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Zen garden

A Little Bit of Zen and a Whole New Landscape! By Liz Geyer

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Do you remember creating tunnels and roadways from sand, then running your toy cars through the sand when you were little?  I was lucky enough to have an area of sand in my backyard for a little while, as my dad was building a deck.  My brother and I played for hours in the sand, creating forts, castles, and elaborate roadways.  I recall just having fun and feeling the sand run through my fingers…ahh…it was lovely!

Now, in our modern day, we have a new thing out called kinetic sand.  Its texture is almost ‘gluey’, and it comes in many colors.  You can form structures…it even comes with molds!  I used to buy it each year for my students.  They would go to play with the sand if they were stressed.  It calmed them immediately.

When our Curiodyssey triad began to play with the ether element, we thought of the little zen gardens you can buy in a box.  I loved having one!  It is long gone, so I decided to create my own!  It was such fun locating the materials.  It took about two minutes to create, and I have since spent many minutes, playing with the tools, creating designs in the sand.  My heart rate drops dramatically, I swear!

As I continued to play with the sand and its soft textures, visions came into being…a new landscape began to take shape, and my memories of old reminded me of the kingdoms I built as a child.  Victoria wondered about how fun it would be to create our own ‘Land of Create-Believe’, through this tactile experience.  At the time, I couldn’t pull up a vision.  That is, until I literally got my hands back into the sand to play.  Then I began to see textures, colors, and eventually, some forms took shape in my being’s eye.  What fun it was   to be able to imagine this new realm, where anything was possible.  This experience took me back to my childhood, yet with an added sophistication and many nuances of light and shadow added in.  My being opened up again into a place where my imagination took over, and I created whatever I wanted.  I felt a release of tension, and being in the present and playing was the only thing that mattered in these moments.

We have all heard lately that it is important now, to open up these aspects of ourselves again, to oil the hinges of our rusty imaginations and play again.  Playing opens up new neural networks, and opens us up to new possibilities.  I will admit, I am nervous talking about this kind of play…there are oh so many voices trying to sneer at my personality.  Bah! I say.  To play is to be brave.  And being brave nowadays is pretty cool, yes?

Creating a zen garden is pretty easy.  Most craft stores have everything you need.  The satisfaction that came out of making a garden in the size I wanted has been immense.  I keep finding new tools too…hmm…isn’t that what creating new realms is all about?  Finding new tools that work in the now?!  I am so excited to be playing once again, in a new landscape that I create, where anything is possible.  Just a little zen is needed for a whole ‘lotta’ landscape to be created!

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Ether Element Altar, by Victoria McMahon

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“You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.”

Mary Oliver

The ether element operates on the principle of vibration; so ether pervades all matter.  When we consider ether as the principle of vibration – that includes sound, rhythm, harmony, connection, purification and last but not least creativity.  We express our creative connection with Creation itself in bringing ourselves in resonance as an etheric being, expressing our creative impulses.  It is through expressing these creative impulses that we connect and ultimately fine tune our vibrational energy being.  We build sentient intelligences, develop registers of connection with Creation, sense the vibrational resonance and move with or are moved by the inner rhythms.  

Think of sound and movement like your heartbeat, binaural beats or synchronic Schumann resonance.  Moving into the more- the beyond is being in resonance.  You might observe how breathing and being with the heartbeat moves you beyond the experience of the body into the beyond, the ether element of vibration pervading your matter.  Or you can observe having a conversation with someone and you observe how you sense beyond the matter of words into the harmonics of being in the moment together.  It can occur when you get lost in playing or listening to a piece of music, a landscape in nature or even hearing truth for the first time!

Anodea Judith said, “To be unified within and expanded without is to combine the transcendence of the upper chakras and the immanence of the lower chakras into a single experience.”  Is this simply another way to language what I believe Tantra Maat describes as living in the metapoint of experience?  

What does it mean to enter into resonance?  What does it look like?  What are the how to’s of resonance?  For me it is listening.  Listening for the shape, the pattern, the texture, the sound and the aliveness.  I often believe we think communication is when we start talking.  For me, I am most in resonance, harmony, and aware of moving as an etheric being when I am responding!  This means, we are communicating creatively through Creation when listening leads the way.  Continually creating as we breathe spirit into the world by listening and moving in resonance with the creative impulses arising.  As we deepen our listening to the sounds of Creation within us, our creative expressions return us to our unique and essential design.

