Transmutation News January 2002
A key ingredient of alchemy is heat. Heat is power and heat and power create change. The end result of alchemy is transmutation, transformation, and change.
Some form of “heat” is involved in creating change in our lives. When one is suffering from emotional or physical pain there is heat thus resulting in some kind of change and transformation.
When one is in love with someone, a cause, some form or work, life, nature, etc. the passion of love creates heat. This passionate heat also contains the power to create change.
As we step into the new year, typically a marker for many of us in linear time where we hope for change, let’s use the basic and fundamental principle of alchemy. We can transmute, transform and create change with the heat of our passion. The door has always been through our hearts.
Think about what you love and have passion for. Commit to doing what you love. Heat up the alchemical cauldron of your life with what you have passion for and watch and observe as your life unfolds to a new level of evolution empowered by love.
At the beginning of the new year many of us work with making resolutions. Besides committing to what you love, I will plant a seed of something to think about and be with during this time.
Last month I wrote that everything manifests in the spiritual before manifesting on the physical. This is a truth known in all spiritual traditions.
In working with this spiritual principle there might be some “spiritual corrections” we need to make so what starts on the spiritual is not created as chaos on the physical.
During the next few weeks use shamanic journeying or your meditation practice to ask for guidance on what spiritual corrections are required for you to truly manifest “your heart’s desire”.
In the last few months I have written about using focus as well as the rest of the formula for transmutation to create a new dream. The need for visionaries and new dreamers include the children of the world. How do we help children become visionaries? Nancy has given me permission to share a project she was directed to start. I hope this inspires you in some way.
This is a letter that Nancy wrote to art teachers:
Dear Art Teacher, Like you, I am sure, the range of emotion I have experienced since the 9/11 terrorist attack on The United States has left me feeling helpless and somewhat exhausted. For the last week I have been looking at ways to empower my community, and empower myself so that we face what the future holds with a secure vision of what our ideal world is.
The more energy we can generate to hold such a vision, the more power we will have to make it visible to other communities and the rest of the world. Less time will be spent on fear of the unknown if we can hold the known close to our hearts, and one way to know our vision is to make it concrete.
While thinking along these lines I envisioned an art project that could be used by Schools and Libraries, and perhaps museums to help people, and especially help children, to hold a secure vision of community, and understand that their voice is heard within their community.
This project would involve making or acquiring a large container, appropriate to the scope of the project in your school, and making it beautiful. This container would represent an ideal community. Then each participating student would be encouraged to think of something that in his or her opinion is necessary for the vitality of a perfect community. The student would then make a visual effigy of his or her thought with art supplies appropriate to the age of the student. These effigies or symbols of the ideal would be placed with some care or ceremony into the container. A book might be kept listing the contents of the “Community” and the finished project could be displayed along with the book.
I have put a bowl, a small pad and some colored pencils, and fimo clay in the entrance to my home for this purpose. Family and guests have made images of the sun, the moon, food, a heart, animals, and different colored people hugging. There is a vial of pure water, and a little bundle of fertile soil in the bowl. There is an acorn, some rice, and a peace sign. There will be a cross, and a symbol of Buddhism by the weekend. There are little folded pieces of paper with words and poems. Someone put a dollar bill in the bowl, and someone else added a chocolate bar. The enthusiasm and positive emotion put into this project are less visible but by no means less tangible.
On another note some friends of mine have alerted me to a situation little known to the public. Michael and Lori of Wild Angels have great passion about this issue, as I am sure many of you will.
Here is what Michael wrote:
The Hopi elder pointed to a bend in the parched, sandy river bed and said, “This was always our swimming hole”. But now the water is gone. The springs and streams that the Hopi have depended on for over a thousand years are dry, or going dry. The cause? Peabody energy pumps more than 3.3 million gallons of pure, drinkable water from the Black Mesa area's sole source aquifer every day to move coal through a pipeline to a power plant 273 miles away in Laughlin, Nevada.
Wild Angels, the nonprofit group working to save the dwindling freshwater resources of the Hopi and the Big Mountain Navajo, has achieved some breakthroughs in this crucial effort. The group got a revealing article published in Time magazine and initiated a shareholder’s resolution in the parent company (Lehman Brothers) urging an end to the draw down of the aquifer for coal slurry. In other words, there is, at last, some significant movement on this issue. Active participants and funding are needed to propel this important work to success.
If you can help with funding or have funding ideas please contact www.wildangels.org or phone Wild Angels at 505-989-1818.
Continue to practice staying in your heart and let the power of love and appreciation fuel the changes in your life.
Please join us as we continue to create a human web of light on the full moon January 28.
I wish you a joyous and passion filled New Year.
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Transmutation News February 2002
Every few months I contact the participants from my Medicine for the Earth trainings and we set up a time to do some long distance work together. At all the trainings where we are present together we have found that the work of transmuting water infused with the pollutant ammonium hydroxide has created a good change in pH. As we have been getting good results in working together I have felt it is important to work on issues long distance together.
The intention I set for the last long distance work we did together on December 16 was to transmute the quality of air at the World Trade Center in New York. I had also received a request from a resident in Nevada to ask for help with moisture for at the time Reno was experiencing a drought that was endangering water supplies which would endanger the migrating birds.
People either worked on their own or in the numerous groups that have formed to do the work. Two days after the work it was reported in the New York Times that the fires were officially out at the World Trade Center. Once I wrote up the request for people to work in behalf of the state of Nevada the storms started rolling in.
The fires going out at the World Trade Center and the storms coming into Nevada could be coincidence. As I wrote about in Medicine for the Earth the principle of ambiguity is essential for not taking egoic credit for the work. When we really don’t know what created an effect we stay in balance. I also wrote that Einstein said, “Coincidence is God’s way of staying anonymous”.
The spiritual work we do does make a difference and it is vital that we remain proactive with our spiritual work.
I would like to ask all of you to join in on some work that we can all begin to do together. I got the idea after hearing about Christian Bollman’s “Peace Pool Project”. He asked people to place prayers, sounds, and songs for peace into bodies of water which would then cycle through the waters of the world.
In working with the transmutation of pollution here is an adaptation that I would like to suggest. Researchers have found that water carries a memory. This means that water remembers the pollution that it carries. We also carry a cellular memory of trauma that has occurred to us. This is why the work of transfiguration is so important. It helps us remember our own divinity and the truth of who we are.
Depending on how much work you have done with the Medicine for the Earth material will depend on how you proceed with joining people around the world in ceremony. The purpose of the ceremony will be to imbue a container of water that you collect with the intent for the water to return to a state of purity and holiness. This water will then be placed into a large body of water where you live. As thousands of us do this we start to change the memory of water around globe to remember it’s purity and sacredness. The date that I propose we work on is February 27, which is the full moon. The energy of the full moon will magnify our work.
