Transmutation News – March 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Transmutation News – February 2009

The teaching that words can either bless us or curse us is very ancient. I know many writers take this teaching from the bible. But in truth this teaching dates back further than the writing of the bible.

In our culture we tend to use a lot of words and we are entrained with different idiomatic phrases that we grew up with or heard through songs, the news, TV shows, etc.

When you begin to embrace the teaching that words can be used as a blessing or a curse it is important to stop and take time to reflect on sayings, phrases, and words that you use throughout the day.

As I continue to work with this teaching I find my listening skills becoming more acute and feeling a need to slow down and carefully consider the words I am using.

I was watching a special on TV one night where an actor was being acknowledged. I loved a phrase that he used and found his words going deep within myself. As he was growing up and watching other actors he began to see that “the great ones were lit from within”. As you have been reading the Transmutation News I keep writing about the importance of being a light in the world. And this actor’s words really hit a chord in me about the power of people who are “lit from within”.

I encourage you during this month to listen to phrases and words that seem to strike a chord in you. Try and bring more awareness and listen to the words that come out of your mouth. Notice if the words and phrases you use come from a true place of blessing within. Or do you speak phrases and words that come from habit and don’t truly reflect what you would you like to communicate and create for yourself and others.

I know so many people who are afraid to tell friends or loved ones about a new idea they have or a new project they are thinking about undertaking. For often when we share something that is considered “edgy” by others their immediate response is, “You are crazy” or “That will never work”. When we respond in this way we usually really don’t consider the excitement of the other person in following their passion. And we end up taking power from their dream instead of feeding the energy with adding our support and enthusiasm.

It is a very interesting exercise as we begin to let go of the old ways of operating in the world as I began to write about in January. Part of finding new solutions and ways of operating in the world has to do with truly looking at how we communicate. And the truth of the matter is that people in the modern world use too many words and also speak faster than they think. The result of this is creating energies that we didn’t intentionally want to manifest for ourselves, friends, loved ones, and in the world.

This month slow down and listen to your words and the words of others. Reflect on words and phrases you want to begin to delete from your thinking and your vocabulary. Reflect on phrases that will lead to your desired outcome.

We use the term “train of thought” on a regular basis. Take a minute to reflect on what this term even means. We must watch the track our thoughts and words are running on and learn to change the track by creating new tracks. With all building projects it takes a lot of energy to break new ground. But the rewards are great in learning how to focus your thoughts toward your desired outcomes. And this goes back to the words you use in your own thinking process as well as the words you state out loud.

I think one reason I like Celtic prayers and decrees as I wrote about in “How to Heal the Earth” is that the statements made empower us and fill us with hope and the feeling that we are unlimited in what we can create.

Some examples of this might look like:

May the power of the sun remind you of the creative light within.

May the beauty of the night sky fill you with wonder.

May the deep still waters fill you with peace.

May the breezes of the wind bring you messages of joy.

Blessings to you as you begin new projects.

Blessings to all of us in our global circle as we work together in support and love in behalf of the planet and all of life.

As we look at creating a new world that embraces a higher consciousness we are looking at a new building project. We do have to put energy into breaking new ground. And this begins with creating visions that are supported by a strong foundation of thoughts and words that are solid.

Unhappiness, dissatisfaction, a lack of freedom comes when we compare ourselves and our lives to others. And many of you wrote me after reading the Transmutation News in January that comparing yourself to others is a great challenge in your life. We all must acknowledge our own light and when we are lit from within our life unfolds with grace and beauty helping us to fulfill our personal dreams and destiny.

We live in a fog when we compare ourselves to others and take on the collective definition of fame, success, and happiness. When you lift out of this fog you will probably discover that it is really the simple things in life that actually create those deep inner smiles. It is something that happens in the moment that creates a feeling of joy versus trying to review your past or thinking about the future.

When the fog of the collective beliefs lift you can really get that momentary pleasures create joy such as waking to the birds singing, or feeling the warmth of the sun after the weather has been cold, watching the beauty of snow flakes falling, hearing the sounds of children laughing, or seeing a beautiful tree or flowering plant on one of your walks in nature.

As you discover this and keep your awareness on the present you will stop comparing yourself or your life to others and settle into living in the present. And this is how healing and spiritual visions come – from that peaceful, still, and quiet place.

We really need to include children into all the work we are doing together. If you have children, grandchildren, or spend time with children start to compose stories with them of what the world would be like if we all lived from a place of light, light, peace, and harmony. Teach children how to engage all their senses (as I wrote about in Medicine for the Earth) in imagining the world they would like to live in. Let’s help our children keep the light of hope burning strong.

The full moon is February 9. Let’s create some blessings to include all of those who continue to weave and create a web of light. And let’s continue to deepen our work with experiencing the web of light going deeper and growing stronger during these changing times. For the web of light supports our growth into a life filled with love, light, joy, peace, harmony, abundance, and equality for all.

And for those of you who are experiencing pain and suffering during these transitions see yourself in a global circle of light as is described on the link on the homepage Creating A Human of Light which also includes the instructions for our monthly healing ceremony.

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Transmutation News – January 2009

Let us take a minute to wish our global community a glorious New Year! Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and let’s connect together from a place of love. And after you have wished our circle blessings for a New Year extend your blessings to include all of life!

All human beings have a variety of core needs. One need we all have is to feel loved. And the desire for love actually drives us in all areas of our lives. Not feeling love is what drives all misbehavior. We all seek love. And many people have forgotten how much love went into our creation. We did reflect on how we were created from true love in 2008.

Another basic need humans strive toward is freedom. And freedom is what I would like to talk to you about this month. This is a deep rich topic that I can only begin to speak about. For there are so many different levels of freedom that we seek.

On one level we seek the freedom from different emotional painful states of consciousness. We look for freedom from fear, and humans have all kinds of strategies to feel safe. The tricky side of this is that the part of us that experiences ourselves as separate from the divine will never feel safe. And all means to find safety usually create more pain and suffering.

In Medicine for the Earth I wrote about Jack Schwarz who was able to heal his wounds while being tortured by the Nazis. He was able to achieve a state oneness with the universe in which there was no way to hurt him. While Jack Schwarz was in this state he could not be in an egoic state feeling fear. The state of oneness had to be complete for such a miraculous act to occur.

For many of us on a spiritual path we go back and forth between separate states of consciousness and divine states. The mind comes in and tells us all the things we should fear. And then divinity comes in and says fear is an illusion for as a spirit we cannot die or be hurt. We waver back and forth. And true freedom comes when we can be released from this wavering back and forth. One key is for us to choose spiritual practices that we feel passionate about committing to that will lead us to a deeper state of experiencing a state of oneness in every cell of our being. This of course is a work in progress.

Our egoic thinking mind is great at listing all the things we should fear as well as listing all the reasons that living a life filled with love, joy, light, unity, peace, health, wealth, and success are impossible. It is amazing the beliefs that we hold that regularly sabotage us. The collective has done a magnificent job in brainwashing us to believe that we do have not our full power to be a creative genius in the world.

At the same time society has also told us what we should desire. So we spend quite a bit of time attempting to acquire physical possessions that don’t bring us to a place of feeling true wealth or to a place of freedom. For we become a slave to our egoic desires, the need to acquire, and then to keep our acquisitions. And when we believe that others have what we perceive to be more than we do jealousy and envy start to invade our daily thoughts bringing another level of suffering.

