Samhain 2016 #waterislife #nativelivesmatter #blacklivesmatter

they say the veils are thin
they say ancestors are closer
they are peeking in

reach out to the past
find it swirled away like smoke circles do not last

reach out to the future to find
it has yet to be designed

seep into the cotton surrounding of the present
you called yourself here
to be alive to witness

humans remembering to be in awe of the buffalo
in awe of those bison
in awe of the eagle
in awe of each other
creating space and then more space
for those joining the fights
with peace and reverence in our minds
enduring the violent ignorance
of state sanctioned violence
militarized opposition to
the protection of Water

we tell the stories
we are the tricksters, the magicians
we are the stories
we eat and drink and breathe the stories
we are sustained by transformation
we always were
we always will be

Interesting perspective on Life and Death and Afterlife- Enjoy!

(I did not write this but I found it online and if you want to know the author you could look it up pretty easily)


1. Life on earth isn’t a punishment for your past transgressions.  You aren’t acting out some type of I-did-something-wrong-to-you-in-another-life-and-I’m-paying-for-it-now kind of thing. It doesn’t really work like that. That concept of an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth karmic equalizing of the score isn’t the real deal.
2. You chose your life circumstances before you were born for soul-type reasons that are almost impossible to understand while you’re on earth. If you understood these reasons, life would lose some of its punch, and that losing of punch is a little bit of what enlightenment is all about.
3. Everything changes. When you die, you realize how much. You also realize there are immortal things, things you take with you, and they change too. The Eastern concept of Maya, or illusion, what does that really mean? It means temporary.
4. Life is great, even the hard parts. And we all do things that we call mistakes. But so-called mistakes are ok. They’re just part of the earth deal.
5. You’re meant to engage in all kinds of things on earth, things that may not make sense from a human point of view. So, take a moment before you judge yourself or your fellow man too harshly. Being completely non-judgmental while you’re alive is very advanced, though. You’d have to be a Buddha to be that advanced.
6. There isn’t only one right way for things to turn out. Some endings are happier, some not so happy, but it’s not just the happiness percentage that matters. It’s the music of it.
7. Society teaches limitation. No matter what you’ve been taught, everything you ever need is already inside you. And who you really are is far beyond your comprehension. That’s why living squeezed into the human experience can be painful at times.
8. At the center of everything is an energy, an immaterial material called LOVE. Wow, and how good it feels, this LOVE. You can’t imagine it. You really can’t. There is no way for you to experience the full power of LOVE while you’re on this plane. .
9. Death isn’t as serious as you think it is. It’s actually very enjoyable. Couldn’t be better really. And saying goodbye to the people you love isn’t as serious as it seems either, because you will meet again.

Medicine and the Call To Action

I will start by saying, I do not know exactly what a soul is.

Next, I will tell you, I believe in soul loss and in soul retrieval. I know that I have assisted folks in getting parts of their soul back in their bodies after a long list of what it was that could have caused soul loss for them in the first place, leaving them, in many cases not knowing exactly what is missing or why.

Most people experience some sort of soul loss, in the course of her or his life. Some common reasons for this could be: connection to a person or people who absorb/take the chi or life force energy from someone who is either not aware what to do or that it is happening. One need not believe in energy to be affected by it. Similarly, one does not have to believe in Liver Cancer to die from it. Or, one need not believe in the cleansing properties of water or white sage smoke, to be cleansed by both.

Another cause of soul loss could be a pattern developed over time by someone who means well but continuously gives so much of themselves that there is not enough left for them. This could happen when someone is in love, they leave their body part way to send love and energy to the object of their affection but they are not careful to replenish and restore themselves after working with their energy in this way, a way they could not even explain much of the time. This sort of issue and related issues are dramatically common.

I have heard the word "soul" in many different contexts. People refer to the soul when they want to reference deep emotions, spiritual type contracts with other humans. They apply it to types of songs, a whole genre of music is called "soul". We even hear terms like "soul food". It seems that the word soul has been used to apply to so very many things that it has become hard for someone like me, seeking clarity, accuracy, authenticity and truth to give a definition of the word, one that can be used and agreed upon in more than one or two social circles.

We have heard about the belief that there is a God who wants to save our souls.

Our souls have been likened to energy, light, eternal spirits, our conscience, our deepest selves, our truest selves. There are quite a lot of ways people define this word. And yet, most of the time it gets tossed around as though we all know exactly what it means.

Clearly, we do not. We do not all subscribe to the Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Islam, Judaism) and we do not all describe or define that which we are told is the soul in the same way.

