Copyright 2012 Feather Redfox
Holding: Embrace with support.
Our calendar has just ended, along with the year, and perhaps an era, as a new one begins. I find I want my future self to be more true to the unfettered, pure, wild being I am, less hesitant, less....."not Me". But what shall I write to help us all release, open, pour out, the real, extremely beautiful, most empowered, mystical us? You may have no desire for these things but I do and I share that with you. So I hold a still expectant, space for us all, It is a space open to what keys the lock which will release us from the preconceived, the acceptable, into more of who we really are....dancing new steps, learning to play a different drum, being a hermit for a while so that we can write what we feel driven to write, going to a new country by ourselves where we don't speak the language..... Come now and enter into this dreaming place with me. It is a dreaming space as we talked about that last month (LINK) and it is yours to design and create. Visualize it! There, let us just BE, each resting in their own personal, dreaming space as they see it. In that BE-ing, we support possibilities, like still seeds in dark soil, waiting for the warm sun and the rain....being with and holding them into their new and complete growth, thru their death into transformation. First we visualize what needs to be, then we use our empowerment to create it.
One of the driving forces of change we can choose for our empowerment is the power of water in a metaphysical sense. Water holds the qualities of both HARD and SOFT. When water is hardened into ice, we can use it as a bludgeon. It brings change by breaking and fracturing things, splintering or piercing them. The ice mode of human existence is hardness of heart and creates the same effects on both physical and emotional levels with other living things whether animal, plant or human. It most often has no room for soft feelings and helpful actions toward others. We live today within a huge pool of energy that believes only a HARD approach can create charge or be empowered...it uses terminology such as hard ball, hard sell, hard game, hard on, etc. Our culture is satiated with images and sounds of power used as something hard. It is about "Power Over" others. This is how our culture uses Water Power today
To create change for the good in our lives, our world, we must learn about the power of SOFTNESS now, as in FLOWING water, quieter words, gentle, graceful actions and the power of beauty which can silence us to a hush or bring us to tears. These are the powers of SOFTNESS we need to learn and use now. This is the Water Way , the way of Flowing Water and requires us to be both, extremely tenacious and have great fluidity. The powers of HARDNESS are rigid, demand one certain outcome and break up all that resists them if possible. The Water Way uses its energy to find the path and flow around that block of resistance. Tenacious fluidity creates the ability to slip around or thru the blocks we encounter. Beauty, of many kinds, can melt the ice in one's heart till the dripping energy clears and creates a path, leading the way for different action.
Binding tenacity to soft, loving, beautiful action creates positive results. It also requires more patience than our culture's need for immediate gratification is comfortable with! We are a very impatient people; I speak from witnessing my own behaviours! Yet even small consistently, tenacious prayers, exercises, requests, positive mantras, can penetrate rocky resistance. These actions mirror the effects of dripping water on stone and the soft piles of snow that down trees. They do bring change but in a slower and softer way.
There are times when change needs to be immediate and may require HARD force. For that change to be permanent however, there must also be SOFTNESS which attends to the healing of all brokeness created by HARD FORCE. So consider with me yet again, how is it you want your world, our world to change? Choose an area of personal change and global change then choose some soft action that encourages that change. Think in terms of doing a series of things like a pile of small snowflakes perhaps, instead of one grand scheme. Try creating a series of short writings or pictures or photographs about the changes you hope to see come to be and post them on a public venue like Face Book or talk about them in a Meet Up or community group as a means of owning your ideas and work publically. Many of you do that already. Social media makes that very accessible to us all. Dedicate 15-20 minutes a day to studying, prayer/energy work or meditation or volunteering in some way that is working for the changes you wish to see. Collaborate and work to create a dreaming center in your area where people can go just to BE and to access information about who they are. None of these suggestions are either new or startling but you, as your more aware authentic self can approach them in your specific, individual way which might just be very "new".
Have you ever worked with Mantras, in this case, little
sayings based on changes you wish to bring about for yourself? I create and use new ones all the time and I
feel they contribute to changes on the cellular level that we often don't recognize until they are completed.
Recently I badly injured my shoulder.
As a result, I must help my body re-learn certain motions in order to
have that shoulder again function well without pain. First it takes healing of damaged
tissue. Next it requires a series of
motions that I must practice to re-educate my shoulder about what it can and
cannot do. Doing all of this there are
still many times when I forget and move too quickly or too far or without using
my muscles correctly. I never had to think
about that before so it is a new thing for me.
To help train both my body and my mind, I create simple sayings that move in rhythm to my walking and
repeat them over and over along with any required physical action as I go for
walks or hikes. Simple things like:
"Back
and down my shoulder goes” or
"My shoulder is completely healed; completely functional, with no more pain."
I know this repetition helps retrain all parts of me and gives my mind and body a map of what is to happen...positive reinforcement par excellence.
This can also work in troubled situations that trigger you. For these you can create an appropriate saying and repeat it to yourself a number of times for every instance when you are triggered. Not only does it make you feel better, it literally puts positive energy into the surrounding area and can create huge changes. I have personally experienced this many times. If there is someone I feel is not happy with me or perhaps holds me in ill will, I say when I see them or think of them, " I am sending love, sending love, sending love" and visualize loving energy wrapping around them. There are so many ways to use these very SOFT and simple actions to bring better energy to your immediate environment as well as the world at large.
Each of us has a personal FLOW of energy thru our lives. It is my own belief that it is guided for each of us specifically with our name on it, so we can actually relax into it more than we realize. We can trust the directions and ride the tides of whatever life brings us, for happy or not, it is most likely what we need to experience. It is like a Water Way, and like the Water Way, it holds more than one type of energy. Consider using the SOFT Energy as often as you can and let your actions be like water dripping on a resistant rock, or snowflakes on a tree bough with their power to bring about change. Use many soft, yet tenaciously repeated actions. Look for the actions that flow around the dams in our lives that keep us stuck. Live in the Flow between times, between the now and the future, between your realities and dreams. What keys the lock which will release us from the preconceived, the acceptable, into more of who we really are and allow us to FLOW in this energy stream of our truest self, to bring change? Consider who you really are or want to be then SOFT actions can help you bring about that truer self and your hopes for the world, one little bit after another little bit, one step at a time. It's worth the wait!
And so it is, and so it is, and so it is, and so it is!
Tenacious belief in Soft, Water Power and the power of your dreams, with a snow storm of many small actions to bring them about.
Heart Blessings Beautiful People,
Feather
Endurance
Feather Redfox - copyright 2012
Healing Prints
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Personal Card Reading
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You may also consider doing individual study with me to help you be more clear about your own HeartPath and how to proceed on that.
Personal Study
Be sure to reply to this email if you have any questions at all. My intent and my true pleasure really is to be of service to you in any way I am able.
Copyright 2012 Feather Redfox
The West Wheel in December: Time of Death and Transformation Through Dreaming
In our chaotic world, it is time to create different paradigms if we are to have the incredible future that is held in the energy of magic for us, in the space between the times. Solstice and this holiday season, can be just such a moment.
It is my understanding, that in this time and place, we need to go backwards into our future by learning from the ancients, not repetition of old rituals so much as ways of being. In our world, we deeply need to reinvent, reinstate, our connections to the Powers of Source or Spirit. We need to rebirth our existence. This is NOT about religion or dogma. It is about reconnecting in a healing and empowered way to that which is our energetic source, our star stuff if you will. There is so much to say but we will focus on just one area: DREAMING!
