Awakening Through the Sacred Feminine

What Is Forgiveness—Sacred Feminine Style?

2012-02-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

Have you noticed there are many ways and levels at which forgiveness can occur? You can say you forgive, but not really mean it. You can forgive someone for the moment, but then be upset with them for the same thing hours or days later. You can forgive mentally, because you know you need to or know you should. You might say you forgive someone because they are really hurting and you feel sorry for them.

Or you can forgive someone because you really understand how any of us, given a set of circumstances, could have made the same choice. When you forgive from this place of understanding, you have realized one of two things, or both:

1) most of us our doing our best most of the time, even if we seem insensitive or unaware of the harm we may be causing; and
2) that anyone who is consciously perpetrating harm is also a victim.

Deep wounds and fears cause us to become perpetrators. Like wounded animals, we lash out, even at those that are trying to help us. When we have been wounded, we become afraid, mistrusting, angry and hurt, and we either take our pain out on others, or we drive that pain inward and harm ourselves.

Wounded, we hurt someone else who then hurts another, and on and on the cycle continues until…

Someone in the cycle stops, reflects and gets in touch with the wound that started the cycle in the first place. When you stop and reflect in the way of the Sacred Feminine, you bring this wounded feeling to your heart and hold that feeling in compassion.

The feeling may or may not have a name. What is significant is choosing not to blame or be angry with anyone, including yourself, but rather to understand that feelings are universal.

When a painful feeling is held in compassionate love long enough, the painful feeling simply drifts away. All that remains is your love for yourself and anyone involved with when and how that original wound occurred.

Forgiveness simply happens because you understand from the depths of your feeling. More than a thought, forgiveness happens deeply when your heart grasps the significance of the frailty of the human condition that we all share.

Here are two ways you can experience greater compassion—the kind of forgiveness that is deep and profound.

Take your own wounded feelings into the Creation Meditation.

Allow yourself to experience an Ancestral Lineage Clearing, where you release the pain you may be experiencing from family karma by making new choices within the safe parameters of an inner journey.

Most of all, you will probably find it helpful to remember that true forgiveness comes from true compassion. Reach for your compassion, and there you will find forgiveness.

When the Sacrifice Is Too Great

2012-01-25T15:34:00.000-08:00

Do you ever find yourself making choices so that other people will feel better, but in the process you end up feeling like you are cutting off little bits of yourself?

Those moments happen when you are giving up too much of yourself in order to attempt to make someone else happy.

Maybe you want to go to women’s ceremonies or events, but your partner convinces you that anything just for women is sexist and not in keeping with where spirituality is going today.

Perhaps you really enjoy esoteric and mystical experiences, but you have to take pleasure in them secretly so that your partner doesn’t find out, because he doesn’t approve.

Or perhaps you don’t use your healing gifts because your children think those kind of abilities are not real, and they ridicule you if you talk about it.

I’ve met a lot of people over the years that sacrifice their intuition and spiritual callings over and over again in an attempt to keep peace in their homes, especially when that calling is connected to the exploration of their Divine Feminine nature. This saddens me greatly, because this sacrifice is the one that allows the Sacred Feminine within us to be suppressed.

There was a time when experiencing spirituality in a feminine way, using your intuition or healing gifts, or having a mystical moment could get you condemned and even killed for being a witch.

The suppression of our feminine mystical natures is still going on. However, although your life is probably not at stake, your harmony at home might be at risk if you choose to follow through with those deep inner urges calling you to your most profound sacred nature.

When you give in to outside pressures and move away from your intuitive calling, you are giving up on yourself. Your inner wisdom knows what you actually need in order to find true respect, peace, honor, love and fulfillment in your life. Most of the time that gentle and quiet voice within doesn’t speak as loudly as your family members and friends.

Your inner voice is not trying to persuade you with logic, shame or guilt. It simply continues to suggest and invite you to consider what will ultimately help you find answers to your prayers.

It took me a long time to finally tell my partners and well-meaning friends that they did not know what was better for me. It took a lot of courage for me to walk out the door and follow my intuitive calling, without feeling like I had to offer an explanation to anyone. And it was quite the self-empowering day when I laughingly agreed with my family that I was the weird one in the family and I liked it that way.

When I finally had trusted my intuition long enough, my incredible partner came into my life--ready and willing to trust me, my intuitive insights and my choices. Oh, he questions me from time to time, and when he does I go inward to my intuitive wisdom and ask for clarity. When I receive my clarity, I tell him what I discovered and make my choices based upon my inner wisdom.

He may not understand all of my choices, but he respects them, because I respect my choices. More importantly, I respect myself.

My family still thinks I’m the weird one. I finally ceased to care. I stopped attaching to a need to deny myself in order to make others more comfortable. I didn’t come here to make them happy at my own expense. I came here to fulfill my destiny. I came here to live in the joy that self-awareness brings.

What I want for my husband and my family is to know the joy and bliss of their own awakening. That won’t happen if I hide behind my fear, allowing their doubts and fears to motivate me into silence and inaction in my own spiritual journey.

If I want them to experience the happiness of deep self-love, then the place I have the most influence is with myself. If I love myself so much that I listen to and follow my truth, I’ve influenced the web of life in a beautiful way. Who knows, perhaps that love will touch the hearts of those I care about most.

Without the beauty of the Sacred Feminine within our lives, we achieve ourselves to death. We think our way through situations and dismiss the Divine wisdom that comes through our intuition. We compete when it is time to collaborate. We become fixated on our own needs and forget about the needs of others. We lose sight of our ability to live with ease and we are unable to be in the receptive state of receiving. We refuse to be still and quiet enough for the Divine to speak to us. When we sacrifice the Sacred Feminine, we sacrifice a part of ourselves, and we sacrifice a deeper connection to the Divine.

For thousands of years, men have been defining what a woman’s relationship with the Divine should be. Now is our time to discover through our own bodies, emotions, and mystical experiences, what it means to us. When we know deep within our bones what the Sacred Feminine energy truly is for us, we might then be ready to share what we have discovered with our men and our families.

This is our time to discover for ourselves. We can choose to walk away in the name of peace and harmony at home. Or we can discover true harmony within ourselves by discovering our own true nature and bring that awakened state back into our homes.

Reflections on the Value of Your Life

2012-01-18T13:08:00.000-08:00

I was visiting with a friend the other day that was expressing his frustration with how little he felt he had accomplished in his life. He has large aspirations that he is passionate about, and as he gets older, he wonders if his dreams are slipping out of his reach. He wonders if he is becoming irrelevant in his career, frustrated that he has not been able yet to replace his current career with a new career that would be more meaningful to him.

I spent some time honoring his feelings, yet reminding him about all he had accomplished that had made a positive difference in the lives of people he loved and cared about. In my experience, we aren’t either a failure or a success. Sometimes however, we feel as though we are one or the other, and in reality, most of us feel like we are a bit of both. I suggest that failure or success really has little to do with anything other than our feelings about ourselves in any given moment.

A few years ago I read a study that was done with the CEOs of some large corporations. The secret they admitted in an anonymous survey that they might not admit in person is that a lot of time they felt like frauds. They didn’t feel prepared for the responsibilities they had been given and weren’t sure one could ever actually be prepared for the responsibilities they shouldered. They didn't always feel competent for the decisions they had to make.

I’ve worked with and known enough CEOs, employees, business owners, mothers, fathers, spiritual devotees, professors, students, politicians, teenagers, children and adults to be fairly certain that there are pivotal points in every person’s life when you just aren’t sure you know what you are doing or that the decision you made was the best one. Most of the time people are just doing the best they can in that moment.

Sure, in retrospect, you can see a dozen different choices you might have made, but all you truly ever have in any moment of truth is your understanding in that moment, based upon what you have learned up to that point.

You are not terrible because you didn’t meet your goals, become prosperous, find the right relationship, fulfill your purpose, lose weight, heal your illness or become an overnight success. Neither are you wonderful because you did any one or all of those things.
You are incredible because you are an expression of the Divine, experimenting and experiencing life on planet earth. That’s it!

Some of us will be rich and wildly famous. Others of us will live quiet, sweet lives and be known only to a few. Some of us will meet most every dream we have ever had. Others of us will come back for another lifetime in order to complete our most significant dreams. Regardless of how we do it, the experience alone can give us joy, if we are willing to experience the joy inherent within life.

Can you honestly tell me that the janitor at your school who made it his job to consciously watch over every child he could when they arrived or left school to make sure that they were safe led a less significant life than your favorite movie star?

Or what about the female executive, who takes time on the weekends to sit quietly with an uncle getting ready to cross over, listening to him share his life stories, regrets and loves so that he can slip gently over to the other side. What is the greater success—her business accomplishments or her compassionate tending to a family member?

Maybe the janitor hoped to do more with his life, but ended up in a building taking care of it, the teachers and the kids. Maybe the executive had the potential to be a famous singer, but instead spends her days helping others succeed at work and shares her peaceful presence with her family. What is the measure of one’s life?

It is wonderful to dream and aspire. It is great to achieve. That’s how we keep life exciting. It is also wonderful to recognize what we have already given. That’s how we know who we really are. Joy exists in discovering who we really are.

A dear friend once crossed over to the other side and returned. She said to me some years later, “Misa, you know what they really care about when you get to the other side? They care about the kindnesses you did for others. They don’t care if you met your goals or fulfilled your purpose. They care about whether or not you were kind.”

So here we are thinking it is all about what we achieve, and it is all about how well we live from our hearts. So tell me, did you live from your heart this past year? Did you make someone’s life a little bit better? A lot better? Did you love a little bit more, a little bit deeper or more expansively than you have before? Did you help someone this year laugh, trust, love, believe, hope, enjoy life or feel better? Then you have lived a good life. From someone’s perspective, you are a gift.

Yes, we need to aspire and dream, but may I suggest that you don’t need to measure your worth by what you did or did not achieve. Rather, know that you are valuable because you are a precious and unique expression of the Divine. And if you have made anyone else’s life a little bit better, your heart has honored your value and theirs. That is a joyful way to live.

2012—A Year of Truth

2012-01-12T15:17:00.000-08:00

The recognition of your Divine beauty.

From the deep, quiet silence, I hear a simple response, “2012 is the year that truth emerges.” Then I hear, “Focus on truth and forward thinking.” I had asked into the silence what 2012 holds in store for us, and the silence responded with elegant clarity. It holds truth.

Living in and with truth sounds easy until you commit to it. Truth has a way of showing you how incredibly beautiful you are. In fact, you are so immensely beautiful you might find it difficult to accept the depth of your splendor as truth. Yet, it is within your potential to know that the reality of your beauty is as natural as your breath.

That much beauty, unrecognized and unseen can be denied. When we deny our innate nature as lovingly beautiful beings, we manifest another truth—one in which we become disappointed in ourselves. Disappointment can become depression, regret or even self-loathing, as we struggle in the pain of our separation.

Living in truth takes courage. Living in truth means that you are willing to be lovingly present to everything you are feeling and experiencing, whether you deem it to be beautiful or ugly.

When the truth of who you are is met with love, the ugly parts can finally rest—no longer needing to scream for your attention and love. The beautiful nature of you emerges naturally in an environment in which you love and honor what you are experiencing.

One of the fallacies in modern spiritual practice is that you can somehow bypass the uncomfortable truths in your spiritual development. As often as I have attempted to do that, I have not found that it is possible to see the fullness of my beauty without also acknowledging those places in which I have separated myself from my Divine beauty.

Why? Divine beauty is limitless. Therefore, the place in which I have separated from my Divine beauty is the very place within me that longs to remember my Divine essence. By being lovingly present to what I experience as distasteful or disappointing in me, I create an environment of self-love and self-acceptance that allows me to rest from my struggle.

The minute the mind and emotions fully stop and rest, the truth of my beingness opens up to me and I can feel, see, and know a greater experience of my limitless, Divine, and beautiful nature.

From the clarity of that realization, I know how to live my life. Forward thinking to me is crystal clear wisdom that guides me in decisions that will benefit me, not just in the moment, but far into the future of my life. Clear wisdom has a way of benefiting me and also those I am here to serve.

Isn’t it wonderful when you make choices from that place of clarity that knows and sees beyond what your mind typically understands for its day-to-day survival? That is one of the gifts of being present to whatever truth is longing to emerge in the moment. It is the gift that comes when we allow our painful feelings to be witnessed, giving them our full attention, so that they can finally rest. And in return for our commitment to such self-love, we become radiantly aware of our own Divine beauty.

I hope you will consider allowing 2012 to be a year in which you are willing to discover and explore the profound and wonderful truth of you.

As You Move Into 2012, Have You Noticed?

2012-01-05T20:15:00.000-08:00

In the past two months have you noticed:

• feeling tired more often
• wanting to sleep longer
• having difficulty sleeping
• getting interesting messages in the middle of then night
• experiencing surges of insight and awakening
• longing for more quiet space and time to contemplate
• wanting change and wanting it now
• slipping in and out of your body
• experiencing periods of dizziness or light headedness
• having wildly unusual dreams

• and all of it seeming to have increased since sometime around 11/11/11?

You are not alone and you are not going crazy. There is a huge surge of energy occurring and it here for you to ride. If you resist, as you know, it will be darned uncomfortable. Ah, but if you surrender…

It is a blessing.

I recently had a reading with Lea Chapin. I don’t often receive readings because I know myself and my journey pretty well, but something told me I would appreciate the time I spent with Lea. http://celestialconnections.biz/. I did!

She suggested that healers are going through metamorphic change. I posed a question about this on Facebook and received some interesting responses. Plus, I’ve been receiving e-mails from some of you about some significant spiritual changes you are experiencing. One of you suggested that not only healers are experiencing this opening.

That is certainly possible, and I am noticing that healers, empaths, and highly sensitive people seem to be among the most affected. If you have been surrendering and opening to the Divine, you might be experiencing this metamorphic change.

So what do you do? Well, here’s the advice Lea accessed for me and it seems perfectly appropriate to pass along to you. Spend your time wisely. Get plenty of rest. Protect your energy.

I don’t recommend protecting yourself through seclusion. Rather I suggest you learn how to allow energy to pass through you with the grace of your compassion, and transform through the energy of your healing gift. The key is to not attach. Here’s an article I wrote at Inspired Healing that might give you some helpful insights about what you can do as an empath to protect yourself. http://self-healingsecrets.com/948/empaths-and-self-healing/

According to Lea, this energy is going to be active until early April, so may I suggest to you that you be very patient with this process. Remember to be kind to yourself. That rest you are longing for you truly need. That desire to have more time for contemplation is important. You may be realizing that you should be letting other people do the driving when it is time to hop in the car to go somewhere. You may need to ask for the support you need in order to integrate this energy fully into your body and your consciousness.

This Solstice Meditation and the Sound Healing Blessing at the end can help you with your integration process. In just 30 minutes you will learn a way of being present in your expanded state so that you can use your increased energy in service for the well-being of humanity and the planet. Then at the end, you receive a special blessing to help you integrate into the expansion.

One woman on the phone with us said that with the very first sound in the Sound Blessing she felt every cell in her body open up. You can listen to it here: http://su.pr/4kYd2D

For some of you or for people you know this energy may be affecting feelings of depression and helplessness. If that is the case, consider taking advantage of any of the links in this article. Any one of these sources could offer assistance in being more present to this energy, allowing depression and despair to be loved and witnessed in compassion. Compassion is the great healer. In its arms, pain dissolves.

I hope you will share your own experiences in this doorway of awakening, since each of us experiences openings such as this in the most unique ways.

What’s in Spiritual Fashion for 2012?

2011-12-29T14:17:00.000-08:00

Forget about dooms-day prophecies that will leave you in rags. Spiritual development is a fashion statement that is on the rise and that bodes well for all of us. This is the year for alignment and expansion in the spiritual fashion world. The planets are aligning with the center of the Milky Way and by extension—the center of the known universe, on December 22, 2012. In preparation, align with your true self and your heart, and your expression in the universe will be more expansive than it has ever been before.

Fling open those closet doors and get ready to envision your spiritual wardrobe in a whole new light. Repurpose those fabulous pieces you already have and get ready to add some exciting new colors and textures. Then step out into the world with flair as you share the unique expression that you are. And while you are out there, enjoy everyone else’s unique expression. There is no need for jealousy. If you see a great idea, you might want to add it to your own closet for even more creative combinations, but most importantly enjoy the richness of everyone’s unique spirit.

Just as I suggested last year, greed will weigh you down. It is the deadliest of fashion sins, and pulls you out of alignment with truth and expansion. So be prosperous AND generous. Throw out any of those old bags that encourage you to hoard your energy. Energy is meant to flow. The truth is that the universe is in an expansive state, so expand into the knowledge that there is plenty for everyone. Any constraint in the state of plenty is currently created by humans as a result of fear and is a temporary experience. The best way to avoid greed is to toss out those bags. Replace them with ones that allow you to easily give and receive.

Think generously and receptively. Is there some wonderful garment or accessory that you could be passing along to someone else? Is there an item you could gratefully receive that would add the perfect touch to your own creative combinations? Or maybe something new is required to bring the perfect accent to an old favorite of yours. Is your wardrobe so far out of date that you just need to start over? Surrender to the call of your own fashion success by giving away to others the beautiful items you no longer need and receiving the wonderful new pieces you do need.

Align With Your Inner Truth. Do you have something in your closet you have completely forgotten about or given up on? There is likely some item hidden far away in your closet you once loved that really expresses who you truly are, but for some reason you found it too challenging to wear in the past. Well, this is the year to pull it out. Trying to make other people’s well-loved beliefs work for you when they just don’t fit isn’t going to work as well as dressing yourself with the concepts that convey your truth and deepest wisdom. With the economy struggling, you need to be innovative. Adorn yourself in the truth of your own fabulous creations.

Expand Your Possibilities. This is the year to go for it. Think bigger than you have ever thought before. See the possibilities of color, texture, and styles in your life. As I’ve said, the universe is expanding and so are you. So why not throw open your closet door to play in the possibilities. Take everything out of your closet and start mixing and matching them in new ways. You’ll discover a whole new wardrobe built on little-used garments you already own. Add a new belief here, a dose of understanding there, and revive one of those dreams that has been stuffed out of reach on the closet shelf—and do it all just for the fun of creating some new fashion statement that is uniquely yours.

Put Yourself in a Position to Receive. The planets are aligning with a black hole—absolute darkness—also known as the womb of creation. This is the center of receptivity. So be fully willing to receive. Since many will be looking for new, creative combinations, people are going to be letting go of items that no longer work for them that just might work for you. Now I’m not suggesting you accept clothing and accessories that are not in alignment with you. I’m talking about ideas and insights that add the perfect spark to your own creative endeavors. Whether you are considering new timely investments, steady income sources, healing modalities, a delightful relationship, or powerful spiritual insights, open up your closet and your arms. Put yourself in the best position to receive exactly what you need to flesh out your most exciting wardrobe.

These fashion choices were in-style last year and they are still vogue this year:

Say Yes or Say No. Be decisive about what new creations you are going to add to your wardrobe. You are probably going to get some urges about how cool it would be if you could create a such-and-so. Here’s the deal. Time is moving fast and windows of opportunity are getting smaller. So if the desire is real, create with zeal. If the desire isn’t profound or you just can’t seem to pull all the right garments and accessories to together, let the idea go entirely. Send the idea back to the universe so that someone else can see what they can do with it. There are limitless ideas available, so keep your creative juices flowing and see what clever innovation comes to you next. Invite your posse to join you in designing a new look that you and many others will enjoy.

The Sacred Feminine is Chic. We’re not just talking about fashion for women here. The Sacred Feminine is uni-sex. Listening, understanding, and being compassionate or tolerant of others’ needs and choices are qualities we all need to have available to us. If you find yourself needing a little more quiet time, add it to your daily ensemble, because something in your intuition is trying to get your attention. This could be just the breakthrough you need to expand your spiritual wardrobe. When your intuition speaks, follow it without reservation. Your boldness will be rewarded by a universe of support responding to your willingness to get out there with your own special statement.

The Style of Choice Is Kindness. A person glows in kindness. It radiates from the soul outward. Be sure to let go of any beliefs that you are more radiant than anyone else, and really look around you. Everyone is beautiful in some way, and when you are looking through eyes of kindness, you’ll see the beauty—your own and theirs—without any need to compete with anyone else’s radiant presence.

These are the spiritual fashion tips for 2012. Remember, don’t get caught up in dooms-day prophecies. You certainly want to let go of fashion treasures you no longer use or baggage that is weighing you down. Whenever you let go of anything you no longer need there is an opening for something better. Invite into your life an incredible year by aligning to your deepest truth and opening to your most expansive nature. This is the time to bring your own fabulous spiritual fashion statement into full view.

In This Season of Light…

2011-12-19T16:50:00.000-08:00

During this beautiful season of light, may we honor the light within ourselves and each other.

This article, written in 2009, seems as appropriate now as it did then to honor the light within us that the holidays awaken.

Have you experienced a time in your life when your absolute dedication to a higher path was required in order to transcend the oppression of fear? Have you experienced perhaps a dark night of the soul, when all seemed lost, but you found the spark of a sacred fire burning within you and fed it with whatever hope and love you could gather together at the time?

I love the historical story of the menorah I have heard told during Hanukkah. Imagine having faced oppression with great conviction, even risking your life to reclaim your temple in honor of your faith. Then as you go to light the menorah (symbolizing the Light of God) you discover you only have enough sacred oil for one day of burning, rather than eight, but you light the menorah anyway. To your surprise the meager amount of oil lasts eight days.

After facing the fears that oppress you, have you ever gone to feed your inner sacred fire, thinking, I don’t have enough to give, only to discover that what you had to give was somehow enough?

During this season, the darkest season of our year, and the traditional time for the holidays of Hanukkah, Solstice, Christmas, and Kwanzaa, many of us will be celebrating with symbols of light.

We will light candles, menorahs, bonfires, and kinaras across the globe, and some of us will put lights around our homes and businesses. In that light, we will celebrate dedication, family, love, unity, birth, miracles, hope and new life.

Isn’t it interesting how precious the light becomes to us when we are experiencing the very depths of darkness. Even the tiniest light may be a reflection of our greatest intentions—our own light the reflection of our manifestation—bursting forth from the darkness of our own becoming.

Any flame must be fed. So as we enter this season when so many spiritual traditions honor or use the flame to remind and inspire, perhaps we can ask ourselves: “With what will I feed my flame? Will I feed it with my fears, anger and pain? Or will I feed it with love, truth and trust?”

Will you be willing to find new ways to honor the light within yourself and within others? How will you choose to honor that light starting right now?

As you do, know that there is at least one person in the world, deeply grateful that you have brought forward your light to share with us all.

Archetypes of the Sacred Feminine

2011-12-15T12:58:00.000-08:00

We are probably most familiar with the archetypes of the Sacred Feminine described as personalities or goddesses. I’d like to suggest that there is another way to experience the archetypal energy of the Sacred Feminine. This is a perspective that may actually make more sense to some of you, especially our beloved men.

In my observations consulting with clients, participating and facilitating retreats and ceremonies, and in meditation practice, I have discovered that humans experience similar emotions. It seems that when someone is feeling a particular emotion and expressing it, we are able to identify with this very human occurrence.

If you take an emotion such as frustration into the Creation Meditation (http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/forums/index.php?topic=75.0), and if you stay present in compassion long enough, you will eventually feel the universal connection that we have to feeling frustrated.

One of the skills I teach in our Secrets of the Sacred Feminine Revealed (http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/sacred-feminine-secrets.htm) video series is how to hold raw emotion when someone is projecting their feelings onto you. There is a way to do this without ever entering their spiritual space, or sending them energy for the purpose of trying to make their life better or getting them to change so that you feel more comfortable.

Holding energy for a general positive affect, without ever entering someone else’s energy field, can be done because we are all connected through the energy of emotion. Therefore, if I address and allow healing for the intensity of my feelings and wounds behind my own emotions I affect the fabric of the web of life. We are archetypically connected through our emotions.

Consider how much emotions motivate our lives and our choices. When I was a business consultant, I noticed how often logically derived decisions were actually motivated by someone’s passionate desire for a specific outcome or driven by their passionate dislike for a particular methodology or approach.

We might tell the world we are basing our decisions on facts alone, and we may actually use well-established data to help inform our choices, but behind the facts, you will usually find an emotion motivating the general direction of the choice.

When we allow ourselves to sit in compassionate witnessing of our emotions, we are honoring an aspect of the Sacred Feminine within us. How often in your life have you tried to ignore your emotions in your decision-making processes, because you have found emotions to be unreliable and too intense?

Yet, if we were to be extremely honest with ourselves, we might discover our emotions are quietly driving our choices, in the background. Passive aggressive behavior is a case-in-point.

If I’m upset with my partner, but cannot safely communicate that feeling, nor know what to do about it, I might suppress that feeling in my dialogues with that person. However, unaddressed, my feeling of being upset simmers underneath the surface, until I do something to undermine the other person, ridicule or shame them about something. Passive aggressive behavior is a form of retaliation that arises when we are not meeting our true feelings in compassion.

Take that same feeling of being upset and hold it in compassion in a thoughtful, meditative setting until that feeling has been adequately understood, and you will find you know longer are driven by that feeling—subconsciously or consciously.

When the feeling is no longer driving your choices, your energy is free to hold space for your own needs, as well as someone else’s. Your creativity and intuition emerge to find new approaches that allow your needs and those of another person to be met simultaneously, without ever attempting to change someone else or suppressing your deepest desires or feelings.

Feelings are, in effect, faces of the Sacred Feminine. Each face or archetype exists for a reason and deserves to be recognized. When honored, those feelings become doorways of awakening to our true selves, where we are able to hold in love all feelings and all potential for the expression of life.

Why We Need Connection to Mother Earth

2011-12-08T16:55:00.000-08:00

Each year that I facilitate our annual SpiritQuest Ceremonies, a group of us commit to living with Mother Earth rather than on her and that simple shift in perception is the difference between being human and trying to figure out what it means to be human.

In an age when we live in climate controlled houses, cars, offices and stores; in an age where we buy our food from grocery stores and spend some portion of our days on computers, it is easy to lose touch with our natural and symbiotic relationship with the earth.

But lose that relationship and you can lose your health, not to mention your peace of mind and spiritual awareness. In my book, The Root of All Healing, I describe what can actually happen when your cycles and rhythms fall out of sync with Mother Earth. Believe it or not, there is a documented and researched illness that comes with being disconnected from our Mother and her natural cycles, also known as circadian rhythms.

Here is a selection from my book that explains what can happen:

Symptoms of being out of sync with our natural cycles, also known as circadian rhythms, include stress, physical tension, emotional frustration, depression…and all of these can contribute to on-going illness. The effects of being out of balance with natural circadian cycles is explained in a white paper by Apollo Health Incorporated: ‘In reality circadian rhythms control the timing, quantity, and quality of the hormones and neurotransmitters the body produces and eventually secretes. Hormones and neurotransmitters are the elements that determine how we feel, our sleep patterns, our appetite, our sex drive, and other sleep and mood-related issues. When functioning properly, our circadian rhythms create circadian balance. When out of balance, quantity, quality and timing of hormone and neurotransmitter secretions suffer and our bodies suffer from a circadian rhythm disorder (CRD).’

Now consider that it is winter-time and for many of us the current seasonal weather provides lots of motivation to stay inside, safely tucked away from Mother Earth. As we distance ourselves from her, we increase the probability that we will experience the difficult physiological and emotional symptoms of being disconnected.

There are also mental and emotional benefits to connecting with Mother Earth. Have you ever been completely distraught, confused, frustrated or depressed and opted to take a long, long walk? Perhaps you found yourself walking through a park, a forest or along a beach. Isn’t it amazing how quickly you calm down and you develop some new perspective about your life?

Mother Earth is a natural healer, when we allow ourselves to spend time with her, even in the winter—perhaps, especially in the winter. A walk in snow or in the rain can do wonders for your mind and heart. Within minutes, worries dissolve and huge issues become small. Try taking a walk with someone when you are in a disagreement and watch how quickly you find resolution together. The minute we sink into the Mother’s rhythms, our own rhythms find their center, which is true inner peace.

That same inner peace creates an opening within us for experiencing our own mystical nature and the mystical nature of Mother Earth. As you find greater peace, you’ll notice that your dreams change, wild animals come up to you, you recognize the Mystery of the Divine in all of life, and your spiritual insights and abilities become more evident and helpful. The spirit-world opens up to you. The more you enter into relationship with the Mother the more the Mystery reveals itself to you.

I’m not talking about theoretical understanding. I’m referring to spiritual experience—mystical experiences. I used to think I was just lucky to have so many mystical experiences and finally I realized that I started having those beautiful, awakening experiences when I started developing a relationship with the Mother Earth. When I began seeing her and experiencing her as a significant part of my life—through her water, stones, animals, sky, clouds—all of her, the veil dropped. Her mysteries and the mysteries of creation throughout the universe were now available to me.

That’s when you realize what it truly means to be human, because you know you are not separate from life. You know in your bones that you are a wonderful part within the magnificence of creation. I invite you during this holiday season, to do it. Create the time to get outside and spend time with your Mother. She is one of the greatest healers and mystics you will ever meet.

Complacency’s Call

2011-12-01T14:46:00.000-08:00

Have you ever thought to yourself that because you have things figured out well enough in your life, you can just coast for a bit? I know I have.

And while the “I have things figured out” voice is urging you on, a little voice in the back of your mind is warning you not to be too smug. Some part of you knows that if you assume your apprenticeship in life is over or on hold, your life could end up being like stagnant water. Complacency can be a place to hide when some part of you wants to experience greater flow and greater fulfillment, but another part of you knows that in order to experience free, unobstructed flow, you would need to do some deeply honest introspection.