So where do we go with all of this? The key is finding balance. For we do have egos that experience ourselves as separate. And yet we are divine and in a place of divine light all things are possible, what we need looks different than when we are in a separate state, and the destiny we are evolving toward takes on a different meaning.

To continue our journey toward freedom we must keep surrendering our egoic desires to the divine within. I use the words “to continue our journey” for we have been on this journey whether we have been conscious of it or not. To be walking on a spiritual path means walking toward freedom.

We don’t always know what our soul’s journey has in store for us. But there are so many opportunities we are not exploring as we try to control our destiny. To surrender our destiny to our divine light brings us to truly manifesting what will bring to us true joy, wealth, and health on all levels.

We are all going through an initiation. The planet is going through an initiation and we cannot separate ourselves from the whole. An initiation is an experience that takes us from the past and brings us to a new place in life that we have never experienced before.

Initiations demand from us to discover new ways of thinking and moving through the world that we have never tried before. What we have used in the past will no longer work.

For years we have been watching organizations whether they are business, religious, or spiritual starting to be challenged in maintaining power and their hold over us. On one level organizations give us “manuals” of how to live our lives and also how to solve different problems.

I believe that one reason organizations are so challenged today is because “the manuals” for how to operate in life are outdated. We have the download of the true “manual” and “operating instructions” inside of us.

I will use the practice of shamanism as an example since this is a path I have been practicing for many years now. The definition of shamanism is that it is a path of direct revelation. That means all the answers are between you and your helping spirits. So to go out and search to learn methods of healing from others versus from your own direct revelation is the opposite of the teaching of shamanism. Yes many of us want to be a circle of like-minded people and experience the power of community. And this is great. The question that remains is do you show up to circles owning your own power of direct revelation or do you look to others to “show you the way”? The work of others inspires us all and inspiration is a wonderful thing. We need to be careful to remember that we are being inspired to work from our creative genius as others do instead of giving our power away.

In my Teacher Trainings I encourage teachers to develop their workshops to help participants learn from their own helping spirits how to perform different healing methods. And I also encourage teachers to teach their workshops from their own inspiration and not to teach as I do. This is where the real power of the work is – to learn from our own spiritual source. The key is in empowering others.

The same is true for being on any spiritual path. For the goal of spiritual paths is to bring us in touch with our own divinity and creative genius. All of us have the same creative potential. To believe that only some people have the answers will not move us into creating a healthy planet. Of course we all bring through different answers on different levels as we all express our unique gifts and talents. We all bring through aspects of divinity like a diamond has different facets that come together to shine brilliant and dazzling light.

When we begin to surrender our destiny to the divine within we begin to manifest a new path in our lives. When we truly honor the unique gifts, talents, and strengths that we came into the world with we truly add strength to our global community. And when we all realize that inner wealth is what creates true joy then we stop being envious and jealous of others for we all are pure divine light and love. As we continue forward on working with spiritual tools we move toward a greater sense of freedom. For being tied to the external world for a sense of freedom does not bring freedom.

What is needed right now is for us to start to act with spontaneity. For if we watch what life is bringing to us the energy that is manifesting in our lives is unexpected. The ego of course fears the unexpected. It is our spirit that meets the energy of the unexpected with a sense of wonder and spontaneity.

Here are a couple of ways to work as we begin to welcome in the new of the New Year. In 2008 I asked you to experience how much love went into your creation. This month I would like to ask you to list qualities of the creator or creative forces of the universe you would like to emulate. And commit to yourself and to our global circle to pick at least one quality and to find different ways to manifest this quality into your life and into the world.

And I want you to come up with your own unique way of problem solving. If you work with clients go within and ask for a way of working that you have never tried before. If you are dealing with a challenge in your own life I want you to go within and ask for a completely new way to meet the challenge that life has brought to you as an opportunity for growth.

Throw away “old life manuals” and “operating instructions”. They have been incredibly useful and have provided you with a solid foundation that has brought you to where you are right now. Reach within for new instructions. You will be in complete awe of what you are shown. The new that is revealed to you holds the promise of new life, joy, wealth, and health beyond anything your egoic mind can come up with.

As a global circle let us hold the excitement for each and every one of us as we discover the new gifts we have available to us. For the universe will meet the energy of our excitement. The universe will give us what we call in the world of business “a challenge grant”. It will meet and excitement and give us more opportunity to expand from where we are. Imagine the match from the universe coming from the excitement of our global circle versus just from one of us.

We really need “to get” the power that we have as a community to support each other on a personal level and also to manifest true health and harmony for the planet and all of life.

I have been very happy with the results I have seen from teaching Medicine for the Earth. I love teaching the gathering myself and continue to hear wonderful results of the work from my own students as well as from people who have trained with other teachers.

And we continue a Medicine for the Earth reunion each year where there is core group who regularly show up and we welcome others who would like to join us in deepening the work.

I have been feeling I want to try to go even deeper. And I have been thinking about this for a year now. I finally am coming up with a way I would like to proceed.

The work I have been writing about in my books and The Transmutation News was profoundly influenced by my journeys with Isis and Osiris. My Medicine for the Earth work was directly born out of my Egyptian connections in the spirit world.

And then I found that what I had written was also work that was written about by a variety of writers in the 1930s – 1950’s.

I know the unlimited potential that can come from working within on the inner landscaping that is needed to give birth to the fruits of the world we wish to live in.

And I also know how much practice went in to what the ancient civilizations were able to accomplish.

We all are doing the practices we feel passionate about to change ourselves, which changes the world we live in. And at the same time our lives are filled with distractions. It is part of living in a modern culture. I often wonder about the results that I could accomplish if I had no contact with the outside world. And that is not my destiny.

I would like to work with a group who really is willing to commit to a circle to work with creating the inner landscape needed to give solid results in the outer world. The goal would be to learn the difference between the desires of the ego and replace those with our guidance from divine will. To really look at how we can concentrate our thoughts and words so that we can produce our desired goal. And to work together in full support of each other so that each person’s goals are exponentially met by the group’s energy. This means that we all need to work through together issues about how we compare ourselves to others and move into states of jealousy and envy.

Simply the group would commit to work with creation and manifestation practices as well as practices to truly use the power of concentration and focus where our thoughts are words are in alignment with what we want to produce. We will work with personal goals as well as healing for the planet.

And I know we have been doing this work together as a global community. But I would like to bring a group together to meet and to really devote themselves to the work and commit to a circle.

The group would meet in Santa Fe for four days and then we would continue our work together through teleconferencing. But we would stay committed as an ongoing group.

I am trying to get a sense of how many people would be interested in being part of this course. If you are interested please email aruthabelle@aol.com and just say you are interested.

I will of course post the workshop and open it up to all of you. I am just trying to get a reading on the interest level.

The full moon is January 11. Let’s add excitement and passion to our monthly ceremony of creating a human web of light that we continue to weave together as a global community. And let’s continue to support our global community with using spiritual light to help those in our circle who need healing. Instructions for both ceremonies are on the page under Creating A Human Web of Light.

