Transmutation News – April 2011

The day that the earthquake and tsunami occurred in Japan was also the day the planet Uranus moved into Aries beginning a cycle that will affect us for the next 84 years. The planet Uranus in astrology is seen as the planet of earthquakes and unexpected and sudden change.

I did send a broadcast email mid March speaking directly to how we can direct our spiritual work on behalf of Japan. And I hope you had a chance to read the email and reflect on and work with the material within the email.

I started to write this column weeks before the earthquake in Japan occurred. And I found that what I had already written is still relevant. For events are intensifying for all of us on a personal and global level. We are continuing to experience the song of dissolution, discreaton, and dismemberment throughout the globe through environmental, political, and economic challenges.

If you are new to reading The Transmutation News you might wish to read the issues I wrote starting from the fall of 2010 and continuing into this year. For I have been writing about how death is part of all transitions and how to surrender to what life is bringing for us as we move together towards a new evolution of consciousness. I also wrote about expanding our auras and becoming one with a spiritual pulsation and frequency that continues to shift the collective energy.

Our work is to really stay focused on being able to surrender to our deep spiritual wisdom and to be the dreamers to help birth a new vision of a healthy and harmonious life. We need to learn together the new songs of creation waiting to be sung.

And for those of us who do stay tuned to the news it can be hard to watch the destruction and the suffering for there are so many losses on all levels that we are witnessing.

During the winter I read different interviews with spiritual leaders such as the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Father Bede. When they were asked how they deal with watching so much suffering they all answered that they pray for hours a day and throughout the day.

I also read research that has been done on people who pray and meditate for hours a day versus minutes a day. And what has been found is that for those people who do pray for hours a day their brains produce hormones that create a state of sustained inner peace and joy.

Shamans, from indigenous cultures have said that we are dreaming the wrong dream. Other religious and spiritual teachings share that this world is an illusion, and we must learn to see beyond the illusion of egoic separation to tap into a state of light and connection in order to heal the suffering of the world.

My way of working to heal states of separation and to dream a new dream has been to practice the Medicine for the Earth work and to teach the work to others through my writing, lectures, and workshops. I share a wealth of spiritual practices and tools that create personal and global healing in Medicine for the Earth, How to Heal Toxic Thoughts, and How to Thrive in Changing Times.

The core of the teachings has been how to travel within to find our spiritual light and to see ourselves beyond a state of separation. Once we know the truth of who we truly are, which is divine spiritual light, we can radiate our brilliance into the world. And as we did come here to learn how to manifest spirit into form we must concentrate and focus our thoughts and words on creating a beautiful world for all of life.

It takes practice to focus on the beauty and not to react to the suffering around us. We do have to find ways to pray and to keep our prayers going all day. For me this has to do with giving thanks for the help we are receiving from God, the goddess, the helping spirits, the power of the universe. We all have to find the term for the numinous that relates to our beliefs.

We need to learn how to take the time to be able to travel within and tap into a spiritual state of consciousness so that we pray for and dream a new world into being by transcending our egoic desires and creating from a place of deep spiritual wisdom.

There has been an amazing shift of consciousness that we are witnessing throughout the planet. And we need to focus this shift in consciousness to be able to birth forth a more balanced and harmonious way of life versus giving into our egoic desires.

When we feel we have lost our way and we are reacting to so much change we must continue to surrender to our spiritual light to guide us through the dark times.

All minds and all life are connected. Even if we can experience for brief seconds our radiance this shift in consciousness does ripple throughout the entire web of life creating transformation. For all that goes on in the spiritual world is outside of time. One second of revelation creates healing and transformation that our minds simply cannot grasp.

If you feel your passion and spirit is calling you to help to midwife a new consciousness into being then you must find ways to pray and project visions of health, beauty, and harmony into the world as much as possible throughout the day. You must keep your words and train of thought focused toward the desired outcome. You must engage your imagination in a more focused way.

Although a second can create change think of what continued prayer and projecting positive visions can accomplish. This is what we can do to be part of a global shift. The work is anonymous and involves dynamic change through a state of being. This teaching is core to the spiritual work that has been handed down to us throughout the ages. We change the world by who we become and by radiating light and love and projecting positive visions from a divine state of consciousness.

Keep working with prayers for assistance to become a true channel of love as I wrote about last month.

Surrender to the collective pulsation of love and light and allow that frequency to move through you if even for seconds at a time.

In 2010 there were also some challenging events that created heart opening feelings for many people around the globe. At different times of the year I summarized the Medicine for the Earth work in some of the monthly columns. And in June of 2010 I wrote a summary of the Medicine for the Earth describing how the work addresses body, mind, and spirit.

Whether you are a new reader of the Transmutation News or someone who has been reading the column over time, I suggest that you visit the archives of this site and read The June 2010 Transmutation News or click on the link. It will help you to refocus your spiritual practice on how you can be in service.

In How to Heal Toxic Thoughts I share the story of Two Wolves that comes from indigenous traditions.

A grandfather was talking to his grandson about many things.

He said, “I feel as if two wolves are fighting in my heart. One wolf is vengeful, angry, violent, and the other is loving, compassionate, and strong.”

The grandson asked the grandfather, “Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?”

The grandfather replied, “The one I feed”.

The point of this teaching story was to say that we must learn to transmute and transform the energies behind our emotions so that we are feeding the collective with loving energies.

And I also want to encourage you to use this teaching story as a reminder to use the gift of your imagination to project positive visions and dreams into the world.

It is our perception that creates our reality. Remember your wonderful memories and dreams for your life and for the life of the planet. Project beauty into the collective. Plant seeds of love and beauty and inspiration in your inner garden so that they grow, blossom, and bear fruit here in our earth garden.

When you get caught up in the pain and suffering that you are seeing acknowledge how you are feeling. Allow your heart to open and expand and embrace all you are experiencing. And then refocus your energies to transmute the energy to love and refocus your imagination, thoughts, and words to create a new vision of a world filled with love.

In the bible there is a teaching that says, without a vision the people will die. The paradox we continue to dance is how to keep projecting a good and healthy vision for all of life while surrendering the outcome at the same time. We must continue to vision a new dream as the collective dream continues to dissolve.

It is so easy to stay asleep and get lost in the dense state of the collective. Focus on the vastness of your inner universe. Raise your frequency by experiencing your transcendent light. Pulsate love, divine light, joy into the web of life and the web of light.

You cannot perceive a higher frequency of the planet without raising up to a higher frequency yourself. There is a dimension of magnificence and radiance that we can all tap into. But first you have to become that higher frequency yourself. And as more and more of us can tap into this higher vibration of a dimension of reality filled with radiant light the more we project that dimension into the collective.

Let’s together set an intention to wake up. Take some walks in nature and feel the vibrancy of the natural world around you. Experience the hidden world that is part of nature. Wake up to the magic, vibrancy, and magnificence of life and project that with each breath and step you take in the world.

Here is a very inspirational experience that Karen Furr in Arizona shared with me. Karen leads a weekly transfiguration group in her community.

“I facilitate a monthly transfiguration group here in Kingman and thought you would like to hear a ‘report’…

This is from one of the participants:

Hi Karen,
Last month you requested that we each bring some earth from home to the Transfiguration ceremony. I went out and dug a small baggie full of sand from my rose bed.

After Transfiguration I dumped it in a pot in my bathroom. I had previously (two years ago) buried a couple of avocado seeds
that never grew. I figured they would just be compost for the soil. Anything I’ve planted in that pot has not grown.

A few days ago, I noticed that I had stems and leaves. I’ve done nothing differently such as watering, light, heat etc. with that pot
and now have two avocado plants growing! And growing quickly! This month I took a larger bag of earth and will amend the various plants in my home with it.

I believe this is proof that what happens in Transfiguration is powerful energy. If it can happen to soil, what is it doing to our human condition and the intentions we put into the circle? Thank you for being the guide for this powerful spiritual experience.”

I emailed Karen about this wonderful report and she let me know that after one week the avocado plants were 7 inches tall.

This is such a great story reminding us of the power and potential of our spiritual work. I hope you will be inspired to bring water and soil into your transfiguration work.

Years ago, I coordinated global ceremonies on the Transmutation News where I would ask people to transfigure with water present on their altar and then to bring the water to larger bodies of water where they lived.

This is work we can keep up in our personal practices or with the groups we work with. Bringing blessed water to larger bodies of water is a way to bring healing and love to the waters of the world. Bringing soil filled with love and brilliant light is a way to honor and respect our earth garden. It is time to deeply honor and respect the elements which give us life. As we continue to do this as a global community the elements will reflect honor and respect back to us.

Sometimes I get an email or letter from someone who is asking that we direct light to a particular place on the planet. Diana, a dear friend of mine wrote me last month. For 9 years she has been very involved in working with courageous Afghan women leaders, helping them to provide healthcare, education and legal aid, so that they can improve quality of life for all Afghans.

The Taliban extremists are increasing violent attacks targeting Afghan women leaders involved in education, legal work, journalism, any of the professions. And they target those who support them. In a sad irony, the Afghan government itself is trying to undermine the little protection Afghan women have against violence, most recently by trying to seize control of all shelters which had been set up to protect battered and abused women. International outcry forced President Karzai and his government to backtrack on that issue, but the extremist element continues.

To quote Diana:

“I will be joining farflung moon-sisters on the full moon – asking the Great Mother to send down healing, love, light, peace to ‘All Beings Without Exception’ in the Buddhist phrase – to Afghan women, children and men suffering in the ongoing violence and destruction and even, or especially to the Taliban and Al Queda and extremist elements in the government bent on their destructive mission. We also ask the Goddess to extend her love, compassion, and light to all foreign military factions on Afghan soil. (And elsewhere, all over the world.)

We pray, at this full moon, that She will heal us of our fear and quicken all hearts toward the impossible, the necessary realization that we are all one Being–and what happens to the ‘least’ of us, happens to us all. We pray that the Great Mother help all without exception awaken to the joy of this truth and begin to live it from the very depth of our souls. “

If you feel so called to be part of this healing collective, we can join Diana during this full moon.

Remember that the media moves on after covering environmental, political, and economic events. People and all of life are still suffering the effects of the earthquake in Haiti and in New Zealand, the oil spill in the Gulf, the floods in Australia, the extreme weather in the U.S., Europe, and in South America – these are just to name a few. People in the Middle East are still fighting for freedom and thousands are being killed and tortured in their quest. And the list goes on.

All of life needs us to be a channel of light and love right now. We are not separate cultures or separate countries. We are all going through an initiation together. We are all connected to one web of life.

The full moon is April 17. Let us take the day to focus together on expanding our auras and connect together as one beaming pulsation of light as we continue to weave the web of light. Let us beam light and love to Japan and to all places and beings in the world facing challenges right now. Let us weave love and light throughout the earth so that the web of life holds us in love and with honor and respect.

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

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Transmutation News – August 2010

Summer is a time of deep reflection for me. As I have written in some of my books I seem to have the opposite cycle of most people around the seasons. And for me summer is the time of year where I am drawn within. And this summer is no different as I am exploring a new level of death and rebirth happening within myself.

Since last fall I have had the privilege to do ongoing work with two groups. The intention was together to commit to use the Medicine for the Earth principles on a daily basis and to support each circle member in the work.

