Essentials:

Sun and Moon energies meander through you, integrating and balancing. Feel the rivers and streams flowing down the back of your spine from your head to your pelvis and back up to your head again. Now reverse the direction, feeling the circulation of energy awakening and encouraging healing.

Getting There:

A golden river of light flows down through your centerline between head and tail, awakening and encouraging healing. It splits into two streams at its mouth in your root, circulating upward, rising back to source.

Sense: Keystone

Lift your pelvic floor; quiet your mind.

Feel: Yin-Yang Breath

Breathe up through the right side of center. Breathe out through the left side of center. Breath in through the left and out through the right.

See: Gender Grounding

Imagine golden light surrounding your gonads (ovaries or testicles), creating a river of gold that connects them into your grounding cord. Watch them release stagnant or foreign energy. What colors do you see?

Audio Companion:

The Yin-Yang Inside

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Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companions are available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

Essentials: Ground your body; feel more anchored anywhere and everywhere.

You will take full ownership of your body by anchoring your energy in the primary cauldrons in your chest, belly and head. This can actually become particularly sensate when you surrender to the flow of energy moving in and moving out.

Create sanctuary everywhere you go; everywhere you are. Draw golden lines of connection from the floor of any space at home or work into Earth’s center.

Getting There: Love your Body as you Love the Stars in the Sky

Sense: Stand with with equal weight on your feet—placed hip width apart on the floor, and your legs rise from this anchoring. Your pelvis floats atop your legs, your spine rises upward from your tailbone, beyond your shoulder girdle into your head. Your arms hang loosely from your shoulders, and your head floats gently on your long neck.

Feel: Inhale to feel your breath reaching like threads into all corners of the room. Exhale and feel your breath grounding you into Earth’s center.

See: See a rose standing tall in the center of your room. Connect its stem into Earth’s core and all corners of the ceiling and floor.

Audio Companion:

Sacred Space-10: Grounding Spaces

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Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companions are available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

Essentials: A Universal blueprint, the magic of three spirals through-out existence.

Earth and cosmic energies flow through channels, deep in the marrow of your bones—much like Earth’s aquifers and underground waterways. These energies from the macrocosm meet the subtle vital energies inside the microcosm of your body.

Feel earth energy flowing upward into the lower body; cosmic energy flowing downward from head to pelvis through your spiral column, meeting and circulating together in your lower abdominal cauldron.

Can you feel the flood of the divine when you breathe in from above and below— you even in the densest of places in your body?

Getting There: How do you navigate your inner rivers?

Sense: Opening the Mouth of God

Lie on your back, allowing your bones to sink into gravity; your muscles softening around them. Breathe for a bit to find your center. Gently move your head while making small, fluid circles your nose in both directions a few times. Now gently nod your head, opening the space between the top of your neck and lower back head bone.

Nod slowly with each breath, several times, allowing God to breathe in.

Feel: Three Part Breath

Breathe into your belly, then exhale. Breathe into your chest, then exhale. Breathe into your head, then exhale. Breathe into all three sequentially—1/3 belly, 1/3 chest, then 1/3 head. Now breath out sequentially—1/3 head, 1/3 chest, 1/3 belly.

Try this 3 times, then rest and breathe naturally.

See: Three Cauldrons

Close your eyes and call your attention into the center of your head. Ground your body from the tailbone into the center of the Earth.

Look down at your belly. What colors do you see? Allow them to move down through your grounding into the center of the Earth.

Look at your chest. What colors do you see? Allow them to flow down into the center of the Earth through your grounding cord.

Look inside the center of your head. What colors do you see? Allow them to circulate as you breathe, carrying away anything foreign or stagnant, watching it all moving down through your grounding, into the center of the Earth.

Be with yourself. Just breathe and witness.

Audio Companion:

17-The Lower Cauldron

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Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companions are available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

The 4th Sacred Gateway: Rivers & Streams

Acquaint your energy intelligence with the rivers and streams inside your body—the many subtle energy channels. Like the veins, arteries and nerves in your physical body, these subtle channels source, move, contain and pool the effervescent essences that nourish you on the mystical journey of your life.

These subtle channels and energy centers are frequency matches to your physical body—its circulatory, endocrine, respiratory, lymphatic and spinal-nervous systems. The physical body is a hologram of the etheric blueprint—chakras, energy channels, and meridians are all part of this subtle anatomy.

The sacred spiral is symbolic of physical and subtle energy in the body and in nature, showing us that the elements exist as both circular and multidimensional patterns of vibration and frequency. Circulatory routes for body fluids, electricity; air, mist and rain; energy vortexes and pranic/chi channels; a whirlpool or river eddy, and root systems. They are all designed to carry life force.

Fortify your energetic constitution with awareness, sensation and ultimately expanded consciousness, by following the spiraling watercourse way.

Following the Sacred Path

As the Sacred Gateway of Rivers and Streams opens, you begin to ac knowledge energy—something beyond blood and bone, a greater level of divinity in your body. Although you likely know this intellectually, you learn, or begin to develop the wisdom that it is not only in and around you, it is you. Over the next 8 Stepping Stones, beginning today with Vital Vessels, you open to the possibility of communication flowing through subtle channels in the 4th ring of wisdom at the 4th level of consciousness—discernment, intention and clarity.

You evolve by releasing passive hope and instead, set a stronger, deeper intention as the underlying purpose in your desire to create.

Essentials: Vital Vessels

Your organic body is born with a certain level of vitality that courses through the highway of veins, electrical circuitry, other circulatory vessels and transport routes for nourishment.

Can you feel the blood and lymph pulsing through you? Can you feel the subtle channels transporting energy to the chakras?

Getting There: Expressing Physical Energy in the Subtle Realms

The compassionate flower unfolds as the budding heart pulses.

Sense: Opening the Crown, Brow & Throat Chakras

Gently massage your head with your fingertips. Feel the muscles relax. Use your fingertips to tap lightly all around your head and face, awakening your crown, your third eye and the life force—cerebral spina fluid, circulating through your brain.

Feel: Humming Bee Breath

Close your eyes and breathe in. Close your mouth and breathe out, humming as you exhale. Feel the vibration in your head, neck and chest as you hum. Now repeat this breath 9 times, breathing in through your nose, and humming as you exhale.

See: A Window into your Heart

Look into your heart, make room for your soul. Watch as you open and close its aperture.

Audio Companions: The Humming Bee Breath

15-Humming Breath

Sacred Space 17: Inner Rhythms

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Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companions are available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

Essentials: Marriage Rites at Beltane

Open your cosmic gateway, calling down the golden rays of a higher vibration. Feel the energy pouring through you, flooding your body with divinity, awakening the cosmos within. Ride the crest of the spiritual wave into your soul’s memories.

