Transmutation News December 2008

As the time grew nearer in the United States presidential election it felt to me like the collective conscious was getting very stirred up. This election created a lot of emotion on many different levels. I found myself having a hard time getting a good night’s sleep as I felt my psyche was tapping into a great deal of chaos in the collective.

Without getting into politics I do feel the results of the election were significant, exciting, and hopeful. For I feel as a collective we were faced with a choice of whether the collective was choosing to move forward to a future of new possibilities or whether fear would keep the collective choosing to move backwards in time.

There are worldwide challenges that keep growing. And the challenges keep forcing us to look at how to create a life that is simpler and more balanced. And the challenges we face also ask us to stay focused on our spiritual work.

This is not a time to feel that any one person or political party will create sweeping changes for us. We are responsible to be part of the changes that need to happen. The present and future still rests in the hands of the collective.

The election in the United States was an example of how the collective can join together and create a shift in leadership. We can learn from such focus. It is a time to continue to build on the collective energies that have been put into motion. And how we do this is to continue to be a spiritual presence in the collective as I wrote about last month. And to add to this we must support and strengthen the collective energies that can move us into greater change and be a healing force on the planet.

Find a place within your home or outside in nature to build a small altar that represents the global spiritual community working together in different ways to create positive change for the planet and all of life. Everyday visit the altar and put a small offering such as a stone, a flower, or a prayer to give thanks and to honor all those working in behalf of life.

Over the years we have been working together to dream the world we want to live in into being. I have given different suggestions of how to work with creation and manifestation out of my book Medicine for the Earth.

Recently my helping spirits gave me an interesting exercise to suggest. As you know there are many books written on the law of attraction. These books have been popular since the early 1900’s and today there is a resurgence in the topic.

I was told to suggest that you find a magnet and a pin to work with. When I did this exercise I worked with a strong refrigerator magnet.

Hold the pin close to the magnet and notice the pull, as they are attracted to each other. Repeat this everyday a few times a day to get the feeling in your body of what is needed to actually attract to you what you are working on manifesting.

In doing spiritual work it is one thing to be able to experience something being created in the invisible realms. It is another to understand how to pull the creation through, to birth it in the physical realms.

Here is another exercise I was given. I found that as Election Day in the United States grew closer I had to deal with feelings of anxiety.

I kept doing a lot of work to surrender to whatever outcome occurred. And I had good days and challenging days. One day I found myself thinking the worst.

I immediately felt the presence of Isis surrounding me. When I finally took some time to get quiet and go within she showed me a ball of yarn sitting on the floor that represented my desired outcome. And she asked me to reflect on what thread of thought I was feeding into the yarn. It was a real wakeup call for me as I realized I was not aligning my thinking with the result I was hoping for.

I think that the more we can get our body and mind to work in partnership with our spiritual practices the more fuel we give to the work we are engaged in.

Find a ball of yarn or some other object that you can use to represent what you consider a healthy and balanced planet. You can also create a drawing or you can write your goal on a piece of paper. Place these on an altar. Run pieces of thread, yarn, string to your ultimate goal that are infused with thoughts that would align with this goal as well as those infused with blocking beliefs.

Take some time throughout the day and especially before you go to sleep to reflect on the threads you have been feeding. Did you feed the thread leading to your ultimate goal or away from it?

Try to get a tangible feeling in your body of how these “threads of thoughts” contribute to creating your ultimate goal.

I think both exercises of working with magnets and watching what threads of thought you are feeding will help you to make changes in your daily life. The goal is to contribute to the global community from a deeper level of awareness as we work together to create positive planetary change in behalf of all of life.

Shamanism as well as the Medicine for the Earth work practiced as a way of life requires you to be fully embodied. For so much of the practice of shamanism has to do with deep listening and observation of nature. In this way we are living as part of nature and truly working from a place of full cooperation and collaboration with the spirit that lives in all things.

In today’s world many people are drawn to spiritual practices because they don’t want to be in a body. Past experiences have people disappointed in others and life itself and looking for an escape.

But spiritual practices as they were developed in ancient times were never meant to create out of body experiences. Part of thriving and living a life of joy means being fully in our body and fully inspirited.

Some of us are losing out and missing the point of spiritual work. In the October Transmutation News I wrote about losing our sense of wonder, awe, and becoming complacent creates life as more of watching a movie or program on a flat screen TV. We miss out on truly living as part of nature when we reject our own bodies.

Winter tends to be a time of stillness in nature. This stillness supports us to take the time to draw our energies within.

In 2008 I asked you to merge with a star and notice how solid starlight is. It does not try to shine. It just does from an inner solidity and that light reaches across many millions of miles.

