on the road to find out
Thursday, December 20, 2018
AGAIN, THE BLEAK MID-WINTER
This Christmas I am more mindful of the dark than I am of
the light. It could be because the
misery quotient has risen so precipitously for the whole planet over the past
two years. And I am bewildered to see so
many of my friends, family, and acquaintances suffering from unnamed struggle,
difficulty, and depression. We all try
to put a brave face on it, but there is pall cast across the land like a dark
veil covering the casket of some brave and inspiring leader whose name we
cannot even recall. We have buried too
many leaders, too many soldiers, too many friends over the past few recent
years.
We have buried too many gurus, too many teachers, too many
healers, too many shamans – so that we have become determined to guide, to
teach, to heal, and to inspire ourselves and each other . . . in their
stead. I remember how excited we were to
step into this critical role and this important understanding, along with a
fragment of fear about what we had signed up for. For many of us now, that fragment of fear has
swollen into something sinister, swollen from the tears of the forgotten and
abandoned.
I remember how fearlessly we streamed across the threshold
to stake our claim to assume our birthright to being the way-showers for the
new age, the new earth, dare I say? The reign of Christ on Earth? And now, just six years on, I wonder how long
the time will stretch until we can fully spring off of the diving board that is
still solidly anchored in the old paradigm.
And how sure of a leap will we achieve from that board that is so anchored
on a failing and rotting foundation?
I am mindful to the time at the nexus of the Winter’s Solstice
when the sun has reached its absolute most southern clime – and we could not
possibly become any colder, at that point where the sun stops for a quick
breath, perhaps a rest before he decides if he will return again, or not. Will this be the year the sun refuses to come
back? What will happen if we have lost
the heart to howl like wolves – to call back our father sun?
The sun has no doubt overheard our whining and our commiserating
and he could take our lead and refuse to rise to the occasion. Did our ancestors encourage this fear every
year so the children would be sure to howl more loudly – out of fear if not out
of hope?
The children. Those
with which we are left. I pray to them
that they will yell and cheer and beseech the sun to return. Because I am weary.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
THIS CHRISTMAS
This Christmas, perhaps your
choices have never been more stark. If
you are one of us who endeavor to live in the
vibration of peace, and love, and goodwill to all; if you are one of us,
you will be finding it increasingly more difficult to remain neutral when it
comes to your involvement in the polar opposite and prominent vibration of fear, and anger; of
retribution and aggression.
The Universe has given you a
stark choice, and on one hand it makes your choices easier; and your actions will betray your hidden
decisions. It’s as easy as, “I want
to belong to this club, and I don’t want to belong to that club.”
In truth, very little has changed on the wide screen of your apparent
reality. But the puppet-masters of
your imagined 3-D reality have enlarged and exaggerated certain aspects of the
program and diminished and blurred out other parts. So you could honestly be at a loss about what
is real and what is not.
Be aware: it is better to rest in confusion and not
knowing, than to seek and grasp at your first knee-jerk responses to external
and manipulative stimuli. Be aware: that multiple special interests are
purposefully trying to control your emotions and behavior at this time. You will see these attempts quite easily when
you look out on the “real” world without judgment or fear or assumptions.
These are those “spiritual” eyes and ears foretold of in the holy books
that empower your innate gift of discernment which will bend you toward the energy of love, instead of fear. You contain this gift and many others but you
will never realize them if they are struggling to take root in a planting bed
that is contaminated with fear and suspicion.
This Christmas, you could give
yourself a great gift when you nurture yourself with the energy of love. That is the essence of the Christmas
story. We are witness again to the coming of the light of love – the Christ
Light – in the midst of the bleak midwinter.
The outer world has brought us a
holiday shroud of doubt and distrust to obscure the promise of the emerging
light. But you will nurture the failing candle
light; you will fan the coals with your
audacious passion for truth and generosity.
And you will find your way around
the prevailing ignorance and meanness of the day to turn back the army of hollowed-out
haunted souls that have lost their way.
This is the gift of the magi and you are that: one of the kings, the mystics, the magicians
who have brought sacred gifts – not just for the Christ-child, but for the
emerging Christ-self in you and me.
These are the gifts of spirit that put to shame all the sparkling and
shiny crap under the tree.
