Enchanted Forest – Faery Grove

Between my ego-self and my enlightened-self, there dwells my guiding-self or my evolutionary-self. I call her “Love,” and she BE my guide in all ways, always.

In my blog post, “New Moon and Solstice Blessings,” I wrote about the power of sharing ceremony and intentions in community. There’s been so much ceremony in my life of late, and I just have to share how powerful it is to live this way, especially in harmony with the seasons and moon cycles. What follows is a meandering journey of several ceremonies of late and what I have learned. I hope that some of this will help you find a deeper knowing within yourself, if that is what you wish too. Some of what I share may be a bit “out there,” but in this ever-shifting world, we are all stretching in what we know as Truth or else maybe we’re asleep.

Utility of Ceremony

In a practical sense, ceremony helps us to become more present and conscious, and to embrace living life on deeper levels. In our shamanic tradition, ceremony also helps us to step out of the space/time continuum, where spontaneous healing and transformation is always a possibility. It also helps us to transcend the mental/emotional processing that can keep us stuck for years in monkey-mind feedback loops. In ceremony, we enter the mythic realm, where we embrace our symbolic lives, as hero-journeys. Here we are supported in aligning with our divine destiny. We may purposefully release our reliance on some archetypal patterns, such as victim or saboteur, in order to embrace those more in keeping with our potential, such as artist, alchemist, teacher, healer, leader, lover, and more.

In ceremony, we first open sacred space. Then we may use alters, fire ceremony, cleansing baths, art, earth-mandalas and more to create symbolic representation of the transformation we seek. I often offer homework like this for my clients to help them to integrate their deepest wisdom into their day-to-day lives. Shamans often undergo challenging death/rebirth rituals where they confront all their fears to transcend ego-based limitations. In some traditions, the shaman would be buried in the earth overnight, listening to the hunting animals nearby and confronting their deepest fear, that of death. This tradition inspired the creation of my ceremony in the enchanted forest, which I will talk about soon.

Body Reboot

You already know from my former post that I enjoyed a beautiful new moon ceremony with sweet siStars. Even before that, I felt called to a rebirthing ceremony to happen at midnight-of-the-half-moon, upon entering 7-7-14. In between the two ceremonies, I went through a brief medical exam that involved fasting, a total digestive cleanse and anesthesia. I could have made this all into a very unpleasant circumstance. Instead, I chose to let this be ceremony, a physical reboot to precede the spiritual one on 7-7. It all went beautifully and easily, and the resulting assessment of my health was absolutely perfect. Yay!

Ceremony in the Enchanted Forest

On the afternoon of Sunday, July 6, I bundled up a few spiritual items (drum, rattle, shaman mesa, spirit water), a blanket, water and two dogs. I didn’t bring a phone or camera, so the pictures come from a different visit. We headed to the “enchanted forest” behind the house at OdaBe. OdaBe is our sacred Reiki training center that we also call “home.” The enchanted forest is a very special place on the property, full of many juniper trees that have a peculiar amount of psychic energy. In the springtime, the tiniest of yellow and purple wildflowers come up everywhere. Hummingbirds and butterflies visit often, and there are the most beautiful stone-people scattered all over, lots of quartz and obsidian. The forest feels like a portal of sorts, and I enjoy super-intense meditations there from time to time. This felt like the perfect space for a rebirthing ritual, to allow my former self to die while embraced by a magical space on the earth, and to welcome a new way of BEing. I was guided to the knowing that ceremony in this space would further link me and OdaBe, opening up the portal energies for the transformation of me, as well as OdaBe.

Embracing Death

It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life. ~ St. Francis

I fasted that Sunday, preparing for deep prayer, channeling, healing, spiritual-death and transformation. I was called to the shamanic practice of recapitulation, a life review while calling back my energy from all the places/people where I’ve left some behind. There have been times in my life where I felt out-of-integrity, and these were especially troublesome times for energy leaks. My spirit guides assured me, to help in my healing, that I’ve never done anything “wrong.” I think that’s a strong message for us all, in order to make peace with all the hard lessons we’ve learned through the act of falling short of our expectations. Still and always, we are human, perfect in our imperfections.

I saw in these stories-strung-together-called-my-life that the theme of freedom in relationship is such a high value for me, especially freedom to grow. This is valuable information to bring into consciousness, so that if I ever feel threatened with a perceived loss of freedom in my relationships, I can have the awareness needed to articulate my truth around my perceptions. Ultimately, I think this will help me to go even deeper into love and intimacy (into-me-you-see).

Journey to Lemuria

Following the recapitulation, I journeyed to Lemuria to reconnect with my “family” from my time there long ago. I was offered some interesting information that connects with what Socha, my spirit guides, have shared before. In Lemurian times, we were able to show up so much in love, holding a space of unconditional acceptance and non-attachment within extended families, where everyone felt free to express love and intimacy with one another. This style of relating feels very freeing to me, yet in our culture it often provokes so many fears when we think of sharing our beloved with another love. Much of the institutions and norms that support coupling in our society imply a certain amount of ownership.

I was shown in journey that in those days we didn’t have the strong imprint of fear within us that counteracted our capacity for love. That hyper-vigilant fear was coded into human DNA during the latter-times of Atlantis, when extraterrestrial dark forces were invited in to boost the power of corrupt, power-hungry people there. Fear serves a purpose in aiding our survival. However, it’s so pervasive in our world that it severely limits the ways that we show up as Love. It is for us to consciously awaken to the full-flowing love capacities we have so that we may override the fear programs remaining in our DNA now. New research shows that we can change our DNA, so our challenge is to select which expressions to cultivate and which to make dormant. Vigilance in choosing love-expressions will, I believe, greatly help us to do this.

Visitors

During the day and evening, my spirit guides offered so much healing wisdom and energies, even doing psychic surgery on me to “upgrade my DNA.” I had visitations from a hummingbird who stayed with me for several minutes, hovering over my head and standing on a limb just above my face to stare at me. Several butterflies came. When I engaged in deeper healing, birds always came to flutter their wings close to me, and then beyond, as if they lifted my heavy energies, stories, and traumas up and away from me. Coyotes seemed to surround us at dusk, singing from every which way. I had some concerns and fears for the dogs, since the coyotes were obviously singing in large packs that night. Though we nestled into the trees, we were actually quite exposed.

The Dream

After about six hours of deep meditation and journey, I settled in for sleep on the earth’s belly. I was given only one dream (in between Myo’s interval barking sprees through the night, which left almost no space for sleep). In the dream, I lay on the earth in the forest, just as I had placed my body in “real” time. A family of three deer or antelope grazed near where I lay. They spooked when they noticed the dogs. Instead of running in the other direction, they ran straight for me. I rolled under the nearest tree to give them passage. Then a family of three coyotes came through, following the exact same path through my sleeping space. Then a hovercraft home came by with three rooms, but no ceilings or roof and only short walls so that I could see in. It was very lit up, so that I could see it approaching from a distance. In the front room, a pre-teen boy and girl played with lots of toys. In the middle room, a man and woman settled into bed. In the rear room, two boys played quietly on bunk beds that were arranged as an L, rather than over/under. As they passed through, I talked with them, made friends, learned about them and their journey, and then they moved on.

In exploring with my coach, Laura Plato, that Monday, as initially I was befuddled by the meaning of this one, we came up with this interpretation. According to Sams & Carson, deer is the essence of gentleness and unconditional love. Her energy heals all wounds. Her love and compassion melted the heart of the demon who protected the passage way to Sacred Mountain. Antelope represents action and service. She guided the people during times of hunger to kill and eat her so they could survive. Since I wasn’t clear about which animal showed up in my dream, and since they both live at times at OdaBe, I decided to include both in my interpretation. Socha, my spirit guides, and Proterrian (those of my friend Tim Glenn), have both talked of earth-friendly, organic hovercrafts that may be in the future. These answer the prayer I have of how to share OdaBe without creating lots of footprints and infrastructure that take-away from her vibrant health and natural beauty. The take-away from all this? As I align more deeply with love (deer) and service (antelope), and as I transcend my fears (coyote song and fear for the dogs in that night), then “they” (my tribe, family, community) will come in an earth-friendly way, and all will be well. It feels like this takes the integration of spirits, of me and OdaBe, to an even deeper level.

There’s a strong suggestions that six is significant in this dream. Tania Marie says, six represents, “harmony, balance, soulful integration, perfect union, communication, sincerity, love, truth, enlightenment, naturally revealing solutions for us in a calm, unfolding manner, delicate diplomacy in sensitive matters, reliability, lighting our path in areas we require spiritual and mental balance, and encourages compassion and forgiveness.” Sounds like the perfect medicine and message for me, and I love the timing of Tania’s post coming just after my journey and the integration of the lessons for me.

On the Monday following the ceremony, in spite of the deep spiritual work in meditation and the long, sleepless night, I had an incredible amount of energy and inspiration. I felt like I was flying all day long.

Vigilant Protectors – Myo & SunBear

Forgiveness Ceremony

Love and Service BE my compass. I am willing to show up and to let the Divine flow through me.

And if this isn’t enough, as I write these words, I prepare for yet another ceremony. This one furthers the recapitulation work into a deeper journey into forgiveness, especially self-forgiveness.

The Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.

Invocation

In preparing for this full-moon ceremony on 7-12, I plunge even deeper into my intentions:

• Practice fierce love and compassion
• Demonstrate relentless commitment to accept my shadow (and other peoples’ too)
• Live my Truth, dancing in authenticity, transparency and visibility
• Assume responsibility for all I create, with strength, autonomy, focus and commitment
• Be a pure expression of joy and love, without expectations or attachments
• Embrace freedom of spirit
• Embrace congruence, harmony and integrity in relating
• Express fierce courage and expansion into love
• Commit to create in alignment with my destiny
• Acknowledge my strengths as teacher, leader and channel for wisdom and healing
• Nurture my strong connection to Great Spirit
• Surrender to the Divine, BEing a hollow-er channel

This is abundance and bliss for me now. I take these intentions to ceremonial fires of transmutation, in joy, peace, harmony-of-spirit, and acknowledgement of the deep blessing that life offers this day.

Resources

If you would like resources to help you align your intentions and ceremonies with the energies of the cosmos, here are some weekly/monthly forecasts that I enjoy and find resonant. You can subscribe to receive email notifications when reports come out.

• PowerPath School of Shamanism
• Lee Harris Energy Forecasts (the one for July/August is very powerful and supportive)
• Kaypacha’s New Paradigm Astrology

Blessings Be…