Category: English 2001

Transmutation News – December 2001

One of the main principles talked about at the Bioneers Conference I attended in October was that the “war on terrorism” in many ways distracts us from the chemical and environmental pollution that we are all dealing with that has huge effects on the life of all living beings.

Will science actually be able to reverse the extreme destructive pollutants now in our environment? We are getting help from some natural forces. Paul Stammet, a brilliant mycologist, has discovered mushrooms that will eat some very dangerous toxins. So nature is working in cooperation with us. I still hold that we will also have to include spiritual methods to reverse the damage.

In Medicine for the Earth the question was raised of whether the work I was sharing would change the toxins we were working on or would we change so much that the toxins would not harm us. I do believe that the answer to this question is that both are true.

I also wrote about the dream that I had when I started writing the book in 1998 where the Egyptian god Anubis told me the missing piece to my work with transmutation was transfiguration. The work with transfiguration has been so powerful in helping people access their own divinity which is so needed in many ways right now.

In June right before I taught a five-day Medicine for the Earth training I had a dream saying it was important for me to bring the eucharist into my work. As I was not raised Catholic I didn’t know what that meant. It is my nature to take things out of a religious context so I started to search for a deeper meaning. In the summer issue on Light in the magazine Parabola I read a statement by Otto Von Simson where he looks at the eucharistic sacrament as divine light transfiguring the darkness of matter. With the work I was doing this has made perfect sense to me.

On Oct. 23 I had another dream to get my attention to keep looking at this issue. In my dream I was in a bookstore and I heard someone talking about an author who had written a book about “transubstantiation”. In the dream I was desperate to find out more information, as I knew this was my work.

I had never heard of this word so when I awoke from the dream I got up and went to Webster’s where I did find it. The definition of transubstantiation is “the change in the eucharistic elements from the substance of bread and wine to the substance of the body of Christ with only the accidents (as taste and color) remaining.”

It’s interesting that my dreams keep giving me religious concepts, but I know that my dreams are giving me the vocabulary of what the work is about and I need to let go of the religious forms that the words come from.

I have been teaching the process of transfiguration as you have read about it in Medicine for the Earth. We use this process in the transmutation ceremonies with the realization that as we transfigure to divinity the substances we are working on will reflect this back to us. Using the principle of “as above, so below; as within, so without” we also need to hold our intention to transfigure the harmful substances we are working with. We want to focus on the holiness of air, water, earth, and the fire burning in the sun and in the earth. As we focus on the divinity in all the elements and all of life we will transmute the harmful substances they now contain.

I have had the inclination in the last few months to call ourselves spiritual warriors. I find myself resisting the word “warrior”, because of the energy behind the word. Now I see us as being called upon to be the spiritual dreamers of a new time on our planet.

It is so important for us to use spiritual practices to stay centered and not be pulled out of ourselves. In Welcome Home: Following Our Soul’s Journey Home, published in 1993. I wrote: In times of change it is important to stay focused, stay positive, stay centered. We must hold the line of light as the collective does what it does. We must stay focused and continue to hold the vision.

In the five-day Medicine for the Earth gathering we work on visioning a new dream for the planet and we then perform a fire ceremony to ask the fire to take our prayers to the power of the universe! the creator. We draw pictures or create talismans we can empower with our dreams. It’s like a giant prayer smoke where our dreams and visions are sent up into the universe with the prayer that our dreams and visions will be manifested on earth.
The firekeepers are instructed to build the fire with the intention that this be a blessing fire. Often fire ceremonies are done to transmute negativity. With this ceremony our intention is different.

Recently as I was journeying I was reminded that although visioning is very important there are many ways to create a new vision besides just making a visual affirmation. Remembering that most cross-cultural creation myths say that the world was created into being by a sound or through words. Some people create through movement. The helping spirits I work with asked me to instruct people to not limit their ways of expressing their visions to the universe. If you are working with ceremonies of visioning please remember to expand on your ways of expressing the new dreams and visions you wish to create.

Last month I wrote that I felt one of the keys to successful transmutation work is to make sure you are inviting in and working in cooperation with the ancestors and the spirits of the land. I wanted to say something more about this. Many of you who have been trained in shamanic journeying have been taught to work with the helping spirits of the upper and lower worlds. There are also helping spirits in the middle world. For good reason students are steered away from working in the middle world, as this is also where deceased spirits can get stuck. When someone suffers a traumatic death his spirit might not transcend out of the middle world. This is the cause of ghosts, poltergeists, and possessing spirits.

There are also invisible beings that live in the middle world that have transcended the human condition and are here to help. There are helping and compassionate ancestor spirits who love the earth and all of life of much as we do. With intention, when we perform our transmutation ceremonies, we want to also ask for the compassionate, helping spirits of the land who hold the ancient wisdom of transmutation to help us with our work. In this way we are working in cooperation with all the helping spirits who can offer us assistance. As I wrote about last month the cooperation of the helping spirits of the land you are working on is vital to the success of the work.

Everything manifests first in the spiritual level before manifesting on the physical. As we have forgotten the importance of being proactive on the spiritual level we have been manifesting chaos and toxicity on the physical level. The spiritual work we do does make a difference.

We celebrate a great cycle of change as we honor the winter solstice on December 21. May your winter be full of warmth and peace as we continue our visioning work.