We are honoring the West Direction today which speaks of female energy, emotions and intuition, of death and transformation and of dreaming. For most of us, dreaming is something we do in bed or it may speak to hopes and plans we think about. For others on many different spiritual paths, dreaming, closely related to meditating, is a practice used as a way of moving spiritually out of our bodies to reconnect energetically with different spiritual beings or with Source. I think of Source as a kind of collection of our souls, that energetic part of us that always remains, combined with creation energy that work together to co-create existence. When we are able to step out of our brains and connect to a higher energy than our own, that is prescient and willing to communicate with us, one of the Light, we open ourselves to teaching that holds Universal wisdom. We open ourselves to true Magic and life gifts we can only begin to imagine.
The Ancients held Dreaming in great reverence and importance. They built sites all over the world where average people went to dream or dedicated temple beings dreamed for them on their questions and issues of needed guidance. In our current worship of the scientific method and the living of rational lives, staved up with acculturated stricture, this ancient type of dreaming has been lost for the average person and we are much the poorer for it.
True dreaming in the ancient sense may include prayer, but it's really more direct. Its: CONNECT TO YOUR SOURCE OF INFORMATION with dreaming or meditation...DOWNLOAD ......please send information on such and so.....UPLOAD....OK this translates as that and that and....IMPLEMENT.... The universe says I need to do..then doing it.....CONNECT, DOWNLOAD, UPLOAD, IMPLEMENT..... I am a dedicated Dreamer in this sense; I am one who can dream for myself, the Universe and others. Perhaps you are as well. For me it's something like being given assignments. The information I receive, and I am clairaudient, so much of it I "Hear", is to be shared with others, to suggest helpful guidance from the Universe, ( not from me; I'm just the messenger). It can also be for myself or in some cases prescribed actions to help the world or even the Universe itself. I believe, and have been told, this is really a capability that we all have but few choose to accept. The Bible says, "Many are called but few are chosen" I think that has been incorrectly translated or perhaps understood. I believe we are ALL called but few of us make the choice to accept that calling; we simply don't hear it. To do the work of re-dreaming existence....curious how close that is to redeeming in a Biblical sense... to re-dream existence, we need dreamers to accept that calling and begin the work. This is the task of creating a new way of being, loving and living that works, as our current one does not. It is a great responsibility and challenge but it is not a burden. We also need each of us, to consider doing this work on a personal level for ourselves, to find/create our own HeartPaths and discern the actions which can help accomplish them. That is healing again, not only for ourselves but also for the whole Universe!
How do we begin? There are many ways of "Dreaming". You can consider using a guided meditation if you prefer a structured experience. You may choose to work with a labyrinth, either a real one or a finger labyrinth. You can meditate on a piece of healing art that calls to you or work in many ways with this. The first question we all need to ask is, "Who Am I?" What is my essential truth beyond my resume descriptions or cultural descriptions? The second question is, "What do I want my life to look like or be?" We need to truly begin the search to know who we are and what we want our own lives to look like before we can do that work on a larger scale. This kind of dreaming work is a life's journey, a little like keeping some sort of physical practice such as walking every day to stay fit. It can begin with a full commitment from you to make "Dreaming" a part of your life and possibly attending a workshop, reading a guided visualization or meditation, or listening to a CD to help you begin. I am not really able to give you full guidance on that here but would be happy to work with you individually in email or on the phone if you feel called to this. I would also be happy to answer questions. Until then, here is the simplest of exercises to help you begin:
Simple Dreaming Exercise
*Find a place of stillness, quiet.
*Sit in comfort with this image before you and breathe deeply and gently, letting go all tightness of your body, all thought in your mind. Hear your breath, hear your breath, hear your breath.
*Soften your focus and
stare at this Image. It is a crystal
with a candle light behind it..crystal and light.....energy
conductors....energy paths. Let it fill
your gaze and ask the crystal for information that is
needed by you.What do you need to understand about yourself?
*Sit
in stillness, in quiet, waiting, waiting, waiting and listen for its words. Be sensitive to new knowing or thoughts that come to you.
*Hold them in your memory. Sit with them and when you are ready, refocus on the world around you. Thank the crystal for its gift. Look around . Write down the words and be with them till you understand or know what they are directing you to do.
*Dream on it when you sleep for further learning.
You may print out this image and put it where you will see it as well to help you.
The second aspect of Dreaming" that is no longer much honored in our world, is the concept of public dreaming centers. How wonderful it would be if we had such places like the ancients did. The standing stones sites, Avebury, places like Newgrange, Ireland or perhaps wonderful new or recreated buildings, just as places of quiet, of high energy and sacred intent. They are different than churches, more like temples, more personal, but not focused on any deity. They take into account the energy of the place and create and endow the space further with powerful energy based on natural light, celestial cycles, sounds, smells and the accoutrements and decorations they contain. It is possible for each of us to create such an area in a miniature version, in our own homes or places. We can build its energy to be what gives us a portal to sacred Dreaming. It's part of "Creating our lives as works of art" rather than just living.
So we have come full circle back to the west direction, back to death and transformation and the ancient way of Dreaming that can truly inform our future if we once again seek it out as a practice to understand who we are and what our path is in this world. What is it that we must give death to, what parts of ourselves, and what does our transformation look like; who will we become thru that? We may also seek others who are dreamers who can dream this information for us in different ways. Dreaming is a practice that offers us the opportunity to access information, both personal and universal, that comes from Source, so may be completely unknown to us or it may be something we already know, reiterated, and reiterated and reiterated until we hear it. The key of course is acting on information received. Again this requires a commitment of COURAGE in ACTION. It also requires us to assume responsibility for our own lives and as such, for co-creating the entire Universe. How powerful that is. It opens us beyond all parameters. I encourage you to consider learning to Dream, to connect with your Source of life energy, to ask and receive information from there and then to put that information into practice. Find your own truth, the essence of who you really are, and the HeartPath you are to walk.
DREAMING
Ancient Stillness
Woven with Sacred Sound
Holds our souls,
lifts the limits of our minds like
smoke from incense and
Wafts us into
Connection with Knowing Beyond
Understanding.
There are gifts and blessings
we cannot count.
...Beyond understanding
in an unfamiliar
Reality.
Be Blessed with Dreaming Beautiful Ones,
Let me know if I may help you with this,
Rose Mandala
Feather Redfox - copyright 2012
Healing Prints
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Personal Card Reading
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You may also consider doing individual study with me to help you be more clear about your own HeartPath and how to proceed on that.
Personal Study
Copyright 2012 Feather Redfox
Thoughts from the North Direction of the Medicine Wheel:
The Power of Sound and Hearing the Non Speaking Ones
Sounds of wind, of boundless grace, the sky moving and star song, orb chuffles and love's soft breathing, stones' depth of silence with palpable energy echoes......................
Sometimes from the very depths of us there wells up an energetic push, a compelling need to move in new or different ways, that we can't explain. It may seem to be from a sound, a sense of a specific energy, an unspoken knowing if you will, that compels us to move forward in some way in this life. It is time for us to focus on the sounds that surround us but are so often unheard. Some of them are audible sounds and some are not. Just as we pollute the air of our Mother Earth, so we also pollute her sounds and need to auditorily strain out the patterns of constant noise until we can be immersed into, and truly hear, the sounds of the Nonspeaking Ones. The rock, the earth and tree, the stars and energy of stalking animals on their night hunts, or perhaps the architecture on our streets or thea piece of art or picture hanging on our wall........ The emanating sounds of the Speechless Ones hold wisdom for us all to share on two levels.
