Saying Yes

So this month we really focused on whether we felt free and what keeps us from being free.  Just a few days before I had found this card in a Papyrus card store and it completely represented my visual of free and my desire to say YES - to ALL of life.

I shared that I had read something where they say most people who have a fatal accident don't know ahead of time and can't be prepared.  And if it's an accident that happens as a result of a fall or car crash, very often a persons last words will be Oh, Shit.  I don't want those to be my last words.  I'd rather be like Ghandi who's last three words were Ram, Ram, Ram (his name for God).  So to be like that I need to train and be more receptive and say yet to the every day things that come up.  Saying yes as it comes doesn't mean I'm accepting it as permanent fixture in my life, saying yes means that I'm willing to learn and negotiate.

So from recent experiences where I was not saying yes at all and not feeling so free and letting the grain of sand called my ego block the mountain of spirit within me, I re-membered that connecting with the "I Am", Soul, God within is the best reminder.  And as reminded Krishna reminds Arjuna in the Baghavad Gita "Nothing higher than Me exists, O Arjuna.  On Me all this universe is strung like pearls on a thread".  Yes I was focusing on the pearls and not the string.  So in ceremony we consciously used a string.  Before going into ceremony we literally stepped back over the string and then went into the process of surrendering what was an impediment to our freedom whether that be attachment to the yummy or icky in our life.  We went into the surrender remembering (thanks to Osho) that to err is human and to forgive is MORE human and that the moment we achieve our own humanity is the moment we achieve divinity.

The participants dumped into a stone which was later burned  to transform.  For the dream workers, I took a print out of your surrender and transformed it to ash that is to be used as compost for our dreams later.

We then did a process of connecting with I Am, Soul, God, Spirit,...whatever you want to call your experience of what really is ineffable.  The live participants then blew their seeds into a blossom and then stepped forward over the string carrying this new seed.  The string was then tied to their right wrist to remind them until the string falls off.  Each of the seeds from the dream workers was then transferred into a white blossom for the garland of dreams.

So the purple blossom is where we put the prayers of all for our families, communites, planet, galaxy....  Prior to the ceremony I took the dream worker prayers and folded them into origami hearts.  You can see it flanking the left and right of the altar in the picture below.

We closed the circle with the taking in of the mmmmmmm....sweetness to show spirit out willingness for our lives to be filled with sweetness.  Typically I will do the offering of the garland of dreams immediately after the ceremony; however, I got the hit to wait.  And I did until Wednesday morning where I happened to wake up just before sunrise (and the only reason I knew that was that I googled it when I got back).  I did some final b urning for further transformation.  Into the existing compost I put the papers with the dreamworker seeds into the compost and burned them along with some petals from each of roses that were used to represent the blossoming of those that were in the room.  After that burned I put in the origami hearts (which were also transferred into the garland) and burned those as well.  Interestingly when that burned although I only use a small bowl in my ceremonial room, it really roared (that is relative) which to me spoke of the power of all the prayers and hearts of the participants.  And also interestingly after the burning was done the shapes although ash stayed solid.  I found that to be a bit magical.  I then took the ask and garland outside.

I offered the ash as well as three roses that were part of the ceremony to a tree outside my apartment.  I call this tree the heart tree as it has a natural etching in the bark.  Sorry the picture below is a little darker than showed up on camera which showed in interesting shading that didn't exist between the left and right sides of the tree.

And then of course I took the garland off the the NYC version of the Ganges River for me, the East River (East the direction of fire and transformation).  I offered the garland and as I tossed it, it seemed that the garland just fell into the shape of the heart.  Well that was how it looked to me.  I then glanced at the time and it was 5:36 AM, guess what time sunrise was today.  Yup, I can't make this stuff up.  So I realized that spirit wanted me to take your work from the darkness of the new moon out into the light to shine.  Well that's my interpretation and I'm sticking to it.  And now as I type this it is raining, which is also an auspicious sign.

I really enjoy new moons...so thanks for sharing.

Best Antidote M&M's - Meditation and Mesa

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I just learned in looking for an M&M image that I can personalize M&M's and it's call My M&M's how convenient - as my M&M's are Mediation and Mesa (in alphabetical order not order of importance - it's all ONE)  And it does feel all rainbow colored like the offerings from Mars (I'm seeing even more humor in this as I knew I was an alien and resonated with the star people - tee hee!!!)


