ASTROLOGY of the PLANETARY ALIGNMENT
on 12th JANUARY for Sacred Ceremonies to
ACTIVATE the ENERGETIC UMBILICAL CORD between
ULURU AND THE SUN

For background information on this momentous cosmic event, see
https://www.heavenandearthcommunity.co.uk/…/workshop-ceremo…

The workshop is now full.
Others are welcome to join an outer circle of support for our ceremony on Sunday. Please let us know if you plan to join us.

The ASTROLOGY: (technical bits in brackets can be ignored, if preferred)

For this alignment, there are no retrograde planets. This means that all are focussed towards the most positive outcomes for the future.

At the top of the chart (Midheaven) is a conjunction of the Sun with asteroid / minor planet Ceres and Saturn, Pluto and Mercury. These are all aligned at the end of a red (90°) square aspect, connecting upwards towards the heavens like an umbilical cord.

As we look out from the Earth towards the Sun, this means that these 4 planets are aligned in a straight line behind the Sun. We link to the Sun through our Heart chakra, to Mercury through the Throat chakra, to Ceres through the Navel chakra (Hara), to Saturn through the Root chakra and to Pluto through the Stellar Gateway and Earth Star chakras.

The Stellar Gateway (about 2 ft / 60cms above the Crown) is our direct link with the pure light frequencies of Divine Will. This pure energy stream is received into our bodies through the central vertical column of light in the Core Channel that runs down through the core of our body, and anchors into the Earth Star Centre, (about 1 foot / 30cms) in the Earth beneath our feet, and from there into Earth’s energy grids.

For the purposes of this alignment, we need to be attuning with the pure crystalline Light of Divine Will or Purpose, carried by Pluto, flowing down from the Stellar Gateway. Feel it descending down through our Core Channel, becoming focussed and activated at our Throat, so that we may understand and absorb it at the level of the mind; then to embrace it at the Heart level, to anchor it into our will at the Navel and into our body at the Root centre, before anchoring these down-pouring energies into the body of Mother Earth at the Earth Star, beneath our feet.

At the other end of the red (90°) square is asteroid Juno in Libra. She is concerned with creating peace, harmony and right relations with ourselves and all beings. This is our task, if we are to truly anchor these cosmic energies into Mother Earth, via Uluru and the Rainbow Serpent line.

The green quincunx (150°) aspect from Juno to Neptune in Pisces means that we can only learn how to do this through complete surrender to what the Universe requires from us now. This may appear to involve a certain amount of chaos and uncertainty, because we are moving into a new and unknown paradigm, which we will not fully understand until we get there.

Another green quincunx from Neptune to the Moon in Leo means that we can only learn to surrender in this way, by letting go of our most cherished desires, wants, needs and in particular, letting go of our identification with the dramas of our life.

The red (90°) square from the Moon to Vesta in Taurus means that in order to do this, we are being challenged to move beyond being focussed on our personal emotional desires and dramas, towards opening our hearts unconditionally so that we may feel, experience and embrace the sacredness of all of Life.

Then we will begin to feel the rewards of how that can open us to the infinite possibilities offered by the Universe, as that energy flows from Vesta, along the blue (120°) trine aspect to Jupiter conjunct the Moon’s South Node in Capricorn. This conjunction is about offering back to the Universe our gratitude for all that lies in our past experience and appreciating the lessons learnt and the rewards received, even in our most challenging and difficult times.

(From Jupiter there is a Searching Figure, with semi-sextile (30°) to Mars in Sagittarius, which is quincunx (150°) to Uranus in Taurus, which is trine (120°) back to Jupiter.)

The Searching Figure is pointing us towards Uranus, towards liberation and freedom from the constraints and limitations of the material world. In order to reach this, Mars in Sagittarius is telling us that we need to formulate a clear intention for the direction that we want to move in; we cannot reach our goal by mere wishful thinking, hoping for a better life, a better world, without a clear intention and the will and unwavering determination to follow it through. Mars here means that we need to be following our gut feelings, so that even though we may not be able to see the big picture, we are at least heading in the right direction.

(From Mars another Searching Figure has a trine (120°) to Chiron in Aries, which is semi-sextile (30°) to Uranus, which is quincunx (150°) back to Mars.)

