Taking Flight and Movin’ On Up with Turkey Vulture

In this Moon’s darkness
The light of a New one awaits on the horizon

May we be guided by Turkey Vulture through longer nights
with a bright purifying rebirth on the way . . .

The return of the Winter Solstice is coming soon again
After that, we start coaxing back the light

Something to look forward to . . .

Come down into your souls and levitate above the old
dying emotions that have sucked life out of your energy field

Release those stuck energies and renew your power
Let them go so they can return to a black hole where they can rest in peace

Instead of hating the real perceived targets we call enemies
We shall make friends with a new world where we respect our diversity

It can feel gut wrenching to watch predator and prey do their thing
But take a closer look and examine why this moment presented itself to you
And see if the message becomes clear to you upon that self-reflection

The egoic voice in the head that judges some of us as better than others
Parrots that some of us are more worthy of being saved or damned to be cursed
Like for example the recent segregationist thinking that
says we should demonize the Islamic State

If it’s not one picture of an enemy, it’s another
as processed, sold and bought on the corporate media

There are vultures and fire everywhere
Don’t get sucked into the seductive dramas of apocalyptic doom and gloom

Change the channel and tune in to your feelings and dreams
Give back the remote control to yourself, rather than outsourcing
your inner kingdom to the outer world’s dysfunction

That old world reptilian brain wants to keep you in a fearful place
Time to release those old mental scripts that are scared of their own shadow

When the old self dies, a new identity is reborn
It takes time before the dust settles
Rome wasn’t built, nor destroyed in a day

In the burning fields, new organic pastures are growing
Might as well mulch the reality of inner peace
and transform it into a more realistic possibility

On the inside, we are discovering the freedom to take the fight out of
releasing old mountains that must now move out-of-the-way
So that we can look upon our souls from a cleaner perch

Humankind can embody its name
In the death of our divisive ways, may we embrace our colorful diversity
And use it to our advantage by sharing our resources in harmonic reciprocity

See you onward up the trails,

Ari

With Gulls, We See Beneath Red Herrings

A Full Worm Moon passed us by last week
Like Nature’s outwardly changing seasons
Our energetic tides ebb and flow internally

Herrings help us see the subtleties of communication
So that we become adept at reading what is
flying below the radar in our social environment

Genuine respect is a key ingredient to being a well-versed social animal
Our Divine constitution is awakened in this location

As shoreline birds,
Gull teaches us to see the writing on the wall and read between the lines

In between land and sea, shorelines are of places of great magic and mystery
Ordinary spaces between our busy events are wanting to be seen as extraordinary

Do you hear John Lennon’s voice fly in from the Dreamtime,
“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

Are you willing to sail away from an old hard land
and take a leap of faith onto the shores of a fluid New World?

Seagulls remind us that reality has both surface and depth

Powerful energies are intensifying and arriving through our perceptual pathways
Like when light is let in to brighten up a dark room
We don’t always like what we see

Meditation on allowing the sunlight to illuminate the shadows
is good medicine right now

When navigating elemental forces of land and air . . .
We need to learn to swim and fly
in the multidimensional waters and skies of Life

Body language is the psychology of communication
If we are what we eat and appetite comes with eating
Then may we drink in Herrin’s teachings to stimulate a healthy diet
to clean up the ecology of our daily lives

“The personal is the political”

Whether bleeding from our deepest cuts or flesh wounds
The time is now to release and let go of our old pains

Might as well weather our shifting fronts with transformational grace

Stay alert, stay aware and be present with what is
Try not to get sucked into the control dramas of others
Or your own insidious anxieties and chattering repetitive mental tapes

Be a spiritual watcher of yourself
We are aware that we are aware

A fortress around your heart might appear to serve as protection
from being stoned by others living in glass houses

But do you believe that the sweet surrender of vulnerability
will be held up by Universal pillars of Love and Truth
while holding a firm foundation of personal and cosmic intimacy?

