Category: English

Transmutation News – September 2018

Thank you for your generous feedback on the August Transmutation News. It spoke deeply to many readers.

I also want to thank everyone for your support of my two new books The Book of Ceremony and The Hidden Worlds (co-written with Katherine Wood).

I had the amazing opportunity to speak to a group in Syria who were reaching out for spiritual tools to regain a sense of hope in the midst of living in constant war. People all over the world are really turning to spiritual tools as not much makes sense to our rational minds. And it is time to embrace spiritual practices that can help shine a light on ways to do the inner work needed as our way of life is being dismembered.

Working with the practice of transfiguration and healing with spiritual light is a powerful contribution to healing our lives and helping the planet. For when we transfigure, we become a true presence of light which heals and transforms everything within and without.

But transfiguration, although it can manifest miraculous healings, is typically not enough to work with alone. For unless we change our lifestyle, actions, behaviors, how we use words, and focus on the energy of the thoughts and daydreams we feed the collective with, then our efforts will be stunted. For it is not enough to radiate light unless we raise our own physical vibration to match the state of unity, light, and love.

We have forgotten that we are interconnected and interdependent with all of life. This is being reflected back to us by the environment and a lot of unbalanced behavior.

This might sound obvious to many of you, but unfortunately so many are still waiting for a miracle. And as I teach so strongly in the Medicine for the Earth trainings, we must engage in miraculous work by engaging the elements of intention + love + union + harmony + concentration + focus + imagination.

In addition to all the spiritual work we perform we must change our lifestyle to live in ways that support our environment. This is more difficult to do as in the modern world we are so used to our way of life.

On September 23 we honor the equinox as we move into autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and spring in the Southern Hemisphere. And in working with the changing seasons, I have been encouraging you to focus on how all changes in nature flow. There are not dramatic starts and stops. All cycles of change flow into each other.

The elements are great teachers in how to enter the flow of life. For earth, air, water, and fire are always moving, always cleansing, and then returning to phases of renewal.

When we honor a change in seasons, we also let go of what anchors us to unhealthy ways of thinking and to our past. The equinox is a time for cleansing, restating our intentions, committing to engage in deeper spiritual practices in a more disciplined way which leads us to a rebirth. It is time to honor ourselves, all of life, and our interconnectedness with nature.

To honor the equinox, I would love for us to focus on ceremonial work to release some of the negativity we are sending in the collective. For I am finding that as issues on the Earth heat up the spiritual community, it is also feeding a lot of energy of division and old ways of thinking. We all have pieces of the puzzle to share, and we need to be supportive of different spiritual viewpoints. Let us focus on creating a stronger collective together. For that is how real change will happen.

Below are some suggestions for a ceremony you might choose to perform on the equinox. They are adapted out of Walking in Light: The Everyday Empowerment of Shamanic Life.

You want to design a ceremony to release an old thought form that emerges from old voices that challenge spiritual principles of working with unity, love, light, honor, and respect. Always work with the spirit of love. You are taking a loving action toward yourself as well as our spiritual community when you release what binds you.

If you feel you need more guidance on a ceremony to use, you can journey to a helping spirit to get a suggestion for a simple ceremony to perform. No matter how simple your ceremony is, you want to create it in a sacred way. This is where the power lies.

You can invite friends, loved ones, and people in your community to work in a ceremonial way together. And you can imagine how much children love to engage in this work.

Fire Ceremony

Fire is the great teacher of transformation and transmutation. Fire takes from us what needs to be released and transmutes the energy.

Make a tangible object that can be burned. You can create a talisman or power object that holds the power of your belief that you can release into the flames. You can find a stick as you walk in nature while focusing on what you wish to release. Take some yarn and unwind from your psyche your self-sabotaging belief while you wind its power onto the stick or create a talisman from burnable objects in nature. Take some time to make sure you have not just made a representation of your blocking belief or thought form. Sing in, blow in, dance in, drum, or rattle in the power of the thought form into your talisman so it embodies the power of what you are releasing.

You can perform a fire ceremony in a fireplace or outdoors if it safe. If you are limited in safe ways to work with fire, you can use the flame of a candle. Write the belief you are releasing on a piece of paper and burn it in a bowl or in a sink.

You are working in partnership with the spirit of fire to transform the thought form that you are releasing. As you build the fire, share with it your intention.

Offer to the fire your talisman or even a thought form or blocking belief you have written down on a piece of paper. Focus on what you are going to release. Feel it in your body. Once you feel ready, release it into the flame. Release the talisman into the fire while giving thanks and gratitude to fire as it works in your behalf to consume and transform your belief into pure divine energy. Give an offering to the fire as it takes your blocking belief from you to be healed. I use cedar as an offering in the fire ceremonies I perform.

When your ceremony is complete, give thanks to the elements and helping spirts. This work marks an initiation and opens a new doorway for how you live your life.

Many of my clients and students use a sacred bowl at home to perform regular fire ceremonies as they continue to explore the obstacles to manifesting their dreams of a good life for oneself and for all life on Earth.

Water Ceremony

Create a talisman out of objects you find in nature that you can release into the water. This talisman holds the power of the belief. You can create a little boat out of sticks and plants, letting your belief sail away into the realm of spirit. Give thanks to water as your belief is released and transformed.

A wonderful ceremony that a student of mine shared with me is working with dissolving paper. You can buy dissolving paper from the website www.ScienceBob.com. Dissolving paper is completely safe for the environment and composts fully. You can cut up small pieces and draw images, symbols, or words that embrace beliefs and thought forms you are releasing. Heat up some water and place it in a bowl. Ceremoniously place the paper with your belief into the warm water and watch it completely dissolve. Bring the small bowl of water outside and feed the water to the earth.

Bubble Ceremony

A ceremony that will fill you with a childlike state of joy is to go outside with a bottle of bubbles. Hold your intention and blow bubbles into the air unburdening yourself from negative thought forms. Give thanks to air as the wind carries your blocking belief to the creative forces of the universe where it is transformed into love and light.

Burial Ceremony

Write something down or create something out of nature that you can bury into the earth. In this way you can perform a funeral for letting go of negative thought forms. Just remember to bury your belief with love. You are releasing what binds you while at the same time transforming the energy of the belief into love and light.

Breaking Away Ceremony

Find a stick in nature and while holding it, focus on the self-sabotaging belief you wish to be unburdened from. Break the stick as you release your connection to this belief. This is a symbolic act of disconnecting from an unwanted energy.

Journey for Dismembering a Thought Form

Bring your blocking belief, attitude, or thought patterns to a helping spirit and ask this spirit to dismember the thought form.

You might feel an immediate release and newly regained sense of freedom. There are times when more work needs to be done over time. I invite you to join me in raising your spiritual awareness and consciousness above the negative energies weighing us down.

The full moon is September 25. Let us continue our work as we sink into the depth of our spiritual light that has so much potential to transform and heal ourselves, all in the web of light, and the Earth. Our light radiates and dances together uplifting and feeding all of life with strength, compassion, and love. We join together as we radiate luminescent light within and throughout the Earth.

If you are a new reader of the Transmutation News please read Creating A Human Web of Light on the homepage.

Circling back to the August Transmutation News, I wrote about how we are taking on too many challenging energies flowing through the collective field of energy. What my helping spirits have showed me on a very cellular body feeling level is the difference of what happens when we fill ourselves with what we are in gratitude for, beautiful images, colors, fragrances, tastes, smells, and delightful sounds. When we are so filled with beauty, we can see beauty in our outer world. If not filled with rich and beautiful energies, we feel empty inside. And in that emptiness energies from the collective can flood in. Being filled with light, love, and beauty is our greatest protection as well as being a powerful contribution to all of life.

I join our circle in wishing everyone a deep and meaningful equinox celebration!!

Transmutation News – August 2018

I want to thank everyone for the beautiful messages I received about the July Transmutation News.

I know many of you are sensitive and might be feeling lost in the current storms of life we are experiencing. I wanted to share some things from own life without writing an entire autobiography.

I grew up in a typical neighborhood in Brooklyn that is often depicted in comedy shows on TV. But life was not funny as people struggled to take care of themselves and their children.

My father had a small store a few blocks from our house. I would either go to visit after school or sometimes work there. I loved being outside and playing sports with my friends or in my house writing fictional stories. But I did spend quite a bit of time helping at the store.

When I would walk to my father’s store there would always be someone who would stop me and ask if I was willing to talk. I was only about 7 and would always stop to listen. I remember one day the wind was so strong. And you know how on city streets when the wind is so strong it blows dirt and garbage like a tornado around your feet. I remember one day garbage and dirt was blowing around me while an elderly man asked to speak to me. I don’t remember the conversation. I remember the scene and his face so clearly. But he thanked me at the end of our time together for my kindness and listening to him.

These kinds of events kept happening. And there were customers who would come into the store to simply talk to me and of course felt obligated to buy something. I remember a beautiful nun in a full habit who would often come to speak to me and then tell me what a special child I was. I am not aware at this point of how I helped so many, but I was a stellar listener and always had a smile for people.

