Thursday, December 27, 2007

Dream Big!

This incredible credo appeared in a Macintosh computer ad 16 years ago! Thanks to astrologer Alison Rae for reprinting it in her latest issue of Cosmic Time:

New Year's Blessing

Dream big.

If there were ever a time to dare,
to make a difference,
to embark on something worth doing,
it is now.

Not for any grand cause, necessarily —
but for something that tugs at your heart,
something that’s your aspiration,
something that’s your dream.

You owe it to yourself to make your days here count.
Have fun.
Dig deep.
Stretch.

Dream big.

Know, though, that things worth doing seldom come easily.
There will be good days.
And there will be bad days.
There will be times when you want to turn around,
pack it up, and call it quits.
Those times tell you that you are pushing yourself,
that you are not afraid to learn by trying.

Persist.

Because with an idea,
determination, and the right tools,
you can do great things.
Let your instincts,
your intellect,
and your heart guide you.

Trust.

Believe in the incredible power of the human mind.
Of doing something that makes a difference.
Of working hard.
Of laughing and hoping.
Of lazy afternoons.
Of lasting friends.
Of all the things that will cross your path this year.

The start of something new brings the hope of something great.
Anything is possible.
There is only one you.
And you will pass this way only once.

Do it right.

Monday, December 24, 2007

A Message from Mary Magdalen on 2008

This message came to me a few days ago via oracle and sound healer Jennifer Posada, and is the most compelling and uplifting — not to mention accurate — entreaty to each of us I've yet read regarding the promise and penumbra of now. Here is her transmission in its entirety:

"Dearest Friends,

I write these words to you from a place beyond time, to tell you what you of great heart must know from within it. You stand at a crucial moment, one which can allow you wondrous advantage in the time of the turning of the great wheel.

As you begin this new year a vacuum is opened in which you can reconsider your reality. This is a powerful opportunity, for it is in your reality that the seed of the greater collective is born.

This, beings of flame and light, is the year to reclaim your power. For you will need it for the road ahead, and it will be the bearer of your joy. This is not a passive process. To reclaim your power is to investigate your heart, seek out the places you have given its gold away, and actively recover it. The gold of your heart can only truly be shared from within, and the places we may have partitioned it out will only weaken our energy fields at a time when their strength is needed.

You will need your voice. If you have lost it you will have to find it. You are its mother, so it will never be too far from your reach. It is time to cull from the clay of your being, and create yourself anew.

It is a time to take a retreat, or to make space to reflect in writing or thought. It is a time to consider all the people, places, situations and things in your life and decide if they are supporting you or drawing from you. This you must know, for this is the simplest of ways to strengthen your field.

Then you must decide. You must decide who you are going to be when your power is truly your own again, and the life you want to live from it.

When you decide the life you would like to have, do not do so in fear. Do not choose a life based on potential catastrophe or in expectancy of poverty. For this is not what you wish to bring forward. You must be aware, educated and prepared for that which you are led to prepare for. But should you make the choices about your future or new life in fear, it will make a very weak foundation.

The coming year marks the beginning of the end of the world you know. This can be a reason for terror or for throwing a celebration. It is you who decides. This world has known catastrophe before, just as you in your own life have known catastrophe before. For that reason you know that fearing it will bring no good. We must know joy to build reserves of energy which would serve us in times of challenge. We must have a light load within if we wish to float rather than sink in the seas of uncertainty.

For when I say this year marks the beginning of the end, you may focus on the end, or you may focus on the beginning. For it is more truly, the beginning or the end.

How differently might you see your life if you thought this year was the beginning of a new era, rather than the descent into great destruction and distress? If we are all dreading the time of change, who will anchor the joy of the new? If we are all in labor pain, who will assist with the birth?

But our joy cannot be abstract. It must be inspired. It must come from within, and be allowed to take form in our outer lives at the very personal level. And joy cannot be forced. We can only make way for it.

Here are my offerings of how to cultivate your inner earth for joy to take seed and root, to make your life thriving and prosperous with flower and fruit.

Don't postpone your bliss. There is no reason it can't start now.

