New Age artist Katherine Skaggs is coming to Wild Iris Books!

On August 30 & 31, 2010, Katherine will be here at Wild Iris Books rendering intuitive portraits of your very soul!

Katherine is an internationally known and respected as a visionary New Age artist, intuitive, author, teacher, spiritual counselor, shamanic practitioner, reader of the akashic records and painter of souls. She’s also the artist of the Mythical Goddess Tarot, the Pocket-full of Goddesses: a Blessing Oracle, and both the art and inspiration of the Pocket Blessing Cards… including hundreds of soul portraits and channeled paintings of goddesses and divine beings of light.

Katherine travels around the world to study with shamans in the jungles of the Amazon basin, the mountains of the Andes and Mexico, and other sacred sites with wise ones who will have her! Katherine is artist of the Mythical Goddess Tarot, carried in New Age bookstores across the country!

In Katherine’s own words:

“Soul Portraits are powerful, inspiring, personal mandalas filled with guidance and stimulation to follow your soul path. Your soul will be inspired each time you experience your portrait!

Each Soul Portrait is an intuitive painting revealing aspects of your true spirit through powerful, vibrant color and energy patterns on canvas. In an individual private session, I tune into your soul’s energy, to paint a divinely guided portrait. Each portrait is alive with vital energy, reflecting back the higher soul essence of each person. The soul portrait acts as a doorway, creating its own energy grid, giving you greater access to your higher, multi-dimensional self. Soul Portraits are an avenue to connect to your true spirit, beauty and divine nature.

Divine Guidance and Purpose for Your Life!

Soul Portraits emanate divine guidance and soul direction. Their vast love and truth reflects your true inner beauty. The energy from each Soul Portrait helps you to more consciously focus on your gifts and life’s purpose. You are much more than your personality and this individual life. You are a multi-dimensional being, a soul full of divine energy. You are on a journey to remembering this soul essence and your connection to the divine.”

A soul portrait session with Katherine is a life changing event. Not only do you leave with a channeled vision of your soul but Katherine signs the back of your portrait via automatic writing for an additional channeled message from Spirit!

As a  tool of transformation, a soul portrait can heal like little else can. In an article Katherine wrote about the healing properties of a soul portrait and the session she states;

“Each soul portrait is a reflection of a facet of the soul revealing something pertinent that the individual needs to see at that moment. The colors and symbols will move beyond the conscious mind and intellect into the subconscious, or inner part of the soul self. This will help in triggering an expansion within the conscious waking state, awakening a deep inner recognition of the true Self. This assists the individual in remembering who they are (beyond the personality) and why they are here.”

Don’t miss your chance to work with Katherine Skaggs! Each session is only $150.00. Call Bernadette @ Wild Iris Books 352-375-7477 or email her – bernadette@wildirisbooks.com.

Read more about Katherine’s urban shamanism here and see more of her soul portraits here.

As I have written in many articles so far, the most ancient practice of spirituality on the planet is shamanism, and it teaches that we already ARE DREAMING OUR REALITY! We are spiritual beings having a human experience, yes! And, even when we accept this as a philosophy we embrace, it can seem daunting to actually find ways to ground this philosophy into practical ways of living for creating the world we desire to live in.

Consider that you may have greater power than you realize when you can learn to focus your mind through the eyes of your heart. The Cosmos is shifting and supporting an awakening on the planet within the heart of humanity at this time. The Prophecy of 2012 has been written by many indigenous peoples for 1,000s of years, telling of a time when there would be a shift in the collective dream, bringing death to the old ways, and ultimately rebirth into a new cycle. The unrest we are experiencing in our world today is the breaking apart of the old dream, and old ways of being … shaking things up so we can reach into our hearts and find the answers that live within us, and that are latent to our true nature as spiritual beings living in elemental bodies.

Now is the time to embrace your path as the Dreamer of your future! To live a more empowered way of being with greater freedom, consider implementing some of the following tips into your life. Expand beyond the limitations of the mind and any fear patterns holding you back.

The 11 Top Tips for How to Dream the Future Are…

1. Dream from an Enlightened Heart.
Each day find time to go into your own heart and connect to nature, to Spirit, to what you love, to how you love. The answers for dreaming your future live in your heart center. These answers are free of struggle, free of limitations, free of ego and fear. The enlightened heart knows unlimited potential and possibility. The enlightened heart recognizes ease, grace and flow. The enlightened heart reaches into the depths of the unknown, trusting in love, joy and peace as the answers to living life. When there is struggle, go to the heart, and discover the guidance of the heart to shape your future.

2. Admit You Need a New Dream!
First of all, you have to know that you want and need a change. Once you have recognized you don’t want to struggle any more, then you can begin to change your life and let go of the behaviors, people, jobs and experiences that don’t make life fun or fulfilling. Ask with an earnest heart what change is needed and desired, and let that guide you.

3. Release the Old Dream
Now that you have admitted you need a new dream, honor the old dream so you can let it go. What are the old stories, the old attitudes and behaviors that you desire to let go of? What are the old fears that keep you playing out old patterns?

Get some blank paper, and write these stories out with all the passion and feelings you can muster, until you can’t write any more. Embellish all you can. What do you need to forgive and let go of? Forgive yourself, and each person or situation you feel you need to forgive. Forgiveness is the foundation of freedom and the ability to dream again.

When you have written the stories all out create a ceremony to release the Old. Now is a great time and cycle to do this. It is important to let go of what was so we can move into what we desire to create anew. A ceremony may be as simple as lighting a candle and sending a prayer to Spirit to take this from you now that you have written it all out. Or if you have access to a fireplace or outdoor fire, take what you have written with an earnest heart and throw it into that fire (which represents the Eternal Flame of Spirit). Let Spirit burn up this old energy, recycling it and making it ready for your new dreams!

