Aina and the Mana
Last year I met up with Dreaming Bear, and we went for a journey out to the Applegate River area in Southern Oregon for an afternoon spent by the river. There he told me about the word 'Aina'. He explained to me that 'Aina' is the Hawaiian word for the Land, and for the spirit of the Land and Nature. It was so lovely to finally have a word for something that I've always felt, but never had a name for in our American linguistics. I love the word Aina, as it gives a name for the energy of the land, and by giving it a name - it is as though consciousness is breathed into it. I spent that afternoon by the river, meditating upon boulders, bathing in the cold, clear waters and contemplating the nature of Aina; the great web of life interconnecting reality in what we know as ecosystems, small and large.
What Is Shakti?
The first time I ever heard the word Shakti used, it was in relation to sex and sexual energy. That was almost 7 years ago, when I'd just moved to the West Coast; still a newbie and naive to West Coast understandings & lingo. So, what is Shakti? First, I would like to speak from my experience and then from classical Indian definitions and descriptions. I know when I am shaktified - as the feeling of being Shaktified is a decidedly different state than that of regular, daily life - the life of the mundane; being filled with Shakti is the most prized, most special state to be in. When I am filled with Shakti - for me it is a spiritual, ecstatic energy that moves through my whole body - a spiritual, mystical power that liberates me and allows me to become an embodiment of the Divine Feminine and the frequency of the Goddess. This most often happens in relationship to music; chanting, drumming, rhythms, dancing.
Balancing Fire Energy
I have 6 planets in fire signs; four of them in Leo. My sun sign is Leo, and my moon is in Aries - which means I have a strong stubborn streak. I have long attracted a number of Fire sign people in my life, especially powerhouse Shakti-Mama women. We're a challenging bunch of people. I am in love with every fire sign kindred spirit that I have in my life, but there is something about the Fire Sign personality that is so intense and can be so challenging for people to be in relationship with. Sometimes I scorn the Aries energy in me, but it's not going away; you have to love and accept yourself and come to a state of self-knowledge in order to be at peace with oneself and life.
On Sabbatical / Spring Update
Ordinarily, I wouldn't post something this informal on my blog on Embodied Being, as I prefer to keep my blog posts here limited to more formal philosophical / spiritual essays. But, I felt called to post this status update, because occasionally I get emails from people from different places asking me to be available for this or that, and to inquire about therapeutic sessions. So, I am sending this update to let people, mostly people who aren't friends on Facebook, know what's up with me. I'm on the Big Island of Hawaii. I've been here since the second week of March, and I think I will be here until the end of April, maybe even into May. More and more, I am settling in here and feeling at home here on the Big Island. I am beginning to feel as though I'd rather just stay here for a while and really go deep into a prolonged retreat.
Being Embodied
To understand embodiment, it is helpful to look at its opposite; being unembodied. It is easy to fall into an un-embodied state; it's easy to lose oneself and to not be aware that oneself has become un-embodied, and not notice until the signs are screaming at you in every direction - especially in this culture. In fact, our culture supports and encourages its citizens to be un-embodied. Thus, becoming Embodied is a revolutionary act of freedom, in this culture of enslavement to socially dysfunctional norms.
Tidepool Transformations
Upon entering the hushed room, she began sobbing. She began wailing and emotionally releasing so much anger, sadness, disgust, devastation and empathy. Her heart wept, and everyone nearby came up to hold her through her grieving. For the next hour, she was held by an entire room of friends and allies, as she processed her grief through tears, weeping into a bowl filled with crystals. Her allies came and held her body, laid their body next to hers, simply to hold her through the intense release of energy. Today was a day like any other, but for her it was a day of transformation. A day of grieving and working through her deep subconscious emotional body, to process and clear her emotional energy body, to allow for a greater level of clarity to open... And then it hit me. The realization that in the realms of human psychic dynamics, our emotional & psychic energy bodies are affected much like a tidepool ecosystem. And, my subconscious was attuned to the unseen emotional energy washing through the space and responding intuitively to the flow of psychic energy being released simultaneously as her waves were crashing.
Thoughts on Haitian Earthquake
As I sift through the rubble and shattered lives through the images & videos & news on the internet, my heart feels extremely heavy, and sad. I sit here, in New York City, in the capital of the American financial industry, in one of the crucial centers of wealth and global imperialism, looking through the internet at the wreckage of the earthquake, in one of the many historically impoverished nations in this world. And I wonder, why are the the places that are the most in need, the places where the people have so much to lose because they had so little to begin with, the places where the poverty is so high, why are these places continually targeted by natural disasters? The last several major disasters that come to my mind were all regions where many numbers of impoverished people lived.... Haiti, New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina, the SE Asian Tsunami, the Hurricane in Guatemala............ (letting out a deep, sad sigh....)
