The Man Of Steel

Okay so the whole “I’ll blog during the de-armoring process” didn’t really work out. Here it is a full two weeks after the end of the two-week ceremony and I have absolutely nothing ready. I’m okay with that however because lots of great things have risen to the surface to share with you and I now once again have the motivation along with the desire to share it. My motivation was the missing component before the De-armoring ceremony but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It seems that all I wanted to do before the event was sleep as much as I could and since I blog in the quiet early morning hours, the two were in conflict and sleep always won. I can be very lazy.


In truth, my motivation was the missing component for doing a lot of things in my life. It felt like so many things in my life required me to push myself so hard to get it done that everything was a chore. That feeling that it was a chore caused me to build up a lot of resistance to doing it and that just made getting anything done even more of a challenge. Without realizing it, I was becoming my own worst enemy to accomplishing anything. I have a to-do list that is always full of things I want to do but desire alone doesn’t accomplish much.



SHAMANIC DE-ARMORING

I remember when I first heard about the Shamanic De-armoring experience at the Association of Sexual Energy Practitioners (ASEP) conference in Mesa, AZ a couple of years ago. http://peacefulmichael.blogspot.com/2009/09/synchronicity.html  The leader of the Sweet Medicine Sundance Society, Thunderstrikes, spoke at the conference about the ceremony. One of the leaders of the De-armoring ceremony, John “Spinning Coyote” also discussed the process and something about their words let me know that I needed this. I wasn’t exactly sure why. It felt right but the timing wasn’t right for me just then. A year later, one of the guys I go to for massage went through it and his experience inspired me and I felt like “YES, I WANT THAT!” But again the timing wasn’t right. Finally this past September a dear friend went through it and I thought “here it is again…3 times this has been presented to me…I better move on it.” The timing was finally right for me and so in I went.

I won’t spend a lot of time going over the armoring/De-armoring process because it’s probably best to read their site for info on that. That is www.ShamanicDearmoring.com. It’s really a beautiful site. It will speak to some who read it and others will write it off because it is too “out there” for them in their life or the timing isn’t quite right. Our Spirits always make the things that we need to do attractive to us. Those things which we do not need will also become unattractive to us. That simple act is how our Spirit works. It’s not about words, voices, thoughts, detailed discussions, visions or anything complex like that. Our Spirits are pure energy and energy doesn’t have words or images. Those things are products of the mind, not the Spirit. Our spiritual energy works like a magnet and attracts and repels what we need and don’t need. It’s far less complicated than our human minds want to make it. It is time that we all wake up to that knowledge.



OUR ARMOR IS OUR DEFENSE SYSTEM

I will share a tiny bit about the shape I was in when I went into the ceremony because it fits within the context of the sharing I’m doing here. I guess you could call me the “Man of Steel” because my armor was layered, shiny, polished steel. It really makes me smile to think of that because after breaking it off, I feel like Superman. The armor that we choose to create as a protective barrier is of course energetic. None of us are walking around with visible armor but we all “know” it’s there especially when we are honest with ourselves about our behaviors and “our stuff”. We choose to begin creating this armor from the moment we enter the world because we have no other defense systems in that helpless, infant state.

This energetic armor helps to shield things that we are not equipped to handle from reaching the core of our being. The skin and muscles also function as shields but they aren’t incredibly effective at the energetic level. We are born helpless and trusting and we don’t possess the verbal skills or knowledge to defend ourselves so we have to rely on our Spirit and energy field to shield us. In response to our surroundings, we begin building defenses to the environment as well as the people in it, even our parents. Despite the love that they had to bring us into this world, they too were wounded and armored beings and began projecting those wounds onto us right away as part of their drama.



ARMOR BLOCKS ENERGY

Now that I have completed the de-armoring process I can feel the difference between having the full suit of armor and having a body which is free of it. If you think about how our energy system works at the most simple level, you can see how this armor affects us. Our life-force, or sexual energy, begins down in the lowest part of our bodies at the base of the spine and wants to move upward through our system and out the crown of our head. As this energy encounters each of the armored plates surrounding our body (see the graphic of that on the De-armoring site for reference http://www.shamanicdearmoring.com/produced.htm), the armor restricts the flow of that energy. Whatever amount makes it past the first plate, hits the second plate and is again restricted. As each plate is encountered more and more energy is blocked and unable to continue upward to the higher spiritual centers of our energy body. Is it any wonder then that we feel so cut off from our true spiritual nature?

During the Dearmoring process, as each plate was cracked open and eventually destroyed, I began feeling more and more sensations in my body. Of course as each plate was opened all of my old “pain tapes” held in that armor were brought back up to be played again. The pain tapes are our memories of all the times we caused ourselves pain either mentally, emotionally, physically or spiritually. Fortunately the things which seemed too traumatic for me to deal with as a small child were either no longer an issue in my life (people, places, events) or as an adult I was able to see them from a more mature point of view and realize that those were the fears of an uneducated child. I was easily able to release those issues without them even needing to be processed. There were issues however which were more current and that needed to be dealt with. The armor we create isn’t just from early childhood. It’s a lifelong process that we continue as long as we are unconsciously moving through our lives in victim mode.



WHY MAKE ARMOR?

Below I’ll share one of the things which surfaced for me as I worked on cracking my pelvic plate because I believe it might help others, especially those reading this blog. The pelvic plate protects our life-force and our sexuality. As children, exploring our bodies is natural and beautiful and we hold no shame around this. Once the adults in our lives begin projecting their own sexual wounds (which have a base in family, religious, cultural and societal taboos imprinted upon them) onto us we begin to feel shame around our sexuality. Add the extra dose of hatred which is projected onto gay children about the expression of their sexual desires and the plates really begin to thicken. If there is sexual abuse, especially during our childhood when we are ill equipped to handle it, the shame and fear we feel about our sexuality not only leaves deep emotional wounds but also causes us to create layer upon layer of protective armor to try and stop the pain.

We are taught to feel shame. Shame for our bodies. Shame for our emotions. Shame for our sexuality. Shame for our desires, our needs, our thoughts and for our deeds. Is it any wonder then that we judge ourselves so harshly and punish ourselves so cruelly? Shame is the result of judgment. One must evaluate the object against some set standard to determine worth or value. This is how we determine if it is right or wrong, good or bad. All of that judgment comes from the summary of what we have been taught, what we have experienced, what we believe and how we see the world. Based upon some ideal criteria (that we choose), we judge ourselves and those judgments rarely seem to go in our favor. If we believe that we are not good enough, that belief will color our entire world and we will never allow ourselves to love ourselves fully enough because we are not worthy.

The truth is that we are all worthy and capable of infinite amounts of love. Only our beliefs separate us from that truth and that doesn’t mean it isn’t true, it simply means we won’t allow ourselves to believe that it true. Change your thoughts, change your beliefs. Change your beliefs, change your life. Change your life, change the world. Be the change that you want to see in the world.