Then when I was about 13, I could see I had come become quite depressed. And although I grew up around people who were suffering, including my own family, I was quite a happy child. But I noticed this happiness had left me. I would sit on my bed and wonder why I felt so sad all the time. And at that point I realized I was taking on the pain of others around me.

Fast forward to my later teenage years when the Vietnam War began. I was outraged. I always supported those who went to war and of course many of my dear friends were drafted. But I felt the war was unjust, and I participated in demonstrations on Wall Street where bottles were thrown at us and the police would set off tear gas as we marched the streets.

When I realized that my efforts had no impact on creating a change, I guess I had what some would call a nervous breakdown, but I could still work, go to school, and function in the world. For my own survival I knew I had to do something drastic for my own mental health, and I stopped watching any news or reading the news. I did not even know who the president of U.S. was for about 10 years. I experimented with drugs, moved to a commune in San Francisco, and started to explore alternative ways of living.

In a true organic progress, I started to heal. During my years in San Francisco, I left the commune, enrolled in San Francisco State to get my BA in Biology, specializing in Marine Biology, and loved all that I was learning. I worked at the Student Learning Center. The manager would sit at the front desk and always had the newspaper on his desk. One day after a year or so of working there I found myself reading the headline on the front page. I did not go past the headlines for months until one day I started to read articles, and this was my entrance into finding my way back into knowing about what was politically occurring.

My story continues with various situations like this. But my saving grace was that I did have a lot of access to the unseen realms through my own predisposition to spiritual work, my Near Death Experiences, and all the plant spirit medicine I worked with. And then to add to this in 1980 I was introduced to shamanic journeying.

It was through my shamanic journeying that I learned from my helping spirits that I can affect a lot of change through spiritual work. Hence all my teachings and books came out of the wonders of what I was shown about the invisible foundation of positive change we create by the work we do in the non-ordinary realms.

I am sharing this with you as I am hearing from hundreds of people feeling too sensitive to be enveloped by the truly insane and inhumane behavior. We are more visceral than we might realize. But so many have deadened the sense of feeling through finding distractions.

We all have a destiny. And for some people they thrive on being politically active and demonstrating. What a gift to share with the web of life as people defend the rights of all of life. Then there are those whose destiny does not support being that active politically. But our destiny and gift is to be active in the unseen realms weaving a new of fabric of reality that will replace the one that is dissolving. Then there are the people who have the destiny to do both. As I frequently share Gandhi was one example of many who could do both.

We all have gifts to share right now. And if you have to take a “news break” or go on a “news fast” then take care of yourself and do it. A few years ago, I was reading tweets by a wonderful woman who wanted to make the public aware of all the animal cruelty going on in the world. I felt I had to read and see the photos or videos every day to honor these animals and not turn a blind eye to what was happening. And the result was I had quite the meltdown and went off Twitter.

Yes, I have done a lot of work in my life so I could be a psychotherapist and shamanic healer and not get ill by taking on my clients’ issues and pain. But I am too sensitive to be in a true flood of negative energies, heartbreaking news stories, and so much hate. I do keep my ears open, and I am certainly aware of everything going on. But I know I can’t immerse myself in these energies. I stay true to my shamanic work and work on a different level – not better or inferior to what others are doing – just following my destiny.

I can still be a spiritual warrior in bringing about a new world. But I have to honor my sensitivity that makes me a good healer and work on different dimensions of reality to birth through the change. And that is what the Medicine for the Earth work is all about.

And this is why I keep writing books and teaching to inspire people in multiple ways to effect change in the world. To add to this my spiritual work also brings me much needed solace to stay focused and centered during these times.

Honor your destiny of what you came in here to do. If you feel lost in the current storm take a break from the news. Perform the spiritual practices I have been encouraging you to do as I have written since 2000 in the Transmutation News, in my books, and as I teach in my workshops. Many of you have found practices to work with that really support your health and your deeper work to be of service.

It is not just frivolous words when I keep sharing that it is who we become that changes the world. For as we fill up with spiritual energies of love, light, joy, peace, honor, respect, and equality, these qualities naturally birth through us and begin to weave new energies into the web of life.

Never question the work that has been passed down for thousands of years. The reason the practices I share are so powerful is that they work. But yes, it is true that change does not come in the timing we want. I wrote a beautiful section on this in my new book The Book of Ceremony: Shamanic Wisdom for Invoking the Sacred Intro Everyday Life. Shamans have always used ceremony to effect change. And it is time for all of us to bring ceremony into our lives on a very regular basis.

Take care of yourself on all levels and then you will take care of the planet.

I was looking for a message the goddess Isis shared during one of my sessions while teaching an online course. The message I was looking for was on the need to work with our spiritual heart. But I found this one instead, and felt it was appropriate to share now.

Message From Isis

“You have traveled through many different realms to learn about your true nature and to touch into those vulnerable parts of yourself that needed to be strengthened. Your work is far reaching beyond you. For you reflect back parts of the collective that need healing.

We have been living in times where humans have fallen out of harmony with nature and the rules of life itself. It is easy to see the path ahead as more dissolution will occur as so many do not wake up from the hypnotic trance they live in and do not respect life itself.

As I have taught time and time again you can ride a different wave. For beyond this dimension of reality is another veil to open that allows you to step into a new frequency and a new vibration of life. You can travel back and forth between these dimensions building bridges so healing energies can flood this current collective. But you cannot save the collective. And you should not try.

Love is the healing force that all must wake up to. And you cannot force others to open to a state of true unconditional love. First you must begin by loving yourself. Imagine a cup that is overfilled with water flowing in and water flowing out. Your love must flow with ease – it cannot be a forced process.

Once you have experienced the unconditional love of the goddess and unconditional love and acceptance for yourself only then can you share this love and healing power with others. And you hold all in love and trust that what will be will be. There is more than you can see with your ordinary eyes.

But you will always know in your heart that you did show up for yourself and the Earth and all of life. And in that you will carry the energy of a spiritual being who did bring change for all of life.

Stay focused. Imagine walking a path where there is destruction and dissolution to your left and right. But walk the path that is ahead of you putting one step forward and then the next step forward neither looking left or right. Keep walking the path. And know you are held in love by me, and by the gods and goddesses throughout times. The ancient ones sing for you to guide your way. Listen to their song. The descendants sing for you. Listen to how they light your path.

Walk the path to true freedom and let go of all attachments. Just be love.”

Now I will share an excerpt of a message that Isis shared about working with our spiritual heart. The entire message she gave is written in the October 2017 Transmutation News.

“In your world teachers, including your own, encourage you to open your heart to the spirit of love.

But this teaching is not correct on the level of heart that you are being asked to connect with.

For the focus has been on your physical heart which is simply part of your ego. And so many of you are experiencing and seeing suffering which on an evolutional level is expanding your sense of compassion. It takes you so deep into your humanness. But you are still trapped in the energy, vibration, frequency of suffering and that is the energy you are feeding in the world. And by carrying the energy of suffering so many people are becoming ill.

You are now literally and metaphorically being cracked open to the deepest place within where all the knowledge and wisdom is waiting for you to learn from as you touch deeper into your humanness.

Behind your physical heart is a spiritual heart. You do not have to travel that deeply within to connect with it. It is talked about by many gurus, mystics, and spiritual teachers.

And this spiritual heart – one with Source and the joy, bliss, and unconditional love for all of life and creation knows no suffering. It knows bliss, it knows unconditional love, but has no experience of suffering on this Earth.”

People keep writing to me and asking for a variety of prayers for challenges happening all over the world. Please remember that everything we are witnessing in the world today is being birthed through us. Yes, keep praying. But if you don’t examine your ongoing daydreams and stay focused and disciplined with your dreaming work, I personally do not see positive change happening. For any change that happens will be birthed through us- it will not come to us.

Our beautiful radiant full moon is on August 26. Let us explore experiencing our spiritual heart to tap into a deeper space within ourselves, perform our preparation work, and join together as a spiritual community to radiate our light and love within and throughout the Earth.

If you are a new reader of the Transmutation News please read Creating A Human Web of Light on the homepage for the instructions of how to join us in our monthly ceremony.

Transmutation News – July 2018

Last month I had a dream where I heard, “Often in life we lose sight of what is important.” Although this is not a new teaching the message spoke to me in a way that acted as a wakeup call. And the timing of the message was perfect for me.

Then I left on the first vacation I have taken in years. And while listening to the magical song of the ocean I received the same message.

It seems to me that with the resurgence of shamanism and renewed interest in this powerful work there is a wave of movement that is both beautiful to watch and at the same time is quite frightening to witness.

For in the collective field of excitement I am finding that people are being drawn outside of themselves. And I have to include myself in this population. As I am so available publicly, I can perceive a frenetic energy going into the work. And that is not what the practice of shamanism is about.

Over the years I learned that when I reached out for too much help it ended up being a distraction pulling me off the path I was walking on. During certain life challenges what stood in the way of a shorter and more graceful path to my healing was listening to what others thought and what others were telling me to do.

