Inner Tapestry "What Moves You?" October November 2010

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A Holistic Journal Celebrating & Supporting LIFE! Oct/Nov 2010

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What Moves You?

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Volume 9, No. 3

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Tapestry Learning to Listen

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On The Path of Reality

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Let Your Pet Move with You

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Opening The Door To Inspiration

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Wandering Sage Wisdom The Energy in Tension

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Loving Earth Hot, Hot, Hot Times...

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Exploring The World Religions Visions of Allah

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Awareness and the Art of Seeing Trees Bowing Down In Gratitude

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Intuition in Motion An Interview with Dr. Judith Orloff

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21st Century Bohemian The Call to Dance: Spirit In Motion

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Inner TAPESTRY Contents

This Issue's Theme

What Moves You?

UP COMING THEMES D ece mber/J anuar y 2010/2011

It's A Wonderful Life!

Oct/Nov 2010

Features

Februar y/M arch 2011

C h angi ng Yo ur M ind Apr i l/M ay 2011

Opening The Door To Inspiration

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Em ergence

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J une/J uly 2011

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by Phyllis Light, Ph.D.

On The Path of Reality

by Adyashanti

Intuition In Motion ~ An Interview with Dr. Judith Orloff

by Karen M. Rider

Learning To Listen

by Kat Logan

Shadow Work with Crystals and Stones

Page 16

by Silla Von Faulk Trueworthy, CRTh, RMT, LMT

Moved by the Wheel of the Year

Page 23

by Rev. Dr. Anu Dudley

Living Well, Dying Well Getting Comfortable with Impermanence

Page 27

by Dr. Max Jacobs

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by Deb Grant, LCSW, RYT

Let Your Pet Move with You

Page 29

by Donald and Sara Hassler

Constellating The Soul: Reunion with That Which Was Lost

(Part Two)

by Darcy Cunningham

Page 31

Departments

Awareness and the Art of Seeing ~ Trees Bowing Down in Gratitude

Page 5

by Jen Deraspe

Destination Healing SNE ~ Community Organizations

by Guest Writer Sandra Diamond

Moving Consciousness Forward

Loving Earth ~ Hot, Hot, Hot Times... and getting hotter

Page 11 Page 14

by Pat Foley

Wandering Sage Wisdom ~ The Energy In Tension

Page 15

by Aaron Hoopes

Modern Shamanic Living ~ Searching for the Roots of

Northern European Shamanism

by Evelyn C. Rysdyk

21st Century Bohemian ~ The Call To Dance: Spirit In Motion

Page 18 Page 20

by Teresa Piccari

The Way of Life-Itself ~ How Can "You just move on" in the face of great loss or crisis?

by Skye Hirst, Ph.D.

A Breath of Healing ~ What Moves Me?

Page 22 Page 26

by Donna Amrita Davidge

Exploring the World Religions ~ Visions of Allah

Page 30

by James Bean

Mixed Media ~ Book, Website & Music Reviews

Pages 46 & 47

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

Pages 33-41 Page 41 Pages 42-45

August/S eptember 2011

Are We There Yet ?

Submission Dates December/January 2010/2011 Articles – October 15th Display Ads & Directory of Resources To Reserve Space – November 1st For Ad Copy & Graphics – November 5th Calendar & Classified Ads –November 5th

Inner

Tapestry Publishers Joan Emmons Ron Damico Betty Close

Advertising & Distribution (207) 799-7995 (203) 779-0345

info@innertapestry.org

(207) 799-7995 ~ (203) 779-0345 Email: info@innertapestry.org Or Visit: www.innertapestry.org Subscriptions ~ $20.00/year, 6 issues Inner Tapestry can be found in over 500 locations, but to insure you don’t miss an issue, subscriptions are available.

Payments and Correspondence To: P O Box 122, East Hampton, CT 06424 Oct/Nov 2010 Inner Tapestry 3

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How Grounding Moves You ~ Part One

Su p er Co nsc i o usness

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INNER WORKINGS New this issue: Welcome everyone, our hope is that you have all enjoyed the summer months, that they have been full of love and joy.

As we head into the season of fall some of us are feeling the relief of the heat from this summer. Our world is changing and our weather is becoming a big part of the change. Some of us used to bristle at the thought of a conversation centered around the "weather" feeling that people were just skimming the surface of life without much substance and meaning. Today many conversations about the "weather" stirs a movement within us of feelings that we may not attend to on a daily basis. Our weather is becoming a catalyst to propel us into our feelings of how we really do feel about what is becoming apparently obvious in our care of Mother Earth.

So as we move into fall, let's take many moments to be with Mother Earth, the expression of her as "weather" and connect to what our outward expression of self is—our "weather." If we can have an effect on our own "weather" we certainly will see the effect on Mother Earth.

Daily I see people, parents, children who are struggling with the changes that our lives are taking. There are many articles that speak to those experiences in this issue, I hope that you find them supportive and helpful in your journey.

We now have locations for distribution on Martha's Vineyard and many new locations in Connecticut. Our thanks to our friends in Maine who continue to distribute the journal and support the journal in helping to create what so many people are looking for.

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To our contributing writers and those who would in the future choose to send along articles, please email us at info@innertapestry.org or visit the website and take a look at the article guidelines. These will give you a good idea of what we are looking for. I have also changed the deadline for all written articles and columns to the 15th of the month. These dates can always be found on the website and on page three of the journal.

Thanks to all those who have been sending in their material before deadline. It has helped tremendously.

Our best wishes to Jen Deraspe on the loss of her mom; there is a wonderful article to her honor from Jen on the next page. To Norm Hirst that his healing continues and to Skye for her contributions during this time.

Karen Rider is also making a change with her column. She will be writing more feature articles as she has been blessed with being able to interview people who, one might say, are the leaders in their fields of modern day spirituality. One of our guests this issue that Karen has spent time with, is Dr. Judith Orloff. We welcome the opportunity to have her as part of the journal. Karen's article can be found on page 8.

In support of Mother Earth our featured artisit, Marcia Snedecor, has a very moving collection of art that I found supportive in generating my love and passion for our planet, welcome Marcia.

Enjoy all of the many outdoor events, fairs and gatherings this season and as always thank you to our readers for the support that you continue to give our advertisers who make all of this possible. Our Thanks-Giving Blessings to everyone this holiday season.

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Awareness and the Art of Seeing: Contemplations on the environment and interconnection

by Jen Deraspe

TreesBowingDowninGratitude

My mother, Bea, seemed intent in sharing this experience with the trees. She handed me a piece of scratch paper. On it was 91 year old penmanship with these words written above. I was moved by her seeing, how she saw beauty and experienced gratitude and connection in a moment of complete awakeness.

When she wrote this, it appears she did not know she was days from dying. It appears she did not know her lungs were filled with cancer. Her kin certainly did not. Bea was not one to complain.

We brought her to the ER to see why it was so hard for her to breathe and swallow. With one x-ray, she learned that life as she knew it was nearing its end. She took the blow with grace and poise. Although her pace had slowed this past year, she was still very involved with full life and much vigor, mothering and grand mothering dozens of family and friends, alike.

Mother, oh mother, caressing my face with the wind, transmuting into Oneness; still here in every flower, stone, bird and tree.

Bea aged along with the trees surrounding her home. For 65 years, she witnessed everything grow up around her. She watched with every season the budding, the blooming and the expansion. She watched every autumn’s release. She spoke of the light filtering through and bouncing off the dancing leaves, the bird conversations from tree top to neighboring branch, fascinated and curious as to what they could be sharing. For 65 years she watched those trees, through the ages of mothering and grand mothering and of being mothered, as much as she would allow—seeing more and more as she sat more still, following the light of day like a cat sitting in the sun.

I don’t know what its like to make that final leap of faith into the great void. I watched someone I love deeply transition into that space with grace in a matter of days. It must be an amazing space, since no one seems to come back as they once were.

I think to call her, visit, bring her to the pond. I forget this has shifted.

I call her from another means now. I visit her not at her kitchen table but from the moments this heart opens. I bring her to the pond still, with this daughter’s heart as it continues to open, and close and open again.

I bow down to you, Mom, with deep and eternal gratitude, for you—and your beauty and in your honor, just like those vast trees that spoke to you in that moment of peace.

Jen Deraspe, is the founder of Nurture Through Nature, an eco-retreat center in Denmark, Maine. Jen is a certified yoga instructor, a licensed Maine guide, and a certified coach and facilitator of The Work of Byron Katie. She has been leading holistic nature retreats since 1999. www.ntnretreats.com, (207) 452-2929.

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“When I sat outside yesterday it was very windy. I look towards our field with admiration of the beauty of the huge trees. I was feeling the beauty and the power and energy of the vast trees—they seemed to appreciate my feelings about their beauty. All in unison as the wind became more intense and stronger—they seemed to vigorously sway and bow down like they were bowing down to thank me for noticing their beautiful performance. They were bowing down from the waist to the ground together—like in gratitude.

Their swaying and bowing together was spectacular— over and over they did it. Such power was displayed.”

Bea Deraspe, June 2010

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Opening the Door to Inspiration

by Phyllis Light, Ph.D.

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ife can be a continuous source of upliftment and inspiration, if we keep our hearts open and our minds clear. However, herein lies the challenge. There is a certain amount of effort and “inner work” necessary to achieve this goal.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to come naturally—of its’ own accord.

That is, we humans have been programmed by the people who raised us and by the various events and situations we have encountered throughout our lifetime.

It has not been a “bed of roses” for most of us. We all have had challenges to face and obstacles to overcome. Often we feel stuck in some of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, and at those times, it may seem quite impossible to feel inspired about anything!

However, as we quiet ourselves and look within for healing, we can re-open that door to inspiration and fulfillment. Once we quit blaming the people around us for our unhappiness and choose to take responsibility for our lives, we open that door even further. What if you realized that no one outside yourself is “doing it to you” and that you have power to change your external circumstances, by changing what’s going on inside you—within your conscious and subconscious mind!

Both the conscious and subconscious mind continually creates our experience of life, by projecting what we think onto the people and situations around us. Then we think that “they are doing it to us,” when in fact, they are responding to the thoughts and feelings we are projecting onto them. Yes, the people and circumstances in our life are our mirrors—reflections of all that is going on inside of us!

Once we realize this, we take back our power to transform our experience of life.

We climb out of “victim hood” and start making new choices about how we want to experience our life. This is the process of “waking up to who we really are,” and it’s one of the most inspiring and exciting paths we could ever choose in life.

Whether you know it or not, what really matters most, at the “very end,” is how much you have grown, how much you have learned to love being who you are and express the “real you.”

This is not an easy process. It is much easier to acquiesce to the ways of the world, and be just like everyone else. That way makes us feel safer and more secure. If we let ourselves buy into the “collective unconscious,” that is, the beliefs that everyone out there seems to believe, we feel safe in our “sameness” to everyone else. However, this does not produce the fulfillment we seek, nor the ability to lead a truly inspired life.

When your life is lived like this, ideas like, “don’t rock the boat,” or “don’t make waves” would tend to control you. Thinking “outside the box” would bring up too much fear and discomfort. However, you can choose to live life in a new way at any time. The choice is yours and no one else’s.

Sometimes we buy into the “collective beliefs” for a large part of our life, and then, suddenly, we decide that it is time to break free, and express the uniqueness of who we truly are, regardless of how it impacts our life. There comes a point,

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for every soul, of realizing that “I must do what I need to do” rather than do what everyone else expects of me or wants for me. We may have lived according to others’ expectations of ourselves for most of our life, or even for many, many lifetimes.

However, at some point, we become ready to “wake up” to a new and better way of living. This is the point at which true inspiration can begin to guide us and illuminate our path through life.

The key ingredient is to trust the process of life. This is challenging for many of us, because it means letting go of wanting to control everything. Trusting life is more like surrendering to the flow of all that happens to us. It doesn’t mean that we have to like everything, but it means that we accept the truth that everything we attract in our lives is there to help us grow. In fact, we summoned it (at a deep level) so we could learn from the experience.

When you don’t like what you see, do the necessary “inner work,” to replace the negative programs in your subconscious mind with new, positive beliefs. Start to believe that things can work out for you, and that will happen more and more for you. Tell the truth about why you may have wanted whatever negative experience you attracted. It’s important to acknowledge the truth. Remember, “the truth shall set you free.”

Consciously, you don’t want anything negative to happen, but subconsciously, you may be programmed to attract negative circumstances out of a variety of beliefs.

We all have subconscious programs that make us, at times, question our worth and whether we deserve to have the life we truly want. All such negativity must be examined and rooted out, in order to attract more of what we desire for ourselves.

Again, it’s not an easy or overnight process by any means. However, the more you practice taking responsibility for everything you attract in your life, and the more you are willing to examine your thoughts, attitudes and beliefs, the more skilled you will become at transforming the negative aspects of your life into positive ones. This is a journey of changing your life’s circumstances by looking inward and telling the truth, and being willing to let go of that which no longer serves you. As you walk on this path, you open the door to inspiration from your Higher Self, and you allow your intuition to lead the way.

This is the path that will ultimately help you find the joy and satisfaction you seek.

It will help you feel motivated to choose that which is for your “Highest spiritual good” in every moment. This is the path that will help you lead a powerful and blessed life. And, the good news is that it is available to everyone.

Phyllis Light, Ph.D. in Psychology, is a counselor, teacher, author, and expert in “Telepathic Healing.”

With over 35 years of experience, Phyllis helps people clear negative programming to the depths of the subconscious mind and empowers them to rise to their true spiritual potential. For more information about Phyllis’ work, visit www.lighthealing.com or call (512) 301-2999.

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On The Path of Reality

by Adyashanti

“Through the process, there was a deeper, more extraordinary dissolution of the egoic self than I had previously experienced. It wasn’t a dissolving like when you sit in meditation and your sense of self dissolves into a wonderful state of presence. It was more like someone was ripping layers off me, one by one.

It was very unceremonious. It wasn’t nice, it wasn’t kind, and it wasn’t easy.

It was existence shoving a mirror in front of my face and literally holding me there so I could not look away for even a second... I saw that what happens in the body and mind ultimately can’t be avoided. Everything has to be dealt with – everything. Everything has to be seen through... I tell this story because everybody has a story.

The truth of the matter is that most people who say they want awakening don’t actually want to awaken. They want their version of awakening. What they

When you have let go of all conditions - when you have let go of how you want your own awakening to be and what you want the journey to be like – you have let go of your illusion of control. In fact, we have to be willing to lose our whole world. That may sound romantic when you first hear it - “Oh yes, let me sign up! I’m willing to lose my whole world.” But when your whole world starts to crumble, and you start to emerge from unimaginably deep states of denial, it is something altogether different. It is something altogether more real and gritty.

It’s something that some people sign up for and some people don’t. This isn’t a journey about becoming something. This is about unbecoming who we are not, about undeceiving ourselves. In the end, it’s ironic. We don’t end up anywhere other than where we have always been, except that we perceive where we have always been completely differently. We realize that the heaven everyone is seeking is where we have always been. Once again, what is required is a certain sense of honesty.”

Thanks to a forwarded email from one of our readers we are able to share a small portion of the writings of Adyashanti. You can see more of his teachings and work at www.adyashanti.org. He is the author of The End of Your Worlds, Emptiness Dancing and True Meditation.

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We all have our own ways in which life is attempting to hold up a mirror, to squeeze the conditioned self out of us, to squeeze out of us the holding and grasping, to squeeze out all of our beliefs and ideas and concepts and self-images.

If we are willing to look, we will see that life is always in the process of waking us up. If we are not in harmony with life, if we are working in opposition to it, then it is a rough ride indeed... When we are not willing to see what life is trying to show us, it will keep ramping up the intensity until we are willing to see what we need to see. In this way, life itself is our greatest ally. To think that enlightenment only comes through wonderful experiences is to delude yourself.

For most of us, the path to enlightenment is not rosy. We need to acknowledge this, because otherwise we’re only going to let ourselves travel toward that which feels good, that which supports our image of what the path of awakening should be. For most people, the path of awakening does have wonderful, profound moments and realizations. But it is also a gritty thing. It’s not what most people sign up for when they say they want to be enlightened.

actually want is to be really happy in their dream state. And that’s okay, if that’s as far as they’ve evolved. But the real, sincere impulse toward enlightenment is something that goes far beyond the desire to make our dream state better. It is an impulse that is willing to subject itself to whatever is needed in order to wake up. The authentic impulse toward enlightenment is that internal prayer asking for whatever it is that will bring us to a full awakening, regardless of whether it turns out to be wonderful or terrible. It is an impulse that puts no conditions on what we have to go through. This authentic impulse can be a bit frightening, because when you feel it, you know it is real.

8 Intuition in Motion

An Interview with Dr. Judith Orloff

by Karen M. Rider

“As a psychiatrist, I listen with both the linear and the intuitive mind. The linear mind doesn’t allow you to see into the depths of someone’s soul.”

Judith Orloff, M.D. Intuitive Psychiatrist Dr. Judith Orloff is the New York Times bestselling author of Second Sight: An Intuitive Psychiatrist Tells Her Extraordinary Story and Shows You How To Tap Your Own Inner Wisdom (Three Rivers Press, 2010). In the book, she describes her journey from intuitive child, with abilities she did not understand, to esteemed intuitive psychiatrist who dared to defy medical taboos. Her work has transformed psychiatry by synthesizing traditional medical practice with her knowledge of intuition, energy, and spirituality to promote mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical healing. Through her books and lecture circuit, Dr. Orloff teaches how to access intuition and balance intellect with intuition.

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Karen: How does an intuitive become a psychiatrist?

Dr. Orloff: I was born into a family of 25 classically trained physicians, including my parents. My mother, especially, was aware of my gifts but did everything she could to ignore my experiences. I was discouraged from talking about the ‘coincidences’—events I predicted— because all of it unnerved the people in my life. There were times, which I discuss in detail in Second Sight, when there was a safety net for exploring my experiences but this was outside of the my family life. I got caught up with the hippie culture, and rebelled.

When I finally got involved with experiments that were testing intuitive skills, I felt validation for my own experiences. Once I made the decision to pursue medicine, my parents were thrilled but less so about psychiatry.

During my medical training, I kept a firm boundary between intuition and medicine. I learned to trust the scientific method above all else. In the elite field of psychiatry, intuition was unfit for medical decisions affecting patient’s lives.

Karen: What happened to change all that—to set you on the course of intuitive psychiatrist?

Dr. Orloff: I ignored a premonition about one of my patients. Logically, what I sensed didn’t make sense to me. This patient was doing well. Had I chosen to validate that premonition by checking on this person, I could have prevented a suicide attempt. She survived. From that point forward, I immersed myself in understanding the symbiosis between intuition and ethical, responsible medical practice.

Karen: What makes the release of Second Sight so much more timely and important now?

Dr. Orloff: The world has changed since the first edition, almost 15 years ago. [People have] become much more open to the integration of intuition in medicine, work, education and life, in general. The language has changed over the years—“sixth sense” “intuitive” “creative” “intuitive intelligence”—it’s all the same: It’s Energy. When people have permission to access this energy, their intuition, unique solutions to complex problems can result.

The great gift of Second Sight coming out now, is that 8 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

the public is more receptive to the idea of extra sensory experiences and ways of knowing.

Karen: What is intuition? What is its source?

Dr. Orloff: Intuition is a skill and intelligence. It is a focused ability. In the book, Second Sight, I teach that everyone can develop intuition. There’s a spectrum of intuitive experiences—from gut instincts to communicating with someone who has passed over.

Intuitive Intelligence is more palatable, in a way more tangible, to scientific minds. Many researchers, like Einstein, who have made great discoveries departed from traditional theories on a hunch. That’s intuition at work.

When you immerse yourself in a creative process of any kind, even if you don’t view it as intuitive, you are placing yourself in an intuitively charged place. This can happen in any field of work in which someone is passionately engaged.

My belief is that all forms of creative/intuitive expression originate from a spiritual source. The shared challenge between an artist and an intuitive is to translate the intangible or invisible into the material and the visible. This is true for all creative endeavors not just artistic creativity.

Karen: Intuitive Intelligence. I think that should be added to the Theory of Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner. One of the seven intelligences he identified was Intrapersonal Intelligence, the capacity to know and understands one’s feelings, fears and motivations.

Dr. Orloff: Yes, I like that. That is all part of intuition, though not the whole.

Karen: How does one develop and put in motion their intuitive skills?

Dr. Orloff: In Second Sight I discuss how we all possess the capacity to develop these skills. Developing intuitive intelligence or skills requires that you live in the moment and quiet the rational mind. Intuition can occur spontaneously, like a hunch or an ‘a-ha’ moment, but it also has to be developed.

Children are exceptionally intuitive because they don’t operate with their analytical mind to the degree adults do. Playfulness is a way to put in motion intuition and creativity. You can’t engage these in an adult mind hooked on analyzing. In Second Sight, I discuss five steps that anyone can use to develop intuition and use it to confront challenges in life, be it making a major decision, healing your body or mind. I live by these five steps (see side bar).

As a psychiatrist, I listen with both the linear and the intuitive mind. The linear mind doesn’t allow you to see into the depths of someone’s soul, their innermost desires and greatest hopes and fears. I teach my patients, my students, and through my books the average person, how to balance intellect with intuition. You don’t have to make a choice: The message of Second Sight is that you can have intuition and intellect engaged, in motion, simultaneously.

Karen: How can a person differentiate between fear and intuition?

Dr. Orloff: Reliable intuition conveys information neutrally, without any emotion. The impressions you sense are crystal clear, seen in your mind’s eye and felt in your body. Yet, you are detached from them or any outcome related to the impressions. Fear is highly charged with negativity and it limits your ability to

Five Steps to Accessing Your Intuition

by Judith Orloff, M.D.

1. Notice Your Beliefs. By choosing life-enhancing beliefs you can create optimal wellness. No system in the body stands apart from your thoughts.

A well bodymind has a greater capacity for intuition.

2. Be in Your Body. Most Westerners spend too much time in their head, ignoring the rest of the body. Shift into awareness and enjoyment of the physical body as a complex and sensitive intuitive receptor.

3. Sense Your Body’s Subtle Energy.

We are more than flesh and blood, we are subtle energy – chi – which penetrates the body and extends beyond it. The subtle energy system has a significant effect on health and on our ability to access and develop intuitive skills. It is important to learn to sense this energy within us and to correct imbalance in order to maintain bodymind health.

4. Ask For Inner Guidance. Get to know your own intuitive voice, for we all have one. To hear, you must become still, for example through meditation or spending time in nature. Spend time each day devoted to listening to this voice.

It may surface as a gut feeling, a hunch, an image, sound or an “a-ha” experience (an instant “knowing” like a light bulb suddenly switched on). Learn to trust the signals your inner voice sends.

5. Listen to Your Dreams. The language of dreams is intuition. Dreams reveal information about health, relationships, life choices. The key is to remember your dreams. Keep a dream journal at your bedside. Ask a single, focused question as you fall asleep. When you wake, don’t rush out of bed. Write down the impressions lingering in your mind from your dream state. Repeat this, with the same question, for a few nights until you see the answer taking shape in your journal notes.

think and to act or respond. Some fearful feelings are authentic intuitions. Look at the quality of the emotions associated with what you’re sensing.

Karen: There’s a quote by Goethe about how, when we’re in the moment of decision, there is always hesitation; often it is fear holding us back. How can we overcome fear to engage intuitive skills? How do we validate this skill for ourselves?

Continued on Page 32

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Learning To Listen

Traveling Through The Chakras With Sound

by Kat Logan

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Join us as we take a journey thru the Chakras to explore what we have been told they represent, how we can hold our history in them and how this affects our lives in the present.

As we focus on each chakra we will take time to use sound created thru gongs, crystal bowls and vocal toning to create an environment of healing and awakening.

This is a wonderful way of using journey skills, but journey experience is not required.

October 30th & 31st 10 AM - 5 PM Exchange: $195 / Class Limited to 20 Register at Leapin' Lizards Freeport 207-865-0900 FMI: Ron and Joan 207-799-7998

My mother was a tree hugger. Nearly every walk that we went on she would stop and throw her arms about some beautiful trunk and press her face lovingly against the rough bark. My mother, who I thought was a Goddess anyway, made space to listen. She knew that there were many lessons to be had if you did and she in turn was very, very wise.

I have had many of my own listening events in nature but one stands out in my memory. I was having a particularly difficult time in my life, having recently been divorced and raising my three young sons on a very limited income, the days were just too tough. One day in exasperation, I took myself for a run into the woods. I ran and ran until I was exhausted and threw myself in a heap in a stand of pines. I sat for a long time fingering the pine spills and in them I found a very simple root form. I marveled at the simplicity of it, thinking this could be like the very first plant which life was modeled from, wondering of its purpose and what it would become. From the tree that I was leaning against, I felt a charge of energy and these words come… "This is you."

Well, I had never actually heard a tree speak words before... and was kind of scared at first by the whole thing (and wondering if I was perhaps, just a little too stressed!) Then, my ego was a bit crushed. Me, a little root, simple, unadorned, uncomplicated? I sat and pondered the whole thing, working to accept my place. Then the tree spoke again… "Look up!" In my frantic state of arrival I had not noticed that I was sitting under the largest, most magnificent grandmother pine tree that I had ever seen. Branches upon branches were spreading over me and it towered above all of the other neighboring pines.

The tree spoke again, "and this is your potential!" What a humbling message I received that day. It has stayed with me all of my life. The message from my great friend, was this… If I could remember to humble myself to see that I was the little root, whatever situation that I was in, I would put myself in a place of listening, appreciating the wisdom of the moment, and empty myself of ego, I would have the potential of learning, real learning… and eventually, someday, I could be like the grandmother pine.

I still am working on it. I always will be. I actually love being the little root.

I am so very grateful for that message and the many others that I have had with nature. I hope that you also can take some time to be with Her and listen to the wonderful things that She has to say. It just takes making the time, opening your heart and learning to listen… and you will be amazed at what you will learn there.

Kat Logan is an intuitive healer and lives with her husband in Friendship, Maine. She can be reached at www.mygreatfulheart.com or email: kat@mygreatfulheart.com.

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This will be an interactive, intense and purpose-filled two days.

Come willing to bring to rest your past and awaken to your present.

ot so long ago, in our human history, we were listeners. We listened to the wind to help us find our direction, to the water currents to see where we would flow and to the Earth herself, to know when to plant, when to move and how to be. We were in tune. Now, many of us are not. We tune in to our televisions, computers, ipods and iphone... and we have become dependent upon hearing our directions come from foreign sources. Our internal knowing has been diminished by electronic sensory devises that we use and even wear on us at all times. We have forgotten how to really listen. One day long ago, when my grown up son was only five, we went for a walk in the woods. As we walked I started talking to him about the magic of the forest… and that if you really listened, she would talk to you. It had been quite still but then the wind picked up and all of the trees that were around us started to shake, quiver and moan, each delivering a unique and beautiful message.