It’s important when we work with an element to really get to know the element. So please look up in Medicine for the Earth the section of working with the elements on page 149. Try to do some meditation this month with merging with water so you understand its nature before we work on February 27.
Sometime before February 27 collect some water from a stream, river, lake, creek, ocean that you can put in a cup or jar. If you do not live around any natural water source you can of course use water from your home. All water can be transmuted.
On February 27 pick a time where you can create a quiet space around you. You can do some drumming, rattling, dancing, and singing to get into a quiet space. As an alternative you can put on some music that is calming and slightly altering for you. Or of course you can sit in silence and bring yourself to center.
At this point if you have been working with transfiguration you would want to transfigure into a divine force. If you have not been working with this you can just tone or sing holding the intention to remember that you are divine. In this divine state you might find yourself singing into the water or holding the jar placing into it the intention that you honor the waters divinity and purity. Give prayers of love and appreciation for water as a giver of life.
Remember intention + love + union + harmony + focus + concentration + imagination = transmutation.
You will have an intuitive sense when the work is done. You now want to ground yourself and fully experience yourself present. If you transfigured into a divine force, with intention disengage from that force. Get up move around and if you can go outside and place your hands on the earth or sit with a tree for awhile. If you are in an urban area with no land around you can do a simple visualization. Visualize yourself sitting with a tree in nature. Experience the strong roots and how the roots ground the tree. Allow yourself to ground with your own luminous roots into the earth. This should help you feel centered and present again.
Whatever method you choose to do make sure you feel fully back and present. Get up and eat some food. Drink some water with deep appreciation for all it gives to you.
You can either work alone or with a group of friends. Within the next couple of days take the water you have worked on to a body of water that you can place it in. The water imbued with purity and sacredness creates divinity as it flows home to its source.
As you do this work on February 27 please remember also to focus on the human web of light circling the world.
As I finished typing the above, I looked at my clock. The clock read 11:11.
I take this as a good omen for the work.
Recently I was delighted to receive a manuscript on Jewish shamanism. The title of the book is Magic of the Ordinary: An Introduction to Jewish Shamanism and it is written by Gershon Winkler. It is such an extraordinary book that I wanted to tell you about it.
Gershon Winkler started out as an orthodox rabbi in Brooklyn. Through a series of experiences he felt called to go live out on the land for a few weeks. He ended up in a little cabin with no running water or any amenities in the mountains in California. He never returned to an urban way.
Gershon speaks Aramaic and Hebrew fluently. So he has gone back into the old texts and discovered that the Jewish tradition is rooted in a shamanic framework. The ancient texts speak to the importance of working with spirits including the spirits of the elements, animals, stones, trees, plants, insects, etc. Drumming, chanting, and dancing were used for ceremonies and to enter ecstatic states of consciousness. Basically, if you have done any reading on shamanism you will find all the principles that you have read about also existing in the Jewish religion.
So here we see that the original teachings were lost and somehow, a modern organized religion formed that does not match the teachings of the original texts.
There are many people who have rejected the religions that they were raised with as they often don’t feed our spiritual needs. After reading this book it is clear that anyone of the Jewish faith practicing and studying shamanism is really walking the path of his or her ancestors. What a revelation and healing this will be for such a large population of spiritual seekers.
David Carson, co-creator of the Medicine Cards, writes in the forward: “Like so much of Native American cosmology, ancient Jewish cosmology too, downplays the clamor for spiritual experience in the beyond, and encourages us to instead find it right here in the earth, and in what we call Nature.”
Magic of the Ordinary does not offer techniques. It is a book educating people about Jewish Shamanism and the importance of reconnecting with the natural world. Gershon Winkler encourages people to experience life and not sit back and observe it. What he says reminds me of the Haitian proverb I quote in Medicine for the Earth: “The gods won’t appear, the magic won’t happen, if we are not living our real life. Studying life is not living life, and therefore has no magic.”
Gershon is in the process of finding of a publisher for his manuscript. For the meantime copies are available in manuscript form. For information on how to order a copy go to his web site.http://www.walkingstick.org When I spoke with him he told me it is truly amazing all the material that is available in the old Aramaic texts. This manuscript is just one of more to come.
I know many of you reading this are fans of Masuro Emoto’s extraordinary work of photographing water crystals. His first book Messages from Water has been very successful in changing people’s consciousness about water. You can check out my April 2001 web posting where I talk about his work if you are familiar with it. He now has published Messages from Water volume 2. It is a continuation of the work he has been doing and has some pretty extraordinary photographs in it.
You might have your own source for his books. It you don’t, I order my books from Source Books in Nashville, TN. You can reach them at 1-800-637-5222 or http://www.sacredspaces.org
I give thanks to Masuro Emoto for being able to show the world that water is alive and intelligent. He is doing so much for changing people’s consciousness about the life force and intelligence of the natural world.
Every few years I receive an auditory message from what I call “The Voice” in a dream. This past month the message I received was “stretch or be stretched”. We really are living in a time where it is important to make a choice to expand to all kinds of possibilities.
Think about it.
Next month I will invite you to perform a ritual to work with the element earth.
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Transmutation News March 2002
I just returned from meeting with a group who participated in the five-day Medicine for the Earth Gathering in June of last year. We decided to meet again and share how our work has been going. It was very exciting to see how everyone is taking this work out into the world in his or her own way.
During one of our sessions we got into a discussion about transfiguration. In Medicine for the Earth I shared how in a dream I was told that this was the missing piece to the transmutation work I was attempting to share.
There was agreement with the entire group how invaluable the practice of transfiguration has been in each person's lives. The positive changes that this practice has produced for everyone is quite exciting.
There is such brilliant work going on from all different groups around the world in working on solutions to our environmental issues. The piece that the Medicine for the Earth work brings to the puzzle is the process of transfiguration.
Although everyone in the group agreed that this process has been life changing there were a lot of questions of how to explain transfiguration to others. Sometimes we can experience spiritual practices and have a great effect from them, but it can be hard to find the words to share in the explanation. I figured if the people who are practicing transfiguration are confused on how to explain and understand the process you might be too.
As this is so key to the transmutation work I describe in Medicine for the Earth, I would like to explain it again.
In different esoteric teachings you will see the statement "as above so below, as within so without." In our lives we often put spiritual sources of power outside of ourselves. We see God outside of ourselves, power animals and spiritual teachers outside of ourselves, deities outside of ourselves, etc. From a spiritual perspective these spiritual forces are "us" too.
In all my books I shared a message from "the voice" which came to me in a dream in the 1980's. The voice said, "Man has been looking for God outside of himself for the last two thousand years. Man will be looking for God inside of himself for the next two thousand years."
