AGAIN, THE BLEAK-MIDWINTER

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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.

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!

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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 20^th, 2015

mailto:john@earthschoolforsouls.com  for more information. 

There is no cost for this event.

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 4^th 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.

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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.

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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

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.

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.

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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://creativenumerology.wordpress.com/2014/08/10/2014-on-we-go/

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 3^rd 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.)

I SEE YOU

“Words reduce reality to something the human mind can grasp, which isn’t very much.”  Eckhart Tolle

I received that quote in my email yesterday as I tried to make sense and find meaning in the unexpected passing of my friend, Cheryll.  That is what we do as humans; try to make sense of things; try to set things in order in our minds so that the Universe is not so scary.  I know how silly it is to try to fathom the mysteries with something as futile as words, but here I go again:

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.

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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".

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.

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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/

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.

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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/

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

Creating Your Masterwork

Your living of this life is your great Masterwork.  You are an artist and every step on your life’s journey is a brush stroke, whether small or large, whether smooth or broken.

As a writer and writing coach, I am often stymied and blocked by not knowing which project to pursue or what topic to pull out of an overflowing bowl; it is sometimes hard to know what deserves my attention, my time, and my labor.  It is exactly the same with the story of your life that you are writing at every moment.  Have you chosen the right path?  Is your daily striving in sync with your soul’s purpose?  How much of your energy do you expend just spinning and swirling?

Many of us get seriously stuck trying to make something right just because we have already invested so much time and thought into the venture, such as a job or a relationship that does not nurture us.  I had produced a sizable amount of written work when I managed to get myself fixated on a project that absolutely shut me down creatively.  My writing block lasted about twenty years because I was so focused on an idea that kept me from doing what was next for my creative expression.  I do now see that being stuck for twenty years was a part of my soul-journey, so I do not regret the experience.  Today, I know how to recognize this trap if it shows up on my path.  If any of us ever choose being stuck over being free, it is because there is often something comfortable and familiar about those stuck-points, or fearful about seeking a change in our circumstances.

Now, when you step out of this lifetime and look at the painting you have created or the book you have written, what does it look like?  Did you put all your attention on one little corner of the canvas and leave the rest blank?  Did you write a brilliant introduction and never get to the meat of your dissertation?  When you look at the sum total of your creative output (all your lives) do you notice a trend toward mastery?

Lately I have noticed that many of us who were trained in traditional Christianity have a very poor understanding of the notion of eternity.  We were told about eternity mainly to scare us into joining the cult-of-belief where we would spend “eternity” in either heaven or hell.  Any belief is just an idea that somebody made up.  Your participation in someone else’s idea is just a choice to remain limited and stuck. 

Even though this truth is “biblical” we were not told that eternity moves both ways.  In truth it moves “every” way.  Our soul-life does not begin with this lifetime.  Eternity is like God; it has no beginning (in time) and no end.  So if we live forward eternally, we also live backward eternally.  In breathwork, I repeatedly witness the journeyer reliving the existential moment of creation; when their soul (not their body) was born.  It almost always involves a feeling of peace from resting in the darkness and the “nothing-ness” and then experiencing the energy shift toward light and motion.

We hold the memory of every lifetime in our blood and our bones; some say within our DNA.  And we are part of a great energetic grid that extends in every direction so we can step into that space in our meditation, in our dreaming, in our trance journey and pull up any memory from any time.  You have unlimited access to that great artistic library.

If this life is your masterpiece, what will you do next?  Even if we move forward with halting steps, we have employed motion and light from the beginning, and so we call on you now for direction and inspiration.

                                                                                                   

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/