Transmutation News – December 2009

A couple of years ago my husband Woods and I were interviewed for a film titled “The Invocation”. A movie director in Los Angeles is determined to be in service to the planet by making movies that will raise consciousness.

For “The Invocation” he traveled around the world interviewing political and religious leaders, spiritual teachers, and other people he met in his travels. He interviewed people of all ages and races.

The interviews were asking people how they felt about having an ongoing relationship with God, divinity, and oneness can create peace on the planet. Emmanuel, the director, really did a brilliant job. and I think the film is wonderful and has a powerful message.

Sharon Stone narrates the film, which has been done for quite awhile now. And the film has been accepted into the Santa Fe Film Festival, which is the first week in December. The film will probably be accepted into some of the international film festivals too.

For those of you who are local to the Santa Fe, NM area if you would like to see the film when it is shown the first week of December, please visit www.santafefilmfestival.com.

I know the director was nervous that in waiting so long to show the film it would become out of date. But I think the timing is perfect and people are now ready to hear the message of the film.

More and more people are shifting to the consciousness of the importance of working spiritually to create change as has been the focus of the Transmutation News.

In November my husband Woods and I taught our first workshop titled Working in Community to Thrive in Changing Times. And I know many of you were interested in the workshop but could not travel to Santa Fe at this time.

So I wanted to talk about a few of the practices that we shared that you can work with during the winter.

Life is calling for all of us to tap into our divine potential and to experience ourselves as part of the web of life and not separate from it. And it is also time for the global community to stand strong together. The future of our planet depends on this for we are creating the world we live in. And as you have read in my previous writings I feel in every cell of my being that as we gather our energies together as a global community all change is positive. And the more people who work together spiritually the change keeps multiplying on an exponential level. But we must tap into and live in a unified field of oneness. We must move from a “me” model into an “us” model.

The Medicine for the Earth work incorporates the elements of using intention, union, harmony, love, concentration, focus, and imagination to create all possibilities together.

Florence Shinn back in the early to mid 1900’s taught:
“Creation comes through us not to us.”

Krishnamurti, the great East Indian sage wrote:
“There is a drum; it gives out a tone. When the skin is tightly stretched at the right tension, you strike it, and it gives out the right tone, which you may recognize. The drum is empty, in right tension, is as your own mind can be. When there is right attention and you ask the right question, then it gives the right answer. The answer may be in terms of the word, the recognizable, but that which comes out of that emptiness is, surely, creation. The thing that is created out of knowledge is mechanical, but the thing which comes out of emptiness, out of the unknown, that is the state of creation.”

It is so important for us to understand that creation comes out of a place of stillness. And we must find a meditative practice that can bring us into that place.

Winter is such a wonderful and supportive time to go within and find the stillness that reflects back to the you the stillness of the earth from which creation bursts out in the spring.

In the August 2009 Transmutation News I shared with you a way to work with the elements to experience what your soul is calling for. You can use the same exercise to also connect with the elements to find a place of stillness. Here is what I had written in August:

Working with the elements in nature is a great way to move into what indigenous people call “deep listening”. Nature can move us into a trance state where our rational mind quiets down and we can listen to the deep guidance rising from within. This month try working with an element to find the stillness within that creation is born from.

Sitting by running water such as a river, stream, waterfall can help you be transported away from the ordinary allowing your inner wisdom to rise up. Watching the waves in the ocean creates a state of opening so you can listen to the messages of your soul.

Finding a place on the earth where you can look out into the distance can take you away from daily thoughts and allow inner guidance to be heard.

Sitting in the breezes or winds of summer – just listening – allowing your ordinary thoughts to fly away and be replaced by your inner voice can provide guidance for you right now.

Building a campfire in a campground and gazing into the fire is an old way of moving into a deep trance where your own spirit can fill you with guidance needed to create your next steps in life. Or watching the flame of a candle can do the same.

I would also like to suggest that you reread the March 2009 and April 2009 Transmutation News where I wrote about the importance of working with the principles of surrender and letting go.

You can continue to work with an affirmation such as, “I release my life to my spirit/divine will and I ask that the next step be shown to me.”

You can also work with releasing a burden, pain, or block to the divine within.

Over the year we have worked with aligning our thoughts and words with our goals for what we want to experience in our personal life and for the planet. For our thoughts and words are the invisible spiritual energies from within that create the world we live in.

It can be difficult for some of us to keep the practice up of aligning our thoughts and words so that our train of thought leads us to where we want to go. But unless we do this we will not see the changes we are dreaming about. For the dream manifests from our thoughts and words that are within us.

This is where setting an intention and using concentration and focus are essential to maintain the state of consciousness needed.

You might put a pebble in your pocket and throughout the day as you feel the pebble ask yourself, “What am I thinking about right now?” And replace any thoughts that need to be replaced.

Another aspect to work with and focus on is to acknowledge your past hurts, betrayals, and disappointments. Acknowledge what happened in your life and also be willing to let go of the past so it is not burdening you and keeping you from moving forward and creating a new world for yourself and all of life.

I work with this by imagining myself painting over with white paint scenes and conversations that I keep looping over and over again that tie me to my past. As I keep whiting out the scenes and conversations overtime I find they no longer have any energy and no longer keep me tied to the past that didn’t work in my life and frees me to “recraft” new dreams.

And part of this practice is blessing all the people who I felt betrayed me, disappointed me, or I am angry at. This does not mean I rationalize their behavior. It means I recognize that they have been teachers for me and I recognize that they are divine beings playing out a role in my life and the life of the planet. This also means blessing yourself and forgiving yourself when you feel you have not acted correctly with others.

Living a life of honor and respect means blessing what you love and all that you are grateful for. It is also means blessing your challenges for providing the growth and evolution to get you to this point.

To add to this continue to walk around in awe and wonder of all the beauty that life offers you and then you will experience beauty and joy all around you.

These are some practices for you to take into the winter months.

To fully create exponential energy we must connect with the unified field of energy of our global community.

To celebrate the winter solstice on December 21 let’s project onto our global community and to all living beings on the earth perfect health, joy, abundance, harmony, equality, peace, light, and love. For all humans beings project and the world will always project back to our projections.

Replace your negative projections with positive projections for our global community and for all life on earth. Really focus and concentrate on this throughout the day.

Remember that the universe will meet our level of excitement and match that level of excitement. The more as a global community we can feel excitement for the unlimited possibilities we can create together the more the universe partners with us to fuel the power of our dreams.

Make focusing on your positive projections a daily practice as well as experiencing great excitement for all we can create together.

I do want to acknowledge that those of you reading the Transmutation News in the Southern Hemisphere will be celebrating summer. And this is also a great time to put into the practice all I have written about this month.

This month we have two full moons. There is a rare blue moon on December 31 this year. It promises a rare lunar and calendar alignment for the start of this new decade.

For this month we have two opportunities to really join our lights together to continue to feed, nurture, and weave the web of light.

Many of us who practice spiritual work tend to expand out and forget that we must also root our spiritual light into the earth and ourselves. Trees are great teachers of this. For the branches connect with the sky and the roots run deep in the earth. The trunk of the tree bridges the power of the sky and the earth.

As we join our light together on the two full moons December 2 and December 31 let’s really focus on creating deep roots filled with spiritual light within the earth. And let’s connect our roots together. And experience our light going forth into the world through our branches. And walk each day shining forth your own spiritual light like trees. For through our hearts and presence in the world we are the bridge between the earth and the sky.