4. Be Grateful for What You Have
Sit quietly and reflect upon your life. Use all your senses to image all that you have to be grateful for – your health, your loved ones, your skills and talents, your home, etc. As you connect to all the good through your gratitude, imagine the most amazing love expanding in your heart, filled with joy and peace. Imagine that this lives in the gratitude at all times. Imagine this gratitude feeds all your new dreams. When you are through sitting in this peaceful state, write, journal, paint, create art, dance, sing… Commit to flowing the gratitude into an activity that brings it beyond your mind and into your physical world.

5. Journey with Spirit for a New Dream
If you can, move directly from your gratitude imaging and activity into a Spirit Journey. Put on music that helps you continue to move inward into your heart… double drum beat journey music, meditation music, high energy ecstatic dance music… make sure you have plenty of undisturbed time to commit to this experience. This is a sacred time for you to connect to the Dream that lives within you that wants to emerge in the next cycle. Focus on your desire for a New Dream. Call your guides, angels and totem animals to come with you and help you. Breathe in and breathe out, connecting to your breath and your Spirit. Allow your breath and the music to relax you deeper and deeper into a dreamlike state. Now allow yourself to get the feeling, thoughts, imagery and guidance awaiting you. Trust what comes to you, then commit it to a journal when you are through.

6. Create an Expectation of a Miraculous Life
Cultivate an attitude of the New Dream being one of only love. Try on the “rose colored glasses for a while” and dream from the power of a positive focus. What if this shift in your point of view brought miracles to you? What if you could dream blessings into your life beyond anything you have been able to imagine before by simply opening to the possibility?

7. Protect Your Dream
The next part requires relentless honesty and discipline. Cut out the negative chatter of the mind. Be on constant guard for words of doubt, fear and criticism – both from yourself or others. These words and attitudes always kill dreams. You must protect your dream inwardly and outwardly. Pay attention to who you share it with. Do not share it with people you know who are nay sayers. Only share it with people who honor you and will support you in creating a different dream.

8. Have a Constant Conversation with the New Dream
Trust in your intuition, your dream journey and your inner guidance to help you unfold your new dream for the new cycle of your life.

Create regular times each week for prayer, meditation and working with intention. Journal your desires, then image yourself living what you have asked for and intended. To manifest your new life is to focus on the qualities and feelings of this new dream, as well as the way you will live it. Be in a conversation with your inner dream, get to know it, love it, thank it, then give life to it through your attitude and actions. What you give focus to will expand… it is a law of quantum physics as well as metaphysics.

Work with the concept and attitude that a beautiful New Dream is being given to you right now. It lives in the quantum field and is expanding for you to receive. Be aware of synchronicities that reflect the energy of the new dream expanding. Admit these, write them down, and you will begin to see the formation of the dream manifesting in your physical world!

9. Practice Patience and Trust
Once you have focused on bringing in a new dream and new life, be patient and trust that it is being given. Imagine you have planted a seed in your garden. Now you must water and feed that seed so it may grow up into a full plant that blossoms and bears fruit. It requires the right amount of sunshine (your attention and love), water and plant food, (again your attention, nourishment and actions that give to its growth) and sufficient time to make its journey from the seedling state (from the inner levels of consciousness) to its state as a full blown plant that has busted through the ground and grown into a flourishing plant (new lifestyle and way of being). Weed that garden along the way, pulling out any negative thoughts or obstacles in your thinking and actions that deny life to your new way of life. Never dig up the soil to see if your plant is growing… be patient and nourish your seeds.

10. Bless Your Dream Often
The action of blessing is an action of affirming and nourishing what you desire. It is the process of watering the seeds in your garden, of giving them plant food to help the seedlings to grow into strong plants. Bless yourself and the world around you and watch how you magnetize nothing but blessings to your dream, and all aspects of your life.

11. Let Your Heart Guide You Always, in All Ways
If you desire to live a dream born of love and of the enlightened heart, then you must learn to trust the guidance of this heart. Move out of your head, of “what you should do” to what you desire from within your soul self. Seeds of the heart need the nourishment of the heart for them to grow.

Your new dream urges you to ask yourself questions such as the following, and then to find the answers in your heart, not your head.

* What would it be like to live in a world guided by love?
* What would you feel like and who would be around you?
* What work would you do in your new world?
* What talents would you fulfill and experience?
* What adventures would you take?

Dream well for your personal world… and trust, this is how the larger matrix shifts when we love ourselves and our lives, for it ripples into the larger pond of humanity and shapeshifts the bigger dream!

Though it took me a little while to embrace this very clear guidance, I am now living and working as a full time visionary artist and intuitive painter of souls. I have discovered over the last 16 years or so, and more than 1,000 soul portraits later, that healing truly does occur through revealing the higher octaves of the soul self in color, imagery, symbol and channeled messages.

Soul Portraits are a visionary art process, rich in the shamanic traditions of using art and imagery as a healing tool of the soul. Each Soul Portrait opens a gateway or portal to one’s higher self and touches on the potential of one’s assignment in this life, bringing the higher octaves of the soul song to an individual in the language of imagery, color, light and words of divine guidance.

As the painter of souls, I can tell you that we are multi-dimensional beings, expressing just a portion of our own potential and greatness. Having this as one of my life tasks, I have come to understand that this process can help one to see more clearly her gifts, as well as an inspiration to move toward her true heart desires. When a person can be witnessed and seen for her higher expression, her hopes, her dreams, her true self, she can often receive the energy needed to move forward toward her life dreams with courage, calm and assurance.