I have deep hope and hold a lot of excitement for all we can accomplish this year!

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Transmutation News – December 2008

As the time grew nearer in the United States presidential election it felt to me like the collective conscious was getting very stirred up. This election created a lot of emotion on many different levels. I found myself having a hard time getting a good night’s sleep as I felt my psyche was tapping into a great deal of chaos in the collective.

Without getting into politics I do feel the results of the election were significant, exciting, and hopeful. For I feel as a collective we were faced with a choice of whether the collective was choosing to move forward to a future of new possibilities or whether fear would keep the collective choosing to move backwards in time.

There are worldwide challenges that keep growing. And the challenges keep forcing us to look at how to create a life that is simpler and more balanced. And the challenges we face also ask us to stay focused on our spiritual work.

This is not a time to feel that any one person or political party will create sweeping changes for us. We are responsible to be part of the changes that need to happen. The present and future still rests in the hands of the collective.

The election in the United States was an example of how the collective can join together and create a shift in leadership. We can learn from such focus. It is a time to continue to build on the collective energies that have been put into motion. And how we do this is to continue to be a spiritual presence in the collective as I wrote about last month. And to add to this we must support and strengthen the collective energies that can move us into greater change and be a healing force on the planet.

Find a place within your home or outside in nature to build a small altar that represents the global spiritual community working together in different ways to create positive change for the planet and all of life. Everyday visit the altar and put a small offering such as a stone, a flower, or a prayer to give thanks and to honor all those working in behalf of life.

Over the years we have been working together to dream the world we want to live in into being. I have given different suggestions of how to work with creation and manifestation out of my book Medicine for the Earth.

Recently my helping spirits gave me an interesting exercise to suggest. As you know there are many books written on the law of attraction. These books have been popular since the early 1900’s and today there is a resurgence in the topic.

I was told to suggest that you find a magnet and a pin to work with. When I did this exercise I worked with a strong refrigerator magnet.

Hold the pin close to the magnet and notice the pull, as they are attracted to each other. Repeat this everyday a few times a day to get the feeling in your body of what is needed to actually attract to you what you are working on manifesting.

In doing spiritual work it is one thing to be able to experience something being created in the invisible realms. It is another to understand how to pull the creation through, to birth it in the physical realms.

Here is another exercise I was given. I found that as Election Day in the United States grew closer I had to deal with feelings of anxiety.

I kept doing a lot of work to surrender to whatever outcome occurred. And I had good days and challenging days. One day I found myself thinking the worst.

I immediately felt the presence of Isis surrounding me. When I finally took some time to get quiet and go within she showed me a ball of yarn sitting on the floor that represented my desired outcome. And she asked me to reflect on what thread of thought I was feeding into the yarn. It was a real wakeup call for me as I realized I was not aligning my thinking with the result I was hoping for.

I think that the more we can get our body and mind to work in partnership with our spiritual practices the more fuel we give to the work we are engaged in.

Find a ball of yarn or some other object that you can use to represent what you consider a healthy and balanced planet. You can also create a drawing or you can write your goal on a piece of paper. Place these on an altar. Run pieces of thread, yarn, string to your ultimate goal that are infused with thoughts that would align with this goal as well as those infused with blocking beliefs.

Take some time throughout the day and especially before you go to sleep to reflect on the threads you have been feeding. Did you feed the thread leading to your ultimate goal or away from it?

Try to get a tangible feeling in your body of how these “threads of thoughts” contribute to creating your ultimate goal.

I think both exercises of working with magnets and watching what threads of thought you are feeding will help you to make changes in your daily life. The goal is to contribute to the global community from a deeper level of awareness as we work together to create positive planetary change in behalf of all of life.

Shamanism as well as the Medicine for the Earth work practiced as a way of life requires you to be fully embodied. For so much of the practice of shamanism has to do with deep listening and observation of nature. In this way we are living as part of nature and truly working from a place of full cooperation and collaboration with the spirit that lives in all things.

In today’s world many people are drawn to spiritual practices because they don’t want to be in a body. Past experiences have people disappointed in others and life itself and looking for an escape.

But spiritual practices as they were developed in ancient times were never meant to create out of body experiences. Part of thriving and living a life of joy means being fully in our body and fully inspirited.

Some of us are losing out and missing the point of spiritual work. In the October Transmutation News I wrote about losing our sense of wonder, awe, and becoming complacent creates life as more of watching a movie or program on a flat screen TV. We miss out on truly living as part of nature when we reject our own bodies.

Winter tends to be a time of stillness in nature. This stillness supports us to take the time to draw our energies within.

In 2008 I asked you to merge with a star and notice how solid starlight is. It does not try to shine. It just does from an inner solidity and that light reaches across many millions of miles.

I also asked you to merge with a seed to understand and feel in your cells the intense power of unpotentiated energy.

If you did not do these journeys/meditations I suggest you do them as a foundation to work with.

As we move closer to the time of winter begin to draw your energy in. Review your successes. Look at where you might have lost faith in yourself as a being who has the potential to share brilliance and beauty in the world.

Everyday make yourself “love potions” where you infuse love into everything you eat and drink. Remember what you bless, blesses you. What you honor, honors you. In this way of blessing and honoring yourself you bless and honor the earth. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the winter solstice, which is on December 21.

During the winter solstice take some time to be still and silent. And tune into the stillness and regeneration process of the earth. Ask the earth how you can support her regeneration during this time of change and transition.

The full moon is December 12. Let’s continue to strengthen our spiritual presence in the collective as well as strengthen the fibers we are weaving in the web of light.

As this year draws to a close let’s continue our healing work in our circle to empower each of us so that we have the energy and passion to keep up our spiritual work to help with the changes ahead.

If you are new to this website please read Creating A Human Web of Light for instructions for our full moon meditations.

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Transmutation News – October 2008

For months now I have written about experiencing joy and love. This has been a theme of the Transmutation News for years now. The piece I wrote about last month was the importance of being able to feel joy, love, and gratitude in our bodies rather than it all being a mental concept.

And I have continued to write again and again that indigenous people do have a joy and light emanating from them that goes beyond what is happening in the physical world.

A known belief is that we teach what we need to learn. For everything I write on the Transmutation News I am working towards the same goals I write about.

I have a really good life for which I am so grateful. So I keep sitting with and meditating on what keeps me from being able to fully embrace joy and shine my light fully in the world. Yes, I can do it for times throughout the day and when I with groups. But what is it that prevents me from fully experiencing joy and love all the time.

I started to think about my childhood. Like many people my life circumstances as a child were challenging. But I did experience true joy. And I do remember that very clearly. My joy did not depend on what was outside of me.

When I sat with what created that joy the answer that came to me was that I was in awe and in a state of true wonder about the beauty of life. I had great excitement about trying everything from sports, to writing, to drawing.

And I had to look at how much I am still in awe and a state of wonder. I had to look at how fear of failure prevents me from being totally excited about trying new things. And as I wrote about last month becoming complacent with life definitely limits feelings of joy.


I started to think about people today. There is a vacancy in many people’s eyes and most of the people I see today have a glazed over look.

Where is the awe? Where is the excitement of the promise of what life can bring? And I realized that until we move back into a state of awe and wonder we can’t truly experience joy.

