there are so many words to live by- here are some agreements.

4 agreements

"Be Impeccable With Your Word.
Don't Take Anything Personally.
Don't Make Assumptions.
Always Do Your Best."

Don Miguel Ruiz

solstice-new year-2011-12

season swiftly tumbling into future
and 2012 arriving
fifth world emerging
from the smoldering ashes of an old and outdated dream
time to renew yourself
make your mark
or simply find the elusive peace at your own quiet pace
winter to spring
the wood is burning the candles are lit
the planet is turning
the waters are flowing
the rains are falling
the stars keep shining
a simple miracle to be alive
a simple miracle
to witness this mundane place
infused with sacred elements
so let us know that as we grow
we are part of that which cannot be named or contained
blessing the constant expansion
and transformation
needed to move us forward

ash-hay!!

(Ash-hay)- The center, or being in one's center of rightness.

gazes

the pages of your gazes ascertain no more than a quiet refrain
in other words, I thought I could love you
but I could not swallow fast enough
to retrieve what had been stolen from the heart of the moon

if only I could wash away your toxic plastic tears
in order to bring salt to the surface
and awaken a vast purification
in other words
I thought I would love you
no matter what
by any means necessary
blending into a hopeful sky
and this life is never about what you receive
it is about what you are unfailingly,
unflinchingly willing to give

drawing

I was drawn into you, lover
but not by you, lover
though you wished you were the designer
who managed our story line
like everything was fine
like temptation and signs
lead nowhere, my friend

what goes on in all of these homes and hotel rooms
but deep discontent
or unrest
or occasional harmony?

I might release you, lover, back to yourself
but like the seasons
you will return to me, friend
because you are the movement
of stars around my old and strange planet

lyrical explosion

check her rebuttal
it is less than subtle
emanating from her gazes
hoping to delete certain phrases or particularly painful phases
she is asking; did you think twice, did you play nice?

you know she fooled you without meaning to
she coded her sounds to sound like silence and her peace
to sound like violence
walking down streets
drawing heat
moving feet
some notice, some stare
whispering so softly "Beware"

Charging for Spiritual Work

There are historical spiritual figures on this planet that modern people refer to frequently. There may have been a Jesus Christ; born in Nazereth, a Siddhartha Buddha; born in India, Mohammad; husband of Khadija; Seal Of the Prophets, born somewhere in the Middle East. The list goes on and on. People refer to angels and other beings of “light”. There are many references to the Ascended Masters. When it comes to the average human, there is a great struggle inside our hearts. We wrestle with illusions and inflated egos and selfish pursuits, jealousy and other realms of thought and feeling that are inherent in our human experience. Much of modern society creates a climate wherein we are living like we are part of the “hungry ghost” realm, a realm of addiction and suffering. The Ascended masters, as far as myth and research tell us, did not charge money for the spiritual work they did during their time, manifesting on Earth. One well known story recounts Jesus flying into a rage and turning over the tables of the money lenders in temples of ancient times. Buddha had disciples as well, and chose poverty at first, in reaction to the materialism that keeps people from their own awakening. How can a teacher be in alignment with the integrity of deep spiritual teachings and then create an elitist situation, wherein only people with the right financial resources can get access to the purported wisdom that is being taught? Is this not fundamentally hypocritical? Should the wisdom not be accessible to all people? How does spiritual hierarchy work?

applies to all

you are space exponentially expanding
you are the construct of a dream
you are an elemental being
you are reflections of perceptions that anyone has yet to fathom
you are what science tells you that you are
but you are spirit too
you are ethereal
and earthly
you are the sound of a tree
laughing at the wind
you are occasionally nocturnal
you are a definition beyond comparison
what you see when u glance at a mirror
is mostly illusion
momentary and fleeting

United States of Division (2009)

What have white people done other than erase themselves
from themselves
and starve for nourishment
from those whom they have wronged?
Honest discussions on race must lead to sexism
class ism and homophobia
because interconnected oppression persists
even in these OH SO LIBERAL communities.

