August 11, 1999: An Opportunity To Heal Through The Heart

My exuberant article on the August 11, 1999 eclipse. Originally published in now-defunct Conscious Life magazine, and exceedingly relevant for our upcoming eclipse on 8/11/18:

  

Before our ripening millennial moment arrives, we’ll face another potent portal to either walk through or ignore: the total solar eclipse of August 11, 1999.

This is no run-of-the-sky eclipse. It’s a card-carrying galactic gateway. Astrological adepts have been waxing prophetic about the date's significance for a while; it also precedes, by just two days, the Aztec-prophesied "day of destiny."

What’s so special about this eclipse? If we’re willing to meet our celestial shadow at the level of metaphor, we’ll be insight.

Consider: the Moon blots out the light of the Sun. Perhaps our hidden, dark, or "feminine" side is asking our fiery, now-now-now, tick-tock, "masculine" energy to take a nap. The Moon signifies the night side, what’s unexplored within us, inviting receptivity, nurturing, allowing, rather than the solar-aggressive, "go-for-the-gold, the burn, the competitive edge" that plays out in our daily dramas.

Becoming One with Ourselves

Coming to wholeness — embodying our masculine and feminine energies, both within ourselves and as a planetary organism — is the quest and question of our time. First, are we willing to go there, and second, do we know how? It’s a call to alchemical union, this wedding of the light and the dark, and we could use a transformational map.

As a longtime student of ancient wisdom traditions, especially Mayan cosmology, I walk in both worlds, following an indigenous calendar that corresponds to seasonal and biorhythmic cycles, alongside our more linear Gregorian one. So I was intrigued to see what "natural time" might reveal about this auspicious access point. (The traditional Mayan symbols have been translated into modern equivalents, so decoding a day’s "energy" is like a game — it’s fun, and it expands one’s ways of thinking and perceiving.)

August 11, 1999 is an epiphany.

In the Mayan sacred calendar, August 11^thwill be a White Planetary Dog. The dog archetype is about loving through the heart, and loyalty — sounds a lot like "man's best friend", right?  

"Planetary", in this case, is a frequency, like a note on the musical scale. It’' the frequency of manifesting, and it vibrates to how we perfect ourselves in order to produce a desired outcome.

"White" is one of four colors that correspond to the four directions, the four elements, and our four "bodies" (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual). White is north and air, a dimension of mind.

Finally, each archetype has a guiding energy, like a wise teacher or mentor. The guide for White Planetary Dog is the Mirror, which of course is about inner and outer reflection. It also connotes endlessness (ever been in a funhouse hall of mirrors? Did you gain an enhanced perspective on where "you" end? Look deeply into the mirror…) The Mayans even have a saying that reflects the mirror: In Lakech, I am another yourself.

The complete energy for the day reads:

I perfect in order to love

Producing loyalty

I seal the process of heart

With the planetary tone of manifestation

I am guided by the power of endlessness.

Head Heart, Wholeness

It’s a fantastic window of opportunity calling to us. Listen: "Hello, humans! By connecting your head and your heart, you perfect your love. In so doing, you produce loyalty to one another and to the greater good, which will manifest as unending heart-centered love all over the planet!"

This is our possibility, our invitation, our initiation, our healing.

And this is the beauty of Truth: it doesn’t matter what vehicle takes you there. The message is always the same. Come home to yourself.  Remember the Love that you are. 

However it's expressed, there's a universality that’s unmistakable. Tears of recognition flood your eyes as you choose to see clearly, as you inhale back your authenticity and power.

You're unconditionally invited to join in the cosmic celebration on August 11^th, as the Moon of Communion eclipses all the old ways that no longer serve. Joy is waiting on the other side of the window. Let's ride the carrier wave of the frequency of the heart into the ocean of resonance with all that lives. You are Love. Let Freedom Ring!

© Copyright July 1999-2018 by Amara Rose. All rights reserved.

Of Two-Way Streets and Enriching Dichotomies

  

Our world of apparent duality offers a wealth of disguised enrichment opportunities. Consider:

A cyber buddy who currently lives creatively without residence wondered why a stranger would open her home and heart to her. She emailed, "I don't understand why she's being so amazingly generous. I keep telling her she just blows me away."