Transfiguration is a practice that helps us experience our own divinity in whatever form that takes to fit our philosophical, religious, and spiritual beliefs. The actual definition in Webster's of transfiguration is shapeshifting. So in the process we shapeshift into a divine force.
Many saints, mystics, and spiritual masters are sometimes described as shining brighter than any light seen. This is the process of transfiguration. And the process is not reserved for spiritual masters. You can do it to.
When we look at the obsession today with gathering money, material objects, relationships, etc. what are people truly seeking? We are seeking spiritual light. We are just looking for it in all the wrong places. When we experience spiritual light through some divine force inside of us we are fulfilled. We realize that what we need in life is available to us in ourselves. We stop reaching to outside forces for safety, enlightenment, and happiness. We begin to get in touch with our creative energy. We start to transmute as we walk through the world.
If you have not been working with the process of transfiguration please look at the section which discusses the process in Medicine for the Earth. I am not suggesting you transfigure to a level where you cannot live your life and you have to move to a cave where people bring you food. There are many levels to the process. I am talking about getting in touch with your divinity and letting your light shine through you which will give you the power to manifest light and love in your life and transform those problematic forces which need to be transformed.
One of the questions that the group I was in spoke about is how there is not one way to transfigure. As people sat around talking about the process we realized that everyone did it in a different way. So although I offer suggestions in Medicine for the Earth you might find that you need to find your own way. You will find that you need to encompass all the elements of the formula for transmutation. You need a strong intention and must stay focused and concentrate on your intention. You need to embrace love for yourself and your divine nature and be clear that you are doing this to bring harmony within and without. You need to be in union with your creator. And you need to be able to imagine that you have the capability to transfigure into the divine.
I find in my own transfiguration practice my level of concentration only allows me to stay in this state for a short period of time. With practice one can maintain this state for longer periods. Again the end result we are looking for is carrying a light inside that transforms your life and the environment as you walk through the world.
I hoped you felt good about the water ritual you performed in February. I think it is very important to understand that the more we can work together as a collective the better results we will see in healing our environment, creating a new dream, and transforming consciousness.
A friend of mine shared with me the following excerpt that was on an online Reiki newsletter:
Global Consciousness is Being Measured by William Lee Reed
"A team of researchers headed by Roger Nelson of Princeton University has been conducting an experiment to measure the effects of focused global consciousness on random events. They have had some very interesting results.
Called the Global Consciousness Project, their experiment involves the use of 37 computers located around the world using random number generators to flip virtual coins. The experiment has been going on since 1998. Each computer flips 200 virtual coins at a time and the results of all computers are compared. The results are usually completely random, with the virtual coin tosses come up heads or tails 50% of the time.
However, when a global event takes place that focuses the attention of billions of people, the randomness of the coin tosses changes and they tend to go significantly more one way than another. In other words they become more coherent or non-random. This took place on September 11 when so many people worldwide were focused on the events of the World Trade Center disaster. This produced the strongest effect so far, but other events have coincided with changes in randomness too, including:
Each New Years Eve, the papal visit to Israel, the first hour of NATO bombing in Yugoslavia, a variety of global meditations, several major earthquakes, the funeral for Princess Diana and last years sinking of Russia's Kursk submarine.
This seems to indicate that consciousness has an effect on other wise random events."
I spoke with Roger Nelson a few years ago as I was thinking of trying to get a random, number generator to use at my workshops. It was clear that I was not ready to work with one yet, as it is a quite complex system. But I think the point that is being shown is that when we focus together something happens.
Last month we focused together to let the element water including all the waters of the world know that we love you and appreciate all that you give to us. We placed pure water into a water source where we live to help water remember its purity and divinity.
As we will be celebrating the spring equinox together on March 20 I suggest that we honor "earth" together. On March 20 go outside and hold some soil in your hand. Rub the earth between your fingers. Give love and appreciation to "earth" for all it provides for us and for its life.
If the only way you can do this is with soil from a potted plant then use this. The point is, just do it!
As I wrote in a past transmutation news: The earth is alive and if we would deepen our relationship with it, it would once again produce an abundance that we can only imagine.
We must once again feed our relationship with "earth". As our relationship with earth is drying up so is the earth.
Here is another practice that you can start with the beginning of spring. Plant some seeds in a pot in your house. You might consider using some herb seeds that are easy to grow like parsley. You can also get a new houseplant. Over the next months notice what thoughts and beliefs you are feeding "your garden". See this plant as the garden of your life. Notice how you take care of "your garden".
Notice how with nurturance your plant grows without being forced to grow.
This month be observant to how balanced you are in allowing growth and change in your life versus forcing it.
In a shamanic journey once, the Egyptian god Osiris said to me, "It doesn't take real strength when one only uses will. Real strength is when one can open and surrender to the powers that be."
If you would like to contact me about how the ceremonies for water and earth have been for you, please write me at P.O. Box Santa Fe, NM 87502. If there is any comments you would like publish on this web page let me know.
Please remember to join us in continuing to nurture the global web of light on the full moon which is March 28. If you have been practicing transfiguring into a divine force, you might wish to try transfiguring before you work with the web. You will find that your experience changes and what you contribute to the web is greatly amplified.
Next month we will perform a ceremony to honor "air".
Happy Spring!!
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Transmutation News April 2002
I hope that you honored the change in cycles as we moved into spring with performing the simple earth ceremony I suggested. Even though the rituals I have been suggesting are simple they are at the same time very powerful. As we have thousands of people at approximately the same time expressing gratefulness to earth this does make a difference.
As I live in the Southwest where we are experiencing once again a drought I have been watching the water situation in the world. I know some of you live in areas where you have received a lot of moisture. But the bottom line is that a good portion of the world right now is in drought.
On a previous web page I wrote that as we are no longer feeding our relationship with the earth, the earth is drying up. Honoring is one step to creating harmony and balance once again in our environment.
As we continue to watch the devastation of our environment it is easy to fall into a place of hopelessness. It is important to know that where we do have power is working in this world on the spiritual realms.
We need to once again recognize the sentient nature of our environment. We need to once again honor the elements as living beings. We need to honor the elements inside of us as well as the elements outside.
Through honoring we begin to establish a strong relationship. We cannot work in cooperation with nature. without a relationship with nature. Establishing relationships take time and work. What we are talking about here is joyful work. The joy that comes from being in communication with the elements and other living beings creates a feeling of connectedness. We all crave connection with the rest of life.
I don't think what I writing here is news for those of you reading this page. And you might fall into a trap of thinking that if the rest of humanity does not see that the earth is alive what is the use. Every shift in consciousness that each person makes creates an exponential change on the planet.
There are many thousands of people who do honor earth and the elements as alive. The more each one of us chooses to commit to be in service to the earth change will occur. But we must commit to concentrate our efforts on establishing a strong relationship with the earth and the natural world daily not on an occasional basis.
