How to Live Forever

"You must go through the way in which you are not.


And what you do not know is the only thing you know


And what you own is what you do not own


And where you are is where you are not."

~ T.S. Eliot, excerpt from Four Quartets

When I began deleting my personal history, as Paulo Coehlo describes in The Zahir, it was the most joyous and bizarre experience of my life: I was simultaneously aware of who I was and who I was not, and 3D appeared both silly and sublime. It was expansive, akin to the seatbelt sign blinking off in flight as the Captain announces, "You're now free to move about the cabin."

Similarly: In college I listened to Woody Allen's amusing audiobook Without Feathers. The title refers to the Emily Dickinson poem, "'Hope' Is the Thing With Feathers".

The idea of "giving up hope" is as intriguing as stepping outside our conditioned responses. The day before the U.S. World Trade Center attacks in 2001, I'd finished reading Beyond Prophecies and Predictions: Everyone's Guide to the Coming Changes by Moira Timms, and felt suffused with a calm knowing, a sense that something was about to happen. As 9-1-1 unfolded I sent out a global message contrary to popular reaction, and was castigated as well as thanked. (Email me if you'd like a copy of This IS A Test.)

In this first year beyond prophecy, how do we live beyond hope, beyond history, beyond how we might once have responded, and simply observe our unfolding? Will Linville conveys the evolving human condition with startling beauty, demonstrating what it looks like to live as "a constant stream of consciousness".

We begin by enlarging the lens from microscope to kaleidoscope, as Caroline Casey illustrates: "We are remembering our true selves, our destiny, our role in the Dynamic Mystery Play. You know how sometimes people ask that harumphitudinous question, 'Who do you think you are?' We reframe: 'Hoo-Doo! You think! You Are!'"

This is how we morph into "forever beings" says thought leader Soleira Green. "Forever beings are not trapped by history, by past mistakes, learning, cultural influences, etc. Freedom isn't a concept since there is nothing but complete and utter freedom on every level, available all the time.… A forever being lives within limitless possibility, seeking change and creation constantly and always. This re-orients us to the ever streaming NEW and not to the static past."

Without "hope," without history, we're closer to our true nature than ever before. Or as Linville offers, "If you lose control, you're free. And you have everything."

Fomenting Fear: Boston As Red Herring

Here we go again. Humanity's on a roll, awakening at the speed of love, co-creating ingenious solutions for local, regional and international challenges in ever more magnanimous ways. We might even be moving towards global unity.

The faster and stronger our rise in Light, the greater the resistance from forces that fear losing control. Whether we perceive these dark energies as originating from beyond the country or beyond the planet, one certainty is this: the best way to prevent questioning, growth, and union is by generating fear. Keep the people cowed and obedient, quaking within at the potential threat everywhere, and separation is assured.

After all, who can you trust when something as apple-pie American as the Boston Marathon, an institution more than a century old that attracts runners from all over the world, is tainted forever by a bombing at the finish line? How safe can we be in our backyards if something like this could happen in the midst of half a million people and all that security?

This is precisely what the instigators want. Do not trip the trap. Grieve for those injured or killed, yes. Make every effort to bring the terrorists to "justice", if such an action is possible. But don't crawl meekly back into the old skin. It's shed. It is time to arise as One and light the way to the higher truth of our intrinsic unity.

Rumi says it best:

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don't go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don't go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill

where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don't go back to sleep.

** If you'd like to read the message I sent out after 9-1-1, please email me.

Reimagining Death: The Elephant in the Room

Woody Allen famously said that he didn't want to achieve immortality through his work; he wanted to achieve it through not dying. While we celebrate birth, its corollary, exiting the Earth plane, is feared only slightly less than public speaking — at least, in the Western mind.

As someone with a gerontology (study of aging) background and an abiding love of elders, I've been exploring positive aging and death-related subject matter for years. I'm currently reading two complementary books with mirrored titled: From Age-ing to Sage-ing by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and Sage-ing While Age-ing by Shirley MacLaine. MacLaine's book has been eye opening, not least because she articulates much that I've discovered/remembered on my own awakening journey, but also because she ratchets up my knowledge to the next level. In Chapter 11 (number of Aquarius), she focuses on soul development and references the work of regression therapist Michael Newton, PhD.

Suddenly I read, "All regressed souls speak of how much easier death is than birth. With death there is a release into the light. With birth there is an entrance into density." Of course! It's easier to expand than to contract.

And this awareness dovetails beautifully with another stunning book I read last year, Deathing: An Intelligent Alternative for the Final Moments of Life by Anya Foos-Graber.

Deathing is the real deal on conscious departure. We're not meant to die alone and afraid, maintains Foos-Graber. This definitive guide — the first of its kind I've seen, and it was published in 1989 — spells out clearly how each person can prepare for an informed death. Since most of us avoid any discussion of the subject, the very concept of a 'how-to' manual may sound frightening. Yet like MacLaine, Foos-Graber maintains that death can be a light-filled, spiritual experience.

We have a lot of help entering the world: we emerge from the body of our mother with attendants such as doctors, nurses, midwives, spouses and friends at the ready to welcome us and tend to the birthing mother. But there is no corresponding death ritual to support us in exiting the body we've inhabited as we return to the Great Mother of All.

