Feature Article Don`t Let Anything Dull Your Sparkle by Doreen

Transcription

Volume 14 - Number 2 $4.99
Inside this issue
• Awake
• Everyday Witchcraft
• Heaven is Beautiful
• The Power of Story in the In-Between
• The Shadow Side of Spiritual Experience
• Love, Animals & Miracles: Inspiring True
Stories Celebrating the Healing Bond
Feature Article
Don’t Let Anything Dull Your Sparkle
How to Break Free of Negativity and Drama
by Doreen Virtue
ON THE COVER
by Doreen Virtue
Volume 13, Number 2
The EVOLVE! magazine is a promotional publication of New Leaf
Distributing Company, the purpose of which is to introduce new
and exciting book, music, spoken audio, and video titles, and
other products of interest to the body-mind-spirit community. We
provide these magazines to our independent retail store customers
so that they may pass them on to you, the ultimate purchasers and
users of the products. All products displayed in this magazine are
available for purchase from the independent retailer from whom
you received this magazine. We encourage you to support your
local independent retailer.
EVOLVE! Magazine Staff
Advertising Staff.........................................Karen Price, Donna Conner
Graphic Staff............................................ Tom Orlovsky, Caitlin Bohac
..................................................................... 5
Difficult relationships and challenging circumstances all come
down to one thing: drama. In this ground breaking book,
Doreen Virtue guides you through the process of determining
your Drama Quotient. You’ll discover how much stress you
are unnecessarily tolerating and absorbing from other people
and situations.
Features
Transformational Astrology for November-December.................8
Henry Seltzer
SoulTouch™ Coloring Journals Years in the Making.................13
Deborah Koff-Chapin
Everyday Witchcraft............................................................17
CONTENTS
Deborah Blake
Meditation for a Busy Lifestyle...............................................19
Synchronicity Foundation
How much do you really know about yourself?.......................23
Tina Ketch
The Power of Story in the In-Between.....................................27
Carol S. Pearson
Expect The Unexpected Bringing Peace, Healing, And Hope....32
Psychic Medium Bill Philipps
My Initiation Into Surrender..................................................35
Judith Orloff
“Is The Dalai Lama Ever Wrong?”.........................................37
Acclaimed Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman talks about the Dalai Lama
The Shadow Side of Spiritual Experience...............................39
Tom Kenyon, M.A.
The Witch’s Broom: Magic For Everyone................................43
Deborah Blake
The Making Of Awake: The Life Of Yogananda......................47
Paola di Florio & Lisa Leeman
What If? Reflections On Hypothetical Thinking........................51
Sarah St. Claire
Heaven Is Beautiful..............................................................53
Reverend Peter Baldwin Panagore
Love Lessons.......................................................................56
Interview with Dr. Bernie S. Siegel and Cynthia J. Hurn
Selection Criterion: Does It Spark Joy?...................................60
Marie Kondo
What Your Soul Knows........................................................62
Janet Conner
EVOLVE! Advertisers Index
Atlantis Rising..................................................................................................36
Aurora Press...........................................................................41, Inside Back Cover
Bantam Doubleday Dell.....................................................................................31
Bear & Company Inc.........................................................................................11
Center For Touch Drawing..................................................................................12
Conari Press.....................................................................................................36
Course In Miracles Society..................................................................................58
Destiny Books..................................................................................................11
Esther Sa’arah Felix..........................................................................................66
Felicia Rose.....................................................................................................66
Hampton Roads Publishing.................................................................................36
Harmony Books..........................................................................................34, 68
HarperElixir......................................................................................................26
Hay House.........................................................................................................4
Healing Sounds..................................................................................................7
Health Journeys, Inc..........................................................................................66
Information Pioneers Publisher............................................................................66
Inlightened Source............................................................................................66
Inner Traditions.................................................................................................11
Inner Worlds Music...........................................................................................65
Jaquel McIntosh...............................................................................................66
Lifestyles...........................................................................................................4
Light Technology Publishing LLC..........................................................................30
Living Miracles Publications.....................................................................Back Cover
Llewellyn Publications........................................................................................16
Lotus Press......................................................................................................65
Love Incarnate Books........................................................................................46
Moonrise Magic................................................................................................12
New Earth Records..............................................................................................3
New Falcon Publications....................................................................................18
New Life Foundation.........................................................................................67
New World Library............................................................................................31
Park Street Press..............................................................................................11
Rainbow Ridge Books........................................................................................67
Red Wheel/Weiser...........................................................................................36
Retailing Insight Magazine.................................................................................50
S R F Publications.............................................................................................46
Schiffer Publishing LTD.......................................................................................45
Self-Realization Fellowship (Calendars)................................................................34
Shambhala Publications.....................................................................................42
Share International Foundation...........................................................................49
Spirit Voyage Com............................................................................................46
Steven Halpern’s Inner Peace.............................................................................55
Synchronicity Foundation, Inc.................................................. Inside Front Cover, 22
Ten Speed Press...............................................................................................59
Tina Ketch.......................................................................................................25
Tom Kenyon Orb.................................................................................................1
Universe/City Mikael (UCM) Publishing Inc..........................................................58
Witches’ Almanac, Ltd.......................................................................................36
Word Foundation..............................................................................................59
World Tree Press...................................................................................52, 64, 67
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by Doreen Virtue
Preface...
I’m known as an author of spiritual books and card decks. Although I studied and practiced psychology for
years, I’ve been focused upon spirituality even longer. This book doesn’t discuss spirituality, but it was born of a spiritual experience in which I received a surprising
inner message. The inner message came when I was in San Francisco, as part of a book tour. After 25 years on the road, I
was feeling burned-out with travel. I loved teaching and meeting audiences, but getting to each city had become
a major drag. I’d grown highly sensitized to things like the intensity of airport security stations, urban traffic and
noise, air pollution, and staying on frantic travel schedules. In addition, it was difficult to maintain my self-care
routine on the road. I wanted to stop touring, but it was the only way that I knew of to teach about my books. It was a career
habit. Still, I was stressed-out from traveling, and it was getting to me. Then it happened: I hit bottom with the stress. I was at the airport on my way to San Francisco. I’d just
taught a workshop in Toronto during one of its snowy wintry weekends. I was feeling cold and tired.
When I checked in to the Toronto airport, the airline representative told me that I’d been randomly selected
for extra security-measure screenings. I’d have to go through a manual pat-down and additional x-ray screenings!
She handed me my boarding pass, which was prominently marked with the letters SSSS, a code for extra airport
screening.
I began to cry with frustration. Usually, I could muster up a positive way to
deal with airport security, such as prayer, engaging the security officers in conversation, or reminding myself that security was a measure to keep all passengers safe.
But unbeknownst to me at the time, my diet, life stress, and unresolved traumas
from my past had maxed me out to the point where I wasn’t able to access my
normal positive coping strategies.
The thought of doing additional security screening pushed me over the edge,
and I was in tears of extreme anguish. I loved writing and teaching, but the constant travel felt like I was trapped on a treadmill with no way off.
When I arrived in San Francisco on what seemed to be an extra-long flight,
I decided that—no matter what the consequences—I had to stop traveling.
Then, the next day as I was walked along Post Street in Union Square, I
heard the inner message that is the basis of this book. It was one sentence, which
was so profound and rung so true that I was stopped in my tracks in front of the
Tiffany store so that I could write it down:
“The reason why you and so many people are experiencing life drama is because
you’re addicted to histamine.”
I heard this message as clearly as if another person was talking with me
(which is the usual way I’ve received spiritual messages since childhood). Now, lest you think I was having auditory hallucinations, please know that my master’s program in
counseling psychology at Chapman
DON’T LET ANYTHING DULL
YOUR SPARKLE How to Break
Free of Negativity and Drama
by DOREEN VIRTUE
$19.99, ISBN13:9781401946272
EVOLVE!
University required all students to undergo a battery of psychological screening tests.
I passed all of these tests and received my degree.
Researcher D. J. West gave this definition of the difference between a hallucination and a true psychic experience: Pathological hallucinations tend to keep
to certain rather rigid patterns, to occur repeatedly during a manifest illness but
not at other times, and to be accompanied by other symptoms and particularly by
disturbances of consciousness and loss of awareness of the normal surroundings.
The spontaneous psychic [now often called “paranormal”] experience is more often
an isolated event disconnected from any illness or known disturbance and definitely
not accompanied by any loss of contact with normal surroundings. (West 1960)
Well, I definitely was in contact with my surroundings when I heard the
message. I’ve also been 100 percent sober since 2003, so it wasn’t a product of
intoxication.
Studies show that the difference between an auditory hallucination and a
true psychic experience is that the former is negative or ego-based, and the latter
is positive. And this was a positive message.
There was an Aha! sensation accompanying this message, but I didn’t yet
know the scope of its impact. I was somewhat familiar with the physiology of
histamine. Intuitively, I felt that the words were pointing to my addictive cycle
with histamine produced by life stress and drama.
So, I wrote down the message and even posted it in my daily blog on Facebook.
But then I forgot about it, until happenstance (which felt like Divine intervention)
had the old quote I’d written on Facebook pop up one day.
That’s when I began researching the addiction to histamine, and I was blown
away by what I found! I realized that my meltdown at the Toronto airport was
largely a buildup of my eating a high-histamine diet, being overwhelmed with
stress (which increases histamine levels), and not taking the time to face and
deal with past traumas I’d experienced.
Based upon my research, I began
working on healing. I followed every
recommendation for trauma healing
you’ll read about in this book, and found
that it helped a lot.
At first, like a lot of trauma survivors, I was impatient and wanted immediate results. Once I caught myself
in this behavior, I realized that patterns
take consistent commitment to heal.
After three or four months, I noticed a
huge positive shift within myself. I felt
a new level of happiness and contentment that I didn’t even know existed. I
finally understood how my old trauma
patterns had attracted drama in my
present life. Once I saw this dynamic,
I made a conscious decision to “Drama
Detox,” and the patterns faded away.
To my delight, the emotional
detox healed me physically as well, as
bloating and itchy skin symptoms I’d
experienced also disappeared. I could
see the cheekbones of my face again!
Following the methods you’ll read about
in this book also helped me transition
my career smoothly. Friends remarked
that I looked years younger, and I felt
that way. A warm peacefulness in my
heart replaced the gripping stress I’d
become accustomed to.
Ironically, as an addictions and eating disorder therapist, I’d studied and
treated trauma for decades. My doctoral dissertation was on the link between
child abuse and the development of addictions, which later became the basis for
my book about addiction and eating disorders called Losing Your Pounds of Pain.
I’d attended workshops given by the pioneers of trauma research, including Drs.
Peter Levine and Bessel van der Kolk.
I’d even remarked to a fellow psychotherapist that Dr. Levine’s descriptions
of trauma sounded like my own. My colleague promptly scolded me for even
considering that I might have experienced a trauma, since I hadn’t been to war
or been abused as a child (the two types of trauma most often connected to
post-traumatic stress disorder). He berated me for using the term trauma lightly.
So I shrunk into a shell of apologies (probably because of the trauma I’d experienced) and decided that he must have been right. Since my traumas didn’t
involve child abuse or combat, I dismissed them. I overlooked the impact that
these painful experiences had on my life.
After conducting the research for this book, though, I discovered that the
definition of trauma is quite broad, and it turns out to include any situation
where we feel horrified, helpless, or intensely fearful that we’ll lose our lives. My
experiences were traumatic by these definitions, and they did reorganize my body
and brain chemistry, as well as leave me with psychological scars. I wasn’t using
the term trauma lightly at all, according to the research I studied. This was real
trauma, for a lot of us.
This shows the level of denial that can block trauma recovery. Even with
my clinical background, I didn’t recognize my own post-trauma symptoms and
had minimized the impact of what I’d endured. My colleague was also in denial,
perhaps because he wasn’t willing to face his own traumas.
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I’m very excited to share what I’ve
found with you, because I know it
will positively change your life, too!
With love,
Doreen Virtue
Transformational Astrology
for November-December
by Henry Seltzer
The astrology of November and December features Mars, Chiron, Saturn,
Uranus, Pluto, and Eris. The astrology for the beginning of November
harks back to the mid-October New Moon that began the lunation cycle,
still active as the month begins, and over its first ten days. This New
Moon featured a strong presence of Pluto and Mars, as symbolized by the
conjunction at that timing of Mars and Jupiter in a close trine with Pluto in
the middle of Capricorn. The implication is that while anger could surface,
due to the active Mars-Pluto connection, there are also ameliorating factors
such as the strong presence of Saturn in these configurations of early fall,
symbolizing a contrasting manner of studied and measured action.
The subsequent New Moon of November 11th continues with a strong
presence of Chiron, the Wounded Healer, which has been powerfully
active lately as well, and this month comes into even greater prominence.
There could be undercurrents of activity below the surface layers of our
psyches that have to do with buried wounds, the residue of early trauma
that remain unresolved. We win when we pay the closest possible attention
to everything that happens to us now, in terms of interpersonal connection,
and both within and below the surface layers of our personalities.
Heading into the ending of this
climactic year, Pluto and Uranus
are drawing nearer to being once
more in square with each other, just
as they were at the beginning of
2015. We still therefore remain in
the transformational stew that is the
hallmark of this powerful decade.
We are changing, at times slowly and
at times by means of the rapidity
of sudden epiphany concerning
our situation, as indicated by the
powerful positioning of Uranus
during this time of the turning of the
year. We are enjoined by the cosmos
to do our best to stand and deliver,
coming always closer to the deep soul
purpose that we hold inside ourselves,
as we can manage to discern it.
Saturn is greatly featured over the course of these two months, having
recently crossed into Sagittarius, thereby abandoning the depth
orientation of Scorpio, the sign that he occupied for the past two years
or more, in favor of the wild open spaces represented by this freedomloving Fire sign. Here his powers of contraction and limitation seem
somehow less darkly restrictive and more generously inclined toward
mentoring and the learning of important life lessons. Saturn is in
square with Venus in the timing of the Libra New Moon from midOctober, and again in the subsequent New Moon and in the second
week of December. This puts activities in slow-motion, especially
with regard to our relationship interests, but yet has the virtue of
creating greater focus and concentration, allowing wisdom to sink in.
The trickster god represented by the astrological archetype of Uranus is
also featured in the November and December astrology, being aspected
by Sun and Moon in the Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius New Moons
of this two-and-a-half month period leading to the ending of the year,
and by Jupiter also at the beginning of November. The new planetary
archetype of Eris is similarly triggered, representing a feminine warrior
energy in support of deep soul intention. Saturn is also strongly
aspecting Uranus in the configuration of the mid-October New
Moon, and is squared by Neptune during early December, as Uranus
is once again activated. There are likely to be many surprising twists
and turns of circumstances that could lead to unexpected wisdom.
8
Time Passages Basic Edition (CD-ROM)
$49.95, UPC: 183861001086
Time Passages Interactive Astrology
Software Standard Edition (CD-ROM)
$129.00, UPC: 9780972547116
EVOLVE!
ARIES (March 20 - April 19) This is
an untamed two-month period for you,
amidst a recent series of such cycles.
You are filled with energy for escapades
of a quirky kind, as you discover new
meanings in partnership connection that
inevitably lead you back to your own arc
of development. By fits and starts you
are finding your way home to your own
inner truth. This is more than a little wild,
and yet also informative, allowing you
to see more deeply into what is going
on for you near the end of a powerful
year. On into December, there is no letup.
One-on-one relationship takes on even
more importance, as clues to life direction
begin to fall into place. The career and
professional changes with which you
have been involving yourself for many
months do not abate but rather intensify,
although perhaps with a richer pay-off in
terms of more complete understanding
of your situation. This applies even more
strongly to the profound developmental
process in which you find yourself.
TAURUS (April 20 - May 19) A vitally
informative two months are coming up
for you, and this period finds you in a
process of discovering new wrinkles on
life purpose. You are also investigating,
by means of intuition, the depths of
your own inner world. You have a
strong commitment to come to a better
understanding of yourself, through the
subtleties and the veiled illumination of
the hidden places within you. Partners
become extraordinarily important in this
enterprise, providing both mirror and
foil for your own depth explorations.
You are focused on accomplishment
right now, although it is not achievement
on the more public stage of career and
profession, alone, which moves you. On
into December your reliance on significant
relationship elements to guide you is even
more pronounced, as you slow down in
order to more fully take in. You are coming
to the recognition that your inner intention
provides a more important set of priorities
that must be acknowledged in order for
you to experience true and lasting success.
GEMINI (May 20 - June 20) You come
upon an exciting end-of-year period, as
you propel yourself forward into new
ideas about your life direction. You have
been reviewing your situation, in this year
of change, with your self-expression the
most prominent subject of your meditative
inquiry. Surprising epiphany continues
to light your way. You are tuning in more
intently to complexes within you based
on early trauma, and its resulting residue
in the hidden places of your unconscious,
the cause of reflexive reactivity that is not
in support of your true values and most
deeply cherished beliefs. You can surmount
these challenges to the extent that you
more closely study whatever arises out of
the depths of your own interior process.
On into December, your exploration
intensifies, and leads you further into
uncovering your deepest intention for
yourself. It serves you when you remain
as aware as possible of whatever prevents
you from following your star, that inner
purpose that guides you to your destiny.
CANCER (June 21 - July 20) This is
another amazing time period for you,
when you are dealing with multiple
levels of your being. Your professional
life has many facets now, with twists,
turns, and surprises, so that you remain
in struggle of how best to make your
way forward in service to both outer and
inner priorities. This takes a move to the
inside. This question of fundamental life
direction concerns the ways that you can
achieve both joy and practicality while
engendering soul growth, especially in
a few key areas such as family ties and
other important relationships in your
life. On into December, you are coming
closer to understanding the basis for your
achievement in what lies deep within
you. There is a way in which partners,
intimate and professional, hold the key to
navigating this concept of higher purpose.
You are coming into contact with a set
of values that transcend
merely egoic concerns, and
the superficial rewards of the
marketplace, in favor of what
can only be discerned from a
deeply interior perspective.
LEO (July 21 - Aug. 21)
This is an amazing time
for you, as you near the
completion of a momentous
year. The beat of major
changes continues apace,
possibly involving your
work environment or health
regimens, with most recent
developments being sudden,
and filled with unexpected
enlightenment. You are
finding your way into greater
clarity concerning what life
is about for you, this time
around, and communicating
your profound inner truth
with verve and élan. You
are feeling into what you
might be able to conceive
as a mission of service to the
greater good. In many ways
what is in your lifeblood
right now lies in reaching
out to simpatico peers, and also family
members, and you are focusing much
of your creative effort in this direction.
On into December, your connections
with home and family take on new
significance, while you are also playing
and creating with serious intent. You are
on the way to even greater commitment
concerning your intended life path, in
alignment with what you hold deep inside.
VIRGO (Aug. 21 - Sept. 21) Your values are
on the line, as you come to decision points
in this end-of-year time frame, after your
recent passages of profound introspection.
You are subliminally very aware of a unique
point of view that represents an invitation
from deep inside; a level of intuition that
always tells you true when you have the
trust to open to it. Your self-expression,
and artistic creativity, has been rocketing
through a series of changes for many
months now that have been major in their
impact, and you are still coming to further
layers of the onion. Your inner realms hold
the key to plans that have been locked up
inside yourself, or buried away due to early
trauma. On into December, partnership
ideals contrast with deeply practical matters
as you struggle to better define your actual
soul intention for yourself in this lifetime.