And let’s continue our monthly healing of projecting divine light into our circle as is written up in Creating A Human Web of Light on the Transmutation News page of this site.

Time seems to be moving so quickly. I find it quite amazing that we are coming to the end of another year. Let us join our hearts together in love to acknowledge, honor, and give great gratitude for those who help to donate time and energy to make the Transmutation News available to readers around the world.

Let’s thank and send the best of wishes to Bob Edgar who is the webmaster of www.shamanicvisions.com and Sylvia Edwards the webmaster of www.sandraingerman.com.

Many blessings to:

Eva Ruprechtsberger for coordinating all our translators.
Waltraud Hofer-Pichler who installed the foreign links.
Lena Anderheim for the translation of The Transmutation News into Swedish.
Nello Ceccon for the translation into Italian.
Ines Fermosa for the translation into Spanish.
Zora Fresnova for the translation into Slovakian.
Annie Idrissi for the translation into French.
Aurel Mocanu for the translation into Romanian.
Claudia Felix Rodrigues for the translation into Portuguese.
Eva Ruprechtsberger for the translation into German.

There is so much work that goes into the translation of so many words. Thank you and may the blessings of your generosity be multiplied many times over to bring peace, love, joy, and abundance into all of your lives.

And many blessings to all of you in our global community who are working in behalf of all of life. We are truly unlimited in all we can accomplish together in love for the planet and for all of life.

I also wanted to announce that my book How to Thrive in Changing Times: Simple Tools to Create True Health, Wealth, Peace, and Joy for Yourself and the Earth will be available January 1. It is published by Weiser and can be ordered at your local bookstore and it is available on www.amazon.com.

Please join me in welcoming the birth of this book into the world which includes all the teachings we are working on together.

The German translation, which will be published by Arkana Books, will be available this winter also.

Blessings for a joyous summer solstice for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere and to a joyous winter solstice to those of you in the Northern Hemisphere.

And next month we will be celebrating the beginning of a new decade with unlimited possibilities for us all!!

Back to Shaman Resources

Transmutation News – November 2009

The announcement that U.S. President Obama won the Nobel Peace Price really shocked many communities. I found his nomination and his recognition to be a symbol of great change.

For the controversy surrounding the award was that he has not done anything yet. He received the award because of his attempts of creating global unity.

And this is all a good sign. For we do have to take action to create a world filled with peace. But in following spiritual teachings from all times the energy behind the actions is what really creates change. As I have written all change that manifests in the physical realms starts first in the spiritual realms.

So Obama’s recognition that came from planting the seeds of a need for unity in the global community shows that there is a collective shift that is beginning that can lead to very important changes. And we can all join this wave of change by continuing to speak about the need for global unity in our communities. For the possibilities of healing that can happen for all of life is unlimited when we gather our energies together.

We are looking at a death of an old way of life and the collective beliefs that have been limiting us in the possibilities of what we can create together. It is important to hold the awareness of the new world that can be born out of the changes ahead.

I know for many it is hard to hold an optimistic attitude right now. But it is important for us to gather our energies together and to truly focus on the unlimited possibilities that can be created by the death of a way of life that no longer supports life, peace, health, and equality for all.

As the old fabric of reality starts to dissolve it is up to us as dreamweavers to hold the vision and keep weaving and reworking a new fabric of reality. This is our destiny at this time on earth.

We are really unlimited in what we can create if we focus our energies together as a global community. I have said this before, and I will keep inspiring you with this understanding again and again. We are dreaming the world into being with each breath, thought we have, word we speak, and with each step we take on this great earth.

Focus, focus, focus on the world you want to live in and leave to our descendants. Concentrate your spiritual work on a good vision and join in with others who are doing the same. As we join in with others we create an exponential power to manifest a healthy planet and web of life into being.

And remember when your focus is on your egoic state of attachment you remain in fear of loss. When you surrender to divine light, Source, oneness and the eternal there is nothing to lose and you can remain in a state of awe, wonder, and appreciation each day.

Barbara in Germany is a wonderful shamanic teacher and practitioner. She wrote me asking that our global community focus our transfiguration work in behalf of the people in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Barbara writes:

There is a “silent catastrophe” going on in Sub-Saharan Africa. 12 Million orphans are struggling to survive under the most horrible conditions. Traumatized by the loss of their parents, stigmatized through the disease of their parents, uneducated because of the lack of a bread-winner, they are without hope, not only for the future, but for today. Sometimes the head of the household is not older than 10 years having to see to smaller sisters and brothers. Their situation is exploited relentlessly everywhere. They have no voice and so their silent scream for a decent life goes unheard.

How about raising our chants at the transfiguration ceremony at the next full moon for them, holding them in their divine light with a bright future ahead? I know, there are other AIDS orphans on the planet, but none are so shamelessly left on their own.
For more information: http://www.avert.org/aids-hiv-charity-avert.htm, then click on Statistics – then on African HIV&AIDS Statistics, then on Sub-Saharan Africa. You will find all the information there.

The full moon is November 2. Let us gather our spiritual energies together by transfiguring into the divine light of oneness and Source and perceive these children in their divine perfection. And let us continue our work by perceiving all life in its divine perfection too. In this way we continue to weave a brilliant and perfect web of light throughout the earth.

And let’s continue to transfigure and do our work to strengthen the health of our global community.

The instructions for our monthly full moon ceremonies are written on the Transmutation News page of this site under Creating A Human Web of Light.

Back to Shaman Resources

Transmutation News – October 2009

In September I taught a wonderful Five Day Soul Retrieval Training. The group was filled with fascinating people and over the five days I had some very interesting conversations.

We were at the workshop during 09/09/09 and of course there were many conversations around prophecies. I think that as a culture we are still living in the belief that a date can create a change rather than looking at a continuum and observing what is happening over time. For when we look at changes on the planet we are now being shown what energies are being created that will manifest as changes in the physical world.

There seem to be more people moving into a divisive and angry mode which will continue to support states of separation. The root of this of course is fear. And at the same time we are seeing more and more people exploring how to raise consciousness and what that really means and this is creating states of unity and light.

When the tragedy of September 11 occurred I wrote on the Transmutation News that we could learn much from the fundamentalist forces who were acting out of hate. We could learn what can be created if a group of people really focuses together on one goal.

And I know in every cell of my being and in my bones if the global spiritual community would focus on a vision of a world filled with peace, love, light, harmony, and abundance for all we would see more evidence of our ability to create positive change.

But the egoic states of separation still run so deep in many in the spiritual community. As long as we continue to compete and judge the spiritual work of others our focus and intention to create positive change is greatly watered down.

I do feel that part of our vital work is to educate people that spiritual divisiveness will not bring us to our greater goal of being in service to humanity, all of life, and the planet. And I do encourage all of you to bring awareness of this into conversations where the theme of a conversation is that one spiritual teacher’s work or teachings is better or more powerful than another. We all must work together to create change or the bottom line is that the states of separation creating hate and violence will continue. We must change the momentum of how people think in hierarchical and authoritarian terms to cooperation, collaboration, and support.

Different spiritual teachings draw different people by the practices shared and also the vocabulary that goes with different systems. But the basis of all spiritual teachings embrace love and unity. For when we enter spiritual realms we leave the world of duality behind and enter into the knowledge of one source, one light, and unconditional love.

And of course the focus of our work together has been in striving to live the spiritual teachings of honor, respect, recognizing the divine light in all, and moving out of limiting belief systems.

