Month: June 2022

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Heart Wide Open in a World Gone Mad

I’ve sat with outrage, despair, wonder, and confusion this week.

So many people, including myself, have felt the shifting of a foundation of goodness, respect, equity, safety, and hope with the recent shootings and supreme court decisions about gun control and Roe vs. Wade.

It’s been helpful to talk. To express freely whatever position is held.

I am grateful for those who witness me. And eager to enter these conversations to witness others and learn what breaks their hearts, fires up their desire to act, and leads competent people to feel so helpless. To explore the questions that bubble up. To allow rage, tears, and the desire to dive under the covers to be honored.

So many tragedies are flooding our shared world and affecting the ecosystem in which the human family lives.

I recognized something essential this week.

I couldn’t keep quiet. I didn’t want to process this on my own. I had that in common with many, many people. Seeking balance within, I felt the call to hear others and witness their pain and thinking. So I reached out to my daughter, to my friends, and opened to my clients.

I learned I didn’t have any answers. And recognized I was in no position to offer any.

I researched the status of women at the time the US Constitution was written. While not surprising, it made my head and heart hurt. I though about how far we’ve come and wondered what direction we were headed.

It’s my birthday today. I’m 63.

I was in 8th grade when Title IX was enacted. I never had any question that I could go to college as a female. Nor did my daughter. I was 13 when Roe vs. Wade was passed. Too busy navigating my early teen insecurities to consider that anyone would restrict my decisions about my body or health. Now, I look to the young women I know who face restrictions that were never a part of my adult life.  

Lacking solutions today, I want to keep my heart wide open, no matter what. That much I know.

Yet, something more emerged over the past days. A strong desire to listen to someone who was wise and awake. To hear a different prospective than the human mind’s railing about what side was right and who was not only wrong, but evil.

Life has a way of answering my questions if I let them be.

How to keep your heart open in hell.

 

A fitting title for a creative talk from a wise, awake man. Reading poetry from other wise, awake men. 

I received succor in that. Wise men, in tune with their feminine wisdom, providing a higher understanding of how to be in a world that sucks so much and holds so much beauty. 

An understanding that helped me explore the questions asked by those around me. Exploring how to live in the world and keep your heart open. A way to be spiritually focused without losing touch with your humanity. Guidance for action that was balanced, coming from a perspective that there was harmony to the implicate and explicate order of the universe. And our experience within it. 

I discovered the wisdom of Ram Dass after he passed. 

I’ve learned so much from the documentaries about his life and the talks I have watched. A richness packed into a few minutes or hours that left me more willing to live in this beautiful, horrible world with a heart that stays open.

Plus, I like how he talks like a calm, happy hippie. Words like “far out, cool, and groovy” bring me back to my high school days.

He has taught me about courage, how to sit with pain and grief, experience hope within despair, and to face death consciously. He has shown me what a heart wide open looks like in a person who is clearly human. So much more to discover I’m sure. 

Today, I think it’s best you hear from some Wise, awake dudes. 

Better than from my tiny mind that is swirling under the influence of a world rocked by madness. Buffeted about by the winds of grief, outrage, wonder, and trust. Today, I find myself at a loss for words and a strong, strong desire to listen. 

My heart wants to stay open. So that’s my position about gun control, abortion, war, ecological destruction, personal tragedy, miracles, and grace. 

A wide open heart. No matter what side of any argument you find yourself on. You’ll find the link to Ram Dass’ talk in the HeartWarming News below.

 

Peace be with you and with all.  No exceptions. 

HeartWarming

 News

Ram Dass’ talk led me to a creative, cool resource: the After Skool channel on youtube. I found some of my favorite teachers there. Listening to their voices while the concepts were illustrated artfully. It’s a visual delight. The intent of this channel is to empower individuals to shift their inner world with artistic presentations of profound thinkers. The idea that the world changes when your internal world changes is not new. It IS empowering and shared by mystics, physicists, and medicine men and women. Here’s the link for How to Keep your Heart Open in Hell by Ram Dass. Next up for me? Allan Watts. He probably says groovy too.

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Don’t Help Me. Please.

I was driving home with my daughter when we noticed a large snapping turtle crossing the roadway. 

It was a tiny back street lined with a small pond on one side and the forest on the other.  As we drove by, he settled down just a foot into the road. Hanging out there as if it were a rest stop.  Right in the path of the cars cutting through our neighborhood at rush hour – blowing through the stop sign in order to cut a moment from their commute.

