DAILY July 25, 2013 Breath #400…Now that’s a marker! Are we grown more thoughtful? Wiser? Kinder? Sillier? Contemplative? Wilder? Creative? Connected? From these past years of ‘Breaths?’ Do weigh in. I should so love to hear your ‘Breath-stories.’ Thank hevvins for bad TV. I’ve turned to reading. One of the books was recommended by the author, Janet Wong. The book is, APE How to Publish a Book, by Kawasaki & Welch. It begins, “How to read this book.” First, I think ‘how stupid, then I realize, that makes me feel safe. This is a direct correlation to my daily reactions of dealing with too much technology, and not having instruction, or worse, incomprehensible instructions. Most of the time, I don’t even know the right question on what has gone amiss. Ergo, the omnipresent, quivering safety factor. Yes, even with a book. This first question is followed by a second, “Should you write a book?” Too late. I’ve written the bloody thing. I’ve bought your book instructing me on how I might deal with mine, and now you’re asking if I should have even written it ? This bombshell is immediately followed by third. “To me a book is a message from the gods to mankind; or, if not, should never be published at all.” Aleister Crowley. I know of Aleister Crowley. I’m completely cowed. Books, mine and theirs, go back on the shelf. This is like asking, “Should you take this incarnation?” Too late. No shelf-life available. I am here, I’ve become me, I’ve passed the ‘400-mark,’ and you’re still here with me. I take heart. I take the bloody books off the shelf. I begin again. Self publishing has to be just that, no? It’s a self, for better or worse, god-like or not, sharing thought-life with those who care…. Read more »
Read moreInspirations: Change & Re-Invention
Sixth Sense Salvation
We are being asked to trust the unknown is ways we’ve never imagined. Venturing out from the safety of the past, and the known, grows ever more difficult, yet it is the task. In order to go into the unknown, Osho said that we cannot be in the mind because, “the mind is the accumulated known.” But as the world is hurled around in inconceivable ways, we yearn for that familiar known. In Astrology there is a set of points on one’s chart called the North and South Nodes, They speak of the dilemma of choosing a bigger life. The South Node represents the past, what and who we know, where we come from, what is comfortable. We repeat South Node patterns usually well into our late 30’s or 40’s. It is only as we grow bored, stale, or begin asking big life-questions that we turn toward the North Node. It is the fork in the road demanding we grow and move toward our destiny, or fall back, too afraid to take the path of maximum resistance. In these days of upheaval and chaos, it is time to not only to listen and trust instinct, to grow accustomed to not knowing answers, rather sensing the next step. The mind, which knows, is orthodox and conservative. The mind is not interested in being courageous or trusting. Au contraire! To move past boundaries of safety requires fearlessness, an awareness of being, and an ability to listen to the inner self, that adventuring voice of the 6th sense. Life has always been dangerous. This is not new. In order to grow courage, there must be danger. It’s why we’ve chosen this earthly life. Take a huge breath, stand on the precipice and dive, knowing your heart will save you. Don’t forget to grab… Read more »
Read moreBeltane Fires, Making Sense of Madness
When Ma Nature expands to burst into bloom, when life is at its birthing zenith, we can get as crazy. There are times when we, and other strangers, also burst into un-stoppable bloom. These personal ‘flowerings’ are often zealous and fiery. The energy is unstoppable. We are convinced of our total right to bloom, and ka-boom. We become instilled with our beautiful, flowering truth. We more easily slide down this slippery slope of ‘sure knowing’ after hardship, or disappointment. The axiom, “What do they know? I’ll show them!” comes to mind. Sometimes the hardships are so extreme we become Peter Pans who believe that to die would be a great adventure, the next right step. We stunt growth when living with idealistic absolutes. We stop being human when we live in black and white words…. ‘I know and you don’t. ‘ Another myth, before Peter Pan, was about Zeus and Metis. Metis was the first wife of Zeus and the first goddess of wisdom. When she became pregnant with Athene, the gods whispered warnings to Zeus that he would be dethroned by any child Metis bore. In one fell swoop, he swallowed her, and the unborn child. Soon, Zeus embodied wisdom in his own right, and in time, after a splitting headache, he gave birth to Athene, who became his favorite child, and the acknowledged goddess of wisdom. Why was Metis a threat? Why eat her? And what has this to do with blooming zealots? Symbolically, it seems Metis was a radical extremist, as she had not yet digested her wisdom. She was right, she knew she was right, and truth stood on her side. She was an anarchist of un-incorporated wisdom. Her righteous knowing remained outside of Self. When Zeus swallowed her and the baby, he made her wisdom… Read more »
Read moreBorn From The Dark
Like the Moon, I am new Again- shimmering, lifting, A scythe cutting Across purpled black skies Reborn from my dark self. Sweetness in life after life Re-cycled and worn, wearing Memories as musk Scenting light Night by night Expanding babe-slit of silver, becoming Vast roundness, wisdom and folly.