DENYING MYSELF PLEASURE

As a young man I went through the youthful years of rampant sexual desire and moved into a more tempered state. As an adult, my sexual desires are less urgent and consequently my orgasms are less frequent. Somewhere along the line I bought into the belief that one ejaculation a day is all that I can handle “because I’m too old”. Since I do erotic work for a living, I receive a lot of sexual stimulation during a day and have developed techniques to limit that as much as possible in order to prevent an ejaculation while still being fully engaged with my body. Having that “I’m done” feeling during my first session of the day has made it challenging for me to be able to engage others erotically for the rest of the day. As a way to avoid too much sexual stimulation directed at me I have often said to my clients “During your session it’s not about my pleasure, it’s about yours.” That phrase has actually become an anthem for me…unfortunately.

When I began working on the pelvic plate in the De-armoring ceremony, it became painfully clear how much I was denying my own pleasure. In an effort to control and prevent an ejaculation, I have avoided and dodged contact with clients and my partner, devised many techniques and excuses and done lots of schedule juggling. If an ejaculation occurred early in the day, I’ve cancelled appointments, judged myself harshly or felt very stand-offish with clients and promised to work harder to prevent that from happening again. I’ve even experienced extended and repeated episodes of erectile dysfunction because on a subconscious level that was a defense mechanism that my body thought I needed to avoid too much stimulation and pleasure. All of this was done based upon the false belief that I’m too old to have more than one ejaculation a day. I’m totally not and I knew that because I’ve had days where I’ve had 2 or 3 ejaculatory orgasms in a single day and felt fine. Actually those were amazing days when I look back on them…thus the number of orgasms. I felt like a kid again!

Yet it just never clicked until that plate started cracking and I had to look at my stuff. Most people don’t do erotic work for their job so you may be thinking this couldn’t possibly apply to you. I invite you however to look at the ways you deny yourself pleasure in your life. Do you limit the free flowing expression of your sexuality because of dogma placed upon you by religion? Do you hide behind the wounds of past sexual experiences? Do you judge yourself for being a sexual person…especially if you are gay? Do you believe that you can’t be spiritual and sexual at the same time? Are you so disconnected from your body that you don’t even feel sexual desire any longer? Do you choose not to feel sexual because it might lead to engaging another person and that could lead to heartache?



A HOUSE OF CARDS

Perhaps, like me, you’ve created an elaborate scheme of excuses and processes as a way to justify your behavior and it’s all based upon a false assumption which may have seemed true for you at some point in your life but is no longer the case. This happens when we live in the past (“I was wounded sexually in the past so now I’m damaged goods.”) or in the future (“I want to be a better person so I have to give up my sexual expression” or “I’m too old to be loved”.) and not in the present moment. When we really do the work to look deeply at our beliefs as expressed through our words, thoughts and actions, we can see how we limit ourselves in so many ways. As I’ve said time and time again, our beliefs shape our reality. Change your beliefs, change your life.

Changing your beliefs start with opening your mind to the present moment and being willing to look at things as they are now without the coloring from our wounded past. When we change even just a single thought about how we see the world, we open ourselves to newness. Opening ourselves to newness is the gateway to a world of infinite possibility and potential. With the problems we face in our personal worlds, nationally and globally, we have to be willing to let go of our old, limiting ways of being. In letting go, we can own our power and co-create a future unlike anything that we ever seen before on this planet.



JUST GETTING STARTED

So that was how the Shamanic De-armoring ceremony started for me. All this was just from the first three days and then it really got good. I can now say that I highly recommend this experience to everyone. You don’t need to be on a Shamanic path or an erotic worker but you do need to have a desire to release your old wounds. Your past is what created your armor unconsciously. When you begin to live a more conscious life, you will find that you don’t need to lug around all that old baggage and constantly replay those old pain tapes. Once you make the choice to step out of victim mode and choose to co-create with the Universe to make a life that works for you now, the armor just gets in the way. Armor keeps stuff out but it also keeps you locked inside.



How do you limit your power? How do you deny your pleasure?

Oracle usage

In the last posting I quoted a book on the Tarot and so this time I’d like to talk a little bit more about the Tarot and other oracles. When some people think of the Tarot or an oracle, they retreat in fear or label them as bad because of broad generalizations or associations with “dark forces”. I understand these fears. I had them myself initially but fortunately I’ve worked through them and have seen the benefits of oracle usage.


An oracle, in the simplest of definitions, is a communication device. The communication however is between you and your spirit, or non-physical self. As I have talked about in the past, we are spirits (energies) which are enmeshed within physical bodies. For most of us, receiving guidance from our spirit is something that we do on an unconscious level, so unconscious that most people don’t even know they’re doing it. Our spirits guide us through our intuition but we’ve had this guidance socialized out of us because others didn’t understand it and have taught that it was evil and should be feared. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Our spirit or Higher Self is just another aspect of ourselves. It is our direct connection to the Divine and as such I know that my spirit has my best interest at heart because it is me! With that awareness in mind, finding a means for direct communication with that aspect of myself seems essential to me. The more clearly I am able to discern the guidance from my spirit and follow that guidance, the easier it is for me to come into alignment with the Divine. An oracle then becomes the communication bridge between these two aspects of myself.



THE TAROT DECK

The Tarot is a deck of cards similar to the decks that we all use for standard card games. Rather than using spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs however the Tarot uses other symbols to represent the physical (Earth), mental (Air), emotional (Water) and spiritual (Fire) aspects of ourselves. Different decks use different symbols but they all are referencing the same four energetic components of our existence.

A typical Tarot deck has the four suits mentioned above numbered one through ten. It then has four “face cards” with each suit represented as the King, Queen, Prince and Princess (father, mother, son, daughter). These four suits are collectively known as the Minor Arcana. In addition to those there are 21 other cards known as the Major Arcana. These represent the prototypical emotional response patterns that emerge as personality or “energy types” such as a traveler (the Fool), a hero (the Hermit), a creator (the Magician), or ruler (the Emperor) for example. The Major Arcana also represents the archetypal energy patterns that we experience throughout our lives such as completion (Death), love (the Lovers), energy balancing (Karma), or introspection (Hanged Man) for example.

In a typical Tarot reading one begins by posing a question. Most people believe that when they go to someone for a Tarot reading that they are asking the card reader the questions. In fact they are asking their Higher Self the questions and the reader is using the cards to interpret the answer for them. When you do the reading for yourself this becomes more obvious. The cards are shuffled and then dealt out into various spreads. The direction the card faces (up or down), it’s position in the pre-defined spread and it’s relation to the cards around it all factor into what it means for you in response to the question. The spreads can be as simple as a single card or more elaborate ones with 10 or more cards which gives a greater depth of response.

When you begin to see the Tarot, or any oracle for that matter, as what it is rather than fearing it for what it isn’t, it becomes a very useful tool in your life. With the almost non-stop chatter which goes on in our minds, sometimes being able to perceive guidance from our spirit can be near impossible. An oracle then becomes a clear communication vehicle for that connection. An oracle is simply a clearly defined tool for the communication between your conscious mind and your subconscious or super conscious mind. Depending upon how clearly you frame the question, the spread that you use, and your familiarity with the deck and the cards interpretations there is no limit to the guidance you can receive. As with life, the only limits are the ones that you put in place.