During the winter months use the time to do some work with visioning your life and the world you live in. Humankind has become so focused on consuming resources. In your visioning work focus on ways to transmute and transform consumerism energy. Let’s look at ways we can give back, honor, and be in service to the earth, air, fire, water and all the visible and invisible beings who give us so much.

Please join in on the full moon meditation for creating a human web of light on December 30. Last month I only mentioned the full moon on Nov. 1 and did not mention there was another full moon on Nov. 30. I do hope you caught my oversight and continued you meditations. Again I want to remind you that you can meditate on the human web of light everyday if you wish to strengthen the force of light that surrounds our world.

In Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge’s book poemcrazy Susan shares a wonderful insight about the word “abracadabra”. “Abracadabra, the seemingly nonsense word we invoke in magic tricks, comes from the Aramaic, the language of the Bible: ‘abraq ad habra’. These ancient words mean ‘I will create as I speak’.”

Never doubt that a group of concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead (taken from the Autumn 2001 issue of the newsletter of the Findhorn Foundation.).

Happy winter!

Transmutation News – November 2001

I hope you have been able to stay focused on holding the light and tending the garden during this great time of change. There are many aspects of environmental pollution. We are experiencing a great deal of troubled energy in our psychic space from all the fear and anger that is being generated from people around the world.

Although all parts of the formula for transmutation (intention + love +harmony + union + concentration + focus + imagination) are needed to be used right now it is important to really work on your ability to focus. During unknown times it is so easy for us to be pulled outside of ourselves and lose focus. We must also be able to focus our imaginations to believe that we can create a different reality. It is important to use the tools you know and those discussed in Medicine for the Earth to stay centered and focused.

I have received a lot of feedback of how relevant the material in Medicine for the Earth is in helping people stay centered during this time.

As you bring small practices into your life to shift your consciousness, you will notice a shift of awareness happening. As you continue your reflection you will notice that your energy field changes and that it is easier for you to maintain your focus on your spiritual path. Please remember that the benefits come with daily practice.

It did not take many people to create such a drastic sudden change in our world. Any work that you are willing to do by yourself or in small groups will have an impact on the collective conscious. Know that every change in consciousness you make does make a difference.

In October I led a five- day Medicine for the Earth gathering on the East Coast for a group of people who had worked together for years. In my journeys I had been getting that it was important to do some transmutation work for the energy of fear, anger, etc. that was floating around the air waves.

I was given a vision of a ceremony to lead to work with the transmutation of energy in the collective. The ceremony was so powerful I would like to share it with you. For those of you working in groups where you do journey and you have been working with the material in Medicine for the Earth I hope you will try this.

First we all wrote down on pieces of paper what energy around feelings, beliefs, and thought patterns needed to be transmuted. For example, one might write down fear, hate, despair, and hopelessness. We then put all the pieces of paper around the altar that also had a beaker of water with ammonium hydroxide in it.

I asked half of the group who would transfigure into a divine force to sit in the middle. The people who were to transfigure were to keep their arms and hands outstretched and be a vehicle for healing energy to pass through. I asked the other half of the group to stand around those seated. This half was to merge with a power animal or teacher used for healing. During the first stage of drumming the people in the middle were to transfigure into a divine force where they could just be a vehicle, a hollow bone, for energy from the helping spirits to pass through. The group standing was to merge with a power animal or teacher. After a few minutes of giving people time to transfigure or merge I signaled with the drum that it was time to work. Then I began drumming again. The transfigured group was to tone to keep the transfigured state and once again just be a vehicle for healing energy to pass through. The power animals and teachers kept circling the group placing their hands on the transfigured group sending through healing energy for what needed to be healed.

When it felt like a lot of healing happened I did a return beat. The people merged were given the instructions beforehand that during the return beat they were to disengage from their power animals and teachers. The transfigured group was also instructed to disengage during the return beat.

After people came back we switched roles so everyone could get a chance to merge and transfigure. The next morning the papers that had been in the middle of the room were burned. There was so much spiritual energy in the room we decided to leave the papers to continue to be worked on.

There really were and are no words to describe the sense of healing that took place that evening. We were all just left in awe. For me the spiritual energy in the room was so expansive and planet earth seemed so small in comparison. I also received information that the water in the middle along with the ammonium hydroxide both helped take on and transmute the energy worked on. The pH did change from 11 to 10.

The evening was so powerful I want to incorporate this ceremony into all my Medicine for the Earth gatherings. But I wanted to share it here for those of you who are already working in journey groups where the members have experience with the material I have already written about.

If you have any questions about how to perform this ceremony or if you want to give me feedback once you have done it with a group, please write to me at P.O. Box 4757, Santa Fe, NM 87502.

I have continued working with groups in working with the transmutation of water infused with ammonium hydroxide. The work continues to go well. I have learned something in the last few months that I wish to share with you. The results of the work are definitely stronger when we work in collaboration and cooperation with the ancestors and spirits of the land. Please take some time to establish a good connection with the ancestors and spirits of the Land where you live. And if you attempt any long distance healing work for water or land, please take plenty of time to establish a good relationship with the spirits of the place where you are trying to work. The work will only be successful if you work in cooperation with the spirits of the land.

