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.