Inner Tapestry "Charity" October November 2007

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A Holistic Journal Celebrating & Supporting LIFE! Oct/Nov 2007

4th Annual

Spirit in Action Conference

October 27th

Freeport Garden Inn Freeport, ME

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CHARITY

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Inner

Tapestry

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Volume 6, No . 3 Using the Mind to Heal the Body

Harold McCoy Ozark Research Institute Windsor, CT ~ 10/21-22 Yarmouth, ME ~ 10/27-28

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u Sacred Sight

u Loving Earth ~ Little Acts of Back Yard Charity

u Pathway To Healing

u The Way of Life-Itself ~ The "Oneness Effect" Shift

u Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging

u Modern Shamanic Living ~ The Practice of Benevolent Giving

u What Are We Teaching Our Children?

u Destination Healing ~ Personify Charity Through Humane Living

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This Issue's Theme CHARITY

Contents

A Holistic Journal Celebrating & Supporting LIFE!

Abundance by Beth Budesheim

December/January 2007/2008 Walking in Grace Fe br uar y/M arch 2008 Elder Wis do m Ap r il/M ay 2008 Hear t Stor ies June / July 2008 Th e Ar t o f Sim pl ic it y

Oct/Nov 2007

Features

What Helps?

Page 8

by Joan L. Smith

The Hunt

Page 9

by Holly Howley

What Are We Teaching Our Children?

Page 14

Sacred Sight

Page 25

Pathway to Healing

Page 37

by David Davies

by Doug Marsh

by Debra Franklin, LCSW

Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging

Page 38

by Ingrid LeVasseur, BA

Modern Shamanic Living ~ The Practice of

Page 6

Loving Earth ~ Little Acts of Back Yard Charity

Page 10

Cooking Consciously & Eating Healthy ~ Autumn Soups

Page 11

Destination Healing ~ Personify Charity Through

Page 12

A Breath of Healing ~ Giving is Getting

Page 16

Awareness and the art of Seeing ~ Still Wildlife Portraits

Page 17

Exploring The World Religions ~ Sar Bacham

Page 19

The Way of Life-Itself ~ The "Oneness Effect" Shift

Page 22

Welcome Home ~ Ask Asrianna

Page 23

by Evelyn C. Rysdyk

Benevolent Giving

by Pat Foley

by Meg Wolff

by Kevin Pennell

Humane Living

by Donna Amrita Davidge

by Jen Deraspe

by James Bean

Radhaswami Poetry

by Norm and Skye Hirst

by Asrianna Dameron

Feng Shui & Geopathology ~ Healing the House with

by Werner Brandmaier

BodyTalk

Mixed Media ~ Book, Web-site & Music Reviews

Directories

Directory of Resources Heart Visions, A listing of events, trainings & trips...

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

Page 24

Pages 26 & 27

Pages 28-33 Page 34 Pages 34-37 Pages 36-37 Page 39

Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 3

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Departments

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New this Issue: As fall approaches, we welcome everyone to our October/ November issue of Inner Tapestry, and the exploration of our theme "Charity".

Our cover artwork and articles this issue afford us the opportunity and space to journey within ourselves to feel what Charity means to each of us. A quick scan of the dictionary shows that it is something given to those in "need". Also mentioned is kindness and tolerance in judging others.

I find for myself that with the onset of fall the feeling of settling into a deeper place within, comes to me as if I were sitting in front of a fire, wrapped in a soft blanket, nurtured by the feeling of the warmth received.

I look forward to exploring for myself how I am in relationship to "need" and where I can look to expand myself into kindness and tolerance and a more charitable way of being. I hope that you will also find yourselves beginning that journey as we continue with our next few issues that will build upon that place within us all.

There are many new workshops and events coming up this fall, Women in God's 4th Annual Spirit in Action Conference on October 27th. Harold McCoy is coming to Yarmouth, ME and Windsor, CT from the Ozark Research Institute.

Michael Redsky of Redsky Healing is spending time in Maine this fall offering healing sessions, sweat lodges and drumming circles. Circles of Wisdom in MA has a varied list of visitors, workshops and an exciting collaboration with 9ways Mystery School and Bรถn Shen Ling to host Geshe Chongtul Rinpoche from Menri Monastery for a 10 day REIKI training in May! We all hope that you have fun exploring the many listings for workshops, classes and practitioners this issue has to offer.

The past few months have been quite busy for all of us here, as we have moved from our South Portland location to our new home to live and play in Raymond, ME. Our new information is 6 Kristin Lane, Raymond, ME 04071. The email address info@innertapestry.org and phone number 207-799-7995 remain the same.

We have been blessed with finding this wonderful new home overlooking Jordan Bay on Sebago Lake. Getting used to the quiet of country living has taken no time at all and we are looking forward to sharing this wonderful location with many of you this fall, winter and spring.

We would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the journal this issue, for the writers and their continued work, as well as the advertisers for their support in getting the journal out to so many people in the community.

ON THE COVER

as dreams take flight

This issue's theme is Charity. The search for our cover artwork lead us to a wonderful artist/sculptor Beth Budesheim, from Kansas City, MO. and her website called Painted Journeys. We would like to welcome Beth to Inner Tapestry and thank her for her willingness to share her work with all of us both in print and on her website. Beth donates at least 3% of all of the sales income to organizations working for nature conservation and peace. This is a truly great website and we hope you will take the opportunity to visit and enjoy the work of this talented artist.

We would like to share this expression from Beth about her work: "As dreams take flight" is a painting that brings the viewer to that place in time and space within one's self where new hopes, dreams and inspirations are gathered and sent forward. The stars represent these dreams as sacred intentions of light floating outward, released in faith to Spirit, and one's divine helpers. This piece is the second painting in the series of three titled, "Shaman's Bowl".

My life, work & paintings are centered on the themes of self-realization, exploration of the Spirit-Matter Bridge, and healing. Because everything we place in our space has an energy that affects us, I enjoy creating paintings that offer positive vibrations and invite the viewer into a sacred inner space. A painting, for me, is a living, breathing, communicating creation and my wish is for those drawn to my work, to enjoy, experience and benefit in some way not only from the imagery, but the more subtle vibrational information that dances with, informs and nurtures the soul.

Original paintings specialized Healing Attunement Mandalas, personal intuitive painting commissions, and in-person or remote intuitive healing sessions, are all a part of my creative work and offerings to you. To learn more about my work and me, I invite you to enjoy a visit to my website, www.PaintedJourneys.com.

Thank you and many blessings to you!

May we find ways to express our charitable way of being this Thanksgiving season.

A Happy Thanksgiving Holiday to everyone!

Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 5

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INNER WORKINGS

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

The Practice of Benevolent Giving

by Evelyn C. Rysdyk

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he action or practice of charity is defined as the “practice of benevolent giving.” The word “benevolent” comes to the English language from the Latin root words—bene which translates to “well” and velle “to wish.” Giving is the action of “bestowing something.” If we combine these definitions, charity becomes the action of “bestowing well wishes,” in other words, “passing a blessing.” The word blessing comes to us from the Old English bledsung—”to consecrate”—which has its roots in the earlier practice of consecrating an altar with an offering of blood. So taken as a whole, we can look at charity as the “action of bestowing a sacred or holy offering.”

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To indigenous peoples around the Earth, the making of offerings is indeed a sacred undertaking. It is seen as critical to the well being of all the people and a necessary action that provides for the continuance of Life itself. This is also why offerings are of the finest kind. Whether foodstuffs, cloth, objects, or animals they are most often the very best one can provide.

Inherent in an offering is the idea that by giving that which is precious to us, we will be providing benefits to all our relations. In other words, by bestowing blessings we will naturally receive—”by giving, everyone has.” This idea is quite the opposite of the way we do it in our culture, which is “those that already have, may choose to give.“ The indigenous mind-set must stem from the earliest form of human culture—that of the hunter/ gatherer. Archeological evidence suggests that up until approximately twelve thousand years ago, all human beings lived this lifestyle. In this form of social organization, all members of the group participate in the ultimate survival of the whole.

Recent anthropological research has shown us that women, men, children and the elderly members of the group all worked to gather food and shelter materials, set snares, and worked to sight and bring down game animals. Everyday, the group would leave their sleeping place around the central fire and embark on hunting and gathering that which was essential for survival. The efforts of each person were necessary and this shared participation and responsibility contributed to entire group’s well-being.

6 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2007

In addition, to survive as a hunter/gatherer, you have to depend upon not only the others in your human group or tribe, but on the many other beings that surround you who also contribute to your survival. They are equal partners in the dance of Life.

It is therefore easy to see why hunter/gatherer peoples view the world from an animist perspective—that is the belief that every thing in nature is alive. Whether it be the plants, animals and birds or the landscape features such as rivers and mountains or forces such as the wind and the rain—animists believe that each part of the environment has a vital essence or spirit.

To survive, one needed not only the efforts of one’s fellow human beings but the continued “participation” of these other beings, as well. One needed the fruiting trees, the flowing waters and healthy game in order to ensure that your own children would thrive. It therefore makes perfect sense to nurture these beings through offerings. This was done not only as a form of paying respect, but to “give so that all will receive.”

There is deep wisdom in this way of thinking.

...we can look at charity as the "action of bestowing a sacred or holy offering".

By comparison, Western culture has produced a widening gap between those that have much more than they need and those who do not have enough.

In addition, the prevailing culture has created an environmental crisis of staggering proportions as we are greedily paving over wilderness and using up resources with little or no –thought about how others– whether human or other creatures—may live. We are not only ruining the planet for our children’s children, we are digging ourselves into a deeper and deeper hole. We have forgotten that what goes around comes

around and truly what we are doing to the body of the Earth will rebound into our own lives.

For instance, in 2005, the United States Centers for Disease Control released the findings of the largest study of chemical exposure ever conducted on human beings. In this study it was found that most American children and adults were carrying in their bodies dozens of pesticides and toxic compounds used in consumer products, many of them linked to potential health threats. The report documented bigger doses in children than in adults of many chemicals, including those found in virtually every household pesticide, nail polish and other beauty products as well as in soft plastics. These classes of chemicals are biodisruptive in that they both interfere with hormonal actions necessary to development and reproduction and cause nervous system damage.

Once more, nearly all of the synthetic or humanmade chemicals regularly used in industry today did not exist in the 1940s. Of the 45,000 toxic chemicals listed by the US National Institute of Safety and Health (NIOSH) in 1980, 2,500 were identified as carcinogens-those that cause cancer, 2,700 as mutagens--that is a chemical capable of causing genetic change and 300 as teratogens--those chemicals that cause malformation of an embryo. The study reported that less than 7,000 had been adequately tested and chemical production has only increased since that time.

Many of these chemicals have other nasty attributes. Many are persistent, which means that the compounds do not break down into their less harmful constituents in the environment. Other chemicals and compounds bioaccumulate, which means that they are stored in fatty tissues, such as breast and brain tissues, and are passed up the food chain. In other words, animals and fish pass their chemical load to each animal in the chain that eat them and finally to humans who receive the largest dose.

In this and so many other ways, we have set a course toward disaster and we seem to keep ignoring these truths we think of as “inconvenient.” Benjamin Franklin once remarked, “The definition of insanity is repeating the same action over and over and expecting different results.” I am inclined to believe that since indigenous thinking has been around for millennia and our culture’s way of thinking is just a few thousand years old, we may want to reconsider

7 the insanity of our faulty thought processes. Perhaps, if we began to think like our ancient ancestors, we might produce far better outcomes and turn ourselves back from the brink. After all, if our ultimate survival depends on the health and well being of the Earth, then perhaps we need to set about bestowing our blessings on Her! Dave Foreman, founder of the radical environmental group Earth First! once said we needed to... "do something. Pay your rent for the privilege of living on this beautiful, blue-green, living Earth.” While I don’t ascribe to the violent means his organization promoted, I do think there is merit in this idea. I am more inclined to use language like the indigenous people of the Peruvian Andes. They use the idea of being in sacred reciprocity with Pachamama–Mother Earth. That is, since the Earth cares for her children, it is our responsibility to care for her. Once more as we contribute with offerings of right actions as well as objects, we naturally keep the wheel of reciprocity turning. In so doing, we will continue to have what we need. This idea is so ingrained into the culture of the Quechua-speaking natives that they have a word for it—ayni or universal flow. In basic terms it means you don’t give without receiving something in return, and you don’t receive without giving something in return.

For us in our culture, I would add that you also can’t give to the Earth that which you don’t want back!

Instead of toxins, we need to be feeding her that which will benefit all beings. Instead of cutting trees, we need to plant them—instead of spoiling her waters, we need to clean and preserve them. The loss of other species eventually spells the end of our own. It is a simple concept we need to embrace.

Here are some actions that will contribute to being in sacred reciprocity with the Earth: 1. Change your light bulbs to highly efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs. (CFLs) If every household in the U.S. replaced a burnedout bulb with an energy-efficient, compact fluorescent bulb, it would prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to that from nearly 800,000 cars and save enough energy to light 2.5 million homes for a year.

2. Drive your car differently -- or if you can, drive a different car altogether! Cut down on the amount of driving that you do and remember, anything you can do to improve the fuel efficiency of your car will have an impact. This includes proper tire inflation, getting regular tune-ups, shutting off the car if you are going to be stationary for any more than 30 seconds instead of idling and driving at moderate speeds.

If you do have the resources, buy a more fuelefficient vehicle such as a hybrid.

3. Keep your home temperature two degrees lower in winter and two degrees higher in summer. Also keep your heating system well tuned. If one in 10 households serviced heating and cooling systems annually, cleaned or replaced filters regularly, used a programmable thermostat and replaced old equipment with more efficient models it would prevent the emissions of more than 17 billion pounds of greenhouse gases.

4. Mind your appliances! The refrigerator uses

5. Plant native plants that require less water and plant trees to provide shade. Do everything you can in your yard and garden to create ways in which plants use less water. Choose hardier plants, and put in mulch to help keep moisture in. When you mow your grass, do it with sharp blades and only when the grass needs cutting, and make sure you water your lawn sparingly.

6. Go organic. Most American farmers still spray a billion pounds of pesticides to protect crops each year that you don’t want in your body or the bodies of your kids. The more of us that choose organic food, the faster it will become the largest share of the market. Agribusinesses will have to change their methods to satisfy the population! The best organic food to buy is also that which is locally grown and in season. This cuts down on the pollution created by shipping food over long distances.

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7. Recycle and buy recycled products. This may sound simple, but it takes less energy to manufacture a recycled product than a brand new one. So if you and other consumers buy recycled products, you’ll help create a market, and conserve energy along the way.

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Each of us can make a difference by treating the Earth, her many creatures and indeed other people with respect and love. History tells us that we can be few in number to start and wind up making a huge difference in the overall population. One of the forefathers of our country, Samuel Adams, said that “...It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.” This is a thought echoed two-hundred years later by anthropologist Margaret Mead who reminded us that we must “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

more energy than most other appliances, so it is critical to clean its coils and replace worn door seals. Also, turn the water temperature down on your water heater to 120 degrees. This will save you money, conserve resources and you won’t even notice the difference! Wait until you have a full load to run the dishwasher and wash clothes in warm water, not hot. Use a clothesline or indoor drying rack. In the winter, you’ll also reap the benefit of putting extra moisture in the air.

8. Buy less, and more efficiently. For instance, whenever possible, buy in bulk. It uses less packaging, which translates into less energy.

Buy less “stuff” and when you do buy something make it a quality product that lasts longer. While Big Box bargain stores seem like a good deal, their merchandise is often made in factories that have poor sanitary conditions, have poor environmental practices, have poor labor practices, and may include child workers. Here is a web site to help you make more conscious choices: www.newdream.org/consumer.

9. Use greener cleaning products and stop using pesticides, fungicides and herbicides around your home and lawn. Find green alternatives at your local health food store!

10. Create a Backyard Wildlife Habitat.

Information about this may be found at the web site: www.nwf.org/backyard. Gardening practices that help wildlife, like reducing chemicals and conserving water, also help to improve air, water and soil quality throughout your neighborhood.

Start giving back to Mother Earth. Make “sacred offerings” by acting in ways that will contribute to her health and well-being. Give her creatures places to eat, drink and raise young. Take care of her air, her water, and her soil. We need to cherish what remains of the Earth and foster its renewal, as it is our only legitimate hope of survival. Be impeccable in your actions and remember charity does begin at Home! © 2007 Evelyn C. Rysdyk 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.

Since 1991, they have offered workshops across the US and Canada. In addition, they have worked with hundreds of people in their private shamanic healing practice at True North in Falmouth.

Featured in the book, Traveling Between the Worlds, interviews with 24 of the world's most influential writers and teachers of shamanism, they may be contacted at: www.spiritpassges.com.

Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 7

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h fai t

WHAT HELPS?

hope

by Joan L. Smith

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harity ameliorates need; justice seeks to eliminate what causes the need.

Charity seeks to comfort, accompany or lessen suffering in the moment.

Justice tries to dig out and change circumstances or systems that tend to generate pain or unfairness. Some of us respond more naturally to immediate needs, others decry or try to eradicate the injustice of it. My first response to tragedy is comforting the hurt; it has been harder to develop the muscles for justice work.

But regardless of what charitable action I attempt, the alternative of staying stuck in wailing or complaining only leads to depression or bitterness. That swamp of despondence keeps the focus on me, rather than extending my attention to those in need of charity. You might say that charity is practical, good mental health, and makes sense.

We know down deep, that charitable action leads eventually to awareness of injustice. And once we get to the injustice of it all, we are on the threshold of a different spiritual work. I say this as someone who would like to stay on the gentler side of the equation if she could. Take Hurricane Katrina. A charitable response of rebuilding houses, sending clothing, relocating families and pets doesn’t stop there. Getting in that far reveals the unjust policies and limited resources for disaster prevention and relief depending on race, class and economic resources.

Every natural or human-made disaster tears the veils to reveal what we have not wanted to see.

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My reflections on charity and justice were precipitated by my seven years as a pastor to two UCC churches in Vermont. I entered ministry late in life, just in time for Vermont’s legislation on civil unions, the September 11th attacks, Asia’s tsunami, Pakistan’s earthquake, Africa’s genocides, Hurricane Katrina, widespread flooding in New England, and the prolonged anguish of the war in Iraq. I had felt protected by the comfortable illusions of the little white church on the green. Now I was exposed; I felt personally inadequate and spiritually anemic. I was driven to a discipline of study, meditation and wrestling in order to go public every Sunday morning. In spite of myself, my thin thread of faith turned into a rope that swung me to places I would not have chosen to go.

There is a Biblical text that had become somewhat rote to me, from I Corinthians 13: Have faith, hope and charity, but the greatest of these is charity. I was distracted by connotations of patronizing giving, class differences, and better-thanthou givers staying separate from the unfortunates who just didn’t have the smarts, courage or drive to become fortunate. The other familiar translation is have faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love. This gives me a sense of movement from interior experience to outward action, to charity as love made visible. The Judeao tradition cuts to the chase; the only true prayer is action. But is any wellintended action charitable? What really helps?

It turns out there is more to being charitable than throwing money at a cause or individual. Genuine charitable action requires three interior choices. First, I must enter into the suffering of another enough for my love for them to be ignited.

This gives me the fuel to set aside my own needs long enough to focus on another.

Second, I must let in their pain enough for it to inform my compassionate action.

Genuine charity comes from the heart’s knowledge of what is longed for, not our mind’s evaluation of what would make the most sense. And third, I must tolerate the discomfort of knowing how fragile my life is. I have to live with the knowledge that in an instant, I could become the helped, not the helper; that I am not in total control of my safety, comfort and abundance; and that there is nothing I can do to protect myself in the long run.

Is it any wonder that we often teeter on the threshold of charitable action? We want to help, but what would really make a difference? Is it up to me, or could someone else do it better? I am incensed, mortified or despondent at what is happening… but what can I do without getting caught up in it, done in by it, losing what foothold I have on life? Is it really worth it when I might lose what little balance I have managed for myself? Perhaps the fundamental purpose of religion and spiritual practice is to hold the flag that says: “Take the risk. It’s worth it.”

Joan L. Smith, has offered vocational counseling, spiritual direction, pastoral care, group facilitation and consulting for thirty years in Vermont. In 2006, she moved to Maine as core staff for Greenfire Retreat, and has recently opened The Guest House, an in town retreat in Rockland, Maine. Joan is an ecumenical Christian shaped through Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Washington DC, the National Multicultural Training Institute, Power Equity Theory and ordination in the United Church of Christ. The Guest House offers guidance in creating unique hourly, daily or residential retreats that combines local landscape, media arts, healing support and reflective listening.

Joan can be reached at 207-594-1232 or at jsmitty4@verizon.net.

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

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THE HUNT by Holly Howley

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Holly Howley is a freelance writer living in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Holly can be reached at 860-430-1577 or hollyhowley@cox.net.

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Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 9

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here’s nothing like a garage sale to stir up emotion. When I was growing up, the emotion was: not another one! My mother, a garage sale enthusiast, rarely passed a sale without stopping by. Years later, in my early twenties, I began to appreciate the sentimentality of items with history. A long way from family and friends and the potential windfall of hand-me-downs, perusing past- prime treasures, once again, became part of a weekly routine. Joining the other wide-eyed hunters felt life embracing. Like the table I discovered today, might be part of my larger tomorrow.

I remember a summer long hunt for a dresser. My apartment was a small studio space in a seaside town about twenty miles outside of Boston. Square footage and money were tight. So for several consecutive Saturdays, I rummaged and haggled, finally finding my piece. A simple medium brown dresser with brass pulls and a hatbox top. The owner was more than happy to shave some off the price, as if to say, “take the thing!” And so I did.

It is now ten years, a husband, house and two children later and despite the warnings of those around me, I am having my very own garage sale. “Why not just take the stuff to Goodwill and get the tax write off?” family and friends inquire. I smile politely and secretly wonder why I’m not taking their advice.

Just as I finish preparations, my first patron arrives. “Is everything out?” she asks impatiently. “Pretty much” I respond as my customer flees, speeding off in her compact car with the intensity of a missile closing in on its target. Everything is out, nothing has been purchased and already my sale is a disappointment.

I’m alone again trying to view my junk with an objective eye. The “candelabra” I bought for my very first dinner party. Wedding gifts, the kind that never quite make it out of the box. Toys, shoes, clothes, books, curtains, fabric and a fondue pot. A large horizontal bookshelf, cedar chest, random chairs and the dresser. My first apartment purchase. The only dresser I’d ever used since leaving my childhood home until just a couple of months ago when my husband and I purchased our own. The kind formidable grown-ups use with a mirror and all. My sale may not be the priceless china for a dollar event that regulars dream about, but it is at least worthy I tell myself as the next round of people arrive.

