Swirling water streams intertwine with glowing geometric crystals in an abstract composition.
Check out this newly created experimental AI Podcast feature that aligns with my writing, compliments of WordPress.
Full Disclosure: Truly, I do take pride in my writing, and have yet to use AI for the written word. However, I have been having fun with playing around with AI for illustrations.
This podcast version of 1 of my more recent writings stars 2 AI created characters named Pip and Mara.
Please enjoy the podcast & transcript below:
Pip: Classroom Mothership Earth — where the curriculum includes falling off your bike, losing on purpose, and calling all of it wisdom.
Mara: That’s actually a fair summary. Ari Joshua Bouse has a new post up exploring resilience, paradox, and how everyday stumbles become the practice itself. Let’s start with what it means to stop fighting the dark and work with it instead.
Embodying Paradox, Change and Humor In Everyday Life
Mara: The central question here is how resilience actually gets built — not by avoiding difficulty, but by changing your relationship to it. The post argues that resilience is cultivated, not inherited, and that the everyday moment is where that cultivation happens.
Pip: And the frame for all of it comes from a Taoist concept the post calls Investing In Loss. The setup is direct: “you might lose a game 99 times out of a hundred. But if you lose 99 times and you are paying mindful attention about your partners moves, you can learn their tricks, and spring the trap to win the 100th game.”
Mara: So the upshot is that losing, done consciously, is actually data. The mindset shift the post is pointing at is the difference between defeat and apprenticeship — same outcome, completely different relationship to it.
Pip: The bike and the swimming pool make the same case more viscerally. Most of us got water up our nose and fell off the handlebars and somehow did not develop lasting trauma from either. We just got back on.
Mara: Right — and the post uses that to ask a genuine question: how do we stay present in everyday life the way we were present when we were learning something genuinely new and a little scary? That’s where Dan Millman enters. The Way of the Peaceful Warrior gets name-checked as a long-running personal touchstone — a book recommended in high school, not fully read until after college, but never forgotten.
Pip: There is something quietly honest about admitting the book sat on the to-do list for years before it landed. Delayed absorption counts.
Mara: The post opens with two epigraphs that frame the whole thing. Eckhart Tolle on bringing in light rather than fighting darkness, and S. Kelley Harrell going further: “bless the darkness, hold the light, because the two aren’t divisible.” That’s the paradox the title is naming — not resolving the tension, but inhabiting it.
Mara: The shadow-boxing image the post offers — awakening to shades of your hidden self in a mirror — suggests the inner work and the outer stumbling are the same practice, just different angles.
Pip: Lose on purpose, get back on the bike, and hold the light and the dark at the same time. Straightforward advice, if you don’t mind the bruises.
Mara: That tension between difficulty and openness seems like the thread worth pulling next time.
Please enjoy the original post that inspired this new podcast version at the link below:
May all Beings be free of suffering, and awaken to God Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness, Unity Consciousness, Diversity Within Unity, Inner Peace and the Universal Pillars of Love And Truth.
Complex network of glowing interconnected lines representing neural connections
Check out this newly created experimental AI Podcast feature that aligns with my writing, compliments of WordPress.
Full Disclosure: Truly, I do take pride in my writing, and have yet to use AI for the written word. However, I have been having fun with playing around with AI for illustrations.
This podcast version of 1 of my more recent writings stars 2 AI created characters named Pip and Mara.
Please enjoy the podcast & transcript below:
Pip: Mercury is in retrograde, paradigms are shifting, and somewhere a crocus is bravely breaching the frost — welcome to Classroom Mothership Earth.
Mara: This episode follows Ari Joshua Bouse into questions about consciousness, imagination, and what it actually means to navigate a world in transition. Let’s start with the post that frames all of it — what’s in this for any of us.
What’s In It For Me? A New World If You Can Take It.
Pip: The post opens with a provocation: we are collectively in transition, between paradigms, and the question is how you hold yourself together while the scenery changes around you.
Mara: The grounding line comes from Amit Goswami, who the post cites as arguing that consciousness is “the foundation of existence that causes the wave function to collapse into a single experienced reality.”
Pip: Which is a dense way of saying that what you believe about reality shapes the reality you experience — and that science and spirituality are, as the post puts it, converging in waves.
