English 2015 - SandraIngerman.com

Transmutation News – December 2015

Although time is not linear it is natural for all of us to approach the end of the year with a calling from our internal psyche to reflect on all that has happened for us over the year. In reality the year does not end. But like the change in seasons we spiral into a new time of life.

Much has occurred on the planet during 2015. And I know we are all concerned about the present and future of the planet. And that is why we have all committed ourselves so deeply to being in service. The rise in terrorism and climatic changes increase. Blatant terrorist acts, as what occurred in Paris in November, show that people have forgotten how precious all of life is. And of course terrorism continues to increase all over the world, but some of the tragic stories are not covered by the media. I know how heartbroken we all feel by such a lack of respect for life. And sometimes it is easy to move into a place of a fear and hopelessness. Yet during these times it is critical we stay focused on our spiritual work and hold the space for all. Building an invisible world of substance must happen before any outer changes will occur.

On October 31 of this year I celebrated my 35th anniversary of learning the formal practice of shamanic journeying. Although I have been working with bright spirits since childhood I formally met my guardian spirit and other helping spirits during my initial shamanic training. They have really held the light for me as I followed the path of spirit through my life.

And this year also marks the 16th year of writing the monthly column the Transmutation News. As I have shared in many columns working with the tarot has also provided a supportive spiritual map throughout my adult life. In the tarot the card that is associated with the number 16 is the Tower. And this is the card of dismemberment. It marks a time to disintegrate old structures so that new forms can be built.

In my own personal life I have been in the Death/Rebirth year. And I have been asked to look at letting go of the old story of who I have been and finding my new identity as my life has changed to a new cycle of life.

I am so grateful to my helping spirits and to all I wrote in Medicine for the Earth and Walking in Light: The Everyday Empowerment of Shamanic Life. For all I wrote was my continued road map as I maneuvered territories in my inner and outer landscape I had not experienced before.

And all I wrote in these two books have been the theme of the Transmutation News for the last 16 years.

I feel for now that this year completes a cycle of the format of the Transmutation News. For I have given you all the tools that I have been guided to share of how to wake up from the old dream we have been living in and how to step into a new dream. And now it is up to all of you to take what I have shared over these many years and make the work your own and live it.

For the truth of the matter is that as humans we have broken the laws of nature. But we do have the possibility to turn things around. We live on a planet that is billions of years old. And the Earth knows how to heal herself of human damage.

But can humans heal from all the damage? I do believe we can. But we have to wake up from the dense collective dream that is driving how we live on this Earth. And I feel for now I have shared what I can about waking up from the dream. Of course as new insights come I will share them with you. But it is time for me to stop looping the same material over and over again.

I have pondered on whether it is time for me to stop writing the monthly column, and I have decided to continue as I want to keep being a voice of inspiration to help you stay focused on your spiritual work. I do want to work on changing the format of the Transmutation News. For as I said I have given you so many tools to work with. Now is the time for you to choose what you do with them.

For those of you who are newer readers of the Transmutation News all I have written since 2000 is archived. You can click on a year and close your eyes and click on a month. And like doing a divination reading the writing in that month’s column might give you the perfect boost and tools that you need at this time. There is such a wealth of information I have shared over the years.

As my own inner landscape keeps radically changing as I am planting a brand new garden with new soil and new seeds I cannot say where the column will evolve to.

But for now my dream is to shift the Transmutation News to be devoted to performing ceremonies together as a global community. For when you add doing your personal work to being part of a community that performs ceremony together change happens within and without. You are changed by the ceremonial work and the collective field of energy changes also.

I hope to write out a ceremony each month or quarterly. I will keep writing monthly, but maybe shorten the length of each column. I do love to write and communicate with all of you. The virtual community we have created feels so tangible to me!

I want to keep the ceremonies fresh. As you can tell life is changing for me in a significant way, and who I am becoming is such a deep work in progress I can only stay in the present and surrender to what is and what I feel called to share.

I can only say this is a time of awakening for all of us. And we cannot wake up to a new dream until we fully let go of our old dreams and old stories. I know in my life my own stories were who I was. I have lived a rich, varied, and wild life, and I feel like I have lived multiple lifetimes in this one life. And now it is time for me to put all my old stories to rest and create a new story out of who I am now and in the present.

As we enter the solstice and the end of another year this might be a time for you to reflect on old stories that you need to let go of. What new identity do you want to nurture and manifest in 2016?

For this month on the solstice I invite you to begin to prepare for our future ceremonies. Please read what I have added on the section for The Transmutation News “Preparing for Ceremonial Work” which is now posted on the Transmutation News page just under the instructions for “Creating A Human Web of Light”.

I know some of you reading the Transmutation News are practiced shamanic journeyers. And some of you are interested in the practice of shamanism, but not yet taken the step to perform a shamanic journey. In this case you can perform your preparation work and simply drop into a deep meditative state. You do not have to perform a shamanic journey to take part in our ceremonies.

For now we want to start by creating a space in the invisible realms where we can join together to do some ceremonial work together. You might journey on what gifts and offerings you wish to bring to this place to leave in honoring the helping spirits and the spirit of this place. You might wish to drop into a heart space and think about what gifts and offerings you want to bring and leave for our group as we create sacred space together.

After your preparation work close your eyes and begin to travel into the invisible realms. Start to create a path from the room you are journeying or meditating in. You might find yourself walking down a path that is surrounded by tall, beautiful, strong, and healthy trees. The earth you walk on is fine and you are stepping on rich dark soil. You can feel your footsteps making an impression on the earth. As you walk you listen to the beauty of the sounds in nature and take in the exquisite fragrances shared by the local trees, plants, and air which gives us life. Is there grass growing? What other nature beings are in this place? You can even experience how the air tastes. Notice if there is a body of water in this place, and if you can hear running water. Feel the power of the sun as it is setting and the stars and moon above start to shine their beautiful light.

As you walk feel your heartbeat and just notice what you are feeling. For many years you have been working in a virtual reality with people from all over the world. We have taken the time to open our hearts in love and give gratitude to each other. At the same time it is important to feel like you are connected to a family of like minded souls who do everything possible to be in service to others and to the Earth. What does it feel like in your heart to be connected to such a community of like minded souls? And when we engage in ceremonial work how do you want to express your love, gratitude, and respect for each of us as well as the helping spirits who continue to partner with us in our work.

As you continue to walk you arrive at a large clearing. Use your imagination to see, feel, hear, smell, taste all that is around you in this clearing. Step fully into this clearing rather than watching your journey/meditation/daydream as if it was a movie. Be here now. Give thanks to all the helping spirits you continue to work with who are now also part of our circle.

As you enter the clearing you will be met by a guardian spirit who will cleanse you on a spiritual level. This compassionate spirit might cleanse you with incense, or a feather, or sing over you, or touch your hair, or whisper a message into your ear. Be open and know these are helping spirits who wish to help you feel unburdened by your ordinary thoughts and concerns.

Once you have been cleansed step into the clearing. Notice there is an altar here where you can leave your gifts, offerings, and even your prayers for yourself, others, all of life and the Earth. Place your offering here, and know this is a place you can visit whenever you wish to pray and for comfort.

After you leave your gift step forward to a beautiful fire that is burning in the middle tended by helping guardian spirits. Take your place around the circle. You can drum, rattle, sing, and/or dance as you do this. Feel the positive energy and love that is being shared. And begin to look around the circle to gaze into the eyes of our community.

Let us welcome each other and smile and greet each other by extending the love emanating from our hearts. Feel your feet on the earth supporting you. Again open all your senses. And in whatever way you choose by speaking or sending radiant thoughts let us bless our circle with words that hold the power of love, peace, gratitude, honor, and respect and good wishes for all.

Smell the smoke of the fire and listen to the sound of the fire crackling. Look into the beauty of the fire who always reads our hearts and not our minds. With your heart experience any messages fire has for you.

Let us wish everyone a joyous solstice and begin to take our leave. We have our starting place for our ceremonies to come. Say goodbye to our group, the fire, all the elements and helping spirits. Let the helping spirits know our work is done for now.

Walking down the same path that you took to arrive at this place return to the room you are in now.

Open your eyes and feel yourself deeply rooted to the Earth, and take a few deep grounding breaths. You are back fully filled with radiance and the blessings of our circle.

Welcome back! Our ceremonial work has begun and will continue over time together as we continue to create a loving collective field of energy to continue our work together.

During the full moon on December 25 let us join our hearts together and make sure we do our preparation work so we can drop into a true space of spirit. At this crucial time of change on the planet we must continue to feed the light of the Earth. We must continue to give gratitude for our lives and the opportunity to live on this beautiful Earth.

Feel your light reaching out and touching the light of all in the web of light. Let us together shine our light within and throughout our beautiful Earth.

When you click on the Transmutation News there are the full instructions for Creating a Human Web of Light. And we will continue this potent ceremony to radiate light within and throughout the Earth.

And remember I added a new section “Preparing for Ceremonial Work”. For as I have said time and time again if you do not take time to move from your ordinary world into the non-ordinary world your ceremonial work will have no power as you will only be going through the motions without creating the magic that is imbued in ceremonial work that is done from moving into a spiritual consciousness.

At the end of each year I love to honor all who help to share the Transmutation News in our global community. Please let us open our hearts and send love and deep gratitude to Sylvia Edwards who is the webmaster of www.sandraingerman.com and helps me in ways that are beyond words.