In the early 1970’s I lived part time in San Francisco and for a few months a year lived with a friend in Mount Shasta. For me Mount Shasta is such an extraordinary place of earth. It was such an amazing experience for me to wake up in the morning and see the mountain. I had only been away from my home in Brooklyn, New York for less than a year so I was not used to being surrounded by such natural beauty.

I remember asking my friend who lived all year long in the town of Mount Shasta if he ever took the mountain and the beauty of the place for granted. Did he wake up every day in complete awe as I did? I think I surprised him by asking him this question.

When we do take life and its beauty for granted we lose something crucial for experiencing all the gifts that the earth and life bring to us. And I do believe it is essential to get this state of wonder and awe back.

After I had this realization I picked up a magazine that had some articles I had wanted to read. I had this magazine by my desk for over a year and finally got around to reading it. And there was an article by Matthew Fox writing almost the same words I just wrote here about the need to return to a life filled with wonder and awe. It was quite an omen for me that made me feel I was on the right path.

This month ask yourself if you have become complacent with life and all the beauty around you. Do you wake up in awe of the elements and all the gifts they bring? Are you in amazement about all the food the earth supplies for our nourishment? Are you struck by the beauty of water and all it gives to you? When you breathe are you in appreciation for the life that air gives you? And do you fully connect with the life force of the sun that gives the power for you to thrive?

Look at where you have become complacent and what you do take for granted. And this question might lead you back to a life of awe and wonder that brings you to experiencing true joy.


In the past few months we have looked at how the creator or creative forces of the universe created us from a true place of unconditional love. And I have asked you to experience how much love went into your creation.

This month I want you to look at how much you love yourself and what you have created in the world. Using the principle of “as above, so below, as within, so without” are you in a place of unconditional love as you create in your life and in the world?


I have been debating with myself about saying anything about the current election for President of the U.S. I know there are a range of feelings from fear, anger, confusion, to curiosity about what might occur.

And of course the campaign focusing on the economy versus the environment is a real statement of how separated people are from the understanding that it is crucial to take care of our home.

So whatever happens “out there” in the physical realm we must keep up our focus of taking care of our earth in whatever ways we are called to. And we must keep up our spiritual work as we have been doing over the years.

I am sure I will have more to say at a later time.


Terri in New Zealand shared the following journey with me. I asked her if I could post her journey for all of us to read. I thought it was quite beautiful.

 

Terri’s Planetary Healing Journey

I put out a strong intention to do planetary healing in whatever way I am guided and shown to do.

I hear the drumming and journey very quickly with ease to the water hole at Muriwai Beach. I am alone, looking into the swollen murky fast flowing high waters. Rain is pouring down and high winds are all around. There are large whirlpools in the water hole and they are taking everything into them and down under to the bottom to be composted into mother earth. I am told it is a good thing to be done.

I see and feel my wolf power animal come to be with me. He is my teacher and tells me to follow him. We both dive into a huge whirlpool and it becomes a vortex to the other side. We dive deep down into the earth and then we are blasted out into space. He has become very streamlined and I ride with him circling around the planet. We are both very large. We see mother earth in all her beauty, it reminds me of a picture I have seen of planet earth taken from out in space. We are weightless and gliding silently just observing the beauty of the planet, the stars and the universe.

Then we are taken swiftly, diving into the centre of the earth. I know I am in the centre of the earth. It is a beautiful open space, lots of soft greenery around the edge, tumbling over the smooth dark charcoal coloured shining rock walls. They have an emerald green tinge to them too. There is a warm sunlight infusing the whole area. I am told it is the central sun and as we have a sun above us mother earth also has a central sun within her.

My power animal passes me an opened wolf medicine bag and I take out the large green seeds and am told to plant them in the warm, rich, brown soil. They are love seeds. Instantly I see them grow up into people of all colours and creeds and dressed in all the rainbow colours. They are gardening in this internal, warm, sunny field, and there are hundreds of them, woman, men and children. There is a feeling of harmony, peace and playfulness. They use thought to communicate. No words are spoken.

I am observing this when I then see above us a rainbow form in the sky and then many, many more, filling up the whole sky. I am told to watch, as the central sun energy, weaves these rainbows in to balls. I know it represents our future and the ball of rainbows is the new web of life. I then see and am taken on shafts of this rainbow light travelling upwards in all directions to come through the surface of the planet earth. I see that the same scene of people working in harmony, peace and laughter is also taking place around the whole of the earth surface. As above so below.

I am then taken out high above the planet again and see earth in all its beauty. Then I have another strong sensation enter my body on the floor in the room and I am feeling colder and my blood and flesh is tingling. I feel and see the other people in the room as golden pillars of light holding the space. I hear the drumming strong, holding and steady.

I am out in space. I see the earth and hear her speak to me. She says to be with my breath and she will be with hers. I see her breathing and exhaling as one being. She shows me and teaches me. She inhales and she is form and I see her in all her beauty. She then exhales and I see and feel her expand, and gently explode into no form, just sparkling golden and white light taking up all space. No beginning and no end. I am also melted into this never-ending sea of light and feel and know from being dissolved into it, what she is saying. She breathes in again and says form. She breathes out again and says no form. It is a wonderful feeling of natural ebb and flow, ebb and flow. This is happening all the time we just don’t see or know it. I am just resting in it and experiencing the wonder of the teaching. I feel like a soft baby held in the most exquisite light and love. She is saying we will create with each breath our earth and with each exhale we will expand into light. I experience the earth as so alive now and forever.

I have a knowing that by doing this spiritual healing work we are creating our new world and new ways to live in peace and harmony. I see and experience that when we have form, always behind it all is formlessness and light (Source). We are the light workers, the spiritual gardeners. Love and light are there for us forever, no beginning and no end and we will create from it. I stay, dissolved; experiencing this ecstasy until I hear the drumming again and I know I need to return. Wolf comes to me and says its time to go home. He has to pull my energy out from where I am as I have a reluctance to return. I slip into my body beside him and fly back to the water hole at Muriwai Beach and then back into the room.

I have tears of joy on returning and sharing.

The full moon is October 14. Let’s be in place of awe for the beauty of the moon and the night sky. And with joy and gratitude for our lives and for what a gift it is to be here on earth let’s continue to weave a beautiful web of light throughout the world.


Last month I posted that you can now sign up on my email list to receive a message for when the Transmutation News has been posted each month and also to receive announcements of new workshops I am teaching.

To sign up for my email list please visit www.sandraingerman.com. There is a box you can check if you want an email to let you know the Transmutation News is up. Please know your privacy will be protected and you will only receive announcements about workshops and events I have added to my schedule and if you have asked for it an announcement about the Transmutation News.

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Transmutation News – September 2008

An important announcement:

Over the years many students have suggested I start an email list where I can send announcements. I have finally decided to move forward with this suggestion.

I am exploring adding some on-line courses and teleconferencing to help assist in the teaching of Medicine for the Earth practices and also the practices of healing toxic thoughts. I think there are ways I can work with connecting our global community without all of us traveling. And I am exploring ways to do this.

I have scheduled a few of my regular workshops for 2009 which will appear on my 2009 calendar which will be up later this fall. But if you want to know about new classes I add during the year you might want to sign up on my email list. Also some of you have asked for an email to let you know when the monthly Transmutation News has been posted.