It's nice to know that sometimes I don't have to be hit by the spiritual 2 X 4 to get it and despite the fact that I know that I know that I have all the tools I need to help me through the challenging times, sometimes I relinquish the control stick to "my mind" and boy does it like the roller coasters.  The mind comes up with all these stories and react in the least helpful of ways trying to prove to me that I'm the victim.  


So needless to stay, I was feeling like I was in kind of a rut and during it the mental self flagellation was unrelenting.  I decided to take 5 days of Living Meditation with Harshada at Omega.  On my way to the retreat, I realized that not only did I have 5 days of meditation with my most recent teacher Harshada,  but I was going to follow it immediately by a Pachakuti Mesa weekend with my beloved and long time teacher Oscar and upon my return to have an evening of meditation with my first teaching Kevin Jennings.  So I realized that spirit doesn't use 2X4's, it's my mind that does that.  And what spirit did is give me many life preservers and gentle reminders and opportunities to immerse myself in the traditions that comfort me like my first security blanket


Surround by nature and bunnies and woodchucks and chipmunks and beautiful winged ones and ... well needless to say it was a nice place to shift gears.  I went through pleasure and pain and both lead to personal insights on my patterns so that I know that I am a warrior from having survived my wounds with awareness and consciousness and NOT a non-particpating victim.  I was able to re-discover my soul from the rubble caused from the earthquake of my mind.  And despite what my mind was telling me, my soul was perfect, unharmed and stronger than ever...


Of course, sitting in circle with the Northeast community strengthened everything and reminded me of how I was and who I Am as Oscar says, it's a process of re-membering (and sometimes it feels like I have alzheimer's and have to be reminded many times) and that shamanism is a spiral dance that leads to my center.


Just to reinforce this newness - I started this morning with some exercise on the east river and as many of you heard I consider my ipod to be quite psychic and as I finished, the song Ding Dong! the Witch is Dead (by Harry Connick Jr.) played.  And the metaphor for the witch is most definitely my mind.  I didn't even know it was on there...so only goes to prove that you can't make this stuff up and the humor I find in life is certainly the fuel that keeps me going...


Wishing you Light, Love and Laughter Always!

When Your Grateful Life is Great

This months process was interesting for me because life has been quite chaotic.  And the thought of not doing it felt wrong, but I never was going to be able to be prepped to host people.   I've been so grateful of being able to share this that I just couldn't miss this month.  And in the tradition of the Pachakuti Mesa, the best way to express gratitude is to make a despacho, as an offering to the unseen forces. So the inspiration of doing the dream worker despacho came upon me as I am always impressed by the power of the inclusion and weaving of those who can't be there in person.  I like defying time and space.  As I was tweaking this months dream work assignment and thinking of the despacho, I heard a voice telling me to make origami hearts.  I figured how hard could that be.  Well it took me a few sets of internet instructions and practice. Origami is definitely not intuitive, at least not to me.   And then when the inner voice told me that the prayers for others should be origami birds, I thought uh oh.  Fortunately I figured it out but I truly want to know who thought up origami....  As they say practice makes perfect, so I printed the seeds on floral-like despacho paper and the prayers on colorful plain paper and folded my heart out.  The latter ones were definitely better, but I'm only practically perfect and spirit doesn't mind.

Although I felt your presence and know you get what happened, I figured I'd send you a few pictures of the despacho process and share my intentions behind it.

As you'll see I had your seeds in the South East aka Manfestation Corner of my mesa and the prayers were in the north the section embodied by spirit, who's animal ally is the condor and the eagle.  They stayed there as I opened the mesa and until they were added to the despacho.

Another FYI, is that I had decided to create my own despacho play list.  Choosing songs that remind me of my path and what I'm grateful for.  As many of you know, I tend to be a little untraditional so it's a combination of rock n' roll, country, gospel, show tunes....  And I trust spirit and put it on shuffle.  As I started, the spiritual Use Me by the Brooklyn Tabernacle (I don't make this stuff up)  kicked us off as I started by consecrating the paper with the traditional circle cornmeal, tobacco cross and coca kintu. 

Next came your surrender which was printed on re-cycled paper and then burned in my burning bowl.  Which burned hot and quick.