This means that in order to create and follow such an intention, we need to release and heal our past failures. This is achieved not by deep introspection and painful soul-searching, but through humour! It is about perceiving the humour in our own unique Divine Comedy, in all the times when we have taken ourselves far too seriously, when we have lost the detached perspective of our soul, the ability to observe the drama that we make of our lives, and the realisation that we have been merely acting out the part that was written for us by our planets, our genetics, and our accumulated experience of past lives.

(From Chiron, there is a Small Learning Figure, with a square (90°) aspect to Pallas Athene in Sagittarius, which is trine (120°) to Venus in Aquarius, which is semi-sextile (30°) back to Chiron.)

In order to perceive the humour in our lives, the great Cosmic Joke that the Universe has been playing upon us, we need the clarity and perspective of Pallas Athene’s incisive intuitive insight, coupled with the realisation that everything we experience offers us the possibility for transformation into our true spiritual potential, and for living and walking the Path of Beauty in everything that we do.

If you wish to receive a PDF, giving details of when the alignment of the Sun and 4 planets will pass overhead at many of the world’s sacred sites, please email info@heavenandearthcommunity.co.uk
If you wish to tune in with your own ceremonies, those would be the best times to help anchor these energies into the Earth Grids, as the energy wave sweeps around the planet.

SUGGESTED MEDITATION:
Simply focus on the Sun above, with the 4 planets (Mercury, Ceres, Saturn, Pluto) aligned behind the Sun. Feel that alignment connecting you to a cord of light that descends down through the core channel of your body, anchoring in at your Throat chakra, Heart chakra, Navel chakra, Root chakra (perineum), and then into the Earth beneath your feet, at the Earthstar.

Simply breathe in and down from the Heavens and out into the Earth, and then breathe in and up from the Earth and out and up to the Heavens. Do this for as long as feels right. Then take your attention away from the cord of light and draw up a cloak of gold and emerald light from the Earth and wrap it around you completely.

Move around, stamp your feet and have something to drink and eat.
For All our Relations

Nancy Kohn Raven

On the surface of the world right now there is war and violence and things seem dark.
But calmly and quietly, at the same time, something else is happening underground.
An inner revolution is taking place and certain individuals are being called to a higher light. It is a silent revolution.
From the inside out. From the ground up.
This is a Global operation.
A Spiritual Conspiracy.
There are sleeper cells in every nation on the planet.
You wont see us on the T.V.
You wont read about us in the newspaper.
You wont hear about us on the radio.
We dont seek any glory.
We dont wear any uniform.
We come in all shapes and sizes, colors and styles.
Most of us work anonymously.
We are quietly working behind the scenes in every country and culture of the world, cities big and small, mountains and valleys, in farms and villages, tribes and remote islands.
You could pass by one of us on the street and not even notice. We go undercover. We remain behind the scenes.
It is of no concern to us who takes the final credit, But simply that the work gets done.
Occasionally we spot each other in the street. We give a quiet nod and continue on our way.
During the day many of us pretend we have normal jobs, But behind the false storefront at night is where the real work takes a place.
Some call us the Conscious Army.
We are slowly creating a new world with the power of our Minds and Hearts.
We Lead and Follow, with Passion and Joy
Our orders come from from the
We each express ourselves in our own unique ways with our own unique gifts and talents. Be the change you choose to see in the world. That is the motto that fills our hearts. We know it is the only way real transformation takes place. We know that quietly and humbly we have the power of all the oceans combined.
Our work is slow and meticulous. Like the formation of mountains
It is not even visible at first glance and yet with it entire tectonic plates
shall be moved in the centuries to come. Love is the New Religion.
You dont have to be a highly educated person or have any exceptional knowledge to understand it. It comes from the Intelligence of the Heart. Embedded in the Timeless Evolutionary pulse of All Human Beings.
Be the change you choose to see in the world
Nobody else can do it for you
We are now recruiting
Perhaps you will join us
Or already have.
All are welcome
The door is open.

The Joy of Being a Woman in Her Seventies

–by Mary Pipher, Feb 27, 2019

This article originally appeared in the New York Times Sunday Review, on January 12th, 2019.

When I told my friends I was writing a book on older women like us, they immediately protested, “I am not old.” What they meant was that they didn’t act or feel like the cultural stereotypes of women their age. Old meant bossy, useless, unhappy and in the way. Our country’s ideas about old women are so toxic that almost no one, no matter her age, will admit she is old.