See you further on up the trails,

Ari

Climbing the Mountain with Lion

King of the Mountain Lion represents the gentle roar of leadership
Leaving behind power without force in its tracks
Sometimes, being a leader means silently relishing in the growth of others

Climbing the final leg of the trail
Head on with graceful powerful balance of mind-body-spirit
Brings powerful intention into our physical world

Darkness ascends on the Winter Solstice meeting its zenith
Also coming soon we become a New Moon beacon of light
Resurrecting Christ Consciousness in our souls symbolizing new beginnings

Responsibility is a panic-free zone
Awakening to the ability to respond to any given situation

Do you remember the power of our tribal African shamanic brothers and sisters?
Fly away and meditate on the elemental forces of water and darkness for a spell . . .

How many times have we feared our own primal, dark and feminine nature?

The power of the internal martial arts is cultivated gradually
A cumulative effect of simmering softness of Yin energy

Particularly in America . . .
The heat of race relations is rising to the surface again
As is class consciousness and a desire for protective security
Stoking our embers and trigger points

Have you bought into learned helplessness
Or do you see an opportunity for transformative healing?

Yes, in terrorist fashion this land was squatted from our indigenous people
and then free labor was unjustly imported from the Motherland
And still today, a greedy minority balks at playing fair ball

We have discussed in this blog that the
dominant majority prefers to go unexamined
Picture the leaders of the Empire
coming clean and welcoming the rest of us to the bargaining table
in the spirit of trust and authenticity

But getting stuck in our own hate will consume us
so that we feed off this energy like the Walking Dead
Cannibalistic as that might sound
We are what we eat – spiritually speaking

We need to release our hate and set ourselves free of the bondage of slavery
Economic strangulation and unequal access to resources is a form of genocide

Our subconscious minds are lulled into repetitive negative thoughts
But we have the power replace our cognitive distortions
with simple positive affirmations
Believe in and feel them walking into our Being

We are mindful and diligent in our daily footsteps
Helping our Planetary and Universal consciousness internalize
a positive New Earth worldview
Becoming the change we want to see in the world

See you further on up the trails,

Ari

The Day After 911 Revisited

Is it the word of the Lord?
To obey thy master . . .
Do as I say but not as I do . . .
Children should be seen but not heard.

Will the silent majority remain comfortably numb?
Slowly simmering as the words echoed by an
Imitation Christ representing a mere manifestation of deception.
Behavioral patterns behind the curtain reveal an antithesis of
His True actualized Self.

Commercial illusion of a Republic with democratic ideals –
Cloaked behind shadowy expanded imperialism
Propagating the powers that be
President Gas shuffles his feet for
combustible special interests excesses.

Perceived by the Hidden Hand as children –
Methodically indentured in blissful ignorance
Questioning the rebellious motivation of the rascal multitude
Fomenting calculated defiance and retaliation

Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt

Alternatively, some minority patriots
Dubiously challenge this manufactured illusion
Painfully perceiving now apparently
Disconnected kernels of truth
Via siphoned regurgitated rhetorical chunks of puke

Raising our fists to the drumbeat of accountability and responsibility
From Leadership’s professed gospel of Freedom.

Seeking Liberty
and Empowerment through equal access
As we ascend from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

Power to the People

Inner Peace is as Inner Peace does

Belief in mediation for self-reflection . . .

Allowing us to sit with what is –
rather than exit with denial or aggression.

Union of the Snake

Stoking the fire burning within . . .

Sacred marriage of internal masculine and feminine kin –
Transmutation of death-rebirth by shedding old skin.

Is your chattering mind merely a reflection of corporate propagated spin?
Fair and balanced news comes from a unified mind-body-spirit din.
Prepackaged commercials should be tossed in the bin.

Standing with energetic footprints growing strong roots –
Allows for a grounded Being anchored in Mother Earth’s soot.

A poisonous snake-bite might appear like an Indian burn . . .
But there is healing tonic entwined within the urn.
Toxic venom is released from a snake bite.
Ingesting a Divine cleansing with abundant watery crystalline love-light.

