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Videos
by Blaze of Grace
by Maya Angelou
by Jane Adams
and
by Barbara Marx Hubbard
Books
by Richard Rudd
by Tosha Silver
by James Gleick
by M. Mitchell Waldrop
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"Everything is gestation and then birthing. To let each impression and each embryo of a feeling come to completion, entirely in itself, in the dark, in the unsayable, the unconscious, beyond the reach of one's own understanding, and with deep humility and patience to wait for the hour when a new clarity is born. . ." Ranier Marie Rilke
The Dragon-Fly by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Today I saw the dragon-fly
Come from the wells where he did lie.
An inner impulse rent the veil
Of his old husk: from head to tail
Came out clear plates of sapphire mail.
He dried his wings: like gauze they grew;
Thro' crofts and pastures wet with dew
A living flash of light he flew.
When the Heart Waits
by Sue Monk Kidd
Back in the autumn I had awakened to a growing darkness and cacophony, as if
something in the depths were crying out. A whole chorus of voices. Orphaned
voices. They seemed to speak for all the unlived parts of me, and they came with
a force and dazzle that I couldn't contain. They seemed to explode the
boundaries of my existence. I know now that they were the clamor of a new self
struggling to be born.
What Calls
by Suchitra Davenport
What calls me now?
How fluid can this body be?
Unshackled by tasks,
free,
open to emergent streams,
breaking into unknown space...
what is becoming
from Being?
Now, this.
Simply this.
Watch for greed
And grasping.
Accept what tumbles
through the crack.
Embrace and kiss what comes,
let it expand like
a bubble, iridescent,
fragile,
transparent
and soon to disappear.
Every breath rises and falls.
And this fluid body, too,
in perfect timing
will fall back through the crack.
And that which calls, which is forever becoming,
this free and open Being,
will still live.
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The Dragonfly's Emergence
Adapted from Richard Rudd |
To understand the true nature of the coming awakening, that is, what is trying to emerge, collectively and individually on the planet, one can find a beautiful parallel in the life cycle of the dragonfly.
Dragonflies spend much of their early lives underwater. As underwater insects they are known as nymphs, and unlike most pond insects they do not have to come to the surface for air. For most of their lives, nymphs live totally underwater where they are highly successful predators, feeding on anything from leaf litter to small fish. During this stage of its life, the nymph goes through a series of 'molts' - stages of maturity in which it sheds its skin but still remain as a nymph.
These stages of the insect's life can last several years, and during this time it has no idea whatsoever of what kind of future lies ahead. It is undergoing a series of 'hidden' mutations. Then, one day, all of a sudden, some sleeping gene deep within is triggered and the nymph does something totally out of character - it finds the stalk of a nearby plant and climbs out of the water. For the first time in its life it tastes air and direct sunlight. Once the nymph has left the safety of its underwater environment, the sunlight begins to work on it, catalyzing what will be its final 'molt'. It is at this stage that the true magic occurs, as the advanced creature hidden within the nymph cracks the outer larval skin.
Over a period of several hours, four crumpled wings appear and the distinctive slender thorax begins to uncurl. What is of great metaphorical relevance at this stage concerns the element of water. As the emerging dragonfly rises out of the element of water and prepares to be reborn into a new life in the element of air, the water that still lies within its body becomes the key to the transformation process. Through a process of hydraulics, the water within the nymph's body is pumped into the emerging wings and thorax, causing them to unfurl and spread out for the first time. In other words, the dragonfly assumes its aerodynamic shape by means of the water from its old life. This water is what drives its mutation from nymph to dragonfly. As soon as all the water is expended and the dragonfly is fully extended, it takes to the air and begins its new life.
The life cycle of the dragonfly is a perfect metaphor for awakening. The raw energy of our emotions becomes the vehicle for the unfurling of our future awareness, and once that awareness is born, our life exists forever on a higher plane. This metaphor also shows us that as a species we must dive deeply into the emotional field where we will go through a series of mutations of which we are generally unaware. While we exist in the world of emotions, we will have little inkling of the life that lies ahead of us. When we finally mutate the collective shadow fully, the collective awakening will truly begin in earnest.