“Not happening!” I said as I pulled the car over.  

“We are moving that turtle before he gets crushed,” I declared.  I bounded from the car as my daughter muttered “Oh, here we go.”  I carried my umbrella as a prodding agent which was totally unhelpful as it popped open immediately, rendering it useless.  (More eye rolls from you know who. I might have even added a few myself as I looked quite ridiculous).  

I found another totally inadequate stick which left us just staring at a magnificent, prehistoric looking turtle wondering what to do next.  

We knew enough not to go near the front of him.  They call them snapping turtles for a reason.  While my daughter longed to pick him up and carry him, I had visions of her dropping him in the moment of a freakout.  Nope.  Meanwhile, he was resting as if he had all the time in the world and wasn’t facing imminent death (okay … I exaggerate). 

A car pulled up and an older man asked if we were okay. 

Explaining our predicament, he enthusiastically jumped out of his SUV with a golf umbrella as if he were going to single handedly rescue all of us.  We were in business. He tapped him gently and the giant turtle stirred and tipped to one side. I knew if we could gently tap his other side, he would start to rise up and walk.  Which he did.

Wish I kept my mouth shut.

 

Our rescuer got so excited he went around to take a photo for his grandkids.

And down went the turtle. 

Dropping down at the sight of a looming threat …. a 6 foot gentle giant with a camera. Things worsened quickly when the giant decided to tap the turtle more strongly on the back of his shell with his foot.  My kid and I exchanged a look. 

Now we were party to traumatizing this magnificent creature instead of saving him. 

With that final insult, “Snappy” promptly lumbered up onto the grass in the direction of the pond and hunkered down.  He looked our way as if daring us to come near him.  Fearing that our foot tapping savior could not curb his enthusiasm, we declared our effort a success.  I mentioned I had to run out to the store in a bit and would check to make sure he hadn’t ventured back into harm’s way again. This gave us all permission to end our rescue mission.

Mind you, not one car had careened around that corner during our dramatic interlude. 

“Well that went well.” stated you know who.  A bit later I headed out to the store and was alert as I fully stopped at the corner stop sign.  Scanning the grass to the right, I noticed the area was totally free of that huge turtle.  The reason?

He was lumbering across the street toward the woods. 

As turned the corner, I watched as he settled down into his protective position – shell to the ground – right in the middle of oncoming traffic in the other direction.  Wiser now, I slowly rolled past him as if he wasn’t there.  Hoping I wouldn’t see him crushed on my return trip, I had a revelation.

He had probably commuted that route hundreds of times without incident. 

After all he was a huge turtle, not some tiny little thing out on his first independent stroll.  He had to have some skill to have made it this far in a residential neighborhood.  Perhaps he wasn’t so helpless just because he was a turtle who lived near humans and their roads.  Now who was rolling her eyes? 

I got to wondering about all the times my intent to be helpful may have actually diverted someone from their intended path. 

It isn’t the first time I’ve stopped my car to turn around a turtle.  Let’s just say I have a history of such behavior.  In the future, however, I may tune in first to my inner wisdom and have a chat with the turtle or whatever creature it may be (human included).  Rather than immediately jump in as helper, perhaps I will see if it serves to help or will only slow the progress of the intended journey. 

I didn’t see Snappy on the way home, but that didn’t surprise me. 

He had already taught me what I needed to know. I was grateful and wiser as a result of our encounter. I figured he had lumbered off to teach some other well meaning, silly human. 

Peace be with you and with all.  No exceptions. 

HeartWarming

 News

When to help and when to sit back as witness?  With so much suffering in the world, you feel called to improve the lives of others. Hard to know what helps and what doesn’t. The book, Toxic Charity, sheds insight into the disempowering effects of well meaning aid to others. Creating sustainable change which respects and empowers not only the person or community, but the gains achieved through struggle, is an art form. Exploring the personal reasons for helping as well as deep listening to a community’s needs goes a long way to discern if, when, and how to offer your service. Empowering growth and self sufficiency. 

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Your Life is a Journey of Becoming

Sometimes you are skipping down a path of light.
Holding hands with others as your heart blooms large.
Feeling the joyful freedom born of a connection
so full and true that you recognize yourself.
Loving, wise, and beautiful. At home in the world.