I keep having to stay focused on my own essential core teaching that the key to life is to create a deep, rich, and meaningful inner world. I focus on not getting drawn out of my inner world and getting pulled outside of myself.

In listening to others, I did not uncover the gems of what my own soul was trying to lead me to. And the only way to identify these gems is to dive deep within. There have been times when I lost faith in my own inner healer that I have always trusted to help me move out of and transform any challenge I have experienced in life.

With the practice of shamanism what is so attractive to many is jumping into working with healing methods and being part of communities. This needs to happen along with working deeply to discover the gifts, strengths, and abilities in our inner world that we still think we find by engaging in learning shamanic “methods”.

For the practice of shamanism is an organic process. We are part of the Earth organism and not separate from it. We join with all species to make up the appendages and organs of our Earth.

In order to be in the flow of the organic process of life we must find our own voice, inner healer, and be willing to face some old wounds that only you can see, feel, and experience. It is important to remove yourself from everyone’s projection and remember who you are again.

When participants in my Medicine for the Earth trainings ask me what is next, I have shared just keep deepening your transfiguration work and keep doing the personal work I have shared to learn how to be a healthy and responsible human. Stop looking for more “magical” methods to work with. And on many levels, this is true.

But in shamanic and other spiritual traditions people were not introduced to such powerful work before learning how to look within and develop a level of evolution in shifting into a new consciousness and way of living in the world. And I find for many, not all, the focus strays from the inner work we have to do, and we are mesmerized by ways of creating miracles and try to enter a fast track to healing.

For to really work with the power of light and transfiguration we have to change our lifestyle, our identity of how we perceive ourselves, be aware of how much we project onto others, how much we avoid our own shadow states, and the list goes on. Without these skills we cannot “live the work”.

The key is not to stop trying to learn more healing practices, but to polish the work of how we explore the deepest layers of ourselves which leads to an organic way to work with light so that we can be a presence that shines.

For years I have been wanting to teach some practices that help us to tap into some advanced spiritual practices of telepathy, changing the nature of substances using blessings and light, etc. But I have felt that there is more work for all of us to do before we are ready.

We use so little of our brain’s capacity. We have gifts and abilities that are beyond our wildest dreams. And our potential is untapped.

I see one of the reasons for this is that we allow ourselves to get so distracted and pulled out of ourselves.

I no longer want to lose sight of what is important about life. I want to continue to deepen my exploration of my beautiful and magical inner world. And invite you to join me in this journey.

This month please take some time to be in nature, journey, meditate, drink tea and reflect, and so on and ask yourself the question, “Have I lost sight of what is important in life?” Am I focusing too much on what is happening in the outer world and not focused on the calling of my own soul?” “Am I listening to my inner voice”.

Notice how the different phases of the moon draw you within to times where you are supported in doing this deep inner work.

Continue to read inspirational books or take workshops that you are drawn to. But please do not forget about the magic seed of light that is growing within you. And how do you stay present to the challenges and the blessings of your own journey?

I feel there is a lot to reflect on. For so many people are talking about the exciting changes of consciousness that are being witnessed in the world. What is the conversation you need to take into your inner world?

The full moon is July 27. Reflect on how you can take your transfiguration practice to deeper levels as you continue to explore your inner world. For once you can evolve your practice other gifts will emerge to support the powerful work we are doing together.

On the full moon let’s join our hearts together and shine our light in ways that truly impact the living organism of Earth.

If you are a new reader of the Transmutation News please read Creating a Human Web of Light on the homepage of this site.

Transmutation News – June 2018

The Medicine for the Earth and Healing with Spiritual Light Training in Estes Park, Colorado was truly marvelous. Everyone really embraced the work. The film crew present became part of our circle, and they participated in journeys and ceremonies when they could. We had some beautiful healings that occurred due to the work including some amazing remote healings for people whose names were under the altar.

And the most exciting part for me is that participants went home and many immediately started sharing transfiguration ceremonies in their communities and even teaching their children the work.

The true excitement for me in teaching right now is to see how participants in both my residential workshops and online courses are bringing the Medicine for the Earth and other shamanic practices into their families, workplaces, and into their communities. And I know many of you are doing this too. And I am so grateful to all of you sharing this profound work.

Dean Radin wrote a fabulous book Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe. It is phenomenal for a scientist to offer a vision of a scientifically informed magic and explains why it will play a key role in exploring the frontiers of science. And he includes shamanism in his discussion.

Shamanism does offer amazing keys to healing the issues we are facing on the planet. And again, it depends on if we take the incentive and opportunity to become the work.

Recently I received a message in the dream, “healing comes through you, not to you”. When I woke up, I remembered that this is the same message Florence Scovel Shinn shared in her teachings where she taught that “creation comes through you, not to you”.

This message ties in with some interesting conversations I have been having with other shamanic teachers. For it is so clear that the Western world is stepping into the path of shamanism in the opposite flow of how this would occur in an indigenous culture.

And after all the conversations I have been having I realized that this is what I have been so passionately sharing in all my workshops and books where I speak to the difference of “curing” and “healing”.

I don’t want to over romanticize shamanic cultures. As humans we do not always behave in ethical or responsible ways. Our ego and personality must continue to be worked with to keep us focused on bringing our gifts into communities. This includes people living in indigenous communities.

But children in shamanic cultures were acknowledged for the gifts and strengths they contributed to their communities, were taught how to speak with all the beings in nature, how to perform gratitude practices no matter what is happening in the outer world, and to use discipline with their words, thoughts, and daydreams as blessings instead of focusing on using this powerful energy to curse oneself and all in the web of life.

Then once they entered puberty, elders would oversee life threatening initiations where the initiates would then have to rely on their spiritual strength to carry them through. This helped them to evolve into a responsible adult who contributed to the strength of the community.

It was then that community members were introduced to the path of the shaman.

In the Western world we tend to enter into the path of the shaman before we are grounded in how to be a strong dreamer who knows how to work with words, thoughts, daydreams, and energy to help create a healthy collective. We are stepping into the world of the shaman without having the knowledge of how to create pristine sacred space and communicate with the spirt that lives in all things.

Clients show up for shamanic healings expecting an instantaneous and magical cure without having the tools for doing their inner work that leads to long term healing instead of a quick fix.

Everything that we are all dealing with in life could be dealt with if we did our inner work and understood that it is by working within your inner world that builds the invisible form of substance necessary to manifest our greatest desires for ourselves and all of life.

The full moon is June 28. Let us truly immerse ourselves and merge with the shimmering web of light. Don’t separate yourself from the web of life. Become the web of life. You are the web of light. Radiate your divine light as you go deeper into your experience and “BE” the web of light.

We radiate our light together perceiving all in its in divine perfection. This work is strong and powerful and does create change. Go deeper with your transfiguration work on the full moon.

If you are a new reader of the Transmutation News please visit Creating a Human Web of Light on the homepage.

We join together to celebrate the solstice on June 21. We welcome in summer in the Northern Hemisphere and winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

We remember that the solstice is not a separate event. For there has been a flow of energetic change and changes in the quality of light that led up the solstice. The solstice marks a change that we are part of. It is always good to do a merging journey with the land where you live on the solstice to experience how you are changing with the change in seasons.

It is important to tune into your body and feel how the changes in nature are impacting your own nature and being fully aware of the shifts in the texture of the land, the smell of the wind, the sounds of the birds and other nature beings who live in your area, and the changes in the plants and trees. You can even taste the change in the air.

For thousands of years people have universally been watching and experiencing the changing signs in nature to inform them of their behavior in how to prepare for the change in season. It is always best when your body is the barometer of change instead of focusing on the calendar.

Whether you are welcoming in summer or winter this is a great time to see ourselves as gardeners and caretakers of this great Earth.

Find organic and compostable materials and make a little container that holds a prayer for yourself, the web of life, and the Earth. Plant your prayers into the earth where you live. Energetically this seed prayer will grow as you nurture it with your love and light. What we feed grows!!

I join our circle in wishing everyone a beautiful solstice!!

Transmutation News – May 2018

Last month we practiced the classic shamanic visionary journey of dismemberment. It is a great practice that you can keep up on a regular basis as a way to keep purifying and feeling renewed.

If you did not have a chance to read the April Transmutation News you can click on this link to read it: https://www.sandraingerman.com/tnapril2018.html

This month I suggest we continue with the dismemberment process and other practices to release our disappointments about life and any looping thoughts that sabotage the success of our work.

If you have a shamanic journey practice you can call on one of your helping and compassionate spirits to work with you in partnership. Tell your helping spirit what belief or disappointment you would like to experience dismembered. In your journey you can write words on pieces of paper. Or you can draw a representation of the energies you would like to see transformed. Then ask your helping spirit to destroy it by tearing it up or using its unique gifts to dismember it.

If you do not have a journey practice you can perform a meditation and call in a divine figure you trust and work with. Ask this divine figure to dismember what no longer serves you by following the directions above.