Debra Chesnut in Fairbanks Alaska participated in one of my five-day Medicine for the Earth gatherings in Santa Fe. When she journeyed for a vision for the earth she was told to start a company to test soils for toxic contamination and start clean up using the transmutation method. In her vision she was shown that the main culprits of environmental contamination in Alaska, the military and the oil companies, need to see numbers and be convinced that it is worthwhile financially before they will accept the “transmutation” technique. The real goal is to convince them that it is good financially then “train” them to change themselves. Debra was told that we shouldn’t just go around cleaning up after the military and oil companies without making them responsible in some way because they will have no reason to stop contaminating, in fact, may contaminate more because it can be cleaned up so “easily”.

Debra was given a tremendous amount of Information in her vision including what to call the company, how to work, who to contact, etc. She has already acquired the necessary materials to start soil testing. She has taken this information and has moved forward to make her vision a reality. I am extremely excited with the direction Debra is going.

If anyone reading this has worked with soil and might be able to share some information with Debra you can contact her directly at:

Four Winds
P.O. Box 83486
Fairbanks, Alaska 99708
907455-9067

I will also keep everyone posted on her progress in upcoming transmutation news.

In October I presented at the Bioneers Conference. The annual Bioneers Conference is the pre-eminent gathering of environmental visionaries with practical solutions for our most pressing environmental crises.

At the conference I conducted a 90-minute session on the material in Medicine for the Earth. I led participants on two journeys. One journey was to merge with an element; learning about the elements outside and inside of us by becoming an element. The second journey was to find a method to transmute the energy around problematic emotions, beliefs, and attitudes.

There were between 400-500 participants in attendance during my presentation. The work was received incredibly well. I really believe it is important to add a spiritual component to all the brilliant environmental work going on today. I felt this was a real opportunity for me to begin to infuse the environmental community with some of the spiritual practices to use in combination with other work being done. I look forward to bridging more the Medicine for the Earth work with other environmental work.

Be very observant by watching, listening, and feeling the changes that are happening in nature as the seasons change. Notice changes in the plant and tree life. Notice the changes of all the animals that inhabit, the land where you live. Nature doesn’t just survive, nature thrives. Learn how you can thrive with seasonal changes by observing the natural world around you.

The earth is a living breathing being. How connected do you feel to earth? How are you supporting the earth’s life?

Please join us in creating a planetary human web of light on the full moon which is Nov. 1. As I keep initiating people into the web of light during my trainings it really feels as if the web has become electric. It feels very strong and very healing. Lets keep up the work.

Transmutation News – October 2001

As a few weeks have passed our shock has worn off of the great loss of life in New York and Washington. We are left with heavy hearts and many of us are left with questions. Why did such a tragedy occur? Why can’t we live together in peace and harmony? Why were so many people saved miraculously from death at the World Trade Center while so many others died?

The answers to these questions will probably remain a mystery. So the true question becomes can we find peace within ourselves while we live lives so full of mystery?

As we react to the catastrophe that has occurred with a variety of feelings that might include fear and anger we look for where we can feel in control and find safety. The bottom line is that our bodies are always in danger of loss of life. That is the nature of having a body. If we perceive ourselves as just a physical body we will never feel safe no matter how many restrictions are put on our environment. As most of you know we are not just bodies. Our bodies are simply a vehicle for our spirits to move through and to experience life on earth. Our spirit can never be destroyed so on the spiritual level there is no death. As we continue the spiritual practices to have a strong connection with our spirit that is where safety lies. In Medicine for the Earth l wrote about how the only safe place is in us. There is no safety in the material, physical world.

Right now as people are looking for safety and for answers many of us look to others as authorities to what is going on in the world both physically and spiritually. Once again l encourage you to go inside yourself to find the peace and the answers you are seeking.

In my own spiritual practice l have looked at what l can learn from the terrorist attack. Some of what l have learned is new to me while some builds on understandings l have already been working with and writing about.

As our bodies are the vehicle for our spirit, we are also the vehicle for the helping spirits, source, god, the divine, whatever words fit your religious and philosophical beliefs. There is the side of being a vehicle of love and light for the divine. There is also the shadow side of being a vehicle. In the case of the terrorists they acted in one collective conscious in the belief that they were bringing through god’s wishes and that they are waging a holy war.

In this action we see the shadow side of spiritual work. In being a vehicle of spirit and the divine we must also work on our egos. For we often interfere with being a true vehicle when we get caught in the illusion of separation. When we get caught in the illusion that we are separate from each other and the divine we typically end up reacting to life from a place of fear, anger, and self-righteousness.

As we continue our spiritual practices we must continue the work of learning how to identify when our ego and sense of being separate is speaking. We must learn how to identify when our minds are speaking instead of our hearts and when we are coming from a place of desire instead of surrender. We cannot forget this piece. As we have seen throughout the ages people who only focus on what they term is spiritually right and correct usually move into fanaticism.

As a culture in modern history we have been in a process of individuation. This has only strengthened our own egos. The process of individuation has been an important part of our evolution of consciousness and yet at the same time has created quite a shadow. A balance must be achieved. How do we now combine the brilliance and strengths we have developed as individuals to work together in a strong collective consciousness to create peace and harmony? How do we accomplish this while still honoring our own personal destinies? This will be a great challenge of our time.

During the week of the tragedy in New York and Washington many people were wondering how they could help. l was teaching a five-day soul retrieval training during this time. There were 43 of us at the training who wanted to blend our energies and abilities together to help. During our free time we worked together to look at how we could help.

