Walking the Labyrinth
 

Last fall before Avatar I had started painting Labyrinths! This was my first one and for the last 10 months or so its been wrapped up and put away! Today, after some intensive housecleaning and reclaiming my living room as an art studio YEAH I got to bring it out again! And so excited that I took my first picture of it . and well just had to share!

I call it (now) my Home Tree Labyrinth!

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/8...elabyrinth.jpg



"Let me walk in beauty
and make my eyes ever behold
the red and purple sunset;
my hands respect
the things that you have made;
my ears sharp
so I may hear your voice.
Make me wise,
so I may learn the things
you have taught my people,
the lessons you have hidden
under every rock and leaf."

Chief Yellow Lark


Tree, gather up my thoughts
like the clouds in your branches.
Draw up my soul
like the waters in your root.

In the arteries of your trunk
bring me together.
Through your leaves
breathe out the sky.
- J. Daniel Beaudry, Breath

btw its 9ft by 9ft (just to get a sense of size)

and now i can get back to painting some more~! :)


Edit: October 9, 2010 - Walking a Labyrinth is an ancient form of meditation and while you walk in and out to the centre of the labyrinth, you also walk in and out to the center of your being. As such I have started to include some meditations that are reflections of contemplation of ones relationship to this living being we call Earth/Gaia/Mother.

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Awesome. You have labyrinth making skills.

O_o










o_o






wow awesome

Oh, to Mother Eywa, that's... speechless ! For real. Me likes very much :D Congrats, :awesome: work. Lookin' forward to see more of these.

Thank you, my dear aysmukan si aytsmuke! :)

And I have started designing my next one, even as I type ~ going to do a waterfalls one! A Pandora Night Skyline one; and attempt even a Bioluminescent one as well; lots of ideas just pouring in through my dreams for inspiration!

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Sacred Tree Meditation
 

Found this today, in another meditation book - The Thundering Years: Rituals and Sacred Wisdom for Teens:


Sacred Tree Meditation

"It may be that some little root of the Sacred Tree still lives. Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds." - Black Elk - Oglala Sioux Holy Man

Sit in a chair with both feet on the floor. Close your eyes and softly focus on your breath for a few minutes, allowing your attention to come into the moment. Give yourself permission to let go of concerns ... Bring your awareness to your breath as you breath in ... and out naturally.

Have your awareness go to the bottoms of your feet. Feel your feet on the floor. Imagine roots coming out the bottoms of both feet. Have the roots move down through the floor and through all the layers of earth,rock, and water. With little effort, and remembering to breath, imagine them moving down, down, until they reach the center of the earth. Once they reach the center of the earth imagine your roots pulling up energy and nutrients from the earth's center. Draw this energy all the way up through your roots into your fee, up your legs, and up into your solar plexus area, above and behind your navel. Let the earth energy move all around in this area and then go down and out through the same roots, so that you have a continual cycle of earth energy moving up and down.

You are the Sacred Tree, your roots still live.

Now like the great Sacred Tree, open the top of your head and let your branches reach up and out. Imagine the sun's energy coming down into the top of your head, traveling slowly down your spine until it meets up with the earth energy in your solar plexus. Have the two energies mix together, as trees mix the energy of earth and sky. Sit as a Sacred Tree, receiving all the nutrients form the earth and all the strength and wisdom from the sun and sky.

Feel your sacredness.
You are the Sacred Tree.
Feel your strength and wisdom
You are the Sacred Tree.
You are the Sacred Tree.
You are the Sacred Tree.
Feel the groundedness from the earth
and the vision from the sky.
You, my friend, are the Sacred Tree.

When you feel finished bring your awareness back to your breath. Rub your hands together and gently touch the palms of your hands to the ground as you slowly open your eyes.

"Whoever sits under the tree recieves and shares this circulation of power and cleansing energy. Feel your whole body as part of this network of life, tradtion and energy." Caitlin Mathews

Walking the Earth With Sensitive Feet
 

A poetic rephrasing of a meditation from the Woman's Book of Soul

Walking the Earth with Sensitive Feet

In perpetual Dance
Earth and Sky provide
Beautiful life-sustaining environment.
Mother pulls into her roots
to replenish and revitalize,
her queendom brown and barren
Father fills his realm
with a carnival of clouds
bringing moisture to a parched planet.
Working in concert
they never leave us
our eyes cannot but be dazzled
our hearts uplifted in awe
and lungs filled with their breath of life.

Yet ignorance and greed
of some
regretfully damage and mar
this splendid beauty

Harmony of living
Spirit awareness
needed to care
for this literal ground
of our being
Both Mother and Father
cry out
needing us to be sensitive
to what harms them.
We planetary stewards
must needs walk the path
of respect.

Sacred Spots
resounding with the elements
of wind and water
Breathtaking
sculptured in awesomeness
and beauty.
Bless them
so that the spirit may return.

Silently
with heart and inner tongue
call out
I see you
from afar
I am longing for your healing
Promise to walk the earth
with sensitive feet.

