On New Years’ day, I guided two conferences. What a privilege. One was a conference call with a group that was intimately involved in some shamanic work in Los Angeles last summer. We have been meeting weekly for 6 months now and doing some quiet but powerful work in circle and in Spirit to heal and cleanse the land and to work also with the planet because as you know– the land remembers. The portal we work with (a spiritual anchoring on the Earth) is a mountain that is now linked up with 20 other mountains and portals where people gather in spirit or in body to heal and pray the earth into its new incarnation of peace and beauty. A new space where war is obsolete and there is no “other” because we are all one.
The other group was invited here pysically to break bread together in the spirit of community with a pot luck feast and ritual ceremony to call in the power and energy of the New Year and to set the intention for 2012. We shared food, meditation and intentions for the new year. We wrote down the things we wish to let go from the past and from 2011 and burned those memories and their energy with a flame container and sacred fire.
We wrote what we invite from and for 2012 for ourselves and for the planet and we made a vow to make the world a better place in 2012 in the singular and special way that only we can. We have spoken before about how powerful are vows made in ceremony and those sacred moments when one is connected to the divine.
We spoke of the prophesy of the Mayan calendar, the legend of the Aztec, the Altai, Hopi and Lakota, the Kali Yuga of India and the promise of the new millenium. We all agree that this coming year portends not disaster and armageddon, but HOPE and a new beginning as we come together as one in mutual respect and love for the planet and for ourselves.
We spoke about how self-love appears to be up in the field of the quantum and of consciousness and is an attractor field pulling in many parts of the earth and many people who feel the dissatisfaction and restlessness of the old hierarchical and harsh structures and a pull toward something else– the magnetism of the new inclusive and nurturing circle consciousness of community. We talked about how the structure and means to reach critical mass is now in place on the planet for the first time in history and how it is already spreading a wave of love– self love over the planet. We recognized that we are riders of the first wave.
The self love that is evident now around this earth in the form of resistance, revolution and reform, is a love that declares independence, freedom, democracy, responsibility and unity through community. We long to carry our own into the future. We long to go home, to end the duality and while retaining our diverstiy, become one in stewardship of the earth and its humanity. We see this love of self in the cry for an end to oppressive regimes and war and self-serving leadership and a call for equality, egalitarian principles and autonomy within the whole. Demanding that it be better is just another translation for “love.” It means we love ourselves enough to demand change and in the act of loving ourselves are the seeds for growing to love others equally and therefore, the whole of humanity. We invited it and welcomed this love to grow in 2012.
We joined each other in the act of breath, a gift from the divine that is always there and always accessible to us, that is always right in front of us and waiting for us to partake with the next moment and the next act of drawing breath. We recognize it is an act that we all share. And we we participated in the collective act of self love that recognizes the vessel (body) as a sacred chalice that holds a holy being– the holy of holies, and is the fulfillment of the arc of the covenant. We connected heart to heart, mind to mind and spirit to spirit to Spirit. As we completed the meditation, we all lighted a candle from the candle of another until we went round the circle and each candle was lit from communion and community. Each person carried home a candle as they were invited to carry their light forward into 2012.
So if you have not done ceremony to bring in 2012, I recommend you do it this week. If we, together and consciously let go of all that binds us, oppresses and restricts us and we intentionally invite peace into our lives and into our world, I wonder what may happen. It is after all, a promise, a legend, a gift and of course, an oracle in the lyrics of a twentieth century master of universal language who would want a better world for you and who sang about it all his life. A millenial shaman who for some, awakened you and for all, loved you more and left you his greatest legacy… you.
May you not only be blessed but may you be a blessing to this world. Namaste` and keep shining.
5 Comments
A very Happy New Year to you Barbara. 🙂 I have done my informal ceremony…something is happening…I can feel it.
Have you heard about Osho and if you have chances are you have heard negative things? He was a “controversial” spiritual figure from India…his lifestyle was unconventional for a spiritual person and he called him-self Zorba the Buddha. Media has spinned stories against him…I don’t know what is true and what is not. But as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating…I explored his work (his teachings) and it rang a deep bell within me. He has some real insights and wonderful stories but so much about his life I don’t understand. Thank you for your time.
