Priestess in Blue Jeans

Global 'Circle of Love' - Dec. 31

 Contemporary Shamanic Teacher & Author, Sandra Ingerman, is sharing an invitation for all to join in a global 'Circle of Love' collective-intention to create an energy field of unconditional love. I'm sharing it (at Sandra's invitation) with you.

As microcosms of the macrocosm, this is truly one way our personal practices ripple outward to co-create positive change in the collective consciousness.

By intending at the beginning of the day (or as you go to sleep the night before the 31st) and by attuning to Divine Love and Unconditional Love throughout the day, you not only shift and raise your own vibration and bathe yourself in blessing energy, but you give that gift out to the world through the collective energy field.

Here is an excerpt from Sandra's December 27th message - it's pretty simple to participate, so join us, and spread the word.

"As I wrote in the December Transmutation News we will be experiencing the alignment of the lunar and solar calendars and a rare blue moon on December 31. This will be a potent time.

On December 31 throughout the day and evening I invite you to join with me to drop into a deep place of unconditional love. This means opening your heart with absolutely no expectations of what will come from this event.

Place your hands on your heart and breathe deeply into your heart feeling the love for the earth, life, and all that is precious to you. Take some time and get into a true place of love that goes beyond your thinking mind.

Start by experiencing love for yourself and all you have been through to get you to this point in life. And when you feel ready expand your heart and allow your love to flow out to our circle throughout the world. Let's create a strong focused energy of love just simply pulsating throughout our global community.

Remember that you are part of life and that you cannot give love without receiving love. So as you breathe through your heart allowing love to flow through you remember to breathe in the love so that our circle is complete. The earth, our circle, and the rest of life will not receive your love if you cannot receive the love yourself.

And as you feel yourself part of that pulsation of love allow yourself to experience that flow of love going out to the earth and touching every living being. This includes the elements earth, air, water, and fire and all of life that lives in these elements - the spirit that lives in all things.

We do this to be in service to the planet in the same way we have been guided to for thousands of years. Allow yourself to sink into the true power of love that comes from beyond the thinking mind. Allow it to flow from the depths of your soul. This is true service!!

And when you feel the circle is complete and the unconditional love is flowing come back and continue to breathe deeply allowing the flow of love to continue and the flow of love to be received by you.  Continue this throughout the day into your New Year's celebrations.

We give thanks for this circle, we give thanks to all of life, and we give thanks for our life!" (End Excerpt from Sandra Ingerman)

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Wishing you an abundance of Big Love as we move into a new calendar year.

Blessings on the Way,

Jamie

PHOTO CREDIT: Thanks to Pink Sherbet Photography for the Creative Commons use of this very heartful image.

At the Heart of It - A Change of Heart

"At the heart of everything is what must be called a change of consciousness. This means a new way of living--almost a new man. Its ultimate creation will be a new and enduring wholeness and beauty -- a renewed relationship of man to himself, to other men, to society, to nature, and to the land." ~ Charles Reich, The Greening of America (1970)

At the core of most spiritual traditions is the emphasis on a change of heart, a change of mind. Charles Reich was a voice of the Spirit of the Sixties, during which the seeds of social transformation and a new consciousness were planted in modern history (though there were many who kept the flame alive before that).

We're living in times now when a change of heart and a change of consciousness is paramount. Many would say that it's no longer an option, much less a luxury, as we face many global, ecological, economic, and cultural challenges.

Many contemporary spiritual teachers, as well as Indigenous elders and prophecies, tell us that the change in consciousness is required to avoid catastrophe. And God/dess knows we've seen allusions to catastrophe in the more frightening 2012 coverage.

It seems like heavy stuff, and it is from that vantage point. The silver lining -- and it's a bright and shining one -- is that consciousness is shifting, and many people are awakening spiritually. We can find evidence not just in the devoted spiritual communities at the periphery of our modern culture, but also the expanded interest in the mainstream of practices like yoga, qigong, and the widely broadcast teachings of Eckhart Tolle through Oprah Winfrey's webcasts.