Leave the outer world of humanity at the edge of the meadow, gliding effortlessly and enthusiastically toward the bonfire to dance under the light of the bright full moon, igniting the sacred marriage within.

The dimensional shift is palpable at Beltane—midway between spring and summer, blending the elements of fire and air. A time when the veil between the worlds is thin again; a time to recall the memories of magical places, times, and more importantly, magical states.

Intrinsic masculine and feminine energies merge with extrinsic male and female as they unite in rhythm and accordance with natural law.

Ancient cultures put the beasts out to pasture, and the May Pole was driven into the Earth as symbols of freedom, fertility and the sacred union between Heaven and Gaia.

Today we celebrate the sacred marriage within.

Getting There:

Don your spiritual body suit to surf the etheric wave, under the eaves of the cosmic gateway.

Sense: Gently pump your abdominal muscles in and out. Inhale to expand softly outward, exhale to pull inward a few times with the breath. Now pump gently for several moments, as you breathe naturally.

Feel: Breathe in, allowing the cosmos to touch your crown. Breathe out, feeling it circulate—down the back, up the front, fountaining out through your crown and into your aura.

See: Look up to see the cosmic energy bursting forth, raining down into your crown.

Dance with the spiritual forces moving freely through you.

Audio Companions:

Emergence Sun-5: Inner Rivers

15-Cosmic Energy

Experience more about the rites of Beltane and the sacred marriage inside your body.

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Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companions are available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

First a disclaimer: I promise I will never do enough research to claim scientific knowledge or understanding of anything. I am an amateur anatomist, physiologist, psychic and philosopher—even after close to 7 decades I am barely an artisan.

Experiences drive this bus, and I find the best wisdom is not found in books or on wikipedia, even though some of these terms are defined directly from their wikipedia links.

Instead, wisdom is found in interpreting real life experiences. I enjoy researching after the fact—if only to please my intellect, making my own meaning and sharing it all with others.

Create your own experiences.

Essentials: Maps & Mind

Soaring through the airy realms of your higher mind into the psycho-spiritual world of co-creation, your inner voice calls down the stars from above, reminding you that you are the Cosmos.

I thoroughly enjoy mapping almost everything—like developed highways, some are pre-mapped territories, others are off-road, off-grid explorations from inside my personal, contextual mind map.

One of my favorite preconceived maps is the triune brain, and my interpretation of that model based on amateur research and personal experience. And this particular map integrates with the four primary states of spiritual alchemy that form the map for the Magnum Opus—the Great Work, to know divinity in human form.

Another allegory could be the Quest for the Holy Grail, or Patanjali’s map—8 Limbs of Yoga.

Even more enjoyable, is tossing the maps over my shoulder after I’ve created and studied them—then the journey really begins.

Please consider these associations, integrating 4 levels of consciousness and the 4 primary stages of alchemy into a map to create the Magnum Opus.

What is mind?

“All is mind. The universe is mental,” is the first Hermetic principle of Natural Law.

Body-mind. Unconscious: The domain of the body’s automatic responses—neurochemistry and programming. This level of consciousness can be associated with the first state of spiritual alchemy—nigredo, a blackening or darkening; putrefaction or spiritual death, an excavation of the shadow, the earth element.

Emotional-mind. Subconscious: The chemical-emotional-memory storage mind. This level of consciousness can be associated with the second state of spiritual alchemy—albedo, a whitening or lightening; purification, a journey across the seas of emotion, water element.

Mental-mind. Conscious: The territory of the intellect and analytical mind. This level of consciousness can be associated with the third state of spiritual alchemy—citrinitas, a yellowing solar light; awakening, clarifying thinking, air element.

Universal mind. Superconscious: The land of the inspired mind, and the fourth alchemical state of rubedo, reddening and transformation; the phoenix rises from the ashes of the fire element.

“The map is the not the territory,” Alfred Korzybski

Once the map is created, the Great Work becomes a personal experience in and of the inner terrain which ultimately alchemizes the four essences into the golden state of the philospher’s stone—illumination.

Can you expand your inspired mind into your whole being—physical and emotional too?

Getting There: Gentle practices to support and maybe even ignite the journey

Feeling

Breathe in through your nose, deep into the center of your head. Exhale down your spine and into the earth’s center. Feel the limitlessness of your higher mind, soaring into the realm of co-creation. What do you feel?

Sensing

Feel the breath as it rises along the back of your spine. Breathe out. Feel the breath as it descends the front of your spine. Breathe naturally to circulate the energy, repeating this spinal breath several times.

Now gently roll your pelvis around the edge of its bowl—to the right, towards the tail, to the left and up toward the top of the pelvis near your waistline; using your breath to direct the movement. How does your body feel?

Seeing

Watch as energy flows down from your head into your belly. See how it churns and digests before it releases through your grounding cord. What do you see?

Audio Companions:

Spinal Breath

Sacred Space-18: Alchemizing Breath

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Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

When practiced with sincerity, a little bit each day for the week ahead, even the simplest things can be profoundly transformational.

The calendar journal and its companions are available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

First, an acknowledgment on this celebrated day of resurrection—to the place where Jesus’s final healing meets Christian Mysticism, Hermetic Principles and Natural Law.

Please find your way to this beautiful Substack page: The Way of the Heart by Raphael, and yesterday’s post: The Alchemy of the Cross.

My response (which I’ve posted below) feels appropriate to the celebration of the symbolism on this day, and as well to the moments of excruciating self-awareness, which is the actual point of these Sacred Body Pathworking articles and their simple body-mind and spiritual awareness practices.

Without daily re-cognition and recapitulation through both the mind and the felt senses there is no link to the limitless potential that exists between body and soul.

On this 639 Hz and “F” note, I also recommend a beautiful book, “Reflections of the Christ Mind,” by Paul Ferinni.

“Thank you, Rafael for this beautiful acknowledgement of Jesus' sacrificial message--both a reminder and view of the gateway into the heart of our humanity.

I remember the first time I embraced (not just saw or recognized) the potential for violence that exists inside me. It came in as a frightening mental image picture that I almost ignored--likely because it may have caused too much mental suffering to bear at that time.

Instead, I shared it with my then-partner who said quietly and simply, "is this the first time you've realized it?"

Yes, it was the first time--I was in my 30's. In the ensuing months--into years, I purposefully and poignantly recapitulated anything that may have been a potentially earlier awakening, if I had only looked, felt and listened.

The discovery led me to feel and know both victim and perpetrator inside me, and how they are one and the same--not just a matching of opposites, but the very same.

It also opened a willingness to actually feel suffering--the correspondent nature of its (so-called) positive and negative aspects, and eventually to better understanding the profound truth in natural law.