Traditionally in many Native American teachings, the Medicine Wheel is used as a ceremonial and teaching tool, a way of making the invisible, visible. Generally it is a circle divided into 4 equal parts by lines pointing out from the four directions: South, West, North and East. Each direction of the Medicine Wheel, holds special characteristics. It may hold male or female energy and their characteristics, the energies of specific animal totems, scared tools such as drum, pipe or rattle, as well as qualities such as Trust, Dreaming and much more. For me, the North direction is about my ways of connecting to Goddess, Great Spirit or Source, about living with strength and courage as an adult and creative dreaming, inspiration, as well as "Seeing as a Seer" might see. For me specifically that includes much prayer, visualization, meditation and working with sound. Today we will focus on sound. Spirit singing, drumming, rattling etc. are just some of the shaman's sound tools but we will focus on the sound of the Non Speaking Ones. The guidance I have been given most recently, has been placing images and words of silence or about silence, in my path. They appear on calendars, in the thoughts and images of friends and in my own yearning for an area that is separated from the cacophony of our daily lives. Sometimes it is difficult to stop listening and move into actually hearing what may be most helpful to us and the healing or enhancement of our lives, both physically and spiritually. Recently I damaged my shoulder pretty severely and one of the doctors recommended the addition of ultra sound along with physical therapy for full, enhanced healing. He said the ultra sound would speed my healing from inside the body.
Ultra sound uses specific frequencies for its healing work and to create images and is a common tool in contemporary medicine, yet we can't hear it and seldom think of sound as a factor in our environment that affects our physical bodies and our spiritual connections as well. This is an area for us to explore much more deeply, one layer at a time, investigating what actual physical sounds bring to us energy wise. From music, to wind chimes, the refrigerator whine, to the wind itself and even the unrecognized emanations of the wordless ones, all sound has an impact on us. The next layer or channel is to learn to sit with the sounds, the energy patterns or waves that emanate from our surrounds, learning to feel/hear them internally as loosening or tightening in different areas of our body. They may bring a sense of relaxation or peace, or a sense of uneasiness in our backs, upper head or elsewhere. The energy wave patterns of all our surroundings interact with the energy wave patterns of our own beings, physically and spiritually, and can create cocoons of fibers that weave and flow or knot and annoy all around us.
A Physical Practice for the North
If you wish to explore this more. Consider going to a place removed from as much daily noise as possible. You might travel to a natural setting or simply move to a quiet spot in your home. Make yourself comfortable and give yourself the gift of doing absolutely nothing for half an hour if you can. Then just sit and intend to HEAR the sounds of the energy waves of your surroundings. I don't know how this will work for you. I'm pretty sensitive to all aspects of energy, or perhaps simply more aware of them, and in our small apartment, there is no place to isolate myself from the sounds of others. Even so, just sitting quietly on my bed, with and intent to HEAR unspoken sounds emanating for the objects surrounding me, I can hear a certain energy pulsing, an almost-sound that maintains the same patterns of pitch and frequency. It's a slow, low and predictably, melodious pulse. It is relaxing and could be drawn something like this:
It seemed to me this area had good energy for
sleeping...fortunate since it was on and surrounding my bed! I then realized by focusing on different
objects, I could see or was aware of in my surroundings, I could also
"hear" their energy patterns as signatures. Candles had a pattern of sound/movement that
was much more erratic but also maintained a baseline hum of lower pitch. It had quick short jumps of much higher
frequencies as it burned and sputtered.
It was both invigorating and stabilizing while the constancy of an electric light shining thru a beautiful multicolored stained glass shade produced a chorus of harmonized sounds, different pitches for different colors that stayed much more constant and steady as this illustrations shows:
As you begin hearing the "Non Speaking Ones", try drawing their sounds all together on a piece of paper in whatever colors they may feel to be and notice which ones "complement" one another in your sense of that, and any that might not add to the flow of your energy picture. You may want to consider moving or removing the source of any energy that seems not to blend well, from your environment. It can be irritating to your physical sense of well being and can be very distracting from your spiritual connection as well. Be aware also of where, in your body, you experience these energy sounds. They will activate or suppress your chakra energies and you may want to explore that too if familiar with chakra work. I'd be interested to hear the results if any of you try this. The energies and Non Spoken sounds that surround us in every day of our lives are very important to our well being. We need to cultivate awareness of them and create harmonious and healthy places of being for ourselves. This is a rather different way of working with sound and connecting to Source or Goddess than we generally think of, but harmonized energies in our places of living can enhance both our physical bodies and strengthen our connection to Source.
Blessings of New Sounds and Non Spoken Energy Awareness for you all,
Copyright 2012 Feather Redfox
Heyoka Energy and the Truth of the Backwards Way: Dancing with the Coyote Fairies.
Not too long ago I had a dream in which a priest was teaching someone and as I walked by he said, " We know it's true because it's part of the 4 Square Truths. I thought about that in the dream and after I awoke as well... What were the 4 Square Truths he mentioned?
In Christian theology I thought that might be a reference to the Four Gospels of the New Testament. I'm not sure exactly what parts of them it referred to, perhaps a synopsis of the Christian belief system in four statements? In my own personal system which contains information from many cultures, including but not limited to the traditions of Native American beliefs, it seemed to refer to the Four Directions as know by me from the Medicine Wheel. The practice I have suggests that I "see" things from four different perspectives or directions, South, West, North and East. Each direction has its own particular focus. I might take a concern or worry and think about it from each of these four directions and consider the physical aspects and how it affects me in the south, the emotional and feminine qualities that feed into it from the west, what is it asking me to kill or transform, etc. and continue this investigation all around the wheel. Traditionally I would start with the south direction and work around the wheel to the east direction, but today I will be working backwards and writing about the truth of the Backwards or HEYOKA Way as one possible approach to our lives. I hope to write about each of the other directions in its turn.
Among native cultures, there is some variation in the description of what a Heyoka person or the Heyoka Way may be, but for the purposes of this article, I use it simply to refer to someone who allows themselves to do things in a backwards or nonrational way at times. A true Heyoka person of Native traditions may appear strange to average folks from the way they dress and appear to the way they act. Some traditions also say they expressed the idea of trust in Great Spirit, even to extreme or illogical lengths in the past, by riding backwards into battle, carrying a broken lance, dressing warmly in summer with warming fires and going naked with no fires in the winter. None of us need to try to become Heyoka people to that extent. In truth, a heyoka being is not made, they are born or dreamed that way. A non heyoka person cannot take a course or study and suddenly become a heyoka being. We can learn much from them however, and perhaps we need to let go of the rule of our minds and allow ourselves to live the clown's role sometimes, or perhaps even be the fool. Following our Path of Heart is often just such a decision. How often have you told yourself you couldn't do something that you really wanted to do....write a book, start a business, paint a room in your home red, go away for a few days all by yourself..... because......you don't have the money, you aren't good enough, you will just look stupid, you are too old, it's too much work, etc.?
The East direction as I have studied it, holds many qualities, seemingly in opposition to one another. It includes first of all, Illumination...about all things including ourselves. It is the home of ration, where the mind rules and masculine energy helps us create the projects we think of; we figure things out and then do them. It also holds heyoka energy or the contrary way, and our ancient inner wisdom that questions everything we think we know. I want to focus just on the backwards way for the moment.