At present, in relation to the dragonfly metaphor, humanity is in the stages of climbing up the stem out of the water and into the sunlight. The world genetic stage is in the full sway of this drama, and because of this it can be a deeply confusing time. We surely are already having glimpses and premonitions of what is to come, as our bodies and psyches become the battlefield for this mutative process. This is a deep process of integration that will last a considerable time, but that will gradually become more stable. It is during this phase that our emotional systems are literally being broken down. We humans are being forced to become transparent, like the dragonfly's wings. We have to allow life to crack our hearts open through our relationships and daily life challenges. We are learning detachment and how to work with our emotional energy so that it does not run our lives. We are moving more into the Witness, into the fresh air of consciousness, of Light. It is here in this growing consciousness that the seeds of the new are emerging. So to do our own molting process we must embrace our shadow, individually and collectively, and use our emotional evolution to rise up and discover our emerging awakened Self. This is the heart of our human story and the basis for all our myths, fables, novels, movies and stories. We discover that our suffering contains the seed of our eventual transcendence. When we accept and embrace our shadow, suddenly our true nature is revealed and a new creative impulse is released through us. Inside our very DNA, a subtle but potent mutation takes place which leads us to a change in the way proteins are made, which in turn leads to a change in our biochemistry. As our shadow reveals our hidden gifts, the whole tempo of life changes. Our blood chemistry changes, our biorhythms change, our moods stabilize, our eating patterns shift and our general attitude to life becomes uplifting and optimistic. We emerge as the amazing, glorious, gifted and beautiful beings we are designed to be, transparent to Life.
-Adapted from the 55th Gene Key and Introduction, from Gene Keys: Unlocking The Higher Purpose Hidden In Your DNA by Richard Rudd.
So as we open to the Spring Equinox energies, let us all ponder what is seeking to emerge from within us. What emotional patterns do we need to be present with in ourselves and in our society? In these times of deep transition on Earth, we are called to dissolve, clear, open and allow something totally new to emerge within us and within society. Let us not hold to our murky, underwater world. Let us emerge together, transparent to the Light.
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 Sometimes You Hear a Voice
by Rumi
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Sometimes you hear a voice through the door
calling you, as fish out of water
hear the waves, or a hunting falcon
hears the drum's Come back.
Come back.
This turning toward what you deeply love
saves you. Read the book of your life,
which has been given you.
A voice comes to your soul saying,
Lift your foot. Cross over.
Move into emptiness
of question and answer
and question.
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 Emerging Astrology by Jan Detrich |
Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing. --Arundhati Roy, War Talk
This year Spring Equinox is showcased between two eclipses in Virgo-Pisces, spotlighting the significance of this year and underscoring this time of great transition in the history of humanity.
What is emerging in the evolution of life on Earth may not be visible to everyone, yet is quietly and powerfully gestating and flowering behind the scenes. If we simply close our eyes, breathe, and listen closely, we can hear Her drawing near. Amidst all the racket and clashing about of outer noise and moving parts and pieces, imagine the Great Divine Mother enfolding and gathering her entire human family together, whispering in our ears and writing on our hearts, "We are ONE SOUL, ONE FAMILY, ONE LIFE, interconnected and interwoven."
After two thousand years of the solar masculine influence where we endeavored to become fully realized and conscious individual human beings, the Great Mother is now calling us back home to the ground of our being, awakening us to the fact that our separateness was simply a part of a Grand Illusion. She is informing and teaching us, "If we are to go further, we must go together."
This is undoubtedly a difficult turning point in history. Having been identified with our own individuality and selfish concerns, we are now deconstructing and dismantling thousands of years of grasping for attention and self-importance, and are opening to a larger vista of the Power of Love that underlies the happenings of these times. Every struggle or test is simply a reminder and a call to greater Love; an attunement to the myriad of ways our lives intersect, weave together and support one another. Where would we be without one another?
This moment in history involves a great renunciation of the past and an even greater reunification of the masculine and feminine face of God, where God and Goddess meet and come together in sacred union. We are not merely material beings struggling to survive; we are spiritual, divine beings exploring material existence through a human experience. We are all midwives, working together and laboring to birth a new world that values the Earth and all of her inhabitants equally and works together in common effort. There is plenty of work to be done, yet there is great power in numbers. Let us band together and support this Great Work by claiming our divine birthright; by loving one another with all our hearts; by our willingness to face our demons and undergo the necessary purificatory fires to heal and cleanse all that stands in the way of Love and Oneness. Please join us in this great emergence and divine endeavor!
To explore the astrology of 2016 and this period in history in greater detail, follow this link. To learn how the astrology of 2016 specifically impacts your life, contact Jan for an individual astrology reading at janajo9@cs.com.
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"The seemingly coordinated movement of a school of fish or a flock of birds is not controlled by any leader. Instead, it emerges naturally as each individual follows a few simple rules, such as go in the same direction as the other guy, don't get too close, and flee any predators. This phenomenon, known as emergence, may someday help experts explain the origin of consciousness and even life itself."
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photo by Bridget Scully
Who Is Emerging? Parenting as a Transformative Experience
by Gloria Shepard
Parenting is an important service to our children, although it is more than that. It's also an opportunity for our own growth. Imagine that instead of just having a baby, you enter a spiritual retreat. On this retreat, you will have 24/7 access to your teacher for the first several years, then ongoing intensive access over the next ten years. Only then will you, perhaps, be ready for the end of the residential aspect of the retreat and graduate to connecting with this teacher through regular phone calls, texts, cards, and online stalking for the rest of your/their life. This retreat is not cheap. It will offer deep practice.
If you're on that retreat now, consider what is happening. Your children aren't here to drive you crazy, give you gray hair, or even make you happy. They are, of course, here for their own purpose. As they get to that purpose, they are going to shine a bright and intense light into every aspect of you, bringing some beautiful qualities and some murky personality traits and conditioning into your awareness.
Consider the physical experience of being a parent. For those of us who actually grew these babes in our bodies, it brings unimaginable change to our bodies and our relationships with those bodies. Even if you don't carry the baby in your womb, becoming a parent changes your relationship with the physical world. Turns out you can function with very little sleep most of the time! The beautiful things in your home and your closet may suddenly be less important than the needs and habits of your child's grasping, messy hands. Dinners that were once elegant or relaxed change drastically. And although your responsibilities are big, you are not in control of so many important things--whether they fall asleep, how much they eat, their health, mental competence, and athletic or musical skills, to name a few.
The emotional experience is, of course, powerful, ushered in for most of us with a rush of unconditional love. But that love is not always easy. There are hard moments when children are truly unreasonable and test the unconditional nature of our love with irrational, unkind, angry, and disrespectful behavior. The unresolved emotional parts of us may become frustrated and reactive. With awareness, the love continue to develop, burning away some of the ego as it does.
Watching our children struggle as they find their independence is another kind of pain, whether they are falling off a bike, feeling the pain of their first breakup, or experiencing loss or illness. This, again, shows us how little real control we have and can deepen our ability to love vulnerably.
Many of us feel that we lose our minds for a while when we become parents, and maybe we do! The relentless exposure to what is really happening, as they drop peas from the high chair, make poop jokes, fail chemistry, decide to marry someone 'inappropriate,' separates us from our strongly held beliefs about how things 'should' be happening. These unconscious patterns and beliefs we've been carrying become visible as our kids shine their fierce light on the attachments, desires, and fears that we've harbored. If we're in this parenting journey with some consciousness, this helps us to release layers of mental conditioning.
Consider your own journey. Whether you're about to enter the retreat, in the early and most time-consuming years, later in the residential retreat, or off on your own again staying in touch as you can, how is this training affecting you? What are you learning about yourself? Is your ability to love greater? Your ability to tolerate difference, to be patient, to feel anger without acting on it? Are you learning to be more honest, to have firm and fair boundaries, to take care of yourself? Have you begun learning to question your own beliefs? What has fallen away as you became more aware? And what is emerging? Who are you now and who are you becoming? Be gentle as you discover this, and persevere. The Divine within you is awakening because of this life you are experiencing right now.
Need help in your parenting journey? Contact Gloria for classes, counseling, and mindfulness support.
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Longing (an excerpt)
by David Whyte
Longing has its own secret future destination, and its own seasonal emergence from within, a ripening from the core, a seed growing in our own bodies; it is as if we are put into relationship with an enormous distance inside us leading back to some unknown origin with its own secret timing indifferent to our wills, and gifted at the same time with an intimate sense of proximity, to a lover, to a future, to a transformation, to a life we want for ourselves, and to the beauty of the sky and the ground that surrounds us. Longing is nothing without its dangerous edge, that cuts and wounds us while setting us free and beckons us exactly because of the human need to invite the right kind of peril. The foundational instinct that we are here essentially to risk ourselves in the world, that we are a form of invitation to others and to otherness, that we are meant to hazard ourselves for the right thing, for the right woman or the right man, for a son or a daughter, for the right work or for a gift given against all the odds. In longing we move and are moving from a known but abstracted elsewhere, to a beautiful, about to be reached, someone, something or somewhere we want to call our own.
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