When you take the chance to explore the
deeper areas of your being, you ultimately
come to a more integrated sense of self;
one measure of what your life is all about.
EVOLVE!
LIBRA (Sept. 22 - Oct. 22) This is another
highly significant period for you, as you
come closer to understanding your inner
as well as outer layers of motivation
and life direction. In many ways, your
unconscious process is calling upon you
to recognize and respond to its profound
information, with your actions, and by
paying attention to inner priorities. These
speak to where your life is taking you, and
how best to navigate the new psychological
territory that you find yourself entering.
Self-definition concepts are part of this
inquiry, in response to the recent New
Moon in your sign. You are dwelling in
spaces of visionary imagination, so that
you do well to write down your dreams
when you awake, or to journal regarding
your self-discovery. On into December
your self-development takes on a growth
spurt, in steps that are both more practical
and yet also extremely idealistic. Partners
serve you, as unexpected guideposts and
by providing a contrasting point of view
to your own rather intense explorations.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23 - Nov. 21) This is
a very interesting time for you. Recent
weeks brought surprises that you are
perhaps working through only now. These
more specifically involve your workplace
or your family dynamics or perhaps
habitual health regimens that you are
revising. The Full Moon in your opposite
sign, a few days before November began,
implied that your thinking regarding the
very concept of partnership is also coming
into a new phase. Recent contemplations
of your inner world have brought up
issues of motivation for what you most
truly desire to accomplish, long-term.
Ultimately, you are seizing the moment
provided by this month, and punctuated
by the New Moon of November 11th in
your sign, to take renewed inspiration and
practical steps toward for what you might
be willing at this point to term your life
mission. On into December, your urge
toward fulfilling your deep soul intention
only deepens, with a refreshing disregard
for consensus thinking and monetary
rewards, and in favor of the values
that only you can provide for yourself.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 - Dec. 20) This
is another climactic period for you. What
you are all about right now hinges on
career and outer world performance, and
its accolades, with, however, significant
stirrings far below the surface layers of
your personality. You have been going
all out in a mode of serious commitment
to your work in the world, discovering
further ramifications as you go. As is
becoming more and more obvious, you are
slowing down in order to go within, and
10
this is part of an ongoing transformation
of values that has also claimed a great
deal of your attention, in hidden ways.
You begin to feel inner priorities fully
as important as outer ones. On into
December, the New Moon in your sign
indicates renewed strength in your outer
as well as your inner development. Your
intuition is sizzling, and leads you to
unique self-expression that more fully
encapsulates the true you, that is only
just now in the process of being revealed.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 19) This is
an excellent time for progress, although
not of the more obvious kind. You are still
mightily transforming, and as you do, are
drawn to unfamiliar inner realms where
yet your most important product lies. You
do well to write down your dreams upon
awakening, and to reflect on where your
life is taking you at this critical juncture.
Everything becomes clearer when
examined from the standpoint of deep
intuitional knowing. You are bound to
encounter leaps in understanding and also
in impact, when you can eventually absorb
the information that is springing forth in
this way. Your work in the world therefore
assumes importance not only for itself but
also for your process of spiritual evolution.
On into December, a renewed sense of life
direction is strongly calling. You feel drawn
more firmly than ever to inner realms,
even to the exclusion of the outer. The
seeming sacrifice is minor on your part.
By taking yourself further to the inside,
you enable your entire being to prosper.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 - Feb. 17) This is
another amazing period for you, providing
new vistas of self-understanding. Your
ongoing and rather intense experience has
been epic in terms of personal evolution. In
matters of both interpersonal connection,
and alone, you are ratcheting up your
commitment to a path forward for yourself
that makes better sense for you, long-term.
You simultaneously are attempting to get a
better handle on relationship issues of the
sort that you were concerned with over last
summer. You are growing in knowledge,
no doubt about it, and moving forward
by fits and starts into the discovery of a
better tomorrow that provides you with
a more reliable platform from which to
engage your peers. On into December,
you are full of verve and vitality, scaling the
walls of outer achievement while staying
true to inner goals. You are revisiting
the realms of your unconscious places,
mining these vast spaces within you for
the gold of a better and more complete
understanding of your own deep intention.
PISCES (Feb. 18 - March 19) The social
and visible world, and its limitations, are
very much with you during this end-ofyear time. You are nonetheless, quite
importantly, dealing as well with more
subtle vibrations that emanate from deep
inside you. A shake-up of everything that
exists at your surface layers thus makes up
one stream of the cosmic energy flowing
through you. Your commitment to your
endeavors in the world and their payoff
interacts with matters that arise directly
from your own deep center. You perhaps
are feeling a strong sense that to neglect
the hidden places within you would be to
imperil your outer world progress as an
incomplete or empty exercise, and you
could be right. On into December, you
are very invested in the achievements and
the accolades of the visible world, and
yet still engaged in depth researches and
inner issues. Relationship with significant
partners is powerful for you now, and
could provide one key to their resolution.
Henry Seltzer, transformational astrologer
and creator of the TimePassages astrology
software, is based in Santa Cruz, California.
An extended look at this month’s star
signs and a variety of astrology reports are
available on his website. His new book
about Eris, the planet discovered in 2006,
beyond Pluto, is entitled: The Tenth Planet:
Revelations from the Astrological Eris, and is
available from New Leaf Dist. and at AFA.
Henry also offers life enhancing private
astrological counseling. Call him at
831-425-3686, or visit his website at
www.astrograph.com
11
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EVOLVE!
SoulTouch™ Coloring Journals
Years in the Making, But Right on Time
by Deborah Koff-Chapin
Deborah Koff-Chapin
Twenty years ago, I released the first
deck of SoulCards. They continue
to live in the hands and hearts of
many thousands of people around
the world. Now, I am riding a new
wave. As the interest in adult coloring
books grows and crests, I offer my
images to the world in a new form:
SoulTouch Coloring Journals.
Adult coloring books are fulfilling
a deep need for respite – a way
to de-stress in our complex and
technologized world. Seeing a prism
of colorful art materials, holding one
in our hand and filling a page with
color, brings us into a childlike place
Deborah Koff-Chapin, creator and
publisher of the best selling SoulCards
1&2, shares the deep roots of new her
new series of Coloring Journals.
Diana Stimmel
of focus and passion. The rhythm
of coloring seems to sooth a primal
longing. Having something on
the page to focus our action helps
overcome the fear of drawing that so
many people have internalized.
SoulTouch Coloring Journals offer all
the gifts of coloring, with a unique
and free form approach. Instead
of precise patterns to fill in with
color, the images in these books are
formed with flowing variations of
line and shade. Having been created
from a place of soulful attunement,
these images engage the colorist in a
deeper relationship. They are invited
to bring the images alive with their
own artistic expression. Textures,
layers, free flowing areas – any goes.
After coloring, there is an invitation
to further explore and interact with
the image through creative writing.
This dialogue between visual and
verbal modalities can ignite a new
level of inspiration and insight.
The images in the SoulTouch Coloring
Journals have an evocative power that
stems from the way they in which
were created. They emerged out of
40 years of work with the process
of Touch Drawing. In 1974, on my
last day in art school, I came I upon
this simple yet profound process in
an ecstatic creative moment. Moving
my hands over paper that was laid
upon a smooth surface of paint,
I lifted it to see the imprint of my
touch on the underside. This direct
Ross Chapin
Betsy Naylor
form of expression had an enlivening,
primal power. Over the years I have
deepened my own practice of Touch
Drawing and introduced it to people
around the world.
“I have drawn in the forest, on the
beach, in ancient stone circles,
cathedrals and temples...”
Touch Drawing materials are very
portable. I have drawn in the forest,
on the beach, in ancient stone circles,
cathedrals and temples. I have
drawn during countless lectures by
authors and visionaries in the realms
of ecopsychology, spirituality, and
cultural transformation. I have been
honored to draw in the presence
of numerous spiritual teachers and
lineages: Mevlevi whirling dervishes,
Buddhist masters and divine
mothers. I have sat in the presence
of many individuals, creating images
that bring into form subtle facets of
their soul.
As the years went by and I kept
drawing, my archive of drawings kept
growing.
13
EVOLVE!
Deborah Koff-Chapin
The images in the SoulCards were
selected from touch drawings I
created alone in my studio, coloring
slowly, with many layers. But there
are are far more spontaneous images
that I created in inspiring settings
that have never been colored. I
knew I had to eventually find a way
to bring them out into the world.
But without the full range of color,
I wasn’t sure if people would find
them as interesting as the images in
SoulCards. Ideas came and went, but
nothing took hold until now… Let
everyone color my drawings!
Qwilleran Duvall
take hold of the idea. But oddly,
it felt good in my body. A month
later, another friend posted a news
report about the popularity of
adult coloring books. A late night
Diana Stimmel
Betsy Naylor
what he thought of the idea. I woke
up the following morning to his
positive response. He and his team
were realizing how big the coloring
book revival was, and my timing was
perfect. From that moment I went
into production mode. Within a
month of the seed idea, SoulTouch
Coloring Journals were taking form.
chat ensued. The idea creating of
a coloring book began resonating
with life. Before going to sleep, I
emailed my sales representative at
New Leaf Distributing and asked
I began by searching through my vast
library of digitized images. I placed
them into different albums according
to their common feeling-tone. Out
of the mass of images, some order
began to emerge. Once I had found
a large selection that fit the theme,
I sorted through them again to find
the ones that seemed to be appealing
for free-form coloring. I then worked
with two coaches who joined me in
the exploration of titles that could
express each theme. Together we
came up with these:
GIFTS OF THE FEMININE:
Soul Touch Coloring Journal
CREATIVE AWAKENING:
FULLNESS OF LIFE:
Publisher: Center For Touch Drawing
$13.99, ISBN13: 9780996463416
$13.99, ISBN13: 9780964562387
$13.99, ISBN13: 9780964562394
OPENING TO LOVE:
LISTENING WITHIN:
$13.99, ISBN13: 9780996463409
$13.99, ISBN13: 9780996463423
The idea began simply, at a party
where I was bemoaning my underused archive of images. A friend
suggested I create a coloring book.
This was the last thing I could have
imagined doing at the time. My
life’s work is to teach people to
access their own images. I couldn’t
14
“Let everyone color my drawings!”
EVOLVE!
Deborah Koff-Chapin
Diana Stimmel
Cary Blake
Qwilleran Duvall
My intent in creating the Coloring Journals is to offer an accessible and inspiring creative experience, one that can
fit easily into a busy life. I didn’t really know if these images would be appealing to color. I didn’t even know how I
would feel upon seeing my own images colored by others! I sent sample images out to a few friends and colleagues,
asking them to give it a try. I am happy to share how natural and joyful it feels to see my images through the fresh
eyes and hands of other people; and to hear how they loved engaging my images in such an active and collaborative
way. Here is one response to coloring from Diana Stimmel M.A. LPC NCC.
“I was just reading your text describing how to go about the coloring process. That is exactly how it happened for me. As I flipped through the pages, I would look at one and have no idea how to even begin
coloring it. So I would shift to the next until one did speak to me. As I gazed at the image I could feel the
colors and energy manifest. I would ask the image how it wanted to be colored and to show me. The images I colored have had a deep effect upon me.
Coloring the image, seeing it transform, rotating the paper to see it from many different angles evokes
something beyond the ordinary experience of coloring. It is as if I have just experienced timelessness with
an element of my own soul as I color. I cannot recall having ever had an experience of this kind from a
coloring book. I actually made two of the images my iPhone’s lock screen and background wallpaper. Every
time I pick up my phone, the eyes are staring back at me. For a split second I experience a knowing with
the image, even in the midst of scheduling my work.
Yesterday I had a client color one of your images and she said that she felt she was able to talk more deeply
in that session. I’ve seen this client for over 2 years. She opened up so much more than she ever had in one
session. She was so surprised at herself. The only difference was that she talked while she colored one of
your images. I also asked my seven year old daughter to join me in coloring. She chose the drawing with
the spilling hearts. I asked her what the image was about for her and she replied ‘It is a being from the
earth that is doing what Cupid does, which is to spread the love’. “ If Diana’s experience is any indication, this is only the beginning of a deeply
fulfilling creative collaboration. The field of possibility for SoulTouch Coloring
Journals is wide open. They are accessible and easy to use, yet provide an
experience with great depth potential. They can be used by people of all
ages - in hospitals, support groups and social gatherings; as a break in the
work day or a way to quiet the mind before sleep. Therapists might add
them to their collection of processes. Once they are complete, the pages
can be photographed and shared on social media with reflective writing, or
removed from the book, framed and given as gifts. If more people can have
moments of soul connection in the midst of their day-to-day lives through
creative engagement with these images, they are serving in the way I hope
they can. Our world needs more people who are in touch with their souls,
and with the soul of life.
15
EVOLVE!
EVERYDAY WITCHCRAFT
EXCERPT FROM THE LLEWELLYN JOURNAL | BY DEBORAH BLAKE
I’ve written a number of books for Llewellyn over the years—believe it or not,
my upcoming release is number eight—but far and away the most popular one
was my third, The Goddess is in the Details. And I have to confess, it was my
favorite too. (Shhh…don’t tell the other books. They’ll cry, and I’ll have to give
them each a cookie.)
I’ve gotten the most letters and emails about The Goddess is in the Details, and
it recently went back for a sixth printing, which is pretty unusual. So what was
it about this book that made so many people love it, and why am I talking about
it now, many years later?
The idea behind the book was a simple one: because most of the witches and
Pagans I knew complained about how hard it can be to find the time and energy
to really practice their Craft, I wanted to write a book that made it easier to do
so. The Goddess is in the Details was all about simple, easy ways to integrate
our magickal lives with our mundane, everyday world.
Who wouldn’t like to do that?
Fast-forward about five years, and another four books, and one day it suddenly
occurred to me that I had more to say on this particular subject. It was time to
write another book; something of a follow-up to the first book, although you
wouldn’t have to read one in order to enjoy the other. Why, you ask? Good
question.
EVERYDAY WITCHCRAFT: Making Time
For Spirit In A Too-Busy World
by Deborah Blake
Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
$16.99, ISBN13: 9780738742182
In part, I wanted to do the new book because in the ensuing years I’d learned
more through my own personal practice, and some of my approaches to things
had changed. In part, it was because I kept getting questions from readers that
hadn’t been addressed in the first book, or in any of my others. Also, let’s face it,
this issue—of how to live our lives as witches all day every day, walking our talk,
if you will—is the focus of much of my writing because I think it is important.
For me, at least, Witchcraft isn’t just a spiritual practice. It is a way of life.
So that’s how Everyday Witchcraft: Making Time for Spirit in a Too-Busy World was born. I tackled some topics I hadn’t covered in
The Goddess is in the Details, and added new approaches to some that I had. As an added bonus, I reached out to some of my fellow
witchy writers and asked them if they would be willing to share snippets of their own approaches to living the Craft, and was rewarded
with wonderful words of wisdom (and fun) to share with my readers from people like Christopher Penczak, Raven Digitalis, Melanie
Marquis, Z. Budapest, Ashleen O’Gaea, Kris Bradley, and more. I love being able to offer the viewpoints of other folks, since everyone
tackles this issue a little differently.
I had a lot of fun writing Everyday Witchcraft. Some of the new additions include “5-minute rituals” (after all, we should all be able to
find at least five minutes a day to add in something to feed our spirits, and with a number of different options, everyone will hopefully
find something that works for their particular needs). There are suggestions for easy forms of daily divination, and something I like to
call a “hibernation vacation.” (Hint—you don’t have to leave your house.)
There are also suggestions for fast, simple
daily practices, as well as ways to connect
with deity and add a magickal touch to your
everyday activities. As always, there are
also ways to bring nature into your life and
go with the flow of the Wheel of the Year. In
short, I hope that there is a little something
for everyone, especially those who liked The
Goddess is in the Details so much.
Many of the suggestions in this book
come from my own life... I hope that
you find some of them helpful in your
own journey towards becoming an
everyday witch.
17
EVOLVE!
I’m no different from anyone else. My life is a constant balancing act, trying
to juggle the demands of a hectic schedule as a shop manager/jewelry maker/
nonfiction and fiction author/cat servant with my desire to live my best possible
life and be the best Witch (and human being) that I can be. I often fall short of my
own goals, but that doesn’t mean I don’t keep trying.
Every day when I wake up, I greet the gods and ask them to help me to do my best
for myself and for others. Every night when I go to bed, I thank them for all the
gifts and challenges of the day. Even these simple practices are a way to integrate
my spiritual life with my everyday life.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Deborah Blake, is the author of witchcraft books
such as The Wonderful World of Witchcraft
(Llewellyn 2008), Everyday Witch A to Z
Spellbook (2010) and Witch on a Shoestring
(2010) She has published many articles in Pagan
publications, including Llewellyn annuals and
Witches & Pagans Magazine.
When not writing, Deborah runs the Artisans’
Guild, a cooperative shop she founded with a
friend in 1999, and works as a jewelry maker as
well. She lives in upstate New York with her five
cats who supervise all her activites, both magickal
and mundane.
18
Many of the suggestions in this book come from my own life. They are either
things I do myself, or things my friends or coven-mates do. Some I picked up
from reading the many wonderful books others have written (and yes, there is a
suggested reading list at the back of the book to help you find the ones I think are
the most helpful and/or fun to read), and others are things that I came up with on
my own. Either way, I hope that you find some of them helpful in your own journey
towards becoming an everyday witch.
It is my belief that there is no way to separate our spiritual practice from our
everyday lives—nor would we want to. Part of the goal of following a spiritual
path, whatever it might be, is to add depth and meaning and richness to our
everyday existence. It is my fervent hope that, in some small way, Everyday
Witchcraft will make that goal more attainable for those who read it. If it does,
then I get a cookie, right? Right?
Meditation for a Busy Lifestyle
The joys of meditation are many, including: increased productivity; the ability to concentrate and focus; improved
physical and mental health; and reduction in overall stress levels. While these are all great reasons to meditate
daily, they pale in comparison to the best reason, which is the higher levels of fulfillment that accompany a
daily practice. Greater fulfillment can include flowing with the happenings of life -- free of anxiety, worry and
sleeplessness, and replaced by “being happy for no reason.”
If meditation offers all of these great payoffs, why then don’t more of us meditate every day? Unfortunately,
for many Westerners, incorporating meditation into an already-busy lifestyle can be a challenge. How do we fit
yet another daily activity into a schedule already jam-packed with family, career and volunteer commitments?
And how can we slow down enough to meditate when we are invested in a lifestyle, which features long, busy,
even frantic days? We fall into bed, exhausted by long hours of competing demands and high levels of stress.
For centuries, meditation has proved transforming in the lives of its practitioners. However, it has also traditionally
required sitting calmly with crossed legs and closed eyes for long stretches of time. Many practitioners were monks
who, even today, live in remote situations free from interruptions by phones, text messages, emails
and worry over paying bills. In other words, they enjoy a lifestyle that is definitely not
accessible or even desirable for most Westerners.