To sign up for my email list please visit the Home Page – “About Sandra Ingerman” or the “Transmutation News” page. There is a box you can check if you want an email to let you know the Transmutation News is up. Please know your privacy will be protected and you will only receive announcements about workshops and events I have added to my schedule and if you have asked for it an announcement about the Transmutation News.

Oftentimes I find a theme presenting itself in the conversations that students and people who write me want to discuss. Whenever I start to hear the same issue coming up again and again I pay attention.

A topic came up in a workshop I taught in August and also in some of the letters I received from people looking for shamanic healing help. As we have brought shamanism into a Western modern day culture it is starting to get watered down. Some teachers who teach alternative forms of healing seem to emphasize technique instead of finding individual and unique ways to help clients. And shamanic practitioners tend to give their power away to human teachers they study with instead of relying on the guidance of their helping spirits.

This is an important issue that I stress in my workshops and in my books. Techniques do not heal, but creating a sacred and loving space does heal. Treating people as individuals versus as a label given to them by the medical establishment whether it is a physical or emotional issue is not what people need right now. And in shamanic healing the spirits are who can really bring through unique and powerful healings for the client.

In our culture we keep putting our clients in a box by giving them labels and devise treatment plans for the labels. We should be looking at each person as an individual. And as practitioners we often put ourselves in a box by following method protocols rather than relying on our unique spiritual guidance.

As I have written in the past, I have never seen two traditional shamans in any culture work in the same way. Yet in our culture we all try to work within certain methods taught. And as we continue to do this the power of old traditions are being watered down and we are not coming up with creative and unique solutions to truly be in service to others and the planet.

Doctors are telling many people that they have symptoms that don’t really fit into traditional diagnoses. The severity of post traumatic stress disorders and other emotional issues stump psychologists and therapists. Environmental issues on the planet today also are beyond the control of scientific methods.

This means that it is crucial for us as we keep looking at how we can be of service to think and work outside of the box. Working with divine light and perceiving the divinity in clients and the planet has been taught for thousands of years. And this is a vital way we can go beyond the physical and truly work on the spiritual levels. Remember everything starts on the spiritual level before manifesting on the physical.

Use meditation and shamanic journeying to look for original solutions to different problems that are being presented to you. Allow yourself to be inspired and go beyond what you have been taught. Keep looking at how you can take your work to deeper levels. Being part of a factory of workers devoted to form versus direct revelation is not what any of us need right now. Follow your own spiritual guidance.

On this note I had an interesting dream in August that I am still sitting with. In the dream I was told that the purpose of life on earth was learning about differentiation. And that it is our destiny to manifest our own creative ways of working. We are part of source and as source differentiated when we were born into the world. The word “differentiate” was repeated over and over in the dream.

When I woke up from the dream I thought about this. When life begins to form at conception the cells differentiate into different organs and parts of the body. And in this way if we experience ourselves as one with the earth and part of the earth we are all cells that have differentiated for a particular purpose. We are all part of the earth.

On a spiritual level we are source. And we contain source in every cell of our being. On a physical level we all have differentiated to manifest an aspect of source on the planet.

We must tap into our own uniqueness and gifts of what we are bringing to the world. We need this for our emotional and physical health and well being. Unless we are living a life of joy and passion we move into a place of despair. Unless we are living our destiny and recognize we are not separate from source we are not tapping into our full health.

Please ponder whether you have become complacent with the work you are doing. Keep looking at how you can keep going deeper. Even if your main way of working is through transfiguration ask yourself if you have become complacent with your mode of the practice. Are you exploring ways to deepen the process?

Last year I wrote in one of the Transmutation News that I was receiving spiritual guidance on how important it is to hold the space right now. We tend to focus on things we can do in the outer world. And I just want to encourage you to keep working with the invisible ways of working that create a loving and sacred space for the planet and all of life. This is one way we are being called to tend our earth garden.

For my own personal healing and evolution I have been working with practitioners who have trained in Brain Dynamics. This is a highly technological form of working where first your brain is mapped. With the brain mapping the practitioner can see what parts of the brain are overactive and need to be quieted and what parts of are underactive and need to be stimulated. Then there are protocols used with visualization and music to help stimulate parts of the brain and calm down other parts.

I learned something important while doing this work that I wanted to share with you. We have different brain waves and I have written about them in some of my books. Basically beta is our ordinary thinking mind, alpha is a meditative state, theta is the state of the brain that allows up to journey into invisible realms, and delta is the state we go into when we dream.

What was new to me is that it is the alpha state that rules our immune system. So to improve our immune system we need to learn how to create more alpha waves. The quickest way to get your alpha waves moving is through gratitude. It is interesting to me that spiritual practices for thousands of years have been teaching the power of gratitude. And now with science we can see how those gratitude practices stimulate the part of the brain responsible for our immune system.

I have written about gratitude practices throughout the year. So you might want to look at some of the previous Transmutation News for 2008. The Transmutation News you might want to take a look at are February 2008, April 2008, May 2008. Also you might wish to review the August 2008 Transmutation News for more inspiration.

During a transfiguration practice I found myself seeing myself unzipping my body and stepping out of it as pure spiritual divine light. It worked great for me and I have shared this way of transfiguring with others throughout the month of August. Give it a try for yourself and it might be a simple way to describe the practice to those you introduce the work to.

Another practice that has been calming and healing for me is to hold the intention to go back before life began, back to source, back to the void. When there I see myself floating in that wonderful state of pure consciousness while I state the decree, “I am in perfect harmony and unity with the one”. It has been a wonderful practice I have brought into my own personal work. You might want to try it.

I love to share great books I have read. I recently read a book titled Coyote Cowgirl by Kim Antieau. It is a great fiction book that is light, fast moving, filled with imaginative characters and situations. It also has some great spiritual teachings and there are even some food recipes that I have tried out. One of the spiritual teachings in the book is how food can be empowered with the thoughts we have. If you are looking for a good book that is a just a great story I recommend Coyote Cowgirl. The book is available on Amazon if you can’t find it at your local bookstore.

The full moon is September 15. Let’s continue to deepen our transfiguration practice and together hold a sacred divine and loving space on the planet by weaving together fibers of divine light. And we continue our monthly healing for our community.

Any of you new to this website please visit Creating A Human Web of Light on the Transmutation News page for instructions for our full moon ceremonies.

The fall equinox is September 22. This is truly my favorite time of year. During the fall equinox over the years I have asked you to let something go that no longer serves you. This year we will continue on this theme.

These last few months I have asked you to experience the true love of the creative forces of the universe and the earth and also to experience your gratitude for life.

When this becomes a cellular experience you will evolve to a whole new consciousness and your own life as well as the life of the planet will take on a new way of being.

I find that often times the experience of love and gratitude becomes more of a state that our mind embraces rather than being absorbed on a cellular level. For in an egoic state of consciousness we experience separation which creates different fears such as what if I lose this love or this joy?

In life we experience many little deaths. And it is only through some type of death that something new can be born. We reach a state of consciousness and awareness and then the ego holds on to it and is afraid to lose it. For some of us we don’t allow ourselves to fully absorb love and joy for there is an underlying fear that we might lose it.