In Traditional Native mythology, the coyote can be a Heyoka, known for its wily ways and trickster energy. In American cartoons, we see coyote energy, but it is portrayed as being easily out smarted in the road runner cartoons. In Native American lore, the coyote is an honored teacher, one who teaches with absurdity and humor. It tricks and makes us laugh at ourselves while pointing out our own absurd beliefs and behaviors. It is often the clown energy as well and is ribald, rude and opens our minds to possibilities that we may not have thought of or believed possible. Sometimes it brings us pain and punishes us for misbehavior. Clowns sometimes also heyoka, may whip individuals at dance ceremonies with switches, if they have fallen into behaviors that are harming themselves or the tribe. These beings may also mock what we see as sacred and in that way helps us to be more open to new possibilities, new ways of doing things. Heyoka energy has many roles but for us, the most important is to encourage us to stop letting our minds control our every move.
Perhaps you are now thinking we would be in a sad state of affairs if we didn't use our minds and think rationally about our lives, plan them out and have goals to work for. Certainly we need to use our minds and ration as tools for our living ...............
BUT .........for each aspect of our lives, each decision we make, we need ALSO to think to ourselves:
"WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF I DID THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT SEEMS RATIONAL?"
Obviously, sometimes this would be pure folly...it would
make no sense to jump in front of a bus for instance......BUT.............
There are many instance in our lives where we live, almost by Knee Jerk Ration and Reaction...thinking and saying we can't do this because of that, we can't do that because of this. We need to start asking ourselves the question, "Why not?"
Call in the Coyote Fairies....let them be your inspiration, your muses and ask them to guide you and keep you company while you try sharing some of their energy. Allow yourself to "get dirty" with new ways of doing things that may not be as clean and smooth and predictable as the rational ways because, with the Coyotes, you never know what to expect! They are, however extremely resilient, wise and resourceful, and those are all wonderful qualities that we need in our lives, in our ways of living. Perhaps the following exercises can serve to bring them to you.
Calling In the Coyote Fairies
Exercise 1. For this exercise you will need a small hand mirror or framed mirror. Spend a little time for several days in a row, walking backwards while you look over your shoulder with the mirror as your means of navigating. Set a chair out in open space and then try walking backwards toward the chair and sitting down in it. It helps to shift your perspective and while at first it can be very confusing, you do get used to it.
Exercise 2. Gather blank writing paper and a pen or pencil. Place the pen in the opposite hand from the one you normally use to write with. If you are right handed you will now write with your left and vice versa. Think about any concern or question you may wish to focus on and begin writing about it. What is it, how do you feel about it, and anything else that comes to mind whether it relates or not. Do this without worrying about punctuation or spelling, just write whatever comes without judging it. You won't be showing it to anyone else so there is no need to feel self conscious about what you write. It is private and for you only. When you are finished, re-read it and look for clues to help with this concern. Did you say anything that might be different than what you normally say or think about it? How do you really feel about this and what is possible? What do you really want to do?
Exercise 3. Using a small inexpensive hand mirror, place it in a paper bag and hit the mirror side with a hammer or similar object just enough to break the mirror in a number of pieces which still remain in their frame. Don't shatter it. Then look into it and speak to yourself about your issue or concern. Who are you talking to...do you feel differently seeing this distorted image of yourself? Who are you really? What is it that you want to do? What would be the OPPOSITE of what you THINK you should do? Is that a possibility? You may want to journal about your thoughts after you do this exercise.
Always, when we have finished what we are doing, we need to thank those energy forms that work with us for their help. You can say a simple thank you to any beings you work with or you may read a prayer such as the one which follows:
Great Spirit, God, Goddess Mother, Beautiful Coyote Fairies and Spirits, all my Guides and Relations,
I am so used to walking the same, known paths that I sometimes forget I can create new ones. Help me to see new ways, new possibilities and to break the mirror of my rational mind that reflects only the known and rational ways to me. Let me walk backward to see my life with new perspectives that splinter my old ways of seeing and understanding things. Let me sneak under and over the Known truths with the Unknown and Nonrational, to weave a new blanket of original and colorful design. May I rest the bones of my concerns beside the fires of your creative coyote wisdom. Thank you all for the guidance and warmth of your heyoka ways, that has stirred the mix of my rational thinking. HO
Art as a Healing Tool: The Power of Marks on a Surface
On my website, Feather & Sojourn Studio I have a special page with prints of my work called Healing Prints.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Personal Card Reading
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You may also consider doing individual study with me to help you be more clear about your own HeartPath and how to proceed on that.
Personal Study
Many Backwards Blessings to ALL!
in different forms from traditional Navajo healing to energy healing of all sorts. This
issue of the newsletter is dedicated to all those who were able to attend and weave a web
of sharing and community, not only for the event but as a tool we can use going forward
for universal healing. I offer you today, yet another way of bringing healing to body and spirit....Art!
Art as a Healing Tool: The Power of Marks on a Surface
On my website, Feather & Sojourn Studio, I have a special page with prints of my work called Healing Prints, meant to make available inexpensive prints for you to use in your own healing processes. Today I hope to explain that process for you, so that you can understand it's real possibilities and take advantage of them.
Since the beginning of time, Art has played a pivotal part in our attempts to control our world and our individual lives. We have drawn on cave walls hidden in the deep recesses of mountains and created ornaments and sculpture to honor those higher beings and spirits we felt connected to, in both empowering and dangerous ways. Art has never been a neutral or unnecessary process until we entered the modern world which devalued it for much of our contemporary society. That is a real loss to each of us however.
Shamanic traditions are among those who understand the healing powers of art and have developed specific strategies for working with it as a healing tool that you, as a contemporary individual can use. My hope here is to explain how you may make use of this less familiar gift that art can hold for you.
Why Does it Work?
Focusing on a piece of art, especially healing art that has been specifically created for that purpose, shifts our energy with its subject/appearance and the associations you may have related to that. They have an unconscious or psychological impact on you thus enabling you to shift your emotions and points of view.
Secondly, all of creation is composed of energy waves of different lengths and speeds when seen from a very microscopic view. The chair you sit on, your clothing and your thoughts and body are all just very fast moving bits of energy if broken down small enough. Thus the energy waves of art's actual colors and forms will interact physically and have an effect on your own energy waves. The particles of each will interweave again allowing for changes in emotional responses and points of view, even your actual DNA. Hospitals and institutions sometimes take advantage of this in the colors they use and visual images and sounds they incorporate into their facilities. The results they use are based on scientific research.
Feather Redfox - copyright 2012
What is the process for actively working with healing art?
Using art as a healing tool can work in two different ways. It can be used either actively or passively. When used passively, we simply react in a mostly subconscious way to the energy that is being emoted from the piece, as well as seeing the actual image and reflecting on its meanings for us, how it can inspire us in our daily lives.
When using art actively, we have to intentfully interact with the art work by looking at it and focusing our attention there in specific ways for a period of time, meditating or consciously working with it. If it is used as a meditation focus or visual focus we need to sit with it where we can easily study it with a cleared mind and no distractions or interruptions. To begin, you may pose an issue to Source, or any Supreme Being which you feel comfortable naming, and ask for information on a state of mind or body that you wish some form of change for. You may also just ask for information that will be helpful in your daily life.