We do not separate ourselves from
the physical dimension, or set ourselves above or apart. More than ever, we must be fully present at
this critical “tipping” point in time to take our place at the doorway for the
turning of the age. We will decide what
grows from all this restless composting and we will bring it forward with some
gentle persuasion . . . and sometimes with a shove and a shout! Or maybe a howl!
* *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This year, the Earth School for Souls is teaming up with Moon Valley Farm to host a very special observance of the Winter’s
Solstice, complete with a bonfire to drive away the darkness. We will gather at the farm:
9345 N. Moon Road, Gosport, IN 47433
5:30pm, Sunday, December 20th,
2015
mailto:john@earthschoolforsouls.com
for more information.
There is no cost for this event.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
STOP BEING STUPID!
I had a pastor in the Unity
church some years ago who every now and then would get fired up at the
crescendo of his Sunday message and he would bolt to the edge of the stage,
reach out his hand beseechingly to the congregation and implore, “Stop being
stupid!”
That seems to be the theme of the
day as we toddle lamb-like out of March and into April. Here in Indiana we have had front row seats
to the bumbling machinations of our statehouse and our governor as they first
try to throw it in the face of progressive and free-thinking elitists everywhere
who want to give equal rights to EVERYBODY.
Then they stumble over each other trying to explain to the rest of the
nation and the world that our new law is not about legalizing discrimination
against the LGBT community and others.
The governor, who has aspirations
for higher office, assembled some of the most heinous of gay-haters to watch
him sign the bill into law, and they just clapped and clapped and clapped. Now they had a law to protect religion in
Indiana. Thing is, religion doesn’t need
any protection in Indiana, of all places.
In Indiana we have a church on every corner and we proudly attend the institution
of our choice every Sunday and sometimes even on Wednesday. Religion is doing just fine; no protection
needed.
Now I want to go into a rant
about what Jesus would do, but that’s not what this blog is for. I want to find the meaning and the purpose
for what looks like the last gasp of the “religious right” after they have
gotten everything they want, and they have gorged themselves on power in this
state, and still they are not satiated, and they want to thrust a big middle
finger into the faces of the free-thinkers around the rest of the country to
say, “See, we can live in the last millennium and the last century if we want;
if not the previous century or the century before that.”
This is what we are about on the
last day of March, coming into the profound energies of April and its
springtime. Driving toward Bloomington
this morning I was greeted by bright yellow daffodils nodding their sun-kissed
heads at me like the masses who waived palm fronds at the triumphant Jesus
riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. The
energies of April promise a physical manifestation of the continuing shift from
the old paradigm to the new one, and the Blood Moon of the 4th is
just one more daffodil along the road, one more palm frond along the path that
ushers in the new age. My mantra for
this time is from scripture: “Old things
are passed away, behold all things have become new”.
Those who hold to the constructs
of the past, like our governor and our congress, are going down on the Titanic
while they busily rearrange the deck chairs.
They need to wake up and begin to make themselves relevant. The reaction from other states and
corporations has forced them to truly have a “come to Jesus” moment. I can see Jesus holding out his hand to them,
imploring: “Stop being stupid”.
It bears noting that many
traditional Christians are noticing the coming of the Blood Moon as coinciding
with some end-times scripture, and wondering if this wouldn’t be an ideal time
for the second coming of Christ and/or
the rapture. I can only say yes, it
would be a great time. For myself I see
the emergence of the Fifth Age and the new paradigm as being completely in sync
with the prophecies of the Christian Bible.
I am mindful of the dear ones who have died this past year; and I
imagine they have been called home (raptured?) so they can work for the rest of
us from the other side. With this Blood
Moon, I see that everything has been accomplished for our movement into the
Reign of Christ Consciousness on Earth. The Bible doesn’t claim that this
transition will be entirely peaceful. We
are in the birthing process, and it can get messy. And it is all complicated by those who
doggedly hang onto the old ways.
The Easter season reminds us that
we and the culture and the time . . . cannot be reborn unless something
significant dies. During this time,
notice what needs to fall away in your own life, so you can step into the
excitement of being a spirit, fully enjoying its brief time in a body, and
ushering in the new paradigm. There are
no coincidences; you were born at this critical point in time for a reason.
Website: http://earthschoolforsouls.com/
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Tuesday, November 18, 2014
The Stranger
You were not sent here to live in
a cage!