Through two teaching stories, Foos-Graber shows us what both a typical, unconscious dying and a planned 'deathing' experience look like. The second half of the book provides step-by-step instructions and simple exercises such as breathing, visualization and remembering the Love that you are, to assist you in releasing the body and making a conscious, even joyful, departure from this life — and to support others in doing so.

Plus, we can rehearse while alive! Foos-Graber writes, "By practicing ahead of time with an eye toward this spiritual life insurance, you can increasingly live in an atmosphere free from fear and ignorance. A correct grasp of how to die necessarily produces an expanded philosophy of how to live more abundantly, however long or short your time of physical life."

As I was reading this book, a friend of mine's husband surrendered to cancer. Here's how she described his conscious death: "He squeezed my hand and left his breath here to begin to inhale the ethers of elsewhere. A gentle wave of joyful contentment spread out in ripples of sparkling delight. He was free again and slowly twirling in the softly glowing wonder of it all. This ethereal mist of farewell whispered through our home for an hour or so and then was gone."

So let us bow to that elephant and embrace its wisdom, rather than indulge in what MacLaine refers to as "amphysteria" ~ a condition of forgotten fear, usually of a place. We have no reason to fear expansion into the Light of All. And the elephant-headed Hindu deity Ganesh is revered as the "Remover of Obstacles". We can ride the elephant of awareness right on into the next adventure.

Crow-Magnon Woman: On Being a Birdbrain

"Birdbrain" is not a compliment. Yet cross-culturally, indigenous peoples have depicted bird-headed people to signify a connection with the spirit realm. I have a particular affinity for crows, which became my familiar the summer I had pneumonia. I was living in a highly altered state of consciousness, and when I heard them cawing on the telephone wire outside my apartment, I began to count the caws to divine what the number might mean in my life at that time. Birds are augurs. I also began responding to the cawing crow, and we conversed. Enraptured, I penned the poem/chant that appears at the end of this post.

Crows and I forged this connection 20 years ago. Just a few weeks ago, I was captivated by the novel Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monninger. His central character is a college professor whose expertise is corvids (crows) — and she harbors a secret about her health and impending early demise. For someone who's long been fascinated by positive aging and reimagining how we perceive death, this was an irresistible combination. I recommend the book highly for its impeccable storyline and the author's courage to illumine a difficult subject with fresh eyes.

And then, synchronistically, I spied The Gift of the Crows: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans in my local bookstore, in which real-life college professor John Marzluff deems crows incredibly intelligent as well as playful, describing how one crow would entice neighborhood dogs away from their owners and hold "class" with the canines on the campus lawn!

So I am delighted to be a "Crow-Magnon" Woman. May my poem speak to you, and to your own special relationship with the winged familiars in your life.

Talking to Crows

© Amara Rose 7/30/93

Black-winged wisdom on a wire

Cawing collect,

Caws and effect

A coded conversation

In guttural cries

Opens my eyes

And lifts me higher.

Weeds Help Us Flower

We're verging on the Vernal Equinox, which means the Rite of Spring that one friend dubbed The Mowing is about to begin in earnest. Not a blade of grass — certainly not a weed — is safe.

I understand this obsession. Growing up in suburban America, I observed a rampant homeowner disgust with the "lowly dandelion," scourge of suburbia's well-manicured lawns. Much later, I discovered that dandelion is one of the most healing herbs available to humanity, offering itself in abundance wherever we dwell. It's a supreme liver tonic, known to help detoxify the body's "processing plant." In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the liver equates to the emotion of anger. If you want to release that pent-up rage in a healthy way, the remedy is probably available, free and easy, in your own backyard.

Dandelion can act as de facto compost, gently surrounding and helping to decompose back into rich loam that which no longer serves. Yet we curse the weed and uproot it, spray poison to keep the green carpet unsullied. "Living for the lawn" keeps us focused predominantly on the external.

When we can make the subtle shift from ego mind to Universal Mind, we see with such great clarity the incredible gifts all around us! Our teammates are everywhere, in the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms — if we have eyes to see.

As we move deeper into our collective rebirth process, we'll be releasing people and places that no longer resonate with our lives now. Doing this with what the Buddhists call lovingkindness is our mandate. It's a ripe moment to ask yourself, Who or what in my life seems like an outsider? Am I willing to look again, to become inclusive rather than exclusive, to see beyond imaginary borders?

Below are seven practical steps to enlarge the lens this Spring: to slow down and look with the eyes of wonder, like a child. You'll find many more on my CD, What You Need to Know Now: A Road Map for Personal Transformation:

• Keep a journal. Buy a beautiful blank book and a pen that feels comfortable in your hand. Then allow yourself to write whatever and whenever you want. No one else need ever read it unless you choose to share, so send the censor packing! Journaling is like ingesting dandelion leaves with your pen — a great way to purge emotions and discover what really matters to you. And writing by hand is very different from blogging online.
• Dance your evolutionary process. Do you instinctively sway as you talk, or dance around the room when you get excited? Express your change process as flowing movement. Maybe it's yoga, or tai chi, or free-form dance, such as Contact Improv.
• Make art. Are you a natural with a paintbrush or clay? Splash your emotions onto canvas, pour them into a mold, sketch them into being. Remember, this is art from the heart: done for the sole/soul purpose of enlarging your own vision.
• Sing! Is your voice your most powerful expressive tool? If you love to sing but don't know any songs, make up nonsense words to tunes you like, and sing them — in public. This is also a fabulous way to break free of the "What will people think?" trap.
• Be in Nature. Sit by moving water. Sit in moving water. Sing while sitting in a stream!
• Prepare a meal that is as aesthetic as it is nutritious. As you combine ingredients, imagine that you are cooking up a grander vision for your life.
• Hush. Spend a day, alone or with others, in total silence.

