Life shrinks or expands in proportion to ones courage. ~ Anaïs Nin
There is a special relationship between death, dreams, and meditation. These states reside on the other side of the veil, where perception widens and dimensions that always existed are suddenly accessible and in plain view. When you firmly identify with the ordinary world of the tangible and three-dimensional, it makes sense to resist crossing through the veil because of its perceived association with loss, destruction, or annihilation. However, when you do journey back and forth across the veil, you carry multidimensional wisdom to the ordinary world to remind everyone that they, too, have access to this heavenly elixir. When tragedy strikes (or nightmare happens) and you are catapulted from your comfy cozy world, across the veil, and into the extraordinary realm, you no longer need to fight the transition. Rather, be grateful for the opportunity to deepen and live into more of your potential.
Mantra :: The awareness of the preciousness of life puts a gale force beneath my wings.
Artwork by Rassouli
The Hero’s Journey dream oracle, by Kelly Sullivan Walden
Truth speaks to us constantly, but not always in words. It may communicate through a feeling that is hard to put into words but brings an inexplicable sense of peace, trust and the knowledge that somehow everything is going to work out perfectly – even if there is little evidence of how it is all going to happen.
Listen for the truths beneath the words rather than the superficial message of the words themselves. This is especially true for the communications of those around you, the press, the newspapers and the mass media. You will begin to hear fear in the words and actions of those around you, even as they preach love. Listen deeper. Listen for truth.
You are hearing something that is not being said and what you are hearing is truthful. You may feel as though you are the only one that is really ready to hear or see it! Perhaps you have been working in a situation or loving in a relationship, where truth is constantly denied. We live in a world where truth is frequently avoided out of fear of what it might reveal. At the basis of such actions – consciously or not – is a deep sense of unhealed, toxic shame. If you or someone else, is fearful that the truth will expose rather than free and heal, then some personal healing is required. It is time for letting go of old wounds in favor of a greater sense of self-love and acceptance.
Love yourself enough to honor the truth, even if you feel you are the only one doing so. Truth keeps the energy of life flowing through a rebellious heart. Lies dampen the spirit of the sacred rebel. Even if those with less-awakened hearts fear the truth, you must not turn away from it. Don’t resent this state of affairs. Perhaps your job is to show the truth can be witnessed even when many want to hide from it. What others do is always their choice, but through your honorable deeds, done with integrity, you will be set free – no matter what the outcome.
You are a truth seeker. Never deny or try to quieten this down to make others comfortable. You are meant to be an agitator at times – even though you don’t have to confront people to do it. You don’t necessarily have to say a word, though sometimes you will. Often you will agitate in the most loving sense by unveiling truth simply through your knowings. Hold compassion for the truths you behold. Do not use them as knives to cut another or yourself with harshness, but as the clear insight that allows one to loosen the knots that bind, simply by knowing which thread to gently tug.
If you have been worn down and depressed by the lies, gossip, deceit or backstabbing going on around you, don’t fret. Get out in nature and spend some time communing with the infinite. Healing will come to you now. No matter how many times, in how many ways or by how many tongues untruth is spoken, you know what you know in your sacred, rebellious heart. That truth is your connection to the living truth of life itself. Don’t give up. Just open up to healing and know that the truth always, eventually, prevails.
Healing process :: Place your hand very lightly at the front and back of your throat and say, “I now release all vows of silence I have ever made, consciously or not. I now release all lies, deceptions and painful words, spoken or unspoken, that are affecting my ability to clearly know and speak my truth. I am held in unconditional love with protection and grace. So be it.”
You have finished your healing process. You might like to say something true just to anchor it. How about, “Within me, beyond all that rises and falls, only truth remains.”
Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So, you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there yousee differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. ~ Terry Pratchett
It’s no longer just about you, but about all who will benefit from your story. In your minds eye, imagine you are delivering a passionate graduation speech to a sea of eager students who are hanging on your every word. You stand at the podium, confidently sharing your story, reflecting upon your journey. You reminisce about lessons and blessings learned and earned along the way. Your words become seeds, planted in fertile soil in the minds and hearts of all those who are destined to be changed by your wisdom. At some point, you notice you are no longer telling a story about how you found the elixir but have embodied it. Between words, when you pause for breath, you continue to radiate a life-affirming message that alchemically alters all who are blessed to be in your sphere of influence.
Mantra :: I’ve graduated from having a story worth telling to embodying the potency of my story, and it emanates through every cell of my being.
