Crow as totem, spirit guide, Power animal....

Crow is a harbinger of change; spiritual, mental and emotional. Life, death, rebirth, transition magic, watchfulness, look for opportunities coming up, aids in ability to move spiritually and physically. They teach the power and balance of light/dark and spiritual/physical. He teaches to create and manifest things in our lives, all of life is waiting. Crow announces a newness on the horizon. Are you aware of the nuances in life? Are you listening to signs around you? Crow can give strength and show you how to maneuver in intuitions and insights.
 http://www.starstuffs.com/animal_totems/dictionary_of_birds.html

The Shaman in You...

What is a shaman?  There is agreement that a shaman interacts with the spirit world while living in the physical.   That is a simplified explanation but quite adequate and true I believe for the our world.  Shamans are often associated with nature and having less and less access to nature I believe the shaman is adapting even as he/she has done through all time.      The shaman has a unique relationship with nature, and especially animals and birds.  There are a lot of books and websites telling us about the messages that the animals and birds have for us.  Look in a mirror.   Look into your self.  Think about it.  Do you carry the power of the shaman in you? 

Emotions and reactions...

Our emotions are triggered by an experience that we have been conditioned to react to.   For example we find a lump under the skin.  All of the advertising and warnings we have seen on television and billboards tell us to beware of strange lumps because they may be cancer.  Our body mind goes into flight or fight reaction and we think, 'oh no, I have cancer'.  This is only one example and I'm sure you can think of more.  Already we are in fear mode, 'what will I do, I'm going to die, what will my family do' already our body is reacting to all of those thoughts and emotions of fear and anxiety.  This same process also provides us with many of our most positive emotions.  Our loved one tells us how wonderful we are and our emotions go into positive overdrive.  
Learning to neutralize our emotions teaches us how not to be in fear and judgement.   Most of us need to think or rationalize our way out of the emotions that take over us.   'It may not be cancer, I have nothing to fear, even dying is something we all do sometime'.   We may even need to examine the emotion. 
When we get the rush from the positive emotions we learn to love the feeling.  It is possible to get so used to the negative emotions that we don't recognize what they do to us.   Some individuals even feed off of those negative emotions.  This is when drama develops in our lives.    

Today I am sharing with you the words of another.  These are words of the P'taah Morning Song. 
The morning song is found here on the P'taah website:  http://www.ptaah.com/page/page/4736851.htm
And here is a part of the morning song:
" From the God/ Goddess of my being
I give forth thanks
For the love that I am,
for the love in my life and the love that surrounds me,
thank you.
Thank you for the miracle of life that I am and
thank you for the miracle of life I see reflected all about me.
Thank you for the gift of life that I am.
Thank you for this perfect body, my health and well-being,
thank you.
Thank you for the abundance that I am and
thank you for the abundance I see reflected all about me...."

 This is approximately half of the morning song.  It is beautiful and the explanation of it on the P'taah website is also beautiful.  

May you walk in beauty......gratitude and abundance...

Go with the flow....

The phrase ‘go with the flow’ has different meanings for different people and can have different meanings depending on how it is used.  But when it speaks of life in general I think it is good advice.   When we resist we are ‘fighting an uphill battle’.   And yet when things get tough if we can do as water does when it finds it way down a stream and just go with the flow, as the water does we can find our way.   And remember that while it may take centuries, water moves, breaks and even makes smooth...rocks.   There is a lot of power in flowing water.    Another rather cliched saying is ‘what you resist, persists’.  and if you find that to be true, just relax into the flow and you will find your way.   

Consider the possibility....

Metaphysics, New Thought, so called New Age thinking has suggested that we are powerful spiritual beings having a physical experience on planet earth.    One of the things that happens to us is that when we take on these physical bodies and are born into these lives we forget who we really are.  Well what good would that do, you might ask? and its a very valid question but consider this:  What if the only way we can come to understand who and what we are is by learning and experiencing what we are not.   If we are love perhaps we can only experience what that is like and the full extent of it by experiencing its polar opposite, fear.   Consider for a moment the possibility that you really are an angel in disguise, on purpose.  Consider that you really are a magnificent part of God experiencing the here and now of life on earth.  Consider the possibility....