Fortunately there is a solution. Technology is available which makes a daily
meditation practice very efficient, allowing practitioners to enjoy the benefits in
less time and with greater precision and effectiveness. In addition, even greater
benefits are available when individuals shift their view of meditation from
something that is just-a-daily practice to one that is a part of a lifestyle, a
way of living and being, with a focus on balance.
Viewed in this way, meditation becomes a way of life that anyone can
choose to engage in moment-by-moment. When combined with the use
of leading-edge technology for daily practice and maintaining a balanced
and coherent environment, the results are rapid with measurable changes
in states of consciousness -- and the genuine, growing levels of fulfillment
previously available only to monks living in remote monasteries.
Balance Opens the Door
The fulfillment we seek requires access beyond our physical senses to
subtler dimensions where all wisdom is accessible. While everyone enjoys
happy positive experiences from day to day, most also vacillate between
these and what they might view as “down” or negative happenings they
would prefer to avoid. Living this kind of roller-coaster ride makes it
impossible to maintain a consistent state of joy or fulfillment, which is
often characterized as an ability to flow with what is, regardless of whatever
is happening. However, if that is not our experience, the way to make it so
is through choosing balance.
In today’s world, balance is often defined in terms of work. Individuals
may view it as taking more time off, spending more time with family or not
working on weekends. In other words, they see the world as a choice between
EVOLVE!
working and taking a break. However,
even when they are off enjoying
leisure activities, most still carry their
phones, respond to texts or emails and
take and return calls. In other words,
they are in a state of imbalance even
within the rather narrow definition of
balance as work-versus-leisure.
In fact, our entire life -- not just
work and leisure -- is played out on
a much bigger stage of balance and
imbalance. We live in a relative field
in which everything is understandable
only in relation to something else.
Cold is only meaningful when we
experience hot; knowing light requires
being familiar with dark; feeling fear
makes sense only in context of the
counterbalance of love; and “negative”
only makes sense in relation to
“positive.”
Unfortunately, most
people remain stuck on the
negative side of experience
and are both imbalanced and
disconnected from the
fulfillment they seek.
The information overload
we all experience, thanks
to technology that keeps
work at the forefront and makes news
and information available constantly,
assures us that we can choose to be
in touch with all of the most negative
happenings in the world 24/7. This,
then, exacerbates imbalance and
promotes stress, tension, lowered
productivity and poor health —
definitely not a formula for fulfillment
and flowing with what is. And, while
taking time off from work can be a
start to creating more meaningful
balance, it is a very limited approach.
20
Start with Daily Meditation
Achieving fulfillment starts with a
daily meditation practice which, when
combined with a holistic lifestyle
and use of technology, offers a more
comprehensive understanding and
experience of balance.
For most people, the world they
know and understand is outside of
themselves and is one which is often,
also, a place of pain and suffering
with only occasional glimpses of
the truthful, blissful experiences
associated with fulfillment. As a
result, individuals become invested in
the pain and, because they experience
it as out there, then “out there” is
where they seek solutions. When life
happens and they have an experience
they judge as “wrong,” they look
for someone else to blame,
or for reasons why they are a
victim of circumstances.
In contrast, meditation brings
focus to the stillness that
always exists within and,
as such, is a powerful
balancing tool for an
out-of-balance, outerfocused world. When
meditators adopt a daily practice,
they regularly experience the stillness
of this inner focus. As their peace
expands, they begin to experience a
more holistic view of life in which all
are one and there is no one else to
blame. Non-meditators experience
some relief from the outer focus,
but only when they sleep -- not
enough to bring a significant level of
understanding or fulfillment.
Mystical traditions have long
promoted meditation as the primary
balancing tool, and more recently
studies of the brainwaves of longtime meditators (such as Buddhist
monks and people on extended
retreats) support its use for this
purpose. The studies show that longtime meditators enjoy an increased
capacity for happiness and are more
likely to experience positive emotions
like feelings of wellbeing and empathy,
along with a decreased incidence of
depression.
While these results are
encouraging, they are based on
people practicing traditional systems
of meditation that require many hours
of daily practice for extended periods
of time. There is, however, good news
for Westerners wanting to enjoy
the benefits of meditation without
moving to a remote monastery
or going on an extended retreat.
An international retreat center in
Virginia, Synchronicity Foundation
for Modern Spirituality, offers HighTech Meditation® soundtracks to
individuals living a typical western
lifestyle who want to experience all
the benefits of a daily practice without
leaving home.
Research based on profiles of
meditators’ brainwaves shows just
how powerful this kind of technology
can be. These studies demonstrate
that the brainwaves of experienced
Synchronicity meditators (with up to
seven years of practice and all living a
typical western lifestyle) are similar to
those of monks living in a cloistered
setting and meditating many hours
a day for twenty to forty years. The
results showed that technologyenhanced meditation delivered a fourfold acceleration factor compared to
classical systems.
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The graphs below show
a comparison between the
brainwave profiles of individuals
practicing classical meditation for
five years compared with those
using Synchronicity’s High-Tech
Meditation® soundtracks for the
same length of time. Notice how the
technology-enhanced meditation
system promotes improved synchrony
of the meditators’ right and left-brain
hemispheres, along with increased
brainwave amplitude, coherence and
proportional whole-brain function.
This brainwave profile reflects the
balance that comes with consistent,
precision meditation for five years.
Fortunately, the technology also
makes the benefits of meditation
easily accessible to anyone who
chooses to use it daily.
The Meditative Lifestyle
While meditation is an unequaled
balancing tool, by itself it is not enough
to support a consistent experience of
joy and fulfillment.
This kind of result requires the
adoption of a lifestyle that supports the
benefits of a daily meditation practice
with balance in the physical body,
the emotions, and the mental body
(or mind). Often called the Holistic
Lifestyle, it allows individuals to achieve
an experience of fulfillment on a
moment-by-moment basis throughout
the day -- by creating sufficient balance
to open the gateway to more consistent
access to the wisdom accessible in the
subtle dimensions.
NOW...THE
TECHNOLOGY (CD)
by Charles Cannon Publisher: Synchronicity
Foundation, Inc
$17.95, UPC: 690305481040
Lack of balance at the most
basic physical level manifests as disease due to poor diet and lack of
exercise. The result is toxic buildup,
imbalanced hormones, excess weight
and other markers of poor health.
Taking steps to improve the quality
of the diet and adding exercise are
fundamental to achieving balance in
the physical body.
Negative emotions and feelings
such as fear, anger, hatred or jealousy
are indicative of an emotional body out
of balance. Achieving balance at this
level requires consciously choosing
throughout every day to shift the
focus to the heart and continuously
flowing loving, harmonious emotions
and feelings. Clearly, it also helps to
have a balanced and healthy physical
body. Imbalanced hormones that
promote fatigue or depression, sore
joints or a “bad back” make the
maintenance of emotional balance
much more challenging.
When it comes to the mind, we create
balance by consciously choosing
positive, truthful thoughts as opposed
to what are often our habitual
negative ones. A daily practice of
positive affirmations is essential to
create balance in the mind and, as
this state becomes more consistent,
individuals also begin to let go of their
mind’s constant chatter allowing them
to experience less thinking and more
stillness. Consistently positive and
balanced emotions and a healthy body
support the development of a positive
mental state.
SUBJECT IS LOVE (2 CD)
by Patrick Bernard and
Charles Cannon Publisher: Synchronicity
Foundation, Inc
$18.95, UPC: 690305481026
In addition to lifestyle choices
intrinsic to this kind of balance, there
is also powerful new technology for
use between formal meditations that
enhances an individual’s experience
even in the face of daily challenges
that are always a part of life. The
technology comes in the form of
a new soundtrack that individuals
can play in the background while
working or enjoying leisure activities
on a computer, tablet, smartphone
or on a player clipped to a pocket or
purse when on the go. Alternatively,
it can be played continuously over
speakers at work or at home. This
new balancing strategy, NOW …
The Technology, transforms any
environment into a balanced space
and delivers the focused experience
of being in the now.
Explore the Options
Today’s meditators have many
options for enhancing their experience
and enjoying the benefits of
meditation without leaving home and
within a reasonable amount of time
each day. They should take time to
explore the options and find the ones
that do the best job of delivering the
balance that is essential to achieving
the fulfillment they seek.
Look for information on Synchronicity
Foundation’s High-Tech Meditation®
soundtracks, including NOW...The
Technology, inside the front cover of
this magazine.
BECOMING OF BEING:
Celebrating The Sacred
Feminine (CD)
by Charles Cannon and
Patrick Bernard Publisher: Synchronicity
Foundation, Inc
$17.95, UPC: 690305481033
OM: The Reverberation
Of Source Universal (CD)
by Master Charles Publisher: Synchronicity
Foundation, Inc
$15.95, UPC: 690305441020
21
How much do you really know about yourself?
by Tina Ketch
How much do you really know about yourself? May not be the 64 million dollar question but it should be. You know your name, where you were born, and for the most part what time. You know who your parents are, what
they look like, and even what they may do for a living. Some of you may have siblings, or even extended family
members, but who you are “really are” still remains a mystery. What makes you think the way you do, act the way you do - where has your reasoning come from? Where did you
get your feelings, emotions, and opinions? What do you care about, and what do you like or dislike? Where did this
mental processing come from? What, or who do you look like, which parent do you favor, and why? When you first came home from the
hospital, many family members gathered around observing your every move.
And the comments begin - “oh that’s
Jacks nose, oh look, he smiles just like
Aunt Sue.” They pick you apart as if
you had been ordered out of the Sears
catalog. future generations. We are the effects of
our environment, as well as the effects
of the environment during the life of our
ancestors. We are multifaceted entities
of creative, manifesting awe-inspiring
thought. Thought which will vacillate
between yin and yang, and will enhance
our experiences in this life. generational, and soul memory energies influencing these coexisting cycles.
Thus, creating conflicting belief patterns
among others, but not within yourself.
The reason for this is that we expect
others to act, think, and feel the same
way that we do, and anything less sets
up our innate need to judge. Nonetheless, everything about you is
mimicking another person in your family. Sometimes even a past relative that
you had never met. All along leaving you
in a state of perplexity how such things
could happen. I know this may sound complicated,
but it is really not. There are several
facets of life happening at the same
time, both on the surface, or conscious
level, as well as on a cellular, genetic,
and on subconscious levels of your life.
Life was not meant to be hard, painful,
exciting, or even full of that ever eluding feeling of bliss that so many people
seem to be searching. We believe that
life is as individual as a constant flow of
raw-unmolested energy, similar to that
which we are made. This energy, to be
molded, created, and experienced as
we deem necessary along our own journey through life. We gather experience
through osmosis, we retain what feels
familiar, and leave the rest. The applicable saying here is “this is my truth”.
But is it? Your soul’s memory will be referred to
as a vibration. A vibration that can be
This may all sound a bit complex, but
it is not. You may think sitting in your
car on your way home from work that
you are alone, yet no one is ever really
alone. Whether in life, in death - before
life, or after death. “No one is ever really
alone or hopeless because the force
that guide the stars, guides you too”.
The reason for this statement is that we
are all consciousness, and a part of that
consciousness is the generational energy
of our ancestors, as well as the nuclear
receptors and preceptors thriving daily
in our physical bodies. We are all comprised of family genetics,
soul vibrational energy, as well as the
essence of our environment all intertwined in our DNA. We are the DNA,
and collective ideals of our forefathers;
maternal and fraternal. We will find not
only are we individuals as in body, but
we are also the collective consciousness. We are the encoded genetic ideals,
goals, accomplishments, and failures of
our past, as well as our previous, and
Not everyone believes in, or will desire
spiritual enlightenment during this lifetime. For some, the purpose is to find
unconditional love. For others, perhaps
it is to experience the sensation of prosperity. It is possible that fame, honor,
social status, or even - yes, just to be
left “alone” - undisturbed by others, and
bothered by none - could be your ultimate desire. We all have our own truth,
defining the word individual. However,
there are constant vibrations of genetic,
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mathematically calculated into a color,
a tone, and a definition unique unto its
self. This vibrational soul-memory will
be your level of pure perspective (or
truth). A perspective that you, and you
alone experience as a sense of relevant
association. It will be an intense feeling
of familiarity. You may sometimes wonder where your
feelings come from. Your ability to associate, or to connect with someone,
and/or to those things around you is
your souls way of awakening your sense
of awareness - we call this a feeling of
familiarity. As you travel life’s path your
Your environment is most vital to your
successful, healthy, and happy life. Your
environment will directly dictate your
happiness, or bring to you, your life’s
deepest sorrows. The epigenome marks your genome
by triggering, activating, or sometimes
simply passing over, leaving the genome
unaffected. Thus, a situation, or an illness dictated by your DNA will lay dormant when the gene is stimulated by
the epigenome. When your DNA is left
unaffected by epigenomes, your body
will accept the control, or path dictated
by your DNA, allowing the issue to oc-
Epigenetics’ will begin to explain how different
people might experience the same situation with a completely different outcome, although this is not the whole story.
feeling of familiarity shows you that
you are in the right place, and at the
right time. Yet again, where do these
feelings come from? Are these feelings
innate, or is this learned or inherited
behavior? This feeling is the epitome of
“be here now”! You are perceiving, and
experiencing a sensation of familiarity
with no basis for it in this life. However
real, this feeling cannot be explained by
you. Everyone is different, everyone
is an individual, everyone has feelings,
yet there are feelings that you will have
with no experiences to back them up.
We are going to call these feelings “the
direct effects of three distinct energies,
which are as vital to your life as the
breath that you take”. First we will talk about epigenomes.
The word epi means above, and genome
includes both the genes, and the noncoding sequences of the DNA/RNA. Epigenomes are made up of chemical
compounds, some natural, and some
man-made or environmental. Two very
simple examples would be food - natural
or, man-made, such as pesticides. When
the genome is affected by ingestion, or
exposure to these tags, the epigenome
serves as the intersection between the
environment, and the genome, thus
making you a part of your environment.
24
cur. Epigenomes are stimulated not only
in your life by your feelings, emotions,
actions, or thoughts, but most activation
of your epigenome is stimulated, or triggered by environmental factors. Yours,
as well as those environmental factors,
which had effected your parents, and
even your grandparents. Epigenetics’ will begin to explain how
different people might experience the
same situation with a completely different outcome, although this is not the
whole story. Epigenetics’ will be effecting our minds, and bodies, just as it will
impact our mental, and physical health,
even our eye color. The reason for this
is that epigenetics deals with the DNA
that you inherited from your parents. Whereas generational energy, even
though it presents a very similar vibration to most people, the result again will
be comparatively different. Since generational energy deals with the learned
behavior from your ancestors, this energy will leave you feeling very comfortable, but not really sure why. There are
un-written rules, or behaviors among
family members that feel normal, but
are never established as routine. This
similar vibration will show us that trends
do pass from generation to generation.
Generational energy (belonging to a
family or group) is collective, and not
individual.
The third coexisting energy effecting
each of us is soul memory. The soul
memory is your thoughts, feelings, belief patterns, talents, and even fears that
you bring with you from any, or all past
lives on a soul, or sub conscience level.
All of these energies make us who we
are. We are all made up of a unique
equation of collective consciousness
- and this personal soul memory, inherited generational energy, genomes and
epigenomes when blended properly will
paint a picture with your face on it. As
exciting as this may all be, we need to
apply the intensity to the picture that
will make us whole.
Your physical-body will include several
distinct, intertwining, multi-functioning, coexisting vibrations, all occurring
at the same time. Each touching, and
massaging each other as they stimulate, and encourage one another, as
well as themselves. Microscopic powerhouses that we cannot distinguish
between or live without. Like the blood
flowing through your veins, each energy
vibration is vital for human life. These
energies vibrate, emanating a vibrational definition unique unto itself. Each vibration is comprised of a mathematical
solution, and a definition of explanation.
Each vibration resonates at a particular
frequency emanating color, and each
color solicits an answer to a daunting
life question, lesson, or challenge. When you surround yourself with a specific color, or even think about your
favorite color, this is not saying you
are deficient in that particular energy,
or vibration, but merely you are being
guided along your life’s path at a very
unique time for a particular reason.
A reason known and dictated by your
mind, body and soul determined by
your environment. ‘Be here now’ - just
took on a whole new meaning, placing
the responsibility of your success or failures in life solely upon your own shoulders. So tell me - are you where you want
to be and do you know who you are?
EVOLVE!
The Power of Story in the In-Between
The Story of Demeter and Persephone
Long ago and far away, there was an island with an advanced civilization where
art and beauty were primary, civility and peace reigned, and men and women lived as
equals. But after many ages had passed, people from the nearby mainland --where men
ruled and war and violence were common--crossed the sea in their boats and invaded this
island, defeating its people. Among the spoils of war they took home with them were some
of the island’s gods and goddesses.
These gods and goddesses retained knowledge of where they had come from and
yearned to return, yet as time passed, their memories of the island and of life as they
had once known it grew fainter and fainter. Finally, their recall of the island was like the
ghostly writing in a palimpsest, just traces beneath the surface of newer inscriptions, as
the deities became more and more the new mortals they served wanted and understood.
Many ages later, one of these goddesses was luxuriating in the beauty of a verdant
field. Her hair was golden, like corn silk, and she moved with the grace of grain blowing
in a soft, warm wind. Her eyes were the color of a clear, sky-blue lake. While her body
was voluptuous, she also seemed to emerge from the land, with the feel of someone solid
and trustworthy. Her very name, Demeter, came from the Greek root word meaning “the
AUTHOR: Carol S. Pearson
mother,” and she embodied the compassion and nurturance this name implies.
From his throne high on Mount Olympus, Zeus, the god of all gods, saw her. Zeus was as muscular as a bull and had the courage
of a warrior. Clad from his head to his feed in armor, he inspired the respect of the other gods and terror in the hearts of his people,
who knew they must worship him and make sacrifices to him or suffer the consequences. In his role as a sky god, he was known-when crossed--to hurl down lighting bolts, bellow as loud as thunder, and create winds so strong that few could withstand their force.
But on this day, everything had gone his way, and he was feeling secure in his power and happy with his lot. Then he happened
to spy Demeter and, filled with lust, he descended from on high to seduce her. Flattered by his attentions, Demeter enjoyed their
lovemaking. After they had rested together contentedly, he explained, with some regret, that he had to return to his duties. After all, he
was responsible for maintaining the social order of gods and mortals, as well as for quieting the anger of the Titans he had conquered,
and soon he would marry the Titan beauty Hera, the goddess of marriage.
Zeus reminded himself that being the chief god, and consequently the king of all, meant that his responsibilities had to supersede
his personal happiness, and that Demeter would be fine. Her satisfaction came less from sex or romance than from being a mother,
and likely she would gain a child from this union. And he was right in this surmise.
Their resulting daughter was known as Kore, the maiden; it was not yet clear what she
would be the goddess of, hence her generic name. She had hair as dark and luminous as the
night sky, but a disposition for light and joyful that it seemed as if she had stars dancing
as a halo around her. Her skin was honey golden, her nature was similarly sweet. Her eyes
were sea-foam green, the color of the Mediterranean, and those looking into them often
felt a subtle call to adventure that caused them to yearn for something far away and as
yet unknown. Demeter loved her daughter more than anything or anyone, cherishing her
and doing everything she could to keep her safe. But one day while Kore was off picking
flowers in a meadow with her friends, Demeter left to take care of some business with other
goddesses. She returned home after a short time, only to learn that Kore was nowhere to be
found. Her playmates told Demeter that Kore had wandered off and had not been seen since.