When I first dreamed about the work my intention was to see what would happen if a group committed to the focus of radiating divine light. What would happen as we continued to let go of the ego and experience unity consciousness which is love and light.

We have been radiating love and light to our circle each day. And we have been projecting the best qualities onto each of us as I have been asking all of you to do in behalf of our global community.

We have been supporting each other in our night dreams and waking dreams. And we support each other in working through the issues and distractions that keep us from evolving personally and as a community.

Together we stay focused on the spiritual work no matter what is happening in the outer world.

After my first Working in Community training, which took place last November, when we started transfiguring daily for each other I reached such a high. I felt full of light, energetic, and joyful.

And then the shadow side representing the opposite state appeared and although I have felt the love and excitement of the circle I also experienced a struggle within myself.

I have come to an understanding of what this struggle is about for me and wanted to share this with you as it might speak to the process some of you are going through as we keep radiating our light each day.

And the understanding that I am getting is a deeper understanding of “the shaman’s death”.

When one embarks on a spiritual journey there is a process of dying to the ego – spirit sculpting us to be greater spiritual beings. And this journey of the shaman is filled with initiations that keep asking us to let go of our egos and a separate state of consciousness that can lead us to a unity consciousness and an experience of light that brings forth our clairvoyant, psychic and healing gifts.

As our ego is carved away at by our spirit, divine light can shine through. It is like a burning away of what keeps us separate from our spiritual state and what prevents our spirit from fully shining through us.

I have written about this many times in my books and also on the Transmutation News.

I think that the setting the intention of “the experiment” with the working in community groups brought me personally to a new stage of the shaman’s death.

The core of the Medicine for the Earth work has been to let go of the ego and experience a unity consciousness that is love and light.

And I know I have been on a path to live this teaching. But I feel I am at a new gateway of letting go of what “I want” and what “I need”. For as long as the “I” is so present then there is a container around myself and it prevents the ability to be in a unity consciousness.

So my desire to be in a group where the work will lead me to feel safe or filled with joy was a set up for sabotage. For every single desire of the ego is illusory and also cannot be satiated. The ego will always want more so it is a path that leads to despair instead of to true peace and joy.

And it is in the unity consciousness of no boundaries that all the miracles of healing are possible.

We are all on a journey – and we are all at different phases of the path – that will ultimately lead to a whole new evolution of consciousness. I think we need to move away from the focus being on the process of individuation. Individuating I think has been necessary on many levels but it is time to grow away from being so self absorbed into a consciousness of unity. And from there all things are possible.

But first a death must occur before we see the possibilities.

When I was in my late teens I experimented with taking LSD. One night some of my friends had taken LSD and we went to a Grateful Dead Concert. At the concert I was separated from some of my friends.

I went into a real place of “ego death” there was no “me” and there was no “other” we were all one. I was in a glorious state of being.

I wanted to tell my friend Robin something but I knew I could never find her amidst the crowd of people. So I thought to myself that if we are all one I can tell the person standing next to me the message and it would be the same as telling Robin.

And then I had the realization that if we were all one I only had to tell myself the message.

I realize that this experience I had although quite profound was also extreme. It was a clear cellular experience of how by being the change effects all of life. For when there is no “I” and no “other” all consciousness is connected.

Will we get to that non-egoic place of true connection in our lifetime? I do not know the answer to this question. And is it something everyone desires? – probably not.

The point I am trying to make is that our psychic gifts cannot really come forth when we feel separate for the psychic works in a field that demands “no boundaries”.

As we continue our spiritual practices each of us will touch this state of oneness from time to time and we will be the change that continues to move us forward.

When I have had near death experiences and experienced the true unconditional love of “God” there was just the present – no past and no future. The experience of love is timeless. The drinking in of the second – the ultimate present – was delicious.

Love is not conditional. Light is not conditional. But to fully experience it running through every cell of our being we must be absolutely present to the moment.

And the ego has a hard time being present to the moment. For from an egoic standpoint we tend to go back into the past or go into the future. It is not easy to surrender to living second by second.

I don’t know if you have ever taken a road trip where there is only the present moment. There is such a freedom in road trips where we leave our past behind us and stay in the present moment which ultimately leads to a destination.

The shaman’s death in the true sense of the term is letting go of the ego that provides any containment of the spiritual energies coming through to heal and to transform.

The shaman’s death is dying to anything that keeps you from being in the present moment. And that means letting go of outcomes, desires, needs, wants.

As we continue our daily spiritual practices together, leading to an evolution of consciousness, we will all go through some level of the shaman’s death depending on what your soul’s destiny is.

We will all be led on how to go past the containment of the ego. We cannot rush this. We can support each other to be a true presence that has nothing to do with outcome. For any talk about outcome takes us away from the present. And the key to spiritual potential lives in the present moment, the present breath, the present circumstances.

In this way we can truly step into the role of shaman/healer/mystic of being a hollow bone that allows for spirit to dance through us. We allow the flow of spirit. We do have innate spiritual abilities that can heal all that needs healing. But have we closed the door to those deep spiritual realms with our busy minds?

Through finding stillness we can open the door again. Stillness and being in the present is key!

The stillness also creates a natural flow of energy. In truth our bodies have all the cellular information needed to heal. The earth also knows how to heal itself. It truly is our interference in the flow of energy that blocks the natural healing process from happening. There are many benefits to going within, finding the stillness, and allowing spiritual energy to flow.

As I hear from so many people we are all experiencing changes in our lives. Some of the changes involve a loss of relationship, job, a dream, and some are experiencing health challenges.

All these changes involve some form of death which carves away our ego like a river going through and changing the landscape. These deaths do open us to a deeper place of spirit.

Sometimes when we go through these changes we move to a place of disillusionment and start to complain about what life has brought to us instead of understanding that everything that life brings is for us. It is important for our growth and spiritual development to go through the deaths we are all experiencing consciously. It is important to flow with changes instead of resisting the changes.

As I said earlier I have been moving in and out of the shadow states of dissatisfaction. When I visited my helping spirits they gave me an assignment for one week. And I was encouraged to share this assignment with all of you.

The assignment is for one week to see the beauty in everything. No matter what is happening in your life or in the world stretch your imagination to see the beauty in everything and everyone.

One of the core principles of the Medicine for the Earth work is that your perception creates your reality. It is important for us to shift our perception to experience the beauty, awe, and wonder of life. This oftentimes involves a stretch of our imagination. We were given our God given gift of imagination to use and to create with. So let’s create beauty instead of dissatisfaction. Experience how your perception changes leading to a change in your reality.

A path of beauty will begin to unfold in your life that goes beyond outer circumstances.

Do this for one week and notice what happens for you. You might decide that the effects in your own life bring enough rewards to continue to live this ancient spiritual practice.

The full moon is August 24. Take some time “to be” and drop into the depth of your spirit. Dance, sing, or maybe take a walk in nature to leave your ordinary life and thoughts behind you. Experience yourself fully connected to the spiritual energies that flow through you filled with unlimited potential. The light that shines through you is uncontained. Allow it to move, dance, radiate. Connect with the field of oneness. And experience that light weaving within the earth through deep roots. Experience the light weaving throughout the entire planet. Feed the light of the earth. Experience the true beauty of earth, air, water, and the sun which give us life. Experience the beauty of all of life.

Let us continue to project beauty, joy, peace, and health to our global community working together in service to all of life.

And let’s continue our transfiguration work radiating light into our global community.

If you are new to reading the Transmutation News you can read the instructions for our monthly ceremonies in the section titled “Creating A Human Web of Light” which is on this site.

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Transmutation News – February 2010

I found myself called to write a lot this month. The Transmutation News became so long that I realized there was too much in it to be absorbed by readers and I also feared that our translators would have “a meltdown”. So I am posting half of what I wrote this month. And will post the second half of what I wrote in March. This month’s column is still long so take some time to absorb all that is being shared by other contributors and myself.

Let’s begin with Haiti for so many people have been called to do something in behalf of the people.

Besides sending much needed donations we can work together using light to help those in need. I wanted to share with you an email I received from Julie who is a wonderful shamanic teacher and practitioner on www.shamanicteachers.com. For her work really sums up how we can continue to work in behalf of the people and the land of Haiti. And it is work we can do when there are future issues coming up in other places of the planet.

Here is what Julie wrote:

“I just wanted to share what I’ve suggested to my students based on some journeys I’ve done around the earthquake in Haiti.
In my first journey on Wednesday, I saw a huge circle of light beings (like us) already there transfigured as we do in Medicine the Earth, and I joined hands with them. I saw the amazing amount of light being generated, surrounding Haiti and weaving a web of light that stretched out to touch everyone in the world who has loved ones there. I also saw an enormous light column in the center of the circle, and many souls were rising up into the light through this portal. It was amazing and beautiful and a great learning experience for me.

So I suggested that everyone journey to Haiti whenever possible, even for just seconds at a time, and join hands with the circle of light beings who are already there holding a vibration of peace, harmony and compassion. I stressed that they not focus on the suffering, but to simply drop their form and become pure, divine light, and to tone if practical.

In my journey on Thursday (yesterday) I saw a haze of light forming over Haiti, and within it the city of Port au Prince was already being rebuilt on the spiritual plane. And so we have the opportunity to join in the rebuilding by dreaming a new dream for Haiti. I have asked my students to hold a vision of a Haiti in which there is no poverty, where everyone has a home, safety, food, education, healthcare and stability. I also saw that in the new Haiti, the old ways were being reclaimed, and people were learning to live in harmony and balance with the elements and with the land, so they were no longer so vulnerable to hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis etc.

For the aid workers who are physically there trying to help, there is no way to escape the devastation of what has happened. But as light workers and dreamers, when we focus on the suffering, we feed the vision of a Haiti that continues to be devastated, poor, hungry, uneducated and unstable. Instead, we can use our powers of imagination and visualization to feed the dream of a new Haiti, one of where everyone has a home, food, jobs, healthcare, education and hope for the future.

So I just wanted to share this with all of you as another way we can help.”

Change is really speeding up isn’t it? It is quite fascinating to watch all the forces that are coming into play. On one level there are so many challenges people are facing. This has been a challenging winter for many around the world as the weather has been extreme everywhere.

On another level one can see that there are forces in motion to help to change consciousness in a positive way.

We have been working together as a global community for quite some time now with the Medicine for the Earth work. And some of the keys of our work have been:

-The importance of honoring and respecting our connection to nature. For all of us reading the Transmutation News understand that we are part of the web of life and all life is connected.

-We have been working with our thoughts and words to align with a positive vision in creating a positive life for ourselves and all of life.

-We have been working with the understanding that we are divine light and the world around us is a reflection of our inner state of consciousness.

-And another big piece we have been working with is that when we work together as a global community we tap into an exponential power to create change.

Although my new book How To Thrive in Changing Times was just published all these principles that I wrote about have been part of our work together for many years now.

And if you observe what is happening these same principles are being seeded in mass consciousness by popular writing and even by Hollywood.

Dan Brown’s book The Lost Symbol has been one of the best selling books this winter. I don’t know it’s ranking right now but it has been #2 on the Bestseller List in the United States.

Although his book is fiction and is written with the same formula as his past books, this book goes into some of the old teachings that are the foundation of freemasonry. And the running theme behind the story has to do with the power of our thoughts to create, the power of the divine within us, and the power of how we can change the state of world very quickly when we work together with group consciousness.