I was talking to a woman who felt so deeply committed to being a light in the world and at the same time felt challenged of how to do this as her life was filled with such stress

If we look at the changes that are happening on the planet we can all see how important it is to live the work we are practicing. I think by now it is obvious that a new reality will not be created without doing that. There will not be a “magical” moment where one day we wake up living in a world where we shine and live in love.

This world can and will be created by the minute to minute changes we create in our lives. We can choose to react to what is happening or we can choose to reach deep within to the spirit and source that is within and make choices of how to respond with more consciousness, respect, and compassion.

There once was a time where spiritual masters could separate themselves from the daily tasks and issues that one faced in their ordinary lives. And their students looked to them for answers and healing. Now we all must be those spiritual masters who consciously walk the earth bringing blessings to all with each step we take on the earth and with each breath.

I still believe in the old adage “slow and steady wins the race”. We must have patience with ourselves as we tap into our inherent spiritual mastery which is the birthright of each and every one of us. Everyday that we can bring more love and light into the world and the collective by shifting our thoughts and our interactions with others brings us closer to our goals.

And part of our daily focus must continue to be to engage in our creation work while at the same time letting go of expectations and surrendering to the infinite wisdom of spirit of what is needed for our highest potential.

I know I have written all of this before and at the same time I felt that this is a good time to review so that we can reset our intention of who we want to be in the world and what we want to contribute at this time. We are constantly having many new readers of the Transmutation News and I think it is helpful to take some time to review and set our intention together.

Sit with what I have written above and allow yourself to reflect on how your daily life is going and how much you allow yourself to embrace and live the teaching that it is who we become that changes the world.

Reset your intention with your creation work. Remember you must have an initial intention for the brain interprets intention as an action has taken place.

Continue to work on the vision of the planet you wish to live in and the planet you wish to pass on to future generations. Engage all of your senses by seeing all the visuals of what your creation would look like. See what the earth would look like, the smiles on peoples faces, what the climate would be, etc. Listen to the sounds – the sounds in nature, laughter, the sound of the gentle breezes, etc. Feel what it would be like to walk in a world filled with beauty, love, peace, and joy. Touch things as you walk and feel the actual physical sensations. Smell the fragrance of clean air and the flowers, plants, and trees. Taste the tastes of clean air, water, clean and healthy food.

Other key elements are experiencing your creation as if it were already here now otherwise you are always putting it in the future instead of the present. Feel passion for your vision as passion is the fuel for all successful creation work. And don’t experience your vision as if you are watching TV or a movie. Step into the picture and actually engage in living your creation.

And we must continue to look at our limiting thoughts and beliefs about what is possible. For all things are possible if we can expand our minds to embrace the vision of a world filled with peace, love, light, joy, and abundance for all.

Look at how much was created by structures who planted seeds of fear. Look at the garden that grew out of fear and the desire to fight for power. Imagine a garden planted with the seeds of love, hope, joy, and inspiration. We can replant our garden we just have to make the choice to do so!

The full moon is October 4. Let us continue to be a source of light filling the web of life and light with love! And let us continue to support our global community with our monthly healing ceremony as is written on Creating A Human Web of Light on the Transmutation News page.

I ask that as a global community we participate in working on the project described below by Marty Rutherford. We can work together by transfiguring and experiencing the water in the area in its divine perfection and divine light.

The Kumpi Mayu Foundation is an organization of people dedicated to transmuting the world’s water so that it is healthy for all. Currently we are working with a small village in Peru near Cusco called La Comunidad Huayllarqocha (this is Quechua for The Community that is a sacred place of peace, joy and harmony). The water contains a level of arsenic that is four times higher than what the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers highly contaminated.

Every day this community of four hundred people uses the water for drinking and for farming. This means that each person and each animal is being contaminated daily in multiple ways. The regular consumption of arsenic produces increased incidents of Cancer, a variety of breathing disorders and blood circulation difficulties. Engineers Without Borders has graciously agreed to work with this community to co-create a clean water system in the village. But anyone reading these words knows that more is needed. We ask that you include us in your prayers to transmute this water so that it is clean and pure allowing for each member of this community to live a healthy life. Should you want more information about this project, or to help in any way please e-mail Marty Rutherford at martyrutherford@gmail.com. We are in abundant gratitude for you help.

Back to Shaman Resources

Transmutation News – September 2009

I don’t watch sports on TV, but people who know me filled me in on the British Open, which is a golf tournament. Apparently during this last British Open in July a man by the name of Tom Watson had the possibility of creating history. If he won the tournament he would be the oldest man to have won the British Open.

The first day of the British Open Tom Watson was playing an extraordinary game and was in the lead. He said that he felt like the spirits were with him. This is not a phrase that is usually spoken openly by professional athletes.

By the second day he was still in the lead and again he said that he felt a spiritual force with him.

And at the end he lost the tournament by one putt. For those of you who don’t know anything about golf losing by one putt in itself is an extraordinary event.

The reason I bring this up is that I am sure the spirits were with Tom Watson. But that does not mean he was supposed to win that tournament. And even with his loss he did continue to say that the game he played was a spiritual experience.

I felt that this was a great metaphor for life. For we all have the spirits around us. And when we do a lot of spiritual work we often think that the end result will be some external “win”. But truly life is a spiritual experience and it is the expectations of what we are supposed to gain versus the spiritual lessons gained that can decide whether we live a life of peace and joy or frustration and disappointment.

To follow on the theme I wrote about in the August Transmutation News it is our soul that knows what valuable lessons and opportunities for growth sculpt us into the beings we are evolving into as we move forward on the journey of life.

It is when we can let go of expectations that we can evolve and grow without all the disappointments with gauging our success on external results. And as I keep repeating letting go of expectations has to be balanced with continuing working on creating what you do want. The letting go of expectations has to do with releasing to your own soul the decision of how a successful result will manifest.

Some friends were recently telling me about meeting the 88-year-old mother of a friend. They kept repeating how beautiful she was. I asked was it her physical beauty they were referring to.

They explained that she had been a devout student of a spiritual tradition that teaches the divine lives within each of us. And she has engaged in daily spiritual practices that this tradition taught for most of her adult life to a point that she lived the work. My friends remarked that the beauty she exudes is the incredible light and joy that shines through her.

You can imagine in all of her years of spiritual practice she probably had disappointments to work through. But this woman, like thousands of others who have stayed true to their spiritual work, are role models of the light and joy that is experienced within and without by staying focused on the work.

September 22 marks my absolutely favorite time of year – the fall equinox. In the past I have encouraged you to do a variety of practices of letting go of issues that no longer serve you. This time of year is a great time to let drop from you what is no longer needed to return to the earth to be composted creating new life. For with all types of death – the little deaths we experience through life as well as physical death – something new is reborn from what dies. The cycle of life and death is one unbroken circle.

This fall equinox I suggest you take some time to perform a short ceremony to release your expectations. Really look at your expectations that might actually be holding you back from peace and joy. It might be that you have been engaged in spiritual practices for a long time and you thought by now these practices would have brought you more success, better health, a great relationship, etc. Or you might be disappointed in the expectations of the level of peace and environmental health that exists on the planet.

We all do our spiritual work with the spark of hope that our wishes will manifest. And the key is to stay true to your intention and do the spiritual work. Don’t lose sight of your goals and desires while at the same time releasing them into the wisdom of your soul and the soul of the world.