Mara: The post builds that convergence from several directions. Indigenous oral traditions — the Hopi origin story gets a specific nod — carry accounts of Sky People and humanity’s relationship with Mother Earth that predate modern frameworks by millennia.
Pip: And then there are the credentialed dissenters: Colonel Phillip J. Corso, author of The Day After Roswell, and Harvard psychiatrist John E. Mack, who wrote Passport to the Cosmos. Both decorated, both professionally established long before they started talking publicly about UFO and ET phenomena.
Mara: The post treats them as contextual witnesses — people whose prior credibility makes their later accounts harder to dismiss. The through-line is that stories about where we come from are not fixed. They shift the way seasons do.
Pip: The Mercury retrograde framing earns its keep here. The post compares it to The Twilight Zone — that liminal, slightly disorienting space where the usual rules feel suspended and perception gets elastic.
Mara: And the practical counsel the post lands on is this: stay playful, stay light-hearted, maintain a healthy detachment. The warning is against fixed thinking and fear-based framing — what the post calls “doomsday scenarios” and “war-mongering mentality.”
Pip: Einstein opens the whole thing — imagination over knowledge — and by the end you understand why. Knowledge consolidates what already exists. Imagination is what gets you through a paradigm shift without calcifying.
Mara: The post closes with a reminder that we may not control what happens, but we do choose our attitudes. Spring is arriving, crocuses are coming up, and the work is staying open to what’s next.
Pip: Consciousness as foundation, imagination as the tool, and a crocus as the unlikely mascot of paradigm change.
Mara: The territory here keeps expanding — next time, more from the edges of what we think we know.
Please enjoy the original post that inspired this podcast version at the link below:
A New Moon in Gemini on June 15th welcomes new beginnings with manifestation of changes and spontaneity streaming through the airwaves. Safety lies in thinking about our feelings and sharing them with others.
It’s hard to go wrong with a cool head.
And yet, a cold heart can be a good relational repellant, not to mention coming across as callous to others.
Harmonizing with our heads and hearts helps support effective communication.
Tuning in to the energies of this new moon gently aligns with guidance around setting intentions for the months ahead. It’s as if the Universe is encouraging us to lighten up, be playful, and have fun along the way.
Tis the season for connecting with friends, organizing social events, and storytelling. Perhaps communication projects may come to life with greater ease, or communicating topical truths. Tapping into healing vibrations can be a real felt sensed experience during this timeframe.
On most places around the planet, the Summer Solstice and Father’s Day both fall on Sunday, June 21. This is a rare occasion, and will not happen again till 2037.
Peak sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere is associated with Grandfather Sun-Yang energy, where outward expansion, frolicking and growth seem organic.
In the Southern Hemisphere, it’s Grandmother Moon-Yin energy where the darkest days reaches their Zenith, and then we turn inward, journey into the soul and sit with the darker aspects of life.
Ah, the duality of living on this Planet reflects the interplay between the Yin and the Yang.
Even in darkness, there is light. If you look to Nature, you will see the fluidity of these energies at play and the way they are always seeking balance.
Additionally, a Full Strawberry Moon on June 29 reflects lineage connections to the Algonquin and other North American nations who noticed the connection between the wild berry harvest to this Full Moon.
And depending where you are around the world, the other names of this Full Moon reflects what mattered most to humans on the land during mid-summertime.
We will also be shifting gears into Cancer Season (June 21-July 22).
Cancer the Crab is a time when we are encouraged to focus on nourishment, self-care, and our emotional health that breathes in a softer tone that supports reconnecting with ourselves and our hearts. Crabs reflect emotional sensitivity and tapping into the feeling realm.
How you can integrate self-care into your daily routine?
How can you integrate a sense of safety and security into your life?
Furthermore, Mercury will be in Retrograde on June 29 – July 23. These energies are in alignment with slowing things down, reflecting on the past, and focusing on the here and now.
Energetically, Mercury in Retrograde is a good time to be mindful of subconscious thoughts, including past programming. These energies can be a healing and highly intuitive time when we work with its energies intensionally.
Moreover, our psychic abilities and dreams can become triggered so that we can tap into deeper insights by working with our subconscious minds in ways where the unseen realms yield useful information to light our way.