Then the movie Avatar came out. Yes, it is Hollywood at its finest. But it is also changing the consciousness of people who are coming to see it. Avatar takes you into another world where the indigenous people live in total respect for nature and harmony with nature. For it is understood that they are part of nature and the web of life and that nature is a powerful helping spirit.

There is an understanding of how sacred trees are and that there is a network connecting the roots of all trees where all kinds of communication happens.

And all ceremonies for healing are done in community and the group consciousness working as one is what creates successful results.

As I read and listen to stories of the impact the movie is having on people I hear things like:
– I want to live in that world. I want to create a simpler life.
– I want to connect with nature.
– I want to find a group to work with.

The movie goes into the shadow side of greed and how when we disconnect from nature we disconnect from the beauty of life. And money should not be a reason to destroy life.

So although we have been working with these same principles for years now just think of the many thousands of people who are now being opened up to these ancient teachings.

And it is also wonderful to hear how many children are being impacted by the movie and want to save the earth.

Powerful seeds have been planted into the psyche of mass consciousness. May the seeds take root to creating a true understanding of how we can truly join our hearts and minds together to shift the direction of the world and create a world we want to live in for ourselves, our children, our descendants and for all of life itself.

In How to Thrive in Changing Times and also my new book Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation co-written by Hank Wesselman I wrote about how working in community can create greater change then when we work alone.

You might want to look at page 137-138 in the section “Gathering Our Energies” in How to Thrive in Changing Times where I gave an example of the power of working in community.

Years ago when Santa Fe was very dry and we were in quite the drought I had been seeing all the trees where I live in their divine light. I couldn’t give them water but I could perceive them in their divinity.

One of the trees on the land where I live is a peach tree. I brought a peach from the tree to a Medicine for the Earth workshop I was teaching.

I had been transfiguring and experiencing the tree in its divine light for the entire summer. Sylvia, who uses the GDV camera at my workshops, took a photo of the energy field of the peach. And the field of the peach looked very good.

But after the peach was in the middle of the circle where 50 participants performed a transfiguration ceremony together the energy of peach was so much more vibrant.

See the results below. You can also visit www.shamanicteachers.com and click on “photos/results” to see the peach as well as other results. And you can show the photos to others who you might share the work with.

This was such a tangible example for me of the power of working in community. And those of us who have been involved in healing when a group focuses their energy in behalf of an individual know the power of working together instead of working alone.

When we really get this and as people of the world start to embrace this teaching we are completely unlimited in what we can create together.

I really loved in Avatar the teaching about the network connecting all trees. For again we have been working with this in some of our past ceremonies together.

In the past we have performed transfiguration ceremonies together with water. I asked you to transfigure with a small container of water present and then give that water to a larger body of water spreading the sacred water through all waters of the planet.

I am fortunate to live in nature and love to take a walk whenever I can. I have one tree where I live that is obviously an ancient pinion pine. Whenever I take a walk I visit that pine tree and first I put my hands on it and send love to it. And then I always ask the tree to share and send my love with every tree throughout the planet. For I know the message and energy sent to this one tree can be shared with all trees.

Let’s once again engage in some of this work together. This month I ask you to send your love into the air with blessings for the love to be shared with all air on this great earth. Give thanks to air for all the life it gives to you with each breath you take. Thank the air for the messages of love it carries to you.

Put your hands on the earth and tell the earth how much you love her and how much appreciation you have for the life you have been given and all she shares. Allow this feeling of love and appreciation to be shared with the earth and taken through every inch of earth on the planet.

Transfigure with a glass of water present during your ceremony. And then bring it to a body of water where you live. Allow the love and divine light to be carried to all the waters of the world.

Send great greetings and love to the sun and the fire that burns within the earth reminding us of our own internal light and giving thanks for the passion for life the light reflects to us.

Honor the moon and the stars in the same way for their light is a great reminder of the beauty of our light that shines from within into the world.

As we do these simple ceremonies as a global community we will experience positive change.

We are all connected and as we work together as a unified field of energy we tap into the unlimited possibilities that go with focusing our creative energy on a world filled with peace, light, love, and harmony.

I know that many of us get excited when we are inspired by what we read and when we are in groups about all that we can change and how our potential is unlimited.

And then we find ourselves alone reading the newspaper or watching the news and it is hard to maintain that energy of excitement and hope.

When you find yourself in a time like this try asking yourself a question that begins with “What if…..”

What if it is possible for the global community to create positive change?

What if we are unlimited in our potential?

What if we can turn the challenges we now face around and create a life of harmony, balance, and joy?

These are just some examples that will give you an idea of questions you can create.

Back in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s I had a very strong private shamanic healing practice in Santa Fe. And I had gotten the reputation of performing successful shamanic extraction work. For those of you not familiar with shamanic extraction it is where the shamanic practitioner removes spiritual blockages from the client that might be creating emotional and physical illness.

I was working with a lot of clients who had cancer and through word of mouth they had found their way to me.
In my extraction work my helping spirits had taught me to use the classic method of actually sucking the blocking spiritual energies out of the body of the client. It was like I was using “a spiritual straw” to do this and then I would spit what I had gotten into a bowl of water that was beside me. And then I would pray over the water and transmute the energy and give the “sacred water” back to the earth.

Anyway here is the point I want to make. I grew up in Brooklyn in a very conventional family. So as I would be performing my extraction work my rational mind would always come in and ask the question, “Have you completely lost your mind?!!!” For on a rational level and from my training of how one acts in our society what I was doing was simply crazy.

How I would handle this is when my mind would start to interfere with my healing work I would just say to myself, “What if this really works?”

This question would open up the possibility – quiet my mind, and frankly I do believe that it impacted the results of my work in a positive way.

Today one of the teachings that is coming out of quantum physics is that asking “What if…” questions does open up a doorway into the universe that helps to focus energies for manifestation.

This month experiment with “What if…” questions and notice if and how this way of working helps you when you start to question the efficacy of spiritual work and when issues of hopelessness come up.

Gail Walker is a dear friend and wonderful practitioner and teacher of shamanism. She often shares her thoughts with me after she reads something I have written. She has a great gift of working with metaphors and her communications with me always take me to a deep reflective place. Recently Gail me sent me the following on how the understanding of the power of working in circles can be woven together with some recent scientific discoveries. She plants some wonderful seeds.

“One way of bringing through formlessness into form is to assemble the pieces that are coming into the collective consciousness at this time. These pieces may seem unrelated. But just as we are guided on our paths by inner spirit, outer spirit guides us by revealing similar knowledge in different forms or professions.

We can use these pieces like a Medicine Wheel to know the wisdom of the other directions and as well as our own and see the whole of the pattern that is coming into form.

In the January Transmutation News Sandra wrote that ‘Nature has been trying to show us that we are not living in a time where we can predict and therefore control what is happening.’ Since then, the earthquake in Haiti has occurred.

During this same timeframe, research has been published about how cancer cells may be contained and about how traumatic stress may be minimized. The mechanics of our human bodies are revealing templates that are metaphors to explain how joining together in spiritual practice may heal the upheavals of toxic thoughts and toxic experiences. This may be a time where a new and old wisdom are emerging in human consciousness as a new paradigm. The paradigm would encompass movement, interaction, circles and how whole systems interrelate. Body is a portal to the knowledge that is emerging [or re-emerging] into the larger collective consciousness at this time.

A front page article in the 12/29/09 New York Times reported on an idea [proposed twenty years ago but now being accepted] that cancer cells cannot turn into lethal tumors without the cooperation of other cells nearby. In essence cancer cells are influenced by relationships with other cells in their environment. ‘It may also mean that cancers grow in part because normal cells around them allowed them to escape. It also means there might be a new way to think about treatment: cancers might be kept under control by preventing healthy cells around it from crumbling.’ The research is investigating the signals and interactions between the cells. Further research is investigating how the environment of the cells can ‘defang or weaken’ cancer cells.

Some of the basic ideas in this research mirror shamanic practice.
A cell [or toxic thought] needs cooperation from neighbors [or repetition] to turn into tumor [or pattern]. A healthy community or cluster of cells might contain and hold the toxic cell, and only when this community breaks down might the cell become dangerous. The cells’ environment is constantly changing and being influenced by their interactions. There might be a way to block the signaling of the toxic cell so it cannot recruit healthy cells. Perhaps there is a chemical or energy flow in the ring of cells around the cancer cells that prevent them from becoming toxic, by signaling to them that they are surrounded.

Applying these concepts to shamanic practice makes clear the importance of circles. The circles we sit in become wheels of energy that can whirl with the wind and swirl through time. Circles can embrace, contain and perhaps restrain toxic elements. When we send our light/energy as embodied dense beings in a human vessel, we may be fortifying that healthy encircling that contains that which is toxic and signals it into stillness.

Sustaining the momentum of the circle is essential. In our community’s work with the people, animals and land in Haiti, sustaining the focus and energy will keep the circle recharged and recharging and sending. Circulating love and light to the people and the animals and the land will help contain or encircle the earthquake’s wake.

In The New York Times 1/14/10 article about limiting the aftereffects of trauma on our troops in Iraq, revealed that morphine treatment cut in half the number who developed posttraumatic stress. The morphine reduced pain and scrambled recall. Of special interest to shamanic practitioners the morphine also inhibited the production of norepinephrine, a brain chemical associated with fear, and mimicked the hormone oxytocin which cements human bonds and creates the feeling of love and well-being.

That morphine may prevent PTSD may be another example of containment. By limiting norepinephrine there would be less flooding with messages of fear and repetitive alarm. The presence of a substance similar to oxytocin would reduce toxic isolation when people feel a rupture with people or Spirit due to a trauma. Instead there would be the sense of being encircled, that I am not alone in the world, that would surround and depotentiate the desolation.

Shamanic practices replicate these effects. When we send our energy/light and hold some person or place in love we may be creating that oxytocin link and also be limiting overriding fears.

It is a time to wake up to body – as teacher, as paradigm, as connector, as source. It is a time to sustain circles and circulate the energy as a wheel to swirl and encircle toxins with health and well-being to defang them. It is a time to use community and connection to soothe fear and cement human bonds.

It is a time to welcome body as the standpoint with which we root the web of light. When we embody Spirit, connect as circle and circulate embodied energy we can encircle toxins and serve the good. In the paradigm where we are more embodied in our human vessels, we align more deeply with Earth as a living body.”

The full moon is February 28. Let us continue to join and hearts and light together in weaving a bright and joyful web of light within and throughout the earth.

I received wonderful feedback from readers from the Transmutation News about sending roots of light down into the earth that I wrote about in the January Transmutation News. I will repeat this instruction for you again here.

This was a suggestion from Kate in Delaware who meets monthly with a local group to weave a web of light:

“Instead of weaving the web of light up and out, we weave roots down into the earth. Once all the roots are joined with the light from everyone else the lights bursts forth from the earth and envelopes every being on the planet.”

Using the principle of as above, so below, as within, so without it is important for the spiritual community to develop the as within part. For many in the spiritual community have a tendency to leave the body during spiritual work. And the strength of our work is really fueled by our ability to stay embodied as a star shines from within. As Gail wrote above when we are more embodied we align more deeply with Earth as a living body.