INTERPRETATIONS

When I was first introduced to the Tarot I thought that it not something that I was going to get very much from. I had been to readers in the past and thought that the power was with them and not the deck. When you buy Tarot decks, typically they come with a book of interpretations. I was unsure how reading these predefined interpretations was going to get me any sort of unique answer to my potentially unlimited questions. As with most things of a spiritual nature that you buy through mass production, the authors aim towards the most casual user, therefore the interpretation books are usually broad, vague and very generalized. As you learn more about the Tarot however, you realize that the books are just a jumping-off point, the deepest interpretation comes from understanding the cards and relating to the deck.

Most people when they think of going to a card reader, they think of doing it to see if they’ll meet that special person, get a raise at work or answer some general question. I believe that comes from movies and TV and the way psychics are portrayed there. Sure those types of questions can be asked but one has to keep in mind that the future is not set in stone and so asking those sorts of questions can get you responses that may or may not come to pass. Meeting that special person is just one potential outcome that your future may hold but it is all dependent upon the paths you take.

A Tarot reading is a lot like being in your car and going from your home to some location on the other side of town. Based upon your knowledge of the roads, weather conditions, traffic, time of day, and your mood you may choose a very different path than you would have on another day and time. Perhaps that special someone would only interact with you if you had chosen to go down a specific street but traffic congestion caused you to change your mind at the last second and take a back street instead. But then again, perhaps that last minute change is what causes you to meet them. As with all of life, the potential was there but the choices you made affected the ultimate outcome.

I was introduced to the Tarot about 10 years ago by my partner who had been doing readings for himself for many years before we met. Over time I’ve found that daily readings for myself have been very useful personally but I’ve also learned a great deal about the process and about myself along the way. To me, the cards are a great way to see patterns emerging in my life and a way for me to see if my egoic self is aligned with my spirit. Based upon my experience, I’d like to offer some guidance for you if you’d like to begin your own personal journey with an oracle.



DECK SELECTION

The most important part of selecting a card based oracle is the images on the cards themselves. The images themselves are symbols which speak to the deepest layers of our psyche. There is a great deal of truth in the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” especially when it comes to oracles. I use the generic term oracles here because there are also oracle card decks which are not Tarot based and they can be very useful as well. The Tarot is a specific system with a set number of cards just like a set of Rummy cards or a Uno deck.

Tarot decks can be found at most larger book store chains but the best selections are at New Age shops. (If you are in the Seattle area, East West Books in the U-District has a huge selection.) They are also available online but unless you know of a specific deck that you want and can’t find it locally, it’s best to go where you can take the cards out, hold them and look at them. Take some time looking around at various shops before you make a decision. Try and find the widest range of cards before simply purchasing the lowest priced ones that you can find.

You want to choose a deck that you will enjoy working with for years and so selecting one with images which appeal to you will be very important. Once you start working with a deck, you’ll want to stay with it as long as you can because you’ll begin to imbue the deck with your energy through usage and that will deepen your experience. The images in Tarot decks are psycho-active. This means that the simple act of studying the symbols on a particular card activates your sub-conscious mind in such a way that allows explanations or interpretations to surface to the conscious level. This is where spending time looking through the deck before you purchase it will be beneficial. The deck that you should work with will hold great visual appeal for you for reasons that you may not even understand. Your intuition will guide you in that process. Our spirits have a way of making what we need be very attractive and what we do not need be very unappealing.



INTERPRETATION GUIDE BOOKS

While most decks that you purchase will also come with an interpretation book, if it’s possible to only buy just the deck, go with that option because I would like to recommend that you purchase the book I referenced in the last post. “Tarot of the Spirit” by Pamela Eakins is a fantastic book to use. She provides some of the most directly spiritual interpretations of any book that I’ve seen as well as information on various spreads you can use and the history of the Tarot. It’s an amazing book and after 10 years of use, I’m still blown away by it. Even if your deck comes with a book, I’d still recommend also purchasing and using her book. You will be very glad that you did.

The book however should only be seen as a starting point when beginning to work with the Tarot. I’d like to give you a technique that I’ve developed in conjunction with my spirit guides to help you personalize the interpretations for yourself. When you initially begin working with the Tarot, essentially you are establishing the language that you and your Higher Self will use to communicate. Typically our Spirits give us direct guidance through our intuition. Our culture doesn’t emphasize this aspect of ourselves nor help us learn to develop it and so we don’t really learn to work with this innate ability. At various points in our lives however we realize that we are getting these “hunches” or “gut instincts” and desire to begin relying on these more and more but we don’t know how.


STAY TUNED

In the next posting I’ll share a process for personalizing your readings. In the meantime, I encourage you to begin searching for a deck which appeals to you. Many decks now have websites where you can see every card in the deck or see enough cards that you can decide whether you like the look of the deck or not. Trust that you’ll know it when you see it…even if you don’t know why. Enjoy the process.

See it another way - Part 1

Let’s take another look at some of what we think we know about the Bible and see if we can find some new, deeper truths there. As I share this, I invite you notice when resistance arises. I’m not asking you to change your belief system but for now just keep an open mind and rather than shutting down when you disagree with what I say just allow yourself to consider the possibility that perhaps there is more to the story than meets the eye.

This is going to have to be a multi-part installment because it is rather long. One thing I’d like to point out before I continue is that I am not looking to disprove or dismiss any religion or its teachings. Rather I want to encourage you to expand your view of them, drop your limiting beliefs and see deeper truths contained within the ancient teachings. The truth is there in all the religions but we have to sort out the message from the messengers and from manipulation. We are all human and religion is a product of mankind. The sacred texts from the religions are also a product of mankind and are therefore subject to human interpretation, misunderstanding and manipulation (consciously or unconsciously).

Since Christianity is the religion that I, and I believe most Americans, are most familiar with, it is the one that I will primarily focus on. I will also try to show you parallels in other dominate world religions but for sake of clarity I will try to hold my focus on Christianity. The principles behind what I hope to reveal will apply to any religion and its teachings. Truth is one, paths are many. In our ascent to Universal Truth we see that each religion is simply another path which presents us with a slightly different view on our journey. All paths are equal but each is unique.

I’m going to include a few links to sites for additional background information on the topics I’m touching on. These links are for your reference and should be considered an easy entry point for gaining deeper insights. I find Wikipedia to be full of useful info with many links to more detailed information so that is the main site I reference. I hope you’ll do your own web surfing to lead you to the information you need. To try and get all of the information into this blog would really be too much and detract from the main narrative, so please follow these links as far as you feel led to.