Go With Your Gut.....

Go with your gut.  Go with your feelings.  You have heard of these proverbs and they are good advice about making decisions.  But I want to take it a step further.  Recently these posts have been about selfhood and knowing yourself and making decisions is a good place to put your self knowledge to use.   If you go with your feelings about something but those feelings are based on information you learned as a child from sources outside yourself they may not reflect the true you.   The decision you just made based on those feelings may not be a reflection of who you really are.  So when you need to make a decision about something, go with your gut, pay attention to your feelings, but know where your gut feelings come from and if they truly reflect who you are.  

Tell me my Child......

Poet, speaker, sage
Wizard, magician, mage
Shaman and healer,
Teacher and guru
Tell me my child
Which are you?

Is there someone you admire?  A great and wonderful hero, perhaps.  A person who has gone down in history as a champion for justice.  Or someone who embodies the best of humanity.  Perhaps, it is a friend, teacher, parent or grandparent.    What is the magic they make for which they are admired?  What is it about them that you admire?  Do you really know much about them?  It is a good practice to get to know your heroes.  And then, without telling anyone, start to emulate them.  Pick some of those characteristics that you admire and make them your own.  See what happens in your life.   There is a little wizard, healer, teacher, sage in all of us.   

God is Life...

Now and then I come across something written by someone else that is so informative and so well done that I really want to share it.  In an old copy of ODE Magazine I came across an article by Neale Donald Walsh of CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD fame.  In this article Walsh was responding to the book THE GOD DELUSION by Richard Dawkins.   This is in part what Walsh had to say:..." What is true about life is that nothing stands outside of life. Nothing exists without life. We are the expression of life itself. So is everything around us... Indeed, everything in the observable universe is life, in some form. The existence of life is confirmed by life itself. Life is self-referencing, self-confirming, self-sustaining, and self-evident. Life is the evidence of the existence of life."  but then he suggests in the foregoing statement to substitute the word God for the word life..... amazing what it sounds like.
" Nothing stands outside of God. Nothing exists without God. You are the expression of God itself. So is everything around you... Indeed, everything in the observable universe is God, in some form. The existence of God is confirmed by God itself. God is self-referencing, self-confirming, self-sustaining, and self-evident. God is the evidence of the existence of God."
The entire article, "Is God a Delusion", can be read at  http://odewire.com/54246/is-god-a-delusion.html

You Are A Child of the Universe...

In the process of trying to make changes and improve ones life the first step is simply making the choice to do so.   Often people want to make changes but aren't sure what the problem is and where to start. 
Simply enough, once you make the decision to make changes the next step is to begin the realization of who you are as a child of the universe and that there is nothing to fear.   Then begins the process of ridding oneself of fear.  

Happy Valentines Day.......

Today is Valentines Day, the origin of which is rather obscure.    I would suggest googling it and be surprised like I was on the several possible origin stories.   However it started, Valentines Day has turned into another of those Un-holidays that have come to mean so much to so many.   Including, if you have no one special to share it with, the feelings of loss, loneliness, even depression.  I want to suggest that all of us begin using this time to work some universal healing on this great beautiful planet of ours.  Use the power of your thought to send love, healing, harmony, or just plain good vibrations to whomever and whatever you wish.  If you know someone, lost, lonely, dying.... If politics concern you, send those wishes and vibrations to politicians, opposing politicians, tyrants, beleaguered nations.  Blanket the planet or your own special part of it with a soft blanket of harmony.   Shower areas of unrest with your powerful feelings of love and harmony.   and place a sweet blanket of love and harmony over yourself and our good planet mother earth.   It is said, heal yourself and heal the world, but it works the other way also.  Heal the planet and you heal yourself.  Happy Valentines day everyone....

Selfhood... Making Choices...