Over the years I have seen people receive a healing during the soul portrait painting process, releasing tears of joy while feeling the energy shift up, as lower energies shift out. I have received emails and phone calls of people telling me how their lives have changed by working with the painting as they would a mandala or healing tool, or as they would in speaking to a guide or angel.

Each soul portrait is a reflection of a facet of the soul revealing something pertinent that the individual needs to see at that moment. The colors and symbols will move beyond the conscious mind and intellect into the subconscious, or inner part of the soul self. This will help in triggering an expansion within the conscious waking state, awakening a deep inner recognition of the true Self. This assists the individual in remembering who they are (beyond the personality) and why they are here.

To learn more about soul portraits with Katherine Skaggs, you can watch the following video.

And if you have an interest in receiving a soul portrait in person at Wild Iris Bookstore you can schedule a session when Katherine visits in August.

Katherine Skaggs Visionary Art Soul Portrait Session on Youtube

See more samples of soul portraits at Katherine Skaggs’ page on Wild Iris Market

Read more of Katherine Skaggs articles, including shamanism, the goddess, inspiration, psychic and…

Indigenous peoples from around the world have understood the concept of dreaming their world for many eons. They understand and take great responsibility in dreaming well. Their wisdom is simple, and yet quite profound in application. You can easily adopt the philosophy and apply the practices in your urban life and discover this mystery for yourself.

Maintain constant awareness (mindfulness), presence. Stay awake! Be mindful of your thinking, your actions, your feeling and how you interact in your world. Slow down in the hustle and bustle of this world and recognize your attitudes and thoughts, feelings, are connected to your actions, and to how your life is being created. Breathe. Your attitudes, thoughts and feelings create your world! Direct your thoughts toward your desires, and yet stay present in the moment, for the moment is where the power of your life lives.

Always pay attention to synchronicities. There are always signs, omens and messages, if you will only listen and see. Bringing your constant awareness to the NOW moment allows you to see/hear/feel the signs and synchronicities. There is a weaving the fabric of your life from your inner dreamer to your outer reality. The “coincidences” and synchroncities will help you see the bigger picture unfolding and reflect back to you what you are creating.

Relate with a full and open heart. If you want a world full of love, peace and joy, discover your full and generous heart. What you give is truly what you receive. Let your heart guide you in your creative process, and your world will reflect this generosity, joy and fullness.

Always give back in gratitude to your world. Bless your world with gratitude and watch it flow. This action of gratitude will expand  your world as much as any action can. It is attractive and full of heart, as well as energy that creates growth.

Listen to nature. Be in union with nature, for it will teach you and show you what you need to know. Every part of the natural world is a teacher if you will observe, listen, watch and ask to understand. The trees, the rocks, the wind, the water, the mountains, the birds, the squirrels, etc., all have a message if you will learn to see and to hear. Nature not only will teach you, it will fill you up with the higher octave energies that are the foundational energies of creation. Nature will replenish and regenerate you, inwardly and outwardly.

Keep life in balance. There is a time to work, a time to rest. Be mindful to stay in balance with this flow. When you are out of balance, life will begin to crash down around you. Balance is a crucial key to accessing your soul essence and bringing it to Earth in all your activities.

Work hard. Focus on what you desire to create and give yourself to it. This is not about urban workaholism! This is about giving yourself to your desires and then taking action in your physical world to bring forth your dreams.

Release ego and lower dense energies constantly, while filling up with the vibrant higher energies of light and love. Clean and clear man made energies of anger, fear, hate, envy, judgment, jealousy, greed, etc. The ego/false personality will constantly challenge you with these attitudes made of limitation and fear. They create dense, low frequency energies and experiences of chaos and distortion. The Andean Qero call this energy “hucha.”

Clean your mental and emotional energy bodies, and your physical body regularly with practices such as meditation, salt water baths, inner reflection, eating good food, walks in nature, positive attitudes, dancing, singing, playing and sending your “hucha” into the Earth for the Great Mother Earth to recycle. As you clean your energy bodies, imagine filling back up with starlight, light from the cosmos, sunlight, moonlight and sparkles of gold through every cell of your physical body and energy bodies. These cosmic energies are full of the qualities of love, bliss, joy, peace, happiness, laughter and creativity, etc.

These practices keeps your energies bodies vibrant and filled with creative, life-giving energy, all the while “youthing” your physical body.

Remember, you have a limitless mind. There are no limits to what you can do. The Great Void, or Quantum Field allows for miraculous, magical and mystical experiences. Let go of all limiting stories and focus on the possibilities of great things happening. Play the “What if… ?” game, and watch your imagination and curiosity draw to you what you desire and more than you can imagine. What if life only got better?

Be free of opinions of others. Be neutral to the responses of others toward you, positive or negative. Let go of the praises and judgments others have toward you and discover the power of your own authenticity, free of ego.

Release all judgment. This isn’t the easiest, but is one of the important ones. Releasing judgment of the world outside you will free you from ego and struggle. When judgment arises, examine your own attitudes, drop into your heart and let go of critical mind. This neutrality will expand your authenticity, free of ego.

Overcome the fear of death, which includes the death of the ego. Every day is the opportunity to die unto the old, to the ego, and to ways of being that no longer serve you.

Strive to become the type of person who is a walking blessing. Be a giving presence to all you meet. Imagine what it would be like to be filled with joy, happiness, positive energies, and starlight overflowing to all you meet. Walk your talk and exude a presence of light and love. This is the power that will shift your world and all you meet.