After l journeyed on how l could lead the group to be of help l was asked to spiritually travel with the group to New York to offer assistance to the spirits. We were being asked to be vehicles of the spirits to help those who needed to move on and those who were returning to life. We were asked not to have any desires or attachments to what work we were being asked to do. We were asked to surrender to how the spirits needed help.

This was a great relief for all of us and added to our understanding of spiritual healing. We were to put aside what we felt needed to happen to act as a vehicle for the spirits to work through. We were also asked in the midst of chaos to hold a clear space for the spirits to work. This encompasses the principles of surrender and humility. We had to surrender our desires to a higher power and to realize that it was not our egos involved in the process. We had to move any sense of our egos out of the way to be in service.

This is a wonderful intention to hold during these changing times. How can l be in service to the spirits, the divine, the power of the universe? We need to be flexible to new ways of working that the spirits will show us as we evolve. As we learn to be in true service and work in cooperation with the spirits, the veils between the worlds will continue to open and we will experience a weaving together of the spiritual and material worlds.

In many traditions fire is used as the element to describe spirit. If we feed the fire that burns inside of us with fear, anger, and hate that fire will be a destructive force and will destroy life. If we feed the fire with love, hope, and inspiration then the lire acts as is does in nature of cracking open the seeds of new beautiful life.

A fire burns through many of us now during this time of great change. We must honor our grief and our emotional feelings. And at the same time if we fuel the spiritual fires that live inside of us with love and hope we will see a beautiful rebirth in “the forests and the meadows” of our lives.

Because of my teaching schedule in September l had actually begun writing the October transmutation news in early September. As many of you have shared with me l also had a premonition that something terrible was going to happen. l didn’t get information about this in a journey or a dream. But it was tangible in the air for me. l couldn’t identify what l was experiencing but l kept telling those close to me something terrible was going to happen.

As l began to write my web page for Oct. in early Sept. some of what l wrote was what l needed to remember as l felt such a strong foreboding energy in the air.

In Welcome Home l wrote about a journey l had at the time of the Gulf War. l had asked my helping spirits what l needed to do in my own spiritual practice as it looked like the U.S. was engaging in war. l was told that l needed to keep tending the garden.

This journey really stayed with me. And l realize now that it is time to bring that journey into reality. We need people who are willing to keep tending the garden. We need new dreamers, as the ancient ancestors were dreamers. We need to hold the vision of a healthy earth with beings living in peace and harmony. For any healing work we do to be successful we need to be able to hold a good vision.

l had an interesting revelation in August. l realized that with the Medicine for the Earth work l am not teaching how to heal the earth, l am teaching people how to manifest a new dream for the earth. This realization created a real shift in perception for me.

As the nature of human beings is to project onto other people and onto life circumstances we create our reality through our projections. If we were created in the image of our creator we have the same power as our creator. l wrote about this in chapter one of Medicine for the Earth. l have also written that our perception shapes our reality.

This all means that we have the ability to manifest a new dream and new reality for the planet. As l have written, shamans from other cultures say, “We are dreaming the wrong dream.”

A few months ago l asked you to hold a “visioning party” to start to use your imagination (one of the key elements for the formula for transmutation). One day of visioning is not enough. What is needed right now is for a significant number of people to hold a new dream and vision for our lives and the earth. This vision must encompass a choice to live and create out of love and harmony and a desire to be in partnership, collaboration, and cooperation with all living things. Once again remembering the connection with the great web of life and light.

As a visioner you must be able to use the principles written in the chapter on imagination in Medicine for the Earth. You must be able to incorporate all your senses and be able to feel, taste, smell, bear conversations, and see your vision as if it is happening now. And you must be able to combine putting out a positive vision with surrender and asking for “thy will be done”.

It really will not take that many people to help change the consciousness on the planet. Please join others and myself in holding the vision of harmony, beauty, light, and love. Now more than ever we need everyone who is willing to keep feeding and holding the vision of the human web of light. If you are new to this web page go the section titled “Creating A Human Web of Light”. We will continue the full moon meditations (this month’s full moon is on Oct. 2), but please try to visualize and nurture the web everyday.

We can no longer say that we don’t have time for our spiritual practices and to live our lives in a joyous way. This must become a priority in all of our lives now.

During this month and hopefully forever, imagine and experience your energy shifting from your head to your heart. As much as you can throughout the day experience yourself breathing through your heart and send love and appreciation for your life and life of all beings out into the universe. Breathe in love and light and breathe out love and light. This will make a difference and you can make a difference.

l have posted a full new calendar for 2002 in the Training and Announcement Section of this web site. Please take a look at it for full descriptions of trainings as well as new workshops l am offering. Check it out occasionally as l make additions.

“Alchemy is the art of transmuting bodily consciousness into spirit: body must be made spirit say the alchemists, for spirit to become body” Titus Burckhardt from an article written in the summer 2001 issue of Parabola.

Transmutation News – September 2001

I continue to reflect on my trip to Brazil. In being with Joao De Deus I am now left with the absolute knowledge that all miracles are possible and that it is our own limiting beliefs that blocks us from being able to experience more miracles in our lives.

Joao De Deus, being a full medium, is a vehicle for other spirits to work through his body. In the shamanic work that I practice, teach, and write about the key is working in partnership, collaboration, and cooperation with the spirits. Our own consciousness is still present as we do our spiritual work and healing. In mediumship, as John of God does his work, he has no memory of what happened.