I am in the mood for
introspection and to be retrospect on this dark autumnal morning as we sit
waiting for the first blast of an arctic cold front to lock us into winter for
the foreseeable future. Two weeks until
Thanksgiving and we have held off the winter with warm sunny days and little or
no attention to coats and antifreeze and boots and other accouterments of the
coming season.
So it is time to pay attention to
what we have been paying no attention; like the man behind the curtain or the
face of the dark hooded stranger who has been sitting at my table all
year. I don’t know why this has been my
time for facing my own mortality, but this truth has been pestering me since
last spring and it is time I finished, time I knew in my bones what he has been
voicelessly speaking to me.
I stepped free from my
astrological “Saturn Return” when I transitioned from the cocoon of Sedona to
the then foreign landscape of the Midwest a year ago. Some say that if you don’t shuffle off the
planet during your Saturn Return, you are destined for long life. That thought doesn’t stir me either way
though I am forced to look at how the fear of death keeps creeping into my
awareness and stands as a primary obstacle for some to step fully into their
own soul-purpose with a sense of freedom and happiness.
My father was a pastor and I
attended my share of funerals before I faced his death before I was even a
teenager. So I grew up thinking I was
steeled against the fear of death from which so many others seemed to suffer,
because I had been exposed to so much death and saw that it was not such a big
deal. I have also lived my whole life
like this physical interlude is a brief part of a much larger soul
symphony. This was not just the result
of a “belief”; it has been an abiding sense that provides a foundation of
support and well-being when times are tough.
I admit I have been triggered by
the unexpected and untimely passing of some dear friends this year. I have no trepidation about their welfare,
but I feel shortchanged for being deprived of their earthly company; I thought
we would have more time here to visit, to laugh and to cry. So that interaction is now postponed to some
other time in some other dimension and I have no way of knowing if it will the
same; in fact I think it won’t be the same.
I am convinced that “fear of
death” is the primal fear that keeps many of us from living a full and fruitful
life. Have you ever stopped yourself
from embracing meaningful work for yourself because instead you had to make a
living, or pay your bills, or raise your family in a certain way? Have you ever cheated yourself of a
soul-expanding experience because the outcome was unknowable or you couldn’t
trust the Universe to sustain you the way she feeds and clothes the lilies of
the field?
Usually the ones who show up for
my workshops are ones who are ready to face their fears, to face the unknown if
they haven’t settled into a pattern of self-discovery already. That is what you truly risk: catching a glimpse of your true self
somewhere in the depths of the shaman’s cave.
That is the hidden face of the cloaked stranger at my table: myself.
And why should I be so afraid to admit the truth of my being? Isn’t it the truth that I am a spirit who has
temporary residence in this body? If I
honestly embrace this truth, what will I have to give up that I think I don’t
want to lose?
What will I have to give up? That’s what we really fear. We have become so comfortable with this false
reality and wearing this false face that it feels like we will lose
everything. And don’t your know, it is
all about allowing for the possibility of losing everything . . . that leads to
gaining the rewards of being a soul-being.
I recommend you say it out loud:
“I don’t care if I lose everything; I will risk everything to learn the
truth about myself.”
Some of the things you might
lose, include: your petty fears and your
major fears, your anxiety and dis-ease, your childish jealousy and envy, your
awareness of other’s faults, you might lose some of the habitual physical
discomfort that accompanies the belief that you are a body, you might lose the
will to keep score when it comes to those you imagine have wronged you.
You might lose the resistance to
let go and let yourself slide into the vast ocean of existence. You have been afraid of losing yourself in
that seeming emptiness, when that is truly your home and the Universe is longing
to welcome you home, and no you don’t have to die in order to embrace this way
of being. Yes, you live in a golden cage
and it is finely decorated and well-appointed and you keep yourself busy
admiring the new couch and the reclaimed claw foot tub and you ignore that IT
IS STILL JUST A CAGE! And you were not
sent here to live in a cage.
Aside from the ones who show up
to my workshops who have been or want to conquer their fear, I often wonder
about the ones who never show up at all.
It is not about me and my “scary” journey workshops; they have stopped
showing up for anything that challenges their comfy assumptions and their
limiting beliefs, or their “god-in-a-box”.
They are right to be afraid.
Stepping into the unknown could alter everything you believe to be true,
and you have to face this stranger eye-to-eye before you can ever be free.