In March 2010 I was fortunate enough to meet up with some amigos to make a shamanic pilgrimage to ancient, sacred lands in Mexico. This is a place of ancient shamans and peoples who have for centuries walked this land in ceremony and ritual. This 5-day pilgrimage brought vision and timeless teachings for walking an every day life in greater joy, peace and love.

A Few Timeless Teachings

Sacrifice (to make Sacred through offering devotion, love, worship.)

Lead from the Heart – Pray ceaselessly with an earnest heart.

Call upon your Allies and Ancestors – Ask and you will receive help.

Call upon your allies, seen and unseen, to assist you every moment. They are with you, loving you, holding you, guiding you and protecting you. Give gratitude and offerings, as well as your heart prayers, and know Spirit will work through your allies to bring you wellness, love, joy, abundance and answers to your prayers.

We gave prayers and offerings not only at the altar, but also to all the spirits and ancestors of the land. We thanked the plant life and the rock life, and the spirits of the water and mountains, and desert and sun, of Mother Earth, Father Sky, and fire… we asked for their help as our allies, to clear us and clean us of our patterns that no longer served us, and to help us to open and heal our hearts.

While on this pilgrimage, it was apparent that I had many allies, including the an ancient shaman who works with me from “the other side.” As I awoke my third morning in Mexico after many heart prayers for healing, I experienced Mama Maria and Jesucristie in the presence of my heart and inner knowing. They were there to relieve the old patterns, and to bring assurances of the love and healing coming because we had asked, and were ready.

After breakfast we all gathered to walk to the top of a sacred mountain, to pray as a group and to call in healing for ourselves, our families, our communities, and the family of humanity. All the way up the mountain I found myself in prayer and conversation with Mother Mary in the form of Guadalupe (the Aztec dark Mother of the people), and with Jesucristie (very clearly the presentation of the Christ energy in the form of the indigenous peoples of this sacred land.) I felt the sense of hope, love and strength as I walked from 9,000 feet to 11,000 feet up the mountain over the next few hours. It was Spring Equinox and we were right on schedule to send our prayers to Spirit at this powerful time of planetary alignment and seasonal change.

Be present – for you are always exactly where you need to be, and you are never alone on the journey.

We live in times of great change, excitement and challenge, personally and globally. Each day we are exposed to troubling headlines, from the destruction of the bp oil spill, to financial scares in our national and global market, to war around our planet, just to name a few things that can bring us into a state of unrest. Though many positive things are happening on the planet, our news and the consciousness of the masses are focused on fear and trouble.

How do we navigate these stresses that seem all around us and find not only relief, but peace, joy and a sense of it all being okay? Is that possible? As life flows in its ups and downs it seems like all we can do is sit down, tired from all the drama, sometimes from struggle, and other times from the experience of great heights.

As the world turns and the planets re-arrange themselves, 2012 comes closer and closer with the promise of Armageddon.. of one world dying and a new era being born. The new era is actually a promise of greater love and light, often referred to as a new Golden Age. All we have to do is look around us and know that the change is not eminent, it is happening NOW. We are experiencing man made destruction such as the bp oil spill, as well as many Earth changes, with the Great Mama spewing volcanoes and cracking up in earth quakes. Our great Mother Gaia is doing all she can to help us crack open our hearts as we break away our old patterns of fear, stubbornness and separation. She is asking us to come together as humankind once more, with compassion and assistance for all.

Not only do I see these many changes in our earth and the patterns of our climate, but I see these volcanoes erupting in the minds and emotions of many people around me. Their lives are breaking apart, just as the Earth Mother’s body is breaking apart in places. I see people letting off steam, cracking patterns of fear that have held them hostage to relationships, jobs, attitudes and habits of being. The changes are difficult, like giving birth in hot lava, so uncomfortable. Yet, there is no waiting for the change, it is upon us all. And for any who have ignored their discomfort and pushed it aside over the years, you can be assured that the eruptions will be all the more powerful, urging to make a change, to let go, and to fill up with something different than what has been accepted in the past.

It can be overwhelming when we are being pressured to change. There is no escaping it all. The stars are truly achangin’… sending energies through us and rearranging the very molecules that create our reality. Yet, if we will only stop for a moment, we will know we are not alone, that this is manageable, if only we will slow down and breathe. If only we will know that all we have to do is take one step at a time.

Recently I was on a beautiful sacred pilgrimage in Mexico to some ancient, Aztec lands. Upon this journey I trekked to the top of a sacred mountain one day with a small group of fellow pilgrims. We went from 9,000 to 11,000 feet over the course of a few hours, each of us in our own prayerful spaces. At the top of the mountain we stopped in several places to pray in ceremony together. Each stopping place held great power and gave us all healing, support and personal power. We were on the mountain for several hours, receiving great guidance, love and healing. Finally it was time to complete our time on the mountain and to begin our journey back down to town, to rest, to walk in the village and to have an evening dinner and celebration.

Upon the walk down the mountain I realized I was very tired. I had not only walked this mountain and been on it for many hours how, but I was completing several days of pilgrimage. I had driven many hours to reach our sacred lands, had already done a full day and night ceremony with no sleep, and had little sleep the night before this ceremonial day. Though I was so filled with love, joy, gratitude and satisfaction, my body was tired and the walk was long even for a walk down a mountain. Yet, as I walked I was in conversation with Jesus, Mary and Grandfather. I was being instructed the entire way down the mountain to “just take one more step.”