I recently had a fascinating conversation with two of our initiated elders from the Sacred Path of the Feminine on this topic. Their insights were thought provoking. When I asked them what they thought we run away from when we become trapped in complacency they both said that we enter into this frozen state of thinking that we don’t need to learn and evolve when we don’t want to look at what we have been attracting, what is not working, and what is not satisfying in our lives.

If my own life is representative, their assessment of the reason we become complacent is spot on. I once spent a significant part of my life telling myself I knew enough. I didn’t learn new ways of developing because I couldn’t believe that my unhappiness and dissatisfaction were the result of my own beliefs, habits and choices. Those patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors had become normal for me and I had grown somewhat comfortable with my almost functional world.

I was doing okay, but I certainly wasn’t happy, and I definitely wasn’t living a life of joy. I was getting by and calling that good enough.

It would have been extremely difficult to admit that my world was a reflection of my pain, and that my decisions were influenced more by my pain than by my inner peace. What I didn’t know was that the sexual abuse I had experienced as a child was the greatest pain influencing my life. Since I couldn’t remember the event, it was part of my unknown—an unknown I didn’t want to remember. My life wasn’t working as well as I wanted it to, but I didn’t want to see the root of my suffering or the basis of my unrest and dissatisfaction with my world.

I wanted to feel fully accepted, but I didn’t know how to accept my pain as a legitimate part of me needing to be loved. What I didn’t understand was that if I wanted to be able to fully accept myself, I was going to have to sacrifice and let go of my fear of the unknown. I was going to have to find a way to love the wound I couldn’t remember.

What I didn’t understand then was that by entering into the unknown with my own compassionate heart and experiencing the love that was there, I would become free from my fear of the unknown. In that freedom I would find all of the self-acceptance and understanding that I could ever want. I would even be able to hold the part of me that attracted sexual abuse as an experience in this lifetime—the self-abuser inside of me. I didn’t know that I could love that pain until it existed no more, and I was completely free from its influence in my enthusiasm for life.

The unknown is another way to describe the Sacred Feminine—a vast, limitless womb of potential. What we don’t realize when we are in our complacency is that the remedy is the very body of the unknown that we fear.

The potential of the human being is quite fearsome. We have the potential to be abusive monsters or caring saints. When our potential is initiated in love, we are born as amazing, loving beings. When we disconnect from the love, our abusive tendencies manifest.

In the Sacred Feminine we have the capacity to love it all. So when our abusive tendencies or our experiences of being abused are held in the Sacred Feminine, we return to love and are reborn in the womb of that love.

In complacency we are often avoiding a wound within ourselves that we don’t want to remember. Compassion in the Sacred Feminine is what our soul longs for because in that compassion the source of our wound will be loved and understood, and we will be reborn in that love. The action that emerges from our rebirth will be right action in the full expression of our loving passion for life.

(See our video series, Secrets of the Sacred Feminine Revealed for ways to safely enter the unknown and hold the abuser and victim that lives inside of everyone: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/sacred-feminine-secrets.htm)

Complacency is call from the unknown. It is a call to compassion—deep abiding compassion. Complacency is a call to return to the loving, universal womb of the Sacred Feminine. After being in its still and quiet caress, your life force will emerge in flow with your deepest longings.

What Kind of Woman Wins a Nobel Peace Prize – Part III

2011-11-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

Tawakkul Karman

Tawakkul Karman, a 32-year-old mother of three children, has been called by some the “mother of the revolution” in Yemen, demanding the end of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s dictatorial regime. She has been actively participating in sit-ins, protesting the President’s dictatorship over Yemen. At one point, she was seized and held in prison, only to have thousands of people demand her release. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/07/tawakkul-karman-profile

In an interview with free-lance journalist Eva Sohlman Karman, the people of Yemen put down their weapons when they heard the announcement that Karman had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2011. They took to the streets with flowers in their hands. Karman believes that this award represents an understanding that Muslims are not terrorists, and that the people of Yemen want freedom and peace. (You can listen to this interview at: http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1670)

In this same interview, she shares her belief that the first thing that must be done to ensure women in Yemen and in Arabic countries assume their responsibilities in building the world is to put an end to dictatorship regimes. Then they can begin the process of education that will allow women to become leaders.

She describes how women are accepted as fighters for revolutions, until dictators are put into power. Once they are in control, they speak against women and further their subjugation.

For those of us that live in relatively free nations, can we even begin to imagine what it must be like to grow up in a reality where you are seen as a terrorist because of your religion? Can we imagine what it is like to grow up in a place where political dictators use women as fighters when it serves them, and then speak against women once they attain power? Can we imagine how much conviction women in countries controlled by dictators must be holding in their hearts to become a voice for peace?

When I look at what I am here to do on this earth and I look at the obstacles and challenges I face, they pale in comparison to what Tawakkul Karman has had to overcome to become the “mother of the revolution.” She is absolutely committed to bringing dictators to justice and establishing peace in her country.

So let me ask, what can we do, to support Tawakkul Karman’s efforts for peace and freedom? Do we just sit back and watch? Or is there something we can actually do?

I believe there is something we can do. We can hold her intentions for peace and freedom in our hearts and bless those intentions with the same fervor and dedication with which she carries these hopes in her heart.

Every parent or caring person can know what it feels like to want peace and freedom for our children. I wonder how much Kaman is motivated by her own children, because every child deserves to grow up in peace, don’t you think?

Let us consider holding peace and freedom in our hearts, and then going as deeply into those feelings as we can—allowing our hearts to expand in their capacity to hold this hope for all who long for it.

If you are not familiar with the practice of holding, you might appreciate becoming familiar with the first step of the Creation Meditation we teach here at New Dream. http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/forums/index.php?topic=75.0 Holding is the essential gift of the Sacred Feminine. I can think of no better time or reason to hold for peace and freedom than right now, when so many people in so many countries are standing for their right to live without the oppression of dictators.

Creating What You Desire Through Gratitude

2011-11-17T11:24:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the last time you were deeply grateful for something? Do you remember how you felt? Do you remember how alive, excited and perhaps somewhat humbled you felt?

This incredible feeling is not only what you feel when you receive, but it is the feeling that can create your fulfillment. What does this mean? When you stop seeking and allow yourself to gratefully notice how your longings are already being met, you experience the power of this creative force that we call gratitude. What you thought to be unknown reveals itself to you and you become witness to the true Mystery of Divine creation.

Think about something you longed for as a child. Say for example, you always wanted a pet but your mother was allergic to cat and dog hair, so that wish was not fulfilled as a child. However, when you became an adult living on your own, you decided to get a pet, and now you have several.

You probably helped to create the reality of having pets by completely enjoying those moments that you spent with a neighbor’s dog or a friend’s cat, prior to having your own. Your delight in them—that feeling of being alive, excited and a little humbled—helped you stay present to your desire. The feeling kept you motivated and helped you bring your desire into fulfillment.

Not all desires are met right away. Sometimes you take interesting twists and turns in your process of fulfillment. Sometimes you are getting yourself ready for what you truly want. Often, you find that you need to keep yourself motivated. Feeling gratitude for something before you have fully received it keeps your motivation high. It also brings the satisfied feeling of fulfillment right down into your cells where your body vibrates the truth of that satisfaction. (Here is a prayer that might help you in accessing the depth of your gratitude: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/forums/index.php?topic=1580.0)

Your vibrational energy of satisfaction is attracting what you want as though it is already a part of your life. That means that when you shift from desire to gratitude, you are already creating what you want. If you pause long enough to be grateful, you can usually see evidence that what you want to receive is in progress.

When my husband and I were manifesting a home for us, he had a strong sense about what he wanted, and every day he gave thanks for our new home as if we already had it. Each time we went out to look at houses with the realtor, he saw evidence of his manifestation. As we looked at houses together, we became clearer about what our perfect house would be like, we communicated our desire better, our realtor began to get a visual picture of what appealed to us, and indeed we got closer and closer to the right house for us, until we finally found it.

I understood as we were moving into our new home that his gratitude played a significant role in establishing the motivation and vibratory field that landed us our home, because he didn’t think of our home as existing in our future. He saw our home as existing right now. We just had to align with it so that it could become evident to us. His gratitude created that alignment.

Today might be the perfect day to stop for a moment and reflect on what you experience and enjoy that causes you to feel grateful. Notice that what you once wanted you enjoy now. Right now you are experiencing the reward of that desire.

Then you might want to consider something new that you desire and give thanks that it already exists. Really feel those words of thanks because that lovely mixture of ingredients—aliveness, excitement and humbleness, that we call gratitude—is creating what you are manifesting right now.

What Kind of Woman Wins a Nobel Peace Prize? Part II

2011-11-10T16:49:00.000-08:00

Leymah Gbowee

BBC calls Laymah Gbowee Liberia’s Peace Warrior. The Nobel prize committee said they chose her because she:

…mobilized and organized women across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and to ensure women's participation in elections. She has since worked to enhance the influence of women in West Africa during and after war.

Gbowee has known the violence that 14 years of civil war can create, and she has responded with action. She became a trauma counselor and worked with women and girls that had been raped by militamen. She and the women were desperate for the war and abuses to end.

According to a BBC report, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15215312, Gbowee and the women she organized in Liberia were deeply committed, as they picketed, fasted and prayed for peace:

Amid the shells and bullets, they prayed and protested for days on end, demanding that the conflict between former President Charles Taylor and rebel forces stop.

The protestors even followed President Taylor to Ghana’s capital when he flew there for peace talks, continuing to pursue him until they were successful. They indeed met their goal. Mr. Taylor is no longer the president.

Although Mr. Taylor is on trial at The Hague for war crimes, Gbowee makes it very clear in an interview with Stephen Colbert that he is not on trial for war crimes against Liberia. http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/233532/july-14-2009/leymah-gbowee.

In this same interview, she talks about how the women went on a sex strike in order to influence their men to stand up for peace. They denied sex to those that were fighting and those that were not fighting. The women wanted even non-fighting men to speak to their friends and relatives that were choosing to fight, and participate in putting an end to the conflict.

According to the BBC report mentioned above, Ms. Amanor, Gbowee’s assistant shed some light on Gbowee’s reason for announcing the sex strike:

Ms. Gbowee also suggested that Liberian women might go on a sex strike to increase pressure on the various (male) faction leaders.

Their message to the men was that they can't go and kill mothers and daughters and then come home [to expect sex], said Ms Amanor.

This topic came up at our recent Path of the Sacred Feminine Women’s Retreat. While sex is certainly a powerful way to inspire positive and peaceful behaviors in men, this concept triggers a spiritual question for me regarding our choices and sex. Clearly, she sees this choice as providing necessary motivation, and she has written a book about it entitled, Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War.

Is it wise for a woman to accept a man into her body, when he is engaged in behaviors of anger, intolerance, violence and the manipulation of others? Yes, he might be in love with you, but when you are engaged in sexual intercourse, the boundaries aren’t that distinct. You are receiving a man into you. A woman has a responsibility for her body. It is her temple. Spiritually, it is a woman’s right and personal duty to herself to consider carefully what energy she is willing to receive.

By not receiving into our bodies men that are living lives filled with anger, violence, greed or manipulation, or are negligent in protecting women from violence, we are in fact making a statement about what is acceptable. We make a significant statement about our values personally and globally when we choose to receive, in our lovemaking, men that live in peace, compassion, generosity and humanitarian love.

This is one of the great powers of the Sacred Feminine. We are the vessels. Our wombs are the crucibles in which life is forged. So, isn’t it appropriate that we be the guardians of our bodies, and the new lives that may emerge from sexual union? Isn’t it appropriate that we, when our men do not, set the standard for the type of energy we want to experience within our temples?

What Gbowee and thousands of women teach us is that claiming our power has nothing to do with being angry, yelling or attempting to force our desires upon another. However, feminine power is clear, persistent, sacred, and holds to a standard of peaceful engagement.

If you would like to listen to Leymah Gbowee’s brief, yet inspiring message for the world in her own word’s, the Nobel Media provides a 2 minute interview with her that allows you to hear her clarity of purpose and her personal power: http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1639

May You Be Reborn as the Being of Your Choosing

2011-11-03T14:44:00.000-07:00

Have you ever felt as though you are a person of someone else’s making? Perhaps you feel that God and your parents created you—fashioning you in their desires. Or maybe you feel as though you are partially created from your partner and children’s expectations of you. Our cultures and societies certainly have their expectations that you might find yourself responding to, and you might also find your life becoming a reaction to past challenges and abuses. So who are you, exactly? Are you the person of your own choosing or has that become lost in a myriad of external expectations and internal reaction?

At our recent women’s retreat, I was delighted when the Grandmothers on the other side of the veil reminded me that in the practice they have given us, new moon begins a cycle of renewal—a time when a person can recreate themselves in the fashion of their own choosing. At each new moon, 13 times per year, we can ride the energy of the moon cycles to become reborn as individuals responding to our own inner callings.

Consider the person you would become if you spent some time in quiet contemplation on the day of new moon. Perhaps you would consider what you most want to release or most desire to become. Imagine giving yourself permission, for at least a little while, during the waxing of the moon to plant the seeds within yourself that would further your own self awareness.

You might choose to consider one or all of the Four Prescriptions of this path—surrender, acceptance, desire and commitment—by engaging your creativity, and allowing yourself to see just where you are with these four momentums in life. You might choose to dance out each prescription, write, dramatize, sing, sculpt, sew or paint about them, or quietly meditate on each, or one, of these primary momentums.

You would likely discover what long-held beliefs you wish to surrender, what aspect of your nature yearns to be accepted, what deep desire longs to be acknowledged, or where commitment would serve you in your ultimate fulfillment. What would your life be like if you allowed yourself to honor your inner longings? How might you become the person you long to become?

The Grandmothers reminded me that new moon begins the cycle of self-recreation, culminating at the three days of full moon when the energy supports us in being fully reborn unto ourselves—right into the cells of our body and our conscious awareness. Then we rest and allow our new self-awareness to integrate during the waning of the moon until the cycle begins again.

This cycle that starts with the first day of new moon is so significant that the crescent moon is the symbol of this entire practice. Imagine how your life would be different if you allowed yourself to ride the energetic cycles of the moon by creating a ritual for yourself on the first day of the new moon. Now imagine doing that 13 times throughout the year. And finally, imagine what it would be like to live reborn as the being of your choosing.

Reflections on the Sacred Feminine Art of Holding

2011-10-26T15:47:00.000-07:00

Gift of the Path of the Sacred Feminine Women’s Retreat

If I could sum up the experience of the Sacred Feminine in two words, these are the words I would choose, Compassionate Holding. In our world today, achievement reigns, and while achievement can provide us with a great sense of fulfillment, it is half of our birthright when it comes to fulfillment. Achievement is a Sacred Masculine or yang expression of the Divine. Compassionate Holding is the domain of the Sacred Feminine or yin aspect of the Divine. It is the least known and least understood of our true Divine Nature.

Because we do not deeply know this nature within ourselves and honor it with the same fervor and passion with which we revere achievement, we literally make ourselves physically ill, emotionally challenged, and spiritually limited. If we wish to know the freedom of true Oneness, for many of us, the Sacred Feminine aspect brings us into the wholeness of the One.

Compassionate Holding is what we experienced for two days during our Path of the Sacred Feminine retreat. As always, the women were bold and sincere as they sank into the dark, still and receptive essence of the Sacred Feminine. It is there that we explored the truth of who we are and our true potential as women in the world. Each woman discovered her own flight as she was consciously present to the chrysalis of her own making.

The chrysalis for women, as it is with the butterfly, is the womb or crucible that each of us creates in which to discover ourselves. Just like the butterfly, in order to be reborn we enter the darkness and become liquid (fluid and supple) as we prepare to give birth to our own emergence. In the liquid state, we see reflections of ourselves we would not otherwise be able to see. In those reflections we remember our true nature.

From that awareness, desire bursts from our hearts and we become the divine expression of the Sacred Masculine, bringing our deepest longings into manifestation in a physical world. But in order to manifest, the chrysalis must be broken. For some of us, that means beating ourselves against the very limits we have created, until finally we break free and are able to fly.

It is easy to see the chrysalis as something someone else has made to limit us, but what we discover in the silence of our being is that we are the ones that create our own limits. Limits are important. Without them we would not be able to enjoy the unique experiences of being human. And there are times when we wish to remember our limitlessness so that we can enjoy more of what our precious lives on earth have to offer.

Each woman is a gift to the world longing to share the depth of herself with creation. Each woman has the opportunity to be reborn as often as she wishes, so that her choices are consistently based in love, honor, integrity and respect—powerful reflections of her deepest truths.

The gift of this retreat is the beautiful women that burst through each their own chrysalis and share themselves, with their unique talents, to a world that needs their treasures.

To experience some of what we learn at the retreat, you might want to become familiar with our monthly video lessons: Secrets of the Sacred Feminine Revealed.

What Kind of Woman Wins a Nobel Peace Prize? – Part I

2011-10-20T17:42:00.000-07:00

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

With three women receiving a Nobel Peace Prize, I just had to find out more about what they have done to warrant such an honor. (Somehow the number three is absolutely perfect, because it is a number that honors the Sacred Feminine, as a woman’s womb has a somewhat triangular shape.) So who are these women?

Let’s find out about Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, shall we?

Here’s a little something about her from the government of Liberia:

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the 24th President of Liberia and the first elected female Head of State in Africa. Throughout her career she has demonstrated passionate commitment to hard work, integrity and good governance, advocating for the rights of women and the importance of education to provide a better future for her country and its people.

Ms. Johnson Sirleaf has a notable career, far better explained than I can here, in the biography available at: http://www.emansion.gov.lr/content.php?sub=President%27s%20Biography&related=The%20President

What struck me is her commitment to her country and the end of corruption in her homeland, even after needing to leave her country twice due to political unrest, including a 1980 coup d’etat. Creating change in the middle of civil and even moral unrest is no small matter.

And she has created change in no small way. She has taken her country from a national budget of $80 million to $350 million. Johnson Sirleaf has acquired $5 million in international contributions, which she has used to build school, clinics and markets, as well as provide scholarships so that her people’s skills and abilities will continue to grow.

She has attracted international investment for the creation of jobs and she has been at the forefront of women’s issues regarding peace and leadership, serving on multiple advisory boards and committees throughout the world. To top it all off, as we women are prone to include in our life-resumes, she is a proud mother of four children and eleven grandchildren.

Now, are you reading this thinking, Wow, she is someone really special! I could never do that?

Of course you couldn’t. This is her life. This is what she came here to do.

As my friend Reverend Ariann likes to say, We each pack our spiritual bags with what we need to live this life on earth. We accumulate more once we get here, but we choose carefully what skills and talents we will bring with us to get started.

You packed your own bag with spiritual, physical, and mental gifts that are meant to be used in the fulfillment of your purpose, whether you are here to serve millions or a handful of very special people.

Some of us seem to know our purpose as soon as leave high school. Perhaps that was the case with Johnson Sirleaf, since she began her career and has consistently remained in the financial/political/service arenas for forty years.

Some of us discover our purpose over time, as it presents itself over and over again, until we finally realize it is not a purpose one might conceive without life experience. That was the case with me. I had no idea that dedication to the Sacred Feminine and restoring balance in our spiritual percept about the Divine Masculine and Feminine was going to be my reason for existing here on earth during this lifetime.

Others awaken to it in a flash of realization, practically in the moment it is happening. As a Native elder once showed me, some of us come here to fulfill one moment in time, and we may not recognize it until it occurs.

Still others of us have a sense about their sacred work, but truly discover their purpose through mystical exploration, such as in meditation, ceremonies and quests, where we finally become still enough and surrender completely so that awareness to come through.

When someone discovers their purpose and chooses to fulfill it, we can be inspired by their choice to surrender and commit to their greatest ability to serve. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a woman to celebrate. We can all draw inspiration from her amazing dedication to a better and peaceful world.

If you would like to congratulate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the other beautiful Nobel Laureates, you can do so at: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2011/

Three Gifts to the World

2011-10-13T18:12:00.000-07:00

Women Receive Nobel Peace Prize for 2011

Some powerful women, three gifts to the world, have been acknowledged for their efforts to secure peace, as well as women’s safety and rights. They join their nine female predecessors as what have been called, Heroines of Peace. Perhaps, we can all take hope from these courageous women. A very wise man once told me that men are inspired by women. He suggested that women set the bar (standard) for what is and what is not acceptable in the world. I can’t help but wonder if these three women raised the bar in their homelands. Here is the announcement made by the Nobel Committee:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 is to be divided in three equal parts between Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work. We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is Africa’s first democratically elected female president. Since her inauguration in 2006, she has contributed to securing peace in Liberia, to promoting economic and social development, and to strengthening the position of women. Leymah Gbowee mobilized and organized women across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and to ensure women’s participation in elections. She has since worked to enhance the influence of women in West Africa during and after war. In the most trying circumstances, both before and during the “Arab spring”, Tawakkul Karman has played a leading part in the struggle for women’s rights and for democracy and peace in Yemen.

It is the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s hope that the prize to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman will help to bring an end to the suppression of women that still occurs in many countries, and to realise the great potential for democracy and peace that women can represent.

Notice that last line: to realise the great potential for democracy and peace that women can represent. The committee is describing women’s potential. If we don’t think that the state of unrest, war and abuse in our world today is acceptable, then it is up to us to decide what we are going to do about it. Thinking about it or wishing for life to be different is simply not enough. It is up to us to decide what our lives represent and take appropriate action

In spiritual practice, I have found it to be quite healthy to pause from time to time to consider what my life represents. I was once asked by a friend and teacher, What are you willing to live for? That question shook me, but I was shaken even more when he asked the follow up question, What are you willing to die for?

Those may seem like hard, or even harsh, questions. But if you want to know the value of your life, you need to know what you value at the core of your being. Then you need to know what you are willing to do to bring that value into reality.

The nature of the Sacred Feminine is to know yourself and remember your purpose for existing. The nature of the Sacred Masculine is to put that realization into service to others. In balance, our lives have full meaning, as the reason that we are hear on earth is recognized and acted upon.

I invite you to consider these two questions. Create a quiet, undisturbed time to light a candle, and quietly reflect. You might want to journal or draw insights that come to you. You might want to invite your dreams to help you understand the deepest truth that you value. You might even want to commit to questing for greater insight. If you create the space to remember, you will know why you came.

Such a realization motivates us into action because it is so fundamental to who we are that we are compelled to endeavor for that purpose with vitality and commitment. When you read about women like these Nobel price winners, it would be easy to think that they must be special and that is the reason they make such a difference. It would be easy to think they are never afraid or don’t have family responsibilities. It would be far too easy to think they must have skills that you don’t have, and that is why they are able to make such a difference.

I suggest to you, whether you are a woman or a man, that they very likely act with conviction because they know who they are. At some level they know why they are here. And they choose each and every day to put their sense of purpose into action.

For me, this is the real inspiration the lives of these beautiful women offer—to know that each of us can be a gift, the realization of our own potential and make a positive difference here on earth.

How Might Your Life Have Been Different, If…?

2011-10-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

For the woman you are and the women you love...

How might your life have been different if there had been a place for you? A place for you to go…a place of women, to help you learn the ways of women…a place where you felt nurtured, a place where you felt loved, as if an ancient flow was sustaining you and steadying you as you sought to become yourself. —Judith Duerk, A Circle of Stones

I remember reading these words by Judith Duerk many years ago, and crying. I remember longing to know my true self. I wanted to know what it would be like to be fully seen, heard and recognized. I wondered if there was a place within me that could redeem myself from the burden I had carried for so many years.

I was exhausted. I had been achieving myself to death, until my body finally said stop. My emotions were raw and I was just managing to get by from day to day, as I slowly unpeeled the layers to discover who I really was.

Then I met Judith and sat in women's circle with her. In her loving presence and with a circle of open-hearted women, I truly discovered the Sacred Feminine for the first time. And I fell in love with how I felt when I let my over-exercised masculine need for achievement take a rest and created space to be still, to listen, to recognize the depths of me.

I was amazed by how much pain I realized I had been carrying. I was even more amazed at how much beauty was underneath the pain longing to express itself.

It was several years before I had my profound experience in Egypt, where I remembered in every cell of my body, the slow, compassionate, holding essence of the Sacred Feminine.

It was several more years before I received the Native ceremonial bowl and ancient ceremonies and meditations of the Path of the Sacred Feminine that I am privileged to share today.

What I now understand is that, as a woman, I needed and craved, to discover myself as a woman, in a woman’s way. I simply wasn’t able to discover my true nature immersed in masculine practices.

In a world where the masculine energies of action, expression and achievement are highly valued, we as women can find ourselves overwhelmed and exhausted, as we attempt to demonstrate our own value in the world. We work, clean our homes and yards, buy groceries, take care of our families and rarely, it seems, find enough time to be still enough to experience the great gifts that live within our own Sacred Feminine nature.

How can our intuition possibly be heard, when we are so busy? How can we set down the burdens of regret, shame, pain, numbness, confusion, anger and sorrow, if there isn’t time to be compassionately present to ourselves? How can we be reborn in the wonder of our desires, if we do not from time to time, enter into the sacred womb from which we came?

It is difficult isn’t it? It can feel as though we are constantly living within the constraints of our perceived limits, rather than in the full delight of who we truly are.

The Grandmothers of this ancient practice remind us, we experience our freedom as women when we shed our limited bodies to become our limitless selves. “So,” some of us wondered, “how do you shed the limits?”

Our question was answered. We were taught how ancient women held space for each other so that the limits they felt actually dissolved and they emerged in the beauty of their unique expressions as women. They showed us how each woman learned to make a meaningful difference in the world through her relationships with other women in her circle.

Many of us did not grow up with women that knew how to hold us and love us into the emergence of our own womanhood. We struggled, as did our mothers and grandmothers. The old feminine ways of holding a woman into her womanhood had been forgotten.

But they are being remembered. The ancient practices are here for us to learn now. And you can discover the woman within you that longs to be born anew. How would your life be different if there was a place for you to discover yourself in the ways of women?

Discover how New Dream Foundation’s Women’s Retreat is a space for you to discover yourself at: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/womens-retreat.htm

What Is Honor?

2011-09-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

Last week explored the concept of integrity and a lovely little bird sang in my ear that it would be good to explore the concept of honor next. So, what is honor?

If you look up the words honor and integrity in a thesaurus, they are synonyms of each other, and they are used interchangeably because they speak to similar qualities. But I perceive that there are some subtle differences.

Here is the difference I see between integrity and honor, and I look forward to reading your comments with your views.

Integrity is doing what you say you will do with honesty and heart, and in alignment with your true purpose for being here on earth. Honor is doing what you say you will do, even when difficult conditions arise, without needing to degrade or disrespect another in the process, and reverently addressing the consequences of the choices you make.

Here are some thoughts from others about honor that might have meaning for you. (As before, references to men apply equally well for women and references about men can also apply for women.)

I've got a woman's ability to stick to a job and get on with it when everyone else walks off and leaves it. —Margaret Thatcher

Our own heart, and not other men's opinion, forms our true honor. —Samuel Taylor Coleridge

No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave. —Calvin Coolidge

Honor isn't about making the right choices. It's about dealing with the consequences. —Midori Koto

Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud. —Sophocles

He has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable or dangerous to do so. —Walter Lippmann

Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself. —Lois Bjold

It wasn't the reward that mattered or the recognition you might harvest. It was your depth of commitment, your quality of service, the product of your devotion -- these were the things that counted in a life. When you gave purely, the honor came in the giving, and that was honor enough. —Scott O-Grady

I have written before that one of the challenges we create for ourselves in our new age thinking is that something is right for us to do if it is easy. Somehow, we have made right and easy equal to each other. We have decided that if a choice proves to be easy, we are on the right path and if it is difficult we must be on the wrong path.

It has been my blessing to interview many individuals over the years as they reflect on their journeys in healing, career, relationship, creating prosperity, and spiritual awakening. Not one individual that has achieved something of value in their lives ever told me their journey was easy.

In fact, they have often confided to me that there were many moments when the journey was extremely challenging. Yet, they persevered because they knew they were following their guidance, and they trusted their intuitive insights.

They did not expect everything to be graceful, but rather they chose to move through their challenges with as much grace as they possibly could.

They did not expect life to be easy all the time, but rather, chose to see the gifts of opportunity in the obstacles that presented themselves.

They did not expect everyone else to bend to their will, but rather, bent like the willow to their own inner conscience.

They acted as best they could in accordance with their calling, doing their best to inflict no harm, while staying true to their mission in the most challenging of circumstances. And when another was harmed, they took responsibility for their choice and the consequences of their actions.

They choose what they know in their hearts to be right; not necessarily what it easy.

Can one make an honorable choice, in alignment with their purpose, true to their purpose, that is easy? Certainly that can happen and does. These same individuals would tell me how much they enjoyed their lives, and how much, even the challenges, have given them exuberance for life.

Where we trip ourselves us is when we make ease a condition of what is right. For those of us that have struggled and suffered, we perceive that struggle and suffering indicates something is wrong.

We may find it difficult to believe that what is right for us could also have its challenges. And yet, how do we transform the pain and stuckness of this planet if we are unwilling to move through those energies ourselves. There is a huge difference between suffering and struggle, and the willingness to diligently persevere on a course of action we know to be true and right for ourselves.

Have you ever believed in something so deeply that nothing could shake you (at least not for very long)? Have you ever been so passionate about something that you looked for solutions the minute a problem arose? Have you ever loved someone or something so much that you immersed yourself in your loving expression?

When life asks us to grab yet one more rung as we climb our ladder of life, we find out how much we want to achieve all that we are capable. We reach, and in reaching we discover what we deem to be honorable within ourselves.

What Is Integrity?

