Lammas ~ Lughnasadh, & Laughter

Does a butterfly laugh as she dries her wings?
Does she know what makes her newly-formed heart sing?
(I daresay yes to the first and possibly 'hmmm' to the second)

A bit of the astrological for today:
courtesy of Cayelin Castell of Shamanic Astrology
http://www.celestialtimings.com

Aug 01, Saturday. Traditional Lammas. The waxing out-of-bounds Moon is passing through the late degrees of Sagittarius and is visible in the constellation of Scorpio. Venus (1 Cancer) opposite Pluto (1 Capricorn)

Lughnasadh is the gaelic (celtic) holyday associated with the beginning of August, celebrating the harvest time. The harvest is also associated with the disseminating moon (what we 'see' as three quarters full) that waxes at this time. Lammas is the later established, 'Anglo-fied' version of this celebration.

Lugh was the Irish Sun God and was also known as 'Samildanach' which means 'many-skilled'. Thus the celebration in his honour involved the demonstration of prowess in the skills attributed to him both as a warrior and as a craftsman. The festival of Lugnassadh honoured the Sun King's triumphal harvest, celebrating the riches and abundance given by the heat and light of summer.

Lugh represents a newer phase of development in the mythology of Ireland. He was apparently introduced to the Celtic pantheon around the time of Christ. His coming marks the rising ascendancy all across Britain, Europe and the Mediterranean of the male gods of the Sun over the Sun Goddess known to the people of the ancient world.

Originally, this Lugh's feast would have been a festival of ripened grain, celebrating the Mother's bounty. The motif of Lughnasadh is the triumph of the light of summer over the darkness of winter. The Summer King, having taken the throne from the Winter King now celebrates the power of the deeds that led to his victory. In the Sacred Feminine traditions, the solar feminine is honored at this time... and Her infinite resources of light. Not familiar with the solar Goddesses? Look for Sekhmet, Ameratsu (japan), and others. These powerful divine feminine manifestations are the original foremothers of Xena and Elektra!

Gatherings for Lughnasadh are for celebrating the gift of life. The Mother gives to us through the body of the Earth and the strength of our spirits. Lughnasadh is a time to rejoice in the victory of life itself.

Be the laughing butterfly, joyously drying her wings! Soar with your joys and passions and dreams. May these, and Every Blessing, immediately find you!!

Soar brilliantly!
Mary
http://www.delphicwave.com

Becoming the eye of the storm

Greetings from the stillpoint, the eye of the storm. ;)

Some of you may know that for many years I studied, and then taught martial arts. There is one lesson, from a book about training, that stands out in my memory as so very pertinent to this time we are now experiencing. I do not remember the title nor the author of this little book, but its’ message ~ to be as the eye of the storm.

The energy of any situation was described as that of a hurricane; cyclical in form and in the nature of its travel, the ‘damage’ is caused at the periphery, where things are most turbulent and therefore most dangerous and cataclysmically messy. We are now in such a time, energetically. All that we have built for ourselves, to identify ourselves, is being swept away. A shamanic death on steroids. An opportunity to get out of our own way.

The teaching in this little book was to become like the calm at the center of a storm... not engaging, not identifying with nor becoming any part of the spin. I remember reading this the very first time, lying on a lawn chair with my sleeping bag tucked up around me, waiting to go on yet another mystical journey with my spiritual teacher. It made such sense, this story. When one engages the ‘enemy’, be it inner or outer in circumstance, one becomes part of the ‘storm’. The archetype of ‘warrior’ predestines the ‘war’. The more identified with or caught up in the turmoil you become, the more the likelihood of you being tossed to the outer rim of the action, where the physical nature of all that you most want to protect is thrashed and beaten and altered by the storm’s random fury.

Where will you make your stand? Will you, in your transformative, re-birthing state, try to butt heads with the winds of change? Or will you perhaps bend, like the sapling, the willow, allowing yourself to toss and twist into a new way of being? Are you exhausted from the buffeting? If so, or even if not, there is another option. Be still. Go within.

In the Vedic traditions, much is written about the “stillpoint between the turning worlds”. This is the place of peace where the experience of stillness (sometimes stuckness or limbo) is what manifests due to the lack of friction within. When there is so little friction that we cannot detect movement, we can surrender to the peace of the experience, or rage against what feels like the dying of the light... fighting on, in the midst of the spin, as the ‘enemy’ takes us with it, high up in the cyclone, held within the cycle of turbulence, spinning down the drain. What is dying is the reactivity, the response patterns we are conditioned to hold, when what we have been conditioned to value is altered or swept away. Let them go. You do not need them.