I responded, "You never know what her own journey is…she may have needed to serve someone in exactly this way, and you are providing a golden opportunity, so it is a mutuality."

This is the way energy works. When my lifelong friend Ellie fell and broke her hip at 96, requiring a lengthy convalescence in a rehabilitation center and later at home, I initially despaired about why Spirit didn't simply call her Home.

Then I had a flash of insight: the enforced passivity enabled my fiercely independent friend to learn to receive, and blessed those who assisted her with the joy of service. I told her, "You would never have allowed it otherwise." With wonder and her trademark humility, Ellie exclaimed, "Amara, you're right!"

The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful

What appears adverse can be advantageous. I needed to park my car on a different street due to an upcoming festival, and planned to be out of town the following week. I gave the young man who acts as my "car surrogate" the spare key, and asked him to please move the car back once the festival was over.

Unbeknownst to me, a road crew was about to repave the street; tow-away signs went up the day after I left. If the festival hadn't been scheduled (and, therefore, if I hadn't given Danny my spare key) my car would have been parked in its normal spot — and towed during the week I was away!

More profoundly: A dear friend was in a near-fatal motorcycle crash earlier this year. After a month in the ICU, he learned he'd need a walker once out of bed, and would have only minimal use of his right hand for the rest of his life (he's a southpaw, but still…). Eight months later, Rick says, "The accident was the best thing that ever happened to me."

During his convalescence he lost seventy pounds, and began exercising several hours a day as part of his physical therapy program; the combination reversed his adult-onset diabetes. He's grateful every day for the gift of life, and more open than he's ever been. He says, "I cry if I'm happy, I cry if I'm sad.

"And you know what? It feels amazing. I have nothing to hide now; what others think of me is no longer my concern. I can be emotionally honest. I feel like this is another piece of the silver lining surrounding that terrible trauma."

Sustained by his new outlook and the outpouring of love and support from friends and family, Rick's regained almost full use of his right hand, and returned to work — as a practicing physician. Practice makes perfect.

Once you've been through the fire, you're recast as pure essence; the superficial no longer holds sway in your life.

How Your Light Is Spent

Milton's sonnet, When I Consider How My Light is Spent, exemplifies the nature of life's dichotomies, and how we choose to interpret our time here. The full text reads:

When I consider how my light is spent

Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,

And that one talent which is death to hide

Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, lest he returning chide;

"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"

I fondly ask. But Patience to prevent

That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need

Either man's work or his own gifts; who best

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state

Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed

And post o'er land and ocean without rest:

They also serve who only stand and wait.

"Apprehension" means both anxiety ­and understanding. If you apprehend the meaning behind Milton's final line, you will understand that simply being is what matters most.

Whoever or whatever your messenger is, listen deeply. Once you apprehend the message, invite yourself to let go, so that you may embrace this wisdom farther along life's spiral. Allow yourself to be amused by the alchemical nature of any apparent dichotomy that shows up in your life. And know there's an invisible cosmic trampoline beneath you, so you can rebound from pain's mirage, spread your wings, and fly.

© Copyright September 2017 by Amara Rose. All rights reserved.

Imagine Nation

"If I could tell the world one thing

It would be that we're all OK

And not to worry 'cause worry is wasteful

And useless in times like these

I won't be made useless

I won't be idle with despair…"

~ Jewel, Hands

Here in the Great Turning, the predominant emotion is often fear — the same energy as excitement. What we feel is a matter of interpretation.

It's a time of incredible expansion, according to every cosmic weather report I've seen: an opportunity to compost our "harrumphitude" concerning Trumpelstiltskin (thanks to "mythic news" weaver of context Caroline Casey for these deLightfully winnovative words). If you have skin in the game vis-à-vis Trumpelstiltskin, this is the ripe moment to play your Trump card.

A Subtle Shift Makes the Diff

The key is our collective readiness and willingness to segue from living in Alien Nation to co-creating a global heart community, Imagine Nation. The shifts are subtle yet substantial: from thinking we're alone to realizing we're all one.  