2011-09-22T10:46:00.000-07:00

One of our New Dream volunteers shared with me that she has been considering this question lately, and she thought it would make a good topic of exploration at New Dream. I agreed.

She said she began her examination of integrity from the perspective of upholding certain moral beliefs, but ultimately found this to be too narrow a definition. She then found herself leaning more toward the perspective of living in alignment with what you believe.

In contemplating the concept of integrity, she is in good company. Consider some of the following thoughts about integrity. Most of these quotes are courtesy of: http://blog.gaiam.com/quotes/topics/integrity. Perhaps one of them speaks to your heart and mind. (Of course, where men are referenced, the concepts apply equally well for women.)

The voice within is what I'm married to. All marriage is a metaphor for that marriage. My lover is the place inside me where an honest yes and no come from. That's my true partner. It's always there. And to tell you yes when my integrity says no is to divorce that partner. —Byron Katie

To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice. —Confucius

Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got. —Janis Joplin

Better to keep yourself clean and bright. You are the window through which you must see the world. —George Bernard Shaw

Then, without realizing it, you try to improve yourself at the start of each new day; of course, you achieve quite a lot in the course of time. Anyone can do this, it costs nothing and is certainly very helpful. Whoever doesn't know it must learn and find by experience that a quiet conscience makes one strong. —Anne Frank

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out. —Thomas Babington Macaulay

Integrity -- Take the harder right over the easier wrong. —Kelly Perdew

The only correct actions are those that demand no explanation and no apology.
—Red Auerbach

Forcing yourself to think happy lies doesn't heal your dreams. Getting to the truth does. —Martha Beck

With integrity you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt. With fear and guilt removed you are free to be and do your best. —Zig Ziglar

There comes a time in your life when you have to let go of the life you planned and live the life you were meant to live. —Unknown

As you can see integrity has many faces. We value integrity when someone tells the truth, even if that truth is uncomfortable. We know integrity when someone hears their calling and follows it in dedicated faith and trust. We experience integrity when someone’s actions are in alignment with their beliefs, even if their actions are choices we would not have made. We honor integrity when someone fulfills their contract for this lifetime, especially if the challenges were great and the cost was high.

Living in integrity is not always easy. In fact, it can be downright challenging. But as Alexander the Great reminds us: Upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all. We might think those little slips, when we lack integrity, don’t matter in the larger picture, but they do. We know when we are acting outside of our integrity and that choice typically results in regret and guilt.

Regret and guilt can lead to all kinds of disruptive behaviors, as we try to cover up what we are really feeling. We pretend things are okay, but act aggressively or passive aggressively toward others as our inner frustrations look for ways to express. We become physically ill as the regrets and guilt eat at our emotional core. We make excuses for choices we regret, so that we won’t have to face the inner pain. Ultimately, living out of integrity costs us our happiness, and affects the lives of those whose lives we touch.

While living in integrity can be challenging, it is not necessarily more challenging than living outside of our integrity. For example, working a job you don’t like takes a toll on you. That job is probably not fully in alignment with your purpose and calling. That said, you might feel you need to do this job for now in order to create and maintain income in this challenged economy.

Are you honoring the integrity of your spiritual contract by creating a plan, or following your intuitive guidance, to move you into a career that is in greater alignment with your purpose? Are you making sure you are doing something to fulfill your soul’s contract to make a real difference in this world?

The soul needs alignment—alignment with your truth, purpose, beliefs and feelings. That is why it is so important to keep yourself clean and bright as George Bernard Shaw suggests.

When you are feeling particularly challenged in regard to your integrity, you might find it helpful to consider a role model. Who models integrity for you? Is there someone famous or someone close to you that you perceive lives in his or her integrity with great love and impeccability?

Do you have someone in your life that lovingly holds you accountable for your words and actions? If you don’t, consider if there is someone in your life that you trust enough that you would allow them to hold you accountable in a kind, yet honest manner.

Allowing yourself to recognize and incorporate the wisdom of role models that touches your heart, and allowing yourself held accountable for your intentions are two ways in which an individual enhances their lives as a person of deep integrity. When you are ready to incorporate these two elements in the development of your personal integrity, spiritual practice expands from desire into fulfillment. And so our volunteer, like many of you perhaps, is probably ready for greater fulfillment, as she chooses to explore the meaning of integrity in her life.

The More We Can Hold In Love; The More Free We Become

2011-09-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

For many, many years, I limited the freeing experience of love because I was more committed to holding on to my sorrow and anger. I had been abused and I figured my anger was justified, so I held on to it, fed it and used it as a weapon whenever people disappointed me with even a hairline fracture of abusiveness in their demeanor or voice.

I fought for my right to be hurt and angry, and as I result I was miserable. I blamed others for my discontent, without it ever occurring to me that I was the cause of my own misery. When I finally did figure out that my experience of life was my responsibility, I turned the blame inward, justifying a deep-seated belief that I was completely unworthy to enjoy the life I wanted.

It took a long time for me to finally stop blaming others, myself, God or the world for how unhappy I felt most of the time. To allow an event to occur without blaming anyone was one of my earliest goals in honest self-responsibility.

This became particularly challenging when someone (myself or another) was actually responsible for an uncomfortable or difficult event. I didn’t understand you could hold someone else or yourself accountable without blaming. This is something I cover in greater detail in my book, The Root of All Healing: 7 Steps to Healing Anything. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Root-Of-All-Healing/Misa-Hopkins/e/9781440139239/?itm=1&USRI=the+root+of+all+healing

Blaming includes a good dose of judgment, and it is the condemning judgment of another that causes us to break faith with our own hearts. But the heart has the capacity to hold ourselves and others in tremendous compassion, while also holding ourselves and others accountable for our actions. The key is to drop the condemnation.

We have the capacity to hold a great deal more in compassion than we often realize we can. This has become a consistent discovery at our annual Women’s Retreat, where we spend a weekend immersing ourselves in our capacity to discover deeper compassion for ourselves and others. http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/womens-retreat.htm

The more we can hold in love; the more free we become.

What do I mean by freedom? Imagine how much more happy you would feel every day if you were not blaming yourself and others. Imagine how good life would be if you could be compassionate with the people around you without surrendering boundaries that are healthy for you. What would it be like if you could express your opinions and desires without expectation that others feel the same way or make the same choices as you?

We create all kinds of limits to the full experience of love in our attempt to control others so that we will feel more comfortable or in the judgments we place. Intimacy can’t grow in an environment of condemnation. Nor can it grow in an environment where we do not feel seen, heard or recognized as who we truly are. Neither you nor the people you love can experience true intimacy in a reality where someone is constantly making you wrong.

Intimacy emerges in safety. In order to create that safety, compassion is required. The greater your capacity to hold yourself and others in compassion, the greater your capacity to experience the freedom that love gives us.

The freedom is wonderful, when you can make choices for yourself that expand your opportunities for intimacy. You feel free when you can love another without expectations about what they should or shouldn’t do—when you aren’t expecting a specific person to meet your needs. You experience tremendous freedom when you love yourself simply as you are, without any expectation to change.

In acceptance, you experience the depth and expansiveness of your love. You also gain clarity about what choices you need to make in order to continue experiencing that free and expansive state of love.

Your capacity to hold love is enormous. And most of us have only scratched the surface. If you think you love greatly, perhaps you would like to challenge yourself to hold even more. After all, in the Sacred Feminine way, the capacity to hold in love is limitless. That is why, the more you can hold in love, the more free you become.

End of the Mayan Calendar—Planetary Stewardship to the Feminine

2011-09-08T19:19:00.000-07:00

The Emergence of the Sacred Feminine

According to Dr. Carl Calleman’s research, October 28, 2011 (not 2012) is the day the Mayan Calendar comes to its completion. http://www.calleman.com/content/articles/ninth_wave.htm. Others say it ends on the Solstice, December 22, 2012. Others refuse to give it a date. Others have decided to just wait and see.

This is what we do know. Nicaraguan, Mayan Grandmother, Flordemayo, of the International Council of 13 Grandmothers, tells us the final glyph from the Mayan story of creation shows planetary stewardship being delivered into the hands of the feminine.

So, regardless of the date, here’s the question you might really want to consider. Are you ready for that responsibility? Whether you are a woman or a man, are you ready to discover what the Sacred Feminine really is and how it helps you and all of humanity bring an end to human struggle?

Does this sound a bit dramatic? Well, it is. Whatever exact date the calendar ends, this is what our Mayan ancestors saw for the future and that future is happening right now. It is one of the reasons we are living here on earth during this time period—to awaken the Sacred Feminine within ourselves so that we can create balance between the Divine energies of the Masculine and Feminine.

If either of these energies—Sacred Masculine or Sacred Feminine—exists in an extreme, without balance, we experience chaos. Too much masculine, particularly if it gets caught up in fear, and you get symptoms like:

—achieving yourself to death
—aggressiveness and war
—a lot of talking and doing, but not enough listening
—and beliefs such as, “I am right and you are wrong.” or, “What I want is more important.”

Too much feminine, especially if it is caught up in fear, and you get challenges such as:

—nothing getting accomplished
—codependent, passive aggressive behaviors
—too much considering, and not enough action
—and beliefs such as, “I’m not worthy.” Or “I’m not ready.”

When I was a communications consultant I could usually tell whether the business I was consulting for leaned toward too much feminine or masculine energy. When the company was dealing with stressful issues that brought up fears, it was fairly easy to tell whether the company suffered from inertia or over-achievement.

Of course, both sets of unique challenges exist in humanity. In terms of planetary leadership; however, we’ve been leaning heavily toward the masculine, and now is the time to restore balance.

When existing in love, the feminine is the energy of stillness and contemplation. It is unconditional compassion and has the capacity to hold all potential for life in love. The masculine, when coming from love is bliss and ecstasy. It is the passionate and generous expression of life longing to know itself. Put those together and live from that balance, and you have a truly harmonious existence.

Since all life was born from the absolute dark, stillness of the cosmic womb, if we embrace within ourselves that still, quiet and compassionate capacity to hold all that we are and have created, the Sacred Masculine naturally emerges from that loving space, born anew in its expression. Action born from loving silence is blissful existence.

This is the gift of the Creation Meditation. It emulates the creation of life, which began in the primordial womb. Life was and is born from the stillness. And life is born anew when held in love.

This concept of holding in love needs to be learned, because there are ways to hold that can create more problems and ways to hold that allow us to be born anew. That’s why we created our annual Women’s Retreat—so that there would be a time and place for women to learn and perfect our ability to hold in the way of the Sacred Feminine.

Isn’t it fascinating that we intuitively chose October 28, 2011 as the day to begin our Women’s Retreat? http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/womens-retreat.htm Whether it is or is not the last day of the Mayan Long-Count Calendar, it is an auspicious time to honor the wisdom of the ancients and prepare ourselves for the stewardship of the feminine. The whole world is waiting for us!

Falling in Love with the Enlightened and Unenlightened Parts of Yourself

2011-09-01T16:28:00.000-07:00

It is relatively easy, isn’t it, to love and appreciate the enlightened aspects of you? To love your ability to help people, your kind heart and generosity, your talents, and the wisdom you have acquired.

But what about your unenlightened parts? It seems to be more challenging to love the parts of yourself that are jealous, selfish, controlling, condescending, timid or addicted.

If you have had a journey at all like mine, you’ve probably spent some time trying to ignore those less than enlightened aspects of yourself. You may have attempted to overcome them, ignore them, or erase them from your consciousness and behaviors. The challenge is that they don’t just go away because we want them to, do they?

Yet, these less than desirable qualities exist for reasons. They are part of the whole of who you are, and they are a part of you because of the experiences you have had. They can’t just get up and walk away, and they can’t be ignored, fixed or trumped by more enlightened thoughts.

About the time, you think you have trumped an unenlightened aspect of yourself with a more awakened thought, those feelings of regret, resentment, righteousness, or anger come sneaking in, and there you are experiencing the pulls of your more unenlightened ways of behaving.

The unenlightened parts of yourself exist because they are aspects of you needing to be loved. Your deepest wounds and desires are screaming for your undivided attention. They don’t want to be fixed any more than you do. They don’t want to be ignored any more than you. And like you, they certainly don’t want to be treated as though they will feel better if they just act like everything is okay.

They are the wounded and desiring parts of you that want to be heard, recognized, understood and loved as you are in the moment. Unenlightened parts of ourselves become enlightened when they are met with love and grace. They become enlightened when they are understood as they are, from the very core of our being.

So what are we really saying here? The unenlightened aspects of you become enlightened when you are willing to love those aspects of yourself with the same regard with which you love the more enlightened aspects of yourself. They call you to love yourself, completely, without limits or judgment.

You might be asking yourself how you get to that kind of loving regard for yourself, when you just don’t feel it. (I remember how frustrated I was when I was first learning how to be self-compassionate.) You might find it helpful to read this article that I wrote for those of us that can feel stuck or numb about loving ourselves, When You Are Not Feeling Compassionate, What Do You Do? http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/forums/index.php?topic=274.0

Some of you may be reading this thinking, “I even have trouble loving the more enlightened aspects of myself. What do I do?” I think you will find the same article above to be helpful. It is a respectful way to lead your heart and mind to greater self-love and self-healing.

Imagine for a moment, how your life might open up, if you found even a little bit more love for you—the parts of you that are awakening and the parts of you that are still sleeping.

Think about a young child that you enjoy. Isn’t it wonderful to watch them run, play and thoroughly enjoy life? Isn’t it equally wonderful to watch them sleep, unaware of what is really happening around them?

That’s how it is in a spiritual journey. You are the observer of your life—the one who most sees and understands the uniqueness of you. You have an amazing opportunity to fall deeply in love with the parts of you that are awake and the parts of you that are asleep.

I use the term “falling in love” with clear intention. It is one thing to learn how to like yourself, and that might be perfect for where you are in your life right now. It is yet another step in spiritual awareness to love yourself, and yet another to fall in love with yourself.

This is not selfish or self-absorbed. Because you are the eyes, ears, heart and arms of the Divine here on earth, this is about seeing yourself as the Divine sees you. It is the grand gift you came here to earth to give yourself.

During the month of October, I will have the privilege of sitting in circle with women that have decided to explore the essence of the Sacred Feminine with me and with each other. The ability to hold oneself in love—all of oneself—the enlightened and the unenlightened aspects—is the very nature of the Sacred Feminine.

In this unconditional, accepting love, we discover who we really are. Another way we say this is that we shed our limited bodies to become our limitless selves, for in love, we are limitless.

You are invited to join us, and you can learn more about the Path of the Sacred Feminine Women’s Retreat here: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/womens-retreat.htm

Are You Holding or Holding On?

2011-08-25T14:37:00.001-07:00

The essence of the Sacred Feminine is very much womb-like, holding life in its suchness. This is wonderful to experience, whether you are the one being held or doing the holding. However, when we become frightened or confused we can become obsessed with holding-on rather than holding, and that’s when life becomes difficult.

Take a moment to remember a time when you cupped your hand and scooped up some water. In order to actually hold it in your hand, you must keep your hand formed in a cup shape and become as still as possible. You can observe the water and appreciate it, but the minute you attempt to squeeze it, the water will run out.

That is exactly what happens when we attempt to hold on to any aspect of our lives—whether it is a belief, dream, person, career, money, possession, or our health. If we don’t hold it lightly with great appreciation, stillness and care, it is likely to run out of our hands.

When we hold on to something with a vice-like grip, we are literally squeezing the life out of it. Whatever it is we are holding on to doesn’t stand a chance of being witnessed or seen for its own nature.

Consider relationship. Think of a time when you wanted someone to conform to your idea of who he or she should be. Did they become angry with you for trying to shape them into your image and likeness? Did they become alienated from you?

That’s what happens when we try to hold on to our image of what someone else should be. Most of us want to be seen and loved for who we are, even if we are acting out in some challenging ways. We might not expect people to live with our challenging behaviors, but we do hope we will be loved as we are in the moment.

Many of us try to make other people conform to what we want. We hold on to an idea or belief about how the world should be and how the people in our lives should behave. Rather than remove ourselves from incompatible relationships or learn to accept them as they are, we hold on tightly and attempt to change the other person.

This is like trying to squeeze the water in your hand. At some point, either you or they can’t maintain the pressure.

Something quite amazing happens when you choose to hold your feelings about the other person rather than hold on to our attempts to change them. If you give yourself permission to create a quiet moment and simply witness your feelings, in the same way you might observe water in your cupped hand, the fear, anger, resentment, regrets and frustrations you might have about someone else, simply dissolve. That’s right they dissolve.

All that remains is a deep, loving understanding of you and them. You are likely to find yourself gaining clarity about your challenge with that individual. You might find you have more tolerance, initiate a heart-to-heart conversation where you both share your concerns, take a retreat in order to give you both time to think about what you really want, or you might leave the situation.

Whatever you do, it will come from your truth, and you will be able to do it in love, rather than from an attempt to manipulate someone you love. Holding the feelings you have about someone else is a powerful way to resolve conflict with another.

It is not at all unusual to see a different response emerging from the other person, simply because you are no longer projecting your fears and frustrations on to them. You are able to see and hold them in their suchness, and they can feel the difference.

This is not a skill most of us were ever taught, so while we might understand it conceptually, it can be very difficult in practice. I’ve seen myself, and other women, seasoned in knowing how to hold, engage in energetic manipulation when the situation was pushing my buttons.

During our Path of the Sacred Feminine Women’s Retreat, we spend several days learning how to hold the feelings that create separation. LINK Individually and collectively, we remember that when we hold in love, we are the embodiment of the Sacred Feminine. We then take that awareness into our day-to-day lives, slowly letting go of the habit to hold on, and replacing it with the capacity to hold.

Alignment with the Galactic Womb

2011-08-18T16:55:00.000-07:00

Winter Solstice 2012

I hope Reverend Ariann’s guest post stimulated your own thoughts about 2012. According to Alberto Villodo, the Maya tell us that humanity comes into existence on December 21, 2012. Perhaps, he suggests, that means we are not yet fully human. http://life.gaiam.com/article/2012-doomsday-science-or-superstition

So what makes us fully human? Perhaps we could begin by exploring the aspects of ourselves as humans that we do not tend to recognize. Consider that we have not yet fully recognized the Sacred Feminine aspects within ourselves. What would those aspects be?

For years, my body led me into a journey of discovery about the feminine and masculine energies, as I struggled to live in balance. In my twenties, I went through a period of time where I was producing as much testosterone as a male in puberty. My female organs were literally shutting down. It was several years before I completely restored psychological and physiological faith in my feminine emotions and body.

My own body led me on a discovery about the physical, emotional and spiritual natures of the Sacred Masculine and Sacred Feminine. Eventually, the exploration of these two Divine energies led me into mystical experiences of realization to help me understand the significance of these two profound states.

I received some profound insight into the Sacred Feminine when I was immersed for an entire day in the mystical reality of the Feminine, while on a pilgrimage in Egypt. This reality I experienced was vast space—complete stillness, dark and limitless, deeply compassionate, and pregnant with all possibilities of life.

Some time later, I was immersed in the Sacred Masculine. I became the white, hot, ecstatic and blissful expression of the Sacred Masculine. Every cell was on fire and in motion, and I felt as though I was bursting in endless love and bliss.

So what do these energies have to do with our physical lives, and our emergence as humanity in 2012? Consider this: most of us grow up being taught to value achievement as most important in our development as humans and as a species. We are often taught to suppress our emotions, use reason and logic over intuition, keep busy and active, and to follow our bliss and passion.

Can you honestly say you were also taught to value, with as much dedication and fervor such qualities as rest, quiet contemplation, trusting your intuition and the emotions that lead to intuitive wisdom, loving unconditionally, and listening to and witnessing others just as they are without judgment? Were you taught that stillness is as important as action?

For many of us, the answer is, “No, we were not taught to value stillness and the intuitive insights that emerge from the silence and space within us.” This isn’t because our parents did something wrong. They had simply been taught what they passed on to us.

The Sacred Masculine has simply been the focus of our exploration for approximately 2,500 years or more. The active, vibrant energy of the Sacred Masculine is wonderful, necessary energy in creation and human evolution. And so is the Sacred Feminine.

When we engage the Sacred Masculine without the benefit of the energies of the Sacred Feminine we move out of balance, and tend to accept such beliefs as: 1) God is male, 2) the end justifies the means, and 3) it is appropriate to take good care of myself even at the expense of others. We become self-absorbed and greedy, willing to damage anything we perceive to be outside of our own passionate expression of our unique selves.

We forget we came from the womb, where all are held in loving regard as Divine potential.

During the winter solstice of 2012, the planets in our solar system will align with the dark galactic, known center of the universe, or what we might call the womb of our creation. Is it possible that as we align, we will remember where we came from? Is it possible that our own physical and energetic wombs will stir with the knowledge that while we are ecstatic light expressing our own potential, we are also the quiet, still space that holds everything in love.

According to Nicaraguan Mayan Grandmother Flordemayo, of the International Council of 13 Grandmothers, the final glyph from the Mayan story of creation shows planetary stewardship being delivered into the hands of the feminine. http://www.adishakti.org/mayan_end_times_prophecy_12-21-2012.htm

I do not suggest to you, that the coming age is one in which the Sacred Feminine will become more important than the Sacred Masculine. Rather, this coming age is one in which we will very likely feel the impulse to remember that we are the essence of the Sacred Feminine as well as the Sacred Masculine.

When these two energies are in balance, we exist in awareness of the fullness of our humanity and our Divinity. We remember to act, but also to be still. We remember to use our logic, but also to follow our intuition. We remember to speak and to listen. We remember to live our passion and our bliss, and to give our bodies and minds plenty of time to rest and contemplate. We further our own goals, but we also tend to our communities – human and planetary.

If it is true, that winter solstice of 2012 marks the birth of humanity, and on that day we will be aligning with the Galactic womb of creation, then perhaps this is a good time to consider how to prepare for our own rebirth.

The Galactic Alignment of 2012

2011-08-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

Returning to the Womb of Creation

by Guest Author, Reverend Ariann Thomas

As we approach the upcoming date of December 21, 2012, the announced date of the end of the Mayan calendar, people all over the world are showing various reactions. Although many Mayan Elders, authors, shamans and anthropologists have been issuing statements and writing articles about the meaning of this date, the doomsayers appear to have captured the attention of the media. Fear of disasters, darkness, disruptions and destruction seem to overshadow the real meaning of the end of the Mayan Calendar—the calendar terminates on that date. One era ends and another begins.

The Mayan Calendar is a prophetic calendar that helps us understand the past and foresee the future by describing how the progression of Heavens and Underworlds condition the human consciousness. The Mayan Calendar provides an exact schedule for the Cosmic Plan and the unfolding of all things that come into existence. Carl Johan Calleman, is a Mayan scholar who has written two very interesting articles on this matter that are available on the internet. This first came out of a conference in Stockholm, 11 Ahau (March 7, 2010). The Conscious Convergence, http://www.adishakti.org/mayan_end_times_prophecy_12-21-2012.htm.

I wondered why so many people were making such a big deal about the Mayan Calendar. I intuitively know the world is not going to end. I also feel that the date is important in a significant way that many people are overlooking due to the disaster-predictions of the media, Hollywood and some of fear-generating articles in print and on the internet.

I began looking into the factual basis for the Mayan end cycle. What I found was fascinating because it corresponds to some basic astronomical facts that the Mayans must have been aware of when the Calendar was developed. So why did the Mayans end their calendar on the winter solstice of 2012?

The winter solstice marks the completion of the 5,125 year Great Cycle of the Ancient Mayan Long Count Calendar—December 21, 2012. This corresponds to present day astronomical science that places the solar system in alignment with the center of the Milky Way on that exact date.

In Western astronomy the Sun moves through all twelve primary constellations (the Mayans used thirteen constellations rather than twelve) in a 25,800 year.
From our perspective on earth, the sun moves backward through each constellation every 2,160 years. Over the course of 25,800 years, a period often called a Great Year; the Sun completes a full, 360-degree backward circuit through the zodiac.

Precession brings one of the seasonal quarters (either the March equinox, the June solstice, the September equinox, or the December solstice) into alignment with the center of the Milky Way once every 6,450 years. However, the alignment of the winter solstice, such as in 2012, occurs only once every 25,800 years, the traditional "beginning" point of Earth's yearly cycle, December 21, 2012!

What makes this one so unique? John Meyer Jenkens, a Mayan scholar, discovered the part of the Milky Way that the December solstice sun will conjunct with is also where the center of our galaxy is located. The Mayans called the hole or blank spot in the middle of the galactic center of the Milky Way the Black Road or Dark Road to the Underworld. The Mayans knew and we now know scientifically, that not only will we be in direct alignment with the Dark Road, but we will be directly aligned to the cosmic womb from which new stars are born, and from which everything in our galaxy, including us, was born.

To visualize the galactic center that Earth and our solar system moves into during the 2012 winter solstice, we need to know that when we look up into the sky at night we are looking at the Milky Way on its edge. Picture the Milky Way as a series of solar systems and celestial objects that move in a flat plane in a circular manner spinning around an open area like a CD with the hole in the middle. Normally our solar system is one of the systems on the outer edge of the CD but during the ‘galactic alignment’ at the 2012 winter solstice our solar system moves into the ‘hole’ in the middle of the CD.

The Significance of December 21, 2012
So what difference does it make that our solar system and Earth is in the ‘hole’ or center of the Milky Way?

If you think of the center of the Milky Way as the dark womb of the galaxy, the center of creative energy, then Earth is and will be receiving repetitive, undiluted and un-deflected original Source energy directly from the Mother-Father Creative Force of the Universe.

According to the Mayans and other indigenous cultures, including the Tibetans and the Hopi Native Americans, 2012 is a momentous time of world-changing events.

I talk to more people who are being called to greater works in the outer and inner world during this time. Inner work by way of meditation, prayer and holding energy to shift fear, pain and oppression is drawing more and more people every day. Folks tell me about their meditations where they heal the Earth, the water, land, air or animals.
I hear about high-powered, successful professionals who are quitting their jobs and going into service positions to feel greater soul-satisfaction. I have felt my consciousness shift from a personal perspective to a more global perspective as I meditate, write and do spiritual counseling.

December 21, 2012 will not be the only day or even the final day of the intense energy of the womb of the Galactic Center. This is the end date of the old era and December 22, 2012 is the first day of a new era. It may be an important and momentous day but the energy will continue for days, months or years after as our solar systems flows back into the other star systems of the galaxy.

This transformational shift in consciousness will come without our cooperation, traumatically as with the fall of Atlantis, or with our cooperation, gently and easily as we consciously release our negative beliefs and patterns of the past era and bring new harmony and oneness into the world for the new era.

Everyone will participate whether consciously or unconsciously in this new consciousness as the energy permeates our solar system. The Mayans counsel us that the new era belongs to us all. As Grandfather Don Alejandro shares, the essence of the Mayan Prophecy says: “Arise, all arise, not one nor two groups be left behind, together we will see once again the place from where we have come from.” This website contains a great deal of information on the Mayan calendar and prophesy. http://www.adishakti.org/mayan_end_times_prophecy_12-21-2012.htm.

The greatest challenge to the shift of December 21, 2012 is to avoid fear. The shift in consciousness is the opportunity to open a new era of super consciousness with this wave of Source/Creative/Mother/Father energy.

Perhaps our media and movies are showing us the hidden fears that live within us. If our fears came to life, we might indeed experience this transition as a painful and disastrous time. However, if we refrain from becoming fearful, the shift in consciousness is an opportunity to explore the super consciousness of our own origin and the origin of all life, as we align with the dark womb of creation.

Conversations With the Goddess

2011-08-07T16:48:00.000-07:00

I recently received a copy of Dorothy Atalla's, "Conversations with the Goddess: Encounter and Petra, Place of Power."

As many of you know, understanding the Sacred Feminine truly begins with a calling or longing deep within. If you are courageous, you respond and allow the Mystery to unfold itself. You might find yourself meditating more often, beginning a practice of automatic writing, dancing her energy as it flows through you or reading voraciously as you try to understand the powerful presence calling you to know yourself more deeply.

Dorothy Atalla opened to the Sacred Feminine and received a vision, and then many hours of conversations with the Goddess. She dictated the wisdom being shared with her, and then generously shared her discoveries with us in her latest book. This is a powerful gift for those of us that long for a better understanding of the Goddess within.

Here is a brief synopsis of her gift:

Dorothy Atalla intives you into the journey of her own awakening to the Goddess, sharing mystical insights and unique historical interpretations about humankind’s relationship with her. She guides you into a profound understanding of the nature of the Divine Mother through the earth, the physical body, and consciousness itself. “Conversations with the Goddess” makes the Divine Feminine real, tangible and significant for spiritual seekers in today’s world.

Thank you Dorothy! If you would like a copy for yourself or a sister in spirit, you can purchase a copy of Conversations with the Goddess at Amazon.com

Visions for Now and The Future

2011-08-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

The Sacred Feminine Reaching Out Into the World

Visions can tell us stories about what is happening in our lives right now, that we might not be aware of consciously. They can also provide indicators about our past and our future.

Reverend Ariann had visions before and during SpiritQuest that I asked her to share with all of us, because they offer insights about what is happening spiritually for many of us as we prepare to enter through the cosmic doorway opening in December of 2012.

But first, I’d like to prepare you with some insights we received during Quest. After our questers safely returned to camp and we had completed our blessed task of holding safe space for revelations and healing, our week of ceremonies shifted to a more global focus.

Throughout the week, several of us had recounted to each other disturbing dreams where people’s rights, integrity and even lives had been violated. If you were joining us in Spirit, you too may have been joining us in this rather disturbing dream-time. This is very unusual, but we held our feelings about our dreams with love, trusting in our ability to hold all of what life can be.