Please feel free to echo my reading of the Great Invocation Below. Consider speaking the lyrics aloud, telepathically or any way that you want to amplify the sentiment to co-create Heaven on Earth. Doing this embodies becoming the change you want to see in the world:
May all Beings awaken to God Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness, Unity Consciousness, Diversity within Unity, Inner Peace and the Universal Pillars of Love and Truth.
“The real measure of our lives has to do with your Values, not your valuables; by your Goodness, not your goods; by your Self-Worth, not the weight of your wallet.”
-Dr. Wayne Dyer
Following a powerful Wesak Full Flower Moon on May 1st, a New Moon in Taurus will happen on May 16th. Spring energies are springing, in the Northern Hemisphere at least. Everything is ephemeral, and it’s hard not to feel inebriated by the seasonal energies of growth and transience that are reflecting back to us from Nature.
This new moon gives us a friendly reminder that a deeper sense of stability comes from self respect. Deeper respect comes from accepting ourselves for who we are over what material things we manifest, and perhaps become identified with.
Nothing wrong with manifesting abundance in the 3D realm. But we can align with calmer and restorative energies by focusing on how short term actions may affect long term gains. Imagine the possibilities when politics and the stock market consistently reflect that kind of mindset.
When we accept that change is a natural part of life, then we are more equipped to embrace that change is the only constant in everyday living.
I focus on this when dealing with the losses that we face with our loved ones during our lifetimes here. As a human being, I still get sad when people (including animal friends) close to me get sick and suffer, die unexpectedly or those who have lived a good life or die by natural causes. And of course I grieve the death and dying process of those I have never even met. But what I am mindful of is reminding myself to have the self respect to not get sucked into the dirge.
Truly, facing our own mortality is sobering. Because I had to face my own mortality and loss of innocence at a younger than normative age, I woke up to the truth that doing so gave me an opportunity to work with the feeling of facing my own death. It isn’t that I don’t have my fears. I just move through them by trusting that the light of consciousness will guide me toward the end of the tunnel.
Many people, like my dad, have experienced that process during near death experiences. But you don’t have to physically die to know the experience. Just as an example, the sacred medicinal energies of Groundhog is a friendly reminder that the shamanic death without dying is a real possibility.
But it is also freeing to awaken to our soul purpose, know that our time here is limited and it’s what we do with this precious gift that counts. It’s like the old story about the zen master whose students are watching him die, and they are perplexed because as he’s taking his last breaths, he grieves his own death by asserting that he wants to live!
Speaking of death and rebirth, Gemini season will be in the air from around May 20 till the Summer Solstice on June 21st. During this timeframe energetically, our chi will be flowing from our lower chakras to our upper chakras to support creativity, self-expression and our desire to share. Communication is doubly powered up by Gemini, if you’ll pardon the astrological pun.
The Twins reflect our status as part creature and part divine. As spiritual beings having human experiences, we exist as the form of a mortal that has incarnated in this lifetime.
Coupled with our form identity, we have a formless eternal identity that reflects a central Law of Thermodynamics positing that energy cannot be created or destroyed. Our souls live within our bodies during the gift of this lifetime. Our bodies are our temple, but they are temporary because we all die. However, our souls live on. Interestingly, science and spirituality are converging on this Universal truth beyond a shadow of a doubt.
There will be a Blue Sagittarius Moon on May 31st. A Blue Moon only happens approximately every 18 months or so, and occurs when we have two Full Moons in one calendar month. Blue is symbolic of water, loyalty, trust, and faithfulness.
This extra Full Moon at this time invites us to release old aspects of ourselves that no longer serve us so that we can move forward in alignment with who we are becoming. The winds are at our back for taking risks and opening up to a sense of adventure in our daily lives.
An optimistic and longitudinal approach to life; such as communicating with our ancestors, can invite abundance and good fortune. Remember that there is so much help in the spirit realm just waiting for us to tap into, if only we ask and allow ourselves to receive their collective crystalized wisdom.
But then again sadness, sorrow and hardship are natural parts of reality that are not to be suppressed or repressed. We can lean into them, and discover acceptance of them as part of the totality of our experience.
Keep in mind that the forthcoming Summer Solstice reflects peak sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere. Time to frolic in the festivities of the season.
In the Southern Hemisphere, it will be the Winter Solstice or the darkest day of the year. Coaxing back the light resurrects a felt sense perception that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
May all beings be free from suffering and awaken to God Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness, Unity Consciousness, Diversity Within Unity, Inner Peace and the Universal Pillars of Love and Truth.