symptoms

we show symptoms of a collective psychosis-your arms cannot hold this
temporary notice
we bleed colors that have no focus, skip doses
we cannot lie, we see past your eyes
this comes as no surprise
we fathom new methods to design a template that works fine
wishing relief would settle in like good wine
hits our minds-we make progress toward goals of releasing toxic messages
that have entered our awareness
blurried our sight
caused us to fight
when all we wanted was peace
and a permanent release
from the grasp of these symptoms
the clasp of this suffering-and still
we know how to lighten the burden
we laugh with intention
like our brand of madness will outshine the sun
and eclipse the moon
and we reference the stars to recall our origins
and we reference the ocean to give birth to our spirits
because elemental knowledge connects us to truth
and nature holds some keys we grow desperate for daily
itching to be called back home
knowing there was some kind of home before this one that did not imprison us inside flesh although the flesh is some sort of gift to our minds that we can shape with our intent, and attacks are constantly made on this truth
while structures are built around shallow pools to wade in, to wait by, to see dry
we tear apart structures holding us hostage only to discover new enemies, the peace is elusive the road treacherous, yes.
and media will lull us into great sleeping patterns, the kind with no dreams
we fall apart at the seems
the mountains start to weep at the company we keep until avoiding disaster becomes commonplace and catastrophe gets a hold on us and
animals sense us from miles away-start screeching
preachers keep preaching
words falling on deaf ears
indoctrination creates symptoms that we begin to recognize in each others
eyes
yes-
comes as no surprise.

awake? sort of

Are we all feeling the intensity of the global shifts? There are various levels of waking up that are occurring. I never thought of awakening on a metaphysical level as something that would happen one day spontaneously like the rapture. It seems to be more a case of awakening to nuanced realizations and truth, such as the interconnected reality of our species and connection to other species, our symbiosis-- and then our tendencies to disconnect ourselves from truth-or in other words, our tendency to fall back asleep, while awake. We are working within the confines of serious mind control, bad societal brainwashing and programming and myopic obsessions with vanity, material reality, and on and on. We have so much working against us. And still, we have so much working for us. The fires of inspiration and deep connection to raw beauty are alive in most minds and hearts if not all hearts to some degree. We have access to resources inside of us that can turn the course of history-turn the course of the future and make the present a place and time that we really want to exist in. I keep this hope alive despite true cynicism. I keep this hope alive in the face of state sanctioned brutality and oppressive forces that know no mercy.

"Be kind...for everyone is fighting a hard battle"

my sentiments exactly

"Have you ever felt like a mountain was a goddess? Really felt it? Stood at the lip of a wide valley and looked up at the thousands of feet of rock pressing into the stars and felt deep down in your bones that this was a divine being? And have you ever had to wonder, because of a label a nasty old man in a labcoat once gave you, if you only felt this because you were exhibiting symptoms? If you would even be finding yourself in the middle of the desert at all if you didn't have some disorder that made a desperate need to leave the city walls and quit your job and take off for an unpeopled expanse of dirt seem reasonable? Have you ever wondered if you would probably be in that city working behind walls if you agreed to swallow a bunch of pills? Have you ever wondered why other people aren't making pilgrimages to those mountains and feeling their holiness and understanding that buying stuff has nothing to do with happiness? Have you ever wondered if things would change in this big dying world if more people did that? Have you ever felt a desperate, burning need to share the message, to call it out in song or write it out in words or act it out with your own naked body? Have you ever wondered why this is ok for some people and pathological for others?"
Jacks Ashley

an idea

Break the spell of culture
Analyze the dream, synthesize your self
Rip it to pieces; sew yourself together in the wake of the madness
In the debris of the alley way
Call forth the unconditional love and see what happens

Psychiatry/ Healing Arts/ Spiritual work

"If madness isn’t what biopsychiatry says it is, what is it? If we don’t agree with what biopsychiatry says, then we probably don’t agree with the treatment practices. For us to have some kind of intelligible answer to a first-year psychiatry intern who can tell you: it’s a brain disorder and every minute that it’s not being medicated, there’s irreparable damage being done. The people who fund the research are the big phama companies that psychiatry represents. A psychiatrist now can see 30-40 clients a day. Psychiatry says: this group of Icarus folks can sing Kumbaya all you want, but we own it. I don’t believe that."
(not sure of author)

Comment:

The fast paced nature of the modern American lifestyle leaves little time or space for introspection and self reflection. If a young person is given a diagnosis, he or she has little recourse but to believe in the diagnosis and trust the authority figures that tell him or her that their brains are poorly wired for life. This cannot continue at the rate it has been going without serious inquiry into origins of behavioral disturbances. There are too many factors other than brain chemistry to make simple conclusions. Since the 1990s there is a grave tendency to pathologize the actions of children and young adults who do not seem to conform to the rhythms and expectations of their schools, jobs and homes. They may be wired differently from other students but is this acting out a result of bad brain wiring, a learning disability or emotions that have not been processed, and energy that needs a focused outlet? These are just a few suggestions of what the behavior could stem from. The hyper active child might be "hyper intelligent" both in regard to emotions and other areas of life they are perceiving. The withdrawn, sullen child might be repressing feelings from a time he or she wishes to forget, or repressing a disturbing reality inside resulting from a highly active imagination stimulated by the toxic environment we all currently live in. With children all over the world being exposed to higher levels of toxins in their food year after year, and poisonous cultural messages that create the climate for suicidal feelings, how can we expect complacent, "good" behavior from them?




to be continued...

