Priestess in Blue Jeans

HeArtful, Passionate Leo New Moon

We're in the dark of the moon, hours before the Leo new moon (11:08 p.m. Eastern Time, U.S.). The new moon is a time of planting seeds, and each Lunar cycle is ruled by an archetype - in this case Leo and it's planetary archetype, the Sun.

According to Steve Nelson, Mythic Astrologer, this new moon, following the Lammas power-portal (August 6-8),is powerful -- it is "...a bridge is created between the old world and the new and a channel is opened for knowledge of the past to flow through and combine with the new spirit of the time to meld the consciousness of a new world."

It also, Nelson says, falls at the beginning of a particularly powerful two-year-period ruled by the High Priestess archetype -- think Mary Magdalene, Persephone, the Goddess, the Feminine. More on that in another post, coming soon. In the meanwhile...

Our Leo-Sun new moon seeds, intentions, or desires center around the qualities and themes of love, heartfulness, creativity, and 'shining our authentic self'.

Think of the Sun, radiating its light and warmth, calling the plants to stand up in their fullness. The Sun is also the center of our solar system, having been the 'attractor' that drew the rest of the planets into its field.

Out of balance, entrenched in ego-personality, Leo can be unhealthily self-centered, forgetting the generosity of spreading light, inspiration, creativity, and warmth.

In Taoist Five Elements, this is the Yang element of fire, the catalyzing element of alchemy and transformation, inspiration, Spirit, and vision. It's a highly creative element, since it transforms the idea (wood) into manifested form (earth). Fire is also the only element that helps to thaw what is frozen and transform what might have become too rigid (metal) into a more liquid, flowing, malleable state.

Generosity, grace, and graciousness are qualities of fire-element types, as are passion and joy. We might think of the benevolent, magnanimous, generous-of-Spirit leader as one embodiment of these traits.

Of course, fire with too much fuel and not enough fire-tending can quickly burn out of control, engulfing everything in its path. While this transforms, it also burns itself out and scorches more than a few things along the way! Unchecked anger falls into this category as well. We think of 'burning bridges' as an example of this manifesting in our life, or 'burning out' when we've not allowed the wise, rebalancing, and nourishing of Yin.

Not enough fire, though, and we feel as if 'the fire has gone out' or we've lost that 'fire in our bellies'. Fire, in whatever form it expresses in our lives, needs tending -- that means in love, creativity, purpose, inspiration, or otherwise.

In ancient Celtic traditions, these qualities were the realm of the fire goddess, Brigid -- the cauldrons of creativity, Love, inspiration, Spirit, and transformation. As in Taoist Five Elements, Brigid's cauldron or hearth fed inspiration to the poets, craftspeople, artists, and smiths. And there were always Brigid's sacred wells nearby for that nourishing Yin energy to balance the fire.

So these are some of the themes we can work with as we plant our Leo New Moon seeds and reflect on our intentions for the coming cycle:

* Your purpose - your own unique way of shining

* Heartfulness and Spirit within yourself, and in your experience

* Creativity, Love, inspiration, graciousness, inspiration, joy, and alchemical transformation

* Your unique magic (or mojo), and shining more brightly and joyfully

* What of these (and other Leonine-Sun-Fire qualities) would you like to experience more of?

* What needs to be alchemized and transformed in the creative cauldrons of fire?

Consider doing a simple fire ritual (candles work nicely) or visualization before the new moon to transform the energies of what needs releasing, and then working with the freed energy to feed your Leo new moon seeds and intentions.

As with everything, what we perceive and experience begins within us, and this new moon begins a cycle that is ripe for cultivating, embodying, and expressing these fine Leo-Sun-Fire qualities.

Happy Leo new moon! Here's to all heartful, artful, inspired, passionate, and Big-Loving pursuits!

Blessings,

Jamie

Find inspiration on purpose and power in the Ivy Sea VIP collection (there's a Leo New Moon and Leo Sun special going on right now), or schedule an individual session on bringing forth your own Leo-Fire qualities and purpose.

* Image Credits: Majestic Leo the Lion thanks to Vegetarian Friends & the Peaceable Table; fire photo thanks to Public Domain Pictures.

Our 'Imagination Lab' & Visions of Healing

Over the past year, and over the past few weeks, several themes have repeated themselves, putting themselves in front of me so I'd be sure to see them.