On the fall equinox you can do this work alone or in a group. Create some kind of short ceremony that can help you feel as if you are releasing back to the universe your expectations. Feel what it feels like to do this. Does it feel freeing? Do you feel resistance to letting go of your desires? Do you feel a sense of safety knowing that your own soul and the soul of the world is working to give you greater gifts than you can imagine? Does this raise a feeling of fear or excitement?

I find for some of us letting go of expectations feels like giving up. But what if it is giving up to something better? What if we hold an intention of what we want to experience while at the same time we trust that the way our desires and intentions manifest is greater than what we allowed ourselves to imagine?

The key is don’t let go of your intentions and focus. But sometimes we have to let go of the outcome. Try working with this in the time of fall where the plants and trees are giving back to the earth the old so that the new can be born.

And for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere we wish you a joyous season as you celebrate all the new birth that life is creating for the beauty of the world. As I have said the circle of life and death is unbroken. As some of the world experiences the death of the old the Southern Hemisphere is celebrating the joy of new growth.

The full moon is September 4. Let us continue to experience the beauty of our divine light and as a global community allow our shining lights to weave together a brilliant fabric of love and light encompassing and holding the entire planet in love and beauty.

And let’s continue our monthly healing work in behalf of each other as is written in the instructions of Creating A Human Web of Light on the Transmutation News page of this site.

I wish you all a joyous fall and spring as we celebrate the power of the changes in nature and in our own lives as well!!

Back to Shaman Resources

Transmutation News – August 2009

In practicing the Medicine for the Earth principles it is important for us to keep following where the flow of the river of life is taking us.

I continue to receive correspondence from practitioners from all spiritual traditions. So many of us are experiencing different life circumstances that are drawing us within and away from focusing on the outer world.

And at the same time I continue to get correspondence from people who have been withdrawn from the outer world for years and are ready to come out and do some type of service whether it be teaching, volunteer work, healing work with clients, etc.

We are all being asked to follow the flow that life is guiding us to. Where I find the problems occurring is when people refuse to listen to the signs that are being given. For those who need to go within for awhile and don’t heed the signs around them a disaster can force one to withdraw from the outer world.

And I have also seen people forced to find a way to work more in the outer world when they have gotten too attached to “being a hermit”.

There is so much we must attend to in our spiritual evolution during such a time of great change. I am sure you can see that changes keep increasing and getting more dramatic. And it is so important to follow your inner wisdom and guidance right now. It is essential in order to thrive to watch omens, trust your deep inner feelings, keep listening to the inner messages you are getting.

And if you are guided to go within, go within before you are forced to follow the deep calling of your soul. And if you are being guided to do more in the outer world then do that. We each need to align ourselves with the flow of where life is bringing us. Basically we each need to respond to where our soul is guiding us to.

Working with the elements in nature is a great way to move into what indigenous people call “deep listening”. Nature can move us into a trance state where our rational mind quiets down and we can listen to the deep guidance rising from within.

Sitting by running water such as a river, stream, waterfall can help you be transported away from the ordinary allowing your inner wisdom to rise up. Watching the waves in the ocean creates a state of opening so you can listen to the messages of your soul.

Finding a place on the earth where you can look out into the distance can take you away from daily thoughts and allow inner guidance to be heard.

Sitting in the breezes or winds of summer – just listening – allowing your ordinary thoughts to fly away and be replaced by your inner voice can provide guidance for you right now.

Building a campfire in a campground and gazing into the fire is an old way of moving into a deep trance where your own spirit can fill you with guidance needed to create your next steps in life. Or watching the flame of a candle can do the same.

This month use the elements of nature to move you into a place of “deep listening” where you can receive the inner guidance containing the messages of what you need to do and how you need to take care of yourself during these times.

As you know I love to write. I am on the final edits of two new books which will be published in January and March of 2010. And I have already published 6 other books. Writing is a way for me to tap into my inner guidance and deep inner wisdom. And it is a way for me to follow my passion by sharing with a global community what I learn from my own intuition as well as from the guidance of my helping spirits.

Many writers talk about having writer’s block. And there were times in my life where I felt plagued by writer’s block. Early on in my writing career I started to realize that there is no such thing as writer’s block.

For when there are no words coming that is when there is a deep inner process of gestation happening. And I have come to realize that this is the most important part of writing. The gestation process, the deep silence, when nothing seems to be happening is when the most important ideas are being prepared to be birthed.

So over the years I learned to trust the place where it seemed like nothing was happening and there was nothing to say. For I knew that some deep process was going on inside me that would eventually be birthed. And so I stopped suffering when no words were coming. Rather I just gave in and realized that as soon as the process would be complete I would feel the rising of an energy that would bring me to my computer and then the flow into the outer would begin.

I think this is true not just for writing but all we birth into the world. For there is a process to all birthing that requires a gestation process. And I meet and hear from so many people who get frustrated when they feel that they are blocked from their creativity or from moving forward in life.

I think it is important to set your intention of wanting to receive guidance on the next steps to take in your life. And then to trust the inner gestation process that occurs where new ideas will be born from. You cannot rush the process.

For some the timing is such that a flow of wisdom and information will flow. And for some of you the process is slower and it simply has to do with timing.

Over the years I have seen many clients who were given a life threatening diagnosis by their doctor. Often a client would come to me asking if I do shamanic healing work on their behalf will they live or die?

My response to this question is that our egoic and rational mind does not always know what the next step in our healing journey is. For some it is life and for some it is death. Only our own soul knows what the next step is.

I share with clients that the shamanic work will strengthen their soul to make the decision for the next step of their process. This is also true in all transitions that life presents us with. It is really our own soul that knows what the next step is.

We are all being guided right now as we are being asked to change within and also in how we live our lives so that balance and harmony can return to the planet.

In the past I have written that the earth is giving us a wake up call. Well our own souls are asking for us to wake up now too.

Find ways to practice “deep listening”. Learn to trust your own spirit that what you need to know will be revealed to you in the right timing as long as you follow the flow of where you life is taking you.

The full moon is August 6. Let’s continue to gather our divine light together and weave a brilliant web of light within and throughout the earth.

And let’s continue our transfiguration work to support our global community.

If you are a new reader of The Transmutation News we welcome you. And the instructions for Creating a Human Web of Light and for our monthly healing work are on the Transmutation News page of this site.

Back to Shaman Resources

Transmutation News – July 2009

Father Thomas Berry died in June at the age of 94. He was considered a leading ecological thinker and wrote a wonderful book titled The Dream of the Earth.

Throughout his life he conducted an ongoing study of the ecological nature of Earth, the way everything affects everything else. He realized then that human beings are part of a larger natural order.

“The catastrophe of our time is the loss of any real human connection to the natural world,” he told a reporter in 2005.

“Trees, birds – all living things – have rights”, he wrote. They require that people treat the natural world not as an object, but as a living being. “If nothing has rights but humans, then everything else becomes a victim,” Berry said.

As a global community we have been working together to honor “the spirit that lives in all things”. And we have been honoring our connection to nature and recognize everything in nature as alive.

It is so important to continue practices to maintain our connection and to honor nature. And we must get to a point where this goes beyond performing practices to just being a way of our minute to minute life.

This month let’s incorporate into our daily practice sending love to the natural world.

Find a spot on the earth where you can send loving thoughts that spread throughout the entire earth. Blow your love into the air which circulates throughout all the airwaves. When you drink some water give thanks to all the waters of the world. And when you go outside give thanks to the sun for all the life it gives. These living beings help us to thrive and not just survive. As we continue to thank the elements which are alive we bring harmony and balance back into the environment.