How different our world would be
walking every day
with sensitive feet
considering in every moment
of contemplation
our relationship to
such sacred divinity.


(based on the words of Sue Patton Thoele)

Mika, you are a flower child :)

Can you take another picture with something on the labyrinth for scale, or tell us how big it is?

I will give the sacred tree meditation a go. It sounds moving.

Sempu, thank you! Right now I so greatly appreciate the compliment and sentiment! :)

Its nine feet by nine feet, but I will try to take another photo for perspective, but right now I just started a new one, so have to wait until its finished before I can do so!

It is and please let us know your experience when you do!

Revitalizing a Traditional Worldview
 

Teachings of Medicine Wheel and Four Directions from "Circle Works: Transforming Eurocentric Consciousness" by Fyre Jean Graveline - Metis feminist, anti-racist activist and scholar.

Revitalizing a Traditional Worldview





The Traditional Worldview: The philosophical foundations underlying Aboriginal Ancestral cultural practices were the 'common sense' of their Traditional societies, perceived as inseparable from the 'ordinary' daily live lived experiences. Patterned into their unconscious through stories, rituals and humour and enacted in everyday experiences.

Immanence - Respect for All Life Forms: A shared belief in knowledge of and respect for unseen powers. These mysterious 'powers' or 'spirit' or 'energy' are found in all Earth's creatures: rocks and crystals, birds and feathers, trees and wood, plants, animals and humans, and are visible especially in dreams and visions and through ceremony. In the Aboriginal World View all things have inherent value, because all things are beings.

These mysterious powers are manifested and observable in the way the seasons change, the way the day follows night, the way the sun moves across the sky. All the physical changes throughout the day - from the colors and sounds of dawn through the afternoon to the stillness of nighttime - all these changes have personalities, are forms of energy shape-shifting. Ongoing cyclical changes affect every one, and one learns to read the signs they show, to learn from Mother Earth herself how to change and adapt to ongoing demands. Growth itself, the germination of seeds and the stages of the life-cycle are all apart of the great mystery of life.

"the awareness of the meaning of life comes from observing how the various living things appear to mesh to provide a whole tapestry." (Deloria)

Sacred oral Traditions deal with all these aspects of life and power and teaches one how to find their place withing the world around them. The universe is bases on an understanding of 'dynamic self-esteem', the 'ability of all creatures to share in the process of ongoing creation makes all things sacred'. 'Unity is the great spiritual law .. the law of nature .. Everything had its place, and everything works in unison.'


Interconnectedness - Our Spiritual Truth: That all things are dependent on each other. All things and all people, though we have our own individual gifts, are dependent on and share in the growth and work of everything and everyone else. The belief that beings thrive when there is a 'web' of interconnectedness between the individual and the community and between the community and nature. Community prospers when the work that each member performs is in alignment with the Earth and is a direct and sacred expression of Spirit. Traditional Aboriginal World View believes that a healthy and prosperous culture is one that lives within the fundamental laws of reciprocity, where no more is taken than will be returned. To recognize interconnectedness is to know oneself as part of a vast cirlce in which all expressions of life - the birds, the animals, trees, insects, rocks are our brothers and sisters - 'all creatures as relatives.' "Kinship" is based upon the concrete observation that each of us is totally dependent upon the same things. All of nature is in us, all of us is in nature! Elders teach 'to be without relations is to be really poor'.

The Model In Use
 

Teachings of Medicine Wheel and Four Directions from "Circle Works: Transforming Eurocentric Consciousness" by Fyre Jean Graveline - Metis feminist, anti-racist activist and scholar.

The Eastern Door

The Model In Use
 

Teachings of Medicine Wheel and Four Directions from "Circle Works: Transforming Eurocentric Consciousness" by Fyre Jean Graveline - Metis feminist, anti-racist activist and scholar.

The Southern Door

The Model in Use
 

Teachings of Medicine Wheel and Four Directions from "Circle Works: Transforming Eurocentric Consciousness" by Fyre Jean Graveline - Metis feminist, anti-racist activist and scholar.

In Ancestral times, the Sacred Circle was central to the teachings of the Elders. The Circle is a form that arises in nature and is imprinted upon the culture as well as the individual. Part of the energy of the Circle has to do with the physical structure: A Circle has no head and not tail, no beginning and no end. Everyone is equal in a Circle, the point of reference is the middle, which is both empty and full of everything. Everyone is equal distant from the middle so there is no sense of hierarchy.

Traditional forms of dance, done in a Circle, physically teaches embodied interconnectedness within the greater Circle: "if someone slows down, if someone fall, or gets out of place, it throws the whole circle off". Elders teach that we need to experience that lesson in our lives: "If we knock someone out of the circle they fall, then the whole circle is affected."

Aboriginal Tradition teaches that successful teaching and healing depends upon clear intention, but such intention is directly connected to honoring the immanent value of each member. It is taught that it is important to honor all in the Circle and all of life as part of the Circle. If we are clear about the teachings, we will not be cut off from the real purpose of Circle work, which is to reaffirm our interconnectedness.