And let us give great gratitude and send blessings to our wonderful translators:

Lena Anderheim in Swedish

Katalin Abrudan in Hungarian

Fabio Braga in Brazilian Portuguese

Nello Ceccon in Italian

Eleni Evangelinou and Rallou Gromitsari in Greek

Ines Fermoso in Spanish

Sofia Frazoa in Portuguese

Els de Graaff-van Meeteren and Sandra Koning in Dutch

Annie Idrissi in French

Miriam Kisssova and Jan Lenc in Slovakian

Irina Osechinskaya in Russian

Eva Ruprechtsberger in German.

Eva like many of the translators have been translating for years. It is time for her to let someone else do the translating. This month and in 2016, Astrid Johnen and Barbara Gramlich have so generously agreed to take on the translation. Let’s send them an abundance of blessings for their generous offer.

Tea Thum in Finnish

Simin Uysal in Turkish

We did have a few translators stop translating this year. It is a lot of work to do each month. I ask that we give thanks and gratitude for all the translators who made the Transmutation News available to such a wide global community in the past, who are still translating, and to any future translators who step forth.

On December 21 in the Northern Hemisphere we cycle into winter and in the Southern Hemisphere we welcome in summer. Let us join our hearts together as a global community and wish everyone a joyous and peaceful solstice!

Transmutation News – November 2015

I just returned from teaching two wonderful trainings in Joshua Tree, California. It is always so amazing to spend time in the desert and feel the power of the stillness and witness trees, plants, and animals who have such a remarkable ability to thrive in adverse conditions.

I find myself still digesting and absorbing what I wrote about last month, and I feel a lack of words for any new information to write about for this month. Between the depth of what I wrote last month and speaking so much for two weeks I feel a need to move into a place of reflection and stillness. And this is always a good place for all of us as we continue on our spiritual path.

As I have shared many times before it is important to let practices settle and become you. One of the trainings I led in Joshua Tree was Medicine for the Earth and Healing with Spiritual Light. I always feel quite filled with joy, hope, and inspiration when I can introduce others to this powerful work. I find that for a variety of reasons there are participants who come to this training more than once. Some people were there to assist me, there were participants who had attended the training before and wanted to get grounded in the practices and the ceremonies I lead so that they feel they can share the work with their communities with a deeper sense of experience, and some people just simply love to return to be back in the collective energy.

For those who attended the training again I kept getting feedback that they felt they had gone deeper than they had in a previous training. Participants would ask me if I had taught the same journey before due to feeling like journeys I led were brand new to them. There was nothing I had changed in the training although of course I keep changing instructions as I find better words to describe the exercises we are doing. Participants who repeated the training gained so much more insight and went to deeper places in their own Inner World. This goes back to how I have been encouraging all of you to repeat exercises, practices, and ceremonies I have shared over the years. For the richness of the experience and how deep you go is truly when the work becomes you. And when you always keep moving on and not deepening the practices you end up only skimming the surface of the work. There is so much potential as we dig deep and nurture seeds that have been planted over time.

In a journey I performed for this month’s column I was told to encourage you to journey or meditate and imagine sitting at the end of a mountain top or at the top of a hill where you can gaze upon the landscape and just free your mind to reflect and dream.

As you gaze into the distance feel the breezes or wind caressing your face. Smell the fragrance of the clean air. Feel the air bringing messages of love and inspiration to you. Feel your body sitting on the earth and touch the texture. Look at the beauty of the landscape as your eyes stretch to see the landscape below you. Feel the energy of the sun being absorbed deeply into your cells nurturing you. Taste the flavor of the air.

As you sit reflect on how you have become the work. I know some of you are new readers of the Transmutation News. And some of you have been reading this column and joining together with the collective energies of the global community we have created for years. Imagine thousands of people from around the world all reading this column each month and doing the work in their own way. For the true power of the practices is to change them and make them your own. Experience the joy in the heart as you feel support and the strength that we all share together when we work in behalf of the planet and all in the web of life together.

Gazing upon the beauty surrounding you feel your gratitude for having a body, mind, and emotions that can appreciate with all your senses life on this great Earth. Yes, there are many challenges we are facing together. But when we join together in joy, love, and support we start to ride a different wave. And as transitions and initiations continue to occur you are now and will continue to be presented with choices of what wave you wish to ride. In ancient times and in traditional cultures the unseen and visible worlds were woven together. Today there is a solid doorway between the worlds. It is time for the veil to be lifted and to once again live a life of spirit with magic and beauty everywhere.

As a collective we are being asked to live a life filled with spirit and walk the path of spirit.

Here are the seeds I have offered you. It is up to you to nurture them and help them grow through intention, repetition, and application.

On a daily basis transmute and transform the energy behind your thoughts and words so you are feeding yourself, others, and all in the web of life with love and light. Remember the difference of expressing an emotion versus sending the energy of the emotion.

Bless yourself and others by the words you use.

Rephrase your thoughts and daydreams that do not lead to your desired outcome.

Continue your dreaming practice of engaging all your senses to dream into being the world you wish to live in for yourself and for the Earth. Live from the dream.

Stay focused on your practices while surrendering the outcome.

Work on strengthening your body and also do the emotional work you have to do to be a clear, strong, and healthy vessel that can hold higher frequencies of love and light.

Stay connected to nature, its cycles, and to the elements – earth, air, water, and fire.

Continue to watch for the omens and signs that are revealed to you on a daily basis that provide guidance in your life.

Give gratitude daily for your life, earth, air, water, and the sun that sustain you and all of life, and for all the helping spirits who guide you. Find ways to add gratitude practices throughout the day. And open your heart to be grateful for what life brings for you.

Remember the truth of who you are which is divine light. Keep up your transfiguration practice to absorb your divine light and radiate light within and throughout the earth.

Project strength onto others. Perceive others in their divine light and perfection. Do not pity others when they go through challenges. Have compassion for their situation, but do not pity them.

Perceive the beauty in all things. Our perception creates our reality.

Continue to cultivate a deep and rich inner landscape and Inner World.

Do not separate your spiritual life from your ordinary life. Become the work!

Continue to empower your daily life by living a shamanic way of life.

In the United States November is a time where people celebrate Thanksgiving. In order to experience the natural state of reciprocity everyday must be a day of thanksgiving. We must wake up every morning and start by giving thanks for our lives. And then we must reach deeply into our hearts and from a place of appreciation for all in the web of life state what we are grateful for. I always wake up and give thanks for the spirit of the land where I live, the helping ancestors of the land and my own ancestors for giving me life. I continue by giving thanks to Earth, Air, Water, and Fire as the sun for giving that we need to thrive. I honor the nature beings that live in all the elements. And I honor the hidden folk that caretake the Earth along with us. Imagine the possibilities if everyone in the world did this on a daily basis. Imagine how life on this Earth would change.

As such a large collective focuses on giving thanks during this month we can fuel the power of love and light as we join in such an energy.

We can bring this into our full moon ceremony of Creating a Human of Light. The full moon is on November 25. Let’s start building an energy of love and light that creates a vibrant fabric of reality alive with a new dream for the Earth and all of life. Let’s radiate our light, love, and gratitude together as we weave a web of light within and throughout the Earth.

For those of you new to reading the Transmutation News please read Creating A Human Web of Light on the homepage.

I am in deep gratitude for each and every one of you who does the work to create a new dream for all of life. Thank you!

Transmutation News – October 2015

Over the years I have written on how to ride the waves of extreme change as we are experiencing on the planet. I have voiced the challenges we face on all levels. And I have also written about the ancient spiritual teachings that have been used since the beginning of time to tap into the world of spirit to do the work to heal, transform, and change the current dream.

As we face an increase in violence, environmental disasters, climatic changes, economic challenges, as well as personal health challenges I can imagine the rollercoaster ride that many you feel you are on.

I am sure there are those of you who find days when you just feel like things have gone too far on the planet and in your own life and a sense of hopelessness blocks you from doing your spiritual work. And then there are days when you wake up, and you state strongly to the universe and the powers that be that you will not give up, and you feel a fire burning within you to continue with the practices that create an invisible foundation that does create change on the physical realm.

It is all part of the rollercoaster of life. I know in my own life I am facing some fierce transitions. There are days when I just want to give up. Giving up is really not an option for any of us. But giving up what our ego thinks should be happening is important. For we must surrender to spirit and also to Nature. Our own inner spirit carries us through all the transitional times where we feel there is no hope and do not see outer change occurring from the spiritual practices we engage in. And we are part of Nature and Nature has its own flow and intelligence in the death and rebirth process.

I find in my own life it is important to acknowledge how I am feeling on a human level whether I am facing my own personal challenges or watching destruction going on around me that tears at my heart. At the same time, I wake up each day and stay present, surrender to the intelligence of Nature, and to my inner divine light.

And yet I also know I am being called into the Under World to the place of a new level of shamanic initiation. I am being called to the home of the Dark Mother. It is a time for me to do my inner work while surrendering, having trust, and being patient while an alchemical process of turning lead into gold occurs.

Why are we not seeing change happening from so much spiritual work we are performing personally and part of the collective? Well, there is a lot of good happening. We hear stories in our communities everyday of some miraculous change or healing that is taking place for an individual, a family, or a group at large. I continue to collect miraculous healing stories that come from people keeping up the practice of transfiguration. But the change might not be happening for you or on a larger scale where you feel inspired to keep up your work.

Many start to wonder why the miracles are not happening to us personally or to the land, city, or country where we live. There is no answer to this. In the world of spirit there is only oneness and light and we can rest in the divine. In the world of form there is the dark and the light. And the dark requires us to dive into the depths of the Under World into the initiations involving pain, fear, and loss to let go of parts of ourselves that keep us from letting spirit shine through us. As I described in Walking in Light: The Everyday Empowerment of Shamanic Life the process entails disintegration, illumination, remembering, reconstruction, re-emergence.