What is truly authentic to you will remain, washed clean by the winds and waters, energized by the lightning, fed by the peace that finally, finally finds you.

May Every Blessing also Find You,
Mary
http://www.delphicwave.com

Giving and Receiving ~ mastering reciprocity

Many of us have running within our emotional and physical bodies, dysfunctional programs around what it is to give, and/or receive. More often than not, the worst fear around these states of mind is a double bind or deadly embrace between taking and ‘being taken’. In other words, we fear becoming a ‘taker’ AND we fear being ‘taken’; the people, places, things, opportunities that we love the most being tripped away from us, through loss of some kind.

The ‘way out’ of the trap of dysfunctional giving / dysfunctional receiving is to ask Spirit what the ‘AND’ condition is. If I could vibrate with truly healthy and balanced giving AND receiving, what would it feel like? What would my consciousness be like? The answer is typically something like “balanced flow of always more resources in than out, generosity in appropriate measure, and being unconditionally supported in ways as yet unimagined and most likely un-experienced”.

When you find your ‘AND’ condition, listen for the immediate sounds of the ‘but-but’ bird... “But that’s impossible. But that can never happen. But life is not like that”. This is the voice of the conditioned mind. It is trying to keep you safe in the ways it has been trained to do so. Our minds have been trained to protect us by referencing what has gone before: what we have learned, our conditioning, family values, genetic inheritance.... the mind is not trained to ‘let go’ and listen to the heart. Your mind will always answer you with what there is to fear ~ until it has been re-trained to flow with your intuitive guidance.

Allowing oneself to receive unconditionally is equally as important as learning to give unconditionally. What does that mean? The answer to that query is another. What does it mean to you? What does it mean to your conscious self, and what does it mean to your programmed states of mind? When you can truly answer from the heart, you will know.

The heartspace is sacrosanct, a safe haven where you and Spirit journey together, inseparable and unconditionally One. The heartspace IS the middle way.

So often the ‘middle way’ is talked of as a place of practiced neutrality, a place where all opposites are reconciled and all attachment ceases. I find this not to be. The open heart greets paradox with love and understanding. One or both of the tenets are ‘untrue’. ;)

The heart greets fear with love, misunderstanding with compassion and ignorance with patience. When you experience doubt or fear, especially in the areas of giving or receiving, ask your heart. Let not the mind interfere. Your heart will tell you. It holds your true, unbridled passion, for radiance, for truth, for peace, for the love that passes all else in its comprehension.

Remember your heart, and be absorbed therein. Receive her blessings, as you give from the grace that flows from them. Be the embodiment you came to Be. The heart is the middle way. Have you consulted yours today?

May Every Blessing Find You,
Mary
http://www.delphicwave.com

Happy Inter-dependence Day!

Independence or Inter-dependance.... the choice is up to you.

In the ‘states’, today is Independence Day. Interesting concept. For some, independence and dependency are two sides of a tricky sword, or constantly flipping coin. What is the higher vibratory state that transcends both, allowing individuation within the Divine Whole?

What if your soul alignment is meant to be wholly individuated AND wholly contained within the sacred space of Divinity ~ AND in collaboration with others of like vibration? Do you have a reference point for this? Most do not. The heartspace is where this is possible. Your heart, in alignment with the heart of the Divine, in whatever form She most graces you, AND in collaboration with the optimally held heartspaces of those who have similarly chosen Source Alignment as authenticity.

What comes up for many is the fear of the ‘group grope’, fear of ‘going along’ and an equal and opposite fear of ‘going it alone’ and therefore, ‘being made wrong’ or projected upon. What is there left within you that resonates with the polarizing effects of these beliefs? The beliefs that you will ‘lose your independence’ or ‘go along at the expense of your own alignment or truth’? Or are you in fear of walking your worst fears around this subject, whatever they might be?

All this is mind. It has nothing to do with the heart. It has been said that ‘the truth will set you free’. Whose truth? Are there degrees and variations of truth? There seem to be. For each and every positioned reality, there are ‘truths’ ~ all subjective. What then, is the freedom found in objective truth? Perhaps the knowing, the inner certainty found in flow, in the constant of ever-changing, expanding consciousness.