In America, ageism is a bigger problem for women than aging. Our bodies and our sexuality are devalued, we are denigrated by mother-in-law jokes, and we’re rendered invisible in the media. Yet, most of the women I know describe themselves as being in a vibrant and happy life stage. We are resilient and know how to thrive in the margins. Our happiness comes from self-knowledge, emotional intelligence and empathy for others.

Most of us don’t miss the male gaze. It came with catcalls, harassment and unwanted attention. Instead, we feel free from the tyranny of worrying about our looks. For the first time since we were 10, we can feel relaxed about our appearance. We can wear yoga tights instead of nylons and bluejeans instead of business suits.

Yet, in this developmental stage, we are confronted by great challenges. We are unlikely to escape great sorrow for long. We all suffer, but not all of us grow. Those of us who grow do so by developing our moral imaginations and expanding our carrying capacities for pain and bliss. In fact, this pendulum between joy and despair is what makes old age catalytic for spiritual and emotional growth.

By our 70s, we’ve had decades to develop resilience. Many of us have learned that happiness is a skill and a choice. We don’t need to look at our horoscopes to know how our day will go. We know how to create a good day.

We have learned to look every day for humor, love and beauty. We’ve acquired an aptitude for appreciating life. Gratitude is not a virtue but a survival skill, and our capacity for it grows with our suffering. That is why it is the least privileged, not the most, who excel in appreciating the smallest of offerings.

Many women flourish as we learn how to make everything workable. Yes, everything. As we walk out of a friend’s funeral, we can smell wood smoke in the air and taste snowflakes on our tongues.

Our happiness is built by attitude and intention. Attitude is not everything, but it’s almost everything. I visited the jazz great Jane Jarvis when she was old, crippled and living in a tiny apartment with a window facing a brick wall. I asked if she was happy and she replied, “I have everything I need to be happy right between my ears.”

We may not have control, but we have choices. With intention and focused attention, we can always find a forward path. We discover what we are looking for. If we look for evidence of love in the universe, we will find it. If we seek beauty, it will spill into our lives any moment we wish. If we search for events to appreciate, we discover them to be abundant.

There is an amazing calculus in old age. As much is taken away, we find more to love and appreciate. We experience bliss on a regular basis. As one friend said: “When I was young I needed sexual ecstasy or a hike to the top of a mountain to experience bliss. Now I can feel it when I look at a caterpillar on my garden path.”

Older women have learned the importance of reasonable expectations. We know that all our desires will not be fulfilled, that the world isn’t organized around pleasing us and that others, especially our children, are not waiting for our opinions and judgments. We know that the joys and sorrows of life are as mixed together as salt and water in the sea. We don’t expect perfection or even relief from suffering. A good book, a piece of homemade pie or a call from a friend can make us happy. As my aunt Grace, who lived in the Ozarks, put it, “I get what I want, but I know what to want.”

We can be kinder to ourselves as well as more honest and authentic. Our people-pleasing selves soften their voices and our true selves speak more loudly and more often. We don’t need to pretend to ourselves and others that we don’t have needs. We can say no to anything we don’t want to do. We can listen to our hearts and act in our own best interest. We are less angst-filled and more content, less driven and more able to live in the moment with all its lovely possibilities.

Many of us have a shelterbelt of good friends and long-term partners. There is a sweetness to 50-year-old friendships and marriages that can’t be described in language. We know each other’s vulnerabilities, flaws and gifts; we’ve had our battles royal and yet are grateful to be together. A word or a look can signal so much meaning. Lucky women are connected to a rich web of women friends. Those friends can be our emotional health insurance policies.

The only constant in our lives is change. But if we are growing in wisdom and empathy, we can take the long view. We’ve lived through seven decades of our country’s history, from Truman to Trump. I knew my great-grandmother, and if I live long enough, will meet my great-grandchildren. I will have known seven generations of family. I see where I belong in a long line of Scotch-Irish ancestors. I am alive today only because thousands of generations of resilient homo sapiens managed to procreate and raise their children. I come from, we all come from, resilient stock, or we wouldn’t be here.

By the time we are 70, we have all had more tragedy and more bliss in our lives than we could have foreseen. If we are wise, we realize that we are but one drop in the great river we call life and that it has been a miracle and a privilege to be alive.

***

For more inspiration, join this Saturday’s Awakin Call with Mary Pipher. More details and RSVP info here.

Mary Pipher is a clinical psychologist in Lincoln, Neb., and the author of the #1 New York Times’ bestseller, Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, in addition to 9 other books. Her most recent book is Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing As We Age.

