Transmutation News – February 2007

As the month of January began and the New Year celebrations started settling down I received emails from different people stating predictions that 2007 would be a great year.

From a spiritual perspective all years are good years as we grow and change from the energies we continue working with and what life brings to us.

There does seem like there are more and more people becoming interested in some kind of spiritual work. This means that more and more people are awakening to a different way of living and to new perceptions.

And we know that as we continue to wake up to a new way of life, we must leave a lot of our old life behind. And this of course is not always easy. We start to feel as we cannot control everything as we used to think we could and we must surrender to a higher power.

In my journeys I have seen that now more than ever we must link together as a collective spiritual force as more and more people begin to wake up to a spiritual way of being. For there will be great change and transition and we must hold the space during this crucial time.

I have been leading teacher trainings over the last few years. And one of the hardest concepts for me to get through to others is this concept of holding space. This is one of the greatest roles of a teacher and a healer. As it all happens on an invisible level it is hard to describe the process of how to do this.

I do believe that so much of it has to do with setting an intention to do so. And then we must hold our attention and awareness to holding a collective space filled with light.

It is similar to what we have been doing with creating a human web of light. But in this case we keep that light shining throughout the day as we are setting a container for the collective. And the more we can link together on psychic spiritual realms collectively the stronger this container will be.

This creating a container and holding the space stays steady as storms on all levels move through creating change. Whether the storm occurs in our physical world or in the collective unconscious we must keep a strong container of light holding the space allowing changes to keep flowing. In this way consciousness can change and transform with fluidity. The river of life takes us through many changes. Some times the river is turbulent and the ride is very rocky and sometimes we go through those very smooth currents. We must learn how to stay centered and move through whatever current we are in as well as help the collective ride through the currents of life and changes in consciousness.

In my book Welcome Home I wrote about a message I had received from Isis. I wrote that book during the first war in Iraq. Isis shared with me the importance of needing people who were willing to keep tending the garden.

This was a very clear and important message for me to get out into the world then and it remains an important message for now. One way to keep tending the garden is to keep up our personal spiritual work of shining our light in the world and creating a container of love, honor, and respect for all of life. And we must continue looking at how we can live our lives in a state of harmony with nature.

Another way we can continue tending the garden is to keep holding the space as others on the planet move through different shifts and changes.

We must also continue to take care of ourselves. Continue your practice of absorbing light from the air you breathe, the water you drink and bathe in, the food you eat, and the sun that provides the energy for life.

And we are spirits in human bodies. As we keep raising our frequency through our spiritual work we must keep strengthening our bodies. For your body is the container for your spirit.

It is crucial to keep transmuting the energy behind our problematic thoughts, attitudes, and belief systems. Watch the words you are using which also effects the collective web of life. Remember abraq ad habra – I will create as I speak.

Keep using your imagination to see, hear, feel, smell, and taste a world filled with peace, harmony, love, unity, and equality.

Review the formula for transmutation and creation: intention + love +unity + harmony + concentration + focus + imagination. See what elements of the formula you need to deepen your work with.

Let’s set our intention to link together as a world community and create a container of love and hold the space for all in the world today during these times of transition. For we are transitioning into new levels of consciousness and a new way of life.

And of course let’s continue to weave a brilliant web of light throughout the earth on the full moon which is February 2.

Keep up your practice of transfiguration and keep shining your spiritual light with each breath and step you take.

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Transmutation News – January 2007

There is always a sense of excitement as we begin a New Year. For a New Year brings hope of new opportunities and unlimited possibilities.

In December I had time to reflect a bit on the cycle I have been in and what is ending in my life. For life is filled with many little deaths and transitions.

Since I was a child I had many out of body experiences where I went to ethereal realms and experienced the love and light of the creator and a state of oneness. These experiences came through three near death experiences and also through experimentation with psychotropic drugs.

In the 1980’s I took a shamanic journey and went to the being I called God. I asked God why I could only experience him (God was a “him” to me at that time) through Near Death experiences and drugs. I wasn’t sure if I would get an answer to my question but I did.

The answer that I received is that as long as I have a body the only way to experience God was to journey as deep within myself as I had been journeying outside myself during my near death experiences and my ego death experiences that drugs facilitated.

Since the 1980’s I have been exploring for myself how to do that. I understood the message as soon as I received it and knew the truth of it, but didn’t really know how to do this.

The transfiguration work has been a very powerful way for me to do this work. For with transfiguration there is no place to go. We just drop the body and the mental states that keep us separate from our own spiritual light and a state of oneness.

As 2006 ended I had announced to all my students that after over twenty years of teaching and traveling it was time for me to take a mini sabbatical in 2007 (I am still doing some teaching). All my teacher trainings are over and there are about 200 wonderful beings I have shared everything I know about teaching shamanic journeying and healing.

It just feels like an end to a cycle for me. So I started to journey on this. I was immediately taken to become one with the earth. I felt as if I had become a leaf that had fallen from a tree in autumn and was now dissolving back into the earth and adding food to the soil so that a new expression of beauty could burst forth.

I also felt as a flower that had dropped all its seeds so that new plants could grow and that the blossom and petals of the old flower went back to feed the earth. Again the petals would create food for the earth that would create new life.

Over the years I have done many journeys to merge with earth. But somehow this felt a bit different. For this time I was seeing how by letting go of what I have been provides food for the earth for a new expression of beauty.

And this new cycle of looking at how beauty is expressed through the earth is a shift in direction than it has been for over 50 years of my life. For I have always experienced the beauty of God or the creator has created.

And although I have taught endlessly how the earth creates beauty it feels like a time to learn really “how” the earth expresses beauty. For just as I am a divine being one with the creator or power of the universe so am I one with the earth. And all express beauty in many forms.

I have always taught that I feel the reason we chose a body and to be born on this planet was to learn how to manifest spirit into form. And I have always looked at this from the viewpoint of how the creator manifested form and looked at the void outside of me as the place of unpotentiated energy where all is created from.

Now I am experiencing the void of the earth and the deep rich place where beauty is naturally expressed from. I am reminded of writing all my books where what I wrote emerged from a deep inner landscape within myself.

Our creation was inspired by the heavens. And our bodies are born of the earth. We are earth. I have used the metaphor many times that it is obvious our fingers are not separate from our body. If one finger drops from our hand it cannot survive on its own. In the same way we are an expression of the earth and one with the earth. We move together as one.

A couple of years ago during a ceremony I met a spirit who shared with me why we were having so much violence expressed through the weather. And I wrote this on a previous Transmutation News.

He said that humankind was always meant to be a bridge between the heavens and the earth. And as we are not being that bridge the earth is trying to reach to the heavens through events like earthquakes and volcanoes and the heavens are trying to reach to the earth through hurricanes and flooding rains.

He said that if we would remember and again be a bridge between the earth and the heavens the intensity of the weather would end and harmony would return.

I wrote about being a bridge in the December Transmutation News. And being a bridge means to have strong connections. So in the sense as I am writing here having strong connections with both the earth and sky.

We go through many different cycles in life as we are beings of nature. And everything on this earth goes through cycles.

As you look at earth, earth is always expressing beauty that comes from deep within. We are earth and we must remember that part of being earth is to express our own inner beauty. We spend so much time looking outside of ourselves and forget the pure power that comes from within.

In beginning the New Year take some time to look where you are in your cycle. For we are all at different points in our cycle. For me I have dropped my seeds and now it is time for me to gestate a bit.

Some of you have been gestating and it might be time for you to burst forth in this year.

How balanced are you in bridging the heavens and the earth? Have you been balancing your work of transfiguring into spiritual light with being fully in your body and expressing that beauty and light in the world?

We have so much potential in our lifetime. There is so much for us to create and experience. And we sell ourselves short by not believing in our potential. We continue to buy into the trance state of the ordinary world that everything we need lies outside of us and that we must depend on authority figures who know more than we do.

In truth everything lies within. But there are cycles we must honor. If we keep birthing the new without taking the time for regeneration we burn out. If we keep waiting for others to birth the new and don’t honor the beauty, power, and strength that lies within us then illness on emotional and physical levels occur as we do not honor the need to move and express our energy.

As we know energy does not die it is always moving. Energy regenerates itself and then expresses itself.

Look at where your energy is at and honor the cycle you are in right now. This is an exploration that will give you a great start to the New Year.

The weather changes around the world are caused externally by global warming. The weather is getting very extreme in many places. Some places are much warmer than usual. In some places the winds are coming through as they never have before. Rains and storms are more extreme.

All of these changes also reflect back to us the work we must all do to re-center, rebalance, and return to a state of peace and harmony. It is a time for us to teach and share the importance of honoring all of life and the power of love. And it is important for all beings to understand that we are not separate from each other. As I said earlier we must all learn how to be a bridge between the earth and skies.

