A Question of Balance

Mayan time cycles maven Li Walter, PhD, says we're entering into a balancing act as we prepare to close out 2008, and it's an opportunity for integration on all levels:

"Coming in the Moon of Balance, this is a journey to find a new balance in our lives and in our society.

With so many planets in Capricorn at the moment, including the New Moon in Capricorn (and Sun in Capricorn) on 1 Skywalker (Saturday, Dec. 27th), this is clearly a journey in fundamentally re-balancing and re-structuring how we live. Mars and Pluto in early Capricorn provide some push, while Jupiter and Mercury in late Capricorn help to pull us toward the possibilities of Aquarius.

On Dec. 31st, Saturn in Virgo goes retrograde until mid-May, so here too we are given the indication that a practical re-working of how we work is in order. Also that night, just after sunset you can see the crescent Moon with Venus in the southwest and Mercury with Jupiter very low in the west.

January 1st falls on a 6 Mirror portal day, so here again is a call to reflect upon balance, and allow more balanced perceptions to lead us into the year to come.

This Skywalking journey toward greater balance manifests on the 10 Wind day on Jan. 3rd as Jupiter moves into Aquarius for the next year. It's time to take a big breath. Jupiter is much more comfortable here, able to go big, take risks, expand into the exploration of innovative possibilities.

And just on the very last day of this Moon, the World-bridger wave connects this new balancing into the attunement of Moon 7 to come. Moving from balance as we bridge different worlds is vital, whether between our personal world and another's, between work and home life, or between this dimension and others."

Are You A USB?

No, not a computer interface ~ an Ultra Sensitive Being. For me, becoming a Sensitive in the early '90s (or rather, becoming aware that I am) meant stepping fully into my life purpose and planetary service, so the "downside" — noticing and often reacting to olfactory and other stimuli that for most people fly under the radar — is a small exchange. And yet, given that our language evolves more slowly than we do, I dislike being labeled (or self-labeling) as a "chemically sensitive" person. Ultra Sensitive Being resonates more fully with the truth that sensitivity, like all conditions, contains an inherent wholeness.

It's therefore with great gratitude that I read Stefanie Miller's article, Being Ultra Sensitive this morning.

Later, I also found this wonderful article on eHow, of all places: How to Be A Healthy Empath, which lists 17 clear, helpful tips for recognizing energy that isn't yours, clearing your space, strengthening your energetic field. and nurturing yourself in an accelerated world. Great guidance for almost anyone, whether or not you identify as an empath!

Arc of A New World

A full rainbow with a fainter secondary rainbow appeared in today's multifaceted sky, signifying (to me) the return of the Light, and blessings for humanity's abundance. They materialized in the East, place of new beginnings ~ here, one day after Winter Solstice. And within the hour, I witnessed a woman at the grocery store openheartedly offer a woman who had just lost a $20 bill one from her own purse, explaining when the latter demurred, "I've been there."

As have we all, in one form or another. The sharing across borders and boundaries and beliefs will only grow stronger with time. It's a full spectrum awakening, as all the colors of our immanent beauty shine forth, refracting clarity.

Blessed Be!

Caroline Casey's Winter Solstice Guide

From Coyote Network Newswire, the reverently irreverent, always topical, brilliantly quirky Caroline Casey, this take on Solstice as our ultimate turning point:

"Let's keep our appointment with this Mother of All Winter Solstices December 21st, when, for the first time in 248 years (last time, we didn't know about it, so we couldn't collaborate with the deftness available to us now) the Sun conjoins Pluto, (Mr./Ms. Death and Re-birth) at the Trickster Leader Redeemer degree, quickening customized dedication in each one of us.

This is the midnight hour of the year, and of 8,000 years of Empire in which humans had ceded authority (Saturn) to socio-pathic dingbats. Until now!

This Solstice poses the question: 'What must we die to, within and without, lest we die from.'

The I Ching chimes in: 24. The Turning Point - Winter Solstice

'After a time of decay comes the turning point. The powerful light that has been banished returns. There is movement but it is not brought about by force. Societies of people with a unifying vision are formed. But since these groups come together in full public knowledge and are in harmony with the time, all selfish tendencies are excluded, and no mistake is made. Everything comes of itself at the appointed time.'

From deep stillness comes replenishment and the gathering of strategy and wits. Not striving, but calm and merriment.