What about the atheist or agnostic perspective? What about folks who believe in Gods and Goddesses, or just one Great Goddess? If I pray and I take gender out of the picture, by saying Great Spirit or Great Mystery or just simply "Spirit", does that take away the legitimacy of my definitions of that which has mostly been attributed to the type of God that is signed up to save this soul entity, and give us redemption, one and all?

These perspectives are considered to be in the minority but all over the world, they count for more than Americans realize. So, an Atheist, Agnostic, Pagan or others can take the word soul and bend it to fit what they experience as "soul". They can render it into a poem, the poem creates symbols, the symbols create new meanings.

Since meanings of words are often manipulated to fit certain agendas, it is only logical and natural that folks whose views are considered marginalized will find ways to bend the meanings of religious spiritual and even medical terms. These words are the terms we work with from the time we can start comprehending them.

So, why not create and spread the meanings of words on our own terms? By this I mean that spiritually and intellectually marginalized parts of the population find it necessary to redefine and reclaim terms that have been appropriated by more socially acceptable and generally more mainstream groups.

Another term we more commonly hear now, but in a new way, is "medicine". It still of course refers to what we think of, a course of antibiotics, pain killers like Tylenol and Motrin. However, in many cases, folks say these are not medicines, they are ways of masking the pain, curing nothing, healing nothing. The criticism of these Western medicine options gets massive backlash. I understand that. I am in awe of what many forms of Western Medicine and Western treatments can do for people who have a wide range of illnesses, chronic conditions and pain.

Yet there are authors such as Masuru Emoto, who discusses all sickness and wellness on the spectrum, as a form of hado. Hado is hard to translate but essentially points to the vibrational or subtle bodies of a person, animal, even a type of music or song. He is famous for, among other things, taking pictures of water crystals and with the naked eye, one can see how the crystal was affected by what was sung or spoken to it.

He created example after example, showing us that water has an energy and vibration that is receptive to and takes on the energy of what is projected toward it or what happens around it, keeping in mind that our bodies are immersed in vibrations with their own "hado" or subtle vibration with its own information and meanings. He even suggests music as possible treatments, and many people now incorporate music into many types of sessions.

If humanity truly evolves, we will be able to sidestep the battles, with each other and with ourselves and integrate that which works together and in harmony within numerous treatment plans, and in so doing, we will manifest an East and West compilation of offerings to those who are unwell, for an endless number of reasons.

The rejections of ideas and scornful disbelief going back and forth between Eastern practitioners and their advocates, and Western Practioners and their staunch advocates, are exactly what is keeping us from developing comprehensive packages for people who suffer from preventable, reversible suffering and disease.

Now, we can take a look at Folk medicine, or Ancient medicines in modern contexts and Holistic practices in Indigenous spaces. These include possible kinds of shamanism and many other ways that are lost to the more modern and urban communities. The "medicine" coming from these folks, and even the word "medicine" the way it is used by marginalized groups, is tightly bound in the context of culture and often tribe that it originates from.

With a conscious extraction of a term from its cultural and spiritual origins there is often pain and controversy. If anyone now says " medicine" and applies it broadly, claiming that an energy or a piece of art, or a type of love falls into this category may not know who they are borrowing from.

Controversy is good for us, but not if it is constant. If it pours light on a subject, a problem and effective discussions follow it, we are doing well. If controversy becomes overwhelming between two folks or even between groups of people, it has lost its most critical function. That function is to stir up feelings so that collectively we match up thoughts, ideas and emotions until there is a great exhale and letting go of what originally caused the battle.

When we move away from the discomfort of controversy, we should be taking away new emotional and spiritual contracts from the situation, a deeper understanding of why the negative feelings came up and what could be done on both sides to create solutions that work as well as can be at that time.

Allowing wounds to fester, with no real dialogue for solutions, allowing pain and resentment to build, without any functional and grounded forums to help people along their way toward what truly feels like justice, #reservationpoverty #blacklivesmatter #waterislife, rifts between individuals and groups just grow wider and the canyons between grow deeper.

I do not know what a soul exactly is.

However, my soul, however defined or left undefined, urges me to a Call to Action.. Complacency is stagnation. Stagnation creates disease. Movements, both physical and political, have the power to save our lives and improve our communities.

This Call to Action is sent out every time my whole being feels weighed down by the violence, injustice and the insanity of trying  the same thing over and over expecting different outcomes.