There are infinite forms of creative expression from the etheric territory…as the Curiodyssey Triad says, “The Land of Create-Believe”.  Voice, writing, color, dance/movement, playing music, toning, drama, artistic expression/painting, cooking etc.  Nonsense template writing of creation exercises is a beautiful practice to open up the etheric territory of you!  What are you curiously drawn to?

As you create your ether element altar to carry you into the new beginnings of springtime, consider these ideas to open up into your etheric territory of your Land of Create-Believe.  Use the color of turquoise blue to set the background.  Place pictures of those you wish to communicate with more deeply in the now or the beyond of now.  Maybe place items of remembrance to open the communication link.  Consider placing some of your Time territory cards previously made or create new ones to expand your 2021 Time territory.

Place your favorite musical instrument on the altar – bells, bowls, rattles, chimes, drums, flutes, guitars or a picture of that beautiful grand piano!  Maybe a favorite CD of beautiful music that brings the beyond into the cells of your being.  Ah, Andrea Bocelli enters my mind!

And lastly, you can add an elephant to the altar to remind you of the ether element.  In yoga tradition, the elephant head (Ganesha) is used in mediation and chanting to open the etheric territory by removing physical and mental obstacles or distractions.  Be sure to check out the zoom link yoga practice, including a chant to Ganesha, when it is posted on the Curiodyssey webpage through the loc-institute.com.  It will be available to attendees of the Ether Element session on February 28, 2021.  You can join our Curiodyssey Triad for the Ether Element session by clicking on the link here…

https://www.loc-institute.com/product/curiously-exploring-the-elements-ether-element-february-28-2021/

 

See you in The Land of Create-Believe,

Victoria

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Air Element Altar, by Victoria McMahon

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The events of the past week have been weighing heavy upon my heart.  I feel/sense the pressure on my sternum physically and notice difficulty in the taking in of a deep breath.  Rising thoughts of staying in isolation longer is tugging on my heart, calling in deeper heaviness upon my thoughts.  As I have been gathering my ideas and notes to write this blog, I am realizing in this moment how my body is telling the story of imbalance and disequilibrium of the air element.  

Air is by design the element that expands, caresses and energizes.  It is the metapoint of movement from the elements of earth, water and fire that transcends boundaries and limitations, connecting us with the etheric realms.  When fire energy is passionately flowing and orderly we are less reactive, thus our air element is less scattering and we are contemplative in reflection of self/other.  This fueling the fires of passion (will), being the uplifting energy that opens us up into the expansiveness of spirit, thus awakens us into the meta state of graceful acceptance.  

We can’t see air in and of itself, but we do feel its presence.  Air offers us the opportunity to change directions, open up into a sense of freedom.  Air presences itself in our environment by observing its movement, like the flowers or tree limbs moving with the breeze or the flicker of a candle flame.  

As I am realizing the need for a soft and gentle summer breeze to wisp by my face and soothe my heart, I feel how I am engaging with my breath in this moment, the most evident connection we have with the air element.  Like water, air fills any space or takes the shape of a container.  Take a breath now with me and notice how air brings forth the quality of lightness.  What are the words that rise in you to express the quality of air element in you?  Is it similar to the heaviness I have been noticing lately?  Is it lightness that feels like a gentle caress, or spacious expansion?  Do you notice the air element modulating as you give attention over the next moments of inhalation and exhalation?  The invitation of air element is about modulating  balance, the equilibrium of self/other.  Operating in activities from this sense of dynamic equilibrium brings us closer to the experience of us as a metapoint, the so above/so below operational being that arises towards spirit and descends towards matter.  

Many of us spend years of our lives without being conscious of our breathing.  In yoga practice, we specifically interact with the air element via our relationship to the breath.  Yoga practitioners have recognized how conscious breathing is the foundation to every other aspect of the practice.  What we call ‘pranayama’ is truly our engagement with the air element to build a relationship with self/other through the exploration of changing states of being, what I believe Tantra refers to as metastating.  Pranayama penetrates through all the levels of our being, from our physical body to our etheric bliss consciousness being.

According to DesertYogaTherapy.com, “research has shown that 80% of anxious symptoms can be reduced within a minute of diaphragmatic breathing. In other words, when we feel the stressors of life building up, we have one immediate tool to tear them down…deep, belly breaths that emphasize a longer and slower exhalation”.