Moving focus study
One very old way of working with healing art used in variations by cultures such as Tibet is when a priest or shaman may give you a specific mandala image to meditate with for a particular illnesses or concern. Simplistically said, sand paintings are also used to produce healing images and then are destroyed as a means of capturing and releasing an illness or condition. They are used by healers of many cultures, including Navajo Native Americans. When using the mandala approach with a piece of my own healing art such as Rose Mandala: Center, Ground, Root Fly, I suggest sitting with the piece and beginning to study it from the outside edges and slowly moving inward over the images in a clockwise manner. I create these images in many cases to begin with more chaotic areas where you may find many details if you study an area, and then moving more and more inward, you will arrive at a central area that has visual resolution of that chaos, encouraging a more calm and integrated energy response within you. it is possible to go into deep states of meditation with many of these pieces where you may receive gifts of information and/or regenerate your body and spirit. These pieces include my personal prayer energy on how to create this work so that it may bring guidance of all who may see it. The Rose Mandala shown above is one such image.
Feather Redfox - copyright 2012
Metaphorical Study
Other images are metaphorical and work best with the simple approach of looking at them symbolically to see what information they can bring to you. They have stories to tell you and information to share about life which unfolds with your studied observations. You often find that each time you look at this art you will see some different aspect of it that can bring new information for you. I think of and create this art with multiple layers of meaning and nuances if you look carefully at it. The Water Element and the
Rose Path painting is such a painting. Why are there rings on the points of the snowflake and why is the snow on a background of water? What it the meaning of the rose at the bottom? All of these things are symbols and had a specific meaning to me when I created them. They hold the energy waves and particles that I placed in the piece as I made it, considering the different meanings and characteristics of water. And always I include prayers for my own guidance as I create these pieces so that they may be of service to you.
NEW WAYS OF WORKING!!!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have decided to send out the newsletter and the monthly card readings as two separate emails. All of us are overloaded with much to read and do. I thought it would work better to do two mailings of shorter length than have you be totally overwhelmed by one very long piece.....as a true Pisces I have trouble NOT being long-winded! There is just so much I need to tell you all! LOL
SOJOURN STUDIO'S OPPORTUNITIES~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect to Source and discover your own HeartPath truth at my new HeartPath workshop here in Santa Fe NM.
We will explore and connect to your intuition and create your own personal starter deck of Wisdom Cards, learning how to do readings from them for your own personal guidance. Creating the cards is just plain fun and you can use collage or any nontoxic art materials you are comfortable with. No need to be an "artist". Your intuition will give you the designs you need, the ones that speak to your concerns. This is a great way to become more connected and learn how to use your own powerful intuition with other like minded people.
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There are many ways to create that connection to Source and strengthen it. You may wish to explore a personal card reading with me as another way to receive information at this link below:
Personal Card Reading
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You may also consider doing individual study with me to help you be more clear about your own HeartPath and how to proceed on that.
Personal Study
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Many Warm Blessings to ALL
What Direction Is Your Point of View
Feather Redfox - copyright 2012
Point of View: Using the Sacred Concept of Movement
No matter how hard we may try, almost all of us fall into the muddy ruts of victimhood at times. How do we jar ourselves from our normal perspective mentally when we are stuck in a tape loop of doubt, hurt or confusion about issues or situations we are working with? Sometimes it has to be an actual alchemical process...as in meditating on being in a state of resolution rather than being faced with the problem. Easy to say; not always easy to do. What would help with that? I know a number of different ways to approach this, most of them are attempts to connect intuitively with Spirit, Goddess or Higher Power for guidance. My teacher, Lynn Andrews and the Sisterhood of the 44 Shields, always says there must be movement for there to be growth so let us consider how movement is a tool for shifting our point of view.
What gets in our way of changing our point of view about a given situation...our Ego which says BUT, BUT, BUT and is obsessed with our need to tell the story of our hurts and victimhood. When it is OUR victimhood and hurt, it can be terribly difficult to recognize it for what it is and sometimes it gets really murky. We aren't sure what hurts and issues are real and which have sprung from some trouble making entity who lives in our insecurities and fears.
Our biggest problems seems to be twofold:
What do we do when we feel we are NOT BEING HEARD and the frustrations of that?
How do
we deal with the MOMENT when it may be drastically different than our desired outcome and our perseverance feels
spent?
Step into Stillness
I think the first
step toward shifting from our "Normal" perspectives is to become
QUIET, really, really quiet with no intent other than to be still. What
is it that can help us to move our point of view...point of view as in
the point of place from which we are seeing a situation.
Often changing the scene, walking to a different place in the room, or better yet, walking outside if you can, actually taking a walk for half an hour or 45 minutes, can make that alchemical shift for us. It helps us by processing our adrenaline responses and modulating them with the endorphins produced by the walking. Again this requires just remaining mentally still, not trying to solve anything as we walk, though often we do get important information just by being still and being in a different place. Just BEING, sometimes saying a short mantra under your breath as you walk such as..... I am strong, I am beautiful, I am guided.....can help you stop the incessant tape loops that are often there. For reinforcement, add to this the process of Oxytocin Breathing as taught by Dr. Ellie Drake of BraveHeart Women. Find a place to sit or stand easily and simply take a deep breath, filling your belly, and release it slowly and very completely like deflating a balloon as you say HAHHHHHHHHHH to yourself. Start the sound with a higher pitch and let it slide down lower as you release. Do this 10 times or more aloud if you are able, or whispered if not, though making the actual sound is a better form of release and helps to train your body to respond just to the sound for relaxing. It will feel as though you have released a heavy load when you have done this. This is the state of stillness you need to begin the next steps.
Being heard
When we feel we are not being heard, often we simply repeat what we have said over and over, louder and louder in frustration. In reality, the circumstance/person to whom we are speaking at that point, has simply turned us off most likely, so it's all an exercise in releasing our own frustration rather than actually being able to communicate with them, which creates even more frustrations. Release your frustrations, but when you are no longer being heard anyway, do it privately. Sometimes we just have to accept that we will not be heard at this time in this place and decide whether or not we wish to live with that or not. Sometimes it is a matter of timing. Other times we can simply let go of the issue and hold it in trust, that the Universe will manifest a change when the time is right. We can move our thoughts to feeling the way we would feel as if it were resolved, to give our emotions a rest. In at least some cases, feeling that energy can be very healing both for ourselves and the situation itself. We are not always called to perform some physical action beyond simple trust in a knowing that things always change one way or another.
Allowing New Points of View
Since you have found yourself going round and round in a conundrum by responding in the same negative ways to your concerns, now is a good time to choose a different way to respond. Are you hoping to receive in some way and should you now be the giver or is the opposite true? But how do we do that?
A simple exercise can help us to move from the mental direction of thought in which we are stuck. Try doing this. Print out this article and then take it with you as you move from where you are now sitting, to sit in a different location in your room where you seldom sit. Make it a place where you almost never sit. What is it that you see now that you don't see in your usual seat? How is the view different? Can you see out a window or thru a doorway that is not usually in your view? Make a few notes about that and just notice if there is a different FEELING to being in this place. Are the colors or textures different? Does it feel comfortable to you or perhaps it feels more crowded or more spacious? Does it allow you to see people coming or leaving the room in a way you couldn't before and perhaps more or less SAFE? Are you noticing something you have never noticed in this position that you didn't see before. Then think of your concern from this position and notice if perhaps anything different may come to you from being in this new place. Try to be open about this and not to move back into your usual tape loops of response. Make a few more notes about anything that may come up for you in this position which is different. Then try moving to one more location in that same room and observe the same things and make a few notes. Again consider your concern from this different position as well. Does it have a different energy there? Might you receive any new information about it there? Ask yourself which place you prefer and why. Is it the old or the new and is it because that position is comfortable to you or because it gives you a new viewpoint?
