Meditation & Spirituality – Connecting To The Divine

Beltania

This weekend I’m heading to the Beltania Festival. I’ve wanted to attend for several years, but never made it. This year, one of my friends decided she wanted to go way back in November. That was all the push I needed. Three of us will be sharing a cabin room. There will be a fourth woman in our room too, who I am sure we will love.

Beltania is held south of Denver in the Black Forest of Colorado. This is an area that was devastated by wildfires a few years ago. I’ll be interested to see how the land is healing itself. Their theme is “A Retreat into Nature and Spirit”. Ahhhh…. That is exactly what I need right now!

I’m really looking forward to getting away from my everyday life and soaking in the energy of the forest. I can’t wait to revel in the deep spirituality of like minded people. I’m especially looking forward to introducing myself to the medicine trees and walking the labyrinth.

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What am I looking forward to the most? The drum circles. There is at least one every day. I’m borrowing a drum to bring with me and hopefully I can learn how to connect with Spirit while drumming and not embarrass myself! (I have a tendency to clap on the wrong beat!)

There is also a workshop on lucid dreaming. That’s a technique I’ve tried to master and have not been very successful. Psychology Today did an article about lucid dreaming a few years ago which I found interesting. What is lucid dreaming?

Even though the term “lucid” means clear, lucid dreaming is more than just having a clear dream. To have a lucid dream you must know that it’s a dream while you’re dreaming. That’s it. It doesn’t require that you can control anything in your dream, though control is what beginning lucid dreamers often aim at.

Have you had experience with lucid dreaming or drumming? Please share your experiences with me in the comments below.

The Beltania website says “Registration is now Closed”, but it seems that there are still some options available. If you’re interested in going, sign up quick!

Blessings to you all!

Life … Overwhelms.

It’s been a while since I’ve published a post. It’s been a hard couple of months for me and I’ve been closing myself off. What’s happened? The first anniversary of my Mom’s passing, and then her birthday the next week. A very bad fall. Friends moving. Those kinds of things. And, instead of taking my own advice and asking for more help from my spirits and the Divine, I’ve been wallowing. Really wallowing. Moving inwards in a protective way.

Who else has done that?!

But now it’s really time to get back on that horse and move forward! So, now I’m going to talk about DEATH. I feel like I’ve learned a lot since that anniversary came and went.

The first thing I learned (and then forgot and relearned) was that my mother is still there. Her spirit is available to me whenever I think to be present. And the key is to be cognizant of my energy, and to be open to receiving her.

The next thing I learned was that my Mom’s spirit is mostly the same as when she was a living, breathing person. But it’s also just a little bit different. She’s more loving, more accepting, and way less judgmental. So it’s the energy of my Mom, only better.

Lastly, being aware of my Mom’s presence as allowed me to be aware of my Dad as well. I was never as close to my Dad, so, while his death hit me, it wasn’t the same. Now I’m able to reconnect with him in a way that I was never able to before. I can hear him helping me with the important stuff. I feel his wisdom coming through.

And it is so lovely to be feeling that love and support still coming through from my parents.

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Have you lost someone dear to you? Would you like to reconnect with them? Here’s the steps I would advise:

Ground, center, and connect to the Divine.
Be very clear about your intention. Do you have a question for them or do you just want to feel their presence?
Think of the person. Visualize their smile if you can, or look at a photo.
Be open to the feelings that come through. Allow yourself to cry if you need to. Spend some time in their presence.
When you’re done thank them and ask if they have any special message for you.
Be grateful.

Blessings to you all.

Holiday Driving

Keeping yourself safe during road trips is so important. Here is how I protect myself.

Thanksgiving is only a few days away and many of you will be driving to visit family and friends. Do you ever worry about staying safe on the highway? I know I used to.

Drive along any interstate, and you’re bound to see road kill on the shoulder. When I see any dead animal, I feel sad, of course, and say a quick prayer for their journey. But I also think about what an animal like a deer or antelope could do to my car and the impact it might have on my passengers.