HONORING GREAT WISDOM KEEPERS
Winter 2019 Editorial
Suzanne Lewis, Editor

It’s  early morning and the rain that soaked our snow has just turned back into snow. For the past 24 hours it has felt like the weather is confused, scattered and wet. Many, many years ago I listened to an honorable Hopi Messenger, Thomas Banyaca, an Earth peacekeeper. One of the gems of wisdom I received through him is “that we must become one with mountains, the wind, the clouds, the waters and the weather.”

My bloodline is strongly ensconced in being earth stewards, we’re land-based people. I call myself a natural spiritualist. One of my cross-cultural teachers, Dr. Angeles Arrien teaches that before one can step onto their heartwalk, their authentic spirit walk, we must be able to do the following:
Honor and respect one’s family of origin
Honor and respect one’s land of origin
Honor and respect one’s spiritual orientation

Only then is one clear to step on that good red road of respectful relations with all the family of life, light and nature. Each one of us is destined during this Earthlife to get on with their divine purpose. Honoring the Indigenous wisdom that we are doing the work for seven generations to come and to mend for seven generations before us. Being a fifth generation Idahoan my honoring work mandated that I go back to my Celtic roots in Wales and the whispered Native American influence. What I learned needed reconnecting in me was my natural spirituality, a knowledge that I am family with everything. The trees, the rivers, the Earth’s garden, the four-legged, the winged ones, the ones that live in the waters and those that crawled within the earth. The common “gene” is spiritual integrity. I believe there is a common spark of “light” in all of us. Call the spark spirit, call that spark love, call that spark respect.

Then I learned from my treasured teacher, Dhyani Ywahoo the “Three principles of awakened mind guide enlightened action: will to see the Mystery as it is, intention to manifest one’s purpose for the benefit of all, and courage to do what must be done. . .All peoples, all religions, trace their roots to the one Great Tree of Peace. Through perceiving the common factors of human condition and mind, we see ourselves as relatives in the Family of life…. These teachings are like a road map; they guide us to live each day in full recognition of one’s relationship with the world. We are reminded that the power to manifest peace exists in each of us.”
Through several decades of trainings as a Planetary Peacekeeper with Dhyani, I ultimately learned that peace begins within my self, my own inner family and then it can be reflected out to the greater Family of Life. If I have any disowned parts within, they ignite fear, greed, shame, judgment, negativity, addictions and pain. It takes great courage, patience, discernment and communication skills to make peace with unhealthy life patterns, to let them go and forgive one’s self for any involvement and then know how to receive appreciation, validation and approval for life sustaining qualities.

Finding your unified connection with the highest good, the god of one’s heart; the voice that can only be heard when the mind has been stilled and trust has returned is the elixir, the healing salve, to assist us home to our wholesome, vitally alive being. Self-love means caring for ourselves enough to forgive people in our past so that the wounds can no longer damage us–for our wounds do not hurt the people who hurt us, they hurt only us.”

“The realization that another person wishes to harm and hurt you cannot undermine genuine compassion—a compassion based on the clear recognition of that person as someone who is suffering, someone who has the natural and instinctual desire to seek happiness and overcome suffering, just like oneself.’
The Dalai Lama

One of my all time favorite native elder wisdom is the following:

HOPI ELDER WISDOM

There is a river flowing now very fast.

It is so great and swift, that there are those who
will be afraid.

They will try to hold on to the shore, they will feel
they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.

Know that the river has its destination.

The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off
into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open and
our heads above the water. And I say
see who is there with you and celebrate.

At this time in history, we are to take nothing.
personally, least of all ourselves, for the moment.
that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a
halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over.

Gather yourselves.

Banish the word struggle from your attitude and
vocabulary.