There is no election year, no attempt at an uncorrupted democracy that can come anywhere near the urgency of the Call to Action that I hear from deep within. If this resonates with you, take action, any action: small, medium, large. Start right where you are, and keep going.

In Solidarity with # Water is Life and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe- original piece

Water was how I loved you
I dreamed the water fall that would
Cloak your openness
Rivers and lakes
that cleanse you free again...
Oceans that knew how to distract
Away from the parts of your surface
that shivered in vulnerability
I asked you gently to know me
And to know me in that way
That water smoothed you over
Until you shine bright with renewed
Identity
I loved you with water
so you were broken in
by rivulets of change
that never caused unnecessary fear
It was water you would happily hear
From clouds it fell and
All became clear

Love, Light and the Shadow: Section 2

Section 2.

A good place to start is by exploring the idea and practice of excavation, as it pertains to the shadow.
When we are called to dig deeper into our experiences and emotions, and into our experiences of our emotions, that means we are called to shadow work.

This world provides endless kinds of distractions from our inner worlds and inner process. Our world provides countless ways to get out of shadow work and as a friend recently pointed out to me, "Shadow work is not for the faint hearted." This is true, so why do it? Why not go the easy route? Why not sail through your life and barely touch down on the ground, and only touch down when you have to for practical reasons? If you want to barely touch down, then you are nowhere near ready to excavate. I explain a little bit in Section 1 about what may motivate some to explore the shadow.

Our consciousness is more like a river than a dense, solid place. Emotions, thought patterns, beliefs, all pass through the river. However, there are places where parts of our psyche may get stuck. This time of being stuck brings stagnation. Stagnation causes disease. It is for this reason, among many others, that it is useful to excavate what makes up that which, due to vibration and content, could cause stagnation, lack of wellness, lack of balance. Many teachers and others have taught us and reminded us to Know Ourselves. This self knowledge, if it is to be useful, if it is to be complete, must include the excavation of what we know are the uglier, more frightening, distasteful parts of us, which compose our shadow.

The next level for lots of us who wish to do this kind of self work, is acceptance. It does us no good to deny shadowy places and hidden pieces we are carrying. Ideally, upon seeing what we need to see, through dreams possibly, or by keeping a journal, or talking to someone you deeply trust, or through an art form, these are all ways to begin to integrate that which has had some power over you, shadow that has had power in the form of shame or denial and so on. The process of integrating what you know is no longer necessary to fear or hold onto is one that says, until the components of the shadow have been identified by you, you cannot fully integrate them.

This integration has the power to neutralize the effects of the shadow. Anyone, whose intentions are purified, who knows why they want to undergo a process like this, will likely have some success. What does it look like when the process is complete? It is different for everyone. For some, it may look about the same from the outside, but feel dramatically different inside. For others, they may change outwardly, they may change how they walk in the world, how they relate to others. Each person has a unique chance to excavate, integrate and accept the shadow they walk with.

Of course, there could be many layers to this experience and for some it may last a very long time. One might feel they are done with it, but more work appears. Also, one may have done excellent work with the shadow for a certain time in their existence here but they may find more challenges surfacing when it seemed it had been completed.

Each part of this is a gift, though it may not feel like it at all and it is good to honor yourself and your journey with shadow integration as much as you can. Give yourself sincere praise and reward yourself in ways that make sense to you, for doing this. I say that because if you are sincere in this work, and you keep meeting and agreeing to face the struggles on this path, you are doing a great service to the rest of us.


"the alchemy of this conversation
brings me to a brilliant celebration
the alchemy of your sweet words
leaves me high, oh, high as the birds
don't want to come down
don't want to climb down
I will be waiting for you up here
As you release all that fear
the alchemy of a collective manifestation
causes me to question the nation
where we going, where we been?
we need to start again
take me to the place where we can
start again
so sick of where we going
so sick of where we been"

-Imaya

Is love and light really all we need to say and think about? Why keep invoking the shadow? --Section 1.

Section 1.


I am so glad you asked. Ok, technically, I asked but you get what I mean.

Let us think of it this way. If all we ever feel the need to say to people is love and light, we are denying, instead of integrating the parts of ourselves, our minds and hearts that we have hidden. We hide so much in the shadow for many, many reasons. The shadow, individually may be composed of painful memories and trauma, it may be lies and layers of deception, it maybe be truth that feels too scary to put out there. It may be the part of you that has been or wants to be violent. It might be the part of you that delights in harming other living beings. These pieces of our psyche are just as real and alive in our consciousness as are the messages of love and light.