At times I felt alone when I could not see any amigos on the trail, and I would be told, “there are many before you and behind you. If you keep walking you will eventually find the ones before you. There is always someone waiting. And if you get tired, sit down, and someone will find you. And if you will just take one more step, then another, then another, you will eventually arrive at your destination… along the way, enjoy the beauty. We are with you supporting you through your tiredness. Focus on the beauty and you will be there before you know it.”

As I adjusted my attention to the joy of my conversation with my amazing guides, and to the beauty and teachings along the path, I found myself in town shortly. And, as I walked across the bridge that leads to this small mountain town, I looked up and saw a dear amigo from my group, waiting. Tears came to my eyes as my heart opened even wider and I knew how my guides had gifted me with an experience confirming their words of guidance. “If you will just take one more step, someone will be there for you.”

So my dear friends, as you walk through this time of deep transformation, “just take one more step.” You are not alone. There are many around you, seen and unseen, who love you and support you through times of change. Keep your eyes and your heart on the beauty. Do not be afraid to let go of the pressure within, and break away the old patterns that are born of fear, self deprecation and resistance to your own beauty. You will be refreshed and regenerated when you let go and move to your heart. Trust in a new pattern of greater love replacing what has been hard. Just take one more step. Just one more. And then another. You will move through what is difficult if only you will appreciate the scenery as you go on the path. Look to what is good, what is beauty, what is nourishing. You will find your way. You are not lost. Someone is before you, and someone is behind you. You are exactly where you need to be. Just take one more step.

Read more articles by Katherine Skaggs on shamanism, world-wide spiritual travels (including the jungles of Peru, Babaji’s ashram in India and a pilgrimage to sacred lands of Mexico… to name a few), the goddess, personal transformation and empowerment.

We all are feeling very excited about the possibilities of doing this bigger and bigger. More musicians, more, wise women, shamans, healers and meditators who are attuned to this process are welcome to share this Holy Space here at Moonhaven in Melrose for now but who knows, we could go Global and Viral with the right hookups creating Sound Healing webs joining all around the world!

Clearly, it is Spirit’s intention for us to join together in huge numbers to do the Spiritual Cleanup of the Planet, never mind BP and Halliburton, and Goldman and Sachs and other evil doers.

Karma, as Allan Watts once said, is not a Who Done It, but a You Done It! As part of the planet that is still guzzling toxins from the bp oil spill, it behooves us to clean up what we can clean up and be the change that we want to see in the world.

We do have the power to do this and each of us can find creative personal and collective solutions and places where each can be effective. We need to step up and step out on that limb and allow our minds to accept the possibility that together we can indeed co create a MIRACLE AND IT WILL TAKE NO LESS.

We are stepping out of the 3 dimensional world of limitations and smack into the 5th dimensional world where anything can happen, THE REALM OF THE MIRACULOUS AND THIS IS OUR ENGRAVED INVITATION……SIGN ME UP!

I invite you to join me for Summer Solstice June 21  6pm pot luck and 7pm for  ritual HEALING THE WATERS AND ALL HER CREATURES. Bring whatever you need to be comfy and instruments and or drums if you like. I will play the dolphin healing music and you can join in how you like. Facebook Flash or call for directions or info 352 4752432.

If you can’t be here in person to help heal the dolphins affected by the bp oil spill, I invite your energy as long as you “come in peace”.

BLESSINGS,

FLASH SILVERMOON

Learn more about how I am helping the dolphins make it through the bp oil spill and how you can do the same in:

Musical pathways to healing the waters and Her creatures from the bp oil spill: Part  1

Musical pathways to healing the waters and Her creatures from the bp oil spill: Part 2

Musical pathways to healing the waters and Her creatures from the bp oil spill: Part 3

Many thanks to Katherine Skaggs, fellow shamanic healer and artist, for the incredible artwork she so graciously has allowed me to use in this series of articles. You can buy Katherine’s artwork at her store on Wild Iris Market.

Astrologically, my natal chart has been being slammed and sparked by many high powered aspects for many months. All, promising some kind of a major shift spiritually and professionally, that I would be called out even more than I was already in terms of leadership, working with the public, and the Collective. I wondered and speculated but today, as Saturn let go of its strangle hold on my Sun and Moon ever so slightly, I felt the Release and liberation as so many aspects of my path came together as I played my heart and love for the beloved DOLPHINS. As a double Pisces, what better animal guide could there be to initiate me into a new dimension.

My zodiac sign is one of the major reasons I’m so affected by the emergent situation of the bp oil spill. My family is in those waters. My family is in that oil.

My Shamanic world and my music have totally integrated and I must tell you that the union of those parts has brought me to a state of ecstasy replacing the fear and terror that had riddled my soul just 2 days before. I had been holding back the fear of devastation not wanting to let it in too deeply, not wanting to let it paralyze me from being the Spiritual Warrior I am needing to be. After one too many emails about what was really happening with the bp oil spill, I totally broke down – which needed to happen to clear out the fear and make room for this new reality.

As I write this I am re- listening to the fantastic concert for the opening of the World Cup in Soweto, South Africa, a place that appeared to be stuck in the shackles of extreme racism and Apartheid. Here they were thousands of free Africans dancing and drumming and sharing  the stage with The Black Eyed Peas, Alicia Keyes, Shakira and so many others from other countries lifting their spirits in celebration that no one could have predicted in South Africa 20 years ago. It took wise and brave people to push beyond fear and expectation to create this MIRACLE!

Music is one of the things that allows people to join together and quickly RAISE THE VIBE FOR THE TRIBE.