'The Winter Solstice has always been celebrated as the resting time of the year. In Winter the life energy is still underground. Movement is just at its beginning; therefore it must be strengthened by rest, so that it will not be dissipated by being used prematurely...

The return of health after illness, the return of understanding after an estrangement; everything must be treated tenderly and with care at the beginning, so that the return may lead to flowering.'

Now more than ever.

All of Creation is holding its breath, at this deep time, anticipating the birth, within each human heart, of wonder and willingness to cooperate with everything. May we kindle the warm glow of Trickster kindness, within us all, transform our emotional default setting to one of 'Woof Woof, wanna play!?!' Each moment awaits our imaginative dedication.

So let's toss all that is neither beautiful nor useful into the roiling cauldron of re-birth, that Time is so kindly providing us. (Let's compost all past-patterns of self-sabotage, personal and collective, for starters.)

Let's bow at the threshold of this New Year, to release and redeem all that we do not wish to take with us through the door. Remorse is said to be the highest of the negative states, the closest to clarity - because we see and feel all those times when we didn't respond to life's 'woof woof wanna play?!' When we fell for the compelling illusion of separateness, and forgot that we are all in one large, pulsing, shape-shifting according to collaborative intent, dream.

The Sufi, and we with her, gently pats her heart and whispers 'estafirahlah': forgiveness of self and others. And may 'forgive' mean 'to give energy for change.'

The protoplasm of reality is particularly susceptible to imprint now, by the power of word, language, story and metaphor. Allowing ourselves one true hyperbole: never before has the power of human storytelling been so essential in determining what dies and what lives.

Let us dedicate to animating the desirable story (to do otherwise would be complicitous with the evolutionary dead-end of empire. We suck the chi of our complicity from that which is dying, and exhale into the blooming of dynamic collaborative kinship We are here to re-dedicate to the responsibility of dreaming the desirable world into being.

Saturnalia: Deeper Dedication is the anti-dote to fear, as feeling useful is the anti-dote to depression. There - that's handled.

So, let's visualize and dedicate, wherever we are on Solstice, and journeying on into this powerful winter, that we are offering our unique and necessary Medicine, into the collective cauldron brew, and ladling ourselves a cup of All-Heal.

Trickster Medicine is really the sine qua non that brings all the other medicines into bubbling accord to produce the elixir of Dynamic Reverent Ingenuity."

Why Winter Solstice 2008 is Significant

Patti Cota Robles has written a vital Solstice message. It's not posted to her website, so I am reprinting it below in its entirety. While most of us realize we are in the midst of an intense purge/purification period, Patti illuminates this particular moment with great clarity and faith.


"The Winter Solstice is considered one of the most powerful times of the year by many cultures around the world. In the Northern Hemisphere this celestial event usually occurs on December 21st. The timing of the solstice this year will be Sunday, December 21, at 7:04 a.m. EST, 4:04 a.m. PST, or 12:04 p.m. Universal Time.

The Winter Solstice is the longest night of the year, and it heralds the initial impulse of the annual return of the Sun, the Light, to the Earth. This year the spiritual effects of the Solstice will be more powerful than ever before. This is due to the incredible influx of Light that is pouring into the planet through the heartfelt pleas of people everywhere.

Humanity is experiencing the most intensified purging of the economic system, and the various other social structures that do not operate with a consciousness of the highest good for all concerned, that we have ever endured. This is a necessary cleansing that is paving the way for the physical manifestation of the patterns of perfection for the New Earth. The difficult part of this process is that the masses of Humanity do not see the bigger picture. Millions of people see only the painful situations that are happening in their lives. As a result of this limited perception, they feel overwhelmed and hopeless. This is very hard to observe, but it is not all bad.

After our fall from Grace aeons ago, we became so numb to the discord in our lives that we just muddled through our Earthly experiences accepting mediocrity as a natural state of being. We fell into the terrible habit of using pain as our motivator. Unless we were writhing in agony, we did not feel that it would help to take action or to ask for assistance from our Father-Mother God. For millions of people on Earth, prayer and an invocation for Light from our God Parents occurs only when they are brought to their knees by their life situations. This is exactly what is happening at this time for millions of people all over the world.