I then layered the consecration materials with the ash, so it would be compost for our prayers and reams.  I also doused it with a liquid Siete Poderes aka Seven Powers.  In my tradition 7 is considered the number of life embracing all so out despacho was blessed with great power and life force.  And the circule of ash with red and white carnations, showing what can blossom out of the ask.  Here's a picture (although I started added some salt on it before I remembered that I wanted to send you all the steps along the way)

I then made an attempt to fill the circle with a yin/yang symbol with some pink himilayan salt and organic raw sugar for healing and sweetness as they always go hand in hand.  Also in the center of the symbol is the traditional shell filled with llama fat and a cross.  I didn't have an actual cross in my despacho supplies, so I got creative and used some dried cactus buttons to form the cross. 

I squared the circle with a lot of other goodies that are traditional to despachos like, quinoa, spices, minerals (in the form of pebbles from a recent visit to Stone Henge), candy in the form of Hershey Kisses... 

Next was the circle of your hearts/seeds/dreams.  Each of your hearts was accompanied with a pairing of pink & white Good & Plenty (you get the metaphor there) and a pair of male & female huayuros.  In my tradition, hauyuros are seeds used to provide protection.  You may want to know how we know which are which.  The seeds are mostly red and some are plain and others have black dots.  That's how you can tell gender but to be honest I never remember which is which, but the intention is balance.

Well you can't see the black dot in this pair but trust me it's on the bottom.  Then in between your seeds, I added your prayers with the origami birds.  Each bird had a coca kintu in it's tail feathers.  (Coca Kintu basically means a set of three coca leaves.  We use the leaves to carry our prayers)

I wasn't that conscious of each song along the way; however, I do remember that at this point the song Everybody Rejoice from the Wiz was playing.  Before wrapping I added some confetti in the shape of balloons and streamers and wrapped it up.  In the package below rather than the typical garland of dreams, each of the flowers wrapping the despacho had each of the dreamworkers sombres/essences.

Despacho's are often offered to fire or water.  Off I went to the east river (no worries, all of the products in this were easily bio-degradble and non-toxic).  As soon as I dropped the in the water the garland came off and the entire despacho started to open.  And I thought I had tied it up as snug as a bug in a rug; however, I took as it was a very well received despacho and the unseen forces wanted to eat up all of the gratitude embraced in this gift.

As Always, Thank You, Thank You,  Thank You always and forever and I wish you all many blessings.

Spring Cleaning, Spring Dreaming....April New Moon

Well this months New Moon proved to be fabulous.  I am always touched by the heart of the dreamworkers participation and kudos to all of you this time for simulating limpia y suspendida on your own.  It always delights me to have participation from all over.  We had a group of 13 gathering at the same time which included an 8 year old and then a mother/daughter team. So bravo...as I couldn't have imagined this.

This months was a little different in that we flowed right from the surrender meditation dumping it into a stone which in my tradition we call khuyes (aka containers of affection), that I received from the various mountains that I visit.  After the surrender was done they placed the stone down and connected with our true inner precious selves for wisdom on what we should be planting.  At one point I thought we weren't going to do the formal limpia y suspendida but my San Cipriano staff reminded me by crashing down with a thud that yes indeed, it was supposed to be used. So we cleansed the hucha/density and then immediately raised the dreams and all was flowered.

Normally we do some prayers for those in need and this time I was called for us to do a little more and bring in the animal allies to do some work.  I had some bottles of the essences of animal spirits and how we chose the one to work with, we used a dharma pole method to choose the animals to aid us - there were some interesting ones like a jelly fish and arctic fern along with the more familiar gorilla, mountain lion, jaquars, buffalo.  We did a journey choosing our own person or place where we wanted to send our ally and off they went to be of service.  It felt really good to be of service.

And as always we had the weaving of the garland of dreams which was promptly offered to the east river.  The yellow represent each of your dreams and the white is global dreams for our communities and planet

Now I'm off to send the dreamworkers their treats...may all your dreams come true

March New Moon Into Equinox

Wow, it's only been 5 1/2 days since the ceremony and it feels like a lifetime ago.  It was a great night, we did a lot of cleansing and in the spirit of balance we decided to make sure that all the elements were embraced.  We had earth with the clay and the 100th Monkey Global Consciousness Ball, Water with the Cleansing and the room was still smelling lovely from the flowered waters that assisted the additional cleansings that went on.  Air, with the condor and the blowing of our intentions.  Well fire for the surrender of our thank you note and good bye to what no longer serves us.  And quintessence was the holding of space but I used bubbles too.

As with the dreamweavers we looked into the image of the tree, the natural unseen forces and the web of life with the following image.  This image was given to me by a very talented friend and artist that also helped me with my logo, Dafna Mordecai.

