Tag Archives: Shamanism

Diving with Pelican into the bay of Forgiveness

Posted on by under Uncategorized

I remember hearing a spirited earworm singing there is God in forgiveness. It’s as if the energy of Pelican nourishes our soul with this food for heartfelt thought. During this week’s digestion process, why not marinate on that during our walking meditation through Life? Spring begins on hump day. As such, we begin a new season and have a whale of a time while dancing equally with masculine and feminine energies in an egalitarian marriage between light of yang and the dark of yin. Right now, it is natural to grieve the loss of Winter and the dying old self. At the same time, feeling the intensity of Spring gaining momentum is blossoming within. Organically, we feel mixed and conflicting emotions vibrating within our Being. Pelican’s medicine is a good reminder to let go of judgments of self and others. This does not mean we forget or condone. It means that we co-create win-win realities with one another when arriving in this place. We are all connected and expressions of Great Spirit’s unfolding. The perception that we are separate and disconnected is real, although in the sense that it is an illusion. Intellectually, we know that our sciences and spirituality have teachings that inform us of this truth. But understanding this truth further down in our souls, it means that we have to dive deeper to get a closer look at what is going on underneath. During our travels, Pelican symbolizes a buoy so that we may stay afloat. Remember the mystic swims in the waters the crack-up drowns in. And it is easier to look outside and make a judgment at some perceived external target. While there is freewill in staying in that place, a growing number of us are realizing that the object of our affection, or the demonized enemy is merely a mirror reflecting back a shadow Self for us to take back and release for healthy compost. In this light, we look at our darkness with a gentle, forgiving and judgment-free gaze. This is how we take back our projections without hurting ourselves. Instead of us and them, there is we that celebrates our diversity. If only our World Leaders would kill with kindness, rather than feeding off the souls of our planet, while justifying that it is good for business.

On the surface, Frankenfoods are being touted as a preferred way to eat. Students borrowing monies to access higher education are about one trillion in debt. Why isn’t education free? This sounds like a lot of money, but pales in comparison to America’s national debt. Paradoxically, the nice guys running the dog and pony show continue to funnel and accumulate more wealth at the top of the food chain. Our friends in Congress, bribed by bullying megacorporations, turn a blind eye to a 30 year trend that has fueled an underclass and nearly whacked a Middle Class. We are witnessing this wheel spinning insanity that parrots a mantra that says a trickle down will somehow benefit the masses and is in our best interests. How is the absurdity of this paradigm working for us? Is the model of a hard-working CEO making 380 times an average working person fair and equitable? Have we given peace a chance? I hardly think a Totalitarian State could convince us of that, with the proliferation of remote control drones bombing our human family to protect a way of life that is lose-lose. Instead of Europeans spreading disease in the Americas, under the guise of freedom, we have Nepalese spreading diseases in Haiti, under the guise of freedom. Instead of citing England as the model for democracy, Exxon is professing to believe in education by spending millions on advertisements by slickly asserting their stock in education, but balking at paying their full tax bill that would allow for more equitable resources in education. But the idea of Elizabethan Poor Law remains constant–that those in power should view sharing as a charitable duty and a sacrificial act of alms to the poor. This intellectual concept that serves as a security in consciousness does not understand that greed and arrogance cannot be bypassed. When these underlying feelings are owned, processed and made friends with, we will see a waning of our wars, addictions, pretending and collective egotism. Through trust, we will see more Love and Truth. Rather than ego-centered arguing, defending and throwing temper tantrums on C-SPAN, our Senators and Congressmen will heed the call by honoring the will of the people. In the meanwhile, it is going to take every one of us to do the inner alchemy to co-create a pyramid that looks more like an equilateral triangle. If corporations are people too, then where is the love guys? Our souls demand cleaner energy to feed our spirit-mind-bodies during our journey here. America was built off the backs of free and low-wage labor, making some entrepreneurial folks very wealthy. The time is now to give something back in an open and honest way, without the cloaks and daggers of yesterday. Like we learned in kindergarten, it’s time to start sharing our cookies again.

