me upon my pony on my boat

It is useful for me to see this human experience as a journey, and I have certainly been very mobile in this life, taking residence all over the country, from Wisconsin to California to North Carolina to Arizona and now back to Indiana.  Yes, I know I need not take the analogy so literally, but that is how my life-path has unfolded so far. 

I have stated before that I am still “on the road to find out”, leaving Sedona the way I arrived:  driving my Chevy pickup loaded up with tools and pulling the vintage Airstream.  But where I arrived in Sedona to pick up something I lacked, now I arrive to honor the soul agreements I have already made.

Right before I left Northern Arizona I experienced a visitation of lizards.  Understanding life in a shamanic way includes paying close attention to everything that shows up in our awareness, realizing the Universe is constantly in communication with our soul.  So when multiple lizards show up for me at the end of the warm weather, I ask them what it is they have to teach me.

Lizard is here for all of us, to remind us that we are in a profound cycle of transformation.  This is for ourselves, for our relationships, for our collective humanity, and for the planet.  Lizard is proposing big changes for you and me.  Besides moving across the country, I need to look at any of the old ideas, or patterns, or habits, or beliefs that I need to release. 

Whenever the lizard is caught by his tail, he can detach from that part of himself in order to survive.  But he has to leave something significant behind in order to move forward.  Notice just what is called for, that needs to be released before you can be propelled forward.  Something is holding you back and it is likely something you think you want to hang onto . . . like a tail. 

Lizard is also very sensitive to vibration.  He can sense the movement of energy and react before it is apparent.  Lizard reminds us to sharpen our senses and to trust and employ our own impressions and perceptions.      

This morning I was on the road early enough to see the rising sun and it was brilliant red and I spoke that little ditty out loud, “Red sky at morning, Sailor take warning”.  I have long depended on the analogy of “water” to help me make sense of my reality and my progression through this human experience.  We are all sailors, journeyers, sojourners and travelers, whether we are literally moving or not.  We are navigating sometimes treacherous seas and we are continuously being given opportunities to pick up new tools to give our journey ease.

The more we awaken, the more we realize how mutable our perceptible reality has become.  We can see that the tree, the house, the fence is just a swirl of atoms and electrons and it feels like there is nothing solid anymore to hold onto. 

We have elected to accept living on a boat over finding solace in putting down roots into the shifting earth.  This is the new paradigm; this is the new earth, and holding onto the shore will only slow our progress and hinder our journey. 

I see that we are like those explorers in the history books, striking out onto uncharted waters where the map-makers have etched dragons and sea monsters.  This could be fearful to some, but to me it feels like a wonderful adventure.  I can’t wait to see where my boat will carry me next or what will grow to take the place of that piece I left behind.

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In December, the Earth School will offer another opportunity for Shamanic Breathwork Journeys and we will also offer a special Winter Solstice and Christ Mass observance on the 21st.  Follow me on my website:  http://www.earthschoolforsouls.com and on Facebook at:  https://www.facebook.com/jbdeakyne

Thanks to Lyle Lovett for the nautical title.

To All My Relations

I’m sitting in the Indianapolis International Airport early this morning waiting for the first leg of my flight to Thunder Bay, ON via Toronto.  My trip to Indiana has been remarkable and has flown by.  One of my soul family stepped up to host me giving a talk at the public library and a Shamanic Breathwork gathering, that were both, well attended.

Of course I already knew that my tribe is vast and extended well beyond the boundaries of Northern Arizona, but when I meet them face to face, I am in awe and filled with joy.  My biological family has been great, with no drama to speak of, and I have come to treasure them all very much.  I have spent concentrated time with my nephew and his family which has been rich and I have been very fortunate to be here at the time of my latest nephew’s birth.  On the day he was born he was offered to me to hold, and my eyes held the question, “Really, me?  Don’t you have anyone more qualified to do that?”