Are you awakening into New Aquarian Age Unity?
Or are you stuck in old world Groundhog Day repetitive re-run insanity?

The choice is ours to make . . .

Like a vampire bite, the Empire’s cannibalistic toxicity carries venom.
But in our awakening, we are blazing new trails through healing and transformation.

Pain and suffering abound.
Terribly tragic it is.

Nature cries a dirge of acid rain.
Within the ashes, a new Tree of Life is born.

May our souls lighten up and deliver us into our “better angels”.

Meditation on Snake is good medicine for transmutation.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Welcoming 2014 and Soul Purpose

The passion and fires burning within the Earth are also burning within humanity.  And you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be more intense energies igniting more opportunities to transform and heal – or die like the old ways no longer serving us.  The “out with the old, in with the new” earworm will amp up in 2014. Traditionally, it is natural for this to occur now as we move away from the Winter Solstice, as yin contracts and yang expands toward the Spring Equinox in March. But during our movement into a new age and paradigm, many of us are becoming more sensitive and attuned to the exponential intensity of these shifts and vibrational energies streaming in.

My sense is that it will become more difficult to ignore your soul purpose, as it will become more challenging to turn a blind eye to developing the “walking meditation” of watching the world turn with an “observation without judgment” lens. There can be a sense of losing control when we untangle our attachments, so as not to get too invested in what we identify with. But beyond that, a deeper place of inner peace is waiting for us to explore. Even if you feel that you are “wise to the ways of the world” and take ownership in a comfortable lifestyle in the material world – you also know the risky business of investing all your stock in possessions without diversification.

How do we get to know our soul potential?  How do we enact an “observation without judgment” view of our inner landscape and the world around us? Through trust, we open up our inner light to “walk in the sun” and share with others, rather than “hide her away from the rest of the world.”  Social media is one way to do this, as there is a reality to virtual connections.  But getting out in the natural environment and making face to face contact is best medicine. While our intimate relationship with our own Self is most important, we gaze deeper into the mirror through our relationships with others.  “Relationships are for a reason: for growth and learning, for nurturance and support, for love and romance, for sex and passion, for experience, for karmic debt or clearance, for business reasons, for security.”

When we look beneath the surface of our introverted and extroverted reactions to what is going on with curiosity and empathy, we begin to understand the experience of “walking in someone elses’ shoes.” We all say that we want to be seen and heard, but is that really the case? Are you afraid of your own power? Is there an underlying fear of feeling rejected or abandoned for allowing yourself to blossom into a flower or turn into a butterfly? It is a good time of year to re-work the dark and let go of external securities so that we learn to feel safe with the arrival of uncertain unknowns. There is a sense of security in “expecting the unexpected” by viewing life as “one big surprise birthday party.” The old guard of secrecy and concealment is fading into a distant memory. Do you need to resurrect old memories to re-work, transform and clear space for new co-creative experiences? Or do you want to remain ensconced in Groundhog Day, without realizing that you are unconsciously replaying old mental tapes and clinging to fixed ideas?

We are here on Earth for a reason. Waking up to our soul purpose is a key ingredient to that. It is a painful challenge to get stuck in the sphere of excuses, reasons rules and routine. At the end of the day, a way out of the suffering is to learn to live with the pain and understand the information that your pain has to shed light on finding your soul’s purpose. To avoid by exiting through anger or denial will cause more pain and suffering. But taking an authentic look at our anger and then channeling this energy in positive and constructive ways will open up new vortexes for transformation and healing.

Sending You Much Inner Peace in 2014,

Ari

Chakra Balancing Meditation

Energy medicine is a healing and proactive approach to wellness. Ideally, we catch our health issues at the energetic level, before they leave their mark on our spirit-mind-bodies. In that light, Chakras are spinning discs that are part of our energetic bodies and are designed in perfect alignment by Great Spirit. As such, remembering to balance our chakras on a daily basis has a powerful cumulative effect on our overall well-being and vitality. If you are into Reiki, you may picture the appropriate symbols to increase the power of this meditation. Some folks see, hear, feel and sense Chakras differently, if not at all. Try not to get hung up on that, as there is ego in powers of perception. It is a colorful world so within, as without and folks tend to perceive differently.