Another way I like to work is with the cauldron of light. I have introduced you to this practice in previous columns. You can journey or meditate to a sacred place in nature. Ask a divine figure or helping spirit to place a cauldron of light in this special place. During your meditation or journey release into the cauldron of light disappointments and sabotaging beliefs. You can also place into the cauldron of light any issues around forgiving yourself and others to be transmuted and transformed.

After you complete your releasing work it is important to fill up with light, powerful, inspirational, and loving energies. You can do this by transfiguring and experiencing your divine light being absorbed into all your cells. You can ask your helping spirit or divine figure to fill you with loving and healing energies. Work as you are guided.

About 30 years ago I wanted to end a friendship with someone who was unhealthy for me to remain in relationship with. We had some unpleasant conversations. Our conversations were not leading to a healthy outcome. I felt it did not matter if we finished all of our unfinished conversations. I chose instead to break off all connection with this person.

I journeyed on it and my power animal said there is no such thing as an unfinished conversation. He advised me to finish it now or in another life. I realized that I did not want to be connected with this person in a future life. My power animal then told me to finish the conversation now.

It became impossible to proceed with a healthy conversation. This happens for many of us where we need to do our healing work in the non-ordinary realms instead of in the physical. We can always perform a ceremony to release us from unhealthy relationships. We can talk to a person in non-ordinary reality to finish a conversation. And we can perform dismemberment journeys to dissolve these connections and also dismember the words of destructive conversations.

We often end up in relationships with others that stem from an old karmic connection. Some of these meetings with old soul friends again are wonderful. But we want to avoid reestablishing a relationship with someone who we want freedom from.

By performing regular dismemberment journeys or meditations is one way to keep clearing energies that are anchoring you to an unhealthy way of life. And by filling up with loving and light filled energies will keep you inspired to move forward with transforming your life in a positive way.

The full moon is May 29. Let’s gather together virtually to fill the planet with our love and light. Please perform your preparation work so that you truly let go of your mental thoughts and ordinary life. Mental chatter prevents your work from going to the deepest level possible. And we cannot afford doing our work in a shallow way. The planet and all of life needs your focused attention on your practices.

Once you are ready travel deep inside experiencing your radiant light joining with the light of our circle. And with love for all of life being the fuel for your work let us perceive the entire planet in her divine perfection and light. Step through the dense collective energies to open to another dimension known by shamans and mystics where there is only beauty. Remembering our love for all of life let us join together to weave together a luminous web of light within and throughout the Earth. Let’s share our love with each other and all in the web of life.

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

And let’s please keep up our transfiguration work, at least weekly, to hold the vision of the Earth and all of life in its divine light and perfection. Although it might not seem that transfiguration is a miracle cure for healing all the planet’s problems, by holding such a vision does change the field of energy which changes the fabric of reality over time. This work requires persistence for the process of healing and making immense changes manifest as we keep building an invisible substance of reality.

Transmutation News – April 2018

As we continue to engage in our spiritual practices it is so important to embrace the perspective that we should not consider this as more “work” we have to do. As shamanism is a way of life, the spiritual practices we have been performing over the years spin together the threads of the actions and behaviors required to feed a healthy life and planet. And the point is to integrate these practices so that they truly become a way of life.

No one should be saying the words, “I don’t have time to perform more spiritual practices during the day”. For focusing on your use of words to “bless” versus than “curse”, the thoughts you are looping, being observant of your daydreams and what you are creating in your life and the world, and shining your divine light are part of how you walk, breathe, work, and engage in fun and relaxing activities.

With our spiritual work, we reshape our relationship with ourselves, how we treat others, our lifestyle, and our behavior in the world.

If the spiritual work you are doing feels like a lot of work to you, stop and reflect on how you are separating spiritual practices from how you live your life. Reflecting on this can be very enlightening.

As you engage in any spiritual or ceremonial work this month, notice where you are efforting too much and how you integrate some of the practices, so they become habitual in a good way as you live the work.

I think with everything we are witnessing it is a good month for us to engage in a shamanic dismemberment practice together so we can all experience renewal and regeneration. It is always good to bring in practices that remind us that life is an illusion and a dream and that we are connected to a larger consciousness than what we are witnessing in the collective energies.

It is a time for us to allow our body and mind to dissolve and be dismembered so that we can remember our authentic identity and that Source is where we came from. We were born from unconditional love and left a state of oneness with the creator and the power of the universe to experience how to be divine light in a body that can manifest beauty, healing, and peace as we walk this great Earth together.

In shamanism the practice of dismemberment is used as an initiation, but it also can be used for healing. With a dismemberment journey you might be burned to ash, or an element or helping spirit might remove your skin and organs. Helping spirits will clean your bones and organs. A physical or emotional illness might be removed.

I have written about the practice of dismemberment in many of my books such as Medicine for the Earth: How to Transform Personal and Environmental Toxins and also in Walking in Light: The Everyday Experience of Shamanic Life.

The regeneration and healing part of the dismemberment process occurs as you release to the helping spirits and the divine power of the universe what no longer serves you. Then you are reconstructed or re-membered as spiritually cleansed and healthy at the end of the visionary experience.

I will give you brief instructions of how to perform such a journey or meditation. If you perform shamanic journeys, listen to your favorite shamanic music track and give yourself a good period of time for your journey – at least 15 minutes. If you do not work with shamanic journeying, you can still perform this experience as a meditation by listening to a track of your favorite spiritual music.

Hold the intention that you would like a helping spirit, ally, or divine force to dismember and then re-remember you at the end of your journey or meditation. You can focus on an emotional blockage or physical challenge that you wish to release.

Surrender to the power of the universe and trust the powers that be to provide you with what is needed for your regeneration. Let your helping spirit or a divine force set the stage. An animal or element such as a bear, an eagle, ants, a sandstorm, or fire are examples of helping spirits that might provide the dismemberment.

Although these experiences can sound gruesome, dismemberment is a healing practice that provides a sense of reconnection with Source, your authentic identity, and a state of calm and peace.

During the dismemberment, once your skin, organs, bones, and thoughts are removed you will experience yourself as divine light and one with the creator of the universe. If you are burned to ash by a fire or your body is destroyed through a sandstorm you will be free to truly feel your divine light as your true self.

Dismemberment is actually the beginning phase of transfiguration. First you lose your sense of your body and mind so that you remember your spiritual identity. You allow the helping spirits and divine forces to cleanse your skin, bones, organs, as well as your thoughts so you can be spiritually reborn. If you were dismembered to ash or sand during the journey or meditation you will be reconstructed with a healthy body, clean mind, and experience a higher vibration of consciousness.

Once you are remembered, complete your journey or meditation by traveling back to your room. Take your time and experience if you feel lighter, more refreshed, and rejuvenated. Once you return from the journey or meditation please do a grounding exercise to make sure you are fully back from your experience. You can go outside and sit with a tree imagining deep roots connecting you to your body and the earth. Or you can do this as a meditation if you can’t go outside to be in nature.

The full moon is April 29. On the full moon experience your divine light and let it shine brightly within and throughout the Earth joining with the light of all in our global community. Let us create and weave together a shimmering web of light that continues to replace the old worn-out fabric of reality and paradigm of life.

Please note: I will be presenting a lecture and ceremony on April 29 to open the next Year of Ceremony sponsored by Sounds True. My contract asks me to send out two dedicated emails. So, I will be sending out information once I have it.

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

You might want to review the March Transmutation News where I wrote about focusing on the changing qualities of light of the sun and moon. During the month of April take time to observe the changes in the light and energy between the new and full moon. In this way you enter into a deeper flow with the changing lunar phases.

Terri in New Zealand requested that we do join together and transfigure on a regular basis to bring more light to the planet and also to perceive our great planet Earth and all of nature in its divine light. I suggest if you can join with us every Sunday to perform some transfiguration work it will be healing for all of us and all of life to do so. Terri is suggesting we spend 15 minutes each week seeing the Earth in her divinity.

You can also transfigure with a bottle or glass of water present and then gift a body of water in your locale with pure healing water. Whatever we place in large bodies of water will flow and merge together with all the bodies of water in the world. You can place organic and compostable objects on your altar and after transfiguring leave these out in nature on the earth. As you transfigure focus on perceiving the air as pristine. We will be working in subtle fields of energy despite the difference of time depending on where we live and when we perform our work together.

Damini Celebre is listed on www.shamanicteachers.com. She is a brilliant teacher and author. I shared the remarkable project she is working on in a past issue of the Transmutation News.

She has started an exciting project to bring healing prayers to the Earth. Here is how Damini describes her project:

“Spirit speaks to each of us differently: sometimes, in rich metaphors that we experience in a journey, sometimes with a flash of clarity and knowing during our waking day, and sometimes in dream state. During the summer, I had a dream where I saw myself ceremonially placing seed pods in a hole on a hilly, open landscape. The seed pods contained prayers for healing the Planet.

Since that dream-vision, I have been bringing the ceremony into form, by creating clay seed pods. The pods are made of local clay, and each contains a prayer for the Earth, that is written on paper and placed in the pod’s opening. These prayers have been sent to me from all around the world.