Continue this work by honoring the trees, plants, the birds, animals, reptiles, fish, insects, rocks, etc. These beings are part of our global community and when we give them respect we honor the web of life.

Each day I take a short walk in nature. And I know all the trees where I walk. I am a real tree lover and spend time relating to the trees I meet along the way.

There is one tree I visit with each day. As I touch the trunk of the tree I ask the tree to send a message of love to all the trees on the planet.

All beings are connected and when you send love to one you send love to all. As we connect to nature with love on a daily basis we receive the gift of love in return. This should not feel like work but rather a way of being in the world. Just as you breathe in and out air you can also send loving thoughts to the spirit that lives in all things.

The changes that keep happening on the planet are intensifying all over the world. These changes are happening on all levels – the weather we are experiencing, economical changes, political and religious unrest. We are seeing increasing health challenges that are impacting all of life.

As we are being asked to wake up and evolve there are different reactions to wanting to keep the old versus moving forward to the new. And this is being reflected in many different planetary events.

It is important to keep observing how we are reacting to situations in our local communities and in our world community. We must continue to do the inner work to transmute our negative states of consciousness so that we are beings of light and we are being conscious changemakers.

As we approach 2012 there are a variety of predictions that we can be exposed to. I know when I celebrated my 40th birthday I was shown a vision for the future. I am 56 years old now and keep being shown the same vision.

There is a part of me that would love to write about this vision. But everytime I start to do this a voice inside of me says “no”. For my own guiding spirits keep telling me the future is created by what we are doing in the present.

And as we read or hear about prophecies for the future this can actually be a distraction from our present. It is so important to stay in the present and keep up your transfiguration work and also your creation work as I wrote about in Medicine for the Earth. We must use all of our senses of seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting to create the world we want to live in now. We must bring all our work into the present and that is how we impact our future.

It is easy to get distracted by all that is going on personally and globally. It is important to contain your energy and not scatter it. Last year I suggested doing a meditation or a journey to merge with a star in the night sky. The purpose of this was to really experience how solid a star is and how it shines from within. It does not shine from the surface but rather from its depths. And by doing this the light of a star reaches many millions of miles in sharing its light.

We also want to make sure that the light we share emanates from a solid core from within. Take some time to repeat this meditation or journey to merge with a star. If you have not done this before it is a wonderful and powerful experience. Just set your intention to merge with a star in the night sky.

This experience will bring us back to a center of strength and light that cannot be damaged or depleted and that has the power to light up the world.

During this wonderful month of July go outside and find a park or place in nature where you can lie on the earth. Connect with the earth and feel yourself becoming one with the heartbeat of the earth. And dream the world you want to live in creating a world of balance, harmony, peace, love, light, and abundance for all of life.

The full moon is July 7. Let’s together share our light and breathe love into the web of light that we continue to weave. And let’s share our light with all in the global community who need some healing help. For those of you new to our monthly ceremonies please read the instructions in Creating a Human Web of Light on the Transmutation News page of this site.

Together we can create a healthy and loving environment for all of life. Our earth garden needs some work. Let’s commit to gardening our earth garden together. We all have gifts we bring to the work. Allow yourself to feel empowered by the knowledge that you do have skills that you came here to share at this time. Do your work and as each of us works in the way we are guided we do become master gardeners of our great earth garden.

Back to Shaman Resources

Transmutation News – June 2009

It is so easy to allow ourselves to be swept away by too much work and staying too busy. It is important as time keeps speeding up to continue to set priorities and make sure you have time to relax and experience the joys of life. If we are truly saying that we want to be conscious changemakers we must be able to live a life where our spiritual work and a spiritual way of living is a priority. This means taking care of ourselves on all levels and finding time to honor earth, air, water, fire (the sun) for all that we are given so that we might thrive.

Throughout time it has been the role of the shaman and spiritual healers to help to keep harmony between humankind and the forces of the nature. And today it is essential that we all step into that role. And finding time to honor nature and the spirit that lives in all things is what brings harmony and balance back to the planet.

Honoring the forces of nature is as simple as taking a moment while walking to and from any activity or stopping what you are doing for a few minutes throughout the day to give gratitude. We tend to make our spiritual work more complex than it needs to be. To truly do “our work” for ourselves, all of life, and the planet we want to find simple ways to weave our practice of experiencing ourselves and all of life as divine light and expressing gratitude throughout out our daily activities. And the more you can weave spiritual prayers and blessings into your daily life the more you become “the work”. For we must live our spiritual work for it to truly make a difference.

I know some of us are challenged feeling that there is no time for ourselves. Time is an interesting illusion. Time tends to make us feel as if we are a slave to it. And we must free ourselves from feeling so stressed by time.

Over the years I have had a very interesting experience in teaching my workshops. Sometimes I realize that I have let a discussion go on for too long and that I might not have time to finish my teaching. Some of my workshops are non-residential and participants count on me to finish on time so they can meet other obligations especially on the last day when people have to get to the airport to catch an airplane flight.

I have found that when I don’t have enough time to finish my teaching I actually slow down my speaking. Whenever I do this I find that time actually slows down with me and I finish my lecture with time to spare.

Right now I am experiencing a huge surge in my workload. My rational mind says there are not enough hours in the day to finish all my tasks. So what I have been doing is slowing down how I do everything and time is also slowing down with me. I take long deep breaths and just slow down.

This is an interesting exercise you might try this month if you find yourself feeling stressed by a lack of time in your life. Do everything you have to do but take some deep breaths and actually move and speak slowly. Watch what happens.

As we move into summer we want to reflect on what we need to live in harmony as a new season greets us. A wonderful way we have been doing this over the years is to merge with the earth where you live and experience the movement and qualities of the earth. If you have never done a merging meditation or journey take a look at my book Medicine for the Earth. The instructions for how to do this are in there. Merging meditations and journeys are a potent way to learn about the elements by becoming an element. And I have found it to be helpful to merge with the earth at the beginning of each season to learn about the change in energies of the earth during the change in seasons. It helps me to gauge what is happening to my own body, as I am earth.

I also find on an emotional level we all have different needs during different seasons. I know many people feel like they want to be out more and more social during summer. And many people like myself feel a need to be alone and quiet during the summer months. The more you can track and follow what you emotionally need during the change in seasons and the changes in the cycles of the moon the more you will find yourself flowing along with the river of life. Flowing against the river of life causes stress which causes illness. Flowing with the river of life creates harmony and true health.

This month take some time to be still and listen to what your own soul is calling for as we move into summer.

A spiritual practice to try is to hold the intention of adjusting your vibration and energy to the divine light of the earth. I do this when I wake up and when I go to sleep at night. And this is a way for me to create harmony in my body during the change in seasons.

June 19 is the summer solstice. It is also father’s day. This is a great time to honor the sun for all the unconditional energy for life the sun provides for us without asking for anything in return.

A few months ago Ann Drake sent me a letter asking me to let people know about a ceremony she is hoping we will join in for the oceans of the world. Although Ann is actually asking us to go to the ocean for this ceremony we can participate through a meditation or through a journey. I live in the desert and cannot physically travel to the ocean at this time. But I can take some time in meditation to close my eyes and experience my own “free soul” which is the spiritual aspect of myself being at the ocean. In this way wherever we live in the world we can join together to be part of the ceremony.

Here is what Ann wrote:

“Last summer I went on a whale watch on which we were visited by many incredible whales. The marine biologist poignantly spoke of the rapid rise of toxins in the ocean and the threat to marine life as a result. She painfully told of a beached whale in Puget Sound that was so full of toxins that the whale had to be buried in a toxic waste dump. This tale re-enforced the need to not only work politically but also in spirit to reverse this trend.