Let’s try rooting the web of light into the earth. We want to really feel the web of light within and throughout the earth.

And let’s continue our transfiguration in behalf of our global community as is written up on the Transmutation News page of this site under Creating A Human Web of Light.

The instructions for our full moon ceremony and for our monthly group healing in behalf of our circle are also written up in How to Thrive in Changing Times.

I am getting such wonderful feedback on this book. I recently gave a copy of the book to a nurse who seemed interested in it. When I saw her after she read the book she told me that she is a staunch Republican and bible thumping Baptist and that she is very close minded. She just loved the book!! And she asked me for a copy of How to Heal Toxic Thoughts.

My intention with writing both of these books was that they would cross over into more of a general population. The feedback from this nurse I took as a great sign.

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Transmutation News – March 2008

In America we are being flooded by media coverage about the current election. The word that is being used to try to sway American voters is the word “change”. People seem to be responding to that word, as we all know that a change is needed.

It is true that we need to change the way the “political system” works. But once again we are seeing people wanting someone else, an authority figure to change our lives for us.

We need to continue to focus on the internal changes we need to make for there to be true change in our lives and on the planet. We need to stand up and own our personal responsibility for making changes for a healthy planet. The key to the Medicine for the Earth work is it is who we become that changes the world and not what we do. We continue to work with the principle that comes from so many spiritual traditions of “as within so without”.

When we look at the phrase “as within” that applies to our thoughts and words. When we look at the phrase “so without” that applies to the physical manifestation in the world. The “as within” is the invisible energy that creates the manifestation in our outer world.

When I wrote Medicine for the Earth and How to Heal Toxic Thoughts I explain the need to transform and transmute the energy behind our thoughts and words so that we are conscious about feeding the world with love and light.

This month I would like us to begin to explore another aspect of working with our thoughts and words. Again I will repeat that many spiritual traditions throughout time have been teaching that we must work with our inner state of consciousness in order to see real change in our lives and on the planet.

We need to look at what are the thoughts that we give most energy to for that is the energy that ends up manifesting in our lives. I have spoken before about the work of Emmet Fox. He was a New Thought Minister as well as a teacher, healer, and best selling author. For 20 years thousands of people showed up for his weekly services. They filled the ballrooms in New York hotels, Carnegie Hall, and even the Hippodrome.

He termed a phrase “the mental equivalent” which he took from science. He took the concept of how much electricity or power it would take to make a piece of equipment run and translated that into how much energy is needed to manifest what we truly desire in our lives.

One of the things I watch as I teach is when people gather in community to do spiritual work a loving and supportive space is created. This space that is created makes it very easy for people to engage in spiritual work. Then I sit at a table during a meal time and watch the energy created as someone talks about a physical complaint, or a complaint about what is going on in his or her own life, or about a world tragedy. Often I notice that more energy goes into talking about complaints then into the spiritual practices we are engaging in.

If everyone channeled the energy created from our complaints about what is not working to positive thoughts and intentions can you imagine how much positive change we will see on the planet?

Most of us can keep positive thoughts when we are in a group experience where we are experiencing love, harmony, and unity. But few people can actually take that out into daily life. And this is what is needed right now.

We need to change our thoughts and keep them changed.

I remember when I first starting working with transmuting the energy behind my thoughts. It was about 1991 and I was driving down my road headed into town. And I was thinking about someone I was angry at. As I was driving I heard my spiritual teacher Isis ask me: “What was that thought and where did you just send it to?” I remember being shocked out of my angry state to the realization of what I was doing.

From that day on I began my practice of transmuting the energy behind my thoughts so that I was truly sending out energy of love and light to myself, others, and into the world.

But I do remember how hard it was to not fall into my old habits of thinking. I would slip constantly and I really relied on Isis to come into my consciousness and continually ask me the question: “What was that thought and where did you just send it to?”

I wrote about this in my second book Welcome Home. And then continued with writing about this in all my books to come. As I continued the practice over the years I found it did not take so much energy to work with transmuting the energy behind my thoughts. It became easier and easier and now it is just part of my way of being in the world.

As I read Emmet Fox’s writing on the concept of the mental equivalent I realized that although I no longer sending “ill will” out into the world I still spend a lot of time complaining.

I have my spiritual practice that I work with throughout the day to experience everyone and everything around me in divine perfection and light. But I do allow my egoic self to get the best of me during the day. I complain about some pain I might be experiencing, or about the traffic or long line I had to stand on line at the post office, or about something I see going on in the world. And when I do complain my complaints have a lot of energy attached to them.

It is important not just to focus on transforming the energy behind my thoughts that I think about others, but I must change my thoughts and the words I use about life and keep them changed.

Thoughts create physical manifestations. We attract what we continually think about. Most spiritual traditions have been teaching this for thousands of years.

We need to observe what we are thinking about throughout the day and the energy we are fueling with our thoughts.

The Scriptures say, “Without a vision the people will perish”. We need to look at what vision we are feeding. And are we holding to the vision that we would like to see for our descendants and ourselves? What is the vision of the world we want to live in? We need to get that vision and to keep doing our creation work as I wrote about in Medicine for the Earth and in past Transmutation News. We need to set an intention and find the thoughts and words that go with birthing that manifestation. We need to focus our thoughts and keep them focused. We need to hold steady to the work.

And we cannot base our happiness or feelings of wealth from what is happening in the outer world. I have written in the past about looking into the eyes of people in indigenous cultures. Many of them shine a light and joy through their eyes that we are hungry to experience for ourselves. But yet these people have nothing in the material world that would define them as “wealthy” from a western standard. But they are wealthy within. They have a rich inner life and they look through “spirit eyes”.

In the Transmutation News May 2007 I shared a message that Isis had given me for a group I was working with. She said:

“It is the inner journey that is important. You are still caught up in the outer reflection.

The magic happens in the inner worlds and this is where the true light workers and alchemists work. This is where one develops telepathy. This is where magical healings and earth healings occur.

You are still lost in the outcome versus the process. Of course focusing and having vision on outcomes is good. But your outcomes come by your process. Focus more on the process versus the outcome.”

In doing our spiritual work to transform ourselves and the world around us we must work from the inside out. Too many of us only focus on the outer world. When we only focus on what is happening in the outer world we start to feel like we are on a rollercoaster ride.

Someone tells you look great and then you feel happy.
Then you get a bill in the mail you were not expecting and your emotions take a dive.
Then you go to work the next day and you get a promotion and you feel great.
Then while you are working someone tells you that you are being arrogant and you feel terrible.
Then you go home and watch a human interest story on the news and you feel warm and loving inside.
Then you watch a story about war in some part of the world and you lose all hope.

This goes on and on unless you come to the realization that your happiness, peace, joy, and wealth lie within. And once you get this realization then you must change your thought process.

In How to Heal Toxic Thoughts I wrote about working with decrees. I would suggest you review this chapter and start to find some phrases you can use throughout the day to replace the phrases you typically use to describe the problems of your life experience. You need to stop focusing on the problem and you need to change your thought process within that will create a different outer experience.

And you need to keep exploring your beliefs on why your vision is impossible to attain. For we need to identify and weed out the beliefs that we hold that keep us in a place of disempowerment and despair.

What is your vision of beauty for the planet? How are you feeding this vision? What seeds are you planting with your thoughts and words? And what thought forms around your work need to be weeded out?

Do you truly live the principles of the Medicine for the Earth work and do you really believe that this work has potency to change the world? Do you believe that the spiritual work we do does make a difference in the world?

We need to embrace a bigger vision filled with unlimited possibilities and potential. And if we truly create global support for this work we create a road that leads to the successful manifestation of a world filled with unity, love, light, peace, and abundance for all. But we need to work from the inside out.

Alchemists talk about the Great Work. And the Great Work refers to it is who we become (inner work) that changes the world (outer reflection and physical manifestation).

We need to keep working with the alchemical principle of transforming heavy leaded consciousness into gold light consciousness.

There are many very popular books on creation and manifestation today. And one of the issues that they do not speak to is that we create what we believe.

As we continue our creation work we must continue to meditate on or journey on those deeply seeded beliefs that we are holding that sabotage our work. We need to keep finding practices to weed out these beliefs so that we have a clear inner space to create from. We need to change our thoughts that focus on the problems of the outer world to thoughts that focus on that we are divine love, divine light, and divine perfection. We need to change our thoughts and words we use and keep them changed.

I know for myself as I look at changing my habitual thinking I do need some support. Let’s set our intention as a global community to support each other energetically in this work.

You might find a friend you can talk to and create a support system to help you stay on the path.

And continue to do the gratitude walk that I wrote about last month for that will create a strong and positive foundation to live from.

You might also review the Disidentification Exercise that I wrote up in Medicine for the Earth. That exercise helps you get in touch with “The Self”. The Self is your stable of consciousness that is always there. It is a source of stability and clear perception in the midst of change.

What a great gift you can give to the earth by working with thinking beautiful and inspired thoughts on the spring equinox which is March 20. We need to do this every day and throughout the day. But really concentrate your efforts on this day. And let’s work as a collective in behalf of the earth to create positive change.

The full moon is March 21. Let’s weave a beautiful web of light within and throughout the earth by experiencing our divine light and the divine light of all that is alive. And let’s keep our thoughts and words in alignment with the divine light that embraces us all.

We continue our healing circle for our global community on the full moon as is written about on “Creating A Human Web of Light” on the homepage.

Malou Thein has been translating the Transmutation News into French for years now. As you can imagine the translation is a lot of work. And we give thanks to her for her gift of service. She is no longer able to continue to translate for the French community.

If there is someone reading the Transmutation News who would like to take over the French translation please email Ruth Aber at: aruthabelle@aol.com. If you do email Ruth sometimes her replies to people end up in a spam folder and people think she did not answer. So please check your spam folder if you do not hear back from her.

I know we all appreciate the knowledge that this work is accessible to people around the world.

Back to Shaman Resources

Transmutation News – January 2008

I want to wish all of you a very light-filled New Year! And I give thanks for all the work you are doing to change your own consciousness, which ripples throughout the entire web of life creating a more harmonious planet.

I started writing a monthly column on this website in 1998 when my visionary fiction A Fall to Grace was published. It was a way for me to write excerpts from the book and share spiritual practices with readers that would give people experience of the teachings I was sharing in the book.

In 2000 the column changed to the Transmutation News where I started to focus on the work I had written about in Medicine for the Earth. The purpose of the column has been to share teachings and new thoughts that come up for me without always having to write a new book. And most importantly, my intention has been to inspire you to keep up spiritual practices regardless of what is happening in the outer world. For it is so easy to lose focus when we hear the news of war, violence in communities, and environmental problems.

The intention of keeping you inspired to keep up your work and for us to join our energies together as a spiritual community to create positive change on the planet is still what keeps me writing The Transmutation News. And last month I did thank the translators, Eva in Austria who coordinates all the translators, and Bob Edgar for continuing his work as webmaster. I really appreciate all who help to keep the Transmutation News being published for people around the world to read.

It is still amazing to me that I have been writing a column on this webpage for 10 years and that we are now going on our eleventh year. So we continue!