Many years ago, I started a ritual to protect myself on road trips. It’s easy to do, and simply requires a bit of visualization. If you read my blog from last week, you’ll know I talked about creating an energy bubble to protect yourself as you go about your day. This ritual expands on that one.

What you’ll want to do is to visualize a protective bubble around your vehicle that travels with you. My bubble extends quite a ways in front of my car, and on both sides, especially onto the shoulder of the highway. If there is a field or woods on the side of the highway, I extend my bubble there as well.

Ask your spirit guides and guardian angels to maintain that bubble for the duration of your trip. (Although I do visualize it again if I’m driving another day.)

Another thing I do is to ask one of my spirit guides to fly ahead of me to keep anything dangerous out of my way. One of my animal guides routinely volunteers to do this. She is fierce in her protection of me. I can see her claws out in front of her making sure that I stay safe.

Remember, once you arrive at your destination, to also keep a protective bubble around you at family gatherings. They are sometimes challenging! But, this is a time for giving Thanks and Gratitude. Feel yourself filled with love for each family member, regardless of your past history.

Blessings!

4 Easy Steps to Creating Protective Energy Bubbles

It’s easy to protect yourself from other people’s energy. Read on!

Recently I have been working hard on creating a protective energy bubble around myself every morning. I feel like it has been getting easier and easier to do, and yesterday I had proof that it is quite effective.

I had arrived at a meeting early and was chatting with some of the other attendees. A woman next to me was talking to someone else on the other side of me. At one point, she gestured with her hand, coming very close to my head. “I’m so sorry!”, she said. “I didn’t mean to hit you!”

Here’s the thing. She had not touched me. But she felt as if she had come into contact with something solid. This was pretty exciting to me! Not only is my energetic bubble protecting me from the energy of other people, but it is physically protecting me as well.

Do you create a protective bubble around yourself every day? It’s easy to do -just follow these quick steps:

Ground and center. Visualize and feel the energy of the earth flowing up through your root. Then visualize and feel divine energy coming down through your crown. Feel those energies connect in your body like an electric jolt.
Visualize a bubble forming outside of your energetic field. (If you don’t know where your energetic field is, just go with two to three feet out from your physical body.)
Infuse that bubble with the kind of energy you’ll need that day. Many times I’ll fill it up with love and make the boundary of the bubble porous to allow only love in or out. I especially will do that on a day when I’m feeling grumpy – it doesn’t do anyone any good to allow that negativity out!
Finally, if I feel I need extra protection, I’ll add a more solid layer on the outside of the bubble. If I want to be invisible, I’ll cover the bubble with mirrors.

It’s that easy. Let me know your experiences in the comments below!

New Moon blessings!

Attend To The Shadow – Oracle Reading for November

(Note: I wrote this post last October, but somehow never pushed the “Publish” button. I’m publishing it now …. in May. It still seems applicable, and I would love your comments.)

I purchased a new deck of cards at the Witches’ Ball last weekend. They have been giving me some great readings and insight into my personal life.

I thought it would be good to do another reading for the general population using this deck. It’s the Magic of Flowers oracle deck by Tess Whitehurst, wonderfully illustrated by Anne Wertheim.

My question for the month is “What is the most important thing we can do to heal our nation?”

I pulled the Dahlia card. Dahlia wants us to attend to the shadow.

I find this interesting even before I start reading the description. I feel that there is so much darkness in our world right now.

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There are so many differing and divisive opinions. It seems to me that people on both sides think they’re 100% correct without looking at the merits of those who disagree with them.

And this card is saying that we need to attend to the shadow, to look at the darkness. This card is saying that we will find our answers when we look where no one else is looking.

Blessings to you all!

