Happy summer! I hope you had a good summer solstice celebration honoring the change in cycle. I also hope you reflected on the practices I have given so far this year before you move on.
In June I led my first five-day gathering to explore in a deeper fashion the material in Medicine for the Earth. Working with the power and vibration behind words I have decided to use the word “gathering” instead of “workshop”. “Gathering” has more life to it.
The five days gave us an opportunity to deepen and anchor the spiritual practices needed to change who we become creating the harmony inside of us which will be reflected back to us by our outer environment. The week also showed the divine play that happens by deepening and honoring our relationship with the elements, the nature spirits, the ancestors, the spirit of the land, and all living beings who share this earth with us. The week was full of miracles and most of all the miracle of seeing how simple it is to create change.
So far in the groups I have led we have always worked with infusing deionized water with ammonium hydroxide in our ceremony work of transmuting water. As I have already mentioned the focus of our work has been to learn how to create harmony within which will create harmony without. We have worked in partnership with water as water has reflected back our inner state to us.
People who have been following my work have written to me to ask if I have ever tried working with an acid. During this five-day gathering we worked with both the ammonium hydroxide which is alkaline and we also worked with nitric acid. We worked with two different bowls of water at the same time. The starting pH of the water with ammonium hydroxide was 11.5 and the starting pH of the water with nitric acid was 2. So we needed to lower the pH of one bowl of water while raising the pH of the other bowl. This was a great way to work, as we really needed to let go of numbers and truly work with transfiguring into divine and harmonious beings and not focus on the water.
The water with the ammonium hydroxide went down to a 9.5 and the water with nitric acid went up to a pH of 4. In both bowls we had a change of a pH of two which is huge exponential shift. One metaphor that Vic, the physicist we work with, used to describe this is it is the difference of falling 200 feet versus 20 feet. One of the challenges we have had in working with the change in pH is that most people don’t understand the magnitude of a change of even one point of pH. So we do the best we can to come up with metaphors.
Of course I am excited about the results we are getting with the water for the focus of my work has been to show that is possible to change our environment with the use of spiritual practices. What most excited me however during this five days was how transformed each individual became with the spiritual practices we engaged in. For the ceremonies we perform to heal the environment will have no long-term effect if we do not change ourselves.
As requested by many of you, I have posted the Medicine for the Earth gatherings for 2002. Please look under the “Workshops and Announcements” section of this web page for the schedule. As usual the tuition is on a donation basis and we have scholarships available for the room and board fees.
We learn and grow through our relationship with others. As we share our earth with other living beings there is a great deal of growth that comes from deepening our relationship with the rest of life. We are in a constant intimate relationship with the living beings earth, water, fire, and air. How many of us acknowledge this intimate relationship?
For example, if everything is alive then air is a living being. When we are born for life to fill our bodies we must take a breath establishing our relationship with air. Our last breath signals the end of life. We are in a second by second relationship with air. It is such a natural process that we do not always acknowledge.
For this month try to raise your awareness to your relationship with the air you breathe. This relationship is constant and your survival is dependent on this ongoing relationship. As many times as you can remember to do so in a day allow yourself to breathe into your heart. Experience your energy moving from your head into your heart. From being in your heart express your love and appreciation for the air you breathe and for your relationship with air.
As the elements are living beings they are intelligent They know you and recognize you. Allow the air you breathe and the wind and breezes you feel outside to recognize you and honor you.
Notice what changes you feel by bringing this practice into your life. Of course, you can do this with all the elements. And I will lead you through this in the following months.
When we gather in groups one of things we tend to do is to talk about the troubles of the world and all the dramas that are occurring. Of course, this has a place in processing all that is going on around us. There is another practice that we can add which will begin to heal these troubles.
In Medicine for the Earth I wrote about the power of imagination. Imagination is a divine gift given to us to manifest ourselves and dreams in the world. Part of being a spirit in a body is learning how to use our imagination to create in manifest form. As I have written many times we are dreaming the wrong dream. It is time to put our gifts of imagination into gear and start visioning a world where there is harmony and beauty.
At some point this month try to gather some friends together for a visioning party. Put on some meditative and expansive music and allow your imagination to put out a vision for the life and world you would like to see. As enough of us send the vibration of our dreams up into the universe we will begin to see the manifestations of a new group dream. But we need to do this on a regular basis and inspire many others to join us. Whether you do this practice alone or in a group does not really matter. What is important is for as many of us who are willing to dare to bring a new dream into reality.
One of the dreams we have already been creating is creating a worldwide web of light. I hope you can feel, see, and experience the web getting brighter and stronger. Please join in on the full moon meditation of creating this web of light on July 5.