For the last couple of months I have been encouraging you to journey within or use your meditation practice to experience those deep inner landscapes that exist within you. And the more we really experience the solidity as well as the fluidity of our inner light the more it can shine forth into the world. The main teaching of the Medicine for the Earth work is that it is who we become that changes the world and not what we do. It is not methods and techniques that will change the world it is living a conscious life that creates change. A spiritual life is about living a conscious life. If we just do spiritual practices at certain times of the day and do not live the work we limit the possibilities for change.

As we continue to deepen our work and learn how to bring spiritual practices into our daily life it is important for us to also work in ceremony to help to heal the places on the earth that have been struck with violence and disaster.

I would imagine that all of you know a place that could use some spiritual work close to where you live. I don’t believe that there are many places which have not been affected by an unconscious culture living in today’s world. For as a culture we have not been living in a way that honors the land and all the living beings inhabiting our communities.

This month and each month to follow I would like to encourage you to actually work in your local communities to perform a transfiguration ceremony which leads to bringing forth the radiance of places that have been negatively impacted by building, pollution, violence, etc.

The best way to work is to bring others in your community to be part of the transfiguration ceremony so that change begins to happen on many levels. But for those of you who cannot bring others from your community into a ceremony then start by working by yourself knowing we all must start somewhere. And that change happens by each of us stepping into our power and not waiting for some perceived “leader” to make it better for us.

Transfiguration ceremonies are actually quite easy to lead and do not require previous spiritual training. When I lecture in groups I do lead short and powerful ceremonies that do create radiance in the room which we know ripples out into the web of life.

I explain to people that we are more than a body, our mind, and our past experiences. If you strip that all away we are spiritual light. And I do a short guided meditation to ask people to travel inside of themselves to experience that spiritual light shining through them. And when they experience it to stand toning the song of that light and the universe into the space they are in.

Toning is the best way I have found to hold a transfigured state. In teaching toning I just instruct people to start to sound a vowel and just keep it going and it will change to different sounds over time.

For those of you who are English speakers you can listen to my CD “Miracles for the Earth” produced by Sounds True if you need to brush up on your instructions.

But it is really easy to lead a group in a transfiguration ceremony for healing. You do not need to feel intimidated in doing so and people just love it. Just a few minutes of toning one’s divine light gives people a transcendental experience that effects them, the land, and all of life in that area.

Can you imagine how much light we can inspire throughout the planet if all of us around the world would travel to one place where you live and continue this work each month?

To add to this find a spiritual practice you can do on a daily basis to honor the spirit of where you live, the compassionate and helping ancestral spirits that live there, the hidden folk who are caretaking the land, the angels, guardians, and helping spirits of the land and your communities, and the spirit that lives in all things. We also want to honor the spirit of earth, air, water, and fire as in the sun, all which bring us life.

You can create a very simple ceremony. It can be as simple as going outside every day and leaving an offering or just simply saying a prayer that acknowledges your partnership with the spirits I just named. And this same prayer and/or offering would be a way of giving thanks.

You will notice an energetic change in your own consciousness as well as feeling a change with the connection to where you live if you do this on a daily basis. It does not need to take more than a few minutes a day.

And the key is to add this to living a life of allowing your inner light to shine through you wherever you go throughout the day as well as living a life filled with gratitude.

If you would be willing to share with me some of the ceremonial work you do in your communities through the use of transfiguration and any effect you notice I would love to share it during the months coming on our Transmutation News. Also if you would like to share a simple daily ceremony which might be helpful to others that would be great.

As for most of you I experience time speeding up and it is difficult for me to find balance in my own life. One way for me to keep some sanity in my life is not to have a published email address otherwise I literally would spend my whole day answering emails.

I know people do not generally like to write letters and put a stamp on. But in asking you to do this to share your ceremonies with our community is one way to help me be able to stay on my spiritual path.

In advance I will thank you for your generosity of time and energy so that we can feel our connection to our community of worldwide readers and inspire and be inspired by each other. And in this way we create energetic fuel and support for each other’s work.

If you are willing to share something with us please write me at PO Box 4757, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87502 USA.

What you write can just be a few sentences. We don’t need much to get the idea of what you are doing. And you can do this throughout the year so that I can keep posting inspirational experiences.

The full moon is January 22. This is a day for us to continue our ceremonial work and to gather our energies together and focus to keep weaving a web of light filled with beauty and harmony within and throughout the earth.

It is also a time for us to continue the healing work we have been doing for each other using the practice of transfiguration.

If you are new to this site or need a reminder on the process, please visit the link on this site for Creating a Human Web of Light which explains both weaving a web of light and the healing work for our circle.

One night in December I was watching the national news. There was a great news story I would like to share with all of you. First I need to explain to those of you outside of the United States that we have coffee houses here where you can drive up to a window and order your coffee drink or tea and not have to get out of your car. Someone takes your order in a window, you pay your money, and you wait and your drink is delivered to you.

Starbucks, a coffeehouse chain here, provides such a service in some cities in the U.S.

A man was in his car at the Starbucks window ordering his coffee. Behind him in another car was a man who was getting frustrated with how long things were taking and he started to honk his horn. The man waiting at the window was a Tai Chi teacher. He got out of his car and he bought the man behind him a cup of coffee. Well that act spread and everyone in line bought the person in the car behind him or her a cup of coffee.

When the Tai Chi teacher was interviewed on TV the interviewer talked about his act of the kindness. The Tai Chi teacher said his action was not an act of kindness. His action was to change consciousness. By his action he knew he changed the consciousness of the man who honked the horn and everyone’s consciousness who was in the drive through line that day. His intention was to transform the negative energy into something positive and to change the consciousness of others who were present. And he was successful in doing this.

This is such a marvelous example of how the simple ways we interact with people during the day can create long term positive change on the planet.

I also want to let you know that on www.sandraingerman.com there are now four short articles written by me which you can share with others. My article on “Soul Retrieval” I just updated last month so you might want to see what I added throughout the previous article. There is an article on Medicine for the Earth and also an abstract on shamanism, which provides a brief overview of what shamanism is about. And I have just added a short article on “How to Heal Toxic Thoughts”.

Lenore Norrgard is a Medicine for the Earth teacher and a shamanic practitioner and teacher in the Northwest of the United States. I have known Lenore for years and I have deep respect for her work, her teachings, and for how many people she has touched sharing the work. One of her passions has been to share her work on the topic of spiritual activism.

She has written an article titled “Ritual and Activism” and it was published in the magazine the Sacred Hoop and also in a local magazine called Alternatives Magazine.

Lenore has made available the link to the article in Alternative Magazine for anyone who would like to read it:
www.alternativemagazine.com/43/norrgard.html

It would be great for you to take a look at the version that was in The Sacred Hoop. Lenore feels that this version of the article is more accessible to international readers, plus there are photos.

Sacred Hoop doesn’t have the article online but if you click on this link you can quickly and easily download a pdf of The Sacred Hoop version:
http://www.circlelivingearth.org/ritual-and-activism.pdf

Every month I get a few letters asking me to consider teaching another Two Year Teacher Training. For the last year I have been saying I might consider teaching one more training starting in 2009 in Santa Fe, New Mexico and that I would announce it in the January or February Transmutation News.

I wanted to let those of you who are waiting for my decision know that I am leaning in the direction of saying yes to your requests. I do want to say that there are already many brilliant teachers listed on www.shamanicteachers.com. I am looking at doing another training for those of you who have the experience and qualifications I am looking for. I am not looking to work with a large group but just working with those of you who could not do one of my previous trainings. I will not accept anyone who is not qualified.

For a list of qualifications please email Ruth Aber at: aruthabelle@aol.com and if you meet the qualifications we will send you more information.

My heart feels very warm knowing how many people around the world are focusing on shining their own light which will be reflected back to us by the earth and the rest of life.

“Example is a language we can all understand” – this quote came from a billboard outside of a church in Santa Fe. I think it is a good quote and applicable to our work.

Back to Shaman Resources

Transmutation News – October 2007

When I teach my course on Healing with Spiritual Light I share an important principle from esoteric healing. In esoteric healing a client is perceived as divine light. The practitioner does not recognize illness as to work with a label of illness is to add power to the manifestation of the illness.

When a client does come for a healing, one does not deny or invalidate what the client’s complaint is. But it is important for the practitioner/healer to hold the image and experience of the client’s divine perfection.

If we work like this and acknowledge the client’s divine perfection and light we allow the spiritual light and power to move the client into a higher state where healing is possible. We have many case studies that demonstrate the power of this work.

I have written about Jack Schwarz who had amazing power to heal himself. He wrote in his books that the role of a healer is to assist a client in experiencing his/her own radiance. Roberto Assagioli who was an Italian psychiatrist who lived and worked around the same time of Freud taught that people are already whole. The role of the therapist is to help a patient remember his/her wholeness instead of trying to fix them. He named his form of therapy Psychosynthesis. His work was before the time when people could really understand his theory. And his work was not appreciated until a much later time.

Over the years I have written that there is a paradox in life we must continue to dance with. From a spiritual perspective there is only divinity and perfection. From an egoic perspective we experience pain and suffering. And unless we are a true spiritual master who has moved past the egoic states of separation permanently, we dance through the different states that come from being in oneness and then sometimes experiencing states of separation.

So let’s look at the planet today as our client. On one level we can experience the world as being ill caused by the disharmonious behavior of human beings toward each other and life itself.

We can also rise to another level and experience the spiritual state of unity, oneness, and experience the world and the planet in its divine perfection. And this is what we have been working with together for years now as we work with the material in Medicine for the Earth.

When I have written monthly columns over the years I have used the words raising our frequency and vibration. They are terms now being used by many writers and practitioners but many people do not know what they mean.

I can only explain what they mean for me. And I will use a metaphor from music to talk about the terms of raising frequency and vibration. Someone can pick up a guitar or any string instrument and just start plucking on the strings in a way that truly hurts the ears of people who are listening. The working with the instrument is not done with any intention to play beautiful sounds that go together to create a melody that would create peace, joy, and healing.

But a master musician knows how to play notes that create an energy that creates beauty, healing, peace, and deep emotion in all that listen. The vibration or frequency created is the energy that is manifested. Someone can take me to feeling like I am being of light and love by the music being played that make me feel like my energy is actually vibrating higher. I no longer feel myself as a dense being. The quality of my energy is being tuned to a vibration and frequency of the music being played. I hope you get my point.

Keeping with the metaphor of music, in today’s world there are many different music pieces being played on a regular basis. When one watches the news we get a piece of music being played by the words spoken and images shown that typically bring us into a denser energy field.

In spiritual practices that embrace the principles of unity, oneness, love, light, and divine perfection music is being played with words and teachings that take us in to a lighter energy field that create a feeling of a higher vibration in our bodies.

For years I have written that the energy, frequency, and vibration of the earth is changing. And I have suggested adding to your spiritual practice asking to become one and merge with the new frequencies of the earth.

Many other writers right now are sharing that they feel the frequency of the earth is being raised. And it is something you can feel on a cellular level when you allow yourself to disengage from the chaotic music of the outer world.

My experience is that as the frequency of the earth is being raised it seems like the shadow states are also coming to life. It is like a purging is taking place. So on one level we are seeing people moving into higher states of consciousness and into a more spiritual state of awareness. On another level we are seeing greater states of greed, divisiveness, hate, fear, etc.