Little Jasper carries a name of power from one of the Magi who attended the birth of the Christ.  They were not actually “three kings”, but astrologers and magicians.  I had an overwhelming sense of wonder when I held his little body; I knew he was a new soul on earth and we were witness to the arrival of a soul.  It is known that newborns normally cry when they take their first breath, and I had the realization that their little human form is hit by the force of spirit when they take their first “in-breath”.  Wouldn't that make your cry?

The word “breath” is often synonymous with the word “spirit”.  Even if a soul has taken notice of the form it is about to inhabit while it is in-utero, it is that first breath that really brings it full force into human form.  That is likely the moment when spirit takes on that great forgetting, and begins the journey of this lifetime to ”remember” itself and make its way back to Oneness.  My experience with little Jasper caused me to alter the way I introduce breathwork to people, and the shift was noticed.

I am also noticing the movement in energies invited by the Autumnal Equinox.  Now the nights will gradually get longer as we approach the Winter Solstice.  I must admit, like the grasshopper of myth, I am not quite ready, and I face the coming storms without adequate provisions.

I am feeling a deep shift; I am called away from Sedona for a time.  It is like leaving the womb or emerging from the chrysalis.  What is coming is sure to be full and right, but after more than four years, I seem to be dragging my feet.  When I first asked spirit where it was I was to move, she told me it’s not a geographical location.  That is always true.  We never really need to go anywhere else to find our joy.  But sometimes the place will not sustain us in the ways that are required and deserved.  So after some monumental inner moves . . . an outer move is called for.

I ask the Universe to give me shelter before the first snow fall.  I anticipate a series of Breathwork and Writing Workshops before I head eastward.  I hope to connect fittingly with my amazing Sedona and Cottonwood and Phoenix families before I leave.  Namaste.

You can track me at:  earthschoolforsouls.com

The Song

From the first time I read about Thoreau’s idea of the different drummer, I knew he was talking about me.  Even when it seems I am hanging with my own tribe, I sense I am slightly out of step with my contemporaries. 

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.  Henry David Thoreau

It is certain that every soul resonates with a unique and separate rhythm and it is an important part of our journey to sharpen our hearing to and our sensing of the song that has been written to be the soundtrack of our lives.  In the beginning, we must center ourselves and quiet our minds; we need to be very quiet so we can hear the song. 

In time, we will come to sense the music all the time; we become accustomed to the tone and the beat and we measure the experiences that come to us against that innate vibration.  Here we decide whether or not something resonates (makes sense), which becomes a large part of our ability to discern what serves us and what does not.

In the beginning, the song was soundless and wordless; it had no rhythm nor beat nor cadence nor vibration.  This was before all that; before vibration.  It was the song of pure potentiality where anything is possible; when the Void is pregnant with possibilities.  It is the pause in the song of creation; the perfect stillness before the cymbal crash of the great imagining.

Everything in creation comes forward from this pause, this break, this stillpoint in the song.  Stillness opened her mouth and the form of the song began; vibration from non-vibration; some-thing from no-thing.  So begins the rhythm of the spheres; every aspect of the divine singing praises to the Holy One, the Source of all music and the song of creation.  This is the word spoken of in the holy books:  “that was with God; that was God”.   And we were there, an aspect of the divine co-creating the visible and audible universe.

The well-meaning gifts of our parents, priests, and teachers often happen to obscure our hearing of the song.  Sometimes this obfuscation is intentional, but usually it is not.  Every idea we have been handed and every belief we have accepted are essentially limitations.  Some of these limitations we want to hold onto, and some are just unneeded baggage that slow down our journey back to Oneness.

Yet we have this built-in mechanism for filtering the truth from the false.  Does it resonate?  If you put your hand to your heart-center, close your eyes and ask the one who lives in you, “Does this serve the highest good?”  You will always get an answer.  Be careful to not check the resonance against your belief system and the ideas you have been given.  A belief system is just an idea somebody thought of; it is not sacred.  Let go of “belief” and trust in the “still small voice” that speaks to you if it has not been put on “mute”.  That is your highest source - go straight to the top.  The authority of this voice trumps all the opinion leaders, all the laws, and all the bibles.