Food Justice

The way people choose to feed themselves and the way they choose to medicate themselves are issues of grave concern within families, and in our society at large. It is a matter of street drugs versus pharmaceuticals, or organic chicken and beef versus meat that turns up in local supermarkets. We live in a melting pot culture, where we reflect values we have picked up from mainstream media, social media and families. Some of these values are in conflict with each other, they do not work in harmony with each other at all.

to be continued...

definition

"A soul – in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions – is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object.[1] Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects (such as rivers) have souls. The latter belief ihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifs commonly called animism.[2] Soul sometimes functions as a synonym for spirit, mind or self.[3]"

from wikipedia

Occupy the World!!

The occupation movement has begun and it is amazing. All over the world, people are rising up and coming together for the most part in a peaceful way, but with great determination. In the United States, one of the main ideas is to occupy Wall Street, sending a message to the most rich and elite 1% of the population that 99% of the rest of the world will not sit back and allow greed to ruin everything, for everyone. And greed would essentially ruin everything, as it has done in the past. When greed goes unchecked, society falls apart because injustice and unfair distribution of wealth and resources cause deep social unrest. They cause huge suffering, and there is a whole lot of suffering in our world that we could put a stop to. Essentially, we are living in a time characterized by speedy access to plenty of information, thanks to technology and our physical resources on earth, if managed correctly, could be provisions for all people in need. The fears that people have stem from a myth of scarcity, when in reality, we are "saturated with abundance". (Adimu Madyun, Oakland, CA: storyteller)

As my fellow humans occupy and chant and wave signs, there are some of us who cannot make it to the rallies but are in total solidarity with the movement. The people who are not physically present but are there in spirit are also important. We are the 99% who demand that corporate tyranny end, so we can return to ways on our respective lands that are sustainable. We are moving into an era wherein deeply significant choices must be made, and the right choices are necessary if life on earth is going to continue. We are at a crossroads. May we, as a species, now see what must be done, and take action to bring lasting peace into this realm.

Halloween

Greetings Everyone!

Starting with wearing a nice, sincere, organic pumpkin on my head, I have been preparing in practical ways for the exciting holiday coming up...the secular folks call it Halloween, and kids dress up for all the candy they will get.

But some of us consider the Samhain, pronounced "Sah- win" to be the New Year for the Witches. Witchcraft is one of those things that still for some reason, has a bad rap. Lol. I know why that is. People are unclear about what it really is about. I suppose in time, more clarity will help us all out but in the meantime, some discrimination is present when we hear the word, witch. Essentially, there is no devil worship in this practice, because there is no devil present. There is no belief that an external entity is responsible for your bad deeds, and the question of what is morally right or wrong varies from person to person in the craft. One central teaching is, "Harm no body and do as ye will". In the craft we are taught that all that you put out comes back to you threefold, three times, so you need to be very aware what you send out.

solid

we become solid
we become liquid
we refrain from becoming
none of it really matters
since illusory worlds prevail
kali yuga
you mystify me
you entangle me
you strangle me
this strangle hold is formidable
this way you suck me back in
this denial of release this captured essence
and here goes the observation of tidy mistakes
they call casualties
which will be called casual as a formality
but observations of these times
gather in the corners of our eyes
like cobwebs
and the present moment has power to pull us back in
pursuit of happiness drives us
while pharmaceutical agendas deliver us onto the doorstep of
pieced back together
puzzle people
patience is required by universal law
as America grows into what it takes for faith to blossom
we choke on substandard English
and other colonial languages
too tainted to express
indigenous rage because
we all have  indigenous origins
every single one of us
now we smile wide
side step the origins
underneath shining masks of complicity

for if there ever was a time to rise up
it would be now

if there ever was a time to come together
it would be now

if there ever was a time to unify and to solidify
it would be now

Zurich and London, April 2011

After Reiki atunement, I notice all the more when people are gentle in their energetic engagements. Europeans use space differently from Americans; they are somewhat quieter. No culture is superior to any other it seems, organizations of humans are simply at different stages of development but when they are compared to one another it is easy to see the benefits of the one you are less familiar with.