On the trails of Life, when we remember to consume the energy medicine of Pelican, the New World of inner peace is revealed. Pelicans demonstrate team work when competitively and cooperatively catching fish. There are no enemies and we are all playing on the same team, whether realized or not. In a harmonic convergence, navigating in their waters resonates in our souls by helping us stay afloat, rather than sinking like a stone in these changing tides. Are you inspired by the clean energy of Pelican and their message to dive into the bay of forgiveness?

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

With Gulls, We See Beyond Red Herrings

Posted on by under Uncategorized

Sea gulls, or more properly herrings, symbolically represent powers of perception and the subtleties of communication. Hailing primarily from shoreline communities, these creatures understand what it takes to navigate the mystical union of land and sea. While communicative nuances such as empathy, telepathy and other psychical abilities are flying below the radar, even conservative psychology recognizes that humankind predominantly communicates on this level, whether realized or not. Meditation on Herring is good medicine for us to heed their wisdom so that we communicate more effectively with one another. Given our modern technological advances, such energetic patterns are being measured with rigorous scientific data and machinery. While some folks in the healing arts community rely on technology to listen to energetic signals within a client’s body, others prefer using their intuitive faculties as practitioners. Of course, striking a balance is key. Using technology is a tool, but developing ourselves as spiritual Beings is a primary ingredient to a healthy Life diet. Waking up to a multidimensional awareness is not always easy, particularly for those of us who are dimensionally challenged. Awareness leads us toward integrating our emotional bodies, by releasing blockages, with our intellect. Living authentically means that we nourish our souls, while navigating the elements. Consuming a walking meditation way of living is a key ingredient to effectively digesting our soul food.

Waking up recognizes the experience that we have much drama and toxicity on our dying old world. We hear stories about UFO’s and USO’s on air, land and sea. What is going on beneath the surface of our material reality? Whether confidently dismissed or believed as real, we must understand that on some level, there is a reality to the perception that there is more going on here than meets the eye. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, we know the oppressive, Establishment Majority prefers to remain unexamined and hidden. Although concentrating wealth further toward the top of the pyramid is a developmentally delayed perspective, arrogance and greed are powerfully blinding dark emotions that carry a vampire like venom to their bite. We all experience this, but thankfully a growing number of us are allowing maturation to kick in and gather fair and balanced information about what this news has to inform us. Even our more provocatively bullying friends in Congress must be seen as mirrors for our sociopathic, predator like ways that insidiously feed on mass carnage. Humanity all shares predator and prey qualities within our Being–we are all living embodiments of the yin and the yang, masculine and feminine and light and dark flowing within ourselves. Our freewill allows us to live in denial and get stuck in victim consciousness by maintaining blaming and judgmental attitudes. But by continuing to live in this nightmare, even our Nervous Woodland Creature friends would assert that we would be swimming in a familiar old river in Egypt, ma’ chucka. It is only when we are unconscious, spiritually speaking, that we act out in the cannibalistic manner that our Global Leaders are modeling to us from the top down. What is so terrifying about leveling the playing field? Sure we have color TV, but how much better off are folks of color and the overwhelming majority of us in real-time? The privileged few have more now than ever and are relying more heavily on military might to protect that way of life. If corporations are people too, then why can’t they be held accountable for their crimes? Those of us that understand good discipline recognize that natural and logical consequences are powerful teachers, rather than ineffective punishment that foment more terrorism and violence. We have so much Karma to clear. Many of us in the healing profession understand that our system is sick and in dire need of systemic treatment. When the California Coastal Commission asserted no thank you to the Navy’s plan to proceed with their underwater sonar blasts and bombing, Great Spirit and our oceanic cetacean friends were pleased with that vote. Human beings are inherently good and when cultivated with love, sometimes tough love, we learn to effectively integrate our shadow sides into living in harmony with all sentient beings and machines alike. With Mercury in retrograde, it’s a good time to make amends with past relationships and remember patience with respect to the communication signals we are sending and receiving.