How to Use Your Life

I read The Alchemist perhaps fifteen years ago, but never fully grasped Paulo Coehlo's journey until today, when his semi-autobiographical The Zahir presented the key clue. In The Zahir, Coehlo chronicles his lifelong resistance and eventual surrender that allowed him to craft and publish The Pilgrimage at age 40. The Pilgrimage, his first novel, depicts his journey along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, the transformational route in northern Spain that Shirley MacLaine also eloquently described, in The Camino.

I decided to read The Pilgrimage in 2012 after ingesting Coehlo's latest autobiographical masterpiece, Aleph. But it's only now, learning the order in which he wrote his books (The Pilgrimage first, then The Alchemist, beloved worldwide) that my ah-ha erupted: In The Alchemist, the young protagonist is named Santiago! With this brilliant literary echo, Coehlo conveys how he has become the path, his experience informing his journey and infusing the reader with faith in the outcome.

This is the essence and purpose of my own life work: to use what I have understood at each stage of my unfolding in service to the next, and to all with whom I come in contact. Are you using your life to its maximum potential, pouring the elixir of who you've been into who you're becoming?

Being Outrageous: Getting the Rage Out?

"We are constantly invited to be what we are."

~ Henry David Thoreau

Are you mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore? Purple with rage? Or enwrapped in wrath? Though the dictionary may use the words rage and wrath interchangeably, they are not the same. Otherwise we'd hear about "road wrath"!

Rage is a savage, devouring energy; wrath, while fierce, is also the province of the dakinis, who initiate creative change (think of the goddess Kali). Wrath is righteous; rage just wants to be right.

Since this is an ideal moment to transmute anger in the alchemical fire, several lightplayers and I filleted, seasoned and simmered a few thoughts on this distinction:

∞ "Rage is cooking without anything in the pot; wrath is cooking a full stew."

∞ "We can make medicine from joy instead of from pain."

∞ "Rage merely makes you age; wrath keeps you on the path."

The next time you get mad, get thinking: am I enraged or wrathful? Is this a purposeful fury? Am I cooking with a full pot here?

Here are some tools to assist you in enlightening up into wholeness/holiness/healing (all from the same root word, hale):

1) Laugh. The Buddha said we all want to know the answers to four key questions: "Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? And will there be food there?" Laughter lights us up. Conscious evolution is purposeful play! Whatever brings you belly laughs is healthy, because laughter oxygenates body and brain, thereby strengthening our "amuse" system. Think of something that's troubling you and consider this: if it will be funny in the retelling six months hence, it's funny now — if you allow the possibility.

2) Live the WOW (Witness Our Wonder). A vivacious 73-year-old woman made a quantum shift in her thinking, from "Life is a series of emergencies," to "Life is full of surprises!" Instead of anxiously reacting to every "oh no!" she's now able to anticipate the next "ah ha!"

3) Give what you seek. Peace troubadour and author James Twyman says giving others what you most desire is the surest path to inner peace, because there is no separation between us. "If I'm lacking peace, you're lacking peace. If I give you peace, then I receive that same peace," he says.

4) Do a "vow break." This is a wonderful way to get sticky energy unstuck. You can rescind any vows you may have taken prior to incarnating to have a certain experience in this life. The formula is from the book, What Is Lightbody? by Tashira Tachi-ren. The same vow break can be found on my CD, What You Need to Know Now-A Road Map for Personal Transformation.

"I now rescind any and all vows I have taken to experience the illusion of (fill in the blank, for example, "not having enough money".) I declare this vow null and void in this incarnation and all incarnations across time and space, parallel realities, parallel universes, alternate realities, alternate universes, all planetary systems, all Source systems, all dimensions, and the Void.

"I ask for the release of all crystals, devices, thought forms, emotions, matrices, veils, cellular memory, pictures of reality, genetic limitation, and death. NOW!"

May your creative cauldron burn brightly. Happy transmutation!

Have Body, Will Travel

On the freeway one day, an engaging tour bus slogan snagged my attention at 65 mph: "The Art of Transportation." I maneuvered closer to read the company name and logo: "Van Go," with the image of a paintbrush daubing the "o". What a playful, memorable way to advertise bus travel! Since I've written about how to see yourself as an artist, this tickled me. As usual, it also got me thinking:

What is your vehicle of transport? Will it get you where you most need to go? And are you driving/piloting/captaining your vessel, or are you a passive passenger?

While in the throes of my awakening odyssey, I often had dreams of riding in the passenger seat of a car. It's enlightening, then, to note who (or what) is "driving you." The symbolic language of dreams can often be both revealing and humorous. A friend who taught speed-reading once dreamed of driving in a car that had no brakes — but he found he could stop it with his mind!