On a physical level everything does change so everything that we have on a physical level will be lost. But nothing is ever lost on a spiritual level. Love is permanent, joy is permanent and is beyond what is happening in our physical lives.

I do believe that we are in a time of great transition and change which is leading to an opportunity to evolve to greater and new states of consciousness that have never been seen on this planet.

And this means we must open our hearts and cells to absorb the love and joy that comes from being alive. And it is important for all of us to reflect on or journey on what keeps us from fully letting in the unconditional love and joy.

This is not something most of us can identify in a short ten-minute meditation or journey. I suggest you take a full day to reflect on what beliefs you need to return to the earth and the universe to be composted this fall so that you might fully absorb light, love, and joy so that the experience goes beyond words and you become these energies. For many of us this is a work in progress but we must start somewhere.

Start by reflecting on whether you experience the light and love of source fully in your body. Do you feel gratitude and joy in every cell of your being? Then reflect on what is blocking your depth of the physical feeling of love, light, joy, and gratitude.

The reason I love shamanic journeying is that my helping spirits assist me in identifying the truth of what I need to work with for me to keep evolving into a higher frequency and way of life.

For some of you meditation might be a way for you to journey deep into your psyche. And for some of you being alone in nature might be important.

I like to journey and also spend time in silence in nature where I can truly connect back to myself and also the earth, the air I breathe, the water, and the sun.

If you work in a group you might pick a day together to spend some time in silence and in nature and you might also use the support of the group to speak your truth of what you learn about your own self.

Let’s use the support of the seasonal change of letting go of what is no longer needed and release those blocking energies back to the earth and universe to be composted so that new beautiful life might be born from what you let go of.

And to add to this let’s merge with all the elements this fall to experience in our bodies what this time of seasonal change is leading us too.

If you are new to this website and this work and need to learn how to work with merging with the elements please look at my book Medicine for the Earth or listen to my CD “Miracles for the Earth” for instructions on how to merge with the elements.

There is so much opportunity to create a new world as we let go of what does not support the new forms being created. We have unlimited potential. Don’t miss the opportunity for the change you came in to experience in this lifetime. Reflect on the programs from society you took on which you to need to let go of so that you can step into a new way of life. There are thousands of years of history to let go of. There are programs we got from society that need to be deleted. When we free ourselves from the past and open our hearts and cells to the beauty and unlimited possibilities of life we dream a whole new world into being. Step into your power. And let’s join our hearts together as a global community to make this happen.

Congratulations on releasing of the old and enjoy the fall!!!

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Transmutation News – June 2008

During April and early May I had a wonderful trip to Europe. I taught workshops on Medicine for the Earth including some of the practices in Healing with Spiritual Light in Ireland, Scotland, and Portugal.

It always touches me deeply to see how people respond to working with the practice of transfiguration and also understanding the need to bridge spiritual work into our lives and not separate out our spiritual work from our ordinary lives.

It takes a lot of discipline and commitment to watch our thoughts and words throughout the day to be conscious of the energies we are sending to ourselves, others, and into the world. It takes continued intention to watch what energies we are feeding. Do we spend more energy on feeding what isn’t working? Do we align our thoughts and words with what we want to see manifest in our lives and on the planet?

The outer world we observe will not change until we birth from the inside out a new world into being. We need to learn how to travel into and work in our inner landscape and keep forming our creations by engaging all of our senses as we have been working with throughout the years. We must continue to keep our focus on where we are going and not lose focus by getting caught up in what is happening in the outer world.

Once we start to cultivate our inner landscape it is easier to blend non-ordinary states of consciousness into ordinary states of consciousness. This is how a flow begins from the invisible into the visible and where we start to see the results of our spiritual practices.

The key word I would like us to focus on is “flow”. Allowing the flow between the visible and the invisible is what happens when we stop separating out performing spiritual practices from our ordinary life.

And when we move into a flow we naturally “become” the work rather than force a state of doing. This creates more of the feminine energy of being a part of nature and moving through life with grace and ease.

We are a seeing a great deal of breakdown of old forms of consciousness based on hierarchical structures and also a belief in power over. For what happens when nothing you “do” works anymore? You stop and let the flow of life sculpt you into the being you were meant to become.

When flowing through the river of life there are times of peace and then there are times we are going down rapids. You must keep focusing your vision of where you are going no matter what state the river is in during your travels. You can’t stop paddling, you must keep moving.

You find yourself flowing through denser states sometimes and sometimes in lighter states. And the state you are in continues to cycle back and forth. You must respect the cycles of nature of which you are a part of. Don’t get attached to a particular state. Getting attached to the lighter and ecstatic states causes suffering. Be in the world flowing with your new awareness of being part of life and don’t get attached to what is happening on the outside.

One of the experiences that kept coming in participants journeys in Ireland, Scotland, and Portugal is that it is not what happens to us in life but our response to what other people and life bring to us. We always have power to choose our attitude.

This month I would like you to focus on the experience of flowing. How does your work in the invisible flow into the visible realms throughout the day?

Keep creating an inner state of awareness and consciousness that will effect your outer world remembering that all is born from within.

We have worked over the years with merging with earth, water, air, and fire. In reality these elements flow with each other and are connected. Start to experience the flow of the elements and their connection with each other.

I also would like you to work once again with your story of creation as was written in the first chapter of my book Medicine for the Earth. I want you to focus your journeys or meditation work on how the creator created you from love. It is really a life changing experience when you get how much love went into your creation.

Focus on absorbing that love and then treating yourself and all of life with that same love. As you work on developing your inner landscapes and continuing your creation work make sure the fuel of your work embraces that same love.

If you watch the news you are aware that there have been a number of world- wide disasters. As you witness the pain and suffering of those who lost loved ones and homes please remember to see them in their divine light. Perceive them in their spiritual strength which helps to empower them energetically versus pitying them and pushing them deeper into a hold.

Hold the space for those who are suffering with love and compassion. I know when I see the faces of the newly orphaned children in China it fuels my intention to do everything possible to create a world of harmony on all levels for all of life.

June 20 is the summer solstice. The greatest gift that we can give the earth during this time is love, appreciation, and respect. Create a ceremony for yourself or with the group you work with to honor the earth during this time of change.

Spend time in nature. Bless all that gives you life. Reflect on your love for the elements. Remember what you bless blesses you in return.

Look at what you are still holding onto from your past that holds back your growth. This is a wonderful time to explore this issue and journey and meditate on how to let go of what holds back from growing into your light.

The full moon is June 18. Let’s continue our work together as a global community connected by love for our lives and the life of all living beings. Together we let go of what keeps us separate from the brilliant spiritual light that shines from within. And we connect our light together to feed the web of light within and throughout the earth.

We continue the wonderful healing work for our community through our transfiguration practice as is described on the homepage under Creating A Human Web of Light.

I have scheduled the first meeting for a new Two Year Teacher Training in Santa Fe, New Mexico for September 20-25 2009. For a course description as well as course requirements and an application please email Ruth Aber at aruthabelle@aol.com.

Ruth will be out of the country until June 6. So please wait to the middle of June before requesting information from her.

I wish you a joyous and light filled summer!

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Transmutation News – May 2008

There is no permanent happiness when we gauge our lives on what is happening on the outside. Happiness and peace must be born from within us.