*******************************
Save the date! Plan ahead to join us on December 21st for our annual observance and celebration of the Winter Solstice and the Christ Mass. earthschoolforsouls.com
Thursday, October 9, 2014
MY TRIBUTE TO BRAD COLLINS
I can’t believe we all crawled
through that narrow birth opening in the Cliffside over Boynton Canyon so we
could enter the Shaman’s Cave. How did
it feel to sit in the dirt with Brad and Star Wolf and enjoy this space between
time and eternity? It felt like heaven.
I savor every memory
of my time with Brad Collins, and they come back to me now, in torrents: meetings at the Earth Faire grocery in
Asheville and then going for Indian food downtown, because the wife didn’t
really like Indian food and he loved it; riding in his pickup to the men’s
group in Black Mountain; and how the best part of that time was the going to
and the coming back in the truck. That
was when I really got the lesson about how we are drawn to dysfunctional relationships
because they “feel like home”. It was a
single sentence, uttered in the warm cab of a pickup truck, traveling through a
cold dark night . . . and it changed me forever.
I remember trying to futilely air
up the flat tire on a golf cart with a “fix-a-flat” I found at the Dollar store. Then there was hooking up the generator to
the sound system after that powerful thunderstorm that knocked out the electric,
so everybody could journey even if we couldn't shower.
I recall his embrace after I did
my bit at the Wise Wolf Council when he said, “You done good – the whole thing
has shifted.” Then later when he and all
the men laid their hands on me to acknowledge my ordination. I must have seen him present the teaching on “Inner
Beloved” three or four times and it never got old; he was so sincere as he
talked about his own journey toward appreciating his perfect essential self and
his flawed human self. I guess I needed
to hear that multiple times. Now I often
repeat his story about how the angels gather when we do breathwork; and how
that sharing moved me to try to see his wings and yours, and I could.
He facilitated the process group
after my “soul-retrieval” journey at Isis Cove.
He knew that something important had happened for me and he had John Livingston
stand in as my angel guide so I could commune directly with him; I laughed and
I cried, and so did he. He was not
afraid to cry and he wore his feelings on his sleeve. We talked many times about the challenge of
creating a new masculine aspect for the New Earth. He embodied that, and he inspires me to move
forward with teaching balance in how a man walks on the planet and how the
sacred marriage between our masculine and feminine nature is the key.
I loved to make Brad laugh and he
was such a willing audience. He told me
how he had to confront a neighbor one year who was firing his gun over the Wise
Wolf Council. I told him to remember
next time to be sure to wear his “Drumming for Jesus” tee-shirt, and he said he
would do that.
I can see how every inch of Isis
Cove has Brad’s imprint on it. He
savored “community” and he built this one with love and humility. If Star Wolf has been the “light” of this
partnership, Brad Collins has been the “heat”.
His is not the part that was so brilliantly visual; his is the part that
provides the conditions for the light to shine brighter. He has a peaceful, quiet power that is no
less commanding because it receives less attention. How gratifying is it to see how many really
did always see the truth of Brad; it is a tribute to this community. We are like those blue creatures in the movie
Avatar, we look into each other’s eyes and say “I see you.”
We have grown accustomed to
seeing them: Brad and Star Wolf, as if
they are one person. How many times have
you said those two names as if they were one?
And I knew it would make me sad to see her, Star Wolf, without him,
Brad, by her side. Yet I knew she would
be accompanied by her soul family. And
to take his place it takes many of us. So
we stand up and stand in and hold space for Brad and now I might really know
what that means. Because we do this in exchange
for all the times Brad held space for us.
Like the Christ, he has given of his essential self to all of us and we
have taken that in so the communion is complete. Now we follow his example and we pass it
forward. You are in my heart, now and
forever. God speed, Brad Collins.
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
No Boyz Allowed!
It’s a pet peeve, and it likely
springs from my early childhood wounding of being excluded from the play-group
comprised of the three sisters with whom I was raised. It’s not as annoying to me as it used to be,
but I still notice “you women” who gather surreptitiously and fail to send me
an invitation. I also sincerely
understand why you do it and I support you with only limited reservations.
And I can’t complain too much,
because I have noticed for decades that it is women who unfailingly take the
lead in showing up for gatherings that foster spiritual development and
awakening. And as the often solitary
male voice in the room I have called on women to bring their men along.