All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and
in celebration.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

Carlos Castaneta stated, “Most of our energy goes into upholding our importance. If we were capable of losing some of that importance, two extraordinary things happen to us. One, we would free our energy from trying to maintain the illusory idea of grandeur and two, we would provide ourselves with enough energy to catch a glimpse of the actual grandeur of the universe.”
This perspective is a paradox to me. On one hand as one commits to walk their sacred heart path it requires coming home to one’s true self, trusting that the strenuous shedding of false traits will ultimately benefit all of life. While on the other hand, this rigorous practice of returning to one’s authentic self may appear as self centered, selfish and goodness gracious, “ONE MUST NOT BE SELFISH”.
Choices one makes to abstain from harmful self-destructive habits and relations may create a life chapter of singularity, aloneness. Thus the question erupts is this self- importance or is this universal wholeness? When we say no to distractions and choose to return to silence and stillness, are we uniting with universal oneness?
On bent knee one surrenders to the mighty I AM and often a presence cloaks the human being. I’ve heard it related when he/she is in this embrace … they just exude a strength. Then warm humility comes forth to reign over self-importance. We have our ordinary self and then our Higher Self, Universal Self. With enough time and commitment to be authentic, a being is recognized as powerful, as one with grace.
Is this self-importance or is this eternal wisdom actualized in human form? As we step into 2020, there are strong currents wanting to project gloom, doom, destruction and despair. Now, like never before, we must be awake aware of our deep wisdom for being in human form and live a life that shows it. I pray to advocate that Heaven is on Earth right now, right here. If the times/environment requires us to simplify, to be in good relations, to envision that we are in the garden; let’s get on with it. Our children’s children’s children deserve it.