We can learn a lot about the coming times and changes by merging with the elements where you live. I know I have encouraged you to do this before but it is very important to keep up these journeys or meditations. As you merge with earth, water, air, and fire you will learn about the changes being asked for in bringing harmony back within and without.

The full moon is January 3. Let’s continue the graceful energetic spinning work of weaving a web of light within and through the earth. And as a spiritual community let’s set an intention and commit to expressing beauty and light in the world with each breath and step we take on this great earth.

As we begin the New Year I want to give many thanks of appreciation to all who help to make the information on the Transmutation News available to a worldwide community.

I want to thank Bob Edgar the webmaster of this page. We have been working together since the inception of this website and I am in deep appreciation for his continued help.

I wish to thank Eva Ruprechtsberger who manages the team that translates The Transmutation News into different languages so that we can really join together as a world community. Thank you Eva!

And here are the translators who volunteer their time to bring the Transmutation News to a global community. Many thanks to you for your support and the work you do. I know it is a lot of work and I give thanks for your dedication:

Linde Stecker translates the Transmutation News into German.

Nello Ceccon translates it into the Italian.

Malou Thein translates it into French.

Catharina Delmarcel translates it into Dutch.

Katharina Workmany translates it into Portuguese.

Ines Fermosa translates it into Spanish.

Zora Fresova translates it into Slovakian.

I know we are all grateful for the great gift to transcend the obstacle of language and have a way we can join together in our spiritual work. And this is made possible with the help of our generous translators.

Let me remind you that it is so important to keep up our creation work. For we are the dreamers and creators of our world. Use your senses of sight, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting to experience fully the world we want to live in as if it is all here now. That is how our world is dreamt into being.

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Transmutation News – December 2006

In the last few months I met hundreds of people through all the workshops that I led. In my time with so many students I was able to get a sense of where people are still getting stuck with some of the spiritual work we are doing together as a community.

In working with the Medicine for the Earth material we are working in an esoteric way. This means getting comfortable with different paradoxes in life. On one level we are separate beings who experience pain and suffering. On another level we are divine and beings of perfect spiritual light.

Most of us dance back and forth between the two levels of duality and non-duality. It depends on how clear we are at different times of doing our spiritual work. This is normal as we fall prey to the denser states of consciousness of our collective world.

When we perceive life from a place of non-duality, a place of oneness there is no illness only divine perfection. When we perceive people in their divine perfection we allow them to lift up into their own spiritual light and out of a dense state. In this way of working we are not doing anything to them or sending any energy or healing to them. We are just changing our perception of how we view them knowing that this makes a difference.

The nature of being human is that we project onto others. The truth is that you are going to project on to every living being. You have a choice. Do you want to project suffering onto others sending them deeper into their hole? Or do you want to see them as divine beings who have the strength to rise above their situation? You are going to see people one way or another. Why not make the choice to see people as spiritual light who have the capacity of healing and changing their situation?

In this way of working we are creating change by essentially doing nothing. You are not performing a healing on the person you are just working with your perception.

The confusion I find with some of my students is that when we see people in their divine perfection we are doing something to them or taking them to another realm. We are just looking at them through another set of eyes. And from the spiritual teachings from around the world this is enough to help a person rise up out of a dense state of consciousness into a lighter state. Validating the inner power, strength, and radiance of another does this. If we continue to label people as ill we help to lock in the diagnosis.

I hope this makes sense.

Of course the biggest challenge with this work is when we look at some political leaders, terrorists, police who abuse prisoners, etc. Our human reactions bring us to a place of anger. And this anger actually feeds the problematic behavior.

Thomas Merton was a great philosopher and wrote many books and still has many students of his teachings. He said that any work carried out by a peace activist or humanitarian, can actually perpetrate a kind of violence against whoever the activist is tending if he/she is not coming from a place of love and peace.

When we constantly react with anger towards the behavior we observe in others we are feeding the heart of hate and not love.

For most of us this is a very difficult teaching. For we might understand that if we are angry we feed the heart of hate. But how do we change our feelings in the midst of so much injustice.

The Dalai Lama who tries to educate people about the plight of Tibetans under Chinese Communist rule does not incite anger and hate. He inspires people to have compassion toward those who take abusive roles.

Michelle Bachelet is now the president of Chile. She was once imprisoned by the former government and tortured. In her inaugural speech she talked about the need for love. Being a victim of hatred she has made a commitment to reverse hatred and turn it into tolerance, understanding and love.

Gandhi worked on many levels. He was an activist who created great change in his country through education. But he also was an activist who understood that to see peace one must find peace inside oneself.

Our task right now can seem impossible to some of us who are reacting so strongly to the violence and injustice toward all of life.

I do believe that we must continue to educate people in whatever way we can to the preciousness of life and the importance of honoring and respecting all living beings.

And at the same time we must find spiritual practices that bring us to a place of compassion.

There are meditative practices that you can explore. The way I have shared to work with this is going back to the principal of projection. For everything we are seeing in our outer world is a projection of some inner state of consciousness.

When working with projection if I get angry at an abusive police officer I need to look within and find that part of myself that I am hiding that might have wanted to be abusive at some time of my life. This is working with the shadow states that dwell within. The shadow states are the parts of ourselves that we keep hidden. But when we see these states in others we become inflamed by looking into a mirror that another person is holding up to us.

For me this is the most difficult work. For I have no tolerance for abuse of not just humans but of any form of life. As I struggle with this issue of finding compassion I feel I have no choice but to walk this path. For now I know too much of how the energy I send from my anger ends up feeding the states of consciousness in the world that I cannot tolerate.

This does not mean that I now say that abusive behavior is okay. No that is not true. But it does mean that I work with my energy so that I am not feeding more abusive and violent behavior in the world. I do this by finding compassion for what creates violent and disrespectful behavior. I do this by projecting divinity onto people I do not like with the knowledge that this creates a collective change on the planet. I do this by recognizing the state of oneness that all spiritual teachers for thousands of years have been speaking about. We are all part of one web of life and we are all connected to this web.

As we move into the winter months reflect on what you are projecting onto others. Take some time to consider whether you are feeding the heart of love and unity or the heart of hate and separation. Start to explore practices that can help you heal these states of separation.

You can work with the material in Medicine for the Earth. I hope what I wrote inspires you in some way. And of course you can explore other traditions that teach about compassion practice.

If we want to see an end to abuse and violence we must look at the places inside of ourselves that hold these states. And we must release them. And we must look at how we can be a positive force with our children and within our communities to create change. This means finding ways to educate people and raise their state of consciousness.

Recently I merged with Isis and brought her through to speak to one of my groups. She talked about when we say we are willing to be a bridge between the spiritual realms and our communities we have to work on creating stronger connections.

She asked us to think about a physical bridge. If the bridge is missing the material it is made of at any part of the bridge people, cars, trains, etc. will fall through. She said all the connections must be strong.

If we think of ourselves of being a bridge to different levels we must look at how strong our connections are with the spiritual realm. I know many of us move back and forth in trusting our spirits and not trusting the information we are getting in the spiritual realms. We move back and forth between trusting ourselves and not trusting ourselves.

Everytime we move into a place of doubt our bridge collapses.

I started to think about this and also the word connection. Personally I think we start to lose the strength of our connection as we begin to feel alone in the world. I think the feelings of being alone are a common state we all experience. When we feel alone we are no longer connected.

I am not talking about being physically alone. When I use the word “alone” I am speaking of the feelings of loneliness.

As we continue to learn how to become stronger with our spiritual practice we must learn how to recognize when we start feeling alone, isolated, insecure, left out and work through this state. The truth is none of us are alone and we are always connected to the divine and to a state of oneness.

At this time on the planet we need to stop questioning our connections to the web of life, to others, and to ourselves. When we stop questioning our connection to the spiritual realms we grow stronger in our spiritual work and can truly be a bridge and bring through spiritual energies into our world.

And as we do this the separation between the spiritual and ordinary realms collapses and we go back to how in ancient times these worlds were one. As we allow the spiritual to dance through our ordinary lives healing happens for ourselves and for the planet.

So do the work you need to do during this time of winter to really strengthen your connections. This takes intention, concentration, focus, staying in a place of love for ourselves as we work through our feelings of being separate. We must remember in reality there is a web of life we are in union with, and use our imaginations to help us to stretch into remembering our connection with the spiritual world is more real than we imagine to be possible. This will all bring about the harmony in the world we are seeking.

I received a letter from a friend of mine letting me know that I quoted the Scriptures backward in the November Transmutation News. So I wanted to give you the true quote:

“Scriptures teaches the importance of being of the world but not in the world.” What Jesus taught was to be IN the world but not OF the world. Thank you Karen for correcting me on this!