Learn more about how I am helping the dolphins make it through the bp oil spill and how you can do the same in:

Musical pathways to healing the waters and Her creatures from the bp oil spill: Part 1

Musical pathways to healing the waters and Her creatures from the bp oil spill: Part 2

Musical pathways to healing the waters and Her creatures from the bp oil spill: Part 4

Many thanks to Katherine Skaggs, fellow shamanic healer and artist, for the incredible artwork she so graciously has allowed me to use in this series of articles. You can buy Katherine’s artwork at her store on Wild Iris Market.

As an animal communicator I am very used to listening to the voices of animals. When I tuned in  more deeply they told me that they liked sound, many kinds of pleasant sounds and rhythms.

We have been chanting and drumming to the Ocean Mother, the Orisha Yemonja to the Yoruba and Yemaya to the Island  peoples as well as Oshun the River Goddess, the Orisha of the sweet water. This felt wonderful but when I learned of an endangered pod of Mom and baby dolphins in Perdido Key, Alabama, I knew that I needed to do more for the magnificent souls affected by the bp oil spill.

Music!

That was it!

Play music to the dolphins and do remote healing journeying with them to cleaner, safer waters.

I stared at my keyboards wondering how I could simulate dolphin energy in my living room. My being was on creative fire as I raced through the many possible sounds on one of the keyboards and discovered a setting that was called Lost Paradise which sounded perfect, I could even hear the soft dolphin voices way in the background. More layers of sound would be better and I did not want our Paradise to be Lost, even that metaphor seemed wrong for what we were trying to accomplish.

On another sound module that is midi-ed [joined together for simultaneous sounds] I found a setting that I love called Utopia. This sounded like the most wonderful compliment of tones and just the concept of Lost Paradise merging with Utopia for all the dolphins felt right. On a separate keyboard I added the occasional Tin Flute and the dolphins and I were ready to go !

I started playing rather tentatively as I felt myself gathering  the dolphins together from many different places, one, and then another few splashing playfully to the music, and the more and more till I was swimming with them. I was not simply leading them as I had first expected but the music, tempo, intensity, notes and rhythm were being guided by this mutual conversation we were having and I became totally swept into their watery domain undulating, shape shifting drawing them to warm clear blue Caribbean water.

I must say that the more I played, the better I felt, healing and being healed by these pods of smiling dolphins.

I can see this having a profound effect on my healing work in the future with people and animals…and there are a great number who are and will continue to be affected by the bp oil spill.

Learn how I am helping the dolphins make it through the bp oil spill and how you can do the same in:

Musical pathways to healing the waters and Her creatures from the bp oil spill: Part 1

Musical pathways to healing the waters and Her creatures from the bp oil spill: Part 3

Musical pathways to healing the waters and Her creatures from the bp oil spill: Part 4

Many thanks to Katherine Skaggs, fellow shamanic healer and artist, for the incredible artwork she so graciously has allowed me to use in this series of articles. You can buy Katherine’s artwork at her store on Wild Iris Market.

Could I rage across this page and vent my spleen hell yeah and there’s a place for that lest anyone at this point be lulled into sweet denial that this horror could not touch them.

This is serious, a gusher from a crack in the sea bed literally bleeding the Mother to death.

Be that as it may, the issue for us all is how to heal the Gulf and all its creatures and restore it to its once pristine nature. Fortunately many spiritual leaders from many nations are heeding the inner call to encourage mass prayers, visualizations, healing groups, sound and musical  healings, chanting…all great stuff with the  common thread to;

GATHER THE PEOPLE TO RALLY FOR THE PLANET AND ELEVATE THE VIBRATION TO HEAL HER EMPOWERING EACH PERSON TO DO THEIR PART TO RE WEAVE THIS HEALING WEB OF LIGHT AND HEAL THEMSELVES IN THE PROCESS

For me this has been crystal clear and I have been doing  prayers and rituals daily leading groups locally, in cyber space, on the air waves, and
solo. I know that right now there is nothing that is more important for me to do.

Historically, Spiritual people have always utilized this type of group energy and focus in dire emergencies such as the routing of the Spanish
Armada by the inferior British fleet with Witch, Sir Francis Drake at the helm in concert with Witches assembled  on the White Cliffs of Dover who raised a storm to give him the needed advantage on his home turf. Likewise, a similar group met in the New Forest of Great Britain to keep Hitler from attacking England before going to Russia and of course  we know that he did, in spite of  all counsel, go to Russia first which finished his reign of terror!

The Druids did not have thousands of slaves building Stonehenge, nor did the Egyptians or Mayans for their majestic pyramids. SOUND AND VIBRATION were the methods used in each case to move what even modern people would be challenged to replicate.

Like so many I adore the dolphins and the idea that these precious beings could be dying in large numbers in this bp oil spill  literally hurts my heart so I want to make their well being a priority. I felt that there was a way in and I would find that.

Learn about how I am helping the dolphins make it through the bp oil spill and how you can do the same in:

Musical pathways to healing the waters and Her creatures from the bp oil spill: Part 2

Musical pathways to healing the waters and Her creatures from the bp oil spill: Part 3

Musical pathways to healing the waters and Her creatures from the bp oil spill: Part 4

Many thanks to Katherine Skaggs, fellow shamanic healer and artist, for the incredible artwork she so graciously has allowed me to use in this series of articles. You can buy Katherine’s artwork at her store on Wild Iris Market.