Artwork by Rassouli
The Hero’s Journey dream oracle, by Kelly Sullivan Walden
When we are at a point in life where we want to attain greater things, but don’t necessarily have a proportionally greater supply of energy at our disposal, it is time to work smarter rather than harder. This is the way of feminine wisdom.
However, a cultural ignorance of the feminine way currently prevails. We are generally taught that the more force we use, the more we try to make things happen, the more we will achieve. The feminine way is not about force. Nor is it about driving, striving, pushing or grabbing at what we can in order to create. It is about inviting what we wish for to come into the space we have provided for it – internally and in our lives. This method cultivates more energy, causes less stress and attracts what is desired. It is manifestation by invitation rather than by will or force.
There is an old story that the sun and the wind were debating about who was more powerful. After boasting about their prowess, they made a wager. A man walked down the street with a coat on. The wind and the sun decided whomever could force the coat off the man, was the most powerful. It blew and blew and caught underneath the coat, pulling it and nearly ripping it right off the man! But the man wrapped his coat around himself more tightly to protect himself against the force of the wind. Eventually, perhaps temporarily put off, the wind gave up. The sun took over. He shone down, becoming brighter and brighter until the man slipped off his coat, slung it over his shoulder and walked down the street – quite possibly wondering what was happening with the weather that day.
The wind attempted to do by force what the sun was able to do by being. You are being asked to surrender your forcefulness, your determination and your intense activity – even if it is just for this moment. Does this mean you have to surrender the goals you were chasing through those endeavors? Certainly not! This is not about letting go of achievement. It is about understanding the process of manifestation in a more intelligent way. There is a way of creating that gives you energy and doesn’t leave you utterly worn out. It is about allowing what you want to come to you. Be yourself absolutely, naturally and with ease, shine your light and allow your presence to invite that which you wish to receive. It is about cultivating an energetic affinity with what you seek, rather than feelings of lack and need. Do you see the subtle but important difference?
To feel that you are already a naturally abundant being who gratefully invites more of what you want into your life, is rather different to feeling lack, fear and wishing your world would change. It is a bit like dressing for the job you want, even if it is not yet the job you have. You energetically embody what you wish to attract more of in your life. Like attracts like!
You don’t need to push quite so hard to receive what is naturally coming to you. Your ‘push’ comes from a place of uncertainty over whether or not you will succeed. You need to relax and have more faith in yourself. All things come in time – rightfully and according to a great loving wisdom. You are not immune to this. You shall have your time and shine, too. Rebel against any voice of fear, within you or around you, that tells you otherwise!
It is okay to become softer, to feel the energy of what you wish to attract into your life, and to act (as much as you can) as though it is already that way. You are not fantasizing or daydreaming or failing to live ‘in the real world’ if you do this. You are actually working with the feminine art of manifestation through gentle beingness and attraction. As you soften into becoming what you are seeking, what you wish for will not be able to resist your shining, inviting presence.
You have been working very, very hard. You have learned much and accomplished much but it is now time to change your approach. Let go of any force in your approach to creation now. Everything serves a purpose and learning the benefits and limitations of the more forceful way of manifestation through effort and willpower was a useful lesson. However, if you were to continue with that approach it would stop working for you, because you are now beginning to create on a far grander scale that is beyond what an individual can manifest through willpower alone. You are individually creating through your healing and art, but also contributing globally to a new consciousness through your own spiritual growth.
You are part of a global healing manifestation process! You are – through your way of being in the world – helping birth a new awareness. This new way will heal the human heart and bring it back into balance with nature. This is essential for the human soul to survive, flourish and to co-operatively nurture the earth rather than destroy her natural resources. You may or may not be consciously aware of the extent to which this new way of manifesting through receiving rather than taking can actually help all of humanity, but nonetheless, it is playing an important role in greater human evolution. It is the power of attraction, or magnetism, rather than that of striving and force that will replenish your energy and restore your body, mind and heart after your struggle. This change in approach will encourage the shift from head to heart that is essential for your individual wellbeing and for the greater human evolution. You need to heal so that you can help the world to heal. Does this give you absolute permission now, in your own mind, to take an easier approach to your sacred, rebellious, creative manifestation?
Healing process :: I shine like the sun – radiant with grace – and all that I desire, comes to me according to perfect timing. I relax, believe and receive. Through unconditional love, this is now so.