Today I notice that the old habit
of forming all-male or all-female groups is a symptom, an effect, of a larger
problem. The problem is a lack of
balance in our culture and in our world that threatens to destroy us all. You could look at any of the large problems
in the world today and find where the absence of the healing and comforting
energy of the “feminine” is the root cause of the conflict. The clearest example is the movement of the
ISIS jihadists in Syria and Iraq who subjugate, control, and abuse women in the
most egregious ways.
These guys represent the most
extreme “kick-back” to the emerging “new paradigm”. They imagine they face their own destruction
if they don’t act on their extreme and mutually destructive world-view. In truth they do face their own
destruction. They are one piece of the
construct which must fall away in order for the new world to be born. But it is only their thoughts that have to
die. They are faced with the directive,
“Shift or Die!” But they imagine the mere ideas they hold about God and mankind are so sacred,
they would rather die.
This may represent the most
extreme manifestation of the “war on women” we have heard about. But they rest on one end of a continuum of
human beings (men and women) who are desperate to control or kill the influence
of feminine energy in our social structures and institutions. The efforts of knuckle-dragging throw-backs
in Congress to control and limit the reproductive freedom of women is just a
watered down version of the same compulsion to keep women in their place and to
exert male dominance.
What else do we have? The insane stand-off in Ukraine and the
unconscionable slaughter in Gaza. All
these example are of MEN clinging to their lowest evolutionary vibration without
the calming influence of the feminine to soften their ham-handed behavior.
Yes, I understand why sometimes
you just want to gather with your own gender.
But what is needed today is not a surrender to the feminine but a
blending. What will work is women and
men standing together and bringing sanity and wisdom and a new kind of strength
that will shift us all into a new vibration.
There is an element (just sayin….) of the old paradigm, in women
huddling together and keeping men out of their circles. At one time that was absolutely necessary,
but now in this culture, at this time I challenge women to be more inclusive
and to “check in” to see if this or that gathering really needs to be a women-only
gathering . . . or a human’s gathering.
Remember that the outer world is
a reflection of the inner world. Every
little thing we do either contributes to the awakening of the collective . . .
or it doesn’t.
*************************************
Here are some links to some current
articles on the topic. The extreme need to heal this ancient wounding is at a tipping point and we need to be mindful in all our pursuits.
http://www.mysticmamma.com/find-feminine-masculine-alignment/
http://www.mysticmamma.com/find-feminine-masculine-alignment/
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Prosperity Theology on the New Earth
I have had my fill of a certain movement in
the spiritual community (Bloomington and elsewhere) around the idea of
manifesting material wealth. Some of the ideas fostered by the “law
of attraction” gurus have become dangerously subverted to nothing better than
the old paradigm – health and wealth evangelists who preach that God wants you
to be rich and if you are not wealthy (in material terms) you do not understand the “secret”.
If that is your thing, you may be a spiritual
novice who gets distracted by the first shiny thing they encounter along this
path. Or you may be a long time seeker experiencing a bout of
“spiritual by-pass” where your ego is now having an awakening experience and
your soul-self has become hopelessly buried by your unhealed wounding.
Yes the Universe is honorable. Yes
the Universe is pouring out abundance on you if you will only open yourself
to receive it. No, the abundance does not look like the egocentric
ideas you hold onto about material wealth. Yes, you get what you
deserve. But your car, your bank account, your job, your house, and
your mate will never make you happy.
The masters were not mistaken when they told
us over and over that focusing on the material will keep us out of
heaven. Heaven is code for peace, happiness, and
enlightenment. Yeshua reminds us to put our attention onto things that are
eternal, and all the little incidentals of this material world be added unto
you. In other words, “Don’t sweat the
details; they will worry about themselves.”
Instead, look up . . . up-level your attention and your consciousness
and allow the blessings to flow to you.
When we glimpse our own awakening we realize
that none of the trappings of our limited 3rd dimensional dogma
around abundance has any value. It is just stuff; it is here today
and gone tomorrow, and it will never provide nourishment to your soul.
The truth is, getting everything you believe
you want (or deserve) will likely keep you from awakening. Your
ego does not want you to awaken because it fears its own destruction, so if it
can - it will give you everything your wounded inner-child thinks it
needs. This is an example of the most immature aspect of your egoic-self,
making your most important adult life-decisions.
