Category: Wisdom of the Shaman

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Messenger of the Dark

Raven Eye by Henry Percy

Image by Henry Percy

“Crow is a symbol of solitude, spiritual strength, and the secret magic of the creative life. Black is the colour of creation, the dark womb out of which the new is born. The three crows were the messengers, reminding me of my intuitive, creative nature, waiting to emerge. Three crows, three sisters, three fates, three witches. They are the triple goddess in her dark, shadowy form. 

The Dark Goddess reigns in the space without borders or boundaries. She is the dark side of the moon. She is the creative space, the womb space, the feminine blood mysteries. She is guardian of the life/death/re-birth cycles, and the mistress of transformation and change.

She is Pele, destroying everything that is not useful on our path; she is Lilith, reminding us of our deepest yearning and sexual desires; she is Kali, slaying the demons of our past; she is Sekhmet, showing us how to unlock our anger and our rage. She is the shadow side of our personality – what we try to hide, what we are ashamed of,
what we fear within ourselves, what we have been told to lock away.”

~Kristen Roderick

☾☽

As the nights lengthen

Dark Goddess whispers in the stillness,

waiting to initiate us into

a time of deep dreaming and seeing.

she pulls away the veils, and we are ushered into

a sacred dark space where we can remember, release, and recharge.

Aspens In Fall by Henry Percy

In this season of change and letting go

Meditate or call on the archetypal energies of

The Dark Goddess

Learn to release all that is complete, all that longer serves you.

 

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Old Woman Weaves and Watches

				Old woman is watching
				Watching over you
				  in the darkness of the storm
				  she is watching
			          watching over you

				weave and mend
				weave and mend
			    Old Woman is watching
				watching over you
			    with her bones become a loom
				she is weaving
				watching over us
				weave and mend
				golden circle
				weave and mend
				sacred sisters
				weave and mend
				
				I have been searching
				lost
				alone
				I have been searching
				for many years

				I have ben searching
				Old Woman

				and I find her 
				in
				myself

excerpt from “The Face of Old Women”  by Anne Cameron

Spider Web
Spider Weaves and Waits by Nancy L
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We are the Body of the Goddess

Roar, sacred woman... Roar!
Roar Sacred Woman

“Women’s stories are as powerful, inspiring, and terrifying as the goddess herself.
And in fact, these are the stories of the goddess.
As women, we know her because we are she.
Each woman, no matter how powerless she might feel,
is a cell within her vast form, an embodiment of her essence,
and each woman’s story is a chapter in the
biography of the sacred feminine.”

Jalaja Bonheim

☾☽

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Who Speaks for Our Mother?

Bear Canyon
Beautiful Bear Canyon by Nancy L

Every part of Mama Earth is alive and has a spirit; each blade of grass, pine tree, fox, flower, stone and drop of water is infused and flowing with spiritual essence and consciousness. Our Earth is a pulsing, flowing sacred system. And we are completely interwoven and interdependent with every other form of life in this system. All of life is interconnected; the idea that human beings are separate from other life forms is simply an illusion.

Stone Memories

Our human actions have a huge effect on our Earth Mother. The history of human life is physically and energetically imprinted into the elements of Mama Earth. Her elemental structures hold our human stories of war and violence, love and connection, loss and pain; our Mother stores our history within her water, soil and stones. Like a great elemental library, the sacred body of Gaia “remembers” the entire history of life on this planet.

“Human history is a Gaian dream.” 
~Terence McKenna

Although humans may have long forgotten the stories, Mama Earth continues to hold the history of all those who lived here before us. These traumatic imprints were created through human neglect and ignorance, and they can continue to haunt us for generations. When a piece of land holds a story of human aggression, loss, disconnection, trauma or suffering, those energies continue to impact the animals and people who live, work and interact with that place years later.

Healing Mama Earth

Without some form of balancing or clearing process, a traumatic event may continue to negatively impact the land and the people who live on the land years later. Mother Earth can stay ‘stuck’ in a state of imbalance for generations. But each of us can help our mother release old traumas and heal.

Whenever we consciously treat our Earth Mama with the love and respect she deserves, we actually help her restore balance and heal. And we heal our own relationship with this beautiful blue planet in the process.

Carl Sagan once asked, “Who speaks for planet Earth?” I believe it is time for each of us to speak out for Mama Earth.

“There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the earth.”
~Rumi

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The Seven Pathways to Peace

Poppies
Chautauqua Poppies by Nancy L

You are always praying; thought itself is prayer.
Whatever you focus your mind on, increases.
To change the world, change your thoughts about the world.
If you want to experience peace—become peace.
Peace is always present, though sometimes hidden.
Love is the only force in the universe.
The world is already healed.