In an evolutionary, step by step sense: I am committed to a fully conscious, felt-sense journey of ever-increasing awareness and non-ignorance--to evoke, model, and when appropriate, to provoke anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear the subtleties of the incredible adventure that brings darkness to light.

There are no sticky places at the midpoint of suffering; only compassionate spiritual warrior-ship and flow. From belvedere, everything is brilliant and beautiful.

Much appreciation and gratitude for your beautifully provocative writing.”

Weekly Pathworking

Energetic Essentials:

The energetic pattern for your body’s cellular structure lies in the etheric body and is inextricably woven into the fabric of your physiology, your health and well-being. Home to human emotions, this energy portal is also a conduit for body-spirit communication.

This is your blueprint!

Your astral body is the vessel for traveling the cosmic sea. Resting in your chest at the heart center, its energy, coupled with your soul memories, resources the power to transport you through the inner and upper dimensions. This dream portal opens deep into the imaginal planes where the mundane and spiritual realms are bridged by self-awareness and affinity.

The core of your immune system, this subtle body is home to your soul and the commitment you made to your physical body with your first breath at birth.

Effortless Engagement:

Etheric Body: The blessings of spirit come from within, reaching to the tips of your fingers and toes.

Sense:

As you walk, notice how your legs glide and your arms float just to the edge of your auric field, helping to define your personal space. Beyond that is the realm of relationship and shared space with others.

Feel:

Breathe into the center of your head and out into the space immediately surrounding your body. Breathe into your chest and belly, then out in the space immediately surrounding your body.

See:

See your blueprint on the screen in front of of your inner eye. Look at your spiritual anatomy. What do you see?

Astral Body: Dream a lot—now bring it back to your body.

Sense:

Rest on your back. Raise your arms and legs to toward the sky. Wiggle!

Feel:

Breath in to feel the divine within. Breathe out to spin golden threads into a protective mantle, surrounding and caressing your body.

See:

Look out from the center of your head to see your heavenly cocoon. See the threads curling from each of your energy centers out into your aura.

Audio Companions:

Subtle Body Breath

Heavenly Cocoon

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Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companions are available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

Essentials: Just for today, slow down and breathe. Just for today, feel your body.

Your human journey begins in two places—earth and heaven sharing your body and soul. Traveling the sea of life, you first watch your body from the heavens, and as you grow into that body, you begin to see heaven from earth. Standing here, you can open fully to spirit, once more feeling heaven’s descent, like a waterfall of light upon you.

The Sacred Cisterns theme symbolizes your subtle bodies and the central channel that benchmarks the middle way of evolution (in the Qabalistic model). Cosmic energy descends into your body through the midline and your awareness ascends upward to meet your higher self and exalted consciousness.

The path is forged—the way is clear. Open yourself to spirit—it’s already here.

Getting There: Your Body, Earth and the Felt Senses

Feel your Body:

Lie on your back and gently draw your knees toward your chest one then the other—please do not use your hands to pull. Anchor your torso on the floor (or other supporting surface), especially grounding the pelvis, sensing the freedom of motion in your hip sockets. Gently float each foot off the ground, alternately moving one leg at the hip joint, then the other. Now try rotating one hip at a time, creating small circles in each direction—like a stirring motion. Thoughtfully and gently move your thigh bone in the socket of your hip.

Breathe:

Call the Earth’s energy into the bottom of your fee as you root yourself into its center, opening the gateway between the material world and the magical kingdoms of inner Earth and the lower world beneath. How does grounding affect your experience?

Imagine:

Watch as the Earth enters the natural springs in the bottom of your feet. See it moving up your legs, into your hips and down through your grounding cord into Earth’s core. What colors or qualities do you see?

Audio Companions:

Sun-3: Grounding Awareness

Sun-5: Inner Rivers

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Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companions are available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

Do you identify with the phrase, “as above, so below” as the corresponding relationship between Heaven and Earth? By its definition, it means that everything in Heaven has a mirrored or corresponding reality on Earth.

The law of correspondence—similar principles are reflected in both the micro and macrocosm, is one of the seven universal principles (aka natural law, Hermetic principles). In its frame, a single cell corresponds with the whole body; one body corresponds with all other humans; the branches with the roots of a tree; the world with the universe.

Like Rumi’s drop in the ocean. “You are the entire ocean in a drop.”

So beyond the belief that what happens in Heaven also happens on Earth, fractal theory scientifically details the self-same, similar repeating patterns that exist in all things.

You may not know all the natural laws (universal principles); you may not understand Mandelbrot’s fractal theory, nor agree with the simple “Heaven on Earth,” premise.

There is a more subtle yet embodied example of this concept—well-known Taoist Master Teacher, Mantak Chia’s practice of the microcosmic orbit, and its lesser known macrocosmic orbit which feeds the energy streams in the body from the rivers of Heaven and Earth.

Essentially, the microcosmic orbit circulates from the pelvic floor and tailbone up the back, over the head and down the front to the pelvic floor again. The macrocosmic orbit circulates from the cosmos above into the crown of the human below, where it joins the microcosmic stream. It simultaneously circulates up from the core of the planet below, into the body—its feet and legs above, joining the microcosmic stream at the pelvic floor.

The body’s vitality is reliant upon the macrocosmic energies. These universal energies not only enhance the body’s life force, they inform your awareness of your personal space—physical body, subtle anatomy and energy field.

“As within , so without” also expresses the law of correspondence (maybe) as a spiritual ideal, yet is often held outside the norms of socially correct interaction—by all means, hide what you really think under the guise of an acceptable (spiritual) persona.

Horizontal correspondences might be more honestly defined in the idea that attitudes are emotions and beliefs expressed through behaviors, however unconsciously demonstrated.

(Internal) thoughts are exposed in the (external) actions, or non-actions. What you think and feel—your beliefs, define how you see the world.

Observe these correspondences from belvedere—as above, so below; as within, so without. The center of your head connected to the heart center (soul) of your being, is the highest and the deepest, the most neutral and beautiful vantage point from which to listen and observe everything you create inside your personal microcosm, and how it effects everything all around you.

Essentials

The Earth streams in tune with the cosmic river.

Two triangles merge to create a six-pointed star, calling heaven to earth, making space in its center for the human heart to reside. Spirit is reflected in body and body in spirit. Your body is a sacred hologram of spiritual energy. Open your body to spirit.

Getting There

Breathe in a beam of golden light, connecting heaven to earth through your body. Feel it moving between your head and tail.

Sense:

Lie on your back, bend your knees, place your feet on the floor. Repeat the knee sway and pelvic roll from last week, allowing your knees to sway as far as you are able to each side. Move gently, slowly and thoughtfully with your breath. Inhale to lift your knees into center; exhale to gently lower them to the side. Repeat a few times on each side.

