Tag Archives: T’ai Chi

Staying Afloat with Duck as an Emotional Guide

Posted on by under Consciousness, Native American, Shamanism, Uncategorized

Whatever our circumstances might look like in this lifetime, our human brethren are emotional creatures that feel a strong yearning to belong and be included in fraternal sisterhood. Some of us, try as we might appear hellbent on avoiding and killing that aspect of ourselves. Living authentically however, is sobering us up to our need to regulate our emotional plight. Sure, we have plenty of things to distract us from our emotional bodies, like “work to do and bills to pay”. But those distractions only make it conveniently inconvenient to suppress and repress our emotional tides that inundate. During this powerful eclipse season and Full Moon coming soon to a theater of life near you, our emotional realities are intensifying. Between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, the masculine energetic light of day is rising, as are our spirits. Meditation on Duck is a free guide to tune in to. Its energies want to share its spiritual wisdom with you. When we allow Duck’s Chi to paddle into our souls, we are given emotional comfort and protection. We are in our element with water and given assistance while floating in the astral and emotional realms. Duck helps us drink in the waters of life and swim effectively and stay afloat in our emotional waters. Duck is a powerful spirit guide to maintain our Earthbound connection and let things roll off our backs when things get heated. If only our CEO-Government friends running the business of our military-industrial-complex would marinate on consuming Duck’s free-spirited teachings.

As the world burns, soapy pundits on the tele remain engaged and driven to distraction vis-a-vis the pontificating of ego-centered debates. Admittedly, fascism has its romantic undertones, but we need not choose to buy it. Words are used as weapons of mass distraction, but we have weapons of mass destruction that we need to clear. The time is now to shift our focus away from looking at our Mother Earth as a finite resource to deplete, to a living Being that gives us sustainable life. The engrained business as usual model that has been indoctrinated into our brains needs a new cognitive map. When we are identified with our minds, an endless sea of mental concepts and incessant accompanying emotional reactions are typically dominated by unrealized anxiety. And this hypnotic trance has a tendency to propagate a sleep walk through life. But in every breath we take, we have an opportunity to wake up. Rather than check out, we all have our part to do. For some it’s putting down the 40 ounces to slavery. For others, it might mean seeing through the veil that capitalism and socialism are really just opposite sides of the same coin. Instead of concretely looking at one another as separate and disconnected, one religion being right and the others wrong, qualifying the winners and losers mantra–we become in touch with our strong impulse to shift toward unity in our consciousness. We are leaving behind a bi-polar world of angels and demons, while co-authoring a New Chapter that includes a pluralistic and multi-polar New Earth script.

Ducks are sound creatures of habit and are good reminders to return to safe and comfortable aspects of ourselves when we need to feel safe within our Being. Their energies help us cope with our emotions gracefully. Meditation on Duck helps us acquire and access strategies in the areas of balance, emotional comfort, adaptability and adventure. Life is a journey, not without its labor pains. We all feel that right now, especially during these changing times of transition. The old world is burning, while stoking the embers of the Phoenix Rising. Do you need to establish balance, increase or pay more attention to your emotions and close relationships? Meditation on Duck is ready to help you receive consultation to those questions without charging a bill.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Heavenly Umbilical Chord Meditation

Posted on by under Meditation, Shamanism

Here is a meditation I would like to give you that I carry with me in my walking meditation tool-kit. It is a helpful resource in staying connected and in alignment with the Universal flow.

–Picture a luminous Divine thread from the Heavens connecting to the top of your head where your Crown Chakra is.
–Feel yourself being nourished by this Divine Light flowing in through the top of your head, pulsating down your spine, Chakras, body and exiting through the balls of your feet, or bubbling wells if you are into tai chi and qigong.
–Gently allow the residual energy to exit three feet into the Earth for organic compost. This process is free mulching for the soul.
–If you are into Reiki, you may also picture the appropriate symbols to enhance this powerful meditation.
–Repeat as needed.

Bonus material:
–Feel your heart open up and connect with other energies around you, allowing yourself to give and receive this Divine energy. Imagine yourself elevating your own consciousness and the consciousness of others.

When out on the trails of Life, this is one way we step into the realm of Infinity and co-create Heaven on Earth.

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

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

Isn’t Cougar Medicine the Cat’s Meow?