Other times, you’ve got pebbles in your shoes,
sand in your crevices, cracks in your heart,
and a mind on fire with doubt and despair.
Alone in the darkness of the wild wood,
you seek something, anything, to save you.

Without a map, wise guides, supportive friends, and empowering practices, you may feel like a cork bobbing on the ocean.

Let’s change that together.

The Andean Medicine Wheel offers you a Perpetual Map for your Mythic Journey.

 

The world is hungry for more Wise Woman who are reclaiming their luminosity.

The Art of Becoming 6 week Journey offers the navigational wisdom from the Q’ero shamans of Peru and the Andean Medicine Wheel. This is first encountered as a tool to empower personal healing, growth, and transformation. 

Working at the mythic level, you engage the guidance from your own Soul and the realm of the Mystery.

You are welcomed into each Direction by an Archetypal Guardian, Goddess, and Feminine Archangel. All of whom assist your direct experience of dismantling that which binds and blinds you. To discover the wisdom of the unseen realms and unearth the hidden treasures within you. To discover how to perceive yourself, the world, and your way of living differently.

So you may Source yourself from the Sacred.

The Medicine Wheel not a simple circle to be walked to the end. It is a mystical, multidimensional spiral alive with the lineage of healers, guardians, and medicine people. Each Direction offers unique teachings, energetic transmissions, ceremony, and practical lessons on how to awaken a higher perception of yourself as a whole being. 

The intent is to empower you to walk The Beauty Way and be a beneficial presence for this world.

For some, this will be the first time stepping within the richness of the Andean cosmology. For others, like myself, you’ll return to the wheel to discover a whole new layer of information and way of being. 

I’ve entered this Medicine Wheel repeatedly over the past 20 plus years. 

Discovering that each entry is perfectly timed and that there is no end to the personal and mythic revelations that occur. I am especially excited to enter with a group of evolving wise women as I have been diving more deeply into these teachings and ceremonies than ever before. So, what does that mean for this circle of wise women?

I’m expanding the beautiful, information rich manual with new teachings, ceremonies, and practices. 

The Becoming Archives, which house beautiful recorded classes,  guided journeys, and the manual will be enhanced with live streamed journeys offered each week. With lifetime access, you may enter the Medicine Wheel again and again and enjoy different information shared with each class. With the combination of the written manual and recorded archives, you can dive as deeply as you choose. And you’ll receive plenty of inspiration, love, and support from your sisters who are traveling wth wheel with you.

To enhance your Becoming Journey and upgrade your energy matrix, you’ll be receiving the first 3 Munay Ki Rites gifted to the world by the Andean Shamans.

The Munay Ki Rites (power of love) are energetic transmissions that transform and elevate your subtle energy field. As these seeds of light are woven into your energy body, you’ll be guided how to nurture them to full expression. As your Light Body is upgraded, your capacity to heal the past, expand perception, and activate the power of love within strengthens. Working at the energetic level supports the mental, emotional, and physical transformation that you seek. 

Empowering you to change from the inside out to become a Luminous Woman who lives, ages, and dies differently.

The Art of Becoming class begins on June 21st and will be on ZOOM for 6 Tuesday evenings from 6:30-9:30pm EST. The ladies in these classes contribute to an intimate and sacred temple space to complete this work together. If you are local to Soul Sanctuary, you may want to join the Full Moon Fire Ceremony on Tuesday, July 14th to jump start your Journey with powerful intent and releasement. This is not required and you’ll learn ways to conduct your personal fire ceremony during the Becoming Journey.

Listen to the wisdom of your Feminine belly and heart. Let the Mothers, Sisters, and Grandmothers whisper their invitation to you directly.

If you feel called to join us, please read more details on the Art of Becoming class page HERE or click the blue box below for link in my Workshop page. Reach out to me if you have questions. I can’t wait to step onto the Wheel together and learn from you.

 

Peace be with you and with all.  No exceptions. 

HeartWarming

 News

Human beings crave connection. Within themselves, between people, within and across cultures. Ceremony and ritual are important practices to connect people to one another. Rites of passage, personal spiritual practices, and ceremony across traditions have enhanced an individual’s sense of belonging, confidence within their own abilities, and offers deep soothing of personal and societal anxiety. Entering ceremony of a tradition outside of your own with reverence and an intent to learn allows participants to directly experience a connection with the Sacred, as well as seeing the commonality with others outside of their specific culture or tradition. All important for individual, communal, and global wellbeing.