A few months ago I had the honor to read and endorse the book Grandmothers Council the World written by Carol Schaefer and published by Shambhala.

Thirteen remarkable indigenous Grandmothers from around the world, keepers of their tribes’ teachings from original times gathered together in mid-October 2004.

The wise women, curanderos, shamans, and healers of their tribe brought to the council new visions and prophecies for humanity as well as their tribes’ rich and varied sources of wisdom, and each tribe’s unique and secret teachings for living within the Divine Order of things.

I was very moved by reading the personal stories of these women. And I was inspired by the information they shared. And of course I felt they provide a wonderful example for all of us as these women from different spiritual traditions gathered together as a community in behalf of the planet.

The book can be found or ordered through your local bookstore and you can order it on Amazon.com or Barnes&Noble.com.

For the winter solstice, a time of deepening into the truth of who we are, reflect on the strength of your connection to the spiritual work you are involved with. If you work with others in a group share with each other your fears, your insecurities about your work knowing that the support and love of others is a great way to honor where you are at and keep you moving on your path.

If you work alone use this day to reflect on your spiritual work and do some writing or painting to express where you are.

Whether you work alone or in a group none of us is isolated. Allow yourself to feel your connection with a world community who is working with you. And honor all who are working in this way.

Take some time to honor the earth and all of life and how precious life is. Be in a place of deep love and appreciation for all you do have and for your experiences even if they have been challenging as all life experiences stimulate growth and movement.

The full moon is December 4. Let’s continue to connect with each other and from a state of oneness and divinity let’s continue to weave a beautiful web of light within and throughout our great earth.

Happy Winter Solstice!!!

 To begin the New Year in January we will look at expressing beauty.

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Transmutation News – June 2006

As I travel around and have conversations with people in different spiritual communities I find that there are differing opinions about the times we live in.

There are those who truly believe that the end of the world is coming and that the imbalances are too far along to be remedied. Then there are those who truly believe that all can be changed as we imagine the world we want to create.

I find myself living in the middle of these two beliefs. I do believe that the world as we know it is dying. I do not see this death as an end but as a transition from one way of life to another.

In spiritual traditions death is not an end, but a rite of passage and a transition. During our lifetime we go through many little deaths before making our final transition out of our body.

We can look to nature for metaphors and see the transition as a snake shedding her skin, a butterfly coming out of his cocoon, the seed of a new plant bursting forth from the ground. All of these are transitions that take a letting go of the old and bursting forth into new life.

I do believe that we are entering a time where we must continue to use our imaginations to create the world and the state of consciousness we want to live in. And we must also realize that there will be a transitional state between where we are now and where we are going.

How long and stressful this transition might be is directly proportioned to how asleep people are and how loud “the alarm clock” must get to wake people up.

The more we do our spiritual practice and raise our frequency we can all keep weaving a new fabric of reality with beautiful colors and textures which include a great deal of joy and grace during these changing times.

In the outer world this is an incredibly busy time of traveling and teaching for me. But when I go inside myself right now there is a deep quiet and a need to remain quiet. It feels to me like there are different frequencies we can choose to ride right now. We can choose to raise our frequency and ride a different wave of energy. It takes going within to change our choices and to shift our energy.

One way to do this is to take some time for reflection.

This month please continue to connect with the heartbeat of the earth as I suggested last month. Keep working on merging with the new frequencies that are associated with the change in consciousness being birthed into our world.

Re look at your work with the formula for transmutation and creation: love + union + intention + harmony + focus + concentration + imagination.

How strong is your ability to set an intention, concentrate, and stay focused on your work right now? Reflect on this question and meditate on any daily spiritual work you need to do to strengthen these spiritual muscles.

Do you really experience yourself being in a state of union with the divine and the web of life? Reflect on this. How can you bring more light through in your daily life?

Can you hold the energies of love and harmony within while we live in these times of transition? Reflect on whether you are really creating a foundation of love and harmony in the collective right now.

Are you staying strong in your powers of imagining and visioning a good dream for the earth and all of life? Reflect on this. How can you deepen your visioning work?

It is so important to keep reflecting on the spiritual work you are doing. For this work does make a difference. But it is important to keep deepening the spiritual states of consciousness you hold throughout the day. This is what continues to raise our frequency and create the changes we all long for in our lives.

I wanted to let you know that I am scheduled to lecture at the United Nations the end of July on Medicine for the Earth. My goal is to bring through the importance of bridging spiritual work into all the work that is being done to help the environment and human rights as well as the rights of all of living beings.

I hope you will keep a good thought. I will let you know more information as I have it and will give you more details on the July Transmutation News.

And again I wanted to remind everyone of the conference I will be part of in July put on by the Society of Shamanic Practitioners. I wrote about this last month, so you can look at the write up on the Transmutation News May 2006.

The full moon is June 11. Let us keep weaving a brilliant web of light within and throughout the earth.

Remember that we are birthing into being a beautiful world for all of life with every thought and every breath we take. Hold this precious web of life in your heart in every one of your waking moments.

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Transmutation News – March 2006

I think that most of you who have been reading the Transmutation News have been engaged in spiritual practices for quite a long time now. You have probably read numerous books, attended a lot of workshops, and listened to many lectures.

The world is changing at a rapid pace. And it is important for all of us to find ways to put into action all that we have been learning. And of course over the years of writing the Transmutation News I have been giving you ideas of how you might do this.

As the stresses in our lives continue to increase I am just not sure how seriously we are watching the signs and following the energy of what is being manifested for all of life. The changes we are seeing are showing us just how disharmonious the collective is.

I think that we get caught up in how overwhelming everything seems. So it is human nature to move into a place of passivity and start to believe that either the situation is hopeless or “someone” will figure out how to fix things. And we all know that this is just not going to happen.

I still maintain that it is the simple spiritual practices that we bring into our lives that can change the collective. So I want to encourage putting what you have been learning into action and at the same time keep it simple.

The last few months I have been encouraging you to find your way back home to yourself and journey within to find your light, spirit, power, and center. It is so important in the coming times to continue this practice. This is where your strength and inner guidance comes from.

This month I would like you to add to the practices you are doing by looking at how you can live your life with more intention.

In January a friend came to Santa Fe and taught me spinning on a spinning wheel. To my surprise I immediately took to the practice of spinning. And the practice that I have brought into my life is to spin fiber while keeping a certain intention. I might choose a fiber and while I spin I focus on love, unity, light, and oneness going into the yarn. Or I might spin healing energies into fiber I am spinning to help out a friend. I also spin yarn in honor of the elements, the hidden folk, the ancestors, and for all of life.

I love to spin. And you are probably familiar with different stories of how spinning was how women went into altered states and received visions. I wish I could spin for hours a day. And I find that life pulls me out and I have to settle at this point anyway for about an hour a day.

But an hour a day of doing something with great intention, focus, and staying in a place of prayer does create great change in the collective. As you bring intention into simple acts and practices that you do throughout the day you break down the veils of illusion and open the veils between the imaginal realms and physical realms. You end up working in harmony and from a place of love and joy. This creates enormous healing in the world.

Modern technology is wonderful, and it also has taken us off course. Most of us no longer eat food that was prepared with the intention of love. People who are working under substandard conditions make a lot of our clothes. You can only imagine the lack of love going into the clothes and fabrics that we wear against our skin. And the list goes on.

This month to add to the spiritual practices that you already do make a commitment to do one task during your day with intention. If you are really busy keep it simple so that you do not feel overwhelmed. Cook one meal with maintaining your full intention and attention to putting love into what you make. Take just a moment to remember where this food came from and the elements and life that gift you with this nurturance.

If you are into a craft such as sewing, knitting, crocheting, carving, painting, sculpting, or writing create something small that carries the intention of love into the collective. Sing or dance sending love out into the world.

Use your imagination and do one task everyday that carries the intention of love and notice if you feel a difference. I find that I experience a lot more peace and joy in my life as I live with intention.

Every minute you live your life with intention changes the web of life. Think of a ship that has gone off course. We need to work in the invisible realms to change the course remembering that everything manifests in the spiritual before manifesting in the physical. Work energetically and with intention. And if we all engage in a life with intention the collective will shift and so will our world.

The spring equinox is March 20. When we think of the energy of spring we think of new birth and creation. Let us put our creative energies together to honor the new birth of life coming into the world. And on the spring equinox let us all together perform every task during our day with carrying the intention of love into the collective in celebration of our lives and for all of life.

There is a wonderful woman I have been in frequent communication with around the Medicine for the Earth work. She recently sent me an article that comes out of Yes! (the Spring 2003 issue of Our Planet, Our Selves). In this issue there was an article written by Francesca Lyman titled “Restoring Nature, Restoring Yourself”.