The journey of the initiate being called into the dark realms of the Under World are the core of the remarkable and transformative myths, legends, and stories that have been told throughout the ages where one walks the path of disintegration and dismemberment reemerging to the light of life.

We really lack a model in our culture where the initiate’s rite of passage is understood and is welcomed back home from the hero or heroine’s journey. And it is a model that we really need right now to help people integrate all the changes that occur during deep times of crisis and illness.

You might start to wonder if this is all a dream why is the dream not changing as we do our work to weave a new reality from the visible into the invisible? And I do believe that the death process has not been completed to allow the rebirth to occur yet. But I know in all my cells and in my heart that we are building a strong foundation and fabric of reality that will bring beauty and health back into our lives and in the planet.

A tremendous amount of surrender, faith, and persistence is required right now.

If you are one of the people who find yourself losing hope acknowledge what you are feeling on a personality/ego level. Let yourself grieve for what you have lost. But still continue to wake up every day and give thanks for your life, earth, air, water, fire (as the sun) that support life, for all the beautiful nature beings that we share this earth with, and to the helping spirits who are working on unseen levels.

I have shared so many practices on columns of the Transmutation News and in all my books. The practices I share are simple practices. Even if you can pick one simple practice to do each day that helps you to transform your words, thoughts, and daydreams from a feeling of defeat to one of inspiration this is a lot. Just one practice each day will help you rise up and join with so many thousands of people who continue to persist to change the dream.

And if you are being personally impacted by the phases of life that present pain and suffering as a way to grow and transform take some time to be with yourself to explore your inner space and just be with it. Do not try and force change. But you will feel empowered by simply traveling within and being with your own true nature which is divine light and perfection. For you are more than the outer events impacting you. You are a being of divine light who is also on a human adventure and experiencing situations that lead to growth.

In August I did present on the Subtle Activism Summit sponsored by the Shift Network. I wanted to share with you what I said in the opening hoping this brings some inspiration into your life and work.

Somewhere about 20 years ago there was a prediction that there was going to be a major earthquake in Southern California. I was living in Santa Fe at the time. I heard about people not being able to get airline flights out of Los Angeles for so many people were trying to flee the area.

Then in the local Santa Fe paper there was a very short article about a group of Tibetan monks who flew into Los Angeles and picked a site to sit in to pray. When questioned about why they were coming into LA while others were leaving, they said that in times of challenge you do not flee a troubled area. You gather there in community to pray and add strength to the land to try and shift the outcome.

This has always impacted me. For we have so many challenges happening right now. And it is so important to gather our energy to create change and transformation. And at the same time, we must do our egoic work to surrender to the outcome. Yet we must continue to take ordinary actions that prevent such future issues from happening again.

This is how we blend and integrate the spiritual, emotional/mental, and physical together.

People always lived in community. And this created a sense of responsibility for community members to take actions, behave, and live a way of life that supported the health of the community, the Earth and the land where they lived, and to live in a healthy way.

Due to how society has evolved people are very isolated. People yearn for community and you can see this by how many people look for workshops and conferences to attend that give them a sense of belonging to a community – something bigger than the isolated world they live in.

And at the same time when we join together in community, we do have to reach deep inside of ourselves to honor the community at large and behave in an appropriate manner to support the strength and health of the community.

And to add to this we already know from thousands of years of shamanic practice that when a community of people gather their thoughts, daydreams, and spiritual prayers together there is an exponential healing change.

The full moon is October 27. Let us gather our spiritual energies together and fill up with feelings of unconditional love for the Earth and all of life. Feel and experience your own spiritual light filling you up, and let it radiate as it weaves together with the divine light of our community within and throughout the Earth.

Let us ride the waves of change knowing that we have so much personal spiritual strength to carry us through as well as the support and love of the compassionate spirits in the invisible realms.

Transmutation News – September 2015

This past spring I posted a photo of me working on my old computer Blueberry. I posted a photo showing me writing Walking in Light on Blueberry while I was wearing my father’s ski hat and fingerless gloves. Blueberry has been my writing partner since 2000. I wrote 6 books on Blueberry, countless articles, chapters for other authors’ books, and many years of columns of The Transmutation News.

Blueberry and I started to work with each other on May 29,2000. Due to finally upgrading my equipment Blueberry’s life ended on July 29, 2015. It has been a long and wonderful partnership together. I am one of those people who do anthropomorphize cars and computers. And you know from reading my monthly columns that I enjoy being a true eccentric.

I want to take this time to honor Blueberry who helped me to share a wealth of information with people around the world.

For years now I have been writing about the effortlessness of radiating our divine light. I have used the metaphor that the stars in the night sky do not try to shine. And they do not focus attention on where to shine. Stars just shine and radiate their light all over our great Earth. The same is true with the sun. The sun does not effort on radiating light and energy. It just shines. And I have encouraged you to immerse yourself in your own inner starlight and sunlight and simply be a light in the world.

In working in this way we work with the feminine principle of being versus doing.

When we work with the feminine principle of being we experience the stillness of life and of Source. And this is also a place where we can experience unconditional and divine love flowing through us.

Many of us effort too much as we give and receive love. On a rational level we understand that love is the greatest healer, and we were born to give and receive love. But we can make “loving” into such a complicated process especially when our ego gets involved.

Reflect on the flow of the ocean. The tides come in and out. The waves come to shore and then recede again. There is no efforting. The state of flow is a true state of being. Just like waves flow so does divine love. We do not have to try so hard to share our love with others and with the Earth. We do not have to try so hard to receive love. Love is a natural state of being that flows effortlessly like the waves of the ocean.

This month I invite you to journey or meditate to experience being with the ocean to feel and observe its state of being and natural flow. And then journey or meditate and go deep within to your Inner World and feel that same state of flow within you. Put your hands on your heart and tap into the power of divine love and let it flow in and out. Absorb the love like I have encouraged you to absorb divine light into your cells. Soak it in to every cell and then just be with the waves of unconditional and divine love as it flows within and then radiates to others and to the world.

So much of the key to healing ourselves, others, and the planet is simply to hold the state of love. The goddess and feminine energies allow the waves of love and light to simply flow. There is no efforting.

Of course as you do this different emotional issues might be triggered for you. By letting love flow in and out just like your breath flows you might start to tune into times where you did not feel loved, or where you felt hurt, or where you might have hurt others. This is natural. Perform your practices to honor what you are feeling while at the same time clearing and transmuting the energies that need to be cleared. As humans we can feel so fragile at times. But once we experience the power of divine love we can sink into a power, strength, and way of being in the world that most only imagine. Being love and light is part of our evolution. Experiencing the stillness of the divine and allowing what flows from this state is part of our evolution into being able to hold and work with higher frequencies that create personal and collective healing.

Stay focused with your practices this month and observe what comes up for you and what starts to radiate through you.

The full moon is September 27. There will also be a total eclipse of the moon on this day. September 27 was my father’s birthday and will be a day when I honor all the unconditional love he shared with me. Perform your preparation work to step out of your ordinary thoughts, concerns, and daily activities. Start by taking a few minutes to do some deep breathing that will bring you a place of peace, stillness, and center. Travel deep into your Inner World, into the stillness where you will find your inner starlight or sunlight and your inner natural flow of love. Imagine the waves of the ocean flowing within and through you carrying love into the world. Let us all join together as waves of light and love and weave a brilliant and exquisite web of light and love within and throughout the Earth.

If you are a new reader of the Transmutation News please visit “Creating A Human Web of Light” on the homepage to view the instructions for our full moon ceremonies.

The equinox is on September 23. In the Northern Hemisphere we flow into autumn and in the Southern Hemisphere we flow into spring.

When I journeyed for a ceremony to perform for the equinox I was given two ceremonies to share depending on whether you live in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere. By working in the way I was given we will be honoring both the cycle of death and letting go of what no longer serves us and the collective as well as honor the process of rebirth and welcoming in the new.

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere this is a time to bring to the earth any limiting state of consciousness and old wounds you are ready to release. The earth will take this from you and compost the old just like she composts the old leaves that the trees and plants release during the season of autumn. During this composting process organic matter is created that feeds, fertilizes, and nurtures the earth to help to create the healthy plants that are born during spring.

Take some time to enter into a deep meditative state. Let go of your ordinary concerns. Take time to focus on your spiritual practice so that you are truly entering into the invisible realms where change is possible. Sink deep within to your inner knowing. Allow your psyche to reveal to you that which you need to release at this time of your life. Look at the past wounds and states of consciousness that are anchoring you and not allowing you to fully move forward to creating new dreams and a new life for yourself and the planet.

Imagine traveling into a beautiful place in nature where the soil is rich and moist. Smell the fragrance and feel your feet as you walk on the earth. Notice how fresh the air feels and smells. You can taste the fragrance on your tongue. Look around you and soak in the brilliant colors of the nature beings all around you.

Find a tree that calls to you, and sit with it for awhile. As you sit with it align your breath and heartbeat with that of the tree and the earth. Feel your own heart beating. Focus on the desire to let go of what no longer serves you.

When you feel ready imagine kneeling on the ground and digging a hole in the earth. You can blow into the earth what you are ready to let go of. Or you can imagine burying the states of consciousness and wounds that bind you to your past.

Thank the earth for taking all that needs to be composted and transformed into rich earth that creates a fertile environment for new seeds of hope, light, and love to be planted.

When you feel like you are complete with this ceremony return to the room you are in and to an ordinary state of consciousness feeling light and unburdened.

You can also perform this ceremony in a place in nature following the above steps.

While our community in the Northern Hemisphere is releasing the old those in the Southern Hemisphere will be planting new seeds of visions that are free from past memories of old wounds and limiting beliefs.