THE CHRISTIAN STORY

To begin, let’s take a look at the big picture story presented by the Bible in relation to Jesus. We are told that Mary was visited by an angel and told that she would become pregnant from the Holy Spirit and that she would be birthing a Savior for the world. As time for the birth arrived, Mary and Joseph were traveling and could only find shelter in a manger. Meanwhile, wise men from far away were traveling to where Mary was so that they could worship this newborn king. They were navigating to where Jesus was born by following a star.

The Bible then tells a bit about the childhood of Jesus up through his early teens. He then seems to be absent for roughly 18 years and then reappears as Jesus Christ. This is where the stories of his miracles and the main body of his teachings begin. We’re told stories of how Jesus rebelled against the political establishment and challenged the reigning religious beliefs with radical new teachings. We’re also introduced to his group of 12 disciples and told of his interactions with Mary Magdelain. In the current version of the Bible, Mary is basically written off as a trouble making whore and nothing more.

All of this ultimately leads to Jesus being betrayed by one of his followers, Judas, and being taken into custody by the local rulers, tried and sentenced to death for his rebellious actions. He is then taken along with other common criminals and nailed to a cross and crucified. After his death, he is put in a tomb and three days later, as Jesus had predicted, he arose from the dead and ascended into Heaven. Jesus said that his death would cause everyone’s sins to be forgiven and that he would watch over us and be back when the time came to bring an end to the world.

In the Christian religious belief system, they teach that the Bible is the inspired word of God. They are taught that the stories are literal and given to us directly by the hand of God. The believers are supposed to take all this on faith and follow the teachings in the Bible to the letter. By trusting in Jesus to cleanse them of their sins when they ask for forgiveness, they are all set to gain entry into Heaven at the time of the human death. Those who do not believe are instead sent to Hell to suffer for an eternity in an eternal pit of fire.



HARD TO SWALLOW

To the casual observer, that all seems like quite the story. When compared to the present day reality and laws of Nature, it becomes a bit hard to swallow. As the Dali Lama says “when you examine reality and it doesn’t line up with your beliefs, then it’s time to change your beliefs.” The reality that we know tells us that virgins don’t have babies and that dead people don’t come back to life after being dead for three days. This says that stories that we’re being given aren’t describing physical reality because the Laws of Nature have not changed in the 2000 years since the time of Jesus. If this is the case then what are these stories about?

To begin to appreciate these stories for what they truly are, which is metaphorical teachings, you have to look at the history of the Bible and Jesus and see them both for what they are. The Bible is a collection of stories written by humans for humans. These stories were selected by those in power, translated and edited by humans and passed on to the next generation. The Bible was created by taking the Jewish Bible, the Old Testament, and adding the new stories about Jesus, the New Testament. It was used to define the budding Christian religion and hold its teachings. Historically, it was modified and used by those in political power to maintain power and control over the people.

Let’s take a closer look at the story of Jesus and put it into historical perspective and align it with the reality which we believe to exist based upon physics, scientific fact and experience. It is important to not only understand the stories but to view them in the context of the time in which they were written. 2000 years ago, Paganism was the dominate religious philosophy of the time in the area where Jesus grew up. In this belief system, Mother Earth is worshipped as the Creator of life. This belief led to the worship of the feminine and by extension females as the embodiment of the Divine. It was also believed that the Earth was flat, that we were the center of the creation and that all things revolved around us.



PUT IT IN PERSPECTIVE

Our knowledge has come a long way since that time and we can use that knowledge to allow us to see the humanity of these writings. Our study of history and the history of the Bible, in addition to the content and context of the Bible, begins to transform what seems to be a supernatural story into something that we can more directly relate to. One of the cornerstones of the Christian faith is the story of the “virgin birth in a manger”. 2000 years the word virgin meant something entirely different than it does now. Then it meant “an un-wed woman” and had no relevance to sexuality. A “manger” was a regular home which had a place on the lower floor for the families’ livestock. The warmth of the animals helped to keep the house warm during the night.

If we take this knowledge and apply it to the Jesus story then things begin to come back into alignment with the physical reality that we know today. This means that Mary would have had to have sex to become pregnant and that could explain how protective Joseph was and it would seem to indicate that Joseph was the father of Jesus. Two humans having sex and producing a human child returns the humanity to Jesus and keeps the story in alignment with physical law. The humanity within Jesus is what makes the rest of his story then come alive in a new and more profound way. The greatest teachers the world has known have achieved their greatness by the quality of the life they live and by their actions not by the stories they tell.

So how did “wise men” follow a star to find and worship Jesus? Let’s use science to help us re-examine this part of the story. We now know that the stars we see at night are two things. Some of the bright points of light are actually other planets in our solar system reflecting the light from our star, the Sun. The other stars are actually just like our Sun, a giant ball of various gases which radiate heat, light and the nutrients essential for the creation and preservation of life as we know it. They are not simply tiny points of light which light up at night like a giant string of twinkle lights. If a star tried to come close enough to our planet to guide travelers, our planet would be disintegrated from the heat of that star. If you see it as “they used a star to navigate by”, then how would they know when or where to stop? Stars, when used for navigation on the sea, help sailors find their way back to land not to a specific place in the middle of the land.



THE STORY OF THE STORIES

It’s important to remember that all the stories from the Bible are filled with metaphors and symbolism. Metaphors are powerful writing tools which help to unlock different meanings in the mind of the reader based upon their knowledge level. They can tell a mundane story on the surface to the casual reader but hold deeper truths for the adept especially when combined with symbolism. During the time of Jesus anyone who disagreed with those in power, including for their religious beliefs, could be put to death. This is where symbols come in. Rather than use specific names in the story, and risk death, often animals were used instead and then when the story was passed on, the translation keys were shared from teacher to student. This is why Jesus is often referred to in the Bible as the Lion or the Lamb.

It’s also important to keep in mind that even the first of the stories involving Jesus were written 40 to 50 years after his death and the rest came much later. Most of the stories were written by people who weren’t even alive during that time because the stories were passed on orally until someone chose to write them down. Just like with Genesis, there was not a scribe running around following God and documenting his story from creation to up through the political workings of ancient Egypt. The stories were written by those wanting to bring forth the teachings to preserve them for future generations from a story-tellers perspective and not as an eye witness account.

The stories that we find contained in today’s Bible were written independently and later gathered together to create the Bible hundreds of years after the original writing of the individual stories. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_canon) The sands of time have presented us with additional insights into these stories as well. In 1946 a cave was found near the West Bank which contained ancient scrolls. These scrolls were original copies of some of the books used in the Bible as well as many that did not make it into the Bible during the canonization process. Researchers have learned a great deal about the story of Jesus from these documents. They were able to see how the current stories have been altered over the years as well as gain additional insights into the political, social and religious history of the people. These documents have become known as "The Dead Sea Scrolls" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls

Every religion has its own version of the story of creation but they are just that, stories.  http://peacefulmichael.blogspot.com/2009/04/whisper-game.html They are the attempt by the author(s) to explain how we got here and not an eye witness report of the events. Yes, the stories do contain factual components too but it is important to understand their origin and the climate in which they were created. It’s also important to remember that the original story may have been written in one language and translated and retranslated into others. Mistranslations were common as were intentional changes in the story to suit the needs of those using the stories to create the Bible. Changes have been made to the stories through the years as well to suit the political, social or religious needs of those in power. Again taking a historical perspective, these changes were easy to make because there were very few copies of the original manuscripts. The printing press had not been created yet and so only those in power had copies of the texts.