A circle of women in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the oldest seaport in America, are proposing that as many people as possible line the coasts on both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific on the Summer Solstice to drum, journey, and pray for the transmutation of toxins in the oceans and in marine life. The goal is for each of us to journey to part of the ocean where we ask our guides to send divine healing light, then hold the intention of transmutation as we watch as the toxins are absorbed into the light, shifting the vibration from that which harms to that which heals. As we gather in small and large circles throughout the day, a miraculous shift in the vibration and health of the ocean can occur.

Please join us on Sunday June 21 as we gather to heal the ocean.”

For more information on plans for the day visit www.anndrakesoulwork.com or contact Ann Drake at anndrake1@gmail.com

Ann sent this out to the shamanic community that she is involved in. For those of us involved with the Medicine for the Earth work we have an opportunity to work in partnership with the helping spirits by transfiguring into our divine light and perceiving the ocean and all marine life as pure divine light.

Life began in the ocean and in that sense we all come from the ocean. To add to the ceremony that Ann is suggesting you might want to do a meditation or journey to the ocean and ask if she has a message for you at this point in time.

One of the many joys of summer is watching the bloom of the plant world and the birth of babies in the animal world. Let’s pay intention to our “seed thoughts” and “seed words” that continue to bloom and birth in our lives.

Please keep up your creation work and use all your senses to experience a world filled with love, harmony, peace, light, and abundance for all.

Our global community of Medicine for the Earth practitioners and readers of the Transmutation News includes many who live in Australia and New Zealand. And you are celebrating the winter solstice and the deep stillness of the earth while others in the world in the experience the bloom of life.

The full moon is June 7. Let’s gather our spiritual energies together as a strong global community to continue the weaving of a brilliant web of life within and throughout the earth.

Life is bringing many in our community challenges as we are faced with looking at making changes in our lives that support living a life of harmony. In this regard many of us are going through initiation experiences that create the little deaths needed to grow and evolve. These little deaths require us to let go of what keeps us from a state of true health. They can seem quite painful when we are going through them but in truth we are being sculpted into spiritual beings. We are constantly asked to let go of whatever part of our lives keep us from living a light filled with light, joy, balance, harmony, peace, and love.

As we grow and evolve and go through our “growing pains” we can feel ourselves being held in love by our global community. On June 7 us keep up the transfiguration work for our circle as is written about under “Creating A Human Web of Light” on the Transmutation News page of this site.

Back to Shaman Resources

Transmutation News – May 2009

Physicist Mark Comings writes:

“We are Piezo-electric crystals full of living light. We can live in-phase and in harmony. We have unlimited access to an unlimited field of consciousness. We just need a deeper understanding of light, a deeper understanding of ourselves. There is more to light than meets the eye.”

I met Mark Comings years ago when I was presenting Medicine for the Earth at a conference. We spoke together for a couple of hours on the void and creation. He was adamant in our discussion that from a physics point of view scarcity is a man made concept. I spoke to him about teaching people how to create from the void and he calls the void the quantum plenum.

Recently a friend of mine sent me the quote above. And I found it perfect for the work we are doing together. For as we move forward in our evolution of consciousness we must keep exploring the light that we are. So for this month through your meditation work, your shamanic journeys, during your walks throughout the day continue your exploration of what it means to be a being of light.

For as we can experience ourselves as light we can be more of a harmonious presence in the world. And this of course is beyond understanding. For understanding concepts does not create real change. Having a cellular experience of light creates change.

Here is an interesting exercise to try this month. Take some time and lie down and put on some relaxing yet expansive music. Take some deep breaths and allow yourself to go within. Imagine a situation in your life that is full of chaos. Or you can imagine a chaotic situation in the world. And as you imagine the chaotic energy I want you to transfigure into your divine light. As you experience your light notice what happens to the chaos around you. Notice how you yourself can detach from the chaos and maintain your center and sense of well-being. Notice how the chaos around you starts to dissolve.

As you experience how light has a positive influence in the world it will help you to see the importance of keeping up your spiritual work. You do impact the world by your state of being. And we must continue on our journey to learn how to hold a state of light throughout the day.

The spiritual work we are engaged in has many initiation processes not that different than any activity that has a learning curve associated with it. We make great progress and incorporate new ways of being into our life. And then we reach a new doorway that requires a deepening of our skill set to move through it.

In this regard as you continue incorporating spiritual practices into your life you will find yourself having some real grace periods where you feel like you are living one big “aha” experience. And then you might find your mood changing into dissatisfaction and wondering what is the meaning of it all. This is normal. The key is to appreciate all the work you are doing and to honor each stage of change and transition you are in.

Keep digging deeper within yourself and find the tools that allow you to walk through the narrow doorways of limitation into wider doorways of expansion. In engaging in spiritual work we keep moving beyond the superficial to a searching for deeper meaning. And there are numerous territories we must walk through along the way.

Change is really accelerating right now. The planet is moving and shaking with volcanoes and more earthquakes. We are having earthquakes in our lives where we are being asked to let go of the known and move into the unknown. In this process there will be moments of great excitement and also moments of great despair. The key is to honor where you are at and not get attached to the excitement and not resist the despair. Just keep using the tools we have been working with to keep moving forward.

We are part of nature. And this is a teaching that we all know very well. But when you look at the human race people act as if they are separate. And this is causing the disharmony on every level of existence right now. It is essential that we as a global community reach out and teach the importance of connecting back to the earth.

Last month I wrote a column for the Society for Shamanic Practitioners newsletter. It has to do with reaching out to people in our communities. I thought I would share what I wrote here:

As people continue to be challenged by economic issues and environmental disasters we are seeing people coming together as strong communities to help each other. It is too bad that it has taken tragedy to move people out of a self-centered life style back to caring about what happens to one’s neighbors. But we are finally seeing a transition to a life of helping others.

As shamanic practitioners we know the incredible power of working in community for healing. For over and over again we see an exponential change in results when a group of practitioners focus on healing versus one practitioner working alone.

There are so many ways of being in service to one’s community. We are in service when we share our resources and donate money, food, clothes, etc. We are in service when we do our spiritual work to help our local community and also our greater global community.

And I do believe that working together in community is not a temporary change but an evolution to living in a more cooperative way of life.

Another way of being in service to our communities is by sharing and educating people to the tools that can help during challenging times. We all know how much shamanism has helped our clients, our students, and us. It is time to share on a broader level the gifts of this work.

Of course not everyone is ready for shamanic journeying, as the belief in helping spirits is not a principle mass consciousness is ready to embrace. And many of us reading this newsletter have found ways to use guided visualizations to help people get in touch with helping spirits without using a lot of language that comes from shamanism.

There are many other practices that are core to shamanism that we can share. To me one of the greatest shamanic practices we can share is teaching people to be grateful to earth, air, water, and the sun for the life these elements bring to us. We are all aware of how gratefulness is a core teaching of all indigenous cultures. To be grateful for the beauty of the earth and all the living beings who live on it is a powerful form of global healing.

I truly believe that if we can just teach people about the power of honoring and respecting the elements and all of life there would be an exponential change in personal and planetary healing. The greatest shamanic teaching we can share is remembering how precious life is.

And when you speak to your community if it is not appropriate to use the word “shamanism” then don’t. You can still frame the teachings into ancient spiritual practices. The teachings have been around for thousands of years and it is part of your shamanic education to find the vocabulary that translates into different communities you are part of.