On Dec 22, 2017, commenced the Solstice :: Prayer Pod ceremony. In Pennsylvania, I placed a 108 PrayerPods on the Earth. Over time, and with the cooperation of the Elements, these pods and prayers will dissolve into the earth.

In addition to this ceremony, I have been making smaller Prayer Pods and am leaving them in urban areas. These single pods will either merge with the Land or be taken home— both ways are perfect!

Since December, other folks have written me that they have been inspired to make their own PrayerPods and place them in their communities. If you are called to make your own pods — I invite you to do the same. On my blog, I have posted all the prayers that I have received from around the world; please feel free to include some of those prayers into your pods and together we can spread a wider web of healing.

Do you have a prayer-intention-wish for healing the Planet? If so, I would like to include your prayer in a seed pod. Please email me your prayer at b.shiny(at)me.com and I will place your prayer in a seed pod.

Blessings for All Beings xx Damini Celebre”

http://daminicelebre.com/prayer-pods

Transmutation News – March 2018

My helping spirits have started working with me by only giving me body centered experiences. They are not only giving me information in words, but rather helping me understand certain teachings by giving information for me to feel on a sensory level.

Over the last months my helping spirits keep showing me the need to move back into a place of flow. I have shared a bit about this in previous columns. First, they started by talking to me about flow. Then they asked me to travel within and notice where I was holding tension in my body. That was simple to do.

About a month later in a journey I was given the direct felt experience of the difference of gripping on to life and trying to control it rather than allowing myself to flow with where life was taking me to. I could feel how I was trying to hold on to my desired outcomes in a way that was not healthy for me or would help me manifest change.

I feel that the key to healing for me and probably for others is to loosen our grip on life a bit more and enter in life’s flow.

We so often try to separate out the cycles of life instead of allowing our body to get a sense of how all the cycles flow together. Many of us work with the moon and separate out the practices and ceremonies that we perform on the new and full moon. All the phases of the moon are part of one cycle that organically flow together.

The seasons are not separate phases in our life. For the cycle of death and rebirth and all that occurs in between is all one organic cycle.

What is the effect on own organic sense of flow and timing in life when we keep trying to separate transitions instead of perceiving them as flowing from one cycle to the next? When we can do this, we get a different sense of how all changes we experience in our personal life and on the planet are all woven together. There are no separate events, separate phases of life. There is only one natural flow.

When we enter into that natural and organic flow, we embrace a deeper understanding of change and the gifts and teachings being brought into our life.

There is an entirely different dimension of reality we enter into when we step into the true flow of life. I work and use the metaphor of “The River of Life”. Some of you might prefer to focus on the inner flow of tides, changes in wind patterns as it continues to flow, or the different feelings and sensations you have when you lie on the earth.

Today there is so much talk about the shadow and light. And when we separate these cycles, we miss the finer details of the changing light that creates both the shadow and light. By sinking into the quality changes of light we understand more of how the light and shadow are always intertwined and dancing with each other.

I did post on Facebook recently, and I am including this post in this column as it is relevant to what to I am sharing:

We cannot change the past. But we can change the present and future.

We do this by diving deep into our spiritual practices while examining how we act, think, and behave towards others and all of life.

The shadow and light are all part of being alive on this planet. On a daily basis nature reflects back to us the power of these mighty forces that live within each of us.

We must embrace both as we are nature. The reason we were born is to experience the entire range of what it means to be human. By embracing both the shadow and the light we learn how to reconnect to a state of wholeness embracing both the beauty and challenges of life. The challenges help us grow and evolve into humans who carry such spiritual strength we can transform all that has occurred in the past. Building strong spiritual muscles to ride all the waves that life brings us is key to thriving.

If you look at old amazing trees the trunk often can look so twisted but yet the tree grows deep roots into the earth and splendid branches up high into the sky. These trees bring awe to us when we see their inherent beauty and strength.

Nature teaches us the power of growing deep roots and branches like a tree no matter what happens to us in life.

Until we build strong enough spiritual muscles, we cannot be a true light in the world.

To add to what I wrote on Facebook I suggest observing the changing quality and cycles of light during the day.

Daily I watched my father follow the cycles of the light and also the setting sun. His most precious possession was his watch. He had a cheap watch that was stolen when he died. But no matter how ill he was or how deep into his dementia he was in, his anchor to life was his watch. I would sit with him each day and watch how he sat outside or inside tracking the changing light and marking the change by noticing the time. It helped him in some deep way.

I get a sense of the power of what he did and how he had his own sense of his inner flow and connection to life.

Watch the changing qualities of light during March where once again we are welcoming in a flow of one season into another as we celebrate the equinox.

I do believe strongly as we do this, we naturally build up the spiritual muscles we need to flow through the coming waves and changing cycles. We must enter into an organic flow reconnecting our energy with how life and nature move in order to swim through the present and coming waves.

This is an important practice to add to all we have been doing together over the years.

There are so many hectic and chaotic spiritual energies floating around in the collective right now. I truly believe if you enter into life’s flow you will not be impacted by these energies as you build up your spiritual strength.

Back in the 1970’s I received my BA in Marine Biology. I focused on the study of algae and also with a classmate performed significant research on hermit crabs. It was really crazy as my classmate and I statistically proved that if you give a hermit crab a larger shell it will also grow larger. This statistical study brought great attention to us, and we were offered a grant to continue our research. I am still pondering on the question of why science is so ready to fund research projects for something like this, which is so obvious.

Anyway, back to the point of my story. Every day I spent long hours at different locations on the Pacific Ocean south of San Francisco. I had all the information I needed about the time the tide would come in. But I would get lost in discovering the true unique living treasures in the ocean. I forgot to look at my watch or focus on the changing light as the sun would rise and the tides would start to come in. Every day I would find myself moving from being able to walk in the tide pools to finding myself being taken under by a wave. I would find myself swimming in deep waters with my coat, hat, just trying to not go down and swimming as fast I could.

The teaching here is that when we enter into the flow of life we can swim with ease through the changes in life. When we try and think too much or lose track of the changing tides we can easily be taken down.

I am seeing this as a way to navigate the changes that we are experiencing in life. We need to pay attention to the changing tides and qualities of light or we can easily be tumbled around by a tide that came in we were not expecting.

The full moon is on March 1. And again, we flow into this phase of the full moon. There was a lot of energy building in the previous phases that led us to the exponential power of the full moon. We use this exponential power to continue weaving a radiant web of light and love within and throughout the Earth. Join our spiritual community which is truly one collective energy as we welcome in the grace of this phase of the moon to perform our spiritual work.

Keep sinking in deeper beyond ego and personality to allow your own inner divine light to shine through you. Our ego and personality are what keeps us in a state of control. Our inner divine light knows exactly how to enter into the flow. Perform your transfiguration work. Let your light flow effortlessly dancing with the light of our circle and shining strong like the moon and the stars in the night sky who reflect back to us our true spiritual identity and the strength of our own light.

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.

We greet the equinox together on March 20. We welcome in spring and fall depending on which hemisphere you live in.

As soon as you read the Transmutation News start being aware of the changes of light. You can put a plant in your window and watch how the light shining on the plant changes each day. It does not matter if you live in the city or a suburban area. You can still watch the changing patterns of light during the day and watch the changing phases of the moon. It does not matter if the sun is shining or not. If you wake up your sensory awareness you will notice subtle changes in the light each day and notice how your body and mind is impacted.

No matter where you live look up towards the sky and let the sun bathe your body and eyes. At night go out and when possible, take a moon bath and let the light of the moon flood you with her changing quality of light.

It is all about noticing the changes in QUALITY of light. This is such an important body sensation for all of us to get. For we are falsely separating out the seasons and lunar phases when they are all part of one cycle. By separating out the cycles we are not honoring the change that also occurs between the shadow and light. This separates us from the true flow of “The River of Life”.

On the equinox design a ceremony you can perform to welcome in the equinox. It can be as simple as leaving offerings for the earth, air, water, and fire as the sun. Honor your ancestors and the spirit of the land you live on. Connect back into a state of oneness with all that Nature brings to us. Complete your work by giving thanks for your life. You might release something that is blocking you from moving forward with manifesting your dreams or sharing a prayer with the universal forces as well as earth, air, water, and fire.

If you have created a Prayer Tree, as I have been instructing you to do over the last few years, you might want to leave a prayer for healing or blessing on the tree. If you are a new reader of The Transmutation News you can read Walking in Light: The Everyday Empowerment of Shamanic Life to learn about creating Prayer Trees.

Sing, dance, read poems to the elements. Leave offerings where you live.

You can burn a piece of paper in a sacred bowl that has your request for healing or for a blessing. You might choose to blow bubbles into the wind or breezes. Or you can find a stone calling to you and place it in a body of water or bury it in the earth again with the intention you are asking for. Remember to always transmute the energy behind your thoughts to a vibration of light and love that feeds you and all in the web of life.

