Inner Tapestry "Integrity" February March 2009

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A Holistic Journal Celebrating & Supporting LIFE! u INTEGRITY

Feb/Mar 2009

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Volume 7, No . 5

Inner

Tapestry Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

u The Place Called Wisdom

u Loving Earth ~ A Larger Integrity

u Discovering Your Relationship DNA

u The Way Of Life Itself ~ Integrity

u Integrity Therapy For A Divided Planet

u The Wandering Sage ~ Time To Walk The Talk

u Dreaming the Secret Wishes Of The Soul

u Modern Shamanic Living ~ Living With Integrity

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Trager®

An Approach for Every Body www.trager-us.org

Movement Education. Body/Mind Integration.

Gentle. Effective. Life-changing.

"Creating peace in the world, one person at a time."

Dr. Milton Trager Maine Certified Trager® Practitioners Marlena O'Hagan-Buzzell Fryeburg, ME 207-212-7721 kmbuzzell@roadrunner.com

Gail Edgerly Portland, ME 207-761-3765 www.movementashealer.com

Virginia Reidy Islesboro, ME Kissimmee, FL 207-734-8132 904-874-4896

Liz Berks Cornish & Gorham, ME 207-637-2074 207-839-2333 lizland@roadrunner.com

Carla Keene Portland & Bath, ME 207-653-8393 cskeene70@hotmail.com

Lew McGregor Hope, ME 207-763-3129

THE TRAGER® APPROACH Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

FMI: please contact Marlena O'Hagan-Buzzell at 207-647-3521 or Email: kmbuzzell@roadrunner.com

Training Locations: Portsmouth, NH Marlborough, MA and Wakefield, RI 2 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

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Inner T APESTRY Contents

This Issue's Theme INTEGRITY April/May 2009: Animalwize June/July 2009: Home August/September 2009: Movement October/November 2009: Living Visions

A Holistic Journal Celebrating & Supporting LIFE!

Features

FEB/MAR 2009

Integrity Therapy For A Divided Planet

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Page

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How Do We Know We Are Following Our Spiritual Path Page

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by Burl Hall

The Power of Integrity and the Scared 'I'

by Dr. Kevin Ross Emery

by Mark Fryover

Discovering Your Relationship DNA

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9

by Ariel and Shya Kane

Herbology Today ~ Capsule, Tea, Tincture... Oh My!

Page 11

by Christopher J. Bashaw

Dreaming The Secret Wishes Of The Soul

Page 16

by Robert Moss

The Place Called Wisdom

by Kelle Eli

Page 17

Wandering Sage Wisdom ~ Time To Walk The Talk

Page 10

Modern Shamanic Living ~

Page 14

by Aaron Hoopes

Living With Integrity

by Evelyn C. Rysdyk

Loving Earth ~

Page 15

A Larger Integrity

by Pat Foley

A Breath of Healing ~ Nothing Else Matters

Page 18

Awareness and the Art of Seeing ~ Winter's Wisdom

Page 19

21st Century Boheman ~

Page 20

by Donna Amrita Davidge

by Jen Deraspe

by Teresa Piccari

Making Whole: Applying Right-Brain Integrity To Healing Art & Life

Feng Shui & Geopathology ~ ZeroPoint Energy Tools:

Page 23

Welcome Home ~ Ask Asrianna

Page 26

by Werner Brandmaier

Our Latest Findings

by Asrianna Dameron

Destination Healing NNE ~

Integrity In Natural Medicine

by Kevin Pennell

Destination Healing SNE ~

by Karen Rider

Integrity Or Fear Which Will You Choose?

Page 28 Page 29

Exploring The World Religions ~ The Sufi Wisdom of

Page 30

The Way of Life-Itself ~ Integrity

Page 31

by James Bean

Hazrat Sultan BaHU

by Norm Hirst

Mixed Media ~

Book, Website & Music Reviews

Directories

Directory of Resources Yoga, T'ai Chi, Aikido & Meditation Directory Heart Visions, Calendar of Events, Classifieds

Pages 46- 47

Pages 32-41 Pages 40-41 Pages 42-45

Feb/Mar 2009 Inner Tapestry 3

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Departments

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A H olistic Journal

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Celebrating & Supporting LIFE!

Joan Emmons Ron Damico Betty Close Jacqueline Cone Publishers All inquiries call:

SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO:

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Inner Tapestry Journal 6 Kristin Lane Raymond, ME 04071

info@innertapestry.org

Email: Or Visit:

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INTEGRITY Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

Welcome to Inner Tapestry OUR EXPRESSION OF INTENTION: As we weave from within, we begin the

creation of the outward expression and celebration of our own unique tapestry.

Our intention is to provide a pathway of support for all seeking the awareness of living a conscious life by creating and supporting a network of connection within the holistic community and its practitioners. The journal is advertiser-supported.

It can be found in businesses and services that promote complementary healing, and who support cultural, environmental and educational needs, where ideas of conscious living and integrative wholeness are welcomed and nourished.

In our seventh year as a Holistic Journal celebrating and supporting the exploration of life, we have become a leading voice for people in their discovery of holistic health, natural living and spiritual wisdom and insight.

AVAILABLE IN MORE THAN 500 LOCATIONS Distributed bimonthly (six times a year) this free publication is filled with carefully selected inspiring and informative articles promoting conscious life choices that lead to a higher quality of life, unity within one's self and community and a greater experience of spirit! Our distribution area spans throughout Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Massachusetts with over 500 locations. If you would like copies placed at your business or location please contact us. Inner Tapestry is a great resource for your family, friends, clients and customers.

SEE YOUR ADVERTISEMENT IN INNER TAPESTRY SIX WAYS TO ADVERTISE Throughout Inner Tapestry's pages are the Display Ads. Toward the back of the journal you will find the Directory of Resources, a comprehensive listing of practitioners and descriptions of their services. Immediately following you will find our Calendar of Events and the Classified section. The fifth method is the Yoga, T'ai Chi, Aikido & Meditation Practitioners Directory, with a listing of styles and forms available for study. Our online website is the sixth way to advertise, with a side banner Display Ad or an online Directory of Resource Ad. For ad size and pricing information visit www.innertapestry.org or call 207-799-7995.

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To our readers, we would like to ask everyone to take the opportunity to email our columnists, feature writers, artists and advertisers with comments, suggestions and information inquiries. They all are extremely wonderful and dedicated individuals who look forward to hearing from you. We also look forward to receiving your comments and suggestions as we all continue to evolve and grow together.

Articles are for information only and do not constitute medical advice. Please obtain written permission before reproducing any part of this publication. All rights reserved. ÂŽ 2008.

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5 INNER WORKINGS New this Issue: Welcome to our February/March issue "Integrity." I would first like to thank everyone for "going with the flow" with the change of theme for this issue and for all the great input on the subject. Our April/May issue will feature the theme of Animalwize, so the deadline for articles will be moved to the 25th of March. I look forward to the additional contributions and thank everyone for those that have already been sent in.

I would like to thank everyone for their contributions in the past and the support of the changes that have been made in the journal. I look forward to seeing the new emerging, alternative practices, the growth of the established ones and the willingness for everyone to participate in them to their full potential. To our columnists, my thanks for their continued work in their fields to keep at least one step ahead, bringing us closer to who we can choose to become.

We would like to ask all of our readers if they have an older PC computer that is not being used, and if so would be willing to donate it to one of our columnists who is in need of one. If you are please give me a call at 207-799-7995 or email me at joan@innertapestry.org or santmat_mystic@yahoo.com.

Take some time to come and participate in the many offerings, the Whole Health Expo will be in Cromwell, Ct. January 31st and February 1st, The Yarmouth Wellness Fair is April 4th at Rowe Elementary School. The Midcoast Maine Women's Health Conference in Belfast will be held May 15th.

With the completion of 2008 and the new energy of 2009 many people have been feeling the shifts and changes. We are seeing previous ways of being in the world are no longer being supported and we are all facing the exploration of new and different expressions ready to emerge.

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In this time there can be much angst and frustration within us. Not "knowing" is something that immerses each of us in a range of feelings. The path may not have been known in the past, but there was a safety in knowing the search. Now we have arrived. To the knowing that we are "it." We are the path and the search.

That search has led us right back to home, to ourselves. Though we may feel lost, we are not, for we are here, within ourselves and with each other. So we are not alone, we walk together each day, believe it or not. The belief that we are alone can be overcome by stepping out into the world and letting someone into our experience and allowing ourselves to become a part of someone else's.

The idea of purpose is also taking on new meaning for many. Now we know that purpose does not exist outside of ourselves, nor in the doing of life... For some that brings an incredible sense of peace. For others it fosters the angst and frustration of our minds and for most of us it is a wonderful combination of the two. The one thing I do know is in that moment of angst and frustration I ask the question... Am I safe? The answer is in Yes, and so a new belief is created.

So where does integrity fit? I stated to someone that "truth is only what you are willing to see." A distressed look crossed their face. "Truth is what you are or are not willing to see... if you are not willing to see something your truth will be one thing. If you are willing to see beyond, you'll find your truth will shift." So willingness is key in integrity. The willingness to... When we are willing we are open. When we are open we embrace all that is and then respond according to who we are consciously "willing" to be in the world. Some call that relationship with self integrity. Thus we hold integrity as ourselves.

Integrity once again is something that we already are, not something that we do. Once again the journey delivers us home. So as you read this issue of the journal realize that the journeys that you will take are designed to lead you home, to self, to a genuine expression of who you choose to create in this moment of time.

Happy travels...

Feb/Mar 2009 Inner Tapestry 5

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Integrity Therapy for a Divided Planet

by Burl Hall

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We are a mess. Our planet is becoming a wasteland. Our families are in disarray. Verbal, physical, and sexual abuse exists at astronomical levels. If we are fortunate enough to be doing well financially, we live in four-story resource-guzzling houses where we don’t see our spouses or children for days. Meanwhile, our children are snuggled away in their own little rooms plugging away at computers, games, or music designed by huge corporations to entertain, brainwash, and entice into consuming. God forbid we should need to commune with our husband, wife, or child!

Meanwhile, our politicians are going to war against others through shock and awe campaigns in order to help boost oil tycoons’ profits. Shock and awe is another term for creating trauma. Trauma is a way of life that is consciously planned on as a way of getting control over a people or person. What is the physical abuse of a child or a spouse if not a means to control and to dominate into submission?

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Where does trauma come from? I would say from a dualistic philosophy of life that pits one thing against the other. It’s man against woman, parent against child, this theory versus that theory, or this set of religious dogma against another.

Trauma is also created in our need to control others.

The supervisor says, “Do it my way, or it’s the highway.”

Granted we need structure, but is a Nazi style work environment really the answer? Or does it lead to more throat-cutting and neurotic reactions in employees?

We live in a highly divided world, a division that some say is evidenced by our alienation. Being alienated means we don’t feel at home here on this planet; we feel isolated. But I’m here to tell you that integrity is the foundation our being. You are an integrated whole.

Understanding your wholeness is where you become holy. Religion is a verb meaning to connect. Religious is what we all are in our deepest essence, be we atheist, Jew, Christian, Muslim, or Pagan. We are connected.

Integrity is we already no idea we Why

This means we have integrity whether we realize it or not, for integrity is the nature of our being. David Bohm, a contemporary of Einstein, speaks to our integrity in his holographic theory of the universe (Talbot, 1991). Bohm refers to the universe we see as the Manifest Explicit Order. These words on the paper or screen you are reading are the Manifest Explicit Order. This reading arises; however, from a much deeper matrix called the Unmanifest Implicit Order. This implicit order is an infinite ocean of energy that contains infinite potential. This means that this writing and your reading it has existed in me, you, and the universe through timeless eternity as a potential.

So, now I’ve defined two orders, unmanifest and manifest. Are they really two?

No! I would say that the manifest relates to the unmanifest as the surface waves of the waters relate to the ocean. Furthermore, from my explanation of how this article was conceived, you have gotten the idea that how I conceive this article and how a baby is conceived via intercourse between a woman and a man are one process.

What is deemed as two separate processes is one process mirroring itself.

This is what Lao Tzu means when he refers to Tao as The Way… the intercourse of yin and yang. The Way is Creativity and dissolves all boundaries. The Way speaks to the writing of this article, as well as the Tao Te Ching, the Bible, the Koran, the Rig Veda, and Native American sand paintings. The Way even refers to, relates to, flowers blooming in the spring (manifest) upon soaking up the warm sunshine (initiating impulse, Eros) after spending a winter buried underground as a seed (unmanifest).

Now let’s go deeper into this through a discussion of holographic photography. In holographic photography, a laser beam is shined towards an object, say you. The light bounces off you and goes onto a holographic plate where the image of you is stored in waveform. Another laser goes through the plate and projects an image of you in 3-D. What’s really interesting about this is that if we break the plate into a thousand little pieces, what we get when we shine the laser through a piece is not a shattered you, but a whole you.

Bohm uses holographic photography as a metaphor for how the universe works.

He states that in the part is the whole and the whole is in the part. For example, if we took a microscope to your finger, we would ultimately come to the atoms that make up your cells. These atoms will be found existing in the same relationship 6 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

to the space in your body as stars relate to intergalactic space. Ultimately, going deeper, we will see nothing but darkness where matter and time disappear (Chopra, 1993, p.42).

At this point, you arrive at the place where Genesis 1:27 of the Bible states, “and the Earth (you) was without form, and void and darkness were upon the face of the deep.” Or, as the Hindu Rig Veda puts it, “Darkness enfolded darkness with no distinguishing signs; all this was water.” Or, the Stanzas of Dyzan, “Darkness radiates Light and Light drops one solitary egg into the Mother Deep (Raghaven, 1988, p. 84). The Light shining out of the Darkness is you reading this piece now and me writing it now in one Eternal Now. This timeless and spaceless realm of infinity shines forth as temporal time and space. What is in time and space is what has always been in the timeless and spaceless. This division is necessary as evidenced in the term M-Other. For self-awareness to occur, there has to be a division, an-other.

something have with have it. ?

Yet, in any part is the whole. For example, in the Bible is the Rig Veda is the Stanzas of Dyzan. Indeed, every time you hear of a newborn baby being born you can hear God shout, “Let there be Light! And the Light divided the darkness.” Hence, M-Other.

Integrity is something we already have with no idea we have it. Why? Because we are locked into a warring belief system that pits human against Nature, man against woman, left against right, and the retaliation against terrorism by shocking and awing through bombing people into submission. Looking at this holographically, we see that even in our divisive, warring mentalities we are integrated. This is how Christ came out with his “Don’t remove the mote from your brother’s eye unless you remove it from your own.” “Loving thy neighbor as thyself” is a realization of the truth of our universal condition.

Holographic physics is but a rendition of what’s been said over and over and over again in religious texts. “And God created Adam in his image, male and female created he them.” (Genesis 1:27). This statement is about you here and now.

Likewise, we cannot separate criminals out from our sociopathic politicians and corporations controlled by a handful of the rich. The “it’s all about me!” mentality must be confronted and replaced with “it’s all about us.” While a fertilized egg divides in half and then multiplies into various cells, the fact is, it remains one.

Just so, we are each a cell in this planet’s living tissue and in being a cell we speak to the entire planet. We are a holographic image of the planet and of the universe.

If we start seeing the holographic wasteland of our divided mentalities bent on control and domination reflected in the devastated wasteland brought forth by pollution, can we start to heal then? The only way is if we see pollution in our growth-gone-wild mentalities. Can we let go of being a cancer upon the face of this planet? It can only happen if we let go to control, warring mentalities, and excessive growth. My bets are on us. The savior is in us... not in any leader or movement.

This is the truth that truly sets us free.

References: Chapra, Deepak, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative to Growing Old, (Three Rivers Press, New York, NY: 1993).

Iyer, Raghaven, The Jewel in the Lotus, (The Pythagorean Sangha and Concord Press, London, England: 1988).

Kwok, Man-Ho, Palmer, Martin, Ramsay, Jay (Tr), The Tao Te Ching (Element Books, Rockport, MA: 1993).

Talbot, Michael, The Holographic Universe (HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY: 1991).

The New Jerusalem Bible (Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc, New York, NY: 1985).

O’Flaherty, Wendy (Tr), The Rig Veda (Penguin Books USA Inc, New York, NY: 1981).

Burl Hall is a master’s level counselor doing in-home work with families. Burl is also a freelance author. He is seeking a publisher for his Sophia’s Web: Reclaiming our Wholeness in a Divided World, and is also currently working on a new manuscript called Lover’s Path Home. Burl has a masters’ degree in Counseling Psychology from Towson State University. He may be reached at burl_hall@yahoo.com.

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The Power of Integrity and the Sacred “I”

by Dr. Kevin Ross Emery

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he sacred 'I' is the place where our integral selves are in perfect alignment with the Divine and the collective unconsciousness. Not a place of absolute right or wrong as we normally think of it, but rather a place of decisions and actions that either move us forward harmoniously, keep us stuck where we are, or add distance in our journey.

The true integrity of living in the Sacred 'I' is to live in truth in each and every moment, while accepting that truth changes. True integrity can only be based on our understanding that truth is mutable and is always open for questioning.

And what is that “truth?” As our integral self evolves, perceptions, belief systems, and externally-driven versions of the world dissolve; and truth shifts. Truth symbiotically creates growth, and growth recreates truths, while at the same time, we begin discovering new truths. This happens simultaneously, and even instantaneously. This experience can cause an individual to experience a temporary internal shutdown similar to the blue screen of death we sometimes see on our computer, while the individual reboots reality.

The power of integrity lies in the simplicity of “what you see is what you get,” and what you get is who a person is in that moment. With that knowledge, we can accept and place a person in an agreed-upon role within our life, or reject them with the confidence that if we do allow them in, they bring exactly what they say they‘re bringing into our reality. Whether we agree or disagree with what they bring, the power of what they bring is the illumination that comes with all truth – an illumination which helps us to better see who we are and what our truths are in any given moment. The experience of standing in the light of anyone’s truth will either help us to clarify our own truths or makes us question them, which when followed through, will ultimately lead us to better clarifying our own truths.

The strength of character and being of a person who lives in their integrity will always offer us the support and strength we need to better stand in our own integrity. And with no malice or forethought, those who truly live within their truth will automatically catalyze all they interact with. This is the oftentimes double-edged sword we receive when we welcome such an individual into our lives, or when we play the role of a catalyzing individual in someone else’s.

Author, teacher, psychic, coach, counselor, consultant, healer, medical intuitive and, for the last 30 years, Dr. Kevin has done it all. He travels all over the world empowering individuals and businesses.

(603) 433-5784 www.kevinrossemery.com. Join Dr Kevin on his weekly radio show: Outside the Box with Dr. Kevin @ www.weboflight.com. New shows post every Monday night with a weekly astrological forecast and The Spiritual Lens Day of the week. He also has a practice in Portland, Maine and Haverhill, Ma where he sees clients, as well as on the phone or on the Internet through Skype.

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Therefore, the sacred 'I' of and in Integrity is the willingness to live the actions that represent the truth of the moment, in the moment, as honestly and forthrightly as possible. The truths that seem to not change become bricks that create a structure from which we can launch ourselves into greater, deeper, and more complex truths—which is good, as long as we allow ourselves, every now and then, to question each of the bricks, re-test its truth within our ever-changing reality, and be willing to exchange it, if necessary, for a brick that fits in better with who we are becoming.

However, integrity is immutable and never changes. Genuine integrity is the action of living, expressing and being in our truth in every moment.

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How Do We Know We Are Following Our Spiritual Path?

by Mark Fryover Just yesterday I ran across two websites that were warning folks to beware of fraudulent spiritual impostors and Native American wannabes bent only on making a profit from misunderstood and distorted teachings. They accused these people of stealing cultural property and even had several Native American tribes post responses and warnings. The sites listed links that denounced several practitioners and writers by name. This caught my attention immediately because I saw Jamie Sams listed as one of the names on the list. Let me state I do not personally know nor have I ever met Jamie Sams and therefore I am in no position to offer any opinion. I simply use her Sacred Path and Animal Medicine Cards on a daily basis to help folks find, that which is buried within them. The cards chose me to be the tool to use for folks that come to me for help and it has been my experience that people respond wonderfully to them regardless of their belief system. On a spiritual level, I loved the teachings in the two Jamie Sams books that I have read. These websites, however, were very adamant that she was not a Senecca member and that the teachings in her books were not true or authentic Native American teachings. While I seriously doubted the actual validity of these particular websites, it did prompt me to extend this sort of logic to the larger picture of all belief systems. How do any of us know if we are following an authentic spiritual path? For that matter, is it legitimate to follow something that we have created ourselves? Simply being a fellow traveler on this Earth Walk, it struck me that perhaps others have wondered the same thing.

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My spiritual belief system has formed over 48 years of experiences. I was brought up in the local Methodist church until my teen years and then went to the Baptist church just down the road. While attending the Baptist church, I was fortunate to have known a most remarkable minister named Onden Pearly Stairs. He made an indelible mark on my life when I asked him a question that only a teenager would ask, “How do I know if this is the right way for me to believe?” His response was truly from a position of enlightenment. He told me that God had created an infinitely huge waiting room with an infinite number of doors. Behind each door was a different religion or system of belief. He went on to say that God intended for everyone to feel free to try as many doors as they wanted to but in the end, He stipulated that you would have to walk through one and close it behind you. It was the most perfect answer that one could have given a teenager seeking a spiritual path.

In the back of my mind, I had never totally felt that Christianity was my answer.

The underlying tenets were solid but I never quite got over the feeling that there were lots of power and control issues created by small, select groups of people to contain larger groups of people. The multitude of rules and punishments and the entire concept of a place where our souls burn forever because we did not perform up to expectations just did not seem right. In some dogma, we could never perform as expected and were even born as sinners. Yikes. Not much hope there and forget that picture of a loving parent. So off I went way to college and became immersed in the multitude of different religions and faiths that were being practiced.

I explored everything I could look for the one system that fit all my still-evolving criteria. Each new experience pushed me further towards a place where I was seeing obvious deficits in all the dogmas. In all fairness, no conventional spiritual faith could have met my requirements. In hindsight, it is easy for me to look at those years as nothing more than a hiatus from actually having to step through and close a door. I did have incredible conversations and enlightening experiences but I was not ready to embrace one of these for life. I have always believed that if you profess that something was the One Truth, and then you had no other choice but to follow it. To do less was to demonstrate that you did not fully believe what you said you believed. I admit that was a bit extreme but it was based on my logic and as such was part of my spiritual test.

The so-called New Age movement was just getting into full swing as I began life

outside of college. I read everything I could such as Godel, Escher, & Bach; The Golden Braid, The Tao of Physics, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Tao Te Ching, Starship and the Canoe, the list goes on but I am sure you get the point. A huge turning point was when I discovered the writings of Joseph Campbell. I was forever changed when I read The Power of Myth. It was then that I knew that my time to close the door was getting closer. However, there was still nothing formal, no blueprint other than “find it yourself” for me to follow and I slowly let my bliss fade away. Evidently, I was not ready for that responsibility yet.

So life continued for 20 more years with some periodic seeking and wandering. In times of turmoil it was always easy to call for God’s help and promise that I would go back to church. Yet when the crisis had passed, I found I did not sustain that commitment. I knew I was missing something important in my life. All this time, I could never get rid of my feeling that faith should not have to be complicated or extremely difficult to embrace. The majority of all the world’s religions agree in a Higher Power, that we are part of it (or were at one time) and that Love is the one concept that transcends both the spiritual and physical planes. Finally, I got it; it was that simple.

I listened to the Voice inside of me that had been there all along telling me to trust and to rest assured that there was no single correct method. It was more important to put my stake in the ground and proclaim it to Great Mystery. My best friend had always counseled me that I should just Be, that I should connect to the Earth and listen to Her music. So I asked for guidance, listened carefully for the response I knew would arrive and found that I was pulled towards the teachings of the many Native American people. I have never felt that Jamie Sams was giving me a new religion. Instead, I found a system of teachings and lessons that transcend all the dogma of the systems I was looking at. After all, isn’t it more important that we find a connection, a structure, and an anchor with which to bind our life’s purpose to this present time than to wander around without a function? Even if we believe our function is to simply be in the present, not be concerned with the future, and to understand that everything we do or experience is part of a grand design.

As I conclude this writing, I would propose the following test. I find Sams' response to all those that criticize her work to be the most appropriate question to ask yourself if you are questioning what is the correct spiritual path; “What are you doing to help the children of Earth to better understand themselves and All Their Relations?”

It is so interesting to apply this question to your belief system. How does it stand up against this inquiry? And when she speaks of Relations (notice the capital letter) Sams means everything on the planet, not just the Two-Legged ones. It seems to me that if you can align your actions with what you believe and then objectively answer the question above with a response that affirms you are positively adding to the collective human experience, and then you are on a personally authentic spiritual path.

Finally, just as Change and Love are the only constants in this plane of existence, one’s belief system should not be so rigid that new understandings and observations cannot be incorporated. Growing and evolving are both verbs and, therefore, any system that does not allow for these action words, does not serve its intended mission, to allow you to achieve your greatest potential and to become One once again with your higher Power.

Among other things, Mark is a certified hypnotherapist and currently helps people to hear what their inside voice is attempting to tell them by using Animal Medicine/Sacred Path cards. For contact information and daily animal medicine/sacred path card readings please visit www.changingvisions.com/ dailycards.htm. For more information please call (207) 939-6820 or email to fryover@gamil.com.

The Sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy! ...Henry Ward Beecher

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Discovering Your Relationship DNA

by Ariel & Shya Kane

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nstantaneous Transformation is the name of our radical new technology that allows people’s lives to shift, in an instant. With this technology, previously unseen mechanical behaviors that dominate people’s lives can be identified and clear up and resolve themselves, just in the noticing of the behavior.

Mechanical behaviors.

Again, anything that you allow to be exactly the way it is or that you observe, non-judgmentally, will complete itself in that moment and disappear.

Do you need to work on bad habits to change them?

Most people try to change or fix their bad habits.

People are not just being the way they are, but instead, resisting the way they are and trying to achieve an idea of how they think they should be. The first principal that Instantaneous Transformation is based on is that anything that you resist persists and grows stronger.

So if you are in disagreement with any aspect of your life, those things that you are in resistance to or disagreement with persist and grow stronger.

Working on your bad habits to change or fix them or working on yourself to be better is a form of resisting what is. And if the first principle of transformation is true, then the more you try to change or fix these habits, the more entrenched they become.

Dissolving unwanted behaviors through self-observation without self-reproach.

To dissolve unwanted behaviors, you need to interact with your own life as though you are an anthropologist

Most people have the misguided idea that things could be different than they are in their life in any given moment.

Where we got the idea of how we should be Most of our ideas about how we ought to be or what a better version of ourselves would look like come from our childhood. When we were children, we decided what it was to be a man or woman from the people around us. Not only did we learn from our families and parents but also from children who were older than us.

At the very best, our ideas of who and how we should be and what is right and wrong with us were formulated by earlier versions of ourselves who were less expansive than who we are today.

Since our minds are mechanical and automatically have thoughts that follow other thoughts and so on, any conversation you have about yourself and how you should be better or different than you are is coming from your past. There is an opportunity now to look and see what is really true for you, in this moment, not what is based in what you have been taught and in your resistance to what you have been taught either. It is possible to look and see what it is that you want in your life.

Discovering what you truly want.

What is needed is an active engagement with what is going on in your life right now. For most of us, however, there is inertia, almost as if certain aspects of our lives are covered in molasses. There are years of disappointment that make it appear that it is not worth it to try, that it is not worth it to go for it. What it takes to get through the inertia is to get engaged with totality.

If you are going at 100 percent, if you are engaged in your life totally, your truth becomes apparent, but not as an intellectual exercise. It is more as an “of course.”

