Since the birth of this blog back in 2011, we have explored expanding consciousness together.

I remember when I was in social work school and living in Miami, and the need to learn how to meditate was calling out to me loud and clear. Like most of us, I white knuckled it for most of my life beforehand. Yeah, I had learned some effective coping strategies, but nothing like the consistent mindfulness practice that helps me stay in the flow, zone or alignment today.

Back in my Miami days, I had developed a nice connection with a teacher at my second internship who knew that I had started meditating. And he was excited to tell me about a hypnotherapy session that he had gone to with a licensed therapist who specialized in clinical hypnosis in his practice. After hearing about it, I wanted in, as did some of my social work peers.

Subsequently, the hypnotherapy session was the first time where I had a direct perceptible experience where I clearly glimpsed my soul’s essence. As in the formless part of my consciousness that was the deepest part of my identity that I had ever experienced till then. What was also clear was that I recognized that the formless part of me was also part of a collective consciousness that we are all part of.

And then many years later, I had a similar experience in a tai chi workshop; when I closed my eyes and saw both my formless self, as well as the formless selves of the other students in the workshop. Colorful prisms of the rainbow were also part of the experience.

Like the hypnotherapy session, I got feedback that I had “gone very deep”. The best part of the experience was that it wasn’t coveted or scripted because I did not have a sense of expectation, was in a really open place on the inside, nor had any idea that I could experience such a thing. Both experiences were spiritual awakenings, and a portal into deeper and higher form of consciousness.

At the end of the day, we have a choice to be a teacher of suffering or a teacher of presence. For those of you who have tried on both hats and know the difference, you already know the latter is the preferred way to go. If you find yourself arguing with that, then hopefully you’ll awaken to the truth that you are reinforcing the point.

But then again, suffering is always a catalyst to opening portals into consciousness, and being present with what is. From that perspective, the curse becomes the blessing or the blessing itself is the curse.

Or like George Lucas said about the Star Wars story, “the Empire is the Republic and the Republic is the Empire”.

During Mercury in Retrograde, and this Pisces season, we truly are fish in water swimming in a larger sea of consciousness, including soul travel.

Just as my old spiritual counselor would say about Pisces, “it is the best of signs and the worst of signs.”

What he meant by that is like all energy, we can work with it in the positive or negative. At its best, Pisces best trait is empathy. At it’s worst, their energies can be like sacrificial lambs.

A fish going with the flow and swimming downstream is a very different experience than fighting the current and swimming upstream. I’ve done both, and prefer to swim with the current rather than against it.

Or like Colin Hay (from Men At Work) sings, “My, my, my, it’s a beautiful world . . . I like to swim out beyond the white breakers, where a man can still be free (or a woman if you are one)”.

Through the echoing channels of Spirit, I can hear my old Teacher saying that we all have the signs of the zodiac within our being, in much the same way as we have the entire Universe within us.

Pisces energies are unique, in the sense that they are the tail end of the zodiac- so just as all rivers and lakes eventually empty into the oceans, all signs eventually flow into Pisces.

Just as an example, science has revealed that we all have stardust encoded in our human DNA.

Interestingly, Starseeds are said to descend from various star systems that incarnate as humans or are perhaps visited by ETs or trans-dimensional beings in the form of downloads in consciousness.

Stories about dolphins and whales are said to originate from watery Sirius:

To Wit: Have you heard the one about the treatment facility for dolphins with major mental health issues?

It’s called the School For Intensive Porpoises.

When contemplating human spiritual DNA, lineage or ancestry, consider the African Dogon Tribe’s connection to ancient Egypt, and Sirius in the Dog Star constellation.

What a long, strange, trip it’s been:

Regardless of where we come from, were we are going or what lifetimes we have lived; when you get down to it, it’s the now, the eternal moment or presence that really matters. It Is What It Is . . . Everything else is really just chatter. And while you’re at it, “keep hope alive”.

May all Beings be free of suffering awaken to the dimension of Inner Peace, and Cosmic Consciousness.

Ari