By the act of honoring and expressing gratitude and appreciation for all you receive from the elements you keep feeding the relationship. You know in your own personal. relationships where there is honor and appreciation there is a strong bond.
I have been doing a lot of shamanic journeying on the drought. My own helping spirits have not been saying much. The drought is really a symptom of the bigger issue of how out of balance we are with nature.
But the interesting message that the spirits keep sharing with me over and over is that places will weather the drought where the spirit of the land is strong. I started to think about our bodies and immune systems and the strength of our spirit. When our spirit is raised and strong it is much easier to weather trouble in our lives. When our spirit is low it is hard to temper tough times.
As you nurture your relationship with the land where you live, you build on the relationship which will naturally strengthen the spirit which helps to carry all life through challenging times.
In sitting with all this you might ask yourself what you are willing to commit to? Putting our efforts together we can temper the environmental changes. It does take a commitment from all those who are willing to be in service to the earth.
In my own spiritual practice it has just become habit for me to give thanks to the elements for all I receive. Everyday I give thanks to the earth. As I drink and use water I give thanks. At different times of the day I give thanks to air as I breathe. I look up to the sun and thank it for its warmth and the power it gives to all of life. The affirmations I make are simple. Simple is good. The effect on me has been quite profound. It not only feeds my own spirit as I feel my connection to the web of life, it opens me up on a heart level. I have also found that my ability to receive life has expanded which strengthens my own spiritual self helping me tap into my spiritual light. Spiritual light is really what all of us are truly seeking.
You want to establish a new habit of honoring and being in a state of appreciation of how you are part of a great web of life. You might want to put little notes around your house or your office saying: "Have you fed your relationship with earth, water, fire, air today?"
In many transmutation news I have written that some of us must be willing to "keep tending the garden" while all the disharmony continues on the planet. One way to tend the garden is through what I just wrote about love and appreciation. You have I am sure visited a garden that has been fed with love. I am sure the light, spirit, and beauty of that garden touched you.
We also must learn how to hold the space by holding the light. This is so important during a time where our garden is not being honored by many and is being trampled by unconsciousness and ignorance. To hold the space and the light takes a great deal of concentration. Remember "concentration" is one of the elements of the formula for transmutation. To hold the space we must also keep our hearts open maintaining a state of love for our garden.
Try everyday to do a simple meditation. Imagine breathing through your heart. Think about some place on earth that you really love that is precious to you. Or think about some life form that is really precious to you. Keep that feeling of preciousness in your heart allowing your heart to expand in love. Keep breathing through your heart experiencing love for the garden of life.
If you are new to meditation just start with five or ten minutes a day. Building concentration takes time. So you want to meditate on holding the light only as long as you can maintain concentration. Have faith you will build up your ability to concentrate it just takes practice.
This month we want to join together and honor air. April tends to be a time when the winds increase so it is a good time to honor this life-giving element. When we are born the very first relationship we bond with is air as we take our first breath. Our relationship to this life ends as we breathe out our last breath. With every breath we are in relationship with air. In indigenous cultures it is believed that air through wind carries messages throughout the world.
The air we breathe gives us life. On the full moon of this month, April 26 (because of the time of the full moon it will be full on April 27 for some of us) throughout the day whenever you can remember to honor air for the life it brings to all life. Imagine the air as you take it in to be pure and holy. Imagine the air you breathe back out to be pure and holy. As we do all do this through out the day we honor the element of air and remind it that air is loved and appreciated by many.
Last month I invited you to write to me if you wanted to make a comment on the honoring ceremonies we have been performing.
A friend wrote me that I didn't put in my address. I apologize for this faux pas.
You can reach me at:
Sandra Ingerman
P.O. Box 4757
Santa Fe, NM 87502
As I will be traveling and teaching most of the month part of it in Europe, please give me some time to respond to you.
Last month I did travel back to Brazil to visit Joao de Deus (John of God). I wrote about my extraordinary first trip to him in the August 2001 Transmutation News. He is in service by allowing his body to be a vehicle for spiritual entities to work through him to relieve the pain and suffering of others. It is quite extraordinary to watch him work and be worked on by the entities he brings through.
I choose to go to see Joao de Deus with Heather Cumming who serves as a wonderful expert guide and translator. You can take a look at her web page
http://www.healingquests.com
Heather and I planning to combine a five-day Medicine for the Earth training in Brazil with a week trip to visit Joao de Deus. Right now we are thinking about June 2003. 1 will give you more details, as I know more.
Please remember to join in on our full moon creating a human web of light meditation on April 26 or April 27 (depending on where you live).
Remember, it is only love that heals.
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Transmutation News May 2002
In April I attended an extraordinary gathering in Oracle, Arizona which Shamanic Circles put on. Shamanic Circles is a non-profit organization that has been dedicated to networking people involved in the practice of shamanism worldwide. They also sponsor Carol Proudfoot’s workshops and co-sponsor my Medicine for the Earth gatherings. Through their web page ~ they have connected people around the world whom might not have people in their own communities to share their work with in shamanism. In the US. this is not so much of a problem. But in many countries there is not as much shamanic work going on and often people can feel quite alone in their journey. I appreciate Shamanic Circles for keeping the fires alive around the world where people can share their stories from where ever they live.
Carol Proudfoot, an extraordinary shamanic teacher and one of my closest sisters, founded Shamanic Circles. She is a true visionary.
About 115 of us came together from the US., Ireland, Israel, Japan, Canada, Finland, Netherlands, and England with a focused intention to work on behalf of the Sacred Hoop, the Tree of Life, and the Web of Life. Throughout our week we did ceremonies for transmutation and visioning. There were a variety of offerings of short workshops from teachers involved in shamanic work. Just to give you a sense some of the workshops offered were using shamanism to work with grief, plant spirit medicine, mask making, drum making, and others. It took us days to create a sand painting of a world map on a volley ball court at the site where we were. Also included in our time together we did an all night “Earth Renewal Dance” around a fire.
It was a wonderful experience to be around people who could keep their hearts open as we served one purpose together that of healing and renewing the earth.
There was a previous gathering two years ago and I look forward to more to come. I hope you will visit the Shamanic Circles web site.
As the levels of violence toward all of life continues as well as the unconsciousness to the sacredness of our environment we must step up our commitment in our spiritual practices. I recently heard that just the wing motion of one butterfly could alter a hurricane. Think about that. We talk about the web of life and how everything is connected. Here is an awesome example of how such a small being can effect such a giant life force.
Let’s use this metaphor to describe how the motion of our spiritual practices can affect the storms ravaging through earth today. I have asked you this question many times, and I will ask it to you again now: What are you willing to commit to in honor of the earth we live on, the air we breathe, the water that nourishes us, and the fire that gives us life? What are you willing to commit to for visioning a planet that embraces the principles of harmony within creates harmony without? What are you willing to commit to as you act as caretaker of the earth and all living beings?
