Tag Archives: Mother Nature

Resurrecting the Light with Beetle

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Last week, we followed Dog tracks.  Along the trails, I found myself being more affectionate with my family and mindful of boundaries in relationships. While celebrating the Winter Solstice, we noted hot topics of gratitude and letting go, while coaxing back the light.  On the Gregorian calendar, we embark on 2013 and continue pressing onward in our Consciousness’ assent.  We are in the process of Climate Change and co-creating a New Earth right now and you are It.  Some folks were terrified of Doomsday scenarios that promised the end of the world.  Others were disappointed about being disappointed that our dying old world didn’t fall off the cliff, while immediately being transformed into a Golden Age on the day after.  But aliens didn’t take over and Hillary Clinton went to the hospital–thankfully receiving quality health care without worry of how to pay for it.  Soon we welcome the arrival of the Chinese-Lunar New Year, as Spring begins budding underground with Groundhog.  Before too long, we will know energetic balance again on the Spring Equinox in March.  I awoke the other night to a clear vision of a Beetle gleaming across my inner sky.  Like the Sun’s movement across the sky, Beetle moves from East to West.   Mother energy has been revisiting us at this time, as feminine-yin energy is dominant and we are turning more inward.  Meditating on Beetle medicine is like tapping into a mutable orientation.  Whether we are Franz Kafka or an Average Joe, we are all capable of metamorphosis.  Is anyone else inspired by a bug’s capacity to radically change from an egg to a grub stage and then fly away as a winged creature?  In women, this is somewhat akin to menopause or “mentalpause” as I have heard it called.  Do I embrace this heated change or fight it like a war on something I reject? 

During our tracking right now, many of us remember our heavy heartfelt losses.  There is much pain and it is hard to make friends with that.  Picture the horribly uncomfortable position of grieving the death of a partner, while giving birth to a new child simultaneously.  Some folks have lost their jobs, their homes or gone through gut-wrenching break-ups, separations or divorce.  Even our worried well in the pampered West, are waking up to the hard times we are living in.  Others feel like they don’t know who they are anymore and are uncertain of who they are becoming.  In the mystery of Life, has anyone ever lost a loved one to suicide, unexpected death or any other permanent physical good-bye?  It is a mixed blessing to feel the spirit of the season and also really feel the deep hurt and anger regarding our myriad of deeply traumatic soul wounds, including the inequities, pain and suffering on our planet today.  After I lost my mom to suicide, I felt abandoned and forced to enter into adulthood with deeper wounds than your average Bear.  I had already felt that before she whacked herself, but the void widened, part of me died as well.  But it wasn’t the first time I felt that way, nor will it be the last.  Tempting as it was pursuing career goals, objectives and being driven to distraction–doing the inner work is always what yields fruitful  and sustainable returns.  Living isn’t really sustainable until we wake up to our deeper feelings, while stoking the fiery embers of passion and courage to move toward intimacy, while letting go of egocentric avoidance tactics that keep us asleep.  Some of us have fantastic avoidance mechanisms in place that get in the way of us getting in touch with our deeper souls. 

The old world of white privilege is dying too and it is OK to grieve that.  Some white folks feel like they are losing their country and for them, things seem to be getting worse and they are feeling resentful about it.  Some complainants at the top of the economic food chain do not think it is fair that they might have to pay a little more if the Bush tax cuts fade away.  But a simple perceptual shift reveals that when the playing field is leveled for everyone else, there is enough and we can all win.  When I see a community of straight white men going out on a limb and intimately sharing their feelings around a fire and cheering for gay folks being allowed to join our formerly exclusive club–it fills my heart with hope to see Karma being cleared.  Yes, social change is slow and Great Spirit works in mysterious ways.  Human rights, gay rights, gender equality, civil rights, worker rights and culturally sensitive mental health assessments and testing and equal access to resources are all manifestations of our forward progress.  But we need to remember that conservative energy anchors us in our traditions and be sensitive to that too.  Sometimes this looks like taking one step up and two steps back. 

We cannot always be in control of our lives and remain in our inner peace bubble.  Spiritual beings having a human experience need to come down from the mountain and learn to be on the ground with our fellow brothers and sisters.  Sometimes, our securities wane gradually, while at other times they wash away instantly.  We need to remember that we can control our attitude and how we respond to the cards that are dealt, regardless of how uncomfortable we feel about them.  But the democratic process is messy.  We are all in this together and we all have a say in the great waves of changes coming our way.