In the article she talked describes a man by the name of John Beal who was broken by war healed himself by physically cleaning out the garbage in a stream by his house. John Beal was recovering from bullet wounds, was haunted by flashbacks, suffered from PTSD, had gone through three heart attacks, and had been in a serious motorcycle accident.

Instead of moving into a place of despair he literally started to pull out garbage. When he yanked a big refrigerator out of the stream he was not hurt by the activity. Instead he found himself feeling better.

He has directed his energies to cleaning up and restoring this polluted stream flowing out of Seattle’s industrial south end. He moved on to restoring the entire watershed of which it is part of.

The Dunwamish River and its estuaries had been written off as a lost cause. And due to John’s efforts restored them to health.

Beal has recruited hundreds of crews to clean up and replant the streams.

His efforts have been hugely successful and there is one story about his work on the Hamm Creek. Within days of a huge effort to daylight and replant the area little salmonids began appearing. What was once a culvert dripping with waste is now a beautifully recontoured and replanted stream brimming with beaver, salmon and other fish.

Not only has his efforts been healing to nature but the people who engaged in his projects also benefited by the work. He describes dozens of cases of people disabled physically or psychologically helped from the exercise and the feeling of accomplishment.

John talks about a young man who had been in a wheelchair for eight years. He came out to help weed and plant. After two years he was almost walking.

John says that no matter how stressed, angry, depressed or troubled they are, whether it’s a jail crew sent to clean up litter for the day or a class of disabled students, they seem to find pleasure from the work.

This is one example of how bringing intention to what you do heals nature and all the people engaged in the activity. I hope this story inspires you to gather a community of people together to work in your locale.

Francesca Lyman, the author the article, writes the Your Environment column for MSNBC online. She was recently awarded the Society of Environmental Journalists’ first prize for online reportage.

For those of you looking for a copy of the article it was published by the Positive Futures Network, PO Box 10818, Bainbridge Island, Washington 98110-0818.


Here is a summary of practices that would be great to continue working with throughout the day. Keep your focus when you can with the understanding that you will deepen the practices the more you continue working with them.

Keep transmuting and transforming the energy behind your problematic thoughts, emotions, attitudes, and belief systems. In this way you continue to send the energy of love and light into the collective.

Keep watching the words you use. Words are magic and have great power. Be aware of the vibration you send out into the universe and what will manifest from that vibration.

Continue to work with the projections as I have written about in the Transmutation News December 2005.

As much as possible live your life and perform daily tasks with the intention of putting love into what you do.

Keep up your practice of transfiguration so you embrace your light and divinity. This is healing for yourself and for the world.

Get out into nature and connect! This is healing for both you and the planet.

The full moon is March 14. Let us continue to weave a web of light, divinity, and love within and through the earth. The spiritual work we do with the web of life and the web of light ripples throughout the planet healing the collective as it moves. This work does make a difference!

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Transmutation News – February 2006

I had a wonderful year in 2005. Yes, there were also many challenges, but that is all part of life. Sometimes in the river of life the waters are smooth and sometimes we find ourselves in the rapids. The key is not to get stuck in the tough places but keep moving.

I led many wonderful gatherings and ceremonies during the year. I was really touched by the groups I worked with. And the bottom line is that I was always around a lot of people.

So this winter I really made a choice to be more of a hermit and go within as I suggested you do last month. And it has been wonderful to feel myself coming home to myself again.

For the outer world is changing in ways that my egoic self has no control over. The climate is changing quite rapidly. Where I live we are in a severe drought and all the storms are coming through as wind. The wind is definitely bringing messages of changes ahead. Fire season where I live usually starts in May or June. This year it started in January.

If I look to the outer world for peace and security there is none to be found. To find peace I must find it within. Security lies within. It is so important with all the changes around us to journey within and find our internal center and strength so that we can gracefully move through the territories of the river of life even during turbulent times.

Continue to do the work that I suggested last month of finding times in the day where you can disconnect from the outer world and take some time out to fully go within.

Find time to go out in nature and be in deep love and appreciation for this glorious earth garden we live in. And then also find the same beauty within. The beauty of the night sky is within. The beauty of the forests, oceans, rivers, deserts, etc. is all within us.

It is important to really nurture our inner landscapes where all the beauty of the outer world is truly experienced within each of us. As you appreciate the beauty of your inner world you will notice a positive effect in your own sense of physical and emotional well being.

In December I wrote about projecting light and peace into the world. The more you can truly experience these states within the more powerful your projections will be.

If I am afraid of how my trees where I am living are doing in the drought I am limited in how much light I can project onto them. If I can experience deep states of love, light, peace, and joy within I can project those states onto the land.

Again the key to this work is remembering that everything outside is also within. And where we have power to create change is to work on our inner landscapes. We can nurture the inner states of beauty, love, peace, harmony, unity, and light. We can transmute the energy behind our negative thoughts and emotions which stems from living in the egoic state of separation.

Our egos cannot change or control the world right now. Where we have the power to create change is in nurturing our own inner garden.

There are so many distractions that pull us out of our inner work. This month reflect on what activities you engage in that end up distracting you from truly coming back home to yourself. Going to workshops and reading can be inspiring. These activities can also be just another trap if you are looking for “entertainment” or if you are seeking power from a teacher or from methods. True power lies within.

If you are truly on a spiritual path you will keep finding that all roads and paths lead you within. Allow yourself to be inspired by others to go within. Don’t get trapped in paths that keep you from experiencing your inner home, security, power, strength, beauty, love, and light.


The full moon is February 13. Let us all gather our inner light together and continue to weave the web of light of oneness within and throughout the planet.

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Transmutation News – January 2006

I wish you a New Year filled with great growth, wonder, and the appreciation for the beauty in all things.

I do believe that this will be a year of deep inner growth for all of us.

As many proverbs have said over time constant change is part of life. It does seem that changes are coming faster and our ability to adapt to change needs to be swift.

Part of adapting to change means being open to unlimited possibilities. We must continue to look at our limiting beliefs and also to be willing to change our way of thinking over time.

I am always looking for page turning novels for when I am on long airplane flights. One of my favorite writers is Michael Crichton. He is a brilliant man, an incredible writer, and he uses his fame to spread important political and environmental messages.

For a recent trip I picked up his new novel A State of Fear. I thought the story was going to be a thriller about global warming. It is a thriller about global warming, but with a twist. He researched his statements, used footnotes, and includes an extensive bibliography.

The bottom line that he communicates is yes we are seeing climate changes. But the actual proof for whether or not these changes are due to global warming is in question. He shows the problems in research that occurs when political and environmental groups have an agenda and how we can easily be misled.

He does not say that climate changes are or are not due to global warming. He just raises interesting questions about the research on this subject.

The reason I am bringing this up is my mind had already attached the label of global warming for the changes we are now seeing on the planet. In reading this book I found myself having to rethink my putting the world situation in “a box” and to look at how vulnerable I am to the media.

I had to stretch my mental constructs and I feel this is really healthy for the times we live in. I had to remind myself that the work I have been sharing with Medicine for the Earth goes beyond all labels.

We need to continue to look at how our outer environment is a reflection of our inner states of consciousness. We need to move deeply into a state of honor for nature and all of life. And we need to remember that everything is connected to a web of life and that all my thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs effects the web. There is no separation only connection and unity.

I remembered once again that I need to go beyond labels and just do my work. My work is being not doing. Yes, I have a responsibility to take action in the world that reflects a state of consciousness that embraces oneness, light, and love. But if I have not become those states my actions have a limited effect on the web of life.

With our work we are trying to balance out the masculine and feminine energies. In working with the feminine we create change through being.

It is so easy to get lost in the illusions created by the outer world. The only way to move though these illusions is to go within and sit in your inner truth. This means taking some time “to stop the world” and go within.

During this month take some time “to be” instead of “to do”. Allow yourself to drop into a deep state that truly effects the entire web of life.

To start just take a few minutes a day. Find a quiet place to sit. Begin by taking some deep breaths into your heart allowing yourself to connect with your own heart and inner being. Visualize and experience yourself cutting your ties with the outer world for a brief time. Experience yourself actually cutting all cords that tie you to the world and others.

Keep breathing and experience yourself going within. It is okay to stop the world and take a brief time out. After a few minutes you should start to feel your center.

Continue to do this everyday and notice how you start to experience your own inner wisdom coming through as well as experiencing your own inner light shining through you.

The outer world will always present traps that create illusions that imprison us as well as mislead us from the truth. It is only through going within and tapping into your own intuition, your own inner knowing that will lead you on the path of truth.

As we begin a new year let’s remember the work that is so important for all of us to be doing that contributes to the state of being which truly nurtures the web of life.

It is crucial that we keep up our personal work of looking at the energy we are sending out into the world. We want to make sure that the energy behind our thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes are transmuted to an energy of love and light. You must keep asking the question, “What energy did I just send?” “Who did I send that energy to?”

