Tag Archives: Israel

Reflecting Back and Looking Ahead

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A Western New Year approaches, as does a
Full Wolf Moon at the beginning of January . . .

Let us heed the echoes of Wolf’s heartbeat!
Tracking into February, comes the arrival of the Chinese/Lunar New Year of the Dog

Meditate on the spiritual energy of Dog to walk into new energies –
that awakens pathways into a deeper compassion for all of humanity,
in spite of our human shortcomings that bubble up in our wake . . .

Consider taking your repeated exposure to your:

hate-oriented images of Donald Trump, a miserly Wall Street,
reptilian minded friends in Congress
(that metaphorically represent an obsessive, manipulative, controlling, and
down right abusive dying old world power structure that pits us against one another)

And replacing them instead:

With new pictures of Love and Light!
At the end of the day, that’s how we disarm the Beast as within, so without

Let us heed the call to scale back the toxicity of a dog eat dog mentality,
and seductive militaristic fantasies of a global fascist state

Not Israel, nor any other single nation-state should be designated as an
offshore base or be given preferential capital for global supremacy!

We should all be getting the message of oneness,
and equal opportunity in a multi-polar new world!

Everyone’s intrinsic talents should be
cultivated and developed to their fullest potential

But not at the expense of stepping on someone else who falls through the cracks!

Violence, and security systems that build walls that prohibit freedom of speech,
Should be examined with a reflective, and heartfelt intellectual examination . . .

Our world, and one’s personal spiritual evolution depends on
self-reflection, and forward free-thinking!

May this New Year bring you much wellness, inner joy, following your bliss,
a relaxation on ego-driven emotional reactions, and a forgiving attitude
to inspire our planet, and universal consciousness!

See you further up the trails,

Ari

Leaping Into the Dreamtime with Lizard

Posted on by under Native American, Shamanism

Lizard guides us into subtle powers of perception this week
As we transition through the Autumnal Equinox

Where yin and yang dance together in energetic equality

Now we move further into the dark
Turning our clocks yin-ward

Closing in on the harvest of a “perigee” Full Supermoon
Awakening in our Dreamtime early next week

Do you notice the rising tides and physical effects
From the largest and brightest Moon of the year?

Symbolically, it’s just another case of the end of the world as we know it

Old systems are breaking down . . .
While seasonal changes are in the air

Given that Israel is in many ways is an offshore US base
The Imperial intention should be to support peace in the Middle East

Perhaps you are among a growing body of “highly sensitive people”
Maybe opening up to alternate systems of communication –
like empathy, telepathy and clairvoyance

A fish feeling acute vibrations . . .
Can be a real out of water experience

Building a light-hearted and healthy sense of detachment
around where an individual energy field begins and another’s ends –
Is good medicine for knowing happiness and relaxing attachments

Look into the shadows to where the dreaming resides
No need to fear our own dark sides

Discovering your mysterious power in life will not turn you into
a dark magician or sorcerer like Darth Vader

Just let go and let God
Great power resides in surrendering to an unfolding Divine Plan

The situation is what it is . . .
Might as well say yes to it

Believe in the possibility of a more graceful process through pain
than creating more suffering

Our ancestral kindred spirits knew the reality of the dreaming
The trick in the treat today is to intentionally
weave our dreams into our waking world

That’s all the old guard has been doing to create a collective nightmare
that pits us against one another and
conditions us to believe an illusion that we are separate and disconnected

We are moving through a birth canal of labor pains
Born into a New Age and Paradigm

May our dreams be a lucid “royal road”
Crossing over a clearer bridge between our
subconscious and conscious fields of vision

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Singing Gleefully and Truthfully With Chickadee

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While tweeting with my peeps in the woods recently, a chickadee joined in while singing harmonically. As we look back on the Spring Equinox, waning Moon, Fireball that gleamed the Eastern Seaboard of the Americas, Chickadee’s energy welcomes the budding Spring growth yangward. Light-masculine energy is gaining momentum and spirited energies are intensifying. The black head cap sitting atop chickadee’s head represents the intellect, higher level thinking and levitation of our perceptual fields of vision. Black is a beautiful color and it symbolizes mystery, dark feminine energies and creative womb of life waiting to give birth. Perhaps this is why Aboriginal Australian and African shamans are remembered as powerful medicine makers of the Dreamtime. Ever since I was a boy, the idea of mind over matter resonated deeply within my soul. Consumption of Chickadee medicine aids us in unearthing the mysteries of the mind and effectively navigate the dark. Although small in stature, Chickadees are fearless social creatures and tend to flit about in groups. Given that there are seven kinds of chickadees, they symbolize an individual’s consciousness rising above the material plane, or a triangle (3) rising above a square (4). There are seven rays of power, seven major planets and seven chakra centers. When our chakras are balanced, we know a deeper awareness and connection to the Universal pillar of Truth.