Babaji Calling – A Spiritual Quest to India

Mystical Synchronicities

In November 2007 I had no plans of going to India — until after I had said a series of prayers on Thanksgiving Day. I surrendered to Spirit and asked in the depths of my earnest heart to allow me to live only in love and to release karma or suffering. I chanted Om namah shivaya and tucked myself into bed to read for the day, alone and away from gatherings of family and friends. As I was reading, I realized that I wasn’t alone. Up to my right above me was the elephant-headed god looking down upon me. I couldn’t remember his name, but I knew who it was and said “Hi.”

A little more time passed and I heard inwardly, “Parvati.” I couldn’t remember who Parvati was, so I jumped up and went to Google “Parvati.” Interestingly enough, Parvati is the Supreme Goddess or Divine Mother in Hinduism, also mother of Ganesha, the elephant-headed god. Fascinating!

I also discovered that Ganesha is the remover of obstacles. Feeling supported as I sat back to read more, I said “thank you” to them both. I thought perhaps they had come to help me with my prayers, though I didn’t understand how at the time.

The mystical events continued into the next morning and I was led to Sondra Ray’s website with information about Babaji and her annual Spiritual Quest to India. As I read through her site, I felt deeply drawn to make this journey, to go to this ashram of Babaji. As I read through the requirements to go, I saw the contact woman’s name and my mouth fell open…her Hindi name was Parvati! I booked my airline ticket and sent my registration money in immediately.

Travel to the Ashram

Four months later I arrived in Delhi, India, to meet a group of 35 people who came from around the world to join rebirthing breath-worker and author Sondra Ray. We were headed for the ashram of Sri Haidakhan Babaji, an avatar who comes onto the planet to help humanity from time to time. No longer in physical form now, he is the love of the Divine and is said to be felt everywhere. His last known incarnation was between 1970 and 1984 in Haidakhan. He is also the Babaji who appeared to Paramahamsa Yogananda in Autobiography of a Yogi, also the avatar who was said to have taught Jesus during his lost years.

This land of mystery and high contrast seemed quite familiar and natural. The roads are full of people on foot and in a variety of vehicles, moving from place to place. It seems everyone is just inches apart, yet somehow quite comfortable and moving, moving, moving. There were new cars, old cars, nice buses, crowded old buses, carts pulled by bison, motorcycles or scooters driven by men with women in saris sitting side-saddle on the back… all within inches of one another.

People had warned me of the poverty, yet I saw only people with beautiful hearts and an underlying spirituality that made sense of it all. I could only feel the love as I went through the contrast.

After a day of shopping in Delhi, we left our 5 star hotel for an 8-hour bus ride of stopping, starting, beeping, bumping, swerving and finally arriving in Haldwani for an overnight stay. The next morning we boarded 4-wheel drive jeeps to trek into the foothills of the Himalayas and into the village of Haidakhan to the ashram of Babaji. It was a beautiful drive, again feeling familiar and peaceful.

Navaratri — Celebration of the Divine Mother

We arrived at the ashram during the spring celebration of the Divine Mother or Navaratri. During this time, many ceremonies are held to honor the different aspects of the Divine Mother, or Parvati. More than 350 people from around the world gathered at the ashram for this 10-day celebration. During the last 3 days many Indian nationals arrived, making over 1,000 people at the ashram at once.

A Day at the Ashram

At 4 a.m. each morning we arose to bathe, either in the Ganges River or in the communal showers. My roommate and I chose to go to the showers, rather than cope with the dark, the hill down to the river and the cold. Instead we filled our bucket with hot water from a water tank heated by a wood fire. Next, the two of us would share a shower stall, taking a cup of water at a time and pouring it over our heads and bodies, using just what we needed to soap up, then rinse. I learned quickly how to bathe in about 8 cups of water or less.

After our morning bath, we dressed in temple clothing and headed for chandan at 5 am. A yogi would spread sandalwood paste on the forehead, to soothe the mind. While we waited to receive chandan each morning, we sang devotional songs to the Divine Mother.

After chandan we would head to one of the chai shops for our morning chai… a whopping 3 rupees, or 8 cents of US currency! Good-bye Starbucks! The chai shops typically consisted of a pot of spices, tea and milk over an outdoor stove or fire. Ginger teas and a few other items, such as fruit were usually available, along with items like bottled water.

After a morning group meeting, we headed to the temple for 7 am arati or devotional songs sung in Sanskrit. This was a time of moving into the rhythm of songs in a foreign language that soon fell out of my mouth, accompanied by ecstatic movement and a vast sense of love expanding in my heart. I have never sat so long with crossed legs day after day. My yoga teacher would be proud!

Usually 10 am brought rebirthing breath work, listening to yogis tell stories, mundon (head shaving) or ayurvedic doctors. Many days different yogis would tell of their times with Babaji in Haidakhan. The stories revealed the deep love, devotion and humility of these very enlightened beings. We heard over and over how Babaji is the Divine Mother, is the Divine Father, is the incarnation of God looking you in the face showing you your ego, then showing your love.

At 11 am we headed across the Ganges River for havan, a powerful fire ceremony offering prayers to different aspects of the Divine Mother. Rice, spices and fruit were thrown into the fire with the prayers. Lunch followed havan, with heaps of rice, dal, soya and other Indian dishes served upon plates made of leaves. Unless you brought your own utensils, you ate with your right hand.

The afternoon called for another bath, always to keep your auric field clean as well as your body, this time in the Ganges river. The Ganges is said to release your karma. This was often a time of laughter and remembering other lives spent in the Himalayas and life as a yogi or monk, with my roommate Teri, whom I just met on this trip!

Once again we dress for temple, go for a chai, then arati at 7 pm.

Spiritual Initiation of Mundon

Mundon is the practice of having your head shaved in ceremony, with the intention of releasing the past attachments and karma. And yes, I shaved my head… rather I had it shaved in ceremony! I knew as soon as I read about this that I was to let it go, my hair, and my past…my karma.