We must continue to do our work to raise consciousness so that we are truly weaving a web of light within and throughout the earth. This work takes raising our awareness in our moment to moment way of living.

It is important that we continue to watch what we are projecting onto others and the world as I described in the December Transmutation News. We want to project divine perfection onto all of life.

And this month I would like us to focus our attention on creating strong local communities so that we have the support needed to thrive in the coming times.

In 2005 many challenges occurred on a large scale all over the world. I have different Teacher Trainings and I am on the yahoo groups for the different circles I am leading. And this discussion of how local communities are supporting each other has become part of our communications together.

In the United States we had Hurricane Katrina that impacted New Orleans. We had Hurricane Ivan and Hurricane Wilma impacting Florida.

The effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans and Hurricane Wilma on Florida are long lasting. And one of the lessons learned is that the US government will not be there to help with such natural occurrences.

In speaking to students and friends who live in New Orleans and Florida it is real clear that local communities coming together to support each other and also rebuild replaced any support from government organizations.

Out of the discussion of local community support a student of mine in Florida who is also a brilliant teacher and practitioner shared the following story. She shared a story that came from Dr. Sorah Dibitsky and it is a bit similar to the story I shared last year about the woman from Cambodia.

Here is the story as told by Dr. Sorah Dibitsky who is the author of A Chorus to Wisdom: Notes on Spiritual Living. Her website is www.drsorah.com

South Florida was hit with a great cleanser in the form of Wilma. Wilma taught my husband and I that Love is the most important thing in the whole universe. Keeping Love in awareness became a moment by moment conscious focus. I’m sure many of us experienced many frightening moments during the storm.

Right after the storm, one of my friends phoned and said that she had an odyssey. Since speaking with her, I’ve heard many odyssey stories. An odyssey is a perilous journey. I’m sure we all have perilous tales we could tell about the past week. But, I’m sure, too, there are also many miracles we could share. There were times during the “week-without-power” we just had, that I thought I was reliving the Maccabee saga: our resources lasted longer than we expected. Our propane stove worked fine for five days without running out of propane; so did our propane lantern. Our fridge stayed cold for almost four days; our radio ran constantly on the original set of batteries. Our candles lasted, as did our flashlight batteries. And more miracles: we met our neighbors who were really, really, really, really, really helpful.

A Course in Miracles says “God is but love, and so am I!” I watched love in action this past week as I kept allowing Love to come through me and to fill me and to heal the fear.


While I was at my Teacher Training in Switzerland there were other stories about the need for local communities to stand strong together. Right now there is a need to speak about the incredible injustice towards refugees in German speaking Europe.

One student in Austria was telling stories about the mistreatment towards people of African descent in Austria and the need to bring public awareness to this.

During my workshop one student had a phone call from her husband about a terrible event with her neighbors. The police broke down the door in the middle of the night. The husband was separated from his wife and children and their cell phones were taken away from each other so they could not be in contact.

After a few days the media did find out about this and came to do a story. The government is looking into this but no decision had been made at the time of this writing.

My group and their own local community have sent a tremendous amount of support to this family. The father has said that his family throughout their entire life has never felt as much support and compassion as in this present moment. It gives them hope and strength in this very difficult time.

The story of this family is one of many. There is too little publicity, support, and justice in these matters. And it will be up to local communities to change the injustice that is occurring.

My student who is grateful to the support of our circle shared the following Advent’s tale that comes from an old storybook.


The Four Candles

The four candles were shining their light on the wreath. There was silence. It was so silent you could hear the candles speak.

The first candle sighed and said: My name is PEACE. My light shines, but mankind does not have peace, they do not want me. The candle’s light got weaker and weaker and finally faded away.

The second candle was flickering and said: My name is FAITH. Yet I am superfluous. People do not want to know about God. There is no reason for me to burn on. A rush of air went through the room and extinguished the candle.

Very quietly and full of sorrow the third candle started speaking: My name is LOVE. I have no more power to burn on. People put me aside. They focus on themselves and have no more compassion for all beings on earth. Also this candle died.

A child came into the room. Seeing the four candles it cried out: You should burn and shine your light into the world! It almost started weeping. Then the fourth candle raised its voice: Don’t be afraid. As long as I burn, we can light all the other candles again. My name is HOPE.

The child took the candle and lit all the others as well.


This month find a way to create a gathering with some of your neighbors. Get to know them. We don’t have to come together in community only in tragedy. Learn about your neighbors. They are people who also want to thrive just like you. This begins a process of creating loving and supportive communities. And this process brings change itself.

Find the vocabulary that you can use within your local community to share with them creating a human web of light. You can click on Creating A Human Web of Light on this site to see the words I used and change them in ways that can touch the heart of each person.

This is a way to further the work I have written about before. I have shared with you that I strongly believe that generations in the future will read stories of how communities of people gathered together to change the world.


A few months ago I wrote about a wonderful book I had read titled The Flight of the Goose. This book was written by Lesley Thomas and is published by Far Eastern Press (www.fareasternpress.com).

This book is beautifully written and I really loved it. An Inupiaq elder who grew up on the Bering Strait reviewed the book. I am sharing this review with you as I feel this elder has some potent words to share that go beyond the book.


Review of Flight of the Goose by Lesley Thomas
— Fred Bigjim, Alaskan Inupiaq author


Flight of the Goose: A Story of the Far North is a novel about loss and loneliness, alienation and fear, acceptance and forgiveness, natural and supernatural. Lesley Thomas has carefully crafted a complex story set in Alaska at a time of rapid change, competing economic and social interests, and national crisis.

Her characters seem drawn from life. Both they and the circumstances in which they find themselves are believable, memorable, tragic, and hopeful. Although the novel is set in a time and place where inevitable conflicts must arise from clashes of cultures, communities, and beliefs, and from change itself, the real depth of Thomas’ work derives from the way she examines conflicts within individuals themselves. To an even greater extent, she illuminates how we are all responsible, through our own choices and actions, for much of the tragedy and alienation that afflicts all of us, regardless of our culture, country, or religion.

One of the most interesting and thought-provoking aspects of Flight of the Goose is the portrayal of the clash of beliefs in the Arctic. We see there is little basis in the common idea that Christianity is a “white man’s” religion, for none of the non-Native characters in the novel are practicing, nor even nominal, Christians. Instead, to find meaning in their lives, the bird man places his faith in scientific rationalism, the teachers in education and humanism, and the hunters in hedonism. Among the Native peoples, too, there are clashes of belief. Some families are Christian, some are not. Even those in the novel who are drawn to shamanism demonstrate an understanding of Jesus that is richer than that shown by any of the non-Native characters. We begin to realize that the real conflicts arise from individual choices related to exploitation, greed, selfishness, misunderstandings of others — all of which have less to do with the precepts of any particular religion than with true practice of the precepts of these. Either way, we learn how dangerous it can be to delve into the supernatural carelessly, without understanding and preparation.

To a great extent, we watch tragedy unfold before us, brought about less by a clash of “great religions” than by refusal by all individuals involved to practice the moral precepts, common to these, to do good to one another. Instead, we find rejection of others, in both Native and non-Native settings, and as a result, alienation, confusion, and misunderstandings on multiple levels.These lead ultimately to loss of innocence, loss of culture, loss of family, loss of belief, loss of land, loss of life.

Yet, we are not left hopeless. Tragedy has not meant total destruction. This is also a novel about triumph over despair; maturity gained through pain; forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration made possible through acts of the will.

Flight of the Goose is a remarkable achievement. Its memorable characters, believable setting, and complex treatment of problems that face us all in a world of unavoidable change and contact, will haunt the reader long after the covers have been closed.

I ask that we join together in deep appreciation and thanks for Bob Edgar, the webmaster of this site and to all who volunteer their time to translate the Transmutation News.

The Transmutation News is now in German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Slovakian, and Dutch. All who do the translation do it out of love for the work and receive no compensation for their time. We do pray that they all receive compensation on many other levels.

And we give thanks to Eva Ruprechtsberger who has created a web and links to read the Transmutation News in other languages.


The full moon is January 14. Let’s strengthen our focus on gathering together as a world community to weave a web of light that goes within and around the earth. And let’s bring light to the entire web of life.

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Transmutation News – October 2005

 I have no doubt that humankind is here to caretake this great earth. Unfortunately we do not know how to caretake each other, the earth, or ourselves. We have been and are right now experiencing the consequences of this.

We live in a world out of balance and the environment is mirroring back to us how out of balance we are. We are experiencing environmental changes at an exponential rate. In December there was the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia.  As I was away during this time I did not get a chance to write about it until the February Transmutation News. In February I wrote about spiritual practices for us to work with during times of disaster where there is a pain and suffering for all of life.