When we consider the issues that have us stuck, we need to move to a new viewpoint about them just like moving to a new position in the room where we are sitting. We must let go of our standard ideas about what outcome we need to have and shift once again into living beyond the possible. That may mean that we accept things we feel are impossible for us to accept (not those which are dangerous to us or others of course). It may mean that outcomes we cannot even begin to conceive of are ahead as well, and that these may be even better than we could have imagined. It may mean that we will change or have strength in ways we could not conceive of or that it is time for us to leave that particular situation. Limits ......are fences which we place around what we understand to be possible. They are explainable outcomes of situations as we understand them. We can live beyond that if we choose to but it means that we must shift position in our lives so that we are enabled to see things from a different perspective. This month sit in new places in your life both physically and metaphorically to help shift your point of view and stretch your ideas of what is possible. May it be a month of beautiful flexibility and strength in your new view points.
Blessings and love to each of you,
Feather
August's Monthly Card Reading
Endurance
Feather Redfox - copyright 2012
Sometimes we want to give up too quickly in the situations of life where we find ourselves. Endurance Heals is the main card I pulled for this month. Endurance could be defined as the ability to keep on task beyond normal expectations; not giving up easily. I give you the following information from this card just as it was channeled to me:
· "Believe you ( or any situation) can be healed, which means YOU MUST HOLD OPEN THE PORTAL OR DOORWAY OF POSSIBILITY . (If you believe a thing is impossible, it is much more difficult for it to occur.)
· Believe you are WORTHY of being healed .
· DO THE WORK (that your Inner Guidance tells you to do)....no questions and no excuses
· TRUST"
These things seem so obvious but search your inner truth and ask yourself:
· Do I really believe this situation can be solved or healed?
· Do I really think I am worthy of that gift of healing?
· Am I willing to do the work?
· Do I really have that much trust?
I believe a representative or teacher will be offered to you this month who will be able to give you some guidance about what your "work" should be regarding any changes or growth you wish to achieve. You must be willing to listen to what they have to say however, in order for it to be helpful. That is a choice as always.
The hatching, if you like, of new parts of yourself, is waiting for you to do the work and pay attention so that this can happen. As you see that possibility in your near future, consider exactly what energy this new part of you feels like...scary, exciting, does it open you and allow you to breath more fully than you ever have? What shape will it take both metaphorically and perhaps in other ways as well, a small one, a very large and flowing one. What does this new part of you require from you to give it birth and then to nurture it? What is the food of its sustenance. I like that word, "sustenance", and the reference it makes to the sustaining of life and its abundant growth.
Finally, this is a time to FOCUS with some intensity on this whole process, not to be distracted. if a fly were to land on your arm and walk around as one did on mine, could you hold your concentration, allowing that small thing to fade as you focused instead on your important task? Would you find it impossible not to swipe at it, to sneak a quick look at your Facebook account or text someone rather than staying focused on the task at hand? Think about your powers of focus as well this month.
Endurance of focus on the task of your own new birth, trust, willingness to do the work, and a belief in your own worth for this growth, are the work that will bring you the most progress this month. And along with the sun energy of your labors, don't forget to add the waters of pleasure as well for a balance in all you do.
Much productive growth and peace,
Many blessings,
Feather
Luna Transformation of the New Moon
Feather Redfox - copyright 2012
Healing Prints
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Personal Card Reading
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You may also consider doing individual study with me to help you be more clear about your own HeartPath and how to proceed on that.
Personal Study
Many Warm Blessings and a new awareness to the direction of your point of view
Transformational Fire
FIRE
I am the Fire....
Brilliant, roiling light that
Illumines and Blinds,
Warms and Sears;
Feel my destruction and
Know that I both cleanse, harden and soften.
I destroy
and I create.
Out of my ashes arises
your Phoenix
I am the ether of Fire.
Feather Redfox - 2012
Though I hadn't planned it that way, this month brought fire into my personal life via my little car. When it caught on fire and the element for the month was fire, I knew there was a connection. We then ended up buying a burnt orange or flame colored car and found out that my youngest son had also just purchased an orange car. Synchronicities abounded including the fact that our beautiful earth has been surrounding us with Fire here in the west.
Most often fire seems a very destructive thing. Yet, Fire is a magician, bringing new life out of death. (In my situation, a newer car out of the old one). Fire, like all the elements, has two sides to it. With Fire, we encounter both warmth and illumination, death, cleansing and the opportunity for very dramatic transformation. In most situations, transformations require our deaths in some form; death and transformation are partners. It may be the death of a relationship, a job, a place of living or even the identity we have believed in all of our lives. Even seeds have to die to their seed form in order to become the plants they grow into. Deaths ......................are neither good nor ill, they are transformative both for ourselves and those around us, for all are intertwined.
Fire energy brings emotional heat into our lives, perhaps as something we are really not used to. We may have found it safer to live outside our surrounding community, to keep safe in an emotionally cooler environment, one that requires less interacting with others. There can be much heat when interacting with many people at once. It creates much energy between you. There is the heat of a relationship, either between humans or humans and other things. As we bring up our strong positive or negative feelings about anything, it carries an emotional heat and heat, emotional or physical, is one form of bringing about alchemical change. Things that are white hot give off light, illumination, again either in a physical or spiritual or emotional sense. the Heat of fire energy helps us see things in a new way that we may never have seen before. Heat can condense things making them more strong or can melt them or turn them to ash giving a completely different form. The skill of working with Fire energy is knowing how much is enough and how much is too much. Learn to be in stillness and gather that information as you watch the energy building, knowing what are your limits for this, witnessing what is happening without judging it. Where is the point that it will burn you beyond recognition and where will it be a vehicle of transformation, hardening you or making you more fluid? Situational Observation and the Ability to Set the Limits You Need in any given situation are what you need to work with the energy of Fire.
Always remember, the heat of fire energy ripens the seeds within you and helps them to sprout to life. While none of us want to experience the searing situations that we are sometimes called to live thru, we will do that most quickly and productively if we think of them as fire energy that is quickening us and awakening hidden seeds of the new within us. They are fire energy that both kills us and gives us birth to new life.
Fire energy is also comforting to us and we can light candles, have a small fire to sit by or enjoy the light, warmth and heat of the sun in our daily lives. We can rejoice in light and all the gifts it brings to us, in the way that it raises our spirits and brings up our emotional heat too. Even holding a cup of warm drink can be stilling and calming as well as give you a sense of well being. See both sides of Fire energy and learn to use them with intent as you need them.
If you would like to learn more about working with the energy of the Fire Element, please connect with me by reply email, or on my website at Feather &Sojourn Studio or on Face Book. It is always my pleasure to be a guide in learning these old/new ways of being, in helping you find your HeartPath.
Sojourn Studio study
July's Monthly Card Reading
YOU ARE READY TO MANIFEST YOUR DREAMS
The card I first drew for this reading is called Fear of Dreaming; Love of Dreaming and represents the paradox we live in everyday, of wanting to create things in our lives and being afraid to try. The back of this card carries this message as it was given to me some years ago when I first made it:
"We, (Our Spirit guides and guardians), do not ask you to fly in ways in which you are not ready. We DO ask you to stretch your readiness. You are able to do all you are being asked to do. Trust and fly your dream."