“I am so drunk I have lost the way in and the way out. I have lost the earth, the moon, and the sky. Don’t put another cup of wine in my hand, pour it in my mouth …” ~ Rumi
You’ve said yes to becoming all you can be, yes to becoming your best self, and yes to contributing to the world by remembering your dreams, sharing your gifts and talents. It seem the universe heard you and is responding in kind. Instead of panicking at the loss of who you thought you were, celebrate your gain. By releasing who you were, you have created space to explore the infinite possibilities of who you shall become. Your divine disorientation is due to the disappearance of the self you’ve come to know over all these years. Take heart knowing the sacred storm taking place within is part of your apotheosis. You are experiencing elevation – from where you’ve been to the human you were born to be. The rearranging of cells, molecules, atoms, electrons, and quantum material that holds you together is a wild party. Call it good and revel in divine oblivion.
Mantra :: I am high on life, and off my rocker with the overwhelming beauty that surrounds me.
Artwork by Rassouli
The Hero’s Journey dream oracle, by Kelly Sullivan Walden
In every creative process, in every birth, in every opening of a new cycle of life, there is a time of vulnerability. This vulnerability is natural and appropriate. It is the foal learning to become steady on its legs. Those legs will become remarkably powerful in time, but the process of growth and maturity has to take place, and that requires some wobbly first attempts. It cannot be any other way.
Within you, perhaps even below the level of your conscious awareness, there is a fresh new life emerging like a vibrant green shoot rising up from the earth. This new life is in need of your attention and your care. This could be a new relationship that needs tending with interest and kindness. It could be a new idea that you need to nurture into fulness, because it is going to hold special purpose for your life path. It might be something within you – a new behavior, a new way of looking at yourself or a new way of being in the world – that you need to tend to until it becomes more natural for you to embody.
The idea that you are currently nurturing, or soon will, is of great importance to your life path.
You must pay attention to the new life emerging for you now, or that you will soon sense. You must not be careless and think it doesn’t matter. It matters greatly. Being careless now is akin to killing off the idea before it has a chance to grow strong enough to withstand the criticism, jealousy or sabotage by dark consciousness in others or yourself. We don’t have to be frightened of destructive energy – it exists in nature and in us, and is part of life. We do however need to be intelligent to its potential power and stay centered in our heart and in our wisdom to avoid its ill effect upon that which we are nurturing into life.
You will not always need to cloak that which is young. Soon enough it will be able to stand up for itself, but for now, your vigilance and care is most certainly required. Hug your ideas to yourself as though they were a new lover you cannot bear to share with another. In time the world will be the lover receiving the love of your idea. For now, it is for you to love, for you to hold and for you to observe. Only allow those proven trustworthy to support you in this – those who can handle the frequency or vibration of what you are seeking to nurture. Some may love you but be frightened of what you are creating. Stay true to yourself and your creative power and be wise as to whom you invite into your inner sanctum to witness this new life emerging.
Keep your inner sanctuary pure. This may be your room, a sacred place you visit, or your own body, into which you retreat in relaxation or meditation. Sometimes you will find that others have taken up residence in your sanctuary. Perhaps an argument that you cannot let go of, has another living in your head. A suffering that has not been acknowledged and released can feel like a big, old dirty suitcase of emotional baggage cluttering up the temple space of your heart. It is time to focus on the purity, light, love and compassion that dwells within you. Everything else will come and go, and that is just fine. But the purity within your sanctuary is eternal. You can come back to it to refresh your spirit and gain resources to help you deal with the rest of the world and even your own darker moments, anew. It will give you the peace and spaciousness of mind you need to recognize the new life, and to compassionately, but firmly, denounce any intrusion upon that new life by doubt, fear or sabotage.
Healing process ::
Close your eyes and relax. Focus on your breath for several moments. Imagine the external world fading away and allow yourself to step into your heart, as though within you there is a silent, vast, open space. That space within is peaceful.
Sense, see or feel that deep within that space, a tender young shoot is rising out of the earth. With tremendous courage and focus, it has summoned the energy to crack through the seed that once contained its life force, and it is reaching directly up towards the light, boldly determined to become a full, mature plant.
Imagine that you are joyfully, lovingly and consciously standing guard over that shoot. From a loving, aware, and strong space you firmly move on any big muddy boots that would step on it, or any devouring insects that look rather interested in that tasty young morsel. You do this easily and effectively, whilst remaining centered in your heart.