Move only in a range that is safe and comfortable for your body. Notice how your pelvis rolls, following your knees as they sway. Allow your breath to direct the movement and be sure to engage your abdominal muscles as you move.

Next, as you sway your knees, simultaneously roll your head from side to side—in opposition to your knees. Your breath directs your thoughtful and gentle movements. Repeat 3 times to each side, breathing and noticing how you feel, above and below.

Feel:

Inhale through your nose into the center of your head. Exhale down the length of your spine into the center of the Earth. Allow your breath to integrate the upper and lower halves of your body.

See:

Look around after you’ve cleared the center of you head and begin to notice the scenery you’ve created in your inner world. Is yours a beach, a woodland path, your favorite room or something else?

How you perceive the world is the way the world perceives you.

Spend some time each day clearing the center of your head so you can see and experience life with some neutrality—a balance of emotion, thought and sensation.

How are heaven and earth reflected inside of you?

Audio Companion: Center of Head

Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companions are available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

Springtime

Winds that both whisper and howl. The air currents of Spring call-in memories of your first breath—the one you took so long ago, just after birth.

Your body remembers, so just breathe and bring that first breath into present time, rooting your soul once again, receiving anew the gifts of life.

Those winds—booming, roaring, or voiceless and mute; no matter how aggressive or subtle, they remind you to breathe. They teach you to move with the graceful yielding of the treetops that flutter and bend to its will.

Receptivity is all that is.

Movement, even at its commandeered heights, is the inevitable flow of natural currents living in vivo—within the elemental nature of your body.

Wind in any form carries the motivating intelligence of spirit.

Like trees in a gale, your rootedness determines your flexibility, your range and your balance. Your connection to the cosmos is reciprocal to your relationship with earth; and your trunk is only as strong as the roots that anchor deep.

Master the wind with grounding and presence in the drama of its moving forces and the limitlessness of its gifts.

Grounding in the Earthen Cave

Essentials

Resting inside the womb of the mother, deep inside her earthen cave, you ground and restore yourself as the winter of the evening beckons you further inward. Rest, rejuvenate and grow in the quiet safety of her womb as you sleep—your soul traveling through the ethers; your body is still, safe and grounded.

How does the idea of the northern cave in winter—as an allegory, help you in the current of springtime and the cycle of daily living?

Getting There

Sense: Pelvic Roll

Lie on your back with bent knees. Move with your breath, swaying your knees gently from side to side. Notice how the pelvis rolls with the knees. Now focus on rolling your pelvis side to side, allowing it to pull the knees. Use your abdominal muscles to stabilize your lower back and assist in gently rolling the pelvis. (This exercise can be contraindicated for some spinal conditions). Let your breath guide the movements.

Feel: Grounding Experience

Breathe into the center of your head. Exhale down your spine and out through your tailbone. Feel your breath carving a riverbed between your body and Earth’s core.

See: The Grounding Cord

Look down from the center of your head to see a grounding cord connecting your tailbone and first chakra into the center of the Earth. Watch as your breath releases stagnant energy. What colors do you see? How does your grounding cord appear—a tree, a tube, a chain or something else?

Audio Companions: Grounding

Sacred Space-4: Grounding

Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companions are available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

This week, in honor of the current stepping stone—Western Sea, let’s begin with a little cheer for two very gentle, almost effortless, yet profound self-awareness practices.

Reason being, they often get a bad rap as too simple, superficial and ineffectual.

That said, these (spiritual) practices—visualization and conscious breath, are actually monkey-mind challengers. Moving aside the circular thinker, replacing it with a different “mind’s eye picture” or focusing on breath, can lead to a deeper connection with overall self-awareness—what you feel, both emotionally and sensationally and how you perceive, well everything.

Did you know the monkey-mind is where much of the learned dogmatic, ideological, social correctness, including political, religious, educational, etc. programming exists?

Do you want to be creative and inspired, to experience life in the moment?

The monkey-mind is not inspired, nor is it spontaneous and empathetic; it isn’t creative, rather it is filled with preconceptions based on previous acts and experiences. The monkey mind doesn’t take risks, though it does stand on ceremony, making rules and ranting away about nothing present.

When you practice simple visuals you are capable of changing those thoughts—maybe not permanently in an immediate sense, yet highly likely over a short time. This in turn can regulate your emotions and ultimately your neuro-chemical responses which are very, very physical (read physiological).

And when you change your pre-programmed thinking (otherwise known here as suspending your beliefs)—even just a little bit each day, you can interpret your emotional experience in new ways, and even stop thinking those circular thoughts that bind you to your stagnant habits on all levels.

With regular practice you can create a whole new picture. Make a new picture and change your experience.

Although there are many ways to ignore the body, thoughts and emotions, as well as the neuro-chemistry that rules them are still running the show—driving the car while you sit in the backseat.

No matter your expertise in avoiding your felt-senses, the body holds the deepest imprints and programming, and always has both the first and last say. Question is, will you listen; how will you listen?

A simple self-awareness tool—breathing consciously has the ability to change the chemical expression of your body which is at the root of your state of being: physically, emotionally and mentally. It works the other way around too—thoughts become emotions, become neuro-chemistry.

Conscious breathing is a direct road inward—into the body and its neuro-chemistry. Breathe with awareness for 9 breath cycles and you will likely feel bodily sensations and/or related emotion.

Breathing with awareness will calm you. It will help you to become more aware of the messages your body is constantly signaling. It will help you be more present, less stressed and therefore more responsive, less reactive.

And once you listen for a while, you may no longer be able or willing to dismiss the sensations. No more ignore-ance. It’s like being reinserted into the Matrix—you can’t really go back.

Never say that visualizing a grounding connection between your root chakra or tailbone and the center of the planet “doesn’t do a thing” until you’ve practiced it for 21 days (that’s only three weeks) or more.

Practice this visualization combined with your breath and sincere intention to see in your mind’s eye and feel your body.

Breathe in to nourish and feel your body. Breathe out, watching your breath carve a pathway between your root and the center of the Earth. Watch from the center of your head as you continue to breathe for those 9 rounds. Inhale and exhale, noticing what you feel—emotions and sensations. Listen for your body’s messages and watch the breath carry away stagnant energies.

Begin each day with this practice. Use it as your “go-to” in any emergent situation; as a way to calm yourself in anxious moments. Then journal to record about your experiences along the way.

Check in at the end of the (preferred 21 days+) time to see/feel/know just how you have shifted in less than a month’s time. And if you don’t believe in the possibilities (yet), check out this post from Caitlin Matthews, spiritual teacher extraordinaire.

Please, please, please suspend the beliefs you’ve gathered along the way—especially when they come from outside yourself. Personal experience with any spiritual practice is the only way to truly know, and knowledge becomes wisdom through experience.