We both responded with wide eyes and amazement at this encounter and stood together listening to the forest speak to us. We still speak of that day, remembering the sacredness of the moment that we shared. It takes being present to experience a moment like that. Taking yourself to nature, she will always respond.

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ON THE COVER

Heart Chakra

by Marcia Snedecor

This issue it is my pleasure to connect with a very talented artist Marcia Snedecor and her work titled Heart Chakra.

Her work eloquently depicts the movement of life, of breath and of our souls. Our movement of energy within self is vital. It is connected to everyone and everything in our worlds, I think we can agree. So then with this picture remember the reality that our hearts are always connected, always in movement and always in love. As I write, looking at the picture above I am drawn to that movement of heart, of inhaling the breath of life in its entirety.

Marcia lives in the central Ohio area with her husband, Jan, and several feline friends. She attended Miami University, receiving her Fine Arts Degree and since has become a Registered Nurse and Licensed Independent Social Worker. Marcia is also a Reiki practitioner and draws upon all of her professional training and life experience the creation of her art. Her healing professions and her artwork reflect the healing that has shaped her life. Her work has been exhibited over the last 30 years and she continues working as an illustrator and artist full time.

Marcia has won many awards for her work. She has also been featured in many magazines and enjoys creating covers for books, magazines and CD's.

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"My artwork incorporates symbolic elements drawn from personal, mythic and archetypal imagery. Using symbols as psychic touchstones, images emerge as visions from the soul."

Marcia's work contains movement, a depth of soul found in a seasoned artist and experienced human "being."

To showcase her art is a pleasure and to offer excerpts of the following article reprinted from Wise Women, written by Marcia.

“Truth did not come into the world naked, but it came in types and images.

One will not receive the truth in any other way…” ~ The Gospel of Saint Philip recording the words of Christ People often ask artists about their source of inspiration or the meaning of a particular painting, and for me, those can be difficult questions. I can easily say that I am inspired

by Nature, archetypes and the Divine Feminine; however, the source of true inspiration is, in whatever form, enigmatic, mystical, and elusive.

It’s difficult to put into words what begins as a feeling, beyond language, and sparks the inscrutable creative process. I heed the call, mysterious as a dream yet familiar as an inner voice, and begin to paint.

As the process unfolds and the image takes form, so does the design behind the siren’s song. However, it is usually after a painting's completion that its message is more fully revealed. Although I have brought forth the image, it is for me, in some ways, a misty mirror so that viewer’s insightful comments help unveil meaning. I am truly enriched when others share with me the significance they find in my work, especially when it harmonizes with their own experiences.

Each of us ascribes meaning to an image from our own inimitable perspective and symbols may be uniquely personal, but the archetypes belong to us all. They resonate with our souls and draw us into the mystic.

My Mystic Forest series seeks to illustrate that we are divinely inspired by Nature and empowered by archetypes to discover the truth of our own divinity. Using symbols as psychic touchstones, these images have emerged as visions from the soul. Archetypal images speak a universal language that transcends barriers and borders to enter directly into hearts and minds.

Symbols and myths encapsulate psychic energy and, I believe, gain power and influence over time and usage… hence the archetypes. Like well-worn pathways in our collective psyche, archetypes express unconscious wisdom – esoteric knowledge accessed through imagery. As symbols are the language of unconscious dreams, so archetypes spring from a deeper well, a place where language lapses and image attempts to bridge the infinite… a glimpse of the unknowable… Divine wisdom.

10 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

Through an archetype we may discover the wellspring of our collective soul and the light of our own divinity.

Certain symbols and archetypes have inspired and sustained my creative life. One that is a delight for many artists is the tree. With its roots drawing life from the soil and its leafy branches nourished by the sun, it is the perfect link of earth and cosmos. It lives and flourishes in world art and mythology. The Tree of Life, of Knowledge, World Tree, Kabalistic Tree and myriads of related imagery illustrate the richness and scope of this blessed archetype.

As an archetypal symbol, the tree represents both humanity, our place in the cosmos and our link with the Divine. The Mystic Forest series is intended to honor the tree and all of its mythic manifestations. It is a celebration of the Divine hand evident in Nature. My intent is not to favor one gender, but the feminine aspect embodies nurturance and lends itself to a gentle merging with Nature. When we speak of Mother Earth or Mother Nature, we acknowledge the feminine half of life’s equation as that which tends and nourishes. The Greenman, an equally powerful yet somehow more elusive and quixotic archetype, stands as guardian of the fecund feminine forest.

Each Mystic Forest image is intended to inspire the viewer by tapping into or resonating with their own archetypal and transcendental energies, as with The Labyrinth Tree.

The labyrinth, like the spiral, contains a sacred center or still-point to be reached by traveling a winding but guiding pathway. Like life’s journey, there are twists and turns but the pathway leads always to the center.

In the ancient tradition of sacred art, the entwined branches and serpents are meant to entice the eye and help induce a meditative state. Combined with the tree, a powerful archetype for life and ascension, this image is a tool for finding your own path of grace and sacred center.

To create a centering interlude, take a slow deep breath and enter the labyrinth with your eyes. As you follow the path, you will be relaxing your body and calming your mind. When you reach the center, pause for a moment, meditate and see what happens. Slowly travel back out with the knowledge that you bring your own unique beauty into the world. As you repeat this centering ritual, you are creating your own sacred path to serenity.

Gaia was the name the Greeks gave to our earth and the Gaia Hypothesis, created by James Lovelock, helps us to understand our earth as One living system. We are all part of Gaia, a system that sustains and blesses us and now stands threatened.

“Gaia’s Blessing” is meant to remind us of our interdependence with Nature and the need to return her blessings by respecting the earth’s resources.

Enter a forest or garden as a holy place, with awe and reverence, remembering that the same Source energy forms you and all you revere. Meditate on the Oneness, open to the nurturance and let that perception illuminate your own Divine nature. And from that place of sacred self-awareness, let your love guide you to greater harmony with Gaia.

The tree’s roots reach deeply into the earth drawing life and providing balance and strength. So too, may we ground ourselves and draw upon powerful earth energy. When faced with a problem or challenge, Nature can provide a pathway to deeper wisdom. Meditate on Oneness… mineral, plant and animal kingdoms and the Source Energy that forms and animates all. Nature will lead you to a deeper understanding and awareness of your own spirituality. And within your deepest heart lies the solace and wisdom to sustain. Let this image ground and center you and lead you to your place of quiet strength. Like the tree, you are of this earth but sustained by Divine radiance as you grow inexorably towards the Light."

You can find more of her images at her site www.etherealart.com. Thank you Marcia for sharing your work and yourself with our Inner Tapestry family!

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destina tio n he alin g ~ s o u t h er n n e w en g l a n d

Community Organizations...

Moving Consciousness Forward

by Sandra Diamond

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Board of Directors, the Community for Awakening Light and Mindfulness (CALM) is best described as a community of communities. It addresses the arenas of Oneness, Healing, Wellness and the Green Community in concert with Sustainability. It is a central network for the spiritual community as well as the Green culture. CALM is a group committed to caring for the Earth and at the same time, caring for individuals as well as groups. It takes the high spiritual concept of “We Are All One” and places it into an action plan.

CALM is a mechanism being put into place that calls everyone together to play, to meditate, to live. When individuals wonder how to find others with this same mind-set, CALM is the organization that will collect and connect throughout the region.

Robin described the Board’s vision to be the “Calm in the Eye of the Storm”. It is a Heart centered service; it is fulfillment of those who desire Community for the good of all. Talking with Robin Clare and Salome Raheim, listening to their words as they painted their verbal pictures, it’s easy to imagine a gathering of “tribes” from all over the region, a coming together of tribe peoples for the benefit of all people, including the benefit of the earth, the air and the water. At Omega last summer there was a Gathering of the Grandmothers; indigenous elder women from around the globe.

These women told about their understanding of how our planet is at this present time.

They spoke of the earth and the air and the waters and how much attention is needed and needed now. CALM is where that attention will be found in our corner of the earth; in our region of the world.

Under the leadership of Ms. Raheim, President and Ms. Clare, Vice President, the Board of Directors are focused and experienced. CALM has two goals; a mid term goal and a long term goal. The mid term goal is to have a building, a physical space, which would serve as a community center.

The long term goal is to be a part of a sustainable, livable community which would include a working farm. Salome identified this as an “eco-village,” a fully collaborative community. This Eco-Village is a place in which all inhabitants would live collectively in a sustainable daily life. It is a big dream, a full dream, a rich dream.

Robin defined methods to reach this goal. The first one is a person-to-person community which will have four seasonal events, inviting community to join together for fun and education. The second is an online presence which includes a website and blog entries for social networking and event listing of other groups that can reach every one.

Robin Clare and Salome Raheim are modest when discussing their inspiration and give credit to input received from others in study groups tailored to spiritual evolvement. In the vision of a collaborative sustainable community, they emphasize that everyone is welcome. Donations are accepted. This is not a club; non-profit status is being sought so that grants and funding may be obtained with an eye to a polished, professionally run organization.

Robin Clare may be reached at info@clare-ity.com, info@epllc.org, (860) 232-3331.

Salome Raheim can be found at salome-raheim@att.net (319.) 530-4375.

All three of these organizations deserve your close attention. If we, as a culture, truly desire this global community to unify into a better place, then watch closely. These are the people with their dreams, their visions and their inspirations intact who are leading the way.

As you drive along, please keep an eye out for healing centers. Some we cannot see.

Look for centers that spring up and cluster together, so that the general public will know they are out there, easy to find and great to use. This is a good dream.

Supporting client wellness, Sandra is an internationally trained master teacher and healer, T'ai Chi & QiGong Instructor. The foundational work for her is in T'ai Chi and QiGong, which she began studying in 1992. A registered Hypnotherapist, Reiki Master and teacher, she has a masters degree in Experiential Health & Healing. Sandra studied Shamanic healing & counseling and performs soul retrievals. She was initiated in the foothills of the Himalayans as a Tamang Shaman from the Bon tradition. Sandra trained in Tui Na, an ancient healing art, in the Xuan Wu hospital in Beijing and is a certified Toltec teacher under the auspices of Miguel Ruiz's Sixth Sun Foundation. She also leads annual trips to the pyramids at Teotihuacan, Mexico. Her background provides a wide variety of techniques and experiences in support of her clients. You can connect with Sandra at http://local.yahoo.com/info-48230833-dragonflyllc or www.dragonfly-llc.net.

Oct/Nov 2010 Inner Tapestry 11

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id you ever notice, when you’re driving down the road and spot a car dealership you actually see three, or four car dealerships clustered together?

It doesn’t matter if the dealer is selling new cars or used cars. When there is more than one dealership, all of them do better than if there is only one car dealer here and one there. People appreciate it when they have to shop for cars.

It’s the same when it comes to selecting alternative and collaborative services. That’s why healing centers are gaining a stronghold in our communities. People are exposed to services that are gathered together.

We have many exciting such centers in Connecticut. They provide a wide variety of services which are available together under one roof. Sometimes centers offer referrals, so that clients find a trustworthy, reliable reference for alternative and complementary providers.

Let’s take a closer look at the variety of large, “big picture” groupings which are moving our culture’s consciousness forward at a rate faster then any individual healer possibly can.

The information about the following organizations provided is intended to build, strengthen and reinforce the connection from the individual and from smaller groups to the spiritual communities at large. These are three diverse pathways that are being focused on, here and now.

The first option for expanded awareness of spiritual consciousness is from the work of Laura Rose. A true child of the Universe, Ms. Rose created a blog talk radio show entitled “Discovering Nature’s Spirit” which is transmitted world wide. Her goal is to heal the world, one person at a time.

Laura’s original job was as a prosecuting attorney. Her initiation was in the form of “messages.” She was told that if she did not follow a path of spirit, she would become very ill. Deciding it was better to make changes in her life before the onset of an actual illness, she left work and set up a world wide radio network.

Laura’s inspiration came from her mother’s teachings, both before and after her death. She listened to those messages and knew she would follow this new journey. Laura’s elders, shamanic guides and teachers from non-ordinary reality, told Laura exactly what to do to make her radio show work. She had to bring together many different healing techniques and send them out over the airways, for the community of the world.

Laura believes that each person, each healer and each mystic, has a piece of Universal Truth as their gift. She presents people on blog talk radio so that they may share their particular piece of Truth. Truth can be used as another name of God. When enough knowledge of Truth comes together, this enlightened God Essence overflows and spreads all over the world.

Laura Rose may be reached at The Purple Rose, 2 Tunxis Rd., Suite 203, Old Mill on the River, Tariffville, CT 06081. (860) 658-9888. laurapurplerose@aol.com, wwwThePurpleRose.net.

The second mechanism is the brain child of Jon Roe whose creation is called Conscious Connecticut. His dream is to help people transform; to see a world that is the true manifestation of Love and Light; understanding that God is not out there, but dwells within. It took Jon a year to manifest what was shown to him in a single vision. The vision manifested in the form of a regional web site and an E-Newsletter reaching one thousand people, and growing all the time. This site gets 7,000 hits per month.

Jon, past editor of the Door Opener, is perhaps more aware than anyone else in Connecticut just how many small communities are out there. Conscious Connecticut is an online resource that unites people and groups in matters of spirit who are active “east of the river”.

Jon’s awareness has expanded to include the wellness of the earth, the air, the water and the people. “We are all One” is Mr. Roe’s viewpoint. He is not alone in that sentiment. This online structure can be found at www.consciousct.org. Jon Roe can be reached at JonRoe@comcast.net (860) 875-4101.

Under the creative eye of Robin Clare, Founder and Chief Inspirational Officer of Enlightened Professionals, Salome Raheim, President and other members of the

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Discussion and Vibrational Sound Meditation

No Place Like OM Wednesdays $20 7:00pm - 9:00pm

The Goff House, 2 Barton Hill Rd. East Hampton, CT Reservations & Information Call 860-655-5500 Space is limited so call first and come as often as you choose!

www.ronandjoan.com

12 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

13

You're not alone...

Join ArccSounds and their Gongs and Crystal Bowls as you experience the creation of a "holisitic" resonance that vibrates through each cell of the body.

When in this resonance, the normal resistance of the ego-identity no longer exists as a dis-ease factor within the body.

Wear comfortable clothing. Bring plenty of water, a pillow and something soft to lie on.

Join us Fridays at 7:00 PM $20 Oct. 22nd, Nov. 12th & Dec. 10th at the Goff House, 2 Barton Hill Rd., East Hampton, CT for an evening of sound healing with crystal bowls, gongs and other vibrational instruments.

Reservations & Information

203-779-0345 Oct/Nov 2010 Inner Tapestry 13

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HaveYouEverWonderedwhat VibrationalSoundhealing and gong baths are?

14

lov ing e arth

Hot, Hot, Hot Times... and getting hotter!

by Pat Foley

A

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new scientific report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) states that this last decade on planet Earth was the warmest in recorded history. The report also informs us that each of the last three decades has been warmer than the preceding one. Last June was the hottest June ever recorded. The first half of 2010 continued the warming trend. This year had the warmest average temperature for the period of January through May since record keeping began. So far this year, nine nations have set records for all-time high temperatures. These countries include Russia (111 degrees); Sudan (121 degrees); Saudia Arabia (126 degrees); Iraq ( also 126 degrees) and most appallingly, Pakistan just a tad under 130 degrees.

A new study from Canadian researchers has shown that warming seawater has reduced phytoplankton, the very base of the marine food chain, by 40 percent since 1950.

NOAA reports that excessive heat is our number one weather related killer. As we write this in mid August, heat advisories and warnings in the US mid-west extend from lower Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. In early July, a friend of ours recorded an unofficial temperture of 100 degrees in Portland, Maine’s Old Port area. The Old Port is located at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean and in summer generally benefits from the cooling influence of that large body of water.

Doing Nothing Meanwhile in late July, the United States Senate decided to do exactly nothing about climate change legislation. They didn’t do less than we might have hoped. They did nothing, thus preserving, as environmentalist Bill McKibban put it, “a perfect twodecade bipartisan record of no action,” clearly signaling to the rest of the world that we, in the industrial west, do not take the welfare of our only planet very seriously. In fact, the Senate majority leader decided not to even schedule a vote on legislation which would have capped carbon dioxide emissions, the major contributor to the greenhouse effect which is causing the over-heating of our planet. Last hour petitioning of the Senate by various groups calling for action had no effect.

Obviously our elected leaders in the Senate do not consider climate change a serious issue. The scientists of the world do, one certainly imagines the citizens of Pakistan do, but the US Senate in its infinite wisdom does not.

This is tough stuff. It’s often hard to feel positive when the people we have elected to lead us into the future don’t seem to be able to grasp the seriousness and the scope of the problems we are hoping to surmount. We in the US, with 4% of the world’s population, are responsible for 25% of global carbon dioxide emissions; more than China, Japan and India combined. Yet we cannot seem to pass legislation limiting our own excesses. We have the means to take a planetary leadership role in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, but politically we lack the will to act.

Our world is changing. Many people believe we are poised at the edge of a paradigm shift. The next world will be shaped by the decisions and actions we take, or do not take, today. It may be wonderful, or it may be a disaster. It is up to us. As we approach our point of no return, the point at which enough will have been set in motion to preclude a last minute change of course, we see disorder. Some people are clinging to the old as others are celebrating change. We are reminded of the process by which a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. As the creature’s first few cells transition from worm to butterfly, the unchanged cells, thinking the new cells to be invaders, attack and destroy them. Only after a tipping point is reached, when enough cells begin making the change, does the rest of the caterpillar's body realize what is happening and start to transform as well. We have butterflies, so we know this process can work. But will it work for us?

To Fly, We Must Change It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary decent egg. We must hatch or go bad. ...C. S. Lewis

14 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

So here we are, as worms and eggs! If we would like to be able to fly, we must change.

We each must begin (or continue) the process of doing our lives differently, living them in ways that are sustainable within the governing constraints of our planetary ecology, an ecology in which everything is connected to everything else, in which we all live down-stream from somebody.

Hints For Flying

Now is a time for visionaries and mechanics, those who can dream the new dreams and those who can make them work. Now is a time for people with creativity and courage to go forth and be that change they wish to see, for if we want saving, we had best save ourselves. What each one of us chooses to do, or not do, at this point in time is incredibly important.

• Eat more locally grown organic food • Love, laugh and dance more • Buy less stuff • Use less fuel, use less fuel, use less fuel For information about positive news and people actually making creative changes, check out Yes Magazine, www.yesmagazine.org, and perhaps Ode. Focus on your own areas of interest and use the internet to find others who are involved in those fields and are working for creative, ecologically sound changes. Consider joining or supporting them. In Maine MOFGA, the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners, www.mofga.org, is a wonderful resource for information about growing healthy food in sustainable ways and finding sources of organic food for those of us who do not grow our own.

Schumacher College, www.schumachercollege.org.uk, offers an inspiring collection of courses on how we might change many existing aspects of our current world in order to make them more ecologically sane, more beautiful and more humane. The Northwest Earth Institute, www.nwei.org, offers workbooks for discussion courses on many of the current issues of our world. The Natural Resources Defense Council, www.nrdc.org, is a dynamic organization which successfully uses legal means to police both our own government agencies and corporations, repeatedly forcing them to discontinue their plundering of the earth and making them operate within the confines of existing laws. The organization has an entire section on the web devoted to global warming, its causes and solutions. NRDC currently works at the international level offering practical solutions to our planet’s rising temperatures. For anyone interested in comparing gas mileage and emissions of hybrid vehicles with both conventional cars and with each other, The Union of Concerned Scientists, www.ucsusa.org offers a nifty comparison chart… and the list goes on, almost indefinitely.

The information we need is available. Now it is up to us to get busy and use it!

We have an overheating planet to cool down.

Copyright Pat Foley, 2010 Pat practices cutting carbon dioxide emissions and general greenness to the best of her ability just outside of Cornish, ME. You may contact Pat at earthrest@psouth.net or (207) 625-4179.

The Thirteenth Moon

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

ART from the heART

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

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

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wa ndering s age w i s d om

The Energy In Tension by Aaron Hoopes

Aya Itagaki

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Next, as you breathe in, feel as if you are filling up the lowest points of your body.

Take a few deep breaths, allowing each breath to penetrate deeper into your body.

Imagine the oxygen-rich blood coursing through the clear passages into your legs.

When you have taken a few breaths, begin again. Fill your lungs and hold. This time, once you have curled your toes and squeezed your feet, calves, thighs and buttocks, begin to tighten the muscles of the stomach. Squeeze the rib cage, chest and the muscles under your armpits. Hold the squeeze for a moment and then release it as you exhale. Let go of all the muscles. Allow them to completely release and let go. Breathe and rest as you allow the energy to flow through you.

When you are ready, begin again. Breathe in, fill up. Hold the breath in and curl your toes, squeeze your feet, calves, thighs and buttocks, stomach, ribs, chest and under your arms. Next make tight fists with your hands. Tighten your elbows, shoulders and neck muscles. Grit your teeth and squeeze your whole body for just a moment. Then release it as you breathe out a long, slow exhalation. Let go of all the muscles. Feel yourself sinking down into the ground as all of the tension is drained out of you.

Close your mouth and begin to take long, deep breaths in and out through your nose. Take note of the feeling within your body. The contrast between the extreme tension and the resulting relaxation should be very pronounced and give your body a warm, energized feeling.

This exercise will break through the hard shell of tension that has encased you.

Your journey is far from over, but at least your body should no longer be sabotaging your progress.

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

Aaron Hoopes has spent 28 years studying and teaching martial arts, tai chi, yoga and meditation. He is the founder of Zen Yoga and the author of five books. He teaches an Online Personal Development Course for Spiritual Deepening and holds retreats at the Ledge End Retreat and Healing Center in the mountains of Vermont. His best-selling Zen Yoga Daily Warm-Up DVD is a simple method for integrating breath and movement into daily life. Please feel free to contact Aaron: breathe@artofzenyoga.com. Visit the Zen Yoga Website: www.artofzenyoga.com

TENSION RELEASE There are a number of techniques for releasing tension. One of the best is massage.

There are many different styles of massage, and some are better than others for releasing tension. Sadly, we do not often have the luxury of being able to afford the time or money for a really beneficial massage. So what is our alternative?

The simplest and quickest method for releasing tension within the body involves the use of contrasting tension with relaxation. This is the basic idea of Yin and Yang. In this context you force the body to experience the extremes of tension so that when balanced by an equally full experience of relaxing, the relaxation becomes much more pronounced, identifiable, and deeper. Of course, breathing is a key factor.

Begin by lying flat on your back, legs straight and your feet flopped apart. Close your eyes and take a few natural breaths as your body settles down. When you are ready, begin using deep abdominal breathing: inhale through your nose, and fill your lungs. Breathe in and expand, push out and fill up completely. Stop. Hold the breath in. Next curl your toes, and squeeze your feet as tightly as possible. Hold the squeeze for a moment and then release it as you exhale though your mouth with an audible “HAAAA.�

Oct/Nov 2010 Inner Tapestry 15

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hroughout history human beings have been active. Manual labor was the way to get things done. It is only in the last 100 years and the onset of the information age that we have moved toward a less physical lifestyle. In the past things that needed doing and they had to be done with sweat and muscle(s). On a purely physical level, the human body was designed to be active; cutting wood, harvesting food, and building shelter all keep the body strong and healthy. The problem is that we have created more and more comforts for daily life and phased out the rigorous activity that was keeping the body in shape. Now, most of the things many people do in an average day require very little physical effort. We work in an office, sit at a desk all day, drive our cars to and from work and then lounge in front of the TV at night. We often spend most of our time doing things that do not exercise the physical body at all.

The result of this lifestyle is an excess of energy that builds up in the body. Without an outlet this energy turns into tension. Tension is different from stress. Stress is mental. It comes from thinking too much, worrying about life situations or interacting with other people. Tension, on the other hand, is purely physical. Tension and stress are intricately entangled and related to one another, but they affect different parts of our selves. Prolonged physical tension without relief can be very detrimental to the body. It is often the source of the aches, pains, and twinges we begin to feel as we grow older. Left unaddressed, they can easily turn into chronic illness or fatigue, and can quickly become overwhelming.

How do we release the energy causing the tension?

During everyday life, tension is gathered and deposited in various places throughout the body. For many people it is often concentrated in the shoulders or lower back. Others find it building up in the neck, knee joints or feet. Some people may find it affects them internally, in their gastrointestinal tract, for instance. This tension; affecting places in the body where each of us is most vulnerable, can be extremely debilitating. Without relief, it can easily make you feel as if the weight of the world is coming down on (top of) you. It becomes impossible to relax because the body just plain hurts.

Many people meditate to deal with stress. Meditation is an excellent method for calming the mind and easing stress; however it is not so helpful when it comes to dealing with tension. And until you have let go of the tension in your body and reduced the physical discomfort, focusing your mind can be a real challenge.

Physical relaxation is about unclenching and unwinding of the musculature, teaching the body to surrender to the natural energetic forces that flow through you. It is learning to let go.

Take a couple of natural deep breaths and then begin again. Fill your lungs and hold. This time, once you curl your toes and squeeze your feet, squeeze your calf muscles, thigh muscles and buttocks. Tense all of your muscles from the hips down, so that your whole lower body is rigid. Hold the squeeze for a moment and then release it as you exhale. Let go of all the muscles. Allow them to uncoil and unwind. Begin to feel the tension draining out of you.

16

Shadow Work with Crystals and Stones

By Silla Von Faulk Trueworthy, CRTh, RMT, LMT

The Shadow knows… “While a ruler desires power over his (or her) subjects, a Master desires only power over himself (or herself ).”

Anonymous Shadow Work, simply put, is the process of self-discovery or the recovery of the darker, more hidden aspects of one’s psyche. Some aspects of which many would prefer to continue to adamantly deny. The act of denying any part of one’s self drains off life force energy. The point of connecting with one’s shadow through shadow work is to establish and develop right relationship with it. Through courage, persistence and humor one is better able to elevate the shadow aspect of self. Honor the shadow for it will expose one’s fears; help one in recognizing how to overcome them; and assist one with conquering irrationality thus leaving one with increased creativity, and in a more enlivened and sane state of being!

The shadow is the culmination of all of man’s/woman’s denied irrational, and instinctual, aspects of “self.” One’s shadow’s role and appearance is mostly representative of the individual’s life experience rather than being born solely from the collective unconscious. It is thought to develop in the more hidden, indiscriminate aspects of the individual’s mind.