A lot of the resistance we experience in initiating anything new is based on an idea of our own inadequacies put together by an earlier version of ourselves, a much earlier version. Again, since the mind is a recording machine of previous conversations regarding events of our lives, it holds onto old concepts

as if they are still fresh and new. When we were very young, our motor skills and coordination were nowhere near what they are as adults, yet a lot of our beliefs and conversations about what we are capable of and what we can or cannot do come from decisions that were formed long before puberty. Ideas that we have of our own desirability, attractiveness and worth were put in place long before the current version of us came to be.

This being the case, apparently there is nothing you can do except continue to have the same conversations you have had in your life in the past. Ahh, but there is something called transformation. Transformation is discovering how to access and live in the moment. If you get into this current moment and notice old mechanical behaviors as they show up, the noticing of the behavior, the noticing of your own considerations about who you are and what you are capable of will dissolve them and will allow you the freedom to discover and be yourself.

Enthusiasm = Life What you need to generate the energy to pull yourself into your life and into the moment is enthusiasm. Many of us don’t have that enthusiasm to start with. We are swayed by our thoughts that repeat our inadequacies so that we don’t even bother trying. It is said that the longest journey starts with a single step. You have got to begin. How does one become enthusiastic? Well, most people are looking for something that is worthy of pouring their heart, soul and passion into. Fear not.

You don’t have to look far. Glance around. Where are you in this moment? It doesn’t matter. You can start to generate the enthusiasm you naturally have for living now, in this moment. In fact that is the only time there is. You don’t have to wait for the circumstance to line up to a more favorable position. You have the perfect circumstances for transformation, right now.

Look around your house, your apartment, where you are. There are things that you have been avoiding completing forever. See what they are and do them.

Too tall an order? OK, start with one. Any one.

Completion of projects, in fact completion of any kind, returns energy to you. Wash the dishes, make your bed, make that call, run that errand. Start. Starting anything gives you power. Notice when your thoughts say I can’t do it; I am not good enough; I will never be able to get this done and do it anyway. That is the beginning.

That is the beginning of reclaiming your life. Feel your energy rush back into you. Feel yourself come alive. It doesn’t have to be a monumental project. Start with a burned out light bulb or dusty area you have been skirting around for weeks.

Life is an exciting adventure. If it doesn’t appear that way to you, then there is something that you are occupied with, other than your life. Probably your thoughts about your life. See if you can notice that your thoughts are just thoughts and are not reality.

The two of us are firm believers in the "fake-it until you make-it" school of life. If you can’t find enthusiasm for your circumstances in your life right now, fake it!

Faking it will lend you the ability to go with totality and before you know it, you won’t be faking it anymore.

Since 1987, internationally acclaimed authors, seminar leaders, and business consultants Ariel and Shya Kane have acted as guides, leading people through the swamp of the mind into the clarity and brilliance of the moment. Their new book, How to Create a Magical Relationship, was released by McGraw-Hill on December 26, 2008. To find out more about the Kanes and their Transformational Community or to sign up to receive their article of the month, visit their website at: www.TransformationMadeEasy.com.

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Mechanical behaviors are old ways of doing things that once worked, or appeared to have worked, in situations that were stressful or in situations that were actually perceived as potentially endangering your survival. It works something like this. As a child, your parents told you that you could not have the cherry Lifesavers® that you so desperately wanted one day in the supermarket. To your immature mind, this was totally unfair. In fact, this situation seemed like the end of the world to you. So you pouted, cried and had a temper tantrum. You bothered your parents enough that they recanted and bought you the candy. Now, as an adult, if the person with whom you are in a relationship says no to something you want, it is entirely possible that your response to the situation will be very similar to the response you had in that supermarket all those years ago.

How does noticing of mechanical behaviors dissolve them? Anything that you allow to be exactly the way it is or that you observe, non-judgmentally, will complete itself in that moment and disappear. In other words, the non-judgmental observation of any behavior will allow that behavior to disappear and you no longer have to mechanically, habitually be run by the childish version of you.

This is such a simple concept that it is very difficult to understand. The basic principle is that you can be the way you are in any given moment only in that moment.

So if you happen to be sitting now, then in this moment you cannot possibly be also standing.

Most people have the misguided idea that things could be different than they are in their life in any given moment. People think, “No, I am sitting but I could be standing right now.” But in truth, when you are sitting you can only be sitting. You can think it could be different but it can only be the way it is at that moment.

There is a law in physics that states: no two things can occupy the same space at the same time. In truth, you can only be doing what you are doing and your life can only show up exactly as it is in any given moment.

studying a tribe or culture. What an anthropologist does is to suspend judgment, to look at the culture as not right or wrong or good or bad, but simply observe how they operate and function.

Within our own lives, most of us do not simply observe how we function. Rather we judge ourselves, comparing how we are to how we think we ought to be based on cultural standards (or the resistance to those standards).

We are all addicted to fixing what we perceive as our weaknesses and faults rather than observing ourselves neutrally. Transformation is not about fixing yourself to be a better you. It is about being the way you are.

If you simply see how you are without judging, manipulating or trying to fix what is seen, this will facilitate the completion of these unwanted behaviors.

How? Well, neutrally observing something doesn’t add energy to it—for or against—and everything in this universe needs energy to survive. If you don’t energize your habits, they will naturally dwindle and shrivel up, all on their own.

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wa nder ing s age w i s d o m

Ti me to Wa l k th e Ta l k Aya Itagaki

by Aaron Hoopes

The road ahead may seem dark and forbidding. We may have doubts as to our ability to continue on the path. But this is the time for each of us to step up, open our hearts and shine the light of truth and love out into the world. This is only possible if we have come to terms with ourselves. We need to walk the path we profess to travel.

Walk the talk. Lead by example and allow others to recognize and benefit from that pure energy within us. We must do no less.

I wish you warmest of blessings and much peace on your journey.

The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence.

When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.

Thich Nhat Hanh

More Wandering Sage Wisdom is available at: http://wanderingsagewisdom.blogspot.com.

Aaron Hoopes teaches an Online Personal Development Course for Spiritual Deepening.

He is the author of 5 books including Zen Yoga: A Path to Enlightenment through Breathing, Movement and Meditation. His best-selling Daily Warm-Up DVD is a simple method for integrating breath and movement into daily life. Please feel free to contact Aaron: breathe@artofzenyoga.com. Visit the Zen Yoga Website: www.artofzenyoga.com

The definition of character is what you do when no one is looking.

Beck Weathers

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We are rapidly approaching a time of convergence when the behavior patterns of the past no longer enable us to move forward effectively. The growth of the alternative/ holistic health industry is a testament to the changes that are taking place. More and more people are searching for answers to the fundamental questions regarding the purpose and meaning of life. The proliferation of specialty products and modalities that are designed to “heal” or “fix” us is a testament to the demand for such answers.

These products and modalities are not necessarily good or bad. They are more expressions of a desire for answers than the actual answers themselves. With the myriad of challenges that face us as individuals, as a society, as a culture and as a planet we need to realize that the true answers are only going to come from within.

We can experiment with all the different methods of alternative/holistic healing, but until we realize that the work needs to take place inside ourselves, the results will only be superficial.

The challenges that face us may appear overwhelming. Indeed, the financial crisis appears as if it is going to fundamentally change the dynamics of our society. At times like this it is easy to give in to the forces of negativity that seem to be growing in power. For some there is a seductive aspect to the concept that things are going to fall apart. For others there is a tendency to allow doubt and fear to permeate their lives.

Still others see an opportunity to profit from the disaster. None of these outlooks are beneficial in the long run.

As we all struggle to adapt to the rapid changes that are occurring in the world we must take care to maintain our center. It is easy to start making compromises when times get difficult. Yet this only leads to trouble. In truth, the only way forward is to maintain peace and balance in our lives as we adapt to the ever-changing world.

Of course there are times in everyone’s lives when it is difficult to stay on the path.

Events and circumstances often conspire to challenge us in ways we never could have imagined. We all have certain unappealing traits that appear in times of weakness.

However, if we are sincere in our desire to be of service to others, we must get our house in order. Without a sincere core of integrity within, it is impossible to offer pure, positive energy to those we come in contact with.

In the alternative/holistic health community, be we energy workers, psychics, healers, teachers or simply beings exploring our own spiritual nature, we need to take a moment to turn our attention inwards and look at ourselves. It is not uncommon for there to be grey areas in our lives that we keep hidden because they do not gel with the spiritual persona we are working to project. No matter how much we may try to convince ourselves and persuade others that the persona we project is our real self, there is no hiding from the truth. You may convince others of your expertise for a while, but you are really only fooling yourself.

While it is necessary and important to make a living in order to support yourself and your family, if you are engaged in alternative/holistic practices with your primary focus being to make money, you are in the wrong business. Of course we need to be compensated for the work we do, but this cannot be the driving force behind what we do. By the same token, if you are focused on gaining prestige and recognition for the work you are doing then you are being guided by your ego. The heart of this business is to be of service to others, to help those who are seeking answers to the fundamental questions of life. The moment we become more concerned about ourselves than our clients, patients or students we sacrifice our integrity. We lose the ability to work from the heart.

The time has come for each of us to walk along the path we are so good at talking about. The time has come to let go of the behaviors that no longer serve us. The time has come for us to become the true embodiment of the spiritual essence that exists within the core of our being. We have reached the point where we must now truly evolve. In order to do this we must release the chains that bind us to our lower selves and begin to vibrate on a higher level.

10 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

Quick..., Put your left hand on your right shoulder, put your right hand on your left shoulder, now squeeze!

Happy Valentine's Day!

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HerbologyToday Capsule, Tea, Tincture... Oh My! Part One

by Christopher J. Bashaw, RN DISCLAIMER Do not treat the information contained here as a prescription, it is intended as a resource of knowledge for you. Do not use any herb that you cannot positively identify, be it from the wild or your garden. When in doubt you should purchase your dried herbs from a reputable herbalist and seek treatment from a qualified practitioner.

The interest in herbal remedies and the market for them has exploded in the last few decades. Herbal products in Canada and the United States, once confined to the shelves of health food shops, are now in retail outlets everywhere, including independent pharmacies, chain pharmacies, New Age shops, on the Internet, in discount department stores, supermarkets and even convenience stores. Today it is estimated that the market for herbal dietary supplements is more than $5 billion dollars annually.

Pills

Pills are simply smaller forms of lozenges, and are swallowed whole, instead of being retained in the mouth.

NEED: Bowl, powdered herbs, honey, water, carob or slippery elm powder, cookie sheet, oven.

PREPARE: Mix powdered herbs in bowl (except slippery elm or carob, unless they are part of your recipe). Add a small amount of honey and a little bit of water, mix and continue adding water until mixture reaches a dough-like consistency and is slightly sticky with honey. Roll dough into balls about pea-sized or smaller and roll in carob or slippery elm powder, then place, evenly spaced, on cookie sheet. Set out to dry on a warm, dry day, or put in the oven at lowest temperature (pilot light for gas) for 30-60 minutes or until completely dry. Be careful not to burn them.

Remove and let cool.

USE: Pills are swallowed whole with a glass of water or juice or can be chewed. They are used as a portable herbal preparation, or simply to prevent one from having to taste the herbs too much. They can be used for just about anything infusions, decoctions, or tinctures can be used for.

STORAGE: Store in airtight container out of direct light in cool, dry place for up to 6 months. If they get wet, discard immediately or else they may mold.

Capsules

Capsules can be very easy to make if you have the right tools, and you can make many at the same time.

They’re usually made out of herbs that taste bad; this way you don’t need to drink an infusion of them! They also tend to be more convenient to carry and take than teas and infusions. However, on the down side, the herbs are powdered and thus are a bit weaker and have less of a shelf life.

NEED: Empty capsules (gelatin or veggie (available for vegetarians)), capsule holder/maker, powdered herbs, index card.

USE: Capsules can be used for anything decoctions and infusions can be used for, except in cases where the healing properties involves the infusion or decoction coming in direct contact with the mouth or upper digestive tract, like a bitter/digestive aid or a mucilage for the mouth, throat or stomach.

STORAGE: Store in an airtight container in a dark, cool, dry place for no more than 3-4 months.

Lozenges

Lozenges are an easy-to-make portable herbal preparation. Those are used to alleviate sore throats and coughs, as well as freshen breath and aid in the digestive process.

NEED: Bowl, powdered herbs, honey, water, carob or slippery elm powder, cookie sheet, oven.

PREPARE: Mix powdered herbs in bowl (except slippery elm or carob, unless they are part of your recipe). Add a small amount of honey and a little bit of water, mix and continue adding water until mixture reaches a dough-like consistency and is slightly sticky with honey. Roll dough into balls about ½-¾ inch big and roll in carob or slippery elm powder, then place, evenly spaced, on cookie sheet. Set out to dry on a warm, dry day, or put in the oven at lowest temperature (pilot light for gas) for 30-60 minutes or until completely dry. Be careful not to burn them.

Remove and let cool.

USE: Lozenges are held in the mouth and wet with saliva. They are sucked on and the resulting juices are allowed to coat the mouth and throat to soothe sore throats and coughs, as well as sweeten breath, aid digestion, or work on mouth ulcers.

STORAGE: Store in airtight container out of direct light in cool, dry place for up to 6 months. If they get wet, discard immediately or else they may mold.

Teas

Teas are the weakest of the water-based preparations and can be used on a more long-term basis. Teas are also usually preferred for leafy, flowery and stalk parts of the plant, while decoctions are recommended for roots, twigs and bark.

NEED: Cup (mug), near-boiling water, strainer, herbs -Using DRIED herbs it is recommended that 1 to 2 teaspoons of herbs per 8 oz. water be placed in a cup, either loose or in a teaball or some kind of strainer.

-Using FRESH herbs, it is recommended that 3 to 4 teaspoons of herbs per 8 oz. water are crushed and bruised and placed in a cup, either loose or in a teaball or some kind of strainer.

PREPARE: Pour near-boiling water over the herbs, covering them completely with hot water. Cover the cup and let it steep. Strain and drink, inhaling the steam. Most plants can be steeped 3 to 20 minutes for a tea. Chamomile should steep no more than 8

minutes or else it can cause stomach upset. Mints (including catnip) should be steeped no more than 10 minutes or else the tannins in the plants will cause the tea to be bitter.

USE: Teas are usually taken ‘as needed,’ (such as for headaches), or for more serious problems, 3 to 4 cups a day.

STORAGE: Store unused tea in the fridge in airtight glass containers if possible. Most teas will keep in the fridge for about a week.

NOTE: Experts recommend steeping the “regular” green teas and black teas only 3 minutes.

Infusions An infusion is a water-based preparation that can be taken internally, used as a wash, or used in making poultices.

NEED: Glass jar with lid or stainless steel pot with lid, herbs, water, and strainer.

PREPARE: Boil 1 pint of water, pour over 1 oz. herbs and steep, covered for 2-8 hours. Strain.

USE: This is a stronger brew than the teas and tends to be used for more acute problems. Infusions can be used for just about any problem and are usually used mid–to long–term. Infusions can be consumed or used for making washes, douches or poultices.

STORAGE: Keep in a dark, dry, cool place (refrigerate), in an airtight container for up to a week.

Decoctions A decoction is the strongest of the water-based preparations. It is similar to a tea or infusion, but is much more concentrated and often taken in smaller doses.

Most herbalists make a decoction when using roots and barks, while leafy and flowery parts of plants are usually made into teas.

NEED: Glass jar with lid, or stainless steel pot with lid, herbs, water and strainer.

PREPARE: There are at least two methods of preparing decoctions; either way, they are very concentrated. Boil 1 quart of water; pour over 2 oz of herbs, steep 2-8 hours, covered. Strain, cover and boil infusion down to 1 pint.

Boil 2 oz herbs and 1 quart (2 pints) water, covered, until there is only 1 pint water left. Strain.

USE: Very strong, these are excellent for acute conditions and are taken by the teaspoon or tablespoon, or even half-cup, as opposed to a whole cup or more. Small doses are taken frequently throughout the day or until symptoms subside. Decoctions can be used for headaches, migraines, colds, infections, pain, and nausea to name a few. They are usually used shortterm due to their strong concentration.

STORAGE: Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

We will continue Capsule, Tea, Tincture... Oh My! through the August/September issue; all segments will be archived for your future reference on www.innertapestry.org.

Christopher Bashaw is a registered nurse with 24 years experience specializing in integrative medicine. Christopher currently is seeing patients at the Mizu Tama Dojo and White Lotus Healing Arts Clinic in Rochester, NH as well as Pinewood Medical Center at the Pinewood Healing Arts Center in Somersworth, NH. http://www.freewebs.com/mizu_tama_dojo.

Feb/Mar 2009 Inner Tapestry 11

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With herbal medicines so popular, they are still not well-understood by professional healthcare provider or home user alike. Many do not even understand that herbs can be used in different routes of administration, other than just pill form. Listed below are some of the common uses for herb administration for the home herbalist.

PREPARE: Open up all the empty capsules and place the narrower pieces into the capsule holder, opening up. Pour the herb or herb mixture onto the capsules and holder, then, taking the index card, scrape the herbs carefully into the capsules. Add more herb or herb mixture if needed to fill the capsules. Scrape/level off the excess and put the lids on the caps.

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ON THE COVER

Washing Pots

by Willow Arleana This issue of Inner Tapestry's theme "Integrity" is represented by the art work of Willow Arleana (Designs By Willow). Our cover piece is titled "Washing Pots." While looking for this issue's cover, I came across Willow's work and this picture portraying the sharing of connection and gentleness between two women caught my attention. As I read the artist's write-up of her work my feelings were validated. The look between these two women, in my opinion, is of integrity—captured in art.

"A mother and daughter go down to the river to wash the pots after the evening meal. Although they have done this simple domestic task countless times, they continue to do it with reverence. Their hearts are filled with gratitude for the earth which nourishes their bodies, and appreciation for the river in which they bathe and wash their pots.

These women bring mindfulness of all that is sacred to the simple tasks of life."

by the energy and passion of Van Gogh's paintings, delighted by Marc Chagal's magical realms and exotic distortions and enticed by Gauguin's rich colors and dark skinned figures. Her eye soon turned to "primitive" art. She felt drawn to the decorative patterned and mystical symbolism found in Native American, African and Aboriginal art, which worked their way into her paintings. A deep resonance with Islamic, Egyptian and Afghani styles also emerged.

Later Willow began working with transparency and overlapping images, painting a distinct edge to a figure, then allowing the interior to consist of what was previously on the canvas. A place of radiant light became central to most of her paintings, with distinct lights and darks and places of negative space.

Contemporary Southwestern artists such as Bonny, Veloy Vigil and R. C. Gorman began to visibly influence her work, as well as the wonderful shamanic paintings of Susan Seddon Boulet. Willow began incorporating the backlighting technique used by Boulet, as well as the biomorphic pattering of contemporary artist Helen Nelson-Reed. A dear friend introduced her to the beauty of sacred geometry, which appears in her most recent paintings.

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Based on her fascination with art, dance, nature, mysticism and psychology, the paintings of Willow Arleana reflect an intensity, spirituality and love of indigenous cultures combined with brilliant tones and fluidity of movement.

Willow's artistic journey has lead her in many directions. She obtained her Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree at Boise State University in 1977, exploring Native American spirituality and Wicca traditions giving her degree substance and meaning. As she moved to Colorado in 1980, her path unfolded to lead her to Sufism, belly dancing and Vipassana meditation of the Buddhist tradition which supported her while she obtained her Master's degree in Transpersonal Psychotherapy. She has experienced teaching in the public school system, watercolor painting, designing ethnic dance costumes, creating fiber wall hangings, wearable art clothing, masks and jewelry.

Willow's work continues to evolve. For her, creating a reality on canvas is a dance of polarities. Hard edges balance with a loose expressive style. Lights and darks, flow and pattering, complementary colors, texture and negative space all come into harmony in her work, creating inspiring symphonies of light."

As her life's journey is expressed in her colorful and eclectic work the viewer is transported into the subtle realms of her work's experience and its transformational journey.

Thank you, Willow, for your contributions of art, but more importantly for the insight that you share with each and every art piece that you create and for your continued work with the Dancing Willow School.

In support of that journey, Willow founded Dancing Willow Tree MYSTERY School. This school offers classes, rituals, groups, energy walks, temple events, individual readings and healings, all of which assist people in opening and clearing their energy fields so that they may access higher frequencies. These offerings are an eclectic blend of the esoteric knowledge of the world's various culture's wisdom and traditions. The school promotes the awakening of a conscious world, "We can experience on a felt sense level how it's all alive, it's all aware, it's all intelligent and it's all connected."

From Willow's website www.designsbywillow.com; "Willow Arleana's dynamic visionary paintings have evolved to incorporate a unique blend of artistic influences. During her student years her first influences were Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and Art Nouveau. She was deeply moved

12 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

Traveling through the website, www.designsbywillow.com is truly a magical journey. The artwork is deeply moving, colorful and complex. The write-ups of the featured art can bring one to resonate with the core, the center of life.

Willow is open to the magic that the universe has to offer and reminds us in each piece that we are also ready to be open, to receive. Set a good amount of time aside when planning your magical trip to this place of wonder, you'll not be disappointed and time will pass by effortlessly as the creations you'll experience take you into a world of magic and wonder.

A Celebration of the Spring Vernal Equinox March 20th!

"In the modern world view, the changing of the seasons is a purely physical process, governed by natural laws. We do not see the magic behind it. In this painting we see an elemental spirit "greening" the earth. Her hands transmit an energy that tells the plants to change their patterns. The land ahead of her, which she has not yet touched, is in winter, while that behind her has come into spring.

This is the magic of spring's arrival."

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Connecticut Advertising Call Inner Tapestry at 207-799-7995 or email info@innertapestry.org

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Unwind... Body & Mind 269 Church St. (Rte 85), Hebron, CT

Self Awakening Healing Groups

with Ron and Joan

Tuesdays 6:00pm - 8:00pm ~ $30 February 3rd & 24th March 10th & 31st FMI: Call Ron and Joan at 860-655-5500 or visit: www.ronandjoan.com

HappyHeartDay!Space is limited so call first and come as often as you choose!

Feb/Mar 2009 Inner Tapestry 13

14

mod er n s ham an i c l i v i n g

Living With Integrity

by Evelyn Rysdyk

A

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s we set our feet on the path to spring, it is useful to reflect on what inner traits will be important to nurture as the growing season approaches. Keeping a grateful heart certainly jumps to mind and I’ve written quite a bit about that in past columns. Gratitude allows us to be in the flow of the Universal energy and also generates healing vibrations in and around our body.

Another important inner trait to cultivate is a sense of integrity. Perhaps a good place to begin is with a definition of this word. The Miriam Webster Dictionary defines integrity as, “Moral soundness; honesty; freedom from corrupting influence or motive; — used especially with reference to the fulfillment of contracts, the discharge of agencies, trusts, and the like; uprightness; rectitude.” In plain English, that means consistently expressing our inner values and upholding our principles in all phases of our lives.

To accomplish this we need to cultivate an inner moral compass and follow its direction in everything we think, feel and do. By referring to morality, I am not suggesting a specific, written moral code in the manner of an organized religion; instead, I am referring to something less rigid and complex.

A moral code can be as simple as treating all other life forms, as you would like to be treated, or using a simple question as a benchmark for your behavior.

One such question could be; Is this action I’m taking life-affirming and without harm to another?

By following this kind of inner compass, we can be sure that we are on track and doing the “right” thing. It provides the feeling of having a strong rudder in life’s sometimes–stormy seas and gives us the capacity to be truthful and righteous even in the face of challenge. It also means that the Divine inside of you directs your actions, instead of following the external restrictions of a memorized dogma.

In talking about integrity, Albert Einstein once said that it helps us to live in a manner that “...can give beauty and dignity to our lives.” While this may seem intangible, it really is the very sort of feeling we desire. I would argue that many people have a sense of smallness, or feelings of being insignificant or ineffectual. With these negative feelings driving their actions, they may find that they grasp for riches or recognition in an effort to finally feel “good enough” or “worthy.” They may even resort to emotionally or physically knocking someone else down so that they can feel “superior.” Instead, Einstein suggests that the feelings that we most desire arrive in the practice of living virtuously and behaving with integrity. It bestows a sense of nobility on all aspects of our existence.

14 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

In fact, another definition of integrity refers to a thing’s wholeness, purity or intactness. We use the word in this way when describing a structure’s strength or an untouched tract of wilderness. In this context, the word integrity implies something that is uncorrupted and complete. I would suggest that this provides a further clue for living with integrity.

This definition adds another dimension to the picture and implies that behaviors reflecting integrity come from an intact, pure or whole place inside of our self. When we have an alignment of our personality’s inner aspects with our moral inner compass, we naturally behave in a manner that is both integrated and more likely to express genuine integrity. To accomplish this requires some inner reflection. We can begin by asking ourselves questions such as: Who am I? or What is most important in my life?, and then listening to our inner voice(s) for answers.

Is this action i'm taking life-affirming and without harm to another?

I would also argue that using spiritual tools are beneficial in this endeavor. For instance, it may be useful to ask in a shamanic journey for a teacher that can help to show you all of your inner self—including your shadow aspects, which may be, as yet, unfamiliar to you. The latter are often the needy, angry, fearful or insecure aspects of our personality. We are, at best, uncomfortable with these aspects and at the worst; we are unwilling to recognize them. It is imperative to examine the shadow, as these hidden aspects of ourselves are the ones that can jeopardize our moral direction and cause us to take actions, which we either regret later or bring us unwanted consequences.

I call this work, “getting to know your inner Mengele.” I believe that Josepf Mengele modeled the worst possible example of human behaviors.

He was the barbarous “doctor” who—in the name of “science”—performed unimaginably heinous experiments on many thousands of men, women and children in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

While we might not imagine ourselves capable of such horrendous acts of brutality and torture, the sober truth is all human beings have a capacity for cruelty, deception and, under the right circumstances, even murder. When we recognize this and seek to understand the triggers that could potentially push us into behaving in such a way, we dis-empower the shadow. In other words, we render these urges incapable of unexpectedly snaring us!

On the other hand, if we enable these shadow aspects to

remain hidden or deny their existence, they grow more powerful and have the capability to catch us unaware.

Like sleeper-cell terrorists in our unconscious, they can strike unexpectedly—ruining our plans, hurting those we love and rendering the desired feelings of “beauty and dignity” eternally elusive.

However, when we choose to embark on shadow work, we can also find bits of hidden gold. In seeking to discover our darker aspects we also stumble upon all of the other parts of us that were unexpressed. You see our shadow also contains the parts of us that were left behind when we made choices. For instance, if in growing up you felt that you needed to become tough to deal with life, perhaps your precious and tender heart lies in your shadow awaiting rediscovery. If you chose to follow a business career, perhaps the writer you left behind is waiting there—ready to dance a pen across a page!

World-renowned Jungian analyst, lecturer, and author Robert A. Johnson, reminds us “to own one’s shadow is whole making.” He also tells us, “No one can be anything but a partial being, ravaged by doubt and loneliness, unless he has close contact with his shadow.

The shadow consists of those aspects of your character that belong to you but that have not been given any conscious place in your life.” I would add that once you know who you are in totality, then you truly have free will! The choices you make become fully conscious and aware. Then, should you choose to be a decent and loving person, your actions are more likely to remain consistent with that choice.

An unknown writer said, “Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn’t blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a person who won’t cheat, then you know he or she never will.” This is the profound gift that comes from knowing your shadow! To understand how and why you choose what you do—your motivations both conscious and unconscious—is to step up and take full responsibility for your role as a Co-creator of the Universe!

If you are drawn to a healing profession, I would even more strongly suggest that you do your shadow work. Find and render harmless those things that would interfere with your integrity. Become a healing force by

Continued on Page 45

The Thirteenth Moon

Susan Bakaley Marshall ATR-BC, LCPC board certified art therapist, licensed clinical counselor, Shamanic practitioner

ART from the heART

Art Therapy & Shamanism Studio ~ a light filled circular sacred space surrounded by fields and trees ~

• shamanic journeys and healings • soul retrieval • Individuals • Groups • Classes (207) 589-3063 moonarts@gmail.com

15

lov ing e ar th

A Larger I ntegrity

by Pat Foley his thinking. But they missed the point. The hats were only symbolic of the respect each offered, one by covering his head, one by uncovering his head. Both men offered respect.

Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary

How do we move past the hats to seeing larger pictures? In Webster’s definition of integrity “wholeness, unimpaired state and entirety” is significant. If we truly are all one, as so many believe, then it is a short and practical jump to wanting the greatest good for all beings because we too, each one of us, are a part of that greater whole. What we do to the “other” we do to a part of ourselves. If we expand our thinking to imagining everything in its own way is alive, filled with spirit, then our caring can grow to include our environment. And that it needs to happen because our materialistic behavior here in the industrialized world is out of balance and out of integrity with the greater whole. Not because we are “bad people” but because, for whatever reasons, we have been looking at hats.

A LITTLE PERSONAL HISTORY About ten years ago, in my private practice, a cluster of people came to me seeking help in undoing the damage they felt other practitioners had created for them. Although I believe we each have a certain responsibility for what we “allow” as well as what we do, some of the stories I heard were troubling and I wondered about the possibility of publishing a set of ethical guidelines people might refer to if they were concerned about what they were encountering.

I approached a holistic publication with my idea.

The response was interesting. What certified people would I consult? (“Certification” is necessary for integrity?) How would these people be determined suitable to discuss ethics? How would I present opposing ideas? I had a simple essay in mind. This was looking like a bigger project than I had time for, so I simply continued to present my ideas to my own clients, explaining what they could expect from me if we were to work together as well as what I probably would expect of them… and then did my best to make my actions match my words. That was perhaps the most honest thing I could have done, for who does not have her or his own definition of integrity?

AN OVERVIEW We each are born into particular families and cultures, situations and local natural environments. Each has its own rules of conduct. Some are clearer than others. Some we don’t understand. Some operate below the level of our conscious minds. As we live our lives, we explore our particular territories. If we can learn about the big and little “rules” and can conduct ourselves appropriately, we have a chance of meeting our basic human needs. If we cannot, often we have difficulties.

According to many, because we are human, after we have met our physical survival requirements to varying degrees we all have fundamental additional needs: 1. The need to belong, to bond 2. The need to maintain a balance of giving and taking, for equilibrium* 3. The need for the safety of social convention and for predictability, for order In all our relationships, the energies of these needs interact in complex ways and somehow we are to figure out what is what, hopefully working toward increasing clarity and wholeness as we do so. The rub comes as we widen our territories and discover that the codes of conduct for all those we interact with and have relationships with are not always the same. In fact some appear to be directly contrary to others.

Once two men argued about whether it was appropriate to have one’s head covered or bare in a place of worship. They became quite embroiled in their discussion, each presenting many reasons for

BEYOND THE HATS

I believe we each have a certain responsibility for what we "allow" as well as what we do...

Within the very recent past, the contemporary economic rules of our industrialized world have come to state that unlimited growth is good. Many people believe this is an indisputable truth. Confined within the limited and temporary world of “economics with access to vast resources,” there are valid reasons for this way of thinking. We have built an elaborate series of systems based on this idea. Yet we live on a finite planet. The wisdom of the planet tells us that there are limits here on earth and we will get into trouble when we ignore them. In this case, the small rules are in conflict with the larger rules. If the small refuses to concede to the large, it does so at its own ultimate peril, and our own. Roughly speaking, the rule of the importance of the “bottom line” needs to cede to the rules of what makes life on Earth possible.

In order to be in harmony with the greater whole, to come into planetary integrity, we need to change some of the ways we have of thinking about business and

growth. Yet to do so appears to promise immediate difficulties for us and for our industrialized ways of life.

On the other hand, not to do so assures disaster.

We are presently within the energy patterns of change.

An easy way of thinking about this is to consider the process by which a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. As the first cells make the change to reorganize (and do this they must), the rest, not recognizing the changing cells as their own and believing there is a possible invasion taking place, attack the changing cells. It is only after a large enough number of cells begins transforming that the “attack” ends. In time metamorphosis is completed and where there was once a worm like creature that crawled, there is now a very different being with wings and the ability to fly.

As we experience the shifting interlocking energies of an economy gone wrong, of global warming and of a befouled natural environment (and have no doubt, it is we who have befouled it) some of us will respond very much like the protective cells in the caterpillar’s body.

In defense of life as we were used to having it be and as we would like to have it continue to be, we will look for enemies to confront. We will do this in one way or another until enough of us come to understand that change is necessary for survival. Then we can focus on how to work with what is changing in the best possible ways.

WHAT NEXT? Nature has a way of favoring interdependence. If we look around, we can see that there are no natural monocultures, only ecosystems. Mother Nature did not plant those endless rows of genetically altered Kansas corn. The various parts of nature do not stand alone in isolation. They are both amazingly varied and in relationship with each other.** In the natural world, we see a variety of interconnected ecosystems with many, many interlocking parts. As our scientific knowledge deepens, in our own way, we are learning what indigenous peoples repeatedly tell us, that indeed, everything is connected and that we are all related. We disrupt the connections when we act with neither sufficient thought of the consequences to the whole, nor respect and concern for the well-being of the various parts of that same whole.

We cannot have continual economic growth on a finite planet. But we can have change. We can begin to conduct our affairs as if the welfare of other cultures, other creatures and of the planet really matters, as it assuredly does. Because we are an inventive species we can chose to work cooperatively and creatively together for the greater good.

PERSONAL ACTIONS We each can become mindful of contributing positively to our shared situation. We can move toward greater integrity by aligning our actions in the material world more closely with our spiritual beliefs, with our concerns for the greater whole. We can do this right now.

Most of us know that a major component of global warming is the carbon dioxide we emit into the

Continued on page 45 Feb/Mar 2009 Inner Tapestry 15

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Integrity: state or quality of being complete; wholeness; entirety; unimpaired state; soundness; purity; moral soundness; uprightness

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Dreaming the Secret Wishes of the Soul

by Robert Moss

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n The Secret History of Dreaming, world-renowned dream expert and author Robert Moss explores the vital role dreams, coincidence, and imagination have played throughout history. The following are excerpts from this inspiring new book that offers both a manifesto and a challenge, showing how people have interacted with their dreams and changed the course of history, and how it is possible to reclaim our past relationship to them and use that power now. We will explore the past and the present, come join us.

done, but often it even revolts against the body, causing various diseases and even death. So most Hurons pay careful attention to their dreams! If, for instance, they have seen a javelin in a dream, they try to get it; if they have dreamed that they gave a feast, they will give one on awakening. They call this secret desire of the soul expressed by a dream, ondinnonk.”

It was a social duty to help dreamers read the language of the soul, as revealed in their dreams, and take appropriate action. If someone experienced a particularly troubling or obscure dream, a strong dreamer, an atetshents, might be consulted on its meaning. Sometimes, if a dream seemed to contain a warning of impending death or disease, the whole community would become involved in unfolding and enacting the dream.

*** Long before the first Europeans arrived, the Woodland Indians of North America taught their children that dreams are the single most important source of both practical and spiritual guidance.

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Two centuries after the missionary reports collected in the Jesuit Relations were written, Iroquois elders told ethnologist Harriet Converse that you can lose your soul if you won’t listen to what your soul is telling you in dreams.

The punishment for failing to heed repeated dream warnings is that the “free soul” may abandon the dreamer, leaving him to live out his life on earth as one of the walking dead, “bereft of his immortal soul.”

We have a remarkable source for the dreaming practices of the Iroquois and their neighbors at the time of first contact, in the reports of Jesuit missionaries collected and translated in the seventy-three volumes of the Jesuit Relations. Though sometimes blinkered by religious intolerance and fear of demons or sorcery, the Jesuits were keen and intelligent observers. One of them, Father Joseph-François Lafitau, the superior of a mission near Montreal, has been viewed as the father of modern anthropology. Culling the Jesuit reports for clues to the dreaming practices of the First Peoples of North America at the time of first contact is a fertile exercise in dream archeology, and was one of my passions for several years. Since I have discussed the Iroquois dreaming traditions in previous books, I’ll confine myself to a brief summary here.

The early Iroquois regarded someone who was not in touch with his or her dreams as the victim of serious soul-loss. A specialist might be called on to bring the lost dreams – and the missing vital energy – to the sufferer.

Honoring dreams, in early Iroquois tradition, required action. Ragueneau explained, “They say that these feasts are given to oblige the soul to keep its word. They believe the soul is pleased when it sees us take action to celebrate a favorable dream, and will move faster to help us manifest it. If we fail to honor a favorable dream, they think this can prevent the dream from being fulfilled, as if the angry soul revokes its promise.

The first business of the day in an Iroquois village was dream sharing, as dreams were messages from the spirits and the deeper self and might contain guidance for the community as well as the individual. The early Iroquois believed that, in dreams, we routinely travel beyond the body and the limits of time and space, can visit the future or the past, and may enter the realms of the departed and of spiritual teachers on higher levels.

Dreaming was a survival tool. In the depths of winter, the community looked to powerful dreamers to scout out the location of game and to negotiate with the animal spirits to provide sustenance for the people. For the Iroquois, dreaming is also good medicine. The Mohawk word atetshents, which literally means “one who dreams,” is also the term for a doctor or shaman.

If we can read "future history" in our dreams... then maybe we can use that information to navigate towards the future we want.

The early Iroquois were not fatalists about the futures perceived in dreams, for they developed rituals and practices designed to divert – or reinforce – future episodes observed in dreams. By enacting part of a dream, under controlled circumstances, they might be able to prevent the dream from manifesting fully in the future.

A dream of impending disaster or tragedy that felt close to fulfillment in physical reality might inspire radical enactment; for instance, a Mohawk warrior who dreamed that he was captured and fire-tortured to death by his enemies once arranged for his fellow villagers to bind him and burn him with red-hot knives and axes—but not to kill him.

The Iroquois recognized that the spirits sometimes send certain individuals “big dreams” with major revelations about the soul’s purpose and the environment.

While big dreams may contain information of vital importance to the dreamer’s personal health or physical survival, many of these powerful dreams seem to be directed at benefiting the community as a whole. This is why, among Iroquoian traditionalists, the first business of the day for the whole community was to share and tend to important dreams.

Father Paul Ragueneau wrote in 1648, “The Hurons believe that our soul has desires other than our conscious ones, which are both natural and hidden, made known to us through dreams, which are its language. When these desires are accomplished, the soul is satisfied. But if they are not, the soul becomes angry. Not only does it fail to bring the body the health and well-being it might otherwise have 16 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

Bringing us into the present our newly elected President Barack Obama pays attention to night dreams and isn’t shy about saying so. In Dreams from My Father he recounts two powerful dreams, in one of which he achieved a reconciliation with his father a year after his father’s death.

Obama is not the first elected President of the United States who has found guidance in dreams and been willing to share them. The Founding Fathers were dreamers of the day in the sense that they grew the vision of a new kind of democracy. They included dreamers of the night like John Adams, the second president of the United States.

After Adams left the White House, his friend Dr Benjamin Rush proposed that – given the keen interest in dreams that they shared – they should send each other dream reports by letter on a regular basis. Adams agreed to match Dr Rush “dream for dream”. The remarkable epistolary dream-swapping that followed demonstrated how dreams guided John Adam’s thinking on many political issues. One of his dreams was instructive about the consequences of the French Revolution. Adams dreamed he was in front of the palace of Versailles, trying to lecture on the requirements for a civilized democracy to a vast mob of wild beasts. They howled him down and tried to tear him limb from limb.

In 1809, when Adams was no longer on speaking terms with his former friend Thomas Jefferson, Rush sent Adams a dream containing a summary of a page from a “future history of the United States”. In this future history, it was stated that Adams and Jefferson reconciled and eventually “sank into the grave nearly at the same time.” Every part of this dream was fulfilled. Adams and Jefferson died within hours of each other, an astounding synchronicity, seventeen years after this dream, on July 4, 1826.

Abraham Lincoln was another dreamer in the White House. He believed that we can have knowledge of the future through dreams and “presentiments” and that such knowledge is in no way supernatural but is rather “preternatural” – beyond what we ordinarily know, but not above nature.

17 It’s well-known that Abraham Lincoln dreamed of his assassination a couple of weeks before he was shot. Few of us know the fuller story of how this dream haunted Lincoln, and how he tried to get a second opinion on it. The source is Lincoln’s friend and aide Colonel Ward Hill Lamon, who was present when he told the dream.

Early in April 1865, Mary Lincoln pressed her husband to explain his prevailing sadness and “want of spirit.” Lincoln responded in a roundabout way, talking about how the Bible is full of dreams and visions. “If we believe the Bible, we must accept the fact that in the old days God and His angels came to men in their sleep and made themselves known by dreams.”

Lincoln then revealed that he had been oppressed by a terrible dream and had used the Bible to try to get a reading on whether the dream was true or false. He opened his Bible at random and found the huge dream vision of Jacob’s ladder in chapter 28 of Genesis. He tried again and again. It seemed that every time he opened his Bible, he found yet another account of a true dream or a divinely inspired vision. “I turned to other passages and seemed to encounter a dream or vision wherever I looked.”

In using the Bible as a book oracle in this way, Lincoln was doing something well understood by the “simple people” of his time, reading “signs” and dreams together. In the dream that troubled him, Lincoln seemed to awaken into a deathly stillness. Then he heard sobbing. He roamed the White House, trying to understand what was going on. The rooms were all brightly lit but he found no one until he entered the East Room and met with a “sickening surprise”.

Soldiers stood guard over a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. When Lincoln demanded, “Who is dead in the White House?” one of the soldiers replied, “The President - he was killed by an assassin!” A great howl of grief rose from mourners in the room. Waking, Lincoln was unable to sleep for the rest of the night and turned to the Bible for help.

We can’t know whether Lincoln could have escaped his appointment with his assassin in Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865 had he done more with his dream. We do know that in at least one of those Bible stories he studied – the story of how Joseph counseled Pharaoh on his dream – clarifying the facts of a dream about the future and then taking appropriate action changed the future for the better.

If we can read “future history” in our dreams, as John Adams’ friend did, then maybe we can use that information to navigate towards the future we want. It’s good to imagine that in the Obama White House they may be open to reading the “future pages” that open in dreams.

Robert Moss is the author of The Secret History of Dreaming and The Three “Only” Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence and Imagination. Based on the book The Secret History of Dreaming © 2009 Robert Moss. Printed with permission. www.mossdreams.com

by Kelle Eli

W

alking a spiritual path, one cannot help but seek wisdom.

So what is wisdom anyway? As I was meditating on that question the other day, the story of the Wizard of Oz, and how Dorothy and her friends were all going to find the wizard to “get” something, flashed in my mind. In the story, they were told that they needed to find the wizard (the wise one), and when they found him, he would help them with their perceived plights. I didn’t make the connection right away, so I kept thinking to myself “Wisdom, wisdom… Oh! WIZDOM!” Of course! WIS is from the word wise—accumulated knowledge, good judgment, IN-sight. And DOM comes from domain, like King-dom is the domain of the King, where the king demonstrates his leadership and power. Wiz-dom is the domain or territory where the wise demonstrate their knowledge and insight. So Dorothy and her friends were advised to go to the domain of their knowledge, their good judgment, and their insight.

The story of Dorothy and her friends all seeking something outside of themselves, is a story we all live. We think our courage, our intelligence, our home, and our wisdom is someplace we have to go to, someplace outside of ourselves. And in seeking wisdom, we often do the same. We are raised to equate knowledge of a topic or formal education with the way to wisdom, and it’s not. I mean, we just have to look around to realize that formal education and reading doesn’t necessarily make a person wise! Likewise, our tendency is to think other people possess wisdom and that we don’t. That’s because it’s so easy to see good traits in others, but we often sell ourselves short, so we do not acknowledge or become aware of our own assets within our very being.

Or if we witness someone with a lot of accumulated knowledge in one area, our tendency is to think that person has wisdom in ALL areas of life. That is not true, either.

So the paradox of seeking wisdom is that we DO need to go someplace, but that place is a domain within ourselves. It’s a positionality of consciousness. So, those definitions of wisdom are really the effects we demonstrate when we are IN the place of wisdom. Now, we can’t journey to a place, unless we believe it exists, so first of all, we start by deciding that wisdom is already within us. That allows us to connect to that positionality of consciousness. Centering within our core connects us with the God mind within, and we enter that place of wis-dom. From that postionality, or WIS-DOM, we are instantly guided to gathering knowledge that truly serves us, to exercising good judgment when required, and provided INsight into what’s really important in any situation. Yup, those munchkins were right. Going to the source of wis-dom, each of us will find just what we are looking for.

Kelle Eli (Th.M. Energy Medicine) practices a blending of medical intuition with spiritual healing to transmute limiting belief systems held in the energy bodies. Her teachings focus on helping clients in the transformation of their own consciousness and how to channel that power to create lifestyles infused with purpose and joy. She can be reached at www.KelleEli.com.

Integrity is telling my self the truth.

Honesty is telling the truth to other people. ... Spencer Johnson

Feb/Mar 2009 Inner Tapestry 17

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After he shared his dream with his wife and friend, Lincoln decided that, despite his feelings and the biblical reminders about dream prophecy, his assassination dream was “only a dream” and should be forgotten. But it haunted him. A few days later, he was still struggling with it, trying to reason that (as he told Lamon) it could hold no dangers for him because it was “some other fellow” that was killed.

The Place Called Wisdom

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a breat h o f he ali n g

Nothing Else Matters

by Donna Amrita Davidge

“If you have integrity nothing else matters.

If you don’t have integrity nothing else matters.”

In our everyday lives, and especially in our yoga practice, the integrity we have shows up reflected somewhere. While many people look at yoga as some sort of sport, many realize it is actually the union of mind, body and spirit (or breath) governed by the Yamas and Niyamas, guidelines for living. In my own practice, the first 14 of the almost 25 years I have been a practitioner I did solely Kundalini Yoga. The importance of self-evaluation, self analysis and self-growth or evolution has always been a subtle and powerful part of the practice. Kundalini Yoga is more about developing your personal caliber and character than about doing the perfect asana (pose) or the most challenging one. Our teacher, Yogi Bhajan, in no uncertain terms let us know, in the many times I had the good fortune to be around the Master, his only concern was for us to do the physical aspects of the practice to reap the benefits for the physical system of the glands, blood, nerves, internal organs and energy systems called chakras, and create inner balance. As I reflect about my switch over to integrating more physically oriented forms of yoga practice, like Ashtanga since 1999, I feel blessed that my first deep experience with Yoga was with Yogi Bhajan’s emphasis on commitment, caliber and character.

other centers were after this incident, but at the least perhaps be helpful if what I asked was not appropriate. With an intimidating look and an arrogant tone, she asked me if I was a member of the Association. Since the only people present were Association members, I said, “Yes, I was.” She coldly replied, “We don’t do that kind of thing,” Besides being struck by this woman’s tone I found out that she claimed not only to be a yogi but also a Buddhist (known for loving-kindness practice and non-harming of others)! My Buddhist friends won’t even kill a mosquito, let alone be mean-spirited to someone. The incident hit me in a way I was not to forget.

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A year or so later a colleague of mine attended a Yoga Journal event in New York City. She approached this same woman and was met with the same tone of arrogance. The third incident told me something about her integrity. There is a woman who has been vacationing for many years in Island Falls, the town where our retreats are and, like me, has family ties here that go way back. She is known to be of the utmost integrity. Far removed from New York City, she mentioned to me one summer how her daughters, who had a graphic design firm in New York City, were doing work for this same woman. As neutrally as I could respond I said “Oh, that’s nice, I know of her but don’t really know her.” A few summers after the woman told me that this woman had ripped off her daughters. Meanwhile, this woman has built an empire. Her studio has moved and expanded, even to other countries. It is packed with students, teacher trainers, products, she presents at all the major venues and pops up as a columnist in major yoga publications.

It has puzzled me for a long time. If people ask me about her, and they do, I will say the yoga is very good but I have never taken a class there, which is true. She is obviously knowledgeable. I admire what she has created, but to me integrity is what you do especially when no one is watching, or how your treat everyone and anyone. (“If you don’t see God in all, you don’t see God at all," Yogi Bhajan). Do you treat people who can “get you somewhere” the same as those who cannot?

\

Kundalini Yoga also emphasizes meditation in its encouragement of pre-dawn sadhana (spiritual practice) to cleanse the subconscious to the mantras and breath meditations that are integrated into the yoga classes as a powerful component of overall practice.

The Yamas in Yoga train your actions, speech and thought. These are: Non-harming ~ Truthfulness ~ Nonstealing~ Remembering the higher reality.

This requires vigilant self-awareness done with gentleness, acceptance and love.

In yoga the mind is constantly in training to develop clarity, not to be clouded with the opposite of the Yamas, and to develop being truly positive and joyful.

Our anger, greed and delusion can be mild, moderate or intense. Meditation is what can literally shift our internal wiring. Nelson Mandela and Gandhi are two outstanding examples of human beings who developed themselves, transcending their earlier limitations. In the beginning of his biography Gandhi speaks of not treating his wife well and Mandela went into prison angry and came out years later evolved. Until we can be consciously awake in our actions we cannot attempt to change them.

For me one person in the yoga community comes to mind. It has been a puzzle to me. In yoga the belief in karma is that we are in this lifetime a reflection of our past lives but we can change that through right action, which of course takes self-awareness, self evaluation and effort. Yogi Bhajan said “There is no liberation without labor” and that is true on many levels!

In 2000, the first year I started having staff at Sewall House Yoga Retreat, I went to an initial meeting of the New York Yoga Teachers Association. It seemed a great concept, teachers of all different yoga traditions coming together to learn from each other, share with each other and serve the community. The woman who was running the meeting was someone I did not know and we were hosted by her Center for this meeting. I gathered that with all this talk of sharing and community she would be a good person to ask about posting a notice in search of a chef for my retreat in Maine. At the most I thought she would be gracious, like

All we can know is that we are fully walking our walk and when we see others not doing this, we should do our best (myself included) not to judge them. We need to be gentle with ourselves and others in our evaluations. Still, when the topic of integrity comes up, I cannot help but think of this woman. All I can do, all you can do, is reflect on these things but the only thing we can change from our inner reflection is OUR thoughts, actions and words. If we all did this, whether we practice the physical aspect of yoga or not, the world would be a better place, honoring all of creations’ creatures with love, charity and compassion. Maybe this woman has changed and, even if she hasn’t, my avoiding her or her center won’t affect her much.

I cannot help but wonder if through someone who cares enough and knows her well enough she may someday see these inner aspects that are showing up in her outer life. She is obviously very knowledgeable and teaches and inspires many.

All the knowledge in the world does not help if we don’t apply it. Living it is our integrity.

Donna Amrita Davidge owns and operates Sewall House Yoga Retreat in Island Falls, Maine with her husband Kent Bonham when not teaching Kundalini, Hatha, Ashtanga or Vinyasa Yoga in NY City. Their retreat has been operating since the house was purchased in 1997 (it was built by her great grandfather William Sewall, nature guide to Thedoroe Roosevelt) and has plans for their first Teacher Training in 2009. For more information about the retreat, the training or questions about yoga please go to www.sewallhouse.com or info@sewallhouse.com. Toll free 888-235-2395.

INTEGRITY CAN BRING CLARITY INTO A FOGGY WORLD! 18 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

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AwarenessandtheArtofSeeing: Contemplations on the environment and interconnection

by Jen Deraspe

I carry groceries on my back up the narrow trail home, weaving my way up the mountainside beneath the hemlock, pine and hardwood canopy, leaning around witch hazel branches along the forest floor. I experience a different sense of value and awareness towards the earth’s bounty as I lug my sustenance slowly to its final journey.

I welcome winter. Permission to rest and nest. The simple joy found in following the sun on woods wanderings and on low perches beneath window sills, scratching my cat’s belly. Opportunity to witness the driving winds in my landscape, awakening to the unconscious forces contained there.

Winter’s Wisdom I welcome deep winter. I welcome the dark, the wind, the lingering cold. People complain about it. Those conditions nudge me inside. Time to settle in. Time to take a closer look, to cleanse and purge. Time to identify cause and effect, to examine preferences and to follow the voice within.

I bear witness to dawn’s and dusk’s changing light patterns. In February, there is a greater sense of the gentle transition towards spring. The change is subtle but constant. I open myself to harmonizing with the grand rhythm this friendly Universe offers—a natural tempo that winter teaches.

Nurture Through N atu re

Winter’s spaciousness allows me to better hear the soft voice within sharing the simple directions:

Do the dishes.

Chop the wood.

Read the words of that wise one.

Find your own wise words.

Listen. Listen.

Let Us Guide You Home...

Pleasant Mountain, Denmark, ME

Jen Deraspe, owner of Nurture Through Nature, is a holistic retreat facilitator and facilitator of The Work of Byron Katie. She lives off the grid on Pleasant Mountain in Denmark, Maine. www.ntnretreats.com, (207) 452-2929.

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Enjoy reading this issue of Inner Tapestry!

Feb/Mar 2009 Inner Tapestry 19

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t he 2 1st c e ntu ry b oh em i a n

Making Whole: Applying Right-Brain Integrity To Healing, Art and Life

by Teresa Piccari

I

ntegrity is a big word. Ask half a dozen people for their perspectives on integrity and you will likely come up with six different answers. But like any complex idea, at the core of integrity, there is simplicity.

At their Greek roots, the words integrity and healing are both about wholeness – being whole and making whole.

Looking at life through a spiritual lens we see the single thread in the big picture that connects us all, that we are all one, part of a whole. People make reference to a person’s integrity, the integrity of a work of art and the integrity of a structure. Healing professionals focus on restoring people to wholeness.

One way of working with the idea of integrity is coming from a place of wholeness to create or restore wholeness as it relates to both wellness practitioners and artists.

Ethics and Beyond

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While there are countless codes of ethics designed to keep public officials, businesses and service providers and even individual wellness practitioners on a path of integrity, we often find ourselves in scenarios that correlate more to minimum standards or narrow legal interpretations of ethical behavior, rather than the big picture of conducting ourselves with true integrity.

My own modality of practice, Reiki, stresses integrity in the ethical codes adopted by both the Reiki Association and the Reiki Alliance.

Article four of the Reiki Association’s ethics code states; “We conduct ourselves in a courteous and honorable manner, with integrity, sensitivity and tact.”

The Reiki Alliance, an international membership of Usui Reiki Masters, also addresses integrity in its ethics codes. Principle One includes the statement, “I value honesty and integrity in relationship.” And Principle Eight states, “I respect the property of others, maintain my professional integrity and refrain from the misuse of money.”

In an interview with Oliver Klatt in Reiki Magazine in October 2003 (www.reiki-magazin.de/e67/e690/e2768/ e4001/index_ger.html), Paul David Mitchell, Head of Discipline for The Reiki Alliance, discusses the importance of not only practicing Reiki with integrity but also the responsibility Reiki Masters have of upholding the integrity of Usui Reiki’s spiritual lineage as handed down by founder Dr. Mikao Usui.

“One image I use is that of ‘wholeness.’ We have a sense of our physical wellbeing, of the wholeness of our bodies. It is free from pain and functioning well. When we are not well, we long for healing, for a return to our natural integrity.” said Mitchell.

“The root of the word ‘healing’ in English comes from the Greek and means, ‘to make whole.’ So I would say that the goal of this practice is wholeness.”

Counseling Professionals

In Maine, the state requires social workers and counseling professionals to receive four hours of ethics training every two years as part of its licensure process.

With 30 years of experience in human services, Jeri W. Stevens, Ph.D., is herself a licensed clinical professional counselor (L.C.P.C.) who also has two decades of ethics experience in her related fields.

“I teach ethics based on the Hippocratic oath. Fostering (client) autonomy and independence, doing good work, 20 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

being fair, honest, and doing no harm is a great guide for establishing the therapeutic relationship while being mindful of minimal and aspirational ethics,” said Stevens.

The original oath, she noted, did not have "do no harm" in it, but over time, it became necessary to clearly state this. “Most counselors think of the oath as ‘do no harm.’ I teach them that the Hippocratic oath is much more than this and is a great tool for guiding us to practice mindfully and respectfully.”