Your commitment to your spiritual practices does make a difference. Skim through Medicine for the Earth, which is filled with suggestions of spiritual practices for transmutation which you can integrate into your life. Find one practice that you can focus on this month. Like the wings of the butterfly you will affect the movement of the “storms” around you.
So far since February we have done short simple ceremonies to honor water, earth, and air. It is now time to honor fire. Fire creates light in our lives. Fire is passion. There is no life without passion. Before we had electricity and heat the power of the sun and fire were honored daily. People around the world drummed up the sun for the sun coming up meant a new day of life. The sun gives power to plants that is passed onto us. The sun was worshipped by many around the world for the light it shared on all levels. The fire inside the earth keeps her life force burning.
As above, so below; as within, so without. We must honor the fire that lives inside of us.
During this month I ask you to merge with the fire which burns inside of you. Look at pages 152-155 in Medicine for the Earth where I write about merging with the elements. Check out the health of your own fire. Fire, as all living beings needs to be fed. Do you have too much fire burning in you causing you to be anxious or angry? Is your fire burning too low causing depression and fatigue? How balanced is your fire?
The full moon this month is May 26. Let’s all together wake up at dawn and greet the sun. You can drum up the sun, rattle up the sun, sing up the sun, dance up the sun, or be in silent meditation when the sun rises and greet it with the power of love in silence. You can do this alone or in a group. I know of groups who on a monthly schedule meet together to do a meditation in nature at sunrise.
Then during the day and evening of May 26 light a candle for a short period of time and meditate on the power of light and fire. Fire is known worldwide as the great transmuter. Journey and merge with fire and learn about fire by becoming it. Again the instructions to do this are on pages 152-155 of Medicine for the Earth. When I lead this journey in my trainings it is quite profound for people. There is so much we can learn from this great living force.
The principle we are using in the simple ceremonies I am suggesting is that as we join together in a great circle around the world to honor the elements, the elements will honor us in return.
May balance and harmony return to the earth and all living beings once again!!! Let’s together vision it as it is happening now. It has come to my attention that the information I have given on how to contact Heather Cumming, the guide and friend I travel with to see Joao de Deus in Brazil, has been incorrect.
Heather Cumming (there is no “s” in her last name) can be reached through e-mail at hcumming@aol.com.
Her phone number is 203-255-2123. And her web address is www.healingquests.com. hope this helps those of you who are interested in a journey to Brazil. I I have heard from people that although my calendar is listed on my web page under the Training and Announcement section that they still like to see a hard copy. If you would like my calendar to be sent to you by mail you can either write me at:
PO. Box 4757 Santa Fe, New Mexico 87502
Or you can e-mail Ruth Aber at: aruthabelle@aol.com
I am looking at creating some new workshops next year so I hope you will either ask for a calendar or keep checking the Training and Announcement section.
Please remember to join in on Creating A Human Web of Light on the full moon May 26. There are so many thousands of people around the world of all traditions who have been joining in. It feels so good to connect our lights together.
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Transmutation News June 2002
In a great time of change, as we are in now, there are different ways to react. Many people react with fear that often leads to anger. Many people look to outside authority for direction on how to feel safe. Many people flow with the changes well and see change as an opportunity for growth.
Some people appreciate what they have while others complain about what they don’t have. Some people experience their glass as half full while others as half empty.
This all boils down to an issue of perception, as it is our perception which creates our reality.
As many people fear for their future we see a movement around the world of people choosing right wing forces to create more control and a perceived feeling of safety. Many people are returning to organized religion for the same reason. Many of us have been conditioned not to believe that each of us has the ability to create our present our future. This leads to people wanting to put their lives in the hands of others who say, “Don’t worry, follow me, listen to what I tell you to do and you will be safe”.
Throughout history we have learned this does not work. But people don’t always learn from history.
Those of you reading this know you have personal power to create change. There are no political, religious, or spiritual leaders to do it for us. The power lies in each and every one of us.
It is important as we watch people around us react with fear and anger not to get pulled out of ourselves. Once again, as I have mentioned many times, it is important to stay focused. When we get pulled out of ourselves and lose focus it is hard for us to receive our own spiritual guidance. What we do on the spiritual level does make a difference. But we must accept that the changes our work makes might not always be obvious to us on the physical.
I heard recently that a rabbi, who was obviously in a state of great grief after a suicide bombing said, “What is the use of praying anymore?” It is easy to see how one can lose faith in the invisible forces when so much violence is being acted out on the physical. But we cannot say how situations might evolve without our prayers and spiritual work. There are forces working that we don’t understand. There are foundations and structures that need to end so that evolution and growth can take place. There is more than what the eye can see to what is happening right now.
I had an interesting journey around the issue of judgment and judging. The helping spirit who was speaking with me shared that to judge appropriately we must understand everything about the person or situation we are judging. This is virtually impossible as there is so much about people and life circumstances that we will never understand.
So we tend to judge without a true understanding of what we are judging. The bottom line is don’t judge when you don’t understand.
We must stay true to the truth that lives in our hearts which is in order to create a more harmonious way of living change must occur. As human beings so many of us have to be pushed to our limits before we will change. What we are seeing on our planet is a result of people not willing to let go the behavior that no longer serves all of life. We are being shaken up in the core of our beings. As I have said before move with the changes or suffer the changes. The spiritual work that we do helps us to learn how to move with grace instead of react and resist.
Earth, air, water, and fire are living beings and we need to work in partnership with them. and not try to impose change on them. Partnership, cooperation, collaboration is all strengthened with relationship.
Over the last four months we have together as a great worldwide circle honoring all the elements. This work must be kept up. The rituals we performed should not be only done one time. Ritual and ceremony establishes relationship. We can keep up the potent work of honoring the elements around us and which comprise our physical bodies. As we continue to do this work you will see changes in the physical world. All relationships improve in all worlds with honor, respect, love, and appreciation.
Love creates a feeling that life is magical. When we are in love we experience everything around us in a different light. The magic of life is fed by love. Think about some aspect of your life, nature, or an element that you are in love with. Feed the magic of this life force with your love. Watch your relationship deepen and grow with love.
This month let’s honor all the elements together. Do this by choosing elements at the place where you live - the earth you live on, the sources of water near you, the air you breath, the sun above you. Let’s honor all the elements and state our willingness to work in partnership. During this time as we are experiencing strife on the planet, let’s bring celebration for our lives into our ritual work this month. Celebration is an energy that tends “the garden”.