We knew that something significant and new for Quest was happening when Ariann, our First Elder, shared with us her dreams and visions over the past 8 months:

This year my dreams and visions were about Elders of other Native American tribes holding shared ceremonies and inviting Rev Misa, other regular participants of Quest, and I to join them in their ceremonies. In the dreamtime these other tribes would show us a place they had set aside for us to hold SpiritQuest on their sacred ground. Clearly the ancestor spirits had been observing our efforts and intentions at SpiritQuest. They had found us worthy to become a part of their circle.

I knew from these visions that all the Native American tribes from North and South America were uniting their energies and ceremonies to aid in the coming earth transformation of 2012. We were now being called to add our ceremonies in the merging of this energy.

When I arrived at camp, I saw the ancestor spirits of North and South American indigenous tribes, along with ancestors from the Buddhist tradition, Hindi, African tribes and other ethnicities. This gathering of spirits from many spiritual traditions stayed with us throughout SpiritQuest. We were well supported, protected and guided during our week of ceremonies.

SpiritQuest has always attracted beautiful spirits to join with us and guide us in our ceremonies throughout the week. However, we knew we were specially blessed to be surrounded in the spirit-realms by so many ancient ones from so many spiritual traditions. We could sense that if they were there with us, we were going to be asked to attend to some spiritual need in the word or in the universe.

Finally, our work became apparent. During our last ceremony at Quest, we chose to be silent together at the sacred fire in a Holding Meditation. Each of us lovingly held, in the way of the Sacred Feminine, whatever Spirit presented to us. Some of us held places on the planet in distress. Some of us held wounds within humanity. All of us did our best to hold without intent or judgment. We simply held the aspect of life presented to us—in love.

I wonder if you found yourself being called to hold something in unconditional love, without judgment or intention to fix it. If you did, you may have been with us in Spirit, becoming the very nature of the Sacred Feminine itself, holding aspects of life in love, so that they could emerge once again born anew.

The art of holding is new to many of us, and learning how to lovingly hold without agenda takes some practice. To help you learn how to hold more deeply and purely, become familiar with the first step of the Creation Meditation: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/forums/index.php?topic=75.0

This is the sacred nature of mother energy. Think of a child that runs to their mother’s arms for comfort because they fell down and scraped up their body. Sure, they want the hurt to heal so they will feel better, but first they want their mom’s compassion. When the emotional hurt is better, they are ready to tend to the physical wound.

Tending to the emotional woundedness of humanity is a gift of the Sacred Feminine. When she is present, compassion is present. At this time in our planet’s evolution, compassion is the necessary healing balm that frees our spirits to enjoy more beautiful experiences in life and greater consciousness.

As we ended our Holding Meditation, the final ceremony at SpiritQuest, Ariann shared her vision about SpiritQuest and the emergence of the Sacred Feminine. Her vision touched our hearts and affirmed our sacred work. I think you might find the same to be true for you. Here is what she shared with us:

In this vision I saw the impact SpiritQuest would have after Quest was complete. The Divine Feminine walked from the sacred fire in a lovely mist or fog with the moon lighting her way as she moved out into the world. As she walked through the world her feminine energy permeated everything she touched or passed. Her influence changed architecture, industry, equipment, machinery and our whole culture. The Divine Feminine was a subtle and strong inspiration that gently and pervasively crept into every corner and every heart like the mist. Those of us at Quest did not have to DO anything. We carried her essence within us and we could sense the Divine Feminine presence walking the Earth.

All of us at SpiritQuest this year know something special has occurred. The energy of SpiritQuest shifted from a personal and individual search to an event that had a global impact. We merged our energy with the intentions of the spirits of other spiritual traditions. We have moved onto the global stage where we are now participating in the transformation of Earth as it happens now, in 2012 and in the years following. We were all elevated by the magnificence we experienced at SpiritQuest 2011.

The Sacred Feminine moves through and around us. She is the gentle mist that rises when our emotions are in balance. She is compassion in and for all of life. Can you feel her sacred mist within you, reaching out into the world with compassion and love for all of life?

SpiritQuest

2011-07-28T18:01:00.000-07:00

A Time of Holding in the Way of the Sacred Feminine

This year's Quest was dedicated to experiencing the Sacred Feminine. In the spirit of the feminine, the women and men attending SpiritQuest entered into an intention to hold whatever transpired in loving awareness.

Being still within and lovingly holding whatever presents itself is an elegantly simple concept, yet in practice, it stretches us to meet the resistances of our own Divine awareness. Our busy minds may be challenged to quiet down. Our intense emotions may be challenged to soften.

We experienced many challenges that come with entering into a state of holding, and to the credit of every SpiritQuest participant, we met those opportunities with great grace.

Any time you bring a group of people together, there are challenges. The differences in our personalities and life-styles alone create opportunities to learn how to find balance between honoring the needs of others with the needs of self.

Add to that the tests of cooking outdoors, keeping a sacred fire tended 24 hours per day for five days, and the powerful energy that we can experience when we are in ceremonial space, and you have plenty of opportunity to see the layers of yourself.

During Quest, each of us created loving space within ourselves to hold what no longer serves us, as well as space to hold our unique brilliance. We discovered within ourselves our capacity to hold the fullness of our sisters and brothers with that same loving care.

In that agreement to hold ourselves and each other in unconditional love, we experienced days of gentleness and kindness, where old wounds unraveled themselves and disappeared. We willingly stepped up to new expressions of ourselves; greater depths of self-honesty; and profound trust in the Divine, ourselves and our SpiritQuest family.

The trust we had developed with each other and the appreciation we learned to have for each other made it very difficult to part when Quest was over. We had found a community in which we truly belonged.

In the age of "getting things done" and "making things happen," the concept of simply holding life in its suchness has become a foreign concept. And yet, this holding, this nature of the Sacred Feminine, is fundamental to lasting healing and happiness.

Of course, we did get things done during the week. We cooked, washed dishes, tended fire, gave massages to each other, shared stories, prayed, danced, and sang. Yet, because we were also willing to honor the silent space of holding, we experienced an exquisite balance between our Sacred Feminine and Sacred Masculine natures.

In that balance life was, as my Cherokee ancestors would call it, "natural." The "natural" is a state of harmony with all living things. We witnessed this natural state when a hummingbird flew over our sacred fire as we danced in honor of hummingbird.

We experienced this natural state as we found a delightful flow between exerting a little more energy to finish our shifts at the sacred fire and resting to receive a luscious healing session. We discovered this natural state as we learned to talk to the wind while we tended Sacred Fire or invited the rain to pass around our questers.

We recognized that we are part of a natural order of holding and acting, giving and receiving, resting and contributing.

All the Quests over the past 16 years have been precious to me, but this one was particularly sweet. Embracing the Sacred Feminine in our lives, in practical application, seems to have brought us into a richer experience of natural order and harmony.

I am deeply grateful to each brother and sister that joined us in person, or in spirit, at the Sacred Fire. Your beautiful essence, and your willingness to hold whatever was present, has woven a web that has touched my heart forever.

What Is Important?

2011-07-07T17:26:00.000-07:00

SpiritQuest has come to a close for this year, and has left us contemplating a significant question as we return to our daily lives—What is important?

It is so easy to go through the habits and rituals of our everyday lives without pausing to think about what is most meaningful and significant in our existence. Quest, whether you joined us physically or spiritually, causes us to pause and consider what matters most to us.

Most of us know as we are flying or driving back home that we will return to quest again because we discovered some part of ourselves that had been asleep or forgotten.

We discovered the miracles of simply being alive and the great joy of living in community consciously. Childhood wounds healed as we found acceptance and worthiness in some significant way. Some of us had peak spiritual experiences that have allowed us to know the wonder of the Divine within us.

Before quest, many of us experience a compulsion to let go of things we no longer need. We might let go of physical belongings or attachments to beliefs, or we might surrender long-held feelings of pain of anger.

In the silent space that we became as we entered quest, we created an opportunity to be re-created, as we recognize the beauty of who we truly are. Now we must decide how we will express that beauty in the world.

Perhaps, you too, have been experiencing the process of letting go of beliefs, feelings or things that no longer serve you. Perhaps you experienced the stillness within you as you meditated with the sacred fire. And perhaps you feel a freshness within yourself as you recognize more of the wonder of life itself.

So now, what will you do?

Before you get caught up in the seeming demands of your usual life, consider asking yourself—What is important?

When you know the answer, begin shaping your life around what matters to you most. Whether it is difficult or easy, acting on what matters to you most is the perfect expression of Spirit within you. It is the expression of your Divine nature.

If you were to follow the advice of the ninth tenant of the Cherokee people, you would “do it now.” You would see what needs doing and do it. You would allow your world to revolve around what you know you are called to do, and you would not wait for a better day, because there is no better day.

The rest of your world will follow your lead. Your resistant spouse, your skeptical children, your doubtful parents, or critical friends, will quiet down when you know what is important and you do it, regardless of what anyone else thinks or says.

As you continue with strength on your path, it will cause those that question or doubt you the most, to begin wondering about what is important to them. That is one of the gifts your conviction can bring to others.

Conviction is not something any of us can put on when we need to look strong. It comes from deep within when us know we are doing what is important for us to do.

My prayer for you at the end of this questing time, if you wish to receive it, is that you will know what is important for you and when you will act on what you know, you will be supported financially, emotionally, physically and spiritually in your beautiful service to the world.

Joining Us in Spirit at SpiritQuest

2011-07-07T17:15:00.000-07:00

July 17th-23rd

We would be delighted if you would like to join us at SpiritQuest, bringing your love and ability to hold life without judging it. Just imagine yourself standing before the sacred fire, offering the fire a pinch of tobacco with your prayer for the world, someone you love or you.

Provided we get some rain in Left Hand Canyon in Colorado prior to quest, we will have a sacred fire burning 24 hours per day. If we can’t have a physical fire, we tend a virtual one. (We have needed to do this during a fire ban in a previous year and could literally smell the smoke from the etheric fire.)

If you like, you can burn a candle during the hours you are at home and awake. Light it with an intention to merge with the sacred fire at quest. Perhaps you would like to meditate with your candle, in the same way we meditate with the fire when it is our turn to tend it. We pay attention to the wisdom of the wind and the gifts of Mother Earth’s children.

The sacred fire, like the sacred fire in the council house of a Cherokee village, is the center and heart-beat of our community during the entire week. Whether we are questing or supporting, the fire is the source of our strength and inner peace—a living reminder of the light of the Divine within each of us.

When we are challenged by something, we go to the sacred fire to gain inner tranquility and clarity. We choose not to gossip or complain about things, but rather find someone to talk to that can help us see our lesson and what we need to do to be in harmony with ourselves and others. Many of those talks take place at the sacred fire.

Nine tenants of the Cherokee people, shared with me by my elder, guide us throughout the week, to live in the noblest way with Spirit, the earth and each other. Perhaps one of these will speak to you as a focal point for meditation during the week.

1. Speak only words of truth.
2. Speak only of the good qualities of others.
3. Be a confidant and carry no tales.
4. Turn aside the veil of anger, to release the beauty inherent in all.
5. Waste not the bounty and want not.
6. Honor the light in all. Compare nothing. See all for its suchness.
7. Respect all life. Cut away ignorance from one's own life.
8. Neither kill nor harbor thoughts of angry nature, which destroys peace like an arrow.
9. Do it now. If you see what needs doing, do it (in a good way). Remember, if you think you are the only one or the one that is always right, wake up.

We will be living consciously with the Mother Earth all week. Consider taking a walk each day close to the mother, and breathing in the goodness of the earth. Notice the trees, flowers, grass, and animals. Remember to give thanks for them.

In fact, for a schedule of what is happening throughout the week, visit: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/camp-information.htm

We will also be blessing the water during a special ceremony on Thursday night. You can join us by blessing a bowl of water at home and when you have finished giving your thanks and gratitude for the water, share it with your loved ones, pets or plants. Or even take it to a body of water near you, sharing the blessed water with the waters of your homeland.

It is our practice at quest to laugh often, love deeply, live in gratitude, walk in harmony with mother earth and all her children, and pray with full hearts. We hold space for each other, knowing that each person in camp is doing their best. This is a good way to live life, in general. Perhaps you would like to bring focus to this practice in your life during the week.

As we hold the earth and each other in compassion and love, we also hold the world with that same love. We’ll be holding you too. So as you share this week with us in Spirit, I hope you will find a moment to hold us in your heart, humanity and our precious planet.

Reverend Ariann tells us the prayers from SpiritQuest reach deeply into creation. We would be honored if your prayers joined with ours in a sacred union of love for all of life.

We are deeply grateful for your meditations and prayers for rain in Left Hand Canyon, Colorado, where quest will be taking place, and where forest fires have been burning.

How Important Is It to Be in the Mood to Go to a Spiritual Event?

2011-07-07T15:59:00.000-07:00

This question came up recently in a discussion I was having with a friend. We were taking a look at whether feeling or not feeling like going to a spiritual event was a reflection of intuitive guidance or resistance to spiritual growth or even awakening.

Some years ago, I remember being hesitant to follow my calling because I didn’t want to seem disrespectful to someone else. A very wise master pointed out to me what I didn’t want to look at. He said, “It is very good to be respectful, but it can also be a great place to hide.”

I wonder how often I denied myself some measure of spiritual awareness because I wasn’t “in the mood” to go, when what was really going on was that some part of me knew I was going to get to meet myself and my truth at some deeper level of awareness?

Thank goodness for my elder. She never let me have an excuse. If I wasn’t in the mood, she basically told me to go tend to myself until I was ready. That’s an important lesson as a ceremonialist, because as I have learned over the years, I’m not always in the mood to facilitate when it’s finally time to do the ceremony.

In the early days, I was nervous, and nervousness has a way of overpowering everything. It’s hardly good for putting you in the mood to stand up in front of a group of people and hold spiritual space for ritual.

The irony has consistently been that once I enter into the sacred space within me, the mood follows. More than once a ceremony, ritual or retreat I participated in, even though I wasn’t in the mood, proved to provide some of the most powerful insights and lessons of my life.

Not being in the mood, more often that not, has been a reflection of my fear rather than my intuitive guidance.

Certainly there have been events that were not mine to attend. The way that I knew I was receiving intuitive guidance rather than reacting in fear was by entering the sacred space within me. When my heart is full and I am at peace, the messages are much clearer.

I discovered that true callings are apparent in the quietness within me, even when I don’t feel up to it. I’ve also learned that following those callings have been worth the effort every single time.

Often times, some judgment or fear came up for me to look at. Because I followed my calling, I committed to be present to the feelings that were manifesting inside me. And spiritual ceremonies and events are such wonderful place for getting to know ones self, and finding deeper love for the broken and fearful places inside.

When the ceremony or event was over, my reward has been greater inner peace and self-love. Because I chose to call myself out of hiding, my life was deeply blessed.

If you have found yourself saying, “No,” to sacred opportunities because you didn’t feel in the mood, I invite you to consider whether or not you might be hiding from yourself. Perhaps, your mood truly is a reflection of your intuitive guidance. Perhaps your body is overly taxed and needs to rest, or emotionally you need to disconnect for a while.

Sometimes our intuitive guidance is leading us to something that is better for us. And sometimes, our fears are leading us away from what will set us free. Entering into the silence of one’s sacred space is a beautiful way to gain clarity about whether your mood might be limiting your freedom.

Freedom Through Compassion

2011-07-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

Healing the Hearts and Souls of Our Institutions

Once you begin a practice of compassion in your journey of spiritual freedom, it becomes fairly easy to find compassion for yourself and those you love. The next level of compassionate work is with people you don’t know, and while it requires a little more intuitive connection, genuine care often arises fairly easily for others suffering or in need.

With practice and sincerity, you can get the feel for being compassionate with those that present themselves or who you have turned into an enemy. This typically takes more work, because in order to feel compassion, we must transcend our attachment to being right. We begin that process by compassionately holding our own wounds, particularly if those wounds were at the hands of our enemies, in order to then lovingly hold the wounds within others.

While finding compassion for our enemies may seem like the most daunting challenge of all, for many of us compassion for large institutions can prove to be the most foreign and difficult to access.

Isn’t it interesting how government, the press, churches and big business are easy to criticize and difficult to forgive as long as we don’t personally know anyone: 1) in public office, 2) reporting the news, 3) officiating at a church, or 4) running a large corporation? After all, institutions are just megalithic, power hungry organizations. They don’t have hearts and souls, do they?

You can live with the theory that large institutions don’t have hearts and souls until you meet someone that assumes significant responsibility within that institution. If you decided to have a heart-to-heart conversation with someone running a large institution, you would quickly find that they encounter the same kinds of dilemmas and challenges operating these large organizations, as you do in your own personal life. The difference is scale and the number of lives affected.

As a business consultant some years ago, I learned that businesses and organizations reflect the challenges of the people working within them. So do they have hearts and souls? In a sense, they do. They embody the myriad of hearts and souls, desires and challenges, of every person that participates inside them.

Have you ever been to a concert where everyone was singing a favorite song with the band? The room seems to have a vibe of its own. The collective feelings of everyone there seem to merge into one, big energetic pulse.

Families have their own rhythms too. We have certain habits we form together, ways in which we do or do not express our love. We even create our own internal language, patterned from things we used to say as kids or typical parental forms of encouragement or admonishment.

That’s what happens in institutions. Whether you do or do not want to ascribe a single heart and soul to a concert, a family or an organization, when we gather together we do seem to create something greater than ourselves. That greater expression is a reflection of all of its parts—namely, all of its participants.

So who are we criticizing when we complain about an institution? We are railing against all of it is members. We are complaining about other people. We are closing our eyes to their struggles and holding ourselves above them.

Institutions, like people, need compassion when the people within those organizations are feeling the weight of their challenges.

Have you ever experienced someone compassionately listening or being present to you when you are struggling with a significant decision you need to make? Isn’t it wonderful to be able to express your frustrations until things finally quiet down inside? Isn’t it remarkable how clarity usually follows on the heels of your inner stillness. The right and best choice seems to be suddenly clear. Their compassion helps you find clarity.

Imagine yourself holding in compassion some institution that drives you crazy. Imagine all those people inside the institution trying to get clear about what to do next. Imagine how much easier it would be for the people operating those institutions to make clearer and better choices if they felt less criticized, and particularly if they felt compassion.

During the next few years in and around 2012, I expect we are going to see many large institutions struggle, as we enter into this age of truth. In the same way that many of us as individuals and within our families have been facing our deeper truths together, institutions are also going to be held accountable for the truths and lies upon which they built their foundations.

In as much as compassion has helped you and your loved ones discover and express your deeper truths, the same is now true for our large institutions. The gift of compassion in helping us safely recognize, own, and reveal our deepest truths is meaningful whether we are talking about individuals or organizations. True freedom from the bonds of our self-made challenges, for us as individuals or within institutions, emerges within the arms of compassion.

What Are Keepers Anyway?

2011-06-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

If you have been joining us on any of the tele-ceremonies and tele-meditations, you may have heard some of us referring to Keepers. Keeper is short for Keeper of the Sacred Path of the Feminine or Keeper of the Water Ceremonies.

In a Google search you would find that there are all kinds of keepers and water keepers from activists to ceremonialists, so I thought it would be wise to explain what we mean by being a Keeper here at New Dream.

The Sacred Path of the Feminine came to us a little at a time from four sweet and powerful Grandmother spirits on the other side of the veil. Initially, they introduced me to the ancient ceremonies that had been done around the ancient medicine bowl I had received. As I received the ceremonies I was invited to share them with women I knew.

The bowl, which is in the shape of a womb, was filled with water at every full moon, and together we women explored the mysteries of the Sacred Feminine that awaited us, in ancient ceremonies created by women for women. We opened to what it meant to shed our limited bodies to become our limitless selves through our own feminine natures, with our natural female inclinations.

Women that wanted to share these ceremonies with their own circles and/or in their own communities, apprenticed with me to become Keepers of the Water Ceremonies. For the first time in history, more than one woman was offering these ceremonies.

Because the ceremonies were born again through me in this lifetime, I am called the Guardian, as we were called in the old days, where one woman held space for the women in her community through these ceremonies. Guardian implies that it is my job to remember, or guard, what has been learned so that it can be passed on to the next generation. Since we now had several women offering the ceremonies, we named them Keepers—keepers of the traditional practice and its gifts.

Over the years, more has been revealed, and we have come to realize the significance of the ceremonies, journeys and meditations the Grandmothers were passing on to us. Initially we referred to the Water Ceremonies as the focal point of our path, hence, Keepers were called Keepers of the Water Ceremonies.

But in time we understood that there was much more than the ceremonies. That was when we renamed our sacred work to be called the Path of the Sacred Feminine. While Keepers apprentice to offer the ceremonies, they also become Keepers of the path—experiencing and sharing the meditations and healing prescriptions (or journeys) that take us into deeper self-awareness.

The first two Keepers received a little bit of coaching from me, and no formal training. It was challenging for them in the beginning, and the teacher in me understood that proper training for such a significant responsibility was appropriate. So I created our apprenticeship program. I noticed that the details about how to do the ceremony were learned fairly; however, learning how to hold space (which is at the heart of the Sacred Feminine) was another matter.

Learning how to be the space you are intending to hold is a dedication to self-awareness and self-mastery. Most of us haven’t been taught to do that for ourselves, let alone for a group, and you don’t learn that within a couple of coaching sessions. So now, we offer a two-year program to help women prepare for this sacred privilege.

Women that feel called begin with pre-apprenticeship. The women notify us that they are interested in apprenticeship and begin attending the monthly Full Moon Ceremonies and Creation Meditations, because this is where the training begins—experiencing the gifts of the practice. They can do this with a local Keeper or with me on our tele-ceremonies and tele-meditations.

At our website, you can access more detailed information about the apprenticeship program: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/apprentice.htm

Then in the second year, women take the Secret Art of Ceremony class with Keeper, Cindy Mills, followed by monthly circles with Cindy, continued attendance at Full Moon Ceremony and Creation Meditation, and they prepare for their initiation as a Keeper, officiated by me at SpiritQuest. (For women outside the US other arrangements are made if attendance at SpiritQuest is not possible.)

The newly initiated Keepers are then invited to the Keepers Circle. We meet monthly over the phone to continue our exploration of personal development and service to men and women drawn to the Sacred Feminine. And we meet for a special day of training at our annual Women’s Retreat in the fall.

The two years of preparation give a potential new Keeper time to be sure that this path truly resonates and can be incorporated into one’s personal spiritual practice. This August, it is our time to begin preparing women to become Keepers. This is the appropriate time to let us know if:

1) you have been attending Full Moon Ceremonies and would like to begin studying officially as an apprentice or
2) you would like to make your commitment to attend Full Moon Ceremonies and Creation Meditations regularly in pre-apprenticeship.

How do you know if you are being called? It’s like a quiet whisper in the back of your mind that just doesn’t go away. It’s subtle, but it is insistent. If you think you might be called, please visit the web-page above and then e-mail us. We are ready to welcome you.

Father and the Sacred Masculine

2011-06-16T13:56:00.000-07:00

In Honor of the Men that Share Fatherly Love on Fathers Day

For a prayer honoring fathers visit: http://newdreamfoundation.com/forums/index.php/topic,1482.0.html

Sacred Father and the sacred nature of the masculine can end up getting a bad rap when you are longing to discover your Sacred Feminine. In choosing to know the feminine side of the Divine, it is possible to completely deny the masculine nature.

It is far too easy to view the energy of Sacred Father through wounded filters and think that we have an understanding. But all the while, we are really shaping God in our own limited and wounded likeness.

If the Sacred Feminine within us deserves better acknowledgement so does the nature of the Sacred Masculine.

Here are some perceptions that I believe fashion Sacred Father in limited views. When we believe God is punishing us, that is what we do as humans when we do not approve of someone’s choices. When we turn God into being only male, that is a reflection of our human experience of masculine and feminine as being in separate bodies. And when we perceive that God is judging our every choice as right or wrong, that is what we do as humans.

Talk to someone that has had a near death experience, and they describe the experience of being in the presence of the Divine as something beyond our human perceptions. They describe pure love, endless bliss, and profound peace.

Consider a perception of Sacred Father and Sacred Mother that is not dependent on limited human views or emotional woundedness.

If the spirit of Sacred Mother is like loving vast stillness of limitless space, pregnant with all the possibilities of life, then the spirit of Sacred Father is like the passionate expression of life—white light racing through the vastness of space—life longing to know itself.

Sacred Father is the pure expression of love, compelled to experience the limitless nature of itself—the limitlessness of what can be. The intentions of our souls are expressed through the inspiration of Sacred Father. Sacred Father reaches into the unknown with some aspect of self-awareness that is known. Like the super-nova, the Divine Father is so dynamic, vibrant and unable to be contained that he explodes in the expression of himself.

The Divine Father calls within us to explore, adventure, aspire and become. He calls to us to live life with zeal and intention. In his presence, we know that mediocrity is not the full expression of our life force.

In the presence of the Divine Father we know we must live in service, for to do any less would be to constrain the dynamic love of Father that courses through us. Generosity is his natural expression, for generosity is the manifestation of his unbridled love.

When the doubts, fears and concerns have dissolved, what emerges is the passionate release of life exploring itself—what we lovingly refer to as Sacred Father.

The spirit of Sacred Father flows through the arms of the loving fathers here on earth who wrap their arms around us, kiss us on our heads, and then release us to the world, telling us to fly. Fathers inspire us to experience life to its fullest.

Regardless of how well any earthly father has done with his role as father, part of our spiritual journey encompasses discovering the Sacred Father within us, allowing him to be fully alive in our world, through each of us that awakens to his presence.

As we enter this age when the Sacred Mother awakens in us, it is vital that we remember the true and loving nature of the Sacred Father, and that we discover his presence in his true limitless light. As we celebrate Fathers Day, let us remember to honor Sacred Father, and how his limitless love has inspired us to live fully during our time on earth.

Collective Awakening

2011-06-09T13:58:00.000-07:00

Lessons from the Aspens

Aspen trees are intriguing to me. Do you know that a grove of aspen trees shares a single root system? That’s right. These magnificent and unique trees share a root system through which they are nourished for greater growth.

Consider this definition from the Aspen Grove Project Organization, http://www.aspengroveproject.org/: The aspen grove is the world’s largest living organism. A single grove can grow large enough to cover an entire mountainside while the trees within the grove are interconnected through their shared root system. Each tree stands as an individual and at the same time is connected to the whole.

It sounds a lot like humanity doesn’t it? We are each so profoundly special and unique and yet we are part of a greater humanity.

For those of us that have been actively involved with our individual processes of conscious evolution, we can find ourselves experiencing peak mystical moments of conscious awareness that help us remember our true Divine nature.

Add up a few of those moments and you can find yourself motivated to continue your personal journey of awakening with passion and commitment. If you remain dedicated to your awakening, there is a point at which you realize the great awakening is when we all realize our Divinity from the very depths of our being.

Then at this juncture in the spiritual walk, you may find yourself committing to the service of a bodhisattva (one who dedicates their life, throughout lifetimes, in service to the enlightenment of all, so that the suffering of humanity might be alleviated).

Even if you don’t take the vows of a bodhisattva, somewhere deep within most of us know that true freedom occurs when we are all free. And the good news is that when we choose to attend to the evolution of our collective consciousness, we assist in the awakening of our unique selves along with humanity—because we are like the aspen trees.

In my training with my elder, I was taught to attend to my inner development while also growing with and being in service to my spiritual community. I now understand why my elder encouraged attention to growth personally and within community.

There is an evolution of consciousness that occurs with others that simply doesn’t happen in the same way when you are alone. Have you ever gotten up from your private meditation, centered in peace and harmony, to then interact with people around you that were not centered in peace? It’s challenging isn’t it?

Have you ever been with a group of people who were so centered and loving that in their presence you were able to heal old childhood or karmic wounds? Have you ever experienced a group meditation in which you were able to awaken in Divine awareness in ways you had not been able to awaken on your own? Have you ever experienced first hand the healing power of collective intention?

Years ago, I travelled through Egypt with a group of 300 psychics and intuitives. Between the land, the temples, the meditations and prayers, the consciousness of the people of Egypt, and the consciousness of the group I was with, I had multiple peak experiences day after day.

When I returned home, I was changed forever, with a level of awareness that carries me and sustains me even today. As the collective consciousness of the group awakened, so did I. And as one of us awakened so did the collective consciousness of the group.

For too much of my life, I was more concerned about how special I wanted to be. I wanted to be more conscious, more awake, a more powerful healer. It’s true. I was more concerned about my own awakening than I was about others, because I wanted to be special.

It took many years of diligent self-introspection to realize there is no difference. When one awakens, all awaken at some level. My elder helped me greatly when she said to me, “Misa, it can be very lonely being awake among those that are not awake.”

Now I know that true joy occurs when we all awaken. True joy is when we know we are all special—wonderfully special, and yet, we also share one root system—one source of life. We are unique and we are one.

This is one of the reasons I have been so dedicated to holding space for New Dream’s SpiritQuest, Rites of Passage Ceremonies, and Women’s Retreat. http://www.NewDreamFoundation.com. These are moments we create when, like the aspen trees, our individual and collective consciousness awaken together.

At New Dream we are here to support you in your individual awakening through the Sacred Feminine, and we are also here to hold space for our collective awakening. We look forward to your sacred revelations. Thank you for sharing this aspen grove with us.

Are You Defining Your Life By What You Are Not or What You Are?

2011-06-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

How often do you find yourself measuring the worth of your existence by what you have not yet accomplished?

I have a confession to make. This has been one of my biggest challenges—letting go of the self-critical voice that never seems to think I have accomplished enough. I’ve barely accomplished one task when my mind is already spinning on what is next.

The day I received my first copy of my book, The Root of All Healing, my husband took me out to dinner, reminding me to pause long enough to enjoy my accomplishment before launching into discussions about my many marketing ideas.

