Thank you for your patience with the challenge we had with the first link we sent out for the September Transmutation News. Sylvia Edwards did resend the correct link. I hope you had a chance to read the column I wrote in September for I feel it included some powerful teachings to work with.
On that note, the last few monthly columns have been pretty rich and deep with teachings and practices to integrate into your life. As I wrote years ago I go in waves with the Transmutation News. Sometimes I feel I have nothing left to write. Sometimes I repeat certain teachings. And then after the quiet cycles new insights present themselves which I feel passionate about sharing.
I do feel what I have written in the past few months is a lot to digest. Please take your time to review some of the more recent columns and reflect on which insights I share speak to your heart and soul. For those insights that do resonate with you please make sure you are integrating new teachings and practices into your daily life so in the end you feel your quality of life has been improved. As your consciousness shifts this does touch and resonate through the entire web of life.
Over the years I have written about the teachings, revelations, and healings I have received by taking walks in nature. I live a few miles outside of downtown Santa Fe. There is arroyo below my house that runs for miles in two directions. In Santa Fe County it is illegal to fence off your property so that people can walk the entire length of the arroyo if they choose to.
An arroyo is a dry riverbed. Although there are many houses where I live when you enter into the arroyo and walk through the dry riverbed you cannot see the surrounding homes. It is such a gift to live in a place where you can easily enter nature and be completely unaware of the population that surrounds you.
I have been walking through this arroyo for the eighteen years I have lived in my house. Sometimes I jog through the arroyo simply for exercise and allowing my mind to wander. And there are times I walk slowly truly connecting with the wealth of plants and trees that grow here. Surrounding the arroyo are juniper, pinion pine, ponderosa, cottonwood, and aspen trees. I have gotten to know many of these trees and over the years I have felt that I have connected so deeply with some of them that I can truly call them my friends. Sometimes even when the air is silent and still as I approach certain trees the leaves will move as if greeting me.
There is one old ancient ponderosa pine tree that is so magnificent and seems to thrive during the most extreme climate changes such as cold, heat, wind, and of course drought. There is even a bench for the elderly that has been put by the tree with cushions marked on them “for the elderly”. This tree gets a lot of love and respect by the local residents.
Some trees I worry about. I can see them struggling a bit. I do my work to not project struggle and illness onto them. I see them in their divine light, and I often touch the trunk and deeply feel the bark of the tree and radiate love and light. And there are times when I walk through the arroyo in a very focused state and perceive all the trees in their divine light as I walk.
There are also times when I do not feel well emotionally or physically and ask that the trees recognize me in my divinity. Nature is intelligent and does recognize us. I have written about this before.
As I walk through the arroyo with questions or concerns I find that nature continues to show me omens. I love working with omens, as this is a way to experience just how much support we are always being given by the universe. The universe, the helping spirits, nature itself is always giving us signposts that light our path in life.
As you incorporate what I wrote about in the September Transmutation News about enlivening your senses you will be more aware of the omens and signs being shown to you.
On the homepage of this site you can find an article that I wrote on “How to Work with Omens”. I promise you that if you bring this work into your life you will once again remember the magic of life.
There are times that I have walked through my arroyo praying and crying asking for some help to guide me through particularly challenging times. And I always receive some kind of extraordinary sign showing that the universe is listening and sending help my way.
There were two times where I received such extraordinary omens that I wanted to share with you.
Many years ago I was having a challenging time with someone who I was connected with in my spiritual community. I had been walking on my treadmill focusing on this challenge. I heard a very clear message telling me to go walk in the arroyo, and I would receive an omen.
So I stopped my treadmill, put on a different pair of shoes for walking in sand, and began my walk. After walking for about 10 minutes a hawk came flying through the trees and flew right up to me and slapped my head with his wing. Then right behind him a hummingbird was flying and swooped down and slapped my head with his wing. Then they both landed on a branch and sat right next to each other just staring at me for what felt like an eternity. No one moved until after minutes I finally continued walking. Can you imagine a hawk and a hummingbird sitting on a branch quietly next to each other and not moving? It was amazing.
It took me quite awhile to get the message being shared. It is not always a simple matter to interpret signs and omens. But over time I got the message. From time to time I find myself thinking about this walk as the hawk and hummingbird showing up was beyond the ordinary.
Two years ago I was really challenged with the care of my father who was 97. I had to make decisions that felt were beyond what I was emotionally capable of making. Hospice could support me on some levels. But they could not make certain decisions I was facing.
One day I went into the arroyo. I was crying so and praying for some help and a sign. The day I went into the arroyo was a cold and rainy October day.
As I was coming back home a baby snake crawled over my hiking boot. I could not believe what I was seeing. As I was so distraught at the time I was not thinking clearly. I bent down to see if it was a worm or some other nature being. It was a snake. October is certainly not a time for snakes to be birthing. And a snake would not be out on a cold and rainy day. But there it was in the flesh. I could not deny its appearance.
The omen to me meant that something was changing and transforming. I saw it as a real sign of death/rebirth. And indeed my father did die shortly after I saw this omen. He ended up dying in such a state of peace of grace. There was a new birth and a transition for my entire family.
As I reflect on how many gifts I have received from walking in my arroyo I feel strongly that it has been my regular ongoing relationship with the spirit of this place that has brought forth a wealth of signs to help me on my life journey. I not only walk the same path on a regular basis, but I also always walk with honor and respect for all that is alive in this area.
I believe that it is the relationship I have built up with the nature beings here that has created such a deep and strong field that lifts the veils between the worlds. The help of the hidden realms can reach through to give me guidance and to let me know how much I am loved and supported.
I did not always live in a place where I had the opportunity to go right outside my door and walk for miles in nature. I grew up in Brooklyn, and I sang to a tree outside my house everyday. I talked to it everyday. And I felt that tree communicating back to me.
I also lived in San Francisco where I had my favorite walking paths in nature where I built up such a strong relationship with the nature beings there that I felt a strong sense of mutual love and support.
The point I am trying to make is that you can build up a mutually supportive relationship with nature wherever you live – in a city or in a rural environment. There are parks you can walk in where you live. There might be a tree or plant you can radiate love to everyday. There is the sky above and the earth below that you can continue to honor. You can honor the living beings we call earth, air, water, and the sun as you go about your day. It does not matter where you live.
Nature will respond to you. Your life will change. Your relationship with the universe will change as you notice signs being given to you to light your path and let you know you are being recognized, supported, and loved by the spirit that lives in all things. Most importantly, your deep connection with nature will fill your soul.
Hawk, snake, and dragonfly often visit me on my walks in my arroyo and also while I am walking in other places in nature when the universe is trying to give me a sign. Who visits you? The wind gives me some potent messages, and I have come to rely on the messages that travel through the wind and breezes when I need guidance in my life.
Find a park, a place in nature, and connect with nature everyday. As you build up a relationship notice how the universe responds to your questions, challenges, and prayers.
The full moon is October 18. You can integrate what I wrote about by deepening your relationship with the moon. The moon does recognize you. Honor the moon, go out and sing to the moon, and learn about how your cycles harmonize and are impacted by the cycles of the moon.
Notice how the moon participates in the ceremony of Creating A Human Web of Light that we have been doing again and again each month since 2000. Do your preparation work to create sacred space and move into a heightened state of consciousness and join with all in the global community. Experience who you are beyond your skin- pure spirit; pure light. And radiate that light throughout the web of light within and throughout the earth.
If you are a new reader of the Transmutation News please visit “Creating A Human Web of Light” on the homepage to read instructions for our full moon ceremony.