Tonight: Night of Immense Power and Potential!

Caroline Casey reports that tonight, September 26, 2008, is a night of incredible power and promise, not just on a political level:

"It is a time when vows to fulfill one's assignment are animated, and also a time when Fate both embraces those who dedicate themselves to their dharmic role and dismisses those who are not an energetic math for the Story of the time...

"Ally Deborah Felmeth, from Syria, further informs us of this late-breaking ancient Mythic News:

'The Night of Majesty, also called the Night of Grandeur and the Night of Power is Friday September 26th this year. It falls always on the night of the 27th day of Ramadan, which is the ninth month of the Islamic Year. As the Islamic calendar is a Lunar calendar it falls approximately 11 days earlier within our Solar calendar each year. Prayer on this night is considered to be better than prayer for 1,000 months. The veils between the worlds most thin at this time...'

"'But Fate had no further use for him,' is one phrase, by which those not dedicated to the greater good are dismissed and shunted back-stage.

"It is not Gabriel, but Al-Burak, the widely revered magic flying horse with the face of a beautiful woman, body of horse, giant white swan's wings, a tail of peacock colors, who takes Mohammed all over the world and to heaven and back on this night.

"So beginning the Night of September 26th, debate or whatever night, we fly with Al-Burak for the next 40 Days to the election Night. There's lots to work with here.

Our default setting is that everything is perfect, in some quirky way ..."

Equinox: Coming Into Balance

At the Equinoxes, Solstices and Cross-quarter days, I often like to reference Kathleen Jenks' excellent Myth*ing Links site, which is replete with lore, art and sacred traditions from around the world.

What will you harvest in this ripe moment, as the Wheel of the Year takes another cosmic turn, releasing summer's fire and entering Libra, the astrological sign of balance and justice?

Giving and Receiving Are One in Truth

We've been hearing about the Law of Attraction and the importance of gratitude for quite awhile now. Here's a slightly different take on the joy of giving, and how it can turn your own life around. Thanks to What Shines subscriber Anne Naylor for sending:

"Feeling desperate and hopeless after spending eight days in the hospital related to multiple sclerosis, 35-year-old Cami Walker decided to take an odd 'prescription' from an African medicine woman. The remedy? Give away one thing each day for 29 days. 'I thought the suggestion was crazy at first, but decided it wasn't going to hurt me to try it.

'Things couldn't get much worse,' said Walker. 'I was shocked by how quickly things turned around for me. By day 14, I was able to walk without my cane and many of my MS symptoms subsided. I was able to start working part-time again by day 29.' Now, several months and many daily gifts later, Walker says she is still improving.

Walker was so inspired by the changes in her health and other areas of her life that she decided to turn the 29-Day Giving Challenge into a worldwide giving movement: 29Gifts.org.

Your 29 gifts can be anything ... money, food, old sweaters, smiles, your time, kind words or thoughts.

You can start your own personal 29-Day Giving Challenge at any time — there’s no official beginning or end date.

To complete the Challenge, share a story about the impact it made on your life to focus on giving for 29 days. Your story can be told with written word, short film, recorded spoken word, song or visual art.

The Challenge is intended to be a sacred ritual — it is your opportunity to cultivate a mindful practice of stepping outside your own story for a few moments each day by serving others.

Don’t quit. If you have a day that you feel unmotivated to give, it’s OK. Just go for the simple give. Call a friend and share some kind words. Write someone a nice note. Or exchange smiles with a stranger. Every gift doesn't need to be monumental. You might even notice that the 'simple gives' feel more powerful than the grand gestures.

If you forget your give one day, be gentle with yourself. This ritual is about progress, not perfection. Sit down and quietly reflect on your day. Review the entire day mindfully and find the times you unconsciously gave so you can bring it into your consciousness.

Don’t forget that there is never a day that you don't give. There are only days that you don't acknowledge and remember you did.

Enjoy your 29 days. And remember to stay open to receiving. Giving can't happen without the receptors of our gifts. Good giving to you today."

9-1-1, 8 Years On

An infinity (8 on its side, ∞) has passed since the watershed American event known simply by the date it occurred: 9/11. Since the beginning, I've referred to this wake-up call as 9-1-1, which in the U.S. is the number to call in an emergency.

Emergency means "emerge and see" as well as "emergent sea": we're all swimming in this nascent consciousness, some further upstream than others, encouraging those still at water's edge to jump into the bracing blue waters of awakening.

The shift affects every aspect of existence, including politics. The current American election is one of the most critical of our age, because who we vote for now determines, in a very real sense, our future direction as a planet. Thought leader Deepak Chopra has crafted a stunningly clear piece on the choice before us: to evolve further into Light, or stagnate in shadow.

Read Obama and the Palin Effect

While the distinction seems apparent, we as a people are still riddled with ancient fear, one of the densest energies. I learned this anew when camping recently on Mt. Shasta, a sacred vortex at the tip of California, visited by people from all over the world. One evening I was parked on a residential street, doing some work on my laptop before returning to camp. Suddenly headlights from a hunkering SUV blinded me, pulling up almost nose-to-nose with my car.

The driver got out and demanded to know why I was parked in front of his house, threatening to call the police if I didn't leave immediately. If fear can evoke this kind of reaction to someone sitting in their own vehicle on a public street, it's obviously still deeply ingrained in our national and global psyche. And that's what keeps us in the Dark Ages, literally as well as figuratively.

Thankfully, since synchronicity is the order of the day, Jean Hudon has just compiled an entire meditation focus devoted to mastering fear.

This is an amazing moment for us all. Cells in the body of humanity, we are slowing coming to realize what our bodies themselves have always known: we're all in this together, and together, we are strong.

∞ Blessings! ∞

Earth Sounds

Here's another audiophile file, this time of some of the incredible sounds Gaia makes, courtesy of physics professor Don Gurnett:

The Sounds of Space

To read my September newsletter, Sound Effects, please subscribe to What Shines.

Sound Wisdom

Glass artist Paul White, a longtime subscriber to my inspirational ezine, What Shines, often responds with intriguing information of his own. The September issue focuses on sound, and the myriad ways we can use it to heal and shift ourselves and our beloved Gaia.

Paul writes, "How interesting you are discussing sound. On the way home from a poetry event in Mountainaire, NM I started to hum. I had my earplugs in because I've found using earplugs lessens driving and flying fatigue. So as I was humming I began to hum nasally, raising the pitch and lowering it. All of a sudden I found a vibration that actually created another tone. It was like there was a bee inside my head. I've only experienced that one other time, when I was in a Peruvian whistle circle. Have you ever heard of Peruvian whistles?

Thank you for your What Shines emails, they always have such interesting information!"