I humbly knelt before the 95-year old head shaver of Babaji’s. I felt deeply honored to have this sweet, heart-centered man take his straight-edged razor and shave my locks. My group gathered and sang Om Namah Shivaya as my hair fell onto the banana leaf. I moved deep into a trance state of gratitude and humility. Once completed, I walked into the Ganges and released the banana leaf and my shaved locks, saying prayers of gratitude for what has been and for what is to come. I then was dunked three times in the river as my own baptism into Spirit in a new way.

The Cobra

I was headed to havan when a group of people stopped to watch two cobras and a snake charmer. He waved a friend over who went up and began to pet one of the cobras. I about fell over before rushing to get my camera. Then he put the cobra around her neck and I gasped…all the time thinking, “I have to do that!” Several more people stepped up, and I continued to know “I have to do that!” My heart raced a little bit each time, yet I scooted closer and closer to shoot this cobra through the lens of my camera. Each time I moved in, I looked more deeply into her eyes. The closer I was, the more I could see and feel immense love and sweetness from this being.

The snake charmer waved me in next and put this amazing being into my hands and around my neck. My heart quivered, yet all I could know was amazing love and respect, honor. This was the experience of amazing power and love at the same time. This was the Divine Mother, kundalini, Shakti incarnate. Meeting and holding this snake was one of the most spiritual experiences I have ever had.

I am profoundly touched by my experiences in India, with so much more to tell. It weaves in with my many spiritual adventures and is perfect in its placement in my life. India is a mystical place where many spiritual adventures are to be found if one is ready and open. If you are called, you must go, for Spirit/God/Babaji…the Divine Source, is calling you. There is no greater gift than to answer a call from love, for love. My prayers are answered…every time, all the time.

Here are a few videos to know more about Babaji and Haidakhan. Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you want to know more about  my adventures around the world and other articles I have written, go to any of the following:

Articles by Katherine Skaggs, which include some of the following:

Shamanism Around the World: More Notes from the Jungle

Shamanism Around the World: Notes from the Jungle

Shamanism Around the World: I am in the Jungle

Shamanism Around the World: I am off the the Jungle

The first time I learned of this dieta was almost two years ago, when I began crying when someone else was receiving a healing.  I could feel everything they were experiencing in their grief and suffering. I received a healing from the shamanic practitioner next and told her I could not stop crying after the other woman’s healing. I did not know if it was my own suffering or the other woman’s. The shamanic practitioner grinned compassionately and told me I needed the tobacco dieta to help me not take on the energy of others so much. Being empathic has its challenges and I must say that the plants and their healing energies profoundly assist in healing these patterns.

I have been working with tobacco in other forms for the past few years as a sacred, ceremonial healing plant. It has already worked with me as an ally teaching me how to hold a healing, compassionate space, but one with fierce protection from energies that are not mine to have. This is very interesting since I grew up with a mother who smoked and died from related health issues. In learning more about the tobacco from the jungle, I have learned about restoring a sacred relationship with tobacco that is used as a sacred plant to heal, rather than to suppress. In the process of the past seven days, I can also assure you that this dieta has offered up a healing to my family members who mis-used tobacco and caused harm to their own bodies. Somehow I am assured I have healed some of my own dna.

The spirit of tobacco was clear and present today on this final day of the dieta. It came into my body as a powerful energy… high frequency is another way to describe it. I could immediately sense it as a great grandfather presence… and answer to a prayer this morning where I asked the tobacco to show its spirit to me clearly. This loving presence has great power and strength. It moved immediately to my hands, showing me how it would be present when I used my hands to do healing work on others. Then a friend of mine showed up in this vision, and I began to use my hands on my friends heart and back in a similar style as the Shipibo shaman demonstrated to us for their shamanic massage.  My friend received a healing through the ethers all the way from the jungle. After this was complete, another friend arrived in my vision and again my hands were lit up with the healing energy of the plants.

The day was one of continued vision and instruction that was beyond my intellect. It was more of a download of energy that was filled with knowing and wisdom. Somehow I trust whenever I need to call on my plant allies, they will be there to work with me.

My time here has been touched by more than the regimen of the plant dieta each day. It has been touched by the gentleness of the people I have had the great fortune to work with. The shaman has each day arrived with a great heart and dedication to the best experience we could have. He has prepared our plants with much love, then sings prayers into them each morning before giving us our drink. Then while we lie in hammocks and are quiet, he watches over us in the malacha each day until the day is done. We are in this silent ceremony all day, from 8am to 3pm. And he is there, holding a sacred vessel for each person to receive the most loving experience possible.

This is an example of how the Shipibo shamans are. The wise ones know that there is no need to create pain to grow or heal. They believe in gentleness in the process of growth and taking time. Though this is no walk in the park and requires some courage and tenacity, it is not about pain to get the healing. There is nothing but love and strength surrounding us. This is truly an example of the divine masculine birthed of the divine mother.

For the jungle represents the Great Mother, and the Divine Feminine. The jungle is the dark, moist feminine womb that all is birthed from. It is the void of all possibility. Even the male spirit of tobacco born of this mother brings healing through gentle strength.

There are many more teachings and notes to share. Yet, there will be another time where I can sit in quiet in my home… where I am NOT sweating bullets… and where I can ruminate a little more to write stories rich of this place I love. I hope you have enjoyed this so far. I look forward to writing more soon. I will be home in two days… and I am sure there will be more adventures to tell by the time I land in front of my own computer! Until then, ciao!