In the spirit of Christ Consciousness, Buddha Nature & the Earthy grounding energy of Taurus…
Please scroll down to the Great Invocation below that was shared recently by a spiritual teacher that I have had the good fortune to work with.
Meditation on and speaking the Great Invocation aloud & telepathically “combines world service, a major shift in our karmic trajectory, and an overall raising of our vibration.”
-Gene Ang
May speaking the following lyrics of the Great Invocation aloud amplify your presence, and be an embodiment of a positive self talk mantra in everyday reality:
From the point of Light within the Mind of God Let light stream forth into human minds. Let Light descend on Earth.
From the point of Love within the Heart of God Let love stream forth into human hearts. May the Coming One* return to Earth.
From the centre where the Will of God is known Let purpose guide all little human wills – The purpose which the Masters know and serve.
From the centre which we call the human race Let the Plan of Love and Light work out And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.
May All Beings Be Free From Suffering and Walk In Alignment With God Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness, Unity Consciousness, Diversity Within Unity, Inner Peace and the Universal Pillars of Love and Truth.
Although Aries season is coming to an end, it’s fiery energies are not to be missed on a New Moon in Aries on April 17.
This New Moon is a powerful time for reaching out to the Universe, asserting our needs, asking for guidance, and then allowing for manifestation to show up in the creation of our lives.
Energetically, Taurus season is a period of grounding and embodiment. Time to slow down into a more deliberate rhythm that is in alignment with Nature’s cycle.
Following the spiritually assertive fiery energies of Aries, the Bull lands and builds foundations.
From an energetic perspective, the root chakra governs our sense of safety, survival, and belonging to the Earth.
I remember when I first felt drawn to spiritual power of shamanism by creating meaningful and purposeful rituals around mundane experiences.
Creating rituals can awaken seeing the sacred in everyday moments that can breathe in new air into the dead air of stale old ways of doing things that have become robotic.
Just as an example, we can help reduce anxiety and increase our sense of stability when we recognize our inner abundance, and imagine roots growing into the ground from the soles of our feet.
Besides, this practice makes for a healthy walking meditation ritual.
When people choose to work with these energies consciously, we are invited to reconnect with the physical world as a sacred space.
And we also become equipped to develop our spiritual fulfillment through the felt sense experience of the five material senses typically associated with the 3D realm.
We are in alignment with the spiritual nature of Taurus when we turn ordinary routines such as; making tea, showering, working out or even grocery shopping into intentional rituals where we are present.
Instead of spiritual bypassing, may we give ourselves permission to be fully present in the physical body rather than escaping into abstract thinking.
Because our bodies are our sacred vessels to connect with the present moment.
Remember that a sense of Divinity awakens by stopping to smell of flowers, mindfully tasting a meal or feeling the grass underneath your feet.
Does your daily life align with your soul’s true values?
Keep in mind that when we are working with our shadow sides, it is wise for us to be mindful of the cravings to our creature comforts or familiar routines that ends up avoiding deeper inner work.
Perhaps instead, choosing rest or a walk out in Nature could be better options for you than attending a ritualistic social engagement that will probably leave you feeling exhausted at this time.
The Wesak Full Moon will happen on Friday, May 1st, which is in alignment with the Buddha’s birth, attainment of enlightenment and physical death.
Further, the spiritual and sacred ceremony around these energies reflects Divine Love, Divine Light and Divine Power flowing down to Gaia and all Sentient Beings.Friday, May 1, 2026.
Many of our ancestors considered the Wesak Full Moon as the most powerful full moon of the year. And to this day, many spiritual travelers honor our sacred connection to the consciousness of this full moon as Master Co elaborates on in the video below (with Master Choa Kok Sui’s picture in the background) :
As you can see, May can be seen as a high octane spiritual portal month, amplified by many powerful energetic shifts and new beginning frequencies beaming in. Wide open windows to cosmic vibrations are more perceptible at this time.
For example, 2026 marks the start of a new 9 year cycle.
The beginning of May is a good time for initiating new projects, setting new foundations, emphasizing independence, leadership, and authentic identity.
See revolutionary changes in communication, connection, and social networks as on their way.
Manifestation is in the air, and those of us on a spiritual path should especially be intentional with our words and thoughts because they will carry unusual weight this year.
