Inspiration

Full moon’s open us to greater vision, wider eyes of perception, and ‘ahaaa moments’ of realization. Simply standing under a golden orb rising against a purple sky can make the most rigidly intellectual brain crack open in ‘de-light.’ Teilhard de Chardin said, “We must continually change to become ourselves.” Perhaps the moon is becoming her Self by emptying out, re-filling, cycling new to full? This karmic time holds full moon energy thrusting us toward a different life than we have inhabited before. To move forward requires balancing chaos and creativity, predictability against random un-predictability. Our small perceptions are struggling with the pressure of global concepts and quantum leaps. Our present consciousness is like a zit on the chin. We can’t leave it alone. We squeeze it, stare at it, rub and touch it until it bursts. When our consciousness shifts, wide open frontiers of spiritual space, and unknown emotional, mental, physical worlds open. Creating space for new visions is much like creating physical space for more difficult Asana. Before attacking, or cringing, take time to look at the shape to be formed. Where is the balance point? How is it supported? What/where is the weakest link? Usually it’s the place we are tightest, closed against possibility. how do we make space to inhabit the pose with greater strength and flexibility? Like the moon, as we grow more spacious our light increases, and the great thing about living in the light is there are no limitations of time or space. Like full moons, our personal energy is imploding. We are semi-psychotic attempting the expansion into those faster, wider, higher zones. And we cannot simply effort for individual survival. We are to grab hands and cross this street together. The healing dictate of leaving the Piscean Age for the Aquarian Age, is……

Night falls fast over A rising cup of Crescent Moon Snugged behind blind clouds, Stealing her silver coin As they cross her face Reminding me, reminding me. Freely she proffers Grace against November chill, The lengthening dark, the silence, the weight, Patterns of lonliness. Every gift given, she lifts Unencumbered, into stars, through Milky Way. Reminding me, reminding me. Dear Loved Ones, far and wide, May the moon reward your desires, and drop coin of our shared memories into your pocket, May she cross your face with gratitude for all you are and all you have. As Allan and I stand under her spacious light, we travel to you, pockets filled to overflowing. Samantha

Out of difficulties, the extra-ordinary creates itself. In constricted cycles, expanded visions appear. In times of fear, courage increases. Being in the midst of yet another problematic, constricting cycle, it is difficult to stand outside mundane home-ground to behold sublime visitations and visions. It feels impossible to find time in a present so over-filled with to do’s that we can’t stop to perceive the miraculous erupting around us. In 1982 the most adorable alien we’d met to date told us to ‘phone home.’ Remember? That time was a cycle of financial tremblings like much like this present one, with high interest rates, job insecurity, and shaky economics. Like then, there are potent forces of creative potential to actualize next steps. With so much distraction, we need to be precise about objectives. It is important to get clear about not only who we are but the miracles we expect. Adorable aliens aside, it is a time when the mundane and the miraculous live side by side, and we need 3-D vision tuned in at all times. Part of our present difficulty may be that we have lost the faith we still held back then? Perhaps that, more than anything else is what we need to retrieve. Does if feel we have lost our way? Squandered all belief in the intrinsic goodness of our humanness? That the mad-dogs are winning? And that trashy gossip has overcome decent sensibilities? As cycles go, this one is a doozey, but it will end, as ALL cycles do. We will move from these contracted fears to greater possibility, just as we will move from being the world’s power base– to not. Nothing lasts, not even the good stuff. It feels it is time to phone home for hope, faith, courage, and Grace. If we are fortunate,……