Let’s do this joyful celebratory work together on June 21 as we honor the summer solstice. Life is bursting forth and blooming all around us. Allow yourself to burst forth in dance and song today. A healing energy for the earth is joy. Even if your heart feels heavy about something in life allow yourself to feel joy by finding something to be in gratitude and appreciation for.
Your assignment for today is to speak to someone who you believe is closed down to his or her connection with nature. Mention something to them that you think is beautiful. You might say something like: “Isn’t the sky glorious today?” “Aren’t these flowers on the desk beautiful?” “That picture on the wall reminds me of the beauty of nature.”
Create a spark of appreciation for the beauty of life. Plant a seed of appreciation and joy in someone who is not in your inner circle that you work with spiritually. With thousands of us doing this together today we plant seeds with the knowledge that they will sprout in a way which nurtures all of life.
Please let’s join in together to continue to create a human web of light on the full moon which is June 24.
A friend of mine recently gifted me with a wonderful book I wanted to let you know about. The book is titled Kiss of God is written by Marshall Stewart Ball. Marshall is a brilliant child can neither speak or walk and depends on others for physical help.
I was touched and inspired by a child who seemingly has so many challenges to leading a joyful life, but experiences joy in his connection with God and the people he meets. He shares his love and inspiring words, which has an impact on everyone he meets.
And he inspires us through his absolute brilliance and love in his writings.
During a time when people look at what they don’t have, I found Marshall’s writing to bring me to absolute tears of how one can be in such appreciation and joy with what I perceive of a challenged life.
The book is published by Health Communications. I know you will be in awe of this being Marshall Stewart Ball when you read his story and his words. And I hope you be as inspired by his story as I was.
I have added some new trainings to the Training and Announcement Section of this web page. I hope you will go to it and look at the additions.
I will be teaching a weekend Medicine for the Earth gathering in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania Oct 4,5,6 of this year.
In January 2003 I am teaching a new training I have not taught before. I feel that as the causes of illness today are different than in ancient times, our healing methods must be updated to deal with modern day illness. So much of the illnesses we are seeing today such as the epidemic rate of cancer and the increase in immune deficiency problems are a direct result of the chemical pollution in our environment.
Using the work of transfiguring into our divinity as well as learning how to merge with compassionate helping spirits, this training will focus on how to heal others by bringing through the power of the universe that knows how to heal and transmute illness. We will also look at how to transmute and transform illness and toxins in ourselves. See the Training and Announcement Section for more info.
I am also teaching a five-day Medicine for the Earth Gathering in Salzburg, Austria in May 2003 (taught in English and translated into German). I am excited about bringing this work to Europe.
I feel it is essential at this time to share the Medicine for the Earth work in our communities. In the five-day Medicine for the Earth Gathering I give you what you need to go out and teach the material in your communities. The next five-day Medicine for the Earth Gathering I am teaching is September 8-13 in Santa Fe, NM if you are interested in learning more about the work so you can either work with it in your own life or share the work with others. I am also leading a weekend gathering in Santa Fe, Aug. 9-11.
I did develop a teacher training for people who feel the need to delve deeper into the process of teaching. I will continue to offer this training also. So please keep watching the Training and Announcement Section for new offerings.
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Transmutation News July 2002
The key to the Medicine for the Earth work is the process of transfiguration. This process has unlimited and untapped potential today. Participants who have completed a Medicine for the Earth Gathering continue to amaze me with stories of how the continued practice of transfiguration has changed their lives.
In the March 2002 Transmutation News I explain in a simpler fashion what I wrote in Medicine for the Earth about transfiguration. If you are new to this web page and need some further explanation please check back to this page.
Here are a few stories to inspire you to do the practice yourself. One of my friends has been hosting a circle where they continue to work with the process of transmutation through transfiguration. She has noticed how the whole energy of her land has changed and that her garden is more vibrant than ever.
When we transfigure on a regular basis into a divine force a veil between the worlds opens. The sacredness of other realms enters into our realm and changes the vibration of our bodies and the places where we live forever. This is why I feel it is so important for us to transfigure on a regular basis as it truly has the potential of changing the vibration of our planet. The more we create a sacred vibration here the easier it is to transform the darkness and the negative states of consciousness we are surrounded with today.
At one of my trainings the group performed a transmutation ceremony for water contaminated with ammonium hydroxide that was in our circle as well as some people in the middle of the circle to be healed. The group transfigured into a divine force and worked on the water as well as the participants in the middle. One of the participants had debilitating lupus and could barely walk. A few days after the ceremony she was hiking!
I recently talked to one of my students and she told me an amazing story. She was at a business meeting with a group of people she works with. One of the members said that he had prostate cancer and was requesting a healing ceremony. She had the group form a circle and asked him to go into the middle and lie down. She asked everyone in the circle to stand and go inside themselves and find a place where the divine lives, or God, or whatever fit in each person’s belief system. From that place of divinity she asked everyone to tone. She had also told people that if during the toning anyone felt called to go into the center and put their hands near the friend they were healing to do so.
A few days after the ceremony the man called and reported that he had gone for a medical test and that the cancer was gone.
In this instance my student brought people into a transfigured state in an immediate and simple way. She did not need to explain the process. What she did was say go inside yourself and find your own divinity. I was very impressed with how she worked.
So you can see there are many ways to work. And the reports I am getting are that transfiguration changes lives in a positive way whether it is performed in a group or by a person alone.
Based on the positive feedback I am getting I want to encourage you to begin a practice of transfiguration this month. The work you do this month will lead up to a powerful healing ceremony I would like to lead us on for the fall equinox. The first step will be to experience being transfigured into a divine force. And next month I will give you the next step.
Begin by reading the chapters on Embodying the Divine, Dismemberment and also Transfiguration in Medicine for the Earth. You will find these chapters on pages 169-198.
After you have read these chapters there are different ways to proceed. If you have been trained in shamanic journeying you might want to perform a journey. The intention of this journey would be to go to a power animal or teacher and tell them that you want to be dismembered and then transfigured into a divine force. Come back from the journey in a state of divinity and begin toning to keep up this state. When you feel done go back into the journey and do a regular return where you return fully into your body. You can also just try experiencing that state of divinity in a journey and when the return beat comes disengage from that state and return fully to your body.
The reason I suggest coming back and toning is that when you return to ordinary reality in this state and tone this is what changes the vibration in your life and world. Changes don’t happen in a journey alone. There needs to be work done in ordinary reality to change the vibration in yourself and the space where you are living. But you do want to disengage from this state. So it is important to go back into the journey and return completely.
If you are not trained in shamanic journeying I suggest you work with the visualization on page 184-187. I have worked with this visualization in a few groups with powerful results. I tried this visualization with some people very experienced in shamanic journeying and some of them had the most profound experience of their lives.
There are a couple of ways you can work. If you want to try this alone you can record the visualization. I would suggest finding one or more persons that you can do this with. You can either play the tape in the group or one person can read it.