This is how it seems to work: We ask for guidance, and a flurry of 'responses' or clues arise around us. For many of us, including me, it takes some practice figure out how Life speaks to us, so we can learn to see and interpret the hieroglyphs placed on our path.

Early last year, as I was in the shower (a Top Ten 'aha moment' locale), I realized (with some horror) that I was adeptly rehearsing some worst-case-scenarios in my mind. The visual was there, the soundtrack was there, and the feeling was there. My own little creative laboratory, in which I was energizing the least desirable outcomes. Yikes (which is what I think I said then, along with a couple of other colorful words!).

And double-yikes when I realized I had a much easier time, at that particular moment in my life, 'rehearsing' the least desirable scenarios than desirable ones. I knew that it stemmed not only from being well-trained in 'contingency planning', but also from walking a deeply challenging path for several years -- a real Dark Night of the Soul that left me bracing for the next impact and dreading the next loss. I also knew that using my imagination that way was, how shall I say it, not helpful. At all.

So I vowed right there and then to shift that pattern.

Since then, the big themes that keep arising for me are: the Divine Feminine, presence, Divine Love, and the more conscious, deliberate use of our gifts of imagination (including thought, feeling, and word). In the past few weeks, these themes have been reverberating like a quickening drum beat.

In the ancient Mystery Schools, as with many Indigenous wisdom traditions, the imagination or 'the dreaming' were considered powerful Divine gifts. We envision, and then enliven that vision or dream with words, thoughts, and feelings. In this way, we co-create our experience, individually and collectively.

What we experience individually reflects our predominant imagining or dream theme, tinged by the collective dream, which is what we notice around us, as culture, as what's in the news.

The Mystery School adepts and teachers knew how important it was that we vision, dream, and imagine from a place of Divine Love, rather than fear, because we're powerfully creating from one or the other.

Though it has been many centuries since the Mystery Schools were nearly exterminated, with the surviving teachers and teachings going 'underground', each of us uses these Divine gifts every day. We may think or say that we don't have time to vision, or daydream, or imagine, but what we're really saying is that we don't allow the time to do them consciously. The default programs, usually fueled by fear, are constantly running behind the scenes, and we notice them when we begin to pay attention. Just like I noticed in the shower that day last year.

Now, those Mystery and wisdom teachings are resurfacing, prompting us to take another look -- to get more conscious with our co-creating habits. We may see or hear these messages coming from new interpretations of Jesus's teachings, or the many translations of the Tao te Ching or Rumi's poetry. The messages might arise in emails or a conversation about Abraham-Hicks teachings, horizon-walking physicists, or the resurfacing of the 'New Thought' teachers from the mid-20th century. Or they might arise in our own dreams or consciousness, as themes or words or phrases.

Regardless, we're being asked to remember, and to create and co-create more consciously, more joyfully, in alignment with Love rather than fear. We're being asked to envision and imagine more desirable scenarios, knowing that what we experience begins in the imagination (and even what we imagine ripples outward, energetically, into the collective energy field).

So as I reflected last week in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, with the photos of destruction and mayhem and suffering, I was reminded not just how important it is that we notice and acknowledge the suffering, but that we go from there to holding a vision of healing, thriving, and wholeness. Holding and energizing an active-vision of healing and love is a powerful gift and a service we can offer from a distance.

The same holds true for all of our imaginings, whether they apply to aspects of our personal lives (including work, and how we work); the circumstances of a friend of family member; or as our imaginings apply to the local and global community. Align with Divine Love, and imagine well.

Blessings on the Way,

Jamie

* Photo Credit: Thank you to "Extasis-Pintrodefuego" for the Creative Commons use of this beautifully imagined and created image!

Earth, Connection & Holding the Paradox

Today is one of those days when it's a challenge to hold all that's coming in energetically, psychically, and via the media.

After two very restless nights, and hearing from other women that they've experienced the same, I'm reminded of just how connected we are with what's going on with the planet -- particularly how our bodies, energy fields, and psyches pick up on major Earth events. I remember resonating deeply with this idea when I heard and read Llewelyn Vaughn-Lee speak to the deep feeling-connection women in particular have with the planet.