For the next hour and a half a fairly steady stream of people make their way up our driveway. There’s the guy who after talking my ear off on topics ranging from people in my neighborhood to his ex-wife’s beach house, offers me a dollar for an armload of loot. The mother and daughter team who desperately tries to convince me to sell the

tables my goods are displayed on. Plastic white tables easily found at any big box store for about ten dollars. Had we not been hosting a family party the next day I may have bitten.

And the woman who motions me over to an embarrassingly weedy section of my yard to ask if she can take a root from my tulip tree. “My what?” I say in disbelief.

She explains that it’s a kind of tree you can’t buy (I think I know why) and that she is painstakingly trying to recreate the original landscape at her two hundred year old farmhouse. I am more than happy to hand over my weed, content to know it is going to a much better home.

As people begin to thin, I marvel at how strange and fun the morning has been.

A little driveway party where I have met people I might never have happened on otherwise. The best part is that most everything is sold, except for a few odd pieces and my dresser.

I survey the leftovers until a car pulls into our driveway. It is the first time anyone has actually driven in rather than parking on the street. I am caught a little off guard until I see a couple in their eighties.

“Hello” the man bellows as if I am a longtime friend. “Thanks for coming” I start to say, but am interrupted. “How much for the dresser?” the woman excitedly asks. “Um, forty, I think is what I have on it,” suddenly hoping my noncommittal tone might dissuade her interest. “We’ll take it.” The man is immediately annoyed, as so many men have been all day. But before long the car is backed fully up the driveway.

My dresser. Until now I hadn’t thought much about how it would feel to see it leave. As its new owner carefully writes out a check, I fight back the embarrassment of not really wanting to hand it over. I eye the piece one last time and then my dresser is gone.

It has been a morning of moments, but none like this one. I can’t tell if I am mourning my youth or just plain sad to see the dresser go. I have spent so many years stuffing clothes into the drawers. Needing more space, I should be more than happy to send it on its way. Instead I feel a little melancholy. Like the garage sale and my life are moving too fast.

As I turn to look at my now near empty garage, I start to wonder if we’ll be able to tame future clutter. And then I begin to really wonder. How long will we live in this house? Will we have a third child? When’s the right time to head back to work? Should I really have sold that dresser?

Lost in piles of thought, I suddenly realize my dresser may be gone but I am still very much here. The same hopeful, restless person in the little studio apartment.

Happy to be part of the hunt. Ready for the next great find right around the corner.

10

lov ing e ar th First the earth

Little Acts of Back Yard Charity

by Pat Foley Some definitions

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The I Ching speaks of the natural tendency of all things to seek equilibrium, mentioning the ongoing wearing down of mountains and filling up of valleys, of the excesses of the very rich giving rise to care for the very poor.

Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary published in 1925 defines charity as a noun meaning: Love, good will; an act or feeling of affection or benevolence; liberality in judging men or actions; good will to the poor or suffering; generosity; whatever is given the needy.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary published in 1934 describes charity as Kindness, natural affection, (beginning at home, due first to kith and kin); freedom from censoriousness, imputing of good motives when possible, leniency; beneficence, liberality to the poor, institutions for helping the helpless.

Some words change connotation over time. For example over the years some subtle changes have occurred in the meaning of the word “justice”. A reading of old dictionaries indicates in the early 1900th's the word carried an understanding of “fairness” which over time has shifted somewhat toward a connotation of “punishment”.

“We want justice!” at times now can mean we want something bad to happen to those with whom we disagree or whom we believe have harmed us in some way.

But “charity” remains remarkably stable. Echoing, “the charity begins at home” of the 1930’s dictionary mentioned above, a current television star talks about the importance of “giving first to ourselves and then to others from our overflow.”

Widening our perspective

From the perspective of the understanding that we are all interconnected and that each is but a piece of the greater whole; we understand the poor, the suffering and the helpless to be parts of ourselves, whose presence indicates that some other parts of ourselves have become unbalanced, perhaps having acquired more than we need.

To our mind this points to the importance of not only taking and being grateful for what we have, a currently popular idea, but also the importance of giving back to the greater whole in some way, possibly as an active expression of that gratitude. To echo the words of Bert Hellinger, an immensely popular figure in Europe in the field of contemporary family therapy, “In all our various relationships, fundamental needs interact in a complex way:” He writes of one of these fundamental human needs being “the need to maintain a balance of giving and taking, that is, for equilibrium…”

So as some of us are moved by charitable thoughts and feelings toward others, perhaps we are responding to a basic human need for balance. Perhaps the importance of this seeking of equilibrium is in part why the meaning of the word charity has remained so stable over time. Beyond that, perhaps our charitable behavior is informed by something even more fundamental. Perhaps what we are feeling and doing is our response to the flow of the Tao itself.

As inevitably as the mountains wear down and the valleys fill up, some of us respond in a charitable way to the needs of others. That response extends beyond human needs to the welfare of other species, even to concern and caring for the health of whole ecosystems, and ultimately for the planet itself. However, and here we come full circle, since we and everything else are a part of the greater whole, to care and act this way is ultimately (and sometimes in a very distant way) to care for ourselves!

Getting specific

Some of the cycles of giving and taking are vast, complex, and at this stage in human understanding, quite literally beyond comprehension. Although we may have some theories, who really knows what the intricacies of this looks like on a galactic scale?

Some cycles are more readily accessible. Moving closer to home, we can think of our own vegetable gardens as good simple examples of what can happen when loving care is extended.

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In the beginning, we have the soil. Commonly, past excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides may have rendered the earth unfit for earthworms or other beneficial organisms. Lead may have leached from old paint into the ground. Excessive use may have depleted the soil of nutrients. Although not necessarily done with ill intent, too much unbalanced taking may have been going on.

Before we plant, we can address the health of our soil, analyzing samples to determine what is needed to restore it to proper condition. Or if that is not a possibility, we can determine many things by observing what is and is not currently growing. Certain plants grow in depleted soils, both those excessively acid and excessively alkaline. We can look at the physical structure of the soil. This usually breaks down into categories of sand, clay, muck or hardpan; soil having sufficient organic material or needing organic material. We want to develop a healthy loam, with a good balance of natural chemical components and trace minerals, neither too acidic nor too alkaline. We also want a healthy percentage of organic material in the soil.

As we take steps to address these needs and work to restore health to our plots of earth, we can be mindful of where our materials come from. Where does all the peat used for improving soil texture actually come from? By using it, are we creating imbalances in someone else’ s back yard? (Probably we are.) Is there other, more local organic material we could use to do the same job? How is our product harvested or mined? Is this done in an ecologically sustainable way? (Obviously mining is not indefinitely sustainable, but some extraction is done in a more ecologically responsible way than other extractions.) Is the item approved for organic growers? How about the working conditions and the wages of the people who produce or harvest this product?

Are they safe and fair or are they exploitative?

These are a lot of questions for what might be one small purchase. Often sales people do not know the answers, but by asking and not allowing ourselves to be put off or diminished for our concern, we start a chain of inquiry that can have big results.

The influence of our little backyard purchase stretches out into the greater world. We demonstrate our feelings for our gardens, for other people, and for the welfare of the world in general with each dollar we do or do not spend. Truly, nothing stands alone.

Moving along

At this point, we have mindfully amended our soil. We plant and tend and ultimately harvest. Because our soil is healthy, our plants have grown well. Perhaps in the first few years, because of previous conditions, we encounter unreasonable amounts of insects. If we can restrain any murderous instincts, we will not reach for the nearest deadly poison. Instead, we will continue in an organic vein, learning about companion planting, crop rotation, good garden clean-up habits, and if necessary benign organically approved insect repellents, plus we can engage in the somewhat odious process of removing unwanted insects by hand.

Giving and receiving

As we care for these gardens, they return our attentions many fold. There is a good chance birds will be attracted to our area and will do more bug removal for us, as will the occasional toad or frog. All these creatures will be surviving in our minienvironments in part due to the absence of chemical herbicides and pesticides.

As we think about optimum growing conditions, we begin to be more aware of our weather patterns, when the plants need rain, when they are too wet. We move into closer connection with the natural cycles of our individual parts of the world.

Then there is the produce itself. What flavor! There is nothing quite like fresh corn, rushed from the plant to the pot, or that first sun ripened tomato, with perhaps a bit of fresh basil, or even those fresh veggies taken straight from the garden and canned or frozen. Because we have taken the time to build up healthy soil, our plants produce healthy vegetables with a good balance of the vitamins and minerals expected from each variety, contributing to our own good health. And round it goes.

As we write this it is August and our garden is giving back at an almost alarming rate!

Fall however is an excellent time to begin planning for the following spring. Snow is not yet on the ground and it is easy to determine where new gardens can be placed.

It is also possible to start turning over the ground, leaving each shovelful of earth and sod in place to weather over the winter so the soil will be more easily workable in the spring. Established plots can be cleaned up now and lovingly put to rest for the winter.

Each step of the way, the mindful loving care we extend is returned to us, creating a loop or hoop of balanced giving and taking.

Resources: MOFGA the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, www.mofga.org Common Ground Country Fair, Sept. 21st-23rd, a MOFGA annual event held the 3rd weekend in September, called by the New York Times the best small fair in the country. Food First, www.foodfirst.org, Love’s Hidden Symmetry, Bert Hellinger with Gunthard Weber & Hunter Beaumont, ISBN 1-891944-00-2 Why Good Things Happen to Good People, Stephen Post, PhD & Jill Neimark ISBN 978-0-7679-2017-9 Picture courtesy of Rich & Jill Cole Copyright Pat Foley 2007 Pat Foley attempts to live a green life just outside of Cornish, Maine. She is a professional writer, artist, shamanic practitioner and the owner of Earthrest, a retreat center offering space for groups and individuals. You may contact Pat at earthrest@psouth.net or (207) 625-4179

11 1 cup winter squash, diced 1-2 stalks celery, diced 1 cup fresh/frozen corn kernels 3-4 teaspoons barley miso (1/4-1/2 teaspoon per cup of liquid) 2-3 fresh scallions, thinly sliced on the diagonal, for garnish Place kombu on the bottom of a heavy soup pot. Top with beans, discarding soaking water. Add water and bring to a boil, uncovered.

Allow beans to cook for 5 minutes over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer until beans are about 85 percent done, 35-40 minutes.

Add vegetables, return soup to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer until both beans and vegetables are soft, 40 minutes. Add miso, cook 3-4 minutes. Garnish with scallions.

Homemade Croutons

Autumn Soups

W

Squash and Carrot Ginger Soup

Cover pan bottom with olive or other oil. Heat skillet on medium-high flame. Add cubes of bread. Cook, stirring occasionally as not to burn. Cook until browned.

When pan gets very hot, turn to low. When croutons are browned and toasted, add sea salt (and other herbs if desired). Serve a small portion of croutons with any of the above soups.

Nutritional Profile: According to George Mateljan, author of The World’s Healthiest Foods, “Winter squash, unlike its summer equivalent, can be harvested very late into the fall, has a longer storage potential, and still provides an outstanding variety of conventional nutrients. Winter squash emerged from our food ranking system as an excellent source of vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene), a very good source of vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber and manganese. In addition, winter squash emerged as a good source of folate, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B1, copper, vitamin B6, niacin (vitamin B3) and pantothenic acid.”

Cabbage is an excellent source of vitamin C. It is also a very good source of fiber, manganese, folate, vitamin B6, potassium, and omega-3 fatty acids. Cabbage is also a good source of thiamin (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), calcium, potassium, magnesium, vitamin A, and protein.

Meg Wolff is a breast cancer survivor. Her memoir, Becoming Whole: The Story of my Complete Recovery from Breast Cancer, includes recipes and menu plans. It is available at local bookstores and on her website at www.megwolff.com. Meg currently working on a soon to be released photography book, Breast Cancer: Exposed, The Connection Between Food and Survival.

1 medium winter squash 6 large carrots 1 medium onion 1-inch piece ginger 4 cups water to cover veggies Sea salt, or tamari, to taste Oil, if desired Sauté onion in oil or water for 1-2 minutes. Cut up squash and carrots and add just enough water to cover the vegetables. Bring to a boil. Add a small pinch of sea salt. Cover, lower the flame and simmer 30 minutes until squash is soft.

Mash the squash with a potato masher right in the pot or use a food processor to puree. Add another pinch of sea salt (or teaspoon soy sauce) and simmer 7-10 more minutes. Serve hot, garnished with fresh parsley and a little juice from grated ginger.

Millet-Sweet Vegetable Soup 1/2 cup millet, rinsed well 1/4 cup each onion, carrot, winter squash, green cabbage, finely diced 5 cups spring or filtered water 2 teaspoons barley miso 1-2 fresh scallions thinly sliced for garnish Rinse millet by placing in a glass bowl and covering with water. Gently swirl grains with your hands to loosen any dust. Drain well.

In a soup pot, layer onion, cabbage, squash, carrot and then millet. Add enough water to just cover, careful not to disturb layering too much. Cover and bring to a boil over medium heat.

Reduce heat. Simmer for 30 minutes. Remove a small amount of broth and use it to puree the miso. Gently stir into the soup and simmer for another 3-4 minutes.

Garnish with fresh scallions.

Adzuki Bean Vegetable Soup 1-inch piece kombu (a type of seaweed, available in most health-food sections) 1 cup adzuki beans, sorted, rinsed and soaked overnight and covered with water 7-8 cups spring or filtered water 1 sweet onion, diced 1 cup green head cabbage, diced

Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 11

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hen the cool weather starts and fall comes, I get the urge to make soup.

Soups warm us. And not only that – soups eaten at the start of a meal relax our digestive tract, thus preparing the body to receive nourishment.

Making soup is an easy way to start eating healthy meals. They can be made ahead of time and even frozen (though fresh is best). Soups are one of the first types of meals that I started preparing when I started a healing diet for breast cancer nine years ago. They can be served with a grain (such as brown rice, barley or millet), or a cracked grain (such as polenta, a whole-grain bread, or even homemade croutons or mochi, which is a brown rice product).

Soups make a hot, satisfying meal. And they’re a great way to introduce new vegetables into your diet. A vegetable that may taste bitter, or that you’re just not used to eating plain, may take on a whole different taste when cooked in a steaming broth.

By the time fall rolls around, the farmers’ markets should have a plentiful bounty of butternut, buttercup, acorn, and Hubbard squash, to name a few. This late-summer vegetable goes well in all three of the following soups.

I’ve also included a recipe for croutons and some nutritional information. Enjoy!

1/2 to 1 loaf of bread, cut into 1-inch cubes (I use local Black Crow Bakery bread) Olive oil Sea salt Cast-iron skillet Dried herbs (optional) (I sometimes use “The Maine Accent,” a combination of parsley, basil, marjoram, chervil, garlic and spices.)

12

destinatio n h e al i n g

Pe r s o n i f y C h a r i t y T h r o u g h H u m a n e L i v i n g by Kevin Pennell

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I was asked to review a book titled “Claude and Medea The Hellburn Dogs” by Zoe Weil. While waiting for the book to arrive, I scanned the website and organization associated with Zoe Weil, The Institute for Humane Education (IHE) in Surry, Maine, where Ms. Weil serves as President. According to their website (www.humaneeducation.org), “The Institute for Humane Education envisions a world in which people live humanely, sustainably and peaceably.

To create this change, IHE trains people to be humane educators, advances the field of humane education, and provides tools and inspiration for living an examined, meaningful life.”

After reading her book and looking at the institute’s website, I would have to say this issue’s theme of “Charity” correlates well with a book review of “Claude and Medea” and the mission of The Institute for Humane Research.

I spoke with Ms. Weil. She commented that, “The book and the work of the institute are directed toward healing the world and cultivating the best qualities in ourselves which include generosity, compassion, and kindness, all part of charity. Embodying those in our everyday choices, in our future careers, in our volunteer works, in our participation in democracy; that’s all part and parcel of what humane education fosters.”

Reading this delightful and thought provoking tale about the 12-year-old activists Claude and Medea inspires you to think about core issues of our interactions with people and animals alike. These young people were challenged to think and look at our world with new eyes instead of those so familiar to them. The person expressing the challenge is an eccentric substitute teacher, Ms. Rattlebee, who personifies humane education. She educates her class using innovative techniques. In doing so, they remember the lesson, the real lesson.

On the first day, for example, she comes to class wearing a skirt made from old worn neckties, that’s right, neckties. As unconventional as this is, she has the class’s full attention without uttering a word. Keeping the momentum going, she introduces the class to her extra terrestrial travel companion “Grinwhistle”, who speaks through Ms. Rattlebee. She not only has the students’ attention, she has mine too!

According to Ms. Rattlebee, Grinwhistle is “doing some research, and she’s trying to understand some things about us. She likes to talk with children your age because she says you tend to be very forthright and honest with her.” The children agree to talk with our far away friend who asks, “On your planet, how are you supposed to treat other people?” A student named 12 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2007

Penelope sarcastically replied, “the way you would want to be treated”. Grinwhistle, delighted with Penelope’s response, assumes that our planet must be similar to her own, but another student quelled the assumption describing that some people may “hurt you... and some people are bullies”. This response bothered Ms. Rattlebee’s companion who, now that she has the class’s unwavering attention, expresses her concern over the inconsistency of Penelope’s response with her classmate’s observation and teaches a valuable lesson about the humane treatment of others.

Bethel, Maine

“click” on “Begin Movie” at the top of their home page, right beside, “What is Humane Education”. I invite you to do the same! You too will agree The Institute for Humane Education is a Destination for Healing.

Immerse yourself in the descriptions of the institute’s workshops offered throughout the U.S. and Canada. The workshops help the participant to think forward in the sense of encouraging or educating others to do the same.

For example “Sowing the Seeds” workshop is offered in the east, on the west coast, and in Canada at different times of the year. IHE’s website summarizes the workshop and explains that the participant learns “how to provide people with the insight they need to make truly informed choices that help create a humane world!”

Then it continues sharing that participants also “learn how to offer empowering, effective, transformative humane education programs!”

In effect, The Institute for Humane Education, as a Destination for Healing, acts in the capacity as an educational catalyst, training educators to teach others how to heal our planet toward humane, sustainable, and peaceful lifestyles. In its efforts, IHE confronts vital issues. The Institute for Humane Education believes “we can solve the many challenges facing the world and that the solutions can and must serve everyone: all people, the environment, and other species. In all its training programs, IHE teaches about the connection between human rights, environmental preservation, animal protection, and issues of culture, and promotes an approach – Humane Education – that not only explores the relationships among these issues, but also inspires answers – and personal actions – that work for all”.

I encourage you to seek out the institute at www.humaneeducation.org or call them in Surry, Maine at 207-667-1025. The institute not only offers challenging workshops, but a Certificate Program for people who would like to immerse themselves in humane education training programs, a Masters Program for those wishing to make a difference in a truly effective, exciting, and worthy way.

Many terms define the concept of charity. Love is one common example, giving to those in need another. A firm believer in synchronicity, I still found it unusual when asked to review “Claude and Medea, The Hellburn Dogs” for destination healing. Now I would say, “Isn’t it great how everything comes together?” It’s especially gratifying when we don’t see the result in the beginning.

We try going with the flow and then witness the events weave themselves together like a beautiful tapestry unveiled by its Creator.

Giving, sharing, caring, compassion, and humane actions offered toward the world around us may sum up some qualities of “charity”. These qualities positively describe the essence of “Claude and Medea, The Hellburn Dogs” and the foundation of The Institute for Humane Education where you’ll also find the book’s author, Zoe Weil. Well done Zoe!

“Well that’s odd, ‘responded Grinwhistle’. I thought you were supposed to treat each other the way you want to be treated. I can’t imagine anyone would want to be bullied! Well let me ask you this: I’ve noticed that people on your planet are all different shapes and sizes and colors.

How do you treat those who are different from you, let’s say who have a different skin color, or who are very big or very little?” You’ll have to read the book to learn the details of children’s response to Grinwhistle’s query.

Ms. Rattlebee uses visual aids, student involvement, and other methods to gain the attention of the students then, like this instance, she shares life lessons that will surely stick with her charge for years to come. Claude and Medea take Ms. Rattlebee’s lessons to heart and apply the essence of the humane values they’ve learned to rescue the Hellburn dogs. Claude and Medea, though from different backgrounds and cultural influences, united to save the animals from inhumane treatment.

The way Zoe Weil presents the story, I found myself not only rooting for the two young activists, but also contemplating examples of inhumane treatment around the world. I also found myself wondering how I could become more humane toward others and involve myself in educating others about living a humane life. Without giving away too much detail about the ending of Claude and Medea, The Hellburn Dogs, you’ll be impressed how Claude and Medea sought no physical reward or recognition for their efforts. To simply know they’ve done the right thing in saving some helpless animals was reward enough. It makes one wish more people reacted the same way. The importance of selfless care and compassion is sensed and so the importance of that principle is also learned. With heartfelt subtlety, Zoe Weil teaches the reader to manifest some of the same principles in their own life.

I recommend Claude and Medea, The Hellburn Dogs, by Zoe Weil as a wonderful quick read that causes readers Kevin Pennell, an author from Bethel , Maine, to rethink our personal attitude to living humanely and wrote Two Feathers - Spiritual Seed Planter and prompting us to evoke charity in our lives, but also as a has written for other periodicals and media. Kevin book for educators to share with other faculty members is an Usui and Karuna Reiki® Master Teacher, and students alike as a tool to teach some very important Certified Hypnotherapist, Shamanic Practitioner, and Psychic Empath. He conducts Reiki workshops life principles. and other workshops that assist spiritual and When I finished Ms. Weil’s book, I revisited The personal development. Kevin, with his wife, Vickie Institute for Humane Education through their website Cummings, operate Spirit Wings, their Compassionate Healing Center and spoke briefly with Zoe Weil. She encouraged me to and Therapeutic Store located in Bethel, Maine.

13 Being Faith, Hope and Charity Where do we find virtues like faith, hope and charity?

We may be tempted to look outside of ourselves for them.

Random Thoughts on Faith, Hope and Charity When we think of qualities like faith, hope and charity we often conjure up religious scenes of devout followers doing superhuman work, like the amazing and selfless work of Mother Teresa But the virtues of faith, hope and charity tug at us mere humans each and every day – asking us all to heed the call. Whether we listen or not is up to us.

We are taking on faith, hope and charity when we provide for ourselves and our families, when the artist puts the paint to canvas, when the writer puts words on the page, when we extend a small kindness to a stranger, when we lend support to a friend dealing with challenges, when a child takes his or her first steps.

Faith, hope and charity are not exclusive tools available to a select few but plentiful and nondiscriminatingly available to all of us.

Being All In in Maine In talking with a native Mainer about a year ago, he uttered something that stopped me in my tracks, it was the Big Aha for which I had futilely searched.