Work in the way I describe above of bringing yourself into a deep meditative state and traveling into a beautiful place in nature to do your work. You can also perform this ceremony by going outside to a favorite park or place in nature.

Imagine the seeds that you wish to plant as you welcome in the spring. This is a time to welcome in new life in both nature and also in our own Inner World. Plant the seeds that you wish to feed and see grow in your inner garden.

Again when you are complete thank the earth for accepting and gestating your new seeds containing visions, thoughts, and daydreams of hope, love, and light.

Return when you are ready.

Together we join together as a global community to honor the transition of death and rebirth. They are all part of one cycle.

I wish you a joyous autumn and spring!

Transmutation News – August 2015

Over the years, one focus of the work I have been teaching and writing about is transfiguration. For when we experience our own divine light and the light of Source we move into a place of unity and oneness. And as you know light and love are healing forces that can transform all the challenges we face physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Radiating unconditional love and light transforms the planet.

I have been encouraging you to do whatever shamanic journeying work or meditation work that helps you create a cellular understanding of unconditional love, oneness, and divine light so that you are not just working from a cerebral place. For until we experience these states as part of ourselves the force of love and light cannot truly shine through us in a way that creates true healing.

Recently in a journey I performed I was taken into my inner garden. I have been leading you in exercises to travel within into your Inner World to experience it and cultivate your inner landscape as you would a beautiful and healthy garden. I have led you into inspecting the texture and quality of your soil and how it feels and smells. I have encouraged you to be diligent about the seeds you have been planting through your thoughts, words, and daydreams that lead to the personal and collective dream we are all dreaming into being.

In my journey I was guided to connect with the heartbeat of the earth in my inner garden and the heartbeat of the Earth. And then I was encouraged by my helping spirit Isis to deepen my work. She acknowledged that through my writing and teaching I invite people to connect their heartbeat with the heartbeat of the Earth.

But Isis shared with me that in my own life and for many who hear or read these words there is a tendency to think about this on a rational level. For it sounds so good and healing to connect one’s heartbeat with the heartbeat of the Earth. But for the healing and connection to happen again this must become a cellular experience instead of a mental concept.

Isis then went on to say that when I personally connect my heartbeat with the heartbeat of the Earth, I have been doing it on somewhat of a superficial level. For she explained that just as Source is eternal the Earth is an ancient being.

It is believed that the Earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old. It is also believed that the universe is approximately 14 billion years old. In my journey she instructed me to connect my heartbeat to the primordial heartbeat of the Earth not just the heartbeat of the Earth that I conceptualize feeling in present time.

And she went on to say that when I/we connect with the primordial heartbeat of the Earth then we can truly experience our connection with all in the web of life that is also connected to such an ancient energy and force that emanates the desire for life and the will to live. We can connect with an energy that is so ancient and strong which physically puts us in touch with our primordial wisdom that already knows how to guide us in our personal lives and through the changing times we are living in.

And as I have been recently writing about then we have to stop asking questions and simply listen. For this ancient primordial force has deep wisdom to share with us if we choose to listen. And all life on this Earth is guided in how to survive by this ancient primordial force.

During the month of August travel into your inner garden/inner landscape and continue the work you have been doing to cultivate a deep and rich inner garden. If you are a new reader of the Transmutation News you can click on “Huffington Post Links” and read the article I wrote titled “How to Cultivate a Rich Inner Garden”.

Inspect your inner garden and make sure you have followed through on your commitment to nurture the soil and be conscious about the seeds you have been planting through your thoughts, words, and daydreams.

And once you have spent some time in your inner garden lie on the earth. And allow your heartbeat to first connect with what you feel to be the present heartbeat of the Earth. But keep going deeper. With intention ask to connect to the primordial and ancient heartbeat that began as the Earth was formed.

And as you feel your connection with the primordial heartbeat of the Earth allow yourself to connect with your primordial heartbeat. For you are connected to life since the beginning of time.

Feel this ancient quality of life beating through you and the Earth. Allow yourself to open up and listen and feel the deep wisdom that is being shared with you.

You are born from the Earth. You are connected to and one with a living breathing organism that is 4.6 billion years old. How does this shift your perspective?

This process of course is not a one-time journey or meditation. This is a practice for you to continue on a regular basis.

You can also physically go out and lie down on the earth and do the same. It is always wonderful to lie on the earth and fully connect with her heartbeat and healing. But go beyond present time and connect fully with the ancient and primordial heartbeat of the Earth.

Notice how you feel changed and different as you do this. And continue to listen to messages that come through all your senses to help guide you in your life to be in service to the planet at this time.

The full moon is August 29. Transfigure and experience oneness with Source and your divine light. As you are also a body, connect your heartbeat to the primordial heartbeat of the Earth. And let us join together in love for life and radiate unconditional love and light throughout the Earth to feed the light of the planet and all of life. Do this while you merge with the ancientness of the Earth.

If you are a new reader of the Transmutation News please visit “Creating A Human Web of Light” on the homepage for instructions for our full moon ceremony.

A Update About Inspiring Stories:

As most of you know last winter, I invited readers of the Transmutation News to share some inspiring stories about how the practices I have been sharing in the monthly column have changed their lives. Each month I have been sharing one or two stories.

I still have a few more stories I can add to the Transmutation News. Some of the stories that people so generously sent to me are very personal and are not quite appropriate to share in the column. Some stories are long and need editing.

I am trying to lighten my workload a bit so editing stories is not something I want to take on right now. But I will work on some stories I have in my file to share in future columns of the Transmutation News.

I am very grateful to all of you who did send me stories last winter. I know it took time to write them up, and I appreciate your generosity of spirit.

Transmutation News – July 2015

I just returned from a wonderful adventure in Scotland. I feel so nourished by the training I led, the brilliant group I worked with, and the land.

We do get so nourished by working in community. I find that whether I work with a group in the physical or through the virtual realms through teleconferencing I feel so inspired, nourished, and filled with hope.

My husband, Woods, was telling me about an article he read about some of the men and women returning from war. For some the hardest part of their experience in coming back and what feeds their PTSD is leaving the community of other soldiers that they had created such a deep bond with. The level of community and coming back to feeling so isolated causes such deep emotional problems.

With all that is going on in the world today we are being pushed to create community. It is local communities that come together to help rebuild houses and businesses destroyed in a disaster. It is the people who come together in local communities who can help each other get through challenging times.

Of course, the issue we must address is why do we have to wait for a disaster to happen to create deep bonds through community. It is time for all of us to share nourishment on all levels in our communities. And over the years I have encouraged you to bring some of the spiritual work you have been practicing into your local communities. For the spiritual work we have been doing together transcends different religious beliefs. The spiritual practices we have been working with touches the heart and soul of all people and goes beyond words and concepts.

While I was in Scotland, I had some time to reflect on a few issues I wanted to share during this month’s column. As you know I keep encouraging all of us to stay focused. Focus has been such a core principle to the work I have been teaching. But as with everything in life, balance needs to be found with every principle and practice we work with.

Woods and I were having a wonderful day hiking on Ben Nevis which is the highest mountain in Britain. Every day we were in Scotland it was mostly rainy and cold. I love the rain and cold, so I was thrilled to be in such weather. This one day we got one of those perfect sunny days and even for me it was a perfect hiking day.

We were slowly meandering up a trail of Ben Nevis with no goal in mind. Ben Nevis is one of those mountains that is a popular spot for mountain climbing. And due to snow and ice at the top it was a difficult climb while we were there. During our slow walk on the trail, we got to see groups of people descending after they made it to the top. Some people were descending with bright smiles and had a lift to their step. But most of the people we saw were truly miserable. Yes, they made it to the top but did not enjoy the journey.

I started to think about focus. For whenever we walk the path of life and continue our spiritual work, we need to stay focused. But when focusing on a final destination brings exhaustion and takes the joy out of life then an imbalance is created. And whenever there is imbalance some form of illness can occur.

This can also be true with how we engage in our spiritual journey. For a key principle to successful spiritual practice is staying focused. But if you are clenching your teeth and forcing the journey then obviously it is time to take a step back and review your process.

For we need to find the balance between keeping a focus and having a relaxed attitude. This is a key for all of us.

During this month of July, you might want to take some time and reflect on places you are trying “too hard” with your spiritual work and look at where you need to maintain some focus without forcing yourself to some goal.

I also had some time to reflect on what I feel the focus of my work has been. And I have realized that with all the books I have written since Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self and the CD programs I have created I have been teaching people about spiritual self – reliance.

So many of us want someone else to do “the work” for us. But in truth as you can rely on the power of your own spiritual practice you thrive and learn how to create the life you wish to live.

Spiritual self-reliance is something I feel strongly will help all of us thrive through these changing times.

You might also take some time to reflect on how much you trust your own spiritual practice and how you rely on your own inner wisdom as well as the assistance of your own helping spirits.

Yes, we all have times when we need to ask for help from others. But the key to thriving in life is to rely on your own spiritual work and guidance.

The full moon is July 2 and July 31. If I am correct, we have a blue moon month! Let us join together as a bonded virtual community holding each other in love and support. Do your preparation work to step away from your ordinary thoughts and concerns. Let us travel within to our inner starlight, inner sunlight, divine light and let’s shine. Let the rays of our collective light embrace the planet and all of life with love.

If you are a new reader of the Transmutation News please visit “Creating a Human Web of Light” on the homepage for the instructions of our full moon ceremony.