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Jungians believe that the shadow, while containing one’s personal shadow, additionally contains the shadow of the totality of society, which feeds off the ignored, neglected, and repressed values of the collective. The individual self is made up of both the Conscious (ego) and the Unconscious mind (psyche). The term psyche refers to both the individual mind and the Universal mind. In Jungian thought, the Unconscious includes a “collective” unconscious that is composed of trace engrams (i.e. racial, cultural and biological memories). It is thought that these memories are possibly contained in a “DNA-based” carrier.

One's "Shadow" may hold important clues

• Jet (Lignite/coal): Earth Element, Jet is a form of fossilized wood (coal), and is black in color. It is often applied for its gentle nurturing, purifying, grounding, stabilizing, and protective qualities. It is also thought to be stimulating to the Kundalini (Shakti) energy as it is most resonant with the 1st, Root, chakra. It is also considered to have transmuting properties. Jet facilitates deep explorations of both the personal and collective unconscious. For this purpose jet combines especially well with black tourmaline, black obsidian, and smoky quartz. Jet is purifying to the Aura as it is able to absorb and transmute undesirable energies thus leaving the Aura cleansed and refreshed. Jet acts like a mirror by allowing one to see and “own” both one’s abilities and one’s shortcomings.

impulsive acts...

One’s “Shadow” may hold important clues to one’s more impulsive acts, instinctual reactions, likes and dislikes, perceived short comings, and oftentimes to one’s more aberrant behaviors. The shadow self is the ultimate “projectionist” pointing a finger elsewhere while denying undesirable attributes and behaviors within oneself. When unrecognized or denied it will find ways to “realize” itself by creating an “object” or situation characteristic of whichever projection with which it is most resonant. The Shadow may appear when one least expects it, catching one off guard, and causing one to overreact or act out. As the saying goes, whatever one resists will persist! Not unlike the ego, the Shadow loves attention. The more acknowledgements it gets the more helpful it will become. Embrace your shadow and learn what it has to teach you.

Facing one’s shadow requires valor. Resistance to change may create psychological stress. Fear, anger, and guilt are signs of resistance and indicators of the shadow’s presence. Unchecked, they may trigger imbalances in the physical, mental, and emotional bodies. It is widely accepted that accumulation of such stressors can be expressed in the body and mind as disease. Less apparent, and often unacknowledged, are the effects that these disruptions may have on the more subtle energy systems or spiritual bodies.

Crystals and Stones carry electromagnetic frequencies that vibrate in resonance with the Earth’s electromagnetic field. These same frequencies may be used to attempt to restore balance to the human system via resonance. In this way a wide range of chemical compositions, frequencies ranging from very low to very high are made available for purposes of restoration. All frequencies are useful and serve a purpose in one way or another. It is because of this that there are no good or bad frequencies or “negative energies.” Crystal and Stones can be useful tools for working with various aspects of the human system and some may be especially useful when applied for working with the psyche during shadow work.

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• Dravite (Brown Tourmaline): Earth Element, Dravite is considered a premier stone for bringing the shadow self into consciousness. It promotes self-healing, self-love and selfacceptance. Dravite is thought to carry very calming and relaxing energy. It allows one to perceive that which one has previously kept hidden from self; bringing it forth for calm review and clearing of the originating, disruptive patterns.

Dravite promotes the integration of the shadow self by bringing it to light, transforming and transmuting its shadowy aspects through compassion, acceptance and self-love.

to one's more

Through dream work one has better access to the shadow self and archetypes. This is one of the reasons why Jungian work places importance on dream analysis. The shadow self frequently presents in one’s visions or dreams appearing in a variety of forms, but it will often appear as a person of the same sex as the dreamer.

A few stones that I have found to be exceptionally useful for shadow work are:

• Black Tourmaline (especially *w/mica inclusions): Earth Element Previous to this mineral actually being recognized as a Tourmaline type it was known simply as Schorl. *Black Tourmalines with mica inclusions are reputed to bounce any negative thought pattern (or psychic attack) back to whence it originated, but not without first grounding and transmuting the energy into the vibration of pure love. This shielding from psychic attack, and, also from “entity attachment,” is considered part of its strong “protective” properties. It is also thought to serve to protect one’s Aura from electromagnetic pollution by acting like a “psychic shield” which all Tourmalines are said to generate when held within a person’s Aura. Additionally the purifying properties of Black Tourmaline serve to elevate one’s consciousness.

• Black Obsidian (SiO2 w/impurities): Earth Element Black Obsidian is a very grounding and psychically protective stone which is said to be cleansing and useful for removing not only negativity in one’s environment, but for clearing one’s own self-generated negative emotions (i.e. greed, jealousy, anger, and resentment). In healing work it is considered a powerful stone to use for clearing blockages as it allows issues to surface quickly for resolution. As it is an intense ally one must be ready to bravely confront their issues once this stone is called into action. Black obsidian may be helpful in exposing power imbalances or abuses of self or others, and for dealings with issues of self-control (lack thereof ). It is often applied to assist one with any unwillingness to let go of the past (i.e. grief, grudges, old traumas and the like). Black obsidian is thought to be an aid for quickly resolving any emotionally based, physical illnesses as it offers a direct route to the discovery of the root cause, but one must be willing and ready for the illness to be healed. As a powerful ally for grounding spiritual energies into the physical world, it is amazingly effective for shadow work because it helps one to acknowledge one’s shadow and to allow any negative memories, experiences or projections to surface so that can be resolved at the conscious level.

• Smoky Quartz (SiO2 with impurities): Earth Element, Smoky Quartz is a favored metaphysical stone. It has a powerful but gentle energy that works slowly and steadily. Its grounding properties can be called upon to help facilitate the manifestation of one’s goals and dreams. Smoky Quartz helps to ground one through its strong Earth energies and is considered by some to be good for relieving depression. It assists with integrating the energies of the higher chakras into the lower chakras thus helping to anchor expanded consciousness into the physical body. Smoky Quartz is also thought to attract resonant entities from the spiritual realm. It may be helpful in tethering those who are feeling disengaged from life by encouraging them to rejoin the physical realm and participate in it more fully.

Enlist smoky quartz to enhance one’s ability to focus and bring mental clarity.

17 • Black Onyx: Earth Element Black onyx is used for working with the Root Chakra, for grounding, and to help realize material goals. Black onyx is a powerful, protective stone. It absorbs and transforms “discordant energy” and shields against the draining of one’s personal energy. It can be especially supportive during times of stress as it promotes the development of both physical and emotional strength. By fostering wise decision making it provides support for those lacking self-discipline. Black onyx may also be useful in healing old wounds or past/alternate life issues.

• Specular Hematite (Iron Oxide): Earth Element Specular Hematite is said to help with facilitating the integration of higher spiritual energies into the physical plane. In general Hematite is thought to be a very grounding stone, and is suggested to be carried on one’s person to help one to stay grounded in many situations; (i.e. for balance and equilibrium; or for help focusing one’s energies). Specular Hematite may help one to find their own gifts and develop hidden talents; release self-imposed limitations; become more confident; and is considered good for connecting and working with the Root/Base Chakra.

Hematite is also used to protect against geopathic stress and electromagnetic smog (miasma), and is said to be a great detoxifying stone.

• Vesuvianite (Idocrase): Earth Element Vesuvianite’s gentle, calming properties act quickly to clear emotional turmoil. It is useful for releasing pent up anger and frustration. Inner security is created through the process of dissolving anger and fear. Vesuvianite can be useful for stabilizing the mental and emotional bodies (via clearing compulsive/repetitive thought patterns). On a psychological level, it’s believed to release feelings of duress.

Vesuvianite connects the Heart Chakra with the spiritual realms thus allowing the Higher Self access to Source energy. Vesuvianite is also said to stimulate inventiveness, discovery and creativity.

All of the above stones are considered to be useful tools for working with the Shadow Self. Each of these stones offers its unique frequencies but they all are generally grounding, and have protective, transforming and transmuting properties.

For beginners it is best to work with only one stone at a time. To apply these stones for shadow work it is suggested to meditate with any one of these stones, individually, with at least 24 hours between each meditation.

One may wish to work with any one stone for a few days before moving on to another. This allows one time to realize one’s response to any given stone and to integrate the stone’s unique frequencies with one’s energy field.

Working with stones for any purpose requires patience and attentiveness.

The rewards of working in this way are well worth the efforts. The format of the meditation need not be complicated or over ritualized. Sometimes the simplest form of meditation is the best. It is helpful to clear your stones both before and after use in order to return them to their base resonance frequencies. This is particularly important when applying them for Shadow Work, general meditations, and journeying.

Although the crystalline energies begin to affect the human electromagnetic energy field as soon as they are placed within this field (ideally within about 4 feet), once they are removed from one’s field their effect is no longer felt. However the chemical changes that have been initiated by the presence of the stones will continue the chain reaction of attempting to bring the human system back into balance. The most impact will be noticed during the 24 hours following resonating with the stones. It is for this reason that one may find it helpful to keep a journal for at least a couple of days following this type of shamanic work.

You're not alone...

Gongs and Crystal Bowls create a "holisitic" resonance that vibrates through each cell of the body.

When in their resonance, the normal resistance of the ego-identity no longer exists as a dis-ease factor within the body. This allows the holistic tones of our body, emotions, mind and spirit to produce an harmonious resonance within and without creating life as abundant joy.

All sessions are energetically supported.

Wear comfortable clothing. Bring plenty of water, a pillow and something soft to lie on.

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Thursdays ~ Oct 21st, Nov 18th & Dec. 9th at 6:30-8:30 PM $20 And A Special Sound Healing Playshop Traveling Through The Chakras with Sound October 30th & 31st at Leapin' Lizards, 123 Main Street, Freeport for sound healing with crystal bowls, gongs and other vibrational instruments.

Reservations & Information 207 865-0900

References: The Book of Stones (Who They Are & What They Teach) co-authored by Robert Simmons & Naisha Ahsian with contributions by Hazel Raven ©2005, 2007; The Crystal Ally Cards (The Crystal Path to Self Knowledge) by Naisha Ahsian © 1995; and The Portable Jung, Edited by Joseph Campbell © 1971.

This information is provided for educational and entertainment purposes only. The author does not advocate the use of stones as a substitute for medical or psychological care. Appropriate use of the following information is the express responsibility of the reader.

Silla is a graduate of Naisha Ahsian’s Crystalis Institute and is certified as a Crystal Resonance Therapist (CRTh) and an Elemental Shaman. She maintains a private therapeutic massage and energy-based bodywork practice, BodyKneads & Energetics, in Scarborough, Maine. Silla is also the creator of “Elemental Attunements Jewelry,” jewelry created with intention. Contact Silla at (207) 883-1440 or silla@wiseone.zzn.com for more information go to: http://www.bodykneadsandenergetics.com.

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• Covellite: Storm Element Covelitte is another stone noted to be useful for clearing, transmuting, and integrating shadow energies. Covellite is known as a stone of intention. It also is known for its ability to bridge the upper and lower worlds! It is a high-energy stone that’s excellent for psychic and intuitive work. It assists with reflection, offering new perspectives on past events, which may offer insights to present challenges. It teaches a more constructive approach to general problem solving. Believed to stimulate a more positive outlook on life, covellite also enhances one’s ability to articulately communicate and increases one’s creative abilities.

HaveYouEverWonderedwhat Vibrational Sound healing and gong baths are?

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

Searching for the Roots of Northern European Shamanism

by Evelyn C. Rysdyk

T

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o begin to uncover the remnants of shamanic culture in Northern Europe, If the struggles weren’t physical in nature then our ancestors must have at least we need to go back to the Neolithic or New Stone Age. This is the period experienced intellectual and emotional turmoil. that saw the transition from hunting and gathering to farming of cereal grains Whatever the case, over time the people came to an uneasy compromise so that a and the keeping of animals. While this shift began after the end of the last period kind of hybridized culture eventually arose among the groups—becoming the Indoof glaciation, approximately 12,000 BC, the time frame of wide-scale flourishing of European culture we recognize today. According to Ralph Metzner in his essay, “Sky settled agriculture in the region began around 7,000-6,500 BC. Gods and Earth Deities,” “During the hundreds, even thousands of years of cultural interaction What we know about the indigenous, “Old European” culture of the Neolithic, is there was undoubtedly not only conquest, assimilation and superimposition of an alien religion, but based upon archeological interpretation of the artifacts they left behind. The late also intermarriage of peoples, a blending and combining of religious and mythic images.” anthropologist, Marija Gimbutas studied these artifacts looking for the clues about When we look at Northern European mythology, we can clearly see reflections of this the original European culture. During her fieldwork, she reported that she found clashing of cultures and blending of mythologies between the Proto-Indo-European “beautiful painted pottery” and hundreds of female-figured sculptures. This material Kurgan invaders and the Old European cultures. For instance, the ancient Norse/ was very different from artifacts that were found in the layers with more recent dates.

Germanic mythic traditions honor two distinct families of deities. These are the Based on these clues, she postulated that a female-honoring culture—honoring the Vanir and the Aesir. In the myths, these two different clans or families of gods and energies of creativity, continuity and fertility—persisted goddesses are often at odds with each other and in Europe from the Paleolithic Age (35,000 B.C.) and even engage in warfare. continued for millennia.

When we look at the two groups of deities, It was Gimbutas’ belief that these female sculptural we can see reflections of the cultural diversity images implied veneration of a creatrix/earth that existed between the two groups of people in goddess. In her further work she discovered several Europe. In addition, they can give us clues about other forms of the goddess that encompassed the cultural perceptions that must have evolved during fundamental phases/passages of continuance—Life, the time when the two cultures met. This time Death and Regeneration. She grouped the goddesses period would have been experienced differently of Old Europe into images of the Life-Giver by the “invading” Proto-Indo-European tribes Goddess—which include representations of a figure from the East and the aboriginal populations of giving birth, the Nourisher/Protector Goddess—included Old Europe who “resisted” the assimilation. What in these categories are pregnant images, and the seems clear, however is that the resulting blended Goddess of Death and Regeneration. Some of culture was left with two, conflictual perceptual these figures were represented as not solely humanframeworks locked into its psyche. shaped, but with animal or bird features implying The Vanir is the clan of earth, sea and nature the interconnection of all Nature. In other words, deities. They include Njörd, god of the sea who is every thing and creature was a part of the Goddess. the father of the Vanir that include, Freyr and Freyja.

She was depicted in a variety of forms and yet all of The realm of the Vanir is Vanaheim that lies in the them were aspects of a singular Archetypal Feminine west. Their sphere of influence includes connections Deity. This goddess imagery persisted in Europe for with the elves/air spirits (in Ljossalheim), the dwarves/ 30 - 40,000 years into the late Neolithic/early stone spirits (of Svartalfheim), the Nature elementals Copper Age. of ice/cold and heat/fire (Niflheim and Muspellheim, About 4,000 BC, the first wave of horseback riding respectively). If we look at this through the lens "Kurgan" people arrived in Europe migrating from of traditional shamanic views of the spirit world, their homeland in South-Central Asia far to the East. the Vanir have their connections and associations While we cannot ever be sure about why these in Middle World and Lower World. In other Proto-Indo-European herders began to move their words, they are more closely aligned with the Old flocks and families westward, there may be clues in European, earth and nature worshiping traditions. the global climate record.

Of this group, the Goddess Freyja may be seen as 9 Worlds Diagram Spirit Passages.

The Earth experienced a rapid cooling event that an excellent representative. Having a complex series Background photo courtsesy of NASA & STSci peaked approximately 8,000 years ago dropping the of traits, Freyja bears a resemblance to the aboriginal overall temperature about 3 degrees Celsius. A climate change of this kind would European Earth Goddess. She is the goddess of fertility, love, beauty, attraction and have affected everyone living during that time, however since the Kurgan people had wealth. She was also the goddess of war, battle, death, and magic and prophesies. domesticated the horse and were nomadic, they had the ability to pick up and move in In her role as goddess of prophesy, Freyja has ties to the Norns or Fates who control search of "greener pastures." This search took them westward and into the seat of the destiny and on whom all the deities pay homage. The Norns are the “Three Wyrd Old European culture.

Sisters” who are described in the Icelandic Poetic Edda—a collection of Old Norse Based on the archeological record, these Kurgans or Proto-Indo-Europeans had a mythic tales—as giantesses. This is an important clue to their identity, as giants are more male-focused, warrior culture that was quite different from the one of the Old thought to be progenitor beings who existed before the gods/goddesses. (This is a view European culture. They honored Sky Gods as their primary deities and their artifacts that is common to other European cultures such as the Celts.) The Norns were said to have include stone weapons/implements such as daggers, axes, spears and arrowheads. come out of the giant’s realm of Jötunheim to limit the god/goddesses’ powers and to This is quite different from objects gathered in excavations of the indigenous Old act as protective spirits for the people of earth.

European settlements where archeologists found no warfare imagery or weapon The oldest Norn, Urd draws the threads of existence from the void and passes them artifacts. In fact, sites from the earlier period have been excavated across Europe and to her sister, Verdandi. It is she who weaves. The last and youngest sister, Skuld is the no examples of daggers or swords have ever been found. one who eventually cuts the weave and sends energy back into the formless. In their The meeting of these two vastly different cultures must have been a time triple aspect, these sisters reflect the threefold face of the ancient earth goddess— of terrific intensity! Given what we understand about human nature, conflict maiden/mother/crone, life-giver/nurturer/destroyer. would have been inevitable when such different mythic and social paradigms Freyja also encompasses these energies in that she holds sway over fertility/love and collided—particularly if it occurred during a period of environmental changes. battle/death. In addition, she is capable of viewing that which the Norns weave in her 18 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

19 role as goddess of magic and prophesy. Those women that acted in the role of seer or völva in Old Norse culture were acting as Freyja in that they too, were able to see the strands of the Norns’ weaving. As goddess of prophesies, Freyja is the primordial shaman being able to see that which others cannot. Interestingly, among the tribes of peoples scattered across Siberia all the way to the Pacific Ocean, the primordial or first shaman is also most commonly seen as a magical woman.

The Æsir are the gods and goddesses of the sky. They reside in Asgard which is high above the other realms like the shamanic Upper World. Among this clan, Odin is the chief and since the Vanir were dominated by the Æsir, he held sway over them as well.

According to the Eddas, the runic alphabet was a gift from Odin. A selection from the Eddas tells of their discovery. Odin hangs for nights upon the World Tree, Yggdrasil. In hanging himself from the World Tree, Odin’s story echoes the ancient Siberian shamanic ritual of hanging those who would be initiated as shamans from great poles or trees. It was believed that from this lofty position the initiates could gain access to the spirits. Odin hung on the tree for nine days and nights—one day and night for each one of the Northern European spiritual realms. Through his suffering, he experiences what may be best described as the shaman’s death. His old self is sacrificed. He transcends death so that he may gain knowledge. On the ninth day on the Great Tree, Odin has a vision of the runes hovering below him. With his last remaining strength, he tears himself from the tree and literally grasps his vision.

Screaming, he scoops up the runes and falls back to the Earth. His scream marks the moment he passed through the doorway of initiation into a new way of being.

The word ‘rune’ means ‘whisper,’ or ‘secret wisdom.’ Once Odin had the runes— what we can think of as raw knowledge, he had to learn how to use them. Unlike Freyja, who represents the divine original shaman, Odin reflects that to become a

shaman, requires transformation. In Odin’s case, to become “wise” it was necessary for him to make a further sacrifice. In order to see/understand knowledge and transform it into wisdom, Odin sacrifices one of his eyes for a drink from the Well of Remembrance. This well contains all ancestral, primordial wisdom and is guarded by the giant Mimir whose name has its root in the word “memory.”

Odin’s sacrifice of his ordinary sight—symbolizes the perceptual shift that is necessary for all seers to accomplish their work. That is, seers and shaman require the ability to shift into a non-ordinary, visionary way of “seeing” to accomplish their calling. His wounds taught him compassion for others. These experiences give him the tools to be a healer, the kind we refer to as “wounded healer” or shaman. In addition, perhaps his looking into the Well of Memory reminds us that even the Proto-Indo-European cultures may have an older shamanic belief system not unlike that of the indigenous Old Europeans. © 2010 Evelyn C. Rysdyk Nationally recognized shaman teacher/healer, speaker, and author of Modern Shamanic Living: New Explorations of an Ancient Path, Evelyn C. Rysdyk delights in supporting people to remember their sacred place in All That Is. Whether through face-to-face contact with individual patients, workshop groups and conference participants, or through the printed word—Evelyn uses her loving humor and passion to open people’s hearts and inspire them to live more joyful, fulfilling and purposeful lives. In joint practice with Allie Knowlton as Spirit Passages, her web site is www.spiritpassages.com.

The authors experiential workshop, “Oracles, Runes and Rituals” on October 30th & 31st, explores more of this material! See the Spirit Passages ad on page: 24.

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Oct/Nov 2010 Inner Tapestry 19

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t h e 2 1 s t c e ntu ry b oh em i a n

The Call to Dance: Spirit in Motion

by Teresa Piccari

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“The Wu Li Masters know that ‘science’ and ‘religion’ are only dances, and that those who follow them are dancers.

The dancers may claim to follow ‘truth’ or claim to seek ‘reality’ but the Wu Li Masters know better.

They know that the true love of all dancers is dancing.”

Gary Zukav from The Dancing Wu Li Masters We often engage the tongue-in-cheek phrase “when the spirit moves her” to describe action by another person we doubt is ever going to happen. Retrospect and perspective have helped me weave together the several calls to movement I received during the past week, and heeded, that now hang as a transformative tapestry in my psyche.

My first call to movement came softly last week, with the small flutter of a postcard announcing a hybrid “creative book group with dance, discussion and depth” called Heartworks. A brief chat with one of the facilitators to ask what kind of dance brought out her experience with 5 Rhythms®.

Ah, this I recognized. This inspired me to walk to my local library to get reacquainted with their copy of Maps to Ecstasy: A Healing Journey for the Untamed Spirit (New World Library) by Gabrielle Roth, creator of the 5 Rhythms ® dance method (www.GabrielleRoth.com).

Roth’s work in identifying and breaking down the five universal rhythms is synthesized nicely

by Angeles Arrien in the book’s Foreword:

Soulful Blues My third call to movement came just two days later, when I received an out-ofthe-blue and much appreciated invitation to attend a concert at the Camden Opera House. There was nothing subtle or flowing about this invitation. This invitation was delivered through blistering, electric guitar riffs and the unabashedly sensual movements and honey-coated, gravel voice of the big-as-life Bluesman Taj Mahal.

This hit me where I live, bringing back good memories of a long ago romance, where a true Blues aficionado taught me to love his music just as much. Unable to remain in my seat, I felt my body rise self-consciously at first, and then instinct took over and I let myself be me, moving my body as I pleased in response to the call of music from the stage.

I felt so alive it took me some time to settle in for the night after the show but still, I was unaware of the transformative tidal wave of movement that had begun to bear down on me.

• The flowing rhythm is a teacher of fluidity and grace • The staccato rhythm is a teacher of definition and refinement • The rhythm of chaos is an announcement of creativity seeking form • The lyrical rhythm is the teacher of synthesis and integration • The rhythm of stillness is the teacher of contentment and peace She also reminds us that dancing, singing, storytelling and silence are the four universal healing salves.

Moving with Nature A day or two later, I joined three other Oneness Blessing givers at our teacher’s home. We sat together for meditation. Afterward, we moved outdoors to the stretch of beach that runs along her property, where for nearly an hour we chanted and did a moving meditation. A constant, gentle breeze was our partner, keeping us from overheating.

Unaware of this plan, I had on the wrong shoes for this venture. So I planted my feet in the rocks and sand for several minutes at a time, shifting every few minutes to allow for some leg stretching and lunging. Mostly, I moved from my core, reaching as high over my head and out in front of me as I could, twisting from my center, working all sorts of muscles that would have been ignored had my legs been the focus of my improvisational movement.

My white tunic was caught and lofted by the wind, making me feel like some giant bird doing a swooping ritual on the beach.

Centered and at peace, I was momentarily taken aback on the ride home when the other passenger, who chooses not to have a vehicle, and learning that I own one, demanded to know why I too had asked for a ride to the event. “Because I needed a ride today,” the observer in me witnessed the neutral response I offered, gratefully.

Later, the driver commended me on the response I had effortlessly given. When I asked if she thought the questioner’s abruptness might be something I needed to discuss with her, the driver gave wise advice. Perhaps, instead of confronting the person at a future time, I needed to simply move out of her way and let the energy pass by me, similar to the way a T'ai Chi practitioner flows with an “opponents” energy, not giving it a place to land, stepping aside to let its momentum whoosh past her.

20 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

I felt so alive it took me some time to settle in for the night after the show but still, I was unaware of the transformative tidal wave of movement that had begun to bear down on me.

Tribal Beat The clincher arrived three days later at Alfred Beach, where two women talked about a Zumba® class they have taken. It is, said the one, liberating and freeing. This let loose some low and deep drumbeat in my body, my synapses honing in on my experience years before at an African Dance class I regularly attended.

African Dance, with live drumming. Rigorous.

Tribal. Freeing. The salvation that got me through a mostly hapless position in the corporate world. Memories of a particular member of the executive staff pressuring me to craft press releases and quarterly report messages that were “vanilla,” meaning he wanted me to write words that basically said nothing to the media and our shareholders, floated up within me, demanding to be stomped out.

After a long and stressful week I would don a colorful skirt and travel to West Philadelphia, where I would dance barefoot with abandon. It was liberating, exhilarating, restorative.

We would learn steps and words to simple, melodic songs that accompanied them. This is a celebratory dance or here’s a dance for restoring mental balance, the instructor would tell us. I quickly learned I was learning much more than dance – I was being invited into an ancient and amazing culture, where dance holds a revered position.

Often the only white girl in the studio, the black women embraced me, playfully placing me in the middle as we did our across the floor movements in groups of three, calling us an Oreo® cookie.

After ninety minutes of intense dance, where you have a low center of gravity, with often bent back and knees, you could literally wring my body out like a wet dishcloth.

I would depart the studio physically spent, my spirit reborn and ready to soar.

When I got home from that couple of hours at the beach last week, heeding the drumbeat that had been set in motion, I touched base with Denyse Robinson, a local African Dance instructor. I will take her class this fall, immersing myself in my love of dance and the most rigorous exercise I have personally undertaken. It has proven to be the one forms of movement for which I must already be in shape to do.