The basic rules of Talking Circle are: one speaker at a time, the person holding the special object is the speaker and all others are to listen respectfully to that person. In Talking Circle you speak your own voice, describe what your own experience has been. You have the opportunity to express what you feel is on your heart to say. The point is to speak "from your heart", of what moves you, of what spirit moves through you. To choose words with care and thoughtfulness is to speak in a sacred manner. This usually takes time and experience; explicit modeling, direction and patience are required.

We must each learn to pay each other full attention and to take responsibility for maintaining focus on what each speaker is sharing. This assists people in learning not to project their experience and feelings onto others. The only way to really 'know' to really 'see' and 'hear' someone else, is to fully experience and own our emotions and thoughts. Through respectful listening we are better able to enter into another's experience through their words.

Talking Circle reminds us that to speak is a privilege, that spoken thoughts, words, are sacred. In Aboriginal Tradition, words are carefully chosen and carefully listened to so that the power of the words and the images behind them "travel between the speaker and the other individuals to become One Thought". This kind of group consciousness "collective mindfulness" exists when each individual's thoughts are directed to a collective thought and collective objectives. "Mind-ful-ness" orchestrates the power of thought, helping to actualize "the ability to create, transform, and vitalize". Speaking and listening respectfully in Circle creates an atmosphere of compassion, the building block of community. This state of conscious awareness contained within a Circle of interconnectedness can generate openness that is rare in Western society today.

Silence: Respectfully Listening

Using the Aboriginal Talking Circle reminds us of the relationship between who speaks and who listens. We are taught that we require require silence "respectfully listening" to accompany voice "heartfully speaking". When we see silence only as produced through an exercise in domination, we are missing the significance of silence to voice. Aboriginal people are taught to respect silence as a tool. In Circle, we listen "as witness, " respectfully, to the experience of others. Through having to respectfully listen to each speaker, participants gain an empathic appreciation for points of view other than their own.

It is a large shift of consciousness to move from pity and guilt to embracing the "pride and richness" of others. Listening to others in Circle does provide an opportunity for self-examination. It can help provide the social context for an experience or viewpoint previously understood as 'personal.'

When members are able to speak from their hearts, this enables them to be more in touch with feelings, their own and others. Circle Talk helps to gain a sense of trust in their fellow peers and helps to equalize power .. as we all sit in the Circle together. Individuals can come to believe that what they say will be listened to and accepted without criticism.

The Model in Use
 

Teachings of Medicine Wheel and Four Directions from "Circle Works: Transforming Eurocentric Consciousness" by Fyre Jean Graveline - Metis feminist, anti-racist activist and scholar.

The Western Door

The Model In Use
 

Teachings of Medicine Wheel and Four Directions from "Circle Works: Transforming Eurocentric Consciousness" by Fyre Jean Graveline - Metis feminist, anti-racist activist and scholar.

Building Our Community Connections

The Model In Use
 

Teachings of Medicine Wheel and Four Directions from "Circle Works: Transforming Eurocentric Consciousness" by Fyre Jean Graveline - Metis feminist, anti-racist activist and scholar.

The Northern Door

The Model In Use
 

Teachings of Medicine Wheel and Four Directions from "Circle Works: Transforming Eurocentric Consciousness" by Fyre Jean Graveline - Metis feminist, anti-racist activist and scholar.

Tending Our Inner Garden

Gardening, is a Soul-Feeding Activity
We nuture and care for our flowers,
Vegetables and trees by watering,
Weeding and feeding them.
Often we talk to them.

Photography Studies Demonstrate
Plants react
Spoken to in a soft soothing manner
Energy expands and brightens
Plants lean towards the speaker.
Threatened or spoken to harshly
Energy constricts and colors darken
Perciving threat it leans away.

What kind of gardener
Are we to our inner gardens?
Do we cultivate kindly?
Prune with patience?
Encourage and appreciate our flowering
Ability to bear fruit?
There is no other flower like us.
Unique and beautiful
Worthy of the finest care.
A compassionate inner environment
Allows us to bloom
More readily ... More exquisitely.

Gently allow
An image of a flower come to you
In your minds eye.
Imagine this flower is part of you
That is thirsty
For appreciation and care.
See yourself watering this flower
From a beautiful pitcher.
Imagine your flower
Lifting its head to accept
The refreshing sprinkle.
Feel its roots
Thankfully absorbing
The sustaining and empowering water.
Soak in the sensation of being nurtured
And encouraged to grow.

From A Woman's Book of Soul - Sue Patton Thoele

I have the urge to reread "Illusions"...

Inspired, rumages around in her boxes of book collections "hmm have it around here somewhere .. haven't read since probably my 20's" :)

"What the catapiller calls the end of the world, the Master calls the Butterfly!"
Illusions - Richard Bach

Let whosoever desires to travel to different parts to serve,
peruse over mountain, desert, land and sea this supplication.