So in looking deeper into the miracle of transmutation of toxic substances using transfiguration, what are some of the key elements that need to be addressed. In chapter 14 of Medicine for the Earth I wrote that one of the keys to embodying our divinity is to look at what is burdening us and blocking us from the absolute state of transfiguration.

In past writings on this web page I have written that anger about the politics around what is happening with the environment can block the ability for the divine to work through us. It is one thing to be a spiritual warrior and stay true to our principles and ethics and state the truth of our beliefs. But if we move into a state of anger and judgement this blocks our ability to keep our hearts open. As the vehicle for the spirits is our hearts any blockage will prevent true spiritual healing from taking place.

Being in an empathic state can also block the spirits from being able to work through us to accomplish the miracles that are possible to create. When we are filled with the pain of others or the attachment to wanting to make things better for others once again our hearts are blocked from being a true vehicle for spiritual energy to come through.

Now I ask that we look at how our egoic desires can also be a block to the creation of miracles. And first I would like to look at the issue of humility, which I mentioned last month.

What keeps us functioning in the world is our ego. In our spiritual work it can block the process of getting in touch with our own divinity as well as bringing spiritual energies through for healing.

When I hear about spiritual pilgrimages that people take to shamans and healers outside the U.S. I typically hear a common theme of what people found so powerful. What I hear is that it was not that any technique was taught, but that a true transformation occurs by being in the presence of a great spiritual healer. And what everyone notes is the power of being with a spiritual person who carries the energy of true humility. We see this all the time in indigenous cultures. But it is rare to find this in modern day teachers and practitioners. When we begin to take credit for the spiritual healing whether it is for a person or the environment I do believe that this blocks the veils between the worlds from truly opening for miracles to occur. And in this culture where the process of individuation has become so important to us it is difficult to stay on the razors edge of the spiritual path of not taking credit for the successes. But it is so key for the results that we wish to happen.

So during this month I ask that as you do your spiritual practices to really examine your motives of what you are trying to attain. Do you want to be of service to the planet and the spirits unconditionally? Are you looking for some personal gain? Do you need personal recognition? Again to walk the razor’s edge of any spiritual path it is important not to judge yourself or others. Just look and be observant to where you are with your own egoic needs. Examine without judgement of where you are and what you might still need to work through.

By doing this work we will also end up forming stronger communities to work with. We weaken the link in our communities when we are not working from a place of true cooperation where we put our own egoic needs aside.

Another issue I would like to bring up this month is honoring our ancestral connections. In most indigenous cultures shamans and healers suffered tremendous religious and political persecution for continuing their work. Today we draw on cultures from all over the world as we bring ancient spiritual practices back into a modern day culture. We emphasize honoring the spirits we work with for all that they have given to us. Do we honor the ancestors for all that they have given us? Do we honor our own biological ancestors for the gifts they have given us so that we might thrive in our lives?

Honoring the ancestors is work that must be done on a continual basis for obvious reasons. But by honoring our spiritual and biological ancestors we also open up the lines of communication so that our ancestor’s ancient wisdom of transmutation can be heard by all of us who opens our hearts and souls to listen.

Please add to your spiritual practice opening up your hearts to the ancestors of this great earth who have given us such wisdom and gifts. Speak to them from your heart. We have so much to be thankful for and so much to learn from those who have gone before us. We must give love and appreciation for that line of knowledge to be honored and for it to continue.

When I reflect on the work we have done with the water so far I can say that through embodying the divine through transfiguration and through working in cooperation with the spirits we have seen some good results. When I think of the amount of environmental pollution in the world today I am humbled by how far we still have to go. The spirits are showing us that we are walking on the right path but we are not there yet.

In America it is staggering of how much of the population does not realize that we have an environmental problem. I find in Europe there is more of a consciousness to the problem, but a feeling of powerless to finding a solution

So we continue to do the work required to do the transmutation work from a true spiritual path of emnbodying divine energies and working in partnership with the spirits, the spirit of the earth and all the elements, and the spirit of all living things. As we continue to examine our motives of doing this work and embrace true humility and the desire to be in service we will continue to unburden ourselves from our egoic desires and the next steps will be shown to us.

And when finally the consciousness of the public at large perceives that there is a problem the foundation will have been laid for the spiritual work to step in and offer viable solutions for healing.

During the month of September we celebrate the fall equinox. Personally this is my favorite season and I look forward to the change in cycle. Find a way to honor the equinox. As we honor the change of seasons we move into harmony with the river of life and learn how to live by going with the current instead of against it.

And please remember to join us in creating a human web of light that continues to shine through our planet on the full moon. The full moon this month will be September 2.

Transmutation News – August 2001

I have just returned from Abadiania in Brazil where I went to see Joao De Deus (John of God). Joao De Deus is a full medium where he gives his body as a vehicle for beings who were once alive and gifted at the art of healing to work through him. He brings one entity through at a time, but he has many different entities who use his body as a vehicle to heal through.

I went to Brazil to see Joao De Deus after I heard about his work. He does visible psychic surgeries as well as invisible psychic surgeries. Both seem to have the same effect on people. People who have had invisible surgery performed on them have been x-rayed and stitches have been found in their bodies.

According to Robert Pelligrino-Estrich, author of The Miracle Man, Joao De Deus is probably the most observed, recorded, and tested medium ever to enter the physical world. I was intrigued to go see him as I was wondering if there would be anything I would learn that would add to the transmutation work I am involved with.