Receiving Resonance Medicine
Listen to the sounds surrounding you now. Open your ears. What do you hear? In every moment, we are saturated in a vibrational field of sounds, resonating within the cellular chamber of our body. Our body receives every sound and energy pulsing through it, from the dump truck picking up trash first thing in the morning, to the sound of a bus beeping as it backs up, to the sound of a hummingbird hovering just above us out of reach, to the undulating pulsings of a deep throat singing tone. Every sound registers in our body, and if we are present enough to the sensations in our body as we sit in a Modern Urban environment, we can learn how to become vibrationally aware to the degree that our bodies are being constantly thwarted in its attempt to reside in a peaceful state of homeostasis. Our bodies have the capacity to experience deep states of blissfulness, relaxation and pleasure. And likewise, our bodies have the tremendous capacity to be overwhelmed by stress, tension, pain and irritation.
Ecstatic Medicine Reflections
This summer I have been facilitating Ecstatic Medicine Vocal Circles as a workshop coordinator at several festivals: Emrg'n'See, Mystic Garden Party, Beloved Festival with the next and final workshop festival facilitating occuring at Symbiosis. This has been an amazing experience for myself as a facilitator, and I feel that I have been learning a lot about how to be a facilitator and guide through these experiences, and have been receiving nothing but amazing feedback and love from my work. For this, I am so grateful - and I am looking forward to returning to next year's festivals to facilitate more workshops, hopefully to build my practice to include more Qi Gong, and to have an album to be able to offer to all those who have expressed interest.
Dakini Wisdom
There is a question; what is a Dakini? I invite the wisdom of the Dakinis to answer, and allow the fluid rhythm pulse of the ocean of goddess to move through like a gentle waterfall. Do you hear the gentle whisperings of the Dakini in nature? It is where the wisdom and love of the sacred feminine resides. Within the nooks and crannies, hidden in caverns, opening out into the sunlight; it is where the ocean meets the rain, and the above falls and merges with the below. In the imagination and remembering of all that is beauty, bubbling up from the wellsprings of pachamama's embrace with heaven. That is where you will find the language of Dakini uncovered.Dakinis are primordial divine feminine essences, catapulting the consciousness of our newly arisen feminine spirits to enter into their power and usher in the era of grace. Dakinis are the birdsongs whispering through the hair tresses of every woman, inviting a union with their full potential and joyful embrace of all that is true. To be one within and to be one without. To be be within the one and surrendered to the languageless echoes of soft sound, where the feminine speaks in poetics and channels the fire of celestial song.
Smoothie Recipe
I have had so many people send me inquiries about the smoothie recipe that I mentioned in Transforming Repression of the Divine Feminine, I feel that I may as well just make that smoothie recipe public, so that people can access that information without me having to of send out detailed emails to people..So, when I wrote that essay, two years ago, I was fond of a very particular smoothie recipe. And my smoothie recipe has morphed over the last two years, so I will share both - the old recipe and my current basic favorite, just to show that there's been a bit of a difference. Basically in my current recipe, I try to keep the amount of sugar in the milk super low - if not unsweetened, I no longer use Acai as religiously, and I ALWAYS have leafy greens in the smoothie. My current smoothie is a tad more bland and almost bitter, depending on the greens that I use. I'm trying to not have a superfoods milkshake every day now.But - there are SO MANY PEOPLE with SO MANY SMOOTHIE RECIPES... So don't just rely on someone else's recipe. Experiment. Find out what your body feels intuitively magnetized towards. My main suggestions are: low sugar, hemp seeds, leafy greens, superfoods! YUM! Here's to a highly nutritious, healthy, effortlessly digestible breakfast that you can take on the road and make in minutes. (Who eats cereal anymore? And why?)
Boundless Gratitude
I have now successfully facilitated three Ecstatic Medicine Vocal Circles! The third gathering was last night, and it filled my heart and soul full of so much gratitude and joy! A massive, undestroyable smile was etched across my face by the end of the gathering, and the gratitude from the participants was also so sweet and loving. I have so much to be grateful for, and so much gratitude within me! And in transformational times such as these, I feel it is so crucial to spill out the gratitude, because there truly is a love and peace centered earth in existence NOW and available to all! And for this we should all be grateful! And also, in my experience, I personally feel the living, breathing, tangible presence of the unified field of spiritual wholeness supporting my reality every single day, and without this 'Health Support System' from the spiritual or angelic realm, I would be falling on my face. I live because of this interwoven support system, and am completely indebted to it.
Observing the Mind of Dissatisfaction
The most incredible meditations come through when I'm releasing with the enema. I squat on top of the toilet and release both waste and emotions. And the magic, I've learned, comes in through a deep state of relaxation - both in the mind and in the sphincter muscles. As I relax deeply, the colon releases more and more completely, and I go deeper and deeper into a profound state of meditation. It has become one of my favorite spiritual practices, because it facilitates opening up and surrendering and releasing the mind & thoughts & hurts & pains & frustrations. And I always seem to emerge lighter and brighter than I felt in the hours before. In one of my recent bathing + enema rituals, I had a major realization about the source of my pain. The realization came to me like a voice of pure light clarity as I was relaxing into a deep release of my colon. I had been asking "Why?" and the answer came as my voice speaking back to me: 'I don't like this,' 'This food is not good,' 'This place feels weird,' 'I don't want this,' 'I don't like these clothes' and on and on.
Full Body Presence
Yesterday, I discovered an essay by Suzanne Scurlock Durana, entitled 'A Guide to Full-Body-Presence' in the recent issue of Massage Magazine. What perfect timing. I've been feeling low energy, depleted, verging on depressed and unable to show up and be present, these last few days. I'd awoken this morning with that feeling of being slammed over the head by a frying pan; headachey and irritated at feeling so crummy. My roommate, Keala, reminded me to revitalize my Chi this morning, by doing breathwork, and exercising, and getting some fresh air. I didn't know how I would be able to truly come and meet the day today, so I prayed fervently, and then spent a half hour doing some basic chi cultivation movements, breathwork, and strengthening of my arms and core with weights. And then all of a sudden, I felt vitality slowly seep in.In her article, Suzanne talks about the importance of Full Body Presence to other bodywork practitioners, and the need for "a strong flow of healthy energy moving through" the body. I think this is crucial for every human being, not only for massage therapists and other alternative healer practitioners. She goes on to say:
"While left-brained intelligence that helps us understand anatomy and physiology is vital in our practices, we are all called now to more whole-body knowing. We must learn to remain present in all of our cells, trusting and living from the wisdom of our being. So don’t throw out your left-brain education; just add your gut knowing, your heart’s whisper of inspiration, and round that out with the inner vision of who you truly are."
Multiple Reality Disorder
These days, we seem to each be experiencing our own unique realities, wholly unique to ourselves. In modern America, there are many universally agreed upon experiences in the consensual reality, such as monetary systems, coffee cups, tables, chairs, cars and facebook. Yet it seems we are all beginning to fragment into highly specialized, unique to ourselves reality perspectives that have been created & enforced by our experiences, habits, education, belief systems and intuitions. Sometimes we find similar people - kindred "tribe" who speak our language and seem to embody a familiar reality frequency, and with them, we feel at home, comfortable, & safe. With others, we may distrust or judge, because they seem to embody a wholly different slice of the reality pie. How do we create peace on earth - a harmonious, working, functioning, thriving, mutually supportive ecosystem of interlocking web of relationships that are not based upon oppression or taking advantage of others? In a world where we are all increasingly emerging from a narrow bandwidth of the reality pie, how do we each embody and make our slice of the reality pie accessible to others?
Songs are the Key to Heaven
I am guided by dreams. My life's trajectory has been directly influenced by dreams and visions. Once, several years ago at a party in Portland, I had this very profound psychedelic experience, which had been awaken only through chanting and dancing. I found myself outside next to the curb, feeling this strong sense that in order to be allowed into Heaven, you must learn how to sing a heavenly song. Your heart must feel it so deeply that your heart pours forth, becoming the key, through the frequency of feeling from the soul of the song. That was the sense I received in that moment. This sense echoed through to years later, when I woke up from a dream I had in Cusco Peru, the morning of my first visit to Saqsaywaman and my encounter with a random young Quechuan gentleman who toured me around Saqsaywaman, making Coca Leaf offerings and doing meditations at various sites. That morning, I had awoken from the most profound Lucid dream, which gave to me a clear vision of my life's work and what my purpose on earth is. I share with you the journalled story fresh from that moment, in June of 2007.
Towards 2012
Reality Sandwich has recently published a new book, called Towards 2012: Perspectives on the Next Age. The book is filled with amazing essays by talented visionaries and writers from the Reality Sandwich website, and I have been fortunate to be published in this book alongside many notable people like Alberto Villodo, Stanislav Grof, Daniel Pinchbeck, Erik Davis, John Major Jenkins, DJ Spooky and many more.Much Gratitude to the Reality Sandwich team for compiling this amazing book! There are so many wonderful essays and writings in this book from an enormously diverse array of perspective on visionary subjects.You can buy the book on Amazon.com!
Ideological Compassion
How can we as a humanity come together and create a harmonious society if we are so fragmented by our belief systems and by our judgments of each other? We could never create a common vision when we are so splintered by the way we are attached to our belief systems about material objects such as fur or cars or houses or real estate or fetuses. And we could never create a peaceful world when we judge each other and attack each other based on the assumption that my perspective is the correct perspective and everyone else's perspective is flawed. Everyone thinks they're on top of the ball game and that their perspective of reality is the standard truth, because their reality reflects that back to them. Watch a buddhist tell a millionaire real estate agent to drop his attachment to material possessions and the millionaire will think the buddhist is crazy.
Our Transformational Times
Given the current nature of global affairs, we have become consumed with placing our wagers on what's next as the "global economic crisis" event unfolds across the headlines. We have been feeling tremoring waves of this expectable event for some time now, and it should come to no surprise to John McCain and any other ostrich-heads-stuck-in-sand folks that the fundamental basis of our economy is dubious & unsustainable, and that there really is a transformational process unfolding on planet Earth currently. Is it surprising to anyone that as we walk daily towards 2012, and we walk daily towards a future of incredible technological innovation and the mandatory necessity of an eco-sustainability-centered future, that we will be confronted with every dirty aspect of the collective unconsciousness.