A story to inspire us from Eva who lives in Austria (Eva Ruprechtsberger is a brilliant shamanic and Medicine for the Earth teacher):

“How the Medicine of the Earth work changed my life:

When I was joining my first Medicine for the Earth workshop I was still in a time of despair and confusion in my life. My child had just had a heart operation and I was still in a deep fight with myself, my life, my child, who had to go through so much pain, my work that I had lost twice, and many of my relations that were broken. I tried to find direction, help, healing and hope and meaning in life. In my old broken life, I had been a dogmatic empirical scientist, an intellectual person and psychologist of measurements, yet nothing I had ever learnt seemed to help me. Several very strange coincidences made looking for ‘crazy things’, and I ended up in shamanism, with Sandra’s books, workshops with Sandra and finally in the Medicine for the Earth workshop in Austria, very near to Salzburg where I live.

We did the water ceremony and we transfigured in front of a water sample that had a PH of 11.5 as we had added ammonium hydroxide. We transfigured and the PH went down to 10.5. Then the group (a huge circle of about 70 people) asked if we could do it again. And we did. And the PH went down almost to normal. I could not hold back my tears and I will never forget that moment in my life. It happened, a miracle happened on a very physical level and I was part of it, all the hope of my childhood and years as a youngster and later came back, when I tried to keep up hope in times of challenges on a personal and a global level at the same time. I was part of a miracle and it happened in front of my eyes NOW with water from my region, with a teacher that came from so far away, to prove and teach me that all the impossible is possible in connection with the creation, the light inside my self, the light we share. At that moment I wished with all my heart to become once a Medicine for the Earth teacher as I knew this wisdom is changing the world.

As a woman, a mother, a scientist, a political and social worker I went through a fundamental change in that moment to. Consequently, this experience meant that I could never ever … give up … lose hope… put limitations on the things I thought are impossible: environmental and social and personal and physical changes… I hope I will always be able to find the light even in the darkness and share this with others. I hope that I will always be helpful in my community and a source of inspiration for others. I hope I will always be a happy mother for my beautiful daughter. I hope I can become a good ancestor for my descendants.

I asked if I could drink just a little bit of that water so that I could carry this moment in my cells with me all my life, crazy I know but I doubted myself, maybe tomorrow I would find some reasons to destroy the miracle through doubts. I was allowed to put my finger in the water that just moments ago had burned a hole in a carpet (with PH 11.5) and put a drop in my mouth. It tasted like cleaning product, yet it did not burn me at all.

For several years now I am a Medicine for the Earth teacher and my learning process is never ending. As I stopped using poison to ‘prove’ spirituality I still use aquarium strips to ‘measure’ some parameters in the water sample before and after the transfiguration ceremony. My students know I cannot put away my scientific side completely and most of them laugh about it. Yet we had very often, almost always observe changes in different parameters. The water sample in the room changed and the other one I hid in secret did not.

One day I thought about the transatlantic experiment of Mark Dammer with the plant and said to myself: How strange that the plant reacts transatlantically but the water sample I hide in the garage around the corner does not? This is quite illogical. (From: Sandra: Look at “Remote Experiment with a Plant in Scotland” under GDV Camera Results on the homepage to see what Eva is referring to.)

I shared these thoughts with my circle and … from that moment on the water sample outside also changed or even worse, the water sample outside changed and the water sample inside did not. My groups got more and more amused about my attempt to understand ‘water’ and teaching to merge with it at the same time. I still ‘measure’, and I do it just for fun as I am excited to see how the water spirit is playing with me in my classes. Yet we pray for water samples I carry or carried with me, for example, the river Ganges, Lake Atitlan, Bad River, Rio Grande, and others, until I find somebody bringing the samples back to where they came from, knowing, that our prayers in our circles here in my region, in my little country in the heart of Europe can contribute too to serve all life. And still I dedicate every step and every breath I take to my child, that is healthy and wise, the opposite of all medical prognosis we ever heard in the beginning, 17 years ago. Whenever I am drinking or touching water, I try to be conscious and thankful and remembering what it taught me about miracles.”

Transmutation News – June 2015

I wrote the May Transmutation News before the earthquake in Nepal and the unrest in Baltimore. I trust that you were able to perform your spiritual work and radiate light to the places, people, and nature beings that were impacted. It is so important to stay focused on our spiritual work!

It is so easy to move into a place of pity as we watch people move into challenging situations. And the key to our work is to project strength onto others instead of weakness and pity. And also, it is key to shift our perception to see all impacted in their light. This is key to changing awareness and to provide true healing.

Also, it is important to remember that people and living beings all over the world are facing very challenging situations. Not all of these stories are covered by the media. We are simply in a time where the structure of our world is unraveling. People are acting in ways towards each other, all of life, and the Earth that show such a lack of honor, respect, the understanding that life is precious, and that all living beings contribute to the health of the web of life.

We will continue to see challenges as the way of life we know continues to dissolve and unravel. But the key for us is to not lose hope and to keep working spiritually to raise our own consciousness and to raise consciousness of people in our communities. We must continue to see through the eyes of spirit versus the eyes of ego which only sees suffering, doom, and gloom. There is so much that is occurring beyond what we can see through our ordinary eyes. And by focusing on our spiritual work, we will learn to see a new perspective that will inspire us to know that all is possible.

Last month I had the opportunity to merge with Isis to share wisdom and healing with a group I have been working with.

There were a couple of messages that Isis shared that were not solely for the group I was working with, and that I would like to share with you.

Isis strongly stated that whenever you are triggered or impacted by something happening in the world or in your life to return to yourself and repeat the phrase to yourself, “I love you”. The more that you show love towards yourself the more the world around you will change.

One of the teachings that Isis has shared with me is that humankind has tried to control, manipulate, and define nature. She has shared that when we ask questions of how we can help and be in service these questions are a form of control. For Isis said that these questions lead to structured answers which in the asking is a form of trying to control the answers given. I know it might be hard for some of you to comprehend how asking questions of how to help is a form of control. It is a subtle form of control. But this is interesting to just sit with and reflect on.

Isis shared that it is time to stop asking questions in your journeys and meditations. But this is a time to practice deep listening and “being” so that you can actually hear what the Earth has to share. For we form the questions we want answers to instead of truly listening to what really needs to be shared by our helping spirits and the Earth.

And Isis also reminded us that you cannot create strong new healthy structures out of broken structures that are crumbling. She said we must go back into the world of formlessness to create the new forms that support life in a healthy way. This means to focus our continuing dreaming work by going beyond the world of form and to dream into being new forms and ways of living and being. That is how we can change the dream.

Please take time this month to focus on this wisdom that Isis shared. This is a time for us to step up our work and really expand past our limitations that we put on our spiritual work and the possibilities of positive growth and change that can and will occur on the planet. We are co-partners with the Earth and the helping spirits. We just have to open to new ways of perception and new ways of working.

The full moon is June 2. The full moon empowers our ability to focus on calling into form a good dream for all of life. We really need to step up our work. Let the full moon empower your spiritual work and your practices.

Let us join together as a global community to create a human web of light. Do your preparation work so you can be a hollow bone for spirit. Journey within to who you are beyond your skin which is spirit. You are radiant and divine light. Be a light in the world. Perceive the planet and all of life as light and in its divine perfection. Let us join our inner divine light, our inner starlight, our inner sunlight together as we weave a web of light within and throughout the Earth.

For those of you who are new readers of the Transmutation News please read “Creating A Human Web of Light” on the homepage.

Once again, we are flowing and cycling into a new season. On June 21 we celebrate the solstice. We welcome in summer in the Northern Hemisphere and winter in the Southern Hemisphere. A new cycle in nature and in our lives begins.

As the seasons change the Earth informs us on how to shift our internal cycle to be in harmony and flow with the change. This is a powerful time to integrate the message of Isis into your life. Take some time to just be in the elements. Lie on or put your feet on the earth. Listen to the breezes and the wind. Merge with the water where you live. Absorb the power of the sun. Just be and let your body harmonize with nature. You are not connected with nature. You are nature. Don’t ask the Earth what she needs just simply listen to any guidance that the Earth has to share with you.

And as Isis also shared, we cannot create new forms out of outdated forms. In order for our dreaming work to take on power we must travel back into the territory of formlessness and by engaging all of our senses we can start to create new forms and new dreams to birth into being. Do your work. In shamanic cultures it has been the responsibility of everyone in the community to dream a good dream for all of life. Be a dreamer.

During this powerful time of celebrating the solstice dream a good dream for yourself, all of life, and the Earth.

Let us join together to wish everyone in our community a joyous solstice!!

Inspirational Stories From Our Community:

Here is a wonderful story that Kevin shared to inspire us:

“Giving and receiving is part of my daily being however sometimes I forget about myself. As a result, my day can be negative. All I need for my day to become positive is for me to take my dog for a long trail run. By observing nature and nature’s animals I receive a wealth of enlightenment.

May your day be one of light.”

And here is a lovely sharing from Sylvia:

“I have always appreciated nature. Perhaps it was going fishing with my dad as a little girl in the mountains of western Maryland, staying in a log cabin in the woods and rowing on the lake to my heart’s content. Nature balances me and is one of my teachers.

In the last two years I went through a period where everything was up for review, how and where I spent my time and what I believed to be true. At one point I picked up my camera and started photographing what presented itself while I was in nature. To me this was a pure connection – it was a chance to connect to spirit and just observe while experiencing the elements of nature – the wind, the sun, the patterns of the earth and water. It was just me and spirit, nothing else.

I would watch the ever-changing beauty of the sunrises and sunsets in absolute awe. It soon became apparent that spirit showered me with gifts – the clouds would form objects and pictures, the sun and clouds gifted me with their artistic interpretations each day often with rays that seemed to stretch for hundreds of miles. This connection was real, and the interesting part is that whenever I thought I knew what the sky would look like as the sunrise or sunset approached, I was wrong. I was taught to be present in the moment and from the beauty in sunrises and sunsets, my appreciation for the beauty in all things deepened.