Casey writes that just prior to a change, we encounter all our obstacles to that change. Likening it to the “sunset effect” where something intensifies before it dissipates, Casey says, just before people are ready to change, they often falter and suggests when we find ourselves in such a situation to recall Saturn’s motto: “Things are so hard, I must almost be done.”

She goes on to cite something called “keeper currents” which go from a river’s surface, down to the bottom. If we get caught in one, our natural instinct is to fight against it but if we do so we will drown.

Instead, she says, we need to persevere, go to the bottom and come up with the current on the other side. “You need faith to do this because sometimes the bottom is quite far away,” Casey observes.

It is true, she notes, what Jung said, “The highest, most decisive experience is to be alone with one’s own self. You must be alone to find out what supports you, when you find that you can not support yourself. Only this experience can give you an indestructible foundation.”

He related how, many years before, his parents had taken all their money, less than five thousand dollars, and bought a large schooner and began making a living by taking on paying passengers to sail Penobscot Bay.

Casey says, “Humbling experience is often a gift from Saturn, who loves to remind us that it is a long road from insight to full mastery.”

In a harsh economy, where jobs are not easy to come by and entrepreneurs are often birthed in a baptism of fire – I came to understand how the majority of Mainers employ faith and hope on a daily basis.

Talk about being humbled! Mother Teresa’s works of charity to serve the world’s most impoverished in India, could inspire faith and hope in just about anyone.

Doubt has crept in more than once or twice in my own personal odyssey in the nearly two years I have called Maine home. If I had a Plan B, I most likely would have implemented it. But I didn’t come to Maine with a Plan B. I came to stay. I too was “all in.”

But one door after another closed on me. Something larger than me knew I was not following my heart and doing what I wanted to do. After much frustration and painful soul searching, it became clear to me that making it in Maine would require me doing my real work, my dharma.

Despite fears, I recently took an office in Camden. A room of my own. A place to do the things I know how to do, what I was born and trained to do. It was time for another leap of faith.

Saturn’s Challenges and Gifts A common misconception about faith, hope and charity is that those who exercise these qualities always travel a smooth road.

In her book Making the Gods Work for You: The Astrological Language of the Psyche, Caroline W. Casey writes about the importance of solitude and reflection. “Saturn says not only that insight must be earned but also that breakdown precedes breakthrough,” she wrote.

The Artist’s Conference Network, a national coaching community of artists founded by Beverly Cassell, a former university professor, also applies the philosophy that breakdown precedes breakthrough in relation to the creative process. The group helps artists transform from the psychological domain where they are often in “breakdown” about their creative work, to the creative domain where they are able to “break through” and create new possibilities for their art.

The Big Show

Just recently, however, it has come to light that she had a breakdown of faith. In the August 23 edition of Time Magazine, writer David Van Biema, takes the story of The Noble Peace Prize winner’s crisis of faith Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Doubleday), contains letters the nun wrote to confidantes and was compiled and edited by the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, the same man who is her petitioner for sainthood through the Catholic Church.

Perhaps we should not be surprised to hear that Mother Teresa had doubts about her faith, that she found herself wrestling with her angels, so to speak.

Mother Teresa was just being human. Maybe she was just making sure she was “all in.”

The words of St. Francis of Assisi come to mind.

“Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love… Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope” At the same time Mother Teresa was reportedly searching for faith, she was simultaneously being faith, bringing hope and applying charity, or love - as it is also known and traditionally considered - the greatest of the three virtues.

Following Your Bliss In The Tarot, The Fool card illustrates a confident figure about to step off a mountain cliff with no evident fear. The traveler has only a meager knapsack slung over his shoulder affixed to a stick. The sun is shining fully on him and the predominant color on the card is yellow, signifying the third chakra, our solar plexus and will center. Nipping at his heels is a playful white dog, the color of innocence.

The Fool is often called the follow your bliss card.

The traveler is following his heart and taking a leap of faith. He is confident he will be supported. He is not cocky or motivated by ego but by his truth and purity of intention.

In day to day life, following our bliss - or implementing faith and hope - may feel more like, feeling the fear but moving through it, or persevering in the face of fear.

In his book The Hero’s Journey, American myth and cultural scholar Joseph Campbell speaks about the concept of following one’s bliss: “When you follow your bliss, and by bliss I mean the deep sense of being in it, and doing what the push is—out of your own existence—it may not be fun, but it’s your bliss and there’s bliss behind pain too.

You follow that and doors will open where there were no doors before, where you would not have thought there were going to be doors, and where there wouldn’t be a door for anybody else.

There’s something about the integrity of a life. And the world moves in and helps. It really does.”

Campbell is credited with inspiring artists as diverse as The Grateful Dead and filmmaker George Lucas, whose Star Wars films employed modern metaphors for ancient archetypes, giving us “The Force”, a power larger than ourselves. At the climax of Star Wars, Luke Skywalker achieves victory after hearing the voice of

Continued on Page 38

There have been famously devout doubters before her, including St. John of the Cross who spoke of the “dark night of the soul.” According to the article, Kolodiejchuk portrays Mother Teresa’s crisis “…as darkness within faith. Teresa found ways, starting in the early 1960s, to live with it and abandoned neither her belief nor her work.”

The Time article quotes the Rev. James Martin, of the Jesuit magazine America, as calling Teresa’s letters “a new ministry for Mother Teresa, a written ministry of her interior life,” and says, “It may be remembered as just as important as her ministry to the poor. It would be a ministry to people who had experienced some doubt, some absence of God in their lives. And you know who that is? Everybody. Atheists, doubters, seekers, believers, everyone.”

Apparently, it was her wish that the letters be destroyed. Their coming to light may help us understand her humanness and, in doing so, perhaps our own with greater compassion.

Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 13

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The thing you have to understand about Maine, he said, is that people here are “all in.” Every day, they get up, they go to work and everything they have is on the line. They are all in.”

In ACN, artists coach one another, asking who they are being when they are in creative breakdown around their work and then encouraging one another to create a new way of being in relation to their work. This process is very successful in helping one transform from creative breakdown to breakthrough, a form of everyday charity, if you will.

Mother Teresa may have been searching for God and faith and not thinking or feeling them. But this never stopped her from embodying the virtues of faith, hope and charity and letting them come through her. When we embody and embrace faith, hope and charity, the ego dissolves and we become those virtues. They are no longer separate or outside of us, but in us and we are one with them.

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What Are We Teaching Our Children?

by David Davies

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our beliefs and attitudes form the entire basis for your experienced (subjective) reality. We are mere observers of experience and our observations are totally subjective.

Some philosophers would say that the closest we can come to experiencing true reality is in the state of Samadhi.

Wikipedia defines Samadhi this way: (“establish, make firm”) is a Hindu and Buddhist term that describes a non-dualistic state of consciousness in which the consciousness of the experiencing subject becomes one with the experienced object,[1] and in which the mind becomes still (one - pointed or concentrated)[2] though the person remains conscious.

Quantum physicists report that at the subatomic level the very act of observing alters that which is being observed. You may have experienced the same phenomenon, in which the mere act of looking at someone draws her attention and you make eye contact.

Your act of observing has caused the subject of your observation to react (by feeling your stare and looking back at you).

Now, (stay with me here!), imagine that you affect and alter the behavior of everyone and everything that is the subject of your attention/intention.

That which you expect to see has a habit of showing up to confirm your expectations.

A study by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, called The Pygmalion Study, concluded that students’ intellectual development is largely a response to what teachers expect and how those expectations are communicated.

Teachers of grades one through six in a San Francisco elementary school were given false information about the learning potential of certain randomly selected students.

The teachers were led to expect that certain students had superior learning potential.

The researchers discovered that a statistically significant number of the “subject students”, particularly those in grades one and two, had higher IQ test scores than their peers of comparable ability.

The Urban Review I Pygmalion in the Classroom by Robert Rosenthal Lenore Jacobson Your expectations of yourself and beliefs about other people have a profound influence that leads one person to see only the praise-worthy qualities of a friend while another person views the same individual as a jerk. It all comes down to core beliefs and perceptions of reality.

Garbage In – Garbage Out You may or may not have a personal ideology or belief system that you’ve created for yourself. The vast majority of people feel that they are or try to be a good person.

Beyond that, in my experience, few people truly know what they believe.

Of those who have a pretty clear idea of what they believe fewer still have an integrated and consistent belief system that resists hypocrisy and has few if any anomalies.

14 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2007

Unfortunately, our subjective view of our own persona is highly inaccurate. Misguided parental tapes pass on qualities of poor self-esteem, arrogance and false pride and dozens of other negative scripts. These scripts, both negative and positive, form the basis of our mental operating system or MOS. Psychologists have theorized that the brain is like a computer running an operating system and connected to the Internet. Unfortunately, your mind can be running faulty programming with limiting and self-destructive thinking patterns. Have you ever felt that nothing you do works? That everything you attempt is way more difficult than it has any right to be?

In some ways it is like trying to operate a computer with nasty viruses. Your progress just gets slower and less efficient, mistakes are made and nothing seems to work as intended. Would you continue to operate your computer with a faulty operating system, one loaded with viruses and faulty data?

That which you expect to see has a habit of showing up to confirm your expectations.

The sources of faulty programming are not limited to parents by any means.

Did you see the GM commercial for the Hummer?

This commercial directly appealed to humanity’s most base instincts. Every time it airs I cringe with disgust and mute it.

“Two moms are at a playground and one mom takes her son and cuts in line. The other mom says: “my son was next!” But, the rude mom just smirks and says: “Well, now my son is next”.

“Loser mom” grabs her kid off the playground, rushes down to the local Hummer dealership, signs the papers for a brand new Hummer (No, this mom doesn’t need hubby’s permission, she just signs on the dotted line and goes...), and heads back to the playground. Her face wears a smug look of “we’ll see who is in charge now”. The slogan comes up: “Get Your Girl Out.” What are we teaching our children?

In the past I’ve worked with youths with challenging behaviors. In many instances the parents have reported violent outbursts, antisocial behaviors and even depression.

I’ve rarely, if ever, read the “diagnoses” or reason for the

referral prior to meeting the client because I don’t want to prejudice my mind by expecting to see “behaviors”.

Again, what your mind is conditioned to expect will manifest!

I’ve seen things that have surprised me! Children who are nearly unmanageable in the home setting seem to transform into relatively polite and caring kids in my presence outside the home. Yes, some children appear to have ADHD. It can be quite noticeable. But, I’ve seen these children doing a remarkable job of coping with their disabilities.

Many so-called problem kids never had a single “behavior” once we left the home and were away from their parents or guardian. What does this tell us?

I trust my instincts. I try to be in touch with my intuitive side. When I spend time with a child in his home setting I put myself in his shoes… and, often, I feel abused, disrespected, bossed around, mistrusted and even disliked. I’ve seen parents ranting at their son telling him he’s stupid, lazy and untrustworthy.

The other day I witnessed a grandmother yelling at her grandson “Don’t cheat!!!” at the end of a game of Yahtzee.

Mind you, he was doing nothing more than adding up his score. Naturally, he became quite upset that she had accused him of cheating. In any event, despite some minor errors in addition, he had well and soundly won the game beating both his dad and I. On occasion I’ve left the home of a client feeling a high level of anxiety.

Believe me, it can be a very painful experience walking in the shoes of kids from troubled homes.

Please Note: Not all homes and not all families of troubled children are dysfunctional. I’ve also witnessed the heights of caring, patience and love from parents who are coping with a child with Aspergers Syndrome, autism or a history of early childhood abuse from a previous family, for example.

But, what I’ve seen is that parents with limiting beliefs pass them along like a virus to their offspring.

Fortunately, most of us have a self-preserving servomechanism or BS meter that occasionally rejects bad information. But, a parent’s deeply held assumptions about life (the T-shirt one parent was wearing the other day said: LIFE IS PAIN!!!!) seep into the child’s subconscious and form the basis of their defective mental operating system.

These beliefs are insidious. They are hard to identify and even harder to root out.

Your attitudes and beliefs either empower you or undermine everything you do. Let’s look at some core beliefs that you’ll need to install in your MOS or mental operating system.

1. You are responsible for your success… or failure!

All Twelve Step Programs emphasize that only you can initiate change in your life. You are responsible for changing from where you are now to the person you intend to become.

You may have acquired “bad programming” from parents, teachers, relatives and even friends. Many

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David Davies is the founder of Manifest Dreams Life Coaching Center in Wiscasset, Maine. He is the author of nine books and is currently working on his new book, The Manifestation Code. This article is an excerpt from the book. More information can be found at his website at www. InfinityFactor.com or call 866-375-6941 ddavies@powergate.us .

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scientists believe television and even certain music like gangster rap creates negative attractor patterns that attract negative energy like static electricity attracts lint.

But, once you realize the problem you must take responsibility for fixing it. It is your life! Blame solves nothing. Awareness without action is irresponsible!

Taking a lot of time in identifying how your life has been corrupted by bad attitudes and habits is wasteful and actually counter productive. The past is a “done deal”.

Rehashing it is not a solution. The very act of focusing on past mistreatment and current failure gives power to the past and undermines positive change.

What you place your attention on gains power and will manifest. By rehashing your mistakes, failures and problems you inevitably attract more of the same. This is The Law of Attraction.

The only thing that is necessary is to identify those faulty, self-defeating scripts and rebuild your thought patterns, your very habits of thinking so that you effortlessly and happily choose a successful way of coping every single time.

In my life coaching practice I’ve discovered a way to teach clients to be aware of these self-defeating thought patterns. I show clients simple and effective methods to instantly delete these scripts from daily use.

2. Fear You may love driving at high speeds or even sky diving but I’ve discovered that FEAR of change holds most people back. Women in abusive relationships go back to the men who abuse them fearing the unknown more than the everyday horrors of their existence.

It is easy to become conditioned to persistent abuse (both mental and physical).

It is easy to buy into the belief that what the abuser says is the “true you”. Fear of challenging the abuser when your personal boundaries are violated is the single greatest cause of failure in abusive relationships.

Men stay in dead end jobs because they fear the challenge of starting a new job, the fear of failure and learning new routines. As incredible as it may seem fear is a handicap worse than polio or just about anything else you can name.

Helping Our Children… and Ourselves The beginning of constructive change is when you do two things: 1. You acknowledge that whatever you are thinking, feeling and doing now is not working for you.

2. You take responsibility for changing those habits and attitudes that we have identified as “faulty”. Forgive the past. Forgive your past mistakes and forgive those who may have intentionally or inadvertently programmed you for failure.

Take Action When you take responsibility for changing your current life it implies that you TAKE ACTION. A thought without action is powerless. Only by taking action can you begin to recover your personal power to control your life. And, the first step in taking action is making a decision and a commitment.

Make a Firm Commitment to Your Success and Future Happiness Have you attended college and gotten a degree? If so, you know that completing a college degree program takes an enormous commitment of time and money in pursuit of a goal: knowledge and a degree. While the knowledge is certainly beneficial, of more importance are the lessons learned about self-discipline and commitment to achieving a long-range goal.

Every day that you squander with a miserable, fearful attitude is another day irretrievably lost. It can mean that you continue to live with enormous stress that will lead to disease and an early death. Many scientists now say that stress (and how we cope with it) is the leading cause of disease.

Failing to change can mean a never-ending trail of sad, broken relationships with the sins of the past revisiting every few years to cause you and your loved ones more pain and sorrow.

Failing to change can mean years slipping away while the dreams of your youth collapse in heartbreak and disappointment.

Failing to change can mean that you settle for the Ford Escort (the ten year old one with the noisy transmission) instead of the brand new Lexus and the classic Split Window Corvette Coupe in the garage.

It can mean worrying about paying your bills day-in and day-out for year after year and then settling for a paltry retirement on social security and little else.

Are you ready to change your life? I encourage you to take the first step.

Picture Courtesy of James and Max Damico.

We hope you're enjoying "Charity" this issue of inner tapestry!

Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 15

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a breath o f he al i n g

Giving is Getting

by Donna Amrita Davidge

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In Yoga practice there are 8 Limbs associated with the practice. These are ethical guidelines to follow in how we treat ourselves and others. Many people associate yoga with physical poses (asanas) mainly when in fact poses are only one of the eight aspects of yoga.

One of our guests at Sewall House this summer told us how he went on a cruise where people lined up for the yoga class, taught by a woman formerly well known as an aggressive exercise instructor. Interestingly and to his and my surprise she was now teaching yoga (in the same aggressive manner) and had been doing yoga for eight years. She told the class not to think of yoga as a spiritual practice, especially the breath, which was only to bring in oxygen. In fact if you study yoga texts by teachers such as Paramananda Yogananda (Autobiography of a Yogi and Self Realization Fellowship) there is much reference to spirit and breath’s energy as relating to spirit. Sounds like OM, derived from Ah-ooh-um, can also connect us to spirit in our yoga practice. It is this spirit that connects us to all and allows us to experience compassion and charity.

The branches or limbs of yoga, as they are called, can help us move into a more charitable space in our lives. The other day my mother-in-law, whose first language is Swedish, asked me what charity is. I told her it meant being generous, though that is likely not the dictionary meaning. Let’s see how these limbs of yoga might fit into being more charitable to ourselves and others: The Yamas are nonviolence, truthfulness, non-stealing, non-lust and non-coveting.

The Niyamasa are cleanliness, contentment, sustained practice, self study and surrender to God. Asana is next and AFTER the practice of the above.

Breathing exercises next.

Withdrawal of the senses Concentration Meditation Bliss We can approach these “goals” of yoga step by step without immersing ourselves in yoga in an ashram, shut off from the outside world. We can simply make an effort to take our yoga practice off the mat into how we treat ourselves and others at all times, which takes honest assessment and constant awareness, what we might call living consciously versus living unconsciously.

In today’s climate there are movie stars and yoga stars (yes, yoga stars!) that can contribute their name, time or money to charitable causes. For those of us who are not in a position to do this, we can be kind to a stranger or unhappy person (as Clint Eastwood made famous “Make my day!” but in a good way), donate time to an animal shelter or small amounts of money to things we really believe in.

To be charitable means to come out of our own little world, for small minded people often are not capable of being charitable, and expand our horizons of who we are and who we can become and what we can give. Since starting our yoga retreat we have little by little attempted to give better care to our guests so that now we are at a point we can select two charitable organizations per year to gift packages or donate some to organizations we believe in related to yoga, nature or animals, all causes we believe in.

Being charitable is reaching from our hearts, not necessarily our pocketbooks.

It can be in a yoga class, when we notice someone who might be aided by a prop or a supporting hand (or foot!). One of our guests this summer said she had all sorts of fears about going to a retreat, including not fitting in. Making someone feel comfortable and on equal ground with you can be a huge act of charity. In her truthfulness she was practicing one of the principles of yoga off the mat.

Two of the limbs of yoga particularly can help us be more sensitive to others, thinking about giving before receiving.

These are: Ahimsa, nonviolence, and Aparigraha, noncovetesness Our society encourages greed as a status symbol. If we can live with less and give more without harming others our lives will be more content and happy.

To feel more open into the world a simple experience is to sit up on your knees, let your arms float up and back as you take in prana (the breath’s life force energy) deeply through your nose.

Next as you breathe out through the nose bow forward in devotion, feeling in the exhale that you are giving back your breath, creating a balance in your energy and yourself.

In closing here are some wise words to live by: “Be kind to everyone Never speak ill of anyone Never speak ill of yourself ” Yogi Bhajan “If you have much give of your money If you have little give of your heart” Arab Proverb

\

The Thirteenth Moon

Donna Amrita Davidge and her husband Kent Bonham own and operate www.sewallhouse.com, a small yoga retreat in northern Maine. Donna has been teaching since in New York City since 1985 and operating Sewall House since 1997.

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Contemplations on the environment and interconnection

by Jen Deraspe

Still Wildlife Portraits Quiet is a relative term. There are degrees of it that we are unaware of until it gets even quieter, and then we realize how much quieter it is now than before. The urban dwellers that come to Maine to retreat are especially aware of this contrast. Because their lives are filled with background noise, they’ve sometimes forgotten what true silence sounds like.

And you can’t plan for that kind of quiet – even in the most northern Maine woods, the hum of the logging operations and trucks can filter into the sound landscape at anytime. But there are times when all the chatter and background noise are gone, and silence spontaneously becomes the collective experience. This is when magic happens. This is when we create enough energetic space to allow our more wild cohabitants to play out scenes from their lives or interact with us for all to witness.

On day three of our canoe trip, seven of us paddled to a quiet section of a western Maine lake we were exploring. I had been excited about this silent morning paddle since planning the retreat months earlier. I always look for ways to incorporate silence and reflection into the day, and a quiet paddle is one of my favorite venues. After an hour, we found our rhythmic stride, taking in this picture perfect summer day. Bursting through the water in the distance was a black head – probably a beaver I thought. Then it came closer, accompanied by 2 other black heads. For a moment, I forgot I was on a fresh water lake and thought they must be harbor seals. In fact, these were river otters – it’s always special to have an encounter with these elusive water creatures.

After such a special meeting, I felt compelled to find more information on river otters. According to Jamie Sams, who writes about the meaning of animal encounters in our lives, river otters are extremely curious, playful animals, leading me to conclude that they came to frolic with us. Even more interesting, river otter represents balanced female energy, letting go of the ego, separateness and jealousy, and leaning into sisterhood, camaraderie and identifying with the community as a whole. This message struck home as I considered where our journey had taken us. This amazing group of women, having overcome anxiety in their projections about wilderness travel and entering the unknown, had begun to drop their resistance towards what nature brought in. The group was visibly jelling, finding strength, clarity and friendship with each other, and more importantly, with themselves. This process of letting go and softening is among the most gratifying dynamics I have the honor of witnessing while on retreat.

After quite some time, the otters swam underwater a great distance from us and popped up to give us one final snort in our direction before disappearing out of sight. We continued to paddle on in silence to a sandy spit where we would prepare to take our collective silence even deeper. Each woman was about to be dropped off to her own island with only her own company, to find a deeper intimacy with herself. Just before pushing off, we were graced by an immature bald eagle circling directly overhead. Indeed, spotting eagles is always a treat, and we had already identified several eagles on the lake. But when a great bird of prey circles repeatedly directly overhead, at a very low altitude, it is stunning.

We were amazed at the color patterns of the immature eagle, delicate browns, tans and whites that we all had time to take in, with space to appreciate what we were all witnessing.

The eagle and otters sent us on our journey, holding our spirits in flight and sending us to the deeper peace we were looking for.

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Let Us Guide You Home...

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Jen Deraspe is a licensed Maine Guide, holistic retreat facilitator and certified yoga instructor. She owns Nurture Through Nature, providing holistic nature retreats for women. She lives off the grid on Pleasant Mountain in Denmark. www.ntnreats.com, (207) 452-2929.

Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 17

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AwarenessandtheartofSeeng:

The 3 otters poked their heads up through the water barking and snorting at us for a steady 5 minutes, popping in and out of the water, leading us to wonder how close they might come (within 15 feet!). What was so striking about the experience was this utterly unfamiliar sound from this beautiful creature, up close and personal, with only deafening silence as the backdrop. To be sharing it with 6 others-what a gift! We floated in stillness in our canoes, trying to take in every drop of the experience. No one had to speak out loud that it was “special” – no need to articulate what was patently clear to all.

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explorin g the wo r l d r e l i g i on s

Sar Bachan Radhaswami Poetry

by James Bean

Soami Ji even made use of some Persian or Sufi mystical terminology at times, and composed some ghazals in Persian. "Soami Ji's father and grand-father were Persian scholars." (The Biography of Soami Ji Maharaj) Soami Ji "acquired a working knowledge of Arabic and Sanskrit," earlier in his life for a time taught Persian, and even, "wrote a book in Persian."

(Radhasoami Faith - a Historical Study) It seems rather appropriate then for someone like M.G. Gupta, who has translated all six volumes of the Masnawi of Jalaluddin Rumi, the poetry of Sarmad, and the Diwan-i Hafiz, to produce this most excellent new translation of the Sar Bachan Poetry and Prose in English -- all three volumes.

For Swami Ji, love for the Beloved Radhasoami, the Lord of All Souls, is central to traveling upon the right Currents of Sound, Light and Divine Love within. This bhakti spirit is the right-foundation and the Positive Power to base one's spiritual practice upon. "Always remember the Lord, and, knowing that He is always with you, imbue yourself with His love." (Soami Ji, in a letter to Huzur Maharaj) In the Sar Bachan are hymns of praise, conversational prayers directed towards the Friend, the Beloved, the Object of his Communion, the Lover of his soul: the Merciful Lord of the Soul: Radhasoami Dayal.

In this loving context of devotional bhakti, meditation practices take the devotee-soul upon an interior journey beyond illusion, beyond time and duality, to an Ultimate Reality, the Ocean of Love, Swami Ji Maharaj describes as "Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent with attributes of Grace, Mercy, Love, Bliss and Peace." Swami Ji Maharaj says, "From one step to another the soul beholds strange things which cannot be described in human language. Every region and everything is utterly beyond words. What beauty and glory! How can I describe them? There is nothing here to convey the idea. I am helpless... Love plays the supreme part. It is all love. So says RADHASOAMI." (Sant Radhasoami Sahab) Radhasoami is the name for the Nameless One (Anami), the Soundless One (Anadi), in the Highest Region. As Swami Sant Sevi Ji Maharaj once said, "The individual soul has descended.... from the Soundless State to the essence of Sound, from Sound to Light, and finally from the realm of Light to the realm of Darkness..... [In meditation practice] we travel back from the realm of Darkness to the realm of Light, from the Light to Divine Sound, and from the realm of Sound to the Soundless State.

Author: Swami Ji Maharaj

" Mystic Poetry of Swami Ji Maharaj in, The Quintessential Discourse Radhasoami If you are a lamp (deepak -- lamp of earthen vessel with wick and oil), I am turned into a moth (patanga) which in the company of the lamp reduces itself to ashes. If you are a black bee I am turned into a small worm (keet which thinks constantly of the bee and eventually becomes it); in my case, I think only of the most perfect, sagacious, skillful, shrewd and wise Radhasoami who has graciously met me. If you are the sandalwood (tree) I am a serpent intertwined with it; by the touch of your feet, I have become serene, tranquil and calm (sheetal bhayee). If you are an ocean, I am like a wave; I rise from you and I retire and return unto you. If you are a pearl, I am the thread (round which the pearl is woven); I, like the thread, never let go and forsake you (who is like a pearl to me).

Lord Radhasoami! Do shower mercy and grace on me now, for you are seated inside each and everyone as the knower of all inner secrets (antaryami). If you are the moon, I am like its phases -- rotation and revolution causing its phases, new moon and full moon -- so that I depend on you and I am conditioned by you both in my waning and waxing. I am like a small girl while you are both my father and mother; day and night I play in your lap.

Selections from the Hidayat Namah (Book of Esoteric Instructions) of Swami Ji

When your eye, turning inward into your brain, pierces the sky within and your spirit leaving your body, flies upward, you will sight the heaven which is the location of the post of Sahasdal Kanwal (One Thousand-Petalled Lotus). A thousand petals of this lotus are performing the work relating to all the three loks [worlds]. By sauntering around this sphere, you will be immensely delighted and you will sight Niranjan (the Spotless), the lord of the three worlds... ...Via the heavenly route, the surat [soul] keeps on soaring and flying and from afar, whiffs of fragrances of sandal from Malyagir, and other sweet scents of diverse varieties keep on gently blowing and the seeker then hears the innumerable sounds of flutes. Smelling these fragrances and hearing these sounds, the surat continues to soar and move forward.

When it traverses this plane (of the Rotating Cave), it attains to the outpost (naaka) of Sattlok, whence flows the sound Satt Satt and Haq Haq, emanating from the harp. Hearing this sound, the spirit getting ecstatic goes on piercing and penetrating into the higher sphere and from there the view of golden and silvery streams and rivulets, full of the limpid water of life (aab-izulal) and huge gardens of which every tree seems 10,000,000 jojans high, and where instead of fruits and flowers, millions and billions of suns and moons hang from their branches. Innumerable spirits and hamsas sing and blissfully warble on these trees, instead of birds. The spectacle and sight of this sphere is marvelous and indeed ineffable. Seeing this spectacle, the spirit or surat enters the Sattlok and catches the sight of Satt Purush... ...Thence the surat [soul] moved upward and made it to the Inaccessible Sphere (Agam Lok) whose stretch is quintillion palang (mahashankh) and the body of the Agam Purush is as vast as a quintillion quintillion palang. The hamsas [heavenly beings] dwelling there have a marvelous and unique form, and bliss and beatitude of that sphere is overwhelmingly wonderful.

My spirit (says Soamiji Maharaj) stayed and rested there for a very long period.

Beyond this, the spirit got the glimpses of Radhasoami, that is Anami Purush and merged into Him. That Abode is Infinite, Incalculable and Endless and it is the Real, Eternal Abode of faqirs (Saints).

Having attained to this, all the Saints fell into silence; as it is, I also now take to silence.

The Sar Bachan of Soami Ji Maharaj in three new volumes, Translation into Contemporary English, Commentary and Footnotes, by M.G. Gupta, Published by MG Publishers, Agra, India.

Quintessential Discourse Radhasoami: Sar Bachan Radhasoami Prose ISBN: 81-85532-33-8 https://www.vedamsbooks.com/no21697.htm Quintessential Discourse Radhasoami: Sar Bachan Radhasoami Poetry, Volume I ISBN: 81-85532-34-6 https://www.vedamsbooks.com/no43270.htm Quintessential Discourse Radhasoami: Sar Bachan Radhasoami Poetry, Volume II ISBN: 81-85532-35-4 https://www.vedamsbooks.com/no40512.htm North American Importer of Indian Spiritual Books including Agra and Beas RS Books: Nataraj

Continued on page 27 Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 19

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The spiritual classics, Sar Bachan Radhasoami Nazm yaani Chhand bandh (Poetry), and, Sar Bachan Radhasoami Bartik (Prose) by Soami Ji Maharaj are very complex books even in Hindi, and all-the-more-so if the attempt is made to translate them into English, especially the mystical poetry. Swami Ji himself says, "How shall I openly speak of its process (the process of creation in Pinda: the material universes, And: the astral dimensions, and Brahmand: Universal Mind realms -- this best remains a mystery), for none can really comprehend its secrets and idioms which I will have to employ to reveal them." Often resembling NearDeath Experiences or OOBE's, Swami Ji's mysticverses are quite intricate with layers of meaning, and contain countless terms for various heavenly regions, states of consciousness, visionary and auditory experiences he encountered as he was in communion with his Beloved Radhasoami (Soul-Lord, Lord of the Soul). The Sar Bachan Radhasoami Poetry is a most other-worldly, heavenly document, based upon Swami Ji's own inner travels, attainments and spiritual realizations. "For about fifteen years, Soami Ji Maharaj used to shut Himself up in a room which was within another room [a meditation room within a room of his home in Agra]. He was all the time absorbed in the bliss of Divine Light and Sound meditation." (Huzur Maharaj) After this period of deep exploration of the inner regions and union with his Beloved Radhasoami in Sach Khand, Swami Ji emerged and began his Mission of public satsang and teaching. "In January 1861, Soami Ji started publicly explaining the methods of the Saints to a few people who gathered at his home.

This satsang (true association, association with Eternal Truth) continued for nearly seventeen years, during which period about four thousand persons - men and women -- Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Sravagis, and a few Christians were initiated by him into the Path of the Saints, i.e. Radhasoami path (the Path of the Supreme Being). Most of these were householders; but some (about three hundred) were Sadhus [monks] also."

(Encyclopaedia of Saints of India, Volume Nineteen: Radhasoami, Criterion Publications, New Delhi.)

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Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 21

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

The "Oneness Effect" Shift

by Skye and Norm Hirst A conversation between Norm and Skye about current events impacting us all.

smart bombs and even threaten the use of nuclear or biological/chemical weapons.

Norm: History is repeating itself. At the end of the 19th century it was thought that physics had discovered everything important. Then with the 20th Century came quantum physics and relativity. Now at the beginning of the 21st Century discoveries are being made again that change everything we thought we knew. It was thought that reality was made of matter and was deterministic. Life was an epiphenomenon for which there didn’t seem to be a good explanation.

Sciences, pre-occupied with matter and determinism, kept us imprisoned. With a new reality emerging, living energy is fundamental, we realize that life does not arise out of matter. Life creates matter. We are released from prison.

Skye: Now we even believe torture is necessary to counter such escalations. Can’t we see what is happening?

forfeited our larger role in the world as moral leaders of highest virtue providing maximum freedom and charity for all. And maximum freedom includes freedom for other ways of life with least interference.

Terrorist who say they want to destroy the US may be wanting to stop what the US is doing, what it represents, not perceiving it as an altruistic nation, but instead one that imposes its will on others and backs it up with attempted force and violence. When self-interest overrides all other values, we have removed ourselves from the fabric of life.

The old world-view that is mechanistic and deterministic does not work. That world-view has been destroyed by current research, as the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) Shift Report makes very clear.

It’s the old worldview that traps us in egoism and fails to recognize the “oneness effect,” i.e., that all life is interconnected and interdependent.

Ancient traditions are distilled wisdom of many lives and much living history. That wisdom has recognized the virtue of love and altruism.

How that value was known and understood has been lost and replaced with an increasing entrapment by systemic perceptions that self-interest and preservation must be first.

As for values, matter and determinism had no place for values. Yet there were many instances, stories, that illustrated acts and results that did not fit determinism such as “Acts” that changed the course of events.

IONS Shift Report now being released speaks, as we have said before in earlier columns, beautifully of the mind change that is occurring.

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There is a story that made a profound impression on me. It is recorded in the book “Ways and Power of Love,” by Pitirim Sorokin, founder of the sociology department at Harvard during the 1930s.

It was in a land of isolated villages. There was a band of roving horsemen who would swoop down on a village to rape, murder, plunder and destroy.

One day the residents of a village saw a dust cloud.

They knew the horsemen were coming and they could not defend themselves. Then they came to a remarkable idea. The leaders walked out to meet the horsemen. They explained the arrival of the horsemen was perfectly timed because the villages were planning a party and were fixing a feast.

They invited the horsemen to be their guests. The invitations were accepted. All had a good time.

Finally, the horsemen rode away; there were no injuries, no damage and nothing stolen.

Skye: Why is charity mentioned by so many traditions and cultures as a value of highest virtue? And why it is ignored so consistently in business, government and even personal dealings today? Is it because they think they can operate to maximize their own interest to the detriment of others with no consequence to themselves? Don’t they know that we’re all connected?

Trust is destroyed and when trust is no more, economy cannot sustain because of the isolation and inability to establish and sustain relationships or agreements.

To act in ways that destroy trust, mutual respect and yes loving of self and or others, ultimately has a very high cost… that cost is lack of sustainability.

So, Norm, in today’s world we have terrorist threats, and a world filled with violent acts. Are you saying that we can change outcomes with what and how we enter into each contextual situation? You certainly don’t mean that in a cause/effect way, i.e., if I do this, I get that? Then how does charity and the values that form altruism really work?

Norm: Altruism is important because of the oneness of life; that is, all our lives affect all other lives. When we turn our back on someone in need, there is violence, a rip in the fabric of the oneness of life. We will suffer the repercussions of that rip with the need for more violence. Like children escalating their arguments until they fight with fists or verbal abuse. Only in our world today, we fight with highly automated weapons, 22 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2007

Life does not arise out of matter, life creates matter...

To quote from an article, “Learn from the Fall of Rome, US Warned,” by Jeremy Grant: David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations.” Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman Empire, Mr. Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government.”

Mr. Walker’s views carry weight because he is a non-partisan figure in charge of the Government Accountability Office, often described as the investigative arm of the US Congress.

It comes down to balance. We have to balance self-interest with the interest and needs of others.

When we see ourselves as individuals and/or as a nation as something that is discretely separate and apart needing to defend and protect what is ours, we cannot do anything but destroy and negate at that point.

Everything is connected in one fabric, the reality of intrinsic value. Intrinsic value, which is where charity lives.

Arie de Geus, author of “The Living Company,” did research on why companies only seem to last about 40 years. Going beyond 40 years requires something different than being an economic machine. It requires functioning like a living entity. A living company makes profits and profits are necessary like oxygen is to life, but it is not the purpose of life. When the purpose becomes to make money, you have an economic machine. That’s very much what our nation has become. Its self interest dominates. We have

“We are living through one of the most fundamental shifts in history—a change in the actual belief structure of Western society.

No economic, political, or military power can compare with the power of a change of mind.

By deliberately changing their images of reality, people are changing the world.”

— Willis Harman, Global Mind Change “The 2007 Shift Report: Evidence of a World Transforming", attempts to chart the transition we believe is underway from a rigid, mechanistic, and materialistic world-view to one that is built on a foundation of inter-connectedness, cooperation, and the intersection of science and spirituality.”

Wikipedia says, “Most, if not all, of the world’s religions promote altruism as a very important moral value. Christianity and Buddhism and Sikhism place particular emphasis on altruistic morality, as noted above, but Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and many other religions also promote altruistic behavior. Altruism was central to the teachings of Jesus found in the Gospel especially in the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain.”

And although Jesus teachings focused largely on love and loving over 2000 years ago, we seem to give only lip service to the importance of it today. Instead of it becoming fundamental to our modern culture, it is not even given a nod in the most common workings of business, government or interpersonal secular dealings today.

Yet the conversations about what charity or altruism is continue as if to find a way to dismiss it to remove our sense of guilt about ignoring it. Is it self-less or only ego feeding in order to feel good, giving to others?

Then there’s the thought that charity to feel good is nothing but for the purpose of ego gratification, so therefore, the act of giving to others, even out of a sense of duty, is ultimately a selfish act.

The discourse seems to wind around to meet the needs of the person acting at the time. So then you hear, “Well it’s up to each individual. There are no moral laws that it is necessary to give to those in

Continued on page 27

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welcome ho m e

ask asrianna Questions and Answers on Relationships, Spirituality and Conscious Living. a sense of loss over such a tragic death.

Are you seeing a therapist? If you aren’t, my first suggestion is to find someone reputable in the field, a licensed therapist trained in grief counseling. They can help you untangle the myriad threads of loss you’re feeling. You say he was your best friend, but friendships mean something different to each person. Perhaps he was your constant companion, the person you depended upon to help you through your own life difficulties. If he was your main source of support, your social and familial connection, it may take time to learn to develop the strength and skills necessary in order to develop faith in your own talents, to develop healthy new relationships.

What I’m concerned about in your letter is your comments about him coming to you in dreams, asking for help, and your description of how you’re adopting his habits and feelings. These are common symptoms of spirit attachment and while it’s not a well-known phenomenon, I see it more and more in my own practice.

In the normal progression of death, when the spirit leaves the physical shell called the body, it’s met by loved ones on the other side before progressing to the light and love of the spiritual realm. Just as with our earthly birth, the process of death occurs without a hitch for the vast majority of individuals. Yet there are those who do not—for a variety of reasons—progress toward the light.

Perhaps their death was sudden and violent and they’re unaware of their passing. Five minutes after death a person feels the same as they did five minutes prior. If they’re a cranky, impatient and irritable person before death, they’ll likely be that way right after. The same if we’re calm, loving and tender. With that in mind, imagine a small shock to your system, a blink, a shake of your head and then looking around, wondering what happened.

You feel the same, perhaps even better, normal aches and pains are suddenly gone. You turn toward the nearest person, or perhaps a familiar loved one only to have them ignore you. The more you yell or wave your hands, the more frightened you become as you realize they can no longer hear or see you. This is the plight of a spirit unaware of their own passing and since time as we know it doesn’t exist on the other side, this can go on indefinitely.

There are also those who know they’ve died but choose not to go to the spiritual realm. Perhaps they fear harsh judgment awaits them from a punitive God. Or perhaps they see the grief and anguish of their loved ones on the earth plane and feel they must stay to help them in whatever way they can. Revenge and hatred can also cause a spirit to remain, as can unfinished business.

Addictions are often the cause of earthbound spirits as their lost souls continue their search for vicarious highs.

When a spirit becomes earthbound for any reason, they can choose to attach themselves to a living person.

We each have an energetic immune system called the aura which protects our energy field, much as our physical selves have an immune system that fights off illnesses. If our aura is compromised in any way, however, this can leave us open to an attachment. The same things compromising our physical immune system can contribute to a lowered energetic immunity.

When you say that you can’t move on, when you say he constantly asks you for help in dreams, when you say you’re doing what he used to do, to the point that you end your letter by saying that you know and understand

exactly how he felt, that makes me wonder if his spirit hasn’t attached itself to you.

Don’t be afraid or fearful. This isn’t possession or a cause for exorcism. Remember, this is the same friend you knew while he was living, only now he’s made of energy rather than flesh and blood. There are steps—in addition to seeking counseling—that you can take on your own in order to help him move on and to allow you to properly grieve and regain your normal love of life.

First, pray. Whether it’s to Jesus, God, Buddha, Mohammed, the Great Spirit or your own Higher Power, pray that your friend’s spirit be surrounded by light, ask his guides and angels fill him with love and joy as they escort him to the light of the spiritual realm. See him in your mind’s eye being imbued with golden-white light until he’s filled and surrounded by this radiating warmth.

Ask that you be freed from any attachment and that the same Divine light and love fill you and strengthen and repair your aura. Imagine your own body being filled and surrounded with golden-white light, radiating two to three feet from your physical body.

You can speak to Joey, telling him that you love and care for him but that he cannot remain attached to you.

Explain that he needs to move to the spiritual realm and instruct him to look around for the light that’s just awaiting his notice. If you know that a loved one of his is on the other side, you can instruct him to look for his grandmother—for instance—or another loved one and they’ll appear to help him cross.

If you don’t feel better, if you don’t have a sense of lightness and a lifting of the weight you’ve been under, please write me again.

Many blessings, Asrianna Asrianna Dameron is a Psychic, a Spiritual Medium, and Certified Hypnotherapist 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 website at www.shamansheart.com, or by calling 603-892-1268.

Please direct all inquiries and questions for future columns to Asrianna at asrianna@wayoftheshaman.com

Inner Tapestry 6 Kristin Lane Raymond, ME 04071

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Dear Asrianna, In February of 2006 my best friend committed suicide.

I knew he was depressed I just never knew what to say to make him feel better and things progressively got worse and worse.

Before he killed himself he quit seeing his therapist and started drinking more and more. Toward the end, I couldn’t even get him to return my phone calls. When his mom called to tell me he’d shot himself, I was devastated. I should have been there.

Since then he’s all I think about. Sleeping is hard because I dream of him asking me for help. I listen to the songs he liked and go to the places he used to visit.

People tell me to move on and I want to, but nothing seems to matter. I’m normally an upbeat, friendly person but now I don’t want to talk to anyone or do anything, it’s even hard to look forward to my last year of college. I know I’m not myself anymore but what can I do? This isn’t like me. I guess now I know exactly how Joey felt.

Signed, Missing My Friend Dear Missing, My deepest sympathy on the loss of your friend.

It’s never easy when a loved one dies. The fact that it happened due to suicide makes it even more difficult as friends and family members struggle to understand why the person would end their life and what they could’ve done to prevent it.

You’re not to blame for Joey’s decision. The reasons a person commits suicide are varied but at the bottom of each one is a deep depression whose roots go beyond immediate situations. The loss of a job or a failed relationship is stressful and painful, but unless there’s something of far greater emotional magnitude beneath the surface, no one ends their life over it.

I don’t know the details of Joey’s life, his family environment, or the stresses he faced, nor the support system he had—or didn’t have—in place. What I do know is that he made the decision to stop therapy, to drink, and to withdraw from the world. My heart goes out to him--how despondent he must have felt!--yet to blame yourself or to feel you had within you the ability to cure him of his mental illness is to see within yourself a power that couldn’t exist.

We can support loved ones, can offer counsel and comfort, we can be there in person, by email or phone, and can support them in all the steps toward selfimprovement they take, but we can’t make them do what they won’t do. To think otherwise is to ignore that we each have freewill, and that any change must be motivated by our own inner desire to move out of our suffering. So continue to love your friend, to celebrate the wonderful person he was, to understand the pain he must have been in to take such a drastic step, but don’t choose to carry the blame for his decision.

Your grief is understandable. It’s normal to miss our loved ones in the spirit realm, to feel bereft of their presence, the sound of their voice, the small and large details that made them so important to us. Grief is a process and is unique to each individual. I often tell my clients that if their loved one has been gone two years, that’s only two Christmases, two birthdays, two anniversaries which isn’t that long in the grand scheme of things. So it’s understandable that you would still feel

24

Feng Shui & Geopathology

by Werner Brandmaier

Healing the House with BodyTalk:

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wice a year, my wife and I travel down to New York City to be part of one of the oldest health expos in the country, the New Life Expo at the Hotel New Yorker, just opposite of Madison Square Garden. Although it is quite a drive from Maine, we have a group of true and steadily increasing customers we look forward to meeting each time. They stop by to say hi, to see any new stuff we have (and there is always something new), or to bring their friends by to talk to the “Feng Shui guy from Austria.”

New York is one of those places where new ideas, techniques and teachings show up first, which is how I learned about BodyTalk, a simple yet brilliant healing technique.