And I dreamed of being in a car with others as we skimmed across a shimmering sea. It felt glorious, yet even in the dream, my questioning mind wanted to know how it was possible for a car to glide effortlessly over water. The answer that came to me, not from my fellow passengers but from Existence itself, was, "If you believe there is a bridge, there is."

Here on Earth, our bodies are our primary means of transport, our third-dimensional "space suits". What shape is yours in? Will it serve you well as your bridge to quantum being-ness? It's harder to house the infinite in a neglected vessel.

Perhaps some cosmic re-coloration with the planetary paintbrush is in order. We might begin on the physical plane, and then add a little airbrushing of our mental, emotional, spiritual and causal bodies. Another dream image of mine involved walking into a doctor's waiting room and picking up a magazine entitled, "Woman, Clean the Mind."

Tossing out excess baggage from all of our bodies will make it that much easier to travel light, and travel into the Light.

50 Traffic Tips for Content Marketers

Courtesy of: Informly

How to Receive What You No Longer Want

As we emerge from our extended global gestation, I'm watching people joyfully birth long-term projects from deep inner wellsprings, ready at last to bring their unique gifts to Light. At the same time, I'm also observing how amused surrender allows our heartfelt desires to manifest more easily than ardent invocation — although I've been an advocate of the latter for a very long while.

Radical manifestation means completely feeling the fulfillment of what we want — then dropping all attachment to having it. This sounds paradoxical. However, we must get out of our own way in order to receive what we no longer want. Yearning indicates a lack of faith, which keeps our desire, like the proverbial carrot on a stick, tantalizingly just out of reach. But be all right without it, and Spirit swiftly delivers the goods.

The shift for me is appreciating this awareness from an amused perspective. Before, I'd try to remain detached, but my frustration with delays gave my true feelings away. Now, more and more, I'm living in the wellspring, watching the waters of wonder continuously renew me as I surrender to Source and allow myself to receive.

This is the feminine, attractive principle, here in the yin Year of the Snake, what so many have labeled, "The Law of Attraction": the power of pull rather than push, becoming magnetic to our good and allowing it in, rather than chasing it down, wrestling it to the ground and proclaiming victory.

At this moment of moving into ever-greater wholeness, consider (literally, "with the stars") the Native American Giveaway. In the Giveaway tradition, you offer what you value most to another, with no strings attached (to your offering or to your heart). The gift might take the form of time, talent, food, clothing, etc. If it's precious to you, you allow it to spill over, like a waterfall.

I invite you to consider a Giveaway to bring about greater balance and integration in your life — without, of course, holding that as the goal.

Putting It Into Practice

What do you love so much you'd feel blessed to give it to someone else?

I once lost an earring at the beach from a pair that was special to me for many reasons. I kept its mate in the box. Then I became friendly with a woman who had a single pierced ear. On her birthday, I was inspired to give her my earring because I couldn't imagine buying a gift that meant more to me. She understood immediately when I shared the earring's history, responding, "Oh, it's a Giveaway!"

Your Giveaway might be to the mineral, plant or animal realms: planting seedlings from the beloved tree in your backyard in a barren lot, for example.

Your gift can also be anonymous. In Pronoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You With Blessings, Rob Brezsny shares the story of a woman who donated a kidney to someone she didn't know, then returned to her regular life and clerical job. Three years later she won half a million dollars in the lottery. This does not mean that a Giveaway will net you a reward in kind (or in cash) — simply that doing something you feel called to do, without expectation, puts the Universe on notice that you're living in the flow. That's when synchronicity starts.

For many of us, giving this blessing to ourselves may be the beginning place: you cannot give to others if your own wells are running dry. If you've been giving yourself away for years, perhaps the greatest Giveaway is time spent soaking at a spa, to help gift you back into wholeness.

Feel free to share your Giveaway stories ~ and may you experience waves of amusement along the way.

Imbolc: Return of the Light

In mid-winter, we celebrate the return of the Light, in every sense. In my We'Moon Daybook, Marian Spadone writes of Imbolc, "All is contained within us — all future possibilities, all growth, all knowing. This is the time after the Great Dark but before the Bursting Forth. This is the time for dreaming and for knowing our dreams. This is the time of illumination…Resting still in the cauldron of birth, we close two eyes and open our third. We have enough light to see now. Use the light! Brighten the light of your Inner Knowing." My February What Shines newsletter will explore many ways to do this, playfully.

This cross-quarter moment (February 1-2) wears many guises. In the U.S., it's popularly celebrated as Groundhog Day, when a small furry rodent either sees his shadow or doesn't, and the result determines whether we experience six more weeks of winter. The day has far deeper meanings than this, as Spadone intimates — and yes, it is a potent moment to observe your shadow!

Celebrated globally, Imbolc is both a Christian and Pagan holiday, known by various names: Imbolc, St. Brigid's Day (Bride's Day), and Candlemas ("mass of the candles", which in the Catholic religion marks the end of the Yule season).

In Celtic and Earth-based traditions, Imbolc ("in the belly") is one of the most powerful portals on the Wheel of the Year: the exact midpoint between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. A harbinger of Spring, Imbolc celebrates the return of the Light in a profound sense. As the first "cross-quarter day" on the Wheel of the Year, it heralds the Equinoxes and Solstices, as well as Beltane (May 1st), Lammas (August 1st), and Samhain (October 31^st).

At Imbolc, the energies begin to pulse with renewed life and hope. Fire festivals are common. Vicki Noble, co-creator of the Motherpeace Tarot and author of Shakti Woman: Feeling Our Fire, Healing Our World, which affected me profoundly during my own awakening, writes, "Traditionally a time of transformation and initiation, Imbolc brings 'big dreams' and a raised vibration …

"With powerful Pluto in the physical sign of Capricorn (until 2024), we look forward to momentous planetary and personal change. As old structures crumble, inside and all around us, imagine yourself sitting safely inside of Kali's dance of liberation."

What most astonished me was discovering that St. Brigid (in the Irish tradition) is the Patroness of Midwives. Since my birthday is February 4th and I've long referred to myself as a midwife for our global rebirth, it was a clarifying reminder of "what we know, before we know that we know!"

Perfect Social Upgrades: A Year of 'Yes'

Aussie Jasmuheen, who lives on light (pure prana; she doesn't eat food!) composed this poetic insight to what she's calling the Year of Yes:

Chillin'

 

We're chilling 'cause it's cool,
new streams are here to rule.
We've chosen so much more,
than we ever have before.
Just sit there and be still,
breathe slow until we chill,
new times, come fun and fast,
new ways that will now last.
 

A smile it fills my heart,
for now we feel a part,
of something bold and bright,
of warmth and pure delight.
We say these words out loud,
we call upon all crowds,
to bless where we have been,
we open to new scenes.
 
To all who hear these words,
to all who will heal wounds,
it's a time for letting go
to move in truth's pure flow.
A field of light is here,
for all who've come to care,
a flavour of pure fun
where wisdom's song is sung.
 
So join me, tune in now,
rise, remember how,
step into your heart,
and feel your blessed part
Stand up tall with me,
then sink upon your knee,
respect, we tune it in,
with love all life begins.
 
With perfect social upgrades,
that benefit the whole,
we know that we're now ready,
to embark on our new role.
So say these words together,
first feel them in your heart,
perfect social upgrade now,
so all our lives now spark!
 
Yes here we are together, making this new pact!
Say yes to this upgrade, then leave it at that!

Solar Flares and Geo-Magnetic Side Effects

I've been wondering why I've felt dried out the last week or so… as usual, cosmic weather to the rescue! Thanks to Irma Kaye Sawyer for this timely reminder about solar flares and the importance of balancing our inner ecology:

Vata Dosha (Air and Ether) - Astrological signs: Libra, Aquarius and Gemini

Pitta Dosha (Predominantly Fire with a small amount of Water) Astrological signs: Aries, Sagittarius and Leo (minor water dosha influence of Pisces, Scorpio and Cancer.)

Kapha Dosha (Water and Earth) - Astrological signs: Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo, Pisces, Scorpio & Cancer.

For more detailed information on the Doshas and how to determine yours, visit PeacefulMind.com

"Keep in mind that periods of high flare activity are drying to the human body. The Pitta Dosha may be especially susceptible and may experience drier skin, hair, nails and even the eyes may be drier. Investing in a good homeopathic, lubricating eye drop may be needed, along with plenty of HIGH quality water for drinking. Like the Vata Dosha, the Pitta type may feel "hyper" at times and have difficultly getting to sleep and staying asleep when they get there. Pitta types may experience an increase of sinus problems and nasal allergies at this time.

The Vata Dosha is inclined to headaches and a feeling of increased pressure in the head and face. They also may experience mental confusion, forgetfulness, etc. We ALL can experience a bit of forgetfulness in times of high geo-mag/flare activity and that is to be expected. Sleeplessness is also commonly experienced and sleeping through the night may be difficult. It is not uncommon for Vata Dosha types to only sleep 4 hours or so at a time during these periods. They may experieince feeling "hyper" both during the day and nightime hours. Daytime napping may be very helpful to keep fatigue manageable. GROUNDING exercises are important for all types but VITAL for Vata and Pitta, especially. It is important to keep "firey" emotions such as anger, intense passions, etc. under control to keep the body energies balanced and headaches at bay.

The Kapha Dosha will most likely experience more fatigue than the other dosha types. Adequate rest is vital, take naps if you can. Also, be sure to keep your protein and calorie intake at a stable level. It is not uncommon for Kapha types to lose their appetite or even experience nausea. Eat what sounds good to you, but do avoid junk or high calorie/carb "comfort" foods, as they can devitalize even further. Kapha Doshas may be able to avoid the headaches of the other types, but will most likely experience a "foggy head," which can be exacerbated by caffeine, sugar and alcohol. Stimulants and depressants of all types are good to avoid in periods of high level activity. Kaphas may experience intestinal issues at this time such as symptoms of I.B.S, and related issues. A high-fiber supplement is a good thing to have around! It is a good idea to increase light exercise such as yoga, walking, etc. especially if one is a Kapha type that is prone to body pain or has arthritis, fibromyalgia, etc.

For ALL types, liberal amounts of high-quality WATER and REST is indicated in periods of high activity. Getting "unplugged" from computers, cell phones, etc. is also helpful."

Winter Solstice 2012: Why It's Not the End of the World

 The Solstice-to-End-All-Solstices is an illusion, albeit a very persistent one, fueled by Hollywood hoo-ha and our love of fear. In truth, it's another turning of the Great Wheel, as one cosmic cycle concludes and another begins. Mayan scholar Mark Van Stone dives deep into the nuances behind the hysteria. And this piece I wrote several years ago explains why it's not the end of the world, but the end of a World Age: The Sky Is Falling — NOT! The Truth About 2012.

At this stillpoint, the longest night, take a moment to breathe out all that no longer serves who you're becoming, and breathe in the light and Love of Oneness. Like its companion astronomical event in summer, Winter Solstice is a grand opportunity to burn away old patterns in order to become more whole. Whole, holy and heal originate from the same root word, hale. When we are hale we are robust, renewed, invigorated, fully alive. This is what such a quantum moment heralds for all humanity: an alivening, a once-in-a-precessional-cycle zone of opportunity to align ourselves with the galactic source of life.

How will you create a worthy life in 2013? Becoming creageous — creatively courageous — is a worthy start. Blessed Be!

Ariel Spilsbury is a mystic, an embodiment of the Divine Feminine and co-creator of The Mayan Oracle, a divination tool that assisted me tremendously on my awakening journey. Her Turning of the Wheel transmission reminds us that in emptying ourselves, we receive the gifts. As I've long envisioned my vessel as a chalice, hers is a potent blessing for this auspicious moment in our evolution. I couldn't have said it better:

The Turn of the Wheel Winter Solstice - Dec 21-23, 2012 "Empty your chalice to receive My feast." The Mother

An Invitation from Unity Consciousness for the Wedding Feast: Your participation with the Creation is cordially requested in "the Milky Way Rift", from Dec. 21st to Dec 23rd 2012  to Walk the Road of Awe Xibalba Bey, in Ecstatic Emergence together! Kindly RSVP to the Divine One   Dearest Ones, What if YOU were actually "enough" in this moment just being empty, totally lovable with NOTHING ADDED, NOTHING SUBTRACTED? Just FEEL that possibility in this moment! How many lifetimes will it take to recognize yourself without judgment, as already whole, perfectly lovable as you are in this moment? Imagine right now, who you would be with nothing left to do, strive for, or become. Oh, your mind can come up with a million reasons why that just isn't possible, but at some point in the soul journey through lifetimes, you WILL recognize that you are enough just being an open, empty vessel for the Divine currency of Love to be poured into. Could this Solstice be that moment? Could all of our striving, driving, craving, doing, grasping, have finally led us to realize the truth that lies behind all the changing appearances? What if all this hoopla and mental conjecturing leading up to the Dec. 21st 2012 date has all been merely pointing us to this ultra simple recognition? What if for this short time in human history, in the Solstice somewhere in the window between Dec. 21st and Dec 23rd you were actually to RECOGNIZE IN A LIVING TANGIBLE WAY what the Buddha's Heart Sutra states: WHAT IS REAL IS EMPTY AND WHAT IS EMPTY IS REAL? Form is emptiness and emptiness is form. Folks, these are not just words. This is NOT just another spiritual concept. Most have not experienced this state in a direct enough way to take it out of being a concept... but what I am going to witness with you here, is that we will have an unprecedented opportunity to have a REAL experience of this state, this Winter Solstice 2012. While many will be called into various forms of "doingness", I am here to hold a strong voice for EMPTINESS during this precious opportunity and window... for being simply Empty Vessels for Divine frequency to uplift and recalibrate, through Grace, the vibration of the whole planet, the whole human race. And all that is required is that we are in Emptiness, to receive this Divine gift of frequency that will allow us to have a direct experience of Unity consciousness! Our purpose is to simply be human tube torus electro-magnetic oscillators. (I highly recommend seeing this beautiful video link for a visual of this.) Or more simply put, we are simply resonant tuning forks that will, through our coherence* in Emptiness, ground, transmit, amplify, stabilize and resonate what is being Divinely poured into our planetary Chalice.  The pyramids around the globe are the hardware that we are analogously the software to, in this process of transmission, stabilization and amplification. It is time now to demonstrate our ability to simply BE empty, coherent, resonators! (*Coherence is ordered, focused energy, the difference in effectiveness, between a flash light and a laser beam.) What has been demonstrated to me, over and over as a vessel for the Sacred Feminine in  the  space of my long life, is that if it is simple, it is more likely to be true. What could be MORE simple than this? The mind says, "Ah, it just couldn't be that easy." I have witnessed Her grace personally too many times not to strongly counter that perception. It IS just that easy, as we open to receive the Divine gift of Grace! As Osho so eloquently puts it: "Emptiness is the means, the destination and the attainment!" I have endeavored to live my life from this place of Emptiness being what is REAL, and I am overjoyed to see it coming to bloom in the planetary collective. We are all now powerfully, mythically called to be resonant capacitors, frequency holders, in this emergent, planetary field, in Emptiness! We are also at the same time called to be sacred Witnesses to the holy alchemical marriage of male and female within each of us, the Heiros Gamos, that is now astrologically playing out in the larger field of the Milky Way Rift at Winter Solstice 2012, where Cosmic Mother and Cosmic Father, Christ and the Magdelane, Thoth and Seshat, Isis and Osirus, Venus and Mars are joining to celebrate with us, the Wedding Feast of the release of a new cosmological template of balanced human evolution. Let us celebrate entering into Unity Consciousness, in the freedom of Emptiness! Will things look like we have entered a new world? Yes, if you are looking from the inside out. To some it will appear as if nothing has happened. As the alchemists say: "As viewed. So appears." This is just the way awareness works my beloved dears, since, as you well know, we are the movie directors of the outpicturing of our own consciousness.  In this process, remember, the nature of the Chalice is to be empty in order to contain. We ARE each a chalice. By simply being empty, we are creating a clear station on which the Divine can transmit pure vibrational frequency. Mother's response to me, in all simplicity, in answer to how to prepare for this time was, "Empty your chalice to receive my feast!" We have been doing that over the last months/years with clearing our bodies, our psyches, our shadow material, emptying out, in preparation for this "once in many lifetimes" opportunity. For many, this stripping down to Essence has been perceived as a painful process of shedding, houses, jobs, relationships, but take heart, it was all necessary to "empty your chalice to receive the feast!" During this potent time, continue to be aware personally and collectively, owning, shedding and releasing whatever shadow material still appears to stand between you and embodying Divine Love! It all comes down to a very simple choice, in each moment, each interaction, to choose love rather than to separate from self or the appearance of "other". Is this the lifetime to MAKE THAT CHOICE?    On the other end of the spectrum, as you approach this potent window of opportunity, remember that being in the open eyed meditation that Emptiness represents, engaging in the expanded states implied in open heartedness, joy, unconditional love, gratitude, awe, celebration, (ecstatic process of all sorts), all lift our frequencies to resonate with the expanded frequencies that will be available for us to resonate with during this time. Now, did I catch you off guard? Were you holding a belief/perception that you had to be sitting still in closed eyed meditation, in order to be empty? As Adyashanti says: "If Emptiness isn't dancing, it isn't Emptiness." Emptiness cannot actually be defined, rather can only be pointed to in the description of being a mind without thought to clutter it, a spaciousness, a sense of profound peace and resting in joyful non-doing. And in a culture that does everything in its power to keep us asleep and distracted from embodying that awareness, it is wise to remember that Emptiness flourishes in conscious cultivation. The good news is that in the Sacred Feminine, ecstatic process is what empties us, whether that is dancing, singing, love making, eating with full ecstatic awareness, getting a massage, being in awe in nature etc. Doesn't sound like difficult preparation, right? Easy. Ecstatic. Graceful. Joyful. Praise be, that is Her way. And so, I lovingly leave you with this: STOP STRUGGLING, TRYING, DOING! FINALLY fully RECOGNIZE THAT YOUR ECSTATIC EMPTINESS AND LOVING BEING ARE MORE THAN ENOUGH!! Wherever you find yourself this Winter Solstice 2012, please BE EMPTY, being there! And may you have a direct experience of the truth of the Buddha's Heart Sutra: What is real is empty and what is empty is real and thus ecstatically embrace the wisdom of Emptiness in your daily life! And with Grace may you truly emerge in the ecstatic freedom of the Nada and Her holy Temple of I am Not, Essence as Unity Consciousness! I end this simple Solstice offering with a quote from my Beloved, Rumi: Nothing. We are Emptiness. When you are with everyone but me, You are with no one. When you are with no one but me, You're with everyone., Instead of being so bound up with everyone, Be everyone. When you become that many, you're nothing. Empty.    I celebrate each one of us finding and dancing in Ecstatic Emergence, in the freedom of Emptiness!  And to that end, do I dedicate this offering.       In Devotion to the One Heart, In lakech, Your Sister, Ariel

Aleph: Redeeming Your Soul

Novels often herald extraordinary transformation for me; more than two decades ago, a line in Slightly Like Strangers helped catalyze the launch of my own business: "Security isn't something you save up. It's what you find when you take risks."

Now Paulo Coehlo's latest, Aleph, takes us on a highly personal crisis-of-faith odyssey in which the author redeems himself from 500 years of purgatory by asking a young woman whom he condemned to death as a witch during the Inquisition to forgive him. Reading this as the 11:11 gateway opened, I suddenly flashed on a core conversation I've shared numerous times over the past 18 years, concerning a naturopathic doctor who helped me heal during my awakening journey, yet whose devout religious beliefs seemed at odds with her homemade, Nature-based herbal and homeopathic remedies.

In a moment of perfect clarity I realized our interaction was exactly what Coehlo describes: in merging devout faith with "paganism", my naturopath enabled me to question my own beliefs and learn to stand in my truth, to hold the "both/and" ~ God and Nature, God in Nature, God as Nature ~ and to truly embrace "no separation" as my embodied mantra. My personal credo became, "If it works for you — and harms none — it works for me."

The lines one of the "witches" speaks to Coehlo 500 years earlier seared my soul and brought tears of recognition to my eyes; veracity does that. Here is what one of the girls says as they are being led to the stake:

"The time for fear has passed; now there is only the time of hope. Are we guilty? One day, the world will judge us and we will not be the ones to feel ashamed. We will meet again in the future, when your life and work will be dedicated to those who are so sorely misunderstood today. Your voice will speak out loudly, and many will listen to you.

