Transmutation News July 2007
I receive a lot of correspondence from people and everyone is asking me how my sabbatical is going. At the beginning of the year I had announced I was cutting back on my teaching for this year.
As I keep repeating myself I thought I would give you an update. And there is a deeper message to come after my sharing.
My sabbatical didn’t really turn out to be a sabbatical. I have been really busy. On a good day I have only 2 hours of desk work. But most days I have about 4-6 hours of work and that includes weekends. And of course I am always working on a variety of writing projects.
The wonderful part of the year for me has been staying in Santa Fe versus traveling. I do not travel again until October when I go to Europe. I have not been home for more than a few weeks at a time for over twenty years. It has been so wonderful to just stay put. I have been teaching in Santa Fe and I have presented at a few conferences that ended up being in Santa Fe. I have also seen quite a few clients.
I am still spinning away and crocheting blankets out of what I spun. It is a wonderful meditation to spin fiber into yarn with intention. I might spin in love, light, joy, beauty, harmony, and peace. And then when I crochet I repeat those words with each stitch. I find that this keeps me centered no matter what is going on in the outside world.
I have had a garden for years, but this year I have planted vegetables. And I also took a course on raising bees. As the bees here start to prepare for winter on the summer solstice I decided not to start a hive this year. But I have been learning a lot. I have signed up on a beekeeping yahoo group and I am learning how to problem solve situations that might arise when I finally start a hive.
My husband and I are also studying Taiko drumming (Japanese drumming). It is quite the workout but we love it.
My new book How to Heal Toxic Thoughts is doing well and the promotion of the book keeps me pretty busy. And on that note I did do a radio interview with New Dimensions. It will be playing around the country on July 16.
New Dimensions now also has an internet program. You can now listen to New Dimensions Internet Radio. My program #3202 titled “The High Road to Love and Light” will be airing on New Dimensions Internet Radio during the week of July 16.
Go to http://www.newdimensions.org. Click on Listen to NDIR now! Or you can hear it during that week on-demand at the New Dimensions Website as well as its network stations.
I received some good reviews on my new book. But I especially wanted to share the kind words I received from Publisher’s Weekly. I was very excited to be reviewed by them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to Heal Toxic Thoughts: Simple Tool for Personal Transformation (Sterling Press) $14.95 (120 pages) ISBN 9781402742606
Publisher’s Weekly Web Exclusive (June 11, 2007)
Readers with an open mind will find much to reflect on in the latest psycho-spiritual self-help guide from Ingerman (Soul Retrieval), who provides ways to “manifest positive energy and power in your life”.
With simple, straightforward writing touched with occasional poetic flourishes, Ingerman pulls ideas from a number of disciplines- including meditation, psychotherapy, shamanism and quantum physics- to formulate methods for combating fear and frustration, which may initially confuse readers; it’s this broad reach however that keeps the book firmly grounded in a number of different belief systems, allowing for a flexible approach. Sprinkled with short assignments (“take at least a fifteen minute walk a day; it will clear your head and move the oxygen in your blood”) and fable-like stories, Ingerman’s creative, multi-pronged plan for healing is gentle, practical, and encouraging, making it a fine resource for the overstressed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the month of June I was part of a panel discussion at the Whole Expo in Santa Fe. The host of the panel gave all of us who were going to be part of the panel twelve questions that he wanted to discuss. He asked each of us to pick four questions to talk about.
I picked the four questions that I felt really represented what I teach in Medicine for the Earth and How to Heal Toxic Thoughts. It is not just that I know how to talk about the subject matter in these books, but they contain the messages I am passionate about sharing in the world.
After each panelist shared the audience could make comments or ask questions.
I have to say that I was quite surprised about what I said and how I heard myself responding to questions. I spoke very little about the spiritual material I had planned on sharing. I spoke more about what nature has to share with us right now.
And I heard myself saying a few times that nature would teach us how we need to change our behavior, we don’t have to talk about and discuss philosophies or hypothesize what will happen. Using the principle of survival of the fitness and “adapt or die” nature would continue to teach us what changes we need to make in our behavior to continue to live on this planet.
Many times I used examples of what is happening to the bees. We all know that bees are dying and disappearing. And there are many causes for this. The insecticides used on crops caused a great deal of death. Then the growing of genetically modified crops was another cause of death. And now some of the disappearance of bees is being hypothesized as due to electric magnetic frequency pollution caused by cell phone towers and wireless internet.
In some countries growing of genetically modified food was banned because of the problems being created in the bee population. And certain insecticides have been banned because of the death rate they created in the bee population.
As we learn what supports life and does not support life we learn to change our behavior. We look to what supports the life of humans but also other living beings that are part of the web of life.
Over the last years I have spent a lot of time in nature. But I think the fact that I am home more to be on the land has been important in many ways. My husband Woods and I have been feeding hundreds of birds for years now. And I have been able to really observe changes in migration patterns and behavior. I have been able to observe changes in how the winds flow and the changes in temperature of the wind.
I have been able to be more aware in changes in landscape and the behavior of animals that come through. In watching all these changes it becomes clearer of the changes ahead. For our future is based on our present.
I feel like we are like lobsters in a pot of water where the heat is raised gradually until the temperature reaches boiling. And if we are truly aware of the gradual changes we can see that we are moving toward boiling temperatures soon.
Of course I still believe that adding spiritual practices to the environmental work that is going on today is essential. The spiritual practices we engage in really do make a difference. And I am still emphasizing the message of the Transmutation News in June about needing to bridge a different state of consciousness into our daily life. We must live the work. We must be a true manifestation of spirit.
Life is so precious. And the beauty and the gifts that the earth provides for us need to be appreciated.
I am still optimistic and I do believe that the earth knows exactly how to heal herself. And I really believe as we live a life filled with love and appreciation for life itself and all of life on the planet all life thrives.
It is the simple spiritual practices that make a difference. And I believe it is the holding and sharing of spiritual energies throughout the day that create positive change.
Throughout this month throughout each day please keep up the practice of expressing in every way you can think of your gratitude for life – your own life and the life of every living being on earth. Shamanism teaches us that everything that exists is alive and has a spirit. Feed the spirit that lives in all things with love and gratitude. Celebrate life with each breath and step you take in the world. If we all do this positive change on many levels is sure to happen.
And as Carol Wilde, a beekeeper and reader of the Transmutation News shares: “Whenever you see a honey bee on a flower, wish it well!”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was consulting with my spirits on if there was anything to add to what I had written this month. I wanted to say something about the publicity electromagnetic frequency pollution is getting right now. When I consulted with my spirits they said that this issue is just a symptom of a larger issue.
The message I received was how important it is to work with the principle of reciprocity of looking at what nurtures you and what do you nurture. I know you all know this information, but it is important to bring it to the forefront of our awareness.
We can be nurtured by engaging in working with crafts and other hobbies, gardening, taking care of houseplants, taking care of animals, the friends and important loved ones in our life, being part of a group, the work we do in the world, etc.
If in our life we nurture and are nurtured in equal proportions this is one way to strengthen our immune system. So many of the physical and emotional problems caused by different forms of pollution come from a weakened immune system. If we raise our immune system we can rise above many of the problems caused by living in our modern world.
This is also another way to feed and create a strong web of light and life. As you nurture and are nurtured a byproduct of this is strengthening the light, love, and joy in the web of life without focusing on the web itself. It just happens.
The expression that we so often hear – stop and smell the roses – is part of the principle of reciprocity. As we are nurtured by nature we nurture nature back. When we appreciate the smell of a rose we feed ourselves and give something back to the rose itself.
We are very focused on the wars going on at different places of the planet. One of the points of How to Heal Toxic Thoughts is that on an energetic level we are being shot, bombed, held hostage throughout our day. So on some level we are all at war and can work to create peace by working on our inner states of consciousness.
We can also take the principle of looking at how we are nurtured to another level. We are very focused on the issue of starvation in Africa. This issue touches all of our hearts. And when you look at people in the West we do see people who are starving on emotional and spiritual levels. And this is also creating death and illness on all levels. As people struggle to survive in this world there are many ways that failure to thrive occurs.
As we look at how we are nurtured and how we nurture we move into a healthy way of living. Nature gives to us on many levels and our level of appreciation as we take in the emotional, spiritual, and physical food and gifts we are given reflects our state of health. We can create balance and harmony in our environment with balancing out how we are nurtured and how we nurture. This is one more place where we can create positive change in our lives and on the planet.
Over the years we have been performing ceremonies as part of “a virtual circle”. We have done ceremonies for issues happening in different parts of the world. We have celebrated together changes in seasons, we have been creating a human web of light within and throughout the earth, and we have added performing monthly healings for those in our circle who need it.
This month consider how the circle reading the Transmutation News joins together. How are you fed by it? And consider how you feed this circle each month. As we work with the principle of reciprocity we can deepen and increase the power of our work together.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As you know I have four websites. This website contains my monthly Transmutation News. www.sandraingerman.com has articles I have written on soul retrieval, the Medicine for the Earth work, and a description of shamanism.
More and more people are finding out about www.sandraingerman.com and it is getting more traffic. So I have decided to post my Training calendar also on ww.sandraingerman.com My Training and Announcement also appears on this site.
As my 2007 trainings are not over yet, my 2008 will appear on this site during the fall. I wanted to let you know that we have already put up my 2008 calendar on www.sandraingerman.com
So you can visit that site if you want to see my new calendar. I am also not doing very much traveling in 2008.
I am teaching a new workshop in Feb. of 2008 titled “Rejuvenation and Finding Inner Stability During These Changing Times”. You might want to look at the description.
I am still co teaching spinning workshops with Kappy Strahan. We had such a long waiting list for the first time we taught that we did not advertise for any of the other workshops we were teaching.
As the workshop “The Spiritual Practice of Spinning” is so popular and we love teaching it I did post one that we are teaching in 2008.
So if you want a preview of my 2008 calendar before it appears on this site please visit www.sandraingerman.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the last few months I have been advertising a healing retreat I will co-lead with Jose and Lena Stevens this month. It turns out the Shipibo healers they work with will be in Santa Fe during this time. So they will be joining us in our “healing clinic”. I am very excited about working with them and I will let you know how it goes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The full moon is July 29. Let’s continue to weave a web of light within and throughout the earth with deep appreciation for life. And let’s continue the global healing circle that is written up on “Creating a Human Web of Light” which appears on my homepage.
Stephen in South Africa who reads the Transmutation News wrote in saying:
“I like the idea in your monthly writings of the healing circle. You should advise people to spend half their time around a full moon available to give healing and half to receive. It makes a nice balance.”
I thought this was a good suggestion. I know for myself during the full moon I keep switching back and forth throughout the day. Sometimes I experience myself in the outer circle in a transfigured state and sometimes I lie down in the inner circle fully absorbing the light that is shared.
When I am in the outer circle in a transfigured state I am healed by allowing myself to move into a state of divinity. Healing happens whether I am in the inner or outer circle.
Karen Furr, shamanic practitioner and teacher, shared the following quote:
“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”- Carl Jung
|