One of the most important things to keep in mind when reading these ancient texts is that the same rules of physics and nature were in force then as now. When you read these stories if there is something that isn’t physically possible now, it wasn’t possible then. Yet just because a story isn’t 100% factual, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t useful. We can’t get caught up in the meaning of any single word or quibble over statements or events but rather see the teachings contained in the stories and learn from them. Story telling is meant to grab and hold the reader’s attention. This allows the teachings to be passed along by creating imagery that unfolds in the mind of the reader in a way that it will be remembered more easily.

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That’s it for part 1. Part 2 will be up shortly so please stay tuned. In the meantime I invite you to look at stories which have shaped your life, your family, or the world and ask yourself this “even if it’s just a story and not based on fact, what can I learn from it anyway?”

The Conscious Competence Cycle

If you’ve been following this blog, you should be aware by now that I believe that as a species we are evolving. With all of the environmental issues that we are seeing, wars, greed, disease, famine, natural and man-made disasters, it’s enough to make anyone want to throw their hands up in despair. When we can step back and take an honest look at what is going on with our beautiful planet, we can see a planet and her inhabitants in crisis mode. We are nearing a breaking point in a planetary cycle. This planetary crisis is (as I discussed in http://peacefulmichael.blogspot.com/2009/10/guiding-principals-part-2.html) the impetus behind the evolutionary impulse that is awakening across the planet. At its core, it is nature telling us “Evolve or Die”.

Fortunately we are waking up, listening and responding as a species. It’s happening slowly but little by little we are approaching “critical mass”. As more and more of us awaken to the deeper truths, as a species we begin to see and feel the deeper potential. Eventually enough of us will stabilize this new consciousness and hold it until it becomes strong enough that we all feel it. That point where enough of us believe something to be true that it allows all of us to believe its truth is the point of critical mass.


THE COMPETENCE CYCLE

As we awaken to our deeper and fuller potential as a species, we are like infants that are beginning to walk. The movements are new, challenging and scary but still we are drawn to the change at a very unconscious level because it is encoded in our DNA. As we awaken to this evolutionary impulse we experience the world of energy as something mystical and magical. We begin our journey with “unconscious incompetence”. At this stage we don’t know what we are capable of and we don’t know how to use the dormant abilities that we are slowly discovering that we have. As a result we misuse, fear, and deny these abilities. Yet still we sense that something is shifting.


Slowly as we grow as individuals we may not know the full depth of our capabilities but we begin to change our behaviors because we first learn what doesn’t work through our problems, failures and setbacks. Each time that we do something that brings us a result that we don’t like or want, we learn to change our behavior to avoid that consequence. It’s like the toddler that learns to avoid touching the radiator because it burns. It takes a few times of getting burned to make the connection or see the pattern but eventually we learn. At this stage we begin to move into “conscious incompetence” because while we may not know everything just yet, we have learned to survive and grow.

Eventually we reach a point where we have gathered enough experiential data that we can begin putting the pieces together and realizing that we are indeed capable of something more than meets the eye. This stage is like the child learning that if he moves a box near the counter, stands on the box and pulls on the drawer handle to use to climb onto the counter top, he can access the candy jar. At this stage we reach “conscious competence”. We know we can do something greater than we did before to gain more desirable outcomes, like the sweet candy, but we don’t fully comprehend the consequences of these more complex actions. Too much candy leads to a tummy ache in the short-term and weight issues long-term which open us up to a whole host of health issues.

Finally after gaining a body of experience and the knowledge to understand cause and effect along with consequences, we move into “unconscious competence”. This is the adult stage where we are able to see what our actions do and so we learn to moderate and modify our behaviors to get what we need with the fewest possible negative impacts in the short and long-term. There may still be consequences for our actions that we aren’t aware of yet but we’re much further along than when we were the infants and unsure and unaware of what was happening in our world. At this stage we begin to become so competent in our actions that we don’t really have to think about it any longer, we just do it automatically.

This is the growth cycle and because it is a cycle, it repeats itself. This cycle however is more like an upward spiral. Each time we reach the “unconscious competence” phase we are wiser and more powerful as we move into the new terrain and return to the “unconscious incompetence” phase but at a more challenging level. This is an endless cycle because the more we grow and evolve in any area we learn that the more we know, the more we know that we don’t know and so the process begins again. This cycle applies to every process we engage.



TIME TO WAKE UP

This is how it is with humans and the world of energy. Some of us are just waking up to our abilities in this realm. Some are already masters and are leading the way for others to follow. Others unfortunately are too afraid of the change and so they deny this world and even ridicule or attack those who have made the shift. Still life evolves and moves on and so those unwilling to change and grow will be left behind because they are trapped by their own resistance.

For those of us who are inspired by those leading the way, until we gain competence in this new world, we have to invest the time to learn. We are physical beings. We can see, feel, hear, taste and smell and this allows us to gather data from our physical environment. We have emotional (“energy in motion”) responses to this stimulus. We are capable of thought so we are able to gain knowledge from our experiences. However we are also spiritual beings but it’s important to remember that this spiritual aspect of ourselves is non-physical and therefore operates in energy realm. We are force (non-physical energy) contained within form (our physical body). We are both at once and must learn to work with this equation rather than continuing to deny its existence.

IT TAKES PRACTICE

The rules in the non-physical world are different than in the physical world and require different tools to navigate. To assist you in this realm I want to begin to offer you some tools and techniques which have been shown to me to help you begin to sense your way around in this world. I hope that you’ve been working with, practicing and hopefully incorporating “The Basics”  (http://peacefulmichael.blogspot.com/2010/04/awakening-grounding.html) into your daily life. If not, I encourage you to begin doing that. As we move deeper with the information I have for you, you’ll begin engaging energy consciously and if these basics aren’t in place you’ll have no framework or structure to hold the experiences in the physical realm. If that is the case then the words will seem empty, the principles will seem foreign and your growth will be minimal at best.

Are you ready to make the journey from “unconscious incompetence” toward “unconscious competence”?

Me, myself and I AM

It has been said that we have three different views of “self”. We have the self that we project out into the world, the self that we think we are and the self that we really are.

FIRST VIEW – “ME”

The first view is the one that we project out into the world. This self is constructed and comprised of the things we share and don’t share with others. The things we share, and thus the view others are given, changes depending upon who we are talking to and what image we are trying to project. For instance to some people I am a body-worker, to some I am an erotic educator, to others I am a whore, a friend, acquaintance, confidant, student, lover, trouble maker, son, strange relative or just another face on the street. While I am each of those things, I am also all of those things but I am also so much more.