The Company of Heaven is revealing to us now that more people than ever before are reaching a critical moment in their life experiences. Consequently, millions of people are asking God for Divine Intervention. Many of them are praying for the very first time. This powerful event, in unison with the millions of Lightworkers who daily invoke the Light of God, has created the greatest influx of Light the Earth has ever experienced during a Winter Solstice. This Heavenly assistance will greatly empower the patterns of perfection for the New Earth, and it will accelerate our individual hopes and dreams by leaps and bounds.

Beginning now, and continuing for the next 72 hours, focus intently on the vision of what you want to manifest in your life and the lives of your loved ones. Focus on your visions for the New Earth and the harmony and balance you wish for all Humanity. This is a rare opportunity, and we are being called to action by our God Selves — our I AM Presence — and the Company of Heaven. Be sure your visions and your intentions always reflect our Oneness and the Reverence of ALL Life.

This event will pave the way for a God Victorious New Year. 2009 is going to be a year of miraculous changes. These changes have been in the works for quite some time, and now we are going to experience them tangibly in the world of form. These changes will not happen by chance. They will occur through the unified efforts of Lightworkers all over the world and the Company of Heaven.

I know there are a lot of dire predictions regarding the global economy and the challenges Humanity is going through, but we are not the victims of circumstance. We are the cocreators of our Earthly experiences. If we do not like the way things are going in our lives, we have the ability to change our circumstances. This is what we have been preparing for aeons to accomplish — and now is the time.

As the Hopi prophecy states: 'We are the ones we have been waiting for.'

2009 numerically is an 11 year. Eleven is the master number that reflects the transformation of the physical into the Divine. The archetypes for the patterns of perfection for the New Earth were securely anchored into the physical plane in August 2008. In 2009, through our creative faculties of thought and feeling, we will expand these patterns into our daily experiences.

The purging and cleansing of the obsolete behavior patterns that have caused the maladies existing in Humanity’s lives will continue. But the wonderful news is, as these old archetypes crumble away, the expansion of the patterns of perfection for the New Earth will begin to manifest in ways that will bring joy, fulfillment and great expectations into the hearts and minds of people everywhere.

There is a new sense of hope flooding through the hearts of people around the world. Humanity’s hope is magnetizing Legions of Light from the Realms of Perfection into the atmosphere of Earth in ways we have never experienced. The Divine Intent of these Messengers of God is to assist Humanity to move quickly through the cleansing process so that the bliss of the New Earth will manifest in the twinkling of an eye.

2009 is going to be whatever we cocreate together. Do not let this opportunity pass you by."

Metamorphic Art

Simply surreal art by Octavio Ocampo: stretch your mind and move into the multidimensional YOU!

The New Currency

There's a lot being written about the shifting nature of money in these end times, when absolutely everything about our lives is morphing from the known to the (k)new, as we remember our ancient future.

All the transmissions I'm receiving these days speak of Oracles, prophesying this as the moment between, as we release who we've been and prepare to become something completely different.

A new being presupposes a new way of being: exchanging our energy in a higher octave than simply pieces of paper or metal for goods or services. The new currency is love, communion, community, and honor for all life and the Earth herself. So "going green" applies to money as well as behavior.

In this season when "stores" often replace "stories" as the gift source of choice, I invite you to open yourself to the promise of 2009: a wisdom window into an entirely new way of Being, as the beings we are becoming.

<> Blessings and much love to all <>

Portals and Choices and Crossroads ... Oh My!

In her inimitable style, astrologer Kelly M. Beard offers another perspective on our imminent 12:12 portal that showcases how our celestial guides are helping we terrestrials to liberate, co-create, and celebrate ourselves into the next dimension of our collective journey:

12:12: Portals and Choices and Crossroads ... OH MY!

Kelly is a wise woman brimming with information to share and exuberance to spare; I highly recommend her Power Circle telecalls or any of her other offerings.

Prepare for a cleansing, healing close to 2008 and a vital beginning to 2009!

Blessings ...

12:12 Gateway: Expanding the Love

In the current issue of What Shines, I mention the 11:11 portal of potential. Another gateway is the 12:12, which arrives with the Gemini Full Moon next Friday. Archangel Michael, channeled through Celia Fenn in South Africa, has some enLightening information about how we can expand our love during this time. This is an excerpt:

"As the old reality fades together with its old patterns of fear and violence and lack, the New Earth Reality arises based on the patterns of the Sacred Heart, the Rose of the Twin Flame energies. You are discovering how to align with a Focus or Center of Energy in your Heart that unfolds like a Rose and that holds Heaven and Earth together with the Electrical and Magnetic 'polarities' of the God Force energies. You are discovering how to move with the powerful flows of this God Force or Divine Intelligence as it moves within You. And you are learning to experience the powerful creative Magic of this Deep Love that flows through the Heart.