So as a spiritual practitioner, if our client is our planet and the state of the world, which states of consciousness do you want to attach to and embrace as you begin your healing practice? Do you choose to focus on the disharmony or do you choose to focus on the perfection and assist the planet to rise up into its divinity and light? The planet is already there. We simply acknowledge and feed the state of harmony, wholeness, and perfection.

Many people in the world have chosen to work on the symptoms. And that is fine for there are many levels we can choose to work on and be in service to the world and the planet.

When working with the principles in the Medicine for the Earth work we do focus on recognizing the divine perfection of all we see and experience.

When working with this way we need to disengage from the drama/trauma aspects of what is going on and rise up to observing life from a higher perspective. I find for myself that it is difficult for me to rise up to another perspective while I continue to allow myself to engage in the problems that come from a state of separation.

As we move into fall and winter this is a good time to look at what you need to disengage from in order to do your spiritual work. Are there people who keep bringing you down to a denser level of consciousness? Are there people and situations that keep pulling you off your path?

When you look into the eyes of indigenous people who are fully engaged with the spiritual world you not only see the light shining as I have written about before. You also see in their eyes that they live in a deep inner world and that they are disengaged from the much of the drama of the outer world.

I fully believe that it is working in the inner worlds where we can create a lot of change on the planet. There are thousands of people around the world from a variety of spiritual traditions who are healing all of life by participating in working in the inner worlds to create light in the web of life and to heal the strands in the web that have been broken. This work is done in an invisible way. These spiritual beings do not look for outer validation and tend to live simple and quiet lives where they do not allow themselves to be distracted by what is happening around them.

This is a powerful way to work. For as I have said many times everything manifests in the spiritual before it manifests in the physical.

I have encouraged you to experiment with ways to travel into the inner worlds to do your spiritual work. The practice of spinning fiber into yarn is a potent way for me to work. As soon as I sit at my spinning wheel I am transported away from the world around me and travel within where the process of creation and manifestation occurs. And as I go there and set my intention to create light, love, peace, joy, and harmony in the world those states begin to be woven into the world.

As we move into a seasonal time on the planet where moving within is being supported on an energetic level consider how you can disengage from situations and people who might be distracting you from doing your spiritual work. Where are you getting pulled off your path? And how can you change your relationship with the world around you that might be more supportive to you in working in the inner worlds? Every time you are pulled out of yourself you lose momentum in the inner work that creates huge planetary changes.

Take some time to consider what I have written. I have written all of this before. We have been working with the practice of transfiguration. We have been looking at how we can transmute our state of consciousness and work with the power of words to shift the energy in the outer world to a state of love, unity, harmony, and light.

Is there is a deeper place insides ourselves that we can travel to meet up with other light workers and continue to build webs and bridges of light?

And a question we must continue to ask ourselves is are we living the principle that we cannot change the world until we change ourselves? How are we doing with this process? And are we a living example of the work?

All of this requires some form of disengaging from denser and separate states of consciousness. And nature is supporting us right now in letting go and surrendering to the inner worlds where all life is born from.

The full moon is October 25. Let’s all set our intention to go as deep into the inner worlds as we can and work together in harmony with many thousands around the world to continue to weave a web of light throughout and around the planet which helps all life evolve to its highest potential.

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Transmutation News – March 2007

As we begin to move into spring, it seems like this winter has passed very quickly.

This winter has seemed to be very intense for people. I do not believe that I have heard so many people going through difficult times as I have been in touch with these last few months.

It seems to me that as we are all growing and changing there is a lot of transformation happening on very deep levels. And this has not been an easy time for many.

Some of you who have been writing to me are going through the opposite. You have been through tough growing pains and are now getting the rewards of all the healing work you have been doing.

The one thing we can always be sure of in life is that everything changes. There is a natural ebb and flow that we are part of.

Last year Isis told me that I needed to teach people how to surf. And I feel that is what I have been doing. There have been intense winter storms in many parts of the world. But as I am in touch with so many students there are also intense internal storms that have been touching many also.

These storms are creating giant waves of energy to ride. I have found myself challenged by new energies that I have had to ride these last few months. And I have had to work harder than usual to stay centered and focused. I have been so grateful to have the spiritual practice I work with and the love of the spirits around me. For I truly trust that I am being held always in the loving arms of the universe.

Those of you reading this website have tools to work with. And if you are facing challenges in your life right now it is important to work with the spiritual practices you have learned.

I know during challenging times it is hard to stay focused. But it is so important to remember that the only way out is through. Even if you can only do one small thing each day to keep your energy moving that is great.

I find myself doing more physical exercise as this helps to keep my nervous system in balance as I work through the intense energies I feel are present in my life.

And I also think it is so important to remember that you not only being held in the loving arms of the universe but also being held in the collective love and divine light we have created as a community.

I have found over the last few months that the power of my long distance healings have grown stronger. So I do believe that we can create a lot of healing as we focus our energies together as we work outside of time and space.

On this note I have decided to add a practice for us to do on the full moon. We will continue to weave a web of light within and throughout the planet. And to that I would like to add doing a monthly healing circle for those reading the Transmutation News who would like some support during these changing times.

And here is how I envision such a circle. I suggest that on the full moon, at some point during the day or evening, everyone who feels that they need some healing help to imagine yourself lying down in the midst of a loving circle of our community. Remember we are an international community with people reading the Transmutation News in many different languages.

And I will call upon those of you who feel that you can do some work in behalf of our community asking for help. At some point during the day or evening you want to imagine that you are standing together in an outer circle of helpers. As we are working outside of time and space the time you do this does not matter.

Do your transfiguration practice where you go inside and experience that you are source and divine light and perfection. You can experience yourself as a being of light with your hands facing towards those lying in the middle.

In doing this work we acknowledge the divine perfection of all lying in the inner circle. On one level they might be experiencing suffering. But it is important to remember that on a spiritual level we are all divine light with the ability to transform whatever energies are effecting us in our lives. And by doing our transfiguration work we lift all asking for help to a higher frequency.

I would suggest we do this every full moon. As the full moon is early this month and is March 3 some of you might not have read this page yet. So I suggest we do the healing circle again on the spring equinox which is March 20.

We are moving once again into a cycle of rebirth and spring. And it is important to tend our gardens and plant our seeds. It is so important that we truly believe in every cell of our body that we are creating a good and healthy garden. The seeds we plant are our intentions.

Spend some time this month getting clear on your intention for your life and for all of life on the planet. Really meditate and journey on the intentions you want to see grow. Look at the beliefs you are holding that might block the growth of what you want to experience manifest in your life.

Do some work on letting these beliefs go. You can put your blocking beliefs into the fire asking fire to transform the energy into light and love. You can blow the beliefs into the air through blowing bubbles asking for the energy behind your negative beliefs to be transformed into light and love. You can bury them in the earth knowing the earth will compost the energy and turn the energy into light and love. You can ask water to wash and purify your beliefs into energies of love and light.

Use your imagination – the key point is to do the work of purification so you are ready to plant your intentions that you want to see manifested in spring and summer.

Remember in the January Transmutation News I wrote about how the earth expresses beauty. All the energies we are experiencing right now whether they are joyful or painful can be transformed into great beauty.

As we are moving into a new cycle this is a good time to merge with earth where you live. Learn about the changes the earth is going through by becoming earth. Experience how the earth births new energy into great beauty.

And as a world community let’s plant our intention on the spring equinox knowing that we are tending a garden of great beauty.

A friend and student sent me a quote that I wrote in 2004 that I think is timely for some of you. With all the news that can be so distracting and disturbing right now, we must focus on not getting lost in the chaos of our times and continue to tend the garden. New life will be born out of the chaos. Our role is to stay focused on the tending.

The full moon is March 3 and there will be a total eclipse of the moon on this day. So let’s continue our work of weaving a beautiful tapestry of light within and throughout the earth.

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Transmutation News – November 2005

I spent just about a month in Europe doing some teaching and traveling. I had an extraordinary trip. One of the workshops I led was my second meeting of my Two Year Teacher Training in Switzerland. It really makes my heart sing to watch how the teachers I am training are taking the work out into the world in a creative and profound way.

I also did a combination of Medicine for the Earth and Healing with Spiritual Light in Salzburg, Austria. And I am in deep gratitude for the gift of the group that showed up to do this work. They really embraced the work and got the importance of bridging the teachings of Medicine for the Earth into their daily life. I was left with a wonderful feeling, as this was my last workshop that I was teaching for the year.

At the same time I was experiencing the joy of the work going out into the world I was facing some challenges brewing deep inside of me. While I was at my Two Year Teacher Training I discovered that the media was not accurately reporting the truth of the damage created by Hurricane Wilma in Florida. When I found out just how bad things really were I became very concerned about my 91 year old parents who were in the path of the hurricane. For about 24 hours I suffered deeply as I could not find out if they were okay.

I find that when I really hit the depth of deep sadness it puts me into a very open place. As I left Switzerland and went to Austria I watched some CNN. To see the state of the people in Pakistan in tents really hit me when I was in such an open and vulnerable state. On top of all I was seeing on the news I kept hearing stories of abuse about species of animals during my workshops.

I found myself feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world. While I was at my Medicine for the Earth Gathering I was able to stay focused and inspired. The power of the work and the support of the group kept me moving forward and in a very positive state.

I left Austria to meet my husband in Amsterdam. During my airplane flight I found myself moving into a state of deep depression about the state of the world and the behavior of humanity towards each other and all of life.

I found myself facing a deep dark tunnel as the next step on my path. I have not experienced this opening into such a state of darkness since my soul retrieval in the 1980’s where I was cured of depression that had been with me for years.

There did not seem like a choice for me. Entering into this tunnel seemed to be the next step on my path and there did not seem any way around it. I knew the tunnel leading into darkness was very long. I also knew from my past that I would make it through. And I also knew that the only way out was through.

As I felt myself getting ready to move forward into this darkness I heard a voice from deep inside of me say that there is another choice, another way, another path.

I said to this voice tell me more. The voice inside of me said remember that your external world is all a projection. What are you projecting onto all of life?

There is a lot going on the planet right now. Our outer environment is mirroring back to us our lack of inner balance.

Of course there are outer changes we need to look at that bring our environment back into harmony. But for now keeping with the Medicine for the Earth principles I am going to direct you into your inner environment.

We have been so outer directed. Many on a spiritual path have also been directed into the outer spiritual realms. Evolution of consciousness as well as the times we live in requires that we reverse directions and explore the inner realms.

We need to find a state of inner stillness, balance, and peace. As a great spiritual master taught a couple of thousand years ago – the key to the kingdom lies within.

It is crucial right now that we take this teaching to heart. Those of you reading the Transmutation News are attracted to the Medicine for the Earth teachings for it does speak to a programming that lies within you. And it is now time for you to focus your intention on traveling within and allowing your own inner wisdom, knowing, and light to guide you through making the appropriate changes within that bring balance back to your own life and to the world.

Remember that every change in consciousness you make ripples through the entire web of life. And as each of you is willing to shift your consciousness to a place of inner light and balance there will be an effect in our physical world. Every small change in consciousness that you make does have an exponential effect on the world. This means that the spiritual practices that you are willing to commit to is a place that you have power to create change.