Explanation of Reiki atunement: A raising of subtle energy awareness by a gentle hands on treatment from someone who has received enough atunemnents in order to be called "reiki master". After this title is bestowed upon them, they can turn around and atune other people...in what is considered a connection to the Usui Sensei Japanese lineage.

This is a simple process but the mind can make it very complex. It is potentially controversial. One of my peers noted with disgust how patriarchal the lineage seemed to be. Once again, even though this is not a religion, we encounter a spiritual practice that is handed down from men. Women as contributors to these practices seem to be absent or even more frustrating, not credited with what they have contributed. It takes conscious effort and awareness and ability to release resentment in order to accept yet another spiritual practice attributed to a male lineage with no recognition of female contributions. One begins wondering if the denial of the parts women play in creating these practices is intentional or if it is subconsciously easier for people to accept practices and recital of wisdom from men exclusively.

let us be

let us be completely and utterly consumed in a cup of tea

Ring around her neck

"FDA expands access to plan B, Seventeen year -olds will be able to get contraceptives over the counter, critics say politics influence ruling"

Covert oppression forms a ring around her neck
and she gets mad compliments on her necklace
her purpose here is not simply to take in his seed
into herself she sits on the shelf
painted perfectly and poised until she one day comes to
an awakening
of that unleashed creative potential within
she sits on a shelf yet belongs to herself
giving birth is not where she needs to be at
17 years old but the only power she believes she has access to is between her thighs
and he's already taken that from her so many times it's like
nickels and dimes
which now she puts together for contraceptives
for convenience
she leans into the wind and breathes a breath of rationality
his perspectives are lost on her today
her skin is a drum he hit to hear his own sound
and fuck that contemplation about whether or not he will stay as in
sit still
here take this pill
giving birth is not where she needs to be at
seventeen years old and
covert oppression forms a ring around her neck
and she gets mad compliments on her necklace

business as usual

skyrises and myopia
channel the fear into every drop of media
we eat from plates of despair
ask not what you can do for your country
but what you can turn a blind eye to
and on the world spins
out of circles into chaos
and mother earth
purifies herself
while we tend to meaningless pursuits
and idle chatter
celebrity gossip and sports
except for the few
a growing number
in the know
of the great potential
beyond our system's collapse
but for the majority
silence will never fall
and become space for true reflection
business as usual is costly
the most ignorant path..

short essay on energy work (under construction)

For all people who claim to do "energy work" and the types of "healing" that fall under the shamanic category in the modern world, in the modern sense of that word, inevitably run into the problem of articulating clearly what this actually means to the layperson. What is an energy work session? Who is qualified to do energy work? What does it involve? Are there people with significantly, markedly better energy than others? Are these people somehow better than those with "bad" energy? Who determines these parameters? Can someone have conflicting energies within them and still be a good, solid energy worker? Obviously, I do not have all the answers to this questions but I pose them for a reason. We must, in our communities, I assert, start to ask and answer them for ourselves.

I had a discussion with a friend recently about this topic as it intersects with a few others. We were deconstructing what had happened at and after an event we had attended.

I was somewhat outraged by the fact that integrity seemed, in my view to be lacking.

I feel that any person who puts themselves in a position of facilitating, shifting, changing, working on a plane outside of the mundane in order to affect a person who is in the role of the one who is changed or shifted, there needs to be a certain level of protocol. The main reason I assert this when it comes to any sort of seemingly miraculous change or "spontaneous" healing  is that while the people involved might seem this as harmless, I see some unavoidable problems.

The protocol people may set up in these settings may vary but the component of consent is the first and most consistently needed piece. My question to my friend, who had a good experience at this event, was this: How can you consent to a certain kind of change if you have not had the procedure of magic or whatever it may be called, explained to you? I become incredibly suspicious of people who skip that step.

Personally, I want this act of magic or lack of magic, whatever they say, broken down into regular speech, explained coherently.

genius of compassion

there is a level
you can raise yourself to
above oppression this level is high above fear
self doubt or anguish of any kind
and it eludes us mostly
but were we to achieve this
how much greatness would be accomplished
the thin slice of moon in the sky
blinking approval from that narrow hall of immortality
and were we to squeeze in
we would no longer be dreamers but realized souls
and the genius of compassion would be shared by all
for if no one ever imagines it how would it happen?