Find, with great courage, the places you have been giving your power away, and say goodbye to them. For if you are giving your power away repeatedly, joy cannot find consistent sanctuary within you.

Dream a new vision. Turn a page in your life and imagine that the entirety of your future is a blank slate. Do not paint misfortune onto it as a background just because your world is in change. See the change as good. Bless the change. Trust that the universe will take care of you, and follow the guidance it gives you. Prepare when and how you must for whatever you feel may be around the corners in your life, but try not to do so out of fear, and instead out of calm and centered response to your guidance.

When you are choosing what to paint on this blank page, choose powerfully. Choose to carry over only that which nourishes you and reflects you. Think radically. Let go radically. Love yourself radically.

This is a year of setting foundation for the changes to come, and you want yours to be strong and full of supportive resourcefulness and creative energy. Do not give up on your dreams because the world is shifting. She is shifting to encompass them.

Draw or write about your visions for your future before or at the time of the new year. Revisit and add to or change them several times. Daydream about them. Pray, if you choose, to me for three days either in the morning, before sleeping, or during your meditation or writing if you would like assistance with your new vision or reclaiming your power. Then look for signs in your life in response.

Know that I am with you. For I have returned to the consciousness of the many as the embodiment of the return of the goddess, in communion with god, in androgynous wholeness, in divine oneness. I am the second coming, and I come forward in you. Know your power. It is all that is needed for the birth of the new world. Begin the new world now. Do not wait. Begin to live it in your life, and create it around you. You are the hope and the light, and the joy of my heart.

In Great Love,
Mary Magdalen"

Sunday, December 23, 2007

The Red Planet Offers Opportunity for Healing

Mars is glowing brightly with the full moon this almost-Christmas eve, giving Rudolph a run for his money ~ and an AP science writer decided to have fun describing its celestial prominence by recasting the traditional reindeer song:

Mars is a red-tinged planet
With a very shiny glow
And if you look to see it
You will find the moon in tow.

All of the other Yuletides
Santa would have at his side
The shiny nose of Rudolph
Acting as his big sleigh's guide

But this very Christmas Eve
Santa came to say:
"Rudolph, now with Mars so bright,
You can stay at home tonight."

Then all the reindeer teased him.
And they shouted out with glee:
"Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer
Outsourced to astronomy."


On the astrological side, this retrograde Mars is "increasing the impetus for courage or bravado, assertion or aggression," says astrologer Stephanie Austin. "In Cancer, Mars advises us to examine our motivations and our tactics closely. Are we sidestepping the real issues? What must be faced, felt, and forgiven?

We can use toning to help heal and ground our energy. Red corresponds to:

∞ the first chakra
∞ our tailbone
∞ the musical note A
∞ the vowel sound ooo (as in tool)
∞ our adrenal glands, legs, feet, bones and large intestines.

It is the center of our vitality and life force — the primary energy of existence. So let's use this red for its healing power and regenerate as we segue into 2008!

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Global Pulse ~ Honoring All Life

Happy Solstice to You! I've received so many and varied Solstice-related messages it's difficult to know what to share; at this time, trusting your own guidance is key. Go deep within, and breathe with the Mother all the peace, love, balance and bliss you intend for your own life and for the planet.

This worldwide virtual event, which takes place one week from now, seems like an ideal ceremony to close out a tumultuous year and usher in 2008. I've met Estara, and she is embodies the Goddess:

Worldwide Sound Healing Meditation Ceremony

Special Live Video Web-cast Event
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2007

Join in as we create a global pulse of consciousness to facilitate a positive shift on our Earth

This is a Galactic Alignment Gateway of a super high energetic impulse of cosmic energy that is available to change the very fabric of our reality.

This ceremony has been inspired by spiritual visions and communications from the dolphins and whales to gather the collective power of human consciousness.

This event will be a multi-media ceremonial presentation and performance to create a global heart entrainment unifying the power of the group worldwide with a collective intention to honor all life.