Selfhood Pt. 3  Making choices 
Know yourself and know that you have choices.  It did not hit me until I was in middle age that I actually had choices.  I did not realize that I could make choices about my life that were not based on what I learned as a child.  And knowing myself allowed me to make better choices.   It may seem obvious that we make choices in our lives but what we need to realize is that those choices need to be conscious choices, that we make these choices about ourselves based on information about ourselves rather than allowing them to be made automatically by the programming we have received as a child. 

Selfhood Pt.2.... being ok with who you are

Much of what we do and even think has become so conditioned in us that we hardly know what we are thinking and especially feeling when we are thinking it.  That is why it becomes very important to consciously do the inventory of who we are.   One of the things on my list was simply ‘I like country music’.  Once I inventoried it I could claim it and feel it was a part of me.   I have to say that I enjoyed country music even more after that.   I could allow the joy that it gives me.  That is only one example.  So spend some time on that inventory.  You can write it down or you don’t have to, but I don’t recommend sharing your list with anyone, or tell them what you are doing.  It is ok, to tell your friend, ‘I like country music’ because that is claiming it but the list and the process is yours. Once you have worked on this inventory you know more about yourself and it is easier to accept yourself.  It’s easier to be ok with who you are.   

Selfhood...

An individual cannot reach their full potential without a strong sense of self. 
Getting a strong sense of self can be difficult because as children our sense of self is based on what we are taught, told and shown by parents, teachers, religious leaders, television and the environment around us.   Without proper guidance our entire sense of self is based on the ideas, opinions, and beliefs of others.  We grow up wondering who we are and feel defeated and without hope.   No matter your age you can develop your sense of self.   Start by taking an inventory.  Who are you?  What do you like?  What parts of your life give you joy and make you happy.  DON’T list your good and bad qualities.   List what you like, what you enjoy, what gives you joy.   Start looking at who YOU really are.    

Don't Stop...

As you walk along the earth path
Don’t stop thinking
Don’t stop asking questions
Don’t stop believing that the world is changing
Don’t stop believing that you are part of that change
As you walk your earth path
Don’t stop

Shaman....

Speak to the earth, animals and birds
Speak to the sky, thunder and light
Travel between, in and out
Walk the world between mastery and might
You were there, I remember you
Come fly with me now
On the wings of the eagle,The breath of the wind
The shaman walks into the future with computer and phone. 

Rays of Light to Guide us Home....

The earth is beautiful.  That is a reason that I enjoy taking nature photographs even though I don’t feel I do it justice at all.  Moments in time, a constantly changing natural order, a symphony of color and sound and diversity....  Sometimes we humans do not add to the beauty or care for it and yet we are a part of it.  Our wars leave great bloody holes in the earth, sometimes literally, sometimes energetically.  Some times our love, however and to whomever we express, it adds to the overall beauty, and harmony.
When I left town this evening the sun was starting to set.  Constantly changing and yet sometimes the same, I followed those clouds and colors all the way home.   Pinks, Reds, oranges, peach colors, and in the middle of it there was a ray of light between earth and sky....  We need those rays of light, to guide us home, to direct us in our love. We need to be those rays of light for the earth and for each other.   

Even My Small Efforts.....

“Greetings dear ones, I am Kryon of Magnetic Service.”  Thus begins a session by Lee Carroll of the spirit essence that speaks through him.  Kryon has been speaking through Lee since 1989 and while I knew about it I didn’t pay any attention to it until sometime last year.  Since, I found that I resonate with the message, I don’t have to join, I don’t have to pay anything for the information, and it is the most positive message I have ever heard.  There are books that can be purchased and live meetings that can be attended but to get the information free all one has to do is go to the website Kryon.com and it is all there to read or download for free.   In one of the books that I am currently reading I found this affirmation or declaration that I want to share because it speaks to what we can do to help bring about a world of love and peace.  It is simple and easy to repeat and here it is:  “I am that I am, and the divinity in me is going to make a difference on this planet.  I feel the truth when I hear it and when I read it.  Even my small efforts will create an energy that is larger than I can imagine, combined with others, to create peace on Earth.”  Page 172 KRYON Book 11 from a channeling in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in August 2006.