~James Twyman
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Frog Song

Mosswood Pond
Pond at Mosswood Hollow by Nancy L

I attended a writer’s workshop near Seattle last week. I camped in a little tent in the middle of a beautiful forest. I was camping alone, but I didn’t feel lonely. The frogs of the nearby pond serenaded me nightly. I would lie each night in my tent beneath two huge old spruce trees and revel in their chorus. Here’s what I learned about frogs…

Frog timing is impeccable. Each night, one or two tiny frogs begin the frog chant and then another 2 or 3 will join in echoing the melody of the first perfectly. Then a third group joins, echoing the same melody. They join their voices and build a master symphony piece by piece, until their ultimate harmony rises and falls, undulating and echoing off the pond. Each masterpiece only lasts for one moment, maybe two. And then silence. Each serenade abruptly stops as if a maestro has cut the air with his baton to signal cease! Yet there is no maestro conductor on this pond. Only a few tiny green frogs magically harmonizing together.

At times, the nightly frog serenade would get so loud that I would literally have trouble thinking. But I was actually ok with that. Witnessing their creation up close was my compensation. It was fascinating to me that each frog sang out his piece of the symphony so loud and proud. I sensed zero hesitation and not an ounce of shame. One night as I listened to the symphony, I wondered to myself what I might learn from these little frogs. There had to be a reason my tent was positioned on the front row at this frog concert. It was too serendipitous to be an accident.

On my third night in the front row at frog symphony hall, I finally received the lesson frog was offering. I realized that I had been lying in my tent each night, debating with myself about how much of my story to write. I had been debating how much of me it was safe to share with the world. Meanwhile just outside, a tiny little frog sat on the muddy bank of a tiny little pond and bellowed out his song. He bellowed out his offering to the Gods with joy and gusto, night after night with little hesitation,  Frog refused to be silent. He just belted out his creations for all the world to hear.

Frog didn’t waste time worrying about who was listening. He didn’t worry about what his audience would think of his song. He just sang his song night after night. He sang it with gusto. Maybe, just maybe I was lying there in a tent next to frog’s pond to receive a lesson in the art of expressing myself with joyful abandon?

Joyful abandon… I love the sound of that. Juicy green joyful abandon! I could definitely use more of that in my life. 🙂

—

A·ban·don   əˈbandən/
noun – complete lack of inhibition or restraint

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Ride the Flow

Ride the Flow
Ride the Flow

“There is nothing of significance that you can do by yourself.
Sustained ehthusiasm brings into existance a wave of creative energy,
and all you have to do the is ‘ride the wave’.”
~Elkhart Tolle

Every part of our Universe shifts and flows and creates with the energy of Tao, the energy of Source. The Tao is the energetic mother of all that is. This sacred flow thrums and buzzes with pure creative potential. And whether you realize it or not, this Source energy flows within you and connects you to all that is in every moment.  

Creative Flow

Every life begins in an act of creative flow.  The sperm of the male penetrates the egg of the female… or is it that the egg allows the sperm to enter?  Either way, the result is a merging of two separate energies into a completely new human being. In a single magical instant, the egg of the mother and the sperm of the father flow together and create a juicy new being. 

“Creating is the essence of life.”
~Julius Caesar

And the joyful dance of elemental flow continues as we grow in size and complexity; in just 9 short months we literally transform from a tiny single-cell into a juicy baby human with a multi-celled miracle body.  Flow is the creative “magic” that drives our transformation from one cell into billions of cells working in synchrony as one body.

We are like waves dancing with the shore; at birth we rise up out of the Universal ocean of energy. Then we dance and flow our way through our days here on Earth, until it is time to fall back into the Universal depths. We rise and dance. We subside back into the ocean. 

Life is meant to be a creative flowing dance.

Wired to Create

Every living being is wired to flow and sing with creation. Creative energies flow and drive this Universe.  And creativity spontaneously flows whenever you connect with the Song of Soul within yourself.  When you learn to align with this flow, you can create with grace and ease. 

How much potent creative energy will course through you if you dare to reconnect to the flow you were born with? When we open ourselves up to more flow, more and more Soul expresses joyfully and naturally in our life.

“Creativity is the mother of all energies,
nurturer of your most alive self.
It charges up every part of you.
When you’re plugged in, a spontaneous combustion occurs
that ‘artists’ don’t have a monopoly on.”
~Judith Orloff

Creative Soul

Connecting to the flow of Soul is wildly creative and joyful. It is also deeply healing.The word healing originated from the ancient Anglo-Saxon word “haelen” which means to be or become whole. Balance, resonate and heal are all words for the same concept.

In order to truly heal, we must reconnect to the deep yearnings of our Soul. True lasting healing is about transformation; digging in, and bringing flow of Soul to the surface. Healing happens naturally whenever we tap into the creative juice that flows through our core. 

“Every creative act is also an act of healing.”
~Nancy Lankston