DAILY As this is a very magical day, make opportunity to take to the mat to revamp and renew. Ask, “What is the Practice that serves me in bringing 2013 to strong closure?” What Pranayama will help break stagnant habits? Where within favorite poses can I challenge my body? How does this Shakti Yoga Dance move me deeper into emotional connection? Which mudra supports my prayer in this moment? Which chant will help bridge reality and desire, moving me across chasms? How do I accept surrendering in Savasana, letting love hold me more sweetly? Today, the heavens are All-Hallowed-worthy. There is a rare, even bizarre line up of planets in the same 9th degree. Pluto, Uranus (the famous square) along with Mars, Chiron, Mercury, and the Moon. And include the Sun who is just a minute off. “What does it mean?” You ask. “I have no idea.” Says I. Certainly if you have any planets in the 9th degree, or close by, your world is going to shake rattle and roll….. Perhaps in magical, wonderful ways. If it were me, I’d make a wish, spend time visualizing it coming true, and believe in bizarre dreams being real. When given a choice, go for the magical, not the fearful. This All Souls Celebration might have a chance of uplifting the world and moving us all, willy-nilly, toward redemption and Grace. Have you noticed any symbolic parallels between events in the wide world and those closer to home? Any similarity of pattern? Don’t look at the form, but the energy. Is it break through, or break down? It’s often easier to see cultural and social shock waves rocking the high seas, usually more difficult to see our small life boat’s in jeopardy. The Uranus-Pluto square hits dead-on this week, accompanied by a Solar… Read more »
Read moreInspirations: Transformation
The Book of Earth
The Book of Earth decrees-no death, only translation, and transmutation of dark and light; observer and observed trading visions; body and mind growing soul. The Book of Earth begs renewal at every turn. How can death be different? The gravitas of Earth balances dreams and imagination lifting life onward. Death is ‘the triple’ we accomplish soaring to reach the next trapeze. It is the “Wow” factor. The death we really fear is the death of dreams, when color is wrung from the day, and hope lies dry and desiccated. It is that heavy death arriving when the tongue has no sweet words, and the Moon soars into the night sky- unseen. The Book of Earth asks time and time again for redemption in renewal. Renewal is risky, and renewing old dreams costs twice as much. Fear flails and flounders with ghosts of what might have been. It moves through bone and muscle with the stink of regret, like old, white fat left to mold. In each breath, at every sunrise, in the start to a week, with every cycle of the Moon, soar toward your triple, stretch for the next trapeze. Let “Wow” be the mantra of sweetness on your tongue. It’s a Practice, no?
Read moreMagic of the human heart-perfectly aligned with Star of David in the heavens
Our 14-year-old dog Abbey died last month. The day after she passed away my 4-year-old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought that we could, so she dictated these words: Dear God, Will you please take care of my dog? Abbey died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I ‘m happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick. I hope you will play with her. She likes to swim and play with balls. I am sending this picture of her so when you see her you will know that she is my dog. I really miss her. Love, Meredith We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey & Meredith, addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had. Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, ‘To Meredith’ in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, ‘When a Pet Dies.’ Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note: Dear Meredith, Abbey arrived safely in heaven…. Read more »
Read moreQuestioning the Heavens
(Summer Reading) How do we become who we are? How do we emerge from the nexus of childhood? Why and how did we choose that tribe? That particular moment of birth? Providence or accident? DNA or the Moira of our ‘allotment’? Luck or Karma? Random or synchronistic? These are watery, Cancer questions, and Astrologically, we are awash in Cancer energies, making moms, family, tribal connections, country, ancestors, and emotions of utmost interest. Rilke wrote, “Never believe fate’s more than the consideration of childhood.” Since Rilke was a poet of profound heart and thought, I agree. But what composes the matrix of childhood? Like Yoga, Astrology, myth, and psychology multiple layers, seen and unseen, are tangled together in that ‘fate.’ One does not argue about the layers, only their substance, their consciousness, and perhaps, their timing. If we think mythologically, as in Greek, members in a family come together from a litany of tragic connections. The hope in each incarnation is that ancient wounds of slaughtering and being slaughtered tale opportunity to heal, and that old curses be laid to rest, ‘paid in full.’ Myths may be florid and over the top, but looking at their archetypal patterns we still act out similar energetic tragedies, much of it remaining unconscious, which is why it remains powerful. Is this allotment, or our choice? Perhaps archetypal patterns within the family help create blood and bone, the DNA, of biological heredity. The conversations, the silences, the habits and wounds, the dis-connect, as well as the love enmesh the closed family circle. These are the amniotic fluids of Moira. If we are born with innate predispositions, and if we are choosing to work through particular myths, then it may be true, as many believe, the soul chooses to take on a lifetime, the parents, and… Read more »
Read moreSixth 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 moreHonoring The Dark Gods
I remain in awe of my mind. Would that it were for its brilliance. No, I remain fascinated, because despite living in it lo these many years, it remains a mystery. I have little understanding of how it really works. What is this mind stuff? It powers the Universe. If I could consciously access the energy of my thoughts, particularly the dark ones, I might have the wattage of a power plant. The mind is a god to honor. If I paid attention, without judgment, I might bring heaven to earth, or perceive earth as heaven. If I honored the gods/goddess of the emotional mind, that engine ruling every thought, could I come to greater understanding? Does the gut rule the brain, (Huna thoughts)or is the mind in my gut? From all we are discovering, it is probably a two way street. Would I face anxious, fear-filled thoughts with greater equanimity if I moved toward, not away from? Learning to embrace and honor the alchemical substance of my Dark Gods? In doing so, accepting my true nature. When caught in webs of thought, which seem real, I miss out on their substance, their vibrant energy. This dance of energies is often submerged under a plot line, or story -board I assume to be true. Often, the worse I feel, the more I believe it to be true. Wise ones go to meditation of their own accord. Others of us are dragged by their Dark Gods, kicking and screaming. Think of the energy available if I could embrace perceived failures, stupidity, carelessness, or regret. I would magically open to the vast unknown, misunderstood Self. In this alchemical-sitting, learning to allow moods and mayhem not to rule, I’d learn of and from my dark gods. I would bow and thank them for their gifts of transformation. … Read more »
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 »
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