–Focus on your breath and put your hands in the prayer position and open them up like a peacock to open up Sacred Space.
–Visualize your luminous energy field (a white mist around your spirit body in front of you).
–Visualize your spherical Root Chakra that is Red in color and is located around the base of your spine. Take your right hand, placing it in that area, in front of your body and slowly spin your hand around in a counter-clockwise direction 10 times to unwind your Chakra. Release any unwanted energy to Mother Earth to be cleansed and composted. Then spin your Chakra 10 times in a clockwise direction to re-balance it. During this process, just watch and notice whatever comes up for you and gently let it pass without judging and/or labeling it.
–Continue along in this way with the rest of your Chakras.
–Sacral Orange is about 2 1/2 inches below your belly button.
–Personal Will/Self Esteem(Yellow) is at the base of your breastbone.
–Heart Chakra (Green) is in the middle of your chest area.
–Throat Chakra (light blue).
–Third Eye (Indigo) in the middle of your forehead just above your eyebrows.
–Finally Crown Chakra (Violet) at the top of your head.

After feeling comfortable with the above Chakra meditation, perhaps consider trying the next two more advanced forms.

–First, visualize a Golden spinning disk like halo (like we see in renaissance art) a couple of feet above your Crown Chakra. This is the eighth Chakra.
–Finally, the Ninth Chakra, the realm of Spirit is everywhere, but I like to think of it as “the Spirit in the Sky” where We become One with Everything. I perceive my Eighth Chakra taking off like a disc shaped spacecraft and flying to and merging with the Ninth Chakra, Great Spirit, which is everywhere.

Weaseling Our Way Through Our Meditations

For many thousands of years, humans following the shamanic path have been journeying to visit the spirit realm to bring back heavenly knowledge into the material realm. We have a Full Moon today, which is a powerful time to use its energies to fill your meditation cup. Try to use its spirited energies for power rather than react to them through force.

*Light incense/candle.
*Start drumming to a consistent beat that feels natural to you. A simple bongo drum works well. Get into a comfortable position, relax and breathe.
*Picture a weasel in your imagination and feel its energy coming into your Being.
*Ask Weasel for any guidance that you feel is appropriate for you. Being specific with your question is helpful.
*Continue drumming for 10-20 minutes and gently allow yourself to receive whatever arrives to you in your consciousness.
*Thank Weasel for its spiritual medicinal offering.
*Remember your callback by opening your eyes and changing your drumbeat. A callback facilitates the transition back into our material reality. A callback can also be in the form of a word or mantra that you prefer. My callback consists of 3 sets of 8 beats, then 3 sets of 3 beats and then 3 sets of 7 beats.
*Record your notes of whatever messages Weasel brought to you. These messages might be in the form of feelings, lyrics, sounds, visuals, smells etc. Let go and gently allow your soul to inform you as you travel along in your walking meditation.