One day I hope to make a tape of this visualization but as I haven’t yet, you need to make one for yourself.
There is a place in the visualization where you need to stop to do the toning. If you finish the visualization completely you will end up coming back too far.
Here is what I do in groups:
I stop after the second paragraph on page 186. So I end with the sentence, “And your heartbeat is in harmony with the one.”
Then I improvise a bit and add something like this:
“You are one with the source.
You are source. You are divine.
There is only one source, and it is you.
Remember you are pure light and love.
It is only love that heals.
The universe has a song. This song is you. Listen to the song and stand up toning your love and light.”
When I do this in a group I ask that people sit in a chair that is comfortable or you can sit on the floor. You can also lie down and get up when it is time to tone.
I instruct groups beforehand that the toning will come to a natural end. Some people stop toning before the end. I ask people if they are done to just keep praying for healing and hold a sacred space. This is an important point.
If you choose to try this in a group you might wish to put someone in the middle who is in need of healing. If you are doing this alone just notice how your own energy and body shifts when you are done.
Make sure you are truly back when you are done. If you need to feel more grounded take a walk outside and sit with a tree, plant, or rock. Or you can imagine yourself sitting with a tree and moving your deep roots into the earth as a tree does.
Please do not drive or do anything that needs your full ordinary reality attention until you feel fully back.
Please feel free to improvise your own visualization. You don’t have to use the one 1 have written.
You can also try just going inside and find a divine place inside of you and tone from this place.
As I have written in Medicine for the Earth the reason I have people tone is I have found that it is the easiest way to hold a transfigured, divine state. If you have never done any toning you just let your own voice produce sounds that match up with the divine state, the light and the love you are experiencing.
The more you practice transfiguring the faster the process becomes. And I hope you will experience the same positive results as others have.
Again, please practice transfiguring so you will be ready to perform a healing ceremony for the planet on the fall equinox.
As an author who has published four books, one of them self-published, I watch what is going on in the publishing world. Today the major publishers, like other businesses, are only concerned with the bottom line. Smaller publishers who care more about providing service are having a hard time staying alive, as they can’t always get bookshelf space in the major bookstores. Many wonderful books never get published or are being yanked off shelves and put out of print because they don't have a wide enough audience. The only books that will ultimately make it out into the larger public are books that will sell big numbers.
There are some brilliant books I have seen that are never published because they speak to a smaller audience. Many books today are being put out of print for the same reason.
As I watch what is happening in the publishing world I do start to worry about Medicine for the Earth. Due to a series of “coincidences” I was led to publish with Three Rivers Press which is a division of Random House. I trust that the spirits I work with did not lead me astray. But my nature is to worry. And yes I do my work to transmute my tendency toward worry. At this point the spiritual work I have been working with in some ways is grass roots. I know it will take off when more people realize that we really have an environmental problem and that many health problems today are caused by environmental pollution. But for now I am trying to get us all organized in a way so that we can easily slip this work into a larger public when the ground work has been laid.
I know that even if Medicine for the Earth would go out of print I could get it republished. But there would be a six month to a year lag time. This could be damaging to the work. I can only share a certain amount of Medicine for the Earth with you on this web page. In my trainings and lectures I only have time to share a piece of the work. Having a book which includes all the information the spirits want people to get is essential.
If you feel that it is in your heart to let the publishing world know that books like Medicine for the Earth are wanted and needed I hope you will help spread the word to people you know.
I meet many people as I travel who tell me that they love my web page, but they have not bought Medicine for the Earth yet. If you are one of these people I hope you will consider buying the book now. Or maybe there is a friend you might want to gift with a copy of the book. Or maybe there is an organization you might want to gift the book to.
Remember the key to our work is working in cooperation and collaboration with the spirits. They will not do it all for us. I am moving into a more active role myself of trying to get Medicine for the Earth to a broader audience who is interested in environmental work. I hope if this work speaks to your heart that you will help in whatever small way you can.
If you have questions about the transfiguration process or if you have any ideas on organizations I should contact about the work, please drop me a note at:
Sandra Ingerman, P.O. Box 4757, Santa Fe, NM 87502.
Thanks for your commitment to being in service to the planet in whatever way destiny leads you to. I do feel the greatest service to the planet is the light and love we allow to shine through us as we walk through the world.
As St. Germain said, “The high road as distinguished from the low road, is the way of the alchemist, whose heart is in the shining glory all the day and all the way that his pilgrim feet walk the dusty ways of man—transmuting, transmuting, and transmuting that dust into purest radiance.”
Please remember that we join our hearts and light together to continue to weave a human web of light around the globe on the full moon which is July 24.
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Transmutation News Aug. 2002
Most of us need to be pushed to our edge before we are moved to make changes.
Last month I asked people to buy Medicine for the Earth. What pushed me to do so was discovering that my book Welcome Home: Following Your Soul's Journey Home was accidentally put out of print. The book is available again now. My agent, who was my ex-editor at Harper San Francisco, said she never heard of a book being accidentally put out of print.
So I decided that I needed to take this as a wake up call from the universe. I find that I am in reaction to how much marketing goes on with spiritual work and I have been nervous about taking steps to push any of my books. Obviously I write about them and talk about them at my workshops. But I have taken on a laissez-faire attitude of what will be will be.
What I realized is that by being in a passive role I am not doing my books or the work I am teaching a service.
Over the years I have observed the growth of many spiritual organizations. I have watched how spiritual work becomes limited when it becomes trapped in a hierarchical structure. The focus of the vision often gets lost in trying to control the organization.
In the Medicine for the Earth work we work on evolving ourselves as well as look at creating miracles. When one puts spiritual work in a "cage" by creating too much structure we limit possibilities.
Therefore, I have decided to put into action a vision of a new model to share this spiritual work. This August I am teaching my first Medicine for the Earth Teacher Training.
I am creating a new model of how to support people in spreading vital information while at the same time moving away from the old institutional structure.
Instead of creating a hierarchical structure I will be creating collaborative networks for people wishing to teach. Serving the community needs to take precedence over serving any organization. I also think that it is time to share this work with all. This means being flexible on tuition. When we start to only teach people in a certain economic bracket the work becomes elitist.
Training teachers is a way for me to help participants learn the material so it is being taught accurately and with integrity and grace. It is a way for me to help people look at how to move through issues that come up on an egoic level in teaching, how to create sacred space and hold the space in a training, how to deal with group dynamics, and other issues that can facilitate the experience and adventure of teaching. I’ve learned a lot since beginning my journey as a teacher of shamanism in 1983 and I look forward to sharing what I have learned.
My vision is to make spiritual work accessible to all who want to learn from a teacher and also have the work carried on in a good way.