Autumnal Equinox

The equinox is today! What special events do you have planned to celebrate Mabon – festival of the harvest? I’ve been reading the Hedge Witch by Rae Beth, and it has a lot of ideas of how to honor the Goddess, the Gods and the Harvest. I love her chant for today:

The incoming flow
in seeds that shall grow
lies hidden till spring.

The unbroken ring of rebirth.

The harvest sustain,
till spring comes again.

Season of gain,
The seeds shall remain!

I love this book because it is written as a series of letters to two witches on how they can practice their beliefs by themselves.

Here are some articles I found, which provide some history and give more ideas:

Blessings!

Labyrinth

Thoughts on how a labyrinth relates to everyday life

This past weekend I had the chance to walk a real labyrinth for the very first time. I’ve seen them before, of course, but they have always been way too small to walk on anything but your tiptoes, let alone to get a true experience. I attended the Festival of the Muses: A Goddess Gathering this weekend. It was held at Joyful Journey in Moffat, Colorado. In addition to the spa experience (hot springs, sauna, massage, etc.), they also had a very large, and well thought out labyrinth.

I walked it twice, both times in the morning. Because there were plenty of other women/goddesses at the Festival, I never had the chance to walk it alone. But even walking it in quiet meditation with other people was a magical experience.

When I returned home, I wondered about labyrinths in general. How did they come to be? Were they used by pagans thousands of years ago? Every one that I’ve seen recently, with the exception of the Joyful Journey labyrinth, was built into a church floor, generally no bigger than 6′ in diameter. Were they used by the ancient Christians? What was the history?!

History:

Turns out the first known use of a labyrinth was a story from Greek mythology. It was built for King Minos of Crete to hold a Minotaur. In reading the story, it sounded to me as though it was more of a maze to keep the Minotaur in, than a labyrinth with an easy exit. (A Minotaur is a mythological monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. Here’s the story in Wikipedia.)

As I’ve read more, I’ve learned that there is a distinct difference between a labyrinth and a maze. A maze has multiple paths with choices to make when a path splits. To make it more confusing, there are many dead ends. A labyrinth has a single path in, and the same path is taken to get out.

Labyrinths were incorporated in Christian churches as early as 1000 AD, but I haven’t been able to find out what purpose they served.

More recently, labyrinths are built in public spaces and on church grounds as a way for individuals to walk a path of mindfulness and contemplation. That was certainly what I experienced.

My Labyrinth Experience:

So many thoughts bubbled up as I walked. My intention was to walk the entire thing thinking of what I was grateful for. But so many other revelations were made for me that I started thinking of those things as well. And, of course, each revelation was just another thing I was grateful for!

I realized that walking the labyrinth was a lot like a big project. You start working towards the project and you get turned around. You continue working towards it and you can see the end; you can see what the end result will be. So many twists and turns and you feel like you’re going backwards, but all the while you are still working towards your goal; in this case, the center of the labyrinth.

Once you reach the center, you feel so grateful. You realize all you have to be grateful for. And, when you finish a major project, you also feel so grateful! Regardless of the project, you know how much you have accomplished and how much you have given to the world by completing it. In the same way, you recognize that by walking to the center of the labyrinth, you have given so much to the world. You have spent undivided time in gratitude, and in connecting to the Divine, or just walking silently and meditatively. Just by doing THAT, you are giving back to the Universe, giving back to the Divine, giving back to Mother Earth.

This labyrinth had a beautiful marble angel at the center. She has received many gifts – crystals, flowers, and other precious objects – from previous visitors. What a beautiful sight to stand there and take in all the positive energy from others who have walked that path. As I stood in the center, I turned to each of the Directions and thanked each of those spirits as well.

As I made my way out of the labyrinth, I noticed things I hadn’t noticed on the way in. It’s all about the ebb and flow of life; the ebb and flow of your breath. It seems as though my heart had opened just a little more, so that I could be that much more observant of my surroundings.

A rock that looked like a rock walking towards the center, looked like a heart on the way out.