We kept the garland of dreams cooking in the center of my mesa until the equinox.  Then this afternoon/late morning, I transformed the napkins from handwiping and the papers with the planted seeds into compost for our dreams.  When I burned the napkins it was interesting because as it burned the ashes went up into the air and it looked a bit like snow.  And it's interesting that something that was used to wipe our density can be so light and ethereal...actual proof that our density is just energy that needs to be digested to its simplest form.

I offered the water to the heart tree outside my building and the ashes and garland to the East River.  It was also interesting for me as I usually do that as night after the ceremony and there I was outside with many others on the beautiful sunny day with people bustling to take in the sun shine...but then again, this is NYC and no one noticed.  They were both received well and traveled quickly North up the East River.  Typically I take pictures but for some reason, I forgot.  So here is a picture of the garland the day after the ceremony.

February New Moon - Deep Surrender

So I cheated a little this month as the exact New Moon was on Valentine's day, how perfect was that.  Which was also the Chinese New Year and today is Fat Tuesday...we have a lot to celebrate don't we.  And with all the beautiful and deep surrender that went on, we are light and free to let our seeds blossom and manifest.

Earlier that morning I set the mesa as I felt directed to best facilitate our gathering, and here is a peek:

In the room we surrendered for an extended period and lovingly offered any attachments, good or bad.  We reinforced that with the chanting externally and internally of the mantra swaha, "I surrender".  Just to make sure we followed up with the loving element of water to complete the surrender so we would be ready as ever to receive.  In truth that wasn't really necessary as we also learned that some of us think we have more "stuff" than we really do.  The fire showed us that as we burned some hucha aka density/stuff.  After all, it's all just energy that can forever be recycled and transformed.

Prior to planting the seeds I shared a beautiful yantra representing the moon from our beloved dreamworker aka All In participant, Jennifer Ananda Schmidt, representing the loving mother that the moon truly is.  And she said I can share, so now you can see her representation of what you felt through this process and use it for future reference in case you forget how loving and generous the moon really is.

So as we inquired, Who Am I?, we opened our hearts. Similar Hanuman, who has Sita and Ram inside his heart, there was someone inside...our divine inner child.   We re-connected with the ever so wise, awful and  embracer of the magic of the world and it's infinite possibilities.  Having our child blossom from our hearts and share with us his/her Pure Imagination was very sweet.

When complete we thanked our child as he/she returned to our hearts, and we made sure to remind them that we would never desert them.  While I was literally weaving each of your seeds into a blossom in the garland of dreams,

those present in 3D were given a little white clay that was malleable.  We put form to the wisdom that was shared by the beloved Divine Child.  But as you know, no attachments in this group, because we trust that we can create, surrender back to the source and then re-create again.  So we ended with a large ball of white clay with the totality of our pieces, representing global consciousness and it had all of our loving participation.

We then spoke our prayers for loved ones in our community, on the globe and in the galaxy as represented by the rose in the garland.  To reinforce the prayers, we offered bubble prayers through this amazing bubble wand I found following the Yellow Brick Road through London.

To make sure we included all the elements as we already had water with the hand cleansing, earth with the clay and air with the bubbles, we burned the papers with your seeds to have compost and, again, no attachments.  Of course, no ceremony would be complete without the taking in of the sweetness in the form of chocolate.  So we savored it as we ate it to show the unseen world world how ready, willing and able we are to take on the abundance and get their assistance.

As I went outside to offer the water, ash and garland, there was a beautiful light snow.  It felt very auspicious as if our prayers were well received.  Well we had other proof earlier in the evening.  After we completed a final chanting to raise our prayers and dreams.  I then gave a little extra loving nudges with my condor feather whisking it to the heavens.  With a final whisk, I realized it was well received and I said so.  And as if by affirmation, my home phone rang, it felt like God calling.  Well it was in the form of a two-legged.  When I finally checked the message, it was my sister offering me a gift of tickets to the theater.  I was barely completed with the service and the gifts were already happening.  See it's that easy. You just can't be attached how and the form.

As I mentioned,  I burned the papers with your seeds and dreams.  This created compost as the fire represented the transformation of your dreams into reality And, just in case you are interested, the fire burned sweetly and softly.  In fact, the images in the fire looked like a blossoming flower. 

So in the beautiful snow, I walked to the east river (after offering the water to the famous heart tree) and offered both the garland of dreams and the ashes wrapped in the paper (recycled of course) that you see below.  As always, a pleasure and an honor and I am touched deeply to be able to pray with and for you.