This ceremony will include:

* Guided Activation and Initiation Meditation
* Live Ceremonial Trance Rhythms
* Sacred Dance Higher Dimensional Energy Transmissions
* Vocal Soul Frequency Chants
* Visual Animations of Higher Dimensional Realms
* Special Harmonic Tuning Instruments producing the sound frequencies of the star & planetary alignment
* Live whale songs broadcast from Hawaii

For More Information visit EstaraWeb.com

Global Pulse ~ Honoring All Life
Worldwide Meditation and Ceremony

It is important to gather people specifically at this time to commune with the dolphins and whales to ignite a global pulse of unity consciousness to honor all life and deepen our inter-connection with our environment that we call Earth and the universe. The evolutionary process that humanity, our Earth, solar system and galaxy are in requires our full connection to be restored. Through creating a global pulse of unity consciousness - coming together as one vibration of intention - we will ignite our hearts and souls to remember on the deepest level our connection with all life

The global pulse ceremony will be based on the five elements of creation and will be a meditation journey experience to restore connection with the consciousness of the Earth and the Universe. The dolphins and whales are frequency keepers and carriers and they will be assisting us during the ceremony. They will be joining us live as we interact with them and listen to the wisdom in their song. They are the planetary pulse keepers and they have a message for us to hear. They are singing us the new codes of information that will connect us with universal time. It's time for us to listen to them together in a harmonically unified field with a collective intention to receive their wisdom. They will be recording the new records that we will be accessing and bringing into this dimension for the birthing of a new reality.

Part of the purpose of the Global Pulse Project worldwide meditation ceremonies is to create a wave of energy, a pulse on the planet - stabilizing the heart pulse in unity consciousness instead of in fear. This is also stabilizing the experience and knowingness of our future. We will be connecting with the rhythms of the Earth and the rhythms of the universe so we can be part of this evolutionary shift together and move through this grand alignment that is occurring in grace, ease, beauty, joy, and in unity.

Galactic Alignments

Global Pulse ~ Honoring All Life
Galactic Alignment - Dec. 29, 2007

This day is a highly dynamic evolutionary next step in consciousness.
It's a day when things materialize before us. It's when we can change our bone structure, our ego into our higher self in physical form.

The dynamics of the energy on this day haven't been available until now - when the cardinal signs of Capricorn and Cancer are in their special placement with the planets. Because of this alignment, the portal is open and we can jump in and access the energy and become part of the dynamic.

Cardinal Signs are epic, they establish things, put them into action, and set structure. The cardinal signs of Capricorn and Cancer will be activated on Dec. 29th through an opposition. This polarization is acting as a divine birthing channel to birth a new energetic into form and will be more apparent at the Spring Equinox.

This polarization that is occurring between Capricorn and Cancer will be opening the portal to the other worlds to go into the core emotion of our soul origins.

Capricorn lifts the veil and opens a portal to the other worlds. It creates the opening to bring the energy from the other worlds into this realm to materialize in physical form. Capricorn is considered a Sea Goat in ancient esoteric teachings opening the dimensions between the sea animals and the land animals.

Cancer brings us deep into our soul. It descends us into our core emotion and connects us with the origins of our soul.


Powerful Electrical Energy Current

Sun (Capricorn )→→→→→→ Earth →→→→→→→ Sirius (Cancer)
Mercury & Jupiter .............................................. Mars
Cosmic Father ........................................ Cosmic Mother
Star ................................................................ Star


In Capricorn we have the Sun, Jupiter, and Mercury - opposing - Sirius and Mars in Cancer. The Sun is our center of life energy. It heats up and sparks the command center of our own vital essence. Sun opposing Cancer will be igniting the spark in our heart that connects us with our soul.

The Sun opposes Sirius in Cancer only once a year - setting up a powerful electrical energy current flooding the Earth with light codes of information from the Sun and Sirius.

Sun being the cosmic father and Sirius being the cosmic mother - we are giving birth to a higher form of our being. Mars in Cancer brings the initiative energy into the depth of our soul origins. Everything is in place to bring the cosmic awareness of our divine nature and the actual energy of our soul into expression through our physical form.