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Now, after the music . . . comes the dance . . . but that’s a whole nuther story.

Follow John Deakyne at earthschoolforsouls.com

Amazing art is "Symphony of The Sadness" by doeasembilanpro

Always Coming Home

Even as I release the words that rise in my awareness; even as I encourage my fellow travelers to use the written word to exercise their innate creative abilities; even now I am conscious of the utter inadequacy of words to capture the movement of spirit in our lives.

I have not blogged for three months even though I have transcribed several blog-worthy tomes.  Like you, I have opened myself to be worked on by the divine.  Because we have set our intention for transformation, spirit has obliged, and when we truly allow, she sends us the data that is needed for our newest calibration.  As you know, much of this work is accomplished while we sleep.

So we have had some restless, nearly sleepless nights.  We are being visited by strange and bizarre dreams that are just evidence of our busy-ness in the dream time.  And sometimes, even after sleeping deeply, we rise exhausted like we have run a marathon or been on a night-long bender.  It is hard for us to put this into words because we lack a story upon which to hang this experience.  But let me try:

One night recently I had a recurring vision of myself working to open an ancient door and heard over and over the thought about bringing in the age of _______________.  I kept getting this word; a foreign sounding word; and I told myself I should sit up and write down this word so I could later look it up.  Then I told myself that after repeating this scene what felt like a hundred times, I could not possibly forget the word.

I was borderline awake all night; from time to time setting up and speaking to the ceiling, “Okay, that’s enough; just let me sleep!”  I did sleep for a short time in the early morning, and when I came fully awake I sat up and asked myself, “Now, what was that word?”  Can you believe that after all that wrestling, the word was now just outside my remembering.  It was hiding itself, but I knew it was not lost.

Feeling depleted I decided to cancel my scheduled time to do readings at the coffee shop in Cottonwood, but I dropped by to tell them I would not be there.  I mentioned to my friend, Glen, that I had had an exhausting night; that I had been given a word that I could not forget, then I forgot it.  I told him it was a new word for me but at the same time familiar, and I thought it might be Latin.  To my surprise, he checked in and said, “No it’s not Latin.”  Then he said it’s “Lemuria”.

It’s Lemuria.  When he said the word, it all came roaring back.  I had seen the word before in New Age circles, but really didn't know what it was or what it meant.  If you also don’t remember, the legend of Lemuria is about a civilization during and predating the age of Atlantis.  It is believed that the beings in Lemuria were extremely high-conscious light beings; perhaps the last vestige of spirit beings before we had completely forgotten who and what we are.

I have decided to not over-think this vision, because it is beyond the understanding of the mind.  Me working on opening the door to the Age of Lemuria is about me continuing to work on up-leveling my own consciousness and understanding that our work is also about up-leveling the consciousness of (opening the door for) our collective humanity.

Lemuria represents a point on the spiral journey from which we are moving, and paradoxically to which we are returning.  For me, it feels like home.  That is really the point of the whole thing; however circuitous the way, we are always coming Home.

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Check out our website:  www.earthschoolforsouls.com for my latest workshops and events.  Next up is our monthly Mini-Jumpstart Writing Retreat on Saturday morning, June 15, at the Flying Eagle Retreat Center in Clarkdale, AZ.

Birthday Blog - Let the Sunshine In

In my capacity as a writing coach, the specter of self-doubt often rises to block the writer from stepping up and giving form to their thoughts and dreams.  One of the great incarnations of “self-doubt” is around the thought that what I see and understand is my own particular perspective and so it is probably not relevant to anyone else.  On the sidelines I urge them on, “If the idea resonates with you, it will resonate with others.”

Yes, your perspective is unique and personal; still you need to trust yourself.  You are vitally connected to everyone else on the planet so your words will land in the hearts of many others.  It is not yours to know who or how many; just be assured that if it makes sense to you, it will make sense to others.