"You are learning how to Expand the Love until you see that All in your Field, your Perception, your Experience, is an aspect of God-in-You, and that it is vibrating and pulsating with the Passion and Love and Desire of the Divine Source Energy. The Desire to Be, to Become and to Experience All that You can Be through the creations and manifestations of your physical being is an expression of the Divine Love of the God Force within. You are learning how to perceive life with Love and Gratitude as your perceptions move into focus and you know that you are One in the Love of God, that you are Love Incarnate, the walking and breathing representation of the Love of God. A Human Angel, unified with All Things in the Consciousness of God.

"At this time, You are Becoming part of the Song of Harmony...the Song of 'One'. And you are ready for the Expanded adventures of Joy, manifesting through the Sacred Rose or the Twin Flame Template of Divine Consciousness for the New Earth reality. In this process of Higher Consciousness, you are able to see All that Exists as an expression or manifestation of 'the Beloved', the Love of God that is the energy that draws you back into the Heart of God. You become part of the deep passion of Divine Love that flows through all things. And you may, if you choose, experience that Joy and Ecstasy within a partnership in the material world.

"Beloved Ones, on the 12th of December, the 12:12 gateway or portal in Time/Space, the Earth will pass through a Full Moon alignment where the Full Moon will be in Gemini and the Sun in Sagittarius. Gemini is the astrological house of the 'Twins', which in the New Reality represents the energy of the Twin Flame or Sacred Union. With the Sun in the Fire sign of Spiritual Passion represented by Sagittarius, and the Moon in the House of Sacred Union represented by Gemini, the fiery passion of Sacred Union will ignite in the Hearts of those who are awakened to this Love and will assist them to Expand the Love within their Field of Experience and Perception. And these ones will become the Leaders for the next cycle of Conscious Evolution into deeper aspects of Divine Love and its expression on the Planet.

"The energy will continue to build up to the 21st of December, the time of the Planetary Solstice, when the Southern Pole of the Planet, representing the Feminine Polarity of the Earth, will align directly with the Galactic Center at 26 degrees of Sagittarius. The Galactic center is the Heart of the Galaxy, that Sacred Space where the energies of the Galaxy are held in Sacred Union. It is the place from where Oneness and Harmony flows. The Earth will align with these powerful flows of Oneness and Harmony and Love will open the Hearts of those on the Earth who are ready to receive the Song of Oneness into their Core Being. The powerful wave of Twin Flame Love that you will experience between the 12th and the 21st of December, will indeed "lift" you to a new level in your Experience and Perception of yourself as a Human Angelic Being and Consciousness. The Twin Flame Love of Source will ignite the Twin Flame Love within, and will create Miracles of Compassionate Love that will be deeply felt by those who are ready to accept this new manifestation of the Love of God."

Are You A Genius?

This is one of those intriguing brainteasers, sent to me by fellow Aquarian Jaris Dreaming:

Which way is she turning?

It seems like an updated version of the vase/two faces, but I had no difficulty seeing the figure revolve in both directions, which is gratifying to the brain's ego :-)

Have fun with it ... but don't take yourself too seriously (very left-brain), or the image is likely to revolve counter-clockwise forever!

12 Steps to Health, Wealth and Wisdom

It's a little bit like Eat, Pray, Love, the book about one woman's journey that's become a bestseller by virtue of its echoes in Everywoman's soul.

These potent, playful suggestions for living came to me via What Shines subscriber Iona Laing in Durban, South Africa. Iona received them from the grandmother of 25-year-old Atlanta, Georgia resident Sean Mitchell. (Sean's grandmother subscribes to Iona's newsletter.) Enjoy!

1. Walk for 10-30 minutes each day. While walking, smile. It's the ultimate anti-depressant.
2. When you wake up, complete the following statement, "My purpose is to _______ today."
3. Eat more foods that grow on plants and less food manufactured in plants.


4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.


5. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.


6. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.


7. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.


8. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"
9. Forgive everyone for everything.


10. Your job won't take care of you when you're sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch!
11. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for __________.

 Today I accomplished _________.


12. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.