Many of us experienced sleepless nights and energetic agitation just before, during, and after the devastating earthquake that struck in Haiti, with the heart-wrenching loss and upheaval being experienced there now by the people of that country. A recent report expects more than 100-thousand people are feared dead. The AP news story on the tragedy -- in a bizarre clue as to where the Western mind is -- included this sentence: "Even relatively wealthy neighborhoods were devastated."

With assistance, aid, and waves of prayer for love and healing coming in to Haiti from around the world, both the horror and the deep beauty of Life reveals itself. It also reverberates the message that we are all connected -- what happens in one part of the web of Life affects us all.

And right next to that article on the news sites was "Bank CEOs say they're sorry, but defend bonuses." What a juxtaposition! In the article, Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, said, "I do think the behavior is improper. We regret the consequence that people have lost money in it." Then, the article continued, "he defended the firm's actions as "exercises in risk management."

Oops, sorry that we caused a lot of people harm and loss. Sorry that we reneged on good-faith agreements and executed usury to cash in on people going through the longest recession since the Great Depression even though we could have chosen differently. Sorry that we indulge our own greed and 'risk-and-power addictions' to the detriment of the common good. But hey, ching ching, we're doing well. It's just a 'risk management exercise.'

One of the interesting things about these stories appearing simultaneously is the contrast they reveal -- one, an outpouring of compassion and humanity in response to people experiencing devastation, suffering, and loss; a unified focus on the common good, of being of comfort and service. The other, an example of Western Mind Disease* (that the acronym is WMD is telling), caught up in greed, lacking empathy, and a marked disregard for common good.

So what about all of this, so it's just not all waily-waily indignation?

One of my teachers, Andrew Harvey, asked: "What breaks your heart? What makes you angry?" This, he said, guided you to heartful sacred activism. I took it a step further and asked, "What do these things have in common, and based on that, what am I willing to stand for?"

And another 'inspiration mentor', Caroline Casey, asks, "And so what is the reciprocal blessing you'd give for those who make you angry?"

The devastation in Haiti breaks my heart.

The largely avoidable losses suffered by so many people in the wake of financial-industry malfeasance breaks my heart.

The arrogant misuse of power and casual disregard for people's dignity modeled by the Big Bank CEOs makes me angry, because they could have elected to create humane, common-good-centered policies that would have helped avert many of the losses and much of the suffering, and they didn't. Instead, they gambled not just with the peoples' money, but with peoples' lives (lost homes, businesses, livelihoods, wellness, and some who committed suicide over their losses). 'Oops, sorry' doesn't cut it.

And what am I willing to stand for, based on that? Embodying and supporting the shift in consciousness that inspires right use of power -- power with, not power over -- and a sense of humanity, of connection, of heartfulness and wisdom, of the dignity and sacredness of all life (and all beings, including human beings), and of our taking back our own power and sense of value as the Divine expressions that we are, and expressing that in creative ways that benefit all.

The reciprocal blessing? May the Big-Bank CEOs and their colleagues find themselves blessed with a renewed sense of their connection with all beings, and may they be filled with a deep remembrance of the sacredness of Life and the dignity of all people, and all beings.

How about you?

Blessings on the Way,

Jamie

* Thanks to Phil Rogacki for the 'Western Mind Disease (WMD)' phrase and insight!

* Photo Credit: Thanks to Fdecomite for the Creative Commons fantasy land fractal.

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

Your Heart's Song

In several spiritual and wisdom traditions, we hear of the Divine Spark within us, our Soul's Song, or our Heart's Song.

All point towards the spark or vibration of the Divine Intelligence that weaves in and through our being, our truest essence. Like a musician with his or her instrument, our Song is a vital part of the Universal symphony.

It's so easy in our culture to find ourselves, seemingly, far from our Soul's Song, our Heart's Song, so that we ourselves can't even imagine what it is.

Cultivating that connection is a key facet of spiritual work, whatever path we walk.

Our Soul's Song is our Heart's Joy; it speaks vibrationally, though we can interpret it through other ways, too: words we might hear, synchronocities, and so on.

I've always found that asking questions, inquiring, is one way to invite response, insight, and wisdom; and then watching, listening, sensing for response to our questions from within and around us.

This morning, as I engaged in my morning practice of prayer, reflection, and ho'oponopono, the question emerged: How does my Heart Song want to sing through me today?

What is your Heart's Song, and how does it want to sing through you today?

