was back zen as it is right Tao –
an opportunity to create . . .

(Big Bang)

To know Myself – experientially

Boundless Energy . . .

Now with a point of reference
Of discovery, forgetting and remembering
(sometimes simultaneously)

Who am I?
Who are you?
Who are we?

And where are we going?

Together as One . . .

Never separate . . .

Merely an illusion of disconnection

My creation reveals
My image in you
In the moment of Now . . .

My sleepy children
Awaken from your hibernation
Venture from Plato’s Cave
You must confront your darkest shadows
Before you may bask in the light of your soul

Mindfully Embracing your thoughts and feelings
Connecting the dots of your behavior
Piecing together the mysterious puzzle of

Infinite Intelligence

Sometimes, my apparent grandest creations
Appear timid and weak

Conversely, seemingly insignificant creations
Manifesting as a critical catalyst
For evolutionary growth

Defenses are eradicated
By expanded consciousness and transcendence

Finally understanding my Universal Language . . .

Love is as Love does

Opening up our Smiling Heartfelt Field of Vision with Butterfly

After passing the peak of Yang-Masculine energy of yesterday’s Summer Solstice, our spirits climaxed in that Light. Now we Turtle along Yinward with the mysterious rising of Dark-Feminine energy, though we often think of summer as outward growth and being playfully social like Butterfly. We have discussed before in this blog that every moment carries a death and a rebirth. In the sense that Butterfly is symbolic of transformation, we can open up our consciousness to the idea of Reincarnation by raising our awareness. From this vantage point, we can expand our idea of Reincarnation to include past lives and future lives beyond this physical lifetime. This is somewhat akin to genetic memory. We see that we are multidimensional spiritual beings having human experiences. Today, we understand that we all have star-dust encoded in our DNA. Given that the double helix looks like a figure 8 (the sign of infinity), meditation on that helps us wake-up to creating ourselves anew and waking up to the realm of possibility. If our taste buds change and bodies change every seven years, then why resist this process with devilishly fixed ideas?

We have recorded and reported stories of our connection to the cosmos in our archives. In the defended position of “national security”, the truth about our Universal brothers and sisters has been kept hidden from us. Regardless of what you believe, our reality is that we are living in a time where the existence of UFO’s and extraterrestrials lives within our collective consciousness, like the proverbial “elephant in the room” within a family affected by addiction. It really isn’t about being “out there” or “far out”–what matters is what we allow ourselves to integrate into our personal worldview. When the veils thin, will we welcome them into our Earth family with open arms? It appears that our Imperial Leadership Team feels entitled and justified in maintaining a top-down, “rule by few” idea about governing the business of our Planet. Basically, the old idea says that the reality of our Universal brothers and sisters should be kept hidden from us by keeping us in the dark, like Plato’s Cave. Why not shed light on the truth about their relationship with our human family? But the Majority position prefers to go unexamined. Come on guys, it is time to come out of the closet and let your light shine too.

We witnessed this nuance play out when a news story revealed that a woman was fired from her job in the corporate media for inadvertently allowing a Freudian slip of “sex” to come out of her mouth. Really? The advertising industry makes an intentional killing by selling sex through overt and covert advertising campaigns to push products on us by tapping in to our primal sexual urges, drives and instincts. Was Bill Clinton fired (fired from what) for calling President Obama a “wuss” recently? Isn’t that like dropping the “n-bomb”, slick Willie? Doesn’t it feel like our esteemed Leadership holds a fixed view of themselves as above the laws they craft for us to follow? If we are expected to be held accountable for our actions, why are they tax-exempt from paying our money down? Do they not realize that their actions speak louder than words and that modeling is the most powerful form of teaching? I don’t know what kind of black sorcery “moderate Republican” Bill Clinton and his Elitist friends in the Empire are practicing, but I know their allegiance to an old paradigm is dying. It seems like they are hellbent on manifesting a self-fulfilling prophecy of leading the cavalry to the “eve of destruction”. But “issues with intimacy” will do that and we all have our part to do in transforming our intimacy so within, as without. Love is the answer. We all need to wake up to that in these dangerous times by moving further away from the force of fear and closer to the power of love. May we remember the saying, “let go and let God”.

Summer is a hot time for manifestation. It is always wise to remember gratitude. When we carry an “attitude of gratitude” we are in alignment with Nature and Great Spirit. Hanging out in the energy field of manipulation and power and control is bad medicine for transcending Karma, the law of cause and effect. At the end of the day, Karma revisits and grounds you as it has been asked to do, whether realized or not. Developmentally, humanity is at a crossroads. On the one hand, we have the old world idea that membership has its privileges. This idea believes that our Planet is a playground that should be exploited for maximum economic profit for a minority of benefactors and trashed accordingly. This internally polluted idea reflects in the nightmare that we have invested in and bought into. Any challenge to this paradigm has been met with both subtle and provocative force to control against transformation. The other idea that is awakening and cross-pollinating our consciousness is that we are all One, albeit colorful and diverse expressions of that Oneness. What we do to the self, we do to the other. Our actions have consequences, some of them unintended. If a Butterfly flaps its wings, this can affect Climate Change. If a Butterfly flitting about could potentially create a ripple effect for a Tsunami, then imagine what we are capable of. Meditation on Butterfly is good medicine to change ourselves from the inside out. When we change the way we look at something, what we look at changes and we become the change we want to see in the world. There is a reality to the perception of doom and gloom. But there is also a reality to Butterfly opening up our Hearts to smile! If you can hold the tension of those opposites, just make a conscious choice to focus on the “Chi” of Butterfly! Spiritually, this is how we transform lead into gold through inner alchemy. We elevate our consciousness by realizing that spirit literally matters.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari