I always like astrologer Allison Rae's advice on what to expect and do in these galactic gateway times we're living. Her latest issue of Cosmic Time offers the kind of down-to-earth reminder I needed right about now, and since I find whatever I'm experiencing is often archetypal, here's her wisdom for your benefit as well. Enjoy:
"We live in the times the Hopi call the Great Purification. This is true of our bodies as much as the Earth. Here are some ways to ride the wave and allow the changes to flow through . . .
Purification - Detoxify with herbs. Sweat. Fast. Soak in mineral waters and sea salts. Drink at least eight glasses of purified water every day, with fresh lemon added.
Nourishment - You know what your body needs (not what it wants, what it needs) to thrive in these times of intense change. Add more fresh vegestables, especially dark, leafy greens, to your diet. Enjoy raw, living foods. As our friend Dan Winter says, "Eat life as much as possible." Supplement your diet with whatever else your body needs to support your evolution - vitamins, minerals, herbs. Exercise every day.
Nurturing and balance - Feed your soul. Walk on the Earth, bathe in her waters, gaze at the stars. Play, dance, create. Exercise every day. Find out what makes your heart sing, and do more of that. Relax with a cup of tea. Rest. Get a massage. Meditate. Connect with Source."
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
At-One-Ment
This morning, my good friend Anne left her body after a 9-month battle with leukemia. It was and is, in every sense, a true birth process for this 54-year-old angel. I just realized that Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, begins tonight at sundown. Anne was not Jewish, but I was/am (born into this faith, and for years have celebrated being what one enlightened young man termed "Jewniversal": embracing all paths with acceptance and joy), and this awareness helps settle my grief just a little.
Since learning of her transition, I have walked, cried, and meditated on the nature of life and death; for all that I've written about death as a doorway, as an intrinsic part of life here on Earth, it is incalulably harder to hold these truths with equanimity when the pain hits so close to home.
Anne was my first friend when I moved to Sonoma County after my 3+ year healing hegira in rural NY State and in New Mexico. She had one of the warmest hearts of anyone I know; her own heart had been broken open to compassion years earlier by the death of her beloved sister to lupus, later by divorce, and through facing life's ongoing challenges. I can't count the number of times I did my laundry at her house over the years, or slept there during one of my many, many cycles of nomadhood on my exceedingly odd journey.
As I walked this afternoon, I felt that I had not been nearly as good a friend to her as I might have been. She has such a wide circle of friends, relatives and loved ones, I almost feel superfluous, if this makes sense. And yet I could have reached out more than I did, both before and during her illness. I asked her to forgive me for my failing—not yet aware that we're on the cusp of the greatest Day of Forgiveness for the Jewish people.
We are also on the cusp of the Equinox, when the veils between worlds are thin, and day and night are in equal measure. I feel, again, there is no accident in her timing to leave now. I'm sure she is helping to bring this much-needed balance back to our beloved Home, and to each of our Spirits.
Her life partner, Dennis, a loving soul whom I had the pleasure of meeting only once in person so far, has been keeping everyone up to date with her odyssey on the blog her son Owen started when this adventure began last winter. Anne and Dennis connected in the spring of 2006; it crossed my mind that they had approximately equal measures of joy and sorrow, all wrapped up in a breathtaking blanket of Love during the short Earth journey they shared: a birth process to surrender to Love, and then to dive as deeply into the heart of healing together as two people can in a lifetime. Since we are living in accelerated times, they completed a 50-year journey in 18 months. They are an inspiration to us all to love when Love presents itself, to release our fears and defenses when it's clear our partner has arrived, and to travel onward in grace from there. I sense that Anne and Dennis made this journey, in joy, in fullness, in surrender, in peace, and in abiding Love.
So now those of us who grieve do so as the ones left behind. While Anne did say repeatedly that her illness was part of path of her enlightenment, all I can think about now is her 18-year-old daughter and 22 year-old son, bereft of their Mom, not to mention the legions of friends and relatives who will miss her. I know in my heart she left because she completed her journey here, and in the process brought many of us to compassion, openheartedness and grace. The hardest part about death in the third dimension is the pain those of us left behind feel...