Having published several technology books, he knew all to well how easy it is to run right over the top of the present accomplishment in order to plan for the next one.

As we shared dinner together, we also reflected on how easy it is to get caught up in what we are not, whether we are talking about accomplishments, skills or simply how we are being.

Isn’t it easy to get hung up on the perception that we are not good enough in some way or another? And isn’t it all to easy to run right over the top of who we are in a quest to be better than we already are?

Many times I have been so busy in my life focusing on what I think I am not and have not accomplished that I missed the sweet essence of who I truly I am. In times of clarity, I realize I am not the sum total of what I have done, nor am I the sum total the moments I was able to simply be.

I simply am what I am. The only moment of awareness that counts is this moment—not what I was or did in the past, nor what I will do or will be in the future—just who I am right now.

When I sit in stillness, present to the aspects of myself that I think are lacking, I soon discover that those perceived lacks are actually pointing the way to who I really am.

Recently, I learned in a meditation that I have some spirochetes in my gut. These are tenacious little critters that burrow into cysts they have made whenever they feel a threat, like herbs that will kill them. So they are challenging to release from the body.

I immediately went to work with my Sound Medicine and was beginning to see some results, but the healing was moving too slowly for my taste. Instead of opening up in love to who I am, I was criticizing myself for not creating stronger or more accurate Sound Medicine for myself. I assumed my gift had weakened somehow. I was defining myself by what I perceived I was not.

What I have learned about my Sound Medicine is that, while it is healing me energetically, it often also leads me to healers and other solutions. A friend suggested in her healing process, she had opened up her consciousness to the remedy that would heal her health condition.

I listened carefully and decided to open up my field beyond my precious Sound Medicine. In meditation I asked for my perfect and right remedy. Minutes later I came out of my deep meditation fully aware that crop circles are healing symbols and I knew which one would help me with the spirochetes.

In just days I have seen dramatic results as I meditate with the crop circle and listen to my Sound Medicine. So what is the moral of the story for me? Well, I’m not an incompetent healer nor am I a great healer. I am not the sum of what I cannot do, nor am I the sum of my accomplishments.

I am simply a woman that chooses to heal with the gifts that live within and around me. I am a woman falling in love with my own Divine nature, and that nature is limitless. If I allow myself to surrender to who and what I truly am as a Divine being expressing herself in the Universe, then every moment is a moment to love.

In Divine love, there just isn’t much room for perceptions of criticism or inadequacy. There is no worth to my existence. There is only my existence and the freedom to choose how I would like to experience it.

One of the places I have learned to hold critical thoughts in love until they dissipate in the Divine love of who I truly am is at SpiritQuest. http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/spirit-quest.htm

At my very first quest I discovered that true spiritual liberation came with being willing to shed my self-criticism and allow my ego to rest so that the truth and mystery of Spirit could emerge through and around me. Since my first quest, I have discovered that being willing to enter into stillness and compassion is a choice to step into the wonder of the Sacred Feminine.

For one precious week per year, I immerse into the Sacred Feminine—by myself, with my community, with the spiritual ancestors, and with Mother Earth. I discover and I remember that who I am is vast and immeasurable, and that the love I am and can hold is endless.

The True Potential of Elderhood

2011-05-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

Why Some Men and Women Choose Elderhood Initiation

I looked forward to turning 50 for many years. Some of my friends thought that was a little strange, but something deep inside told me that I would just begin the greater part of my service for this planet in my 50’s.

Months after my 50th birthday, we created New Dream Foundation and over the past few years we have been growing in our awareness of New Dream’s true purpose and mission—awakening through the Sacred Feminine. This mission that I share with New Dream is one of three primary missions I will fulfill during the remainder of my life.

In a world that sees the role of growing older as becoming a retired senior with nothing to do but play cards and golf, because what you know is no longer relevant—the true potential of elderhood has become lost.

If we choose it, elderhood is our time to thrive. It is a time to be of greater service because we have the experience, and hopefully the wisdom, to do so. If we have been doing our spiritual work, we are more awakened and better able to lovingly hold space for the development of ourselves and others.

I do not believe society has imposed upon us a view of elderhood as being insignificant. We have allowed ourselves to become marginalized and forgotten. And we are the ones that can rise up to spread the wings of our full potential.

As I now understand the process of elderhood, I have observed three significant moments in the evolution of the self as an elder:

1. Acknowledging the gift of your accomplishments. Before moving on to greater service, it can be helpful to pause and reflect upon the lessons you have acquired throughout your years and the difference you have made in the lives of others. Acknowledging what you have done reminds you about how much you have to give and how much you have received, simply by being of service in the ways that are natural for you.

2. Letting go of the past and recognizing who you truly are. You are more than the sum of your actions, past and present. While it is good to acknowledge your accomplishments, it is also wonderful to make sure that there are no regrets from your past lingering in your subconscious that could self-sabotage your service as an elder. Regrets and resentments hold us in a limited state of self-awareness. Opening to elderhood consciously is an opportunity to let go of the pain from the past and surrender to the true loving and limitless nature of yourself as a Divine being.

3. Committing to the greatest expression of your life. Everything you have done has been preparing you for what you are here to do next. It doesn’t stop simply because you are receiving a pension, does it? You can feel it deep inside your bones. You came here to leave your legacy, so what is it that longs to be completed before you cross over? Each moment of life is getting you ready for your final breath here on earth, when you fully release into the love of the Divine. How would you like to prepare for that moment? What purpose or missions want to be fulfilled through you, so that you can leave satisfied and completely ready to transition?

If we are truly going to evolve our consciousness as a species, our evolution needs to exceed beyond retirement age. Each moment is a precious moment for our personal evolution and that of humanity’s.

Some of us choose to stimulate our conscious evolution through rites of passage ceremonies that help us shed our limited beliefs and open to the full recognition of who we are as Divine beings. It is simply too easy to get stuck in the same old patterns and routines, with the same conscious awareness we had the day before.

Rites of passage help us focus and attend to what is truly important. We willingly and actively become the agents of our own evolution by honoring the longing within to take more significant action in inspiring our self-awareness.

At SpiritQuest, we offer three types of elder recognition rites of passage ceremonies for women and men that long to inspire their journey:

1. Elderhood Acknowledgement for Women and Men. This is a simple ceremony dedicated to honoring your achievements. With this recognition ceremony you prepare by making your sacred staff, being prepared to share your talents and accomplishments with ceremonial attendees, and offering your vow of service as an elder of a community. Many choose to request a naming ceremony in conjunction with being recognized as a dedicated elder. This ceremony requires a minimum of one-month preparation.

2. Elderhood Quest for Women and Men. This recognition involves a traditional quest for your life mission, under the guidance of Reverend Misa at SpiritQuest, and monthly preparations with Elder, Reverend Ariann Thomas. You will be invited to make your elder staff and an optional personal medicine wheel. You also will be invited to make a commitment of service to your spiritual community and/or the SpiritQuest community, and be recognized by this same community. This rite of passage requires about one year in preparation.

3. Sacred Path of the Feminine Elderhood Quest. This recognition involves an apprenticeship and traditional quest for your life missions, under the guidance of Reverend Misa at SpiritQuest, and twice-monthly preparations with Elder, Ariann Thomas. You will be invited to make your elder staff and an optional personal medicine wheel. You will also be invited to make a commitment of service to your spiritual community and/or the SpiritQuest community, and recognized by this same community.

What makes this recognition unique is: 1) the depth of your relationship and commitment to the Sacred Feminine, 2) your commitment to the Path of the Sacred Feminine as a part of your spiritual practice and 3) your desire to become part of a Circle of Elders that support and sustain the practices within this path, and support each other in the fulfillment of their missions. This rite of passage requires about one year in preparation.

You can learn more information about these elderhood rites of passage ceremonies by visiting: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/quest-ceremonies.htm

This year at quest, there will be men and women committing to inspire their own awakening through elderhood rites of passage ceremonies. Many of us will proudly witness their commitments to themselves and their communities, knowing how blessed and fortunate we are to have elders that are willing to live the full expression of their consciousness and love.

Preparations for next year’s rites of passage begin this August, as soon as we return home from SpiritQuest. If you think an elderhood rite of passage could inspire you in your journey, you are welcome to attend this year’s SpiritQuest to support and witness the elders that will be making their elderhood vows. For many, witnessing is part of one’s own preparation.

To those of you that have done your rites of passage into elderhood, you have my deepest respect and gratitude. Thank you for your commitment to live and serve from the fullest expression of your being.

Honoring the Calling

2011-05-17T09:45:00.000-07:00

You can feel the call to attend a spiritual ceremony or event, but you can’t figure out how to finance it. Have you ever been in that position? I have. Many times. Sometimes I went and sometimes I stayed at home. Of course, many factors played a role in whether or not I attended, but as I reflect, I realize very often I was the biggest factor.

The biggest limiting factor for me was simple. I was often inclined to say to myself, “If Spirit really wants me to go, something will happen to make that possible.” Then nothing happened, so I told myself, “I wasn’t really supposed to be there.

Now there is a difference between wanting to attend something and a calling to attend. Callings pull at you and they don’t let go. For example, there are many places I want to visit on this planet during my lifetime. There have only been a few places that called to me. Callings have a deep and profound sense of urgency. Somehow you know your life is going to be different after you have been to that sacred land, sacred site or ceremony.

When I feel a calling, I’ve learned to trust that it is significant for my awakening. If I am telling myself, “If Spirit really want me to go, something will happen,” I’ve basically said, “It’s up to a power outside of me, and not Spirit within me.” In essence, I have already denied my awakening. I have not acknowledged the power of Spirit within me, and that is where awakening occurs. So of course, nothing happens.

When I have actually fulfilled my callings, here is what I did:

1) I was willing to completely trust in the significance of the calling;
2) I committed to being there by putting the date on my calendar and making plans;
3) I ask to be shown how to create the money;
4) I opened to Divine consciousness within me to work through my creativity and
initiative.

And I have learned to add one more step. This one I have learned from some beautifully prosperous and enlightened beings. I open my heart, intuition and consciousness to the Divine in the complete joy of surrender. Then I keep myself open and I keep surrendering.

The next step is to allow myself to be shown the best pragmatic steps to take to ensure I fulfill my calling. Some of my best teachers about the kind of practical steps people take to get to spiritual events have been those who attend SpiritQuest.

I remember calling my daughter last year to see if she and the kids were going to be attending Quest. She asked me if the sun shines and the rain falls. She fully intended to be there. What she didn’t tell me is that the car needed repair work before she was going to be able to make the drive.

She put in time late at night—after spending a full day at work, putting the kids to bed and doing her college homework—making tamales. People at work and in the neighborhood were glad to give her a few dollars for her trip in exchange for her mouth-watering tamales. The car was finished the morning she needed to leave for Quest and she had enough gas money to get them there and back. http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/spirit-quest.htm

I’ve watched people set money aside money each month, sell their photography at outdoor fairs, receive donations from friends, take an extra part-time job, offer readings to friends, save money for travel and request a scholarship, make arrangements to share travel costs with a friend, accept an extra client, clean houses, borrow camping gear, and do all kinds of things to make it possible to honor their calling.

People have amazed me with the creativity and commitment they demonstrate in getting themselves to sacred events. Their presence is an inspiration to all of us.

Now there is a challenge that comes up for many of us right before or as we are heading out the door to a spiritual event. Something happens to pull us away from the event. The car stops running. The flight gets cancelled or you miss the plane. A relative calls with an enticing offer to take a special trip somewhere else. The weather turns bad. You lose the directions. A family member gets sick.

These are all tests of your commitment to be there. They are reflections of the fear that comes up when you realize you are about to awaken to more of your true self and your life will never be the same. They are signals telling you about how significant this calling can truly be for you.

I’ve seen people step up to the test and arrive. I’ve seen people accept the temptation, calling it a sign that maybe they aren’t really supposed to be there. In my experience, if we are really not supposed to be somewhere, we know that from the very beginning. We realize we are trying to force something to happen because we think it should and that is not the same as following our true callings.

If our attendance is part of a calling and we are being challenged, we are looking for absolute commitment from ourselves. When the commitment is made, the universe supports us with the most amazing synchronicities.

Every now and then the universe provides us with a sliver of a moment when we are profoundly supported in experiencing the truth or our being. Those are callings and if we are courageous, we will honor them, and accelerate our awakening.

Mother and the Sacred Feminine

2011-05-05T12:45:00.000-07:00

In Honor of Women That Share Motherly Love on Mothers Day

She has nearly been forgotten, but not completely. Throughout history, she has been oppressed, repressed and suppressed, but she is still here. She is still here because she lives within you and me, and we have kept her sacred heart beating within us.

In giving her face and form, she once went, and still goes, by many names around the world—names of Goddesses, such as Ishtar, Isis, Shanti, Briget, Demeter, Mary, Tara, Fuji, Juno, Corn Maiden, Freya, Inanna, Spider Woman, Rhea, Imama, Ixchel, Anjeyja, Mawu, Baba Yaga, Pele, Kuan Yin, Asherah, Black Madonna and more.

We give her form in order to understand and love her, but truly she is formless. She is the vastness of space, and without end. She is limitless in her capacity to hold potential for life. She is as dark as the blackest night and the vessel of all life. She is slow and purposeful. Her movements must be with clear intent, because she is pregnant with the possibilities of life and when pregnant, one needs to be mindful of the life one is carrying.

Within her womb, Sacred Mother holds all potential of what life can be without judgment of anything being better than another. All life is precious within her vessel. And from her sacred womb, comes all life. We call the life that is born from her: super novas, stars, meteors, planets, light, water, fire, wind, minerals, crystals, animals, plants, and humans. Life as we know it—we are all her children.

She is the Sacred Feminine, the Mother of All Life. She is the sacred womb, the holy grail, the sacred cup. Her womb is reflected in the wombs of all women and the energetic wombs of men.

The Mother of All Life is calling to us. Can you hear her? In order for life on this planet to become the paradise that it can be, we must be willing to discover the womb of the Mother within us. We must call into very wombs of human existence—our fears, doubts, anger, hurt, sadness, jealousy—all of it, one issue at a time.

When life reaches out with its original intent to discover and express itself, mishaps occur along the way. We lose focus and bump into each other, so to speak, whether a meteor crashing into a planet, or a human idea clashing with another human idea. We create uncomfortable friction.

In order to reduce the friction, we hold the feelings that have arisen with compassion, so that the original, loving intent—the original creative force—can emerge once again, purified. Compassion is the great transformer. And an intent well-loved is less likely to crash into other things. Its course is more direct and more in harmony with all of life. (For a Sacred Feminine meditation for releasing pain and fear: http://newdreamfoundation.com/forums/index.php/topic,75.0.html)

Isn’t this exactly what happens in life when we are willing to listen without judgment, holding another in the heart of our compassion? Rough, painful edges are transformed through compassion. We feel born anew, able to engage the world with renewed hope and a desire to bring our love into the world. This is the magic of the limitless love of Sacred Mother.

She is there, beating in the hearts of mothers around the world and in the motherly love that we know how to hold for others. Regardless of how well any earthly mother has done with her role as mother, part of our spiritual journey encompasses discovering the Sacred Mother within us and allowing her to be fully alive in our world, through each of us that awakens to her presence.

This is a challenging task and some of us have done better than others in our earthly roles. Yet, because we are willing to assume the challenge, the Sacred Mother is still alive, remembering, awakening, and—heart by heart—holding the world in her limitless love.

This is the era of the re-emergence of the Sacred Feminine, and her love expressed through each of us is shaping the future of our existence. As we celebrate our mothers today, let us also remember to celebrate Her, our Sacred Mother, honoring her powerful and enduring presence within us all.

If you are curious about what it means to deeply explore the Sacred Feminine, discover The Path of the Sacred Feminine.

In Search of a Purpose

2011-04-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

Are you looking for your purpose for being? Are you hungry to know why you are here at this time of great change on the planet? Do you feel as though regardless of what you do, it may or may not make a big enough difference anyway? Do you ever feel as though humanity is in a downward spiral, so why get all invested in fulfilling a purpose?

Do you tell yourself, I’m here to love, and then leave it at that?

I’ve been privileged to support people in their vision or song quests for 15 years. I’ve also been providing Life Path readings to people looking for answers for the same amount of time. And I’ve made some discoveries.

We are all here to love, and each of us has a unique way in which we long to know and express that love. That longing is the impetus for the emergence of our purposes.

Most of us feel a bit daunted by the amount of greed, lies and abuses we experience on this planet. Many of us are disappointed that humanity, including ourselves, is not further along in the development of its collective consciousness.

Yet, if you have taken the time to read this article, you care deeply about yourself, humanity and the planet. A significant part of you wants to hope.

Now, here is something else I have learned. Hope springs from your willingness to share your gifts and talents, regardless of what is happening around you. Your purpose emerges naturally in the expression of your most profound gifts. Recognize and apply your talents in a dedicated and committed manner (especially when things get tough), and you become hope for yourself and those around you.

Another way in which you can better know and understand your purpose is to give yourself permission to eliminate the distractions in your life and really listen to Spirit, in whatever way you know Spirit.

This is why people decide to do vision quests or song quests. They are choosing to enter into the silence in order to witness themselves within the web of the Divine, and discover their place within it. Choosing to quest is a significant commitment to becoming hope in the world.

In the form of quest that I offer, people that are not questing but want to support are invited to join together to hold space for those that are questing. In holding space for another, you become the very essence of the Sacred Feminine, for it is the nature of the Sacred Feminine that lovingly holds “what is” in the still space of love.

As the community holds this space together, we experience ourselves as a microcosm of the macrocosm. In our loving arms, our collective consciousness is repairing our wounds from the past and embracing the precious nature of our gifts and our very existence.

As community, we agree to become a sacred vessel, through which we heal ourselves, and remember our nature as a joyful vibration of loving family. In becoming a true loving microcosm of humanity, we affect all of humanity. If our consciousness as humanity has any hope of significant evolution, it will certainly take place as each individual evolves, but it is catapulted when communities evolve.

Quest creates a balance between the individual quest for personal purpose and the community’s quest for collective purpose. Both are equally important in conscious awakening. What we have discovered at our quests is that abuses from our families of origin heal. Because we feel more whole, we awaken to a greater sense of our purpose and our desire to share our gifts and our hope with those that cross our paths. For more information about SpiritQuest, visit: http://www.NewDreamFoundation.com

It is true that each person’s purpose is to love. I believe the greater question is this: How will I serve humanity and the planet with the love that I am?

Living a Joyful Life

2011-04-21T17:55:00.000-07:00

Before my father died I asked him what he thought his purpose here on earth was about. Thoughtfully he said, "I came here to suffer for the people." He was a devout Catholic, with a deep love for Jesus, but that was not an answer I was expecting.

There was a time when I would have thought my father was crazy, but I understood what he was saying. I didn’t respond out loud, only nodded my head, as I thought about Native brothers and sisters I knew who were sun dancers, dancing for exactly that same reason that my father lived—suffering consciously and transcending suffering, so that others would not have to suffer at all.

With a wife that was ill most of her life, I now wonder how much of my mother’s suffering my father quietly took on in order to reduce her burden. I think about my mother’s Cherokee heritage and our ancestors’ suffering in the forced march we call the Trail of Tears, where nearly one-quarter of the tribe died in freezing winter snows.

Genocide, torture and persecution are rampant in our history and our current human condition. My heart aches for people held in slavery and people around this world who suffer or lose their lives at the hands of others.

At this time of year, I think about the Jewish people that have been persecuted throughout history, and the significance of Passover in the preservation of life and promise of freedom. I consider Jesus’ powerfully loving transformation of suffering, and the women and men burned at the stake that made the final moments of their lives offerings to God. I reflect upon the life of Buddha who made it his life’s work to transcend suffering and teach others how to do the same.

How many times, I wonder, has someone like my father offered their suffering as a gift, so that no one else would ever have to suffer again? And yet, do we allow ourselves to become free from suffering?

Some time after my father’s death, as I was considering how my father’s mission continued to influence my life, I asked myself these questions, “Are you willing to receive his gift? Are you willing to live life without suffering and accept the joy that is yours to know?”

I understand there will be some suffering in my life. When someone I love dies, I cry. When I injure myself physically it hurts. When people are harmed, I ache for them. Suffering is part of being human. But do any of us have to suffer as much as we do?

Shortly after asking myself if I was willing to receive the gift that comes when suffering is transformed, I started making different choices for myself. Receiving the gift honors the lives of those that have already made the sacrifices, and embraces life as we long for it to be—joyful!

I laugh more and judge less. I wake up and go to bed happy. I am grateful for each small gift and the beauty of each day. I discovered that joy is choice, not something that happens when everything is just right.

When there is suffering, I can be in compassion for others and myself, knowing that my compassion opens a doorway to greater peace and joy. I can choose to do what is right, even if it is difficult, and be joyful in the fulfillment of my choice. I can decide to open my heart each day to experience the wonder of the Mystery unfolding before and within me.

I invite you to join me in living a joyful life—to receive the gift that has been intended for us through the prayers and sacrifices of so many loving people. We fulfill their legacies when we allow ourselves to live a fulfilled life—when we choose to live a joyful life.

What Quest Can Do for You During a Time of Planetary Unrest

2011-04-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

At least in the United States, it has been my observation that we tend to wait for crisis before we fully open our hearts in the stillness and love of the Sacred Feminine, and then embody the Sacred Masculine by making the necessary changes that create peaceful existence for ourselves.

Too many times in my own life, I have waited until I could bear no more pain before I took the difficult steps required to lay down my self-inflicted burden. Finally, after being shown a different way to approach growth, I realized that ceremony was a way to truly meet oneself as an individual and as a member of community and lay down my fears and suffering before they consumed my life.

During this period of great planetary awakening, we can choose to continue waiting for painful catalysts to launch us in our journey of self-awareness or we can choose to enter sacred space and willingly surrender our fears. At SpiritQuest, we stop waiting and consciously open to the truth of our divinity.

We do this by taking our deepest wounds, fears and perceived enemies to the sacred fire that burns 24 hours per day throughout the entire week. Some have been preparing for this past year to quest alone on the Mother in order to awaken their Divine awareness and shed the limits that keep them bound in human reaction.

Those of us that choose to attend in support of our questers ride on the currents of the ceremonies and the questers’ commitments to awakening, so that we might also shed our limited perceptions—opening to our limitless capacity to love—even those people or institutions that challenge our inherent goodness and values.

Whether your challenges are parents that abused you as a child, GMO crops, global warming, IRS abuse, extinction of wildlife, physical illness or disabilities, loss of our forests, wars for political or monetary gain, empathic sensitivity, violation of civil or human rights, genocide, discrimination, critical or abusive family members, polluted water, excessive use of oil, planetary depopulation agendas, government policies that effect your food, health, and freedoms, or cataclysmic earth changes—here at quest we take our challenges to the Sacred Fire to release our burdens. http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/spirit-quest.htm

Our challenges and perceived enemies are resistances to harmony, and at their core are reflections of our individual and collective fears. So during quest, we individually and collectively surrender our fears to the greater wisdom of the Divine. In the surrender, we discover the truth of who we really are—again individually and collectively—and in that truth we are free from the weight of our burdens.

For some years, I believed that surrendering and opening individually was enough, but through the grace of ceremonies themselves, I have discovered that there is another level of awareness that opens to us when we surrender and open with others. Because our collective consciousness creates much of the reality we now experience on earth, our collective consciousness is required to mitigate the damage our fears have created, and ultimately co-create a vision of compassion, truth and peace.

Of course, as many of us already know, our individual work is important, as witnessed at quest by our questers’ choice to sit quietly on the Mother alone, being present to the Divine within and around them. The sacred fire becomes the heartbeat of our community, as each person creates time for quiet contemplation at the fire.

Many of us in our own daily lives have been called to individual awakening through private meditation, various forms of healing therapies, and personal ritual. We instinctively know the importance of the personal journey.

Yet, don’t we also sense that in order for full conscious evolution to occur on this planet, we need to participate in collective awakening? Notice how we receive more e-mails calling us to gather together, focusing our loving and healing attention for explicit purposes on designated dates at specific times. This is the call of the collective.

At SpiritQuest, we acknowledge both forms of conscious awakening—individual and collective. There is a great spiritual doorway that opens when we gather in prayerfulness, honoring the journey of the individual and the community in surrendering to the Divine nature of ourselves, Mother Earth, and the many Mysteries of creation.

This is the doorway we open at quest. We bring our blessed unrest to the sacred fire, holding it in compassion until we are at peace. We live in community with the beautiful people called to be at quest and Mother Earth, changing the dysfunctional patterns we may have adopted. Simultaneously, we awaken to a deeper relationship with the Mother, shedding our fears of the woods, the night, and the animals as we find our natural rhythm with her divinity.
http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/spirit-quest.htm

This is the doorway, we invite you to enter. Bring your loving heart and open mind, and give your unrest to the sacred fire. Then watch as you awaken to yourself, your community, Mother Earth, and the Great Mystery itself.

Volunteering—A Way to Play

2011-04-07T18:03:00.000-07:00

While Supporting People Who Care About the Sacred Feminine

I grew up thinking volunteering was where you got to play, so I’ve been volunteering most of my life. My volunteer activities were where I got to do what I loved for something I believed in, while enjoying new experiences with people that shared common interests, and without the pressures that can come with a job. For me, that’s a way to play.

I started volunteering when I was a kid. In fact, my whole family volunteered, primarily for our church. My parents had a strong belief that when a group gives something valuable to you that you enjoy receiving, it is appropriate to give something back. My family didn’t have a lot of money, so we gave what we could afford and then gave even more in time and energy.

My entire family sang and most of us played guitar, so you could find my brothers and sister and I singing in, and eventually leading, the folk group at church. Later that experience turned into paid work as a vocalist at weddings, and those experiences gave me the courage to become a stage actress.

When I became a special education teacher, I volunteered some of my time to help non-profits create education programs. Later I leveraged my teaching skills along with the volunteer experiences to land a job where I created a comprehensive education program for an expanding organization.

The marketing skills I learned while I was creating the education program combined well with volunteer marketing work for theater and dance companies to help me acquire a better paying job a few years later.

More than once in my life, simply volunteering to do something I loved turned into experience that helped me create income later on. I didn’t choose to volunteer just to get job experience, but it always seemed to happen. The skills that I learned volunteering have helped me: 1) acquire jobs; 2) qualify for better paying positions; or provided me with 3) skills for running my own business.

And I all I had to do was play!

When someone talks to me about volunteering at New Dream Foundation, we begin the conversation by discussing what they enjoy and what they hope volunteering might do for them. I know that if someone is going to enjoy their time at New Dream, they need to feel like they are playing, at least most of the time. Then we talk about what we need at New Dream and how that might be a source of fulfillment for you.

One of our volunteers started her business by first volunteering here at New Dream and then used her results to attract clients. That really tickled me because years ago I read about a consultant that started his business by doing volunteer work for major corporations. All he wanted in return were some stellar recommendations from the CEOs if the companies were satisfied with his work. Within months, he had written recommendations from industry leaders that he shared with potential new clients. With those credentials, he had no problem acquiring paying clients in major industries.

Clever eh?

Staff and other volunteers are typically very pleased when a volunteer steps in to help. They know you don’t have to be there, so you and your work are usually met with a lot of praise and gratitude. Now, if you are doing something you really love, you don’t usually need a lot of kudos, but it is nice to know you are appreciated, isn’t it?

I find it very easy to write a strong recommendation about a volunteer’s contributions because if you are giving from your strengths, your work is going to be good. If you are learning something new to help us and yourself, then you are demonstrating tremendous initiative and that is worth gold in today’s job market. Learn more about how this works at:
http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/volunteering.htm

Most of all, there is a tremendous satisfaction in knowing that you played a role in furthering something important to you. New Dream exists because people of various skills came together, each contributing with joy what time and talent we could because we believed in creating together something bigger than we could do alone.

We believe that the world needs the Sacred Feminine if it is going to evolve beautifully into its next level of conscious living. The Sacred Feminine will become a part of planetary consciousness if we allow ourselves to awaken to the divine nature of the feminine within us and then create the circles that hold space for others. New Dream is one of those circles.

Whether your idea of play is dancing, writing music, shooting a film, organizing people or events, developing websites, raising money, planting gardens, or solving problems, there is probably a way in which New Dream can help you realize your passions as you help us realize our mission.

If you have been looking for a place to meet people of like-heart, go deeper into the Sacred Feminine, make a difference in the world, and play…we would love to discover you…and welcome you as a New Dream Volunteer.

I suggest you begin by getting acquainted with some of the areas in which we would love to experience your volunteer assistance. http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/volunteer-opportunities.htm

Supporting What Spiritually Supports You

2011-03-31T14:44:00.000-07:00

By guest writer, Reverend Ariann Thomas, NDF President

Last in a 3-Part Series on Prosperity

I hope that as you read Andrea and Reverend Misa’s articles on the gift of giving you were as inspired as I was. As Andrea said, when we release that which is holding us back we receive a healing by allowing new energy to flow into our lives.

When it comes to money, most people hold onto money because of the fear of lack, particularly in today’s economy. When we give money, we open ourselves to the flow of the Universe to receive money or other forms of abundance.

The act of giving itself grants spiritual nourishment since we are opening our heart to the flow of Spirit in whatever form is best for us at the moment and in the future. Giving is an act of trust in Spirit.

Where we give our resources tells Spirit what is important to us. If we give to what nurtures us spiritually, then Spirit understands we seek support in our life’s work. Spirit will flow into our lives to fill us with what we need financially, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

If you attend the New Dream Foundation’s tele-ceremonies, tele-meditations, classes or are encouraged and inspired by Reverend Misa’s writing, then by giving to the foundation you are supporting your spiritual foundation in this lifetime. Giving a regular tithe to a teacher or spiritual center wherein you've received spiritual food is one of the most fundamental laws of abundance and a way that we can give thanks for the love, healing, and guidance Spirit has sent to us through this representative. Making such donations also allows our mind to learn the concept of expanding our prosperity by giving and trusting that "As we give, so shall we receive...and ten-fold."