Through her Chandler Bay Resources practice in Waterville, Stevens provides ethics training to counseling professionals that meets Maine’s ethics requirements for the profession.

Essentially, she teaches people how to think outside the box, or beyond the state code, when it comes to ethics. “I used to teach specifically to the codes but I don’t do that anymore,” she said. “You have to absolutely know the code. It can’t be the only thing that drives you but you need to know them.”

"To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity."

Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy In training counseling professionals and instructing students at Husson University, Stevens says her aim is to get counselors “to be thinking at a higher level.” Her work focuses on teaching how to think aspirationally. “I teach best practice.”

Boundary setting is also key to a healthy counseling relationship, said Stevens. When providing intake with a new client, she verbally reviews the informed consent and disclosure contracts that are provided. “You’ve hired me to do a job,” she tells them. Because a client is sharing the most intimate details of their lives with a counselor, there is sometimes a tendency for them to want to bond with the professional as a buddy. Setting a clear professional boundary at the outset helps avoid future problems, the therapist noted.

Seeking peer consultation and professional supervision are important tools therapists can use when they find themselves experiencing a question or having a dilemma in their practice. Most people have a sense when something is going awry, Stevens observed, and should not be making decisions in isolation. “When in doubt, ask,” she advises.

Questions she suggests counselors ask themselves when looking at client scenarios are, “What are the risks and what are the benefits?”

Stevens observed that there are definitely more client complaints today. “I don’t believe people are doing more bad things than they used to,” noted the trainer.

Instead she points to a more educated consumer who knows their rights and the processes at their disposal for resolving conflict.

Conflicts develop when people are not thinking, acting too quickly or not understanding one another. People resort to complaints when they feel they are not being heard or understood.

Different scenarios may require different rules, noted Stevens. For instance 10 or 20 years ago, you could never have a dual relationship with a client. Because of factors like community size, such as Maine versus an urban environment, a counselor may very well have a dual relationship with a client by, say, serving on a committee with them. “Today it may be beneficial. You have to think about it.”

Scenarios need to be considered on a case-by-case basis. In rural Canada, for instance, Stevens has heard of psychotherapists who actually need to stay overnight at client homes when they go into the field to provide services. With varying factors, including cultural and population differences, professionals have unique considerations to make.

Right Relationship

Stevens mentioned a study that determined the modality or discipline a counseling practitioner applies is less important than the relationship between the client and the professional. “The client will get better because it is a good counseling relationship, not because of a specific modality,” she explained.

In her experience, Stevens said, people are looking for a relationship that includes compassion, empathy, trust and mutual respect.

When seeking a counselor, a spiritual teacher or adviser, or any type of wellness practitioner, only we know if the relationship feels right for us. Not following our instincts may result in money misspent, cause frustration and, at times, even do us harm.

Professional and word of mouth referrals, internet research and interviewing holistic and service providers are good tools for establishing right relationship. But the best gauge is our gut. If something doesn’t feel right, it usually isn’t.

Sometimes the safeguards and people who are charged with the responsibility for ensuring services are delivered with integrity fail. We need to work as our own advocates. In my own life, when I was doing my Master level work my Reiki teacher was not acting from a place of integrity in regard to me, and it became clear that I could not continue with her. About a year later, I did find the appropriate teacher and became a Reiki Master.

Something to keep in mind, when it comes to not only professional and teaching relationships but personal ones as well, is that if we are not coming from a place of being complete or whole, it is difficult for us to treat another with integrity. We cannot give someone what we do not have.

Right-Brainers Rule

A key ingredient involved in acting with integrity is our capacity for empathy. Everyone from the

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f eng shu i & ge o pa t h o l og y

ZeroPoint Energy Tools Our Latest Findings

by Werner Brandmaier

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A minute later she mentioned the body was starting to reject bacteria in the intestinal area. “Bad bacteria only,” she explained. This makes sense, as bacteria are definitely vibrating with dissonant frequency patterns. If the positive resonance impact of a healthy spectrum is strong enough germs only have one of two choices: They either leave the body or have to switch back into a healthy cellular form. Professor Antoine Bechamp, a French scientist and researcher in the late 19th century, described this phenomenon as “pleo-morphism” – the many different forms that cells change into, depending on the milieu, the cellular environment and its pH (alkaline-acid balance). Check out the book: The Blood and its Third Element by Antoine Bechamp.

This brings us back to our blood, the substance, that defines the state of our health.

ZeroPoint energy tools are instruments that enhance the overall well-being on the vibrational level, adding attuned frequencies to every aspect of the body; muscular frequencies to muscle cells, brain frequencies to brain cells, and effective, subtle harmonious patterns to blood cells. We recently did some amazing experiments on my own blood, documented with live-blood microscopy, which I will likely discuss in a future article.

However, from my experience, personally and professionally, this is certainly a technology worthy of our attention and further experimentation. I have already incorporated ZeroPoint technologies into my own personal regime and that of my family, as well as introduced them to friends and clients with overwhelmingly positive response.

Werner Brandmaier Dipl.Ing., a medical engineer and a citizen of Austria, studied with prominent international Feng Shui masters and trained in Germany to practice dowsing and geopathology. Werner offers consultations for homes and businesses and teaches workshops and seminars. He is a member of the International Feng Shui Guild and the American Society of Dowsers. You may contact Werner at (207) 772-7888 or office@InstituteOfFengShui.com.

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Feb/Mar 2009 Inner Tapestry 23

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ast September I took the opportunity to write about ZeroPoint Energy. I was so intrigued by our early test observations that I decided to attend a ZeroPoint conference in Phoenix a few weeks later. Since then I have applied ZeroPoint tools in many cases of balancing and grounding individuals’ constitution increasing their personal energy, boosting the energy of their food, even neutralizing the electro-magnetic pollution from cell phones, computers and other electronic gadgets.

ZeroPoint energy tools utilize a technology where a specific informational charge is applied in the form of “blueprint frequencies.” Blueprint frequencies are the initial vibration pattern of any cell, following a master plan, the original perfect form from which they develop. When a person is born, cells develop into a planned design, like a mold, or into a destination, if you will. A liver cell, for example, does not just divide and grow into anything; it “knows” exactly what it’s supposed to become to optimally fulfill its “job.”

In a person’s lifetime the maximum physical performance is assumed in their early 20’s. Unfortunately before he/she even attains their peak, the daily stress from environmental factors, acquired lifestyle habits and mental attitudes, hinder the body’s ability to succeed and the body begins its downward spiral even at that early age.

Deterioration hastens through many factors: physical stressors such as junk food, a toxic environment (air and water pollution), bad habits such as smoking, alcohol, drug abuse, even poor sleeping patterns.

Additional strains are energetically based, caused by today’s technology in the form of electro-magnetic fields from cell phones, video games, computers, many household appliances and even cars. In fact, just driving today’s cars, filled with microprocessors and computers, is quite draining. Flying in an airplane builds up the same amount of electro stress as having 60 active cell phones strapped to your body (no wonder one feels jetlagged after a 6-hour flight). On top of that, earth energy patterns known as geopathic stress, accelerate cell aging and contribute to many “modern” illnesses, from allergies to chronic fatigue, MS and even cancer.

All these stressors lead to a “natural” degeneration by exposing renewing cells to disharmonic frequency patterns and altering their original information in the process.

If you’ll remember: Everything is Energy! A healthy body vibrates in a specific pattern; for example, a specific heart rate, body temperature, brainwave pattern, etc. If those frequencies are altered, the frequency pattern changes. The heart rate might go up, the body temperature may increase, and we may get a headache or experience anxiety.

One of the foundational principles in wave oscillation is the Resonance Principle.

If close frequencies vibrate next to each other, the strongest one pulls the other ones in until they are all in tune. Close frequencies cannot exist separately next to each other. Here is an example you can try for yourself: Find a group of people, the more the better, and let them all hum a tone of their choice. Within less than a minute the entire group will be humming one common note (including its natural harmonics).

This effect is the basic element for many healing arts, from “singing” crystal bowls, to flower remedies and homeopathy to Chinese healing lamps. Expose a body, which is out of sync, with the original healthy frequency spectrum just long enough, and the self-healing mechanism will shift itself into a state of good health. What a wonderful concept.

The ZeroPoint energy tools work like that, too. Acting as “energetic pacemakers” they consistently radiate healthy blueprint information towards all the cells in the body.

Dissonant patterns, which are out of tune (and therefore sick) slowly and gently switch back to healthy ones. Sometimes it takes a while, but it always works.

At a recent expo in New York, where often-exceptional healers came by our booth, a very gifted young clairvoyant woman described the changes in her mother’s aura field while her Mom was holding a ZeroPoint pendant. She saw a bright field of light around her mother’s body connecting with “the other side.” When her mother asked what she meant by that, she added: “You know, Mom, not just the angels, the other side, the infinite.” She then described how the pendant at the same time connects the carrier to a grounding earth grid system, which seems to cause the strong physical balancing effect as demonstrated with the “Toy Soldier Balance Test”. (See September issue online at www.innertapestry.org.)

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welcom e ho m e

ask asrianna Questions and Answers on Relationships, Spirituality and Conscious Living

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Dear Asrianna, I’m embarrassed to be in this situation and I never thought I’d be this good at lying. After thirteen years of marriage to a good man, I’m in love with someone else. To make it even worse it’s someone I met online. I’m so confused because while my marriage lacked passion and I can’t think of the last time my husband showed any interest in having a meaningful conversation, I know he loves me.

Yet this other man makes me feel so alive. He’s funny, intelligent and we’ve so much in common. For almost a year, we’ve talked every day. I’ve tried to end it but my life feels so empty without him and he always begs me to come back. He knows I can’t just leave my life here, but I feel guilty making him wait for something that won’t ever happen.

I feel awful and I know what I have to do but it’s just so difficult. Can you help me, Asrianna?

Signed, Lying and Hating It Dear Hating It, We all have internal measurements we’ve accrued from our upbringing and the passage of years, an inner compass telling us when we’re living with integrity or walking a crooked path. If we travel outside the perimeters of honesty we’ll feel the negative vibrations in all areas of our life, tainting even our most treasured gifts. Your involvement with this other man not only puts your marriage at risk, it spills over into how you feel about yourself and that, in turn, affects every facet of your existence.

Many times we live an inauthentic life, neglecting our needs and letting things like sharing intimate moments of conversation with our mates go, feeling either too fatigued or too rebuked to try yet again. Days turn into years and we become numb not only to the unhappiness of our relationship, but also to its joy. Most of us know all too well how a bad work situation colors our private moments, leaving us to spend leisure time in dread of our next eight to five. The same thing happens when our personal relationships are unhappy; it permeates everything we do.

Your letter makes it sound as if the problem is somewhat simple, but it’s far more complex than a simple question of how to end the extra-marital relationship? The first step in this dilemma is to look honestly at your marriage.

You need to understand why you were susceptible to this situation in the first place. What made you go online to search for someone outside of your primary relationship?

Ask yourself some tough questions about your feelings regarding your marriage. When you think about it, do you feel sad, frustrated, generally unhappy, ignored, minimized, cherished, cared for, listened to? Our emotions are the first signals telling us if something is working or whether the situation needs attention.

It’s easy to put the blame for a lack of passion onto our mate, but ask yourself, what does passion really mean to you because if you don’t know, neither will he. Are you talking about sexual passion? The kind of physical response that makes your stomach flutter and pulse race? Are you speaking about the kind of emotional intensity that motivates you and causes you to reach out and truly experience life? For some people 26 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

passion means action and involvement, for others it’s a simmering quality infusing their daily living with depth, meaning and purpose. Passion arises through what you desire from the marriage and what, especially, you put into it.

The truth is that any long-term relationship can become predictable and stale if we let it go in the day-to-day busyness of life. We turn our attention to raising children, meeting the mortgage, paying bills and going to work each day. The comfort of knowing your husband will be there for you tomorrow and the tomorrow after that can be a loving foundation that feels secure and safe. Or it can be something you feel is restrictive or that you take for granted, unless you keep in mind the benefits of a lasting relationship.

In addition, I’ve come to believe love is a language and quite often long-term partners speak a different dialect altogether. For instance, your spouse might feel that showing love is all about doing, all about bringing home a paycheck to afford you a comfortable living.

He might feel being home each night, doing the house maintenance and taking care of the cars and paying bills is a sign of his love and devotion to you. If he’s a loving, involved father he can feel he’s showing you his love by his care of your children. To him, in other words, love is about what you do rather than what you say.

You, on the other hand, might feel the need to speak about your love, to communicate your affection through words and emotional sharing. It might be meaningful to you to have time to sit and hold hands or to rest your head on his shoulder. Perhaps you want to share your day and hear about his, to speak about how much you care for him and to hear him reciprocate. For you, love is about what you share emotionally and verbally.

Crossing this language barrier means understanding his language and helping him to decipher yours.

In addition, one of the first steps is to discover for yourself what your needs are in your marriage. Make a list including everything you feel you currently lack and everything you want. Do you want respect? Do you want him to turn away from the television and meet your gaze when you talk so you truly feel heard? Do you need flowers or other visible signs of his affection? How often do you make love and do you wish for more or less and how satisfying is your love life? The key to having needs met is to know what they are so you can communicate them to your partner.

Find ways to bring love and passion back into your marriage, communicate what it is you need to your mate in other words, work on your marriage first. If you can’t navigate this process on your own, perhaps a marriage counselor can help mediate the process.

You notice I’ve spoken very little about the other man. It’s because he’s truly peripheral to your situation.

You honestly can’t know if he’s right for you because you haven’t attended to your primary relationship fully.

You’re in danger of demonizing your marriage and looking at this other man with rose-colored glasses.

I’m not saying your marriage will last or be happy.

That’s up to you. If you want your marriage to be loving, communicative and passionate, you have to turn your full attention to making it that way. You have to do your share to change the tenor of your relationship. If it doesn’t work after you’ve tried all you can, then you have

a decision to make, but it will be made easier by having known you did all you could.

The online relationship lacks substance; it lacks the day-to-day intimacy that allows you to see his faults as well as your own within the context of daily living. I truly wonder about a man who is willing to wait for you a year and more, knowing you’re being dishonest to your husband and without any assurances that you’ll leave the marriage for him. So either you’re not fully honest about all that you’re sharing with him, or he’s not telling the truth and he’s really not putting his life on hold at all.

In every relationship there are highs and lows. The passion of a new love eventually turns into the solid expectation of a long-term relationship along with the familiarity of the other. You say your husband is a good man who really loves you. Know that you deserve to take the utmost care in how you make this decision, for yourself as much as your husband and this other man.

As for how to end it with the other man, you do so honestly, with care and compassion. Be prepared for him to be sad or to be angry and be willing to accept that he has a right to his emotions. There’s no way to end something without saying it’s over, finished, and done.

Don’t allow yourself to be manipulated into staying in what doesn’t serve your integrity, and don’t lie to yourself about your part in this. You’ll no doubt feel sad or guilty, both consequences of your choices. Move forward, with a new, firm resolve towards honesty and let the past be something you learn from and then let go of.

Best wishes, Asrianna Asrianna Dameron is a Psychic, a Spiritual Medium, a Certified Hypnotherapist, and a Certified Past Life Regressionist in private practice. She offers individual and group sessions as well as seminars and speaking engagements on the topics of Psychic Development, Mediumship, Hypnosis and Shamanic healing.

Asrianna can be reached at asrianna@shamansheart.com, by visiting her websites at www.shamansheart.com or www.nhshamanandpsychicmedium.com , or by calling 603-892 - 1268

To have your questions answered, please email your letters or comments to Asrianna at Asrianna@shamansheart.com Questions become the property of Inner Tapestry and may be edited for content.

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destinatio n h e al i n g ~ n o r t h e r n n ew en g l a n d

Integrity in Natural Medicine by Kevin Pennell Bethel, Maine

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hrough generations, integrity has captured attention because any comments associated with it bring the object of integrity under close scrutiny. When someone or some organization is found to possess integrity we readily view them as honest, fair, ethical, of good moral character, unified in their efforts, coherent in their understanding and delivery of information, and cohesive in their work.

Integrity remains a beacon, a goal to strive for in life. Surely, healthcare and holistic therapies must maintain integrity in the best interest of their patients/clients.

Dr. Mary Bove views integrity as a vital quality in her practice as a Naturopathic Physician. She practices at the Brattleboro Naturopathic Clinic in Brattleboro, Vermont and acquired her Doctorate of Naturopathic Medicine and Midwifery Certification from Bastyr University of Natural Health Sciences in Seattle, Washington. Mary also received a Diploma of Phytotherapy/Herbal Medicine at the School of Phytotherapy in Great Britain and is a member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists in the United Kingdom. (Phytotherapy is a treatment form where plants or plant extracts are used for medicinal purposes.) She served as a fulltime faculty member at Bastyr College in the departments of botanical medicine and naturopathic midwifery, holding the position of Chair of the Botanical Medicine Department from 1990-1993.

Mary practiced natural obstetrics/gynecology and pediatric medicine in Seattle, and then relocated her practice to Brattleboro, Vermont.

Today she practices Naturopathic Family Medicine, including natural childbirth, at the Brattleboro Naturopathic Clinic. She lectures throughout North America, too, sharing insightful knowledge on botanical medicine, phytotherapy, and naturopathic obstetrics and pediatrics.

Dr. Bove wrote about her experiences and knowledge in her book, An Encyclopedia of Natural Healing for Children and Infants. Her book discusses the use of herbal remedies for infants and children, how to work with a child’s immune system, and some beneficial nutritional information for infants and children. She also shares information about illnesses common among children, and how to create a good “herbal medicine chest” for children. This book also provides proven methods for harvesting plants and their parts and drying herbs.

Visiting with Dr. Bove and reading her book reveals her passion for educating parents on the proper healthful care of their children. “Education can be a powerful tool in parenting and making choices about health and wellness. As a Naturopathic Physician I find it to be a foundational part of what I do with many parents as part of their child’s healthcare. Knowledge acts to empower and leaves less room for fear and choices made out of fear rather than reason. Assisting parents in understanding health and wellness from a holistic, mindful approach will empower them to be proactive and preventative in their choices. Giving knowledge to children to expand their understanding of their own health empowers them to take an active role in their own health.”

But what is Naturopathic medicine? According to Brattleboro Naturopathic Clinic’s website (www.brattleboronaturopathic.com) Naturopathic medicine integrates a firm scientific foundation with natural and minimally invasive therapies. It’s a comprehensive approach tailored to each patient emphasizing prevention and self-care.

Naturopathic physicians collaborate with other branches of medical science, referring patients to other practitioners for diagnosis or treatment when suitable.

Naturopathic physicians are trained in a four-year medical program with clinical training. Following completion of medical school, naturopathic physicians must pass the board examination given by the North American Board of Naturopathic Examiners prior to obtaining licensure in the states that offer licensure.

As a physician, Dr. Bove practices like most primary care physicians that practice general family medicine. As a naturopathic physician she practices preventative, complimentary medicine incorporating natural non-invasive therapies including herbal medicine, nutritional medicine, and mind-body techniques. She focuses her treatments to work in conjunction with the body’s innate healing wisdom, optimizing health and wellness, and preventing illness through healthy lifestyle practices, attitude, and education. Mary explains that “modern-day botanical medicine is a combination of the wisdom of ancient traditions with the cutting edge of current research. There is healing power in the plant kingdom, which after all is the nourishment of all animal 28 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

life. Plants as medicines cannot be reduced to chemical components only and be expected to be effective. To be truly effective in botanical medicine, it is not enough simply to know about the herbs themselves. Gathering an understanding of how and when to use the herbs in response to the various therapeutic challenges in each individual case tailors the prescription to that particular individual and allows for the Art of Herbal Medicine to be felt.”

Her specialty is working with children and their special needs; cultivating health and wellness, proper growth and development, and prevention of illness using natural medicines and foods.

Dr. Bove sees parents searching for diverse choices related to the health of their children, not necessarily choosing between alternative and medical treatment, but to integrate the forms of care together. She says many children between the ages of two to five contract recurrent respiratory difficulties including runny noses, earaches, coughs, and sore throats, often being treated with antibiotic therapies. The parent, wanting what’s best for their child, may seek alternatives to antibiotics in the form of natural treatments, which can be used in conjunction with the antibiotic to support the body’s immune function. She acknowledges the importance of antibiotics in the general care "Giving knowledge children, but questions the frequency of their to children to expand of being prescribed. Dr. Bove explained that it is their understanding not a matter of antibiotics being good or bad, but rather if they are appropriate for the condition of their own health or not. There are circumstances when antibiotics empowers them are clearly necessary and should be prescribed, there are some instances when antibiotics are to take an active role but overused or misused, according to Dr. Bove. in their own health."

When seeing a child, she looks at various factors involved in the child’s health picture such as potential allergies, daily environmental toxic exposures, and other immune stressors, which could trigger a hypersensitive response. Following an evaluation, she prescribes a treatment appropriate for that child, often using common and local herbs such as elderflower, echinacea, rosemary, thyme, lemon balm, ginger, or chamomile to name a few. She also believes it’s important for parents to be actively involved in the administration of herbal remedies, but warns, “parents should exercise care when using herbs because herbs are like any medicine and can have adverse effects. All herbs are not safe for all people. If one is not familiar with their use, contact an herbalist, The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, the American Botanical Council, or American Herbalist Guild.” Specifically, if the herb being considered is for use on a child be sure the product has specific directions for a child’s dosage, otherwise it’s for an adult. Dr. Bove says, “common sense should be exercised when purchasing or using any herbs. When purchasing any natural or herbal remedy ask questions; read labels.”

She adds that like any medicine, if a person has an unexpected or adverse response, stop taking the remedy and consult with someone that’s knowledgeable about the use of herbs and natural remedies.

Mary Bove dedicates herself to keeping patients and parents educated, offering Integrative Circle™ an extraordinary distant-learning course. Integrative Circle™ is flexible, so a student may learn from the comfort of their home. Mary believes patient education is a vital element for a patient’s wellness. “As a Naturopathic Physician I educate and teach my patients how to restore and maintain their health through making positive and empowering choices to facilitate health, positive life changes, and skills to continue to cultivate wellness.”

She encourages patients to expand their educational knowledge in natural healthcare and to engage their minds in a creative learning process. Dr Bove’s experience as naturopathic physician, herbalist, midwife, mother, and teacher creates a program that “unites the traditional and scientific use of botanical medicines, foods and nutrition, while honoring intuition’s role in healing.” One teleseminar, Botanical Medicine for Children, teaches you how to safely use herbal medicines, create herbal preparations that are “kid friendly,” how to determine safe, age-appropriate dosing, and understand

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I n t e g r i t y o r Fe a r. . .

W h i c h Wi l l Yo u C h o o s e ?

by Karen M. Rider Griswold, Connecticut

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here is a shift occurring within the global consciousness. We sense it inside ourselves and we see it all around us. This shift is played out in the media and in our personal relationships, both with self and with others. What we are vastly uncertain of is exactly what or where we are shifting to?

What are we becoming?

I don’t have to tell you that the world is experiencing turmoil of all kind as world leaders seek solutions that will carry us out of and beyond the damage that has been caused by greed and loss of integrity. It is in these times that we may find it so easy, almost enticing, to become angry. I don’t just mean to feel the emotion that is anger and to manage it in a constructive, healthful way. As I observe local, and global events, I don’t see that happening very often, it at all. Instead, I see people becoming anger. It is a path not chosen consciously and one that can only lead to darkness, as illustrated by the mythology of Star Wars: “But beware of the dark side. Anger... fear... aggression. The dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will...”

Jedi Master Yoda advises young Luke Skywalker in Star Wars.

“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate.

Hate leads to suffering.

Train yourself to let go of that which you fear to lose.”

Yoda counsels Anakin in Jedi Chambers in Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith We have every right to feel angry. We have every right to want to do something to effect change in the world in which we live and to expect that those who are in positions of power greater than our own can and will lead us down a path of integrity, peace and justice. I believe it is the responsibility of each one of us to begin the process of change by first beginning with the self. If you are angry, feel it, express it and let it go. Do not allow your fear of loss, especially of material things, to drive you to hateful, vengeful behaviors. As Yoda points out, “quick and easy they will flow,” and will only create suffering within yourself and in the world around you.

Sandra Diamond, a spiritual counselor from Newington, CT, spoke to me about the Toltec Teachings, The Four Agreements. “The very first agreement, ‘be impeccable with your word,’ has a strong application to managing transition. The teaching is that you speak to yourself first and foremost in impeccable words and thoughts.”

If you are dwelling in thoughts of fear, that is unimpeccable and will create fearbased responses, to which “you are prey, not predator. Toltec teaches you to become an ally with your fears, then those fears diminish and you are no longer prey to those fears. We are always in transition—it is part of nature. Some transitions have more impact than others; fear will not ease your time through transition.”

Wellness Coach, Michele Gentile (Long Island) and I chatted about “walking the spiritual path with practical feet.” She emphasized that, in times of transition, you need to engage in the activities that help you feel centered and grounded, such as meditating, attending spiritual service, prayer, creative arts or exercise. “There are so many resources available, from the local library to support groups, fellowships, therapy and coaching sessions. A person who decides they can learn or grow or heal, will take the action steps necessary to do it. Worry and anxiety, like a rocking chair, give you something to do but don’t get you anywhere. [So why not] choose to learn how to improve your situation, take educated action. You have a whole lot of control over what you do with your own life.”

In a world in the throws of enormous change, which path will you choose?

However you change and create change, nothing happens in isolation of all that is around it. Everything is connected.

Will you choose the Path of Integrity?

Will you choose the Path of Fear?

Michele Gentile, M.A. OTR/L, Certified Wellness Coach, Author of Special Treasures: The Hidden Keys to Positive Personal Development can be reached at www.specialtreasures.us.

Sandra Diamond, M.A., Ct. H, RMT is owner of Dragonfly, LLC and experiential healing center: drgnflyllc@aol.com.

Yoda courtesy of Wikipedia.

Karen M. Rider, M.A. writes a variety of articles, stories, and reviews to educate, enlighten and entertain the reader. As a promotional copywriter, Karen specializes in helping holistic health businesses communicate to their target audience with clarity, integrity, and creativity. Karen resides in Connecticut where she shares life’s adventures with her husband and daughters. She is working on her first novel. KarenM_Rider@cox.net.

Article Submission Deadline for April/May "Animalwize" is February 25th Feb/Mar 2009 Inner Tapestry 29

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As individuals and members of the global society, are we becoming so consumed by fear that we are blindly starting down a dark path, one that will dominate not just our individual destinies but the fate of the world? In The Phantom Menace episode of the Star Wars saga, Master Yoda inquires with little Anakin Skywalker about whether or not he is afraid. Anakin, afraid he will be viewed as a coward—when what he wants most is to be a brave Jedi—lies to Yoda about his feelings. Yoda foreshadows, “In you, much fear I sense.” Anakin was not able to accept and acknowledge his fear; in a child this is understandable.

As Anakin grows into manhood and follows the Jedi path, his inability and unwillingness to let go of fear—despite the consequences Yoda shows him—leads to his tragic and terrible transformation into Darth Vader.

So, what can you do? I asked a number of my colleagues in the holistic health, spiritual counseling and life coaching fields to respond to this question. The overwhelming response was that there is much you can do, even as you face concerns for personal security and well-being (financial, physical health so forth).

You can maintain your personal integrity—remain committed to your values, and be consistent in word and deed and the motivations that underlie your thoughts, feelings and actions.