 Once again I wrote the September Transmutation News before hurricane Katrina had devastating effects on all of life in the U.S. And the same spiritual practices apply. There were also the biggest floods in recorded history in Europe and fires in Portugal.

  You might look at the Transmutation News February 2005 for a summary of spiritual practices during challenging times.

 It is so important not to blame the elements for our troubles. Earth, air, water, and fire are reflecting back to us our own inner state of consciousness as well as our actions toward the earth.

 It has been known that by humankind making a conscious decision to destroy the wetlands in New Orleans that problems could occur with a hurricane. But yet the thinking and actions in destroying wetlands was very short sighted. Some of the destruction that occurred in Thailand was also from humans destroying the wetlands.

 We have made very shortsighted decisions based on the belief that we are disconnected from nature. We have made choices to change landscapes in a way that don’t serve the viewpoint that future generations will be still living on the earth.

 We need to look at how we can caretake the earth so that we are not just destroying and taking what we want for the present time. And this is not news for any of you.

 I still believe that one of the keys is what I wrote about in the Transmutation News in September. We must journey within to find our internal strength and wisdom that can and will guide us in the coming times.

 After seeing the pictures of New Orleans, Mississippi, and Alabama I decided to take some time to close my eyes and be in silence. I found myself connecting with the web of light that we have been weaving for the last few years. There are other spiritual groups that have also been working with weaving a web of light throughout the planet.

 In a vision I witnessed thousands of people around the world from all spiritual traditions as sparks of light weaving this great web. And I observed that as the outer world is being destroyed a bridge is being built for inner consciousness to grow.

 We can choose an inner road without so much destruction. It is a choice we all have to make right now.

 Caretaking and being taken care of is an equal relationship. When giving and receiving are in balance there is harmony.

 So where do we start? A good place to begin is to throughout each day take time to be grateful for the land you live on, the food you eat, the water you drink and have to wash in, and the energy which comes from the sun. When we are grateful we begin to move into a state of cooperation which is key to healing the environment we live in.

 As you go out into your daily life – the market, the bank, etc. make comments to others about what you are grateful for. For example at the check out counter you might say to someone “Aren’t we lucky to live in such a beautiful place?”

 Plant “gratefulness seeds” everywhere you go with the knowing this will stimulate a place of appreciation in others. This is powerful earth medicine and is something we all can do.

 For years I have been telling people to watch the signs of what is to come. And the signs have showed us what is coming to pass now. Many have just not been paying attention. But the signs have all been pointing to the environmental challenges we are now facing.

 We are living in a time of many paradoxes. On one level we are part of an evolving organism and need to learn how to surrender to some of the changes ahead. On another level we are creative beings who also have the opportunity to create changes. Living with this dance can be quite challenging.

 The future is created from the present. Be an inspiration to others and spread the power of appreciation. As people drop into the energy and power of appreciation their behavior changes. By just this one simple act we can change the course of what’s to come.

 And please continue to see, hear, feel, smell, and taste a world filled with love, respect for the environment and all of life, harmony, and peace. This is important work. We are dreaming the world into being with each thought.

Recently a student of mine shared an inspiring story. She had this experience years ago and now wishes she had more information. But you will get the point and also be inspired by it.

She was standing on line in a Ladies Room. As the lines can be very long in the United States one can have a long time for conversations.

The woman she was standing next to was from Cambodia and they struck up a conversation. The woman said that she came from a prominent family in Cambodia. During a change in administration her father was assassinated. After her father’s death her family went into hiding for they were all also in danger.

They had come from affluence and now they had no money, no place to go, and nothing to eat. They were really hungry and they came upon some very dirty rice in a place that no rice should have been. They did not see dirty rice, they only saw food and they ate it. And no one became ill.

They were also very thirsty and they had no water to drink. They came upon a river where there were dead bodies floating in it. They were very thirsty so they did not see dead bodies. They only saw water and as they were thirsty they drank the water from the river. As they only saw water no one became ill in any way from drinking what we would call polluted water.

She talked about this not from a place of please pity me or from a place of bitterness. She spoke from a true place of gratitude that when her family was in need of food and water they found it and were nourished by it.

Then the woman left leaving my student in a deep place of wonder. She then took a Healing with Spiritual Light workshop with me. And in the workshop I teach people to perceive pure light as we drink and bathe in water, as we take in our food, as we breathe air, and as we absorb the energy from the sun. If you believe you are eating, drinking, and breathing in toxic substances you are. And if you perceive everything you take in as light from a source of abundance and love then you are being nourished by what you absorb into your body.

This family in hiding in Cambodia learned this out of pure need of survival. And they did it and are an inspiration for us all.

This month make sure you practice absorbing light from the abundance of all we have been given for our nurturance on all levels.

You might need to write a note somewhere to remind you:

Absorb the light from the food I eat, the water I drink, the air I breathe, and from the rays of the sun.

Add this to your practice of transfiguration experiencing the light within. You might write the phrase “I am radiance” and leave it in places where you will see it often.

If you combine these practices with intention, concentration, and focus you should feel a major difference in your emotional, physical, and spiritual sense of well being.

When you live these practices you not only heal yourself but you become a guiding light for those who have lost their way.

The full moon is Oct. 17. Let us continue to truly focus and concentrate on transfiguring into our true nature, which is spiritual light. And in that state let’s together join together to weave a web of light within and through the earth.

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Transmutation News – August 2005

There have been a series of planned terrorist attacks in London since our last Transmutation News. And I know our prayers and thoughts have been with all who were hurt and impacted by the attacks. I also know there are daily terrorist attacks on many people around the world that don’t make the news. For example to read what is happening in the Sudan is heart breaking.

As long as we see ourselves as separate from each other we forget that what we do to each other we do to ourselves. And as long as there is so much inequality there will be separation and hate. As long as there is fundamentalism around the world there will be separate camps and religious wars.

And as long as we do not honor our connection with nature the elements will keep coming through as hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, and earthquakes to remind us how out of balance we are.

So what can we do? We can continue our spiritual work. We can find peace within. We can go inside and get very still. We keep praying and connecting to the web of life and doing our work to experience harmony within no matter what is going on around us.

This is not an easy task. And I will summarize some of the work that will be helpful to each of us as well as the planet later on. I would like to address a few other issues first.

A few years ago I had begun visioning leading some teacher trainings both in Medicine for the Earth and in Shamanic Journeying and Healing Methods. In a dream I had been given the word “alliance”. I saw myself setting up an alliance of teachers who would work in cooperation and without a hierarchical structure.

I really feel as if this vision is coming to fruition. There are many Medicine for the Earth teachers doing their work in the world. I have four on-going teacher trainings in shamanism two in Santa Fe, one in New York, and one in Europe.

It has been really great for me to watch how the teachers are communicating and problem solving with each other, as well as networking together. I am not involved as an authority figure, but rather when an issue comes up in a workshop they consult with each other. To read about the solutions being shared with each other gives me great hope.

For it is truly time for us to work in the spirit of cooperation and as a community.

A couple of years ago I also became involved in The Society for Shamanic Practitioners. This society has a board of very brilliant teachers. In the last conference that was held in Asilomar in June it was clear that the members want more input so that they can work together as a community instead of looking to the board. In this way they want to network together and problem-solve together what is happening in their own shamanic healing practices. (For information on the SSP please visit www.shamansociety.org)

I feel as a spiritual community we are leading the way in making a great shift into the phrase I have been using for years: “A community of people have gathered together to change the world.” It is a very exciting time and much needed. For it is time for each and every one of us to step into our power and share our brilliance. There are no more leaders for us to turn to. The time for one hero or heroine to create change is truly over. As we work together in coherence sharing our gifts in symphony we will be rewarded with rebuilding a new way of life that supports all life on earth.

And at the same time I also feel we have to go deeper to really bring forth what is possible and to dream a new dream.

I have received a lot of feedback about what I wrote in my June Transmutation News about my wonderings about shamanic healing, psychotherapy, and trauma.

The shamanic community was very grateful for what I shared as those who are really out there doing the work feel the same. On the other hand I certainly ruffled some feathers from the therapeutic community. So I thought I would stir the pot a bit more. I always think it is good to stir the pot.

I do not want to invalidate the wonderful healing work that practitioners are doing. I am just asking practitioners to keep looking at how to take their work deeper.

I have been watching the soul of shamanism becoming lost as it is being integrated into so many other systems. The power of the healing work is becoming diluted. Even what the practice of shamanism is has changed to meet how people are marketing themselves. The word shamanism is put onto systems that are not shamanic in nature.

We can and are integrating shamanism into other systems. We just don’t want to lose the balance.

Part of the healing is becoming diluted because clients are wanting a quick fix and don’t know how to find the power within to take the healing to a deeper place. This is the life after healing work I keep writing about in my books and teaching about in my training workshops.