Keep in mind that spiritual awakenings are part of these manifestations.
Are you experiencing sudden inspirations, intense dreams, or emotional highs and lows?
Will old patterns or relationships that no longer resonate gently fall away during this time to make room for a deeper frequency version of yourself?
May all beings be free from suffering, and awaken to Inner Peace, Diversity Within Unity, Unity Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness and God Consciousness.
Back in my Preschool social work practice days, I remember sometimes singing with the students during circle time.
One way I started to get out of my comfort zone, and work with stage fright aka performance anxiety at that time of my life was to play my guitar and sing to them. Like when I first sang aloud with the animals, the littles made me feel more welcomed and relaxed.
Given that we were a special purposed program to help students overcome their developmental delays, I came up with a replacement chorus to the classic old tune, Oh My Darlin’ Clementine.
The message was a simple way to use humor to normalize experiences with anxiety, and went as follows:
“Anxiety, anxiety, anxiety is the root…whether rationalizing or in denial of…Anxiety…The point is moot.”
Over the years, that little jingle has served as a positive self talk mantra, as well as the clip below.
Keep in mind that therapists are human too. And the good ones have a sense of humor, and don’t take themselves too seriously. You can say the same about folks on the spiritual path or any of us for that matter:
Furthermore along the trails this spring, amphibians like salamanders, wood frogs and peepers make the trek toward vernal pools for their breeding season on what’s called Big Night.
Their great migration and safe passage requires overcoming dangerous obstacles like human trafficking patterns, such as driving cars on roads, etc.
Of course humans do many disgusting things, and have shady tendencies that reflect in the 3D realm.
But we can move beyond the victim and perpetrator behavioral trap by being mindful of our shadow work.
We can do this by working with our karmic issues by letting go of, and releasing our old soul wounds.
And then in that process, we are becoming more deeply in touch with our better angels.
Have you felt tempted by fate recently?
Are you noticing any old energetic patterns of yourself rising back to the surface?
Loving Kindness is one way to embody this transformation when sitting in meditation; as well as in our everyday footsteps.
Besides, Life is springing up everywhere as singing peepers and wood frogs signal to us that spring is arriving with glee, rhythm and blues:
A New Moon in Pisces today reflects deeper sensitivity and perceptiveness in the social environment, as does engaging in creative or spiritual forms of imaginative Pisces energy.
Moreover, the Vernal Equinox or the first official day of spring will take place on Friday, March 20th. This date also marks the beginning of Aries season, as well as baseball season aka America’s Pastime at the tail end of March.
Mercury also goes back direct on the first day of spring. No worries, mate… things tend to clear up about 10 days or so when the fog lifts.
In many ways, it’s like a new year because Aries is the first sign of the Western Zodiac.
This writer doesn’t think its a coincidence that the fire element is the ‘I Am’ consciousness of Aries the Ram’s primary driver.
Like any of our gifts, we have to temper them, and not throw caution to the wind, so to speak.
A Full Pink Moon will happen on April 1st…aka April Fools Day.
Synchronistically, The Fool card in the Tarot deck is symbolic of new beginnings, limitless potential, and the courage to step into the unknown.
Indeed, it takes a leap of faith to step into the mythical quest…one step, one foot, one breath at a time.
Spring energies reflect another positive self talk mantra; as in, out with the old, in with the new.
Tis the season for setting new intensions, seeing things from new perspectives, and planting new seeds to spring forth.
Moving our bodies is a good way to cleanse and release every cell.
Remembering to take a deep breath to support new life, and then breathe out all the dead air of old ways is good Sacred Medicine; as is holding the highest vision of yourself.
Light and dark energies are in alignment again on the Spring Equinox.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the sunlight will rise till its climax with peak light on the Summer Solstice on June 21st.
At the same time, the darkness will rise till it reaches its zenith on the Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemishere.
The Winter Solstice is a powerful time for letting go, while the Summer Solstice is a powerful time for manifestation.
Gratitude is always a powerful attitude to walk with in our footsteps, as is an openness to the present moment as it is.
May all Beings be free from suffering, and experience an awakening to Inner Peace, Diversity within Unity, and Cosmic Consciousness.
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.
“Instead of fighting the darkness, you bring in the light.”