This view of me is dependent upon my relationship with the viewer and can change in an instant when more is shared. In essence there are as many views of me as there are people who view me because every person holds a different perspective of me based upon how much they know about me and what personal filters they are viewing me through. If you hold the belief about me that I am “just another whore” then you will most likely not be able to see me as anything beyond that because of your own judgments being projected upon me.


SECOND VIEW – “MYSELF”

The second view is the self the way we think we are. Today I may see myself as a silly, fun-loving guy with a really cool job. Tomorrow I might see myself as a loud-mouthed buffoon who is constantly putting his foot in his mouth. The next day I might see myself as a compassionate friend who does his best to help everyone that he can. Then in following days I could be a victim of my circumstances, the bravest man alive, a rebel, a leader or a wounded child. This view changes constantly and is usually based upon the situation I am in or who I am with. My own filters, which I’ve created from my past experiences, color the way I see myself in relation to others.

This view is problematic as well because it is based upon my own false judgments of myself. For example if I think that sex is bad (which I don’t) and I engage in sex then I’m likely to not be able to see all the good things that are possible through sexual expression. If I grew up being told that I’m stupid, lazy, not good enough or a “sinner” and I have adopted these beliefs simply because someone else called me these things then I will most likely judge my every action and only see my faults. This will of course validate these false beliefs that I hold and reinforce them. This negative view of self will of course be reflected in the image that I project out to others because of my own insecurities.


THIRD VIEW – “I”

The final view is the self that I really am. This self is the one that manifested the body that I currently reside in. It is the part of me that animates and enlivens this body. When I complete the lessons and tasks that I manifested to work on, it is the part of me that will leave the body and continue exist outside of the physical realm. It is eternal and ever evolving. I am either in the physical realm or I am not. Unlike the other temporary views of self, it is my deepest, truest self and not dependent upon or affected by any judgments. It is the one small slice of the infinite field of the eternal Divine which is “me”. In sacred texts it is called the “I AM” consciousness. I am one with the Divine and in that oneness I AM the Divine.

Most people believe that they are the body and that all of the judgments they hold upon themselves are what keep them from “Heaven”. As such they hold themselves in a perpetual powerless state because as long as they believe that another has power over them and sits in judgment of them, they will always be a victim. They will live their lives according to the rules and judgments given to them by an external source rather than following the guidance of the inner Divine. For them they will never be able to even conceive of themselves as anything but unworthy let alone the Divine being that they truly are.


EGO OR ESSENCE

The first two views are temporary in nature and represent only a tiny slice of the powerful beings that we all really are. These two views of self belong to the ego. The ego is connected to the temporary physical body. All of those things connected to the physical body fade away at death because of the temporal nature of the body and the personality associated with it. The third view is that of our Essential Self. It is eternal and our direct reflection of the Divine, our True Self, Higher Self, or Soul. It is part of all that is, was and ever shall be. It is the part of us which reincarnates in the physical realm to learn the lessons we manifested to learn or in some cases to help illuminate a path to the inner Divine for others to follow.

We expend so much of our time and valuable energy working on the self that we project out into the world because for most people that is as far as their awareness will penetrate into the true nature of their existence. Each time we create one of these false personalities that we present to others we have to use our energy to maintain it. When we are around those who we don’t allow to see us as we truly are out of fear of rejection, we have to remember what they do and do not know and how much more we are willing to let them know. We believe that others can’t love and accept us if they know our truth so we create a view of ourselves that we believe they can accept. This speaks directly to our inability to love and accept ourselves without judgment. It also says a great deal about our judgment of others and our belief that they can’t handle our truth.

Our internal view of self is not much different. When we judge ourselves and limit the expression of our Divine nature, we compartmentalize ourselves often as a way to cope or delude ourselves into believing that we are the body and the false personality we have created for it. These inner views of self have a direct bearing on the projected views. If we believe we are weak, evil, a victim, a sinner or even a Saint, we will create external personalities in alignment with those beliefs. Remember our beliefs create our realities. When others reflect back their view of us to us, we tend to allow ourselves to believe that we are these fractured personalities rather than a direct manifestation of the Divine.

The third and definitive self is the only true view of self. The more we hold our focus there the more that view informs our view of our self and then that view is projected out to others. This is a paradigm shift for most people because they internalize the world view of themselves rather than expressing their inner true nature. This true nature which exists within every single individual, animal and plant is the Divine expressing itself in so many forms in physical reality. This is true no matter what our perception of others is, even those we think of as “wrong” or “evil” because those judgments belong to the egoic self and are seen through our own judgmental filters.


AWAKEN TO YOUR OWN TRUTH

This inner expression of the Divine is the truth that I want to help you to awaken to and that is happening as you read these words. It is the way, the truth and the Light. It is not manifest in any single individual any more than any other but it is expressed more fully depending upon the evolution of the individual soul. The more deeply we connect with and express this Essential Self, the easier life becomes because we are able to allow our energy to radiate our truth rather than expend energy maintaining false personalities. It requires no adherence to religious dogma, new age belief system or advanced study. It is simply a matter of looking within to the deepest layers of our existence and expressing the truth found therein.

Will you put your awareness on the temporary or on the eternal I AM?

Karma

From the very earliest stages of our lives we are taught that we are being judged. The older we get, the longer our list of judges seems to become. Our first judges come in the form of our parents. As we gain motor skills our parents have to begin keeping a closer eye on us. To keep us safe during this phase of exploration parents alert us to danger through verbal cues like “NO!” or a smack on the hand. We subconsciously learn during this stage that our actions are being watched. When we move into the verbal communication phase, a shift occurs. As we develop language skills our parents tell us they are watching us and begin teaching us what they believe to be “right” and “wrong”.

There is a very subtle shift between these two phases. The former is about safety and protection while the latter is about judgment and control. Our parents begin to imprint their belief systems on to us at this stage just as their parents did to them. We are taught what our parents, our gender, our family, our society, our country, our culture, our race and religious organizations believe to be acceptable behavior. Each of these comes with their own set of judgments upon our actions and plenty of people willing to judge us, consciously and unconsciously, for those actions.



UNSEEN JUDGES

In early childhood most of us are introduced to our next judge, Santa. We are taught that beyond the visible watchful eyes of our parents there is a magical being who watches us from the North Pole. He knows what we’re doing and knows when we’ve been “good” or “bad”. When Christmas arrives we are given “rewards” if we were good or “switches” if we were bad. The difference depends upon Santa’s judgments of our actions throughout the year. It doesn’t matter that he’s not real, what matters is that we are taught to believe that he is real and that he is watching us every moment.

As we grow into childhood we learn about our next supreme judge, God. We are taught that yet another mythical, magical being is able to remotely observe our actions and behaviors and pass judgment upon us. Interestingly enough, if we behave according to the rules of all the layered entities I mentioned above we are on God’s good side. When we step out of line however we are taught that punishment is on its way in the form of bad things that begin happening in our lives. By this same school of thought, if enough of us are seriously misbehaving then we will receive larger punishments such as accidents, disease and any form of natural disaster. Above all this we are led to believe that this incredibly judgmental super human who is keeping tabs on our every single thought and behavior and will administer the ultimate coup de grâce after we die in the form of an eternity in “Heaven” or “Hell”.