Jupiter heats things up and is the planet of increase and expansion. It increases and expands anything that it is relating to. Jupiter has been collecting wisdom in the sign of Sagittarius and now being in Capricorn is ready to increase and expand that wisdom into physical form.

Jupiter in Capricorn opposing Sirius and Mars in Cancer will be increasing the energy that's being activated and expanding it into the future million fold. Jupiter is increasing our connection with our soul origin to birth it into form.

Jupiter is a bearer of gifts - gifts of abundance, health, hope, happiness and the balance of life energy. Jupiter restores hope and helps us to sort out the truth from the false. Jupiter will increase whatever your intention is that you allow yourself to experience.

Jupiter being in Capricorn conjunct the Sun expands your hearts desire into physical manifestation. With the high grace and lightening qualities of Jupiter, you get what you truly wish for.

Mercury connects us deeply with our nervous system and opens up these more subtle communication channels. Mercury in Capricorn opposing Sirius and Mars in Cancer assures that all the communications channels are open and quickens the speed of transmission in Mercurial fashion. Mercury a messenger of the angelic realms also assures that only the highest communications will be happening during the alignment.

We will also have a Grand Trine in Earth.
Sun, Jupiter, Mercury in Capricorn - Trine Saturn and Moon in Virgo - Trine - Sedna and Ceres in Taurus. All of this grand trine Earth energy will be activated and funneled through the Capricorn - Cancer polarization.

Sun in Capricorn Trine Saturn in Virgo - crystallizing our self in physical form.

The Gateways are open and all the energy is available for us to come into a deeper union and embodiment of our higher self. Let's create a global pulse of higher consciousness!

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Going Home

We're closing out a cosmically challenging year and entering the gateway to the NEW in such a major way! Ace astrologer Kelly M. Beard leads off her current Lunar Reflections newsletter with the perfect quote for now: "We don't know where we're going...but we're on our way!"

I've felt this way since stepping into my nomadic lifestyle in 2000. As Kelly describes learning to do "the same old things" in brand-new ways, I imagine you, like me, can take her counsel to heart: "If you are accessing your new rhythm and trying to find 'your (new) way', court the Goddess of Wisdom rather than the Goddess of Wealth. While both are powerful and useful in their own right, ultimately, wisdom allows you to create whatever you can imagine ~ and the Goddess of Wealth will then court YOU!" (I am hoping She finds me soon ;-)

But we are definitely en route Home, full throttle. Patricia Cota-Robles, in her comprehensive alert for the upcoming year, writes in part:

"2008, which is numerically a ONE year, will be a time for new beginnings and a birthing into a higher aspect of our Divinity. We may not fully understand just what this means, but the Company of Heaven is assuring us it is a glorious opportunity to transform our lives. All we have to do is take advantage of this auspicious year by focusing our intentions on creating the positive lives we want to experience on Earth.

"One is the number of new beginnings, and eleven is the master number that reflects the transformation of the physical into the Divine. January 1, 2008, is numerically a 111 day. Eleven days later on January 11, 2008, we have a 1111 day.

"During this rare eleven-day period, the I AM Presence of every person on this planet will integrate the highest potential of the miraculous activities of Light that took place in 2007. This integration will gently reflect into the hearts and minds of all Humanity, and it will raise the energy, vibration and consciousness of every facet of Life evolving on Earth the maximum that Cosmic Law will allow."

Earth's Heart Meridian has been opened. Love flows in. Everything is possible.

Blessed Be.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Part of the Plan? Dan Fogelberg Departs

In an eerie case of deja vu, I was thinking about Dan Fogelberg today, wondering whether I'd soon be hearing his holiday-themed song, "Same Old Lang Syne" on the radio. I was a great Fogelberg fan during his heyday in the mid-late '70s, which were also my college years.

Imagine my shock to log on just now and read that Dan made his transition to the angelic realms today at age 56, due to advanced prostate cancer. Like John Denver's untimely demise in a plane crash a decade ago at age 54, this comes as yet another wake-up call. I lost a good friend to leukemia at age 54 on fall equinox, and many others in recent years, all in their 30s, 40s or 50s, to brain tumors, cancer or stroke.