–Eckhart Tolle
“In the end, bless the darkness, hold the light, because the two aren’t divisible.”
–S. Kelley Harrell
Now more than ever, our resiliency needs to show up in our everyday humanity.
We all have the capacity for resiliency.
Resiliency doesn’t come from having a charmed life, not having to deal with stress, nor facing obstacles that get in our way or living in a bubble.
Rather, it’s something that we cultivate, like building energy for better strength and conditioning.
In much the same way as the Taoist idea of Investing In Loss, imagine the darkness you face is like a ghost that you are playing with rather than fighting.
Just as an example, you might lose a game 99 times out of a hundred.
But if you lose 99 times and you are paying mindful attention about your partners moves, you can learn their tricks, and spring the trap to win the 100th game. Your mindset of losing shifted, like the saying, “if you had fun, then you won.”
That’s Investing In Loss in a nutshell.
Because you remained open, let go of perfectionism, and learned that it’s the process that matters along the way.
As you are shadow boxing in front of a mirror, imagine yourself awakening to shades of your hidden self.
Perhaps blind spots will be revealed when you allow the light to come in, and shine brightly on your soul.
Just as an example, do you remember learning how to ride a bike or how to swim?
Some of us never did learn how to do either for different reasons.
But most of us who did learn how to ride, and swim know that novel learning curves didn’t come without falling off our bikes or getting water up our nose.
Somehow, most of us made it through learning a sometimes painful new skill without losing a limb from the bike accident or drowning in the water.
And most of us got back on the bike, and back in the water without developing PTSD from falling or sinking.
So how do we allow ourselves to be mindful of the present moment in everyday life?
I remember an old High School teacher who recommended a book called The Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman, during my Senior year. I didn’t read the entire book till after I graduated from college. But I remained intrigued, and never stopped looking forward to reading it
In fact, the Peaceful Warrior message resonated so much that I read some more of Dan’s books after that, and then watched the film adaptation many years later, after it came out in 2006.
Check out the short video below that reinforces his mindful approach to life’s everyday moments:
May all beings be free from suffering, awaken to Inner Peace, and open up to the realm of Cosmic Consciousness,
Galloping into the year of the Fire Horse on February 17th, seasonal transitional energies are blowing in the wind, and kicking up dust along the frontiers ahead. Pisces season starts a couple of days after that till the forthcoming Equinox in later March.
Keep in mind that the Eclipse Season further fuels the flames of transformation with a Solar Eclipse on the Chinese New Year, and then a Full Moon Lunar Eclipse on March 3rd. Many of you are already feeling the energies of the Spring Eclipses now.
Mercury will be in Retrograde on February 26th-March 20th. This mysterious Twilight Zone reality aligns with free-spirited, soul traveling and meditative Pisces. Nothing to get superstitious about, just allow yourself to go with the flow, and embrace the unknown waters waiting to spring forth new perceptual experiences, if you’ll pardon the pun.
A Full Worm Moon on March 3 reminds us that Spring is arriving, and the early bird gets the worm. Everything is ephemeral because the Law of Transience reflects that seasonal changes are in the air, and we are reminded that the only constant is change.
Speaking of Spring, the Vernal Equinox on March 20th reflects the seasonal transition between the end of Pisces and the beginning of Aries. It’s out with the old, and in with the new. New life is bursting at the seams with new growth and energies. The reason that Easter, which will happen on April 5th this year, is often associated with eggs is because eggs are symbolic of fertility, new growth and rebirth.
Does anyone out there remember that 70s TV Show called Mork & Mindy, about an ET who comes to Earth in an Egg Shaped Spaceship? Isn’t there a non-coincidental felt sense of resurrection in that?
Reflecting on technology that is out of this world, what’s up with the mysterious comet 3I/ATLAS?
Of course, there are mixed reviews but check out the scientific quote below:
“Scientists say that 3I/ATLAS has likely been traveling through interstellar space for a long time . . . University of Oxford astronomer Matthew Hopkins is part of a team of scientists that think 3I/ATLAS, discovered on July 1, 2025 by the ATLAS Survey Telescope, is around 7 billion years old . . . All non-interstellar comets, such as Halley’s Comet formed at the same time as our solar system, so they are up to 4.5 billion years old,” Hopkins said in a statement. “But interstellar visitors have the potential to be far older, and of those known about so far, our statistical method suggests that 3I/ATLAS is very likely to be the oldest comet we have ever seen.”