Demeter asked everyone in the vicinity if they had seen Kore or knew where she was, but
no one would admit to any knowledge of what had happened. Distraught and worried, as
any parent would be, Demeter feared that Kore had been killed, raped, or kidnapped. For
days, Demeter did not sleep or eat or bathe as she searched frantically for Kore, following
ever-widening paths that led further and further from home.
Finally, Demeter encountered Hekate, the goddess of the crossroads, who was know
for the depth of her wisdom, which was especially relevant in times of choice or when
someone was at a loss for where to go or what to do. A very ancient goddess, Hekate was
one of the few who (along with the Fates) appeared to other gods and to humans in the guise
of an old woman. Closely associated with the moon and its phases, she saw better at night,
like an owl or a cat. Her hearing, however, was always acute, even catching whispered
secrets that traveled to her in the wind. When Hekate recognized the depth of Demeter’s
maternal grief, he own heart was touched, and she told Demeter that she had heard Kore
PERSEPHONE RISING:
cry out, and she believed that Kore might have been abducted.
Awakening The Heroine Within (H)
by Carol S Pearson
Publisher: HarperElixer
$26.99, ISBN13: 9780062318923
27
Hekate suggested that she and Demeter visit Apollo, the blazing sun god, who from his position in the sky, may have seen what
transpired. Gratefully, Demeter accompanied Hekate up into the sky to see Apollo. Now, Apollo was a favored son of Zeus, and often
served as his emissary. He dutifully explained to Demeter that she need not worry. Kore had become the wife of a prestigious god,
Hades, who ruled one of the three major realms of the world. Of course, Demeter well knew that Zeus ruled the sky and the surface of
the earth; Poseidon, the seas; and Hades, the Underworld, where the dead reside. But she listened politely, so as not to offend. Apollo
went on to assure her that all was well: Hades has asked Zeus for Kore’s hand in marriage, and after all, Zeus was her father and had
the right to decide whom she married.
Hades was a dark and handsome god, rich beyond measure, with a mischievous turn of his lips that women adored. He had loved
Kore since he first saw her, but had repressed his growing desire until she was pubescent, and thus of age. When Hades appeared
before Zeus, he was lit with passion and trembling in eagerness to hold his beloved. Zeus though it better to have Hades marry Kore
than ravish her unwed, as he feared might happen given what he was seeing.
If that were not enough, Zeus knew that Hades has always resented how
he, Hades’s younger brother, had become chief of the gods, supplanting his
older sibling. Zeus had to manage Hades carefully so he would not stage a
rebellion. So all in all, Apollo continued, it was a wise decision for Zeus to
bless the marriage then and there.
“So when was this marriage ceremony?” Hekate asked, a bit
provocatively, since all the gods should have been invited. Ignoring that
question, Apollo explained that Hades had convinced Aphrodite of the depth
of his love for Kore and asked her to help him woo her. Aphrodite placed
that most beautiful flower anyone had ever seen near the meadow where
Kore was playing with her friends. Kore saw this flower in the distance and
became so entranced by it that she wandered away from them. She bent over
to pick it but found that she had to pull it hard and when she did so, the earth
Hades sweeping Kore down to the Underworld
opened up, and Hades on his chariot, bounded out of the depths, swept her
up in his arms, and carried her back to his underworld kingdom.
Learning this, Demeter feared that, though Kore was alive, she would be cared, upset, even traumatized. Certainly she was
unprepared for sex, especially with someone she did not yet know and who had violated her sovereignty by roughly carrying her off
against her will. Kore was a young girl, after all, still really a child, although her body was becoming more womanly. As Demeter
ruminated further about this, her worry was matched by her anger at Hades, but even more so at Zeus, who should have protected his
innocent young daughter. She did not mind that he had been no help in raising Kore, but for Zeus simply to dispose of her for political
expediency and personal advantage was beyond what she could accept.
Demeter was a Olympian goddess and hat to stay in her own realm, just as most other gods were confined to theirs. She could not
go to the Underworld to rescue her daughter, and defying Zeus’s orders were unthinkable. However much Hekate tried to comfort her,
there was no comfort to be had. Realizing that the other gods must have known what had happened to Kore but did not tell her out of
fear of Zeus, she could not bear to be around them another moment.
Feeling trapped and powerless, Demeter disguised herself as an old peasant woman and set off on a journey with no destination,
wandering aimlessly as she fasted and pondered what to do but coming up with no answers. Tired and discouraged, she finally sat down
to rest by the sea, in a little town called Eleusis, about fourteen miles from Athens. Kindly daughters of the local royal family saw her
and asked why she was there alone, without family or friends to care for her. She explained that she was from an island paradise but
had been captured by pirates who brought her to this place. The young women sympathized with her plight and invited her to their
palace, where she was welcomed warmly by the queen, Metaneira, and her attendants. At first, she declined their offers of wine or
solid food, but then broke her fast with barley water flavored with mint. For Demeter, the goddess of grain, ingesting the essence of
barley worked to remind her who she truly was. Experiencing such kindness from these friendly and welcoming mortals warmed her
heart and further restored her hope. Demeter’s good spirits were raised enough that she was even able to laugh at the antics of an elder
female servant, Iambe, who did an obscene dance, lifting her skirt to reveal her private parts.
In appreciation for this hospitality, Demeter offered to become a nanny for Queen Metaneira’s precious new son, Demophon,
a proposal that was accepted enthusiastically, as the queen intuited that there was something remarkable about this visitor, however
poor and worn down she might seem. Still disguised, Demeter formulated a secret plan to repay all this kindness by making the son
immortal, feeding him ambrosia (the nectar of the gods) and purifying his nature over the fire when he slept. All of which she did for a
time, until his mother, the queen, came in at night and saw him in the fire. Of course, she screamed in alarm, yelling that Demeter was
killing her son. Outraged that a mortal was chastising her and interfering in a sacred ritual, Demeter erupted. She grabbed the infant
prince, threw him down (though he was unharmed), and showed herself in her full goddess glory, demanding that, in order to appease
her, the Eleusinians build a temple in her honor.
The ancient stories do not reveal how long it took to create such a temple, but we can imagine that the terrified mortals worked
as hard and as long as they could, since gods and goddesses of that time were known for cruelly making mortals pay for any lapses in
homage or obedience to their decrees, or even to their whims. What we can surmise is that while wandering, Demeter had no energy
to infuse her life force into the crops and other vegetation, which withered as a result of her inattention. Even after she had reclaimed
her full identity as a deity, she refused to make things grow. Gradually a terrible famine that could not be ignored took over the land.
Masses of gaunt and starving people appealed to Zeus for help.
28
Feeling harried and tired
from bearing the brunt of all the
beseeching and complaining,
Zeus called together the Olympian
gods, asking each in turn to go to
Demeter and beg her to stop the
famine and provide the verdant
crops she had always done before.
She was, after all, the goddess
who taught humankind the secrets
of agriculture. She is soft-hearted,
Zeus explained. She will not want
mortals to starve, and she knows,
too, that if they stop sending us their
sacrifices, we will begin to fade out
and disappear. The gods did as they were
told, but Demeter remained firm, saying
that she would end the famine only when
she could see her daughter and know that
she was safe and happy.
For the first time in his long reign,
Zeus had to come face-to-face with the
limits of his power. He was the god of the
gods and the only chief god for mortals,
but he could not make the grain grow. Only
Demeter could do that. Relenting, he sent
his son Hermes, the god of communication
and one of the few gods able to move
between realms, to escort Kore back to her
mother. The moment Kore’s feet touched
the earth, flowers sprung up around her,
and in the distance she glimpsed crops
beginning to grow again. Anyone viewing
her would see that she was striding back
to the surface of the earth with a new selfassurance, looking less like a child and
more like a young and confident woman.
Kore and Demeter’s reunion was
warm and sweet, the lovely meadow that
surrounded them growing more beautiful
and lush every moment they were together,
flowers and foliage springing up around
them. They embraced, shared their joy,
and after a time they were joined by the
grandmotherly Hekate, leading to more
hugs, kisses, and intimated womanly
confidences that went on into the evening,
and some say continued for days, as
women’s visits can. Demeter and Kore
shared their stories in turn. Demeter
described her alienation from the Olympian
gods, her wanderings, and how she had
been taken in by a kindly royal family.
There, she recognized that mortals are
not bad, just ignorant, primarily because
the gods had failed to educate them.
To rectify this, Demeter had decided to
create a Mystery tradition to help mortals
understand the laws of life and death so
they could learn to be happy, prosperous,
and free of fear. She would name the rites
Persephone, Queen of the Underworld
the Eleusinian Mysteries, after the town of
Eleusis, where mortals had come to her aid
and built her a temple, and where, Demeter
hoped, her daughter would join her in the
great work.
Kore shared that, initially, she had
been fearful and disoriented after being
abducted but drew strength from her
mother’s teachings about trusting herself
and remaining connected to the whole of
life so that she would feel at home wherever
she might be. And she added that she knew
Demeter would be doing everything in her
power to find her and ensure her safety.
Kore described arriving in the Underworld
and how her heart had gone out to the
newly dead who did not understand their
state. She knew that Demeter would want
her to help them. As she did so, their panic
abated, and they asked her to become their
queen. As queen of the Underworld, Kore
explained, she took the ancient name of
that far-off goddess, so lately forgotten,
who used to occupy that role. She was
Persephone now.
Demeter and Hekate committed to
calling her Persephone thereafter. Then,
with a little laugh, Persephone rather
hesitantly told them that Hades had
tricked her into eating some pomegranate
seeds and then, more proudly, added that
she was pregnant, she thought with a
god whose gift would be to bring joy to
mortals and gods alike. As everyone used
to know, powers more ancient than Zeus or
Hades decreed that if you eat anything in
the Underworld, you have to return there.
Demeter and Hekate looked immediately
downcast as they realized Persephone’s
fate, though Persephone continued to show
her usual lighthearted spirit, reassuring
them that all would be fine. When she
was in the Upperworld, she would initiate
mortals into her mother’s Mysteries, and
when in the Underworld, she would initiate
the dead into the deep mysteries that only
those who have sloughed off their
material forms can know. Hekate,
recognizing a need, volunteered
to take Persephone’s place in the
Underworld during the period when
Persephone was in the Upperworld.
In this way, the dead would not be left
bereft. When Persephone descended
again, Hekate would return to her
role as a seer of the crossroads,
helping mortals with difficult life
decisions and transitions.
The next part of the story--all
that could and can be told to the
uninitiated--came from Zeus. Out
of gratitude that crops were flourishing
once again and sacrificed were wafting
up to the Olympian gods, he declared that
all should recognized that the seasons of
spring, summer, fall, and winter were not
accidental but a product of Demeter’s will.
The seasons remind us of all the cycles
in our own lives and that the earth is our
mother, and like any mother, she loves
her children, her people. From then on, he
announced, during the period of winter,
when crops were fallow, gods and people
alike would take time to honor Demeter’s
grief over her daughter’s sojourn in the
Underworld, as well as to honor how this
motherly deity will grieve whenever any of
her children experience suffering.
He then granted Persephone the right
to become one of the alchemical deities who
could move at will between the Upperworld
and the Underworld. With pride, he also
announced that he had invited Demeter and
Persephone to rejoin the Olympian gods,
and they had accepted. A massive and
joyus celebration immediately commenced
on Olympus, with mortals below dancing
to express their relief and gratitude that the
standoff between Demeter and Zeus and
the resulting famine finally were over.
Legend has it that after this time,
Zeus became a much better ruler--more
respectful of the gifts of all the goddesses,
less dictatorial and more democratic, less
likely to dole out punishments, and more
supportive of efforts, like the Mysteries, to
help people learn and grow into their better
selves, declaring that this story should be
told and retold in every generation.
29
31
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Bringing Peace, Healing, and Hope from the Other Side
by Psychic Medium Bill Philipps
PSYCHIC MEDIUM.
The term conjures images of a flashing neon sign suspended in a dark window of a
rundown storefront on a desolate urban street. Inside is a shadowy room flush with
metaphysical decor and the faint sound of New Age music. An ornately dressed woman
with a deceiving smile sits behind a shiny deck of tarot cards, maybe even a crystal ball.
She is anxiously waiting to spew vague claims and suck money from the vulnerable,
who are seeking nothing more than a glint of hope to heal their pain or enhance their
lives.
At least that’s how I envisioned one — until I discovered that I was one myself. As a
six-foot-five-inch, thirty-one-year-old suburban businessman from Southern California
with an operatic voice and a degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, I’m
pretty confident that I shatter the stereotype. In fact, my entire life story defies belief.
Bill Philipps is the author of
Expect the Unexpected and is
known for being one of the world’s
youngest psychic mediums. He has
appeared on the Dr. Phil show and
has helped countless individuals deal
with the grief of losing loved ones
by bringing through validations,
evidential information and beautiful
messages which heal and bring a
sense of peace. Visit him online at
http://www.billphilipps.com.
I was the product of alcoholic and drug-addicted parents, witnessing filth as a child to
which no one of any age should be subjected. I was kidnapped by my mom when I was
six years old, hustled across the country from the West Coast to the East Coast, where I
was homeless for most of the next three years. I was nine when I was shipped back to my
dad because my mom couldn’t sober up enough to take care of me. And I was fourteen
when I returned to New York to hold my mom’s hand and watch her die.
That was my childhood in a nutshell. Depressing? Absolutely. In fact, it was often a
living nightmare. But everything happens for a reason, and it was that tumultuous chain
of events that led to my extraordinary life today.
Two days after my mom’s death, she visibly appeared to me from “the other side” to let
me know that she was spiritually alive, and that the afterlife was a wonderful place to be.
A few weeks after her funeral, a strip-mall psychic in California, who had no idea who
I was or what I had just experienced with my mom three thousand miles away, literally
pulled me off the street to tell me I had an “amazing gift.”
I was an ordinary teenager just hanging out at the mall with my friends. I dismissed her
as some kind of whack job.
But three years later, there was no denying it. The spirits were there, dwelling in my head all day and every day, desperately trying
to communicate with their living loved ones through me. Picture a mob of people — friendly, but persistent — perpetually knocking
on every door and window of your home. That’s what my mind endured from the spirits. I tried hard to ignore them, refuting their
presence, but their energy was too strong. I couldn’t shake them.
I reluctantly conducted readings for friends, hoping to satisfy the spirits so they would leave me alone and infiltrate someone else’s
psyche, but that strategy backfired. Word on the other side evidently spread, because my mind was getting inundated with restless
spirits every day.
My popularity was also expanding among those on this side. People found out that I wasn’t just conducting readings, that I was also
doing them with compelling accuracy, revealing specific personal details that nobody could have known without someone close to
them — someone who had died — telling me. This phenomenon was incredible even to me, the messenger. I was somehow able
to connect those on earth with the deceased. Or, to state it more specifically, I was acknowledging the spirits of the dead who were
determined to use me as a channel to relay messages to their living loved ones.
32
I have been a professional medium for six years and while I don’t have all the answers to
the mysteries of this life or the next, the following are five things that I started learning
early in my career and that are reinforced in nearly every reading.
1.) The spirits choose the medium they want to use to reach their loved ones here on
earth. A lot of clients tell me that they randomly found me, or that a friend or relative
referred them to me. Yes, it may appear that’s how it happened, but it’s not. The spirits
are orchestrating our meeting “behind the scenes.” They lead you to me, oftentimes
through several other people. 2.) I have no control over which spirits come through to me (and ultimately to you)
or what information they will share. What I do control is their good intentions with the
information they share – to bring you validation of their survival, which brings peace,
love, happiness, closure, or even a warning about a particular situation. Someone who
schedules a reading with me may want to hear from someone in particular. Praying or
meditating creates a signal to Spirit in advance of the reading and may help that desire
come to fruition. But I have no calling card to them – it ultimately depends on their
availability. Remember, they have their lives to live over there, just as we do here.
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED:
Bringing Peace, Healing &
Hope From The Other Side (H)
by Bill Philipps
Publisher: New World Library
$22.95, ISBN13: 9781608683673
3.) I don’t actually see dead people – thank God! A reading is not as dramatic as
pop culture has made it out to be. I don’t have a crystal ball. I don’t use cards. They
communicate with me through my senses, which is why trusting my gift is so important. I
may “see” their messages in my mind, and feel their energy and vibration, but I do not
see them in the physical sense. 4.) It’s incredibly healing for someone when he or she is open to hearing from spirits. I respect and honor skeptics, and the spirits do too. But people who don’t have open
minds, who are cynical, who decide in advance that there is no way a deceased loved
one can communicate with them, are missing out on an amazing opportunity. It takes an
enormous amount of energy for the spirits to reach down to our level and communicate.
If their loved one is not open and is in that cynical state, they will eventually stop trying
to reach them. Instead, they will reach out to those who are open, and those people will
be the ones to experience a tremendous amount of healing. 5.) Our future is not set in stone. We have free will and our everyday choices will reflect our future. As a psychic medium, I don’t
know everything. I’ve heard all the jokes, such as, “Can you give me the lottery numbers.” I'm able to let them roll off me. I accept that
my gift is to help bring awareness, validation of the afterlife, and healing. Future predictions are potentialities that can change based
upon your decisions. That’s why God gave us free will. Our choices ultimately define who we are and where our lives go.
I love the work that I do. I am blessed to have this gift, and I am honored to share it with those who are interested in me sharing it
with them. If you walk out of a reading with me feeling more peaceful, more loved, happier, and spiritually or mentally healthier, then
I – and the spirits – have done our jobs.
“I love the work that I do. I am blessed to have this gift...”
Based on the book Expect the Unexpected © 2015 by Bill Philipps. Printed with permission of New World Library. www.newworldlibrary.com
33
34
EVOLVE!
MY INITIATION INTO SURRENDER
My life has never been conventional.
I’ve never fit into the mainstream. I’ve
gotten used to being the exception to the
rule--the one to whom things happen that
don’t happen to most people. As a child
I had visions nobody could see. I could
sense energy no one else could feel: it
radiated around everything, from friends
to the moon to a lonely discarded tin can.
I am and always have been more at home
in the dream world than awake. Because I
am an empath, my body is highly sensitive
in ways that confound what science defines
as “normal.”
I’ve gotten used to not reacting “like
I’m supposed to.” I get tired of people
trying to fit me into some box that has
nothing to do with who I am. I’ve gotten
over trying to pass as “normal.” I’d rather
just be my creative, quirky self. Perhaps
you can relate to my feelings because
each of us is unique, beautiful, lovable,
and surprising, spontaneously unfolding
moment to moment.
That’s why I was excited about writing
a book on surrender. Writing is my passion,
an alive, ever-changing mediation. I can
happily spend years writing a book, so
I asked myself, “What do I most want
to write about? What do I most want to
learn?” It has never interested me to just
recount what I know. Instead, I write about
what I yearn to discover. And my attraction
has to the concept of surrender: the ability
to be fluid, to bend like a willow in the
wind during life’s climaxes and lows. I
want to be increasingly able not to clench,
obsess, overthink, overcontrol, fight with
my life, or let my stubborn streak obstruct
my spiritual expansion.