The air element offers the quality of expansion of our heart chakra  energy center and we have the opportunity to build our sentient intelligence registers of connecting physical and etheric realms by practicing regular pranayama (breath) practices as well as deepening our knowledge as we engage awareness of breath in yoga, tai chi or other forms of movement.  Yoga Poses that “open the heart space” such as backbends and movements to expand the chest are helpful. And sensing into deeper connection, everything comes together in the heart.  As I mentioned previously, physically grounding through the earth/water/fire elements (the lower three chakras) brings a sense of balance within the heart and at the same time, supports the expansion in the love focused part of our being. This expansion then lends us to open up into a transitioning point of speaking truth, following intuition and connecting  to higher consciousness. As we can come fully into our heart and embrace the air element, we begin to recognize how all of us are interrelated, interdependent and symbiotic.

One of the ways this connection to all beings is evident is that we are all breathing the same air: the air that our ancestors breathed and that all beings are breathing throughout the world. We all share a common breath. Imagine each of us literally living and breathing these breaths from an intention of peace, compassion and love.  What a remarkable gift exchange, with every breath, is being offered to all beings everywhere.  Pure love (life opening up into the vibration of the eternal) flowing as air element natures in harmonious equilibrium.

As I am setting up my Air Element Altar, I am considering what reminds me of the air element.  Remember the feather floating through the air in the movie, Forrest Gump?  I have some feathers to place on the altar to remind me of powerful graceful acceptance that floats on the lightness of the breath.  I also have a hand fan to remember that my actions can be slow, deep and easy instead of reactive or held.  Flying creatures like dragons are significant reminders of air element along with animals that are symbolic of grace like the antelope and the dove.

I am placing my emerald ring and pieces of rose quartz to hold the energizes of love and balance.  Consider also, photos of those you love/hold dear or represent compassionate people.  I have a statue of Quan Yin to place on the altar as well.  You might be connected to another aspect of compassion through Christ Consciousness or Aphrodite or another tradition.  You may also consider using a green altar cloth…I have chosen a light blue sarong cloth that has a hummingbird as I am deeply connected to the lightness in flight and remembrance to transmute reactive natures towards graceful acceptance.  Remember, choose a candle to awaken your sentience to the flicker flame of air’s ongoing presence.  And lastly, place essential oil fragrances that are carried by the air element, especially those like frankincense or lotus oil in a diffuser if available.  Or use incense burners to engage your sentient registers of the air element to awaken simply being in aliveness.

I am loved. I let love in.

I am kind to myself.

I live in peace and gratitude.

 

 

Breathing in….Breathing out,

Victoria

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A Blustery Day By Beryl McCandless

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I wasn’t sure how to present our Air Element for this month’s blog. How does one language the unseen without reverting to objectifying its living essence? Collaborating with this living sentient intelligence through direct experience speaks into what we are going to explore together. Having said this, I’ll invite you to relax, and come on a journey with me to Ireland.Imagine a group of 8 Questers arriving in Ireland. It’s the middle of November 2000. ‘Americans are a mad lot.’ That’s Irish for Crazy Americans. Who else would come to visit Ireland in November? I was one of those creatures, a participant in one of Tantra’s Vision Quests.

We had spent a part of the day hiking and were now being deposited by van at the Cliffs of Moher. Leaden clouds pressed in upon us. The temperature ran to bone cold and damp as only Ireland can be. At least the drizzle of rain had momentarily abated. Despite the forecast I was giddy that we had made it to the cliffs. Though the body was in the throes of fatigue I and the others headed out to take in the spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean and the stunning beauty of the cliffs themselves. Standing in the buffeting winds I heard the roar of the white capped waves far below, and drank in the sight of the majestic formations of the rocks.

Eyes watering, lungs tingling I found myself ‘in connection with’ land and sea and sky. Heart thudding, pulse pounding I was present to a perfect moment of being whole and complete, in union with Life.

Suddenly the winds kicked up. Hair swirling, nose numbing, my rain gear plastering to my body, I had a sense of being hugged and tickled all at once. Another gust turned me around. I saw my new friends nearby. Grins were cracking wide open. We all were bumped a few more inches along. Laughter bubbled up and out. I had the urge to shout “I’m alive, I’m alive!” 

