Transmutation News June 2009
It is so easy to allow ourselves to be swept away by too much work and staying too busy. It is important as time keeps speeding up to continue to set priorities and make sure you have time to relax and experience the joys of life. If we are truly saying that we want to be conscious changemakers we must be able to live a life where our spiritual work and a spiritual way of living is a priority. This means taking care of ourselves on all levels and finding time to honor earth, air, water, fire (the sun) for all that we are given so that we might thrive.
Throughout time it has been the role of the shaman and spiritual healers to help to keep harmony between humankind and the forces of the nature. And today it is essential that we all step into that role. And finding time to honor nature and the spirit that lives in all things is what brings harmony and balance back to the planet.
Honoring the forces of nature is as simple as taking a moment while walking to and from any activity or stopping what you are doing for a few minutes throughout the day to give gratitude. We tend to make our spiritual work more complex than it needs to be. To truly do “our work” for ourselves, all of life, and the planet we want to find simple ways to weave our practice of experiencing ourselves and all of life as divine light and expressing gratitude throughout out our daily activities. And the more you can weave spiritual prayers and blessings into your daily life the more you become “the work”. For we must live our spiritual work for it to truly make a difference.
I know some of us are challenged feeling that there is no time for ourselves. Time is an interesting illusion. Time tends to make us feel as if we are a slave to it. And we must free ourselves from feeling so stressed by time.
Over the years I have had a very interesting experience in teaching my workshops. Sometimes I realize that I have let a discussion go on for too long and that I might not have time to finish my teaching. Some of my workshops are non-residential and participants count on me to finish on time so they can meet other obligations especially on the last day when people have to get to the airport to catch an airplane flight.
I have found that when I don’t have enough time to finish my teaching I actually slow down my speaking. Whenever I do this I find that time actually slows down with me and I finish my lecture with time to spare.
Right now I am experiencing a huge surge in my workload. My rational mind says there are not enough hours in the day to finish all my tasks. So what I have been doing is slowing down how I do everything and time is also slowing down with me. I take long deep breaths and just slow down.
This is an interesting exercise you might try this month if you find yourself feeling stressed by a lack of time in your life. Do everything you have to do but take some deep breaths and actually move and speak slowly. Watch what happens.
As we move into summer we want to reflect on what we need to live in harmony as a new season greets us. A wonderful way we have been doing this over the years is to merge with the earth where you live and experience the movement and qualities of the earth. If you have never done a merging meditation or journey take a look at my book Medicine for the Earth. The instructions for how to do this are in there. Merging meditations and journeys are a potent way to learn about the elements by becoming an element. And I have found it to be helpful to merge with the earth at the beginning of each season to learn about the change in energies of the earth during the change in seasons. It helps me to gauge what is happening to my own body, as I am earth.
I also find on an emotional level we all have different needs during different seasons. I know many people feel like they want to be out more and more social during summer. And many people like myself feel a need to be alone and quiet during the summer months. The more you can track and follow what you emotionally need during the change in seasons and the changes in the cycles of the moon the more you will find yourself flowing along with the river of life. Flowing against the river of life causes stress which causes illness. Flowing with the river of life creates harmony and true health.
This month take some time to be still and listen to what your own soul is calling for as we move into summer.
A spiritual practice to try is to hold the intention of adjusting your vibration and energy to the divine light of the earth. I do this when I wake up and when I go to sleep at night. And this is a way for me to create harmony in my body during the change in seasons.
June 19 is the summer solstice. It is also father’s day. This is a great time to honor the sun for all the unconditional energy for life the sun provides for us without asking for anything in return.
A few months ago Ann Drake sent me a letter asking me to let people know about a ceremony she is hoping we will join in for the oceans of the world. Although Ann is actually asking us to go to the ocean for this ceremony we can participate through a meditation or through a journey. I live in the desert and cannot physically travel to the ocean at this time. But I can take some time in meditation to close my eyes and experience my own “free soul” which is the spiritual aspect of myself being at the ocean. In this way wherever we live in the world we can join together to be part of the ceremony.
Here is what Ann wrote:
“Last summer I went on a whale watch on which we were visited by many incredible whales. The marine biologist poignantly spoke of the rapid rise of toxins in the ocean and the threat to marine life as a result. She painfully told of a beached whale in Puget Sound that was so full of toxins that the whale had to be buried in a toxic waste dump. This tale re-enforced the need to not only work politically but also in spirit to reverse this trend.
A circle of women in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the oldest seaport in America, are proposing that as many people as possible line the coasts on both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific on the Summer Solstice to drum, journey, and pray for the transmutation of toxins in the oceans and in marine life. The goal is for each of us to journey to part of the ocean where we ask our guides to send divine healing light, then hold the intention of transmutation as we watch as the toxins are absorbed into the light, shifting the vibration from that which harms to that which heals. As we gather in small and large circles throughout the day, a miraculous shift in the vibration and health of the ocean can occur.
Please join us on Sunday June 21 as we gather to heal the ocean.”
For more information on plans for the day visit www.anndrakesoulwork.com or contact Ann Drake at anndrake1@gmail.com
Ann sent this out to the shamanic community that she is involved in. For those of us involved with the Medicine for the Earth work we have an opportunity to work in partnership with the helping spirits by transfiguring into our divine light and perceiving the ocean and all marine life as pure divine light.
Life began in the ocean and in that sense we all come from the ocean. To add to the ceremony that Ann is suggesting you might want to do a meditation or journey to the ocean and ask if she has a message for you at this point in time.
One of the many joys of summer is watching the bloom of the plant world and the birth of babies in the animal world. Let’s pay intention to our “seed thoughts” and “seed words” that continue to bloom and birth in our lives.
Please keep up your creation work and use all your senses to experience a world filled with love, harmony, peace, light, and abundance for all.
Our global community of Medicine for the Earth practitioners and readers of the Transmutation News includes many who live in Australia and New Zealand. And you are celebrating the winter solstice and the deep stillness of the earth while others in the world in the experience the bloom of life.
The full moon is June 7. Let’s gather our spiritual energies together as a strong global community to continue the weaving of a brilliant web of life within and throughout the earth.
Life is bringing many in our community challenges as we are faced with looking at making changes in our lives that support living a life of harmony. In this regard many of us are going through initiation experiences that create the little deaths needed to grow and evolve. These little deaths require us to let go of what keeps us from a state of true health. They can seem quite painful when we are going through them but in truth we are being sculpted into spiritual beings. We are constantly asked to let go of whatever part of our lives keep us from living a light filled with light, joy, balance, harmony, peace, and love.
As we grow and evolve and go through our “growing pains” we can feel ourselves being held in love by our global community. On June 7 us keep up the transfiguration work for our circle as is written about under “Creating A Human Web of Light” on the Transmutation News page of this site.
Announcements:
I wanted to let you know that there are some clips of my work on YouTube if you search under Sandra Ingerman. There is a clip of the interview that I did on shamanism. And there is also a clip on Medicine for the Earth and one on How to Heal Toxic Thoughts.
I received a letter from Sylvia Breau in Oregon. She wanted to let people in the Pacific Northwest know that a group of people practicing the Medicine for the Earth work has formed and have been meeting several times a year to practice transmuting toxins. This group is interested in enlarging this practice circle and they are inviting those of you who have completed a Medicine for the Earth training.
Sylvia is also part of two journey groups, each of which meets every other week. These are not Medicine for the Earth circles, just regular journeying circles. One is a women’s circle and the other is for men and women both. This group is looking for more people to participate in these circles.
For further information please contact sylviabreau@gmail.com.
For our readers in the German community I wanted to let you know that Vera Griebert-Schroder wrote a beautiful book titled Shamanische Reisen zur Seele Sudwest.
The second edition of Dr. Cat's Helping Handbook: A Compassionate
Guide for Being Human was recently released in its newly revised and updated format. Back-cover endorsements include praise from renown authors and healers including Christiane Northrup, M.D. (Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom), Sandra Ingerman (Soul Retrieval), and Laura Davis (The Courage to Heal).
Dr. Cat's Helping Handbook, by Cat Saunders, Ph.D., is an easy-to-read guide filled with compassionate wisdom, heartfelt stories, and imaginative exercises to help you lead a more creative and fulfilling life. It has 55 in-depth chapters and 500-plus margin quotations from writers around the world. You can read excerpts from the book or learn more about Cat's work by visiting www.drcat.org. Dr. Cat's Helping Handbook is available through bookstores or Amazon.com.
For those of you waiting for an announcement on a teleconferencing workshop on Working in Community I need the rest of the summer to plan this. I am in the process of editing a new book and I need to finish this before I take on anything else.
For those of you desiring to travel to Santa Fe for a workshop on Working in Community please contact Ruth Aber at: aruthabelle@aol.com. The November workshop filled so quickly I scheduled a second workshop for February 2010.
Shamanic Circles is a non-profit organization that was started by Carol Proudfoot-Edgar.
For many years now Shamanic Circles has been collecting donations for a scholarship fund for people in need who would like to take a workshop with me.
There have been numerous people who have had an opportunity to study with me and then bring the work back to their communities. For example there are two women from Harlem in New York who through donations have been able to take a workshop with me. They are passionate about bringing the practices they have learned to their community to help alleviate the intense pain and suffering there.
My scholarship fund is running very low. If you would like to make a donation and be able to take a tax deduction please send a check made out to “Shamanic Circles” to me at PO Box 4757 Santa Fe, NM 87502. The treasurer at Shamanic Circles will send you a receipt for the IRS.
Even a donation of $10 makes a big difference. For when many people send a $10 donation it quickly adds up to a full scholarship for someone in financial need.
For those of you in the Southern Hemisphere enjoy the beauty of winter!
And for those in the Northern Hemisphere experience the joy of summer!
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