What if Embodying Fluidity as you, and only you, can so BE, IS the ultimate and final answer to the question”Is it true? ~ or ~ What is truth?”

Remember, a question and its answer occupy the same space in awareness... there is no ‘time’ between. Ask, and see how the answers set you free.

Happy Inter-dependence day!

May Every Blessing Find You,
Mary
http://www.delphicwave.com
http://www.whisperingenergy.com/embodying-fluidity.htm

The Intricate Art of Receptivity

How does one truly achieve receptivity? Embrace the receptive principle? Why does receptivity seem different than creativity? Is it? In the I Ching, the hexagrams of the Creative and the Receptive are first and second, the foundational building blocks of all other vibrations. In the Taoist symbol for Tai Chi, the yin and yang energies dance together, each holding the seed of the other, in endless cyclic form.

I am experiencing a personal learning cycle in Receptivity at the moment. For those who know or don’t know, I experienced what the medical community is calling a brainstem ‘stroke’ on Friday, the 5th of June, approximately mid-day. And yes, thank you all so much! I have seen Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s TED video (many times, before this happened, actually) and think her insights are marvelous, as is her book, “A Stroke of Insight”.

My cerebral adventure was not as severe as hers, nor did I know what was happening to me (being a former data analyst,not a neuro-anatomist). I had an episode of extreme dizziness, during which I really wanted to just lie down and let Source balance me, my left side became very heavy and numb, and, finally, the left side of my face went slack, nerves and muscles taking a ‘time out’. ;) At that point, my partner dialed ‘911’ and EMS took over. Thank Goddess!! I was receiving oxygen and something intravenously within minutes, which undoubtedly has helped my ‘amazing’ and ‘mystifying’ recovery (the doctors’ words, not mine).

The medical professionals have been unable to determine actual cause with any certainty. What appeared as an apparent occlusion, or obstruction in one of the veins that serves the brainstem in the first CT that was taken, disappeared after an hour and a half, and the MRI was clear... as was the second CT the next morning.

What I experienced was, ‘no pain whatsoever’. I became extremely dizzy, felt very tired, and walked into the house from outside, but had to go up the stairs to the main room on all fours. Too dizzy. I thought I was answering what my partner was asking me quite coherently, but apparently I was speaking ‘gibberish’ and slurring heavily. I remember being asked if I wanted to be driven to emergency, and thinking that was ridiculous. At that point, while trying to lie down on the sofa, my left side went numb. I could not use my left arm or hand, and the left side of my face ‘fell’, according to observation. I could not feel it, myself. I kept thinking it was absurd to go to hospital, as I felt ‘ok’ although compromised. I thought I probably just needed a nap! Good thing I couldn’t speak for myself, it seems!

My speech began to return within 3 hours, my left side began to function again within 4 hours. I woke up with full use of my left hand the very next morning and was released from hospital the next day, approximately 24 - 30 hours after having been admitted into the ER.

Throughout this adventure, I have been held and supported by the Divine. My body experienced shock at ‘not functioning properly’ and, on waking that next morning in hospital, I witnessed a bit of physical fear, when my left side was working perfectly but my eyes were not. I did not feel afraid. The doctors kept using the “stroke” word, while the inner voice of Spirit kept saying “Be still". You are taken care of. No need to buy into this. What will you choose to make real?” I told the ER physician that I felt well enough to go home. Everyone laughed. I could not yet walk by myself without needing to hold onto something! And yet, later in the day, I was released.

The difference between what the body experiences in order to keep itself intact, and what we feel emotionally and in our consciousness can be quite profound. What I felt emotionally was gratitude. What I felt in consciousness was a bit of incredulity, the surreal nature of having something happen ‘out of the blue’ and not knowing why nor the source thereof. For the last two years, my life has been a training program for surrendering into flow. Why should this be different?

When ‘events’ happen in our lives, the most important observation is the inner truth. What is the benefit here? What was I not perceiving that I really need to see? (Especially in something like this, involving my eyes and perceptual field) What adjustment is being made to my alignment? It feels as though I have been ‘re-booted’, both brain and vision. My physical perception radically altered, I must now depend on the balance of inner and ‘outer’ vision in order to ‘do’ anything in the physical world. How perfect ~ in a perverse sort of way!