Stay True,

Ari

Patroling with alligator, adapting with coyote and making magic with cats

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I remember alligator vividly swimming into my dreams this week.  Alligator symbolizes primal energies of birth, motherhood and initiation and reminds us that we cannot experience death without life, nor life without death.  Alligator navigates water and land, symbolizing birth and creation.  Breathing fire into mythical connections to dragon, alligator reminds us to dig in our own Beings to unearth the treasures hidden within our own Secret Garden.  Alligator is good medicine to consume for cultivating new wisdom.  Its power moves swiftly, but if we do not harness its creative flood by staying buoyant, then we will sink like a stone.  Alligator powerfully helps us swim with the energies of the New Moon on Tuesday, November 13th.  Like a master T’ai Chi martial artist, alligator maintains a wide open angle gaze, while remaining submerged in water.  Energetically, its medicine hints at higher vision and clairvoyance.  In alligator’s wake, we notice the trickster coyote trotting into our consciousness, reminding us to carry a sense of humor and not take ourselves too seriously.  Coyote gets caught up in his own tricks, which do not always work.  Paradoxically, the tricks reveal treats in the form of laughter and joking that elevates consciousness and energetically lighten things up by stoking new and different viewpoints.  Coyote helps us balance the delicate dance of wisdom and folly.  Pouncing forward, cats remind us of the magical and mysterious elements of Life, provided that we are willing to navigate the darkness effectively.  Following election day, our cat revealed a penny to me from 1968, just before the light of day.  Somewhat akin to that era, present day Maine leveled the playing field by opening up marriage to all folks, regardless of how they are oriented in their sexuality.  Today, the line that was drawn and the curse that was cast evaporated before our eyes, but not without formidable resistance from a mountain of opposition.  Cats help us tap into the magic and mystery of Life, even when we feel that we are on the ropes, so to speak.  Their energy helps us wake up and see more clearly, even if we are hypnotically sleepwalking in the dark. 

On the surface, our planet is a hot mess, while the belly of our Mother is cooking up Climate Change as She re-births Herself.  In our Nation’s changing demographics, we nearly had our first orange president, chameleon that he is.  Has anyone out there noticed that many Caucasians, particularly those with economical means and positions of power are turning orange these days?  Thankfully, coyote helps us get comfortable in our own skin and embrace ourselves in the way we are naturally oriented. But the orange brother was defeated, as Barack Obama was re-elected to a second term, with high hopes from many that he will lead more gracefully during our transition into Aquarian Unity.  However, we need to remember that he is a business candidate of Wall Street and a crafty politician.  Movements like Occupy Wall Street are not going away, just as resistance from our friends in Congress, Supreme Court and High Command will continue to intensify.  The era of the wealthy viewing our Mother as a playground for the privileged is dying, just as the appetite for equal access to resources growing.  But spirited wisdom teaches that there are no enemies, separations or us and them.  We are all cut from the same cloth in the eyes of Creator.  Here in Maine, the will of the people recognized that the valued tradition of marriage will expand to all human orientations.  Gay folks will no longer be legally closeted and viewed as separate but equal from their heterosexual friends, whom until now, have exclusively enjoyed the privileges of marital membership.  Many folks have opened up their minds and hearts to the understanding that holding back our gay brothers and sisters from playing on a level field is the same form of discrimination as the color-gender line from an era ago.  What a long, strange trip it has been, but with clean energy, we keep on truckin’.

Are you feeling invested in and identifying with the robotic doings of everyday life?  Do you feel identified with any particular role that you play in your life?  Are you invested in the realm of outcomes and expectations?  Perhaps the energies of alligator, coyote and cat will help you dissolve and disarm those pesky entanglements with form and help your spirit express itself more freely and responsibly in this world of 10, 000 things.  During the week ahead, may we consider ingesting the energies of alligator, coyote and cat in our consciousness.  In this process, we gently allow ourselves to re-create ourselves anew by tapping into our primal depth, keeping our wits about us when balancing our wisdom and follies and remembering the magic and mystery of our daily routine.  Together, we watch the movie of our lives unfold before our eyes wide open.