JUDGE NOT LEST YE BE JUDGED

With all the judgments being placed upon us at every level from our parents on up the line to God, it should come as no surprise then that we become deeply judgmental of ourselves and project that judgmental attitude out onto others. These judgments then become the filters with which we view the world. We no longer see just the action but rather we judge and label everything as “right” or “wrong”. As long as we hold these self-judgments upon ourselves we can never truly feel the full measure of unconditional love that the Divine has for us. It is not possible to sit in judgment and feel love at the same time.

Ultimately we end up with a world full of people unable to fully love and accept themselves because of their own judgments. If you can’t feel unconditional love yourself, how will you give unconditional love to the world? You cannot give what you do not have. Projecting our judgments out into the world and on to others does not mean “I am right and you are wrong” but rather it says “I have a need to judge”. It is not possible to sit in judgment and feel love at the same time.



KARMA IS ENERGY IN MOTION

The above is actually an example of karma in action. Most people hear the word karma and believe it is the product of a judgment. If I do something good I get “good karma” and if I do something bad I get “bad karma”. Karma is frequently misunderstood and equated to the Hindu version of the Christian view of God’s system of reward and punishment for each of us based upon the summation and judgment of our Earthly sojourn.

In truth the term karma originates in Hindu philosophy but it has nothing to do with judgment. Karma is the term for the process of balancing of energy. It is more closely related to Newtons third law of motion which states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Karma is simply the balancing of energy which has been set in motion. In conjunction with the laws of physics, energy naturally seeks to balance itself unconditionally.

When we come to understand the non-judgmental workings of karma we begin to see that whatever is happening TO US now is the consequence of our past actions. In the example above we see that when we teach others to judge themselves and others, ultimately these judgments will come back on us and we will feel judged and rebel against it and proclaim it wrong to judge.



CLAIM YOUR POWER

To move into a space of healing when we feel judged we have to own the original cause within ourselves and not blame the other person for judging us. “I feel judged…therefore I must be judging others” is the enlightened approach to balancing our karma. By owning our actions and reactions, which we have full control over, we can learn to stop judging others and ourselves and thereby free ourselves from our own judgment. Our own judgments are really the ONLY ones which have a direct impact on us. Any judgments that I might hold against you, are my judgments and only affect me.

Each of our actions sets energy in motion. Once we acknowledge this for ourselves and are willing to own the consequences of our actions, we learn that by controlling our actions we can begin to create positive outcomes for ourselves. As long as we deny our power to create our own destiny we will remain nothing more than powerless victims in our own self-constructed karmic prisons. This shifts us away from the notion that we must please an angry judgmental God in an effort to win favor with him and it puts the onus directly on each of us. It’s not about being judged at all but rather acknowledging the basic physics of energy. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You get back what you send out.

When we are able to remove the judgmental aspect from the essence of karma, we begin to see how we are moving into alignment with the deepest teachings of every major world religion. Judgment belongs to the realm of the egoic human consciousness and is not a quality associated with true Divinity. Therefore judgments pull us out of alignment with the Divine. Karma is not judgmental or selective but it is exacting because it simply is our own energy balancing itself. It is the process by which your consciousness, or what the Yogis call your Atman, is stabilizing itself in the physical realm.



LAYERS OF KARMA

Karma occurs on many levels. Individually we create our own karmic consequences. When we belong to larger groups (and we all do) we also begin to generate collective karma. The actions that we take as clubs, teams and organizations have a noticeable impact on our lives. The actions that we take as a society, culture, race, religion or nation have a much larger impact on our world. Most importantly the actions that we take as a species have a direct result on our planet and ultimately our existence as a species.

Individually I may believe that my actions have very little impact on what we do as a nation but that doesn’t mean that I get out of the karmic consequences of our nations actions. I may disagree completely with our nation going to war with another country but energetically I will have to accept the impact this action has on our planet and on me. In owning this I will be more motivated to seek more peaceful solutions to each of the challenges I am presented with. When love and peace are what I want to receive, I know that loving and peaceful actions are part of the steps I must take to achieve it. I know that I will never receive love by propagating hate even if I am doing it in the name of God.



NO HIDING FROM YOURSELF

It is important to note that while karma is always just and exacting, it is not always evident. For example let’s say that I become angry at something you say to me and I chose to punch you. Odds are that you will then become angry with me and punch me back. That’s instant karma where I can see the immediate consequences of my actions. The smaller the disturbance in energy, the faster the response and the smaller the resulting return impact is.

If I generally tend to be an angry person, people will tend to not want to associate with me because of my attitude. Eventually I will realize that I have no close friends and certainly can’t hold down a loving relationship and so I am all alone. In the depths of my anger I will of course blame it on the fact that “everyone else” is cold and mean because they won’t be my friend. Everyone’s coldness will of course make me angry. With deeper, personal introspection I might finally see that I am the source of my own misery. Accepting that allows me to chose to be friendly rather than angry and in return receive a friendlier welcome from others. Remember, emotions too are just energy in motion. (http://peacefulmichael.blogspot.com/2009/06/energy-of-emotions.html)



WE’RE ALL IN IT TOGETHER

When we move up to the karma that we create as a nation for example, the consequences of our actions are often greater but more difficult to associate with the initial action. If we do not have knowledge of our history then it is very easy to place the blame for the unfolding of major karmic events on others. For example, we could look at the events of September 11th, 2000 as “we were unjustly attacked by those opposed to our freedom and our liberties.” This would seem to indicate a belief on our part that we had nothing to do with these “unprovoked attacks”. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If we take the time to examine our history, including the secretive and manipulative actions of our government, we see that the events of 9/11 were just another punch in an ongoing conflict with those that we have deemed to be “unlike us”. Our nation and in particular our government are not the keepers of “truth, liberty and justice” for the entire planet the way we like to believe that they are. Our fear-based actions of the past motivated us to destabilize foreign governments, overthrow elected heads of state and generate atrocities of massive proportion all in the pursuit of “freedom”. When viewed from a still larger perspective it was just one more event in an unending battle that has been raging since before recorded history when one person (group or entity) tried to assert power over another. At this scale we can see that we are in essence paying the karmic consequences for the actions and reactions of our ancient ancestors.



TEMPORARY BODY/ETERNAL SOUL

At the most subtle level however there is individual lifetime karma. This is part of our individual soul’s karmic destiny. For every action that I generate personally, energetically the results of that action will come back to the source of that action. Imagine that you toss a pebble into a small pool of water. The ripples from the impact of the pebble with the water will radiate out, hit the edge of the pool and reverberate back to the center of the pool. No other pool of water is disturbed by this action.