Last month I asked you to merge with a seed to experience a seed’s power and true creative potential. If you did this I am sure you were amazed at just how much potential a seed holds.

A seed needs a nurturing environment to grow in. A seed on it’s own cannot grow unless it is placed and planted in a healthy environment. Although a seed has creative potential, all is lost unless it has healthy soil to grow in. water to nurture it, the warmth of the earth and the sun, and soil that is well aerated.

This month I would like you to use your journey or meditation practice to merge with the earth inside yourself. Imagine, journey, or meditate on your body as earth. Feed the soil within with water, nutrients, compost from nature, the light of the sun, and the life giving force of air. Once your soil is perfected imagine yourself planting seeds of love, light, peace, joy, and whatever you desire into this healthy and nurturing environment.

Keep visiting your inner garden and continue to take care of it. Make sure your thoughts and words, as well as the words you listen to all feed your garden with good nutrition.

You know the excitement of watching new seeds create sprouts. Feel that excitement of new life sprouting within you.

Another way to feed your inner garden is with love and appreciation. I have written about working with gratefulness over the last few months. When we start our day feeling grateful for our life we are creating harmony and moving in alignment with the river of life.

Each morning as you wake up think of five things that you are grateful for. And as you do this come up with a decree that you can repeat throughout the day to keep you focused. I have written about writing decress in How to Heal Toxic Thoughts. This will help you to keep transforming challenging states of consciousness that come up throughout the day. This will help you to change your thoughts and keep them changed as I wrote about in March.

Last year I also wrote neuroplasticity where science has discovered that we can create new neural pathways in the brain. But as our thought patterns have run deep to create one path it takes discipline to create a new path.

As we focus on what we are grateful for and start to work with decrees we start to move away from the negative thought patterns we have created giving way to new opportunities to grow into a new positive life.

In working in this way we do not deny what is not working. We just help ourselves to create a life where we are grateful for the opportunities we are given to have life and to learn and evolve from what we experience in life. As we change our perception we change our reality.

It is also important to remember we are more than our bodies and our thoughts and keep experiencing the divine light within. Keep transfiguring and hold that state of experiencing your inner light shining through you like the light of the star we have merged with. I wrote about merging with a star in the December 2007 Transmutation News.

And please keep bringing this work into your local communities as I wrote about in January. Coming together in community is where we have so much power to create change right now. Let’s use the resources we do have to be fully in service to life right now.

A friend of mine wrote a fascinating book titled Tree Barking. The author Nesta Rovina was born in South Africa, lived in Israel and experienced family tragedy there, and then moved to the United States where she became a home health-care worker in Oakland, California. She shows compassion and understanding for her housebound clients, many of whom – no matter their circumstances – carry on with faith, humor, and kindness.

The book was published this spring by Baytree books.

The full moon is May 16. Let us continue to join our divine light together to weave a web of light within and throughout the earth nurturing loving energies. And let’s continue the healing work for our global community as I write about in Creating A Human Web of Light on the Transmutation News page.

A favorite quote of mine that I shared many times is a good one to focus on this month. Caroline Casey who is a wonderful astrologer (www.visionaryactivism.com) wrote:

“Imagination lays the tracks for the reality train to follow.”

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Transmutation News – February 2008

The conditions on the planet have been changing for years, and it is obvious that these changes will continue.

Different spiritual traditions teach that everything is energy. In shamanism it is taught that everything that exists is alive and has a spirit.

In today’s world the mainstream population often misses that there is a spiritual component to the elements and to all that manifests on the physical level. Many people get lost in the material world and only focus on the material aspect of life.

Everything that exists in the material world does die. The spirit is immortal. Much of the material world is collapsing on us. The environment we live in is changing rapidly creating much destruction. Cultures are suffering greatly as only the material is acknowledged and we forget about the need to bridge spiritual work into everything we do and to bring a new viewpoint into our perception. The illusion that our identity is based on what we have collected in the material world will continue to dissolve and we need to remember the truth of who we really are.

Of course whether we engage in spiritual practices or not everything in the material world dies. But I think the message the earth is trying to give us now is that we must honor the spirit that lives in all things in order to bring harmony back into the environment. In doing this we will see death still occur but I am not sure we would be seeing such “violent” weather occurring trying to wake us up. As different political structures and economies start to fail we are also seeing a dissolving of a focus on just the material without an understanding of the spiritual nature that is part of everything.

Our world is about joining spirit with the material. Everything that is only recognized as material will dissolve and disintegrate for there needs to be a spiritual component to be eternal.

There is a river of life. The more we can honor the spirit that lives in all things and move in harmony with cycles the less I think we have to suffer so many dramatic changes. Everything changes in this world but the wake up call to understand the spiritual component that exists along with the material is getting louder and louder.

As a spiritual community we can be in service by integrating spiritual practices into our lives. We can become spiritual beings that recognize the spirit and light that lives in everything. We can honor the cycles of change. If we do this we can “ride a different wave” than mass consciousness will need to ride right now until a different way of life is achieved.

We are watching the dissolution of things that are only perceived to be material. And this dissolution and disintegration will continue until a new perception about our own lives and the life of everything on earth is acknowledged.

One practice that we can add to what I wrote about in January is to spend some time each day doing a gratitude walk. This can be done in nature, in a park, or even in an urban environment. For a few minutes each day – it can be as you walk to work or walk home – take some time to give thanks. Don’t pray for anything and don’t ask for anything. Just give thanks to the water, air, earth, and fire for the life given to you. Give thanks to the helping spirits of the land, the hidden folk, the spirit of the city you live in for all you are given. Give thanks to the spirit that lives in all things.

This builds a relationship with the spirits where you live. This practice makes you appreciate the spirit that lives in everything that is material. As you focus on what you are thankful for, the beauty of life, and what is working versus what is not working you build a strong foundation to support your life and your path forward.

And continue to do your work involving perceiving everything that exists as energy. Our bodies, thoughts, and emotions are energy and can be transformed. In this way we continue our work of infusing spirit into the material realms. In this way life is eternal.

I would also like to encourage you to keep working on journeying or meditating to create a strong light that shines from within the center of your being. It is going within that you will find true wealth and happiness. A star’s light shines from within and attracts energy to it.

In January I had many long -term students contact me all sharing a similar theme. It seems that many people I know are traveling into the territory that spiritual traditions call “the dark night of the soul”.

As we continue to do our deep inner work to go within and find God within or the light within there are the “demons at the gate” that try to prevent us from going deeper. Our egos also try to prevent us from traveling to a state of spiritual liberation for the nature of the ego is to experience separation and feels threatened by a state of oneness.

I have traveled through these darker states of consciousness many times in my life. And I continue to travel through these states where I lose faith in the spirits and humanity. I start to wonder what I am doing and if anything I am doing is worth it.

In my own experience I find that the only way out is through. I need to accept where I am at, the feelings of hopelessness that I am experiencing and keep working through the state I am in.

I wrote Medicine for the Earth and How to Heal Toxic Thoughts from my own personal journey of dealing with challenging states of consciousness that have appeared while I have been on my spiritual journey of exploring my own divinity and spiritual light.