An issue shared:

A good question/issue was sent in by one of the members in our circle. She shared that together with her husband they feel safe working with shamanic practices due to the fact that the current collective is supporting using shamanism only for healing and bringing through light. My response to this is that yes, things are changing. Slowly the old paradigm of the hierarchical and dark practices of shamanism are being replaced with life giving energies that create peace and harmony within all of us replacing the old paradigm. We still have a way to go as this paradigm has been in place for a long time.

But as the foundation of this paradigm continues to unravel it leaves more space for “conscious” practitioners to weave in loving and light energies into the fabric of the new paradigm that is now being created.

The key is to continue to do your own inner work and explore the projections and the thoughts that live inside you. And keep transforming and transmuting them to energies of light and step into your own spiritual power where you share your unique gifts collectively as you do your work. We are all interdependent on each other and the more light we shine, the more the past lineages can heal and harmony can be restored.

I join with our community to wish you a bright and blessed equinox!

Transmutation News – February 2018

I shared in a few monthly columns that I am writing a new book titled The Book of Ceremony which will be published by Sounds True. I write my monthly column in time to send it to our amazing translators who are so generous with their time.

Due to the tight timeline on my next phase of editing my book and needing to get the February Transmutation News written by mid-January I decided to post my New Year’s greeting on Facebook for this month’s column.

I know that a majority of readers of The Transmutation News are not on Facebook, and don’t see my solstice and equinox messages.

I hope this has meaning for you. And if you already read it maybe you will see something you missed reading it the first time.

Before I go on, I wanted to talk about what I mean about going deeper. I have received multiple inquiries asking me to explain. It is hard to explain with words. Diving deeper is more of a kinesthetic feeling where you feel all the insights you have read and heard are sinking deep into your cells, so you are living the work instead of thinking of how to do your practices. It is an organic process that cannot be explained.

You need to work through some of the projections you are placing onto others, work through issues around forgiveness, learn to love yourself and nurture yourself and use your words, thoughts, and daydreams as blessings instead of as curses. You need to stop blaming others for what is not working in your life and in the world and do your practices daily. Then you will sink into the luminous light I have been trying to take you to in the transfiguration work. But the states of consciousness I mentioned above (and these are only a few) must be transformed and worked through before you become “a walking star”.

Below is what I wrote for my New Year’s message on Facebook:

We are cycling in a New Year! I know people are struggling with words of how to greet 2018. For many of us are not comfortable using the cliché wishing everyone a happy New Year. We know we are in the long haul in our current initiation.

I am sure there are very evolved beings who can look past at the traumas we are witnessing in the outer world. Their inner landscape is so rich with beauty that they only see beauty everywhere. We are working on it!!

Words do get tricky. I was interviewed recently for a summit. The interviewer asked me if I believe that shamans believed in positive thinking. His question was based on how I teach that people living in shamanic cultures were diligent about the words, thoughts, and daydreams they spoke silently to themselves or to others.

I responded by saying that shamans were the first people who taught about neuroplasticity. But I said that shamans do not teach or talk about positive thinking. They ask us to reflect on whether the words, thoughts, daydreams we express silently or out loud are blessing or cursing ourselves, others, and the planet.

As we enter 2018 this is an interesting thought to ponder on. Do you use your words, thoughts, daydreams as a blessing or a curse?

I wrote a lot for my solstice post on December 21. And I wrote a lot on my January Transmutation News https://sandraingerman.com/tnjanuary2018.html

As we greet 2018, I wanted to share a few stories with you. They might speak to you on levels. and if they do take in the lesson. If not let it go.

Back in the very early 1970s I had a tiny import business with 2 other friends I lived with in the Haight Ashbury. We would travel to Mexico and bring back just a few clothes and sandals we could sell at the flea market. We were not business people, and we were true hippies in every sense of the term. We did not speak Spanish, so we had two people drive with us to help us on our trips. For obvious reasons, our business never took off.

One of the men who accompanied us was named Tubby. He was the gentlest soul you would ever want to meet. But he was incarcerated in San Quentin for a long time for a murder I truly believe he did not commit. Whatever happened in his past I cannot prove. But I can say what a beautiful light filled man he was. He got his name Tubby as he was over 300 pounds.

We were swimming in the ocean in Mazatlán and there was a strong undertow. The last words I remember hearing were from Tubby who yelled to me, “Sandy, whatever happens don’t panic.”. I was starting to panic as the waves were so turbulent and the current was pulling me under. I tumbled and tumbled and could not breathe. But I remembered Tubby’s words and kept repeating to myself, “Whatever happens Sandy don’t panic.”. At that point I lost consciousness and swam through a beautiful, brilliant tunnel leading me into a non-ordinary garden that I will never have the words to describe. There was a stone bench I sat on. And I heard music that can never be duplicated in this dimension. I was so flooded by unconditional love and peace – words have no meaning to describe the state of consciousness I experienced. But I looked directly into the eyes of God.

Once I did, God, the goddess, the ocean, my own inner spirit, or some divine force threw me out of the water, and I washed up on the sand.

The teaching for me is when we experience a new dimension of consciousness spirit does lead us out of a perilous journey and washes us ashore where we can feel the beauty and warmth of the earth.

One of the teachings Tubby shared with me was about life in San Quentin. Again, this was in I think, 1973 so the world has changed. He told me that how the prison guards controlled prisoners was through creating events that divided the prisoners. The guards knew that if the prisoners stood strong together, they could not control them. So, they created false fights that divided all the racial communities in prison so that the guards did not have to worry about being in control as the prisoners fought with each other.

I wonder if you have read posts on Facebook from the shamanic community. Many are standing strong together, but the division in the spiritual community is also growing. I wonder if there is a force that is dividing us as we fall into their trance of division. It is so important to look at our projections right now. There is a deep lesson in what Tubby shared. Even if we don’t agree with each other we can stand strong together and make a difference.

One of my students/peers shared this true story with me many years ago, and it is in some of my older books.

In Santa Fe we have a new age bookstore that community members flock to. It has survived and thrived during the online shopping phase. One day my student was in the bookstore buying something. At the checkout desk was a Tibetan nun who was paying for a book she bought. She was emulating pure light and joy through her eyes and her presence. But some people knew she had immigrated from Tibet where she had once been imprisoned by the Chinese. She was horribly tortured. Someone in the bookstore said you are such a presence of joy and light how did you heal from such torture and pain. She responded by saying she repeated this mantra 24/7:

“I am grateful for everything. I have no complaints whatsoever.”

How does one respond to that?!!! What a teaching!

When we greeted the millennium in 2000, my husband I sat on our lawn at midnight. I played my Tibetan Bowl as we greeted the New Year. While I was playing my bowl, a red fox came and sat no more than two feet from us. It was mesmerized by the sound of the bowl. The teaching is every being in nature loves music! Let’s sing, chant, make music, and dance more!

I absolutely adored my father Aaron Ingerman. He died at 97. His psychic gifts were more advanced than mine, he had the most amazing green thumb, and animals just loved him. He grew up on the lower East Side of New York during the dark days of the depression. He was a little man, but strong. He was my height. I am only 5’3”. You can only imagine how he was bullied. The stories I was told of his father is that he was the barber for some of the mafia. My grandfather died before I was born, and I never got to meet him. But what he passed on to my father who passed down to me is to NEVER stand down. I was taught the power of using my fists, but as I evolved, I learned that I could do more with radiating light. First, I had to honor and work through my projections before I could tap into the light within that radiates to every living being on this great Earth.

Lastly, I wanted share some advice from my mother Lee Ingerman who died at 98. Her brain was better than mine when she died and blinding light shined from her eyes. She did live a very hard life, and every day I wished she had an easier life as I loved her so much.

She had certain phrases she repeated again and again. So, wisdom from Lee Ingerman as we face the joys and challenges as we greet the New Year:

Dance while you can. Do everything while you can because one day it will be too late.

Life is a gift and precious!! Your body is precious don’t abuse it.

Do God’s work.

Eat chocolate.

It will all press itself out (this was an old immigrant expression used by many who immigrated to New York from Russia to escape persecution). This was the wisdom my grandfather imparted to me and my mom.

And finally, my mom’s and my New Year’s blessing to you: “May everything you want in life come easily for you.” Well, my mom died before we moved into such a turbulent state. I am glad she did not get to see it. It would have added to her heartbreak.

The part that I did not share in my Facebook post is that I had asked my mother for a message for my students before she died. And the blessing above is what she gave me to share with all of you.

I know her final words don’t have a lot of meaning these days. But our ancestors do care about us and want the best for us. Let’s honor them and let them guide us during these dark times.

We honor earth, water, air, and fire for our life, and we continue to pray and bless all in the web of life.

As we greet the New Year as a strong spiritual global community, we say we dream a good life for every living being on this great Earth!! We focus on how we bless and how we curse. We travel deep within to our inner divine spirit who says, BE LOVE!

According to the Farmer’s Almanac the fact that we experienced the full moon on January 31 there will not be another full moon until March 1. Wow!

Sylvia does send out the Transmutation News early so those who are ready to do your preparation work let’s dive in January 31 and create the most beautiful, stunning, radiant web of light. Join together with our circle of people from all over the world who like you want to see the best for all of life. Transfigure and shine your light and radiate love within and without the Earth touching every member of our circle and all in the web of life.