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Does anyone remember the great Native American footballer Jim Thorpe, or Wa Tho Huk, which translates as Bright Path in English?  Jim Thorpe was Sac and Fox Indian (and a wee bit Irish too) and was born and raised on a Reservation.  Although Bright Path never competed in the pentathlon or decathlon until he ventured to the Olympics in the early 1900’s, he won both events and was declared the world’s greatest athlete by the King of Sweden at the time.  But given how institutionalized racism was back then, Thorpe’s medals were taken away from him, citing a violation that he earned a few bucks playing semi-pro baseball before he competed in the Olympics.  There was nothing uncommon about that back then, just that Jim didn’t use a different name like other athletes did and later admitted that he wasn’t very wise to the ways of the world.  For those of us that watch professional football today, it might be hard to imagine that a Native American was the first president of the NFL (before the league was called the NFL).  Moreover, there is an old story that Wa Tho Huk shed light on some white players who didn’t want to level the playing field by allowing some black players to join in, by asserting something to the degree of, who cares what color they are, we’re here to play some football!  In today’s game, it’s hard to be a person of color and become President and it’s not always easy for a white man to be allowed to run with the ball.  But as we move on up into a New Age and Paradigm, we celebrate the good times of our diversity in unity as colorful rainbow children of Great Spirit.  Given his versatile athleticism and capacity to know when to lead and when to follow, I wonder if Jim Thorpe had a cougar totem as a power animal spirit guide?

Here in the Americas, the planet and Universe throughout, we are moving full steam ahead toward the Samhain, where the veils thin and the playing field levels between the material realm and the spirit realm.  With an election year rapidly approaching, I wonder if there will be trickery of coyote energy during this presidential election?  Will it be somewhat akin to 2000, when America flip-flopped between moderate Republican Al Gore and right-winger George W. Bush?  What a bunch of malarkey we have going on in American politics today!  Yet again, we have two candidates of Wall Street in our business run society that protects the status quo and seeks to block leveling impulses with expensive consequences that tax the average working American, who still tends to vote against his own interest, but without realizing it.  America is a business run society and it shows.  However, even a business run society has the potential to weave more egalitarian spiritual strands into its webbed matrix.  When resources are shared in a more equitable way, we see that there is enough and we can all win.  When our collective program nurtures healthy development of all neurons and neighborhoods with an open mind and open heart, then we equally invest in all sentient beings being equal creations of Great Spirit and nurture our Mother.  Do we continue pillaging our Mother that gives us life during our Earth walkabout or do we choose to dream a new dream?   Do we allow ourselves to shed light on psychic blood sucking vampires with dark energies surrounding them like Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan?   Do we allow skilled politicians fed by egotism to continue feeding off the ignorance of the American public at large?  Do we continue to vote for our current policies that suppress and repress our Global Community?  Who knows for sure, but remember there is a real political slugger named Rocky that is trying to run up the Capital steps that I hear makes a lot of political sense.  What is the old guard afraid of by allowing run-off elections and giving politicians free and equal access to air time?

With cougar, we have the potential to wake up and find the confidence to get in touch with our own true power.  In that, we learn to balance when to assert our power with masculine-yang energy and when to gently allow it to unfold in more feminine-yin energetic expressions.  Cougars are natural tai chi masters in that they teach us when to follow and when to lead, when to speak and when to listen.  All great leaders are good listeners.  And good listeners know how to hear the pulse of the planet and understand how to respond to the needs of our global community.  Cougars can jump up to 40 feet.  While meditating on cougar energy, just imagine the possibilities if humanity borrows its medicine to take a quantum leap forward into a New Earth!  Remember that when we become healthier by digging in and unearthing our own power, we need to ward off the naysayers that want to hold us back by convincing us to maintain the Satanic better the devil you know mantra.  Godspeed . . .  

Stay True,

Ari

Staying Rooted

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As I write this week’s journal entry, I’ve got my feet firmly planted on the ground, like a Wise Old Tree. While concentrating downward into the Earth, I breath in and pull Her energy upward through the soles of my feet, feeling nourished from the energetic pulsations through my Being. In the Spirit of “as within, so without”, I remember reading about Ged, in Ursula La Guin’s Earth Sea cycle. In much the same way as a True Wizard sails with the Mage wind at his (or her) back, Turkey Vulture uses minimal energy of its own. With the eclipses pouring in on Thanksgiving and December 10th, what a good time to use their energies to ride the thermals to help You shift with the winds of change. Ever resourceful, Vulture uses what’s available, a la Doc in the last scene in the film ‘Back to the Future’, when he loads up the DeLorean with trash for fuel . . . “roads, where we’re going, there are no roads.”