But on another level many shamanic practitioners have stopped doing their personal work. Years ago I read an article of different interviews of shamanic practitioners. Some practitioners who performed soul retrievals admitted to not having a personal shamanic practice and only using shamanic methods professionally. This of course is an extreme of what I am saying. I hope there are not many practitioners out there who are working in the same way.

I have really been searching deep about how we have blended shamanic practices in our modern day culture. Part of being on a shamanic path was the sacrifice and the initiations which carved away at the ego so that the shaman really could be “the hollow bone” and bring through the power of the universe.

I know some teach that when the shaman suffers the spirits take pity and offer help. I don’t work in this same way. I believe that all the spirits are here right now waiting for a vessel to work through.

But I do believe that we as “the vessels” have become clogged. Practitioners often don’t take the time to be in solitude and in nature where the deepest shamanic work occurs. There is not much fasting and praying going on in the modern shamanic community. There isn’t the carving away at the ego and being sculpted into a vessel that can really bring through the spirits.

I am writing this three days into a fast. Fasting is part of my spiritual practice. And there is definitely a difference in how the veils between the worlds open through fasting.

A lot of practitioners have gotten caught up in methodology instead of working with the spirits in a unique fashion. The spirits have so much healing to bring and we often don’t let them as we force them to work within our methods and framework.

I have never watched two indigenous shamans work in the same way. But today I watch hundreds of people work with a ritual or method learned from someone else without the deep connection to the unique gifts of the spirits.

When I teach soul retrieval I tell my groups that the best practitioners will be the ones who burn all their notes at the end of the training and find their own way.

A shaman is a person who performs ceremonies. Shamanic journeying is also a ceremony. And this part of the work is being lost. And some of the healing ceremonies lasted hours or maybe days not just for a few minutes. Oftentimes the whole community was present as it was understood that the health and well being of each individual affects the entire community.

As practitioners have huge expenses in the modern day world to survive more and more ceremony is being left out of the work. Often too many clients have to be seen to pay the rent.

Shamans are famous for telling healing stories. They have always known the words and the stories needed to be told to stimulate the imagination of clients for healing to happen.

This is definitely being lost which I can say from the hundreds of people who have not had good experiences working with shamanic practitioners who did not understand the power of words and stories. Words are like seeds. Every time you say a word to another human being you plant a seed which will grow into a plant.

It is important to understand the difference between inspiring a client to heal and keeping him or her stuck. And so many shamanic practitioners do not know the difference. And I find this the saddest part of all.

Every workshop I teach no matter how basic it is in a skill level I talk about the power of word. And also that the spirits communicate in metaphor and poetry. And we all know what happened to the world when the bible was translated literally. Now shamanic practitioners are often making the same error.

A lot of people who come to shamanic workshops are only looking for simple spiritual practices to bring into their own personal life. And that is fine. The people who are drawn because they want to become shamanic practitioners and heal others need to do a lot more personal work than is possible in a classroom. No classroom setting can replace the deep initiation experiences needed to sculpt the practitioner into a powerful healer.

You cannot certify a shamanic practitioner because he or she has taken a course or has taken a class over the internet. Doctors used to be gifted healers and were called to their healing work by a deep calling within. The whole medical profession has changed today. And I see the same thing beginning to happen with shamanic healing.

Shamans are people who see with their hearts not their minds. And the point I was trying to make in June is that too much shamanic work is going on that keeps both the practitioner and the client in his or her mind.

The body knows how to heal. When we can move our energy from our head into our bodies healing takes place. And this has been shown with many different forms of therapy and healing.

Bringing back true ceremonies, working with metaphorical stories, and working with movement is classic shamanism. And I hope the great power of classic shamanism doesn’t get completely lost.

Please do not become complacent with your shamanic work. Please open yourself up to truly be in service. The planet needs people doing “the real work” right now. All life depends on it.

I have been talking to some other shamanic teachers and practitioners about what I just wrote. Most of the ones I have talked to have also been feeling themselves being in a questioning period about their work. And they have all come to similar conclusions. So something is definitely happening in the collective as the energies moving us are requiring us to go to a deeper place.

How do we integrate shamanic practices in a modern day culture without diluting the work so much that we lose the unlimited possibilities of how the work can truly heal others?

We have only begun to explore what can happen as we keep opening new veils between the worlds. If you stop working you get stuck in only one level. I have been shown a deeper level or clairvoyance, clairaudience, and clairsentience that is possible as we keep lifting more veils. And we need to do more than shamanic journeying to get there.

I know many of you reading this website are not shamanic practitioners. But if you are I would like to suggest something to try this month. Take at least one day out of your life to begin to wake up from the ordinary reality trance. Go out into nature, fast for a day, be in silence. Give prayers to the spirits and state that you are opening up to how you can best be in service to the spirits and mother earth. Watch the omens that appear in nature in response to your prayers.

Notice the difference in your state of being when you disconnect from your ordinary reality life. As you do a vision quest in your own way, even if it is short, you begin to slowly remember the path of the shaman. This is just beginning. I do believe to be in true service right now we need to do more praying, more fasting, being out in nature, being in silence, more visioning, and adding more deep ceremonies to our work.

Let’s get back to reviewing some of the spiritual work that will help the planet and all life. As you continue to do your spiritual practices especially transfiguration let’s again focus on concentration. As we share our brilliance in the world it is so important to concentrate and focus on the journey within ourselves to find the abundance of light that feeds us on all levels.

It is very easy to get distracted from our inward journey. The world around us becomes a distraction and the continual looking outside of ourselves for light and solutions is a great distraction.

This month let’s focus our intention on doing our transfiguration practice on journeying very deep within ourselves and experiencing source, divinity, light within. The deeper you can go within yourselves the deeper changes you will experience in yourself and in the world around you.

Notice what keeps you distracted from really going within to do your work. Make a choice to work the muscle needed to journey within. Notice the peace you feel when you truly do your work.

I know how hard it is to keep up spiritual practices. We have been conditioned throughout our lives to live in a particular way. We often make priorities for ourselves that don’t always promote a healthy life style. We are on automatic drive.

We have on some level made a concession to live a life where we survive but we do not thrive. And we often feel we don’t have the time or energy to change this although inside we would love to thrive.

I thought I would write just some simple things to integrate into your day. None of what I am suggesting here takes extra time. It just creates shifts in our awareness as you continue to do what you do.

Remember to breathe. As you engage in conversations with people, as you are at work, as you watch TV, as you do tasks around the house breathe through your heart. Think of an image or feeling of something that is precious to you and place it there. And keep breathing through your heart.

Notice if your energy starts to shift. Notice if this helps you move out of a mental state of consciousness and connects you to your body. This will naturally create healing for you.

As you have a negative thought or feeling ask that the energy behind this thought or feeling be transformed to love and light. Whenever a problematic thought or emotion arises ask yourself the question to where and to whom am I sending this energy? This takes constant awareness to observe where we are sending toxic energy. And it takes just seconds to say I need to feel what I am feeling right now. Please just take the energy and transmute it to love and light. In this way love and light is raining back down on you and on the earth.

Observe the words you use throughout the day. What vibration are you sending into the universe that will manifest on earth? There is psychic warfare going on today just as there are physical wars going on. We must be diligent about the energy we are sending to others and the planet through our thought forms and words.

When you eat remember you are eating light and love. When you drink water you are drinking pure light and love. As you breathe you are breathing light and love. The sun is filling you with healing light and love.

If you do just this one practice it is amazing the difference you will feel. Put a note somewhere that will remind you to do this.

Throughout the day take a minute to see, feel, hear, taste, and smell a healthy life as if it is here now. See yourself living this life, feel what it would feel like in your body to be living a healthy and joyous life, what would the sounds around you be? Let yourself hear people acknowledging you for the incredible changes you have made and the life you now have. Smell the air in the room you are in. Taste the food you would be eating. And experience all of this as fully as you can as it is already here now.

If you only see it as something you want in the future you will keep it from being created now.

And have love for what you want. Passion and love for your creation acts as fuel to make it happen.

You can do this throughout the day. You could do it for one minute when you wake up. Or you can do this if you are waiting on line at the bank or gas station. A potent time to do this is right before you drift off to sleep.

Write down on a piece of paper right now the word radiance. Or I suggest writing down on a piece of paper I am radiance. Put this paper in a place where you will see it throughout the day.

If there is another word you prefer write down that word.

And remember before you go to sleep at night ask for a healing dream. Just hold the intention before you drift off to sleep.

Throughout the day for just one minute close your eyes and see your light shining through your cells and body. You are more than a body, a mind, and your past experiences. You are spiritual light. Take a couple of deep breaths and let that light shine through you. It will heal you as well as those around you.

If you can just do one of the above exercises each day you will notice a significant shift. And they do not take time to do. As you notice your energy and health changing you will be inspired to add a bit more into your daily practice.