We only ask for direct contributions once a year. These donation pay for our operating costs which have previously have been paid for by the Trustees and Officers of the New Dream Foundation, such as the fees for the web site, hosting, internet, telephone lines, auto-responder, corporate filing, mail box, office supplies, domain names, bank fees and other ongoing expenses. Reverend Misa does not get paid for the ceremonies or meditations she facilitates regularly.

We are also grateful for our wonderful volunteers without whom we would not be able to offer the service we do. The New Dream Foundation would like to continue to offer these services and expand our offerings in the future with your contributions.

Please Donate to New Dream Foundation.

At this time there are several ways you can give to the New Dream Foundation by making a:

—Single donation of any amount
 —Automatic monthly donation 
—Purchase of classes endorsed or offered by New Dream
 —Booking a Celtic Mystical Journey through the link on the New Dream home page
—Donation of stocks, bonds, life insurance policies or make a gift in your estate.

We Are Grateful
In gratitude for your generosity and to open the flow of prosperity in your lives, we are offering these bonuses for our donors from New Dream members and friends:

$1-$24
 Transform Your Beliefs, audio recording  with Wealth Coach, Nan Akasha  

$25-50
 Receive Nan's recording and  Prosperity and You!audio recording  with Energy Worker, Krystalya Marie   

$51-100
 Receive two prior recordings and  How to Thrive as a Spiritual Entrepreneuraudio recording  with Law of Attraction Specialist, Andrea Conway  

$101-499
 Receive three prior recordings and audio recordings: Creating Prosperity While Helping Others  with attorney, Ariann Thomas   and Awaken Your Riches  with Prosperity Expert, Dr. Tianna Conte

$500 +
Receive a special gift intuitively selected
just for you.

Special Bonus!
The person who makes the largest donation will receive:  Awaken Your Riches A free copy of the new movie “Awaken Your Riches,” with Rev. Michael Beckwith, T. Harv Eker, Mark Victor Hansen, Martin Dunkerton and co-star and producer Dr. Tianna Conte. After watching the movie you will also, receive one free 30 minute private session with Dr. Tianna, where together you will explore the parts of the movie that spoke to you and discover how to apply the principle to your life.

Thank you for being a member of the New Dream Foundation Family. We are happy you have found a spiritual home with us. With your contribution we will continue to serve you with heart-felt programs based in the Sacred Feminine drawing people from all spiritual traditions into one global community for the healing of the planet. Go here now to engage your prosperity flow by supporting what supports you: http://newdreamfoundation.com/member-donations.htm

New Dream—Giving to What We Believe In

2011-03-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

Second in our Three-Part Focus on Prosperity Series

NDF Treasurer Judy Cole delivering New Dream check to Canton Rotary

I truly appreciated Andrea’s Article last week on Giving, Receiving, and the Law of Attraction. It is so good for me to be reminded from time to time that if there is something I want to receive in the world, I can choose to set the energy in motion by giving, freely and lovingly, and without attachments, what I most want to receive.

As I was contemplating what I wanted to write about in our three-part prosperity series, I decided to share with you the ways in which New Dream has been able to give money to other charities. Like most non-profits, we ask people to donate, so that we can continue providing service that is meaningful. Since we don’t meet needs that most granting agency consider significant, we rely on class registrations and private donations.

So we are used to asking, but we also know that it is important to give what you want to receive, so our trustees and officers do their best to contribute to NDF monetarily as well as with time and energy. And because of contributions we have received, we are all delighted that we have twice been able to make financial contributions to other non-profits, further contributing to the difference being made in the world.

Planting Trees—Off-setting Our Carbon Footprint
Our Mother suffers and so do we with the vast numbers of trees that are stripped from our forests. Trees play a vital role in the water cycle of the planet, our ability to breathe and they reduce sound pollution. Although New Dream has only two events per year, one of our Spirit Council members reminded us that we are leaving behind a carbon footprint every time someone drives or flies to an event. He wisely suggested we make a contribution that would offset any damage we have done.

We elected to give to an organization that plants trees. A percentage of every registration fee for SpiritQuest is now set aside for a donation to the Adopt a Village Program. As President, we invited Reverend Ariann to choose the location last year, and prior to the earthquake, she intuitively chose Haiti. That means that once the devastation was over, our dollars went to help reforest the island. We were so excited when we realized how her guidance had led us to the perfect choice and it felt great to know we had made a tangible difference!

Providing Pure Drinking Water in El Salvador
Every month at our ceremonies, we bless the water of this planet. If humanity did one thing that would make the most significant difference for this planet, we would bless the water with our love, because water exists in all life on our beautiful Mother Earth. When we bless the water, we bless the Mother that sustains us and every living creature.

Take a prayer of blessing, mix it with a bunch of love, and put your prayer into action, and you have loving expression. That’s what we did this year by making a contribution to the Canton, Michigan’s Rotary Club’s water project in El Salvador.

We were truly pleased to make a contribution to a project that will provide a solar powered ultra-violet purification system, purifying water for two villages, El Roble and Palo Grande, and serving just under 1,000 people. Complete with an education program, villagers will be trained in proper hygiene, ensuring that the benefits of pure water make a significant health difference in their lives. Discover more about this wonderful project at: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/service-projects.htm

New Dream was able to make this contribution through a generous grant from the Lawrence Foundation, and we are grateful to have been both the recipients and donors.

Spending Our Dollars or “Votes” Wisely
An economics professor once said, “Your dollars are your votes. Spend them wisely.”

I think about that when I receive a request for money. “Do I believe in this?” I ask myself. “Do I derive benefit or does someone I care about, and is this something I want to vote for with my dollars?”

New Dream does not have a fat bank account by any stretch of imagination. But it made me proud, when our SpiritQuest Council and New Dream officers voted with our dollars, deciding to financially support these two wonderful projects. These were acts of giving freely. We gave without expectation of receiving anything in return—simply for the joy of giving to what we believe in—for the opportunity to walk our talk, because Prayers+Action=Love.

And the giving goes on! A special gift for you! Make the largest donation to New Dream between now and April 3rd and receive a free copy of the new movie “Awaken Your Riches”, with Rev. Michael Beckwith, T. Harv Eker, Mark Victor Hansen, Martin Dunkerton and co-star and producer Dr. Tianna Conte. After watching the movie you will also, receive one free 30 minute private session with Dr. Tianna, where together you will explore the parts of the movie that spoke to you and discover how to apply the principle to your life. http://newdreamfoundation.com/member-donations.htm

Giving, Receiving, and the Law of Attraction

2011-03-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

by Guest Writer, Andrea Conway, Law of Attraction Business Coach

First of our Three-Part Focus on Prosperity Series

Most of us grew up hearing. "It's far better to give than to receive." But have you ever wondered why? It sounds like a simple reminder to share our blessings with others. Important as that is, what if there's more to the story?

Law of Attraction teaches that we receive what we expect, believe, and focus on. It also teaches that if we don't like what we receive,
we have the spirit-given free will to change our expectations, beliefs and focus – and receive differently.

In other words: we can change what we give out to the universe in order to receive what we prefer.

Giving and receiving always work in pairs – more about that in a moment.

As healers of our own lives, most of us have discovered that we receive a healing when we release the emotional and mental patterns that contribute to our dis-ease. This release usually takes place outside of the physical plane, but our bodies undeniably receive the benefits.

You might be wondering what you "gave" in order to receive a healing. Most likely it was something you "gave up" – a way of thinking that no longer served you.

Giving and receiving

Giving and receiving together complete a cycle. They appear to be opposites, but from a higher perspective they work together as the negative and positive polarities of what we might call "divine flow."

Naturally, for flow to occur, both giving and receiving have to happen, and we humans are wired with the capacity to experience both.

So why are we taught it's better to give?

My theory is: in giving we make the conscious choice to participate in "divine flow."

As I understand it, the universe creates and sustains all life – we are endlessly blessed by its gifts – there's nothing we have to do to "deserve" divine love. But when we exercise our spirit-given choice to give, we consciously express our personal alignment with the universe.

According to the Law of Attraction, the more we align with the universe, the more of its grace and abundance we're able to receive.

By making the conscious choice to give first, we become vehicles for divine grace to flow through us to others. At the same time, we expand our own capacity to receive – and expand our capacity to give even more.

Perhaps the real reason it's more blessed to give than to receive is that giving is a choice. It's not a requirement. Choosing to give – especially when it's not easy or convenient – means we choose to believe in our spiritual connection instead of in the world's messages of fear and scarcity.

Give out, give up, give in, give . . . whatever words we use, the energy involves letting go of those things we tend to clutch: our habitual thoughts, self concepts, behavioral habits, time, money . . .

In making the very individual, often very uncomfortable, choice to give, we initiate a new cycle of giving and receiving. The more of us who make that choice, the greater the divine flow that surrounds all beings with love, grace, healing, and prosperity.

For our Focus On Prosperity series, you can listen to a fabulous interview with Andrea where she gives some valuable insights about today's economy and prosperity, when you make donation to New Dream. Find out more about how you can support the dream to awaken the Sacred Feminine within us all: http://newdreamfoundation.com/member-donations.htm

Quieting the Mind to Access Intuition

2011-03-10T17:30:00.000-08:00

If it is important to you to be able to trust your intuitive insights, you will find it easier to trust messages that come from a quiet mind. If your mind is full of chatter, it is difficult to tell which messages are thoughts floating through for consideration and which of those thoughts might actually be an intuitive message. Busy minds clutter the arena and make it difficult or even impossible to notice knowledge that is coming from your Divine inner knowing.

Many of us understand the benefits of having a quiet mind. We realize that we would be likely to experience greater peace, better sleep, more rest and ease in our bodies, ready access to intuitive wisdom, clarity regarding our choices, even complete awakening. But getting to that quiet place that is an immense challenge for many of us. What makes it challenging? In my own experience it was a fear of what I would encounter if I allowed myself to become that still.

In my book, The Root of All Healing,I recount my first experience with meditation. I thought it would be no sweat at all to sit still for 20 minutes. “What’s the big deal,” I thought. Then I sat down and nearly went crazy for five minutes. I had no idea how busy my mind and body had become. No wonder I was confused, frustrated, and depressed in my life. Until that moment, I had not given myself an opportunity to get quiet enough inside to experience inner tranquility.

It was many months before I had a breakthrough experience that solidified the importance of meditation. The same, irritating thought kept swirling around in my mind. So I let it spin over and over again in a rush of energy that finally became a tornado around me. There I was in the serene silence with this noise racing around me. Finally the racing stopped. I was clear. And I was free.

Something deep inside me knew that such serenity existed. Something more within me knew that opening fully was going to require dedication. I was going to have to learn how to sit with my thoughts and my emotions until the silence was more appealing than the commotion.

In the silence intuition can speak most clearly. When we are not attached to any outcome, and when we are willing to accept what is the greatest truth, intuition—our conduit to the Divine—emerges clearly. In that moment, we have a profound awareness that the truth we are experiencing is much more than a thought traveling through, but rather Divine insight, and therefore we can completely trust the wisdom flowing through.

Consider what you might already be doing in your life to help yourself find that space of inner stillness. Do you have a habit of grabbing a cup of tea or coffee in the morning and sitting quietly to watch nature begin its day? Do you love to lay out under the sun in the summer, while all your thoughts drift away leaving only you, the glorious sun, and Mother Earth beneath you? Do you find yourself becoming serene and quiet whenever you build and tend a fire? Do you come home from work, and immediately put on some music that carries you away from the work of the day and into a more restful state of mind? Do you go for a run and let life melt off your body with every stride?

Now consider something you have not yet done, but have been curious about, that you believe would help you grow even more still inside. Write it down and then put it on your calendar. Pick any day and commit to engaging in one new activity with the intention of experiencing even greater serenity and stillness of mind.

Getting to that place of inner silence is a journey, and for busy-bodies like I was, an arduous one. However, I know from my own experience that it is very much worthwhile. Having access to my intuition for healing insights, career choices, guidance in my relationships and the delight of discovering the beauty of my awakened self has made every itchy minute sitting cross-legged on the floor worth the effort.

Intuition is more than a handy tool. It is direct access to Divine wisdom living inside of you. Intuition is a gift from the Sacred Feminine, the receptive, loving place within that accepts life as it is, and the place from which we can know what constitutes wise action. Once you know that quiet, loving place, trusting intuition will no longer be an issue.

The Sacred Feminine and Women’s Emergence

2011-03-04T09:58:00.000-08:00

 International Women’s Day—March 8

Can you see it? It’s already happening. We call it by many names: emotional intelligence, intuitive leadership, emotional IQ, creative expression, intuitive wisdom, and social intelligence. They are all great descriptors for what some of us call the Sacred Feminine. At the root of these expressions, you will find empathy, compassion and creativity—hallmarks of the Feminine. Indeed, the Sacred Feminine is emerging, and this sacred energetic force must come forward if we are to continue our evolution as a species.

Why is the Sacred Feminine so important? Intuition and creativity come from an intelligence of the heart that complements the intelligence of the mind. The rise of the Sacred Feminine is a reminder that the heart is as important in the decisions we make as the mind. Can we find heart-centered wisdom in the Sacred Masculine? Absolutely. Meditate with the light of creation and there you are in the center of the Sacred Masculine, filled with holy bliss and Divine energy overflowing from the core of your being. There is a great deal of heart in the Sacred Masculine.

That said, when the Sacred Masculine is interpreted in human context and application as a function of mind and logic, without heart, we lose sight of the true sacred essence of the masculine. Without heart, we excuse our abuses. Without heart, we excuse our greed. I’m not speaking about healthy prosperity here. I’m referring to the kind of greed that compels us to fulfill our own desires at the grave expense of others and without consideration for our planet.

The Sacred Feminine is emerging through us at this moment in history so that the intelligence of our hearts will be restored in our human consciousness. If we continue our existence allowing greed and abuse to rule our lives, we will eventually abuse ourselves right into extinction. Heart wisdom reminds us that we all come from the same Source and therefore are all of noble and sacred birth. Heart wisdom reminds us that compassion before action leads us to more well-considered and effective decisions, intended to benefit everyone in the short-term as well as long-term.

Consider this perspective from a report by Clare Hedin at www.clarehedin.com/projectswritings/pdfs/ScienceIntuitiveWisdom.pdf:

If we don’t pay attention to the feelings of the heart, then we are more likely to operate out of a paradigm of a purely ‘head-oriented wisdom’ which, by tradition, tends to be very analytical, and potentially dangerous; since it is based on reason and logic but not heart wisdom. This wisdom is entirely sequence-based, meaning it is based on results not consequences. This is a completely different kind of wisdom than that of the heart. Its intelligence is not informed from as many deep, collective levels as the heart’s. Thinking needs to be informed by the heart in a very deep way in order to be safe, effective and profound.

We women are the primary carriers of Sacred Feminine wisdom. A woman in emotional balance that is pregnant loves the child in her womb, without consideration about whether the child is good or bad. The child is the life of the Divine being born through a human body. A mother loves her child simply because the child exists. When a mother loves her child, she loves the very life-force of the Divine.

When a mother is emotionally clear, she loves her child regardless of the choices they make. A mother may not approve of a choice. She may even need to set boundaries regarding the child’s behavior. She may become exasperated, frustrated, and even worn out by a child’s choices, but she still loves. When a mother takes the time to listen to her child with empathy, the child has an opportunity to realize the greater truth behind their fears and hopes. When a mother guides her child from the basis of her compassion, she encourages her child to discover what serves themselves and others with regard for the highest good of all concerned. A mother nurtures a child’s hopes, dreams and talents because these are the gifts of the Divine presence longing to emerge.

Women that have not given birth, as well as men, understand the power of the Sacred Feminine through their work and their creations when they open to empathy, listening, stillness within, compassion, intuition, creativity, and equal regard for all life. These are fundamental qualities of the Sacred Feminine that exist within each of us.

We as women are emerging in our sacred wisdom because the planet and humanity need us to do so. Many of us feel the calling within our bones. We long for a deeper understanding of what the Sacred Feminine feels like energetically within our bodies. We wonder how we can experience it more deeply through our visions and our dreams. And finally, we want to know how we can express this profound energy in a meaningful way in the world. It is a deeply challenging process, requiring tremendous commitment and consistent, sustained effort if we are to emerge fully as our sacred selves.

At New Dream, I see women around the globe making the commitment, staying true to their callings. I witness women, honoring the wisdom of their minds, but also discovering and honoring the wisdom of their hearts. Women are emerging and the wisdom we bring to the world is the perfect offering—the perfect gift—for the evolution of humanity.

Climate Control—The Mind and Weather

2011-02-24T18:24:00.000-08:00

These days we talk about how our thoughts affect everything from prosperity to losing weight, but have you thought about how your thoughts affect the weather? I know some of us consider weather control to be the purview of the Divine or shamans, but I’m convinced we all play a role. I didn’t quite understand this connection until I had several experiences many years ago that taught me how profound this connection can be.

I was visiting Colorado’s Mesa Verde, which was once the home of the Pueblo people for over 700 years. I had not yet arrived at any of the cliff dwellings. I was simply driving across the mesa, when I suddenly was overwhelmed in sorrow. Those of you who are empathic know what I’m talking about. It is as though the emotion comes out of nowhere. As I opened my mind to the source of this sorrow, I could feel and see scenes of a great war that had taken place across this vast stretch of flat land. For whatever reason, the pain and loss of that war still lingered in the land. And I cried the unshed tears.

The moment the tears began falling from my eyes, it began to rain. The harder I cried, the harder the rain fell. I wept for hours, until I finally pitched my tent in a campground to rest because I was emotionally exhausted. The moment I crawled into the tent and my tears stopped, and so did the rain.

Just weeks after my journey to the mesa, I had a similar experience at home. I felt the pain of people in my life and gave in to experiencing the deep sorrow that longed to be acknowledged in compassion. As my eyes gave way to tears, the clouds gave way to rain. Again, it rained as long as I cried and when I was finished a rainbow graced the sky, testament to the light and love I was feeling when the purification was complete.

As if to put punctuation in my heart and mind on this profound relationship we have with the Mother, I had another experience with the rain and the Mother Bowl we use for our women’s ceremonies in the Sacred Feminine. I was cleaning out the bowl and getting her ready for ceremony, when I wondered if there might be a connection between all of the unusual winter rain we had been receiving in Sedona that year and the fact that I had just moved to that area with the bowl and its ceremonies. The Sedona area had been in a draught for many years, and after relocating the bowl to the area, the local creek filled to the brim.

When it was time for women gathered at my house, we started indoors with a talking circle and when we were ready for the water ceremony, we put on our coats and wraps to go outside with the bowl and the moon. As the last woman stepped over the threshold onto the patio, it began to pour down rain. The drenching rain then turned into hail as we completed our rites. We dashed inside for cover and as the last woman crossed the threshold into the house, the rain stopped sharply. It did not taper off. It stopped suddenly.

I laughed out loud at the answer I had received to my question. Indeed, our thoughts and our prayers have a direct relationship on the weather, and not just rain. I live in Colorado now and I was recently educated by one of the foresters in the area that the mountains here need heavy snow in order to protect our beloved pine trees from the devastation of the pine beetle and the summer fires. Snow pack melts more slowly into the soil, giving the trees enough moisture over time to protect them from beetle infestation and fire. However, when there is little snow or rain instead of snow, the soil becomes dry too fast, making the trees vulnerable. You can see acres of trees that have been destroyed in the Rocky Mountains.

When I still myself to pray for the snow that our trees need, I can feel huge resistance to my prayer. It is human resistance. It seems a lot of people in this area want it to be sunny and dry year-round. This is understandable. Snow and ice make driving dangerous and causes our heating bills to go up. And for some, it’s just not as pleasant as the sunshine. But there is a price Mother Earth and we are paying for our indulgence. We are losing our trees.

Of course, there are many weather influencers, and we have control over one of them—ourselves. We have influence over our thoughts and desires, which indeed affect the weather we experience and the backlashes that are created when our desires and thoughts are not in alignment with all of nature’s needs.

If we are true to the Sacred Feminine, as we think about and pray for the weather we want, we will also take into consideration the needs of our Mother Earth. We will allow ourselves to being in loving peace with whatever weather is presenting itself, because all weather is an expression of life in the Divine. In the Sacred Feminine, we hold all weather with respect and love. We hold a greater intention that the weather express what is in the highest good for the overall well-being of the earth and ourselves.

I invite you to begin exploring your relationship with the weather in your area by tuning in to your feelings about the weather as it shifts and changes throughout the year. Discover ever more deeply what it means to live with and in the natural cycles. Invite yourself to uncover the profound relationship that exists between you, the Mother and the weather.

Why People Quest

2011-02-17T11:45:00.000-08:00

When my elder told me I would need to do four to seven quests during the time I was learning how to offer ceremonies within the Cherokee tradition, I was a little scared, a little excited, and very ready to take the next steps in my awakening. Somehow I knew questing was going to push my edges into the unknown and that is exactly where the Mystery unveils itself. I could live with status quo, or I could choose to experience beyond my current limitations. I chose to visit the unknown.

Some have described quest as a death and rebirth, and energetically this does indeed occur. You are reborn to yourself if you are willing to shed your attachments. It takes great courage to look the physical, emotional and spiritual limitations you have placed on yourself and consciously choose to let go of your need to define yourself through those limits. Then, the courageous journey continues as you surrender to the limitless nature of who you truly are, and willingly allow yourself to remember your most profound nature as a physical and spiritual being.

When you are sitting quiet and alone on Mother Earth for several days, you have time let your mind slow down. You discover a rhythm that is in complete harmony with the earth. The elements, nature and the animals know this rhythm (usually better than we do as humans), and you discover there is a oneness and peace that your busy life wasn’t fully experiencing. You are then questing with the Mother rather than on her, and you will experience this oneness reflected in interactions with your physical world.

This slowing down also creates an opening with the spirit world. It is common for questers to experience very different kinds of dreams, where they are much more lucid in dreaming reality. They are engaged with life in both the waking and dreaming worlds, and recognize the intersections between the two. Mystical awareness is quite common for those that surrender, opening themselves to the existence of their being beyond material life.

Questers experience the physical connections between themselves and their loved ones. If a quester is fasting completely (which I don’t recommend for people on medications or herbal therapy) or eating and drinking minimally during their days alone, they can discover what it is like when friends and family eat and drink for them. It is actually possible to be hungry, pray for satisfaction, and minutes later feel the physical relief as someone in camp eats for you.

While it is true that many questers receive visions or medicine songs during their quest, I usually recommend that questers not attach to this. Quest is a space in which you can open to a greater understanding of the Mystery that flows within you and around you. It is a place to shed spiritual and emotional weight. And it is a place in which to gain greater clarity about who you are and how you can best walk in the world in your greatest happiness and service. If a vision or a medicine song helps bring you in understanding your true nature and purpose, then that is a blessing.

There are many kinds of questing rituals. Some that I have personally experienced include sitting alone in the woods for several days, day-long sweat lodge, meditating with water for days, and ritual burial. Even how you sit alone can vary from tradition to tradition. I prefer to create an environment where there is a community of supporters in camp, tending sacred fire for 24 hours per day, holding space for themselves and the questers. I was taught ceremony within a matriarchal tribe, so our customs and practices reflect a unique perspective about the Sacred Feminine.

If you have never been to a quest or supported someone questing, it is an honor and there are sacred openings for the supporters as well as the questers. Commonly, I hear people express their thanks for being invited to participate because they could not have imagined how much was going to be spiritually revealed to them simply by coming to witness and support. If you would like to read about New Dream’s quest and read comments from supporter, you can discover more here: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/spirit-quest.htm. (Many of our regular attendees are making plans this winter while airfares are still low.)

When it comes to questing, within some traditions, you are not asked or required to do any preparatory work. When I hold space for a quester, I ask them to prepare for a year. They offer daily prayers, reflect upon their dreams, and meditate upon questions that I ask them to consider as they begin the process of shedding layers of attachments, self-doubt, confusion, fear, self-abuse, regrets or resentments. This helps them release from the challenges of life before their quest, purifying their spiritual bodies to become ready to experience the beauty of the Mystery.

People quest for many reasons. In fact, it is one of the first questions I tend to ask, “Why do you want to quest?” From there, the quest develops a life of its own, and we can then hold space for your unfolding. You can ask any person that has quested if it was difficult, and they are likely to tell you, “Yes.” You can also ask them if it was worth it and they will probably also tell you, “Yes.”

What is revealed during questing ceremony, whether you attend as a quester or a witness and supporter, is the Mystery itself. Certainly the Mystery unveils itself to us every day, and yet, do we typically take the time to slow down and notice? For many of us, we would have to admit honestly that we don’t slow down nearly enough. If we wish to surrender to the limitless love and expressions of the unknown, a quest is one meaningful way to slow down and open the door to the wonders of the Mystery.

Fear of the Sacred Masculine

2011-02-11T15:13:00.000-08:00

It was many years before I was able to acknowledge that there was a Sacred Feminine aspect of the Divine. I had been raised with the belief that God was masculine. Notions of a feminine aspect were pagan and ungodly. In fact, acknowledging a feminine aspect of God was a good way to pick up a fast ticket to hell. Fortunately, I outgrew that belief, but in doing so, I developed a rather skewed perspective of the Sacred Masculine.

For the longest time I couldn’t pray to God without conjuring up an image of an ancient gray-haired man that, while loving, doled out justice with a fairly heavy hand of either indifference or punishment. While He controlled everything, He didn’t seem to be very accessible, so I felt helpless and insignificant in His presence. Since that kind of relationship wasn’t working for me and I couldn’t quite get the feel for a Sacred Mother, I just stopped praying to anybody. All the definitions I had for God were too limiting and too confining.

I focused instead on how I chose to exist in the world. I stopped asking somebody in the ethers for help whenever I felt stuck or confused, and decided to put my energy in applying my knowledge, talents and gifts to the best of my ability. I figured I must have been put on this earth with plenty of know-how to do what I came here to do, since I wasn’t finding anybody “out there” who seemed interested in my personal and day-to-day challenges.

In my process of personal empowerment, I also became a student of masculine and feminine behavior. And if you’ve read any of my stories about living for many years with a significant hormonal imbalance (as much testosterone as a male in puberty), my interest in masculine and feminine behavioral traits makes a lot of sense. When I was most immersed in masculine energy, I was aggressive and easily ran over other people’s interests. I was logical, organized, and an addicted workaholic. I did not do a very good job of looking after my health or in honoring my feelings. My personal experience with my own masculine energy was not very good.

When I finally learned how to respect my emotions, empathy and intuitive nature, I began taking better care of myself physically and emotionally. I worked diligently to maintain balance in my life between rest and work, organization and impulsiveness, care for others as well as me, and the use of my intuition with my logic. As I found balance, I found peace. Over time, I understood the correlations between my newly discovered feminine approach to life and the Sacred Feminine.

In a rather twisted way, I equated healthy, happy living with the Sacred Feminine and unhealthy, unhappy living with the Sacred Masculine. Now I realize that my view of the Sacred Masculine was deeply marred. My out-of-balance aggressiveness was certainly not what the Sacred Masculine is really all about. Nonetheless, I had a deep-seated fear of the Sacred Masculine that I did not recognize.

I was afraid that if I allowed myself to know the Sacred Masculine, I would lose my health. I was afraid I would revert back to my old aggressive ways when I was out of balance with my feminine nature. I was afraid I would lose my mental health, conceding to logic alone when I knew my intuition was guiding me correctly. I was afraid I would lose the peace and serenity I had discovered in owning my Sacred Feminine nature. I might lose my spiritual center.

So in my fear, I became too still and quiet. I became too compassionate about others and did not have enough compassion for me. I took too little action on my own behalf. I didn’t know how to speak up for myself without feeling angry, resentful or placating. I frequently isolated to protect myself. I fought with men, ran to them, or ran away from them. I had no idea how to live with them and be myself. In embracing the Sacred Feminine, I became fearful of the Sacred Masculine and discarded it from my life.

I’m sure you can imagine how challenging my relationships with men had become. If I didn’t know and respect the true, beautiful nature of the Sacred Masculine within myself, I certainly didn’t know how to recognize it in men. I didn’t know how to fully receive the deep love, concern, protection, care, tremendous passion for life, desire to make a difference, longing to create, and generously overflowing provision for others and self that flows with great grace through the Sacred Masculine. Now that I have experienced the wonder of the Sacred Masculine within me, I realize how freely it expresses through us if we allow ourselves to know its real nature. For a meditation of union with the Sacred Masculine, Step 2 of the Creation Meditation provides a way to fall in love with the masculine self: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/forums/index.php?topic=75.0

If I didn’t know how to protect myself, live in passion, or create and provide well for myself, I limited what I had to share with others. I limited my expression of the Divine in me. I was only half alive. However, I yearned to be fully alive, and there was only one way to get there. I had to surrender to the full expression of me and that included the complete acceptance of the Sacred Masculine with in me, next to the complete acceptance of the Sacred Feminine.

I no longer sacrifice one sacred nature for the other. I love both aspects of the Divine, and I have chosen to live in the delight of both. What happened to God? Well, God is no longer masculine or feminine to me. God, the Divine, is both. The experience of two natures is what makes life mysterious and wonderful. Enjoying the masculine and feminine natures of the Divine is my daily, living prayer and experiencing heaven here and now is the gift of living with a more limitless and inclusive experience of the Divine.