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ex p lori ng the wo r l d r el i g i o n s

The Sufi Wisdom of Hazrat Sultan BaHU

by James Bean

H

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azrat Sultan BaHU was born during the year 1628 at Qalai Shorkot, a settlement at the bank of River Chenab (now in District Jhang, Punjab). He passed on in 1691, and is considered to be one of the greatest Sufi Gnostic Poet-Saints in the history of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. BaHU was a member of the Qadiri Sufi Order founded by Abdul Qadir Jilani, and eventually created his own branch known as the Sarwari Qadiri Order. Even now, Sultan BaHU's tomb remains a popular pilgrimage spot in Pakistan. It is said that BaHU authored over one hundred books and spiritual discourses! To this day, his hymns and mystic-poems are quite popular. As far as I am aware, there are only two books that have been published thus far in the English language offering substantial collections of BaHU's spiritual poetry: Death Before Dying – The Sufi Poems of Sultan BaHU, edited by Jamal J. Elias, University of California Press, Berkeley, and: Sultan BaHU, edited by J.R. Puri and K.S. Khak, RS Book Dept. (Radha Soami Satsang Beas/Science of the Soul). There are also some very nice BaHU-related websites these days featuring his poetry and hymns of praise. All BaHU passages below are from the J.R. Puri and K.S. Khak translation.

The HU (WHOOOOOO) Chant/Mantra/Zikhr of BaHU In most all of Hazrat BaHU's poems, in the original Punjabi language, every other line hypnotically ends with a HOO. For example: akkheen surkh te mooheen zardee, har wallon dil aaheen HOO Muhaa muhaar khushboi waalaa, pahuntaa vanj kadaaeen HOO Ishq mushk na chhuppe raihnde, zaahir theen uthaaeen HOO Naam faqeer tinhaan daa BaaHOO, jin laamakaanee jaaeen HOO. "BaHU" means "with God." HU is a sacred name for God in Sufi mysticism. "HU" – pronounced "HOOO" or "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO," is a sacred name which symbolizes and even mimics to some extent the Saut-e Sarmad, also known as the Sound Current, the Abstract Music of the Spheres. BaHU: Then, in an ecstasy of love, you will repeat the Name of HU constantly, devoting every breath of your life in contemplation of Him. Only when your soul merges in the Essence of the Lord, will you deserve the name 'BaHU.' Mystics live in this world as HU personified; they practice the Name that is the essence of God. They live in HU – beyond religion, beyond belief and unbelief, beyond life and death.

If you explore the Path within yourself, you will find God nearby, through the Royal Vein.

He now lives in me and I in Him, O BaHU: not only distance from Him but even nearness to Him have become irrelevant!

HU is within, HU is without, HU always reverberates in my heart.

30 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

The wound in my heart aches constantly with the unabating pain of HU's love.

The darkness of ignorance departs from the heart lit by HU [God, Allah].

I sacrifice myself to the one, O BaHU, who has realized the significance of HU. Hazrat Inayat Khan, a more recent Sufi teacher and mystic, once gave an explanation about the HU and the Music of the Spheres in Volume Two of his Sufi Message Series titled, The Mysticism of Sound. Khan describes the HU as a kind of universal name of God often used by HU-man beings and that mysteriously turns up in the various languages and religions of the world: HUzur, YaHUva, Allah HU Akbar, YesHUa, AHUra Mazda, and so on. Khan: "The Supreme Being has been called by various names in different languages, but the mystics have known him as HU, the natural name, not man-made, the only name of the Nameless, which all nature constantly proclaims.

The sound HU is most sacred; the mystics call Ism-i Azam, the name of the Most High, for it is the origin and end of every sound as well as the background of each word. The word HU is the spirit of all sounds and of all words, and is hidden within them all, as the spirit in the body. It does not belong to any language, but no language can help belonging to it. This alone is the true name of God, a name that no people and no religion can claim as their own. This word is not only uttered by human beings, but is repeated by animals and birds. All things and beings proclaim this name of the Lord, for every activity of life expresses distinctly or indistinctly this very sound. This is the word mentioned in the Bible as existing before the light came into being, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' "The mystery of HU is revealed to the Sufi who journeys through the path of initiation... Abstract Sound is called Saut-e Sarmad by the Sufis; all space is filled with it. The vibrations of this Sound are too fine to be either audible or visible to the material eyes or ears, since it is even difficult for the eyes to see the form and color of the ethereal vibrations on the external plane. It was the Saut-e Sarmad, the Sound of the abstract plane, which Muhammad heard in the cave of Ghar-e Hira when he became lost in his divine Ideal. The Qur'an refers to this Sound in the words, 'Be! and all became.' Moses heard this very Sound on Mount Sinai, when in communion with God; and the same Word was audible to Christ when absorbed in his Heavenly Father in the wilderness. Shiva heard the same Anhad Nada during his Samadhi [deep meditation] in the cave of the Himalayas. The flute of Krishna is symbolic of the same Sound. This Sound is the source of all revelation to the Masters, to whom it is revealed from within; it is because of this that they know and teach one and the same truth."

It can be said there is a divine eroticism in the devotional poetry of the Saints and Mystics in the great world religions and schools of spirituality, from Spain to India. These words of light and love are directed towards God yet often seem appropriate for Valentine's Day. As Rumi once said, "There is no salvation for the soul but to fall in love. It has to creep and crawl among the lovers first. Only lovers can escape from these two worlds. This was written in creation. Only from the heart can you reach the sky. The Rose of Glory can only be raised in the heart." As with others

in this heart-centered Way of the Lover and the Beloved, like Rumi, Hafiz, Kabir, Baba Farid, Sarmad, Bullah Shah, and countless other mystic-lovers, Hazrat Sultan BaHU's path though life and ultimate destination is the God of Love: A heart that fails to experience the Presence of the Divine will continue to be poorly evolved, O BaHU! But when the Essence is freed from its attributes, the Presence of God becomes evident.

Then HU resounds within and without; no trace of BaHU can be found – he is lost in HU! No one who entertains love of the world can ever become a faqir.

In my devotion to the One, my consciousness has centred in my body; now I neither rest nor sleep.

All night I shed tears of longing, all day I cry in the pain of separation!

O BaHU, the secret of love is that you sacrifice your life at the altar of God without a second thought and rid yourself of the last traces of grief.

Lovers remain completely intoxicated in the ecstasy of their love for the Beloved.

They offer their souls to the Beloved while still living and thus immortalize themselves in this life and the hereafter.

In the dark, fathomless night of ignorance, love is a torch that brings light.

From it emanates a Melody that enraptures lover's hearts!

On the path of love are forests, oceans and wastelands, with a constant threat of lions.

Anyone who cherishes perfect love in his heart can cross these forests, oceans and wastelands without fear.

The Lord is an Ocean of Oneness in which lovers swim as they please, free of care. In their own turn, they appear in the world to dive deep into that ocean, to gather pearls. Among the pearls is a gem -- unique in value, unmatched in lustre -that shines like the moon.

We are all in the employ of the Lord, O BaHU; let us pay homage to him through our prayers.

Repeat the Name of Allah, O BaHU, and free yourself from the worries of life.

Those who enshrine the Lord in their hearts, O BaHU, have both the worlds at their command.

I have, at last, grasped the beginning and the end: I have seen the whole spectacle of past, present and future pass before my eyes.

Within my heart are fourteen realms: chambers of Light -- ablaze with the profusion of God's Radiance.

Those who have not realized God will wander, homeless in this world, destitute in the next.

But watch the lovers dance with ecstasy, as they merge into the Oneness of God.

James Bean reviews books and music for the Wisdom Radio Network and other stations via a syndicated radio program called Spiritual Awakening, and teaches Sant Mat Meditation and Surat Shabd Yoga in the Bangor, Waterville, & Portland areas. Address questions or comments to PO Box 7, Newport, Maine 04953, or email: james@spiritualawakeningradio.com.

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t he w ay o f lif e - itse l f

Integrity

by Norm Hirst

I

been lost. Most of what is called science today is really empirical philosophy.

I recently read a transcript of a presentation by a government agency assigned the task of developing scientific methods for measuring accountability of schools. These people admittedly had no idea of what science is. They proudly found the FDA’s notion of clinical trials as a “scientific gold standard.” In my view it has no scientific merit at all.

There has been so much talk about a coming paradigm change that I have to wonder if the idea still has creditability.

Now the job is to develop new sciences relevant to life.

Meanwhile be very skeptical of any claims that use the words “science” and ‘living.”

When I first started talking about the death of materialism I was shocked by the reactions. I was talking to the choir singing, “We know that, we just don’t know what to do about it.” Thus I wrote another paper to answer that question of what to do about it.

I wrote a paper called, “Towards a Science of Life as Creative Organisms,” was published by Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy. This is a peer-reviewed journal. I was particularly pleased by the way the editor described it: "The fourth paper, ‘Towards a Science of Life As Creative Organisms’ by Norm Hirst, is the point of departure for the following paper by Floyd Merrell. Hirst’s paper, which is partly autobiographical, describes an intellectual adventure to find a place in a scientific world for values and meaning. What this adventure revealed was that mainstream science, mathematics, logic and philosophy mutually support each other to promote a comprehensive materialist world-view that has no place or meaning for creativity. In this journey Hirst discovered the work of Rosen, and concluded, as Rosen had, that a new metaphysics is required. In this paper he uses Peirce’s notion of ‘abduction’ to

justify the speculative presentation of an alternative, process organismic world-view, a form of process metaphysics. While strongly influenced by Alfred North Whitehead and scientists influenced by him (especially the biophysicist Mae-Wan Ho), it is an original synthesis. This synthesis is then contrasted with ‘materialism.’ This highlights the way diverse ideas cohere to display the real alternatives, revealing thereby that what are often regarded as obvious, theoretically neutral ideas actually provide the foundations for a particular perspective of the world. This is being blocked not only by mathematical ideas, but more fundamentally by mainstream ideas in logic. In identifying blockages to this revolution in thought Hirst is particularly concerned with the influence of extensional logic, which, like the mathematical formalism attacked by Rosen, effectively eliminates meaning and creativity. What is called for, he argues, is a new logic adequate to the creativity of life."

Finally, science is not an empirical inquiry as had been thought. Science is a transcendental inquiry with empirical consequences. Transcendental means independent of human experience of phenomena but within the range of knowledge. The material sciences were never concerned with concrete fact. They were concerned with the transcendental laws organizing material processes. Thus they told us how to do things if we wanted to. We could calculate the requirements for space flight if we really wanted to, not because science required it. When we get to a science of life, the transcendental conditions tell us how living processes are organized and work enabling us to accomplish things in life that we have so far never known how to do, for instance making love primary.

Norm and Skye Hirst, PhD – co-founders of The Autonomics Institute. Together they are combining their work as consultants, researchers and educators to bring this emerging view of life as organism into focus.

As the shift of consciousness occurs, Skye works as coach and educator to individual progressive leaders worldwide, helping business owners, policy makers, and community organizers process the difficult challenges facing us at this time. Beginning at MIT studying physics, mathematics and values, Norm chose as his life work the study of where and how values show up in science. 50 years later he’s bringing out his findings of a whole new reality, philosophy and science for understanding life-itself dynamics. Contact them at hirst@autognomics.org or shirst@autognomics.org.

Inner Tapestry 6 Kristin Lane, Raymond ME,04071 207 799-7995

info@innertapestry.org www.innertapestry.org Feb/Mar 2009 Inner Tapestry 31

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find integrity to be an intriguing word. I thought I knew what it meant, but I looked it up to be sure. I found it defined by many other words, such as morality or wholeness. In the interest of defining integrity, it-self, I decided to define integrity as adherence to some standard. Thus, for example, given a standard for morality we can say that someone who upholds that standard can be said to have integrity, but there is danger here. What if someone upholds a different standard of morality? Not knowing, I might conclude they have no integrity. Thus I cannot trust them, or negotiate with them, or cooperate with them. Since I cannot depend on what they might do, they are dangerous. I must protect myself. Lacking communication I believe the only way is force, thus we arrive at the idiocy of war.

I say “idiocy” because in today’s world the mutual destruction and death caused by war exceeds what we fear when we go to war for protection.

Our situation is further complicated by a paradigm change that is in progress. There has been so much talk about a coming paradigm change that I have to wonder if the idea still has credibility. Well, it does, and when the current change is complete we will understand it much better. A paradigm change occurs when problems that cannot be solved with available knowledge are accumulating. Also there is new knowledge that can solve the problems but such knowledge is rejected because it doesn’t fit old ways of thinking.

The old ways of thinking in the U. S., in what we refer to as the Western world, and I think more of the whole world than we imagine, are based on a world view called “scientific materialism.” Beginning in the 1970’s laboratory experiments produced results that simply could not have happened if scientific materialism were true. Moreover, some experiments were showing the possibility of new forms of truth, truths making unsolvable problems solvable. Thus a worldwide paradigm change is now in progress.

The new forms of order show that the old truths work fine for habits embedded in matter, but applying them to life is a life-destroying catastrophe. For example, in the old ways of thinking there is nothing living. There is nothing but mechanisms, machines, cause and effect, and determinism. Anything that can happen is the result of all kinds of forces producing motion. There is nothing that can act on its own volition. You may think you did something because you just felt like it, but you can bet enormous sums and efforts are now devoted to find a cause-and-effect mechanism to fit the old thinking.

To answer the question about what has happened to integrity, there simply are no standards left to believe in.

From my point of view I agree with Dr. Mae Wan Ho, one of our leading biophysicists: I do not think quantum theory per se will lead us through the mechanistic deadlock to further understanding. Instead, we need a thoroughly organicist way of thinking that transcends both conventional thermodynamics and quantum theory.

For me, any further discussion of existing science is futile. It is time to make new sciences. But what is science? I remember fifty years ago when there was a good understanding of the difference between empirical philosophy and science. Today that understanding has

32

INNER TAPESTRY's Directory of Resources

Counseling & Therapy ................................... pages 32-33 Creative Healing Arts ........................................... page 33 Evolutionary Consciousness................................. page 34 Healing In Nature ................................................. page 34 Health Publications .............................................. page 34 Holistic Healing Centers ................................ pages 34-35 Hypnotherapy ...................................................... page 35 Integrative Healing ........................................ pages 35-37 Life Mastery ......................................................... page 37 Meditation ............................................................ page 37 Psychic & Spiritual Mediumship .......................... page 38 Reflexology & Healing Massage .......................... page 38 Retreats ............................................................... page 38 Sacred Space ...................................................... page 39 Salons & Spas ..................................................... page 39 Schools & Trainings ....................................... pages 39-40 Shamanic Healing ............................................... page 40 Yoga, Tai Chi, Aikido ...................................... pages 40-41

Holistic Practitioners, Products and Resources Each category contains practitioners from various states. co u n s e l i ng & t h e rapy Maine

counseling & the rapy- cont.

Patricia A. Burke, MSW, LCSW

Holistic Psychotherapy & Spiritual Development Work

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I am a clinical counselor and practitioner of Somatic Experiencing© with a private psychotherapy practice in Portland, Maine.

My work integrates traditional talk therapy, somatic therapy and mindfulness in work with individual clients. The emphasis is on helping people learn to access the innate healing ability of the human body.

The end goal is to heal trauma, stress, compulsions Douglas Smith and other challenges in order to enjoy an open, embodied flow of experience. I also teach workshops in somatics and sensory awareness for clinicians and others interested in mind-body integration. Most insurance accepted. For an appointment or more information please call, email or visit me on the web at www.mindmeetsbody.com. Douglas Smith, LCPC, SEP. 205 Ocean Avenue, Portland, ME 04103, (207) 773-7993 x19. smith@mindmeetsbody.com

"When we are fully present to ourselves the light of who we are shines through and like a slow deep breath, fills the world with love." -PB

In over twenty-five years of experience I have merged a variety of psychological, sensate awareness, spiritual and creative practices into a process of deep awakening that can help you heal trauma, addictions and depression, rediscover meaning and purpose in life, build mutually empowering relationships, enhance creativity and embrace the deep stillness of being from within which all experience arises. I have been deeply engaged in my own inner work for over twenty years and call upon my extensive training in spiritual and transformational practices to guide my work with others. I offer individual, group and couples consultation, personal intensives, workshops, supervision and training. Offices in West Baldwin & Yarmouth, ME, (207) 625-7012, pab@patriciaburke.com, www.patriciaburke.com.

Mark Nakell, LCPC Live From Your Center

Paul K. Matteson MS. Ed., L.C.P.C. Humanistic Psychotherapy

Grief and Loss Issues Adult survivors of all forms of childhood abuse " Moving Through Grief, Trauma and Loss Workshops " Office hours by appointment in Portland and Lewiston Accepting most insurances 207 753-0135 paul@edgebrook.org www.edgebrook.org

Awareness-based Psychotherapy Growth and Self-Realization Individual & Couples Counseling

All of life happens in the present moment: Our natural condition is an

open awareness of each moment as it occurs. Increased awareness of this moment—now—and of yourself in the moment, provides an increased experience of life, more joy, and greater fulfillment. Developing the capacity of your own center enables a deeper, more immediate experience of your aliveness and presence now. The result is increased freedom—freedom of choice, freedom of action, freedom of purpose—and deepened participation in the events of your own life. For a FREE introductory session, call (207) 773-4413 or email mnakell@openawareness.com, 25 Middle Street, Portland, ME 04101. Further information can be found at www.openawareness.com.

The love and support we offer others is the reflection of the love we have for ourselves.

32 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

33 cou ns e l i ng & t h e r apy- co n t .

Gestalt Your Life Angela Hassenpflug Personal Development/Gestalt Work Do you live your best life? Do you live up to your full potential?

Where do you express your true self?

I work with you to: - articulate your vision of what your Best Life will look like - refocus on your strengths and talents - get back in touch with your authentic self, your core beliefs and values - define your goals and strategies to achieve them - stay focused so that you do not give up or lose momentum I integrate life/personal coaching tools and Gestalt Therapy elements in my work.

We can meet in person or over the phone, I offer individual and group settings.

Call 207-592-7888 or email me, at angela@gestaltyourlife.com for more information and to set up a free introductory call. www.gestaltyourlife.com.

Judith C. Mignogna MSW, LCSW I enjoy helping individuals, couples, and families bring a renewed sense of peace and hope into their lives. Understanding differences in communication

learn more about me, please visit at www.truenorthhealthcenter.org/judith_ mignogna.asp or call (207) 781-4488.

creative healing arts Connecticut Zen Yoga is a journey of spiritual deepening that begins with the breath. Zen Yoga begins

with deep breathing to gather energy and then introduces soft, flowing movement and stretches to facilitate the smooth flow of that energy throughout the body. Based on the fundamental principles of yoga, tai chi and qigong, Zen Yoga is like nothing you have tried before. Prepare to feel wonderful! Our instructors create programs specifically designed to meet the needs of your group. We are available to teach workshops and stress relief programs throughout New England. We hold special retreats in the mountains of Vermont in September. Our Online Correspondence Course is a 12-week email program that provides tools to assist you on your journey of self-discovery. For more information: Phone: (860) 805-6551, Email: breathe@artofzenyoga.com, Website: www.artofzenyoga.com.

Directo ry of R es our ce s $375 for 1 year Print & Online Listing with An Active Link to your website!

Includes 2.8 inch ad space, (approximately 130 words) Initial set-up fee $20

Maine Art Therapy & Shamanism

Susan Bakaley Marshall, ATR-BC, LCPC Art therapy is a dynamic combination—powerful artistic creation with the insight of psychotherapy. Art therapy

and shamanic counselling will help you cultivate your strengths like a gardener tending plants. Together we can use imagination to design the garden. We can learn to tell flowers from weeds when your spirit is overgrown. Then we can plant seeds, nurture and water them and reap a new harvest. Everyone has an artist within. Our spirit and soul speak through the artwork. The art never lies; it gently reflects back those areas of life that need our attention, promoting positive change and healing on all levels. The best way to walk into your future is to create it! Board Certified Art Therapist, Licensed Clinical Counselor, Shamanic Practitioner with over thirty years experience. The Thirteenth Moon Center, "ART from the heART," (207) 589-3063. moonarts@gmail.com.

Surry Music Therapy Center: Alan Wittenberg M.A., CMT Certified Music Therapist, (AMTA) American Music Therapy Association Music therapy opens new channels of communication and contact through the creative and interactive use of music towards self-expression and self-discovery. It goes beyond

words and emotionally, physically, and intellectually touches those with psychological issues and special needs. Music Therapy is a dynamic clinical, educational, developmental, and rehabilitative treatment approach. Alan specializes in autism spectrum disorders, emotional and behavioral issues, speech and sensory integrative delays; as well as work with the elderly and Alzheimer’s.The Surry Music Therapy Center is a unique facility in Maine offering individual and small group sessions, seminars, conferences, in-service training, and workshop programs throughout Maine.

Contact Alan Wittenberg at (207) 667-1308, alan@surrymusictherapy.com.

Visit www.surrymusictherapy.com for seminar and conference information.

THE CREATIVE SPIRAL

Journey to the Authentic Self Helen Warren, M.S.Ed., M.F.A., facilitator Within each of us is the knowing of our oneness with the creative life force. In the silent, inner-directed

process of image-making as meditation, we reconnect with and are guided by our authentic selves, the ever-present creative and playful soul-child within who carries the imprint of this eternal oneness. The magical and profound process of Touch Drawing provides a unique portal. Retreats And Personal Journeys offer a safe and sacred space for experiencing deeper trust that fosters expanded intuition, imagination, and flexibility; reduction of stress, anxiety, depression and fear; and emotional and spiritual clarity that empowers us to live according to our soul’s blueprint. For those who aspire to live and experience life more deeply, creatively, and consciously! Visionary artist, art educator, facilitator and healer with over 40 years experience, Helen weaves together scholarship in the psychology of the creative process, intuitive insight, indigenous spirituality, and metaphysical wisdom in her facilitation.

FMI or to schedule an appointment: www.creativespiral.net; (207) 829-6876; helen@creativespiral.net.

Creative Spiral Studio, North Yarmouth, ME 04097

Online listing (without print copy) with an active link to your website. $100 plus an Initial set-up fee $20

Call 207-799-7995 or email: info@innertapestry.org Feb/Mar 2009 Inner Tapestry 33

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styles and learning new problem-solving skills can be key to unraveling many family system difficulties. I am also committed to working with breast cancer survivors, adults with ADHD, individuals with PTSD and those who feel unaccepted for "who they are." When clients accept and love themselves for their uniqueness, they become empowered to access new possibilities. I use a "strengths-based," "staying in the moment" approach to assist others on their journey to self-discovery. When validated and encouraged, my clients begin to master their own "destiny" while eradicating self-defeating obstacles and fears.

They come to understand themselves in a gratifying, non-judgmental way. To

creative healing arts–cont.

34 evolutionary consciousness Maine The Autognomics Institute since 1992 Norm and Skye Hirst co-founders TAI provides basic Research, Consulting and Education on the emerging new paradigm of living processes and the organizing principles within the energy of life-itself. Using a

"wholistic" perspective for social and individual change, TAI offers in-depth examination of old problems with new possibilities as we draw on emerging discoveries about how the energy of life-itself works. Bring your inquiry and find effective action for yourself or your organization. Call for consultation to explore how we can help you during this consciousness shift. www.autognomics.blogspot.com or call (207) 236-6331.

Ann Hastings Conscious Channel to Support the Awakening of Self Do you want to know who you are? Vywamus,

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a being of immense wisdom and compassion, channeled by Ann for many years, will help you achieve greater happiness and satisfaction in life through practicing the principles of reverence, fearlessness, integration, self-responsibility and unconditional acceptance. Ann is the author of The Mechanics of Reality: The Teachings of Vywamus and the co-founder of Reshaping The World, LLC where we offer a line of quality T-shirts bearing messages of acceptance, hope and unity that will support you energetically on your journey of self-discovery. Call Ann at (207) 625-8341 or email vywamus@vywamus.com to schedule a phone or in-person channeling session. Groups, classes and workshops are also available. Visit www.reshapingtheworld.com to order our transformational T-shirts.

healing in nature

M a i ne Ecotherapy Dennis Grannis-Phoenix Turtle Journeys Ecotherapy and the nature-based practices offered by Dennis Grannis-Phoenix, MA are designed to support individuals in the challenging yet predictable life transitions experienced by everyone. Walking side-by-side with individuals or

group participants Dennis helps guide and mentor each person as they transition psychospiritually from one phase of human life to the next. This transitional movement is marked with co-created, earth-centered rites of passage which have largely been forgotten by our contemporary culture. Using nature-based ritual and ceremony helps to bring us into closer connection with nature, the more-than-human world, and the true Self contained within each of us. Sessions occur in natural and wilderness settings with office locations available as needed.

For more information please call Dennis at (207) 273-1390 or email: dgp189@tds.net. Dennis has an MA in ecopsychological counseling from Prescott College and is a Registered Maine Guide.

If all my friends were to jump off a bridge, I wouldn't follow.

I'd be at the bottom to catch them when they fall. ...author unknown, a special friend!

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healing in nature-cont.

Mountain Spirit Journeys Jamal Lee-Elkin

Mountain Spirit Journeys is dedicated to helping people become whole and vibrant human beings living in connection to the Earth and all of creation. Mountain

Spirit Journeys is owned and operated by Jamal Lee-Elkin who is a Shamanic Healer, Reiki Therapist and Registered Maine Guide. Jamal enjoys sharing his love of the outdoors with people and has been a guide for 12 years. He has been on his spiritual path for 17 years and has a passion for helping others. Shamanic Healing consists of ancient and powerful methods for restoring your spirit to wholeness and vitality. The Shamanic Practitioner uses the unlimited power and love of the universe to help you with problems of your spirit/soul. Jamal also offers Reiki treatments, which is a positive energy that promotes healing and balances the mind, body and spirit. Wilderness Trips and Expeditions are intended to re-awaken a spiritual connection between you and the Earth.

These programs include the following: • Earth Based Wilderness Navigation • Rock & Ice Climbing • Wilderness Waterway Explorations • Mountaineering • Winter Survival Skills • Guided Walk With the Spirits • Wilderness Immersion

Please see our website www.mountainspiritjourneys.com, email Jamal at jamal@mountainspiritjourneys.com or call (207) 461-4840 for more information. Brownfield, ME.

health publications

Main e The Maine Directory of Complementary & Alternative Health Practitioners

By LeCain Smith, Windrose Productions Good health is something that we often don’t appreciate until something goes wrong. But wellness

can be achieved through non-invasive bodywork that recognizes the body’s innate intelligence and brings it to bear on the root cause of dysfunctions, strengthening the recipient’s ability to prevent a problem from occurring or progressing into disease, as well as restoring the body, mind, emotions and spirit to healthy functioning. To make it easier for people to access these methods of complementary holistic health care, Smith has compiled a directory of 421 practitioners working in 192 different therapeutic bodywork modalities (from Acupressure to Zero Balancing) in 131 towns in Maine. Descriptions of each modality are provided, along with information on energy medicine, other types of therapies available, massage and bodywork schools, and related associations or organizations. Windrose Productions hopes that this book will become an ongoing resource for Maine people by periodically updating and expanding it with new editions. For information, to be listed as a practitioner in future editions or to order: (207) 326-4279 or www.WindroseAway.com. Also available at bookstores around the state.

holistic healing centers

Main e Meadow Wind Center for Holistic Arts is a beautiful place for people to gather, to learn, to teach and to be a part of a community interested in conscious living. We offer the individual services of a holistic

center through our community of practitioners, as well as a wide spectrum of wonderful workshops and classes. The practitioners at Meadow Wind offer services from massage, polarity, spiritual healing and life coaching to art, yoga, hair, skin & beauty. To contact any of our practitioners call Meadow Wind or go to www.meadowwind.org for a list of practitioners and their personal contact information. We have a beautiful workshop/class space available to teachers who want to share what they have with others. To explore teaching at Meadow Wind contact Andrea Ferrante at (207) 878-3899. Our workshops and classes are also listed on our website, www.meadowwind.org. We are conveniently located at 100 Gray Rd., Falmouth, ME.

35 holistic healing centers-cont.

hypnotherapy-cont.

Hypno-Health ~ Hugh Sadlier, M.Ed., BCH.

The area's premier location for the most comprehensive selection of holistic health treatments and integrative medicine, meditation, yoga & movement classes offered by a dynamic community of professionals...