“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
~ William Blake

My ‘doors of perception’ have been altered. The cleansing is yet to be. I awake each morning grateful to open my eyes and ‘see’. I choose receptivity for the message held in this adventure and the outpouring of ‘help’ and care that has come my way.

May Every Blessing Find You,
Mary

Entering the Solstice Portal ~ Dreaming with the Flow of Sacred Cycles

Summer Solstice 2009 ~

Entering the Solstice Portal ~ Dreaming with the Flow of Sacred Cycles


An utterly astounding array of ancient cultures built their greatest architectures -- tombs, temples, cairns and sacred observatories -- so that they aligned with the solstices and equinoxes. Many of us know that Stonehenge is a perfect alignment with both summer and winter solstices.

Not as many people are familiar with Newgrange, a beautiful megalithic site in Ireland. This huge circular stone structure is estimated to be 5,000 years old, older by centuries than Stonehenge, older than the Egyptian pyramids! It was built to receive a shaft of sunlight deep into its central chamber at dawn on winter solstice.


Hundreds of other megalithic structures throughout Europe are oriented to the solstices and the equinoxes. The blossoming field of archaeoastronomy studies such sacred sites in the Americas, Asia, Indonesia, and the Middle East.
Recent research into the medieval Great Zimbabwe in sub-Saharan Africa (also known as the "African Stonehenge") indicates a similar purpose. In North America, one of the most famous such sites is the Sun Dagger of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, built a thousand years ago by the Chacoans, ancestors of the Pueblo people. Even cultures that followed a moon-based calendar seemed also to understand the importance of these sun-facing seasonal turning points.
Why? Because the solstice is an opening between the worlds, it is a time when intentions are amplified and the field of infinite possibilities can be engaged in a direct and meaningful way.


In this hour and half tele-seminar, on Monday June 22nd at 11am PDT Mary will facilitate an initiation into the flowing-forward alignment of Solstice-to-Solstice Conscious Dreaming. Using guided meditation, vision journeying, and transformational energy work, we will place our individual and collective intentions and visioning into the sacred cauldron that is the solstice window, invoking the magic of this alignment in the art of conscious dreaming.

Cost for the Tele-Seminar is $49.00.

For more information or to register please visit http://www.delphicwave.com/study

Please join us in this ancient ritual for dreaming a new reality.

;)

Real-time Self Care ~ the Art of Fluid Perception

Real-time Self Care - The Art of Fluid Perception

Self Care has been one of the ‘hot’ topics among those who work with me of late. How does one achieve real-time Self Care, in the face of the energetic turbulence we are all surfing?

The answer lies in a shift in perception. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Too true. When life seems to have dealt you the hand of ‘overwhelm’, it is time, truly, to shift your perception. What you need, in terms of Self Care, is a fresh point of view, enabling you to practice Self Care first, rather than ‘later’.

One of my favorite spiritual books, Mr. God This is Anna, by Fynn, is the story of a little girl with an intimate relationship with the Divine. In her description to her friend, Fynn, she says that most of us have only limited points of view, but the Divine has “infinite viewing points” ~ or, in the words of the five-year-old avatar “infinite points to view”.
When you choose to open your perception a bit wider, to allow in the infinite ocean of possibilities, you are aligning with that Divine perceptual field of infinite lenses of perception.

Unexpected miracles are energetic alignments that happen when we let go of our default reactive states (thought patterns and habits of behaviour) and choose to allow in the optimal solution at any moment.

Ask inwardly: What am I not seeing?
What am I not allowing myself to perceive?
What is the optimal solution?
~ and choose to trust that it will be revealed, in the moment when it is needed (usually not before). ;)

“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
~ William Blake

For further discussion of this question, including spiritual diagnostics for the energy management of Self Care in the moment ~

Please join me and my friend Max Wellspring for a F*ree TeleClass on May 29th at 10AM PDT, as part of the launch of our Living Without Limits program - new for the Fall of 2009.

Dial into the seminar: 925-948-9530 Use Conference ID: 763438#

If you missed dialing in, you can listen to the recording by visiting the Delphic Wave website and clicking on the link for this program at:
http://www.delphicwave.com/study/index.php

~OR~

Join me for the latest cycle of Embodying Fluidity classes from Delphic Wave. Module One begins a new cycle on Friday, June 5th at 1pm PDT.

For more information visit the website at:
http://www.delphicwave.com/study/index.php

May Every Blessing Find You,
Mary