O Great Spirit, Father!
Mighty and Powerful
I seek your strength.
See me,
I am weak, lowly and humble
Before All Thy Relations;
Let me trust in You
Let me arise and the path I walk
The voice I speak
Your teachings among the people,

O Spirit!
Before your might and majesty
I am a broken-winged bird
Yet, my spirit longs to soar
In Thy limitless space.
May your breath
That gives life to the world
Lift me up and guide me
To fly on the wings of Spirit
With grace.

O Spirit!
I seek your assistance
In my moments
of weakness and impotency.
May I aspire to be
Mindful of All Thy Relations
That live upon the Earth.

O Spirit!
As you have helped our Ancestors
May I find your confirmation.
Though I am a moth,
May I become as a royal falcon,
Though I am but a brook,
May I become as a sea.
By Thy bestowal and Thy mercy.
Through Thy great favor,
May I be as a star
That shines on the horizon of guidance,
May I be as a bird singing
In the rose gardens of immortality,
May I be as a lion
That roars in the forests of knowledge and wisdom,
May I be as a whale
That swims in the oceans of life.

O Spirit!
Make my spirit noble and mild
May I be compassionate and forgiving
That I may come to you without regret
Thankful for your blessings!



modified from a prayer by - ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Attunement
 

Of late my life has had a lot of validation and positive messages abounding and in those moments blessed in joy I find my heart leaping and dancing, suffused in a buoyance of blissful happiness.

Yet I have discovered, that I have some pretty strong gremlins, that always seem to want to poke their heads out at these times, in their shrouded mocking with their echo ... that I don't deserve ... , that I don't deserve true happiness, its a haunting that lingers there, trying to drag me down into that place that they believe, because its all they have ever known.

Interesting enough, with all the meditation, prayer and reflection I have been doing, I decided to be patient with them, neither giving them energy, nor ignoring them, a first in many ways. Trusting that a clearing and the help I needed would come. And it did!

Last night I started in a book study group with some other woman, called Wisdom of the Heart, and the introduction just spoke to the day!

In the introduction she refers to another book she wrote on about how healing relationships can help you overcome a painful past. She talks about a process called 'attunement' and that "this process, which involves deeply focusing attention, concentrating, and getting 'in sync' with another person, those times when we feel deeply understood, supported, cared for, and can identify this feeling with something like the idea of another person 'tuning in" to us and our 'inner world'. Those times and feelings of being validated, or in other words to feel loved has a lasting positive impact on a person's life." Earliest childhood experiences and in particular the level of positive 'attunement' that a child receives from its parents, greatly affects ones relationship dynamics to themselves and others during the course of their life.

Conversely she notes that early childhood traumas such as abandonment, neglect or abuse have an equally indelible negative impact.

Her first book shares the story of the healing of one of her clients in psychotherapy via the 'attunement' process. In one paragraph she writes:

Kim was not always easy to work with, Often, I was attuning to her and when was unable to reciprocate. Sometimes she acted out her emotional scars by doing self-destructive things, by being negative and threatening to give up, acting out, or being being angry and full of rage. At these times and other times, too she would ask, "Why do you put up with me? Aren't you tired of me yet? When are you going to see that I am not worth the effort?"

And there it was ... the echoing of my gremlins ... exactly what I think and feel about myself way to often.

The authors response: "Because I perceive you to be a wonderful woman. I can see within you all sorts of untapped potential that is just waiting to bloom. That is what I see when I look at you, that is what I pay attention to."

She concludes: "For some people with deep, emotional scars, happiness in this lifetime may seem completely impossible. But true and lasting happiness, spiritual joy, contentment, gratitude and love all are 'within' you, in a potential state, at all times and under all conditions. ... we need simply to 'attune' to the the healing spiritual energies of the universe and the availability of this energy to be accessed directly ... Our life on earth, is really a continuous process of finding our way 'home' to our spiritual core, where true happiness awaits us!"

:')

Wisdom in Silence
 

Wisdom and Intuition
Are birthed in silence.

Close your eyes
Relax into the hush of silence
Neither asking nor expecting
Anything of yourself,
Merely relax into the quietness.

It takes practice
To feel comfortable with silence.
Although all intuitively
Understand its value.
Only in silence can we hear
The feminine energy of our hearts.

If we listen closely
In the silence,
The Sacred Feminine
Will show us how
To lovingly intertwine
Soul-strands in our relationships
With others and with ourselves.
Our relationships can only hum
The songs of love
If they are filled with
The Sacred Feminine Voice
For she is the song of love.
She is the harp
Upon which the strings
Of compassion and connection quiver.
From the Sacred Feminine
Comes the sweet music
Composed by living complementary lives
With those we love.

"Silence is the language of the Divine,
It is also the language of the heart"
- philosopher, Dag Hammarskjold
The more faithfully
We move into the silence,
The more attuned
We will become
To the voice of Spirit.

Today, give yourself the gift
Of relaxing into the silence.
Softly, gently, lovingly,
Allow silence to immerse you in peace.
The music of wisdom and intuition
Will become clearer
And more harmonious!