Heather Cumming, a student of mine, leads trips to see John of God and I decided to go on one of them. I was deeply touched by John of God’s story and humbleness. The entities started coming through Joao De Deus at the age of 16. He was the son of a tailor and was raised in complete poverty. He thought he had passed out from hunger and when he came to learned that he had healed a room full of people. He had been picked by the spirits as a vehicle for them to work through. He suffered terrible persecution, yet persevered. He went from town to town curing the incurable. The doctors and religious figures in these places were jealous of his work and called the police to stop him. In each town he went to he was beaten by police and jailed. He accepted no money for his work. Between starvation and being beaten he suffered terribly but never gave up his mission which is to heal the sick and to make people aware that we are here on Earth to improve our level on the “other side”.

Years ago he started a center at Abadiania called the Casa de Dom Inacio. Dom Inacio de Loyola is the principle entity that oversees the work. The other entities are part of his community of healers sent to work through Joao. Joao accepts no money for his work. Donations are accepted for expenses for the running of the Casa only. He gets none of the money given. The Casa is run by a large staff of volunteers of people who were cured of incurable illnesses and people who were once cripple and can now walk again. They are so grateful for the healing they received they devote their time to help Joao continue his work. Joao also recognizes that he does not create the miracles, but is just a vehicle for the entities to incorporate through. He maintains his humbleness after all these years of the entities curing thousands of people.

There is a lot more to say about this and you can check Heather Cumming’s web page for more information:
www.healingquests.com

Although I did not go with a specific illness I needed cured I went asking for whatever help I needed to have a strong body to continue to do my work in service to the planet. So much happened for me on physical, emotional, and spiritual levels that I definitely label my experience a true miracle. As I have just returned home I need some time to integrate all that happened.

There were a couple of obvious things I was struck with while I was in Brazil that relates to the transmutation work and the material in Medicine for the Earth.

For one, as I experienced two personal miracles beyond my imagination I now know in every cell of my body that there are no limitations on possibilities for healing the planet and ourselves.

There is an amazing amount of energy put into the creating of sacred space at the Casa. From the moment you enter the main hall of the Casa you are asked not to cross your arms or legs so that the healing energy of the entities that are passing through each person be available for everyone there. There are two meditation rooms that are completely full with people meditating for hours without moving or leaving to ground the energy for the entities to work on each individual and the community present. There are constant prayers and lectures about the power of God, the divine, the spirits and the need to have faith for miracles to happen. Miracles happen at the Casa everyday and the community participates with Joao to make them happen.

I did have invisible surgery performed by the entities. I left the surgery room with the knowing of where the surgery was done, as I couldn’t move certain parts of my body as I felt as if I was pulling the stitches and was very sore. Once the entities begin working on you they keep the work up even in your hotel room. That night I had some pretty wild spiritual experiences. The next day I woke up in an extremely open spiritual state. I was so connected with the land and nature. I heard the big rocks on my land in Santa Fe calling to me asking me why I have not established a relationship with them as vital living beings. I was shown that if we treated the land where we lived as a living breathing being and asked for guidance of what was needed the energy of cooperation created would create unimaginable abundance.

In the last few web pages I have been using the word “collaboration”. In Brazil I was getting the word “cooperation”. I was shown, as our consciousness about how all of nature is alive is still asleep this creates a sleep state for the earth also. The earth is not producing the abundance it is capable of, as it is not being recognized for the living being that it is.
This took me to a much deeper level than I have been to with the material in the chapter I wrote on connecting with nature. I was shown such a beautiful vision of what is possible if we asked the land where we lived for what is needed for the land to produce the abundance it is capable of. So I have come home to my garden asking the land here what it wants me to plant versus what I want to plant.

I have recognized on a deeper level that every rock, crystal and other power objects that line my desk and bookshelves are living beings that crave communication and relationship. They are living and breathing and share my house with me. So I am now seeing how I can establish a deeper relationship with who I have brought into my home to live with me.
With cooperation all things are possible.

During this month try to connect with the land where you live. Even if you live in a city the buildings are built on living breathing earth. Through journeying or meditation ask how you can establish a relationship of cooperation with the earth on which you live.

Go around your house and take notice of the living beings in the objects that you have brought into your house to live with you. Once again establish a relationship which honors the life force of all things that alive.

Make sure you stay grounded while you do all this. This practice can put you in a very open place.

The most important teaching I left with from Brazil is the understanding that I am in service to the divine and the spirits. I am not in service to my own egocentric desires, attachments, and needs. I often find that we give conditions to the spirits of what we will do and what we want to do. I learned about the process of unconditional service. And I also learned about humility. In a ceremony we might participate in the creation of miracles. We do so by tapping into our own divinity and divine spiritual powers. But we are not personally responsible for the making of miracles to happen. Sometimes we forget this.

For those of you who think you might want to see Joao De Deus for healing and would like to make a spiritual pilgrimage down to see him in Brazil I highly recommend Heather Cumming as a guide. She is a completely loving and ever patient guide. She lived in Brazil for 30 years and considers Brazil her home. She knows the culture and the history, which helped me, feel connected to the land. She is also fluent in Portuguese, which is helpful, as the people in Abadiania do not speak English. There are a few English-speaking people who volunteer at the Casa so one could make do without a guide. There are also many rules at the Casa to keep things working in an organized fashion. By having Heather as a guide we never had to think about anything or try to figure out what was going on. This allowed me to sink as deep into my spiritual experience with the knowledge that all the ordinary reality details were being taken care of. She is also loved at the Casa so we really felt welcomed there as a group.

