Gifts from Wendy & Satch
I've been taking some time to read again, which is something I can do between Lodges, and in Winter, where the season lends itself to snuggling down and reconnecting with the writings I love. The four of us were driving in the car on New Year's Day, a day on which I made choices to do little bits of all of the things I wanted to have more of throughout the year. Such as:
- Sleep nine hours
- Make amazing coffee
- Huge breakfast
- Green smoothie
- Read with kids
- Take a nap
- Connect with close friends
- Hike in the trees with family, explore and play
- Pulled cards
- Wrote a bit
- Took a bath
- Didn't freak out about anything
The idea was to create the blueprint for what every day life can sometimes look like by inviting all of those elements in to play on New Year's Day. Kind of a new ritual for me, but it was lovely, and I've found myself wanting to take the whole of January to set the tone for the year-which has got to be about filling up as much as I give out. Because it's not so much what we do, it's about how we feel- how we remember our days, right? If I was conscious of my choices, I usually have a more satisfied feeling at the end of the day. It was really about choosing energy.
Tonight, I lazily flipped open my copy of Medicine for the Earth, my favorite of all of Sandra Ingerman's books, and read this passage:
One of the missing pieces to all healing today is understanding the power of creating sacred space. Creating sacred space, as I refer to it here, means the vast energy created by people's individual energies joining together in a room. Today many people create sacred space by actually designing a room, an office, or a house in such a way that allows more energy, vitality, and soul to inhabit that space, but this is not what I am speaking of here.
Over my years of teaching I have noticed what happens when I create a strong container for thie group. Miracles! Why? Because everyone in the group can feel safe in opening up to the power of love. Here is a definition of power that I like to use in my work: Power is the ability to use energy.
When everyone in a room is focused on using their energy to support, love and heal others, that is exactly what occurs, and this is the energy that supports miracles.
In the practice of cross-cultural shamanic healing it is well known that the power of healing for an individual or for a piece of land is multiplied exponentially by the number of compassionate family, friends, and community members present at the healing. This occurs because the community present agrees to put their personality and egos aside, allowing for a greater spiritual energy to be called forth and gather the healing work.
Her work has had a tremendous effect on me since I was handed a copy of Soul Retrieval in 2000, but this book is the one I come back to again and again. It's messages are seared into me. It's affirmed all that I have learned to do instinctively, all that I have learned to do from others far wiser than myself, and helped me believe in the power of energy-negative and positive, and how we can raise it, quiet it, transform it, and make something beneficial and useful of it. I'm a Virgo, so I'm big on *usefulness*, as in "Thomas is a VERY useful engine!"
What I think we sometimes don't realize in our virtual society, is that energy is created behind the scenes, in everything we do. An online living room, such as this one, shows you what I think is worthy to share, but I also come here to flesh out my mistakes and show a bit of underbelly from time to time. What I have learned within six months of Lodge and hundreds of amazing women doing the soulwork with me, is that we all have the power to raise energy, to transmute the negative, to inch ever more slowly towards love, beginning with ourselves. We must begin to trust that if we can transmute what works against us inside of us, then it will show up that way outside of us.
I'm not talking about perfect behavior or not having human flaws, clearly that's not what this is all about-but, how to love ourselves through our humanness by allowing the Divine in to shine down a bit of wisdom now and again.
I took a journey to the Upper World last night to see what my protective energy field looked like-I'm always afraid that I will create a brick wall when I need protection- and that has not served me well at all. I will keep the medicine close to my heart, but I will say that it was a magnificent show of clarity and imperviousness, while allowing for a vast flow of love around, in, and out of me. I felt held by the Universe, in a safe and beautiful container which allows me to do all that I want to, with the boundaries in place, and what I have to give moving freely. It was a gift from Source that made me feel, for a snapshot, able to deal with the human foibles that I create by being me every day. Like spinning in circles at an onslaught of breakfast commands with no coffee, and yelling to regain control in the kitchen (I dislike that I yell at or near my children more than anything else). The vision held me throughout the day as the eruptions that take place around here bubbled and spat. I didn't cease to raise my voice, but I also didn't flog myself for it.
And this is why I thought it was interesting that I opened the book to page 99 tonight and read the above passage. Community energy + heart intention x balanced boundaries = Sacred space. Integrity. Hope. Healing. Vitality. Inside and out. Whenever possible. Repeat.