Now for a little related Sacred Body Pathworking:

Essentials

Allow your breath to follow the rhythms of the tides, pooling in your heart.

Gently ebbing tides carry you out to the farther shores, across the unconscious waters for emotional purification. Sometimes you dive deep, in others you float effortlessly on the surface.

The water element, its many bodies and their natural rhythms also serve as transportation routes for the health and emotional well-being of the planet, moving out stagnancy, much like the lymph vessels in our body.

Can you feel the sea inside, using it to alchemize your emotional energies?

Getting There

Rocking pacifies more than the body.

Sense: Sit comfortably or lie on a your back. Gently rock your pelvis top to tail. Inhale to tip the tail down (or back if sitting), arching your back; exhale to tip it up (or forward if sitting), flattening your back.

Feel: Breathe in to call up the wave of fluid in your spinal column into your head. Exhale, allowing it to recede back down into your pelvis. Feel the gentle rhythms of the sea inside your body.

See: Imagine you are floating on your back in a tropical sea, the moon shining brightly in the night sky. The gentle roll of the waves pulls you into shore and back out again.

Audio Companion: Ocean Waves

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Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companions are available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

Essentials:

Your ability to create is directly proportionate to your willingness to destroy the unnecessary energies you carry from false constructs.

The Sun’s fiery flame burns away the chill of winter, offering opportunities for cellular transmutation and spiritual alchemy. Summer fires burn deep inside you—metabolism, digestion, the breath and fire of spirit, and daily alchemy as you destroy stagnant energies and create anew.

It may not be time to fully embrace the inspirations of the coming equinox, yet you can prepare your insides by doing a little spring cleaning. Move gently and consciously to feel your body; breathe to listen closely and become aware of its messages; observe keenly to find your new direction.

During this 6th week of Imbolc, let’s begin to consciously weave the connection between our bodies and soul-spirit as we move with the Wheel further toward its eastern most point—the time of year when the higher mind opens to the inspirations of nature and spirit.

Knowledge is looking to infuse an aware and integrated vessel, bringing forth the wisdom of your inherent beingness.

How can you use your inner fire to alchemize the old and more fully embrace the your inner wisdom?

Getting There

Feel the golden bliss of your inner rivers.

Sense: Lie on your back with your feet on the floor and knees bent. Squeeze and release your buttocks as you very gently bounce your pelvis on the floor. Ground and feel your body.

Feel: Breathe inward and upward, out through the top of your head, creating a golden ball of energy overhead. Breathe out to feel its brilliant golden glory streaming down, warming your body.

See: Imagine a huge gold sun above your head—its magnetic forces gathering up all the energy you left out in the world today. Look up and watch as the gold sun floats down through your body, expanding out, your aura—the energy field surrounding your body.

Audio Companions: Golden Suns

Sacred Space-20: Gold Suns

7-Golden Suns

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Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companions are available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

Essentials: The Elements—Cardinal Alchemy

Your personal essence is an expression of the Earth’s seasonal rhythms and cycles, an allegory of nature’s imprint in the DNA of all things. Its elemental texture weaves through your health and healing journey, connecting the dots between breath and inspiration; blood and the tides; digestion and wisdom; the still-strength in your bones; and the generation of eternal life force.

Thoughts blow through like the Eastern winds of inspiration, beckoning you to begin anew.

A time of resurrection and rebirth, the candles of spirit light the way out of the long nights of Winter. The groundhog has long since risen to its purpose as the wheel passes over the mid-point between Imbolc and Spring Equinox. Bright green shoots from underground bulbs begin to breath through, enthusiasm riding in on the first breezes of Spring.

Getting There:

Sense: Squeeze your pelvic floor muscles—the soft tissues between your pubic and tail bones. Breathe out to gently engage. Breathe in to release.

Feel: Inhale through your nose. Exhale, creating a gentle sound in the back of your throat—like the sounds of the sea inside a shell. Feel its vibration flowing down your spine. Be with this breath for 9 cycles.

See: Imagine all the colors of the rainbow flowing through your spinal column—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and finally gold. One at time, watch as each color shifts your energy.

Audio Companions:

16-Sounds of the Sea Original Version

6-Sounds of the Sea

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Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companions are available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

Essentials:

When you open your body to the rhythms of spirit, you encourage the bright and subtle conference that can only occur when you call-in the divine, descending energies that connect your mind and heart through your inner voice.

We have many modes of communication: telepathic and verbal; through our thoughts, our emotions and our body language; externally and internally, both broadly and narrowly.

And we communicate most honestly when we listen to and speak with our inner voice— what many call the “still, small voice within.”

Communication is both subtle and gross; loud and soft; inward and outward; covert and overt. The body and nervous system communicate; the emotions and chemistry communicate; the mind, soul and spiritual energies all communicate.

Often unconscious, it can become conscious—if only we would listen.

Truth and clarity reign when the outside matches the inside. Our actions—attitudes and behaviors, honestly express our inner-most feelings, sensations and thoughts.

Our personal energy fields—the aura surrounding each of us, filters incoming and outgoing communications. When the aura contains unexpressed, unresolved or hidden material, it speaks louder than our words and often contradicts our behaviors and beloved personas. Many people are insensitive to this discrepancy, possibly because they are so busy trying to sustain their own version of what they believe is required to be valid in this world.

This is the lie that society demands of us—to be socially correct in whatever environment we engage with each day. And it’s not universal principle; not aligned with natural law.

Many others sense it from a great distance, and are often chastised—at best, because they see through the lies. The body knows. The soul knows. We all know. Sometimes it’s just easier to play a role than to be real and true to our nature.

Shifting more toward our true selves is primarily about awareness—it takes us about 95% of the distance, with commitment to honest self-tracking and daily reflection. Releasing habitual tendencies to don the costume can be as simple as conscious breathing—now that’s about 4% further.

Getting There:

Follow your breath into the inner kingdom. Sense your body, and the space around your body. Sense the room, and the space of the room. Find yourself inside these spaces.

Sense: Point and flex your feet. Roll your ankles in both directions. Stand with your feet on the ground, feeling the support beneath them. Allow your feet to anchor your body, allowing you to find your spinal centerline. Find your body inside the center of your personal energy field.

Feel: Feel your breath as it moves into the space around you. Breathe out to fill the room, noticing how you feel as you move this field of breath inward and outward.

See: Imagine your personal space reaches out on all side about 3 feet surrounding your body. Watch as you expand it to fit the size of the room, then draw it close to your body. Find the most natural placement and size for your aura.

How does this subtle field of energy affect your communication?

The final distance—that last 2% demands a commitment to daily choice and action, for the long-haul.

Are you in the center of your own space, allowing your breath to take you deeper into centerline—the communication space of your inner voice?