If you would like to contact Heather you can e-mail her at hcummings@aol.com. And of course please check out her website, www.healingquests.com

Transmutation News – July 2001

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.

Transmutation News – June 2001

Since the year began I have asked you to incorporate a number of spiritual practices into your life. I have asked you to expand your perception to see the beauty in all things. During the months I have asked you to connect physically with all the elements. I have asked you to work with the material from Medicine for the Earth on writing your own creation myth. In March you were to pick different spiritual practices to work on when you start your day to help you transmute the problematic and dark thoughts and feelings that arise throughout the day. You were also asked to reflect on your day before going to bed and transmute the events and thoughts of the day that still needed to be worked on. In April you were asked to find a practice of observation that you could use to find the still place inside yourself and to learn how to stay present. In May I asked you to work in collaboration with the nature spirits through joy.

This is a lot of material to work with. Before we move on to new material, please use this month to reflect on what you have been able to incorporate into your daily life. Remembering that it is who you become that changes the world not what you do, it is essential that you have found a way to change your priorities to bring some of these spiritual practices into your life. Alchemy teaches us that what is inside of us will be reflected outside of us. If our consciousness is polluted so will be our environment.

If you have only been reading Medicine for the Earth and the transmutation news it is just not enough to help reverse environmental pollution. If you have only been trying to learn techniques that will heal, it is not enough to reverse environmental pollution. The way to reverse environmental pollution is to transmute ourselves first. Yes, we can perform healing ceremonies to heal the earth, but there will be no long-term effect if we do not change ourselves. All the ancient spiritual traditions teach that our environment reflects back to us our inner state. As this has been known throughout the ages then it is time for you to refocus your energies to work on changing your inner state.

During this month work with the principle of focus and set your intention to incorporate the spiritual practices that feel right to you to change your inner world thereby affecting your outer world. Take the time to evaluate your relationship with yourself and other living beings such as the elements, the plant, rock, animal, and insect beings, the nature spirits, etc. to ensure the principle of collaboration. Make sure that you are setting your priorities straight and have created the time in your day to do the work you have committed to do.

Caroline Casey author of Making the Gods Work for You shares a Haitian proverb that says, “The gods won’t appear, the magic won’t happen, if we are not living our real life. Studying life is not living life, and therefore has no magic.”

The full moon this month is June 5 and I hope you will continue join in on the meditation to create a human web of light.

I have read a couple of wonderful books that I wanted to let you know about:
Going Native by Tom Harmer. This book has been published by University of New Mexico Press. For more information you can call 1-800-249-7737 or go to http://www.UNMPRESS.com.

Deep Power: The Political Ecology of Wilderness and Civilization by David Kowalewski This book was published by Nova Science Publishers. For more information you can call 631-424-6682 or e-mail them at Novascience@Earthlink.net or visit their web site at http://www.nexusworld.com/nova

Transmutation News – May 2001

This month I would like to jump ahead in going through the material in Medicine for the Earth. I want to talk about the principle of collaboration.

On this web site and in my book I have written about the experiments we have done in my workshops with transmuting or changing the nature of water infused with ammonium hydroxide. I have been encouraging people to get into a divine state where the water reflects back our own divinity and state of harmony. We have gotten profound results with the water working in this way. I have steered people away from using only divine intervention to do the work. In only working with divine intervention we call in divine forces and helping spirits to do the work for us. In working with divine intervention we usually take no personal responsibility.

If we are to evolve our spiritual practices to work with healing the earth we need to work in partnership with divine forces and helping spirits. We need to work in collaboration. This creates the necessary changes in us that shifts and evolves consciousness. This evolution of consciousness naturally creates a different environment.

In chapter 13 (page 157) in Medicine for the Earth I wrote about the wondrous gardens that were created in Findhorn, Scotland and Perelandra in Virginia where the people engaged in collaboration with the nature spirits.

I have also written in other parts of the book that there was a time when the gods and goddesses walked the earth.

There are beings that were once visible to all of humankind which inhabit the earth with us. As we have moved into a society that works with what is only “rational” we have lost contact with the special beings that we live with and have become invisible to most of us.

During this season the nature spirits are dancing and singing and enjoying life. We can call them in and work in collaboration to help us learn how to heal our environment.

In shamanic healing work we often call on the compassion of our helping spirits to alleviate pain and suffering for others or ourselves. This month I would like to suggest trying another way of working with collaboration with the helping spirits as well as the nature spirits. This month I suggest that the calling in of help be done through joy and not with asking for pity. They both have their place; they just access different realms.

In working with healing the environment we can work in a co-creative partnership with the helping spirits and the nature spirits through joy. Meditate on the word “joy”. Get a real sense of the vibration of the word in your body. “joy” has a high vibration to it.
The energy of joy is a vibration creating a different kind of spiritual opening than an opening that is created through suffering.

For this month try to experience joy and while in that state let the nature spirits know that you wish to make contact with them. You cannot make yourself experience joy. Joy is a state that happens. One path to joy is to start by thinking about what you love and appreciate. As you shift your attitude throughout the day to an attitude of love and appreciation you will notice a sense of joy starting to rise up in you. Also as you shift your perception to see the beauty in all things you will also experience joy.