Additionally, I take my recent experiences with Turkey Vulture as friendly reminders for Us to pay more careful attention to what We consume, as “you are what you eat.” Merely paying attention to our thoughts and feelings can empower Us to replace the negative thoughts with positive thoughts as a walking meditation, if you will. Moreover, aromatherapy is a powerful tool in connecting with Spirit and stimulating Our sense of smell to assist Us in discernment when things don’t smell right. If you are smoke sensitive, then please consider playing with adding a couple of drops of essential oils to water in a pump spray. Although I love the healing properties of smoke, I also enjoy using lavender and sage mist as an alternative when Spirit calls for it. Similarly, paying attention to how We feel after We consume food and drink also helps Us notice what to say “what up, G” and “peace out” to. But please stay away from going ‘Rocky Balboa’ on yourself, as through the suffering, Divine Will yields the possibility of a Higher Purpose and perhaps a more colorful life.

Finally, it was in the cards recently that I heard someone recommend eating more root vegetables to strengthens One’s connection to the Earth . . . keeping Us, as we say in the T’ai Chi community, “rooted”. Has anyone ever heard of “eating for the Chakras?” It kind of fits into the KISS (Keep It Simple, Sweetheart) politics of living. Simply picture the various colors of your Chakras and eat foods that correspond accordingly. When eating a more colorful variety of foods, as a mindful eating practice, perceive your Chakras feeling nourished as you eat. Even if it’s initially bitter to the taste, I am wishing You all a sweet after taste and ease in Our digestion process in the gourmet dinner of Life! If you would like to boost your Chakra’s, please see blog date 7.18.2011 in the archives.  And I’ll be posting a hearty Thanksgiving blog entry on November 24 to mark the Spirit of the Season.

I Hopi You are well,

Ari

Am I Wearing A Mask, Or Just Being A Racoon?

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While walking in the woods recently, I found myself Falling back into some darker feelings, singing the blues to myself, if you will. Then I noticed the foliage changing colors and said to myself, “tis the season”, as I was able to leave those feelings  behind for a spell and shift in alignment with Inner Peace, while remembering gratitude for what is. Simultaneously, I heard a Blue Jay calling out to me and then watched another bathing himself in a creek after I found a place to hide.  From the Ground, I looked Up and said, “thank you” . . . the most important prayer I know. And just a few moments ago, I heard a Woodpecker reminding me to follow my own internal rhythms, while My Blue Herons encouraged me to stay rooted as I determine my own Destiny.

Following a Tai Chi workshop last weekend, I picked up some Thai food to go and while driving along the Road Less Traveled, I noticed a Racoon watching me as we shared a heartfelt gaze, if only fleetingly (I didn’t want to crash and burn into either of Us). In the spirit of darkness and disguise, I took my encounter with Racoon as an immediate connection to the self-defense aspect of the internal martial art that I’ve come to love, master of self-defense raccoons are. In fact, the “real master” that taught the workshop struck me as True to His Self, rather than a master pretender. When he spoke of closing Our eyes, if only briefly, it was as if he channeled Racoon’s Medicine to put on a mask and access a primordial space within.  I took this lesson as somewhat akin to when Obi Wan Kenobi instructed his late-blooming student to put on a mask and “use the force Luke.” In this way, We may step into a New dimension and access deeper realms. Has anyone out there ever heard of the ‘Johari Window’? In the Spirit of that, Racoon Medicine reminds Us that We have the opportunity to dive into the Unknown and retrieve New Vistas from aspects of Our Selves that might otherwise be unavailable. True, this process elicits ambiguity and equivocation because there is the sense of a ‘death of the old self’ and letting go of ‘who I am’. However, in this process of Alchemy, a re-birth and ‘who I am becoming’ lies on the Horizon. In much the same way as my Nervous Woodland Creature (NWC) friends–well, that’s something I can dig on, Ma Chucka.

Finally, the implications for Racoon Medicine are mind-bending and leaves plenty more to digest through the seasons, even as Chlorophyll wanes and meanders into the Dreamtime. Perhaps an Occupational Therapist might integrate a Shamanic perspective by tapping into Racoon’s energy when working with folks in developing their ‘fine motor’ dexterity and manipulation, while prescribing a ‘sensory diet’. Next time I’m ‘Chi washing’, I’ll marinate on Racoon Medicine when cleansing my Auric energy field and think of my martially masked friend as inspiring me to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, as I remember to wash them clean. While sleeping, I’ll dream a New Dream of putting to bed old aspects of myself, welcoming changing faces and exploring New Awakenings. Who knows, perhaps Racoon’s medicinal offerings might include some shapeshifting Gateways into my T’ai Chi martial arts explorations.

I Hopi You are well,

Ari