Audio Companion: Your Energy Field

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Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companions are available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

Reborn of your ancestors’ earthen ashes, your strength and vitality spring from the deep red well of bone marrow and its eternal stream of blood cells. Can you feel the subtle fizzing sensation in your bones?

Essentials: Restoring your health energetically, elementally and physically.

Like an offshore fog, the cool energy riding in on the ocean waves is drawn toward the heat onshore and pushes it further inland where water meets earth in a yin-like dance of feminine energies.

The chakras on the soles of your feet—kidney points-1, open and close to regulate earth energy as it flows up through your legs through the kidney meridian.

The third or solar chakra governs the kidneys, and serves as the energy distribution center for the body. Its related endocrine gland—the adrenals, nourishes the vital organs with its hormones—for the heart to keep it beating; the pancreas to metabolize sugars and consequently support the liver in metabolizing fats; and into the kidneys to mineralize the bones and more.

On a physical level, the kidneys support the bones and cleanse the blood to circulate vital energies through the body.

Elementally, they are water and earth. Kidney energy flows upward, cooling the head and encourages the heat downward into the belly for digestion.

Getting There: Your feet are earth’s entry point—vitality portals for health and longevity.

Feel your Body:

Rub the bottom of your feet, focusing on the center point just under the ridge of the ball of your foot. Press and hold for a few moments.

Breathe:

Inhale and feel the earth under your feet, flowing up through your legs, into your abdomen. Exhale and feel it circulating under your ribcage into your kidneys and back down into the earth again.

Imagine:

Streams of vitality spring up from your feel, pulsing through your body. Watch as those streams merge with the river in your centerline.

Audio Companion: Earth Energy

Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companions are available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

The inner rivers of efference and afference—carrying oxygen through the blood to all parts of the body; waste material flows out and away through the lymphatic system for cleansing. Eventually, all flows back to the blood for nourishment.

Water, is the essence of emotion—transporting these molecules from the unconscious and subconscious realms, into consciousness for integration and sometimes release.

Take a moment to acknowledge and circulate your emotions as you plant the seeds this season for health and wellbeing.

Essentials

Our intentional soul seeds were planted in the wombs of both human and earth mothers long before we had conscious-bodily awareness of our purpose—to express and enjoy all of our human qualities, including our often challenging emotional states.

Emotions are the at the center of our human beingness and a key part of our make-up. Rising from our neurochemistry as responses and reactions to our experiences, emotions are also at the root of many thought patterns—our beliefs, opinions and ideas come through the perceptual filter of emotion.

Water is another primary aspect of our make-up—the human body is approximately 60-70% water, a very large part of our elemental nature.

The water in our bodies helps us to mobilize, circulate and integrate various forms of nourishment through our blood as it journeys into and through all of our physiological systems.

Its energetic nature translates to emotion—dreams of water are typically related to emotion. Maybe paradoxically, emotions affect the structure of water—remember Dr. Emoto?

Water and emotions are both are mutable—easily and inherently able to change shape and other qualities. And like rivers and streams, they are clarified when they move; become muddy when stagnant.

Transmutation—shifting, changing, evolving of emotions happen when they flow like water.

Planting is woven into the seasonal metaphor—in a practical way it’s about growing specific vegetation for food, beauty, and supporting the greater environment. First the soil is tilled—turning it over, aerating and amending to help the seeds manifest their intended purpose.

Watering is critical for growth.

During this 3rd week of Imbolc, focus on the waters of your inner rivers to awaken and circulate the chemistry of emotion. Allow your body, its breath and natural inclination for observation to aerate, amend and nourish you at a deeper level.

Your body is filled with purifying waters—shimmering pools of energy that overflow with emotion. Shake up your energy to feel the sediment flowing from the unconscious realms into consciousness, ultimately transmuting and integrating its gifts.

Do you feel a sense of clarity as your emotional energy circulates?

Getting There

Imagine your breath is the tide—ebbing and flowing; your belly, chest and head are the tide pools—filling, emptying.

Breathe: Breathe in to feel the depths of the Earth pooling in your belly. Breathe out. Breathe in to feel your chest expanding to make space for your emotional waters. Breathe out. Breathe in to feel the etheric light of the heavens pooling in your head, awakening your crown. Breathe out.

Feel your Body: Breathe naturally as you perform these gentle engagements for sensation.

-Engage your belly muscles and gently pull your belly button inward, toward your spine. Now release the muscles.

-Lift your breastbone to expand your chest. Now relax your chest.

Experience these sensations with your breath—inhale to expand, exhale to release or soften. Can you feel your head bones expanding as you inhale?

See: See the earth in your belly, your soul essence in your chest, and the sky in your head. What colors pool in there?

Audio Companion: Pooling Breath

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Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companions are available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

The eastern winds of spirit blow through your body, provoking you to meet its rhythms. Inside, your felt sense heightens, your heart beats in tune with the elements and your awareness is piqued as the current of your own breath dances with inspiration.

Essentials:

Follow your breath—the soul force of life. Explore your inner world—the soul’s terrain.

Samba the orca whale did just that.

And because he followed his breath deep inside his body, his cells lit up with memories—like a trillion little fiery lights in the sky, recalling the story of how he (and so many others) arrived on Earth as a star and was reborn one day as an orca whale from the belly of the Great Mother Starfish.

Each day as he grew, Samba swam to the surface to blow-out the old and call in the new—inspiring and vital forces of the fresh air floating upon the surface of the sea. Then he dove deep again, rekindling and remembering how it all began.

Breathe: Breathe in to center and balance. Breathe out. Breathe in to feel the warm touch of self-affinity—it will heal your body. Breathe out. Breathe in to trust and receive inspiration. Breathe out.

Watch as your body receives your breath. Where does it move most freely? Where do you sense resistance to your breath?

Fire is the alchemical wand of spirit. Held high and burning brightly, it shows the way— bushwhacking the trail and burning away its dross, clearing the path. Fire is the light—the life-giving property of the sun, both within and without. Fire is powerfully transformative—crucial in digesting food; metabolizing emotions, thoughts, the overloads of every day life, old habits and programming.

Essentials:

Move your belly to stir your inner fire—digest your experiences and stimulate the joy inside!

Samba did.

“Mmmmm. Floating. Dreaming. Feels so luxurious.” Samba re-membered his life before water, before swimming. This experience would be his big journey, a once in a lifetime adventure.

A huge cluster of stars and planets appeared in his mind’s eye. Those heavenly bodies were surrounded by amazing beings who adored the Earth—the humans and all who live here.

Samba saw images of all his Earthly friends—the faeries and elementals; mostly beings that adult humans didn’t see. He knew them well, even when he was a star baby, high in the sky—and so much more now that he was an orca whale swimming the wide open seas.

“Somehow,” he pondered, “the sea is a lot like the sky.”