In Alien Nation, self-flagellation is popular. "I'm the only one I know who can blackball myself in my own community," a woman despaired recently, explaining how, in angrily speaking her mind about an issue vital to her, she piqued the one person who might have proven most helpful, had she spoken with Spirit Tongue. I empathized, as I've often carried my own whips, too. Practicing self-love is the hardest task most of us will ever master.

Yet it's so apparent that everything is vibration: while food shopping in a happy frame of mind at my local organic grocery, trading quips from old Monty Python routines with the customer in front of me at check-out, I was bowled over when the young cashier offered, "Would you like me to burn you a CD of their skits?"

True Happy Hour

A New Yorker cartoon shows a man standing in front of a sandwich board outside a bar. READ MORE

Code Blue: Revivifying the Heart of America

In hospitals, Code Blue indicates cardiac arrest or respiratory failure. It's an apt metaphor for our political emerge-and-see. Time to take a deep breath, revive from unconsciousness and plunge ever deeper into our hearts.

The body politic is broken, yet repairing what isn't working will just keep the existing system chugging along longer. We need to craft a new mythology, a wholly different story for unprecedented times.

Embracing the both/and with both feet on the ground

Early in 2012, when we were preparing for a quantum jump into a reality beyond the tide of prophecy, I referenced polymath Jim Channon, an author and corporate shaman with a military intelligence background (how's that for crossing borders!) who writes, of reimagining our future,

"Between the crack of time and the fold of space there is an impulse to seek the fullness of life. Let there be the slipstream of knowing that penetrates in the flash of an eye to the core of the prize. Let that edge of knowing blaze a trail of pure magic for the spiritual warriors of the galaxy to rise again in the grist of the great surge forward and strike the banner of pure heart into the midst of the fury and bring her all — home again."

It's time to move from being edge dwellers to center walkers, embracing the both/and with both feet on the ground. We're doing it: getting involved, questioning the structure of the Electoral College, connecting with allies we've never met to discover what the new path might look like.

It won't be constructed of asphalt ("at fault") but from pumps primed around the nation and across the globe: the pumps that live inside us, circulating identical blood whether our hearts beat in black, white, brown, straight, LGBTQi, American, Mexican, Muslim, or any other cultural body.

Progress is a process

Our differences are skin deep, and micro-thin. Beyond the clothes our organs wear, we are One. Poet David Whyte, whose words resonate equally in boardrooms and blogs, offers an internal aegis for us all:

"Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into


the conversation. The kettle is singing even as it

pours you a drink, the cooking pots
 have left their

arrogant aloofness and seen the good in you at last.

All the birds
 and creatures of the world are unutterably

themselves. Everything is waiting for you."

Or consider the term Steve Rother, five-time United Nations presenter, brought through: "Espavo". Espavo means, "Thank you for taking your power". The ancient Lemurian acknowledgment is akin to the Indian greeting "Namaste", which means, "The Spirit in me recognizes the Spirit in you", and the Mayan expression, "In Lak'ech": "I am another yourself." The distinctive difference is, Espavo carries an implicit call to action.

The Heart of the Matter

And the moment is now. Pragmatic mystic Gillian Macbeth Louthan shares, "The 11:11 doorway begins its activation on November 11, 2016 and closes on January 11, 2017. It is a gateway into your highest potential as a human seeking divinity. Promises present themselves disguised as foxes in a henhouse." (Ahem…)

"When the forces of Eleven become fully activated they have the power to change history and even fate if enough love is globally broadcast. Eleven teaches us every problem comes as a divine opportunity to learn. It shows us how to see beyond what is everyday and boring. It tests our faith and our belief system. It forces us to listen to that small, still, quiet voice within: the silent witness. It reminds us we are all vast beings who have come to Earth to help with the healing and awakening process. It asks you to locate the light within and share it with all."

This is a potent time for powerful pre-emptive magic. Initiated Mayan elder and author Martín Prechtel suggests we engage in "love drive-bys", where we run up to someone, press chocolate into their palm and run away. What a deliciously playful expression of the true meaning of power: that which heals us into our wholeness.

We're on our way to Code Clear. Breathe from deep within your soul, and feel your heart expand to encompass winnovative solutions. Remember, Earth and Heart are anagrams: only the "h", for home, healing, humanity, moves from one end to the other. Espavo.