Around you and the shoot are many beings of unconditional love. These may be ancestors, spiritual guides, beings of light, or angelic beings.
You may sense darkness rise and fall around you and the circle of light created by your love and the beings supporting you to protect this tender young shoot. You can notice that rise and fall of darkness whilst remaining calm, centered and detached in your heart as you focus your love on the young plant. Watch it respond and grow strong. All is well. You may whisper to it, “You are safe and you will grow strong and thrive! Through unconditional love, so be it!”
In your own time, just open your eyes and you have completed your healing process. At any time you can return to repeat this process, especially if you ever feel anxiety or fear about your new life being able to sustain itself and become strong. There is no need for worry, just treat such feelings as an intuitive sign that this healing process will be helpful for you and repeat it. You can do it daily for a few weeks if you are going through a particularly vulnerable period in your life. It will never do you any harm, it will only ever support you.
You might have been taught that creativity is something you have to work hard to access, or that finding your life purpose is so difficult that you must search high and low for it. Yet what you are is within you and wants to come out at every available opportunity! You don’t have to struggle so much. It is more about allowing space for it to manifest and let the energy flow. The real struggle is not in finding something. It is more about letting go of the idea that you need to search for your path in the first place. You see, the process of activating your life path is a natural one. The effort is in getting out of the way, not in making something happen.
As for being yourself, that is the foundation from which your true life path will reveal itself. Being yourself becomes easier when you give yourself permission to love, honor and accept yourself in all circumstances, especially the ones where you might be more tempted to reject and judge. Give the sacred rebel within the opportunity to decide your values – irrespective of whether they meet with general social acceptance.
What you are dreaming of or seeking to do, create, live or manifest, is actually very natural for you. That is why you want to do it.
If you experienced controlling or manipulative forces as you were growing up, you could have found it hard to access your natural state at the time. You would have been too busy trying to adapt and get through the trials of childhood.
When you finished navigating childhood and started to let go of who you were taught to be in order to become who you really are, you may have found your life path was not easily accessible. That is simply because your true and natural self was covered by layers of shame from the early conditioning that you had to be other than you are in order to win love or be acceptable.
However, the natural self hasn’t gone anywhere. It is still there within you. Now it is just chipping away at the walls of shame, perhaps with a defiant, “Who the hell cares, I am here and I am going to love myself anyway.” This allows you to risk bearing the feeling of any shame that arises as you release old emotional wounds and break away from any restraints to unconditional self love. The scared rebel within can empower you to love yourself no matter what, simply because you want to. You might decide to declare, “I am still loveable – so put that in your pipe and smoke it!” This will send an energetic message to whoever shamed you in the first place, whether they meant to or not. You can be freed to realize that the shame is just an emotion, not a truth, and you can defy any hold it has ever had on you and your ability to love yourself.
You are now powerful enough to break the cycle. It is time to stop the shame and claim yourself with love instead.
What you want to write, sing, dance or become, is you. It is natural. Drop your defenses, get into the grit and confront the power that any old shaming has had over you. It’s finished now. It is time for you to be naked with yourself, acknowledge how gorgeous you are and get on with your work. What you want to create, wants to be created. The world wants to be written. You just need to let go of any remnants of the past that have been in your way. Step firmly over them and on to your path.
Healing process :: Say aloud, “I now choose to forgive and release any person, situation or circumstance that has ever been a source of shame or shaming for me, whether conscious or unconscious. I now release this from my body, mind and heart, through unconditional love. I choose to claim myself instead. I love, accept and claim all of me under the loving protection and wisdom of life. I choose to live as myself. Now. I call on the unconditionally loving assistance that life wishes to send me for this journey now. I honor my creative power and my innate worth. So be it.”
Be kind to yourself. Say this every day for the next few days or however long it takes for you to believe it. You are worth the effort.
Have you ever seen a storm pictured from above? It can appear to be so beautiful and elegant. This is certainly different to the ground view which can be quite a violent experience. So too, there is great beauty in your life now. However, at this point in the natural process, you may be experiencing it as anxiety-inducing rather than beautiful. You may sense it as internal chaos. You may feel it as something that is waiting to erupt from within, as a restless anxiety that you cannot quite articulate but sense vaguely nonetheless.
Whether the chaos seems subtle, strong, internal or external, know that all is unfolding according to a perfect higher order. You are currently enduring a cosmic, spiritual storm which is having an impact on you. It is clearing things out, preparing you for that lovely, super-fresh, uplifting feeling that one experiences after the storm has finally passed.