I leaned into the wind as another gust buffeted me. I was being supported at an angle that seemed impossible! The delight of my 4 year old girl self burst out to play. I ran over and grabbed the hand  of my friend Terry. We took off and joined the rest of the group. Shouting with childlike enthusiasm and laughter we twirled then took turns leaning into the wind. We accepted the invitation of the Air element to play with us. I felt as if I was a sea gull, a kite, a cloud!

Tantra watched our spontaneous antics. She shared with us later sitting by the fire that she had heard a group of 5 tourists ask each other “What ARE they doing?” They, meaning us, as we were playing with the wind. To paraphrase she simply said that we were playing and feeling alive. The 5 tourists had joined us, giving themselves permission to experience their own sense of alive-ing and being connected with another in the field.

Air as wind cleanses gives us access to expansiveness. It energizes and invigorates. It calms the mind, and clears our heavy emotional energies. It’s both subtle and direct, warming and cooling, comforting and soothing. It dances, howls, twists, and erodes. Oxygen holds us in a way that is vital and essential for life. We become the vessel, the container, as we inhale and then empty out as we exhale ready to hold more. Through this parasympathetic activity we are inner connected with Nature, others and Life.

 I invite you to put your attention on your breath. Breathe in through your nose, hold in the pause, then breathe out through your mouth. Feel your lungs and belly expand, then empty. Breathe again and be present to the air/oxygen element that sustains and maintains you as you experience being human, the formless in form.  

To join Curiodyssey for the Air Element event, click here:

https://www.loc-institute.com/product/curiously-exploring-the-elements-air-element-january-24-2021/

 
 

 

 

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Inner Fire Renewal Gives Loneliness a Place, by Victoria McMahon

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In this Solstice season, I have been aware of more than usual body heaviness, fatigue of muscles and mental drain.  While I may not know the origins of these bodymind sensations, I do have the opportunity to observe and crave how to move with and beyond the sensations to build sustaining registers for strength, stamina and capacity.  Many have shared how life circumstances may affect the ability to be present and continue to navigate through.  I have been hearing many use languaging like ‘loneliness’ to describe this circumstance.  It registered for me recently that loneliness is a state of mind that I made a place for many years ago, and so now, it is serving me well as we move through these unprecedented times.  

In support of this knowing, I am reaching back into the reservoir of strength, stamina and capacity for what is upon us.  I offer, for your consideration, some thoughts that may be of service as you may be called into creating a place for loneliness too.  Let these words by Michael Traveler wash over you:

Alone without loneliness…

the forest calls to me

the moon whispers softly

its light streaming gently through

the trees glimmering off the water

talking just to me

there’s a stillness in the air
a sort of anticipation of
what’s to come, i can feel it
a kind of magic

and as i’m sitting here
by the water’s edge
i can feel how i need this
how the noise, the chaos
the stress of daily life
has taken its toll on me

I can feel your spirit
in the trees the moon
the water all around me
and the harmony of it all
how it comes together as one

and i feel you flowing
over me and through me
and a wondrous peace
comes over me

restores me
revives me
renews me

here where the forest
dances with the moon

~ Poem “Where the Forest Dances With the Moon” by Michael Traveler, author/poet

Can you feel the solar plexus being nourished?  Do you sense your nervous system calming and the busy mind melting?  Let’s continue supporting our strength, stamina and capacity.  

Next, allow me to share a section from an inspiring article that I saved from Yoga Journal Magazine some years ago by yoga and meditation writer, Sally Kempton.  Listen for the pings of your system…what resonates and how you find yourself responding. As you read this section from the article, pay attention to your breathing into the solar plexus. 

“Love Your Loneliness
Begin by feeling your own loneliness. Without resistance, tune into it. Then, connect with your breath, and with each one, send these thoughts to yourself:
Breathing in, think, “May I be happy.
Breathing out, ask, “May I feel loved.”
Breathing in, send forth “May all my suffering be healed.”
Breathing out, ask, “May I be at peace.”
Next imagine other people in the world who might be feeling lonely at this moment, people you love, and those you don’t know (lonely children, homeless and ill people, people breaking up with their partners, people in prison, and anyone else who comes to mind). With the breath, send out the same loving thoughts to them: “May you be happy. May you feel loved. May your suffering be healed. May you be at peace.”
Finally, take a moment to send these thoughts to every one in the world. “May all beings be happy. May all beings feel loved. May the suffering of all beings be healed. May all beings be at peace.”
Anyone who does this famous and powerful practice will know how it can soften and change your own heart. When you consciously send blessings to others, especially in this systematic fashion, it forges your connections not just to the people you know, but to all the beings you include in your well wishing. And then, sneaking in with the breath, comes the realization of your unbreakable connectedness. You can’t be lonely when your hearts are joined, even for a moment, to the hearts of all.”
To read the full article “Sweet Solitude”, go to::  https://www.sallykempton.com/.