A long time customer and a health practitioner, Karen Atkins, began to send a number of her clients my way. At the most recent expo, she had her own booth at the show and I had the opportunity to learn more about what she was doing. She has been growing the New York Center for BodyTalk, and explained to me that Bodytalk now was the fastest growing health system worldwide.

BodyTalk teaches a form of tapping, both on the brain and the heart in order to synchronize and stimulate the communication between brain and organs, as well as other parts of the body. The goal is to initiate and sustain self-healing.

BodyTalk was developed by Dr. John Veltheim, D.C., B.Ac. a chiropractor and acupuncturist with a health clinic in Brisbane, Australia.

His extensive studies include applied kinesiology, bioenergetic therapy, osteopathy, counseling and comparative philosophy and theology.

Long story short, I went to one of Karen’s presentations at the expo and later this spring had the opportunity to attend a full day workshop in Bangor, Maine. The ACCESS class teaches how to use these techniques to work on oneself, friends and family. My wife found it invaluable in dealing with a recent shoulder pain, and subsequently took the class herself. She now teaches it to every one of her clients she sees in her biofeedback practice.

In BodyTalk the body is alerted through gentle tapping techniques and reminded to take care of itself. The body-mind complex is regarded as functioning as a synchronized unit and not as a bundle of separate parts. As an analogy, an orchestra can produce beautiful music only if all musicians tune their instruments and then coordinate the timing of their playing. Good health can only be achieved when all body parts and systems are functioning properly and when their activities are synchronized.

It is as simple and as valuable as it sounds. (If anybody is interested, there will be a Bodytalk ACCESS workshop with Karen Atkins in Portland on October 13th at the East End Community School) As I have been practicing Bodytalk on myself and seeing amazing results, it occurred to me that perhaps I could use this in my Feng Shui practice. Weak houses might not always just be cases of low Chi levels or detrimental earth energies, in addition all the forces effecting a house might need a tune up to synchronize their frequencies.

I began contemplating: Why not practice a form of Bodytalk on a house? Why not tap a house and initiate self-healing for the energetic body of a building? If everything is energy and a house has levels of Chi and aura fields, why would it not benefit from an increased balance of all contributing forces?

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Over the next days I used dowsing to get a better feel of how to proceed. My first questions were: What would be the essential points in a house to tap? What would be the frequency and duration of tapping? Would all houses be tapped the same, or would we develop specific patterns for single homes, for apartments and for offices?

Another interesting question arose: Why not tap a business to optimize its profitability? As far as I understand and believe, the Universe delivers abundance in excess. Any lack of it, therefore, is solely caused by blockages of access to the Source or imbalances of the contributing factors. If we were able to balance and harmonize a building or property, unfortunate and weak Feng Shui situations could be fixed. What a fantastic concept.

I began with our house and within a few days, I started tapping my business, too. I felt the first results in different dreams at night following each sequence of tapping. I found my sleep was more quiet and restful and the energies felt different in the morning.

There were cycles to consider, as well: three days of tapping, a three day pause, then again tapping and pause. As Carol Anthony describes the work of the cosmic helpers, “it takes 3 days in which we repeat the programming and another three days for the helpers to carry out the transformation.”

However, I was too excited and could not wait and just do a single protocol at a time. I changed sequences, tapping points and directions all throughout the house as my dowsing would indicate. The protocol I developed was to tap the house along the outside walls, one at a time starting with the eastern wall and following around the house counter-clockwise. After tapping the wall I always tapped the floor, too. The final challenge was to find the center of the house and tap it out.

The business sequence works clockwise, again starting at east wall of the house.

I also discovered that I only had to work one floor, but this might vary for larger structures and needs further investigation. First results indicated significantly more phone calls and orders for my Feng Shui business. We since had the best summer ever in a traditionally more quiet time of the year.

Combined with the shielding qualities of the Feng Shui Power Discs for geopathic stress patterns, BodyTalk opens up a whole new range of applications for balancing and healing house energies. It is absolutely fascinating to incorporate these new capabilities into my practice and maybe even into future tools. As I continue experimenting with procedures, I will look forward to letting you know how things are progressing at a later point.

Additional information: • The BodyTalk System by Dr. John Veltheim, ISBN 0-9645944-9-8 • Upcoming Bodytalk ACCESS workshop with Karen Atkins in Portland on October 13th at the East End Community School from 9:30am to 4:00pm, for more info or to register go to www.theBodytalkCenter.com Picture countesy of www.bodytalksystem.com.

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 werner@InstituteofFengShui.com.

25

Sacred Sight

by Doug Marsh

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athematical education is all about quantity, for numeracy is as important as literacy in our Western world of clocks, commerce and computers. Yet mathematics and geometry are usually devoid of any reference to their inherent qualities. The deeper spiritual aspect—studying the repeating shapes, forms, symbols and patterns in nature—is all but lost in our work-a-day world.

We need to bring the traditions of “sacred number” and “sacred geometry” back into view, and what better way to begin than with vision itself.

Number One The ancient Greek mathematical philosophers viewed the number one as unity, a wholeness that provides a divine order to the cosmos. The circle, which is constructed from a central point, is the sacred geometric representation of this wholeness, the One that forms the Many.

Circular shapes abound in nature. Of particular significance is the circular shape of the human eyeball. Ralph Waldo Emmerson wrote, “The eye is the first circle, the horizon which it forms is the second.” Other circles in the eye are the iris, the colored portion, and the pupil, the black area which dilates and contracts in response to changing light stimuli.

Deep within the eye, unbeknownst to an observer, the point and the circle play an important role in how we visually perceive the world. The inside back portion of the eye (the “retina”) contains numerous light receptors called “cones” packed tightly in a very small center area called the “fovea centralis.” The cones gradually diminish in density as the distance increases from the fovea centralis. The cones are virtually non-existent at the outer circumference.

Also within the retina are receptors called “rods.” It is believed that the rods sense movement in our peripheral field. The rods are distributed opposite to the cones, since the rods are non-existent in the center and gradually increase in density towards the periphery. That’s why something moving in your peripheral field of vision can abruptly grab your attention.

Another sacred principle of the circle is the continuous rotary motion of cycles and rhythms. With eyesight, oscillating rhythms manifest in several ways. One of the most obvious is the continuous blink reflex. Our eyes also respond in cycles by closing at night and opening in the day. During sleep, the eyes have an alternating motion called rapid eye movement (REM), and when awake, they have numerous subconscious micro-movements—some vibrating at the frequency of a strummed guitar string—to key in on objects and maintain focus. The motion is contrary to that of a still camera, for without the continuous rhythmic activity, objects would quickly fade into blur.

Number Two The root word for “nature” means “to be born,” and the number two emerges through a birth-like process. This process begins symbolically as the circle divides and replicates itself—just as a living cell does. The geometric representation is two circles of the same diameter each having their center points touching the circumference of the other. The One projects forth as a reflection of itself and a “true” mathematical line is created from point to point.

The sacred principle of number two is polarity, whereby the line forms a tensile link between opposite poles. Paradoxically, there is both a separation and an attraction that binds the two, yearning once again for wholeness. It’s the yin/yang principle of Taoist thought. The human body has a left side and a right side, a feminine side and a masculine side, an intuitive side and intellectual side, and so on. Not only does each eye see things from a slightly different angle, the modern left brain/right brain theory suggests they are extensions of the brain’s two hemispheres.

Applying the metaphor of a portal to the eyes, one is immediately drawn to the distinct vesica piscis shape which the upper and lower eyelids produce. Within the eye itself, the same pointed oval shape is found when studying the anatomy of the lens from a side view. The lens is the part of the eye where light rays emitted from an external object refract in such a way to form an image on the retina.

The inner and outer aspects of eyesight are linked, as the mind and emotions have a great impact on how well we see. For relaxed vision, perhaps a good mental image is to imagine the gentle light of your soul meeting the external light in the vesica piscis of your eyes.

Number Three Our two eyes work together in harmony to fuse a single image. An outcome of this reunion is the emergence of the number three. Three dimensional (3D) vision provides depth to our world view, a level of understanding that goes beyond a two dimensional (2D) flat surface.

The triangle, which is formed within the vesica piscis, is the sacred geometric shape for number three. An object in our sight is the third point midway between the eyes, the vertex that balances the opposing views of each eye’s unique perspective. The ancient philosophers valued the triad, assigning it qualities such as piety, friendship, harmony, peace, justice, temperance and virtue. It is the symbol of wisdom, for living prudently in the present requires learning from the past and planning for the future.

The triad principle is also evident in a metaphysical sense. Mystics describe our human constitution as a three-fold constitution—body, soul and spirit. A “third eye” between the brows is said to be the seat of the spirit. Seers have supposedly awakened the eye of the spirit, resulting in clairvoyant vision. The third eye, which remains dormant for the majority of people, may also be responsible for triggering hallucinations and out-of-body experiences. The pinecone shaped pineal gland, located between the brain’s two hemispheres, is claimed to be the location of the mysterious third eye.

Awakening the third eye may be highly elusive, but re-awakening a diminished sense of 3D vision is more easily attainable. Prescription glasses provide immediate artificial clarity, but they don’t restore eyesight to a normal state. The lenses, although curved to help light rays converge properly inside the eye for better acuity, act as a barrier. Colors are less intense through the glass and objects are distorted in size.

For people wearing glasses for distant viewing, the lenses diminish 3D perception.

The condition is reversible, for people who improve their eyesight naturally invariably notice a marked improvement in their ability to see 3D again. *** Mathematics and geometry are applied with efficient precision in our technological era. A prime example is the science of optics, where good vision is reduced to purely a numerical term, 20/20. Ironically, as the vision industry has grown and prospered, we’re collectively seeing worse, not better. The incidence of vision difficulties in North America signifies the imbalance. Fewer than three percent of children are born with visual defects yet, as they reach adulthood, nearly two thirds will become dependent on prescription eyewear. Non-industrialized nations are virtually free of such widespread vision problems. To help restore a quality outcome, perhaps it’s time we return to the spiritual teachings of sacred number and sacred geometry to understand what really “counts.”

Doug Marsh is the author of Restoring Your Eyesight: A Taoist Approach, a natural vision improvement book published by Inner Traditions/Bear & Company. His website is www.taosight.com.

The concept of “two” in eyesight has further spiritual significance beyond the apparent. In Plato’s Timaeus, eyesight is described as a two-way process; the eye mediates between the inner realm and the external world of objects. The fire of the soul was said to emit a gentle light from within, flow through the eye and meet the outer daylight. Like falls upon like, coalesces and forms the perception of sight. In this philosophical view, the eye acts as a portal, the proverbial “window of the soul.”

The portal is actually a symbol that arises geometrically from one circle beginning to replicate into two. The fish-shaped vesica piscis is the area of overlap between the linked circles. It has been venerated throughout history by various cultures and nations and dates back to pagan and mystical religions. The early Christians considered it the link between heaven and earth, a bridge between spirit and form. Consequently, much medieval art symbolically depicts Christ within

Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 25

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The cone distribution means that we see the clearest in the central point of our sight. Objects in the periphery are less clear, so the focus is different than that captured by a camera. Because the cone distribution in the retina follows a geometric pattern similar to the energy distribution in a concentric wave, I call it “concentric focus.” A principle of healthy vision is awareness of this concentric focus. Attempting to see everything clearly at once is a strain that lowers the vision.

the fish-shaped area. In ancient architecture, particularly in cathedrals and holy temples, the vesica piscis was used extensively in the design of doorways. They were portals which permitted entry from the mundane world of reality into spiritual space.

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m ix ed m e dia Book Review

by J ame s Be an Reflections from the Journey of Life–Collected Sayings of the Dalai Lama ISBN: 1-55-643-388 North Atlantic Books www.nothatlanticbooks.com

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BOOKS WEB SITES MUSIC

DVDs S I E O V M AND FOOD

REVIEWS and more

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The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the spiritual and temporal Leader of the Tibetan people. Over the years there have been of course numerous publications about H.H. the Dalai Lama. This one however, I find to be my absolute favorite, as it opens up for the reader, in a most effective way, the world of Buddhist teachings. I am quite impressed with, Reflections from the Journey of Life, as an excellent sourcebook on contemporary Buddhist wisdom. These quotations are selected from personal conversations between the Dalai Lama and Catherine Barry, a French television journalist.

This collection of sayings is arranged topically and includes a wide variety of subjects such as: happiness, love, emotions, compassion, tolerance, giving, responsibility, death, mind, spirit, body, ethical behavior, right-thoughts, right-action in the world, the environment, the media, politics, Tibet (The Roof of the World), China, democracy, human rights, world peace, forgiveness, kindness, non-violence, interdependence, economics, science, dharma, nirvana, awakening, karma, reincarnation, consciousness, meditation practice, the role of the living teacher, the inner master, Buddha nature, God the similarities and the differences between Buddhism and other world religions. This is a very beautiful book making quite accessible the spirituality of the Dalai Lama, who also is known as: the Ocean of Wisdom, Kundun (the Presence of a great spiritual master), Power of the Word, and, Incarnation of the Buddha of Compassion.

CD Review

by Jo an E mmo n s Shaman Stories Evelyn C. Rysdyk and Meg Bowles www.spiritpassages.com In 1996 Evelyn Rysdyk of Spirit Passages and Meg Bowles, created a wonderful cassette tape called Bedtime Stories for the New Human.

As I was being introduced to Shamanism in 2000, I happened to be fortunate enough to take some of Spirit Passages programs that were offered around this time honored way of being in the world and was able to obtain one of the originally recorded tapes. The music was always soothing to me and I found myself drifting into a place deep within myself where I was able to focus on the tape and let in what both the music and story had to offer my process of awakening to that state of becoming a New Human.

Evelyn's stories allow one to experience for themselves the worlds accessed by shamans. Evelyn sees these stories as captured visions and dreams which bring their message of joy, connection and hope to everyone and it is her desire to share them with as many people as possible. So she has also included them in her book, Modern Shamanic Living. I do have to say for myself, these stories combined with the music created by Meg are some of the dreamiest stories I have ever heard.

Evelyn is an internationally-recognized author, artist, healer and teacher of shamanism. She and her partner Allie Knowlton are included in Traveling Between the Worlds, a book of 24 interviews with the most influential teachers and writers of shamanism.

Meg is a wonderfully gifted, classicaly-trained composer of electronic/ ambient space music. Her other CD's include Inner Space, Blue Cosmos and From the Dark Earth. Her music can be heard regularly on radio programs such as "Echoes" and "From the Hearts of Space."

This project has not only been a collaboration between old friends but a reflection of the heart connection they each share to the invisible realms of Spirit. Our thanks to Evelyn and Meg for their continued work and the endless devotion they have to help people reconnect to themselves.

M usi c R eview b y J a m e s Be a n The Crimson Collection Vol. 4 & 5 Har Har Mukande with Mender of Hearts, Singh Kaur & Kim Robertson Invincible Music www.InvincibleMusic.com Har Har Mukande with Mender of Hearts is a very special recording, one of my all-time favorite albums of spiritual music.

The first part, Har Har Mukande, is based on words from the Sikh scriptures, and is intended to empower the individual.

The artists describe it this way: “.......a healing celestial song/ chant to awaken your victorious personality. It is written that this sound current will give the experience of living from a carefree perspective which is the liberated soul. It can stimulate the capacity for commitment and courage, turning challenges into opportunities.”

The second part is titled, Mender of Hearts, and, like the first, is a kind of musical mantra designed to have a specific effect upon the listener, in this case to stimulate love for the Supreme Being: “This love song to the Infinite, the Mender of Hearts, has the ability to heal the heart and re-awaken your joy and enthusiasm for life. This is a love song in the purest sense: a love song to the infinite within each of us and the infinite that unites us all, the one who is ‘the mender of all hearts, the mender of the wounds of life... the sustainer of all.’ The intricate and beautiful melody of the Celtic harp blending with Singh Kaur’s soothing crystal-clear voice will touch your soul.”

The heart-centered bhakti lyrics of Mender of Hearts are also from the Sikh scriptures of India, from the Peace Lagoon translation published by the 3HO/Yogi Bhajan group, even now, one of the nicer anthologies of the Sikh scriptures available in contemporary English, a very beautiful book.

Mender of Hearts Waahay Guroo Waahay Guroo Waahay Guroo Waahay Jeeo You are the mender, the mender of hearts.

You are the sustainer of all.

You are the mender of the wounds of life.

You are the sustainer of all.

In your heart You care for everyone.

Within all hearts, in everyone.

In Your heart You care for everyone.

Within all hearts, within all hearts You’re there.

O my mind, meditate forever on the Holy One. You are the mender of the wounds of life.

You are the sustainer of all.

So remember Him who alone will carry you, Who alone will carry you to your destination.

Meditate forever on the One. O my mind, meditate forever on the One.

James Bean reviews books and music for the Wisdom Radio Network and other stations via a syndicated radio program called Spiritual Awakening. Address questions or comments to: P O Box 7, Newport, ME 04953, or Email: james@spiritualawakeningradio.com.

Gaia Girls ~ Way of the Water by author Lee Wells Hi everyone, just a quick note that the new Gaia Girls book, Gaia Girls, Way of the Water is now available. I've just gotten my copy and will have a review for you next issue. It's perfect timing for holiday gift giving to the young people in your life. Lee Wells is a very talented author who has captured the hearts of many adults and children with her series of books and interactive links between reading the book and the Gaia Girls website. Visit: www.chelseagreen.com/2007/wayofwaterpb or www.gaiagirls. com to purchase or for more information.

27 Book Review

by M a r c ia H . Ne lke n "So You Say You Want To Feel Better"

By John Gaudio River Press www.johngaudio.com “You know what you have to do within your mind and body. You know what it is within your body that is bothering you and causing a lack of harmony. It might be a lack of sleep, or too much of something like drinking, smoking, or eating. It might be your inability to speak out of yourself, or talk to other people. It might be over-reacting, or exhibiting too much anger. You know what you have to work on. You have to start. You can see it in humanity today, especially in the elderly people that you meet: if you do not want to be flawed when you get to that age, do not be flawed now in that hidden way. It is hidden there. Whatever it might be, it is hidden. Bring it out and correct it because someday it will not be hidden. It will be on the surface. It will be right there. It will bother you. It will nag you. This flaw will no longer be correctable then.

It will be so deep seated, the roots of it will be right into the essence of your soul. It is up to you to understand how to eliminate it now.

Continued from page 19 exploring the world religions: Sar Bachan Radhaswami...

Books: https://www.natarajbooks.com.

Another translation of the poetry published in English is: Sar Bachan Poetry (Selections), also the volume, Sar Bachan Prose, from the RS Book Department (RSSB): http://www.scienceofthesoul.org For other translations into English of Sar Bachan Poetry -Volumes I and II, the Prose, plus: The Last Discourse of Soami Ji Maharaj (along with, The Letters of Soami Ji Maharaj and Huzur Maharaj), as well as another book by Swami Ji titled, Elucidation of Jap Ji, see the website of Rita Maheshwari, Agra: http://www.radhasoami-faith.info/Books_Frame.shtml

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 Shabda Yoga in the Bangor, Waterville, & Portland areas. Address questions or comments to PO Box 7, Newport, Maine 04953, or email: james@spiritualawakeningradio.com.

That is what healing is all about: heal yourself first in the simplest way. If you have had a chronic thing happen to you like an ear infection, nose blockage, or painful feeling in the chest, and it is happening over and over, you have to begin to question why it is happening to you. Get some answers. Get some answers to the answers. That is the pathway. You are teaching yourself the velocity that is usable in comprehension. If you do not, that is how you are going to leave.”

“There is no easy solution, but there is no easier solution than meditation, because each and every day becomes more enhanced as we follow this procedure.”

Recently holistic-minded people everywhere are giving more respect for the practice of meditation. For 30 years, the Connecticut meditation teacher John J. Gaudio, in his informal evening classes has taught meditation as a vehicle of comprehension in extending health and longevity, focus, productiveness, insight, creativity and feelings of love. Recently he has retired from teaching, but sums it all up in his new book, “So… You Say You Want To Feel Better?

Gaudio never suggests that we shun modern medicine; we must use everything at our disposal to maintain our health; but daily practicing one or two 15-minute meditations with the “proper usage of the mind” becomes optimal preventive medicine. If we stay with it year after year, meditation builds upon itself, and after awhile, we have earned a place within self that cannot be dissipated, as long as we use this tool of comprehension from day to day.

“Proper of the mind:” what does that mean? Gaudio says we must use meditation with the over-arching purpose to become a better person, in order for the meditation to do its work. If not, meditation becomes a crutch, and after a while, we no longer receive the rejuvenation, balance and vitality. He gives us many tools of comprehension to work with. For instance, how do we know we might be doing something harmful to self, or others, within everyday life?

Of course we have fleeting thoughts, but sometimes we are so hurried in our endeavors, we disregard the messages of mind and body, thus doing injustice to self, and our loved ones, in the long run.

We must slow down from our hurried pace to look within. We begin a daily meditation practice and proceed through a number of steps that are outlined in the book, first starting with the rejuvenation of mind and body. When we reach a deeper level of relaxation, we inspect subtle - or not so subtle - physical or energy imbalances within mind or body, and begin to question what might be the factors within us that are causing them.

We are taught how to initiate a questioning procedure, aided by Gaudio’s “Body Map of Consciousness,” that assigns a particular psychological/spiritual meaning to each part of the body, giving us clues on the area we will need to work on to heal self. For instance, several chapters are taken up with how we often dissipate self by either consistently overreacting toward others, or not reacting enough, which eventually leads to imbalance and sickness within the physical body.

Gaudio’s “making the body stable from the mind” becomes our daily goal, as we become exceedingly wise to ourselves through this method of meditation.

Continued from page 22 the way of life-itself ~ The "Oneness Effect" Shift need. Perhaps those in need have it as their karma to be poor. It’s none of our concern.”

Most of these positional points of view are trapped by dualism, mechanism and determinism that have framed modern thinking for many centuries.

As the world’s consciousness and reality shift, the ways we will evolve our thinking will have much to do with our connectedness, going back maybe for the first time to truly recognizing what we’ll call the “oneness effect.”

The dilemma for many may well be, how do I get some of that? Where do I go to learn about it? Communities, developers, business leaders, government heads, bankers, are already beginning to get it. Slowly at first, but here’s why they’ll want to know about it and access it. It won’t be because it feels good. It won’t be because it’s their duty. It will be because they will recognize it is the only way to be that works and works because of the “oneness effect.”

In regions all over the country, we’re seeing attempts to move into ways of inclusion, with consensus building, open source, non-hierarchical open processes like Wikipedia and Open Space meeting processes, even companies run with zero management, even cities in Europe are doing away with traffic signs because they find people are more responsible and alert to others when there are no signs.

How we do it is what we must now learn. Decision-making is a learning process, and the consensus building process is such a good example of how that works. But it’s always unique to each situation. How then, do we learn our way, Norm?