Holistic Medicines

Reiki~Polarity~Life Coaching~ Nutritional Counseling Massage Therapies: Hot Stone, Integrative, Deep Tissue Ener - genetics: Healing Through The Energy Of DNA Acupuncture ~ Homeopathy & Naturopathic Medicine Sanctuary Studio: Classes & Private Lessons !

Yoga: Vinyasa, Kripalu, Hatha For Women Meditation ~ Power Pilates ~ Relaxation ~ Core Conditioning Gift Certificate available! This season, give the gift of well-being at Sanctuary.

For more information, contact director Erinn Cayehal at (207) 846-1162 ext.2 50 Forest Falls Drive, 2nd flr, Yarmouth, ME 04096 or visit the website: www.sanctuaryhhyc.com.

Gardens of Atlantis Healing Arts Center This magnificent Owl reminds me of Old Man Winter with his sweetly chilly, wise, deep, searching gaze.

hypnotherapy

over 150 different issues, ranging from abuse, anxiety, dejection and insomnia to smoking, sports performance, sexual dysfunction, weight concerns—and much more. As I guide people, they bring forward from their subconscious mind an awareness and understanding of “the roots of their problem.” They are then empowered to disconnect those roots and create a new, positive thought pattern, which becomes their permanent reality through repetition. Hypnotherapy is a comfortable, gentle, natural and powerful way to learn the techniques to heal one’s self. Hypnotherapy could be the answer for you. Call (207) 374-2344 (Blue Hill) or (207) 773-5200 (Portland), sadlier@hypno-health.net, www.hypno-health.net.

ELISSAGARDE-JOIA

Harness the power of the mind-body connection.

As a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, I have

the tools and skills you need. Hypnotherapy eliminates fear and stress and creates a blueprint for health and healing that your mind can read and follow. Medical experts acknowledge that Hypnotherapy complements all medical procedures, maximizing their effectiveness and minimizing negative side effects. Pre/post surgical patients experience reduced anxiety, blood loss, and anesthesia need, and rapid healing.

Hypnotherapy is extremely effective in treating many physical challenges such as chronic pain and disorders of the stomach and digestive system.

Hypnosis for Childbirth removes the fear and pain of childbirth. Hypnotherapy played a major role in my own successful battle with breast cancer. After 16 years of private practice in New York, I am now privileged to serve my neighbors here in Mid-coast Maine. Please take advantage of a free phone consultation to discuss your questions and concerns. Home visits, sliding scale & group workshops available. Contact: Elissa Garde-Joia at 207-322-5600, elissagardejoia@gmail.com.

integrative healing

Maine

Connecticut

HypnoWave Hypnosis Training Center

Belanger Physical Therapy A neck or back doesn't walk into the office, a whole person does and all their history as well.

Ernest VanDenBossche, BCH, CI - Director Is it time for a change? Let hypnosis work for you in so

many ways. Become a Consulting Hypnotist. Training with Ernest VanDenBossche, Board Certified Hypnotherapist and Certified Instructor with the National Guild of Hypnotists (ngh.net), President Maine Guild of Hypnotists. Take the NGH “Consulting Hypnotist” Certification Training, 100-hour course. Be a Certified Hypnotist.

Learn – What is Hypnosis, Trance Depth Testing, Hypnotizability and Suggestibility, Rapid Inductions, Mind/Body Relaxation, Self-Hypnosis, Goal Development, Smoking Cessation, Weight Management, Stress Management, Pain Management, Age Regression, Reframing Trauma, Ethics for Professional Hypnotists, create customized scripts, and CDs for your clients. You get: NGH Manuals, One Year NGH Membership, Local and International support by other professional hypnotists, supervised in-class practice time to master your techniques quickly, informational Hypnosis CD ROM, and CDs and DVDs for your business. Call: (207) 453-6133, www.hypnotraining.us. Private consulting

What we do not choose to express emotionally will show itself in our bodies through tension, pain, illness and/or dis-ease. Joe invites his clients to welcome and feel, in order to transition, the walls that keep each of us from expressing our authentic selves in the world. Everything you need for what you really desire in your life is right in front of you. All you have to do is surrender to feel what is there. Joe chooses to support people physically, emotionally and energetically through manual therapy (cranial, muscle energy, functional technique, myofascial release), a deep belief in osteopathic philosophy, and heart. Marlborough, CT (860) 295-0572, or e-mail Joe at joeb.pt@snet.net.

and other trainings available.

Life is Change... Growth is Optional... Choose wisely.

ThinkExist.com Feb/Mar 2009 Inner Tapestry 35

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Time to slow down, read a great book, reflect inwards.

When Cabin Fever sets in, we have LOTS of FUN things to do that will coax you out of the house for awhile. We have Yoga, Qi Gong, Massage, and many workshops on the weekends designed to inspire and enlighten you on a newly forged path. Our February 7th Fair offers many interesting folks to meet. Let this New Year be one of gaining Wisdom, Peace, Harmony in our Relationships & Community. Reach out to the World around you. Explore how we can be Better People; more Loving, Kind and Caring to All we meet. (207) 929-5088 www.gardensofatlantis.org.

As a practicing Board Certified Hypnotherapist since 1991 in Blue Hill and Portland, I have helped hundreds of people take control of their lives. Together we have resolved

36 integrative healing–cont.

Maine your brain with eegmaine.

Bridgeside Counseling Train A parent’s quote, “When our and Neurofeedback daughter was 16 we discovered

neurofeedback. She had 14 sessions before end-of-the-year exams and she Elizabeth Millett, NCC, LCPC managed to pass her exams, which was a confidence booster for her.” Neurofeedback can be used for many issues, including attention issues, anxiety, depression, autistic spectrum, brain injury, peak performance and much more. Neurofeedback addresses the problems of brain regulation by allowing the brain to function better. It is training in self-regulation. Neurofeedback is the direct training of the brain, increasing its function, creating greater control and stability. By using computers and electrodes, brain waves can be observed moment-to-moment on a computer screen. Rewards and inhibits are set to optimize brain functioning, and the brain is then rewarded for changing its own activity to more appropriate patterns. This is a gradual learning process, which can be applied to any aspect of brain function that can be measured. I have seen excellent results with neurofeedback. Visit my website, www.eegmaine.com, for other services that are available and complimentary to training your brain, such as proshi, HEG and individual counseling. Call or email for a free consultation (207) 767-0117 or emillet2@gmail.com.

Ron and Joan

As WE change so does OUR world. With that stated,

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Ron and Joan are continually growing to welcome in opportunities to support those interested in awakening to the Truth as being fully human. The process they bring forth is simple and supports the creation of everyone's uniqueness as harmony with Source – we call this "Quantum Energetic Harmonization." We are excited to offer new trainings we have taken with Sue and Aaron Singleton, founders of The Way to Balance and the EOL process. The EOL trainings blend with and expand their offerings of harmonizing the physical, emotional and energetic aspects of each being beautifully. If you are interested in exploring how we may be able to support you please visit www.ronandjoan.com, see our ad on page 24 or call us at (207) 799-7998 with questions or for more information.

"There is more hunger for Love and Acceptance in the world today than there is for bread." (Mother Teresa).

SpiritWings CompassionateHealing

Kevin Pennell, Usui and Karuna® Reiki Master Teacher/Certified Hypnotherapist/Shamanic Practitioner and Vickie Cummings, Licensed and Nationally Certified Massage Therapist/Cranio Sacral Therapist/

Usui & Karuna® Reiki Practitioner: Massage – Including Therapeutic

Massage – Seated Massage – Couples Massage and Outcalls available, Craniosacral Therapy, Hypnotherapy, Reiki, Past Life Regression, Ancestral Healing Techniques and Readings. We consult with each client to identify the appropriate modalities to achieve self-healing and overall well-being. We offer Reiki and Karuna® Reiki Classes plus other workshops to guide you on your spiritual journey. Visit SpiritWings for a cross-cultural variety of enchanting gifts, supplies and accessories to aid your spiritual journey, including an exquisite selection of healing crystals and quartz crystal singing bowls. SpiritWings is conveniently located at 14 Main Street in Bethel, Maine. Sessions by appointment.

Store hours Tuesday through Saturday 10 - 5. Telephone (207) 824-2204 or visit us on the web at www.SpiritWingsBethel.com. Credit Cards accepted.

Open you mind ~ Open your heart Spread your wings and fly...

Notice where you land.

integrative healing–cont.

Dr. Adi Philpott

Osteopathic P hysician Acupuncture Practitioner, Certified Hypnotherapist, EF T-Adv Holistic Facial Rejuvenation For those seeking gentle, safe, alternative methods to improve health and performance Dr. Philpott offers a multidisciplinary approach. Used alone or in combination,

osteopathy, auriculotherapy (ear acupuncture), hypnotherapy, EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), and Quantum Touch Technique® modalities are highly effective in treating medical conditions and physical/emotional concerns as well as improving performance. These treatments offer excellent results in areas such as pain, stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, phobias, weight loss, smoking cessation, sports and public speaking. Free initial consultation. For more information or an appointment call (888) 598-5445. Conveniently located at, 222 St. John Street, Suite 130, Portland, ME. Now accepting insurance, www.DrPhilpott.com.

Accepted & honored for who you are, just as you are, today. Encouraged and

supported to be who you are in your Highest Potential. You are invited to experience a new horizon of well-being with an energetic bodywork session custom-tailored to support you on your journey through life. Drawing Carney Brewer on a therapeutic background that includes Reiki Master status, massage & polarity therapies, classical music training, core shamanic practices and Young Living Essential Oils, I create a multi-sensory experience intentionally designed to induce a state of blissful relaxation. In this space of deep relaxation your body will naturally begin to re-align itself with its perfect state. Allow yourself to experience the wonders of feeling even better than you do today. Call (207) 450-8587 to schedule a free initial consultation.

Kim Egberts Holistic & Cranial Sacral Therapist Transforming the stress in your life.

Professionally trained for the last ten years by the Upledger Institute. Work has included advanced study

in CranioSacral therapy including pediatrics and SomatoEmotional Release. Related course work has included advanced brain work. Offering Craniosacral Therapy, Lymph Drainage, and Neurological reorganization with intuitive healing and therapy from the heart. Integrative use of various techniques assists with a wide range of conditions, including: Migraines and headaches, chronic neck and back pain, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, learning disabilities, autism, cerebral palsy, central nervous system disorders, infantile disorders, feeding disorders and anxiety.

For more information or for an appointment, please call 207-653-8263.

Yarmouth ME.

Roberta Barnes Reiki Shihan & Herbalist “Everyone is born with the right to be healthy and live with happiness, and the path of Reiki helps to fulfill that right.”

– Roberta Barnes, CHT, Gendai Reiki-

ho & Komyo Reiki Shihan (teacher), and Herbalist. Roberta's teaching and healing space, nestled in a wildlife habitat, is the perfect environment in which to receive a safe healing experience. Encased in harmonizing relaxation, begin your journey to return to your natural state of well-being by... learning Japanese styles of Usui Reiki Ryoho > experiencing one or more healing sessions > scheduling a personalized herb report > journeying into your past for healing or discovery > learning meditation you can do any place/any time > learning to connect with nature. Roberta's Usui Reiki Ryoho lineage has only three Reiki Shihans between Mikao Usui, the founder, and her.

Visit http://www.naturalhealinglearning.com or call today (207) 445-5671.

36 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

37 integrative healing–cont.

life mastery–cont.

FERN DYER - Reiki Master/IET Practitioner Reiki with Crystals, Stones, Integrated Energy Therapy, Reading, Write-up. Our intuition guides us to the stones and crystals

necessary for our development. Reiki is introduced to balance the body, mind and spirit so your innate healing ability can be bolstered. If you choose, Integrated Energy Therapy is added.

IET provides a simple and gentle way to open the flow of vital life force within the human body and energy field by integrating suppressed feelings from cellular memory and clearing their associated energy blockages. Your messages are discussed. A write-up (detailing the meanings of the stones, the meanings of the flowers, animals etc. that I saw/ heard/felt during the session and any other messages received) is then sent to you. Call (207) 415-8638 or e-mail: fdyer@maine.rr.com for an appointment/more information.Visa/MC accepted. Jewelry, nature photos. Now in-town Portland, www.lilysongbird.com.

Ocean of Possibilities Life Coaching Deborah Bergeron, CPCC, Certified Life Coach, Prosperity Guide

Create an intentional life… Consider what it would be like to live life fully and authentically, experiencing love, prosperity, ease, freedom, and

fun. In our work together, you will learn to break through limiting paradigms

and create a dynamic vision for your life – a vision that can pave the way to living your greatest potential and sharing your gifts with the world. By weaving in successful coaching principals and the Law of Attraction, you will be guided to access your inner wisdom, to get clear on what you want in your life and learn the tools that will support you in having it. Every journey truly starts with a single step. When you are ready to embark on your mission of life, I would be honored to walk with you. For a complimentary coaching session or schedule of workshops call (207) 797-9007 or email: debcoaches@aol.com. Phone sessions available. www.oceanofpossibilities.com.

life mastery Massachusetts

Maine

Patti Greco ~ Intuitive Counsel for Lightworkers in Motion

Words for the Wise Anne Smith, M.A. Certified Coach, Energy Medicine Practitioner: TYLEM, IET, Reiki defeating patterns and habits? Eager to create the life you know you deserve to live? You can achieve this and more through a unique blending of Life Coaching and Energy Medicine Therapies. I support, guide and assist you in releasing what has been holding you back from experiencing your true potential. I empower you to clarify your goals and take steps to create the authentic life you truly want and deserve. In my client's words: "Sessions removed deeply entrenched thoughts, feelings, emotions that were creating pain in my life and body. The experience has been effortless and profound. Anne is committed to being on your search 'with you'. Her patience, keen insight, and gentle nature make you want to go deeper into your soul's internal dialogue." I also share techniques and tools for you to use in your personal growth and self-care as you take the action steps you choose to reach your goals and create your own life. I invite you to call (207) 462-8757, or email wordsftwise@gmail.com, to schedule your complimentary session and /or receive more information. Convenient phone sessions, as well as in-person sessions available.

Heart-breaking and magical. That is your Soul Story and Patti Greco is your psychic storyteller. Her spiritual consultations tap multi-layered psychic writing, clairvoyant art, and psychic photography to shed light on your questions of the heart. Greco Writing offers the following visionary services through phone consult or email readings: The Soul Story, The Akashic Records (Past Life Reading), The Multidimensional Card Reading, The Cameo, Intuitive Dream Analysis, The Faerie (devic) reading, Intuitive Life Coaching and more. No matter what chapter you find yourself in, your Soul Story is a tool for understanding your key role in the Universe, and empowering your life’s work and relationships. Patti has worked as a professional clairvoyant for clients in all walks of life since 1985 (see her full Clairvoyant Profile on soul-stories.net). By appointment. MC/VISA accepted. Contact Patti Greco at (978) 448-5018, grecowriting@verizon.net. www.soul-stories.net.

meditation Maine

TAROTWORKS Jeanne Fiorini A tarot reading can be an avenue by which to have an authentic conversation about what matters most in your life. Tarot Works provides numerous ways to

Sant Mat Radhaswami, The Path of the Masters

experience the wisdom and beauty of this ancient system of symbols, by offering individual and group readings, classes from beginner's level to "Readers in Training," ongoing monthly groups, and special events. Phone readings are available.

Jeanne Fiorini is a Tarot practitioner and teacher with 16 years' experience.

She has training in both mediation and psychosynthesis counseling, bringing practical guidance and useful information to all her readings. Jeanne is currently a contributing columnist for the American Tarot Association's newsletter www.ata-tarot.com/reflections. For more information about all

The Maine Sant Mat Society presents the Enlightenment Experience as taught by Sant Sevi Ji Maharaj of Bihir, India,

a series of free lectures, meditations and satsangs around Maine facilitated by James Bean, a local representative of the Sant Mat tradition of Inner Light & Sound Meditation known as Surat Shabd Yoga, in the lineage of Tulsi Sahib.

For More Information call (207) 368-5866, or email: James@SpiritualAwakeningRadio.com, Website: www.Myspace.com/Santmat_Mystic.

the TarotWorks offerings, visit www.tarotworks.com or phone Jeanne at (207) 799-8648.

Deadlines for the Directory of Resources To Reserve space March 1st

~ For all graphic and text material March 5th Feb/Mar 2009 Inner Tapestry 37

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Tired of settling for less than you want? Ready to free yourself of old, self-

Patti Greco acts as Intuitive Counsel, Soul Coach, and Catalyst to help her clients across the US find their own life invitations. Authentic. Meaningful.

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retreats

Maine PsychicMediumship, Hypnotherapy

Maine

Bonnie Lee Gibson is a professional Psychic Medium, Hypnotherapist, Registered Counselor, Reiki Master, healer, teacher and lecturer with thirty years of experience. She

resides in Fairfield and Northport, Maine.

Her first experience with Spirit was at the age of four. She has connected many people with loved ones who have crossed over, as well as their angels and spirit guides. Bonnie Lee communicates with pets, both here and on the spirit side. She gives spirit readings all over the world by telephone and travels in the US and Canada.

Services include: Hypnotherapy, Psychic Mediumship Readings, Gallery Readings, Workshops, Classes and Lectures, Reading Circles and Private Groups in the comfort of your home. Call (207) 453-6133, cell (207) 649-7089, spirit@bonnielee.net, www.bonnielee.net, and www.hypno.us.

reflexology & healing massage Maine Hands on Feet ~ Lynn Danforth, Certified Reflexologist Reflexology is an amazing stress-relieving technique. Relaxation is a skill that most Americans do not practice often. Stress builds

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and builds until it becomes a lifestyle. Lynn Marie Danforth has been practicing Reflexology for over 5 years. Lynn specializes in therapeutic Reflexology.

Her greatest success is with tendonitis, plantar fasciitis and relief of tension. Lynn’s Reflexology sessions are quick, effective and could be the answer to your body’s cry for relief. Lynn has been able to show clients that change for the better is possible, that improved health is truly in your hands... and feet. To contact Lynn call (207) 767-5776 or 207-318-0129, or visit www.handsonfeet.net.

Jennifer Bourget, RN, LMT, Reiki II Practitioner Jennifer Bourget holds a BS degree in nursing since 1983, is a Licensed Massage Therapist and Reiki II Practitioner. Jennifer works from a belief that there is a

connectedness between all living things and it is through this relationship that we are able to find healing, harmony and balance. You are invited to experience deep relaxation and peace in a beautiful, energetically clear space. Choose from massage therapy, including pregnancy massage, Reiki, aromatherapy, Raindrop Technique, or a combination of therapies. Thirty-, sixty- and ninety-minute sessions available. Guigen Qigong instruction and on-site chair massage also available. Located in a lovely Victorian at 251 Main Street in Yarmouth,

Maine. Sessions by appointment weekdays and Saturday. Contact (207) 846-4704 or (207) 841-3053, jbourget0261@hotmail.com. Or visit www. jenniferbourget.massagetherapy.com.

The knowledgeable and experienced practitioners at The Wellness Center offer a full spectrum of holistic, traditional and alternative techniques.

Enjoy engaging seminars that will flex your intellect. Join a movement class to tone your heart and spirit.

Experience the skillful touch of artists sensitive to the subtle thread of muscle and mind. Freshen your outward glow from head to toe. For more information about ongoing programs, upcoming seminars and suite availability, please call (207) 465-4490 or visit us on the Wellness page at VillageSoup.com. The Wellness Center, 69 & 71 Elm Street, Camden, ME 04843.

Sewall House Yoga Retreat Enjoy yoga twice daily, meditation, massage, sauna and healthy home-cooked vegetarian cuisine. Near pristine lakes

and Baxter State Park, hike, bike, swim, canoe, kayak or simply porch sit! Five days suggested, weekends, shorter and longer stays arranged. Step back into time in the comfort of this bed and breakfast style retreat listed in the National Registry of Historic Places.

Nature guide William Sewall shared the healing attributes of nature with a young Theodore Roosevelt, who restored his health from life-threatening asthma here. The tradition continues since 1997 with William Sewall's great granddaughter, yoga instructor Donna Davidge, with over 25 years' experience in the healing arts, and her Swedish husband, musician and chef Kent Bonham. Experience the friendly hospitality Sewall House has always offered.

Sewall House Yoga Retreat Island Falls, Maine www.sewallhouse.com.

(888) 235-2395 July 3 – October.

Nurture Through Nature

Since 1999, Nurture Through Nature has been offering transformative retreats and women's holistic canoe trips dedicated to creating lasting internal peace. You are invited to join

this inner peace movement through our guided meditation circles, gentle Let Us Guide You Home... yoga, mindfulness practices and through Pleasant Mountain, Denmark embodying The Work of Byron Katie.

Experience balance through gently guided outdoor pursuits, connecting to the living earth and your inner self. Nurture Through Nature is a Maine - Certified Environmental Leader, committed to sustainability practices, including solar-powered facilities and our composting/recycling efforts. Eco-cabin getaways, customized solo and private group retreats are available to both individuals and practitioners. We rest on 33 pristine acres on Pleasant Mountain, just over an hour from Portland, Freeport and Lewiston, Maine and 3 hours from Boston. www.ntnretreats.com, ntnretreat@yahoo.com, (207) 452-2929.

Directory of Resources Listings are easy to compose.

Write as though you are speaking to others about the work you do and the services you offer.

For more information call: (207) 799-7995 or email info@innertapestry.org 38 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

39 sacred space

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Maine Ravens’ Crossing — Come find some rural Earthrest offers indoor and outside gathering space for retreats, workshops, spiritual questing, ceremony and celebration. Come,

Raven’s Crossing Appleton, Maine

surround yourself with natural beauty in a country setting of organic gardens, open fields, woods and water where the land is still a little wild and the animals remember their true names. We are just 35 miles from Portland on 350 acres of very special land, nestled in the foothills of the White Mountains. Inside enjoy the large gathering spaces, both with fireplaces. Outside walk the land, the labyrinth and hiking trails. Many options available. FMI call Pat at

comfort and relaxation in our wood-fired sauna and/or therapeutic hot tub. Deep tissue, Swedish,

and myofascial-release massage available by licensed massage therapist. Rustic retreat cabin can sleep two. Available by appointment in private setting.

Trails to walk, ride horses, or X-country ski. Space for small gatherings. Please call Lori Cressler at (207) 845-2304 or visit www.ravens-crossing.com.

Holistic Facial Rejuvenation

(207) 625-4179 or email: earthrest@psouth.net.

Take Beauty to the Next Level More than a cosmetic procedure, Holistic Facial Rejuvenation using ELR™ is a revitalization process for the entire body designed to make you look and feel renewed. Lose that under-eye “baggage!” Turn jowls into a

Mahoosuc Mountain Lodge and Husky Farm are nestled on 60 acres in the beautiful Bear River Valley of Newry in western Maine.

or visit: www.mahoosucmountainlodge.com.

salons & spas Maine

jaw-line! Look rested, awake and rejuvenated! A complete course of treatment is 10 to 12 sessions, but noticeable results occur after only 1-3 treatments.

• Non-Surgical Facelift • Non-needle, Acupuncture-based • No Side Effects • No Pain • No Downtime for Healing • Holistic Anyone can benefit from ELR™ treatments. From acne to aging, ELR™ is a whole body rejuvenation that will bring your facial beauty to the next level!

Dr. Adi Philpott, 222 St. John St, Suite 130, Portland, ME 04102, (888) 598-5445, www.HolisticFacialRejuvenation.com.

Osteopathic physician, Acupuncture practitioner.

GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED

schools & trainings

Stephanie Kostopoulos is honored to bring her artistry and 25 years of experience to Meadow Wind. She has traveled the world

motivated by multi-cultural curiosity to explore the many truths, in all their aspects, HAIR BEAUTY GRACE that make our world beautiful. She happily cultivates this curiosity by assisting people to recognize the innate beauty that resides within each-and-every one. By creating beauty, Stephanie encourages people to take care of themselves, the environment in which they live, and the things they love. Her belief is that beauty is harmony and she gracefully communicates the inseparable unity between exterior and interior beauty. The intention that resides in her heart is soulfully communicated through her hands. Providing a nurturing environment Stephanie assists her clients in the decision-making process regarding the expression and enhancement of their own beauty. Call to schedule a consultation or appointment, and you will understand why Stephanie has been embraced by Meadow Wind Center for Holistic Arts.

Stephanie’s custom-designed jewelry and organic products are some of the many treasures at Roots! Hours By Appointment call (207) 838-9535, email beautyheals@aol.com, or visit me at 100 Gray Rd., Falmouth, Me.

Maine

Yokids

is a non-profit, tax-deductible organization. We teach yoga to elementary school children and their homeroom teachers. We can come to your school and teach

formal yoga classes or we can come to your classroom and help you to initiate a yoga program you can use on a daily basis in your class. We also offer Tools for Teachers, an in-house workshop, which teaches teachers to use four basic yoga tools in their daily teaching. These tools will allow teachers to help children with relaxation, breathing, and stress reduction, which will complement their overall learning and create a harmonious learning environment. Workshops can be scheduled as in-house workdays for teachers in public and private schools.

These workshops are individually tailored, and price varies according to the length. Please contact Lily Goodale at ngoodale@aol.com or (207) 236-6001.

Workshops can be given from Portland to Bar Harbor and are certified and part of the Yoga Ed foundation of yoga for children. www.yogaed.com.

TO BECOME PART OF THE INNER TAPESTRY COMMUNITY AS AN ADVERTISER, DISTRIBUTOR, CONTRIBUTING WRITER OR ARTIST Call 207-799-7995 or visit www.Innertapestry.Org

Feb/Mar 2009 Inner Tapestry 39

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The lodge is a traditional New England timberframe featuring hand-cut mortise and tenon joinery. It is the home base of Mahoosuc Guide Service and their working sled dogs (www.mahoosuc.com). In addition to the Lodge, the original 3-bedroom farmhouse built in 1903 has been renovated and is being operated as a Bed and Breakfast. Our views are dominated by the 3,500-4,000’ peaks of the Mahoosuc Range. We are: 1 mile to Grafton Notch State Park, 4.7 miles to the Appalachian Trail, 14 miles to Umbagog Lake National Wildlife Refuge, and 2 miles to the Grafton Loop Trail. Mahoosuc Mountain Lodge is a great facility to host a retreat, meetings, family reunions, dances/concerts, wedding or an outdoor activity. Please call Polly or Kevin at: (207) 824-2073 for more information

40 schools & trainings-cont.

Treat Your Feet

A Very Rewarding Career ~ Nurturing your physical Nervous System through reflex points found within your feet & hands.

Learn about a specific touch technique of applying pressure, using your thumb and fingers, to reflex points of the feet and hands that relate to other parts of the body.

Reflexology is credited with improving circulation and reducing body stress, which

removes blockages along the nerve pathways what we call Zones. A 250-hour certification course for School of Reflexology $3,300 to learn Reflexology and its Application.

Cost includes two Reflexology chairs, all required reading books, foot, hand charts, footbath items & much more.

For more information, call Board Certified Foot & Hand Reflexologist Myra Achorn, Augusta (207) 626-FEET. Classes start in February, May & September, www.treatyourfeet.com. Licensed by the State of Maine Department of Education.

shamanic healing-cont.

D O R Y C OTE

…Follow the Path to Your Own True Essence. At

the core of my shamanic healing practice is the belief that we have the capacity to be whole, stable, and functioning at our highest potential. My healing space is safe, quiet and nourishing. I regularly perform soul retrievals, communicate with the spirits of deceased loved ones and facilitate healing the numerous wounds of life in the 21st century. I have completed a Three-Year The Center for Program in Advanced Shamanism and Shamanic Earth Light Healing Healing with the Foundation for Shamanic Studies and other intensive trainings, including experiences with indigenous shamans from around the world. I graduated from a Two-Year Teacher Training Program with world-renowned shaman, Sandra Ingerman, and this authorizes me to teach beginner and advanced shamanic healing methods. Please see my workshop schedule or make an appointment at www.earthlighthealing.com, email me at dory@dorycote.com, or call (207) 841-1215.