It will be, thankfully, an introductory session. A chance to get my feet wet with the hope that my knee, injured in a fall on ice a couple years ago, and then just as it was nearly healed, another crash to the ice, will hold. After a fifteen-year absence, I trust African Dance will offer new transformative treasures, that my willingness to open myself and let the spirit move through and fill me, will transcend any limitation of my fifty-year-old body.

In Slow Motion

Of course not all movement has to be as strenuous as African dance to do the trick of opening ourselves to something bigger. Whatever name you call what I am

21 describing as spirit – God, gods, muse or your own essence – the key is to open the door to the divine that wants to move through us and literally, move us.

In fact, sometimes it is a matter of closing the door on all the things clamoring for our attention, and getting quiet, or to sit and meditate. To be comfortable in the stillness, letting its healing power wash over us and soothe our beings.

The simple act of walking can do the job too. In her classic book from the 1940s, If You Want to Write, Brenda Ueland urges writers to take a several mile walk each day in preparation for creating. Julia Cameron has, in recent years, added a daily walk to her writer’s toolbox that also includes “Morning Pages” and “Artist Dates.”

Walking around the converted Victorian home where I do my work, tending to Reiki sheets in the laundry, getting a fresh glass of spring water, making a quick bite to eat in the kitchen or having a quick chat with a colleague, is often enough movement for me to catch a riff of words that wish to dance on a page and send me, enthusiastically inspired, back to my desk.

Nature’s Dance This morning in Maine we are enjoying a brisk Easterly breeze that has dried the steely dampness of yesterday’s gray rain and ushered in warm, afternoon sun.

On this late August day, which has just a tinge of fall around its crisp edges, we throw open the doors and windows, inviting the purifying presence of wind to blow through unencumbered. Airing out what needs airing, mindful to capture a bit in a jar to put up for winter, when we will need it most.

No wallflower today, the spirit of Nature is lush - dancing in all her colors, impossible to ignore.

She invokes the element of wind to provide the necessary movement that will shift her energy, delivering a new weather pattern.

As Nature applies wind, we can engage in movement, to chase the tumbleweeds from our minds and bodies, transforming our energy and opening us up to new possibilities and solutions. It is the blessing of art – the restoration of our soul. If only we will sit still enough, move rhythmically enough, raise our voice in song or allow ourselves to be danced into trance by words on a page.

Next time the spirit moves you, do. You might just set something magical in motion and set yourself right.

For more information or to register for Heartworks, beginning October 13th and running eight months at the Open Door Yoga in Camden, call Deborah Cautela at (207) 691-0730 or Julianna Pfeiffer at (207) 236-3777, or email info@PfeifferCounselingServices.com or dcautela@roadrunner.com.

To register for a four-week, introductory West African Dance class with live drums, beginning October 5th at Camden Hills High School, call Five Town Adult Ed at (207) 236-7800 Ext. 274, or for information contact instructor Denyse Robinson at (207) 975-5325. © 2010 Teresa Piccari

Teresa Piccari is a writer, teacher and creativity coach living in coastal Maine.

She is the proprietor of The Village Scribe, a professional writing and editing service located at The Wellness Center at 71 Elm St. in Camden, Maine. She teaches writing workshops including Creative Writing, Memoir, Book Projects and Mythic Structure. She also leads the Ducktrap Writers’ Round Table, on third Sundays from 2:00pm to 4:00pm, at the Camden Public Library. Contact Teresa at (207) 344.7070 or at The21stCenturyBohemian@hotmail.com.

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(207) 772-7888 • www.InstituteofFengShui.com Oct/Nov 2010 Inner Tapestry 21

22

t he w ay o f lif e - it s e l f How Can "You just move on" in the face of great loss or crisis?

by Skye Hirst, Ph.D.

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(Norm is doing much better now, by the way, with the help of acupuncture, Jin Shin Jyutsu, homeopathy and Norm’s indomitable living spirit.)

Norm was in hospital and we were tired from a night of struggling with health issues when in the door walked the most beautiful woman with the most radiant smile. She grabbed my attention and curiosity. We didn’t exchange words at that time as she had a job to do, to clean the room. Dressed in Muslim attire that framed her face she worked peacefully, quietly but every now and then she would look up at me and that beaming smile would greet me. She came several times over the next few days and we began to talk. I learned that she was from Rwanda and had come to the US 15 years ago about the same time of the genocide there. I asked her if she had lost family then.

She said, “Yes, everyone.” She now has a family, two children of her own. “How,” I asked, “can you smile with such radiance? Did you have help dealing with the losses?”

“No,” she said, “You just move on.”

I was stunned, then felt my own heart open in the light of her wisdom. That day lifted my heart and I was able to feel the power of the human spirit not only in her, but also in myself. I need only think of her smiling radiant face and my heart opens, surrenders whatever is burdening me at the time, and I am renewed. “Just move on,” she said.

With Norm’s and my work, we have learned so much about the power of the human organism to renew itself, to change everything about itself in a heartbeat. But I realize too little is taught about this capacity. It seems people get stuck and feel that stuckness will last forever. Sometimes it comes in the form of anger at those who have killed or hurt our loved-ones and that anger seeks revenge. Hateful thoughts breed more hateful acts and the cycle of warring continues.

And yet, every once in a while, we learn of someone who is able to transcend that way of being. The idea of forgiveness is now being called out in many places in the world where it seems almost unimaginable that acts of apartheid, genocide and torture could be forgiven. We are learning that holding revenge affects the health, raises blood pressure, and creates conditions for cancer as well as depression and rage.

So how did this lovely Rwandan woman find her way through such tragedy? Moving on sounds so simple, too simple to comprehend. Yet, if we are to understand that life is ever changing, moving, oscillating, fulfilling and dissolving, that the harder we push against something in an attempt to control it, does little to do so. Letting go of wanting something to not happen, feels impossible sometimes.

We don’t want our loved ones to die. We don’t want our friends to suffer or be sad. We don’t want our business to fail. The Sedona Method has a way of helping us to release these feelings so they don’t have to control us. It’s comes from the Buddha tradition of letting go of what we resist, being with what is.

Through my work and my life, I’ve worked with those who are in the process of dying many times and with each case, I learn of their recognition that loving and feeling loving is truly the greatest gift. All else seems to fall away; their fears, their resistances, feelings of hatefulness, revenge and sometimes even their pain are diminished by compassion.

There are those in our prison system who have committed hideous crimes and when those families of victims confront them can find compassion for themselves and then for those who have transgressed against them, something magnificent happens. It releases the bound-up creative energy within to be free to vibrate once again. The organism we are is able to move on, to create anew. What has been held tight, tense, in control, fighting against that which has been is released. The feeling of “I can’t,” changes. New possibilities open. We find something shifting within that feels more like “I allow” myself to live, to breath, to feel the movement of becoming new. We don’t forget what has occurred, but what has been held so tightly begins to integrate into the whole of us. It becomes a most important thread in our soul’s fabric, but not the only thread.

No one likes to think that we each will die in the form we are today. It seems our entire US culture is formed around being in denial of this. Even our funerals have

become so fantastic to cover up this transformation process. I have found myself resisting the possibility of losing someone close to me who is ill. The tension is horrific. Then when I remember, oh yeah, this is also something I’m resisting, I allow myself to go through the loss a little bit to whatever degree I can. It eases the pain and suffering. I did this with my mother over several years as she struggled with her illness.

This gave me some comfort when the emotions of loss were so extreme. I won’t say it was easy when she died, but I knew I could survive it and move on eventually. I’ve used it constantly with Norm’s illness the past two years.

What moves me is how this, “moving on,” occurs. How it does so is unique to each living being. Each organism has its own inner landscape which forms its integrity.

When something happens that forces change on that inner integrity, the whole organism must work out how to handle it. Some organisms may take longer than others to find their way through to the integration process to find new order and restored integrity. Those of religious faith talk of grace saving them. I think it feels like that. There’s a timing that has to work itself through with resolving all the conflicts and beliefs held in that inner history of one’s life’s acts and experiences. Some can surrender this holding more easily and having the feeling that there is a connection to something greater, gives them courage to do so. And I believe we are all connected to something greater – a life force that breathes us – enables us to co-create, to find our way through almost any situation we may face.

The creative resources we organisms possess are evident everywhere around us. In nature we see the infinite results of evolutionary creation where organisms evolve to find more effective actions to deal with whatever conditions they may face. It’s not the survival of the fittest, but survival through, that which all life possesses, accessing those creative resources within us provided by this infinite life force. And often it is in asking deeply for this resource, available to us, to be called out during those most difficult times that our living spirit truly comes most alive. I think that’s why so many people who have been in deep crisis and access this resource, will say it was or is the most important time of their life.

Such creative resources need not only be accessed in crisis, but we see it happening in those who are reaching heights of human capacity beyond what seems to be the ordinary; like outstanding athletes, artists, single mothers raising several children, etc. They remind us of what the living spirit is capable.

And I try to practice each day during those little moments in my day when I can stop myself in mid-act, when I’m feeling some resistance, some feeling of wanting to control or change what is or what has happened. When I can catch myself, I connect to that "felt sense" within me, in my inner landscape ecology to locate the I can’t, or the I don’t want something to happen. Can I let go of wanting to change or control what has happened or my fear it might happen? Lots of resistance will come up, but sometimes, it’s just as simple as deciding, no I can’t change it, I can’t control what has or might happen. Then I look for some way to replace the I can’t with I allow it to be as it is. Sometimes it takes several goes at it, or sometimes I can feel the shift/release happen in a heartbeat. But little by little, I feel released, changed and I become more alive, lighter, my creative force is free once again to live. So when I can turn around those times when I’m feeling defeated, depressed, or just plain tired or frustrated, with every time I can do this, even for a little tiny bit, I connect to that power within me to know I can change, I can feel loving, alive, creative once again. Then when the big challenges come along, and they will, I’ve got the understanding and confidence that I can and will move on as long as I am alive. That’s the gift of being an organism, we can and do it constantly – we can just move on.

I was stunned, then felt my own heart open in the light of her wisdom.

22 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

Skye Hirst, Ph.D. provides executive and personal coaching and writes a blog on www.autognomics.org.

Skye’s blog on life with Norm, her husband and partner, lessons and challenges of learning about living and loving together. Norm and Skye are co-founders of The Autognomics Institute and continue together to do research on life as creative organisms, bringing their insights on creative processes to audiences and new leaders for the emerging shifting living consciousness. skyeh@autognomics.org

23

Moved by the Wheel of the Year

By Rev. Dr. Anu Dudley

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n Earth-centered spirituality, we sing, “She changes everything She touches, and everything She touches changes.” We acknowledge that everything in our world grows and changes continuously, and nothing remains the same. This is what it means to be alive, to be of the Earth. If something stops growing and changing, then it is dead. Being alive means moving through the Wheel of the Year and the ever-changing Earth cycles of life, death, and rebirth. On the macrocosmic level, we are moved by the waxings and wanings of the sun that create the rhythms of the seasons and keep them perpetually changing from one to the next. On the microcosmic level, we are moved by our own internal cycles: the squeezing and relaxing of our heart muscles that keep blood cycling through our bodies; the expansions and contractions of our lungs that keep our cells refreshed with oxygen and cleansed of carbon dioxide. While the earth is moved by the Wheel of the Year to burst into growth, expand to maturity, and sleep deeply in winter, we too are moved by the turning of the Wheel, compelled to be hungry and to eat, to be thirsty and to drink, to be tired and to sleep and to awaken once more, fulfilling the cycles of our own sacred wheels – our bodies.

The Earth moves because it is alive and sacred. This is the foundational concept of Earth-centered spirituality. The Earth is sacred because the Divine is immanent, present in the world here and now, not far off in some abstract realm. The Divine, the Earth Mother, is the world making the Earth itself, and all things in it, sacred.

This includes humans, for humans are as much a part of nature as all the other animals, birds, insects, fish, reptiles, plants, rocks, wind, rain, and lightening.

Earth-centered practitioners revere the Earth and all of nature, and seek to connect with the Divine by consciously experiencing the natural world. Being transfixed by a rainbow, enchanted by the intricate song of a hermit thrush, refreshed by the smell of the air after a rain shower: we all have moments like these that connect us to Earth and to Spirit and move us to feel alive, to be of the Earth.

However, many of us might not see these experiences as spiritual moments. This is partly because many of us have come to mistrust the institutionalization and commodification of spirituality, and therefore we want no part of anything labeled "spiritual." Another difficulty in recognizing our spiritual connection to the Earth is that our culture places us humans above the Earth. We have been taught to see ourselves as the highest of all God’s creatures, and we have acted as though the Earth and everything in it was given to us for our use alone. Furthermore, we have been taught that only humans have souls. This belief separates us even further from the Earth and the rest of creation because ultimately our souls are supposed to leave the Earth forever and dwell in some other realm.

More recently, some have taken the opposite position that humans are below the Earth. We are told humans are destructive, wasteful, and cruel, and human greed and carelessness are responsible for environmental degradation. Humans contribute nothing to the ecosystems that keep them alive, but instead take, take, take. The Earth, this reasoning goes, would be far better off without humans. While both of these positions color our view of ourselves in relation to the Earth, neither one is useful if we are trying to be of the Earth, to live in sacred connectedness with the natural world and to experience the Divine. We need an Earth-centered awareness that integrates us, body and soul, with the Earth and all of nature.

But there is another problem that makes this integration difficult. In our dualistic culture, Earth-centered spirituality seems like a contradiction in terms. The Earth is a material body. It is physical, sensual, carnal. Spirit, on the other hand, has no body. Spirit is the opposite of body. The body is concrete, spirit is abstract.

Furthermore, it is the goal of many religions to get away from the body and all of its animal functions, desires, pain, and limitations, and to somehow experience the purity of the soul unencumbered by the body. Faced with this duality, how can we possibly bring body and soul, earth and spirit together when for thousands of years we have sought to make them separate?

There are many ways to connect with Earthy rhythms. For example, many Earth-centered practitioners find these connections through ceremonial observances of the seasonal holidays that mark certain points on the Wheel of the Year. As we come to the Fall Equinox, we enter the darkest quarter of the year, the time of “the light that loses, the night that wins.” From now until the Winter Solstice, the days get progressively shorter, and the nights grow deeper and longer.

Much has been made, in modern times, of the notion that people of old grew grim and fearful as the light waned, anxious about whether the sun would return and whether they would live through the winter.

This is nonsense, of course. Humans for countless upon countless generations had experienced the regular rhythms of the seasons and the annual waxings and wanings of the sun. They, like all other beings in the natural world, knew in their very cores that the sun would grow fat again in its proper time. And, unless some natural or man-made catastrophe interfered with their practiced abilities to produce and store food and fuel, they did not doubt they would smell the sweet spring air once again. Instead, people welcomed the growing dark time like a cozy nap. Just as the seed at harvest returned to the Earth for a period of dark sleep before sprouting in the spring, so too people embraced the dark quarter as a time to restore themselves. Mother Earth was resting from Her labors, and so would they.

In some cultures, the dark quarter of the year was a time of storytelling, of recounting tales that could only be told in this season. This is how children learned of their history and heritage, and how adults remembered the ways of wisdom and responsibility. This was a time for repairing and strengthening the fabric of family and community through feasting and merrymaking, a time to gaze contemplatively into the fire and reflect of the meaning of life.

Our modern culture has a different rhythm and has gotten out of synchrony with the seasonal cycles of outward and inward, light and dark, laboring and resting, that are traced out so lyrically by the Earth’s movement around the year. Now, instead of being a time to slow down and restore oneself, the dark quarter has become frantic with activity. We return from summer vacation. School begins, work resumes. And even though we too prepare for a season of holidays and celebrations, the pace is hectic, strenuous, and compulsive. It is not even a dark quarter anymore, really, because instant, unlimited, artificial light has made night virtually obsolete, and therefore meaningless.

How then, in our modern age, can we move with the Earth’s seasonal turnings, and stay alive and changing? How can we avoid becoming static and dead, never really experiencing the change happening within us and around us as our days turn like the spokes of a wheel around the year? Perhaps the structures of our modern lives dictate that we cannot slow down, alter our pace, tell stores by firelight; but we can acknowledge that cycles are constantly beginning and ending, and that the end of one cycle creates the beginning of the next. How will you mark the dark quarter?

And how will you celebrate it? How will you feel yourself part of the eternal cycle of life, death, and rebirth? Experiencing our seasons, months, days, and moments as points on a perpetually revolving wheel keeps us moving, changing, and alive.

Blessed Be.

Rev. Dr. Anu Dudley is an ordained Pagan minister in the International Fellowship of Isis.

She is affiliated with the Temple of the Feminine Divine in Bangor, Maine, where she teaches the curriculum on Earth-based spirituality. She is a retired college history professor. Rev. Dudley contributes regularly to Esoterica and Voices on Maine Community Radio Station WERU. She makes frequent appearances as guest minister for Unitarian-Universalist congregations, and gives workshops on Earth-based spirituality, spirituality for activists, and herbs for spiritual practice.

She is also available for life passage ceremonies such as weddings and funerals. Contact Rev. Dudley through her website at www.anududley.com.

Oct/Nov 2010 Inner Tapestry 23

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Think of your body as a wheel with cogs that mesh neatly with the cogs of the much larger Earth Wheel. Like gear mechanisms in an elegant clock, as the Earth Wheel turns, you move as well, expressing your life in all its splendid and unique individuality. The Earth Wheel fits into the cogs of the great Wheel of the Year, and as it turns, the Earth moves, and we move along with it because, as living creatures of the Earth, we are intimately connected to the Earth and its cycles.

The premise of Earth-centered spirituality is that no separation exists between body and soul. There are no boundaries, no cell walls, and no overlapping dimensions of material and spiritual realms. Body and soul are one. They exist seamlessly together to form the whole. After all, for there to be life, the one cannot exist without the other, because body without spirit is dead, and spirit without body is not among the living. For there to be life, for us to be whole, we need to rediscover the Earthy rhythms that move us, change us, and connect us to the natural world and the Divine.

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25

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26

a b rea th o f he al i n g

What Moves ME?

by Donna Amrita Davidge

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Hearing the continual call of the offshore loon as it listens to is own echo from the woods is a true concert to my heart.

Watching my born blind cat Lucy (featured in a past article titled "Lucy lifted us up," and who has returned to us and is healed), sleeping on her back in utmost surrender, relaxation and trust.

Feeling and listening to the wind on a perfect summer day.

These are some of the things that move me most, even moved to tears at the right moment; these are the moments of contentment and bliss yogis seek.

What moves someone else can be quite different. My personal yoga quest was initiated and carried by a search for the meaning of life’s questions, not for the deepest backbend or strongest handstand. I believe for many it becomes a search for answers. For others, it is nothing of the sort. It may represent to them a way to move their bodies, to recognize and appreciate their bodies in a new way.

One woman my age reflects on how yoga has improved her relationship to her body, making her appreciate it more. Then she comments on herself in some photos taken and it is evident she does not totally yet accept herself or her body.

Even though the current “in” yoga or teacher or performer can move our culture, we need to learn not to compare ourselves and compete. Just today some guests told me about practicing a very strong form of yoga and feeling they needed to aspire to be like the "well known" teacher, who said they must continue to practice amidst pain and who herself practices 3 hours every morning. Yoga is meant to be an individualized practice. Yet more and more we see people moving into injury because they push themselves to try to be like or keep up with others. Someone recently told me that Good Morning America featured a yoga teacher showing poses that most easily cause injury. Yoga has moved to the deep end of things if we need to show what hurts not helps us in yoga.

We need not think or even say things that move us apart or away from the gift that we are, the gifts we have been given and the gifts we have to share. We may not be the youngest, most flexible or strongest person in our yoga class yet if we are kind with ourselves and others, if we can aspire to nonattachment and contentment, we may be practicing yoga more deeply than the contortionist/ gymnast next to us in yoga class.

I am moved by my breath, literally and figuratively, observing how much deeper, more complete and sustainable my breath is when I reside in the country than when I am in the city. I am moved by how full and alive I can feel in a “country” moment, listening to the loon or communing with the friendly woodchuck that a neighbor “got rid of.” Thoreau is getting more and more attention as the first American yogin in his attempts to spend long periods of meditation at Walden Pond.

I am moved by feelings of sadness in life, moments of anger when I feel I am wrongfully treated. I am also moved by the heat that overtakes my body after a fleeting moment of anxiety that precedes my menopausal hot flashes.

Every moment of the day something is there to move us, our breath, our mind, which can take us to a whole other place or quickly punch a thought with its reverse—negative or positive. Recently reading a book on Abe Lincoln I am fascinated by his inner depths, his study of spiders making webs as he contemplates the words for the declaration of emancipation of the slaves. The stories that our guests tell around the dinner table also move me, honored

that they share their stories of courage and compassion in their working with the oppressed around the world.

To know what moves you ask yourself: What would I miss most? What matters most to me?

My quest into yoga has not resulted in finding all the answers I had hoped for. It has given me a journey and a foundation to observe and work with the changes in my mind, my body and my thoughts and circumstances in a way that may give me more peace and understanding.

Yoga is a way to move our bodies in ways we never knew they could. From here we may move into our breath and mind in ways we never knew we could. We move into the breath more consciously so that our breath becomes more healing and we move into our mind in a way to better observe it and its subtleties and what impacts it.

As yoga practice evolves we often move into a deeper relationship with the planet and the beings on the planet. You might find yourself asking questions like: How do I treat my body?

What words do I use to speak about and to others and myself ?

Do I take time to “just be” with my mind on a regular basis?

How do I handle my differences with others?

How do I treat and think of animals and other living beings?

Time moves us, circumstances move us, yet our yoga practice helps us move into our inner depths and find that place of constancy and calm amidst the movements from the outside that might otherwise disturb us. Silence and stillness are often considered the optimum for moving into a calm mind and ease in our body. Perhaps we can take the sounds, people or other things that irritate us and use the challenges to move us to another level in ourselves—toward the real inner awakening.

What moved you most today? If we can answer this every day then we can hope to live our time on earth from our heart and move toward yogin's goal of Self-Realization.

Here is a yogic breath to help decrease anxiety and calm the mind: (If you cannot do the ratio specified choose one that works for you. Make sure the 3 parts are the same length.)

Sit straight in a chair or cross-legged on the floor Eyes closed Inhale slowly for 20 counts, hold the breath in for 20 counts without tensing the body, exhale for 20 counts. (If 20 does not work, try 10-10-10 or 12-12-12 etc).

Try for 3 or 5 minutes, build up to 11 or even 31 minutes.

\

Donna Amrita Davidge owns and operates www.sewallhouse.com retreat in Island Falls, Maine with her husband Kent Bonham and also teaches in the slower season in NY City. Small, personalized yoga retreats and classes are offered, with 25 years teaching experience.

Donna and Kent invite you to their third yoga and walking retreat in Umbria Italy October 22-29, 2011/deposits due December 31, 2010.

Please see brochure at http://www.sewallhouse.com/Donna%20&%20Kent%20Umbria,%20Italy.pdf if you would like to join us.

“There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion”

...Carl Gustav Jung

26 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

27

Living Well, Dying Well

Getting Comfortable with Impermanence

by Dr. Max Jacobs

T

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here is nothing like the death of someone close to us to bring the reality of impermanence into focus. We can pretend it won’t happen, we can forget about it or keep ourselves distracted, but there’s no sandbox deep enough to keep our heads submerged forever. Loss will happen, and being unprepared means we will suffer more than if we became more comfortable with the truth of impermanence. There’s no time to waste, because as the Buddhist tradition tells us, death is certain, but the time and manner of death is uncertain.

Uncertainty and change happen because of the passage of time, which is relentless. When things change, this usually makes us uncomfortable, depending on the severity of the change, and whether or not we wanted the change. The grocery no longer carrying your favorite toothpaste may be a minor change in contrast to being involved in a car accident on the way there. How can we handle these things better? Can we suffer less when we lose what we’re attached to?

Getting comfortable with change is relaxing, like taking a load off. Let’s take a simple example from The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. There are several ways of holding onto a coin. One method is to squeeze it, because if you relaxed your grip it could fall to the ground, and you’d lose it. Conversely, one could hold onto the same coin by turning your hand palm up, and letting it rest there, hand open, no squeezing required. These two options represent vastly different states of mind. Can we have relationships in this way? Is our fear so strong that we must maintain a death grip on the coin? Relaxing the grip does not mean we love someone less, and we can appreciate things just as much, or even more so, holding them with an open palm and giving them space, rather than holding them with a death grip. That way, we can actually see what we’re holding. To change our grip means we understand the truth that all things change, and people come and go, always in transition. And that’s ok.

The truth of impermanence is great to understand, but for it to be of help we have a lot of work to do. Talk is cheap, and so is knowledge. To relax the grip on the coin and be comfortable with doing so represents a shift in our mind, much more than an intellectual understanding. We need to practice impermanence. We need to take our knowledge and pressure cook it into our mindstream. We need to filter our perception through this understanding. There are many meditation practices to help us do this, endless resources in print, and local classes to attend.

We practice and practice, so that our everyday lives are more meaningful and every little, transitory thing is more precious, because it is temporary. And when it moves on, we are naturally more comfortable with that.

Dr. Max Jacobs is a practicing Buddhist and Chiropractor in Portland, Maine. In 2010 his mother died from aggressive breast cancer, which motivated him to begin helping others deal with death and dying related issues. He recently formed a monthly workshop for people interested in exploring life and death from a Tibetan Buddhist perspective, utilizing the popular book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. More information is available at www.livingwelldyingwell.blogspot.com.

Oct/Nov 2010 Inner Tapestry 27

28

How Grounding Moves You Part One

by Deb Grant, LCSW, RYT Part 1 “On Grounding” examines the actions and physiology of grounding.

Part 2 “Grounding in Action” looks further into the dynamics of how grounding, or yielding, can be utilized as a core component of any movement practice.

On Grounding

Years ago before I studied somatic movement, I came across the term "grounding."

I knew beyond a doubt that it involved pushing my feet against the ground and really feeling my legs, and maybe my torso, and feeling a connection to the earth. I “knew” this because this is what I did in response to any or all guided imagery for grounding, whether it was body-based grounding instructions or energetic grounding teachings.

Over time I realized that what I really understood or experienced as grounding arose out of a habituated response in my own body that actually increased tension.

I was also unable to hear instructions about grounding that were any different from my expectations based on my own body patterns. Since my expectations shaped my experience and since I hadn’t experienced the soft power that can arise from a “truer” grounding, I didn’t know what was missing.

Twenty years later, having explored embodied movement and anatomy in depth, my understanding of grounding is much different and more accurate.

The Gravity –and Levity—of Grounding

Grounding involves yielding your body to the earth’s gravitational pulls so that your body doesn’t have to work so hard to hold itself up.