P.S.  Feedback from friends in California that did the dreamwork together.  They also spent the evening out on a bluff near Yogananda Prashanda's center.  Here they are enjoying the chocolate and look what they enjoyed in the sky...remind anyone of anything.

Prelude to A Fool

As many of you know, I'm leading a Leap Into Life Meditation this Sunday at Moonheart where we will embrace the energy of first of the tarot archetype the fool.  This meditation came to me very clearly just before the last new moon.  I am very familiar with the fool, on many levels (you can giggle that's ok), so to be honest I didn't really feel like I needed to do a lot of prep work.  However, after having a lovely conversation with my dear friend Miki yesterday afternoon,  I realized that there was something that I was supposed to be doing in my life that I clearly had not acknowledged.  Interestingly, I hadn't made the connection yet, even though I had reached a slump when working on my website.  So, if you didn't know, I have been working fast and furious on my new web site to be unveiled later in February, and when I came to the part where this needed to be added, I had lost my inspiration or desire to keep going.  I realized after speaking to Miki that this is something I need to pursue, but needed to find a way to put it into words.  So tonight, before I went to sleep I thought, ok teacher use what you want to share with others.  I didn't do a full meditation with the Fool; however, I did call in the energy of the Fool with the intention that I would receive the creative ideas to go forth.  Since I wasn't specific about when and how I expected the information, the Fool or, perhaps the Fool's Muse, woke me around 3:30 AM.  So basically I got a four hour nap and since then the ideas and inspiration have been downloading.  Typically I fight this but I have decided not to so since I'm up, I may as well blog about my excitement right  And the alarm was due to go off right about now anyway.  Interestingly I had made a connection back to the Power Mask assignment I gave to the December New Moon participants.  Little did I know when I listened to spirits suggestion about creating masks that I was also creating a logo for a consulting service I'm supposed to offer.  Ooops, did I let the cat out of the bag...not too much....and the point is, that I listened to what my heart told me to share.  I did it without attachment to the result and within a month something brand new and exciting for me was birthed.

Oh did I tell you that the fool is about creation.  And also about non-attachment as the Fool is also about taking leaps of faith.  Often people say the fool is about no-fear.  I don't think that is possible, fear is a reality.  The truth is the Fool is about courage.  First the etymology of the word courage comes from couer, which means heart in French.  So in trusting our heart we can leap into life fully, not without fear but despite fear as we trust that we must take that direction.

So I guess the reason that I am called to write this blog is because even though I know ceremony and working with archetypes is powerful, when it comes in so strongly and clearly after a simple request, I am in complete and utter awe.  So I guess it's true that we teach what we need to learn and also to let you know that the energies around this full moon are certainly ramping up and the Fool is ever present and most definitely willing and able to work with you.

Interestingly the Fool is the first card yet is represented by the number 0 (zero).  Representing the circle of unity and as Oscar often says, in correlation with Hermetic principles "As Above So Below. As Below, So Above.  As Within, So Without.  As Without, So Within.  As the Self, So the Circle.  As the Circle, so the Self."  Also 0 representing "No-thing" - need I say more about the wisdom in that and non-attachment.

The other energy that is often associated with the Fool is Christ Consciousness.  And I stress consciousness and not what religion has interpreted him and his teachings to be about.  The pure consciousness of Christ is about unconditional love and forgiveness.  The most obvious association with the Fool is the clown, the trickster and the jester that was a key part of every royal kingdom since after all "laughter is the GPS for the soul."

So as I get ready to to go out into the world and get myself some caffeine and sugar in the form of chai, I leave you with this fool/christ consciousness/laughter like quote:
"Humor offers a revolutionary yet simple spiritual paradigm.  If you can laugh at yourself, you can forgive yourself.  And if you forgive yourself, you can forgive others.  Laughter heals and grounds us in a place of hope.  It fosters intimacy and honesty in our relationships with each other and with God.  And isn't that what grace is all about"

To give credit, where it is due.  Both quotes came from Ode Magazines, August 2009 Issue, which was dedicated to laughter.  Which coincidentally arrived just before my clowning trip to Costa Rica last September....oh I digress.

So I look forward to sharing the wisdom of the Fool with you on Sunday evening in person or if you can't be there, invite the fool to visit (I can give you recommendations if you need them) and let me know how it works out for you.

Wishing you a day filled with Light, Love and Laughter,
Lulu