Pacha Works

Chaplaincy Institute of Maine

Interfaith Spiritual Growth and Ordination World Religions, Art as Meditation, Creation Spirituality, Interfaith Worship

First Year: The Way of Contemplation • Second Year: The Way of Action The next two-year program begins September 2009

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ChIME offers a two-year program for Interfaith Spiritual growth and possible ordination as an Interfaith Minister.

Students commit to attending class one evening a week and one weekend a month September through May. Two weekend retreats are also built into the schedule. Some weekend workshops are open to the general public.

Tuition for the two years is $5,400.

Information and applications: ChIME Admissions, P.O. Box 3833, Portland, Maine 04104 (207) 347-6740 • chimeadmin@gmail.com • chimeofmaine.org

shamanic healing

Holding New Possibilities.

Working with traditional shamanistic practices for healing.

Eva Rose Goetz, director

"Healing is a collaboration. I love working with people privately or with groups. By working together we remove energies that may be in the way of our coming into wholeness and balance." Eva Rose Goetz: BFA University of Texas at Austin, MS Ed.

Bank Street College NYC, Medicine Wheel Training with Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D. and Lisa Summerlott. Certified In Light Body Medicine with Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D. Core Shamanism with Evelyn Rysdyk and Allie Knowlton.

Eva gratefully continues her studies with indigenous medicine people in Peru, New Mexico, Canada, Africa and Mexico. Eva hosts workshops, leads ceremonies and has a private Shamanic Energy Practice in Falmouth, Maine.

A new 16-month course in beginning Shamanism begins April 2009. More information about classes, private sessions, or ceremonies can be found at www.pachaworks.com or contact Eva directly at (207) 756-0488. "By

working with intentions of great love and spirit it is believed energy can move. A door opens and there is possibility of something new."

Maine Spirit Passages Allie Knowlton, MSW, DCSW & Evelyn Rysdyk As Spirit Passages, C. Allie Knowlton, MSW, DCSW and Evelyn C. Rysdyk (author of Modern Shamanic Living) have facilitated shamanic healings and taught shamanic workshops across the U.S. and Canada since 1991. Graduates of the

Foundation for Shamanic Studies 3-Year Program in Advanced Shamanism and Shamanic Healing, they have also been fortunate to study with indigenous shamans from Peru, Ecuador, Tuva and Siberia. Working heart-to-heart with Spirit, they offer all traditional forms of shamanic healings at True North (207) 781-4488 ~ a unique, multidisciplinary medical center that they helped to found. They may also be reached at: www.spiritpassages.com.

Yoga ~ T'ai Chi ~ Aikido Connecticut GLASTONBURY Sacred Rivers Yoga Offers Yoga for Every Body, therapeutic massage and bodywork modalities, acupuncture, nutritional and herbal therapies. We are also a Yoga Alliance 200 and 500 hour registered yoga teacher training school. www.sacredriversyoga.com.

Living Through Our Hearts We will Be Integrity!

40 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

41 Yoga ~ T'ai Chi ~ Aikido-cont.

Maine

Yoga ~ T'ai Chi ~ Aikido-cont.

PORTLAND-cont.

Portland T'ai Chi School

BANGOR The Fountain Yoga Studio & Therapeutics

All levels welcome. Ongoing classes include: Gentle, Flow, Privates, Yoga for Pregnancy and Yoga for Heart Health. For schedule and more information contact: Teri at (207) 323-2024 or Laura at (207) 542-4103, 38 Fountain St. Bangor, www.fountainyoga.com.

Traditional Yang Style T'ai Chi classes at the Portland New Church Wednesdays 6:00pm-7:00pm. White Crane Qi Gong is taught to develop internal energy. The focus is on developing a healthy body and emotional being. (207) 272-8286, www.portlandtaichi.org.

WholeHeart Yoga Center

FREEPORT Center Studio and Spa

We view education about and communication with one's body as the most valuable relationship a being can have. Classes are offered in a gorgeous, serene setting that will give you immediate comfort.

Yoga, Meditation, NIA and Yamuna Body Rolling (www.yamunabodyrolling.com) for all levels, as well as workshops in various psychic and spiritual modalities, Young Living Oils, sensuality dance and more! Private instruction is available. The Center also offers a full menu of holistic skin and body therapies and natural nailcare. Please contact us with any questions: (207) 865-0086, www.centerstudioandspa.com, 194 Main Street, Freeport (conveniently off exit 22).

Portland's Kripalu-affiliated studio offers a full schedule of weekly classes for all levels. Our instructors are all Kripalu-certified and highly trained. We also offer weekend workshops, private instruction, and Kirtans (chanting events). 150 St. John Street, Portland.

(207) 871-8274, www.wholeheartyoga.com or email: info@wholeheartyoga.com.

YARMOUTH Sanctuary Holistic Health & Yoga Center Spacious & beautiful newly built studio. Professional instruction in KRIPALU & HATHA YOGA and MEDITATION. Now also PILATES and QI GONG! Group & private classes, all levels: youth, teens, adults. See website for schedule. (207) 846-1162, www.sanctuaryhhyc.com.

Holistic Pathways Yoga & Healing Center All abilities/ages. Beginner, Continuing, Intermediate, Toning & Sculpting, Pregnancy Yoga, Couples Pregnancy Yoga, Mommy & Me (infants), Yoga for Tweens and Teens, Yoga for Tots. Private sessions available. Postures, breathwork, meditation and relaxation. (207) 839-7192. www.holisticpathways.com.

The Inner Tapestry's

\ Yoga, T'ai Chi, Aikido listing \

PORTLAND Aikido of Maine Aikido: "The Art of Peace"—a martial art for selfdefense and spiritual development. Connecting movement, breath and energy through partner practice. Seeking harmony from conflict.

Creating an alert mind, calm body and enhanced health and awareness. Daily classes: beginners, adults & children. Flexible schedules, (207) 879-9207, 226 Anderson St., Portland, www.aikidoofmaine.com.

Send all listings to

is an excellent resource for getting the word out for your classes & workshops!

If you and your group or school hold classes and workshops and would like to be listed in this Directory,

please call: (207) 799-7995 or Email: info@innertapestry.org.

Six issues in print costs $160 for 35 words plus logo.

Online placement in the Directory of Resources with a direct link to your website for an additional $75.

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Our thanks to the many who support our community.

Feb/Mar 2009 Inner Tapestry 41

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GORHAM

42

Calendar and Classified GuidelinesAnd Advertising Rates Are Located on Page 43

H eart V isions

March 8th-15th, 2009 Women's Holistic Yoga and Meditation Eco-Retreat in the U.S. Virgin Island’s renowned eco-resort Maho Bay, St. John, US Virgin Islands with Nurture Through Nature, www.ntnretreats.ccom (207) 452-2929, $978.

March 17th-23rd Women’s Winter Retreat on St. Croix Sacred Movement, Sound, Meditation & Swimming in the sun.

FMI: www.mysticpeace.com, $1,350 plus airfare.

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May 7th-21st Maine Qi Gong and Healing Arts Study Trip to China

February 20th-22nd Creating An Amazing Life Is the secret to having an amazing life available to Everyday People? We have assembled teachers & speakers who live their lives with passion, abundance and positive energy. Come and join us for a weekend filled with state-of-the-art information and technology designed to assist you in reaching your greatest potential. 6 Workshops and guest healers. Please see website for time and cost detail. Featuring Enlightened Professional founder Robin Clare and Radio Personality Mary Jones. Space is limited for workshops. Purchase tickets in advance to secure a spot. The Enlightened Professional Center, 3 Barnard Lane, Bloomfield, CT 06002, (860) 232-3331, www.epllc.org.

February ~Maine February 2009 1st Session of the 2009 Shamanic Apprenticeship Program Weekend program meeting 6 times in 2009. Visit website for further information. www.earthlighthealing.com, dory@dorycote.com, (207) 841-1215.

March 12th, 6 Thursdays, 7:00pm-9:00pm Exploring and Developing Your Psychic Abilities

February 7th ~ 11am-4pm Wellness Fair: Leapin’ Lizards, Freeport

February~Connecticut February 6th-9th Amma & Swamiji 2009 U.S. Tour Experience Divine Love and Abundance. Experience a rare transference of the Spiritual Power of the Divine Mother carried

by Amma Adi Sakthi and Swami Shanmuga of Singapore.

This energy opens doors to higher consciousness, removes obstacles to abundance and good relationships, protects from negativity, and dissolves sufferings. Darshan – 2-Day Retreat – Puja – Private Consultations. Space is limited for events.

Purchase tickets in advance to secure a spot. The Enlightened Professional Center, 3 Barnard Lane, Bloomfield, CT 06002, (860) 232-3331, www.epllc.org.

February 7th & March 14th ~ 10:00am-11:00am Move Better, Feel Better Explore ways of moving with less tension using the Alexander Technique. Free intro class. www.millerAT.com, (860) 656-6177 to register, West Hartford

Saturday, February 7th ~ 8:45am-12:30pm Balancing ~ Free Women's Retreat Exploring Life Balance. www.millerat.com/Balancing.pdf (860) 653-9755 to register, Granby.

February 15th, 9:30am-11:30am Oneness CT Suggested Donation -$20. One Sunday a month, we gather for a morning of discussion, meditation and receiving of the Oneness Blessing (Deeksha). The Oneness Blessing is a direct transfer of grace available on the planet today to help you achieve your greatest intention. The Enlightened Professional Center, 3 Barnard Lane, Bloomfield, CT 06002, (860) 232-3331, www.epllc.org.

42 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

March 10th, 6 Tuesdays, 7:00pm-9:00pm Study of the Paranormal – Mary Cunningham

February 6th 6:30pm Hear Dr. Christiane Northrup Speak

October 18th-24th Assisi Pilgrimage: Your Sacred Work www.mysticpeace.com.

Cost: $5.00 Description: At the world premier of the documentary, Raga Unveiled, the viewer will be exposed to commentaries by musicians, Vedic scholars, and musicologists as they explore the history and essence of northern Indian classical musical art form. Raga music is vibrant, mesmeric, and sublime. For over 4000 year, raga music has been profoundly changing the performer and the listener at the deepest level. Raga Unveiled exhaustively covers every aspect of the “architectural brilliance” of raga music. Rage Unveiled inspires, moves, and transports one to a place that you never imagined existed. Filmmakers: Gita & Mukesh DeSai (Event Hosts) Cinestudio, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT. 06106, (860) 232-3331, www.epllc.org.

and The Work of Byron Katie with Nurture Through Nature, Denmark,Maine, www.ntnretreats.com, (207) 452-2929, $250

February 6th-8th A Women's Winter Retreat~Snow Shoe, Meditation

www.mysticpeace.com.

May 24th-30th Assisi Pilgrimage: The Sacred Body

March 8th, 2:30pm Raga Unveiled

This course will explore such topics as ESP, the near - death experience, life–after-death, ghosts, mediums, clairvoyance, astral projection, reincarnation, color therapy and natural healing. The Enlightened Professional Center, 3 Barnard Lane, Bloomfield, CT 06002, (860) 232-3331, www.epllc.org. $75, pre-registration required.

on the Secret Pleasures of Midlife and Beyond! Do you dread getting older? Do you worry about unbearable hot flashes, sleep deprivation, and the end of your sex life? Does our current global economic shift keep you awake at night with worry? Then join New York Times best-selling author and today’s leading expert on women’s health, Dr. Christiane Northrup on Friday, February 6th when she speaks on the Secret Pleasures of Midlife and Beyond. Tickets $50 available at Leapin' Lizards, Freeport (207) 865-0900.

for Practitioners and Students. A delicious experience sponsored by The Whole Health Center, Bar Harbor.

REGISTER NOW. For information and brochure call us at (207) 288-4128 or e-mail us at info@thewholehealthcenter.com.

March ~ Connecticut

Join us for healing, knowledge and lots of fun. Healers include SaraBelle, Rose Morris, medical intuitive-Dr. Kevin Emery, Biocleanse Detox Foot Baths, Sound Therapy Table, aura photography, Chair Massage; lots of give aways and surprises.

Admission Free. Reservations for services (207) 865-0900.

February 7th ~ 6:30pm Movie ~ Ambition to Meaning at Leapin’ Lizards, Freeport. A compelling portrait of three modern lives in need of new direction and new meaning. In his first-ever movie, Wayne Dyer explores the spiritual journey in the second half of life when we long to find the purpose that is our unique contribution to the world. Ambition to Meaning captures every person's mid-life longing for a more purposeful, soul-directed life. Tickets-$7.50 Reservations (207) 865-0900.

February 8th Raw Chocolate presented at Leapin’ Lizards, Freeport. Have the best Valentine’s Day ever!!! Learn how to make delectable Valentine’s Day treats… using raw chocolate (Theobroma Cacao)… we will make and sample chocolate bars, yummy chocolate smoothies, raw chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce, and more (!) in this fun, very informative class. $35. FMI: (207) 865-0900

February 12th & 19th Self-Awakening Group with Ron and Joan Leapin' Lizards, Freeport, (207) 865-0900. Space is limited call for reservations. FMI: See ad on page 7.

Calendar and classified listing submission deadline for April/May issue is March 5th Time flies don't forget!

Please send your formatted Calendar and Clasified listings to info@innertapestry.org

with Mary Cunningham. Develop your psychic abilities through experiments and workshops. We will focus on mental telepathy, clairvoyance, psychometry, numerology, auras, palm readings, tarot cards and other interesting aspects of this area. The Enlightened Professional Center, 3 Barnard Lane, Bloomfield, CT 06002, (860) 232-3331, www.epllc.org. $75, pre-registration required.

March 13th-15th Living Healthy Description: The concept of Living Healthy is on the health radars of people everywhere. Living Healthy incorporates nutritious eating habits, regular physical activity and spiritual & emotional well-being We have invited local experts to provide you with knowledge on how to gain maximum benefits from healthy living. Featuring Norton Berkowitz, Ph.D., Dr. Patricia Barry and Alternative Health Expert John Hoime.

Come and join us for seven unique events and personal appointments with our talented guest healers. Space is limited for workshops. Purchase tickets in advance to secure a spot.

Check out our website for pricing info & discounts and for event times. The Enlightened Professional Center, 3 Barnard Lane, Bloomfield, CT 06002, (860) 232-3331, www.epllc.org.

March 22nd, 9:30am-11:30am Oneness CT Suggested Donation -$20. One Sunday a month, we gather for a morning of discussion, meditation and receiving of the Oneness Blessing (Deeksha). The Oneness Blessing is a direct transfer of grace available on the planet today to help you achieve your greatest intention. The Enlightened Professional Center, 3 Barnard Lane, Bloomfield, CT 06002 (860) 232-3331, www.epllc.org.

March ~Maine March 6th-8th Kahuna ARCH Healing Seminar Become a Certified Kahuna ARCH Energy Healing Practitioner.

This Ancient Hawaiian Healing is the next step beyond Reiki.

Learn techniques to heal yourself and others, be initiated into 3 levels of Kahuna ARCH Healing Energy and much more!

Portland Maine; (207) 240-8902; csanford@healthandrenewal. com, www.healthandrenewal.com.

March 7th, Saturday, 9:00am-4:30pm Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Level I Class at Moonsinger Holistic, Route 236, Eliot, Me. Call (603) 6594400 for reservations. Taught by Lynne Donnelly.

43 March 7th-8th Whole Health Expo, Northampton, MA

May 8th-10th Free Your Mind & Come to Your Senses:

over 100 exhibits+talks. For more info visit www.WholeHealthExpo. com call (866) 943-3976 or email Sales@WholeHealthExpo.com.

Holistic Nature Retreat with The Work of Byron Katie, Nurture Through Nature, www.ntnretreats.com, (207) 452-2929, Denmark, Maine

March 8th-15th Women's Holistic Yoga and Meditation Eco-Retreat in the U.S. Virgin Island’s renowned eco-resort Maho Bay, St John, US Virgin Islands with Nurture Through Nature, www.ntnretreats.com, (207) 452-2929, $978.

June 19th-21st Women's Summer Solstice Retreat Nurture Through Nature, Denmark, Maine, www.ntnretreats.com, (207) 452-2929.

March 13th-June 5th, Friday mid-day meetings In Good Company

June 10th, 7:00pm-9:00pm Mystical Traveler 2009 Farewell Tour with Sylvia Browne

A co-facilitated group to explore the burdens and bliss of women's full lives, offering the opportunity to discuss expectations, relationships, hopes, pain, and healing. This group will be open to the process and interests of its participants, guided by women whose studies and lived experience combine to nurture women's self-awareness and growth. Contact Angela Hassenpflug at (207) 592-7888 or Mary Auslander at (207) 677-3227.

and Colette Baron-Reid. Hynes Convention Center, Boston MA. Seats as low as $40 if reserved by April 10th. Call (800) 654-5126 or visit www.sylvia.org.

March 21, 2009 2, 1-4 pm "Creative Goals for Spring" Dr. Mindy Ruth Novick, Ph.D. will lead Kabbalah meditation to focus your personal direction, and then create inspired strategic goals with affirmations and objectives for spring. $36 per person; Register at Leapin’ Lizards, 449 Forest Avenue, Portland, ME; (207) 221-2363, leapinlizards1@verizon.net.

March 21st & 22nd Animal Communication: Learn Shamanic Healing for Animals. We will work with Soul Retrievals, Power Animal Retrievals, Extractions, and communicating with our pets, farm animals, horses and other non-domestic animals. www.earthlighthealing.com.

(207) 841-1215. Led by Dory Cote, Shamanic Healer & Teacher.

March~NewHampshire

Sunday ~ Bhakti-Yoga Festival – 5:00pm Join us for kirtan, philosophy and vegetarian dinner. No charge. Hare Krishna Temple. 1683 Main St. East Hartford CT 06108 (860) 289-7252, www.iskconct.org.

Ongoing Monthly Group Reiki Sessions Individual & Group Reiki Sessions, Reiki Shares & Classes.

Please call Carleen, RMT at (860) 642-7410 for more information.

Holistic Moms Network Hartford County chapter of a non-profit organization for parents with an interest in natural health and mindful parenting. Meetings held the last Wednesday of each month, from 7:00pm-9:00pm, at JCC of Greater Hartford, 335 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford. Email hartfordmn@yahoo.com or visit www.holisticmoms.org.

SunDo Mountain Taoism Classes in Taoist breathwork, meditation and postures for all fitness levels. SunDo Taoist practice enhances the body's qi-energy flow, which promotes health and higher consciousness. (860) 523-5260, www.sundo.org.

ECKANKAR Temple of CT -- a place for all who love God.

Learn to share gifts of yoga with children aged 3-11 during this fun and interactive weekend. Certification program. Other dates available. FMI, visit www.childlightyoga.com or call (603) 781-3323.

U p coming April 4th, 10:00am-3:00pm Yarmouth Wellness Fair The Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce presents the yearly Yarmouth Wellness Fair, meet your local practitioners in the Portland, Brunswick area. There will be presentations, shoebox raffle, food and lots of interesting interactive services to participate in. For more information please call (207) 846-3984.

April 18th & 19th Children's Yoga Teacher Training, Concord, NH Learn to share gifts of yoga with children aged 3-11 during this fun and interactive weekend. Certification program. Other dates available. FMI: visit www.childlightyoga.com or call (603) 781-3323.

April 25th-26th Whole Health Expo, Portland, ME over 100 exhibits+talks. For more info visit www.WholeHealthExpo. com call (866) 943-3976 or email Sales@WholeHealthExpo.com.

Calendar of Events

ECKANKAR, the religion of the Light and Sound of God. Worship services are the second Sunday of every month 10:00am with fellowship and refreshments afterwards. The Temple is located at the corner of Rte. 66 and Harvestwood Rd. Middlefield, CT. For information call (860) 346-2226; website: www.ct-eckankar.org

Ongo ing~ M aine Satsang/Meditation ~ Camden/Lincolnville.

Silent meditation based on works of H.W.L. Poonja & Ramana Maharshi.Tapes, Readings & Films too. Meetings Tuesday evenings at 6:30pm Info Call: (207) 763-3860.

"Forest Circles," center for community and healing hosts: "The New Moon Rituals" with chief Oscar Mokeme and "Full Moon Drumming Circle" with Drum Connection Maine, www.forestcircles.com.

Tuesday Buddhist Meditation We practice Dzogchen Meditation; Natural Love and Awareness; and Natural Compassion and Awareness in the lineage of Lama Surya Das. All practices are for beginners and long-time practitioners, 25 Middle Street, Portland. 6:00pm-7:00pm. Jane Burdick, janeburd@maine.rr.com or (207) 773-6809.

The Maine Organization Of Storytelling Enthusiasts serving the Storytelling Community of Maine meets monthly on the second Wednesday from 7:00pm-9:00pm at the North Star Cafe in Portland. http://mooseevent.bravehost.com.

Earthrest Discussion Series Earthrest is offering a series of weekly discussion groups using workbooks developed by Northwest Earth Institute: Sustainable Living, Deep Ecology, Global Warming. FMI: (207) 625-4179 or earthrest@psouth.net.

Nia With Maggie Bokor Find bliss in your body! Barefoot movement blending martial arts, dance and yoga. Teaching in multiple Portland and South Portland locations. Drop-ins welcome. Maggie Bokor, www.dancenia.com, (207) 899-5939.

ShivaShakti School of Yoga, Rockland Give yourself the gift of Yoga! Ongoing weekly classes morning and evening for all levels. Call (207) 785-5003 or visit www.ShivaShaktiYogaSchool.com.

Yoga Class in Windham Mondays 9:00am-10:15am and Wednesdays, 5:30pm-6:45pm at the Masonic Hall on River Road. Please contact Rebecca at (207) 749-4150 for more information.

Authentic Movement Dance at Bath Dance Works First and third Saturdays of the month, 10:00am-1:00pm, February 7th & 21st / March 7th & 21st / April 4th & 18th May 2nd & 16th, suggested donation $10, no experience is necessary. FMI: call Kay Mann (207) 725-9997 or email dancingfewl@pobox.com.

Spiritual Horizons Maine Meets every other Tuesday at 7:00pm, 75 State Street, Portland. Alternate weeks group on A Course of Miracles.

Contact: Tom Peterson (207) 310-0030 or John Moulton (207) 874-7602, www.spiritualhorizonsmaine.org.

Sharon Elaina would like you to know… that women's groups have begun in her new space at 925 Sawyer St., So. Portland. Tuesdays 6:00pm and Thursdays 12:00pm. Groups are limited to 8. Please call (207) 247-2650 for more information.

Tarot Readings - Third Thursday each Month Gallery-style Tarot readings for all those in attendance. South Portland location 6:30pm-9:30pm. $25. Group size limited; register early! FMI/Register Jeanne Fiorini (207) 799-8648.

Portland T'ai Chi School Traditional Yang Style T'ai Chi classes at the Portland New Church. Wednesdays 6:00pm-7:00pm. White Crane QiGong is taught to develop internal energy. The focus is on developing a healthy body and emotional being. (207) 272-8286, www.portlandtaichi.org.

Energize! A holistic approach to performance Energy balancing sessions for artists, actors, and performers, recover your highest creative self. Post-performance rebalancing. $80 ($70 students) Holistic Pathways, Gorham, (207) 839-9819 www.starlightacting.org.

The Womanly Art of Self Defense and Empowerment Ongoing course for women, awareness & prevention skills, verbal self-defense & empowerment, basic self-defense techniques.

(207) 266-4902, Trenton Family Karate, Trenton/Ellsworth area.

Continued on page 44

~ Ongoing Event Listings ~

Classified Ads

Inner Tapestry 's ~ calendar of Events and Classified Guidelines ~ Date Sensitive Listings ~ $12 per issue for 30 words, additional words are 50 cents each.

Please follow the format found in the journal and online, (Date information, title, description, location and contact information.)

A six-month (3 issue) listing is $25 for 30 words, additional words are 50 cents each.

Classified ads are $20 for 30 words, additional words are 50 cents each.

Please follow the format of our Ongoing Listings found in the journal and online, (Title, frequency, description, location and contact information.)

Please send formatted listings.

We do not publish press releases.

All Calendar and Classified Listings are listed on the Inner Tapestry Website!

w w w .in n e rt ape st ry.o rg Feb/Mar 2009 Inner Tapestry 43

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March 7th & 8th Children's Yoga Teacher Training, Dover, NH

Ongoing~Connecticut

MOOSE Open Microphone-Spoken Word

44 Hatha Yoga, Meditation, Satsang

Aikido of Maine Portland

Classes in Psychological & Spiritual Development & more.

Based in the Tradition of the Himalayan Sages. North Yarmouth.

For full listing, see www.TurningLight.org (207) 829-2700.

Aikido for Women classes, Wednesday and Friday a.m. classes. Daily beginner’s classes and youth programs. www.aikidoofmaine.com (207) 879-9207.

Friday Gallery Readings ~ Fourth Friday each month

Ongoing Yoga Classes, Vacations & Retreats

Join us at the Portland Spiritualist Church, 719 Main St., Westbrook for an evening of messages from the spirit, 7:00pm, $10.00 event. FMI call (207) 655-6673, www.portlandspiritualistchurch.org.

Kennebunk Monday evenings, Saco Tuesday and Thursday evenings Dayton Wednesday mornings. Yoga Vacation in Virgin Islands, Virgin Gorda February 14th-21st. FMI: call Jeanette Schmid Lakari (207) 282-5528.

Sunday Night: Portland Spiritualist Church

USM Center for Continuing Education.

meets at 719 Main Street, Westbrook for 6:30pm Service. Visit our website at www.portlandspiritualistchurch.org.

Ongoing classes in Complementary Therapies, (Traditional Chinese Medicine, Aromatherapy, Reiki, etc.) Visit www.usm.maine.edu/cce for course & registration information or call (207) 780-5900 for catalog.

Weekly Psychic Development and Awareness Classes Fridays, at the Portland Spiritualist Church, 719 Main St., Westbrook, Classes start at 7:30pm FMI: call (207) 655-6673, www.portlandspiritualistchurch.org.

The Path of Celtic Buddhism Celtic Buddist meditation in Rockland, ME. Group practice on Sunday mornings at 8:30am. Please call for information (207) 701-5022, heartln@sover.net, www.celticbuddhism.org.

"Yokids" Yoga Ed Tools for Teachers Workshops Yokids instructors Lily Goodale and Lynnette Moore will come to your school and train homeroom teachers to use simple, yoga-based mind/body integration techniques to enhance their teaching and support a harmonious teaching environment.

Please contact Lily Goodale, ngoodale@aol.com, (207) 236-6001.

Thank God It's Grace: Women in God, Women in Good Please join Women In God each Thursday, 4:30pm-5:30pm at Meadow Wind 100 Gray Road, Falmouth, for an hour of peace, grace and spiritually-based conversation. Women in God is a non-denominational spiritual support group that welcomes all women on a path of love, hope and inspiration. For more information call (207) 233-7658, or visit www.womeningod.com.

The Birth House Bridgton's new freestanding birth center hosts monthly tours on the first Thursday, 6:30pm-7:00pm. Stay for free informational sessions. www.birthhouseme.com or (207) 647-5919.

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Wavelengths Hypnotherapy ongoing classes: Self-Hypnosis, Weight Management, Smoking Cessation, Relaxation Guided Imagery Classes, Bonnie Lee Gibson, CH and Ernie VanDenBossche, BCH, CI; www.hypnowave.com (207) 453-6133, (207) 649-9655, Waterville, ME.

Real-ize Your Integral Potentials Real-ize your multidimensional self! Integral Energy Healing ~ Explorations in Consciousness ~ Leadership in Consciousness ~ Life Transformations. We offer sessions, classes, circles and workshops. Elizabeth@IntegralPotentials.com (207) 873-3514.

Kittery, ME: Rawfood Potlucks, 5:00pm

Planetary Activation Organization in Maine Is actively looking for people to join this group, for info: Visit www.paoweb.com. If interested, call (207) 743-2613, E-mail bobham@adelphia.net, or write Maria Ham, 51 BumpTown Rd, South Paris, ME 04281.