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Have you ever balanced a broom handle on your finger, with the broom end pointing up? Have you felt how the handle of the broom seems to push up from your finger and press down on your finger simultaneously? Intuitively your body knows to align the center of weight of the broomstick with gravity. The stick is still drawn to the earth, but the upward push of the finger keeps the broomstick from toppling over when you match your attention with the moving vector of force traveling through the broom. This is what occurs in your body when you yield your physicality to gravity. Your musculoskeletal system falls into alignment with gravity. As this occurs, the body begins to move with greater ease. Even if your body seems quite still, the subtle movements, which are ever present, occur with greater ease.

Yielding

The term ‘tensegrity’ refers to structures that are designed to have evenly distributed pull and suspension, resulting in dynamic strength and flexibility. Our bodies are naturally designed as tensegrity structures, but often the way we use them results in a compromised tensegrity system. The demands life places on our bodies and psyches can greatly impact our tensegrity.

Misunderstanding how our bodies’ work can also compromise the tensegrity of our body systems. Consciously or unconsciously, if you believe that your bones stack on top of each other like building blocks, you will use this as a mental map and move mechanistically, losing connection with your body. More specifically you are losing connection with the spiralic multidimensional design of the body that makes easeful, strong, and articulate movement exquisitely possible.

But when you move or ground with an accurate understanding of tensegrity, you may notice not only an upward pull, but also a multidimensional awareness throughout your body in all directions. This is an expansive quality of threedimensional presence. As your senses become enlivened to the internal experience of spaciousness, they too perceive the space around you, and your environment, differently. Now you have the experience of “down,” through your body and into the earth; the resulting “up,” which moves your body toward the heavens; and the expanding “out” (forward, backward, and to the sides) which moves through the body and in all directions. Your kinesphere (the space around you immediately within reach which you currently inhabit in any given moment) expands with your awareness, naturally readying your body and mind to move in harmony with the environment.

Grounding involves yielding your body to the earth's gravitational pulls so that your body doesn't have to work so hard to hold itself up.

The term yield, as it relates to grounding, refers to allowing the earth’s gravitational pull to draw your energies downward while simultaneously releasing unnecessary tension. Yielding doesn’t mean collapsing or giving up but rather bringing fullness and presence to the cells of the body as you yield. Yielding can be surprising when it happens. We often have all sorts of ways of standing or sitting with great amounts of tension—just beyond our awareness—that we believe necessary for these actions or even for being alive.

As you yield your body to gravitational pull your alignment begins to change. Your experience will deepen if you pay close attention not only to muscles, but also to all of the tissue of your body, particularly your organs. Gently release each layer of tension as you become aware of it.

Anti-gravity From this process a rebounding action naturally arises. It is an action that is without tension, both coming from and leading to gentle pushing through the whole of your feet. This pushing, which happens naturally in response to gravitational pull, leads to upward movement. This movement is referred to as anti-gravity. Ultimately, grounding in this way leads to a “lightening” into anti-gravity and therefore into the space above you. This is similar to the way the broom balanced on your finger seems to spring upward.

As your muscles begin responding to anti-gravitational forces, you may feel a kind of spaciousness in the joints throughout your body. This spaciousness comes as a result of the muscles reducing their strain on the joints. Now the weight of your body more evenly distributes its tensional pull through the ligaments—the resilient bands of tissue that connect bone to bone. The resulting evenness of joint space in all directions helps return your body to the structure it is designed to have: tensegrity.

28 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

Tensegrity

The awareness then may expand to your proprioceptive system, the network of specialized cells throughout your body that tells you where you are in space and tells your body where it is in relation to itself. This can be especially orienting (and therefore calming) if you have been in distress. Your externally oriented senses of taste, touch, sight, smell and sound may have integrated more fully with your internal kinesthetic senses of location, pressure, and movement. In this way, your body may feel more connected with your environment.

The Benefits of Grounding When practiced in the way I’ve described, grounding by yielding your weight to gravity with explicit attention to the gradual release of tension can result in the following: • Helps you to become rapidly attuned to unnecessary tension and gives you reason for releasing it.

• Offers the sometimes immediate reward of increased awareness of pleasant feelings throughout the body.

• Provides immediate present moment awareness that can return your attention to now-time. This is particularly helpful when grounding is practiced in times of discomfort or fear, when the thinking mind is drawn to the past or to the future.

• Balances cellular activity through the whole of your body. The moment you practice mindful body awareness, your cells respond positively to the changed awareness. Conscious orienting to Earth’s gravitational pull impacts every cell of the body’s tissue that falls into line with this pull. Imagine: cellular fluid is drawn to the underside of the cell in response to gravity’s pull. Rather than the cellular tissue being pulled into patterns of tension in the body (which puts increased workload on each cell), the cell moves instead into a state of restful readiness.

• Brings the tone of your body into balance. I’ve spoken about the process of releasing areas of tension, or “high tone” in the body as a part of grounding.

Areas of “low tone” (areas with low energy or chi) are also impacted by grounding as your body becomes alert and energized by increased energy flow.

This definition of grounding is quite dynamic!

Stay tuned for Part 2: Grounding in Action, which examines the use of grounding in movement practices such as yoga, dance, and martial arts.

Deb Grant, LCSW, RYT is a somatic movement educator, psychotherapist and yoga teacher. A graduate of the School for Body-Mind Centering®, she has a body-oriented psychotherapy practice and is a registered yoga teacher with advanced training in Chakra Yoga. FMI about Deb's psychotherapy practice go to www.debgrant.net. For information about movement classes and other offerings go to debgrant.wordpress.com.

29

Let Your Pet Move With You

by Donald and Sara Hassler

t’s easy to see how our pets move within us. They circle our hearts with their love and adoration. Our feathered friends fill our ears with their sweet sounds and our furry companions fill our arms with the subtle softness of kindness. But in the deepest, darkest place within our being; how do we move with or for our animals?

sick yourself or need to leave your pet, as you tend to work, habitual behaviors will be important to know. This information will alert yourself and others on how your pet is feeling and what their overall emotional and physical health status is. If something doesn’t look or sound right, a quick check up can alleviate concerns or address medical issues at the onset. This can save time and money, since chronic health issues left untreated usually wind up being very costly or life threatening

I

Do we move with them in inspiration?

Do we move in a glorious green glow of healing light with and for them?

Do we move to be more whole, more compassionate and full of soul because they are a part of our lives?

Or, do we journey with them to a higher level of intelligent enlightenment?

Fill your world with a kind and supportive network of other pet owners

As we look to discover how we move with our pets, let’s take a moment to consider how we can give the gift of movement back to them. On all levels our pets depend on us for their very existence. When we support them with love, health and healing we move within them. Of course it’s a commitment to pour a bowl of food and water every single day, set a bath for clean up or sacrifice a late night out with friends, because we have to get back home to walk the dog, take care of the cat or feed the ferrets. But what will happen when your pet really needs you to sacrifice.

Will you know how to stand up for them and be their voice should they be faced with a serious crisis?

Having an animal friendly support network is vital to the well being of your pet.

New moms and dads call upon their mothers and fathers, sisters/brothers, aunts and uncles and girlfriends/guy-friends to support them, as they learn how to be nurturing caregivers. Your pet network can offer you the same helping hand in your times of doubt and uncertainty. When you have questions or need to discuss concerns, it’s these caring individuals that will be able to offer you helpful guidance.

Spend time searching for how to offer healthy choices for your pet’s body

...Or do we journey

In times of crisis’, whether it be a serious health issue like disease, or an emotional disturbance like separation anxiety, pet owners can learn how to stand up for their pet’s health needs as their personal health advocates.

with them

Making the choice to speak for who does not have a voice is a gift of love. Sounding off with verbal concerns and communication is being supportive and speaks of loyalty. Sticking with your pet and finding, searching or leading the way to helping them live and heal is a sign of unwavering commitment.

Today you might be a friend, tomorrow you might need to be a nursemaid, and next week you might become a hero. Be courageous today, stand up tomorrow and be confident that you have the power to move on behalf of, for the betterment of and as an integrated partner in the life of—your pet.

to a

Keep yourself up-to-date on the latest pet health care news. Subscribe to forums and join groups that are informative and send valuable updates on changes to medications, new research findings and all things related to your pet’s physical well being. Learning where to go and who to listen to might be challenging so choose your informational leads wisely. Adhere to the basic practices of medical science and holistic health-care choices and read, read, read!

Learn about your species health needs in regards to food, lifestyle and housing

Check a book out at the library, stop by your local bookstore or ask a friend if they have a recommended reading list for you. Educating yourself about whether or not your pet will live comfortably in a quiet setting or an open living space is important to their physical safety.

Did you know that if a rabbit is startled in their cage, they can jump and kick so hard they could break their backs? By learning everything you can about how your pet will thrive in your home, you will be able to provide the best for them according to their special needs. It’s up to us as pet owners to take responsibility for our pets and to provide the very best of environments for sleeping, playing and housing.

higher level of

enlightenment?

Here are some thoughtful tips on how to work towards a happy and healthy life with your favorite companions!

Learn to be conscious of your pets needs It’s easy to cuddle and fuss over your pet and feel great about your relationship.

But learning to be aware of their individual needs will encourage you to care for them both emotionally and physically, which ultimately will deepen your relationship with them.

Watch your pet and learn their behaviors in good times and bad By being able to recognize how your pet acts when they are happy or sad, you can count on developing your extra-sensory radar to screening them for changes. When an animal exhibits a change of behavior, it’s usual a tip off that they might need some sort of special emotional or physical care.

Keep a journal of your pet’s actions, when they are healthy and when they are ill Most of us, when we are feeling sad, have a habit or ritual we follow. Some of us cry, others withdraw, and many hide. The same is true of our pets. Watch for their happy days and make an entry in your journal, either mentally or in pen, of your pet’s happy habits. When they are not feeling well, try to journal and remember what their sad or sick behaviors are. Your dog might curl up in a small ball when they are in pain and your cat might hide under the bed if they aren’t feeling well. These signs can be easily transcribed and conveyed to houseguests, veterinarian staff and extended family members. Maybe your dog has accidents in the house when they are nervous, if not, indoor accidents could be a sign of a bladder infection. This type of information is highly valuable and what you want to be taking notes on. In the event you need to travel, are

Search your area and surroundings for the ultimate in health care options.

You will need a well-educated, kind-hearted and sensitive health care provider.

In an ideal world your veterinarian will meet you and your pet, and follow your companion’s health year after year. Follow the rules of how you would choose your own family physician. If you are doubtful, about your family vet, then find a new one. A good practitioner will listen to you, take the time to get to know your pet, hear you when you voice concern and take you seriously. An upto-date medical facility will have life-saving equipment on hand that your pet will be able to count on in the event of an emergency. The staff will be caring, kind and social with you and your pet. Your ideal physician will encourage you to learn, lead and guide them. Since you live with your companion, you are the only one that can describe their ailments, changes in behaviors and health concerns. Your pet will need a medical doctor that will consider their whole body and treat their symptoms by finding the root cause of their illness.

Anything less will not be beneficial to you or your pet.

Enable your friends and family the choice to support you by sharing your pet’s issues and how you feel about your companion as a family member

Continued on Page 32 Oct/Nov 2010 Inner Tapestry 29

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Learning the ways that your pets might move within you, could lead you to learning how to move within them, for the benefit of, them. By taking the basic principles they live by, and applying love, loyalty and commitment, you can look forward to being there to move them when they need it the most.

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ex plorin g the wor l d r e l i g i on s

Visions Of Allah

Rumi, Sufi Poetry and Mysticism

by James Bean

T

he great Sufi mystic Rumi once said, “If you are seeking, seek us with joy, for we live in the kingdom of joy. Do not give your heart to anything else but to the love of those who are clear joy, do not stray into the neighborhood of despair. For there are hopes: they are real, they exist – do not go in the direction of darkness – I tell you: SUNS EXIST!” (Jewels of Remembrance, Threshold Books) The mystical utterances of Rumi and other great Sufi Masters speak directly to the heart. They encourage us to see the hidden Light, to discover Divine Secrets, to perceive the Way that lovers can find their Beloved. The Sufis, through their poems and ecstatic revelations are attempting to share their Secrets with the world, or at least with those discerning souls who find their words to be, not only nice poetry, but also something much more – soul-expressions coming from lovers caught up in the divine bliss of a higher reality.

The poet-mystics speak of a spiritual reality that exists just beyond the perception of the five senses. Though the physical body is a kind of “veil” that eclipses the Light of the inner Sun from our vision, nevertheless we can, even now during this life, have access to this other existence. The Persian classic, “Divine Flashes,” by Fakhruddin ‘Iraqi says:

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“The lover seeks the Vision in order that he might pass away from existence; he knocks on the Door of Nonexistence, for there he was once at peace. There he was both seer and seen, both viewer and viewed. Coming to be, he became the veil of his own sight and was deprived of the Vision. His existence is merely a screen to hide this sight.”

In order for humans to “knock on the Door of Nonexistence” (regain the spiritual Vision we once enjoyed as souls before time began) ‘Iraqi encourages us to understand ourselves in a new way and begin to contemplate the Other World with another kind of sight, a type of seeing that is unveiled when we temporarily abstain from the five senses.

‘Iraqi is describing here the process of meditation practiced in numerous mystical traditions of the east and west. In order to obtain the Vision, the seeker 1) closes their eyes and stops paying attention to the outer world for a while, and 2) discovers inner spiritual seeing and hearing, the inner senses of the soul that are able to contemplate heavenly realities.

“If this screen – which is you – is struck from before your eyes, the Beloved will find the Beloved, and you will be entirely lost. Then you will hear with the Ear of your Heart. That Mystery, so long concealed is at last opened, the darkness of your night at last bathed in dawn!” (Fakhruddin ‘Iraqi, Divine Flashes, Paulist Press, a volume in the Classics of Western Spirituality Series) Rumi put it this way, “Listen, open a window to God and begin to delight yourself by gazing upon Him through the opening. The business of love is to make the window of the heart, for the breast is illumined by the beauty of the Beloved. Gaze incessantly on the face of your Beloved! Listen, this is in your power my friend!”

Within our grasp is the ability to regain the Vision of our soul and the Communion with our Beloved Allah; both reside together in the mystical garden, the paradise of the spiritual world. Though the material sphere acts as a dense layer of overcast skies obscuring our vision of what lies beyond, Masters have revealed the Secrets of obtaining paradise to anyone who yearns to discover them saying to their students very much like Rumi did, “This is in your power my friend!”

“When the Beloved would exalt the lover, He strips from him the garments collected from all the worlds, and clothes him in the robe of His own attributes.

Then the Beloved calls him by all his own attributes. Then the Beloved calls him by all his own names, and seats him in his own place. When the lover studies his new clothes he finds himself arrayed in different colors, and will wonder ‘what is this beautiful tint, this garment so unique?’”

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“His disciples said, ‘When will you appear to us, and when will we see you?’ Jesus said, ‘When you strip without being ashamed, and you will take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample them, then you will see the Son of the Living One and you will not be afraid.’” (The Complete Gospels, Robert J. Miller, Polebridge Press) Sufism is a form of Islamic Gnosticism, which really does have many affinities with earlier Gnostic mystical traditions of the middle east. Like other movements of the past that embrace spiritual experience and mystic transport through the Seven Heavens, Sufis have found it useful to compare out-of-body or ascension journeys to the stripping or shedding of garments. The above quote illustrates their view that each soul on the earth-plane is wearing several garments. We are souls wearing subtle bodies or coverings; our physical body is made out of the material substance of the physical universe. We are, as the late Dr. Carl Sagan put it, “star stuff pondering star stuff.” Our bodies are made out of atoms that once came from stars and other objects in the cosmos. When we enter into contemplation and mystical states, our awareness is elsewhere; we become “dead to the world,” have risen above body-consciousness.

The role of a genuine Master is to summon souls to awakening again, enabling them to remember their true identity...

“Know yourselves: a cloud drifting before your Sun. Cut yourselves off from your senses and behold your Sun of Intimacy.”

The process of gaining a vision of paradise and mystic transport has been described as “stripping off old garments” and replacing them with a new heavenly robe made of Light. In his Persian Sufi classic, Divine Flashes, Fakhruddin ‘Iraqi describes the process.

This quote from Divine Flashes reminds me of Saying 37 in the Gospel of Thomas, one of the earliest collections of the sayings of Jesus.

In that sense, we have, for the duration of our meditation period, “stripped” ourselves of the garment of the body for the purpose of exploring other levels of our existence. The mystic traveler enters into what has been called “the fourth state of consciousness.” In addition to the waking state, the dream state, the unconsciousness state of deep sleep, the truly holistic explorer can also integrate into his or her experience the spiritual worlds.

Mysticism teaches that there are many layers of reality, that there are other garments that will eventually be shed during journeys of ascension. These garments or subtle bodies have been given names in Hebrew, Greek, Coptic, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Hindi, and other languages. In addition to the “garment” of the physical body, each soul is wearing several other garments or bodies, other sheaths that surround the soul, allowing the soul to connect to the various regions of creation. Counting the physical plane as Level One, Level Two is called by many “the astral plane,” made of astral stuff – astral substance, existing at a slightly higher vibration in the astral region. Level Three is the causal body, made of causal or akashic substance, inhabiting the causal plane. Level Four is the mental body made of mind substance, and is part of the mental plane. The etheric body (Level Five) allows the soul to access that region.

Above these worlds of mind and matter, the soul resides in the Timeless Spiritual Realm of Truth (Haq). Metaphysically speaking, we’re already in heaven, we just don’t know it! ‘Iraqi says: “By day I praised you but never knew it; by night slept with you without realizing; fancying myself to be myself; but no, I was you and never knew it!”

Luckily for us slumbering souls, there are always a few Moses-types in the world freeing those yearning for a real promised land, an occasional “Rumi” or “Shams”, here or there, sharing their Secrets about the soul.

The role of a genuine Master is to summon souls to awakening again, enabling them to remember their true identity—to find themselves, and to begin their great journey back home to the original abode of all souls.

Fakhruddin ‘Iraqi, desperate for awakening, said that he prayed the lover’s prayer: “O Allah, give me Light. Bring me to the station of Vision, that I may know myself as You.” Sanai advised his disciples to meditate in order to discover the spiritual highway that leads to the True Realm:

Continued on Page 32

31

Constellating the Soul: Reunion with That Which Was Lost (Part Two)

by Darcy Cunningham

What is Soul?

We talk about soul frequently – in religion, philosophy, new age healing modalities. Most would agree it refers to some essential aspect of ourselves, of being alive, perhaps even of being human, yet distinct from both mind and body.

And rarely do we mention “soul” in traditional therapy. I believe this is one reason therapy is often unable to truly help many of us through deeper layers of angst and unhappiness. Generally we come to therapy because we are cut off from something, even if unable to name it we feel it. We are hurting at a soul level, and all the rummaging in our heads and thoughts and feelings, cannot solve the mysteries and “fix” what ails us. So what does “Constellations” have to teach us about soul—and how can we experience this?

One of the characteristics of soul is that it

A teacher of mine once said that the answer to what causes our pain lies in the spaces between our thoughts. He was referring to meditation, but a constellation also has the potential to take us to that place between thoughts, beyond our “stories, reasons, and excuses,” to the place where soul lives, to what thinks us.

A Felt Experience of soul

This work is generally done in a group format, where the facilitator works with one person at a time to “map” a soul and it’s longing for that which is missing or misshapen. After the initial short conversation the “issue holder” “sets up” their “map” as it is experienced now, and from here there is very little talking. Representatives (other participants who agree to stand as “tuning forks” resonating with the individual soul, and also the greater soul) are placed into spatial relation to each other to create these maps. Suddenly the representatives report feelings like the people they are representing without knowing anything about them. This is not role-playing. This is a phenomenological experience. The experience shows us that there is a connection with something larger than us, that underlying web of consciousness from which all creation springs and a remarkable accuracy is seen and felt. Through the tangible knowledge gained we see both “what is” and often see or sense the beginnings of reconciliation. Then slowly, guided by the soul and this “knowing field” or “collective consciousness,” the system is brought into a new balance, where the experience is better, stronger, for all members of the system and all are in resonance with everyone else.

does not tolerate

One of the characteristics of soul is that it does not tolerate exclusion. At the individual level, think of the phantom limb syndrome where people report still feeling a limb after it’s gone. At the family level, there are consequences felt in the family if a member is excluded, or even simply not taken fully. Soul is the “organ” of the family that guards belonging. Not only people can get excluded from a family soul: key events (for example a war that grandfather fought in), places (for example a homeland for an immigrant family), and other essential “parts” of a system all need to be in their right order, and reconciled if they are not.

Longings as the Gateway to Soul How do we begin to know what these “separations” are? The longings we dare to experience are the voice of our personal soul telling us we are missing out on life.

Real longings aren’t for “things” like a red car or a better paying job; they come from the places where we feel incomplete in our self and in life. Tears and aching come when we contemplate not what is wrong in our lives but what our hearts’ desire. “Longing shows us the contour of what’s missing, and allows us to take off the dressing from the place that hurts.” says Judith Hemming, international Constellations teacher. When we suppress or ignore these longings, we take actions and make choices that cause harm to others and ourselves.

What blocks our longings from our awareness and from fruition? What blocks our soul from living its full expression? This is not a question whose answer can be thought into. We have all tried. The first, and perhaps hardest, step is to go deep inside and contact the part of our self that really yearns for something. The wanting itself is very precious – it’s how we become vulnerable to life, and therefore available for full engagement with life, even when we don’t get what we yearn for. Then, the door to reconciliation opens.

What is a constellation?

For Hellinger the soul is embodied in experience; it is felt as real, and Constellations allows us this felt experience: the voice of soul is heard. We can experience not only our own soul, but also the collective soul from which our individual souls emanate. It is this collective soul that watches over all the family members, and others who are connected to it by fate, and “enforces” the Orders of Love, with consequences for all the members of the family.

exclusion.

Practice Exercise: To experience your soul, to hear its voice, try this: Sit comfortably and relax your breath. First think of something you want: a promotion at work, a horse, or a bicycle. You might even want it a lot. Notice where you experience the wanting, and then notice your heart center.

Now, go deeper inside, sifting away the mere wants, into your center and expose yourself to whatever arises from it and reveals itself to you. Listen closely for what is true in you. What do you long for deeply in your life? Let a full a picture emerge, let it “take you” and really feel the longing. Put yourself into its care. What do you notice at your heart center? An expansion, a softening, a sense of “Truth?” Whatever you feel, it's likely different than what you felt with a mere want. So, acknowledge that longing and hold it close; know it as the voice of your soul. Sit with this a bit, and then direct your conscious mind to let it go, to leave it in the care of your other-than-conscious-self. Over the next few days or weeks, without analyzing or brooding, just notice any changes internally or externally in relation to this longing. *Constellations grew out of an approach pioneered by Bert Hellinger, a German systems philosopher and family therapist. Hellinger’s approach – initially called the Orders of Love – is an approach to healing that promotes constructive action and frees us and those we love from suffering. Author of over a dozen books, his newest is Rising in Love.

Darcy Cunningham is a Constellator in Maine, leading workshops nationally. She also teaches meditation and yoga, and is trained in Gestalt group and organization Systems and consults to individuals and to larger systems. www.TurningLight.org/constel.

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Bert Hellinger (see footnote), founder of the constellations work, says “anything that is alive… is directed by a creative power that guides it along to bring about something new with it.” Soul is “a force that unites what is separated and guides [or shapes] it in a certain direction.” At the individual level, our organs only work together for the body because of the force connecting and directing them. At the family level, soul is the force that unites the members of a family and guides them in a certain direction. This is the “extended soul” and can operate in families, organizations, races of people, or any bounded system. The individual soul has its source outside the self, through the family soul, to the Creative Spirit, the Source of all being. If resonance is lacking, in individual souls or within family souls, then we cannot be at peace.

When we find and reunite with the “excluded one” then resonance is again restored. Ultimately the essential process of this work is reconnection with what has been separated, and so is about reconciliation and peace.

A constellation is a “map” of sorts, an image of our soul focused with the laser of our deepest longing. This “map” includes the people (living and dead), places, events, and other elements most relevant to our longing. Through this map we can explore these elements: the interrelationship of people, loyalties, and the order and the blockages affecting our soul. We step into this living map, without words or stories, and experience our current place and the parts of our family system relevant to the longing, we see and feel what has become separated or blocked. We experience where Love (another word for the creative force) has become entangled love or blind love, or where it is blocked. The Orders of Love suggest to us what is absent, misaligned, unbalanced and we see how to re-order things to enrich our lives and loves. Sometimes we simply let soul guide movements that bring relief and peace to the system.

32 Continued from page 8 ~ Intuition In Motion...

Dr. Orloff: Start with a small decision, first. Test out your intuition and build successes so you can learn to trust [yourself] in this regard. Intuition is always affirming, loving compassion.

There comes a time when we must decide if we are committed to a life based on heart. If so, this means coming to compassionate terms with the light and dark forces that shape us. Nothing is excluded. Remember this when you greet all the angels and beasts on your path. Your intuition will teach you how to see and how to love. It instills in you a renewed faith to face anything.

Dr. Orloff ’s Website: For complete lecture schedule and free articles and videos go to www.drjudithorloff.com Second Sight Book Tour November 6, 2010, 10:00 AM–4:00 PM Workshop, The Power of Intuition and Emotions to Heal, Center for Spiritual Living Westlake Village, Westlake Village, CA (Los Angeles area). Tickets: 805-495-0105 ext. 3 or http://www.cslwestlake.org/www.livetalks.org or call 805-446-0097.

CEU’s offered: MSWS, MFCC, Nurses.

Dec 3-5, 2010, Weekend Workshop, The Power of Emotions and Intuition to Heal, Kripalu Institute for Yoga, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, www.kripalu.org or 866-200-5203.

Karen M. Rider, M.A. is a freelance writer specializing in holistic and metaphysical subjects. Her articles, profiles, book reviews and promotional copy appear in local, regional and national publications including Door Opener, Natural Nutmeg, Angels Among Us, Dream Network Journal and The Writer magazine. Karen also writes fiction centered on the awakening of human-spiritual potential. Her first novel is underway. She is co-writing Eating... The Angel Way with intuitive medium Annie Kelleher due to publish in 2010. Karen lives in Cromwell, CT. Learn more: View Portfolio at www.KarenMRider.com, email: KarenMRider@comcast.net or call (860) 638-8140. Visit Karen's Blog: The Writing Parent, www.thewritingparent.blogspot.com.

Continued from page 29 ~ Let Your Pet Move With You

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Don’t be afraid to talk about your housemates to others. Sharing your feelings can open the door to a wealth of incoming information. Should you be looking for a new animal-friendly medical doctor, friends often have other friends that they talk with, who in turn might know of someone that could be of interest.