I’ve been offline and in struggle since the shootings in El Paso and Dayton. At first I thought it was a combination of physical and spiritual exhaustion, or maybe low grade cultural despair with a side of burnout. I tried to combat the strange sense of emptiness with more work and more grind. This solution came to a grinding halt when I fell off my favorite pair of platform shoes. I was walking out of Charlie’s school when I hit an uneven patch of concrete. I turned my ankle, and the top strap of my shoe wrenched my foot and broke three of my toes. For the record, I put the breaking of toes at a 9 out of 10 on the pain scale. Holy shit. Nothing puts a stop to running hard as a distraction like an inflatable boot and crutches.
I can be ornery when I’m hurt or sick, so the combination of not being able to work out or spend too much time on my feet exacerbated the emptiness. After three weeks of feeling untethered and increasingly hollowed out, I realized something more serious was happening than the usual exhaustion or burnout. I couldn’t access hope or possibility. I poisoned every good thing with thoughts of potentially horrible things. I didn’t want to let my family out of my sight, but I didn’t feel like I had much of myself to offer them even when they were within arm’s reach.
One night, I sat straight up in my bed at 4am, strapped on my boot, pumped it up, and hopped on one foot to the top of the stairs. Too hurried to navigate down on my crutches, I sat and scooted down the stairs on my butt – like my brother and sisters and I did when we were little. Using one hand to brace myself against the wall, I hopped into my study and grabbed bell hooks’s book, All About Love.
Could the problem be lovelessness? Was the lovelessness in the world seeping into my life?
I went straight for the passages that I had highlighted and tagged over the years. By the time the sun came up, I understood what was happening.
Yes, the world is suffering from traumatic levels of lovelessness right now, but what really brought me to my knees these past few months was how susceptible I was to perpetuating lovelessness in my own response to our collective pain. As I started to untangle everything I was feeling, I realized that over the past few months, I had unknowingly turned away from love – the only fuel source that really works for me. Instead of being fueled by love, I unconsciously had turned to fear, contempt, self-righteousness, and maybe a touch of high-octane disdain to navigate hard news and hard people.
I’ve learned the most about love and lovelessness from bell hooks. I’ve been reading her work for the past twenty-five years. Her books Teaching to Transgress and All About Love expanded my teaching and activism so much that I often say that her work is responsible for 90% of the stretch marks on my heart and my mind.
In All About Love, hooks writes,
“Taught to believe that the mind, not the heart, is the seat of learning, many of us believe that to speak of love with any emotional intensity means we will be perceived as weak and irrational. And it is especially hard to speak of love when what we have to say calls attention to the fact that lovelessness is more common than love, that many of us are not sure what we mean when we talk of love or how to express love.
Everyone wants to know more about love. We want to know what it means to love, what we can do in our everyday lives to love and be loved. We want to know how to seduce those among us who remain wedded to lovelessness and open the door to their hearts to let love enter. The strength of our desire does not change the power of our cultural uncertainty.
Everywhere we learn that love is important, and yet we are bombarded by its failure. In the realm of the political, among the religious, in our families, and in our romantic lives, we see little indication that love informs decisions, strengthens our understanding of community, or keeps us together. This bleak picture in no way alters the nature of our longing. We still hope that love will prevail. We still believe in love’s promise.”
I don’t claim to know what fuel works best for everyone, but what I know for sure is that I believe in love’s promise and I run best on love. For me, love is sustainable, renewable, and it burns clean. That doesn’t mean I don’t get angry. Anger is a soul-sucking lifetime companion, but it’s also a great catalyst for two of the grittiest, truest forms of love – justice and equity.
Cultures of Domination
hooks explains that we can only awaken to love if we let go of our obsession with power and domination. While All About Love was written in 2000, her observations about domination, white supremacy, the patriarchy, and power offer important insight into what we’re experiencing right now.
She explains that people who are willing to speak out against injustice are not smarter or kinder than their neighbors, but are “willing to live the truth of their values.” hooks shares this example:
“If you go door to door in our nation and talk to citizens about domestic violence, almost everyone will insist that they do not support male violence against women, that they believe it to be morally and ethically wrong. However, if you then explain that we can only end male violence against women by challenging patriarchy, and that means no longer accepting the notion that men should have more rights and privileges than women because of biological difference or that men should have the power to rule over women, that is when the agreement stops. There is a gap between the values they claim to hold and their willingness to do the work of connecting thought and action, theory and practice to realize these values and thus create a more just society.”
When we have a president who repeatedly uses language and rhetoric to dehumanize immigrants (including some of the exact language used by the shooter in El Paso), and a gun lobby that uses racism, nationalism, and fear to recruit and maintain members rather than advocating for safe and responsible gun ownership, what do we expect is going to happen? Lovelessness in words becomes lovelessness in deeds. This is a culture of domination at work.
The shooter in Ohio had a “rape list.” We know from a growing number of studies that there is a strong connection between mass-shooting incidents and violence against women. Again, lovelessness and domination.
For me, the short, well-lit, well-worn, path from theory to action – from words to deeds – seemed so clear that all I could feel was hate and rage toward not just the perpetrators of the shootings and the inciters and normalizers of violence, but I was indignant toward everyone around me who didn’t see the connections and weren’t sufficiently outraged.
Without love as the driver, my rage and contempt didn’t fuel action or serve as a catalyst. They killed my hope and resolve. Some days, my lovelessness just pulled the covers over my head, and other days it dressed me up in a “Death to Extremists” t-shirt and sent me into the world.
Erich Fromm writes, “There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as ‘moral indignation,’ which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue.” Ouch.
A Love Ethic
“Individuals who choose to love can and do alter our lives in ways that honor the primacy of a love ethic. We do this by choosing to work with individuals we admire and respect; by committing to give our all to relationships; by embracing a global vision wherein we see our lives and our fate as intimately connected to those of everyone else on the planet. Commitment to a love ethic transforms our lives by offering us a different set of values to live by. In large and small ways, we make choices based on a belief that honesty, openness, and personal integrity need to be expressed in public and private decisions.”
bell hooks
I’ve lived by a love ethic my entire life, and I want to double down on love again. Right now. I want to nurture and protect love and kindness in myself and in others. The doubling down is going to require some changes in my life. I’m going to start with these:
1. I’m not afraid to have hard conversations or face pain, but I can be skittish when it comes to inviting joy and grace into my life. Joy fuels love. Grace allows me to reflect. I need to find a way to open that door more often. Even when it feels so vulnerable.
2. Even though there are a million things that need to change, we all need to rest sometimes – even when there’s still a shit-ton of work to do. Burn-out drives lovelessness.
3. For me, self-love is making and taking the time to create. I can’t live a love ethic if I’m not researching and writing and thinking. Creativity is who I am and how I’m wired.
4. When the world feels tough and disconnected, I need to sink into the softness and connection of my family and friends. Family is my love ethic. Sometimes, my go-to is to try to get tougher and even more disconnected than the world so I can fight back. It doesn’t work and it actually feeds that domination paradigm.
5. I need to make sure my anger is a catalyst born of love, not justification for causing pain when I’m in pain.
6. I want to co-create a love ethic in our organization and in our facilitator communities – an ethic that informs how we show up with each other, serve the work, and cultivate belonging. Lovelessness corrodes organizational culture. We need love wherever there are humans – that means at work too.
7. I need deeper, more meaningful spiritual connection. I need to rekindle things with God in some way that makes sense for me. Maybe I’ll take a run at meditation again, or renew my Daily Examen habit.
PS I don’t think you’re supposed to “take a run at meditating” but you know what I mean.
8. I’m going to live into my values and stand up for what I believe in from a place of love. And I’m not talking about rainbow and unicorn love. I’m talking about learning how to stay fueled by a gritty, dangerous, wild-eyed, radical, change-the-world kinda love when disdain, judgment, and contempt are so much easier and when fear is seducing me into staying quiet. hooks writes,
“Refusal to stand up for what you believe in weakens individual morality and ethics as well as those of the culture. No wonder then that we are a nation of people, the majority of whom, across race, class, and gender, claim to be religious, claim to believe in the divine power of love, and yet collectively remain unable to embrace a love ethic and allow it to guide behavior, especially if doing so would mean supporting radical change. Fear of radical changes leads many citizens of our nation to betray their minds and hearts.”
I’ll take radical change over betraying my mind and heart every time.
Doubling down on love demands that we be brave enough to straddle the tension of staying awake to the struggle in the world and fighting for justice and peace, while also cultivating a love ethic in our own lives. We can’t sacrifice the micro for the macro, or the macro for the micro.
Love, belonging, connection and joy are irreducible needs for all of us. We can’t give people what we don’t have. We have to live love to give love.
I’m back and I’m here to love big, have fun, cultivate joy, and fight hard.