After reading this article again, I can feel the rising interest to take the inquiry into what Sally refers to as Contemplative Space.  This brings forward, for me, to set in Time to write cravings and observing on loneliness.  I especially am drawn to write templates on ‘Craving What my feelings of loneliness is for me is’ and ‘Observing where does my loneliness come from has me be present to’ as integral to my exploration of self in these moments. 

I often need reminders and support to write my cravings and observings to explore languaging like loneliness.  Craving what loneliness is for me is may be the exact recipe for you!  Or you may be called to run the templates completely!  Through the ritual of practice, be it in writing the templates, moving the body or resting in silence, cravings we set in motion will inevitably become second nature, as old layers, habits and selves begin to fall away in this great unraveling toward the Self; our truest nature. And like a seed, the craving must be planted, nourished and given patience. And then with attention to observing we move beyond—we release and make it known to Creation.

Winter Solstice invites us to reflect, in time, how we are with doing, having and being.  During this Capricorn season and beyond we are invited into deep resonance with our registers that give us pointers towards harmony, balance, symmetry, proportion and beauty(our Maat within).  These registers light the way in darkness of winter, gaining knowledge as we shift towards the light of the newness.  Conscious craving is the starting point of a dream; what makes the unconscious conscious. It is co-creative power that fulfills our heart’s longings, be it in matter or energy form.  Essentially, our cravings are the epiphany in action!  

Activate your cravings for the new year by turning inward and awakening your inner fire; by seeing in the dark. Think of the Winter Solstice as the fourth and final movement of your 2020 life-symphony.  Allow your bodymind to turn inward, listen resonantly, and sound the gifts offered in the darkness in shifting towards light.  Explore and expand into a welcoming winter blanket that synchronizes breath and inner movement to build a strength, stamina, and capacity reservoir.  Feel how slowed down time invites you to make a place for everything in life and clears the slate for all that is coming your way.  On behalf of building our reservoirs, I ask you to join me on Zoom, December 22nd, for an hour of rest, release, and renewal through restorative yoga. Click link here to register:  https://www.loc-institute.com/product/winter-solstice-restorative-yoga-session-december-22-2020/

 

 

Solstice Blessings,

Victoria McMahon

 

 

 

 

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The Inter Crucible By Beryl McCandless

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        Snowflakes in the air outside my window this morning remind me of the mystical transitioning from Fall into the welcoming of the quietude and deepening into the Winter Solstice. Mother whispers to us, in us, through us to return to Thee/HER for nurturing and restoring our bodies, minds and spirits. It is within this darkness, this stillness and silence we merge with HER, with our G.O.D. matrixes. It is there we can bathe in her hum/pulsing heat, divesting all that no longer serves us/US,
This has come to reveal itself with powerful potency upon returning from Mt. Shasta, having participated in the Mimzy project. There has been the usual internal/external pressures in the body. This now generates intense core heat and cold extremities. The energy peaks and bursts, and erupts at the same speed While the surges move like the tides. My mind has ideas that roll in but are unable to rise into language. Listening to the speak of trees and the wind informs and fills me with joy. The sounds of everyday human conversation at times, is harsh to my systems. There is an absence of emotional reaction associated with this, only curious fascination. 
        A thought, a word, popped in. “Crucible.” An electrical tingle registered in my solar plexus. The Random House unabridged dictionary defines  crucible as related to metalurgy  where substances are heated to high temperatures in a vessel. Another definition is a ‘severe test or trial or extremely challenging experience. 
        The dictionary terms come from a language used in a trauma based system that human beings were born into. This held no resonance for me in the state and connection I am holding. containing and living in now. As I continue to observe my beautifully, inter related meta-ing what rose was an Original alchemy of my cosmic-primal design.
        What if this transfigurative meta-ing is revealing that we are the fire and the crucible of our own awakening? Through this personalized journey within the beautiful darkness of seasons and our own unseen territory we began embrace-ing, rest-ing, absorb-ing, breath-ing and BE-ing with? What if this darkness was a refuge, sanctuary, the ecstatic communing with the Beloved merging with the Lover of the Beloved? 
        What would our inter and outer world manifest as? What would be possible? What would rise to meet us as US, for us by US? The heat is now spreading in my cells, licking my nerve endings, tingling my skin as I feel the Life quickening in the pure crux of my inter crucible and know that this fire has never been extinguished and will continue to burn as I live. It fuels the passions of my heart, my soul, my calling. It radiates for those who feel lost and alone, scared and confused. I now find new meaning in the phrase “keep the home fire burning.” Yes, tending the fire within, honoring the sacred fire within HER and the Holy fire of the spirit and the Cosmic Flame. 
        Let us come together and warm ourSelves by our Fire and be a beacon in the darkness of the auspicious time of year. Join us this Sunday December 6, 2020 to explore the inner fire of your Crucible and see where it takes you/US.
 