When I teach workshops on shamanism I often bring in some transfiguration work. Every time we do any transfiguration work in a group a deep stillness and quiet is created. No matter how many people are in the group, no matter what has been stirred up by the shamanic healing we have performed, and no matter how much social energy has been created from the community everything becomes so peaceful and still after one transfiguration journey.

As you really commit to a practice of transfiguration you do end up creating balance in the web of life which does create change in our environment.

But you must find ways to become more inner directed and find the spiritual light which lies within and continue to learn to be in that place throughout the day. This takes a lot of discipline and practice as traveling within is not what most of us are used to.

You might want to do some experimentation with other ways besides transfiguration to find your inner stillness, balance, light, and peace.

For those of you who can maintain this state through silent meditation please continue to do your inner work.

For those of you who find that you need more active meditation experiment a bit. What activities bring you to a place of stillness? Here are a few things to try while maintaining your focus on traveling within to your inner light and stillness:

Drawing or painting
Crocheting, sewing, knitting
Dancing
Walking
Cleaning
Taking a shower or taking a bath
Cooking
Baking

Do these activities with the intention of getting to a place of stillness which allows your own spiritual knowing, wisdom, and intuition to come through.

Do these activities with the intention of creating peace and allowing your spiritual light to shine through you.

Learn to hold a state of peace throughout the day no matter what is going on in the outer world. From a spiritual perspective this is important work to do to create balance and harmony in the world.

Keep holding the preciousness of this great earth and the spirit that lives in all things in your heart. Keep being in great love and appreciation for your life.


I have written throughout the last few years about the creation process and working in the void. Using what I have just written make sure you are traveling into your inner void to do your creation work. The void is the place right before creation and is the place that seems empty yet so full. It is where all life is created.

Travel within to the void or if you wish to your own spiritual light. Begin to see, feel, hear, taste, smell the world you want to live in being birthed from within you. Have passion for the world you are creating. And experience it as if your creation has fully manifested right now.

This practice is keeping with the spiritual teachings that the creator or the creative forces of the universe are within. As I have written over the last few months we are living in a time of paradox. On one level we must surrender to the coming changes of evolution. On another level we must keep doing our creation work as we are dreaming the world we live in into being with every thought, every breath, and every step we take in the world.

To experience the world being birthed through you is an evolution of the creation work. Try it and see what comes up for you.


Try keeping a mantra and decree going throughout the day of:

The light of __________(God, the goddess, the creator, the creative forces of the universe, source, the power of the universe – find the phrase that works for you) surrounds me.

The light of ___________is within me.

The light of ___________shines through me.

I am radiance.

We need to find a bridge to walk across to move from a state of fear, divisiveness, and anger to a state of embodying love, light, and joy. This is easier said then done.

Keep working with the transmutation work of transforming the energy behind your thoughts, attitudes, and emotions to a state of love and light.

And tap into your own inner guidance for other ways to work.


Make a choice to be one of the weavers of the web of life that creates harmony, peace, and balance in the world. This is work that is done underground to go with the brilliant work that many are doing in the outer world to create change. I know deep inside you know how important this inner work is, so commit to a practice of inner journeying now.

The full moon is November 15. Join in with all of us around the world who continue to weave a beautiful web of light around and through the world that creates balance and harmony in all of life.

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Transmutation News – April 2005

Spring is a time for us to nurture the new growth that is being dreamed into being by the earth, the sun, the air, and the water. It is a good time for us to see how we are nurturing our own garden of life.

I continue to receive feedback from students that a regular practice of transfiguration is responsible for a positive change in health and sense of well being.

To inspire you to continue your transfiguration practice I will review the principles of the practice.

The definition of transfiguration in Webster’s Dictionary is “shapeshifting”. When we talk about the practice of transfiguration we are experiencing who we are beyond our skin. We are experiencing who we are beyond our ego and our thoughts. The spiritual essence of who we are is divinity, oneness, source, and spiritual light. We are experiencing our divine perfection and radiance which is our true nature.

All world religions and spiritual practices teach about the experience of divinity in the use of healing.

-In Christianity Jesus taught that the kingdom of God lies within. One of his teachings was that we all must shine our light in the world.

-The Kabbalah teaches the principle of oneness and divinity.

-In the Hindu tradition mystics and healers transfigured into a deity in their miraculous healing acts. They did not merge with a divine force; they dropped their experience of separation and became divine.

-In Taoism it is talked about being in harmony or in one with the Tao.

-Buddhists observe who they are beyond ego and thought and experience the Buddha nature.

-The old Alchemists taught that the self -possessed man must die for the “Great Work” to be done. This means that the ego must be put aside to experience divinity and oneness.

-The great shamans have been women and men who traveled to the other realms through a near death experience or a life threatening illness. Once on the other side they remembered that they were more than a body and ego. They remembered the source from which they came. And through the experience of spiritual light and experiencing unity with all they got their clairvoyant and healing abilities. True shamans have always taught about the unity of the web of life.

In my books I shared the message I received from a being I call “The Voice” in a dream I had in the 1980’s. The voice said that man has been looking for God outside of himself for the last 2000 years. Man will be looking for God inside of himself for the next 2000 years. This is the task of humankind at this time. We must reverse directions in our spiritual practice and go as deep inside of ourselves as we have been traveling outside of ourselves.

When we talk about the practice of transfiguration this is what we are talking about. We are moving into a place of union. We experience our own divinity, God, the goddess, the Buddha, Krishna, the wealth of gods and goddesses we experience outside of ourselves, or whatever terms fit your religious and philosophical beliefs.

The creator or creative forces of the universe are within us as well as outside of us. We are working with the esoteric principle of as above so below, as within so without.

In Medicine for the Earth I describe this process in both the chapters on dismemberment and transfiguration. I give a guided visualization in the exercise section of the dismemberment chapter to work with to dissolve the body and ego which keeps us separate from our divine nature.

On my CD “Miracles for the Earth” I lead people through the process of transfiguration in one of the exercises on CD2. Some toning is also included as part of the experience. As I have written before I have found toning to be a good way to hold the transfigured state. It is a way to keep the ego from coming in and creating an experience of separation again.

I still listen on occasion to the guided visualization on “Miracles for the Earth”, as I find it helps me deepen my transfiguration experience over time.

If you do not have a copy of “Miracles for the Earth” you can order it at www.soundstrue.com.

At first you might find it helpful to go through the formal steps of letting go of the body, the ego, and thoughts to get to a place of source, unity with all, divinity, and spiritual light. After practice you might be able to just use a decree of I am divine, I am source, I am that, I am spiritual light, I am radiance, or I am love. Any one of these decrees can be used to get into a transfigured state of consciousness. Another decree a student shared at a workshop is “Thank you for taking from me that which keeps me separate from my divinity and spiritual light.”

Putting on some music that supports an expanded state of consciousness will help you experience and remain in this state for a longer period of time. Doing some toning will continue to create a vibration and frequency that not only allows you to experience a transfigured state but also on its own changes the resonance of your body. Toning alone creates emotional and physical healing.

 

You are not merging with an outside spiritual power to do this practice. You become that spiritual power. You do not go outside of your body; you go within. As I have written many times, it is who we become that changes the world and not what we do. As we become source, divinity, and spiritual light we create healing within. For when we experience a state of separation communication breaks down between our cells and our DNA. This lack of communication creates illness. When we experience a state of oneness and spiritual light this creates a state of coherence. Coherence is that perfect state of communication between the cells and our DNA, which allows cellular repair to occur.

When we experience a state of oneness and spiritual light we move into harmony and in sync with the river of life. In this state we can manifest good health and a feeling of well being. In this state what we need naturally comes to us as we are in harmony with life.

I had received a powerful metaphor for all of this from a descendant I had met during a shamanic journey. She said imagine a finger dropping off a hand. That finger decides it is independent from the body and can have a life of its own. She said that this is a preposterous thought. But this state is what our planet is experiencing today causing a tremendous amount of illness. Illness comes from the perception that we are separate from source and the web of life.

She said we must reach down and reattach all the fingers that have dropped off the hand and disconnected from the body. This has been a powerful metaphor for me to work with.

So yes, I do transfigure as much as I can. Some weeks I do the practice daily. And some weeks I can only do it once or twice a week. As I continue the practice my goal is to keep shining my inner spiritual light as much as I can throughout the day. The real work is can I shine that light while I am standing on line at the grocery store or at the bank? Can I continue to shine that light when I am stuck in traffic? If I can I not only heal myself by setting up a state of coherence in my body, but I effect the world around me as I lift all who are in my presence. That is our true work or “The Great Work” that the alchemists speak of.

Again key words that describe the experience of being transfigured is experiencing your divine perfection and radiance.

Again the definition of alchemy is working with and through the dense darkness inside. So part of our practice is also to learn how to transmute and transform the energy around our problematic thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and attitudes. This heals ourselves and all of life on the planet. The more we do this work the more we move into states of love and appreciation for what the earth, water, air, and the sun have to offer us. We move into a state of love and appreciation for all of life healing states of separation which lead to fear, depression, anger, and violence. We heal those states inside and in the outer world by incorporating the practice of transforming energy into our minute to minute lives.

As we can truly absorb and receive the light from our food, water, the air we breathe, and the sunlight we keep transmuting what we are taking in creating healing in our bodies and psyches. This is such an important practice at this time on the planet where we are surrounded by so much toxicity.

Both of my parents are 90 years old. They live in an independent living facility. Although their bodies are wearing down, their minds are still good. As they are both independent thinkers living in an institution brings up a lot of issues and challenges for them.

 As I observe their challenges I have realized that the institution they are living in is a microcosm to the greater macrocosm in the world today. As we are all living in an institution where we need to behave in certain ways to be accepted by the cultures we live in.

 On one level we are all one and there is no separation. And we are also a reflection of the creator or the creative forces of the universe. Like a diamond there are many facets to the creative forces and we all reflect back a unique facet to the creator. So we are one and also at the same unique facets. And we live in cultures that want us to repress our brilliance and uniqueness and fit in. It is all part of the paradox we are living in. And the question remains how to we honor the brilliance of all of us while remembering that in truth we are all one being? How do we shine our brilliance and experience oneness at the same time?  I feel that this is one of the challenges of our time. This remains a work in progress. 

As I observe weather patterns around the world it is interesting to note how different the weather is behaving than what many of us are used to. In areas where there is typically a lot of moisture there is now drought. In areas that don’t always get moisture there has been a lot of rain and snow. In areas of the world there is greater precipitation and ranges in temperatures than has been seen before.

Mother nature is attempting to get our attention. And it is time to listen. I suggest that each of you journey to the spirit of the city in which you live. If you do not work with shamanic journeying use your practice of meditation to set an intention to meet with the spirit where you live.

There is only one earth and one sky. But there are cities around the world that also are facets of the creator. There are cities that also contain collective beliefs.

Find out from the spirit where you live what is trying to be communicated to your community through the change in weather. Ask how you can be in service to the spirit of where you live. Ask what messages and teachings you can share with other members of your community.

Let’s listen to the wake up calls so they don’t have to get any louder.

If you want to read the Transmutation News in another language please go to the home page to find the link to other translations.

The full moon is April 24. Let’s continue to weave a radiant web of light within and around the earth. Let’s continue to invite and teach others in your community to create a human web of light.