Remember that comets are historically seen as harbingers of change, in much the same way as Eclipse seasons are known as shakeups in consciousness. Think of them working collaboratively together as catalysts for transformation.
Dreamy Pisces awakens oceanic visions of water and its multidimensional beings, like whales, that live in its element. I remember when I had two specifically similar perceptible transformative shifts in consciousness during experiences with Whale consciousness.
The first encounter in consciousness happened while submerged in a pitch black sensory depravation floating tank filled with saltwater. And then the second experience transpired a few years later during a holotropic breathwork workshop in 2016.
Holotropic breath work was invented by the Grofs, two therapists who developed a natural way to access altered states through breathwork. Evocative music played during the breathing session, followed by non-verbal mandala artwork afterword as a way to silently integrate the experience. To learn more about holotropic breathwork, check out the link below:
During the encounters with Whale, I had authentic shapeshifting experiences, where I literally turned into a whale, energetically speaking at least. It’s hard to put into words what happened to me.
Looking back on these experiences, I felt as if I went into a deep dive into a previously unexplored empathic frequency. Even though I was aware that I was still a human being in a pitch black coffin-like saltbox of water; at the same time I had also transformed into the consciousness of huge whale in the depths of the ocean.
During the breath work meditation, I shifted into the energy of whale again. This time however, my consciousness experienced a frequency shift by ‘swimming’ into a perceptibly deeper and higher form of consciousness.
As I ‘swam’ through the waters while still embodying Whale consciousness, I encountered and also transformed into all of the animal spirits found in the first edition of my first book, Something to Chew On. The best way I can describe the experience is that it felt like I was reading the energy of the book’s material from a deeper state of consciousness that involved a telepathic-empathic form of awareness.
As heartwarming and mindblowing as these experiences were, they felt so natural. It was as if I was literally tuning into the heartbeat and frequency of our living planet Gaia.
Ah, talk about taking the plunge into unchartered waters, and an evolving co-regulative communication between an author and their muse!
Writing about consciousness is merely using the form of words as signposts to point in the right direction. Perhaps the consciousness of writers will awaken from their own lyrics, just as the consciousness of the readers will awaken from reading the author’s poetic prose. Tapping into our sense of resiliency is key. The short inspirational clip below features Mexican-American, Detroit native singer-songwriter Rodriquez that further amplifies the sentiment:
At the time of the aforementioned experiences with Whale, I had a a sound intellectual, and early spiritual understanding of the old spiritual and scientific stories that whales had big brains, great intelligence, and carried the heartbeat and consciousness of the planet.
But I was also working on getting more in alignment with my soul purpose; as in deepening my learning curve to go beyond my intellect into a more intuitive realm of knowing.
My experiences with Sacred Whale Medicine certainly invited newly awakened portals of perception and consciousness expansion.
Interestingly, humans are mostly water, in the sense that water makes up the majority of our form.
Curiously, water is a conductor of sound and an elemental force of primordial creation.
But beyond that, we are mostly formless, energetic beings of light.
May we ride the waves without getting washed out in the surf.
From that perspective, this wisdom reveals that humans are creative beings who can align with sound and light frequencies that can change our vibrations.
We are both form and formless. The formless shines through the form, and is the presence or light of consciousness that illuminates our form because it radiates from the inside out.
Further, this process can lead to a dimensional shift in our consciousness that is a real perceptible and felt sense experience. That’s why there is a growing reception to the movement in sound and light therapy as effective forms of energy work.
In much the same way as Easter’s connection to eggs, Mork’s egg-like spaceship, and of course past Creation stories of the Cosmic Egg . . . Check out the sign of the times Harmonic Egg featured in the video below:
Remember, the Truth is that we will tip the scales on our Planet and beyond our current state of consciousness when we move further away from fear, and instead closer to Love. Fear has been perpetrated onto us by certain old powers that be that are afraid to give up their control issues.
Keep in mind that when you are in a place of Joy and Light, it’s harder to get seduced or bogged down in the heaviness of the world or give up your power to others. The Power of Love isn’t going away. Consider the clip below as a friendly reminder to have the Grace to know that the Truth of the power of Love shall set us free!
May all Beings be free and awaken to the dimension of inner peace,
Classroom Mothership Earth 