While one perspective is that they've completed their earth journeys this time around and were ready to travel onward, still it makes me realize just how precious and fleeting our moments in a body really are. This entire year at the half-century mark has been a sobering ride for me. I've written a rather sassy, upbeat story called Facing the Fifties that has yet to see publication (though I've been trying :-) so if you'd like a copy in Word, please let me know.

May you be richly blessed with the will and the ways to manifest your destiny and live the life you desire and deserve.

Much love to you,
Amara

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Making Religious Life Fashionable

I thought the headline was a joke: "Japanese Monks Stage Fashion Show." But no: in a bid to woo the younger set back to Buddhism, monks actually donned elaborately-hued robes and hit the catwalk in Tokyo today to show just how colorful the monastic life can be.

As someone who grew up in Paramus, New Jersey, a town with the highest per capita retail sales in the United States and a place where, as I used to joke, "when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping", I found it amusing and somewhat amazing that the monks felt they needed to appeal to outer appearance in order to entice young people into exploring the inner life.

Granted, we all come to our evolutionary journey in our own way and time ~ and I certainly was still workin' the shopping gene in my 20s and early 30s. Even with the detachment I now feel towards the temporal trappings of our corporeal existence, I confess I still love beautiful clothes, whether or not I own them. The difference is, I'm well aware that possessions are not the answer, just something to enjoy on the journey.

So we do what works to get the message across. In this case, dress it in bright green and purple patterns, and literally pray for the best.

Friday, December 14, 2007

12:12 alignment: Portal and Portent of Possibility

The 12:12 gateway just past ushered in a huge opportunity for growth. It is a window, so the exact date is not as crucial as our intent and emotional state: the art of allowing vs. "forcing" has never been more defined!

Karen Bishop offers her usual insightful input in her latest alert about the close of 2007 and what's in store. I highly recommend reading the entire post. Here's an excerpt:

"2007 was a rocky and challenging year for many…especially the latter six month period after the solstice. And now, another solstice is due to arrive, marking the final point of this deep transitional and preparatory period.

This deep period of excavation that lasted for so many months was vitally necessary to our spiritual evolutionary process, as it prepared us for the next level of spiritual hierarchy. And the best is yet to come…we have been preparing for it! Higher vibrating key concepts and ways of being were integrated within us, notably: learning and experiencing how to stay still and in our center and how to harmonize with the energy of community.

When we first arrive in a higher dimension or higher vibrating energy, it feels glorious, as all our needs seem to be met and we seem to be able to create much of anything instantly. As time progresses, we find ourselves aligning with these newer higher realms, and this always involves a clearing and purging of any energies or patterns within and without which no longer match our new surrounding vibration. So we first feel great and then we feel not so great.

And as complicated as it may seem, our outside vibration does not dictate our inside vibration alone. How we vibrate on the inside, also dictates what occurs in our outside reality. So then, creation and evolution is always a two-edged process. It comes from the outside and it comes from the inside, culminating in an alignment and burst of creation and change, similar to the big bang theory.

This process can create some confusion, chaos, and what may seem at times, an unending roller coaster ride. We adjust our vibration within, through clearing and letting go of lower vibrating energies (which is initiated by the newly arriving outside energies!), and then the outside reality feels downright unpleasant to be in, at times causing depression and anxiety, and always, that no sense of place feeling. This is because the outside physical manifestations no longer fit our new inside vibrations.

Add to this the waiting times, as we need to wait for a critical mass to catch up, in order to arrive at that culmination point for creating new in the physical, and this results in the wading through quicksand experience, the lethargy, and the lack of passion. All are typical ascension experiences.

So then, how does all this relate to where we are now? We are most certainly moving up the rungs of the ascension ladder, piece by piece, and experience by experience. Currently, we have reached a new level, and this involves the level of living in unity and within community. This new level, as with all levels, also connects us more fully with Source, or our souls, and this then, has most recently created the adjustments involving being still and staying in our center.