A few years ago there was a terrible drought in Santa Fe. I love to read the letters to the editor in the newspaper. Everyday there were letters that were filled with people asking for rain dances, complaining bitterly about misuse of water, etc. I finally felt compelled to write about the principle that finding harmony within will create harmony without. And I wrote how yes we do need to be conscious about how we use water but we also have to change our inner state of consciousness to see long term healing. I wrote about a powerful shamanic principle and shared a teaching that I know some of the people reading the letter were impacted by. Our role is to educate and let those who ready for the information absorb it and work with it in a way they are called to.

Write an article for a local newspaper or schedule a talk at a local bookstore. It is time for all of us “to come out of the closet” and share the deep and healing wisdom of the ancients so that we can become conscious changemakers on the planet.

May 9 is the full moon. Let us celebrate the preciousness of life together and transfigure into our divine light as we continue to strengthen the web of light that connects us all.

And let’s continue to work in behalf of our global community as we transfigure for those in need as is written on the homepage of this site under “Creating A Human Web of Light.”

Back to Shaman Resources

Transmutation News – April 2009

The core principle of the Medicine for the Earth work is that it is who you become that changes the world and not what you do. This means we must live the work and over the years we have been exploring different aspects of this principle.

Last month I wrote about the need to surrender to our inner divine spirit that knows the bigger picture and has more wisdom about what we need than our egos do.

This month I am writing about letting go. This is just another aspect of surrender.

Here is the example my helping spirits gave me when I journeyed on this month’s Transmutation News. Part of the Medicine for the Earth work is learning how to live life filled with joy. And when we live life filled with joy, the energy of joy exudes naturally from us as water springs forth from a deep well.

Many of us attach the experience of joy to outer events rather than allow joy to flow through us. When we attach our joy or any feeling such as love to outer events we become dependent on what is happening outside of us in determining how we feel on a particular day.

And the truth of the matter is that when we do this all good feelings of joy, love, wonder, harmony will be fleeting as conditions of life change moment to moment. Safety and security fall into this principle also. For as our outer world changes one minute you feel safe and one minute you do not. One day you might feel secure in your job and then the economy changes and your outer job security might now be at risk.

As the world continues to change, transition, and evolve we are being asked to continue our deep inner exploration and find joy, love, safety, security, etc. that permanently lives inside of us and is not dependent on changing outer conditions.

Sounds good – doesn’t it – but not always so easy to do. I don’t have “a recipe” to do this but I can tell you that setting an intention is key and also surrendering to spirit is important.

My spirits shared with me the importance of staying with the minute to minute experiences that tap us into our inner well of joy, love, safety, and security. Take a walk and just experience the beauty of the planet – independent of what is happening environmentally. No matter what is happening the planet is still filled with great beauty. Experience the simple joys of life that are not dependent on what is happening in your life.

We can see the laughter and the brilliance of light in the eyes of indigenous people who might be living in extreme poverty with nothing tangible that we might associate with happiness. That joy, laughter, light is coming from the depth of an inner well. It is a joy for life itself with no conditions.

Sit with this principle, meditate on it, journey on it, take walks holding your questions and experience if you can begin to find some doorway in to the inner core of your being that experiences safety, security, joy, and love independent of what life brings to you.

This is going to be key in the coming times in order to live the work. For life will continue to bring such great changes to help to bring us back to harmony again. And it is the inner core of our being that stays centered and harmonious in the midst of change.

After I wrote the above I went out for a walk in nature. As I was walking I received a message to add to what I have written here, a reminder I have given you many times over the years.

There is a delicate dance between creation/manifestation work with your egoic desires, your helping spirits, and your own divinity. The divine and your helping spirits see everything that happens in life in a neutral way and as a learning/growth/evolutionary experience. There is no judgement about a life experience being good or bad. Illness, being homeless, being out of job is all a growth experience.

Therefore it is important to state your desires and not put all choices in the hands of spiritual forces. And then you can work in cooperation and collaboration with the spiritual world while at the same time surrendering to a larger picture beyond your comprehension. But it is important to note that the spirits expect you to make choices and state your desires as part of your life journey this time around. The dance is around getting clear on what you want and at the same time letting go to the highest manifestation of your desires.

The universe is giving us what triggers us to teach us how to ride the waves and stay centered. Staying present in the moment, observing your thoughts and feelings, and staying non judgmental helps you to ride all the waves from a centered and stable place.

Pain is inevitable but your suffering is controllable by your response to what is happening around you.

Allow your huge emotions to come up. If you judge them or analyze them, or try to repress or get rid of them you can’t stay centered. As you work with using the power of words, decrees, affirmations feel them in your heart so your unconscious can grab onto them which works with the conscious mind to bring into manifestation your heart’s desires.

Everyday hold in your heart what you love. Place your hands on your heart and really experience deep love for someone, something in nature, the planet. Keep doing this throughout the day. This starts to shift your energy and thoughts from feeding what isn’t working to what you love with the energy needed to hold, heal, and support that which is sacred in your life and on the planet right now.

Find a small rock or pebble that you can keep in your pocket. As you feel this rock or pebble ask yourself, “What am I thinking and doing right now that leads me to where I desire to be?” Stop throughout the day and ask yourself “What am I thinking, feeling, and what energy am I feeding right now?”

The full moon is April 9. Let’s continue to weave a brilliant worldwide web of light bringing love and healing through our willingness to shine.

And on April 9 we also continue our monthly transfiguration practice in behalf of our global community as is included on the Transmutation Page under “Creating A Human Web of Light”.

I wanted to let you know that How to Heal Toxic Thoughts is now available in Spanish. Planeta in Mexico has published Liberate de pensamientos toxicos: Herramientas sencillas para tu transformacion personal.

Sylvia Edwards is the webmaster of www.sandraingerman.com and www.shamanicteachers.com. She is a brilliant shamanic practitioner and teacher. For the past couple of years Sylvia has been working in collaboration with spirit to bring forth a new healing modality. She paints on a round flat disk specific colors and symbols in a pattern to produce a frequency which changes something going on in our energy fields. She has reduced a few of these to wallet size and they are available for sale.

One of these is the Divine Disconnect Healing Disk. Looking at this for just a few seconds clears everything out of one’s energy field that isn’t a Divine connection and sends it back to the source from which it came with a higher vibration so that it is unlikely to return.

I keep one of the Divine Disconnect Healing Disks on my desk and use it throughout the day. The first time I used it I received quite a physical healing as I felt energies being released from me that did not serve me. Now I look at it when I need to and find it is a potent way to bring me back into my spiritual divine light.

To get more information or to order these healing disks, you can go to Sylvia’s website www.collectivelight.com or e-mail Sylvia at sje@collectivelight.com.

Something to think about:

A few months ago I watched on the news a story about Jacob Massaquoi who is a refugee from Liberia. Jacob lives in New York and has nothing in the material world to speak of yet he has become quite famous for his work to help other African refugees. The newsperson conducting an interview with Jacob asked him how someone who has so little could help so many. His response was:
“The problem is that people don’t think big enough”.

Back to Shaman Resources

Transmutation News – March 2009

A couple of years ago Isis who is my spiritual teacher asked me to share a message with all my students and readers of the Transmutation News. She said that people doing their spiritual work do not have to ride the same wave as mass consciousness. As you evolve you do not have to get the same wake call as people who have not begun to do their work.