Fall on the medicine wheel is a time of harvest as well as composting that which is done. In this season of the changing colors, one is called to recognize and appreciate that which is positive and sustainable and let go those things whose value and life force is ending.

WBM TIMES is an expression of Suzanne Lewis’s web site WWW.WHOLISTICBODYMIND.COM, a health community whose voice is local to global. It is said that dis-ease comes into the body where it has lost its’ voice. Our intent is to assist practitioners and seekers to express their gained wisdom, their tools for well-being so that others may be helped in their own recovery of aliveness.

Integrating the Oriental five element theory and the Indigenous People’s Medicine Wheel is one way to cross-culturally develop a universal language that is inclusive of the family of life, its’ seasons, its’ symbols and its’ metaphors.

As a Wholistic Touch therapist and Self Health educator, the West on the Great Wheel represents to me the time of:
one, remembering life episodes that brought disharmony, disease into one’s life.
Two, reframing any negative, adverse, ignored or harmed component of our life’s history into a positive, self-sustaining
perspective.
Three, forgiving ourselves for the prior involvement that created adversity and letting the past go like a leaf from a tree that’s
completed its’ growth.
Finally, four, rejoicing that we were even willing to look at this particular hard, out-of-balanced part of our life and get on with
one’s authentic blueprint of well-being.

These four steps seem simple but as is with life right timing rules healing. We have to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right community to initiate right action.

This is where the power of prayer gets involved. Life becomes a living prayer to be awake in the present moment, to be able to recognize the miraculous and to do no harm, to self or others. That willingness to turn everything over to the highest good, lightens the egoic load and brings in relationship with spirit.

The fall element or metal element of the five elements theory relates to one’s lung and large intestine. The lungs literally relate to inspiration, what was our sacred calling when we birthed into this life. How well do we sense our authenticity to our life purpose and relations? The yin and yang, feminine and masculine of the metal element brings in the large intestine which to my understanding relates to our family of origin and the patterns established during our youth around home, security and safety. The manner in which our bowels move directly reflects one’s overall state of health. We must trust to let go that which is done and be open to the outcome of destiny. Simultaneously, if our life is too loose, one is required to set boundaries, limits.

It is curious to me that the overview of the West on the wheel is focused on healing and education. The Southwest is the home of the Shaman or spiritual healer. The true West is the home of the medicine woman, one who represents the green things and the children and the Northwest is the natural home of Western Physicians, those who treat with allopathic medicine and diagnosis and removal. In this 20th century may we let go the medical patterns that give our power away to someone else to be well. May we come home to our own inner physician that yearns to be remembered and honored and is totally willing to show up and assist us to live each moment of every day fully, filled with respect for all there is.

In September, the theme is “harvest.” Fall is our agricultural and spiritual harvest time, so enjoy the flow, the peace, the prosperity and serenity of the season. The Solstice Eclipse catalyzed a great deal of sorting, clearing and discarding what no longer serves us. It is time to reap the benefits of this spiritual work, which is manifesting in our lives as abundance on all levels.

In October, November and December, we begin to turn our attention inward. Winter is traditionally the time of the Bear Lodge – a time of “hibernation,” deep introspection, going within.