"Love will conquer hatred. When the time comes, those who are burned today will be exalted. Wizards and alchemists will return, the Goddess will be welcomed and witches celebrated. And all for the greatness of God. That is the blessing we place on your head now, until the end of time."

Power Play

It's US Election Day, and as people feverishly rush to the polls, bear signs and banners endorsing their cause or candidate, and generally enjoy the political frenzy that is November 6, 2012, I'm pondering the nature of true power. A week ago the East coast was decimated by what the media labeled a "Super Storm," a politically correct way of referring to a hurricane that flooded New York City, closing the NY Stock Exchange for two consecutive days — the first time this has occurred in 124 years! — and causing severe damage and massive power outages throughout the Eastern seaboard and beyond. My family in New Jersey was without power for five days.

Hm. I've long resonated to the number 5, the great transformer, which configures a star. 2012 is replete with "5" energy: (2+0+1+2 = 5). It's the numerical symbol for action and freedom, appearing in starfish and flowers with a regenerative geometry: the flower of every edible fruit is five-petaled. The Greeks called the fifth element quinta essentia, the pure and concentrated essence, or invisible connector that allows earth, fire, water and air to communicate.

Clearly, it's time to reconsider the nature of power. Nature's power trumps humans'; the election dwindled to less than insignificance when lives hung in the balance. I'd venture to say that in the hardest hit areas, who wins the White House is still not top-of-mind right now.

Yet we have the potential to embrace and embody true power as the ancients conceived it: not as offices and badges and bank accounts, but as the energy that can heal and unite. Consider (literally, "with the stars") the following:

Sound and light describe the Universe (Uni-verse: "One Song"). Everything vibrates at varying rates of speed. Based on more than two decades of research, engineer and craftsman Chris Dunn posits that the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt was actually a gigantic acoustical device. The Egyptians, he believes, married music and science to create a natural power plant — the Pyramids — by attuning to Earth frequencies and utilizing these vibrations as their energy source. The ancients used their advanced knowledge of consciousness and harmonics to develop a source of energy that operated on both spiritual and material principles, transducing the Earth's natural vibration (via strategically placed quartz crystals, which are alchemical energy modifiers) into clean, plentiful energy.

Does this seem fantastic? Consider that we've all heard of opera singers who can shatter glass by hitting a certain pitch. Early in the 20th century, physicist Nikola Tesla almost destroyed a building in which he was working by turning up the amplification on his oscillation machine. The building began to vibrate as if an earthquake had hit, and it was only by smashing the machine that he averted reducing a granite edifice to rubble.

We feel this same sympathetic harmony inside ourselves when we "vibrate" to another's emotional state. Fear, anger and hate lower the rate of vibration; love, joy and laughter raise it.

Thus, the living Earth can be the source of our true power — if we're willing to channel the higher frequencies that support this advanced technology. It is possible; we're activating our potential more cleanly than ever before in this quantum moment, as all indigenous prophecies and global spiritual leaders affirm.

Considering our current state of energy depletion, individually and collectively, this awareness, and what it portends for us now, is, well — powerful! True power means "able to be," to exist in a state of pure harmony. It's less about being president than setting precedent, and being present, being the gift of who we are to and for one another. That's true power, an infinitely renewable resource.

Samhain, Spirit and Sacred Story

I'm not Irish (this incarnation), though I've long been fascinated by the culture ~ perhaps because, for me, Ireland defines myth and magic.

I've just read The Red-Haired Girl from the Bog by Patricia Monaghan, who was raised in Alaska and didn't begin exploring her Irish roots until adulthood. Her ineffable prose is tantamount to immersion in Celtic tradition. I traveled lustily with her through verdant valleys and over holy ground, inside the history and mystery of pagan celebrations once subjugated and now reclaimed.

Because Patricia paints a picture of an Ireland still steeped in "the old ways," where the Goddess in all her guises is a formidable presence, her story is a soul-nourishing gift for Samhain, one of the eight holy days that comprise the Wheel of the Year.

In the U.S., Samhain has been reduced to a children's holiday called Halloween, with a focus on costumes, candy and occasionally, mischief. But on the Celtic calendar, Samhain ushers in winter and the mysteries of the dark. October 31^st precedes Day of the Dead/All Soul's Day on November 1^st, a paean to the ancestors. The dark side — that which is hidden from view — calls us to remember our sacred heritage, as Monaghan so masterfully does in her incandescently rendered soulscape.

Mythologist Kathleen Jenks, an advisor to Monaghan's Black Earth Institute, explains on her own site, Myth*ing Links why this season is an excellent time to explore what is ending, or "dying", within us. What do you need to release in order to move forward in your life? Now, when the veils between worlds are thin, is a ripe moment for each of us to embrace personal and planetary transformation.

And the souls of those who have gone before can still share their wisdom with us, if we invite their collaboration. Astrologer Caroline Casey likes to say, "We cannot live through the dead, but we can invite the dead to live through us." What gifts are asking, aching to be brought forth through you in this quantum moment, when the entire world is awash in tremulous rebirth? How can you shine your brilliance and step fully into your aliveness, passion, purpose and service?

It's time to remove your mask, and step fully into who you came here to be.