 

 

 

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Fire Element Altar, by Victoria McMahon

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Today marks the beginning of movement into a month of attention to creating and being in the Fire Element.  As I look outside at the snow covered branches, I am reminded of where this journey began.  I tree!  I root!! And from this deep rooting relationship, I discover more and more how I crave to be the FLOW (Feeling Love Operating Within).  This craving comes from a longing that is held in my original design (G.O.D.).  I operate within the natural flow of comprehension as an element that intentionally interacts with all other elements by design.  I am constituted from the same elements that are seen in the natural world in which all exists…I am a part of everything else!  So, I am feeling ‘intentionality’ from a new and glorious aspect of being.  

Being of the Fire element is how we are in relationship with our will!  Are we in the willingness of our being?  How do we experience our willfulness or will-lessness? In yoga tradition, we call upon the fire element to stoke the ‘amrita’ (sweet nectar) of energy that drips down from the roof palate to the solar plexus, where we access our reservoir for conscious action.  When we are present to the action of taking deep breaths, we activate the pilot light of consciousness in the solar plexus and can radiate this intentionality through the body and beyond into creative and purposeful actions.  We move with conscious action on or off a yoga mat.  In case you didn’t know, the purpose of a yoga mat (also called tapas/discipline) for daily practice is in remembrance of placing ourselves intentionally into the fire element of transformation and transmutation of the collected ama (accrued toxins of bodymind) to awaken the bodymind into conscious action off the mat! So, consider the yoga mat as your crucible or cauldron where you place yourself to creatively explore and open up into that which you exist as a part of and on behalf of.

We can open up into the interrelatedness of us as ‘fire’ element in the creation of our devotional altar for December.  Take a few minutes to breathe and be with the fire in meditation.  What represents your willingness as a being?  Remember, in willingness is surrender!  How do you vision surrendering in the same relationship with warrior spirit?  As a spiritual warrior are you willing to stand your ground, to protect the sacred within, to accept challenges and maintain power in a firm and quiet way?  Remembering, power ‘podere’ means ‘to be able’.  So, this willingness is creating conscious direction in our life and with our energy towards craving what is our to be, have and do.  We harness the flow of energy, which in yoga is the upward/downward flow (prana/apana) of energy that finds expression or creation as the metapoint of our being in the solar plexus!  Do you have a picture, statue or symbol that represents you as a  spiritual warrior being?

For me, balancing my strength, stamina and capacity as a spiritual warrior means that I also will be placing a picture of a lion on my altar.  This reminds me to not take life so seriously!!!  If you want to know how the lion represents the both/and of fierce warrior and whimsical play, you have to come to the Fire Element event this Sunday!!!!   http://www.loc-institute.com/product/curiously-explor…-december-6-2020/  What is the reminder for you to be with the whimsical aspect of you?  Place it on your altar!

Often, I look for humor in the moments I feel authority or aggression is upon me.  This is in the both/and of internal emotional aggression/wanting authority as well as witnessing external displays of what feels like overreach.  I use the movement of the woodchopper to consciously direct the flow of fire energy so I can capture and fuel the flow while not getting burnt!  So, just as you will discover why lions help me not take life so seriously, I will also show you how to experience your own fire flow!!!!