Spring is a joyful time in nature. Set your intention and focus on allowing yourself to feel the joy of life and call in the energy of collaboration with the spiritual realms from this place.

Notice how your perception changes including how your perception of nature shifts to a different vibration. Notice how the shift in vibration allows you to see how vibrant nature is. Try to spend a significant time out in nature this month noticing the difference when you experience nature from a place of joy.

The full moon this month is May 7. Please join in on the meditation to create a human web of light.

Transmutation News – April 2001

All the answers live inside of us. People and events often pull us outside of ourselves. This prevents us from being in contact with our the “all knowing” part. For this month notice how often you are pulled outside of yourself during the day. Journey or meditate on if there is a pattern in your life of losing yourself.

Practice the disidentification exercise on page 84-85 of Medicine for the Earth. Read the chapter on Krishnamurti and Ramana Maharshi on pages 80-83. Use your creative genius to develop a practice that will help you move into a place of observation throughout the day. The practice of observation is one way to work with staying present. Only in learning how to stay present will you find stillness. Our spirit as well as all answers and knowledge live in the stillness. We must access the stillness and silence to access our all-knowing spirit which is the reflection of the divine force that created all of life.

Remember it is who you become that changes the world. We must find inner harmony to create outer harmony. Harmony can be found in the stillness of our being. Learn how to stay present throughout your day. This takes focus and concentration and a lot of practice.

As you look around the natural world you will observe movement in the plant life around you. Depending on where you live you might notice that plants are in different stages of flowering or preparing to flower during this season. The only way a plant can produce healthy vibrant blossoms is if the plant received the appropriate rest and nurturance to do so. Most plants that are stressed will either not produce flowers or will produce flowers that are withered. How are you nurturing yourself so that you will be able to blossom into a beautiful flower this spring?

This month I suggest that you do a meditation or journey to merge with the earth. In each season the soil changes its level of activity. To really understand what is happening in nature during the season of spring find out what the soil is doing. You can do a merging exercise during each season to get more information on how the earth keeps changing to support life.

If you are new to this web site you can go back to the May 2000 transmutation news for instructions on how to do this. The instructions also appear on pages 152-153 of Medicine for the Earth

The full moon this month is April 7. Please join in on creating a human web of light.

Recently I was introduced to some fascinating research done by Masaru Emoto. He found a way to show the health of water by freezing it and photographing the crystals. He has been able to photograph water that has been prayed over, water where certain intentions have been sent to it, as well as water that has people’s names recited to it, and water that has had different types of music played to it. The photos are quite fascinating.

He has found that when you combine the intention of love and gratitude or appreciation this creates the best crystalline structures of the water. All spiritual traditions teach us about the power of appreciation and Masaru Emoto shows us through photography how this affects water.

He wrote a book The Message of Water. The web site that describes his work and gives ordering information for his book is www.hado.net

To order The Message From Water in the United States contact

Source Books 615-773-7691.
You can also go their web site at: www.sacredspaces.org

I highly suggest you check out his work.

Transmutation News – March 2001

As it is the spiritual part of ourselves that holds the knowledge of how to heal we must spend more time accessing this part. The part of ourselves that most of us let have control is the ego. We tend to try and figure things out with our intellect.

We must be diligent in finding the spiritual practices that allow us to go beyond the ego to the depth of our being where we can access our spirit. Some of the spiritual practices people engage in involve the ego trying to get rid of the ego. This will not work for obvious reasons.

Part II of Medicine for the Earth gives many examples of practices to get in touch with our spiritual side to transmute the negative beliefs, attitudes, and thoughts that create pollution in ourselves which ultimately effect our outer environment. It’s easy to remember these practices when we are feeling positive and expansive. We forget to do them when we are lost in our limitations. Therefore, diligence, intention, and focus are crucial to incorporate spiritual practices throughout the day.

For this month I suggest you read through the practices in Part II of Medicine for the Earth. Pick different practices that you can work with on arising in the morning to set your intention to work spiritually, a practice you can do throughout the day when you “fall off the razor’s edge” of walking a spiritual path, and a practice you can do before going to bed to reflect on and transmute events and thoughts of the day. This will lead to “the alchemy of your soul”.

Commit to doing this daily and watch how your perception about life starts to change. Remember changing your perception changes your reality.

Remember to incorporate all the elements of the formula for transmutation as you do your practice.

As you begin to experience a consciousness that embraces unity, the shadow might arise. We live on a planet of duality. We have egos that only know separation. As we start to experience unity the ego starts to feel threatened. So you might find yourself moving into a negative state of consciousness.

Do not abandon the work at this point. Have compassion for yourself. Realize that the shifting of consciousness takes awareness and daily practice. Use the tools I wrote about to help you when you move into negative states. And realize that this phase is completely normal.

Another way to look at this is all shifts in consciousness require going through an initiation. An initiation marks a change in our lives. Initiations tend not to be easy processes as initiation requires letting go of an old state of consciousness and going through tests which require surrender and trust. Often when we make a shift in consciousness and begin the initiation required all the “old demons” stand in front of the doorway trying to prevent us from walking through. The doorway leads to a better life and a more conscious way of being filled with rewards. Don’t give up the rewards because you don’t want to embark on the journey.

The full moon this month is March 9. Remember to connect with the human web of light that has formed around the planet.

And let’s remember to celebrate and honor the change in season this month. Happy Spring!