Having a physical ailment or injury forces us to stay down, and thus creates a situation where we must get out of the way, allowing Source to enter more fully. Do you remember in months past when some of us re-visited an old injury or physical malady that lasted several weeks? This was why. If the right side of your body is continually aching, stiff, or uncomfortable, or even if you experience injuries on your right side only, your soul is making an attempt at re-aligning you with Source. Making things happen by ourselves is not the way in the higher realms. It is Source who does it all (or our souls), and this can readily happen when the lower vibrating aspects of ourselves are out of the way. Injuries or discomfort on the right side of our bodies indicates an over-use of the old masculine.

We are needing to evolve from the old male identity on the planet, to the new identity embodying much more of the feminine. (None of this is new news to most of you, just a recap here to assist in explaining our current status.) And the feminine is needing an adjustment as well. We are learning the true and higher ways of giving, supporting, allowing, and receiving. All these adjustments within involve a way of staying still, in our center, not extending, not doing it all, and the like. When we are present and still, Source can then find us and we are then within a portal or an alignment with the higher realms. And this is where true creating occurs."

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Yinification in Argentina

In what seems to me an outpicturing of the Divine Feminine/Divine Masculine integration taking place within each of us and all across the planet now, Argentina's outgoing president has passed the baton to his wife, who is not only the first woman to be elected president of Argentina, but also symbolic of the power transfer from the masculine model to the more collaborative feminine role now enjoying a resurgence as we surf towards true unity and wholeness.

As I've written before, few people realize that the U.S. Constitution is patterned directly on the Iroquois model of leadership, with one glaring omission: we have no Council of Clan Mothers, or Grandmother Council, which was integral to the Native American structure that so inspired Thomas Jefferson. Perhaps if our Founding Fathers had included Founding Mothers in the new nation's governing equation, we'd consider ritual-based decision making, that honors both masculine and feminine voices and envisions the outcome unto the seventh generation, the natural course for balance and well being. Imagine what our culture might look like if the White House consulted a group of wise women prior to implementing any major policy change!

Monday, December 10, 2007

December: A Deepening of Authenticity

This is quite a month, energetically speaking. You're probably already feeling the shifts. Here's some helpful insight from two respected sources:

Li Walter, who focuses on Mayan cosmology, sends this counsel for the following days and weeks: "There's a going away party in the late degrees of Sagittarius, aligned with the Milky Way's Galactic Center... the main event is a conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto on and around Dec 11th, the 10 Human portal day, just before both planets move into Capricorn in the coming weeks. Jupiter shifts on December 18th and Pluto on January 25th. The Sun is approaching and will join them in Sag and the transition to Capricorn as well.

This conjunction of personal, social, and transpersonal planets in the uplifting fiery sign of Sagittarius will bring a focus on self-betterment and an expansion of personal power. This is a time for putting energy into what's important to you.

This place of meeting is in the heart of the World Tree [Note: I've written about the World Tree in my newsletter, What Shines. Request Issue #53], the meeting point of the path of the Milky Way galaxy and the path traveled by the planets. The Sun, center of our solar system and Pluto, the outermost planet that bridges us beyond the solar system, aligning with the center of our spiraling galaxy, pumped up by Jupiter, offers humanity a vast expansion of the scope of our experience of selfhood within the universe."

And from South Africa, Starchild Global creatrix Celia Fenn shares these Energies for December:

"The 12:12 stargate on the 12th of December will provide a moment of intense Cosmic Diamond Light in which things will be seen in all their Radiant Truth. You will be given another significant opportunity to release old illusions that may hold you back from entering into the flow of Abundant Love. You may experience the Joy of a Radiant Miracle, as your life changes direction in the new flow of Love.

The Solstice, on the 22nd, will bring you a powerful moment of Integration and Balance, a time to Pause and Reflect, and be within your own Inner Heart temple, as you balance and ignite your own Twin Flame energy. This will be a powerful time to work with the Sacred Heart meditations.

Then, on the 24th of December, the Full Moon will be in Cancer. This will be a Moon that will carry the full radiance of the Divine Feminine energy in its Lunar manifestation, loving, nurturing, mystic and mysterious. This is followed by the Christian Festival of the birth or rebirth of the Divine Masculine as the Divine Child, called Christmas.