When I first started experiencing the challenges of my mind and moving into places of despair this state lasted sometimes for months. Then as I focused on my spiritual practices this state lasted for weeks. And as I continue to work with the practices of transformation and transmutation that I have shared with you, I can honestly say that when these negative states of consciousness and questioning arise they last for hours or a day.

The point being is that these dark shadow states are part of the journey. And for me it is like walking through a dark tunnel. If I just sit down in the tunnel and refuse to move then I stay stuck. But if I keep walking knowing that the strength of my spirit will get me through I do make it back out into the light.

I don’t know a way to avoid going through these dark states of consciousness. It is part of the spiritual journey as we move towards liberation from the mind and separate states of consciousness.

As I received so many letters from students going through this dark journey right now I thought some of you reading this page might be going through something similar. Keep trusting your own spirit. That is something you can trust.
In January I celebrated my 55th birthday. My husband kept asking me what I wanted to do to celebrate. He wanted to make this is a special day for me. I told him that the greatest gift for me on this day was not to have to rush. I find that I rush throughout my days. I can’t seem to get everything I need to do accomplished without rushing and I just wanted a day where I could move at my own pace. And it was really wonderful.

At that same time I received a broadcast email from someone I knew who was passing on a poem written by a teenager with cancer. She wanted this poem to be passed on to as many people as possible for it is a message she is leaving the world with.

This girl has been diagnosed with 6 months left to live, and as her dying wish, she wanted to send a letter telling everyone to live their life to the fullest, since she never will.

She’ll never make it to the prom, graduate from high school, or get married and have a family of her own.

The poem is called “Slow Dance” and I wanted to share it with you.

Slow Dance

Have you ever
watched kids

On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to
the rain

Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?

Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down.

Don’t dance so fast.

Time is short.

The music won’t last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?

When you ask How are you?

Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done

Do you lie in your bed

With the next hundred chores

Running through your head?

You’d better slow down

Don’t dance so fast.

Time is short.

The music won’t last.

Ever told your child,

We’ll do it tomorrow?

And in your haste,

Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch,

Let a good friendship die

Cause you never had time

To call
and say, “Hi”

You’d better slow down.

Don’t dance
so fast.

Time is short.

The music won’t
last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere

You
miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry
through your day,

It is like an unopened
gift….

Thrown away.

Life is not a
race.

Do take it slower

Hear the
music

Before the song is over.

February 20 is the full moon and it is also a total eclipse of the moon. Let’s join our spirit together in love to weave a web of brilliant light within and throughout the earth.

And also let’s continue our healing work for each other as written up in Creating A Human Web of Light (for those of you new to this page please visit this section on the homepage). We can as a community join together to help jumpstart the radiance in others who are in need. And I am sure we can all some use “jumpstarting” ourselves.

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Transmutation News – September 2007

I meet thousands of people between presenting at conferences and teaching workshops. The people I meet range from those known as visionaries in the world based on their writings and lectures to those who are on their own path of evolution. And or course I meet people who work in the outer world who are in service to create change on a variety levels.

One of the conversations I have everywhere I go is how so many of us are not getting visions or insights into the future.

As my own helping spirits keep telling me “you are on a need to know basis”. And they keep reminding me that the future is based on our present actions so the future of where we are going has not been created yet. My spirits also keep me in a place of hope reminding me of all the people who are working to create a harmonious and healthy life and planet.

It is so important to focus on what we are doing right now, today, and each day to insure the creation of our dreams.

Each day acknowledge the spiritual practices you are living which create positive change. You might be working alone or in a group or in a workshop setting. Acknowledge the spiritual information you are acquiring through your own direct revelation, meditations, reading material, messages you hear in lectures, and daily communications.

As we really anchor this information and keep growing into what we are learning and living in each present moment we create a good future for all of life.

For the future is created from our present thoughts, beliefs, and actions. Know and feel the truth of this and do your daily work.

I had a beautiful journey one morning in August. My power animal met up with me and together we watered all the trees and plants on my land with love. We watered all the people I love and creative projects I have been involved in with love.

It was a beautiful feeling to “water with love”. Of course the watering was a metaphor as I was sharing my energy with love.

I keep writing and teaching about shining our light in the world. And so much is known about the power to fuel creative manifestations and dreams if your heart is really in it.

Here is an exercise to try this month. In Medicine for the Earth in the chapter on Creation I ask you write a creation story. I want you to continue your work with this. Imagine yourself as the creator of the world looking down on this planet. And imagine yourself birthing different life forms including the elements from a true place of love. Be in love with your creations. Now write a story about how you created the world from love.

And now let’s put this all into practice. When you eat see yourself energetically watering your food with love before you eat it. Do the same with the water you drink and everything you take into your body. Energetically water all the people you love, all your creative projects, your house, the land where you live, etc.

Notice changes that occur in your life from energetically feeding your life and everything and everyone around you with love and light.

Gail, a friend, peer, and student of mine has shared some wonderful information with me about the scientific research being done about how brilliant our brains are at making physical and behavioral changes.

I had been following some of the research on mirror neurons which shows how our brains link up when we engage with another person. The research on mirror neurons shows that we are constantly connecting physiologically whenever we interact with others. This is part of what contributes to feeling empathy for others.

There is also information through brain mapping that shows that the brain can make more changes that we have imagined. Some call this neuroplasticity.

Gail had written me that teaching people how to focus soul retrievals on bringing back “the good” versus “purging the bad” is on track with the new information emerging. She also wrote that my emphasis in Welcome Home helps to construct and utilize healthier neural pathways.

She gave me the title of a very readable book on the subject, which I did order and read with great excitement. The book is titled The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge. Viking Press, New York published it in 2007.

I loved the book and what really excited me is that through brain mapping it can now be shown that the brain doesn’t really know the difference between action and imagination. Great changes can be made with working with imagination.

Based on this I really want to encourage you to focus on the creation work I wrote about in Chapter 8 on Imagination in Medicine for the Earth. Using the power of your mind you do have potential to create a healthier and more joyful life for yourself. But it takes concentration, focus, and persistence to break down the old beliefs and create the new neural pathways that support new healthier patterns in your life.

I am very excited about the new findings coming out through brain mapping. I know I have been writing about focusing on our strengths and gifts for many years now. But now I feel inspired to deepen this work in myself and with the work I teach. I plan to focus a lot on this in my new workshop in February in Santa Fe titled: Rejuvenation and Finding Inner Stability During These Changing Times.

I can see how we can use the assistance of our shamanic journeys and working with helping spirits to create new neural pathways in the brain to create positive change in our lives.

This workshop is listed in The Training and Announcement Section of my 2008 schedule.

 The full moon is September 26. Let’s continue to gather our energies and transfigure into pure light and love to weave a web of light within and throughout the earth. And let’s continue our global healing circle on this day, which is written up on “Creating A Human Web of Light” on the homepage.

 It is quite amazing that we are already looking at celebrating the fall equinox on September 23. To celebrate this seasonal transition I will ask you to review the spiritual work you have done and what you created in this year. For it is now time to let fall back into the earth all that you have produced to feed the earth with love. And then the earth can regenerate during the time of winter to produce new life that will be born from all the love that you have fed it.

 My 2008 calendar is now up on my homepage under the Training and Announcement Section.  Please check it out.

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