If you are not ready to join in on January 31 then just pick a date. The transfiguration practice we do each full moon is outside of time and actually should be done as a daily practice. So, join in and add exponential energy to our web of light when you can.

For those of you who are new to reading the Transmutation News we welcome you into our circle, and I invite you to read Creating A Human Web of Light on the homepage for instructions of our full moon ceremony.

Issues/Comments Shared

I will continue to speak to all the issues people sent me. Here are two very different issues and comments, but I think they are both important to share.

From Heidi:

“One question that continues to bug me since long: In so many articles, workshops, gatherings, teachings we are called to step forward and follow our path of service, to become active warriors, to help to change the attitude and Awareness of our social surroundings, to help Planet Earth to heal from the poisonous impact induced by human race. This is all so very true, but what can an old lady in her seventies like me, not involved in any profession or social circle anymore, living a very simple retired life with scarce financial background do to add, to act, to offer real help, to make any difference in this sick world? I meditate regularly, I participated in some of your trainings but still I feel so helpless, so very little, so lost in finding a way to contribute. Can you comment on that? I am sure there are so many of us “silent helpless watchers” in this growing community of active people!”

If you reread the December, January, and February Transmutation News there are a variety of practices I shared that change your state of consciousness and also help to raise consciousness in the world.

We all have our destiny. Some people are called to engage in social activism. And some are called to do their spiritual practices alone or in their communities. The work happens on invisible levels, so we have to trust the shamans who have been teaching for 100,000 years that these practices transform every living being in the web of life. We get caught up in wanting to see immediate results manifesting physically. But the true magic of change is what happens in the invisible realms before manifesting into the physical. Keep up your work.

It was such a delight and inspiration to read the email that I received from Carole who is one of our French translators of the Transmutation News. The key phrase I want to read in what Carole wrote is the person in the audience who shared she had no right to keep her work to herself. I believe this message needs to be heard by all of us!

“It is an honor to be of service and assist you in sharing your messages. With the current challenging times, these are needed more than ever to instill hope.

Having been through my own deconstruction and reconstruction this past couple of years, I stand in a new place full of uncertainty but can clearly see it was time for me to step up and share my gifts, instead of hiding behind some lack of confidence in how I can contribute. I have personally realized that I have been afraid to share too much light… and for too long, it felt like there was no place for who I am, so I stayed in the background, caring and providing for my family while not speaking up too much as to not upset the status quo. Always feeling like an outsider, I kept my spiritual gifts to myself, communicated with nature and drew much strength for her. All year, I have been challenging myself to break through those erected walls that were preventing me from truly sharing who I am. Piece by piece. A few weeks ago, I had the perfect challenge… I stood up and shared a poem I wrote about doubt, shame and fear to a group of 50 people. I felt completely naked but stood there and by some grace, spoke with a clear and intentional voice. No shakiness or blushing. I was standing in my truth. Later, I received comments from people who felt touched by what I wrote and thanked me. One woman looked at me deep in the eye and said, “you have NO right to keep that to yourself”. Her words are still resonating within me. It took a while, but I finally understood that I was not doing any service if I was using my gift of inspiration and expression and keeping everything to myself out of fear to be criticized or not be well received. My allies made it clear too when I received their message that the soul’s qualities, I brought here in this incarnation were Love and Expression. I intend to honor these in a more open and meaningful way in 2018. Aho.”

Thank you, Heidi and Carole, for letting me share the emails you sent me. I think they speak to important issues we are all dealing with.

Transmutation News – January 2018

It is remarkable how fast time is accelerating as we once again join our spiritual heartbeat together to wish our community a healthy and more balanced and harmonious New Year!

A teacher and healer I so respect shared with me, that using numerology, in 2018 we move into the tarot archetype of the High Priestess. What an image and feeling to hold knowing the divine feminine will be stepping in to hold us and also to guide us in making changes. As most of us know the divine feminine can manifest in so many ways holding us in compassionate love but can also be a fierce teacher in helping navigate the times we are facing.

I am going to address the issues that people sent in. But I can say most of the issues people have been sending me have to do with the issue of losing hope.

I have been writing the Transmutation News since 2000 and have been addressing this issue over 18 years. But what I am finding is that so many people are to trying focus on how we can think our way through the challenges we are now facing.

As you know I work with the Egyptian goddess Isis for guidance on designing my workshops and also for what seeds to plant in my writing. She has been very strong over the years of asking us not to make long term predictions for our future is based on our present. As we change our present, we change the future. Due to the strength of this message, I typically start every January Transmutation News off with Isis’ message as New Year’s is when many people seek out predictions for the year.

Recently Isis’ message has changed. And through my dreams I am being introduced to new compassionate spirits.

Isis and the new very ancient compassionate spirits, I am now meeting, are sharing the same message with me. They are telling me that due to the planetary initiation we are ALL going through together it is important to teach people how to strengthen their spirit.

Living a healthy life means integrating practices that nurture and strengthen all aspects of body, mind, and spirit. But in the Western world more focus is put on strengthening the body and mind. We are allowing ourselves to be distracted by nurturing our rational minds by reading, watching videos, reading Facebook posts, etc. I know I do encourage you to read books, sign up for workshops, and summits.

But the key is what do you do with this information. Do you just nurture your mind with it and feel like you are healing and evolving because you now have more information? Or are you finding ways to incorporate spiritual practices in your life that move this information from a rational understanding into your body and cells to wake up the fire, passion, innate wisdom, and strength of inner spirit? Are you taking new inspirations of what you learn to the deepest level possible? Are you allowing the destabilizing energies and forces right now to shift you into a new evolution of consciousness?

The spiritual practices we engage in help us to surrender to the natural flow and process of death and rebirth. They are not separate processes, and they are a flow. Life is a flow.

The initiation we are going through is a classic shamanic initiation where one cannot “think” their way through or “power through” with big physical muscles. People in shamanic initiations who tried to think their way through or power through died.

Initiations are so dangerous and put us in so much peril we cannot think our way out. And physical strength does not help either. Initiations wear you down to a place where your mind gives up in complete despair with no road map out of the challenge you are facing. Your body gives in too as you are too worn down to continue. Next the initiate now has the opportunity to let their inner fire awaken and surrender to the true strength of inner spiritual power that knows no obstacles, pain, or suffering on any level.

It is the key to moving through planetary challenges before humans destroy what is left to life on this great Earth.

I do not publicly broadcast all the initiations I have been through. I write about my Near Death Experiences but frankly they pale to the true initiations that I have been through where everything my mind and ego thinks is important for my survival dissolves leaving me on my knees without a roadmap, a light, but just lost in the darkness. So far in my 65 years of initiations my inner spirit has carried me even when it looked like I could not muster enough strength to make it through.

So, I am not writing from a place of inexperience. All the challenges spiritual teachers and practitioners are going through today are intentionally being created by the divine within and without to awaken our inner spirit. We can do this. But it is not easy. It will not take a minute, because it involves a deepening. Your spiritual muscles only grow strong by swimming in the deepest and darkest waters of your inner shadow.

If you want to be in true service, if you have lost hope, if you are despair, if you are worn down, that is the point of the exercise. Go deeper!! Find your spiritual strength. By doing this you will not have to find inspiration from outside sources, or ask about how to find hope, or how you can be in service. And don’t try too hard. Swimming in the deep dark waters is more of a passive swimming process that trying to muster all your mental and physical strength. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but if you try too hard you are staying in shallow waters instead of being courageous enough to sink to the depths that propel you back into the light.

One way shamans work with the issues we are facing is by performing ceremonial work. Of course, bringing the sacred into every moment of your life is the true key to discovering the true power of this ancient practice that was gifted to humans by the compassionate spirits tens of thousands of years ago to help us survive.

The way many are practicing shamanism and other spiritual practices today will not bring us to closer to the divine, health, or the light as we still resist sinking into the darkest waters possible. So, as I said inner and outer forces are forcing us to do so.

Ceremonial work opens a doorway into both the shadow/dark and light places that reflect back our nature so we can see and transform the dark spaces within which translates to creating a healthier life. This work is crucial as it creates a detoxication process that leads to a cleansing leaving us reborn, filled with spiritual power, and light. It is how we attune to our nature and how we grow, evolve, transform and heal.

There are no rational solutions that will solve our planetary issues. Go deeper! Write the words down on a piece of paper – Go deeper. Put this phrase up everywhere you can see it. Don’t try to go deeper, set your intention, don’t resist the deep dark waters, don’t resist the dissolution, learn to ride the waves and flow. And most of all know we are doing this together. No one can save another, but we can cheer each other on, hold the space, and pray.

If you are wondering what to do and have lost hope – go deeper with your spiritual work. And when you feel you have reached the deepest depths possible there are always deeper depths to go through. Trust yourself!! Don’t give your trust or authority away to others. Trust yourself. And as I wrote in the December 2017 Transmutation News explore deeper ways to love yourself and care for yourself. For as you do this you will go deeper.