Blessings,

Jamie

Vessels of the Divine

One key teaching of many spiritual traditions is that we are, each of us, creations, expressions, and vessels of the Divine, by whatever name we call it: God, Goddess, Spirit, Life, Creator, or Infinite Intelligence. Most of what we see, hear, and experience during the daily course of life might tell us something quite different.

Many of us have been on the path of reclaiming that sacred connection to All that Is, and many more are awakening to that call in these times of great change. In fact, it seems that all of the energies and forces of the Universe are conspiring for just that, asking us to remember, deeply, who we truly are, so we can bring that juicy, joyful, beautiful fullness into the world.

This is the true path of recovering and finding what has heart and meaning for us, what aligns with what I call our heart's joy and soul's song. It's from this path of discovery, this great adventure, that we find a sense of deep purpose that transcends at yet infuses every specific role we play - parent, partner, sister, brother, employee, entrepreneur, and so on.

We 'show up' radiating our particular brand of Divine juju, and it's compelling and contagious, like a delicious energetic elixir.

The path of the priestess, or priest, often includes a forgetting of this sacred path and our Divine nature and essence, followed at some point by a deep initiation -- often brought about by one or a series of life-and-perspective altering events or experiences -- and then,finally, a gnosis, or deep experiential knowing, and recovery of connection with the sacred along with a repertoire of practices that we use in our own daily life and share with others who are in the midst of initiation or ascent from the depths of self-remembering.

Like the Mystery initiates, teachers, priestesses and priests, shaman-Queens and shaman-Kings of ancient times -- before our collective forgetting -- those of us who are called (or hauled) into the  initiation journey ultimately feel compelled to share what we've learned, lighting lanterns along the path of remembering, and sharing the practices and tools that have been so helpful. It's the ultimate Divine gift that keeps on giving.

In a culture that has long separated itself from its ancient history of these Mysteries, of initiation and the ways and paths of remembering and awakening to our nature as Vessels of the Divine, Life itself -- God/dess, Spirit -- is our great Mystery Teacher, our initiator. And if we're fortunate, we'll increasingly find initiated guides along our way.

In knowing that our deepest purpose is to be a Vessel for the Divine, a conduit for Divine inspiration, compassion, creativity, and the Big Love, we can find those practices, rituals, and resources that keep us centered in that knowing, and help us to embody those deepest of values and bring them into all that we do - our relationships, our work, our interactions, our very way of Being.

What does this Divine-Essence embodiment and expression look like? Sacred relationship, deeply respectful interactions, a sense of deepened heart and meaning, joy, inspiration, inspired work, a deeper sense of confidence and purpose...the list goes on.

Blessings on the Way,

Jamie

* To schedule a consultation, tele-session, workshop, talk, or tele-class on these and related topics, email Jamie, your Priestess in Bluejeans (and long-time conscious enterpriser), or visit Ivy Sea Online.

** The beautiful image above came from Crystal Links Mary Magdalene page, with no artist attribution. A web searched revealed various uses of the same image, but didn't turn up the artist of this beautiful piece. If that's you, email me, so I can attribute proper credit.

In-the-World Mystics, Monks & Priestesses

In “A Monastic Life," Author and former Nun, Theresa Mancuso writes:

"It is not an easy task, but a most rewarding one, to bless the marketplace with a contemplative presence. It seems to me that the life of work and prayer is not only possible, but greatly enhanced by standing firm in the real world with one’s being anchored solidly in the Ultimate Reality. It is the harmony of the universe that echoes in the heart of the “new monk” who works and prays, lives and loves, re-creates and recreates in the center of the present world. The mystical monastery is the whole of society; the marketplace is one of its cloisters. The Holy Rule of the New Monk is the solid perspective of the spiritual practice embraced."

The Sufi teacher, Llewleyn Vaughn-Lee, also emphasizes how important it is to have in-the-world Mystics bringing the consciousness of unity and Love into the marketplace. He writes, in his book Working with Oneness, "Their spiritual qualities are needed to give a certain color to the marketplace, to give a certain frequency of energy to life. They are needed to make something happen -- to awaken the heart of the world."

Spiritual principles, or values of any kind, don't mean a whole lot if we're not practicing them 'for real' - embodying them, cultivating them. Talking the talk without walking the walk gets boring after awhile, anyway, and something deep within us yearns for the very words to transform us. And they will, and do, eventually. The world and our corners of it need 'the walk' at this point. Think of yourself as a local ambassador or emissary.