I long to uncover the secrets of the
universe--not just with my mind but with
my heart, soul and intuition. I want to fly.
I want to soar. Who says we don’t have
wings? I don’t care whether anyone says
it’s impossible.
So, with these priorities, I began
writing this book. Surrender: it sounded
good and it felt really right. I was ready to
practice letting go more deeply. However, I
didn’t fully understand what I was signing
up for which I found out included both
losses and gains. In the process, life asked
me to jump off a lot of ledges and have
faith that all would be well. Why did this
happen? Stable parts of my world started
shifting in unexpected ways that required
me to change. I’ve had to let go of a lot.
For instance, I sold my condo where I
wrote all of my other books because of
unrelenting noise and lengthy construction.
I’ve exchanged a permanent address for a
nomadic lifestyle and a post office box
for now. During the move, I chose to give
away most of my possessions to make a
fresh start. That was just for openers. Then
I had to let go of a love who left me; a
therapist; many outmoded views about
intimacy, including my erotic inhibitions;
my obsessive attachment to certain me;
and the desire for others to approve of
my boyfriends, my intuitive explorations,
or anything else. Throughout all of this,
I surrendered my ego again and again,
trusting that a higher compassionate force
was guiding me.
Why surrender? What’s the advantage
of going beyond your comfort zone?
Whether you surrender a little or a lot,
you’ll experience more passion and power.
As I did, you can also undergo a rebirth
in areas where you may feel bored or
stuck. This flux of letting go, not knowing
but moving forward anyway is a vibrant
process of refining your body and soul. I
experienced this, not without fear--but not
without hope, either. I’ve surrendered as
the opposites of fear and joy often pulled at
me simultaneously. But I was also melting
I’ve gotten over
trying to pass
as “normal”.
I’d rather be my
creative, quirky
self. Perhaps you
can relate...
into the dazzling beauty that was impelling
my life. My intuition brought me here. I
trust it more than anything. So I allowed
myself to be led by my inner voice and by
the mystery.
On this journey, I’ve discovered there’s
a strange and wonderful ecstacy that comes
from surrendering. It creeps up on you.
Then one day you look at yourself and
POWER OF SURRENDER: Let Go
& Energize Your Relationships,
Success & Well-Being
by Judith Orloff
Publisher: Harmony Books
$16.00, ISBN13: 9780307338211
you are shining. You may not know exactly
how you arrived here but you’re different,
and it is a blessing.
By surrendering I’ve become healthier,
braver, more intuitive, more flowing and
fun, younger, more untamed and more
spiritually pliant. I’ve shed layers of fear
and limitation that kept me locked in a life
that was no longer large enough for me.
I tell you all this, the revelatory and
the challenging parts, to prepare you for
the greatest adventure you may ever go
on. If you’re like me--someone who wants
to become everything you were meant to
be and more--surrender is a doorway in. I
offer myself as your guide. In this book, I
want to share with you what I’ve learned
about surrender. I want to trust you with
my secrets. I can’t predict what will happen
to you or what you will have to let go of but
I do know the result will be pure and good
and right, and it will exceed your highest
expectations. If you’re game, I’ll stay there
beside you with love.
Hang on and ride the wild dragon of
surrender to freedom.
35
36
EVOLVE!
“IS THE DALAI LAMA EVER WRONG?”
Acclaimed Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman talks about the
Dalai Lama
The other day a good friend of mine complained to someone else in a conversation I
was part of, "Tell me—isn't the Dalai Lama ever wrong?" The other person remained
silent, though he was clearly trying to think of something to fault, just to show he wasn't
idealizing the man. I thought to help out, so I intervened, "Well, I think he is wrong
sometimes!" My friend looked excited. "I think he is too nice sometimes, always polite
and gentle, not wanting to push people beyond what he thinks they can absorb, so he can
be over-solicitous of people." My friend was a bit disappointed.
The thing about such reactions to the Dalai Lama's remarkably incisive mind
and humorous and kind but also no nonsense persona is that it resembles Westerners'
(nowadays modern people in general) reaction to the Shakyamuni Buddha as a figure in
history. Scholars about "Buddhism," surprisingly, are mostly like that, and also ordinary
people; they just cannot get it that there just might be such a thing as an "enlightened
person." They are so full of misplaced confidence in the absolute rightness of the way
they see things, they cannot imagine a consciousness higher and more perceptive than
their own—actually enlightened. "Enlightened" here doesn’t just mean "rational," as
we tend to think due to our definition of the Western "Enlightenment" of the 17th and
18th centuries as the "Age of Reason." A buddha's enlightenment is believed indeed to
make him what is called "personification of reason" (Sanskrit, pramānabhūta), but his
enlightenment also makes him universally compassionate, blissful and loving, to an
almost divine degree. Buddha is called "the God beyond gods (Devātideva), and the
"God who Lovingly Looks After Us," (Avalokiteshvara) is a buddha who remains a
bodhisattva (buddha-to-be) forever in order to remain close to and helpful to suffering
beings.
In Tibetan belief, the Dalai Lama is believed to be an important one of
Avalokiteshvara's myriad emanations who range around the planet among all species of
beings in order to alleviate suffering and benefit those in need of help.
Now I myself do not know for sure if the Dalai Lama really is such an
emanation, I don't even know for sure if there is any such thing as a perfectly enlightened
buddha, as briefly sketched above. I would have to be enlightened myself in order to
know that for sure—and I am not. And in the fifty years during which I have personally
known the Dalai Lama, I have often heard him disclaim any such status for himself,
and even contradict others who pronounce him something extraordinary. I introduced
him at his first lecture in Saunders Theater at Harvard in 1981, and I went into detail
about him being the incarnation of Avalokiteshvara and who Avalokiteshvara of the
thousand arms and eyes is, etc. etc., and as he was rising to go to the podium to speak,
he whispered to me, with a mixture of a twinkle and a frown, something to the effect,
"Don't over-promise for your speaker in case he might disgrace you!" I certainly blushed
as I sat down—it embarrasses me to remember it—but he certainly did give a marvelous
address, entirely off the cuff, in a broken but heartfelt and expressive English, with some
help from his interpreter.
DALAI LAMA’S LITTLE BOOK
OF BUDDHISM
by Dalai Lama
Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing
$9.95, ISBN13: 9781571747297
However he might protest, he is an amazing person. As I get older both he and
the Shakyamuni Buddha appear to me to be more and more amazing—as I watch him
in action, it seems at moments as if they are the very same person. I don;t know, but
at least, what I have learned of their deeds and experienced of His Holiness personally
has gradually made me convinced that there is such a thing as a higher consciousness.
There are people who see more clearly than I do, than most people do. They do have
good advice which can help us again and again as we come back to it again and again
and apply it to the ongoing struggles of life. and that means that we also, in success
and adversity, in calm and upset moments, can step by step learn to deal with our own
unruly emotions, and then get along better with others. We can learn to understand their
sometimes surprising and often troubling behaviors, and so "uplevel" our dealings with
37
EVOLVE!
them, and not get dragged into vicious cycles of reactivity. At random from the The Dalai
Lama’s Little Book of Buddhism:
"Sometimes your dear friend, though still the same person,
feels more like an enemy. Instead of love, you feel hostility. But
with genuine love and compassion, another person's appearance or
behavior has no effect on your attitude."
This kind of thing certainly does happen, even in families. And here, the Dalai Lama
is honoring us: he is implying that we also can attain such a genuine love and compassion. He
thus encourages us to make the effort, since such an expanded emotional security attainable
by us too, slowly but surely. He couldn't say such a thing if a) he hadn't himself made such
a sort of progress in freeing himself from the "normal" kind of hostile reactivity under stress,
and b) hadn't seen people around him also shift in that direction. This is movement toward
"enlightenment," this kind of inner strength and cheerful demeanor from the heart. It is not at
all a matter of meditating alone and having a eureka! moment, and then ascending away from
everyone into some imagined state of self-centered, frozen isolation.
So Buddha might have been wrong, the Dalai Lama might be wrong. Actually they
both encourage us to try to find out where they do go wrong. The Dalai Lama often likes to
quote a famous verse from the Dense Array Sutra: "Mendicants! Wise persons take my words
as a goldsmith buys his gold, after cutting, melting, and rubbing on a touchstone, and only after
thorough examination do they accept them—not just out of devotion." Recently I was present
at a 10,000 person teaching in Switzerlnd where His Holiness was commenting on this verse,
and at one point he leaned passionately forward in the high teacher's seat of the traditional
Tibetan formal set up, and said," You must think carefully about what I am saying, not just
listen passively. Why I can just see in my mind's eye Shakyamuni Buddha himself, begging his
disciples, 'Please find out if I said something wrong! Please think this over and look for faults
and advantages and then make use of it, make it your own.'" Then he quoted the verse, and his
posture completely sent out the message that the teacher is the servant of the student, seeking
to provide the students the tools with which to improve and liberate themselves, not just a
domineering authority figure who thinks he has something they don't and their only hope is
just to obey and imitate him as best they can. It was deeply moving, but I could sense a slight
discomfort on the part of those other teachers in the audience who were thinking they are the
authorities, and those students who were expecting the teacher to do something for them that
they wouldn’t have to do for themselves.
So here we are with the great and deep, sweet and challenging, supporting and
inspiring aphorisms of this wonderful person offering us his invaluable service, providing us
with tools of key pith insights he has gained from 8 decades of his broad and often difficult
experience, and his vast and persistent studies of the thoughts of others in the Buddhist spiritual
university tradition and of his own thinking patterns in the meditational university of his
mind. They are so well arranged by the sensitive and learned editor, I welcome you to them
in the fullest confidence that you will find these gems of advice enlightening to both head and
heart. Whatever you may think about yourself, you must have an excellent intelligence or
you wouldn't have opened this book and your good heart will find here nourishment, skill and
courage to proceed, step by step. Finally, again at random,
"Cultivating closeness and warmth for others automatically puts the
mind at ease. It is the ultimate source of success in life."
Robert A, F. "Tenzin Dharmakīrti" Thurman is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies
in the Department of Religion at Columbia University and is the President of Tibet House US.
By Robert Thurman from the Foreword to The Dalai Lama’s Little Book of Buddhism reprinted with permission
from Hampton Roads Publishing Co., Inc.
38
EVOLVE!
The Shadow Side of
Spiritual Experience
by Tom Kenyon, M.A.
One day, many years ago,
I received a desperate phone call from a colleague in California. He virtually begged me to see a student of his who had
had a psychotic break after attending one of his nine-day Intensives. She lived in southern Florida with her husband, and
both of them wished to see a counselor. She had not been “quite right” according to her husband ever since the incident.
And her family had hinted, not so subtly, that if she didn’t improve soon, they would take legal action against my colleague
and his Institute.
I arranged to see the couple over a weekend, and they arrived at my office in Chapel Hill, North Carolina early one
Saturday morning. In the first two hours, all I did was to take down the history of what had happened.
There is a saying that truth is stranger than fiction and while it may strain your sense of reality, what you are about
to read is the unembellished strangeness of an actual life experience.
Midge and The Madonna
Midge (not her real name),
had attended my associate’s nineday personal growth Intensive in
California. And as a result of multiple
brain stimulation sessions and spiritual
meditation practices she experienced a
major mystical encounter.
Around the eighth day of the
Intensive Midge felt the distinct
presence of Mary, the Mother of
Jesus, enfolding her in agape—divine
love. Then on the last day of the
Intensive, Midge—the human being—
was absorbed into the mythic loving
presence of Mary, i.e., the Madonna.
While in this blissful state of being,
she went about blessing people. And
some people actually experienced
healings in her presence. In my
conversation with my colleague in
California he verified that several of
his students had shared with him the
extraordinary nature of the spiritual
encounters they had with Midge/The
Madonna.
ENTERING THE NIGREDO
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by Tom Kenyon Publisher: Tom Kenyon Orb
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Still in an ecstatic state of bliss,
Midge (a.k.a. the Madonna) was taken
by taxi to the airport for her return trip
home. While in the terminal she stopped
at a newsstand to find something to read
for the long flight back to the east coast.
The eyes of a different kind of
“Madonna” looked up at her from off the
cover of a magazine. Seeing “her” name
in print, she purchased the rag and read
the article on Madonna in the waiting
area. Of course Madonna, the queen of
rock and roll, was a very different order
of being than the Madonna that Midge
had been immersed in—i.e., Mary the
Mother of Jesus.
In her highly suggestive state of
mind, Midge suddenly shifted her selfidentity from the Mother of Jesus to
Madonna the celebrity. She was no
longer the Mother of Jesus; she was
now a rock star traveling incognito.
She boarded the plane without
incident. But at about 30,000 feet she
saw demons on the wing. Taking off her
spiked heels, she started banging on the
window, trying to break it.
Flight attendants restrained her,
and she cursed at them yelling that she
had to get out onto the wing to save the
plane from demons.
When the plane landed police
escorted her to the nearest psychiatric
hospital where she remained for a short
time until anti-psychotic medication
brought an end to her delusions.
By the time she saw me, she had
been symptom free for over a month,
but her husband reported that she
seemed edgy and not quite herself.
On their second visit to my office,
Midge seemed highly agitated. I
asked her what was going on, and she
proceeded to confess an act she had
committed over ten years earlier.
It seemed that her husband’s family
had owned a furniture store, and she
was expected to work as an employee.
She hated the job as well as the other
employees, who were all were members
of her extended family. One night she
snuck back to the store and set it on fire.
The thing burned to the ground, and
the family decided not to rebuild. She
had found a way out of her situation,
but the guilt had been eating at her for
over a decade. I remember her husband
sitting there with his mouth hanging
open. But amazingly, he did not seem
to be too upset.
On our third and final visit, Midge
seemed very relaxed, and both she and
her husband seemed to have reconciled
the arson. Checking up on her a few
months later, Midge had no further
episodes or delusions. As far as she was
concerned, the whole thing was behind
her.
The Shadow and the
Power of Myth
From a transpersonal standpoint,
we could say that at the beginning
stages of her experience, Midge
entered the mythic or archetypal
realms of consciousness. Indeed, it is
not uncommon for persons involved
in personal growth to have mystical
experiences.
I believe that part of this is created
by the context in which such work takes
place. And I think some of it is due to
brain chemistry.
A cursory glance at mystical
experiences reported by saints and
mystics from all over the world reveals
distinct commonalities, despite vast
differences in culture and tradition.
Many of these commonalities have
to do with changes in perceived time
39
EVOLVE!
and space as well as other shifts in
perception, including high states of
ecstasy and bliss. These changes all
point to distinct alterations in brain
chemistry and physiology.
Brain physiology is like a mirror of
the mind. It reflects what is occurring,
and vice versa. When changes take
place in physiology there are often
corresponding changes in perception
and experience. From this perspective,
many spiritual practices can be viewed
as low-tech ways of altering brain
physiology and thus perception and
experience.
Finally, I believe that the mythic
realm is an inherent part of our being.
If a person goes deep enough into the
inner terrain of his or her own mind, he
or she will eventually encounter mythic
or archetypal beings. Certain types of
inner work as well as some kinds of brain
stimulation unveil this interior mythic
realm of being, and I believe this is what
happened for Midge.
Her contact with the Madonna,
the Mother of Jesus, was an authentic
contact with the mythic realm of
being (i.e., a loving universal feminine
presence). However, because Midge
had a weak sense of herself (i.e., a
poorly maintained ego) and unresolved
shadow material, she was not able to
sustain contact with the mythic realm
but instead descended into a mental
aberration.
Midge had a dark secret that had
been eating at her for over ten years.
The guilt and psychological conflict
around the arson had rushed to the
40
surface like a breeching whale once
her personal identity had dissolved
during her mystical encounter with
the numinous (light filled) feminine
archetype of Mary.
The fact that Midge changed
identities when reading an article about
Madonna, the rock star, points to her
general psychological instability and her
lack of a strong egoic identity.
The term ego has a different
connotation in psychology than it
does in many spiritual circles. The
ego, from a psychological perspective,
is simply one’s sense of self. It is a center
point of reference, and it is critical to
psychological wellness.
As a psychotherapist, I find it
highly un-resourceful and sometimes
downright dangerous to involve
oneself in ego bashing in the name of
spirituality.
The problem is not with the ego,
per se. The ego is just a sense of one’s
identity. Had Midge possessed an intact
ego, I suspect she would have never
needed to be institutionalized.
But she did not have a strong sense
of self, and so she was fertile ground
for a psychotic break. For her, the
shifting of self-identity from Midge to
the Madonna was a release from her
psychological prison, but the problem
was that she hadn’t earned being released
from jail or even paroled. She had not
come to terms with her shadowy and
fiery secret. And the psyche demands a
type of internal justice. By bringing her
shadow material (i.e., the arson) into
the light of conscious awareness she
was freed from an unconscious torment
that had haunted her for over a decade.
While some spiritually minded
persons might say that Midge’s
problem was her ego, I contend that her
difficulties weren’t caused by her ego
anymore than the temperature gauge on
your car is to be faulted for warning you
that the engine is running hot. They’re
both mechanisms. And the ego is a
mechanism of consciousness (or mind)
that has one sole purpose–to navigate
through the myriad experiences of life
with a sense of personal identity.
The fact that Midge changed identities when reading an article about Madonna, the rock star, points to her general psychological instability and her lack of a strong egoic identity.
Had Midge possessed a strong egoic
identity, her encounter with Mary would
have been different. She could have
received the blessings that encounters
with such beings bring without the
distortions of her personal conflicts. If she
had a strong ego, it would have ensured
that she came back to a sense of herself
when the experience with Mary ended.
But she did not have this, and so there
was nothing to bring her back to center.
“In the dark swamp of despair when all seems lost and the emotional lead within
us weighs us down, re-member that there are veins of gold hidden inside your
darkest feelings. If you but look at them with new eyes, they can transform both
you and your world.”
-Stories from The Dark Sky Goddess
EVOLVE!
A look at the psychological state of
mystics during their ecstatic encounters,
demonstrates regular shifts from
personal identity to the mythic quite
clearly.
Read the accounts of St. Francis of
Assisi, St. Theresa Avignon and Meister
Eckhardt and other mystics including
Shamans as well as Islamic, Jewish and
Taoist practitioners, and you will see that
they were often completely absorbed by
their mystical encounters. The sense of
self vanished for the duration of their
sojourns into the heavenly or celestial
realms. It was only as they began to
“return to earth” that a sense of self
returned.
Compare this with reports of
samadhi (yogic trance) experienced
by yogis and yoginis (female yogis),
and you will see something similar. In
the more intense forms of samadhi
there is a complete loss of self. In these
altered states of consciousness there
is only pure consciousness without an
object, and this is often accompanied
by feelings of ecstasy and bliss.
But even though both ecstasy and bliss
are parts of our innate nature, so are the
psychological conflicts we have inherited and/
or created for ourselves.
Midge’s psyche had been disturbed all these
years by unresolved shadow material, namely her
previous un-owned act of arson and cowardice.
But when her shadow was brought into the light
of awareness, her internal conflict came to an
end.
Final Thoughts
I think it is difficult for many of us involved
in spiritual pursuits to acknowledge our own
personal shadow material. It is too confrontive
to look at our own negativity with clear vision.