Rebirth of the Self

2011-02-04T15:24:00.000-08:00

Step Three of the Creation Meditation

The true rebirth of the soul is more than a mental desire. If you have ever felt truly reborn, you know that the experience is a whole new perspective of self from the inside out. Your entire being—soul and body—emerge in nothing less than a sense of new self. Limited patterns, behaviors and beliefs seem to disappear as you experience a more true and full sense of your existence.

Certainly, the birth of the self often begins with a desire for new realization; frequently followed by choices and behaviors that reinforce that desire. Yet the rebirth itself occurs when we surrender to love. We stop fighting love and recognize that is all that we are. It sounds easy doesn’t it? And yet, the rebirthing of the self can be one of the most challenging aspects of the spiritual journey, because it requires we surrender our limited attachments and definitions of self.

In the ancient Creation Meditation that I was given to share with others, we follow the calling to be reborn, one step at a time until rebirth is all that is remains. The meditation begins with an honoring of the self, particularly the emotions that comprise your current experience of life. We refer to this as your “I am” for this moment. You might say, “I am angry,” or “I am hurt,” or “I am delightfully happy.” All of these emotional states reflect the “I am” of the moment.

If you choose to enter the first step of the meditation, you will hold your feeling in compassion and without agenda. There is no attempt to fix or mediate anything. There is only a willingness to be present to what is being experienced through your feelings in this moment. The loving witnessing or holding of emotion is enough for the emotion to release. It might take minutes, hours, days, or weeks, yet if the emotion is held in love with great sincerity and no desire to get beyond the feeling, the feeling will transform itself. The transformation takes you to higher frequency feelings and states of Divine self-awareness.

This new state of “I am” is then witnessed through the union of the Sacred Masculine and Sacred Feminine, where the light and passion of the Sacred Masculine lovingly merges with the dark, stillness of the Sacred Feminine. This is the second step of the meditation, where in this loving union the “I am” transforms yet again to become life longing to know itself. Life emerges as a Divine seed or sphere of awareness.

In the third step, the Divine seed is welcomed in love through every energy center of your body until it is ready to emerge from your energetic womb as an expression of life born anew in self-awareness. You are that expression of life and you are reborn as a new “I am” in the world. In this rebirth ragged edges of human existence are shed, like the snake shedding its skin, and you emerge fresh, alive, awake and in harmony with all of existence.

This Creation Meditation or process of conscious rebirthing can be done at anytime by anyone. Your own creativity and Divine relationship emerge in ways that are natural to you, as you open to witnessing yourself in whatever state you are experiencing in the moment—joy, sorrow, jealousy, happiness, rage—any state of human experience. These feelings are expressions of your truth in the moment. The feelings come with stories that deserve to be acknowledged and honored. Once witnessed, they are set free to experience life in a more limitless way.

The ultimate rebirthing is the result of honestly acknowledging yourself in the reality you are experiencing. The rebirth comes when you know, not from your mind, but from the well of your being, that you are free to experience life as the Divine love that you are and in the way that your soul longs to experience life on earth. The effort that is required is in the diligence to remain present to what you are experiencing without judgment or assumptions.

Here at New Dream, we share this Creation Meditation freely with others. You can find an audio introduction to the first step on our Sacred Path of the Feminine Page, and you can find the entire meditation in written form at the New Dream Forums.

I invite you to watch for our Creation Tele-Meditations by signing up to receive our monthly guided meditations and announcements at http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/register.htm. You might also appreciate our monthly tele-meditations focused on the individual steps of the meditation and introspective journeys. Most of all, I hope that you continue to discover ways in which your true self emerges here on earth through the rebirthing of your soul.

The Beginning of the Age of Truth

2011-01-27T12:02:00.000-08:00

Last week I talked about the end of the age of secrets and how many of our personal and institutional secrets have led to a pervasive belief that “the end justifies the means.” This premise has become the rationale for atrocities against humanity and justification for causing personal harm to others. In a world where deceit for the benefit of the greater good has become accepted practice, we can be sure that those who suffer the repercussions of this belief will eventually break faith in search of ideas based in deeper truth and respect for all.

The problem is that we become so numb to deceit, we hardly think of it as a crime until it slaps. Some years ago, I made the mistake of exiting a toll road without realizing I needed to pay a $.50 toll in order to leave the highway. I fumbled around in my purse and couldn’t find any change. All I had available were bills, and the machine only accepted change, so I drove on knowing I’d be fined. About a week later I received a very intimidating letter in the mail indicating that I had incurred a $70 fine. That’s right, $70 for not paying a $.50 toll.

Fortunately, I have a dear friend that is an attorney, so I called her asking her what the heck this was about. We chatted for a bit and she encouraged me to call the phone number on the letter, explain my situation, and ask for a reduction. The woman I reached on the other end of the phone was cheerful and kind as she told me the fine for a first offense was only $7.00 and where to send in my money.

I was flabbergasted. If I had not called that number, I would have expected I was required to send in $70. Now I had $70 at the time, but what if I hadn’t? What would have happened if I hadn’t called the number? How would I have interpreted that notice if I hadn’t had a friend who was an attorney? All of this was over $.50 I would have gladly paid. Luckily, even though $7 on a $.50 toll was still outrageous, the outcome turned out okay. But I felt abused. I felt abused because I had been deceived—intentionally.

Deceit tears at our relationships and ability to trust one another. Living on guard, in a state of self-protection is a good way to stimulate our survival responses of flight or fight—or in other words—stress. Ongoing stress erodes our health and eventually affects our abilities to make good decisions. Stress can and does shorten our lives. So in essence, when we deceive, we sacrifice long and happy lives for everyone involved with temporary gains for the good of a few. Isn’t it ironic that the outcome of deceit is the greatest deceit of all? We trade long-term happiness for short-term gain, all the while thinking that we are somehow getting the upper hand.

I know this pattern well, because I spent a lot of my life living in some form of deceit, whether it was acting like I knew all about some topic I knew very little about, or pretending that my life was fine when I was an emotional and physical wreck. Each time I was deceitful with others or myself, I was eroding my ability to trust in what was true. I was destroying my own ability to be happy with who I really am, as I am.

In order to find peace with myself I had to find compassion. I would not have been able to face the ways in which I had been deceiving myself and others, without lovingly understanding that I was using deception as a survival mechanism. I wanted to save face because being knowledgeable and being healthy were how I perceived my life had meaning. Deception had become a lifeline—not a very secure one, but a lifeline nonetheless.

Instead of developing my meaning and purpose, I was actually losing my sense of self—feeling lost, depressed and hopeless about the value of my life. I thought my deceptions were giving value to my life, when all along they were destroying me. When I had finally had enough despair, I made a commitment to find happiness, and with that commitment I discovered I needed to let go of my pretentions and settle into knowing the authentic me. That was difficult and painful to do at times. Sitting with my deceptions required great humility, but I found an unlimited supply of self-compassion was available if I allowed myself to understand the erroneous thinking that accompanied my choices, and how I had come to accept those limited perceptions.

Divine love for us is limitless, so if we concede our lives to limited perceptions based in our deceptions, we restrict the flow of love. Compassion frees us from the bindings of the lies we tell ourselves and others. If we allow ourselves to be lovingly present with our discomfort and limited perceptions, the distress dissolves in the compassion. We then create an opening for experiencing the limitless love that we truly are as expressions of the Divine.

In the awareness of such exquisite love, you naturally shed the impulse to figure out how to manipulate yourself into safety, value, meaning, and survival. It doesn’t cross your mind to attempt to provide for yourself at the expense of another, because you know that Divine love is universal and everyone is an expression of the Divine, worthy of being attended to with the same regard with which you would attend yourself. You live with regard for all of life, not just a chosen few.

In the arms of our own compassion, telling the truth becomes quite easy. In truth, we do indeed find our freedom—freedom to experience the exquisiteness of Divine love. If we choose, this is our time, our age, to embrace truth. This lifetime is our opportunity to replace the separating belief that the end justifies the means and to live from the truth of our Divine awareness with a willingness to be present to all of life with the depth of our compassion.

If you would like support in having deeper experiences within the compassionate arms of the Sacred Feminine, you can receive free weekly meditations taking you into the love of the Sacred Feminine here: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/register.htm

This is very breath of the Sacred Feminine—to recognize life as Divine and hold each of our choices, even the deceptive ones, in our love, so that the destructive, harmful motivations can die peaceful deaths, and we can live in the truth of limitless Divine love once again. Truth is our hope and the source of our joy for today and for our future.

The End of the Age of Secrets

2011-01-20T14:11:00.000-08:00

Secrets have their place. After all, a surprise birthday party is not surprise if the secret gets out. One of the joys in receiving a gift is in not knowing exactly what is inside the box. Bedroom secrets between lovers create a special bond between them. With the wink of an eye, sheer delight can pass between two people as they smile about a private joke shared between them. Making a “surprise” breakfast in bed for their parents is exhilarating and fun for the little secret keepers cooking in the kitchen. The enjoyment of surprise and the pleasures of intimate moments are often wrapped in packages of secrecy, and appropriately so.

Then there are the secrets of our hearts that we write in our private journals, share with professionals in therapy sessions or discuss with our ministers. Through our private writings or conversations, we are attempting to better understand ourselves before making any kind of public declaration or decision. When such privacy is respected, we are safe enough to explore ourselves deeply and honestly.

There are also secrets that protect. For example, during World War II, some Jewish people were kept alive, or their lives were extended, because friends kept secrets regarding their whereabouts or their identities. If someone has been seriously abused by someone else, there can be great wisdom in keeping your identity quiet and your location unknown, as a means of protecting yourself, or perhaps, even your family.

And then there are secrets that harm. Many of us grew up in families, during the early to mid 1900’s, where we kept harmful secrets by refusing to acknowledge or discuss the effects of a family member’s abusive behaviors. We didn’t disclose embarrassing information about our family histories that would help younger generations understand themselves better. We pretended that everything was okay, when clearly life was out of balance. We overstressed our significance or we underestimated our abilities. We hid behind our shame and our wounds at the expense of others and ourselves. Some of us left our families, looking for more honest relationships and some of us are still caught in the family secrets.

Institutional secrets perpetuate a belief that it is acceptable to deceive, and we knowingly or unknowingly live with those deceptions. Churches have created doctrine based on selected scriptures, and then taught that the chosen writings provide the only spiritual truth. People have been put in prison because they challenged the false premises upon which justice was practiced. Or they honored the true intent of the law, but not the letter of it, and were penalized for their faith in justice.

We spy on and manipulate the politics of other countries, but torture, imprison or kill those that would manipulate us. We deceive our customers and ourselves, sacrificing greater good for the sake of greater profit. We conduct tests on people and use people without asking their permission. Institutions that have based their existence on lies or partial truth continue to function, as long as no one lets out the lie. And if someone does tell the truth, their life may be at risk, or at the very least their career or well-being.

Yes, we keep many secrets. Some of them are good for the delight and well-being of everyone involved, and some of them cause harm for the benefit of a few and the hazard of many. “The end justifies the means,” we have been told. But no one mentioned that there is no end. There is only the life that we are living here and now, and the future we are impacting by the results of our decisions in this moment. If we want a world deteriorating in distrust, then deceiving others and ourselves will certainly get us there. But if we want to know the limitlessness of Divine love on earth, we will need to let go of our attachment to secrets.

When we deceive with intent to get what we want at the expense of others, we hold ourselves separate in an attempt to prove to ourselves that we are better. We are in essence making an assumption that someone else is not good enough or worthy, and we have neglected to acknowledge the Divine within them. As long as we continue to deceive, we keep ourselves separate from the greatest and most important spiritual truth for all of us—our Divine origin.

Many years ago, when I was first taken on a Divine journey into the Sacred Feminine, I experienced myself in profound compassion for all of creation. I did not experience greater love for one human over another. Quite the opposite was true, I experienced limitless love for every human regardless of the choices they had made in their lives. In other words, there was no less love for a serial rapist than there was for a minister of faith. In those hours immersed in the womb of the Sacred Feminine, I understood that we are all born from the same Divine origin and are all loved unconditionally.

Does this mean that we should accept all behaviors, no matter how heinous? I don’t believe this visionary experience was giving me, or anyone, a message that we live without necessary social boundaries. However, I do believe that it provided an awareness that we can choose to live in the understanding that every individual regardless of their choices is an expression of the Divine. It is possible for us to live without the deceptions and secrets supporting the perception that the end justifies the means, and therefore, gives us permission to use, take advantage of, or even abuse others for our personal gain.

Ending the age of secrets begins with each of us. It is far too easy to point our fingers at other family members, friends, co-workers, bosses or institutions, without taking responsibility for our personal deceptions. Imagine what our world would be like if each of us chose to end the age of secrets long enough to discover the truth lying beneath the deceptions— that we are of Divine origin and loved limitlessly.

Holding Us In Love

2011-01-14T20:53:00.000-08:00

Last weekend several women elders gathered at my home and virtually, via the telephone, to be in meditation for three full days in response to the many needs of humanity and our planet. These beautiful elders receive no payment, accolades or acknowledgment for their gift. They do it quietly and with great love.

What makes this meditation challenging is that throughout the three days the women do nothing for humanity and the earth. They set no intentions, send no energy, and say no prayers. Rather than engage in doing, they allow themselves to become the very essence of the Sacred Feminine—they hold us in love.

This sounds really simple, until you sit down to simply be love as you witness others in their pain and struggles. Throughout the three days, people, animals and nature from around the world will find their way to the women, where they will be given the opportunity to simply be held in love. If people choose to be held energetically in love by these women elders, they will experience no judgment for their choices or hope for how they should be. They will simply be loved for who they are. To discover more about this practice of holding, learn more about the Creation Meditation at: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/forums/index.php?board=29.0

Certainly, there is nothing wrong with holding people accountable for their actions, nor is there anything inappropriate in desiring a better life for someone. But the elders know an ancient secret about what happens when we are loved completely for simply existing. When we are loved, without conditions, we relax and soften, and ultimately surrender to the Divine love that we are. From that awareness of Divine love, we are reborn or re-emerge, to engage life from the perspective of one that knows he or she is fully loved.

So the elders lovingly hold whoever enters the energetic field of their sacred space, whether they are child victims or adult perpetrators, refugees or mercenaries, abused or abuser—all are held in love. Each person is accepted as an expression of Divine Consciousness born from the primordial womb of all life. As such, each person was born from Divine love, though we may struggle as individuals to remember the perfection of that love. By holding each person, regardless of their choices, in the embrace of the Sacred Feminine, it opens a doorway of awareness to our Divine origins, and once again we are free to express our lives from and in that love.

This is equally true for the animals and elements of our planet. We, as humans, tend to forget we live in symbiotic relationship with nature. The animals and elements of nature also carry blueprints of the Divine. When we are struggling to make our choices from a place of Divine love, they reflect our struggle. We become selfish and abuse the resources available to us. We stop taking care of ourselves and stop taking care of the gifts from the Mother. We choose to care for one element of nature but not another. We wait for someone else to clean up our messes and nature pays the price for our lack of stewardship. Recognizing this, the women hold the animals and the elements of nature in their love as well, so that the Divine love that created all things is honored in all of life.

To be able to hold purely, without interference in another’s life or decisions, is a great challenge. Women elders are invited to this meditation because they have consistently demonstrated a capacity to meditate at length, and to enter into the essence of the Sacred Feminine that can love unconditionally. Many of these women have devoted years of their life to devotional practice that has prepared them for these three days in the heart of the Divine Feminine.

We call it a Visioning Ceremony for the world, not because the elders are holding an intention and vision for the world, but rather because they are holding us and we carry our own visions and intentions. By holding each of us in Divine love, we emerge with a clearer sense of self and sacred purpose. In this clarity and in this love, our natural and pure visions for the world, effortlessly emerge—in health, happiness, wholeness, and fulfillment.

What’s in Spiritual Fashion for 2011?

2011-01-06T19:39:00.000-08:00

My friends, for anyone committed to spiritual growth, 2011 is likely to be a hot year for dramatic changes in the spiritual fashion scene, because this is the pre-cursor to 2012. No, I do not believe we will be wiped off the face of the planet 2012. I do believe that the Mayans were absolutely right about time speeding up, coming to a climax in 2012. So, if you thought you could barely keep up with the trends last year, wait until you see the runway for this year.

Spiritually, 2011 is about letting go of any heavy bags you have been carrying around, including judgments, greed, resentments, guilt and regrets; and if you are willing to open to the Divine grace within you, there is a good chance you will enjoy 2011 immensely. You can literally ride on the momentum of the trends that have been accelerating gradually for thousands of years. On the other hand, if you hang on to those old bags, you may be in for one of the most challenging years of your life. You can’t gracefully glide down the runway with one arm weighted down by a heavy purse or man-bag, refusing to surrender to your greater self.

If you are wondering why I included greed and none of the other 7 deadly fashion sins, it’s because, like the early Egyptians, I see greed at the root of spiritual fashion problems. Spiritual fashion sins are the places where we tend to miss the mark, because our focus is in the wrong place. We are thinking about ourselves and our desires, exclusive of anyone else, and as a result we are not allowing ourselves to experience the incredible fulfillment, limitless love, and peace of the Divine. In our attempt to become fulfilled by focusing on ourselves, we ultimately become unfulfilled. Fashion in the future is about clean, honest lines; creative approaches that include many points of view, and intuitive sensibilities in designing your wardrobe.

Here are some specific trends, if you want to be spiritually vogue in 2011.

1) Dress for fulfillment through creative involvement with others. This is not the year to strike out with your own look, constantly trying to be different from anyone else. This is the year to discover what you and people you play with want to express together. Create your wardrobe from shared interests, dreams, and talents, but don’t limit your spiritual fashion this year to the drawing board and wishful thinking. Enjoy creative engagement with other people and bring your fashion dreams to life. This is the year for fulfillment through creativity and inclusion.

2) Be decisive about what new creations you are going to add to your wardrobe. You are probably going to get some urges about how cool it would be if you could create a such and so. Here’s the deal. Time is moving fast and windows of opportunity are getting smaller. So if the desire is real, create with zeal. If the desire isn’t profound or you just can’t seem to pull all the right garments and accessories to together, let the idea go entirely. Send the idea back to the universe so that someone else can see what they can do with it. There are limitless ideas available, so keep your creative juices flowing and see what clever innovation comes to you next. Then remember, invite your posse and design a new look that you and many others will enjoy.

3) While you are adding some new, fun and useful clothes to your wardrobe, remember to think about others while you are shopping. Are there people you know about that need warm clothes and decent shoes? Remember that there are a lot of folks out there that can’t afford the basics, let alone the trendiest garments. For every new piece of clothing you buy, consider sharing a piece of clothing with someone in greater need. It’s good to clean out the closet once in a while, and recycling clothes you are no longer using is a great way to help someone else.

4) Intuition is in. We call it by many names, but making your fashion choices by listening to that little bird on your shoulder or that little voice inside you will be rewarding. Your intuition will lead you to the greatest satisfaction and best bargains with the least amount of effort. So, listen to your intuition and then kick up your heels on your way to ultimate fulfillment.

5) With so many views about clothing and accessorizing on the scene, it would be easy to assume your fashion sense is the best, and others just suck wind. This is really not the epitome of good spiritual fashion. Everyone has their own creative expression. That’s what makes the world so colorful. In spiritual fashion there is room for compassion. You don’t have to understand someone else’s choices to demonstrate a little courtesy for their preferences and compassion if they are struggling or feeling challenged.

6) The Sacred Feminine is chic. Listening, understanding, being compassionate and tolerant of others needs and choices is the style of choice this year. Follow your intuition to the best of what you can be and practice kindness along the way. A person glows in kindness. It radiates from the soul outward. Be sure to let go of any beliefs that you are more radiant than anyone else, and really look around you. Everyone is beautiful in some way, and when you are looking through the eyes of the Sacred Feminine, you’ll see the beauty—your own and theirs—without any need to compete with anyone else’s radiant presence.

Those are the spiritual fashion tips for 2011. I hope they help you enjoy a truly wonderful year, enjoying your splendor and that of everyone you meet.

World Religions Day

2010-12-30T13:27:00.000-08:00

In honor of World Religions Day, January 2^nd.

Here at New Dream, we started a new practice in our weekly newsletters. We acknowledge some of the people celebrating high sacred holidays in various spiritual traditions. We do this because we believe all paths lead to the Divine. We are aware that the concept of the Sacred Feminine is a part of many spiritual traditions. We also know the Sacred Feminine existed before any spiritual tradition was created. In a sense, all traditions are children from the womb of the Feminine.

While we state this clearly on our website, I noticed that recently our complaints have increased since we began this practice of honoring many spiritual traditions. When we look at the data from our e-mails broadcasts, we don’t know what people are complaining about. We simply know that some percentage of our readers hit a complaint button available to them through their e-mail software. Because the increase in complaints coincided with our new acknowledgement, I can’t help but wonder if people are “complaining” because we are honoring people within spiritual practices that some of our readers don’t approve. If my speculation is even remotely accurate, I’m saddened by the possibility of what I think I am seeing.

Is there any one of us that is not a child of the Divine? We are the blessed expressions of the Divine exploring itself through the experience of being human. Kahil Gibran expressed it in this way, “They (we) are the sons and the daughters of life longing for itself.” I may or may not agree with another human being’s expression of their Divine self, but who am I to decide my spiritual exploration of the Divine is right and another person’s perception is wrong? Who am I to limit Divine love? What does it say about my limited perceptions, if I am willing to put constraints on the limitless, boundless love of the Divine? What does it say about my own fears and limitations if I am not willing to acknowledge the Divine expression and uniquely sacred journey of another?

There are no others. We, all of us, are the expression of the Divine Oneness exploring what love can be. The best to the worst of us are still children of the Divine. I have not yet discovered that religious preference has anything to do with one’s goodness or rightness. People that carry ill will can be found in every religion. In fact, most of us, if we are really honest with ourselves, would need to admit we have wished ill will upon ourselves and people we know and don’t know, more than once in our lives. Nor have I discovered that there is a significant preponderance of good people within any single religion. They are everywhere. People of good heart, in love with the Divine, living their love through various religious and spiritual practices are everywhere.

I have been fortunate to attend Islamic mosque; Jewish temple; Protestant and Catholic church services; Native American and Wiccan ceremonies; New Thought services; drumming, sounding and healing circles; Hindu Sat Sang; Buddhist ceremony, and more. There was one constant I discovered in every experience—love for the Divine. There is a palpable, unmistakable love that permeates the space when people come together with their hearts open to honor the Divine

Dogma, doctrine, rules, guidelines and beliefs are the form we give ourselves so that we can maneuver through the challenges that come up when we commit to experiencing this Divine love with every fiber of our being. They are guideposts on the journey and can be very useful in that regard, but the real journey is in discovering how deeply we can allow ourselves to know Divine love, not in whether we can follow all the rules of one religion to perfection. The real spiritual journey does not lie in who is better or right. The real journey is in how wide we will allow our sacred hearts to expand

There is a golden rule found in nearly every, if not every, spiritual practice. It is, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Let me take this concept a bit further by asking you this, “Are you thinking about others as you would have them think about you?” Life is not just about actions. Life is reflected in what we think about others too. How honest are you willing to be with yourself? Are there some judgments still lurking around in your mind? Are you willing to let them go?

Remember the wisdom of Gandhi, at a time when many Muslims and Hindus were fighting each other and murdering each other in India. Gandhi began fasting and told the people around him he would continue fasting until the fighting stopped. A Hindu man came to him and asked what he could do to encourage Gandhi to eat. The Hindu man was hurt and understandably enraged by his son’s death, blaming the Muslims for killing his son. Gandhi told him to raise an orphaned Muslim child. Gandhi knew that the only way to experience true peace would be through love and compassion for one another.

Jesus told us much the same, as did Buddha, Mother Teresa, Ammachi and every great saint and mystic that has ever lived. I could create a long list of spiritually enlightened people from every major spiritual tradition that have taught us to love, and that love is what truly matters.

As we begin this year of 2011, perhaps we could join together in discovering just how deep our love can be. Are we willing to discover who we have deemed as other, from ourselves, and as a result we have judged them to be lesser (or even greater) than ourselves? Are we willing surrender the judgments as we discover them, whether they are judgments about people of different spiritual traditions from our own, our boss, our spouse, or co-workers and friends we don’t understand? Are we willing to discover the limitless capacity of love that we as Divine expressions can truly be?

Gratitude—The Most Powerful Prayer—Perfect Holiday Prayer

2010-12-24T10:40:00.000-08:00

If the only prayer you say in your life is “thank you,” that would suffice. —Meister Eckhart Tolle

There is a powerful truth in Eckhart Tolle’s words. When we are grateful, we feel full. In that moment, we do not seek for anything more. We are happy, complete and limitlessly fulfilled, and that is when we are in the true presence of the Divine. Inviting yourself to become the most grateful person you know is a most enjoyable way to turn daily activities into devotions of Divine awareness.

Growing up Catholic, I do not remember very much emphasis on gratitude. As a teacher, I now understand that those rituals in which we offered prayers of “blessed be” to saints that had gone before us was a way of blessing their lives in gratitude. But because the language was not common, nor the intention of the prayers explained, I did not realize that by opening my heart I could have felt the flood of delight that gratitude can bring.

We certainly said grace at our evening meals, but I can’t say that reciting the same rote prayer every night opened my heart in gratitude. We said the prayer together as a family and passed the food. It didn’t occur to me that plants’ and animals’ lives were surrendered so that I could live. I didn’t recognize that the Mother Earth was providing for my physical needs and that her life-force was sustaining mine. If I had, I might have been more specific and heart-felt in offering my prayers of gratitude before I ate.

It wasn’t until I experienced my first Native sweat lodge, where we were invited to share our prayers of personal gratitude, that I discovered the power of this prayer. I marveled as my heart opened wide and tears fell with each word of thanks I offered in that lodge. Life itself became holy to me. Rabbi Harold Kushner describes this experience so beautifully:

Can you see the holiness in those things you take for granted--a paved road or a washing machine? If you concentrate on finding what is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.

Gratitude nurtures and elevates spiritual consciousness. I don’t think it is possible to utter an honest, heart-felt prayer of gratitude to God, a person, an animal, the earth or even yourself, without feeling the magnificent fulfillment of the Divine pulsing within you. In gratitude, you realize that all life forms are expressions of Divine creation. In gratitude that comes directly from the heart, you transcend the limits of your mind’s perceptions into direct experience of the Divine. If you chose one prayer to pray throughout your lifetime, gratitude would be a powerful prayer to choose.

If you are not used to offering prayers of gratitude, consider saying a prayer of thanks in the morning when you wake up and again before you go to sleep. This anchors gratitude into the two most significant transition periods of your day.

If you already offer prayers of thanks in the morning and at night, try adding more prayers before each meal blessing the lives of the food and water that nurtures your body. Then bless and give thanks for your body and the unique experiences of your expression as a Divine being.

If you pray at meals and in the evening and morning, you may be ready for gratitude as an ongoing practice. When something troubles you, give thanks for its gifts. When you are involved in a mundane task, give thanks for the way in which the task blesses your life. When you are hoping for something, be in gratitude for the blessings that have not yet arrived. Consider being in awareness of the hidden gifts that may not look like gifts on the outside—the will of the Divine blessing your life in unobvious ways. And as Rabbi Kushner suggests, “see the holiness in the things you take for granted.”

In my own experience, it has mattered little whether my gratitude was offered to a Father or Mother God, my best friend, a sales clerk I didn’t know, a person I disliked, a tree that provided me with shelter, money I received, or if I simply felt grateful for a piece of art that inspired me. All of life is of Divine origin and creation. It is not to what or how the gratitude is conveyed that matters, it is the feeling of gratitude that opens the doorway to Divine awareness.

Unwrap Yourself in Love

2010-12-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

Every now and then, I catch myself comparing what I have or have not accomplished in relationship to what someone else has done. I become aware of what makes other people special, while missing what makes me uniquely wonderful. I believe these moments provide a wonderful opportunity to recognize the gift of who I truly am.

If you have ever shared these feelings, or with the coming new year, if you tend to get depressed by everything you think you have not done or become, I invite you to join me in noticing the wonder of you. I suggest choosing a time of day, perhaps either in the morning or evening, when you pause to unwrap yourself like a child receiving a gift, and notice what is unique, special and wonderful about you.

Perhaps you would like to do this in the child-like awe of receiving a box in the mail, knowing that there is a very special present, or in this case—presence—inside. Your delight and enthusiasm in getting to the “presence” will make this delightfully fun. Give yourself permission to enter into the joy of discovery, savoring and loving every moment of the unwrapping.

Begin by taking off the layers of doubt, frustration, unworthiness, concern, and anything that feels like binding. They serve a purpose in helping you experience even greater self-awareness and deeper love. You could tear them out roughly, but that would be painful and would miss the service the provide, so gratefully take them off as though you were removing postal paper, tape and a shipping box—appreciating their function and excited to discover what is inside.

Notice that beneath all of the outside packaging, there is a pretty layer of wrapping. This is the layer of your caring, kindness, talents, and unique expression. Notice that this layer has been lovingly created and is worth your admiration and appreciation. It is a present unto itself, so give yourself time to fully enjoy this aspect of you. And even this layer needs to be taken off, if you are going to get to the true present that you are.

Now, in heart-felt expectation, open up you. Notice what is there. Your very presence is absolute love—timeless, endless, limitless—love. Everything you ever wanted is right here in you. You are the fulfillment of lifetimes of searching and lifetimes of creating the perfect gift. Enjoy the gift of you with all of your senses--nner and outer ones. Be in the joy of your own presence. The Divine has expressed itself in the most beautiful way—through you. You are the most precious gift you could ever want.

May you and those you love enjoy the gifts of this Holiday season, and may you especially delight in the gift that you are.