The energy of love and the energy of light, cannot by themselves, cancel out your shadow. In my humble opinion, you cannot get around your shadow and hide from it, and deny it, by creating a persona either within your self or one that is more well known, that only exists in love and light. You would be transparent, and at some point, you will be seen through.

Your actions and motives would be more easy to detect due to the fact that your denial of shadow leaves you unfamiliar with what makes up your shadow. Now, this can be a dire situation for a person who counts on people to have a certain glowing, shiny, pretty perception of them. If you need an example of this, think about most celebrities or most politicians. It is in the best interest of many of these folks that they create veils and smoke screens to encourage the public to harbor illusions of how harmless and wonderful they are, when in reality their intentions, actions, habits, and so on might be highly questionable and in many cases, very harmful and rather dangerous.

For a person who has worked to identify the main components of their shadow, they are essentially more protected. They are protected because spirit has assisted them, with their permission and woven a tapestry of non-physical vibrations and energy woven together that permeates the physical layers and systems through acceptance and excavation.

It would be good to talk more about acceptance and excavation, because both of these are involved in one method I can describe, which will lead to creating a strong tapestry of self awareness and likely provide protection in what can be a terribly hostile world.

First, acceptance of what makes up your shadow is part of a process, it often begins the process of what many feel is the rug being pulled out from under them or the roof falling in on them. It is uncomfortable at first, when you begin to accept and acknowledge parts of your self, some may call them your "demons", some may talk about this sort of process as a "Saturn return", in astrological terms. There are many ways to talk about it.

Until you have begun the process yourself, this will all sound strange and foreign. If you have begun to unearth what you came to earth with, or what you have gathered into shadow while here, you will not be bothered at all by what I am telling you. In fact, you will welcome it as a viewpoint intended to help you unchain and unburden yourself.

It is good to approach your shadow, and the collective shadow, which I will address later, with love. How can that be? Did I just contradict myself? No. I will explain why.

Acceptance that all of your psyche is not love, this disturbs your ego and takes compassion like energy and love like energy to really be successful with this integration. Admitting and accepting to yourself at the least, that you are capable of ugliness, and how much ugliness varies from person to person, will lead to an ability to transform and release what you see no longer serves you. If you are willing and able to forge through these challenges, you will be richly rewarded by unlocking a deeply embedded part of yourself, that in modern times we often leave undefined but what would long ago be called, the Alchemist.

Alchemy, if you look up common definitions, deals with material substances and transformation. This inner alchemy that I am pointing to as a way of integrating the shadow, has in many places and for a long time, been lost or distorted. Change can be unlocked by any living being who really seeks it, if they purified and distilled what they want, that change will come a bit more easily. This refinement of the mixing and excavating what and who you are is what they alchemist seeks to improve. The resistance to dramatic change, dramatic shifts and improvements for the highest good of the planet is often fear based.

The fear based resistance is what creates the old paradigm, the one that is inherently toxic and poisonous. What an alchemical change would bring to the collective and with it, the collective shadow, is great big breaths of fresh air. These big breaths of fresh air will likely come in the form
of new stories. New stories can encompass the nuances of being multi-dimensional and humans are inherently multi dimensional, and able to move through the

You are meeting yourself more deeply when you admit this. It will allow you to meet others more deeply, which inherently leads to more truth sharing and healing, than if we are to skim surfaces of our multidimensional beings by claiming just the pretty stuff, just the yummy stuff, just the good stuff, just the.....love and light.

Next, we look at the excavation. This is a part of the process that follows some acceptance, but for some the excavation is what begins the process. There is no final word on how this kind of blessing and challenge comes about. When we excavate our minds and hearts, for the purpose of integrating shadow, developing a layered, complicated and rich tapestry, we do so in many different ways.



Section 2 coming soon............

begging- revisited 2016

1.

messages lost amid rubble
sorting through the past
her memory is clouded
silence sneaks in to fill her thoughts

unspent emotion like mud at the bottom of the lake
what must she do, what will it take
to grow again
what must she do
to land
from a journey
so unescapably high
any mother would cry

she wants to bless you with words
sound vowel meaning
flowing from source

give me your hand
I will trace the lines
and know

give me your gaze
I will look deep
and see clearly

give me your time
I will make you rich with love

2.

and the crowds are
pollution as movement

colors assaulting the light begging to be seen known felt

the story has no boundaries no coordinates for the map
no time space continuum agreement for the logic

constantly unfolding

the lotus revelation

thank you thank you

thank all of you