The ego wants you focus your attention on the
outer-directed world and that represents one of the most alluring distractions
for the spiritual novice. There you may
rest in that place of sleeping and ethereal dreams for decades before the
Universe comes around and finally kicks you in the ass. (I know this from
experience.) Unlike me, the Universe is patient, but I want you to
wake up NOW!
The time is short for you to accept your
soul-purpose. It is time for you to graduate. It is time
for you to grow up and have a taste of solid food. Yes you are a
child of God, but you are an ADULT child of God, and it’s time you acted like
one.
If you think you are ready for some big-boy
food, try a bite of this: The secret is, it’s all about
self-knowledge. Your only access to the divine is within you
so you cannot “by-pass” your soul by focusing on the manifestation of anything
in the outer world. It is time to go inward and to take an
unflinching look at yourself. For many, there is nothing
scarier.
And I guarantee that after you have peeled away
some of those layers of fear that are attached to cars, and houses, and jobs,
and bank accounts, and mates . . . You will find some treasure that makes all
this earthly wealth look like just so much crap. (To put it delicately.)
Monday, June 9, 2014
I SEE YOU
“Words reduce reality to
something the human mind can grasp, which isn’t very much.” Eckhart
Tolle
I knew Cheryll nearly forty years
ago when we were both students at Indiana University. My fondest memory is her driving me through
the country in her little red Triumph Spitfire with the top down, on our way to
some simple adventure. Both of us were
light and free; both of us with our long hair blowing in wind. My sister found a photo of the three of us: she and me with our arms around each other
and the car as background. Proof of our
youth and beauty.
Now, as a minister I feel like I
am supposed to be on top of these things; literally looking at it from above, a
little detached and wise. But in this
case, I’m in the thick of it; diving into the sadness and the sorrow, letting
it wash over me like the crashing waves of the ocean. And I’m feeling a little guilty that there
are others who are more profoundly affected:
her parents, her brothers, her husband, her son and her young
daughter. When I think of them and their
loss I am even more sad and sorry for myself.
All I know is that Cheryll is
fine. Spirit belongs to spirit, and her
soul will find its way back to Godess.
It was her spirit after all that attracted me to her as it was with many
of you who gathered for her memorial.
And there is evidence that she and I had a deep soul connection just as she did with many of you. We did not keep in
touch, but whenever we did get together it was as if no time had passed; we knew each other like those creatures in the
movie Avatar, when they look at the other and say, “I see you.”
Cheryll’s human journey was but a
short piece of her soul journey, and wherever she is now, she is continuing
on that journey. And we are left to make
sense of her passing (or not) and to gain strength and wisdom somehow from this
sorrowful event. We are all better
because of knowing her. We have had more
joy and more laughter in our lives just from knowing her. Then we are given this bigger piece of learning; to find the
nugget of truth in the midst of all the sadness.
Because we are all essentially
spirit beings, we can still commune with her.
I have felt closer to Cheryll over the last few days than I have in
years. She is with us now and she lives
in us; in our hearts and in our memories.
And for her son and daughter, she literally lives on, and they will
write the next chapters in the book of Cheryll.
It has been said that sorrow
carves us deep so that we can hold more joy.
We are living in the age of paradox.
We step down so we can rise up.
We go deep within in order to experience that sense of being
out-of-body. And now we experience deep
loss so we can compare it to the abundance the Universe is pouring out on
us. We experience our sadness fully so
it can stand as a dark canvas behind a vibrant, joyful painting.
So why did this “disturbance in
the force” trigger me so much? Cheryll
has not been taken away from me; in a way we are closer than ever. I think I was given another layer of my own
personal wounding to heal. I have worked
on this particular piece before and if I thought I was finished with it, now I
know I wasn't.
Maybe I never let myself
mourn deeply enough for the others who left me behind. I let myself go pretty deep this time. The point is to get it and to move
forward. We will not allow ourselves to become addicted to suffering. I can see how easy that would be. Still, before we move on we will be sure to
cry all our tears. It is important to
allow our process to be complete, and not shortened by ego thoughts that say
“you should be done with this by now”.
The time is ripe for us to go
deep. This is up for all of us, and it
is important. I am guided to point out that these energies which we may find at once piercing and painful, are a
call for us to remember the sacredness of all our connections. We need to remember how dearly we hold our
bonds with our family-of-origin as well as our soul-family. It is a good day to tell someone how much you love them.