Norm: All three dimensions of values will need to be recognized, utilized and understood as we move into this new awareness of our oneness, both with self-interest and concern for others. A balance, that’s truly what we will be learning about.

Picture Courtesy of www.onenessmovement.org.

For more information on the work of John J. Gaudio: www.johngaudio.com.

Skye & Norm

Skye and Norm are co-founders of The Autognomics Institute (TAI) in Camden, Maine. Since 1992... Research, Consulting, Education and Facilitation on emerging new paradigm of living processes organizing Life-itself. Life's organizing principles open new possibilities to complex living problems. To see other articles on value dynamics go to www.autognomics.blogspot.com or to learn more about our research and how you can participate and benefit, call TAI (207) 236-6331.

Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 27

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John J. Gaudio, from his book, So… You Say You Want To Feel Better?

Longevity and optimal health: isn’t that what we dearly wish for ourselves?

Claims of achieving these goals have been made down through the centuries, especially with Eastern methods, with their core of meditative, yogic and related practices. Western scientific medicine is advancing through investigations conducted on the molecular, cellular, physiological and psychological levels.

28

INNER TAPESTRY's

Directory of Resources 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 The Couples Center

Supporting the heart’s desire for intimacy, meaning, and connection. Conscious

relationship is the art and science of using the inevitable challenges of relationship to evolve into more present, loving, and compassionate beings.

We bring a unique blend of expertise, support, and challenge to couples who are ready to open their hearts, transform shadow into light, and heal ancient wounds in the context of relationship. We offer a variety of formats for this work: individual therapy, husband/wife co-therapy team, couples’ intensives, Integrated Marital and Sexual Therapy, and shamanic healing. Call for information: (207) 878Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

3141. Ron Feintech, Ph.D, Licensed Psychologist, Sex Therapy Diplomate, AASECT; rfeintech@choiceonemail.com; Deb Feintech, RC, Certified Shamanic Practitioner; Michele Keef, LMFT and Alison Caswell, LCPC-C, 222 Auburn St., Portland, ME 04103.

Counseling & Therapy .......................................... page 28 Creative Healing Arts ..................................... pages 28-29 Evolutionary Consciousness ................................. page 29 Holistic Healing Centers ....................................... page 29 Honoring A Life's Transition .................................. page 30 Hypnotherapy ........................................................ page 30 Integrative Healing ........................................ pages 30-31 Life Mastery .......................................................... page 31 Meditation ............................................................. page 32 Nurturing Foods ................................................... page 32 Psychic & Spiritual Mediumship .......................... page 32 Reflexology & Healing Massage ......................... page 32 Retreats ................................................................ page 32 Sacred Space ...................................................... page 33 Salons & Spas ...................................................... page 33 Schools & Trainings ................................................ page 33 Shamanic Healing ................................................ page 33

creative healing arts–cont.

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. moonart@midcoast.com.

Dance/Movement Therapy Caroline Loupe, 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

creative healing arts Connectic ut 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.

28 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2007

ADTR, LCPC

Dance/Movement Therapy helps people explore and extend their aliveness. Combining words and

movement in safe, developmentally appropriate structures, Caroline can help you tap into your deepest wisdom and creativity. Caroline offers individual therapy sessions as well as consultation for other professionals, therapists and educators who can benefit from the use of movement in their understandings. She also offers supervision to those who would like to include movement more effectively in their work with clients or students. Caroline also teaches classes and leads workshops in Contemplative Dance and T’ai Chi Ch’uan at Fiddlehead Arts and at her studio in New Gloucester. For more information: Call (207) 926-5983 or email cmloupe@maine.rr.com.

Movement as Healer

Gail Edgerly, RN, CTP

Movement as Healer is rooted in the premise that movement is the expression of life, and movement on all levels is fundamental to health.

When we experience the possibilities of our own unique and authentic movement, we release into freer movement, deepening our awareness, sense of connection, and state of well-being. The offerings of Movement as Healer are specific and collaborative. The Trager® Approach to movement involves a one-on-one practitioner/client relationship using touch and rhythm to assist in the experience of fluid, free and pleasurable movement. The 5Rhythms™ Movement Practice (developed by Gabrielle Roth) is an improvisational and expressive exploration of our uniquely personal movement following a map of rhythms inherent in every body and in everyday life. Sessions can be one-onone, with a couple or in a class/workshop setting. The 5Rhythms™ can also be used in collaboration with the work of other teachers and facilitators, to expand and support the embodiment of the program's intention. I offer private sessions and classes in Portland and Kennebunk. FMI call (207) 761-3765 or visit www.movementashealer.com. For further information: www.gabrielleroth.com and www.Trager.com.

29 creative healing arts–cont.

holistic healing centers – cont.

Surry Music Therapy Center: Alan Wittenberg M.A., CMT

Far Eastern tradition, Native American custom, new age spiritual, holistic natural or any other healing path is welcome. The Universal

Certified Music Therapist, (AMTA) American Music Therapy Association Music therapy opens new channels of communication and contact thru 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 through out Maine. Contact Alan Wittenberg at (207) 667-1308, alan@surrymusictherapy.com, Visit the website at www.surrymusictherapy.com for seminar and conference information.

Healing Center is an eclectic mix of people and practices. You can find massage therapists and psychics, spiritual counselors and shamans, energy therapists and dancers all under one roof. Our many classes cover a wide range of interests whether you are here to learn a new path or just enlighten yourself to some different methods. Classes are priced in order to encourage people to try something new and experience another perspective. Visit us at 1016 B Main Street, Sanford, Maine or online at www.universalhealingcenter.net for a complete list, calendar and personal biographies. (207) 608-1755.

evolutionary consciousness

Gardens of Atlantis Healing Arts Center

Maine The Autognomics Institute since 1992 Norm and Skye Hirst co-founders

"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

line-up includes A Rich Community of Individuals ~ Regina Strongheart, Creating Prosperity with the Angels and Developing Your Inner Power with Elizabeth Foley, DNA Healing with Georgi Nelson, Beyond The Secret with Deb Bergeron, Re-Emergence of the Divine Feminine with Patti Truman, Learn Foot & Hand Massage with Linda Stilphen, LMT, Yoga with Jeanette Schmid Lakari, and Personalized Retreats! *Special Guest, Michael Redsky, Nov 16th-18th for Readings, Healing Sessions and Friday Night Drumming Circle. Come and experience this uniquely lovely place and these wonderful Healers! Route 35 ~ Dayton, ME 04005, (207) 929-5088, www.gardensofatlantis.org.

explore how we can help you during this consciousness shift. www.autognomics.blogspot.com or call (207) 236-6331.

The area’s premiere environment for creating health & well-being, Sanctuary Holistic Health & Yoga Center offers a comprehensive selection of healthcare & lifestyle services. The

holistic healing centers

M a i ne 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 two beautiful workshop/class spaces 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.

community of certified professional practitioners at Sanctuary Center work independently & collaboratively to serve client needs. Select from a spectrum of therapies & treatments, including acupuncture, homeopathy, polarity, facial rejuvenation, hot stone massage, reiki, Ayurveda, holistic psychotherapy, nutritional counseling, detoxification, coaching & more. Certified & skilled teachers offer daily classes in yoga, Pilates, meditation & Qi Gong to students of all ages & experience levels in the bright, spacious Studio. For more information, to enroll or schedule an appointment: (207) 846-1162, email: info@sanctuaryhhyc.com, www. sanctuaryhhyc.com, 50 Forest Falls Drive, Yarmouth.

% TAKE A LOOK AND SEE WHAT'S NEW! %

Di r e c t o r y o f R e s o u r c e s $375 for 1 year (6 issues) Includes 2.8 inch ad space, (approximately 130 words) An online version on www.innertapestry.org with an active link to your website.

Initial set-up fee $20 Call 207-799-7995 or email: info@innertapestry.org Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 29

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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

Fall is a great time to come to the country and enjoy the crisp, clean air. Our Autumn

30 honoring a life's transition New Hampshire Change is a natural product of growth and evolution: honoring death is honoring that change. In the process of

honoring death and change, we nourish ourselves and those we love. The goal of ashesnurns.com is to help you honor the life you so cherished. Ashesnurns.

Ashes N Urns com offers adult, child, infant and companion pet urns. Our keepsake urns can hold a prayer or mantra, lock of hair, a small amount of cremated remains, crushed flowers, bit of earth or something symbolic to hold close to your heart. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like help planning a nondenominational memorial service that honors your traditions, culture and special relationship to your loved one. Visit us at www.ashesnurns.com, email us at support@ashesnurns.com, or call (603) 874-1684.

hypnotherapy Maine ELISSAGARDE-JOIA

Harness the power of the mind-body connection. As a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, I have the tools

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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 compliments all medical procedures, maximizing their effectiveness and minimizing negative side effects. Pre/post surgical patients experience reduced anxiety, blood loss, 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. Contact: Elissa Garde-Joia at 207-338-1669, egardejoia1@verizon.net. Home visits available.

Hypno-Health ~ Hugh Sadlier, M.Ed., C.H. As a practicing certified Hypnotherapist since 1991 in Blue Hill and Portland, I have helped hundreds of people improve their lives. Together we have resolved over 120

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. I feel Hypnotherapy is a comfortable, gentle, genuine, 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.

integrative healing Connecticut

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

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.

30 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2007

integrative healing Maine

Rev. Lindsley Field

Trager® Practitioner, Intuitive, Shamanic Counselor, Reiki Master Teacher, Raindrop Technique ® Therapy, Vision Quest Leader

“helping you create peace from the inside out” We are each our own healer. Deep within our

cells there is extraordinary healing intelligence. As physical beings, we are also dynamic energetically and spiritually. Multi-dimensional by nature, we are exquisite "instruments", complex and uniquely gifted.

True healing begins when those aspects are addressed.

Each treatment responds deeply to the individual.

An intuitive offering of bodywork, shamanic, energetic and metaphysical techniques is sensitively integrated. Treatment has helped with physical pain, restricted movement, tension, stress, PTSD, anxiety, depression, recovering from injuries or surgery, support with life changes and challenges, preventative care and health maintenance. Clients express they feel a renewed sense of wellbeing, reconnected with themselves, more comfortable in their bodies, clearer and revitalized. Newcastle, Maine (207) 512-0744 ~ lindsley17@roadrunner.com

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, Gendai Reiki-ho & Komyo Reiki Shihan (master/teacher), and Herbalist

Nestled in a wildlife habitat you are encased in harmonizing relaxation while balance and harmony set in motion the healing process within. Learn the spiritual practice of Usui Reiki Ryoho - enjoy a healing session - receive a personal herb report - journey into your past - learn meditation - mobilize your awareness by connecting with nature. Roberta Barnes' Reiki lineage has only three Reiki Shihans between Mikao Usui, the founder, and her. Visit

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

Marie Laverriere-Boucher, DMin, MSW, MA Southern Maine Energy Therapy Center Marie is an energy medicine practitioner; she utilizes Reiki, energetic assessments, energy psychology technique–TAT®, spiritual guidance, and aromatherapy. She is a Reiki Master/Teacher.

"Our lives are so full of busy-ness that we sometimes find ourselves out of balance and in need of healing of mind, body and soul." I invite you to come and experience the deep soothing effects of healing energy that comes from the gentle hands-on technique of Reiki. Reiki training is also available. See web site for training schedule–www.marielb.net.

For more information or an appointment call (207) 590-3884 or (207) 282-9722. For the Reiki training schedule see web site www.marielb.net. She is located at 69 Foss Street, Biddeford, Maine.

“I would consider it a privilege to work with you in your healing.”

Ron & Joan

...a pathway to you!

Beyond the logic and labels of healing modalities lives the heart-work that each of us is innately drawn to experience, to feel and to express the core truth of who we are. Within that ever-changing, ever-expanding

field of love and acceptance is where we play. This is a journey of limitlessness; every step is the possibility of change, growth and healing. You decide the next step, it’s your journey, your choice. Our choice is to support you, to provide you with ideas, options, and possibilities, and to support you within and through those choices as we are guided. We offer individual, couple, family and phone sessions, playshops and gatherings to support you on your journey. As WE change so does OUR world. Please feel free to contact us with any questions. (207) 799-7998, www.ronandjoan.com, info@ronandjoan.com. Raymond, ME.

31 integrative healing–cont.

Janet Gleeson

Energy Therapy, EFT-ADV & TAT EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) is one of the most powerful tools for regaining emotional and physical health. Simply stated, EFT is psychological acupressure. By

tapping key acupressure points located on the face and torso while tuning into the problem, unresolved negative emotions, traumas and beliefs are gently and easily released causing the mind and body to relax into a natural healing state of well-being. Research now proves that our unresolved negative emotions are major contributors to most physical pain and disease. EFT is a simple, inexpensive and clinically-proven, healing technique that usually works, often when nothing else does. Even if you have doubts, EFT can still change your life. I work on all issues, but specialize in releasing anger, fear, stress, anxiety, PTSD, phobias, grief, guilt and traumatic memories. Call Janet at 207-236-0269, or email janetgleeson@verizon.net Camden, ME.

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

Fern Dyer Healing with Crystals, Stones, Reiki, Quantum Touch Techniques and Spirit Messages incorporates several modalities for a unique blend of healing.

Each crystal and stone vibrates at a particular frequency. The stones we choose are invariably the ones whose frequencies we need to resonate with. Your chosen stones are placed on or near you during the Reiki session. Reiki balances the body, mind and spirit so our innate healing ability can be bolstered. If the need presents itself, some quantum touch techniques are added. At the end of the session, the messages received are presented and if you desire a write-up of stone meanings and messages it can be sent. This process helps restore a state of balance to the body and energy systems. For more information call (207) 657-5609 or email: fdyer@maine.rr.com.

Dr. Adi Philpott

Osteopathic P hysician Acupuncture Practitioner, Certified Hypnotherapist, EF T-Adv 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 Technique), and Quantum Touch Technique® modalities are highly effective in treating medical conditions and physical/emotional concerns. These treatments offer excellent results in areas such as pain, stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, phobias, weight loss, and smoking cessation. Dr. Philpott also offers assistance to athletes, performing artists, public speakers and others seeking to excel in achieving their personal performance goals. Free initial consultation. For more information or an appointment call (207) 846-0728. Conveniently located at 26 School Street in Yarmouth, ME. www.drphilpott.com.

Are you where you want to be? Are you ready to clear

patterns, beliefs & behaviors without emotional drama?

Are you clear about who you are at your core? Are you ready to live from that Jill Leigh place? Once we understand that our physical experiences are the manifestation of what’s activated in our energy field, we can become creative, rapid change agents! Jill Leigh uses her clairvoyant abilities to view clients’ patterns, beliefs, and energetic constructs that inform their life experience. Clients receive tools, skills and hands-on clearing support to release, refine & reframe their energy field (chakras & auras). Shifting your energy will evolve your life.

(207) 247.2442, www.transformativeenergetics.com.

life mastery Maine 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,

Back to the Source Life Design

Ronda Alley, Certified Life Coach “Go confidently in the directions of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imaged!” This quote by Henry David

Thoreau provides the foundation for our work together.

I firmly believe that each person brings a unique set of strengths and gifts into the world and that these gifts can lead us in the direction of our dreams. During our sessions I offer time for focused reflection, support and encouragement as you define and clarify your true desires, and an atmosphere that facilitates the exploration and identification of your gifts. I help you: stay motivated, identify any obstacles that may be blocking progress, and discover the potential for achieving your goals. To schedule a free sample telephone coaching session please call me at (207) 565-3125, email ronda@backtothesource.net or visit www.backtothesource.net.

Jasmina J Agrillo, Licensed HeartMath® Provider ENGAGE THE POWER OF YOUR HEART... Special Coaching Sessions with Licensed HeartMath® Provider, Jasmina J. Agrillo; learn the HeartMath System: Practical & Easy to Use Tools & Technology for Heart Intelligent Living in the 21st Century.

Research and case studies are showing many folks the world over are able to transform stress upon impact, improve health & spiritual well-being, relieve depression & anxiety, improve heart rate & brain function, enhance intuition & performance, experience more appreciation, joy, and peace in the moment for yourself and your relationships. “I bring to my coaching practice a love and dedication to help empower the hearts of others for transformation, healing of the body-mind, and positive, practical change in one’s life. After experiencing the success that the HeartMath System played in my own healing as a brain tumor survivor, I now dedicate my life’s purpose to helping others apply these tools of the Heart in their own life-journeys.” To schedule a free initial consultation, call: (207) 856-6042 § email: jagrillo@hotmail.com § visit www.heartfulliving.org § (HeartMath is a registered trademark of the Institute of HeartMath.)

Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 31

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- Seated Massage - Couples Massage and Outcalls available, Craniosacral Therapy, Hypnotherapy, Reiki, Past Life Regression, Shamanic Healing 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.

integrative healing–cont.

32 retreats

meditation Maine

Maine

Sant Mat Radhaswami, The Path of the Masters 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 Shabada 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 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.

nurturing foods Maine FOR THE HEALTH & WELL-BEING OF YOU & OUR PLANET: EAT ORGANIC

We are an organic stone mill, and producer of quality organic cereals & baking mixes. We aren’t a subsidiary of any corporate conglomerate. We are a family business, combining the energy & hard work of two Maine families. We believe deeply in providing fresh, organic, delicious products, in protecting the quality & health of our food supply and our environment.

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

Quality Organic Stone Ground Cereals & Baking Mixes; Organic Coffees & Teas; Nuts, Dried Fruit; Nutritious Delicious Organic Gift Baskets FIDDLERS GREEN FARM, Belfast, Maine (800) 729-7935 ~ Order Online: www.fiddlersgreenfarm.com or catalog available.

psychic & spiritual mediumship Maine PsychicMediumship, Hypnotherapy

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

Nurture Through Nature

For 9 years, Nurture Through Nature has been offering transformative women's holistic retreats through weekend workshops and holistic canoe trips. We weave

mind~body~spirit experiences through guided meditation circles, gentle yoga, mindfulness practices and The Work of Byron Katie. Our Pleasant Mountain, Denmark unique offerings and reflective space together with professionally guided outdoor pursuits deepens connections to the living earth and our inner selves. Jen Deraspe, owner, is a Registered Maine Guide, Certified Yoga Instructor, Facilitator of The Work of Byron Katie and Community Faculty member of True North, Maine's Center for Functional Medicine and the Healing Arts. Our solar-powered green retreat is located on Let Us Guide You Home...

Pleasant Mountain, in the heart of Maine's western mountains, just over an hour from Portland, Freeport and Lewiston, Maine. (207) 452-2929, or www.ntnretreats.com, ntnretreat@yahoo.com. Contact for your custom

getaway, eco-cabin rental or to join a scheduled retreat.

Sewall House Yoga Retreat Enjoy yoga twice daily, meditation, massage, sauna, 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 grand-daughter, 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 - Columbus Day.

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

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.

32 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2007

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

33 sacred space

schools & trainings–cont.

Maine Earthrest offers indoor and outside gathering space for retreats, workshops, spiritual questing, ceremony and celebration. Come,

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

salons & spas

Massachusetts The Hypnotherapy Training Company Julie Griffin, Director Become a Certified Hypnotist. Begin an exciting career earning money helping others! Affordable weekend

certification programs at our Wakefield, MA lakeside location. Julie Griffin, BCH, director, is a renowned, dynamic, award-winning international instructor, author of 10 hypnosis books, and regular presenter at Jonathon Podolsky’s,Whole Health Expos. Hypnosis certifications available: International Association of Counselors & Therapists, National Guild of Hypnotists, American Board of Hypnotherapy, and more. Great value for your education dollars. Programs range 7 to 100 hours. Program costs: Basic $595; Advanced/Medical $625; Metaphysical $525.

Multi-program discounts, free retakes and free telephone support. CEU’s available: Nurses, LICSW, and LMHW. Call for a free brochure and audio cassette. (800) 497-1807 www.hypnosistoday.com. Julie Griffin, Director.

Maine

shamanic healing Maine

Ravens’ Crossing — Come find some Raven’s Crossing Appleton, Maine

rural comfort and relaxation in our woodfired sauna and/or therapeutic hot tub.

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

Cressler at (207) 845-2304 or visit www.ravens-crossing.com.

schools & trainings Maine

Westbrook, ME: Learn to be a successful Massage, Polarity or Aesthetics professional in 6 to 12 months. Spa Tech Institute is the exclusive provider

of the Polarity Realization Institute programs, a pioneer in the field of transformational education. Advanced energy based teaching concepts contribute to accelerated learning. With over 30 years experience training adult learners for the bodywork and spa professions, our profound understanding of what it takes to be successful is at the core of your education. The school is accredited by NACCAS and programs are approved for state licensing exams and national registration/exams. Financial Aid is available for those who qualify. Call (207) 591-4141, 100 Larrabee Rd., Westbrook, ME.

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.

Transform your body, heal your soul and change the way you live and die with the ancient healing techniques of the South American Medicine people. The core of

healing occurs in the energetic or Luminous Energy Field; this is the blueprint for the physical body, and an archive of our physical and emotional strengths and wounding.

Illuminating this field transforms these wounds into sources of knowledge and power. The loss, pain and sorrow may remain as a memory but they no longer define who we are; we realize that we are not our stories. The Illumination Process is powerful, efficient, effective transformation. In training with Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D. Appointments in Brunswick (207) 729-7270, deb@midgette.org.

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 YogaEd foundation of yoga for children. www.yogaed.com.

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.

Soul retrieval, divination, extractions, shamanic energy healing, and communication with those who have passed on, can all help us fulfill this potential. My training with the Foundation for Shamanic Healer Shamanic Studies, including completion of the Three Year Program in Advanced Shamanism and Shamanic Healing with Sandra Ingerman, author of Soul Retrieval, provide a solid footing for my work with adults, children and animals. Call me for information about workshops or appointments for shamanic healing sessions at (207) 841-1215 or email me at dory@dorycote.com. www.dorycote.com.

Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 33

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Deep tissue, swedish, and myofascial-release massage available by licensed massage therapist. Rustic retreat cabin can sleep four.

Available by appointment in private setting.

Trails to walk, ride horses, or X-country ski.

Space for small gatherings. Please call Lori

34

eart Visions October 2007 Feng Shui Certificate Program For Info: Contact The New England School of Feng Shui (203) 266-4211 www.newenglandfengshui.com.

October 1st-4th Wellness and healing aboard Maine Adventure Sails.

Schooners Timberwind and J&E Riggin are sailing in a new direction. Join us on one of these 3 or 4 day, all inclusive, facilitated cruises sailing from Rockland and Rockport.

Amazing food, comfortable cabins, and the inspiration of nature will be your platform for transformation. FMI about these very special journeys, please call (877) 300-3377 or visit www.maineadventuresails.com.