But to pursue the light filled realms of our
being without paying attention to our un-owned Tom Kenyon, M.A.
emotional material (i.e., our shadow) is, in my
opinion, self-limiting. True spiritual enlightenment encompasses and transforms the
entire spectrum of our being from the heights of illumination to the nadir points
of our self-loathing. Anything short of this is, for me, a type of spiritual travesty.
Before I took a one year sabbatical from teaching I pondered what would
be the greatest contribution I could offer my sangha (spiritual community). I
decided to teach a workshop on the Shadow, which I called Entering the Nigredo,
the nigredo being one of the distinct phases of internal or spiritual alchemy. The
goal of internal alchemy is nothing short of a radical metamorphosis of self, and
this remarkable change takes place through the active transformation of our
emotional dross (symbolized as lead) into spiritual treasure (symbolized as gold).
41
THE WITCH’S BROOM: MAGIC FOR EVERYONE
EXERPT FROM THE LLEWELLYN JOURNAL | BY DEBORAH BLAKE
Everyone knows that brooms and witches
go together. Most popular images of
witches show them with pointed hats, black
cats, and a broom. And while not every
witch has a cat (or a funny-looking hat, for
that matter), most of us own a broom. But
how many of us actually use them for our
magical work?
When I started writing The Witch’s
Broom, I’ll confess that I was worried
that I wouldn’t be able to come up with
enough material to fill an entire book. My
own magical practice only used a broom
for a few simple tasks, and at that time, I
didn’t even have a dedicated ritual broom
of my own. Fortunately, the more I looked
at the humble broom, the more there was
to see. Not only did I end up with plenty of
material for the book, but I also found all
sorts of broom facts, lore, and applications
that inspired how I used them in my own
life.
The traditional witch’s broom is
called a besom, and is modeled
on the kinds of brooms used
by our ancestors. Most of these
were made from a hazel handle,
although other woods were
sometimes used, with birch twigs
as the bristles. Flexible strips of
willow were often used to attach
the twigs to the handle; these
brooms were round and rough,
and didn’t work very well to clean.
Eventually broomcorn came to be
used instead of birch twigs, and the
form became flat instead of round.
These days most brooms are massmade, and have no personality at
all (although they are a lot better
at sweeping).
If you are going to get yourself
a magical broom (one reserved
for ritual work, as opposed to
For example, did you know that before sweeping your floors), it doesn’t
witches became famous for riding on matter which type you get. Some
brooms, the earliest drawings actually folks prefer a besom, because of
WITCH’S BROOM: The Craft,
depicted them flying across the night sky its connections to the past, while
Lore & Magick Of Broomsticks
by Deborah Blake
on sticks, or even farm implements such as others like the more modern type.
Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
pitchforks? No one is really sure how the It is nice (and not all that difficult)
to
make
one
from
scratch,
but
you
$15.99, ISBN13: 9780738738024
broom became associated with witchcraft,
but some hypothesize that it started out as can also buy one and decorate it to
a way to disguise their forbidden wands, by make it your own. Brooms can be
usually don’t touch the ground), or as
hiding them under the bristles of a broom. decorated to match your décor, if they are part of a handfasting or wedding ritual,
going to be hung up in the open, or to honor
Which leads us to the next interesting a particular god, goddess, or pantheon, or where the couple enters into their new life
fact—the broom is the only witch’s tool to focus on a particular magical use, such together by “jumping the broom.”
that is both male (the stick) and female as healing or protection.
But this is just the tip of the bristle where
(the bristles). Most tools represent either
brooms are concerned. For instance, you
the feminine, such as cauldrons and Brooms can be integrated into your can have different magical brooms that
chalices, or the masculine, such as athames magical practice in more ways than you are dedicated to specific arcane tasks:
and wands, but the broom is a unique might have ever thought possible. Most one for cleansing your home’s energy,
combination of the energy of both. That commonly, they are used to cleanse a ritual one for prosperity rituals adorned with
alone is reason enough to consider using area or the home (in this case, the sweeping green ribbons, perhaps, and tiny chips
is of energy, not actual dirt, and the bristles
one for your magical work!
of malachite, with prosperity-drawing
runes carved into the handle, and one for
protection—a traditional magical broom
INTERESTING FACT:
use—that features a black ribbon with
protective symbols drawn on in gold ink,
The broom is the only witch’s tool that
a tiny jar filled with black onyx chips, a
pentacle, and some dried rosemary.
is both male (the stick) and female (the
bristles)... a unique combination of the
energy of both.
Or you can create a broom to celebrate a
special occasion. Obviously, a handfasting
broom is the most common example of this
43
type of broom, but you could also make
a broom (by yourself or with a group) to
welcome a baby, dedicate a coven, bring
magic to a new home, or memorialize a
friend or relative who has moved on to the
Summerlands.
Brooms can be purely decorative, too.
Many witches and Pagans like to place
little witchy touches around their homes.
The great things about a decorative broom
is that they don’t have to be overtly Pagan,
so even those who are still in the broom
closet can use them. A pretty miniature
broom hung with dried flowers looks
perfectly normal in a kitchen or living
room.
But I hope you will use one. Since
writing The Witch’s Broom, I have
developed an entirely new fascination
and respect for this simple traditional
witch’s tool. I now have two
magical brooms. One, a lovely but
basic handmade broom with round
broomcorn bristles that are braided at
the top and a broad handle painted in
with yellow and green flowers, was
a gift from a coven member, and is
used to open and close the circle and
cleanse the space during rituals.
The other, which is strictly decorative,
I commissioned from a lovely magical
Not only are they (brooms)
practical and often beautiful,
but they connect us back down
through the ages to all those
witches who came before us...
For those who can be more open about their
magical leanings, decorative brooms can
range from tiny broomstick magnets stuck
on the refrigerator to full sized besoms hung
over the entrance to the house to protect
its occupants and keep out negativity. They
can be colorful, with a rainbow of ribbons
tied around the base, beautiful preserved
flowers or leaves, glittering stars and
moons, or brightly painted handles. They
can be subtle, created from natural birch
bristles or broomcorn, with a simple gnarly
wood handle, with a few dangling charms,
feathers, or crystals.
In truth, the only limits to how you use a
magical broom are your imagination, and
perhaps your budget and the amount of
space you have in your home. If you can
only have one broom, it is probably best to
keep it simple, so it will work for whatever
magical task is necessary. You can also add
and remove decorative items as desired,
with the base broom staying the same. As
with all the other aspects of your witchcraft
practice, how you use your magical broom
should suit your own particular needs,
tastes, and desires.
44
broom-maker on Etsy. That one is a
little showier, with dyed black and gold
broomcorn and a matching crooked
wood handle. Dangling from the
front of the broom is a pentacle, small
Bast cat, Eye of Horus, and goddess
figures, a golden phoenix, a tiny jar
filled with black onyx chips, and a
chunk of crystal quartz at the bottom
of the grouping. To me, it symbolizes
my witchy self, and encompasses
my goals of protection, and moving
gracefully through change.
I still don’t have a funny hat, but I do
have a new appreciation for the use of
brooms in my magical practice and
in my spiritual life. Not only are they
practical and often beautiful, but they
connect us back down through the ages
to all those witches who came before
us, riding on their own brooms, and
making their own magic, just as we do.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Deborah Blake, is the author of witchcraft
books such as The Wonderful World of
Witchcraft (Llewellyn 2008), Everyday
Witch A to Z Spellbook (2010) and Witch
on a Shoestring (2010) She has published
many articles in Pagan publications, including
Llewellyn annuals and Witches & Pagans
Magazine.
When not writing, Deborah runs the Artisans’
Guild, a cooperative shop she founded with a
friend in 1999, and works as a jewelry maker
as well. She lives in upstate New York with her
five cats who supervise all her activites, both
magickal and mundane.
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EVOLVE!
the making of
AWAKE: THE LIFE OF YOGANANDA
By Paola di Florio & Lisa Leeman
The following article is an excerpt from the preface to the new book AWAKE: The Life of Yogananda,
a companion book to the award-winning film of the same name. (Copyright © 2015, Self-Realization
Fellowship, Los Angeles, CA, www.srfbooks.org ; reprinted with permission).
How on earth do you
Yogananda seeing into
make a film about an
the future. And not in
exalted Master? What an
my wildest dreams
extraordinary blessing and
would I have imagined
what a singular challenge
making a film about
to have been given this
the author! I’d always
opportunity. It proved to be
been a seeker—in
a remarkable experience,
college I devoured
for in seeking to recount
books by Alan Watts
the life journey of
and Zen classics (not
Directors Lisa Leeman (left) and Paola di Floria on location in India
Paramahansa Yogananda,
knowing that the
photo courtesy of self-realization fellowship, los angeles
we would—without even
Tibetan Buddhist
realizing it—be embarking
master Chogyam
on our own voyage of Self-discovery…. ‘God.’“ That was one of the first things Trungpa was only forty-five minutes
In the end, the journey of AWAKE: The that came out of my mouth in an early away, in Boulder, or that decades
Life of Yogananda took us six years to meeting at Self-Realization Fellowship later I’d produce a documentary
complete. Along the way, we learned headquarters in Los Angeles. I was about him). I took up Hatha Yoga,
that even though Yogananda was one sitting with my husband, producer started meditating, and began making
of the most renowned and successful Peter Rader, and co-director Lisa documentary films. Somehow these
teachers of yoga and meditation in Leeman, facing a team which included pursuits coalesced, and in 2004 I
America for nearly thirty years, there senior monks Brothers Chidananda, found myself in India as dramaturge
were many times when he wanted to Paramananda, and Tejananda who on a film about ascetic yogis. A few
run off and be a hermit in a Himalayan had spent twenty to forty years in years later, when Paola invited me
cave! And that is exactly how we the ashram, devoting their lives to to co-direct this film with her, I was
felt sometimes as we approached God, renouncing worldly desires, and intrigued to explore more deeply how
the challenge of digging through practicing Kriya Yoga meditation. And a biography of a meditation master
hundreds of files and reels of archival they were completely unfazed by my could convey Eastern teachings in a
material, and studying the ancient admission. More than merely being visceral, cinematic way that reached
beyond intellect.
and voluminous spiritual teachings relieved, I became intrigued.
Yogananda left behind, distilling them
to something understandable (first to
us, and then to uninitiated audiences).
At times, we downright wrestled with
it. And not the least of our challenges
was confronting our own resistance.
Paola di Florio: “You should know
that I have trouble with the word
Lisa Leeman: In 1984, a boyfriend
gave me a copy of the Autobiography
of a Yogi, saying, “You’re too empirical,
Lisa...read this!” He was right—the
book exploded my rational mind.
I didn’t know what to make of
Yogananda’s stories of yogis levitating,
his guru being in two places at once, or
Paola: I too had been privy to the
transformational effects of the yogic
path from a practice of Hatha Yoga,
which I began in my twenties. In doing
asanas, I experienced my nervous
system getting rebooted and my
heart opening, which eventually led
me to want to go deeper by learning
47
EVOLVE!
how to meditate. I initially explored
a Vipassana Buddhist practice, but
it was while working on AWAKE that
I committed to daily meditation. It
was part of my “research,” or so I told
myself.
Lisa: This film was challenging to make,
both cinematically and personally. It
forced me to grapple with some of
the “big questions” in life, which I had
danced around for years. It stretched
my notion of yoga (pun intended),
deepened my meditation practice,
and taught me to see through external
forms. It expanded both my ability to
contemplate the possibilities of the
word “God” and my understanding
of the nature of reality. I still wrestle
with the fantastical stories—and I’ve
learned to feel that’s okay. Yogananda
himself in his early lectures used to
perform feats that seemed miraculous,
like stopping his heart. But then he
discontinued these demonstrations,
because they proved too alluring in
themselves—too much of a distraction
from his deeper message. As Brother
Vishwananda said while we were
filming in Kolkata: “Too often people
seek ‘spiritual experiences,’ when
what’s really important is to cultivate
an experience of Spirit.”
Paola: My “research” of daily
meditation was an adventure. It
allowed for an unfolding to take place—
an “undoing” of who I thought I was. I
pushed myself to be disciplined out of
an ardent curiosity to explore. As time
went on, I learned that Yogananda’s
teachings do not require an
act of faith or even a belief
in God. Yoga is considered
a science in India, where
a person uses one’s own
body as a living laboratory.
Not only was I curious
to experience this for
myself, but I also saw how
important an ecumenical
path to transcendence
could be in a world where
we are annihilating one
another over dogmatic
beliefs. The beauty of yoga
is that it meets you where
you are in the moment,
without judgments about
your so-called “religion,”
or lack thereof. A film
like AWAKE suddenly felt
urgent to me.
AWAKE: the Life of Yogananda
by Paola di Florio; Lisa Leeman
Publisher: S R F Publications
$45.00, ISBN13: 9780876126233
Paola and Lisa: It’s not easy to make
a film about a saint. We’re storytellers,
and good narrative usually requires
conflict, struggle, and a protagonist
with human flaws. We searched for
skeletons in Yogananda’s ‘closet’ and
came up empty, which surprised us,
given the common perception of
modern-day gurus. Certainly, there
was an underdog aspect to this story.
The quintessential “fish out of water,”
Yogananda came to the strange land
of America in 1920 to disseminate
an ancient teaching that had parallels
to the Einsteinian physics of the
times. Indeed, these yoga meditation
teachings would be seen as essential
tools for human beings to survive the
Atomic Age. As we dug deeper into
his life, however, we discovered that he
faced major obstacles, many of which
the public was unaware. Despite being
recognized as a “spiritual genius,”
Yogananda would face severe criticism
and even racism in the Deep South,
from those who felt threatened by
him and his message. Persecution,
betrayals by students and close friends,
and even financial ruin ensued. He was
continuously tested. But Yogananda
rose like a phoenix from the ashes of
his demise—not only regaining his own
sense of purpose in life, but inspiring
others to do the same through his
example….
Paola di Florio, co-director of AWAKE, is an award-winning, Oscar-nominated filmmaker and television producer.
Among her other films are Speaking in Strings and Home of the Brave. Lisa Leeman, co-director of AWAKE, has directed,
written and produced award-winning documentaries for over 25 years, including One Lucky Elephant, Out of Faith, and
Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Times of Chogyam Trungpa.
48
49
50
EVOLVE!
WHAT IF?
REFLECTIONS ON HYPOTHETICAL THINKING
WITH BEST-SELLING AUTHOR DAVID HOFFMEISTER
Article by Sarah St. Claire
The world we are looking upon is
entirely subjective; there is not an
objective world apart from our mind.
We are simply observing what we
believe, being acted out in form. No
two people share the same world,
because the world is completely
subjective. “There is no world apart
from what you wish. There is no world!”
—A Course in Miracles W-132. This
may seem like an enormous leap, but
remember everyone once believed the
world was flat.
For centuries, science has operated
on the premise that there is an
external world that is observable and
measurable, and that the experimenter
is separate from that world. The
major discovery of quantum physics,
several decades ago, was that there
is not an external world outside
of consciousness. Internationally
renowned A Course in Miracles
teacher, David Hoffmeister says, “I
was quite excited about this discovery,
which supports the interpretation that
there is no world outside the mind of
the perceiver. Everything is completely
unified, completely connected; there is
no separation.”
way to bless them. With Quantum
Forgiveness, we start to realize that
we were mistaken about everything
we have ever perceived. This opens the
gateway to healing, the gateway to true
freedom.”
Merriam-Webster defines a hypothetical
as “not real: imagined as an example.”
David says, “My grandfather used to
tell me it was a waste of time to worry
or get upset about what if’s, things that
‘could’ or ‘should’ have happened; that
is, to react to a result that existed only
in my imagination! That made sense
to me, but eventually I started to think
in even deeper terms. When I began
studying the Course, I realized that the
world of form is based on the premise
that we could separate from our Source.
Since that premise is false, that means
the entire world is just a projection of
the ego mind. Everything we see is
nothing more than made-up, illusory
images. The entire cosmos is the result
of the belief that we are separate from
our Source.”
Many people are familiar
with the Serenity Prayer.
That means everything in the cosmos
is a hypothetical! Everything is only
“imagined as an example.” What does
this look like for my life? What does
it mean in terms of my Awakening?
It’s an exciting invitation to look more
deeply at the world we think we know.
Whether that is a past regret or a
future concern, it is all imagined. It
takes enormous willingness to question
the idea that everything in time and
space is a hypothetical.
UNWIND YOUR MIND BACK TO GOD:
Experiencing A Course in Miracles
by David Hoffmeister
Publisher: Living Miracles Publications
$23.95, ISBN13: 9780991383917
The gift that awaits us as we start to
align with the Truth, is more fulfilling
than anything we could imagine.
David, a modern day mystic uses
mind-expanding movies to guide us
into an actual experience of Truth.
He calls it Quantum Forgiveness. He
emphasizes, "This is not forgiveness
the way the world teaches it, which
is to believe that someone has done
us wrong and we have to find a
“God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot
change, the courage to
change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know
the difference.”
With movies as modern day parables,
David shows that, “Believing that we
have real choices that can bring us
what we want, keeps us locked into
a never-ending quest of looking for
happiness where it can’t be found.” Do
I drink water or juice? Shall I marry
this person or that person? According
to David there is no hierarchy of
choice, “They are nothing more
than hypotheticals, which serve as
meaningless distractions.”
Hoffmeister shares, “We spend so
much time and effort trying to learn
things and analyze things and figure
things out, but we have no idea what
is really happening.” So what on earth
am I supposed to do?
David suggests that our prayer to the
Spirit can be, “When there are choices
to be made, I want You to make them.
I want Your decisions to unwind me
from fear and concern.” It’s a gentle
and gradual process. David assures us
we “can’t mess it up!” When it seems as
though there are choices to be made, it
becomes exciting to ask for Guidance,
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EVOLVE!
to ask, “What is this for? What is most helpful in this seeming situation?” We can
have a new experience now by listening for and following that Guidance.
Many people are familiar with the Serenity Prayer: “God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.” Open and aligned to the highest good
for all, we naturally pause and pray or ask the Universe to guide us. By following
the One who does know how we can be truly helpful, we are happy. David is a
way shower out of flat world thinking to an amazing realization that fear is just
imagined.
“The world will reflect the light in one’s mind, for there is no world apart from
mind.”—Unwind Your Mind
David Hoffmeister is a living demonstration that peace is possible. His gentle
demeanor and articulate, non-compromising expression are a gift to all. He
is known for his practical application of the non-dual teachings necessary to
experience the Unified Mind. His clarity about the function of forgiveness in
spiritual awakening and his radical use of mindful movie-watching in the release
of judgment is unsurpassed. The purity of the message he shares points directly
to the Source. Over the past 29 years, David has traveled to 41 countries across
6 continents to extend the message that Truth is available for everyone, now.
AUTHOR: DAVID HOFFMEISTER
Discover how to use movies to support your awakening, with the Movie Watchers
Guide to Enlightenment. Delve deeper into questioning your world view with;
Going Deeper, Unwind Your Mind ~ Back to God and Awakening through A
Course in Miracles.