He remembered his first really grand wish. During those baby star years, Samba was gazing around the Milky Way Galaxy and wished upon the bigger stars for a visit to Earth one day. Suddenly, before he could blink even once in surprise, Samba's little star body started to jiggle and quake.

All the tethers between his aura and his star friends began to pull away. Even the strands that linked him to his home planets were getting loose. And just as he was re-gathering his balance, his connection to the Sirius Sun broke free too, and he began faaaaalling from the sky!

By now you've probably guessed, that was the day Samba's journey to Earth began.

In an uncontrollable frenzy, he tumbled and spun, his body twisting and turning, expanding and contracting as he rocketed away from home into he unknown. He was moving so fast, one of his legs caught fire, leaving a comet-like trail in the night sky.

“Whooooaaaa! What did I wish for…where am I?”Samba was completely terrified at first because he was no longer connected to anything, and nothing looked at all familiar.

Stay tuned, and meanwhile, just breathe. Samba might come back to tell you the rest of his adventure story soon.

Breathe: Feel your belly raise and fall naturally with your breath. Inhale to expand; exhale to soften. Nice and slow. Now notice the warmth in your belly as you continue to breathe—just a little deeper and maybe a tiny bit faster now, feeling your belly expand and soften. Create a little fire!

Okay, 3-5 breaths is plenty. Slow it down again, breathing rhythmically and naturally.

Audio Companions:

1-Receptive Breath

2-Belly Breath

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Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The oracle cards, calendar journal and its companion, “Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind,” are both available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

Imbolc

As the Wheel of the Year turns eastward away from the northern point of Winter, we celebrate the early stages of Spring at Imbolc—a time of both earth and air in the season when the crone of winter is reborn as the maiden of spring. It is a time when the sun rekindles its flame of conception, fertility and transformation before passing through Spring Equinox and Eostre.

Imbolc is one of the cross quarters—a planting season, it enlightens us in the spaces between darkness and light, its transmissions gently prodding outward into the brilliance of creativity.

Meanwhile, deep underground, the earth you’ve tilled has been prepared for the seeds you will plant and eventually become the little creations from the winds of your mind—wiggling and aligning, waiting with great enthusiasm and even some trepidation, to poke through winter’s earthen coat into the early warmth of sunshine.

Tend to the fires of creation. Barely conceived and not yet born, they are inspirational seeds, ready for planting, eventually sprouting.

There are several metaphors for this season which traditionally begins on February 1st.

The Elements

The first planting season, Imbolc is positioned in between the elemental energies of earth and air. This vital blend carries the seeds of becoming onto fertile ground where they grow—protected and quiet underground until the quarter sun rises; the inspirational winds blow; and their essence expands, reaching into the senses of spring equinox.

Lunar New Year

The Spring Festival—also known as Chinese new Year or Lunar New Year, is based on both the solar and lunar calendars. It typically falls on the second New Moon after the Winter Solstice, about halfway to the Spring Equinox. This year, Lunar New Year is January 29th.

Candelmas

Candelmas is the feast of purification and presentation, falling forty days after Christmas, on February 2nd. All of the “mass” dates (Hallowmas, Christmas, Candlemas, Lammas, Michaelmas) were chosen in proximity to the pagan celebrations, after the first compilations of the Bible by Constantin as part of the transition into Christianity.

Ground Hog Day

Closely associated with (especially the timing of) Candlemas, Ground Hog Day has also been known as Badger Day, and sometimes attributed to the bear, hedgehog, snake or fox as predictors of the weather patterns to come and timing for Spring’s arrival. In the United States, the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil, has been the official harbinger of Spring since the late 1800’s. Everyone knows the storyline that suggests Winter will continue for several more weeks if Phil sees his shadow.

Practice for Imbolc

Imagine you are the only person on earth— the creator of all. Meet that level of creativity in your present life, while living among other people.

Immediately exhale each time you begin to wander into victim or irresponsibility mindset—blaming or even giving away your knowing and power to another person, place or situation.

Instead go within and plant the seeds of responsibility and ownership, watching life grow all around you. Responsibility for your personal space, your thoughts and feelings, your ideas and inspirations, ultimately becomes the seed of autonomy and sovereignty.

Spread of the Season: Divine Embrace

The Six Pointed Star:

As above, so below, the six-pointed star has ancient symbolism that goes beyond the religious: heaven merging with earth, masculine diving into feminine; spirit embodied. Consider the two merging triangles as the universal principle of give and take or masculine and feminine: one receptive and one active component to create an integrated whole. One does not work without the other, and the two energies combined have a synergy that is not present with two separate pieces.

Ways to Engage with the Divine Embrace

-Follow along with the spread shown here for the Imbolc Season which officially begins on February 1st.

-Divine and follow your own spread if you have the Sacred Body Oracle deck and or Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.

-Divine and follow your own spread using a different Oracle or Tarot deck.

The Divine Embrace: Six Pointed Star—8 cards

You are a receiving vessel for the divine which seeks earthly spaces to fill with its golden light. This spread connects heaven and earth through the body. Use it to see your truth in present time regarding specific situations and people in your life. Or, simply become the observer of where you are on your path. Begin by placing one card in the middle, then proceed to lay-out the cards in the shape of a 6-pointed star, one card at each point. The eighth card will lay over the first card as you complete the spread.

Card 1 (in Center) I AM: Soul

Intelligence: You are currently in a high state of knowledge in whatever you do or however you contribute. This knowledge has brought you this far and will take you no further.

Card 2 (lowest point of lower triangle): Ground of Being:

What energy do you carry in present time and or what is the foundation for this situation? What are the resources you have funded for this scenario or circumstance?

Healing: You are capable of manifesting great change on the spiritual level as you heal your physical body—its health, emotions, thoughts & beliefs.

Card 3 (Right point of lower triangle): Release:

What needs to be released or surrendered so you can create space for and receive the abundance of the Divine?

As Above, So Below: Cosmic and earth energies move freely through your subtle body, dislodging old patterns of behavior so you may step forward into the light of universal truth.

Card 4 (Left point of lower triangle): Hidden:

What is hidden from your view that needs to be unveiled or brought to consciousness? What is your unfinished business?

Respiration: Air becomes life force as you breathe consciously, unlocking the sensations of what is unconscious and unresolved, so you can hear your body’s messages.

Card 5 (Left point of upper triangle): Bridge:

What will help you bridge the gap or integrate your physical world with the Divine? How can you be more open to receiving?

Telepathy: Listen to the sound of your inner voice and its response to the voice of the Divine.

Card 6 (Right point of upper triangle): Embrace:

What qualities do you need to embrace in yourself to grow into your intention? What do you now hold that you can offer to the Divine?