October 5th & 6th Yoga Retreat at Earthrest, Cornish, ME FMI: call Jeanette Schmid Lakari (207) 282-5528.

October 12th-14th Building a Medicine Body

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

Meets four weekends with Eva Rose Goetz,16-month Apprenticeship in Shamanism Level I, Building a Medicine Body: Journey of Self-Healing through the Sacred Path of the Inca/ Andean Shamanic Tradition, an apprenticeship into beginning shamanism. More info: www.pachaworks.com, October 12th-14th, April 4th-6th 2008, September 19th-21st 2008, April 24th-26th, 2009.

November 2007 Retreat on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala and Copan, Honduras Contact: darlenal@hotmail.com, www.spiritedexpeditions.com.

December 2007~ Pilgrimage to Portugal: The Land Of The 7 Chakras and The Knight Templars.

Contact darlenal@hotmail.com, www.spiritedexpeditions.com.

January 2008 - December 2009 Two-year apprenticeship In Advanced Shamanism And Shamanic Healing. Meets one weekend per month for two years. Numerous initiations, exploration of ancient shamanic traditions from many cultures, learn shamanic healing including soul retrieval, extraction, working with death and dying, healing with spiritual light and much more. Testimonials from past students available. Meets in Brunswick area. dory@dorycote.com www.dorycote.com (207) 841-1215. Application required. Space limited.

Through March 2008: The 2008 Herbal Apprenticeship Certification Program Registrations are being accepted, early-bird discount. Crescent Moon Herbals, 76 Center Road, Lebanon, ME (207) 457-1114, www.crescentmoonherbals.com. Wednesday-Sunday, 11:00am-5:00pm.

March 2008 - December 2008 Deepening Your Shamanic Practice For the experienced shamanic practitioner this series of 4 intensive weekends in 2008 will involve additional initiations and ceremonies. Please call or email for details. Led by Dory Cote, shamanic healer and experienced trained shamanic teacher. dory@dorycote.com www.dorycote.com (207) 841-1215.

Application required. Space Limited.

June 8th-14th, 2008 Journeying Into Love: Assisi Pilgrimage & Retreat With Megan Don See www.mysticpeace.com for details or telephone: (207) 332-7737.

October~Connecticut October 5th-8th SunDo Mountain Taoism Fall Retreat Retreat will include SunDo practice, evening discussions and workshops at the SunDo Retreat Center in Barnet, VT. Please visit our website for pricing and directions. SunDo Mountain Taoist Center, CT (860) 523-5260, www.sundo.org.

34 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2007

October 6th-7th Creating Wealth, Abundance & Well Being w/ Sondra Ray, internationally renown teacher. For Info: The New England School of Feng Shui (203) 266-4211 www.newenglandfengshui.com.

October 9th, Tuesday ECKANKAR Temple of CT-Middlefield, CT Free discussion class: "Past Lives" part 1 of "Past Lives, Dreams, and Soul Travel" series. Classroom downstairs, 7pm-8pm.

For information call: Isa Navarre (860) 646-3063 or isanavarre@aol.com.

October 14th, Sunday, 3:00pm-5:00pm Susan Mazur of Pampered Chef Will be at the Willington Women’s Business Expo, Track Nine Diner, 12 Tolland Turnpike, Willington, CT. FMI: Call Sue at (860) 648-2140, martinmazur@msn.com.

October 16th, Tuesday ECKANKAR Temple of CT-Middlefield, CT Free discussion class: "Dreams" part 2 of "Past Lives, Dreams, and Soul Travel" series. Classroom downstairs, 7pm-8pm. For information call: Isa Navarre (860) 646-3063 or isanavarre@aol.com.

October 18th Hartford Family Institute’s Center for Healing Arts Presents Nationally Acclaimed Medium Rebecca Rosen - as seen on Entertainment Tonight and The Rachel Ray Show, 6:00pm-10:00pm, $55, Beth Israel Auditorium, West Hartford, CT, for more information www.hartfordfamilyinstitute.com.

Discover the Sacred Nature of Inner Healing; you'll be transformed by the experience.www.AvantiHealingArts.com call for details: (207) 735-3900.

October 5th-8th Mainely Men 52, Semi-Annual Men’s Retreat Located in central Maine, go to www.mainelymen.org, registration form on the website or just go to www.mainelymen.org/reg_mm52.htm.

October 5th-8th Yoga & Meditation Retreat With Surya Chandra Das at Rolling Meadows Retreat, Brooks, Maine (888) 666-6412 www.rollingmeadowsretreat.com.

October 6th-7th Call to Vision quest!

Drum and dance under the stars! 5th Maine Long Dance ~ Hope, ME. Dance Chief Lindsley Field (207) 512-0744 mysticheartdancer@gmail.com.. Coordinator: Carla Sanders (207) 763-4356.

October 6th, Sat. 10:00am-October 8th Mon. 11:00am Recharge, Regroup, Reflect: Preventing Burnout and Remembering Joy! A Columbus Day Weekend Getaway for Women, 20 CEU’s available!

FMI: www.ntnretreats.com (207) 452-2929, Denmark, ME.

October 6th & 7th Past Lives: Key To Healing Current Life?

Free discussion class: "Soul Travel" part 3 of "Past Lives, Dreams, Soul Travel" discussion series. Downstairs classroom.

7pm-8pm. For information call: Isa Navarre (860) 646-3063 or isanavarre@aol.com.

What if you could heal your current life issues/problems/ questions by accessing information about your past lives?

Two-day shamanic exploration of past lives, numerous healing journeys, ceremonies, shamanic art, provides opportunity for healing & weaving past life history. Led by Dory Cote experienced Shamanic Healer and trained shamanic teacher. dory@dorycote.com www.dorycote.com (207) 841-1215.

Experience in shamanic journey process required.

October 26th-28th Women's Restorative Yoga Retreat

October 7th - December 2nd Beginning a Writing Project with Joan Lee Hunter

A restorative weekend of yoga, meditation, and silence in nature. Settle into Snowbird Lodge in Harrison, Maine. Weekend includes yoga, meals, and sauna. www.heartfeatheryoga.com (207) 319-8024.

This bi-weekly 5-session series is for anyone wishing to learn how to enlist intuition to begin and sustain a writing project. Fifth House Lodge, Bridgton. FMI (207) 647-3506 or www.fifthhouselodge.net.

October 30th, Tuesday ECKANKAR Temple of CT-Middlefield, CT

October 10th, Wednesday

October 23rd, Tuesday ECKANKAR Temple of CT-Middlefield, CT

Free discussion class: "Discover your Next Spiritual Step" part 4 of "Past Lives, Dreams, Soul Travel" discussion series.

Downstairs classroom. 7pm-8pm For information call: Isa Navarre (860) 646-3063 or isanavarre@aol.com.

October~Maine

September 29th & 30th Shamanic Journeying: An Introduction Led by Dory Cote, Shamanic Healer and experienced, trained teacher. Ceremony, dance, drum, meet your Power Animal and spirit helpers. Learn the ancient art of journeying. Perform power animal retrievals. Held in beautiful sacred space in Brunswick area. dory@dorycote.com www.dorycote.com (207) 841-1215. Deposit required.

October Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine Announces Fall Support Groups Women's support Groups: Survivors of Incest & Child Sexual Abuse - starts Monday, October 15th, 6:00pm-8:00pm for 9 weeks in Portland.

Survivors of Rape & Sexual Assault - starts Thursday, October 25th, 6:00pm-7:30pm for 12 weeks in Portland.

Men's Support Group: SARSSM recognizes that it is difficult for male survivors to seek help and we want you to know that we do care. We hope to hold a men's 12 week support group starting in October in the greater Portland area. FMI contact SARSSM 1-800-313-9900.

October Avanti Healing Arts® Dr. Gianna Settin is back to teach her only Maine Reiki Classes this year: October 13th-14th, Level 1&2: Brewer, ME October 15th-16th, Karuna Reiki: Brewer, ME October 19th-20th, Reiki Healing Dance Certification: Westford, MA. October 25th, Japanese Reiki Techniques: Mariaville, ME October 26th-28th, Art/Master Reiki Training: Mariaville ME

Reiki Share at The Wellness Center at 71 Elm Street in Camden.

From 6 pm to 8 pm. Come and experience Reiki first hand and receive an introduction to this ancient Eastern healing modality. Donation of $5 requested. Contact Teresa at (207) 344-7070 or TheVillageScribe@hotmail.com for more info.

October 12th, 6:30pm-8:30pm Creating Prosperity with the Angels ~ Elizabeth Foley.

Discover your own inner feelings about money, learn ways to heal your relationship with money and create prosperity. www.gardensofatlantis.org, (207)929-5088

October 16th, 6:00pm-9:00pm Tarot For Beginners Six-week session October16th-November 20th.

Card meanings, astrological/numerological associations, card layouts, intuition development. This class is in its 16th season, taught by Jeanne Fiorini. $195 includes subscription to Tarot Circle Newsletter and a copy of Jeanne's book Invitation to Wonder. Register/FMI: Jeanne Fiorini, (207) 799-8648. www. tarotworks.com.

October 27th “Ghost Hunting Tips & Techniques” offered by Chris Bashaw at Cresent Moon Herbals, www.crescentmoonherbals.com, crescentmoonherbals@excite.com or (207) 457-1114.

October 27th & 28th Things that Go Bump!

In this two-day experiential workshop we will examine how to determine a spirit’s intentions, work with resident land spirits, negotiate with hauntings and “troublesome” spirits, assist those spirits of the dead that linger here and learn a process to assist a dying person. Prerequisite: Knowledge Shamanic Journeying. Facilitators: Evelyn Rysdyk author Modern Shamanic Living & Allie Knowlton MSW, LCSW, DCSW $200 Falmouth, Maine. Contact: Spirit Passages (207) 846-6829 www.spiritpassages.com.

35 October 27th-28th, 10am-4:30pm "Using the Mind to Heal the Body" with Harold McCoy

November 3rd Creating the Life You Want!

Two-day workshop devoted to learning or deepening your healing abilities $150. Private healing sessions available, October 26th and October 29th. Free lecture October 26th, 7:00-9:00pm, Down East Village Motel, Yarmouth, ME. FMI: email-vjemmons@gwi.net or call (207) 829-9164. For info on Harold-www.ozarkresearch.org.

It’s no “Secret!" You have the ability to create a wonderful, successful life, manifest more financial abundance and even alter the way your genes express themselves! You have remarkable powers sleeping inside of you. Join us and become your most magnificent self! Prerequisite: Knowledge Shamanic Journeying. Facilitators: Evelyn Rysdyk author Modern Shamanic Living & Allie Knowlton MSW, LCSW, DCSW $100 Falmouth, Maine. Contact: Spirit Passages (207) 846-6829 www.spiritpassages.com.

October 27th & 28th Dr. Planet! Step into the Now! Wellness Center, Camden, ME, Integrating Personal and Planetary Healing Dr. Planet! will show you how to share inner Well-Being for the Healing of the Planet and let the Planet share it’s Healing with you. Hands-on experiential workshop, presenting the latest 21st Century Healing Methods using Meridians and Chakras. Learn to send and receive healing Energies, like “Morphogenic Field” Emails.

To pre-register call: (207) 568-3703 or contact: chakradrama@earthlink.net

October 27th, Saturday and October 28th, Sunday Reiki I and Reiki II See web site to register: www.marielb.net. Reiki Master Marie Laverriere-Boucher, DMin, MSW, MA (207) 590-3884.

October~Massachusetts September 28th-30th Re-Membering The Connection Explore inner/outer landscapes through clay sculpture and writing amongst Truro bogs and dunes. Pit-fire your work on the beach at night. Visit www.castlehill.org.

September 30th, 12:00pm-5:00pm Psychic Fair at the 1727 Day Spa & Salon, 9 Kendall Road, Tyngsboro, MA 01879 Raffles, Readings, Coffee & Dessert, Each service only $25.00 (978) 649-1727.

at the Spa of Groton, 3 Forge Village Road, Groton, MA 01450, Raffles, Readings, Coffee, Tea & Dessert, Each service only $25.00, (978) 448-0441

October~NewHampshire October 27th & 28th 9am–5pm (W)hole Shop Level I: Awaken to your own Magnificence Come to this powerful and fun weekend experience at Sanctuary in Raymond NH to learn the Wisdom WAY™, a model grounded in psychology and spirituality. This model empowers you to reclaim your true (W)holeness and inner Passion. $275 FMI: Contact Marianne at (781) 729-3143, marianne.diblasi@gmail.com.

November~Connecticut November 1st, Thursday, 3:00pm-7:00pm Join Susan Mazur of Pampered Chef At the South Windsor Chamber of Commerce Booming Business Expo, 65 Rye Street, South Windsor, CT, come see over 70 businesses sharing their products and services—ask me for a free pass to enter! (860) 648-2140, martinmazur@msn.com.

November 4th, Sunday, 1:00pm-5:00pm Join Susan Mazur of Pampered Chef At the Holiday Bazaar, 19 Cassillis Rd., West Hartford, CT multiple vendors to help with holiday shopping, RSVP please Sue Mazur (860) 648-2140, martinmazur@msn.com.

November~Maine November 2nd Advanced Shamanic Journey Workshop “Working with the Ancestors” With Chris Bashaw at Crescent Moon Herbals, Lebanon, ME, www.crescentmoonherbals.com, crescentmoonherbals@excite.com,(207) 457-1114.

November 2nd-4th Zen and the Art of Packbasket Making Holistic Weekend Retreat for Women with Nurture Through Nature, FMI: (207) 452-2929, Denmark, ME.

November 2nd-4th New~ Knowing the Medicine Heart with Gina Mastroluca and Eva Rose Goetz. Happily collaborating with Gina at PachaWorks: a new class integrating shamanism, ayurveda and polarity energy work.

Info: www.pachaworks.com.

Dance Chief Lindsley Field, Hope ME. This is a dance open to people of all faiths and backgrounds. It is a visioning dance held at night under the stars. FMI: Lindsley Field (207) 512-0744, mysticheartdancer@gmail.com.

November 10th & December 1st 10:00am-4:00pm Unleashing Stress…

Finding Peace Through the Work of Byron Katie With Jen Deraspe, at True North, Falmouth ME. Fee $150 early registration, $165 after November 1st. To Register contact True North (207) 781-4488 or FMI: visit www. truenorthhealthcenter.org/education.asp.

November 10th Dr.Planet! Step into the Now! Integrating Personal and Planetary Healing Oakland, ME (Waterville area) Dr.Planet! will show you how to share inner Well-Being for the Healing of the Planet and let the Planet share it’s Healing with you. Hands-on experiential workshop, presenting the latest 21st Century Healing Methods using Meridians and Chakras. Learn to send and receive healing Energies, like Morphogenic Field”E-mails.

Pre-register NOW call: (207) 568-3703 or contact: chakradrama@earthlink.net.

November 13th &14th, 7:00pm-10:00pm Be Your Own Oracle: Beyond Fortune Telling to Fortune Creation with James Wanless, creator of the Voyager Tarot. Tarot is an empowering, proactive compass for navigating your life in this changing, complex world. In this hands on tarot evening, find your path and action to manifest your visions and dreams. $45. Private readings available. November13th-Freeport; Novvember14thPortland. Leapin' Lizards (207) 865-0900. www.leapinlizards.biz.

November 14th, Wednesday Reiki Share at The Wellness Center at 71 Elm Street in Camden. From 6:00pm to 8:00pm. Come and experience Reiki first hand and receive an introduction to this ancient Eastern healing modality. Donation of $5 requested. Contact Teresa at (207) 344-7070 or TheVillageScribe@hotmail.com for more info.

Upcoming~Maine December 1st & 2nd Mystical Graces Retreat: Reclaiming The Spirit Of Christmas with Megan Don see www.mysticpeace.com for details Meadow Wind, Falmouth, Telephone: (207) 878-3899.

Ongoing~Connecticut Holistic Moms Network A non-profit support and discussion network for moms with an interest in natural, holistic and alternative health and parenting. Contact Heather LeFoll (860) 665-9766 or www.holisticmoms.org.

Have you experienced sexual assault or incest?

We are Survivors of Incest Anonymous.

We meet every Monday evening in Hartford, CT. Call Mae at (860) 236-1770 or email HartfordCT@sianyc.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. 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

Interested in a birth center birth?

The Birth House hosts free monthly tours on the first Thursday, 6:00pm-7:00pm. Explore your pregnancy options! www.birthhouseme.com or call (207) 647-5919

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.

Raja Yoga Ottercreek Hall, Bar Harbor, ME, Wednesdays 10:00am.

All Ages, (207) 288-0974, ask for Liz.

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.

Mondays – Sound Therapy and performances

by Kalee Coombs. With Crystal Singing Bowls & Voice at Leapin’ Lizards, Portland & Freeport FMI: www.kaleecoombs. com, www.leapinlizards.biz.

Energize! A holistic approach to performance Energy balancing sessions for artists, actors, and performers, recover your highest creative self. Post-performance rebalancing. $70 ($55 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.

Beautiful Mountain views in glass studio.

Classes ongoing, Monday-Thursday, mornings/evenings, many styles taught. Iyengar, vinyasa, restorative, seniors (chair), yogilates, nidra and meditation. Yoga Alliance Certified FMI: Leslee (207) 625-4756.

Massage, Yoga, Reiki, Labyrinth Walks Inner Harmony in Portland’s West End serves body, mind and spirit to assist you on your path of wellness. www.FindInnerHarmony.com (207) 772-1509.

"Forest Circles,” A Center for Community and Healing located on 47 magical acres of forested land and offering: Individual healing sessions, classes, workshops and solo as well as group Retreats www.forestcircles.com (207) 776-3152.

Hatha Yoga, Meditation, Satsang, classes in Psychological & Spiritual Development & more.

Based in the Tradition of the Himalayan Sages. North Yarmouth. For full listing, see website. www.TurningLight.org (207) 829-2700.

Call For All Artists ~ Visual, Musical, Dance, Storytellers Who live, have roots in Casco Bay Islands, please contact Maggie Carle, artsprits@verizon.net or wwwmaggiecarle.com regarding creation of a cooperative/association/organization to support & promote arts by Islanders. No commitments, 1st step a list.

Avanti Healing Arts® Restore wholeness to body, mind and spirit with Dr. Gianna Settin, psychologist, dancer, licensed Reiki Teacher. Discover the sacred nature of inner healing! (207) 735-3900, www.AvantiHealingArts.com.

Friday Gallery Readings ~ Fourth Friday each month 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.

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.

The Path of Celtic Buddhism Gathering for sitting practice meditation, Deity Yoga, and Chod. The lineage of the Mahasiddhas. Bill Burns, Peg Junge, Camden,ME. heartln@sover.net, (207) 236-0505, www.celticbuddhism.org.

Alternative Therapy Workshops for businesses, organizations, groups, schools. Educational and entertaining. Cost and length varies per subject. For brochure call Kate Boyer: (207) 858-5899 or email: kate@snigglebeach.com.

Continued on Page 36

Let'stakeapeekattheupcomingevents!

Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 35

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October 14th, 12:00pm-5:00pm Psychic Fair

November 6th-7th The Long Dance 2007

O n g o i ng ~ M aine

36 Yoga, Pilates, Qi Gong, and meditation

Reiki Works offers all levels of Reiki

Oriental Brush Painting Classes and Workshops

in a bright and serene studio. Drop-ins are welcome. Classes for beginners & experienced students; private classes available.

View schedule on the web at www.sanctuaryhhyc.com or call (207) 846-1162.

classes, sessions and free clinics. For schedule please contact Andrea Smith, B.S. Rehabilitation at reikiworks@midmaine.com (207) 474-9962.

Frederica Marshall, an artist who lived 28 years in Japan, teaches sumi-e in her Deer Isle Studio. Basic to advanced levels. (207) 348-2782. www.fredericamarshall.com.

Youth Yogis! Yoga classes for children

Dragonfly Taijiquan, Larry Ira Landau

The Rose Cottage

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.

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.

SpiritWings-Workshops, Reiki Classes in Bethel Maine.

Kripalu “DansKinetics”

ages 7-10. Playful, gentle, and creative expressions of yoga, breathing, and relaxation that children can relate to and enjoy!

Thursdays, 3:30pm-4:30pm. Led by Erinn Cayehal, CYT. Sanctuary Center, Yarmouth. Call (207) 846-1162. or email info@sanctuaryhhyc.com.

Science Of Spirituality is sponsoring a satsang.

Last Sunday of every month 1:00pm at Hartland Library, SOS is under the leadership of Sant Rajinder Singh Jyoti meditation.

Free www.sos.org, www.newengsos.org (207) 938-3928.

Ongoing Psychotherapy Groups, Yarmouth, 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.

Openings available in weekly men's & mixed psychotherapy groups. Intentionally build your relationship skills, communication, personal and spiritual growth. David Ward, LCSW, LADC, (207) 846-3422, www.davidwardlcsw.com/group.html.

A Gathering of People Exploring Conscious Living

Healing Touch sessions with Gail Meyer,

Doula tea, meet with doulas in person.

Certified Healing Touch Practitioner Thursdays from 11:00am2:00pm at Touchstone Bookstore, 1832 Forest Ave. Portland.

Call (207) 878-3866 to schedule your appointment.

"Yokids" Yoga Ed Tools for Teachers Workshops

Join us Thursdays. 6:30pm-8:30pm at Meadow Wind, 100 Gray Rd., Falmouth, ME. Sliding scale $5 - $15. FMI: (207) 799-7998, or visit www.ronandjoan.com.

Learn how doulas help families during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. We meet Sundays at the Ballard House, 131 Spring St. Portland from 10:30am-11:30am. There is no fee, pre-registration is required. Call Rebecca Goodwin at (207) 318-8272.

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.

Aikido of Maine Portland

Thank God It's Grace: Women in God, Women in Good

Full schedule of weekly classes for all levels with experienced, Kripalu-certified instructors. Private classes, workshops and regular Kirtans (chanting). Call Pam Jackson (207) 871-8274 or visit www.wholeheartyoga.com.

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

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.

Birthwise Midwifery Potlucks Interested in Homebirth? Meet the midwives of Birthwise Midwifery Service and local homebirth families. Bi-monthly, 3rd Sunday of September, November... 5:00pm-7:00pm at Birthwise, Bridgton.

(207) 647-5968 www.birthwisemidwifery.org.

Reiki: Healing Hands Offers classes, Reiki Therapy sessions, and Monthly Clinic every 2nd Sunday of the month at United Methodist Church, West Kennebunk. FMI call Pauline Wilson, BA, CRM (207) 985-3575.