This connection to nature has become my most treasured spiritual practice and my photographs seem to have a different quality about them, as if spirit is the artist presenting a painting for the lens to capture. This time has become the welcoming to a day of new possibilities and a thank you for moving through yet another day. There are times I feel like I am physically bathed in the beauty of nature’s light and seen as a most welcomed guest as I appreciate what nature is presenting to me. It is a connection that continually deepens and helps to outweigh the negativity that we are bombarded with in this world.”

Transmutation News – May 2015

We all know the power of spiritual work. And we really do not need proof of the power. Just the fact that the practice of shamanism has survived for tens of thousands says all we need to know. For the power of the healing results keeps the work alive and thriving.

As there is a resurgence of shamanism in the West many of the people interested in exploring shamanic work do find learning about the results of the work helps them to open to the invisible realms. As we know through social conditioning most people in the Western world shut the doors to the invisible realm of spirit that we were so connected to as children. As people are searching for meaning in life today and ways to improve their health and well-being people are opening up to the possibility of working with the practice of shamanism. But many are still nervous about the practice for they were so conditioned to believe the world of helping spirits does not exist. We were so brainwashed into focusing all of our energy on the tangible realms and following the rules of society. It is sad as we could have strengthened society by supporting people in tapping into their spiritual guidance and helping to add to the collective strength of the whole. The good news is that people are waking up to this understanding now.

Since I started teaching Medicine for the Earth, I have conducted different experiments with my groups to show how powerful the practice of transfiguration is for personal and planetary healing. I wrote about our beginning experiments in Medicine for the Earth: How to Transform Personal and Environmental Toxins. In our beginning experiments we worked with placing ammonium hydroxide in de-ionized water and tracking the change in pH.

We then moved onto working with the GDV camera that was created by Konstantin Korotkov. The GDV camera records the stimulation of photons and electron emission from people or objects placed on the glass of the camera. The software can manipulate that data to show chakra and auric fields in people and energy emitted from objects. It records emission and flow of energy in people and objects.

Sylvia Edwards has been using the GDV camera to measure results of the transfiguration work we practice at my workshops. We have witnessed numerous miraculous healings in these workshops! And at the same time, it has been wonderful to have a way to show people the power of the work through having before and after photos available to view.

Just as a reminder with the transfiguration work no healing energies are sent. We as the practitioners transfigure into our divine light – who we are beyond our body and skin. And we perceive everyone and all substances we focus on in their divine light and perfection.

The practice of transfiguration uses the feminine principle of we create change by our presence and who we become versus what we do.

During a teleconferencing session I taught for the Shift Network I decided to work with Sylvia to design a remote experiment using transfiguration.

Sylvia rented a hotel room in the Boulder, Colorado area. She used the GDV camera to measure the auric field of volunteers who showed up to the hotel. And she also bought a variety of foods at the store to test. Some of the foods she bought most likely had GMO ingredients in them.

Then many hundreds of participants from around the world in my teleconferencing course transfigured and also focused on all the people and substances in the hotel room in their divine perfection and light. So again, we did not send healing. We just perceived everything in the hotel room in divine light. The group had the name of the hotel, address, and the room number.

Sylvia listened on headphones as I guided the group in our transfiguration ceremony. None of the volunteers in the room knew what was happening in the ceremony. They were just instructed to absorb light. Sylvia took before and after photos of the people and substances present in the room.

To read a report and see the incredible photos please click on: https://www.sandraingerman.com/gdvcameraresults.html

Then click on “Remote Transfiguration Experiment Report”. There are also incredible photos from other workshops that you can also view.

It was so exciting to work with an international group remotely. This inspired all of us and hopefully will inspire you to work on environmental issues using the practice of transfiguration.

Llyn Roberts and I wrote a new book that is being released on May 2. It is really a beautiful book and the presales of the book have been quite impressive. The book is titled Speaking with Nature: Awakening to the Deep Wisdom of the Earth.

One of the issues we speak about is how so many of us focus on the nature beings that the Western world talks about in popular culture. We speak about trees, plants, eagles, hawks, bear, dolphins, whales, elephants, and so on. And of course, we are in love with those beings recognized by the collective.

But there are so many nature beings who contribute to the health and vitality of the web of life that we do not recognize in our conversations about nature – plankton, microbes, snails, earthworms, slugs, etc.

I thought this month we can become attentive to recognizing all beings in the web of life that include those we talk about often in our communities and those beings who rarely are recognized but are essential for the continuation and health of all of life. Think about a nature being that is not talked about in popular culture. Connect with it through a journey or meditation and witness how it contributes to the health and well being of the web of life. Perform a short ceremony to honor this living being.

Here is an excerpt from Speaking with Nature to inspire you:

Speaking with Nature Excerpt

Chapter 6

Banana Slug and Earthworm

Banana Slug

Llyn

Imagine strolling on a mossy trail in a dense, wet forest. You breathe in the freshly scented air, rich in oxygen and negative ions. It is springtime in the rain forest. Everything is green and flowing and blooming.

Seeming to walk with you on the lush and sopping trail, moving so slowly that you barely see it move at all, is a small, plump snail-like creature with no shell. Of the countless nature beings I live with in the Hoh River Valley, the Banana Slug is a prolific and intriguing presence.

Why are Banana Slugs called Banana Slugs? The skin of a Banana Slug is colored yellow with brown spots, like the casing of a ripe banana. . . .

Soft, fleshy, and fragile, the Banana Slug has no protective shell like its snail cousin.

Does Slug mirror our underbelly?

The divine feminine knows there is power in being vulnerable. Does this tiny being cause us to bristle because it hints at those parts of us that we deny or conceal? The sensual, sensitive aspects of the sacred feminine are still something many of us hide as well as hide from. . . .

How do we honor Banana Slug medicine, touch back into tactile Earthiness? One way is to learn from young children who love to lie on the grass gazing up at clouds and stars, run through summer downpours, and squish mud between their toes. The simple, sensual explorations that occupy healthy youngsters signal a hearty connection with body and the Earth. These kids are in touch. . . .

Spirit and body are inseparable. We are also one with our planet’s body. Touch is innate to who we are and how we know self, and world. Banana Slug suggests we get back in touch, with each other and the Earth.

Banana Slugs are vital to the decomposition of plants and spread seeds and spores across the forest floor. They are also amazingly sentient. Come to Slug with malice, and it retracts and plays dead. Speak in a soothing tone, and this fellow being may lift its head and turn to look at you. Chatting with Banana Slugs can make me weep.

Life would take a different spin if we also hugged the land like trusting and tender Slugs, who appear happy to be in their bodies here on Earth. The unguarded Banana Slug freely shares her deep feminine teachings: “Remember the sensual, and the power of little.”

Practice

Banana Slug wisdom tells us to get back in touch and empower the small.

Think on tiny aspects that largely impact your life in a positive way right now. Envision and appreciate these. Give energy to the little.

Open your heart and senses and see how alive the small makes you feel.

Remember little Banana Slug who is what it is and does what it does, nourishing and seeding the Earth despite the killing fields of cut forests all around.

Throughout all, meek and wise Banana Slug encourages: “Stay simple and in touch. You and I, we are just enough.”

Earthworm

Sandra

There is a quadrant of our garden that does not support the growth of much plant life. . . . We have consulted with many landscapers to examine the soil in this quadrant of our garden, for something in the chemical makeup must have changed to go from supporting many plants to only sustaining the very hardy. The issues seem to be beyond water.

I believe the issue is that the soil has become so hardened in this area by minerals and drought that the only solution is to bring in an army of earthworms.

Earthworms are tube shaped, segmented, hermaphrodites–each individual carries both male and female organs. They are both blind and deaf, but their skin is covered in cells that allow them to taste the soil and sense light and dark. Earthworms live in soil, burrowing themselves into various levels, naturally allowing oxygen to get in, which is beneficial for plant growth. They take leaves, leftover food, and anything they are able to decompose and turn it into fertilizer. They breathe through their skin and have five sets of double hearts in segments that are close to their head. . . .

There is such a weaving of mystery in creation, and we often miss the magic of how each and every creature in the web of life serves a role in creating, maintaining, and sustaining life. All in the web of life has something vital to share in creating a healthy earth garden. All life is interdependent on other life-forms.

Every acre of well-cultivated land contains up to half a ton of thriving microorganisms, not to mention up to a ton of earthworms. The earthworms create a ton of castings that are essential for the health of the soil, nurturing it with much needed nutrients that promote healthy plant growth. The mucus that the earthworms produce along with the castings promotes the growth of helpful bacteria and fungi.

Use your imagination to leave your ordinary life behind and take a journey with me into the world of the earthworm and the gift of its life.

Close your eyes and imagine yourself in a rich and fertile garden. As you examine the soil you are led to the small life-forms that are the tenders of the soil.

Using your invisible senses notice how microorganisms built the soil, but nature’s true tiller of the soil is Earthworm. Observe how these blind small beings are powerful diggers and earthmovers, capable of burrowing down as deep as fifteen feet. Watch as they force air through tunnels as they move. Experience amazement at how as they burrow, they aerate the soil, mix up the soil, break down clumps, and bury stones. Watch as they carry down leaves and other organic matter, while others bring nutrients and humus to the topsoil. Earthworms cannot live without enormous amounts of decaying organic matter.

Return to your ordinary awareness with a sense of gratitude for how earthworms create healthy soil that supports the growth of food that sustains us.

We often judge the importance of the role of a person or a nature being. We tend to compare the power of life-forms based on their size and how colorful and loud they are. Llyn reminds us to honor and to acknowledge the power of small.