Remembering to consume Herring’s spiritual therapy is a sound way to ingest a hearty and medicinal energetic diet. Why not wash our spirited food down with a Divine cup of Sacred Feminine water element? Their spirited teachings help us develop our communication abilities with one another. Welcoming the energy of gulls into our consciousness helps us tune into the harmonic convergence of the Planetary and Universal sound of Great Spirit. Given the spirited energies coming down the pike, it is especially important to stick in alignment with Nature’s shifting tides, while heeding the Universal heartbeat. And it is a sound that resonates in our collective souls.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Dolphin Meditation

Posted on by under Meditation, Shamanism

Here is a shamanic journey meditation that I have selected to share with you this week to stay in the flow of Nature. Journeying with Dolphin helps us bring back visions from the Dreamtime so that we may bring more of that energy into our material reality. This is a spirited way to consume healthy energy medicine that is good food for the soul.

*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 dolphin in your imagination and feel its energy coming into your Being.
*Ask Dolphin 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 dolphin 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 Dolphin brought to you. These messages might be in the form of feelings, lyrics, sounds, visuals, etc. Let go and gently allow your soul to inform you as you travel along in your walking meditation.

Swimming in Dolphin’s wake

Posted on by under Uncategorized

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

Riding with Whale

Posted on by under Uncategorized

Remembering when to connect with the energy of Whales helps up tap into our soul’s purpose during our venture here.  But even within our day-to-day routine, we can know an awakened doing, where we let our soulful presence shine onto the world around us when we are going about our doings.  In our Being, paying attention to our breathing patterns during our walking meditation is a key ingredient to a sustainable healthy Life diet.  Of course, drinking plenty of water doesn’t hurt and we all benefit from equal access to clean drinking water and water to play in.  Legend tells us that Whale carries the consciousness of our Planet’s history.  I even heard somewhere that a long, long time ago whales flew in the air.  Right now, ingesting their medicine aids us in understanding sound and frequency and learning how to connect to the Universal heartbeat of Love and Truth to light our way and stay afloat.  As such, we loosen up and dismantle our rigid boundaries so that our energy flows more freely like water in our relationships with one another.  We still respect one another’s personal space, but in a way that allows for soulful exchanges and heartfelt connections in an authentic and respectful fashion.

When remembering to take an honest, gentle gaze on our Planet today, it is like reading a parody of a fairy tale that we ought to be embarrassed to read to our grandchildren when it comes to our current relationships with one another.  Whether subtle or provocative, what is it about violence that is so engrained into our human family system as a preferred way of life?  What is it about fear that is so dominant in our psyches?  What is the Navy so afraid of in that they continue using sonar weaponry that is decimating our whales, dolphins and other cetaceans?  What else is going on in our ocean’s depths they aren’t telling us about?  Yet, our friends in Congress continue pounding their war chests by pouring more money into dirty energy, a bloated military, weapons of mass destruction and the commercialization of assault weapons, crime rhymes, violent movies and video games readily available on the shelves.   Does our experience with Climate Change have to be so traumatic?  No.  We have the capacity to facilitate this process, move with the shifting tides by radically accepting every moment exactly as it is and even finding the courage to embrace the living moment, rather than resist it with a fight.  Pacifism is not about being passive and condoning the sickness in our world.  It is about radical self-control, effective self-government and making a conscious choice to say peace out to violence directed at the self or toward another.  When we make friends with that, we will know peace on Earth.  Remembering to be gentle on ourselves and creating space to get to know our souls on a deeper level is part of Whale’s teachings.  If only our World leaders would move beyond short-term tunnel vision and see the forest for the trees as well.