We know the tweet sounds true that the empire is addicted to its wars and lustful relationship with violence. We can’t get enough of it in the corporate media. As such, this negativity is dancing on the minds of the masses, in many cases unconsciously. But the violence is waking us up, as Great Spirit works in mysterious ways. When we are paying careful attention, we see concrete evidence that peace is being considered a seed worth watering. For example, a Federal Court ruled against the state of Alaska’s challenge to the National “Roadless Rule” that would have nullified it and allowed for deforestation on Nationally protected land. Some of our friends that advocate for federalism are glad to switch gears by crying a river of crocodile tears for state rights. Sometimes, this delayed process strategically undermines environmentally friendly, win-win business that sees through the fog of a maximum economic profit paradigm. Moreover, one of our conservative friends in Congress has asserted, “a more restrained foreign policy is the true conservative policy.” Will actions speak louder than words by rolling back 700 American empire bases around our Planet? As things heat up in the Middle East, more folks are waking up to the need for a cease-fire in Syria, ending the war in Afghanistan, sanctions against Iran and the blockade by Israel of the Palestine. Isn’t is possible for the Phoenix Rising to be a radical shift in our collective consciousness, rather than a pocket full of terrorism disrupting the status quo? If only our birds sitting atop their hight perch would heed Chickadee’s peaceful chimes of freedom, as the truth shall set us free.

Some will assert that the truth stinks like dung. While dung is necessary for compost, the truth does not have to hurt in the sense of feeling blocked. Rather, truth may drip gently, like water gradually building momentum. This process is akin to an internal martial arts practice in that true power builds gradually. In that light, April showers bring May flowers. Chickadee reminds us to sing our truth in a cheerful way that reverberates within our flowering individual and collective souls. Has anyone felt lighter than when listening to a singing chickadee, while basking in our Sun’s vitamin D and breathing in crocuses fragrantly?

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

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

Studying Wolf’s Teachings

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I remember when Cat Stevens sang, “another Saturday night and I ain’t got nobody”.  A nice tune, but was he was tapping into the Moon-Dog of his soul when he penned the lyrics?  At the end of the day, it is our marriage to the Divine Light of our own souls that light our way.  Wolf’s spirited teachings guide us into the inner dens of our souls so that we will get to know ourselves on a deeper level.  Wolf offers us guidance regarding effectively using our instincts, intelligence and knowing when to be alone and when to be with family and community.  Given a Full Moon this Saturday night, it is a good time to meditate and journey with Wolf.  In this frigid cold front we are experiencing in Maine, it is difficult to imagine that the darkness is waning, while trotting toward the Chinese-Lunar New Year and Groundhog Day in February and the Spring Equinox in March.

During these shifting tides in our lives, we are asked to endure many hardships.  Right now, there is talk of yet another US war in Mali and a desire to expand the drone war without the consent of Congress or the American public.  Killer whales in the Pacific Northwest need more protection from the Endangered Species Act, not less.  Congress failed to re-authorize the Violence Against Women Act, while the Pentagon agreed to expand the use of women in the military.  In the Middle East, there is a non-violent Palestinian movement to put a cease-fire on land being taken by the Israeli Netanyahu government.  Even in a relatively free society like America, if a bank wants to take away your home or the government wants to put a highway in the middle of your town (that predictably dislocates your community and creates a ghetto), then they will.  Similarly, when my mom took her life 18 years ago, she pulled the rug out from under all of us who loved her.  In spite of all the traumatic exposure, the deep soul work is yielding a place of celebration, but without being as invested, regarding my relationship with her death.  I feel her spirit with me and keep her close to my heart every day.  There is an old picture of her in my sacred meditation space that I now look upon with a gentle gaze.  But arriving at this place has not been easy.  In fact, there has been much pain and suffering.  What is the difference?  Pain is an inevitable experience in life, while suffering is a choice.  We suffer when we attach dramatic stories to our pain.  And there is ego in that.  We begin to let go of suffering, when we start accepting our pain, while loosening the grip that our egos have on our Being.  This is somewhat akin to getting sick.  We have a choice to resist our illness or we can choose to accept and perhaps even embrace our illness as part of our holistic experience.  Yes, a part of me died when my mom left this plane, I crashed and burned on the inside and I still miss her today.  But as we have discussed, even in death there is re-birth.  Even physical death is merely a transition and what matters is how we navigate the Climate Change that we face. 

We are consciousness, rather than what consciousness has identified with.  Whatever labels we attach to ourselves is really the ego trying to strengthen itself and perpetuate its fragile existence.  But it is never enough, as the ego has an insatiable hunger.  Do you feel that your relationship would be just fine if your partner would just change?  Do you feel like you would be happy if certain things had gone differently in the past, or that the current situation was somehow different from how it is right now, or if you were relaxing in some future paradise?  Even folks in the spiritual community often fall prey to clever tricks played by the ego, by perceiving oneself as on a spiritual path, while constantly striving toward “getting it” or seeking Enlightenment.  In my own humility, I can related to that.  But digging deeper into the den teaches that it is in the waking up process that understands that in the surrender, letting go and embracing the unknowing, there is a form of security and protection in that.  During our awakening, we are clearing space for what lies ahead in our journey–our current lives, next incarnation and beyond.  We are capable of releasing spirit’s entanglement with form while we are still breathing.  May the energy of Wolf help guide your path and be a faithful, loyal and protective guardian.

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

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