The Song of the Twenty

Let me sing to you the Song of the Twenty Powers within the Song of the Universe. It is like an Orchestra whose members have played together, since always. Each member of this Orchestra has its instrument, its sound, its light, its energy, its harmonic vibration called orende. Each has its giveaway to the collective sound even though it has its separate distinct sound....

... I am so sorry, but this post has been moved to my new website, Feathers and Bones, and can be found in its entirety here: The Song of the Twenty

Morning Meditation - Between Earth and Sky

Back to the Snake Dancers again. This time, a Walpi Snake Priest, dressed for the Antelope dance, explained to me about the Eagle feathers and the cornmeal, both of which are used to control and contain the snakes.

The Eagle feathers represent the sky, the cornmeal represents the earth. And between the earth and the sky is a balance which holds the snake energy.

~what's this?

Morning Meditation - Out of Balance

I was really off my schedule today, and it wasn't morning anymore when I finally sat down to do the meditation. I opened to someone I've visited with before. A Klamath grandfather. He looked me and said, "Woman, what are you doing?"

I figured he was referring to how late I was in getting my meditation time started, so I said, "I know..." and mumbled on about how I'm tired, and goofing off this morning.

He said, "Balance - you have to get some balance!" And I thought about how many times this week I've allowed my schedule to get out of control, how I've been slacking on my self care, and getting all caught up in blogging and being on the internet til 3am. My schedule, when I stick to it, gives me a nice balance - and I feel better about myself and about life.

Then, the thought occured to me - maybe it's not really this little elder talking to me, maybe it's my own mind, feeling guilty about blowing off the things that feed me spiritually and physically.

So I cleared my mind as best I could, and started over. He said, "This is a serious business. You don't go on a vision quest and then spend your time playing with the rocks. You don't go on the warpath and then stop to play in the flowers. You are on a journey... don't get side tracked. Get your balance back - stay focused."

Ok... sounds clear enough. It's early to bed for me tonight! And back on track in the morning.

~what's this?

Stillness

Direction: The Center
Image: Shell and Quartered Circle
Key Words: stillness, center, joining, co-creation, balancing, reconciliation, plurality, destiny
Color: purple
Element: Will

At some distant point in mythological time, the living being which we call the planet Earth joined together with the Great Spirit of All That Is to co-create humankind. As the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, so is every child more than a joining of two parents. Distinct from the rest of creation, humankind achieved self-awareness and by so doing gained the right of free will.

Because we are children of form and spirit, we have access to both the Earthly and the Divine within ourselves. Further, every individual is a collection of many parts: emotional, mental, spiritual, physical. Each part affects the rest in invisible fashion. But there is a way to achieve balance by seeking the center point of stillness where all parts will merge. If we learn to move from that center, responding not to the various insistent voices of body, heart, spirit or mind but acting from an awareness of the greatest good, then all four are served. They may not receive all their wants, but their real and essential needs will always be met.

By seeking to balance the plurality of our existence, we have the ability to balance the entire planet. This is the challenge that faces us. But there is no way to point at humanity and say, all right, take responsibility for your actions, make these realizations, because humanity is a collection of billions of individual beings who have lived, live, and may yet live. Our movements as a whole are difficult to perceive. But the awareness of a few can profoundly affect the rest of humanity through the invisible but powerful winds of change. Humanity can evolve through movements in individual lives.

The Earth as Gaia, a living being imbued with the spirit of All That Is, is faced with the same challenge that we face as individuals seeking to balance our plurality. If we choose of our own free will to accept our destiny, releasing the weakness, inadequacy and resistance that binds us to our old vision and world view, then yield to our greatest potential, we can be the wielder of will for the Earth as well, making the decision that will end this cycle and allow a new one to begin.

The gift of free will gives us the right to choose any direction and any path. Somehow the gift seems most powerful if it is used to do other than what is expected. Destruction appears to us so much more powerful than creation, taking so much more powerful than giving, controlling so much more powerful than yielding. But this is a distorted view. The other side of the gift of free will gives us the right to choose to be what we are intended to be. While non-human beings accept their roles without choice, we are given the freedom to choose to take our part. From here we make our own paths, then choose to walk upon them, taking responsibility for every choice that we make.

No one is going to tell us what we have to do. No force outside us is going to provide an easy solution to our global crisis. No ultimate authority is going to deliver an absolute truth in which we will all finally be able to believe. No relationship, no religion, no acquisition, no achievement, nothing that we find outside us is going to make us whole.

As we journey within ourselves, searching for the center point of stillness, we may discover it is a place we can only approach empty-handed and alone. But turning our backs on the world we may find, to our endless joy, the whole world waiting there for us to arrive and our empty hands holding everything we need.

~Judith Pintar

What is dark

What is dark clings to what is light and so enhances the brightness of the latter. A luminous thing giving out light must have within itself something that perseveres; otherwise it will in time burn itself out. Everything that gives light is dependent on something to which it clings, in order that it may continue to shine.

Thus the sun and moon cling to heaven, and grain, grass, and trees cling to the earth. So too the twofold clarity of the dedicated man clings to what is right and thereby can shape the world. Human life on earth is conditioned and unfree, and when man recognizes this limitation and makes himself dependent upon the harmonious and beneficent forces of the cosmos, he achieves success.

~I Ching