Volunteers Make the World Wonderful While Developing Their Skills

2010-12-02T18:09:00.000-08:00

Celebrating Volunteers On Universal Volunteer Day

This December, many of us are celebrating volunteers. Volunteers are those very special people that create time in their lives to support someone, an organization or a cause that they believe in. I’ve been a volunteer since I was a teenager and I still am. I absolutely believe that because of volunteers many people in need and Mother Earth get necessary help that would otherwise be left undone. You can find a special prayer of thanks for volunteering at: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/forums/index.php?topic=1591.0

I discovered years ago that volunteering was extremely rewarding. Most recipients of my volunteerism over the years seemed to really understand that I was giving from my heart, and that I was giving from my most precious gifts—time and talent. It felt great to be appreciated. Plus, I typically learned new skills that I later used for earning income. I made new friends, developed expertise I could put in a resume, and felt great about myself, knowing I was making a tangible difference in the world. I realized my life was blessed by many volunteers, and volunteering in return was a way that I could give back for what I had been given, strengthening the circle of caring and compassion.

In the process of volunteering, I learned that before I complained about something, I’d better first consider what I was going to do about it. Was I willing to volunteer my time in changing what troubled me? If I didn’t have time to volunteer, was I willing to make a financial contribution toward the change I wanted to see? Volunteering taught me to do more than tell other people what I thought they should do to make life better. It taught me to personally be accountable for making the world a great place to live.

Some years ago, I managed a 100-person volunteer program for a non-profit organization. I loved working with volunteers. Because I understood how valuable volunteering was for the organization and how important it is to enjoy your volunteer work, I interviewed volunteers in the same way I interviewed staff for hire. I interviewed potential volunteers about their passions, interests, availability and needs. Then I created volunteer opportunities that matched their talents, aspirations and time availability. In that way, we were both assured they would enjoy their volunteer contributions as much as the non-profit enjoyed their assistance. You can get an idea about how we do this now at New Dream Foundation: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/volunteering.htm

Every person that asks to volunteer New Dream Foundation is personally interviewed. We discover what you love to do and what skills you would like to develop in furthering your career or personal development. Then we tailor-make a position for you. You can see some of our volunteers and their specially created positions at: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/community.htm. And if you would like to pay a compliment to our team members, please leave your comment at the end of this article. I’m sure they would be thrilled to know that you appreciate their efforts in providing you with meaningful experiences in your exploration of the Sacred Feminine.

NDF runs completely on volunteer efforts. That’s right. No one gets paid here. It is true that when someone purchases a product or service through NDF, one or more of our volunteers typically get a little bit of compensation. But no one makes a living through any NDF offering. Everything from the web-site to the tele-ceremonies, radio programs and the articles you read are being created and supported by volunteers. The voice of the Sacred Feminine in the world receives support because men and women share their time freely in support of their profound belief in the importance of the Sacred Feminine being recognized and honored for planetary balance.

If you have been thinking about sharing some of your talents with New Dream, we would love the opportunity to get to know you better. Just visit us at our Volunteering Page on our website and follow the steps. One of our volunteers will e-mail you to set up a phone call for a chat. It all begins with getting to know you better.

If you are sharing your volunteer time for something else that you believe in, let us say, “Thank you for making a difference in the world.” We’d like to offer you a little gift as our way of saying thanks for sharing so freely from yourself. Please join me, Reverend Misa, and some of the NDF team on Sunday, December 5 at 5:45 pm Pacific time, for a special tele-meditation and blessing. The number to call is:

Conference dial-in number: (951) 262-4343 Participant access code: 864981

Holding you in my heart with gratitude for all you give to the world,
Reverend Misa

Giving in Gratitude—An Affirmation of Abundance

2010-11-21T16:29:00.000-08:00

By guest writer, Ariann Thomas

One day I was invited a friend to attend Sunday services with me when I lived in Portland, Oregon. During the service I had written a fairly large check to this church. He noticed how much I donated and afterward we got into a discussion about contributing to spiritual and charitable causes. He asked me why I was giving so much money away when I had bills to pay. He ended with saying that he had been taught, “Charity begins at home.”

I recognized this as a familiar attitude a lot of family and friends had. This man was struggling with prosperity as I had struggled for most of my life until I stumbled across a small book called “30 days to Abundance” by John Randolph Price. This book literally changed my life.

I proceeded to tell my friend that my contribution was basically about my feelings of prosperity. My giving was all about how I felt about ME! When I give away money, it means I have enough—I have enough money to buy food, to pay my bills, to have a roof over my head and I have enough to share. My contribution is an affirmation of my trust in Spirit that Spirit will continue to provide in the future.

I grew up in a lower middle class family. There were times when my family could not pay the bills and we went hungry. This didn’t happen often and it didn’t last long but the emotional experience stayed with me into my adult years. Before I read this book and changed my attitude, I was hanging on to every cent I made and constantly telling people how poor I was. I was living out of fear.

For decades I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough money tomorrow to buy groceries, or to make the rent payment. It never actually happened but the fear was always present. After I read the Abundance book I began practicing giving away money. I still felt my fear but gave freely without any intention of getting something back. I always affirmed I had enough money for me and enough to share. Fear had restricted the flow of love, grace, opportunity and abundance in life. When I let go of the fear, my energy was free. I was always taken care of by Spirit.

One time after I quit the job I had for 10 years, I traveled around the country looking for another. I found a new place to live and with some savings moved there without a job.

Six months later I still did not have a full time job, and my money was gone. I had interviewed for a job that felt really good. I knew I was where I should be. I knew this new job was mine. I just continued to pray and trust. I borrowed money for the rent and continued to give away part of what I earned. One week after I borrowed the rent money I was hired for the new job at more money than the job was advertised for and more money I had ever made. It turned out to be the best job I ever had. Thank you Spirit!

Now I have to say that Spirit doesn’t always follow my time requests. You know that old saying, “Lord give me patience…and I want it NOW.” I really would have liked to have gotten that job before I had to borrow money for the rent. However, borrowing money for the rent taught me interdependence and gave my friend the opportunity to be generous when I needed it. Spirit has His/Her own agenda to follow. I believe the agenda is about teaching me to truly trust in the Higher Order of the Universe.

When I first began this practice I started out slowly giving just a little bit. I got just a little bit in return. Then I began to trust more. I began to circulate more of my bounty in earnest. When I feel myself holding on to money or things I say an affirmation, bless what I’m holding onto and let it go.

I invite you to join me in releasing the fear that you do not have enough prosperity and abundance in your life for tomorrow. Embrace life by trusting Spirit and sharing the abundance you do have in your life. Spirit will move to fill your life with abundance in unexpected ways.

I wish you love and abundance to share.

Many Blessings to You and Your Family,
Reverend Ariann

In Honor of Our Children, Living in the Age of Conscious Evolution

2010-11-17T09:50:00.000-08:00

I watch my grandchildren with utter amazement in regard to the wisdom they have and the challenges they face. They have come into this world at a most auspicious time, with the planet teetering on the edge of self-destruction or the evolution of our consciousness into greater clarity and compassion.

Many children today have come in very much aware about what is truth and what is not, and they expect adults to be honest with them, even if that honesty is humbling for us or difficult. Many of them are highly empathic and as a result they can become overwhelmed by their emotions, as they pick up on the emotional turmoil around them. Some of them are quite psychic, gifted in their creativity and healing abilities, intelligent, and sensitive.

I’ve seen a lot of people attempt to qualify their children as crystal children or indigo children, etc. I know people that have taken classes to discover if they might not have been recognized as indigo children when they were young. As a former special education teacher I am intrigued by this need to define the children in categories commensurate with their talents. When I was teaching, I used the categories to help me understand my student’s particular challenges and the learning methodologies that would best support them. Then as soon as possible, I tossed the categories out the window and focused on relating to each child as a unique individual with unique needs.

Each child had something special to offer the world, even the most disabled child, and my job was to discover what that was and help them bring their gift into manifestation. Disabled or gifted made no difference to me. Disabilities bring some strenuous challenges with them, and so do our talents. Gifted children often had difficulty fitting in, were bored easily, didn’t know how to share their gifts constructively, and experienced adults that either expected too much or too little from them.

Some of our psychic children find me in the dream-time. They talk to me about their challenges as they look for support, encouragement and compassion from someone they perceive will understand them. They find it difficult when they are treated special, as though their insights are more significant than those of the adults that raise them. They find it equally difficult when they are treated without respect, as though their insights don’t matter. They don’t appreciate the pressure we put on them as adults because we believe they are more in touch with the Divine and have the answers we need.

They suffer emotionally when they are born into environments where people don’t understand them or know what to do for them. They don’t understand why we hide from our truths, and why we have done so much damage to each other and the planet. They look at what we are leaving for them to inherit and wonder why we haven’t done better. I’ve met children that were psychically quite open and emotionally ready to commit suicide.

All children deserve the best we have to give them, whether they came into this world disabled, gifted, or as “normal” children on their journey of awakening in this life-time. They are all special. And they need adult compassion, supervision, protection, provision, spontaneity, boundaries, playfulness, commitment, and understanding. And they need to know that we take full responsibility, in action, for ourselves and the world we create. They need our truthfulness, our authenticity and our love. They need us to be worthy of their respect.

This is no small matter, when we as adults are often challenged by our own conscious evolution—at times feeling we are adrift in the sea of the unknown. Yet, especially in the face of our challenges, they need to witness us being as present to the truth of the moment and ourselves as we know how to be. They need to learn what we know, so that they can go beyond what we have accomplished.

Some of our children have chosen to be born into some of the most challenging situations we could possibly imagine. Some of them as the heads of households; some have been sold into slavery. Others do not have enough to eat or no safe place to sleep. Some are being emotionally and sexually abused. Some are tempted by drugs at very young ages and some try to grow up too fast, because they think they are wiser than they really are.

I hold the children on this planet dear to my heart. They are all our children—children of humanity. This Saturday, November 20th is National Children’s Day. Will you join me in taking a few minutes to just hold them in your heart in gratitude for their precious lives? Whether or not they know we have held them in their love, their spirits will know they have been loved exactly as they are—as beautiful beings that have come here to discover the depths of love. We can be that well of love, if we choose, by opening our hearts deeper than we have opened them before, and welcome them in to find their peace and the energy to live fully.

When Our Loved Ones Cross Over

2010-11-12T16:02:00.000-08:00

Today, a dear old friend made her crossing to the other side of the veil. She was with us for a long time, and turned a life of challenges into one of love for others. As I light a candle, I honor her inner light and the journey she is now making. Then I light candles for loved ones that made their journey last year, at this same time.

Winter is beginning now. It is the great inward season when we reflect upon what is most important to us in our lives in this moment. Some of us will make an effort to reach out to family and friends as the holidays remind us that this is the time to be with those we love. Some of us will engage in spiritual practices that call us into an evaluation about how we choose to live and express our love. As the New Year turns around once again, some of us will consider our purpose and what goals are significant for being the full expression of our true selves. Some of us will end relationships that no longer serve us well and create new ones that are more in alignment with our current development and desires. Still others of us will hear a calling from the other side, and leave this world for a more limitless experience of Divine love.

Many of our loved ones leave us in the winter, often near or during the holidays when we are gathering to be with family and friends. Winter is the inward season that calls us to hibernate a bit, and reflect upon our journey. It seems a natural and fitting time to decide to just keep going inward until we finally release ourselves from our bodies and into the arms of Divine awareness. And while this final capitulation is powerful and rewarding for those that choose to cross over, it can be quite difficult for those of us that are left behind.

We want our memories for the holidays to be joyful, warm and full of love. And they can be, even when our loved ones cross over during this time. I am not suggesting that you pretend everything is okay, when you are aching inside, but I am suggesting that even through the pain of your own loss, you can be happy for the one that has left. For those that choose to leave, there is often quite a process they go through in which they must finally trust that you will be all right if they go. This assurance gives them freedom to go on to their joy with the Divine. You can make that journey easier for them.

As I have held space for people to cross over and then held space for their family in their grieving, I have learned that there are some things you can consider doing to ease the transition of someone you love, and in the process, ease your own sense of loss. Here are some suggestions.

1) Whether you tell them in the physical world while they are still here, or you tell their spirits through your thoughts and prayers, thank them for the gifts they have given you through their lives.

2) Find it in your heart to be in compassion with anything they have done that has caused you pain, so that the lesson can be completed, and you can both be free from the past.

3) Find it in your heart to be in compassion with anything you did that caused them pain, understanding that life on earth is a journey of lessons for everyone that comes together. Most of the time, you and others are doing your best given your personal challenges, history and woundedness; however perfect or imperfect choices might have been.

4) Look for the ways in which the Divine is letting you know you will be all right. Then convey this to the one that has crossed over. Literally talk to them because they can hear you. Often, even if they have gone to the light, a part of their spirit remains to make sure you will be okay. As you can, bit by bit, let go of them, so that they can fully enter into the freedom and joy that is theirs on the other side. In other words, love them enough to let go of your need for them.

5) Create a special place in your house, perhaps for the next year, where you honor their life and memory. Focus on gratitude for the ways in which they made your life special, and the lessons you learned; however difficult or easy those lessons might have been. If you truly grasp the lessons, you are not likely going to need to repeat them again. So receive the full gift of their presence in your life.

6) Open to your loved one in the dream-time. Many loved ones will return to visit you, especially during the year after their crossing, as you bring closure to your earthly journey together. Once closure is complete, some loved ones become guides and helpers on the other side, while others continue on to new adventures.

7) During the year after their transition, begin giving away the things that belonged to them. If you do this with a gracious heart, by giving family and friends special treasures filled with memories of your loved one, you honor your loved one, honor those who loved them, and slowly let go so that you can open to your own new journey without them.

8) When the first anniversary of their crossing occurs, do something to commemorate their life and your acceptance of their new journey. Plant a tree or flower in their honor, hold a ritual and meal with family and friends, volunteer some time in service for their favorite charity, make a donation in their name, rent their favorite movies and watch them, or listen to their favorite songs. Let it be a day of fond remembrance.

9) Incorporate the best of the lessons you learned from your loved one into your life, so that the greatest meaning of their existence can live on inside of you.

In the end, death creates a great portal through which we can feel and experience more Divine love in our lives. The crossing of our loved ones can offer great gifts to us, if we are willing to receive. It takes great courage, but the gifts are worth it. Remember, as you light a candle for your loved one, light a candle for yourself as well, and receive the love that is there to carry you through.

Men That Honor the Sacred Feminine

2010-11-05T13:01:00.000-07:00

It was many years before I finally attracted men in my life that truly understood what it meant to honor the Sacred Feminine. Oh I certainly knew men that loved me as a woman and enjoyed many aspects of my femininity, but that is different than deep respect for the spiritual essence of the Sacred Feminine. In my experience, in order for a man to truly respect the sacred within the feminine, he needs to, however he might define it, respect the Sacred Masculine within himself. He must see and know himself as a sacred being.

Honoring the Sacred Feminine is not something you can learn to do in order to be politically correct around women who are exploring this nature within themselves. Typically, a man treasures a woman’s decision to discover more about her sacredness, when he has, at some point in his life, committed to uncovering his own sacred nature. While there are tremendous intersections between Sacred Masculine and Sacred Feminine, and ultimately it is all One, there are distinctions between these two Divine energies. Becoming aware of the nature of these two energies helps us in understanding ourselves—our own inclinations and impulses.

Women enter the depth of their presence with the Sacred Feminine through their wombs—something that obviously, men don’t have. While men can still access the Sacred Feminine energetically within them, the direct physical doorway does not exist. When women explore the depths of the Sacred Feminine through their bodies, they relate to the sacred through the experience of being pregnant, giving birth, mothering, having miscarriages, their cyclic emotions, shedding blood for their people through their monthly cycles, and eventually experiencing a new power as their ability to have children ceases. These are aspects of a woman’s daily reality and spiritual opening that a man can only experience vicariously. Women’s bodies and cyclic emotions are doorways to spiritual awakening unique to women.

In the Sacred Feminine, women’s bodies and emotions carry them into the vast and dark unknown, where all of life is held lovingly in its potential. This is the sacred in which all possibilities of life are honored without judgment. Imagine this womb of all life’s potential as the vast and dark night sky—an endless, cool, and wondrous place in which life explores itself through repeated acts of new creation. This dark and beautiful aspect of the Sacred Feminine is best depicted today in the statues of the Black Madonna. The mystery of these statues found throughout Europe is not a mystery at all when a woman remembers, through her own body and emotions, that the Sacred Feminine is the birthplace of creation.

On the other hand, men who choose to encounter the Sacred Masculine through their bodies have very different experiences. The Sacred Masculine principle is that of light bursting through the darkness—life longing to become and know itself. This light is hot, fast, explosive and blissful in nature. I believe most men can relate to this principle energetically as it pulses through their bodies. To know how to be with this energy is as vital for a man as it is for a woman to know how to be with her cycles.

Can a man experience the depths of the Sacred Feminine, or can a woman discover the passion of the Sacred Masculine? Certainly. In fact, in spiritual practice, this is part of the journey. Ultimately, especially if we age consciously, we embody the full expression of both sacred natures seamlessly. We become the Oneness. We become present to the One by first fully experiencing both.

One reason women like me have looked for men that could honor the exploration of the Sacred Feminine is that this sacred nature has nearly been forgotten on our planet. For thousands of years, we have recognized and held the masculine sacred principle as holy, while minimizing the very nature of the Sacred Feminine. That is perhaps why statues of the Madonna were painted black—to gently remind us that there is another aspect of the Divine nature to be remembered—the forgotten one—the Sacred Feminine.

In order for humanity to once again fully accept both the masculine and the feminine principles as sacred, many women today recognize that we must know and remember this Divine essence within ourselves. Only then will we give birth to sons and daughters from our deepest sacred awareness. Because we are remembering, we look to other women to help us rediscover the ancient practices that teach us how to be fully present to this vastness of loving space we can access through our bodies and emotions.

Men that honor the Sacred Feminine seem to somehow sense or know the significance of this exploration that their women are drawn to experience. They become our great supporters and protectors, perhaps because they have had the courage to explore the power of their own sacred natures.

When the women come to my home to experience ceremony in the Sacred Feminine, my husband has helped me get ready by honoring my need for extra meditation time, assisting me in putting the house in order, and adjusting our meal time to accommodate ceremony. He likes to be there when the women arrive to warmly greet them at the door. Then he quietly slips away, giving us complete and private space. If there is any outside activity that might disturb our space, he handles it. And when ceremony is complete, we call him to join us to share food. He never asks about our experiences out of respect for our privacy, but will gladly receive blessings from the women if it is appropriate.

The women often comment on how wonderful he is when they arrive, and how blessed I am to have such respectful support. I smile, knowing that he is embodying the powerful and loving energy of the Sacred Masculine. To every man that embodies the sacredness within him, I give thanks. Because in your love, support and protection, we are truly free to remember our most sacred selves as women.

A Call to Women: Midwives of Planetary Change

2010-10-29T16:13:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, some beautiful and powerful women gathered together to explore the true nature of their Sacred Feminine selves. It seems each woman that came expected to leave reborn in self-awareness and commitment, and so they were. We held each other, like midwives, throughout the weekend, witnessing the evolution of the women’s spirits. I was touched by the degree of compassion and truth I witnessed, and will hold this retreat as a benchmark for what the birthing of authentic, conscious evolution in the Sacred Feminine can truly be.

The Grandmother spirits of this sacred path gave us with their teachings about what we need to realize as we women, (or for you men—the women in your lives), when we hear the calling and urgings of our sacred selves to take more action in the world. The Grandmothers told us that when we receive a calling from the well of our truest desires, that such a calling is not a toy to play with. To dabble with our callings is disrespectful to ourselves. They suggest it is better to refuse the calling entirely than it is to play with them as if they are interesting hobbies to explore when we are in the mood.

They suggested that when we feel our true callings, and choose not to act we create a stagnant gap in the energy field. When we know what we should do and then ignore or delay our calling, we set up an energetic field that can actually cause harm to someone else. This was a very new concept for many of us to consider, but upon reflection, we understood the wisdom behind what was being suggested to us.

Let’s say I live in a remote, rural area where there are no nearby emergency services for injured animals. I feel called deeply and profoundly to create an emergency service hospital for animals, but don’t have the money or resources to do it myself, so I let this calling linger in the background, doing nothing about it. Because I recognize it as my calling, perhaps no one else in the area receives the calling or is drawn to that area to fulfill that calling. I am sitting on the energy, so to speak. Because I am not acting on the calling, injured animals are not receiving immediate care.

Here is another example, using the same basic concept. Perhaps I am feeling compelled to bring humane education about animals to the area that I live. I’ve been watching some rather unconscious behaviors toward animals and since animal care is a passion of mine, I know I should develop or bring in a humane education program for adults and children. Because I have so many pulls on my time from my job, husband and children, I keep telling myself I’ll get to this one day when things calm down a bit in my life. One day I hear from a neighbor that a local man known for abusing horses had a son that died while abusing his horse in the same way he learned from his father.

In the collective consciousness there are unspoken agreements about where and how significant energetic responses will arise. These responses are sometimes means for preventing further harm and increasing harmony. If you choose to act upon your calling, you are filling a perceived need identified by the collective consciousness. If you recognize the calling and claim it as your own, the collective-unified mind of humanity acknowledges you as the one fulfilling it. If you don’t act on the calling, the need is left unaddressed, and this is where someone may experience unnecessary harm or a greater degree of harm than might otherwise occur.

So, what do you do if you accept the calling, but can’t seem to bring it into manifestation within an amount of time you consider to be appropriate? Consider giving it back to the collective consciousness, so that someone else has the opportunity to respond. Or if you sense a calling and just can’t do it at the time, it is better to say, “No thank you,” than it is to sit on the calling and do nothing. Maybe it will or won’t get done, but at least you will have been clear and honest about what you are willing and able to do, allowing space for someone else to step in.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes several people seem to get the same idea at the same time, or someone runs with an idea you have had? There are times when the collective consciousness knows that it is time for an idea to come to its fruition, so the idea is seeded among many. If for any reason you are not ready or able to bring the idea to its fulfillment, then someone else will. This is nothing to become jealous about or degrade yourself about. This is cause for celebration. It means that some aspect of the Oneness experiencing life on earth has brought life to a desire so that you and everyone needing and wanting that experience can be fulfilled. If you open up to the Divine, you will discover there is something else waiting for your loving touch and energy.

Certainly, there are times when you recognize your calling and you don’t have the full compliment of skills and resources required to fulfill the calling. This can be the time to hold a clear vision and open up for help. It isn’t necessarily your job to figure out how something is supposed to get done, but rather to fully embrace the vision, share it with others that might want to participate, and hold space for the community to step forward in an act of co-creation with you and Spirit.

For thousands of years, women as a whole have been conditioned to respond to the needs of our family, with our family members being the focal point of our lives. As a result, we can find it foreign and challenging to allow our family members to learn lessons without us. Instead of getting on with what we came here to do, we allow the needs of others (who can often do more for themselves without us) to consume our attention. Our obsession with them provides a place for us to hide so that we don’t have to face our fears by stepping out to do what we are truly called to do.

The Grandmothers tell us it is time to stop hiding. The world needs us now. During the next six to seven years, our planet and humanity are going to experience some revolutionary changes. We can bring our wisdom forward to be midwives to the process of planetary rebirth or we can hide in a back room of our consciousness. The choice is ours. And we are encouraged as the potential midwives of consciousness to choose wisely.

To experience more of the Sacred Path of the Feminine, receive weekly Reflections—guided meditations—by Reverend Misa, articles, and announcements for tele-ceremonies, tele-meditations and events to awaken the sacred feminine, sign-up for notices at http://newdreamfoundation.com/welcome.htm

Do You Ever Wish Dreams Came True Immediately?

2010-10-20T20:00:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I get in one of those moods when I wish I could think about something and know that it was creating itself without needing to take any action whatsoever, and without any time passing. And every now and then it actually happens. I’m thinking about how nice it would be to have dinner with friends and those particular friends call with the same suggestion. Those moments of mutual and instant manifestation are cool. But it doesn’t always happen that way, does it?

Some years ago I was moaning about how fulfilling my dreams seemed to take so much time. Shortly after that I had a vision in meditation, putting the function of time into perspective. I saw myself looking at a world in which the creative process had gone awry. With a single thought from me, the world was destroyed. It completely vanished. I came out of the visionary state in a bit of shock. The emotional impact of the vision caused me realize that time is an undervalued friend in the process of manifestation.

Time creates space between the thought and the result. Let’s say as a child I got angry with my mother and thought, “I wish you were dead.” Now if my thought had manifested immediately I would have regretted my mother dying shortly after making a statement like that. As a child with strong emotions that ruled me, if I had come into this world with the power of instant manifestation I would have left a wake of ruthless destruction and joyful creativity in the path behind me, reflections of my momentary moods.

Time provides space for us as children, and as adults, to develop spiritual equilibrium. Time gives us an opportunity to explore options before we settle in on our commitments. Time gives us a chance to be very clear that what we have stated we want in the way we want it is indeed exactly right for us. If we have any conflicting feelings or beliefs we have time to consider them and bring ourselves into greater alignment with an intention that is most in alignment with our higher purpose. Time can simply mean that what we have intended is being created at another non-visible level. For a lovely article about the appropriateness of lag time that can occur in manifestation, I recommend this article by Simona Rich: http://blogs.personal-development-coach.net/inspirational/why-there-is-a-time-lag-in-manifestation/

Time is the means by which we can get to know what is constant and true. Emotions and thoughts are fleeting. But beneath them is the Divine nature of limitless love. When we make decisions from the clarity of Divine knowing, we are more likely to make wise decisions that benefit the greater good of creation itself. If we allow ourselves to become still within the passing of time, we find ourselves transcending the normal pace of time and indeed, we do manifest more quickly. When we are in the truth of our hearts—the love of agape—we see from the vantage point of Divine clarity.

Once the clarity is there, action is required. This is yet another way in which the manifestation process is slowed down a bit. Action provides a means for getting to know the many wonderful people with which we are co-creating life on planet earth. Like the example of my friends calling about getting together for dinner, action creates opportunities for us to share in the joy of living with others. Action gets us out of the house, engaging in the gifts of Mother Earth. Action stretches us to create beyond our perceived limits. Action across time slows us down enough to savor life.

Sometimes we become confused and think we came here to leave our mark or complete our purpose. That is partially true, but not complete. We came here to experience. Our purpose becomes a focal point for our experiences. Even the evolution of global consciousness is a focal point for our combined experiences as humanity. Time gives us the opportunity to experience life deeply, in all its subtle nuances, and slows us down from making decisions we might later regret.

Do You Get Nervous About Commitment in Spiritual Practice?

2010-10-15T16:02:00.000-07:00

The fourth of four healing prescriptions from the Path of the Sacred Feminine.

Funny thing about commitment in spiritual practice—it is often required before you think you know enough to make the commitment. That’s the part where we get nervous—as we are getting ready to make our leap. If you have ever stood on the precipice of commitment, you know that is point at which you want someone to prove to you that you will make it. However, when it is time to make a spiritual commitment, you seldom get the particular type of proof you are seeking.

You might receive a sign that points you in the directions of making the commitments, as in a sign from God. Someone says exactly what you needed to hear, you are given something that is symbolic to you in confirming the direction you are contemplating, or receive clear guidance in a dream or meditation. Certainly, if you ask, you might be the beneficiary of Divine grace, to support you in saying, “Yes,” to the commitment before you.

What you are not likely to receive is absolute proof that once you make the commitment you will make more money, be in a flaw-less relationship, be guaranteed perfect health, never have any more challenges, and everything will be easy. The proof we want isn’t typically available to us.

Sure, you can go to a psychic or an astrologer or numerologist to gain some insight. And they can point the way, but they can’t prove to you that everything will be better. It’s not possible because these moments are intersections of faith. Faith is about acting on what you know to be your guidance as you step into the unknown.

For many of us there is a significant element of fear that arises as we contemplate the commitment we are compelled to make. What I have learned to do with that fear is to breathe and choose. Then I accept whatever choice I have made, without allowing myself to slip into regret when the challenges arise. Challenges come to help us grow, so there are likely to be challenges whether we choose to stay on the precipice or leap over to the other side. Challenges are not necessarily indicators about whether or not we have made the right choice.

There is no right or wrong choice. The chance to make a commitment is simply a moment of choice. In some cases, we have said a prayer—affirming or asking for a new opening in our lives—so when we ask for confirmation about an opportunity that is arising, we may receive guidance to move in a certain direction because it answers a prayer. But if we do not feel ready to fully receive that opportunity, or if we are wondering about our original request, it may not be time to leap. It may be time to be still and reflect.

The same is true in regard to fear when it comes to commitment. Fear is not necessarily an indicator that something is wrong and therefore nothing should be ventured. Fear can simply be a natural reaction to the amount of change and unpredictability involved with making a commitment to an unknown reality.

Here is something wonderful to know about fear. A friend and teacher once explained to me how to convert fear simply. He described fear like a panicky inhale, as he sucked in his breath with an overtone of panic. But then he demonstrate the rest of the breath with an exhale. As he released his breath, I could audibly hear the excitement in his voice as he ended the breath with an audible, “Ah.”

Such is the subtle difference between fear and excitement. So I learned to breath through the nervousness or fear, allowing my fear to become transformed into excitement. Isn’t this a beautiful way to move through the anxiety and become empowered to take action? Here are the four steps to consider the next time it is time for you to consider a commitment: 1) breath fully your inhale and exhale, 2) choose with conviction whether you will remain or leap, and 3) trust in your choice—whatever it is—because life is about exploring not about making a right or wrong choice, and 4) when the challenges arise, remember they are opportunities to learn, not reflections about whether or not you made the right commitment.