If you cannot believe there is anything happening – even at a subtle level – because you feel stuck, denied, bored, thwarted or stale, no matter what appears to be, in truth there is only the unfolding, creative genius of the universe. You are not forgotten. You have not been looked over. You have not been denied, found wanting or rejected as unworthy.
The storm that needs to erupt is in your own heart. Do your liberating rain dance! Rage, weep, pray, dance, paint or sing. Express whatever is needed, however it is needed, to exorcise the blocked energy in your heart. Then you will call on the powerful perfection of your life path, as it aligns for the next creative turn of the spiral of life.
Mantra :: I give thanks for the higher order of my life, which I trust implicitly, as it guides me into wholeness and love. From what appears as chaos, new order is rising. I trust this and receive the gift of higher order in my life now. Through grace and mercy, so be it!
In the chaos of modern life and the constant fluctuations of our minds, it can be difficult to remember that a sublime sanctuary lies within. Yet it is always there. Beneath the ceaseless activity, there is an endless, vast spaciousness that restores and connects us to something greater – something that exists outside of time.
Universal love inspires, energizes and moves us to create – even beyond what we once thought was possible. Your love for life, the need to feel alive and express yourself, and the quest for that which is truly fulfilling … these are the sacred urges that rebel against fear and promote passion for being alive, they flow through your blood and can be felt through the beating of your heart.
There is the way of the mind – which can make mountains out of molehills even when it thinks it is turning mountains into molehills! Then there is the way of the heart. It is subterranean and moves subtly beneath possible obstacles, intelligently shifting with exquisite sensitivity, sensing the way forward, through dangerous pathways and responding to what is before it even occurs in the physical world. However, with the hearts intelligence we cannot see and know in the same way that we do when we allow the mind to direct us. We have to open to another way if we want to benefit from the innate intelligence of the heart.
The mind sees, plans, strategizes. The heart feels, responds, senses and intuits. When we walk the path of the heart, we must feel and respond rather than plan our way. It is a different way to live and create. It is closer to the earth and to the source of life itself. It is not for those who are lacking courage and trust, but you are not one of those! Trust your heart, and drop into it. The mind is important, but it cannot supplant the heart.
Deep within, you know what to do and you know what is true. It matters not whether the mind and its plans seem to agree with your inner sense. Your willingness to trust your heart and to rebel against fear will serve you well. Let your heart lead you. Be sure of your faith and trust in what you feel.
Your head and heart have been in conflict at times over the course of your life. This has brought you struggle and, sometimes, deep suffering. A truce will soon be declared and the appropriate outcome – of the mind waving the white flag in surrender – is imminent. Soon, if not already, you will finally be feeling that your heart is leading you. You will feel that your mind is learning to follow the guidance of your heart, rather than trying to be out front. What a relief to let go of this old way! Your mind can become more relaxed and trusting. There will be a period of adjustment, as you get used to living without so much foresight, but with more insight, wisdom and energy in the present moment to create.
If you are finding that you cannot plan or strategize as you once did, or you feel that you know less than you have ever known about where you are heading or how you are supposed to get there, know that these are healthy signs of a shift from the head to the heart. You are not proceeding in error. You are exactly where you are meant to be, doing exactly what you are meant to be doing. You are now in a position that is more powerful than ever, because you are allowing yourself to be guided by your heart – a heart that beats in harmony with the heart of all existence. Your affairs are in accord with love and no matter what may appear at times, all is unfolding according to that greater love.
Where you are is where it’s at. Stay until you are divinely moved.
Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous – to poetry. ~ Thomas Mann
When you feel resistance, it might mean you’re not up to the task. Then again, it might mean that you are up to the task, but don’t realize your own strength. Resistance sometimes serves to preserve your energy and keep you safe. Without resistance, you might manically say yes to everything, perhaps for fear of missing out, but right where you are is holy ground.
From a quantum physics perspective, you are already everywhere, and everyone and everything is within you. When you realize this there can be no fear of missing out, because you are already where it’s at!
Honor the spirit of resistance and know it will be with you through every step of your journey. You’ve done enough inner work to know the difference between a yes and a no. It’s wise to pause and consider your choices and actions with respect to your available energy, schedule, and resources.
Mantra :: I move when moved, until then, I revel in the deliciousness of the present moment.
Artwork by Rassouli
The Hero’s Journey dream oracle, by Kelly Sullivan Walden
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