And, what if our pilot light is dim?  What then??  How can we use the gifts of the fire elements upon our altar to guide us back to source abundance???  Fire is about metabolizing.  We literally change food and water into energy and heat.  Just like we might have difficulties in digesting foods can lead to feeling too little energy or deficient, our difficulty in digesting emotions can lead to dullness, fearfulness or apathy. Remember to reflect upon the water element of last month to be with difficult emotions and use the emotional flow breathing meditation to support your ability to be with emotions so that the fire of the solar plexus has the inner power to weaver matter and energy.  I, too, put the Solar Plexus Activation CD that I purchased from Tantra Maat on my altar to support the sustaining and maintaining of fire.

What else might we intentionally place on our fire altars?  Stones like topaz or amber.  Yellow candles to represent the sun or maybe you have a salt lamp or perhaps an old-fashioned oil lamp.  Consider if you have a yellow cloth or a shirt with sun or flames on it.  You could even take your candle and etch a word that reflects the forward moving direction you have for your life as we approach Winter Solstice and plant the seeds of remembrance to bring forward for 2021.  This is the timing of moving towards the darkest night of the year, so we can deeply reflect upon the inner fires (desires) that we want to be.  Consider a cauldron (shell or fire bowl) that can hold your inner fires of longing (pieces of paper that you write cravings upon) for the month, as we move towards Winter Solstice. Then we can welcome a ritual burn, with the new light on Winter Solstice to move us forward into the coming year.

 

 

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Magical Doodles … An Opening By Beryl McCandless

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          As I have moved into the month of October and felt our personal work deepening, larger and larger gaps in my language and languaging are apparent. The body is experiencing tension, exhaustion, irregular breathing, fuzzy and momentary lapses of processing connectivity in the brain. Fugue state it is. 
          While pressure is within and without, we are being ‘challenged’ to write the templates. I can now only observe what is rising, what seems to be contracting and what is screaming to be heard, acknowledged and integrated with loving compassion and joy. 
        Tantra has suggested writing nonsense when the wobble is especially unstable. Perfect! No-sense writing makes perfect sense. Well, what if  even that is a Herculean challenge? 
         Crazy as it may sound be Curious. Be fascinated by the brilliance of being out of your depth, out of your mind, out of your league .  Try something new to continue to feel and experience the flow of what is rising on your behalf, what has your back, what loves you. 
          This past week especially, the thought burst though, “But HOW?” No words? No problem. What came through was a doodle. That was how I opened up into. There was movement, there was a ‘happy’ that eased my body, my breath, my wobble. Lines, circles, colors. 
It doesn’t always show itself in this way. Sometimes there’s sound, a hum, music. Sometimes there’s rolling and stretching, and walking and soaking in a tub of Epsom salts and essential oil. 
          Each act of self care, self expression and Self Love is deepening our intimacy with Creation. The more we embrace what is pressing in we discover we are embracing what Loves and adores us. That is what has us moving forward.
          Register here for the Curiodyssey Water Element event:

          https://www.loc-institute.com/product/curiously-exploring-the-elements-water-element-november-8-2020/

 

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Quenching Our Thirst for Life By Liz Geyer

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The word ‘quench’ is such an incredible piece of language, isn’t it?  This word has opened up such a beautifully deep exploration into what we thirst for in our life, and I am now being present to discovering how my body and being were compelled to quench this thirst during an amazing hike/journey my partner Steve and I took this past week in Utah.  

We discovered this beautiful canyon while driving up highway 128, with red rock canyons on either side of the road, and the Colorado River on the west side, flowing gently in this particular section.  I was attracted to a particular turn-out, and asked Steve to stop on our way back.  I was already planning in my mind how he could take his camera and take pictures of the canyon, while I could answer my body’s calling to be on a trail.  My body has really been loving hiking on trails of any kind lately, and the body was almost like a precious dog wagging its happy tail, wanting to go for a walk!  This trail would be a win-win for both of us.  Steve isn’t a ‘hiker’, though he has been walking daily in his job.  I thought we would just ‘mosey’ up the trail a ways…say a mile.  I laugh now, because in my thinking about moseying up the trail, I simply took my backpack with my special ‘rock’ tools, thinking I might find some rock formation with which to leave some Shasta opals for anchoring (which did happen at the end of the trail).  Yet I did not take the second backpack with food and water in it.

Off we went, exploring this trail, called Grandview Canyon Trail.  As we continued to hike, my senses began to open up into the wide variety of vegetation, rock formations, colors throughout the canyon, and a beautiful stream that ran through it. What is even more interesting, is that we were both compelled all of a sudden, to just keep going.  Between the gurgling of the stream, and having to traverse it several times and different ways, the colors of the changing leaves on the trees, the meandering up the trail and having to climb, both Steve and I began to be in some sort of magic that was compelling us to continue to hike to “somewhere”.  Later I was present to the Primordial Mother, begging us to see an aspect of Her at the end of the trail. With each step connecting my body through the cells, in with the Earth, listening to the stream’s music, while catching glimpses of the water moving in, through and around rocks and branches, I now observe that the body was being fed and nourished with both the element of earth and the element of water.  And what a visceral, primal, physical experience we were having!  Even though the hike was mostly uphill and hard for our well-used knees to negotiate, still, we were determined to be in the vast beauty of all that was laid before us.  What a feast it was!

When we found the end of the trail, we were greeted by an amazing ‘rock-bowl’, and a naturally occurring arch to the right of this bowl.  In the center lay a small cave, about fifteen feet up the rock, with a natural spring trickling from inside the rock.  I was so fascinated by this spring, and so in love with how it had formed a crack in the rock and was flowing in such a straight line in this crack that the water had carved…just THAT straight line of water fed my soul like nothing else!  What power that water possessed!  The message from the Mother was clear.  Listen and learn.  Observe and learn.  Allow My elements to feed your physical and non-physical body. It was in a larger opening of this spring that I threw the Shasta opals.  The Mother thanked me by gifting me one of Her stones to take to Shasta.  Equity.

Quenching…nourishing…whole system response.  What an incredible day of magic!  What amazing synchronicities occurred for us to have this beautiful flow of existence. What quenches your thirst for life?  The Mother asked us to listen and learn.  I am forever grateful for my cells being nourished by all things water, earth, and connection!

 

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Messages From a Nature Mandala, by Liz Geyer

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Have you ever put something off that was pleasurable, but something just kept you from actually diving into the activity of it?  Such was the case of playing with a second nature mandala.  When I actually sat down to be in a creative frame of mind, it literally took me ten minutes to create this nature mandala!  Why had I not done it sooner?  

Actually sitting down to create was so pleasant.  I felt as though another aspect of me sat down in ‘my’ chair…not ‘me’.  I have always loved symmetry as I create.  What goes on one side must go on another…not all art I create is this way, but in creating a mandala, that’s how I like it…balanced!  This one came together so easily!  I will say that as I collected the items on a walk last week, as I picked up each leaf, acorn or stick, I could see a pattern emerge in my mind’s eye.  If you don’t think that way…no problem.  I have practiced many years with making objects out of the clouds in the sky, patterns on tree trunk, rocks on chimneys, huge logs on hikes in the distance…once I swore I saw an Asian Kung Fu master on the trail in front of me, but when I got up close, it was only an intricate tree stump with a branch sticking out of it!  If you don’t see the world this way, it’s okay…we each have our own oddities and ‘ways’!

The coolest thing that happened was that an observing recursion popped up out of the middle of the mandala!  As I was videoing a description of the mandala, a wisp of energetic smoke came up from the acorn cap in the middle, and I could literally ‘feel’ the observing come up from my solar plexus!  It was amazing!  “Observing this beautiful configuration has me be present to nature is sending me messages.  Being present to nature is sending me messages has opened me up into playing with the elements of earth.  Opened up into playing with the elements of earth has me have great joy and satisfaction in creating something new with nature’s elements.”  I was blown away by how quickly the solar plexus had spoken!

I am so looking forward to playing with these items again, and adding the pieces I found a few weeks ago to see what pops up next.  I can’t wait to do this with you!  Go on a walk…pick up rocks or sticks, or even crunched up leaves!  Pick the ‘underdog’ acorns…the ones even the squirrels don’t want!  There are so many this year!  I have never seen so much abundance…see what you can find!  Play!  It’ll do the soul good!

We are looking forward to seeing you ‘live’ for the Earth Element event, or check out the recording, even if you cannot be at the ‘live’ event.  To  register for the Earth Element event  click here :

https://www.loc-institute.com/product/c … r-27-2020/

or follow with us on the entire adventure of the elements in the 5-part series by clicking here:

http://www.loc-institute.com/product/cu … rt-series/.

 

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