Living Miracles Publications
52
EVOLVE!
an exerpt from
HEAVEN IS BEAUTIFUL
In March 1980, college senior Peter Panagore went ice
climbing on the world-famous Lower Weeping Wall in
Alberta Canada. His climbing partner was an experienced
ice climber. Peter was not. On their descent, they
became trapped, and as the sun set Peter was overcome
by exhaustion and hypothermia. That night he died on
the side of that mountain in 1090. In his minutes on the
other side, he experienced hell, and hex also experience
heaven, forgiveness, and unconditional love.
Photo by Cody Mitchell
About the Author
Reverend Peter Baldwin Panagore
is a storyteller and holds a master
of divinity from Yale University and
a bachelor of arts in English from
the University of Massachusetts
Amherst.
Raised both Greek Orthodox and
Roman Catholic, he was ordained
in the United Church of Christ by
the New Haven Association in
1987. He served eighteen years
as a preacher and pastor from
suburban Connecticut to coastal
Maine. In 2003, Reverend
Panagore moved into broadcast
TV as a producer, writer, and
on-air talent for the First Radio
Parish Church of America
(DailyDevotions.org).
Reverend Panagore has spoken
across the country to live audiences
of the International Association of
Near-Death Studies (IANDS) and
appeared on their nationwide
radio broadcast, as well as
presented at hospice conferences.
He lives in coastal Maine.
Lower Weeping Wall on Cirrus Mountain, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, where the author died and then
came back to life. Photograph by Peter Valchev.
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience;
we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
— Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
This is the story of how I died, why I came back, and what has become
of me since.
Dying changed my life forever. I am not the same person I was before
that transformative night. There are a hundred times that I wish and pray
it had never happened. But it did, on March 20, 1980. I was stuck on a
mountain, stranded in the wilderness, in the bitter cold, with no way down.
Only by the grace of God am I here today.
The first time I told my story was five years after my accident, in 1985,
to my bride-to-be on the night before our wedding. Better late than never,
I thought. I had struggled with telling her but finally decided she needed
to know what she was getting into before she married me. After that, I
never told another person—until my friend Bryan witnessed an incident
in my presence.
I was the only trained responder at the scene of a bad car wreck,
and I prayed over one of the men whose injuries where internal, which
meant that the only thing I could do was to treat him for shock, and
pray. Suddenly a bolt of electricity surged through me repeatedly and into
the man I was caring for. I did not know what was happening, only that
somehow I was a conduit for the power of God.
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EVOLVE!
Once we were back in our car driving south again, all of a sudden all
the pain suffered by the accident victim was inexplicably transferred to me.
I writhed and screamed in agony and screamed for many minutes, much to
my friend’s disconcertion and fear, until I felt and “saw” a cross that was
atop a steeple by the side of the highway leap at me and somehow strike
me. Just as suddenly, the pain vanished.
I know how kooky this sounds and looked to my friend. This happened
when we were in divinity school together in 1986, and afterward, I felt I
had to explain myself; so I told him my tale.
It wasn’t until a Sunday in 2001 that I spoke of my near-death
experience (NDE) again. I was the minister of the Congregational Church
of Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and our community was going through great
hardship. We had suffered through ten years of embezzlement by a church
member and incredible fallout due to it. The people of the church were
stressed, anxious and exhausted. On one Sunday morning, just before
church, a parishioner asked me “how my faith had endured unshakably”
through a decade of church turmoil. His question made me stop in my
tracks. He asked about my faith, and for the first time I understood the
profound shift within myself. My faith? What near-death experiencer has
need of faith when he knows God is Real? I realized it was time to finally tell
my congregants the truth about who I was. Right then and there I scrapped
the sermon I’d spent half a week on and stood in the pulpit, ready to share
my story, and why I would say I have no faith.
Alarming words to read, I know, especially coming from the mouth
of a Christian minister. But that is the plain truth. My faith in God did
not sustain me in the pulpit through the dark times in our church. I was
sustained by something else, by something that I had learned when I died:
I know that I am known by God and I know that God is Real.
HEAVEN IS BEAUTIFUL:
How Dying Taught Me That Death
Was Just The Beginning
by Peter Baldwin Panagore
Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing
$16.95, ISBN13: 9781571747341
In the same way that I don’t believe in snow or birds or trees because
I can see them and experience them with my all of my senses, knowing they’re real, I do not have to “believe” in
God, because God is Real. God is as real to me as snow or birds or trees. Truly, God is more Real to me than any
of those things. God is the only Real there is—and that is what this story is all about.
Since finally sharing my NDE story from the pulpit that Sunday morning to a surprised and appreciative
congregation, I stopped holding it in. It was time to be honest about my newfound understanding of the Realness
of God. My church and I had suffered greatly during that decade of embezzlement; yet through that dark time God
was always with me, and is with me now inescapably—not because of who I am, but because of who God is. I told
my story publicly that first time to help my congregation begin the healing process.
Since then, I have told my story to audiences large and small, to individuals over coffee, to the terminally ill,
to the grieving, and from coast to coast. I am thankful to God that in my ministry, my death and return to life has
turned me into something of a reverse midwife. Instead of catching babies as they enter this world, I’ve eased the
passage of the dying into the next and much more beautiful world.
I tell my story not to ease the dying process, for dying, I have seen so many times, can be terribly painful, or
quietly peaceful, or shockingly sudden. I tell my story here for the reasons that I always tell it: to give hope that is
stronger than death, to give courage to the fearful, to give faith to the wavering and faithless, to take the sting from
death, to ease grief, to teach that love is eternal and that beauty beyond words awaits us all on the other side. And,
I also tell it to help those like me who have had a near-death experience to find their voice, to speak their truth, and
to know what I did not, and could not know for decades: You are not alone. There are many like us. More and more
of us return each day through the miracles of modern medicine.
Let me add that like all NDEers, there has always been a volcano in my soul to speak about this, and there
still is. The strange thing is that the more I’ve thought about that experience in the wilderness over the decades,
the more details I remember. To date, this is the clearest account. There is a saying attributed to Pierre Teilhard de
Chardin that captures my inner space, the center of my experience where I live today and have lived since that day
in March of 1980: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human
experience.” I am proof of that.
Fear not. God is with us, intimately and personally, immanent and transcendent, and God will catch each of us
because God loves each of us as if we are God’s only beloved. God will catch us when the door of death opens to
swallow us whole, and wholly, and we depart this shell of flesh and bone and find ourselves in the inexplicable beauty
and love of God’s eternal Home prepared for us.
From Heaven is Beautiful © 2015 by Peter Baldwin Panagore. Reprinted with permission of Hampton Roads Publishing Co., Inc.
54
55
EVOLVE!
LOVE LESSONS
A talk with Dr. Bernie S. Siegel and Cynthia J. Hurn, coauthors of
Love, Animals & Miracles: Inspiring True Stories Celebrating the Healing Bond
CYNTHIA: In the new book Love, Animals & Miracles, Bernie, we revealed a
side of your life that many people didn’t know about. You call it the Siegel Zoo.
As you were reminiscing about your kids growing up with all those animals, I
found myself wishing I’d been one of your kids.
BERNIE: It was a great way to raise a family. Our place was an acre and a
half. We had goats, ducks, and geese in the front yard with kiddie pools all
through the house for turtles and fish. One son had a dead tree in his room
for snakes and chameleons. Crickets chirped all year round, and everything
from the South American kinkajou to cats and dogs wandered loose inside.
Local vets would call and ask us to take in another neglected creature
because they knew we would care for them. Everybody was family.
CYNTHIA: What was it like coming home after work every day to all those
creatures?
BERNIE: I’d be physically tired but more exhausted in an emotional sense
because of those people I couldn’t cure. One day I got home to find a
guinea pig struggling in labor and unlikely to survive, so I did an emergency
caesarean section. Another time I operated on a turtle with an abscess. The
kids expected me to save everybody because I was a doctor. I finally had to
sit them down and explain that after a full day of operating as a pediatric
surgeon, to then come home and be a doctor to all these pets was more than
I could handle emotionally. I wasn’t God; I couldn’t cure every affliction of
every pet. I said I would try to save their lives, but you can’t expect success
100 percent of the time. It helped them understand that death is a part of
life. When an animal dies, its body is gone, but the love stays. The kids gained
a reverence for life, which they exemplify today with their own pets and the
wild creatures they have helped or rescued.
LOVE, ANIMALS & MIRACLES:
Inspiring True Stories Celebrating
the Healing Bond (H)
by Dr. Bernie S Siegel; Cynthia J Hurn
Publisher: New World Library
$21.95, ISBN13: 9781608683345
Our kids learned about the power of love too. The ducks and geese were
born in incubators, so the first thing the chicks saw was our kids, and they
imprinted on them, thinking the kids were their parents. Whenever the
school bus came to pick up the kids, ducks and geese would walk down and stand by the road
watching them go. We finally had so many fowl I brought some to my mother’s house on
the shore of a lake. One day Mom called to say that every time a school bus drove
by, the birds would leave the lake and stand beside the road. They were looking for
our kids to get off the bus.
CYNTHIA: What was the most powerful lesson you gained from your animals?
BERNIE: Forgiveness. Animals would lick my hand when I was treating their
wounds, and I felt so awful. I knew it was hurting them. Yet they’d lick my hand.
The lick was saying, “Please be gentle; stop for a minute.” It blew my mind that
they didn’t instead take a bite out of my finger.
Our rabbit Smudge Bunny got shaken by our dog Furphy when we left the house and
forgot to close the pet door that separated them. Smudge nearly died of the injuries. I
felt terrible and very guilty. Weeks later I went into the yard to call Smudge inside for the
night and found her curled up against Furphy. She didn’t hold a grudge. Smudge and
Furphy had become the best of friends.
They taught me about forgiving your family too. I was running a support group at an
elderly care facility, and I always brought our dogs Furphy and Buddy along. One day
Buddy must have eaten something that upset him because he went to the corner of the
room and left a smelly mess on the floor. I apologized to the group and cleaned it up. The
people at the facility didn’t mind; they dealt with human accidents regularly. It struck me as
I was driving home that I hadn’t yelled at Buddy or embarrassed him in front of everybody.
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EVOLVE!
I’d just cleaned up his mess. If that had been one of our kids, it would have been a different story. I realized then that
scolding our child for an accident would have been poor parenting. I should show our kids the same patience and
forgiveness I showed our dogs. The connections we have with animals are often stronger than the ones we have with
relatives. We can be so critical of relatives, not showing them pure affection and love.
Nine hundred years ago, Maimonides said, “If people took as good care of themselves as they do their animals, they
would suffer fewer illnesses.” And that was the attitude we taught our kids: it isn’t just that you care for the animals,
you have to live that way for everybody and be an example, taking care of your needs too.
CYNTHIA: This book is filled with stories we gathered from people across America, Britain, and Europe. Were any of
their stories particularly moving or surprising to you?
BERNIE: There were so many that touched my heart, it’s hard to pick just one. I was surprised and delighted to read
our grandson Charlie’s story about interspecies bonding, one I’d never heard before. He had an ailing turtle that lived
alone. The vet recommended putting a fish in the tank for the bored turtle to hunt. Charlie’s turtle took one look at
that fish and fell in love. He never ate it. The creatures lived together for years and actually looked after each other.
Another story was contributed by a woman whose daughter had been murdered. Before the daughter’s death, she had
gone to buy a surprise puppy for her dad, but the dog she wanted was already spoken for. Two years after her death,
the still-grieving parents went to visit the breeder, not knowing what their daughter had intended. All the breeder’s
dogs sat well behaved, but suddenly one flew across the room and jumped into the father’s arms, crying his heart out.
Before long everyone was crying without realizing why. The breeder then explained what their daughter’s wish had
been, and that this was the very same dog their daughter had chosen. He’d gone to another family, but recently that
family had returned him. They all felt that the daughter was communicating with her parents through the dog, saying
she was okay. Not surprisingly, the couple took the dog home. Having the dog and the sense that their daughter was
still communicating with them helped to heal their grief. That story had me in tears.
CYNTHIA: Several stories involved animals rescuing or healing humans. Have you had any experience of this?
BERNIE: In my experience of miracles, more often the animal was healed. One of my patients had a cat that was
dying of cancer. The vet called to say he couldn’t do anything more; the kindest thing was to euthanize the cat. The
whole family came in to say good-bye to their beloved friend. The doctor entered the room holding an unresponsive,
limp animal, but when the cat saw her family, she launched herself eight feet across the room into the dad’s arms
and began to purr. The surprised vet said, “She was dying a minute ago.” That cat went home healthy and lived for
several more years.
What I always say to people is, love your life and love your body. When you live what you love, your body gets the
message; that’s when miracles happen. People with terminal disease who go off to the mountains or a beautiful place
to die, or spend all day in the garden doing what they love, start enjoying their life so much they often forget to die.
One patient said to me, “I’m so busy now, I’m killing myself.” And she lived a long, meaningful life. But people have
to learn this, whereas animals know it already.
Our dog Oscar had an inoperable malignant melanoma in his mouth and was
deteriorating fast. The vet recommended euthanasia. I called the kids to get
their agreement, but they said, “Dad, you don’t put your patients to sleep; you
can’t put Oscar to sleep.” I brought Oscar home and started giving him lots of
love. He was too weak even to stand up. I sat with him every day, putting my
hands on him, visualizing his body strong and healthy doing all the things
he loved to do. When I ate, I shared my food. I gave him vitamins and
supplements to build up his strength and immunity. Soon he started going
outside to play with the other dogs, and the melanoma disappeared. The
vet couldn’t believe it. Every time we met, he’d say, “I’ve never seen a dog
that sick recover.” Oscar lived years longer. One might say it’s a miracle
or a perfect example of self-induced healing.
CYNTHIA: Would you sum up the lessons that the animals in these stories
are teaching us?
BERNIE: Have a relationship with an animal. Caring for an animal is
good for your health. When you pet an animal, your body releases the
same bonding hormones that affect a mother when she holds her baby. It
lowers blood pressure and gives one a sense of loving euphoria. Scientific
studies show higher rates of recovery and survival and lower rates of disease
in those who live with an animal.
Don’t judge each other or yourselves. Furphy was attacked by a dog, losing
one eye and part of his tail. He never looked in the mirror saying, “I can’t go
57
EVOLVE!
out for a walk like this; I’m too ugly.”
Animals accept themselves as they
are — feeling complete, no matter
their defect — and they love us
regardless of our defects.
Retired surgeon Bernie S. Siegel
speaks, writes, and runs support
groups in his effort to empower
patients. He lives in Woodbridge, CT.
When we die, life goes on, so live in
Cynthia J. Hurn (not pictured) is the
the present moment — the gift of
coauthor of No Buddy Left Behind and
today — and enjoy your life. I wrote
The Art of Healing. She lives in
a children’s book called Buddy’s
Somerset, England.
Candle. When his dog, Buddy, died,
the little boy couldn’t get over the
Visit Bernie at his website:
loss. One night in a dream the boy
www.BernieSiegelMD.com
went to Heaven and saw all the dogs
that recently died walking along, each
one carrying a bright candle. Then he
spotted Buddy carrying a dark candle. The angel said, “Go and light his candle.” The boy approached his friend, saying,
“Buddy, I am here to light your candle.” The dog replied, “Angels keep lighting it, but your tears keep putting it out.”
A strange thing happened immediately after I finished writing that book. I heard a voice, clear as day, saying, “Go to
the animal shelter.” So I got in the car and drove over there. When I walked inside, a dog was sitting by the door. The
first words out of my mouth were “What’s his name?” They said, “He’s called Buddy; he arrived less than fifteen minutes
ago.” When I heard that name, I knew a greater hand had guided me there. I said, “I’m here to take him home.” Was
this a coincidence or a miracle? You tell me. Buddy is still with us today at sixteen years of age.
CYNTHIA: Who would you have become without animals in your life?
BERNIE: I would have felt lonely and with less sense of purpose in my life. People spend too much time thinking
and analyzing, whereas animals show us how to live from the heart. Caring for them takes time and effort, but when
you climb into bed at night and somebody — regardless of the number of legs they have — is right beside you, loving
you no matter what happened that day, you know you’re okay. You’re home.
58
59
EVOLVE!
Selection Criterion: Does It Spark Joy?
What standard do you use to decide what to get rid of?
Marie Kondo, Author of
the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up
and companion title Spark Joy
There are several common patterns when it comes to discarding. One is to discard
things when they cease being functional—for example, when something breaks
down beyond repair or when part of a set is broken. Another is to discard things
that are out of date, such as clothes that are no longer in fashion or things related
to an event that has passed. It’s easy to get rid of things when there is an obvious
reason for doing so. It’s much more difficult when there is no compelling reason.
Various experts have proposed yardsticks for discarding things people find hard
to part with. These include such rules as “discard anything you haven’t used for a
year,” and “if you can’t decide, pack those items away in a box and look at them
again six months later.” However, the moment you start focusing on how
to choose what to throw away, you have actually veered significantly off
course. In this state, it is extremely risky to continue tidying.
At one point in my life, I was virtually a “disposal unit.” After discovering The
Art of Discarding when I was fifteen, I focused on how to get rid of things, and
my research efforts escalated. I was always looking for new places to practice,
be it my siblings’ rooms or the communal storage lockers at school. My head
was full of tidying tips, and I had complete, albeit misguided, confidence that I
could tidy any place.
My particular goal at that time was to get rid of as much as possible. I applied
every criteria suggested by the various books I read on reducing. I tried getting
rid of clothes that I hadn’t worn for two years, discarding another item every time
I bought something new, and throwing away anything I wasn’t sure of. I threw
out thirty bags of garbage in one month. But no matter how much I discarded,
not a single room in my house felt any tidier.
Photo taken by Natsuno Ichigo
“... take each item in one’s hand
and ask: ‘Does this spark Joy?’”
In fact, I found myself going shopping just to relieve the stress and so failed
miserably to reduce the total volume of my possessions. At home, I was always
uptight, constantly on the lookout for superfluous things that could be discarded.
When I found something not in use, I would pounce on it vengefully and throw
it in the garbage. Not surprisingly, I became increasingly irritable and tense and
found it impossible to relax even in my own home.
One day after school, I opened the door to my room to begin cleaning as usual.
At the sight of that untidy space, I finally lost it. “I don’t want to tidy anymore!”
I cried. Plopping myself down in the middle of my room, I began to think. I had
spent three years tidying and discarding things, yet my room still felt cluttered.
Would someone please tell me why my room isn’t tidy when I work so hard at it?
Although I did not say this out loud, in my heart I was practically shouting. At
that moment, I heard a voice.
“Look more closely at what is there.”
What do you mean? I look at what’s here so closely every day I could drill a
hole through it all. With that thought still in my head, I fell fast asleep right
there on the floor. If I had been a little smarter, I would have realized before I
became so neurotic that focusing solely on throwing things away can only bring
unhappiness. Why? Because we should be choosing what we want to keep, not
what we want to get rid of.
Photo taken by Richie Bracamonte
When I woke up, I knew immediately what that voice in my head had meant.
Look more closely at what is there. I had been so focused on what to discard,
on attacking the unwanted obstacles around me, that I had forgotten to cherish
the things that I loved, the things I wanted to keep. Through this experience, I
came to the conclusion that the best way to choose what to keep and what to
throw away is to take each item in one’s hand and ask: “Does this spark
joy?” If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it. This is not only the simplest
but also the most accurate yardstick by which to judge.