Sue Patton Thoele - Woman's Book of Soul

Dancing With The Dead
 

Seemed appropriate for All Hallow's Eve

Dancing with the Dead

Native American Traditions
Believe that we dance
With our ancestors
Along the Milky Way
After we leave this life,
But we don't have to wait
To dance with those
Who have already departed.

Befriending death
Allows our spirits
Much freer reign in life.
Toward that end
Closer your eyes
Sink into a state
Of deep relaxation.
In your minds eye,
Transport yourself
To a beautiful wooded glen
Beside a small crystal-clear pool.
Gaze into the water and 'see'
Mirrored there,
A reflection of your spiritual face.
For a few moments
Give yourself permission
To leave the confines
Of your physical body,
Merge with the face in the pool,
And rise to dance
Along the Milky Way.
Feel the freedom.
Enjoy, Be in joy.
Give Thanks
Celebrate.
Though our bodies dies,
Our souls dance forever!

Anam Cara
 

Light is Generous

Out early in the morning
Before the dawn breaks
Notice the darkest time of night
Immediately before dawn.
Darkness deepens
Becomes more anonymous.

If you had never come to the world,
Never known what a day was,
You could not possibly imagine
How darkness breaks,
How the mystery
And color of a new day arrive.

Light is incredibly generous,
But also gentle.

The world rests in the night
Trees, mountains, fields, and faces
Released from the prison of shape
And the burdon of exposure.
Each thing creeps back
Into its own nature
within the shelter of the dark.
Darkness is the ancient womb,
Nightime is womb-time.
Our souls come out to play.

Darkness absolves everything,
The struggle for identity
And impression falls away.
We rest in the night.

Dawn is refreshing,
A time of possiblility and promise.
All elements of nature
Stones, fields, rivers, and animals
Suddenly anew
In the fresh dawn light.
Darkness brings rest and release,
Dawn brings awakening and renewal.

Attend to the way the dawn comes,
Learn how light can coax the dark.
The first fingers of light
Appear on the horizon,
Ever so deftly and gradually,
Pulling the mantle of darkness
Away from the world.

Quietly before you
Is the mystery
Of a new dawn,
The new day.

In mediocrity and distraction,
We forget ...
We are priviliged to live
In a wondrous universe.
Each day, dawn unveils
The mystery of this universe.
Dawn is the ultimate surprise,
Awakens us to the immense
'Thereness' of nature.

Wonderful, subtle
Color of the universe
Arises to clothe everything.
'Colors are the wounds of light' - William Blake
That bring out the depth
Of secret presence
At the heart of nature.

(poetically phrased from Anam Cara by John O'Donohue)


"Emerson said, 'No one suspects the days to be Gods," It is one of the tragedies of modern culture that we have lost touch with primal thresholds of nature. The urbanization of modern life has succeeded in exiling us from this fecund kinship with our mother earth. Fashioned from the earth, we are souls in clay form. We need to remain in rhythm with our inner clay voice and longing. Yet this voice is no longer audible in the modern world. We are not even aware of our loss, consequently, the pain of our spiritual exile is more intense in being largely unintelligible."

Quoted from - Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom - by John O'Donohue

Aman Cara
 

A Spirituality of Transfiguration

Spirituality is the art of transfiguration
We should not force ourselves
To change
By hammering our lives
Into any predetermined shape.
We do not need to operate
According to the idea
Of a predetermined program or plan
For our lives.

Rather, we need to practice
A new art of attention
To the inner rhythm
Of our days and lives.

Attention brings a new awareness
Of our own human
And divine presence.
It is far more creative to work
With the idea of mindfulness
Rather than with idea of will.
Too often people try to change their lives
By using will as a kind of hammer
To beat their life into proper shape.
The intellect identifies the goal of the program,
And the will accordingly
Forces the life
Into that shape.
This way of approaching the sacredness
Of one’s own presence
Is externalist
And violent.
It brings you falsely
Outside yourself,
And you can spend years lost
In the wildernesses
Of your own mechanical,
Spiritual programs.
You can perish
In a famine of your own making.

If you work with a different rhythem
You will come easily and naturally
Home to yourself.
Your soul knows
The geography
Of your destiny.
Your soul alone
Has the map
Of your future.
If you trust this indirect,
Oblique side of yourself,
It will take you
Where you need to go,
But more important
It will teach you
A kindness of rhythm
In your journey.

There is no general principles
For this art of being.
Yet the signature
Of this unique journey
Is inscribed
Deeply in each soul.
If you attend
To yourself
And seek
To come into your presence,
You will find exactly
The right rhythm
For your own life.

Quoted from - Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom - by John O'Donohue

Receiving Solace from the Moon

In plain view,
She readily displays her cycles
Of illumination and shadow,
Powerful enough
To influence vast oceans.
Steady, constant,
Incredibly beautiful,
She brings light
Into the darkness.
The moon icon,
Eternally feminine,
A celestial mentor,
Infusing us
With the recognition
Of our own oftentimes
Shadowy brilliance.

Balanced awareness
Emerging
Realizing that to be whole,
Holiness must naturally
Embrace all complimentary
Aspects of being.
Masculine and Feminine,
Darkness and Light,
Body and Spirit,
Thought and Feeling.

