Darkness Comes Singing

In darkness, seeds swell, becoming the promise held in their DNA, unfurling slowly into their potential as grass, or redwood, or rosebush. Which seeds are we nurturing in our lives? What seeds of hope? What seeds for the future?

I started laughing in the middle of a conversation with my husband about "dense" and heavy" energy. No wonder my plants and vegetables grow so well: I feed them so much energetic compost all day long!

Energetic Compost

All the heaviness and density in out bodies, hearts, and minds -- headaches, despair, resentments, and so on -- can be viewed as energetic compost. Like the physical compost from kitchen waste, our energetic compost can feed the earth metaphorically.

How? Imagine an opening from your belly (hara, or q'osqo), just below your belly button, with a channel feeding into the earth. You intend to let the heaviness flow out from you, through this channel. You intend to feed the earth with this wonderful compost, joyfully letting go of what does not serve you. You don't worry about naming the heaviness, or identifying it: you simply intend, and intend some more, until the moment when you feel a shift: it's gone! And then you draw up "lighter" energy from the earth, filling your cells. In this way, exchanging energy with the earth, you can explore the alchemical process of moving and shifting your own energy. (If you are interested in exploring this further, see the Energy Workshop link.)

I like to imagine the soil, the earthworms, the water and pebbles, the seeds unfurling as I send down and draw up from the earth. In making these connections, I am drawn out of my small self into a larger awareness, a greater integration with the world around me.

When you view everything as just energy, as they do in the Andes and in quantum physics circles, there's no judgment about the exchange. Just as we blow out one breath to take in another, we can release the heavy to make space for the light.

Results

Over time, my intention to release heaviness - instead of holding onto it, repeating it, telling poor-me stories about it - has had some amazing results. The first is that I let go of cranky thoughts a lot faster, so I enjoy my life more. The second is that I spend much less time/energy suffering over presumed insults, upsets, all the "negative" things that happen. The third is that I have more energy for creativity and compassion.

This time of year, when nights are long and old family disappointments seem to rise up out of the frozen ground like ghosts, it is a really good time to release the heaviness. For example, a week ago I began obsessing about one of my siblings: was my gift enough? Could I call him without getting resentful? Would he ever see the real me? And so on. I had many repetitive thoughts, and no new questions, insights, or answers. I had heavy energy! So I did three things: wrote everything down (talking to myself this way clears my head and gets everything on the table); fed this heaviness to the earth, over and over, until I began to feel cleansed; and drew in more refined or "lighter" energies from the earth, the clouds, the sun, and the water into my body and my aura.

It actually detracts from the energetic work, and takes you into your head if you try to name the heaviness. So I didn't say "grief hurt frustration anger" or whatever, I just kept trying to feed the heaviness, let it go joyfully, and experience the pleasure of feeding my garden and feeding the earth.

Reciprocity: the Energy Exchange

Whenever you empty something heavy it is important to fill yourself with lighter, more refined energy, using intention, so you do not leave yourself prey to more density coming in. What I mean by this is evidenced by the people (we've all known them) who go from one problem to another, ceaselessly. In their habits of negativity, they make no space for the lightness of a solution, the comfort of just being.

All beings, human and non-human, are full of all kinds of energy. Indigenous cultures understand this, and draw on the energetic resources of plants and animals to feed spirit, soul, mystical vision, and body. Q'ero elder Don Humberto said recently, during his visit to California, "Fear is something we build. Then it becomes collective. So we have to release the fear." In the cosmology of the Andes, the exchange of energy is central to keeping the collective in balance.

The more we extend our consciousness (filaments) to different living beings in reciprocity, the more we feel supported, connected, and entwined with the world. Knowing "I am another yourself" with a tree, a person, a stream, a salmon, lets us "see" with different eyes, feel with different awareness, experience a sublime unity consciousness...where there is no glass, no wall, separating us from outside.

In this womb of the dark, as we wait for the light to return, may your blessings be abundant,

How can we access our inner light on a regular basis, and shift away from "dense" and "heavy" emotions? How can we use reciprocity and cosmic connections for personal and global healing? Join us Jan. 10-11 for "Transforming Our Awareness: Working with Energy, Reciprocity, and Connection" in the woodlands of Sonoma.

Join this wonderful 40-day worldwide spiritual practice for people of all faiths everywhere, the Winter Feast for the Soul, from 1/15-2/23/09.

A spiritual journey in the Andes and the Amazon introduces me to "living energy," and the reciprocal, cosmic awareness that guides Q'ero/Inca life.

You are invited to receive the profound energetic transmissions of Munay-Ki, "seeds of homo luminous," over the course of eight months in 2009. These transmissions open portals into expanded consciousness.

Acupuncturist Tom Tam in Massachusetts uses Tong Ren, a tapping method that "uses energy to make sick people well," and to heal many stage four cancers. Practitioners tap into the pool of energy in the universe and the collective unconscious. (I've been using this and other energy practices on my dog with lymphoma; she's been full of energy and in remission for five weeks now.)

What if a river had legal, recognizable rights to thrive? What if a forest could sue a corporation? The new constitution in Ecuador defines nature as a rights bearing entity, paving the way for us to change our thinking.

You can find last month's newsletter on "Seeds of Hope" and read other, previous versions of Shifting Consciousness News here.

Shamanic Counseling, Energy Healing, Ceremony, and Soul Retrieval:

Explore what this season of transformation may bring to you, and step into your radiance, wisdom, and wholeness with an Earth Caretakers session. Send an email or call our office at 1-707-939-7961 to make your appointment. A recent client wrote, "I really, really, appreciate your gentle, thoughtful, loving, knowledgeable kindness and guidance during this entire process. It has been life-changing for me."

About Earth Caretakers

Earth Caretakers is an organization dedicated to renewing and reweaving our interconnections with stars, trees, and stones; with cross-cultural wisdom and prophesy; and with our own bodies, souls, and spirits. Founded by Meg Beeler, MAT, Earth Caretakers sponsors participatory, experiential, earth-honoring and rites-of-passage ceremonies. We draw on ancestral wisdom to empower visioning and dreaming a future of balance, reciprocity, and harmony.

Visit our website for information on upcoming events, workshops, and shamanic healing. Find inspiration, articles, and previous issues of the Shifting Consciousness News.