Children’s Aikido Kokikai Class Josiah Bartlett Elementary School in Bartlett NH, The Ballroom in Harrison Maine, Water and Stone Yoga Studio in Conway, NH, Contact Jane Biggio for more information at (603) 374-6326 or email at bamboomountain@ncia.net.

Holistic Pathways Yoga & Healing Center, Gorham.

Energy Vibrational Healing Therapies including Polarity and Energy Interference Patterning of DNA. Ongoing Reiki & Therapeutic Touch classes. FMI: (207)-839-7192, www.holisticpathways.com.

Artists Support Group, Inner Balance, Belfast, ME On 156 High Street. Third Tuesday of the month from 7:00pm-8:30pm. Call Elliot Benjamin at (207) 338-4576.

Mindful Meditation™ Thursdays, 12:00pm-1:00pm All are welcome, no experience necessary. $15 or 4 classes for $50. Mind/Body Therapy at Cancer Community Center 778 Main Street, South Portland, Maine, (207) 650-3964, FMI www.mbtherapy.org.

The Rose Cottage Teaching Reiki Master, Transformational Breath, Crystal Healing, Hypnotherapy, and Hypnobirthing. Private sessions by appointment. Gift certificates. Ongoing classes. Contact Vicki Kupferman 14 Weed Rd., Knox, Maine. (207) 568-3782.

Kripalu “DansKinetics” The body, mind, spirit workout blending yoga and dance.

No experience necessary. Free trial class. Days Meadow Farm, 889 Alewive Rd. Kennebunk. (207) 985-6896 or: daysmeadowfarm@prexar.com.

Sacred Circle Dance

Third Saturday of each month, with guest speakers from the rawfood community. Support, learn, share, and build a local rawfood community. Call Aimee, (207) 409-0899.

Dances from a multi-cultural folk dance tradition.

Steps taught at all sessions. No experience/partner needed.

Fourth Friday of every month, 7:00pm-8:30pm, Portsmouth, NH. FMI: amyla44@juno.com, (603) 750-7506.

Inner Light Church of Spiritualism, Rev. Gloria Nye

Experience the healing of Love without conditions

Location: Governor King Lodge 649, U.S. Route 1, Scarborough, ME, Sunday Services: 10:00am Healing Chairs, 10:30am Service, Healing Meditation, Inspirational Talk, Messages from Spirit, 12:00pm Fellowship Hour – Refreshments.

Ayurvedic Massage Experience Abhyanga, Garshana and Shirodhara, the ancient healing bodywork techniques of India. Ruthanne Harrison, LMT. Located in Richmond, ME (207) 737-8593.

Reiki Works offers all levels of Reiki Classes, sessions and free clinics. For schedule please contact Andrea Smith, B.S. Rehabilitation at reikiworks@beeline-online.net (207) 474-9962.

Dragonfly Taijiquan, Larry Ira Landau Group & Private Instruction in T’ai Chi Ch’aun (taijiquan) & Chi Kung (qigong) for beginners & experienced students.

Studios in Portland and Kennebunkport. Ongoing classes, workshops & retreats. FMI: (207) 761-2142 or (207) 967-4070.

SpiritWings–Workshops, Reiki Classes in Bethel ME Reiki Share second Tuesday of every month. Well-Being and Healing Classes Regularly. Offering Tibetan/Usui and Karuna® Reiki-Meditation Classes and Ancestral Healing, which examines various methods of healing employed by our ancestors. For further information call (207) 824-2204 or visit website www.spiritwingsbethel.com.

Doula tea, meet with doulas in person Learn how doulas help families during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. We meet Sundays at the Birth Roots, 101 State St., Portland from 4:00pm-5:00pm. There is no fee, preregistration is required. Call Rebecca Goodwin at (207) 318-8272.

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Ongoing classes. Learn the freedom of healing without limitations. Shamballa 1-4 and 13D Certification. Contact Elizabeth, Center of Momentum, (207) 873-3514, or centerofmomentum@hotmail.com.

Short-term Solutions-oriented Couples & Family Work Guiding Couples & Families from conflict to communication, from disengaged to connected, from hurting to resolution.

Group and private sessions. Call Maureen McCarty-Darling at (207) 975-5200.

Wise Women Daughters of the Moon

Ongoing~NewHampshire NESHHA Educational Presentation The New England Seacoast Holistic Health Association (an organization of Healthcare Professionals), has meetings monthly, third Thursday, Potluck 6:30pm, Networking 7:00pm at the Herbal Path, 839 Central Ave., Dover, NH. www.NESHHA.org.

Eaton Satsang An informal gathering to discover and welcome the truth of one's inner nature. Eaton, NH is near the Maine/NH border.

Most Wednesday evenings. www.eatonsatsang.com or (603) 447-5401.

Ongoing~RhodeIsland Bridge Between Two Worlds Radio Show Mediumship, Physical Phenomena and more. Contact Talk Radio Mondays 8:00pm-9:00pm EST, Listen Live www. bridgebetweentwoworlds.net. Host Pamela Marie Edmunds, (508) 273-0022.

Classified Listings CALLING PRACTITIONERS & VOLUNTEERS

Yarmouth Wellness Fair Yarmouth Chamber of commerce Is looking for practitioners and businesses in the Portland, Lewiston/Auburn, Brunswick area to participate in the 2009 Wellness Fair. If you are interested please contact Doug Reighley at (207) 749-1961 or email dareighley@suscom-maine.net.

Midcoast Women’s Health Conference Call for Exhibitors is looking for small businesses from the midcoast area to exhibit at the event taking place at Pointlookout located in Northport, ME on May 15th. This years theme is "Nutrition for a healthy heart, body, mind and spirit.” Exhibits should have an experiential component to their display. This event will be open to the public at the cost of $15.00 per ticket. A full schedule of events will be posted on our website as of February 1st. FMI: visit our website at www.midcoastwomenshealth.com. For an exhibitor application please call Andrea Roulliard at (207) 342-3286 or Kirsten Webb at (207) 930-7000. Email callain@wchi.com, to speak to Corinne Allain.

Midcoast Women’s Health Conference Call for Volunteers: You and other midcoast community members have the opportunity to support your local health professionals in providing a fun day dedicated to the women of Midcoast Maine. Monthly meetings will take place each month. Bring a friend or anyone who might be interested in volunteering. FMI: Contact Barbara (207) 322-1989.

HELP WANTED

Retreat Cook Wanted~Nurture Through Nature Experienced whole-foods cook for group(s) up to 14. Trade for opportunity to participate in holistic nature retreats.

Send indoor/outdoor experience to ntnretreat@yahoo.com, www.ntnretreats.com, (207) 452-2929.

HEALING PLACES

Ceremonial Wisdom Circle honoring our Inner & Outer Seasons & Cycles. Sliding Scale. FMI: www.spiritualrenaissance.com, www.templeoftheheart.com or call Deborah, spiritual guide, priestess: (207) 883-1081.

Eco-Retreat in Thoreau's Cabin

Belfast Yoga Studio. Iyengar style Hatha Yoga

Rustic Retreat in a Solar-Powered, wood-fired cabin.

All levels including, Beginner, Level I, Level II, Gentle & Private classes & workshops. For more info and schedule see www.belfastyoga.com or call (207) 338-3930/338-4256.

Experience deep quiet and nature's beauty while supporting an Environmental Leader in lodging recognized by the state and the EPA. $59/night for two. Denmark, Maine. www.ntnretreats.com, (207) 452-2929.

Aaminah School Of Middle Eastern Dance All levels of belly dance classes taught by experienced and caring instructors. Bangor and Waterville classes. Visit our website: www.aaminahdance.com or jeason@pivot.net.

NDE Support & Interest Group Light on the Water NDE Support & Interest Group holds monthly meetings in New England via teleconference.

FMI, visit www.TowardTheLight.org or contact Rev. Juliet Nightingale at (615) 292-2217 (mobile).

“SANT MAT RADHASWAMI SATSANG” Inner Light & Sound Meditation. Surat Shabd Yoga. For a Bangor, Waterville, & Portland meeting schedule, call James at: (207) 368-5866 or James@SpiritualAwakeningRadio.com.

Experience deep quiet and nature's beauty in a Green Certified cabin on Pleasant Mountain in Denmark, Maine, only an hour from Portland/Freeport. www.ntnretreats.com, (207) 452-2929.

QuietMind Retreats.

One to four day personalized healing retreats specializing in Holistic Cancer Support, Caregiver's Respite, Healing Trauma, Spiritual Development.

Finding Peace in Hope, Maine. Contact Terry Miller (207) 785-5785. www.quietmindretreats.com.

HEALING PRACTITIONERS

Moonsinger Holistic, Eliot Reiki/Shamballa, Reflexology, Polarity. Each session is a custom combination of modalities defined by client’s energy needs. Classes in Reiki and EFT. (207) 752-6440.

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HYPNOTHERAPY CERTIFICATION TRAINING

A Place In The Heart

in a warm, body temperature, saline pool provides an environment for a nurturing and deep healing experience.

LilyPond Aquatic Therapies in Rockport. Call Terry Miller, CST at (207) 785-5785.

Phenomenal, weekend trainings.

Energetically clear, beautiful spaces for classes, workshops, celebrations, and ceremony. Outdoor ceremonial space available. Located in Falmouth. Reasonable rates. FMI call The Vywamus Foundation (207) 797-6106.

Learn from award-winning, hypnotherapy instructor, Julie Griffin, BCH, 16 years' clinical experience. Private and semi-private hypnosis sessions also available. Call (800) 497-1807. Free brochure and hypnosis CD. Or visit www.hypnosistoday.com for instant hypnosis downloads. Free retakes and telephone support!

HEALING TRIPS

China Study Trip Qi gong/massage study trip to China this May for Maine health care practitioners and students. A great opportunity. Call The Whole Health Center at (207) 288-4128 for brochure and information, or email us at info@thewholehealthcenter.com.

SACRED SPACE FOR SALE

WWW.BESTMAINEWATERFRONT.COM

SACRED RENTAL SPACE

Two unique sunset lake front offerings. Privacy with accessibility to both Bangor and Bar Harbor. FMI see website or call Alison Cote (207) 632-3662.

Space Available for Gatherings, Ceremonies, Presentations.

At Earthrest, Cornish, ME. Call (207) 625-4179.

Visit www.innertapestry.org for updated information on calendar listings

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modern shamanic living

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Living Integrity

the resonance of your aligned and harmonious being. In so doing, the you that is in relationships, the you that is engaged in financial dealings indeed all of the facets of you— will hold the same vibration as the healer. This will change your life and the lives of those you contact.

I recommend using the simple tenet—”Do unto others...” rephrased as a personal affirmation. Try something along the lines of, “I discern right action by asking myself, how would it feel if someone did this to me?” Usually, if we take the time to reflect upon this benchmark, our actions will be more universally favorable.

This is true even if no one finds out about the choices that you’ve made. After all, as pop culture icon, Oprah Winfrey said, “Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.” Whether your choice is known to others or not, you will reap the profit from your integrity. You will have the feelings of “ beauty and dignity” filling your heart and a mind that is peaceful with “doing the right thing.” These are feelings that are truly priceless and have beneficial ripples that extend beyond our present circumstances.

Imagine how different the world would be if more of us made the effort to become congruent and act from a place of integrity. Our financial markets would be sound, our relationships would be more stable, there would be less violence in our world and the Earth’s ecosystems might again be made whole. Now that’s what I call a virtue!

Definition provided by Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary accessed through Dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/integrity. © 2009 Evelyn C. Rysdyk

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loving earth

atmosphere when we burn fossil fuels. We use these fuels—gasoline, coal, oil and natural gas—to run our vehicles, power our homes and to produce and transport the goods we consume.

An average US household produces about 55,000 pounds of carbon dioxide annually. We might think that figure is high simply because we are an industrialized country. Not so. At 27,000 pounds, a typical German household produces about half what we in the US do; at only 15,000 pounds, an average Swedish household produces even less. As David Gershon points out in his award-winning book Low Carbon Diet, clearly we have room for improvement.

As we think of the larger whole, beginning today, we can each: • Address our individual carbon dioxide issues • Alter our thinking to acknowledge the fact that we live on a finite planet • Although we can offer opportunities to others, we do not need to impose a US industrial monoculture wherever we go. We can be respectful of others’ ways and learn from them.

• Consider the rest of the global family as we address problems and difficulties close to home Under the umbrella of the greater good of our global family… that is all of life, not just people… we can begin creating a different, more sustainable kind of future, one which is in integrity with the greater whole.

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A Larger Integrity

*The idea of basic human need to maintain an equal balance of giving and taking comes from the work of Bert Hellinger. An excellent resource is his book Love’s Hidden Symmetry, a clear presentation of the human condition, stripped of judgments and specific cultural coloration. ** Animate Earth by Stephan Harding, written for the lay reader, contains a number of interesting and lively descriptions of natural relationships, cycles and interconnections.

General Resources: Limits To Growth, The 30 Year Update, Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, Dennis Meadows Deep Economy, Bill McKibben; ideas and examples of sustainable economics Low Carbon Diet, David Gershon, a simple and fun beginning program for getting a grip on our excessive use of fossil fuels © Pat Foley 2008

Pat Foley attempts to live a sustainable life just outside of Cornish, Maine. She is the owner of Earthrest, a “green” place of retreat for groups and individuals. The underlying focus of Earthrest is following Gandhi’s advice to be the change we wish to see in the world. Earthrest and Pat’s combined carbon dioxide footprint is less than 10,000lbs annually. You may contact Pat at earthrest@psouth.net or (207) 625-4179.

destination healing ~ northern new england ~ Integrity In Natural Medicine

the intuitive role of prevention and treatment of common childhood illness.

Integrity is vital in our life, our culture, and our bodies. Integrity can be integrated into our lives naturally through natural and herbal methods. From her book, An Encyclopedia of Natural Healing for Children and Infants, Mary Bove writes, “When we look at the body as a whole, with all systems interconnected, each affecting the other, the goal is not merely to treat the symptom but to treat the underlying cause of the symptom. By using herbal medicines to address not only the infective agent but also the immune response in the affected area as well as in the whole body, the cycle of disease can be interrupted. This will then allow the body to grow strong, come into balance, and heal itself.”

Dr. Mary Bove can be contacted through the Brattleboro Naturopathic Clinic in Brattleboro, Vermont (Clinic Phone:

802-254-9332), or through the clinic’s website (www.brattleboronaturopathic.com).

Dr. Bove will be practicing naturopathic medicine through Bethel Naturopathic Care in Bethel, Maine. She invites Maine residents in that region to contact her at 888 - 207 - 4448 or via email brattnat@brattleboreonaturpoathic.com.

Kevin Pennell, an author from Bethel , Maine, wrote Two Feathers–Spiritual Seed Planter and has written for other periodicals and media. Kevin Pennell is an Usui and Karuna Reiki® Master Teacher, Certified Hypnotherapist, Ancestral Healing Practitioner, and Psychic Empath. He conducts Reiki and other workshops that assist spiritual and personal development. Kevin, with his wife, Vickie Cummings, own and operate Spirit Wings, their Compassionate Healing Center and Therapeutic Store located in Bethel, Maine.Contact www.spiritwingsbethel.com or kevin@spiritwingsbethel.com.

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Evelyn C. Rysdyk, author of the book, Modern Shamanic Living, is a nationally recognized teacher of shamanism, healer & artist in joint practice with C. Allie Knowlton, LCSW, DCSW as Spirit Passages. Featured in the book, Traveling Between the Worlds, interviews with 24 of the world’s most influential writers and teachers of shamanism they are also Executive Editors of the e-magazine for ecospirituality, Spirit Living (www.spiritliving.org).

Since 1991, they have offered workshops across the USA and Canada. In addition, they have worked with hundreds of people in their private shamanic healing practice at True North in Falmouth where they collaborate with physicians, nurses, a psychiatrist and other integrative health care practitioners. Evelyn and her partner may be contacted through their website: www.spiritpassges.com.

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m ix ed m e dia

Book Review

b y S c o tt C r on en w et h

Peaceful Mind Compassionate Heart By: Khen Rinpoche Lobzang Tsetan Edited & Preface by Dana Sawyer ISBN: 978-0-9821274-0-7 Siddhartha School Project Press, Freeport, ME

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S K O O B WE B SITES M US I C

DV D s S I E O V M AND F OO D

EWS R E V Iand more 46 Inner Tapestry Feb/Mar 2009

While spiritual guidance in the form of books is more widely available than ever, books written by great masters of the ancient lineages remain exceedingly rare. Books from these peerless sources that are explicitly created to guide and support “beginners’ minds” are rarer still. Peaceful Mind Compassionate Heart is among these rarest and most precious of wisdom sources for us today: offered directly by a perfect teacher with boundless loving-kindness, with the mind of the average Western person being the specific target at which his uncannily penetrating words are aimed.

If Peaceful Mind Compassionate Heart were to be the only book you ever read about Tibetan Buddhist teaching and practice, you would know far more than enough to become an effective practitioner and improve your life and the lives of other beings in countless ways. For gaining insight into the core Buddhist views on a “feeling” level (as opposed to the intellectual/philosophical level), it is the most penetrating and useful book that I personally have encountered.

What makes Peaceful Mind different from the many “Buddhism 101” books out there is that it comes not from a Western practitioner, or even a Tibetan teacher writing through translators, but directly from the heart-mind of a great teacher of the “old school” who has devoted many years to teaching Americans and communicating in English. This unassuming little book cuts straight to the heart of this awe-inspiring wisdom tradition with a gentle directness that—like Rinpoche’s talks themselves—is almost magical. (This I know from direct experience as I am a student of Rinpoche myself.)

Peaceful Mind is based on live talks given in English by Khen Rinpoche. Indeed, many of our readers may have sat with Rinpoche over the years in Maine and elsewhere. The transcribed text of selected talks has been organized and very lightly edited by Dana Sawyer, a scholar and teacher of Eastern spiritual studies and a long-time personal friend of Rinpoche.

Each chapter in Peaceful Mind touches on one of Buddhism’s central messages. For example, Chapter 1, “The Lightning

DVD Review

b y Be t t y C l o se

Reincarnation, Future Growth Through Past Lives By: Dr. Kevin Ross Emery www.LightLinesPublishing.com This offering (some might say lecture, but I felt it was more of a conversation with the viewer) was filmed live. It presents an opportunity for us to explore and connect with past lives. We first must, as Dr. Kevin comments, accept that they do indeed exist.

If you accept the premise that you have been here before, why connect with any given past life? Dr. Kevin explains in this DVD, “innate gifts and abilities are often stored in past lives and once that past life is accessed and integrated, those gifts and abilities become much more easily accessible.”

Flash,” explains how human life is infinitely precious and yet as brief as a lightning flash—therefore we should not put off devoting time to our spiritual practice. Chapter 4, “All Living Beings are Our Parents,” presents teachings on cultivating compassion for others. Chapter 9, “Lighting the Way,” discusses “the practical mind of enlightenment” and how to cultivate it.

Overall the book flows organically, like a single spoken teaching.

A lifetime monastic who holds a Geshe degree (the highest scholarly degree in Tibetan Buddhism), Rinpoche learned English and has traveled and taught across the US for many years, without an official entourage. Known to many as “Geshe-la,” he was given the title Khen Rinpoche several years ago when His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama appointed him head abbot of the great Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in exile in southern India.

That a teacher of this highest rank routinely makes himself personally accessible to ordinary people in the US is perhaps unprecedented. And it directly illustrates where Rinpoche is coming from. Unassuming and crack-you-up funny, he walks the walk of realized Buddhist practice with a gentle grace that is surely his most powerful teaching.

The warm and thoughtful preface and biographical notes in Peaceful Mind are a great way to learn a little more about Rinpoche’s life. Peaceful Mind is self-published by the Siddhartha School Project, a Maine-based, all-volunteer nonprofit organization that exists to raise funds to support The Siddhartha School, a primary school that Rinpoche founded in his remote home village in Ladakh, in northern India. All proceeds from the sale of the book go directly to supporting the Siddhartha School.

For more information, and to purchase Peaceful Mind Compassionate Heart, visit the Siddhartha School Project website at www.siddharthaschool.org. The cost is $20 + $5 for shipping. Plan to take a few minutes while you’re online to watch the short-yet-stunning video about the Siddhartha School, its mission, and the children of Ladakh.

Scott Cronenweth is a freelance Shamanic Buddhist Naturalist Bird Guide Personal Dog Servant writer in idyllic South Portland, Maine. Connect with Scott at www.gotbuddhanature.com.

In this very user friendly presentation, Dr. Kevin shares with us not only his views about why we have come here over and over again, but also why it can be beneficial to “observe” our past lives. He is quick to point out that we don’t want to reconnect with, nor do we need to “relive the trauma of that past life,” but that we can “take in the knowledge and wisdom” from that past life. I found this aspect reassuring as I was uncertain that I wanted to go digging and exploring where perceived potential landmines might be buried.

I encourage you to view this filmed presentation. For those of you who are note takers (I feel that is sometimes my raison d’etre), salient points are presented in writing across the screen.

Dr. Kevin gives you a step-by-step process to help you recognize a past life that is looking to be explored more fully.

As an author, teacher, psychic, coach, counselor, consultant and medical intuitive for the last 30 years, Dr. Kevin has done it all! He travels all over the world empowering individuals and businesses. His tapes and books can be found by visiting his website www.kevinrossemery.com or call (603) 433-5784.

Have fun and happy treasure hunting!

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Book Review by David Cutler Or So It Seems By: Paul Steven Stone ISBN: 978-1438207698 OrSoItSeems.info

Paul Steven Stone, has published his first novel.

It has been 11 years in the making and it is a good one. A very good one.

Or So It Seems takes the reader up and down the South Shore and in and out of Boston and Cambridge with side trips to Brooklyn and the Bronx. It is a wonderful ride.

On one level, the novel is a poignant, yet seemingly uncomplicated tale about a middle-age man – Paul Peterson – who is beset by divorce and its attendant woes: how to keep his children close, how to survive on a diminished income, how to cope with a quarrelsome ex, how to navigate a new life of single living and finally, how to understand why, as Stone notes in his prolog, “life sometimes sends you cold fish when you ordered hot pizza.”

“Through Stone’s masterful use of flashbacks, we are always on the move yet we never wonder where we are; we are, as one critic said, “always in the room” and that is a testament to Stone’s skill as a writer and a story teller.”

The story of Or So It Seems begins and ends on the second floor of a Plymouth walk-up as a slightly besotted elementary school teacher tries to lure Paul Peterson to her dilapidated couch. They had met at a singles dance earlier and, though they meshed somewhat, Paul wasn’t so sure he wanted to wind up on the couch since, as it turned out, the woman was his son’s third grade teacher. The scene begins on page one and is not resolved until the novel ends on page 420.

In between Stone takes us back and forth through Paul Peterson’s uncharted life, darting from a pinewood derby in Marshfield, to a Chinese restaurant in the Bronx, to Fanueil Hall in Boston, to a tiny apartment in Cambridge, and to many other places as well. Through Stone’s masterful use of flashbacks we are always on the move yet we never wonder where we are; we are, as one critic said, “always in the room” and that is a testament to Stone’s skill as a writer and a story teller.

This narrative, partially wrapped in Eastern thought, does not stumble; it moves effortlessly. Readers will constantly want to turn the page, to know what is coming and along the way will come to appreciate Stone’s unusual gifts. He writes with a majestic grace. There are lyrical passages – many really – that will evoke a “wow” and envy from those who think they can turn a phrase. And Stone has a laugh-out-loud sense of humor. It is what he equips his Paul Peterson with to wade through the muck. Sometimes it produces a quiet smile; other times it rocks you off your chair.

Or So It Seems ends with a surprise, which seems a worthy finale to a magnificent first effort. Paul Steven Stone has scored big here. Let us hope we don’t have to wait another 11 years for novel number two.

Or So It Seems is available on Amazon.com. Paul can be reached at www.orsoitseems.info or OrSoItSeems.stone@gmail.com.

Continued from page 20 ~ 21st century bohemian ~ Making Whole: Applying Right-Brain Integrity...

“Empathy is mighty important. It helped our species climb out of the evolutionary muck. And now that we’re upright and bipedal—the big animals on campus—it still helps us get through the day. Empathy allows us to see the other side of an argument, comfort someone in distress, and bite our lip instead of muttering something snide.

Empathy builds self-awareness, bonds parent to child, allows us to work together, and provides the scaffolding for our morality,” writes Daniel Pink in his book A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.

Pink claims it is the right-brained among us who will prevail and flourish in the 21st Century. He hones in on a set of aptitudes, or what he dubs “the six senses” powered by the right-brain that will be crucial in “an economy and a society built on the inventive, empathic, big-picture capabilities of the Conceptual Age.” It is the right brain, says Pink, that is the playground where artists and writers spin design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning to create intuitive, nonlinear and holistic tapestries that heal and inspire.

“Empathy is impossible for computers to reproduce, “ writes Pink, who points out how important this right-brain quality is to those in the healing professions. When we talk about a doctor’s bedside manner, it is really his or her capacity for empathy we are referring to.

The board that accredits medical schools now makes communicating effectively and empathetically with patients a factor in a student doctor’s overall evaluation.

While Pink acknowledges this to be a commonsense action, he observes that in the heavily left-brained medical profession “it’s a sea change.”

Another example cited by Pink is Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, which has developed a tool to measure empathy – the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE).

Integrity in Fiction

Writers are always dealing with the matter of integrity when it comes to creating story. But as novelist John Grisham has said, a writer can only get away with so much preaching in fiction. Story crafters have to rely on showing rather than telling the reader what they are trying to convey.

In his nonfiction book This Year You Write Your Novel, Walter Mosley states that transformation is ever present in fiction. Writers chart the fall or redemption of their fictional heroes and heroines as a result of life circumstances and interaction

with other characters – just like real life. It is in this way a writer can illustrate integrity for readers.

At work on Air Apparent, the third book in her Gaia Girls series featuring young girls with superpowers they apply to saving the planet, author Lee Welles says she has “felt the pressure to not preach” in her books.

“When it comes to environmental issues it is more important to show the richness of the world and to show the potential for the destruction of it and let reader to come to their on conclusions,” she said.

Her intention, the author explained, is to “plant a seed of caring” about the environment through her fiction. “If you have a passion for something you are not going to sully it.”

Like the “integrity of a piece of cloth with no breaks in it” Welles observed that personal integrity is the unbroken streak that runs through us. “People who feel broken are those who are more likely to compromise their integrity.”

“In my first book I was afraid to have a flawed character in a way but that gets boring. It’s just like in life, we don’t want people to see our flaws," she explained.

“I think integrity is a muscle you can exercise over time,” Welles noted. An author can illustrate integrity through character evolution in a fictional work just as in life we can “sometimes move through things quicker by being flawed than being perfect,” offers Welles.

Speaking to how integrity fits into the big picture of our lives however, Welles said, “You lose your melody when you disconnect or when you’re not acting out of your own integrity.” © 2008 by Teresa Piccari Teresa Piccari is a writer and teacher living in coastal Maine. She is the proprietor of The Village Scribe, a writing and editing business. She runs The Ducktrap Writers' Round Table and teaches writing workshops including Creative Writing, Mythic Structure and Memoir. She is also a traditional Usui Reiki Master/Teacher and practitioner. Her business and practice are located at The Wellness Center, 71 Elm Street in Camden. Correspond with her at The21stCenturyBohemian@hotmail.com or (207) 344-7070.

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On a second level, Or So It Seems is a spiritual journey through the cosmos in what the protagonist, Peterson, describes as a kind of Do It Yourself Workshop.

He is constantly assessing his station, his actions and why he thinks what he thinks. In addition he has a marvelous guide, a wise cracking Hindu holy man named the Bapucharya. He is a happily giggling mystic who dispenses wisdom with so much wit that Peterson describes him as a misplaced Jewish comedian.

Whatever he is, he is omnipresent in Peterson’s life and has no qualms about

being a “buttinsky,” forever offering advice and asking questions. Often he intrudes at what we think is the wrong time, but we love him anyway.

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