Here is a guided journey/meditation I have been leading to deepen your cellular experience with the organism we call the web of life. If you want to be in service but don’t have the ability to go out and be a social activist, be a spiritual activist by watching and feeling the vibration of every word, thought, and daydream that you are feeding our organism, the web of life.

Imagine traveling into your body and experiencing a shimmering web connecting your cells, organs, and body parts. The silk like threads of the web are so finely tuned like those on an exquisite string instrument. Let the frequency of your favorite words vibrate throughout this inner web. Notice how it feels. Let a joyful thought vibrate through this web and observe how it impacts your cells.

Now feel, notice, tune in with your spiritual heart to how every word you utter, thought, daydream impacts your own cells, organs, and body parts.

Expand your practice and include every microscopic to enormous living being that we share this Earth with. They are part of this one organism we call the web of life.

If you are confused about what action to take to be in service, perform this exercise every day, and you will have no question about what action to take to be a light of hope and positive change maker in the world. You will have no questions about the discordant energy in the world.

Katharine wrote in to let me know we will experience 2 supermoons in January 2018. Katharine shared that The Moon is linked with the number 18. In the Tarot the 18^th archetypal card is the Moon Card. And this card is known to be part of moving through an initiation or test by being presented with choices. The test is to make new healthier choices instead of repeating old unhealthy patterns and ways of dealing with conflict. There are guardians guarding the gates to deeper mysteries preventing entrance to those not ready due to continuing to make unhealthy decisions and choices.

We start the 18th year of the 21st century with a Super Full Moon on the 1^st day of January, the 2nd in a set of 3 Super Moons. And end the month with a Super Blue Moon and lunar eclipse on January 31.

Katharine asked me to to share the opportunities we have to let our imaginations take seriously the mythic import of the signs of the times we are in and how to wisely use the energy of The Moon to draw us in the direction of our highest reason for existence.

She asked me write about how to connect with The Moon using its nature to move water thus moving ourselves and the world in a good way.

What I can say is we are water beings living on a water planet. The moon’s power impacts both our inner and outer tides. For me the issue is all about flow. Flow is the new word I am focusing on for my own healing.

I do all my physical and spiritual exercises while gently letting my body rock as I sink into nature’s flow- whether it is the flow of water, flow of air, flow of sunlight, or flow of death and rebirth as part of the nature’s cycles. I flow like the trees that do not resist the winds of change. The moon moves us in ways that are beyond words. Words have become a distraction preventing us from going deeper. As I shared, they tend to bring us up to the surface waves.

So, my advice is to journey or meditate on spiritual practices to bring into your life that cellularly attune to the flow of your inner elements and how your ebb and flow is impacted by the changing phases of the moon.

As we are dealing with these powerful full moons please GO DEEP with your spiritual work before connecting into the pristine collective that we have been creating with our full moon ceremony. Do the work that shamans have done for thousands of years. They do not see with their tangible eyes. They use their non-ordinary eyes to gaze into the unseen to reweave disharmonious energies. Travel within, experience your inner divine light, and let it shine. Our radiant light flows within our circle and then with the power of the full moon, as our partner, our light and loving energies become exponential nurturing all of life. Let’s transfigure as if our life depended on it because it does! Open all your ordinary and non-ordinary senses and dream a good dream for all of life. Again, our survival depends on the work you are doing!

If you are a new reader of the Transmutation News please read: Creating a Human Web of Light on the homepage.

I know many of you do not read the announcements, and I understand this. I write the Transmutation News as a way to keep you all inspired to keep going deeper. The announcements are for those who are looking for books, summits, and workshops to plant seeds that they can now nourish their inner landscape inspiring us to raise our consciousness and GO DEEPER. For those of you who do not read the announcements scroll through to the last announcement from Damini Celebre. She has created a brilliant project we can all participate in to welcome in the New Year!

May welcoming in the New Year inspire you to strengthen and deepen your spiritual practices so that all life might live!

Transmutation News – December 2017

As we look at some of the issues we are facing in the world, one enormous issue is the lack of nurturance so many children receive today. And of course, the issue stems from the fact that parents were not nurtured by their parents, and then the unhealthy behavior keeps getting passed down.

The solution lies in learning how to nurture yourself. So many of us look to outside sources and people for nurturance. Many missed the true experience of being unconditionally loved and nurtured as a brilliant little being of light who deserves to receive the love and give the love that is our destiny. Or some people shut down due to not knowing how to relate to others as they do not know how to relate to themselves.

I feel it is so important to explore ways to nurture yourself as you adapt to the changes impacting us all.

During the time of celebrating the solstice some religious and spiritual traditions talk about the birth of the holy or magical child.

Is it possible, using the principles of shamanism, to perceive yourself as the magical child? Take some time to reflect on this during the solstice.

Explore ways to nurture yourself. If you want to help yourself, all of life, and the Earth this one practice will change the world. For using the principle of unity consciousness if you learn to love yourself, everyone is lifted up by the energy you bring into the web of life. And without consciously knowing it you have helped to change the world in a good way by bringing into the collective the much-needed energy of self-love.

The full moon is December 2. Reflect on the unique energetic signature you are adding to the web of life. Travel within and experience your inner radiance, starlight, sunlight flowing within and then throughout the Earth. Our light extends deep into the Earth as well as to all locations on the planet. And our love and light vibrate throughout the web of life bringing healing as we weave a new tapestry of reality into being.

We commit to our circle and all of life that we will continue to weave a web of light no matter what the outcome is. For the practice of shamanism is not about “winning”. It is learning how to plant seeds through your spiritual work and nurturing the seedlings until they grow into beautiful radiant plants that create change in the right time which might not be the timing our ego desires.

For instructions for our full moon ceremony please read “Creating A Human Web of Light” on the homepage.

We join together on December 21 to celebrate the solstice. Depending on where you live you are flowing into winter or summer. And nature is such a great teacher about how to flow with change. For everything in nature is in constant movement. Storms, seasons, lunar cycles, and growth impact our life on a daily basis. And once we connect with nature’s flow we connect with our own internal flow and walk moving gracefully with the flow of life.

This solstice, spend time in nature and see if you can awaken your own inner flow. Spending time in nature is so healing to you and all of life as you feed the web of life with your dreams, love, and light.

Perform your preparation work. If you are a new reader of the Transmutation News, I wrote my suggestions for preparing for ceremonial work. The instructions are posted on the section “The Transmutation News”.

You can drum, rattle, chant, and dance. But most of all be present to the gift that nature brings to us every minute of your waking life.

Feel the sun shining on your face. If the sun is not out and shining brightly imagine the warmth of the sun bringing a glow to your face. Share your gratitude with the living being we call Sun. Reach down and feel the texture of the earth you are standing on. Stand for a while on the earth rocking back and forth or moving as you find your inner flow connecting with earth where you live. Give thanks for all Earth provides for you physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Bless the wind as it caresses you. Thank Air for bringing you life and being an ongoing companion with each breath in and out. If you can visit a body of water, please do so. If not work with water in your home. Radiate your inner light to any water you can be with. You can radiate light focusing on a bowl of water and then feed it to a local body of water or to the earth. Planet Earth is a water planet, and you are a being of water to. Water flows within and without effortlessly always in the flow of movement of returning to Source – the great sea. You would not be alive without water. Please give Water your heartfelt thanks.

As you do this, notice how your body connects to the change in season. The change impacts our inner and outer world.

The only stories I have left that you shared are ones that speak to how touched you are from practicing the work shared in the Transmutation News. Thank you everyone for your kind words. I had a thought that for 2018 I would invite you to let me know what issues you would like me to address. I will only address issues pertinent to the teachings I am sharing in the Transmutation News. And I will not have space to share every issue so I will be picking and choosing what I feel I can address in the most powerful way that helps and speaks to our global community. You can use the email stories@sandraingerman.com, and I will compile a list of issues that I can address over the year.

At the end of each year, I feel so moved to honor Sylvia Edwards and the translators who are generous with their time to bring the Transmutation News to non – English speaking readers. All of these translators have their own lives and work to navigate. So to take the time to translate the monthly column to expand our international circle is such a remarkable act.

Please join me in thanking Sylvia Edwards who does so much work to help me get the Transmutation News ready each month, send it to the translators, and then to all of you. Thank you, Sylvia, for all the love you infuse into each month’s column and helping to share the column with our community. We wish for you great joy and all the best for the coming year.

And let’s join together in sending abundant blessings to our translators:

Lena Anderheim – Swedish
Nello Ceccon – Italian
Jorjette Cristescu – Romanian
Ines Fermoso – Spanish
Sofia Frazoa – Portuguese
Els de Graaff-van Meeteren and Sandra Koning – Dutch
Astrid Johnen and Barbara Gramlich– German
Miriam Kisssova – Slovakian
Carole Laplante and Bea Salgado – French
Petr Němčanský – Czech
Irina Osechinsky and Anton Uvarov – Russian
Tea Thum – Finnish
Simin Uysal – Turkish

And finally let us join together to send blessings to each other as we welcome in the solstice!