Women carry the essence
Of femininity
That is symbolized by Sister Moon
Within the cells
Of our bodies
And the fabric or our souls.
Intuitively
We recognize the significance
Of Luna, the Creator Goddess,
And we invite her
To resume her rightful place
As our teacher.
Once revered and called
By the sacred names:
“Mother of the Universe,”
“Old Woman Who Never Dies,”
“Eternal One.”
The moon can bring us solace
While inspiring us to learn
And respect all of our own
Natural cycles,
The ebbs and flows,
Ups and downs,
And the waxing and waning.

The moons special kinship,
A loving tender grandmother,
Cradling us in her gentle arms,
Waxing and waning
Bringing light into darkness
She smiles her blessing.

As daughters of the moon
We, too, are called
To bring light into darkness.
What tears can you dry today?
What gentle arms
Can you provide,
For yourself or another?

Sue Patton Thoele - Woman's Book of Soul

Anam Cara
 

Haven't walked my labyrinth in a while .. its rolled up right now, but i wanted to share this

A Blessing

May the light of your soul guide you.
May the light of your soul bless the work you do
with the secret love and warmth of your heart.
May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.
May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal
To those who work with you and to those who see and recieve your work.
May your work never weary you.
May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment,
inspiration and excitement.
May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in the bland absences.
May the day never burden.
May Dawn find you awake, alert, approaching you day
with dreams, possibilities, and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered, and protected.
May you soul calm, console, and renew you!

Quoted from Anam Cara - John O'Donohue

Anam Cara
 

I haven’t walked my Labyrinth in a while, but this morning, this was the mediation that my book opened up to, and I realized that even Mika, needs a wisdom lesson reminder.

As in all things it carries layers upon layers and I share it because I think it also speaks to the whole of the connection we have with each other on the forum.

The Wounded Gift

One of the great powers of love and relationships is balance,
It helps us move toward transfiguration.
When two (or more) people come together,
An ancient circle closes between them.
They also come to each other
Not with empty hands,
But with hands full of gifts for each other.
Often they are wounded gifts,
This awakens the dimension of healing within.
When you really care or love someone,
You shine the light of your soul on them.

We know from nature that sunlight
Brings everything to growth.
If you look at flowers
Early on a spring morning,
They are all closed.
When the light of the sun catches them,
They trustingly open out
And give themselves to the new light.

When you care or love someone
Who is very hurt,
One of the worst things you can do
Is directly address the hurt and make an issue out of it.
A strange dynamic comes alive in the soul
If you make something into an issue.
It becomes a habit
And keeps recurring in a pattern.
Frequently,
It is better to acknowledge that there is
A wound there,
But then stay away from it.
Every chance you get,
Shine the gentle light of the soul
On the wound.

It is helpful to remember
That there are ancient resources
Of renewal and refreshment
In the circle of friendship and love
That bring and hold you together.
The destiny of your relationship
Is never dependent
Merely on the fragile resources
Of your separate subjectivities.
You can invoke the healing
Third force of light
Between you;
This can bring forgiveness, consolation,
And healing in stony times.

When you care or love someone,
It is destructive
To keep scraping at the clay
Of your belonging.
There is much to recommend
Not interfering with your caring connection.
Two (or more) people who care or love each other
Should never feel called to explain
To an outside party,
Why they care, cherish, connect or love each other,
Or why they belong or are together.
The place that they belong
Is a secret and safe place.
Their souls know why they are together;
And they should trust that togetherness.

If you keep interfering
With your connection with each other,
Your love, your friends, your Anam Cara,
You gradually begin to force
A distance between you.
If you keep shining the neon light
Of analysis and accountability
On the tender tissue
Of your belonging, your friendship, your connection,
You make it parched and barren.

A person should always offer a prayer
Of graciousness
For the caring, compassion, empathy, love
That has awakened in them.
When you feel for your friend or love
And their caring or love for you,
Now and again you can offer
The warmth of your caring as a blessing
For those who are damaged and unloved.
Send it out into the world
To people who are desperate,
To those who are starving,
To those who are trapped,
To those who are sick,
Into all the terrains of those whose
Lives are struggling, bleak and suffering.
When you send that caring, that love out
From the bountifulness of your own love,
It reaches other people.
This love is deepest power of prayer.


A Friendship Blessing
May you be blessed with good friends.
May you learn to be a good friend to yourself.
May you be able to journey
To that place in your soul
Where there is great love
Warmth, feeling and forgiveness.
May this change you.
May it transfigure that which in negative,
Distant, or cold in you.
May you be brought
To the real passion, kinship, and
Affinity of belonging.
May you treasure your friends.
May you be good to them
And may you be there for them.
May they bring you all the blessings,
Challenges, truth, and light
That you need for your journey.
May you never be isoloated.
May you always be in the gentle nest
Of belonging
With your anam cara.

Quoted from - Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom - by John O'Donohue

Sacred Spaces - The Spirit of the Way
 

Once again I return to the labyrinth and begin walking again!