****************************************
I might mention that Cheryll loved it that I chose a Cat Stevens song for the inspiration for the title of my blog. There was an abundance of Cat Stevens music at her memorial, and that made me smile. We are all still "on the road to find out".
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
ON BECOMING MASTERS
Even if we are advanced souls,
sometimes we need to come back to basics.
One of my favorite stories is about retired Coach John Wooden who would
start his “blue chip” basketball recruits every year with learning how to put
on their socks and properly lace their shoes.
This would be the top rated players in the country coming to play for
UCLA back when they had few peers.
And the players felt abused and
insulted, unless they could get beyond their ego to remember that there is an “all-at-once” aspect to mastery of
anything that includes recalling everything you have come to know so far.
No matter how high we imagine our
vibration to be, we still need that sense of “all-at-once-ness” where we
remember all the little steps that brought us to this nexus. And from this vista, if we see clearly, we
realize there is another higher mountain top on the other side of the coming
valley. And that ascent will require
some of those tools and some of that learning we have come to take for granted.
So we remember to breathe. We remember to be still. We remember to quiet the mind. We remember to be aware of our own
proficiency in deluding ourselves. The
Christian Bible talks about Jesus going into the wilderness after his baptism
(rebirth) where he had to contend with his “adversary”. It is important to note that there is no external devil that is more
proficient at pulling you off course than your own ego. If you think you are immune to the influence
of the ego . . . well that is probably the ego talking.
Our journey would be much lighter
if all we had to dispel was an external devil.
It is the inner one, the “adversary” who presents our larger challenge
because we cannot separate ourselves from that, with the power of our mind,
because it is our mind. We have to make peace with that aspect of
ourselves; we cannot defeat it by fighting against it. That is what Jesus learned in the
wilderness, and that is what made him ready to teach and present himself as an
example of mastery. The Bible story is a
template for our own journey back to Oneness.
We need to remember that our
Awakening does not make us “special”. It
does not separate us from the masses of souls who are NOT on an awakening
path. This type of awareness might feel
counterintuitive because of the ways in which we have become entrained. In the past, when we were initiated into the
mysteries, some of us believed we were separate and apart because of our unique
training and experience. But the true master learns that with
advanced gifts come advanced duties, and our connection with all of creation
(from the rock to the tree to the bum on the street) is enhanced and we are
born to service; not to basking in the glow of enlightenment.
At this time we need to exercise
our discernment as we wade through the market place full of false teachers and
pretenders. Even more, you need to guard
against the false teacher in yourself.
When in doubt, return again to the fountain of peace and knowing that is
ever available to you when you touch your heart-center and remember your
connection to divinity. And don't forget to tie your shoes.
***************************************************
John Berry Deakyne and the Earth School for Souls have brought
their practice from Sedona, Arizona to the heartland of the Midwest at this
important opening in time. It is an
experiment. At this time we do not know
if we will take root and grow here. But
we are all here on purpose, so we encourage you to make contact while the time
is ripe!
Our next round of Shamanic Breathwork is a full-day retreat
on Saturday, May 17, 2014, at the Wild Grace Homestead in Brown County,
IN. This day is discounted to just $50 a
person and overnight lodging is available.
More information and registration at: http://earthschoolforsouls.com/events/shift/
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
DEATH & REBIRTH – ONCE MORE WITH FEELING!
No, it’s not just about death, but death is a really
important part of this season, and this opening, and this springtime energy in
which we are swimming. And after a
wonderful full-day workshop on shadow and soul-retrieval last weekend, I must
admit that we have only scratched the surface.
There is so much more to say and so much more to be revealed.
This time and space is then given a bigger jolt by today’s
Full Moon and its accompanying Total Lunar Eclipse. The full moon beckons us to step into the
fullness of our newest and most powerful imagining of ourselves; to step up; to
grow up; to take responsibility; to stop whining and moaning and take charge of
our lives. The eclipse is a mirror of
our own complete transformation – something really has to die this time; we’re
not messing around. And something really
vital and exciting (and a little scary) is being reborn in your life.
This new thing that is coming to life for you . . . you know
what it is. It is like a mighty sword
that is lying there on the ground . . . it has been gifted to you by the
almighty . . . and you can pick it up, or you can turn your back and walk away.