Stay True,

Ari

Dreaming with Salamander and cleansing withTurkey Vulture

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I remember walking along the trails with a student, when he noticed a salamander.  After exhaling dead air, I felt alive after taking a conscious breath of fresh air.  Further along the festival of Life, I became engaged in another conversational flow with one of the cats I roll with from around the way.  After helping him pick up some fallen branches left over from Hurricane Sandy, I said a prayer of gratitude for the storm’s minimal impact in our neck of the woods, while simultaneously expressing a silent blessing to our friends to our South that were affected more dramatically.  Given that I had just cast my absentee ballot, our conversation quickly cut to a commercial about going blue.  Although I didn’t turn into a wolverine or get depressed while listening to my feline friend’s assertion to vote in that hue, it saddens me that we are merely one step away from a dictatorship here in the United States, in that we are more polarized than ever in our collectively boxed-in mindsets.  But seeing two women on a presidential ticket here in the USA fills my heart Chakra green with hope!  When we truly walk in alignment with Nature, we shift our focus less on the odds by levitating into the realm of Infinity, where holographic possibilities abound.  With turkey vulture and salamander as a spirit guides, we ride the thermals of life, elevate our Auric vision and invigorate our energetic field around us.  Moreover, we shed our old skin to make way for rebirth and effectively navigate the elemental forces of land and water.  In this process, we co-create Heaven on Earth by consuming a healthy spirited diet, while feathering each other’s ripple in a positive vibration of Love and Light.

If we are to co-create a more egalitarian culture here in the Nation, the Americas, Planet and Universe throughout, we need to heed the cadence of Classroom Mothership Earth and the heart of Great Spirit.  All creatures, great and small, above and below are equal in the eyes of Great Spirit and we are all nourished by our Mother Earth.  Nature has an organic way of leveling the playing field and we see that play out in Climate Change.  Some of you have noticed that I have selected Tom Brady as a metaphor for staying calm in the pocket, especially when blitzed by unpredictable and turbulent weather patterns in the form of Giants.  Tom Brady personifies someone who may not have been blessed with the greatest natural talent, but he has become greatness by avoiding catastrophes time and again.  Specifically, the future Hall of Fame quarterback effectively demonstrates T’ai Chi like subtle movements in the pocket, psychically reading and adjusting to relentless defensive storm fronts and maintains a wide open angle gaze downfield, while believing in the possibility of making a big play, against apparent all odds.  Now if you think I’m throwing low balls at the rest of the team around him, I’ll bet that turkey vulture would concur that would be a foul ball.  Like a salamander, Brady slithers between the elements and demonstrates metamorphosis right in front of our eyes.  Like switching gears from running and passing, Mother Nature shows us similar shifting fronts of waning light and movement toward the dark.  Here in the Northern hemisphere, we officially turn our clocks yinward in the week ahead.  Masculine-yang energy is fading to black as feminine-yin energy is becoming more dominant, until it’s climax on the Winter Solstice and the end of the Mayan Calender on December 21, 2012.

Given the corporate media’s compartmentalized view of Nature’s new normal, we must get into alignment with Climate Change by embracing this phenomenon, rather than resisting it.  Humanity has a say in how we navigate this process and rather than hate the media, we must become the media.  On a personal spiritual front, experiential wisdom reminds us that what we resist persists and we must become the change we want to see in the world.  Yes, large socialist mega-corporations that continue to rape and abort our Mother need to wake the f-bomb up and stop fracking around folks, as my Midwestern aunt that likes to rant provocatively asserts.  We are spiritual beings having human experiences.  As such, we have the capacity to right the ship, come about and lead an unprecedented shift in consciousness while floating on the waters of life.  When we see things in our field of vision that are alarming, the Universe is providing us an opportunity to send the power of Love to whatever floats in our orbit.  That means that we acknowledge our anger and other flood of negative emotions that arrive and then gently breath those feelings out, while sending them Love for compost.  In a sense, we swim on land and surf the shifting tides into a New Age and Paradigm, one step, one breath and one moment at a time.  This kind of mulching has a much more pleasant stink to it than getting stuck in the muck.  By sending Love to our inner space, we shift from pollution to healthy renewable energy for all to share. 

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

If I Should Fall Behind, Please Leave Me Alone . . .

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Autumn is my favorite time of year, although Mother Nature’s indecision right now makes it difficult to know when to put on or peel off, pun intended . . . “how do you like them apples?”. “A time when darkness overtakes light, and nights grow longer than days. It marks the second station of the year. It is the time of calling, ripening of the harvest, a prelude to a wakening at Samhain. If it is warm at the autumnal equinox, the season should be fine. The goddesses Carpo and Carman are deities of autumn and poetry, respectively.” What’s more, Fall is a time of energetic alignment, somewhat akin to spring equinox, though in this case, beginning to rest, rather than awakening. At this time, We balance Our Selves as We prepare for rest and inner work. Turning Our clocks “yinward”, so to speak.