This truth has come to me again as I observe that my changeable numerology number coincides with the number for the planet.  This year, I am a six and the planet is having a six year.  So I can safely say that what is true for me is true for the planet and vice-versa.

In view of this, here is what I see:  We have had a multitude of powerful openings since December 21st of 2012, the winter solstice and the close of the Mayan calendar.  We have had the end of the Roman year and the coinciding New Year.  We have had the Chinese New Year and the onset of the Year of the Snake. 

And just when I thought we were finished with all these powerful reminders of our potent cycle of death and rebirth, both individually and collectively, we now face the Spring Equinox which signals a powerful rebirth and the end of the Zodiacal calendar, which is appropriately brought to completion by my sun sign, Pisces.  And finally, we are all participating in the transition from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius.  It is not a coincidence that the group which sang the hippie-anthem about “The Age of Aquarius” and letting in the sunshine was also named The Fifth Dimension which is a call to higher consciousness.  In the 1970’s they were pointing us to this time and this opening.

We have been facing this time of transition for a long time.  Thirty years ago the medicine man, Dawson No Horse, guided me to open my mind to alternative spirituality and my heart to the connectedness of all creation.  He radically broke tradition when he built all his lodges to face west instead of east.  He also faced west when he lifted his pipe to pray, when it is a long-standing Lakota tradition to instead face the direction of the rising sun and new life.  His guidance told him to orient himself to the west where he knew we were facing the end of days and the end of the age.   When he looked to the west he saw a buffalo standing on one leg; we have literally been on our last leg.  Now even that last leg is gone and something else must come to stand in its place. 

Could it be that we are the ones who decide just what symbol is chosen to stand in the west to guard against the demise of human existence?  Could it be that we are the ones we have been waiting for? 

We are so accustomed to preparing and waiting, that I must caution against staying too long in that energy.  As we have cleared the field for planting, we must move energetically from “dying” to being “reborn”.  Now is the time to plant the seeds that will flourish for us and our descendants. 

Even the guardians of the institutions and the restrictive thought forms that aim to limit us, even they are slowly awakening.  The darkest of these entities are soon to transition back to their maker and the ones they carefully ensconced to succeed them will little by little turn toward the light, even as the sunflower turns to follow the track of the sun’s journey across the sky.

Just as I celebrate my own solar return and a potent sign of my own rebirth, I see again that what is true for me is also true for the planet.  So I celebrate your rebirth as well.  Let the sunshine in!

The next Birth Your Book! retreat will  be in Phoenix from March 16 to 17, 2013.  More information and registration on our website:  http://earthschoolforsouls.com/the-sedona-wordsmith/

The Field of Gratitude

Just minutes after I almost missed my flight to Thunder Bay, where fourteen workshop participants await my arrival, I am compelled to pull out a pad and pen   . . . I am suddenly so full of gratitude.   

It’s not because I accidentally and inexplicably turned off my alarm clock last night and woke up a full hour past the time I had planned, to begin my trek across town to an airport to which I had never been; not because now I had to speed toward Mesa in traffic before sunup; not because I didn't know where to park; not because they refused to check my bag full of writing supplies at the ticket counter because my plane was already boarding; not because I had to pull my bag through security along with my heavily laden computer bag, wearing a heavy ski parka in the Phoenix warmth; not because at security I found an impossibly long line, which I stepped in front of trying not to make any unneeded eye-contact; not because when I handed my ID to the guard he said, “And you stepped in front of all these other waiting people, why?” 

Not because he waived me through anyway, and not because the x-ray and screening line was long and slow, and not because I received a pat-down from an unattractive man that was a little too intimate after I forgot to take off my belt; not because I then ran through the airport with my boot laces untied, holding up my pants, lugging my computer bag and pulling my big green suitcase behind; not because I broke out in a hot sweat beneath my ski parka that I purposely did not pack so I would stay under the weight limit; and definitely not because in mid-stride I heard them call my name over the loudspeaker, perfectly pronounced, "John Deakyne, please report to gate one."  