I wrote about reimagining Death in my e-newsletter, What Shines, several years ago. If you'd like me to send you that issue, please request WS #47, and I'll get it right out to you.
Blessings, love, forgiveness and grace to you during this incredible portal of transformation and opportunity.
~Amara
Since learning of her transition, I have walked, cried, and meditated on the nature of life and death; for all that I've written about death as a doorway, as an intrinsic part of life here on Earth, it is incalulably harder to hold these truths with equanimity when the pain hits so close to home.
Anne was my first friend when I moved to Sonoma County after my 3+ year healing hegira in rural NY State and in New Mexico. She had one of the warmest hearts of anyone I know; her own heart had been broken open to compassion years earlier by the death of her beloved sister to lupus, later by divorce, and through facing life's ongoing challenges. I can't count the number of times I did my laundry at her house over the years, or slept there during one of my many, many cycles of nomadhood on my exceedingly odd journey.
As I walked this afternoon, I felt that I had not been nearly as good a friend to her as I might have been. She has such a wide circle of friends, relatives and loved ones, I almost feel superfluous, if this makes sense. And yet I could have reached out more than I did, both before and during her illness. I asked her to forgive me for my failing—not yet aware that we're on the cusp of the greatest Day of Forgiveness for the Jewish people.
We are also on the cusp of the Equinox, when the veils between worlds are thin, and day and night are in equal measure. I feel, again, there is no accident in her timing to leave now. I'm sure she is helping to bring this much-needed balance back to our beloved Home, and to each of our Spirits.
Her life partner, Dennis, a loving soul whom I had the pleasure of meeting only once in person so far, has been keeping everyone up to date with her odyssey on the blog her son Owen started when this adventure began last winter. Anne and Dennis connected in the spring of 2006; it crossed my mind that they had approximately equal measures of joy and sorrow, all wrapped up in a breathtaking blanket of Love during the short Earth journey they shared: a birth process to surrender to Love, and then to dive as deeply into the heart of healing together as two people can in a lifetime. Since we are living in accelerated times, they completed a 50-year journey in 18 months. They are an inspiration to us all to love when Love presents itself, to release our fears and defenses when it's clear our partner has arrived, and to travel onward in grace from there. I sense that Anne and Dennis made this journey, in joy, in fullness, in surrender, in peace, and in abiding Love.
So now those of us who grieve do so as the ones left behind. While Anne did say repeatedly that her illness was part of path of her enlightenment, all I can think about now is her 18-year-old daughter and 22 year-old son, bereft of their Mom, not to mention the legions of friends and relatives who will miss her. I know in my heart she left because she completed her journey here, and in the process brought many of us to compassion, openheartedness and grace. The hardest part about death in the third dimension is the pain those of us left behind feel...
I wrote about reimagining Death in my e-newsletter, What Shines, several years ago. If you'd like me to send you that issue, please request WS #47, and I'll get it right out to you.
Blessings, love, forgiveness and grace to you during this incredible portal of transformation and opportunity.
~Amara
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Autumnal Aspirations
The Equinox approaches ~ one of two annual occasions of true equality, when day and night are of equal length. Intriguingly, Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D., creator of the expansive, sacred traditions site Myth*ing Links, observes that this year, both the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, and the Muslim Ramadhan, began at sundown on Wednesday, 12 September ~ right on the heels of our breakthrough eclipse commemorating the transformative 6th anniversary of 9-1-1.
Jenks entreats, "Both (holy days) are dependent upon the same frail New Moon in balanced Libra. Maybe we could finally find a way to be worthy of the beauty and wonder of the planet we share with so many other remarkable species?"
She notes that the Jewish highest holy day, Yom Kippur (which always follows Rosh Hashanah 10 days later) begins this year at sundown on Friday, September 21, 2007 ~ just prior to the Equinox. Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement (or, as I like to read it, At-one-ment), where Jews ask forgiveness for those they have wronged and those they feel have wronged them during the prior year.
I'm in the midst of another fascinating and mind-stretching read, Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life by Irwin Kula. Kula, who is a modern-day Rabbi, public TV show host, husband and dad, speaks eloquently of the profound power of forgiveness across spiritual traditions, using many pithy and often humorous examples from his own life, that show him as human as the rest of us, and how his own stumblings have made him a wiser traveler along life's twisting path.
What I found particularly compelling, apropos of the above, is his emphasis both on the necessity of transgression, and his statement that forgiveness is a process we're always going to have in our lives, as we grow towards wholeness: "There is no ultimate moment of forgiveness." He speaks about the positive role of anger in leading to reconciliation, the final step in the "4 Rs of forgiveness: Recognition, Regret, Resolution, Reconciliation". Sometimes forgiveness is as simple as releasing someone mentally or emotionally who "owes" you an apology, as in "forgiving a debt." Sometimes, of course, the wound goes far deeper.
This is a significant time of year to meditate on how we might step ever more fully into our desire for love in its broadest sense: welcoming back all the renounced aspects of ourselves that look like enemies. I felt this way when 9-1-1 first took place; writing these words tonight, that emotional expansiveness returns. We are all one people. It is a time to return to balance in the broadest possible sense. We can begin by forgiving ourselves for being the perfectly imperfect (yet perfect!) people we have incarnated to be.
As Kula writes, "The more we can allow ourselves to unfold, the less likely we are to unravel."
May you know love, and peace, this sacred season.
Welcome Home.
Jenks entreats, "Both (holy days) are dependent upon the same frail New Moon in balanced Libra. Maybe we could finally find a way to be worthy of the beauty and wonder of the planet we share with so many other remarkable species?"
She notes that the Jewish highest holy day, Yom Kippur (which always follows Rosh Hashanah 10 days later) begins this year at sundown on Friday, September 21, 2007 ~ just prior to the Equinox. Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement (or, as I like to read it, At-one-ment), where Jews ask forgiveness for those they have wronged and those they feel have wronged them during the prior year.
I'm in the midst of another fascinating and mind-stretching read, Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life by Irwin Kula. Kula, who is a modern-day Rabbi, public TV show host, husband and dad, speaks eloquently of the profound power of forgiveness across spiritual traditions, using many pithy and often humorous examples from his own life, that show him as human as the rest of us, and how his own stumblings have made him a wiser traveler along life's twisting path.
What I found particularly compelling, apropos of the above, is his emphasis both on the necessity of transgression, and his statement that forgiveness is a process we're always going to have in our lives, as we grow towards wholeness: "There is no ultimate moment of forgiveness." He speaks about the positive role of anger in leading to reconciliation, the final step in the "4 Rs of forgiveness: Recognition, Regret, Resolution, Reconciliation". Sometimes forgiveness is as simple as releasing someone mentally or emotionally who "owes" you an apology, as in "forgiving a debt." Sometimes, of course, the wound goes far deeper.
This is a significant time of year to meditate on how we might step ever more fully into our desire for love in its broadest sense: welcoming back all the renounced aspects of ourselves that look like enemies. I felt this way when 9-1-1 first took place; writing these words tonight, that emotional expansiveness returns. We are all one people. It is a time to return to balance in the broadest possible sense. We can begin by forgiving ourselves for being the perfectly imperfect (yet perfect!) people we have incarnated to be.
As Kula writes, "The more we can allow ourselves to unfold, the less likely we are to unravel."
May you know love, and peace, this sacred season.
Welcome Home.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
A Question of Altitude
The title of this post is also the title of a poem I penned 'way back in 1992, after visiting Taos, New Mexico for the first time and having a challenging time adjusting to life at 7000 feet. I've been feeling dizzy and nauseous for the past week ("Amara, thank you for sharing...") and now wonder whether this is yet another physical symptom of ascension, because we are in the midst of a major reboot, as both Aluna Joy reports through the Star Elders, and Patricia Cota-Robles confirms in her latest article.
The Star Elders say, in part: "During this eclipse doorway (of September 11th) everyone will have the opportunity to reboot and upgrade their entire being. You will be able to reboot and upgrade your body, your spirit, your soul, and your evolution. This is a very powerful time.
"Rebooting your life is very much like rebooting your computer. When you upload a new computer program you have to turn off your computer and start up again so that the new program will work properly. That's exactly what's going to happen to all of you in this doorway. No one is exempt from this reboot. Once rebooted, the old programs, systems and manifestations will no longer work properly. So if you're finding that certain areas of your life are not flowing or manifesting in the way they should, maybe this is the universe saying that it is an old, virus-ridden program, and it is time to delete it from your consciousness. Why would you want to keep it anyway?
"To ease the effects of this collective consciousness reboot, it would be greatly beneficial to you all to take some time each day to let go of the old you. Let go of the old world. Let go of your past, your wounds, your betrayals, your insecurities, and even your beliefs that you are somehow not a brilliant masterful being. Take time each day to remember who you truly are, not what you've been told by others, or what society would make of you.
"By the year 2008 you will have completely crossed the bridge and have begun acclimatizing to the New World. It is a much higher altitude/frequency than you are used to. It will take some adjusting. This is what you might call the shift of the ages. You have pushed the evolution envelope by your strong will, tenacity and intense spiritual focus, by an entire four years from our predicted shift dates in 2012. So we don't want to hear you thinking to yourself that you are less than a lighted master. You're the first human beings in a dualistic 3-D reality that has been able to push the envelope, and to push the envelope by four entire years is still astonishing to us.
"Be open to the fact that what lies ahead of you in the very near future is wildly astonishing, beautiful, wonderful, peaceful, and harmonious, and a place you remember deep inside as home. Why will it be this way you ask? Because you not only wanted this new reality, and believed it was possible, but are now beginning to act as if this amazing new future is already here. When you do act as if, you quit being an initiate, and step into the role of the living master."
The Star Elders say, in part: "During this eclipse doorway (of September 11th) everyone will have the opportunity to reboot and upgrade their entire being. You will be able to reboot and upgrade your body, your spirit, your soul, and your evolution. This is a very powerful time.
"Rebooting your life is very much like rebooting your computer. When you upload a new computer program you have to turn off your computer and start up again so that the new program will work properly. That's exactly what's going to happen to all of you in this doorway. No one is exempt from this reboot. Once rebooted, the old programs, systems and manifestations will no longer work properly. So if you're finding that certain areas of your life are not flowing or manifesting in the way they should, maybe this is the universe saying that it is an old, virus-ridden program, and it is time to delete it from your consciousness. Why would you want to keep it anyway?
"To ease the effects of this collective consciousness reboot, it would be greatly beneficial to you all to take some time each day to let go of the old you. Let go of the old world. Let go of your past, your wounds, your betrayals, your insecurities, and even your beliefs that you are somehow not a brilliant masterful being. Take time each day to remember who you truly are, not what you've been told by others, or what society would make of you.
"By the year 2008 you will have completely crossed the bridge and have begun acclimatizing to the New World. It is a much higher altitude/frequency than you are used to. It will take some adjusting. This is what you might call the shift of the ages. You have pushed the evolution envelope by your strong will, tenacity and intense spiritual focus, by an entire four years from our predicted shift dates in 2012. So we don't want to hear you thinking to yourself that you are less than a lighted master. You're the first human beings in a dualistic 3-D reality that has been able to push the envelope, and to push the envelope by four entire years is still astonishing to us.
"Be open to the fact that what lies ahead of you in the very near future is wildly astonishing, beautiful, wonderful, peaceful, and harmonious, and a place you remember deep inside as home. Why will it be this way you ask? Because you not only wanted this new reality, and believed it was possible, but are now beginning to act as if this amazing new future is already here. When you do act as if, you quit being an initiate, and step into the role of the living master."
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Send In The Clowns
Humor really is the best way to diffuse negativity and potential violence, as this accomplished group of clowns proved. In response to an attempted white supremacist group hate rally in Tennessee, the clowns staged this lighthearted, nonviolent response.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Brezsny at the Liminal Borders
I've always loved Rob Brezsny's Freewill Astrology column, which runs in numerous alternative papers nationwide. While any of his musings can be considered archetypal and thus, applicable to us all, the last two weeks for my sign, Aquarius, seem to hold significant inclusive power. I was so inspired by them that I wanted to share excerpts with you. They're especially interesting, given the echoes of other recent posts on dreaming a new world into reality:
On the boundaries where things shapeshift: "They are where all the most interesting action will be, as well as the teachings you need most...Pay close attention to your dreams for clues, and muse on this list:
* goodbyes that morph into awakenings;
* banishments that become pilgrimages;
* adversaries who transform into allies;
* decay that alchemizes into splendor;
* serpent energy that turns into spiritual fire."
"Here are a few of the interesting developments I expect that you will have enjoyed by the end of September:
* unexpected revelations about your past;
* a deeper commitment that spawns more freedom;
* an ethical use of smoke and mirrors for the most important hocus-pocus of the year;
* unheard-of emotions that are so transformative they make pain unnecessary; and, speaking metaphorically here
* a night journey down a dark road that leads to a pile of coal where a huge diamond is hidden."
You may also enjoy his book Pronoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You With Blessings, which is chock-full of positive tips and tales for transformation; it may take you months to read it all (hint: the pages are not exactly written in a linear style...)
On the boundaries where things shapeshift: "They are where all the most interesting action will be, as well as the teachings you need most...Pay close attention to your dreams for clues, and muse on this list:
* goodbyes that morph into awakenings;
* banishments that become pilgrimages;
* adversaries who transform into allies;
* decay that alchemizes into splendor;
* serpent energy that turns into spiritual fire."
"Here are a few of the interesting developments I expect that you will have enjoyed by the end of September:
* unexpected revelations about your past;
* a deeper commitment that spawns more freedom;
* an ethical use of smoke and mirrors for the most important hocus-pocus of the year;
* unheard-of emotions that are so transformative they make pain unnecessary; and, speaking metaphorically here
* a night journey down a dark road that leads to a pile of coal where a huge diamond is hidden."
You may also enjoy his book Pronoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You With Blessings, which is chock-full of positive tips and tales for transformation; it may take you months to read it all (hint: the pages are not exactly written in a linear style...)
Monday, September 03, 2007
Dreaming A New World Into Being
In the September issue of What Shines, I quoted longtime subscriber Paul White's dream of making cross-cultural telepathic connections. We are all dreaming for and with one another these days; Big Dreams, especially, are coming through at an astounding rate, now that the collective is merging more and more to One.
Paul sent me two additional dream descriptions that dovetail with others' stories, and confirm what lightweavers around the globe are saying. Here they are:
∞ "I came into creation by energy that was swirling in space. There was a humming sound like bees and the energy was of golden light made up like a swarm of bees. I was able to maintain this energy in my dream for quite awhile."
∞ "Last night in my dream I went on an epic journey. The most significant part of the dream was about water, the power of it. I was looking out of a window into what looked like an endlessly deep aquarium. Out of the depths came a multicolored dolphin that morphed into a whale-like creature. It was headed for the surface and looked like it was going to fly into the air but instead came to a dead stop just as its nose touched the surface. In this dream I was trying to get back to where I started from which would have meant either crossing a river or going over a bridge that had a rail car and then finding my way through labyrinthine streets. There were stores and rooms in a house, strange insects flying around that morphed in color and shape. A mother and her son and their odd interactions. Black mice under a house. There were tools and things that I couldn't figure out the purpose of.
"I've always had these kind of dreams, dreams where I am flying or levitating by humming and traveling through time. Voices of God. Visits to alien planets and interactions with misshapen beings. Discussions with animals, half bear and half owl. Dreams of whirlpools going to the core of life. There was a time they were so intense that I started a journal of sketches that were hieroglyphic to remember them by."
Lest you think these are just vestiges of Paul's vivid nocturnal imagination, consider this true story, which landed in my Inbox at the same time: The Didgeridoo and the Flute, which describes how two mortal enemies became best friends through their music. The story contains this passage: "There he saw a vision. He was a dolphin, an embodiment of the flute, swimming in a dark blue ocean. Right beside him was a giant blue whale, symbolizing the didge. They were swimming side by side, united in the harmony of music."
I think Carl Jung, who coined the term "synchronicity," would cite this as a stunning example of precisely what the term means.
Here's another: in What Shines, I included some inspirational bumper stickers I've spied recently. One read: "F.E.A.R.: Forgetting Everything's All Right." Reader Sally Scott sent me this message today: "I was at our big fair last week lined up behind a big burly guy to get a cold drink. Beneath two threatening looking caricature eyes [on his T-shirt] it said, 'Fear is in the eye of the beholder. Don't let it be you.'"
Finally, mega Lighkeepers Celia Fenn in South Africa and Karen Bishop in Arizona report that this month is about deep surrender, profound trust in the unknown, and an acceptance of response-ability (the ability to respond to what's transpiring) as we move into the ascension portal of September 11th and beyond. It affects everyone, everywhere, not just those residing in the U.S., because we are morphing as One Earth Family. I highly recommend reading both Archangel Michael's words regarding The Energies for September, and Karen's Ascension Alert.
May you journey well!
Paul sent me two additional dream descriptions that dovetail with others' stories, and confirm what lightweavers around the globe are saying. Here they are:
∞ "I came into creation by energy that was swirling in space. There was a humming sound like bees and the energy was of golden light made up like a swarm of bees. I was able to maintain this energy in my dream for quite awhile."
∞ "Last night in my dream I went on an epic journey. The most significant part of the dream was about water, the power of it. I was looking out of a window into what looked like an endlessly deep aquarium. Out of the depths came a multicolored dolphin that morphed into a whale-like creature. It was headed for the surface and looked like it was going to fly into the air but instead came to a dead stop just as its nose touched the surface. In this dream I was trying to get back to where I started from which would have meant either crossing a river or going over a bridge that had a rail car and then finding my way through labyrinthine streets. There were stores and rooms in a house, strange insects flying around that morphed in color and shape. A mother and her son and their odd interactions. Black mice under a house. There were tools and things that I couldn't figure out the purpose of.
"I've always had these kind of dreams, dreams where I am flying or levitating by humming and traveling through time. Voices of God. Visits to alien planets and interactions with misshapen beings. Discussions with animals, half bear and half owl. Dreams of whirlpools going to the core of life. There was a time they were so intense that I started a journal of sketches that were hieroglyphic to remember them by."
Lest you think these are just vestiges of Paul's vivid nocturnal imagination, consider this true story, which landed in my Inbox at the same time: The Didgeridoo and the Flute, which describes how two mortal enemies became best friends through their music. The story contains this passage: "There he saw a vision. He was a dolphin, an embodiment of the flute, swimming in a dark blue ocean. Right beside him was a giant blue whale, symbolizing the didge. They were swimming side by side, united in the harmony of music."
I think Carl Jung, who coined the term "synchronicity," would cite this as a stunning example of precisely what the term means.
Here's another: in What Shines, I included some inspirational bumper stickers I've spied recently. One read: "F.E.A.R.: Forgetting Everything's All Right." Reader Sally Scott sent me this message today: "I was at our big fair last week lined up behind a big burly guy to get a cold drink. Beneath two threatening looking caricature eyes [on his T-shirt] it said, 'Fear is in the eye of the beholder. Don't let it be you.'"
Finally, mega Lighkeepers Celia Fenn in South Africa and Karen Bishop in Arizona report that this month is about deep surrender, profound trust in the unknown, and an acceptance of response-ability (the ability to respond to what's transpiring) as we move into the ascension portal of September 11th and beyond. It affects everyone, everywhere, not just those residing in the U.S., because we are morphing as One Earth Family. I highly recommend reading both Archangel Michael's words regarding The Energies for September, and Karen's Ascension Alert.
May you journey well!
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