Your network spiders out a thousand times when you share information, experiences and concerns.

Be courageous and help your pet be a whole-person by supporting their health the best way you can—through being their primary healthcare advocate.

Stand up and pull up your bootstraps when the time comes. Should you find yourself in the middle of a devastating health crisis – be the leader of the pack. Your medical team will need a strong center-focused commander. Be the voice of your pet if they need an advocate. If there is no cure, research online, in books and find alternative health care options that are supportive and relevant to your pet’s needs. Command your health care team like a football captain coaches his teammates in the huddle. Don’t count on your pet’s medical doctor to pull a magic wand out of their pocket, sprinkle healthy sparkle dust on your pet’s head or make it all go away with a wiggle of their nose. Doctors are people too, they get confused and they too wonder how to best approach a situation. Physicians are also human and simply cannot be expected to know everything all the time. As your pet’s health advocate, it will

be ultimately up to you to be a part of your pet’s successful healthcare team.

By being a team captain and highly communicative leader, your vet will be able to focus on their job, making the necessary medical connections to help your companion be the healthiest they can be.

We all can enjoy an endearing life with the companions we choose. Whether you have 1 year or 16 or more to count on, being there and allowing yourself to be moved by your pet’s needs can be an incredibly rewarding experience. Animals are courageous themselves every time they step up and brighten our day. They shower us with their love every time they show us unconditional acceptance and their undying loyalty never fades away. By letting them inspire us, they move us to a better place of Being, with them, for them and in support of them. Enjoy your journey as you strengthen your bonds with your animal friends. Their innocent lives will open yours.

Donald and Sara Hassler are co-authors of the award-winning children’s book, Loving Marley, and reside in Connecticut with Marley and Belle the real-life inspiration for the PugTale Adventures storybooks www.lovingmarley.com. The Hasslers are active members of the press and write exclusive feature articles for several publications. Their columns are also published in Pug Talk Magazine.

Donald and Sara and Marley and Belle, write, produce and host their own talk radio show called The Responsible Pet Owner aired live on Good Company 14/WILI in Connecticut. Visit them online at www.responsiblepetowner.com

Continued from page 30 ~ exploring the world religions “Collect your mind’s fragments that you may fill yourself bit by bit with meaning.

The one disciple who meditates the mysteries of creation for sixty minutes gains more merit than from sixty years of fasting and prayer. Meditation: high-soaring hawk of the intellect’s wrist resting at last on the flowering branch of the heart: this world and the next are hidden beneath its folded wing.” (The Drunken Universe—An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry, Phanes) “’Iraqi: I could see you a thousand times a day and still desire to see you once again.”

This yearning of the lover spurs even those who have attained union to aspire to reach higher and higher still. Rumi says:

“With every breath the Sound of Love surrounds us, and we are bound for the depths of space, without distraction. Out beyond duality, we have a Home, and it is Majesty. That pure substance is different from this dusty world. We once came down; soon we’ll return.” (Rumi) “Bring the sky beneath your feet and listen to Celestial Music everywhere.”

(Rumi quotes from, “God’s Whisper—Creation’s Thunder,” Threshold Books)

James Bean interviews guests, reviews books and music for HealthyLife.Net Positive Talk Radio and other stations via a syndicated radio program called Spiritual Awakening, and teaches Sant Mat Meditation and Surat Shabd Yoga in the Bangor, Waterville, & Portland areas. Address questions or comments to James@SpiritualAwakeningRadio.com.

We Hope You Enjoy reading this issue of Inner Tapestry!

32 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

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INNER TAPESTRY's Directory of Resources

Acupuncture ......................................................... page 33 Alternative Living .................................................. page 33 Counseling & Therapy ................................... pages 33-34 Creative Healing Arts ..................................... pages 34-35 Evolutionary Consciousness................................. page 35 Holistic Healing Centers ...................................... page 35 Holistic Publications & Radio ............................... page 35 Hypnotherapy ...................................................... page 36 Integrative Healing ........................................ pages 36-37 Life Mastery ....................................................pages 37-38 Meditation ............................................................ page 38 Psychic & Spiritual Mediumship ........................... page 38 Reflexology & Healing Massage .......................... page 38 Retreats ......................................................... pages 38-39 Sacred Space .......................................................page 39 Schools & Trainings ....................................... pages 39-40 Shamanic Healing ................................................ page 40 Writing Services.................................................... page 41 Yoga, Tai Chi, Aikido ............................................. page 41

Holistic Practitioners, Products and Resources Each category contains practitioners from various states. a c u p un c t u r e

counseling & the rapy Maine

Maine

Abigail Lopez, LAc, Dipl.OM

Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine Acupuncture guides the proper flow of energy within and stimulates our body’s natural healing response.

more please contact Abigail at The Wellness Solution, 366 US Route 1, Falmouth, Maine, 04105, (207) 899-0727, www.thewellnesssolution.net.

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

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

a l t e r n a t i v e livin g Maine Greensward Hamlet

Live From Your Center

Greensward Hamlet

Mark Nakell, LCPC

A Cohousing Community

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

In Buxton, Maine Drawing on the Strength of Community To Live Sustainably.

Maine’s first Green, fossil free, cohousing community is nestled on 30 private country acres. Your 1-, 2-, or 3- bedroom home (& 1- or 2- car garage) will include the amenities of a spacious Common House for weekly community meals & gatherings; organic community gardens and nature trails. Access to the Saco River and hundreds of acres of pristine park land is within walking distance.

Train and international airport services are just a 15-minute drive. Reserve your place in the community now. Visit www.greenswardhamlet.com or www.cohousing.org. Or contact: Françoise Paradis, Ed.D. PO Box 1325, Saco, Me 04072 (207) 227-3678.

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

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

Let us celebrate in gratitude the wonders of our lives that sustain us throughout our journey.

May you become your giving of thanks!

Oct/Nov 2010 Inner Tapestry 33

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In my practice I offer acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine; both have been used for healing for over 3,000 years and are safe, natural and drug-free methods to restore whole body health. Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine are effective for numerous conditions including: pain, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue, depression, gynecological concerns and preventative care. I am committed to assisting all members of the family to experience total health and well-being. To learn

Patricia A. Burke, MSW, LCSW

34 co u n s e l i ng & t h e rapy- c o n t .

counseling & the rapy- cont.

What is somatic therapy?

Somatic therapy is a self-awareness process with a particular focus on the body. With guided practice to help you remain present in the body, you simply allow thoughts, emotions and sensations to emerge in their natural patterns. This combination – conscious awareness and observation of patterns – allows both increased capability of self-regulation and expanded capacity for awareness itself. Current brain research shows that the part of the brain involved in awareness Douglas Smith also regulates emotions and behavior. So practice of focused awareness actually strengthens and expands the brain cell connections in this area, making the benefit of this work cumulative. The difference between this and mindfulness practice alone is that you also have access to somatic, or body reactions. These come under conscious awareness, creating the possibility of physical as well as emotional healing. Somatic therapy is useful for the resolution of stress and trauma, anxiety, depression, habits, addictions, "stuck" patterns, or can be used to enhance personal growth. For an appointment or more information please call, email or visit me on the web at www.mindmeetsbody.com.

Douglas Smith, LCPC, SEP., 440 Forest Avenue, Portland, ME 04101 (207) 329-3566, smith@mindmeetsbody.com.

Prana Regina Barrett, B.S., M.I.A., E.R.Y.T., C.Y.T. Life Coach, Spiritual Counselor and Yoga Therapist, offering private sessions, workshops and retreats in Portland, Maine and world-wide. For more information, visit www.pranaheals.com, (207) 632-6698.

Services: Life Coaching (healthy lifestyle, transitions, small businesses, Law of Attraction) ~ Spiritual Counseling ~ Private Yoga ~ Yoga Therapy for physical and emotional healing ~ Hands on Healing ~ Tantra Instruction for Couples ~ Individual & Couples Retreats (studio apartment for rent with healing sessions) ~ Workshops (Tantra, Law of Attraction, Therapeutic Yoga for Yoga Instructors & more).

Prana is an exceptional role model and teacher of yoga and natural healing. She is devoted to healing and personal transformation and gently invites us to join her on the path. Prana guides us to deep places of self-discovery and acceptance, where healing happens and wholeness is restored. Like 'water that wears away rock,' Prana's guidance dissolves physical, emotional, and energetic barriers to being healthy, joyful and fully alive.

Her teaching is a gift! ~ Mary Anne Bright, EdD, APRN, BC Professor Emerita University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Author of Holistic Health and Healing.

Gestalt Your Life Angela Hassenpflug

Nancy Roberts, Ph.D., Psy.D. Transformational Psychotherapy Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

In my psychotherapy practice I deal with the concerns that bring most people into therapy: depression, anxiety, stress, and challenges with relationships and work. However, my transformational focus goes beyond

this to address the yearning that many people feel for a deeper sense of meaning and joy, and highlights an appreciation for spiritual paths to a more heart-centered life. Offices at 141 North Main Street in Brewer and 5 School Street in Ellsworth. Telephone: 207-852-7656

Body-Mind Life Coaching Specialist

TM

Gestalt Practitioner This experiential and body-oriented approach supports you to

- - - - -

reconnect with your body, its language and wisdom learn to relax, reduce stress and practice being fully present enhance your relationships, both with yourself and others reinforce your strengths, passions and skills make sustainable life changes happen

Dynamic life coaching tools combined with Gestalt Therapy elements build the foundation of this life coaching approach. We can meet in person or on the phone. Groups offered on a regular basis. Call (207) 592-7888 or email angela@gestaltyourlife.com for more information and to set up a free introductory call. www.gestaltyourlife.com.

A healthy functioning brain is crucial to your everyday cognitive, psychological, AND physical well-being. At Maine Neurotherapy Center, we

provide EEG Neurofeedback utilizing cutting edge techniques and equipment, without the use of medication, to help you achieve your goals. Neurotherapy is a powerful tool which involves exercising and training the brain to function better, manage anxiety and stress better, and improve overall day-to-day cognitive ability. We believe our clients deserve choices in care – whether that involves state-of-the-art neurofeedback or other traditional therapies.

We provide both. In addition, we will work collaboratively with your current providers to develop a tailored neurofeedback program that works for you. For more information contact us at www.MaineNeurotherapy. com., 1051 Washington Ave, Suite 2, Portland, Maine 04103. E-mail: MaineNeurotherapy@gmail.com

Nancy C. Campbell, LCSW (207) 650-9728

Sandra E. Couch Kelly, LCSW (207) 233-3469

Just when we thought we had them all...

Someone expanded our views one more time...

34 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

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

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

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

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

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holistic healing centers

Main e

Art Therapy & Shamanism

Susan Bakaley Marshall, ATR-BC, LCPC

Gardens of Atlantis Healing Arts Center

Art therapy is a dynamic combination—powerful artistic creation with the insight of psychotherapy. Art therapy

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

People helping people is what moves me! There is no

better feeling one can experience than the joy of knowing that you gave from your heart and made a positive difference in a person's Life.

We strive to do just that every day at Gardens of Atlantis. Come and explore the journey to your heart where you can live more fullfilled, more content, more in wonder of all the gifts we are here to share with each other. Connect with Your Spirit Guides & Past Lives with Annie Stillwater Gray, explore Native wisdom with Grandmother Maka Nupa, Heal with the Angels with Bobbi Arnold. Special guest, Diana Harris, will give Messages from Heaven on 10-10-10. It will be moving! (207) 929-5088, www.gardensofatlantis.org.

Vermont

the awake collective

We are a co-creative community platform in support of awakening. We offer massage,

Zen Yoga & healing arts center

Zen Yoga is a journey of spiritual deepening that begins with the breath.

www.theawakecollective.com info@theawakecollective.com 207-318-1931, 79 Vesper St., Portland, Maine. Stay connected FaceBook http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Awake-Collective/ 102331896486384?ref=ts

Email: breathe@artofzenyoga.com, Website: www.artofzenyoga.com.

evolutionary consciousness

holistic publications & radio

Main e

M a i ne

WRFR-LP is all-volunteer community radio, on the air at 93.3 FM in Rockland and 99.3 FM in Camden, and streaming world-wide at www.wrfr.org.

The Autognomics Institute since 1992 Norm and Skye Hirst co-founders Transcendental Autognomics (TA); going beyond scientific materialism to discover the emergent epi-principles within lifeitself... doing science the old fashion way.

TA; New Field of Life-Energy and Transcendental Science/Philosophy is based on emergent epi-energy principles now being discovered throughout the Autognomics Research Community and Alliance. The mystery/the miraculous/ the wisdom of life-itself is revealing herself. To receive our email newsletter on how latest revelations are impacting us all, visit us at www.autognomics.org or join us on Twitter @autognomics for frequent tips and insights plus see who we are following. Co-founders – Norm and Skye Hirst, PhD.

We offer a wide selection of live and recorded music, and a wide variety of talk shows. Music genres include jazz, old time swing, classical, country, folk, Celtic, South Seas exotica, classic rock, heavy metal, Broadway tunes, and more. Many shows feature live music with local guests.

Talk shows range from news and public affairs discussions to live tarot readings, and often include live interviews and telephone call-ins. The station is supported by listener contributions and by business sponsors. Contact Jo Lindsay, volunteer coordinator, to learn more about how you can participate: info@wrfr. org. Contact Ananur Forma, sales manager, to learn more about business sponsorship: (207) 594-2565 WRFR's studios are located at 20 Gay Street, Rockland, Maine 04841. You are invited to stop by.

Di recto ry of R es our ce s $375 for 1 year Print & Online Listing with an active link to your website!

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

s ed ne e! ne le yo litt etim r e a m Ev so lp he

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

Call 207-799-7995 or email: info@innertapestry.org Oct/Nov 2010 Inner Tapestry 35

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Zen Yoga uses 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 qigong, tai chi and yoga, Zen Yoga is like nothing you have tried before.

We offer ongoing classes, workshops, therapy and retreats at the Zen Yoga & Healing Arts Center in the mountains of Vermont. We can customize special programs to meet the needs of your group throughout New England.

We also offer a 12-week online program that provides time honored teachings of various spiritual disciplinary arts designed to assist you on your journey of self-discovery. For more information: Phone: (860) 805-6551,

hands-on healing, classes, workshops, yoga, dance, and space rental. It is our intention to create a supportive and nourishing space for our collective awakening. Your invited to come to events, enjoy our healing arts services, or rent space at the collective as an micro-enterprise, teacher, or practitioner. We value creating accessibility and sustainability within our community so we have made a commitment to providing affordable high quality healing arts services. We offer all of our basic services, like massage and life coaching at only $40 an hour. We also offer membership and monthly massage packages that will save you even more on our services. If you are wanting to create a conscious work space for your practice or you want to experience some of our services, then you should check out our website and join us in co-creating this amazing awakening.

36 hypnotherapy

M a i ne HypnoWave Hypnosis Training Center Ernest VanDenBossche, BCH, CI - Director Is it time for a change? Let hypnosis work for you in so

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

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

integrative healing–cont.

Main e Roberta Barnes, CHT, Gendai Reiki-ho & Komyo Reiki Shihan (teacher/master) & Herbalist

Gendai Reiki-ho brings balance and harmony to mind/body/spirit, and all areas of your life. Roberta teaches and

practices as she learned from her Japanese Reiki Shihans, each of whom has only 2 Shihans between themselves and Mikao Usui, the founder of Usui Reiki. Roberta has practiced various forms of natural healing for over 30 years. Her Natural Healing & Learning Center, nestled in a wildlife habitat in Windsor, Maine, is the perfect environment to reflect the balancing and harmonizing essence of Mikao Usui’s spiritual practice.

Encased in harmonizing relaxation, you can... *Learn Japanese styles of Reiki, *Experience Reiki healing sessions, *Learn inward or outward meditation, *Receive a personalized herb report, or *Experience a healing journey into your past. Roberta schedules classes to meet individual needs and travels out-of-State to teach groups. Roberta’s guided meditations are available on CDs. View scheduled classes at www.naturalhealinglearning.com or call (207) 445-5671 today to register for classes or healing sessions.

integrative healing Connecticut

Belanger Physical Therapy Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

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.

Ron and Joan

Shen THerapy Thai Bodywork

S. Brennan Murphy, CST, CTYB, CYI SHEN Therapy: A highly effective and accelerated

approach to resolving stuck emotions and physical conditions that are directly affected by emotions.

Have you lost direction? Are you stressed? Do you feel disconnected from yourself and those around you? SHEN therapy works by releasing pain, old emotional memories and life scripts/beliefs buried in our unconscious mind. SHEN also helps with release of grief, depression, low self-esteem, panic/anxiety attacks, anger, shame, guilt, hate, eating disorders, bowel problems, sexual problems, PMS, post traumatic stress disorder, pregnancy and labor. Thai Bodywork: is a comprehensive and relaxing approach to opening the physical body, reducing tension, opening joints, stretching muscles, over-all grounding. Excellent for athletes, sciatica and more! For more information on these modalities and Brennan, please email: sowelu@midmaine.com or phone (207) 326-3236.

Are You Listening? Through the challenges of our lives

we are being asked to release what no longer serves us; to expand, living with an open mind and heart. Are You Willing? To embody the Truth of living your life as love in action. Ron and Joan support people to live the highest/greatest vision of themselves. Living Visions is a method of support that deepens levels of calm and joy, releasing the causes of emotional and physical trauma, which increases awareness of your true center and grounding. Living Visions is a way of realizing perfect union with one's self.

If you are interested in exploring how we may be able to support you please visit www.ronandjoan.com, or call us at (207) 799-7998/(203) 779-0345 with questions or for more information. Sessions and groups available in Connecticut and Maine (call Leapin' Lizards for schedule in ME (207) 865-0900.

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

We Give thanks for all that we have had... all that we have now...

36 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

Sattva

Health and Wellness

Enjoy a Healthy Body and a Peaceful Mind The services at Sattva Health and Wellness are for anyone who is ready to explore the numerous benefits of a holistic ("whole person") approach to health care. Through the wisdom of Ayurveda,

you will learn to make proper diet and daily lifestyle choices. By living in balance with ourselves and nature, we can experience clarity of the mind while nourishing and nurturing the body.

You are invited to come to know yourself from a fresh perspective, embark on a path of self-discovery, and enjoy optimum health in body, mind and spirit. Reiki, Quantum Touch and Therapeutic Touch can be deeply relaxing and restorative, assisting in the healing process. Energy work sessions are an opportunity to decompress and reconnect with yourself. Clients enjoy settling in, letting go of stress, and conclude feeling peaceful and grounded. Please contact Sandra Maguire to learn more about how to begin your personal journey of health and healing through the time tested holistic health care systems of Ayurveda and Energy Medicine. www.SattvaHealthandWellness.com 207-838-1602 sandra@sattvahealthandwellness.com 2 Convenient Locations: North Windham and South Portland, Maine

37 integrative healing–cont.

Susan Ortiz, MD Board Certified Physical Medicine & Pain Management Medical Acupuncture & Energy Medicine Mind-Body Medicine Are you living up to your full potential? If you have joint, muscle, spinal pain, headaches, sleep problems, mood disorders, gastrointestinal issues, stress, fatigue or other troubling symptoms, you do not have to settle for ineffective or toxic treatments.

After 20 years of medical practice, I know that a combination of traditional Western and Alternative methods is usually the best form of medicine.

Having studied many different styles of healing over the years, I combine them with the latest in nutrition, movement and mind sciences to improve your health, function and vitality. Stillpoint Rehabilitation & Wellness, 15 State St., Bangor, ME 04401. Stillptrehab@gmail.com, (207) 990-2934, www.stillpointrehab.com.

Lilysongbird Healing Jewelry, Sunsets & Flowers, etc.

A Healing Session includes, Reiki, Integrated Energy

Fern Dyer, Reiki/Master Teacher, Advanced IET Practioner Call (207) 415-8638, fdyer@maine.rr.com, www.lilysongbird.com located in Portland.

SpiritWings CompassionateHealing and Apothecary

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

Practitioner: Therapeutic, Seated and Couples Massage, Outcalls available,

Herbal Consultations and Past Life Regression. We consult with each client to identify the appropriate modalities to achieve Health and Harmony in their life. Classes are offered in Herbology, Reiki and Karuna Reiki® plus other workshops. Visit the Apothecary for Herbs, Patent Formulas, Teas, and Supplements. Essential Oils, Candles, Incense, and other Accessories are also available. Visit our website www.spiritwingsbethel.com. Apothecary Open Tuesday-Wednesday 10-4 & Thursday-Saturday 10-5. Therapeutic Sessions by appointment SpiritWings, 85 Main Street, Bethel, Maine. Telephone (207) 824-2204. Credit Cards Accepted.

Massachusetts

intuitive HEALING

"As a healer, I work with individuals in a way that consciously promotes a peaceful and healthy planet. Our

healing work takes place despite the conflicts that wash over us in our daily lives. By healing ourselves we create Wendy Marks changes that have a ripple effect on M.Ed, C.A.S.,FAPA the world around us." I offer Medical Intuitive sessions, energy healing and integrative therapy. With 30 years of experience in traditional and complementary healthcare, I am here to improve your physical, mental and spiritual health. I work with adults to develop and hone their own intuitive skills. www.wendymarks.com (781) 449-5368, wlm922@wendymarks.com.

Peaceful Energies Balance your Energetic Body, Physical Body, Emotions and Spirit As a certified MCKS Pranic Healer, I balance your body’s energetic system by intuitively sensing and removing stagnant, diseased energy and strengthening depleted energy with specific healing frequencies and techniques. All aspects of your being are treated: energetic,

physical, emotional and spiritual. Treatment sessions offer blissful stress relief, alleviation of pain, and support in the healing of acute and chronic health complaints. Treatments are equally effective in person and at a distance. No distance is too far to receive a totally effective treatment. Pranic healing supports traditional and alternative healing methods. Contact: Miriam Smith at mgsenergy@comcast.net or (978) 683-6129. www.PranicHealingNE.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.

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

experience the wisdom and beauty of this ancient system of symbols, by offering individual and group readings, classes from beginner's level to "readers in training," ongoing monthly groups and special events. Phone readings are available. With 18 years experience as a Tarot practitioner and teacher, and formal training in both mediation and psychosynthesis counseling, Jeanne brings a unique blend of practical guidance and useful information to all readings and classes. She is a contributing columnist for the American Tarot Association's website www. ata-tarot.com/reflections and is currently working on her second book, to be published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Autumn 2010. For more information

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

Then we give thanks for all that is unseen and yet to come....

Oct/Nov 2010 Inner Tapestry 37

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Therapy, Stones & Crystals, Chakra Balancing, Angel Work, Mediumship, Psychic Messages, Animal Guides, Flower Guides, Cord-Cutting. It is followed by a reading and write-up.

Selling many stones and crystals in the office location and at outside events. Jewelry is made from beaded stones for their healing properties and is available in gold-filled & sterling silver. Earrings, Bracelets, Pendants/Necklaces.

Photos are derived intuitively. Available in greeting cards, matted & framed prints.

Learn Reiki and help yourself and others kickstart your body's ability to help heal itself. Now teaching all levels including Master/Teacher. Beginning November, 2010 I will be teaching Integrated Energy Therapy as an IET Master.

integrative healing–cont.

38 life mastery-cont.

Jen Deraspe, MS

Certified Coach; The Institute for The Work, Holistic Personal Trainer, Retreat Facilitator I spent my life searching for truth and happiness outside of myself. All served me on the path, and I am

grateful. Because my seeking path was more external, I experienced only temporary relief. What ultimately led me home was the simplest of methods, The Work of Byron Katie. It is a direct, no non-sense path to personal truth, clarity and freedom held within and no teacher is required. I have been humbled and opened through my own personal inquiry into the source of my stress, fear and internal war with what is. If you are seeking sustained peace and experiencing lasting wellbeing, you are invited to join me on an invigorating journey back to you. The tools used are customized for your individual plan and include The Work, Hatha yoga, meditation, holistic nutrition, lifetime fitness and wellness programming. It would be a privilege to be your guide. I am happy to offer a complimentary phone consultation if you are interested in the possibility of working together. www.ntnretreats.com, 207-452-2929, ntnretreat@yahoo.com

meditation

psychic & spiritual mediumship

Kat Logan

Intuitive Readings and Healing

• Intuitive Readings (personal, group, parties, phone or email) • Energy Healing (also offering... Sound, Aromatherapy & Flower Essences) • Sacred Space Design for home and garden • Dowsing and Space Clearing Intuitively aware since childhood Kat has been offering readings and energy work for over 25 years. As a spiritual medium, empath and clairvoyant she lovingly brings the messages from the Divine Energies that are resonating with you, to assist you on your life's journey. My work is not to tell you your future but to intuitively counsel you of the many potentials that are resonating with you.

You have the personal power and will to create the life you want. I want to assist you in that process. I also offer sliding scale fee schedules if money is a problem. Kat also offers other services such as Sacred Space Design, Intuitive Art Work, Medicinal Herbal Teas and Flower Essences.

For more information, please check the website: www.mygreatfullheart.com or email: kat@mygreatfullheart.com. Kat is located in Friendship, Maine. Telephone (207) 226-7446.

Maine

reflexology & healing massage

Sant Mat Radhaswami, The Path of the Masters

Maine

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

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

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

psychic & spiritual mediumship Maine PsychicMediumship, Hypnotherapy

Hands on Feet ~ Lynn Danforth, Certified Reflexologist Reflexology is a science-based, non-invasive method to rejuvenate your mind, body and spirit.

The deep relaxation found through this wonderful technique comes through the delicate manipulation of nerve centers in your feet and hands to send messages to the brain, which in turn sends the signals to the rest of your body. Many find the experience to result in a meditative, cleansing state, which can last days. Problem areas and issues are easily and gently relieved and reduced, from plantar fasciitis and arthritis to basic tension and foot pain.

Don't force yourself to stress another minute, contact Lynn today: call either (207) 767-5776 or (207) 318-0129, or visit www.handsonfeet.net.

retreats Maine

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

resides in Fairfield and Northport, Maine.

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

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

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.

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/(203) 779-0345 or email: info@innertapestry.org 38 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

39 retreats-cont.

sacred space Maine

Rolling Meadows, a 100 acre yoga and meditation retreat center over-looking the hills of coastal Maine, provides a unique environment for inner reflection away from the stimulation, demands and distractions of daily life. Scheduled silent retreats for up to 10 participants are offered

throughout the year blending meditation, creatively-explored hatha yoga, and guidance in the direct path of self-inquiry. Patricia Brown and Surya Chandra Das teach from 30 years of experience, encouraging students to cultivate intuitive receptivity and openness, guiding them to find the unique expression of their True Nature. They also teach retreats in Guatemala, Mexico and throughout the US. Rolling Meadows Retreat, Brooks, Maine, (888) 666-6412, www.rollingmeadowsretreat.com.