And not because terminal one just happened to be the one furthest away from where I started; not because in the end I made it to the plane just in time and the stewardess rushed me down the aisle with everyone staring at me with the look that asks, “What’s his story?” and not because after all this I found myself sweating and panting in my proper seat just before the plane backed out of its spot and headed toward Duluth. 

I’m thankful that it all somehow worked out alright when at so many points it could have gone so wrong, but the sense of gratitude seems larger and more encompassing.  I am consciously resting in some divine construction, a matrix of energetic lines and infinite connections and it feels like loving hands are holding and sheltering me.

I am aware of my connection to more and more remarkable souls and I see the circle of my soul family expanding like concentric circles from a stone dropped into still water.  This grid of connection and the corresponding field of gratitude are independent of circumstances and survive even if I oversleep, or make a wrong turn and end up standing in the middle of the parking lot while my plane races down the runway without me.  In that alternate reality everything is still in divine order and the field of gratitude is still available to me, but only if I choose it.  

Everyday there are so many things that could go wrong that don’t, and every unwelcome circumstance adds another thread to the tapestry of our humanity, and every miss-step brings us haltingly closer to the perfection of this human construction.

Upcoming workshops and more about John's work:  http://earthschoolforsouls.com/

What does the Bible Say about the New Age? Really? You Going There?

On the Winter Solstice on December 21^st I noticed how the shortest day of the year and the corresponding longest night created a perfect opening for what is happening now.  We have been so focused on the end of the 4^th World that we might not be entirely ready for what the New Year is bringing.

We are indeed stepping through a profound opening, ready or not.  It has come to me that this period of time corresponds with what some Bible scholars call the “Reign of Christ” mentioned fleetingly in the New Testament book of Revelation, Chapter 20, 4-6.  Many of my soul family are calling in a time that is ruled by a Christ Consciousness, but many traditional Christians will miss this because of their attempt to hang literalism on a highly symbolic document.  I remember my teacher saying, “Literalism is idolatry.”  He meant that it is idol worship to focus on the form instead of on the truth the form is pointing toward.

Remember that the Hebrews largely rejected the idea that Jesus was their messiah because he did not literally appear to them as they imagined he would.  They misread and misunderstood the scriptures just as the literalists do today.  It follows that the True Believer is more easily blinded to revelation because his understanding is clouded by presupposition and limiting beliefs. 

Now is the time for all of us to let go of limitation and confining thought and belief systems so we may receive illumination when it is offered.  Being en-light-en-ed is about being in-formed and lit up from within; feeding and encouraging our inner-flame of truth. 

What happens if we look at the Christian Bible with new eyes?  In the book of Revelation, the bible writer is describing a momentous shift that is already begun and will play itself out in the immediate millennium or two of time.  He is ushering in a New Age.  It is notable to me that he recognizes an event that repeats itself in a varied form; another pattern that re-cycles. 

So we are once again facing the onset of a New Age, a New Earth and another opportunity for a "thousand-year" reign of Christ Consciousness.  Many have read this to mean Jesus would literally return to sit on a physical throne and administer the events of the day.  In the bible writer’s time, that shift was literally administered by the disciples of Jesus and their subordinates.  And honestly, they made a mess of it.  We got the worst of our nature:  murder, persecution and subjugation in the name of Christ.  

Most believers did not realize the promised "return" of the Christ had already occurred in the book of Acts when his followers where anointed with the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Since then, Christ has returned to the faithful over and over again.  There is no need to wait, and looking into the sky is futile.  He is reborn from within.  Jesus was always all about the “mysteries”.  It was never going to happen in the way you imagined it would.  Why else would he repeatedly say the truth would only be understood by those who had eyes to see and ears to hear?  Moving into the paradigm of the New Earth requires each of us to develop new ways of seeing and to grow new ears.

This time, the cycle is to be administered not by the True Believers, but by the conscious ones who recognize the Oneness of all creation and are committed to the work of up-leveling the awareness of our collective humanity.  We are on the planet at this time for a most sacred purpose.  The weight of this calling falls to this generation and the next.  Listen for the call.  It will not be a blaring trumpet; this time it will be a “still small voice”.

Tied in with the Bible prophecy about the Thousand Year Reign is the occurrence of The Great Tribulation which many see as preceding the actual Reign of Christ.  Historically, the tribulation referred to in the book of Revelation refers to the time before and after the Crucifixion when the Hebrews suffered greatly under the fierce brutality of Roman rule.

 

Today, in this new time, it refers to all the man-made folly that has led up to this profound opening.  The tribulation is the constructed result of the failure to recognize the sacredness of all life and the necessity of humanity to harmonize itself with the natural rhythms of the planet. 

This period of tribulation has certainly begun and is reaching a tipping point.  It is evidenced by the many natural catastrophes; by the unconscionable wars and mindless brutality with which we are daily bombarded; by the insane machinations of politicians and governments; and by the erosion of common sense, simple kindness, and good will.  The bible-writer frames this hard time as a battle between good and evil; and I do see a struggle between what is good for all and what is good for the few.

Now we may rightfully discern the truth and the goodness of any policy or plan by whether or not it increases the unity of humanity or whether it stands to further separate us one from another.  So here it is:  more unity and connection = good; more separation and division = bad; remembering that “goodness” is another way of saying “God-ness”.

Keep in mind that the author of the Revelation was not so much foretelling the future as he was shining a light on a new and momentous movement.  So it is now.  We are not looking forward; we are in the thick of it, and “the time is at hand”.

More about John's work on his website:  Earth School for Souls

Lord I Feel Like Going Home

I pray for your coming home and for your safe arrival.  Everything we are doing now is about coming home to the truth of our being. 

Much of what we are experiencing seems absolutely new, unprecedented and even frightening as we test the bounds of our imagination and our capabilities.  We are surfing new dimensions; crossing into new worlds; experiencing the ecstasies of laying down our limitations.  Still there is an element of familiarity to it all, or else we would not so willingly take the leap.

This is the age of paradox, so we journey into the unknown only to remember the familiar.  We have passed this way before.  The self-same force that repels so many others, now acts as a powerful magnet upon our soul. 

We could get lost in these ethers . . . in these high places.  But we remember the loving reminders from our teachers to keep our feet upon the earth, even if our heads are in the stars.  And we have each other even when so much of the trip is solitary.  We’ve only to notice the extended hand of our loving brother and sister, and to take it when it is offered.  We have come too far to now reject the gift of fellowship and communion.

I am testing the waters of this New Year to know what steps to take; what to plan; what to allow.  And I am reminded more and more that there are no Shamans here.  The well-worn idea of going to a healer to get fixed is so last year; so last world.  The most we can do as practitioners is hold space and create a platform on which you can heal yourself. 

Maybe this has always been true, but some have employed smoke and mirrors in order to keep you in the illusion, and separate from your own divine nature.  In the past we could not even believe the words of the Master when he said, “It is your faith that has healed you.”  We fixated on the healer instead of the life force energy that flowed from our own finger tips.

Now we come clean.  What we do is no small thing; and the knowledge we employ is no small gift.  But we are the nurse and the midwife; you are your own surgeon.  We create conditions in which you may awaken your inner shaman, your inner guru, your inner teacher, and your inner healer.  We are all called to this for each other.  And there is great peace in realizing that we are not the source, but certainly, we are the channel.

I will set the stage this month for some of you to release the blocks that keep you from freely expressing the words that need to be put down.  I am delighted to have been called to Thunder Bay, Ontario to facilitate a two-day writing retreat at the end of the month and I will offer the first Sedona retreat on the weekend of the 19^th.  If you feel called to Birth Your Book in the profound energies of this New Year, check out our website:  http://earthschoolforsouls.com/the-sedona-wordsmith/

Blessings to you all in the New Year/New Earth!