A time of New Beginnings and New Potential that will lead you into the year 2008, with its energy of the 1:1:1 on the 1st of January."

Sunday, December 09, 2007

The Golden Compass Points True North

I was among the legions of moviegoers who swarmed to see The Golden Compass this weekend. A massive fan of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (consisting of the Compass, The Subtle Knife & The Amber Spyglass, all very enticing titles), I hoped the film would live up to the book. I rarely go to movies, especially not of books I've savored, because the adaptation to screen often elides critical material or changes important aspects to fit a 2-hour timeframe, which can be frustrating. But The Golden Compass did not disappoint.

While the movie did indeed change and compress the book somewhat, the visuals were strikingly similar to my imagination; it was as if the director/producer/set designers climbed inside my mind to deduce how best to translate such a richly fantastical tale to the Big Screen. And while I found myself rather breathless at the pace, it's worth seeing on many levels.

Foremost is the delicious controversy the film is generating, initiated by the Catholic Church. Having remained staunchly silent as the Harry Potter books and films took the world by storm, they have apparently decided this film is the one to boycott. And, of course, as controversy is wont to do, this stance only makes people more curious and more likely to go see it!

The premise, at a basic level, has to do with the forces of good and evil, free will vs. control. It's a marvelous testament to following one's inner guidance, defying authority to do what's right, no matter the consequences. Since this is intrinsic to human DNA, it's easy to find yourself cheering 11-year-old Lyra as she consistently outwits those who stand for order and oppression to seek the Truth, wherever that journey may take her.

And this is another triumph of Pullman's book and the movie: a heroine rather than hero. Make no mistake, I love Harry Potter, and...it's inspiring to see a young female protagonist.

So while the film lacks the book's nuances and story development, not to mention more leisurely pacing, I highly endorse it. If you have the time, read the trilogy and then go enjoy the movie versions. I feel sure parts 2 & 3 are in the offing, because The Golden Compass movie concludes with many loose ends just like the book, putting us on notice that there's more to come.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Animal Instincts

This heartwarming footage shows that bonding across beliefs is as powerful as bonding between species: an African lion hugs and kisses the woman who rescued him years ago and visits him every day.

Monday, December 03, 2007

Road Signs & Speed Bumps

2007 has been a "9" year (2+0+0+7 = 9) numerologically, which connotes closure and completion on many levels. The 9-year cycle that began in 1999 is ending. When I think of how radically my life has changed in less than a decade, it's one more confirmation of the acceleratef alchemy that defines now.

I became cyber-savvy that year, started to craft material for what would become Liveyourlight.com early in 2000, published numerous articles in print magazines and newspapers focusing on how to bring spirituality into our daily lives, and generally began living my life purpose and mission. What a thrill!

I also began living nomadically, though it didn't feel so much a conscious choice as a necessity. Yet everything on our evolutionary path is grist for higher consciousness if we allow ourselves to surrender to it. Now, when I don't have whatever I need right there on the car seat next to me, it almost feels strange. Although I love the idea of having a home base, I don't know if manifesting one at this time is in my highest interest.

And hence the quantum choice point. In her latest alert, Karen Bishop says we are all being prepared for community, which means our solitary journeying and arrogance are being spiritually sanded away. It's time to release what's comfortable but no longer serves (even if it's living as a nomad ~ or holding tight to one locale when we're being asked to live more fluidly!).

We'll know what to do next because Spirit will invite us, via signs and signals. Sometimes it's as simple as someone suggesting you move to their town because it seems perfect for who you are. Or it might be continually hearing about a certain place in conversation. Pay attention, and the messages will become clear.

As I say on my CD, What You Need to Know Now, "Let go of what you know, how it ought to be, what you think you should do now...Pry your mental fingers loose. Once you do, you'll have a sense of exhilaration, of flying, because there's so much space around you! Having the courage to be in free-fall, to release one trapeze bar before the next has swung into view, is an essential step in re-imagining your life. Excess baggage will only weigh you down. "

Blessings on your journey into the new now!