This land is a living resource! The 24 blessed

Circles,” Topsham, Me. 207-776-3152, www.forestcircles.com.

The lodge is a marvel of Yankee craftsmanship—a traditional New England timberframe structure featuring hand-cut mortise and tenon joinery throughout. We're also home to the Mahoosuc Guide Service and their working sled dogs! (www.mahoosuc.com.) Our Bed and Breakfast is a fully renovated 1903, three bedroom farmhouse fitted for modern comfort, and situated amid Bear River Valley's breath-taking natural vistas. Guests can take in panoramic views of the 3,500-4,000 foot peaks of the Mahoosuc Range. And we're in the heart of it all: just 1 mile to Grafton Notch State Park; 2 Miles to Grafton Loop Trail; only 4.7 miles to the Appalachian Trail; and just 14 miles to Umbagog Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Mahoosuc Mountain Lodge is the ideal retreat destination. We're a great location for weddings, concerts/events, business retreats, family reunions, meetings and more. Mahoosuc Mountain Lodge is ideal for the traveler seeking relaxation, adventure or both. Call Polly or Kevin at: (207) 824-2073 for more information or visit: www.mahoosucmountainlodge.com.

schools & trainings Maine

Treat Your Feet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(888) 235-2395 Open All Year, prearranged retreats available upon request.

Yokids

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

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

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

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

Oct/Nov 2010 Inner Tapestry 39

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acres on which “Forest Circles” is located continues to provide visitors with uniquely personal mystical experiences. Overnight solo retreats in the forest are popular. Come for a gathering in a peaceful inside space, a program around the sacred fire pit or a walk. All are invited to experience this parcel of Earth that is eager to communicate and teach you how to find your way back to your heart. At Forest Circles we offer programs which include: multi-cultural spiritual ceremonies, classes for enhancing one’s connection to Earth and inner self, solo and group retreats, classes on native medicinal plants, children’s programs. Strongheart Healing with Regina Strongheart is featured at the retreat center. Self-Retrieval” is a technique developed by Regina that helps you reclaim your personal power and peace. Using healing energy, shamanic journeying and medical intuition, Regina will assist you in finding health and peace. Regina Strongheart, has an MA in education from UNH and experiences including 29 years teaching high school chemistry, 8 years in the medical field and 14 years as a spiritual healer and teacher. She is the owner of “Forest

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

40 schools & trainings–cont.

shamanic healing-cont.

D O R Y C OTE

Chaplaincy Institute of Maine

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

First Year: The Way of Contemplation • Second Year: The Way of Action The next two-year program begins September 2010

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

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

Tuition for the two years is $5,400.

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

…Follow the Path to Your Own True Essence. At

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

Healing Ways of Kennebunk Reiki Certification Classes

Pacha Works

Holding New Possibilities.

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For Massage Therapists and Bodyworkers Reiki I and Reiki II training offered monthly NCBTMB approved – 8 CE hours per class Learn the ancient hands-on-healing technique known as Reiki. This training is designed to inspire and teach massage therapists to integrate Reiki into their existing practice. Reiki is a powerful yet gentle therapy. Reiki has no contraindications so you will never have to turn another client away. This practical, hands-on workshop allows you to work on yourself, others, pets and animals. Reiki is essential for every massage therapist, even if you do not need continuing education hours. Register early – class size limited for individual attention. For more information on class details contact Rachel Pelletier, LMT, Kennebunk, Maine (207) 967-0035 or www.healingwaysonline.com.

“Rachel Pelletier is approved by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB) as a continuing education Approved Provider.”

shamanic healing

Working with traditional shamanistic practices for healing.

Eva Rose Goetz, director

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

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

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

A new 16-month course in beginning Shamanism begins June 2010. More information about classes, private sessions, or ceremonies can be found at www.pachaworks.com or contact Eva directly at (207) 756-0488. "By

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

Maine Spirit Passages Allie Knowlton, MSW, DCSW & Evelyn Rysdyk Spirit Passages is the partnership of nationally recognized shamanic teacher/healers, Evelyn C. Rysdyk, author of Modern Shamanic Living: New Explorations of an Ancient Path and C. Allie Knowlton, MSW, DCSW. Whether through powerful heart-to-heart contact with individual patients or with workshop groups and conference participants—Evelyn’s & Allie’s extensive experience ensures you of safe shamanic healing encounters, as well as opportunities to train in shamanism with confidence. They are committed to help you increase your personal power, feel your intrinsic sacredness and expand your connections to All That Is! www.spiritpassages.com.

Our Thanks to the many practitioners who bring the bounty of their passion, spirit, knowledge and love to our community!

First Annual Conference ~ The Community For Integrative Medicine at Hotel Borgo degli Olivi in Riotorto"Bella" Tuscany, Italy, October 20 - 24, 2010.

WE INVITE THE PUBLIC as well as INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE PRACTITIONERS to attend our conference.

Connect with your community of like minds. Exchange ideas and healing models. Share your expertise.

Introduce others to your individual modality. Learn new techniques and approaches working in a team format. Hear great speakers, including keynote speaker.

This is a time we must all come together to take hands in the global community and work as a team in healing one community at a time.

www.globalcommunityforintegrativemedicine.vpweb.com 40 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

41

Yoga ~ T'ai Chi ~ Aikido

writing services Connecticut

Grow Your Business You need professionally written advertorials, ads, interviews, reviews and web content that align who you are and what you do with your target audience.

A professional writer saves you time and gets you and your business in print.

Ghostwriting: articles, books, columns, advertorials and more Freelance Work: feature articles, interviews, book reviews, web content Coaching: guidance and insight for your own writing Published in local, regional and national print and digital media Portfolio: www.KarenMRider.com Email: KarenMRider@comcast.net

phone: (860) 638-8140

Maine

The Village Scribe The Wellness Center, Camden, Maine

207.344.7070

TheVillageScribe@hotmail.com

Original Copy for: Ads ~ Business cards ~ Brochures Articles ~ Memoirs ~ Websites Writing Workshops Creative Writing ~ Memoir ~ Mythic Structure Ducktrap Writers' Round Table ~ Supporting writers in their craft.

Camden Public Library, third Sundays, 2:00pm-4:00pm $15.

Custom crafted words that represent who you are and what you do.

COLCHESTER, CROMWELL, EAST HAMPTON, PORTLAND & WESTCHESTER Yoga for Health Marcie Loffredo, RYT ~ No experience needed. Styles of Yoga: Ashtanga, Vinyasa Flow, Hot Yoga, Back Care, Stretch and Tone, Weight Loss, Yoga-lates (combo of Yoga and Pilates), meditation, and relaxation.

Visit our website for details www.yoga-4-health.com or email us at marcialoffredo@sbcglobal.net or call (860) 267-8279.

GLASTONBURY Sacred Rivers Yoga Offers Yoga for Every Body, therapeutic massage and bodywork modalities, acupuncture, nutritional and herbal therapies. We are also a Yoga Alliance 200- and 500-hour registered yoga teacher training school. www.sacredriversyoga.com.

Maine DENMARK, GREATER BRIDGTON LAKES REGION Nurture Through Nature's Donation Based Yoga Center Our intention is to offer the gift of yoga in a sacred space, supporting healing, restoration and healthy active movement. We offer weekly, quality classes in a beautiful, natural setting. Design your own healing yoga retreat. www.ntnretreats.com, (207) 452-2929, getaway@ntnretreats.com,.

SOUTH PORTLAND Sadhana The Meditation Center Sadhana is a meditation and chanting center.

Open all days from 6:30AM to 9:00PM. All people and meditation techniques are welcome. We offer meditation classes, chanting sessions, spiritual gatherings and retreats. Donation based on affordability. www.SadhanaMe.com; (207) 772-6898; info@SadhanaMe.com; 100 Brickhill Ave., South Portland, ME

Article submission deadline for Dec/Jan issue "It's A Wonderful Life"

is October 15th Please send articles to info@innertapestry.org

Calendar and classified listings submission deadline for Dec/Jan issue is November 5th Time flies don't forget!

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

Yoga ~ T'ai Chi ~ Aikido Meditation Listings Six issues in print costs $160 for 35 words plus logo.

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

Please call: (207) 799-7995 / (203) 779-0345 or Email: info@innertapestry.org.

Oct/Nov 2010 Inner Tapestry 41

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Communicate your authentic message.

Writing and Editing services for the Creative and Holistic communities.

Connecticut

42

Calendar and Classified

Guidelines And Advertising Rates Are Located on Page 45

H eart V isions

January 10th-17th, 2011 Making Art in Paradise

Join clay artist Alan Steinberg and writer Fred Taylor for a relaxing and inspirational week of writing and clay sculpting in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Write, create, rest, hike, and snorkel. www.viers.org, $1,075 includes tuition, 3 meals daily and accommodations. FMI and registration call Alan (802) 387-4820 or Fred (802) 387-2681 email alans@sover.net or www.brattleboroclayworks.com.

May 23th-29th, 2011 Assisi, Italy ~ Remembering Your Sacred Work

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Know the wisdom of St. Clare and St. Francis and the sacred silence of the stones of Assisi with Megan Don. www.mysticpeace.com.

June 13th-22nd 2011 Pilgrimage to Ireland ~ Exploring the Divine Feminine with Megan Don, www.mysticpeace.com.

September 2011 Pilgrimage to Avila ~ Knowing Your Spiritual Self-Worth with Megan Don, www.mysticpeace.com

May 2012 Glastonbury, England Experience the healing waters of the Chalice Well, bringing harmony to your well being. With Megan Don www.mysticpeace.com.

October~Connecticut October 7th, 6:30pm-8:30pm Channelled Messages for the Soul ~ Roland Comtois Presented by NESHA at Banner Fitness, 1 Banner Rd., Moodus $70 FMI: (860) 267-0250, sar@neshawellness.com.

October 7th-9th Weekend of Inca Teachings, Ceremonies & Sessions Peru Shamans: Don Martin Pinedo, Marco Nunez and the Twins, Doña Isabel Chinguel & Doña Olinda Pintado in Bloomfield CT. A weekend of Inca traditions including cleanses, healings and rites for sacred transformation. Andean Despacho Ceremony with Don Martin & Marco and Sacred San Pedro Ceremony with the Twins. Weekend special $250. FMI call Gail (203) 859-4793 or email:quietharborevents@gmail.com. website: www.quietharborevents.com

October 10th, 10:00am-5:00pm Annual Holistic Happening Meet the local holistic practitioners and experience their services. FMI: www.holistichappening.com, admission donation for local food pantry and non-kill animal shelters., 720 Quinebaug Rd., Quinebaug, CT.

October 26 & 27th Braco coming to New Milford CT. For more event details visit: www.braco.net.

October ~ Maine October 2nd-3rd, 9:00am-4:00pm both daysUsui Reiki I Workshop: Learn the history of Reiki, energy and the energetic system, as well as, meditation and treatment techniques. Ample practice time. FMI- Yvonne Thibodeau, Sophia’s Wisdom at (207) 356-2662.

42 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

October 3rd, 12:30pm-3:30pm Living Your Sacred Vision Through Awareness

October 15th, 6:00pm-8:00pm Living the 5th Dimension & Reconnective Healing!

with Megan Don $25 advanced registration, $35 at door, Unity Church, 54 River Rd., Windham, ME 04062 (207) 893-1233.

Edgar Casey lived in the 5th dimension, so can you! Take a historical tour of healing from Casey to Dr. Eric Pearl, then make contact with Pearl's Reconnective Healing frequencies. Video, discussion & demos with Reconnective Healing Practitioners Ruth Kirkwood & John Michael Roods at the Magick Closet, Portland. $15. Call (207) 773-1406 for reservations.

October 4th, October 18th, November 1st, November 15th Free Well Woman Clinic All Days 4:00pm-7:00pm, for woman of all ages, with or without health insurance. Offered by local Certified Professional Midwives and midwifery students from Birthwise Midwifery School. Annual exams, pap smears, nutritional counselling and more. *All care is FREE* you pay only lab fees, if needed. For pricing and appointments please call (207) 647-5968. Location: Open Circle Midwifery, 101 State Street, Portland.

October 4th, 5:00pm-8:00pm Munay-Ki Intro w/ Jaclyn Ouillette

October 15th-17th Holotropic Breathwork® Weekend Workshop Midcoast Maine. Join long-time facilitators Elizabeth and Lenny Gibson in this powerful method of self-exploration, personal transformation and healing. Friday evening lecture, Saturday and Sunday breathwork. $150, meals included. FMI www.bostonholotropic.com, (207) 882-4004

$25 These rites are now being offered to those who want to step into the “luminous” way. Munay-ki means “I love you” in the deepest sense, or “Be As Though Art.” These rites have been gifted from the High Medicine Teachers in Peru and they are being offered to all of us now. In this Intro class you will receive the "Healers Rite." At Soul Sanctuary in Brunswick, call (207) 729-9550 to register.

October 16th-17th Wellness Weekend at Mahoosuc Mountain Lodge.

October 5th, 1:00pm-5:00pm Master Kundalini Reiki Certification Workshop

Karuna-Compassion in Sanskrit. Learn Karuna symbols and their uses, toning with symbols, giving treatments, and much more. Ample practice time. FMI- Yvonne Thibodeau, Sophia’s Wisdom at (207) 356-2662.

3 Distance attunements prior to workshop. Learn to give and attune others to Kundalini Reiki. Includes Diamond Reiki, Crystallin, DNA, Birth Trauma, Locations, Past Life. People say, "grounding, more intense, unique.” Andrea Beaudoin, www.alignyourenergy.com, held at Soul Sanctuary, Brunswick, (207) 729-9550, www.soulsanctuary.biz, $110, register early, pay by October 20th to receive Distance Attunements. May also be offered November 6th, 10:00am-2:00pm.

October 7th-11th Women's Fall Foliage Holistic Paddling Eco-Retreat with Nurture Through Nature, Western Maine lakes and Mountains Region $750, www.ntnretreats.com, (207) 452-2929.

October 8th-11th Yoga & Meditation Retreat w/Surya Chandra Das Yoga postures, pranayama, restorative poses, meditation, selfinquiry, silence, organic vegetarian meals, free time at quiet 100-acre country sanctuary. www.rollingmeadowsretreat.com (888) 666-6412.

October 9th, October 30th, 2:00pm-4:00pm YogaDance! at WholeHeart, Portland $25 each. No need to “dance,” just bring your beginner's mind and enjoy letting your body speak! Led by Hoa Tran, www.wholeheartyoga.com or (207) 871-8274.

October 9th & 10th, 10:00am-4:00pm Gifts of the Spirit w/Rhonda McCarthy Ouellette $323 Journey to Mother Gaia, receive your Power Animal, experience oneness with each of the 4 elements, meet your monad, your soul group, your Master of Light self, Archangel self, receive spiritual gifts, messages and more in this life changing 2 day course being held at Soul Sanctuary, Brunswick. Call (207) 729-9550.

October 10th, Sunday, 7:00pm Positive, emPowering Music That Matters featuring Richard Mekdeci, David Roth and Sue K Riley. $15 at door (No one turned away), Unity Church, 54 River Rd, Windham, ME 04062, (207) 893-1233.

October 11th, Monday, 5:30pm-8:30pm Art and Spirit Workshop The creative self is very linked to the intuitive self and this workshop will allow participants to explore their inner knowing through the medium of art expression. It includes guided meditation, and all of the art materials are supplied... no experience necessary. Facilitated by Psychic Medium/Artist, Kat Logan Cost: $45 (will also barter) Sacred Circle Studio, 10 Harbor Road, Friendship, Maine 04547. FMI contact: Kat Logan, (207) 226-7446, or email Kat@mygreatfullheart.com.

Send all listings to

info@innertapestry.org

Practitioners offering their services throughout the weekend including Sapokniona Whitefeather. Evening presentations.

FMI: Contact Polly at (207) 824-2073.

October 16th & 23rd, 9:00am-4:00pm both Saturdays Karuna® 1 & 2 Practioner Workshop:

October 18th, Monday, 5:30pm-8:30-pm Learning to Listen, Opening to your Intuitive Self Everyone is intuitive. For some, we just lose touch with this part of ourselves as we get conditioned to our lives. This workshop is designed for people who want to connect with their intuitive selves to gain more insight into their lives, and for those that they love. Find out what signals you may personally use to connect with your intuitive and become more aware to the signs that the Universe is supporting you with. Kat Logan, psychic medium, will facilitate this workshop. Cost: $35 Sacred Circle Studio, 10 Harbor Road, Friendship, Maine, 04547. FMI: contact: Kat Logan (207) 226-7446, or email kat@mygreatfullheart.com.

October 22nd-24th Reiki, The Polarity Way Intensive - Mid-coast.

A 3-Part Reiki Master Certification Course. $600 for all three levels; To Register: $75 non-refundable deposit. Hallie Holland, MSW, RMT, (207) 751-7537 Awaken Awareness: Reiki, The Polarity Way.

October 22nd-24th, 10am-6pm Divine Mother Retreat With Amaya Ma in the Temple of the Heart at Spiritual Renaissance Center, S. Portland, ME. A beautiful, healing and transformational retreat for all those of the Mother lineage wishing to serve as Divine Mother emissaries in conscious service to the path of universal love on earth. FMI & to register: Please contact Deborah El’elia: (207) 653-7823, moonsoul9@aol.com, www.spiritualrenaissance.com, www.thedivineuniversity.com.

October 23rd-24th Relationship Retreat Loving What Is and What Isn’t through Yoga, Meditation. $120.00 At Nurture Through Nature’s Green Retreat Center, Denmark, Maine, Nature and The Work™ of Byron Katie. Experience 24 transformative hours expanding relationship peace & tranquility. FMI: www.ntnretreats.com, (207) 452-2929.

October 24th-29th Yoga & Meditation Retreat w/Surya Chandra Das Yoga postures, pranayama, restorative poses, meditation, selfinquiry, silence, organic vegetarian meals, free time at quiet 100-acre country sanctuary. www.rollingmeadowsretreat.com (888) 666-6412.

October 28th-31st Moving Through Grief, Trauma & Loss Healing from past and present loss and trauma through the externalization of emotions. Notre Dame Spiritual Center, Alfred, ME. Contact Paul Matteson, (207) 753-0135.

October 30th-31st, 10:00am-5:00pm Traveling Through The Chakras with Sound Exploration and healing through the energy centers with gongs, crystal bowls and voice. Class limited to 20, Reservations (207) 865-0900, Leapin' Lizards, Freeport. Exchange $195.

43 October 30th & November 6th Usui Reiki II Workshop:

October 30th, 10:00am-4:00pm All-Day Workshop Tai Chi & Qigong Intensive

Both Saturdays 9:00am-4:00pm. Learn symbols augmenting Reiki energy, treatment techniques, Reiki techniques, and guided meditation. Ample practice time. FMI-Yvonne Thibodeau, Sophia’s Wisdom at (207) 356-2662.

Join Zen Yoga founder Aaron Hoopes and Michael Denmeade for an intensive Tai Chi and Qigong immersion workshop. Workshop includes lecture, training and home-cooked lunch prepared by Elfeya Hoopes. cost $50, Ledge End Retreat & Wellness Center, Vershire, VT. (802) 685-4448, breathe@artofzenyoga.com, website: www.artofzenyoga.com.

October~Massachusetts October 13th, 9:00am-3:30pm Seeking the Sacred Feminine: Discovering Clare in a Francis World with Megan Don at Rolling Ridge Retreat Center, www.rollingridge.org or www.mysticpeace.com.

Using the lives of Clare and Francis of Assisi we will explore the necessity for activation of the feminine and masculine energy in order for our life and mission to unfold.

October 16th, 9:00am-4:00pm Rings of Oden–Module 1: New Technology for Quantum Healing. The Rings combine Sacred Geometry, DNA Re-Patterning, Crop Circles, and Cell Microbiology concepts through revolutionary technology, NetNeutral Ionic Energy. Ring vortices open stuck areas, increasing light resonance in the body. Experience configurations that enhance mental clarity, endocrine, immune systems, and more!

Details: TheWayToBalance.com; (978) 834-0341.

October 17th, Electro-Magnetic Fields: 9:00am-Noon Unseen Causes of Illness. EMFs from common appliances and computers can cause headaches, fatigue, allergies, immune dysfunction, more! Empower yourself to mitigate risks!

Saqqara: Temples of Initiation, 1:00pm-4:00pm.

Re-create the energy dynamics of long-lost temples, using a variety of tools and techniques, to re-activate your dormant memories and ancient knowledge of the Initiate’s journey!

Details: TheWayToBalance.com; (978) 834-0341.

October 30th, Introduction to Stone Play: 9:00-noon

October 31st, 9:00am–6:00pm Freedom from Hiatal Hernia/Gas Reflux, Asthma, Bronchitis, Pneumonia, and More! Achieve Powerful Results with Minimal Effort! Learn incredible, lasting techniques from experts Aaron & Sue Singleton. “Wows” experienced practitioners, yet empowers laypeople to resolve friends’ health complaints. Instruction manual included. 8.5 Contact Hours.

Details: TheWayToBalance.com; (978) 834-0341.

October~NewHampshire October 9th, Saturday, 9:00am-9:00pm Breathing the Divine Retreat with Donna Packard.

A profound awakening and enlightenment experience! Madison, NH. For details and registration information: www.breathingthedivine.com or call (207) 363-1925.

October 15th-17th Weekend of Inca Teachings, Ceremonies & Sessions Peru Shamans: Don Martin Pinedo, Marco Nunez and the Twins, Doña Isabel Chinguel & Doña Olinda Pintado in Meredith NH. A weekend of Inca traditions including cleanses, healings and rites for sacred transformation. Andean Despacho Ceremony with Don Martin & Marco and Sacred San Pedro Ceremony with the Twins. Weekend special $250. FMI call Gail (203) 859-4793 or email: quietharborevents@gmail.com. website: www.quietharborevents.com

October ~ Vermont October 15th-17th, Weekend Retreat Reconnect with Nature Retreat Join Zen Yoga founder Aaron Hoopes and his wife Elfeya for a special weekend of breathing, gentle movement and meditation in the beautiful mountains of Vermont. Program includes nature meditations, tai chi, qigong and deep relaxation.

Vegetarian home-cooked meals! Ledge End Retreat & Wellness Center, Vershire, VT. (802) 685-4448, breathe@artofzenyoga.com, website: www.artofzenyoga.com/natureretreat.htm.

November 1st, Monday, 5:30pm-8:30pm Finding the Sacred in Clay Do you know that clay is composed of stardust and of Dinosaur bones and if you strike it, it glows ultraviolet for a month? Come work with this magical medium and find the forms that are speaking through your hands to create. The fee includes all materials and a firing fee. (Fired pieces can be picked up in two weeks)... just in time for the Holidays, too, if you want to make a gift! No experience necessary and all ages are welcome! This class is taught by psychic medium/artist Kat Logan. Cost: $50 Sacred Circle Studio, 10 Harbor Road, Friendship, Maine 04547. FMI contact: Kat Logan, (207) 226-7446, or email kat@mygreatfullheart.com

November 3rd, 6:00pm-8:30pm Seasons of the Goddess - Sacred Darkness $45 Regina Schaare will lead this workshop on the time of year between Samhain (modern Halloween) and Winter Solstice, the darkest 6 weeks of the year. We will experience the Crone aspect of the Goddess and celebrate ourselves as wise women who deepen our intuition and power as we dance in the sacred darkness of our souls. Soul Sanctuary, Brunswick. Call (207) 729-9550.

November 4th, December 4th, 3:00pm-6:00pm Free Well Woman Clinic for woman of all ages, with or without health insurance. Offered by local Certified Professional Midwives and midwifery students from Birthwise Midwifery School. Annual exams, pap smears, nutritional counseling and more. *All care is FREE* you pay only lab fees, if needed. For pricing and appointments please call (207) 647-5968.

Location: The Birth House, 28 S. High Street, Bridgton, ME.

November 6th, 1:30pm-4:30pm Yoga & Meditation Afternoon Retreat at WholeHeart, Portland, $39. Immerse yourself: breathing, deep yoga, meditative writing and stillness, relaxation. Led by Pam Jackson, www.wholeheartyoga.com or (207) 871-8274.

November 20th, Saturday, 10:00am-4:00pm Holistic Mystic Fair, A Magical Mystical Event!

American Legion Post 205, 400 Eastern Avenue, Augusta, Maine $5 Entrance Fee, individual services priced separately—FREE workshops every half hour. For more information contact: Mary Alderman (207) 446-7868, email enchanteddragons@gmail.com, http://theenchanteddragon. shutterfly.com/holisticmysticfair.

November~Massachusetts November 6th, 9:00am-4:00pm Rings of Oden – Module 2: Soar to New Heights!

The Rings combine Sacred Geometry, DNA Re-Patterning, Crop Circles, and Cell Microbiology concepts as part of a revolutionary technology, “Net-Neutral Ionic Energy.” This module includes over 50 new advanced configurations, 20 new on-the-body techniques, more! Details: TheWayToBalance.com (978) 834-0341.

November 7th, 9:00am-Noon Sound Therapy: Healing with Resonance Aaron Singleton leads a resonating journey into your body to explore the Quantum Mechanics of sound healing. How does sound therapy affect viruses, bacteria, parasites, emotions?

Experience healing effects of Sound Resonance on your bones, muscles, nerves. Details: TheWayToBalance.com; (978) 834-0341.

November 13th, 9:00am-4:00pm Free To Heal Chronic Pain, Inflammation and Tension Patterns! Achieve Extraordinary results with minimal effort! Aaron and Sue Singleton share lasting techniques that improve range of motion, lymph and blood circulation, and posture. Open to practitioners and laypeople, 8.5 Contact Hours. Instruction manual included. Details: TheWayToBalance.com (978) 834-0341.

ALL EVENTS ARE LISTED ONLINE AT www.innertapestry.org

November 20th, 5:00pm-10:00pm Guided Animal Spirit Journey, Dinner, Campfire & Full Moon Fire Ceremony. Join Zen Yoga founder Aaron Hoopes and the Zen Yoga community for a special night of relaxation, ceremony and cleansing. Workshop includes delicious vegetarian home-cooked dinner prepared by Elfeya Hoopes. Cost $50. Register early – limited space. Ledge End Retreat & Wellness Center, Vershire, VT. (802) 685-4448, breathe@artofzenyoga.com, www.artofzenyoga.com.