Middle World: The elemental world holds the essence of Natural Law. The elements exists inside you as well, represented by the fire in your digestion; the inspiration in your breath; the watery blood and lymph circulating through you; and the earth in your bones. Each element speaks through the sacred hallows—the wand of spiritual transformation; the sword of truth; the chalice of purification; and the anchoring stone of presence.

Card 7 (Upper-most point of upper triangle): Integrity:

How is your work integrated now? What is the next step on your spiritual path? How do you get there from here?

Gateways to the Heights: You integrate all the facets of your being when you walk through the gate, into the heights, fully embracing the spirit that already resides in what you believe to be you.

Card 8 (middle overlapping the first, “I AM” card): Creation:

The last card represents the outcome or result of the steps you have taken or will soon take in relation to this spread. In other words, to where will you ascend when you commit to the wisdom of Divine Embrace? Place this card in the center, on top of “I AM.”

The Riverbed: Sun and Moon, dark and light, masculine and feminine—Heaven and Gaia meet in the core of both your subtle and physical bodies, merging spirit with physiology, deep in the river of your being to open your heart.

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Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oraclecards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companion, “Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind,” are both available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

A glittering combination of vitality, divinity and soul, your spiritual essence is the highest frequency your body holds. Its brilliant droplets shower down from your crown, opening your body to spirit, imprinting the wisdom reminiscent of your origins. Your past and future merge into time out of time with the energy of your true essence.

Essentials

According to at least one legend, earthly whales came from a star system far, far away, when a few very daring starlings from Sirius decided to travel to Earth.

After a very long journey falling from the sky, they landed in the sea and transformed into starfish. Resting and exploring the bottom of the ocean for many aeons, they birthed thousands of starfish over the years.

One day, a strange black and white baby was born into the Sirius starfish lineage, and grew into an orca whale who remembered everything—the original explorers, their adventures, stories and how they arrived on Earth.

This orca carried the wisdom of the stars and constellations. When you listen to the sounds from the seas, the Orcas and their friends—Belugas, Blues, Humpbacks and all the rest, you too will re-member your starry nature.

Stories of Samba and Starlight’s adventures could be arriving soon :-).

Getting There

Breathe: Breathe into your crown, tap into the super consciousness of your highest potential—re-member.

Imagine: The stars light up every cell—the constellations in every organ of your body.

Feel your Body: Sounds of the whale speak to your soul and its memories.

Audio Companion: Spiritual Essence

Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companion, “Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind,” are both available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.

Three wellsprings, three channels, all working synchronously to encourage the unique offering of your soul’s mission. Blending divine will with human free-will, and your inherent ability to birth new ideas—creativity is sourced within and expressed through choice and action.

Ground, Center and Imagine

Choose to Align with Divine Will—a beacon of light shines down from the cosmos, into your body through your crown.

Birth a New Idea—a spring of color fountains up from your pelvic bowl.

Act from Free-Will—these energies circulate through your central channel, meet in your throat and flow down through your arms, fountaining out the palms of your hands.

Breathe and Feel

Take some time to be still with what you see. Breathe naturally and feel your body. Can you feel the vision of these creative energies manifesting through your arms and hands in your everyday activities?

Reflect & Inquire

Pay attention to your thoughts about your next step. Listen to your body’s messages as the Yuletide season comes to a close over the next two weeks. You may feel a bit anxious to start moving—coming out of the caverns of winter. Contrarily, you may want or need a longer respite—time to reflect before bursting forth with ideas, intentions and actions for the upcoming season. Maybe you feel a little of both.

Whatever your sensibilities, be sure to take some time each day to explore your inner world. Dream, nap, meditate, or walk and reflect before the the days elongate, the sun rises higher in the sky and your body is automatically compelled into action.

Rest is not only imperative for integrating, rejuvenating and updating yourself on all levels, it is crucial in reaching beyond the conscious mind, into the subconscious to access the levels of creative energy, inspired answers and brainwave states that can be touched during deep rest.

The conscious mind only knows, believes and acts upon what it already knows.

As you relish these last days of winter, you might want to learn to travel deeper into your inner world and psyche—underneath the conscious mind, to explore what drives your thoughts and beliefs; sensations, emotions and actions.

These modalities are supportive in any season, and maybe especially now—before you begin to prepare the way out.

Hypnagogia—Reaching Underneath Consciousness

Heightened creativity is accessible while in a hypnagogic state. Some people knew a long, long time ago: Salvador Dali; Thomas Edison, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein; Edgar Allen Poe, Mary Shelley, Franz Kafka and Charles Dickens; were all known to have used a lucid, or waking dream state for inspiration.

Hypnagogia and its counterpart hynopompia are both in-between sleep and waking states. Hypnagogia is the entry, hypnopompia is the exit, which is when most of the dreams we remember occur.

The Way-In

Lower Brainwave States: the transition space between waking and sleeping becomes apparent when brainwave activity shifts out of relaxation into pre-sleep—a primarily theta state. Bearing in mind that all brainwaves are present to some degree all the time, this would mean theta is more activated than the other brainwaves.

Yoga Nidra: yoga sleep; sometimes known as dream yoga is a meditation practice that guides people through several layers of awareness related to both physical and subtle realms—physical body; breath and energy; emotional-mental; intuitive and spirit realms, for purposes of reaching underneath the conscious mind and into a higher, spiritual state.

Savasana: yogic rest posture (also known as corpse pose)—especially after focused, active yoga or movement, can open the door to hypnagogia.

Flickering Light Therapies: there are many different therapeutic light-sound options, all of which induce altered states of consciousness through flickering light. Also known as stroboscopic light, there are resultant brainwave activity transitions and hypnagogic states; colorful visuals and sometimes hallucinations; memory recall, and shifts in automatic neuro-chemical responses.

Treatments with flickering light are currently being studied for their effects on Alzheimers, attention-deficit-type disorders and other cognitive functions; emotional regulation, increased creativity, addiction recovery, and creating optimal life habits.

On the simple pleasure side, a 20-minute session can also be a relaxing meditation with benefits extending to a few days later.

I have experienced 4 variations of flickering light-sound therapies: BrainTap, BRQ (no longer available), the DreamMachine and LuciaLight—currently using primarily the latter two both personally and in private session work with others. I would recommend any of them, dependent upon your needs—and I’m certain you will do a little research at the links provided to see which might be beneficial for your purposes.

Audio Companion: Creativity

Each week you will find symbolism and relaxing practices following the Wheel of the Year, the Sacred Body Oracle cards and the calendar journal, “Sacred Body Pathworking: Mapping the Evolutionary Journey.”

The calendar journal and its companion, “Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind,” are both available for purchase here--please scroll down to the bottom of the linked page.

Weekly Relax your Body, Quiet your Mind audios accompany your pathworking journey around the Wheel of the Year.