© Copyright November 2016 Amara Rose. All rights reserved.

Blackberry Love: How to Pick the Ripe Relationship for You

After living in the wine country of northern California for a while, I grew tired of whining. I wanted to segue from sour grapes to sweet, luscious blackberries. This is how blackberry love begins …

A friend and I were taking a walk near her rural home at sunset when she exclaimed, "I've got to stop and pick some of these delicious blackberries!" Yet until she said that, I hadn't noticed the blackberry bushes all around us.

I was amazed. Here I was, surrounded by a potential source of nourishment, readily available, delectable and free, and I hadn't even seen the bushes dripping with ripe blackberries until my friend pointed out what was right in front of me. It reminded me of the quote from The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint Exupery: "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

I wondered how many times potential partners or friends might be right there in front of us, yet invisible, until someone points them out to us. "Oh, here's a blackberry, and it's ripe." Iridologist and holistic health pioneer Bernard Jensen called blackberries "one of nature's most perfect foods for healing". And when we truly heal, we do so on every level of our being.

So I began to pick blackberries, and to walk the path of wise relationship.

Gift #1: Zen and the Art of Blackberry Picking. Look for the berries that are ripe to be plucked right now. In this instance, the mantra might be, "learn to discern." If we choose berries that are overripe, they're going to squish in our fingers and we'll have juice all over the place. If we choose a berry that's too red, we'll have to tug to get it off the vine, and it's going to be bitter. An old commercial playfully vowed, "We will sell no wine before its time!" Forcing a berry to be yours as it's clinging tenaciously to the vine will result in whining. The perfect berry comes to you with a very slight pluck; tugging isn't necessary.

Gift #2: A Grasp That Equals Your Reach. Robert Browning wrote, "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a Heaven for?" That’s poetic, but if we live this way in terms of relationship, we'll be forever hungry, grasping for berries that are always just slightly out of reach, or not quite ripe. After picking berries for several days, I developed a certain dexterity. I became adept at angling my arm in between the thorns to find just the berries that were ready right then, even if they were slightly above my head or a bit of a stretch from where I was standing. Sometimes the choicest morsels are a slight stretch outside our comfort zone. I began to get the sense of how to connect with them, and it became this wonderful dance: "Oh, hello berry bushes!" There was a grace, an ease, to my berry picking, and it was fun! Relationships can actually be fun.

Gift #3: Visual Acuity. My resonance, my homing signal, for "ripe blackberries" grew keener by day. Like anything else, you get better with practice. I learned to scan ahead as I walked down a row of bushes. On the way out, I'd pick the ones that appeared ripe. On the way back, I'd notice ripe blackberries that I'd missed the first time. I was enlarging my visual field, engaging my peripheral vision: "Ah, there's someone Spirit has placed in my path whom I didn't notice before, that I ought to consider." By looking again, we raise our sights to the highest possibility.

Gift #4: Choose Ye This Day Which Berry You Would Serve. My friend’s two dogs trotted along beside me, happily devouring any berries I tossed their way, ripe or not. There will always be people who are so hungry that any blackberry is better than none. They're willing to take the bitterness just to have the taste. However, unripe fruit will only give you heartburn. Nourishing berries feed your soul as well as your stomach. Once I started tasting the sweetest, most perfectly ripe blackberries that were ready for me, I couldn't return to a less discerning method of selection. There was just no comparison with a berry that was right for me, right now.

In this same light, it's most important to know what kind of berry you are. Are you so ripe that anyone who comes within range is going to get drenched in berry juice? Or are you clinging to the vine so steadfastly that if somebody wants to pick you, they're going to have to tug, and you're still not going to come loose? Are you hiding on a branch that's so low to the ground, or so high up, that no one can see you in your ripeness because you're invisible to the eye? Or are you ripe, sweet, available, and ready to be chosen?

I encourage you to know your ripeness level right now, because that's going to shift over time. Then, you can forage for the blackberries who are ripe to meet with you at this time, and enjoy the beauty, the elegance, the joy of the quest. When you find the berry who is right for you, there's going to be a fruitful recognition. And you can savor the sweetness of this remembering for a long, delicious time.

© Copyright 2001-2016 Amara Rose. All rights reserved.