1. translate me and 2. rest your heart

translate me

Sudden shudder of release from past mistakes
It was all a mistake only none of it was
Due to a reality of no regret
Present in the stones at the bottom of the river
The stones hold no regret
As water flows over them and beauty is not hard to find
Or to unwind from your thoughts or skin
Translate me
The whole of me
The soul of me
Pressured tightrope thoughts
Release and I forget who I was in order to become who I am becoming
The strength of the mind
Unfolding in waves
A separate rapture upon us
Give that old notion of self away
To the river back to forgiving water as ice melts and earth changes
And as we become
Who we are becoming
Shuddering with release of past betrayals or disappointments
How can we fill this space with new and vibrant energy if not by
searching heavens and earth
For that which was always there
Contradiction and harmony
And sweet relief.

 rest your heart here
                         i feel my heart being pulled in at least two directions,

and yet neither place is where it could rest at this time

my friend spoke to me wearily of wanting to rest his heart with someone

and while i understood that, i also understood a brightness inside myself that endured during misty foggy strange moments and this brightness was new and it was settling into me, the more i felt it consciously the more it manifested itself, and the potential for getting love from him or from the other one i feel pulled to is separate from this brightness, this wellness, this wholeness.

with another person you experience a merging and you may compress your insides to fit them into you, the penetrative act of loving, the reciprocal act of being loved. and then the flow goes a new direction. from loving to loved, from loved to loving until it overflows, or until it dries up. when i focus on it, i can feel the brightness overtaking and sparkling and moving around in way that leaves less room for him to enter and take up space. instead, i witness a new level of this relationship with the great mystery.

some say the only real or important relationship you ever have is the one between yourself and the great mystery. if they say this, they must have their reasons.

not holy until we die

today I realized
white sand gleaming
I realized
red hills glowing
I realized
moon entered new phase
I knew
this would pass
I knew
you would forget
I whispered and screamed and
you forgot
you let it slip your mind
you were so unkind
you whose eyes I worship
you whose body I drenched in affection
I knelt before you in such adoration
I let you feel me in my open raw state
I let you
feel
me
I realized then
that stars are dying
I realized that
people are dying
that we are not important
we are not holy
until we die
I realized that this method to your madness
this madness in the method would lead me astray
I sat
in front of the altar and realized and
knew that
I would never know
never know what to do
and accepting that
became the answer

solidarity with Egyptians during uprising

I must express solidarity with the young Egyptians who are rising up against repressive corrupt government....the changes that are occurring within people on this planet are all in accordance with the Mayan Prophecies and other prophecies that massive change must and will take place in the coming year and more into the future...switching to sustainable ways of living on the planet that is now supporting the lives of so many billions...we must continue the shifts of consciousness and shifts of energy that move us into better places for all of humanity... the dream of the planet is shifting, the changes will take place on massive scale but also on smaller scales as each of us begin to awaken to what our role might be in these troubled and exciting times.

May the uprising happen with as much smoothness as possible may people be protected from harm whenever and where ever possible...may we learn from this event and let it teach us about new ways of self governing...may we become more just and peaceful in the dawning age, in the next phase.

three choices

messages from divine love scattered to the four winds
all this area drained of color
you are resurfacing like a mountain that disappeared behind fog

I gave you three choices
fiction, non fiction or silence
and you chose all three
this will set you free
blessed decision

crumbling like sand castles
making a new fortress of sounds
and someday we will look back
and give thanks for all that we had and remember
the sweetness of life
the bitterness of life
i will savor this

your touch holds its own madness
sad fact brewing but beauty may overtake it
maybe you will open new pathways
to help others walk freely

To Love is not to possess

To love is not to possess,
To own or imprison,
Nor to lose one's self in another.
Love is to join and separate,
To walk alone and together,
To find a laughing freedom
That lonely isolation does not permit.
It is finally to be able
To be who you really are
No longer clinging in childish dependency
Nor living separate lives in silence,
It is to be perfectly one's self
And perfectly joined in permanent commitment
To another--and to one's inner self.
Love only endures when it moves like waves,
Receding and returning gently or passionately,
Or moving lovingly like the tide
In the moon's own predictable harmony,
Because finally, despite childhood scars
Or adulthood’s deepest wounds,
you are openly free to be
Who you really are--and always secretly were,
In the very core of your being
Where true and lasting love can alone abide.”

welcome 2011, what are you about?

mortal existence is nothing
compared to the starlight
cascading from beyond the shade of this shimmering
frenzied moment
shelter me later
catalyze me now
I am ready and
waiting