Hello Suvi, I have sent you replies to previous questions and then sent a request asking how you were doing. I had not heard so I may not have your correct email. Please send me something with your current email so I may reply privately. Publicly I will say this… I know of Osho. I know he knew MIchael Jackson and in a very unorthodox way, Michael learned who Osho was. His followers have their own opinions about Michael and his level of enlightenment. You can be assured their assessment is related to their own level of enlightenment.
Let me say that teachers are human. Even master teachers occupy a human body with all its quirks and desires and straying thoughts. We tend to put those who stand out as gifted on a pedestal and then either despair or rejoice when they fall from grace. It is an unfair practice. We also have a cultural meme that dictates that holy men and women should be humble and poor. So many raise their eyebrows when they are wealthy. There is an American preacher who is very popular and wealthy who is being scrutinized right now because of his popularity and wealth. Who says prosperity is not a sacred quality? Who says that abundance is unholy? Your habits set up an attractor field and you attract that which you are. The scriptures tell us that we shall have everthing we need and that we need only ask. There is nothing unholy about attracting wealth; it is unholy if it is amassed deceptively, criminally or at the expense and exploitation of others. Is that the case here? I am not close enough to discern that. His teachings speak for themselves.
There is a human principle that is thrown into the equation and that is the ego. When someone is beloved and perhaps wealthy, people look for the flaws. It is hard to fathom someone being that “good” because it puts us all to shame by comparison. That was true with Michael Jackson. Nobody could believe he was that sensitive as a man without being gay, that he could be turning a lighter color because of a disease (he must be trying to be white), that he could be so generous with children (there must be an ulterior motive), that he was insincere (“there goes Michael Jackson trying to save the world again!”) and some people found him unbelievable (as in “can you believe this guy?”) Racism also played a part. (Who is this guy to be a sexy black man attracting white women.)
We don’t have to like the packaging but we make a mistake when we assume what is inside may be useless. We shouldn’t dismiss the teachings because we don’t like the packaging or because the package doesn’t command reverence. That is precisely what happened to Michael after all. He was a great teacher of and for humanity and he has been all but dismissed as first irrelevant (entertainer”) and worse (name calling and placing him in a field with criminals) in his lifetime. MIchael did very controversial things– most of them deliberate as attention getting or as a message. Remember he grabbed his crotch (irreverence and a cultural taboo) and when he first began it, it sent a shock wave through the public. He did it for a number of reasons but it was a direct message to racists and racism. (Lynch mobs who hung black men unjustly cut off their genitals and threw them on the ground.) What do you suppose Michael was saying with that controversial gesture?
Sammy Davis Jr. broke lots of racial barriers by being outrageous because he positioned himself as a Hollywood “bad boy” which allowed him to be outrageous. My first teacher was a Sufi who was anything but lovable. He caused tears and pain by going right for the tender place in students, by aiming directly for the wound.
A good guru is not always lovable or gentle. Sometimes the sting is deliberate to shock you awake, to startle the ego. Some students stay in their ego and leave; some get past the whining of the ego and remain. Sri Sri said to us in satsang: “being spiritual does not mean being sweetie sweetie all the time.”
I, for example, needed harsh teachers until I didn’t need them anymore. Understand?
So you will have to discern the authenticity of your teachers for yourself. The body knows the truth. The body will tell you. Go to that quiet place. Your answer is there. ~B
Thank you for the response. I have sent you an email. Love.
The life of an aesthetic is not usually organized. Oops. See your email. I will try to find my original responses to resend. And this is for everyone: I sometimes misplace emails or put them in a folder to answer later; or I am working on a deadline for something to be published elsewhere; or there is another project that momentarily has my attention. This is not to make excuses but to say that being human is messy and not always organized. So if you send me something that requires a reponse and I don’t get back to you, write or ask again. Especially if it is a spiritual question; your soul’s journey is your priority. Always. So if you need something for your soul, make it my priority too. Capish?
Capish.