Breathwork/Intuitive Healing In Maine Dynamic Facilitated Group Sessions $20 6:00pm-8:00pm Falmouth, 1st & 3rd Tuesdays - The Vywamus Foundation, Oxford, 2nd Thursday - formerly Dancing Trees Lodge, Auburn, 2nd Friday - Yoga Center of Maine, Harrison, 4th Friday - The BALLROOM. Pre-registration required. Breathe In & Beyond (207) 583-6603.

Thirteen Moons, Millinocket, FREE Wednesdays, 6:00pm: Live & Learn introductory discussions, topics change weekly. Thursdays, 6:00pm, Coffeehouse: local talent Penobscot Avenue, (207) 723-5313, thirteen.moons@beeline-online.net www.thirteenmoons.net.

Wavelengths Hypnotherapy ongoing classes: HypnoBirthing® Parents, Self-Hypnosis, Weight Managment, Smoking Cessation, Relaxation Guided Imagery, Bonnie Lee Gibson, CH and Ernie VanDenBossche, CH; www.hypnowave.com (207) 453-6133, (207) 649-9655, Waterville, Me.

Real-ize Your Integral Potentials

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

WholeHeart Yoga Center, Portland

Ongoing Yoga Classes, Vacations & Retreats Kennebunk Monday evenings,Saco Tuesday and Thursday evenings Dayton Wednesday mornings. Dance, Chant & Meditate in Portland, Friday, 6:30pm-9:00pm, August 17th Yoga Retreat October 5th & 6th at Earthrest, Cornish, ME FMI: call Jeanette Schmid Lakari (207) 282-5528.

USM Center for Continuing Education.

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.

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.

Women’s Workshops Designed exclusively for you to address your unique problems online & in-person. Henderson, NV. $75 per workshop Fridays 6:00pm-10:00pm, FMI: (702) 408-1783 email: workshops_for_women@yahoo.co.uk.

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.

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.

Artists Support Group, Inner Balance, Belfast, ME

Kittery, ME: Rawfood Potlucks 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.

Ongoing classes and events, psychic readings and energy workers. 76 Center Road, Lebanon, Maine.

(207) 457-1114, email: crescentmoonherbals@excite.com Web site: www.crescentmoonherbals.com.

Inner Light Spiritualist Church, Rev. Gloria Nye

Mindful Meditation™ Mondays 5:30pm-7:00pm

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.

36 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2007

On 156 High Street. Third Tuesday of the month from 7:00pm-8:30pm. Call Elliot Benjamin at (207) 338-4576.

Crescent Moon Herbals

All are welcome, no experience necessary. $15 or 4 classes for $50. Mind/Body Therapy at Meadow Wind, 100 Gray Road, West Falmouth, Maine, (207) 650-3964, FMI www.mbtherapy.org.

The Awakening Process Learn about a simple path that will eliminate depression and anxiety, leading eventually to peace and enlightenment.

First and third Tuesday 7:00pm-9:00pm.

Call (207) 286-8060 for directions.

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 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.

Ongoing Usui Reiki Classes in all levels, private sessions and free clinics, Gift certificates available.

Please contact Judy Fisher, Reiki Master Teacher in Camden, Maine at (207) 236-0359.

Dancing Xigong: Twelve movements to music Every Thursday morning, 8:30am-9:00am Summer at Merryspring Park, Winter at Quarry Hill, in Camden. FMI call (207) 236-8732.

Experience the healing of Love without condtions.

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 Solution-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 McCarthy-Darling at (207) 691-0023.

Wise Women Daughters of the Moon Ceremonial Wisdom Circle honoring our Inner & Outer Seasons & Cycles. Sliding Scale. FMI: www.spiritualrenaissance.com, www.templeoftheheart.com or call Deborah, spiritual guide, healer & ordained priestess: (207) 883-1081.

Belfast Yoga Studio. Iyengar style Hatha Yoga 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.

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.

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.

C l a s s i fi ed s HELP WANTED

Retreat Cook Wanted~Nurture Through Nature Experienced whole-foods cook for group(s) up to 14. Partial Trade for opportunity to participate in holistic nature retreats.

Send indoor/outdoor experience to ntnretreat@yahoo.com, www.ntnretreats.com, (207) 452-2929.

FOURPOINTGROUP Working From Home, Ft/Pt Become a part of an ECOSENSE friendly family find out how to join our team. NO Large Investment! NO Selling! NO Inventory!

NO Pressuring Customers to Purchase! COLLEEN (919) 374-9586, wellnessbycolleen.fourpointmoms.com.

37 SACRED RENTAL SPACE

DRAGONFLY TAIJIQUAN Spacious studio to share in Portland. Natural light, high

Pathway to Healing

ceilings. Free off-street parking, handicap accessible. Ideal for movement & meditative arts & therapies. FMI call Larry Landau (207) 761-2142

Space Available for Gatherings, Ceremonies, Presentations.

by Debra Franklin, LCSW

At Earthrest, Cornish, ME. Call (207) 625-4179.

Meadow Wind Center for Holistic Arts Shared practitioner space for rent as well as rooms for yoga classes, workshops and office space. Great location, 100 Gray Rd., Falmouth. Easy access to Routes 95 and 295. For more information contact Andrea at Meadow Wind (207) 878-3899 or (207) 939-1124, or visit www.meadowwind.org.

A Place In The Heart 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.

SACRED SPACE FOR SALE

WWW.BESTMAINEWATERFRONT.COM Perfect for your dream home, B&B or retreat facility! Privacy with accessibility to both Bangor and Bar Harbor. FMI see website or call Alison Cote (207) 632-3662.

TRAVEL

Retreat: "The Retreat"...

A personal retreat center on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. www.spirited-expeditions.com

Private Guide Service : 10 and 14 Day Pilgrimages To Guatemala, Honduras And Portugal. www.spirited-expeditions.com

HOLISTIC COUNSELING

HOLISTIC SUPPORT SERVICES Preserve Your Soul’s Work: Written transcripts of tarot, astrology and other readings, sessions, interviews, seminars, etc. by discreet, professional transcriber.

Discount with this ad. Poscribe@theportablescribe.com, www.theportablescribe.com, (207) 878-8896.

The Chi Wiz Is In! Creative healing with intention, intuition and energy rebalancing.

Contact Kirsten Jettinghoff, LCPC/ Usui and Karuna Reiki® Master, at (207) 633-2851 or reikikai@gmail.com. ~ May you know the joy of living your own true nature.

SERVICES Need help with your holiday shopping or kitchen needs?

I'd love to help you! Looking for a change in your career?

Come join my team! Susan Mazur, Director , The Pampered Chef martinmazur@msn.com.

ALL EVENTS ARE LISTED ONLINE AT www.innertapestry.org

Inner Tapestry's Calendar Listings The first 30 words submitted per issue are free!

75 cents a word thereafter.

Classifieds $20 for 30 words $1 a word thereafter.

Submission Deadline is

November 5th

for the December/January issue FMI: Visit www.innertapestry.org PLEASE SUPPORT THE ADVERTISERS WHO BRING THIS JOURNAL TO YOU!

them away is a repetitive childhood pattern of rejecting the feelings that were hurt by your parents. That is why it falls flat of feeling you can change them. In fact, it can actually make the feeling worse, or even more stuck as if it controls you.

You will want to establish a new way of connecting to your own feelings so that you accept them. Then they become softer, lighter, and flow through instead of stagnating into something painful. Quieting the mind, and sitting with those feelings that are uncomfortable with the support and guidance of a warm, understanding therapist can lead to them becoming lighter. As you sit with the feelings like an observer, see what comes to you spontaneously. It is common for memories to arise from childhood that led to the pain in your heart. Allowing your feelings to make the connections spontaneously, without trying to analyze or figure them out is a simple yet powerful way to heal. The memories and pain need and want your attention that was not received in childhood. That is why when you stop and listen to them the important memories just pop out. Be kind and nurturing to the feeling as you focus. Then see you as a child with that very emotional discomfort you feel and attend to him or her. I strongly advise that this be done with a warm, caring psychotherapist because it may be important to experience that person’s acceptance and support in order to develop that healing kindness for yourself... as well as to help it feel safer and to be guided further.

As you connect with your painful feelings, you can then recall you as a child with the same feelings... slowly building this new connection... sometimes uncomfortable at first. Just hang out with him or her and notice your feelings and the child’s feelings. See whether you or the children are ready to make an eye-to-eye connection, being respectful to maintain a distance that is safe for both of you. After observing for a while, especially with the kindness and support of a therapist, both of you will gradually feel a bit more comfortable to communicate. Let the child know what you see without trying to change it. Validate his or her feelings including any desire for the child to maintain a safe distance from you. Express any compassion you may begin to feel. Let him or her know you see the pain and that he or she is no longer alone with it. So you go from observer of your feelings, memories, and inner child to actually connecting and communicating and building understanding, empathy and warmth to your inner child, your inner self overtime. It is a beautiful process to witness. The pain begins to dissolve as this newfound inner connection leads to self-acceptance and love. I have had the pleasure of witnessing many personal transformations with the clients who have the willingness to surrender to this process and take it as far as their feelings lead them to go... until life suddenly has that spark that was missing – feelings moving with the flow of life, released from the darkness of self-rejection.

Debra Franklin has a private practice in Granby and Hartford, CT. She also provides videoconferencing for distance work. She has twenty years of experience integrating holistic approaches including Family Constellations, Inner Childwork, and Psych K© with all ages. She also provides Inner Child Workshops, Inner Child guided CD, and a Women’s Self-Esteem Group. Check her website at progressivepsychotherapy.com for events or call 860-413-9249 for more information.

Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 37

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Feeling Stressed Out? Relax at Botanica Campus, Nature Retreat in central Maine. Re-connect with your SELF, nature, friends, family, colleagues, your soul mission, the planet…

Holistic Counseling and Healing sessions available. Open year round. For appointments call (207) 568-3139 or e-mail bcctrust@uninets.net.

T

he irony of mainstream healthcare in our society is that there is so much “hard” complex work with risky drugs and surgery. Even the mental health realm includes complex diagnoses and approaches.

Alternative health is so much lower risk with a kind of philosophical simplicity that honors the power of the person’s innate ability to heal. Mainstream medicine has its place when quick symptomatic relief is needed or to save a life, but deeper healing, for the whole person, is found in the realm of alternative health.

In my 20 years as a psychotherapist (as a licensed clinical social worker) I have worked with and been trained in many alternative approaches. Mainstream psychology most commonly utilizes the cognitive behavioral approach, preferred by most insurance companies. It involves changing negative thought patterns. It can help people cope in the moment and can be extremely helpful in crises but the real doorway to healing the whole person is simply through the feelings. People always expect they have to “work so hard” at getting well, and yet there is power in simply sitting with a feeling and allowing it to direct your process. Your heart and your feelings will direct your healing when you quiet the mind and permit it to show you the way. It is a process of “allowing” instead of “fixing.” We are not empty mechanical machines where the most important thing to “fix” is with tools or chemicals—or “thought processes.” We are carrying the breath of life... something scientists have been trying to understand and replicate for decades. Yes, it is mysterious, but it is central to why we get up in the morning. It is where we live and breathe our “quality” of life. Thought, though important, has been extremely overvalued in our society. If we valued feelings as much, we would have a very different community. We would also be seeing the value of them to heal, intuitively.

When permitted, the innate ability to heal can be tapped.

We tend to use thought to “push away” uncomfortable feelings—which we learned to do in childhood when we received negative messages about our feelings. For example, if you were strongly admonished for simply expressing anger... or even showing desire for something you wanted but couldn’t have you will begin to have guilt about desires and even frustration that goes along with not getting what you want. Most people in our society were “shamed” as a form of discipline. You learn to reject normal, healthy feelings (all feelings should never be judged, only behavior). The message you get is that you don’t have the right to feel desire or frustration, normally so much a part of us. Then, as we grow up attempting to reject them they become depression and anxiety, something painful, instead of naturally flowing desire, frustration, disappointment, or anger. Now your feelings seem to get stuck and intense. So I believe that the reason the cognitive behavioral approach is so widespread is because it is in line with that desire to reject uncomfortable feelings... most of society, has been shamed in their childhood simply because parenting is such a challenge and it doesn’t come with instructions.

Parents do the best they can, but only have their own parents as models and historically, “shaming” including corporal punishment has been all too common.

That is why it is going back and ultimately accepting those feelings that were rejected in childhood that brings about deeper healing. It becomes a process of facing your pain instead of pushing it away. Pushing

38 DITI is an ideal means of screening for this silent killer.

Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging – A Safe Diagnostic Tool Comes of Age

by Ingrid LeVasseur, BA

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To help promote Breast Cancer Awareness month this October, Inner Tapestry welcomes, Ingrid LeVasseur of Inner Image Clinical Thermography to share with us and our readers the background and uses of Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging. Along with all of the healthy life style changes we have integrated into our lives, this can be our next step towards healthy breast screening.

The heat we humans give off is constant and does not change over time. The only thing that will change the infrared energy we emit is injury or disease. Hippocrates understood this principle well. He spread mud over the body of an ill person and the site at which the mud first dried was suspect for underlying disease.

Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging (DITI) is a noninvasive, diagnostic tool that allows the examiner to visualize and quantify subtle changes in skin surface temperature. It relies on the principle that all objects at a temperature above absolute zero radiate infrared energy. The DITI camera captures and pictures this energy and converts it into an image that can be viewed on a computer. Each half a degree of temperature is represented by a different color, creating an image that looks like a colored topographical map.

An infrared scanning device is used to convert infrared radiation emitted from the skin surface into electrical impulses that are visualized in color on a monitor. This visual image graphically maps the body temperature and is referred to as a thermogram. The spectrum of colors indicates an increase or decrease in the amount of infrared radiation being emitted from the body surface. Since there is a high degree of thermal symmetry in the normal body, subtle abnormal temperature asymmetries can be easily identified.

Medical DITI’s major clinical value is in its high sensitivity to pathology in the vascular, muscular, nervous and skeletal systems and as such can contribute to the diagnosis made by the clinician. Medical DITI has been used extensively in human medicine in the USA, Europe and Asia for the past 20 years. The images produced

by DITI are read by M.D.’s who are specially trained in reading and interpreting thermograms. A written report along with a copy of the images is sent to the patient and the patient’s health care provider within 24 to 48 hours.

Unlike most diagnostic modalities, DITI is non invasive. It uses no radiation, injections or compression to achieve its images. It is a sensitive and reliable means of graphically mapping and displaying skin surface temperature. DITI can be used to help diagnose, evaluate, monitor and document a large number of injuries and conditions such as: Back Injuries, Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Vascular Disease and Digestive Disorders to name a few.

Men and Breast Cancer

Though men with breast cancer still account for a small percentage of breast cancers detected, their numbers are increasing. DITI gives men a chance to screen for this disease and potentially catch it at an early stage.

Thermography vs. Mammograms

Thermography is not meant to replace mammograms. It is used in conjunction with mammograms and clinical breast exams to give the patient the opportunity to make decisions with as much information as possible.

One study published in the American Journal of Radiology in 2003 demonstrated that DITI had a 97% sensitivity in distinguishing benign from malignant growths.

The conclusion stated: “Infrared imaging offers a safe noninvasive procedure that would be valuable as an adjunct to mammography in determining whether a lesion is benign or malignant.”

Ingrid LeVasseur, BA, is a certified clinical thermographer who received her training at Duke University. She has been a teacher of meditation for 23 years and spent four years teaching under the medical direction of Dr. Deepak Chopra. As the owner of Inner Image Clinical Thermography, she offers on-site and mobile thermal imaging. She can be reached at 207-846-9090.

DITI and Breast Screening

According to the American Cancer Society, the leading cause of death of women ages 40-44 is breast cancer. Given that it takes approximately 15 years for breast cancer to develop and lead to death, safe and accurate screening, beginning in one’s mid 20’s should help reduce the death rate in that age group.

The benefit of DITI in breast screening is that it offers the opportunity of earlier detection of breast disease than has been possible through breast self-examination, doctor examination or mammography alone. DITI detects the subtle physiologic changes that accompany breast pathology, whether it is cancer, fibrocystic disease, an infection or a vascular disease.

The protocol for breast screening includes five images: one from the front, one from each side (arms raised to include armpits and lymph area), and one from each oblique angle. The procedure is quick and painless, comparable to being photographed. Initially, two screenings 3 months apart generally establish a thermal baseline. After that, an annual screening is sufficient.

All women can benefit from DITI breast screening: younger women can start screening safely in their 20’s and 30’s; older women who still have dense breast tissue will find this means effective; and women who have already had a mastectomy can safely and accurately continue to monitor that region.

The earliest possible indication of abnormality allows for the earliest possible intervention and treatment. DITI’s role in monitoring breast health is to help in early detection and monitoring of abnormal physiology.

Some women have serious concerns about the cumulative effects of radiation and want to limit their exposure. DITI will allow them to monitor their breast health without the risk of additional radiation exposure.

DITI and Inflammatory Breast Cancer

News of Inflammatory Breast Disease has made the rounds on the Internet and emails due to numerous reports done by KOMO TV in Seattle. Inflammatory breast disease is particularly difficult to diagnose by traditional means because it produces no tumors, rendering typical diagnostic methods less effective. By the time it is diagnosed, it has often progressed to a later stage. Given the inflammatory nature of the disease, 38 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2007

The 21st Century Bohemian ~ Random Thoughts...

Continued from page 13 his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi. “Use the Force, Luke. Let go, Luke. Luke, trust me.

Remember, the Force will be with you, always.”

Obi-Wan doesn’t ask Luke to think about or have faith but to be faith, to use it, to act it.

We could draw a parallel to Mother Teresa’s vision of Christ urging her to stop teaching and instead begin her charity work in the slums of Calcutta. She heeded his call to “Come be my light,” and found her life's calling. We could all benefit by listening to that voice which offers us the opportunity to follow our "force".

Photo courtesy of Nancy Denen Teresa Piccari is the proprietor of The Village Scribe, a professional writing service at the Wellness Cener in Camden, She teaches writing workshops including creative writing, memoir and journaling. She also performs house blessings and is an Usui Reiki Master/ Teacher and practitioner. Contact Teresa at TheVillageScribe@hotmail.com.

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Yoga, T'ai Chi, Aikido & Meditation Practitioners Directory

GLASTONBURY, CT 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.

BELFAST, ME

BOOTHBAY HARBOR, ME The Yoga Firm Studio Join our ongoing movement inspired Beginning and Flow Yoga Classes to restore the supple nature of your body and mind. Also offering Shiatsu/Acupressure bodywork. For schedule and info please contact Romee May, (207) 380-6975, 137 Townsend Ave. www.yogafirmstudio.com.

BRUNSWICK, ME Wild Lotus Yoga Offers Anusara-inspired yoga for all levels. Classes are inspiring, transformative and fun! Also offering Yoga, Nidra, both in classes and private sessions.

Anne Dellenbaugh, RYT, instructor.

(207) 721-9229, www.wildlotusyoga.us

CAMDEN, ME Open Door Yoga Center Offering a wide variety of Yoga classes, 5 Rhythm Ecstatic Dance, Feldenkrais Movement, Mindfulness Meditation, Shamanic Drumming, T'ai Chi and Tantra Workshops. Morning, evening and weekend classes for all ages and levels. Conveniently located less than 3 miles from the center of Camden. Call for brochure or info: (207) 236-8971.

DAMARISCOTTA, ME Heartfeather Yoga Center Hatha Yoga Classes, all levels. Ongoing classes, retreats, women's yoga insight group, children's classes. Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy-Individual sessions. Sanctuary in Yarmouth and Damariscotta.

Mary Snow M.Ed.,RYT,PRYT. (207) 319-8024. www.heartfeatheryoga.com.

FALMOUTH, ME Meadow Wind Center for Holistic Arts Offering several styles and levels of yoga from beginner to power yoga. Call (207) 878-3899 for class schedule or go to www.meadowwind.org for more information. 100 Gray Road, Falmouth, ME.

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

NORTH YARMOUTH, ME Turning Light Yoga & Meditation Center Classes in Hatha Yoga, Meditation and Psychological & Spiritual Development. Free Monthly Satsang.

Personal, group and corporate programs available.

Director Darcy Cunningham certified by Institute of the Himalayan Tradition and Yoga Alliance.

(207) 829-2700, www.TurningLight.org.

PORTLAND, ME Kundalini Community Yoga Full class schedule including beginners and children. Workshops. Groups.Private sessions.

Certified Instructors. Class includes Kriya (set of specified exercises), breath, mantra, meditation, relaxation. Try Kundalini Yoga -- the yoga of Awareness. 52 Pine St., (207) 615-5405, www.kcyoga.net.

Portland Yoga Studio Highly trained dedicated instructors, Iyengar certified, Anusara influenced. Beginner to advanced yoga, Prenatal, Teen, Life-Long and Restorative classes. Weekend workshops! Private Lessons!

Massage! Beautiful studio! 616 Congress Street, Portland, ME (207) 799-0054, www.PortlandYoga. com, email info@portlandyoga.com.

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.

Dragonfly Taijiquan ~ Larry Landau Taijiquan, Qigong, Authentic Breathing, Meditation.

Cultivating enhanced awareness of physical alignment, relaxation, groundedness and breath. Creating effortless fluidity in motion & stillness. Offering group & private instruction for over 30 years. Studios in Portland & Kennebunkport, (207) 761-2142.

PORTLAND, ME. cont.

WholeHeart Yoga Center Portland's Kripalu-affiliated studio offers weekly classes for all levels, including Beginner, Vinyasa and Meditation & Yoga. Our instructors are all Kripalu-certified and highly trained. We also offer weekend workshops, private classes, partner yoga and regular Kirtans (chanting). 150 St. John St., Portland. (207) 871-8274, www.wholeheartyoga. com or email info@wholeheartyoga.com.

The Yoga Center Quality instruction for 25 years. 30 weekly classesall levels, restorative, therapeutic, power, pre-natal.

Master teacher workshops and Yoga vacations in Mexico & Maine. Two lovely studios & supply store.

Directors Vickie Labbe and Jennifer Cooper, (207) 774-YOGA (774-9642).

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.

YARMOUTH, ME 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.

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The Inner Tapestry Yoga, T'ai Chi, Aikido & Meditation Directory 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 is $160 for 35 words On line placement in the Directory of Resources with a direct link to your website is an additional $50.

Oct/Nov 2007 Inner Tapestry 39

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Belfast Yoga Studio Iyengar Yoga, Relax&Renew® (restorative) Yoga, Yamuna Body Rolling® Yamuna Body Logic®; classes, workshops, individual sessions. Marianna Moll (Iyengar, Relax&Renew®, Yamuna® certified) and Belinda Pendleton (Iyengar style, Gentle Yoga, Yoga for Cardiac Wellness). (207) 338-3930. www.belfastyoga.com info@belfastyoga.com.

GORHAM, ME

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