When you honor the small beings, who are so vital to life, you start to let go of your judgments and comparisons. You can without judgment tune in to yourself and acknowledge the gifts that you personally contribute to the web of life. And in doing so you feel on a cellular level that you are enough.

Practice

As you go about your day notice the people who you meet who are in service to the community and to the planet who do not need any acknowledgment. Honor the power of anonymity while doing your spiritual work and your practices on behalf of all of life.

The full moon is May 3. During the full moon let us honor all of life – the beings we do not usually think about, those who are always in our conscious awareness. Let us wake up to the beauty and wonder of all that is alive.

Perform some deep preparation work to move your ordinary consciousness out of the way. Step back from your daily thoughts and concerns. Perform a ceremony to travel within to experience your divine light – your inner flame of life, your inner starlight, your inner sunlight. Shine and radiate that light as you focus on all that is alive and our great Earth. Touch the Earth and all of life with your love and radiance. We join our love and light together as a global community to weave a radiant web of light into reality.

If you are new to reading the Transmutation News please visit “Creating A Human Web of Light” on the homepage.

Due to the wealth of information in this month’s column I will wait to continue sharing inspirational stories from our community until June.

Transmutation News – April 2015

The focus of the Transmutation News has always been on been on engaging in spiritual practices to raise consciousness in your own life and to be a healing presence on the planet.

But as you know I also teach and write about classic shamanic healing work. I still perform soul retrievals, power animal retrievals, extraction and psychopomp work. I love working with the classic form of shamanic ceremonies. If you are new to shamanic work, you can read the article on the homepage titled “Abstract on Shamanism”. In this article I give a very brief summary on how shamans perceive the spiritual cause of emotional and physical illness.

I continue to perform and teach classic shamanic healing ceremonies. And as you know I also focus on bridging the transfiguration work into my work with clients and in my teachings. For I do believe that we can truly heal and transform personal and planetary issues working with spiritual light.

Recently I recorded an interview with Nicholas Breeze Wood, the editor of Sacred Hoop. Sacred Hoop is a wonderful magazine on shamanism. And Nick publishes many thought provoking and educational articles on the practice of shamanism.

My interview with Nicholas appears in the newest issue of Sacred Hoop #87.

You can learn more about Sacred Hoop at www.sacredhoop.org/offer.html

One of the issues Nick raised while we were talking was his sadness/frustration that shamanic practitioners are not working with the helping spirits in a way where we can allow them to intervene in our world to help with the problems we are facing.

The issue brought me to reflecting on the difference between “intervention” and “manipulation”. For until we have engaged in daily spiritual practices to look through the eyes of spirit and carve away our ego, we can fall prey to egoic desires for asking for spiritual intervention that is not for our own highest good or for the good of the planet.

And this month I encourage you to journey or meditate and try to get some understanding of the difference between “intervention” and “manipulation”.

I do agree with Nick that the practice of shamanism has so much more potential to heal than we are tapping into. I think part of the issue is that people are surfing too many different teachings so that the skill level is not being developed to bring through the true miraculous power of the work. I have talked about how many are surfing spiritual teachings in many issues of this column.

Developing skill with your work is a key to bringing through more power and healing. But I also think developing a sense of spiritual maturity to know how to engage with the helping spirits is a key to letting more healing power flow from the invisible realms into the tangible realms.

I do not have all the answers. I am simply bringing awareness to the question and encourage you to explore the issue of deepening your level of skill to bring through the helping spirits in a way where they can intervene in positive ways as we face so many personal and global challenges.

The same week I recorded this interview with Nick I recorded a bonus program for the Shift Network.

And in this interview, I also spoke about the classic causes of emotional and physical as diagnosed by shamans with the assistance of their helping spirits. And again, I spoke about the power of the practice of transfiguration and how we can heal with spiritual light.

The focus of this interview was on how powerful working with shamanic healing can be whether or not the client is present or if the work is performed long distance.

I shared just a few case studies that show the power of long-distance work. Here are some of the case studies I shared.

I once worked with a client long distance. I did not know him personally. He contacted me and asked for my help. He was dealing with severe depression. When I journeyed, my power animal said this man needed a power animal retrieval. But instead of sending him a power animal my helping spirit sent him Tree as a guardian spirit. In the practice of shamanism people can have trees as guardian spirits so the term power animal and guardian spirit is used interchangeably depending on what “nature being” appears to restore lost power.

After the journey I shared with my client that I sent him Tree. Upon the healing his depression lifted, and he developed a beautiful and healing relationship with Tree.

I once was asked to work on behalf of little girl who had been kidnapped, found, but returned to her family very traumatized. She had stopped talking.

I journeyed in the Middle World to get permission from the little girl to work for her. As she was not verbal, I could not talk to her on the phone, so I obtained permission to work on her through performing a journey.

My power animal had me blow her returned soul essence that she lost into a crystal. We wrapped it up in beautiful cloth. He also gave me the words to speak into a recorder that had a metaphorical healing story to help her feel protected and safe again. It was a beautiful healing story he gave me to share. I sent her (via Fed Ex) the crystal and the recording. I told her to hold the crystal and feel the light, love, and joy return to her again.

I stayed in touch with her parents for months. The child’s progress was slow. But the parents told me how she would never be separated from the crystal and that she played the recording over and over again all day long. She would hide the recording when she was not listening to it so no one would take it away from her.

Her healing was slow and gradual, but the long-distance work provided her with great benefit.

And the last story I wanted to share was an example of the power of long-distance transfiguration work. A group of us were at a workshop in Santa Fe at Sunrise Springs Retreat Center. We were planning to perform a transfiguration ceremony on behalf of water. Shortly before the gathering I was contacted by Mark who lived in Findhorn, Scotland. He asked me if a group would do some long-distance work on his philodendron. He sent me a photo of the plant, and I placed it on our altar in the middle of our circle. He had attached a device to the philodendron so he could measure its activity. Mark did not know exactly when the group would be working.

As a group we did not try to heal the water on our altar or try to send healing to the philodendron. We transfigured into our divine light and radiated that light while focusing on the divine health and perfection of everything on our altar.

We worked at about 9 PM in Santa Fe. And when Mark checked the readings of the device attached to the philodendron the plant became so alive energetically at the same time, we were working in Santa Fe which was in the middle of the night in Scotland.

You can see the results of the recorded activity of the philodendron by clicking on “GDV Camera Results” on the homepage. Look at Findhorn Remote Plant Experiment Results.

These are three stories out of many hundreds of amazing case studies I collected from my own work and also those of shamanic practitioners I trained.

As you know I do teach about the difference of “healing” and “curing”. I write about this in most of my books as well as in my most recent book Walking in Light: The Everyday Empowerment of Shamanic Life. For with most cases the client has to do a great deal of personal work in order to see long term results after receiving a healing performed by a shamanic practitioner.

The helping spirits can help us to intervene to heal the issues that people, other nature beings, and the planet are experiencing. But we must be willing to dive deeply into our spiritual work so that we gain the emotional maturity to know what kind of help to ask for and to open the veils between the worlds so that the amazing and unlimited power of the universe can flow through.

I am so impressed by the stunning stories and case studies my current students are sharing with me. They are bridging shamanic work into working with children, relationships, family life, business, organizations and community. I am feeling deeply inspired by the people who are truly working in partnership with the helping spirits to make a difference.

The full moon (which is also an eclipse) is April 4. Let us be a vessel of light and love that shines from within and through the invisible realms. Perform your transfiguration practice while also giving thanks to your helping spirits for dropping their form so you can both merge formless energies together. May the energies of light, love, and oneness radiating from all worlds weave together to form a web of light within and throughout the Earth. Miracles are possible. We need to focus and do the work that allows the invisible threads to be spun from the invisible into the visible to weave a new fabric of reality that embraces love, light, peace, equality, and honor and respect for all that is alive including the elements that sustain us.

If you are a new reader of the Transmutation News please read “Creating A Human Web of Light” on the homepage for instructions to our full moon ceremony.

Inspiring story to share this month:

From Judi:

I was asked by a group of women, to lead a meditation night. I was reluctant at first, thinking I was unprepared and not worthy.

After some encouraging words I decided to try once.

I spent a number of days meditating to create just the right meditation for them. When I felt satisfied that I was ready, I gave it a shot.

I had a successful group of eighteen women show up and afterwards they only had positive comments. During the month after the meditation, they would tell me how their lives had been shifted by that night. The time I spend in preparation also helps shift consciousness in me.

I did another one and from that experience I have been leading a meditation once a month for several women who tell me each meditation is better than the previous one.

Because of those meditation evenings I was asked to lead full moon drum circles and those also have been successful.

For my private work (I knew nothing of your trees) I used a Mimosa tree on my back hill that had lost its life force (beetles had infested the trunk). The birds still would sit in the leafless branches and sing so I didn’t remove the tree. I collected can lids with the tab. I added names to the lids, of people asking for prayers. With ribbons and colored plant ties I tied them to the tree branches. They are a constant reminder, as I look out the windows, of those needing help. Each day I release their needs via the element of wind so their needs can be taken to the Universe for manifestation.

Thank you so much for your healing work and encouragement.

Transmutation News – March 2015

One metaphor I often use is that we are musical instruments playing in the orchestra of life. This is a metaphor that many teachers use as it really touches a truth about our vital role in being part of a world community.

It is crucial for us to reflect on how we can fine tune ourselves to share the music that contributes to raising the vibration of the collective field and also creates harmonious notes that combine together in beauty and love.

The block to doing this continues to be how we get distracted by people and events in the outer world. It is not just the news stories that continue to distract us. The distractions come in as there is such a wealth of books, audio and video lectures, and teachings that are now available to all.