I don’t believe from a spiritually ethical view that I can certify teachers. But I can provide a list of people who have done a lot of training with me and who want to teach the Medicine for the Earth work. I will have such a list available by September.
With all that is going on environmentally I feel it is so important to get all kinds of spiritual work out as quickly as possible. We cannot afford to have spiritual teachers move into a place of competitiveness, but we must support the wonderful work taught by so many so that consciousness can shift on a mass scale. Different teachers and different spiritual systems speak to different people in the population. There needs to be a diverse team who has the vocabulary and a style of teaching that will speak to different populations.
How I feel I can support the process right now is by helping guide new teachers and support those who are already sharing their brilliance.
The focus of my vision is how to empower all of us to create the changes needed to move our lives back into harmony. Instead of wasting my energy being angry at the abuses I observe, I want to feed the power of new visions. We need to focus and concentrate our energy in solutions not on the problems.
Months ago a student and friend of mine sent me this story that comes from Nancy Sherwood of Earth Sea in Nova Scotia.
The story is called “Two Wolves”.
A Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about many things.
He said, “I feel as if two wolves are fighting in my heart. One wolf is vengeful, angry, violent.. .and the other is loving, compassionate, and strong.”
The grandson asked the grandfather “Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?”
The grandfather replied, “The one I feed.”
We must feed our visions of what we believe would create a world of harmony, balance, and love.
So this month we will focus on creating a vision for our lives and the planet. I gave some examples of how being pushed to my edge has stimulated me to create change and create a new vision I can feed. Of course, I have also been pushed to my edge about environmental issues stimulating me to write Medicine for the Earth and the monthly transmutation news, focusing on creating a human of light, and teach trainings. This has been a very wonderful way to work with the energy that gets stimulated by watching our planetary situation.
I know all of you are pushed to an edge in your own life about the environment, the world situation, and the powers and structures which manage your life.
As you are pushed to your edge change is being called for; a new vision is being called for. Change creates little deaths in our lives. Something old must die for new life to burst forth. Some of us welcome change and some of us fear it and grieve for the old life and ways that need to be left behind. All the emotions that come up are natural and must be acknowledged for change to occur in a graceful fashion.
A few months ago in a journey the spirits told me I needed to work with transfiguration + concentration. Last month I asked you to practice transfiguration. On the fall equinox we will gather our energies together to transfigure into a divine state adding to this by concentrating on a vision we would like to see manifest in the world. We must remember that with invoking the power of transfiguration + concentration the rest of the elements to the formula of transmutation must be included.
love + harmony + intention + concentration + focus + union + imagination = transmutation.
I would suggest that you begin by reading over the chapter on Imagination in Medicine for the Earth. This will inspire you in your visioning process.
Once you are ready to work on creating a vision please pick a time of the day where you can feel relaxed and not rushed. Pick a day where you can really sink into the process. I will describe a couple of ways you might consider working. And of course if you come up with something different, work in a way in which you feel inspired.
If you decide to work indoors pick out some music you can play which inspires and relaxes you. You can either sit up with your spine straight so that you are oxygenating your body and brain or you can lie down. Begin by taking some deep breaths. Throughout your meditation please remember to breathe. Imagine yourself breathing from your head into your heart. You want to go to a deep place and not create a vision from an egoic place. By focusing on your breathing through your heart you will move from your mind into a heartfelt and intuitive place. This is the place to create from.
You want to set an intention to look at a world that embraces the elements of love and harmony and a world where people remember their connection with all living beings and the cycles of life and nature. There is no separation between you and the rest of life. You want to vision a world that honors all of life and is in deep appreciation for all we receive; a world where we give back and receive in balance.
Set your intention and begin by simply breathing into your heart for a few minutes. Let yourself relax and imagine yourself in a place in nature where you can appreciate the beauty and the power of creation and life. Look around you and notice what life forms are with you. Notice the colors and your environment. Take in the fragrances and all the sounds of nature. Notice if the air is still or if there is a breeze or wind. Feel the temperature and the earth beneath you. Notice the elements that are in this place. Allow yourself to feel fully present here.
Imagine an earth goddess or god coming to greet you and embrace you. Feel the wind starting to come up swirling around you and embracing you. Allow the spirit of water and the fire from the sun to embrace you with respect and love. Feel yourself loved by the elements that are all around you as well as inside of you. The spirit of all life around you supports your purity of heart and intention to create harmony. You are in union with all of life.
From a place of love and appreciation let your imagination flow and vision the world you would like to live in. Remember to keep breathing and create from your heart.
Take your time and don’t rush. You don’t want to rush creation. Really anchor the experience with all your senses. Visualize, hear, smell, feel, and taste your creation.
When you feel that you are ready to come back give thanks to the elements and all the beings you have met in this place. Feel yourself disconnecting from this place and gently let your consciousness drift back into the room. Take some time to feel yourself fully back in the present and in the room you are in.
You might wish to write a story or draw a picture of your creation.
If you choose to do this work by walking in nature take some time to breathe into your heart and set your intention before you leave. As you experience the beauty and wonder of the nature you are let your imagination create the world you want to experience remembering to experience your creation with all your senses. Let the elements inspire and embrace you.
As you walk you might ask nature to show you an omen or a sign when your work is done.
When you return you might wish to write a story or draw a picture of your creation.
Next month I will give you the ritual of putting together the process of transfiguration and creation. So keep working on your vision.
Fear consumes us in the same way fire consumes the earth and it’s living beings. As fire transforms us so does fear. At some point we must face and move through our fear creating a rebirth in our lives.
Anger acts as a poison to our body, mind, soul, and spirit if we learn how to experience it and then let it go. Anger must be and transformed.
Use the transfiguration process this month to purify. transform, and transmute your fear and anger.
There are many ways that we can plant seeds in the world to start to shift consciousness. For the summer solstice I decided to write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper. We have been dealing with a terrible drought in New Mexico. The letters to the editor have been a way for people to express their thoughts. The letter I wrote was published in July. It has stimulated a lot of conversation in different spiritual groups here in Santa Fe. These are groups I normally would not access to. You never know what you might stimulate in your community if you want to do something similar. We need to plant seeds wherever we can.
Here is the letter I wrote:
“All ancient traditions teach that our inner state of consciousness is reflected back to us by our outer world.
The drought as well as the flooding occurring throughout the world is a message that we are out of balance. An old Taoist story teaches us that when we are in balance and harmony within ourselves rain comes when it is needed. Harmony within creates harmony without.
If we tend ‘our garden’ with honor, love and appreciation for all we have been given balance will be restored. We need to give back to the land as well as give thanks for our lives and the lives of all living beings and honor the natural cycles.
We need to do more than pray for rain. We must honor the earth and our environment through our thoughts and actions. Then we will have rain.”