I remember an anthropology class I took way back in college that included a required text-book entitled, Other Fields, Other Grasshoppers. I remember leaping right into the open view that book espoused for warding off Our tendency to become ‘ethnocentric’ in one’s fieldwork with diverse cultures. Moreover, Carl Jung always struck me as in alignment with this kind of energy as a psychologist and a therapist and inspired me to follow suit by laying my cards out on the table. I’ve heard it said that one should “write about what you know.”  In the spirit of that, I’ll focus on what’s going on with the weather (dialectically pronounced weathah) around the way in the neck of the woods I sit. However, I would also like to acknowledge that I’m not reporting on merely what I see through my physical eyes, as I practice letting go of identification with my humanity, while awakening from my own slumbering ‘inner space’. In fact, as We officially transition from Summer to Autumn here in Our Northern Hemisphere on Mothership Earth, I’m inspired to Fall back and trust that the dying leaves will catch me in a gentle and loving Gaia safety net. Ah, the ‘Web of Life’, as Chief Seattle once spoke of in His wisdom. Wilting flowers, falling leaves, watching children playfully running and jumping through piles of leaves, temperatures waxing and waning (perhaps conjuring up sneezing), as Light and Dark are equally One, albeit diverse expressions of that Oneness, in the Great Cosmic Wheel.  I hardly think Steve Perry could hit a note as High as D Sharp in a Harmonic Convergence of acoustical journeying. Paradoxically, I heed Chuck D spittin’ a Public Enemy number one message to the Military-Industrial Complex, “don’t treat my highs too high or my lows too low” . . . Doesn’t Mr. Miyagi’s martial arts wisdom strike a chord when he says to ‘Danielson’, “balance is about all of life.”?

On this Autumn Equinox, I am reinvigorated into Bee Leaving the forecast may be dimming, though when I keep my ear to the ground, I can still hear Summer whispering to stay light on the feet and drink in the nectar of life. Although the subsequent funeral procession that accompanies Fall might be the death of me, I am also fairly certain the changing tides won’t be the last time I commit suicide–from the Shamanic death of the old self perspective. I wonder if Kafka’s main character in The Metamorphosis would have come out of his shell if had he embraced a Groundhog totem in learning a ‘death without dying experience’ and realized We are not as alone as We might feel from time to time? In every moment of breath, there is death and re-birth–a trumpet sounding its call sure, but a new star shining brighter on this New Morning. Maybe it’s just a little more colorful during this time of year, especially in Northern New England that showcases my favorite time of year that welcomes “leaf peepers” trotting from around the Globe. In fact, I look forward to the Fall, Halloween, All Soul’s Day and All Saints Day–especially given the “thinning of the veils” and watching them lift so that it’s a more open time to commune with Our human family members whom have passed on. It is a great time to honor Our ancestors and thank them for their sacrifices in clearing space for Our evolutionary impulse toward “walking in a Heaven that We can finally see.” And that Heaven on Earth happens when We are present with Our Selves right Tao, as We gently let pass any devilish fixed ideas and egoic attachments to future projections.

In the remembering and forgetting, I try to remind myself to focus on the positive aspects of life, to see the ‘silver lining’ and remember the Sun and Moon are merely hiding when We can’t see them dancing with One another. Moreover, I know the ‘Voice of the Trauma’ quite intimately and realize how easily seductive it is to pay attention to the doom and gloom scenarios that accompanies the unfolding human drama. However, I agree with the ancient wisdom that says, “know Thyself” and also Master Yoda’s understanding in self-awareness when He said to Luke, “you will know, when you are calm”. When We give Inner Peace a chance, We co-create Heaven on Earth, one step, one moment, one individual at a time. When We take this step toward Our True Self, We step in alignment with Nature, with the Universe and We know Oneness.  When I observe the Nervous Woodland Creatures going Straight Outta Woodland, this time of year, I think they can dig on what I’m saying–especially since they seem quite present being so nuts. Perhaps Red Squirrel is really just saying, “G’Day Mate”, merely cloaked in His sentinel bravado? I know I am my own Boss when I sing to myself, “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

Finally, in recent meditations on Turkey medicine, I remember to give thanks for the shared blessings and harvest Turkey brings to Us–especially during Autumn. What would happen if our “senators and congressmen please heed the call” of Turkey to offset “rampant consumerism” and realize that “there’s enough and we can all win.” So, maybe 28 billion is slashed for yet another weapon of mass destruction, followed by yielding on blowing it up to see if it’ll produce a mushroom cloud. Now, maybe I’m just being a fun-gi, but I don’t think it’s too much of a sacrifice for the Military-Industrial Complex to cut some of that spending and reinvest that savings into healthcare and education and more importantly, a more balanced systemically oriented budget that values Universal capital. What would happen if the pyramid on the Almighty Dollar looked more like an equilateral triangle than the sinking ship that it looks like right now? I see Turkey’s medicine as somewhat akin to “birds of a feather, flock together” as We transition into a New Age and Paradigm. Now that’s a Sunny harvest I can digest . . . especially when Full from a Moonshadow.

I Hopi You Are Well,

Ari