Upcoming~Connecticut January 8th, 10:00am-3:30pm A Day of Channelling ~ Roland Comtois East Hampton, $150 Spend the day with Roland, learn what it is like to be a channel, awaken everyone's ability to receive and believe. Class is limited. FMI: (203) 314-1865 or www.rolandcomtois.net.

Upco mi n g M ai ne December 4th, 2:00pm-4:00pm Restorative Workshop: Flow & Let Go at WholeHeart, Portland, $25. Gentle yoga flow slowly transitions into restorative postures to soothe & rejuvenate. Led by Jessie Chalmers, www.wholeheartyoga.com or (207) 871-8274.

December 5th, Sunday Holiday Fair at Gardens of Atlantis FREE Admission! 11:00am-4:00pm, www.gardensofatlantis.org.

Ongoing~Connecticut Sunday ~ Bhakti-Yoga Festival – 3:00pm Join us for kirtan, philosophy and vegetarian dinner. No charge. Hare Krishna Temple. 1683 Main St. East Hartford CT 06108 (860) 289-7252, www.iskconct.org.

Ongoing Reiki Offerings Individual Reiki Sessions, Crystal Healings, Reiki Shares & Classes in Eastern CT. Please call Carleen, RMT at (860) 884-3125 for more information.

Holistic Moms Network National non-profit organization for parents with an interest in holistic health and green living. Visit www.holisticmoms.org to find a local chapter.

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.

Corner of Route. 66 and Harvestwood Rd. Middlefield, CT. (860) 346-2226; www.ct-eckankar.org.

O n g o i ng ~ M aine

Holistic Gatherings The Healing Connection Cooperative of Rumford, Maine Healing/meditation circles, Chakra balancing/cleansing Reiki, psychic games. 9/25, 10/16, 12/11, 01/15, 02/12, 03/12 from 10:00am-4:00pm Call: (207) 357-3357/ (www.healingconnectioncoop.webs.com)

Healing And Prayer Circle ~ Free 2nd Thursdays of each month, 7:00pm-8:30pm. Come in community to pray, meditate and send love to those who you are concerned about, or ask for healing for yourself. Open to all! Bring a goodie to share for refreshments after. Sacred Circle Studio, Friendship, Maine 04547. Contact: Kat Logan, (207) 226-7446, or email kat@mygreatfullheart.com.

Kirtan at WholeHeart Yoga Center, Portland Join us for joyful call & response chanting. We alternate between Fridays and Sundays, late afternoons/evenings.

Donations gladly accepted. www.wholeheartyoga.com or (207) 871-8274.

Continued on page 44 Oct/Nov 2010 Inner Tapestry 43

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Crystal Vortices for Fun and Transformation. Stone Play is about using natural crystals in sacred geometric patterns, to create energy vortices and patterns for fun, healing and spiritual transformation. Great for novices or experienced crystal buffs.

Sex & Spirituality: What You WANT to Know, 1:00-4:00pm From laughter to “shake-up” of pre-conceived notions! Sue Singleton unveils how sexuality and the spiritual path can be misunderstood. How do sexual fulfillment and orgasm affect your spirituality? Why are oxytocin and nitric oxide beneficial? Identify personal blockages and empower yourself to make your right choices! Ages 21+. Details: TheWayToBalance.com; (978) 834-0341.

November ~ Maine

November ~ Vermont

44 Teachings of Tibetan Buddhism

The New Moon Rituals with Chief Oscar Mokeme

SpiritWings–Workshops, Reiki Classes in Bethel ME

Dharma talks, meditation, chanting, led by Geshe Gendun Gyatso (www.geshegendun.org). Thursdays 7:00pm-9:00pm at Healing Dharma Center North, 70 Stanford Street, South Portland, Maine (www.healingdharma.squarespace.com).

Contact Lorraine (207) 650-4391.

www.museumafricanculture.org and the class "Developing Your Personal Healing Gifts" with teacher, healer and medical intuitive Regina Strongheart at "Forest Circles," Topsham, Maine, www.forestcircles.com.

Dowsing For Your Health & Earth Energies Classes

We practice Natural Wisdom and Love and Natural Wisdom and Compassion. All practices are for beginners and long-time practitioners, 25 Middle Street, Portland. 6:00pm-7:00pm.

Jane Burdick, janeburd@maine.rr.com or (207) 773-6809.

Reiki Share second Tuesday of every month. Well-Being and Healing Classes Regularly. Offering Tibetan/Usui and Karuna® Reiki-Meditation Classes and Shamanic Healing Techniques, which examines various methods of healing employed by our ancestors. For further information call (207) 824-2204 or visit www.spiritwingsbethel.com.

Offered monthly at Leapin’ Lizards in Portland and Freeport.

Learn how to use pendulums and dowsing rods. Fun! FMI: www.newenglanddowsing.com or www.leapinlizards.biz or call Paul at (207) 332-9681.

Full Heart Community Kirtan: Chanting for Charity

Tuesday Buddhist Meditation

MOOSE Open Microphone-Spoken Word

Doula tea ~ meet with doulas in person Learn how doulas help families during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. We meet one Sunday each month at the Birth Roots, 101 State St., Portland from 9:00am-11:00am. There is no fee, pre-registration is required. Call Rebecca Goodwin at (207) 318-8272.

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

3rd Saturday night each month. At The Yoga House, 18 Beaver Creek Farm Rd., (Off of Route 302) Bridgton, ME. Contact Suzanne (207) 831-0868 or Kathleen (207) 925-3133.

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

Have a problem with food?

ShivaShakti School of Yoga, Rockland

Does your eating behavior make you or others unhappy?

There is help available in OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS! Check out oamaine.org to learn more, or call 211 for meeting times.

Give yourself the gift of Yoga! Ongoing weekly classes morning and evening for all levels. Call (207) 431-8079 or visit www.ShivaShaktiYogaSchool.com.

Authentic Movement Dance at Bath Dance Works

Spiritual Horizons Maine

First and third Saturdays of the month, 10:00am-1:00pm, October 2nd & 16th, November 6th & 20th and December 4th & 18th, suggested donation $10, no experience is necessary. FMI: call Kay Mann (207) 725-9997 or email dancingfewl@pobox.com.

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

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

Kirtan at Portland Yoga Studio, 1st and 3rd Fridays Join us on a vocal journey through the sacred sounds of ancient India with call & response group chanting. Beginners welcomed. $5.00 suggested donation. 7:00pm-8:30pm, 616 Congress St., 3rd floor, Portland, ME. FMI: www.portlandyoga.com.

Stress relief, energy clearing and balancing, RYSE®.

Self-confidence, boundaries and empowerment issues.

For artists, performers, women, body workers. $80 ($70 students) Holistic Pathways, Gorham, (207) 839-9819 www.emmanuellechaulet.com.

The Ducktrap Writers’ Round Table

Meditation, Hatha Yoga, Family Constellations

meets on third Sundays at Camden Public Library from 2:00pm-4:00pm. A venue for writers who wish to share work, receive feedback and be supported in their craft. Call Teresa Piccari, proprietor of The Village Scribe, at (207) 344-7070 for more info. Suggested fee is $15.

Classes and programs in yoga, meditation, pranayama and spiritual and psychological development. Also Constellating the Soul: Untangling Our Lives. FMI www.TurningLight.org (207) 829-2700 North Yarmouth.

“SANT MAT RADHASWAMI SATSANG”

Reiki - Healing Ways of Kennebunk

"Yokids" Yoga Ed Tools for Teachers Workshops

Reiki classes offered monthly. Learn this ancient art of hands-on healing for yourself, loved ones, and pets.

FMI Rachel Pelletier, LMT (207) 967-0035 or www.healingwaysonline.com.

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.

Ongoing~NewHampshire

Taoist Tai Chi TM Internal Arts of Health

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

Sustain or reclaim your good health with the Taoist Tai Chi Society® internal art of Tai Chi Chuan. In more than 25 countries around the globe, people of all ages and abilities enjoy the many benefits of practicing this art of holistic health. Classes are offered in Westbrook, Brunswick, Bridgton, Brownfield & Blue Hill. FMI: (207) 329-4346, or email: portland.me@taoist.org.

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.

Wednesday Women’s Meditation Group

The Birth House

Eaton Satsang

Bridgton's freestanding birth center is available for free tours. FMI: contact heidi@birthwisemidwifery.edu, www.birthhouseme.com or (207) 647-5919.

An informal gathering to discover and welcome the truth of one's inner nature. Eaton, NH is near the Maine/NH border.

Most Wednesday evenings. www.eatonsatsang.com or (603) 447-5401.

All women welcome to a weekly meditation in the Greenfire tradition. Location: Newcastle, St. Andrews Parish House, Glidden St. 6:30pm–7:30pm (not on the 3rd Wednesday of the month).

For more info please call: Angela H. (207) 592-7888 or Mary A. (207) 677-3229.

Sunday Night: Portland Spiritualist Church meets at 755 Main Street, Westbrook (Mission Possible Teen Center) for 6:30pm Service, Healing Meditation, Inspirational Talk, Messages from Spirit. FMI call (207) 655-6673 or visit our website at www.portlandspiritualistchurch.org.

Fourth Friday of each month - Gallery Readings.

Join us at the Portland Spiritualist Church, 755 Main Street, Westbrook (Mission Possible Teen Center) for an evening of messages from Spirit. 7:00pm $10 event. FMI call (207) 655-6673 or visit our website at www.portlandspiritualistchurch.org.

Friday Night: Weekly Psychic Development and Awareness Classes, except for the 4th Friday which is Gallery Readings - see above. Portland Spiritualist Church, 755 Main Street, Westbrook (Mission Possible Teen Center). Classes start at 7:30pm. Most classes are by donation. FMI call (207) 655-6673 or visit our website at www.portlandspiritualistchurch.org.

Meditation and Buddhism: Nagaloka is a spiritual community that provides space for individuals to explore and practice Buddhism. Weekly meditation sessions, retreats and introductory classes on meditation and Buddhism are scheduled regularly. Bookstore, too! www.nagalokabuddhistcenter.org, (207) 774-1545.

EnergizeTM Sessions with Emmanuelle Chaulet

Wavelengths Hypnotherapy ongoing classes:

Stretch, Relax and Recharge Through YOGA A gentle way to reduce stress, tension and pain, while increasing vitality, flexibility, strength, a positive mind and balance on all levels. Ongoing Iyengar Yoga Classes (20 years of teaching) Kennebunk: Monday 5:00pm continuing level & 7:00pm beginners, Thursday 5:15pm continuing level 8 weeks at $99, frop in fee $15. In Portland: Saturdays 10am continuing beginners. Yoga Vacation in Virgin Gorda February 14th-21st, $700 plus airfare FMI: call Jeanette Schmid Lakari (207) 282-5528 or email at yogajs@maine.rr.com.

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.

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.

Inner Light & Sound Meditation. Surat Shabd Yoga. For a Bangor, Waterville, & Portland meeting schedule, call James at: (207) 368-5866 or James@SpiritualAwakeningRadio.com.

Tai Chi for Health Thursday, 5:30pm-6:15pm, $15 pay as you go. Zev Yoga, 16 Market Square, Portsmouth, NH. Age 14 and older. FMI: (913) 938-6384.

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.

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

Ongoing ~ Vermont

Oneness Blessings/Oneness Deeksha in Maine

Breathing, movement, stretching and deep guided relaxation meditation. Every Monday evening. 6:00pm-7:00pm. class. $10. Location: Ledge End Retreat & Wellness Center, Vershire, CT. (802) 685-4448, breathe@artofzenyoga.com.

A Direct Experience of the Divine ~ Living in Oneness. Regularly scheduled circles (free). Become a Deeksha giver. Oneness Trainers Elizabeth and Maha'al. Contact Elizabeth@IntegralPotentials.com or (207) 619-1663.

Locavore Potlucks, 5:00pm York ME Locavore potluck (local and/or wild food from animal and plant sources) takes place every third Saturday at Aimee's Livin' Magic, 254 Cider Hill Rd., York. Occasional speakers from the health and nutrition field. Emphasis on connecting to local farmers. Call Aimee at (207) 409-0899 or visit www.liveinmagic.com for details.

Center of Inner Light, Rev. Gloria Nye Located at 267 Congress Street, Portland, ME (within the synagogue). Sunday Services: 10:30am-12:00pm followed by fellowship. FMI call (207) 786-4401, visit www.RevGloriaNye.com.

Dragonfly Taijiquan, Larry Ira Landau Group & Private Instruction in T’ai Chi Ch’aun (taijiquan) & Chi Kung (qigong) for beginners & experienced students.

Studios in Portland and Kennebunkport. Ongoing classes, workshops & retreats. FMI: (207) 761-2142 or (207) 967-4070.

Zen Yoga

Tai Chi/Zen Yoga Gentle stretching, movement and breathing warm up followed by practice of the basic Yang style short form. Moving meditation for adults and seniors. Tuesday & Friday mornings 10:00am11:00am, $10. Location: Ledge End Retreat & Wellness Center, Vershire, VT. (802) 685-4448, breathe@artofzenyoga.com.

Classified Listings HOLISTIC BUSINESSES FOR SALE YOGA RETAIL STORE Integrate your passion for yoga with your work in this unique business opportunity. One of a kind yoga retail store serving Portland’s rapidly growing yoga /meditation community for the past 5 years. In Portland’s burgeoning Arts District. All reasonable and serious offers considered. FMI: cmackay@gwi.net.

Life moves pretty fast.

If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

44 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

— Ferris Bueller.

45 HEALING PLACES

SACRED RENTAL SPACE

Nurture Through Nature specializes in holistic personal retreats. Experience peace, healing and

A Place In The Heart

connection with self and nature in a simple and earth-friendly environment. Enjoy yoga, body work, a Finnish wood-fired sauna steam bath, dips in the mountain brook, hiking, meditation, The Work of Byron Katie, canoeing, kayaking... create your own getaway for individuals, couples and small groups. Bridgton Lakes Region, Denmark, Maine, (207) 452-2929, www.ntnretreats.com.

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.

Green-Certified Eco-Retreat Space available for rent.

Nurture Through Nature offers three solar-powered eco-cabins, private camping, wood-fired sauna, yoga studio, hiking trails, mountain brook, Denmark, Maine ~ Greater Bridgton Lakes Region, www.ntnretreats.com, (207) 452-2929.

Gardens of Atlantis

Wholeheart Yoga Center's Small Studio 320 sq ft, open for quiet rentals. Currently used for meditation and massage. Some days/evenings available. Open for weekly rentals. Easy parking, 2 bathrooms. Portland, Maine Call Pam, (207) 871-8274, email info@wholeheartyoga.com, www.wholeheartyoga.com.

SHAMANIC PRACTITIONERS James Riverstone. Shamanic & Andean Traditions Offerings with Private Sessions, workshops, classes and ceremonies in CT & ME and other New England Areas. James' website: www.jamesriverstone.com. For More Information: www.quietharborevents.com or call (203) 859-4793.

Rental space available to practitioners/teachers. We are committed to providing our best to our community to support growth, beauty, healing and Love. Call Linda at (207) 929-5088.

Calendar of Events

~ Ongoing Event Listings ~

Classified Ads

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

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

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

Please send formatted listings.

We do not publish press releases.

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

w w w .in n e rt ape st ry.o rg

DREAMSHIP Cherish your visions And make the decisions To be a dreamer now It’s a magical day When you can say You’ve sailed on the creative scow

We set a new course And are a force For the abstract and new beat Yes completing ourselves Like magical elves Is a thing you and I can do We’re now recovered And we’ve discovered It feels so incredibly new

A ship so fine That in its prime Finds gold in the minds of men Sailors on high Reaching a sky As mighty as the pen

All do the same We’re never to blame For the ups and downs of life We steer by firm hand Until we see land And the end of our stress and strife

Ideas do flow As does the crow From sea to shining sea We all are joined And new words are coined From just our passion to be

So come on board And bring your hoard Of wants and hopes and dreams We are never blind In this state of mind It’s all as fun as it seems!

We part the waves For so many slaves To the common and concrete

Johnny Sonique, poet, musician, songwriter and creator of zoniczoup.

You can view his writings at www.scribd.com/johnnysonique

The Earth We think that we are independent You remind us that all creatures are inter-dependent We are only a piece of nature We are not above nature We gave you garbage You gave us food We gave you filth and towers You gave us beautiful flowers We gave you poisonous fumes You gave us trees to build our homes We step on you You hold us up We think that we have a lot of power You remind us who really has the power

We ask you to forgive our ignorant acts We ask you to teach us to be gentle with you and with one another We love you, Oh! Spirit; We love you, Oh! Mother Earth; Ashok Nalamalapu of Sadhana (The Meditation Center), South Portland (www.sadhaname.com) can be reached at ashok@sadhaname.com. Sadhana's Purpose is serving all people in cultivating happiness and compassion through spiritual practices. People of all faiths and socio-economic backgrounds are welcome.

Oct/Nov 2010 Inner Tapestry 45

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

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

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

46

m ix ed m e dia

Book Excerpt

by Karen Maezen Miller

Hand Wash Cold, Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life By: Karen Maezen Miller ISBN:978-1-57731-904-7 Publisher: New World Library

MIXED M E D IA Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

S K O O B WE B SITES M US I C

DV D s S I E O V M AND F OO D

EWS R E V Iand more 46 Inner Tapestry Oct/Nov 2010

Saved by the Laundry: From Hamper to Happiness in 8 Steps

swallow it! When we release ourselves from judgment, we free everyone else from our criticism and blame. Plus we can save money on cheaper brands.

When I was thirty-five, I looked up one day and realized that I hadn’t had a life. I’d had a lot of things. I had a husband and a marriage. We had two late-model cars, two high-speed careers, and a two-story house on an oak-lined street. I had everything I ever thought I wanted, and much more than I needed. What I did not have was happiness. Or laundry.

Let the spin cycle stop – Most of us spin the same anxious thoughts, fears, and worries in our head over and over, creating needless suffering for ourselves and everyone around us. Only when we let the spin cycle come to a rest, quieting our churning minds, can we lift the lid and find the load inside rinsed completely clear. Then, we can move forward into the fresh breeze of daylight.

What happened next is the story of spiritual awakening told in my new book, Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life. For ten years running, I had someone else do my laundry and almost all my other household chores. Any of us would choose that option if we could, but there was an unseen price. The wash, the kitchen and the yard were tended, but I lived with a persistent feeling that I was missing out on a life of greater purpose. My real life was going to begin on some other day, I kept thinking, when I had myself situated in an even better place.

It’s easy to think that meaning, fulfillment, and bliss are “out there,” somewhere outside the grind of our daily routine. So we keep searching. But I found happiness in one of the last places any of us wants to look. I took back the load I had long foisted on someone else: the washing, drying and folding that constitutes an authentic life.

You can too, because everything you need for lasting joy and satisfaction is found at the bottom of your laundry basket.

Here are eight ways to wring profound wisdom from your least favorite chore: Empty the hamper – Laundry gives us an honest encounter with ourselves before we’re freshened, fluffed and sanitized. It gives us a mirror to the parts of ourselves we’d rather overlook, and makes us take responsibility for our own messes. Self-examination reveals the pure wisdom that resides within each of us.

The instructions are in your hands – The tag inside a garment tells you exactly how to care for what you hold in your hands. Not just clothing, but every bit of life comes with instructions when we are attentive enough to notice. Doing it well may take more work than we’d like, but the effort is always worth it in the long run.

Handle with care – It’s inevitable: everything shrinks, fades and falls apart. Nothing stays brand-new. The most precious things we have are fashioned of flimsy fabric. Be mindful with each moment you have and you will experience your life in a different way.

Treat upsets immediately – Tomato sauce sets. Coffee stains. Ink is indelible. In laundry as in life, resolve upsets immediately before the residue of resentment sets in. When they’re not treated quickly, everyday messes can worsen into a lifetime of regret.

Don’t swallow the soap – There are no whiter whites or brighter colors, no matter what the detergent promises.

Nearly all of our problems stem from the stubborn view that what we are and what we have is not good enough. We wear our insufficiency like a permanent stain, and that’s why everything we keep buying is some kind of soap. Don’t

The treasure lies within – Like the wad of bills left in a pants pocket, or the spare change that turns up in the bottom of the dryer, there’s a treasure to be found where you’d least expect it: inside. Stick your head in and have a good look.

Every day is laundry day – Every day brings the chance to slow down, pay attention, take care and engage intimately with the fabric of your own life. Sort the light from the dark, the delicate from the indestructible, and the heavy duty from the hand wash cold. The very thing you think you’re missing – happiness – is found every time you reach the bottom.

Is it possible that modern discontent and restlessness can be calmed with the mundane activities of everyday life?

The journey beyond heartache, failure, fear, and cynicism always leads to a ready-made life of true fulfillment right where you stand.

I wasted the life I once had, but bit by bit, I reassembled the remnants and made myself happy and whole. It begins with the laundry, and it leads everywhere you never thought you’d go. If your hamper is full, you have everything you need to start right now.

Karen Maezen Miller is the author of Hand Wash Cold and Momma Zen. She is a Zen Buddhist priest and meditation teacher at the Hazy Moon Zen Center in Los Angeles, California. Visit her online at http://www. mommazen.com. Based on the book Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life © 2010 by Karen Maezen Miller. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com

A good book should leave you... slightly exhausted at the end.

You live several lives while reading it. ...William Styron,

47

Book Review

by Teresa Piccari

The Creative Life: True Tales of Inspiration BY: Julia Cameron ISBN: 978-1-58542-824-3 Publisher: Jeremy T. Tarcher/Penguin A deceptively simple book that reads like an artist’s book of days, The Creative Life demonstrates how Julia Cameron walks all the talking she did in her landmark book The Artist’s Way, and the subsequent Walking in This World and Finding Water, which stand as a creative process trio.

It’s all here, rolled into her day to day life in Manhattan, the Morning Pages, Artist Dates and outdoor walks. These are the wells that help to nourish Cameron, and create a sense of balance from which she can draw inspiration.

In the book’s opening passage, Cameron writes: “The artist’s life can be tumultuous, and yet I chose it – and choose it again on a daily basis. So much of our mythology around creativity portrays the artist as a loner. The truth is far more colorful. Instead of being a solo act, the artist’s life involves many. It could be said that ‘it takes a village.’ Meeting my ‘village’ will help the reader to identify his own.”

Much more supportive than Nigel, her publisher Joel Fotinos, offers Cameron an extension on her deadline, which he promptly reneges after she digs out her notebook and reads him a few passages.

Fearing she has lost her voice and unable to find a genre for what she is birthing, Cameron flounders. Fotinos reels her in. “You know what you’re doing, don’t you… You’re writing a creative diary. You’re letting us see up close and personal how you work your toolkit… Don’t stop. Don’t take an extension, just keep going: keep on doing exactly what you’re doing. You’ve got a book on your hands,” the publisher informs his, now elated writer.

Applying some Twelve Step tools, from her three decades of sobriety, to her creative life, Cameron has adopted an “easy does it” approach to her craft.

When a producer compliments Cameron and Lively on being prolific, the author shares her insight that the secret is never to throw anything away. “ What we can’t master today, we might well master tomorrow. Our skills may catch up to our vision after all,” she writes. The initial spark, getting stuck, working through it, it’s all part of the process, she offers.

We see her deftly assemble her professional and personal tribes, most often smudging the lines between the two, as she teaches, mentors, collaborates and is mentored back, by her valued “believing mirrors”, other artists who provide vital feedback and support. Along with an artistic community that acts as a compass, keeping her on task and aligned to her true North.

Cameron offers us a seat in her classroom as she sets about teaching a 12week Artist’s Way course and a shorter but intense session based on her book The Right to Write. We see the veteran writing instructor struggle as she wades her way through “a batch of guest skeptics” that have gotten themselves off course, thinking creativity is a product of the intellect.

Anyone who puts pen or notes or brush on paper, freezes an image in a viewfinder with a click, choreographs steps not yet taken, or opens their mouth to sing a new song, owes a debt of gratitude to Cameron, who takes us by the hand and shines a light on the path ahead. She not only opens herself as a creative divining rod, she has the audacity and courage to tell the tales of doing so, from baby steps to leaps of faith, without a net. © 2010 Teresa Piccari

Teresa Piccari is a writer, teacher and creativity coach living in coastal Maine. She teaches writing workshops including Creative Writing, Memoir, Book Projects and Mythic Structure. Contact Teresa at (207) 344-7070 or at TheVillageScribe@hotmail.com.

Book & CD Review

by Joan Emmons

Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation & Shamanic Meditations By: Sandra Ingerman, MA ISBN: 978-1-59179-750-0/978-1-59179-757-9 Sounds True

For those of you who have taken some type of Shamanic training and for those of you who are new to the experience there is a new book and CD set released by author Sandra Ingerman.

You'll find insights from other Shamanic Practitioners such as Tom Cowan, Jose Stevens and Alberto Villiodo. These Shamanic elders present a comprehensive manual for making indigenous teaching available so that we can experience them in our daily lives, supporting our healing and spiritual growth.

You can gain insight into why Shamanism is still relevant in today's world.

Learn the art of the Shamanic Journey, connecting with your spirit guides, support in healing self and the world.

To accompany this newest release Sandra has created an audio of 2 CD's which contain seven guided journey's to help you connect to your helping spirit guides and explore the Shamanic realms. Whether you live in Maine or

Connecticut, Vermont or New Hampshire there are wonderful practitioners who have studied with Sandra and the elder Shamanic Practitioners featured in Awaken to the Spirit World. They offer classes from a few hours introducing you the journey practice to intensive trainings to delve deeper into the study of shamanism and yourself.

The Shamanic journey experience is one that has opened many doors for people within their healing and can bring a profound sense of self to one.

Try our Sandra's latest book and if you find that you have an interest, perhaps you'll find a practitioner who can help you expand your experience of this world's reality.

You can connect with Sandra Ingerman via her website, www.sandraingerman.com, Twitter, Facebook and her blog: http://bit.ly/88nKyd to learn more about her Trainings and appearances.

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She lifts the veil and invites the reader into her living room for her weekly piano lessons and to share a booth in a plethora of restaurants, from her neighborhood haunts on the Upper West Side, to Chicago and London. We witness the lunches and dinners where Cameron, often accompanied by her longtime collaborator, Emma Lively, meets with producers, directors, agents, editors and publishers.

She paints a portrait of a working writer, honing her craft for forty-three years, producing more than thirty books. How, one wonders, is it possible after all her success, an inner critic, Nigel, still lurks in the corridors of her mind? The judgmental bloke sends Cameron hurtling into a meeting with her publisher to blurt that four times she has tried to write a book, and four times she has done poorly.

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