As we loosen up our rigid thought patterns and boundaries, we open up to the flow of Love to pour into our souls.  Meditation on Whale and the water element in particular is good medicine for that.  When we allow our relationships with ourselves and one another to flow like water, we become more equipped in staying buoyant with our tension and relaxing into the living moment, regardless of how heated it gets.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Slowing Down with Turtle’s Medicinal Teachings

Posted on by under Uncategorized

When we remember to integrate Turtle’s energy into our consciousness, we welcome a conscious intention to retreat back into our shell from the chaos around us for a spell.  In this place, we are more connected to our Mother Earth and to the darkness of feminine-yin energy.  In much the same way as our oceans, we learn to stay low and kneel before our bounty, rather than constantly striving and trying to make things happen through force.  Instead of trying to “push the river”, we gently allow Turtle’s spirited traits of wisdom, longevity, patience and perseverance to flow into our awareness, take root and connect to our primal essence.  Turtle is the oldest symbol of Mother Earth in Native American teachings.  In this light, we are encouraged by Her teachings to give back to our Mother, as she has given so much to us.  It will not be long before Spring arrives and Life abounds.  We all win when we sow the seeds of Love and reap the fruits of Truth.  This music to Great Spirit’s eardrums.

Here on our dying old planet, there is a New Earth blossoming.  But during the stormy weather of Climate Change, chaos is in our midst.  Living authentically recognizes that we are given permission to grieve, to shed our tears and raise our fists to the developmentally delayed world that our souls have incarnated into right now.  We have so much help available to us from the spirit realm, but with much resistance and unconsciousness that serve as roadblocks.  The toxic systemic programming we have in place in the modern world no longer serves us.  Although I deeply empathize with the desire to avoid or escape from looking at these alarming messages being revealed to us, we need to remember not to shoot the messenger and only kill with kindness.  We are right to powerfully assert to our bullying friends in Congress and leaders of First World nations to stop the insanity.  We need to develop equal access to resources so that we have a viable safety net to catch our global citizenry.  Moreover, we need to treat one another with dignity and respect.  Sleepwalking through life, while armed with blocked and negative energy kills in a subtler than the increased probability of killing another by packing heat with a concealed weapon might.  When we walk around trigger happy, while plugged in to the voice of the trauma, we are more likely to perceive things as a threat and shoot from the hip.  We assert that all souls are entitled to a safe and healthy childhood.  Our souls naturally desire to embody happiness as a way of life and follow its bliss.  Isn’t it is good news that meditation as a way of life has the potential to free you from bondage?  In our business run society, there is almost always a fee for service, a price to pay and a debt to incur.  In this madness, isn’t it attractive to know that meditation is free and now more accessible in a variety of forms to explore.  By shifting our focus on our breath, we return to the present moment without projecting onto or attaching stories to the past, future or situation at hand.  Staying calm in the pocket is helpful to both yourself and everyone else.  Accepting what is and even having the courage to embrace whatever arrives on our path, is ultimately much more pleasant than resisting what is.  This concrete awareness is our call to nurture one another, while moving forward.  It is paradoxically both a challenge and an opportunity to understand that this process feels too slow, while at the same time everything feels too fast.  There is much polarity to heal so within as without.  Perceiving ourselves as interconnected to one another helps us celebrate our diversity within our unity, while increasing our empathy.  In this light, we can become the change we want to see. 

Turtle’s shell represents protection and a friendly reminder to turn yinward, honor our feelings and pro-socially assert them when we are called to do so.  When we attune to the Mother-goddess within our Being and ask Her for help, we awaken to allowing abundance to flow into our lives.  Our reptilian friends are essentially living dinosaurs and embody amazing survival instincts.  They are omnivorous and opportunistic, so their medicine teaches us to slow down, pay attention and see the opportunities that fleetingly pass us by during our daily walkabout.  Our journey to Heaven is through the Earth.  When we step into the realm of Infinity, we know Oneness and see that we are all interconnected.  Isn’t that a drumbeat of empathy we can all rock on?

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Dreaming a New Dream with Groundhog

Posted on by under Uncategorized

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

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

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

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Studying Wolf’s Teachings

Posted on by under Uncategorized

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

Posted on by under Uncategorized

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

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

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

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Diving with Loon into the depths of the Soul

Posted on by under Uncategorized

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

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

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

Stay True,

Ari