Blue Moon

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Today is the birthday of artist Henri Matisse. Today is also New Year’s Eve and a blue moon – the second full moon of December, 2009.

When thinking of what to write for this auspicious event, I decided I would search for an image relating somehow to the blue moon before beginning to write. While doing so, I discovered it was the birthday of Henri Matisse, so I began looking through images of some of his paintings. This blue moon occurs in the feminine, nurturing sign of Cancer and has a strong goddess vibration. I was initially drawn to a painting titled Blue Nude, which is certainly fitting for a blue Cancer full moon with a partial eclipse. Then I saw this photograph of the artist himself working on a painting of the Madonna and child and I got goosebumps. The youthful masculine energy and the mature feminine energy seemed to speak to me of the eclipse. The Madonna herself, as we think of her in her heavenly blue robes, is truly the Cancerian energy of this moon. It is also fitting that the artist himself is pictured holding his brush, representing man’s part in the co-creative process.

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

The Power of Blessing

"Blessings strengthen us, subtly or powerfully depending on the person giving the blessing and the strength of the blessing itself," explains our host and shaman, Christina Pratt. "What is important to notice is that the act of Blessing another strengthens both the one receiving the blessing and the one offering it." Join us this week as we explore the lost art of Blessings. Blessings can empower us, bring us back into right relationship with ourselves, or protect us. What is a blessing and what makes it strong? Blessings can be a formal, complex ritual process or a simple act of love, like calling on the spirits of the family totem to protect a child as she leaves for school. Blessings call on energies of the invisible world, like elementals, nature spirits, and angels, and ask for their participation in our lives in specific ways. Whether simple or grand, our blessings are most powerful when they are an expression of a deep relationship we have already cultivated with spirit.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009 at 2PM Pacific

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All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

Sweat Lodge Tragedy Part of a Pattern

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

The homicide investigation resulting from James Arthur Ray's disastrous sweat lodge has turned up evidence of a pattern of illness and injury. In addition to the previously discussed suicide, there have been broken bones, loss of consciousness, vomiting, and other adverse events at Ray seminars.

In documents released Monday, a man Ray hired to build the sweat lodge told investigators that he was hesitant to assist with the ceremony for a third year because participants previously had emerged in medical distress, and emergency help wasn't summoned. Theodore Mercer said the latest ceremony was hotter than in years past, but Ray repeatedly told participants, "You are not going to die. You might think you are, but you're not going to die."

Mercer's wife, Debra, told investigators that one man emerged from the sweat lodge halfway through the October ceremony believing he was having a heart attack and would die. She said that instead of summoning medical aid, Ray said "It's a good day to die," according to a search warrant affidavit.

Joyeux Noël: A Muscial Interlude

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Getting Happy

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Happiness is, indeed, a decision and a choice. As feeling, thinking people, our strongest power is our ability to choose what to think and how to feel. However, we all get knocked down now and then, and it can be especially difficult in the current world energy to maintain a positive outlook. Denying our negative feelings and burying them doesn’t make them go away and can undermine our attempts at maintaining a cheerful outlook. I recently received a wonderful free 12-minute audio that I would like to share that can help you to raise your vibration. It was recorded just before Thanksgiving, but can be used any time. It requires a basic understanding of “tapping points”, which you can learn more about here.

Egyptian Alarm Clock

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

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"When I'm in Egypt, and I look at the pyramids, I think, that's the real world." 

~ William Henry

Some years ago I recorded something in my journal that, like so many things I scribble in these notes, has taken me years to even begin to understand. An image emerged in my mind's eye of what looked like a mountain range, so I began to draw it. I drew the first peak. The second was a bit higher. Then my hand was forced down to draw a much lower, disproportionate looking third peak. The asymmetry of the drawing bothered me, somewhat, but it was a fair representation of what I saw in my head. Then I heard the following words, which I wrote under my funny looking mountain range. "Trapped in the wrong dimension." The asymmetrical mountain range looking thing became stunningly obvious one day, when I saw a photo of the pyramids at Giza, from that particular angle.  The phrase I heard I still don't really understand, but I have theories.