In Medicine for the Earth I shared a quote from Manly P. Hall, author of The Secret Teachings of the Ages:

“The purpose of alchemy was not to make something out of nothing but rather to fertilize and nurture the seed which was already present. Its processes did not actually create gold but rather made the ever-present seed of gold grow and flourish. Everything which exists has a spirit- the seed of divinity within itself- and regeneration is not the process of attempting to place something where it previously existed. Regeneration actually means the unfoldment of the omnipresent Divinity in man, that this Divinity may shine forth as a sun and illumine all whom it comes in contact.

Here are words of wisdom from Ghandi to inspire you:

“Keep your thoughts positive because they become your words. Keep your words positive because they become your behaviors. Keep your behaviors positive because they become your habits. Keep your habits positive because they become your values. Keep your values positive because they become your destiny.”

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Transmutation News – June 2004

I had a wonderful trip to Scotland and England. I presented Medicine for the Earth at a conference at Findhorn in Scotland, and I felt the audience was very grateful for the work.

It is always good for me to present at conferences outside of the U.S. to get an opportunity to meet and listen to presenters who I might not hear in the U.S. Marko Pogacnik was a presenter I had met before at a conference at Findhorn in Scotland four years ago. Marko was born and lives in Slovenia. He studied sculpting and acquired an international reputation in conceptual and land art. He has developed this further into “earth lithopuncture”, which aims at healing disturbed landscapes and power points. He leads seminars in earth healing in several countries and provides advice on landscape matters for communities and businesses. His website is www.pogacnikmarko.org. As with the Transmutation News, he gives suggestions of spiritual practices we can do during these changing times.

Although Marko’s work is similar in principles to Medicine for the Earth he has a different way of working and viewing things. At the conference he reminded people to honor the mystery of what is happening with the earth and our environment. And that what is happening might not be an environmental crisis, but more as a process of the earth recycling because of the damage we have caused.

Marko and I hope at some point to do some teaching together. I think it would be interesting as he has such a different way of teaching although some of our messages are quite similar. I will continue to incubate this dream.

After leaving Findhorn and touring around a bit, I went to England to teach a training combining Medicine for the Earth and Healing with Spiritual Light. The spirits gifted us with incredible sunshine during our time together which was great. April can typically be rainy and cold. It was good to journey a lot and work hard and then be able to be on the land and in the sun. The night the workshop ended, there was a huge thunderstorm. I felt this as a blessing from the spirits.

The group was extremely excited about the work, and I left knowing that very fertile seeds were planted and would grow throughout Europe adding to the spiritual work that is already going on in many circles around the world.

We did work with putting ammonium hydroxide in distilled water. There was a significant drop of two pH points after our ceremony once again teaching that it is who we become that changes the world and not we do.

Last month I reminded you to make sure you are not leaving your body while transfiguring. You are simply experiencing your own true nature which is divine, source, and oneness. We leave our bodies and experience source after death. Our task while we are alive is to embody our divinity.

One of the intentions I have given students to focus on while journeying or meditating to transfigure is, “Please take from me what keeps me separate from source, oneness, my own divinity.” It has been a short cut to talking about and going into dismemberment as I discussed in my book Medicine for the Earth.

When I was in England teaching Medicine for the Earth I again gave this intention as one way to begin to transfigure. We kept up the process of transfiguration as we moved into the work of healing with spiritual light.

A wonderful young man at the training, with a very bright spirit, gave me some feedback on the use of this intention. His feedback had to do with what I have been writing about the difference of petition and decree. When we petition we are asking for help. When we decree we are stating we know that the help we need is already present.

One example would be instead of saying, “Please help me,” you could say, “ The help from the powers of the universe is here with me now”.

When we move into working with decree we raise the frequency and resonance of our work. You can feel the difference when you “beg” for help instead of stating the help you need is here now. A decree carries more life and vibration along with your words and prayers.

If you are new to the Transmutation News you might wish to visit the archives, listed on my home page, and read the July 2003 Transmutation News. I wrote more about using decree versus petition.

This young man at my training said that as he kept transfiguring using the intention, “Please take from me what keeps me separate from source” he felt like this was a petition. He is right, it is. Instead during the drumming he used the intention, “I am divine”. Again this was after the initial journey to learn how to transfigure so he had already had the experience he could drop into again. His feedback to me was that he felt there was a higher frequency and vibration to his experience.

I was very excited to receive his feedback as I have been putting out the intention that I want to look at how to raise the frequency and vibration of my own transfiguration work. Here is one step that you might wish to try. As you keep up your transfiguration practice simply acknowledge that you are divine, source, oneness, God, the goddess, the power of the universe (you must find words that work with your philosophical and religious beliefs). Notice if you feel a change in your experience.

There are different ways you can work with this depending on the senses you use to take you to deep levels. You could work with the symbol of your creator and holding that in your body and consciousness while you journey that was described in Chapter 1 of Medicine for the Earth. As I wrote in a previous Transmutation News, the creator or creative force of the universe has many different facets. You can see examples of this teaching in different cross-cultural creation myths. You might repeat the exercise that I suggested in Chapter 1 of Medicine for the Earth to keep learning about different aspects of the creative force.

I am not a visual person when I journey or meditate. I do have a picture of my creator in my office to remind me of the truth of who I am when I am pulled out of myself. But working with this image when I am transfiguring does not stimulate a change in consciousness.

I am very auditory. Sound creates a resonance that vibrates deep within my cells. When I tried using the words “I am divine” to move me into a transfigured state, I found these words did not have a high enough frequency for me. I have been experimenting with “I am radiant” and “I am that which radiates love and light”. When I worked with these words they seemed to stimulate a transfigured state which carried a very high vibration with it.

The point is that you have to find an intention which contains a decree whether it is a symbol, a sound, a feeling, a smell, a taste that puts you personally into a transfigured state at the same time raising the frequency of your past experiences. The key here is experimentation.

As I keep looking at how we can evolve to a deeper way of working I am always looking at raising the vibration. Part of raising the vibration has to do with “right timing” for us as individuals and also as the collective. Part of it has to do with not getting into too much routine in our spiritual practice so that it continues to evolve and grow.

Last month I suggested you begin an ongoing spiritual practice of absorbing light from the elements as you take them into your body. As I continued to work with this my helping spirits gave me a practice to add to this. I was guided to begin a practice of going outside and walking on the land. As I walked I was to breathe in and absorb light and love from the earth and the universe and then to breathe out light and love.

I was told to do this only as long as I could maintain my concentration and not get distracted. Short periods where I could concentrate are better than continuing the work while thoughts were distracting me.

The first time I did this I was taking a walk in the arroyo where I live. I have been walking this same arroyo for close to ten years. After about five minutes into my walk three deer crossed my path. I have never seen deer in the ten years of living in the location I am. After another couple of minutes there was a bull snake (a very friendly snake and a sign of good luck in my locale) lying in my path. I have never seen a snake while I have been walking in the arroyo. I do feel nature was responding to my practice.

As you continue to keep up the practice of absorbing light from the water you drink, air you breathe, food you eat, and the sun which gives you energy try to also incorporate the practice I wrote about above. Just do it for a few minutes a day. You can do this in an urban or rural environment. The practice itself continues to help you on an energetic level while at the same time showing your love and appreciation for the earth and all of life. It is another way for us to stay connected to the web of life.

This is another practice that is important to share with your children.

Starting July we will use this practice as preparation for some worldwide ceremonies we will perform to work with the morphic resonance field with ceremonies in working with the elements.

A student of mine sent me an article from a newspaper from Daytona Beach, Florida. The article says that for the second time in 12 months, a national panel of scientists and experts has concluded the United States is treating the oceans more like poorly managed cesspools than water gardens. A federal report released concludes it’s time that came to a stop.

The article goes on in more detail with suggestions for change and education about our oceans. The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy was accepting comments from officials and individuals until May 21.

The more we can educate the public to what is happening on our planet, hopefully people will wake up to the need to change our attitude and behavior toward the oceans and the rest of our environment. I do see articles like the one written in Daytona Beach as a good sign.

David Corbin and Nan Moss are dear friends of mine who are also brilliant teachers in the world. They developed and self-published a divination deck of cards called “Cloud Dancing”. The cards are beautiful and healing just to look at. In the accompanying book David and Nan explain how to use the cards as a divination tool. They do not give interpretations for the different cards, rather they inspire us to learn how to read the signs given to us by nature to help us with our questions and in our lives.

To learn more about the Cloud Dancing cards and the work of David and Nan, please visit www.shamanscircle.com.

Over the last few years ShamanicCircles has helped me to create a scholarship fund for my Medicine for the Earth Gatherings. Shamanic Circles is a non-profit organization that I have been connected with. They do wonderful work in networking shamanic circles around the world and fostering global communities. I hope you will visit their website at www.shamaniccircles.org. They are also listed on the Important Link section of this web page.

Thanks to the generosity of Shamanic Circles, which is a non- profit foundation, people have been able to make tax deductible donations for scholarships to those in need who want to attend my Medicine for the Earth Gatherings. This has been a great success as I have been able to help anyone who cannot afford one of those trainings.

This fund has now been expanded where donations are being accepted to help people who want to attend my other shamanic trainings.

If you want to donate to this scholarship fund, please send a check made out to Shamanic Circles to me at:
Sandra Ingerman, P.O. Box 4757, Santa Fe, NM 87502. Specify on the check if you want this to go to Medicine for the Earth Gatherings or to a general workshop fund. I will send the check off to the treasurer of shamanic circles and you will receive a letter that you can use as a receipt for a tax deduction.

It has been such a great feeling not to have to turn people away from the Medicine for the Earth Gatherings because of lack of funds. I hope to be able to expand this out to my other trainings.

And I wanted to share with you some good news. For years I have tried to find a French publisher for my books without success. Finally a publisher in Paris will be publishing Soul Retrieval and Medicine for the Earth in French.

And here is something fun. The magazine Country Living has a one page piece on Medicine for the Earth in the June issue. The short piece just includes simple suggestions of how we can connect with water and it mentions my book. Check it out. If you just want to look at the magazine at a bookstore it is on page 77.

A few months ago I announced that the lecture CD, “Miracles for the Earth” produced by Sounds True will be out this summer. It actually won’t be out until November. I will be happy when it is out as it does contain exercises and a guided visualization to move people into a transfigured state, which can be shared with people who are not interested in shamanism and shamanic journeying.

For this month work with the information I shared with you in this Transmutation News to experience a deeper level to your transfiguration practice. Take a walk for 10 minutes a day where you absorb the light and love from the earth and the universe and breathe out love and light to the earth, universe, and all of life.

Continue to work with calling your dreams into being with the practices in working in the void I wrote about in the April 2004 Transmutation News.

The full moon this month is June 2. Let’s continue to weave a global web of light as well as experience the web of light in the earth that connects us all. Experience yourself as an appendage growing out of the web of light caretaking “the garden”.

With all the news that can be so distracting and disturbing right now, we must focus on not getting lost in the chaos of our times and continue to tend the garden. New life will be born out of the chaos. Our role is to stay focused on tending.

The next few months of the Transmutation News will focus on worldwide ceremonies to work with affecting the morphic resonance of the elements. The more you can work with the practices outlined in this month’s Transmutation News the more effective our work will be.

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