I also asked you to merge with a seed to understand and feel in your cells the intense power of unpotentiated energy.

If you did not do these journeys/meditations I suggest you do them as a foundation to work with.

As we move closer to the time of winter begin to draw your energy in. Review your successes. Look at where you might have lost faith in yourself as a being who has the potential to share brilliance and beauty in the world.

Everyday make yourself “love potions” where you infuse love into everything you eat and drink. Remember what you bless, blesses you. What you honor, honors you. In this way of blessing and honoring yourself you bless and honor the earth. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the winter solstice, which is on December 21.

During the winter solstice take some time to be still and silent. And tune into the stillness and regeneration process of the earth. Ask the earth how you can support her regeneration during this time of change and transition.

The full moon is December 12. Let’s continue to strengthen our spiritual presence in the collective as well as strengthen the fibers we are weaving in the web of light.

As this year draws to a close let’s continue our healing work in our circle to empower each of us so that we have the energy and passion to keep up our spiritual work to help with the changes ahead.

If you are new to this website please read Creating A Human Web of Light on the homepage for instructions for our full moon meditations.

Announcements:

I wanted to give you an update on the two new books I have written. The final first drafts are done and are at their respective publishers.

One book is looking at how we can use the Medicine for the Earth work to gather our energies together to create global healing. For as we know there is great power and potential when we work together as a collective. There is some information from Medicine for the Earth, some exercises from previous columns of the Transmutation News, and more. I wrote this book for a community of people who might be very new to spiritual work so we can broaden our circle. I see this book as a part 2 to How to Heal Toxic Thoughts which is being very well received by readers around the world. I sold this book to Weiser and once we have settled on a title I will let you know. The book will be published fall/winter 2009.

The other book I co-authored with Hank Wesselman and the working title is The Path of Direct Revelation. This book was bought by Sounds True and is a continuation of my book Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner’s Guide. Hank and I wrote most of the book and we invited some other shamanic teachers and writers to share some of their teachings and exercises they teach in their circles. I outlined some of the important practices that are part of shamanism as a way of life. And we wrote on these different topics. An incredible wealth of information is shared in this book and is planned to be published in Spring 2010. We are hoping the date can be pushed up a bit.

Klaus Paasche is a student of mine who is helping to share the transfiguration work in his local community. We have been in communication and there is a project that he is deeply passionate about and commited to.

We are all being touched by the challenges many children face around the world. And sometimes we feel the need to commit to a project which helps children. Klaus is committed to one such project to help support Lakota children on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

He is involved with the organization called Wakanyeja Pawicayapi. For more information you can visit their website www.wakanyeja.org

Wakanyeja Pawicayapi is a non-profit organization on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Their goal is to support abused children and teenagers by offering behavioral therapy and also teach them the traditional ways of the Lakota people. They support about 200 children and offer 5 different programs. They depend almost entirely upon donations with little support from the “Bureau of Indian Affairs” in Washington, DC.

You might want to check their website and see the videos which shows the strong commitment to children.

You can visit the website for information on how to make donations. You can also email Klaus Paasche at alphaklaus@verizon.net.

From letters I receive from readers of the Transmutation News I know that we are a community of people who are engaged in different spiritual systems and from many different religious denominations.

Jim Reale is a dear friend of mine who teaches chanting at conferences devoted to Christian Contemplation. He has a CD titled “Doorway to Devotion: A Contemplative Entry into Christian Prayer”. I have gotten great feedback on the CD from many people from all different spiritual traditions.

If you would like more information on the CD and how to order it please visit: www.openbodyopenbreath.org

I find it quite amazing that we are coming to the end of another year. It feels like 2008 just began! And I want to acknowledge, honor, and give great gratitude for those who help to donate time and energy to make the Transmutation News available to readers around the world.

Let’s thank and send the best of wishes to Bob Edgar who is the webmaster of www.shamanicvisions.com and Sylvia Edwards the webmaster of www.sandraingerman.com.

Many blessings to:

Eva Ruprechtsberger for coordinating all our translators.
Lena Anderheim who has just started to translate the Transmutation News into Swedish.
Nello Ceccon for the translation into Italian.
Ines Fermosa for the translation into Spanish.
Zora Fresnova for the translation into Slovakian.
Annie Idrissi for the translation into French.
Aurel Mocanu for the translation into Romanian.
Linde Stecker for the translation into German.
Katharina Workmany for the translation into Portuguese.

There is so much work that goes into the translation of so many words. Thank you and may the blessings of your generosity be multiplied many times over to bring peace, love, joy, and abundance into all of your lives.

And to all of you in our global community reading this monthly column I wish you a joyful and blessed winter! Thank you for all you are doing to shine light into the world.