Weaseling Our Way Out of a Rock and a Hard Place

The energy of Weasel is powerful medicine for us to ingest right now on Nature’s cycle. We are standing at a crossroads. Our old ways, old world and collective hold of the ego are losing its firm grip on us. But there are still many, particularly those in positions of high power, who are fighting tooth and nail to resist the arriving of massive changes coming soon to a theater near you. With Climate Change, Mother Earth is growing more vocal against the raping of Her by an overindulgence in masculine-yang energetic perspective that is depleting our natural resources, trashing Her and us according to the gospel of the Almighty Dollar. Yet at the same time, we are experiencing a flowering of consciousness that is cross pollinating humanity and our connection to our beloved Mother Earth. Looking back on the Spring Equinox, we remember Nature being a healthy role model of harmonically balancing our masculine and feminine energies in a sweetly satisfying spirit-mind-body soulful dance step. One powerfully green and free form of alternative energy is Weasel. When consuming the energy of Weasel, we are equipped to access and acquire its spirited teachings of ingenuity, stealthy, sly and secret circumvention pursuit of our goals. Do you remember when the Americas were forcefully taken over by European colonialism? It was Weasel’s medicine that revealed to our Native American brothers and sisters the hidden intention and agenda of the folks coming over on boats to the New World. In this light, what are our shadowy friends in clandestine meetings up to in their moving and shaking? As we move further into spring and closer to the Summer Solstice, more spirited energies are streaming into our consciousness in the form of an astrological showering of eclipses. The more aware and in alignment we are with this information, the less reactive we are to it. What we are talking about here is tunneling beneath the pop headlines that disseminate information we are intended to see. But even in the dark, there is light.

Perhaps Weasel was helpful to a Federal Appeals Court recently, by standing up to Mega-corporations, when oil and gas leases were denied access to scenic public lands in Wyoming and Utah. Was it Weasel that assisted David-like local municipalities by enacting local bans or moratoriums on Goliath-like oil and gas companies to prevent gas drilling and “fracking” that pumps millions of gallons of chemically treated water into the ground to extract gas from deposits deep down in our Mother’s veins? Synchronistically, Weasel parallels a recent movement of politicians that are beginning to see through the Fog of War by taking a stand against the War Hawk mentality in American foreign policy. In short, Hawkish agenda du jour seeks to push for more Drones and robots that popular films such as the Terminator and Robocop showcased in the entertainment industry, under the guise of a self-fulfilling prophecy back in the 1980s and 90s. Do we want to reenact the warmongering history of the Old Testament or do we really want to manifest a New Covenant by co-creating a Divine marriage between Heaven and Earth? Great Spirit is helping us wake up to a higher quality of respect. Rather devolving into a reptilian-brain, fear-based respect that mirrors a gangbanger mind-set, we need to clear our Karma by earning respect back from our more vulnerable populations. The oppressor must welcome the oppressed to the negotiating table with transparency and trust so that we may heal our wounds. With great freedom comes great responsibility, as the same systems that oppress can liberate. Taxation with Representation in part looks like crafting legislation that eradicates our Weapons of Mass Destruction without blowing things out of proportion. But we all need to do our part. Weasel’s medicine can silently help us pursue the process of inner peace by dissolving our internal warheads, so that the waves of this energetic Tsunami are felt across our Planet and we are universally inundated.

When remembering to consume the free-spirited energy of Weasel, we learn how to pursue our goals, while staying out of trouble. Do you need to weasel your way out of situations that don’t appear to allow for it? Do you need to develop your own observational skills? Are you being too vocal in your pursuits? Do you need to dig deeper into your soul? Are you and others being honest? Weasel is powerful medicine that aids us in developing our observational skills, read between the lines, see beneath the surface and perceive the truth behind the smoke and mirrors. We are able to hear what is really being said and see multiple consequences to an event, much like playing chess. May we use its medicine to shine our light in a discreet fashion for mutual-aid. The time is now to ascend from a dimensionally challenged perspective, so that we may open up to a multi-dimensional worldview that values a deeper heartfelt connection to one another.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Falling Back, Bees Are Leaving Us Behind

