The Turning of the World: How Are We Responding?
"I like to say that the 51st state is the state of denial. It's as though a huge comet were heading for us and nobody wants to talk about it. We're just about to run out of petroleum and there's nothing to replace it." -- Kurt Vonnegut
"Humanity is at a crossroads, we can only go one way, as one can't go in two directions at the same time. We do not know what we need to do as a human species, there is only one place to go and that is into the light, as one tribe." -- Flordemayo
"Earth and universal energies are increasing at a rapid rate, making it easier for humanity to awaken." - Kerry Chin
"If we were to take a stroll through the great traditions of conscious human development and evolution we would find, over and over, references to light, to the light of consciousness, the light of insight, the light of awareness and creation." - Marti Spiegelman
We are already in the time of "turning over," the coming of 2012. In the Andes this time is called a pachacuti, a time of great change and great potential. In the world beyond our personal dramas, what is happening -- with floods and foreclosures, with glacier melt and walrus stress, with tea party anger and rampant fear -- dribbles into our fields, muddies the view, or acts like blobs of debris making things harder and heavier. Even when our "personal" lives are going fine, we pick up "stuff," now more than "before."
From the Andean point of view, it is not important to identify what the debris is; it is important to release whatever is heavy and fill yourself with lighter and more refined energy. Doing this gives you more clarity, stamina, and heart to bring your light to the world.
Releasing and Shifting Techniques
You probably already know many techniques for releasing the heavy, so use them!! Every day, thinking "I intend to release what is not mine, and only allow in what is appropriate to me at this time" is a powerful way to get started and stay focused.
What I notice in my own life is a certain lethargy about doing the releasing that I intend. My Chi Gong teacher always says that moving energy is the best thing to do when you're sick. When I'm ill, like for the last three weeks, I feel so lousy that I postpone and make excuses, until the day I finally get going. And, like magic, I notice a huge difference in my energy field: I feel clearer, cleaner, less burdened by the "stuff."
Releasing does not have to be time consuming. It does help to do it frequently: by shifting your attention you shift your energy. Some simple, quick techniques you might use, if you're not sure how to proceed, include:
* Scanning your physical body, then your energetic body, with your mind's eye, as is done in Vipassana meditation. Add the intention to release any dense or heavy-feeling places you notice.
* Doing the one-minute-beauty practice, visualizing a face or place you love and letting your heart fill with whatever is invoked. This is great for shifting your attention away from a problem. As an 80-year old friend of mine said the other day, "Whenever I get too upset about the state of the environment, I look at the mountain or a tree to make myself feel better."
* Opening each of your chakras with a counter-clockwise hand movement (imagine your body as the face of a clock), and releasing the "sludge" from your fingers. Then close your chakras with clockwise hand movements, optimizing their spinning.
* Taking a short walk paying total attention to each step, noticing the roots coming out of your feet into the ground, the air caressing you, the sun filling you with light.
* Sitting or standing with your back to a tree, coming into resonance, and learning from the sap rising and falling.
A longer practice I use daily is the Moving Energy Meditation which I've mentioned before. Using it, you release to each of the elements and draw in their energy so you feel clean, connected, and energized.
Grounding, balance, and energetic protection are really important to pay attention to, every day, as we try to move through all the changes in the world with grace and open-heartedness rather than fear and constriction.
The Importance of Dreaming
Whatever dream we have, for ourselves and the world, will become reality. This is the nature of the holographic universe! To dream brave, light-filled dreams means we must release our limiting beliefs, push past our fears, and set our intentions. "In this place of pure potentiality, where Spirit dwells, all things are possible," as Alberto Villoldo says.
Prophesies about 2012 mean the end of time as we know it, not the end of humanity. Many spiritual teachers call this a time of becoming one, when humanity has the chance to consciously evolve in an era of harmony and unity consciousness. Rather than the doom portrayed in popular movies, 2012 refers to a new golden era in the human experience. These are the dreams we need to feed!
Using Light
Using healing light -- for ourselves, for others, for the planet - is a wonderful practice, once we've released our heaviness. Previous blogs (8.09 and 9.09) have talked about healing light. This month I want to continue that exploration by talking about the three-part process I use: alignment; essence; and sending/receiving.
Alignment
Dreaming well begins with alignment, a resonance and flow between us and the universe. A phrase from a movement meditation, "heaven and earth come together in my body," describes this process well.
Alignment is a way to focus. If our minds are distracted, we can't do light work! Whether you use visualization/meditation, Reiki symbols, or movement, alignment is a way to shift your attention and energy to the work at hand. I experience alignment as a sensation of light flowing between and through my body to the earth and into the cosmos. You might also intend to align soul and body, or inner and outer, just as trees send roots and branches out. The Tree of Life image that appears in so many cultural stories reminds us to get beyond our small self/ego and connect somehow with the above and the below.
"Bring your Physical Body and your Energy Body together - allow them to align completely (clear the ego processes), then you can step into "the horizontal," - the pure energy realms where Time and Space are multi-dimensional" says a spirit guide of a friend.
Essence
We all have a spark of divinity, an essence within us. It's this essence we want to find, feel, and develop to feed our dreaming.
When we see and respond to infants who shine with divinity, we are experiencing the joy of recognition and our yearning for what often feels hidden to us as adults. Yet finding our essence really just requires looking for it. As Jose Luis Delgado says, "Every person awakens to the inner divine in a slightly different way. It can only be experienced--it is different from your mind."
People can connect with their essence spontaneously. I've witnessed hundreds of people go into their essences in 2-hour Medicine for the Earth workshops. We can also make it a regular habit, as many Medicine for the Earth practitioners (including me) have done for ten years. We have a spiritual practice of working with our inner divinity daily.
When groups of people do ceremony while connected with their essence, transmutation results. Photos of human auras, water, peaches, and soil show what happens.
When we connect with our essence, become our essence, our heart sends a message first to our body, then to our brain. Once we are in a coherent, essential state, we radiate that: to our families, coworkers, our animals, the trees and plants, all beings of the world. Being our divinity changes the world. Our perception creates our reality!
Sending and Receiving Light
I know that many of you already do light work of some kind. Since this is a complex topic, my intent is to help us focus and expand the possibilities.
Connecting with essence or divinity is one way to "be" light, be our radiance. When we are being light, it is easy to shine love and goodwill from our hearts; be calm in the face of family, work or world storms; illuminate a different way of being for others; and heal with light.
Another way to work with light is to make visual, energetic, and spiritual connections to feed the web. We might do this with mountains and sacred places, as in the Earth-Cosmos Meditation, to feed the energetic filaments (ceke lines/earth chords/ley lines). Or we might do this within a group--either physically together or long distance--visualizing and experiencing our connection with each other. The power of worldwide meditations comes from our experiences of connectedness and the group fields of consciousness that coalesce with the focused intent of many.
A third way, following in the footsteps of the Q'ero/Inca people of the Andes, is to send energetic "bubbles" of light to a person, a community, a situation. For example, during the Gulf oil spill and after the Haitian earthquake, many sent bubbles of light to be available to humans and creatures who needed assistance. (This is one of the tools I'll be teaching in the Alchemy of Light and Heavy Energy workshop 11/13-14).
When our energy is connected to all, the body has no boundaries. When connection comes, spirit joins in. We are one. As my teachers tell me, "In resonance there is no 'other.'" We are then in a field of consciousness where light and energy flow all directions, and we receive as well as give, basking in our luminous becoming.
The more we experience these connections, the stronger our light work becomes, and the more we understand that there are energetic solutions to all the problems we face!