On one level this is wonderful, and we can learn so much. But it has also created a lot of “spiritual surfers”. I strongly believe that the challenges we are now facing on the planet call for people to go as deep into a practice as they can go.

There is of course the need to be exposed to different types of spiritual work and a wealth of spiritual teachings. But at what point do you feel that a path calls to you and decide to stay on the path with focus?

Last month I suggested that you find one simple practice to engage in until it becomes who you are. This is what I mean by fine tuning. For as we become the work and stop seeing our spiritual life as separate from our ordinary life that is where positive change happens in your life and in the world.

And I use the word “simple” in a way that does not refer to practices for beginners. It refers to practices that speak to your heart and soul and do not just speak to your mind. For I find that when people want to perform complex practices their minds get fed, but change might not happen on a cellular level. If you have to focus on the steps instead of on the work, you are too distracted to be the bridge between the invisible and the tangible realms.

As you all know I began teaching Medicine for the Earth in 2000. I have taught the work in the Transmutation News, in many of my books, on audio lectures, interviews, and at conferences.

After I started teaching Five Day Medicine for the Earth Gatherings many participants from my groups would gather together once a year for reunions in Santa Fe. At first, I attended the reunions as it was so wonderful to join a circle devoted to working in behalf of all of life.

At some point due, to the intensity of my teaching schedule, I moved away from attending the reunions. The reunions continued for years and participants continued to share the work they were doing, and the circle continued to bond and deepen.

One year the two friends contacted me to ask me if I would come back to the reunion to help the group explore the next level of the work. I was honored to be asked and immediately said, “Yes”.

I journeyed to my spiritual teacher Isis who had been a source of inspiration in writing Medicine for the Earth: How to Transform Personal and Environmental Toxins. Together with the guidance of Isis, Osiris, and Anubis I had developed the work.

I asked Isis if she could give me exercises or practices to share in the reunion. Her response was that working with light and unconditional love is the key to personal and global transformation. She said it was not that the group needed new, updated, and more complex practices. She said that the group needed to recommit and rededicate themselves to integrating the work fully into daily life.

She advised me to show up to the reunion and teach the Five Day Medicine for the Earth Training again and have people reflect on how much they were living the work.

The point I am trying to make is that we distract ourselves by thinking there is a more powerful “method” or “technique”. We forget the key is that we are the instrument for the divine and we have to fine tune ourselves as the instrument.

Shamans have always worked with light to heal. In their initiations shamans are filled with light and have some experience of a transcendent state of oneness giving them their psychic and healing abilities. This opens the shaman to the world of spirit.

And how shamans have continued to be the instrument of the power of the universe, the divine, and the compassionate spirits is by entering into an ecstatic state where the shaman loses his or her sense of separation and steps aside from ego and personality.

Shamans have and still do this by engaging in long periods of drumming, rattling, singing, dancing, and spending extended times alone in nature.

Shamans step fully into the invisible realms in order to bring through the magic, beauty, healing, power, and new dreams into the tangible realms and into manifest form. They also practice deep listening in nature and watch for omens and signs. They are always “tuned in” and dream with their full body.

Take the time to do the preparation work needed to bridge the healing and power from the invisible realms into the tangible realms. Step away from our social conditioning to embrace a bigger dream that includes the belief that we are unlimited in what we can manifest through spiritual work.

We can get lost in looking for that magical “cure” that will create positive change without realizing that “we” are the magical cure.

And I wonder how loud and intense the wake-up call has to get. A teaching shared in many indigenous stories is, “We are the ones we are waiting for”.

As we move into spring or fall, we enter into a new season in nature and in life. I ask that you review the practices you have learned over the years. And take some time and walk in nature or sit in silence. Reflect on how deep you have delved into the practices and all the spiritual teachings you have learned. Honestly ask yourself if you are surfing the surface waves of your work? Are you living the work minute to minute? Do you separate your spiritual life and practices from your daily life? Can you laugh at yourself and love yourself when you fall off the path? How committed are you to deepen the work and become it?

Commit to working with the power of imagination. Imagination is dismissed by many, and it is not understood that our imagination fuels our psychic abilities. For as you engage your imagination you stir your psychic invisible senses to call something into your life and physical world and release that which does not serve you. I had a dream one night in February where I received a transmission of the power of this teaching. The teaching was absorbed by my cells but difficult to find words for.

In February I gave a free introductory lecture through the Shift Network titled “Shamanic Journeying for Community Healing: How Shamanic Practices Can Heal Families, Communities, and Nations”. The call was too short for me to be able to share the depth of what I wanted to share. But to everyone’s amazement about 13,000 people signed up for this lecture. Just the interest alone is a wonderful sign of the desire to work together to heal our communities and the world. There was a palpable energy of love and beauty in our collective field that I know rippled throughout the web of life.

From a shamanic point of view, we are all going through an initiation. The planet is going through an initiation. We are being asked to shed or burn away our old identity and old ways of living that no longer serve us personally, all of life, and the Earth.

And as I have shared previously, it is our spirit that guides and carries us through any initiation. We have to let the depth of spirit guide us now. We have to let go of our mental distractions. It is time to become the work.

We need to join together in spirit, beyond ego and personality, to support each other and stand strong together. There is so much we can do together as a strong devoted spiritual collective working together on behalf of all of life and the Earth.

But we must fully open ourselves to the world of spirit and spin threads of beauty, love, light, honor, respect, equality, peace, and abundance for all from the invisible realms into the tangible realms. That is how a new fabric of reality will be dreamed into being.

The full moon is March 5. Let us spin into being a human web of light and love that contributes to the new dream of the Earth. Do your preparation work and let go of your distractions. Fully inhabit your body and engage your senses as you experience your divine light and be that finely tuned instrument that sings the song of light, love, peace, and harmony within and throughout this great Earth.

If you are a new reader of the Transmutation News please visit “Creating A Human Web of Light” to read the instructions for our monthly full moon ceremonies.

We are mostly water and we live on a planet that is mostly water. The element of water connects us all. As we do our spiritual work together, we can change the vibration of our inner waters. This change in vibration will be reflected back to us by the outer waters that flow through the Earth. We can create an immense amount of positive change and healing by harmonizing together the molecules of our inner water!

On March 20 we celebrate the equinox. We welcome in spring in the Northern Hemisphere and fall in the Southern Hemisphere.

To celebrate the equinox, connect with a body of water. You can do this through a shamanic journey or meditation and sit with a body of water you travel to in the invisible realms. This would be a Middle World experience. Or you can physically go into nature and sit by a body of water. As you sit with this body of water feel your inner water harmonizing energetically just as you would harmonize and connect with the heartbeat of the Earth.

Find a song or chant that shifts and heightens your vibration. Listen to the song or chant of the water you are sitting with. Attune your vibration to the song of your inner water and the outer body of water you are connecting with. Let us focus on the waters within and without that connect us all. As we all do this together the vibration of all “our inner and outer waters” will harmonize together. Imagine what healing this will bring to all of us and to the planet. Let the vibration of our collective field of energy be changed by the harmonizing Water within and without.

Let us join together to wish all in the web of life a beautiful and joyous equinox!

In February I woke up with a beautiful insight that I want to share with you:

Even when a star in the sky is invisible to our eyes it is still shining.

You are a human walking star. You are shining all the time!

Stories from readers:

Alorah wrote:

Dear Sandra and Community,

In response to your invitation to share what has had an impact, made a difference in my life, in life, I offer the following.

I must say that to share one story or practice is like trying to separate the air that I breathe. Having meditated and merged with the element of fire, I feel the heat, the smoldering in my body, the spark of inspiration that shoots from the eternal flame in my heart. Although it appears as a single, separate spark, it is seeded or born from the eternal flame of life.

Another practice that grows within me is feeling myself as a strand, a jewel in the vortex of the web of life. I love connecting with the web, with all of us who reflect the light in each other. It is so beautiful and gives me a feeling of belonging and solidness; a place to land and rest before going back out into the world, the marketplace.

Also, connecting with the spirit of the land is grounding and again feels me into belonging to this beautiful universe. I do this wherever I live, as I have moved around a bit. I do this when I travel. I tune into the heartbeat of our earth and all my helpers and guides in all forms. It is magical and very real.

Sandy J wrote:

While under stress a few years ago, I retreated to the shore for a solitary summer weekend. After checking in I went directly out to the beach. The wind was howling and the waves were crashing. Even though there were other vacationers on the beach, the songs of nature were loud enough to squelch even my own reluctance to address spirit directly. Standing tall, my chin up and my arms out wide to receive, I asked spirit, “What do you have for me?” I then dropped my head and my eyes fell directly to a shark’s tooth lying on top of the sand.

I picked up the gift and smiled. I held its smooth blackness in my hands and contemplated the shark. Shark must move constantly to remain alive. It travels confidently through dark waters. Though it is very powerful, Shark doesn’t use its power to consume everything in its path. It feeds on specific queues.

This gave me much to consider. Am I just sitting down in the dark? Perhaps I should keep moving? OK, maybe it’s dark at the moment. Keep moving to brighter waters. How am I using my power? Am I consuming everyone in my path? Perhaps I should give greater consideration to how I engage others along my path.

The tooth remains upon my altar, even today. It’s both smooth and sharp. I endeavor to learn to respect and handle myself as carefully as I respect and handle the gift of the shark’s tooth. I am thankful for both the gift of the shark’s tooth and the gift of life.

Since then, instead of waiting until I’m in a dark place, I regularly address spirit asking, “What do you have for me?” It’s amazing what will result from being present with and receptive to spirit.

Category: English 2015

A Update About Inspiring Stories:

Inspirational Stories From Our Community:

Speaking with Nature Excerpt

Inspiring story to share this month:

Stories from readers: