Living Energy, Living Transmission
Greetings!
"To tell you the truth, these stars that we
see in the sky...In the beginning there was
nothing. The stars were there. The universe
was there and there were the stars. God came,
and the material of those stars, the stars
rained dust down onto the earth, which was a
flower. It was a flower! This is where
humanity came from. The dust of the stars
connected with the flower of the earth. We
are the people now who are the descendents of
the people who are no longer here, who
evolved from the stars. "--Grandmother Anna
Swarts,104 yr-old Kalahari San Bushman, Africa.
Indigenous peoples, who have not forgotten
old earth ways and interconnections, can be
wonderful teachers for us as we figure out
how to shift our consciousness. For example,
in the Andean Quechua world, the "living
energy" of all things is deeply understood,
and people exist in conscious interconnection
with stones, stars, animals, and plants.
Living in reciprocity with all beings is
essential for receiving guidance,
information, and teaching from the healing
plant or the sacred mountain. Such wisdom is
experienced as valid, reliable, essential
knowledge.
Why does the Western world have a hard time
validating such wisdom? In part it's because
we no longer spend enough time in nature to
hear the messages. In part it's because the
perception of the whole was split into
science and religion in the 17th century.
Morality and spirit became the domain of
religion, while observation and
interpretation of the natural world was given
over to scientists. Now, 400 years later, our
schooling discounts and our minds resist
guidance (whether spiritual or practical)
from tree or lake or bird. And we are so
trained towards information, words, and ideas
that we can have a difficult time really
feeling things in our bodies.
Yet: our cells remember. We can redirect our
minds and consciousness with experiential
perception. We can learn to feel morphic
resonance (Rupert Sheldrake's term), and the
living energy of all things--"the environment
as our extended body"--as Deepak Chopra puts it.
We have to spend time outside--observing,
listening, connecting--to learn the
environment as our extended body. Looking out
a window gives what an Andean friend calls a
"conceptual" picture--the idea of tree or
lake--in contrast to a "perceptual" or
experiential sense of a specific tree and the
feeling of its bark, leaves, and shape, or
the smell of wet earth, the feel of the wind,
and the shifting colors of a specific lake.
The more we are outside experiencing such
sensations deeply, the more we become
embodied parts of the whole.
Transmissions as Seeds
Some years ago, on a hike to amazing
waterfalls in the Amazon Basin, we were
abruptly told to stop playing in the water
and start hiking back. Grumbling, we began
slipping and sliding down the rain-slicked
path towards the river. Drizzle changed to
downpour. By the time we arrived at the
palapa above the boat landing, we were
drenched to the skin. We waited, warming
ourselves by a campfire, because the river
can become too dangerous to travel during a
storm. Great flashes of light surrounded us.
Thunder shook the ground. My teacher, Americo
Yabar, told us to reach our arms up as the
lightning struck, and pull the energy down
into our bodies. Three times we did this,
three times filling ourselves with this
stupendous energy. Later, he referred to this
experience as a "lightning initiation."
At the time this didn't seem anything like
the formalized Andean initiation ceremonies
and transmissions I'd read about. Now, after
years of exploring Andean cosmology, I have
finally begun to understand the nature of
energetic transmissions and initiations, and
thought I'd try to share what I know.
"Transmissions" can come from a number of
sources: people (Buddhist teachers or Reiki
masters, for example); nature (lightning,
mountains, creatures); and spirit
(non-ordinary teachers, power animals,
angels). A transmission taps into collective
energy and morphic fields beyond the
personal. If it is connected with "lineage,"
it is passed on and on through generations,
and is known by all the people who receive
and learn to use the power. If it is a
spiritual initiation, it is understood to
cause fundamental change within the person
being initiated. What transmissions share is
a physical, spiritual, and energetic transfer
of awareness, experience, and state of mind.
When received, the energy of a transmission
can take you into another dimension, much
like sacred places of power can elicit
visionary experiences.
Energetic transmissions, like sacred
medicine, are gifts we can use to jump-start
our awareness. They are seeds, really: a
transmission is given to you, then you have
to learn to feel it in your body, use it,
understand it, and be able to communicate it.
For example, you may have received a Reiki
"attunement." You probably had to practice
for a long time before you "got it" fully ,
no matter what "level" of Reiki you work
with. And any other transmission or
initiation or vision quest is the same: there
is an initial experience, a moment of "Aha!"
Then the process of integration,
putting-into-practice, and refining begins.
Using the analogy of gardening and farming is
useful in working with seeds of
transmissions. After preparing the soil (your
receptiveness, your intent), the seed can be
planted. To help the seed grow, you water and
fertilize it (feed it with shifting habits
and opening to new ways). You weed (throw out
old stuff--beliefs, ways of acting--that are
in the way) to give the seed space to grow
and blossom. When it ripens, you harvest the
"fruit" and eat it, taking in energy from the
nutrients and processing the waste so more
"food" can enter. This cycle of growing,
harvesting, and shedding repeats over and over.
The Seeds of Munay-Ki
If you follow Andean wisdom teaching, you may
have heard of the rites of Munay-Ki. These
transmissions are from a spiritual and
cosmological lineage thousands of years old
that the Q'ero/Inca people in the Andes have
maintained, untainted by western ideas until
about 50 years ago (they live so high in the
mountains that the Spanish gave up on
conquering them!) The Munay-Ki are energetic
seed transmissions, passed from person to
person and mountain to person, for becoming
"beings of wisdom and power" who "accept the
stewardship for all of creation."
Because I have been working so long with
Andean cosmology, I decided to receive the
Munay-Ki through the Four Winds Foundation.
What I experienced at the time was a sense of
portals opening; of hugely expanded
awareness; and of sweet heart-opening
connection to the four Q'ero people who came
from Peru to share the rites. In the nine
months since I received them, I have been
"feeding the seeds" of these profound
energetic transmissions by observing my
energy carefully, exploring the shamanic
connections, and integrating the spiritual
understanding that's been emerging. I have
noticed shifts in my work: less flailing;
more confidence in what I truly know and have
to teach; and a greater clarity about my path
during these prophesied times of great change
and opportunity. It is easier to apprehend
the heavy and negative in the world while
focusing on bringing light to every situation
I am in.
I am eager to share the Munay-Ki with others.
I see it as an opportunity to pass on tools
for shifting awareness and ways of perceiving
the living energy of the cosmos. The intent of
these transmissions is to help you see with
heart, heal our earth, and have the energy to
do what must be done to reconnect to the web
and each other during this shift in planetary
consciousness. The Munay-Ki
rites are, of course, one of many ways to
enlarge your world perspective. I urge you to
check them out:
read about them, find someone near
you who can transmit them, receive them if
you are drawn to them (see links). And,
there's a caveat I want to emphasize: there
is no one way; there are many ways. The
challenge for each of us is to find what's
right for us as individuals, what feeds and
empowers us to follow our true path.
In this, I wish you courage and joy,