If you are paying attention, you are feeling the energetic
swirl of this energy. Some are in fear
of what will show on the wide screen of the collective: More death?
More destruction? More
subjugation of the weak and the poor?
One of our participants had a vision this weekend that feels
important to share. She saw all of
creation being trampled and eaten up by some ominous shadow army. It made me think of the Lillian Hellman play
called The Little Foxes where we are
told there are folks who eat up the earth and there are folks who stand by and
watch them. Sometimes I think it ain’t
right to just stand around and watch.
Then my friend saw an enormous army of angels massing to
stand against the destructive forces.
And they didn’t fight; they just stood against the others and their
presence served to heal what had been damaged.
That is right where we come in.
We can send more angels into the fray.
We can be some of those angels. I
mentioned (in passing) this weekend that we are all just fallen angels anyway,
so this work is a part of our redemption.
We did contribute to the dark thought-forms that threaten
the very survival of the human experiment; so now we contribute to the purging
and the reconstruction as we take our rightful place as sons and daughters of
the divine light, and keepers (stewards) of creation.
Join us for our May Retreat when we dive deep into the
mysteries to embrace a radical transformation; a metamorphosis; a remembering
of our highest and most vibrant nature: http://earthschoolforsouls.com/events/shift/
Friday, March 7, 2014
Birthday Blog – The Promise of Spring
I began the tradition of
writing a Birthday Blog on the occasion of my first birthday after relocating
to Sedona to do some intense “inner work”.
It’s become a sort of “state of the union” event, trusting that
(although our paths are separate and distinct) what is true for me is also true
for much of the collective, you.
During that first year in
Sedona, I started hearing about how everything in creation is accelerating and
expanding, and we could feel the truth in our bones, sometimes with ecstasy and
sometimes with aching pain. That was
five years ago and since then I have lived many life-times. I have been sharing with friends, that after
nine months in Sedona I would walk past a mirror and not know who the other
person was, looking back at me.
We
have chosen to embrace rather than to resist the energy of acceleration and
expansion, even though much of the planet is in the death-throes of resistance
and clinging to the past. And so our
awakening has been rapid.
I have seen novices come into our spiritual circles and shortly morph
into masters; it is a wonder to behold.
It is not a coincidence that
on the occasion of my leaving Sedona for the Midwest, Indiana hosts the coldest
and snowiest winter on record. And that
has been just for me; I truly don’t know what the rest of you have been
experiencing. The winter has forced me
to go in and slow down. At a time when I
have been anxious to do more in this vital spiritual community, I have been
called to wait and see. It is not just
the weather; I regularly draw the “slowing down” card from the Osho oracle and
it makes me laugh, “If I slow down anymore, I’ll have to stop my heart.”
And yes I know it is still
cold and there is still some snow and the ground, and we have not had our last
flurry. But I have heard the thunder and understood the promise that the earth
makes every time it falls into dormancy.
We are waking up; we are coming back to ourselves.
I repeatedly tell folks that
the Shamanic Path is mostly about “paying
attention”. So now we notice the
shift, like a change in atmospheric
pressure that precedes the storm.
Already, it is time to plant seeds and make plans. That “planning” word is something I normally
avoid, but now we approach it with wisdom.
This time, it is more about
allowing than about forcing.
You should notice more and
more opportunities for movement and motion as the outer world mirrors the inner one. Our physical motion creates an attitude of
movement (change) in our work, our relationships, and our personal and
spiritual expansion.
Now
we see the openings and we walk right through without hesitation or
self-doubt. That is the attitude of the
spring-time of our lives. Every
time I glance at a digital clock it seems it is either 11:11 in the morning or
11:11 at night. My friends are also
seeing the “ones” lining up on the odometers and elsewhere. If we are paying attention, a single “one” is
a promise of rebirth; but when they line
up for you, that energy is multiplied so we are talking about extreme (radical)
transformation.
And my best advice for you
is, “Let yourself be startled by the
divine. Let go of limiting ideas and
beliefs, and ride that superwave like you know how. Soon enough, it will become second nature to
you.
I have been in consultation
with many of you this week and I am excited about some of the opportunities for
spiritual growth and awakening that are being birthed for the benefit of our
soul family. Blessings to you all and “Happy Birthday to Me”, I am born
again.
Follow John at http://www.earthschoolforsoul.com
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