I remember taking in a sweet breath of life recently and couldn’t help but notice a bee entangled in a spider web.  Some moments later, I felt tangled up in blue as I observed the spider drinking in life by draining the bee’s righteous Chi.  Perhaps some folks would judge the spider as a killer and sentence him to a death sentence as well.  But Nature has Her own way and in this case and as I look back, this experience past was the death of all of us.  In fact, Autumn has arrived here in the Northern Hemisphere and the leaves greenery are waning, while the vibrant colors are waxing.  Masculine summer’s light is also waning, as we are naturally slowing down and welcoming the darkness of night rising.  Light and dark are in equal alignment with one another, reminding us that balancing our energies is natural, if not normal.  We all have masculine and feminine energies waxing and waning within our Beings, always in flux, whether realized or not.  Nothing against cosmetic surgery and performance enhancement drugs, but I wonder how costly these enterprises would be if human beings were supported and encouraged to naturally find comfort in our own skins?  Would it be so challenging to find that deep place of self-esteem that says to thyself, I’m OK.  Although watching a bee get whacked was unsettling in the sense that the bee was part of me, at the same time, I thanked the bee for bringing balance to the Force by offering itself to spider and sharing its consciousness with the rest of us.  Perhaps we won’t see any bees for a while, but we are still capable of ingesting their medicine by meditating on the sweetness of life.  Maybe burning a candle made of beeswax will rekindle their power and facilitate the cross-pollination process in raising the consciousness of the planet as we approach the Winter Solstice in December, the darkest day of the year.  What will happen at this significant time on Nature’s cycle? 

Does anyone in the participatory audience remember when Beatles founding father John Lennon sang the anthem Give Peace A Chance?  Well, as I reflect on the Autumn Equinox and Peace on Earth, let it begin with me.  And if you are reading, let it begin with you.  My soulful wife once gave me a card that reminded me that peace does not come from being in an environment of comfortable bliss surrounding me like a security blanket.  Rather, peace is found in the depths of a calm heart, even when chaos abounds.  For the record, I know some of you appreciate and enjoy the way this blog playfully weaves the spirited animal energy into the material realm, while conjuring up positive vibes that feel good.  If that is the case, then perhaps it conjures up empathy for the drug addict that tries to stay high all the time in the ether because hitting the ground is too painful and suffering, though inevitable, is avoided at all costs.  But a key dynamic in the spiritual path is that meditation shows us inconvenient truths about ourselves in that quiet space.  We have the potential to get to know ourselves on a deeper level and make friends with that.  However, I also recognize and appreciate that some readers, like the drug addict, do not like the smack down that they feel when this blog explores the harsh realities that are happening on our planet today.  While I appreciate this position, the mystic swims in the waters the addict drowns in.  This blog will continue to explore healing the polarity consciousness that currently divides us on Mother Earth and co-facilitate the transition into a New Age and Paradigm, where we celebrate the good times of Diversity within Unity.  Instead of God Bless America, we say God Bless The Planet and Universe throughout.  When I gaze on the lyrics of Genesis, it’s almost as if I can hear Peter Gabriel singing let us create humankind in our image.  Now I realize that everything should be taken with a grain of salt.  Moreover, a conservative interpretation of these lyrics, for those who like to take things literally, could be that we were genetically engineered by advanced beings from another planet.  Perhaps a more liberal perspective might view God as a transcendent Collective Energy that allows for the evolution of His-Her co-creation that illuminates as we wake up from our slumber, here on Mothership Earth.  Yes, there is a concrete sense of security in a dogmatic fixed idea of believing in a white man sitting up on a hierarchical throne with a gavel deciding who is permitted to join the Country Club and whom will be punished in a slow roast.  But Heaven and Hell are subjective inner states of consciousness that are reflected in our outer reality.  All we really have is right now, this precious moment that is always eternal.

As humans, when we get stuck in our fixed ideas and box ourselves in the ghettos of the mind with intellectual concepts and emotional reactions thereof, we tend to experience security in our consciousness that tastes like comfort food.  However, as we move onward in our collective assent, we expand and open up to the increasing spirited energies that are streaming in our planet right Tao.  Some folks will react to these energies unconsciously and that is their right.  Yes, there are more natural disasters, wars, poverty, famines and disconnection among the human factor with relation to Nature, though paradoxically more technologically connected.  But there is security in knowing that there is predictability in unpredictability.  If one way doesn’t work, another way will.  Together, we climb onward in surface and depth, one breath, one moment, one step at a time. 

Stay True,

Ari