You may wonder about the effectiveness of such a vague criteria, but the trick is
to handle each item. Don’t just open up your closet and decide after a cursory
60
EVOLVE!
glance that everything in it gives you a thrill. You must take
each outfit in your hand. When you touch a piece of clothing,
your body reacts. Its response to each item is different. Trust
me and try it.
I chose this standard for a reason. After all, what is the point
in tidying? If it’s not so that our space and the things in it
can bring us happiness, then I think there is no point at all.
Therefore, the best criterion for choosing what to keep and
what to discard is whether keeping it will make you happy,
whether it will bring you joy.
Are you happy wearing clothes that don’t give you
pleasure?
Do you feel joy when surrounded by piles of unread books
that don’t touch your heart?
Do you think that owning accessories you know you’ll
never use will ever bring you happiness?
The answer to these questions should be no.
Now imagine yourself living in a space that contains only
things that spark joy. Isn’t this the lifestyle you dream of?
Keep only those things that speak to your heart. Then
take the plunge and discard all the rest. By doing this, you
can reset your life and embark on a new lifestyle.
THE LIFE-CHANGING
MAGIC OF TIDYING UP:
the Japanese Art of
Decluttering & Organizing
by Marie Kondo
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
$16.99, ISBN13: 9781607747307
SPARK JOY: An Illustrated
Guide To The Life-Changing
Konmari Method
by Marie Kondo
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
$18.99, ISBN13: 9781607749721
Sort By Category, Not By Location
My study of tidying began in earnest when I was in junior high and basically consisted of repeated practice. Every day
I cleaned one place at a time—my own room, my brother’s room, my sister’s room, the bathroom. Each day I planned
where to tidy and launched solo campaigns that resembled bargain sales. “The fifth of every month is ‘living room day’!”
“Today is ‘clean the pantry day.’” “Tomorrow I conquer the bathroom cupboards!”
I maintained this custom even after entering high school. When I came home, I headed straight for the place I had
decided to clean that day without even changing out of my school uniform. If my target was a set of plastic drawers in the
washroom cupboard, I would open the doors and dump everything out of one of the drawers, including makeup samples,
soaps, toothbrushes, and razors. Then I would sort them by category, organize them into box dividers, and return them to
the drawer. Finally, I would gaze in quiet admiration at the neatly organized contents before going on to the next drawer.
I would sit on the floor for hours sorting things in the cupboard until my mother called me for supper.
One day, I was sorting the contents of a drawer in the hall cupboard when I stopped in surprise. “This must be the same
drawer that I cleaned yesterday,” I thought. It wasn’t, but the items inside were the same—makeup samples, soaps,
toothbrushes, and razors. I was sorting them by category, putting them in boxes, and returning them to the drawer just
like I had the day before. It was at this moment that it hit me: Tidying up by location is a fatal mistake. I’m ashamed
to admit that it took me three years to see this.
Many people are surprised to hear that such a seemingly viable
approach is actually a common pitfall. The root of the problem lies
in the fact that people often store the same type of item in more than
one place. When we tidy each place separately, we fail to see that
we’re repeating the same work in many locations and become locked
into a vicious circle of tidying. To avoid this, I recommend tidying
by category. For example, instead of deciding that today you’ll tidy
a particular room, set goals like “clothes today, books tomorrow.”
One reason so many of us never succeed at tidying is because we
have too much stuff. This excess is caused by our ignorance of how
much we actually own. When we disperse storage of a particular item
throughout the house and tidy one place at a time, we can never
grasp the overall volume and therefore can never finish. To escape
this negative spiral, tidy by category, not by place.
“... tidy by category, not by place.”
Photo taken by Natsuno Ichigo
Excerpted from THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP Copyright © 2014 by Marie Kondo.
Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.
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EVOLVE!
WHAT YOUR SOUL KNOWS
AN EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK SOUL VOWS BY JANET CONNER
With her characteristic blend of personal story, love of paradox, and expansive inquiry into
the heart of diverse spiritual traditions, Janet Conner presents Soul Vows and teaches all how
gather the presence of the Divine in you, through and as you.
There
is a
Presence
inside you.
There is a Presence inside everyone.
Though you may have long ignored it,
perhaps even willfully turned the other
way, that divine Presence is alive and
well and growing. It is a pulse, silently
tapping out the rhythm of the ancient
dance of longing for something more,
something bigger, something to mark
your every step as holy, important,
and good. That Presence knows you.
It knows who you are and who you
long to be. It knows that the life of
the Divine is your life, the love of the
Divine is your love, and the Presence
of the Divine is expressed in, and
through, and as you. That Presence is
now calling you to step into its tender
embrace to learn the words and music
and movements of your dance of divine
Presence—Soul Vows.
Here are my soul vows. I speak them
aloud every morning, adding the
pronoun I in front of each. I pray my
soul vows in the order of the chakras,
from bottom to top.
Pray always
Seek Truth
Surrender, there is
no Path but God's
Come from Love
Honor myself
Live in Partnership
Unite to create Good
These words never fail to inspire or
surprise me. On any given day, one of
them will reveal a layer of meaning I
never noticed before. Let me give you
one example. For years when I said,
“I come from love,” I thought I was
saying, “I, Janet, come from a state of
love. I do my work with love. I write
with love. I treat people with love. I
emanate love.” This was, forgive the
pun, a lovely sentiment, but it also felt
a bit like a burden. When I said this
vow, I heard, “Gee, Janet, you better
come from love, or you’re not living
your soul vows.”
Then one morning, as I was staring at
the words and speaking them aloud,
I felt something shift in my heart. I
stopped. My hands flew to my chest,
and I burst into tears. “I come from
love” doesn’t mean I have to generate
love; it means I was generated by Divine
Love. Love doesn’t come from me; it
comes from my Divine Source. That’s
a huge difference in meaning—and it
only took me nine years to realize it!
This deeper understanding has led to a
huge shift in how I live this vow.
Now, fourteen years into my
relationship with my soul vows, I
am beginning to see that the vows
themselves were always breathing and
living in a space of vast consciousness.
They were always big. It is me who has
slowly expanded my consciousness to
meet them. I also see that they are
a paradox. They came through my
pen, but I didn’t choose them. They
chose me. They called to me from a
future, expanded, potential self—my
divine Self. And they beckon to me
still, pointing the way to a deeper and
Soul vows aren’t a list of obligations;
they’re a sweet love pact between your
divine Self and your God.
62
SOUL VOWS:
Gathering The Presence Of the
Divine In You, Through You, & As You
by Janet Connor
Publisher: Conari Press
$17.95, ISBN13: 9781573246422
deeper relationship with my self, my
soul, my life, and my God. I long ago
stopped pretending I know what my
soul vows mean. I recognize them now
as lifelong companions whose beauty
and depth I can never exhaust.
Your soul vows are also different from
the popular values described in books
such as Stephen Covey’s The Seven
Habits of Highly Effective People or Don
Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements.
These values are all smart and powerful
and good, and following them creates
a solid foundation for effective human
interaction. But you are seeking a
transmutation forged by an intimate
and deeply personal relationship with
the Divine, and these universal values,
wise as they are, cannot carry you to
the holy life that is yours and yours
alone.
EVOLVE!
Your soul vows are not the same as your
soul purpose. The two work seamlessly
together and support one another,
but they’re not the same thing. Your
soul purpose is your why—the destiny
embedded in your being. Your soul
vows are your how. They describe how
you choose to walk this earth—not just
at work or at home or in a relationship,
but in every moment of every day.
They are your grace points. They are
how you receive and spread grace. As
you live your soul vows, you become a
fertile container in which the seed of
your soul purpose can take root and
flourish. If you long to know your soul’s
purpose, finding your soul vows is an
ideal place to begin.
I titled my original soul vows list “Janet’s
Covenant.” Soul vows are indeed
a covenant—and an unshakable,
unbreakable one at that. Do those
words sound heavy? If you think in
terms of human contracts, the word
covenant can feel weighted with effort
and obligation and consequences. But
this is not a human covenant; it’s a
divine covenant—a sacred agreement
between you and your divine Source.
Soul vows aren’t a list of obligations;
they’re a sweet love pact between your
divine Self and your God. So of course
they’re unshakeable. Why would
anyone walk away from all that love?
And they are unbreakable because they
describe who you are at your core, your
essence, your very soul. To break them,
you would have to stop being you—
and that, by definition, is impossible.
As lovely as a list and a divine covenant
are, your soul vows are something even
more. They are a prayer—a deeply
personal, grace-inducing prayer. Over
time, your soul vows will evolve into
the most beautiful and powerful prayer
of your day. When you speak your soul
vows, four grace-filled things happen.
First, you renew your deep love for
these ways of being. With each vow,
you reenergize your commitment
to live in alignment with your soul’s
most precious values. That alone lifts
your spirit, triggers your RAS, focuses
your attention, and influences your
behavior. As you live your vows, you
literally build who you are in this world,
moving closer every day to your whole,
authentic, holy Self.
Second, because your soul vows are a
two-way covenant between you and
your divine Source, as you declare
them for yourself, you simultaneously
activate divine response. As you speak
a vow, you invite divine grace to move
through you, creating a welcoming
space for people and situations that
are energetically aligned with that
value, and—here’s the most amazing
part—simultaneously and effortlessly
deflecting the people and situations
that aren’t. Over time you will find
yourself surrounded by more and more
of what is in sync with your vows and
less and less of what isn’t. This is how
your soul vows change your world.
Third, your soul vows activate your
inner mystic. I’ve asked dozens of
spiritual leaders how they define
mysticism, and they all agree it’s a
direct experience of the Divine. But
please don’t think that experience is
reserved for the holy and the few. You
were created a mystic. You are wired to
directly experience your divine Source.
That’s why, no matter how many books
or coaches or teachers talk about how
to live an authentic life, a happy life, or
one filled with meaning and purpose,
there is still a persistent, lingering
hunger. It’s not a hunger for another
program. It’s not a hunger for a new
advisor. It’s not a hunger for a new way
to control your thoughts, shift your
emotions, or bring more balance into
your life. It’s not a hunger for another
round on the self-improvement
treadmill. It’s not a hunger that can be
satisfied reading a book or solving a
problem in your mind. It’s not a mental
hunger. It’s a hunger of the heart. It’s a
hunger of the soul.
It’s a hunger for a tangible experience
of the Divine.
Mystics of old understood this hunger.
They marched off into seclusion to find
it, face it, and feed it. They prepared
themselves. They fasted. They chanted.
They prayed. They meditated. They
burrowed deep within their spirit
and psyche to their very soul. And
then it happened. They felt the divine
embrace.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In Janet Conner’s hands, the ordinary is extraordinary, the mystical is accessible,
and all of life is a dance with soul. Soul Vows is the third book in Janet’s trademark series Your Soul Wants Five Things. Her landmark book, Writing Down Your
Soul, connects readers to their "extraordinary voice within" and is consistently a
category bestseller. After facing bankruptcy, she wrote The Lotus and the Lily to
share the simple yet profound process she followed to crack the abundance code
by linking the wisdom of the inner voice with the surprising parallel teachings of
Buddha and Jesus on how to nourish a truly beautiful and abundant life. Janet
also created two unique journals: My Soul Pages and My Life Pages.
To help listeners recognize and respond to the calls of their own souls, Janet hosts
The Soul-Directed Life radio show, broadcast at unity.fm/program/TheSoulDirectedLife. Janet and her work have been featured in Daily Word, Unity Magazine,
Science of Mind, Daily Om, Patheos, Beliefnet.com, and many more. She lives in
the tiny town of Ozona, Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico. For more on Janet, her
books, courses, and radio show, visit janetconner.com.
photo by Sunshine Design Studio
63
EVOLVE!
Most of us, today, don’t
want to run off to a
monastery or ashram
to satisfy that hunger.
And we don’t have to.
We can plant our feet
in our modern, wired,
distracted, insanely
busy lives and have a
mystical experience of
the living presence of the Divine.
We can succeed at our jobs, pay our
mortgages, raise our children, and live
a holy life. Your soul vows are a very
real and, in the end, quite simple way
to walk into the mystical experience of
the divine embrace. By the time you
and your soul vows have become best
friends, you will realize that you are a
mystic.
Over time, as you live your soul vows,
you weave together a larger, more fully
present version of your Self on earth.
Fourth, when you speak your soul
vows, you are calling your full divine
Self into this particular space-time
experience. Your presence on this
earth at this moment is not your
total Self. It is an expression of that
Self, one face of that Self, but it is
not your full, multidimensional Self.
Each time you speak a holy quality,
you invoke more and more of your
64
full Self to be present in your current
human expression. Visualize your soul
vows as stitches reaching through the
space-time barrier to gather more and
more of the wildly expansive Self that
is your potential fullness. That fullness
contains previous expressions of you,
future expressions of you, and radiant
facets of your share in divine Presence.
Over time, as you live your soul vows,
you weave together a larger, more fully
present version of your Self on earth.
In the fourteenth century, Meister
Eckhart described this transformation
as “God must simply become me and I
must become God—so completely that
this ‘he’ and this ‘I’ share one ‘is’ and
in this ‘isness’ do one work eternally”
(Breakthrough: Mesiter Eckhart’s
Creation Spirituality in a New Translation
by Matthew Fox). A woman in a Soul
Vows course described her
“isness” transformation in
slightly more modern terms:
“Before soul vows, Wendy
1.0. After soul vows, Wendy
2.0!”
But your individual soul
vows do something beyond
building your personal
expanded, 2.0 Self. As each of us calls
our expanded divine Self into this
space-time experience, together we
build the global divine body. That’s the
real power of your soul vows and the
real power that alters your experience
here on earth. Soul vows are a living
construction of a whole and holy
Divine in you, through you, and as
you, which builds collectively into the
expression of the divine in us, through
us, and as us.
Surely this is how we create heaven on
earth.
From Soul Vows © 2015 by Janet Conner
published by Conari Press. Reprinted
with permission from Red Wheel/Weiser
www.redwheelweiser.com
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SACRED AWAKENING: Remember Your
Higher Consciousness Guidance
(67-card deck & guidebook)
by Esther Sa’arah Felix,
Publisher: Esther Sa’arah Felix
ISBN13: 9780615551098, $29.00
A tool for Self-Realization supporting your Spiritual
Awakening. A bridge to the Divine Sciences of the
Unseen. The cards bring in Clarity in the form of a
‘Visual Roadmap’, illuminating your path. Through
this deeper reflection, an Expanded Awareness and
experienced Revelation can occur, bringing you to
a deeper Truth within. This then encourages you to move forward and act upon
the information revealed. 67 one-of-a-kind color cards 3.5” x 5” with a 48-page
booklet of evocative guiding messages & instructions.
RAISE THE VIBRATION
(Healing Songs in Sanskrit and English) (CD)
by Felicia Rose
Publisher: Felicia Rose
$15.00, UPC: 888295206174
Healing songs in Sanskrit and English. Repetition
of mantras helps to still the mind, while beautifully
aligning one with the inner sound!
ANTI-AGING ENCYCLOPEDIA:
Of Natural Health (4th edition)
by Joseph Marion, N.D.
Publisher: Information Pioneers Publisher
$74.00, ISBN13: 9780964499935
This super book is the most comprehensive, yet well-organized, natural health book in print, organizing the entire naturologic holistic field in seven chapters, explaining nature’s
building-blocks of the human body, and in fact, all creation.
TURTLE WISDOM: Coming Home To
Yourself (formerly YOU GET YOU)
by Donna DeNomme,
Publisher: Inlightened Source
$15.95, ISBN13: 9781424324866
A gift that says “I believe in you!” This awardwinning, internationally-published fan favorite
is written by the Master Success Coach 5280
Maga¬zine calls Colorado’s “Spiritual Health Guru.”
An endearing book of guidance, gentle encouragement, and practical inspiration, Turtle Wisdom:
Coming Home to Yourself offers strategies for life’s
challenges in an easily accessible and engaging read. Practical wisdom to awaken
a masterful life! 86 delightful illustrations. *The Turtle Wisdom Companion: A
Motivational Coloring Book coming soon!
HEALTHFUL SLEEP (Health Journeys Series) (CD)
by Belleruth Naparstek,
Publisher: Health Journeys, Inc
$17.98, ISBN13: 9781881405320
Health Journeys Healthful Sleep guided imagery
CD creates a rich atmosphere of protection and
safety, with images that are evocative enough to
engage the mind so that it can relax, rather than
chatter and keep us up. Coupled with Steve Kohnís peaceful music, the Health
Journeys Healthful Sleep CD draws mind, body and spirit down into deep, restful
sleep, enabling us to wake in the morning rested, alert, and happy. (60 min.)
Psychotherapist Belleruth Naparstek, M.A., L.I.S.W., is a nationally recognized
innovator in the field of guided imagery and intuition, and the author of Staying Well With Guided Imagery (Warner Books), Your Sixth Sense (Harper San
Francisco) and Invisible Heroes (Random House).
HEALTHY WEIGHT & BODY IMAGE:
Guided Self-Hypnosis Exercises
by Traci Stein
$17.98, ISBN13: 9781935072140
If you can imagine it, you can live it.: A powerful
new approach to a healthy weight. Mindfulness
and empowering hypnotic imagery can increase
insight into the relationship between weight,
emotions, and interpersonal issues.
HEALTHY WEIGHT & BODY IMAGE DURING
SLEEP: Guided Self-Hypnosis Exercises
by Traci Stein
$17.98, ISBN13: 9781935072157
This guided imagery CD or MP3 download instills healthy eating and weight loss habits and
helps with body image, holistically and naturally,
during sleep, a very receptive mind-state for
enhanced learning and behavior change.
PREPACK, INSTANT INSIGHT CARDS (cardboard counter
display box w/attached sample cards & 10 individual.
priced card decks in organza bags)
J P McIntosh, Jaquel McIntosh
$116.66, ISBN13: 9789991581446
Change your thinking, change your
life! Use for daily inspiration and
guidance to empower your thoughts
and create positive lifestyle changes!
This pre-pack comes with pop-up cardboard
counter display with several sample cards
attached, 10 shrink wrapped decks in colorful
organza bags, each has barcode to sell individually. SRP on individual decks is $14.95. Replenishment decks are also available at New Leaf.
Evolve Featured Products Showcase
POWER OF YOUR SUPERMIND (reissue)
by Vernon Howard
New Life Foundation
$14.95, ISBN13: 9781934162507
You can be a psychic artist who moves over
into eternal sunshine with the guidance provided in this book. Discover answers to baffling
questions you have asked for years, such as the
meaning and purpose of life on earth and why
things happen the way they do. A rare find your
heart will love. Retired executive secretary Sally
Forrest says, “Vernon Howard books are like a
magic lantern. They not only show you the way
but they actually take you there.”
GOD'S MESSAGE TO THE WORLD:
You've Got Me All Wrong
by Neale Walsch, Rainbow Ridge Books
$16.95, ISBN13: 9781937907303
Is it possible that everything we think we know
about God, and what God wants, is wrong? Could
humanity s ideas about all this be the greatest
inaccuracies . . . ever? Would it matter if they were?
The author of the multi-million-selling Conversations with God series places the question squarely
before our world in another blockbuster book that
could move our species closer to true spiritual
revolution on the Earth, changing humanities
future for the better, forever.

Feature Article Don`t Let Anything Dull Your Sparkle by Doreen

Transcription

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