Many people, many of us, have been in various ways writing about that, consulting about it, exploring it, experimenting with it, and all of the while continuing the practice of deepening our own gnosis and capacity, for quite some time now. It's a process.

To some of you, this may seem a pretty tall task, or maybe even near-impossible. It can seem overwhelming, or overly earnest in lives over-filled with too much struggle and striving and too little true joy and magic. It can seem that way; on some days, it can surely feel that way deep into our bones.

And while there may be days when it seems a heavy mission, it doesn't have to be that way in general. There is joy, there is a sense of meaning, even lightness, and definitely magic, when we attune to that mission of bringing the fullness of ourselves, our truest essence and most authentic nature, into expression in all that we do...or much of it, anyway.

This lens of being 'in-the-world' mystics, or monks, or priestesses in a world, in workplaces, in relationships, communities, places of worship, schools and so on that are in need of deep healing and transformation can help give focus to how we show up day to day, week to week.

And it can help us to shape the practices we use to help us to cultivate that capacity to show up as joy, generosity, compassion, kindness, equanimity, love, or whatever other values we define for ourselves as aligned with who we truly are, and how, in being those, we find joy and a new depth of satisfaction.

So what kind of in-the-world mystic, poet, artist, monk, or priestess (or hybrid) are you? And how can you weave that beautiful essence-thread through all that you do?

Lots of love,

Jamie

Let the beauty you love...

Jalal ad-Din Rumi, the 13th century Persian poet, mystic, and Sufi,  has become the best-selling poet in the United States. Why?

Because the words of the deep-heart and Divine soul that pour through his words connect with the deep-heart and Divine Soul within us. Mystics call it 'the Beloved'; others call it the Divine Feminine. But these are just words for something that's bigger than words.

Rumi was on fire with the Beloved, having touched into the deep-hearted Love within himself -- the deep-hearted Love that was his true nature, and that is our very own true nature.

He said, "Let the beauty that you love be what you do." He could have just as well said, "Let the beauty and Love that you are be what you do."

To those of us in the Western culture, the truest essence of heart, Love, the Beloved, and all that grows out of the wellspring of the deep Feminine has been ravaged by a bias towards the 'rational' (which often seems, ironically, irrational), an over-reliance on the mind that leads us out of our hearts and away from our Soul's Song.

Though it's as natural and close to us as our own breath, we have to go on a reclamation-expedition to recover it. Or restore our own acquaintance with it.

What does it mean for us to let the beauty that we love be what we do? Knowing the beauty that we love requires us to be in our bodies, in the present moment, not just 'transcending' to our minds and wandering, with our minds, to every other place but the present. Beauty, joy, and love touch us; that's not the territory of the intellect, but of the deeply sensual. It stops us in our tracks; it brings us present. We're 'lit up' with it.

Our minds complicate things, at least when they're running on 'default programming'. So, for example, when we ask the question, "What's my purpose? Why am I here?" we immediately go looking for a hundred ways to analyze it, complexify it, and thus we perceive that the knowledge of our purpose eludes us.

But as Arwen, the Elven princess in Lord of the Rings, says to Aragorn when he says that he can't see his path, "It's right beneath your feet." Such is the case with purpose - with the beauty and love that we are; it's hidden in plain sight, woven through the very fabric of our life's journey thus far. We've just been looking for it someplace other than here, already within us.

Dr. Hew Len, a teacher of an updated form of ho'oponopono that he learned from his teacher, the Kahuna Morrnah Simeona, says of his own purpose: It's twofold - to clear away the junk that arises to obscure it, and to help others awaken. His teacher told him, when he explained that he was a healer (psychologist trained to 'heal others'), that his purpose was to be at peace, and to clear the way for Divine inspiration to flow, and work, through him.

The 'beauty that we love' often reveals itself in those very same inspired moments that we can so easily miss because of our preoccupation. And if we ask "What is the beauty that I love? What is the Love that I am?" it begins to reveal itself to us, if we pay attention...if we listen for it, watch for it, and use our practices to clear away what obscures it from our awareness.

Let the beauty you love be what you do. Let the Divine Love that you are infuse all that you do.

Blessings on the Way.

Jamie

Priestess in Blue Jeans