Llewelyn Vaughan-Lee, Sufi teacher and leader, Golden Sufi Center, says "A spiritually awakened person who works for the sake of the Whole can be a tremendous force for change."

And herein lies the real hope; the real good news.

In revisiting Eckhart Tolle's work recently, I resonated with his emphasis that our primary purpose -- all of us -- is to awaken spiritual, to grow in consciousness. Through this, or from this, we express our secondary or more external purpose -- consciousness expressed through us in our relationships, our work, our community interactions, our very way of being in the world.

Llewleyn Vaughan-Lee tells us that women, in particular, as embodiments of the Divine Feminine, are the principal midwifes of this spiritual awakening and renewal of consciousness -- the remembrance that all is connected in the One great flow of Life, and that all is sacred. And Rumi echoes, "A woman is a mystery that can guide the wise and open men." Men who revere and respect the Divine Feminine within all. That's the potent alchemy that changes everything.

This requires devotion and dedication, to be sure. It requires daily mindfulness and practice. It requires evolution of heart and mind to be a vessel for the same into the world.

And yet answering those questions -- to what am I devoted? What am I willing to really stand for? What am I willing to be a voice for? -- is what connects us with a sense of heart and meaning, of true joy of service. We infuse that devotion into everything we do, because it comes from everything we truly are.

Blessings on the Way,

Jamie

Photo Credit: Corona Aurora by Image Editor, shared through Creative Commons

Tender Visions & 'Believing Mirrors'

"When we are dealing with peoples' dreams ---their

visions, really---we are in the realm of the sacred."

~ Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way

That's the way it is, really, when it comes to the dreams and visions we hold most dearly. Midwifing dream and vision into the world is a sacred matter, and so it becomes vital to draw to us, to share the tender shoot of dream-vision only with those who can witness and hold that sacred space.

Our tendency, understandably, is to share it with all of those around us - family members, partners, friends, colleagues. And many of us may remember well times when those sharings brought vision-and-joy leveling responses that felt crushing to that tender bud of vision and the precarious momentum that brought it shooting from us.

At such times for me, it was as if I felt the vision withdraw itself to a deeper, safer place, and the momentum seemed to stop. And there have been times, no doubt, when I have unwittingly done that to others -- when I've responded too hastily out of old patterns or the 'stuff' of the day, rather than from mindful presence. I shudder to think of it, but I, like others, learn as I go and such recognitions can make me more committed to being present to others in a more graceful way.

It's a practice and sacred trust to be a 'believing mirror' to others as they share those deeply held, oh-so-tender dreams and visions that are emerging for expression. And it's a sacred responsibility for us to find believing mirrors for our own dream-visions.

Believing mirrors is a concept from Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way. To be a believing mirror, or to surround ourselves with believing mirrors, means a person or persons who are able to hold the sacred space with us as our vision emerges and gains wobbly, and ultimately stronger, legs.

Believing mirrors can reflect that sacredness, the belief in our vision and in us, when we've lost that sight and ground of our own. Their reflection, reminders, encouragement and love can help us to find the light-love center again.

In being a sacred steward of vision or dream -- which we all are, since we all have some vision or dream that longs to find expression through us -- is to recognize the tenderness of it, and the sacredness of it, and be as protective of it as a mother lion with her cub.

And one of the things that requires of us is to share it only with those who can be believing mirrors for us -- just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes that sacred circle to birth and raise a vision. With all others, we learn to hold a sacred silence. Our believing mirrors can help us to do that, too.

Blessings on the Way,

Jamie

* Thanks to Harpagornis for the beautiful 'Vortex of Light' spiral image, through Creative Commons.

p.s. I'm thinking about creating one or several small 'believing mirror' circles for vision-midwifing - particularly for those doing the work of the Divine Feminine or ushering in other 'new-era' ways of being. These will likely by tele-conference, since many of us are spread to the four winds! If that speaks to you, send me an email, and we'll explore it.

Living Your Design

Thank God/dess that we have access to a wealth of wonderful tools, practices, and inspiration to help us to live authentically in very transformative times.