Now imagine that the above pool was the size of the Pacific Ocean and the pebble grew in direct proportion to the increase in size of the pool. When this pebble is dropped into that ocean, it will take much more time for the waves to reach the shore and make their way back to the site of the impact. They would eventually make it back but it might take so long to happen that I would probably lose the association between the waves at that site and the original impact of the pebble.

This is the case with lifetime karma. Lifetime karma is the result of cumulative actions which I generate which are so constant that I may not experience the consequences of those actions in a single lifetime. To understand the inner-workings of karma at this level, we have to explore the concept of reincarnation. That topic however is far too broad to discuss as part of this posting so I’ll save that for a future posting on that specific topic.



OWN IT

Once you understand that you alone are in complete control of your karmic destiny, you empower yourself to generate desirable results for yourself. In that empowerment you step out of victim mentality and into self actualization. No one can create our actions for us and no one can save us from the consequences of those actions. It has nothing to do with judgment, fairness, reward or punishment but rather it is simple, basic physics in action in the world of energy in which we exist. We are beings of energy at every single level of our existence.

When you begin to understand the workings of karma and move in accordance with it, your life will transform. Despite religious myth to the contrary, no one can be born for me, live for me, suffer for me or die for me. These are all actions which I alone must experience. When I awaken to the fact that my own actions create my own destiny, I can moderate my actions to receive more desirable outcomes. I do not need to judge and blame others, nor depend upon them to save me. Reclaiming that power is just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine the positive outcomes that you can achieve for yourself by simply moving from victim mentality to a fully empowered co-creator with the Universe, the Divine, God, Great Spirit.

So what pebbles will you toss into the ocean of existence?

Synchronicity

The past couple of weeks have been very intense for me and have had me very busy. There were two main events which I participated in and both were incredibly powerful. The first one was a Native American planetary-healing ceremony called “The Living Waters Dance”. The shamanic drumming community which I am a part of enacted this ceremony in my work studio over Labor Day weekend. This ceremony was one which we last performed four years ago. At that time I had just left my job as a chiropractic assistant and was trying to figure out what I wanted to do next with my life. This ceremony was held at a friend’s property, deep in some remote woods just outside of Seattle. A friend of mine, Alex Jade, who does Sacred Intimate work was there. As we were setting up the grounds for the ceremony, she and I had a chance to talk and I asked her to tell me a bit about her work. The more we talked about it the more interested I became and more aware I was that perhaps this was work that I could do.

As we enacted the ceremony, it became clear that I was to receive a Spiritual initiation as part of the ceremony. In essence this act was an invitation from Spirit to begin to move deeper into my spirituality on the Shamanic path. I accepted the initiation knowing that whatever this led to was part of a higher calling in life and definitely the direction that I wanted my life to move. That ceremony was four years over the Labor Day weekend while Hurricane Katrina was closing in on Louisiana.

Most shamanic ceremonies or rituals run in four year cycles. The event may last only a few days but the energy of the ceremony works for four years afterwards. This particular ceremony came just as I was beginning the first year of another ceremony I was a part of, my Vision Quest. A Vision Quest is a Shamanic rite of passage or initiation ceremony. Being part of two initiatory ceremonies certainly wasn’t something that I consciously set out to do but it also wasn’t something that I really had control over either. When I left my computer programming career in 1999 I did so with the intention of following a deeper spiritual path. To me, these two ceremonies were simply Spirit responding to me and opening that path before me.

Within two months of the completion of the Living Waters ceremony is when I “accidentally” began my new career as I described in my April 4th post “No More Secrets”. The rest is now Sacred Intimate history for me. The wonderful thing is that this time we were having the ceremony in a space which was only in my life because I surrendered into the call from Spirit. Had I not gone with the flow of energy, built a practice, met the people that I did and moved into the studio when I did, we might not have been able to have the ceremony again due to a lack of a ceremonial site. It was truly synchronicity in action. It was a very powerful event for me and our community.

We finished that on Sunday and then on Tuesday I left for Mesa, Arizona for my first professional conference (the second of my two events). The conference was for ASEP, the Association for Sexual Energy Professionals. This year’s theme was “Sexuality and Shamanism”. It could not have been more appropriate for me at that time and was clearly a part of the synchronicity that was flowing for me. It was so liberating to be a part of a group of professionals who worked in a variety of professions or Spiritual paths connected to sexuality. We had everything from therapists who dealt with sexual issues in traditional talk therapy to energy workers and sex workers and everything in between. We considered ourselves “outlaws” because our work does a tightrope dance with the law, unfortunately.

During the main event of the conference on Saturday night, we participated in a couple of Shamanic trance journeys. This is something I’m very familiar with because of experiences with my Shamanic drumming community. As part of the first trance journey I was taken to what I believe to be some everglades and essentially eaten by a Jaguar. When we returned from that I found out that it was what was known as a “Shamanic dismemberment.” It sounds like a bad thing but it is actually a very good thing because I was clearly not killed physically but rather a part of my ego was destroyed.

Our ego is that human part of us that holds our sense of separation from Spirit and ultimately all that is. It is that part of us that seeks attention for its uniqueness and leads us to feel cut off from life through its own actions. For many it can be the hidden source of depression because it leads one to feel so alone and isolated because “no one can understand me”. Most spiritual traditions speak of it as the part of us which much die so that we can be reborn. Most misunderstand that and believe it means a physical death and the fear of death is a powerful motivator for all of us so we run from anything associated with it.

Even in just the short time that I’ve been back, I’m seeing and feeling changes in my life, my work and myself. Native American tradition teaches that Jaguar is the medicine of Integrity. At some level I have always felt insecure about myself, my abilities, my knowledge, my body, my appearance. This belief that I am not good enough has held me back in so many areas of my life and I feel that part if not all of that belief was removed because my sense of self-confidence is rising and I can feel it shifting my work already and have seen that this week.

I share all of this with you for two reasons at the moment. First, my commitment to you via this blog was to share what is happening in my life with the hope that you will see a connection to your life and hopefully that can help you in some way. Both of these events were significant events in my life and will ultimately shape me in ways that I can only imagine at this point.
The second reason that I share it is because these two events individually would be significant occurrences but because they landed so close to each other they appear to be more synchronistic. The deeper level of that is that they both occurred in my life only because of the first Living Waters ceremony and that one casual chat with Alex. Synchronicity is when there seems to be a relation between otherwise unrelated events. These events tell us that we are on the right path and that the energy is flowing. At an energetic level they occur when we are “in the flow” with life. If “coincidents” are our spirits trying to get us to notice something then synchronistic events are our spirits saying “this way!”

When we are in harmony with life, things flow smoothly for us to propel us forward easily. When we are in disharmony, life seems challenging, things repeatedly go wrong, fights and wars break out and life seems to be one big struggle. I invite you to examine your life carefully and notice the places where it flows smoothly and the areas where you meet constant resistance. Our spirits will always guide us in the direction of our highest good and our greatest evolutionary growth for it is in their best interest and therefore ours. That path will be open and inviting and flow smoothly.

Will you follow the path that flows before you or will you resist and swim upstream? The choice is yours in every moment.