'Humankind has lost its way'
This sentiment surfaces
frequently
in our age,
and sometimes
it does feel
as though
everything is falling
apart around us -
not just
in our
personal crises,
but,
increasingly,
in what feels
like a shake-up
of all
our collective
certainties.

The structures
that have held us
more or less
together
in recent centuries
no longer hold.
National,
Cultural, and
Religious
Identities
are no longer
absolute.
Physics
and mathematics
are venturing
into the same
oceans of uncertainty.
Ethics and morality
are in a turmoil
of contradictions
and dilemmas.

So have we
really
lost our way?
Or have we
just mislaid it
for a while?
Has our 'way'
perhaps
become
buried
underneath
all the complications
we have
constructed
on top of it?

If we burrow
down
into the earth
of our human
spiritual experience
and searching,
we come across
the traces
of may 'ways'.

It seems,
then,
that in ancient
as in modern times,
the human heart
has always been
looking
for a way.
But a way to what?
What are we
actually
looking for?
Where or who
is the destination?

If we look back
over
several thousand years
we will find
a plethora
of answers -
some of them
very definitive -
to that question.

The Spirit
of the Way,
will not allow us
to pitch camp
and stay
forever
with these
artificial
certainties.

The Spirit
of the Way,
is much simpler,
and
more challenging
then that.

The plants
and animals,
and even
our small children
know
with a wisdom
deeper
than ours,
that the Way
is simply
about growing
and becoming
whoever
we really are
in the core
of our being.

It is about
recognizing
the acorn
in our hearts
and trusting
the process
by which
it will
become an oak.

It is about
cooperating
with that process
of Becoming,
about keeping
our feet
on the earth
of our own lived
experience,
even as
we reach out
to the horizon
beyond us.

It is about
letting
our own personal
Becoming
be fully engaged
with the evolution,
physical
intellectual
and spiritual,
of the whole
of creation.

quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

Sacred Spaces - The Spirit of the Way
 

The spirit
of the Way.
follows a path
that was walked
by one branch
of the human family,
just one way
of traveling,
The Celtic Way,
but it resonates with
and reveres,
the spiritual quest
of all humankind,
since life
on earth
began.

Institutionalism
has built
many a solid edifice
on top
of this path,
but not so much
as to
obliterate
its traces.
Now
as some of those
edifices
are starting
to break down,
more and more
spiritual journeyers
are seeking out
these neglected
pathways
and discovering,
in joy,
that they are
ways
which can be trusted,
ways
of deep simplicity
that truly lead them
closer to
the heart
of themselves
and the heart
of creation.

The 'way'
is a journey,
not a structure.
It is a process
of growth,
It has many faces,
of which
the Celtic face
is but one.
The Celtic Way itself
has many facets.

It invites you
to spend
a little time
in seven
'sacred spaces'.
And as you pause
to reflect
on your experience,
it invites you
to weave
your own story
into the story
of creation,
and to let
your own dreams
and desires
rise up,
like the Celtic cross,
to join the earth
you live on
to the heaven
you strive for.

This will point
towards
a few signposts
for such a journey.
The rest
is a place
of encounter,
sacred and unique
to you
and your Becoming,
a place
where the invisible
and the visible,
in yourself
and in all creation,
can become
reconnected.

quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

Sacred Spaces - The Spirit of the Way
 

For the Celts
there was never
any shadow
of doubt
that these two worlds,
the visible
and the invisible,
the material
and the spiritual,
were one.
In every way
the visible
and the invisible
were interwoven,
as surely
as the air
we breath
and the food
we eat
come together
to give life
to our bodies.


The invisible
was separated
from our
sense perceptions
only by
the permeable
membrane
of consciousness.
Sometimes
that membrane
could seem as solid
as a brick wall.
Sometimes
it could seem
very thin.
Even today
we speak
of some places
as being
'thin places',
where that presence
of the invisible
and the spiritual
is almost palpable.

Our Celtic forebears
revered
such 'thin places'
as 'sacred space'.
They sensed
intuitively
that here
the visible world
was totally
interpenetrated
by an invisible world
which is a mystery,
yet which is
somehow
in relationship
with us.

They are places
where we stand
still,
in awe,
where
the barrier between
our time-bound selves
and our
eternity seeking selves
is lowered.

They encapsulate
something
of the mystery
towards which they point,
and they help
to make
this mystery
real
and incarnate
in our human lives.

They invite us
to experience
glimpses
of transcendence
and help us
to live
our everyday lives
in the light
of the vision
of a reality
beyond ourselves.

They are personal
to each of us,
but they are
the space
in which we are drawn
to an inclusive wholeness
where we are all one
in unity.
They are places
of community,
sacred for each,
sacred to all.

They speak
to our hearts
personally,
as a friend
might speak.
They are not
doctrinal,
but experiential.
They draw us
into deeper
community
with each other,
with the whole
circle of creation,
and with
a creating power
who holds
all in being
and desires
to be in relationship
with every creature.