I'm eternally grateful for this, truly, and get a real sense of joy from experimenting with them and sharing what I find particularly helpful with other transformation-agents on the path.

One of the tools, introduced to me by my friend Jodi, is called Human Design, which can give us some insight into our particular blueprint -- very helpful if we want to live authentically and in a way that goes with, rather than against, the currents of Life.

The gist of Human Design is that when we 'live our design', things go a lot more smoothly and we're a whole lot happier. Who doesn't want that?

So I turned to my friend Kim Gould of Love Your Design to do an indepth reading, and found myself pretty amazed by what I learned.

According to Human Design, I'm what's known as a Projector (6/2), which means I'm a natural guide to help others find a sense of direction and use their energies well.

Projectors are natural leaders, coaches, or consultants, whether in terms of people, energies, thoughts, or ideas. Because I'm designed to have easier access to the energies of others, and bring information and inspiration through during the course of conversation, it allows me an uncanny knack for seeing what might be most helpful and how energy is best used. So far, so good.

But there's a catch…

As a Projector -- and this one is pretty challenging for most of us -- we must be invited to share our gifts. Despite being designed to offer the gift of insight, direction, and guidance, if we share that without an invitation -- even if we see the need for it clearly -- it falls flat, goes unrecognized, or closes others down.

What we share has to come either from an invitation from someone else, or through inspiration from doing something that has real heart and meaning for us personally, and others respond to it (and extend an invitation to continue…).

So what's the challenge?

Most of us are trained to be initiators, to 'just do it', to be entrepreneurial, to take the proverbial bull by the horns and kick butt. In Human Design, only a small percentage of the population is actually designed to do that. Projectors are joined in this 'need to wait' by what HD calls Generators and Manifesting Generators (a majority of the population who, in their unique ways, get things done and benefit from guidance and direction of Projectors in doing that -- we're natural collaborators).

So most of us spend a lot of time operating against the grain, and thus might experience things being more difficult than they might otherwise be, or get frustrated because needed contributions or efforts just aren't recognized. There is more to HD, since we're all quite unique, but these are a few of the basics.

Needless to say, it's a whole lot more fun to honor our blueprint, receive the invitations, to share our gifts, to have those interactions be delightful and mutually beneficial for everyone, and see wonderful things come of it.

As with anything, it's a journey to come back into authenticity -- we have to drop a whole lot of conditioning so that our beautiful Selves might shine through more effortlessly. Human Design is one of several resources that help us to do that.

Blessings on the Way to Authenticity, from your favorite Projector-Priestess!

Jamie

The Song of Goddess

Yesterday, as part of my 'morning reading', I pulled Ernest Holmes' 365 Science of Mind book from my shelf, and randomly opened the book to this passage:

"I turn my thought to Joy, which I know is vibrating through all Life. Through my own being, in my innermost mind and heart, I reach deep into Infinite Being, and hear the Song of Gladness that sings through all manifestations of Life. I know that It also sings in me as I give It expression." (p/ 132, May1)

The thing is, I initially read it as saying "...and hear the Song of Goddess that sings through all manifestations of Life."

When I realized that I'd morphed Goddess with Gladness, I felt a buzz of some deep recognition that really did feel like gladness and joy. To the Ancients, Goddess was the Lifeforce, Love, or Beauty that rippled through, enlivened, and connected all things.

I decided to make that my mantra yesterday: "I allow the Song of Goddess to sing through me into perfect and joyful expression."

Isn't that a beautiful intention? To allow the Song of Goddess, or Gladness, or the Divine, to sing through you into expression, through your being into all that you do?

As I sat with that beautiful intention (and the energy that came with it), I recognized that it's one of the things I'm most devoted to, and that brings me the most joy - reconnecting with and expressing that Goddess-Divine Song, and guiding others so that they might express, and bless the world with, their Song as well.

Blessings,

Jamie

* Thanks to Reinante El Pintor de Fuego for this beautiful image, Extasis, from Creative Commons.