Read moreAlchemical Lives
If we are to live, we are to be blown off course. It is the willy-nillyness of the blow that calls spirit down off its high horse in the high heavens so that we learn to wallow. It is in those dark hours, as we perch precariously between the moat of crocodiles and a fire breathing dragon, that we wake up and come alive. In ancient alchemical tradition, this blackening process was the beginning of transformation. Blackening has everything to do with going down, being off-course, and suffering. It is 2013, another year in the 21st century. It still the same, time worn process. As a society, we have grown more and more masculine; working longer, taking on greater responsibility, trying to be more spiritual, if not religious, and attaching ‘excellence’ to all of it. These are ego driven elements of fire and air. They hope to push and pull us out of the mundane, off the earthy, to take flight. What balances this yang expression? The yin of earth and water. The higher we ascend, the more fiery and ballistic we react, the more we require the grounding of practical earth solutions, and slower muddy waters of emotional silence. You can’t see very far from down below. The only exceptional view is within. Ascending a spiritual mountain, home to gods is far easier. There is nothing wrong in standing tall among at the peak, except it usually comes at the expense of suppressed yin. When we don’t use or allow balancing yin energies, there is a rise in violence, addiction, depression, and illness. They behave as un-invited guests at the bliss-banquet. It is the old spell of the 13th fairy godmother who was not invited to Sleeping Beauty’s christening. As you know, anything not invited, not listened to, or… Read more »
Read moreThresholds of the New Year
In our endings lie our beginnings. The power of graduations is they symbolize the work accomplished that opens the next level. Each birth is the first step towards death. Thresholds, cycles, wheels, call it what you will, 2012 offered multiple time and space opportunity to see the cause and effect of our actions, to comprehend the wisdom, and the shadow in our choices. Consequences have grown more defined, intentions- more visible. ‘What goes around comes around’ is coming around faster and faster. Having survived the turbulence of the past 365 days, we hopefully cross the threshold into 2013 with greater consciousness, greater heart. 2012 ended a number of cycles, and in those endings we can choose to access faster bandwidths, more options, along with a demand for greater potency, and compassionate intuition. As our amplification ascends from the Manipura/third chakra (emotional focus) to the Anahata/fourth chakra (heart wisdom), we breakthrough self-centered impetus into heart-driven awareness, especially around feminine, or receptive, power. Our ideas of creativity are expanding. We have a greater comprehension in our relationship to self, which transforms all other relationships. We are motivated toward partnerships that nurture and foster caring consciousness. We support one another in listening to music from the spheres beyond the physical. We are dancing with difficult truths, requiring subtle, transformational wisdom. This territory is for the truly courageous. It is harder and harder to be someone we are not. We are making fundamental changes relating to our authority, integrity, accountability, and relationships. We are more capable of healing our own shadow material so we may move on, so we might know our ‘true name.’ 2013 may be an extraordinary year in the acceptance of ALL our unique light and shadow-Selves. Again, courage is a password to what lies ahead as we are willing to… Read more »
Read moreImpossible to Predict
Is there a better reason for living than to discover who we are? Is there anything more powerful than becoming our true colors, then sending them out to seep into the world, where as wild dyes they/we sustain, transform, and pigment everyone and everything touched? As the forces of change build to a momentous turning point – the ending of a 26,000 year cycle, announced with this year’s winter solstice, it is critical we seed and impart this transformative time with Grace, not fear, with joy, not divisiveness, with wisdom not delusion. Nothing new in that, but the timing is insistent. There is deep need to pay attention to anything that directs us toward knowing and serving true-self, like Yoga, creativity, and poetry, Astrology and ripe friendships. These are constructs that nurture soul so we might bloom as one of Rumi’s roses…. “If you want to know Him and yourself Look at this open rose- From one infinite silent drunken heart So many petals, so many worlds.” One of the reasons I love poetry is that like the horoscope it can reveal essential self, as does a Yoga Practice, only differently. If you re-read last week’s breath, “Why and Because,” the creative process offered another exploration of the same. There is reason humanity has expressed through these archetypal forms for thousands of years. Each is a superb structure to hold the mysteries, and support the devotion required to unlock a DNA, to plumb secrets of the evolutionary heart. Going within is difficult. There is a reason few have explored consciousness. That is changing as we come to embrace the breadth and depth of our spirit and soul. We need prediction less. We trust more. Science acknowledges that everything on earth relates: ecological systems, planetary systems, human societies, the physics of… Read more »
Read moreDancing With Our Daimon
Do you find yourself shutting out your inner voices because you have no time to listen, much less do what they ask? Do you see yourself so overwhelmed by ‘helpful technology,’ and the day’s requirements that neither dharma, soul purpose, or spirit can get through? It is time to create space for our Daimon to come home. To the ancient Greek’s, Daimon meant genius, which had to do with one’s potency, not so much smarts. Plato wrote about it in “The Republic,” calling it a guiding spirit, or a fiery spirit that was not only responsible for our destiny in this life, but carried the soul from life to life as an ‘inner deity.’ Plato’s daimon was pure energy, a beacon to pull us into life’s rich, true purpose, to learn necessary lessons. There was no judgment about good or bad, moral or immoral. It was about the drive to dive into the mulch and manure and simply have a living experience. Why do we need our daimon more than ever? We need lynch pins for our multiple selves, that army of complex voices begging for attention and care. Multi-tasking is nothing compared to multi-being. We must embrace the paradoxical notion that every truth has a valid opposite. We need all the help we can get to see us to the other side of the many hard-choices big change demands. We cannot give up a ‘destiny’ to merely survive as a mushroom, can we? Embarrassed though we may be, most of us would nod ‘yes’ to being a mushroom if it keeps us safe. It requires so much courage and energy to continually throw ourselves out there, to step up to the plate and risk in new ways…no nets, no bungee cords, only re-newed passion for each experience. The psychologist,… Read more »
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