Try the different practices once and see which ones are the easiest to integrate into your daily life.

Set an intention for your life. Intention creates action.

And remember just as there are weather patterns in life you will have similar weather blowing through your life. There are days when the sun is up and you feel great. There are times life seems cloudy. And there are also those stormy times. Weather is just weather and it always passes. But also remember just because you are having a bad day doesn’t mean you have to send psychic daggers to others.

Allow yourself to experience whatever your present states are and know that this too shall pass.

If you are looking for a great read I highly suggest Flight of the Goose by Lesley Thomas.  It is an amazing story and I am recommending it to every one I meet. I loved this book!!

 Lesley grew up in rural communities in the Alaskan Arctic, on a fishing boat in Southeast Alaska, and on a small farm on the Puget Sound prior to its development.  Her families of birth and intermarriage are from different cultures. And her interest in shamanism and birds began early. She has also studied arctic ecology.

 Flight of the Goose is an amazing novel combining a love story, with some deep teachings about shamanism in the arctic, the complexities of life of a small village, and deep ecology.

 It is very rich. It was one of those books I simply could not put down. And Lesley Thomas is a brilliant writer. I cannot say enough about this book.

 Flight of the Goose written by Lesley Thomas is published by Far Eastern Press in Seattle, Washington. As it is a small press I thought I would give you the ISBN number to make it easier to order: 0-9678842-1-7. You can order this book through your local bookstore, Amazon, or through Far Eastern Press at fareasternpress.com.

The full moon is August 19. Let’s gather our energies together to continue to weave a web of light within and throughout the earth touching the spirit of every living being and connecting us all.

Let us add to our full moon ceremony. On the full moon fill up a bowl with water. It can be water from your house or from an outside source.

Do a transfiguration ceremony filling your room with light and love. This light and love will of course fill the water. The water will reflect back to you your divine state of consciousness.

Leave this water outside allowing the light of the full moon to infuse it. Then on the following day bring it to a natural source of water where you live. Allow the light and love to fill the waters of the world. This will create healing in our web of light and in the web of life.

Remember if you celebrate life, life will celebrate you. To do this you must find peace within.

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Transmutation News – June 2005

I have the great opportunity to mentor teachers and practitioners of spiritual healing. There is the wonder and awe of the power of sharing teachings and spiritual healing. And of course all the shadow stuff of jealousy and competition comes up. Our work together on the planet is to work through these shadow states of consciousness so that we can embrace the consciousness of love.

I wrote a bit last month about how many of us need to install an update into our DNA code to move out of competition to a place of working as an alliance.

I was journeying/meditating on this issue some more. I met up with Lao-tzu. I was thrilled to have such an amazing teacher talk to me about this issue. His advice was that when one walks down the middle path there is peace and freedom. The energy from other people including jealousy will pull you off of the middle path. This will pull you away from freedom.

He encouraged me to keep cutting the energetic ties with others who pull me off my path. He also encouraged me to keep walking on the path toward the light, peace, and freedom. He encouraged me to teach this way to others.

The work of transmuting the problematic energies we experience as egoic beings is our greatest work. And we have been working on doing this for years. As you continue to do this work visualize, feel, hear, smell, and taste yourself walking on the middle path towards freedom. As you find yourself being pulled off the path by others cut the energetic ties binding you. As you experience being pulled off the path by thinking about the past or future experience yourself shifting your focus to the present.

It is clear to me that the middle path that Lao-tzu is talking about is the path of being in the present moment.

Years ago I wrote that life forms that live on the earth seek out light. Plants compete for light. Humans compete for resources and love which I think are misperceived as light. When we seek to buy objects on an unconscious level we think we are buying light.

Light gives life and light provides the energy for life forms to live.

When we find the light within us all the light that is needed and desired is available to us. We will no longer have to compete for that which we believe is outside of us.

Keep up your practice of absorbing light from the sun, the air you breathe, the water you drink and bathe in, and the food you eat. Keep doing the inner work of transfiguring into light and allow your cells to absorb the light from within nurturing you on every level.

As the earth absorbs light, water, and nutrients it bursts forth with an amazing amount of abundance that creates nutrition for all of life.

The earth gives and gives. There is only abundance. It is like chi. There is no such thing as limited chi in the universe. There is no such thing as limited abundance in the earth. It is the collective energy of fear that creates scarcity.

To receive the gifts of the earth and give back gratefulness and appreciation keeps the cycle going.

Mabel Mckay, who was a Pomo elder, wrote that the trees gave people food and that was one thing that kept the trees going. I believe it is important to get the physical, emotional, and spiritual food from trees and plants and give back to them with love. This keeps the abundance flowing.

Both the summer solstice and the full moon are June 21. Create an appreciation ceremony in nature that others can come to where as a community love and appreciation are given for all that we receive so that we might thrive.

Be flexible about how you perform the ceremony so that you might include others who are not initiated into spiritual work. We can all go outside and be in appreciation for the abundance that we receive from the earth.

And as you do your ceremony of appreciation for the abundance that you are receiving from the earth as well as the sun, the water, and air the energy you share will be magnified by the full moon.

Incorporate weaving a web of light within and around the earth into your ceremony. Again bringing in as many community members as you can. The light within and around the earth connects us all.

Many of you who read The Transmutation News are also students of classic shamanic healing. I recently attended a psychology conference where one of the speaker’s presentations inspired me to share some of my thoughts about performing soul retrievals today.

The presenter’s name is Dr. Bessel Van der Kolk. He is a trauma specialist and is the author of more than a hundred papers on trauma. He directs the Trauma Center in Boston, possibly the largest trauma specialty center in the U.S. He has also written some books on trauma.

He shared with us some research that he was a part of where brain scans were performed on patients who suffered trauma.

What was found is that during a trauma it is the limbic part of the brain that is affected by trauma. During a trauma the right posterior part of the brain lights up. This part of the brain doesn’t have language.

The left anterior part of the brain literally shuts off during trauma. This is the part of the brain that is associated with speech and being able to talk about events.

Other neuroimaging studies also show that the impact of trauma sits in the amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus, and brain stem. It does not sit in the verbal and understanding part of the brain.

van der Kolk says that it is our bodies, not our minds, that control how we respond to trauma, what we do and don’t consciously remember, and whether or not we recover from it.

This means that in the midst of trauma civilized discourse is not possible. It also means that people don’t need to talk about trauma to resolve it.

As we have always known talk therapies are not successful with people who have suffered trauma.

Bessel van der Kolk shared about the successes of working with the body to resolve trauma. He talked about the power of chi gong, tai chi, yoga, dancing, and breathing in order to quiet the body down and teach people self-regulation.

All the above methods came out of shamanism. In teaching workshops I keep trying to get participants to understand how important song and dance has been to shamans. I personally believe this is more important to shamans than the journey itself.

The fact that trauma lives in the body makes a lot of sense to me. When I perform soul retrievals I experience all the sensations that the client felt at the time of his or her soul loss. I have always experienced all the information in my body.

In sharing my experience with clients I have felt greatly challenged. I feel so much and yet I don’t ever have the language for what I feel. Based on what Bessel van der Kolk discovered along with others who have performed neuroimaging this would make sense.

In soul retrieval trainings I try to teach practitioners about the importance of bringing ritual and ceremony into working with clients. And one of the most powerful experiences for many in my soul retrieval trainings is the fire ceremony that we perform. During the ceremony I do have people dance and move what is being released into the fire.

Many practitioners of soul retrieval have been more moving their work towards a psychotherapeutic way of working. Many practitioners ask the client to talk way too much.

Brain scans are showing what shamans always knew. I ask those of you reading this page who do perform soul retrievals to journey on how to work with less talk and more of what would be called body psychotherapy.

We don’t need to turn to other systems to do this. Shamanic healing in itself does embrace what is taught in chi gong, yoga, tai chi, and breathing. We just have to bring it back into our work. As shamanic practitioners we need to engage our creativity. I feel a lot of practitioners have become trapped in trying to move shamanism into old forms of psychotherapy that are not effective. I think we need to bridge psychotherapy into shamanism and not the reverse.

And I want to remind you that I am teaching with my husband Woods Shoemaker this August at Omega Institute. The workshop is intended to teach concentration practices along with teaching the shamanic journey. Please look at my calendar posted on Trainings and Announcements for more information.

I saw this great sign on a church in Santa Fe:

“If God seems far away right now – who moved?”

  “The divine energy in itself is infinite potentiality and actuality. Creatures are localized manifestations of it. If there is no obstacle in us, no false self, we become transmitters through whom the divine presence as boundless love and compassion communicates itself to others in ever widening circles of influence.”

–       Thomas Keating

 Happy summer! Enjoy the beauty and be joyful in your life.

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