This is a message I have shared a few times on previous Transmutation News. As I watch my own life and the life of friends and students who are working on themselves I observe huge challenges that many are facing. And of course being on a spiritual path means going through the initiations that carve away at our ego so that we really can evolve. And these initiations do create little deaths in our lives that can be quite painful.

I decided to journey to Isis and to ask her what is one step that can lead to riding a different wave. My nature is I tend to be a step by step person. I like to look at the big picture when it is shown to me and then work with a step by step process to manifest my goals.

The word that Isis gave me that embraces the first step is “surrender”. Many of us have had to fight for physical and emotional health and well being. And there is a place where using our will and fighting for what we want is appropriate. And then there is a place for surrender. So once again we find ourselves dancing a paradox in life in not giving up on what we want and at the same time surrendering to our divine will which knows what is truly right for us.

Many years ago Osiris gave me the following message in a shamanic journey: “It doesn’t take real strength when one only uses will. Real strength is when one can open to the powers that be.”

It is impossible to be on a true spiritual path that leads to an evolution of consciousness when your life is ruled by your ego or thinking mind. So the dance that we must learn is how to hold a vision, for we need some kind of vision to fuel our creations and at the same time let go to our spirit which holds a bigger vision. And when we can surrender to our spirit we move into another level of freedom. I started to write about finding freedom in January.

During my 20’s and 30’s I struggled financially. I often did not have enough money to buy food or pay my bills. When I moved to Santa Fe in the early 1980’s my struggles only worsened. I worked constantly but could not pay my bills. I kept my Volkswagen van in case I had to move into my car. This was my only perceived security in life.

I often would wake up in the middle of the night and spend hours in the darkness worrying about how I was going to pay my rent. It was really painful, as many of you know this scenario. One night I woke up in the middle of the night and my worrying chatter started back in. My stomach was once again in a knot and something snapped in me. I got out of bed, and I spontaneously shouted out in my room, “I am not willing to spend one more minute of my life worrying about money. I am going to put all the energy I have spent about worrying about paying my bills into being the most creative person I can be.” It was like a magical moment in my life and I felt my world shift.

In that magical moment I gave up the egoic struggle and turned it over to my spirit. And my spirit knew how to create a life where I could be in service and at the same time not have such a struggle to survive in the physical world.

This is one example where surrendering to my spirit saw me through very challenging times.

Then later on in my life I went through a very tough emotional experience. And “the mantra” that pulled me through was, “The strength of my spirit will carry me through”. And it did. This was a theme of my book A Fall to Grace.

I could share more examples of how surrendering to my spirit, my divine will opened doors for many opportunities or got me through challenging times. But you get the point.

This month I would ask you to reflect on your life. Reflect on times when you relinquished what you wanted on an egoic level and surrendered to your spirit or what you might call a higher power. Write down some times in your life when good things happened when you moved from working from the little self or small will to giving up to your divine will.

Surrender does create freedom in our life. We don’t want to give up on our visions. We want to balance action and surrender. And finding the balance of where it is important to keep to our vision and where we need to release what our ego wants to our spirit is a dance of balance we must all learn right now. Our spirit can see a picture that we cannot always see from the perspective we hold. And sometimes surrendering to your divine can lead you to fight for something where you had previously taken a passive stance.

The key is when we can release our burdens to our inner spirit and inner creator we move to an enlightened state of consciousness and from this place we can ride a different wave.

Try working with an affirmation such as, “I release my life to my spirit/divine will and I ask that the next step be shown to me.” You can create your own phrase and wording. Try this and notice if you get a strong intuitive hit about how to proceed next in your life. Or you might find an unexpected opportunity being presented to you in your life.

Another aspect to look at in our lives is what energies we need to disengage from in order to ride a different wave.

Recently I made an emergency trip to the home of my mother who had become very ill. She is 94 and was battling a bad infection in her blood. Those of us close to my mother did not believe she would make it through. I would go to see her at the hospital and she was in a delirious and fevered state. She would say there was a party with people all dressed up in her room telling her it was time to go with them. And she refused.

One day those of us around her did not think she would make it through the night. So I decided to stay the night with her at the hospital and be with her if she decided to join “this spiritual party”.

I went back to my parent’s apartment to get what I needed to stay over at the hospital. And I was driving back to the hospital during rush hour. My parents live in a crowded and over populated city. The rage driving going on was amazing to me and I felt myself moving into the same state of rage of the drivers around me.

And I had to stop myself and remember that I was going to a very sacred event and make a choice to disengage myself from the energy around me that was so dense.

My mother made it through the night and made it through the infection. She is now home trying to get back to her life. But I learned many things during this adventure. And one of them was to be able to remember how sacred life is and make choices about what energies I am willing to engage in.

For myself one way I disengage from energies that do not feel “real”, honest, and part of the sacredness of life is to bless what I am in reaction to.

We have done work together to bless the earth, air, water, fire and the beauty of nature. We can also bless people and life situations that we are challenged by.

I have found that when I get angry at someone I bless them instead of spending hours of my day thinking about how angry I am. I acknowledge my feelings as we do in the work of transmuting and transforming the energy behind my thought and emotions as I wrote about in How to Heal Toxic Thoughts. And I have found that by blessing people and situations I am in reaction to stops my looping thoughts which takes energy from me throughout the day.

This month take an inventory of the energies that are draining you. Make choices about what energies you want to feed and what energies you want to disengage from. This is another aspect of riding a different wave. For the energies you engage in throughout the day will impact the state of consciousness you hold which ends up choosing the wave you ride.

The ultimate key to riding a different wave is recognizing that it is not what life brings you but how you react to it. And of course learning how to ride out the rocky and turbulent times is a work in progress.

March 20 is the spring equinox. Time sure is moving quickly. Take this day to surrender to the fire of your spirit to assist you in bursting forth into new life. Each seed holds a destiny and does fight to burst forth from the seed stage out onto the earth. But unless the seed is warmed by the spiritual fires within it does not have the fuel to grow. Trust the spiritual fires within that will fuel a life of beauty and creativity. Surrender to your own divine will.

To honor spring take some time to be out in nature blessing the beauty of the elements and all that they bring to you. Spend some time with friends and discuss some of what I have written in this month’s Transmutation News. Support each other in surrendering to divine will. Discuss with friends the energies you wish to feed and the energies you would like to disengage from. This brings us to freedom and to joy. And there is no better way to honor the earth during springtime than to feel joy. And don’t forget to find some time to play and celebrate as we welcome in this wonderful and fertile time of year.

One of the qualities of people who are devoted to service is that we tend to focus on others rather than ourselves. We keep seeing our spiritual community in their divine light. And this is so important as we gather our energies together to create change.

But we must not forget to honor our divine light. On March 11, the full moon, as we continue to weave a web of light that honors the earth and all of life let’s remember to honor our own light.

As we do our monthly healing in behalf of our global community make sure you focus on your divine light as you honor the divine light of others.

For those of you who are new to The Transmutation News please read the instructions for our full moon ceremony and for the healing of our global community on Creating A Human Web of Light on the Transmutation News page.

Denise Andes in Santa Fe shared a wonderful exercise that she does with her clients to smooth out the nervous system. And it fits in well with honoring your own light.

“Find an image of ‘wrapping’ oneself with a ribbon of light and expanding into that ‘wrapping’ to have the experience of being ‘held’ in love….a place that is full….a place where fear cannot exist.”

I thank Denise for sharing this for it is a lovely exercise.

Back to Shaman Resources