Sacred space,
whether a
geographical location
or space within
our own experience,
has the ability
to move us
forward
towards
some new growth
of Becoming.
It holds a call
towards transcendence,
if we have
the ears to hear!

quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

Sacred Space - The Spirit of the Way
 

This is not
a travel guide
for a personalized
ego trip,
when we go
deep
into our own
sacred space,
we move closer
to the center
and heart
of all creation.
There we encounter
each other,
and the eternal
presence
in which
we are held.
We discover
a web
of interrelatedness
that calls us
into a unity
which defies
separateness
and estrangement
from each other,
in which
many of us
live our lives
today.

Woven
into this exploration
of sacred space
is the thread
of our own story,
told in the
various chapters,
or stages
of our lives.
Each of the 'stations'
on the journey
reflects
something
of one
of the successive stages
of our living
and searching,
though,
our life stages
are never
as regular
or consistent
as this might imply.
They weave
their own patterns,
sometimes
leaping forward,
sometimes
winding back
upon themselves
and re-emerging
in a new place,
in a new way,
like the intricacies
of the Celtic knot.

The stations
along this Celtic Way
will frequently
invite you
to stop
for a while
and go
into your own
inner space
for reflection.
The journey
will not unfold
itself to the full
unless
we take time
to stand back
and become
aware
of who
we really are.

This is a journey
for all
who have ever
experienced
a glimpse
of eternity
slanting down
through the clouds
of everyday.


quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

Coincidentally also "Sacred Spaces"
 

"Coincidentally, I have a poem which I entitled "Sacred Spaces". I thought I might share it here:

SACRED SPACES

Within my Father’s house, there are many mansions
But all paths lead, winding back, to the blue room
For within its walls, every thing abides, waiting
What you may find, is consistent in its peaceful motion
And He shall lead them, a little child, an ancient shaman,
Through the wall of liquid glass; shining, flowing, distortionless
Everything lives vibrant within the blue room, you see?
Strangely familiar, analogous and real; you are present
It helps if your conscious mind, is sleeping, or a little drunk
To blithely accept the second world; no preparation suffices
We exist within the third world, a mundane echo of the bell
Praying for that precious blue room moment, the bell’s chime
For we are not ready yet, to give up our homely mansions
To fuse ourselves, selflessly, into that glimmering curtain wall
Where we are the bell, silently ringing, eternally, only once
Or at least i guess it so; never aware beyond the blue room

Alyara Arati, from my heart, thank you so much for sharing .. such a beautiful poem! :')

It 'rings' so true and resonates so harmoniously! My soul just lept for joy!

:)

Thank you so much! Truly, I value your comments. And I am so glad that through this I was able to bring you joy!

The Infinite Knot - The Weaving of the Dream
 

For all of us,
the only beliefs
to which
our deepest heart
and soul
can consent
are those
which our personal
experience
endorses.
Sacred spaces
are opportunities
to meet
that experience
all allow it
to take us
beyond itself.
And then
to discover
for ourselves
what the mystery
we call life
means
for us
and where
it is drawing us.

The Infinite Knot,
the weaving
of the dream,
It is remarkably
difficult
to follow
a single thread
through
the intricacies
and convolutions
of one of the
infinite-knot patterns,
which are a hallmark
of Celtic heritage.
If you try,
you may find
your mind
becomes occupied,
as if by a mantra,
leaving your deeper
consciousness
more open
to the whispers
of eternity.
It can be
even more
difficult
to follow
the knotted threads
of our own lives
and feelings
without losing sight
of the balance
in which
they are
ultimately held.
More difficult,
but even more
liberating.

The knot
holds us
in a state
of suspended
contradictions.
We know,
with our minds,
that we are
finite.
We are born,
We live
our span of years,
and we die.
The knot
contradicts
this knowledge
with its statement
of endlessness,
and in our
deeper reaches
something
knows this, too,
is true.
Something
in the depths of us
is unending -
or at the very least
it is intimately joined
to a reality
that is unending.

With our minds
we know
our lives
are a mass
of complication.
If you think back
to yesterday,
or forward
to tomorrow,
you will surely
become aware
of a whole catalog
of problems,
dilemmas,
choices,
and compromises,
beaten
into some kind
of shape
on the anvil
of your circumstances.
A far cry
from the perfect balance
of the infinite knot.
Yet
in your deeper reaches
there are whispers
of simplicity,
harmony,
a joining
of opposites,
a reconciliation
or irreconcilables.

These deeper reaches
are not
the realms of fantasy.
They are sending
signals
to us
from layers
of our being
that lied below
the conscious mind's
domain.
If they were not real,
with real power
to transform,
then our psyche
would not
be registering
any interest
in they symbols
of infinity,
such as
the Celtic knot.
As it is,
the knot
fascinates us,
just as it
fascinated
our forebears,
and it draws us
ever more deeply
into itself,
a place of paradox
becoming
a sacred space
within us,
guiding us
to a deeper discovery
of who
we really are,
who
we are becoming,
and in what
wholeness
we are all held!

quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

These show so much of yourself :)