We should be getting used to the high levels intensity by now. We should be good at dodging the jagged shards of careless and mean-spirited output. We should have been able to wrap ourselves in a cocoon of safety against someone else’s chaotic decisions and quixotic changes that affect our lives. It ain’t happening, nor will it until we can somehow change our perspective. If we could stand back and see the energy patterns as a grand mosaic urging us to shift, to grow soul-materia, instead of defensive bulwark, and if we could feel inspired by this imperative to move, to dissolve the status quo, instead of fearing its demise, then perhaps we would not be suffering. Remember that suffering comes only when we wish something to be other than what it is. If we could but see this Demon of dissolving ego and frustrated efforts as our Daimon, we wouldn’t care so much how we learned, only that we were learning and growing. Many philosophers and psychologists, beginning with the Greeks, have written on the Daimon. Heraclites felt that ‘character is Daimon.’ Plato called it ‘the supreme form of soul in us, a guiding genius.’ More recently, Rollo May said it was translated to the Latin as genii. Be that as it may, its root origin is from the Greek, ‘demon,’ which speaks of the complexity of our own personal guiding genius. Each of our angel/devil/ daimonic-guidance counselor leads its soul toward who they are to become. It doesn’t care how the soul learns, only that we learn, grow, and change to be who we are meant to be. This is the gift and the curse of earthly life. At this particular time we have the enormous gift of making many more soul-choices than usual, for we are in……

In this seasonal time of feeling trapped in outworn-outgrown grooves, and having to release many of the year’s hopes and dreams, we activate deeper levels, check into soul territory, and seek Scorpionic regeneration. As the earth contracts toward winter hibernation, a part of us longs to be her microcosm, to imitate her long, last sigh toward Savasana. Our primitive selves yearn to settle into winter’s long rest…unless you are in sunny climes where you are playing tennis. We sniff the wind, looking for signs of the year ahead, windblown leaves hopeing New Year’s lives will somehow be more fabulous than the present disarray; this flying and feeling at the mercy of chance… God’s ‘eenie meenie miney mo theory. In the scurry of chaotic days, and too much-muchness, dancing as a blown leaf seems a magical possibility. But November’ Scorpio energies are too primitive a force field to allow flitting about. If you are feeling the push for life to go underground, or at least slow to a long sigh, then sit with an image, a symbol, an animal that walks you toward your soul. Choose something powerful that can hold the too high vibrations, the brittle sounds, the careless neglect, the overweening demands and put them where they belong, in the trash. Then surround yourself with silence, stillness, breath, contact with the earth, a hand to hold. Asana: Vrschikasana/Scorpion Pose. Knee and bend forward, forearms parallel, the distance between the shoulders. Lift the head and chest, exhale to swing legs up overhead. Bend the knees, dropping feet toward the head, or on the head if very flexible. Keep chest open, press arms into floor. Breathe long and evenly. Afterward, do a forward fold to relieve any strain on lower back. Health Notes: Lungs expand, arms and back are strengthened, and……

When we play, we are lively, as in ‘full of life.’ In that happiness, we connect. In depression, we disconnect, and grow stagnant. Growing joy and contentment is no small job. Maybe it never was. With over-ripe angst, anger, and confusion , bliss is not a luxury. Consciously cultivating solace is a worthy job. We don’t realize what we lack until its lack reaches a tipping point, like becoming silent to finally be heard. We would not take time or energy to grow delight if we were not drowning in its opposite. Personally, having done battle with various levels of depression, I am steeped in this tipping point. Falling into dark waters is easy, pulling oneself out to re-generate is difficult…a Scorpionic task. Shakti Dance has been growing from these emotional re-boots. My Yoga Practice enhanced mind and body, but emotionally I could not find deep emotional nurturing. When I combining dance, song, and deeper connections within the Practice, happiness moved like Pluto’s scythe through the depression. The emotional-body, particularly the heart-body, needs jbliss in order to obliterate old patterns, and master new. As we overcome the entrenched, forging space for the unknown, we move more deeply into true Self. The exciting part is we don’t where the dance leads. Perhaps it is Elliot’s “still point?” Perhaps it is the ability to see with wider vision? Perhaps it is overcoming rooted-sorrows? It is not only the dance itself that creates new muscle, it is the intertwined flow of Asana and music that magically massages subtle body levels. It is in joining with others to create momentary community, for how can we possibly step into dance and not have the stranger beside us grow warm and fuzzy? We do not have barn raisings, nor do we sit together at births, or……