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Stripping Away the Old: A "how to" Show

"How do I let go?" is the most frequently asked question of host, Christina Pratt, when she facilitates clients in the release of the old self and the awakening of the new. Winter is the time of stripping away the old and resting in the long, dark nights. This fall we discussed moving beyond good and evil, looking past sin to focus on destiny, and the Essence energies of Gratitude, Faith, and the Return-all to stir up the comfortable patterns of the self-so now what? Now we need to strip away all we have found within our selves that no longer serves us and surrender that energy to the winter fire. But, how? This week we will discuss how we can allow these little deaths, and with the gifts of self revealed within, to lay the path to rejuvenating an authentic life. In this way we can find the pleasure in our imperfect lives, the lost gifts of self that awaken the heart, and joy in the cultivation of a deepening relationship with our self.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at 2PM Pacific

http://www.modavox.com/7thWaveNetwork

All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

Winter Solstice

It’s here! The shortest day, the longest night, and then the light returns, bit by bit, a few minutes more each day. It will be a few more weeks before we really notice the dark is diminishing, but tonight we can mark the solstice and know it can only get lighter from this point on.

Before beginning to write, I visited Wikipedia to learn more about this special day. People throughout time and across the entire planet have observed the winter solstice in various ways and it was interesting to read about them. My roots are German and Swedish. Some of the Swedish traditions were a part of my childhood. Despite my Scandinavian blood, I am not fond of these dark, cold days and most certainly feel the effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder each winter. The solstice is like a buouy in the sea of endless winter for me. When I reach it, I cling to the thought that the days will get longer once again.

A painting by one of my favorite Swedish painters, Carl Larsson, titled Midvinter Blot caught my eye. As I read about the midwinter sacrifice of animals and humans, discontinued in the 1200s due to missionary persistence, I empathized with those ancient Swedes. After three days of snow, cold, and gray skies here in Tennessee, I am wondering what might appease the gods of winter enough to let a bit of sunshine return.

The Next Level

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

Graham Hancock had this video posted to his Facebook page, so I took a look at it. It's a neat little round-up of ideas on transformation and multi-dimensional awaremeness, from thinkers as diverse as Joseph Campbell and Joe Rogan.

Mr. Deity and the Apology

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

The last episode of Mr. Deity introduced Eve. I posted it here. I thought it was cute, but I thought, at the time, it might tweak some people. Apparently, it did. In fact, it seems to have really pissed some viewers off enough that Brian Keith Dalton has come out with an apology. It's at the end of this most recent episode, "Mr. Deity and the Wrong Number." Like all things Mr. Deity, the apology is quite amusing, and straddles that fine line between the satirical and the offensive. Dalton makes the rather significant point that Mr. Deity lampoons a variety of stereotypes, and yet, it is only when a stereotype of a woman comes in to play, that all hell breaks loose. And, like so many stereotypes, there is some truth in Mr. Deity's Eve, and in the communication breakdown that ensues. I say this as a woman and a feminist. There are differences between men and women. There are differences in the way we communicate. Women can be indirect and, even, passive aggressive. Men can be obtuse and oblivious to metacommunication. John Gray built an entire cottage industry around these differences, and the trouble they can cause in male/female relationships. So, I thought Mr. Deity's depictions of an extremely yin Eve, and yang Adam, were clever. His conversation with Pat Robertson is also amusing, so enjoy!

Time Monk Clif High on the Coming Context Shift

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

"A shift in awareness always causes transformation."
~ Virginia Sandlin

Clif High is making the media rounds again, in association with his latest report, and some changing time tables. Most notably, he says that we will be experiencing a "context shift," that was predicted for December 29, on or near December 19. That's this Saturday. A context shift, according to High, is when there is a rapid change in our mass awareness about an issue. (This would be a collective experience of what my former teacher and Cherokee Mystic Virginia Sandlin would call a "shift in awareness.") A previously predicted context shift had to do with the undocumented alien issue, the perception of which dramatically changed when massive demonstrations captured media and public attention. While he's not sure what issue is about to erupt into our conscious awareness, he suspects it will be economic and related to what he thinks is the inevitable "death of the dollar." Also of note, High's speculation on the real purpose the H1N1 vaccine (population reduction) and the weird, swirly thing that appeared over Norway.