This reading is about how we learn to recognize and deal with or release our fears so that we can then move on and manifest the dreams that we have for ourselves and the world. Given that our dreams may in themselves, not be for the good of all and in that sense not supported by Creative Source, we still do have the opportunity to stretch ourselves out and touch what is seemingly beyond our reach. That is our journey here, to learn to do that and to succeed.
RECOGNIZING AND RELEASING FEARS
The first step is gaining an awareness of and releasing our fears, whatever they may be. That is a life-long undertaking but there are paths that we may follow in this work. As I mentioned previously in the information about Fire energy, if we can simply sit back metaphorically and watch how we live our lives with no judgment, simply witnessing, we can learn much. Write down the things that you see yourself do over and over which would benefit from change. Be aware of them. Then create a list of your fears...I will get cancer, I will go broke. I will be laughed at. I will fail. Failure is a very insidious fear as it follows much of what we try to do in every venue. Fear of failure means we will be shamed in front of others and most of us need at least some sense of approval and appreciation from others to maintain our own feelings of self worth.
There are a number of ways of releasing our fears but they seem to condense down to these two:
Addictive refuge in substances such as alcohol, food, sex, etc. which numbs our feelings and is destructive.
OR
Creating and maintaining a deep Spiritual connection and practice which is constructive.
Given an agnostic or atheist determination that precludes a spiritual practice, I believe an Aesthetic /Humanitarian focus and study may substitute for a spiritual focus. I much believe in the power of beauty of all forms as a healer and source of Power. This also would be constructive.
FINDING YOUR TEACHER/TEACHINGS AND LIVING IN TRUST
In order then to follow the constructive path, we need to find our teacher/teachings. There is no one right being or philosophy for this. It may vary with the person but the search for this guidance is important for all. The progression would be this...Search, find, study, search, find, study etc. It will be an ongoing thing and both your teacher and teachings will probably change with time. Having made that connection, you will need and be able to live in trust of that teaching and how it affects you, for you will see its results.
CREATING AND MANIFESTING CHANGE
Again there are two steps to help with this:
LIVE WITHIN THE IMPOSSIBLE
That means simply: Visualize your changes already accomplished and maintain as much as possible the feelings of joy, peace and satisfaction in your daily life that you envision coming with the things you want to manifest. Live as though they have already happened on the emotional level. When I received that information this morning in a waking dream, I was given this explanation. The information is not new but it is important:
"By living in the energy of joy or whatever we perceive as coming from the desired changes, we physically create changes in the cellular and DNA energy structures of our bodies, creating a "keyhole" to receive a "key" which the Universe can then place within us to help manifest the changes we desire. CHANGE CANNOT HAPPEN IF WE ARE NOT OPEN TO IT HAPPENING."
MAKE THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE
Create a small manifesting bundle*, a picture or find an object that symbolizes the changes you so desire. Allow it to represent or be a physical image of the invisible thoughts and desires that you wish to manifest. It will have a way helping you focus your intent, holding fast to needed actions and even give you a sense of comfort, for its physical presence is a symbol for the actual change until you can manifest that. If you create a bundle, it is something you can carry with you and look at as you desire with no need to explain to others what it is. Above all, trust this process to do its work.
*Bundle - a small collection of little things that symbolize what you want to manifest wrapped and tied in fabric, usually red.
Personalized readings are also available for you if you like. For more information click the link below:
Healing Prints
There are many ways to create that connection to Source and strengthen it. You may wish to explore a personal card reading with me as one way to receive information at this link below:
Personal Card Reading
You may also consider doing individual study with me to help you be more clear about your own HeartPath and how to proceed on that.
Personal Study
Many Warm Blessings and a new friendship with the Element FIRE
Copyright 2012 Feather Redfox
I am the Water, holding
Huge, flowing force that
embodies untold energy slipping
like quick silver around
Under, over and thru.......
I am infinite Tsunami potential
Woven thru the quiet ponds that
Ripple shore to shore
from just one stone.
I grow star stuff in
Humans,
Cleansing them, quenching thirst
Feeding the Earth and
all she births
I am the Ether of Water.
Secondly, Water knows how to hold its power. If it is stopped, dammed, contained, it is more silent, holds its raw energy and strength like a being in meditation or in prayer. Sometimes it can be that way a long time but water is also unstoppable. If there is the smallest opening thru which to slide, trickle or drip, to the rose of desired possibility, water will find its way there and soon the trickle will become a torrent. Water's voice will once again be heard. This is a lesson water has come to teach us. When we find ourselves unable to move, we need to hold our power in stillness like the water, rather than bleed it away in worry and complaint. Spiritual Guidance can help us find the weak spot in the containment until we too can flow past the block that had been stopping us on a beautiful rose path. When this happens, we must remember to sing our gratitude fully.
Unfortunately, in much of our world today, the water has become ill, harmed by civilizations carelessness...care..less..
This month, on the Venus Transit, I held a small ceremony to connect with the Water Spirits in my own area, with the intent of offering healing gratitude and love to water. This is something that you too can do. You can see more about my preparations and the ceremony at this link:
Sojourn Studio on Face Book
New Possibilities
Creating New Possibilities
This time for us is a Rite of Passage it seems, and perhaps we need to honor it as that with small ceremonies or little give-aways similar to the Native American traditions. We are born a number of times within this one life and if we are seekers, we may be born many, many times. This occurs with each of our own new physical ages, there are also ages of awareness, and in addition there seem to be ages of the world we live in. Each is to be recognized and honored. Yet sometimes it is just a feeling that we have, we notice something has changed, shifted and we are not always able even to explain what that may be.
I believe that this new birth is an opportunity to reconnect in an ever more power-filled way to Original Source, to Goddess or God or Higher Power , however you relate to this energy. It holds for us not only an unknowable vast energy and potential which are mirrored in our own lives, but also a Stillness of Being that is something which is often completely nonexistent for us today, and for some at least, is like a long missing ingredient that they have not yet been able to name. Our society is an adrenaline driven one to such an extent that we feel uneasy, as though something is wrong if we are given an opportunity for stillness. It is not something with which we are comfortable.....and yet....it is something our souls long for. With times of stillness, Source is able to communicate with us and we are more able to hear.
New potentials are opening for us as GIFTS we are being offered, but it is we who must accept them, and their responsibility. We have to be willing to learn how to create with them. Gifts of empowerment always come with responsibility and sometimes we don't accept them because we are leery of also accepting that responsibility. Each of us is being offered gifts specific to our own abilities and our needs to grow in specific ways, so we must each learn different things. Our journey is to move BEYOND THE EXPECTED, beyond what has been done and find new resources, new paths. Ask your Source, God or your Guides to assist you in discovering the new gifts you have been waiting to claim, being completely open to what they may be. Think of yourself as an inventor you have hired to come up with new directions for your life. Specifically ASK YOUR GUIDANCE TO ERASE ALL YOUR OLD IDEAS OF WHAT IS POSSIBLE. WE NOW HAVE ACCESS TO INFORMATION THAT HAS NEVER BEEN AVAILABLE TO US BEFORE..... SEARCH FOR IT!!! For so long we have lived by old information about how and what we should be doing. It is time now to move into things we may not even be able to imagine. If we want great change in this world, we must be willing to make great change in ourselves. While it may sometimes be informed by ancient practices, we need to be very careful about getting stuck in ritual versus ceremony. Ritual is a very specific way of doing a practice that never varies by a hairs breadth. Ceremony is also a practice to honor or work with specific energies but is fluid and meets whatever the current participants needs are for today. While we can benefit greatly from ceremony that celebrates and connects us to Source, ritual, where nothing can ever change, can be deadening. We must recreate our ceremonies in this new time and energy so that they can relate to us and verify our new understandings.
Creativity, that wonderful but old and overused word, is the life force behind our forward movement on this path. How do we move beyond what we can imagine? Each of us must discover that for ourselves but the secret is to let go of our ideas of what we believe is possible, AND of what we think are good outcomes. That is probably the most difficult part of this task. We want to create specific outcomes that we believe will feel good to us, all of us do. Yet there are colors that have not been seen by us that already exist, and music in the universe that we can almost hear, ways for us to interweave our communications beyond words written or spoken and it is time to find them. I write this as my love and a friend invent new music that in some way reaches out to all of that. It is time for each of us to do so in our own ways....be the Beautiful People we all are, each in individuated special ways so that we can heal this Beloved Earth.
Universally, there are several things that all of us need to live with, in order to be creative and create most powerfully: An opened Heart that is expanded beyond its original potential with UNCONDITIONAL LOVE and Consciously lived GRATITUDE that brings joy into every cell of our bodies and souls. Unlike you may suppose, these are learned states of being and a choice for us all, regardless of how improbable that may seem. It is a truth that each of us have to learn over and over.
It is time now for all of us to move into creative new life possibilities in Gratitude, Unconditional Love, and more Gratitude as we let go of our preconceived ideas about who we are and what this life means. Being strongly connected to our guidance is the only way we can do this.
One of the ways that Sojourn Studio can strengthen your feeling of knowing and authority is to help you create and strengthen your inner Connection to Source or your Inner Truth, your HeartPath. I offer a selection of small affordable Healing Art prints as well as the original paintings available on my website. These can be used for meditation centers, to shift your energy into more positive levels or just to add that energy to your living and working spaces. Creating a strong connection to all the elements which I have been exploring with you here is another area to look at. The print of the Water Element will be available soon as well:
Healing Prints
There are many ways to create that connection to Source and strengthen it. You may wish to explore a personal card reading with me as one way to receive information at this link below:
Personal Card Reading
You may also consider doing individual study with me to help you be more clear about your own HeartPath and how to proceed on that.
Personal Study
I am the Ether of Air.
How do we make use of this new found knowing about the energies of the Air Element? Given this power that we experience every day, what does it say for our own ways of living? How can we draw energy from seemingly nowhere, an energy that is hugely powerful but also knows how to touch gently? Where is this force that we can put to work to manifest our plans and life views? Just as temperature inequalities create the rising and falling of air masses because of pressure inequalities, which finally creates the winds, so it is our MOVEMENT into GRATITUDE that will help us raise our energy levels and the pitch of our mental energy to a much greater level which in turn increases our physical stamina. Just as there is a crackling potent energy in the area of a thunderstorm, so we can create our own higher powered versions of energy to work within our bodies and minds. Gratitude is one creator of air energy, a wind of stamina and excitement. Practice gratitude everyday but especially when you are feeling unhappy or overwhelmed. It's as simple as saying aloud everything that you can possible think of to be grateful for, including being able to stand and speak at that moment. It works wonders. The breath of your speaking with gratitude will brings the energy of AIR, the winds of change in attitude and possibility along with their powers to you. Prayers and songs all use the breath, AIR, and help create the power of AIR for you to use.
I found it interesting that Chaos and Labyrinth paths both came up in my personal card reading and in this month's newsletter card reading. The painting created for the card is titled "Order Out of Chaos".
Workshops on Connecting to Source
April 2012 It's my understanding that the creation of a healed world and healed people depends on individuals re-creating real connection with the ecosystems and all the beings, human and otherwise, with which we share it. How can we live and care for that which doesn't exist in our KNOWING and BELIEFS as our closest, most precious family? It's so much easier to kill and simply ignore those to whom we feel little or no CONNECTION. Connection is Key and it is only a small step from learning about a thing to being able to feel connected to it. Hence, my reason for writing about the Elements to help us all understand and connect ENERGETICALLY to that part of our natural family which is so important. Connection to these basic universal energies not only supports our life on the earth plane but it allows us to understand and connect to it in perhaps a new or as yet unlearned spiritual or energetic way. It will bring a new kind of light to our HeartPath, an understanding of specific energy types we can consciously use.
All elements have what humans would see as a positive and negative side. They can be supportive or destructive.The small painting here, grew out of my feeling/understanding of the first element: Earth. I feel and know it as the SOURCE of so much that can be manifested both physically and spiritually by me. It is the great garden where I can plant seeds of all kinds of possibilities. It FEELS, dark, damp and cool,very fertile with possibility of all sorts. It has a certain smell but the feeling of it is a place that is full of seeds, roots and rocks that secure it, star parts and star seeds as well. It pulses with life and vibrancy and holds a mothering energy but it also is the hosts where seeds split and die in some manner in order to grow, where we bury things so that they may be transformed. All of these energies can be used in a positive way. Use this type of PROMISE ENERGY to root all your dreams, all your projects, your work.
GATHERING YOUR POWER~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How do we make use of this new found knowing about the energies of the Elements?
On a practical level, you can write down or simply state your intentions to bring forth something and visualize planting it deep in your internal soil where ever it requests to be....your heart, solar plexus, your hand.....Ask it. You can also create some physical symbol of that intent, an image, picture, bundle, etc. State your intent and make a prayer for it to grow and become what you are working for, then plant it in the ground of Earth, hold it in a bowl or vase beside your bed, on your desk...hang like a prayer feather to blow in the wind from a tree... But remember to draw into the symbol, that deep, rich, fertile soil energy of promise and growing seeds, that is Earth energy, and send it as part of your prayers. Draw Earth energy in to your being then send it out to your symbol. There are star seeds in the Earth energy so nothing is impossible. The Universe hears all prayers. I know that is true from a waking dream I experienced. It experiences the energy we send out and is influenced by that, so allow yourselves to open to "being/living" on a much larger scope that you can "see" or even imagine. We co-create the entire Universe with the lives we live. What part of its newness will you create?
SOJOURN STUDIO'S ASSISTANCE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Workshops on Connecting to Source
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Monthly Card Reading
This reading is about Mirroring to one another, Universal Connection and exploring our Alchemical powers.
The Mirrors of
Sisterhood, of Siblinghood help us find our own power and connect to the
powers of Siblinghood. As siblings of all that exists, we have a huge
source of power that roots us as individuals. As members of that
family, we all have particular parts of a shared responsibility: that
of CONNECTING, growing one another, healing one another and our home,
this Earth and this Universe.
The mirroring that we do for one another is a way to be shown our own
alchemical abilities. If you are ready to
open to your own special alchemical abilities, you need mirrors and
other
tools which help you to learn just what your special powers are and how
to awaken and begin using them. Read further and learn more information
on how to do that in our everyday world, how to work and grow your own
special abilities living a more Universally connected, responsible
life. For full reading click link below
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Be sure to reply to this email if you have any questions at all. My intent and my true pleasure really is to be of service to you in any way I am able.
HeartPath Blessings,
FeatheR
